Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY at Winter Fair 2026 | Feat. Mark O'Donnell

Episode Date: February 3, 2026

Celebrating Good News York Live's Anniversary at the Syracuse Winter Fair In this episode, the hosts of Good News York Live celebrate their anniversary at the Syracuse Winter Fair held at the State Fairgrounds. They welcome back their first-ever guest, Mark O'Donnell, who is also the host of the Operations Excellence podcast. They reminisce about the show's journey over the past year and discuss various topics including leadership, entrepreneurship, and continuous improvement. Mark shares insights into his work and announces an upcoming workshop titled 'Executive Presence and Creating an Impactful Culture,' co-hosted with Joanne Yaro. The episode underlines the importance of relationships, empathy, and continuous learning in both personal and professional development. 00:00 Welcome to the Syracuse Winter Fair 00:35 Reflecting on the Past Year 01:44 Podcasting Journey and Growth 03:15 Sports Talk and New Studio Plans 06:40 Leadership and Personal Development Insights 09:17 Upcoming Executive Presence Workshop 14:01 The Passion Behind the Career 14:20 Transitioning from Corporate to Consulting 15:05 Finding Your Life Purpose 16:19 Sharing Knowledge Freely 18:06 Building Genuine Relationships 24:50 The Importance of Emotional Intelligence 26:18 Upcoming Event Details 27:41 Closing Remarks and Farewell

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Hey, guys, welcome back to Good News York, live at the Great Syracuse Winter Fair. Here in the Expo Center, the State Firegrounds. This is, I love a fair in the winter. Yeah. It really is a brilliant idea. We're all just sitting here complaining about how cold it is and why are we stuck in New York. But you forget about all that inside this mass of 100,000s, square. We got our buddy Mark O'Donnell back.

You guys might remember, if you follow along this show. We launched this show the first time ever in Winterfare last year, exactly one year ago. Right. And Mark was one of our very first guests. Absolutely. On top of, of course, being the host of the Operations Excellence podcast that many of you over the past year, I'm sure, have followed or checked out or seen the clips from. Mark's talking to all kinds of incredible business leaders. He's talking about leadership,

he was talking about entrepreneurial ideas, all kinds of crazy stuff. But welcome back to the show. Welcome back for the anniversary show, buddy. Yeah, man. Thank you, Matthew. Thank you, Michael. I really appreciate it. And, yeah, I was walking in this morning,

and it kind of hits you in the face and all your senses. It's like, wow, this is like an indoor state fair. Yeah. The smell, the sounds that I'm remembering, and we were reminiscing a little bit earlier this morning when I got here about that. Last year, one year ago today, pretty much at this time, around this time. Here we were, and we're back. And yeah, thank you for the invite.

It's been a cool year. It really has, you know, we recorded this month's session just earlier this week, and you're in the process of a big move, which I'm so happy for you. You guys doing great things. But one of the greatest compliments I think I've had. We had Joanne Yaro back on, and she was one of my first. first guest, I think, in month two. And she said during the conversation, she goes, you know, I've been watching your podcast.

And not that you weren't good at the beginning, but like, wow, you're so much better now. And I was like, cool. Like, that tells me I'm learning something and something is going right. You were one of our only, not only, but you were one of the first clients where we, I mean, we didn't have to help you along, train you. You have a very natural ability on camera and on Mike, so. Well, that progression is very normal. A lot of people go right out and tell you your first ones are going to be horrible.

Right. And I don't know that anybody's really horrible. But no matter what, you're always going to see that progression. Look at the difference between, you know, when you and I started, even we've grown. 100%. Which, by the way, it feels good. It's been a while since you and I have been on together. I know.

This feels good. We've been so busy, Mike and I've been. I watch you guys individually, too. And you have some. incredible guests and have done some incredible stuff. Mike gets the shitty ones. Wow. So is Mike, but I also love Mike's take on sports.

And Mike and I are both sports junkies. Yeah, man. So every time we're connecting, like the initial conversation like it was today, was about, you know, our NFL teams and whatever's going on in the sports. You know, on that note, as we move into the new place and we're building our new studios in downtown Syracuse, All right. Mike's going to have a dedicated GMI sports sack. Yeah.

He'll be able to do that. I'm so pumped. You got to have me on. I want to come talk sports with you. Because we have a ball. Of course. We could talk about everything. Well, we were doing that before I, Matt even decided he wanted to go forward with Good News York sports.

