Steven Stroum, founder and president of Venmark International, author of Success and Self-Discovery

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FOURCY Radio. Churchill said, those
who failed to learn from history are condemned

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to repeat it. Kevin Helenan believes
that certainly applies to business. Welcome to

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Winning Business Radio here at W four
CY Radio. That's W four cy dot

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com and now your host, Kevin
Helena. Thanks everyone for joining in again

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today. I'm Kevin Haleanan and welcome
back to Winning Business TV and Radio on

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W four cy I dot We're streaming
live on talkfour tv dot com in addition

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to Facebook at Winning Business Radio,
as well as available in podcasts after the

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live show on many other platforms.
You hear them every week. It's YouTube,

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It's iHeartRadio. It's Spotify, it's
Appleach, pretty much wherever you listen

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to your favorite podcasts, the wish
excuse me. The mission of Winning Business

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radio and TV, as regular viewers
and listeners know, is to offer insights

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and advice to help people avoid the
mistakes of others, to learn best practices,

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the how tos, the what too's, the what not toos, to

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be challenged, and certainly to be
inspired by the successes of others. But

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you know, virtually every successful person
have ever had a chance to talk to

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us had some form of failure in
their lives and careers. So, as

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I say, every week, while
we all have to get our knees skinned

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once in a while, I'm driven
to keep those scrapes from needing major surgery.

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Let's endeavor to learn from history so
we don't repeat it today. My

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guest is Steve Strum, founder and
president of Venmark International, and author of

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Success and Self Discovery, a business
memoir with insightful tips and personal development advice

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that will help any entrepreneur. Here's
steve'spile. Steven Mstrom is a seasoned publicist,

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marketer, and entrepreneur who's been featured
in INC magazine, Sales and Marketing

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Management Magazine, Marketing Magazine, Industrial
Marketing Omni Magazine, BusinessWeek, Exchange,

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USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, It's

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a little bit list of a list, The Middlesex News, San Francisco Chronicle,

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WHDHTV, WJAARTVWKOXTV, and other media
outlets. He's also appeared on numerous

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radio and television programs, addressed many
business and civic groups. Has been a

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guest lecturer at the American Marketing Association, Boston College, Babson College, MIT,

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and ISAMA out of Northeastern University,
and numerous business and civic groups.

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Steve grew up in a working class
family in Auburndale, a village of Newton,

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Massachusetts. After briefly attending Northeastern University
in nineteen sixty six, he enlisted

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in the US Air Force and served
in Thailand during the Vietnam War. In

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March of sixty eight, he received
a medical discharge, became a disabled veteran,

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and in September returned to the Northeastern
University. He's the youngest of three

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boys. He was married to Peggy
Lawrence in nineteen seventy and received a bachelor's

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a BS in Business administration in seventy
three. Steve started his business from a

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spare room at his parents' home in
Newton, mass with only three hundred bucks

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and a few short months. After
a few short months, excuse me,

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moved to nearby Wellesley. By the
end of his first year in business,

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he had ten full time employees and
hundreds of clients. In recognition of his

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company's contribution to the success and gross
growth of numerous small companies, Steve was

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selected to serve on the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts Small Business task Force. Was later

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appointed one of eighteen small business Advisors
by the Governor of Massachusetts. Steve was

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also selected by the International Rotary Foundation
tour South Korea for six weeks as an

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ambassador. He was later appointed to
the Norbert Winer Forum at Tufts University to

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study the impact of technology on society, and served as publicity advisor on the

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Smaller Business Association of New England Board
of Directors. That's espan. Steve and

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his wife Peggy have a son,
Mark and two grandkids, Avery and Ben.

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They have a mini doodle Doodle mini
double doodle. Steve will tell us

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about that, and they reside in
Framingham. Steve, Welcome to Winning Business

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TV and Radio. Thanks for being
here. It's great to be with you.

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Kevin. I appreciate that. I
appreciate that lent the introduction, no

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problem. I have a reason for
that. I wanted to clude a lot

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because that'll allow us to go a
lot of different directions in the conversation.

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But first, you got to tell
us about the mini double doodle. Fascinating

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breed. She's her name is Brandy, cute little pup. She's her mother

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was half labradoodle, half golden doodle, and a father's a miniature poodle.

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So she's about twenty three pounds,
three and a half years old. It's

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terrific dog and we love her,
you know, nice. He's like a

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member of the family. Oh for
sure, do you have a dog?

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We do? We do? Oh
yeah, totally, totally exactly. She's

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almost seventeen to our dog. Oh
man, So tell us about you,

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wife, Peggy. She's put up
with you for a million years, fifty

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four years before coming up, so
she's terrific. She actually she used to

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work for the chief of staff in
Montsion Hospital in San Francisco, so she's

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very talented. And she was my
first assistant at work and made it all

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happen with me way back in the
old days. And yeah, we've had

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a blast. And every time,
frankly, every type I've run into a

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problem. She's much better at selecting
people than I am. Every time I

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ran into a problem, I'd call
her into the office and she'd hire somebody.

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So she did a great job.
She hired my first assistant after her,

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and then I think she's four or
five years later another one. And

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so in my forty some odd years
of business, I only had three assistants,

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so last one was twenty six years. That was a really good hire.

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So that's a good track record for
sure. Yeah, so tell us

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about Mark. Mark is going to
be forty five in February. He's chief

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what's his exact title, Chief Gifts
Officer at Bentley College at Bentley l University

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and graduated from Roger Williams University years
ago. Doesn't lived too far away,

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which is a good thing, and
has a granddaughter ate his daughter Avery and

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the son Benjamin. That's awesome.
Yeah, we have a tight relationship.

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He and I go down to we
go fishing frequently down to the Keys every

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year and just the two of us
get away for long weekend fishing. And

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as I mentioned I wrote in the
book, he worked for me for a

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while back in two thousand and eight, and we had an agreement that if

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he didn't like it after a year, then no hard feelings and we would

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move on. So it was a
great experience. We had a blast.

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That's good. But yeah, he's
a great guy. So I'm in Rosendale,

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so I know Auburndale fairly well.
Tell us tell the audience, the

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viewers and the listeners about Auburndale and
what it was like to grow up there.

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Well, growing up there was interesting
because give really my when I grew

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up there, the Mass Turnpike ended
in Weston, so our house that I

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grew up in on robin Hood Street
and Auburndale was taken by the Mass Turnpike.

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Woh yeah, that was around.
That was back in nineteen sixty.

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But Newton was a great town to
grow up in. In fact, that's

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where I ended up starting the business. My folks moved moved from Auburndale to

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Newtonville. I went to Newton North
High and it was a great experience,

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you know, a nice nice town. But again that was back in the

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fifties and sixties. Yeah, a
lot of things. Everything has What were

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your early interests A question I asked
every interview. What were your early interests?

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Good question. Sports. We're very
active in sports in the neighborhood.

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And I always wanted to be in
business for myself. I had a paper

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route when I was kids. Today, I don't even know what a paper

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root is, but I delivered it, delivered newspapers back in the back in

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the early days. And uh,
you know, I had a job at

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fourteen as soon as I could get
a license to work, you know,

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so always, you know, always
active with that sort of thing, and

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you know, cut grass around the
neighborhood, shovel driveways around the when it

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would snow, we'd go out and
hustle and try to shovel driveways, shovel

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walks, make some money. And
yeah, you did the same, my

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presum yes, Mike. Uh.
Paper out though, was when I was

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like twenty three, from an automobile
whipping them out the window. Oh no,

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we were in a I was on
my bicycle and they were up,

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but they were they were on the
front carriage and then would whip them,

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and I was back when the Newton
Wall Dam News Tribune, so sold for

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a nickel, you know. But
uh, great memories, great memory I

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love it. It's funny. I
learned a lot about people back in those

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days. I delivered papers in the
wealthy part of town and then in the

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black section, which in those days
was called the colored village, and I

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got bigger tips. I got bigger
tips in the village than I got up

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on the hill. So it was
fascinating at working folks took care of working

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folks. Yeah, that's really good. Yeah. So you started at Northeastern

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studying to become a teacher before the
Air Force in Vietnam. But then you

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chose to let's tell us about that
story. Well what happened. I majored

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in education to begin with, right, and over the summer of sixty six,

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took a couple of business courses and
transferred into business. But I after

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a few months in college. This
was nineteen sixty six, right in the

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middle of the Vietnam War was at
its height, and it was one of

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these you full decisions. I decided
to quit Northeastern and my dad, you,

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dad loved the idea, right,
I understand oh man. You know,

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my brother was in the Air Force. At the time I went to

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my father was the low point of
my life. And I said, Dad,

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I you know, I've quit college
and enlisted in the Air Force.

