
"Tomorrow is guaranteed to nobody"
Jon Vroman
When you get to the end of your life, will you look back with regret or will you feel a sense of accomplishment and gratitude, knowing that you made the most of each and every moment?
In today’s episode of the Achieve Your Goals podcast, Jon Vroman is here to talk about how you can choose to either watch life pass you by OR decide to live life in the front row!
Jon is a loving husband and Dad to 2 amazing boys. After that, he identifies as a social entrepreneur, award-winning motivational speaker, author, philanthropist, podcaster, personal coach, ultra-marathon runner, and founder of Front Row Foundation.
In today’s conversation, we discuss his new book, Front Row Factor: Transform Your Life with the Art of Moment Making. The book is a collection of inspiring stories, compelling science, and life strategies that will challenge you to explore your values, establish priorities and reconnect to a higher purpose and deeper meaning within your life.
During the interview, Jon shares his journey leading up to the creation of the book, including the origin story of the Front Row Foundation, a wish organization that’s helped hundreds of people who are fighting for their lives, live front row experiences.
Jon’s time working closely with the foundation has definitely put life in perspective. He recognizes that there is a lot we can learn about living life, from those who are fighting for it. He believes that you don’t always get to choose your seat in life, but you do get to choose whether or not you have a front row experience. And that is exactly what today’s interview is all about!
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- [03:30] Jon shares everything that went into the making of his new book The Front Row Factor: Transform Your Life with the Art of Moment Making
- [06:30] The importance of being present in the moment and appreciating the time that you have.
- [09:14] What is a front row moment and how do we recognize or create them in our own lives?
- [10:07] Why a front row moment is sometimes unfavorable, but can still work in your favor.
- [13:39] Paying attention to the signals in life and Jon’s transformational moments that led to the creation of the Front Row Foundation.
- [16:13] Find out why proximity is power!
- [22:09] How hope for the future can bring power to the present.
- [24:35] The power of celebration and pulling strength from our past experiences.
- [30:12] The 3 areas of focus that you should pay attention to if you want to become a moment maker.
- [37:30] Learn how your physical environment can inspire you to think differently and motivate you to rise to your full potential.
- [45:59] Jon shares a recipient story that exemplifies an incredibly powerful mindset.
- [50:48] What is the Front Row Dad’s Retreat?
- [56:28] Jon answers some questions from Facebook Live!
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
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[INTRODUCTION]
[00:00:31] Jon Berghoff: Welcome to the episode number 157 of The Achieve Your Goals Podcast. If you are listening to this via iTunes or whatever way that you listen to this podcast, that is awesome. Great to have you. You might also be watching us on the live stream right now. Today is a very special episode. If you are joining for the first time, I’m your host Jon Berghoff, standing in for Hal Elrod, the creator of The Achieve Your Goals Podcast. Today’s episode is special because I have a guest on this episode, Mr. Jon Vroman. Jon Vroman for those of you who might not have met Jon.
Jon is maybe best known as the creator of the Front Row Foundation. Just to give a little back story. The Front Row Foundation is a wish organization that helps individuals who are braving life threatening challenges. Front row foundation sends those individual to the events of their dreams and creates a front row moment. But what’s really cool, is that front row foundation is not only a wish organization but it’s a philosophy. It’s a way of living, it’s a way of approaching life. It all began with this man, who I am bringing to you today so that we cannot only talk about the Front Row Foundation but super exciting the soon to be released Front Row Factor, Jon’s book that captures the essence in the story and the beauty of his life’s work. So, this is going to be an awesome episode.
We might cut this into two different episodes I don’t really know, you do not really care. We’re going to have a great time. Jonny are you there buddy?
[INTERVIEW]
[00:02:06] Jon Vroman: Hey man, I’m here and I’m excited. Thanks for having me on our buddy’s show. This is great, I love it. We love you Hal, if you are listening man. We miss you and love you.
[00:02:16] Jon Berghoff: Hal we love you buddy. For those few that listen every week, you are well aware of the journey that Hal is on right now. For some reason you are listening and you’re confused or you don’t know who Hal is but we just told you we are here representing him. Well, he started this podcast three years ago. If you are not familiar with Hal’s journey or his story or why we are standing in, please go back and listen to episode 152 which will tell you a little bit about what he’s got going on. In a nutshell Hal is battling a rare form of cancer right now. I will give a really quick update to those of you who know Hal and are close to him. Both Jon and I are in close contact with Hal almost every day and his spirits are great, his spirits are great.
Jonny, people are asking, I am sure they ask you like, “How is Hal?” It’s an awkward question to answer but then reality is, he is in great spirits. He is battling and if there is anybody who can set an example in a face of a crazy adversity like some rare crazy form of cancer it’s Hal. So, Hal if you are listening buddy and to all of you who are listening as we do from time to time on these episodes, we are all sending you and anybody else who needs it all the positive loving energy that we have. On that note I am going to bring Jon Vroman in here. Jonny and Hal and I go back many, many years. Hal has been the biggest supporter and I’m sure will talk about that of the Front Row Foundation. So it is so fitting that we are here to talk about and celebrate the work and the life of Mr. Front Row himself, Jonny Vroman. Jonny, let us talk about what is really exciting in your world, which is the book which is coming out really soon. You’re pumped man.
[00:03:54] Jon Vroman: You know I am beyond pumped and I’m terrified all at the same time. I just had lunch with my wife and she asked me how I was going with the book. And I said I’m both so proud and excited for the book to be shared with people because we have worked for years on this book and it is truly the story of the charity and what we have learned about life from people fighting for it. There is a tremendous amount of pressure at the same time that I feel in trying to honor all those recipients and the people who have poured their hearts and souls into building the charity.
I really care deeply about this book. We have had many eyes on the book in the process. So far feedback has been really positive. I think the book got really good when we just started focusing on everybody else’s stories and how remarkable the people are that we served and what our community has learned over the years. So I am pumped man, this is really an exciting time.
[00:04:53 Jon Berghoff: I want to share with everyone who is listening or if you are watching us stream this live through the Facebook community. If you are, you are welcome to post comments or questions I will find a way to make sure we can see them here, we are a happy to interact. If you have questions directly to Jon about the book. Jonny I want to say I got a chance to get a sneak preview of the book. You sent it to me couple weeks ago. As I was reading through it, I had this feeling and this feeling that I was looking at something that a going to do a lot of good in the world.
As I am reading through story, after story, after story and most of the folks listening this probably have not yet gotten a copy of the book. As I’m reading these stories I’m thinking, “Wow this is so real.” Like the richness and the depths of all of these amazing stories that you bring in this book. And then on top of that, the book has so much depths in teaching people how to bring the most out of any moment, how to give the most to a moment, how to make the most out of any moment. That is the subtitle of your book, right? The front row factor. What is the official subtitle of this work?
