Blind Ambition: How to Go from Victim to Visionary by Author, Speaker and Business Professional Chad E. Foster on Episode #0317

Chad E. Foster [00:00:00]:
Hi. My name is Chad Foster@chadefoster.com, and you’re listening to EA interviews.

Mario Fachini [00:00:08]:
EA interviews, episode

Chad E. Foster [00:00:09]:
3 17.

Mario Fachini [00:00:10]:
Inspiration, transformation, success stories, and the imperfect action round 7 days a week. Join Mario Fuchini for today’s expert authority Effect interview.

Mario Fachini [00:00:21]:
Have you ever wanted to create a vision for your future? Have you ever wanted to build that company, maybe make a software, maybe help a ton of people, maybe get higher in your corporate job, maybe it could be a lot of things, but having a vision is so important. How would you like to create a vision if you couldn’t even see? I’m super excited to have Chad E Foster here today because when I saw his one sheet, I’m gonna have to cheat a little bit again because this I could read this for probably 5 minutes straight, Forbes Google Business Insider, CBS News Harvard Business School where he graduated from Buzzfeed USA Today, Thrive global. Imagine being blind as a teenager. He has accomplished so many different things, and there’s some points here skied double black diamond, won over 45,000,000,000 in contract deals, reads faster than people with eyesight. Traveled alone to 34 countries became a dog’s psychology to learn how to get around sees who his wife and children really are because he has never even seen them and he is the author of Blind ambition. And I don’t wanna wait any longer. I want to jump into it with him, but There’s even more on here. He developed a software and a whole new programming language. I mean it it’s so impressive I’m just gonna get started here but there’s no way on god’s green earth, I would have nailed all of that without looking at it. So expert authority world, we’re in for a real treat here today. with Chad Foster. Every business needs a book including yours.

Mario Fachini [00:01:56]:
And that’s why I’m launching my new book

Mario Fachini [00:01:58]:
to help you regardless of where you think your current writing abilities are.

Mario Fachini [00:02:03]:
visit eapublicingmethodbook.com today to learn the 7 steps to publish and promote your nonfiction lead and profit generating business book in 8 weeks. Once again, that’s eapublicingmethodbook.com.

Mario Fachini [00:02:17]:
Here is ladies and gentlemen, Chad Foster. Chad, how are you feeling today?

Mario Fachini [00:02:21]:
Yeah. I’m feeling great. How are you feeling today?

Mario Fachini [00:02:23]:
I’m feeling excited because you have such a incredible story, and I just wanna learn from you, and thank you for being here.

Mario Fachini [00:02:33]:
Absolutely. Appreciate the opportunity to have the conversation. I appreciate that warm introduction as well.

Mario Fachini [00:02:39]:
I I please do me a favor. And what else did I leave off of that? Because I wasn’t joking. You have so many it’s so impressive what you’ve accomplished, and I I feel like there’s 1 or 2 things that we could have had a ad on there.

Mario Fachini [00:02:54]:
That that was good. I mean, I I wasn’t I wasn’t tracking all of it, but Yeah. You know, you’re really limited in most cases by what you think you’re capable of. If you think that you’re capable of something, your odds of achieving it go way up. If you don’t think that you’re capable of something, then your odds aren’t that good. Right? So the first thing is really believing and having faith.

Mario Fachini [00:03:18]:
When someone tells you that it can’t be done, where do you think that stems from? When when they’re talking to you, whether you’re on the phone or in person, Do you feel something deeper? I I mean, where do where does it route the root come? Because at the core of what you’re saying, it’s so simplistic. You know? And and I understand it, but there’s times when I’ve even questioned it. And I know a lot of people do. Where do you think it really stems from?

Mario Fachini [00:03:44]:
What when someone tells you or the way

Mario Fachini [00:03:46]:
that — The core belief.

Chad E. Foster [00:03:47]:
—

Mario Fachini [00:03:47]:
internalized thing.

Mario Fachini [00:03:48]:
Can can you when they’re telling you that I can’t do it or I can do it, I

Mario Fachini [00:03:57]:
mean I think a lot of it gets down to what other people are saying, what other people tend to inform our opinions of what’s possible and what’s not. Sometimes ignorance is bliss, right? And the example you mentioned one of the examples you mentioned was I I wrote software for the visually impaired that made a customer relationship management system work that I later found out that Silicon Valley was saying that it wasn’t possible to do. But because I went into it, a friend of mine from Accenture called me and said, hey, can you take a look at this? We’ve got a customer with a blind employee who needs to be able to do his job, can you look at it? I said, yeah, I’ll look at it. So I go in and I talk to the client, talk to the user, and it was a challenge for sure. It’s been some time few weeks, couple of months, working on it, got him up and running doing his job. Later on, a year and a half later, I get an email from a one of these message boards saying this large bank in Canada, is inquiring whether or not it can be done, and I responded, said, yeah, it can be done. And so I think we got on a call and they had their technical account manager there. And they were very curious because they said it was not possible to do it, and I had my customer on the phone there with his user who had been using the code that I wrote for a year and a half. And I think for me in that particular situation, Could I have been biased? Had I learned that it was supposedly not possible? Maybe. I didn’t know that it was not supposed to be possible. I just was doing what I thought I was capable of doing, which was getting this gentleman up and running so that he could do his job effectively. So I think a lot of times what we learn about a situation can inhibit our ability to succeed and thrive in it.

