Michael: Hello, and welcome to the HaBO Village podcast. I'm Michael Redman.
Kathryn: And I'm Kathryn Redman.
Michael: This is the podcast that works with you, leaders of small business, medium-sized business who want to build passion and provision companies. What's that?
Kathryn: Companies full of profit and purpose and legacy.
Michael: And legacy. We're here on this podcast to help give you ideas on all the different facets of the business. Because we look at business holistically from tips and tricks to strategies. Some podcasts are about thoughts and ideas. Some are just to encourage you. And today we have Mr. John Ramstead in the house.
Kathryn: John's one of our favorite favorite people, and we're going to let him introduce himself, but he just wrote a book. And so we're going to talk about that book. John is heavy into leadership. He's been a Navy fighter pilot. He's just kind of one of the cool kids and we really like him. So we've spent some time on his podcast, Eternal Leadership and has been ours before.
Michael: He has been our podcast here too. So if you listen to our podcast, you've heard some great things. You can hear one whole podcast, all about his deep stories, about what made him and shaped him in the last 20, 30 years, which is a really cool episode. Hey, welcome to the show, John. Welcome back.
John: Oh, great to be here. Man, our pre-recording conversation is probably longer than what we're going to record here. I love you guys. I just showed up on your screen and my day got better. So thanks for having me.
Michael: The feeling is mutual.
Kathryn: Totally mutual.
Michael: So tell us about the new book.
John: Oh, On Purpose With Purpose, Discovering How to Live Your Best Life and this entire book. It was the Genesis of this is actually, man, it was such a blessing. Here's what happened, I had an accident and we talked about on the last podcast nine and a half years ago. And just to recap for people and put me in the hospital for... I was an ICU for five weeks, 20 months in Craig hospital's severe brain injury. Surgery after surgery, after surgery. It was 23 surgeries. What happened to me was literally not survivable. My head was caved in 30% of my brain they did a scan wasn't even getting blood flow and God showed up at the accident. And here I am with the second chance.
John: And I had to rebuild everything about my life. Now think about it. Once I'm through healing enough where I can function. Because I had to learn to walk and talk and speak and think again, my eyes blind, operate with only one eye. And my vision of my eye isn't the best. My finances had been wiped out. And I'm like, "Okay, well I got the second chance but..." I talked about limiting beliefs, kicking in like, "Okay, I don't have any money. I don't have any capital. I'm in pain. My network is dormant. I've been in a bed for two years. So you know what I'm going to do. I'm going to go start a company."
Kathryn: Because that's what you do. Because an entrepreneur.
John: Because that's what I do. Because I know I was pretty much unemployable at that point. I mean, actually I tried to get back to work at my job but I could only work because of my brain injury, eight to 10 hours a week. I just had no energy. It was like somebody just pulled the battery pack out.
John: Now in this I'm like on this quest to say, "Oh my gosh, I have to rewrite the entire script in my life." What I didn't realize is now before this, if you just kind of fast go backtrack to just before the accident, I had built a significant company and I had an amazing team and was doing work in the community at nonprofits. But I honestly I'd always had kind of had this motto. I forgot the Navy because I never really felt connected to purpose. It was something I was always searching for.
John: And then I honestly, I almost felt like I wasn't worthy of finding it. And just the way I was also raised in how love and appreciation and information flowed, it was like, I hadn't earned it yet. I hadn't done enough to be somebody's given an assignment that actually has impact or significance. So my response to that was to just work hard. I mean, I was a people pleaser say yes to everything. I was on all these boards. I showed up early, I stayed late. I went to every networking event and I was absolutely if you looked at me from the outside and you'd be like, "Wow, he's doing well." I had never been more miserable. And I didn't realize that I took off and I got this fighter jet and I had a full bag of gas and I had no destination.
John: And I ended up flying over this territory that I never ever planned on even getting to, because I didn't have some of the things in place in my life that would help with that. So here's how this book came out is I was on this journey to figure out, hey, how am I wired? What am I wired for so that I can actually figure out the whole second half of my life. Because I should be dead.
