John Krotec

John Krotec

[00:00:00] This is an undiscovered legacy production and prod member of Pod Nation Media Network. I.

Hello SC believers and welcome up to episode number one 14 of the Undiscovered Entrepreneur. Get across the start line and it's me sc coming at you with whatever device you have to be listening on all right, school believers. I just finished my first ever speaking engagement. It was amazing. I'm really glad I was able to do it, and they've already invited me back for another one, so I'm looking to put that speaking engagement here in the podcast, so stay tuned for that. If you'd like to hear that, hear me speak, and probably a couple other people speak to along with it.

I'm gonna get right in today. In today's episode, the entrepreneur we're talking to is John. John took a $40,000 investment and turned it into $11 million in sales. He opened up a single outdoor gear store in Florida of all places and turned it into a 23 year success [00:01:00] story, , proving naysayers wrong when everyone said, where do people climb in Florida?

His specialty retail business generated over $11 million in gross sales from just 30,000 square feet. Building generational customer relationships. We're gonna talk about that, that in the podcast, that kept the business striving for another decade after he sold it.

Now, John isn't just another business owner. He summited 12 peaks over 20,000 feet and use the mountaineering experience to create $30,000 adventure trips to the Andes. He literally stood at the curvature of the earth with seeing his customers cried, tears of joy that they couldn't shed 'cause they'd freeze and turn his fear of not knowing his own products into life altering adventures for his clients. Now, John, after a devastating accident in 2012 left him with a traumatic brain injury. John didn't just recover. He [00:02:00] reinvented himself in the digital space with a mission of impact in millions of families worldwide. He's now leading a multi continental team working on an educational curriculum and aiming for 3 million in sales proving that entrepreneurs can rise like a phoenix from the greatest challenges. So ladies and gentlemen, let's listen to John.

Salutation School believers, and we are here again with another amazing entrepreneur. Today. We're here with John. Hey John. How's it going? 

John: It is going great, Jesse, and I'm proud and honored to be here. Thank you. 

Fantastic. Thanks so much for taking the time outta your day. To be on The Undiscovered Entrepreneur, get across the start line.

John: Yes, anytime I can share stories and tips and things that can improve people's lives and businesses, I'm there. So even if you did it at eight o'clock, I would've been here midnight. I don't know. But yeah, 

the earlier time we kind of go, blah, 

John: I know. Till we get that first [00:03:00] cup of coffee, then it's life changes.

Oh, yeah. Everything ding. Okay. So the very, I'm gotta ask you kind of a semi-serious question here. Okay, John. Ready? Yes sir. Go edge. Fire away. Alright, here we go. Are you a SC believer? 

John: I am. I'm one of the most diehard SC believers and I just started today. I'm what you would call a neophyte SC believer, so Oh my 

goodness.

John: But I am so, and I will be from here on out, so. Thanks for the question. 

Oh yeah, absolutely. Thanks John. Thanks for being a SC believer. I super appreciate you. Alright, so what I'd like to do here at the very beginning is let's get a kind of idea of who you are, what your entrepreneur adventure is, and how you got across the start line in your entrepreneur adventure.

John: Great. How limited in time are we, Jesse? But, uh, I'm, I grew up in Florida, west coast of Florida. My dad was a businessman who hailed from Pennsylvania. My mom was from Florida. They met at college at the University of Miami, go u [00:04:00] and they settled in Sarasota. That's where I grew up, and I really was interested not in business.

All through middle school, I was more interested in writing and in art, and so I had this. Full ride scholarship to the University of Kansas when I was graduating from high school and my dad pulled me aside and he goes, you're not gonna make any money in art. And he was in business. He says, why don't you think about doing something else?

So I said to myself, I was working part-time in a restaurant washing dishes and had been for a few years and I thought, well, you know what? I really liked the restaurant business. Maybe I'll go in the restaurant business. That's the wrong way to probably pick and choose a college degree.

But that's what happened. And so I went off to FSU. I'm a diehard Seminole. You can imagine the battles I had with my dad in our household. But we, so I graduated with a degree in business. And I had 10 or 11 job offers being in the [00:05:00] restaurant business. And I got to pick and choose. I could have been in the hotel business, resort hotels and, but I chose the chart house restaurants, and I went, well, I was in California, San Diego, a lot of my buddies were going to Chicago and Denver.

But I was out on the West coast and went through my training there and then got my first restaurant. It was St. Thomas, in the Virgin Islands, and I'd never been really outside the country, but it was a new experience for me to run a restaurant on an island where sometimes you can't even get supplies, the food has to come in.

So, I was a corporate manager for the Chart House for about two and a half years, and it wasn't working for me, the corporate thing, I was more of always wanting to improve systems. And look for solutions and that didn't fit the corporate model. So came back to the states, made contact with a lady who had been a recruiter and a friend of mine and a manager.

And she got me a job at another restaurant company that [00:06:00] was Steak and Ale. And I thought, well, maybe if I change companies, things will be different. And it didn't take too long to realize that I wasn't so much a renegade as I was a team player, but I didn't really fit the corporate model. So what was I gonna do?

Didn't have any money to really start a business, and so I decided I would go into the army, serve my country, and I did it backwards, and then come out and see where life would take me. After that, I had visions of grandeur of going off to law school, which didn't pan out. That's how life is. So I joined the army.

I served my country. I rose up the ranks very quickly. Got out, made the transition, got reacquainted with a woman that I had known 10 years previous, and we, the universe connected us and so I wasn't gonna go back in the service, which I'd been thinking about. So we decided that we were gonna open a business together.

