Jennifer: 0:24

Welcome to another episode of Behind the Dreamers. I'm Jennifer Loehding and we are talking to the achievers, the creators, the magic makers and the dreamers. These are our friends, these are your friends and they are living the extraordinary Well. Here we are, another episode of Behind the Dreamers. I'm so excited about my guest today. He has over 25 years leadership experience, collaborating with various individuals, including CEOs, pastors, coaches, authors and emerging leaders. As a dedicated coach and consultant to both leaders and organizations, John specializes in assisting C-suite executives and senior leadership teams in transcending mediocrity and underperformance, guiding them towards the realization of uncommon impact Through his dynamic, greatest story ever told methodology. So we're gonna chat with him in a few minutes, but before we do that, I do need to do a quick shout out to our sponsors.

Jennifer: 1:15

So today's episode is brought to you by Walt Mills Photography. If you are a creator needing post-production consultation or promotion, walt is your guy. Whether short films, youtube films, photography work or a new head shot, he can help you find a solution to match your needs. To learn more about Walt and his work, you're gonna wanna go to photosbywaltcom. All right, I'm so excited to get my guest on here today. It's gonna be so much fun. So John Gallagher is the visionary founder and CEO of Growing Champions Coaching and Consultant Company, whose impactful work extends across the global landscape, with an impressive portfolio of clients, including esteemed organizations such as IBM, nitsubishi, edon Corp and Harvard University. John's expertise is sought after far and wide. Furthermore, he also hosts the Enlightening and Common Leaders podcast, and he has a blog called Champions Brew. John empowers leaders to nurture personal growth while inspiring them to fulfill the potential that aligns with their purpose. So, john, welcome to the show. We're so excited to have you here today.

John: 2:17

Jennifer, after that introduction I'm not sure I can stand up to some of that. I appreciate those kind words and I'm real excited. I appreciate you having me on your podcast today, looking forward to seeing what we can do to add some value to your listeners.

Jennifer: 2:28

It's gonna be fun. Hey, listen, you know what? The bios are my favorite part.

John: 2:32

Right, it's like the high school graduation photo. You know, that's kind of thing that sticks on my realtor card for a long time. That's just how it works.

Jennifer: 2:38

Yeah, absolutely, it's so funny. When I was doing my show, you know I've had co-hosts on and off on the show and it's so funny. My last co-host used to joke. She would say if you ever need Jennifer to read a bio for you, or like you need an MC person for the bio, jennifer is your person because I love creating the bios, I love taking y'all's notes, and then how do I rewrite this to make them sound like really good for you guys? So I'm glad you liked it.

John: 3:01

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Jennifer: 3:02

It's gonna be fun. Okay, so I wanna open this up. I wanna talk a little bit about what you're doing right now. So tell us a little bit about what's going on in your world, with your leadership and your coaching and your consulting.

John: 3:12

Sure, jennifer. Well, again, thank you for the opportunity and you said a bunch in the introduction to get us going, but I've been the founder and CEO of Growing Champions LLC. So I just started my individual entrepreneurship journey about three years ago. I had the chance post COVID given to me, if you will to a runway, worked for a large company for a long time worked for IBM, as you talked about it in there and when COVID came around and made it a difficult journey for us in the consulting face-to-face world and we were unable to make some changes, got caught up in some of the downsizing that occurs in that industry and I had a chance to really take a look back into my operations history and see if I wanted to get back into that on the manufacturing side or in the healthcare side.

John: 3:56

And each time I would interview for organizations that I thought I was well-qualified for, they'd say, look, we'd hire you as a coach or as consultant, but it's really, we don't see a good fit. I took that as a message. I took that as a sign. I was listening to the whispers of talk with my wife and said let's try this thing out as an entrepreneur, see how it goes with the relationships that I built and I get started influencing, impacting and encouraging other leaders and share with them really my journey over the past 25 plus years. I got pretty excited about it, so ended up here today absolutely.

