Episode 174: Discover The Art Of Moment Making

[INTERVIEW]

 

[00:00:31] Jon B: Achieve Your Goals Podcast listeners and Front Row Factor Podcast listeners, Jon Berghoff here. I’m here with my good Jonny Vroman. Jonny Vroman, you want to say hi?

 

[00:00:39] Jon V: My good Jonny Vroman. What’s up, everybody? I’m here with my good Jonny B. and this is fun, man. This is our first dual episode. We’re recording this and we’re going to share it both on Front Row Factor Podcast and Achieve Your Goals Podcast and also what’s up, Hal? You’re listening to this or watching this at some point or maybe you’re out there now. Maybe Hal’s one of the viewers?

 

[00:01:02] Jon B: It could be. He could be, yes. So, just so everybody understands, we’ve never done this before. Jon and I are going to have one conversation and then we’re both going to publish the same conversation on our respective podcast. So, we think we might be onto a really nifty idea although if we’re both here still talking in three hours, we might understand the pitfalls of this.

 

[00:01:23] Jon V: Highly likely.

 

[00:01:24] Jon B: Oh my gosh. So, here’s where I think we want to start. So, first of all, if you’re a part of the Achieve Your Goals Podcast community, I’m realizing how complicated this could get because I want to talk to them and then you want to talk to your Front Row Factor fans.

 

[00:01:37] Jon V: Oh, let’s just talk.

 

[00:01:38] Jon B: Let’s just talk.

 

[00:01:39] Jon V: Yeah. Why are we here, man? Why are we doing this? What’s the purpose of this call?

 

[00:01:42] Jon B: Why are we doing this? So, the reason we’re here is one is to catch up. I’m probably going to ask you to tell me about your kids and your family and I don’t care if anyone else cares. I kind of want to know what’s going on. We haven’t talked for a while. So, we got to catch up and we need to make sure that we invite our listeners to join us in person four weeks from today. In fact, it starts four weeks from today at this exact hour I believe. I could be wrong but for a dramatic impact that sounded really good.

 

[00:02:10] Jon V: Pretty close to it.

 

[00:02:11] Jon B: Pretty close to it. Yeah. So, we have our favorite event that we put on and this is a very, very, very different event. It’s an experience. It’s in the middle of a national park and it’s all about the art of moment making. And so that’s why we’re here today. We want to talk about the art of moment making and really, I’m going to at times interview Jon because he just published a book, Front Row Factor. It’s about the art of moment making and this event coming up is the premier event that Jon and I both co host along with a whole community and we’ll explain what we mean by that and this event is all about discovering the art of moment making and then bringing it into your life in really radical, powerful ways. So, that’s why we’re here today and I think our hope is that through us chitchatting about it even if you can’t join us a month from now that you walk away with a couple of ideas that help you to bring the art of moment making into your families, your businesses, your communities, the dinner table, wherever you’re with people that you care about in places where you want to make an impact. So, Jonny, how’s that sound? That sound good?

 

[00:03:13] Jon V: That’s perfect, man. Yeah. Absolutely.

 

[00:03:15] Jon B: Alright. Great. So, do we want to start somewhere personal or do you want to go straight into the moment making? We should warm up our voices.

 

[00:03:22] Jon V: I want to celebrate with you something, man. Tell me what’s good in the world of Jonny B? What can we celebrate?

 

[00:03:28] Jon B: My son Ace, his baseball team enters into the playoffs this week. In fact, I think we start tonight. So, my hard cutoff for this interview is about four hours from now.

 

[00:03:37] Jon V: That’s so cool.

 

[00:03:38] Jon B: We’re playing against the Rockies so that’s fun. I know you were in town. How crazy is this like I’m out of town last week in Texas. You’re in town in Cleveland. You stayed at our house and hang out with our family but Ace got baseball. Sierra’s into swimming. She’s at like fashion camp this week which is hilarious. It was awesome. And Kaizen’s three and he wakes up smiling, goes to bed, playing the guitar. Mara’s she’s hitting it hard with the yoga and we’re having a good time as a family, man, and we’re headed into about three or four weeks now where I’m purposefully home, not going anywhere for actually about six weeks. So, I’m pumped about that. That’s my world, man. What about you?

 

[00:04:17] Jon V: So nice. And then we’re going to be there in four weeks in Hudson or near Hudson which is going to be fantastic. And when I was there, before I get into what’s good in my world, when I was there I remember calling Tatiana and saying, “It’s going to be really hard to recruit to Berghoffs to come to Austin.” This place in the summertime is absolutely gorgeous. I said, “We’ll have to call him in the winter when it’s like negative 40. That’s when we’ll make our phone call.”

 

[00:04:38] Jon B: Exactly. Call us when the power is out.

 

[00:04:40] Jon V: That’s right. We’re going to strategically make that phone call. But what’s good in our world right now and speaking for the Vroman family is that we love Austin. We’ve been here for about eight months and we’re really finding our flow here, our community. We’re getting involved in the events that make everybody super happy. So, Tiger is into rock climbing right now and he just got out of a rock climbing camp and he just digs it. It’s his thing and I loved that he’s kind of found something that he’s super passionate about. Tatiana went to a women’s retreat this weekend and she came back totally on fire and it just reminded me of how much we all need moments where we can get away, leave our environment, go connect with amazing people and then be able to come back and feel recharged and rejuvenated, and I pulled up into the driveway and she was at home. She’d beat me back and I was over at Hal’s house actually and she ran down the driveway and jumped into my arms and it was a new energy like she’s always excited to see me but like this time it was special. This time it was different and then I just remember thinking to myself, that’s exactly why we all need that time. And then Ocean is saying a bunch of words like recently he said, “Awesome.” We were at the town lake here and he just goes, “Awesome,” and he’s two-and-half for anybody that’s listening in. So, this is like the first time he said that word and it was incredible like these are little moments and we talk about being a moment maker and these are little moments right now for us that are really exciting. So, that’s just going on.

 

[00:06:09] Jon B: Yeah. Dude, that’s great. How about also for you professionally? Just so everyone gets a fun update here, you just published the Front Row Factor about a few weeks ago, maybe months ago at this point. So, dude, what’s that been like? What kind of journey have you been on? Since many books made it into many hands, I know it’s just continuing to grow. What’s that been like for you?

 

[00:06:32] Jon V: It’s been incredible to witness people getting connected to the Front Row and understanding the story which I wanted so desperately to write a book that honors the people that you and Hal and myself along with many others have been working hard for the past decade deserve. That makes me super happy when people get it. We have a couple of mutual friends. Some of which I do think are a little – they are very direct with their feelings and thoughts and if it wasn’t great, they would tell me type of people. And a few of those folks called and emailed and reached out and said, “This is awesome.” And then they bought like 100 or 500 copies. So, this month actually about 3,000 copies just landed in people’s hands in the last week and the idea of these people learning about what is the art of moment making and where do these all come from and how can it impact their lives? That to me is it’s truly lighting me up. I always have to check in oftentimes and think, “Is this just me wanting to be reassured or validated that I’m a good person? Or am I just lit up that people are lit up?” I’m probably a little bit of both but, yeah, I light up when people find joy and this is a book that helps people find joy and purpose and creating moments.