And so what we did is we pulled together our resources. [00:07:00] I actually borrowed a little bit of money and for $40,000, we invested in a specialty retail business that we developed, selling boots and backpacks and climbing gear on the west coast of Florida. What are we doing? People were telling us, you're not gonna make it.

Where do people climb in Florida? Where do people hike In Florida. Isn't it hot here? There's no mountains here. And so we heard all the naysayers and we did it anyway, so we can get into that through the questioning, Jesse later. But what we ended up doing for a $40,000 investment, we were in business for 23 years.

We rolled, a little over $11 million in gross sales at a 3000 square feet. And I sold the business, and it went on 10 years after we left. And we'll talk about how that, why that happened too, but so that, and so here I am. So then in 2012, I get a bump on the head and I was involved in an accident and I had a, traumatic brain injury.[00:08:00]

And I had to deal with some personal issues that I didn't deal with when I was much younger, but it took a lot of time, took a lot of courage to finally face my demons and to get back on track. So for the last decade, I've been operating in the online. World, business world, and it has been completely different from bricks and mortar.

But we can talk about that. And we're, I'm really involved in a couple of projects now that have the potential to change the course of, of humanity. And I don't say that lightly. We can talk a little bit about that, but I really wanna share things about you to help you on your startup venture.

But that's where I'm at. I'm here on your show and, i'm a sc believer, where else should I be? But here, 

right. This is, this is where we put you. That's right. You know, it's funny that you used to work at a restaurant. I actually, I have a night job at the same time I'm doing this too, and I actually work in a restaurant here in Branson, Missouri, as a [00:09:00] server.

So not as, not as high end, as you, but, it's funny that we have that con, that kind of common thing. 

John: Absolutely. And I love servers. The servers had it going on. I remember here I am, college guy, college degree, making X amount of dollars and waiters they were, they were rolling in it.

They had no responsibility but to their shift and to making money into helping the business go. But no, that's great. And it is, it is. It's a common ground thing that we've got. 

Yeah. And, I'm an army brat. I was, I was born at four-door Army base when it was open, long way back. Oh, wow. So, is your dad still alive?

Pardon me? Is your dad still alive? Yes. Yeah. Oh, that's good. Yes. You know, the thing is, you, you came across a lot of the naysayers. Especially when you were doing something that didn't quite match up to what people would normally think about. And it's funny because at the same time, I wanted to start a karaoke business in the middle of, COVID and Awesome, [00:10:00]

John: awesome.

And I love that, yeah. 

And it's like, okay, so start things up now, and by the time I'm ready to go, COVID will be over. Obviously I was wrong. But you know, it's interesting to me how we can have so many naysayers and so many people around us saying, this isn't the right thing to do of where you're at, or it's not the right time to do something like that, but it explodes on us even no matter what they say.

John: No, you're you're absolutely correct, Jesse. The thing about we, we all have a life to live, right? None of us asked to be born, but we're here and we might as well make the best of it. And so guys like you that are innovative and think of solutions and ideas when, trying to adapt and overcome a certain situation that is a keynote foundational aspect.

Of a startup entrepreneur, so you know that the ability to find a solution to something that's going on. Now, for me personally, and it took a while because we don't like to say no, the naysayers, they were starting to [00:11:00] create doubt in my mind, just by a simple thing. We're the mountains at in Florida.

Really people climb here. You know, there's no national parks here. You know, we're the Appalachian trails in Georgia, but I heard it all. And what they started to do, so I had to box 'em out, is they started, not that I was rude and ornery, but I, I just didn't listen. I guess metaphorically, I boxed them out.

Oh, that's great. You know, you're right. We'll see what happens. And when I started running trips to the Andes and each trip was a $30,000 gross sale, then everything changed. So I was able to take that naysay and take people on climbing trips, you know, 10 years into the business. So naysayers are good because they can make you, they could give you more drive.

Not that you're doing it for them, it's something that you need to do for yourself. An interesting thing too, when we were mentioning in college and how, you know, sometimes the gifts we don't even [00:12:00] see right in front of us. I had a marketing class in the business school, and I remember the teacher here, I was all 19 years old, thought I was like J Paul Getty and this and that, and one of the required readings was Amy Vanderbilt's book of etiquette.

Mm-hmm. And I thought to myself. Why in the heck would you have a book of etiquette in a business marketing class? Well, let me tell you, that book helped me in so many of my professional relationships. It was unbelievable. And today there's not a lot of etiquette. Just put it on turn, on the TV turn.

There's so much un etiquette that I can tell you if you learn a little bit about etiquette. This all, all has to do with relationship building with your customers and clients. If you learn a smidgen of etiquette and practice it, you are gonna set a stand. You're gonna set your, the wheat from the shaft.

It's so cliche, [00:13:00] but you'll show up on somebody's radar when you practice that. I don't know why I put that in there, but something you said made me think about it. But yeah, so naysayers, we gotta have them. If they make the world go round and they make solo entrepreneurs that much stronger in our convictions.

Yeah, absolutely. And the thing for me too is, we come, I'm come across my, my naysayers as well too, but I like to think about it just like, oh yeah, watch this. And then actually bam, bam. There you go. Yeah. And, um, who's it? Frank Sinatra said that the best revenge is massive success.

Love it. Yeah. So then whenever I come across a naysayer or some way, shape or form, that's kind of where I go to. I'll listen to what they have to say, but I'll take away what I want to take away from it instead of what they want me to take away from it. And I think that's, that's more important than anything else when you, when you come across somebody like that.

