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Speech Transcript

Hey, this is john Fenton, owner and CEO of john J. Fenton, executive coaching. If you really want to learn how to level up your life, you should be listening to the

time to shine today podcast my friend Scott Ferguson.

Hey there time to shine today squad. It’s Scott Ferguson and I have a fantastic interview with my friend john Fenton from john J. Fenton, executive coaching. JOHN comes from humble beginnings, but he also played football at the EU in the EU is the University of Miami. Fantastic, fantastic athlete, Tai Chi master on Amazon best seller. And he’s going to drop some solid, solid knowledge nuggets on how to level up your life, and especially if you work kind of in the executive world. So sit back, relax, break out your notepad because here comes my friend, john Fenton.

Hey, time to shine squad. It’s Scott Ferguson here and I am super, super stoked that I get to have a nice conversation and pass on his knowledge Nuggets to you, the CEO sensei john Fenton, a little bit about john john helps CEOs and entrepreneurs improve their leadership skills and level up their success. There’s that level up. We use that every day here. He has mentored hundreds of executives in one on john coaching and has led thousands and keynotes seminars and retreats. He’s a mentor, award winning speaker, best selling author and expert. Some have called him the CEO sensei. I Those are some serious credentials and john, welcome to the show. And please tell us your favorite color and why.

Hey, Scott, thanks so much and so pleasure is just a great pleasure to be on your show today. My favorite color is blue like a Navy Blue and you know it’s interesting to ask why. So thinking about it you know different colors have different resonance and different vibrational qualities. And what I’ve learned from my my mentioned we talked earlier and I black belt and Tai Chi and a master and I learned that some of these vibrational qualities resonate with different people and some of the blue color is more of a spiritual color. And kind of a higher higher frequency color. navy blue is always stuck out for me so even and I have a kind of lighter blue in my logo, which I use the blues in my logo and and for some reason, it just really really really grabs me so

I love it. I’m right there with you. I kind of blend between a red and a blue. Sometimes I’ll go red when I need to. But blue is I’m I’m a water guy I live here. The oceans. I love the blue as well. Tell us tell us about the executive coaching at john Jay Fenton and the origins

of that. Absolutely. So You know, I spent? Well, first of all, I was a collegiate athlete and so at a very high level, playing college football and really focused on athletic excellence for myself and our team was on a successful team. We were ranked 18th in the country when I finished my last year. Where’d you go? JOHN? universe Miami Hurricanes.

Okay. Right, right in rows down

the road. Yeah. And play with you know, great guys. Jim Kelly, Mark Richt. A lot of guys that went on to the NFL and I like to tell people that, you know, Dwayne Johnson, the rock was hurricane A few years later after after me. Sure. And Dwayne and I have very similar backgrounds. I heard an interview with him and he was talking about how from humble beginnings and went to your show Miami and had aspirations to play in the NFL. And, and so did I and, and so both of us, we got to the end of our football career in college, and neither one of us were drafted. Okay, and that led, you know, and that’s where our career diverged. So Dwayne became obviously the famous. Now he’s a great actor and certainly a professional wrestler. And, and I became I got my MBA under two degrees at Miami and clean my MBA became an accountant and CPA. I was the managing partner of an international CPA firm in the Atlanta Office and one of the North Carolina offices and, and I was with that firm for over 30 years. And so I had a lot of experience dealing with businesses and executives at a high level, and also being in charge of running a business and a couple locations. And I’ve run actually three businesses. And so I learned a lot from those experiences. And along the way I, for my own sanity, I discovered Tai Chi and meditation, excuse me, that really helped me be a better leader. And about seven years ago, I decided to take early retirement I took a leap of faith because I wanted to follow my passion of working with executives, helping them be the best leaders they could be and bringing to bear now. 40 years of business experience and On top of that Collegiate Athletic excellence, and leadership in many, many different ways, and you’ve been on great teams and crappy teams, I have a lot of insights, right that I can share. And I love sharing all that experience and helping executives, be authentic, be their authentic self. Thirdly, authentic, find your authentic leadership style, and be the best they can be. Help your companies and healthier communities.

JOHN, you were an accountant, CPA at a high level also in a farm. And so seven years ago, you started the executive coach, what was that aha moment that said, I’m going to do this.