Mike's on, you know. Think about it. You'd come in to record your show and you and I are sitting there shooting the shit about golf for a half hour. Usually 20 30 minutes. He's like, yeah, can we get going? Danny's like, come on, guys. I got some play. I got to be some part.

I got stuff to do. But it's been great, Mark. And it's been great to have you on board from the beginning. I think you might have been our first sign-up, actually, in our marketing business, which has been awesome. I love that story, because you didn't have to sell me. Yeah. Of course, you and I, I mean, God, we've known each other close to four years now.

Yeah, something like that. Something like that. And I feel like, I hope you feel the same way, that almost immediately we really had a connection. Yeah, absolutely. in a similar way of approaching a lot of things. But you came to me back, what, 15-ish months ago now, and I don't think you finished the whole thought. You literally were like, hey, I got this idea,

and you start talking about, you know, I want to do a podcast, I want to set up a professional studio, I'm going to hire a professional producer and somebody to do the social media side, and I'm like, well, how you can afford that? And you're like, well, I'm going to offer those services to my business friends.

And before you even went further, I'm like, I'm in. I'm in. Where do I sign up? That checked out, because that's exactly how he explained it to me when we had started. He goes, well, we have one client that signed on before I even finished the sentence. And I was like, well, I love this guy already. But Matt had been letting me use space at Growth Mode to record some of my own spots, and then it transgressed into using some of his equipment.

I didn't know that part. Oh, yeah, yeah. And they were still amateur hour big time. But, you know, I was getting some stuff out there. And, you know, then we started talking. And he, you know, the more of the conversations had gone on, he was telling me about, he's like, you know, I've done podcasting. And he was doing podcasting before it was cool.

Yeah. Right? He was. So he really was an early adopter. So all the pieces just kind of fit together. And I'm just, I'm so glad that you thought of me and that you approach me. Yeah. It's been very cool.

It's been a new experience for me. But obviously, I love it. And we've had some, you know, great, I think, some really great guest on. A couple months ago, we did a panel that you were part of. I got, you know, I look at just the volume of hits. That panel got a tremendous amount of hits. Well, and you figure there's, there's five. live, really intelligent individuals from different fields that are bringing their own following with them.

So there's kind of this multiplier effect. But you know, you guys touched on something else. And the fact when we talked about getting better over time, right, and when you're talking about development, which is a large part of what I do, whether it's leadership or team building or what have you, nobody leaves their house not wanting to become the best version of the best version of, themselves that day, right? Everybody wants to get better. And just take leadership, for example, like there's no arriving. There's no, oh, here's your diploma, how you're the best leader you're ever going to be, you're never going to be better than this. You know, I wish I knew

20, 30 years ago what I know today, but some of that was only going to happen through experience. Yeah. You know, so it's just this natural leadership. People, it's a journey, I guess, is. the message, you know. You and I were chatting right about your entrepreneurial journey. I mean, you've been an entrepreneurial, basically an entrepreneur, most of your adult life. And it's been cool to watch your level of success just in the past 12 months, but that's not overnight. Like every bit of win and loss that you've had over all those years has gone into who you are and the opportunities that you are experiencing now. True? Absolutely. Absolutely. So, A lot of what we talk about too in leadership development is, you know, if you're driving continually to improve, by definition, you will fail.

More often than you succeed, by the way, right? Because you're going to be trying new things. You're in uncharted territory. And so when you try new things, if you really are pushing yourself, you're going to fail. That's okay. That is literally part of the process. And if you can't accept that, you won't succeed. Yeah, I learned that.

I learned that a while ago that, you know, you hear that all the time, man. You're going to fail, you've got to get back up. But it is so true, and Matt, I'm sure you can attest and Mark, the things I've learned the most in life came from when I failed. You still learn when you succeed and when you win. Yep. But you really, really learn when you fail. There's a great line I learned a few years back now that goes like this, that we literally move at the speed of pain.

That pain is truly the best motivator sometimes, right? And we learn at the speed of pain. Yeah. Right? And I think there's a lot of truth, and that's kind of what you're saying. Yeah. The greatest lessons in my life are the ones where I got smacked upside the head. Mark, we should talk about, you know, we've been talking about your podcast.

We've been talking a little bit about what you do to some degree. But let's talk about this event you got coming up. This is something that's kind of exciting that's happening in a couple of weeks. Yeah, it's pretty cool. So we had Joanne Yarrow on a few times. She and her husband, Brad Beckman, were guests of mine back episode two or something. And then Joanne was this past bump, which that will be coming out soon. So Joanne and Brad own distinctive voices, right?