John: No, you're totally correct, Jesse. And that's, that's a good, that's what we need to do, when we have that na say [00:14:00] or listen, good listeners or good leaders, listen. But it doesn't mean you have to do or believe what they say. 

Mm. 

John: That's your life, that's your business. It's not theirs.

You're the one taking all the risks. Risk it because the rewards are so great. We can talk about that. But, yeah, just like self-help or startup books. There's so, and you, you, you keep asking me questions that make me think of stuff, go to the bookstore. Yeah. Start self-help books and startup, they're like in competition.

There's so many business schools or, business books and, and they're all great books. They're great people. Imparting knowledge and things that can help you sooner or later. You gotta get off the X, what we say in the military and just do it, experiment. And we'll talk about that, I guess.

I think we're gonna talk about perfection, perfectionism. 

Yeah, that's definitely one of my four hurdles to stop. That actually leads me great into my, into my next question that I'm gonna ask you here is, in everything that you've experienced so far, what do you think stops a lot of [00:15:00] entrepreneurs from actually getting across the start line?

What do you think actually stops them from starting? 

John: Great question, Jesse. Thank you. It's, it's, we are our own worst enemy. We've heard it all of our life. And the, it's us as individuals, we're the ones that stop it. I don't think there's any, all the naysayers or any comments that could be made, or even a lack of funding or, you can't find the right lease if it's bricks and mortar.

I just say we're the greatest obstacle. You have to, there's gonna be good days at startup and there's gonna be. Not so good days. And in startup phase, there's probably not so many good days because everything that comes up is another, is another challenge. You're already skied out because it's a startup.

You're trying to do something that you've never done before and, and you just have to drive on. So that's, that's the biggest hurdle is ourselves and it's all mindset. [00:16:00] If you think or believe you're gonna do it, and you have the right mission statement and the right touches of resilience and perseverance, you're gonna find success.

And sometimes it might not be what you think it is. It could lead to something else. What you do, who knows who. 

Yeah, that's actually how I experienced, getting started in my podcast. The karaoke thing obviously didn't work out, so instead of trying to throw my hands up on the air and say, okay, I'm not meant for this, I tried to figure out why it didn't work out for me, how come things didn't work the way I wanted.

And that actually led me into podcasting. So even though I didn't start with podcasting, like I said to myself, I'm gonna be a podcaster, that's not what I did. I said, I'm gonna do this. But I pivoted over to this, 'cause I found this instead. And this was actually, I put the karaoke thing aside and said, I love podcasting even more.

So let's just do this for now and see where that takes us. And three years later, here I am.

John: That's a perfect example of an entrepreneur, always on the [00:17:00] lookout for opportunity. And we can take mud and turn it into clay bricks and build a house, right? That's what entrepreneurs do. Somebody asked me a question about what I've been doing lately.

I told her, and this is a person that's in business, and she got indignant and she said, I didn't want a sales pitch. I won't mention her name, I said, she's, she's a well-known influencer. I said, but you should realize in your position and what you espouse, I wasn't being rude. That if you ask an entrepreneur what they've been up to and you haven't seen them in a while, you're going to get a sales pitch or a variation of a sales pitch because entrepreneurs are excited.

We're excited about what we're doing, and if somebody wants to know, we're gonna give them a sales pitch. Not that we're trying to sell them, maybe we're trying to convince ourselves, but I just thought that was a strange answer and she got mad at me for giving her the answer to her question. And so keep that [00:18:00] enthusiasm.

That's part of what will get you over that hurdle. When things like that come your way. Maintain your enthusiasm. Yeah. 

People gotta know that if you're gonna ask us what we're doing, we're gonna tell you and we're gonna tell you everything because we want it. We're excited about what we do, and that's one of the nice, one of the things I find that's so awesome about being an entrepreneur is I'm always excited about what I'm doing now and what's coming next.

What's the next possibility? What's the next big thing that I want to tackle? It may sound like to the untrained ear that we're trying to pitch you, but no, we're just talking about what we love to do. 

John: Man, I appreciate that comment because when you, when you love what you do, all human beings, entrepreneur or not, are gonna radiate this enthusiasm.

And that I would have to say what are top 10 traits of a startup, entrepreneur? And I'd have to say after this discussion, it would have to be enthusiasm. [00:19:00] Mm-hmm. That's gotta be one of the top 10 traits. So if you have enthusiasm, don't let the naysayers knock you down. And if somebody asks you a question, you tell them everything that you need to tell them.

That's who you are. And they ask the question, just say, that's right. 

Yep. And they just have to be ready for the answer. 'cause they sometimes they don't know what they're getting into. 

John: No, they don't. Sometimes we don't know what we're getting into. That's true. That's very true. 

So you're, earlier you said that kind of we are getting in our own way when we're getting started now.

Is that what you were experiencing when you first got started? Did you feel like you were kind of getting in your own way?

John: Not generally, but but if I let something sink into my head, there'd be a doubt. But I, I was convinced early on, Jesse, that no matter what, I was gonna make sure that we opened the doors to this business and I was gonna make sure that it was gonna be successful. I might, I literally, we talk about no fear or being fearless and all [00:20:00] that, and, and it's tough.

It's tough when your whole, profession or your whole life ahead of you might be, contingent upon the success of your business. And what I found that most entrepreneurs, and I hope it doesn't happen to anybody who's listening, but they go through rough times financially. And many of them have been bankrupted before, but out of that bankruptcy, they, they rose like the phoenix again.