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And he looked at me and said, you're stupid, just like your brothers.

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Oh yeah, and you're a quitter. And I swore it after that

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that nobody that a I would nobody
would ever call me stupid and be I

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would never quit anything. And as
far as I know, the second aspect

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of that is true, but the
first, but yeah, it was.

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It turned out to be a terrific
motivator. Of course, I was upset

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with him for a while, but
I couldn't blame him because it was a

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youthful decision. I knew. I
knew I'd screwed up. I knew I'd

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made the mistake. My classmates were
throwing me a party. Everybody was happy.

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It was you know, go go
go, Steve. You know,

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like I said, it was the
height of the Vietnam War. I enlisted

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on a I enlisted on a Tuesday
and was drafted the following Friday. Wow.

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So yeah, they hit student deferments
in those days and as soon as

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you're lost it. The military was
all over you. So and then you

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know, I did my I went
in for basic training and in February of

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sixty seven and ended up in August
of sixty seven going over to Thailand after

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tech school. We're going to take
a break, but before we do,

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there's a really interesting story about how
you made it to Thailand instead of in

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frontline action. Potentially frontline action.
Oh absolutely. I was the only one

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in my tech school that got an
assignment over in Thailand because I took the

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initiative to ask for it. I
befriended, I found out who the sergeant

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was, who who was responsible for
making the assignments, and I went to

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them and I said, hey,
listen, I my brother's station in Thailand.

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If you have any assignments coming up
Thailand, I'd love to have the

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opportunity to get a shot at it. And sure enough, there was one.

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Everybody else in my crew, everybody
else in the flight went to Pensacola,

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Florida for jungle training for Vietnam.
I went to Thailand, and believe

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me, it was not a bad
experience other than coming down with a skin

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problem. We will get to that. We will get to that. All

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right, We're going to be right
back everybody, just about one minute,

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Steve and audience with We'll be back
with Steve Strump. You're listening to Winning

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Business Radio with Kevin Helene on W
four CY Radio. That's W four cy

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dot com. Don't go away.
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to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helena, presenting exciting topics and expert guests with

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one goal in mind to help you
succeed in business. Here once again is

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Kevin Helena. We're back with Steve
Strom, founder and President of Venmark International,

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to tell us about that in a
little bit. An author of Success

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and Self Discovery, a business memoir
with insightful tips and personal development advice that

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will help any entrepreneur. So tell
us about your role in the Air Force

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in Thailand as munitions as I understand
it, and pick any any story from

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that experience and share it. Well. The moral of the story really with

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respect to tech school as well where
I went to become am munition specialist,

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was that you have to ask for
something if you want it, and you

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have to be assertive. And so
when I was in time, I was

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stationed in Thailand and we were working
twelve hours a day, six days a

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week, everybody on the base and
to you know full twelve hours days and

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I was and we worked. There
were several crews in the bomb dumb and

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the munition storage area was called a
bomb dump. We had a build up

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crew, of storage crew, load
crew, all these various crews and at

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the end of the day, we
flew thirty nine missions a day over the

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ho Chi Min trail, day in
and day up. So I had the

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opportunity to become a munition's controller.
And if you envision a spreadsheet, but

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in those days, there was several
grease pencil you know, glassen pages of

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plastic a glass with preaest pencil,
and I had to as a communisian's controller

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to you know, keep an eye
and monitor every single function. From when

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munitions came in, we stored them, then they got built, they got

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delivered to the flight line, and
then signed off and so forth and so

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with. There were four of us, So again took the initiative to ask

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my sergeant in charge. I said, Sarage, do you do you care

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how the munition storage area is monitored? In other words, you know,

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you just want somebody here twenty four
hours a day. You don't care what

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the hours are, do you?
And he said, no, whatever you

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suggest. I said, well,
we'd like to work twelve hours on twenty

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four hours off. He said that's
fine, so we did. We were

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the only ones on the base.
We'll go to work at you know,

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go to work at seven in the
morning. And when I say go to

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work, you know, the air
Force is very much like the civilian.

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I mean I had a military driver's
license. I'd picked the guys up in

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a truck. You know, we'd
go into the we're going to work.

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At the end of the day,
I'd take them home. And we weren't

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00:16:00.879 --> 00:16:03.799
marching around or doing anything of that
nature. We go to our jobs.

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So it worked out beautifully. You
know, you go to work at seven

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in the morning, get off at
seven at night. You wouldn't go to

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work again until seven the next night. Made time go by beautiful, and

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we were special. Always liked being
special. Well. I read one section

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where I don't know if it was
a sergeant or whatever, somebody said you

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were a Jew, right, and
you said yep. He said, well,

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how come you not an officer?
What was the answer? I didn't

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know if you want me to get
into that. Yeah, yeah, I

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just looked at He said, scrom
youre Jew, aren't you. I said

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yeah. He says, how come
you're an officer? And I looked at

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00:16:37.919 --> 00:16:41.360
him. I said sorry because I
screwed up, just like you list,

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00:16:44.639 --> 00:16:51.759
you know, and that was that
was an interesting experience. Yeah, uh

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no, was just reading my notes
here. So you you did how long

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00:16:57.440 --> 00:17:00.799
were you in the Air Force?
Because you were you medical discharge? You

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00:17:00.799 --> 00:17:03.079
were there for how long? Yeah? I was in actually for about fourteen

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00:17:03.119 --> 00:17:08.559
months. Okay, A very difficult
skin condition which resulted in a medical discharge

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00:17:08.599 --> 00:17:12.480
took him a while. My understanding
is to even diagnose it correctly, which

235
00:17:12.519 --> 00:17:18.559
I eventually gave you what a thirty
percent disability or so well, again being

236
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assertive and salesman. I got out
of the Air Force with a ten percent

237
00:17:22.680 --> 00:17:26.720
disability. Ten percent okay, yeah, well just back. Yeah, when

238
00:17:26.720 --> 00:17:30.440
I was in a hospital, I
got air evacuated out of my base in

239
00:17:30.480 --> 00:17:33.559
Thailand to another base in Thailand.
They couldn't do anything for me. They

240
00:17:33.640 --> 00:17:36.880
sent me to a base in the
Philippines. Couldn't do anything for me.

241
00:17:37.079 --> 00:17:40.559
The meantime, all that was a
gym bag, and they sent me to

242
00:17:40.640 --> 00:17:42.880
another base at Tachikawa Air Force Base
in Japan, where I was there for

243
00:17:42.920 --> 00:17:47.839
two weeks. They took a skin
biopsy determined that I had what they called

244
00:17:48.039 --> 00:17:52.839
liken plants, some kind of a
virus, skin virus. So they sent

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00:17:52.920 --> 00:17:56.440
me back to Chelsea Naval Hospital,
which is no longer in Massachusetts for the

246
00:17:56.480 --> 00:18:02.000
States. Yeah yeah, and then
from Massachusetts down to Andrews Air Force Base

247
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Hospital. Now down there they were
treating me, taking photographs. I mean,

248
00:18:06.039 --> 00:18:10.680
it was a I was a mess
and uh and we used to have

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00:18:10.799 --> 00:18:12.599
to take I used to have to
take these cold tarn't baths every day.

250
00:18:12.640 --> 00:18:15.319
The guys in my ward were telling
me I was going to fall in love

251
00:18:15.319 --> 00:18:22.519
with the street. But at any
rate. The treatment was tough, so

252
00:18:22.559 --> 00:18:25.920
I ended up. I heard from
somebody that in the Air Force, if

253
00:18:25.920 --> 00:18:30.200
you couldn't serve in the war,
you could be discharged. And they wanted

254
00:18:30.240 --> 00:18:33.559
to keep me. The doctors wanted
to keep me and treat me for a

255
00:18:33.599 --> 00:18:36.160
year at Andrews Air Force Base.
And I said, I don't want to

256
00:18:36.160 --> 00:18:37.799
waste a year in my life.
First of all, I wanted to get

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00:18:37.839 --> 00:18:42.720
back to college. I know I
made a mistake, so I said to

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00:18:42.799 --> 00:18:47.319
the doctor. I said, listen, I you know I'm a munition specialist.