Michael: Come on.
John: What do I do with all this? Right. All this is in my like... And I'll never forget my coach. I couldn't do this alone. So man, I had a lot of amazing mentors and coaches through this whole process. And I don't know if you guys know Jeff Spadafora?
Kathryn: Mm-mm (Negative)
Michael: Uh-uh (Negative)
John: He is with the Halftime Institute, but we were sitting down in the coaching session and I said, "Jeff, dude I don't know, man. I'm so frustrated right now. I don't know what I can do. I don't know what I should do. I feel like there's a reason that I was given this gift and I can't figure it out." It's like before the accident. And I said, "Dude, I got to figure out how I'm wired and then figure out what's next." And he goes, "Let me ask you, maybe should I shove that question differently. What if you asked yourself, how did God wire you and what did he wire you for?"
John: Now for me because I had this unbelievable spiritual experience of being in God's presence near-death experience. Right? Given a second chance for me, this just made total sense, but here's what I realized in that moment that you know what and this was new knowledge for me that there is a massive gap between the person I saw in the mirror with all the stuff in my identity. Lies that I'd left in as true.
John: As an example, when I told you about my story with that first company that did not end well. If anybody's listening right now, I went into partnership with a good friend.
Michael: Wait, wait stop. If anybody's listening...
John: We're hoping somebody is listening. Sorry, Michael for the people listening. I shared good catch. Sorry. I'm just kind of in my little bubble here simple guy. Okay. So I was telling Michael and Kathryn before we started my first trip, and thanks Michael, into entrepreneurship did not end well. It was with my best friend and man. And I felt betrayed. It was terrible. Now going into that, I left a job that was a well paying job, good benefits. And I had some family members who grew up in the great depression area. And I told them I was leaving to go start a business with my best friend.
John: And I was told I would fail. You can never be an entrepreneur. You're putting your family at risk. How dare you. I'm ashamed of you. And I didn't part of what happened in that company. There's some stuff I had to take ownership of, honestly looking back at it. But I was operating from this place of proving that person wrong versus doing the best thing for me, my team, the company, having healthy conversations, which I think set up some of the dynamics of honestly and hindsight. That's actually why we've been able to reconcile because even though at first I thought it was all him and I'm the victim. As I matured, I realized, no, I had a part to play and we have a part to play in everything.
Michael: Good call there. That's so true. Right there. That's a huge point. And if we can't figure out how to own that one right there, that's going to stunt anybody's leadership at any level. I mean, you could get stuck at 25 if you can't get passed that.
Kathryn: Yeah. Because you just become a victim. Right? And then it's stuff happened to you. You didn't choose any of it. And that is a dangerous way to live.
John: Well, because what we're really talking there is this whole notion, which was hard for me of personal responsibility. The outcomes that I have in my life. The state of my marriage, the relationship with my kids, my finances, my business, my happiness, my joy, everything that's happened to me in the past. Good and terrible. How I am today is a result of my decisions.
Michael: So somebody is listening right now and they're thinking, okay, I don't even understand that. I'm a victim. And they're not even seeing themselves as a victim. There's just like, "Look, I've just been screwed over and not had enough opportunities. And I've been taken advantage of how could any of these things be any part of my fault?" What do you say to somebody like that when they're stuck in that place?
John: Okay. So when we are going to go through adversity. This was not my fault. I'm in the Navy as a fighter pilot and I get called in and I'm told, I'm going to top gun. Dude, I'm over the moon fired up. I float home. I'm so excited to part celebrating with my wife. The next weekend I'm playing softball. And I hear, "Look out." And I got drilled with a line drive in the right eye and blew out the back of my socket and had nerve damage.
Michael: There, it goes top gun.
John: That goes to everything dude. And my medical is gone. I'm out of the Navy a year later. Exactly. And everything about who I am, my identity, my purpose, myself worth was tied up in being a Naval aviator. And it is gone in the moment. I could not see it. Here's what I realized. Anytime we go through adversity, I'm not saying that well, I'm the one that showed up on the softball team. I'm the one that got on the horse.
