So I'm like super interested in.
Well, just so part of my journey when I got to Houston back in 93 was managing
the household of certain athletes because I opted not to play.
So I just I spent a lot of time between NBA and NFL behind the scenes.
I don't know if you ever seen ballers with Dwayne Johnson.
But I was Dwayne that character in my life.
So where is she then?
So what did you play?
So I was football wrestling and track, but as I came to Texas,
I was really playing a lot of beach volleyball.
And so I came down here thinking I would play football as a defensive back and
just somebody pulled me aside and said, think this through and
I opted not to play sports anymore on a competitive level.
And I just went to business management, business consulting,
that type of thing.
So yeah, that's awesome, man.
Well, I am ultra impressed with your ability to show up the way you've
supported the show and the process as like you've been a tremendous leader
with what I would call quiet dignity.
Just there supporting what we're up to, putting yourself on my map and
I'm loving what I'm seeing on your on your website, the way you show up,
ask questions of people, etc.
Like I'm super stoked that you joined us.
So I gotta find out man, what are the three books or
resources that you would recommend to visionaries?
So depending on where you are in life at any given time,
Howard Bloom had a book called The Lucifer Principle.
And that just blew my mind because it got you thinking about how we as
a whole body of humans think.
And so that book was one of the ones that really just kind of rock my foundation.
I reached out to him actually connect to him on LinkedIn.
That was a beautiful thing too.
He's still around and still producing.
And when you look at the guy's story, well connect, he's done so much.
Doug Hubbard released a book called How to Measure Anything.
Connect to the Doug Douglas Hubbard on LinkedIn as well.
Simply because my role in one of the programs was helping small business
owners understand how to find market share and things like that.
And Doug just had this book that said, I don't care what it is,
I can show you the framework to measure things.
And then the last one's kind of up in the air.
I have a book from when I was a kid, Anthony Robbins.
And it's not Tony Robbins, it's another guy.
So this guy, I can't even remember the name of it right off hand and
I'll put it in one of the links later on.
But what it helped me do, it built on everything that your Zig Ziglar,
Tom Hopkins and all the great leaders back in the day that if you're from the 90s,
talk about leadership and controlling your own destiny and
focusing on what you can do versus what others is doing to you.
So when I get that one, I'll reference it, but those are the three books.
Man, that's deep and I have not read any of those books.
So my reading list, and then the way you reference it,
the way you're connecting to these authors too, right?
The realizing that, okay, I found this deep, rich well of water.
And I know who created it and you're going and connecting to that creator,
realizing that there's far more depth beyond the book itself.
And I hope visionaries, those of you listening in, pick up these principles,
implement them in your life.
It's amazing what can happen.
John, we'll be right back and everybody else, we'll see you right after the intro.
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.
Hey, what's up everybody?
Welcome in to another episode of Vision Pros Live.
I'm your show host, Jackson Calame, founder and CEO of First Class Business.
And I'm so excited to have John Whaley on today.
His leadership principles, the way he shows up, the way he writes on LinkedIn.
You can learn so much about somebody by paying attention to the questions they
ask by seeing the types of responses that they give.
And as I was watching one of his trainings on advice and he's talking about physics
and how laws of physics pertain to business.
And he used the term you might want to consider.
I was like, that's one of those golden coaching phrases that I'm a big, big fan of.
It's finding people who do not tell you what to do, who do not try to control how
you go about things.
And in today's modern society, we almost all fall into hyperbole and
force and coercion due to the media.
But we can discipline ourselves and show up to serve people,
recognizing that they are the visionaries of their lives.
That's what we strive to do here.
And I saw John emulating that in his trainings.
I was like, man, this is going to be so fun.
Before we bring John on stage, I always want to give a shout out in reference to
people that we consider sponsors.
In this case, our two sponsors are clients of ours.
One of them is Sean Lechuga of the Wellness Shop 365.
And Sean's depth, we're going to skip right down to his 365 wheel of life assessment.
Him and Juliana have built an integrative approach to nutrition and
health as coaches and consultants in that space.
And what I love is their depth of diving into spirituality, your joy, your career,
your relationships, what you're doing to volunteer.
And of course, your exercises, what you're eating, what you drink, consuming,
those things matter too.
But the depth of what they are striving to accomplish as a family and
then teaching and providing the world about shows me something that is going to
be absolutely a game changer for people in life as they continue to dedicate
themselves to building out their business and brand.
Then there's Melissa with the Law Spot.
Melissa came on our show as well, both of them have previous episodes you can check
out and she's got this nurture nature that I don't see in very many attorneys out there.
And in addition to that, she of course is a powerful, fantastic attorney.
She understands that law doesn't have to be complicated, but
it gets complicated when we do one of two things.
