My Quest for the Best with Bill Ringle - the podcast for ambitious business owners.

Bill Ringle and Adam Markel discuss the questions that lead to life- and business-changing pivots 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.

As a keynote speaker, transformational leader, and business mentor, Adam guides individuals and businesses to capitalize on change and magnify their impact.

After building a multi-million dollar law firm, Adam became CEO of one of the largest business and personal development training companies in the world, overseeing more than $100 million in sales.

Bill Ringle and Dr. Sanjay Jain discuss being truly accountable for the results you produce in your work life and personal life.

>>> 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.

Sanjay Jain, M.D. is an accomplished medical doctor, keynote speaker, author, and innovator. Sanjay’s thought leadership and expertise were developed not only from his medical education but also from his life experiences.

Sanjay Jain is a US-trained, board-certified physician with over 15 years of clinical experience. He holds certifications in Diagnostic Radiology, Integrative Medicine, and Healthcare Quality and Management. He is a graduate of the accelerated BS/MD program at The Northeast Ohio Medical University. He has diversified experience in private practice, academic, and HMO settings.

He was a former assistant professor at The Ohio State University where he also obtained his MBA at the Fisher School of Business. The combination of which has given him a unique voice and understanding of the many issues we face today in a real and practical sense.

He has served on numerous committees at every level of his professional career. He is a member of the American Roentgen Ray Society, American College of Sports Medicine, and American College of Forensic Medicine, American Association of Integrative Medicine, and American Institute for Healthcare Quality.

Dr. Jain currently resides in Potomac, Maryland where he balances his time with his work and his family of two sons and wife.

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

Ted Larkins talks with Bill Ringle on My Quest for the Best about adopting a “get to” mindset and becoming more peaceful, productive, and satisfied in your everyday life.

>>> 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.

My Quest for the Best is the podcast where ambitious small business leaders discover strategies and tactics to unlock their growth potential.

Give us a 5-star rating and positive review to make it easier for other small business owners to find and benefit from our work!

See all listening options (Overcast, Pocket Casts, TuneIn, and more)

Ted Larkins is an author, speaker, accomplished business executive, and coach on happiness. Through his book and keynote talks, he shares the powerful Get To Principle, the ability to say “I Get To” as opposed to “I have to”. Ted also co-developed a leading entertainment licensing company in Tokyo, representing major movie studios that included Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, and 20th Century Fox. He’s worked on projects with Jon Bon Jovi, Jack Nicklaus, Mariah Carey, and many other artists. He is the former Senior Vice President of the North American division of CPLG, one of the world’s leading entertainment, sport, and brand licensing agencies. He is on the Licensing Industry Merchandise Association (LIMA), co-chairing the charity committee and sitting on the executive committee. He is a guest lecturer for the UCLA Entertainment Studies and Performing Arts program.
Over a year and a half period, during his daily 4-hour train commute to work in Hollywood, he wrote the book, “Get To Be Happy: Stories and Secrets On Loving the Sh*t Out of Life. Ted lives with his wife of 22 years and their two children in Southern California.

Ajit Mathew George talks with Bill Ringle on My Quest for the Best about his experience with running TEDx Wilmington and how the 410+ TEDx presentations have shaped and improved his life.

>>> 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.

My Quest for the Best is the podcast where ambitious small business leaders discover strategies and tactics to unlock their growth potential.

Give us a 5-star rating and positive review to make it easier for other small business owners to find and benefit from our work!

See all listening options (Overcast, Pocket Casts, TuneIn, and more)

Ajit Mathew George is a TEDx organizer, certified Dream Builder Life Coach, creative marketer, serial entrepreneur, philanthropist, gastronaut, wine aficionado, and dream catcher who divides his time between Wilmington, Delaware and Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands. He has over 40 years of experience in creative marketing, strategic planning, and business development in many different areas ranging from broadcasting, non-profits, resorts, and real estate development.

Through Magic Dust, LLC, he helps organizations and individuals build their dreams, accelerate their results, and create richer, more fulfilling lives through Life Coaching, strategic marketing, and event planning. Over the years, Ajit has sprinkled his “magic dust” to create some magical events such as First Night Wilmington, Meals From the Master’s Celebrity Chef’s Brunch, Evening With The Masters, Cellar Masters Wine Auction, Evening of Style, Black Tie Monopoly Tournament, Virgin Islands Winemakers Dinners, MidAtlantic Wine + Food Festival and TEDxWilmington.