John: But it's honestly when we have adversity in our life, Michael, which we are going to have, and if we don't have it, now, we're going to have it again in the future. It's just how things go. When we move through adversity, there's only one of two outcomes. We do not stay the same. There is no status quo. We either emerge stronger somehow or we move farther away from being the person that can actually, I think, move toward a worthwhile dream or goal.
John: And so in that, in hindsight, when I'm in it, when I'm in my accident, I'm in a hospital bed for two years, that wasn't my fault. This horse bolts and takes off and bucks me into offense. But in that adversity, in that pit, it was horrible. I've never been in so much pain for so long. For years, 23 surgeries. God said of the accident, He was going to heal me. I was expecting like I'll be back at work next week. Not so much. Right?
Michael: No, not so much.
John: What I realized was there's going to be times you don't understand the circumstances, but moving through that, the person I became, I could choose. And I watched people at Craig Hospital where I was there for 20 months with my brain injury. People that focused on let's say a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset that life happens for me versus life happened to me.
John: People that focused on hope that tomorrow could be better versus regret and guilt and shame over maybe a decision that led to them being in this hospital. And I watched firsthand these people spiral into a pit and it's scared the warden out of me. It really did. It was not healthy. It was not good. And I said, "I don't know if I let myself get into a place like that, if I would have the strength to climb out. So I got to make sure I stay out."
John: So in that, guess what I have personal responsibility for? And this is what I mean by this. Something happens in our environment. It could be good. It could be bad. It could be awesome. It could be abusive. But I am in charge of what I think in that situation. I am in charge of the emotions that come up. Out of those emotions, and this is just how the brain works, I am responsible for the actions that I take, what I say, how I say it, what I do. So here's what I realized is I have so much control over my inner game. And I know for a fact, fact, certain my inner game determines my outer game.
Michael: Bridget.
John: 100 percent. You know what I'm saying. Let's go brother.
Michael: It's absolutely true.
Kathryn: Did you read that in our book? I think that sentence.
John: I'm sure you said my inner game that turns okay by John Ramstead.
Kathryn: No, I'm pretty sure we didn't. I'm pretty sure we quoted [crosstalk 00:12:56].
John: We appreciate. You know what? Here's the thing when walked out of the Navy, my mentor challenged me to read 10 pages of a book every day. I have been doing it now for 30 years. And he started with how to win friends and influence people. Now, there is so much stuff crammed in my head I don't even know where it comes from anymore. So I'm just going to start crediting you guys from now on.
Michael: Well, I was going to say then that you take our book and take your book. Our copyright comes up first. I'm just saying.
John: We'll just put it together. Like, boom. Is there anything else in your book? I misquoted.
Michael: Oh no, you didn't misquote. You did it perfectly.
John: You quoted it perfectly.
Michael: No, I mean, we stole it from somebody else. Somebody [crosstalk 00:13:35].
John: No, what I'm going to say from now on, you know what? One of the dearest couples that I've ever met in my life, mentors, spiritual giants shared this with me, that my inner game determines my outer game.
Kathryn: Wow. I never realized [crosstalk 00:13:52].
John: From now on am going to say, Kathryn Redman and her husband Michael.
Kathryn: That's it. Kathryn and Michael K. Redman.
Michael: Katherine and Michael, the three of them. All right. So a lot of teasing and a lot of stuff, but that's powerful and that's really true. Okay. Let me ask this because unfortunately we don't have tons of time today and we need to schedule another time to come back and talk more about it because it's always fun to have a conversation with you.
Michael: We need to actually record most of the conversation next time, as opposed to this less than half of the conversation. Let's talk about the concept of purpose. Could you please define purpose for me? I think you've talked about it a lot, but I'd like more of a straightforward, what do you mean by purpose?
John: Purpose is why you do something. It's your big why? And here's why it is so important because you, why do we go to work? Why is it important for us to maybe put in the hard work to have a great marriage? I know you guys have done that. I've been married 31 years, but here's what I found though. This is interesting. And this is the reason I wrote the book. I was telling you before, I wasn't really connected to a why.