Jennifer: 4:25

Fun stuff. It's always neat, I think, how people arrive where they are, because this obviously is a journey, and you were in the corporate side for a really long time and then came into this entrepreneur. I feel like I've been in this space forever, so I'm kind of like sort of I don't know what you want to call it. I'm not that I'm like special or anything, I've just been in this arena for a really long time, so I get the challenges that come with it and stuff, and so I think it's really neat when somebody comes from the corporate side and moves into this and learning, you know what they have to go through to make those shifts, because there are shifts, right, and so maybe talk a little bit about that. Tell us some of the challenges coming from the corporate side to the entrepreneur space.

John: 5:04

Sure Well, when I think about the journey that went on looking at coaching and consulting. So from a consulting standpoint, I've been trained for over 25 years in the Toyota production system. My teachers were sensei from Japan that came over and taught us Americans on the manufacturing side, so I had a real good feel for the problem solving methodology that was there. But I also had a leader about 20 years ago who put me into a leadership role and said let's give you a chance, and he put me underwater basically for a little while on a role that I wasn't quite ready for. But he committed to my personal development and then, even after a couple of my performance reviews, invested in me by also having an executive coach. And I'm in my mid 30s and again, I was 20 years ago. In my mid 30s I didn't know what an executive or what a life coach was in terms of best and I just thought that ultimately you either read the books or you got it by the school of hard knocks. When you learned to grow and when I got the chance to work with an executive coach before, I truly appreciated the process that we went through to go on that journey. So the organization I worked with really used. A life planning process started me out on that before we even started into the business coaching side. I just never would have realized it, but I really found a passion both for developing myself and then taking some of those tools that I learned and developing my team that I worked with and it became something that was natural for me. So that was the shift in terms of coaching and consulting from an operations perspective.

John: 6:29

Moving into the entrepreneurial space, I was nervous I was in real estate for five years so I had a little bit of flavor of that went into business actually with my mother-in-law for five years in real estate sales, but then rode that to the bottom in 2008 with regards to the economy and got into consulting, which I didn't think I'd really enjoy but I truly loved.

John: 6:47

And I think when you look at it from an entrepreneurial and the big differences that I've seen from corporate, obviously that security that exists I mean the traditional insurance and always having a paycheck coming in those things are always there and a little bit overcoming that fear to jump into and having the confidence in yourself is really important. The second part of it and what I was wired for anyway but still found some difficulty is learning to schedule your time, certainly on a regular basis, and the discipline required to do that on your own to make sure that you're taking care of really all facets of the business the accounting side, the marketing and sales side and the actual delivery of the goods and the customer service side. So learning to balance that out was something I had to really work on.

Jennifer: 7:30

This is good. You said some really good points there. A couple of things that were sticking out in my mind obviously the time shift and moving into balancing time and then jumping the fear. But one thing I always say and you're kind of a testimony to this point that we really still don't even have security when we have a job. There's not a hundred percent security there that you have that job at the end of the day and I think we get so when we're on that side, so accustomed to. Yes, we've got that insurance, we've got that check coming in every week but, as you know, any day that could end Absolutely.

Jennifer: 8:02

You know, somebody else's mercy, that's right, there's no guarantees.

Jennifer: 8:05

Yeah, yeah.

Jennifer: 8:06

So I think it's great that you see that and I think what's also really neat about your situation and I think that, coming back, the power of having a mentor and it's one of the things like I went into the network marketing space with Mary Kay, I was with them for 22 years and I'd never had a coach prior to that time, other than when I played some sports, you know that kind of thing.

Jennifer: 8:25

So I really never understood the value of having mentors and personal development, and it was really interesting because, having come from that space, I'd been in there for 17 years before I really understood how important that had become in my life.

Jennifer: 8:42

You know what I mean, and so I tell people a lot of the skills I learned came after that first 17 years, because I never really I thought this was just the way it is you get a mentor and this is what you do and this is how it is. And so then I got out, you know, when I was trying to form my LLC and I started networking and engaging with people that were outside of that space, I didn't realize how many people didn't have mentors and didn't understand how important they are and they would talk about personal development, but they didn't even also really understand how important it is to continue to have that in your life, Like that. Personal development doesn't stop tomorrow because you learn, you read one book and you go oh my gosh, I think I have it. No, it's, it never ends, it's always going.

