May 4, 2026 – Greatest Hits Wayne Allen Root and Getting Published Ken Lizotte

Intro 1 0:04
Broadcasting from am and FM stations around the country. Welcome to the Small Business Administration award winning school for startups radio where we talk all things small business and entrepreneurship. Now here is your host, the guy that believes anyone can be a successful entrepreneur, because entrepreneurship is not about creativity, risk or passion. Jim Beach,

Jim Beach 0:26
hello everyone. Welcome to another exciting edition of School for startups radio. I hope you’re having a great day out there, riding the roller coaster of making money, losing money, and just being an entrepreneur. You don’t have to lose money. But, you know, just a lot of people have, it’s sort of statistically proven, and a lot of entrepreneurs make a fortune, lose a fortune, make a fortune, and lose a fortune, and then make a fortune as well. So it’s just a roller coaster with dips and twists and turns and flips and all sorts of going upside down. And I hope it’s a good ride for you right now. I’ve got a great show for you today. First up today, we’re going to do a greatest hits with Wayne Allen Root. He is a very interesting character out of the Las Vegas area, dabbles in business and politics and culture and society, and this is one of the greatest hits that we need to get back up. He has he was on our show a long time ago when we had him in the greatest hits, and then that server went down. Didn’t go down. We lost a server that we had been with for 10 years. The business went or the company went out of business. And so we had to move everything, and some it was too much to move like, you know, 2000 episodes, and so we are slowly putting the greatest hits back up. And that is what we were doing with Wayne today. After that, Ken Lizotte will be with us. He is got two stories to talk about today, two really important topics. First getting published, and I could not agree more with Ken on this, you have got to get out there and write a book. It is absolutely critical to being a thought leader, a business owner, an entrepreneur. Your employees deserve it, your family deserves it, and the rest of us need to learn from you, but it is a great way to build your business. And it is, as they say, I hate the trite sayings, but this is true. It is the ultimate business card. When you go to a business meeting, you don’t just leave your card. You leave a copy or two or three copies of the book, and you are seen differently. It makes a difference. Secondly, Ken is going to talk about Henry David Thoreau, who I know absolutely nothing about. You know, I learned about Walden Pond in high school, and then never took an English class in college that related to it. And so I know absolutely nothing about Thoreau and how important he was and how he can relate to business owners and to our times as well. And kid has just written a book about that, and so we’re going to talk about that as well and see what we can learn from the past. It seems like the more we pay attention to the past, the smarter we get here in the present. So anyway, great show. Thank you, as always, for being with us, and we’re going to get started in just a second.

The Real Environmentalists 3:23
Introducing by environmentalists, the bold new book by Jim beach. It’s not about activists, politicians or professors. It’s about the entrepreneurs, real risk takers, building cleaner, smarter solutions, not for applause, but for profit. The entrepreneurs in the book aren’t giving speeches. They’re in labs, factories and offices, cleaning the past and building clean products for the future. The real environmentalists is available now because the people saving the planet aren’t the ones you think. Go to Amazon and search for real environmentalists. Thank you,

Jim Beach 4:10
and welcome back to school for startups radio again. Thank you so much for being with us on this beautiful Monday. I hope it’s a beautiful day where you are. I am very excited to introduce you to my first guest. His name is Wayne Allen Root. He has been a presidential candidate. He was the libertarian vice presidential nominee in 2008 and the easiest way to think of him is the capitalist evangelist. He is an SOB son of a butcher, and has a new best selling book out right now. It is called The Power of RELENTLESS seven secrets to achieving mega success, financial freedom and the life of your dreams. It is got 30 reviews, all five star over on that Amazon place. It is amazing. Wayne has been all over the media. He was on CNBC, where he. Had, I think, five or six different shows, and he is now a regular guest on Fox and hundreds of other outlets. He is also the author of, I think, eight other books. We’ll have to check on that Wayne, welcome to the show. How you doing today?

Wayne Allen Root 5:15
Hey, Jim, good to be on with you. I’m doing great, beautiful day in Las Vegas. And I guess when you write books like me, positive books, uplifting books, The Power of RELENTLESS had to become a superstar and do better in life, you’re always in a good mood. I always see the glasses half full. So the answer your question is, I’m doing fantastic,

Jim Beach 5:32
awesome, awesome. I we never talk politics on this show, but with you, I have to bring up some political questions. I’m upset that none of the political parties out there, the Libertarian aside, right? The two major parties just don’t care about entrepreneurs. They just don’t care. What do you think? Am I wrong?

