Balance, Not Burnout

Jet Setting to Balance with Jimmy Pomerance

May 20, 2024 • Mark Williams • Season 2 • Episode 8

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Join host Mark Williams and guest Jimmy Pomerance as they embark on a thoughtful exploration of maintaining equilibrium between personal fulfillment and professional endeavors, Mark and Jim share invaluable insights drawn from their unique experiences. 

Jim's tales of traversing the nation while teaching courses provide a vivid backdrop to their discussion on the significance of embracing life's adventures while maintaining a sense of balance. Meanwhile, Mark paints a picture of his ideal Saturday morning, offering a glimpse into the essence of personal rejuvenation. Throughout their conversation, Jim underscores the timeless principles of loyalty and prioritizing quality over quantity, imparting essential lessons for navigating the complexities of modern work culture. Delving into the realm of effective communication, they stress the importance of confident and structured messaging in presentations, illuminating the path to professional success. Moreover, they delve into the vital necessity of harmonizing work commitments with personal well-being to thwart the specter of burnout, underscoring the universal relevance of this balance across diverse industries, including their own expertise in financial services. Tune in for a captivating dialogue brimming with wisdom, as Mark and Jim offer invaluable guidance on crafting a life of fulfillment and purpose.

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Mark Williams:

You're listening to Balance, Not Burnout, a podcast helping leaders rethink the speed of their business. And I'm your host Mark Williams. Join me as I explore the power of a more intentional, balanced approach to leadership. Thanks for listening. Hey, everybody, this is Balance, Not Burnout. This is Mark Williams and we are ready for episode eight. And today from my hailing from Florida, gentleman that not only knows me, but his family knows my family. So we'll talk about that real quick. Second, please welcome Jim Pomerance nationally recognized presentation communication and sales skills consultant. Jimmy has done tons of training for people at brokers international along with hundreds of insurance agents, financial professionals, all kinds of people throughout the country. Jimmy, how you get on but

Jimmy Pomerance:

I'm always good. You know, that's, that's been my answer for a long time. And people will say how could you say you're always good? So you know, even if I'm not if you say it all the time, it becomes that self fulfilling prophecy. So I'm always good.

Mark Williams:

Awesome. Well, we always start out the episode with one major question right balance, not burnout. assume it's a Saturday or Sunday morning, you've got no responsibilities, you can be with whomever you want. Do whatever you want. Describe for me your perfect Saturday morning.

Jimmy Pomerance:

Oh, boy. So you know, my wife and I lived in Atlanta for a long time. And that's how I originally met you more when you when I was in Atlanta. And, you know, we moved back down to South Florida, because this is where we're from these are, these are our roots. I'm actually a native South Florida and witches were very, very rare. And not soon after we we moved down my my son and daughter in law had our grandkids. So they had the first one which, you know, Saturday's was always dedicated to that. And now we have another little guy. So most of the time, if I don't have something physical to do, and I just told you, I just I'm coming off of a shoulder replace you're right now but otherwise, I get up and I'm a big tennis enthusiast. Pickleball water volleyball. I live in one of those communities in South Florida. That's kind of all encompassing. Yeah. So it's, it's like camp here. So usually it's something physical, and then something with the kids or the family. So I really truly do live the South Florida lifestyle.

Mark Williams:

Awesome. Well, why don't you tell everybody a little bit about what you do? And I know you travel like a fiend like I do. So it's a little bit about what you do and what your day to day is like.

Jimmy Pomerance:

Yeah, so it's funny, you're talking about traveling, if you look down, I can kind of point right there. That's my 2 million miler on Delta.

Mark Williams:

I just took my two jet literally, like two months ago, I just hit mine.

