that's been, you'd be passive about it. So you've been to how many Olympics? You've
gone to watch how many Olympics? We started in 96 in Atlanta, so it's every four
years. So there's been probably about eight in between and it's absolutely
phenomenal. What's your favorite? Because you mentioned that the
12 different events and the free events that you go to as well when you're there.
What's your favorite part of it all? Well I tell you what, my favorite part really,
because I'm a very observant person, I like to watch the millions of people that
come, the spectators including myself, to just observe these state-of-the-art and
these best-in-class athletes compete. And we don't speak the same language. We're
from all different parts of the globe and everybody just kind of gets along.
And even though we don't speak the same language, we communicate with each other
and we kind of know what we're saying and it's phenomenal. In terms of events, I
really love weightlifting. I love table tennis and I love cycling because I was
when I was a young guy I did a lot of cycling. So whether it's the time trials
or the actual bike races, you just line up along the roads. If it's a sunny day
you get some really, really good pictures. But I mean I could go on and on. There's
33 different events. Archery is pretty cool. People don't know this, but
the archer is 77 yards away from the target. That's almost the length of a
football field. It's really incredible. And when you're watching it up
close and personal, you just have a totally different perspective on just
how gifted they are. So yeah, we love it. The restaurants, the sightseeing, going to
the museums, taking in the culture, the different restaurants. It's just so
really, and we stay the full two weeks. Absolutely. Talk about levels of
excellence. Yeah. So that gives me a whole new perspective in parallel. One
of my best friends growing up, his older brother, second in nation in archery. Nice.
So now I know. I remember him shooting in the backyard. That thing was
10 yards away. I can't tell you how many arrows we probably shot over
the fence and almost hit somebody. But he, yeah, 70 yards. That is so
far. That's like, that's two or three blocks in the neighborhoods that I
walk around. That's crazy. Okay. So you've been around the block, chief of
staff, department of defense, 30 plus years. What's your favorite three
books on either leadership, self development or a topic similar, a genre
similar that you'd recommend people pay attention to? Well, number one is
understanding your potential. Uh, that was written by the late great Dr. Miles
Monroe. He was one of the five founders of faith. Bahamas Ministries
International and NASA Bahamas. The reason that's number one on my list. And
by the way, that's 1993 is because I read that book at a very, very important
time in my life and I was better able to understand if I tap into my potential,
there's some unlimited opportunities out there at a time where I was in a state
of self doubt. So that was number one. Number two would be anything written by
John Maxwell. And the reason the reason I say anything is because he has a
portfolio of books. He sold close to 30 million over the years. But one I really
like would be the 21 irrefutable.
All right. Welcome in to vision pros live with Jackson Calame. I'm your show
host. We'll be doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs and guest
leaders who are building fantastic visions out there.
What is up and welcome into vision pros live. I'm your show host, Jackson Calame,
founder and CEO of first class business. I am so honored, privileged, excited to
have Kevin Wayne Johnson on the show today. His background and depth of
leadership is admirable from any walks of life. The experiences that he's had,
the types of life he's had, the types of experiences he's had, the types of
leaders he's gotten to work with, events he's gotten to go see, Olympics is what
we were talking about earlier. He's studious in nature. There's a profound
depth of knowledge. I'm going to be very short on the intro today so that we
maximize the time we have to gather what's not available publicly. So if you
go through his profile, you look at his experience, you get to see that depth on
LinkedIn itself. Before we get into the introduction, I want to talk about
the
business side of it. Before we dive too far into Kevin, I want to make sure I'm
giving a hand up in terms of tools and leaders I'm connected with in the form of
our sponsors. The wellness shop, 365. This is a program run by Sean and Julianne
Lechuga. They're clients of ours and their centeredness as leaders as well is
a profound blessing. The way these two work together as husband and wife and
their dedication towards building up their programs, you can see on the screen
right now what their program looks like. As Cynthia scrolls through that, it's
going to come to this wheel of life. And while certainly there's opportunities to
optimize the branding of that and they're familiar with it, the concept
behind it is what caught my attention. I said right here, that 360 Harmony of
Life Wheel, the fact that they're paying attention to joy, spirituality, holistic
well-being, they got good kids. I've enjoyed thoroughly working with them
over the last three months. And I know that what they're up to in terms of
building, based on naturopathic principles, the ability to guide and help
people with their health, like sign me up. That's my type of person that I want
to be involved with. If I'm going to be taking advice from somebody about health,
I want it to be from somebody who understands the holistic nature of
building out a life as well and not losing sight of the other people in your
family in the process. So with the LawSpot next to, you'll notice that little
logo next to it, thelawspot.com, Melissa Gray, also one of our clients, she is on
a mission to help entrepreneurs and business owners and the small business
and medium business sectors get the security to know that they're legally,
they're protected. They know who to go to as far as, you know, building out
retainers and things like that. You know, there's, when you're in a position
where you need a lawyer, I have, I've been there before, you end up paying very
high fees and you might end up launching with the wrong law entity as well.