When we ignore it until we need it or when we pay an arm and
a leg for a retainer for a council that we don't really know if they're the best,
but we just kind of take their word for it or we judge how good they are based on
the price of what we pay.
I've felt the tragic realities of being an unwise steward of my legal counsel in
the past, I know how hard that can be for startups.
And so my goal with presenting you with these opportunities visionaries is so
that you can get ahead of some of the learning curves that I had to learn the
hard way and hopefully protect your own entities.
Business is not a matter of two steps forwards, one step backwards, two steps,
four, one step, it's more like rock climbing.
And as you make that rock climbing and you're going, you can fall six inches and
you can fall 60 feet and really hurt yourself.
And so it's very important that as we go through the process of business ownership
and scale and growth, that we do everything that we can to protect ourselves and
put ourselves in a good position to provide for all those who are relying on us,
to lead them up this mountain top the right way.
And some roads are easier than others.
The entrepreneurship road, according to statistics,
is one of the hardest paths that you can take.
So be aware of that.
And in addition to that, the water project, when we have microphones,
we've got the opportunity to make impact.
My hope is to inspire you to consider the millions of people who do not have access
to water like we do.
There are literally millions of people in the world who don't.
And the water project is something really cool.
They show you the communities that you're getting the support.
And when you choose the community that you contribute to,
they'll give you an update of what's going on with the project and
how they bring that project to fruition.
And you get to see and learn about the experience.
I love seeing these pictures where these kids are celebrating water like it's
Christmas.
And it simultaneously breaks my heart if I allow it to knowing that, wow,
what would it be like if my children celebrated water like that?
But two, it just gives me that gratitude as well of all the things that we happen
to have in life, which propels me to say, you know what, even if you can't give,
even if you're in a position where COVID's been hard on the family or you're
out of a job, I hope that you share this or some other means of helping in the
world because we've got 8 billion people on this planet to help.
And we can do so when we come together, spread the word, and spread the wealth as
best we can.
So with that said, I'm going to pull up John's website real quick and dive into
that a little bit.
If you're listening in, I'll do my best to guide you on what we're seeing here.
But what he's built at, I'm going to call it Double E Hour.
I'm going to find out what his brand name is, if it's EE Hour.
And I'm sure there's an entrepreneur or something in there for those double E
Hours.
But he's got this incredible depth of clarity, the best ways to grow a smarter
business and to be a better leader.
He's a consultant.
I know he works with several different organizations as well.
He's dedicated himself to creating some very on-brand and on-point videos as
well.
Whether you're looking to work with him as a temporary business developer,
contract project manager, business growth specialist.
I also saw, and I was reviewing with Kate Lingoni today, is showing her
Trainual and how Trainual helps with procedures, resources, and templates.
And I was like, dang, that's too funny that he's also an official Trainual
ambassador.
And he's championing different causes.
He shows up and represents himself super well.
And I just see a whole lot of abundance with what he's up to.
So I feel incredibly blessed that he's come across our radar, that he's decided
to join us on the show.
And without further ado, so we can maximize our time with him, John Whaley.
Welcome to Vision Pros Live.
Thanks, Jax.
And appreciate being here.
Yeah, man, absolutely.
You know, John, you got so much going on.
I got to ask, what's your vision for those that you serve?
We'll start simple.
Well, for the most part, the vision is really creating a bridge to take people
from wherever they are to wherever they want to be.
So just seeing the number of business owners and executives that I meet on a
yearly basis, they get, they end up in a circle.
They end up in a pattern where there's, they have strong drive, strong passion,
but there's no way currently in the current rhetoric for them to see there's
more than what they currently know.
So it's really right now, it's just bridging the gap between someone who knows
where they want to be, but they have no idea how to get there.
Absolutely.
Very good.
So let's, where do they want to be?
What does that look like?
And what is that?
Let's dive further into that vision.
Once they're on that hilltop, what do they have access to?
What is, how does that change life?
So the big part is with a lot of individuals, we can start with something
as simple as going to play volleyball twice a week with my kids.
I'm still actively out there, even though I'm well over the half century mark.
And to be able to sit down with a youngster and let them know part of what
you mentioned before, there's 8 billion people on the planet.
For the people viewing you right now, that's like a less than half a percent of
the entire population have access and the ability to do what we're doing right now.
And to let these kids know whether you go into a technical trade, whether you
become corporate or scientist or whatever, that they need to start thinking
and dreaming bigger, they need to start leveling up who they hang around to start
to really understand the world is yours.
There is absolutely no boundaries to what you're able to do.
And many kids are like, no, my parents just said I was going to do this.
And that was it.
For my business owners that have been in 10, 15, 20 years, they think I am the
business, this is it, this is what I do, John.
And to help them understand, you can be an ambassador, you can get sovereign funds
from another country, you can speak at Davos.
