The Energy Bus: A Book That Changed My Life | Jon Gordon | EP 24

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Speaker 32 What is up, Entrepreneur DNA family? I have an incredible guest, someone who I'm super honored to have on this show. 16-time best-selling author John Gordon is with us.
What's up, brother?

Speaker 31 Justin, what's up?

Speaker 32 Man, it has been a long time. You did a keynote speech at the Boardroom Mastermind down in Nashville that rocked the house.
You had people in tears. You had people fired up.

Speaker 32 You had people, I'm giving shivers right now, even thinking about that speech. And it was all because you had a new book coming out that I want to get to here shortly because it's out.

Speaker 32 So I want to make sure everyone knows how to go get that book. But I think you are most well known, in my opinion, at least, for the Energy Bus.
And it is a book that changed my life.

Speaker 32 And I know it has changed a lot of my circle's life. So I also want to make sure everyone who hasn't read The Energy Bus to go get The Energy Bus.
But let's start there.

Speaker 32 What started this journey for you to write 16 books with so much energy and passion that you bring into each and every one of them? Why don't we go there first?

Speaker 31 Yeah, Justin, it's actually 16 bestsellers, 30 books. My 30th just comes out.
And I've got to be honest, I never even knew that I could write. I never thought I would be a writer.

Speaker 31 I wanted to be in politics and government. I wanted to run for Congress and one day perhaps president, but life took me in this direction.

Speaker 31 I ran for city council when I was 26 years old, walked door to door to 7,000 homes, winning the election. And then they really came after me in a really negative way.

Speaker 31 I saw the dark side of politics all the way back then. We're talking 1997, that long ago.
People were... even negative back then.

Speaker 31 And so after losing the election very closely with some dirty politics that I experienced, I said, okay, what am I, you know, what am I born to do? Why am I here?

Speaker 31 And the answer didn't come quite then. But later on, when I got into the restaurant business and

Speaker 31 had some success with the restaurants and then made my way into the dot-com world

Speaker 31 and then was going to get very rich in the dot-com world until it crashed.

Speaker 32 Obviously.

Speaker 31 And I basically lost everything. How am I going to pay the bills? How am I to support my family? I'm crumbling from the inside out.
I'm being really negative to my wife.

Speaker 31 And she said, if you don't change, you know, we're over. She had enough of my negativity.
And I was really blaming her for why my life did not turn out the way I wanted to.

Speaker 31 I mean, I had all this promise, right? Doing all these things, going after it. And then my whole world comes crumbling down with the dot-com crash.

Speaker 31 And I was taking it out of her in terms of just being real negative, real miserable. And I honestly was scared and I was very anxious and I was very fearful.

Speaker 31 And it was a wake-up call when she gave me that ultimatum, change or it's over. And I said, what am I born to do? The question came again.
What am I born to do?

Speaker 31 And writing and speaking came to me in that moment. I'm going to write and speak.
I'm going to encourage others.

Speaker 31 I don't know why, but clearly it's been my calling because I've written 30 books since that moment and began writing a weekly positive tip. I wanted to be more positive.

Speaker 31 So I started to research all the ways that I could be more positive.

Speaker 31 I began sharing those ideas with others again 2002 and I have one of the first e-newsletters out there and I'm sending this e-newsletter this tip out to people you're like one of the first internet marketers yes we had five subscribers my mother my brother my best friend from college just right I wasn't even trying to market using the internet I honestly was trying to add value I just wanted to make a difference.

Speaker 31 I found this medium of how I could add value. I wasn't that smart to think of marketing, but now I look back, so many speaking engagements came from that.
A book deal came from that newsletter.

Speaker 31 All these different benefits came from that. And I can look back and now my newsletter list is probably 500,000.
You know, again,

Speaker 31 we could be at a million, right? But it's 500,000 very engaged, active, organic followers, right? Right. People that have followed me over the years.
We haven't bought lists or anything like that.

Speaker 31 It's just people that have followed me organically. So it's a very engaged list.
And I think about that, like starting that newsletter really paved the way for the message I continue to share now.

Speaker 31 Now, when a book comes out, it automatically becomes a bestseller because I have, you know, X amount of people who go and buy the book and have read my books and then they want to read the next one.

Speaker 31 So

Speaker 31 fast, you know, fast forward backwards. I go to this.
I don't even know what that terminology is. If you say I'm going backwards, but anyway, to go backwards, I basically then,

Speaker 31 from this newsletter, started to get out there there and share this message. And that led me to eventually write a book called The Energy Bus.

Speaker 31 It was one of the newsletters where I wrote, life is like an energy bus, rules for the ride of your life.

Speaker 31 And even before I thought of a book, I wrote some of these rules down, just a few roles, shared it out with people. Well, fast forward several years later.

Speaker 31 The writing and speaking is not going that great, actually.

