EP 9 // Johnny Quinn

[00:00:15] Speaker A: Alright, guys, what's up? This is Michael from the proud perform podcast episode number ten with my good friend Johnny Quinn here. Johnny's an amazing guy. He's been here, McKinney, for, gosh, how many years? [00:00:27] Speaker B: 1990. [00:00:28] Speaker A: 1990. [00:00:29] Speaker B: What is that? 34. [00:00:31] Speaker A: Wow. [00:00:31] Speaker B: Yeah, there was only like one light here in McKinney when I was just. [00:00:36] Speaker A: Like Virginia Parkway 380. [00:00:38] Speaker B: Yeah, they were calling anything north of 635, Oklahoma. So we moved to Oklahoma in 90. [00:00:43] Speaker A: Was there even like a real. I'm sorry. I remember when I was younger, there wasn't even really a 100. 2121 one way. [00:00:51] Speaker B: Yeah, it was one lane each way. And then I remember not in McKinney, but in Frisco, where preston in Maine. That was the only light. Yeah, only light. [00:01:01] Speaker A: Wow. [00:01:01] Speaker B: I wish we would have bought real estate back then, dude. [00:01:04] Speaker A: That would have been amazing. Yeah, for sure. Well, dude, thank you so much for being on the podcast episode number ten, like I do with all of my other guests, kind of going through what describes you. Appreciate you sharing that with me. We're gonna go off of that. But Jonny Quinn, man, he's got quite an arsenal of accomplishments here. He's a believer. Husband, father to two beautiful little kiddos and a keynote speaker, US Olympian, former pro football player, entrepreneur, and pickleball enthusiast. [00:01:37] Speaker B: There you go. You got that one in there. [00:01:39] Speaker A: So, Johnny, if you could, man, I would love to hear a little bit about you personally, your family, your kiddos, you guys residing here in the McKinney area and what life is like for you all. [00:01:51] Speaker B: Yeah, so McKinney's home for me. And as you know, got here in 90, so grew up in Texas, went to all the McKinney ISD schools. Now my wife and I live in McKinney. I mean, McKinney, Texas is home. And Amanda and I just celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary, so that was a cool milestone. [00:02:08] Speaker A: Congrats. Episode number ten. [00:02:10] Speaker B: How about that? Did you set that up on purpose? That worked out well. And so, yeah, two young kids. Amelia, she'll be six in August. Oliver, he's two and a half. He'll be three in October. They're just so sweet. And we're in that season of life where, you know, we're losing blankets in bed at 02:00 a.m. so we have 02:00 a.m. wake up calls where, you know, we eat at between five and 05:30 p.m. so that when my wife and I do go on date nights, it's hard to eat at like seven. Right. So we're in that season of life around kids, and I tell you, it's so sweet, Mikey, because, you know, we look back on pictures on our almost six year old, and it's like, where did my baby go? Right? Time flies. And so it allows us to almost kind of really cherish this time, although it can be overwhelming, right. With my work schedule, travel schedule. So it's finding a way to manage that as a professional keynote speaker. I am on the road quite a bit, and so building in enough margin that we can honor our family time and cherish these moments. And so that's kind of the season of life that. That we're in right now. [00:03:24] Speaker A: Yeah. Heck, yeah. And, man, if you could, how, like, I would. I really look up to the way you and Amanda just steward your relationship for each other and for the lord and also for your kids. I know I've said this to you directly many times in the past of, just, like, you are so steadfast in who you are, you never waver off of who you are and who you've been as long as I've known you. And I think many people that have known you longer than I have would probably agree along the same lines. How has just y'all's marriage, your dynamic as a husband, a provider leader, and then also Amanda's roles as a mother, how have you guys navigated that through your busy schedule? To stay communicative, to add value to the intimate time for your family, for your kids. How have you juggled it? [00:04:11] Speaker B: Yeah, so, man, it has been. I tell you what, man, Amanda is such a gift that, you know, I mean, I married an absolute Jim, and we talk about her being the CEO of the house, particularly when I'm gone. And so we honor our roles. I'm out there. I'm the provider. I'm the hunter and gatherer, and Amanda is the CEO of the house. And so there's this mutual respect, and I don't know if you'd say proper delegation of our roles, that our marriage is thriving. Our family is thriving, almost because we feel like we're walking in the roles that the Lord has provided for us or what he would consider good. Right? And so we try to honor that as a married couple and how we raise our children. That doesn't mean we'll have chaotic times, but it does. What it does is it helps us when things might be off. It helps us as a healthy diagnostic to see maybe where we're missing something. Have I been on the road too much? Then I need to adjust some of my hobbies because it's pulling away from family time, right. So as I've gotten older, I've been able to be more wise in those decisions because I'm very. I'm a type A extrovert. I'm a very big go getter, and I can put blinders on. And although when it comes to goal setting and execution, that is great, but that can destroy relationships. And one of my favorite quotes of all time comes from a guy by the name of Dale Partridge, and he talks about this idea of success at work without success at home isn't really success at all. And I remember when I hit that or when I heard that, it hit me, because I am very, again, goal oriented. I can have success at work, whether that was in sport, when that was my work, or in business. But then if I leave my family as a train wreck, we got some big problems. And so we're constantly, I'd say, mikey, checking in with each other. And you can tell now we've been together for 14 years, married for ten, you start to understand what depletes a person when they need to be filled back up alone time, what that looks like. And so here's what has helped me along the journey. When I turned pro at 22 years old, I entered the NFL. It was a dream come true. All that hard