I, hold on one second.
So the next day, I got, so every morning I pray, Father, what can I do, how can I demonstrate
my faith today?
And so the next day, I got my dad's name, share your faith with your dad.
And so, you know, that day we got on, I mean, we haven't been on a phone call, I've only
seen him twice in 28 years.
Oh, really?
We got on a phone call for the first time in like 20 years.
And it was, it was all Holy Spirit, because I'm like, well, I have, you know, I kind of
shared my journey.
And I said, I got a prayer that changed my life, I'd be happy to say if you want to repeat
after me, he goes, Okay, and I'm just like, what, like, all right.
And so he accepted Christ.
And then I think it was like, maybe three weeks later, I brought my ex wife to cry,
wife to crying.
So I've just been, just been working, working the tree, working the tree.
Let's do it.
You're like, you're not just like John Maxwell, Jr., buddy.
I'm doing my best, man.
I'll take that as a compliment.
Man, I'm so proud of you.
Thank you.
Wonderful to learn how to share your faith and do that.
Amen.
There's nothing better.
There's nothing.
There's nothing like it on the planet.
Well, let me tell you something.
I don't know what you do during your day, but if you do that, you've done the main thing.
Everything else comes under that.
That's for sure.
But anyway, they told me that, so I got very excited when I thought, boy, I'm glad we got
a little time together in Oklahoma City.
Yeah, that was, it was awesome.
It was very inspiring and so good.
So good to be with your group today.
How's everything going well for you and the group and the team?
Things are great.
We're just having a blast.
Got our all-stars on here and super excited for you.
We goofed up on our end.
We told them you were last week, so they showed up last week so excited.
They've been excited for a week, John.
And so they're fired up for sure.
Do you want to start us in prayer?
Is that okay?
Oh, yeah.
I'd be glad to.
It'd be delightful.
Thanks, Father, for our time together.
It's always so good just to share, share what we're learning, how we're growing, how we're
changing, improving our lives, doing our very best to be a good steward of all the opportunities
and the gifts that you give us.
And I pray over the group now that there'll be something that I say today that'll just
resonate in such a way that it begins to be a little bit of a life changer for them.
So may we learn, apply, lean in, and may this be a day that just kind of sets us off
to another level.
That will give you praise and we thank you.
Amen.
Awesome.
Well, I'm delighted to be with you.
Are we all ready?
Huh?
Give me a hands up or something.
Are we ready?
Yeah, you're ready.
I can tell.
Vanessa or Rebecca, can we highlight John just so he's like the speaker or whatever
that term is?
There we go.
Usually, Ray, they want to black me out.
I don't think so.
We okay?
Okay.
Well, let's rock.
Well, I'm ready to go and let me teach a while and then let's do some Q&A.
And if you'll remember, I'm doing a part two today.
In our last session, I did a lesson called leadership landmines and I started off and
I gave you four and I'm going to review those leadership landmines in a moment.
Let me just say this.
You've heard me talk about my book line, the books I still want to write, but I haven't
yet written.
And I have 13 in my book line right now.
And as I was looking at the lesson this morning, getting ready to teach part two of it, I realized
this book, leadership landmines, I'm going to write a book called leadership landmines
because I watch a lot of leaders kind of blow themselves up, you know, kind of walking through
the leadership field and all of a sudden, you know, boom, and there they go.
But this is, I'm going to write this book, but this has been in my line, in my book line
to write longer than any other book.
And so I started doing my research, I said, okay, I wonder, I wonder how long this has
been in the book line.
This has been in my book line over 20 years that I've wanted to write this book.
I just haven't gotten to it.
And let me tell you why.
Probably the main reason is I love the title leadership landmines, but it's also kind of
a negative title.
And sometimes negative titles don't really do well because, you know, it's,
It's like failure.
When I wrote my first failure book,
we all started laughing and said,
maybe we need to put it in a brown bag
and sell it to people that way
so they can walk out of the bookstore, you know,
because who wants to have a book on failure?
Well, who wants to have a hold of the book
on leadership landmines?
It's a kind of a documentary on your life.
And, you know, well, I'm trying to keep
from not step on the landmines,
but it is going to be written
because as I'm working the lesson, reworking it,
because I keep reworking it,
I said to myself, this has got to get out to people
because I watch every landmine I'm going to give you,
I could give you case studies of leaders
who have stepped on it.
And so anyway, let me give you the review.
So we're about to part.
Last, our last session last month,
I talked about four leadership landmines.
Let's review them quickly.
Number one is today's success.
So many times successful people and leaders,
they get successful and then they try
to live off of yesterday
and they try to camp out on success.
And they wonder why they stopped growing
and stopped being vibrant and relevant
and lost their passion.
So I always tell people,
the good news is you're having success today.
The bad news is the success you have today
won't last for tomorrow.
You can't live off of it.
I think it was Rick Warren,
it was the first time I ever heard it said,
but it is so true that the greatest detriment
of tomorrow's success is today's success.
And I think that's very true
because we have just a tendency
to kind of want to prop up what we have done well in
and we want to kind of hold it.
There's a tendency that we want to kind of like conserve
what we're doing really well.
And that is a very natural kind of response
that all of us have.
Oh, I'm doing it well, then I need to keep doing it.
Well, we may want to keep doing what we do
because we do it well,
but we have to keep improving what we do
or it won't continue to grow and be vibrant
and have a persuasion to it.
The second leadership plan we talked about last time
was losing touch with your people.
Because what happens is success isolates us
and separates us.
And this is one of the things I greatly dislike
about success is that I've watched it in my life,
isolate me and separate me.
I can remember when I first started off doing conferences
and people would come to hear me,
what I really loved more than anything else
was the break time.
And I loved the break time
because I would get off the stage
and I'd walk down on the floor
and I'd have people come around
and they'd ask questions and we'd just talk.
And it was just kind of like,
I got to connect with the people
outside of a professional way,
just in a real personal way.
And I love that, love that, love that.
And I can still remember the day when I went down
and people had books in their hands.
And all of a sudden now I have a book line
and I'm signing books.
And I thought, oh, okay,
now I'm not really getting the time
I really wanted to just talk to them,
just talk shop or just get to meet them.
Now I'm signing books.
And then I remember the day
when it was starting to be pictures.
Let's get pictures of him and sign a book.
And what I'm just saying to you is success,
it separates you.
You have to be very intentional
in not letting that happen.
And so I worked hard.
I worked very hard on intentionality.
And so I always ask myself,
when I see these problems happening,
I always ask myself one simple thing.
And that is, oh my gosh,
how do I close that gap?