Wayne Allen Root 5:51
I agree with you, although I would say the Democrats care much, much, much, much less. Yes, I would agree with that on a scale of one to 10. Democrats hate us, despise us, and want to destroy us and wipe us off the earth and steal and redistribute our money. I give them a zero, somewhere between a zero and a negative 20 on a scale of one to 10. And Republicans talk all the right ball games. You know, they say all the right things. They sound like they’re on our sides. I give them a nine on a scale of one to 10 in the conversation the campaigning, but in the results I give them like a two or three. But having said that, as bad a grade, I gave Republicans A D, Democrats a negative, negative F, but having said that, I’ll take a two or three on a one to 10 over a negative 20 any day. So that’s why I now call myself a Republican, because you’re better off with the party that at least claims to like you and tries a little bit once a while to help you than the party that wants to wipe you off the face of the earth.

Jim Beach 6:49
All job creation comes from us entrepreneurs. Why don’t they understand that? What for both parties, what is the the mental block they have?

Wayne Allen Root 6:59
You know, I don’t know that it’s a metal block. I think with some of them, you’re right, it’s Jim, it’s a metal block. But I think with most Democrats, forget Republicans for the moment. I think Republicans are just bought and paid for by big business. They don’t care about small businessmen like you and me and millions of people out there who you know, many of whom are listening to this show. I’m for entrepreneurs, I’m for small business, I’m for the American dream, I’m for the middle class. They don’t seem to get that. They’re just for big business, you know, they want to help Walmart, because Walmart gives them a million dollar contribution. You and I give them $1,000 and they don’t even notice us. They don’t even remember our name. So it’s kind of like I remember, I was reading this story about Mother Teresa. I mean, she’s going to be sainted, right? I mean, she’s a saint. She’s one of the greatest, most incredible humanitarians and philanthropists that ever walked the earth. But the reality was this, how this is how tough life is. I read a story once about she had like 20 different offices around the world, and they each collect so much money because she was so famous and so loved that checks would come in every day in each one of the 20 offices for 100,000 1,000,002 million. This woman had bank accounts all over the world, and they were talking charity. She’s a wonderful woman, but she had bank accounts with 100 million dollars in it that she forgot about, that she hadn’t touched in 20 years. That’s how much money came in. So one day, a man called up and said, you know my name is so and so, and I just want to make sure you know you got my check. And he expected they’d immediately know his name, because he’d sent a check for $250,000 to total strangers. That’s how benevolent and tithing and philanthroph, philanthropist, or philanthropic, he was, and they didn’t know his name because they used to get 20 checks in the same day for 250 or more. No one even knew who he was. He thought that was a big deal, and he thought they don’t know Him. And that’s kind of why, I think what happens in politics when you give money to the Republican Party, you know your check pales in comparison to Walmart. They remember the lobbyist check and Walmart’s check and GMs check, and she’s checked for a billion dollar plus, but they don’t remember your $1,000 check, so small business gets screwed over every day. That’s the excuse. On one side, corporate America is drowning us out. And on the other side, Democrats, they really do want to wipe us off the face the earth and destroy us. And the best way, why?

Jim Beach 9:15
Why do they hate us so much?

Wayne Allen Root 9:17
Well, first of all, they’re jealous and they’re angry. They believe in this concept of fairness, you know, it’s like I try and explain to my daughter, who graduated Harvard, you know, and I try and make her, every day into a more conservative and more libertarian thinking person. And I said to her one day, you know, are you the hardest working person has ever been? I mean, I just want you to outwork and out hustle everyone. And that’s how you went from home schools, ever in a classroom in your life, to Harvard University and graduating Harvard at the top of your class, Magna Cum Laude. And in between, she went to Oxford for one year and graduated their top of her class. And so I said, what’s the reason? Are you the hardest working person ever? Yes, I am, Dad. Do you out hustle everyone? Yes, I do, dad. What have I told you from this day forward? Your Class of 100 at Harvard. I’m the new professor, and I’ve made the decision that everyone gets the same grade no matter how hard they work. Some people can party all day, do drugs, have sex, you name it, get drunk. Never study. Play baseball. I don’t care what they’re going to do, they’re going to get the same C as you would. You ever study again? She said, I’d never study again. I said, Well, that’s America under Barack Obama. There it is that sums up the entire situation under Democrats, not just Obama, he’s the worst, but Hillary Clinton’s the same way, and Bernie Sanders the same way, and Al Gore is the same way, and Elizabeth Warren’s the same way. Martin O’Malley, I heard it’s been the last of all of them. They’re crazy. They’re just plain mentally ill. They actually believe in fairness and equality, and they think that society would work if you made everything fair and everybody lived in shared misery. Well, that’s called Cuba folks in the real world, in America, great country. Some people make millions, like me. Some make billions, like Donald Trump, and we all create jobs, so other people make 1000s. And you know what, if you stopped us from making our millions and our billions, we’ll go somewhere else, or we’ll retire, or we’ll quit, or we’ll work less hours, we won’t hire anyone, and then the whole society goes to hell, and all the people complaining because they only make 50,000 a year. Are going to make zero because they’re going to be jobless. I wish I could explain this to the world. It’s all like a class at Harvard where if you gave everyone a C, nobody would ever work again. All ambition and drive in life, and therefore all success and breakthroughs in life come from giving some people A’s and some people F’s. And when you take that away, equality destroys all of it.

