Episode 185: 5 Best Friends—Revisiting Lessons from 20 Years of Supporting Each Other

[INTRODUCTION]

 

[00:00:31] Jon Berghoff: Achieve Your Goals Podcast listeners, I’m coming at you here with another first. And how do I explain what you’re about to listen to? So, I feel like I say this every week so forgive me but this is probably the most meaningful conversation I’ve had a chance to be a part of this year. And so, let me tell you what you’re about to listen in on. We just finished the recording of a five-person episode and this episode included myself, Hal Elrod who anyone who’s on our podcast you know who Hal is and then we also have Jon Vroman, a dear friend of ours who’s one of the founders of the Front Row Foundation, author of the Front Row Factor, the creator of the Front Row Factor Podcast. And we also invited on John Kane. John Kane has been a mentor for all of us and a friend for the last 20 years. He’s an executive for the Cutco Corporation. And then we also had our good friend, John Ruhlin. So, four John’s and a guy named Hal. And John Ruhlin, the author and creator of Giftology. He’s also the number one all-time Cutco rep in the history of the company.

 

But here’s what’s cool about the conversation we had, at least what was cool to me, is the five of us had known each other for almost 20 years and none of us had any idea 20 years ago what direction our lives would go, the families that we would create, the lives we would create together, the work we would do together. And so, what you’re going to listen in on is a little bit different than maybe some of our other episodes. This is just five friends hanging out, having a conversation, sharing a couple of stories, sharing stories about how the Front Row Foundation brought us together, sharing stories about how we’ve supported each other over the years and there’s a lot of laughter. So, if you want to have a good time, listen in, hope you have a blast and if you want to hang out with the five of us, as you know, we’re all going to be there November 17, 18, 19 at the Best Year Ever Blueprint Event. And if you’re still getting ready to pick up your tickets, go to BestYearEverLive.com to grab your seats. The five of us will be there to hang out with you in San Diego November 17, 18 and 19. Listen in. I hope you enjoy. I hope you have as much fun listening as we did having this conversation.

 

[INTERVIEW]

 

[00:02:46] Hal Elrod: Miracle Morning Community, welcome. This is a behind-the-scenes which will turn into a – what’s the opposite of behind-the-scenes? The front of the scenes or, I don’t know. We’re going to try this from behind-the-scenes to the scenes I guess.

 

[00:03:00] Jon Berghoff: On-the-scene.

 

[00:03:02] Hal Elrod: Just tune in. This is going to be fantastic, inspiring, funny, random. Yeah. Who’s leading this thing?

 

[00:03:09] Jon Vroman: Is anybody worried that our best jokes have already just been…

 

[00:03:12] Hal Elrod: I know.

 

[00:03:13] Jon Vroman: …taken out over the last 10 minutes. All of our good stuff is gone.

 

[00:03:17] Hal Elrod: We should’ve been streaming.

 

[00:03:18] John Ruhlin: Yeah. For 10 minutes.

 

[00:03:19] Hal Elrod: I’ve got nothing left. It’s been fun. Who’s leading? Is anyone leading this?

 

[00:03:24] Jon Vroman: We all are. I mean, listen, you’ve got these five guys on the call. Somebody’s bound to take over and jump in. I’m going to start off by just saying good morning to everybody tuning in on the Miracle Morning Community page and also, this podcast that you’re listening to right now at some point in the future will be shared on both the Front Row Factor and the Achieve Your Goals Podcast. So, I just want to say welcome to the Front Row family and I’ve also got Jonny Berghoff and Hal Elrod from the Achieve Your Goals Podcast here with me. Guys, what is the Achieve Your Goals Podcast? What’s that all about as if the title didn’t give it away?

 

[00:03:58] Hal Elrod: I designed it as a podcast that I would one day be able to pass on to my son, Jon Berghoff, and I’m really proud of you, dude. Fantastic job.

 

[00:04:10] Jon Berghoff: Thanks, buddy. It means a lot.

 

[00:04:12] Hal Elrod: Yeah. Hey, son. When I got cancer, you really stepped up.

 

[00:04:16] Jon Berghoff: Oh my gosh.

 

[00:04:18] Jon Vroman: But what we wanted to do is take a moment and talk about what the heck we’re going to talk about today. So, we’re going to talk about what we’re going to talk about then we’re going to talk about it and then we’ll probably tell you what we just talked about.

 

[00:04:27] Jon Berghoff: I love it. Genius.

