0099: Helping Companies Get S#!t Done with Father , Entrepreneur, Business Coach, Public Speaker, Baseball Player, Friend, Author & CEO of Extraordinary Advisors Todd Palmer

Intro [0:00]

EA Interviews Episode 99. Inspiration, transformation, success stories, and the Imperfect Action Round seven days a week. Join Mario Fachini for today’s Expert Authority Effect Interview. 

Mario Fachini [0:13]

Have you ever wanted to be on the Inc. 5000? Have you ever wanted to help a lot of people? Do you think that too many people are wasting time? How would you like to help them get done? Well, I’m excited to have Todd Palmer here today. And he’s not only achieved Inc. 5000 one time, not two times, but six. And he’s also recently retired. So he has a very unique perspective from success and how to get to the finish line and he’s going to be sharing it with you right after we thank our sponsor. 

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Mario Fachini [1:04]

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Todd Palmer. Todd, how are you doing today? 

Todd Palmer [1:07]

I’m doing great, Mario. How are you? 

Mario Fachini [1:10]

I’m feeling great. I’m excited to learn what you know because you’re obviously very successful. And I like to learn from successful people and bring them to Expert Authority World. So I want to know, how did you get into this? And why did you want to retire early? 

Todd Palmer [1:25]

Well, you know, I think the main reason I wanted to retire early is I changed my definition of success, give or take, five or six years ago. For me success was very much, at one point, about material objects or acquiring cool things, all the trappings of being a young entrepreneur. About five or six years ago, I saw a quote from Tony Robbins, it really resonated with me. And it said, “Success is doing what you want, when you want, with whom you want to do it, as often as you want to go do it.” And it really just blew me away because I found that when I was chasing material items and chasing the bright and shiny things of the world, I didn’t feel satisfied. But when I changed that idea of what success meant to me, my paradigm shifted around what success look like, my paradigm shifted around my happiness. And through that process I decided, the best way for me to live a life by design is to free up more time and flexibility to go out and do those cool things. 

Mario Fachini [2:22]

What are some of those cool things you like to do? 

Todd Palmer [2:24]

Well, since I’ve made that choice, I’ve been as far south as Zambia in South Africa and I got to walk with cheetahs for a day. I was able to do a baseball clinic for kids in the country of Zambia, which was an amazing experience. I never even heard of it before I got the opportunity. And these people were such amazing, peaceful country for a country that, I think, has 70% unemployment. Amazing folks. I still play competitive baseball at the ripe old age of 50. And for me now. it’s really just going off. I’ve been hiking in Peru. I’ve been out near the Grand Canyon in Arizona. It’s really just getting out and collecting memories. That’s what really gets me excited in the morning. 

Mario Fachini [3:14]

Well, it sounds like you’re having a lot of fun. And what was it – how are you able to get there so quickly? Because I know a lot of people go, “I want to retire at 62 or 65.” Some people make a plan and say, “I want to do it by 55, 58, 60,” whatever the case may be. But what do you think it really takes to retire? Is it the age or is it the income? 

Todd Palmer [3:35]

For me, it really was the mindset. Because I just retired from what I did and now I’m doing something different. I was president and CEO of Diversified Industrial Staffing, the Inc. 5000 company you mentioned earlier. We’ve made that six times. Andthe team I had was awesome. But that team, you know, like a lot of teams, like sports teams, who Jeter, Rivera, Posada, they’ve all retired from the Yankees. Some line employees have moved on. Some of them are doing different things now. And the same group of people wasn’t there anymore. So the fun became different for me. I decided really, for me, the thing I really enjoyed most was sticking to my why, which I was really fortunate discovery because we were getting discover Simon Sinek before he wrote his book, The Power of Why. And I discovered my why is improving lives. And I found my best way to do that was to go out and coach people. I heard my first coach in 2006. And I learned so much from that. I gained so much value. and I grew so much not only as a leader, but as a man. I thought there was a great opportunity in the marketplace to go help other entrepreneurs do that. I can do it from Peru. I can do it from Antarctica. I can do it from anywhere. 