Jim Beach 11:44
Two of the current Republican candidates have endorsed your latest book, Ben Carson and Donald Trump. Have you selected your candidate for the next presidential cycle?

Wayne Allen Root 11:54
No, listen, I’m open to, you know, someone fantastic, and you know, there’s many more debates to go. I’m a fan of Donald Trump. I like Donald Trump. I’m a fan of Ben Carson too. By the way, I’m a fan of Marco Rubio. In many ways, a lot of people criticize him. I don’t like his immigration policy. Think he’s too weak on immigration, but he’s a fabulous orator. When he speaks, I just sit there and clap and I’m a tough grader. He’s the only guy that makes me do that, and let’s not forget, he has a 100 rating from the Heritage Foundation, 100 on a scale of one to 100 Ted Cruz, 100 on a scale of one to 100 so there’s a lot of great choices. Probably you could say I’m a Donald Trump fan, and I lean to him only because I’m someone who appreciates that you get elected because of personality, and I think he’s the best personality you need somebody who’s got an outrageous personality that is colorful and who makes young people stand up and take notice. And I think that the host of Celebrity Apprentice is probably that kind of guy. He’s got a wild, electric personality. He tells it like it is. He’s a little bit, you know, Michigan, as my Yiddish grandmother used to say, little bit crazy but, but I think that’s probably just what we need is a little bit offensive. Everyone takes offense to half of what he says. But guess what? He’s a tough guy like I am. I live my life on the streets of New York like he did with a with a battery on my shoulder. Gary people, and knock it off, and I’ll kick your you know what? And I think we need that kind of spunk and that kind of spark and that kind of tough guy, Street Fighter attitude in the GOP to stop, you know, to save the GOP, to save America, and to stop Obama from destroying America, or Hillary Clinton from continuing destruction. We need somebody who has got a battery on the shoulder and says, I dare you to knock it off, because I’m going to clock you one. And I think that’s Donald Trump. So, I mean, there’s a lot of good candidates. Scott Walker is a tough guy who’s done some stood up to unions. In Wisconsin, there’s a lot of good potential Republican candidates. Chris Christie’s a big mouth wants to knock your clock off and knock your socks off too. So, I mean, there’s a bunch that could do it, but they all have weaknesses and not quite sure where they stand on issues, what they believe in. Are they willing to repeal Obamacare and come up with something new, because you got to repeal Obamacare, Jim, if you want to save America, there is no way to save America. Leaving Obamacare in place, it will bankrupt the country. It will create debt that will cause the worst death crisis in America. We will become Greece. And I guess most importantly, it’s a jobs killer. It’s just a machine that creates nothing. It incentivizes everyone to create nothing but part time jobs that pay nothing. So if you want a nation of people that work for 22,000 a year or less that work, you know, 21 hours a week, so they never qualify for Obamacare, and therefore all of them are on food stamps and free health care, Medicaid, well then Barack Obama and Obamacare. There’s your man, there’s your program, but if you want something other than that, and you want a good middle class job, we’ve got to kill Obamacare. I mean, kill it. You know, if this is health care, you got to murder the patient. And I mean fast before it murders the middle class, because this country is in grave danger, and Obamacare is the Trojan horse that will kill this country. And. Said this for six and a half long years, and since the day it passed, but well before it and then after it passed, and it’s all turning out to be true. It is the nightmare I envisioned from day one.

Jim Beach 15:11
What about Carly Fiorina?

Wayne Allen Root 15:13
You know, I don’t know about the battery yet, and to be honest, I worked so hard. My new book, power relentless is out now, and I spent all last week working, and I didn’t see the early debate. I barely had time for the, you know, the main, the main show, the main, the main event, as opposed to the appetizer. I did not watch the early debate. I heard she did fantastic, and she was the clear winner. We’ll see. I reserve saying anything about her till I get to watch her one time in my life. It wouldn’t be fair to her at all for me to say something when I don’t know her, but I heard she was fantastic, but I don’t know what she believes in. I really don’t, and I want to hear more about what Donald Trump believes in, to be honest with you, you know, I think he was a little confused in the first debate to say exactly what he believed in. But I know I like his style. You know, I’m kind of that guy who wants someone who is going to look you in the eye and say, Let’s go for it, baby. Let’s have a shootout at the okay corral. That’s what we need. In the Republican Party, in the conservative and libertarian movement, somebody who stands for smaller government and is willing to fight for it, like our country depends on it, and like your kids future depend on it, because guess what it does. America will not be here if you elect another Democrat president, we’re done. It’s over, and people are going to start moving out in droves with money, and I’ll be one of hang around. It’s all over, folks. It’s going bad fast, and we got to slow it, at least slow it for a while, so we can get our feet on steady ground and get the cavalry in here. And the only way to slow it is to elect a Republican in 2016

Jim Beach 16:39
what are the seven secrets that power, relentless, success? Wayne, what are some of them? Let’s go through the book. Let’s talk about the

