THE ED MYLETT SHOW - Expert Secrets to Becoming a MAXOUT Leader - with John Maxwell

Episode Date: January 9, 2019

“Most people don't LEAD their life, they ACCEPT their Life!” These are the powerful words from the legend himself, John Maxwell! If you already are or WANT to become a LEADER in your business, in your family, in your community, in your faith, THIS interview will give you the expert principles YOU NEED to succeed! Do you want to become a better person? Do you want to become a better leader? Do you want to unlock your potential to add value to the lives of others? If you said YES to any of these questions, get your notepad ready as we divulge the TOP business leadership strategies, tips and actionable steps to become the MAXOUT Leader that is living inside you! THIS is truly one of the only interviews I've done so far that actually had me nervous beforehand! John Maxwell has trained High-Achieving Leaders in EVERY COUNTRY on earth and has dominated the business leadership industry, selling over 30 MILLION books throughout his lifetime! It is my honor and a GREAT pleasure to bring you this interview with THE EXPERT ON BUSINESS LEADERSHIP, John Maxwell. We're going to share with you everything from how you can Increase your influence and become a highly successful Leader, to revealing the 4 areas you need to excel in to be successful. We will teach you how to become an effective communicator so that YOU can be a catalyst in your business, transform the lives of others.. and SO MUCH MORE. This insanely value-packed interview is full of so much wisdom, experience and knowledge, I can't even list them all! I guarantee this interview will leave you confident in your abilities to EXECUTE and become the MAXOUT leader that is living inside you.

This is the Ed Milach. Welcome back to Max out everybody. Today is a real honor for me. I have a friend but one of my true heroes in my life sitting to my side. It's a real honor for me. Thanks for letting me be a part of this. Thank you John. So much.

You've just one of the few interviews I've even been a little bit nervous for. Oh hey listen you're just dealing with an old man. We're just going to talk about life and enjoy ourselves. This old man has sold 30 million books in his life plus he's- Well because I'm old. Even a time you can't sell 30 million if they're young man. You can't do it quickly. You understand he's got to be old to do those things. You also can't sell 30 million books unless they're great. And so he's sold 30 million books everybody. This is somebody who's trained leaders on, is every country?

Every country. Every country in the world. He's won numerous awards. He's, he is known as the expert on leadership in the business world. There's multiple publications that have named him as such. And he's got a new book coming out called Leader Shift that we're going to talk about today as well. But I just cannot tell you what a thrill it is for me to have you here today John.

So thank you. Thank you. And it's my honor. Thank you. And it's what a great joy to for us to talk and enjoy each other and talk about leadership and all the stuff that we love and to anybody. People and have so many people join us. Our goal obviously is that value to you.

So hang with us and hopefully we'll give you some good nuggets and principles that can really help you be a better person and a better leader and add value to others. No question we're going to do that. Do you mind? Because I've followed you. People ask me all the time, obviously, in my space, you know, what books to read. And I can tell you, I have people I recommend first are scriptures. Second book, I always recommend everybody is Napoleon Hill.

Yeah. Thinking Growich. Thank you very much. And then I say anything by John Maxwell And that's honestly my answer if you go to any of my social media posts. It's just that's a It's an absolute fact is that 80 80 so many books. I don't know so much about you I mean, but again, you can't write that me a book unless you're old And as you understand it all gets it is tied in with old But there's this thing of publishers where they don't want you to keep writing them

unless they sell them. Yeah, they really like to sell them. So you're pretty good at that. But I always recommend you. And I've, your books have shaped my philosophies about leadership. They validated things I hoped were true about being a leader. And I've just learned so much from you. So I know everybody's going to do that today.

But I want to know a little about you because I don't know the whole background. So obviously you were a pastor of a church prior to getting into this space, skyline church. Yes, I was. In San Diego, California. I was a pastor for 25 years. Everybody, the 25 years pastor. This particular church we're talking about

the way before the interview, three pastors in. In 70 years. Is that not incredible? That's great church. And I followed, I was the second one, I followed the founding pastor. And loved it, and loved, because I love to help people. Yeah. But I was with my one, I followed the founding pastor. And loved it, because I love to help people.

But I was with my publisher at a meeting and they sent something that just changed my life. They said, John, we've been looking at the people who buy your books. And two-thirds of your books are bought by the business community. And I was totally shocked at, I honestly had no clue, because I was really as a pastor kind of writing more to the church community and the religious community. And I said, you're kidding me. They said, no, they said you've become very popular in business community because your

leadership principles cross right over. And so the business people are going in there and they're grabbing your books to get the principles out so they can lead better. And literally, but now I'm a person of faith. So at that moment, Ed, I really felt God just say to me, and this is where you're going to spend the rest of your life in the business community. And so I made, literally that day, made preparations to resign my congregation. We were in a major building program. So it took me a couple of years to do it correctly and make sure that they would have success after I left. But literally, that was the day that kind of changed me.

It had me, I went over to this entirely new area. That's interesting. So as a calling on your heart, right? Definitely. And there are people that are listening to this because I get messages from them all the time that are in something similar, meaning they're in a career that maybe was their first dream. You know what I mean? Like this was their dream. They thought this was what they wanted to do. They've gone down the road to a certain extent, but they're in a career that maybe was their first dream. You know what I mean? Like this was their dream. They thought this was what they wanted to do. They've gone down the road to a certain extent,

but they're feeling this tug on their heart to maybe chase their passion or their mission. Who would you say to those people? That'd be a difficult decision. It had all these people relying on you. Oh, of course. Well, first of all, if you're very successful, whatever you leave, you're leaving something

that's very successful. And then why don't I try a long time ago? It's very easy to leave something that's bad. Right, kind of like get out of town. Thank you. Where's the exit? Right. But when it comes to something successful, you know, people say, wow, I mean, I've got

to give this up. I mean, this is really good for me. This is really working. In fact, I tell people all the time they need to do it, autopsy on success. Because the greatest detriment of tomorrow's success is today's success. Because the tendency is for me when I'm successful to hold on to it. Okay, let's not change anything. We've got the formula, we got it down, we're making some good money, we're helping some people.

So let's kind of box it and kind of set it apart and let's keep it just as it is, of course, that's a disaster. In fact, that's one of the reasons why I wrote the book, Leader Ships, because I wanted to help people understand that there's no such thing as leading people the same way forever, that you have to keep learning and growing and shifting and making those shifts in your life. But for me, when I made this transition into the business world, what I discovered was,

as you were talking a moment ago, the, you know, you feel the tug on your heart, the kind of like, wow, I started here, and now I'm over here. Here's what I believe. I believe that as you follow your dream, it gets bigger. And when it gets bigger, there are more things that you're learning about it that you

didn't know when you started. And the beginning of the dream is just, you know, it's just very little. And you can kind of see it. So you go that way, but then it begins to expand. And for me, it's a calling. And let me just say this. I'm not trying to be over-spiritual, but somebody asked me the day what a calling was. And I like kind of my new definition for calling.