Jimmy Pomerance:

Yeah, so that was 10. It's kind of exciting. And it you know, it also speaks to something else, Mark. And I don't know if you've thought of this before, but But 2 million miles, I'm sure you have some loyalty program with, you know, I'm Vaughn bond, boy, I don't know who you are. I'm hurts. And you don't dilute those. And part of that 2 million miles is what we ask of our clients, which is loyalty. Yeah, that's what I was. I looked at something like that as as loyalty. So basically, in a nutshell, what I do is I travel around the country, as we talked about, and I teach a two day presentation, communication and sales skills. Training Course. It's, it's not a huge number of people. So it's quality, not quantity. And for two days, everyone in that room gets the opportunity to get up and present four times in front of their colleagues, who are what I would call business presentations, to our more fun presentations, where I don't want that them to really work on being too accurate. I want them to work on a structure that I teach. And, you know, after two days, you've seen him work. After two days, folks walk in the door the first day, guys, they run the gamut from the folks that are terrified of getting up and speaking to the guys that walk in the room thinking they're already better than they are. And everybody gets better. And you know, it's the proofs in the pudding. It's all quantifiably videoed, so people see the difference, they feel the difference. And there's a lot a lot worse ways to make.

Mark Williams:

How long have you been independent as an entrepreneur and we'll talk a little bit about prospecting and all that kind of stuff. But how long have you been on your own? So probably, Gosh, 25 years, 25 years,

Jimmy Pomerance:

I have to just come up with it with a figure it's probably 25 years as the impact speakers and I also do and Mark You had me actually come to the to the hotel here in Hollywood wants the diplomat. So I also do motivational speaking for failure of a better term i I hate that term, motivational speaking but I do speak at conferences, Lunch and Learns things like that, within the industry. Yeah,

Mark Williams:

and I think I've seen I've seen your presentation several times, many times over the years. Obviously, communication being key. And we're in the world today with even what we're doing right now, Zoom podcast. Describe for me what you believe you provide to those that sit through your course. And why is communication so important, especially today?

Jimmy Pomerance:

Yeah. So it's interesting. You say, zoom, and all this what we're doing right now, imagine this five years ago, it was it was. And by the way, it was a necessity. Because obviously, if people like me who have to travel every, every week, my world shut down. So I had to be and I was a technological dinosaur. So for me to actually sit and put these things together. I remember my daughter came in once from from Chicago, where she lives and I've got my computer set up, and I've got my, my iPad next to it that I'm screen sharing, and I've got my ring light, and I hate a microphone and all these. And she came in and you tell me if you thought this was condescending, she walked in, and she said, Wow, dad, I thought that was somewhat kindness.

Mark Williams:

My son says, My son walks in right now to my office, and he goes, Wow, you've got like microphones in the computer. Because usually can't set up anything. I can't do anything. A Boomer.

Jimmy Pomerance:

Hey, Boomer. So, so yeah, so what we provide people is, that guy, I might as well give you the same examples, the person that walks in the room terrified of getting up to speed, gains confidence, they gain a structure of how they both put together their presentation, and how they deliver it. The guy that walks in thinking he's already good, gets knocked down a few pegs, is it a little sober thought of, ah, I guess I can do better. And that's really the fun of what I do. Yeah, I

Mark Williams:

can tell you some of the takeaways that I have taken, the first 1525 seconds that you meet someone, get on a phone with someone, zoom with someone, the impression that you make when you open your mouth for the first time, whether that's with a prospect and existing customer, it really does matter. And those were some of the highlights of the presentations that I that I took from you. Not only just the practice of what you say how you say it, condense what you say so many people are so wordy today. And you really teach a lot of concise, think about what you say and how you say it. I love the course. So congratulations on delivering just lots of great information to lots of people. They can sit your day consists of prospecting and traveling. So talk a little bit about 25 years as an entrepreneur, always looking for your for new customers and new gigs. How do you not burn out, man? Yes.

Jimmy Pomerance:

So it's funny. Well, again, if you wake up every day, my wife used to teasingly say, you know, cuz she's not a morning person. I used to tease her and say, Boy, your your your estate and stay in bed, Mom, aren't you? And so she would come crawling out and I'm already Hey, how you doing? Good boy. She's like, Okay, let me get my coffee. And I'll never forget one time, she said, How could you be smiling already, you just woke up. And without even missing a beat. I wasn't even thinking about what I was saying. And I just said, Well, I guess that's why I'm smiling right now. Because I just woke up. You know that as we get older, we start realizing our mortality. So if you can get up in the morning, and your above ground, life is good. So So part of the part of not having to burn out is just my DNA. You know, I come from two very strong parents both were kind of in the public eye. My dad was a police chief, my, my whole life growing up when I was a kid, and my mom was an actress. So I guess when I was born, they said, Hey, congratulations, you have a son and a microphone. So part of not getting burnt out. And I apologize to anybody who's listening if they think they're gonna get pearls of wisdom, but part of it is, is the DNA. Part of it is that self fulfilling prophecy of saying, Hey, I'm alive, I woke up today. And so I guess, I guess that's part of Matt having the burnout. The other part is discussing the networking and the canvassing and trying to get new business. I'm really blessed in that industry in this industry as well in that you know, I hate to sound like this I do have a good reputation people that go through this thing, speak highly of the two days. And so very often I just get calls from from clients and prospects saying hey, either the prospect saying we heard about you from so and so. So a lot of it is that Markina how incestuous businesses and a lot of it is just my current clients just calling and saying, Hey, how do you look on April 7 and eighth in in Des Moines. And so a lot of it is that I will tell you right now, and this will be a shameless plug. I've got I am expanding for the first time. Congratulations. Good for you. Yeah. So thanks Mark. I, I started to do this in 2020. And then that COVID thing hit. I don't know if that was where you were, but we had it down here. And so that was, you know, as we talked about earlier, horrible situation. And we were going to open up then with other folks. Right now I'm starting with a nucleus of three dynamic. Good Guys, talented guys bright guys. One is a gentleman named Mike Gillespie, who was in Prudential for years and years. Another with Kim Harrington, who I met from one of your competitors. Let's see it was a Kessler financial Yeah, sure. Jim was it was a wonderful trainer. He's been in the armed forces. He's they all have backstories as well. And they're

Mark Williams:

a great organization and also financial plus short plug to Kessler, financial great organization.

Jimmy Pomerance:

Yeah, yep. Well, another one was, was another IMO is MnO. Sure. And there was a guy named Tom Scott chamara, who also is coming on board with me. So all three guys are ready to hit the hit the rat, the ground running, which is awesome that we discussed doing this, the timing couldn't be more perfect. So I'm very excited to get those three gentlemen up and running.

Mark Williams:

So I'm curious expansion, because 2 million miles is just starting to wear on you're more customers, then you know what to do with all the above?

Jimmy Pomerance:

Yeah, you could probably bubble and do all of the above. I do not want to slow down. That's, again, living in this community. I go out to the pool. And I see these guys. And by the way, they all have to sit in the same spot. There's, there's a sitcom here. I know, it's I know, it's Seinfeld that Del Boca Vista. You know, and so, in in the pool, everybody's in their own slot in there. And when I come in, I like where were you this week? You know, because keep in mind i i run a two day seminar. So I travel one day, I teach my two days and I'm home. Yep. So it's not like I'm working five days a week all day. Yes, the day is long. And yes, there's a lot to do at night processing videos and making sure folks can see their performance on day one, before day two, and so on. But, you know, these guys like Why Why are you still doing this? And the answer is kind of simple in that Mark, I don't know you probably share in this. I'll keep doing this until I want to do nothing more than I want to do what I'm doing. You bet. You bet. Really. That's That's it in a nutshell.

Mark Williams:

Let's talk a little bit about travel. You and I similar, I just hit my 2 million show up to the gate. There's Delta with a balloon and a little plaque. And it was it was pretty cool. But But traveling can be tough. When I was younger, and when you say oh, so glamorous. You get to travel and for the first few years, it was pretty cool, right? Yeah. And then until you're four, five and six when you walk out of your hotel, and you're looking for the white Ford Taurus, amongst the sea of white rental cars, right? How do you balance just your sanity? What do you do when you travel? That kind of how do you just balance just just, you know finding yourself during the day? Right? Well,

Jimmy Pomerance:

so you mentioned the tourists Have you have you gone to the wrong room too and wondered why they usually

Mark Williams:

that usually the room from the night before?