Mario Fachini [4:39]

So who do you really help and how are you helping them? 

Todd Palmer [4:42]

Well, my key areas have really been working with entrepreneurs who want to grow and scale their business. But the biggest challenge I found is getting them to figure out what do they want. They have such a hard time figuring out really what they want. They can give you the, “Well, I want to retire by the time I’m 50. I want to have $10 million in the bank.” Those are all fine things. I’m a capitalist. I’m not going to knock those at all. But really, what do you want? Those are things. How do you want to feel? Why do you want to live? How do you want to behave? How do you want to show up in your life? That’s been the biggest challenge. But also their most rewarding challenge. So I really, basically like your intro said, I help entrepreneurs get their crap together so they can get things done in their business. But it all starts with that entrepreneur inside. 

Mario Fachini [5:26]

Why do you think it’s so difficult for people to figure out their why and what they really want? They have all these possibilities. I want a yacht. I want to fly around on a helicopter to go get my mail. You can have whatever you want. You know, you want to make 10 million a year, 10 million a month, it’s all possible. Everyone knows that. But I found also the same thing is true, when you go, “Well, what do you really want?” And they’re like, “Well, I want to be happy.” And you start digging. Why do you think it’s so difficult for people to identify what they truly, really want? 

Todd Palmer [5:59]

Gosh. We can do a whole show just on that. It’s a very complicated thing. It’s getting people to understand that they can have what they want. And not in some kind of schlocky infomercial take a magic pill. Here’s five tips to get exactly what you want. I don’t do that. 

Mario Fachini [6:18]

You don’t think there’s five steps to it? 

Todd Palmer [6:21]

No. Every step is different. It’s like managing people. The greatest thing I learned from somebody else was, the easiest way to manage people is simple. You have 25 employees, manage them the same, manage them 25 different ways. You got to get to know everybody else. Everybody’s got a different trigger. Everybody’s got a different story. And for me, how I was able to figure it out is I gave up on the word happiness. I traded the word happiness for the word satisfied. And that’s my coach. I use a coach. And that’s what he really worked a lot with me on is, happiness is really nothing more than a spike of dopamine. So I can go out and have chocolate. I can go out and exercise. Whatever that’s going to get me. But to be truly satisfied, that’s a journey. There’s highs and lows and ups and downs and getting people to understand the satisfaction. A life satisfied is much different than a life happy, but it has a longer lasting, bigger ripple. And what kind of wake do you want to leave behind your entrepreneurial boat is the biggest thing I get them to try to figure out? 

Mario Fachini [7:18]

What are some of the common themes you hear over and over again? 

Todd Palmer [7:23]

It’s something that people really – like I said – they struggle to come up with. It’s more of giving themselves that permission to ask for what they seek. A lot of them really come down to they’re willing to trade money for freedom and flexibility. They want to maintain a certain lifestyle, which is great, but they want to go do more things. They want to go be more places. And now with technology – I mean, I’m not in your city right now conducting this interview but we’re still seeing each other. We’re still working together in a way that people can see that we’re having a connection. And now we could take that and go do that anywhere in the world. I couldn’t do that 25 years ago when I started The way people do business now has changed so much. It is getting people to get out. So the worst thing they can say to me is, “Well, I can’t do that, because I’ve never done it that way. I’ve always done it this way.” That’s the kiss of death, always doing something the way you did 20 years ago, ten years ago, even five years ago, the world has changed significantly. But really in a nutshell, it’s coming down to a lot of entrepreneurs wanting to figure out what kind of legacy they want to leave, not with their themselves, but also with their family and friends, with their business, and how can they live a life of abundance versus life of scarcity. and that comes in a lot of different flavors. 

Mario Fachini [8:36]

You reminded me of the Helen Keller quote that’s said something to the effect of the only thing worse than not being able to see is having sight but no vision. 