John: 9:25

Jennifer, when you talk your way through that again, that mentor of mine really not knowing how to spell leadership in my early 20s and having that specific mentor sit down with me and give me a book for the first time, but not just give me the book to read, but he walked through a chapter by chapter with me and it's been the most influential book in my life the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership and John Maxwell. Whether I've met him a couple of times in person, but I don't really know him, he's been a mentor of mine as well that I've emulated and tried to work my way through in terms of some of his points. But that same mentor 10 years later who I followed him to a couple of different jobs, sitting down with a performance review with me in a role that I wasn't really qualified for and just absolutely delivering one of the hardest performance reviews I had ever heard in my life. And there wasn't a word that he told me that wasn't true, that wasn't accurate in terms of what he said in that performance review. But I remember sitting in that performance review and I was just silence. I sat back in my chair and I just I couldn't. I couldn't say a word and I'm 34 year old, adult, male and Quiet, I can't talk and tears start rolling down my cheeks. And that's when he said he says you know what are you thinking right now? I said I need help and that's when I got the chance to have a coach as well.

John: 10:37

So I do believe there's a difference in in mentoring and coaching from the stories that you have. But the coaching from an accountability standpoint. But you know, you've you've asked one of the questions in your email leading up to this was who is the person that I serve? And one of the things that I really come to know in the past couple years that I'm perfectly Able to serve the person that I used to be so I was the one sitting in that chair getting that performance review. That's the person that I want to help, who needs that help, who doesn't know, to your point, what a coach is, when executive coach is or what a mentor can be. And I also want to be that person who is giving that Candid feedback to the other individual out of love and sharing with that individual and helping them grow as an individual to go forward.

John: 11:19

So there's, there's so much in what you said. I can't underestimate that the power of a mentor, somebody to add value into your life. I've got a men's group that I have in terms of there are five of us inside of a group that hold each other accountable. You have mentors, you have coaches, even different areas of life. I have a spiritual coach, if you will, my pastor. I've had a trainer who's helped me on the fitness and my fitness and health journey. All those different things and all those areas. We need a coach, we need a mentor to guide us where we probably wouldn't take ourselves on our own.

Jennifer: 11:50

Yeah, and it's good that you were kind of differentiating, saying you know my mentor and coach are different, because I also think, like consulting and coaching is different too, right, like in a lot of times you probably come across this too that when people approach you, sometimes they get those confused and they think that you know, as the coach, you're gonna tell them everything to do and I'm like, no, we need to get that cleared up because they're not the same thing. You know the coat. The consultant gives you steps to take, the coach helps you decide what steps to take, and those are your steps, you know and your decision, and so they're very, very different and the best can.

John: 12:21

The best consultants, I believe, are good coaches as well. But to your point, the argument consultant tends to tell more. A coach tends to ask a lot more questions and, frankly, at times We'll frustrate the individual more, but it'll get them there to a point that they'll be able to live. That if you're if you're a good coach, I mean good coaches, even in sports. Good coaches will help folks win, but great coaches will really help change people's lives and that makes a big difference absolutely.

John: 12:45

And it doesn't say the consultants can't be that right. Consultants can't be that to individuals as well.

Jennifer: 12:49

Yeah, it's funny that you say that, because I had a mentor when I was at Mary Kay and we have to. You know, mary Kay, they have different levels, and so this mentor was in the top 1% of the company. They're what they call national sales directors, and so, anyways, I remember she would always talk about how, when we would ask a question, she would never answer the question. She would turn around and say what would you do about that? I remember thinking, you know when I Want you to backpedal this, you know to, when I was in the beginning stages as a leader, I came in as I'd been in probably, you know this was early 2000s I'd been in for a few years and I just moved into this leadership position where I was managing a team and I'm like, you know, I'm calling you to get the answer. I don't want you to turn this around, ask me what would I do. That's why I'm asking you now if you fast forward.