We, they was still cliche. But entrepreneurs have that amazing perseverance and, and resilience that we're gonna somehow stand on top of that summit. That summit being a successful business. And, and it would be great 'cause you talk to all these entrepreneurs, so I would imagine that you hear similar stories.

I hear all kinds of different types of stories and it's, and it's so great to hear every single one of them. 'cause we could all relate to 'em in one way, shape, or form when we're, when we're listening to these stories and understanding that, oh yeah, I've, I've been through something similar than. That too.

And that's why I like putting this podcast out. So we all have that capability of listening to [00:21:00] other people's stories and kind of relate and maybe find some tools that we didn't have before that we can use to overcome obstacles or, or even just, just be a part of the story. Absolutely. 

John: A great, it's a great idea and it's so helpful because as entrepreneurs, as you know, and especially in the digital space.

We run into so many experts needs to be done this way. It needs to be done that way, build it, and they will come. And what we ended up finding out is that it's not necessarily that way. That might be their experience, but still, until we go through it, we really don't have a baseline.

What we have is a great heart and a great idea and, and, and the energy and enthusiasm to pull it off. I know that something good comes out of everything that's not so good. And like you said with the podcast show, the karaoke thing sounds awesome, man. What a great idea for COVID. But that could have been fun.

But, but [00:22:00] now you're here and that's how the universe, if you believe in those kinds of things, that's how you and I vectored on, on the show today. Somewhere in our lives, we made a decision to be here. It may have been a decision in business school. It may have been you on the karaoke stage, but we're here.

So every time we run into an influencer like you or a podcaster or somebody that really has a great heart, we have to take advantage of that. You're, you've already taught me some things here, the short 10 or 15 minutes we've been talking and, and it's nice to know that I'm not alone. So remember 

that you're never alone.

Absolutely. First of all, I wanna say thank you for calling me an influencer. I don't, that's not one, I'm not used to that, so I guess that's something I gotta get used to. Something, that you kind of said the word fearless. Now, me personally, I, I like fear. Fear is my friend. I want to be afraid.

Just because I know on the other side of, of this fear is gonna be something [00:23:00] great, as long as I could have the mental capacity to overcome this fear. I don't want to be fearless. I want to feel that fear, but that fear and excitement come from the same place in the brain as everything else.

Having that fear isn't a bad thing. It's pointing you in a direction. I kind of kind of use, fear as my Yoda you want to kind of put it into perspective there. 

John: No, that's a great perspective. I, I was looking at my Facebook feed early this morning and one of my army brothers, he was a special forces high altitude, low opening jump guy.

I mean, this guy was the real deal. Green Beret and Vietname shared a photo. He lives in Montana. But he shared a photo of some bear tracks, recent bear tracks in the mud in the same direction he was hiking. Then he said, here's a Vietnam veteran combat guy. Seen all kinds of stuff. He goes, I just got a sign and I think I'm gonna turn around here.

And so my point is it's, [00:24:00] he probably a good thing. Could have been a mama who knows what, but it was definitely a grizzly bear. There's there's healthy fear. There's what I would say there's wise fear, and I would say the entrepreneur is that wise fear. Somebody that's looking at a bear track, that's healthy fear, or, or vice versa.

What I'm trying to say? So I'm not saying that. And I love the fact that you get motivated by fear. But look at fear because if you. Exhibit fear. Now turn it around. 'cause the bear that doesn't make you a Ws or anything. It makes you pretty smart. But fear is just the unknown. But if you're, if you're frightened by the unknown and none, none of us know what's gonna happen tomorrow or 20 minutes from now, that that's not a way to live your life.

I would say embrace the fear. 'cause if you don't, fear will overtake you. Mm-hmm. And you may just hang out on the La-Z-Boy over the weekend and not make [00:25:00] those calls or that podcast. If you were scared and fearful of this pod, what I'm trying to say, fear will stagnate us. So I'm not, I, when I say fearless, probably a lot like you, Jesse, but I'm also a lot like my buddy.

Who saw the bear track and decided to turn around, there's, there's a healthy dose of fear that we can have too, you know? Both ways. 

Yeah. We, we don't, we don't want to put ourselves in, in physical danger. That's a, that's a whole different kind of fear. That's a kind of fear that protects us. But the other kind of fear is, is the fear that shows us the way, that's what I kind of look at when I'm, when I'm doing business or anything else for that matter.

And that's why I use, an acronym for Fear False Evidence appearing Real. It's, it's not something that's going to, if it's not something that's physically gonna harm us, it's something that's pointing us in a direction and we, if we overcome it, there's something great on the other side.

John: Absolutely. And you know that the STO stoicism, which is something I've been looking at recently [00:26:00] mm-hmm.

It says that, the challenge is the way, so I can just slide that word in there, Jesse, and take it from you. Fear is the way. If you don't overcome your fear, you're never gonna make it. It's that simple. And I can remember when I did mountain climbing, I, I had 31 different high altitude summit attempts, right?

But I only summited 12 because we knew when to turn around when the conditions weren't right for avalanche or rock fall, and it was, it was a slog. You can't breathe up there, you get nosebleeds. I mean, it's pretty hairy over 20,000 feet. But let me tell you something. Standing, witnessing the curvature of the earth and seeing the dark sky much darker than what we see here at sea level.

And feeling your feet on the ground was one of the most exhilarating accomplishments that I've ever had in my life as high [00:27:00] altitude climbing. So there was a lot of healthy doses of fear on the way up. We had a belief in ourselves and in our equipment and in our training that it got us to the top. And a lot of people turn around at the first sign of fear, and sometimes they should, if there's a rock fall or the glacier's not melting quite properly, or the sacs look uneasy.