As the organizer and executive producer of TEDxWilmington (www.tedxwilmington.com) Ajit organized six annual TEDxWilmington Conferences, the 2018 TEDxWilmingtonED Conference, the 2016 and 2017 TEDxWilmingtonWomen Conference, 2017 TEDxYouth@Wilmington, and 18 TEDxWilmingtonSalons between 2014 and 2017 including a very special TEDx Salon inside a prison in July 2015. These 29 different TEDx events featuring 397 speakers from around the world who gave 375 TEDx talks. As of March 5, 2018, the TEDx talks given at TEDxWilmington had over 6.351.709 views on YouTube.

Ajit is the Chairman of the American Wine Society’s First State Wine Guild. He was also the founder of the MidAtlantic Wine+ Food Festival that in 2015 consisted of a series of 33 acclaimed food and wine events in 4 states over 4 days featuring 60 chefs + 23 winemakers from 6 continents. He organized this annual Wine + Food Festival for 4 years.

Ajit is the founder of Second Chances Farm LLC, which is creating an organic vertical farm in Wilmington, Delaware that will exclusively hire people re-entering society after completing their prison sentence.

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

Soon Yu talks with Bill Ringle on My Quest for the Best about his new book, Iconic Advantage, and what it means to develop a signature brand.

>>> 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.

My Quest for the Best is the podcast where ambitious small business leaders discover strategies and tactics to unlock their growth potential.

Give us a 5-star rating and positive review to make it easier for other small business owners to find and benefit from our work!

See all listening options (Overcast, Pocket Casts, TuneIn, and more)

Soon Yu is an international speaker and bestselling author of Iconic Advantage: Don’t Chase the New, Innovate the Old.

He regularly consults business leaders on developing meaningful Iconic Signature Elements, Signature Moments, and Signature Communication.

Yu most recently served as Global VP of Innovation at VF Corporation, parent organization to over 30 global apparel companies, including The North Face, Vans, Timberland, Nautica, and Wrangler. While at VF, Yu created a two-billion-dollar innovation pipeline, established three global innovation centers, and initiated industry-leading design best practices.

Prior to this, he worked at The Clorox Company and Chiquita Brands, where he won company-wide awards for best advertising, best promotion, and best new product, and gained industry recognition from the Webby Award, Favorite Website Award, and Dope Award. He was also founder and CEO for numerous venture-backed startups, including Gazoontite, Promeo Technologies, and TWRL, and was recognized as a Northern California finalist for the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Yu is an adjunct professor at Parsons School of Design and often guest lectures at Stanford University, where he received his MBA and is active with the GSB Asian Alumni Association.

Suzy Prudden talks with Bill Ringle on My Quest for the Best about Itty Bitty Books, entrepreneurship, and why you shouldn’t be afraid to just pick up the phone.

>>>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.

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• How an Itty Bitty Author went from making $100,000 a year to $750,000 a year
• Why it’s so important to pick up the phone and follow-up
• Why you shouldn’t give your book away as a business card
• How the internet has changed the publishing industry
• What’s it like to write an Itty Bitty Book