Speaker 31 I'm not having huge success. I'm not doing a ton of talks.
I wind up selling my restaurants, three of them, to focus on writing and speaking. So now I have no money coming in.

Speaker 31 And now I'm thinking, should I get a job? Should I go, you know,

Speaker 31 start a new business? What should I do?

Speaker 32 And were you able to stay positive at this point, or were you going back to your wife and still in that negative Nancy?

Speaker 31 No, I was much more positive at this point. I began practicing gratitude every day.
I've been doing a lot of work on myself to be more positive,

Speaker 31 but

Speaker 31 i wasn't um confident i would say in my future i was hopeful but this is where my faith came in it was during that time i'm walking and i'm praying and i mean like a desperate faith not a confident faith like god god please help me what am i supposed to do like this is not working out and it was on one of those walks where the energy bus came to me the story

Speaker 31 the idea and next thing you know i rate this book in three and a half weeks and whoa yeah three and a half weeks

Speaker 31 yeah three and a half weeks of just divine inspiration the story the rules started flowing everything

Speaker 31 and after that

Speaker 31 i found an agent and we sent it out to a bunch of publishers rejected by over 30 publishers oh 30 publishers all rejecting saying your dreams not gonna happen we don't believe in it and we don't believe in you

Speaker 31 My own agent said, I think you should give up. It's not going to work.
But I couldn't give up because I had my vision and mission. It was to encourage and inspire as many people as possible, one

Speaker 31 person at a time. So keep going out there.
Keep doing the work. Keep making a difference.
I'll never forget John Wauley and Sons agreed to publish the book.

Speaker 31 Came out.

Speaker 31 You know what? Bookstores wouldn't even carry the book. I went on a 28-city tour.
paid for myself.

Speaker 31 Again, no social media, not much internet marketing, just my little newsletter list that I'm sending out stuff to. And I go around the country from city to city sharing the message in the book.

Speaker 31 Five people in one city, 10 people in another, 20 in another. And the most people we had were 100 people in Des Moines, Iowa.
They thought Jeff Gordon was coming.

Speaker 31 That's why they showed up to reach my way.

Speaker 31 And that's not a joke.

Speaker 31 True story. I got home.
I didn't know what the future held, but I knew that I had my vision and mission. And from that day going forward, I said, I'm going to do the work every day.

Speaker 31 I'm going to share this message and I'm going to make a difference. I'm going to make an impact.
It really was mission-driven.

Speaker 31 That taught me humility, that tour, going out there doing the work, and having five people, six people, seven people.

Speaker 31 When I was at the boardroom and met you, the same energy, the same passion, the same drive, I bring that everywhere I go because I remember what it was like. It really caused me to be hungry.

Speaker 31 And I think you see this in actors who struggle to make it. You see this in artists and musicians.
They work the small nightclubs and they become big.

Speaker 31 A lot of them and most of them have this humility. It's about the work.
It's about the craft. And so now every book I write, I want this book to be my best book.
I want it to make an impact.

Speaker 31 I want it to make a difference. And that's what keeps me going to this day.

Speaker 8 When you think about businesses that are selling through the roof, like aloe or skins, sure, you think about a great product, a cool brand, and brilliant marketing, but an often overlooked secret is actually the businesses behind the business making selling and for shoppers,

Speaker 5 simple.

Speaker 3 For millions of businesses, that business is Shopify.

Speaker 14 Nobody does selling better than Shopify.

Speaker 18 With Shop Pay, that boosts conversions up to 50%, meaning way less carts are going abandoned and way more sales happening.

Speaker 24 So if you're into growing your business, your commerce platform better be ready to sell whatever your customers are scrolling or strolling on the web, in your store, in their feed, and everywhere in between.

Speaker 13 Businesses that sell more, sell on Shopify.

Speaker 25 Upgrade your business and get the same checkout Skins uses.

Speaker 26 Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash WestwoodOne, all lowercase.

Speaker 4 Go to shopify.com slash Westwood1 to upgrade your selling today.

Speaker 27 Shopify.com slash Westwood One.

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Speaker 32 There's a lot to unpack here, and I gotta be honest, John. Again, you're such a powerful human and have such a presence.
First, where's that newsletter?

Speaker 32 Where can we drive people to go get that newsletter or the tip of the day?

Speaker 31 Yeah, thanks for sharing that. It's johngordon.com, j-o-ngordon.com.
You go there, and then guess what? You put your email right at the top, and we will start sending you that weekly positive tip.

Speaker 31 I still write it all these years later, 2002, first newsletter. I write it every week, and you know what? I love doing it.

Speaker 31 This week was focusing on the trail, focusing on the trail, because when you're on the trail and you're hiking, your only focus is the trail.

Speaker 31 And the guy who took us hiking the other day said that's his focus. It's why he loves hiking because you're not thinking about tomorrow.
You're not thinking about yesterday.