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00:18:48.079 --> 00:18:49.359
You know there's no job for me
here in the United States. I

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00:18:49.640 --> 00:18:52.559
want to go back to the war. He said, well, we can't

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00:18:52.559 --> 00:18:55.559
send you to the war. I
said, well, in that case,

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I think I should get out of
the Air Force and literally put together a

263
00:19:00.720 --> 00:19:04.160
medical discharge. I carried around five
doctors, got it signed and Mahr twenty

264
00:19:04.160 --> 00:19:08.519
fifth, nineteen sixty eight. I
received the ten percent medical discharge. So

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00:19:08.559 --> 00:19:11.720
somebody again taking initiative. Somebody else
said to me, jeez, you know,

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Steve, you want to get in
touch. And I wanted to get

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a twenty percent disability because twenty percent
would get your books, tuition expenses,

268
00:19:21.319 --> 00:19:26.200
the whole deal for five years at
Northeastern. So one of the guys I

269
00:19:26.240 --> 00:19:29.759
bumped into is, so, why
don't you get the Jewish War veterans to

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00:19:29.799 --> 00:19:33.960
make a case for you. So
I'd called them, I made I got

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00:19:33.960 --> 00:19:37.240
in touch with them, hoping to
get a twenty percent disability, and I

272
00:19:37.279 --> 00:19:41.400
got a thirty percent disability. So
there you go. I went back to

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school and in my middle of year, third year of college, my wife

274
00:19:45.519 --> 00:19:48.240
and I got married. She had
a job, I had co op jobs.

275
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I had my books. Tuition expenses
paid for books. Tuition at Northeastern

276
00:19:52.519 --> 00:19:55.880
back then was a fortunate was three
hundred and ninety five dollars a trimester.

277
00:19:56.240 --> 00:20:03.400
Woh tough. Thirteen hundred bucks a
year was tough. You know, different

278
00:20:03.440 --> 00:20:06.119
time of it. So you're a
little older than me, but UMass was

279
00:20:06.160 --> 00:20:10.599
twenty five hundred. Yeah, there
you go. So yeah, my kids

280
00:20:10.680 --> 00:20:14.960
yikes, you know. Yeah,
yeah, all right, So I love

281
00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:17.759
that. I love that assertiveness and
everyone needs to learn that lesson. It's

282
00:20:17.799 --> 00:20:19.519
I mean, you weren't probably a
jerk about it. You were just speaking

283
00:20:19.599 --> 00:20:22.359
up for yourself, and they could
have said no, Well, you know,

284
00:20:22.400 --> 00:20:26.400
there's a people need to understand.
There's a big difference between being assertive

285
00:20:26.839 --> 00:20:32.599
and being aggressive. Correct. You
know I was assertive, you know,

286
00:20:32.720 --> 00:20:37.559
I asserted myself. Being aggressive is
taking action against someone else, and big

287
00:20:37.599 --> 00:20:42.519
difference. And sales obviously we need
to be assertive. So you have a

288
00:20:42.519 --> 00:20:48.680
bachelor's in business administration. What made
you decide to go that direction? Then?

289
00:20:48.680 --> 00:20:49.880
That was actually, as you mentioned, a decision you made prior to

290
00:20:49.920 --> 00:20:56.400
the Air Force. Yeah, you
know, I I majored in education my

291
00:20:56.440 --> 00:21:00.039
first year of collge right, and
it didn't feel right. Now. I

292
00:21:00.039 --> 00:21:03.319
had a buddy of mine that was
going up to Renstally or Polytech, majoring

293
00:21:03.319 --> 00:21:06.160
in management, and we kiddssed about
it and talked about it, and then

294
00:21:06.200 --> 00:21:08.920
I thought that would be a great
idea. And I always loved behavioral science,

295
00:21:08.960 --> 00:21:12.319
but as I got into it more, I really really thoroughly enjoyed it.

296
00:21:14.279 --> 00:21:17.400
But I want to back up just
one second. When I was in

297
00:21:17.400 --> 00:21:19.920
the hospital in the Air Force.
You know, when I left Northeastern,

298
00:21:21.680 --> 00:21:23.319
I was told I could return.
I left in good academic stands. Well,

299
00:21:23.319 --> 00:21:26.119
I wanted you to yes, I'm
sorry, I wanted you to tell

300
00:21:26.599 --> 00:21:30.680
so I left him good at academic
standing. And so I'm in the hospital

301
00:21:30.720 --> 00:21:34.079
in the in the in the service, and you know, you know,

302
00:21:34.319 --> 00:21:37.640
I was. I was really had
to stay in bed because I was covered

303
00:21:37.759 --> 00:21:41.559
with this miserable gold tar. And
every once in every three weeks I took

304
00:21:41.599 --> 00:21:45.200
a coal tar bath and went out
into a bar and had a couple of

305
00:21:45.200 --> 00:21:48.079
pops. But so I was really, you know, tied down. Fortune.

306
00:21:48.119 --> 00:21:51.440
I wasn't hurt, you know,
I was ambutory, but you know,

307
00:21:51.799 --> 00:21:55.880
so at any rate, I wrote
to the current Dane of freshman at

308
00:21:55.920 --> 00:22:00.200
Northeastern reapplying, and I got declined, and I, jesus, you know

309
00:22:00.279 --> 00:22:03.920
this is ridiculous. Now, So
you had already been told when you left

310
00:22:03.960 --> 00:22:07.839
there'll still be a spot for you
when you return, right, correct,

311
00:22:07.160 --> 00:22:11.880
Yeah, So I so I wrote, you know, for that spot,

312
00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:17.119
and he wrote back that Dean wrote
back and said the academic standards had changed

313
00:22:17.119 --> 00:22:22.480
since you left. You no longer
qualify. So I called his office and

314
00:22:22.559 --> 00:22:26.200
requested an interview with him. So
and he granted me that nvy. I

315
00:22:26.279 --> 00:22:30.799
went in to see him, Dean
Kennedy, nice fella, and he said,

316
00:22:30.880 --> 00:22:33.799
and I look at him behind him
as a credenza with nine photographs of

317
00:22:33.880 --> 00:22:37.759
children. I said that, you
know, after the chit chat and hello,

318
00:22:37.799 --> 00:22:41.200
and Dina, those your children?
He said, yes, I said

319
00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:45.440
that beautiful children. I said,
I want to say something. He said,

320
00:22:45.440 --> 00:22:48.000
what's that? I said, I
just spent the last you know,

321
00:22:48.119 --> 00:22:52.599
year and a half of my life
and the last five months and five different

322
00:22:52.599 --> 00:22:57.799
hospitals protecting your beautiful children. I
waved my hand in front of the pictures

323
00:22:59.519 --> 00:23:03.160
and I said face. You know, I read his face and we went

324
00:23:03.200 --> 00:23:07.960
on talking. And asked me about
why I want to go. I said,

325
00:23:08.000 --> 00:23:11.079
I was assured that I could go
back to school, and all I

326
00:23:11.079 --> 00:23:15.519
want is the opportunity. All I
want was Northeastern University to keep their word

327
00:23:17.160 --> 00:23:25.880
because I spent the last several months
protecting your beautiful nine children. And I

328
00:23:25.880 --> 00:23:27.240
saw it in his eyes that I
made my sale. So I said,

329
00:23:27.240 --> 00:23:32.680
listen, Dan, thank you very
much for your consideration. I hope that

330
00:23:32.759 --> 00:23:34.920
I'll have a positive response. And
a week later, I was accepted to

331
00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:42.519
Northeastern and and it was it was
again, you just can't accept no.

332
00:23:45.279 --> 00:23:49.720
Yeah, So you had a couple
of noteworthy early jobs that, at least

333
00:23:49.720 --> 00:23:55.680
to me their noteworthy Fireman's Fond,
American Life Insurance. Okay, but to

334
00:23:55.680 --> 00:23:57.079
me, the interesting part, especially
because of what I do for a living.

335
00:23:57.279 --> 00:24:02.359
You developed a national sales training correct. Tell me about that. Tell

336
00:24:02.440 --> 00:24:04.400
us about that? All right?
Well, what happened was I, my

337
00:24:04.440 --> 00:24:10.200
wife and I moved to San Francisco
in nineteen seventy four, and I had

338
00:24:10.240 --> 00:24:15.200
bumped into before I left. My
mother gave me the name of an employment

339
00:24:15.200 --> 00:24:18.400
agent, and so I went to
see him, and a long story short,

340
00:24:18.480 --> 00:24:22.640
got involved. He got me an
interview with Fireman's from the American Life

341
00:24:22.640 --> 00:24:29.039
Insurance Company, wholly owned subsidiary of
American Express, and I went. I

342
00:24:29.039 --> 00:24:33.839
got the job as life sales representative
in a Walnut Creek, California. I

343
00:24:33.920 --> 00:24:37.559
took over territory. There was forty
ninth out of fiftieth in the company.