There's so much more you could do because you're now considered like a general in
the small business army that now it's not you to be out there.
You're not supposed to be out there as a star player anymore.
Let me help you transition to become the coach, the general manager or just a flat
out team owner.
I love that.
And, you know, I'm I think it's maybe a generational thing, but like, I'm still
part of those kids.
You know, I'm 36 and I'm so part of I don't know when I'm 66, I'm still going to
be part of those kids.
I'm still going to be the one saying like, I can learn more, I can do this.
And maybe it's because we grew up with sitcoms and repetitive comedians, you
know, like the same type of comedy of like, oh, well, men never asked for
directions.
You know, like when I grew up with six moms, my mom and five older sisters,
right, they all talked about that a lot.
So here I was going, I better be the man that asked for directions.
I mean, I better learn how to do that.
So maybe there's a whole generation, but I just I would invite anybody who's
listening in, you know, to have that curiosity of a child, right, to have that
desire to grow and learn more.
It doesn't matter if you're 90, you know, or if you're six years old, if you can
keep that mind open to being able to take the lessons in like that.
I don't know.
It serves me well.
It makes my life more fun.
So what's your vision for you?
What do you see for yourself on the horizon?
Just, you know, next two to three years to be able to pull out the airplane,
park the truck in the hangar and throw the kids and the family in and set off to
the sunset or the sunrise and at times go out and give speaking, engage, do
speaking engagements, meet with people and keep investing in companies.
Like this is something I saw as a kid growing up in a rural area that, you
know, many of the men that were very instrumental in grooming and raising me,
it's just like, you know, they owned a small business.
They weren't trying to scale up.
They weren't trying to 10 X.
They weren't trying to do anything other than I make decent money.
And by decent, these people were making well over half a million a year, hand over
fist, hands down, blue collar businesses.
And they just had this thought about them where I'm not doing this for me.
I'm doing this for my family and my legacy.
So it that when I saw that, I said, that's what I wanted.
So when I came to the big city and everybody was, you know, this rat race of
fast pace, I'm like, I don't want any part of this.
I want to make enough to go out and live an enjoyable life and be able
to help people continuously.
My job, man, we had a mic.
I drop it right now for that.
That's awesome.
So there's, it leads me to want to ask so many different questions.
Um, one of them, we're going to get focused in on this one.
You talk about men that you grew up around, um, leaders, not, not a father.
Um, you know, you talk about men.
Can you talk to us more about that?
What does that mean to you?
Who are these men?
Yeah.
So, um, to take us back, put us in the story.
So, yeah, I was in a situation where my mom was married to a
gentleman that was abusive.
And so she decided one day she wasn't going to take it.
We jumped on a plane.
We lived in hiding, jumped on a plane, went to a location where her
sister was located in the middle of nowhere.
And, uh, during that process, I was one of few African-American
black folks in the area.
And so the, over the years, the town took us in, but my mom fell ill.
She had a renal failure.
So by the time I was seven or eight, the good people of the town kind of took me in.
And from there, I ended up going to a Catholic school and being raised in many
different families and almost a quasi foster care situation.
And so whether they're with the police department, I can tell you, they
were just amazing people.
That's why I still got an affinity for the police department, because many of
those people that were there were like, they were there for me.
Um, I had, I was at every sheriff's convention.
Then I had military, we lived near and on a military base.
So I had everything from light birds to generals as my uncles and dads.
And so, you know, at the same time, TV was, you know, not to date myself, but,
you know, the Waltons and he ha and things like this.
And so I had everything from grandpas that fought in World War
II at Vietnam, whole different culture, um, went through the depression all
the way up to the city slicker one day to be an insurance salesman.
And just having them in my life consistently, um, just, it was, you,
you can't create that situation.
Like it just worked out like the universe, God put me there, put me in
the circumstances, but then surrounded me.
So, you know, just with my mom passed when I was 23, but there is no grief.
Like, Oh man, this is, Oh man.
I need it.
It was all just like a constant blessing, but a lesson learned.
Dude.
Well, that's, I mean, you have, you have keyed in on, you know,
on instead of calling it a silver lining, you have viewed it as a silver life.
Um, you know, and that's amazing.
You know, it's my mom, single mama six, right?
So I spent a lot of time at the Paul's house at nine boys, two girls, and still
allowed me to come over and be part of that family, um, you know, and the same
thing was true of many others.
And you're right.
You don't, you didn't get to predict it.
You can't, it's like, it's not like a formula somebody can follow.
It just, it just happened to be that way.
And you've maximized the blessings with the path versus saying, you know, Oh man,
I had to be in this home and I had to go to this home and I had to, I had to,
I had to, I had to, is Rick you've, you've really owned the reality of, of what.
Was available to you in that.
And that's, there's extreme power in that.