Todd Palmer [8:44]

Right. And getting them to have that vision is such – it’s almost a painful process for a lot of them because they – I basically say they often should all over themselves. I should be this. I should be that. And when I suffer from my bout of imposter syndrome that I should be all things to all people all the time. I can empathize with where they’re coming from. And to be able to help them get out of should-ing all over themselves to a point of like, “Okay. Well, the best way for me to stop that is to think through gratitude, to think through abundance not scarcity, and then how do I drive my decisions towards that?” If people are always thinking that someone’s out to get them, like competitors are going to take me out and they’re living in a state of paranoia, that’s not healthy in today’s economy. Because there’s so many different options and there’s so many different ways people can go. It’s helping to create that vision, like you said, to where they want to go. And that vision often ties in through what their whys and what do they want. 

Mario Fachini [9:40]

So the mentality of the pie, if you will, of there’s only so much for only a few of us. If you have a bigger portion than I do. How long do you think that’s been outdated for? 

Todd Palmer [9:51]

Well, I think a lot of it comes down to what industry are you into. If you’re in the automotive industry, well, there’s only so much pie to go around. But now with people who are in the tech space and in the different areas, it’s getting them to understand it’s not the piece of the pie. It’s how they look at that pie. So a lot of the time I spent working with the entrepreneurs is getting them to move off of the revenue number to move over to the prophet number. Like Michalowicz was talks about in his book, Profit First, it really is profit first. And I had one client they said, “Well, I want double my income.” “Great. How do you think you’re going to do that?” “Well, I’m just going to sell twice as much.” “The math doesn’t work.” What if we can move some numbers, move some costs, adjust some things here, move your margin. And within a year, he was able to grow his revenue by 70% through a lot of different switches and changes. But the most important thing is he changed his profit by a factor of five X in our work together and that was a game changer for him. 

Mario Fachini [10:50]

That is a game changer. How long would you say it takes a normal company to do that? Or should they expect three months, six months, a year, two years? 

Todd Palmer [11:00]

It comes down to the entrepreneur. It comes down to the leader. How quickly are they ready to change? It’s almost like when you hear people who go through 12 step programs, and they really hit bottom, are they really ready for change? You can do amazing things in six to 12 months if you’re really ready. I’ve got another client who’s wanting to make a bunch of changes. And in the process of making those changes, a bunch of his leaders have left the organization because the changes aren’t comfortable for them. So he’s got to throttle back. But he’s more excited and more energized by the business because he got rid of a lot of the deadweight he didn’t even realize he had. So it’s really about that intention of what you want to accomplish but don’t be so wrapped up in the expectation exactly how you’re going to get there. 

Mario Fachini [11:42]

When you were referring to the deadweight that he didn’t even realize, would you say that most companies once they start to decide to go faster they realized how inefficient what they’re actually doing is? 

Todd Palmer [11:55]

Absolutely. It’s crazy. Every time I take on a new engagement, I’ll be talking with someone. And I’ll say, “Well, Mario, you do realize that once we work together, anywhere from 25% to 50% to upwards of 100% of your leadership team may leave.” CEOs are like, “Whoa. Why?” I said, “Well, you’re going to call the pink elephant in the room. Because probably what you’ve been existing with is some type of dysfunction, some type of artificial harmony. And we’re going to call that out because we want to grow the organization.” Because I always say to my clients – and the CEOs – I work with the CEOs but I work for the organization. So if ABC company needs certain things, I’m going to advocate on their behalf. That’s an entity not a human being. But advocating for the right decisions done the right way for the most profitable resolve. Well, sometimes it will shake people up. And you think, “Well, why would they do that?” “Well, because they have their little kingdoms. They have their little cliques. And they have their little safe spaces. And they don’t want anybody moving their cheese too much.” Well, entrepreneurs by nature are chaos creators. We want to create cash. We want to chase the bright and shiny. My job is to help them figure out what’s the best bright and shiny path for us to go there. And keeping them focused on that without getting distracted by bigger, bright, and shiny. But also by the people who are stakeholders in outdated thought processes. 