344
00:24:37.880 --> 00:24:41.359
Inside of three months, I brought
it up to third place in the company,

345
00:24:41.599 --> 00:24:47.759
outproduced my predecessor's entire previous year.
My boss called me to his office,

346
00:24:47.799 --> 00:24:49.720
so I figured, this is fantastic. I'm going to get some maybe

347
00:24:49.759 --> 00:24:55.680
I'll get a raise. So I
went in to see him and he said

348
00:24:55.680 --> 00:24:59.559
to me, you know, Steve, in life, some people need steak

349
00:24:59.599 --> 00:25:03.000
to be happy, and they need
to eat steak to be happy. He

350
00:25:03.039 --> 00:25:07.400
said, around here, pork and
beans are just fine, oh, and

351
00:25:07.519 --> 00:25:12.160
I misquoted the middle of he said, and other people are satisfied with pork

352
00:25:12.160 --> 00:25:15.440
and beans. He said, around
here, pork and beans are just so.

353
00:25:15.480 --> 00:25:18.839
I left his office totally deflated.
I mean here I was, you

354
00:25:18.880 --> 00:25:23.880
know, number three, huh,
very proud of myself. I'll produce my

355
00:25:23.920 --> 00:25:29.839
predecessor's entire previous year in three months. And I go in for you know,

356
00:25:29.960 --> 00:25:33.680
hoping to get a stroke or two
and bang. So I was just

357
00:25:33.960 --> 00:25:37.799
beside myself. So for the next
month, next four weeks, I really

358
00:25:37.839 --> 00:25:41.200
didn't work. I mean, and
I felt so guilty about it. I'd

359
00:25:41.240 --> 00:25:44.319
go to the marine and I'd make
a couple of telephone calls. In the

360
00:25:44.359 --> 00:25:47.480
morning, I went down to the
Marina Green in San Francisco. I jog

361
00:25:47.559 --> 00:25:49.680
around and what have you. And
I didn't do much. Four weeks later,

362
00:25:49.680 --> 00:25:52.440
I'm in the home office. That
was a meeting. The VP of

363
00:25:52.559 --> 00:25:56.119
charge of sales comes up to me. He puts me my hand, his

364
00:25:56.200 --> 00:25:59.839
hand on my shoulder. He says, Steve, congratulations, I said,

365
00:25:59.839 --> 00:26:03.920
for what he said, You're leading
the company in sales. I said,

366
00:26:03.920 --> 00:26:07.160
I'm leading the company in sales.
I haven't worked in four weeks. Shame

367
00:26:07.359 --> 00:26:12.279
on you. This is I'm twenty
five years old, twenty six Yeah,

368
00:26:12.319 --> 00:26:15.880
so this was the VP in charge
of brokerage, obviously Kevin. At this

369
00:26:15.920 --> 00:26:18.880
point I didn't give it. Damn
if I was fired called me into his

370
00:26:18.960 --> 00:26:22.039
office and said what's going on.
I told him, I said, I'd

371
00:26:22.119 --> 00:26:26.880
like to come into the home office
and write your national sales training program.

372
00:26:26.920 --> 00:26:29.920
You people have no clue what you're
doing. And he said, well,

373
00:26:30.039 --> 00:26:30.880
you know what if we don't do
that, I said, well, then

374
00:26:30.920 --> 00:26:33.880
I'll go to work for SAFECode.
I'm sure they'd like to have my talent

375
00:26:37.200 --> 00:26:40.759
spoken like an entrepreneur, not a
corporate guy. That's the damn. So

376
00:26:40.799 --> 00:26:44.319
at any rate they hired, they
brought me into the home office. I

377
00:26:44.359 --> 00:26:47.240
wrote the national sales Training program.
They thought it would take a year,

378
00:26:47.279 --> 00:26:51.799
but I've been obviously implementing it.
You no territory management, how to assess

379
00:26:52.440 --> 00:26:56.359
prospects, the pitch though everything you
know, you're involved, you know.

380
00:26:56.039 --> 00:27:03.680
So I wrote it and put it
on in October earlier, late mid September

381
00:27:03.759 --> 00:27:07.200
eighty seventy five. And I remember
it well because as I was walking up

382
00:27:07.240 --> 00:27:11.960
to the rostrum, somebody had a
TV on and Johnny Bench was catching was

383
00:27:11.759 --> 00:27:18.599
Cincinnati versus Boston the nineteen seventy five
World Series, Right, So I get

384
00:27:18.599 --> 00:27:22.519
on the roster and and I'm giving
my pitch and I'm explaining everything to everybody,

385
00:27:22.920 --> 00:27:25.759
and it was silence. I was
just about boot off the rostrum,

386
00:27:25.799 --> 00:27:29.359
and I really learned a valuable I
hadn't It was a valuable lesson. I

387
00:27:29.400 --> 00:27:34.960
hadn't created any allies, and I
didn't understand corporate politics, and I didn't

388
00:27:36.079 --> 00:27:40.759
like corporate politics. So from that
point on it was it was problematic.

389
00:27:40.799 --> 00:27:44.880
And ironically, that night or a
couple of nights later, a friend of

390
00:27:44.880 --> 00:27:49.359
mine was coming up to from Santa
Clara up to San Francisco for dinner with

391
00:27:49.440 --> 00:27:52.880
us, and he had bumped into
this spellicle by the name of Mike Gerber.

392
00:27:53.680 --> 00:27:56.000
And Mike Gerber, I don't know
if you're familiar with the book called

393
00:27:56.920 --> 00:28:00.960
Yeah Mike was my partner in my
Mike called me and told me about this

394
00:28:02.000 --> 00:28:08.440
company they had were standing in and
Sam Matteo called Newsmaker and called me up.

395
00:28:08.480 --> 00:28:15.680
Long story short, I ended up
partnering with them to found Newsmaker,

396
00:28:15.720 --> 00:28:21.200
to start Newsmaker, and Newsmaker was
really the predecessor to Vemmark International, preecessor

397
00:28:21.240 --> 00:28:25.240
of Venmark International with Sales Development Associates, which I actually named when I was

398
00:28:25.240 --> 00:28:29.640
in California, and so go ahead. I was gonna say, hold that

399
00:28:29.680 --> 00:28:32.839
thought right there. We need another
commercial right here. We'll be back everybody

400
00:28:32.880 --> 00:28:40.680
in one minute with Steve Strump.
Perfect. You're listening to Winning Business Radio

401
00:28:40.839 --> 00:28:45.680
with Kevin Helenet on W four CY
Radio. That's W four cy dot com.

402
00:28:45.720 --> 00:28:49.240
Don't go away. More helpful information
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403
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404
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406
00:29:03.799 --> 00:29:07.359
can use the YP app to find
the closest repair shop. Or maybe you're

407
00:29:07.400 --> 00:29:10.559
just looking for something to do on
a Friday night. While it has great

408
00:29:10.559 --> 00:29:12.759
local coupons for all sorts of things
in your area, no matter what,

409
00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:17.880
when or where. If you're looking
for something, YP local search can help

410
00:29:17.920 --> 00:29:19.920
you find it. So go to
yp dot com or download the app to

411
00:29:21.000 --> 00:29:29.240
search local, find local, and
save local. And now back to Winning

412
00:29:29.319 --> 00:29:34.079
Business Radio with Kevin Helenan presenting exciting
topics and expert guests with one goal in

413
00:29:34.160 --> 00:29:42.359
mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again is Kevin Helene.

414
00:29:47.559 --> 00:29:52.480
We are back with Steve Strom,
founder and president of Venmark International and author

415
00:29:52.559 --> 00:29:56.279
of Success and Self Discovery. Let's
talk about Venmark. Why did you decide

416
00:29:56.279 --> 00:30:03.440
to start the company? Well,
I was I had worked like a dog

417
00:30:03.480 --> 00:30:07.400
with Newsmaker for six months. In
fact, I was supposed to start in

418
00:30:07.440 --> 00:30:10.960
January of seventy six, and December
of seventy five, I went to the

419
00:30:11.000 --> 00:30:14.720
office and started working, Mike says, and Mike g was what are you

420
00:30:14.720 --> 00:30:17.640
doing here? I said, well, I'm anxious to get started when we

421
00:30:17.680 --> 00:30:19.640
can't put you on the payroll till
January, so I'm not looking for any

422
00:30:19.640 --> 00:30:25.400
money. I want to get started. So I took over and I created

423
00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:33.440
created new forms, training program,
all kinds of instruments to make it successful,

424
00:30:33.680 --> 00:30:40.319
and broke broke my butt, and
within a few months it was starting

425
00:30:40.359 --> 00:30:41.319
to take off and fly. So
they, you know, they gave me

426
00:30:41.359 --> 00:30:45.119
a company car and a salary,
and I signed an agreement to be a