Jimmy Pomerance:

We've all done that to you checking out may see you in in that room and yes. Oh, that was two cities ago. Okay, I get that. So I guess the best way to describe it is the way my my life has evolved. Believe it or not, when I first started in this business, I was a terrified flier. Well, for a long time I was a terrified flier I was that guy that I the joke is one time a guy got on the plane and I looked at him I haven't seen him since high school. getting on a plane in South Florida since high school. Yeah, so well freight. Oh my god, how are you? Is this Jimmy is that you and we embrace stasis? I'll come talk to you while we're when we're in the air. And I said no, I don't I don't talk to anybody in the air. All white knuckle I was helping the pilot fly. They always say you know, well, it's your turn. It's your it's your time. It's your time. But what if it's the pilots time and we're collateral damage. So I've evolved from that. And, and again, Mark, you'll know this because of having it when when I had young kids now my kids are 40 and 34. But I would kill myself to get home right after the session. You know, even if that meant taking a read I don't know the last time I took a red eye. But in those days, I'd get home just just to be in the kitchen to help to make breakfast, you know, to make dip eggs and French toast and whatever the kids called whatever I made. And that was that was very, very important. I don't have that same thing. Now. I fly in the night before I do do my two days. And I stay that next night. And this will make sense. I'm traveling through Atlanta. So do you know what time I'd finally get home if I waited until the The end of the session. And then so it that's the night I do my videos for the participants, that's when I'll make any calls. And that's when I'll kind of relax. So keep in mind living in South Florida. I go through Atlanta on the way in and the way out every single week. The joke is when I die on my way to heaven, I'm going to have to go through it. Go through Atlanta for sure. Yeah. So that's evolved to now I relax, I and Mark again, if we're both 2 million milers, we, it's not that hard. You know, you go through the priority line. If you're Delta guy, and I've seen you find delta flights, you go to the club room, you get the priority seating. If you're lucky, you get you get upgraded, which, again, with the status we do so get to your hotel, and usually that there's a there's a greeting there with old thank you for being a bond boy, whatever it is titanium. So it's not, I can't really complain about it. The early days. Yes, it was tough. Now, I guess we get on planes the way some people get. It gets in a car here and says, Hey, I'm gonna drive an hour and a half down to Miami.

Mark Williams:

Yep. Are you a reader? Are you your movie watcher, you take notes.

Jimmy Pomerance:

Not a lot of notes. I will I will go on the Wi Fi and check and see if there's any emails and so on. Otherwise, literally, I know this sounds silly. But I read a while ago to keep the brain sharp. I'll play word games. I'll do it. Listen, you know, I'm a big Wordle guy. I'll do the word games I'll do and then if there's something good on on the on the screen, I'll watch that. The one thing that does surprise people is I rarely if ever speak to the person next to me other than, hey, how you doing? How you doing? And that's it. I don't want to adopt anybody. This is my time to just okay, I'm good now. So that's your relaxed time that you're downtown. Yeah, the few people I have spoken to I'm still friendly with with to this day, which is crazy. So I pick and choose.

Mark Williams:

I'm curious when you finally get home, but much like me, I'm a very routine oriented person. If you were to call me every day, at the same time, I'm both up at the same time, probably breakfast at the same time working on at the same time, yada yada, yada. When you finally come home from a week off, what's it like landing at home? And how do you just you know, how do you brush off the week?

Jimmy Pomerance:

You know what? Again, this sounds so silly, but it's just conditioning. It's just getting used to it. I come home, even if I had flown in from from Los Angeles, and I'm walking in the door at five o'clock. I know if we have plans that night, very often we'll go out to dinner and the other people will say, Wait, you just got off a plane from you from Los Angeles and you had to go through Atlanta and you have to get it's just I don't really think about how, you know, tired or I think that's part of it, too. That's that self fulfilling prophecy. If you dwell on it, it's not going to change it. If you don't dwell on it, it can change it. Yeah. You go out at night afterwards if you if you fly home, well, you you jump in a car and go out socially.

Mark Williams:

Very rarely, but sometimes Yeah. Right. So the other part of that is just understanding that my partner has been at home for a week without me, right? Up until recently watching the kids, the dogs, all of that and sometimes she just needs to get out right and so, so for me, unless it's been a really hectic week, if she wants to grab a bite out, or we'll go sit at a you know, local watering hole and you know, something like that. Not very often because she's not a huge, you know, she'd rather be with me. But yeah, on occasion for sure. We'll have friends over the night that I land you bet. But it is kind of just just to relax, you know, kind of reenter slowly for me. But

Jimmy Pomerance:

I also work real quick when you mentioned the spouse. I also have a wife who's very socially active as well. Yep. And she plays pickleball and she goes out and she'll play cards. And she, I mean, she has a full life too. So when I'm on the road, remember we don't our kids are out of the house for years and years. We've got the grandkids and so for us when I get home, she's not that caged Tiger so to speak, waiting to go out. Have you been out? You know, I gotta I gotta get out of here. If we have plans we go out if we don't we don't she she has her own life. When I'm on the road. I have mine on the road. And then we just we mesh i i Just November hit 43 years married. So I'm pretty good. Yeah.