 

[00:04:29] Jon Vroman: What do you guys want to talk about today?

 

[00:04:30] Hal Elrod: Front Row Foundation?

 

[00:04:32] Jon Vroman: I want to just say this is episode 101 for Front Row Foundation, Front Row Factor which is a big number for us because the 101 is a symbol that represents somebody with their hands in the air and that’s been a logo and a representation of what our community has stood for, for years and years. This goes back 12 years. And I’ll also throw this out there for anybody watching live on Facebook, why we’re doing this is to celebrate this 101st episode but this has been a big milestone for the charity and the fact that we’ve recently surpassed a decade of doing these experiences. We’ve created more than 100 of these Front Row experiences for kids and adults all over the US and into Canada. And these four guys that are with me right now, Jon Berghoff, Hal Elrod, John Kane, John Ruhlin have been there from the get go, from the start, helping build and create Front Row. So, today I wanted to celebrate and I wanted to merge these two communities because you may or may not know this but the Miracle Morning Community is the number one donor to Front Row Foundation. So, the Miracle Morning book sales contributes more financially than any other individual or organization and has both on a regular basis and collectively over the last decade. So, pretty exciting stuff. Hal, thanks, buddy.

 

[00:05:47] Hal Elrod: I just wanted to beat Cutco as the number one contributor so that was – it wasn’t really about the foundation, the charity. It was just beating John Kane and his organization in taking the number one spot.

 

[00:05:59] John Ruhlin: Feels good. Feels really good.

 

[00:06:01] Hal Elrod: Yeah. You’re welcome.

 

[00:06:02] John Ruhlin: We ought to do 1.5 million people, Hal. That’s not a bad day.

 

[00:06:05] Hal Elrod: Yeah. There you go. There you go.

 

[00:06:08] Jon Berghoff: Hey. I want to add a comment to this. Jonny, you asked a question, what do we want to talk about on this episode? I think what’s really interesting and we can approach this many different ways is you just pointed out that the five of us have all been a part of a journey together in ushering the Front Row, nurturing it, bringing it into the future for the last 11, 12 years. What I think is really interesting and a lot of people probably don’t know this is that our relationship, the five of us, actually goes back somewhere around 19 or 20 years. And I think it’s actually worth, at some point, we ought to talk about what’s really interesting about just the power of relationships and how lucky we were that we were all part of a culture with the Cutco community that had an environment that attracted us, that connectedness and how rare is it and I’m grateful for it. I was thinking about driving in today like, “Wow.” The five of us have known each other for 20 years and how lucky we are to have been able to be there to support each other in so many different ways. And it made me start thinking of how much of a better job I wish I would’ve done 20 years ago as a friend if I knew we would still be hanging out together.

 

[00:07:15] Hal Elrod: Yeah. I still harbor a lot of resentment more to you from those early days.

 

[00:07:20] John Ruhlin: Me too. I’ll put myself in that camp.

 

[00:07:24] Hal Elrod: Awesome. Yeah.

 

[00:07:25] John Ruhlin: Yeah. Sitting beside you down in Cabo was one of the worst dinners experience in my life.

 

[00:07:30] Jon Berghoff: I was like 17, you know.

 

[00:07:31] Hal Elrod: Yeah. When you used to hide the phones so I couldn’t make sales calls prospects, you dirty, dirty cheat.

 

[00:07:40] Jon Berghoff: I only had one way to go up to go as a friend and that was up.

 

[00:07:44] Hal Elrod: Jon’s answer to all of our complaints is, “I was only 17. I was only 17. I was only 17.”

 

[00:07:48] Jon Berghoff: Just a kid. Just a kid.

 

[00:07:50] Hal Elrod: I was a kid.

 

[00:07:50] Jon Berghoff: It was last week. You should get past it.

 

[00:07:53] Jon Vroman: Hey, Johnny Kane, when did you start with Cutco? What year was that?

 

[00:07:56] John Kane: That was when the knives were made out of wood.

 

[00:07:59] Jon Vroman: This is the early 50s?

 

[00:08:01] John Kane: 1990.

 

[00:08:03] Jon Vroman: 1990.

 

[00:08:03] Hal Elrod: 1990, oh my.

 

[00:08:05] Jon Vroman: It’s awesome.

 

[00:08:06] Hal Elrod: So, yeah, what are you guys? ’98 for me. Ruhlin, were you the same year as me?

 

[00:08:09] John Ruhlin: 2000.

