Episode 50 features a very special guest, Sybil Stershic a.k.a my Mom.
We discuss starting her own business, internal marketing and communication, our relationship, and so much more.
During the episode we cover:
- Working with my Dad
- Running IT for Mom
- Internal Marketing/Communications
- Respect
- Being an only child
- Starting her own business
- Being on a Board of Directors
- Volunteerism
- First Jobs
- Semi-retired
- Marriage
- And much more…
Mentioned and Helpful Links from This Episode
Music created and provided by Henno Heitur of Monkey Tongue Productions.
–End Show Notes Transmission–
–Begin Transcription–
00:00:00:01 – 00:00:20:59
Agent Palmer
Previously on Agent Palmer dot com 2021 is the summer of soccer. Three riders reach or surpass Merck’s records and more from the 2021 tour de France. And if you haven’t yet followed my previous guest, Anthony, on Twitter or YouTube, what are you waiting for? This is The Palmer Files episode 50 with Sybil Stershic, a woman who I have known my entire life as mom.
00:00:21:04 – 00:01:00:47
Agent Palmer
We talk about her starting her own business, internal communication, and of course, being my mom. Are you ready? Let’s do the show.
00:01:00:52 – 00:01:28:25
Agent Palmer
Hello, and welcome to the Palmer Files. I’m your host, Jason Stershic, also known as Agent Palmer. And on this 50th episode is a very special guest, Sybil Stershic, known to me as mom. And aside from being my mother, she is the founder of Quality Service Marketing and the author of two books. Well, you are about to hear is a conversation between mother and son, who they are, where they’ve been, and how they got there, both as individuals and as a family.
00:01:28:30 – 00:01:49:52
Agent Palmer
A small disclaimer for the episode. My mother uses a now outdated word when she refers to working with children who have intellectual disabilities. Neither she nor I meant any offense. Now, before we get going, remember that if you want to discuss this episode as you listen or afterwards, you can tweet me at Agent Palmer. My mother, Sybil stares at Sybil QSM.
00:01:49:52 – 00:02:14:45
Agent Palmer
That’s Sybil Q S M, and this show at the Palmer Files. For all things Sybil, you can visit Quality Service marketing.com to read about what she does, learn about internal marketing, and get more info on the two books she wrote. Email can be sent to this show at the Palmer Files at gmail.com. And remember, you’re home for all things agent Palmer is Agent palmer.com.
00:02:14:50 – 00:02:27:27
Agent Palmer
So without further ado, I present to you a conversation with my mom.
00:02:27:32 – 00:02:31:43
Agent Palmer
What is it like to be Agent Palmer’s mother?
00:02:31:47 – 00:02:34:24
Sybil Stershic
You know, very few people asked me that question.
00:02:34:29 – 00:02:37:27
Agent Palmer
Yeah, I can’t imagine anybody else would ask you that question.
00:02:37:38 – 00:02:44:18
Sybil Stershic
That’s true. And I’m glad they’re asking me, because I wouldn’t want to be anybody else’s mother.
00:02:44:23 – 00:02:45:47
Agent Palmer
I start sappy.
00:02:45:58 – 00:03:09:28
Sybil Stershic
Well, yeah. It’s okay. Actually, what freaked me out once was I was meeting with a colleague for the first time as a woman, a fellow consultant that I connected with on LinkedIn. And we were having lunch together. And again, first time meeting. And I’m sitting across from her and you were talking about families, and I happen to mention what you do.
00:03:09:28 – 00:03:28:07
Sybil Stershic
And I happened to mention that your alias is Agent Palmer. She said, Agent Palmer, the one on Twitter, the one with the blog. This was before your podcast. I said yes. She said, I know him. We’ve talked on Twitter. That freaked me out. But it was so cool at the same time.
00:03:28:12 – 00:03:30:34
Agent Palmer
I mean, is it easier to be Jason’s mother?
00:03:30:39 – 00:03:33:17
Sybil Stershic
I’ve been Jason’s mother longer than I’ve been. Agent Palmer’s mother.
00:03:33:17 – 00:03:37:06
Agent Palmer
Yeah. I’m aware. I’m aware of the timeline.
00:03:37:11 – 00:03:49:59
Sybil Stershic
And there have been interesting, situations. Sometimes when somebody asks, are you Jason to mother? Depending on how they ask, the question is whether or not I’m going to be nervous and responding.
00:03:50:10 – 00:04:18:40
Agent Palmer
Look, I give you a lot of credit because. And there are a lot of people who are not going to like this line of questioning. But I give you a lot of credit because for a long time, despite anything you may do personally. You have been Michael’s wife or Jason’s mother because we are, two of the bigger personalities, I think.
00:04:18:45 – 00:04:39:44
Agent Palmer
So, we’re loud, I guess, in personality. So you end up being. Oh, you’re his wife. You’re his mother, and I’m not. I’m not making that. It’s not less on you. It’s just you. You. You have been relegated to that role because of who we are.
00:04:39:46 – 00:04:53:04
Sybil Stershic
Yes, that’s true. And especially wherever we’ve lived, that has been true. However, I do have a separate non spouse non child identity professionally.
00:04:53:06 – 00:05:01:26
Agent Palmer
No I know, I know and I give you credit for I’m just saying that when when you’re with us you don’t you don’t get that.
00:05:01:38 – 00:05:21:22
Sybil Stershic
And that’s okay. I you know other than people saying to me hey are you related to Mike and you know, my my response, if it was somebody I could joke with to say, yeah, we’re, you know, I’m a sister. Now, I have no problem with that. And I’m very proud of both of you. Very proud of you.
00:05:21:22 – 00:05:41:22
Sybil Stershic
And as I tell dad, and every once in a while, he gives me one of these looks. I. I said to him this morning, I said, I’m just happy to be married to you know, that, you know, sometimes I have my moments or he has his moments, when he jokes and says, you know, he should have gone to Cornell.
00:05:41:26 – 00:06:01:51
Sybil Stershic
That’s his standard for the fact that we both met at Lehigh University. Yeah. And every once in a while, when he wants to be exasperating or if he thinks I’m exasperated, I should have gone to Cornell. Yeah, yeah, whatever. But, no, I’m I’m I’m happy to be. I’m. I’m delighted to be his wife. I’m delighted to be your mother.
00:06:01:51 – 00:06:09:18
Sybil Stershic
I’m proud to be your mother and his wife. And there’s no doubt of paternity when anybody sees you, too.
00:06:09:19 – 00:06:22:36
Agent Palmer
Well, that’s the hard part about this, is, you know what? This is an audio medium. So for the people out there that only know me, they don’t realize that you don’t get a lot of credit because I look like a mini clone of him.
00:06:22:41 – 00:06:55:14
Sybil Stershic
And you also sound like it because I remember, there were times when my sister or brother would call, obviously long distance. We’ve always lived far away from each other. Not by choice. Well, yeah, by choice. And they’d say, hi, Mike. No, it’s Jason. They said, oh, that happens a lot. And, but you know, I do remember, remember the days of when you were, I don’t know, six, seven, eight where we would go to a local festival and they had a parent.
00:06:55:19 – 00:07:27:55
Sybil Stershic
They had a father, son, lookalike, mother daughter lookalike and parent child look alike in case the genders were were mixed. And, you and dad always came in second because there was a ringer that always won first and they should have been disqualified at some point. But you guys, same gait, same inflection points. The only difference is you don’t have anywhere near a Baltimore accent that sometimes slips out when your father’s on the phone with his brother.
00:07:28:03 – 00:07:29:16
Agent Palmer
Because I didn’t grow up there.
00:07:29:16 – 00:07:37:30
Sybil Stershic
I know that’s the only difference, other than the fact that that he shaves every day and you don’t.
00:07:37:34 – 00:07:42:16
Agent Palmer
I needed to make a delineation.
00:07:42:20 – 00:07:45:20
Sybil Stershic
You’re not that identical there. It just, you know.
00:07:45:26 – 00:07:55:39
Agent Palmer
I, I do I hear, I hear it, I know when words come out of my mouth that don’t set that sound like they’re not mine.
00:07:55:44 – 00:08:00:32
Sybil Stershic
Well, but that’s by osmosis. What? Give me, give me a for instance.
00:08:00:32 – 00:08:19:43
Agent Palmer
I don’t know, I don’t know, I like it as it’s happening. Like I know when we worked together, I would say things in my head. I would be like, that doesn’t sound like me. Like I’m saying the words, but it doesn’t sound like me.
00:08:19:48 – 00:08:46:33
Sybil Stershic
Now, what’s interesting is that’s where I am impressed with how you handle that, because that could not have been easy for you to work with him and I and, you know, his son and I know he did everything above board. He let the board know that that you were applying for a job. The decision was not his. And he was okay with the person making the decision whether they would have hired you or not.
00:08:46:38 – 00:09:06:36
Sybil Stershic
You know, he he kept all that above board and was completely transparent about it. But it had to be tough for you because there were, I think, sometimes subtle expectations among people in the community, whether they liked dad or maybe didn’t like dad did that. Did you ever get that sense?
00:09:06:40 – 00:09:37:58
Agent Palmer
No. I think it was, That was not the sense I got. The sense I got was more that it seemed, especially for people that only know you in a professional capacity, that he just agreed with everything I said. But that’s because we’re coming from a we’re coming from the same place. So as long as I give him the information to bring him to my level, I.
00:09:38:00 – 00:09:58:14
Agent Palmer
It’s not like like it is kind of like being a ringer in that regard. I, you know, what do you think he’s going to do? Well, I’m going to do this. So I would expect he would do this. The hard part was keeping my mouth shut when people would ask me, what do you think he’s going to do?
00:09:58:19 – 00:10:02:56
Agent Palmer
Well, I, I, I, yeah, I don’t want to, I don’t, I don’t want to go.
00:10:02:56 – 00:10:18:39
Sybil Stershic
There, but did you ever get, get the sense from people who may have dismissed, missed you or maybe dismissed him because they thought it was you? You were in that position because of nepotism.
00:10:18:43 – 00:10:42:31
Agent Palmer
It’s hard because the it’s so it’s it’s twofold. One, I was so many levels below him that and everybody who I would have met, I had met prior because we were part of the you know, he would, you know, if we went to an opening for something, I would tag along anyway, even when I was not working there.