work. Right? Came true. Signed my first NFL deal, 22 years old, signed a three year contract, $1.2 million with the Buffalo Bills. Play with those three years, I'm taking home 1.2. Incredible. The problem, though, Mikey, is that that turned into an idol for me. Football turned into an idol, and had I have gotten that money in my early twenties, I would not have blown it, but I would have packed this hill of self sufficiency of, hey, look what I did, look what I accomplished. And that would have been extremely deadly. And so I needed as much as I hated it at the time, and I still can remember those feelings, and I don't like them now. I'm older now, and I still don't like those feelings that I had. I needed football taken away because my identity was tied to football and not to christ. And unless, what's so beautiful about that, although it hurt at the time, losing those contracts, losing the potential for that kind of money. In my early twenties and what could have been, man, I met my future wife. It's set in path to become a US Olympian. And now that I'm older, married, children, and a business owner, it has given me a healthy perspective on am I. Am I managing my time wisely I wouldn't have learned that if I didn't go through those lessons early on. [00:08:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I would. Safe to say, correct me if I'm wrong, you as an athlete, as a go getter, an executor, and making it to the big leagues, I know personally that you played also in the Canadian Football league, right? [00:09:00] Speaker B: Right. [00:09:00] Speaker A: Is that a little bit before or after? [00:09:01] Speaker B: It was after. So I went to Bills, then the packers, and then I spent a year in the canadian football League. Blew my knee out in Canada. That was the end of my football. And then I did what every Texas high schooler does. I started bobsledding. Right. For team USA. Let's go. So, yeah, that's kind of the journey there. [00:09:17] Speaker A: But I mean, like you, you were executing well with your time and your efficiency as an athlete. [00:09:22] Speaker B: Right. [00:09:23] Speaker A: But just the way that you were going about it. [00:09:26] Speaker B: Right? [00:09:26] Speaker A: Wasn't it, Washington? [00:09:29] Speaker B: Yeah. That's a good nugget to pick up on. Because when I was playing professional football and even as I was getting ready for the Olympic games, there was a change in my heart, because I was efficient with my time in pro football. I was very diligent in the weight room. I was monitoring my sleep. I was making decisions throughout the day to make sure that my body and mind are in the elite athlete shape. So I did that in football, and I did that in the Olympics. But what changed going from football to the Olympics was, where is my identity? Is my identity in my athletic ability, or is my identity secured in Christ? And as a believer, we know this. When we repent and accept Jesus as our lord and savior, we are sealed with the Holy spirit. And so what was so interesting, Mikey, is I would say I carried the same work ethic over from pro football to olympic bobsledding. But my heart changed. And here's what was just beautiful. When I made the Olympic team and I walked in opening ceremonies, so I entered the NFL 22 by the age 26. I've been cut three times, lost 2.6 million NFL contracts, blew out my knee. I'm thinking, oh, my gosh, this does not go the way I thought it was gonna go. Whoa. What a train wreck. And so at age 30, when in the world of pro sports, they start to call 30 old. [00:10:59] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:11:00] Speaker B: To become a United States Olympian, to wear the red, white, and blue. I remember walking in opening ceremonies and had this feeling of I was just overwhelmed with joyous, because it was a moment where I could identify that the Lord took something that was broken and redeemed it. And it was awesome, man. Awesome. It was incredible. So I remember like it was yesterday. [00:11:29] Speaker A: Yep. Well, it's cool that, um, just that, that person, that perspective and the heart shift for you. [00:11:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:37] Speaker A: Of course. As a believer and your trust and belief in, in the lord, youre, your drive, your work ethic, your tenacity, your go getiveness, if that's a word that didn't change, but just your mindset and your heart pattern behind it is what changed. [00:11:56] Speaker B: That's right. [00:11:57] Speaker A: And I think that can add a lot of value to listeners where it's like once that posture or heart change, they almost can view that past success. I would still call your NFL time and your CFL time success. Yes. Maybe in the train wreck of, like, you couldn't have of knowing that you're gonna blow your knee out and lose those contracts, but there's still value and light that came from those areas in that chapter of your life that has helped continue to create a successful path for you now. [00:12:31] Speaker B: Right. And here's what it's materialized, too, with that heart change is, and I see this out a lot in the marketplace because as a professional keynote speaker, Mikey, I'm on the road. I speak to a lot of sales teams. I speak to a lot of go getters. I speak to people who, this is what I get booked to do. They want to know, what'd you learn in pro football? What'd you learn in the Olympics? How does that help us in business? Right there. So this idea around peak performance, increasing productivity, maximizing our potential, right in my wheelhouse, and I love it. I eat all that up. And here's what I see out in the marketplace. People want to know or they want to live. They want to get to their end of their life and they want to live with no regrets. Did we take that risk? Did I go after that dream? Whatever, Mikey. I would say that's probably the wrong question to consider. And I say that because, look, I want to live with no regrets too, but I think that's short sighted because I don't think they're thinking about eternity. They're thinking about at the end of 70, 80, 90 years. They want to have no regrets. I think the better question to consider is at the end of your life, and this is at least my perspective, I want to hear, well done, good and faithful servante, because if I hear that, then I know that I lived without any regrets. And so I think it's a little short sightedness, if that's all we're trying to consider, is to live life to the max so that we get to the end, we kind of just kind of slide in at the end with no regrets. And I think because we're not putting a proper perspective on eternity. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. [00:14:28] Speaker A: Yeah. And maybe in a way, it's just that going back to, I can kind of see almost kind of a cartoon of people wanting to write down every word you say at your keynote and be like, johnny's probably got this secret sauce because he was a us olympian, and now he's this professional, great keynote speaker. Like, I'm gonna listen to every word he has. But really, your work ethic and your drive, anyone else can accomplish and do, they can acquire that right and have that skill. Not to press down what you've done by any means, but just, it's having that lens of, like, the passion and their path that they're supposed to be taking and aligning that with what God wants for them. [00:15:14] Speaker B: That's right. And here's what's so interesting about that. I love peak performance. I love maximizing potential. And so when I sit and think on that, and I'm an avid reader, right? I've tracked every book I've read since 2011. You know, I eat up podcasts. I mean, I just. I like to consume content because I want to know, where can I get that edge? [00:15:40] Speaker A: Of course. [00:15:42] Speaker B: And what I've realized, Mikey, is that although you. Although you can have, quote unquote, success, there's no point in gaining the world if you lose your soul. It's just, it's wasted toil at the end of the day. And so what this really begins with is, is there truth out there? And that's a very que, that's a question that you really need to think on. Like, what is truthful? Or where does wisdom begin? And proverbs talk about? Well, wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord. And so the immediate pushback I get from particularly nonbelievers is, wait a second. I can have success and be a non believer, an atheist, agnostic, whatever it may be. And I would argue from a worldly perspective, you can. It's God's common grace. We all get to enjoy the sunshine. We do. It's God's common grace. But I. I reckon that they're not. They are not considering. The more important question is, in light of eternity, do my actions today matter? Well, what's your worldview? Right. And so this is something for our listeners to consider and to think through and to, as you, again, in my line of work, approach peak performance. Well, where does that actually begin? [00:17:17] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. That's good. Well, man, I know we went down a cool little caveat there, but it's so true. It really is. And feeding off that a little bit to speak a little bit more into your entrepreneurial journey, that could be speaking. That could be some other things that you've done. How has, how has that mind shift, that heart shift, impacted your entrepreneurial endeavors? Right. Because I'm sure you've probably had, if you can share some light, you've probably had some successes and also failures along the entrepreneurial journey. So could you share some of that and how that's allowed you to keep the alignment of the heart and the mind but also pursue kind of the desires of your heart? [00:18:02] Speaker B: Right. I went to the Olympics in 2014, and then when I was speaking, doing some public speaking prior, but the problem is, Mikey, nobody wants a guy who's been cut and not finished the story, right? And so until I became a US Olympian, after that, I had enough marketing steam to kind of go into this full time. And so I loved that. Then in 2017, my wife and I had the opportunity to take over an insurance agency. And so we just celebrated year seven of owning the agency. It's crazy. And then last year. Yeah, yeah, you're, Mike's on board, we got the straights. And, you know what's interesting is, and then last year, we launched a pickleball training app. And so we've, Amanda and I, we've enjoyed this entrepreneurial path because what it's done is it has given us a very precious resource and time. It allows us to manage our time in a way that our family wants to steward time. And I couldn't connect the dots by doing something else as opposed to entrepreneurship, starting business, being in business for myself. And so being an entrepreneur really reminds me a lot like professional athletics, because in pro sports, if you're not competing at a high level consistently, you get cut, you lose your job, you're out. Entrepreneurship, very similar. If you're not satisfying your clients needs at a high level, you get cut, you're out. They stop cashing checks. Right. They're not going to pay you anymore. I like that. I like those stakes. I agree to those terms and conditions. I don't need somebody to kind of light the fire for me every morning when I get up, I'm able to do that. And so I noticed I kind of had the characteristics of entrepreneurship. And now, ten years in, I can see the fruits of our labor. And, man, it's been awesome. It's awesome. Yeah. [00:20:14] Speaker A: How would you say? I think you obviously have a great team surrounding you. Going back to kind of the sport aspect of. Yeah, you get cubby. You also have, you have to collectively work together as a team in positions. Amanda being an amazing piece to that with the CEO, the house. [00:20:30] Speaker B: Yeah, no doubt. [00:20:31] Speaker A: And assistant with the kids and the home life. And you guys being able to communicate and see where you guys need to help step up, give some other. Give each other some break or some rest. How has building a team within your entrepreneurial endeavors also helped allow more of that time that you guys are appreciative to have? [00:20:49] Speaker B: Well, I would say that's probably the greatest pain point or one of the biggest challenges is building a team. And as an athlete, I didn't. I always got along well with my teammates, and I always respected my coaches. And the coach told me to jump. I'd say how high? I mean, I would follow. They're the coach, I'm the athlete. Let's follow the plan here. Had a lot of success doing that in business. Now that I'm the