Joanne is also an executive at Syracuse stage. and she's been in the performing arts world for many years. Her husband Brad Beck teaches at Syracuse University and I believe in the drama, the department, and he's a writer. Wow. And he's a very talented man. So Joanne approached me two, three months ago,

and I've worked with the two of them, helped them build a strategic plan, and I've done some other work with them, helping them learn how to monetize their abilities better and really build a business around it. So she came to me and said, hey, you know, this is her talking. She goes, you know, I do work with executives

helping them learn how to project and better utilize their voice, how to practice presence in a room, right, and kind of own the room, right? Because these are all concepts from the performing arts world. And you do performing arts. So you understand these concepts, right?

And then the other big one that they touched on was storytelling. Well, you think of those three things. As a leader in any organization, you probably need to be pretty good at those. And if you are good at those, it's going to help you better lead. So she said,

what if we did a workshop where we combined some of this stuff that they do in the performing arts world with what I do in the more classical leadership development? So things like goal setting, goal alignment. how to build a really highly successful culture that values people. That's something that you and I have been workshops on. And also the power of emotional intelligence

and how that brings all of that together. And tied with that, we're going to do a piece on communications, which I love the adage in communications that you've got two ears and one mouth. Do you think maybe you better learn how to listen a little better? Sure. Right, because people hear communications and what do they think? Right.

They think, oh, that person's a great speaker. They command, those are important, but if you can't listen well and really listen, you're not going to connect with people. So we're going to combine all that. The workshop is going to be held on Tuesday, February 10th from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at PDO's offices on Electronics Parkway right here in Syracuse. And the name of the workshop is executive presence in creating an impactful culture. and it's going to be co-put-on, co-produced by Joanne Yarrow and myself. The cost is $535 per person. There's some great takeaways.

You literally are going to walk away with some materials that you'll be able to begin implementing what you learn in that workshop as soon as you walk away. That's incredible. And it's very interactive. We want people to get up and move, get the blood flowing, getting people engaged, very hands-on. So it's not going to be people sitting in a room

being lectured. You know what, Mark, there's different things that you can do different programs that give you a lot of aspects of those. Some of that reminds me of what you get from like the Dale Carnegie trainings. Sure, sure. Those are thousands of dollars. Yep. And you are providing, A, some of those skills in addition to all those other pieces that put

it together to make this full workshop. It's an incredible value. One workshop is the point I'm trying to get to here. Yep. well thought out. We think so. You and Joanne's skills and presentation. We think so, because you know, it's also a way to hopefully better introduce Joanne and myself to another broader piece of the audience out there in Center in New York because we both feel like we have this mission. And the mission is to help people become the best version of themselves. Right. Now, yeah, do I make a living

Doing that, yeah. But literally, it's a part of my life's purpose to help other people become that best version of themselves. You know what? That's one thing I noticed about you as soon as I met you. You're listening to a podcast right now. Driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own is free and easy. upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and hundreds more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads like this, even with just 10 listeners a month. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start free at RSS.com.

Go on LinkedIn and all you'll hear is leadership conference that, leadership conference this, and, you know, people do that, as you said, as a career. but you really embody that even when you're not doing that. Even when I'm speaking to you in a normal conversation, you always have words of wisdom, and it's passion for you. It's not something you do to collect a paycheck. You believe in it, and you live it, you know? 100%.

You know, it goes back to when I was starting the business, and I've shared this story with you, I think, and being a good engineer at heart, right, I did my homework, right? So I started calling people I knew personally who had made the transition from corporate, world to consulting. And the question was, how did you do that? What worked? What should I do? Do you have any tips? And I, you know, when you ask people those kind of questions, they love, most people love

help. Yeah. Right. And so I got some great input. Some of the best things I heard, one of them was this. Figure out what you love to do, your passion. Focus on that. And you'll not only be successful, but you'll be really happy doing it. Yeah. And so I did that. I did some real deep dive introspection, and I figured out two primary things. The engineer in me is always going to love solving problems. I love a challenge, right?

To a fault. Check that box. And the more I thought about it, when I've really been happiest working in corporate life, is when I had the opportunity to mentor and coach other people. Well, you put those two things together, and that's what I do. And literally, one of the things we do in pretty much every development program is coach each individual to draft a life purpose statement.