Mario Fachini [00:05:53]:
Why do you think so many people lack vision?

Mario Fachini [00:05:56]:
I think you know, the ability to set our own goals and live our own lives and not live up to the expectations of other people. When I went aligned, everyone around me was like, oh, poor you. And, you know, people would come up to me, oh, I’m sorry. And but still when I meet people, and I explained to them because if I meet them out, that’s a sunny day, and I have my sunglasses on. and I’m walking my dog. I have a £100 German shepherd. They may think I’m just walking the dog and I’ll tell them that I can’t see like, oh, I’m sorry. And I think there’s this knee jerk reaction of, oh my gosh, it must be horrible. And people can’t fathom that I’m happier now, and I’m more successful now than when I see and that blows a lot of people away but there’s this sort of social gravity around a life with reduced expectations once you lose a faculty like eyesight. And that explains too. I think there’s just a lot of people are unable to sort of step through the preconceived notions that are out there, whether it’s blindness, whether it’s whatever adversity people are facing, everybody’s facing something. Not everybody goes blind. I promise you all of our listeners, all of our viewers are facing something, they all face something, and that’s something as significant to them. And the worst thing that they can do is allow other people’s opinions to influence their vision for themselves. We all have to chart our own path. I have to decide what I can live with, you have to decide what you can live with. And I believe, fundamentally, we are all capable of much more than we give ourselves credit for.

Mario Fachini [00:07:51]:
Where do you think that stems from?

Mario Fachini [00:07:56]:
Well, I think I’ve demonstrated that to myself over the course of my life. And so I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve done things that I didn’t think was easy or possible. The first time I went skiing, you mentioned I like to ski. And the first time I thought about skiing, I certainly didn’t think about tackling a double black diamond that thought never entered my brain. But as soon as I got comfortable with going on the magic carpet and the bunny slopes and all that. Eventually, I started demonstrating to myself that there was a path to doing something that was beyond what I initially thought was possible. So now I know to not really question just how bold and ambitious something is. I think, if anything, I’ve learned that I don’t think big enough. Like, I need to think bigger. And because none of us really know what we’re capable of. So how could we ever know what someone else is capable of? And so you you prove to yourself, once you continue to take on things that are outside your comfort zone. You keep expanding your comfort zone. and you start demonstrating that you can do something that you maybe previously didn’t think you could do or were not that confident. And then over time as you continue to inch outside of your comfort zone and expand that comfort zone, bit by bit. You demonstrate to yourself that there’s a reason to have confidence. You know, you can do things that seem crazy, like, not being able to see and seeing down a black or a double black diamond at a high rate of speed. That all those things may seem scary on the surface But with constant repetition and and getting outside of your comfort zone, you know, you can you can actually do it. And in fact, in the case of skiing, I would say Things like blindness can be an advantage because a lot of people are just terrified when they look downhill from 13 1000 feet, but it doesn’t faze me. I’m not at all terrified when I looked down here. In fact, we were out last year. My buddy and I were at Cirk Headwall. We still ask Colorado. It’s a double black, and He’s looking around going. It’s a good thing. You can’t see what’s around us because it is terrifying. And I wasn’t looking at that. I was just focused on what he told me to do which was either a left turn or right turn. And so if we just focus on the next turn whether it’s on a double black diamond or metaphorically in our lives, focus on the next turn. Maybe we won’t be so intimidated and scared to take on the next steep terrain that’s in front of us.

Mario Fachini [00:10:41]:
Wow. That is full of expert authority insights and also a little bit of humor because I when you said 13,000 feet in the view and everything, I’ve gone skiing. I have never done a black diamond or a double black diamond. But, yeah, it’s breathtaking views, but it can freak you out. So Do you rely on more of your hearing and other senses when in that specific situation?

Mario Fachini [00:11:07]:
Well, in that situation so the other thing that I’ll add is I take necessary precautions. So I’m I’m adventurous. I would consider myself confident and maybe a little bold and maybe a little daring, but I’m also a pragmatist. Right? And so I enrolled the help of a ski pro who taught me how to ski, who was an expert with teaching people who were unable to see how to ski. And I got the necessary equipment. I got a helmet, a really good helmet. If there’s something you need as a blind skier, it’s a good helmet. So I got a really good helmet. I got microphone and earpiece so that we could communicate with 1 another. So someone skis behind me and tells me which direction to go. And so we got, you know, the right equipment. We got later we learned, you know, we needed microphones that would kinda block out the wind noise. So we’ve got a better microphone that could keep the wind noise out at high rates of speed or in white out conditions. And then we got the right technique, the right practice, the right having communication and trust between me and the people around me so that I’m getting the right communication at the right time, there’s the right level of trust and just getting those repetitions in. That’s crucial.

Mario Fachini [00:12:28]:
So it’s that that is impressive because you didn’t wanna go into the situation blind like most people do to in the sense of they just jump in at full force. They have no training. They have no equipment. They didn’t practice. They didn’t I mean, you knocked off every checkbox. You sounds like you possibly probably could to ensure that it was still gonna be relatively safe

Mario Fachini [00:12:53]:
to the best of your ability.