 

[00:08:10] Hal Elrod: 2000?

 

[00:08:11] Jon Vroman: I was ‘94.

 

[00:08:14] Hal Elrod: ‘94? Jonny was ‘99, right?

 

[00:08:16] Jon Berghoff: ’99, June of ’99.

 

[00:08:18] Hal Elrod: June of ’99.

 

[00:08:20] Jon Berghoff: I remember about a year after I started is when I heard John Ruhlin’s name and I heard about this farm boy out of Ohio who is trying to sell like pocket knives to everybody and I can’t tell you how many people I told, I’m like, “Whoever that kid is, what an idiot. What a terrible idea.”

 

[00:08:37] Jon Vroman: Follow the program, Ruhlin. Follow the program.

 

[00:08:40] Hal Elrod: Follow the program definitely.

 

[00:08:42] Jon Berghoff: Stay between the lines, John. Color between the lines.

 

[00:08:46] John Ruhlin: You and Brad Weinberg and Reisig were all like blistering. You guys were horrible.

 

[00:08:50] John Kane: Can I tell my favorite John Ruhlin story?

 

[00:08:53] Hal Elrod: Yeah. Please.

 

[00:08:55] Jon Berghoff: Tell it twice.

 

[00:08:56] Hal Elrod: Let’s take turns telling each other favorite stories. That’s good.

 

[00:08:58] John Kane: Well, my favorite story of John Ruhlin which I’m still taking a beating for to this day is that I met him in a tent at a conference. He was just walking around and he came up and said, “Hey, I want to talk to you. Let’s talk.” And I spent a couple of hours with him as a brand-new sales representative and then over the course of many years, we had hundreds of phone calls. And every time I’d be on the phone with him I’d be thinking, “This guy’s ridiculous. This guy’s outrageous.” And there were many times where I was just silent with those thoughts and I just supported him in a friendly way but one time though, he came to me and he asked if he would be able to bring three busloads of his best customers from Amish Country to the factory for a tour and he outlined this whole plan and I lost it. I said, “Dude, that is the craze – I am not going to go to the owners of our company asking this. This is outrageous. Dude, you are off the reservation here.” And he’s like, “Dude, I think it will be great.”

 

So, I went and kind of in a very non-supportive way to the owners mention that this request happen and they said, “Let’s do it.” And it was an amazing thing to witness that we got in this conference room. So, the end of the story is it turned out to be one of my favorite days in 27 years in the business and I had a totally negative attitude about John, the idea, the whole thing. What’s amazing about the day is that it was so powerful to see how this young man had influenced an entire community, an entire state of people we were generally selling to and person-after-person talked about how impressed they were that he had taken the time to create a relationship that meant more than just selling something. And I tell that story to highlight my lack of business knowledge and acumen.

 

[00:10:55] John Kane: Since then, I’ve been writing every idea he had. I just say, yes, to every idea he has and I take most of the credit for it and that’s gone well for my career. But I would just say that there are similar stories with everyone on this call where all of you has stepped up and stepped out as some of our most esteemed alumni and made a massive impact in the world. And there were lots of people saying you guys were crazy out there. There’s been a lot of words associated with you guys, I would say, behind the scenes that you might not feel great about but I would say that history favors the bold and I am honored to be here with you today and honored to have served with you at times in your career but honored to have been wrong so many times about you and your potential. That feels good. And I just think it’s fun to think about how things get started that are often such a mess. And out of that mess comes some great things.

 

And so, there are a lot of stories around that. The other thing I just want to comment on is that when I think about these relationships and these friendships, if there’s something I want to share with any community, what I see behind the scenes with all these relationships are people who are radically sold out to helping one another without wondering what’s in it for them. And that’s one of the things that you all speak about in different things but I see a group of people who are showing up to give big while living big and it’s kind of like the answer is yes before the questions out of someone’s mouth, “Yeah. I’ll help. Yeah. I’ll do it. Yes, I will.” And so, I think that’s something to note for people out there that one of the things that’s kept these relationships together is that we’ve all been a yes for each other except I might be the worst at this but we’ve all been a yes for each other for the most part and I just want to honor you all for the way you give and the way you live. It’s a pleasure and I’m honored to be here standing with giants here on the call today. It’s a privilege. Thank you.

 

[00:13:02] Jon Berghoff: Well put, Johnny.