And you close that gap by saying to yourself continually,
I want friends, not fans.
And boy, when I hear speakers,
I can tell them what I call the fanboys and the fangirls.
And I can tell the ones who want to be my friend,
there's a lot of difference in that.
And so, but it's success separates you.
It just does.
It, in fact, people separate from you sometimes
because of success.
So you gotta be very intentional,
but you gotta keep closing the gap.
You gotta walk slowly through the crowd.
The third landmine that I watched happen
with leaders is the betrayal of trust.
It's, trust is the foundation of leadership.
It's, there's no,
there is no leadership connection without trust.
And the moment that trust is broken,
now people, instead of wanting to follow you,
they want to,
to ask questions about you. And when people have more questions about you than excitement to follow
you, you're starting to get in turf that you don't want to be in. You're now walking through the
field and you're getting close to some of those landmines. And so what I always tell leaders is
that your most important responsibility is to always have trust with your people and never
lose that credibility. You do everything in your power to be trustworthy. And I love that word,
trustworthy. A lot of people want trust because they have a title. They don't deserve trust
because they have a title or a position that you don't deserve it because of that. You deserve
trust because you're trustworthy, which means you've been proven to be a person that's credible,
authentic, and is just going to follow up on what they say they're going to follow up and
be who they say they're going to be. And so that's just absolutely huge. And then the fourth one that
we talked about was a landmine that people have in the leadership field. It's just failure to
think realistically. Realistic thinking is the foundation of great dreams. And I never heard
anybody talk about that. I never hear anybody combine realism with dreaming. It's almost like
if you're going to dream, you can't be realistic. And if you're going to be realistic, you can't
dream. And that is not true at all. The foundation of all great dreams of all great entrepreneurs,
things that are going to grow and build and be prosperous, is realism. The first responsibility
of a leader is to define reality, not their dream, to define where you are. You have to have that
foundation. And the more realistic you are about your foundation, the higher your dream can go.
When I wrote a book several years ago, and you know, Ray, I've written a lot of books.
Every once in a while, I'll go back to one of them and I'll say that book is a life changer.
And probably about 10 years ago, 11 years ago, I wrote a book called Put Your Dream to the Test.
And if I was in any kind of direct marketing organization, the first book I'd put in somebody's
hand is that book, because what happens is people, they've never tested their dream,
so they haven't validated it. They think their emotion validates their dream, and it doesn't.
They think their passion validates their dream, and it doesn't.
You have to have solid reasons for wanting to pursue your dream.
And here's what I discovered, and here's what makes this book good.
The more valid reasons you have to achieve a dream, the greater the odds are that you will.
So let's say I have six good reasons to achieve a dream.
Well, during, you know, dreams are free. So, you know, dreams are quite trite.
So when people talk about dreams, I let them talk and say, I wonder if they'll ever get any,
I wonder if they'll ever get to anything solid, or they're just going to live in
fantasy land all their life. So when they get to dreams, the first question I want to ask them is,
how many valid reasons do you have to achieve that dream in your life?
Because the dream's free, but the journey's not. You pay for the journey. The reason people lose
the dream is not because the dream's not valid. They lose the dream because they all of a sudden
they realize how much it costs. It's a price problem. It's always a price problem. So what
happens in this is that when they start moving in their dream and taking the journey, the price
starts to appear. You can't go long on free. Real quickly, free disappears and you got to pay
something. And that's when people start to get in their dilemma. Oh my gosh, I didn't realize it
would take this long. Wow. Nobody ever told me that there'd be this many challenges. I had no,
okay, of course, all that stuff. Well, you know what they're all the problems are?
They're problems are dealing with one issue. They're not realistic. And so therefore they
have unrealistic desires on a dream that is not going to come to pass because they
never ever had realism as the core of why they have the dream. Now watch this though.
If in my journey, I start moving and in this journey, the price begins to go high and I go,
oh my gosh, I didn't realize this. Oh, I, you mean, you mean I'm going to, it's going to take
this much time. You mean it's going to cost this much money. Now watch what happens.
If I only have one valid reason to achieve a dream, only one, listen to me carefully.
I'll let the dream go.
The price will kill the reason, just a matter of time.
But let's say I have a half a dozen reasons for that dream.
Here comes a price.
Boom, out goes one of my reasons.
I still have five.
Boom, oh, I still got four.
You see, all those reasons that validate my dream
have to be knocked out before I give it up.
So I have to make sure that I have good, valid reasons
for why I'm doing something.
And it has to be more than one.
And this is true in life in every area.
So when people talk to me about their career path
or where they're going to go, I love
to listen to it a little bit.
Not a lot, to be honest with you.
People wear me out.
Hype wears me out.
Dreamy people wear me out.
They all wear me out.
I just look at them and say, I've
never known a hypey person exceed and excel very much
in anything unless they had something solid beneath them.
Cheerleading is good for a gay, but then put the pom-pom down
and go home.
You've got to have something much more than just that.
But when they start, so when they're finished
with their dream, then I want to pursue, OK, now
tell me why that dream is so important to you.
And I want to hear it.
And let me say one other quick thing on that.
And I'm going to get into these landmines.
Trust me, I'm getting there.
If I find that the dream is mainly for them,
I could almost always guarantee them that they'll not make it.
Because dreams aren't supposed to be for us.
They're supposed to be for others.
And there has to be a purpose greater than John Maxwell.
There has to be a reason greater than John Maxwell.
It's got to always be bigger than JM.
If it's just JM, it's probably narcissistic.
And it's probably going to wear down pretty, pretty quick.
And here's why.
Don't miss this.
Dear God, don't miss this.
There is nobody interested in making you a success.
So get over it.
When people tell me they're going to write a book,
I just go crazy.
Because everybody wants to write a book.
Dear Lord, they're wearing me out.
Because they say, oh, I've got a story to tell.
Well, that's good.
Your mom will buy it.
You've got two cousins will buy it.
You've got a neighbor beside you that'll buy it.
Now you've sold seven books.
What are you going to do with the rest of them?
You don't have a story to tell.
You may have a story to share.
But that story is going to have to connect with other people
that are reading the book.
And so again, everything you do has
got to be for one reason only.
And that is it adds value to other people.
The moment that people know that everything you do
is to add value to them, they're going to follow you like crazy.
Now you've got a valid reason.
That valid reason keeps you in the game.
Everything I do, somebody says, well, what's your life like?
Well, my life's very simple.
Every day I get up and I intentionally
figure out how I'm going to add value to people.
That's all I do every day.
Every day you say, John, that's all you do.
That's all I do every day.