coach, I see things from a different lens, where as an athlete building a team, I knew my teammates, you lean on one another. But I'm worried about my production, and I need to produce on the field now. As a coach, I gotta make sure that my staff is producing at a high level. And so I would say the challenge is looking at a bigger picture, because now other people's effort levels, I'm in control because I'm signing the checks to make sure that they are up to the level that I want them to be. But at the same time, I need to honor how they want to be treated. Because, look, we've all heard of the golden rule, treat others the way you want to be treated. But what I've learned in business, it's about the platinum rule. Treat others the way they want to be treated, because the way I want to treat myself might not be the way somebody else wants to be treated. And so what does that take? It takes understanding your team how they want to be treated. You know, one of the fun things we did at the insurance agency is, you know, periodically, if we hit some metrics, we do some fun gifts, like, I'll bring a car detailer in and we'll detail everybody's cars during the work day. So it's just nice at the end of the day, like, your car's been detailed. It was awesome, and I think we're about to do it. Cause we just had a massive month. So, yeah, they're gonna get the cards detailed. [00:22:48] Speaker A: Cool. [00:22:49] Speaker B: But, you know, my wife loves flowers. Loves flowers. My first office manager, I just thought we hit a metric. I'm gonna surprise flowers for her at the office just as a kind gesture. Turns out she doesn't like flowers. Right. So that was. And there's nothing wrong with that, but that takes me as a business owner to understand that the platinum rule is that we want to treat others the way they want to be treated. And that takes relationship building. And so that's, I think, been the biggest challenge that I've experienced in my entrepreneurial career. [00:23:24] Speaker A: Yep. That's awesome. Yeah, it's hard. It is, yeah. I mean, I know it is, man. Times that we try to connect in the past, and it's like, hey, got a fire at the office. [00:23:34] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:23:35] Speaker A: The person that's putting it out, me. [00:23:37] Speaker B: I'm in charge. Sorry, bro. Yeah, exactly. [00:23:40] Speaker A: Yeah. How? I mean, I'm an entrepreneur myself, so listening to, you know, the drills come out of your mouth like that is. It's not easy. You've got to really care, build relationships, because what makes me tick isn't going to be what makes them tick. [00:23:53] Speaker B: And as a. As a, you know, Mikey, I feel you and I are cut from the same stone as somebody who's a go getter. We see the goal. We know the steps we're going to put in place that can be overwhelming to someone else. And I have to realize, as the owner, that's not a flaw in their personality. That's I have to honor and figure out how can I put them in a position within my team to thrive. Because there's no doubt they see something that I don't see. And when we can work together and illuminate all our gifts together, that's when teams start doing some serious awesome work. [00:24:29] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And I think I. You knit on the head. What I was kind of maybe trying to pull out of you a little bit is I shared this, I think, on another episode of how a executive business owner came in and was like, we're going to do 100 million this year and this is how we're going to do it. And it's like, all right, let's all go. And he's looking back like, hey, why aren't you guys pumped up? You coming? And I've really struggled in my young entrepreneurial endeavors of just starting. And I'm learning and becoming wiser as I figure this out, or do my best to try to figure it out, is I have to filter whatever my big vision is, got some of those closer colleagues or if you want to call it, like a board of directors or like my dad as a wise business owner or other mentors, men that are older than me, that I can really vomit the big picture and some of the vision stuff on. But then I've got to really filter and bring it down to my team's level on the ways that they're going to add value to that and help get them excited for the ways that they're going to help bring some value or experience or even vision and allow them to be able to grasp something that they can take ownership in. [00:25:37] Speaker B: Right. Right. [00:25:38] Speaker A: And that's hard. [00:25:39] Speaker B: It is. It's hard. [00:25:40] Speaker A: Really hard. Yeah, for sure. Well, man. And anything else in regards to the pickle better platform? [00:25:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:25:49] Speaker A: Could you share some of that entrepreneurial piece? So it's a platform. It's an app. Like how. I'm sure you probably know much of anything for apps going into that. How did you guys. [00:26:01] Speaker B: How did you know? So, a lot of research on the app space, because you're right. I didn't want to go down creating an app from scratch. And, you know, one of the cool things about living in the digital age, Mikey, is it allows us to tap into people's knowledge. And there are platforms out there that are app ready where you, you know, they take care of the back end, you're on the front end, and really, our heart behind. You know, the entrepreneur thing in my brain started churning, and the more pickleball I played, mikey, here's what I would see. The typical pickleball player, if they're working a standard nine to five job, they get off at five, get a quick snack, head to the pickleball court, grab their paddle, tie up their shoes, they get six dinks in, and then you know what they say? [00:26:48] Speaker A: Let's go. [00:26:49] Speaker B: I'm ready. Let's go. Then they play 2 hours of pickleball, and they get away with it. Mikey. They might be a little bit sore the next morning, but they get away with it. And then they do it again the next day, and they get away with it. Here's what happens. There comes a day that they do the same thing, and then we've got an ankle injury, a hamstring injury, because they didn't warm up properly. And so Amanda and I saw an opportunity to say, hey, wait a second. Let's design an app. We don't