Um, let's talk about, I am going to try to take you to a darker subject though.
I'm going to, I'm going to do my best to get you to go into a story of, you know,
what is the worst leadership experience that you've ever had or experienced?
And the reason why I go this route guys and all visionaries listening in is
because it's, it's, you know, it's learning about the history of the
Hitlers that allows us to not repeat the history that has occurred.
Um, so go ahead, John.
It's a great question.
So the worst, um, leadership experience, I would almost say it's ongoing.
And the reason I started, uh, training in the way or creating a content that
I create is simply because it's not that I, it was the worst leadership experience.
I was applying the wrong leadership mindset to situations.
And so what I really teach and preach now is I was trying to be the star
player, the leader, the person on the field, that's it.
I want to bring my team with.
And what ends up happening is, and this, this happened in many deals, whether
we were doing, um, marketing and branding and advertising, or whether, when I was
doing my own radio show, my leadership skills were good if I wanted all the
weight to fall on my head, but my leadership was not good if I wanted to
facilitate growth in all the people around me.
So if you look at a franchise player, every other person's picked
to support that one player.
So you miss the last shot.
That's you, you win the game.
That's you.
So what ended up happening is for years and years, whether I was working with
individuals that were going through it, or I was going through it myself, I
couldn't understand why I couldn't get other people to keep up as visionaries.
We're the volume that the frequency and throughput we have is unmatched.
And I'm like, why can't they keep up?
Why can't they keep up?
And then I realized, dude, you're a menace to society.
Like you're that guy, like calm down.
And then I started thinking back in life of really good coaches I had through
wrestling, football, track, volleyball, and the best coaches were pretty
decent at their sport.
They never made it to the league, but they were so good at pulling the most
out of me.
And in that moment, it hit me like, man, okay, I need to change my leadership
style by making sure that whatever I'm going to lead in is wherever I want to be.
So I encourage people lead at being a star player.
There's nothing wrong with that.
It's a transition for all business owners, but lead at being a coach and get
offense and defensive coach underneath you, assistant coaches, so that they can
create better star players, the people who face out towards your customer.
Be a better leader as a general manager.
If you were to treat your business like a sports team and know that you hire the
best coaches and give them the resources and you analyze it.
And then lastly, be the best team owner, be the lead of the team owner where
you're looking around the community and looking at how you can add value.
And so for me, it was a lesson where I would kick myself thinking I gave it all.
And many visionaries like John, I can't take it, man.
People are hard to find.
I'm like, because we're not leading with the right mindset.
And that's really where we go back to the title.
We're leading like the star player.
Everybody's going to be a yes person because they got rent to pay.
They got kids to feed.
They got bills.
Nobody's going to issue off because that's not how they eat.
Wow.
So I do mind if I spend some time breaking down some of that, because that was
epic.
One of the things that I heard in that and underlying messages is good is the
enemy of great.
Right.
We can be, we can be good at something.
But if we want to tap into our greatness, we often have to look beyond just what
we're good at and grow to these new levels.
Again, if that's our goal, we have to do that.
It's also something we get to do.
And as you talked about the transition from superstar athlete to owner,
right. And realizing there are lots of levels.
It's one of the beauties of knowing the sports industry is you get the, you get
the public view of win loss records and decisions that are made in every
reporters, they get deep into these contracts.
So we can learn so much about business decisions because it is a, I don't know
if it's a trillion dollar business.
It's multi billing.
And I know that and Michael Jordan, right.
And the LeBron James goat debate, you know, it's a business that's
a great debate, you know, they love this debate.
I think, I think they will always love it because it raises their revenues
every time the debate happens.
They don't want the subject closed.
They just want it to keep happening.
All right.
And in addition to that, I think they both know that if they have the ego, the
ego mindset of like, I really want to be the goat.
We got to see who's going to be the best owner.
Right.
Of these teams.
Nobody's talked about it yet that I've heard.
But to me, that's going to be the ultimate level of the goat debate is
Michael, you know, my Michael Jordan's team, they haven't done very well in
terms of his, you know, as an owner, he hasn't created a championship
environment for his team yet.
And I'm not calling him out on it.
I don't know how to do that either.
You know, like I didn't make, I didn't make it to the league, you know, I
didn't make it to the college league.
So I'm not, I'm getting off my high horse on my analysis of it, but what,
what are your thoughts on, on that reality of, of LeBron and MJ, um, you
know, and, and the, the goat debate in terms of ownership and Michael, and,
you know, is he doing the right things?
Is he not what, what perspective or angle can you share on that, John, from,
you know, our, our, our humble speculation and standpoints.
Yeah.
So for the most part, you, you hit it right on the nail, right on the head.
As far as it's really about how many eyes views, how many minds souls can
either one of them have a share of.
Right.
And so as long as we're talking about it, it has impact.