 

[00:07:46] Jon B: Yeah. Dude, that’s great, Jonny. We should talk about the essence of that book because our primary goal of this conversation today is to extend an invitation to anybody who’s listening to join us July 24, 25 and 26 in Cuyahoga National Park for a very unique event and the event is all about discovering the art of moment making inspired by the Front Row Foundation, inspired by your book. So, if somebody loves your book like the most natural next step is to come hang out with us next month and this is a very different event. In one of the ways, it’s least important but worth knowing, what we charge for somebody to come to this event is a fifth to a tenth of what we charge for almost every other event because this event the proceeds are only enough to put on the cost of the event and to support the Front Row Foundation. So, it’s a charitable event and that we really give away access to the first handful of people that apply to come join us. So, why don’t we do this, Jonny? Before we get specific about the event, I would love for anyone who’s listening for them to hear you and us talk about why does moment making even matter? Before we get into what it is or how to do it, why does it even matter? Why does making moments for ourselves, for other people, why does that matter? Who does that matter for? Why should we care?

 

[00:09:09] Jon V: So, yeah, and I want to hear your thoughts on this too so this would be fun because we’re kind of posing a question that we both can answer and I really want to hear your answer to that. But what comes up for me is this. When people ask me about the book, I say that this book is everything that we’ve learned about living life from people fighting for it. Now just because I know that, I mean, the Miracle Morning community who’s going to be listening to this show, there are thousands of people that might have just read the book and just become a part of the community in the last couple of weeks. So, in case you’re listening to this and you’re wondering what is the Front Row Foundation? What does this have to do with the Miracle Morning or how does this impact my world? I should mention that I was going somewhere great with that and then I just lost the thought.

 

[00:09:49] Jon B: Maybe it has to do with the role that Hal has played.

 

[00:09:51] Jon V: Yeah. Well, and I’ll say this also. What the Front Row Foundation is, is an organization that helps children and adults who have a life strengthening illness to experience the live event of their dreams from the front row and then where all these began was 11 years ago, almost 12 now, a group of people which included yourself, myself and Hal Elrod came together to grow and build Front Row Foundation. We were looking for a way to contribute and make a difference and help create these incredible moments for other people. But when you ask like what is moment making, why does it matter, what’s it all about? What I think about is that we’re figuring that out collectively amongst the three of us and many others over the last 11 years. We were figuring that out. I remember in fact, in your hometown, JB, driving down the street one time and we were talking about what does this all mean? Like why does doing this work matter? Why does helping people create these incredible moments in their lives, why does that matter? And we got to the place at the end where we’re like, “That’s what life is about. It’s about making the most of every moment, period.” Like that was almost like when you keep asking the question why. Why is that? Why do you do that? And why do you feel this way? And why is that important? You ultimately land on so that we can make the most of all the moments that we have. That’s the essence of life.

 

We do the best with what we can regardless of circumstances. Some are favorable, some are not but we always make the most of the situation regardless of where we find ourselves. And that to me is the essence of life, our lives are a series of moments and when we become masters at knowing how to make the most of those moments, we’ve now taken control of our lives or not control of what happens to us but at least the meaning that we give to it. We take control of the meaning of our lives and that’s the most important piece to it. When people say they take control of their lives, what they’re really saying is they want to take control the meaning of their lives. And so being a moment maker is somebody who has uncovered, discovered, created and identified what are the elements that go into somebody that can make the most of the moment. Two people, same exact situation and they have dramatically different experiences with the moment, that’s somebody that has been trained in the art of moment making. What are your thoughts?

 

[00:12:01] Jon B: Well I was writing something down and then I also asked our team to hand me the greeting card where we captured the essence of moment making. We’ll talk about that in a second. But I love what you say about taking control of the meaning, realizing that at any given moment, I think a lot about the parable of the three brick layers and many who are listening to this have heard this. But there’s a twist to it that I don’t often hear told and I think it’s important. It’s exactly what you just said. Many people have heard this little story about the three brick layers and you ask the first one, why are you doing what you’re doing? Because why is the fundamental question about meaning and purpose. And the answer was, well, I’m just earning a wage, right? I’m showing up to my work. The second brick layer was asked, why are you doing what you’re doing? And he said, “Well this is my career. I build buildings.” Then the third brick layer and I think the thing we need to keep in mind is that they’re all doing the same job. I believe, Jonny, that there’s a lot of misconceptions out there around the idea of purpose or meaning in our lives.

 

One of those is the misconception that purpose or meaning is like an epiphany that comes to us like I’m going to go find my meaning like it’s under a rock somewhere and maybe it is. Maybe that happens to some of us sometimes but what’s issuing is that third brick layer, they’re all doing the same thing and that tells me that purpose or meaning is not about what we’re doing in our lives. It’s not about what my career is or what my job. Sure, that can have a role but at the end of the day it’s remembering that when we ask ourselves what is the meaning in this moment, why I’m doing what we’re doing, I think what I’ve come to really enjoy is realizing that I hold all the responsibility and the power and the freedom which takes courage but it also takes courage to realize that when I answer that question, why am I doing what I’m doing? Is it because I’m just going to work? It is because I’m building a building or is the third one said it’s because I’m building a cathedral that connects people to their creator.

 

[00:14:01] Jon B: You have to realize that those three individuals there’s a moment where they got to choose. Nobody was forcing them in how they answered why they do what they do. And so, to me fundamentally I think what I’ve learned from you and our community is to remember that we have total responsibility. We have ownership. That’s a cool thing but it also is work. We have to learn how to go out of our way to find or really to give or to create, to proactively be the architect of the meaning in everything we do. And why do I think all that matters? I think it matters. You and I, we have a lot of friends who are entrepreneurs. We have a lot of friends who are leaders of communities whether it’s communities of clients they serve or communities that what they bring together or teams.

 

There’s a lot of fans of the Front Row Foundation that lead organizations, large ones even and I think one of the things that you and I have enjoyed seeing and experiencing is that one of the great traits of anybody that leads a family, a community, a team of any kind is they are able to enroll others and constantly evolving and elevating the meaning that we give to everything, the meaning that we give to our struggles, the meaning that we give to the moments that we need to remember to celebrate or the meaning that we give to like the future, where are we going? Which by the way, that framework is right out of your book. It’s about celebrating the past, the present and the future. So, why do I think moment making matters? Because that’s everything. That’s everything whether you lead as a parent or an entrepreneur or you just want to have better relationships where you want to get the most out of every moment. If I could add one more thing, Jonny, to why do I think moment making – and I’m trying to not laugh at myself because we’re both wearing these glasses right now.

 

[00:15:47] Jon V: I wish we just keep them on.

 

[00:15:48] Jon B: We just keep them on and no explanation is…

 

[00:15:51] Jon V:  None.