So I'm not gonna say just close your eyes and run, hang headlong into a, a chasm, but, but punch through that veil of fear. I can guarantee you whatever it is you're doing will be worth it. Yeah, 

absolutely. You know, I have a rough time getting to the top of a ladder, and now you want me to make, now I feel like I want to climb a mountain here.

Let's just say 

John: go for it and you will. I'll bet. 

All right, so I, I'm sure you get this question a lot when you're in, when you do podcast guesting here, but. I like to put a little bit of a spin on it. A lot of people [00:28:00] ask you, what's your hardest pitfall? What's the biggest problem that you came across? I like to put a little spin on it.

What is the biggest pitfall you've had that you're actually proud of? Like, I'm glad I went through this pitfall because on the other side of the pitfall was something amazing. Have you ever had anything like that happen to you, Joan? Um, 

John: a few 

times. 

John: Uh, I would have to say patience. I wanted it all. Now I've made a joke about J Paul Getty back in college, right?

I wanted it. Now. I'm an entrepreneur. I've got my business, the door's unlocked, all my merchandise is out and ready to go, and I've, I've trained my, my troops, our employees, and we've got everybody. Quality product, excellent service, and then the opportunity for us to be part of your adventure, backpacking, climbing, whatever.

And then. The real sales come in and it's like, holy cow, this is gonna take years. I can't do this. Right. [00:29:00] You're joking about it, but the patience to see, don't worry about the daily stuff or even the monthly stuff. Wait and see what the bottom line looks like at the end of the year or at the end of the quarter and build on that.

So I had to learn a lot of patience and my wife sometimes still says, you're still like a, a b plus. You're not quite there yet, right? But, but that's probably what what taught me the most in a startup was just to be patient. Be patient. You're doing something really good and exciting. It's your life.

You're going to be rewarded. For your vision, and it may not always be money like right away, but the people that you meet and the customers and just the vibrancy of being in business, you can feed off of that. And the only reason our small business stayed open for 10 years and I had the new owners tell me [00:30:00] this.

Was because of the customer base that we had built the previous 23.

Mm-hmm. 

John: We built trusting relationships with our clients and they always came back. We developed repeat customers and then what was really fun was seeing somebody's, a customer's son or daughter have a son or daughter, like generational clients, and to have them come in when when the young boy or young girls going to join the scouts.

And the parents' dad and mom used to buy from you when they were going to Australia and then they bought from you when they went on their honeymoon and now their kids are joining the scouts and they've come into your shop, your business to patronize you. That wasn't because, that wasn't just luck of the draw, that was the fruits of the labor.

That was the perseverance. That was the belief that your business was gonna make it. And I [00:31:00] gotta tell you, Jesse, that was one of the most, I'm in digital now, but but I really miss the interaction of the customers. Customers were our lifeblood. They sent, helped us send our kids to school.

They paid my bills, my mortgage, they put food on my table. Those were the best people in the world because they patronized the business and we were good to them. Wasn't perfect all the time, but I can count on two hands in 23 years. How many customers we really pissed off Somebody you probably couldn't please anyways, but I'm proud of that record.

Yeah, we're not gonna be for everybody. We just keep that in the back of our head when, when we're in our businesses and whatnot. Sometimes it doesn't, it doesn't match up and that's okay. It happens. That's part of it. But we, we live in a world right now that's, I gotta have it now.

I gotta have it today kind of thing. And it's unfortunate, but it's true. But it's the people that know. [00:32:00] That it's a long term thing that we're doing here. It's not gonna be a short term thing. Your, for your, your first dollar is not gonna be for some time, but when it starts coming, it comes on strong because you waited for it.

And you built the relationships that you needed to build, and you met the people that you needed to meet to make it all work out. And now here we are, I've been doing this for over three years, which is a huge accomplishment for me. I couldn't get anything done over a day and then giving up when I, before I started all this, and now I'm three years in, I'm like, I'm still doing this.

I love it. 

John: But you've beat the odds because yes, everybody says, well, I'm gonna try a podcast. Right? And I think the average number of shows. With podcasters, it changes a little bit, but the last time I heard it was like nine shows.

Mm-hmm. 

John: So you are like in the upper two or 3% of podcasters, probably even smaller because how many shows do you have total right now?

Uh, I think 215 right now. [00:33:00]

John: Phenomenal. Yeah. Good for you and good for your guests because you built a rock solid show. That's cool, man. 

Yeah. And if you look at how many, let's see, I think there's like four or 5 million podcasts out there, but only 500,000 of them are active. And if, if you look at those averages and those odds, it's because people give up after a few, it stays live.

It stays out there. Nine shows. Yeah. But people that are still actively putting out new content and new shows for their podcast. There's really not that many. And the, the average, if you'd average that out, yeah, you're right. It. Not all the people make it all the way, so 

John: no. So kudos to you.

You need to get out. You need to get one of those little packs of gold stars that they used to have in elementary school, remember? And they'd put it on your paper. Sometimes you'd get three gold stars. So do yourself a favor man. Put a gold star on your notepad. When 

I get five of 'em, I get a gummy bear.

John: [00:34:00] That's right. Scooby do brother 

Scooby snack. 

John: Really? That's right. That's right. 

Alright, that's awesome. Thanks for that. That's, I appreciate that answer. That was really good. Thank you. So you're welcome. I'm, I'm gonna go the opposite way now. You've actually got been through a lot, you've had a lot of, business experience.