427
00:30:45.119 --> 00:30:48.839
partner. I knew the agreement was
bogus. I didn't have a lawyer look

428
00:30:48.920 --> 00:30:52.920
at it. Because I didn't care. I wanted the experience. I you

429
00:30:52.960 --> 00:30:56.359
know, this is exactly the marketplace
I wanted to be involved with. My

430
00:30:56.000 --> 00:31:00.880
task was to to you know,
in the insurance business, you don't have

431
00:31:00.960 --> 00:31:06.240
to be an underwriter to sell insurance. You need to know how to sell

432
00:31:06.279 --> 00:31:11.279
the benefits of insurance. But in
the PR business, the salesman and the

433
00:31:11.319 --> 00:31:14.519
account executive has always been one and
the same, and that's a very expensive

434
00:31:14.559 --> 00:31:19.240
proposition. So my job was to
train salespeople out and develop the sales training

435
00:31:19.240 --> 00:31:23.160
program the whole bit. Train salespeople
how to sell publicity. The benefits of

436
00:31:23.200 --> 00:31:29.799
publicity, which you know, editorial
exposure. It's it gives you a chance

437
00:31:29.799 --> 00:31:33.880
to get broad exposure and look as
big as a major corporation and all these

438
00:31:33.920 --> 00:31:37.440
things. You know, people relate
to it easiest when you talk about a

439
00:31:37.440 --> 00:31:41.200
book on a television program, for
example, that's publicity. That's free editorial

440
00:31:41.240 --> 00:31:48.160
exposure. So today it's called content, but same same thing in part called

441
00:31:48.200 --> 00:31:52.039
content. So my job was to
package up that creative service and sell it

442
00:31:52.160 --> 00:31:57.279
using the insurance model, and I
did it very successfully. Our service hold

443
00:31:57.440 --> 00:32:01.680
like three hundred and ninety five bucks
by by the end of June, I

444
00:32:01.680 --> 00:32:08.400
had seventy some odd thousand dollars in
sales. I went home to came home

445
00:32:08.400 --> 00:32:13.039
for the bi centennial in nineteen seventy
six with my wife. I came,

446
00:32:14.039 --> 00:32:15.920
Yeah, came home for a week. My wife was here for two.

447
00:32:16.519 --> 00:32:19.799
I went back to California and Mike
called me up, said, Hey,

448
00:32:19.839 --> 00:32:22.079
meet me at the airport. We've
got a gig in La. So I

449
00:32:22.079 --> 00:32:24.720
went down to La with him,
and on the way back he said,

450
00:32:24.720 --> 00:32:29.039
listen, we want you to start
another company with us. I said,

451
00:32:29.079 --> 00:32:34.599
WHOA, that wasn't that wasn't our
agreement. Now I was working from six

452
00:32:34.640 --> 00:32:37.640
in the morning until midnight. Literally
I had gone, I wasn't eating.

453
00:32:37.640 --> 00:32:39.720
I went to one hundred and fifty
seven pounds. Wow. When I was

454
00:32:39.759 --> 00:32:43.279
in the eighth grade. I played
football at one seventy. So they gives

455
00:32:43.279 --> 00:32:47.839
you a perspective, okay. So
I was just blown away. So that

456
00:32:47.920 --> 00:32:52.000
was that was a big, big
punch in the gut because I loved Mike

457
00:32:52.240 --> 00:32:58.400
and aceirother partner, and it was
I loved this whole aspect of building Newsmaker

458
00:32:58.480 --> 00:33:00.279
up. And we had ten full
time people by that by you know,

459
00:33:00.359 --> 00:33:07.240
six months, So they I had
to sign a non compete agreement in San

460
00:33:07.279 --> 00:33:10.920
Francisco, and at that time,
I just wanted to figure out what I

461
00:33:10.960 --> 00:33:13.759
was going to do for the rest
of my life. So I got a

462
00:33:13.759 --> 00:33:17.039
book entitled Where Do I Go From
Here? With My Life? By Crystal

463
00:33:17.079 --> 00:33:21.559
and Bowls. It was an oversized
paperback, sat down in my kitchen,

464
00:33:22.079 --> 00:33:27.000
lit up a parliament smoked in those
days, made some coffee drinking coffee smoking

465
00:33:27.039 --> 00:33:30.640
cigarettes. Took about six weeks to
put my life plan together, and part

466
00:33:30.640 --> 00:33:34.359
of it also had an exercise.
My wife and I had promised each other

467
00:33:34.400 --> 00:33:37.960
we'd live in San Francisco for two
years before we came home, just to

468
00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:40.319
make sure you know what we were
doing. So any long story, so

469
00:33:40.400 --> 00:33:45.599
we decided to move back home and
I was going to take some interviews for

470
00:33:45.640 --> 00:33:50.000
a sales management job. And my
first interview, you know, I took

471
00:33:50.160 --> 00:33:53.359
was in Boston at a company called
American Career Planning Services. Fell a named

472
00:33:53.400 --> 00:33:58.400
Walt Cameron. Terrific guy. He
liked me a lot, but said,

473
00:33:58.440 --> 00:34:00.799
Steve, you lacked the experience.
I said, well, I've done it

474
00:34:00.839 --> 00:34:05.119
at that time. You know,
at that time, the annual the average

475
00:34:05.119 --> 00:34:08.360
annual income was like ten thousand a
year I was making thirty six in a

476
00:34:08.400 --> 00:34:12.480
company car. I mean it was
that was hot stuff, you know,

477
00:34:13.320 --> 00:34:15.320
he said, Steve, I'm sorry. He said, I really need to

478
00:34:15.320 --> 00:34:17.920
get somebody with no more experience.
But he said, what are you going

479
00:34:17.960 --> 00:34:21.079
to do? What do you think
you're going to do? I said,

480
00:34:21.079 --> 00:34:22.960
well, it's become clear to me
a couple of things. Number One,

481
00:34:23.000 --> 00:34:27.239
I know what I can do because
I've done. And Secondly, I think

482
00:34:27.280 --> 00:34:30.679
I'm going to start my own business
doing what I did in California. I

483
00:34:30.719 --> 00:34:32.679
said, and if I do,
mag call you. He said please.

484
00:34:34.199 --> 00:34:37.280
So I he became my first account. Nice, it was, it was

485
00:34:37.320 --> 00:34:42.519
great. I made the appointment.
It was December tenth, nineteen seventy six,

486
00:34:43.159 --> 00:34:46.440
but one in the afternoon at the
Crudential Center and I had a salesman

487
00:34:46.480 --> 00:34:51.760
by that I hired straight commissioned by
name len so Lent came with me and

488
00:34:51.840 --> 00:34:54.360
I told my wife, who was
my first assist, I said, call

489
00:34:54.440 --> 00:34:59.360
me at one fifteen, and I
why, I pull me out of the

490
00:34:59.400 --> 00:35:04.679
meeting. I want to look busy. All comes in at one fifteen.

491
00:35:04.719 --> 00:35:07.559
I'm on the phone. Now,
now you're going to I have to tell

492
00:35:07.599 --> 00:35:09.000
him, all, well, I
don't have to get back at me.

493
00:35:09.199 --> 00:35:13.360
Anyway, This was all happening in
front of Walter, and it was terrific.

494
00:35:13.920 --> 00:35:16.679
So I'm going through my presentation,
and of course you explain what publicity

495
00:35:16.760 --> 00:35:21.519
is public what publicity can do for
them, look at their opportunities with them,

496
00:35:21.519 --> 00:35:24.039
and so forth. And he said
to me, whoa, he says,

497
00:35:24.159 --> 00:35:29.360
you know, I'm I'm not general
electric. I don't have all that

498
00:35:29.440 --> 00:35:32.159
kind of much money, and I've
already spent a fortune. I said,

499
00:35:32.239 --> 00:35:36.519
how much have you spent? He
said, I've spent forty thousand dollars.

500
00:35:36.840 --> 00:35:38.519
I said, well, you can't
afford not to spend another three hundred and

501
00:35:38.559 --> 00:35:44.559
ninety five dollars to see what we
can do for you. Shut up,

502
00:35:44.559 --> 00:35:51.199
and he said, okay, So
I learned another lesson there. I heard

503
00:35:51.199 --> 00:35:52.000
it. I was going to I
was hoping he could bring it up.

