Ocean Palmer is the pen name of Denver-based author and international sales leadership coach Ted Simendinger.

He jokes, “When your legal name is Theodore John Simendinger III,  a reader can get worn out just finishing the title page. When my agent was shopping The Rise and Fall of Piggy Church as a potential movie project, he suggested I use a pen name. Ocean Palmer came to mind instantly; I  use the name for most of what I write.”

Born in Philadelphia and raised in Severna Park, Maryland, “Ocean Palmer” left home to attend college at Jacksonville University in northeast Florida. A business major with a triple minor, he worked his way through school as a full-time meat-cutter for southern grocery chain Winn-Dixie.

“That job saved me. Our freshman biology final consisted of finding blood vessels and organs of a fetal pig. I had no clue where the stuff was. So I cut him up just like you’d see him in the grocery story: teenie-weenie pork chops, tiny spare ribs, miniature hams, you name it.

“I was a bit scared to turn it in but knew I had to sell it. So I smiled and presented it proudly to my professor.

“'I don’t know where that stuff is you were asking for,'” I admitted. “'But I do know how a pig is put together.'

“Lucky for me, he loved it. Traded me a “C” for promising to never take science again. We shook on it. I ran out of there and proudly lived up to my half of the deal.”

Ocean graduated on time with a general business degree and triple minor (Marketing, Economics, and Psychology). He returned home to Annapolis to work for The Capital, the city’s daily newspaper.

“Great fun, no money,” he said. “Poverty is the newspaperman’s shadow.”

The son of a salesman, Ocean decided to pursue a corporate career. He returned to Florida and joined Xerox Corporation.

“I wanted to work for someone who was the best in the world at what they did. The company taught me the profession of selling. I planned on staying a year or two before returning to writing.

“I stayed for twenty great years. The career path was a fabulous learning lab for an inquisitive person like me who loves and respects the profession of high-performance selling. I worked with and learned from some extraordinary talents.”

Ocean had an outstanding and decorated Xerox career, including a year as Xerox’s top salesman in the USA. He was also selected to be a senior sales instructor at the company’s prestigious international training center in Leesburg, Virginia. Twice he was sent overseas.

“That job was priceless. Like any smart teacher, I learned more from my students than I could possibly share with them. I took full advantage of learning how the company built an escalator of great talent.

“I am relentlessly curious about high performance salespeople, and maximized that trust to learn all I could about how Xerox, IBM, and other top companies developed talent.”

After two years ay the global training center, Ocean returned to the field to orchestrate the company’s largest outsourcing contracts. He remained a key member of the training organization’s advisory faculty and re-wrote much of the sales school curriculum.

“I have always thrived on finding a better way,” he said. “The market moves and companies have a choice: They can either move and stay one step ahead or maintain the status quo and fall behind. Great selling is not a stationary profession. It rewards strategic progress in objective, measurable ways. This is, of course, tenfold-true today. It’s the movement—the positioning, repositioning, and evolution of positive change—that inspires everything I do.”

Ocean left Xerox in 2000 to go out on his own.

“I saw a big gap that I wanted to fill—developing the whole person, not just someone’s business persona. I left Xerox to fill that gap. All of my research, innovation, and concept development have been targeted at doing that. These things are the heart, soul, and uniqueness of my work.”

Ocean has coached, taught, and lectured on four continents to people from all six. He has spent much of the past four years working throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

“In order to teach people how to influence behavior, they must know what causes it in the first place,” he said. “And in order to be relevant globally, I had to distill key learning concepts into universal behavioral truths.  The reason for that is straightforward: I am always looking for the highest possible “stick rate” in everything I do. The stick rate is maximized retention and application.

“To do that, I teach the “why” and ground key learnings in a life skill context. I explain why some things work and other things don’t.

“When you lift a global sales force, there is no more fulfilling profession than mine. Help a sales leader learn to improve and he or she stays better forever; same with his or her people. Sustained excellence is a self-motivating motor that drives high quality results.”

In his spare time, Ocean flyfishes, dabbles in Thoroughbred horse breeding, and does an extensive amount of charity work.

“I write every day,” he says, “searching for ways to better explain business concepts that matter when selling. I also like to balance my work life by writing positive, multicultural stories with happy endings because that’s the way I want the world to be. Words are tools for every salesperson; the more we use, the more options we have to creatively express an idea.”

Three of Ocean’s ten books have been optioned for movie development. In 2010 he was named one of Jacksonville University's "75 Distinguished Dolphins" in honor of the school's 75th anniversary. The honors is for 75 alumns perceived to add value to the school brand while demonstrating a high level of professional success and personal integrity.

“I am a relentlessly positive guy who likes to make people laugh,” Ocean said. “And fortunately for me a lot of my readers like to laugh, too. It's an honor to be recognized by my college for making that happen.

“I love what I do,” he said. “For me, consulting projects and well-written speeches inspire personal growth. It’s almost as much fun as being paid to generate global friendships with people I admire tremendously.

“Pro selling is a remarkable profession,” he concluded. “Because it’s fair. It rewards those who invest in themselves and their profession. I am honored to be a part of it.”