Neighbors Helping Neighbors: Business Leadership With Purpose

Irma Parone shares her journey from bestselling author to Florida Speakers Association president, offering valuable insights on decision-making and business success. She discusses her passion-driven approach to leadership, encouraging entrepreneurs to serve with heart while maintaining practical business sense.

Irma Parone

• Tel: +1 954-464-6689
• Website: ParoneGroup.com
• Email: irma@paronegroup.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paronegroup/

• Irma's first book "Winx: The Problem-Solving Model" has significantly impacted her career by helping organizations make better decisions
• We are the result of our decisions—from career choices to how we respond to mistakes and successes 
• Aspiring entrepreneurs need both immense passion and adequate financial resources to succeed
• As new president of the Florida Speakers Association, Irma highlights the organization's value in building connections with industry leaders
• The Florida Speakers Association offers exceptional resources including Association Insights membership to help grow speaking businesses
• Irma supports Neighbors for Neighbors (neighbors4neighbors.org), a trusted organization that addresses critical community needs during disasters
• Personal insights: Irma once had a dance company that opened for The Temptations and finds energy in rainy days rather than sunshine

Join us as we support the https://neighbors4neighbors.org/ this month!

Visit friendsfromwildplaces.buzzsprout.com to find all our episodes. Please let us know your thoughts, send us questions, and remember - you got this, and stay wild.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Friends from Wild Places
• 0:38 Irma's Books and Decision-Making Philosophy
• 3:00 Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
• 4:28 Florida Speakers Association Presidency
• 10:24 Supporting Neighbors for Neighbors
• 12:55 Fun Questions: Meeting Famous People
• 20:00 Final Thoughts and Contact Information

Transcript

Voiceover: 0:03

Tales from the wild, stories from the heart. A journey into the mind and soul of fired up business professionals, where they share their vision for the future and hear from a different non-profit organization every month as they create awareness of their goals and their needs. Dive into a world of untamed passion as we join our host, Shireen Botha, for this month's episode of Friends from Wild Places.

Shireen Botha: 0:35

Love that Excellent Irma. I want to just move a little bit away from something else that you've done, which is writing a few books. I'm quite interested just to hear from you, out of the books that you've written, which is the one book that has impacted your life the most.

Irma Parone: 0:55

Well, that kind of is complicated, because my first book, winx the problem-solving model to win with customers, employees in your bottom line is the book that I promote the most. It's the one to help organizations really drive their business by making good decisions. But what got me to even writing that first book was being involved in another book, but I was one of 50 authors throughout the world and it ended up being an international best seller. So that kind of started me on the path to writing. But but my first book is the one that you know I speak a lot about how to make good decisions.

Irma Parone: 1:43

How are we are the result of the decisions we make? Right, I'm here because you each made a decision to bring me on and I made the decision that I wanted to do it. I made the decision what job I wanted, how I responded to people when I make a mistake, it was my decision. When I do well, it was my decision. So I think that's really it's really impacted I. I judge my success based on my customer success, because I'm here to serve and and that is really helping people the most, I think. So I will go with that book most, I think.

Tanya Scotece: 2:28

So I will go with that book and can you walk us through?

Irma Parone: 2:30

um, irma, just as far as, how many published books do you have out there? I have two plus the one that was. You know, I don't count the first one. So as far as me publishing, I have two.

Shireen Botha: 2:40

Okay that's awesome. So if you could give a piece of advice to someone Irma, that wants to start their own business, go on their own and make the leap of faith to become an entrepreneur and a business owner, what would that piece of advice be?

Irma Parone: 3:00

Well, it would be to have immense passion for serving whoever your customer is, because if you don't have that passion, it's a lot of work. People think I'm going to start my own job and you know I could screw off and you know, watch TV all day. Well, you can, but you're not going to grow your business. But also have the money, because you are going to need other resources. You will need help with marketing, because if you spend your time in marketing, you should be out there selling your business right? Make sure that if you don't have great leadership skills, that you get them or that you hire somebody like me or other professionals to help you drive your team and help you with training. So, really have a huge passion for who you're going to serve. Why make it from the heart? But then also have the resources and don't be afraid to spend some money on what you need help with.

Shireen Botha: 4:06

That's excellent advice. Thank you very much.

Tanya Scotece: 4:10

Listeners. We also have the speaker circuit that you do a lot of speaking engagements and I want to congratulate you on your most recent, you becoming president of one of the biggest ones here right in Florida. Can you share with our listeners a little bit about that?