Mario Fachini [00:12:56]:
Yeah. You have to take the necessary precautions. I played sports growing up, so I’m naturally, maybe a little bit more athletic. I played basketball and football and baseball, and I wrestled, and I played soccer and those sorts of things. But I had never ski before I went blind. And what I did not want to do was learn technique that that wasn’t ideal, that I needed to unlearn later on. And so just like with anything, what do you do when you’re getting involved in something if possible, get someone who’s an expert in it to help you out and show you the ropes. And that seemed like a wise thing to do, particularly given the fact that I was knowingly and willingly strapping myself to some skis and going down a mountain not being able to see. I consider myself a pretty sharp guy. That doesn’t sound very sharp on the surface, but I knew that it was possible, but I have to know what I don’t know. And could I clumsily bounce around and try and figure it out over the course of many years, or or could I just short circuit maybe 10 years out of the process and learned from someone else who’s been there, done that, and that’s exactly what I did. I’m smart enough to know what I don’t know. let me surround myself with people who can augment my skill and my capability can help me get up to speed more quickly. And so that I can take on a more prudent level of risk where the consequences aren’t quite so great where I’ve taken all the necessary precautions to get what I want out of out of a given situation.

Mario Fachini [00:14:34]:
Mommy is

Mario Fachini [00:14:35]:
Wow. That is that’s inspiring because there’s so many preparations that can be taken and people have at their disposal and they just don’t do it and You know, especially when you say a high rate of speed, how fast would you say that was or is?

Mario Fachini [00:14:57]:
I think we got up to 55 this last trip.

Mario Fachini [00:15:02]:
That’s pretty good pretty good without a car. That’s pretty good with a car.

Mario Fachini [00:15:06]:
You’re moving pretty fast. Yeah. And I gotta be honest, it felt great. And didn’t even really mean to go that fast. We were on a a run and the snow is just perfect, it wasn’t too loose or too icy, and it just was like the skis just kept gripping the turns really easily and it felt like you were driving a portion and out of some pretty hard turns and just felt great. Just let it rip. Next thing I know we checked our ski tracks app, and, yeah, we’d hit fifty five miles an hour, which explains a little bit because we we were definitely flirting with the edge of control in terms of our edge of comfort, and I think that’s one of the great things about skiing, and I think it’s a really important point about all of us in life, is we have to live life outside of our comfort zones. I believe that life begins outside of our comfort zones, and that’s the phenomenal thing about skiing is it gives plenty opportunity to get outside of our comfort zones. And that certainly was an example of that, you know, just having that opportunity to continue to expand and grow, but it’s really important, because if you’re not getting outside of your comfort zone, then you’re really you’re not growing. And I’ve lived a lot of my life outside of my comfort zone between Losing my eyesight as young adult, learning the limitations of my eyesight at an earlier age and then going blind in college that was pretty pretty far out of my comfort zone and then getting a guide dog and then taking a guide dog into university classes and then the job interviews, That was all very uncomfortable. And then traveling the country in my new job, learning a new city, not being able to see to to navigate the transit systems or the airports or hotels, doing that domestically, and then eventually doing that Internationally where I’m traveling all over the world and cities, I don’t know the language, can’t read the signage, and I’m doing it. with just me and my trusty guide dog companion and doing it and getting up at 5 AM for my workout enforcing myself to go get that 5 AM workout and finding the gym and finding the machine and just living constantly out of my comfort zone. I think it’s given me a big advantage professionally as well because I am more willing to experiment and push the limits of my comfort zone, and I found that as I continue to do that, as I said earlier, my comfort zone continues to expand, and I find that I’m capable of more than I thought, which is fantastic whether you’re in the conference room or the board room or out on a mountain.

Mario Fachini [00:17:48]:
Yeah. I mean, I can relate to on my waiver under 55, 60 miles an hour, but that’s on a open lake with nothing around, and and that is what won a lot of fun. But, 2, You got a lot of freedom and flexibility, but going down a mountain like that. You know, congrats to you, and I I love the mindset that you’re sharing here. And what I’m hearing is you know, stay outside your comfort zone, get outside your comfort zone, and go for it because that’s when you’re truly living, and you had touched upon it, you know, when you lost your vision as a teenager, did that how did that impact you going into college? And of all the colleges you could go to, tell us about Harvard.