One example on that with Restaurant Connect, we got in a trademark lawsuit.
We had the name first. They tried to file the trademark before us after they
learned about us at a trade show. And my business partner spent over $20,000 on
that lawsuit to win that battle and we won. But as a startup, spending $20,000
you don't have on that trademark lawsuit, did we really win? I don't know.
You'd be the judge of that. So Melissa, when I found out what she was up to, I
hosted her on the show a couple episodes ago. I saw her vision of how she's
bridging the gap and she comes in with this nurturing heart, but the ability to
also be a strong warrior as an attorney where I needed. I was like, wow, like
this, she's got an amazing vision. All business owners that I know, I would say
90% of them do not have legal counsel in mind for who would represent them in the
worst case scenarios. And without driving fear, she comes in and helps people
understand what these topics look like and why, what types of materials you
should have in place as a business owner. So very big fan of her. And then there's
the water project. If you and I are in a position where we don't have to think
about where we're going to get our next glass of water, I hope that you think of
entities like this that are helping the millions of people who don't have access
to clean drinking water. It's our opportunity to give back. And what I love
seeing about the way that the water project goes about this is they show you
the impact you're having on the community and the fulfillment of the
projects that are taking place. And when I see this picture that's coming up of
these children celebrating water, like it's Christmas, you know, it kind of
partially breaks my heart as much as it does help me feel grateful for them. But
I don't ever want my kids to be in that situation. So why would I want other
kids to be in that situation when there's billions of people on this earth who
need our help? So if you're not in a position financially to contribute back
to that, then my request would be to share it with somebody because you never
know who might be in a position to make that happen. And you then become the
catalyst for that good. If you can think of a nonprofit or an opportunity, a
cause that needs to be supported and you'd like to see us talk about that, just
drop it in the comments. I'd be happy to take a look and see how we can support
it. So without further ado, let's dive in. Kevin Wayne Johnson, welcome to
Vision Pros Live. Well, thank you, Jackson. It's an absolute pleasure to be
here. I appreciate the invitation. Yes, sir. All right. Diving in right away,
I'm going to skip the first question. I think everybody should be listening to
this episode. I think they got the great opportunity to learn from so much wisdom
that's behind you and through your experience. What is your vision for those
that you're serving currently? Well, my vision in a nutshell is to create
leaders of excellence at all levels. And the reason we put an emphasis on all
levels is because there are men and women within our sphere of influence who
are aspiring leaders. They haven't actually moved into a leadership role or
position yet, but they aspire to. And the more that they're prepared before they
get there, the better. We also have men and women that are at the front line
level. They've been in a leadership position for just a short while, and
they're still learning the ropes. They're still maybe struggling a little bit,
hungry for some more principles and strategies to help them to do better, to
know better, and ultimately lead better. And then we have another group of men
and women who are at what we call the mid-level. They've been at it now for
maybe 10, 15 years, and they're on the fence. If you've been in a leadership
role for about 10 or 15 years, you either like it and you want to continue on that
trajectory, or you don't like it. People are driving you crazy. And listen, the
responsibility and the visibility and the accountability that comes with it
can be a bit challenging. So I've seen people continue on the journey, and I've
seen people get off the fence and say, okay, enough. And then last but not least,
you have men and women at the senior level. They've been at it for a while, but
we all need a refresher. We all need to periodically recalibrate, reroute,
rethink, re-strategize, and kind of rethink our posture and our position in
terms of what we're doing. So that's why we say at all levels, because we're not
just talking about one group of individuals, but people are on a
different journey and perhaps on a different road as they're leading people
within their organizations and within their teams.
There's so much value to comment on from that. I've got a comment on the photo we
just saw of you shaking hands with John Maxwell, the legendary leader himself.
And it was in Relationships 101, and I was reading that where he has this list
that I want to memorize someday of no matter what happens, do good anyway.
You're going to have a bad day. Do good anyway. People are going to kick you in
the teeth. Do good anyway. And he has a very articulate way of going through.
It's very poetic. And I was like, man, that would be something that's worth
reading every day if you're the type of person who's getting bogged down, too,
especially if you're getting bogged down by the role of leadership and the toll
that it can take. So well said on that. I want to rewind to one more thing you
said, though, and that's about this concept of all levels. We live in a very
divisive society based on how we choose to feel about words that are used.
And so when you come to levels and a staircase, let's use that. You can talk
about levels of a building. You can talk about levels in many senses. But is
stair step number two any more valuable or less valuable than stair step number
13 in a 15-step staircase? Absolutely not. But can you number them from 1 to
15? Yes, you can. My concept with that, my hope for those who are listening is
to realize that whatever level you're on is just as equal and valuable as any
other level that's out there. And if you let go of the comparison and look for,
well, great, I can, the confine is to help us understand where you're at so that
we know what types of leadership development to provide at said stage. What
do you think about that? I love your thoughts. Yeah, I'm in agreement with you.
