Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan - #71: John Walsh Founder of StandoutX on Standing Out to Craft A Meaningful Life

Episode Date: September 8, 2020

John Walsh, founder of StandoutX, former executive at The Walt Disney Company and The Madison Square Garden Company, and bestselling author, does not seem like the kind of man who started out his life battling homelessness. But John has turned his adversity into fuel that has catapulted him into success. And this success is not defined by an important job or large salary, but by his own definition—investing in his family and helping those around him. He understands that to craft your life towards a meaningful legacy, you must take risks, put in what you hope to get out, and uplift others. So join the Stand Out Movement and build your own success.  About The Guest: John Walsh is an inspirational and successful executive, entrepreneur, author, husband and dad with a passion for impacting the lives of others. John faced many challenges, uncertainty and failures early in his life but he created a purposeful and happy life with a lot of hard work and help from others. Over time, he created a playbook that allowed him to make the journey from homeless in high school to a senior executive with Disney and Madison Square Garden. He is the founder and CEO of StandoutX, whose mission is to inspire and help millions of young adults stand out in their own lives and careers.  Finding John Walsh: Website: https://standoutmovement.com/ Buy his book: The Stand Out Experience Instagram: @johnwalsh_standout LinkedIn: John Walsh To inquire about my coaching program opportunity visit https://mentorship.heathermonahan.com/  Review this podcast on Apple Podcast using this LINK and when you DM me the screen shot, I buy you my $299 video course as a thank you!  My book Confidence Creator is available now! get it right HERE If you are looking for more tips you can download my free E-book at my website and thank you! https://heathermonahan.com  *If you'd like to ask a question and be featured during the wrap up segment of Creating Confidence, contact Heather Monahan directly through her website and don’t forget to subscribe to the mailing list so you don’t skip a beat to all things Confidence Creating!   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I'm on this journey with me. Each week when you join me, we are going to chase down our goals. We overcome adversity and set you up for a better tomorrow. I'm ready for my close. Hi, and welcome back. I'm so glad you're back with me this week. And for any of you parents that are home, Zoom school, and your kids, my heart goes out to you. I'm in it with you.

I am the lunch lady, and I burnt my hand last week. And it's been a real headache. I'll tell you, being not only the parent that gets your kids ready to go off to school in the morning, but then trying to work room by room side by side and not disturb the other one and then make lunch in the middle of the day and then try to regroup and see how classes are going while you're trying to get your work done. And then I'm changing my schedule to make sure I'm not doing shows or interviews when he's in school because there's just no way to manage the noise. it is total and complete chaos. So if you are in it, wow, I am so feel, I feel for you and

empathize with you. And they say that because someone said to me today, oh, well, you wouldn't know, you have it totally together. No, I do not. And it is really trying at times. And, you know, it's not about our kids. It's just, it's a complete new layer of responsibility and work and adapting with schedules. And wow, it is, it's wild. So, um, with you. Okay. So to that point, actually, around the coronavirus, you know, before everything happened, let me just take it back before that. Okay, so my past life was in corporate America. I was a chief revenue officer. I was named one of the most influential women in radio and I got fired unexpectedly when the CEO I worked for for 100 years became ill. He elevated his daughter and she fired me.

So I took that opportunity to write and self-publish my first book, Confidence Creator. I Google. how do you sell books? And it said, speak. I'd been speaking for years for free, didn't know it was a business. So I started cold calling companies and pitching myself to speak for free. And everyone said yes. And so I was super busy speaking everywhere. And then finally, someone said, what's your speaker fee? And then I googled speaker fees. And then I learned about speaker agencies and bureaus. And I started pitching myself for them. And then I got a ton of agents. And then my speaking business took off. And that became my primary focus. This goes back to you don't need to know the how, right? When I went to work for myself, I didn't know what I was going to do. And you don't need to know the how today. Just know that. Okay. I did not know the how on any of this. I just kept taking action and kept getting up and swinging

and going for it. And the way just started becoming more and more clear. So I was speaking a lot. I did this huge event in Boston where I got to interview Sarah Blakely and Jesse Itzler live on stage. I headline for the WNBA. In Las Vegas, I spoke for MGM casino. I've, I mean, I've been speaking all over this country, so many amazing events. And it's been so fun and rewarding. And I've loved it. And it definitely, I was like, okay, this is what I'm meant to be doing. Finally, I got it. This is my business. I was not even a year into it. Well, maybe about a year. Maybe it was about a year in. And the pandemic hit. Oh, I had given my TEDx talk. I got promoted to TED, translated to six languages. I was like, okay, things are finally starting to click. Momentum. We all need momentum,

right? And then the pandemic hit. And then I jumped on my Peloton and thought, what do people ask me for that I haven't had the time to deliver for them that I could charge for now? And that was mentoring and coaching, executive coaching. I had been asked for years to do this. And I would just say, no, here is a huge mistake. Don't make this mistake. When people ask you for things and you don't have time to do it, create a spreadsheet and store their information there. I would have had a lead list of a thousand people who had reached out to me asking to hire me that I had told no to previously. I could have circled back to all of them. Easy. Okay, seamless. So don't make that mistake that I made. If people are asking you for something now, take note of it and create a leads doc, okay, somewhere. I did not do that.

