Just Say Yes With Jim Palmer

Posted by John Livesay in podcast 0 comments

“Just say yes!” is Jim Palmer‘s battle cry. Get ready as the internationally acclaimed business coach shares valuable insights into building a business. John Livesay interviews Jim as he lets us have a look at how you can build your dream business. Jim also gives us a glimpse of his work mindset and why you need to take action. Tune in and learn more from a master of the craft and build your dream today.

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Listen to the podcast here

Just Say Yes With Jim Palmer

Our guest is Jim Palmer and he talks about how the fear of perfection kills people launching their business idea. He gives us some insights as to what is behind this fear of perfection and how to overcome it. We also talk about his book Just Say Yes and Stick Like Glue, which cannot only apply to keeping customers but also keeping employees. Enjoy the episode.

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Our guest is Captain Jim Palmer, who is the Founder and Creator of the Dream Business Mastermind and Coaching Program, the creator of the Dream Business Academy and the host of the Dream Business Radio, a weekly podcast based on his unique brand of smart marketing and Dream Business building strategies. His other business includes No Hassle Newsletters, Success Advantage Publishing and How to Sell from the Stage Like a Pro. He’s also the developer of the Cashflow Conversation Code as well as the acclaimed author of several books. In 2016 after raising four kids and leading his predictable life, he and Stephanie sold their home in Philly and live full-time and travel on their yacht called the Floating Home. Welcome to the show, Jim.

John, how are you doing? Good to see you and hear from you again.

Likewise. What a little adventure and creative third act you have created. I love it, and especially during a pandemic, I imagine there were a lot of advantages to that.

We were in Cocoa Beach in March 2020. Stephanie and I used to be by ourselves unless we wanted to go out and mingle on the docks or meet other people, but our life did not change that much. Other than the town that we were staying in, the marina was void of anything. If you remember it, it was a ghost town. It was a good situation because we were already used to being together 24/7 in a small space.

Some people were in a small home or apartment and had not planned on having to be there 24/7, but you had already planned your life in a space that did not require a lot of changing of location or trying to make things work because you already had set it up.

You mentioned a small adventure. We called it our big adventure. When we sold the house, we bought this boat, intending to do this for one year to go do something crazy. We live the typical, safe, predictable life like, “Let’s do something adventurous and exciting.” We moved on the boat. About six months in, we looked at each other and go, “This is way too much fun.” This is the fifth time that we have traveled down the coast from the Chesapeake Bay. We are in the Keys as you and I are talking.

It’s Gilligan’s Island, in a good way.

Just Say Yes: When you grow a business, you’ve got to be all in.

We are still on top of the water. We did not have any holes in the boat.

Why don’t you take us back to your story of origin? You can go back to childhood or college, wherever you want to start, when you started thinking, “I’m good at helping businesses grow or I want to get into the business world.” Any little nuggets that you could point to as the starting point of all this.

When you start getting a little older, you start looking backward a little more than forward. It’s amazing the clarity you have. Amongst the different jobs I had, I was the Head of Marketing for a training company. I spent ten years helping to grow a franchise. I was the lead trainer and the main support person for these brand new franchise owners, which is very much like I do, helping business owners market and grow their business, but who knew. It was July of 2000. My position was eliminated with that company and I thought, “I’m going to go get another job.” I have always worked for entrepreneurs. I’m very entrepreneurial.

I knew I would probably have my business someday, but Stephanie and I have four children. It never seemed to be the right time to make that leap. God had other plans because he made it like, “There’s no job here. Start a business.” One year into my what was then almost a year and a half of unemployment, I got cancer. It was a whole kerfluffle of circumstances that said, “Once you reach rock bottom, there’s only one way you can go in that’s up.” I started my first business and was very excited. I was a business owner. I had my cards that said, “President of my corporation.” It took me a full year to get my first paying customer. I did some part-time work.

That took off. I grew it to about $300,000 in five years and then I learned about internet marketing. That’s when somebody introduced me to Dan Kennedy and the whole GKIC world. I started learning direct response copywriting. I started my first internet company called No Hassle Newsletters and we grew that about 1,200 small business owners in 9 countries. It was a monthly membership where I created content and done-for-you newsletter templates.

I created a mail program so that we could print their newsletters. I started writing books, training programs and Success Advantage Publishing. We have published about 50 books for my books and my clients. We help my coaching clients get their books done. When we bought this boat, that was a decision I made. I did not want to work five days a week anymore. I restructured my schedule. I do coaching with my clients on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and then Stephanie and I wish we could travel Friday through Monday. We’ve got to be at a Marina where we have some decent Wi-Fi and then if we want, we can travel again or do whatever we want.

Is there a common mistake you see a lot of entrepreneurs making that prevents them from growing their business? Are they wearing too many hats or is it like, “I read your great blog about all the what-ifs that we can what if ourselves in all kinds of horror stories?”