[00:06:02] Jon Vroman: Transform Your Life with The Art of Moment Making.
[00:06:06] Jon Berghoff: Dude I love that. So let us go like through the book today. This is a sneak preview. Tell us about the journey of putting the book together and maybe take us through some of the core lessons in the book. I think everyone would love to hear that.
[00:06:20] Jon Vroman: For anybody that is watching on live stream, my beautiful wife just showed up to the rescue of my cough with a hot tea. For everybody listening on the podcast, go check out the video when you get a chance. The book itself, let me give you a little preview as to what I think the book will do for people in the end. I will go right in the end with the big benefit.
The reality of the book I think that is as I said before and I think this is very important. It is everything we learn about living life from people fighting for it. There is a famous Steve Jobs quote that I will paraphrase and that he said something to the effect of, “In the face of death, so much fades away and what left is what is truly important”. What we realize is that our lives, for everybody listening, whether or not you are facing a life threatening illness, we have only a certain number of moments in our lives. I remember somebody telling me years ago about a person who had a bowl of marbles on their dresser.
The marbles represented the number of Saturdays they thought they had left in their life. So as an example, they decided if I live to be 100 and I’m roughly 40 years old right now I would have this many Saturdays left in my life if I live to 100. And he counted out that many marbles and every Saturday morning he would move one marble from one bowl to another. He would see his life kind of unfolding and a reminder of him to be present in the moment and to really appreciate the time that he had. And, although he would anticipate perhaps that he might live to be 100, none of us know how long we really have.
Tomorrow is guaranteed to nobody and the essence of the book is knowing that our lives are made up of all these moments and our job is to figure out how to maximize each and every one of those moments. If we can figure that piece out, if we can figure out how to enter each day with an anticipation and with an intention.
[00:08:20] Jon Vroman: And with a desire to create something exciting or to recognize something exciting throughout the day. That is a brilliant awakening. I know many listening by the way do that with their miracle morning. In fact this morning I was in this very office where I am recording this podcast. It was about 5.30, my son woke up to go the bathroom. He is seven years old. He walked to my office and I’m reading a book. We had this moment where we connected over our miracle morning.
That is a time for me when I set out my intentions for the day. What I am going to create, how I am going to create magic moments. So, I’m fueling myself. I always say, you have to take a moment for yourself before you go out and be a moment maker for the world. Let me say that gain, you have to take a moment for yourself, before you go out and create moments for the world. Then I think the second piece JB, and I’m just kind of giving away the whole grande finale here at the end because this is the essence and even if somebody were only to be able to listen to a few minutes of this podcast, they will get the entire essence of what we are talking about here.
Is that we go through each our days asking, “How do we recognize or create what we call a front row moment in our lives?” A front row moment is just when we get to close to something that inspires us. Think about the metaphor of being in the front row at one of your favorite events, whether that be a concert or a sporting event or whatever it might be. This idea of getting close to the things that inspire us. That is the essence of the front row moment. And so a front row moment could be literally standing in front of a sunset or it could be watching your kids play.
It could be, creating in your business. It could be having a wonderful conversation where you are asking questions and learning. It could be where you are sharing something with somebody. But regardless it is a moment that matters. It is a moment that we can say yes to in life. Sometimes our front row moments are not favorable but they can work in our favor. Let me say that again. Sometimes the front row moments are not favorable per se but they can work in our favor. That is why we look for the gift and a challenge.
[00:10:20] Jon: Then finally the last piece of the puzzle for people is how do we celebrate these moments? In other words how do we wrap up every day looking back and celebrating the best of what was?
In our house we constantly ask, “Hey, what were your front row moments today?” We highlight, celebrate and relive these moments. There is a lot of great research that talks about the power of looking back and bringing our history into the present moment and being able to relive that once again. I think when we do those three things we become moment makers in our lives. We set out our intentions in the morning of what we are going to create. We go through the day and ask, “How can we recognize or create the best of every moment?” And then we get to the end of the day and we celebrate our front row moments and our experiences.
What is really cool about that is that we are constantly living in the moment. Even when we have hope for the future Jonny, we are always going out into the future and bringing that power into the present moment. When we are looking back and celebrating we are bringing the past into the present moment and feeling that, and our lives become more about how do we make the most of each and every moment? Here is what I think the big news of this book, is this is the key to life. This is really how we get to the end of our lives, look back without regret by knowing that we made the most of every moment that we were given. That is my big overarching description of what the essence of the book is all about.
[00:11:40] Jon Berghoff: Thank you for tuning into episode 159, we’ll see you next week. Jonny I was…
[00:11:47] Jon Vroman: I was just trying to make your job easier man, I was like, “Just keep talking, he does not have to ask any questions.”
[00:11:51] Jon Berghoff: Anyone who knows this knows that there is no way. I did not come with any questions. I just have to wind you up and then sit down and just become an audience member. And I was, I just sat here and took notes. You are such a professional speaker that you knew after you said something to say again. That was so great. But I want to repeat back a few things for our audience here Jonny just to buy you time. Not that you need it. But you just said, learning about living life from people who are fighting for it.
There is a lot of books out there. A lot of books about living life but what a unique perspective, what a unique perspective. The title of this podcast as my good friend Hal began this three years ago is Achieve Your Goals Podcast. It is about people achieving their goals. I just want make clear that I know both Hal and I believe this and then you and what you are sharing so deeply that sometimes when we get really caught up in achieving our goals we get distracted from what’s important.
The irony I believe is that the fastest way to achieve my goals is if I get more present to making more moments for myself and others. This is so real and so relevant. Jon, what I love too is that you are the guy to write this book. You are the guy, you are a guy who has made front row moments for me and for so many others. For those of you that don’t know Jon, you introduced my wife and I to each other. That was a front row moment. That so many years ago. That is 10 years ago, 11 years ago in your basement that was so cool. You then married us.
I have had the privilege of seeing you create front row moments for me but for a lot of other people too. You are so the right guy to be bringing this book to the world. You were made to bring this book to the world. In fact our listeners who don’t know the whole story, I now there is a group here, you know the story. But for many of you who don’t, Jon can you bring everyone back to the creation of the Front Row Foundation because when you shared the story I love everyone to listen to this. It is so revealing and just some beautiful lessons and paying attention to signals in life.
[00:13:55] Jon Berghoff: Because our life might be telling us exactly what to do but we missed it. But you did it, you listened to some signals and took a risk and went out on a limb and you have helped a lot of people because of that. Do bring us all the way back to the beginning of The Front Row Foundation.