 

[00:13:03] Hal Elrod: Yeah. Johnny, I mean, the way that you just acknowledged John Ruhlin is really a beautiful example of living life in the Front Row in terms of your relationships, the way that you’ve treated John and vice versa and that we’ve all kind of supported each other I think is huge and I think that nobody succeeds alone. Nobody succeeds alone and I know there’s been a lot of times where I was trying to succeed alone and I think we all have been there before. I wanted to ask Jon Vroman for everybody listening or watching right now that may not be familiar with the Front Row Foundation but maybe more importantly or equally as important, the Front Row philosophy. So, Jon Vroman, if you could take just a few minutes and talk about what is the Front Row Foundation and more importantly or equally as important, what’s the philosophy that it’s exemplified via the Foundation and everybody that it impacts, not just the recipients, not just their families but the people that are donating every month, the ambassadors, the supporters, etcetera. So, what it’s all about, man?

 

[00:14:02] Jon Vroman: Well, I am tempted to jump in and talk about that but being that we have Berghoff, Kane and Ruhlin on the line here, I almost want them to share what they think about that because I talk about it all the time on the show and I will definitely chime in with my thoughts and thanks for allowing me that privilege, Hal, but, JB, Kane, Ruhlin, I don’t know, how would you answer that question that Hal just threw out?

 

[00:14:25] Jon Berghoff: Johnny Ruhlin, you want to share a thought?

 

[00:14:28] Jon Vroman: Don’t just pass it around.

 

[00:14:29] John Ruhlin: Just pass it to me?

 

[00:14:32] Jon Vroman: That was the plan all along. Pass all big questions to Ruhlin.

 

[00:14:35] Jon Berghoff: You know, I’m ready. It’s like endlessly. I’m just…

 

[00:14:37] Hal Elrod: I didn’t want to answer that question. That’s why I asked it. Go ahead, guys.

 

[00:14:43] John Ruhlin: No. I mean, I think that we just recently brought Vroman in to speak to our entrepreneur’s organization for like 100 CEOs and what I love about what Jon has done is he’s created a, you know, it’s not really just a foundation. It’s really a movement. It’s a mindset that translates from whether it’s an employee, whether you’re a plumber, whether you’re a CEO, you’re an executive and the mindset is that to live life fully present, fully engaged, 110%. And what I love about JV, the reason I can bring him into really any setting to speak and I can really share the Foundation with any organization is that it’s something that we all can relate to. We all have family and friends that are braving life-threatening illnesses in some way shape or form and we’ve all experienced. We’ve been blessed to experience whether it’s a concert, an event, the five of us hanging out together, there’s an energy that you feed off of when you’re around people like that and whether it’s Tony Robbins event really doesn’t matter.

 

And JV just really has used his life as a perfect example of loving on people, pouring into people and there are other organizations that do it but I think that what I love about JV is he’s living it and breathing it every day and I see the same thing with Hal and how he lives and how he’s poured into me and how he’s poured into JV. And so, it’s been 10 years to get to 100 experiences but I think that what’s exciting is with today’s show and organizations like Advisors Excel talking about getting involved with launching things, I think that the next 10 years I really do believe that his vision of having seats set aside at every event on the planet for Front Row recipients is a real reality. And so, I’m just honored and glad to be in this inner circle and have been around, was fortunate enough to be around when he did the crazy race and really didn’t have a full vision for what it was going to turn into but as it morphs and develops into really an entire brand that I think corporate America can get behind it. It’s pretty exciting to see what’s taking place.

 

[00:16:38] Hal Elrod: That was awesome.

 

[00:16:39] Jon Vroman: That was really good. I thought that was…

 

[00:16:40] Hal Elrod: Can you give us like three more minutes maybe?

 

[00:16:44] Jon Berghoff: Don’t stop there.

 

[00:16:47] John Ruhlin: Oh, dude. JV?

 

[00:16:49] Hal Elrod: Just name the 100 recipients real quick. I think you should acknowledge.

 

[00:16:53] Jon Berghoff: And what show did they see?

 

[00:16:54] Hal Elrod: Yeah. And what show did they see? That would be really nice to know.  

 

[00:16:56] Jon Vroman: I mean, real fans would know that information for sure.

 

[00:16:59] Hal Elrod: Yeah. Yeah.

 

[00:17:00] John Ruhlin: You know, I’m not a details guy. I’m sure my team has documented that.

 

[00:17:04] Hal Elrod: Is anyone on this call a details guy?