And when I think about small business owners, I mean, just think about in
your organization, if people were debating whether you were the best
pizzeria or you were the best host or you were the best car dealership, and
what does that look like?
Then we kind of back out and say, how much work went into getting to that
level for each one of them?
Right.
And when you think about that mentality of what it took for both of them and
then throw in Kobe, you know, rest in peace and all the rest, then you start
thinking to yourself as a business owner, am I really going that hard?
You know, and when we think about what business originaries do, let me turn my
head.
I'm going to go no on that.
Like, am I really working as hard as LeBron?
No, I'm not.
Like I admire how hard he works.
I worked my tail off, but my goodness, that man works.
I was watching a special.
I was listening in on really even how Shaquille O'Neal operates, right?
This is a guy who doesn't sleep, right?
He's building a legacy for his family.
He does not.
I mean, he's go, he's go, he's go.
And that whole group, which not to not today's athlete, but that whole goat
thing really came out of an era of that perfect in between when, you know, the
money started rolling in, the personality started being adopted.
You had people that knew you had to work and fight and claw for everything.
There was no just, you know, get an NIO, a name, image and license deal.
There was none of that.
It was you want to make a little money.
You better do more than the next person on the court or on the field.
And I think they set the precedent, that whole generation of athletes of what
business owners should be looking at versus where athletes are today.
Right.
It's so overall, I think it's a wonderful battle.
And I think all of us should aspire to create those kinds of battles, even if
it's local or just in our organization alone to say, you know, who is my best
janitor ever in our new business?
Like we're going to start the debate.
You know, so I like it.
Yeah.
And that's that healthy competition, you know, and healthy conflict.
And, and it's, it's so debilitating for an organization.
If you don't have the ability to have healthy conflict and have a healthy
competition, then you know, you're, you're really, you're going to struggle,
you know, to make an, a meaningful impact in the world.
And, and that means your business is probably going to struggle.
Let's dive into the super high opposite end of this though.
What's your best leadership experience?
For the most part, it kind of goes back to a coach role.
My best leadership experiences are happening now.
And it's literally again, showing up with individuals that are on their
way to college and they have all these ideas of what they think life should
have played out like, and we started talking, we started them like, Hey,
what about this?
What about that?
Have you looked into this while you're at school?
Remember you're in this closed environment where you can make unlimited
money and just seeing their eyeballs get bigger and bigger.
Right.
And then getting that email that says, Hey, Mr.
John, can you write this letter of recommendation?
Like, heck yeah.
So I'll come home.
Like, what are your kids, my wife, what are your kids doing today?
You know, cause there's like 20 different kids going to schools all over the
state that, you know, my buddies and I, that kind of set this up at our gym for
them to just to start learning recreational volleyball.
It was really mentoring program for us just to be able to give these kids,
because we all follow them on Instagram to take them from, they were just
going to go to school, kind of mess around the freshmen, sophomore year,
figure life out, come home, go back, maybe get a degree, who knows to Mr.
John, I set it up.
I made $7,000 and I got all A's.
I'm like, yes.
So that's, that's, you know, just knowing that they have the headstart that I
have the same headstart, just not under the same conditions.
So I want to be able to create that.
And I do the same with my kids.
Just get in with thinking in terms of, um, you can do anything.
Like I will tell somebody in a heartbeat.
You don't need a business.
You don't need a job.
You just need to be doing your best.
And we need, we need the sound effect for applause on this.
Cynthia, necesitarmos el efecto de sonido de aplausos en el futuro.
All right.
I had to get that to Cynthia, my producer, cause I don't want to forget.
Like, this would be the moment where I'm like, yeah, like yes, do it, do it.
I love what you're up to, John, with that needs these helping these
kids to catch the vision.
And I hope that you get to connect with Michael Lazenby, who was on the show
recently, um, he's like the president of three different student associations
at the university of, of Texas.
Um, and he was awesome to have on the show and, you know, he's got that
understanding that of like how to purposefully use the opportunity he has
at hand of being involved in the network effect of UT.
And I didn't know anything about that.
Going to college, you know, I knew I could date people and I, there's a
bunch of young women that I could go date.
Oh, that's all I really thought about while I was at college.
I had a 0.33 GPA to prove it.
Um, you know, like I didn't know what I was really doing there.
I was a good kid.
You know, I was, I was, I was a good guy, but I did not know how to
leverage my college education.
And when I saw my, I went to San Antonio college for a little bit.
I did pretty well.
I went to BYU.
Oh no.
I realized there's levels to this thing.
There were, there was a reason why I should never accepted to that school.
So if we can get young men, young women as well, to understand how to maximize
that before they get there, um, then there's, there's a phenomenal effect.
I will say, John, I hope that we get to combine on what I built with the
passion pro.org as well, and, uh, and get your chance to look at that assessment.