Mario Fachini [13:11]

There’s nothing more comfortable than the status quo. And I love how you threw in the reference to Who Moved My Cheese there. That’s a great book. 

Todd Palmer [13:18]

Yes, it is. Yes, it is. 

Mario Fachini [13:20]

So with all the companies you’ve been able to help, what would you say is the biggest transformation you’ve been able to give to one or two of them? 

Todd Palmer [13:27]

You know, it’s interesting, because I think helping them get the life they want to have as the CEO. And it’s not necessarily working less. It’s working differently. I got one CEO, she was really trying to drive her business and she had a very unique niche. And what she thought to get her niche to drive farther was to go wider. So I’m going to take my product and I’m going to get into as many big box retailers as possible. And we kept hammering on the margin. The margin is going to change. The margin is going to change. I want to be bigger. And I kept trying [inaudible [00:14:03] tell me how do we look at bigger differently? Within six weeks, she was on Amazon, created a sales channel that didn’t even exist for a category ,and blew it up. So she reached her intention of growing her business. But she wasn’t stuck in the expectation of how to do it. Another client of mine said, “You know, I have no problem working five days a week. I don’t want to work seven anymore.” I said, “Well, tell me why.” He goes, “We got new grandkids and I want to see my grandkids.” Parental guilt. I didn’t spend enough time with my kids. I want to spend time with my kids and my grandkids. How can I do that? We came with a plan. So he works five out of seven days, but he takes every half Wednesday off. It’s an appointment he makes with himself. He’s given himself that permission. So those are the stories that – these are legacy plays. These are changing families. These are changing the mindsets of entrepreneurs. And both companies are much more financially successful than before we started. But my thing I’m proudest the most is these people are spending more time with the people they love. 

Mario Fachini [14:59]

I love hearing that. Because that’s a big thing for me is family, friends, legacy. And you can’t ever get time back. You can easily make $1,000 or $10,000 an hour or more. But if I said, I want all of last week back, what can you do for me? 

Todd Palmer [15:14]

Right. I really have to applaud the millennials. And if someone’s going to listen to this and like, “Oh, no. Not the millennials.” But they figured out that they are really willing to trade freedom and flexibility for money. They want to live a life more by design. My son’s 28, you know, off the dock. He’s an accountant. And we’re trying to help him to create that life by design because he wants to go out west, he wants to travel the world. And there’s different ways now, again, with technology that he can do those things. And what they’re doing is they’re challenging the older generations, the baby boomers, the Gen X’s and saying, “You know, have you thought about looking at the world like this?” Because time is finite. It is the most nonrenewable resource we have. We want to spend our time with you Mom and Dad. Come spend it with us. Maybe work a little less or work a little differently. Those thought processes really freak people out. But once they can embrace it and see different ways to accomplish things, it’s more and more – we can bring more and more families together. I think our fabric is going to be a lot stronger in our country. 

Mario Fachini [16:13]

I agree. And what you were saying, the companies are more financially sound, you’re bringing the families together, those are all – the focus should be the family but the byproduct is – we’re talking about the inefficiencies and you don’t need to work 365 days. One of my favorite quotes is stop the glorification of busy. If you can’t do it in five days, you’re probably not going to pull it off in six or seven. Well, even if you do, how long can you keep that up for? 

Todd Palmer [16:42]

You’re going to burn out. I burned out.  And that’s one of the great thing about with my clients that I really discovered, the more I speak from experience, the more I speak from some of the really awful decisions I made, and some of the good things we’ve had accomplished, it makes it such a more relatable story. Than me saying, “Well, you know, I read in a book you should do it this way.” Or “I saw a speaker. I saw a TED talk.” This is the dumb crazy stuff I did. Don’t go seven days, you will burn out. And the reality is most employers hate it when I say this, but the reality is, if you get an employee who’s paid for eight hours to actually work five or six of those hours, you’ve got a great employee. Because nowadays with technology distractions, and endless meetings, they’re really not working 40 hours a week on your payroll anymore. So why not create a situation where you’re getting the best six hours of the day, pay them as such. Or come up with a different comp plan, pay them on the work product they create. Again, I’m not looking to cut anybody’s wages or anybody’s benefits. But work has changed, the gig economy, Freelancer nation, all those categories are changing the way people work. As entrepreneurs, as leaders, we need to pay attention to those things. 