John: My focus honestly was trying to say maxing out how much I can earn. Doing things in the community to get recognized. I was under because when you don't have purpose and which means is then you don't have a plan to accomplish what's important to you. And when you don't have your own plan and something that you are aiming for yourself, you are then by default, part of somebody else's plan and you are helping them do something important in their life.
John: And I got to tell you, for me, that led to a place of just some severe discontent. Now here's what I found. I'd been searching for purpose. And I was trying to search for purpose after the accident. What is my big why? Why am I here? What do I want to do? How do I want to be known? I should have died. Someday at my death, what do I want to be known for? I get a chance to rewrite all this all. What are my passions?
John: These all give us clues to like, what is our purpose? And it's different for everybody. It could be for my wife, just being a mom in this moment, being the best mom she could possibly be. And she's absolutely excelled at that. And it could be somebody that starts out small with a ministry like Billy Graham started out small, just preaching the little crowds and then right. Right? He became a global person.
John: What starts small has the potential to become big? I don't think that was probably his vision or his purpose maybe early on. I don't know. I should learn more about that. But here's what I found, as I worked on closing that gap, Michael, between that person I saw in the mirror with all my limiting beliefs, all this stuff in my identity lies, untruths that I have accepted as true about me not being in touch with my core values. I was under what I call the tyranny of they. Here's how they define success. Here's what they expect of me. Here's how they think I should show up. Here's the values they think I should be using in this moment. I don't know about you guys or the folks listening, but man, that just defined me.
John: I was trying to meet everybody's expectations of success and I didn't even know how they define success. And man, what a frustrating place now. As I close that gap, and that's what this whole book is about how I close the gap from that person in the mirror to that best version of myself. And I was just a few steps into that. And this whole notion of purpose, it was like this quest I'd been on my whole life. And this whole notion of purpose was like buried treasure. And that I either was not equipped. Didn't have the right tools to even find it or that I wasn't worthy to find it. That entire notion that limiting belief of that just disappeared and was like the cloud, the fog of operated on the field. And it was right in front of me and had been the whole time.
John: And I realized I'd been going about it wrong. So if you guys are talking about leadership, here's what I've seen because I'm in this industry. Everybody focuses on the why and the what and the how, and these are incredibly important. Don't get me wrong. In America, if you look over the last 10 years, we have average U.S. company spend 25 billion. That's with the B on leadership training every year in aggregate. And let me ask you a question. Does anybody think we might have a leadership crisis out there?
Michael: Yeah. Absolutely.
John: Not just in DC, but I'm talking about your own company. Maybe you're listening on the way to work. You're on the way home from right now. And you look at your boss. I think we all deserve a boss that we are excited to work with because they got our back. They care about us. They want to equip us. They want see us excel in the career versus somebody that just sees me as an object for them to look good and maximize their comp plan and get work done so they can go home early. Right? But here's the thing that underlies all of that and we miss this and that is who you are. Who you be because the being informs the doing.
Michael: So See, let me see if I understand this because I think I hear this clearly, but let me clarify. What I think I hear you saying is the why, the what, the how, all critical must be answered. Have to talk about it. But we've been talking about that for $23 billion worth of time over the last 10 years.
John: 23 billion per year.
Michael: Oh, per year.
John: That's per year, dude.
Michael: And we're not getting, nobody really believes as an aggregate in the country, we're getting any closer.
John: When [inaudible 00:19:38] even measured it. As a matter of fact, you look at engagement and life satisfaction scores. They've dipped. I think COVID had part of that. But before that they have not improved at all for 10 years. So it's only even gotten a little worse.
Michael: So you think the gap is the big gap that's actually critical to close to make that needle move is figure out the who?
John: Yeah. Well, here let's think about it. Okay. So since you guys are so awesome and I come to you and I say, listen, I want to build this business. You guys have built a company. You guys are amazing entrepreneurs. Would the two of you mentor me as I'm stepping into being an entrepreneur?