Speaker 31 You're just focused on the trail. I thought, what a great analogy for life.
That's right. When you're in the meeting, focus on the meeting.

Speaker 31 When you're at work, focus on work. When you're at home, if you have a family and kids, focus on your kids.
Don't be on your phone.

Speaker 32 focus where you are you want to create success focus today one day at a time that's how we create success so that experience caused me to write this new idea that that i wrote today i think there's another thing i want to unpack here god you're so good i could just keep going so there's so many of these things i want to unpack but the first one or the second one that i really want to do is i think people look at john gordon those in your position, your status, the success you've seen, they don't realize what you just said, which is I would go to cities financed by myself and have five people in the room.

Speaker 32 They're used to seeing John Gordon with 5,000 people in the room speaking from stage now. That is a version of you today.

Speaker 32 What they didn't get to see was the man hustling, going from city to city, five people, 10 people who, again, I say this a lot of times. Most people would have quit, right?

Speaker 32 Wouldn't you say, like, how many times did that even go through your head? Or were you in such strong belief of your mission, it never once crossed your head? Hey guys, Justin Colby here.

Speaker 32 If you're liking the entrepreneur DNA and you have an interest in real estate, I'd encourage you to go over to the science of flipping podcast and start checking some of those episodes out.

Speaker 32 I've been doing it now for over 11 years and we have over 400 episodes.

Speaker 32 So if you have any interest at all in real estate investing, whether it's single-family flips or apartment rentals, go over to the science of flipping and check out some episodes on that podcast on Apple and Spotify as well.

Speaker 32 See you over there.

Speaker 31 I think most people will admit that there are those moments where you think about quitting, where you do want to give up, but you don't because you have grit. And what is grit driven by?

Speaker 31 Grit is driven by love. If you love it, you won't quit.
If you love your team, you won't quit on them. You love what you do, you'll keep on working at it.
So you love your craft, and that drives you.

Speaker 31 Love drives grit, and that drives you to greatness. Fear, you quit.

Speaker 31 Anxiety, you quit. Despair, hopelessness, you quit.
But that grit, that love keeps you going. And so for me, it was about one,

Speaker 31 I couldn't quit because I had my vision and mission. Also, I really did want to make a difference.
And I'm going to be honest, I'm also stubborn. I don't like to lose.

Speaker 31 And so there's a competitive spirit that keeps you going. Like there's a, there's a self-worth issue there.
Like, if I quit, then I'm nothing.

Speaker 31 So So yes, did I want to be somebody to be a successful author? You have to admit, yes, that's true. I wanted to be successful.

Speaker 31 But at the same time, I knew the way to make a difference would be to make someone else successful. It would be to help focus on others.
Not to be somebody, but to go help somebody.

Speaker 31 And when you help somebody, you become somebody. So for me, it was like not.

Speaker 31 giving up because of so many different factors. But yes, were there moments? I thought about it.
You bet. Early in my speaking career, even after that tour, things weren't going great.

Speaker 31 And there were moments that I thought, man, am I cut out for this? There were speeches I gave early on that were not like the boardroom speech and that were not received that way.

Speaker 31 And I came home going, man, like, I think I just sucked or they didn't like me or whatever it was. And there's so many moments.
And I have all these speakers now.

Speaker 31 I have a certification program. It's John Gordon Certified.
So now you get certified to teach the power of positive leadership. You teach the leadership course.

Speaker 31 You're able to teach the team building course, power of a positive team, what makes great teams great. You get to teach that.
And also the energy bus,

Speaker 31 my flagship book. You get to teach the principles and practices from that book.
So we have a certification program where people come in, they get certified to do workshops and keynotes based on that.

Speaker 31 So now I'm pouring into all these different people who want to do this work. Many people want to speak and they come in and they work with my stuff first.

Speaker 31 And then they'll go out and do their own probably later on in the future, which is great. It's a great training ground to develop them.
But I always tell them, you have to go through the fire.

Speaker 31 If you want to do this work, it's not going to be easy. You have to go through the fire.
It's like anything. You want to be in real estate.

Speaker 31 You've got to go through the fire of the real estate market, the ups and downs. And only the great ones survive and ultimately thrive, right? Different recessions, different economies.

Speaker 31 We, the ones who don't want it out, but the ones who truly want it, you stay in it and you keep going. And that's with anything.
My daughter is now 25 years old and she's a speaker.

Speaker 31 She's been doing this now for

Speaker 31 two years now. And she's doing great.
But man, every event, she's being tested. Travel issues,

Speaker 31 mic issues, technology issues. Sometimes the crowd is rough.
There's only been a couple where it's like smooth sailing and just easy.

Speaker 31 And I told her, you're being put through the fire because to be someone who could be on stage, who can make a difference, who can impact others, you will have to go through the fire to extinguish all of the

Speaker 31 impurities, the wrong motivations, the wrong drives. It actually purifies you to really get you to the core of, okay, I'm doing this work to truly make a difference.