• 00:52 “I was a fitness expert. I had a fitness school in New York City.”
• 1:05 Prudden describes all the rapid changes that occurred after she sold her business at 40.
• 1:33 “I couldn’t pay my franchise fees, so I lost the franchise, thank goodness, so I started to work with entrepreneurs.”
• 1:52 “Working with entrepreneurs is very exciting because entrepreneurs, they have to be self-starters.”
• 2:21 “The most challenging thing for most entrepreneurs, literally, is picking up the phone.”
• 3:03 “People don’t like to hear the word no.”
• 3:55 Why it’s so important to follow up right away.
• 4:49 Prudden discusses the origins of Itty Bitty Publishing.
• 5:10 [On writing the first book with her sister] – “We didn’t know what we were doing, we had no idea what we were doing.”
• 5:25 “We had 2,000 to sell, we have 1,800 left. It just didn’t work.”
• 5:50 “I asked my sister to change the cover of the Itty Bitty Book, and to cut it, make it shorter.”
• 6:40 [On the Amazing Itty Bitty Weight Loss Book] – “My ego had a blip…I looked at my sister and said, ‘Are you sure you don’t want my name on the book?’ And then I looked at the book and said, ‘Actually, that’s a million dollar business.”
• 7:05 “2 weeks later we had our first author, 6 weeks later we had our first published book.”
• 7:19 “Because of the internet, the publishing industry has totally changed.”
• 8:00 “The world is being inundated with information.”
• 8:33 “So when we look at Itty Bitty, we thought: ‘All we want to do is we want information that’s going to make a difference for the reader that they don’t have to weed through.”
• 8:55 [On sorting through larger books for salient info] –  “Itty Bitty Books are the yellow highlights.”
• 9:38 [On the type of person who should write a book] – “Any person who has a sort of expertise that they are using in their business.”
• 10:40 How having a book you’ve written in your area of expertise will increase your credibility and open doors for you.
• 11:00 Examples of writers who have written for Itty Bitty Books.
• 11:15 “A lot of our authors sell their books, a lot of our authors give them away, which I don’t like them to do that.”
• 11:30 “People don’t value what they don’t pay for.”
• 11:58 [On why she dislikes people handing out books at conferences] – “If I buy the book because I’m interested in reading [it], that’s a whole different thing.”
• 12:25 “You should not give your book away as a business card, you should sell your book.”
• 13:18 “If you give your book away as a business card, that book usually ends up in a pile that either ends up in the garbage, which I will not do, or ends up at goodwill.”
• 13:36 “We have about 130 authors that are ‘in play,’ so to speak.”
• 14:12 “The moment we came up with the idea we knew we had a million dollar business.”
• 14:23 “It wasn’t that we started Itty Bitty and it slowly grew and then we knew it was a winner, it was almost as if God had handed us this thing.”
• 14:52 [On founding on a new business in her seventies] – “It’s like we wanted something that would live beyond us.”
• 15:18 “Bookstores are a dying breed. I love bookstores, I love going into bookstores. I don’t want my book in a bookstore, because you won’t find it.”
• 15:39 [Why Prudden hates book signings.] –  “Unless you’re a really famous person, people aren’t really going to show up.”
• 15:45 “If your book doesn’t sell within two months, the bookstore tears off the front cover, sends it back to the publisher, and the publisher has to refund the money.”
• 16:35 [On why Prudden prefers stores were Itty Bitty Books can have their own kiosk] – “When I’ve been at places where I have all my books on display, people will go through my rack and by ten books.”
• 17:01 Prudden tells about meeting the person who helps people get their products into Target.
• 18:33 [On one of their authors who’s written 4 books with them] – “Using his Itty Bitty Book he’s grown from making $100,000 to making three quarters of a million dollars a year.”
• 19:23 “He is our golden boy.”
• 19:35 “I believe a book is a business builder, not a business card.”
• 20:06 Why if, you have to give away your book, you give it to a decision maker as a program for success, not as a business card.
• 21:30 [On how long it takes for an Itty Bitty Book to get published] – “That depends on the author. We’ve had people write their book in three days. We’ve also had somebody who will write their book in two years.”
• 21:41 “When you become an Itty Bitty Author, we send you a ‘How to Write an Itty Bitty Book’ book.”
• 22:01 “You have to keep it very short. A lot of people overwrite.”
• 23:02 [On Amazon and all the digitals] – “Nook, Kindle, Smashwords, Kobo, D2D, iTunes, Barnes and Noble – anything you can put on your computer, your phone….”
• 23:40 Prudden describes the ins and outs of Itty Bitty Publishing including author splits and digital vs. print versions and pricing.
• 24:00 “Everyone asks me, ‘How quickly will I make my money back by selling books.’ And I tell them, ‘You won’t. You’ll make your money back by using your book as a business builder.”
• 25:05 Prudden tells about how Itty Bitty Book’s Marijuana book: 15 Ways to Use Cannabis for Healing, came to be, including its upcoming sequel. – “And then I said, ‘Then you’re going to write the book 15 Ways to Talk to Your Kids about Cannabis and then you’re going to write the book 15 Ways to Use Edibles Correctly.
• 27:36 How Itty Bitty’s “15 Experts” Books are compiled
• 28:00 Five Question Round
• 29:48 “You are the power in your life.”
• 30:22 “You have to work at it. You have to take action.”
• 30:52 “I’ve been making up companies for 50 years. You get an idea, and you just do it.”

My Quest for the Best is the podcast where ambitious small business leaders discover strategies and tactics to unlock their growth potential.

Give us a 5-star rating and positive review to make it easier for other small business owners to find and benefit from our work!