[0:14:10] Jon Vroman: I think there were three things that happened and the timing was perfect of these three transformational moments in my life. One of which was, I was in my late 20s and I was watching an infomercial on TV and then Tony Robbins appears. I remember questioning as he was pitching his personal growth program. I remember questioning, “Is it really worth it? Is it really worth 200 bucks to buy these CDs?” The conversation then switched to, not is it worth it but I’m I worth it? I think that’s a big piece of living life in the front row is deciding that we are worthy of the pursuit of a front row life.
That was a big moment for me. So, I got the CDs and I started learning much like I was listening to this podcast wanting to grow ourselves personally. You know how I constantly quotes Jim Rohn, that idea that our level of professional growth never exceeds our level of personal growth. The idea for me was that investing in myself was a big step. But what was the shocker for me was when Tony talks so much about giving to the world. It was not just about my growth it was about how I can contribute and give back.
What I recognized that I was missing some type of meaning and purpose in my life and came by way of contribution, genuine contribution. So, this was lingering in my mind of like how can I contribute in a bigger way to the world? That question was existing. And we know and you know Jonny B because you teach this, the power of a question. Once that seed is planted in our mind, it goes to work. That was hanging there in the back of my mind. The second thing that happened was I went to Jason Mraz concert and I was in the very back row and I noticed that there was this group of girls in the front having the time of their life.
I remember turning to my girlfriend and saying, “Man, life is different in the front row.” That was a moment for me when I recognized that, so much of our world is created by, A, what we decide it is going be but B, where we put ourselves. The people that we put ourselves around, the places that we put ourselves. I recognized in that moment what Tony Robbins talked about when he used to say, “Proximity is power.” What that means for anybody who is listening and goes, “What was that?” Proximity is power is just when we get close to something that inspires us we get great power from that.
[00:16:27] Jon Vroman: It is why people pay huge dollars to be front row to their favorite event. It is why real estate in downtown Manhattan, a real estate on the oceanfront is the most expensive because of where it is, because of what it is in a proximity to. It’s why the old quote of you become like your five closest friends, it is so true. Then the book Connected written by Christakis and Fowler have proved that. That is what we mean by proximity is power. So, I just thought to myself, man I have been going through life kind of as a spectator. Just watching from a distance kind of taking wherever seed I get. And I thought I want to be a little more intentional about how I live. I would like to be choosing the seat that I get… I want to say this is a very important point which is that, we don’t always choose our seat in life but we do choose whether or not we have a front row experience in life.
I am not saying that I was not grateful for my seat. In fact you could argue that there is great perspective being in the back row. It is not about whether or not is the front row. It is figuring out what your front row is. Otherwise best seat in the house for you. Whether you are an introvert or an extrovert regardless of who you are this is about you getting your best seat. We always talk in our charity that if you don’t like your seat change it, but if you cannot change it just own that seat. Make the most of it. This concept of being in the front row and choosing our seat in life that all happened at the Jason Mraz show. That was the second transformational moment.
And then the third was just that we were stepping out big in life. This was just after this, man I want to live life in the front row philosophy that was sort of setting in my heart. My buddy and I, Jamie Bogger and I decided that we were going to run an ultramarathon. This was a 52 mile run. What happened then, this is really interesting is that as we were training for the run, we were searching for a deeper purpose. That we had to need more meaning to this than just going past the finish line. We started saying, “Wait a minute this idea of contribution, this questions hang in my head how can we give to a charity?”
[00:18:28] Jon: But then the conversation turned to, “What if we created a charity? What would that look like?” And we just started dreaming. What came from that conversation was the idea of Front Row Foundation. The minute that we thought of Front Row Foundation, I will tell you that something magical happened in that moment which is that I was no longer tired. See, I was on a train run and it was eight miles in. But the minute that I had deep purpose now, I had something else, some external factor that was almost pulling me forward I found great energy. That has been the case for the last 11 years.
What we realized in that moment was that, purpose brings power to your present moment. That was the birth of the Front Row Foundation. That idea led us to sending letter to friends, we raised some money and we started the charity. But it was those three concepts. Knowing number one that I wanted to give, knowing number two that I had to choose my experience in life and that I could step up into the front row. Number three that there was this great deep meaning and purpose that I was longing for and that we could create by serving others. Then in that moment that was sort of the beginning of it all. Since then it has been 11 years, we have created nearly a 100 experiences. I want to make a minute here man and just shine light back on you because for everybody listening, this is kind of fun for me to be able to say.
Jon Berghoff as the host to the show is also a founding member of the Front Row been there since day one. Jonny you have been… This is fresh in my heart because I just wrote in this in the book. That I literally thought about this, I go almost every brilliant idea that we have had as a charity in the last 11 years could be somehow be linked back to Jon Berghoff. I thought if you just trace the… Like go to the rabbit hole all the way. It ends with Jon Berghoff usually saying something or making some decision but Jon you have served the charity in so many amazing ways. You hosted Sophie’s, Front Row events, Kelly Clarkson. We can talk about that story. You and I ran in ultra-marathons, raised money for the charity. I just want to take a minute to shine the light on you because when I look back over the last 11 years and we book the book, dude you have been at the core of the creation of the front row and what we are and who we are. I just was want to tell you in front of everybody I love it.
[00:20:36] Jon Berghoff: Thanks Jonny. I appreciate that man. I appreciate that. I love you too and I guess I will take the opportunity and just share… For everyone who is listening who many may have just have heard for the first time the origin story. It is probably now easy or easier to see why the Front Row Foundation has so many fans because yes it is a wish organization that helps people at a crazy time in their lives. What it does with them and their families especially is a big deal. But for me that is not why I supported, it’s part of the reason and I don’t support it because it is you. I love supporting a friend but I think if you were not there I think I still would be a big fan because it is about the philosophy that the Front Row teaches to people.
Everything you just taught us about making the most out of the moment. As a parent I hear that and I think, “There is nothing more important.” As an entrepreneur I hear that and I think, “There is nothing more important.” As A husband I hear that I think, ‘There is nothing more important as a human being.” It’s like, “What can be more important?” Thank you Jonny for creating something that people like me I got a copy of that letter whenever that was 12 years ago. I got one of those original letters. It is fun to think about. It is something that we might write or a decision we might make or a goal that we might set.
12 years from now what could still be around or what can be created or what can flourish. That’s totally awesome, it is totally awesome. Jonny when you think about everything that the Front Row Foundation has taught you, that you have learned speaking and coaching. Let us go right into the book. Maybe some of your favorite lessons. Some of the lessons in the book that you are just humped to bring to the world. I know many of these you have been bringing to the world for a long time. But are there any that jump you think you know, here is something that I just cannot wait for people to come across.