504
00:35:53.239 --> 00:35:57.519
We teach it all the time.
Yeah exactly. Oh yeah, no,

505
00:35:57.519 --> 00:36:00.400
no, I didn't say a word. Whoever talked first loses. So he

506
00:36:00.440 --> 00:36:04.599
said, okay, great, you
know he's you fill out the order he

507
00:36:04.639 --> 00:36:07.960
signs. They says, what are
your terms? And that's where that's where

508
00:36:07.000 --> 00:36:09.480
I learned a big lesson. I
said, well, we get paid with

509
00:36:09.559 --> 00:36:13.920
our order, and he said fully, I said, yes, when you

510
00:36:14.440 --> 00:36:17.920
figure out how to repossess an idea, I'll gladly extend your credit. And

511
00:36:17.960 --> 00:36:21.159
he looked at me and I said, I know that was a stupid thing

512
00:36:21.159 --> 00:36:23.760
to say, Walt, I apologize. So I mean it was like I

513
00:36:23.800 --> 00:36:28.199
considered my foot in my mouth.
Wald recognized that he was such a wonderful

514
00:36:28.239 --> 00:36:34.239
guy. So anyway, Blenn and
I left the office with a check for

515
00:36:34.280 --> 00:36:37.079
three hundred ninety five bucks. We
hopped on the elevator and I just boom,

516
00:36:37.079 --> 00:36:40.119
I hit the I hit the thirty
eighth floor. I just pushed the

517
00:36:40.159 --> 00:36:45.000
button because we had to use a
restroom, and we're so excited. We

518
00:36:45.079 --> 00:36:47.079
hugged and went to the restroom,
came out. I looked up and I

519
00:36:47.079 --> 00:36:53.719
saw a sign that said Associated the
Industries in Massachusetts, and you know,

520
00:36:53.920 --> 00:36:59.280
and it said directory of Manufacturers for
sale fifteen dollars and seventy five cents.

521
00:36:59.800 --> 00:37:02.079
So we bought it. I bought
the directory. We went back and started

522
00:37:02.119 --> 00:37:07.719
cold calling, and uh love it, you know. And in the first

523
00:37:08.039 --> 00:37:10.920
ol first year, I think we
did one hundred and sixty thousand in business.

524
00:37:10.920 --> 00:37:14.639
Back in those days, well,
you know, it took off like

525
00:37:14.679 --> 00:37:19.119
a rocket you know, I had
ten full time people. And so the

526
00:37:20.679 --> 00:37:22.639
memoir, my book, obviously is
you know, the interesting thing. It

527
00:37:22.639 --> 00:37:25.519
took off like a rocket ship.
Here, I was twenty eight years old.

528
00:37:25.559 --> 00:37:30.559
I started the company with three hundred
dollars. I was twenty eight first

529
00:37:30.639 --> 00:37:35.920
year, second year, noted six
figures, and I was depressed. I

530
00:37:35.960 --> 00:37:38.400
got depressed. Now you usually you
would think, geez, you know,

531
00:37:38.519 --> 00:37:44.480
the average annual income was eleven ten
to seven. Yeah, and I'm twenty

532
00:37:44.559 --> 00:37:49.440
nine years old earning six figures and
I'm depressed. And a lot of the

533
00:37:49.440 --> 00:37:53.639
book deals with how I figured how
how I figured out why I was depressed

534
00:37:53.719 --> 00:37:59.119
rather than elated, you know.
So you know it's interesting. You know

535
00:37:59.159 --> 00:38:01.119
you can still you know, you
can still perform, you can still be

536
00:38:01.199 --> 00:38:08.159
successful. It's something that that almost
innate. So I had to determine why

537
00:38:08.199 --> 00:38:13.679
I was was depressed, and that
was the whole process. And we'll give

538
00:38:13.719 --> 00:38:19.320
us a thumbnail. Well, I
got a terrific therapist. The first couple

539
00:38:19.320 --> 00:38:21.719
of weeks, I was in therapy
three days a week. I had twelve

540
00:38:21.760 --> 00:38:27.039
full time employees, so I was
responsible for those twelve families. So I

541
00:38:27.079 --> 00:38:30.599
couldn't I couldn't fall apart, so
I I you know, I was being

542
00:38:30.639 --> 00:38:36.719
sustained and held up by this terrific, terrific therapist down in Providence. Yeah,

543
00:38:37.199 --> 00:38:39.519
and so then I ultimately, you
know, I was involved in therapy

544
00:38:39.599 --> 00:38:45.239
for a couple of years and figuring
out what what made me happy, and

545
00:38:45.280 --> 00:38:51.039
what and what aspects of the company
made me happy. And so that's that's

546
00:38:51.079 --> 00:38:52.320
that's a thumbnail ve it. I
went through a process. You know.

547
00:38:52.360 --> 00:39:00.480
One of my chapters is deals with
going up to Gloucester and I rented a

548
00:39:00.760 --> 00:39:05.519
room for the weekend at a at
an inn and I sat up in this

549
00:39:05.639 --> 00:39:09.119
big picture window overlooking the ocean.
Back in the day you could smoke cigars.

550
00:39:09.119 --> 00:39:13.960
I had a cigar, bottle of
Merleau, a pad of paper,

551
00:39:13.960 --> 00:39:17.880
and a pen, and I really
figured out that weekend that I built this

552
00:39:17.920 --> 00:39:22.360
company. I had twelve full time
people. By then, our sales were

553
00:39:22.719 --> 00:39:24.360
well over half a million a year. We were cooking. You know.

554
00:39:24.679 --> 00:39:30.360
I was invited by the editor of
Computer World to come see him. I

555
00:39:30.440 --> 00:39:34.119
flew out to Cleveland, met with
editors ives. There's a lot of stuff

556
00:39:34.199 --> 00:39:38.199
going on, and you know,
great things happening, but I wasn't happy

557
00:39:38.320 --> 00:39:42.840
you know by this time. You
know, so I had to figure out

558
00:39:42.920 --> 00:39:46.079
and recreate and transform the business to
make me happy. And that's what I

559
00:39:46.119 --> 00:39:49.760
was able to do. I mean, you know now I can look back

560
00:39:49.800 --> 00:39:53.239
on it in the book writing the
book was transformed. It was something I

561
00:39:53.440 --> 00:39:55.840
put in my journal. You know, when I was involved in therapy,

562
00:39:55.880 --> 00:40:00.679
I kept the journal and I would
put the day of the week. I

563
00:40:00.760 --> 00:40:04.760
put the date, the time,
and the time of day, because you

564
00:40:04.800 --> 00:40:07.119
know, I wanted to know what
my strong time of day was when if

565
00:40:07.159 --> 00:40:10.719
I was depressed it in the morning, depressed at night with what was just

566
00:40:10.800 --> 00:40:16.320
I wanted to control the variables.
It's like any other scenario. So I

567
00:40:17.000 --> 00:40:23.559
did that and I figured I figured
out that I could transform the business.

568
00:40:23.880 --> 00:40:28.480
Oh, I was starting to say
so in my journal in nineteen eighty three,

569
00:40:28.559 --> 00:40:31.000
I first made the note that I
wanted to write this book. The

570
00:40:31.039 --> 00:40:35.920
working title was blue Collar Entrepreneur.
I know, I love that. I'm

571
00:40:35.960 --> 00:40:39.599
going to comment on that too.
Good because ninety nine point nine percent of

572
00:40:39.639 --> 00:40:46.679
businesses are small businesses, majority of
which are are started by folks like you

573
00:40:46.760 --> 00:40:51.960
and me brought up all our families. You know, you open up a

574
00:40:52.159 --> 00:40:55.320
barbershop, you open up a sub
shop you whatever it might be, you

575
00:40:55.360 --> 00:41:00.840
know, And so that was the
working title. But as I got into

576
00:41:00.559 --> 00:41:05.639
editing the book further, it occurred
to me that that was too limited and

577
00:41:05.719 --> 00:41:08.440
so but at any rate, that
was forty years ago, so it took

578
00:41:08.480 --> 00:41:12.400
me forty years. So a couple
of years ago, at age seventy three,

579
00:41:13.320 --> 00:41:19.119
I said to myself, Steve,
you need to write that book and

580
00:41:20.039 --> 00:41:23.360
stop bsing yourself and get to it. And part of it was I was

581
00:41:23.400 --> 00:41:27.199
afraid, you know, you're you
know, are you good enough? Can

582
00:41:27.239 --> 00:41:29.639
you write a good enough book?
And so I laid it out there.

583
00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:31.519
You sound as though you've read I
laid the you know, I laid my

584
00:41:31.960 --> 00:41:37.559
life out. And the vulnerability of
the book is what people are responding to.

585
00:41:37.239 --> 00:41:39.800
If you if you go to Amazon
dot com and you look at the

586
00:41:39.800 --> 00:41:46.320
reviews, everybody that's reviewed it has
really commented on the vulnerability. So that's

587
00:41:46.360 --> 00:41:50.199
the part of entrepreneuring I wanted to
discuss in the book. You know,

588
00:41:50.239 --> 00:41:52.400
everybody who's an entrepreneur, says Roy
rah Rah. I became a multimillionaire.

