Jon Gordon's Intro

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Today on the Servant Leadership Podcast, we're joined by John Gordon, a voice that millions have turned to for

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strategies to unlock the power of their mindset and reach their full potential. John has worked with everyone from CEOs

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to Fortune 500 companies to professional athletes. His practical approach helps leaders cut through the noise and become

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the best version of themselves. He's authored many best-selling books, including The Energy Bus, The Carpenter,

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The Power of a Positive Team, and The One Truth. Books that have shaped how countless leaders show up in work and

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life. In this episode, John shares what's really holding leaders back and what it takes to lead with confidence

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and resilience through chaos. If you're facing challenges or just want to lead a little better, this episode is for you.

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[Music] John, thank you for joining the Servant Leadership Podcast. Chris, great to be

Welcome Jon Gordon

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with you. I I I told you this before, but uh I have been personally recently really

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inspired by you and your books. So, I'm just excited for our audience to get to know you as well. Fired up that you read them and really

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means a lot to be with you. How did you first get into speaking and writing? That seems like a career that

Jon's Career Journey

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everyone wants and impossible to break into. I also think it's interesting like who

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decides to become a speaker? who decides to say I'm gonna write books and speak

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and that's how I'm gonna make my living. It's an interesting way to make a living. But years ago, I had lost my job

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during the com crash. I was working for a technology company. I was in business development and we were selling wireless

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software that allowed mainframe computers connect to connect to wireless devices. So, we were the first company

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bringing out like the NFL wireless where you were getting scores on mobile devices. Back in the day, no one was

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doing that. So, I was working for this company and I thought I was going to make my fortune because I had a h 100,000 shares. I was the first

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employee. It was going awesome, but we were making no money, Chris. It was like we were doing pilots, but making no

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money. So, what happened was I lost my job and we had just moved to Jacksonville from Atlanta. I don't know

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how I'm going to pay the bills. I don't know how I'm going to support my family. I have two little kids and I am struggling. I am crumbling. And my wife

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threatens to leave me. She said, "If you don't change, we are over." And I wanted to change because I wanted to stay

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married. And that began this journey of working to become a more positive person. So I began researching ways that

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I could be more positive. And this was during the emerging field of positive psychology. They were just beginning to

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come out with a little bit of research and so forth. And I remember asking, what am I born to do? Why am I here? And

Why Am I Here?

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writing and speaking, I kid you not, came to me in that moment of just asking. It was honestly sort of a

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prayer, a prayer of desperation. And I just prayed to the heavens. I wasn't a

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huge believer in God in the moment, but I was just like, "Help me. I what am I here to do?" And writing and speaking

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came to me. And I said, "All right, this is what I'm going to do, but what am I going to write and speak about?" And I

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realized I wanted to be more positive. So, I was going to help others be more positive. And that began this work. It's

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crazy when I look back like this is what I've been doing now for for over 20 years. It's my life's work. I've written

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32 books, 18 bestsellers. They've sold millions of copies. I get to speak to all these leaders and companies and

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organizations and sports teams. I could have never imagined that

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to know that I was like a a wreck, like a mental wreck. And this is what I help with now. I help people with their

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mindsets. It's it's incredible what happens with your life when you choose to believe.

Steps To Become More Positive

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What were some of the steps you took to go from a terrible situation of losing your job to now at that time just

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starting to be positive? Like what were even the steps? Because there were no playbooks really before you on how to do that.

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No, there were no playbooks. I actually started creating playbooks back in the day. Like I created my own. And what I

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did was I read you can't be stressed and thankful at the same time. So every day I began taking walks of gratitude. So

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I'm walking. I'm practicing gratitude. And what I was doing was flooding my brain with these positive emotions that

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uplifted me instead of the stress hormones that were slowly draining me. And I started to do that every single

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day. And within a short time, my wife noticed a difference. She noticed that I was more positive. I was feeling better.

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I noticed I just felt better. I felt differently because you're literally

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flooding your brain with these positive emotions and you're feeling this gratitude and you're uplifting your mind

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and you're creating a fertile mind that's ready for great things to happen. So instead of focusing on the negative,

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you're focusing on the positive. So that was one of the things I did. I also began a success journal. So every night

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before I went to bed, I would write down what my success of the day was. And I knew that every night I was going to

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bed, I would be a success because I would focus on the one thing. I'd wake up a success. And then what happens is

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when you do this, you're now looking for more and more successes in your life. And what you look for, you f you find.

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What you focus on shows up more in your life. If you don't believe me, look for blue cars on the road today. You will start to see more blue cars. So I

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actually just came out with a success journal for people. After all these years, I came out with one so that people can now actually start write

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writing down their successes. Now, you can use a notebook if you want. It's as simple as that. Or you can use this nice journal. Either way, but the idea was,

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let's just record the success and start to allow that to become a part of our

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nature and who we are. And then the more you focus on it, you'll experience more of it.

Helping Others To Shift Their Mindset

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Wow. Well, you've been pretty open publicly about the journey of becoming more positive and shifting your mindset

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was not an overnight thing. Uh, and that it wasn't easy. There was negativity. It sounds like they crept in at every

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corner. Uh I don't know if that's true, but but at the same point, people are

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dealing with all kinds of stuff. And in the world of all this emotional intelligence and in this world of um

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just great care for people, how do you help people get out of just this constant negativity they're seeing on

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social and other things that are stopping them from shifting their mindset? Yeah, it's helping to understand that there are two main

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frequencies, positive frequency and a negative frequency. Everything comes down to two

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frequencies. And your brain is literally an antenna, not like an antenna. It actually is an antenna. And what you

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tune into, you will actually receive and start to hear more of. If I tune into

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the negative every day, I will experience more negativity and I will actually digest that into my soul, into

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my being, into my energetic field. If I tune into the positive frequency, I

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receive all this positivity, love, support, encouragement that uplifts me.

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So, like a radio station, you got to tune your dial. What are you tuning into on a daily basis? And you're right, it

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doesn't happen overnight. It took me years and years to focus more on the positivity. Now, the minute you change

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and tune the dial, you start to experience it. And it feels a little awkward at first because you're not used

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to being tuned into that frequency. So, it feels awkward. You're used to the default padding pattern of negativity.

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But the more you do this, it becomes more and more natural and then it becomes your natural state. And the

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research is clear on this. You can rewire your brain from negative to

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positive. And the more you activate certain parts of your brain, you actually develop a certain muscle in

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that brain. So there's a positive muscle that you can develop. And I'm convinced that as we tune into the positive, we

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literally are nourishing our brain. We're creating a healthier brain. And I know in the future they're going to show

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that the more you tune into negative and negative energy and negative thoughts and negative beliefs. The more you do

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that, you actually are damaging your brain. And this goes to even people eating foods that affect them or doing

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drugs that affect their brain. The minute you actually affect the antenna,

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the antenna then starts to tune into more negative thoughts. And it's why people who have a lot of negative thoughts start to experience more and

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more of them. And you go down that downward cycle and downward spiral. Does that make sense? And so when when you're

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there on an upward cycle, an upward spiral of focusing on the positive, that changes you. So it's about gratitude.

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It's about the success of the day. I think it's about prayer. Prayer is very helpful with this or meditation. A lot

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of people meditate which is very helpful to do in in terms of tuning into a higher frequency. And then I would also

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add talking to yourself instead of listening to yourself because what happens is a lot of negative thoughts

Talk To Yourself Rather Than Listen To Yourself

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are coming into your mind. And when those negative thoughts come in so often

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they come in the form of lies that will tell you things about yourself and your future that just aren't true. And I tell

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people all the time and I want to tell this to your listeners. You're not the thoughts that you think. You're the thoughts you believe. And that negative

Would You EVER Choose A Negative Thought?

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thought is actually not coming from you. How do I know that? Who would ever choose to have a negative thought?

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Chris, would you ever choose a negative thought? No, never. No one would. This blows people's mind.

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Even very smart people like they get this. Like, wait a second, you're right. I wouldn't choose one. So, where are they coming from? Consciousness. They

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come from a a spiritual place. They come from the frequencies. There's two. There's a collective field you're tuning into. either the positive or the

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negative. And what happens is when the negative comes in, you don't have to believe the lie that it tells. You can speak truth to the lie. Words of

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encouragement, words of life. You can talk to yourself instead of listening to yourself. And the more you do, as a man

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thinks, he becomes, as a woman thinks, she becomes. The more you do, the thoughts you think and the words you say

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will become the reality that you live. For years, we've heard this and it's been poo pooed like, "Oh, that's just positive thinking or that's the funny

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scenes that they do on Saturday Night Live. I'm smart enough. I'm good enough. And gosh darn it, people like me." But

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the truth is, the more you actually believe it, the more you focus on it, the more you actually become it.

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It's such a revolutionary thought, but at the same time, it's so simple. When you say it, it's so simple. And it's

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like, man, why would I not just want positive thoughts and talk to myself positively? I love it.

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Who wants to be negative? Nine out of 10 people say they work better in a positive environment. Nine out of 10.

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But Chris, it makes me wonder who's the 10th person. Who's the person that says, "Oh man, I I love working in a negative

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environment. I am awesome in a negative environment." I often joke it might be like the accounting department or

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something like that. But but but but in all seriousness, again, we are more

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productive. We're positive. We're happier. Every research, every study shows that

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positive people live longer. They're more successful. Positive teams outperform negative teams. Positive

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leaders produce and create positive environments where people thrive and perform at a higher level. So, we have

Positive Leadership Is A Competitive Advantage

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all this research that shows that positivity and positive leadership is the competitive advantage. Like, it's

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not just a nice way to lead. It really is the competitive advantage. And this has become my life's work and I consider

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myself a champion of it. People often bring up toxic positivity, but what about glossing over things? What about

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when something's really bad and you just say just be positive? Yes, of course that's wrong. But I wouldn't call it

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toxic positivity. That's a name to make positivity bad. People say toxic

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positivity because they want to focus on the negative and perpetuate negativity.

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Let's call it what it really is. It's a lack of empathy. It's a lack of meeting people where they are. It's a lack of

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really addressing the realness of the situation. So, I encourage leaders all the time, meet people where they are,

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support them, be there for them, and then just ask, "How can I help you? How can I encourage you?" And the more real

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you are, the more that positivity will be welcomed and appreciated.

12:49
Yeah. I mean, you've talked a lot about how positivity uh both helps shape and

Helping People Find Their Purpose

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fuel your purpose and how it even helps people find their purpose. And I think it kind of helped you find your purpose,

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too, as you turn to be just more of a positive mindset person. Uh, as it relates to purpose, how do you help

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people find their purpose? And what does that even mean? Wow. Well, I believe we're all here for

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a reason. We all have a purpose. You're not here by accident. The universe is

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not an accident. The fact that we have cameralike eyes. The fact that we have this design to our skeleton and our

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brain. 86 billion neurons in your brain. Every neuron has a transmitter and

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receiver on them. We're electromagnetic beings. We have energy fields. We have

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electricity coursing through our body. No, it seems like we're more designed creatures and structures than anything.

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So I would say that if you understand that you're not an accident, well then there's a purpose for your life. If you

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believe that the world is just an accident, that's a big bang and it's a random creation of chance, well then

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guess what? Then there's no purpose. Then there is no meaning to anything.

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And guess what? That would mean that you shouldn't care about anything. Because if there's no purpose and there's no

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meaning, then you shouldn't care. But you do care. And the fact that you care is telling you that there's there's more. The fact that there's sacrificial

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love should tell you that there's meaning and purpose to the universe. Because if it was a world of survival of

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the fittest, like Darwin said, then you would never run into a burning building or run to help someone to sacrifice your

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life for them. You would never do it. And some would say, well, to perpetuate the species. But why would I do this for

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an older person that doesn't perpetuate the species? And yet I would. So the fact that there's sacrificial love where

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you would sacrifice yourself tells you that we know that we're more than just a body. We're more than just a collection

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of of of cells. That there's a soul to us. There's a spirit that is a part of

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us, soul and spirit. And the soul and the spirit are are eternal. There's an eternal nature to that. And so you must

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nourish your soul. Nourish your your your eternal spirit. and then nourish

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the temporary body that you have that you're living in right now so that it operates at this highest level which is

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key. I wrote a book called the one truth. Highly recommend you read it, your listeners read it because this book

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explains the brains and antenna. It's really like a deep dive insight into the nature of everything. It's like someone

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told me I feel like within 150 pages you explained the secrets of the universe and how it all works. And that was the

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idea. This book was a download that came to me and it taught me the understanding of oneness and separateness, connection

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and disconnection and how all mental health disorders report feelings of isolation, disconnection and separation.

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And bipolar means two poles, separation. Schizophrenia means split mind, which is

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a separation. When people experience trauma, there's a a a neurological separation that happens in the brain. So

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everything comes down to separation and disconnection. Whereas health and wholeness comes down to oneness and

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connection. This goes to our health, goes to our relationships, our teamwork, our leadership. Everything follows this

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pattern. So it's are we connected and united or separate and divided? And there's a force always trying to divide

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and separate us and even psychologically trying to break us. 5Ds that do that or

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and there's a power that's always trying to unite and connect us with love, building relationships, creating

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connections. In that love and relationships, we find wholeness and healing in isolation like during the

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pandemic, we find disconnection and despair and depression. So, you could see how did I make sense here that it

16:43
all plays out this way and all makes sense? Yeah, for sure. It's interesting like you have well over 30 books now like you

Making Content To Influence The World

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said 18 plus bestsellers. I mean, your writing is influencing the world in in a

16:57
very positive way. So, first of all, thank you. On the flip side, as you think through

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as you think through some of the books you've written, uh I don't know this for sure, but the energy bus uh what what

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you wrote really feels like that took your reading to another level or your um

17:16
the people who started reading your content. Is that true? Did that kind of take it to another level? At what point

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did you realize you were making content that could influence the world?

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Great question. You know, I don't really think a lot about that. I just try to write what I'm supposed to write and

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want to impact the reader and make a difference. I just want to make a difference. I want to make an impact. I

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want to encourage and inspire others. I want people to feel something and then do something that's going to lead to

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greater happiness, greater joy, greater connection, greater success. And what I didn't realize that I was doing for

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years, Chris, it's so weird. You're doing this work and you're not sure why you're doing it. You're just doing it, right? You're just doing what you feel

17:56
like you're supposed to do. And then you look back and you're going, "Oh, I give leaders tools to build stronger teams.

18:04
That's what I do. I believe better than anyone in the universe. I'm not great at a lot of things. I'm honest about that.

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I know there's a lot I'm not great with, but when it comes to building strong teams, that's my specialty. That's my

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skill. I help leaders create the mindset they need to have the leadership that

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they need to lead with to build a stronger team and then that team has

18:28
success. So my framework is mindset, leadership, teamwork and I love focusing

The Energy Bus

18:33
on that. The energy bus was actually the first book that I wrote and when I wrote the energy bus it didn't become a

18:41
bestseller for five years. So here I was hustling, sharing the message, going everywhere and anywhere to speak.

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Eventually that book did take off and it became a bestseller and hit the bestseller list many times and now it it

18:54
reaches more people now than it did last year and more than the year before and it's 18 years old which is which is wild

19:00
to me. I wrote it when I was 35 years old and so it's my most popular book, my

19:06
most impactful book. So, I would say as that book started to hit its stride and start to reach people, as CEOs began

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calling me and NFL coaches began calling me, as as healthc care organizations

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began calling, as different team members and school districts started reading it, I realized, oh, wow, I wrote something

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that impacted these leaders that they're using with their teams. And I guess that inspired me to then write more books. I

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started to see where there was a need, what challenges they were facing, and I would just get new ideas. So, a new idea

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would come. But I wouldn't write something unless I felt the desire and the heart and the passion to actually

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write it. I remember my publisher called one time and said, "You need to write a book right now. It should be about blah blah blah." And I said, "I'm not writing

19:51
a book just to write a book. I'm not writing a book because I think it's going to sell well. I have to write the book because I know I'm meant to write

19:57
this book and it's it's oozing out of me." Like, it's a it's a book I just have to write. the most recent one, the

20:02
seven commitments of a great team. I feel like I've been waiting to write this book for 54 years. And it took me

The 7 Commitments Of A Great Team

20:09
16 days to write it when I wrote it just over the holidays. I knew I needed to

20:15
write this book. It was literally just ready to just come out of like give I had to give birth to it. And I just

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boom, 16 days. And it's truly a special amazing book that's going to help so

20:26
many leaders and teams become stronger and more united together. when you agree to these seven commitments and you

20:32
implement these seven commitments and everyone does, you're going to become a stronger and better team and you're going to love your work a whole lot

20:37
more. So, I'm passionate about that and I just know what I'm supposed to write next.

20:43
Yeah. uh you alluded to different Fortune 500s and sport teams and

How To Apply The 7 Commitments

20:48
healthcare organizations calling you and I know you go in and speak at many large organizations and this new book probably

20:57
comes out of a lot of the work you've done with those organizations. How do you think it applies to our audience

21:02
when you think about those seven commitments of a great team? such a great question and observation

21:08
that you just made because like that's why I wrote the book and a lot of the book is the culmination of the work I've

21:15
done with these teams and organizations. It's the exercises, it's the ideas, it's the implementation, it's even the

21:22
conflict and the stories that are woven into this book that different team members had and stories that were told

21:28
to me. So, I'm an observer. I'm a listener. I'm always writing things down. I'm always thinking about ideas

21:33
and I knew a bunch of these things would would come together one day and it did in this book. So I I write from personal

21:40
experience. I write from what I know and what I see and what we've actually done and what works. My brother said it best.

21:48
He's like when it's authentic, people know. And that's why people are loving this book so much because it is so real

21:53
and it's based on so many of my experience. Even though it's a fable, it's still ex it's still experienced in

22:00
terms of you're going to you're going to know when you're reading it like this is real. This is for the real world and

22:06
this is for your team. So for your listeners, you've got to commit to the vision and mission of the team. If you

22:11
want to be a great team, you have to be aligned and agree what is our vision, what is our mission, and where are we

22:18
going and why are we going there? You got to commit to being your best every single day. Now, you're not always going

22:24
to be able to give your best every day. You might be 60%, 70%, 80%. But you can

22:31
always give the best of what you have. And we talk about that. So, wherever you're at, if you're 80%, give 80%. Or I

22:39
should say give 100% of 80%. Like, so give that 100% of 80%, give 100% of 70%. So, always give the best that you can of

22:46
what you have. And that's very realistic. It's something that we all deal with. It's not pie in the sky like

22:51
just give your best. There's also a commitment to getting better. Great teams are always striving to get better.

22:57
So, how do we do that? Well, we got to challenge each other. We got to support each other, but we got to challenge each other. Most teams don't talk about that.

23:03
I talk about how to challenge each other in the book in a correct appropriate way

23:08
in a positive way that will actually lead to success, not discouragement or

23:14
you know anger towards each other. And then there's the commitment to connecting. great teams connect with

23:19
each other individually and collectively. So, I wrote some really cool team building exercises that this

23:25
team does as part of the story and you follow the relationships dynamics of the team in a very quick read. It's really

23:31
cool to see how that comes to life and then the commitment to each other.

23:36
That's a huge part of it. Like, are we committed to each other as a team? Are we willing to sacrifice for each other?

23:43
Because we can agree we got the vision, we got the mission. Yes, we're going to fight for that. We're going to work

23:49
towards that. But at some point, it's about you and I, Chris, if we're teammates. We know I got your back. You

23:55
got my back. We're going through the struggle. We're going to have to really stay late tonight. We're going to have

24:01
to stay late tomorrow. We're going to have to work for five days straight to meet the deadline. We're going to do whatever it takes to help each other

24:06
succeed. I'm going to sacrifice for you. You're going to sacrifice for me. That is a real team that is willing to do

24:11
that. And that's where you get superstar teams. That's when you get two teams going to the NBA championship and these

24:18
are the teams that are tried and tested. These are the teams that are battle tested and they're stronger together. In

24:23
the NFL, we see it all the time. You can make the playoffs, but you're not going to make a championship unless you've

24:28
been through the fire together. Wow. I love that. On this podcast, we talk a ton about servant leadership, as

Perspective On Servant Leadership

24:35
you know, and and thinking of how servant leaders show up. They show up

24:40
for each other. How do you see servant leadership integrate with some of the stuff you've done on the positivity side

24:46
and in some of the great teams you've worked with and in all of your coaching stuff that you do? Well, first I believe you have to be

24:52
positive to be a servant leader. You have to see the best in the other person. You also have to be a servant

24:59
leader in terms of I'm willing to serve and sacrifice to help you get better. It's about we, not me. So, I have to be

25:06
willing to help you grow. And going back to commitment, commitment is going to cost you something. It's going to cost

25:12
you time and energy to commit to someone else. But if I'm committed to your growth, if I'm committing to serving

25:19
you, there's a cost there. But I help you get better and I help you grow. So

25:24
I'm here to serve your talent. I'm here to serve your growth. I'm here to serve

25:29
your mission. I'm here to serve helping you become a better person. And the more

25:34
I focus on that and I commit to you, you're going to recognize that commitment and you're going to be

25:40
committed back. Unless you're a narcissist. And if you're a narcissist, then we're probably not going to work

25:45
together. But but servant leaders put others first and they serve and

25:50
sacrifice for others. Now, here's the thing, though. We often think servant leaders may not be tough. They may not

25:57
challenge others. The best servant leader in the world was Jesus. and he challenged his followers. He challenged

26:05
his disciples. It's okay to challenge people. It doesn't mean that you're always soft and kind all the time. There

26:12
are times you may have to challenge your team and push them. But love must come first. If they know you love them, then

26:20
you earn the right to challenge them to help them get better. And part of serving you, Chris, might be if I'm your

26:26
leader, I or I'm your teammate, I've got to make sure that I'm challenging to be your best because I got to serve your

26:32
growth. And if I don't challenge you, you're not going to grow as much. If I don't help you recognize where you're

26:38
being complacent, you're not going to grow as much. So being a servant leader is I'm going to serve every aspect. And

26:44
sometimes it means I'm going to push you. Wow, that's so good. I I've heard you

Practical Steps To Create A Better Culture

26:50
talk a lot about culture driving behavior and and that servant leadership mentality, the positiv positivity

26:57
mentality. Those are uh cultural shifts that organizations need to make, but

27:02
they don't come overnight. Talk about what are some practical steps listeners can take uh to help create better

27:09
culture in the spaces they're in. Well, you first have to decide to become

27:15
a positive leader. You have to be positive yourself. The essence of a culture comes from you as the leader. It

27:22
starts at the top. It comes to life from the bottom up. But your culture is going to be the essence of what you're sharing

27:28
every day. So are you developing your positive mindset to be a positive

27:33
leader? Who builds a positive culture and a stronger positive team? So ultimately it first starts with you and

27:40
what kind of leader you want to be. Then from there the values you create. What values are we going to live by? What are

27:46
we going to be known for? what are we going to stand for and those values will drive everything that you do. So

27:52
creating the culture and the values is essential and then sharing the vision and mission with the team and everyone

27:58
being aligned around that vision and mission. Today everyone has a mission statement but what I have found is that

28:04
only the great organizations have people who are in a mission. So are we really on a mission together to accomplish

28:10
something great? And if I have a great culture that people want to be in, they

28:16
want to go to work, they want to work with each other, they love the battle together, they love the fight, they love

28:21
doing the work, they love showing up and and creating and taking on the challenges. If you love all of that,

28:27
you're going to be somewhere others want to work and attract great people to you. And that's going to

28:34
exemplify or and show to the world who you are. You're going to be attractive to the world when you build a culture

28:40
that way. But it starts with first and foremost you deciding the kind of leader you want to be what we're going to stand

28:46
for as a team as an organ organization sharing that with everyone getting buy

28:51
in agreement alignment and then from there we can all move forward together. It goes back to the energy bus getting

28:58
on the bus together moving in the right direction with a shared vision focus and

29:03
purpose there obviously more steps to it but that's the key gist to it.

Practical Workshops and Certification

29:08
I just could listen to you all day. I I think the one thing that I'm taking away from this podcast is that I'm going to

29:13
have a ton of homework reading through all the other books I haven't read. And I know our listeners are going to be picking up books like crazy trying to

29:19
figure out all of these things because it's just so good. It's so practical. That's what I love about your content.

29:25
It's just so practical and it's it's not easy to implement, but in a way it's

29:30
easy to implement. There's clear steps at least. No, it really it really is easy Chris to implement in terms of like

29:36
when I work with an organization and team, we do make it simple and practical and powerful. So when people work with

29:43
us or come to our workshops, we have data developments that any of your listeners can come to and you come to

29:48
our day of development. We're going to teach you the mindset leadership and teamwork framework and people can even

29:54
get certified in that now. And when you do, you're going to be able to be that kind of positive leader. We're going to

29:59
give you over 60 tools to be a better leader and deal with all these different leadership issues that so many leaders

30:06
face and then give you the confidence and the tools to take on those challenges so you can build a stronger team. Like we know it works and we've

30:13
seen every situation out there and we've talked to almost every leader and every team on the planet so we know what

30:18
people are facing and what they need. And so yeah, that's that's my mission is really to make it simple, make it clear

30:24
and actionable so you can take these steps. And now we allow people to deliver our workshops through our certification. And as people do that,

30:31
I'm watching all these people now deliver workshops. People are coming to these workshops. They just got

30:37
certified, these trainers. And these people are going back and benefiting and succeeding because of these workshops.

30:44
It tells you that the frameworks are clear, consistent, and actionable and

30:49
lead to results. I think there's a lot of consultants out there that make things very complicated because they want you to have to pay them a lot of

30:55
money to keep coming back. But if we get to the core issues of its people and we

31:00
help create better people and we help people grow, they will grow the business

31:06
and we work on relationships and the dynamics of those relationships. One of my books is difficult conversations

31:12
don't have to be difficult and we help with communication on the team and you have those difficult conversations,

31:18
you're going to grow. If we implement these seven commitments as a team, you're not going to have negativity sabotage your team. So just as people

31:26
are thinking about books, I would recommend starting with the energy bus. I would read the carpenter and soup,

Sequence Of Books To Read

31:33
which are two fables. If you want to be a better leader, I would read the power of positive leadership. If you want a

31:39
how-to book on like the keys to being a great leader, these are the essential principles and practices of being a

31:45
great leader. And it's our leadership framework, the power of positive leadership. If you want to build a

31:50
stronger team, power of a positive team, which is a great how-to book, which is a

31:55
framework on building a stronger team. Seven commitments also falls in line with that, but that's a fable about

32:01
building a stronger team. So, seven commitments of a great team is also a great a great read for people out there.

32:08
And then the one truth again if you want to learn about how everything is

32:13
ultimately defined and decided by oneness and separateness connection and disconnection and that makes all the

32:20
other books so simple and clear as well because we realize oh my job as a leader is great connection and look to see

32:26
where we're disconnected and look to see where I'm disconnected and look to see where I can be more connected and look

32:31
to see where the gaps in the communication are and the gaps in our frustrations and challenges and what's

32:38
holding us back and the fear that's separating us and replacing it with the love that unites us. If we can do these

32:44
things, you'll realize, okay, I've got the key, I got the framework, I got the essence behind it. Now I just got to put

32:49
it into practice, right? And that's where for me what I

Principles and Practices

32:55
like about your content is it's not just theory, right? You know, it's taking really practical

33:00
concepts in whatever area somebody is currently sitting in and they can choose. It might be this book is for me

33:07
at this time or this book is for me in a different season, but then it's the practical steps. So, I just want to say

33:12
thank you for the great content uh cuz I know it's blessed a lot of people. Yeah, I appreciate that so much. I wanted to add to that. You just nailed

33:18
it. Principles inform, practices transform. So, along the way, just think

33:26
about what principles do I need and what practices do I need to implement as a leader to help my team. And I always

33:32
tell people just look at my books and say which one is speaking to you in that moment. And that's the one you should

33:38
read because everyone is in a different season. And I have people read a book now and then they'll read it several

33:44
years from now and they'll go, "Wow, it's a I I didn't even see that the first time I read it." And that happened

33:50
to me with the books I've read over the years. You read it once, you read it again and you get a completely different

33:55
take from it. But I do believe that the books that we need to read find us for

34:00
the right reason. and also the right season. And so you just got to be on the lookout and open for those books. And by

34:05
the way, there's a lot of great books out there that are not mine that are also great to read. I just want to encourage people to become readers.

34:12
100%. Well, John, I want to hit you with the last 60 seconds with 10 rapidfire

Ten Rapid-Fire Questions

34:19
questions where you just say the first thing that comes to mind. Who's the first person you think of when

34:26
I say servant leadership? Servant leadership. Jesus. All right. Five words that most describe you.

34:33
Five words. Positive, competitive,

34:38
loving, caring, integrity.

34:43
All right. Favorite book or movie? Rocky.

34:48
Absolutely. Favorite food? Absolutely. Favorite food? Pizza.

34:55
All right. Favorite thing to do in your free time? Pickle ball. All right. What's a surprising fact

35:01
about you? My last name, Gordon, is my mom's maiden

35:07
name. My biological father left when I was a year old, and me and my brother took our mom's maiden name after

35:12
college. Wow. All right. Where's somewhere that you uh want to be that you have not

35:19
been? Somewhere I want to be, where I'm not. Well, we're going to Portugal, Lisbon

35:24
after this conversation a few weeks from now. So, I'm looking forward to going there. But where do I want to be? I want

35:31
to see Rome. I've been to Florence, but

35:36
I've not been able to explore Rome yet. And I love Italy. What's the best advice you've ever gotten?

35:42
Talk to yourself. Don't listen to yourself. Dr. James Gills. Wow. And finally, why do you think a

Importance Of A Podcast On Servant Leadership

35:49
podcast on servant leadership is important? Because servant leadership

35:54
is the way to lead. Jesus turned the world upside down through the power of

36:00
servant leadership. He invested in his 12. He served them. And those 12 would

36:06
go on to impact and change the world. And even if you're not a believer, that's totally okay. But you can't deny

36:12
the impact that these 12 had on the world. I should say 11. There was one

36:17
energy vampire on the team named Judas. But but the the rest would go on to impact the world. and hospitals were

36:24
started because Jesus healed the sick and encouraged his followers to do the same. Oxford and Harvard were started by

36:32
Jesus followers. If you actually go throughout history and look at all these incredible innovations and things that

36:40
we take for granted right now that are just part of our society, they were actually started by followers of of

36:46
Jesus. And he did it through servant leadership. He taught us to focus on the love and the care of others more than

36:54
ourselves. And that is a worthwhile characteristic of a leader. It may not

36:59
get you short-term money, but it will certainly get you long-term joy,

37:04
happiness, and fulfillment, and a reward in heaven and eternity. And I'll take

37:10
eternity over a temporary reward any day. Wow, that's so good. Well, thank you,

Closing

37:15
John, for joining us on the Servant Leadership Podcast. I know that our audience will love your content and

37:20
we're going to link below to a bunch of your content where people can find more about what you're doing. Thank you for listening to this episode

37:26
of the Servant Leadership Podcast. If you enjoyed what you heard, please give it a thumbs up and leave a comment

37:33
below. Don't forget to subscribe and hit the notification bell to never miss an

37:39
update. Be sure to check out the servantleershippodcast.org for more updates and additional bonus

37:44
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