[00:22:34] Jon Vroman: It is interesting because in the beginning when we started this 11 years ago it was really about making this one big day, super amazing for somebody who really deserved it and our intentions were pure. We had a heart and soul behind every front row experience we were creating. Looking back now after 11 years, we were able to see some things that previously were not even on my radar. One of those was that there were a couple of forces at work that were really moving people souls in ways that I couldn’t articulate in the beginning. I will give an example. One was we had a recipient his name was Thomas Kay. Thomas was fighting for his life and he was undergoing serious medical treatments, he was in a wheelchair, he was losing his eyesight. Formally he was a very passionate rugby player.
We heard about Thomas and his story and our heart broke for Thomas and what he was going through. We created a front row event for him with our Canadian team to send he and his family to go see the rugby world cup in New Zealand. One of the things that I remember hearing was that, as Thomas was battling through physical therapy, he was using his event in the future as power for his present moments. In otherwise he would say that, “I am going to work extra hard in physical therapy so I can stand during the national anthem, during my front row event.”
What I recognize now is that and science and research now shows this better than ever before but having hope and hope is very different than wishful thinking. Hope is something that, “Hey I imagine the future to be different and I believe that I can do something about it.” It is a philosophy of empowerment to say that I have hope for the future. One of my favorite movie, Shawshank Redemption there is a quote at the end that says, “Hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things and good things never die.” This idea that now wanting to have this hope and this dream that pulls us forward in our lives. We realize that people could use the future not to ignore the present moment but to bring power to it.
[0:24:35] Jon Vroman: The second thing that we recognized was that, there was a power of celebration that was occurring. I thought it was about your day, go out and have an amazing day, limousines, dinners, front row event. Yeah, we would pictures and video but I did not recognize the power of that until later. What I really recognized was one story that comes to into mind is Carey Smolensky. One of our good friends, a board member, a guy who has been there from the get go. Carey told me about one of our recipients his name is name Mike Lee. Mike, was a young man who we to go see the Pirates Show in South Carolina.
It was the first time he is on an airplane, the first time he was ever in ever in a hotel, the first time he saw the ocean. It was an amazing event of firsts for mike and his family. One of the things that really stood out for me about this event was that when Carey told me that he went to go see mike in the hospital. Mike was fighting for his life and the doctors told him that this was the end. Carey went to go see the family. When he showed up, he saw Mike sitting in his hospital bed flipping through his photo books, smiling ear to ear. What we realized was that families were able to look back on their front row events and pull energy into the present moment.
When people are listening to this I want you to understand that in our lives or in the most difficult times we can look back and pull strengths from our best experiences in life. We saw that with recipient after recipient. They would talk about their videos, they would talk about their photo books. They would talk about how cherished they are. They would talk about how their photo books became center pieces of their coffee tables and that their videos they would show to every one of their friends. Then for one out of every two of our recipients over the last 11 years who have lost their lives, their family members get a hold on to those moments forever. Those became treasured items in their lives, treasured memories. I did not realize the importance of that until I would see somebody 10 years later telling me about their event. In fact Thomas Kay who I just mentioned earlier, we went to his mom’s Facebook page recently, writing the book we were in communication, and still this is almost nine years later.
[0:26:42] Jon Vroman: The cover photo is of her and her family’s front row picture. That is nine years later that is till the banner photo on their page. I recognized the power of that. Then finally Jon the last piece of this, the last kind of force that was at work was that it was all about living in the moment. People would say that to us, they are like, Front Row is all about living the moment. It is about this metaphor like we are he here, it is now, the show is live, that band may play that song a million more times but never just like this one in this moment. This moment is special. What we recognized is that while we were looking out and having hope for the future that brings power to the present, the celebration brings the past in the present moment. Living in the moment is really what it is all about.
So, if it was all about living in the moment, then it became how do we become moment makers in their lives? That became our primary question. How do help people to make the most of every moment in their lives regardless of circumstances, some good, arguably some not so good, clearly though we should choose what we make of that experience. Choosing our attitude and our perspective on life is the most empowering thing we have. It is ultimately the end of the day. That is all we really have control over. Is what do we do with this moment? How do we approach it? How do we make the most out of it? That’s what moment makers do.
[00:28:02] Jon Berghoff: Wow, I’m loving this. I just took a few notes. I also typed a couple notes into the chat box in the live steam. But I wrote down a couple of questions that I just hold out at what you just shared. I’d encourage all of our listeners to think about these questions. Think about them all the time. If I say this too quickly and you cannot write them down, good, you can go buy the book. This is so great, what are you hopeful for? What images of your future give you a sense of hope? I also thought to myself Jonny that, as you said that, I thought, “Gosh I have things that I am hopeful for but I don’t connect often enough to the things that I am hopeful for. I don’t make it a consistent enough habit.”
So, you just touched on this today. This ought me to be the kind of thing that we ask ourselves every day and as soon as you said that I thought, “That makes so much sense that what I am hopeful for or what I could be hopeful for.” That’s the kind of question that it will only do good to bring in my life more often. I typed this in here, I have typed into the chat on the live stream. What is an example for those of you listening? An example of moment or a story from your life when you were at your best. When were you most fully alive? Then as Jon Put it, how can you celebrate that moment and what you brought to that moment. What that moment brought out of you, what others brought to that moment, how can you pull that greatness into the present?
Sometimes I think that’s gotta be so helpful. Just to realize, I’ve had moments, I’ve had times, I’ve had experiences that just by reflecting on them I can bring all of the good from that moment into the present. I can remember who I was and how I showed up and how that moment invited me to show up. Then finally just being in the present, living in the moment. Getting the most out of, giving the most to, enjoying whatever is happening right now. That is awesome and I know Jon that that is a core part of the framework of the book. I’m so glad that you shared that today because people are going to love getting that.
[00:30:03] Jon Berghoff: Hey anything else you want to add about the book, wherever you want to go. It is full of incredible stories, insights just like what are sharing. What else stands out for you?
[00:30:13] Jon Vroman: I can talk about the book for days. I will give you three areas of focus that I think people need to give attention to if they want to be moment makers in their lives. Because we asked the question, how do we live more in the present moment? How do we make the most out of every moment that we have? What we realized was that there were really for the people who were doing it successfully there were these three areas of focus if you will, in their lives. One of which and these won’t be new by the way because I think that we all know them intuitively, but I challenge everybody as I share these to hear these as a student. In another words, how can you hear this with a fresh set of ears today.
As a master, somebody looking for mastery in their lives. It’s interesting, masters are the ones that typically are the most interested in the basics or the basic principles and mastering them. Here are three basics that we saw. Nearly 100 recipients clearly it was that who was in their front row. We call this, who is in your front row? The relationships that they chose in their life had a massive impact on whether or not they have made the most of every moment. In other words listen, if you went on a road trip and you were with horrible people you could arguably have a good time and make the most of the experience because you control your mindset.