But do you have, one or two things that, that really kind of feel like are a great accomplishment for you? It 

John: didn't have to do with, I've got more than one, but it's a great question. I appreciate it. One of, I was in a startup nonprofit, right? They're run a little bit differently from a for-profit, but some of the things are still the same.

You know, enthusiasm, teamwork, mission, and what our mission was. It was in Sarasota, Florida. Our mission was to help bring back international rowing. To the United States of America that hadn't been here since 1991. Right? We were building this Olympic location, Olympic venue, and I [00:35:00] was tasked with being the volunteer coordinator.

And so I had some phenomenal, phenomenal volunteers from age 14 to 90, and they were all ambassadors of the, of the, of the community. When the governing authorities from Switzerland came over and we went through all the paperwork and you know, did all the things we needed to do to apply for that particular event, they were impressed with the people of Sarasota County, Florida.

The volunteers and the volunteers were a huge part of the success to bring in 2017 to bring the, the rowing back to the states. But those volunteers. Exemplified what a lot of entrepreneurs exemplify pride in what they're doing. Enthusiasm, a belief in a mission that seems impossible. And that was probably as far as a leader [00:36:00] goes, or a startup guy goes.

That was probably my, one of my proudest moments being a startup guy. Startup person. My small business. In Florida. I think the accomplishment I alluded to a little while ago, Jesse, was the, the mountaineering trips that we used to do to South America. 

Mm-hmm. 

John: And we sold climbing gear and a guy told me, he asked me a question one time about a piece of equipment and I didn't know the answer.

I'm thinking to myself, what the heck am I doing selling climbing gear at? I don't even know how to use it. So, got a wild hair. Booked the trip to Mexico, went down and used all the gear, and I climbed a 18,000 foot summit. And that was the baseline for taking people on adventure trips. I'm not even a certified guide or any of that.

We would hire them in the, in the countries we were going to. But I was so proud of those because we didn't just take people our business on vacations, we took people on life altering [00:37:00] adventures and to be part of that as an entrepreneur. It just blows my mind and I'm so proud of those moments.

I can remember one customer, this one young lady who went on a trip, she was a, a park ranger in Florida, but a real small person and she made it to the summit, right? And we're sitting at the summit, it's months and months of training and I didn't, wasn't sure she was gonna make it, but we're sitting up there and all the clouds are like forming around us.

She looks at me and she says, this is phenomenal. She said, but I can't cry because my eyes will be frozen shut. She says, and I've got so many tears right now, and she said, thank you. How many customers can we percolate to say something like that we're still good friends. Her parents were, her dad was a Boy Scout leader in Florida.

But that moment, that one single moment that that customer told me that it was like, [00:38:00] holy cow. We're making an impact in people's lives. So as a business owner, especially somebody with a new startup. You can be a very positive impact in somebody's life, and maybe you'll have that summit moment someday where one of your customers comes back and they may or may not be crying, something as dramatic as that, but they may come back people with etiquette and say, thank you for helping us out.

Thank you for your products. Thank you for your service. It's those kudos and those thank yous. You don't necessarily do it for that. Because we consider ourselves at times the unsung hero, right? We're the, we're in the trenches, men and women, we're the small business owners, but there's something really delightful about that.

And those two instances, managing volunteers to bring back international rowing and sitting with one of my customers, watching [00:39:00] the clouds form and disappear around us and getting a thank you. They don't make that stuff up. They just don't. 

Yeah. And that's one of the reasons why we do that is to make a, that's one of the reasons why we do this, is to, is to make that moment for somebody else and know that we were a part of that moment.

We gave this moment to somebody else. And that makes us feel good as people, as a con as, entrepreneurs. 'cause we were able to. To give that moment to somebody else. 

John: Phenomenal. And you're so right, Jesse. You said it probably better than me, but that's everything we do in our lives makes an impact.

And you have to decide, and as a business startup person, you wanna make a positive impact or do you wanna make a negative impact? Because if you, if you think about it, the positive impacts are gonna get you to the summit. The negative ones won't,

no, the negative ones will make you fall off the summit.

And we don't wanna fall off the summit. No, we don't because it's a long [00:40:00] way down. It is. It's a hard fall. 

John: It's a hard drop, brother. 

Yeah. That's fantastic. Thank you for that. That's a great story. I'm, I'm even welling up a little bit just thinking about it because that that is so fantastic. Me too. 

John: I remember you and I were sitting there talking on your show, but I remember that moment.

It does it. It was, and you asking me that question in such an authentic, intimate way makes this show that much better, that we're able to share stories like that to your listening audience and two men welling up inside because of an experience that they had in business. That's real. That's very real.

Yeah. Thanks. 

Yeah. Thank you. Alright, so here's, here's one of my favorite questions. Now, since we know that most of our listeners are new entrepreneurs, if you came across somebody that you knew was just getting started in their entrepreneur adventure, [00:41:00] what one piece of advice would you give them? What steps would you have 'em take?

John: How much time do we have? Boy, I don't see here, but only one, but only one. You know, it sounds probably trite. I don't, I think it would just be what Nike has as their logo, a little swish thing. And their, their mantra is just do it. Just do it. It will be an experience that you'll never forget.

You will learn things about yourself that you never knew. You will learn things about other people, and it's an opportunity for you to be, to make money. But also to improve your own skill sets. You know, you were talking about the fear and all this. If you're fearful of getting up on stage or you're fearful that your bank account won't make it, whatever it is, just do, it puts you in a different league.

