Welcome to episode 5 of The Automate & Delegate Podcast! Thank you so much for coming and attending this episode of the Automate and Delegate Podcast, where we are talking all about fast, portable and flexible ways to grow your life, your business and relationships. I am your host, Brad Stevens and today I am super excited to be joined by Todd Palmer. Todd Palmer is an executive coach at Extraordinary Advisors, keynote speaker, and author of From Suck to Success: A Guide to Extraordinary Entrepreneurship. Todd is committed to helping business owners tackle their obstacles and clear their path to success. As an entrepreneur and an active CEO, Todd knows the struggles business owners face regarding people, cash strategy, and execution. He took his company from 600 Grand in debts to making it into an INC 5000 list, as one of America’s fastest-growing companies. In this episode, Todd shares the strategies he used to address the three major challenges he faced on his road to success. He also shares tools and resources that were crucial for his growth from debts to making profits. Tune in to listen to these and more topics.Timestamps[01:20] Todd’s big purpose in what he does[03:18] Swimming in debts[04:30]Challenge #1: Imposter syndrome[08:58] Challenge #2: COVID-19[12:55] Challenge #3: Operating in vacuum[16:23] One critical skill for entrepreneurs[19:14] The power of active listeningTodd says his biggest purpose in what he’s doing right now is to improve people’s lives. He shares some of the challenges he has ever faced as an entrepreneur and how he addressed them. He says the biggest challenge was imposter syndrome. Todd never felt he deserved his success. He never owned the success but owned his failures.  To solve this, he decided to work on himself and hired a coach to help him see purpose in his life.Another big challenge Todd faced was COVID-19. With its impacts felt in almost every industry, COVID-19 was also a threat to his business. But quickly realizing that COVID-19 “happened for us, not to us,” was key in navigating and finding opportunities amidst the pandemic.One final challenge Todd faced is operating in Vacuum. However, he was able to overcome this with the help of Jack Stack’s book, The Great Game Of Business, open-book management. He says he doubled down on using Jack Stack’s tools extensively and overcame this challenge.He says there’s one critical skill that all entrepreneurs should have to succeed. “The best leaders I have ever interacted with are the ones who ask the best questions, and practice the most active listening.” Links and Resources Connect With Todd PalmerWebsite: https://extraordinaryadvisors.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddpalmer1/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCswsalTqVuynCKv1rwCyJfQMentioned ResourcesLiving Well From Within YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcPn9PIGkEe5fWDOEIMB8yQ/featuredThe Great Game of Business: Unlocking the Power and Profitability of Open-Book Management https://www.amazon.com/Great-Game-Business-Expanded-Updated/dp/0385348339 Don't forget to check out this week's featured tool for entrepreneurs below! * At Grain, we believe that human connectedness begins by actively listening to others with the intent to share understanding with them. * If it were as easy to capture, copy, and share important moments from live conversations as it is to type a message, we could connect more easily to the message instead of being distracted by the messenger. * So this is exactly what we decided to build and we’re just getting started.