Michael: Yes.
John: And you'll be like, okay, let's do that. Absolutely. Now you could give me your best coaching, your best stuff, your best processes, how to hire people, how to have some of those crucial conversations, how to set things up. And I might not get a fraction of your results or the fraction of the results that you have had mentoring other people. If I'm taking your best stuff, but I'm running it through a flawed person. What if I have anger issues? I have limiting beliefs. I'm like, I'm never taking responsibility. We all know people like this.
John: Everything is somebody else's fault. Right? Because I have a low self-image and something I've had to work on. It was hard for me to say, no, that's not my fault. That's because Kathryn didn't give me the right stuff. That's why I didn't get what you wanted, Michael. I'll make sure it doesn't happen again. I'll talk to Kathryn. Instead of saying, no, I didn't clarify with you, Michael, what you really wanted. So I could have said, Kathryn, I don't know if this looks right. Right? I'm going to blame others.
John: But anyway, if we don't work on building a strong foundation and we cannot have building a company on a strong foundation in expected to ever get past something small. And it's going to be really weak and flimsy and adversity comes and it's going to blow the house down.
Michael: So when we have key purpose, we have a clarity of who we are. Kathryn and I are completely on board with this. This is like been one of the critical aspects literally of us growing over the last in marriage 28 years, in business 19 years with these companies. Is literally going... Well, let's back up. I started the company because I needed to design something that let me be me. We had enough mentors and we had enough great mentors, pastors coaches in our lives that started teaching us about leadership at an early age.
Kathryn: And about identity.
Michael: And identity was core. I mean, it was like. And we started in our faith with our identity in Christ and then figuring out who we were uniquely put together from our perspective and from God's perspective, and then start building on that and going, "Okay, well, this is who I am. This is what I do. And I'm still discovering at 53 years old, the uniqueness of who I am, and I'm still learning new things and I'm still... But I'm on that journey."
Michael: But that is allowed us to shape a company where we can take the fundamentals of business and apply them on top of how do we work. And in today's world, they're saying, what's your unique genius. And it's just another way of saying, how are you put together? What's your purpose? What is going to be the best way for you to work through? Because if you're a 300 pound linebacker, you're not going to be crawling around in attics because you won't be able to get in the attic. There's just no way to get to those kinds of things.
John: It's going to be a big attic. You're like specialized.
Kathryn: Really big attic.
John: Industrial attics.
Kathryn: He specialized in multi-million dollar homes with large attics.
Michael: For the linebacker in your life. But when you're a guy like me. I can get into an attic, I can do things. Right? That's a very, very simplistic way of saying there are certain things we can do and we can't do. And there are certain ways we can do things in ways we can't based on just genetics, the way we're put together and the way our brain works and everything else. And when you start figuring that out and then start talking about calling or vocation and those kinds of things, you are fundamentally in a different place with a different foundation that you can build on that is strong enough to hold the rest of the adversity and craziness and plans that come along.
John: No, I agree. Well, so let me share this way. I think you guys would like this. What we're really talking about here, Stanford graduate school, they did a study and they looked at thousands of leaders. Okay. And they said that they were trying to find out, is there one thing? Right? So they looked at people across business and ministry and government and politics, everything. Right? Like Steve Jobs. Right? Introvert, a real driver. Right? A lot of people didn't consider him a great boss, but clearly a good leader in general, like what he did in the Apple. And then people that were just very pleasant, gregarious, extroverted.
John: They actually found across all these folks that there actually is one thing that great leaders, these are people that have significant influence in a positive way with people around them and their communities, their causes. And that is self-awareness. And it is the first step on emotional intelligence. The great news about this, and it's all the work that I do. And what this book is all about is it is teachable. I want people to hear that. The best leaders in the world, the skill that defines them is actually something that can be taught.