Well, I had an idea in my mind that I would retire early, but I wasn’t sure when my aha moment was and I wrote a book that was a best seller in Amazon number one new release and bestseller in 2018, which I share this story in my book

and I was

I was at a doctor’s office and they and they said, you know, we could do a stress test. Let’s let the cardiologists on the treadmill. I’m huffing and puffing and all of a sudden the doctor rushes in, stop, lie down, and they called an ambulance. They rushed me to the hospital. And while I’m in the hospital, my heart’s racing like crazy, like just beating really just out of my chest like 1000 beats a minute, it felt like and at one point, I blacked out, they were getting ready to reel me in to the to the operating room to do a heart catheterization. And I kind of blacked out and right before they started that right before this right before they begin the procedure, I blacked out and woke up in the hospital room. My wife was there with me and the first person I saw her my wife and I had a vision of my daughter have a daughter and I was really focused on them and being with them and I wasn’t focused on all the deadlines and all the responsibilities to me the business, right, right. And so that was a wake up call, and so on. You know, I decided shortly thereafter within nine months I retired. So that was sort of the impetus that was the launching off point to do what I what I did. And really sort of navigating my way through my training, Personal Training, how to be the best coach that I could be your best executive coach. And I do one on one coaching and I team building and work with corporations and their teams as well as the one on one as well as speaking public speaking and, and so I actually was asked to manage the yoga and Tai Chi center for I did that for about a year over a year and reopened it stabilized it built the business back up and then was sold it was sold to a third party and decided that was not my path. My path was really being out in the community working with executives one on one and their teams and became a Vistage coach. This is chair Vistage is an international organization and learned a great deal from that built a group launched a group with that And was successful and decided again that my path was really to do what I do now and to really focus on the human side of leadership, not so much the numbers. I mean, I’m a numbers guy and I can, some of my clients I do, you know, detail goal setting and planning and strategic planning. And I and I have that ability from all my experience of being in the industry and public accounting and dealing with meeting with and working with many companies. I really focus on the human side of it, the human element and looking at emotional IQ, leadership style, how they the communication style, how they communicate how they lead, and it gives me great pleasure to work with my clients and I’ve received a lot of great affirmations during an after the fact from my clients. So it’s been really just a lot of fun for me to do that.

Your family obviously was there when you had this basically a heart attack. You will

have to know it was it was it wasn’t a heart attack. Technically it was

at a regular heart based electrical problem. God, I have no heart damage, which thankfully no heart day. Awesome. Okay, and you have this thing called pvcs premature ventricular contractions understood. So had for a long time, but it got really exacerbated,

right? Because you’re pushing yourself probably a lot, you know, a lot of T account. So was it like a breath of fresh air in a sense to when you caught this it would for your family, where they really supportive about you kind of backing off and going in this executive coaching way cuz some people will say like, oh, man, he’s, he does great. Maybe he should just back it down a little bit, but continue what he’s doing with your family really supportive as you started john J. Fenton, executive coaching. Yeah, very much so.

So that’s great. Yeah, man very, very much so and I have a lot of great friends that are very supportive as well. So

nice. So, tell me what, what do you think makes a great coach?

You know, I think my I’ll speak from my own experience, right? So if I think back to like what I thought were great coaches, a lot of us saw a lot of it in athletic arena and also in business. There were the coaches that really connected one on one with the individual. Okay, and they understood the teammates, they understood the players on the team. And Matter of fact, a friend of mine was sharing a den, where I live out at Reynolds like alcone. There were several college coaches and coaches, NFL coaches and college coaches that live out the square have homes out here and as a coach, I won’t name the school but a very high level. Very successful college team right now. And he someone asked him that question and he said, you know, it’s being able to understand the wants and needs and what motivates each player. So as an executive coach or as a leader, As an executive coach, I need to understand my clients and what motivates them. Right. And that’s really how I help, in many ways help the leaders that I work with is what do you know? How do you understand the attributes of your people, your direct reports, you understand them? Do you know them? Do you have real conversation? So sort of my secret sauce is, if you will, is being able to connect one on one, create an open space where we can both parties, you know, can really freely share and to really tap into what is their unique qualities. Some people call it the USP, the unique selling propositions or think about individual is what’s their unique quality or unique leadership style, what are they really shine and sort of tap into that and help them either shine, you know, open up, shine a spotlight on it or open up a blind spot for them shouldn’t really help them kind of drill into that and really own their direction. expertise and really be complaining in their zone of genius. out there. Yeah, there’s a book out there called the big leap by Dr. Gay Hendricks. It’s gay Hendricks and the big leap. And he talks about these four quadrants. And one of those is your zone of genius or Joe’s zone of unique ability. other coaches have talked about this too. And so I really kind of tap into that with my clients.

Okay. And so what I’m hearing is like you actually find you’re not a cookie cutter, you know, find and you dig and you dig and you create the open space, find the blind spots within each one of your clients. And do you ever find that some people upon meeting them, they’re just not going to be the right fit for you? Oh, absolutely.