That would be far too easy for me. So I've tried a million different ways. to spin up pipelines because the goal is to create automation in your business, ease of your business, efficiency of your business. So you can focus on the one thing you should be doing, which in my case, in this instance, would be when I'm on the phone coaching someone, right? That's, no one can replicate that. That's what they're paying for. But unfortunately, I wasn't there yet. So I've had to try nine million different ways and tests, different concepts and programs and fail and fail and fail and do okay. And then fail and then okay and then better, better, better. It's all over the board when you're a rookie and I'm a rookie in this business. I just launched it at the end of April. So this is all going on and all

the speaking engagements I had for this year were canceled. And then slowly I've been getting inquiries about virtual speaking and I've done, you know, probably 10 virtual speeches at this point now since the pandemic hit, but they don't pay as much. It's great, but it's, you know, it's not quite the same of being live on stage with people being there with you, of course. So again, I haven't really been putting much focus, time, or energy into that portion of my business because in my mind, I just thought as another year away and, you know, we'll pick that back up when we get there. But right now I should focus on the executive coaching, my podcast, and my new book. And wouldn't you know, I get an email from my agent saying, hey, you know, you were supposed to do this event October 14th in New York

city. We canceled it because everyone canceled. And now they're looking at transferring this whole huge event into a huge virtual event. And they want to know if you're still willing to do it. So they connected me with the head of the event. And he was super cool and so nice. And of course, they're reducing my pay. And it's funny because in some instances, and I'll tell people this often, you know, don't do things for free. Don't allow your pay to be reduced because of situations outside of you, your value did not get reduced. You're still going to deliver, you know, over the top amazing value. Why would you shortchange yourself? And I do believe that. However, I also believe there are unique instances and you have to check in with yourself to know which ones the right

ones are. I'm not saying just to do something to be nice for people, but evaluate with that longer tail opportunity maybe. And I understand that can be challenging and hard. I get it because for a long time I was doing everything for free when I first got fired because I wanted to make a name for myself in these new arenas I was entering into, the new arena of author, the new arena of professional speaker, the new arena of host, whatever it was. So I started just, you know, okay, I'll do it, I'll do it. And then pretty quickly I saw I was doing so much for free, I wasn't able to drive revenue. That's when I started pivoting, started charging, et cetera. But it is, it's a little ambiguous as to what is the time to do it for reviews and recommendation.

What is the time to do it to charge? How do you know what to charge? That's like this grace space that it's hard to have someone tell you what to do. You kind of have to feel it out. The marketplace will determine what your value and worth is. And so that's what I sort of started thinking with this event. I thought, you know what? The marketplace will determine. Obviously, if I sent my pricing too high, as I had been at the live event, they're saying now they can't pay what they paid at the live event rate, which I do understand and has been consistent with everyone that I've worked with. No one that I had worked with previously is offering me live event fees for virtual. So I realized the marketplace has changed. However, I have checked in with a couple of my friends and a couple of them still landed

their live event rate for virtual, which I thought was interesting, but I haven't. So anyhow, so this is a huge event, great opportunity and would put me in front of so many decision makers in one moment, albeit virtual, right? So I thought, and I just said, you know what, something tells me to me, the guy was so cool and such a good guy and really felt my pain and and shared his pain around this whole challenging time and how circumstances were really tough on everyone. And I just thought, I like doing business with good people at the end of the day. And this guy might be able to help me because he's big in the event space.

You know, I was really hitting my stride on the speaking side. Now he's going to get a chance to work with me. I'll do a great job for him. And okay, so I said I would take the reduction in fee and work with him and I'll kill it for him. And wouldn't you know, I had no idea. zero idea. He comes out with a press release the next day. This is last week. And the headline was something crazy, like, you know, 75 amazing speakers, including Damon John, Heather Monaghan, and

Kevin Harrington, me in between these two iconic sharks. And then it goes on to say these iconic speakers are keynoting the event together. And it was the way that he explained it and the proximity he put me in with huge names and people who are years ahead of me in this speaking business, right? Because I just got into this business a year ago. Doesn't matter I was speaking for 20 years. Forget that because if you're not in the speaker circuit, you're not known or you're not realized or you're not seen as valuable. You have to establish that. And one of the ways is proximity to other major speakers. So I have spoken with other major speakers, but to see this come out of pandemic, and out of this virtual world, I didn't expect it.

I was so excited. And it was one of those, you know, kick me moments of, okay, I'm so glad that I worked with this guy. I'm so glad he was such a nice guy and willing to support and help me. And I'm so grateful they picked me to be one of the keynotes alongside the two shark tank sharks. So it was just, again, one of those things. Listen, you can string together 100 bad days, but when that one unexpected good day does

show up because you've just been putting the work in, doing the right thing, and showing up every day, it is overwhelmingly exciting. And it kind of took me back to real life old days where, you know, you just never know who you're going to run into the airport or what's going to happen next. And it seemed less like that since we've been in the pandemic because I don't go out very much at all. You know, I try to stay home a lot. My son's homeschooling with me all day long. So we're home a lot, the majority of the time. That's not like my. my old life. So just by coincidence and running into people, you know, things would happen all the time before. And that's kind of gone now. So it was just a great reminder for me that just because greatness

doesn't seem to be happening in every moment, sometimes it's bubbling up under the ground and you don't see it, but it's about to smash through. And when it does, it's going to give you such an amazing surprise. So that's kind of how I'm feeling right now, which is so grateful. I'm grateful for all the work I put in before the pandemic hit, right? Because that got me to the spot to get this opportunity and land that opportunity. I'm grateful to my agent for even reaching out to me to say, I don't know what you think about this, but I want to talk to you about it. I think it's a great opportunity, you know, but however, you're going to have to hit it on your fee and see what you think about that. And I'm grateful for this man that agreed to partner with me and help me any way he could. And in the

end, he sure did. So surround yourself with good people, work with people that you get a good feeling about. in the work, keep showing up even when you don't know if the dots are going to connect, because it's in the moment you least expect it, like being in a pandemic, to get a headlining PR news release like what I got last week. It's shocking to me. So didn't see this one coming. And I'm excited for you for all the good that's coming to you when you keep putting the work in because it's coming.

Just keep going. I'll be right back. Hi. And welcome back. I am so excited for you to meet my guest today, John Walsh. Thanks for being here. Hi, Heather. It's good to be here. It's good to see you. And by the way, happy belated birthday. Thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. All right. So let's get to it. When I am pitched people all all all, I receive the pitch. First of all, you and I self-published with the same company,

Scribe, shout out to our boy JT, the amazing company. to work with if you're thinking of self-publishing, definitely scribe media. But when the scribe team reached out to me and pitched me on you, I said yes immediately, which I never do. And the reason I believe I felt like that was looking at not only at your success, obviously you're exceptionally accomplished individual. And if someone has achieved a lot of success, I want to drop that knowledge for all of our people here. But even more importantly, you had been homeless and you transitioned. from being homeless to becoming a VP at Disney, a VP at MSG. I mean, you've now branching out and starting your own company.