John: And when we are on that journey ourselves, and we just put a little bit of work in with our identity, understanding our values, our passions, getting feedback, figuring out how we're showing up. And instead of being defensive saying, okay, if that's how the key feedback I kind of keep getting from Michael, maybe that's actually how he experiences me. Is that how I want to be experienced? Now, I might say, well, yes it is. But I might say, well, boy, no, I don't even know how to change, but I got to find some people to help me, but there's so many things we can put together.
John: But when I make a small step, I'm really simple guy. I want to break everything down into little day tight compartments, or it gets too overwhelming. But what is one small thing I can work on today? And as I get a little bit gooder, I can go help somebody that I work with. My wife, my kids, a coworker, people that report to me, my boss even. If I make a little step, I can help people around me make a little step.
John: And when we all do this and we all get better in through a process like this, we start actually seeing the unique value in each person around me. Instead of seeing them as an object or we put them in a box, because you told me your position on an issue or who you voted for. And I got to tell you, we could actually track... I think what's happening in Washington just my opinion is a reflection of the electorate. We don't like our politicians, but as a reflection of all of us collectively. And we don't like that. What if we all change actually started shifting how we're showing up in the world, why we do things, connecting to what's important to us, helping other people do the same thing and doing good in the world while doing good business.
Michael: I like that.
Kathryn: Absolutely.
John: And when we put all that together, I really think in the next two years, we can transform what this country looks like, what we're known for. And after the next election cycle, I don't care about the divisions and the different issues. What I would love to see is actually people focused on solving problems. I think different perspectives and ideas are awesome, but today, different perspectives and ideas don't lead to solutions. They lead to conflict. That's not healthy.
John: And if we bring that up... Everybody knows out there when you're in a job and you bring that into a job and just talking about a product design. I started berating you because you have a different design than somebody else on the design team that would not be acceptable.
Michael: No, no, not at all.
Kathryn: Nope.
John: Right? We know in life, it doesn't work. But here's the cool thing is one person. Each of you, listening has more influence in the ability to have more impact and more significance than you even realize. Because what if one of you over the next two years with how you're showing up as you work on just excellence and what you do professionally and excellence in who you are, you put those two together. And just because of your example, you touch a hundred people. They just look at your example and they go, "Okay, man, I like what she has." And those hundred people touch a hundred people. Now that's 10,000 people because you made a small step. And one of those 10,000 people then touch a hundred people because you started it.
John: And I have stories of exactly this happening and we have done it because we have actually tracked it. That is a million people. Think about it. One person who makes a decision, especially in partnership with God is an absolute majority. Especially when why you're doing it, then you can figure out the what and the how. And that's why purpose is so important.
Kathryn: That's really, really good. Really, really good.
Michael: Profit purpose and legacy. Our friend, John Ramstead wrote a great book On Purpose. You need to read it.
Kathryn: If I want to read your book, John, what do I do?
Michael: Where do we go?
John: Go to. Well, all the booksellers have it, On Purpose With Purpose. And if you go to Amazon Barnes & Noble, our goal is to just get this out there and make it a bestseller. So here's what we're doing. If you guys buy the book and go to beyondinfluence.com/book, if you go write a review on wherever you bought the book from and come back, we're in production right now with the audio book, we will send that to you for free. You'll get my core values course, which we charge a hundred dollars for it and send that to you for free.
John: And we have a reading plan. We have actually so many teams across the country that are reading this from Fortune 100 Companies to ministries. I mean, across the board. It was actually written, it's not written as a Christian book by the way, it's written so anybody can access what's in here. So we put together a reading plan that we'll send that to you also just for writing a review.
John: And then also guys, what we're doing is if you go to beyondinfluence.com/exclusive, we're doing this just for this book launch. If you bulk order like groups of 10 or 25 or a hundred books, we have some packages in there, but for just the cost of those books, you're going to get some of the coaching and training that I typically charge thousands of dollars for, just for your team, just for buying the books at the cost. It is a 50, 60% discount on anything I've ever done before, because we're just trying to get the word out there.