Yeah. And I will quickly, you know, I’ll, I will, you know, nurture them and help them move on to someone else. But yeah, they’ve got to be really willing and able to open themselves up and to be honest. And when I’m doing a presentation or one on one, I create a space of openness, vulnerability. And that’s how that’s my style when I give a talk, whether it’s a 20 minute keynote or an hour or a full day workshop or whatever, the first thing I do is create a space with the group of openness and so sharing and getting people open up to create that sense of vulnerability because from that vulnerability, if some people think it’s a weakness, it’s really your strength. from that place of vulnerability, you start to open up and the wall start to come down a little bit. And from that you really learn a lot about yourself and you learn a lot about the people you’re with and each person helps each each other to grow in that situation.

Excellent. So who would be if I was sitting at a networking event processing flash meeting people, and I was in a conversation with some What are the key words that I would hear to refer them as a prospect or possible referral? That’s a great, great question. I think someone who I’m thinking of specifically my client so they’re very successful people, but something just doesn’t seem right.

You know, in that blind spot, right, there’s a blind spot and we’re not quite sure what it is something’s disturbing them right or you know, some examples where you know, a high level executive one to be CEO, but there was you know, he had burned some bridges you know, relationship so work, we focused on relationships and he was able to secure he ended up leaving that company but secured a much higher level position much more than doubled his income moving to a larger organization because he, he understood where, you know, I shine some light on some of these blind spots and we worked together for a year. You know, others it’s have specific goals and targets they want to meet, but they’re not sure How to get to them. Others are entrepreneurs and they’ve been very successful, but they’re the kind of lost their Mojo that kind of lost, you know, why am I doing what am I doing? What’s my purpose? What’s my endgame? What’s my result that I really want to achieve and, and really just helping them to to reevaluate what they’re, you know what their purposes in life and in their business and, and how they can re energize themselves re energizing them energizing them, giving them tools to engage more deeply because quite honestly but business is all about relationships, all of it, whether it’s customers, your employees, team members, of course at home to and in your personal life and so helping them to engage more deeply and more effectively and to empower them to really have their success and enjoy their success now, not waiting for some life event to come down the road.

Love it. So, you, me so what would you play for A coach now. Right? That’s right.

I had three head coaches. The last one was coach Dylan burger.

Okay, gotcha. Yeah. Cuz it was definitely a transit transitional period. Yeah.

What would the john Jay, fair enough today? If you could go back and talk to the 21 year old john j button? What would you tell them?

That’s a great, great question. And I’ve thought a lot about this actually, if I had to do it all over again. I was I had sort of like imposter syndrome as an athlete. Right, right. So here I was, I was like a top 20 recruit in the state of Florida. I was highly recruited blue chip, all that stuff, get to next level and it’s a whole different ballgame. Right? And just trying to find my way and in so I felt like I had to act like a different person. And so those walls are up and I wasn’t, I wasn’t emotionally my emotional IQ was not Very high back then I’ll just say that and so, look I cared about my teammates I cared about the team didn’t always come across that way. And, and so if I look back on it, just being a better teammate, okay, my teammates and just really expressing that in a way that they got it.

Love it. And, john, do you deal with a lot of people every day when they either come to you for coaching or other people refer them to you, but is there any good question that you wish some of these people would ask you, but they never do?

Mm hmm. Yeah, I think

a lot of times you get the question, Well, how do you you know, how do we work together? And so I have to kind of dig right into what’s really going on for them. Right. Um, you know, I think the I think the question I would just have them ask me is, you know, what, what is it that Woody, what is it you see in me in a short period of time with anything you see in me and my ability that I could constraint them? Right.

I love that.

Yeah. And it’s hard to do sometimes. But, you know, I heard this, I heard this speaker, professional speaker and he was a famous artist. And his name is Platt. Tom is a photograph artist and his foot he’s photograph like really famous people like Putin and Bill Clinton and a whole bunch of other people and people in the streets, too. He captures their essence. And he says, Look, when I go to when I go to speak, or I go to do a photo shoot for a president or a very famous person, because I got maybe a top 15 minutes, right. So in 15 minutes, he has to capture the essence of that person in a very short timeframe. And so he does that by opening up the conversation, he creates vulnerability, right. And I think that’s really what I try to do very quickly is to really open my ears. I let you know I let the person talk. I listen a lot. In a great deal of my life depends on you know

two ears and one mouth for a reason that’s my mom used to always say. So with you being you so you played with like gozar right?

He was he got in your right afterwards count Jim Kelly and Kelly Hey, this was oj oj Anderson, Otis Anderson and a bunch of other guys.