Mario Fachini [17:49]

I love that you touched upon that. And when you said five or six hours, I’m thinking that’s a bit. Because I know statistically two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half is about what you’re going to be getting. So absolutely, if you can get someone to do four-and-a-half, five, or six, let them go early. Still paying the same, let them go early.

Todd Palmer [18:09]

And people are willing to do it if they’re allowed to do it differently. Again, using my son as an accountant, as long as he gets his work product done, if his employer really – they just want the product done. If he doesn’t between 12:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. on the West Coast, does it really matter? He’s getting the work done. But again, that could be a topic for a different day. 

Mario Fachini [18:31]

But some of those are the best ways to go about it. Because when you have people all over the place, you cannot wake up and who cares if they did it in the middle of the night. You wake up with their stuff ready to skyrocket you through the day. And you’re not playing email tag for three hours to go, “Okay. It’s done by end of day.” No. I love getting stuff in the inbox first thing in the morning going, “Great. We made progress from yesterday.” 

Todd Palmer [18:54]

Well, if you take a look at — I mean, we’re human animals. We’re not just human being. And humans work in different ways, at different times, with different natural rhythms. Some people are morning people. Some people are evening people. We have to figure out how best they work to get the most out of them so that they will be as productive as we need to be. But also there’s a big value in work, I think. And people who love the work they do are willing to do it really well. Again, if it’s a work product result, it doesn’t really matter when it gets done. 

Mario Fachini [19:27]

It doesn’t as long as you get the result and you’re making progress, do it on your terms. And with the internet, like you’re talking about, the more people that are connected, it only empowers everyone to work more efficiently and communicate quicker. 

Todd Palmer [19:40]

Exactly. It’s so crazy. Communication has really – in my coaching practice I had an issue come up just today, perfect example. And it was all the email back and forth between myself and my accounting team and my client. I said, “This is ridiculous.” I did a crazy thing. I used this device called the phone and I actually called another human being, who actually picked up the phone. And we had a conversation. And she was so appreciative like, “Wow. Yeah. This is getting crazy. This is out of control.” I said, “Yeah. I thought it was just important to talk adult to adult.” It was a real minor thing. But we saw the project. I really appreciate you picking up the phone. Nobody calls anymore. So I think, email and texts are great communication nuggets. You can inform through text and email, but you can only really communicate either through as a portal like we’re doing today or via the telephone and don’t confuse the two. 

Mario Fachini [20:33]

I’m in full agreement. I remember when I was getting one of my latest phones and they’re trying to sell, “Oh,  you can do this. It’ll do this. It’s got satellite uplink. It’ll make your coffee.” And for like ten minutes, he’s talking about all the features. I was like, “Oh my gosh. That’s incredible. What about this? What about?”  He’s like, “Yeah. It does all of this, 4G, 5G, up a tree, whatever.” I’m like, “Let me ask you something? Can I make a call with it?” Because we have these phones nowadays that are super computers and everyone seems to want everything but what they’re intended for. And it’s one of the best things you can do. 

Todd Palmer [21:12]

It’s so important that we don’t lose sight as entrepreneurs and as leaders of the value of human communication and the value of that human connection. Because at the end of the day, at the end of our days – and this is one of the things I always reference, is there’s a study out there of hospice workers. And that study shows that when we’re in our last days, our biggest regrets are the relationships we didn’t maintain, the conversations we didn’t have, and the people we did not maintain a connection with. Not did we work more. And so if you can be a great entrepreneur, create a life by design, and do the great work you want to do, but also have a great relationship. There’s not much more I can really ask for. 