 

[00:15:52] Jon B: If I could add one more thing, why do I think moment making matters? And maybe even more right now than ever before at least as long as I’ve been alive and maybe before that. I don’t know. I wasn’t around. If you look in our world at what technology has done, when I say that, technology has enabled some incredible efficiencies. Look at you and I having a chitchat and thousands of other people are going to watch this. Hundreds of thousands will hear it. That’s a beautiful thing. So, some people would argue we’re more connected than we’ve ever been. However, just as many of us are willing to admit that the same thing that has enabled connection has also created in some ways more disconnection than we’ve ever had and we don’t need any description of what I’m talking about there when we think about what technology has done and interrupting our ability to be present.

 

And so, I think that the ability to be a human moment maker at a time where many of us are being distracted and disconnected might be really important. And if you look beyond that, you look at our world today where there’s a lot of divide and there’s a lot of tension and much of that is created through political conflict but the problem is it’s unavoidable. And so, it’s created lots of tension. Whether or not that tension is justified or we need to be caught up in it, it’s there and I think we all need to get reconnected to how connected we are and how interdependent we are and realize that anything great, in fact, we just ran a huge event two weeks ago, Jonny, and I got to tell you this and this is not part of our very planned out conversation here but we just kicked off, in fact, you don’t know this. I haven’t told you this. So, we were kicking off our Global Forum for Business for Good. This was two weeks ago. We had 300 to 400 participants from 30 countries and they all came together. We had 150 CEOs sitting next to about 75 professors sitting next to students, to business leaders, government officials. They were all in the room to create innovations to help business be a force for good in the world. And I got to tell you how the whole event started.

 

[00:17:51] Jon B: We had people share stories with each other about times where they’ve seen business as a force for good as a force for peace in a high conflict zone or eradicating hunger or poverty in areas of the world that really need it or creating gender equality or clean air, any of these things that are really the to-do list for our world for the next however many years. Well the opening of the event, people shared stories and you’ve seen us do this where they found themes in those stories and the very first table that stood up, they said all of our stories had a pattern and, Jonny, you’ll love this and the woman stands up and she says, “Every one of our stories was a story about a micro moment that turned into a macro movement,” and the whole room could feel that idea as it landed.

 

Everybody could feel the idea of, “Wow. Anything significant or major,” and this is coming from a room where you got the head of the United Nations Global Compact to the CEO of AACSB. They accredit hundreds of universities around the world to CEOs of some of the most innovative corporations you’ve ever heard of from 30 countries. And what’s the theme amongst their stories of business as a force for transformation? It was that phrase. It was micro moments that lead to macro movements. So, I share that as a reminder to all of us that anything of any magnitude starts with a micro moment, the way we might treat one other person, the way we might generate one vision of the future. So, I think this topic is a big deal and it’s why I think everybody should join us, July 24 through 26. I guess we need to – there’s a caveat to that which is the meeting only fits 75 people and we already filled 50 of those spots and we’re sending this out to at 400,000 people.

 

[00:19:40] Jon V: Yeah. So, well that’s good. Let’s talk about that for a moment because that’s a – let’s drill down on this micro moment that leads to a macro movement. That’s huge because I think that a lot of people listening on whatever level that they want to place this thought or these feelings is like they want to create a movement of some type and that literally might be within their families, that might be within their work. Even if you’re not an entrepreneur or own your company, it might be with your team. Whatever it is, we want to – I think inherently many people, most people that I talked to said that they want to leave the world better than they found it. They want to make a difference. They want to add values on how our – and what they’re really saying is create a movement. They want to create movement because inherently we have this like I would need to progress that things don’t work when they’re stagnant and we know that.

 

So, when I hear micro moment, I also think of questions because I think about our buddy, Hal, and I’m thinking about how the Miracle Morning started or I think about any of these movements that people are aware of that oftentimes begins with a question. And that’s what you’re an expert in questions, Jon. The process that you use, Appreciative Inquiry, for this event that we have coming up, July 24 to the 26, I’m going to keep saying that is that it’s a process based on asking questions and that’s something that we write about in the book constantly. And here’s the interesting thing. I think it’s like when we listen to these concepts and ideas, it’s hit me recently that just because I did personal growth at some point in my life and just because I learned something at some point in my life, I’m 42 years old and having spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and invested in the last 20 years going to tons of events and reading tons of books, just because I read that book once and just because I went to that event once doesn’t make me great at these things forever. In fact, I’ve had moments in my life where I’ve become out of shape whether that be emotionally, spiritually, physically because I didn’t keep doing the things. And people often say that like when you go to these types of events, how do you get to the point where you’re like you don’t lose momentum after the event?

 

[00:21:42] Jon V: I’d say, “Well that’s like saying how do you go to the gym once, work out and then not lose the muscle after you leave the gym?” I’m like, “You always have to go to the gym. You have to keep working that out. It’s a practice.” The people that are the best at meditation don’t stop meditating because why meditate? I figured it out. Like I don’t need to meditate anymore. It’s like we keep doing it. So, there are a couple of things. Number one is that this event is about being in the space where moment makers are coming together so that you can be around the people that are the best in the world. It’s why that happens at the highest levels, teams go practice. They still unite. They still come together. Companies with the biggest revenue will still have board meetings, will still have – because you got to bring people together. But let’s talk about what happens when you bring them together and why are the questions so important. How does that tie into the art of moment making and how does that also tie into what’s going to happen at this event that relates to the questions? Maybe that tease up a little bit about AI. You could explain that concept or your philosophy on questions.

 

[00:22:39] Jon B: Sure. Yeah.

 

[00:22:40] Jon V: I think we’re doing a good job with this dual interview by the way.

 

[00:22:43] Jon B: I don’t think we could be doing any better. I mean if we were doing any better, we wouldn’t be able to handle ourselves. I think we’re – yeah. With a lot of humility too.

 

[00:22:53] Jon V: Lindsay McCarthy is here. What’s up, Lindsay?

 

[00:22:56] Jon B: What’s up, Lindsay? So, Jonny, something that you said a minute ago really hit home for me and it’s why I love the kinds of individuals that are already coming to our Front Row Summit coming up July 24 through 26 is you talked about the idea of how we’ve got to always be learning and growing. And one of the reasons I love being in nature and it’s why we actually host this event in the middle of a national park and we have pictures of it if you look online, this national park every single day of this event we’re going to spend a lot of time in the middle of the woods surrounded by 300 million to 400 million-year-old rock formations. We actually are going to be going through guided meditations. We have live music, drum circles that we’re playing in the woods and in that environment, the reason that we wanted to take everybody there. I’m very fortunate, I spend three to five days a week literally at this exact spot trail running. And one of the reasons why I love being in nature or being in the ocean, the ocean is a great example too because when I swim in the ocean and I realize the magnitude of that ocean and how small I really am, nature is my greatest teacher of humility and it’s my greatest teacher in telling me that that depth of wisdom that is out there that I am not even aware is out there, is out there. It’s the fastest way for me to realize that in whatever domain I am planning my life in, leading, facilitating, influencing communities, whatever it is for me, whatever it is for you, nature reminds me that there’s probably a depth, a depth of wisdom, a depth of mastery, a depth of richness of the experience, a depth of love, a depth of relationships. In whatever domain I play in my life, nature reminds me that there’s a depth that is limitless and it’s endless. And I want to keep going deeper in whatever it is that I do. You know, that sounds funny. We could say a lot of things about that right there, right? That’s what she said. So, I don’t know if that’s…

 

[00:25:00] Jon V: Come on. That’s got to get a comment somewhere on.