And if it, you know, if it's trash, let me know that.
And if you can see, you know, like if you can see the power of, of how it's
had about a dozen people who've gone through that, out of the hundreds,
that it completely shifted and changed their life.
Um, so we've, we've got lots to do to help the, help young people
with catching that mentality.
Uh, if this was your last chance though, to share a power on, I'm serious.
Like if this is it, man, what would be the powerful lesson to share with other
visionaries so they can learn from your experience?
The big thing is you are your thoughts.
So think like you're in a movie and produce what you want life to be.
And I say that because when we harbor negative thoughts or we think we're
bound or we think we're held back, it will become true.
Our brains will make that real.
And I'm not saying it's one of those things where you overlook the challenges.
Um, but it's one of those things, like even if you're sleeping in a car here
in the U S with consistent for the most part, electricity, water, libraries,
books, internet, tick-tock, you name it.
The ability to ramp up what you know, especially as AI becomes our bestie now
means there's no person that can't five X, 10 X, a thousand X themselves
over a period of time.
And so the last thing, what I share with all the kids that I meet in adults and
hundreds of adults I work with each year is we have finally reached the place and
time where each of you now can have your iron man suit and be Tony Starks.
So whatever you are passionate about, whatever you love to do or whatever you
want to explore the tools and resources are here now that you can move at the
speed of light and you can go from complete feeling like a loser to an absolute
champion in life in a matter of a month, two months or a year.
And that's the thing that I share with most people.
And for them, it's a whole nother.
It's like contrarian and it's like, what, you know, this isn't about buying
laundry mats and learning crypto and all that it's about how do you apply.
The scene of your movie.
And for some people you got to network up to just figure out what you want that
movie to be, because if you've never turned, changed the channel, you don't
know what is possible, but to get somebody to understand that right now.
There are no subject matter experts anymore.
It's all inside a device in zeros and ones in anything you ask it, it can
take you to the next level or can take you down.
Right.
And that's why it's so clear to be on that vision.
Yeah.
I love that you said now that AI is our bestie, like that is such a profound
realization, like, and if you gravitate towards making friends that, you know,
we'll roast you, um, and I'll, we'll bring you down the perpetual habit is to.
Use AI in a way that can kind of do the same thing.
Um, you know, and, and you can also choose though, like you said, like I
liked the bestie concept too, because, you know, I've asked AI certain questions
regarding like, like therapeutic journaling and I'm like, Oh my gosh, the
quality of these questions and the inspiration that just gave me like, how
cool is this?
So there are ways like it will, it will impact our life, whether we know it or
not, whether we believe it or not, it does have an effect on our abilities.
And when we choose to use it, like Tony's like, ah, that's so cool.
That's so cool, man.
Yep.
I, I just, I'm going to, well, I'm going to listen to this episode like 10 times
probably in the next several months.
Um, all right.
So, um, there was a, there was a story you wrote about, um, and you wrote about.
Co-piloting your business with your spouse.
Um, you know, and, and being, you know, the co you wrote about as business owners,
we are co-pilots and you talked about the imagery of how when you're in the air
and you're making decisions together, like, Whoa, it's probably best to ground
the plane safely and figure that stuff out before you get in the air.
Um, and you know, I'm, I'm twice divorced.
Um, and I didn't, I wasn't excited about either one of those.
Um, it happened though.
It's part of life.
The silver path and reality for that is that I've been extremely blessed to
learn better leadership skills.
And I have four beautiful children from the experience and I want to be the best
dad that I can, and I want to be the best provider that I can.
I don't worry about the future relationship.
I'm focused on being my best self, but this, this analogy of yours is
struck to very profound.
Um, I, if you, if you guys are listening, go read this post that John wrote.
It is absolutely amazing.
It asks some powerful questions about how to be a visionary by asking yourself
and your team, these questions and whether you're able to move your brand forward.
And the other reason why it struck me as you use that analogy of copied in the
Plains is in first grade, I was in, I had Maggie in my class and Maggie's
sister was in the Guinness book of world records for being the youngest pilot
in the world, her little sister.
And I was, we were in class the day that we, um, received the news that her
dad and her sister crashed.
And I, um, and seeing Maggie break down, um, you know, losing her sister.
Um, you know, I was six years old, but you don't forget, you don't forget
seeing that, hearing that understanding that loss.
Um, so as I read through your, your blog, I was crying.
I was, I was very like, whoa, this is so real.
And with a 96% loss rate as a country, right over the last 50 years, meaning
businesses fail 96% of them within 10 years and 4% hang on, um, it's, it's
something that I stand for.
It's not very common to talk about, you know, like, how do you be excited
and happy about business growth when 99% of people are losing at this game?