I couldn't wait to sit down and have you tell me the story. Take me through. How did you make that happen? First of all, thank you for having me. And I'm glad I get to share the story. I haven't really shared the story with many people because it's something that's super private. I'm not even sure my parents know that I've shared this story with a few people.

So when they listen to this podcast, it's going to be quite interesting. And I'd like to think that there was this one moment in time, you know, people have that life-changing event or whatever else. Mine just happened over time. And, you know, just through no one's fault but my own, you know, completely owning my own life. You know, my parents had gone through a divorce and it was in a great home situation at the time. My parents poor them. I mean, dealing with three kids and teenagers and all. But I found myself homeless in high school. And, you know, I spent, I grew up outside of Washington, D.C. in northern Virginia. And I had no place to go. What is a senior in high school going to do? Like, where do you go? What do you

do. And I would walk railroad tracks at night to try to stay warm. I slept in homes that were being built. You know, when they build homes, they construct the homes. And then the first thing that goes in is the bathtub, right? And I would sneak into these construction homes and sleep in bathtubs. And I remember a family took me in once. I got fortunate at once. And I was there for about two months. I had some money saved up. And I remember going to the bank once to pull out money from an ATM. And it took my car and there was nothing there. The family had grabbed. my ATM, the kid that I was going to school with had kind of looked over my shoulder, caught my pin code, and they wiped me clean. They took all my money. So then I was really homeless at that point. And so I spent probably the better part of a year and a half in and out of different homes and finding places to go. So it was a real challenge back then. But I think everyone goes through adversity and that just happened to be mine at the time. Wait a minute.

I feel like you're downplaying this so much because you're a father. I'm a mother. I mean, when I hear the story, my heart is breaking. And it's so interesting to me to see who you are today and try to imagine and try to put myself in those shoes. I truly can't imagine how scary that must have been every single day. It was scary. My parents, I mean, poor, they were doing the best that they could. And I was the rebellious kid. And, you know, they, I forced their hand, I guess. And I got to own what happened. It wasn't their fault. And just so you and everyone, else knows. I love my parents to death. Everything's wonderful now, but at the time, it was just difficult. And it was. I didn't know when I woke up, you know, where I was going to be. And I downplayed a little bit

because I just recently left New York City where I was up there with Madison Square Garden. And to me, that's true homelessness when you see those people on the streets and just what they have. And it's heart-wrenching, you know, it really, really is. And so, you know, for me, growing outside of Washington, D.C. with this suburban, I just didn't quite have it as I just, maybe I'm I'm downplaying it a little bit too much, but it was difficult at that time. It really, really was. But I'll tell you, I think it's one of the things that drives me. I really do.

For sure, and I agree wholeheartedly, our most difficult moments in our life become our fuel to success. Because even when the pandemic hit, I remember saying to myself, okay, I got through getting fired. I got through 0809 when the company we cut a third of our employees. I got through this. I got through my childhood. If I got through those things, that is an indication. I will absolutely come out on top in this one too. And when you enter into situations with that attitude and that conviction,

there's very few things that can stop you. No question about it. No question about it. And it's definitely something that fuels me. I'm a very big believer, and I write about it in my book. I'm a huge believer in your past, your present, and your future. You can be a victim of your past. I know you like to talk about villain.

And I think a lot of people use their past as their villain, right? But I think your past can be fuel. So I'm a big believer in your past. I'm a huge believer in mindfulness and being in the present moment. And then I'm even a bigger believer and you've got to have a direction and where to go. So for me, my past is connecting me to where I'm going in my future. And it's what drives me. So how did you go from homeless to success?

What are some of the key steps that you took to advance yourself? I think it's a couple things. I dabbled in a number of different careers. I was going to be in the airline industry. I was going to be in the record industry. I was going to be a lawyer and I've worked in all these different places, you know, trying to find myself, right? And I ended up working for a law firm for a while. And I was there for probably, I was doing like legal research, that kind of thing, project management.

And I was there for probably eight years. And, you know, I know that you talk a lot about confidence. And I just didn't have any confidence that I was good at school. I mean, I was not a great student. I had dabbled in school a little bit and I would sign up for classes but never had the confidence to kind of go through it. And at one point, I had 32 credits under my belt and I had a 0.00 GPA because I just, I didn't go to class or I just withdrew or whatever else. And so, but I don't know. I took one class. And I know you like to talk about this. You talk about you just have to do it. You just have to

start it. And then you build confidence. And so I took one class and got an A. And then I took a second class and got an A. And then I'm like, hey, I might be, might be able to do this, right? And so I was working at the law firm, going to school, morning and night. I was coaching AAU. girls basketball. And I just got the bug. And I started getting that confidence a little bit that I could do it. And I ended up walking away from the money I was making, which at the time was pretty good, to go back to school. And I got into the University of Virginia. And I just worked really, really hard. And I set a goal for myself and lots of goals and everything else. And I just never wanted to go backwards. I always wanted to go forward. And so I would use the, hey, I'm 10 years later than when most kids were going to school, I did that same thing 10 years later.

When most kids were doing their internship, I did it 10 years later. And I always felt like I was catching up to the self that I was supposed to be. And so I just did that. I had help along the way, you know, as we all do. We all need help along the way. But I just got the bug. And I got a great job working for Disney as I started at the lowest level. Imagine going back to school at 30 and starting all over with your career at 30. I know a lot of people are like, I'm 25 or I'm 35 and I don't know. I was 30 and like just starting, you know, and so it just started from there.