You might find humor in it. You might find that it is good to practice patience or acceptance of diversity but the reality is if you had five or seven of your best friends on the road trip arguably that makes it a lot easier to have a good time. To relate this directly to the experiences that our recipients were having when we sent them to an event one of the question is, who do you want to go with? Selecting who want to go to the show with in life is very important decision that we make.
[00:32:14] Jon Vroman: We use the term who is in your front row as painting this picture that, imagine you are going through life and all the people that you are meeting in your life are at your show. It might be hundreds and thousands of people that you need but just like every performer you’ve only got so many seats front and center and you are going to have to pick who you give the best seat in the house to. Sitting next to me or hanging next to me on my wall right now is, what I consider to be my front row. It’s my top eight relationships. One of the things I will encourage everybody to do today is to take a moment and to think about who are your eight most important relationships in life? Now, again you will know hundreds and maybe thousands of people that you’ll know and love and care for.
You might lead teams with many, many people but in your life you need to establish who is your front row is. Your top eight. Then one of the things that I would challenge everybody to do is that just like Front Row Foundation helps dreams come true and Front Row Foundation is this metaphor of being in the front row. You need to be a fan for people in life. You need to show up for people. One of the twists to this, is that it is not always who is in your front row, but Jonny you’ve said this many times which is, whose front row are you in? In other words moment makers show up for people and cheer them on. They step up into people’s lives and they become raving fan.
I want you to think today about who are the most important relationships in your life? How can you help those eight people to achieve their goals because if you want to achieve your goals, help enough people achieve the goals? That has been said by countless brilliant people. I think Zig Ziglar is one of the most famous quoted like, “You want to live your dreams, help enough people live theirs.” The concept is about showing up into people’s lives. That is one of the biggest things is relationships. Not only who do you invite to go to the show? Whose show do you show up for? Here is a concept that I want you to realize. The best fans get the best show. In other words when you give great energy, you get a better show.
[00:34:16] Jon: When you show up to life, giving great energy you are going to get a better show from life. That metaphor is super important. That is just one of the focuses is relationships. I can go on. There is two others. There is one that deals with mindset and one deals with environment. We should talk about those but I don’t want to talk for too long before I let you chime in man. What are your thoughts about this Jonny B? I’m returning this interview back on you.
[00:34:37] Jon Berghoff: I remember you and I had fun conversation not long ago about what are all the things that are going through your head as you are walking through an airport. One of the things that you shared was that, you have a genuine question in your head. I remember as soon as you shared this, I thought, “Wow this is so revealing because it is not the genuine question that I have.” There was a little part of me that was like, “Oh man, am I broken or am I a bad person?” All that could be true I guess. The reality was, it was just kind of an intention that you have.
But it is your natural intention and I love that it was your answer. Then the thought that you had that dominates your head is how can I connect with this person? Can I have a connection with this stranger right now? My guess is that there is a lot of folks listening who might hear that and go, “Yeah, I have a thought like that.” There’s probably many folks like me who are like, “Wow that is not my genuine thought.” It is not a surprise that people know you Jon always feel really authentically connected to you to know that that is an intention that you have everywhere you go. I just want to share that with everybody that Jon walks this talk at the level of it’s deeper than just something that he is putting in a book. It is really who he is and how he lives. It is awesome. Jon, you mentioned, environment. You and I…
[00:36:01] Jon Vroman: JB, really quick I want to make a comment about that too because I think it is important for people to know about that piece of me. Probably many people listening. Is that that came from a place from a place of pain in my life. In other words when I look back on my world, I think of feelings of being insignificant, not being noticed. Part of my story we can get into is that I was really short in high school. I am talking like 4, 10, 85 pounds driving a car type of short. Like born age of a nine year old. I had this feeling that I was not enough and that I was not seen or noticed or celebrated if you will.
My parents were amazing people, they did not do anything wrong. It was just a feeling that I had adopted in my life. I created this story around it all. Now, I had this deep desire to help people always feel witnessed, celebrated, loved, acknowledged. That place of wanting to give that feeling away comes from a place of wanting to have that feeling in my life. I think that for a lot of us that is turning our pain into our purpose. I think everybody has pieces of their past that are painful, and they don’t have to be a story of why they hold us back, they can be the story of how they help us to serve and provide genuine fuel for our mission today.
[00:37:26] Jon Berghoff: That is so cool. Jonny, you were starting to talk about environment. I remember I was visiting your home back when you lived in New Jersey. I remember I don’t know why I looked into our closet one day and inside the door of your closet you had listed out all of your values. You had a list of knowing what you valued but like how you knew if you were living out those values. I go way back to how long ago I have leant from you the value of environment.
A decade or more later that is something that you have taught and that I have become I guess almost paranoid about. Someone is watching the live stream, like hey I will turn my computer, my office here. Everything on the walls is some sort of symbol. Everything from the bonsai tree on the coffee table, you can see it too, the pictures of nature, like the fact that there is one picture is in… It’s actually the top photo and the bottom photo on that wall right there Yosemite, one is in the heart of winter, one is in the middle of summer. It is a symbolic reminder for me to find beauty in the seasons.
Everything that I look at has some sort of symbolic meaning. I was just visiting, that if you and I both met earlier this year Christopher Lochhead. I was just at his house for dinner last week. I go to the bathroom… Now Chris has done really well for himself. Amazing guy, he is marketing genius. He is a pleasure to be around. If anyone is listening and wants to go learn from Chris, go check out his podcast Legends and Losers. It is one of a kind and well worth the time. I was walking to the bathroom off of his kitchen and hanging on the wall above the sink, probably as a sign so nobody will rob his house. But he has three boxing gloves. One of them is signed by Sugar Ray Leonard, one of them is signed by Mike Tyson and the other one is signed by Mohammed Ali.
This is just one of his bathrooms. His entire house is decorated with symbols from musicians, athletes, actors and every single symbol has a meaning for Chris. None of it is on accident. I just shared that with all of our listeners to encourage you to think about what is everything that is in your physical environment all the time. Could you step it up at all in terms of what are you seeing? What are you looking at? Even when you are doing something as simple as going to the bathroom, let alone where do you work all the time. Is your environment totally inspiring? You can taught me a lot about that Jon.
[00:40:06] Jon Vroman: Yeah, and I think it’s so important because we always talk about mindset being the most important piece of somebody being living life in the front row. Mindset, mindset, mindset. It’s how we view life. It’s the questions we ask. It’s the thoughts we have. What’s interesting is that our environment often times creates those feelings, dictates what our next thought is going to be. It controls our focus. Advertisers spend countless dollars trying to get your attention, driving down the road, bill boards, watching TV, it’s everything that’s trying to be fed into your mind to control your next thought or your action. Why are we not our own chief marketing officers?