Okay. In fact, in my book, Leader Shifts, what are my chapters is shifting from career to calling. And how do I make that shift? But I think a calling is a purpose with a divine touch. Oh, that's wonderful. Yeah, I love that. Is it that good?

Yeah, I'm gonna say that. I'm gonna say that. That sounds terrible, but it is good. I'm still on my, it is good. But it's, you've got this purpose, but there's a difference thing. And there's a higher touch. I was doing an interview on,

in our John Maxwell Company, we have a Savon Cascald L2L that goes out to hundreds of sites. And Tyler Perry and I were doing an interview together and he wrote a book and I love the title of his book and that is, higher is waiting. I love that. And I think that a calling is, you've got this purpose, but all of a sudden, higher is waiting. There's a divine touch on it.

Until all of a sudden you say, okay, this is more than just my purpose. This is our purpose. Our purpose, God's purpose and my purpose. That's a good point. And you talk about a partnership. That's a good partnership. That's the ultimate partner. That's the ultimate partner.

Oh, I love that. See, I already, okay, I'm done. All right, that's what I mean. Did you grow up? I'm just curious. We're going to navigate in and out of different topics. Did you grow up? I'm just curious. We're going to, there's navigating in and out of different topics. Did you grow up in your faith?

Was that something you were raised within your house? Yeah, yeah. My, my, my father was a pastor. Yeah, he was a pastor. So, yeah, I grew up at a beautiful home. In fact, my father is still alive. He'll be, uh, in fact, in a couple days, it'll be 97. That's incredible.

And, uh, that boat's well for you, but. Yeah, really, that's, really, really, really well for him. And, but I, I was very fortunate, you know, boats really well for you. But I was very fortunate. When it comes to parents, I won the lottery. I just, many people, we don't choose our parents. But my parents, my mother unconditionally loved me. And my father had this, and still has this incredible drive and entrepreneurship.

And this kind of largeness about him that constantly expands his world. So as his world was expanding, we're growing up in it, and my world expanded. And so I grew up in a leadership culture. Sure. I didn't even know what it was as a kid, but with your environment. Yeah, it was just what it is. It's what it is, it's a day. And as we shift a little bit, but it is interesting to me, because I have people all the time

telling me that there's these things that hold them back from chasing that calling that you've described. And I think one of them is, I mean, maybe I'm wrong about that, but you grew up in a church, your dad was a pastor, you become one. I'm sure the family was very proud of that, right? You'd achieved so much. I imagine that adds to the difficulty that your family was so proud of something you would already been accomplishing. I think people all the time say that one of the things that your family was so proud of something you would already been accomplishing.

I thank people all the time say that one of the things that holds them back is well my family doesn't support what I'm about to go do. Do you see that too? All the time, I'm glad you brought it up. I wrote a book, oh no maybe 8, 10 years ago, called Put Your Dream to the Test. Okay. And it's just a good solid book. And in it, the kind of the thesis of that book was that the more valid reasons you have to accomplish a dream, the higher the odds are that you will. Now that's a powerful thesis.

So I mean, there's no cotton candy here. There's no hype stuff here. And so I basically looked at what are the valid reasons to achieve a dream and there were ten of them. Okay. And so I formed it in a way of questions. But the first one, the first question is, is your dream really your dream? And that's where we started. Can I tell you something?

If your dream isn't really your dream? Ain't go to work if it's and and and I tell people in the book hey the first dream we have isn't our dream It's a parent's dream. My mom and dad when I was seven they thought I was going to be a musician and so I'm taking piano lessons From the seven years old about 13. I wasn't any good. It wasn't your gift in this. It wasn't my gift But they're so proud to go to my sideos I'm living their dream. I'm playing the piano. I can't play the piano. I'm not very good at it.

I'm not gifted. But it doesn't matter. I'm living their dream. So what I tell people all the time is we start off our life living someone else's dream, probably our parents. So what happens to a lot of people as adults, they never switch. So true. And so they're still living someone else's dream.

And again, it's like a biblical analogy. It's, it's King, or David before, he's King putting on King Saul's army. Yes. It's not fittingly stacking around there. Well, I know a lot of people, they're putting on someone else's armor and they're just aren't going to achieve because it's not who they are.

It's not their dream. Yeah, that's by the way, everybody listening to just go back about one and a half minutes and listen to that again, please, because that is so absolutely golden-true. So that was a difficult decision for UIS. It was a difficult decision for me, because all I ever knew was pastoring. So let's start there.

It wasn't a difficult decision for me as far as knowing where I was going to go. So I think a lot of times we have clarity on where we should go, but there's a lot of emotion that holds us back. And what was holding me back was the fact that this is what I've known, this is what I studied for, this is what my degrees are, I'm a field law. And so when I made that transition and I had three very uphill, challenging, difficult years, because I had to take the principles I taught,

and I had to address them entirely different. I mean, hey, I can't go into business community and say, let's turn in our Bible. Right, and by the way, the worship team, if they'll come on right now, do we have a choir? You know, I don't have any of that stuff. So now I've got to take, now here's what's beautiful. The leadership principles that I teach in writing books,

they all have a biblical foundation. But I tell anybody, I said, in case that bothers you, you tell me what your leadership principles are, and I'll tell you where the scripture is. I love it. Because the greatest leadership book ever written was the Bible. And in fact, I have one of my most wonderful favorite projects was that

they asked me to take the Bible and put my leadership lessons in it. And so it's the Maxwell Leadership Bible. I'm telling you, Ed, I have probably 800 lessons in that now. Yes. And so you just read a little description, here's another lesson that you can apply into your life. But the reason I can do that is because all the leadership principles I teach, they're all biblically based and have a foundation for it. So now I'm going to a new crowd. So the principles, I got those, but now I have to illustrate them different and I have very little business experience. So what I did, and this is, I think this is what would be really, I hope this will be helpful to you.

Whenever you're making a transition that's kind of out of your, out of your strength zone, or certainly brand new, like this was, I ask a lot of questions, and I listened. And so I just sit down, people like you, that are highly successful in business, and I say, okay, let me ask you some questions, and I go, and I say, okay, let me ask you some questions. And I go and I ask you questions, I learn from you, and I take a lot of notes. And I pull away and say, okay, now this is how Ed did it.

And this is how Ed thinks. And, oh, I think I could apply this there. And I spent three years humbling myself and being very teachable and saying, I just want to learn, I just want to learn. Because I knew that I had leadership principles, but principles that are good without application or connection are principles that aren't going to work for anybody. So as a communicator, I know that, you know, so a lot of people say, well, I got this great idea, it doesn't matter if you can't communicate the great idea, it isn't going to go anywhere.

So I knew that now I had to connect, I had to communicate. And so I'm asking a lot of questions and it took me about three years to get my rhythm. But I got it. Obviously. And today, you know, today I love, love, love the secular business world because it gives me a chance to add value to them, it gives me a chance at times to be salt and light in their lives. Yeah, it's a really good thing.