want to compete with pickleball coaches. They do a great job of teaching the game how to serve, how to dink. We want to be the pickleball coach off the court for them at their convenience. And so our heartbeat behind designing an app was we're going to put together warmups, workouts, and cooldowns that anyone can use and follow and right on your phone. And so we've got, you know, if you. If you're a pickleball player and really any sport, but, you know, pickleballs are a niche and your knees bothering you the next morning when you get out of bed, why don't you power up our app, scroll over to knee exercises, and we've got five knee exercises that you can do right at home, and we've got visual cues for you. And so we did that for every joint. And so, yeah, so it's been fun not growing as fast as we wanted it to grow, but it's. We saw a need and we went after it. That's what we've done. [00:28:14] Speaker A: Yeah. And, I mean, from a fitness lens and perspective, I see a lot of general pop that's able to pick up a sport very easily or not easily, very quickly. We talked about before we started this podcast that I love what you said, the entry level, financially, so low is so low. So low compared to golf or really any other sport hobby, it can be very expensive. So that's awesome about pickleball. But what I see and where I get a little bit timid is most of us live in a very front and backward plane, and then you're having these guys moving side to side to side, and then they're getting in there on foamier shoes and not getting in the proper, you know, kind of math like stance. [00:28:54] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:28:55] Speaker A: Like shoe that's gonna be, well, to help absorb impact and not just shift their foot with a foamy sole. There's. I can imagine the knees, ankles, like, lateral roles that people are experiencing. So, in regards to kind of the entrepreneurial piece there, I'm gonna say this in a very, like, confident and humble brag way for yourself. Is that like, that that grew out of a passion that you guys created pickleball, but you didn't put all your chips in one basket. Like, hey, we're gonna cash in all of our businesses and launch a pickleball app. [00:29:34] Speaker B: Right? [00:29:34] Speaker A: Like, I probably would have called you as a friend and, like, don't do that. Yeah, maybe not the best idea. You're also very successful as a speaker and insurance agent, owner, and business owner. So how could you shed some light on someone that maybe has a vision and a dream to, like, I want to start this, but I love it. [00:29:53] Speaker B: Like, it reminds me of a quote that says, and this is for all the go getters out there. And you'll resonate with this because I do the quote, I can't remember who said it, but it goes something like this. If your ship doesn't come into harbor, sometimes you got to jump out there and swim out and go get your ship. And I'm like, I get it. You know, that's the, you know, that's the, we're going to go after it. Like, if it doesn't happen, I'm going to go make it happen. And so I agree with that. But at the same time, can we clear out the dock that's right in front of us first, can we just move the debris before we jump in the harbor and swim out to the ship? And I would agree in some ventures we got to go, that we got to go get it. Yes, but what I see a lot of people doing is right in front of you. If you just look down, there's some things that we need to clear out of the way to make that swim out to your ship a little bit easier. So that could be getting out of consumer debt, that could be giving up a hobby so you have more family time so you can go after this venture. And so there's these little things that we can clean up. I'm always looking for calculated risks. I think that's healthy to stay forward facing as an entrepreneur. When I look at something, my brain kind of starts computing, how can I make money on this? And then I want to know, what are the upfront costs? And so I'm always identifying that, and then I throw that against, what is this going to do to my time? What is it going to do to my time? Because we're all limited on time, and is it worth it? Some cases it is, but when you start to think through things clearly, you realize, well, wait a second, let me go at this a different way than going all in. So that's kind of how I think it. [00:31:39] Speaker A: You've probably seen the, you might even use this in some of your speaking analogies before, where people have a big glass jar and they put big rocks in it, and they ask the audience, like, is it filled up? They're like, yeah, and then they put smaller rocks that kind of fill in. And like, is it filled up now? Yeah, and then they put the smaller pebbles and then the sand and then even the water, it's like, goodness. [00:32:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:32:01] Speaker A: Okay, now I think it's filled up. Yeah, but in a way, where you guys have crafted the boundaries of your life with your businesses speaking, the practice, home life, kids, your hobbies. Pickle better is kind of, correct me if I'm wrong, just one of those smaller. [00:32:19] Speaker B: That's right. [00:32:19] Speaker A: Endeavors that you and Amanda have agreed to go into together, but you're also not letting it suck up your time. Absorb, like, oh, I wish it would be here, but it's there. You guys have been realistic with the journey of how it's progressing. [00:32:35] Speaker B: And here's one thing that we've talked about. Look, I'm a big dreamer. I thought we'd have 100 million downloads by now. Not anywhere close to that. Right. But here's what, as a family of entrepreneurs that we just love business. What that can't do and what we can't allow that to do to us mentally is to close down or to put blinders over our eyes on. Well, that launch didn't go the way we thought it was going to go. I'm never going to launch anything again. No, no. We're going to continue to stay hungry, we're going to continue to look for opportunities, and we're going to continue to take calculated risks. [00:33:21] Speaker A: Yep. [00:33:22] Speaker B: And so we're just gonna stay in the game. [00:33:26] Speaker A: Love that. Yeah. And you guys have, again, go back to not putting all your eggs in one basket for that. You have