Mario Fachini [21:51]

Yeah. Inbox Zero is not a life goal. Let me ask you about your book. How has that helped your business? 

Todd Palmer [22:00]

The book was really done to help young people. So the book, The Job Search Process, is designed to help someone get their first job out of high school or college in six weeks or less. And it was really written as an entrepreneur and as a chaos creator, I was very frustrated with the university systems that I was interacting with. I was on a couple of boards. And I was finding out from the students when I’d spend time with them that the universities were not preparing them properly to be able to go out into the workplace and find their first jobs. And the long story short, I spent some time with the university president. And I said, “Well, what business is the university really in?” He goes, “What do you mean?” “So are you in the job readiness business? Or are you in the education business?” And without missing a beat, he goes, “We’re in the education business .” I said, “You have to disconnect with your consumer.” Because parents who pay for education. Take care of the job readiness business because these kids are here to be able to get a step up in life, to be able to get, potentially, a better opportunity from a career standpoint. “So why don’t you spend more money and help these students with the job search process?” And he’s like, “That’s not what we’re here for.” I’m like, “Okay.” So what I found is, it’s helped me with my current practice at Extraordinary Advisors, because it just shows that I am a chief rule breaker. I’m a chaos creator. If I see something that irritates me, I’m going to go after it. And entrepreneurs love the story. But it’s the kids and the teachers and the parents who really love the book because, again, follow the process, simple, easy. Six weeks, you can have a job in today’s economy. I had one person move from across the country, California to Michigan, follow the process to the tee, left California, had five interviews booked in Michigan, and got five offers. So it works. 

Mario Fachini [23:46]

That’s fantastic. I love that you want to help people so much because you can be doing anything in the world right now. And you’re choosing to help people. 

Todd Palmer [23:56]

Well, for me, I’m so lucky. I am not the sharpest crayon in the box. I am just a lucky guy who hired his first coach – gosh – 2006 when I was $600,000 in debt. I was two months away from running out of all of my money. Losing my house. Was a single parent. And I walk in bad shape. I hired this coach. I fire my entire company. And I started over. And I never could have taken that dream to make the Inc. 5000 six times if I hadn’t heard that coach and he hadn’t helped me. It’s my way to pay it forward and as well as paying it back to help others. That’s just how I believe that the world should go. 

Mario Fachini [24:35]

Looking back over the last 13 years, like you mentioned, what are three key takeaways you could tell someone if they’re in that position or near it or approaching it? What would you say are the three key things that turned it around for you? 

Todd Palmer [24:51]

Well, first thing is I did hire a coach. I suffered a lot from imposter sentiment. In my generation, we thought we had to have all the answers. The greatest entrepreneurs were the guys who climbed Mount Everest without a bottle oxygen, without a Sherpa. We just conquered that world. So it was a generational thing, I think, as well. I just thought I had to have all the answers. And so I isolated myself and I didn’t ask for help. So the first thing is if you’re stuck, reach out and ask for help. I mean, there are plenty of resources and people who want to do well by you. Secondarily, for me, it was switching that mindset of revenue first profit second. As soon as I became more focused on the profit, I started making different decisions. My target – my goal became different. And lastly, I think the thing I had to really figure out is, I didn’t know what the marketplace wanted. I was competing against in the commodity space and the staffing space. Kelly’s World headquarters is two miles from my office. They’ve got vaults full of cash. I’ve got a credit card and a couple of nickels. We’re not equal competitors. So I had to figure out, what does the marketplace want? And I did this crazy market test. I should pick up the phone back when people answered the phone, and I asked them, “What do you want?” And they would tell me. And so if I get that and I’m going to charge a little bit more for it, it was no problem. This is the recession when there’s plenty of people and not enough jobs. But there was a gap in the marketplace for high end skilled trades, machinists, welders, these very difficult positions to fill. We figured out if we can fill that, we can do it. So really what we switched the model from being was focus on the client need and focus on how we get that great candidate and reverse that process. And that changed, that changed everything. So we could charge more. We got us out of debt. We charge more, I was able to pay myself back. And we were able to get the hockey stick to grow the business. So it really became insatiable curiosity on a day to day basis and really getting comfortable with trying something and having it work, trying something and having it work. So that fail forward mentality, ultimately with the help of the coach, just changed  everything. 