589
00:41:52.440 --> 00:41:55.880
I'm great. Look at me,
you know, I give some of the

590
00:41:55.920 --> 00:42:01.000
real stuff that happens. Having to
have to part ways with my own brother

591
00:42:01.320 --> 00:42:06.880
and all kinds of different stuff who
I never should have hired. But you

592
00:42:06.920 --> 00:42:09.719
know, you get under the gun
and you want to hire somebody you think

593
00:42:09.760 --> 00:42:15.159
you can trust, as opposed to
sitting there and creating a job description and

594
00:42:15.360 --> 00:42:19.719
doing a complete analysis and coming up
with what you really need. You know.

595
00:42:20.360 --> 00:42:23.199
So I'm you know, despite a
degree in management with honors, I

596
00:42:23.280 --> 00:42:30.920
made probably every mistake every entrepreneur makes. Fortunately I've been resilient enough to come

597
00:42:30.960 --> 00:42:35.559
around the corner. So I always
say I'm proud of my mistakes because I

598
00:42:35.639 --> 00:42:38.079
learned a lot from them. Right, absolutely, absolutely. I was very

599
00:42:38.119 --> 00:42:44.840
fortunate in California to work with Mike
Gerber, and he was a brilliant,

600
00:42:44.920 --> 00:42:49.880
brilliant guy. I mean, he's
written over twenty books, best sellers.

601
00:42:50.199 --> 00:42:52.559
But our partner was Ace Remus,
a fella, and Ace was a Buddhist,

602
00:42:53.039 --> 00:42:59.440
and he thought in terms of doing
something and not judging it. You

603
00:42:59.440 --> 00:43:02.199
know, don't judge no more people, peoples. A book. Writing a

604
00:43:02.199 --> 00:43:07.159
book is so vast just started,
you know, write it. One day.

605
00:43:07.159 --> 00:43:07.960
He would say, don't think about
it, Steve, do it.

606
00:43:08.480 --> 00:43:13.559
I'd go into his office with an
idea about the sales presentation. Don't think

607
00:43:13.599 --> 00:43:15.480
about it, do it because don't. In other words, don't be afraid

608
00:43:15.480 --> 00:43:22.400
to fail. Failures just experience that
you can learn from, and it's invaluable.

609
00:43:22.440 --> 00:43:25.639
In fact, I've made some of
my best sales in life by saying

610
00:43:25.679 --> 00:43:30.559
to my prospect, listen, Kevin, I think you and I both know

611
00:43:30.599 --> 00:43:32.599
that we ought to be working together, but for some reason, you have

612
00:43:32.719 --> 00:43:36.760
chosen not to hire me. And
I really would appreciate it if you'd be

613
00:43:36.800 --> 00:43:40.360
candid with me and tell me why. And they would tell me why,

614
00:43:40.519 --> 00:43:44.800
and then I would simply say,
well, if I can repair that,

615
00:43:45.320 --> 00:43:47.840
Kevin, and provide you with the
information you just told me about, would

616
00:43:47.880 --> 00:43:52.599
you hire me? And they said
yes, and then I'd solve that problem

617
00:43:52.639 --> 00:43:55.920
and would hire me. Move ahead. You know that's my When I was

618
00:43:55.960 --> 00:44:04.320
in the insurance business briefly and Paul
Revere Insurance in Boston, I was calling

619
00:44:04.440 --> 00:44:09.719
this fellow, Sam Paris and in
Wellesley for months months, about nine ten

620
00:44:09.760 --> 00:44:13.360
months, and I finally said to
him, Sam, I come and I

621
00:44:13.400 --> 00:44:15.239
see you, and you talk to
me, and you like me, and

622
00:44:15.280 --> 00:44:16.880
we go back and forth and we
kibbits, but you've never hired me.

623
00:44:17.880 --> 00:44:22.800
What's it. What's it going to
take to get your business? He told

624
00:44:22.800 --> 00:44:24.960
me. And then, man,
I'll tell you what. The floodgates opened

625
00:44:25.039 --> 00:44:29.480
up. I even had a desk
in that place. All of the all

626
00:44:29.559 --> 00:44:34.199
the agents hired me. So that's
that's that's what's so the book contains a

627
00:44:34.199 --> 00:44:37.400
lot of those tips too. So
I want to pull out a couple of

628
00:44:37.440 --> 00:44:39.480
things here, just in the in
the short time we have left, Learning

629
00:44:39.519 --> 00:44:49.559
to Win, tell us about that
Learning to Win is really there's not one

630
00:44:49.639 --> 00:44:54.639
thing in particular, is a series, a series of behaviors. I learned

631
00:44:54.639 --> 00:44:59.440
to win with Dave Whitney. That
was the first time. Dave was a

632
00:44:59.440 --> 00:45:04.239
classmate mine at Northeastern. That's where
I really learned how to win, and

633
00:45:05.199 --> 00:45:07.039
we were going to class. I
met him in my sophomore year and I

634
00:45:07.079 --> 00:45:10.480
was a struggling student. I worked
hard. I got b's and c's.

635
00:45:10.639 --> 00:45:15.159
Dave was a straight A student.
So one day was sitting on the quad,

636
00:45:15.239 --> 00:45:17.920
kids are throwing frisbees around. I
said, Dave, you know you

637
00:45:17.960 --> 00:45:21.559
don't seem all with all due respect, I say, you don't see him

638
00:45:21.559 --> 00:45:24.119
that's much smarter than me. But
you're getting straight a's and I'm getting b's

639
00:45:24.159 --> 00:45:28.159
and c's. And he looked at
me and said, Steve, the fact

640
00:45:28.199 --> 00:45:30.400
of the matter is I am a
lot smarter than you, and I'll tell

641
00:45:30.400 --> 00:45:36.199
you why. And he showed me
his study process, and that word process

642
00:45:36.239 --> 00:45:38.119
is key, because that's really where
I learned how to win. So Dave

643
00:45:38.239 --> 00:45:43.119
said, what I do is I
get a syllabus from every professor. If

644
00:45:43.119 --> 00:45:45.280
they don't have one, I insist
on one or get it verbally. I

645
00:45:45.440 --> 00:45:51.280
plan out my entire calendar for the
trimester for the three months. And while

646
00:45:51.320 --> 00:45:54.519
you're, you know, studying and
cramming, I'm just reviewing. Because I've

647
00:45:54.559 --> 00:45:59.320
had this plan, this process.
I said, great, thank you.

648
00:45:59.440 --> 00:46:02.760
I implement to this process and for
the next four years got straight a's.

649
00:46:04.199 --> 00:46:08.039
So I went from a BC student
with a label of a struggling student to

650
00:46:08.280 --> 00:46:14.880
a straight A student exceptional. So
learning how to win was learning to respect

651
00:46:14.880 --> 00:46:20.440
the process. So when I built
when I built my company, I built

652
00:46:20.440 --> 00:46:25.039
a sales training program. I had
a sales book, we had all this

653
00:46:25.239 --> 00:46:30.199
data, all this information. It
made my salespeople comfortable. It gave them

654
00:46:30.199 --> 00:46:34.880
a roadmap. And back in the
day it was before GPS, man if

655
00:46:34.880 --> 00:46:37.639
you couldn't read a map, you
had problems. So it gave them a

656
00:46:37.719 --> 00:46:40.360
roadmap to proceed and to move ahead. And I had them learn a sales

657
00:46:40.400 --> 00:46:45.800
presentation and the rationale. There was
a sales process of explaining what you do

658
00:46:46.239 --> 00:46:51.639
how it can benefit them, and
knowing the difference between open ended questions to

659
00:46:51.760 --> 00:46:58.000
gather information and closed end questions to
get affirmation. And unless somebody understands in

660
00:46:58.039 --> 00:47:01.679
the first ten minutes what you're doing
and you continue without affirming that understanding,

661
00:47:01.760 --> 00:47:06.800
you're wasting your time, and what's
worse, you're wasting your customer's time.