Why doesn’t everybody just pause for a moment and hire yourself as your own chief marketing officer of your life so that you dictate the ads that come your way. You dictate the environment that causes you to think differently. I like to think that it’s not that I’m not smart which is why I hang all this stuff all around me, it’s because I am smart enough to know that that’s not how my brain works. It’s that it causes me to think differently, hanging to my left right now are my goals, then it’s my front row. I have this big dry erase board next to me that’s blank presently because I want it to be a space that challenges me to write. I’ve got my calendar on the wall.
We were given a tour of the office. Hey look what I’ve got over here. Buddy look at that. That’s our picture from our dinner in Cleveland with Jeff Hoffman and then look at the box of shoes up there. You gave me those shoes, that’s the Scott Gerick shoes. And there’s all these little pieces of important reminders in our lives. I hang up questions constantly. I think that creating our environment is so powerful. We saw this rolling back to how this all came to be and why this is important in the Front Row factor. When we took a recipient out of their day to day experience and put them somewhere new. Somewhere fresh. A concert, if you just use that as an example it’s lights. Maybe it’s outdoors, maybe there’s tons of people.
[00:42:06] Jon Vroman: That environment changes the way we feel. We can’t help but get caught up in that. The seduction of life and our environment is important. It’s clearly very important. We noticed that recipients had a shift in their emotional state because of the environment change. When we run live events, like our dad’s retreat or when you were conducting Your Best Ever live event, these are environments that people are literally removing themselves from their day to day lives going somewhere different. Something shifts, something changes. That’s an essential piece of life. Our friend Jim Sheils wrote a book called The Family Board Meeting. When we take our children out on what he calls these board meetings and we spend a couple of hours, no electronics and activity of their choosing, we are often times changing our environment.
It’s why you Jon go running often and you spend time in nature because that environment fuels you. So what I’d ask everybody to consider in your life right now is what environment brings about your best? And choosing environments where you can thrive. Literally just like the basic metaphor of a plant in rich soil with the right sunlight and the right amount of water where it can become and grow to it’s fullest potential. Think about what environment you could choose to put yourself into. Then think about how do you adjust your current environment? Because, listen, if you want to be a moment maker in life, no doubt that having the right environment makes it much easier to do so. In other words when I take my wife to an amazing restaurant and the ambience is there, which is a critical factor for me in having a dining experience, I know that only perpetuates a better experience that night.
[00:43:48] Jon Berghoff: Tell us what that means Jon.
[00:43:51] Jon Vroman: Exactly. It’s the end result is a front row moment. The idea in our world is to shape our environment. I’ll give you one more practical example JB. And that is we chose to move to Austin recently because we looked at what we valued in life, what was most important to us. When we thought about that, here’s what it was; climate, we were very focused on our warmer… I can be outdoors in warm weather year round environment. My wife grew up in the Siberia and she’s had enough of the cold. She never wants any more of that. The second one was about culture. Hey, what type of area is it? What type of culture is it? What is the vibe? I call that the vibe of an area. The culture.
Then the third piece is the community itself. What types of people are attracted to that culture? What type of people do you meet when you go to the grocery store and you go to the gym? Who are the people there because I wanted to choose an area where people had similar values or aligned. When we looked at those things, Austin won out for us as to where we wanted to live. Hudson a very close second. Perfect climate. We chose Austin because… And I’ll tell you this. We’ve never been happier. Never been happier. Now, not everybody is in a position right now where you can just pick up and move your family across the country or do whatever but understand the principles of what I’m talking about.
That how can we make tiny shifts to our environment? What could you literally pull out and write on a piece of paper and hang it on your wall whether it’s your number one goal, whether it’s your top eight relations or something to decorate or create an environment that inspires you. I used to write notes to my son on the bathroom mirror with the dry erase marker every day. And it is just a way to shape his thinking. He would be affected by that and that would change his mood. I don’t have a mic to drop. Hey JB, let me share one other quick thing real fast that I think it’s really important because we talked about it a couple of times and I want to give one example and one story of this.
[00:45:48] Jon Berghoff: Only after I tell people that if they want to hear more from you they should go check out your podcast, The Front Row Factor. All right, continue.
[00:45:56] Jon Vroman: Hal was one of our first guests. You’ve been on there. Chris Lochhead was a guest. So listen, mindset is the big key. And I want everybody to realize that everything is mindset. It all comes down to how do we approach any situation? Because regardless of your circumstances your mindset determines how you are going to make the most of every moment that you are given. I want to share a quick story that I think exemplifies a powerful mindset. There was a woman named Nicky who I had the privilege of creating a front row event for just a couple of months ago. She went to see a Dallas cowboy’s game.
It was her and her husband John and she’s battling Breast Cancer, stage four, chemo and radiation so she had lost her hair and in the limousine she had said to me, “You know Jon, sometimes when I’m out in public and I’m wearing a hat people will look at me with disgust.” When she said that my heart got super heavy and I was so sad. She immediately followed up by saying, “And it makes me happy.” Then I thought, “Oh man, tell me more. What do you mean?” She said, “Jon it makes me happy because in order for that person to look at me with disgust it must mean that they have never had a personal experience battling cancer.
Certainly they’ve never had anybody that they love or care about that has battled cancer because if they did have context to my situation they would not be looking at me in that way. So I am happy that they don’t have any ability to relate to what I’m going through.” And I thought, “Oh my gosh, that is such an incredibly powerful way to view the situation.” What I was reminded of is that there is no reality and so we decide what’s real. We get to determine the meaning of life. We get to give it meaning in purpose based on what we choose to see as real in that moment. Nicky just exemplified that perfectly. I don’t know that I would respond on that powerfully.
[00:47:59] Jon Vroman: I hope that I might based on what I’ve learned from people who’ve faced the most challenging situations and how they’ve overcome them. I have been constantly blown away by how people have responded to challenges. In particular, and it’s coming full circle back to what you said about Hal. So Tatiana, for those listening that’s my wife who is into homeopathy and she was delivering some stuff to Hal this morning and I said, “How’s Hal?” She said, “His spirit is Amazing.” That’s what she responded with. The spirit is amazing and JB you and I both see it all the time that Hal is a great example of somebody that even I’ll tell you now behind the scenes he is remarkably optimistic and positive.
Now, does Hal have a bad moment? Sure he admits that he does. He talks about that but he doesn’t stay there. I think he experiences the full range of emotions of life. He just chooses to live in a place that empowers him to do the best he can with what he has. That I think is the essence of being in the Front Row. I’m going to go back to something I said earlier and this is what we’ve learned from so many people. You don’t always choose your seat in life but you do choose whether or not you have a front row experience. Hey if you don’t like your seat change it but if you can’t change it then own it.