See all listening options (Overcast, Pocket Casts, TuneIn, and more)

Suzy Prudden is a prize-winning speaker and seminar leader, author, and TV/radio host, and personality has been inspiring audiences since 1965.  She is also a New York Times Best Selling Author, fitness expert, hypnotherapist, and success and accountability coach. She’s written 14 books on physical fitness, weight loss, body/mind technology, and mind power, as well as 4 videos, and dozens of DVDs and CDs. She created and publishes the Amazing Itty Bitty Book series and Fit For Life® Publishing.

She’s been on Oprah, Good Morning America, and The Today Show. The New York Times says, “If Suzy is talking about it today, the rest of the country will be talking about it tomorrow.”

• Primary Website
• Travels from:El Segundo, CA
• Phone:(310) 640-8885
• Connect in LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook

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

• Anthony Camacho – Top Producer Factory 
• David Gershon and Gail Straub – Empowerment Institute 

Susan Scott talks to Bill Ringle on My Quest for the Best about fierce leadership and the benefits of learning how to have truly meaningful conversations.

>>>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.

My Quest for the Best is the podcast where ambitious small business leaders discover strategies and tactics to unlock their growth potential.

Give us a 5-star rating and positive review to make it easier for other small business owners to find and benefit from our work!

See all listening options (Overcast, Pocket Casts, TuneIn, and more)

Susan Scott is a best-selling author and leadership development architect who has enabled top executives worldwide to engage in vibrant dialogue with one another, with their employees, and with their customers for more than two decades. As CEO of Fierce Conversation, a company she founded in 2001, Susan sets the company’s strategic vision and creates the culture through her ongoing commitment to ensure employees are engaged, communication is candid, and learning is continuous.

Prior to starting Fierce, Susan spent 12 years running think tanks for CEOs designing and delivering training to peers working with CEOs across the globe. In 2002, ‘Fierce Conversations -Achieving Success at Work and in Life, One Conversation at a Time,’ was published in 4 countries. It was included on The Wall Street Journal and UPI bestseller lists and was one of USA TODAY’S top 40 business books of 2002. Her much anticipated second book – ‘Fierce Leadership: A Bold Alternative to the Worst ‘Best’ Practices of Business Today was published in 2009, and was also listed on The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times bestseller lists. In May 2017 Susan re-released “Fierce Conversations” with 40% updated content, incorporating more data and technology that was developed through her experience in the industry over the last 15 years.

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

Authority Positioning Coach Mike Saunders talks with Bill Ringle on My Quest for the Best about marketing hurdles, learning from failure, and the phenomenon of creating “Done for You” assets.

>>>Visit MyQuestforTheBest.com for complete show notes and more expert advice and inspiring stories to propel your small business. 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.

My Quest for the Best is the podcast where ambitious small business leaders discover strategies and tactics to unlock their growth potential.

Give us a 5-star rating and positive review to make it easier for other small business owners to find and benefit from our work!

See all listening options (Overcast, Pocket Casts, TuneIn, and more)

As the Authority Positioning Coach, I help entrepreneurs break out of obscurity by amplifying their hidden expertise to a position of status & prestige to become THE go-to Authority & Expert in their industry. The Authority Positioning Coach is a Boutique Marketing Agency providing “Done-for-You” Authority Positioning Packages to elevate your brand to a position of status and prestige.

I am the author of Amazon’s Bestselling book, Authority Selling, a contributor to The Huffington Post, an Adjunct Marketing Professor at several Universities, and a member of the Forbes Coaches Council – an invitation-only community for the World’s Most Influential Business Coaches.

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

>>>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.

David Fields talks with Bill Ringle on My Quest for the Best about how connecting with clients means recognizing that when it comes to consulting, it’s not about you.

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• Why Emotional Connection plays such an important role in client relationships
• How Making mistakes can make you more valuable to your clients
• What it means to think “right side up.”
• Why being confident will get you more consulting clients
• The reason clients have difficulty trusting new approaches