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And so he would have terrible grades. And then they were transitioning him through sports to go to some school. And they said, oh, you have to take this test. And they said, well, I'm not going to be able to pass. Anyhow, they gave him the wrong results. By mistake, it was a complete fluke. And he got this amazing score sent to him that he did exceptional. And from that day forward, he was killing it.

And he did so well. And they find out years later, it wasn't his score. And he realized and reflect back on that was the change moment of my life is that I thought, I am smart. And once he agreed to allow himself to think, I am enough. I can do this. He never went backwards again. I do remember that story now.

I do. I love like inspirational, motivational videos. And one of them I love was, and it's a great question, it's like if you woke up from a coma today and you were told that you are native, the seal, do you think you would act differently? And I think we can tell, yeah, like, I think, yeah, I mean, like, we can tell ourselves these stories. And, you know, I think if you tell yourself the story and you believe it, you can actually do it. And it sounds like that's what he did. And that's certainly what I was doing. I was telling myself, I am this person. I can be this person.

I know Matthew McConaughey talks about this. You know, it's that person that he's chasing himself 10 years from now. So I always have that 10 year from now person. And I have the 10 year ago, person that pushing and pulling me at the same time. So good. I love that the 10 years before and the 10 years after. So, all right, you start at Disney at the lowest level possible. How do you go from the lowest to the highest executive level? It's a great question. I get that all the time because I went from an intern to an executive in about nine years and I just moved very quickly. And I really focused on a couple things. Like I didn't do, I always love to telling people, don't do the table stakes. Don't do all the things, like work hard and take on the big projects and, you know, all

kind of stuff. I took a little different approach of like, I'm going to make my boss look really good. I'm going to be the smartest guy in the room about the business itself. And then I'm going to somehow find skills that complement each other. Like, I'm not going to be just a great financial analyst. I'm going to be a great financial analyst that can tell stories and help drive strategy, right? And so I was always that one, that's kind of where standout started to happen for me, as I was always that one thing above. And I think it really took me to a point in my career where I got to an executive, but then the key is you have to continue to do it. And I became an executive and I stayed there at that same level for about nine years. Now, imagine, here's a kid who is homeless. He gets with this

great company at Disney. He has this, you know, this nine-year career with Disney where he's just moving through the ranks and then you hit it and you plateau. Like, what do you do? Right. And I had a, kind of a forcing event that happened to me. And one of the things in that forcing event was to read a book. and I read this book, and it was, what got you here, won't get you there. And it changed like, oh, my goodness, right? And so I went back, I went deep into personal development, reinvented myself, worked so hard, like to say, okay, I'm a different person coming out, and then my career kind of taken off again from there.

So it's been a great ride. I know you love to talk about journey and the journey you're on and your listeners are all on their own journey, and that's sort of mine. I love being on this journey. I totally relate to that plateau, period. And it's funny. And I also believe sometimes that's okay, right? So when you push yourself so hard for a window of time, it's okay sometimes to take a break in a moment in time, a year or two years, whatever that looks like for you. For me, that was when I was having my son and, you know, different things going on at home. So I've learned to take pressure off myself. However, like you, that window went on way too long. And then I became that horrible, comfortable. And it was my routine. And I didn't really love it. and I wasn't growing at all. And I was getting frustrated.

And this just accelerated and accelerated to the point where, you know, inevitably for me, I ended up getting fired and, you know, and then I, that's when I went out of my own. However, when I hear you tell your story, I look back and I really, that resonates with me that I got into that real comfort zone for a while. So good for you that you pulled the rip cord and you said, I'm going to do the work. And this has nothing to do with the office or anything else. This is about me. That's exactly right.

I mean, you originally asked the question about what got me from one place to the other. And I think really there's two things I would share. And one is you just have to take risks in life. And I took risks. I went back to school when I was older. I left Disney when I was building a wonderful 18-year career there. I've recently left my senior executive job at Madison Square Garden. So I think you just, you have to take risks in life if you want to kind of go to that next level.

And then the other one is I think what you put into. to yourself is what you're going to get out of yourself. And so every time when I look back in hindsight, I always look back in like the reason I got from one point to the other and these different points in my journey is because I put something into myself, whether it's going back to school or, you know, really investing in myself from the business perspective or really investing in myself on a personal growth level. I think those are two really, really powerful things. And I think the third is surrounding yourself with amazing people. I mean, I know you've heard it. And, it's so true, but you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And I think

just putting the right people around you is so critical. Right. And I think those three things, if you don't have those, it doesn't mean you can't make it. But I think that that's just, that's really important. And I think I would say one more thing, which is you have to have a focus on someone else. Like it can't be about you. I was on a podcast earlier today. And the host was talking about, you know, going through adversity and how do you come out of diversity? And he was talking about his adversity. And he talked about, you know, he's proud of himself because he's got these, like, diplomas on the wall now. And he has the, like, all these great things. And I said, if you were to take all those diplomas down and you were to put up pictures and the success

stories of the people that you impacted, what would your wall look like? And he went blank. Because he is like, uh, I don't know. And I'm like, so you're like, you're proud of yourself. And it's great. You should be. But like, don't do. things for yourself, do them for, you know, do them for other people, right? And that's what motivates you and drive you. And that's one of the reasons why I left Madison Square Garden is because I got into my own company and writing this book because I firmly believe in helping other people. I know you do the same thing. That's what, you know, you can tell. So you know what's so funny, you just like gave me this reflect on my own life real fast. And when I, when I was an entrepreneur

and wrote the book and was doing speaking engagements, I didn't get to see a lot. I mean, I would get messages like, you know, this book was changing. my life or a note here or there. However, what's different now during this crappy pandemic is that now that I'm doing the executive coaching and the mentoring program, I'm a through line in these people's lives now for months. And so I now have, like when you just said could that guy put up, I have the pictures, I have the stories. Like, it's crazy to see how, and it's cool because before, from a stage, you didn't get to follow through the journey. You hear the feedback in a moment and then you fly away. And that is one cool thing now that you just made me realize that is I,

I have those things to put all over every wall in my house. And I'm so grateful for those moments. And that's probably when you walk out in the morning, because there's some days I'm sure you're like, I just don't feel like doing this or whatever else, but you look at that wall and you look at the success of the people around you, which, by the way, is exactly what people are going to remember. People aren't going to remember my story.