John: So we're excited. This is launching On Purpose With Purpose and man, I just love you guys because you guys are on purpose and you've been such a catalyst for some of the things that we've done, our good friend, Steve and man, so many other great people, love what you're doing, who you are, what you represent thank you. I really appreciate.
Michael: Thank you. And thank you for all that you're doing the feelings, all those things are mutual. We love you very much and we appreciate you and folks, we respect John immensely. This guy, he's the real deal. And we want to encourage you. So we're going to have all these links on our show notes page at halfabubbleout.com and HaBO Village take your pick. And you're going to be able to find out a lot more. But I want to encourage you get this book, get that review, get some of this stuff. If you learn anything from John, it will be valuable. I guarantee it. And it's not an if, the emphasis there isn't if you learn something.
Kathryn: If anyone's listening and if you learn something.
Michael: But if you are willing to take the chance and willing to take a little bit as a couple of steps and sometimes buying a book, we all know we write books and it's not easy to sell a book. It's amazing how hard it is to sell a book. So we want to encourage you to do that, get that, get some of his information, really digest it. I think you're just this whole idea of purpose. I am ecstatic, quite frankly, John, to have a book that speaks to this idea of purpose alone as something that we can continue to talk to our listeners about and our readers and the folks that are involved in our community, because there just isn't a lot on this subject, in my opinion of this who aspect is you're talking about.
Kathryn: On the corporate too is that your book is kind of like a drill down into the vision and leadership pieces that are in our book. It's just you've taken the one piece and really expanded it, which is super cool.
Michael: No. It's nice to have because I don't think we have enough of it. The way we wrote the book, you have to throw so much, I mean, you know this. You have to throw so much out of the book you write. You don't get to include all the editing processes brutal. And I always want to make it another a hundred pages long.
John: No. I don't know what you're talking about because I didn't edit anything out.
Kathryn: His book is 1500 pages. It's basically war and peace, but don't let that intimidate you.
John: It's like the tax code. We could just say 28%, but no, we have to write 90,000 pages. No, but you're right. And the other thing I did is I actually wrote this book because this actually came out of a coaching conversation with a client. It said, John, there is a process that we've been following. I don't see it yet. But the results that you've gotten with me and other people who I know has been so transformational in both my business and my life actually showed up. This was such a gift at his office.
John: And I said, "Okay, what are we coaching on today?" He goes, "No, today's about you." I'm like, "What are you talking about, man? I'm the coach." He's like, "No, today's about you. And he went up to the whiteboard and erased everything on the whiteboard." And for two hours was actually sat there and brainstormed everything that we had done and talked about. And what appeared as we looked at all this, Michael, was my process. Which I didn't realize I had. And we could have answered the better because it was the first question you asked me where the book came from was that. Because I realized God had walked me through a process that had led me to results in my life that I never thought I could achieve. I mean, just a life, literally fully alive at peace, even with stuff going on outside.
John: It is that process that I just naturally then replicated working first with clients and then groups and so forth. And then when Roy helped me to see it, then that became the idea of the spark that what if, and he goes, "Dude, you need to put that in the book." And that's where the first idea came from." Not to even write a book in now it's here.
John: So it's actually designed for people to go through just like if I was there as a client with some of the same questions, I would ask you how to apply it, how to turn it into action steps. So it was also meant to be really useful for folks.
Michael: No, I like that.
Kathryn: Well, we're teaching some workshops later this summer and in the fall. So we'll be absolutely stealing some stuff from you and we'll give you credit. But if there's good processes in there, dude, we're borrowing and stealing and milking those because.
Michael: She's shameless.
John: Here's my standard Kathryn.
Kathryn: You quoted me earlier. I get it. So I'm just going to borrow your stuff.
John: Now here's my standard you only have to quote me the first time. After that, it's all yours.
Kathryn: That's nice.
John: All yours. Because you know what? We all take other people's stuff and you run it through your own personality. Because you know what? This book is honestly an accumulation of 30 years of reading, being coached, being mentored, succeeding, learning from failures that all just comes together. Right? There's nothing new under the sun, honestly. But what it is, it's people come to you to learn because they're like, you know what? You two have figured out a way do it that works for you. You have an opinion, you have a perspective, you have experienced that's different than mine.