 

[00:17:07] Jon Vroman: Hey, I want to share something, by the way, about – so, Hal, when you asked about Front Row, it could be somebody’s tuning in today that’s never even heard the words Front Row Foundation and I want to not tell you what we do but I want to tell you who we helped and I’ll tell you by recognizing Johnny Ruhlin, sitting across from me here on my wall about 2 feet away is a picture of a little girl named Sophie and Sophie was battling a brain tumor and she was having a really difficult time. It was tough on Sophie, it was tough on her family. When one person battles cancer, everybody battles cancer and as I say that by the way, I think of Hal and this past year also and what he went through and what his family went through. And yesterday, Hal, you…

 

[00:17:45] Hal Elrod: They didn’t battle anything. What are you talking about?

 

[00:17:47] Jon Vroman: I watched Ursula.

 

[00:17:49] Hal Elrod: No, it was. Yeah. I’m with you.

 

[00:17:50] Jon Vroman: Worked so hard to support you and the family and I just see that more and more. And so, little Sophie is having a difficult time. Her family is having a difficult time. And we find out she’s a big fan of Kelly Clarkson so we want to put together a Front Row event for her and that’s our mission, right, put these kids and adults in the front row of their dream event, create a day that relieves them of all their pain, that creates this joy and fulfillment that is very unique to what we do and then to create a community and a family that supports them every day after, and every day before leading up to the event as we get to know them and develop a friendship. Well, we didn’t have any connections to Kelly and her team so we reached out to Johnny Ruhlin who has built these amazing relationships that we talked about earlier in the episode and with a few text messages, we’re going backstage to that event. Now I almost don’t want to tell anything else about the event because the guy who took Sophie on the event is here with us. That’s Jon Berghoff.

 

So, I’m going to use that as a bridge to say, Jonny B, maybe you could take it from here and tell us a little bit about what happened when we got her to the event, when we got this experience for Sophie? What was that like for you? Because that was real, I know it was 2007 that this event took place and I think this represents a little bit about what we do and maybe why you’re continuing to support it to this day.

 

[00:19:10] Jon Berghoff: Yeah. The meaning of that moment keeps changing for me because back then my wife, Mara, and I, I don’t even know if we were married yet. We were just dating and today we have three kids and we have a daughter who is six, Sierra. And so, the meaning of that experience it just gets deeper as my life goes on and I can’t help but just appreciate that. It was Atlantic City like you said and the first memory that comes back for me is when we went to dinner and what’s the name of that restaurant? It’s like a jungle.

 

[00:19:40] Jon Vroman: Rainforest Café.

 

[00:19:40] Jon Berghoff: Rainforest Café. Yeah. And we’re sitting in that restaurant and I think that was my first time helping the Front Row as an event coordinator along with Mara. And so, it’s a little bit surreal for me to be there with Sophie’s parents and Sophie, and I’m sitting there with the knowing in my head that she’s battling something that, I mean, they were all pretty much aware that this was a battle she probably wasn’t going to win. And so, you think about what that does to your perspective in life in that moment and we’re sitting there in that dinner and I’ll never forget this. Unfortunately, I think I’ve told this story enough times. I think I can retell it without completely losing my marbles but we’re sitting there at the dinner and in that Rainforest Café, if you’ve ever eaten in one of these, they have all these effects with the lighting and the sound and they make it feel all of a sudden like it’s a jungle.

 

And there’s a moment where all the lights turn off and you can see all the stars in the sky and right at that moment, we’re having a conversation at the table with Sophie who at the time was three or four years old and somebody asked something, a question like where is home for you? Where are you from? And Sophie her answer said, she said, “Well, I’m an angel.” She said, “I’m from those stars up above.” You could imagine sitting there hearing her saying that thinking about how precious life is. Well, the night went on. We went to see Kelly Clarkson and I don’t know if you just mentioned this, Jonny, but Sophie she was really tired from dealing with what she was dealing with and so she actually was sleeping through most of the concert. And so, we all had a concern. We thought, “Oh my gosh, we’ve done all this work to line up this show for Sophie and her family and she’s going to sleep through this experience.” It was like we’re thinking this is the worst thing that could maybe happen. Well, we get towards the end of the show and she’s asleep in her mom’s arms.