 

[00:25:02] Jon B: That’s got to get a comment.

 

[00:25:03] Jon V: That’s got to get a comment.

 

[00:25:04] Jon B: Try and see if you guys are listening if you’re on the live stream.

 

[00:25:07] Jon V: Chris Oaks is here.

 

[00:25:08] Jon B: I want to go deeper. I want to create lasting penetration and during penetration, and that’s what Scot Lowry would say, in whatever I’m doing. So, that’s why we host this event in the middle of nature. And, Jonny, you asked me to talk about questions. So, let me set this up here and then please chime in. So, our Front Row Summit is which again if you just tuned in live, if you listen to the podcast, sorry, you keep hearing us say that but we’ve got people who are watching live. Our Front Row Summit coming up in four weeks, we’re sending an invite for you to come join us. Jonny, what’s the URL? Where do they go if they want to apply to join us?

 

[00:25:37] Jon V: FrontRowFoundation.org/Summit and we’ll both put that in the show notes. So, FrontRowFoundation.org/Summit.

 

[00:25:46] Jon B: Yeah. So, this event is a very innovative event in a number of ways, not just that it’s in the middle of a national park in a beautiful place, not just the people, the setting but it’s an innovative event because it simultaneously is going to accomplish two things. And this is what I do in my work, we host these types of collaborations. And this event, the two things that’s going to get done, number one, is people are going to come together and we are going to have them explore the art of moment making. And the way that we do that is by facilitating a series of experiences, some of them, experiences that people go through on their own through journaling and reflection. Many of them, experiences that they go through together in a collaborative setting where they’re sharing ideas, sharing stories, sharing examples where they can kind of crowd source the wisdom in the room. In fact, we have an activity that we do called Crowd Sourcing Wisdom where we will actually bring out of this group of 75 or so people the best examples of how to create moments for ourselves and for others.

 

So, we spend half of the time where people do a really deep dive into how do we create magical moments that create real lasting results in our world. We spend the other half of the time using an innovative process to have everybody there create the future of the Front Row Foundation, come up with new visions and new plans to shape the future of the Front Row Foundation. So, if you happen to lead a team, a community, an organization of any size, you might love being at this event not just because you get to explore how to bring moment making into your community or organization but because you get to participate in an approach that if you wanted to hire us or somebody like us to facilitate this for a company, you spend a lot of money and here you could go through it and you could learn a couple of approaches to facilitate other groups through creating their own future.

 

[00:27:44] Jon B: Last thing I’ll say about this, this approach that we use, I believe, is kind of like the future of leadership. In other words, I think in the future, leading is really it’s not about a person. It’s about the capability of a community of any kind to be able to shape their future together especially in a changing world. And we do a lot of work with really innovative companies that are facing constant change and one of the things they realize is in the face of constant change, you need actually a different type of leadership. You don’t need a small number of people that have all the answers. You need a method to actually extract the greatest wisdom from the collective community that’s going to move that community into the future and that’s what appreciative inquiry is, the approach that we use to facilitate this community, creating the future of the Front Row Foundation.

 

So, in summary, you’re there to grow yourself in the art of moment making and you’re there to help shape the future of the Front Row Foundation so we spend two-and-a-half days doing that in the middle of the national park. And unlike any other event that we do or many other events, 100% of the fee, it’s $249 for an individual, that’s $500 for a whole family to bring kids, we have activities for them in the middle of the woods every day, 100% of that money goes just to cover the cost of putting on the event and support the Front Row Foundation. So, Jonny, anything I missed? Do you want to add to that, please?

 

[00:29:04] Jon V: No. I mean, yes. Tons of stuff but this is such a fun conversation. I love this. It’s good to talk to you, buddy. It’s been a while. This is fun, man. I missed these conversations. First of all, I want to say that and let me see if I quoted you correctly, leadership isn’t about a person, it’s about the capability of a community?

 

[00:29:20] Jon B: Yeah.

 

[00:29:20] Jon V: That’s awesome. Somebody type that if you can into the comment section because that is – that’s a gem.

 

[00:29:27] Jon B: I would say. It’s both. It’s not an either-or. I think the historical traditional view of leadership is a more patriarchal egocentric view. We get caught up in idolizing individual personas but I think in the future we’re going to learn to recognize that the power of that one person is way less important than the capability of an entire community or organization to work together to create their future together.

 

[00:29:53] Jon V: Yeah. And that leadership doesn’t have to be about a person. It can be about the capability of a community when they unite and that’s the essence of what we’re doing. In fact, one of the things I wanted to mention is that this all was borne out of a place of growth and contribution. We were all going through a tremendous amount of growth and that growth led us to a place of knowing that we wanted to give back and make it. We got connected to the fact that we wanted to make a difference but it wasn’t an either/or a thing. It was like it wasn’t us or them. It was like both. And it has to be both. In fact, I was doing an interview for the Miracle Morning movie and they’re asking me about the connection between Front Row Foundation and Miracle Morning and they said, “How do those two come together?” And I’d say, “Well, the way that Hal and I and you and many of us have talked about it is that the Miracle Morning helps people to give to themselves so they can go out into the world and give to others. So, that they can be a moment maker for themselves so they can go out into the world and be moment makers for other people.” That’s why it works so well.

 

And the first person you need to be a moment maker for is yourself and we teach people how to do that, how to be fully charged, fully committed to whatever it is you want to do in a way that allows you to show up in the world with purpose or finding purpose and then creating something from there and that’s the essence of what this is. If you go back into the history of the Front Row Foundation, we ultimately got together started creating these little fundraising events and then one day I remember we have this conversation about why have just the fundraiser where people would show up to give? Why not walk the talk when we of our own motto which is growth and giving constantly? So, let’s have our charitable event, be a personal growth event as well and that’s when we launched the Big Give. And I don’t know if we want to go down that road or I’m derailing us if you weren’t done with your commentary but the idea that we get a chance to come together, we have been doing these gala events, these fundraising events every year and hundreds of people would show up. I remember our very first gala, 225 people showed up to a fire hall in 2006 in New Jersey.

 

[00:31:52] Jon V: And then beyond that, we started having these annual events and eventually so it became what we called The Big Give. That’s what we called it at the time, The Big Give. One day of personal growth, one day of the charity event and it was a huge success and that’s where this all began. And that’s where our relationship by the way over the years that’s where these communities started to really develop because Hal was like, “Hey, my book is about growing yourself and about creating a world where you can show up and give to others,” and that’s why a portion of all of his sales support Front Row Foundation. If you open up his book and look in the front cover, it’s Front Row Foundation and that’s how these communities tie together.

 

[00:32:25] Jon B: Yeah. That’s awesome. Jonny, there’s a couple questions that just got posted in the Facebook group and somebody asked the question, “Could we learn how to facilitate this type of event by attending or is there another step?” Well, the answer is yes to both and if you’re listening to this episode and you’re considering joining us in Cuyahoga National Park, please go immediately to the website that Jonny gave out earlier. What is that URL again, Jonny?