Jennifer: 13:33

I absolutely understand the power in that now, but I can tell you in the moment, when you're in that growing space and you're looking for those answers, right, and you're thinking I just want the answer, you know, but there's no, I Think the answer comes in the search, it comes in that you know, in the thinking and processing and putting yourself in those shoes, and it's really that's how I feel Leadership is developed. And thank you for mentioning John Maxwell, because we talked about this. I've read that book. He's one of my favorite mentors. I mentioned him several times in my program and when I'm coaching clients I'm always telling them his, his books, or those are the go-tos. You know I have others, but he is my go-to when I say you need to read his books. So thank you for bringing that up.

John: 14:13

Sure no, I think again. I just I love having this conversation with regards to coaching mentors, because even you mentioned in the books different than coaching, consulting, right that the book has the flavor of. For me, as I was maturing, as I was growing as a leader, I'd see the title of a book. I'm like that's it, there it is. I just that's the solution that I'm looking for right there. And I'd read I'm like, well, that's not really it. Yeah, it's still not there yet. So I still have to go out and practice this. I still have to go out and do that on my own. So putting those disciplines in place and going through Transformation journey as an individual is so important, and that's what I love about you. You know the the coaching side of what I do with regards to inspiring and encouraging and equipping folks With the tools that they need to grow and get better.

Jennifer: 14:58

Yeah, so tell us a little bit about this methodology, because I was looking at your stuff and looking at everything you got going on, so maybe feel us in a little bit on that.

John: 15:04

Sure, well, the, the methodology that I use, for lack of a better term it's. It's an overlap between the consulting Toyota production system methodology and a personal development journey, but it's the seven steps of the seven D's that an individual organ, organization, can go to go to to transform. I had gone back and listened to a couple of your podcasts and listened to your closing, where you said to live Extraordinary, you must start, and every start begins with a decision, and that's absolutely how it has to start. In this case as well, is that there's got to be. You know, in the, in the step here, that you've got to make a decision, that you're sick and tired of being sick and tired, and sometimes, when I think about it, from a growing champions but I don't consider myself a turnaround Consult, but it's an organization that's just not quite getting what they're capable of getting. They are capable of so much more, and so sometimes it's simply, if you will, a healthy discontent for the status quo.

John: 15:58

Okay, I want to continuously improve on my journey, but I need a process to get there. So, these seven steps, the decision, and then you set up a dashboard. I always talk about what you measure, you can control on what you don't measure you six, you just accept. And so you've got to get. You got to get the score when are you today and where do you want to be? And then it goes through the stages of diagnose, looking for the waste in our process, design a solution and then ultimately putting the disciplines in place on a daily basis that will get you there. Last step in that journey really is to dwell or reflect what am I doing well and what could be going better? Because once I know that, once I know where I've improved, then I've got to do it all over again. That's the seventh step is to do it again. You got to go back to the beginning and say, okay, how much better do I want to get now on this journey? Because it's really not being satisfied with where you are.

Jennifer: 16:46

Yeah, I like that. I like that you have a system. I think that's so important because you probably find so many people when they're looking like you mentioned the book early on, and you're going to the book and you're thinking the solutions in there, we do that. We're like this is going to be it. I always say this. I say people are always looking for a widget, a hack. They're looking for some solution to be the fix. And then they go through and they realize no, because it's complex. It's not a complicated thing. It's not like putting a computer together or putting a puzzle together. It's a complex thing that we're working on, which is the human condition. It's people and our skills.

Jennifer: 17:19

I had a guest on that I recorded last week was talking about soft skills. That's what this stuff is. It's the soft skills stuff. It's not something that you can just sit down and read a book one time and go. That's the answer to it. You have to put it into practice. I think that's what's so great about leadership is that leadership can be taught. It can be learned over time. It's not something that you can just say open a book tomorrow, you're going to be a great leader. Naturally, we say there are people that are natural born leaders, but I think leadership is really cultivated over time when you are put in those situations where you have to do it. I like that you have a system for us people who need give us some steps to look at here. Yes, thank you for listening to the ending, because everything does start with a decision.

John: 18:02

Absolutely. I firmly believe that.

Jennifer: 18:05

Yes.