Wayne Allen Root 16:47
book. Yeah. Well, rather than go through every specific one, we have time to get through all of them. Let me give you some of the highlights. First of all, I think the highlight of this book is that it’s a it’s a perfect marriage of Mike Tyson and Mother Teresa were married and produced a child. It would be me, and it would be this book, you know, because I’m someone who, as you hear, you know, believes as a tough New York Street Fighter. You know, you got to spend your life being a tough guy or gal, and you’ve got to never give up and never give in. You know, my heroes, Winston Churchill, who said the most important words in English language, never give up. Never give up and never, ever give up. Those are the 10 most important words, and Winston Churchill was right, and I never give up. That’s one of the reasons I like Donald Trump. You know, they said after he made his Hispanic comments, he was over. That was it, and he took the lead in all the polls. They said after John McCain comments, that’s it. It’s over. You got to resign. You got to step down. You can’t even run anymore. He’s not even wanted in the debate, and his lead got bigger, and now they’re saying, after his making Kelly comments on Fox News and after the debate, oh, he was terrible. And you look at the post debate polls, he won it in a landslide, and then he makes more comments about Megyn Kelly, and women say, Oh, my God, he’s a terrible person. He’s got to step down. I bet you the next poll, I see he’s up even higher. I think it’s because a he’s relentless like I am. He just keeps going and pounding away, and he doesn’t worry what everyone has to say. If you worry about critics in life, and here’s the central point in my book, if you worry what critics say, You will never be successful in life. You got to be your own man or woman, and you can’t worry what other people say, and you can’t let anyone stop you or slow you or make you into a negative, negative person, a worrier, because they say your your ideas won’t work. You can’t even worry about it. You only got to know in your heart. You got a faith in you and faith in your ideas and faith in your product, and faith in your business. You got to believe and you will always be number one. Now let me give you a great example stories in the book, and it’s a couple great examples. I want to give you number one. How about my daughter? You know, you say, is my philosophy work? Well, you know, I went from an SOP, son of a butcher, you know, with a father with nothing, and I started out with zero. And I’m a self made billionaire today, as I speak to you, living in a mansion in Las Vegas, overlooking the entire Vegas trip, five lakes, seven waterfalls in the beautiful mountain range, and there’s a Maserati and an Aston Martin in my driveway. Not bad for a guy who started with nothing in a great country called America, only in America and only if you’re relentless. But I think my daughter is a much better story, because she was homeschooled to Harvard, and I taught her from the day she was born that she was going to Harvard or Stanford, and I went out and took her to Harvard and Stanford as a young kid, and I gave her the Harvard and Stanford hat and the sweatshirt, the pens and the pencils and the pennants to hang on her wall. And every night, before she went to bed, I told you, you’re going to Harvard or Stanford someday, you’re going to make daddy proud. And she got accepted at the age 18 at both Harvard and Stanford, as well as all the other great schools in America. It’s an amazing story, but it proves it’s all about mindset, if you believe and if you have faith, and if there isn’t one iota of doubt in your mind, and you can do it, you will make it happen. But if you let any doubt creep in, you’re done. And so I think she proves, you know. That faith is the most important thing. There can’t be doubt. There’s got to be confidence and faith in you and God and the plan. And then I think another personal story about my mother sums up the book. My mom, Stella root, died in 1992 Jim and she died of cancer after a long six year battle. And my dad died in the same month. They died 28 days apart. He died of cancer as well, lung cancer, and he died in four quick months. And when he died first, she said, I want to live anymore. And I thought that was ridiculous. Come on, she doesn’t live anymore. Nobody could will himself to die. She said, I’ll be dead in a month. And she was and her doctor called me 28 days later. I’m 3000 miles away in LA and her doctor calls me and says, you know, sit down. I’ve got some bad news for you. Your mom fell in a coma, and she is now brain dead, no brain activity of any kind. We disconnected life support. There’s no reason for you to rush home. You’ve had a lot of tragedy in your family in the last 28 days and less than a month that you’ve lost both parents. You’re an orphan now, and I don’t want you to rush home no more tragedies in your life, get your affairs in order, make the funeral plans over the phone, come home in a few days, get your head together. That’s the doctor said. My sister grabbed the phone and said, rush home. Get the red eye. You and I both know Mom will die. Until you get here. I swear to me, mom will die. He just told me she’s dead. No, he told you she’s brain dead, but the heart monitor is still beeping at the moment. He thinks it extinguish itself. Any minute, it’ll go flat line, and I’m telling you she won’t die till you get here. So get here fast. So I caught the red eye. I got there 12 hours since then that phone call, I walked in the hospital room, and my sister had held my mom’s hand the entire night and said, Don’t die. Wayne is on the way. Don’t die. Wayne is on the way. And when I walked in the hospital room 12 hours later, the heart monitor was still beeping. Those doctors said she could not live Jim. Those doctors said she had no brain activity of any kind. She was disconnected from life support, and they were just waiting for the heart to stop, and it wouldn’t stop till I got there, and I kissed her, and I hugged her, and I cried with her, and I said, Mom, it is time to rest, stop fighting and let go, and the heart monitor flat line that exact second.