Okay, so you played with the big side you you ran a company, very high level you are executive coach to some high level individuals because even come aboard you want them to kind of be successful and look for blind spots? What is I mean that that’s a big life already. But is there something bigger that you want?

Yeah, I want to be recognized as an international leader and or international expert in leadership and inspiration.

I love that you hear that squad. He just came right back with an answer to a question that most people take forever to and that that’s impressive, john, appreciate you doing that. Hey, So, with let’s take your cell phone out of it. Mm hmm. What are three things in life you cannot live without?

cannot live without family.

You know, I think, excuse me get a little emotional when we, the people have a lot of people believe they have, you know, guardian angels like I’m married to one. She’s a very strong willed woman. And very helpful and I’ll share a little bit more for you. So sure, please go ahead that I had that event that was like eight years ago, right? blacked out. So in much more recent times. Right after my book was launched in 2018. I was burning the candle at both ends and working really hard and had some big goals for myself in 2018. And it was in a meeting with a client and I just slumped forward. Oh, and he thought I was joking and he tried to nudge me and I didn’t move and they quickly got the upset. A little multipurpose facility out here where I live in the facility and have exercise and a lot of stuff there and and so they brought the fitness director who’s also the man in charge of the facility, brought him in very quickly got me on the floor ripped open my shirt began administering CPR. I was not breathing.

This was 2018.

Yeah, wow. Okay, go on. Sorry, hearted stop, breathe, stop pumping, administer CPR, for over 25 over 20 minutes, something like 25 minutes and EMT showed up about nine minutes into this. And during this process, they had an ad defibrillator machine on site and they brought that into the room and they hooked that up. And that went off five times revive my heart. Wow. I was unconscious. Sure. My wife was in the same facility at the same time for a lady’s holiday. It was right before Christmas is like two weeks for Christmas. With a big meeting big group of women in the community and they they someone got her brought her in and she witnessed the whole thing. I was rushed to the hospital it put me in a hypothermia coma. And I woke up five days later A few days later, on a Saturday morning and ICU and there’s my wife, my daughter and my bedside I go, what happened?

Now I tell people people ask me, I did not see any white lights.

Right. You know, I just had the sense of trying to come back I went and a few weeks later, so anyways, like, no heart damage, again, have skipped all the heart attack stuff went right to sudden cardiac arrest. The cardiologist told me I had less than a 5% chance of survival. Okay, it was, I believe in Providence in the gentleman who was their director of that facility, had been a lifeline EMT and his path administered CPR at over 100 people. I went to see him and I said his name is Scott Scott, I want to acknowledge you for not giving up on me. He said, john, is when he told me I administered just over 100 people before I’m an expert in he said, I knew I could tell you were fighting Get your breath back. And it wasn’t going to give up on you knew I was getting good circulation. And so long story short, in May I saw the cardiologist and the irregular heartbeat, which is the condition I had previously got worse. That’s all better. And I made I made my heart health my number one, I call it my breakthrough girl for 2019. And I achieved that in a vise. And so my wife was very strong and she really rallied and she was with me all the way my daughter as well very strong willed, individual and very focused and organized and, and our community really pulled behind to our extended family and our community really played pray prayed a great, great deal for me. Sure. And, and I believe in the power of prayer, I believe in you know, connections and relationships and people around you having good people around you absolutely and positive energy from that and also, I’m here for a reason you No and this really, it’s interesting. I wrote about that in my book, but this is even more severe recently, right? And it just brought home to me even more strongly My message to help executives to focus on what really matters most.

I love it. You owe me two more though. Two more. Can you live without?

Yeah, sorry long as Oh,

you’re fine.

I can’t live out live without being outside. Okay. I love being in nature. I love it. We live in a great little golf Lake community. So I love the kayak. I love to play golf. I love to take hikes. And such being out being outside and being outdoors, really just you know, I’ll take a two mile walk if I feel like I’m getting all kind of fuzzy and stressed out I go take a two mile walk. You know, that’s I’ll go to the gym and workout but it’s really being outside and enjoying that. And the third thing that I can’t live without I think it’s just the sense of freedom to be Be able to create my life

by my by my design, know someone else’s design.

I love that. All right in. Alright, so we’re gonna move into what I call our level up lightning round. Okay. All right. So you could have you and I could talk for 1520 minutes of each one of these questions right, but you got 10 seconds. Sure god Okay,

God, I’ll be brief. I’ll be brief. All right. Love it. You’re ready.

Yeah. All right, what’s the best level of advice you’ve ever received?

Be present. Awesome.

share one of your personal habits that contributes to your success.