Speaker 32 This is, uh, it, so I have something, and I would actually ask for your input. What do you think about it?

Speaker 32 So I basically have four pillars of success that I talk about, and I'm focused more on the real estate entrepreneur, but entrepreneur as a whole. So first, right, you, well,

Speaker 32 just based around how you hit it is the belief, right? So the first is you need to have the belief you can do it, right?

Speaker 32 Same way, and I reference, you know, religion, not to get religious, but when you can blindly believe in that leader, you have to believe you can do this.

Speaker 32 And there's the John Gordons, the Justin Colbys who are actually doing the thing you want. So the belief part should be a little bit more simple.
Then there's the hard work.

Speaker 32 the showing up to five people in a room and saying, oh, this is not it, but I'm going to keep going.

Speaker 32 Then there's the failure, to your point, all these different things of like mics going out, things you and I have are experiencing, the failure over and over again.

Speaker 32 But the last point is the perseverance is you keep going in spite of those failures. And that creates the greatness.
That creates the John Gordon of 30 books, 16 bestsellers.

Speaker 32 That creates you, me, and all the others that are out there. Do you agree? Do you not agree? What do you add?

Speaker 31 Can I give you a fifth one? I would add one more to it. After you fail and you persevere, you keep going, going, what do you do? You adapt.
You innovate. You come up with something new, a new idea.

Speaker 31 You grow. So there's the growth factor there where you actually become a better person.
You become a stronger version of you. You become a more creative version.

Speaker 31 You actually see what doesn't work and then you find out what does. And that is what leads to success.
So I think we need to add one more pillar, that fifth pillar of innovation, adaption, and growth.

Speaker 32 If you give me advice, I'm all in. I'm all in.
We have five pillars, people.

Speaker 31 And I love where you go with.

Speaker 31 I love the pillars, though, because, again, just seeing in our certification of people that we've been developing and training and teaching, it's not just people who want to go do this work in terms of workshops.

Speaker 31 It's also leaders. We have entrepreneurs that come in that actually get certified because now they have all these tools to help them be a better leader.

Speaker 31 Or they give it to their team members on their team and say, hey, let's implement this as a team. Because too many entrepreneurs, they don't focus on the culture.
They don't focus on the teamwork.

Speaker 31 They They don't focus on the leadership. They're just focused on the business and the money.

Speaker 32 Revenue.

Speaker 31 And they're focused on the fruit of the tree, not the root. And if you focus on the fruit and you ignore the root, the tree dies.
But if you invest in that root, you get a great supply of fruit.

Speaker 31 So any entrepreneur has to have the framework and the teamwork and the mindset and the leadership to be successful. So we have a lot of entrepreneurs that get certified.

Speaker 31 But when they do, what happens? Right. That allows them, as you just said, they go through the fire, they go through the the failure, and then they have the tools to now move forward and persevere.

Speaker 31 Because if you don't have the tools, you're not going to persevere.

Speaker 31 So I think you capture the essence of it really strongly.

Speaker 32 Well, I've been reading a lot of your books, John. So I just took it.
I took it into my own hands. Now, let's talk about your books.
I mean, again, guys, I want this to be very clear.

Speaker 32 I am honored to have John because of what his books have meant to me. And then being able to meet the man personally, spend a few moments there at the boardroom with you.

Speaker 32 But a lot of of people will say you don't want to meet your idols. You don't want to meet the people you look up to.
I will say, frankly, from experience, that is not the case with you, my friend.

Speaker 32 You are every bit the human that you write as an author. And if anyone gets the chance to go shake John Gordon's hand, everyone has to.

Speaker 32 But first, buy all of his books, whether you read them or listen to them. Let's go to, you know, I want to jump.

Speaker 32 I think the energy bus is a have-to-get, no matter what, who you are in life, the energy bus.

Speaker 32 listen to it read it get it but let's go to your more recent the one truth let's dive into that one a little bit why don't we talk about the one truth sure for those who haven't read the energy bus i just want people to know this is a book that is an easy read it's a fable it's been around since 2007

Speaker 31 yeah sold sold over three million copies i don't take credit Trust me, it's been a journey. It didn't become a bestseller for five years.
It took five years for it to be a bestseller.

Speaker 31 And now it's a perennial bestseller where every year it's still on the bestseller list every year. So it's still impacting people.
It impacts sports teams.

Speaker 31 I've worked with Clemson football, Sean McVay with the Rams, Dave Roberts with the Dodgers, the Miami Heat.

Speaker 31 Eric Spolster gave it to his entire team when he had, you know, LeBron and all the different guys on the team. And I still work with the Heat to this day, work with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Speaker 31 So I get to work with a lot of sports teams.