It’s all of these things like the what-if fear of perfection. Perfectionism is a big business killer. People don’t want to launch until it’s perfect. That all stems from not wanting to be criticized. As I say, “The biggest battle you will ever face as an entrepreneur is right between your ears and having the courage to play, win and not simply play, not to lose.”

[bctt tweet=”Stick Like Glue. ” username=”John_Livesay”]

A lot of the folks that I helped are not 22, starting full of pitch vinegar expression, on their second career, might have a home or had some responsibilities. Some of them would say something like, “I want to grow a business, but I don’t want to disturb what I have here.” When you grow a business, you have got to be all in. Whether that’s in marketing, free Facebook posts, LinkedIn articles, working with a coach or joining a mastermind, whatever that is, the people who grow the fastest in most cases, the highest are those that go through the fences every day.

I love this line that you gave us. “Fear of perfection kills launches.” Let’s double click on what you said. What’s behind most people’s fear of perfection?

Nobody’s perfect. I became familiar with this at a real gut level because I have written 6 books and my first book took 18 months. In reality, it took about under 1 year to write but it took me about 6 or 7 months to get the courage to publish it because then everybody would find out how challenged I am with the English language, what blew by him and my name is on the cover. There was a lot of fear about being criticized because who am I to be an author?

I went through that myself when I wrote my first book. I realized that negative self-talk of, “Who am I to be an author or a speaker,” can trigger imposter syndrome. Do you see that as something you help your clients with?

Yes. It’s interesting. A lot of my clients are in the 6-figure to multiple 6-figure ranges. The largest guy that I helped start a coaching program was doing $34 million. He had a very large business and wanted to do events. I used to put on events called Dream Business Academy. He wanted to do that. What I learned from working with startups, people in that mid-six-figure range, and him, everybody has imposter syndrome. Nobody feels good enough. He even said to me, which helps cement my belief that imposter syndrome is real, “I never finished college.” It almost feels like you are going to be found out that you are not all that your marketing says you are.

It is a real thing. As far as perfection, one of the things that helped me, you said when you wrote your first book, you were concerned as well, was that I was so afraid somebody was going to find an error or a mistake. I must have proofread that thing 500 times. Of course, me proofreading it does not guarantee anything. Somebody did reach out in 60 days. This was before on demand. We had to order 3,000 books or something like that. That’s when you had to print the books in 2009.

Somebody said, “There’s an error on page 34. You have a dangling participle.” I’m like, “What is a dangling participle? I have no clue.” I sat in my chair, reading this email. My heart was probably racing and my palms were sweating like, “I knew this was going to happen.” I responded and said, “Thank you for letting me know. I’m going to tell our editing team and we will fix it for the next printing.” I hit a comment. I said, “How did you like the book?”

This guy, who pointed out my dangling participle loved my book. “I know why you need a newsletter, the type of content to use, the ratio of content to pictures and paper to use.” He loved my book. Thankfully, I was smart enough to recognize that my imperfect book was getting customers for me and providing. What I tell my clients when they struggle with this is, “You make a decision. You choose to be judged on the quality of the content, the training and the service you provide and not the imperfect way in which you provide it because it will always be imperfect.”

Just Say Yes: Choose to be judged on the quality of the content, training, and service you provide and not the imperfect way in which you provide it because it will always be imperfect.

For anyone who is working on a book, I have learned a valuable lesson around proofing, which is to record the Audible of the book before it goes to print because you will probably find typos that you and your copy editors missed when you read it out loud. My book The Sale Is in the Tale is 40,000 words. That took four 90-minute sessions to read that, which you would not normally do to prove a book, but if you know it’s being recorded for Audible, then you go, “Wait a minute. There’s a typo or that does not make sense. How is it that nobody caught that?” Hopefully, that’s a little nugget for everybody.

Let’s go to your book Just Say Yes. This concept of not letting the fear of perfection or criticism. I can’t circle that and underline that enough for everybody. I hear a lot of people talk about the fear of perfection, but I don’t think anyone’s dug down to where you were like, “What’s behind that not? Can I tolerate somebody criticizing me?” If you can heal that and let go of what other people think, the judgment or the constant pressure of, “Did you make the New York Times bestseller list yet?” You are like, “That’s not my criteria of how I judge success,” then you are a lot freer in life. Hopefully, we don’t have to wait until we are in our 60s to get that. That’s why you and I are out there preaching to people who are younger than we are saying, “If you can let this go early, you are going to be much happier and be able to say yes more often.”

My last three books were written and published in 60 days. Bill Glazer used to be partners with Dan Kennedy back in the day and I heard him say once, “My imperfect book is getting me customers and serving some customers while your perfect book is still in your word processor.” There’s an old term word processor. I’m like, “That’s right.”