John: 18:05

Well, I think about that too. You mentioned that system because the book or some event that they go to it's a seminar, it's a Tony Robbins event. Not against Tony Robbins, but the event. One of my favorite, john Maxwell coach we tend to overestimate the event and underestimate the process. That's where the winning starts to occurs. In that process I talk about that right inside that step the hardest one is putting the disciplines in place that you need to. Motivation will only get you. So far you can be motivated to get something going. My motivation doesn't get you up in the morning at 6.30 to make sure that you get your reading discipline done and you get your sales calls completed and you get those activities done so that you can do some of the other things that you have to go forward. Putting the system not just a system of transformation, but systems to make sure you get your daily habits that have to be done weekly habits, monthly habits to be successful is so important.

Jennifer: 19:00

Yes, I tell people too, when they get focused on the habits day in, day out, stop worrying about the results. I mean, yes, we have to have goals, we have to have plans, we have to have things to achieve. But I think when you get focused on the process of doing, I almost make a little bit of a test out of it and tell people do it for a science experiment, do something to see. If it means you're trying to prove me wrong, then do it. Because I feel like when you get more committed to the process of those habits whatever it is that small change you're trying to make, and get really consistent about doing that over a period of time, then when you start seeing those results, that's the icing on the cake. Right, absolutely, because we get so focused on that end result and when it doesn't happen quickly, we lose sight of doing the discipline.

John: 19:55

I'll share a story with you. It goes right along with that. It's my own personal transformation journey. So it was January 11th, 2017, when I walked into the gym, made a choice. Walked into the gym, said I need to get a trainer, I need to get a coach, just like I did in business 20 years before that. I needed to get a coach to help me out. And I went on a journey of personal transformation and didn't call it a diet, but I said I need to make some changes to get where I need to. I had a health scare. So that's the change methodology. It's the decision that goes on.

John: 20:25

People will change when the pain of remaining the same is greater than the pain of the change itself. Because personal transformation, fitness, life, work, faith, finances they're all difficult to go through. But I had gone through about four months, lost a good bit of weight, but over a two-month period I was still working just as hard and I had plateaued on my weight loss. And I went to my trainer. I said what is going on? And she said well, okay, let's talk about it. What are you eating? And I started to walk out. She's like she just laughed at me. I just remember the sound of her laugh like it was yesterday, and she's still sitting right next to me.

John: 20:57

She said it's time for you to make the next step in that habit. So you've gotten to where you've plateaued and you've got to go further. And she says what do you really like to eat? And I said well, I mean, I tend to have french fries with every meal, if I can, and make that happen in my hamburger.

John: 21:11

She said just stop eating french fries, just try one thing. Let's try it. Start something small. And she said she don't have to do it every day of the week too. Just stop eating french fries three days a week. So it was a habit that I got to try something small that you can start out. It's reading. Don't try to read a book in a week, just try to read five pages a day and become a reader as you go forward. So setting those small habits that allow you to develop the system you need and then you can continuously grow. Ultimately, one of the things I talk about is the hashtag I use is stop eating french fries. So what are those french fries in your daily habits, finances, your faith or your career that are holding you back from being more successful than you are today?

Jennifer: 21:51

Yeah, I like your trainer, by the way. She had that fear though.

John: 21:55

She and I are several hundred miles apart now, but I still stay in touch with her in terms of letting her know whenever I think of her and see some posts like yeah, your trainer, she was miserable, which made her perfect, so it was good.

Jennifer: 22:07

Yeah no, and it's good. I mean, you touched on something really important there, because I think so often when we're achieving goals, we place these impossible metrics on ourself. And I get this with clients all the time. They'll come to me with a big list of things they're trying to change and I'm like whoa, hold up. We gotta back this up. We've gotta help you win, and the only way we're gonna build confidence is to get some wins under your belt.

Jennifer: 22:26

And if you're setting this bar too extremely high, you're never gonna meet it. So when we get to a place where we can make that one small change, you know like, hey, take out the french fries, but listen, if you blow it the next day and you eat the french fries, don't beat yourself up. You just pick up the next day. You know and that's where I think that growth comes is when you get to a place where you can do that, you can go through and say, okay, I'm gonna make these small changes and I have the ability to do this gracefully and in a way where I'm not gonna crucify myself if I'm not 100% perfect every single day. Right, it's good.