Amazing. Who thinks a guy leaving that shirt's into becoming the most prolific successful me a chance it's time to be salt and light in their lives and yeah it's a really good thing. Amazing. Who thinks the guy leaving that shirt ends up becoming the most prolific successful business leadership author of all time? It makes sense. It's pretty incredible. I think what he said is really true though because I think first off that dream starts a certain size and grows.

The other thing I talked about this is yesterday somebody I think you'll agree with me on this. Also the path to getting there will reveal itself as you go. I think oftentimes people think I have to know every single step in order to get to this ultimate vision. Come on. And it doesn't work that way, right? You have to get it revealed to you. It only works that way in a book. Yeah, right.

Because what I tell you, see, what's this? I'm responsible to move on what I see today. There's a whole bunch of people. They're wanting to hold and not move because they don't see three days, five days, you know, two years out, whatever. And what I'm saying is, it's kind of like the lights of a car.

If I go to the parking lot at night, turn on the lights and say, oh my gosh, I can't go where I don't see my house. Well, no, no, no. Get the car and start moving in the direction supposed to move it. And guess what? You only get about 300 feet my house. Right. Well, no, no, no. Get the car and start moving in the direction supposed to move it. And guess what? You only get about 300 feet of light.

Right. You don't get seven miles on it. You don't get a see your house. You've got to utilize the light you've got so that you can get to where you want to go. And so many people, they're uncomfortable with that light because it's, well, it's not long enough. And what's around the corner and the whole issue is,

you don't know what, you don't know what's around the corner. Do you go around the corner? Oh, gosh, that's so good. And so you just, so you have to be very comfortable, which I am, yet to be very comfortable with traveling, not having all the answers. So true. But can I tell you something?

The only way you get all the answers is to go all the way through. Absolutely. You don't get all the answers on this side. And so if I've got to have it lined up and straight and right and I feel comfortable with it, then I'll never be the leader. And I hear I really believe this. I believe a lot of leaders fall short because they're unwilling to take what they know now

and act on it. And so therefore they never get to know what they could now and act on it. And so therefore, they never get to know what they could know. Oh my gosh. That is an absolute fact. That is the number one thing when I'm coaching people is their unwillingness to act now on what they know so that what they could know would be revealed to them. Absolutely. That's so wonderful. Yeah. All right, you're blowing my mind. So, I would be people will be so upset with me. If I have the expert in the world on leadership in front of me, we don't talk a little bit

about that exact specific topic on leadership. So I've talked on it one other time. So let's get right, oh wow. Let's give it a shot. You'll be okay. Let's see if I can do it. You'll be okay. Matthew and Carage, me a little bit.

I'll pull you up a little bit. Yeah, absolutely. I'll do what I can, brother. So I think the first, the beginning place is, I'll pull you up a little bit. Yeah, absolutely. I'll do what I can, brother. So, I think the first, the beginning place is, I think most people don't see themselves as a leader. Just that in and of itself, I think most people don't see themselves that way that it's some mystical role in life.

What would you say to somebody who says, I just don't know that I am a leader or could be a leader? Well, everybody's a leader because leadership is influence. That's what it is. And that definition of leadership has served me so well for so many years. It's, in fact, in my book, The Try One, Irrefeatable Laws of Leadership,

there's the law. The law, leadership is influence. Nothing more, nothing less. So when somebody says they're not a leader, I said, well, let me ask you a question. Do you influence anybody? Sure. And almost always, almost.

I've had a couple maybe. That's not sure. But almost always, I said, well, yeah, I mean, you have children, okay, okay, you've got your family, you know, so yes, now it may be a little influence. It may be eight, ten people, I mean, not a big, but I look at them and say, okay, if you influence eight or ten people, you are a leader. See what people think is, they've got to have some kind of a title or position to be a leader. And so they said, well, I don't have a leadership position, so I'm not a leader.

Well, you and I both know the position doesn't make you a leader anyway. It gives you a chance to practice leadership, but it doesn't make you a leader. So what I tell people is this, leadership is influence. So how do I increase my influence? Because if I influence 10 and next month I influence 20, wow, I've doubled my leadership influence. And so how do I do that? And it's a very simple answer. To increase your influence, you have to intentionally add value to people. This is where it all begins. So, let's say that I want to have increased influence with you. Well, my first question isn't, boy, I hope that it'll follow me. The first

question I is is, how can I serve you? Well, what can I do to add value to you? So, I'm going to ask you, you know, how can I serve you? What can I do to help you? In fact, what's interesting before we had this interview, I mean, I was cracking me up. We were kind of trying to out serve you. Well, what can I what kind of a fool could I do for you? It was a beautiful thing. Because all we were really doing is I'm trying to help you. Correct.

And here's what I know. If I sincerely add value to you, my influence will increase with you. That's a fact. So, we don't need to make leadership complicated. Just go out and intentionally add value to people and your influence pool begins to expand. And after a while, I'm becoming quite a leader.

So leadership isn't title position. It's all about adding value and serving and making a difference in other people's lives. In order to do that, a lot of people are going to build an organization, build a team, there'll be in some sort of an environment like that, nobody wins alone, seems like in life. In fact, you tell, I was listening to the story you were telling, and I'd like you to share it about, you know, there's the analogy of getting people

on the right seats on the bus, but you have this wonderful story about when you play basketball about, at the end of practice your coach would do something very... This is absolutely illustrates this point, so you don't fight saying that. No it's a beautiful point. He would have the first team, the better players, five players play the second team. And the only thing that he would do is he would put we who were on the first team out of position. And he always stuck me, I was I was at number two guard, but he always stuck me under the basket guarding a guy named Doug Roth that was six foot eight.

Okay? And he'd put maybe our center out there with the point guard. Well, he's put his opposition and they say, now stay in your position and play to 20. Well, what would happen is the first team would always lose. And he'd sit us back down and say, now, did you lose because of talent, no? Did you lose? No, no. You lost for one reason. You were out of position.

And remember this, whenever you're out of position, you're going to lose. Well, what they did is, I mean, I'm guarding a six-foot-acre. They just throw a high pass to him. He's just dropping that about over me the whole time. Well, you can't. And so it was a great teaching for me. That's no matter how gifted you are, no matter how committed you are, if you're out of position, you're not going to be successful. That's why everybody needs to find their sweet spot. You know, what do I really do well? And on that, there's

a point that I really want to make and that is I tell people if you want to be highly successful, you've got to get into what I call the top 5%. So you've got 100 people, you've got 100 people here in whatever chosen profession you've got. You've got to be in the top 5. You've got to get there. And you can only get to the top 5 if you're in your sweet spot. You can't get to the top 5 working on weaknesses.

You can't get to the top 5 if I'm not in the area of my giftedness. So you've got to find out what you're good at because that'll give you, if men if you're committed and if you've got good strategy and all this other, you've got a good team around you, then that'll allow you to get in that top five. And once you're in that top five percent, you're in good shape. You're going to do very well.

