Becoming the best version of yourself and helping each person on your team do the same with guest expert Mitzi Perdue

Mitzi Perdue, author of How to Be Up in Down Times

Mitzi Perdue and Bill Ringle discuss committing to service as a means to overcome any obstacles life throws in your way for small business leaders.

>>> Visit MyQuestforTheBest.com for complete show notes and more expert advice and inspiring stories to propel your small business growth. My Quest for the Best is a top-rated small business podcast with over 300 episodes of thought-provoking and insightful interviews with today’s top thought leaders and business experts. Host Bill Ringle’s mission with this show is to provide the strategies, insights, and resources that will unlock the growth potential of your business through these powerful conversations.

Interview Insights

Top 3 Takeaways from this Interview

It’s a great story of learning not just to develop and build yourself and become a better person, but to understand other people.

The more friends you will have, the more effective you become. It helps you in every aspect and dimension of life.

It takes one kind of personality to start a very large company, and a very different kind of personality to keep it going successfully.

Read the Show Notes from this Episode

Ernest Henderson, Mitzi's father and founder of the Sheraton hotel chain, nurtured her curiosity. [1:58]

How her father managed Sheraton Hotel Chain employees with respect, especially during the height of the Great Depression in the 1930s. [3:01]

What Mitzi did to overcome her shyness. [9:54]

Her mission in life is to increase happiness and decrease misery. [18:28]

Satisfying truth, beauty, and goodness are far better as a standard of success, happiness, and satisfaction. [19:58]

The dinner table discussion strategy. [24:58]

Caring enough to take the time to ask, listen, remember, and use the details to make a world of difference to another, as Frank Perdue demonstrated over and over as he built Perdue Farms. [27:44]

My Quest for the Best Lightning Round begins. [32:14]

Expert Bio

Author, speaker, and businesswoman, Mitzi Perdue holds a BA with an honors degree from Harvard University and an MPA from George Washington University.  She is a past president of the 40,000-member American Agri-Women, a former syndicated columnist for Scripps Howard, and her television series, Country Magazine, was syndicated to 76 stations. She’s the founder of CERES Farms, the family-owned company that owns commercial and residential real estate, and plus agricultural land including vineyards that sell wine grapes to wineries such as Mondavi, Bogle, Folie a Deux, and Toasted Head.

Mitzi Perdue’s book, HOW TO MAKE YOUR FAMILY BUSINESS LAST, gives practical advice on how family businesses can develop a culture that supports keeping the family business in the family. Her advice can be useful to any multi-generational family.

Her I’ve-lived-it experience comes from membership in two long-lasting family enterprises. Her family of origin began in 1840 with the Henderson Estate Company, the forerunner of the Sheraton Hotels which her father co-founded. Perdue Farms (she’s Frank Perdue’s widow) began in 1920.

Most recently, she has authored How to Be Up in Down Times. Her co-author is Mark Victor Hansen, co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.

Contact Info and Social Media for Mitzi Perdue

Primary Website

Travels from: Salisbury, Maryland

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Resources Mentioned During the Interview

Below are key people, places, books, quotes, websites and other resources that we discussed so you can explore further.

Mitzi's Homepage

Mitzi's articles on WealthMagament.com 

Global Anti-Trafficking Auction

Books Authored by Mitzi Perdue