Jennifer: 22:58

Absolutely. Thank you for stating it.

John: 23:00

Tell me, first of all, perfection is something that is elusive. Okay, yeah, again we have. I talk to my clients. They say I have my jondisms all the time but you can strive for perfection. But as long as you have that continuous room, you'll reap improvement mentality. You'll reach excellence along the way.

Jennifer: 23:18

That's great.

John: 23:18

And that's the part of it that's really good, because perfection, frankly, it's just not that much fun anyway.

Jennifer: 23:24

Yeah, I agree with you on that. I've suffered from that myself and I have to always be like let it go, it's not worth it, right? So tell us a little bit about your podcast. And you got a blog going on, so tell us what's going on over there.

John: 23:35

Sure, well, again, if you look at the specific one, the Champions Brew, I thought it was funny. I like to drink coffee and I said, you know, once a week, on Friday morning, you can take your first cup of coffee and read through the Champions Brew in about 10 minutes, or your first cup of coffee. But it's just things that I'm reading, things that I'm listening to, things that I've heard or experienced with a client over the past week or month that I just wanna share Again. My mission is to inspire, encourage and equip others. So I've got inspiring stories where they're in there from other clients, but I try to equip them with some tools, with some habits that they might be able to put in place on a regular basis.

John: 24:09

And then, frankly, the Uncommon Leader podcast is a lot of fun. I am just like this I interview other leaders who are going through similar journeys. It might be a client that I've worked with before, it might be a mentor from a previous life, or it might be just a friend that I've dealt with on a regular basis who's gone through a situation that my listeners of the Uncommon Leader podcast need to hear about. Folks need to hear about those transformational journeys. So I have fun talking with other individuals. I appreciate getting a chance to share a little bit of my story on this podcast, but that one's really for them to share their story and tell others what they went through and hopefully inspire others to make a change, to make a decision to make a change.

Jennifer: 24:45

I like the title, by the way.

John: 24:47

Oh, thank you, it was. You know, I see it was probably off another book. Tony Dungey's Daily Devotion of that read Uncommon life and I just I was talking to my mentor one day and we just started saying what are we going to call it? What are we going to call it? We said, why don't we just call it the uncommon leader? I'm like, okay, let's call it the uncommon leader podcast.

John: 25:04

Absolutely. I mean ultimately. You've touched on these and you know, frankly, we know that the, the, the, all these books that are up on the shelf, they really come down to either Stephen Covey seven habits of how the effect of people think and grow rich, or the Bible. One of those three are in all these others. They're just rewording those things as you go through. But you know, being uncommon is to do ordinary things in extraordinary way, to be able to repeat that on a regular basis and ultimately achieve results you wouldn't be able to. To have an impact on your home, to have an impact on your organization, to have an impact on your community whatever that is ultimately becomes uncommon Absolutely.

Jennifer: 25:40

Yeah, and I think it's great too. I don't know about you, but you know, doing the podcast you're talking about, you know, and talking to all these individuals, I feel like I've learned. You know, I feel like I've interviewed over 300 people between my shows and since 2019 and I've learned so many things. And you're right, we all sort of talk about the same things, but the words come across a little bit differently and I always feel like, you know, I may say something one way and it resonates with certain people and somebody else will come on and say the exact same thing, but it just resonates in a different way and the stories are profound, and so I think that's what's great about what we get to do is that we do get to do that, and I feel like in the process, we get great conversation and we learn, they learn, our people learn. It's really just a win-win for everybody and allows us to continue doing what we do, which is inspire and impact other people's lives.

John: 26:30

Absolutely. Jennifer, let me commend you for over 300 interviews as you've had those shows. I mean that in and of itself is an uncommon discipline that you put in place. I mean you know all the details and the data behind podcasts and how most of them, if they get started, never get past the fourth or fifth episode. And getting that done. So your rigor, your commitment to having those folks on your podcast and interviewing them that says a lot. So you should be committed for that. It's been fun.