Speaker 31 So you can see these principles play out in terms of how it helps teams stay positive yeah weed the negative get rid of those energy vampires that sabotage your team and then you move forward with a shared vision and focus and purpose and mission and you love your passengers and you have a joyful ride and this is how you create real success so i just want people to have a little background about what the energy bus is all about and thanks for saying that that i am who i am you know in terms of the books i pride myself in just being real and by the way being real means 90 of the time you're going going to get the positive me.

Speaker 31 And 10%, there'll be times that I'm not so positive. So you need to know that.
So a lot of people are going to know, like, hey, the real me is sometimes not positive, but I'm real.

Speaker 31 Like the other day, someone was being rude to my wife and I stood up for her. And then I was standing up for my wife.
And then someone came along and said, hey, are you John Gordon?

Speaker 31 And my wife said, you can't be like that. I said, honey, I was protecting you.
And guess what? If that person saw the worst of me, that's okay because that's who I am.

Speaker 31 And in that moment, and if someone would try to fill, and if someone filmed it, I wouldn't care because that's who I was in that moment. I'm not going to be anything but real.

Speaker 31 And sometimes that means there'll be moments where you don't see the best of me. But most of the time, you will see the best of me.
So it's authentic.

Speaker 31 I want to put that out there because authenticity is key.

Speaker 32 Yeah, you're still a human, right? Like I'm telling you, you are every bit the person in person as you are as an author. But listen, we're all human.

Speaker 32 We all have those moments, whether it's 10%, 5%, 15%. Like, yeah, a great point.
I'm glad people hear that because I don't think people give themselves the

Speaker 32 ability to do that. They think they have to always be perfect.
Right.

Speaker 31 And I think you end up with up to an image that people have of them.

Speaker 31 And so they, they never will take a stand for anything because they don't want to be seen as like the worst is when people say to me, I, you know, like when I take a stand, like when they're trying to do harm to me or being rude or, or I would say even in business, for instance, when they try to take advantage of you and then you take a stand.

Speaker 31 I thought you were about positivity. I am, but being positive doesn't mean you let people walk over you.
That's right. You know, and I'm not going to, you know, be walked over.

Speaker 31 I'm also always want to make sure I respond, you know, in the best way. Sometimes I don't.
And when I don't, I learn from it. I grow from it.
And I'm always trying to get better.

Speaker 31 For me, it's always trying to live up to that person who wrote those books. Because when I'm writing a book, I'm at the...
I'm like in the best of me.

Speaker 31 Like that's the energy is flowing, the ideas are flowing. I'm connected to God God in those moments.
The best of me is coming through.

Speaker 31 So how could I live that person and be that person who's writing those books and be the characters in those books? And I always feel like my life is about measuring up to that and trying to be that.

Speaker 31 Knowing that I fall short of times, but how could I continue to improve and grow? And

Speaker 31 this takes us to the one truth. You know, the one truth.

Speaker 9 When you think about businesses that are selling through the roof, like aloe or skins, sure, you think about a great product, a cool brand, and brilliant brilliant marketing, but an often overlooked secret is actually the businesses behind the business, making selling and for shoppers, buying simple.

Speaker 3 For millions of businesses, that business is Shopify.

Speaker 14 Nobody does selling better than Shopify.

Speaker 18 With ShopPay, that boosts conversions up to 50%, meaning way less carts are going abandoned and way more sales happening.

Speaker 25 So if you're into growing your business, your commerce platform better be ready to sell whatever your customers are scrolling or strolling on the web, in your store, in their feed and everywhere in between businesses that sell more sell on Shopify upgrade your business and get the same checkout skins uses sign up for your one dollar per month trial period at shopify.com slash westwood one all lowercase go to shopify.com slash westwood one to upgrade your selling today shopify.com slash westwood one

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Speaker 31 is my most recent book and it's wild because I feel like my two cornerstone books are the energy bus and then the one truth that just came out.

Speaker 31 Like I feel my work and my life is just beginning again with this one truth because as you saw in the boardroom, it's a really unique message.

Speaker 31 It's revolutionary and it is so powerful when you understand that everything comes down to oneness and separateness. And the more separate I feel, the weaker I feel, the more divided I feel.

Speaker 31 And the root for the Greek word of anxious means to separate and divide. So when you feel anxious, you actually feel separate and divided.

Speaker 31 Negative thoughts thoughts and fear, they separate you, they make you feel weak, and they actually divide you. Think about it.
Fear divides, but then there's this oneness. There's this connection.

Speaker 31 Love unites. Love connects.
There's a word called shalom,

Speaker 31 and it means wholeness. It means peace.
It actually means integrity. What is integrity? It comes from the word integer, which means whole and complete.
So shalom is about integrity.

Speaker 31 It's about oneness. It's about wholeness.
Think about it. Connection leads to healing.
Disconnection leads to dysfunction and isolation. And so you can see how this plays out in terms of your life.