And that doesn't matter what your profession is, you've got to get in the top five percent and you can only get in the top 5% if you're in your position, if you're in your sweet spot, if you're in your gift. Is there any technique, strategy, thought you have in order to identify what those sweet spots are for you? Oh, yeah, I'll trial in there. I mean, when I started, okay, let's go to my,

I started off as a pastor. And so, I had a counseling degree. So now I'm counseling people. Well, it takes me about six months. So now I'm counseling people. Well, it takes me about six months to realize I'm not any good at that. I'm not. It's not my gift.

I mean, they're coming in and I'm listening to them and then I say, okay, I obviously hear your issue. Here are three things. I write on a piece of paper and you know, I'm going to say, go be healed. Do you know what I mean? Go be healed. And the next month they come back and I'd say, okay, what are we in here for? Well, I had to, I'm gonna say, now go be healed. You know what I mean? Go be healed. And the next month they come back and I'd say,

no, okay, what are we in here for? Well, I've got this problem. Well, it's the problem I heard last month. You know what I'm saying? Well, did you do the three things? No, I didn't do the three things. So I'll go, well, it wore me out. I wore them out.

I wasn't any good, but that's what I was trained in. But it wasn't giving me the results. And one day, I mean, it took me, really, it really took me three years. One day I realized that when you counsel people, you work on their weaknesses. And when you equip people, you work on their strengths. And the moment I went from working on weaknesses to working on strengths, I became, I was a rock star with strengths.

Because you show me your strength and I'm going to give you a game plan. Let's get going because I'm a natural equipment, not a natural counselor. Nothing wrong with counseling, it's just not my gift. You with me. And what did they teach me in college? They taught me how to demonstrate. So I'm in my, you know, I've got my little country church, I'm doing a administration. Well, there's no return there.

I mean, my gosh, head and one down, I'm saying, wait a minute, this isn't working. I gotta go get me some volunteers to do this administration so I can get back. And so it's trial and error. And sometimes I think we go to people like, I mean, Ed, if I'm trying to find out my strengths and you and I know each other really well, I make come to you and say, okay, we'll talk to him, you know, what do I do? Yes. You know, sometimes we don't understand our own strengths and it takes somebody that really

is a good friend that knows as well that can say, well, I think you're really good in this area. But you've got to fight them. And the good news is everybody has gifts. That's right. Everybody. So it's not such saying this person, well, you know, I just have no gifts and so I'm left out. Everybody has to be just got to go find them. But once you find them, that's where and by the way, that's where you put all of your time in personal growth and development. Because the goal is just to learn a lot of things. I know a whole bunch of people, they're very knowledgeable, but they're not very successful.

That's right. So what you got to do is you got to say, I'm going to stay in the area of my strengths. Yes. And so, at 27 when I decided I was going to speak and maybe write some books, I asked myself a very simple question, what are the areas that people need to excel in to be successful? And I came up with four areas. Relationships, I mean, if you can't get along with people, hello, equipping, if you can't develop a team, you may have personal success, but you're not going to have multiple, you're not going to compound success, because you don't have people helping

you. An attitude of overcoming adversity and difficulty, the getting back up, not quitting that whole process, and leadership, the ability to influence people. And at 27, I said, those are the four things I'm going to spend my life. And if you look at my books, almost all are more in relationships, equipping, and attitude. It's true. And I found what I call, I found the sweet spot for people to success.

Man. And so I wrote all my books in those areas. I've read, I'm gonna tell you something, I've read of the majority of your books. And there was a window of time where I read every single one as they were coming out. And now I back in that cycle again with you.

And for me, the last couple of minutes were really valuable, because I'm obviously acknowledged like you are as a good leader. But in my own mind, I've wondered whether I am sometimes, because I'm not a great counselor either. And I mean that when people are looking for counsel for me, and what I am, I do feel like I'm not a great counselor either. And I mean that, when people are looking for counsel for me, and what I am, I do feel like I'm really good at identifying giftedness in people. I see giftedness, I think I'm good at equipping people.

And so leaders come in different shape sizes and forms. That was just really a good validation, just for me, and I think it would be for certain people listening to this, because I think also sometimes people that are really good at executing themselves, potentially they may be struggling with counseling people on the new things, but they could be great in equipping.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And what I found is successful people are really good at finding their gifts, getting in their gift zone, and then just really staying there and becoming successful. I think they're happier too. Oh yes, but successful leaders, there's the difference. Successful leaders have the ability of what you just described in, of finding the strength, sweet spot for other people and getting them in that sweet spot. And that's where the return is. I've spent my life after I

discovered what my strengths were. Now I'm just helping other people find their strengths because there's nothing more empowering to a person than to find out that they are good at something and then being equipped and taught how to do it well. That's what, honestly what you just described is what I enjoyed doing most of my life. That's why you're a leader. Well, I hope very important on it. Thank you. I just want to, you know, something like the whole interview, everything we're doing today,

that was valuable for me, because I've struggled even myself. Like why am I, there's an element of my ability with people that's just limited. I'm not great at counseling people, but I am good at equipping them. So that's just a distinction that I really appreciate. One of the things about teams is I don't want to talk about the new book. But one thing I want to talk about on building teams and having teams is I have probably talked about the law of the catalyst in my life and business that you've talked about in various different books.

Both identifying them in organizations so that they can grow and also wanting to be identified as one as someone coming through an organization. Could you just talk about most people listening that's familiar with your work, but obviously there are people that aren't as well. So what's the, what is that law of the, what is a catalyst in an organization?

Why is it important why do you want to be one? Well, and that's out of my book, the 17 Laws of Teamwork. And basically, that chapter is about the fact that good leaders have the ability to make things happen. And so when people look at me and they say, okay, John, I'm looking for maybe a potential leader. What's the first thing I look for?

The first thing I say for them to look for is look for somebody that makes things happen. Yes. Because you and I know, but there's so much people, they're wondering what happened. You want to say it. And they're not the one you want to recruit. So I say go fight, go fight, because here's what I discovered.

If you can make things happen for yourself, you now have the credibility to make things happen for other people. If I'm not successful, there is no appeal for you to follow me. I tell people all the time, success is the credibility of a leader to lead. Because you think about it.

Nobody ever said, oh my gosh, you know, I got it. I'm financially in deep weeds. Oh my gosh, I'm going to, I think I'm going to go call my buddy Joe. He's been bankrupt three times. You're right. Hey, Joe. No, no. You don't follow Joe. Joe's been bankrupt three times. You're right. Hey Joe. No, no, no. You don't follow Joe. Joe's been bankrupt three times.

You gotta go find somebody that's successful with money. You don't. I'm going to get into all my gospel. I'm going to call Jack. He's been divorced four times. Joe, Jack, help me with my marriage. You see people when they need help, the first thing they think about is who is better than me that I can follow.

And so the credibility of a leader as far as to lead is that they're successful. I mean, if I'm successful, I say, hey, I'd want to join my team. Well, of course, I mean, if LeBron James was in the room right now, LeBron says, we're on playing a little basketball. Right. And LeBron says, you know, I'll pick an in-general pick. Well, when LeBron's there, you're got your hand, I've said LeBron pick me because you're going to win if you get LeBron.