Not everybody wants to do a startup business. [00:42:00] Doesn't mean that you're better. It just means that you're living your life a different way. So that would be my advice. Now, if you're depending on what the product is or the business, I might have a different answer, but I would say 99.99% of the time, I'm just gonna say, just do it.

Find a way to do it. 

Fantastic. That's awesome. That actually is very similar and not that I'm trying to steal anything very similar to my tagline, for my podcast. I can, I am, I will, and I'm doing it today. We do things now while we're thinking about it. My son was six when he said that, and he That's awesome.

Yeah. He, he was, he was having a rough time with his homework and he just popped off with that when he was six years old. I was like, wow. So we started posting it all over the house and everything else, and he's, we still live by that today. He's 18 now. And learning to be a professional cook. And he still says that as a family, we've really kind of taken that in.

And now I've made it part of my [00:43:00] podcast because it's such a powerful thing for a 6-year-old to say, let alone, the meaning of it, the meaning behind it. We do things now while we're thinking about it. Otherwise we miss an opportunity and we don't wanna miss an opportunity. So we do it now. We do it today.

John: Absolutely. And thanks for sharing that. And that mantra lives in your heart and in your son's heart and in your family. So it's a good thing. But I just wanted to back up real quick about perfectionism, because that could be Oh yes, please. Yeah. That, well, that could be a fearful thing, right? But I'm gonna, I'm gonna, relate this to a military thing.

So we'll kill two birds with one stone. You'll learn something about the military, but you also learn something about perfectionism. Hmm. And I was in a field artillery unit and in field art, it was a howitzer. 200 millimeter how, or 400 pound shell that we could throw, 25 miles away. And what you have to make sure that it hits the target is you have these guys or gals called Ford Observers, and they'll go to the target location or near the target location and [00:44:00] they'll watch and they'll send back the coordinates, right?

So. They plug in the coordinates. You fire the round, they watch to see where it hits, right? And you missed it. You're 400 feet past it adjust. You adjust fire, right? They give you new coordinates, you fire off another round and, and you're, you're 300 feet closer, right? It's not perfect yet. So then they call in the last coordinates and it's right on target and you win.

You blow away the the target. Now, business is not really like that, but if the board observers wanted to be perfect, you might've been surrounded by the enemy in short order. You had to get those rounds out. You had to diffuse the situation, and perfectionism would've never have gotten them there. So you're gonna make mistakes.

You can spend. Month after month until the cows come home trying to get a perfect plan. [00:45:00] And you don't need a perfect plan. You just need a plan, and you need to get started. And remember what General Patton said, now he's military guy, right? A violent plan executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.

And it's kind of the same thing. So perfectionism. Can be a serious double-edged sword because you wanna do it right, but if you wait for right to be perfect, you're wrong. You need to get going. You need to get started now. And if you do that, you'll be way ahead of the curve. You could be months in your business already, but if you were waiting, you may not have even started yet Just saying.

Yeah, no, that, that makes a perfect point there in perfectionism. And you'll see that a lot of people will hide behind perfectionism too, where they're like, I'm gonna wait until it's perfect, or I'm gonna wait [00:46:00] till this and never release anything. And really what's going on subconsciously is they're scared to release anything, so they're waiting for the perfect time.

How many times have you heard, well, I'm gonna run a business, but I'm gonna wait for this thing to happen first. Most of the time. Yeah, a lot of times. Yeah. And it never happens.

John: Or, or let's just say you had that idea, Justin, you raised a good point. Let's just say you have that idea and you're thinking about it and thinking about it and thinking about it, and two years later somebody does it and they're the next multimillionaire, selling the widget that you had an idea to sell.

You know, and if you put those out in the universe, I don't know what you believe, and we're not gonna get into anything spiritual here, but what you put out is, is, is pretty much like your picture. Look at that. What you put out may come back to you in a different way.

Exactly. And then it, the thing I, like, I've heard too, I read this in a book too, where some, somewhere in the universe, somebody's gonna do your idea.

Now is it gonna be [00:47:00] you or is it gonna be somebody else? Because the idea is out there. But I mean, if it's your idea executed on now, 'cause somebody else will come up with that idea. If you don't, 'cause you put it out into the universe. Let's see what happens next. So, so 

John: true and yeah. And the thing, but I always come up, I got a, I got an option for that.

Right. I always say, but they're not our team, which is true somewhat, but sometimes being that first one is a huge difference in business when it's something innovative, for sure. Yeah, 

absolutely. Thanks for, thanks for putting that out and, touching on that. I appreciate it. 

John: Well, you're welcome.

That's what happens, man, when you have an experienced podcaster. We get information, man. Yeah, it's, it's all on you brother. 

Alright, so I have kind of a tradition that I like to do in my podcast in the next six months, where do you see you and your company? What six month goal do you have for yourself?

John: $3 million in gross sales. [00:48:00] Well, you popped right off 

with that, didn't you? 

John: Oh, yeah. But you know, the money's not the primary motivator, but that's our sales objective. And then, our plan is to have a mini course on leadership up here real soon called the Brain Freeze. This is on neo masculinity solutions.

And then we've actually finished a college curriculum. We're looking at accreditation on, information analysis and gender roles. Nobody's doing anything like that. They're all talking about it. But we've got a, a PhD level course that we've already written, AI assisted, and then we have the high school courses finished.