Jim Beach 22:11
Wow.

Wayne Allen Root 22:12
So you know, how does someone do that if they’re brain dead? And I think it’s a very hopeful story, not a sad one, because this story proves that if your heart is big enough, it doesn’t even matter if your brain is dead. And I think my entire story is dedicated to that concept. This whole book, all of my practices, everything I’ve achieved in life, came after that happened, and all my success was because I realized at that moment how important it was to be relentless. Relentless is another way of saying heart. And it’s not about brains, it’s not about IQ, not about your personality, it’s about your heart. And if your heart is big enough, it doesn’t even matter if your brain is dead, you can make the impossible possible. You can achieve anything. You can achieve miracles. And since that day, you know we’re losing time. You’re out of time to tell you the whole story of my life. But I’ve achieved so many miracles. 10 of them are listed in this book, and all of them came after my mom died. So it gives you some idea of how inspiration can affect somebody’s life, how heart can expect can affect someone’s life, how faith can affect somebody’s life. Those are the concepts of the first half of my book, teaching you to be relentless. And then the second half of my book puts a 12 step program in place that allows you to always be positive and optimistic and enthusiastic and energetic and and always faith, have faith, and that second 12 step program does it for you. So I had people tell me, Jim that this what’s amazing about this book is that the first half inspires you to be relentless, but the second half shows you how it actually it’s one thing to tell someone to do it. It’s another to show them how, in my 12 step program, done every morning correctly, will make everybody super charged, enthusiastic, high energy for the rest of the day, incredibly confident, have incredible faith in yourself. You will never, ever lose faith in yourself. So you know, the first half of my program is kind of a mix of Mike Tyson and Donald Trump, and the second half is Mother Teresa. It’s a very spiritual base. Involves prayer and meditation and affirmation, Olis visualization, a morning walk with God, healthy diet, exercise, holistic lifestyle, 100 vitamin bills a day. I pop and I’m the most positive person in the world and have never gone near Prozac. Don’t take doctors prescriptions. Don’t go near doctors. Don’t go near hospitals. I’m a living embodiment of health and prolific success with my program, and I will teach it to you step by step.

Jim Beach 24:31
Awesome. The book looks fantastic, and as I told you earlier, I’m about halfway through it. I’m absolutely loving it, sir. How can we find out more about you? Follow you on social media and look at your websites,

Wayne Allen Root 24:43
sure. Well, first of all, you find out about my book, The Power of RELENTLESS by just go to amazon.com and it’s all there. Or you can go to my website, we can read more about it, roots for America. But either way, you’ll wind up in Amazon. If you want to buy it, they’ll click on, buy now, and you’ll wind up in Amazon. Even from my side, root for America. Olis, but it’s our OT or america.com because I’m Wayne Root. And what do I do all day? I root for this great country, America, and you could find it at Amazon or any fine bookstore, and you could also get all my free political commentaries at root for america.com

Jim Beach 25:16
you running for Senate out of Nevada to replace dingy Harry?

Wayne Allen Root 25:20
You know, at the moment, I’ve put that aside. It’s not something I plan to do, although you never know, I try to never say, Never. My mind could change this fall, but at the moment, I don’t think I’ll be running to replace Harry Reid, just because I’ve got so much going on, business wise and family wise, I just can’t seem to find a way to put it all aside. And that’s why we don’t get great businessmen and women to run for office, because it’s easier run for office when you’re a lawyer, you know, and your law firm pays you if you’re there or not. But it’s hard when you own your own business, you’re one man army, that’s all about you. How do you put it all aside? Very hard so we don’t get quality people running for office, and that’s that’s the problem.

Jim Beach 25:55
I wish you would reconsider. Wayne Allen route, thank you so much for being with us today. You got to run and go be on the television. I appreciate your time, sir.

Wayne Allen Root 26:02
Thanks, Jim. God bless

Jim Beach 26:03
likewise. Just a second.

Intro 2 26:20
Well, that’s a wonderful question. Oh my gosh, I love the opportunity to do this. Thank you, Jim, wow, that’s, that’s, that’s a great one. You know, that is a phenomenal question. That’s a great question. And, and I don’t have a great answer, that’s

Intro 2 26:34
a great question. Oh, that is such a loaded question. And that’s actually a really good question.

Intro 1 26:40
School for startups radio,

Jim Beach 26:43
we are back and again. Thank you so very much for being with us. Very excited to introduce another great guest. Please welcome Ken lazot to the show. He is the chief imaginative officer at Emerson Consulting Group. They specialize in transforming business leaders, consultants and executives, into thought leaders, leaders of the pack, separating them from everyone else. His success rate in getting his clients published since 1996 is not well, it’s just not that good. It’s only 100% he is author of a couple of books we want to talk about today. One is called the experts edge become the go to authority people turn to every time, published by McGraw Hill, and he has just released a new book called Walden for hire, business lessons from Henry David Thoreau. Ken Welcome to the show. How are you doing today?