You mentioned New York Times bestseller. What I often tell people is, “How are we going to get this to be a bestseller? There are strategies to do that but let me check in with you why we are writing the book.” I will share my viewpoint because they hire me. I’m sure they are interested in what I say. I don’t know this for sure, John. Maybe you do, but you have got to sell 10,000 books in a short period to even be considered for a list like that.

I said, “Do I want to sell 10,000 books using some tricks, strategies or whatever, get to that scoreboard and you can then hold the badge ‘I’m a New York Times bestseller,’ or with Jim Palmer rather than sell 200 books to prospective customers and have 20 of those people become coaching clients? I will go for the twenty coaching clients.” My ego is, “I’m not about the badge. I’m about my business.” I’m about to be able to afford diesel fuels so I can get back to the North in the summertime.

Another one of your books that’s one of my favorites, because I love the title and the colors, is Stick Like Glue. It’s about creating this bond. This was an interesting question I have been working on for you in our interview. We know how important it is to get our customers to stick and return so we don’t have to keep spending money to get new ones. During this time of The Great Resignation, where so many people are leaving their jobs, I’m wondering if your principles of getting your customers to stick could be applied to small business owners or big companies who want to get their employees to stick?

It’s interesting because I interviewed somebody who’s an expert on workplace staff changes, all the things that we are talking about. She’s a client. We are helping her write a book, Workplace Detox or Detox the Workplace. It’s all these companies, large, small and everything in between have become toxic for several reasons. It goes to all these different things where there’s no trust. It’s my way or the highway. There’s no communication. People don’t see the vision.

Her name is Julie Barcus. The one thing she said to me is, “Have you ever been behind a semi-truck going down the highway and you can’t see around it, so you don’t even know if it’s safe to move out of it?” I said, “Yeah.” She says, “That’s what employees feel like. The boss has the vision. He’s got the view. He knows where you are going, but the people behind them have no clue and meanwhile, you are in the big office going, ‘I have got staff. I’m paying them well. Do their job. Everybody’s happy,’ that’s not the case.”

[bctt tweet=”When you start getting a little older and looking backward a little more than forward, it’s amazing the clarity you have.” username=”John_Livesay”]

It’s The Great Resignation that’s a great term, but to me, it’s like, “How could anybody stop working? There are probably ways to do it.” There’s a big surge in entrepreneurship. People going, “If I’m going to work 80 hours, I might as well do it for myself and have some shot at future.” It was the ‘40s or ‘50s when there was this giant blackout in New York City. Nine months later, babies came as well. As a result of the pandemic, this great reset and everything else, small business owners are popping up left and right.

You said something there that one of your clients has a book titled Detox the Workplace. When you frame something from your personal life and put it into a work situation, our brain loves that because it’s connecting dots that have not been previously connected. One of my most successful soundbites as a sales keynote speaker is, “Are you stuck in the friend zone at work?” People say, “I know what friend zone dating is. What’s the friend zone at work?”

I say, “It’s when they say they are interested and you never hear back.” Everyone laughs. If someone is thinking of creating the name of a book, a business, a newsletter headline and anything that you help people with, try to craft it in such a way that you are combining something that people know what it is and put a little spin on it that grabs people’s attention and you are so good at helping people do that. Tell us about your mastermind.

I want to go back to something you said that was very important. I don’t lose chance on the mastermind but whether it’s a headline on a sales page, website, squeeze page or a book title, the headline and the title are made to grab your attention. It should make sense to somebody when they see whatever it’s 1, 3 or 5 words. The subtitle or the sub-headline cement the whole thing. That’s a big part of what I do.

One of the things I help my clients in the mastermind is I said, “There’s going to be a big shift in your income through the revenue of your business, but your income will go up dramatically when you focus more on who you are and not what you do. I guarantee you, no matter what you do, 10,000 other people also do what you do.”

People are connected to people who they believe have the best chance of satisfying them and want hope in certainty. It’s more about who you are. That’s why I take so much. When I branded myself the newsletter guru years ago, I never went to school for design or writing. I know how to do great newsletters and people took to the fact that I’m the newsletter guru. I must know what I’m talking about.

When I started coaching, I did not want to be Jim Palmer Small Business Coach. I created the whole Dream Business brand. The mastermind is virtual. I was talking with a guy that I have known for a long time. I started my mastermind in 2009. I was traveling, going to a lot of conferences and other entrepreneurs were talking about different masterminds, but they all required you to get on a plane once a quarter or something.