Speaker 31 A team that is united and connected, powerful team. A team that is separate and divided is a weak team.
So the more you can feel connected, the more you feel

Speaker 31 one and whole, the more powerful you'll be. The more I feel separate and weak and divided, then your life is not going to go so well.
And I literally could talk to people and

Speaker 31 in one conversation, I can help them move from separation to oneness. I can help them move from anxiety to confidence and courage.

Speaker 31 And I can help you understand that your thoughts, your thoughts, and the way you're thinking will either separate you and divide you or unite and connect or connect you.

Speaker 31 Everything comes down in terms of oneness and separateness to your thoughts, and your thoughts create your reality.

Speaker 32 Right. No, 100%.

Speaker 31 So, what are the two or three tips that we can give on this episode since we don't have all the time in the world that you can help someone so it starts with your thought where does it go from there it begins at the psychological level there's a force always trying to divide you and separate you it starts with doubt seeds of doubt have you noticed that Overthinking is always associated with negative thoughts.

Speaker 31 We never say I have too many positive thoughts. We never say I have too much encouragement.
We never say I have too much joy. Man, I have too much gratitude today.

Speaker 31 No, it's always overthinking and negative thinking go hand in hand. Why? The negative thoughts create clutter.
That clutter in your mind lowers your state of mind.

Speaker 31 When you have clarity, you have a higher state of mind. So it starts with doubt that creates clutter.
Seconding, distortion. Negative thoughts are distortions.
They're lies of the truth.

Speaker 31 They're lies that tell you things about yourself and your future that just aren't true. So we got the doubt.
We got the distortions coming in.

Speaker 31 And by the way, those distortions, those negative thoughts are not coming from you. This is a game changer right here.

Speaker 31 When you understand your negative thoughts are not coming from you, everything changes because who would ever choose to have a negative thought? Nobody. Who would ever choose a negative thought?

Speaker 31 You wouldn't. See, once you understand that, you're like, I wouldn't choose that negative thought.
Exactly. It comes in so fast, you believe it.
Then you reinforce it. Then you speak it out loud.

Speaker 31 And then you actually make it now a part of you. Where do they come from? You don't have the power of the first thought, but you have the power of the second thought.

Speaker 31 You can respond to those negative thoughts with truth instead of lies. But you got to understand those distortions and stop beating yourself up for the negative thoughts in your head.

Speaker 31 And this is key for kids because so many kids have these negative thoughts today.

Speaker 31 They think they're from them. So they beat themselves up.
They feel guilt and shame. Next thing you know, they're depressed.
They're in the hospital.

Speaker 31 They're seeing a psychiatrist because they have no idea that the battle that they're in is actually waged against them. And they have to learn how to win the battle of their mind because we got doubt.

Speaker 31 We got distortions. That leads to discouragement.

Speaker 31 Third D, discouragement. And we don't give up because it's hard.
We give up because we get discouraged. Fourth D, distraction.
Fifth D, division.

Speaker 31 And as I said earlier, the root for the Greek word of anxious means to separate and divide.

Speaker 31 Everything I just said helps explain that all these thoughts, the fear, the negative thinking, they separate and divide you.

Speaker 31 And this makes even more sense when you understand all mental health disorders report feelings of isolation, separation, and disconnection. And we use terms like bipolar, two poles, separation.

Speaker 31 Schizophrenia means split mind.

Speaker 31 And narcissism happens as a result of neurological separation. Trauma causes neurological separation.
See, what did we say earlier? Separation. Everything is about separation.

Speaker 31 I'm convinced when people mess with their brain with certain stimulants and drugs and so forth, it creates a neurological separation that starts to cause a lot of negative thinking.

Speaker 31 Because when we move from oneness to separateness, we move from positive to negative. The more we move towards separation, we get more and more negative thoughts.

Speaker 31 When we move towards connection, wholeness and healing, we have so many more positive thoughts. It makes so much sense.
And this makes even more sense when you understand that the brain is an antenna.

Speaker 31 So the antenna of your brain, 86 billion neurons, every neuron has a transmitter and receiver, and you are tuning into every day a positive frequency or a negative frequency.

Speaker 31 And it's why everything in life comes down to positive and negative. It's why every movie is about overcoming negativity and a villain with positivity and faith.

Speaker 31 It's about good and evil, positive and negative. Everything in the universe comes down to those two main frequencies.
One separates and divides, one unites and connects.

Speaker 31 So what's the answer to these five D's? It's trust. It's elevating our state of mind every day with gratitude.
You can't be stressed and thankful at the same time.

Speaker 31 It literally is positive thinking, talking to yourself. Instead of listening to those negative thoughts, you talk to yourself with words of life.
That's how I changed my my life.

Speaker 31 Taking a walk of gratitude every day. Self-talk, a success journal.
What are you doing when you're doing those things?