I'm in alignment with you. I'll just say it a slightly different way. And I
did, I understood thoroughly exactly what you said. Everything that we do in our
leadership journey is a process and it's a building block. So what we learned
last week should be a building block for how we can get better or see things
differently the following week, much like the step ladder example, because
when you walk up that step ladder or whether it's a tall 30-foot ladder, as
you get higher and higher and higher, guess what? There's more visibility and
there's more responsibility. And so going through that preparation and that
process prepares us for when that visibility comes and when that
additional responsibility comes. And then in parallel with that, there's also a
third ability and that is accountability. So as we are seen by more people and as
our impact reaches more people, there's much more accountability that goes along
with that and responsibility. And what better way to handle it than to be
prepared? So each step on that step ladder or that tall ladder is a part of
our preparation so that we're going to be ready. Because you know, it's not an
easy journey. You never hear me say it's easy. It's definitely doable. But it
makes a big difference. And we want all of the men and women that we come in
contact with, we want them to be prepared because leading people is such an
awesome and privileged responsibility that we have.
Oh, man, I love that. So one thing I catch about you, I mean, I've interviewed a
lot of people in my life, even off the camera, right? Trying to learn, trying to
see things, trying to understand leaders and people. And I've also found myself
stressed with the amount of people that are coming my way and, you know, trying
to center myself. But I've never been at the level of chief of staff of the
Department of Defense. And the network that you've created, the amount of people
that you interact with on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, I'm sure it's seasons
of your life. There's been peaks and valleys of how many you're working with.
You have a poise and a patience about you. There is a poise and a patience
where you're able to stay centered, listen thoroughly, and know that you're
still going to get value, you're still going to gain out of this. How do you do
that? Your second descriptor is on point. Listen. Because when you listen to
people, you send them a subliminal message that I care what it is you have
to say. I value your perspective. And when it's all said and done, when it comes
to leadership, that's really the heart and soul of what people are looking for.
People generally give you and I the benefit of the doubt. When we have the
title and we have the position, whatever it might be, VP of Finance, Top Chef,
CEO, Head Nurse, I could go on and on and on with these titles. People generally
give us the benefit of the doubt that we have the subject matter expertise and
that we're there because we know our stuff. Now, I know there are exceptions.
We know people in positions that we're wondering how in the world did they get
there. But what people really want and they won't say it, they want to know that
their leader, this person that's been assigned for my development and to
provide resources and opportunities for me to get better and do better, they
want to know are you going to listen to what I have to say? Are you going to
value my contributions? Are you going to take into consideration my opinion and
my perspective on how to solve this problem and how to make this decision?
And when they find out that they are now under the leadership of a person that
does, that's the difference maker. It makes a huge difference in the lives of
these men and women that were entrusted lead. It makes a big, big difference.
There's so much depth I'm gaining for that, mostly because my audience of
people, Kevin, usually come from a background where the social proof of
their value is a little harder to see. And so let's look at that under a
microscope with what you said because I want people to pick up what I just
picked up, which is, okay, doctors, right, when they speak with authority, the
amount of people generally are going to believe in what they say and accept what
they say. That's been tainted a little bit by the chaos and confusion of 2020.
I'm going to leave it at that. The chaos and confusion has had people open their
minds up a little bit more. I'm not putting the blame on anybody in particular
just saying as a paradigm shift, we've shifted a little bit. But even more so,
I'm still going to value the opinion and authority of a doctor more than a
registered nurse, right? And then you've got your LVNs who are not registered
nurses. And our understanding as a society of those levels helps
precondition our mind, right, to what is being shared unless said registered
nurse has limiting beliefs and self-doubts and exposes those and is
constantly saying, well, I'm not a doctor, but I'm not a doctor, but, you
know, I don't really, you know, I'm pretty sure as a registered, when we lose
that centeredness of confidence that we are the subject expert or we act like
that or portray that with our words or our behaviors, we're self-fulfilled
prophecy. We're already destroying our opportunity to influence. So we've got
to, and so in other words, the coaches, the marketers out there, you are not
registered nurses. You are not doctors. The marketing has a notorious
reputation and many people will say, well, that's just marketing. No, no, no.
That lie is a lie and it has no place in marketing. We have to do ourselves the
service of defining what our principles are, sticking to those, and owning the
fact that we're subject matters, even though less people understand our
authority than if we had a title such as doctor. Any further thoughts on that
before we go into your personal vision? Well, I think that's very important for
everyone that's listening to really understand when you talk about that
self-doubt because even though we may hear it in the example that you gave with
the registered nurse, we can also send that message by way of our body language
and our tone as well. Yes. For example, many people have been under the voice of
a man or a woman that's on the stage behind a podium with a microphone and
they're given a keynote in front of maybe 500,000 people or maybe even less. And
their message is diluted. Why? Because they look nervous and they don't look
confident and we hear what they say, but we don't necessarily find it believable.