Maybe they will, but they're not going to remember me because I was an executive at Disney and your role, you know, and Madison Square, they're not going to remember us for that. They're going to remember us because that person changed my life. I did something because of that person. And that's what they're going to talk about. And that's what fuels me. And I know a lot of the guests that you've had on have talked about that. It is so true. It's hard to practice, but it's so true. It really is. All right, let's get

into Standout and let's get into what you've done since you've made the leap into this whole new world. Yeah. So I've launched a book. It's called The Standout Experience. And really what it is is I've been trying to find a way to kind of codify, if you will, my journey. And how did I go from one place to the other? And at the same time, I'm really focused on students and young professionals. I did a lot of recruiting in my career. And I see students and young professionals coming out and they're just not ready for life after school. And there's a lot of confusion about who am I? What am I going to do? I mean, even you don't have to be a student young professional. You could be in your mid-career and be thinking about the same thing. And I know there was a lot of challenges. And then I also know that

everything you want to know about personal development and career success and all that is out there. Everything you need to know, you can Google it. You can take courses. I mean, your courses are fantastic, by the way. I love your courses in your mentoring program. There's so much amazing information out there. But there's no way to like, okay, so I read this book. I've gone to this class. I've done this. What does it mean? Right. And so I basically created a playbook. I look back on my own life and said, I know how now I went from point A to point B. And I know how all this work streams together. And so I created a playbook. I created a blueprint. And it just so happens it forms the acronym of my company, Standout X. But I think if people walk through that, I think that there's an

opportunity there for people to stand out, be amazing on their career and their industry and going to do great things. So that's where the book sort of came from and what Standout's all about. So you shared with me that just starting to standing out is that journey. And I think that's a big one to explain to people because, John, you know, some people are petrified of standing out. I get that. When I go on speaking circuits a lot, I'm like, I ask people, you know, who wants to stand out. And some people don't want to because it's like, don't look at me, look at me, but I've said it and I tell everybody that I coach and mentor or whatever else. I said, everybody wants to stand out. Everybody at some point, if you're going for that job or that promotion, there's on average 250 applicants for every one corporate job, right? And so you're going to have to be that one selected. You're going to have to stand out in order to do that, whether you want to or not. There's 8 billion people in the world. And if you want to find a husband or a wife or whatever else, then there's that one, right? There's always there's that moment in your life where there's that one, that one time. And by the way, you're only going to live one life. And I hope for everyone that it's a standout life. And so I like to sort of come back up people. and say, you don't want to stand out or do you really, right? And I think it's about standing out when it matters most. Not like always look at me, big celebrity, big kind of whatever else. There are moments in your life where you must stand out if you want to get to where you want to go and what you want to do.

You just have to. There's times you just have to be that one. How do you get people to step into that, to step into that spotlight? Because you almost want to push them into it because you know they'll be great once they get out there, but something's got them locked up. Something's got them locked up. I think the playbook helps. We talked a little bit about it. There has to be some kind of fuel to the fire. It's, you know, sometimes we as coaches and we have to sort of help light that fire sometimes. But other times there is that fire, they just don't know how to get there. And I think that what I, what I hopefully do in this book is sort of say, okay, if you want to go from just starting to standing out, let's start at the beginning. And the beginning is taking control of your life and yourself,

you know, really understanding who you are, what you want and being yourself. Because I think a lot of people struggle because they're not really living as themselves. They're unsure about where they want to go. It's so funny because I talk about when we all want to go on vacation, we do all the research. You go online, you look for the best fairs, you find the place to go, you find the seats, you book everything, like what clothes I should bring, everything else. You pack for it. Like, you get your son already and all the things that he needs. You guys go on a trip. You know exactly where you're going. You walk into the airport. But in the airport of life, we, it's almost like walking into the airport unpacked and like, where do I want to go today?

Right. And I think people struggle a bit because they don't know who they are, which is their point A. And they don't know where they're going, which is their point B. And if we can help people start there, then we can connect the dots for them. And I think that's what standing out is all about. You make a great point. We don't all know where we're going. I don't know where I'm going. You know, when this, like we were saying before, when the pandemic hit, that changed everything and you don't know where you're going all over again. One of the things that I'm starting to learn, gosh, I can't believe. it's taking me this long, is that it's almost okay not to know where you're going. You just need to start going to figure that out. Would you agree with that? I do. I totally agree with that.

And in my book, I talk about there's four end points, four destinations, if you will, for people. I call it the pinpoint. There are folks that just know exactly what they want to do, right? I want to be an Olympic swimmer or I'm going to start this company. And you know what? We applaud them, good for them. And typically, the problem is with that is once they get to that point, they don't know what happens next. Look at Michael Phelps. Look at there's people that get to that point and then where you go from there. So that's one. The second one is there are people that are told what they should do and they kind of go down that path. They head down there. I call it the mistaken identity. You get to that very endpoint and you're like, this isn't what I'm supposed to be and this isn't, this isn't me,

right? The third group or the group that I call the wanderers. They are just like, I don't, I'm just kind of moving through life. They live one year. I love Robin Sharma is one of my favorites. He talks about you live the one year 80 times you call it a life, right? But they're wandering, they're kind of all over the place and never really reaching a destination. And then I think the fourth group is what I call. That's the standout group. And those are the folks that understand who they are, like what's important to them, their core values. And they have a general idea. It's almost like it's not a pinpoint, but at least I know generally what I want to do. I think if we can get people to understand that I want to help people, I don't know,