Mario Fachini [00:18:31]:
Well, it happened so as you can imagine, this is when I was doing my undergrad is when it faded out completely, started at around nineteen, twenty years old, whether it was I ended up losing all of my eyesight. Maybe I was twenty one, twenty two, twenty three years old. It was a process. So it wasn’t some catastrophic events. It was a process. And it was a really difficult time for me, and at the time I was doing my undergrad at the University of Tennessee, And I was going into the medical field because I saw myself as a hard charging young man eager to help other people and after going blank. I wasn’t even sure if I could help myself. And it’s pretty hard to see yourself as a hard charging person if you’re not able to walk. So That was a that was a tough time. My self identity was called into question. My hopes and dreams for myself. the my imagined future self died when I went blind in college. And I’m not going to sit here and pretend to anyone that it wasn’t a difficult time. It was a very difficult time. I had a really rough 1 to 2 years. I had to reimagine what it is that I wanted out of my life. We ask children all the time, what do you wanna be when you grow up, and none of them say they wanna be a blind person. But to succeed with any change, we have to be able to at least visualize greatness in that situation. I had to figure out how I can make blind look good. Now the technical term is called cognitive reframing. And essentially what that means is I need to learn how to tell myself better stories. And I really I didn’t know that was the key to resilience and happiness and success at that age, but that’s where those seeds began to be sown. As I was sitting there in my dorm room on campus, I realized You know what? I couldn’t sit there and continue to feel sorry for myself. I was twenty something years old. And I realized that if I lived to be 70 or 80 or 90 years pick a number 50 plus years of feeling bad for myself. That’s a whole lot of feeling bad. Now I was already promised an ice life without eyesight, but no eyesight and negative negativity constantly? Yeah. No way. No things. I’m not gonna live like that. So I decided that I just couldn’t do that. It wasn’t like I made that decision and then instantly things changed, certainly not. But there was a tipping point event that I had in my life, and I went to leader dogs for the blind to get my guide dog, my first guide dog, Miles, and I was there I lived with people who had mental impairments and they were blind up. I lived with people who run dialysis because they had diabetes that robbed them of their eyesight. And then I even met with the met and lived with these people who were deaf and blind. And they like everyone else there, were getting a service dog to be independent. Now for these girls, we had to talk with an interpreter who would then sign into their hands. And that was the only way that they could communicate, yet they were getting a guide dog to travel independently. Now it’s one thing when you meet someone on this street, and you hear how roughly they have it. But it’s another thing altogether when you live with someone and you see their challenges firsthand for an entire month. That moment was a real tipping point for me. I learned that happiness is not a feeling. Happiness is not an emotion. Happiness is a decision that each of us make every single day when we wake up. We can either choose to deliberately frame our perceptions or we allow the circumstances of life to determine our happiness for us. Life is like a game of poker. Nobody controls the hander, Dell, but everybody controls how they play each card. Now this, I learned about happiness and I believe the same is true for success. Success is not an event. It’s a mindset. You either choose to accept less than your definition of success or you don’t. We can all sit around and make all these great legitimate reasons to fail, but how do they service? They don’t. legitimate reasons to fail don’t serve any purpose, but to comfort us in the moment. I could’ve made a 1000 legitimate reasons to fail. in my life. I could’ve made a 1000 reasons as to why I shouldn’t be happy in my life. I chose to not do that. I anchored myself instead to the gratitude that I had for the many blessings that I had in my life 23 years of eye sight all of my hearing and all of my kidney function. And I chose to hold myself accountable for my life and its outcomes. I wasn’t responsible for all of my circumstances, but I have to own my life and its outcomes. It’s my life. I have to own it. It’s your life. You have to own it. If you don’t, who will?

Mario Fachini [00:23:38]:
Wow. That’s hitting close to home, and I appreciate the honesty because even with what some would consider being, you know, to your poker analogy dealt the bad hand you’re still finding the good in it. You’re still having that gratitude because like you’re saying there’s people that, you know, have mental impairments. They have kidney functions. They have there’s in short, there’s people that are in even worse situations. And you know, but

Mario Fachini [00:24:13]:
all over the world. Yeah. It’s out there. It’s not just them. Right? Those Those people are among us, right? And it’s easy to forget about that. I think we all forget about that. It really does get down to and I guess maybe for me, it etched into my brain in a way that was indelible because I lived with them for a month and I saw those challenges firsthand. It really seared it into my memory, and I left Leader Dogs with a completely new outlook on life. My attitude did a complete 180, and things started to happen for me. doors started flying open for me.

Mario Fachini [00:24:58]:
Everyone wanted to go around? And you it sounds would you say it’s because of the gratitude and attitude change?

Mario Fachini [00:25:06]:
I would say it has a huge amount to do with that. You know, 80, 90% had to do with that. Because My effort

Chad E. Foster [00:25:15]:
—

Mario Fachini [00:25:16]:
And that’s something anyone can do no matter what their situation, have a attitude or gratitude.

Mario Fachini [00:25:22]:
It it is. It is. It’s learning how to be thankful for what you have. And in fact, it’s been so crucial in my life that at home, we’re doing this with our children. We every night, we sit down before we go to bed every single night without failure. we all go around and say three things we’re thankful for that day because I’m convinced if we can bring our conscious attention to things that we take for granted each and every day everybody takes things for granted. We all do. I did. I took my eyesight for granted. If we can just say three things that we’re thankful for everyday habitually, I’m convinced that eventually That will creep into the subconscious and it will create that attitude of gratitude. And that is the foundation for perspective which becomes a phenomenal anchor point for learning how to tell ourselves the right stories, which I believe is the foundation for resilience. It determines our life and our outcomes. The stories that we tell ourselves either limit us are they propel us towards our goals? I could sit around and tell myself that I went blind because I have incredibly bad luck. and that could be a technically correct story. Another story that I could tell myself is I went blind because I’m one of the very few people on the planet with strength and the toughness to overcome it and help other people. Now technically that could be a correct story. Both stories are correct. Which story should I tell myself? One story frames me up as a victim and keeps me trapped. The other story frames me up and takes my struggle and turns it into a strength and allows me to bounce back. We all become our stories. We have to choose our stories wisely because none of us can escape that fact. We all become stories that we tell ourselves.