Well, you know, again, uh, do you see the silver path and the realities of
what, what is like, what is so we have a great economy as a country, even
though we have such a strong loss rate.
Well, what would happen, you know, if we, if we were able to prepare our
businesses better on the front end, build the infrastructure that we need,
know how to make decisions.
Everybody's listening.
I hope you go read that post.
Um, but yeah, John, that hit me hard.
You know, how do you come up with these, these deep scenarios and these,
these connections between physics and principles, how can somebody learn to
be so principally driven in how they build?
Whew. It's a big question.
So I will say this life taught me these lessons and I decided to listen and
learn and test new paths through life.
So, you know, like, as I look at my kids, I'm you, they can never experience
what I experienced for so many reasons.
Time keeps moving.
The river changes, it's been, and we are where they are.
They will have their own trials and tribulations, but for the most part,
everything you said is exactly what drove the things that I do today.
So I work with no less than three to 400 business owners every year through
some very prominent programs.
And I mean, by work with, sit there, cry, laugh, cheer.
And I've been doing this for 25 years.
I've been part of score 10 years with that vice chair of outreach and all that.
And so what I found over and over again is today, I'm doing this for 25 years.
What I found over and over again is today's business owner doesn't align
with the business owners I grew up with.
So the business owners I grew up with in this little tiny town realized like I
got up today because I had a mission to feed my family and live the best life I
can for myself, for my family and for God.
That was it.
It was not about a 40 under 40 award.
It was not about people flexing and likes, and it was about none of that.
It was not about getting a promotion.
It was not about an exit strategy to a business.
It was just, this is what I get up and do every day.
And I became good at something.
So the reason I created the whole mission market and methods is because
if I scroll LinkedIn or I look at any business development program, 99%
of everything on there is a method.
How do you do something?
If I go to an economic development group or I go to our federal reserve and
listen to the bankers and the analysts, they're only talking about the market.
When I stopped and put all that together, I realized small
business owners, the reason the attrition rate is so high is they have zero
understanding of the market and they have no mission that is aligned with what
they need out of life.
That's why we say, I don't care if you start a business.
I don't care if you become an employee.
I don't care how you do it.
The goal is to take your passion and your energy and your effort and plug it
into a system that allows you to have the best mission slash life you could or can.
And so this failure rate, the reason I'm picking up so much traction and been
scoring extremely high in my presentations is because the people that are seasoned,
they've been to every networking group.
They've hired everybody.
They've read every book.
They still feel like they're losing.
It's because they never thought, you know what?
I really should have thought like an investor and said, what do I need this
investment to produce?
And then instead of just doing it, I need to think, you know what?
Maybe I should go onto the market and find out who finds value in my skill,
who wants to work for me, who wants to buy from me, and then go figure out the methods.
And so 90% of the business owners that failed are just doing it backwards.
But if you sit down with any banker, any investment group, any private equity,
any hedge fund person, they think from the other direction.
I got some money.
I want our tax write off.
I got some money.
I want a private jet.
I got some money.
I want to give to others.
Let me see where in the market I get the best ROI and then we'll figure it out.
And so most small business owners think like employees.
And the reason I wrote that piece about the airline, the airplane thing is I am a pilot
and it was my bucket list for 50 something.
And my wife was right there with me and working with so many couples.
I realize another reason small business owners struggle in any business is they always want
to be the mechanic goes back to all you focus on as a method.
They want to fix the wing.
They want to fix this.
They want to funnel.
They want to fix, fix, fix.
And no one ever taught them how to fly the airplane.
So you're sitting here and you've spent all your money.
You lean Six Sigma.
You've Tony, Tony Robbins, you've Damon John.
You've done everything to your business, but you have no clue how to fly that thing to
value because all you want it with the perfect airplane and that thing just sits there.
Then you get one employee comes along, takes off, flies away and you like, they stole my
business and my customers Johnny.
Right.
Or you go broke and you got a great plane sitting there and people like, man, he never
got far in that thing.
He just push it back and forth down the street and say, me, so
Well said.
Oh, super well said.
And you know, it's, I love that you, you learned so early on the focus on, you know, being
your best self, um, you know, and, and lock in on, on not the accolades, but what you
wanted to become.
And I was, I was close to 30 before that dawned on me before it really kicked in.
Um, you know, and I'm so grateful that it did, um, you know, like I have different
paths, different, different opportunity to learn different things, different ways.
But I was running around a track, uh, and nice.
It started to drizzle a little bit and had a back surgery already.
And so I was always careful with myself at that point.
And, uh, I see like two security guards.
I'm wondering, like, oh man, I hope they don't come over and, and, you know, bother
me.
And I'm getting my last lap and I'm, you know, tired of my last lap.
So I'm getting ready to slow down.
Oh, I'm getting ready to stop, you know, like, how do I really run this lap?