Own what you’ve got and make the most of that current situation. Moment makers, both recognize and create the best of any moment possible for themselves and others. They make the moment, favorable or not it’s something that can work in their favor. So that is the essence of a front row mindset and the book is just everything that we’ve learned. Stories like Nicky and I could go on and on and tell you story after story of recipients who step up in life and regardless their challenges make the most of the time they have. And that inspires me and I wanted to show that in the book.
[00:50:02] Jon Berghoff: That is so awesome. That is so awesome. And for those of you that have enjoyed this, a couple of things, one is make sure to go follow Jon at The Front Row Factor, the name of his podcast. JV, what do people make sure to people go so they find the book, do you have a special place right now that you want them to go find you?
[00:50:20] Jon Vroman: frontrowfactorbook.com.
[00:50:24] Jon Berghoff: frontrowfactorbook.com and we’ll link to that in the email and show notes and email and whatever else we send out with these episodes. So it’s perfect. Jonny, before we part ways, there’s a couple opportunities for people to get to hang out directly with you. One which is coming out so I just realized that we got to make sure to mention this. For anyone listening who is a dad or knows a dad, if you know a dad and you care about that dad or you are a dad and you care about yourself you got to look into the Front Row Dads Retreat. Jonny, do you want to take a second to just share with people what that’s about? I know there’s an event coming up in Austin.
[00:50:58] Jon Vroman: There’s amazing group of guys that are committed to being outstanding fathers, getting together, taking time to work on their families. One of the reasons I created this event is I wanted to go to. I created the event I wanted to attend myself and when I looked at my calendar man I had invested in how to become a better speaker and how to grow myself personally over here and had all these areas where I was investing dollars, time and energy into growing myself but I looked at my calendar and I’m like where’s the time to work on my family. I think people listening get the difference between working in your business as an example or working on your business.
Working on your business is just taking a day or two to step back, get some perspective, create a plan and so that you are not just being efficient doing the wrong thing fast or spending a lot of time with your family but not being effective but it’s knowing exactly what lever to pull, exactly what values we want to instill in our children, exactly where we want to spend time so that when we spend time to work on our families we go back and we are more effective. That’s what we created was a shift in environment, a chance for guys to get together, like minded, like hearted guys, entrepreneurial focused guys, typically. We have all different type of people in the group with kids of all different ages and the dads just come together and get some time.
I think that for many of our dads this is one of the things they view as a calling. I’ve shared the story and I think a lot of dads relate to it where somebody asked one time what I did and I told him I was a speaker and a coach and kind of cut myself off in the middle and I was like, “Wait a minute, hold on, I’m a dad. I’m a dad and I’m a husband and when I’m not doing that I happen to be speaking and running this charity or writing books but that’s not what I do.” My primary role in life is to be a great dad. If anybody resonates with what I just shared and wants to learn more frontrowdads.com, check it out. We’d love to talk with you.
[00:52:39] Jon Berghoff: Awesome and I can tell you firsthand experience, I was there at the first retreat and I’ll be there in a few weeks. Like you said Jonny it’s one of those things where every time you say that like hey, this is your most important role there’s this deep, deep, deep knowing as a dad where it’s like I can’t deny that. That’s real and I’m so glad that you created that for dads to step up their game and be around an incredibly group, an amazing group of guys that are there to support each other. So that’s awesome. What about the Front Row Summit? The Front Row Summit this summer, the second Front Row Summit. We did it last year and it was awesome. Anything you want to say about that? We don’t even have a website. Just you got to like send us in the mail or something, fax…
[00:53:27] Jon Vroman: We will by the way. Very quickly. It will be at frontrowfactor.com. You can see more about the summit but yeah guys. Anybody that’s listening that, you feel moved by The Front Row Foundation and you’re looking for potentially an organization that’s purpose driven that aligns with your value, if what I shared today just speaks to you or helps you come alive in some way. We’d love to talk about what it would be like to contribute with you and so we put on this event and Jonny you masterfully hosted this last year in Cleveland and what we do is we bring together donors and recipients and people that are just interested in the front row, all different types of people that came together who were just interested in co-creating the future for Front Row Foundation and we did.
We succeeded in just a couple of days major things happened. If we wanted to we could literally spend the next hour talking about all of what went down at that event. We had incredible special guests, we had an incredible camp fire experience that resulted in like crazy stuff like major dollars being raised, big commitments, tattoos. There’s is a tattoo or four that came of that experience.
[00:54:38] Jon Berghoff: Yeah, this just got real folks. Listen, this just got real. I know you’re just driving or working out but there’s tattoos involved here.
[00:54:46] Jon Vroman: No tattoos are required to attend but I’ll tell you, there were people that… I think here’s what’s really cool, there were people that were moved enough to where they literally, I think it crazy when they say it but they literally tattooed the Front Row Logo on their body at the end of… Here’s what’s crazy. I know that could scare people off. So there’s no need. There’s no requirement there. By the way, the guy who did it is one of my best friends and he’s been a front row supporter for 11 years and he stepped and he’s like, “Hey, I want to hit, our goal is to raise a $100,000. He said if we can hit this goal I’ll get Front Row tattooed on my body.” And literally he showed me the picture. It’s this massive incredible tattoo. We had three other people that committed to doing it as well.
[00:55:30] Jon Berghoff: Scott got his tattoo.
[00:55:31] Jon Vroman: Two people have their tattoos now and there’s two remaining.
[00:55:35] Jon Berghoff: Hey, hold on one second. Hey Trent are you here?
[00:55:37] Jon Vroman: Yeah.
[00:55:37] Jon Berghoff: Hey, can we line up a tattoo artist to be at the Front Row Summit? So Front Row Summit you have to find us in person to get a hand invitation so that’s awesome. And Jonny this has been great. Thanks for coming on. Thanks for talking about the book, we’ve been live, streaming in the Miracle Morning community. There’s still 30 people watching or it’s just me and…
[00:56:04] Jon Vroman: Hey do we have time to answer a question or two? Are there questions?
[00:56:08] Jon Berghoff: Yeah. I have no idea how to make sure I can actually see like a live question but I’ll do my best. If somebody posts a question because I just noticed.
[00:56:19] Jon Vroman: I see the comments. Dan Buttler, Mike McCarthy, Hector…
[00:56:32] Jon Berghoff: Oh look at all these comments. They’ve been commenting the whole time. I had no idea.
[00:56:35] Jon Vroman: I’m going to rapid fire answer some of these questions JB, okay?
[00:56:39] Jon Bergoff: Oh yeah. Here they are. Sweet. Let’s do it.