And every time I'm getting right, pick your diving behind the chair. It's a fact. You don't want to be on my team. You're going to lose on my team. So what I tell people all the time is, the first thing you've got to do is you've got to be, you've got to get good yourself.

If you're, why would I ever think that I should lead somebody if I'm not any good at it? That's true. Okay, but once I'm good and I found my success, now I get to say, okay, how do I compound this? Well, I compound this by looking at Ed and saying, okay, Ed, let me help you find your sweet spot.

And let's get you on this same road because now all of a sudden, this is how I, this is how I really build a team. And so the law of the cattle is all about making things happen. And that's what I look for. I mean, Jack Welch, his phrase was, that you know, who's gonna get out of the pile? You know, he'd say in general, I think you do. There's a big pile of people in this company.

Well, who's gonna get out of the pile? Well, well, somebody's gonna climb out. Mark Coles might, the CEO, I have six companies, and Mark Colens, the CEO of them. And the reason he is is because he got out of the pile. Yes. He got out of the pile. He started in the stock room.

Yes. Did he really not mark it? Yeah, absolutely. He really did. And I just took him out last week. No. But what did that, that's awesome. Mark's here by the way.

He's cracking up for this. But he got out of the way, he's cracking up with it. But he got all the pile. In other words, he, everywhere he was, he succeeded. Yes. And everywhere he went, he won. Yes. And after a while, he just sat there and said, okay, okay. I think I'll let him run this thing up because he knows how to do it.

And so, for all of us, before you go lead somebody else, just kind of get good yourself. So right, you're a mutual hero of mine, friend of yours that we're talking about off-camera, art Williams. Oh my. How important is leadership, right? And Art would use to say, and still probably does, you won't show me any church, Boy Scout, troop, football, team, company. I'm going to show you something being run by a leader.

Yes. And in every great company, the leaders are great at identifying catalysts. I mean, when you find them, pay them well. Keep them because they're priceless when you have them. Somebody I'm sure marks over their nodding his head that you should pay them even better. So, yeah. But I want to say something to you about your books that I think are just, they're so, everybody.

They're such great reads. They're easy to read. They're memorable. He makes points and then backs them up with incredible stories and anecdotes and quotes. And so it's the other thing about your books. They're incredibly, I would say, the information is profound, unique and deep,

yet very easy to, you equip people so well with the way you write it, that it's transferable. The information is so transferable. You do that better than anybody. If anybody's work that I read, I enjoy reading every single book. The problem with your books oftentimes is when you highlight them,

you would almost be better off in John's books, highlighting the parts that you don't want to go back. And remember, because it's literally just covered in highlighter when you highlight this book. It's a serious, thank you, man. It's an absolute fact, because I always get tired of highlighting. It's like every single part of every single page it would seem to be.

Well, I'm a communicator. So let's start here. You know, an educator takes something simple and makes it complicated. I mean, think about, you know, think about my college, all this stuff. I mean, in an educational world, if you're not confused, they're not happy. So true. I mean, their par- their sentences are a paragraph long. I mean, by the time I get down to the paragraph,

I forgot what the perforter sentence was. I gotta go back and read the paragraph instead of short sentences. You know, I'm dealing with a paragraph sentence. So, but a communicator is exact opposite. They take something complicated and make it simple. And so here's when I write a book or when I speak, doesn't matter. My first objective is to keep it so simple that when I say it, it immediately resonates with people. In fact, anytime you have to explain what you said, you didn't say it right the first time. So, my joke is I put the cookies on the lower shelf so everybody can have some. And so, simple as far as understanding, but deep, because there's a difference. But deep when it comes to profound results that will make in your life. Absolutely.

Absolutely. So I mean, one of the principles I teach is very simple. I just hold my arm up here and I say everything with a wilds uphill. Everything. Everything. There's nothing, there's nothing in your life. Worth while there's not a pill. It's all a pill. Well, everybody gets it. I mean, it's all a pill. You know, and here's the problem. We get uphill, hot hopes, but we have downhill habits. Okay, we're in trouble. You know, got a downhill habit. You're not going uphill. Got to change that habit. So everything that I teach, You're not going uphill. You've got to change that habit. So everything that I teach,

I teach with a real passion to keep it simple, but keep it very practical, and make sure that the principal is life changing. If you could do those three things, and then you really got to go in and when I wrote the book, Leader Shifts, I've been sitting on that book, probably for a good 12 years.

Have you really? In fact, a lady on her team named Aaron who does a lot of content for me. She shared with me, she said, John, you really need to get that book out. And I kind of put it on the shelf and really wasn't too excited about getting out because I thought, I don't know, this may be a little too simple. But when I started writing, I thought, this is going to be life-changing. And now that I'm looking at the book coming out, I'm so excited because here's what happens. We start leading in a way that gives us some success.

And immediately we get into this pattern. And what we don't understand is that leadership, if leadership is about anything, it's about adjusting and being flexible. If you want to be a manager, then nail it, get it straight, do it the same way every time. That's management. But when it comes to leadership, in fact, if you go back into the 1980s, there were no leadership books in bookstores. They were all management books.

Right. Because you were trying to manage your company, your business. There were no leadership books in bookstores. They were all management books. Because you were trying to manage your company, your business. And then things began to change so fast. People were saying, this management stuff doesn't work because this baby isn't staying the same. I turned around and moved on me. And so I've got to get in front of it. And so leadership is all about being in front.

Well, if you're in front, one of the first things you know is if you're in front, you don't know everything. Yes. So, the issue is not knowing everything. The issue is when you know something, adjusting as quickly as you possibly can. Because, because if we don't adjust quickly, we miss it. Yes. Because it's a timing thing.

Especially today. Oh, well, I was getting ready to speak for a company recently and their theme was fast forward and we were doing a pre-call and they asked me, it said, what's fast forward? Do you mean to you? I said, well, fast means faster. As you look in the future, if anybody thinks that the future is going to be a little bit slower, or I love these people, I said, well, I'm just, I'm just waiting for things to slow down.

Even what? I would suggest dying. That's what I, that's probably about the other way it's going to slow down. Even what? I would suggest dying. That's probably about the other way it's going to slow down for you. So fast as faster, but let me take something forward. It's shorter. When I started off as a leader, we had 10-year long-range plans. And five years of mid-rate, a short-range plan when I started off, now I'm talking about in the dark ages now, was a mid-rate. A short range plan when I started off, and I'm talking about in the dark ages now,

was a two-year plan. Well, a two-year plan now, that's a ridiculous long-rate. That kind of makes you suck air, I think that's a little bit long. So what I know is fastest, faster and forward shorter. So let me tell you something,

the only people that are going to win are people that can make leader shifts and adjust quickly. So I wrote the book, I talk about 11 leaderships that I've made in my lifetime and people ask me all the time, they say, John, how have you stayed? I'm 71. How have you stayed on top of your game? And I say it's very simple. It's not the same game.

