Meet Paul White

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Paul White.

Hi Paul, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
My wife and I owned the most successful Dry Cleaning business in the Great Lakes Bay Region.

We worked with an incredible group of skilled and talented people who utilized their unique skill sets to serve the garment care needs of people in our community. The business’ success offered our family opportunities to pursue volunteering and involvement with several non-profit organizations that make a difference in our community.

It also allowed us to be involved in all of the activities our four sons participated in. The control of our time was the greatest benefit that owning a small business provided us. We give credit to the culture we established at our company. We had three primary goals that the foundation of our culture was based on.

The first was, that each team member would drive to work excited about the day ahead and the contribution they would make. The second was, that as soon as a team member walked through the door, they knew that they were respected for their unique set of skills and appreciated by everyone else for the contribution they brought to the team. The third was, that each team member would drive home knowing that they had made a positive difference in some unique way to the greater good of the world that day.

These goals were achieved consistently and created great loyalty from our team to the company, which in turn created great loyalty from our customers. We never competed against other dry cleaners, we competed against every other experience a customer would have that day, and the experience they had with us had to be the best.

Everything was going great! Then Covid hit and everyone went from working at an office to working from home. We had done nothing wrong, but the need for our services and our unique skill sets fell off a cliff. We closed for 3 months in 2020 and opened back up. The general feeling was that the whole “work from home” thing was temporary and everything would soon be back to normal. What was normal pre-covid still hasn’t returned for some industries and businesses.

By mid-2020 we were averaging 30% of pre-covid sales and the business model I had created couldn’t achieve profitability at that level of sales. By the end of 2020, it seemed like everyone I spoke with was saying “2020, the worst year of my life!” Those were painful words to hear, but people had evidence to back it up. So did I! But I kept thinking, what could I do in 2021 that would allow me to look back and say “2020 is the best year of my life!”

So, I wrote a book entitled “The Answer Discovery – How to Change the World by Helping Others… and Ourselves.” In the book, I weave over 100 life lessons within 9 unique stories that all fall under the umbrella of a building known as The Answer Discovery. I had it completed by the end of March 2021 and sent it off to New York for professional editing.

As 2021 progressed, I came to realize that there wasn’t a viable market for selling our business. I really couldn’t even give it away and we were losing money every day we remained open. So, on August 21st, 2021, we closed the business. Just beforehand, at my Rotary Club meeting, I had spoken to the Editor of the local paper and asked if I could write an article about the closing rather than granting an interview. She asked if it was going to be an “I hate COVID. It destroyed our business. Waa… waa… waa” type of article. I replied that it would be just the opposite.

The article I wrote first thanked the drycleaning industry that had been so good to our family. I then thanked the incredible people I was able to work alongside every day. I also thanked the customers who had been so loyal to us through the years. The article had such a positive response, that I began to submit articles that took on everyday life with a new positive perspective and a call to action for the reader to improve their life.

This turned into the opportunity to become a weekly syndicated columnist featured in 23 newspapers across the country, By the end of 2021, I started a new company called The Answer Discovery, Inc. and started all over pursuing once again the path of entrepreneurialism. Funny, isn’t it? Had all the bad NOT happened in 2020, I would have coasted across the retirement finish line with quiet reserve.

Instead, I set about to reinvent myself, and now I wake up every morning with more GiddyUp in my step than I’ve ever had before. My book was published in 2023 and since then I’ve had an opportunity to share my enthusiasm for life, and my book’s positive messages for a joy-filled life, in interviews on television, radio stations, and an international podcast. I’ve been called the most positive person a host has ever met, and a modern-day Zig Ziglar.

My positive message articles stand out in a sea of negativity and inspire people to help others while helping themselves. I’m frequently asked to give keynote speeches and I’ve been engaged to help companies improve their culture. Yes! Looking back, I have nothing but love for the year 2020 which is the best year of my life (so far).

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The greatest and most frustrating challenge, since I began re-inventing myself in 2021, has been trying to secure a Literary Agent for the book I wrote. I hired a leader in the industry to craft a Query letter and a book publishing proposal. I then contacted around 100 agents that fit my book’s genre and was unable to secure an agent with my professionally guided strategy.

I believe in what my book offers each person who reads it, and also believe my book will make all of the best-seller lists with the right agent behind me. When I was diagnosed with cancer a year ago, I found myself tired of waiting for an agent and decided to self-publish.

While my book has done very well by self-publishing standards, it hasn’t achieved the reach that will allow it to have the full positive impact it’s worthy of. That’s not my ego talking. That’s inspired hope, trust, faith, and belief. So, I continue on my quest to find the agent who will help me reach the top of the best seller lists.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
The best way to describe my career is that of an entrepreneur. Everything I did as a successful dry cleaner, and everything I continue to do as I re-invent myself has trust as the main building block of my life’s foundation. Right on top of trust lies my character which I have been extremely intentional with. My intentionality around my character has allowed me the privilege of building relationships with people whom I admire.

To sum up what these statements mean, I humbly claim “Everything I am, and all of my success, I owe to others.” So many people have helped me in my life, and it’s their help that keeps me waking up every day in pursuit of paying it forward by helping others. Helping others brings me immense and consistent joy.

What makes you happy?
Helping others!!!

It began when I was 22 years old and was reading Zig Ziglars book “See You At The Top!” When you first open Zig’s book, there’s a single statement on the first page you see that says, “I Believe: You can get everything you want in life if you just help enough OTHER people get what they want.”

I’ve attempted to live that quote every day of my life ever since and have a lifetime of evidence to prove that the statement and belief system are absolutely true!

Pricing:

• Paperback of The Answer Discovery – $19.95
• Hard Cover of The Answer Discovery – $29.95
• Digital Copy of The Answer Discovery – $9.99 – $14.95
• Audio Version of The Answer Discovery – Coming Very Soon
• The Best ROI is from an investment you make in yourself!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theanswerdiscovery.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100065891911881
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-white-64644620b/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwgswIflez3rUoLrY-L46KQ/featured
• Other: https://www.espeakers.com/s/mich/profile/47510?btsc=1