Mario Fachini [26:47]

Those are some great Expert Authority insights. And I appreciate you for sharing them with us. 

Todd Palmer [26:51]

You’re welcome. You’re welcome. 

Mario Fachini [26:54]

There are tons of people who I know they have good hearts, they have good businesses, they might be in a bad spot, or whatever the case may be, or something didn’t happen. And I think one of the things that really makes a great entrepreneur is that resiliency to go, “Okay. How do I turn this around and get back going?” And the fact that you did, kudos to you. 

Todd Palmer [27:15]

Well, the interesting thing was because I had – you know, the consultant comes in and your 600 grand in debt. I don’t see a path out of the woods for you, you should file bankruptcy. And I thought about it and it was an option. But then I thought of a couple of things. One, all these people that had invested their money in me from the banks to the vendors who were going to be shorted, everybody else. And I was a single parent. My son sitting across from me at dinner one day and we had to have that conversation. Because he knew how bad things were. And he said, “Yeah. My my buddy’s dad said, you should just file for bankruptcy.” And I said, “I’ve not done everything yet.” That resiliency. I’ve not turned over every stone possible. I said, “I can’t tell you that you can’t quit the football team. I can’t tell you can’t do well in a class. If you can’t do it, just quit.” I said, “I just can’t quit until I’ve done everything.” So it was really a ten or eleven year old kid who said, “I believe in you. I want to learn from you. Model this behavior for me.” And that was part of the resiliency process least for me. 

Mario Fachini [28:20]

That’s fantastic. That’s real fantastic. And I’m glad you can have that as a story and example not just for me that inspire all of Expert Authority World but your son. 

Todd Palmer [28:31]

Well, it’s funny now. We were hiking in Peru before he graduated college. That was his college graduation gift. And I mean, I kind of remember the story but he remembered it. And he brought it up on the top of the mountain. He goes, ” Yeah. You remember that? Because now that I’m an accountant, man, that was crazy. What were you thinking?” I’m like, “Whoa.” He’s like, “Really?” I said – I think kids a lot – often – not always – but will often listen to what we say. But they pay more attention to how we behave and what do we do. 

Mario Fachini [29:04]

I would have to agree 100%. Because I remember that phrase, do as I say not as I do. It’s like, “Well, good luck with that.” Everything is modeled behavior. All right. Well, I got one more question for you before we go to the Imperfect Action Round. And I’ve been calling it the Expert Authority Roller Coaster. And there’s fun stuff on there, crazy stuff. And I got one for you. I was thinking about it. Here’s what I want to ask you, if you could talk to any CEO that’s still living right now, who would it be and why? 

Todd Palmer [29:43]

I think if I could pick one CEO – so my brother was a CEO. So I definitely talk to him just because I love his stories. But if it wasn’t my brother, I would talk to probably Richard Branson. Because he seems like he’s really figured out the work-life integration. Not the work-life balance. I’ve got some friends who spent time with Richard. He doesn’t answer email. He has an assistant that answers email. He does all the stuff sitting in a hammock, primarily from Necker. And he seems like he just got that ability to have just total chill all the time. And that would be just, “How you do that?” I’d love to ask him that question. 

Mario Fachini [30:25]

That’s a good one. That’s a real good one. And I like him too. He does seem – again, with the Heart Centric PC, he gives back and everything. But he definitely knows how to have fun. And no one can argue his business acumen. So great suggestion. All right. We’re going to thank our sponsor and come back to the Imperfect Action Round.