• 00:59 Fields discusses his fanatical love of both chocolate and hockey.
• 1:28 “I happen to love what I do, like many of us who are entrepreneurs. I just thrive on the business.”
• 2:36 Fields recalls a story from his childhood about a word class mathematician who taught him how to use unit blocks in kindergarten. “This amazing mathematician would ride his bike to teach kids in kindergarten.”
• 3:00 “I just think that the idea of teaching other people and giving your knowledge, not at your level, but at their level…you meet people where they are and help them.”
• 3:56 [On his first job(s)] “I’m a numbers person, and I went into marketing research and learned a lot of great skills there.”
• 4:07 “My first boss once told me, ‘David our job isn’t to say that the glass is half empty or the glass is half full but to say there is 6oz of water in a 12 oz glass.”
• 4:33ç
• 5:13 Fields tells about his time working as an interviewer for a dating service.
• 6:05 “If you go back 30 years, the idea of meeting someone through a service, there’s a lot of stigma attached.”
• 6:30 “It wasn’t the matching that got people there, it was the emotional journey.”
• 7:00 Fields recounts the time leading up to spinning off from his original company to start a new consulting company with his partner Jim.
• 7:40 [On the fate of the early venture] – “That worked incredibly well for about 4 weeks.”
• 8:05 “Jim was the business development guy. I was the backroom engine guy. I was coming up with models and smart solutions to client problems.”
• 8:19 “I was left without a partner, without clients, and without the skill set to develop clients.”
• 8:37 “My first year running Ascendant was a disaster.”
• 8:59 “Once you have some success and you’re smart enough to get help, then it gets easier.”
• 9:25 “Unless you have failed, you can’t show that you have the resilience and the ability to get up.”
• 9:43 “I wouldn’t go out of my way to try to make mistakes, but if you try to avoid them, that’s where trouble sets in.”
• 10:25 [On Org Design] – “No design is ever perfect out of the gate.”
• 10:33 “We’re better off putting it in place, getting it darn close, and then refining it. I don’t worry about the mistakes, I worry about creating high quality.”
• 11:15 [On thinking right side up] – “Consulting is not about you, it’s about them.”
• 11:35 [On what his experiences working in a shoe store taught him] – “It doesn’t matter what it looked like to you…it mattered what it felt like to them. It wasn’t about my shoes it was about their feet.”
• 11:56 “If there’s one thing to take away from our discussion, I would say take that away. It’s not about you, it’s about them.”
• 12:26 “Most of the time we start something we think about ourselves, and we have to push ourselves to think about our clients.”
• 12:50 “Take the first line of the e-mail and make it about the client, not about you.”
• 13:08 “In everything you do: every e-mail you write, every presentation you give, think to yourself, ‘How do I make this about them, not me.”
• 13:32 “Confidence is extremely important.”
• 13:59 “One of the ironies is that people look inside for their confidence. They’ve been taught by self-help gurus that there is some inner core and they have to believe in themselves, and I think that’s absolutely nonsense.”
• 14:16 “Stop looking at yourself. If your prospect or client believes you have value, then you have value.”
• 14:38 “The lack of self-confidence comes from thinking too much about yourself.”
• 16:20 [On teaching new consultants why they don’t need certifications] – “If a client came to you with this problem, could you give them a solution that will solve the problem? If the answer is yes, then why do you need a certification?”
• 17:20 “A lot of consultants want to start with: ‘Here’s what I’m good at. Here’s what I know. Let me try to sell what I know.” 
• 17:30 It doesn’t matter what you know or what you’re good at, all that matters is what the market wants.
• 17:38 “Learn something different. Learn what the market wants.”
• 18:14 “It’s not that we shouldn’t study and learn. We absolutely should, we should go where the market is and pick up skills.”
• 18:42 [What Field learned from consumer products] – “You need a breakthrough product and you need to be differentiated.”
• 19:05 “Clients aren’t looking for different. Clients aren’t looking for breakthrough. Clients are looking for solved. They’re looking for a solution that’s reliable and credible.”
• 19:25 “Every single client, every single executive, has had at least one experience, and probably multiple experiences, with having hired a third party and that third party didn’t deliver.”
• 19:59 [On client trust] – “They want the thing that’s worked 30 times.”
• 20:03 “Don’t worry about what makes you different, worry about what makes you credible and reliable.”
• 20:25 How Fields met Keith Ferrazzi
• 22:00 “If we’re trying to appear reliable and we’re trying to appear credible, the clients need some proof.”
• 22:21 “There’s social proof like crazy these days.”
• 22:41 Clients are looking for how you interact with them, and they’re also looking for other kinds of social proof.
• 23:15 “The advantage of having a marquee client is that you can put them on the marquee and people will say ‘Wow!’”
• 24:15 “Whether you’re a sole [consultant] or boutique, you’re always trying to balance command.”
• 24:25 “I would never advise building capacity ahead of demand.”
• 24:50 Not everyone is cut out to be a rainmaker.
• 25:53 “Impact is step 2, before you get visibility.”
• 26:55 “People who are going to take your ideas and not call you, were never going to call you anyway.”
• 27:26 “What you do is gain the people who were smart enough to realize that there’s one level, which is understanding a concept, there’s another level which is implementing it without making as many mistakes. And then there’s another level, which is implementing it with feedback and coaching and guidance along the way, and that’s going to make the entire process faster.”
• 29:06 “I think most people know that coaching is a good thing.”
• 29:25 “You have to make a decision that you’re willing to invest in your business.”
• 29:45 “Are you willing to learn and change?”
• 29:55 Good coaches will often make you do something different, something uncomfortable.
• 30:00 “And if you want to achieve something different, you’re going to have to change something and probably something that feels uncomfortable.”
• 31:17 [On the early years of Ascendant] – “It never occurred to me to do hourly work, that’s not how I grew up.”
• 32:25 Fields tips for staying on track and focused.
• 32:42 “I’m not naturally on track. I’m intellectually spastic.”
• 32:54 “If something’s not your skill set, you get rid of it and you have somebody whose skill set it is take care of it.”
• 35:00 “I am here to help consultants succeed.”
• 36:35 “We can always learn and we can always improve.”