It's called the brainery. We train, brains, not grains. And then we'll be working on the eighth and ninth grade middle schoolers. And then we'll be working on, kindergarten through six. And what it'll be, it'll be four silos. Brainery we call Brainery. And, and they'll, they'll, there'll be consistency throughout the whole thing.

And it's a re-ignition of intuition, scientific method and, and gender [00:49:00] roles. So that should be done, we're hoping by the end of the summer, but surely by the end of the year. And then I have a rock solid team, and it's, it's multi continental right now. You know, we can do that when we're in, when we're in the digital space these days.

I have AI on board with us. We have a program. Interview connections, which helped me to, to meet you. You know, so we've got a lot going on, but the primary goal is to just help millions of families and, and men and women across the planet. We have a little Sentinel handbook. It's nine languages. It's not a book on astrophysics.

It's just a, basically a prime. On how to spot unreliable information and then how to use our gender roles to do something about it. You know, how do we fulfill our roles as parents? A lot of cool things. So that's, that's, and then next year we'll start taskforce then, but we want to get this one off the ground first.

Fantastic. So here, here's what I wanna do with you, John, is in six months I'd like to have another interview with you. [00:50:00]

John: Okay. Yeah. I'd like 

to see if you've reached those goals and what kind of new experiences you've had since, since this interview. Is that okay? That, that 

John: put me down in your book? I'm ready.

Right. And I'm old school. Look, look at this, Jesse. All my appointments come from the old dome, my team wants me to get more digital and all this, but there's still some old school things that I've learned that, seem to work for me. So yeah, I'd love to come back on your show and, you know, and if we hit that sales mart, we may even do a live broadcast from, I don't know, old Faithful, the Geyser.

Who knows? But, yeah, we'll, we'll do something special 

for that show. All right. Awesome. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Alright, John, this is your time to shine. This is a time where I want you to talk about yourself, how we get ahold of you and all that good stuff. Okay. Ready, set, go. 

John: Okay. You can get ahold of me at JK Juliet Kilo at Neo [00:51:00] Masculinity Solutions.

That's my email address. I'll even give you my cell phone. It's nine four one. Don't abuse it. Don't call me after midnight Eastern Standard time. 9 4 1 4 0 0 7 3 3 3. And if I don't get back to you right away or you wanna leave a comment, go ahead and do it. I'll do my best to get back to you. But visit our website, Neo Masculinity Solutions.

You know, we have a free, a lead magnet, but you can get that if you want. And then. If you wanna purchase the, the Sentinel Handbook, 'cause we're all sentinels, you know, it's $2 and 95 cents. It's an ebook. If you speak Chinese, you can get one Italian, German, Spanish. We got Hebrew Arabic, but we've also got it in English.

But pick yourself up a copy. It's not gonna set you back and you're, you might learn something. And then, just pay attention to what we're doing. Go online to that website, sign up. We're gonna be having a newsletter. We're building a community. This is a true startup. The digital space, like we [00:52:00] talked about, Jesse and I said before, it's not build it and they will come, it's build it and go out and talk about it, and hopefully they'll come.

So please just take a moment outta your day, a couple minutes to do that and, and help out, help out the cause because we really do want to. Protect families from all of the unreliable information. And there's five types. You can read about it in the book, but there's only one reliable information, and that's the truth.

So we're just looking for the truth and we want to help people in a massive way, and maybe we can do something to reduce all of this division and all of these hateful things that are happening all around the world. I mean, even friends in my own network, the last four years, I feel like they've, they've lost consciousness to reality.

And I don't want to insult anybody. I'm not better than anybody, but if somebody tells me something that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up 'cause it doesn't sound. Possible I'm gonna do my research and that's all we're [00:53:00] asking is, protect your families, protect your loved ones from the greatest threat in modern time, which is unreliable information.

That's why we're doing what we're doing. 

Exactly. Alright, John, thank you so much for being an undiscovered entrepreneur and taking your time every day. This has been a fantastic, probably one of my most fantastic interviews I've had in quite some time, so thank you so much for that. 

John: You're gonna get me to well up, Jesse, but you are welcome and I look forward to six months from now when we can come back and tell you about our success.

And, I appreciate you and what you do and helping, entrepreneurs tell their stories. And even more so helping your listeners, the people that are in the trenches. Help them with their startups. So thank you. 

Alright, thank you so much. Alright, scuba believers. Make sure you stay tuned for the wrap up.

Okay everybody, bye-bye. 

John: You got it. 

Alright, scuba believers. That was John. What a great episode. What a great conversation I have with John. Lots of energy. We kind of were able to match [00:54:00] energies and really come up with something really awesome for you. But as usual, I have a couple major takeaways from this.

Conversation that I had with John. Stop waiting for perfection. Someone else is already building your dream. John's message is crystal clear. A violent plan executed now is better than a perfect plan. Executed next week while you're perfecting your idea. For months or maybe even years, someone else is out there executing the same vision and becoming the next multimillionaire with your concept.

You gotta understand that when you put something out into the universe, if you don't end up doing it, somebody else will. So that's why it's so important for you to take action now. Your greatest obstacle isn't money, competition or market conditions. The person in the mirror is your biggest obstacle.

John built an $11 [00:55:00] million business after being told it would never work. Survived a traumatic brain injury. Is now targeting 3 million in digital sales because he conquered the one enemy that truly mattered. The naysayers, the lack of funding, the impossible location, none of those things stopped him, and none of it will stop you unless the person in the mirror becomes your biggest enemy.

And with that, I'm gonna say thank you very much for another great episode of The Undiscovered Entrepreneur. Get across the start line and I will see you in the next episode. Bye everybody.