Whether you fly to Chicago, Illinois, Las Vegas, California, sometimes you go to Cancun or whatever, but it’s always like a day of travel, mastermind for 1 day or 2 and then travel for 3 or 4 days. I got the idea. “What if we did it virtually and we all got together virtually?” I don’t think I invented virtual masterminds, but I’m one of the first to make it popular and that’s how I started in 2009. I’m still virtual. We meet once a month on my private conference line. We mastermind through some of our members and some of the challenges or questions they have and then I do private coaching with the members on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Just Say Yes: The biggest battle you’ll ever face as an entrepreneur is right between your ears and having the courage to play to win and not simply play, not to lose.

That’s great because you are not learning from yourself, but you are also learning from the other people who are successful enough. Things that have worked for 1 person in 1 industry can be transferred to not have to reinvent the wheel for every single part of your business.

What I love most about our group calls is that I have what’s called profit seats. Sometimes people call them hot seats. I call mine profit seats. On a given call, we might do five profit seats and we could talk about marketing, what’s an idea and how you connect with these people. In a very safe zone, almost every somebody will get transparent. We had our call and one of our ladies in the group, a very tiny, petite person and she has a high, squeaky voice goes, “I have a voice like Minnie Mouse.” I’m like, “My clients are usually men. I feel like I’m not being taken seriously. Many people chimed in about Mike Tyson being a boxer but got a voice like Minnie Mouse.” We gave a lot of love and support.

That’s one of the best things about our group and there are so many other things about that like, “I’m afraid to grow. I have this idea. I want to write a book.” I said, “I got this one.” “What if the book sucks?” There is so much comradery, accountability, and everybody pushing each other during the group calls and the work that I do with them privately on our coaching calls. It’s a wonderful experience.

When you are talking about the need to have even a good subtitle that grabs someone’s attention and breaks through the clutter, I talk about it in terms of most people are drowning in a sea of sameness. “I’m an accountant, lawyer, architect, financial planner.” Everyone thinks, “There are so many of you out there. You are all the same. Are you not? Real estate people on and on.” The need to have something that makes you stand out and that people can put a hook on like, “John is the pitch whisperer. Jim is the newsletter guru. What he does is he builds an iron fence around your business,” that’s a visual.

We know what a fence is and the fact that it’s made of iron. It’s not going to blow over in the wind and you think, “How can a newsletter make something an iron fence that people can’t see in my clients? I’m so intrigued. I need to know more.” That’s what the goal is. You want to have the conversation of, “Do people even read newsletters?” Our brain is going into 100 million. At a time when people are not reading newsletters, that’s the time to do one because you are going to stand out and on and on.

We are talking about print and mail, paper and ink newsletters, not the email newsletters, which only get read by about 6% of your customers at best. We have known each other for a long time. I used to go around the country speaking about newsletter marketing. In a large way, that’s how I grew No Hassle Newsletters. I never marketed my talk as a newsletter talk. It was all about retention-based marketing. How smart companies take more of their energy, effort and resources and don’t figure about new customer acquisition. It’s about how do I get and keep the customers I have longer. We know that customers that stay connected with you longer, spend and refer more, which is pretty much the title of my second book, Stick Like Glue.

Once people understand the relationship between faster growth, higher profits, more referrals and repeat business, then I come in and say, “The newsletter is the best and most effective way to do that. Every month they are seeing you in their mailbox, learning about some tip.” You don’t even have to be about what you do. Maybe it’s about how to keep your car running. It could be anything, but as long as they see your name and the masthead at the top, they get your newsletter every month and you stay top of mind. When they are ready to buy or refer again, they will remember your name.

If people want to find out more about you, they go to GetJimPalmer.com.

[bctt tweet=”Perfectionism is a big business killer. People don’t want to launch until it’s perfect, and that all stems from not wanting to be criticized.” username=”John_Livesay”]

That is the home base. Everything stems off there. I probably got five at this point that I have pared down. GetJimPalmer.com is where people can connect with me. I can say one more thing looking backwards. One of my longtime mastermind members, Dr. David Phelps, wrote a book called What’s Your Next?. One of the chapters was about building your legacy. I know what a legacy is and I thought, “I’m so young. I want to think about my legacy. Maybe I will go down to two days a week because I love my lifestyle,” but I felt conflicted that I’m supposed to be helping more entrepreneurs the skills and the gifts that I have.

I said, “How can I do that if I only want to work two days a week?” I decided to make all of my six books free in the digital download. I found a way. I’m not going to share it here. My Kindle books are free. Not for a ten-day promo. You can go to Amazon and type in Jim Palmer. That will get you an old Baltimore Orioles pitcher. Type in one of the titles of my book and you will see my author page. You can download all six books for free. They are in the iBookstore and also at BarnesAndNobleBNN.com, but you can get all my books for free.

Jim, thank you so much for helping so many people live their dreams because a lot of people have given up on their dreams and people like you help keep them alive.

I appreciate it, John. Thanks for having me on.

My pleasure.

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Tags: Business mastermind, entrepreneurship, Marketing, Newsletter, Perfectionism, Sales

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