Tai Chi and meditation at least five minutes every day.

Love it. That’s phenomenal. Other than your website, and of course, time to shine today. My shameless plug at recommend to us another internet resource that people can go to to level up their life.

You may go to I’m sorry. Yeah, um

you know, there’s some great meditation apps out there websites and people. You know, I follow a lot of different people. I think Ray Dalio follow.

Go.

Yeah. Principle. principles. Very successful businessman. He also practice meditation.

Love it.

Other than the big leap, and also your book. What’s another one of your go to books that you’ve that you can use in the past?

Absolutely. I’m a big devotee of jack Canfield.

And his book The success principles.

Yes,

absolutely. And I’m right now in the process of completing my certification as a jack Canfield trainer. Oh, wow. I’ve been following him. I’ve been to a mastermind at his home a couple years ago, and I’ve been following him ever since. And I finally said, you know, he came to Atlanta in September and I said, You know, I think I should probably make it official because I, I use this book. I recommend it to all of my clients. Right, and I’ve got one copy All marked up and I have one pristine copy that he autographed for me in September. And so I decided to sign up and actually get the certification from his programs and his philosophy really aligns with my philosophy of how to work with people in organizations,

your favorite charity organization you’d like to support or donate to

the Kiwanis Club Kiwanis foundation. They support children around the world. Okay. Yeah, that’s been number one and also universe Miami, obviously.

Absolutely. And last question, the best decade of the 60s 70s 80s or 90s 70s my friend go I’m right there with you. Eagles, eagles, and I saw them eight times. That’s not a lot. I saw them when I was a kid. My dad drugged me out small off in the crowd going What is this? But then when the Hell Freezes Over tour k 94. I don’t think I missed a concert on the west coast. I’m out there.

Well, I was in 1972 when the first big hit.

Take it easy. Yeah. That was Just a seminal song for me.

That’s excellent. So before we add john, what is one Knowledge Nugget that you want? our listeners our varsity squad to take with them?

Yeah, great question. Take time each day, take at least five minutes each day to focus on your, your breathing your breath. And the reason I say that is it allows you to really center yourself and ground yourself. And then think about things that you appreciate. What do you appreciate most in your life and actually have include some of that in my book and also have a free guide. If you’re, if your listeners want to get it, it’s a free PDF. It’s called the five minutes shift. Okay, and it’s kind of sort of a medication guide, and I have a link for that if you’d like me to share it. Absolutely.

I’ll put it right in our show notes. Got it. Absolutely.

Yeah, it’s

ww www.bi T dot L y. So it’s Bitly right big t.ly forward slash the five the number five, the five minute shift, five minute shift and they can register there and get the free download. Awesome.

So other than Okay, so your website is john j Fenton calm and is your book the five minute mastery?

Yes five minute mastery

okay and that can be found at Amazon peeps. Is there any other speaking gave it engagements or anything that you have coming up new book coming out or anything else that you want to share with our squad?

Yeah, I’m about every month or so I’ve started some CEO and leaders event in Atlanta. it’s free it’s a half day workshop. The next one is March 20. From 830 to 12am. It’s right in the heart of Midtown Atlanta, and if they want to get more information they can reach out to me through my website.

JOHN J. Fenton, calm Calm

Yeah. Or if they want to send me a direct email it’s john at john Jay Fenton, calm make use of it.

Alright squad. So there you have it we wow the CEO sensei really, really brought it today. Everything Everything from working with his clients to playing in their zone of genius to be in super close with his family has an awesome wife loves the outdoor and the freedom to live by design, and squad. Those are the kind of people we want to surround ourselves with people that stay humble. Like he comes from humble beginnings to stay healthy, that are leveling up their health and leveling up their wealth. So it’s their time to shine. And john, thank you so much. I’m humbled and grateful. And now you’re part of the squad and you can’t go anywhere. So

I’d really appreciate that. But

your little virtual fist pump for the screen. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Thanks again, john. Hey, thanks so much for listening to this episode of time to shine today podcast, proudly brought to you by southern New Jersey. Real Estate real estate excellence who can be reached at 561-249-7266 and online at www dot Sutter in nugent.com. If you’re a business owner or professional who would like to be interviewed on time to shine today, please visit time to shine today.com slash guests. If you like this episode, please subscribe on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, I Heart Radio or wherever you get your podcast. There’s a link in the show notes to our website. Also there you will see a recommended resources. We hope that you will support our show by supporting them. If you like what you’ve been listening to, it’d be great if you could just give us a five star rating until your friends have subscribed while you’re at it. I’m your host, Scott Ferguson. And until next time, let’s level up. It’s our time to shine.

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