You know, and I thought WW JD, what would LeBron James do?
Um, and, and I thought, man, oh, he crush it.
You know, he wouldn't care what the security guards think of him.
He wouldn't worry about being in the stadium or not.
He would dominate.
And so I bolted, I took off, I gave everything and I finished that lab.
I went another 20 yards extra afterwards.
And I was like, that's what it feels like to be LeBron James.
Um, that, that tiny moment for the first time in my life, I've done this by myself, without
an audience for the right reason.
Um, and I realized if I want to produce, you know, like super results in my life, I've,
I've got to do this for me, not for others.
Right.
And then you stop looking at the market and the accolades, you start looking at what you
can do.
There's more than 30 million businesses, I believe out there.
And I see these digital marketers, you know, they want to capture every single one of these
things.
Um, if you win, uh, well, 0.1% market share, that's 30,000 clients, right?
30,000 clients.
Most of us can't sustain even close to 30,000 clients.
And so when you're willing to be authentic and dive into the topics, you know, like,
John is doing visionaries, if you're willing to be super true to what you're trying to
build, no, you're not going to attract 30 million businesses.
But if you can attract the 30,000 that super aligned with who you are and want to support
where you're going, that's enough.
You know, you can make an amazing life and amazing impact.
And it's, I love that you talk about being aligned with your purpose as that centerpiece
of making sure that happens.
And it's a great reminder for me, um, as well to make sure that that, that that's why we're,
that's why, and that's how we're building is becoming aligned with our, our true purposes
and what we feel those are.
Is there any final thoughts you want to share with the audience?
John, just, um, spend as much time as possible.
If, if for every visionary sit down and create your movie, um, what does it look like?
Take the business out of it.
Just say, you know what?
You woke up tomorrow morning and the country of XYZ wired you $78 million tax free, right?
And start to think about what would you be doing with your time and how would you be
living?
Like just start there.
And then as you start to map that out, then go grab your spouse, significant other, your
business partner, and ask them the same question.
And as you have this conversation, what you end up realizing is that the things you want
really do not take money.
You need money to pay bills on things you haven't leveraged, but to have fun and enjoy
life, you just need the right mentality and time to put the effort in.
And so to have these visionaries think in terms of forget the methods, forget all the
different ways somebody is going to tell you how to dot, dot, dot your business and start
thinking about, okay, here's what I really wanted.
And what you were talking about earlier is something I always share, which is we have
to help visionaries stop making the dreams of others their nightmare and having someone's
ghost vicariously living through them.
And you're doing all the things you never want to do, but the expectations were there.
You didn't want to disappoint.
That usually leads us into family-owned businesses and dads and moms thinking, my kids are
going to take over.
Your kids hate you for being a small business owners.
They wanted you there.
This is your legacy.
Don't put it on them.
And so just thinking about everyone involved, creating that mission, and then aligning
everything you want to do with the people in the market that want to help you.
And that's where we miss out.
It's not about the profits.
It's literally about the purpose and the passion you can have or greater is the greatest ROI
you can possibly get.
The money's going to come if you're doing what you love.
Sounds cheesy, but until you go out there and realize I like working with small business
owners, I like working with other visionaries, I actually like it.
I'm not a people person at all.
But when you get those comments like, man, it changed my life.
Three minutes, it changed my life.
Five years later, it's changed.
That's part of the reward.
And then they call me back and like, hey, you want to be backstage at Bruno Mars concert?
Bring the wife.
I'm like, that's what I was saying.
They paid me 500 bucks, but I'm backstage with Bruno right now.
So the perks outweigh the profits most times when you're doing it right.
I love that.
And again, if it sounds cheesy, try to enjoy the cheese.
Give it a try.
Give it a shot.
So we didn't showcase John's website today, but one of the reasons why I didn't do that
on purpose, I didn't signal Cynthia for that, is because
I'm studying his demeanor.
I'm looking at your eyes, man.
I'm looking at his smile.
We can all go look at the pages after the fact.
But what we just got to study, what we just got to see in leadership, man, John, I wish
there was more I could do to honor you in the process without just completely making
bromance, making a mockery or bromance.
So well done, man.
Vision pros.
If you have a vision to share, even if you're not ready to rock the stage
as profoundly as John did, that's OK.
Don't compare it to anybody else.
You be your best self.
And if you want to, in the top right corner, you'll see a link that says, be our guest.
Apply to come share your vision with us.
So you never know how many people you're going to bless with information like this.
And if you want to follow John on the landing page, you'll see down below the action steps
that we're guiding you to.
And of course, go to his website, subscribe, the whole nine yards.
You got a great mentor and John Whaley and I will be doing the exact same.
So, John, thank you for being here today.
This was amazing.
I appreciate.
Thanks for having me.
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 time building out.