Speaker 31 See, for years, we've talked about them, but no one ever explained why it matters. This is why you're tuning into a positive frequency.

Speaker 31 Every time you do this instead of a negative frequency, the more you tune into the positive, it uplifts, it encourages, it nourishes your brain, your mind, your soul, leading to more health, wholeness, and happiness.

Speaker 31 This is why it matters. It's not just a nice way to lead.
It's the essential way to live and lead in your life when you're fueling yourself with positivity. So we get the trust.

Speaker 31 We got these exercises that you do every day to tune. And a big part of this, I'm convinced, is prayer.
Prayer connects you to your creator because you were created for connection.

Speaker 31 You were never meant to be separate. You were actually meant to be connected.
And when you feel separate from your creator, that's when you feel hopelessness and despair and depression.

Speaker 31 And I can even point this out with addiction programs. People feel separate and they try to fill the hole in their soul with drugs.

Speaker 31 When they move into an addiction program, they now move into a community and connection and they tap into a higher power, which leads to more healing.

Speaker 31 They're moving towards wholeness and healing instead of feeling separate. and divided.
And so tuning into is the key. T-U-N-E, read the one truth to learn about tune.

Speaker 31 Trust, unite with love because love casts out fear. N, neutralize the negativity.
E,

Speaker 31 elevate your thinking every day. Trust, unite with love, neutralize the negativity, elevate your thinking.

Speaker 31 The more you do, you move your body, your brain, your soul, your mind towards wholeness and healing, power and strength.

Speaker 31 Man, I can't tell you how many professional athletes that I've worked with, that I've shared this with, that literally are going to new heights in their performance because of doing this kind of work.

Speaker 32 Yeah. And guys, I don't know if you have, John, do you have your own journal or anything like that? And I just looked around as you were saying that.

Speaker 32 I just want to emphasize one thing, and I probably need to be doing everything you have that you just said, and I think everyone does, but something as simple as journaling, this right here, I don't know if you've seen this one, but literally has what am I grateful for?

Speaker 32 What can make today great? What are my daily affirmations? And then what are the highlights of my day? What did I learn today? It goes back to everything you're saying.

Speaker 31 What journal is that?

Speaker 32 It's called the five-minute journal.

Speaker 31 Oh, that's wonderful. Cause you know what? We just

Speaker 31 created the success journal. And the success journal comes out in June where every day you're going to write down your success of the day.
What went great today?

Speaker 31 Because the more you focus on that success, you will wake up the next morning, a success. You will look forward to creating more successes.
And more importantly, you actually look for the success.

Speaker 31 And what we look for, we find. What we focus on shows up more in our lives.
So the more you do this, you're actually going to create more success by creating a success journal.

Speaker 31 And Justin, I'm so glad you said that because journaling is a great way to tune into the positive. So I'm so thrilled that you've been doing that.

Speaker 32 Absolutely. And if you're watching or soliciting this and it's after June, make sure you get John's success journal.

Speaker 32 It is one of the things that, you know, listen, I've been an entrepreneur my entire adult life and you're always trying to reiterate or reconfigure or adapt or change and you find success and you lose success and you find it again, you get bigger, right?

Speaker 32 And so this, just journaling is something I've always been into fitness. I've always worked out.
I've always kind of kept that side of it. But I'll tell you,

Speaker 32 what a massive impact. And again, there's so much that is good in this book.
And by the way, Guys, rewind this last 10 minutes. I mean, this was heat.

Speaker 32 He literally gave you five to 10 things that that you could be doing today. Like end the episode and do these five or ten things immediately because of what John has been able to deliver.

Speaker 32 And I know we're running a little short on time, but everyone can buy all your books, I'm assuming on Amazon, I would guess, right?

Speaker 31 Amazon, Barnes and Noble, any of the bookstores. The one truth in the back is the tune acronym and action plan and the prayer.
acronym and action plan on how to put this into practice every day.

Speaker 31 And there's a whole one as well, W-H-O-L-E. And as you do this, like as you do this every day, you'll start to see a difference in your life.
I'm getting emails now from people.

Speaker 31 It's changing their life. And even more importantly, saving some lives.
A kid who was suicidal reached out, started doing the book and reading the book. Man, changed the kids' mindset completely.

Speaker 31 It's like nothing's more rewarding than that. Oh, my God.
One session.

Speaker 31 Justin, I talk to kids all the time because I have a lot of friends that have teenage kids and they're struggling with their their mental health and their mindset.

Speaker 31 And I've been sharing the one truth teachings with them. I'm telling you, it's turning around every single kid after the conversation.
So that's why I wrote the book.

Speaker 31 I'm like, I need to share this truth everywhere. And I hope everyone reads this book.
I mean, we're in the tens of thousands of copies sold. So make an impact.

Speaker 31 But I'm like, man, this book needs to be read by millions because As long as the people read this book, it's going to elevate their state of mind.