[00:56:42] Jon Vroman: How do you figure out your front row when you love a lot of people? Great question Dawn, thank you for asking by the way. My thought to you is this. First of all, we need to trust our heart in doing so that often times when we ask who are my top eight. We know the answer but then our minds start trying to justify whether or not our hearts gave us the right answer. I’d say first of all listen to your heart when making these decisions. Now, sometimes what I’ll do is when I’m creating my top eight, I can do it by category. I can look at my family and say, “In my family who are my top eight. In my business who are my top eight and then the charity who are the top eight.”
Or perhaps I could even say that my business in charity are very integrated. My business serves the charity in massive ways so that’s just the Front Row Organization. Who are my top eight there? But it could be any category that you want but the point is I like to ask myself in total, in life who are my top eight relationships? Ultimately you are making choices Dawn, you are choosing every day when you make a phone call or take a phone call. When you either send somebody to voicemail or take their call, when you respond to it, you are making a choice.
Often times for people they just responding versus being intentional. The minute I got clear about who my top eight is, the phone would ring and maybe it was somebody not in my top eight and I literally might just send them to voicemail and then call somebody in my top eight. That’s just me being intentional. That’s not being mean, that’s knowing that I only have a certain amount of time in the day and I know who’s most important.
Zach, you asked where can we sign up for the dad’s conference? John Kane spoke about wonderful things about us, awesome. John Kane, the guy that got the front row tattoo, Zach you can check it out at frontrowdads.com.
Jon Berghoff: Looking here, scanning. Where’s Hudson. No one has heard of Hudson says Mike McCarthy. Okay, Dan Butler, what are some great strategies for being in the moment? Can I field this one and then I’ll give it over to you Jonny?
[00:58:46] Jon Vroman: Sure.
[00:58:46] Jon Bergoff: So a lot of coffee will do it, a lot of coffee. When you run out of coffee just like to like five hour energy. JK! A lot of great strategies to be in the moment. So a joke. I actually recently kicked caffeine about a month ago just to see what that would do for me and it has actually only because a lot of positive things in my life. What are some great strategies for being in the moment? I am a big fan of having a formal mindfulness or meditation practice and I am not going to attempt to teach or advocate heavily for that here right now answering this question.
I will urge you to check out a good friend of ours Julianna Raye who is the apprentice of a guy named Shinzen Young who really like if you are curious about meditation, he’s one of three people in the world that has created a global shift and Julianna is his 20 year apprentice and she has the sole right to teach his method. He just published a book called, Science of Enlightenment, want to go check it out? What a big title by the way. You better have good stuff in the book if it’s called the Science of Enlightenment. But Julianna’s website unifiedmindfulness.com she has some free video’s that I’d encourage anybody go check out.
They are all short videos that train their method of mindfulness. Outside of having a formal practice I’d say Dan it’s important for it to be a priority being in the moment. The irony is we might think of being in the moment as something that okay, in the moment I’ll get focused on it but I find that being in the moment has to be a priority. It has to be something that we want to be able to tap into at any given time which means it is something that actually deserves being a practice. It deserves being something that we work on even when we think we shouldn’t need to. Jonny that’s a quick thought from myself on being in the moment, if you’ve got some ideas.
[01:00:51] Jon Vroman: Yeah, I echo the Julianna Raye, Johnny Kane and Jon Berghoff both introduced Julianna to me when I was about to do an endurance race and that was a critical piece of finishing and I think life is an endurance race and Juliana is a great resource. I also would say that questions keep us in the moment. Questions bring us back to focus of what it is that we want to experience. So I’m conditioning myself constantly to be looking out for front row moments. I go back to setting the intentions for the day of how can I create front for moments. Then throughout the day having a primary question that would be something like how can I come back to this present moment and both recognize and create something from this?
Having a question that you are excited about that you ask throughout the day until you have conditioned your mind, maybe what you need to do is hand that up in a bunch of places where you’ll see it. Write it down. Write it on a marker on your arm. It doesn’t matter but the point is until you’ve conditioned your mind just like playing ping pong. My wife loves to play ping pong. I had to say that to get Jonny B’s attention right now. She has literally been practicing and I hear her say every other day, “I’m going to beat Jon Berghoff when he comes to play.”
One of the things is interesting is that Tatiana will… The more she practices, as an example the easier it is for her to just respond quickly in the moment. She conditions her mind of how to play the game. Life is not different. We are just conditioning ourselves to be athletes except we are using our mindset to be able to see the best in every moment and we do it consciously at first and then eventually it becomes an unconscious practice that occurs for us in the background. Now, I don’t think it’s ever fully unconscious if you will or that we stop practicing. Just like anything with an athlete as the metaphor here we need to keep practicing it. So that’s the key. Have a positive question that keeps you in that moment.
[01:02:42] Jon Berghoff: Awesome. Jonny, Rachel asked, what’s your favorite part of writing your book?
[01:02:47] Jon Vroman: The favorite part of writing the book for me, thanks Rachel by the way, great to have your question, my favorite part of writing the book was who I became through the process. It’s the deeper sense of appreciation that I actually have for Front Row Foundation in digging in as deeply as I needed to in order to write the book. It was the connections of both talking with recipients and interviewing people. I feel like in writing the book I became the biggest beneficiary of the process.
To me that was personal exploration I think it’s an accountability growth and knowing that these are words that are going to be shared with people I care deeply about. I took a lot of time and energy to think about what those words meant. My ability to articulate what Front Row is and the benefits and the impact and how people can be moment makers has gone through the roof since writing the book. I don’t think that I would have been able to get there as quickly had I not forced myself to sit down and write for hours and hours on end and to sit with deep questions and to ask myself how can I articulate that. Both so that it makes me say, “Hell yes that’s it but then also that it translates to others. So Rachel thanks for asking.
[01:03:54] Jon Berghoff: Jonny, I think we crushed it man.
[01:03:58] Jon Vroman: Awesome. Hey, thanks for the questions everybody. That was fun. If you are listening by the way and Rachel for you or anybody that is interested in the launching of her book we have a launch team that we’ve created Frontrowfactor.com/launch and you can see us launch the book. You can get an early copy, a free pdf of the book and we’d love to have you see the process of how we get it out there Rachel if that’s something for you, your asking of interest or writing.
[01:04:22] Jon Berghoff: Jonny Vroman, thanks buddy. This is great man.
[01:04:26] Jon Vroman: Thanks Jonny, this is fun. Thank you.
[01:04:28] Jon Berghoff: Yeah, thank you our Achieve Your Goals listeners and viewers if you are there for the live stream and we’ll see all of your next week, episode 192 because I don’t really keep track and you don’t care. Take care everybody. Bye bye.
Thanks for listening. To learn more about the Achieve Your Goals podcast and to get access to today’s show notes, transcript and exclusive content from Hal Elrod visit HalElrod.com/podcast. Thanks again for joining us. Be sure to tune in next week for another episode of The Achieve Your Goals Podcast.
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