 

[00:32:49] Jon V: FrontRowFoundation.org/Summit and we posted it there in the group as well.

 

[00:32:54] Jon B: Sweet. Yeah. So, there’s an application because we’ll have probably hundreds if not more people that apply, then spots that we have because that’s just the nature of the thing that we can only have so many people at this. But the deal is if you lead a team or a community and you want to learn about this approach that we use, the best way to learn about it is to actually be a participant in the experience itself. It’ll be like trying to tell somebody what an orange tastes like. It’s much easier to bite into it to learn that than to have somebody tell you about it. Jonny, maybe what would be cool is you keep this up a second ago, what if we shared with everybody listening here a little bit about the kinds of questions that we will be using at this event to help people to learn more about the art of moment making? So, that even if they can’t make it that they could apply this in their lives right now. You want me to tie into that?

 

[00:33:41] Jon V: Yeah. 100%.

 

[00:33:42] Jon B: Okay. Cool. So, I think this is great for people to hear this from us because you and I going back well over 10 years have both for a long time valued the art of asking a great question but I remember you have a free giveaway called like authentic questions. How long ago back when the Internet was invented?

 

[00:34:05] Jon V: It was a while.

 

[00:34:06] Jon B: That was at least 10 years ago.

 

[00:34:07] Jon V: Yeah. On your advice for the record just so everybody because you said like, “That’s a strength you’ve got to – that’s a good thing. Ride that wave.”

 

[00:34:14] Jon B: Yes.

 

[00:34:15] Jon V: Quality questions to connect I think was the domain.

 

[00:34:18] Jon B: Yeah. And I was inspired going back 18 years. My first Cutco manager, Dan Casetta, he was a brilliant teacher of the concept of asking questions teaching me about sales and influence and realizing that it applies in all of these settings. So, you and I have long been believers that the power of a good question is maybe beyond what we often give credit to. So, a little background on this, this is as you said, Jonny, this is what I do for a living. I design questions that I bring into communities, sometimes hundreds of people at one time live in a room over a day or several days to use these questions to create new conversations and dialogues that not only generate really cool ideas in a very short amount of time but they connect people together in ways that are deeper and faster than they’ve ever experienced. So, it’s one of the reasons we love putting on this kind of event. But here’s what we’ve learned about questions and I’ll give some examples about the kinds of questions that we’ll bring at this event.

 

One of the things that we’ve learned is that when we ask ourselves a new question that it’s kind of like we’re wearing these glasses. It’s kind of like putting on a pair of glasses or contact lenses and if any of you can relate to this, when you put on a pair of glasses or contacts, as soon as you put them on, you can no longer see the lens. You can only see through the lens. Or in other words, the moment I put a lens on, it changes how I see the world. It changes what I see. So, our questions we like to say are fateful. F-A-T-E. Fateful, meaning the moment we ask a question like why do I do what I do or what kind of future am I excited about? Or how can I better appreciate a person in my life? The moment we asked one of those questions or when we ask a question like what’s wrong or what’s not working? What happens is the moment we ask any of those questions, it changes our future even before the answers arrive because the lens is now causing us to just look for only certain types of answers.

 

[00:36:20] Jon B: So, the approach that we take when we facilitate these large groups which also applies just to individuals, of course, is we design questions that connect us to our very best selves. And here are some examples of the types of questions. So, one example would be when we look into our lives, when we look into the past and we look at the moments of our lives which is Jon said earlier, we can give any meaning we want to a moment. Sometimes that’s easier to say than it is to do but we do ultimately hold that power. And when we realize we have that power and we choose to take control of it, we can look back in our lives and we can look at any moment especially the challenging ones and find the meaning there and we realize, “Wow. That challenge, if I ask what was good, what was the gift, what was beautiful, how has that given me a strength that’s made me even better than I ever could’ve been?” Well of a sudden, we find those things and you can even redefine terrible moments and you can celebrate the beautiful moments and savor them in a way where you create more of them.

 

So, that’s one of the things we do at this Front Row Summit. We did it last year where we flooded the room with stories but we didn’t just flood the room with stories, we then had people look for themes or patterns in their story so that we could find the factors, the success factors that created our front row moments in our lives and I’ll never forget when we did it, these themes emerge. It was themes like moments that were connected to a deeper purpose or meaning. They were moments where we express courage. It was moments where we were making an impact or creating some kind of transformation. It was a moment that involves some kind of connection with other people or a community, and then finally it was moments that really drew us into the present. And so, through our conversations, we found these factors that led the Front Row moments. We did this last year. We’ll do it again this year and then what’s really cool is in that space, in that the really inspiring place, our participants then stopped and then they asked the question, “Well, how do I create even more moments now that I know what the factors are that led to them originally?”

 

[00:38:24] Jon B: So, that’s one example, Jonny, where we ask questions that connect us to when we’ve been at our best or when we are at our best and also questions around purpose when we ask ourselves, why do we do what we do? And we get to play with how we answer that. And then finally just as one more example, at the Front Row Summit, participants are going to spend up to about half of a day where they’re going to explore questions that hold them into the future and is questions like, “When I look ahead in my life maybe a year or three, maybe an entire generation, maybe even beyond my own lifetime,” which by the way we’ve learned through question design that just those three different variations actually lead to whole new discoveries. But people can choose to approach it how they wish. But what we’ve seen is regardless, when we ask questions like what kinds of images of my future would not only cause me to come alive but give me the greatest sense of pride, the greatest sense of fulfillment, the deeper sense of meaning or purpose?

 

What kinds of images would show that my relationships have flourished beyond what I’ve ever imagined was possible? What kind of images would show my business making an impact that might last beyond my lifetime? What kind of images would show me that I’ve been the parent or the husband that I’ve wanted to be? What kinds of images of my future would remind me that I’ve taken care of myself all the way up until the end? And we could go on and on and on. What kind of images of the community that I live and work in? What kind of images of my peers and colleagues and employees? And so, we’re going to give people a space to take these types of questions and to draw out visions for their future that in many cases go magnitudes beyond what they’ve ever thought about. And I don’t know about you, Jonny, but just talking about it puts me in a place that I want to be in because we know that we arrive at the destination that we think about most often and we know that the only way to change what we’re thinking about, the fastest way, one of them is to give ourselves questions that change what we think about.

 

[00:40:24] Jon B: And we actually finish the whole event with questions that move people into implementation. Because I’ve been to a lot of events and I know you have too where it’s really easy to build great relationships to be really inspired, to learn a lot but then to go home and get caught up in my life so much so that maybe the event doesn’t have a lasting impact or the one that I wanted it to. So, we have dedicated time and we have our own really unique approach to people making commitments around bringing those dreams to life while also tapping into their highest personal strengths which we draw out through some other questions. So, it’s the kind of event that’s designed to not just lead to some important productive, positive emotions and ideas but to real change that people are committed to moving into action.