a lot of other success in your other business endeavors. And, yeah. You're not, you're not letting that just weigh you down to kind of paralyze you and not take any more of those future calculated risk. [00:33:45] Speaker B: Right. There's something healthy about continuing to take swings. Look, you're going to strike out from time to time. So what, what happens is those people who strike out, they stop. [00:33:54] Speaker A: Yes. [00:33:54] Speaker B: We're not going to stop. We're going to keep swinging. We're going to keep getting better. We're going to keep. But it's important that if you are in one of those droughts where you have been striking out. [00:34:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:06] Speaker B: Probably need to have maybe somebody speak into your life to identify what's. What's going on or what's going wrong or why it didn't hit or whatever. But we have to keep trying. Please keep trying. [00:34:18] Speaker A: Yeah. That's great. Well, one thing that we forgot to mention that you are. [00:34:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:23] Speaker A: You're an author. [00:34:24] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:34:27] Speaker A: Pushing through the barriers. [00:34:28] Speaker B: Yeah. Push, breaking through the barriers. Yep. [00:34:30] Speaker A: Push, breaking through the barriers. [00:34:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:32] Speaker A: Gosh, man, I think I've got it on my, either my bookcase here in the office or in the gym. It's one of them. [00:34:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:40] Speaker A: It gets in the gym. Okay, but could you tell us about that? And how has that navigated into your speaking? And how does that help bring other opportunities? [00:34:51] Speaker B: So I'm always, again, in any business that I get into, I look for men and women who are two, three, four steps down the road that I want to go. Right? And so, as a keynote speaker, I realized these speakers who are charging a healthy keynote fees, they all have, what, books? And so, as I stepped into my career as a speaker, I'm like, you know what I need? I need a book. Here's the problem, Mikey. I did not do good school in english class or language art. No. I wasn't even a reader at the time. I was a horrible writer. How in the world am I going to write a book, right? So I was dabbling around. It took me about, I don't know, a year to write 30,000 words. And I remember this imposter syndrome of. Well, you know, I never really made it in pro football. It kept getting cut. Yes, I became an olympian, but I don't have a medal, right? So who's going to want to read this? And then I synced up with the late Zig Ziglar's son, Tom Ziegler. He now runs Ziggler Inc. And he was just a breath of confidence for me. And he actually introduced me to the publisher that the Ziegler uses. Ziegler Inc. Uses for their books. And so met with them. They jumped on the board with me. I had a book contract ready to go. And so then I wrote the remaining 36,000. So my book's 36,000 or 66,000 words. So think about this, Mikey. Took me a year to write 30,000 back and forth on anybody gonna read this. You know, pity me. You know, I know I need a book, but I don't. I'm not qualified to write a book. I get a book publishing a publisher to come on board, I write the next 36,000 words in three weeks. Three weeks. Let me tell you, Mikey, you want to talk about typos, errors, run on sentences. I mean, it was horrible. But I got at 66,000 words. We sent it to their team. We went back and forth on a couple chapters, things like that. And Amanda jumped in big time. She helped me on the edit and review process since we kind of joke, she edited all my words. So. Is the book really hers? Yeah. So we ended up. We launched it the day before opening ceremonies, 2018 Winter Olympics. And yeah, man, it's been awesome. Actually, about a place, a 3000 book order tomorrow. [00:37:12] Speaker A: You're placing one. [00:37:13] Speaker B: Placing one tomorrow? Yeah, we just sold out. [00:37:15] Speaker A: Do you know to date how many you sold? [00:37:19] Speaker B: Yes. I do need to keep that private. [00:37:21] Speaker A: Okay. But really, is that. [00:37:23] Speaker B: No, it's just at this. At this phase of where we're trying to go, that number doesn't make sense probably to publicize it, but the. I am placing bigger orders as the next one comes in at 3000 should be here in four to six weeks. And it's so neat because it allows attendees where I speak if they connected with my keynote. Because I typically get in the keynote space, you're typically speaking 45 to 60 minutes. It gives them something to go deeper. [00:37:53] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:54] Speaker B: Right. And so it really accentuates my keynote speaking. [00:37:58] Speaker A: Yep. And then how do you. Sorry. [00:38:00] Speaker B: No, not at all. No, you don't need. That's a good question to ask, but. [00:38:03] Speaker A: Yeah, it's very interesting. Really cool. And how I love that you said people only have 45 to 60 minutes with you. They might be able to talk before and after. Obviously you're a very conversational, great guy to approach. I don't think you're intimidating to approach. [00:38:17] Speaker B: Right. Good. That's good to know. [00:38:20] Speaker A: Please come say hi if people want to connect with you after, of course, diving deeper into your book, do people try to reach out to you? And I mean, I see through some of your posts, like all the amazing raving, like this was amazing. Really inspirational. So motivational. Like, how do you sift through all of that when people. Because you want to be nice and considerate, but you also can't talk to 5000 people. [00:38:44] Speaker B: Right. Right. Here's what's interesting again about living in the digital age is when I typically get off stage, my social media goes crazy, and on my travel home, I am able to interact with more people than I could. Post event, either they don't want to wait in line or they had to go to a breakout session. If I'm at a big conference, they just can't hang around. And so social media has allowed it. Another fun thing I did, and I got this idea from Bob Golf. He wrote a book called Love does. He wrote a bunch of books. Just an amazing