Mario Fachini [00:27:21]:
Wow. This this is hard hitting, and I know this is easy and effortless for you, but I so appreciate the value you’re you’re delivering. I it’s reminding me of one of my favorite quotes from it’s from Helen Keller, and it’s you know, the only thing worse than not having sight is having sight, but no vision. And your Just give an example after example of it doesn’t matter what your circumstances are, and I appreciate it. I know expert authority world appreciating it, and it you know, the story with your family, you know, no doubt do they appreciate it in the future generations. Wanna ask you, how how old are your kids?

Mario Fachini [00:28:04]:
My son is 4, the one who tried to burst in here and make a cameo appearance. He’s 4, and my daughter is 12. So we’re we’re very fortunate. They’re both healthy. And my eye condition is genetic, although it’s autosomal recessive, which means I got 2 bad copies of the same gene to be symptomatic, neither of my parents are symptomatic, which means by definition, they’re carriers. They have one good and one bad copy. My brother does not have my eye condition, so that means he came up on one side of the dice roll out came up on the other. Fortunately, my wife is from a different part of the world where the gene pool’s more diverse and we’re not from the same part of the world, she’s from Brazil and she does not carry it. So our children By definition, our carriers, but are not symptomatic, which is phenomenal.

Mario Fachini [00:28:57]:
That’s awesome. That’s I’m happy to hear that. But at in the same token, you know, you really got me thinking who what’s the better scenario? Because you’ve you know, you’re a young guy, and you’ve lived life more than some people, I’d say, that are twice your age for without a doubt.

Mario Fachini [00:29:19]:
I just don’t wanna live my life in fear. I can’t live my life in fear. I know that all of us are going to die someday. we’re all going to die. There’s no escaping there. And the last thing that I wanna do, we can all live a life that’s safer, and not take chances and not take risks, and we might live longer. But is that really living or is it just existing? I would rather when I’m older, assuming I’m fortunate enough to make it to ripe old age in my golden years, I look back and know that I tried everything I want in my life. Everything I wanted to do, I did. I failed at some. I succeeded at others. but I tried everything I wanted to do. Versus looking back on my life going Well, I don’t know what I was capable of because I didn’t have the guts to try what I really wanted to try. Maybe I could’ve done this, maybe I could’ve done that. The thought of that haunches me to make decisions maybe that could seem aggressive. You know skiing is a great example. You look at that on the surface and say, that’s probably not the safest thing to do, not being able to see and skiing some of that terrain. And that’s true. But I got hurt. My dad was taking me to the gym one time around the same time. Said leave a guide dog at home. I’ll walk you around. Walks me into the wall. bust my head open. Right? Didn’t do it on purpose, but we can get hurt doing the most benign thing. Right? You can be going to the store and getting a car to dinner, whatever. So why not do what you want to do? Why not live life to its fullest? So anytime in life when we’re dealing with fear, there are fears, and there are counter fears. There’s a fear of failure in my situation versus the fear of not knowing what I’m capable of. And that’s the fear that drives me the most is just not wanting to have regrets and wanting to know that I’ve reached my full potential. And in the case of blind ambition and the keynote speaking and resilience workshops that I teach, corporate and leadership and sales teams, it’s making sure that I’ve communicated as effectively as I can because I don’t wanna leave anybody behind. That’s what drives me is making sure that I have I have reached my full potential whether it’s in the boardroom or on stage or writing books or whatever the case may be. the fear of failure is it’s normal. In fact, I think if we’re not failing from time to time, we’re not aiming high enough. We should be failing some.

Mario Fachini [00:31:54]:
Great expert authority insight. You’re absolutely right. If everything’s easy and, you know, comfortable 247 your whole life, It sounds like the recipe for mediocrity. You know, there’s this quote phrase, whatever. It’s really a meme. I don’t know if there’s even an author but it was I don’t wanna live this don’t don’t live the same year 75 times and call it a life.

Mario Fachini [00:32:19]:
love that. I love that.

Mario Fachini [00:32:22]:
Yeah. It’s — A lot

Mario Fachini [00:32:22]:
of people are scared of change. They’re they’re just scared of change. A lot of people are.

Mario Fachini [00:32:28]:
Let let’s yeah. So I don’t know I hesitated right there, but I it was like there’s so many I got so much rolling around in my head I wanna ask you, but I’m trying to keep it focused and I wanna ask you about the book because, again, you didn’t need to do it. Why did you want to?