Mark Williams:

One question I get asked this quite a bit. I'm curious for you. You do several presentations, but in general over the last couple of years you do the same things over and over. I'm always curious about a band right how do you you're the stones How often can you possibly play satisfaction right and just and just still be into it? For you. I wouldn't call it burnout but it's it is a lot of the same thing that you do week in week out, although with different people granted. How do you stay motivated? reading up on that.

Jimmy Pomerance:

Yeah. So two things you just mentioned, one was the stones, I also happen to be the lead vocalist in a band here. I must tell you, I don't know if I told you the name of the band. But I hope the folks out there, get it get a kick out of it. So remember, I'm in Florida. I don't know if you all know this. But there's some older people in Florida. The state flag is a steering wheel with just so so you'll you'll get a kick out of this the band. I mean, it's called the grateful we're not dead. So nice. Yeah. So talking about getting the band back together. Keep in mind, you know, you hit the nail on the head, you answered your own question really, in that? People will say to me, how do you do this speech? Or how do you do the same thing? There are no two seminars that are ever alike. And if and if you know me, which I know you do, but anybody out there that's thinking about doing a seminar, I try to tailor that seminar so that each person that walks out the door thinks, wow, I got special attention. Remember, my grandmother died. My brother and I each did a eulogy. We didn't talk to each other prior to. And then when each of us died up, we talked about what it was like to be my grandmother's favorite grants grants. You know, and I kind of tried to follow that. So I there's no burnout, because every single session is different the cast of characters. Do you remember the old Ed Sullivan Show? Yeah.

Mark Williams:

Very, very roughly. Because way past my time, sir. But

Jimmy Pomerance:

absolutely. Even Even if you remember the acrobats and they spun plates, sure. And they spin the first plate. You know, the music, download that, that that? Then they slip in the next one. And that what happens when they got here? What happens at first played? So you run back and you spin that first one, you keep spinning the plates, and you gotta get him out? Yeah, I have to get everybody in the room. Spinning. Yep. So if you really, I teach something that when people get up to speak, the one major cause of nervousness is they're thinking of themselves. I hope I don't have spinach in my teeth. I hope I don't make mistakes. I don't have too many filler words. I hope my hands are flying mee, mee, mee, Mee Mee. But the great speakers, if you watch, it's all about them, it's all about the audience. And so I truly eat my own food, you know, and when I'm out there, it really is about the speaker or the people in the room. Therefore, really, every single session is different. Yeah,

Mark Williams:

I will tell you just a little bit about speaking, I love to speak in public. I do find it interesting how people can be super afraid of that. And I have found that the more confidence I have in what I'm saying, the less nervous I am. And I used to tell people, if I were to ask you about your family, you don't get nervous at all. You just start talking about your family. It's easy. My brothers this my mom's that there's no reason to be nervous just talking about your family. So if you were stood in front of 300 people, and someone were to say, Tell me about your family, it's pretty easy. If they ask you, you know, how does? How does this product work? And you don't really know very well, you have every right to be nervous. And I know you teach hundreds of those kinds of tips and tricks, you know, watch the audience pay attention to that all that kind of stuff. Let's give a brief commercial. If, if I'm interested in having you why would why would I want why would I want impact speakers to come and talk to my folks?

Jimmy Pomerance:

Well, because you have

Mark Williams:

I know I want to hear from you.