Speaker 31 And we're going to solve mental health together because actually, this is the answer to the mental health crisis that we're facing.

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Speaker 32 Yeah, and that's why I'm so honored to have you here is I want people to have these books, this book specifically.

Speaker 32 And I just, you know, as a father with younger children, I'm a little worried to your point. Like, you're dealing with a lot of children right now.
Social media has changed the world. Like, I'm 42.

Speaker 32 I, you know, I played all day, literally until the sun came down. Like, I wasn't on computers or social media.

Speaker 32 And I just, I look forward to reading this book when my children are a little older to make sure I'm raising them right, you know?

Speaker 32 And so I'm glad that we talked about it because it is, it's a plague right now in society. And I think you hit it on the, I don't think anything, you hit it on the head with

Speaker 32 these thoughts start with comparison a lot of times in my opinion It's comparison to others and I'm not good enough because look at so-and-so on social media They have the thing.

Speaker 32 I don't have the thing.

Speaker 32 I'm not good. I'm gonna stay at home and I'm gonna be depressed, right? What do you agree?

Speaker 31 Your inner world has to be more powerful than the outer world. Your strength as a family and your relationships needs to be stronger than all of the outside influences.

Speaker 31 So they know I'm connected to my family and I'm a part of this family and I feel the love of my parents, the unconditional love.

Speaker 31 The more they feel that love and connection as a family, the outside world will have less allure, right? And they will still look outside at times.

Speaker 31 They're still going to have issues, but they'll return to that strength and that inner fortitude and that family fortitude that will allow them to survive and also thrive through this.

Speaker 31 But you got to keep reminding them to keep looking inward, not outward, to live from the inside out, your spirit, your soul, your joy, your love, your passion, your work ethic, saying you create this world from the inside out, not the outside in.

Speaker 31 So, when I compare myself, if I actually feel good about myself in that moment, then the comparison doesn't affect me. It's only when I actually feel less than and unqualified that it affects me.

Speaker 31 And so, it's really not the comparison, it's actually how you feel internally.

Speaker 31 So, the key is your identity and the inner strength and the inner identity of knowing who you are and having a purpose having a mission and also understanding like what makes you unique and special and knowing your strengths so-and-so has their strengths you're not meant to have their strengths you have your strengths

Speaker 31 i'll never be that nba player i won't even be that major league baseball player who you know

Speaker 31 who i was a pretty good baseball player but that guy has a exceptional talent and gift that causes him to excel. But I could write and I could speak and I was a pretty good college lacrosse player.

Speaker 31 I was a Division I athlete, not a professional athlete.

Speaker 31 But there's a difference. I played pickleball with professional athletes and you literally can tell the athleticism is a little different between me and them.

Speaker 31 And you can tell the difference between me and a guy who never played sports or a guy who was just a mediocre athlete. You could just tell.
You could see it, right? So there's different skill sets.

Speaker 31 So it's teaching them that you have strengths. And I love educating kids and letting them know you create from the inside out.
Because once they understand the powers within them,

Speaker 31 they realize that they have the ability and the impact, you know, to the power to change the world, to make an impact. That's the coffee bean message, carrot, egg, and coffee bean, right?

Speaker 31 The carrot gets soft in the hot and the heat environment.

Speaker 31 The egg gets hardened, gets bitter, angry, frustrated. You could be like that egg.
You could be like that carrot.

Speaker 31 But the coffee bean, when that coffee bean is in that warm, hot environment where there's a lot of pressure, a lot of negativity, that coffee bean actually transforms the environment that it's in.

Speaker 31 The others get affected, the carrot and the egg, but the coffee bean transforms the environment.

Speaker 31 So it's teaching kids that you can be the coffee bean and you can transform any environment that you're in.

Speaker 31 So let's not blame social media because what happens is when we do that, we're actually giving away our power.

Speaker 31 Let's remind everyone and kids that we have the power to transform our situation and our circumstance. And if everyone knew that and we owned our power, that's how we would actually impact the world.

Speaker 31 The reason why we don't is because too many people believe that the circumstance has power over them.

Speaker 32 You can see I'm smiling from ear to ear, brother. Your message is so damn power.
Everyone, everyone right now, go download all of his books, buy all of his books.

Speaker 32 The one truth, this is something you guys got to go get immediately. It's his newest book.

Speaker 32 All of them are incredible, but even that analogy, that one hit home for me back in Nashville.

Speaker 32 It hits home just the same right now about the coffee bean, brother. Thank you so much.
I know you're an incredibly busy man. I really greatly appreciate you.

Speaker 32 You are the leader of the pack when it comes to this, and I couldn't be more honored to have you on today.

Speaker 31 Thanks, Justin. Appreciate the work that you're doing and the great, great messages and energy you're sharing into the world.

Speaker 32 Right on, brother. Talk to you soon.

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