662
00:47:07.519 --> 00:47:09.920
So last one, last one optimizing, because I think this is a good

663
00:47:09.920 --> 00:47:16.039
tie in here. Optimizing work life
balance. Well, that's interesting. Was

664
00:47:17.119 --> 00:47:24.480
first, very very driven, and
again I majored management college organizational behavior,

665
00:47:25.039 --> 00:47:34.559
and I knew that a quote balanced
life was was optimal. But my body

666
00:47:34.599 --> 00:47:39.679
and my being behaved differently. And
I always really worked hard when I and

667
00:47:39.719 --> 00:47:44.639
so I had this drive to succeed, and that drive bothered me so much

668
00:47:44.639 --> 00:47:47.320
I needed to. I went to
a vocational psychologist at Berkeley when I was

669
00:47:47.320 --> 00:47:52.119
in California because one Saturday I went
to a bar. I figured, geez,

670
00:47:52.119 --> 00:47:54.079
i'll relax, I'll go to a
bar, have a couple of beers,

671
00:47:54.079 --> 00:47:59.079
shoot pull, and I couldn't relax. I couldn't enjoy myself. I

672
00:47:59.079 --> 00:48:04.280
couldn't waste time like that in those
days. So I had to find out,

673
00:48:05.199 --> 00:48:09.199
you know, I was driven.
And ultimately, once I started my

674
00:48:09.239 --> 00:48:14.840
own company, and fortunately Peggy,
my wife, understood I was driven,

675
00:48:14.960 --> 00:48:20.320
and you know, she she joined
the health club just spend her time getting

676
00:48:20.320 --> 00:48:22.360
in, you know, because I
wasn't around. I was working seven days

677
00:48:22.400 --> 00:48:29.639
a week. And so what I
learned was ultimately what my own work pattern

678
00:48:29.840 --> 00:48:32.880
was, and that I needed to
take four to six weeks vacation a year.

679
00:48:34.559 --> 00:48:37.119
And we did that. My wife
and I would take a vacation just

680
00:48:37.159 --> 00:48:39.199
the two of us would take two
weeks, so it's two weeks, would

681
00:48:39.239 --> 00:48:44.480
take two weeks as a family,
and then we would each take a separate

682
00:48:44.480 --> 00:48:46.239
week to you know, she'd go
with her girlfriend. I'd go fishing in

683
00:48:46.280 --> 00:48:50.039
the keys or whatever. Yeah,
And every time we came back, I

684
00:48:50.079 --> 00:48:52.679
came back from a vacation, I'd
work and I'd come home at six o'clock

685
00:48:52.719 --> 00:48:55.480
and you know, for a week, and then the next week i'd be

686
00:48:55.480 --> 00:48:59.679
coming home at seven and you know, my normal time when I'd come home

687
00:48:59.719 --> 00:49:02.800
at eight thirty. Just I was
so much, so into it, and

688
00:49:04.360 --> 00:49:07.599
about every twelve weeks I took a
vacation because that's how I achieved the best

689
00:49:07.639 --> 00:49:10.960
balance and prevented burnout. And the
other thing I did on vacation was I

690
00:49:12.079 --> 00:49:16.639
vacated. I never once called my
office for two weeks. Never once.

691
00:49:16.840 --> 00:49:21.639
I had a great assistant. She
knew and I respected her. If she

692
00:49:21.679 --> 00:49:24.480
needed me, should call me.
So never once. So I really vacated

693
00:49:24.519 --> 00:49:29.320
these people, these kids, especially
today laptops and cell phones. Yep,

694
00:49:29.559 --> 00:49:31.800
forget about it. You're not vacating. You're not empty in and out the

695
00:49:31.880 --> 00:49:36.760
head and just relaxing. And I
would go on vacation. I'd read seven

696
00:49:36.880 --> 00:49:39.159
books. I had a client say
to me once, Hey, responding to

697
00:49:39.199 --> 00:49:45.519
me while you're on vacation doesn't impress
me. Yeah? Absolutely, that must

698
00:49:45.559 --> 00:49:47.280
have resonated. Huh did it?
Certainly? Did it? Certainly? Did?

699
00:49:47.519 --> 00:49:50.800
Hey? We are out of time. I have two more questions,

700
00:49:51.079 --> 00:49:55.079
Who in the viewing listening audiences should
reach out to you and why? Well,

701
00:49:57.360 --> 00:50:00.800
what they should do? Is it
purchased my book? Read the book.

702
00:50:00.800 --> 00:50:07.480
It's available on Amazon Amazon. It's
entitled Success and Self Discovery and it's

703
00:50:07.760 --> 00:50:12.239
my business memoir and has a lot
of tips in there. I'm and I

704
00:50:12.280 --> 00:50:15.320
have a website for that book,
which is smstrom S t r o um

705
00:50:15.440 --> 00:50:20.199
dot com. But again it's available
on Amazon. You can go to Amazon

706
00:50:20.280 --> 00:50:24.880
and you can read the introduction the
first couple of chapters. As far as

707
00:50:24.960 --> 00:50:30.519
I'm really not looking for new business
myself, I've I've kept a dozen clients

708
00:50:30.599 --> 00:50:32.880
I'm having a I've had them for
forty seven years. Forty six years the

709
00:50:32.880 --> 00:50:37.719
ones I'm working with. But if
somebody wanted to get in touch with me,

710
00:50:37.519 --> 00:50:40.000
go through my website. If you
have a business question, I'm happy

711
00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:45.119
to that's right. If I can
send put somebody in the right direction,

712
00:50:45.159 --> 00:50:51.079
I'll be happy to because again I
specialize in publicizing and promoting products. But

713
00:50:51.280 --> 00:50:53.920
again it's more than that. And
if you have time, I'll tell you.

714
00:50:53.960 --> 00:50:59.800
The best sales secret I was ever
taught was by a fellow named g

715
00:51:00.239 --> 00:51:04.800
Magna. Jean told me, when
you're asking a question, you're asking for

716
00:51:04.880 --> 00:51:09.960
a close it's better to say,
Kevin, what do you think of the

717
00:51:10.199 --> 00:51:16.440
idea of purchasing this bottled water from
me? As opposed to Kevin, I'd

718
00:51:16.480 --> 00:51:20.280
like you to purchase this bottle of
water for me, because if you put

719
00:51:20.320 --> 00:51:22.880
it in the abstract and it's an
idea, it's less threatening to him,

720
00:51:23.159 --> 00:51:28.360
and it really is a tremendous way
of getting information. What do you think

721
00:51:28.400 --> 00:51:34.239
of the idea of purchasing this water
for me? You know how it might

722
00:51:34.280 --> 00:51:37.239
help you? All Right, we
are out of time. Thank you so

723
00:51:37.360 --> 00:51:38.880
much. I appreciate it. I
feel like we're just scratching the surface.

724
00:51:39.239 --> 00:51:43.320
It was really fun. Thank you
for being here. Thank you for having

725
00:51:43.360 --> 00:51:45.559
me, Kevin, appreciate it very
much. Here Collie, welcome and thanks

726
00:51:45.559 --> 00:51:50.760
everybody for listening and watching. This
is a show about business, business challenges,

727
00:51:50.840 --> 00:51:52.719
business encouragement. If you've got concerns
about the growth of your company,

728
00:51:53.199 --> 00:51:58.079
feel free to reach out to me
on Facebook or LinkedIn at Winning Business Radio.

729
00:51:58.079 --> 00:52:00.760
You can drop me a note Kevin
at Winning Business Radio dot com.

730
00:52:00.840 --> 00:52:05.800
Our companies Winning Incorporated. We're part
of Sandler Training. We develop sales teams

731
00:52:05.840 --> 00:52:09.280
into high achievers and sales leaders into
true coaches and mentors. We're not right

732
00:52:09.320 --> 00:52:13.639
for everybody, but maybe we should
have a conversation. Thank you, as

733
00:52:13.719 --> 00:52:15.320
I say every week to producer and
engineer one, thank you one for another

734
00:52:15.440 --> 00:52:19.280
job. Well done, be sure
to join us again next week Monday,

735
00:52:19.360 --> 00:52:22.360
January twenty twenty second, we'll do
it all over again. Until then,

736
00:52:22.599 --> 00:52:28.199
this is Kevin Hallanan. You've been
listening to Winning Business Radio with your host,

737
00:52:28.280 --> 00:52:31.119
Kevin Helenan. If you missed any
part of this episode, the podcast

738
00:52:31.159 --> 00:52:37.039
is available on Talk for Podcasting and
iHeartRadio. For more information and questions,

739
00:52:37.119 --> 00:52:42.559
go to Winning Business Radio dot com
or check us out on social media.

740
00:52:42.679 --> 00:52:45.280
Tune in again next week and every
Monday at four pm Eastern Time to listen

741
00:52:45.360 --> 00:52:52.480
live to Winning Business Radio on W
four CY Radio W fourcy dot com.

742
00:52:52.599 --> 00:52:57.880
Until then, let's succeed where others
have failed and win in business with Kevin

743
00:52:57.920 --> 00:53:01.800
Helenan and Winning Business Radio. Yeah