That's no different than the registered nurse example where she actually or he
actually comes right out and says, well, I know I'm not a doctor, but so we have
to be very careful. That's a leadership attribute that we help these
aspiring leaders and current leaders to be very careful about. We have to
demonstrate that we are very confident in who we are and what we do. That's part
of good leadership and understanding our craft, having the subject matter
expertise, but at the same time being able to maneuver through all the
different roads that different people bring in our path. And we'll talk a
little bit more about that as well. I like that. And it's one of my favorite
topics. One of the frameworks that I found helpful for that was our
posturing of three different postures, superior, equal, and inferior. And if we
do the opposite of what you said too, where we're trying to control the
audience and force them to believe everything that we're saying, we're
telling them too often what to do, the people who are willing to be subordinate
to us will follow us. But the people who are not willing to be subordinate in
nature, they want to be respected for their own views, will say, whoa, this
person's exerting their authority with too much force. Right? So that's not my
expertise. It's just some of the details where I'm like, man, I'm going to be
talking to you after this show about this stuff.
But see, that's actually a good point that you make, Jackson, and I want to
piggyback very, very quickly. See, adult, this is part of human behavior.
Adults do not like to be lectured to. And as an extension of lecturing without
many leaders realizing it, that's where the micromanagement piece comes into
play and turns people off. Because sometimes it's inadvertent, but sometimes
it's just a person just being overbearing. What you're showing and what
you're telling without saying it when you micromanage someone is that I don't
trust you. That's really, you don't say the words, but that's how they feel. And
they're sitting there and they're wondering, well, why did you hire me or
why did you assign me this project or task or action or initiative if you don't
trust that I have what it takes to make it happen? If I have any questions, I'll
come to you. But I don't need you checking in every three hours. I've got
this. Trust me. I'll make it happen. And so that's why I wanted to just briefly
expand on that. Oh, I love it. We're going to keep expanding this because this
well of this is a depth of value that everybody's going to benefit from that
really hears it and understands it. So piggybacking on that to another book,
The E-Myth by Michael Gerber, a book that came across my desk and eight years
later I read it and it is the reading source that I regret not reading the
moment it came across my desk. I should have listened to that book on an audible.
And so as I dove into it, it taught me a very similar concept to this. You're
right. When we it's micro management can be, I don't trust you. What Michael
teaches is the reason why most businesses in his opinion are failing is
because they themselves, they've delegated by abdication as a business
owner. They did not set up a proper process or system for that person to
succeed. And so therefore it's not that I don't trust you, John, as a person
who's working, it's that I don't trust that I set the right system up for you
to succeed in. And that's a humble pie that is so hard for entrepreneurs to
eat. But if we don't, if I don't have the system in place and I have some
rockstar comes in, Oh, I'll take it, man. I'll take care of your advertising.
I know everything about advertising. I can do this. The grant I'm going to the
extreme, right? But the world of advertising, you know, as somebody who's
an expert in that field, 99% of advertisers are doing it wrong. And so I
don't care if you think you have it down. I need somebody who's coachable and
who's willing to learn a new system and bring in the disciplines of patience,
persistence, consistency, reliability, and is willing to look at the equation
and say, you know what? Yeah, we're going to fail that calculus test. Not because
I'm bad at math, because I got this one tiny piece off and no matter what, if I
miss this part portion of the formula, the whole thing's going to collapse upon
itself. So another layer there for entrepreneurs. If you find yourself in a
position where somebody tells you, Hey, why don't you trust me? Or they're
giving you those vibes. It can be helpful to own that, pull it back and say it's
not you. It's me. It's what I need to understand so that I can fully support
you. We need to get on the same page. And it goes back to what you said, being
able to listen well. Listen well. That's it right there. And I tell you, in the
spirit of the conversation that we're having, another powerful tool that some
leaders miss out on, and you've heard this word many, many times, is delegation.
Two things happen. I think it's one of the top three most powerful tools in the
leaders toolbox. Here's why. Number one, when we delegate, if you do it in this
spirit, what you're doing is you're using it as an opportunity to develop your
team, to provide them additional resources, insight, build up their
confidence, have them to be bold, to step out and utilize their gifts and their
potential that they probably think they didn't have. That's the power of
delegation if you use it in that spirit. But here's the other reason that it's so
important. It does get work off of your plate. And it can free you up as a leader
now to be more visionary than tactical. But you have to think of it from that
perspective. I am delegating a lot of this responsibility to different men and
women on my team as a means of developing them and getting them ready for the
next level. And a lot of leaders miss it. And we spend a full day just unpacking
the power of delegation. Because the primary motivation should not be I need
to get stuff off my plate and I'm going to just give it to this person or that
person. No, you use it as a tool to develop them and you really focus on that
and it will transform your team and transform your organization.
Amen. Let's use a live example from Friday. Okay. So my team, two new team
members, they both speak Spanish. They do not speak English. And before coming up
with my own plan of hey, let's make you learn English, right, first off asking
one to ten, one you never want to learn English, ten, it's the most important
priority in your life. Where do you rest on this? They jump to a ten out of ten,
both of them. Okay. In that case, then moving forward with your permission, I'd
like you to dedicate 30 minutes minimum per day to your English, to training,
learning English. You're now going to be paid to learn English. And with a
maximum of 60 minutes. And because you said ten out of ten, you also need to
come up with a plan for how you're going to study outside of your work life.
Otherwise, this is not a ten and it's a self-awareness exercise, right, of them
understanding where they truly add on this commitment so that we can hold them
accountable, support them, make sure we put the right framework in place. So I
ask them to go build that plan. Next step. During your work time, the way that
you're going to study, let me give you the path for it. Here's how. You're going
to go to YouTube. You're going to find shorts related to how do I say such and
such word in English, right? Como se dice, perro, dog, in English. You're going to
find the shorts. You're going to go to the video, like it, subscribe, and then
you're going to comment on these individuals channels how grateful you are
for what it is that they taught you. And they're following me on this. They're
going to comment up grateful and you're going to invite them to come into our
Facebook group, O Portunidades de Trabajo Para Latinos, Opportunities for Work for
Latinos, and come and teach our 650 members what and be interviewed by us
about why they're such a great teacher and et cetera. I said we're going to do
this for 40 days. It takes seven minutes to do this process. We're going to do
this for 40 days. Maybe you get in front of 10, maybe you get in front of three
people, but we're going to gather the world's best teachers in this incubation
process so that you guys have the best capacity of learning accordingly. And so
they came in today to work and they asked about, I said, Jackson, how do I
write this plan? And I said, well, before I give that to you, I said, I want you
to create your own plans. If we had plans to gather fish today, Jackson might
get three fish, maybe Cynthia gets five fish, maybe Ramona gets 50 fish. So we
find out Jackson went with a stick to the river. We find out that Cynthia went
with a fishing pole. We found out that Ramona went to the market and asked for
fish and they gave her a big discount and she got 50 fish for $10. It didn't
waste her time. There's all sorts of different plans that can come out, but if
I guide you right now, I'm going to box you in. I want them to go think for
themselves and they might influence my plan and come up with something better.
That's the power of delegation. That's why we wouldn't have a podcast without
that. I went live one day, I called it a podcast, and my team built it. I had no
ambitions of launching this. That's good. That's good. That's an excellent
example there, Jackson, because people don't know what they don't know until
what? The leader gives them the opportunity, but it's bigger than that. We
make ourselves available and we create an environment such that when they have
questions, not if, but when they have questions, we are available to answer
those questions and help them along the way. So that's a great story. The only
way I know all of that is because of all the leaders who've guided me throughout
the process to get there, the ones who are willing to help me learn my plan
along the way. So let's dive into your personal vision. Outside of work, what's
your vision for your... Oh, and it can be worked too. Don't let me push you out,
but Kevin Wayne Johnson, what's your vision for yourself? So my personal
vision as well as my professional vision, they align. It's all about what
can Kevin Johnson do? So let's start with the end in mind. Dr. Stephen Covey
taught me that. That's the fourth area of the seven habits of highly
effective people. This is the fourth habit. Begin with the end in mind. I
would love Jackson and everybody listening to see a much better world. Now,
that means a lot, but specifically in my lane and my path, the street that I
watch, I think it has a lot to do with building a good cadre of good,
respectable, empathetic, compassionate, yet knowledgeable leaders, because
leaders lead people. And we have more people in the world who are looking to a
leader to lead them. We have more followers than we have leaders. That's
just the way the system is designed. So more people are looking for someone to
lead them as opposed to them stepping out. So for those of us that are blessed
and have the awesome responsibility of leading people, I want them to
understand at a very high level what it means to go beyond just subject matter
expertise and tap into the heart and treat people more like humans than
workers. We can do it. We can do it. In my journey with the federal government
over 34 years, I have a 34-year career with the federal government. I retired
six years ago. I had a chance to work with civilians, with contractors, and
with military personnel. That would be enlisted junior officers, flag officers,
and general officers. I was always navigating through three different
cultures on any given day for 34 years. And what was interesting about that
journey is that it taught me so much about what it means to be able to move
people, to motivate people, to inspire them, and to encourage them to get the
best out of them, because when we do, that's exactly what we do. And now
people are very comfortable with tapping into their potential. So this personal
and professional vision that I have around making the world a much better
place has everything to do with just pouring into the current and next
generation of leaders to teach them that because we spend so much time at work,
so much time at work, with people sometimes for a very short period of time
and sometimes for much longer periods of time, then I believe that we can do it
in a way where people are respected and valued and included, and we send
messages that their contributions are valued. I believe we can do it. That does
not make you weak as a leader. It makes you human as a leader. And when it's all
said and done, that's what people are looking for. So that's really the journey
that I've been on for a very long time, and I knew once I retired that I wanted
to step into that lane in this season of my life, and that's what we're doing.
So here throughout the United States and strategically in regions around the
globe, we teach these principles and these strategies. A lot of it has to do
with my connection with John Maxwell team, but a lot of it has to do with just
my own personal stories and my own personal journey. That all makes sense now.
From the time I was a little boy to where I am now, it all kind of makes sense
that the journey that I've been on has prepared me for a time such as this.
So that's sort of a long-winded answer to your question.
That's a beautiful answer.
But that's it right there in a nutshell. That's it. And I'm going to be at it
for, I know for at least another 15 years because I love what I do.
I have 100% support for exactly what you're doing. We are, and I'm glad you
pulled it full circles. I was interested to see if you would. For a while there
you were using the word, we can do this and we can, and that's inclusive of those
who aren't necessarily bought into that yet. And then you said, we are doing this.
And that's what I want to do. You are doing this. We are doing this.
That's the entire purpose of visionproselive.com is to help people.
And it's funny, I'm going to call him out in the best of ways. And it's to honor
the fact that he's not alone in realizing this. The first time I admitted the
full scope behind visionproselive on live show was Justin Breen.
And Justin, as soon as I said, I believe that everybody is a visionary.
He said, no, they're not. He came at me about that. And I loved it.
I was like, good, good. I'm glad I don't have a Kool-Aid drinker here.
I got somebody who wants to talk about this. On the flip side, I feel so blessed
from my perspective in paradigm to know and recognize that every single person
on this earth has the capacity to be a visionary for their life without a doubt.
I know that. And if Justin, in that sense, if Justin continues to tell people
they do not have visions, if that was what the world led with, was everybody
telling the world, everybody else that you don't have the capacity, then I think
the world would be a little bit of a darker place. That's not his subject matter,
though. He talks about other areas of light. He just doesn't have my vision for
how I see things. So his can coexist. He can keep building the wonderful
connections that he does while I continue to inspire and see people unlock
their own visions, because I believe we can empower people to be a visionary
for their own life, and they will unlock their true value and purpose when they
honor their personal visions. Well said. Absolutely. I can't add to it. I can't
take away anything from it. I certainly agree with that. You already did. I'm
just following in your tracks, Kevin. I love it, man. All right. Let's talk about
a darker subject, speaking of. What's the worst leadership experience you've ever
had? So my worst leadership experience takes me back to a time where I was
working in Midtown Manhattan. I had briefly stepped away from the government
and worked in corporate America. I just wanted to give it a shot, give it a try,
see how it would work. I tasted the Kool-Aid. It didn't taste good. I spit it
out, and I came back to the federal government. But I was working for a
company, and the company itself was treating me well until it got to a point
where it was time for an M&A. That's a merger and acquisition. This company
decided it wanted to acquire a smaller company, interestingly enough, that was
right there in the same building, and they were in the information technology
space. And there was a gentleman. I call him a gentleman now because there's no
hard feelings, but he was the person that ultimately, because of the M&A, came
into our organization as the senior vice president to replace the guy that hired
most of us that we liked. He was a good guy. He was kind and gentle, but the
company at that level was pretty brutal, and they mistook his kindness as a
weakness. He hired us, and he was a good guy. He trusted us. He delegated good
work to us. He prepared us. He developed us, but they let him go, and here comes
this dude from this other company that we are acquiring, and he let it be known
right up front, Jackson, in front of everybody that he didn't respect any of
us on the team that he was about to inherit, and he wanted to replace us all.
Now, I think that's very, very, what's the right word? That's a very, very
calculated and unwise thing to do because he didn't know us. Now, he had
been in a couple of meetings with us. He maybe heard us give a presentation or
briefing. He may have saw some of our products, but he didn't really know us.
He didn't know us as people, but he came in as the inbound senior vice president
replacing the guy that hired us, and he let it be known right out the gate. Now,
I want you and your listeners to just think for a minute. How do you think that
made us feel?
Yeah. Well, if I was, if you were going to run a coup d'etat, and you tell your
entire army, you're all worthless.
Right.
You know, don't call it.
Publicly. Publicly. He didn't call us into a room and have a separate meeting.
He did it publicly. So, long story short, four of my colleagues were dismissed.
They called it laying them off, but they were dismissed. It was a Friday morning.
Security showed up and just escorted them out and then told them, we'll mail
your stuff to, I mean, it was just, it was just very bad. A couple of us, a couple
of us survived, and then we had to take, we had to take the brunt of his dislike.
Here's the reason why I was unwise. He didn't know and didn't even think to ask
that I had a relationship with the executive vice president of human
resources. I could go to her office through her administrative assistant and
just kind of share how things are going, what's happening, et cetera. And I told
her all about this guy. And she really needed to do something because he's
bringing negative energy and negative energy deflates and it disrupts the
morale. And you're not going to be able to get the best out of us because we
don't want to work for this guy. I just want you to know that. That's a
conversation that we had one on one. Long story short, Jackson, I ended up
leaving the organization. I'm not quite sure about some of my other colleagues
that survived, but I left the organization and I moved on. And I did
find out a little bit later because I stay in touch with people. I found out a
little bit later that eventually he was let go. His style was just a little bit
too abrasive, a little bit too unprofessional for people to handle. And
they found a way to get rid of them. But that's my worst. I don't have very
many of these stories. I really don't. Over 34 years, I don't have very many of
these stories. That was my worst leadership experience. And I made a
promise to me and nobody else that I would never do that to anybody in the
workplace. Just is this not going to happen? Not under my leadership. If I
have a problem with you, whether it's personality or whether it's production,
we're going to go behind closed doors and have a one on one and we're going to
talk it out and figure out how to make this thing work. But I would never go
into an organization and just publicly let everybody know that I don't want any
of you. None of you are worth anything and I want to replace you all. I would
never do that. That's just not wise to do. The diplomacy skills that you have,
the talent and gift of that are very much on point right now. And it's
something that in the small business world, we don't get to experience very
often. And we find polarizing often too when you're so far down the totem pole
of what the president says or somebody, you know, the governor says, you often
feel spoken at. You know, and then you don't feel well represented, you don't
feel like they're listening, et cetera. And well, naturally, how do they listen
when they've got several million people to guide? But to go back to your story,
that was probably the most powerful of all of the worst leadership experiences
that anybody has yet shared out of 150 episodes. And your claim right after of
I don't have many stories like that, once again, reminds me of you following the
John Maxwell leadership reality, your care and concern, your nature of making
space for people's mistakes. There's no way that you haven't been through
thousands and thousands of what many of the leaders I've hosted and myself would
call worst leadership experiences. There's no, we would call it that, but
you've gravitated towards seeing the opportunities. And it's that patience
and listening to understand that just blows my mind. Kevin, let's dive into your
best leadership experience because we are running short on time, but I don't
want to lose the chance.
All right. So, so remember now I said I don't have very many of those stories.
So the only the only other well, there are some other words, but the other one
that kind of comes to mind, you mean the worst of the best. Yeah, from the worst
to the best. So here's what happened to make it the best leadership experience.
I was under the leadership of this time, a female, and for whatever reason, she
never told me why. And I tried to figure it out and I couldn't. So I just moved
on. My work product was never satisfactory, no matter what she gave me in terms of a
project, a task, an action or an initiative. What I delivered back was just
never, it never cut the mustard. So I ended up tapping into my network and I
asked the people on my network, get me out of here. This is not working. So a
couple of folks in that organization, but in a different unit, a different
division said, Kevin, we would more than, we'd be more than happy to have you to
come. We've seen your work product. We know who you are and your reputation
based upon what other people have told us. We'd love to have you. And so showing
off, I made that little transfer and I went into this team and this group of
leaders, this group of supervisors embraced me and helped me and molded me
and encouraged me to the point where I started to thrive and excel and I put in
some paperwork. I was the first employee at that time in that organization to
put forth some paperwork. It was a comprehensive package to participate in
what the government at that time was hosting called the executive potential
program. Now it's still around, but it was managed by a totally different
government agency at the time. In my organization at that time, no one had
ever submitted paperwork to do that and it had to go through five different
layers. It had to go through a section chief, a branch chief, it had to go
through an office chief, a deputy commissioner and then ultimately the
commissioner for approval, five levels. And most people thought, oh, it's no way
in the world. Everybody's not going to approve it. And they did. They did. And
what they told me, Jackson, after it was a one year developmental program where I
got a chance to go outside of my agency and do work all across the government
and get some great experience. I met the secretary of the army. I had a chance to
go to the office of federal procurement policy for a 90 day detail where I had a
chance to testify before Congress. I could go on and on and on. It was a
really phenomenal experience. But why? It was because some folks believed in me
following this other supervisor who for whatever reason did not. So don't tell me
that leadership doesn't make a difference. And that is my best leadership
experience. Matter of fact, I'll just go ahead and share it. It was 1995. That's
how long ago it was. But I still remember it like it was yesterday because it was
so impactful. That's amazing. And your vulnerability, right, your willingness to
share with them why you were looking for a change, maybe not the drama details,
maybe didn't throw the laundry out there, but the fact that they knew then and
respected you and they saw an opportunity to help you out. I bet that was a
catalyst for bringing more energy to make you feel welcome and to help you
understand the value that you were to that team. So it was mutual. And Jackson,
that section chief and that branch chief, I'm still in contact with all these
years later. We send each other Christmas cards. I give them call. One lives in
Florida and one lives in North Carolina and we still stay in touch. That's how
powerful that moment was. Knowing what you've displayed as a leader, I believe
that doesn't surprise me one bit. You just pick it up, pick up what we're
putting down. What if this was the last chance you had the last opportunity to
share a powerful lesson with visionaries? What can we learn from your experience?
Well, I believe that leaders are readers. And what I mean by that is all the
evidence is in the higher our literary, our literacy rate, the better our mental
health, the better our physical health, the more self confidence and self
esteem that we have. And it just really propels us and puts us on a trajectory
to do good. I encourage everybody under the sound of my voice as best you can,
read one book a month and you'll start to find out that you can get through it
relatively quickly. Step it up to two books a month. It doesn't matter if you
like to read novels or if you like to read nonfiction. But I would encourage
you to do that. It's good for the mind, it's good for the soul, it's good for the
spirit. But equally important, it always puts us in the in the posture that we're
hungry and we're thirsty for more information and more knowledge. And I
think that's powerful. Now that we're back doing a lot of in person events and
I'm back on airplanes again, depending on the book that I choose, and depending
on where I'm traveling, sometimes I can read an entire book just on that
airplane ride from going one way, not round trip. It just depends on the book
and it depends on if I've gotten enough sleep or not. But I would encourage
people to do that because it does make a difference. I do a lot of work in the
area of literacy and promoting it with not only boys and girls but also men and
women because people don't realize how many fellow Americans are actually below
the literacy rate. And if we can get people reading more, I believe that we're
on our way to, again, better mental health, higher levels of self-confidence,
more self-esteem, and then guess what? We also have less time now to be nasty to
other people. And so that's very, very important in terms of where we are in
America these days. We're so divided. I think that'll be a step toward helping us
to unite as well. Huge. I believe 100% that that's the case because my mission
president a long time ago told me, Jackson, your mind is like a bookshelf.
And with limited capacity, even though you've got infinite capacities in other
senses, if you put great books on your shelf at all times, you're going to have
to start taking off some of the bad books in order to do that. And if you keep
putting more and more good books on your shelf, there's going to be less and less
space for those bad books until they're gone. And the same is true. I love that
you said that. Start with one book, you know, then maybe go into two. There's an
exercise process that's part of this. And for my generation, let me age you a
little bit there, Kevin, the younger generations and the ones below me too,
those books can come in the form of social media platforms. They can. However,
that doesn't substitute the opportunity to also exercise your muscles of reading
a physical book or listening to an audible. And as you pointed out so wisely,
if you're not reading, but you're spending six hours a day just consuming random
content on social media, what does it hurt you to lose one of those hours,
maybe being nasty in your tweets, roasting people or whatever else, to shift that
one hour of negativity to learning something out of the normal screen that
you may spend some time on? But I want to be clear too, I'm also of the mindset
that some of the more powerful opportunities you have to learn come in
the form of a course or in the form of a mentor or in the form of an activity
that you get up and do with others. But I would never, ever sacrifice my reading
time. It's sacred to me. I don't do all read all of the books that are on my
exercise level right now. I need to get back on track with it. I can't justify
and say my YouTube time makes up for my podcast listening time. It does never,
it will never replace my reading time. Yeah. And then also what it does,
it helps us to now be laser focused. So that's always a good attribute as well.
Just being focused on what needs to take place. How do I prioritize the things
that are before me today? And I encourage everyone to prioritize reading.
It makes a difference. Yes, it does. It makes a huge difference. Kevin,
this was awesome. I will have all the links of what you can do to follow
Kevin beyond the podcast today. Those will be on the landing page. And if you
want to apply to Beyond Vision Pros Live, it's not a scary process. Just submit
your application, submit your vision. Your vision doesn't have to be
entrepreneurial. It doesn't have to be save the world. It could be save your
neighborhood. It could be about being the best mom or the best dad for your
children as well. That may be your vision. I honor and respect that.
The principles of virtues that we can share, debate, philosophize about,
teach each other. That's really what this whole program is about. So feel free
to do that. And anything you'd like to add to end this, Kevin? Any other topic
you want to dive into real quick? Well, I would just encourage everyone,
if you have a desire to learn more and to hear more, to feel free to reach out
and touch. We have a standard here at the Johnson Leadership Group. We do our
best to get back with everybody within 48 hours, whether it's a phone call or an
email. I'd be interested to know how I can serve you and your team and your
organization to help your leaders to become that much better. Absolutely.
Vision Pros have an excellent... Oh, let's dive in real quick. Cynthia billed me
out here. She pulled it up. So we've got Kevin's page about leadership courses,
who they are, pulled up so you can see it on your screen, the ability to register
for these leadership courses, and opt in, of course. I'm constantly, anytime I
come across a leader that I want to follow, I opt into their materials. I told
them they're a podcaster. I don't go consume everybody's everything, but I
want opted in kind of like a news feed for my inbox to know which leader has
come out with what, because if it's relevant to where I'm at that day or
where I'm at that month, the challenges I'm facing or the opportunities, it's if
I'm connected into their network and what they're publishing and putting out in
the world, then I have the opportunity for them to be the person who's able to
guide me through the experiences that I don't know myself how to overcome.
Kevin Wayne Johnson, I'll be opted in and subscribed to all your materials.
Vision Pros, we will see you on the next episode. Take care, everybody. Bye.
Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned in to
Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these
episodes continue to move forward. This is going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well. We'll invite people to participate
in the show, and thank you for giving us your time and attention. Have an
excellent day.