I'm making it up, but help people do a certain thing. Or I want to work outside. I love nature. I want to help young kids, whatever else it is. There's a general idea, and that's what you're talking about. You're marching towards that general idea, but you've got the flexibility to say, I could actually solve it a number of different ways. But at least I'm marching towards an idea of what that is, and I'm not going to vary from

that idea. I don't know exactly where it's going to land. And by the way, I might change course, but at least I have a notion of where I'm going. And I think that's what you're talking about, is people heading towards more of a general idea. When you want more, start your business with Northwest Registered Agent and get access to thousands of free guides, tools, and legal forms to help you launch and protect your business. All in one place. Build your complete business identity with Northwest Today. Northwest Registered Agents has been helping small business owners and entrepreneurs launch and grow businesses for nearly 30 years. They are the largest registered agent and LLC service in the U.S. with over 1,500 corporate guides, real people who know your local laws

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protect your privacy, build your brand, and get your complete business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes. Visit northwest registered agent.com slash confidence free and start building something amazing. Get more with Northwest Registered Agent at www. northwesternigested agent.com slash confidence free. When you describe the number two person, the one that was on a journey and had a destination in mind and then got there and said, no, that was definitely me. I remember the realization one day that I had, my job in my life is consumed with making rich people richer. That doesn't feel great.

And I ended up having to spend a lot of time at nights and the weekends doing charity work because I was so disconnected from the mission, you know, and the purpose of what I was doing during the day that I was trying to do something that I connected with, which would take more time away from my son, which would take more time away from the gym. It was so disjointed.

And I didn't have that realization that I could, could maybe merge these two entities and actually work and get paid and be living a purpose-driven life. However, to get from that person to person number four that you described, which is the path that I'm on now to say, I'm just going to step into unknown, I'm going to keep going, I'm going to move forward, I'm going to change, I'm going to pivot, and I'm going to figure it out, but I'm going to lead a purpose-driven life where I show up as my best self. That was hard because I had lived 43 years that other way. Yeah. I, I, I, I, tell the story, it's that I'll share the story with you that I had that moment too. And I think a lot of us sort of kind of get there and then we have the moment. I think part of what I'm trying to do is help people identify that before they take all that time to get there and then they have to kind of repivit. And my story is, especially being this homeless kid, as I had finally made it. I did everything I was supposed to do. The senior vice president, finance and strategy for Madison Square Garden, right? Radio City Music Hall, Forum in L.A., like all this great, wonderful stuff. I had made it.

The homeless kid had made it. And my family was living down here in central Florida. And my daughter, and I'm divorced and now remarried with my beautiful wife. And my daughter from a previous marriage had come up to see me in New York. And it was over spring break. And I took her around. We went and saw Hamilton. We did all this stuff.

It was great. It was like, it was the greatest thing. Daddy is the vice, you know, senior vice president. I got her in backstage. It was just terrific. So I go to take her home. like put her on the plane to go see her mom and i take her to the gate and of course you know they have the agent you know sort of take the child onto the plane and it started to snow and i'm sitting there

at the window like the proud dad watching her you know watching his daughter get on the plane and go and taking her flight and it starts to snow so hard you know the plane goes over and it starts to de-ice and then it goes to the end of the runway and it starts taxing down the runway and by this time the snow was so heavy that when the plane took off it got about 15 feet in the air and it disappeared and I turned around and I was in the middle of JFK, you know, where you're kind of in the middle and all the gates are around the side. I don't know what happened. I physically couldn't stand. I sat down in the middle of the terminal and I started crying harder than I've ever cried in my life. And I'll tell you that comparing that moment to when I was homeless in high school, that moment was probably 10 times more difficult than when I was ever homeless. and I was thinking to myself and I kept telling myself,

I haven't had a lady come up and say, sir, are you okay? Because I'm like shaking and I'm like, kind of going back and forth and I'm like, what am I doing? Like, what am I doing? I've got the title and the money and the homeless kid has made it. But what am I doing?

Putting my daughter on a plane, not being with them all the time. And it was at that moment where I made the decision that I'm chasing the wrong, important thing. And I'm chasing that kind of point in time. That's not me. This is me. My book, the programs that I'm trying to do, helping young people, helping other people find

their way before they go through the same thing. And I made a decision at that moment that I'm changing what's important to me. And I did the same thing that you did. I got to that point, and I said, this just isn't me. It's just not. And I get Terry just even thinking about that story today, and it affected me pretty deeply. How did that change your relationship with your child? How did those next steps affect your personal life? I didn't let her know because I have to be the strong daddy, right? And I didn't let her know. But I had always asked her, you know, what did she want me to do?

And she said, I want you to come home. I want you to start standout X and be here all the time. And so when I left my job and I remember picking her up from her mom's house and we had just gotten a new puppy. And so the puppy was in. She was all excited. And I said, I got some really good news, sweetheart. Daddy is doing standout X. I am here full time and she, it was the greatest moment of my life. It was amazing. So I'm here now all the time. I get to see her and I don't care how much money I've given up and whatever else. And I don't care if standout X doesn't make a dime. If I help one person and I'm here for my family, my definition of success right there. Oh, that is such an amazing story. I mean, that is just unflippin believable. I'm so proud of you. What a great decision you made. And thank God.

you had that breakdown. Thank God she flew into that snow. Like, thank God, all those things happen so that it could really hit you that hard. Because otherwise, it's tough to leave. It's hard. It's hard. It's so hard. Now, the downside of that is she won't fly on a plane alone anymore because I guess it was a really bumpy ride as she was leaving. But yeah, it was one of those things where, you know, sometimes when you're doing the wrong thing, someone, something has to tell you you're doing the wrong thing and that's kind of what it was, I think, for me. Wow, that's a really, really powerful story. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. That's really impactful and I hope that it helps everyone to reflect on their life where they are

right now and how committed they are to what their purpose is. Do they feel that passion? Do they feel connected to the right things and to start noticing the people that matter to you in your life? I think that's exactly right. I talk about this a little bit in my book. I'm a firm believer that We all have this. I know everyone's chasing their purpose. Like, what am I, what's my purpose and all? And I make the argument in the book that we all have the same purpose. And I believe this wholeheartedly, we just have to all find our individual missions to fulfill that purpose. But I believe that our purpose is simple, which is be the best that I can be with whatever I've been given, be a leader to help other

