Listen to the episode:

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

• How Paul used to get annoyed when he’d hear others speaking of being “mindful” and now with his own meditation practice is more present and aware – referring to “mindful” as these powers that he realized we all have
• The important lesson Paul learned from his Dad: always be kind. He would say in his early years, “Always be nice, never burn a bridge, and treat people with respect.”
• Why most of us that start businesses just dive in and work hard and just try to survive
• How like many people in business, we typically have these events that changed the course of our business that we really didn’t expect or in some ways can’t control.
• Why some of our best ideas in business come from listening to our customers – this is how Beryl became a call center for hospitals
• Creating a recurring revenue business and using that to scale your profitability
• How Paul and his brothers moved from Los Angeles and opened a call center in an old Wal-Mart Space
• How sending a handwritten note card to a prospect helped them win a huge deal
• Why being nice and treating people with respect and caring about people is not only the right thing to do — it’s also good for business
• Showing your employees gratitude, treating them with respect, developing them over time, and making life as good for them as you can
• Stepping outside of your comfort zone, reading books, working with mentors, and really trying to soak in as much information as you can because there is so much to learn
• How Paul met his wife (hint: while traveling…)
• The anxiety a lot of business owners have over planning everything, why some things are better out of our control and learning to let things come to us
• Why he titled his best selling book, “Why is Everyone Smiling”
• How and why the book, “Small Giants,” inspired him. And, the blind email he sent to the author, Bo Burlingham
• The importance of having conversations when people approach you, just talking to people, and building relationships
• Why you never know what’s going to happen
• Why Paul — after walking away from an offer from a private equity company — maxed out his line of credit and reduced profitability to go “all in”
• How his strong culture led to selling the company at 22 times multiple!
• How a simple conversation led to Paul becoming a 50/50 partner in the Wine Gallery in Laguna Beach, CA
• How Paul feels when his restaurant receives a poor review on Yelp
• Why Paul feels there is value in taking a silent meditation retreat and his story about the “lonely tree” that really isn’t lonely after all