Ken Lizotte 27:39
Thank you. I’m doing good. I have my coffee and I have you, and I couldn’t hear any applause from the from the from the intro, but I assume it’s out there.

Jim Beach 27:50
That’s

Ken Lizotte 27:54
what I like,

Jim Beach 27:57
All right, so you live right around the corner from Walden Pond. I understand what’s your obsession with Henry? David Thoreau, great American writer, but why are you obsessed with him, and especially from a business standpoint,

Ken Lizotte 28:14
right? Well, I’ve been living here in Concord, where Henry was born. I’ve been here for about 30 years, and when I moved here, I created, I founded my startup. Was this business, Emerson Consulting Group. And Emerson is Ralph Waldo Emerson. I named it after him because he had, he kind of lived a life of being a thought leader, in terms of writing, publishing his ideas, and doing speaking engagements and a lot of networking and that kind of thing. So I thought he epitomized my the sense of what I was doing when I was starting to starting the business. Now, that was 29 years ago. And in that time, not only have I achieved success with helping primarily business leaders and specialists in getting an art, getting an article published, or articles or books, if that’s what they’re interested in, basically 100% of the of the of the time over these years. So that’s, that’s my that’s my day job. It’s my day service, and all and and it’s in its business, business, business, that’s all is the topics I specialize in. So as as the years went on, went by living here, somebody asked me to join the board of directors of thorough farm, which is the house and the area that Henry was born. In and I learned a lot. I actually became president of the board for 10 years, and I learned a lot in that pro bono work about Henry. And the more I learned, the more something started eating away at me. I thought, you know, Henry Thoreau has been written about in terms of biographies or commentaries, just in so many different ways because of all the various things that he did when he was alive here in Concord. But they all have to do with things like environmentalism, philosophy, writing, and they’re the same topics. There’s a lot of different topics, but they’re the same topics. And I started it kind of kind of getting to me if he was able to accomplish so much in all these different areas. Why is he not known also for business, and people who are thorough followers would probably laugh at that and say, well, he didn’t like business because he he had certain things to say that were kind of critical of business and and he would not be the somebody who you could write a whole book around in terms of business. Well, I wanted to find out for myself and, and I did. I started going to the library here in Concord, which has special collections from Emerson Thoreau, etc. And I found very, very quickly that there’s a lot of business in Henry David Thoreau that has not been written about. And I wondered if I could do a whole book on it. And a, you know, Flash forward to today, I have a book published by HarperCollins, and it’s, it’s full of stories and information and meat, really, about Henry as a, as a business genius, really. So I, so I say all that, if I known all this back almost 30 years ago, I probably would have called my firm thorough Consulting Group, but Emerson was a pretty sharp guy too, so I’m leaving that. But that’s, that’s the genesis of the book, and that’s, that’s what it looks at business lessons that you could derive from Henry’s life,

Jim Beach 32:44
he invented the number two pencil.

Ken Lizotte 32:49
Yes, he did, I just say he reinvented the pencil, because the pencil did exist, but not, not in the form that we’ve all grown up with and come to know the number two pencil is the most popular pencil. What he what he basically did was, and it’s a good it’s a good lesson for entrepreneurs, and particularly startups, if you’re, if you’re looking, if you’re looking at what your how your product is doing and and if it’s, it could be, it could be going well, but you might have a sense that it could be doing better. Henry’s father was an entrepreneur who started a pencil factory, and he actually built it. His father actually built it to where it was one of the leading pencil factories manufacturers in the United States. But at that time, there was not pencils were not like they are today. They weren’t reliable. In terms of the the graphite edge coming out. It could have come out. It sometimes came out sloppy and stupid, as in, sloppy and soupy on a, on a, you know, when you’re writing on a pad of paper or something, or they could break off too easily. There were just a lot of problems with it, and yet people accepted it, because this is this is the way pencils are. Henry would work part time in his father’s factory, and he started scratching his head and say, this is the way they are. Is this really all they can be? The way we all accept pencils. So he convinced his father to let him do a research project. And he was a graduate of Harvard, and Concord is only well 20 minutes by car and probably three or four hours by stagecoach back in those days, but he went off to Harvard and stayed there for a couple of weeks, and he just hit the library and hit. The books, and he learned that in Europe, particularly in Germany and France, pencils were very different. There were they had a different ingredient in the insides, different type of clay that was mixed with other ingredients. And their pencils did work reliably time after time after time. So we came back to the factory in Concord, and he said, in motion, putting together. He did a lot of experiments to figure out how to do it, and he even created a little contraption that was that was going to mix the ingredients in a new way, more effective way, and lo and behold, what it what had happened in the end was that he created this new pencil that really worked really well, and it’s come to be known as the number two pencil because it spawned all these other pencils for different things, like in our for architects or for contractors, artists, different different professions gravitate toward different numbers that numbers were assigned to pencils. But for most of us, number two is the one that we’re used to. It’s our conventional pencil, and that’s how Henry came up with that, and it’s lasted to the to the to this

Jim Beach 36:30
day. Very interesting. So what are some of the lessons that we can learn from him, and what business type things that he write about and espouse.