And it really is, okay, picture yourself at 80, 85 years old, you're sitting on your porch and you're looking back at your life. What do you want it to have been all about? There's Steve Becker, man, myth, and legend. Right? But so, and I did that, and coming to find out what I want my life purpose to be is really about helping other people become the best version of themselves. Hello, Mr. Becker. Also known as Stereo, Steve. That's right.

So, yeah, you're right. It is a passion. It's interesting because one of my guests, Adam Feck, who you've met, a great guy. Adam's just a wonderful, wonderful man. But we both have the same concept where talking with prospective clients and just people, business people, even friends. Like, I don't have any problem with prospective clients giving ideas away. Like, literally, this is a secret to us. Here's how you do it.

Because the truth is, most people probably aren't going to be able to make it operational without some real deep dive help. But, oh, by the way, if they do, I still win for me. Yeah. Because guess what? They're going to get better at X, whatever X is. And then somebody they know is going to ask them, hey, you're really better at that. How'd that happen? Hey, you know what?

This dude told me about this. And let me tell you about him. That's a strategy that we try to employ a lot in the content world. And a lot of people, it's counter to what people may have been told for all these years. You've got to get paid. You've got to get paid. Yeah. You know, you take a mechanic, for instance.

Right. and a real high-performing type of video is, here's how to do your break so you don't have to hire it. Right. And you go through the job, and you might go, okay, that solves it, and I'm going to do it myself, because you're probably somebody who's going to do it yourself anyway. Right.

The other side of that is you get a considerable number of people going, oh, wow, that's a hell of a project, I don't want to get into that. I'll bring it to the professional. Right. You know, right. And by demonstrating the A, that you are the professional and you know how to do it, right. It's one of the best advertisements ever.

Right. and that whole, listen, I'll tell you the answer, give me the $5 first. That's not the approach these days. Well, you 100% agree with you. And this is interesting because I was talking with in the past couple of weeks a client and a similar conversation with a prospective client about this very topic. And the conversations, I'm going to totally paraphrase, but it's kind of like this. Like, let's talk about sales, and I'm going to tell you,

what I believe is the sales process, and it's not going to sound anything like what you probably learned. And the sales process I use really is about exactly what you're talking about. It's like, let's talk about you. Like my first intro is, hey, how's business? How's things going? What's working? What's not? You know, and just start, because guess what?

People love to talk about themselves. And if you're really good at listening and they know you're listening, they love telling. So I really want to find out, hey, is everything great? Super. Or are there things that aren't going well? What keeps you awake at night? What are your struggles? At the end of the conversation, if I can have them walk away with some tidbits that may help them,

I'm happy because very likely they're going to realize, hey, this guy knows what he's talking about, this guy has value. And oh, by the way, he's a problem solver. Right? I want to be seen as somebody that can help them solve their problems, right? Whether it's getting paid for it or not. Because ultimately, they're very likely going to engage me if they see me as somebody that is a problem solver.

In one way or another, right? Which is really not, I mean, it kind of is. You know, we could talk a lot about the sales process. But the truth is, I did everything except direct selling and marketing in the business world pretty much before I started my own business. So, of course, now do I, how do I spend a chunk of money? Yeah. Right.

And at the beginning, right, when I got turned down, it was like crushing. Yeah. Right. And you probably remember this, right? It was like personal. Yeah. Why? Yeah.

What did I do wrong? Right? The truth is it's none of those things, right? It's not about me, but what I had to come to is, you know what? I don't, I won't say I don't care. Of course, I, you know, want to get a sale. But what I'm really after is I want to build a relationship. Yeah.

If I make a new friend, that's a win. Sure. And maybe I never, ever make a buck off of that relationship directly. Yeah. But you know what? Maybe we can help each other. And, you know, I've begun to experience this now, starting by fourth year, where I help other associates that I've never directly done business with,

but I have helped their company. companies find business. They've, you know, in turn, connected me with people who may turn into business people, clients. So, yeah. Your network is the most important thing. 100%. I would not agree more. I wouldn't be anywhere without the relationships I've built. And it wasn't like forced building, you know, it wasn't like, well, I better befriend this person so I can use them later in life. It's just, it turns out all through life, I need something. I need to connect somebody who needs help with this and it's like oh wait a minute these people come in and out of your life back into your life and and it's just it's so important and the other thing which now i remember what i

was going to say earlier which applies is i always always tell people not only build relationships that's important build your network yeah but get rid of preconceived notions that was my the biggest realization i had over the last few years i used to have this whole plan in my head of how things were going to work out or what I was going to do. And even if those things end up happening, I guarantee you it's not going to happen in the exact way you thought it was. It's just you've got to get rid of preconceived notions because you set yourself up for disappointment.