 

So, that’s just a taste of the kinds of questions that we bring in and what I could never describe is what it’s really like when you’re around 75 of the most amazing people in the middle of nature. It’s a feeling and a community that creates the kind of real-time change. There’s a word called metanoia and it means a real change of the heart, a change of the mind at the deepest levels and we’ve done this event now three other times and it’s what happens. It’s why it’s our most exciting event and it’s in four weeks. So, if anyone’s excited, you don’t have to be. If you show up, you’re going to be pumped. It’s amazing.

 

[00:41:50] Jon V: And oftentimes the difference of just saying I’m just going to be at home and ask myself great questions with a journal, I think that’s by the way hugely powerful and you should. The difference of and you said this is like when you’re here, it’s also great to have all these brilliant minds around you asking you powerful questions. Or when you ask them a question, their answers can become your answers. You’ve said this and I’ve taken these words right from you. Their questions can become your questions. And so, when you can source from 75 other amazing people, you can create something at a deeper level in your life that you couldn’t possibly have seen before.

 

It’s almost you don’t know what you don’t even know until you’re there and you talk with somebody like I think about the incredible people that will be at that event. I think about Mike McCarthy and Nick Hamer and Laura Sanchez and the list just goes on, from board members like Andrew Smallwood, Drew Eckman, Carey Smolensky, Scot Lowry and all these people that are part of our Front Row family and Miracle Morning communities, people that are the type of people you want them to know what’s going on in your world because they’ll help hold you accountable. They’ll help bring this up to you down the road and say, “Hey, how’s that going?” I think about the commitments that were made last year, JB, at this time. I think it would be fun to talk about some of the results of these questions like so we talked about the power of this questions but let’s give an example. Let’s give a real story. Nina comes to mind. Do you want to tell that story or…?

 

[00:43:20] Jon B: I’d love for you to share her story. It’s fantastic. Whether or not you’re a parent or a leader, it’s a beautiful story of capturing magic moments.

 

[00:43:28] Jon V: And Nina, by the way, is both. She’s an incredibly powerful community leader and entrepreneur, business owner, mother and I just love Nina absolutely and loved her before the summit but here’s why I love her more after the summit because here’s what happened. She took all of what you just spoke about and she made a decision and she declared that publicly with the group that she was going to document Front Row moments in her life when she left this event with her son Gavin in particular, and then she was going to share those online. And she was going to commit to 180 days of doing these Front Row moments. And to be quite honest, when she said that I thought, “You know, I’ve heard people say they’re going to do that in the past.” I don’t know if she’ll actually follow through and I’ve had no reason to think she wouldn’t because she’s a remarkable person and has always delivered, over delivered on what she committed to. And she did. Day after day she started posting these.

 

And here’s what’s fascinating about this. Not only was she having a transformative experience in her own life by asking this new question of how can I recognize or create a Front Row moment right now? From the littlest moments to big moments that, by the way, little and big defines by the person who’s defining it little or big because there might be no little moment. They’re all big if you see it that way. But she decided that she was going to do this and she followed through and a week went by and then two weeks and then a month, and then people started to pay attention a little more. She started to inspire people. Her friends started to ask, “What is this? What’s a Front Row moment? Why are you doing this?” And then other people started to join her. They started to join her on what then became the Front Row Moment Experiment where here’s what’s fascinating. We are writing the Front Row book. As this is all going down, we are writing the book and her one decision to make these little moments possible shape the direction of where our book went when we were writing it. She literally changed the direction of our book.

 

[00:45:27] Jon V: That’s the power of this event, one decision, one question and now that book has been sold to thousands and thousands of people who are now learning the art of moment making and Nina was one of the people who articulated that and illustrated that in a very cool way and inspired us. So, she came to the event and then became the inspiration for us in the months and weeks ahead and that was really cool. And wrote about her by the way. If you’ve read the book, you’ve read about Nina and if you haven’t read the book then Nina’s story is in there and it’s pretty amazing. So, and I could go on and on about Nina but there’s a person who started asking a different question and started recognizing different moments in her life and created, and you imagine this, imagine the documentation of her life with her son Gavin that he will then have to look back on forever. Imagine the inspiration for all of her friends and family and for her own well-being and her own thoughts about her life.

 

[00:46:24] Jon B: Yeah. I’m going to share another story, Jonny, and I love, I’m just glad that we shared that. I want to share the story that came from last year’s event that has led to an impact that we may not yet articulate it this way but specifically, last year’s event was kind of a seminal moment for many in our community who not only witnessed at the event but then duplicated after the event what we did to raise funds for the Front Row Foundation. So, just to give a little back story, during the event last year there was one particular team that had formed and we had broken into teams to create shared images, creative new ideas for the future of the Front Row Foundation. And one of those teams had I think Scot Lowry, Hal Elrod and I think Josh was on that team. They came up with an idea and they said, “In the future, what if we found a way to do fundraising simply by tapping into the strengths within our community?”

 

So, instead of thinking about a fundraiser where we’re searching outside of our community for items to auction, not that that’s not a good idea but I thought what if we just literally turn to each other and said, “What do we have in terms of strengths or assets that we could just put out on the table right now that somebody else could bid on?” And what’s really interesting is at that event alone, that idea came to life that night and we’ve raised a lot of money, about $100,000 just by letting that idea play out in real time that night which was like five times what our goal was in terms of fundraising. But the story doesn’t really stop there.

 

[00:48:17] Jon B: Because what happened is at that event was Mike McCarthy and Lindsay McCarthy, co-authors of the Miracle Morning for Parents and Families and they also are leaders in several communities. One of them is called GoBundance which is a men’s group where they get together to talk about contribution, financial goals, their relationships and leading adventure full lives and then they also lead a group called FamBundance which is for families to create great lives for themselves and each other. And Mike, he left that event and he figured out how to bring the way we did fundraising into one of his big events to support an organization called 1 Life Fully Lived and then you help them to do the same thing at one of their events but with far less effort than it’s ever been needed between two or three 1 Life Fully Lived events between two or three events that have happened since the Front Row Summit.

 

And then just recently John Ruhlin was at MastermindTalks, Jayson Gaignard’s event, and he got up on stage at the end of the event and followed this model that we had established a few years before and John’s always been an amazing contributor to our community and he stood up and raised something like hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars just in a few minutes to support Hal and somebody else. I’m just sharing that in the last year, somewhere between $600,000 and $800,000 has been raised across three or four different organizations and much of what is inspired the way that unfolded was borne through a vision that was created at our Front Row Summit last year. There’s a direct connection between those events. So, I’m only sharing that, Jonny, because that’s an example of a micro moment that’s really led to a macro movement where now all of our friends who all run these different communities, when they hire us to come in we’re like we don’t really show up unless you have some sort of major social impact vehicle for your participants to contribute to through their time or their talent or their money. So, that’s a really cool fit, a seed that was planted that has now just it’s blossomed beyond our original imagination.