My Quest for the Best is the podcast where ambitious small business leaders discover strategies and tactics to unlock their growth potential.

Give us a 5-star rating and positive review to make it easier for other small business owners to find and benefit from our work!

See all listening options (Overcast, Pocket Casts, TuneIn, and more)

David A. Fields works with boutique consulting firms and individual consultants across the globe that are eager to accelerate growth, increase profit and create lucrative lifestyle-friendly practices. He has guided consultancies ranging from one-person startups to the consulting divisions of some of the world’s largest companies.

David still advises corporate clients too. After climbing the ranks to become a partner at a prestigious consulting firm in Connecticut, David co-founded Ascendant Consulting, where he has attracted clients such as Abbott Laboratories, Church & Dwight, FMC, Warner Home Video, and many others.

David’s books include Amazon’s highest-rated book on the business of consulting released in the past 20 years: The Irresistible Consultant’s Guide to Winning Clients.

He also leads the Ascendant Consortium, a unique, “general contractor” model in which David acts as both a client and consultant on the same project. The consortium now includes more than 150 consultants whose clients are a Who’s Who of the global business world. The Ascendant Consortium was a breakthrough for David professionally, and in this model high-dollar, high-margin projects are the norm.

David received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Carnegie Mellon. (Go plaid!) He is a hockey fanatic and eats egregious amounts of chocolate.

• Primary Website
• Travels from: Ridgefield, CT
• Phone: (203) 438-7236
• Connect on LinkedIn | Twitter

Rhett Power talks with Bill Ringle about the troubles and triumphs of entrepreneurship, and why it just might not be for everyone.

>>> 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.

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• Is entrepreneurship an innate talent?
• How Power’s time in the Peace Corps encouraged him to take risks
• What allowed Wild Creations to go from being out of money to being a $9 million company
• How reliability and communication can lead to trust with vendors
• The formula for success that Rhett Power found the hard way