Mario Fachini [00:32:54]:
because I thought I could help people. And I had idealized it for some time about writing it down, and then So I went to HBS. You asked me earlier about going to HBS. I had a very successful endeavor at my last employer, the my well, all my employers, but particularly the last, I brought in over $45,000,000,000 in contracts And for some reason, they asked me what they could do for me. And I said, send me to Harvard. And for some stranger reason, they said, okay. So they sent me to HBS. And so I get to HBS. And I’m in Bill George’s class, and Bill George teaches authentic leadership there among other things. He’s a former CEO of Medtronic. He took their market cap from 1000000000 to 600000000 when he was there in just 10 years. Phenomenal leader. tremendous human being. So he’s a senior HBS fellow there, and I was in his class learning how to discover my true north. We’re all going through this discover your true north field book. When it becomes really obvious to me that my true north was trying to use the gift of blindness that came in some really crummy wrapping paper to help other people. And people had told me from time to time that I inspired them, but it it didn’t really resonate with me because I wasn’t trying to inspire anybody. I was just doing what I had to do. It was showing up on the job, and I was learning how to write code and engineer my software. I was talking to my daughter’s elementary school class on career day. I was just doing what I had to do to get by. I never really saw myself as anything inspirational. I was doing what I had to do just like most people do. We all do what we have to do. to get what we want out of life. But for some reason that day, it really struck me that there was an opportunity to do more And then later in the class, I was elected as our graduating speaker, and I had had this feeling that I was going to be. So I put a lot of thought and preparation into that. And as I was elected, I very prepared for it. And I, for the first time, saw just how much I could help people if I were to be intentional about it. And I I blew my classmates away, but it blew me away. Really? Because I wasn’t prepared for how much it would help me emotionally to use my struggle as a strength to help other people. 1 of my classmates decided he would commission an opera inspired by my life story. Several came up and told me that I needed to be a professional speaker. I never really saw myself as that. That was something I just hadn’t even contemplated. It wasn’t part of my self identity. I hadn’t opened myself up to this new dimension of myself. But as I began to do that and think about the way that I’d connected and helped with people, who told me some very personal stories that evening of how I had helped them. It was moving. Right? I’m not a very emotional person per se. I’m not like super warm and fuzzy. But when I was thinking about how I’d connected and help with these individuals just by sharing my journey I was moved and I realized at that time I was doing something that I was uniquely qualified to do something that I was meant to do, and I knew there at that point that I need to put more effort and focus behind it because I almost felt compelled or obligated to do something more to help people. And so I’ve started getting motivational presentations all over the world and giving resilience workshops, and then obviously the book is a way for me to reach more people at scale because I can I can go where people are and they can read in their homes. And, yeah, obviously, with the pandemic too, face to face is the breaks have been pumped on face to face interaction. So it’s an opportunity for me to share the lessons that I’ve learned with everybody without them having to go blind to learn.

Mario Fachini [00:36:44]:
Well, I’m glad you are because I’m getting a lot out of this personally, and it’s just incredible. And I I thank you for all of that. I do wanna ask you a couple more things, before we thank our sponsor, but one of them is having to do with all the people, the stages, the coaching, the leader What would you say is your biggest transformation store you’ve been able to give to someone or an organization, I’ll say, a group, whatever you wanna call it, association?

Mario Fachini [00:37:17]:
Biggest transformational story?

Mario Fachini [00:37:21]:
Well, The biggest transformation, like, the they were having a problem. They talked to you in whatever capacity, and it helped them go from x to z or a to b or

Mario Fachini [00:37:34]:
Well, one of the things that I talked about at Red Hat actually is we were going through this very large acquisition from IBM and I presented at all of our sales kickoffs. So I was a presenter at all of our 3 sales kickoffs globally. And I talked about and set some context for how we process change. And it’s a, yeah, we all deal with change in our lives. And a lot of times, well all the time, the meaning we attach to circumstances are more important than the facts alone. And I mentioned this earlier, it’s the stories we tell ourselves, but that meaning that we attach so crucially important. And as leaders, it’s really important that we set the context for the organization. Otherwise, we allow other people to create their own interpretations, which not everybody has the same way to internalize. Some ways that we can internalize things can be less than productive. My story is a phenomenal example of that. I could sit around and feel sorry for myself and what was me, and that would be who I would who I would be forever. or I could have a different way of framing the situation to myself. Well, I I do that for me, but I also do it for other teams too, and it’s up to all leaders to do it for their team so that we can frame a situation for ourselves so that we know how to internalize it in a productive way. things that are outside our sphere of control, outside our sphere of influence. If we can’t reimagine how we can make things that are less than ideal look good. The odds of us moving to acceptance are very, very low. So we have to learn how to take these facts, these unchangeable circumstances that we that maybe aren’t so easy to digest and reimagine what greatness looks like with those. And then we can start working towards the things that are inside our sphere of influence, the things we can control. But we have to start with a new vision that includes the things that we can’t control and learn how can we attach meaning to them in a way that carries us forward and allows us to work productively towards those goals versus just holding us back.

Mario Fachini [00:39:58]:
Wow. I have nothing to say other than just wow. And I have one last question for thank thank I feel like a broken record but sincerely thank you. You are you’re incredible, and

Chad E. Foster [00:40:15]:
—

Mario Fachini [00:40:16]:
Thank you.

Chad E. Foster [00:40:16]:
—

Mario Fachini [00:40:17]:
that’s all I can say. Well, in addition to I have one more question for you. Sure. This is the wheel of whatever, and — Sure.

Chad E. Foster [00:40:28]:
—

Mario Fachini [00:40:28]:
that’s on me. This is the wheel of whatever, and I’m gonna spin it now. And I wanna ask you, do you want yellow or black?

Mario Fachini [00:40:40]:
like yellow.

Mario Fachini [00:40:42]:
Oh. Match my tie. Okay. So yellow. Here’s the question I have for you. Okay. If you could see again for whether a day or a week, what would you wanna do?

Mario Fachini [00:41:00]:
Steve, my family. You want I can I can elaborate more. But

Chad E. Foster [00:41:08]:
—

Mario Fachini [00:41:08]:
Yeah. You you’re you’re welcome too.