Ken Lizotte 36:44
Yeah, one of them that seems to me that’s really important is for you to know if you’re in the right job or not, or if you’re in the right business or not. And it was very important to Henry to have that inner satisfaction from the work that he did. So when he first got out of Harvard, there was a recession. Maybe you could even call it a depression in the country. It was 1837 they referred to it then as the panic of 1837 I don’t know how we lost that word panic, but that’s how they that’s how they termed it back then. And he started looking for a job, and he wasn’t sure what to look for. He started to think that he could make a good teacher. And he went to different he went on different job interviews in different areas of New England, and nothing was coming for him. And then somebody right here in Concord who had some influence with the Concord School Committee at that time said to him, would you would you be interested in taking a position here in Connor. So he did, but he had, he had one criteria, that it was really important to him, and it was the matter of discipline, in in, in the classroom, and it could be, it could be quite rowdy with especially typically, young boys would be dominating the classrooms at that time, and but he, he didn’t. He didn’t want to go. He didn’t want to utilize the prime, conventional, let’s call it tool of discipline in those days, which was corporal punishment. So he had a different idea of how to maintain discipline, and had more to do with interacting one on one with students and things of that nature, but, but sometimes the class could still get very unruly and and the Concord School Committee assured him that they had just recently passed a an order that would prohibit the use of corporal punishment, and he breathed a sigh of relief, and he said, okay, yeah, I’d be happy to take the job. He ended up having this great job for that time period and for this area. But then member of the school committee who wanted to see how he was doing visited class one day and sat in the back of the classroom and watched how things were going, and things did get kind of out of hand. And this guy could not believe this. Name was, by the way, he was Nehemiah ball, B, A, L, L, and it’s kind of seems, always seemed to me like a perfect name for that period of time. But he came up to Henry during the resources, and he says, you know, you got to get more discipline here. You’re going to have to not just lay it on the line, but you got to insist on it, and you may have to wrap them on the knuckles, and you’ve got to use physical measures in order to get the discipline that you need. Henry was totally against doing that, but he had a sense that he was being forced to do it, or he might lose the job. And so reluctantly, that same day, he he called up a few of the students, and he and he was giving him a rap on the knuckles with with a tool called the feral, which is kind of like a ruler, and wrapping them on the knuckles really hard and sending them back to their seats, and sending them back crying, and all of this. But he felt terrible about it, and so he when the class was over, school day was over, he walked over feeling as bad as he did. He walked over to nehemiah’s office, and he said, I quit. He said, I’m not going to do it this way. This isn’t this isn’t right to me. It doesn’t make sense. The day that he quit was only his eighth day on the job, but it meant so much to him that he he quit and he ended up not knowing what to do next. But again, we’ll flash forward to where where that went next. He got to a point where he realized that he could do a better job than the standard classroom. System that public schools maintain. So he started his own school, and he and his brother got together, both about the same age, and they started a school. You call it a prep school today, but you know, it was kind of like a private high school, and he did things his way. There was no corporal punishment. Much of the time of the day was spent outside the schoolhouse, walking around Walden Pond, looking at flowers and trees and leaves and animals and critters and things like that. And having education be a much fuller experience than the standard education then and then and now, when you really think about it. So he, he embarked on a startup, is what I’m saying here, and that’s why he embarked on a startup, because it wasn’t, it wasn’t working for him morally, to keep that job, just for the sake of, you know, making a salary,

Jim Beach 43:15
right? And let’s switch topics. Talk to us about getting published, why it’s so important, as a thought leader, to get a book out there? I

Ken Lizotte 43:24
don’t think there’s anything bigger and more important for for a business entrepreneur or or really a company, or anything, than having a book or having even a series of books, what you’re doing is you’re proclaiming that you really know something about a topic, particularly if your book is related to what your business produces. And there’s something about the credibility of a book, even though a lot of people say, Well, who reads books anymore? Or who actually gets to it before the before our talk here, Jim, you were telling me you got 2000 books on somewhere or other.