people be the best that they can be, and then make a difference in the world. And I approach every day, everything I do with that in mind. And like I look at being at Madison Square Garden, I was, I guess being the best I could be, except I wasn't being the best dad. I was at least being the best worker, maybe. I was leading, but I really wasn't making a difference and things were breaking down there. So I kind of, that's my model. And what's interesting about that is that we all expect that. Think about a spouse. Think about an employee. When you hire an employee, what are you looking for? You're looking for someone who's going to bring the best that they can be for whatever skill they have, that they're a future leader in the organization,

and then they're going to do something to make a difference in your organization to make it better, right? Our own lives are that way. We spend the first part of our lives developing into who we are. Then we eventually take on some kind of a leadership role. Maybe it's a parent or whatever else. And then later in life, we're like, what does it all mean and what's my legacy at the end of the day?

So I like to chase that sort of purpose and then just kind of help people find their mission. So I don't know. I don't know where I went off on that one, but that's kind of my... But, you know, you just brought up legacy, and I just recently lost someone very special to me who has been a mentor to me for years. And what he imparted on me when he passed, which was a big learning moment for me, I used to think legacy meant like your book, leaving this book behind, like this roadmap behind for others. That's the legacy.

But what he taught me was the legacy is what he leaves behind in me. and to carry that purpose and mission and meaning and goodness to the world on that you can inspire and develop people through their life and their career and they are your legacy that live on when you're no longer here. 100% correct. And I'm sure that person was not just you, but to probably touch the number of lives. And they're all feeling the same way, right? And I think that's absolutely right.

That is 100% right. And so I think that's just what we have to do is we have to leave that. Some people make a difference where they start. great companies. They're very well known and good for them. But I don't think you have to always do that. I know, like, I was nervous coming on your show a little bit because I look at the guest list and I look at everyone on there. I'm like, gosh, I'm just, I'm not there. I don't have a multi-billion dollar company or whatever else. But all the standout experience is all about making an impact and making a difference in people's life. And if I can share my story and it helps one

person, I know you talked about that with your book. You're like, you kind of repositioned it for yourself and said, if I can get just one person to think differently or do something different, you know, that is the standout experience. And I think that's, I'll share with you just real quickly. I think we go into everything trying to do three things. It's three questions. What do you want people to think? What do you want people to do? And how do you want people to feel? And most times people go in like, I want you to hire me and start this job or I want you to date me or whatever else, but we don't focus on the feeling. And I think. the standout experience, the legacy we leave is how we make others feel. Because you're probably

carrying that feeling of that person inside of you. And that's what's, I'm sure the words are there and the advice and everything else. But you can tell there's a feeling inside of you, right, that that person left in you. And it's that feeling that's kind of pushing you and pulling you along, right? Yeah, the feeling is the most powerful part of it. That's right. Everyone's listening right now and they want to be a standout and they don't know how. Where do they go? What do they do? I hope they get the book, right? I think I hope they get the standout experience book. But I think it's a lot of self-reflection. And one, we talked about this before is, I don't want to stand out. I was like, I think you do. There's a reason. And by the way, people around you are begging you to stand out.

It could be your kid. It could be your spouse. It could be whatever. People are begging. So the minute you say, I don't want to stand out, you've lost. And I think if the minute we say, I do want to stand out for other people, I think that starts the journey. And then, it's what we talked about before, point A to point B, okay, who am I now and where am I going? And how do I get there? And I think if we chase this standout version of ourselves and we do it with the intent of helping other people, you know how great this world would be if we're all kind of chasing this sort of standout person that's, you know, I'm kind of getting on my soapbox a little bit, but it really would be. And it's all about starting with each one of

ourselves and, you know, in the actions that we can take. So for any, anyone that wants to find standout experience, where can they buy the book? It's on Amazon, and I have a website, the standout movement.com. They can go there and order it through the website as well. But I hope it just helps somebody. It certainly helps me. If anything else, it put my own thoughts down on paper. I followed your advice about writing a book.

You just have to kind of do it. And so now it's out there. And I'm very proud of, you know, it's two years of writing, but about 20 years of research that I put in this. Wow. Oh, my gosh. That's amazing. And did you feel really scared when you were about to launch?

like you wouldn't believe. Like you wouldn't believe. It's super scary. It really is, you know. But just like, you know, just like you had that editorial friend of yours tell you, you know, you just have to do it and just reposition your thinking. I did the same thing. And I put it out there and, you know what?

Let's let it fly. And, you know, we'll go from there. If anything, I put my thoughts down on paper and it's there. And I have three beautiful children and maybe they can be proud of dad for having a book. And it just touches the three of their own. lives and I'm perfectly happy. Oh, I'm so proud of you. And I can't wait for everyone to grab the book, Standout Experience. And where can they find you, John? Through the website, but I'm pretty much on Instagram. It's John Walsh underscore standout. And then I'm starting to get a lot more active on

LinkedIn. I know you're very big on LinkedIn as well. And I think that's a great platform. So I'm on LinkedIn and Instagram are the two probably best places. All right. I'm going to go follow you on LinkedIn now so that we can all double down on your LinkedIn. We need to create more standouts. Let's go. That's right. All right. John, thank you so much for being here with us. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. It's good to see you. All right. Hold tight guys. We'll be right back. I hope you enjoyed meeting John as much as I did. I'm so grateful to know him. He's such an amazing guy. His book also just launched and went to number one bestseller on Amazon. I can can't make this stuff up, you guys. I'm so proud of him, so excited for all that the future holds

for him and just bringing more goodness to the world to shine his light, to help others, and to just put good into a world that right now is definitely struggling. So check his book out, check out the reviews on Amazon, check out his ranking as a bestseller. And hopefully you will want to check him out again moving forward. I'm so happy I get to work with him now moving for it. Okay. I've received a lot of questions recently around my coaching program and, you know, what am I doing? And so it's funny, I'll respond to people on DMs like, oh, hey, here's the link. Check it out, right? Because one of the things that's important in business is the number one most precious thing you have is your time, right? And you constantly need to be reevaluating. Where are you

spending it? You know, where are you losing it? Is it an efficient use of your time? Is there an ROI return on investment on your time. We need to always evaluate these things. And for me, when I first started my business, I did so many podcasts as a guest, which was a great use of my time because I was learning about podcasts and meeting people, expanding my network, expanding my reach. Now, after the pandemic, I am so focused on driving revenue because all of my speaking business money evaporated, right? So things change. Situations change and your goals and your evaluation will change based on what's happening in your life. So constantly reevaluate those things, which I do.