Of course. Okay. Baseball is called baseball, but it's not the same game. Of course. Okay, baseball is called baseball. But it's not the same game. I mean, you don't go to the baseball game the second day and say, oh my gosh, wait a minute. That lead-off hitter got a single yesterday. Oh, he struck out. Oh my lord.

You see, it maybe had the same title. Yeah. But it isn't the same game. Yes. And you don't lead today's game on yesterday's results. No, okay. Babe Ruth said one day, he said, yesterday's home run won't lead today's game on yesterday's results. Babe Ruth said one day said, yesterday's home run won't win today's game. And I'll tell you what, yesterday's thinking won't win today's game either. So I talked about leaderships that you need to make in your life to keep you on the edge

and to keep you adjustable and flexible so that you can really, so that you can really lead your people well. Because here's what I know. Here's what I know. People don't like change. You're right. So when the leader is resistant to change, he's going to get into this leadership gravity pool or she is that's going to go down every time because you can't change. You're not going to have the people behind you saying, come on, let's make some more changes. Let's make some more adjustments. No, no. Remember, they're wanting to hold on to what they have. And your job as a leader is to say there's something better if you'll just, if you just let this go, there's something better for you here tomorrow. And that's what the good leaders do.

You, I think the timing for this book based based on what you described, is so requisite. I was involved in, you know, obviously, like you are multiple different companies. It was in a meeting last week, and one of the folks in that company that was leading it, who might like a great deal, but five different times in the meeting that person said in the meeting. Well, the way we've always done it is, and I thought, this is the beginning of the death of that organization, the way we've always done it is, the way we've always done it is, isn't necessarily what we should be doing now. It's interesting. You take a look at a guy

like Bella Check. Coach Bella Check in the NFL, right? Great example. Great. And people say, well, why have the coaches that have left him maybe not had the success that he's had? And I think one of the reasons that happens, I work with a lot of the guys in that league. I think often times when a coach leaves someone like that, they're constantly saying, well, what Coach Bella Check always did is, meanwhile, Coach Belichick's evolving all the time and you've got this snapshot of the year to you were with him. And so I think that's absolutely true in almost every business that leaders take snapshots of both their own company or maybe even the person they worked with in the past that

was a great leader. Yeah, Malcolm Gladwell makes a great statement on that and he basically has statement is that if you are comfortable today with what you were comfortable with yesterday, you're already in trouble. I believe that to be. Do you think that's part of you, John? I was thinking about you driving over here. We have several mutual friends.

I mean, right when I met you, you are the most energized, intense, confident kind person. I recall ever meeting, right? I'm sure I've met, I mean, you are 71 years old. Yeah, it seems like you're on your A game right now. Oh, I'm right now. A plus game. A plus game. And I know even how difficult it was even for us

just to get a conversation today. And so you embody these things. Oh, then the thing's about that I think makes something a leader great too, is their congruent. So meaning the things you're writing about are the things you're doing. Oh that's beautiful. And you're just, you're, you're, so I want to make sure everyone has a chance to get this

book. So the book's out in a couple of weeks everybody, it comes up February 5th, but they can pre-order it right now on Amazon.com. On Amazon.com. Absolutely. So you're going to want to make sure that you do that everybody now. You want to be the first people to get this book. I obviously cannot wait for this book.

I want the different organizations I'm involved with to read this is what I'm telling you, listen everyone, not the John Neesis, my full complete entire endorsement of the things this man teaches and writes you have for me. So please go get this, it's going to serve you. When we say leader, by the way, a lot of you ladies that are listening to this, that are entrepreneurs, you know, your number one leadership job is dad or mom. And so, we're talking about the law of the catalyst. Ask yourself, who's the catalyst in your family?

Who's the one changing your family true? Who's the one leading your family? Who's the one setting the culture in your family? As a parent, how great are you at identifying giftedness in your children? And bringing that out of them. All of these principles apply not just in the business space or just in the faith space.

Can we talk about a couple chapters in the book, though, do you mind? Just coming a couple of things. Well, we're limited couple chapters in the book though? Do you mind? Sure. We're limited on time, but I want to max you out here a little bit. So because I watch this, one of the chapters in the book, and we're not going to give the entire book away, just a couple of thoughts on a couple of the chapters. Sure. Pleasing people to challenging people, the relational shift, so many leaders are afraid to or unwilling to challenge people, I think, oftentimes.

Perhaps that's because they haven't built the relationship with them that they need. I'm not sure why that is, but can you just speak to what do you mean by pleasing people to challenge people? Well, that was what my most difficult shifts, because I grew up in a very wonderful home, relationally strong. And so I kind of had this idealistic idea about people that they all got along. And so when I started pastry, I could have read what you did take off.

It was got like, whoa, they're not getting along. And they're supposed to be people of faith. And so here I am in an environment which basically grew up with very little contention and strife. And so I'm having it. And so my first thought is, well, I'm not leading well. My gosh, if I was leading better, they would all be happy. And so my goal for the first, really, for the about the first three years was to make

everybody happy. So I'd go around and if you weren't happy, I'd go around and say, okay, what do I need to make you happy? Of course, you've got a long list. So I'm over there. I'm trying to fulfill that list. I'm going over there. And I would have to make it happy.

And after a period of time, I began to realize, this is not leadership. My goal is to make people happy. I'm not a clown. I'm a leader. My goal is to help people. And all of a sudden, I realized when you help people, they're not always happy.

And so my responsibility is to help you not satisfy you. And so when I was writing the 20-winter People Laws of Leadership, I was signing books and the 21 Laws. And a guy brought the book up to me, signed, and so I'm signing. And he said, I disagree with one of your laws. And I said, oh, that's okay. And I signed it and handed it back to him. And he just stood there.

Look, Daddy said, I don't think you hear me. He said, I disagree with one of your laws. And I said, okay, well, that's okay. And then I realized that it wasn't okay with him that it was okay with you. Right. Then he disagreed with one of those laws. And that's what I looked at.

And I said, I didn't write the book to make you happy. I wrote the book to help you. It's like a person says, I disagree with the law of gravity. It's okay. Go to a four-store building, jump off. You're buying it with a law. The laws don't ask you if you like them. They law say these are the laws you've got to learn them.