Jim Beach 44:15
My house,

Ken Lizotte 44:19
there’s just no way you’re going to read all those things. But if you pick up any one book without even reading or just looking at the cover and maybe the back cover bio for the author, that’s the physicality of that says something about your the author’s credibility. So when I started my business, I had management consultants primarily that came to me, not so much like, let’s say, manufacturing CEOs or that sort of thing, but they the management consultants that heard about what I was. Doing would come to me and say, I’ve been thinking about doing a book for a long time. I don’t know how to go about it or how I would get it published. People told me, you could help me. And since I had a background in publishing when I was younger, I knew all the ins and outs of book, what book publishers are looking for and or even if you want to self publish a book, what you need to do in order to make that book be attractive and clear from with the message that you trying to illustrate. So So I would say that it’s this level of credibility that a book, a published book, gives you, alone is the is the reason why it’s so important. There are a lot of people though that they might hear what I say, but they’re not sure that they really want to write a book. It can be too overwhelming to them, so I don’t say that you have to write a book. An alternative to that is to write articles and publish articles, not just one or two, but on a regular basis, and that also gives you a certain level of credibility for for your ideas that have to do with Your business. So it’s the it’s the physical stamp of approval that happens from a publisher, or, let’s say, a business magazine, or something like that, that they they’re willing to invest in you and your ideas. And it’s just, it just says something that, frankly, you know, when you read my bio, it says that I help business specialists become thought leaders and separate themselves from a competitive pack. And that’s really true, because what I’m suggesting here writing a book or more than one book, writing articles, or, you know, many articles ongoing. You look around at the competition, and you will find very, very few of your competitors, maybe none of them who are doing that sort of thing. So that’s, that’s where I come down on how you start out being a thought leader, and then the rest of it has to do with some of the basics, like, for example, networking and putting out some literature or some or an E letter or something of that sort, so that you can start keeping in contact with all the various contacts, colleagues, prospects, clients, etc, that you have. I have in my book, The experts edge, what I call five pillars of thought leading. And number one is publishing your ideas. And number two is speaking to groups. And you just have to engage in that. If you’re going to, you’re going to create a thought leader, image of yourself, and also practice what you preach.

Jim Beach 48:29
Is there a difference between self publishing and publishing with Harper Collins, does it make a difference in the world who published the book?

Ken Lizotte 48:39
I don’t think that it does. There’s a slight bump of credibility, if I’m able to say to you that when I am that the experts edge was published by McGraw Hill and Walden for hire. My latest book is published by Harper Collins. Everybody’s heard of McGraw Hill and everybody’s heard of Harper Collins, so it doesn’t lead to any deep discussion about all that. It’s just that somebody would hear that and might just kind of give a Humph, good, great, wow, because they recognize it. But there are a lot of publishers out there you’ve never heard of, and they they it’s still, though would be if you could answer that question, who published your book? You’re still getting a little credibility bump. But you take that by what I’ve learned is that you take that and you put it, put it right beside a self published book. And this happened to me once at a conference where I was I had a display table, conference table, and I display. Some of the books of my clients. And there were four books that were laid out there standing up, you know, cover, cover to be seen of each book. And there were two books out of the four that people were particularly interested in gravitated to, and one of them was called Speak Like a CEO. That was all about speaking and trying to present yourself like a like a major CEO, and, you know, whatever that that might entail. And people were kind of interested in that book. Any other one was the something like the product is you, and that’s just about how you build your product or your service, your service around who you are and what you know. That book got a lot of attention. The first book, speak, speak like a CEO, was published by McGraw Hill. The second book, the product is, you was self published. And so, you know, it’s the topic really, that’s what’s going to really pull people in. And you don’t want to just pull people in just to sell sell books, and which is, unfortunately, the game that the publishers have to play. They have to get as many books sold as possible. But in order to be seen as a thought leader and have the credibility of a book, you actually don’t you and I, or any of the listeners here today do not have to sell a lot of books. We just need to have that credibility that will cause prospective clients to come our way. And it’s a step in our in our direction, and then we’ve got to go through this the usual process of, you know, the sales call, or talking about your benefits and your value and that kind of thing. But it’s, but the book would be frequently, either a first step or a later step that solidified the earlier steps to impress people that you are a thought leader,

Jim Beach 52:30
right? Ken, great information. Unfortunately, we have run out of time. I have a million more questions, but we’ll just have to have you back later to do a follow up. How do we find out more? Get in touch. Follow you online, hire you all that, please,

Ken Lizotte 52:44
sure. Well, my website is thought leading.com not not thought leadership, and not thought leader, but thought leading ing.com if you Google my name, I’m going to come up in a lot of different ways. And as far as my books go, it’s the usual places, it’s Amazon, it’s Barnes and Noble, it’s your local bookstore. You know, you can, you can find my books pretty easily if you, if you do just a little looking

Jim Beach 53:21
right Ken, thank you so very much, and congratulations, and we’d love to have you back. Thanks a lot.

Ken Lizotte 53:29
Thank you, Jim.

Jim Beach 53:31
If you are looking for a publisher for your book, I actually own a publishing company. I don’t talk about it enough. Don’t really advertise it, but yes, I own a publishing company, and I will help you get published. I will look at the work my team, and I will decide if we can help you be successful and move it out the door. Let me know if you’re interested. We’re out of time. Have a great day. Bye. Now you.