Mario Fachini [00:41:10]:
That that one’s easy. Like, I haven’t seen my kids. I haven’t seen my wife. ever. And not a lot. I could not be more at peace with my situation. K? I’m completely fine with the way things are. Curiosity does get at me, though, what do my children look like? What does my wife look like? You know? And I could sit around and and in in many ways, truthfully, I I see them more deeply than maybe other people because I’m not distracted by the way they look. So I actually look inside them And in in a in a deeper and a more meaningful way, you know, when I met my wife, I wasn’t distracted by what clothes she was wearing or how her hair looked. I looked at her traits. In fact, she was energetic and bold and smart articulate and all these things as opposed to how she looked. That helped that has helped me in a lot of ways, and it’s helped me communicate and connect with people and empathize with people in a way that Otherwise, it wouldn’t be possible. And in many ways, I’m a better listener than what I was when I could see because I’m not focused on how the person looks. I’m focused on the message and the content and the character. All that being said, If I could see for a day, I would wanna spend as much time as I could seeing my wife and my kids and going through photos. and because I haven’t seen my daughter. She’s

Chad E. Foster [00:42:39]:
12.

Mario Fachini [00:42:40]:
I didn’t see any of her development. I didn’t see her as a baby physically what she looked like. Obviously, I held her and I knew her, but I’d like to see physically. I’m I’m kind of vain. I’m a little bit of a vain person. I wouldn’t like to see being being real with you and and my son is 4. I would like to see some of those things. So if I could get it for a day, that I would spend all of my time doing that.

Mario Fachini [00:43:03]:
Wow. That’s that’s precious. And thank you again for sharing.

Mario Fachini [00:43:10]:
Absolutely.

Mario Fachini [00:43:11]:
There’s so much I could say, but I just I’m I’m just blown away. I’m speechless on a lot of this stuff, but I’m trying to make it.

Mario Fachini [00:43:20]:
All good, man.

Mario Fachini [00:43:22]:
Easy for you with the questions and everything. I know I have gotta ask you stuff. I can’t just sit here and go keep going, keep going, but you you’re incredible, like I said. So thank you for that.

Mario Fachini [00:43:31]:
Oh, I

Mario Fachini [00:43:31]:
can I can keep going. You’ll have to If you can you do that, though. You’ll have to shut me up.

Mario Fachini [00:43:35]:
I’ll start getting the Oscars music.

Mario Fachini [00:43:39]:
That’s funny. I was like, you know what? Actually, I have all kinds of pre I have all ton of stuff loaded up in this. I I you know, with the software. What is going? Yeah. We gotta thank the sponsor, and we’ll be back with the imperfect action round.

Mario Fachini [00:43:56]:
You’ve heard me say every business needs a book including yours, and it’s true. And that’s why I’m launching my new book at eapublishingmethodbook.com so you can learn the 7 steps to publish and promote your non fiction lead and profit generating business book in 8 weeks. But you know what? Don’t take my word for it. Take it from a few of my authors, like Laurie.

Mario Fachini [00:44:17]:
And I went from having an idea and a possibility to actually getting my book published.

Mario Fachini [00:44:24]:
Or Katherine.

Mario Fachini [00:44:25]:
Thank you for making my mom. Number 1, that’s selling

Mario Fachini [00:44:29]:
or Mary Alice.

Mario Fachini [00:44:30]:
What he got done for me in 3 days regarding my book launch. Unmanageable.

Mario Fachini [00:44:38]:
John Cody.

Mario Fachini [00:44:39]:
I’ve worked with Mario over the phone and online, and he’s been very helpful in getting me where I needed to go with promoting my books. Rosio,

Mario Fachini [00:44:47]:
there’s no way in the world have been able to do this with somebody else. Again, I’ve attempted it in the past. It didn’t serve me. As a matter of fact, I ended up more frustrated than anything. So this has been a very seamless process.

Mario Fachini [00:44:58]:
Adele.

Mario Fachini [00:44:59]:
If you’re looking for an amazing business coach, I highly recommend Mario Fucchini. Or Bill Bener.

Mario Fachini [00:45:05]:
I can’t make a higher recommendation for then to work with Mario Fachini, he has been great for for me. And right now, I won’t work with anybody else except for

Mario Fachini [00:45:16]:
Hey. Their words not mine. visiteeapublishingmethodbook.com

Mario Fachini [00:45:20]:
to get your copy, and I look forward to hearing your transformation as our next video success story. Once again, that’s eapublicingmethodbook.com.

Mario Fachini [00:45:31]:
And we are back with the imperfect action round. Now I don’t think I’ve ever said this before, but it’s gonna be kind of a stupid question because I know the answer. But, Chad, are you ready take imperfect action?

Mario Fachini [00:45:45]:
Absolutely.

Mario Fachini [00:45:46]:
I got three questions for you. The first one, a 6 62nd or less answers. The first one is

Mario Fachini [00:45:52]:
Okay.

Mario Fachini [00:45:52]:
What is the fastest path to the cash?

Mario Fachini [00:45:57]:
The fastest path to the cash is finding something that you absolutely love, love, love doing. Because once you connect, your passion, and your purpose and your profession, you will work every day relentlessly it won’t even seem like you’re working at all. And eventually, once you tie your competency, what you’re good at, your talent to that profession and to that purpose and passion, you will get so good at it so quickly. There’s no way you will not make the cash. because we all have to work. You may as well work at something you love doing and you have talent at so that when you put in those hours, you arrive where you wanna be in terms of a lifestyle much sooner.