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Mario Fachini [31:00]

All right. We are back with the Imperfect Action Round. Todd, are you ready to take imperfect action? 

Todd Palmer [31:07]

I’ve been imperfect all my life. Let’s go. 

Mario Fachini [31:08]

All right. First question, what is the fastest path to the cash? 

Todd Palmer [31:13]

The fastest path to the cash is figure out a niche that no one has exploited. Charge appropriately for it. And don’t apologize. 

Mario Fachini [31:25]

I like that, especially the don’t apologize. I like that a lot. Number two, what is the biggest problem you see your prospects making and the fastest way they can fix it? 

Todd Palmer [31:37]

I think their biggest problem is they’re stuck. They’re inactive. They’re stuck in a mindset of scarcity. And they’re struggling to get to a mindset of abundance. And they will slow roll that decision making process. And every day they don’t change their mindset and take different action is just another day of suffering. 

Mario Fachini [32:01]

Number three, what’s the best way to maximize customer lifetime value? 

Todd Palmer [32:07]

I think it’s a matter of how do you create that relationship with that customer. And if you create a great relationship, you can have the value of a lifetime. My experience really though it comes down to not when things are going what great or not when things are going well, it’s when things don’t go well. As a leader, do you step up? Do you get on the phone? Do you stand in front of the client hand in hand and say, “We made these mistakes. Here’s how we’re going to correct them.” What can I do to make it right? If more and more people did that versus ducking, hiding, even going behind PR people, it would change everything. 

Mario Fachini [32:41]

I like that. I love the ethical side of that of making it right and not hiding. Because so many people do. What is a great book you could recommend? 

Todd Palmer [32:51]

My favorite book of last year and I’ve now listened to it on audio four times is the book by Mark Manson with the letter F in the title. People just kind of figure that out. Because it really gets people to shift their mindset around what success looks like. And Manson’s style, I think, is really very gritty, it really talks a lot from experiences, it does a lot of good examples. And I think that it’s called The Subtle Art of Not Giving a blank. Just pay attention to – ignore the title but get the essence of what he talks about so that you can shift your mindset. He does so much good in the world. If you can just maybe ignore some of the profanity. 

Mario Fachini [33:37]

I appreciate the suggestion. Well, you’ve been a total rock star this whole time. I appreciate the insight. I’ve got a lot out of it myself. And I know Expert Authority World has. Where can we find more about you? 

Todd Palmer [33:48]

Well, you’d mentioned earlier about my passion to improve lives. And so what I’d like to offer anybody who’s listening today or anybody hears this down the line is reach out to me at ExtraordinaryAdvisors.com. Go to the Contact Us page. And I’m happy to give 30 minutes of my time for free to anybody who’s struggling with decisions, struggling with their businesses, suffering from imposter syndrome. Even if you’re $600,000 in debt, I’m happy  – I can give you some ideas on how to restructure that. But that’s really the best place to reach me is on my website, ExtraordinaryAdvisors.com. I can give you 30 minutes for free just as really my way of thanking those people who gave to me when I was in in need of it the most. 

Mario Fachini [34:26]

I appreciate that. That’s very generous of you. And I know people will take you up on it. It has been an absolute pleasure. And I thank you. 

Todd Palmer [34:34]

Thank you for having me on. 

Mario Fachini [34:36]

All right. Expert Authority World, we have another great episode here today. I’ll see you tomorrow. Have a great day. And God bless.

SPONSOR Business Book Checklist [34:43]

Why every business needs a book including yours? Would you like to save five plus hours with every prospect, generate more leads, and profit in your business now? Visit BusinessBookChecklist.com and learn how you can implement this in your business today. 

www.EAInterviews.com [34:58]

Hey, thanks for listening to today’s episode. I hope you got a lot out of it. I know I sure did. If you haven’t done so already, I invite you to subscribe to the show. And also be sure to check out EAInterviews.com for complete show notes, the full interview video experience, links to the resources we mentioned, and more. Have a blessed day and I’ll see you tomorrow.