Jimmy Pomerance:

But it's just somebody out there watching. Really we just I guess it is what I talked about before, which is every single person that walks in the room, we regardless of their skill set, we regardless of their experience, regardless of the nerves or anything in two short days, from the time they walk in, in the in the morning of day one, until they walk out of the door on day two. quantifiably, get better, they have more confidence, they, like you said, if you're talking about your family, well, we do kind of the same thing. And that many times people get up there. And they are they're talking about product or features and benefits and what and sometimes I'll just stop and for a second, stop the recording and say, you know this stuff, forget you. And the hotel, somebody else grabbed that person's notes, and they're like flying without a net. And then they can do it. So it is really it's a methodology that we teach. It's a way to compose your presentation, that it's quicker for the person to put together easier for the listener to follow along, retain and most importantly, repeat. Think of your salespeople. They're talking to advisors. Yep, very often the advisor isn't hearing what they're saying exactly, and then the message gets lost when they transfer it to their clients or prospects. What I teach with this methodology is the listener follows along more clearly and is able to then turn around and repeat the message. And quite frankly, I always say I give a money back guarantee, if anybody in that session doesn't feel that it was worth the two days that it was some of the best. I know that sounds like that. But you want to do you want me to tell you why? Everybody will get better if anyone in there says, Yeah, I didn't get anything out of it. I'll refund the money. And I've never had to get a penny back. So I guess that's why people would hire me. Yeah.

Mark Williams:

And I'll tell you, somebody asked me, oh, you're gonna have Jimmy on? I said, Yeah. Because for me, the more skill you have in anything that you do, number one, I think you will have less burnout, right? The confidence level and people that know what they're doing. And they know they're providing either a good service or a good product and they're presenting Well, there is more confidence, there is less nervousness there is there's a balance to that a confidence and a feeling to that. If you're always nervous, and always stressful, I think you are going to burn out way easier. And I think your class without actually saying that you are teaching that to some extent. Would you agree with that? That mindset? Sure,

Jimmy Pomerance:

sure. And one thing I didn't mention is the the team building that goes on in there. Remember, the hardest presentation one can ever give is the one in front of their peers in front of their peers. None of those colleagues think of showing tell when you had to get up in front of all the kids in the class and say, Oh, my gosh, you're freaking out. So in here, part of it is that so we don't say, tell us about yourself, because that's so innocuous. But there is an introduction process that goes on first, where I get to see who they really are, so that I know who they're trying to be when they get up and I want that. I want that bridge to come closer and closer together so that they are themselves. That's the person out there right now, Mark, I know you. This is us. I'm sure there's people that get nervous, or stillness. But this is us. Why? Because we're not pretending to be the the presenter. Yep. You know, and that's why this thing works. And it does work people get better.

Mark Williams:

How can they find you, Jimmy? Very

Jimmy Pomerance:

simple. It's just the impact speakers.com Everybody knows me as Jimmy up. So it's Jimmy p at impact speakers.com Anybody that wants to call me directly 954-288-5467 Which 5467 spells Jim pity. Oh, I'd be glad to speak with anybody out there that wants to get better and wants to be more productive. One last thing with these three gentlemen coming on board, we're not just going to concentrate on this arena, the financial arena, we now have an opportunity to get that out there and spread it amongst other types of industries as well. So that's that's what we're trying to do. Yeah,

Mark Williams:

let me make a quick plug. So obviously, folks that know me brokers International, we're financial services, and any financial professional who's going to stand in front of a customer or a group of people needs to speak. But think of any industry where you have a product rep who is going out and visiting customers where you have sales folks who are who are presenting a product to a group of people, anytime someone has to present something to a group of people, they'll get something out of impacts, presentation and training for sure. Jimmy, I can't thank you enough for being on the show. one heck of a guy just a great person to know, even if you don't do business with him. Just a great guy to know. I can't thank you enough for being on the show. And hopefully, I'll see you at some point in the world club in Atlanta.

Jimmy Pomerance:

I'm sure we will. Please. Thanks for I appreciate you having me on.

Mark Williams:

You bet. Thanks, everybody. Balence Not Burnout. We'll talk to you soon. Take care. Thanks for listening. If you think balance is as important as I do, at work and all throughout your life. Help the show out by leaving me a five star review following me on social media, or sharing the podcast with someone you think would appreciate it. If you have comments or questions. I'd love for you to join the conversation with me on LinkedIn. I want to thank OBI Creative for producing the podcast and Swells Beats forgetting the music for me. Thanks for sharing your time with me today. And until next time, this is Mark signing off.