And so it was a tough adjustment for me to go from trying to make everybody happy, to understanding that there's some loneliness and leadership in their times. You make decisions that people are not going to be pleased with, but that's leadership and that's what we're supposed to do. I can't wait for people to read that chapter because I do think that that is a huge huge thing for people. So, again, everybody, this is leader shifts. It's out February 5th and you get your on this, and I don't want to make sure

that we give away the books. I just want to ask you one more question about one thing in the book, just because I need to know at least 5% of the chapter from you. I want to know what you meant by train leaders, the transformational leaders. Just what that means, and then they can obviously read the book to get all the details. But what's a train leader compared to a transformational leader? Well, now you're in the core of my calling, because I have an organization

and non-profit organization called Equip. And so it's designed to train leaders. And so we, especially in the faith community, made a commitment to, we started off with what we call a million-liter mandate, let's see if we can train a million leaders in the world. We accomplished that. And again, as a vision, as you go in the vision expands,

and I said, now that we trained a million leaders, I wonder if we could train a leader in every country of the world. Man. And so we focused on it in 19 years from starting this organization. In the 19th year, we had trained five million leaders in every country of the world. We are the largest leadership training country of the world. We are the largest

leadership training organization in the world. Wow. And it was so fulfilling and so satisfied. I mean, and so the board we got together, I mean, we're obviously having celebrations and parties and we had to hit this and so we're in a board meeting and it was kind of like, wow, look what we did and what we did. And all of a sudden there was a restlessness within me. was kind of like, wow, look what we did, look what we did. And all of a sudden there was a restlessness within me. And I said, you know what, I think there's a level higher than what we've done. And they're all, look at it, I was wondering,

maybe we were training them, all these leaders. And we went into, I've been about a three hour discussion that day with my board, because there were a lot of them said, boy, let's just, let's end it. We just scored, we just won the Super Bowl. And here, you're kind of wanting to dive back in. And what I told him was, I said, well, the good news is we've trained leaders. So, leaders know what to do. But just because you know how to lead doesn't mean you're changing lives.

And I said, I think there's a higher level of leadership than trained leaders. And that's transformed leaders. And so, we've got to figure this out. And honestly, even my key people, they looked at me and said, well, I don't think we'll understand this transformation. What's transformation? And what I told them was, I can't explain it, but when you see it, you'll know it. Oh my goodness. And so we started going in and developing the identity, the characteristics of a transformation leader. And then we started understanding that if people are going to be transformed, it's got to be in small groups like Roundtable's, not in massive audiences.

And we trained in auditoriums and massive audiences. People are taking good notes, and they're learning it. But transformation happens when you and I are talking and you're encouraging me and challenging me, and I'm asking questions And we're having that give it take so we said let's go see if we can transform countries and we started with Guatemala and We do we we just three things to think about we start top down We don't even go into country unless the president asks us so we come in by the invitation of the president We have 22 presidents of countries who have now asked us to come in and do transformation.

So I mean the line's getting long because of things. So top down, because influx filters down, it doesn't filter up. So I mean we go, you know, we top government, top business, top education, top religion, top media, top arts, we go, and we get permission. So it's top down, but then transformation also, it goes small round table to big. Mass movements don't begin with the mass, they begin with a few people, so it goes round table, small, big, and then we teach values, because what changes people's lives are values, which is inside out, it's inside out small big top down. And we've got this

strategy at- And we've trained a half a million people in Guatemala now. Oh my gosh. And we're going for the tipping point. 10% of a nation we're wanting to be in round tables because that's the tipping point. That's what the government tells about. And we're in Paraguay now and we're in Costa Rica. And I just came back from Kenya. I went to Saudi Arabia this year by the invitations of the leaders of the country.

And so it's so exciting. And so in leadership, I talk about transformation. And it's just one chapter, but it was a shift I made. And it was a great shift. But probably, every book I write from now on, I'll have something transformation because I'm, we're seeing such life change and I'm living and watching this that is kind of like it's contagious and I'm wanting to share it with others because I think that once a leader understands transformation, they go to a whole new level of their leadership.

But now, now people aren't just following you because you're going to help them be successful. They're following you because their life is being changed. Oh my gosh. And that's a whole different game. I know you're hearing this and we've taken so much of you time, but this man's you're just a treasure. I mean there's just there's one there's one of him everybody. There's nobody like this. There's no one that has this depth of understanding, this depth of faith, this depth of character, the ability to communicate is, when we're driving over, I tell him,

I've said just, the minute he opens his mouth, it's just beautiful. When you hear the deep voice and his cadence, and I just feel like, I love being your presence because I feel like I'm with somebody who's chasing the calling of their life, that's fulfilling their purpose. And I just think you're a treasure.

And I want people to get leadership shifts, obviously, in Amazon, February 5th, but I also want them experiencing you beyond that. And so other places they can find you are social media. Got a couple million people. Is it John Maxwell on all of the social media platforms? We'll put it up on the screen here. It's John Maxwell.com. They go to that and you know, I have a coaching company.

Oh my gosh. Yes. We started coaching company seven years ago. We got over 20,000 coaches in 152 countries now. And they can find that through JohnMaxwell. Or JohnMaxwell team.com. Yeah. Okay.

JohnMaxwell team and also Instagram, Twitter, all of the platforms. Follow John guys. You want to be getting, wouldn't you love to be hearing this sort of stuff on a very regular basis? So not only should you be involved with this books, but you should be listening. A couple more questions before we go. Personal ones though, if that's okay with you. One of the things I've admired about you all of my life, obviously, is that I'm proud when a man of faith is willing to be bold about it, but also just watching successful

men of faith. But I'm going to ask you, if you don't mind answering, have you, I'm curious personally, and there are people listening to this that are at this place in their life too, have you ever struggled with your faith? Have you ever doubted your faith? Yeah, you know, I've struggled with my relationship with God. I've never struggled with my faith.

And that's not because I'm a highly wonderful spiritual person. I am an automatic faith-trusting person. I don't have a lot of cynicism, skepticism in my life that kind of makes me kind of look. In fact, probably my strength is my weakness. I'm very trusting with people. And so the good news is everybody feels very embraced. The bad news is that I can certainly and have had times when that wasn't the best thing. So with my faith as far as my faith in God, that's never my relationship I have. And it's always over-centered, always around one thing.

See, I believe that the key to success for a person of faith is obedience. So if somebody said, John, how can I be, have a successful walk with God, I would just say, obedience, because that's how we get into the rhythm of a relationship is obedience. And there have been times I've been disobedient. And what I tell people is when you're in the rhythm of a relationship with obedience. And there have been times I've been disobedient. And what

I tell people is when you're in the rhythm of a relationship with God in obedience, it's very natural. I don't get up so I'm really obedient today. Oh my gosh, you know, woo, I'm just in that rhythm. But what I tell people all the time is if you're in a rhythm of obedience and then you do something wrong, it just stands up, it waves a flag. It's like you may not know your always obedient, but you will know when you're disobedient. And so, and there have been times when I put myself over God

and put my own desires over God or my own will or my own way over God. And I feel kind of comfortable with that because David did that, you know. And what did God say about David? He's a man after my own heart. Yes. And why did he say that? He said that not because David was a perfect man, but it was because every time God began to deal with him,