Every day I just, how am I going to,
Ray, how am I going to intentionally add value to you
and your group today?
This consumes me.
Because can I tell you something?
It has nothing to do with me.
It has everything to do with you.
And as long as I stay on you, we're going to do well.
The moment I get on me, we're not going to do well.
So when I listen to leaders and they're complaining
and moaning and crying, honest to God,
again, they wear me out.
You can't moan and leave at the same time.
So figure it out.
Now, do I have moaning days?
Of course I do, but I know how to moan alone.
I tell people, why don't you moan alone?
That won't bother the rest of us.
I mean, how many of you have ever been attracted
to a moaning leader?
How many of you ever said, you know,
I want to sit down with Maxwell
because he's going to complain again.
And I think if I listen to him long enough,
he'll discourage my soul.
I think he'll make me want to give up too.
I just can hardly wait to get around him.
You have got to get rid of, excuse me, that bullshit.
You have got to get rid of that.
That stuff doesn't work at all.
Can I tell you, the only person that cares about that
is you.
And when you're the only person that cares about it,
one is too small of a number.
We have got to constantly understand
that we have to have realism in our thinking about our life
and about our dreams and our journey and where we're going.
And if it won't stand the test of hard questions,
realistic questions and accountability,
then I don't know what you got,
but you don't have enough to get where you want to go.
So those are the four leadership landmines
I talked about last time.
Today's success, losing touch with people,
betrayal of trust, failure to think realistically.
Let's go to landmine number five.
This happens all the time.
Again, I can give you a case study.
on every one of these landmines on people that I know, they blew up.
They're not in the game at all. They're not in the leadership game at all.
They're not in the leadership game, not because they didn't have a valid game.
They're not in the leadership game because they stepped on these landmines.
Number five, inconsistency between saying
and doing.
The moment you and I are inconsistent between what we say and what we do,
we lose credibility with the people around us immediately.
I love what a guy named Featherstone wrote one time. He said,
leaders tell,
but never teach until they practice what they preach.
And he's just exactly right. Here's the best way to visually get a hold of this,
this concept. Okay. In your mind, just do an equation.
Pint equal gallon. Let me explain what I mean there.
Pint equal gallon.
A pint of example is worth a gallon of advice.
So whatever you're leading, mentoring, teaching people,
you've got to very quickly teach them out of the life that you
live. Not that the advice that you just give.
And I, I, I realize this, I'm very,
I'm very grateful. I was in, uh, Ray, I was probably 24.
I would, I was, I had, I'd just been speaking a few years and,
and all of a sudden, because, because I started off as a pastor, as you know.
And so what do they do? They speak all the time.
And so I got up and I spoke every week and it didn't take me long at all
to realize that my speaking had a short lifespan
if it wasn't followed up by my actions.
So here's the way this works. When people don't know you,
what you say is important to them. In fact,
they buy into it because they don't know. But when people know you,
the only way you're speaking will have more moral authority and
more credibility is if you follow up with your actions,
the moment people know you,
your speaking goes into second place and your actions go into first
place. Never, ever miss this.
So what happens is very simple.
I watch and leaders who speak great leadership truth,
but they don't live a great leadership life.
In the beginning speaking, they take it face value,
but leadership is visual. It's not audio.
It's a visual, it's a visual ministry. It's a visual life.
An example is the key. So here's the way it works.
If I'm saying and not doing my leadership is going to be temporary with the
people. It won't last long because after a while they just say,
he's just talking right now. He doesn't do that.
If my leadership is doing,
but I don't say my leadership will be incomplete because I won't be
carrying the message and backing it up.
But when I'm saying and doing it, when I'm saying it and I'm doing it,
it's ultimate leadership. And, and this is, this is essential.
It's what I call the leadership dance.
Leadership is not title. It is not position.
It is not a place. Leadership is a verb. It's movement.
It's not a noun. 90% of the people think it's a noun. I think, Oh,
I got a leadership position the other day. I'm a leader. No, no, no.
You just got a leadership position. Totally worthless. It means very little.
It means very little.
So quit getting excited about all this stuff that you get because it's not going
to help you at all. But if you have the action, you're moving.
And so when I lead my group,
when I lead people, I'm moving all the time.
Sometimes I'm leading them out in front. I'm before them.
And when I'm out there in front before them, it's because they need an example.
People do what people see. Sometimes I'm leading beside them.
Why? Because they need to have conversation. They need, they have questions.
They, they, they need, they need ebb and flow. I need to be beside them.
Sometimes I'm leading behind them. Yeah. I'd let them go out front. Why?
Because I'm empowering them.
I got to find out if what I'm teaching they're really following up and learning.
So I I'm behind them.
Sometimes I lead below them because they need servanthood. They need,
they need me to serve them for a while to really get there,
to get up and enroll.
And sometimes I'm leading above them because they need big picture. Now,
what am I saying? Leaders are constantly moving.
And why are they constantly moving?
because they realize leadership is more than just talking. It's also showing.
Now, you got to ask yourself a very simple question.
Am I going to be a tour guide or a travel agent? Because they're different. Both are needed,
but they're very different. If you go to a travel agent, you say, you know, I'm going to
go take a trip here, and we're getting ready to go take a great Steps of Paul trip in Greece.
My gosh, I got my friend Pete Vargas in the studio with me right now, and Pete's going on
the trip. Boy, we're looking forward to having both of them come with us anyway.
See, if I'm a travel agent, what I do is I get Pete tickets and say, here are your tickets,
have a great flight. It's highly probable as a travel agent, I've never been to Greece.
I have no experience with Greece. I just give tickets to people and send them. You do not want
to be a travel agent leader, and yet so many of them are. You want to be a tour guide leader,
because when we get over in Greece, we're going to have tour guides that it is their whole life
to walk the Steps of Paul. They've been there hundreds of times. They've told the story
hundreds of times. They know everything. You could ask them questions. They have answers.
They have all kinds of experiences to share and fun stories to tell you about, and you connect
with them. Now, why do you connect with a tour guide? Because they're a tour guide. They're
with you. Their actions are very important. What they say and what they do, they coordinate.
Travel agent, you know, gosh, good luck. I've never been there. Hope it's a good trip. Hey,
send me some pictures. I'd like to see what it looks like. So many leaders are travel guides
instead of tour guides. Why? Because what they're saying and what they're doing is not consistent.
So we get always into the practical landmine section here. How do we avoid this inconsistency
landmine we're saying and doing don't match up? Okay. Remember, number one, every time when I
tell you how to keep from stepping on these landmines, remember, number one is always the
same on every landmine. Always the same. And what is it? You got to recognize the landmine.
You got to know what it is. It's like when I took a tour with the generals when I was in Israel,
and they took me beyond where they took the tourists. And we literally went to the very tip,
the very end of Golan Heights. And we'd pass the landmine fields and it points it out. There
are landmines in there. Know what they were doing? They're saying, I want you to recognize,
you don't want to walk over there. This is not a good place to walk. So every landmine,
the first thing to avoid getting on it is to understand what it is. And this one is inconsistency.
Number two, before you speak, ask yourself, am I doing this? That's a great question.
Before you teach on a subject, ask yourself, do you live the subject? That's a fair question.
If you don't live the subject, but you think it needs to be taught, you got to let the people
know. I'm young. I'm inexperienced. I haven't done this yet, but this is what I know I need to be
doing. And you have to begin to flesh out and be living the experience itself. So before speaking,
ask yourself, am I doing this? And before doing, ask yourself, am I teaching this so that I can
teach it to others? And do I use personal examples when I speak? That's where all the credibility and
gravitas comes from. And do I speak about my weaknesses? That's huge. I don't really care to
hear speakers speak unless they talk about the areas that they haven't yet conquered, you know,
places they need to go, people they need to see. And then do I say, follow me, which are the greatest
words a leader can have? Or do I say, you go do it? There's a lot of difference between sending the
people and taking the people with them. Show the people, don't just send them. Good. Let's go to
leadership. Let's go to leadership landmine number six. Gosh, I'm loving watching you take notes. You
just lean in so well. Ray, I just want you to know, I really look forward every time to mentoring
your group because they're just, they're like you. They are, you know, like, of course, they're like
you because you're the leader, but they're like you. They have such a passion to improve their
life and get better. And it's obvious and so fun. So let's go to landmine number six.
Leadership landmine number six is when you advance in position.
but not in personal growth.
In other words, they just gave you a,
I don't know, a promotion.
We like promotions, don't we?
They gave you a promotion.
Hey, listen to me.
But they gave it to you.
You didn't earn it.
They gave it to you.
So let's talk about this for a moment, okay?
Because if you're just advancing in position,
in other words, you just got a new title
or you just got a new desk or a new office,
I don't know what you got new,
but you say, oh, I'm advancing, I'm doing better.
Okay.
You've got to understand this.
This is huge.
You have to, okay, don't miss this.
You have to grow into your next position,
not go into your next position.
And there's a difference between growing into it
and going into it.
See, if you grow into it,
it's okay to be over your head
because you grew up, you're gonna grow into it
because you've already been growing.
So over your head, a growing person over your head
is not a problem because you're used to being over your head
and growing into it.
But it's not okay to be over your head
if you've been given that next position
because you don't know what to do.
You haven't grown.
So, hey, if you're over your head
and you've been given a new position,
what makes you think you're gonna do good at it?
Because you don't know how to grow.
You don't know how to develop yourself.
See, okay, if I grow into it,
I'm over my head temporarily.
If I go into it, I'm over my head permanently.
You want your growth to be a lifestyle.
You don't want it to be based upon
something that you were given.
See, if I grow into it,
I'll seek mentors and answers to help me.
If I go into it, I'll avoid mentors and answers
because those people make me nervous
because they already know things I don't know
and I'm intimidated by it, wow.
See, if I grow into that level, guess what?
I'm gonna grow to the next level
and grow to the next level.
Guess what?
I'm gonna grow to the next level
and grow to the next level because I'm growing.
I'm being promoted because of my growth.
But this is huge.
When I was very young in my 30s,
I was asked to write a commentary
on the book of Deuteronomy.
Now, commentaries for a pastor are very huge
because they explain the Bible.
And for a young kid, I mean, all the other people,
they had different people writing
different books of the Bible.
And I was the only kid in my 30s.
All of those, most of them were in their 60s
and some were in their 70s, few were in their 80s.
So I'm a kid.
And Deuteronomy is a difficult Old Testament book.
And I studied Greek in college,
but I hadn't studied Hebrew.
And it's Hebrew.
So you know what I had to do?
I had to hire a Hebrew professor
for one year and a half, every Saturday,
from eight o'clock to two o'clock,
Bill Yarkin and I, a Hebrew guy, a Hebrew professor
from Fuller Seminary would sit down with me
and taught me Hebrew.
Now, why was that?
Because I had to grow in the level
that I was going to write about.
There was no other way to do it.
See, don't miss this.
Do not miss this.
So many people, if they go to the next level,
they're not used to paying that kind of price.
They're not used to humbling themselves
and saying, I gotta find people
that can help me in this area.
And so therefore, they just flounder at that area.
And they just, they're stuck, they're stuck.
And they never can continue going
because they've made going to the next level
a lifestyle instead of growing to the next level.
Now, how do you avoid this landmine?
How do we avoid it?
Well, we avoid it by, number one,
recognizing the landmine again.
And number two, you gotta start growing right now.
I don't even know what to tell you
except to tell you today
you need to start intentionally growing.
You need to grow where you are
and you need to grow the people around you
and you need to grow in the areas of your responsibility.
And you need to allow growth to be your promoter.
The reason that you get promoted
isn't because you even wanted the next job.
You got the next job because you're just good at what you did
and you keep growing to it.
So people ask me, they'll say,
well, are you gonna start another company?
And I say, well, I don't know, I'm still growing,
but the odds are pretty high I will
because out of growth, I start companies.
you going to write any more books?" Well, yes, because I'm still growing. Somebody said,
is your goal to write 100? I said, no, my goal isn't to write 100. My goal wasn't to write 10.
I don't do goals. We'll talk to you about that in a moment. All I've ever wanted to do is grow.
It's out of my growth I write books, not out of my goals. Goals don't give me any information. Goals
don't teach me. Goals are destinations. It's out of my growth that all this happens.
You know, when we trained 1 million leaders through Equip and became the largest
leadership training organization in the world, people said, well, what are you going to do after
you train a million leaders? I said, well, first of all, let me just say this, probably anything
I want to do, because once you train leaders, you can do about anything you want to do.
But so I kept growing. We trained 6 million leaders. Then we started transformation.
This is huge. This is huge. Okay, I'm going to give you a book. If you don't have it, you need
to get it. It's called Leadership. Let me tell you why you need to get this book. This is life
changing. This is one of the books I wrote that this will just absolutely change your life.
And it's the shifts that you need to make as a leader to keep growing. It is the, like somebody
says, I need to challenge myself in personal leadership growth. Well, you get the leadership
book. Hey, and chapter three is the chapter on how I shifted from goal setting to growth.
Because I started off as a goal setter. By the way, I'm not anti-goals. I'm not anti-goals at
all. I mean, if you have some goals, it's wonderful. That isn't my issue.
In the beginning, I was very goal-oriented. In fact, my first personal growth kit
was a goal setting kit. So I learned to set goals very early. But what I began to understand was
that if you set a goal and you hit it, the next question you ask is, what do I do now?
If you're asking the question, what do I do now? It means that you have completed something
and you were not anticipating growing to the next thing. Remember this, you don't leave something,
you go to something. Goals make you leave something to go to something. Don't do that.
That's not what you want. And so I became growth-oriented. And in that chapter three in
leadership, I talk about, it's called the personal development shift I've made in my life. I talk
about how to go from a goal-oriented culture to a growth-oriented culture. Because for example,
in a goal-oriented culture, they value achievement. In a growth-oriented culture,
they value development. There's a lot of difference between value and achievement and development.
By the way, I have a warehouse of awards. I mean, I've got trophies and plaques and
I don't know what else you got there. I just got a bunch of stuff. And I appreciate it. It's nice.
I just give it to the people and they stick in the warehouse. Because can I tell you something?
That was yesterday. That represents a line I crossed yesterday, and I'm glad I got across,
and I'm glad I got achievement. I'm not anti that. But it isn't what endears my heart.
What doesn't endear my heart is a plaque that talks about what I've accomplished.
What endears my heart is the potential I've got to accomplish more and do more.
In a goal-oriented culture, you focus on status. What's your title? What's your position?
In a growth-oriented culture, you focus on stretching.
I mean, I got all kinds of titles. I don't use any of them. I've got an earned doctorate and
14 honorary doctorates. I don't know. Nobody calls me Dr. Maxwell because they don't let
me call me Dr. Maxwell. Dear Lord. When I was born and came out of mama's womb, she looked at me. She
said, I think he's going to be kind of a simple child. Let's call him John. That's my name.
My name is John. Don't need the titles. Don't need the office. Don't need the parking place.
Don't need any of it. Has nothing to do. Has nothing. This has nothing to do with leadership.
In a goal-oriented culture, it honors privilege. In a growth-oriented culture, it honors servanthood.
There's a lot of difference between leading out of privilege and leading out of servitude.
In a goal-oriented culture, it emphasizes knowing. In a growth-oriented culture,
it emphasizes learning. There's a lot of difference. Are you so thrilled about what
you know, or are you thrilled about what you're learning? Honest to God, my favorite thing is
learning. I love learning more than writing books. I love learning more than speaking.
Learning is my favorite thing. Learning, learning, and learning. The more you know,
the more you know you don't know. It just never stops. You see, goals help me do better,
but growth helps me become better. There's a difference between doing better and becoming
better. You see, my
Goals don't ensure my future. My growth does. When people say,
what's your future like? Well, it's going to keep expanding.
It's going to keep getting better. Well, how do you know that? Well,
I know that because I'm growing, growing ensures your future.
Setting goals doesn't ensure your future. Landmine number seven. Oh, good Lord.
Ray. I'm taking too long here. I'm sorry.
It's so good. All right.
Absolutely. Okay.
Not landmine landmine number seven. Don't you think so? What do you think, Ray?
You think this would be a good book?
Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Good. You know, just like you said,
if you're aware,
awareness is the key and you're pointing out some things that people weren't
aware of.
Leadership landline landmine number seven is personal
insecurities. It's a terrible landmine.
And I'm going to have to say of all the landmines I gave you,
this one frustrates me the most.
And the reason it frustrates me the most is I it's the area where I'm least
qualified to help people. And when I, when I don't have good helps for people,
I get frustrated because why expose a problem if you don't have an answer to it
or a good answer, but, but insecure people, I've watched this in leadership.
They usually end up hurting themselves and they almost always
end up hurting others. There's a lot of hurt around insecure leaders.
Let me,
the best way I can explain this is if I have a split,
we all know what it is. It happened like a splinter in your finger.
We all know what that's like. And then it gets inflamed and gets real red.
That now, when, when I got this splinter in my finger, it's real red.
If I just barely touch it, just bear, I mean, just barely touch it. I mean,
I could all day long if I don't have a splinter or nothing, I, I,
I can touch it, clap my hands, nothing's happening.
But the moment I have infection that splinter in there,
if I just barely touch it, it hurts. I, and in fact, I, Oh my gosh,
that hurts so bad. Now, now here's what I, here's what I want you to understand.
Insecure people have a splinter in their life
and they get hurt really easily.
And let me just hurting people,
hurt themselves and hurting people, hurt others.
They just do. And there's a splinter in their soul.
And the reason I get frustrated on this one
is because I, I, I, I, it's out of my expertise. I,
I don't know always what to do to help people, um,
you know, lessen their insecurities or increase their confidence. I mean,
so, but, but, but I, I want you to know insecure people. Um,
well, let me, let me, okay. What, what, let me give you insecure people.
They want control. You show me a high controlling person.
I'll show you probably a highly insecure person.
They fear public failure.
They never want to look bad. Never want to look bad. If, if, if, if, if it's good,
if people are going to know they messed up, they fear it.
They usually avoid risk because of that.
Almost always insecure people are very closed in their relationships.
Um, they don't hire tens,
insecure people never will allow people around them that are better than them
because you know, they're insecure. They're insecure.
So if you're an insecure leader, even if you're a good one,
maybe you're like a seven or eight, you're pretty good leader,
but you're insecure. You won't hire nines and tens. You never will.
I've never known an insecure person,
bring better people than them around them and allow them to have great
empowerment.
I've never let known it to happen because they're afraid it'll make them look
bad. They, they, they, they resist change.
They usually fail to affirm or empower other people.
Um, they view people through their insecurities. So they don't trust them.
That happens all the time. Okay. So how do you avoid this? Well,
right. You got to recognize the landmine. And then number two,
you got to seek some professional help.
You got to go to somebody that can help you. Um, you just, yeah, you just,
you have to, you have to go to somebody bigger and better so that you could see
Ray, why I don't talk about this very much because I don't have enough.
I don't have enough good help. Did you want to say something there, buddy?
Yeah. I'll, I'll, I'll throw one, one thing out there. Um, so like,
um,
you know, one way I've heard it said is, you know,
sacred wounds are what you needed most as a kid, but didn't get,
whether that's security, love attention or whatever.
And often people will spend the rest of their life trying to fill something.
They never learned how to receive.
And so and and locating the absence of it, right and that's what can often trigger them
And I do think that that's you know, where
Like second corinthians 10 3 through 5 talks about strongholds
Which are the you know
The strongest part of the city or the strongest part of your brain
And that we are to take captive every thought and make it obedient to christ
Yeah, so when we have this thought of i'm not important. I'm not worthy
Well, how come they think they're better than me or any of that kind of stuff?
We know that's not christ-like
and we're called to
Walk in a new creation
5 17
You know, like how do we walk in a new creation versus rely on the dead man?
Because the dead man is who created all those strongholds and who created all those
Those problems and those things that you notice and look for and you always find
And so I think I I see god
allows these situations
And will allow it over and over and over and over for us to either walk in the new creation or
Fall to the dead man and and like, you know, james talks about be double-minded where we want new transformation in our life
But we keep focusing on the old so we get a response from the lord
And and he loves us so much. He doesn't want us to remain the same
so he'll allow that situation over and over and over and over and over and we get the opportunity to
Finally learn the lesson because if we don't the lessons repeat it
So that's kind of my take on that
I think it's a great take. I think you really added value to us on that ray. I think
When I write the book i'll call you on this chapter. Let's do it
i'll say come on I I I need the ray touch on it because I
What you said had such validity to it and and and it's it's it's it's all I just feel badly
I don't ever like to teach something that I don't have good
Hope for people because you know, why make somebody aware then say i'm sorry, you know that
That is what we do. We we want to help them and uh,
And that's been because i'm not an insecure person at all. I'm very secure
I grew up in a phenomenal home nothing that I did but I grew up in an environment that provided security and confidence
And so it's never been my it's never been a battle of mine
Of all the landmines this that would be by far the least battle I would ever have
but it's so important to so many people because you and I both know rave so many people are insecure and they
They they they can't even let their business grow because it gets beyond their control and therefore it
You know it they it stays small when it could be bigger, you know
And I and what's sad is many of these insecure people are highly gifted. They're they're highly gifted and
They can lead well, but their insecurities don't let them lead far
Like like we wanted to let me okay, let me give you
Let me give you the other two landmines quickly and then then we'll do some q and a i'm, sorry leadership blind mind number eight
Is failure to make the tough call?
um
I see a lot of people
They they never they never expand and excel in leadership
Because they're just unwilling to do something that makes them highly uncomfortable
uh
When I was younger, I had a I had a mentor tell me this and it was very helpful. He said john
95 percent of the decisions that like a ceo ceo makes in a company 95
So almost every decision the ceo makes in the company
Could reasonably be made by an intelligent eighth grader
They aren't that part of the decisions but then he looked at me and said but the ceo gets paid for the other five percent
And I just have always loved he said just understand it's it's that last five percent it's those hard
Decisions you always remember those tough calls now. This one was a huge landmine as a young leader for me
Major major I because i'm very relationship driven
And I love people and I want people to love me
And so therefore in my in my many early years of relation of leadership. I built all my leadership off relationships
So when it came up to make a tough call I was gonna have to let somebody go or something like that
I would I would suspend it or hold it or postpone it
Because it was relationally
Very very uncomfortably and I and I had to come to a place where I had to understand
that uh
that in leadership
There are just going to be times when you're going to have to make calls that you
Would
Not make
Naturally, it's you you have to force yourself to make it but I had another mentor fred smith who helped me
He said john remember if you're leader of an organization
You never can put your feelings first. You got to put what's best for the company first
And he said if you'll put what's best for the company first
You'll be able to make those decisions if you put your feelings first. Wow
so
Every tough call has several things in common. One, it requires a lot of time and energy.
And in my life, prayer, because I have to be, it demands risk.
The tough call is going to be questioned. It's going to be criticized.
But here's what I don't want you to miss. Respect is earned on difficult ground.
Respect is not earned on easy ground. No one ever got respect because they were a flat land leader.
They got respect because they were taking mountains. They had to go into the tough territory.
So respect is earned on difficult ground. So when you make difficult, tough calls and decisions,
that's where you get your respect. That's where you get your moral authority, which is the
highest leadership authority anybody could ever have is moral authority. It's all earned on
difficult ground. So the good news is, if that's a landmine, like it was, it was a major landmine
for me. I probably had 15 years of battling that until I finally got through it, but it took me a
long time. But what I realized, it was that the respect I gained from people by making those tough
calls was really what gave me some moral authority. Let me just take you to leadership
landmine number nine, and that's just failure to develop leaders.
If you're not developing leaders, really?
One of two things is going to happen. One is you're never going to compound anything,
because you can't compound without developing leaders. And secondly is that you're never going
to advance. And yet 90% of all leaders have basically followers. They don't have leaders.
And again, in the beginning, nobody taught me how to develop leaders. So what I did is
in my first church, I developed followers and had a good following. And then I really
passed through three churches. My second church, I developed workers, because I realized I had to
get people to work. By my third church, I had it down. I developed leaders. And when I developed
leaders, it just became huge. In fact, when I resigned my congregation in San Diego, I told my
elders and my board, I said, you do understand. You don't really need a pastor. You just need
somebody to do pulpit for you on Sunday. You guys already are equipped. I literally had equipped
thousands, thousands of people to lead in that church. And I said, you know, you're going to get
a pastor. They're going to come in there, and they're going to mess everything up for you. You
just need to get a pulpit supply person. And for several months, they didn't have a pastor.
The church kept growing, just kept doing really great. Funny story. So I'm having one day, I'm
having lunch with about six of the leaders of the congregation. I no longer am pastor in the church.
And they're saying, John, since you left, the church has just done outstanding. My gosh, it's,
the growth is amazing. Finances are up, attendance is up, offerings up. In fact, I mean, they were
howling. They're saying, you kept telling us, if we didn't know it was this good, you know, you could
have left three years ago. My gosh, we didn't need you at all. And we were just having the best time.
Let me explain something. That's exactly the highest compliment you'll ever get in your life.
So when somebody says, oh, they're an irreplaceable leader, I say, you're in trouble.
If they're irreplaceable, when they're gone, what are you going to do? You want to be a
replaceable leader. That's why I always taught my staff, you work yourself out of a job. And if you
work yourself out of a job, I'll give you another job. But if you can't work yourself out of the
job you have, I'm going to take the one you have away from you. Why did I do that? I was hiring
them to lead and develop other leaders. And that's a huge landmine. So many people in leadership
positions, they just never develop leaders. So therefore they never compounded and they never
multiply, which begins to be a problem too. So there we go. I got through all over. I kind of
slaughtered the last couple. But I got through it. We didn't need part three of a leadership
landmine series. But anyway, if you or anyone have comments or questions, let's go. We got a few
minutes, not a lot, but we got a few minutes. Let's go for it. Absolutely. Yeah. And I'll give
some takeaways after we get through Q&A time with John. I want to respect his time.
I love you doing the takeaways afterwards. Ben, I would love to. Sometimes I want to
hang in there with the takeaways.
learn from you because I know, I know what you do is you're standing on my
shoulder and you're building stuff that is, it is, it really helps them really
helps them. So I love the fact that you, we do the little interaction, but then
you kind of, then you build on what I laid and you build it on a foundation
that can go up higher. I love that.
Appreciate that, man. Appreciate that. Um, so yeah, I'm looking, uh, I'm
looking for him. Go ahead and feel free to, to raise your hand.
Okay. All right. Now I'm seeing a hand. It's kind of harder with the
background here. So we got the Harveys, we got Chiago and Crystal. What's
happening?
Okay.
Hey, can you guys hear me?
Yeah.
First, it's hard to see your hand because the background.
I know I've got a really messy office. We just moved into our house. So, um,
John Ray, appreciate your time. Thank you so much. This is really good. My
question is where have you made a tough call? And it was maybe the wrong call
in hindsight. How did you get past that? How did you regain the respect or the
listening from the people you were leading in that example?
That's a fabulous question. Glad you asked it because I've made you, if I was
going to give a lesson on this, what the, my lesson would be entitled how to
make a tough call tougher. How you make a tough call tougher is when the tough
call was the wrong call. So now all of a sudden it was not only hard to make it,
but then when you made it, you said, Oh crap, what had happened here? This isn't
exactly what I expected it to be. And I've had that happen on occasions, not
numerous occasions, but I've had it happen maybe in my life. I would say a
good dozen, 15 times where I just made a tough call that was the wrong call. And
the answer is just very simple. The moment you realize the tough call was a
wrong call, you sit down with your people and you say, I made a wrong call.
You very quickly let them know that you know that it was a wrong call. The odds
are they already know it too, because they've been part of the organization.
They've been part of the company. And so, you know, they're maybe looking and
saying, boy, he made that call. I don't think it makes any sense. And I don't
think it's working out. So I'm very quick, whenever I make a wrong turn, I'm
very quick, as soon as I realize it's wrong turn now, I'm very quick to admit
it and say, Oh, I got to stop right here. In fact, I may need to do a U-turn, but
I got to stop. And I'm very quick to let my leaders know, okay, this was not the
right call. I've got to back up. That's where the credibility comes in and the
integrity, because they realize this. See, when the people of your organization, if
they think you don't know what you did, it becomes very worrisome to them, because
they're saying, man, I don't know if John realizes what's happening here. I'm not
sure he understands. I'm not sure he knows. Now that causes insecurity on the
team. But the moment that I say, whoops, I missed that. Oh, he knows. Okay. Okay.
Now, we can go work on it. We can fix it. Now, a solution is possible once you
admit there's a problem. But there is no solution that's possible without admitting
there's a problem. So it's kind of like, I have to get this out of the way so we
can go now fix this and repair it and get back in the game. So the biggest
mistake that they make on that landmine, on that tough call, is they think, I
don't know if the people know. I won't say anything. And the people know. And
they're getting insecure on you. And they're wondering, why don't you know?
Then when they know you knew and you didn't tell them, now they feel
manipulated. And now you've eroded trust. I've never eroded trust on a missed
call. I've never one time because they in fact, they say he's, he trusts us so
much. He went in and said, Look, I was wrong here. I didn't do this right. That
establishes trust that doesn't misuse or abuse trust. But the moment that I act
as if nothing happened, or it was right, and you just don't understand and you
weren't with it, and you weren't there, that kind of crap. Now, all of a sudden,
that trust begins to erode real quick. Does that help you?
Yeah, it does. Can I can I ask one like little subset question?
I just want to throw one more one thing in there. For me, I've definitely made my
wrong calls. The wrongest calls I've made have been the non calls where I knew
something needed to be done, didn't make it. That's always been my my wrongest
call. And and I learned this from john, it's, it's managing the decision, not
being so worried about making the decision that really counts. And there's
there's even a restaurant survey, I thought this was fascinating, that
someone who has
had a problem with their order where they got,
where it was recognized that they made a problem,
that they were either given something or comp something,
are more loyal than
those who never had a problem in their order.
Yeah.
You have an opportunity when you make
a wrong call to actually show that you're human,
that you care, that you're managing the decision.
I just want to make two cents on that.
That's worth 10 cents.
That's worth 10 cents there.
I'll take it.
I'm glad Sharon's on this call because she caught that,
because that's a great way.
In other words, if you miss something-
Hey, Aaron. How are you?
Yeah. If you miss something and then you go fix it,
you gain even more loyalty than if it had been good.
That's a great- Okay.
I'm sorry. Back to you. I'm sorry.
I was just going to ask really quick,
and I know we're living on time.
Is there any nuance to that in personal relationships,
spouse, children, anything you'd say
different than your organization, or is it just-
No. I want to tell you the same thing in a marriage.
A relationship, when you miss it, you miss it.
Don't try to hide it. Humble yourself.
Say, look, I'm sorry. I was wrong.
You can handle that.
I don't really ever expect anybody to be always right,
because I'm human and I'm not always right.
But I do expect them to be always honest and always open.
It's just fair. It's just fair.
And so, yeah, I think it equates
into outside of companies and teams.
Human relationships, too. I agree.
That's so good. Thank you, guys.
Yeah, you're welcome. Good to see you.
We'll go to Priscilla. I don't know, Capuchin?
Like, we'll go to Priscilla right now,
and then we'll go to Capuchin? Is that what it is?
And so, Priscilla, what's happening?
Good morning, everyone. Good morning, Ray.
Good morning, John. Thank you so much.
I have seven pages of notes.
So my question, real quick,
is on the failure to develop leaders.
I created a group called The Table for my team,
and it's for the top producers.
They come to my house. I cook for them. I serve them.
I focus on hospitality,
and then we do a mastermind together.
It's intimate. It's amazing.
There's so much growth.
And whoever can't make it in person, they're online.
I did it for two years, and then I stopped doing it.
And I thought that these leaders
would go out and create something like that.
What I wanted was for them to say,
the growth is so amazing, we don't need you.
And the complete opposite happened.
Yeah.
Everything fell apart when I wasn't there.
My numbers dropped in half.
I brought it back, and I was like, whoa,
let's bring this back.
And my numbers tripled after bringing it back.
But there's a problem there
because there's not growth without me there.
So how do I get them from followers, workers,
to those really independent leaders?
Yeah, that happens.
