We had the good fortune of connecting with Frank Zaccari and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Frank, how do you think about risk?
Every decision I have ever made comes with a degree of risk. The greatest risk is addressing fear. I learned many years ago – nothing changes until I do.

Too often, we live the life we are told to live – not the life we want. Why? For many of us, it is fear. Fear is a powerful emotion. It motivates some people to take action while paralyzing others.

Don Miguel Ruiz wrote: ,Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive and express what we really are. Think about that.

This doesn’t mean I just jump off a cliff without doing my research. When an opportunity is presented to me, I evaluate the situations. Why is this coming to me? What are the good, bad and ugly about this opportunity? How will my skill set fit? What type of culture is in place now? Where do I want to take this opportunity and is it possible? What people will I need to make this successful? What is the end game for this opportunity?

Once I am convinced the opportunity is worth the risk, I have to address the inevitable fear that creeps in during the decision process. We will never rid ourselves of fear. We all have this emotion, but we can learn how to prevent fear from dominating our lives.

Uncontrolled Fear is where hope, trust, innovation, and courage go to die. Many unhappy lives are the result of failing to address fear. Fear, however, is a choice. Mel Robbins was a guest on my radio show. She said:
You don’t have what you want because your thoughts and feelings hold you back. Your resistance to change, whether it manifest as fear or anger or stubbornness, keeps you on the safe, familiar path. But, you start to steer your life in new directions by taking action (when you don’t feel like it). – Mel Robbins – Stop Saying You’re Fine.

Once I have addressed the fear factor I start moving forward and make adjustments as needed along the way.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I have been through several journeys in my life: college, military, hi-tech career, senior hi-tech executive, hi-tech CEO divorce, CEO of my insurance agency, single parent, author of 9 books, 5 #1bestsellers and 2 award-winners, certified speaker, radio, TV, podcast host, and Co-founder of Trust the Process – Book Marketing Program.

While each one of these steps were very different, none of these experiences were easy. I learned something of value from each that I continue to use today. As a military medic in my early 20’s, I learned every day is an adventure. You never know what is going to happen in the Emergency Room. It could be as minor as the flu, or as intense as a gunshot wound, overdose, car accident, domestic violence etc.

We must be trained and train our teams to be prepared to deal quickly and accurately with the unknown, unexpected and often the unthinkable under adverse and stressful environments. For example in the military we train constantly so we are prepared. When something goes wrong in training or in an actual situation, a leaders first response should be what happened and were my people adequately trained. Great leaders don’t move right to blaming people. I brought the need to train my staff and employees at every organization. I gave them the training and then the ability to look for potential solutions.

I learned how to create a positive and high performing culture by taking input from staff, customers, mentors, and others. Since I will never be nor want to be the smartest person in the room, I learned to be an active listener always looking for the next idea or suggestion that will make a positive impact. Four statements that make me crazy are best practice; we have always done it this way; it is what it is; and that’s the way I am. Nothing is static. Best practice is a point in time it is not in stone forever. What I try to identify is “The Next Practice” that will differentiate us from the herd. I encourage simple statements like “What if we did this? or “What do you think of this?”

Everyone I interact with brings value. Some bring value when they leave, but most have provided wisdom along my journey.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I love the Phoenix area. For example, spring training baseball with my grandchildren, the zoo, the museums and art downtown and at Scottsdale Quarter or Kierland. Some of our favorite places to eat and enjoy company of friends are the Village Tavern, The Sicilian Butcher, Mancuso’s, Fratelii La Bufala, Guido’s, The Italian Festival (you can tell I’m Italian). Attending shows at the Gammage Theater and sporting events at ASU, trips to Sedona.

Phoenix offers so many activities and event.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
It started with my parents who installed in us that life isn’t fair and to survive and thrive we have to pick up the pieces and keep moving forward. When we do better times and better people come into our life.

As a single father, my daughters have been the driving force that has kept me moving forward. In the last nine years a wife and step-son were added to my life. This is my core.

Professionally there have been so many people who helped me along the way. Melissa Van Oss, my partner at Trust the Process – Book Marketing Program brings the creative mindset, which is not my strong point Together we balance each other. With this balance our Trust the Process Book Marketing Program has achieve 13 consecutive bestselling and 5 award-winning books. We have several more in the pipeline.

Website: www.frankzaccari.com

Instagram: fznyca1

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankzaccari/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/frank.zaccari/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4jSFziDx5ZQXP2ZY5-M0-w

Other: Amazon Link Authorship Central Page if you are an Author. https://www.amazon.com/stores/Frank-Zaccari/author/B00IXEGNSS?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true BizCatalyst 360 – https://www.bizcatalyst360.com/our-featured-contributors/ Parade Deck – https://paradedeck.com/news/author/frank-zaccari

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