guy. In the back of my book, very last page, I put my phone number. My cell phone is in the back of my book. [00:39:23] Speaker A: Wow. Yeah. [00:39:24] Speaker B: And so I will get random calls from time to time. And sometimes people call me out of the blue and I always pick my phone up because I don't know if it's a speaking, I just don't know. It could be somebody calling in. But I'm, you know, to your point, I'm very conversational, so I want to know who's calling. And I've had attendees or people that have purchased my book call me and say, I just want to know if Johnny was going to answer the phone. [00:39:51] Speaker A: And I'm like, yeah, man, this is my cell. [00:39:53] Speaker B: What's going on? The only thing is, when I go speak at school, I can't tell kids that they'll prank call me too much, you know, so. But in all my corporate and not, you know, association events. Yeah, and that kind of funny. [00:40:04] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, man. I mean, I think it's obviously pretty evident, like, youre a, you are very respectful, that your time is not above anyone else's. Now, you respect your boundaries and your time, of course, but like, even you coming up here on this podcast, like I've been chatting about, yeah, trying to make this happen, and sometimes schedules haven't aligned, but, like, we've been able to make it happen. I think you've always been so kind and considerate in meeting, doing lunch, having a coffee, whatever. And I think, you know, obviously, probably other people see that and feel that. And since that from you now through all of that and having the book and people reading it, like, have you had any other entrepreneurial itches to create a coaching, a mentor group or something like that where people can kind of join the Jonny Quinn cohort? Not in a sense to fanboy you, but to learn from you and be guided and mentored. You've got so much wisdom to share even more off of the stage than maybe the time that you have on the stage. Any thoughts there, Mikey? [00:41:11] Speaker B: You've picked my. You knew it was coming, right? So I have just launched, and we're doing my first one next month. Now, this is more on the speaker side of things, but I am leading and hosting my first ever, and I see this because I'm getting more demand, but my first ever speaker business boot camp, I'm opening it up to six seats. So it's going to be very intimate, so I can maximize intentional focus. But we're renting out a facility. The shop's a legacy. We're going from 830 to 04:00 p.m. bringing in a photographer. We're going to do headshots for these speakers, but this is for people because here's what I get off stage. A lot people go, hey, I connected with your message so well, I've got a story. I want to do that. And so this is my first time I'm doing it. But I'm literally, what I'm doing is I'm ripping off the hood of everything that I do on the business side as a keynote speaker. So we're going to look at where I go to prospect new leads, what I say to event planners, how I generate leads from on stage. We're going to look at all the software that I use, my CRM, my video email, my phone system. Literally the business side of running a speaking business. I'm going to show six speakers. So it's more of a high ticket price, but they should be able to ten x the ticket price because they're going to leave with a proven blueprint on how to build a successful business because we're looking at all the tools that I use. Yeah, we're announcing it here, man, on your podcast. [00:42:42] Speaker A: I did not know this. I did not know this. [00:42:44] Speaker B: No, you didn't, by the way. Yeah. You did not know this. So here's what has led to this, Mikey, and here comes that entrepreneurial thought process. In life. I look for consistencies. I look for common denominators, right? And so in performance, what I started to realize as I studied ultra performers, a lot of them are readers, and a lot of them have some type of morning routine or evening routine that's consistent. But when I kept getting off the stage, signing books, saying hello to people, people reaching out, me on social media, there was a lot of this. Johnny, how can I do what you do? And I started getting that in the medical sector, the financial sector, education sector. And so what am I doing as an entrepreneur? I'm identifying consistencies. And so it made sense. Well, then let me start a mastermind group. I'm calling it a boot camp for aspiring speakers that I can actually show them the business side, because, Mikey, this takes more than just a 30 minutes consultation call. We're going to get into the weeds and I'm going to show them exactly everything that I do. And so I'm excited about that, buddy. [00:44:00] Speaker A: That is so cool. [00:44:01] Speaker B: Yeah, I can't wait. [00:44:01] Speaker A: That's really exciting. I mean, I've seen some of the back end on all of that, and it's. It's insane. [00:44:06] Speaker B: It is. And it's. Here's the neat thing. It's. It's. When you understand it, it's repeatable. And I think that's what these aspiring speakers are looking for, is the pain point I've identified is I need more bookings. How do I get on more stages. That's what I'm hearing. And so I'm going to show them exactly how I get on more stages. And you do that by having processes and software. You do that by chat. GPT prompts for speaker proposals. Mikey, I'm showing everything, everything that I do in this mastermind. It's gonna be pretty cool. [00:44:42] Speaker A: That's crazy. [00:44:43] Speaker B: Yeah, it's gonna be sweet. [00:44:43] Speaker A: That is really cool. And are you thinking you wanna do that? Maybe biannually, you know, we're gonna see the feedback. [00:44:50] Speaker B: It's this first one I'm gonna try out. That's why I'm starting at six. But, yeah, I could see this as maybe a quarterly event. I could see, depending on capacity, moving it up to 810 or twelve. But I think this first go around six speakers that I can hone in on their assets that they already have, give again, give true individual feedback. Do this, don't do this, follow my plan. I think it's gonna be very productive. [00:45:23] Speaker A: That's so cool. And you said it's just gonna be. [00:45:25] Speaker B: One day, right now it's a one day