So sometimes people will get frustrated. You know, I'll say, oh, yeah, here's the link to sign up for my course. And they'll say, yeah, well, I just want to get questions and ask free advice. So I open up this opportunity. Anyone wants to ask me a question. All you have to do, shoot it to me on a DM on my site anywhere, and I will answer it on my podcast. But I don't jump on phone calls with people to coach them.

That's what I do now for a living during pandemic. So that's, you know, a business window and opportunity for me that I don't offer for free. That's my time. But my podcast I do offer for free, and I'm happy to answer those questions. So here's one that came in today. One question maybe for a future podcast, if it hasn't already been asked, would be how did you decide to write a book and what made you feel it was the right step or going to be successful? Ha!

I think that's funny. And you need to know this. I didn't know it was going to be successful. I didn't know what was the right step. I didn't know to write a book. This is what people need to understand. and this goes back to what I was saying earlier. It's not about the how.

It's about the outcome. And to me, I got fired. I rebuilt my confidence. I stepped into who I really was. I started feeling good about who I was. I had no idea what being an entrepreneur looked like. I had been in corporate America my entire life, which is so seismically different from being an entrepreneur.

You're on your own. No one's guiding you. There's no examples before you, right? Everyone has a different path in the entrepreneur. world is very, very different from that very constructed blueprint of corporate America. So when you're brand new at something, and frankly, I was an expert in the polar opposite. I was an expert in this well-lit world of here's corporate America, here's the blueprint, here's how you succeed.

Yes, I mastered that. I was an expert in that. But now I had to figure out, okay, start over at ground zero. How do you build this? I didn't know. There was no map. There was no blueprint. I just started focusing on.

I have always succeeded. I will succeed. I will figure out a way. But I didn't know a way. So I just kept taking action. The first thing I did was I asked for help that landed me on the Elvis Duran show. That's when he said to me, well, Heather, you're writing a book. And I said, of course I am, but I wasn't. I googled, how do you write a book? I didn't know how to write a book. I didn't even know if people can just write a book. I had no idea, had never thought of writing a book in my life. So there was no master plan for me. And it's important for people to know that, I guess some people might act like they had some master plan. I don't buy it. If you are someone that got fired that found yourself just

sitting on the sideline suddenly and decide to go to work for yourself, I definitely imagine you're probably similar to me that you didn't know what to do, didn't know what you were going to do, but you were willing to bet on you. You were willing to roll the dice on you. And that is what I was willing to do. Didn't know how to write a book. Googled it and figured. it out, didn't know how to find an editor, posted about finding an editor, and trusted my gut. And then suddenly I had a book. And then suddenly people closest to me my life told me not to release it to pull the plug. And I made a very great decision and called my editor who had written 19 books and said, should I pull the plug? I'm scared. I don't think it's going to work. I think

I'm going to get sued. All the negatives and knows and this and that. And he said, why did you write the book. Has that changed? And it hadn't. I reached out to someone who had already been where I wanted to go instead of taking advice and direction from people who had no idea about where I was going, because they had never, ever been there. And that realization for me is so powerful. I no longer lean on people, no matter how much I love them, no matter how much they love me, for advice, if they haven't been in the ditch that I was in and they didn't dig themselves out and they aren't going in the same direction I'm going, I'm not going to consult with them on business. I'm going to consult with me. I'm going to rely on me. And I'm going to tap people way far ahead of me. And if I can't

meet with them, I'll listen to their podcast. I'll read their book, whatever it may be. But you can tap into knowledge on social media or anywhere to help yourself access what it's like to think like someone when you want to get to where they're going. Because they didn't know the how. They figured it out along the way. Was it messy? Absa freaking looting. Is it still messy? You got it. It sure is. I was on a call today with one of my coaching clients and she was saying to me, well, Heather, you don't understand. I have so many businesses going on at the same time and it's hard to know to prioritize which one is the emerging business, which one is the right one to spend time. I'm listening to her go on and on. Mind you, I have a deal with HarperCollins leadership for my new book to come out in 2021. They just emailed me this

morning for a meeting next week. That is a priority. I have this podcast, which is a priority. I have my coaching business, which is my number one revenue stream, which is my brand new business I just launched and started. I need more testimonials. I need to build up a stronger pipeline. I need a more efficient and effective pipeline. I need to work less time on the discovery element and more time on what I do best. The coaching. I need to build this business out. I need to do so many different things. I need to take care of my son and his homeschooling and find a way to work out every day because that's a priority. Yes, I have a lot of things going on.

No, I have none of it nailed down or figured out yet. So if you don't, don't worry about it. Nobody does. And the advice I gave her was, right now you are looking for cash. Focus on revenue-only opportunities and focus on the higher-ticket revenue opportunities. Because the sooner you closed your higher-ticket revenue opportunities, the sooner you closed. you can reevaluate, take a breath, step back, and decide what you want to work on next. Revenue fixes all problems.

So that's what I'm sticking with. That's how I'm moving my business forward right now as a rookie in the executive coaching space. And that's how I encourage you to as well. You will figure it out along the way. You don't need to know the how today. And until next week, keep creating confidence in yourself. I'll be doing the same. See you then.