Irma Parone: 4:28

Yeah. So Florida Speakers Association, which is an elite chapter of the National Speakers Association, is an organization to help you grow your speaking business and, yeah, I just became president in June. I'm honored, yeah, thank you. I'm honored that they gave me the opportunity to serve and it's thank you. It's such an amazing organization. I mean, if you're looking to grow your speaking business, we bring in people from all across the country who are high level, certified, highly certified there's different levels of certifications speakers and we bring them in. It's once a month on a Saturday, and I'm telling you, each one has given me one thing that has grown my business. It's amazing and one of the benefits of this is we have for Florida Speakers Association is we have something called Association Insights. So that membership alone is like, I think, $600. It's included in your membership Membership's only $450 for the year and for the value you get and the people, I will tell you that I don't think I will ever leave that organization because I have gotten connected to so many people across the United States and some even outside the United States. There's just an amazing giving. They're so giving. They will help you in a, in a minute.

Irma Parone: 6:11

I met this one speaker. Her name is Patricia Fripp. She's like speaker. Her name is Patricia Fripp. She's like a big, she's like a legend, and when I first met her, like, I saw her name on a name tag and I thought I'm meeting this lady and there were people swarmed around her right. So I waited for an opening and I got in there and I said Patricia, I am so honored to get to meet you. I will tell you, I felt like I had known her for my lifetime. She was so kind, she introduced me to a lot of people.

Irma Parone: 6:42

I mean, it's just a wonderful organization, not just to grow your business, but for personal reasons as well. And we just got a new venue. So we have our monthly meetings Saturdays, saturday mornings once a month and we're going to go to the Improv in Fort Lauderdale, which has a beautiful stage. It has a green room for the speakers. It's just a beautiful venue. So I'm very excited about the whole thing. I've got a great board of directors. There's like 17 of them on the board. It's wonderful. So thank you for asking.

Tanya Scotece: 7:20

Yeah, and can you share with us though? So it's Florida Speakers Association, but then you mentioned people like that you've connected with internationally. So what's Florida based about it? Do you have to live in Florida, be in Florida? Are you looking for a speaker in Florida? Elaborate on that.

Irma Parone: 7:35

So you have to live in Florida to belong to the Florida Speakers Association. Although the national level, you can obviously live anywhere. So there's Florida Speakers Association and National Speakers Association, of which Florida Speakers is a part of, so you could belong to one or both. I belong to both and as far as the Florida Speakers Association, you could live anywhere in Florida because we have hybrid, so we have both in person. You know where people come to the venue and then we have people who only watch on Zoom and then we have we save all of those videos so all the speakers, if you're a member, can can go back and watch those videos. Very cool.

Tanya Scotece: 8:25

And the goal of your, the speaker association, is to get one. I would assume but I don't want to assume anything to get speaking engagements like keynote speeches and things like that and or have speakers come into businesses. But I'm hearing that you also get a lot even just from hearing the speakers, just some takeaways that you're going to put into business.

Irma Parone: 8:47

The Florida Speakers Association is to help you grow your speaking business. So the speakers that come in all come in with the intent of helping us grow our speaking business, so they do speeches and they're amazing, but they may not speak on their topic. They they speak on what will help us, because as a speaker, you always want to know who your audience is and what they need, because we're here to serve our audiences and so they come in to serve us. And then the Florida Speakers Association bought that membership for Association Insights, so you can find all these different associations throughout, not just Florida, but you know there's a, there's a. In fact, we're having a meeting on July 22, where one of our members is going to train our members on how to use that platform. So it's helping us find, find speaking engagements, how to apply for them and all that stuff. It's just a wonderful, wonderful thing. As you could tell, I'm very excited. Congratulations on your presidency, yes, so I just want to say congratulations just a wonderful, wonderful thing, because you could tell I'm very excited.

Tanya Scotece: 9:59

Yes, congratulations on your presidency, yes.

Shireen Botha: 10:00

So I just want to say congratulations as well, but I also want to ladies. We've come to the end of our podcast. So fast it's, it's flown by and I didn't even realize so before you know we get to the final light part of the podcast. This part of the podcast is the most important and that is our non-profit of the month that we're supporting. And so you know, listeners, that we absolutely emphasize the importance of taking your mind off yourself.

Shireen Botha: 10:37

Life's not always about what's going on in our worlds. There's a lot of people out there that I need, and to become selfless is to help others, and you can't be selfish if you're thinking of others and, at the same time, helping others brings happiness, and I really, truly, truly believe that. So this month's non-profit is requested by Irma. Neighbors for neighborsorg is the, the organization we'll support this month. But, irma, wouldn't you mind just sharing with us and the listeners what Neighbors for Neighbors does for the community? And then, how can we support Neighbors for Neighbors? Can we donate? Can we donate our time, like, how can we help?

Irma Parone: 11:31

Yeah, you can do all those things. So Neighbors for Neighbors really helps. You know, they look at the different things going on, whether it's the floods or a hurricane or, you know, whatever the needs are and they're amazing. They're just amazing. And I don't know the inner workings of them, but I like how they are always paying attention to the bigger needs and then helping us give a. You know there's, there's so many people that say that you know, give us this money for this, not, you know, for this problem, and then it goes into their pocket. So they're a very trusting organization. So I would just go to their website and see what you could do, both in volunteering or, you know, supporting who you want. You know who we can support.

Shireen Botha: 12:18

I love that. I love that and that's super important. Neighbors4neighborsorg. The link will be in the show notes or the information will be there. Listeners, please take some time out to go and look on the websites and familiarize yourself with what they do. I think, especially after the Texas floods and just seeing that devastation that's just happened, it's so good to have organizations like this that are there, willing to help their neighbors out. So, with that being said, we've come to the lighthearted side of the podcast. Just to end it off off, we have some fun questions to ask each other, and I'd love to actually hear this, uh, from you guys. Um, my first question is have you met anyone famous? Have you met anyone famous, tanya, do you want to?

Tanya Scotece: 13:13

start, sure? So I guess we have to start with well, define famous, because it could be famous to somebody you know like. For example, I met Susan Lucci, who was an all-time star on All my Children many years ago, and I was just mesmerized. I was like, oh my gosh, she's so beautiful and, you know, just had the opportunity to chat with her for a few minutes, and so I have met Susan Lucci. I just an honor to do that. As far as you know political people, I have met the governor of Florida and that was an interesting conversation, whether it's musician met a few of those in my day, but I think it's just relative to who we perceive as famous, right, and who we hold near and dear to our hearts. So, all right, I'll turn it back over to you, shireen. How about yourself?

Shireen Botha: 14:07

Right, so many of you know, I used to be a cabin crew member on board aircraft and in my years of being a cabin crew member I have seen many, many, many passengers. And one of the passengers and I don't know if you're familiar with this actor, um, but one of the the passengers. He was sitting by the the window and it was and I might be swapping his names around, his first and his last name around, but help me, ladies, it's albert ebris or ebris albert. He was the guy that's played in um in movies. Like I want to think about it, he's an african actor, a great guy. I can't picture ebers ebers, oh, ebers. Hmm, get back to me, because I want to actually mention a few of his video, his movies that he's been in.

Shireen Botha: 15:12

But he was on board my flight. I was so excited. You know you're not supposed to disturb the famous people that come on board your flight, you're supposed to be professional because they don't want to be bothered. But I was like a little giggly girl. I was like walking through the aisle quite smiling to myself. Anyway, irma, what about you? Is there any famous person that you've met?

Irma Parone: 15:36

Yes, so 10 pounds ago I had a dance company. Now this is while I was working full time and traveling. It was my passion, it was my fun job and we opened for the Temptations once. Oh, wow, so that's when I lived in Pittsburgh, so I got to meet the Temptations.

Tanya Scotece: 16:00

And Irma, I've met you in person and I don't know these 10 pounds more or less. You look beautiful, so I don't know what 10 pounds is talking about. So thank you.

Irma Parone: 16:10

Thank you. Yeah, and many less wrinkles ago. How about that?

Tanya Scotece: 16:15

Oh no, you're beautiful. Consider you a famous person, having you on the podcast.

Irma Parone: 16:20

So, oh, yay, You're so kind.

Shireen Botha: 16:24

You're so kind. I love that. Thank you for sharing that with us. Uh, so just to confirm, it's Idris Elba. Idris, he's an English actor and museum, uh, museum musician goodness me, shireen, you can't read. And uh, some of. He's a golden globe award winner, bafta Awards and six Emmy Awards. Some of the movies he was in he's got Masters of the Universe, children of Blood and Bone, high in the Clouds, luther he was in Luther, he was in the Wire, fast and Furious. Any of these movies ring a bell. The mountain between us, the suicide squad does that ring a bell, ladies?

Irma Parone: 17:14

let me see luther. Was he the main character?

Shireen Botha: 17:17

one of the main characters. Yeah, heads of state. He was in the the um amazon prime movie called head of heads of state.

Irma Parone: 17:27

Yeah, that's it, that's him yeah, I love technology as much as I hate technology I know, anyway, I just thought I'd mention some.

Shireen Botha: 17:41

I know, I know I was very excited, but anyway. So here's another last fun question how would you spend a rainy day? How would you spend a rainy day, irma? Let's start with you.

Irma Parone: 17:57

You're not gonna believe it, but rain gives me energy. When it rains I can get all kinds of projects done, things that I hate to. I'll even clean the house, which I hate. To clean the house I hate. I pay somebody to clean the house but I mean I'll go through drawers and I don't know. Rain just gives me energy. I don't like the sun. I live in Florida but I don't like the sun. It hurts my eyes. So rainy days I do stuff. Busy stuff, work stuff yeah.

Shireen Botha: 18:29

Oh Tanya.

Tanya Scotece: 18:31

So for me, on a rainy day and we do get quite a few here in Florida I love just staying in my apartment. I love to nap, so I actually will take a few more naps, and I'm also a bath person, so I'll take a few more baths. So naps and baths on a rainy day are my vibe. So in between work, of course.

Shireen Botha: 18:52

I love a little bit of jazz music playing, listening to raindrops falling and hitting wherever you are, you know, depending on where you are, but you you're hearing those raindrops falling. I love a big comfy blanket covering my legs with a good book when it's raining, or if I'm watching a little bit of TV. It's at nighttime, you know, and it's a cold, rainy day. Please bring me a good old fire and some Harry Potter movies to watch bring me a good old fire and some harry potter movies to watch.

Tanya Scotece: 19:33

Oh fun. Yes, and shireen is our harry potter enthusiast, so I haven't seen the movie. So I I always admire her because she's so into it, like my daughter. Same thing, they love harry potter.

Shireen Botha: 19:40

Oh fun that's awesome I'm sad to say that we've come to the end of the the listeners, so let's take a moment and just if any of the listeners are inspired by one of our stories, especially you, Irma, and they would like to reach out, where can they find you?

Irma Parone: 20:01

My website is perronegroupcom. P-a-r-o-n-e. Like par one if you're a golfer, perrone groupcom. P-a-r-o-n-e. Like par one, if you're a golfer, perrone groupcom. That's awesome. I'm on linkedin as well, are you?

Shireen Botha: 20:14

okay, good, we'll have that in the show notes as well for the listeners. Uh tanya, what about you?

Tanya Scotece: 20:21

sure, so myspace definitely is linkedin. If anyone is considering a career change, wanting to become a funeral director in Balmer, I do oversee the program at Miami Dade College and we are one of three programs in the state of Florida. Also, I hold space for seniors, matching people with communities who can no longer live alone, so I specialize in assisted living, assisted living, memory care and the little casitas that we have in Florida. We are a Florida-based company known as Sunshine Senior Placement Agency. I also hold the space in expert witness serve quite frequently.

Tanya Scotece: 20:58

I actually have 12 cases I'm working on right now for funeral home and cemetery, wrongdoings, issues, complications, and also I'm going to add to this list because I need to continue this conversation with Irma is for speaking engagements, so I would love to learn more about the Florida Speaker Association, but I am available for speakers and also having speakers come into the virtual class and also me presenting. And as you, shireen, stated earlier when we first began this podcast, my verb is to inspire, so I live through inspirational leadership. So, yes, and how about you, shireen? Where can we find you?

Shireen Botha: 21:39

Yeah, thanks. Yeah, you go on. Linkedin, obviously, is where Shireen's bookkeeping services. You can find Shireen's bookkeeping services on the other social media platforms as well. You find me Shireen Botha, as well, on all the socials. You can follow my travels and whatever else on Instagram and Facebook. But, more importantly, friends from Wild Places are on all the platforms, from Spotify to Apple. So if you want to listen to us, you can go there. Or if you want to see our funny faces, we do have the YouTube channel, friends From Wild Places. So go check us out. Please Leave comments, tell us what you think, share it as much as possible. We really appreciate it. You can go to friendsfromwildplaces. buzzsprout. com. That's the website friendsfromwildplaces. buzzsprout. com. That's the website friendsfromwildplaces. buzzsprout. com. This is where you can also go and find all of our episodes and many more, and you can go and subscribe to support us. We really appreciate it and, once again, please let us know your thoughts, send us some, some questions. We'd love to hear from you and remember, thanks so much for listening and you got this, and stay wild.

Voiceover: 22:56

Bye, guys you've been listening to friends from wild places with Shireen Botha. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast from the links to catch every episode and unleash your passion.