 

[00:21:40] Jon Berghoff: And because of the work of Johnny Ruhlin finding a way to connect us with the tour manager, we had been told there might be an opportunity to meet with Kelly Clarkson although we weren’t really sure if that was going to happen. And so, after the show, we get ushered into this random room and we’re sitting in there and it’s just the four, five of us. Sophie is sleeping in her mom’s arms and we’re still thinking even if Kelly did show up, she’s going to sleep through this whole thing. Well, Kelly walks through the door and the moment she walks through the door, Sophie, her eyes burst open and if you’ve ever seen a kid who’s deep asleep, it’s not normal to think that they’re just going to wake wide-awake in the moment. And she wakes up and she looks over at Sophie and right in that moment I think she looks at Kelly and she said something like, “You’re a pretty good singer.”

 

And Kelly grabs her and holds on to her and we spent probably the next half hour just hanging out and laughing together, playing, taking pictures and, yeah, that picture that you have on your wall, I took that right in that moment when Sophie was looking at Kelly being held in her arms. Unfortunately, we all know how the story ends. That a month or so later, Sophie lost her life and Mara and I went up to the funeral and it was a moment for me that it was kind of the moment where I finally appreciated the power of the Front Row Foundation and what it does. Because as we’re going up to the viewing, I walk up to the casket, I looked down in the casket at this innocent little four-year-old girl’s soul and sitting right on top of her was her VIP pass for the Kelly Clarkson concert.

 

[00:23:26] Jon Berghoff: And I remember looking at that thinking, “God, it’s not just what we did for this little girl,” but I remember looking at her parents and then telling us later on that that moment was a memory that they could hold on to forever and it was a memory that could replace so many of the painful memories. And that was big for me. That was big for me to appreciate life and to appreciate the power of what the Front Row does. And so, Jonny, thank you for creating that for me, for my family and for all of us and this community that’s listening.

 

[00:23:59] Jon Vroman: And, Jonny, thanks for telling that story, man. When you tell that, I’m reminded that there was a moment I realized how other people were impacted by these events, not just the recipients. I think when we originally had the idea, it was all about Sophie. And I didn’t recognize the impact it would have on the mom and dad and grandparents and volunteers and donors and all of the people that would be involved in it. That was unexpected for me. I understand the ripple effect and I understand the impact in that way but I didn’t feel it or see it to the degree that we have over the years. So, yeah, sometimes people ask me at the Front Row and I tell them I say, “At the end of the day, I feel like sometimes I’m the biggest beneficiary because I get to meet all these amazing people and these incredible families that change our world.”

 

[00:24:48] Jon Berghoff: Well, Jonny, it reminds me too why I think the work that you have just put out into the world with your book, The Front Row Factor, and if there’s anybody in either of our communities listening who hasn’t read it five times by now, Hal’s holding it up if you’re watching the live stream. He, of course, has five copies, not one. But, Jonny…

 

[00:25:06] Jon Vroman: Overachiever.

 

[00:25:08] Jon Berghoff: I think it’s a good reminder for everybody to take a look at what you put your heart and soul into in putting that book out because that book was all the lessons that you’ve learned from helping people who are fighting for their life. And maybe if anyone hasn’t heard us talk about it on past episodes, maybe you could give us just a snapshot or a glimpse into some of the key lessons from that book, buddy. I think it would be great to share that with everybody.

 

[00:25:35] Jon Vroman: Yeah. It really is our book, guys, and that’s why we’re all talking today and this isn’t a solo episode of me talking about these past years but this has been a “we” thing and this is very much been a build-with-friends concept. I always knew that it would grow. I always knew that we would advance and progress, and we have. I wasn’t obsessed with numbers and doubling and tripling. I was obsessed with getting together with friends on evenings and weekends and then while some people might have been taking vacations and doing certain things in their lives. But anyway, this has been very much a “we” thing. So, the acknowledgment section of the book I think demonstrates that. I think it’s like 30 pages of acknowledgments. It’s true but so I want to thank all you guys for helping me do it.

 

Here’s what happened over the two years of writing the book. And I mean, really writing the book. We’ve been talking about the book for probably five but really writing the book over those two years. When we sat down and said, “What’s happening here? Why is this working? Why are people attracted to the Front Row? Why are people being impacted?” So, here’s what happened. When we sat down and looked back, we realized that there were what we call three forces at work. So, here’s what we determined that was happening. The first thing was and this was really what happened, we outlined in the book was the power first of hope. And here’s a big lesson from the book. One is the power of hope. Here’s what we realized. One of the things that happened was when we were doing these events, we would tell the family or the recipient about the event coming up and we would notice that immediately there would be a transformation in their life, not just at the event or as the event was happening which we knew would be transformative but we didn’t recognize the transformation that would occur before. For example, Thomas Kay was one of our recipients and he was an avid rugby player, the picture of health. These guys are holding up photos of the Front Row book if you’re listening to the podcast. You got to check out the live stream. Go to the Miracle Morning Facebook page and check out the video. These guys are hysterical.

