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 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!
Faith was 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