event. [00:45:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:45:27] Speaker B: Not a multi day conference. One day, 830 to four. Yeah, it's gonna be great. Yeah, I'm pumped, man. I'm pumped. Yeah, yeah. Can't wait. Whoop. To get you in one, dude. [00:45:37] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, you already got my. [00:45:39] Speaker B: Your attention. I love it. [00:45:40] Speaker A: I love it. You know, I know I've had a desire to do that. [00:45:43] Speaker B: Yep. [00:45:44] Speaker A: In the past and it still is a desire. [00:45:46] Speaker B: Right. [00:45:47] Speaker A: But going back to kind of, you know, what we discussed about a pickle better. And just timelines and consistencies, I've had to, you know, put aside some hobbies. [00:45:57] Speaker B: Right. [00:45:57] Speaker A: As I've started these businesses. [00:45:59] Speaker B: Yep. [00:46:00] Speaker A: And as more consistencies have came up in business that I've needed to dive more into, it's, it's a lot. It's. I've had to step back from other desires, right. That I may want to pursue and just know that, hey, it's okay that it's not going to happen right now. [00:46:14] Speaker B: Right. [00:46:14] Speaker A: But I hope and believe that it will. [00:46:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:46:17] Speaker A: In God's timing. Right. You know, and so that is still 100% a hope and belief. [00:46:22] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:46:23] Speaker A: Being able to help other young fitness entrepreneur professionals, no doubt teaching them and assisting them on building a successful boutique training business. And part of having this podcast space, cultivating conversation and collaborating with other synergy partners, business owners, and just always sharpening and creating that healthy friction to continue to learn, overcome and pushing the needle forward. [00:46:47] Speaker B: Agreed. [00:46:48] Speaker A: Agreed. [00:46:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:46:49] Speaker A: Yeah. That's really cool. I can't wait to hear how it goes. [00:46:52] Speaker B: Yeah, we're pumped. So it's gonna be. Yeah, it's gonna be awesome. Right. When you get in there, a professional photographer. So everybody's gonna leave with updated headshots for their social media. It's gonna be a fun day. [00:47:04] Speaker A: Yep. [00:47:04] Speaker B: Yeah, it's gonna be cool. [00:47:05] Speaker A: Well, sweet, man. I know we are. We've, like, flown through this. [00:47:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:08] Speaker A: Good. So this is awesome. It's great. I've enjoyed it. I do wanna get close to wrapping up. One of the last questions that I ask is based off of where you've been, what you're doing, and where you're wanting to go. What are the last few. You've added a lot, but what are some last few key points that you think could add value to our audience and our listeners? [00:47:26] Speaker B: Yeah. Let me keep it simple. One of the things I talk about quite a bit is the ability to borrow wisdom. And what I mean by that is, what are you watching? What are you reading? Who are you listening to? Now, I've got great news. You know, you are a listener. Everybody gets to choose. I just want to know, are we choosing wisely? And, Mikey, as I study ultra performers, men and women in sport and business, who find a way to get the job done with the current resources. They are constantly protecting the content they consume. And so I'd encourage our listeners just to do a healthy diagnostic. What are you watching? What are you reading? What are you listening to? Because, Mikey, some of the biggest lies floating around culture today, they're wrapped in partial truths. And so we need to use wisdom and discernment to spot the lie. Let me give you an example in business, and I got this example from a guy by the name of John Acuff. Brilliant. When he shared this. There's this myth out there, these entrepreneurial gurus or these Internet gurus who say, you've got to work 80 hours a week to be successful. There's some partial truth in that, Mikey. You need to work hard to be successful. You need to be committed to be successful. Here's the lie. If I worked 80 hours a week consistently, that's not teaching me how to be an entrepreneur. That's teaching me how to get a divorce. [00:49:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:49:05] Speaker B: And so there are little things like that going on in culture, in all aspects. That part of it is true. The other part's a lie. [00:49:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:49:16] Speaker B: And so I would encourage our listeners to borrow wisdom wisely. [00:49:22] Speaker A: Love that. That's great. [00:49:25] Speaker B: Yeah, man. [00:49:25] Speaker A: Well, ma'am, thank you so much for being on this episode. You. [00:49:28] Speaker B: Thanks for having me. [00:49:29] Speaker A: Amanda, celebrating ten years of marriage on the 10th episode. Yeah. [00:49:32] Speaker B: Come on. [00:49:33] Speaker A: It's crazy. You know Taylor Semank? [00:49:35] Speaker B: Yeah, I know Taylor. [00:49:36] Speaker A: He was episode number seven, and we played football growing up together. His number was number seven. [00:49:41] Speaker B: Come on. [00:49:41] Speaker A: So, like, I. [00:49:42] Speaker B: You got a little strategy going on here with this now, just falling in place like that? [00:49:46] Speaker A: So, so cool. It was a good dude, but, yeah, it was great having him on it. We just had his episode going on. His. His reels are going right now. But, man, thank you so much for making the time to be here. It's so great to catch up with you and. And just hear just the refreshment of the wisdom that you always have to offer and you give, and it's just been a joy to be able to be your friend, to call you a friend, and to just continue to see the endeavors and the success that you have, not just possibly financially, but the way you steward and love your wife and your kids and continue to be the man that you say you're going to be. Thanks, man. We need a lot more people like that in this world. So thank you guys so much. Episode number ten with the probate form podcast the Johnny Quinn. You can find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube. We'll see you guys next time.