 

[00:27:35] Jon Vroman: So, anyway, back to Thomas Kay. So, Thomas Kay was an avid rugby player and he’s fighting for his life and we learned about Thomas and his story and Thomas is a real hero, a real incredible guy but bound to a wheelchair, losing his eyesight and we tell him that he’s going to go see the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand and to say he’s excited would be an understatement. But what we didn’t anticipate was that we learned from Thomas and his family that he was fighting to stand for the national anthem. So, during physical therapy, he had now new motivation to take a stand and I think that’s a beautiful metaphor for life in general that when we have purpose, we find power and when we have purpose in life and when we have hope for the future, something that we’re chasing, something that we are anticipating. And we talk about this all the time as brothers here. We talk about the anticipation principle like, Johnny K, I learned this from you. It was every time that we’d meet, you’d say, “Let’s get another date on the book like let’s know when are we getting together? What are we doing? When are we reconnecting?”

 

And it was something about that that even though that we might not hang out for weeks or even months at times, knowing that we had a day, knowing that we had time would bring a lot of peace and power and fulfillment to the moments that were leading up to the events like a holiday. Sometimes all the buildup to a holiday you could argue is even more exciting than the holiday itself. I don’t know whether my kids have more fun on Christmas morning or whether they have more fun the 30 days leading up to it, talking about it and all the things that are going to happen. That’s the extended celebration in a sense. So, we learned about hope. We also learned about what happens after the event and we didn’t anticipate this but one of our brothers, Carey Smolensky, awesome guy, board member for years, been with Front Row since the beginning. Carey created an event for a young man named Mike.

 

[00:29:31] Jon Vroman: And Mike was 16 in age but developed mentally to about nine years of age based on the illnesses that he was fighting and we sent him to go see this event in South Carolina. I’ll never forget hearing it was the first time on an airplane, the first time seeing the ocean, the first time in a hotel. For Front Row, there’s a lot of firsts and there’s a lot of reasons to celebrate and for Mike, he was in a very difficult situation when he got home. His health was fading very quickly and Carey was worried that he might not make it past the week and Carey being the heart centered guy that he is, he went out to the hospital to see Mike. Now he didn’t need to. That wasn’t part of the deal but if anybody’s watching, you can see our shirts. They say it’s a forever thing. And a part of why we say that is that we wanted this to be more than a day. We wanted this to be about family and we wanted it to be about forever.

 

So, Carey following suit with that, goes out to the hospital, sees Mike and he tells me on his car ride home, he says, “I walked in. I saw Mike and, man, he’s not doing well.” But I saw Mike smiling because he was sitting there on the bed and he was flipping through his photo album and he was looking at all the pictures and because I could see that he was reliving that experience and that was bringing peace and joy and some relief in his life in that moment and that made me feel really good about the work that we do. And I learned about the power of looking back and celebrating and I think that’s very different than living in the past or sometimes we talk about how that’s not a good thing to do and it isn’t if it’s not serving you in this moment. But celebration or remembering the good times isn’t about telling the same old story and being stale, it’s about remembering the Front Row moments of our lives and using that as power, using that as a way of gratitude.

 

[00:31:28] Jon Vroman: And gratitude, by the way, we talk about this in the book, we read about this in the book, scientifically backed to talk about the benefits of gratitude and the more that we appreciate what we have and have had, the more we’re able to build and create into the future, the more we’re able to take that positivity and move forward. So, those are just a couple of the things that we write about in the book and then we tell the stories, the recipients. We give the practical strategies that we’ve learned from them about how to make the most of all of our moments and then we back it up with some really compelling science that says, “Hey, hope isn’t just this light and fluffy thing. It’s actually something people can understand its power whether that’s in a family, a church or a business.” It doesn’t matter where you are. These are principles that apply to living life in the front row as we say or being moment makers in our lives. Because our lives are just a big series of a bunch of moments. That’s all we get. We get another minute maybe. It was gifted to us and then our choices, what do we do with those minutes? Those moments?