 

[00:50:29] Jon V: Yeah. I think most importantly, if I’m going back to and this is saying, we’re going back to who’s listening and why is this important is that I want to go back to why people are doing the Miracle Morning in their lives to begin with and that is to create a strength within yourself that you can show up in the biggest way possible in the world that the way we show up in the world is one moment at a time and that’s the purpose of this event is it’s a strength and conditioning event for your mind, body and soul, for you to be able to go out and to ultimately give to yourself and the world in a way that moves you or makes you come alive. And the way we do that is by asking powerful questions with a group of powerful people in a very powerful environment and that is the Front Row Factor. That’s what we wrote about, that’s what we determine and that’s some of our guiding principles as a community.

 

So, I just want to say if anybody’s out there listening, you might have just joined in or you like what you’re hearing, this is an event that you can apply to attend. The link is in the comments section, FrontRowFoundation.org/Summit and we have about 75 spots total. We have about 50 that have already been taken but you can apply and you can potentially come join what was and we didn’t say this before, Jon, but what was essentially a board meeting last year kind of expanded into this event. So, we originally were going to have just our board experience all this and we thought, “Gosh, why wouldn’t we expose other people to this all of what we’ve got going on?” We don’t want to constrain this to just our board but we want to open it up.

 

[00:52:00] Jon B: Yeah. Jonny, I’m going to share one other story and hopefully those who are listening or watching, when they hear these stories and inspires them to think about how they might create this kind of ripple in their own world but another one of our attendees who have since joined our board, Josh Painter. He was at our Front Row Summit last year and Josh Painter one of the things that he has gone on to do and now I think the idea was born before the summit but the execution has happened now after that summit. Josh was at that summit and he was on the team that created the idea of how can we find ways for entrepreneurs to create new avenues for contributing in their communities? Well, he and a buddy of his started something called the Impact Club and I’d encourage anybody to go look this up and see what they’re doing because the idea is super simple. It’s actually something that any of you could model in your own communities.

 

And the idea is in their local community they invite local business owners, entrepreneurs, anybody that wants to get involved to join this club and they join this club by paying something like $100 once per quarter, it’s something like that and everybody comes together for a big party once every three months and they select a local charity to take all of that money and just hand the big check over to. And it’s a simple model and it’s a way that Josh has taken this idea even further and I think in their first two Impact Club events they’ve given out a combined, I think they give out about $20,000 the first two times they’ve run this event in the first six months. But that’s just another example of somebody in our community who is finding a way to go make an impact in a way that is also serving him as an entrepreneur just by default, by being a center of influence that’s creating these ripples. So, there are lots of stories like this. I’ll give you another example. We have Jeff and Sally Smallwood who are going to be coming to our event this year. Are they coming? I just said that and I actually I can’t remember if they are.

 

[00:54:04] Jon V: I’m fairly certain. Yeah.

 

[00:54:05] Jon B: Well after this, we should let them know. We just told 400,000 people that they’re coming.

 

[00:54:09] Jon V: Totally.

 

[00:54:10] Jon B: So, these are two incredible people. They’re the parents of Andrew Smallwood and I’ve been really inspired since I get to know them years ago and Jeff is an example. He is an executive for a hospital, St. Thomas Health, a hospital system in Tennessee and one of the things that he has done is he has taken moment making into his hospital system. He’s invited you to talk to them about it. I went and worked with them for them to design ways to lift up moment making through the conversations that they have. So, he has literally brought it into a hospital system where at some point hundreds, if not thousands of their healthcare providers are being impacted by the philosophy of moment making.

 

These are the types of people – we have John Kane who is a leader for the Cutco Organization and we know that he has brought moment making, he’s like the inventor of moment making I guess but John Kane has found ways to bring moment making into everything he does as a leader and he’s continuing to innovate and evolve how he does that with the Cutco Organization. So, we have lots of people like this who have incredible stories. We’re going to create more of these stories this year. Again, it’s July 24, 25 and 26 right here in Cuyahoga Valley National Park and you got to go check out FrontRowFoundation.org/Attend and there’s an application you can fill out. I think we have a limited number of spots. We filled more than half of those and we love to hang with you. It’s going to be an awesome time. Jon, anything we should add or that we haven’t talked about?

 

[00:55:39] Jon V: I want to go personal here with you for a second and say, dude, when you think about somebody who’s a moment maker, who’s been a moment maker in your life in a way that like when I say that like who’s made a moment for you super special and what was it? I just want to have like just fun.

 

[00:55:56] Jon B: Yeah. Wow.

 

[00:55:57] Jon V: Think about impact in your life with a moment maker.

 

[00:56:00] Jon B: Yeah.

 

[00:56:01] Jon V: I’m putting you on the spot here.

 

[00:56:02] Jon B: So, there’s a few that come to mind. One would be my wife, Mara. She kind of exemplifies like perma-moment maker. She wakes up and goes to bed as a moment maker for others and that’s something I really appreciate is her influence by how she lived. It’s more than just selfless. She genuinely loves to create moments for as many people as possible and when I say as many people as possible it’s like when we have a birthday party for one of our kids, I’m always like a little afraid to ask her how many people are coming to Sierra’s birthday party. Because even when she says not that many, there’s going to be like seven bounce houses and two water parks and 400 kids all at our house and that’s just what happens. Ace’s sixth birthday party, I’ll never forget. She announced it one week before the party and at the party there were 125 people there.

 

[00:57:00] Jon V: It’s awesome.

 

[00:57:01] Jon B: Yeah. And it’s just because she’s a moment maker and it’s because of what she values. It’s because of what she values. I’ll add one other person who’s been a big moment maker for me and it would be someone who in the last five or seven years has become one of my greatest mentors is a professor by the name of David Cooperrider who was at first a hero of mine still but that was how I first knew of him and then he became a professor because I paid all everything I could pay to go be a student of his and then he became a peer and a colleague and now a good friend. And David Cooperrider is really who I learned so much from about purpose and about what it is that brings out the very best in any, we use the phrase human system, a community of team and organization. I’ve learned a lot from him about what brings out the best and about the power of purpose.

 

And what’s been interesting is David has led by example. He’s one of the most humble people I’ve ever met and he has also recently entrusted me by giving myself and our institute responsibility over some pretty huge projects including the Global Forum for Business as an Agent of World Benefit which we just facilitated two weeks ago. And to see him entrust us with something that is such a major initiative that he gave birth to, it’s taught me a lot about trust. It’s taught me a lot about earning trust and again, those topics he’s taught me a lot about. He’s just been a big – he’s created moments for me by giving me responsibility and like disappearing and throwing me into the fire and putting me in situations where I just had to figure stuff out. And so that’s been really cool what David’s done for me and my wife, Mara, as well. I’m sure I could think of others.

 

[00:58:54] Jon V: It’s so cool like in my mind I just wrote you can be a moment maker by just handing somebody one. Like, hand them a moment. It’s like handing them – hand them a responsibility, a task, an idea, just hand it to them and you could be a moment maker. You don’t have to always be the master of puppets behind the scene making everything perfect. You could literally – sometimes the art of moment making is super simple. Sometimes the art of moment making is getting out of the way of the moment like you could literally make the moment by removing yourself from it, for somebody else if you want to be a moment maker for that person. I remember years ago I had – when you said that about handing somebody the reins. I was working for this company and the person who is my leader or mentor at the time was like, “You need to really step up,” and I’m like, “You really need to get out of the way. You want me to step up, you’ve got to move aside.” So, sometimes we need people to move on before we can move up and we can be moment makers for other people that way.