David's great desire was to get back over to that rhythm of obedience again with God. I mean, he didn't resist him. He strained, but he came back, oh my gosh, I've got to get back over in that rhythm. And I think what God looks for in us is not perfection, but I think he does look for us to have a heart to serve him and to love him. And to seek him. Does that make sense? It does. That's a wonderful answer. And I appreciate you being able to learn the answer, too, because I think sometimes people observe somebody like you, maybe me once in a while, and they think that we never have a struggle like that

or that we live perfectly all the time. And I think that vulnerability helps so many people. I get very uncomfortable with the leadership pedestal. Yeah, very uncomfortable, because people want to put me there all the time, because they look up and they kind of admire what you've done. And I had a great mentor, a great mentor that helped me

many, many years ago that really centered me. And here's what he said, it's name is Fred Smith and he said, John, in fact, I will never forget he. Fred Smith, Fred Smith? No, not the Express guy, another Fred Smith, out of Dallas, who is also a very successful corporate CEO. But he had been, I'm just a kid, and I've got the 10th largest church in America, I'm 31 or 32, and he took me out to a long

lunch on Sunday after church, and he said, John, great service, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. And he said, I really need to teach you something about giftedness. And what he told me, Ed, was he said, your gifts are greater than you. And he said, you have these amazing gifts. And so people, they'll, they're attracted to what you do. And they'll say, John, you're amazing. He said, when people tell you're amazing, always understand that they're confused. You're not amazing at all. He says, you're human, you're a center. You're prone to mess up and and and and makes groups of you. He says, you're human, you're a sinner, you're prone to mess up and

make screw ups. He said, there's nothing amazing about you John. He said, what they really are seeing is your giftedness. And so he said, John, when people want to tell you how wonderful you are, he said, you're not wonderful. You're just a human sinner like everyone else. There's nothing that sets you apart from anyone else, except your giftedness. So he said when they're on their feet and giving you a standing innovation, smile, wave to them, but understand. They're applauding your gifts. They're not applying. And I'm telling you, Ed, that day I walked out of the Brigadine Resort in San Diego, California. And I said, I got that. I got that.

And so what does that do? So when all this good stuff happens to me, it goes right back to God because I didn't give myself the gift. He gave it to me. He is the total source of everything that's good about me. And I'm the total source of everything that's good about me and I'm the total source of everything that's screwed out about me. That's so beautiful. And I don't get those two confused at all. You follow what I'm saying. So when I'm in a mess up, I just look at myself because I've got the blame. But when the good stuff happens to me, it's him. And that centered me.

Yes. And I can tell you today that I very appreciative when people, you know, Johnny, you're going to want to do it. But when they say all those things, I'm walking off the stage. I'm saying to me, saying to God, the only reason they're standing is because you gave me these gifts. And by the way, he can take them from me anytime he wants to. And so therefore, I want to make sure that I always am grateful for that gift,

because again, a gift could be given, but a gift could be taken away. That's so beautiful. One more question. Yes sir. Last one. Can I just tell you something though? Yeah.

It's so good to have a hero of mine and somebody that's been a role model of mine and exceed my expectation as a man. And so in this short time we've had it just feels really good for me. I hope that some day people feel that way the way I feel about you. Very kind. We've spoken on the same obviously agenda as a couple of different times. I've read your stuff but I've looked up to you and you've seen my expectations. Well this is the beginning of a long beautiful relationship. I feel that way. Yeah, no, this is kind of like the

catalyst for us to now spend some time together. Very grace. I greatly admire you. Thank you. And grateful, very grateful for the, for you let me be with you today. Oh, our audience is most grateful and so am I. So thank you. Last question.

I want to ask it on behalf because we both started out. Let's help people today. And obviously you've done that in many, many folds over. But there's somebody, there's people watching this, they say, look, I'd like to start to transform my life. Yeah. You know, there's transformation of leaders, but I need to transform my life.

I want to take step towards being happier, being more successful. And they had a minute with John Maxwell. They ran into you in a coffee shop. I said, Mr. Maxwell, I've got a question for you. What would your advice be to me about just transforming my life? What would be the step you would take? The thought I should have, the action maybe I should take?

Your answer to them would be... Yeah, well, in fact, I'm going to talk to them right now. Sure. Being a person of faith, the first thing I would share with you is a relationship with God, okay? And if you don't have a relationship with God, you're my friend, love you as much as someone that does. So please understand that.

I'm not trying to convert you. It's just that when you find something that really is beautiful, you want my friend, love you as much as someone. It does. So please understand that. I'm not trying to convert you. It's just that when you find something that really is beautiful, you want to share it with everybody. And I remember when I became a person of faith, the verse that grabbed me the most is the verse that says, if a person is in Christ, he becomes a new creation. And I did. I became a new person again because of him. Now, let's skip that.

Okay. If you're not person faith, just act like you never heard it. Let's go to the real thing. I would sit down with a table with you and I'd say, if you really want to be transformed, you have to live an intentional life. This is so simple, I don't want you to miss it. Most people don't lead their life. They accept their life. And when you accept your life, you are living on things that are not worthy of your time and effort and energy. And you heard me say it along with everything with Walseth uphill. The reason I want you to understand that is to go uphill, you have to be intentional.

Nobody ever went uphill by accident. You've never read a book on accidental achievements. You have to be intentional with what you do and who you are. And so I would just say to you, find your strengths, become very intentional and commit your life every day to it's all uphill. It's all uphill. And listen, it's very successful. He's got great businesses, made a lot of money, could you tell you something? It's still up hill for him. See, the great mistake we make is we think, I'm going to go out

and make enough money. And there's a day when I just, I can relax and I can rest. And everything's going to be easy. Can I tell you something? The day that you have that day, you know, one of your children gets in an accident. Problems will never, ever leave you. Issues, obstacles, difficulties, they're always going to surround you. So you never get to that place where you've got it made. You're not supposed to got it made. You're supposed to add value to people and it's all uphill. Oh my gosh. So the moment I understand that, then what happens is I commit myself to it and then it becomes a beautiful uphill climbing life. Because one thing that's beautiful about going uphill is the scenery is really good.

So you've got to be intentional with it. So that's what I would say to you. It would be intentional. Start today and here's what's written, and here's the difference. Good intentions are overrated. Gosh, I know so many people, I'm going to do that.

Yes, I think that's a good idea. I think I'm going to do that. Good intentions are the most, it's the most overrated phrase in the world. You've got to go from good intentions to good actions. Nothing happens until you've got good actions and you won't have good actions until you're intentional with your life.

My name's John and I'm your friend. And I'm yours. I'm so grateful you're my friend. And now you've made millions more friends that are so grateful for that connection with you. So thank you so much, brother. I mean, honestly, it's my pleasure. It's my pleasure.

And everybody, I know that you're grateful to. Please do a few things. I'm going to ask you, number one, I'd like you to go get John's book because it's going to help you. He doesn't need to sell another book out of the 30 million east soul. He wants to serve you and help you. So please go get leaderships.

Also follow John on social media. You already follow me or you wouldn't be watching this. But I want to ask you to please refer the podcast to different people. Subscribe, leave a review, help them move up the rankings. And just remember, every day on Instagram, I run the max out two minute drill. And what that means is when I make a post of my main feed, everybody makes a comment within the first two minutes. You go into a daily drawing, we pick a winner every day. Some of them win my book, they could win John's book,

coaching calls with me, max out gear, you name it. It's just to keep you engaged in the max out universe and in the community. So make sure you make comments on my posts and staying engaged and connected with me. John, thank you so much for today. You're my pleasure. Exceeded my expectations.

God bless you everybody much for today. My pleasure. Exceeded my expectations. God bless you everybody, and max out. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ you