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John Eades is the CEO of LearnLoft, an organization focused on developing the modern professional. He is also the author of  F.M.L. Standing Out and Being a Leader and host of the  Follow My Lead podcast. He wants a world where every modern professional adds value to his or her organization and the world. He writes or has been featured on Inc.com, LinkedIn Pulse, TrainingIndustry.com, eLearningIndustry.com, CNBC Money, and more. He also was a professional Golfer which he says thought him how to deal with failure! When I asked John to be a guest on the podcast, I didn't expect to discuss Garth Brooks' hit song 'Standing Outside the Fire', Soccer (Football) or Faith in detail but it's amazing what comes up and becomes very relevant as these conversations unfold and this one was absolutely one of the best so far for that. During this hour long conversation, we go broad and deep into John's career, learnings, turning points, faith, success, and so much more. A summary of the topics covered including the key 1% Better takeaways, and book recommendations are covered below. I really hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did recording it. Summary:

• Earliest Memories growing up with his brothers and family
• A Soccer Shoe/Boot incident at the age of 6
• Discuss how soccer is growing but is not part of the DNA in the USA yet!
• Sport being a huge part of John’s life growing up
• Ambition was leading John to step on others to get where he wanted to get to!
• Faithwas always a strong part of John’s life
• A Big Personal Turning point in John’s mindset with Faith being a bit part of this!
• Realizing that he was thinking too much of himself – the moment was defining!
• That lead John to start to think of others more and focused on this!
• You become a combination of the 5 people you surround yourself with!
• The Candle story– work on getting this brighter rather than dimmer!
• The importance of Values
• A learning switch go off in John after giving up professional golf
• A meeting with the Author John Gordon that became a lesson in how to collaborate
• The importance of being authentic
• We’re all selling every single day, we just don’t realize it and it might not be for a product in exchange for Money!
• Quid Pro Quo– find ways to help others and they will help you back
• Golf – How to deal with failure and comparisons to baseball
• The Garth Brooks song 'Standing outside of the fire' and how it inspired John
• Facing Fears by standing inside the fire
• How John has just kept going and stick with it even when it felt like others might not be listening
• Biggest Professional Turning Point - Setting up a learning technologies company but 9 months in, it wasn’t working out!
• After firing an employee, John realized that he was the problem from a leadership perspective.
• This sparked the change to be a content company focusing on leadership
• Knowing that leadership is about other people more than the leader!
• This helped John realize that he had to trust others, not be in every decision and know that not everyone does it your way and that is ok!
• This lead to John becoming very clear on his purpose – every day waking up being excited to learn and help other people learn about leadership!
• How John defines success today - significance over success
• Faith v Meditation and how they compare! Going beyond yourself is key
• Don't stay in the middle - Taking a stand and believing in something but don’t stay in the middle

Defining leadership – Someone who’s actions inspire, empower, and serve others to produce an improved state over an extended period of time! Key lessons shared:

• Behaviours become habits, habits becomes results
• Behaviours – consciously done
• Habits – unconsciously done
• Leadership Circles:
  • Top Two are Confidence & Drive = The Jackass Compound!
  • Bottom Two are Selflessness & Character = The Cordual compound = too nice
• Surround yourself with people that are doing good things – it will lead you to good things!
• Be Proactive and find people in your life that will help you!
• Leadership -  love and discipline are key traits to use!!
• Buyer Alignment– Think of what you can do for the customer – Quid Pro Quo!
• Build relationships – not hard selling
• Learning from Failure with Golf – you rarely win!!
• Stand inside the fire – push yourself outside the comfort-zone
• Always focus on doing work that’s of value to you at the very least – if others find value in it, then great!
• Know when it’s time to leave or if there are opportunities to change!
• A failure can lead to a purpose to help other people
• Ask yourself how you define success!
• Practice Patience and be Proactive
• Leadership – the key trait = Empathy at all costs! Jack Welch as the key leadership trait!
• There are no bad teams, just bad leaders – Jocko Willink

Book:

• The Energy Bus – John Gordon
• Book : Two Chairs by Bob Boden

Connect with John:

• www.learnloft.com
• LinkedIn – JohnEades

Just a quick note to say thanks for listening. With so many to choose from, it’s great to know you value this one.  My only ask back to you is to get in touch with comments, questions, concerns, or whatever you feel like sharing.  Help me get this show & the new one (the 864) up the charts in iTunes so more can hear it too! To do that, please subscribe, rate and review by clicking on iTunes You can also share this episode like out on the social networks. . It will help me reach a bigger audience. If One Person gets something from the Episode that makes them 1% Better, I’ll be a happy man. Finally, if you really love the show, and really want me to take it to the next level, I’ve set up a Patreon site where you pledge some financial support. That would be awesome. You will also get exclusive access to upcoming podcasts and article posts that are just for those that are Patreons. Connect in with Rob on the socials or via email on: Email    Twitter   Facebook   Website