John: There's people that would come to you that would get so much more out of working with you than working with me and vice versa. And I think that's the beauty of it. I think it's important for us to go find those people that we connect with that we're willing to let you be bold and courageous with not only teaching us, but giving us some feedback and you know what that's why that's just, I think the beginning [crosstalk 00:36:02].
Michael: One of the things I love about hearing that story is to me, the way I filter it through my experiences, it's the beauty of codifying something and we never get to clarity alone. And it's so important. Even at that moment, even though he was the guy writing you a check for coaching, he's there going, "No, this is..." And I've seen this happen before because you pour into people so much. They don't care. We don't care. It's like, "Look, I'm here. Now I care about you. I don't care where about the money is right now because the value of the relationship is so much greater than the value of the dollar." And all of a sudden you start having that exchange, but having somebody like that, be able to reflect back to you and process that.
Michael: I mean, I've been in enough of those whiteboard sessions that I just go everything inside me just delights because I'm like those are magic moments. Those are beautiful moments. And you really go, I didn't see those key elements about who I am and my purpose and my process. And it takes that community to reflect back and help you go, you may think that that's normal and natural and everything else, but the rest of the world struggles with that. And the rest of world needs what you have. They need to have your perspective. They need to have the way you've pulled it all together and assimilated it.
Michael: And that's genius. That's wonderful. And folks, I want to land on this. That's the reason you need a coach. That right there is a reason you need a coach. If you want to grow as somebody of influence, a leader, anything in your business, you have got to have that kind of outside influence. And if you're willing to do that, and if you're willing to write the check for it, then it will be powerful.
Michael: I want to say, I guarantee it. You got to find the right person like John was saying, but this is absolutely critical. And we talk about it probably every other week about having coaches.
Kathryn: Definitely.
Michael: Because you want to accelerate the amount of money you make. You want to accelerate the impact you're having. If you want to accelerate how long it takes to actually accomplish your dream and build your company, you can speed everything up by doing certain key things and having a really good coach. Somebody like John or somebody like the folks at Half A Bubble Out, but you need that because we've all experienced it. John's experienced. It has those people in his life. We have those people in our life.
Kathryn: Well, yeah. Again, just emphasize this, we care about this so much that Michael and I have a coach and we just hired that coach to coach every person on our staff-
Michael: For the next year.
Kathryn: For the next year so that they are stepping more into who they're designed to be and what their unique contribution is. So that as a team we can grow together. It's just critical stuff.
Michael: You maybe thinking that's crazy and I can't imagine spending that kind of money because I've got boulders that need to go into my backyard landscape.
Kathryn: Sorry, flashback to story prior to recording.
John: That's a good call. That was a good call back.
Michael: I will say this, Katheryn and I have never, ever invested that kind of money in that kind of way that we didn't get a multiple return on our investment. And I know it will happen again with our staff. We've done it before. We'll do it again. Think about that. Think about John Ramstead, think about getting his book and you'll see those show notes on our page. Thank you for joining us. Thank you, John. I know you have another appointment. Blessings on you my friend.
John: One final thought. What if you choose not to invest in all your employees and they stay with you long-term?
Kathryn: Yeah. That's like I said [crosstalk 00:39:38].
Michael: Yeah. That's a good word that is. Think about that nightmare on your pillow tonight.
John: You guys are awesome, man. I'm just so excited to keep rocking and keep knocking people alive. And I am really excited for our next conversation.
Michael: We wish you all the best with the [inaudible 00:39:56] and everything.
Kathryn: We're proud of you.
Michael: We're totally proud of you.
Kathryn: Well done.
John: Thank you all.
Michael: Thanks for listening to us today. This is Half A Bubble Out and the HaBO village podcast. I'm Michael Redman.
Kathryn: I'm Kathryn Redman.
Michael: Have an awesome week. Bye-bye.
Kathryn: Bye.