• 1:40 Power tells about the early influencers of his life.
• 2:40 [The Peace Corps] – “All of those life lessons prepared me for entrepreneurship.”
• 2:55 “Is entrepreneurship learned or is it innate?”
• 3:32 “Well I think certain people have the characteristics, maybe you’re born with it…but I see both sides now.”
• 3:52 “I think all types can be good entrepreneurs.”
• 5:04 “Some people are entrepreneurs and they don’t know it.”
• 5:27 Power recounts the various odd jobs he did prior to joining the Peace Corps. “It took me a while to find, finally, what I wanted to do.”
• 6:38 “It was the best move I ever made because I learned those two years about myself and about truly being able to do what I wanted to do, and to take chances.”
• 6:51 “Nobody’s going to hand you success, no one’s gonna do it for you. If you want something you’ve got to go out and work for it.”
• 7:39 “The work I did after Peace Corps in the developing countries, in the former Soviet Union, helping them understand what a market economy was, and helping them transition, and be profitable, and learn how to manage a new type of company, is what sort of got me where I got comfortable with the idea of going into business for myself.”
• 8:15 The genesis of Wild Creations.
• 8:25 “We both wanted to be in business. We felt like it was our time to do something and create something that was ours.”
• 9:10 Power describes the early days of Wild Creations, including an interaction with a body removal company.
• 9:43 [On taking over Wild Creations] – “We saw where the product could go, we saw what we could do with it. We thought that we could do something different with the company.”
• 10:30 [Wild Creations’ initial product.] – “It had all kinds of problems.”
• 11:11 How a UPS technology grant allowed Wild Creations to get off the ground.
• 11:32 “Every single vendor gave us 6 months of credit, or there would have been no way to secure those first orders.”
• 12:10 “Frankly we were struggling, we were probably about a month from having to close the doors.” 
• 12:57 “We didn’t have it in toy stores. We had it in little gift and novelty stores.”
• 13:26 How a connection with the president of the Toy Store Association allowed Wild Creations to get their foot in the door. “Come to New York, come to the Toy Fair.”
• 14:18 [On the meteoric rise of Wild Creations] – “We walked out of Toy Fair a $9M company.”
• 15:34 “It was scary, it was really scary.”
• 15:53 [How honesty and communication allowed them to ship on time.] – “Build a relationship with your suppliers so if you have a problem or you have a growth spurt like that, then they are 100% behind you.”
• 18:10 Power discuss the process of writing the book. “When we started writing it I don’t think we knew what we wanted to say.”
• 18:45 “The Entrepreneur’s Book of Actions was easier because I knew what I wanted to say.”
• 19:25 Power lists the “avatars” he interviewed for his book.
• 20:01 “I wrote it because I think I know what people go through and I wanted to sort out their issues and help them be more successful.”
• 21:06 “I wanted to break it down for people what the important parts of the book were.”
• 21:18 “I do believe that action is really the key to success.”
• 21:42 Why doing something every day for a whole year brings about change.
• 21:53 Focus on self-change first, then focus on changing your people.
• 22:01 “In order for our companies to grow, we have to grow.”
• 22:39 The questions and issues that entrepreneurs and founders often overlook.
• 22:58 “Sometimes you find that they’re disciplined in their work but their not disciplined in their personal lives.”
• 23:49 The importance of managing the minutes.
• 24:27 “I’ve learned the hard way of having to scale up.”
• 27:01 What a bad experience with an experienced toy consultant taught Power about coaching.
• 28:00 “Founders and entrepreneurs, they typically have a vision for how they want to do something.”
• 28:22 What Power learned from Mark Thompson and Marshall Goldsmith
• 28:48 “When you run a company the size of our first company, you are the leader and your influence where that company goes.”
• 29:54 “One of the things that I see is that people feel somewhat embarrassed that they’re seeking advice, that they’re seeking help.”
• 31:08 Why it’s important to hire a coach that you actually like.
• 32:12 “First and foremost make a professional mission statement.”
• 32:56 “Success ultimately boils down to a couple of things. It boils down to your habits, your discipline, and your ability to figure out what’s important.”

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Rhett Power co-founded Wild Creations in 2007 and quickly built the startup toy company into the 2010 Fastest Growing Business in South Carolina. Wild Creations was named a Blue Ribbon Top 75 US Company by the US Chamber of Commerce and named as one of Inc. Magazine’s 500 Fastest-Growing US Companies two years in a row. He and his team have won over 40 national awards for their innovative toys. He was a finalist for Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2011 and was nominated again in 2012. He was recently named as one of the world’s top 100 business bloggers in 2015.

Prior to founding Wild Creations, Rhett worked as an economic and small business development consultant for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), serving 7 years in the former Soviet Republics of Central Asia. Prior to that, he was Director of National Service Programs for Habitat for Humanity, which included being Habitat’s chief liaison with The White House, Congress, and the Corporation for National Service.

A member of the United States Department of State’s International Speakers Program, Rhett travels the globe speaking about entrepreneurship, leadership, and management alongside the likes of Gates Foundation CEO Sue Desmond-Hellmann, AOL Founder Steve Case, and President Barack Obama. He has written for the Huffington Post, Time, and The Wall Street Journal and is a regular columnist for Inc., Success Magazine, and Business Insider.

He served in the US Peace Corps and is a graduate of the University of South Carolina. His second book on entrepreneurship will be published in early 2017 by McGraw Hill. He now has a rapidly growing coaching and consulting practice based in Washington DC and Charleston, South Carolina.

• Web addresses:www.rhettpower.com or www.powercoachinggroup.com
• Travels from: Washington, DC
• Phone: 202.465.7120
• Connect on LinkedIn | Twitter

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

• Marshall Goldsmith