Mario Fachini [00:46:45]:
So well said. So well said. Number 2, what is the biggest problem you see your prospects making and the fastest way for them to fix it?

Mario Fachini [00:46:53]:
What is the biggest problem? I see my

Mario Fachini [00:46:56]:
prospects see. Who are my prospects? Just my prospective clients?

Mario Fachini [00:47:01]:
Yeah. Clients your audience. What what are common problems you keep hearing over and over that? You’ve picked up on just from everyone you’ve helped.

Mario Fachini [00:47:11]:
I think the biggest problem is dealing with change. Most people have a really hard time, whether it’s

Chad E. Foster [00:47:15]:
—

Mario Fachini [00:47:15]:
Okay. organizational change. It’s an organizational change gets down to individual mindsets. So collection of individuals make up an organization. People’s mindsets influence their words and their behaviors and their and eventually their outcomes. That’s where culture comes from. That come that all of those individual elements feed organizational culture which determines whether or not an organization’s culture is resilient enough to handle change. And as I see right now, the world we live in, the pace of change has increased so much. Organizational resilience and ability to deal with change Look at the last year we’ve had is crucial to every business’s viability in the long term. Wow.

Mario Fachini [00:48:06]:
Still blown away. Number

Chad E. Foster [00:48:08]:
3,

Mario Fachini [00:48:08]:
what is the best way to maximize customer lifetime value?

Mario Fachini [00:48:13]:
The best way to maximize customer lifetime value is to ensure that you’re playing the long game and not the short game. A lot of people wanna play the short game, and it’s all about the transaction and maximizing the Anytime you’re maximizing the transaction, you’re exploiting customer value. There’s a fine line between capturing fair value for a transaction and making a customer feel manipulated or exploited. You cannot do that. You have to make sure that you’re fair and you treat them obviously like you wanna be treated, that’s cliche, but especially when something significant is going on People don’t really forget how you treat them when something significant is going on in their business. And so it’s really about not seeking to make too much off of any one transaction or exploiting a situation and assuring that you meet your customer where you think they they should be. Maybe you can make a little bit more off of a deal or an opportunity than you actually choose to do because that customer is worth more to you. So it’s looking beyond the transaction and looking into the future from a from a pricing, from customer service standpoint, and and just ensuring that you’re thinking beyond and playing the long game.

Mario Fachini [00:49:38]:
Excellent. Love that too. What books would you recommend for expert authority world?

Mario Fachini [00:49:46]:
One of my favorite books that I would recommend is difficult conversations. It’s a fantastic book about obviously how to have difficult conversations. I am a big fan of that because I think we can all use a little bit more curiosity. A lot of people go into conversations, especially conversations of conflict and they’re looking to send a message. I need to tell this person this, I need to tell this person that as opposed to using curiosity to build common rapport and empathy. so that you can communicate to them that you care about their point of view because if you’ve ever been in an argument, one person has so much energy that they can’t hear you until they get that energy out. Well, that’s a big part of understanding where that person’s coming from. Somebody has to play the higher or the has to take the higher road and let that person get out what it is that’s on their mind so that they they can actually listen to you. So it’s a really good book about dealing with conflict and working through all sorts of different situations.

Mario Fachini [00:50:51]:
Great recommendation. Thank you for that. Where would you like people to learn more?

Mario Fachini [00:50:57]:
They can learn more about me at my website, which is chadefoster.com. I’m on Facebook. I’m on Instagram. that’s at find Chad E Foster. I’m on Twitter at Chad E Foster. I’m on linkedin. Got a YouTube channel. They can on my website, they can learn about my programs for speaking. The book is there. The book’s also at Amazon, Barnes And Noble, Apple Books, books a million, book a shot, pick a store. It’s there. All those links are on my web page. atchadephoster.com.

Mario Fachini [00:51:31]:
Excellent. Well, thank you for that. Chad, it has been so powerful and incredible. I I just thank you again.

Mario Fachini [00:51:38]:
It’s my pleasure. Thank you.

Mario Fachini [00:51:41]:
Alright. Expert Authority World. We have another great episode here today. I’ll see you tomorrow. Have a great day. And god bless. We’re already the expert,

Mario Fachini [00:51:52]:
but have you transformed your expertise into a tangible asset that will generate qualified leads while increasing profit for you

Chad E. Foster [00:51:59]:
247?

Mario Fachini [00:52:01]:
And if so, how well are you promoting it? With my new book, The Expert Authority Effect Publishing Method, I take you through my process step by step. visaeapublishingmethodbook.com today to learn seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction lead and profit generating business book in 8 weeks. visateapublishingmethodbook.com to get started now. Once again, that’s eapublicingmethodbook.com. Thanks for listening to today’s episode. I would love

Mario Fachini [00:52:29]:
to know what you enjoyed most from If you haven’t done so already, I invite you to connect with me on my new LinkedIn. You can go to it directly ateainterviews.comforward/linkedin

Mario Fachini [00:52:40]:
Once again, that’s eainterviews.comforward/linkedin.

Mario Fachini [00:52:45]:
Lastly, check out the full eainterviews.com site for complete show notes full interview video experience links to the resources we mentioned and more. Have a blessed day, and I’ll see you on the next one.