Jennifer: 26:52

It's been fun. I enjoy it. I was getting excited about the people. I'm like are we going to meet this week? What kind of story do we got going down today? So, but to you, I think you're doing a great job too and I love what you're doing. I love, I love the methodology, I like the system, I like the, I like the premise and I and I'm when you talked about Stephen Covey, he's one of my favorite I I talk about him as well, you know, in fact, it's funny, I was, I was on a collaborative, I was on a webinar the other day on LinkedIn and we were talking about collaborations and immediately they were going into all these different things about how we work in collaboration and I immediately came back with we have to be in a win-win mindset that we don't have time for tit for tat and keeping score.

Jennifer: 27:27

So if you're going into that, just let it go. It's not going to work, you know, and everything I talk about it it does. It comes back to these same books that we're talking about, you know John Maxwell, stephen Covey, the vibe all these same things. The stories just kind of go in different ways through different books, but the messages are pretty much the same.

John: 27:45

The principles.

Jennifer: 27:46

Absolutely Good stuff. All right, so if let me ask one, I want to ask you one other question before I close this out. I want to. You've said a lot of good things, and you probably have already touched upon this, but I want to give you some final words. I want to know what you've learned about yourself in this journey.

John: 28:01

Wow, I mean, that's I. I appreciate that question. It's the first time I've been asked that one on these as well in terms of learning about myself. So three years again in entrepreneurial space, five years of it in real estate. For a little while, a little bit of a break and then got into consulting and I got to tell you I never would have expected to enjoy being an entrepreneur and going through that from the standpoint.

John: 28:28

And I've actually felt more fulfilled in this journey for the past few years, with the ups and downs of the life of the entrepreneur and you know, making sure you're quote, filling your schedule but also still continuing to have an impact.

John: 28:40

That it's been something that I did not think I would enjoy that much. I still want to continue to grow and I want to put some of those systems in place that I've helped other organizations put in to grow my business. But I truly appreciate the I'll just use the word freedom of being on my own in terms of what that was. I just I didn't think I would. I would enjoy it as much as I did and it took a lot of reflection. It certainly took support and encouragement from my spouse and others in my community. That said, you know, were giving me the affirmation that I had the ability to succeed. And then those you know referrals that I've worked with, that network that I've worked with to continue for them, to allow me to continue to make an impact at a much smaller scales and individual, versus a you know company that had 400,000 people behind them in terms of growth. It's a it's a significant difference, but the impact's been really good.

Jennifer: 29:28

Yeah, I would be with you on that too. I think the freedom and the autonomy that's probably the most the best part of it being the space you know is that you just you work on your terms. You can live your life the way you want to live it and work your your business the way you choose to work it. You're not on somebody else's. You know values. You can create your, set your business according to your own core values and yeah, I just agree with you on that and I'm glad that you're in the right space, so you're getting to do what you want to do. So if our audience wants to get in touch with you, maybe they want to follow the podcast, check out your blog, maybe they want to learn a little bit more about you. Where would you like us to send them?

John: 30:03

Sure, jennifer, I appreciate you allowing me the opportunity to share this. Coachjohngallaghercom is the best place to go in terms of my website. It's got a link to the blog, it's got a link to the podcast and, should you want to have a conversation with me, it's also got a link there for a free call where we can set up 30 minutes and see what you may want to do to put a system in place to help you improve as a leader or help your organization transform as well.

Jennifer: 30:26

Very good, all right. Well, this has been fun. John, I appreciate you. I'm glad you were able to come on and share a little bit about what you're doing, and we'll thank Mo for getting us connected so yes, good stuff Again.

John: 30:36

Thank you very much, Jennifer. I appreciate it. Keep doing what you're doing, Okay.

Jennifer: 30:39

Thank you, thank you. Do you want to say, of course, to our audience if you enjoy the show, please go check us out on Apple, give us a review over there, hit that subscribe button on YouTube so we can continue sharing all these incredible stories. And, as I always say, in order to live, the extraordinary must start. Every start begins with a decision. You guys, take care, be safe, be kind to one another. We will see you next time.