If I lined up five celebrities or anybody that I looked up to in the same industry, all five people got there a different way. Great point, right? And a lot of what I do in development work with people is typically a goal achievement and goal planning process. And we talk about, yeah, make plans, but you can't plan the outcome. Right. It's very specific and a very useful way to set goals. Right.

But you can't, don't predict the outcome. Right. Because you're talking about expectations. I want to circle back to relationships. And at the end of the day, I actually had a potential client say to me, well, you know, you've worked with this, this, and this kind of company. How's that relate to ours and what we do? And I looked them in the eye, and I was like, it doesn't matter what you do.

And frankly, I don't want to be rude, but I really don't care what you do. Because business is about one thing. And they're kind of looking at me like, what's that? It's about relationships. I don't care if you're an ambulance company or you're a metal heat treatment. company or you're a millware company or your air conditioning. None of that matters, right? Because at the end of the day, to be successful, it is about building relationships. 100%, right? Whether on an individual personal basis or business. Or business. You know, it's funny because I'm going to tell you

the last three jobs I had, I've never technically applied for it, working for somebody else. Like literally, somebody called me and said, hey, such a company is looking for this role, are you interested? Okay, I'll talk, and, you know, one conversation led to another, and it led to an in-person interview or two or three, and the next thing I know, they offer me a job. So technically, I never applied, you know. That's exactly. That's how you, that's the relationship. Matt and I are living proof of that. Right.

Matt and I met when we grew up in basically the same. area. Right. We had mutual friends, so we would hang out in other social gatherings. And we stay connected over the years. They followed him, supported him. Always believed in what he was doing. And when he had posted about this new gig, I had wrote, you know, I wrote him and said,

I'm so interested. And he said, buddy, I was literally picturing you, but I didn't think you were available, which meant the world to me, it still does. But that would have never happened. And if you didn't have the relationship. Yeah. You just don't know. And it's not about, you don't build these relate, I want to reiterate, you don't build these relationships.

You don't build these relationships so that you get a break later in life. That's not what it's about. It's not about what's in it for me. No, no, because the other thing that we talk a lot about is true relationships, right, are based on a level of understanding that requires empathy. Yeah. Right? And empathy is totally different than sympathy.

Empathy is making the effort to not only understand how somebody else feels, but why they feel that way, without judgment. Pro or con. Like, I may totally disagree with how you feel and why you feel that way, but I am willing and able to make the effort to understand that. Yeah. Right? That's a level of under, because guess what?

Isn't that at the core of what every human being wants from their relationships? Of course. We all want to be understood. Sure. Where we are. Not where you expect me to be. That's right. Right.

And so empathy, and that goes to EQ, emotional intelligence. And guess what? Some people develop that naturally through life experiences, some at relatively early ages, which is kind of unique, but those people, and I've come across a lot of them. But you can also learn that and develop those things, right? And most people, when they hear that go, really, you can develop all the aspects of emotional intelligence if you are willing to, you have a desire to, and you're able and willing to practice the discipline to do that. Mark, we could go on about this forever. We'll let you enjoy this fair. For sure.

I got to get me some food, man. It's smelling good. Before we go, let's one more time. Let's just talk about this. Your event, February 10th, 9 a.m. at Td. Right in Liverpool, right, literally, right off the throughway exit. Drive right in the parking lot of. Correct.

If you take that one there for Electronics Parkway. Great event. It's going to be hosted by yourself and Joanne. Yarrow? Incredible value, I feel like, for what you're off in a workshop. Like I said, typically these things are three times what you folks are charged for this, and I'm excited. Yeah, so are we. We're really excited.

And Joanne, like you, is somebody that she and I just have a great connection, which is interesting, because it's left brain, right brain, and, you know, we think very differently. but she is passionate about this like I am and very passionate about helping other people. So, yeah. That's awesome. Come one, come all. It is very affordable. Call me, reach out to me through the website, or you can contact Joanne.

What's the website, man? Website is www. www.Operationsexcellance.com. Awesome. And that is Operations Excellence. The E is dropped in excellence, only because that domain name was already taken. the last S for savings. There you go. Mark, it's been great, buddy. Thank you, partner. Always a pleasure. My friend, you know I love you, man. Thank you. I love you too.

Thank you for coming back many other times again. So all right. Guys, we will have more from the Syracuse Winter Fair coming up next.