 

Hey, JB, I want to make a comment about Mara when you’re talking about how great of a moment maker she was, I want to honor Mara here and tell everybody that in the very, very beginning of Front Row Foundation, Mara was one of the very first people to step up to raise funds and create these experiences. In fact, in our first very couple of experiences, she was at the forefront of that and creating those moments and she really paved the way for what’s happening today. So, I want to honor Mara and really send her a lot of love for gratitude for being one of the original moment makers of Front Row Foundation.

 

And I also wanted to share with you, man, just as a gratitude and also to talk about what happened at last year’s summit was on your back porch, right before we did this auction that you spoke about moments ago that you handed me a gift and that gift was a box, it was a shoe box that was literally it’s hanging over here on my wall. I’m going to show this. There it is. Yeah. You hold it up. So, dude, it was Scott Jurek’s incredible run. They blended up his shoes so he completed this amazing run and then they blended the shoes and they chopped them up and then they literally put pieces of the shoe into the sole of this limited-edition shoe that they then sold. And I think it was said something to the effect of and I’m not looking at the box said, “From his sole to yours,” or something like that.

 

[01:01:10] Jon B: Exactly. Yeah. And you can – you see I’m afraid to wear mine because it’s like this collector’s edition thing so I now use it to hold up my microphone for the podcast.

 

[01:01:21] Jon V: Wow. That was an epic gift and I think about sometimes I think about John Ruhlin is being an epic gift giver and people in our community and in our lives, that have really figured out how to make people feel special. And so anyway, I just wanted to take this moment to say thank you for that gift and I think that’s just indicative of the type of community that we have and the type of people that show up and how they show up for one another. That maybe is the most valuable part of the Front Row family and the Miracle Morning community is how they show up. I mean even in Hal’s post about the community when they broke 100,000 people, he was like, “I’m not just impressed by the sheer number of people here which is amazing but it’s about how these people show up, the level of engagement, the support, the kind of people that this attracts, it’s just wonderful.”

 

[01:02:07] Jon B: Yeah. It brings me back to just what we’re going to be doing at the Front Row Summit coming up next month where really a lot of what we’re going to be focusing on is our participants in real time are going to be designing whole new ways to be moment makers for those that matter most to them in their lives, whether that’s as entrepreneurs, for your customers, your partners, your prospects whether it’s as a parent, for your kids or your spouse or any community that you’re connected with, that’s a big thing that we’re going to be working on together at the summit. So, again one more time, Jonny, anybody who’s listening, at the moment that we’re recording this there’s a handful of spaces left and please, please, please forgive us if there was a point at which you heard this and apply and we’ve already filled up the event because I know we’re going to publish this at least in our podcast in a couple of days here but again if you want to apply, come hang out with us, all of the funds, the $249 just pays to put on the event. It’s in the middle of a national park. We spend time meditating in the middle of these 400 million-year-old rock formations that are enormous. The words cannot describe what a magnificent setting this event is in. And the people come from all over the country and it’s many of our best friends of many years and folks that we met in the last few years through the Front Row Foundation community and its people who care about making the most out of life and there’s not a better setting or a better group or a better approach to do that. So, we can’t wait. There’s going to be someone who’s listening to this, Jonny, who we’ve never met and he’s going to take the leap. They’re going to join us. We’re going to meet him.

 

[01:03:43] Jon V: Well, you know, we’ve said this for a long time and I know this is a core belief that we both have is that one of the greatest joys in life is walking into a room of people and knowing that somebody could be in that room that can be one of your most favorite people in life and you’ve yet to meet them or shake their hand. And I think about and I said this recently at a one life event where I was emceeing and speaking is I said this about Mike McCarthy. I said two years ago Mike McCarthy wasn’t even on my radar and now he’s one of our, I can say our favorite people and he wasn’t even on my radar. And so, to think that in the next year or two at this event or down the road and by the way, that’s true for anybody else like you might show up and meet somebody at this event that could be a relationship that’s a total game changer for you in your life and that’s the hope we always get to hold on to, that anticipation of excellence. And this community tends to attract those types of people.

 

[01:04:33] Jon B: Yeah. It’s going to be awesome.

 

[01:04:34] Jon V: Hey, I also want to say this too before we sign off and say goodbye, JB, that I want to honor the Miracle Morning community where this is being broadcast live and I want to thank and I want to love on Hal and all the people in the Miracle Morning community because many of you know and if you’re in the Front Row community you know this that Hal donates a percentage of his book sales to support Front Row and that makes him a huge financial contributor, in fact, our number one financial contributor. And this last event that we did and I may be misquoting this but I believe this was number 101 that we created an experience that the Miracle Morning community was the sponsor of this event and her name is Allison and she went to go see Thirty Seconds to Mars.

 

Anyway, I’m not going to get into details but we can put links below and I just want to say thank you to the Miracle Morning community, thanks to the Front Row community for coming together and creating this Front Row moment. We can actually have one of our team members link up to their article and their video, the pictures and all that but if you’re a Miracle Morning practitioner, if you’ve purchased the book then you have supported the Front Row Foundation and certainly if you purchased the Front Row Factor book, you’ve also supported the Front Row Foundation financially and so thank you to everybody out there who is working to improve their lives and the lives of others simultaneously.

 

[01:05:51] Jon B: Jonny V, my favorite question, is there anything else?

 

[01:05:55] Jon V: There’s always something else. There’s one more thing. Hold on. I just got one more thought. No. That’s it, guys. Hey, you know, I do think that we did one – you and I talked about this as well. We did want to make sure that everybody keeps sending your love and your thoughts and your prayers to Hal. I did have the opportunity to hang out with him yesterday and we went bowling with the families and then I was able to watch a little UFC with Hal at his house. And by the way, speaking of how selfless Hal is so here’s Hal, right, he’s 130 pounds and he’s recovering beautifully like he’s healthy right now. His white blood cell counts were a little low but here’s a guy who is still showing up for other people. We sat down on the couch. He goes, “Can I bring you some food? Can I make you a salad?” “Dude, could I bring you some food?” And he went and he made this incredible salad and he brought it out and I just wanted to let everybody know out there that Hal appreciates your love and your energy and that he still has a road ahead of him. There are still treatments ahead and there’s still a fight ahead. So, keep sending your love and energy to Hal. He appreciates it, he loves it, he needs it and he’s benefiting from it.

 

[01:06:58] Jon B: It’s awesome. Well, take care, everybody. For those of you that are joining us coming up July 24, 25 and 26, we will see you in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Any questions, go to FrontRowFoundation.org/Attend.

 

[01:07:13] Jon V: Yeah. At FrontRowFoundation.org/Summit get you to the application and then FrontRowFoundation.org/Attend gets you to the registration link.

 

[01:07:21] Jon B: Sweet. Alright. Jonny, take care, buddy.

 

[01:07:24] Jon V: It was great. See you, buddy.

 

[END]