When you started that scenario of being with them
and they're coming monthly and you're cooking for them
and serving for them, I'm sitting there,
I'm thinking, Priscilla, I'm coming to your house too.
My gosh, hey, when's the next one?
I'm going to join your group.
We would love to have you.
Because what happens is you made it
so wonderful and exclusive.
What happens is, and here's your problem,
those leaders began, they felt privileged in the beginning,
and then they felt entitled in the end.
And I can help you very quickly.
The next time you start one of your table groups,
have upfront expectations in your first meeting,
say, let me tell you why we're here.
We are here for me to be an example for you
to start a table yourself.
And so you can copy everything I do.
You don't have to be original,
you don't have to be creative,
but I'm going to set you up
for a success table for yourself.
And let me explain to you
how you get to come to the table next month.
Hang on.
You can't come back to the table next month
until you've started a table yourself.
Wow.
And then what happens at your table,
you know what you do at your table?
You talk about their tables.
They tell stories about their tables.
And you now have developed
what I call a leadership reproduction table culture.
Does that make sense to you?
If you'll do that, Priscilla,
you won't have that problem.
But you had the problem because,
by the way, I did that too.
My gosh, I did that.
When you were talking about it,
I thought, well, I've done that one,
where you make the experience so great.
In fact, what happens then,
they don't even want anybody else to come to your table.
They want it just to be them.
And if some outsiders grow in the business,
they're kind of looking at them and say,
now wait, how'd they get to join this table?
I thought this was just us.
And it becomes a club is what it does.
Becomes a club.
So you gotta be real careful in how you set it up.
But if you set it up on the other side.
For example, I would only let leaders be an official leadership position for three years
and then I moved them out.
And in year two, they had to go pick the person that was going to take their place.
Oh my gosh.
And then they had to bring that person to me and show me why they should have that position
next time because of their production.
Go ahead.
You have a question on Priscilla?
Yeah.
So I let the top producers, depending on how many sales they have, they're allowed to bring
one person into this leadership training.
So you have like somebody super new.
It doesn't matter.
They don't have to qualify.
It's just, who do you believe in?
You can bring them.
So they have a responsibility to hit a high number to bring someone in to grow.
But I would only let them bring somebody in to one of your tables and they couldn't bring
that same person back to the next table unless that person was producing.
You have to tie in all, and producing not only numbers, but producing leaders.
The producing leaders is the table experience that you're giving them, Priscilla.
They need to have those table experiences too.
And I'm going to just say, let me apply it to where we are right now.
You're getting terrific teaching in Ray's group from him and mentoring and all this
whole process.
My whole thing to every one of you is, are you taking everything Ray and I are giving
you?
And are you turning around and pouring that into your people in the month that we're in
between the time to build them?
So when you come back, I mean, you should be building your group while we're building
you.
It's the same feeling.
And I know you are, Priscilla, I can tell you're on it.
But upfront expectations.
If you let them in the door and they consider it, they are your guests and it was a privilege,
you'll never get them to reproduce.
They have to understand they are only in the room because they're producing and not only
producing numbers, but they're producing leadership tables or they're producing leaders.
I would always ask every six months, we would have a leaders upon leaders meeting where
the leaders that were leading people would bring their leaders together so we could see
them and talk to them.
And we created this, how many leaders do you have under you?
Not so much what your numbers, how many leaders do you have under?
Because if you've got the leaders, the numbers come automatically.
Powerful.
John, I appreciate your time so much.
Linda, thanks for, I thought it was you, Linda, but I'm your way of, Linda, do you have a
quick question for John?
Thank you so much, John.
Hi, John.
Hi, Ray.
And it is Linda.
Yeah.
I just want to say, John, thank you.
Your leadership Bible meant the world to me when I was in leadership.
And I believe that failure to think realistically is huge.
And when I became a Christian, that's when I really began leadership because I understood
what it meant to lead because I followed Jesus.
And that then as I was introduced to different churches, nothing is impossible with Jesus.
Everything is possible.
And coming from that mindset and in prayer, that's what I led.
So it kept me sane.
But then transitioning, my background is in nursing.
I'm a master's prepared nurse, multiple certifications, managed 1,000 patients and 400 employees with,
you know, in a matrix healthcare system, multiple unions and multiple matrix healthcare for
bosses.
I mean, it was nuts, but I loved it because Jesus got me through it.
To Ray's point, right.
I was a mess.
I had to grow.
And I was growing.
And Jesus was my.
People saw that people saw the change and now transitioning and my leadership is a stepping
stone.
Nothing goes to waste, nothing.
And we have to pray, have hallelujah.
We must pray and wait.
We cannot run before him.
Oh, my gosh.
Stories about that.
So anyway, to say this.
And cheerleaders.
So then when you get around certain church people, there are a lot of cheerleaders and
they fail to look at what's facing them.
And so they don't have the courage or to just see things as they are.
My heart is about setting the oppressed free because I was so oppressed as, as what I thought
I was a Christian.
And so I'm just saying that you've confirmed this whole time of mentorship and believing
to invest in myself from the very beginning was a blessing.
And because I've gone through a major crisis,
because it had to, a lot of stuff had to be shaken through,
which I even wrote about, Ray knows about my book,
but there was more.
And that's why Holy Spirit didn't give me
that green button, push go button to publish.
There was more, my gosh.
So anyway, you ask for a breakthrough,
it's just confirmation of my whole life in leadership.
My whole life and the changes
that our heavenly father made to his glory.
And you cannot, when you have four bosses
and just all of that, you know what it takes to leadership
and multiple leadership trainings with wonderful,
powerful leadership that I put and applied to my life.
Oh my gosh, I believed in it.
Jesus first, everything else, apply it.
But then when the organization,
just keeps getting more leaders to teach
and they don't hold people accountable
to practice and apply, isn't that, anyway.
So that God just said, okay, enough.
And that's my whole story, but praise him and thank you.
And I just love you.
Amen.
Great job.
Great job, Linda.
John, thank you.
Thank you so much.
We're gonna have to jump off here,
but what I'm actually gonna do
is I got a couple little takeaways that I'm gonna share.
I'm actually gonna record it as a video right away,
post it into the group for you guys,
something for you, Priscilla, and a couple of other things.
But John, we so love your time.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Everyone give him some love, give him some heart.
Yeah, John, you're amazing, man.
Have fun on your travels.
I think you're in Colorado, I think with Pete.
Hello to Pete.
Pete's an amazing rockstar
and just really appreciate your brother.
Blessings, Ray.
Love you guys.
Thanks for letting me be a part of the family.
Take care and have a good one.
All right, bye guys.
See you.