00:10:42:31 – 00:10:45:35
Sybil Stershic
So,
00:10:45:40 – 00:11:07:46
Agent Palmer
Yeah, I don’t know. I it didn’t seem awkward that in that way. And then people talk to me and, you know, I have a special expertise in, you know, either whether it was digital marketing or it or, you know, I, I knew my stuff. I think, you know, anybody with questions was silenced because I could answer their questions.
00:11:07:51 – 00:11:34:44
Agent Palmer
In fact, I changed my title because of him. I was an interactive marketing representative for the longest time, but he had for three years. He introduced me as the web geek, and I just went with it. That was him, because that’s how he introduced me. Yeah. And I’ve been your web geek for for longer. And I’ve been your it for even longer than I’ve been your web geek.
00:11:34:44 – 00:11:37:48
Sybil Stershic
Yes, you definitely are. And I couldn’t function without you.
00:11:37:49 – 00:11:40:09
Agent Palmer
I think I’ve set up every computer you’ve own.
00:11:40:09 – 00:11:47:52
Sybil Stershic
Absolutely. Actually, not the first one. First one was set up because you were only 5 or 6 by our neighbor.
00:11:47:57 – 00:11:48:33
Agent Palmer
Okay?
00:11:48:38 – 00:12:16:15
Sybil Stershic
Because he was he was in it at the time. He set it up for me. He he helped me get my first printer. But that was it. After that, it was all you. But but what’s interesting and what you may not be aware of. Well, maybe you are that every once in a while we come home and say to me, you’d be proud of Jason today because I got a compliment on him from somebody within the industry, somebody who had interacted with you, whether or not they knew you were related.
00:12:16:20 – 00:12:34:02
Sybil Stershic
So your your professional credibility was out there and that would be reinforced. And I felt so good about that. And I don’t I know dad was always good at giving reinforcement to all the employees when they deserved it. I don’t know if he was the same with you or if he held back because of I don’t.
00:12:34:02 – 00:13:02:22
Agent Palmer
It was you I. I wouldn’t know because he did treat every you know, he was one of the few bosses that I’ve had in my life. Second to maybe the person between us who was also my boss, that treated people as individuals, which is huge in terms of, well, your specialty of internal marketing, but in general, because not everyone’s the same.
00:13:02:27 – 00:13:37:48
Agent Palmer
And different people have different motivations and they have different work processes and thought processes, and they may. But, you know, if if you want the team to arrive at one conclusion, never not everybody’s going to get there on their same own terms. So and, you know, the other thing to go back to, you know, working for my father, I never unless it came up right, I never volunteered my last name.
00:13:37:52 – 00:13:38:56
Sybil Stershic
Interesting.
00:13:39:01 – 00:14:05:51
Agent Palmer
If I could. Hi, I’m Jason. I, I if I could at all. I stopped there because I didn’t want the next thing to be. Oh. Are you Mike’s son? So I would stop there if I could. So there’s there’s a very good chance there are people out there that, you know, because I was never a business card type person, you know?
00:14:05:56 – 00:14:20:07
Agent Palmer
So there are still probably people out there that don’t know my last name, but I will say, you got me in trouble in retail.
00:14:20:11 – 00:14:33:16
Sybil Stershic
I wouldn’t I got you in trouble. I think I spoiled you in the sense of you knowing too much about the importance of the employee experience in delivering a customer experience.
00:14:33:21 – 00:14:36:10
Agent Palmer
Yeah, but that doesn’t. Yeah.
00:14:36:15 – 00:14:38:37
Sybil Stershic
I mean, all right, so explain how did I have. Yeah.
00:14:38:37 – 00:15:01:56
Agent Palmer
Well, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. And and so when I was in retail and I would see that there would be unhappy employees that are not interacting well and look, it’s a retail job. And I understand that not everybody’s going to be happy. And, you know, people have crappy days and they go into work because they have to and they’re living paycheck to paycheck.
00:15:01:56 – 00:15:29:30
Agent Palmer
And it’s a different thing. But if you don’t make an attempt, if you don’t reach out, if you don’t communicate with these people, even on a base level, like, okay, you can’t solve any of their problems, but are you at least asking them? And working for my father was easy because he did all those things, and even if he couldn’t solve it, you know, you could talk to him.
00:15:29:34 – 00:15:57:45
Agent Palmer
But I’ve been I you know what? It’s not just that. I think the the other thing is your your and dad’s volunteerism and your mission driven work as opposed to profit driven work. I’ve lamented it on this show before, like, I, I don’t have a for profit mind, and I, I don’t know if I ever will, I just it’s it’s not something I grew up with.
00:15:57:50 – 00:16:22:34
Agent Palmer
And I’m not saying like, oh yeah, people grow up as salespeople. Like, no, no. But I, you know, I grew up in mission driven work and you’re internal communication knowledge, especially the stuff that I got through osmosis by just being your guinea pig audience when you would, you know, test presentations. I, I don’t know that that stuff’s in there.
00:16:22:39 – 00:16:29:44
Agent Palmer
And it’s really hard when I see people doing it wrong.
00:16:29:49 – 00:16:34:33
Sybil Stershic
Do you want to explain to your audience what what it is?
00:16:34:47 – 00:16:35:09
Agent Palmer
What do you.
00:16:35:20 – 00:16:36:40
Sybil Stershic
Do when internal marketing.
00:16:36:40 – 00:16:38:11
Agent Palmer
Is well, okay, well.
00:16:38:16 – 00:16:38:48
Sybil Stershic
In your own.
00:16:38:48 – 00:16:40:26
Agent Palmer
Words, in my own words.
00:16:40:31 – 00:16:42:28
Sybil Stershic
Let’s see how the osmosis work well.
00:16:42:33 – 00:17:19:16
Agent Palmer
Into internal communication is is literally well, internal marketing is internal communication. And I feel like they’re they’re not the same. They are similar. But it’s it first of all, it is communication. And really it’s about, to me, in the simplest terms, it’s a flow reversal. Normally, information rolls downhill. The executive makes a decision, and, the level people tell the managers and the managers tell the employees.
00:17:19:16 – 00:17:49:27
Agent Palmer
And that’s the way it works. Internal communication is making sure that the employees are actually happy and inspired and can do those jobs and are equipped to do those jobs. And that is done by talking to the employees and talking to the managers and talking to the V level people who then talk to the sea level people. So your CEO, your vice presidents, your managers and your employees all have to talk in two directions.
00:17:49:32 – 00:18:19:43
Agent Palmer
If it’s only coming from the CEO down to the VP, down to the managers, down to the employees, it’s shit because you’re not going to know what the actual problems are. There are problems on an employee level that employees complain about to each other. And if you don’t have an open enough company or corporate culture where the employees have a safe space with which to tell you, here’s how I can do my job better to the managers.
00:18:19:48 – 00:19:07:11
Agent Palmer
And the managers aren’t afraid to say something back to the vice president because they eventually want to be vice presidents, and the vice presidents aren’t afraid to go against the wishes of the sea level people. Whatever. You have to create this culture, and that’s good. Internal communication is when you can have people talk in both directions. Because I see and this is, you know, go back to working for my father, it wasn’t I one of the things, I think to go back to that real quick, that people I think made assumptions on, is that I had no problem talking to him because he was my father, and that is 110% bullshit, because I have no
00:19:07:11 – 00:19:39:31
Agent Palmer
problem talking truth to power. That’s been like I when you go back and look at the chaos that I may or may not have been a part of on campus. When I was in college of talking to vice presidents of the college while I was just a student or, you know, writing scathing, editorials about the administration who I liked, or the faculty or the staff.
00:19:39:36 – 00:20:15:15
Agent Palmer
I have no problem telling you whether you’re a C level of E level or a manager, that you’re wrong and so I never had that issue. But I also feel like and I don’t know where I get this from you, dad just being me. Like I care more about the truth than I do about other things. So, this is wrong is something I’m not afraid to tell my boss or their boss.
00:20:15:20 – 00:20:36:08
Agent Palmer
Regardless of what happens, I don’t. Personally, I don’t fear for my job. I’m going to tell you how it is, but I think in a lot of places that’s not the way and and that’s an individual thing for me. Most people need to feel comfortable that they won’t lose their job to tell people things. And so that’s creating good corporate culture, which now is the buzzword for good internal communication.
00:20:36:08 – 00:20:43:58
Agent Palmer
But you need a healthy two way communication of every level.
00:20:44:03 – 00:21:13:38
Sybil Stershic
It you know, it’s interesting when you when you put it like that in terms of the communications that the whole concept. And it’s easier. You know, I was talking about this, whether we call it internal marketing, which is taking care of the employees so they could take care of the customers. A lot of it then, you know, starting in a marketing career, it was all, okay, this is I’m focused on the people side of marketing, not the product side of marketing.
00:21:13:43 – 00:21:49:20
Sybil Stershic
And, you know, the bottom line is, and this is a quote, I’ve been quoted on extensively, the way your employees feel is the way your customers will feel. And if your employees don’t feel valued, neither will your customers. But from what you just said in explaining it, in terms of the communications being two way Jason, it’s all reflected in the value of respect, respecting the employee to say, I want to give you the tools and the information you need to do your job.
00:21:49:25 – 00:22:23:42
Sybil Stershic
And that includes having access to information, access to management decisions, not to influence the decisions necessarily, but to understand why something, why decision was made. Because you can’t expect an employee to act on rules and regulations unless they’re grounded in why it makes sense and why it’s important. This this respect goes two ways. The other thing is, and I going to take this a little bit about not so real quick.
00:22:23:47 – 00:22:48:58
Agent Palmer
I got in trouble in retail because I told my boss, the manager of the store, certain things. I was never afraid to walk into his office and be like, this is crap. And I knew his hands were tied because this is a big corporate company and I understand that there’s only so much control. He has. And I’m not going to corporate.
00:22:49:03 – 00:23:09:05
Agent Palmer
And, you know, I will talk to corporate when they come in the building and I’ll write an email if I need to. But, you know, I’m just a peon in this. I’m not an assistant manager or anything. And I feel like there were people that were afraid of me because I. I appeared to have a close relationship with the boss.
00:23:09:10 – 00:23:24:56
Agent Palmer
The boss didn’t necessarily like me. There were assistant managers that came and went that appreciated my knowledge, and there were some that didn’t. Respect is one thing. But it depends on what you respect, right? Do you respect the institution or the person?
00:23:25:01 – 00:23:50:17
Sybil Stershic
I don’t think you can have respect for the institution unless you have respect for the person. Now, now it’s it’s interesting. One of the things I’m thinking about is, going to stereotype and only child as you were, as you are my first, my last, my only, my middle child, my oldest child, my youngest child. There’s something to be said, though.
00:23:50:22 – 00:24:11:03
Sybil Stershic
For an only child being exposed to adults more than children, you were never, ever uncomfortable talking to adults, whereas your peers and big families may not have been that way. So, you know that that is part of it. Jason, I have to point that out. Dad and I have always talked about that. You know, we took a with you.
00:24:11:03 – 00:24:36:10
Sybil Stershic
And again, unless you were at a family event with your cousins or you were in daycare or school on a regular basis, you were not around a lot of kids. So you had exposure to adults. You were expected to to be respectful in the sense of, okay, Jason, we’re going to this museum opening or we’re going to this fundraiser, and you may not have been happy about it.
00:24:36:10 – 00:24:58:16
Sybil Stershic
And you sucked it up, but, you know, there’s always oh, you know, there’s Jason, but but people found they could engage you and you would engage back with them. And it wasn’t, patronizing. And you could engage in almost adult conversation at a young age. I think that has a lot to do with it that you you may not be conscious of.
00:24:58:21 – 00:25:20:33
Sybil Stershic
But the other thing is respect is big. You know, I learned that from my parents. You learn that from dad and me. You learned it from your grandparents on both sides. And it was kind of unspoken. Although I do remember once having this conversation with my mother when we were, at loggerheads at one point saying, respect is not given.
00:25:20:33 – 00:25:31:01
Sybil Stershic
It is earned. You cannot automatically expect to be respected, just because who you are or what your title is.
00:25:31:01 – 00:25:32:41
Agent Palmer
Let’s talk about your mother for a moment.
00:25:32:49 – 00:25:35:20
Sybil Stershic
Oh, yes. Let’s do.
00:25:35:25 – 00:25:45:05
Agent Palmer
I feel like the moment I earned the most respect for her is the moment that I offended, heard the most? Because.
00:25:45:09 – 00:25:50:22
Sybil Stershic
And what did she do? You have to, you know, you don’t have to say the whole thing, but you do have to explain it.
00:25:50:22 – 00:26:06:10
Agent Palmer
I, I it relates, right? Like I told truth to a teacher who did not like that truth. And I refused to go into any further details, but she a fifth on the rest.
00:26:06:10 – 00:26:12:13
Sybil Stershic
But she also did not. She was also very defensive about it. She did not take criticism well.
00:26:12:13 – 00:26:13:04
Agent Palmer
No, but.
00:26:13:18 – 00:26:14:06
Sybil Stershic
Especially from.
00:26:14:06 – 00:26:24:18
Agent Palmer
A student. So. So I told the story of this encounter to Bubbie, your mother and your grandmother, my grandmother.
00:26:24:20 – 00:26:25:03
Sybil Stershic
Who was.
00:26:25:17 – 00:26:27:41
Agent Palmer
A teacher for a.
00:26:27:41 – 00:26:28:49
Sybil Stershic
Career educator.
00:26:28:49 – 00:26:52:45
Agent Palmer
Educator, like a career educator, to the point where you would send me to camp Bobby for a week in the summer or two, and it was go to the library, pick out a book, and write a goddamn book report. Anyway, that we did arts and crafts, we did go to the pool and stuff, but, you know, and there was there was work.
00:26:52:50 – 00:26:57:48
Sybil Stershic
There was were. And remember what happened when she would write you a letter and you would write a letter back.
00:26:57:52 – 00:27:01:39
Agent Palmer
You got a dollar, but you had to write her something of substance.
00:27:01:44 – 00:27:03:26
Sybil Stershic
To encourage you to write. Yeah.
00:27:03:26 – 00:27:25:54
Agent Palmer
So, I tell her this story, I tell her what happened, I and and my grandmother, my bubbe, says I, I, I, I, I don’t know the context. All I know is that she said the word fucked to me and hung up on me.
00:27:25:59 – 00:27:31:33
Sybil Stershic
I didn’t think she hung up. I thought you just called me and said, Bubby said the F-word to me because she was so frustrated.
00:27:31:33 – 00:27:57:00
Agent Palmer
I could not believe this and my uncle said, welcome to the club because apparently not a lot of people have heard her curse and use expletives, and only one of the uncles ever said that. And he, you know, we yeah, you’re one of four. And, you know, I’m sure he can. Can we call him the problem child? No, no, there were no problem.
00:27:57:00 – 00:28:00:46
Sybil Stershic
No problem. No, no, he was he was exasperating sometimes.
00:28:00:46 – 00:28:02:32
Agent Palmer
But, I can relate to that.
00:28:02:47 – 00:28:03:36
Sybil Stershic
But.
00:28:03:41 – 00:28:05:53
Agent Palmer
You know, resemble that remark.
00:28:05:57 – 00:28:07:29
Sybil Stershic
But anyway. Oh, good, I am good.
00:28:07:29 – 00:28:37:04
Agent Palmer
So I, I got, I got hurt riled up, but but, prior to that point, I had been writing for the paper and sending her pieces. I, I don’t think she would be thrilled with all of my content. I think she’d be happy. I’m reading and that I’m writing at all. I’m curious as to whether she would be a more apt listener of my podcast than you.
00:28:37:09 – 00:28:47:48
Agent Palmer
I mean, she was always game for anything the grandkids did, but, you know, I, I feel like that was a turning point in our relationship.
00:28:47:53 – 00:28:52:36
Sybil Stershic
I think, too, you know, she did find you at times argumentative.
00:28:52:41 – 00:28:57:04
Agent Palmer
I think everybody has found me argumentative.
00:28:57:09 – 00:29:25:59
Sybil Stershic
And you just must have hit her at a point where she was so frustrated and, but yes. Anyway, she adored you, you know. Well, she she adored all of her grandchildren. Yes. And I think it was fortunate that we live physically close so that you could see her more often. And the fact that you visited her when you were in college, again, because of the, the proximity, she’d love that.
00:29:25:59 – 00:29:47:28
Sybil Stershic
She would call me and say, you know, Jason stopped by today. I didn’t know he was going to be, you know, and she just she just she loved that. And, of course, you know, then you would call me and say, I stopped by Bobby’s today. What did she give you this time? She gave me a pack of tasty cakes or Oreos, but a couple were missing.
00:29:47:28 – 00:29:49:48
Agent Palmer
Yeah, well, always she needed to taste test them first.
00:29:49:48 – 00:30:07:43
Sybil Stershic
She needed to taste test them. Plus, Bobby had a little bit of a sugar fix. Yeah, it was, it was like the time she would. She would carry these little mini Snickers bars in her purse. And, you know, Bobby was diabetic and I’d say, mom, why are you doing this? Well, every once in a while, dad needs something sweet.
00:30:07:54 – 00:30:11:13
Sybil Stershic
Yeah, right. Sure. Okay, mom, whatever works.
00:30:11:17 – 00:30:27:43
Agent Palmer
Now, did she do the same stuff? Now, obviously, I was on that side of the family. I was the last grandchild. Yeah, so I, I was, I was, taken out to breakfast, but I had to pay the tip, and I had to. I had to figure out the tip on my own. Was that something that she made that guys.
00:30:27:48 – 00:30:31:51
Sybil Stershic
And that was that was a tradition with her grandchildren that all of them.
00:30:32:05 – 00:30:33:45
Agent Palmer
So what about but but.
00:30:33:50 – 00:30:36:17
Sybil Stershic
I don’t to be honest with you, Jason, I don’t remember.
00:30:36:17 – 00:30:39:40
Agent Palmer
I know, but remember question you don’t do math. Hey, hey.
00:30:39:40 – 00:31:05:56
Sybil Stershic
But but it was the kind of thing that, she did with all of her grandchildren. And, you know, it was a it was, you know, a teaching moment, but it was also quality time together. She told you she told you how to figure out the tip. Yeah. And she was always generous with the tip. And, you know, that was that was just special grandchild Bobby time.
00:31:06:01 – 00:31:07:12
Agent Palmer
She’s tearing up.
00:31:07:16 – 00:31:11:10
Sybil Stershic
Now. I just she just, you know, she was a wonderful grandmother.
00:31:11:19 – 00:31:12:58
Agent Palmer
She was. And I.
00:31:12:58 – 00:31:13:48
Sybil Stershic
Very engaging.
00:31:13:48 – 00:31:36:05
Agent Palmer
It was, it was, it was weird that, between her passing and dad’s dad passing, and cleaning out to estates basically within the span of a year. And I’ve been trying to get rid of all of my shit since.
00:31:36:10 – 00:31:50:22
Sybil Stershic
Yes. Well, so did dad and I, because when dad and I had to, you know, clean out his his father’s condo and then, you know, my parents home, you know, we kept saying we don’t want to. We don’t want Jason to have to do this.
00:31:50:22 – 00:31:54:09
Agent Palmer
And I don’t want to have to do this for myself like I it it was.
00:31:54:16 – 00:32:03:00
Sybil Stershic
Because we still because as much as we’ve gotten rid of, we still have stuff for you, you know and and you know how I make buying decisions these days.
00:32:03:05 – 00:32:04:35
Agent Palmer
Well, Jason, I like this.
00:32:04:40 – 00:32:30:45
Sybil Stershic
Because I tease people about this. I said, you know, we’re empty nest. We’re we’re well, dad’s retired. I’m not there yet. I still enjoy working, but it’s, you know, we don’t need stuff. But every once in a while, if there’s something I see that I really want, you know, the common sense says to me, you know, if you buy it now, it’s going to be Jason’s problem later.
00:32:30:50 – 00:32:32:19
Sybil Stershic
However.
00:32:32:23 – 00:32:33:05
Agent Palmer
He might like.
00:32:33:05 – 00:32:57:07
Sybil Stershic
It. No. Okay. If you manage to say something to tick me off, I’ll say, oh, I think I’ll buy it and make it be his problem. Oh, so I, you know, so be nice to me. Oh five less every once in a while. You know, like when you don’t respond to my emails right away or something like that, it’s like, oh man, that little heated man.
00:32:57:12 – 00:33:05:29
Sybil Stershic
I need I need an answer. And he’s not I’m not hearing from him. So, you know, anyway, just saying. Yeah, that’s that influences my mind.
00:33:05:29 – 00:33:10:32
Agent Palmer
So just semi-retired. Yeah. Semi time I you you have your own business.
00:33:10:34 – 00:33:11:40
Sybil Stershic
Yes.
00:33:11:44 – 00:33:13:22
Agent Palmer
And it’s how old.
00:33:13:27 – 00:33:15:00
Sybil Stershic
33 years I’ve been in.
00:33:15:00 – 00:33:21:28
Agent Palmer
Business and time and when did you make the decision to start your own business.
00:33:21:32 – 00:33:31:39
Sybil Stershic
When you were in kindergarten. Somewhere between kindergarten. It was 1988. So you were five. And I had been frustrated professionally.
00:33:31:44 – 00:33:34:07
Agent Palmer
I don’t know that feeling at all.
00:33:34:12 – 00:34:03:38
Sybil Stershic
Yeah. Anyway, I was frustrated professionally. There was no place for me to go. I’d started my career in in bank marketing, found that I loved it, I loved, I loved marketing, not so much banking, but it was interesting because I started marketing in a service industry when the field of services marketing didn’t exist at that time, it was all that was taught at the MBA and in business schools was consumer product marketing.
00:34:03:42 – 00:34:39:07
Sybil Stershic
You know, Coke, Pepsi, or it was business to business, industrial marketing. There was very little in the field of services, whether it be financial services, health care, hospitality. And the field was just starting as I was getting into it. And I was very fortunate through my association with the American Marketing Association to, get to know several professional academics who had started in that field and see it as it developed.
00:34:39:12 – 00:34:57:54
Sybil Stershic
But but I was anyway, I was at a crossroads and it was, you know, I’d been through a couple bank mergers and there was no place marketing was going away because it was all being consolidated. So it’s like I don’t have a career here, but I could go out on my own. But I never thought of myself as entrepreneurial.
00:34:57:59 – 00:35:14:48
Sybil Stershic
And then I got to the point of, believe it or not, two things. One was a baseball metaphor. Hard for you to believe, isn’t it? Well, that said, you can’t steal a base, can’t steal second base while keeping your foot on first, meaning you had to do something.
00:35:14:48 – 00:35:15:35
Agent Palmer
Yeah.
00:35:15:40 – 00:35:45:50
Sybil Stershic
And it was also, you know, knowing the fact that we had this routine where we dropped you off at 730 in the morning and daycare and, you know, we picked you up at 530, of saying, if I work at home, I’ll have more flexibility. And I remember saying to you, you may not remember this. I said, Jason, how would you feel if if mommy were home a little bit more and mommy had more time to spend with you, and you looked at me with those gorgeous deep blue eyes, and you said, I’d like that mommy.
00:35:45:54 – 00:36:06:42
Sybil Stershic
Bingo! Decision made. So I started working from home. Now, at that point, you were still in after school daycare. Well, I was starting to get things, but the. But the point was, you weren’t necessarily there five days a week. I had no issues. If I had to take you to a doctor, then I didn’t have to rearrange schedules with your father and, you know, I could take time off to be with you.
00:36:06:42 – 00:36:32:28
Sybil Stershic
And it was delightful. Plus, you were my ready audience so that when I was doing my presentations and I’d split up the set up, the old slide carousel in the kitchen and project against the back of the kitchen door. You would sit there with me and I’d say, Jason, does this make sense? And, you know, I, I don’t know if you could read it that point, so you could catch a typo or two, but you were such a great audience.
00:36:32:32 – 00:36:35:32
Agent Palmer
Well, you gave me you gave me snacks, of course.
00:36:35:39 – 00:36:42:13
Sybil Stershic
Whatever works. And especially food. Yeah, but you became also my little AV guy.
00:36:42:28 – 00:36:42:49
Agent Palmer
Yeah.
00:36:42:49 – 00:36:47:19
Sybil Stershic
You know, remember this? Because we were in New Orleans, I was,
00:36:47:24 – 00:36:48:29
Agent Palmer
I was, what, 12?
00:36:48:40 – 00:37:14:23
Sybil Stershic
Yes, you were 12. It was a year before your bar mitzvah. You were 12, and we were New Orleans. And I was speaking at an international, marketing conference for, collegiate. Yeah, collegiate chapters, collegiate marketers. And, I had brought you and dad with me. I felt bad because we were way over your birthday, so I brought you and dad with me and dad.
00:37:14:28 – 00:37:32:44
Sybil Stershic
I remember I was setting up for my presentation, and I had a problem with the either the mic or the the recording device. And you went around to get the, conference planner to say, my mom needs help. She needs avi help, or you were my helper. It was it was great.
00:37:32:49 – 00:37:35:02
Agent Palmer
But I’ve been helping you in AV since.
00:37:35:09 – 00:37:37:15
Sybil Stershic
Oh, absolutely. And asking anything tech.
00:37:37:16 – 00:37:43:39
Agent Palmer
I think the last one of the last speaking engagements of yours that I was, that I ran it for.
00:37:43:41 – 00:37:49:43
Sybil Stershic
That’s right. That was for your old organization. Yeah. Your former organization. Yep.
00:37:49:48 – 00:37:53:14
Agent Palmer
So I am an only child.
00:37:53:19 – 00:37:54:14
Sybil Stershic
Not by choice.
00:37:54:14 – 00:37:56:08
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:37:56:13 – 00:38:17:34
Sybil Stershic
I, you know, and it’ll be my my regret that I was able to have more children. Not because you weren’t enough. It’s just because I wanted you to have the same relationship with siblings that that I had and still enjoy. And that your father has and still enjoys.
00:38:17:39 – 00:38:30:57
Agent Palmer
Had had you if you had the ability. You are one of four. Yes. Dad is one of four. I’m. I’m I’m obviously one of one. And there were other attempts, but would you have had four?
00:38:30:57 – 00:38:35:13
Sybil Stershic
No way, no way. Yeah.
00:38:35:18 – 00:38:36:08
Agent Palmer
I’ve been one of two.
00:38:36:10 – 00:38:37:48
Sybil Stershic
You’d been one of 2 or 3.
00:38:37:52 – 00:38:38:43
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:38:38:48 – 00:38:40:55
Sybil Stershic
Yeah. Not four, but 2 or 3.
00:38:40:59 – 00:38:45:26
Agent Palmer
Is there a reason you didn’t want to go? I mean, because you were, you know.
00:38:45:31 – 00:38:47:42
Sybil Stershic
One. Well, it’s financial.
00:38:47:46 – 00:38:48:29
Agent Palmer
It’s part of it.
00:38:48:31 – 00:39:10:22
Sybil Stershic
Career. Although, you know, I had a great role model because because my mother always worked. Both of my parents worked. And actually, your dad had a role model, too, because your your grandmother, your paternal grandmother, his mother worked part time, but she worked. It was in the family business, but she still had a job and maintain the home and everything else.
00:39:10:22 – 00:39:14:38
Sybil Stershic
So, yeah, I was always,
00:39:14:42 – 00:39:47:10
Agent Palmer
Do you look do you feel, especially in 2020, 2021, 2020 ish, 21st century, whatever the hell we’re calling this now, do you feel left behind by the, I don’t know, the women’s empowerment of, you know, we can we don’t have to stay home. We don’t have I mean, you you stayed home with a business and a kid, but, you know.
00:39:47:15 – 00:40:11:31
Sybil Stershic
Yeah, but I know I don’t. I don’t feel left out at all. It was that I had the freedom and flexibility to make that choice. You know, the thing is, Jason, I’m not sure I would have gone out on my own if if, if there had been a place for me within corporately, within the organization or I would have gone to another organization.
00:40:11:35 – 00:40:53:23
Sybil Stershic
At that point, though, I’d had it because, throughout my career I have worked with several bosses. Two of them were absolutely phenomenal and I just adored them and respected them, and they were great. And, still serve as role models for me in terms of how they manage people. And again, respect was part of that. And I also had several bosses who were either incompetent or, or just obnoxious and arrogant, and I, I just, you know, I had been in toxic situations and I didn’t want to do that anymore.
00:40:53:27 – 00:41:17:23
Sybil Stershic
So, you know, part of it is I joke as, as being self-employed is the fact that I work for someone I respect. But but it’s also true. And it’s one thing they don’t tell you in business schools, which is there are a lot of assholes out there that you’re going to find yourself working for. Now. You have to respect the position they’re in because they’re the ones who sign your paycheck, but you don’t have to respect them as individuals.
00:41:17:28 – 00:41:33:51
Sybil Stershic
Now, that doesn’t mean you have to work for you still have to work for them. So, you know, it’s it’s called bite your tongue, update your resume and start looking for something else. In the meantime, there’s a lot you can learn from them in how not to manage and deal with people. Well, I and that’s valuable.
00:41:33:55 – 00:42:08:22
Agent Palmer
I could write an entire book from so one of the things about retail management is that on a when you hit manage store manager level, you’re fairly secure. But when you’re an assistant, especially in retail retail, you end up with different kinds of assistants before you’re like just the assistant manager. So, you go where you have to in order to be able to move up.
00:42:08:27 – 00:42:42:19
Agent Palmer
And it’s a game and the people that played the game the best were the worst in terms of talking to action, like the the people who played the game the best didn’t acknowledge employees as people. The those were the people that moved around the fastest. They told you what you they told corporate what they wanted to hear. They would do, you know, they would put in the 70 or 80 or they would put in the extra time to get the results they needed in order to get the hell out of there and move to wherever they wanted to be.
00:42:42:24 – 00:42:58:45
Agent Palmer
And the good assistants and assistant managers that would talk to you and would sympathize with you and would do the work with you instead of, you know, just throwing you to the wolves. They always got passed over.
00:42:58:49 – 00:43:04:27
Sybil Stershic
Well, it’s interesting, it’s sad that they got passed over. Oh, sad for the unfortunate for them.
00:43:04:38 – 00:43:06:12
Agent Palmer
It’s great for me, but it was great.
00:43:06:12 – 00:43:26:28
Sybil Stershic
For the people because the thing is, you don’t want the people who are toxic or who are ill equipped to deal with people, to deal with employees. You don’t want them sticking around, so it’s okay to move them around and and kind of unfortunately, you spread out the damage, but you also minimize it in terms of burnout.
00:43:26:33 – 00:43:28:52
Agent Palmer
What was your first job?
00:43:28:57 – 00:43:56:15
Sybil Stershic
Beyond babysitting? First. Oh, I worked two first jobs that I remember. I don’t know which came first. One was working at a, family restaurant that had soft serve ice cream, and I was in the soft serve area where we made the desserts for the people in the in the restaurant and also did the takeout. Okay.
00:43:56:20 – 00:44:03:30
Sybil Stershic
The other thing is I was a a grocery store checkout clerk at an Acme supermarket.
00:44:03:35 – 00:44:04:35
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:44:04:40 – 00:44:28:49
Sybil Stershic
So yeah, I, you know, retail. It’s just, and yeah, there there could be some customers who were demanding, but that wasn’t the issue. I didn’t have as much of an issue at Acme other than being on my feet. And it was a hard job because these were the days where you actually had to put in how much, you know, you didn’t scan things back then, you know, and if they weren’t, you had to actually put it in.
00:44:28:49 – 00:44:56:01
Sybil Stershic
And you, you had to bag for the customers, that wasn’t an option. It was little things like being in a big corporate thing. I had to believe it or not, I had to pay into the butchers lobby or the some. I’m not lobby. Sorry. Union. I had to pay I there were dues coming out of my minimum wage paycheck that went into union.
00:44:56:06 – 00:45:15:28
Sybil Stershic
Like, what can after school it this is high school. This is a part time job. Why is half of my salary going? I’m not going to be around. And it was it was grueling work. The the ice cream thing. Boy, I remember, you know, those big machines with the soft serve. Yeah, we’d have to clean those out.
00:45:15:33 – 00:45:43:42
Sybil Stershic
And you could take apart the equipment where the the stuff came out of. And I remember having to with, with a with a rag, a cleaning rag. Put my whole hand into that unit up to my shoulder to clean it out ish. It was sticky. But other than that, other than that, I did other work. I was, camp counselor at a camp for retarded children.
00:45:43:47 – 00:46:08:52
Sybil Stershic
I did a lot of work as a volunteer with retarded children as well, and that got me into. That’s where I started. My nonprofit at life, which is, And I loved it. I love the kids. And yet I found I didn’t have as much patience with the kids as I thought I should have had, but I found I was compelled by the mission to help them.
00:46:08:57 – 00:46:34:53
Sybil Stershic
And I loved the the organization and association of it. So I felt I was better. And again, as a volunteer, rather than working directly with the children, I was better in coordinating the other volunteers to put together the Christmas party and to do the fundraising, efforts that we did. And that’s how I got into what I call association or organizational life.
00:46:34:58 – 00:46:46:38
Sybil Stershic
I loved it because that’s I that’s where I felt I could do the most good. Since I didn’t feel I had what was needed to be on the front lines with the kids.
00:46:46:43 – 00:47:16:18
Agent Palmer
Right. Well, I mean, you’ve never stopped, right? Like you’ve been in, on boards. And, I mean, I’m. So the pitch for me to be on the local NPR board came from two different people who both know you and and dad very well. And they both said the say, I got the same pitch from both of them, which is, you know, your parents are on a lot of boards.
00:47:16:18 – 00:47:42:26
Agent Palmer
Would you consider it? And, it’s I, you know, I was in a position where I’m unemployed. It’s a good it’s good networking, but it’s also something to do, period. Like, I can help. But it’s also like, I, I don’t know what you guys ever did on boards. So now I’m getting my experience in what that’s like.
00:47:42:26 – 00:48:04:18
Agent Palmer
I mean, I’ve obviously I’ve worked in nonprofit and there are boards above you, so I have a general idea, but I’ve never been a board member until now. And, you know, all I, all I remember from, like, childhood and stuff is like, oh, we have a board, board retreat or a board meeting or, you know, this, that or the other thing.
00:48:04:18 – 00:48:07:31
Agent Palmer
And now we’re at a gala.
00:48:07:36 – 00:48:29:13
Sybil Stershic
Well, it’s interesting because they’re the one thing about being on a board is you learn the importance of governance and respect for governance and, and what it means in terms of managing an organization and the people. However, Jason, you know, the the aspects of internal marketing apply as well.
00:48:29:15 – 00:48:31:08
Agent Palmer
No, I mean, it’s no different.
00:48:31:08 – 00:48:42:44
Sybil Stershic
It’s no different. So you knew that. But the other thing is you don’t give yourself enough credit. You had gotten involved. Remember when you were in college?
00:48:42:49 – 00:48:44:54
Agent Palmer
Oh, no, trust me, I.
00:48:44:54 – 00:48:54:45
Sybil Stershic
I am in debt. And I were very proud of that because that’s the way you learn, you know, dealing with other people and dealing with conflict.
00:48:54:45 – 00:48:55:50
Agent Palmer
And well, I don’t.
00:48:55:50 – 00:48:56:52
Sybil Stershic
Managing other body.
00:48:56:53 – 00:49:22:08
Agent Palmer
I don’t think anything so, there was some controversy in the student government when I was and I wasn’t even a part of it, as everyone there out there in Listening Land makes the assumption it was me. It wasn’t actually me. But there was some controversy that, went through, and I was one of the ships to I was one of the captains to try and clean the right the ship.
00:49:22:08 – 00:50:02:49
Agent Palmer
Right the ship. But I remember Robert’s Rules, and I remember that if you know enough about Robert’s Rules, or you know Robert’s Rules of Order, I guess for for the full thing, it’s not about. It’s not about order. It’s about controlled chaos. Because one of the weird things about Robert’s Rules of Orders is the. And it’s this is about this goes into parliamentary procedure and like the whole filibuster idea and and concept because the more you know, the more control you have.
00:50:02:54 – 00:50:22:32
Agent Palmer
And if you become a rule and I used to be an expert on Robert’s Rules because I wanted to be the chaos guy. And so you use Robert’s Rules to your advantage, especially when people don’t know them, or when you know more about the rules and somebody else. And it’s like this in every sport known to man, right?
00:50:22:32 – 00:50:42:26
Agent Palmer
Like if, if, if you’re playing a pickup game and somebody knows a rule that you don’t know or like a very rare thing like whatever, they can use that to their advantage if they want to. So I’m coming back to this board years, decades removed from college. And it’s like, can I have a first kind of a second?
00:50:42:26 – 00:51:01:53
Agent Palmer
And I’m like, is there going to be discussion? And I’m like, oh, like, it all comes back to you. Like, not not the minutia that I used to use to create chaos. But that part but some of it comes back to you and you go like, wow, like, how did I how did I know half of this stuff back then?
00:51:01:53 – 00:51:33:33
Agent Palmer
I, I remember in one of the organizations on campus, I rewrote about a set of bylaws. And when we talk about internal communication and creating a culture, when you talk about an organization and a board of directors, the bylaws are as important as the culture because the bylaws establish what you can or cannot do. And they also establish what kind of an organization you’re going to be.
00:51:33:44 – 00:52:01:13
Agent Palmer
Are you going to be a concrete, strict by the book? Everything. Everything is written down, down to the last detail, or you’re going to have general guidelines in your bylaws that aren’t specific. And it’s, you know, you’re going to let the organization go. There’s a huge difference in those sets of bylaws. One set is 50 pages long, the other is five.
00:52:01:13 – 00:52:04:18
Agent Palmer
And I’m not joking like that’s that’s the difference.
00:52:04:29 – 00:52:25:37
Sybil Stershic
Although it also depends on your if they use a lawyer to help them with the bylaws, there’s some stuff they have to put in. But anyway. Yeah, but but you’re right. I mean and that’s where I’ve learned the value of governance in terms of if there was a question, go back to the bylaws, what what was the original intention for the organization?
00:52:25:37 – 00:52:42:19
Sybil Stershic
And it makes a big difference. And and yet I find so many nonprofits that I work with no term limits. Now, it’s a question of either they don’t have them in the bylaws, which is a big no no in my my book. Or they have them and they ignore them. Well, there’s the third speaker. No, there’s.
00:52:42:19 – 00:53:17:14
Agent Palmer
The first question I asked about the board was, are there term limits? And that I got I don’t mixed response. No, no, no I don’t I’m trying to think I don’t know, I got it from D&D because but I didn’t get it from D&D or dad didn’t come up with it, which is that always at least explained it well, which was we have bylaws that establish term limits for board members because we don’t want the board to stagnate.
00:53:17:19 – 00:53:48:53
Agent Palmer
And in order to make it not stagnate, you need rollover and not like, oh my God, so-and-so quit. Just your time’s up. It’s time to get new blood in here because you end up in organizations where the what? And I’ll, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll posit this for a moment here. One of the biggest problems of campus collegiate board and government is the same probably issue that you have in high school.
00:53:48:58 – 00:54:17:12
Agent Palmer
People don’t want to actually be involved. They just want to say they’ve been involved. It looks good on my college transcript. This will be great on my resume after college. You know what? People still do that to this day. And those people are the ones that you need term limits for. Yeah, you’re going to get somebody who’s great that can only stick around for four years if it’s, you know, you know, two, two year terms or whatever.
00:54:17:17 – 00:54:45:33
Agent Palmer
But you know what? It’s better to have those people come in as shooting stars than to have a board of 12 people where ten are on the board because they’ve always been on the board, and they always want to say they were on the board. Those people exist from high school to college and in the real world. And I don’t mean to be flippant about it, but they’re just taking up space.
00:54:45:38 – 00:54:47:06
Agent Palmer
They’re not doing anything.
00:54:47:21 – 00:55:18:20
Sybil Stershic
We call it Deadwood on the board. What’s interesting is I worked with an organization once where the board chair had been there 13 years. The rest of the board, nobody did anything. Nobody had to. And nobody wanted to do anything. And it was like I, you know, I kept saying to the, to the executive director, and there were no term limits on the board said, well, you sure you don’t want to do a board retreat?
00:55:18:20 – 00:55:40:15
Sybil Stershic
And we had the board retreat. We can do a board assessment. But the only way this this board chair is going to go is if he keels over and, you know, that’s an impossible situation, can be an impossible situation for the staff unless they can do things despite the board, because the board is clueless that.
00:55:40:20 – 00:55:47:57
Agent Palmer
Well, in a lot of, you know, a lot of instances that did the, you know, the the board doesn’t take an active role. They’re just.
00:55:48:02 – 00:56:13:22
Sybil Stershic
Right. And it depends on one of the things I’ve learned with a nonprofit is when anybody approaches you about a board, or it’s one of the things I look for when when a prospective client approaches me or if I’m doing pro bono work. Is is your board strategic? Is it operational? Sometimes in a smaller organization, it has to be operational because they’re either new or they’re so small that the board has to be hands on.
00:56:13:27 – 00:56:26:06
Sybil Stershic
Or is it for show, Fitz for show? Get someone else. I just it’s not worth it. Anyway, that that’s been my experience in working with boards.
00:56:26:11 – 00:56:33:05
Agent Palmer
So semi-retired. What what what does that mean?
00:56:33:10 – 00:56:53:38
Sybil Stershic
It means when your father retired, I didn’t want to work, you know, 40 to 60 hours anymore. I wanted to have some time with him that we could do things together and travel. But I’m not totally willing to give up work. On the other hand, if you think about it, I’ve been on a forced sabbatical for 15 months.
00:56:53:49 – 00:57:19:25
Agent Palmer
Well, hold on, let’s talk. I don’t want to talk about that for a moment. What I want to talk about is that my father retired after putting in 60, 70 hour weeks for 40, 50 years. Yep. Because I think if I, if I ever ask him, he’s going to say he put in that time in high school to whatever whatever he’s whatever.
00:57:19:30 – 00:57:32:25
Agent Palmer
He’s a workaholic. There’s no denying that. And he retired. And to his credit, I think he did spend the month of January and February, just.
00:57:32:36 – 00:57:33:32
Sybil Stershic
The first two months, the.
00:57:33:32 – 00:57:49:16
Agent Palmer
First two months home. And then, you know, eventually, fast forward, Covid happens. And now those two months, you know, give or take some time in between those two months, he’s back home again.
00:57:49:28 – 00:57:52:19
Sybil Stershic
Well, he’s had almost a full year out before Covid.
00:57:52:21 – 00:57:58:50
Agent Palmer
Okay. But what was it like because you two haven’t spent this much time together ever.
00:57:58:55 – 00:57:59:36
Sybil Stershic
I know.
00:57:59:36 – 00:58:07:36
Agent Palmer
Period. Like even the retirement, the first couple months of retirement, he was still kind of getting out. And I’d see him, he’d have lunch, we’d have lunch.
00:58:07:47 – 00:58:08:46
Sybil Stershic
And I was still working.
00:58:08:46 – 00:58:18:04
Agent Palmer
Full time. We’re still working full time. Yeah, the Covid happens. And ignoring what it meant for your business, the two of you who have been together for.
00:58:18:09 – 00:58:18:49
Sybil Stershic
47.
00:58:18:49 – 00:58:19:30
Agent Palmer
Decades.
00:58:19:30 – 00:58:20:02
Sybil Stershic
47.
00:58:20:15 – 00:58:30:47
Agent Palmer
Years, I’m just going to say yes, I have are forced to spend more time together then, then since probably since you were in college.
00:58:30:52 – 00:58:53:19
Sybil Stershic
Know, you know what, I it’s interesting that you bring this up because I noticed it after the first couple months of Covid, because I realized your father and I had never spent that much time together. We met in college. You know, we’re taking courses, we get married, you start your careers, you have a family. You know, your father and I were never big on vacations.
00:58:53:24 – 00:59:10:23
Sybil Stershic
Any vacations would be spent maybe once or twice a year visiting family in Baltimore, Toronto or. Or visiting your grandmother. Did Toronto’s where your aunt and uncle live and and but so we never we never took a lot of vacations. We never spent that much time together.
00:59:10:23 – 00:59:34:06
Agent Palmer
As a as a family. I remember two vacations. That’s it. Two that were real vacations. Yes. None of this. There’s a bar mitzvah or a bar mitzvah in Vegas. Let’s take a vacation out there. Well, sorry, I yeah, it’s travel, but it’s not a vacation. We went to Jamaica, and then we went on, say, say, a sailing ship, Windjammer.
00:59:34:11 – 00:59:39:58
Agent Palmer
Cruise. Cruise off the coast of Maine. Right. Those were the two. And one was I was like 6 or 7.
00:59:40:02 – 00:59:41:19
Sybil Stershic
We went down to Disneyworld.
00:59:41:34 – 00:59:42:53
Agent Palmer
I don’t.
00:59:42:58 – 00:59:46:08
Sybil Stershic
But that was tied in with the business thing I had. So.
00:59:46:12 – 00:59:48:27
Agent Palmer
New Orleans was tied into a business thing.
00:59:48:28 – 00:59:49:11
Sybil Stershic
Yeah.
00:59:49:16 – 00:59:54:41
Agent Palmer
All right. So. All right. So anyway, you not a lot of vacations, but know you spent so.
00:59:54:41 – 01:00:10:05
Sybil Stershic
So we never spent and and the thing is, even during weekends when we’d have time together, you’re doing stuff around the house, you’re doing errands or the weekends. Then when your father got back into tourism and hospitality, he’d have, you know, something.
01:00:10:05 – 01:00:17:42
Agent Palmer
Every weekend now, towards the end of his career, you guys did start taking trips.
01:00:17:42 – 01:00:20:01
Sybil Stershic
Yes.
01:00:20:06 – 01:00:28:33
Agent Palmer
And actually traveling. Yeah. And that carried over a little bit into the thing. But what’s it like being forced to be, you know. Yeah. There’s nowhere to go.
01:00:28:33 – 01:00:29:07
Sybil Stershic
You’re forced.
01:00:29:07 – 01:00:31:40
Agent Palmer
It’s it’s you’re forced. There’s nowhere else to go. Right.
01:00:31:44 – 01:00:51:22
Sybil Stershic
There was no place to go. And I remember a friend of mine joking with me, and it really hit home. It hit home when he retired because, you know, dad’s like, okay, I’m going to eat lunch. It’s noon. Well, you know, I’m working in my office in the garden level. Sometimes I don’t come up for lunch until 1 or 2:00.
01:00:51:27 – 01:01:15:37
Sybil Stershic
So it’s like, I hope you’re not expecting me to have lunch with you just because you’re home. And a friend of mine said when her husband retired, she said, I told him we married, for better or worse, but not for lunch. And then I got it. I absolutely got it. But one of the things dad and I did to cope, yeah, was we took to our respective corners.
01:01:15:42 – 01:01:15:51
Sybil Stershic
And.
01:01:15:51 – 01:01:17:13
Agent Palmer
He has an office in the house.
01:01:17:13 – 01:01:42:46
Sybil Stershic
You have an office in the house and we would do things, but that was partly to to try to stay engaged. And a lot of it was, was coping with with the pandemic and reaching out to friends and family to make sure everybody was okay. And then, you know, we we’d meet in the kitchen sometimes for lunch, always for dinner and, you know, and we’d watch some TV together, but we have our different interests.
01:01:42:46 – 01:02:10:59
Sybil Stershic
He has his guitar lessons. You know, I have some reading that I do. That’s different. I joined a gym. I got into some fitness classes, so we do. We’ve always maintained our separate interests, but we do also have a lot in common, and we still balance that out. It’s always been about not not equal balance. But you know, we’re not on top of each other 24 seven because I’m not sure anybody could cope with that even as much as we love each other we just.
01:02:11:07 – 01:02:12:10
Sybil Stershic
But you can’t do that.
01:02:12:13 – 01:02:31:07
Agent Palmer
And I’m amazed. Well, amazed is one word, disappointed is another. But that’s a side. But. So I’m disappointed because as my role models, when I didn’t find my wife in college, I was a little disappointed.
01:02:31:11 – 01:02:32:13
Sybil Stershic
That was your. That was.
01:02:32:13 – 01:02:35:14
Agent Palmer
Your. No, not ours. I know, I’m aware.
01:02:35:14 – 01:02:36:12
Sybil Stershic
Do you want to explain that?
01:02:36:15 – 01:02:44:59
Agent Palmer
No, it’s like you guys met in college. Yes. And lived happily ever after. And having. Not really though.
01:02:45:04 – 01:02:46:55
Sybil Stershic
You just assumed I didn’t.
01:02:47:00 – 01:02:47:51
Agent Palmer
That was the way it worked.
01:02:47:55 – 01:02:52:52
Sybil Stershic
It was the same with your. Your, at least most of your aunts and uncles.
01:02:52:57 – 01:02:59:30
Agent Palmer
Yeah. And. Well, and I had heard all of those stories. Everybody look and of of your.
01:02:59:34 – 01:03:00:12
Sybil Stershic
Generation.
01:03:00:12 – 01:03:40:49
Agent Palmer
Of your and maybe not your generation, but of the people I know in and around your age and your generation that are still married or as I was growing up, were married, everybody met in college. It fell in for them. But for the most part I felt that way. So but what I want to say and that’s my issue that I, you know, but oh, what I will say is that you have been married for four decades on, and you are surrounded by other couples that are close to or around for decades.
01:03:40:54 – 01:03:59:22
Agent Palmer
And that makes you in the that makes you the majority of people I know, but the minority to the world and I, I, I, you know, it’s weird. I mean, you know, my God, parents are still together. And you, you met them in college. Yeah. And they’ve been married almost as long.
01:03:59:33 – 01:04:04:01
Sybil Stershic
But they didn’t meet in college. They were high school sweethearts. Did you know that? No. Yes.
01:04:04:06 – 01:04:05:59
Agent Palmer
Well, that’s for when I have them on.
01:04:06:06 – 01:04:07:03
Sybil Stershic
Yes. Okay.
01:04:07:07 – 01:04:15:48
Agent Palmer
Yeah. But. So I’m just saying, like that longevity doesn’t exist anymore on a level.
01:04:15:53 – 01:04:33:00
Sybil Stershic
But you’re right. A lot of the people that that your father and I socialize with, you know, your godparents, former neighbors, friends from college that we celebrate every Thanksgiving with. Yeah. And I see that now.
01:04:33:05 – 01:04:37:04
Agent Palmer
Yeah. Well, all right, that’s.
01:04:37:09 – 01:04:41:55
Sybil Stershic
Anyway, there’s still hope you don’t have to meet them in college. It’s okay.
01:04:41:55 – 01:04:46:52
Agent Palmer
It’s fine. No. It’s fine. I mean, I’m well, I’m not I mean, I’m not going back to school.
01:04:46:57 – 01:04:54:43
Sybil Stershic
Do you, you may not remember this, but you paid your father me the ultimate compliment once when you were in college, I remember.
01:04:54:43 – 01:05:03:09
Agent Palmer
I know exactly where this is going. I said, I can’t have become a decent fucking poet because there was no tragedy in my life.
01:05:03:14 – 01:05:04:18
Sybil Stershic
No, actually it was.
01:05:04:18 – 01:05:05:27
Agent Palmer
I thought that was the compliment.
01:05:05:29 – 01:05:15:00
Sybil Stershic
Well, now it it was basically framed in the sense of you were taking an abnormal psychology course and you said you had nothing to contribute. So, yeah, I.
01:05:15:00 – 01:05:17:10
Agent Palmer
Thought I was the artist. I remember the artist one.
01:05:17:10 – 01:05:23:37
Sybil Stershic
No, I remember the abnormal psych class. You had nothing to contribute.
01:05:23:42 – 01:05:34:53
Agent Palmer
Well, by comparison, no, no, I mean, I we were we were, Jewish. Norman Rockwell, kind of.
01:05:34:58 – 01:05:36:15
Sybil Stershic
I wouldn’t go that far, but. Okay.
01:05:36:23 – 01:05:38:29
Agent Palmer
Fair enough, fair enough.
01:05:38:34 – 01:05:44:55
Sybil Stershic
Anyway, yeah, I, you know, I was talking about you the other day. You.
01:05:44:55 – 01:05:45:17
Agent Palmer
Do that a.
01:05:45:17 – 01:06:11:07
Sybil Stershic
Lot. Yes, I do, we were. I love to talk about you. I’m proud of you. And sometimes you give me good material. Well, but that being that notwithstanding, I was having a conversation with some friends that we were talking about our high school experiences where we where we went to high school, where we went to elementary school. You know, how many, you know, were we in a junior high school, private school, public school and all that?
01:06:11:12 – 01:06:40:22
Sybil Stershic
And I told them about the conversation we had when when our family friendly came up with, which is, girl you went to school with. Yeah. Who’s become a friend of the family. And we were lamenting over, your education, which, excluding Element Elementary, was fine early elementary, but it was less than ideal. And, you know, if,
01:06:40:27 – 01:07:05:20
Sybil Stershic
Well, you never get to do it over, but I would have wished for a better educational experience for you. On the other hand, when we were having this conversation with you and Lee and you were trading stories, and dad and I were trading stories as parents having to deal with teachers and administration in this particular school district. I took a step back and I said to both of you, well, you know what?
01:07:05:25 – 01:07:18:48
Sybil Stershic
You both turned out fine despite that. I wouldn’t say because of it, but maybe despite that or or maybe it was because of it. You didn’t have such a great education, but you you turned out fine.
01:07:18:52 – 01:07:44:47
Agent Palmer
So I wanted to talk about that for a moment. Okay, so I did a solo episode where I talked all about my trip to Israel, kind of how it started. And, there’s a part of that story that happens while I’m in Israel back here on the mainland. And that’s the part of the story where you you now look.
01:07:44:51 – 01:08:12:16
Agent Palmer
But I’m I’m going to I’m getting ahead of myself. If you had said to me, your parents are going to meet with the principal and the teacher in question, and one of your parents will have to be held back. Dad would have been the one I put my money on going after someone. And it was him who held you back?
01:08:12:20 – 01:08:13:26
Sybil Stershic
Absolutely.
01:08:13:30 – 01:08:27:27
Agent Palmer
I still am flummoxed by the idea that it was you who got incensed before him or I just, I don’t I’m I’m.
01:08:27:32 – 01:08:28:44
Sybil Stershic
Let me explain.
01:08:28:44 – 01:08:30:31
Agent Palmer
Why. Okay?
01:08:30:35 – 01:08:38:38
Sybil Stershic
Your father is diplomatic as he is, and he can do this without being emotional. Was the one who handled most of the conversation.
01:08:38:43 – 01:08:39:03
Agent Palmer
Okay?
01:08:39:03 – 01:09:10:31
Sybil Stershic
And that was our that was our strategy going in because I was too emotional about it to begin with. But I held back and dad did most of the talking. The teacher in question kept her head down the entire conversation did not make eye contact with me or your father at all, and I was ready to grab her by the throat.
01:09:10:36 – 01:09:29:51
Sybil Stershic
That is so disrespectful. Gets back to respect again. It’s like, okay, sweetheart, you’re going to deny everything. We’re going to tell you. You’re going to contradict it. I don’t care what you know. What? What’s in your freaking head about this that you refuse to acknowledge. Okay, that’s your choice. But look us in the eye, make eye contact with us.
01:09:29:51 – 01:09:58:57
Sybil Stershic
She never did. And I just that dad held me back. The principal was very good. He did not condone, but he didn’t. He didn’t defend us either. He didn’t. And basically he all he said being very diplomatic was. And he made eye contact with us the entire time. Thank you for bringing this to our attention and making us aware of it.
01:09:59:02 – 01:10:17:09
Sybil Stershic
That’s all he said. That’s all we were looking for. We weren’t. We were looking for acknowledgment. It’s what we were looking for. Yeah, she did not acknowledge and wrong to acknowledge that. Okay, well, maybe this wasn’t appropriate. We weren’t getting that from her. And the whole time dad was talking, I was watching the principal, and I was watching her.
01:10:17:13 – 01:10:32:11
Sybil Stershic
No eye contact. I was ready to kill her. It’s like, how dare you? And few other words that I won’t say on the air, but, well, that to me, because the ultimate sign of disrespect.
01:10:32:12 – 01:10:50:53
Agent Palmer
Because that is that that is a story that I didn’t like it it you. I overheard you telling somebody. I think I overheard dad telling you I didn’t hear this. So I come back from overseas, and you, you visit me overseas, and I don’t hear about this story, and I come back and I don’t hear about this story.
01:10:50:53 – 01:10:59:06
Agent Palmer
I don’t even know when I heard about this story. I just I just know I eventually heard about this story and it was mind blowing.
01:10:59:11 – 01:11:00:41
Sybil Stershic
Why am I that meek?
01:11:00:41 – 01:11:11:41
Agent Palmer
No, I just I don’t I, I, I, I don’t know, I, I see you because, because I, was never an easy child.
01:11:11:46 – 01:11:12:33
Sybil Stershic
Excuse me. Thank you.
01:11:12:33 – 01:11:14:37
Agent Palmer
Yeah. No, but at.
01:11:14:37 – 01:11:16:30
Sybil Stershic
Times you were. But at times you weren’t.
01:11:16:30 – 01:11:42:06
Agent Palmer
But that’s fine, but I. I seem to remember, you being the call Mia. And maybe it’s because dad and I are fairly similar, and I, And I either didn’t push him enough or he let me. I don’t know, but you always seem to be the one that was the the steady your influence. Not not just in terms of temperament.
01:11:42:17 – 01:11:56:40
Agent Palmer
Oh, nothing else, just temperament. So the idea of you being the one to be held back like that is the part that just because to me, I would put all my money on that, all my money would have been on that.
01:11:56:45 – 01:12:18:27
Sybil Stershic
And yet, you know, I’m the one who, especially in high school when you tested us a lot and dad wasn’t home a lot and I was, I would go off the deep end sometimes. I mean, I’d become a shrew. I become emotional, or else you just blocked it out. Well, first of all, you were immune to guilt.
01:12:18:27 – 01:12:22:31
Sybil Stershic
I swore it’s going to come up.
01:12:22:35 – 01:12:23:51
Agent Palmer
It’s come up on this show.
01:12:23:53 – 01:12:38:25
Sybil Stershic
I never said it before. I know you’re Teflon. I would never use guilt. And then when I became a mother, it’s like, you know, sometimes you’re desperate and you have to try. And you never work. It never worked on you. You were like Teflon. And that was a.
01:12:38:30 – 01:12:40:42
Agent Palmer
Complaint about me, about that.
01:12:40:47 – 01:12:43:28
Sybil Stershic
I don’t I don’t remember, okay? I don’t remember.
01:12:43:29 – 01:12:50:26
Agent Palmer
Her. Yeah. You and maybe maybe it’s a grandmother thing, but her guilt worked on you too.
01:12:50:31 – 01:12:58:09
Sybil Stershic
Oh. Oh, please. That that’s a that could be a whole other show. Didn’t matter. There were times, but it’s just.
01:12:58:22 – 01:13:12:22
Agent Palmer
Do you want to talk about your your the our favorite argument. The stop sign with the white borders optional or there is no flight. Learning to drive. You know what? That’s probably a whole episode two, isn’t it? You and me learning.
01:13:12:22 – 01:13:28:44
Sybil Stershic
You stinker. This one. Stinker. When? When we had to take you for driving lessons. And, of course, your father wasn’t around, so I would have to drive you. What was it? 45 minutes away. And then after you, you had a couple lessons under your belt, you said, well, I’m going to drive to the lesson, and you had to have me in the car.
01:13:28:46 – 01:13:30:00
Agent Palmer
Yeah.
01:13:30:05 – 01:13:52:02
Sybil Stershic
And you would miss a stop sign, and I’d like. Jason, there’s a stop sign now. There wasn’t. Yes. There was. Well, it’s your fault, mom. I don’t know where the hell you picked this up from. It’s your fault, mom. Every time in the car with you, I tend to miss stop signs. Okay? Just forget that. Then there was a time you were merging because we were on a highway going into to Dunmore.
01:13:52:07 – 01:14:15:37
Sybil Stershic
Merging. And I said, Jason, you have to check your rearview mirror. And you had the gall. You had the gall to say to me, mom, they don’t teach that anymore. You were a stinker. It’s amazing that I even get in the car with you in today. Yes, you did test us. There’s there’s no. Then there were the times.
01:14:15:42 – 01:14:16:42
Agent Palmer
Haha.
01:14:16:46 – 01:14:24:53
Sybil Stershic
I’m going to get you on this one. What the misses Barnes story. Okay. You deserve this one.
01:14:24:57 – 01:14:56:26
Agent Palmer
It was all right, so hold on. So this goes back to the beginning of the episode, right? You know, you are Jason’s mother and and and Mike’s wife. And part of that is that we’re in Bethlehem, where you guys met, which is where you both started your careers and, you know, everybody. And that also extends to me. So when I’m working for dad again, I can’t go anywhere in the Valley.
01:14:56:31 – 01:15:14:55
Agent Palmer
Period. The end. I can’t go anywhere even remotely nearby where I’m not going to run into somebody who knew me when, when, who knew me when. Period. The end. So there’s a lot of coverage between the two of you now. This story accentuates that, but I’m just saying, like it continued like this.
01:15:14:55 – 01:15:17:10
Sybil Stershic
It started it started when you were born.
01:15:17:13 – 01:15:17:53
Agent Palmer
Yeah. Yes.
01:15:17:53 – 01:15:44:39
Sybil Stershic
And now now it’s Jason is in first grade. Your teacher happens to be Mrs. Barnes, who’s the wife of a professor I had at Lehigh. Dad didn’t take Professor Barnes class, but he knew him. So we happened to be at a Lehigh University football game, and we happened to see Professor and Mrs. Barnes, and we go up to chat with them, and we’re talking and, you know, this is great.
01:15:44:39 – 01:15:46:32
Sybil Stershic
And, you know.
01:15:46:32 – 01:15:48:57
Agent Palmer
I’m not there, by the way. No, I’m not there.
01:15:49:01 – 01:16:12:17
Sybil Stershic
Mrs. Barnes. You know, I said to to Mrs. Barnes, by the way. I said, look, I said, if if you could please do us a favor. Jason just got glasses and it’s been a couple weeks now. We would really appreciate you reinforcing his wearing the glasses so that you notice it and comment on it and compliment him on it, you know, whatever.
01:16:12:17 – 01:16:35:22
Sybil Stershic
To reinforce the glasses. This has been I think you’d had him a couple of weeks now. She looked at us quizzically and she said, what glasses? Okay. Followed by she said, by the way, I never heard a response from you on the note I sent home. Dad and I looked at each other, to which we said, what note?
01:16:35:27 – 01:16:56:15
Sybil Stershic
So, we had it in for you by the time we got home after the football game and we said, we understand you haven’t been wearing your glasses to school, and you looked at us. How did you know? And it’s like, And, Jason, what happened to the note Mrs. Barnes gave to you to have a sign said, how did you know that?
01:16:56:16 – 01:17:02:32
Sybil Stershic
Said, we saw Mrs. Barnes. You know her, honey, we know everybody.
01:17:02:32 – 01:17:04:21
Agent Palmer
Yep.
01:17:04:26 – 01:17:12:49
Sybil Stershic
That was that. That was the truth. And it was a threat. At the same time, it’s like you’re not going to get away with anything. You can’t get away.
01:17:12:51 – 01:17:14:39
Agent Palmer
I have to move to another country.
01:17:14:39 – 01:17:22:14
Sybil Stershic
Yeah. Yes, you would have to move to another country.
01:17:22:19 – 01:17:27:33
Sybil Stershic
You.
01:17:27:37 – 01:17:55:16
Agent Palmer
If you didn’t notice, my mother and I have what I would classify as a great relationship. Surely, as some of the stories you have heard will attest, we have grown into where we are today. But that’s part of raising a child and having them grow up. I enjoyed not only having her on the show, but being able to ask her some of those questions and more than anything, being able to use this platform, this podcast, to introduce her to all of you.
01:17:55:21 – 01:18:16:27
Agent Palmer
She may be proud of me, but I am equally proud of her. Have you called your mother today a parent, a grandparent? Maybe you should. Thanks for listening to The Palmer Files episode 50. As a reminder, all links are available in the show notes. And now for the official business. The Palmer Files releases every two weeks on Tuesdays.
01:18:16:32 – 01:18:40:20
Agent Palmer
If you’re still listening, I encourage you to join the discussion. You can tweet me at Agent Palmer. My mother, Sybil Stershic at Sybil. QSM. That’s Sybil, Q S M, and this show at the Palmer Files. For all things Sybil, you can visit Quality Service marketing.com to read about what she does and learn about internal marketing. Email can be sent to this show at the Palmer Files at gmail.com.
01:18:40:31 – 01:18:49:56
Agent Palmer
And as always, your home for all things Agent Palmer is Agent palmer.com.
01:18:50:01 – 01:18:55:17
Unknown
You.
01:18:55:21 – 01:19:03:44
Unknown
You need.
01:19:03:48 – 01:19:25:57
Unknown
Me?
01:19:26:02 – 01:19:30:00
Unknown
She’s all right. Ma.
01:19:30:05 – 01:19:32:11
Agent Palmer
Do you have one final question for me?
01:19:32:16 – 01:19:35:25
Sybil Stershic
Yes, I do, and I’ve been waiting for this.
01:19:35:25 – 01:19:36:57
Agent Palmer
Oh, God.
01:19:37:02 – 01:20:07:06
Sybil Stershic
On your other podcasts, I’ve heard you talk about your father and me. And on a recent one. Or maybe it was your collection you mentioned, mentioned recently that dad had an influence on you in terms of reading. That was the Tolkien. Yeah. And also the influence on making sure you you stayed at the end of a movie to watch the to watch what.
01:20:07:11 – 01:20:08:34
Agent Palmer
Happens after the credit for that.
01:20:08:34 – 01:20:19:16
Sybil Stershic
But that was both of us. Okay. But what I want to know is what else do you credit me for?
01:20:19:21 – 01:20:49:25
Agent Palmer
Well, I mean, you were the Beatles, right? I don’t I mean, I always pick the stones, but like, you were the Beatles influence and musically, you, you know, there were other things, right? The Beach Boys was mainly you, the love and evil John Sebastian, you know, musically, yeah. I don’t know who cooking comes from. I feel like that might have skipped a gender.
01:20:49:27 – 01:21:14:36
Agent Palmer
Like, I know I cooked a little with that, but I feel like I, I, I osmosis got the cooking stuff more because I’m not a baker. And you enjoy baking. I mean, I do. I have to credit you with a slight inspiration, at the very least for starting my own business. I mean, it was a confluence of a lot of things.
01:21:14:41 – 01:21:41:03
Agent Palmer
Chris, I had helped him with his business, and he had just folded, and I was like, well, but this was fun. So, let’s just keep doing this under a different name. But, you know, you were an inspiration there. I don’t. I, I don’t I mean, music’s a big one, I will grant you, but, I, I don’t know.
01:21:41:03 – 01:21:43:56
Sybil Stershic
I was, I was just curious and.
01:21:44:01 – 01:21:44:35
Agent Palmer
It’s look.
01:21:44:50 – 01:21:45:39
Sybil Stershic
And they’re.
01:21:45:44 – 01:21:50:26
Agent Palmer
They’re, they’re, I’m sure they’re there, but they’re just not as overtly obvious.
01:21:50:31 – 01:21:52:34
Sybil Stershic
As is that because you worked with dad for for.
01:21:52:34 – 01:21:55:32
Agent Palmer
So long. I don’t know if it’s because I worked with him or it’s because I, you know.
01:21:55:32 – 01:21:56:26
Sybil Stershic
You identify with.
01:21:56:26 – 01:21:59:19
Agent Palmer
Him. I I’m, I’m. Yeah.
01:21:59:24 – 01:22:08:09
Sybil Stershic
No, I was I was just curious. And you do credit me with your internal marketing and respect for communication.
01:22:08:14 – 01:22:20:01
Agent Palmer
And the, you know, the, you know, only only one only one person in this family’s published a book. Two books, the first two parts of the trilogy.
01:22:20:01 – 01:22:29:51
Sybil Stershic
Now that’s it. You, you and your father. When I wrote the first book, you said, when are you going to write the second? And I was really ready to shoot you to the moon.
01:22:29:51 – 01:22:30:55
Agent Palmer
And then you wrote the second.
01:22:30:55 – 01:22:31:51
Sybil Stershic
I did write the second.
01:22:31:51 – 01:22:34:19
Agent Palmer
And what did we say?
01:22:34:24 – 01:22:43:41
Sybil Stershic
When’s the third coming out? And I said, that’s it. But, you know, you talk about music. And I remember one of my triumphs with you was when we were going somewhere when you were little.
01:22:43:41 – 01:22:44:57
Agent Palmer
I could, I could do John and.
01:22:44:57 – 01:22:54:00
Sybil Stershic
Paul listening to the Beatles. And I’d say to you, who’s the solo on this? And you could tell the difference between John and Paul. You had to be like 4 or 5. It was great.
01:22:54:00 – 01:22:54:32
Agent Palmer
I don’t know if I.
01:22:54:32 – 01:22:55:12
Sybil Stershic
Said this triumph.
01:22:55:12 – 01:22:56:31
Agent Palmer
I might be able to. Oh, I’m.
01:22:56:31 – 01:22:58:37
Sybil Stershic
Sure you could. You could tell George.
01:22:58:42 – 01:22:59:06
Agent Palmer
Yeah.
01:22:59:07 – 01:23:03:04
Sybil Stershic
John. Paul. Okay. Yeah. That was my triumph.
01:23:03:08 – 01:23:10:02
Agent Palmer
You know, I mean, I’m still alive. Yes. You know, that was a that couldn’t have been a solo effort. That was a joint effort.
01:23:10:07 – 01:23:25:29
Sybil Stershic
Well, especially after the driving, classes. Yes. That. And other things. Yes. You are still alive, but we’re proud of you. You turned out to be a good person, Jason.
01:23:25:33 – 01:23:30:50
Agent Palmer
I, I, I mean, I can only take some credit for that. Then. I mean, you get all the rest.
01:23:30:52 – 01:23:54:04
Sybil Stershic
Thank you. Well, it just it’s just in, you know, in your bubby in your, your pop up and your granddad and grandma, they, they get credit to your father and I were very fortunate to grow up in very loving homes and fortunate that we could provide the same for you. And hopefully you can do the same for your family someday.
01:23:54:09 – 01:23:55:32
Agent Palmer
I love you, mom.
01:23:55:37 – 01:23:57:43
Sybil Stershic
I love you too, Jason. Thank you.
–End Transcription–
This transcription was processed by PalmerTech 3.1 and may contain errors for HUMINT (human intelligence).