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Key Takeaways He stepped into a legacy brand not to rewrite its story, but to protect what made it special.
He didn’t focus on chasing trends or forcing transformation for the sake of growth.
His strategy was to grow stronger through care and less so through disruption.
Michael Palmer, CEO of McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams, didn’t plan to take over one of California’s most beloved ice cream brands.
After years of flying around the country running branding programs for major companies, Palmer was already questioning what the next chapter of his career might look like. Then, out of nowhere, his house burned down in a massive wildfire near Santa Barbara.
“Sometimes in life you get to a certain age and you’re on that train,” Palmer says. “And then sometimes you don’t jump. You get pushed.”
The fire forced a reset. As Palmer stepped away from his old career, the now 76-year-old McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams was still deeply loved, but it was struggling to find stable footing. The brand had spent decades as a hyper-regional favorite, woven into the fabric of Santa Barbara. What drew Palmer in was not the opportunity to reinvent something iconic, but the responsibility of continuing it.
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“It was always this hyper-regional, beloved brand,” he explains. “There was so much love for it here that we felt like it deserved more than just fading away.”
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