 

Because I mean, listen, we all have kids here and Tiger is eight and I’m blown away thinking that he’s halfway to driving a car and I’m realizing how quick this whole thing goes and how we almost need to intentionally slow things down. Johnny Kane, as you’ve always told me, it’s like pause, take a look around, soak this in. Well before your mindfulness training, Johnny Kane, you had this inner wisdom to know that that was what we needed to do was to be witness to our moments and help others be witness to their moments as well. So, that’s what the Front Row is all about. The Front Row is about showing up for people. The metaphor being in the Front Row, people would challenge it. They’re like, “I don’t want to be in the front row. I want to be on the stage. I want to be on the field. I want to be in the game,” and I’m totally there. I get that metaphor. Play the game. Yes, I get it. Also, there’s nothing wrong with showing up for people. The life in the front row philosophy is about being a moment maker for other people at times and like it’s about knowing other people’s dreams and goals. It’s about being a raving fan for those you love and care about.

 

[00:33:24] Jon Vroman: Being in the Front Row of life is about witnessing things that are amazing and then celebrating with them that amplifies all those moments. That’s what the book is about, that’s what this whole thing is about and that’s what we’re all doing together. Guys, with that being said, I’m tempted to say what else do you think but what I want to talk about is I want to see if we can transition a little bit to talk about this whole forever thing concept. Like how we wanted to be not just a charity that creates these incredible moments but to be an organization, a family, a community that helps people live every day in the front row. Because I always said, we want to be a little bit like Make-A-Wish meets Tony Robbins. If somebody said, “Tell me about your cause,” I’m like, “It’s like Make-A-Wish meets Tony Robbins,” where we create these days but then we create a community that helps people really live fully and one of the ways that we’ve done that is by creating this partnership with the Miracle Morning. And so, people asked me like, “How do you live life in the front row?” The first thing, you’ve got to get your day right because if you take care of you, you can take care of others. You want to show up for yourself? You can show up for the world. That’s what this is all about, right?

 

And there’s Hal, dude, I am so impressed. I want to tell you this with what you’ve created with the Miracle Morning and what’s happened with that. I mean it’s absolutely incredible. If you’re out there listening right now and you’re watching and you’re part of this, I’m so happy for you. I’m so happy because I’ve seen the Miracle Morning change lives and I love that we give the Miracle Morning book to everybody in the Front Row Foundation to say this is the first step, right? This is how we do it. And what’s now ended up happening is that you put on this event several years ago, the Best Year Ever Blueprint Event and we partnered together on it. And I want to talk a little bit about why is that and I want to talk about this partnership and this family that we’ve blended these communities and built these communities kind of side-by-side and together. So, guys, I want to talk about like Best Year Ever and the blending of Miracle Morning and Front Row. I don’t know where we want to go with that but I’m open to thoughts or ideas.

 

[00:35:14] Hal Elrod: Yeah. I’ll share, Jon. I want to mention something that you just shared and then we’ll transition into kind of what the partnership came from but what I realized and it took me a long time kind of like Jon, as we get older and we grow and we have new experiences and our circumstances evolve and change, our perspective evolves and changes. And what I realized is that what Front Row Foundation has become is it’s invited and made kind of a norm this way of living life in the Front Row and if you think about most people that we take for granted. We were introduced personal development at a very young age, all of us. At 19, I learned about positive thinking and personal development and the Cutco training and then I went home and I was like, “Mom and dad, you guys are so negative like I never realized how negative you were until I learned about how positive other people are. You guys are negative. You complain all the freaking time.”

 

And so, but with that, like we all became this super positive, focused on our goals folks, as teenagers, right, or in our early 20s but what I realized is most people don’t have that experience, the majority. The 99% of society doesn’t have that exposure to the power and the value of personal growth and personal development and that is a big part of what Front Row I think brains is, is it’s the recipients, it’s their family but it’s everybody involved in the charity. I mean, there are thousands of people every day listening to your podcast, Jon, and it goes to the Front Row events. And all of these touches from the Front Row Foundation are touching deep in the hearts of so many people and changing the way that they show up in their world and in their relationships and to the people that they love. And so, I think that is what is so neat is that, yeah, they started as, “Hey, let’s benefit the one person that is battling a life-threatening illness,” and then Vroman, like you said, you didn’t realize but wait, whoa, this actually affects their family arguably even more than it affects them because especially if they pass away, their family carries on with these amazing beautiful memories. And then beyond that, though, it is something that all of us I think have really come to appreciate on a life level, not just a foundation or a charity or contribution level but on a living every day of our lives and the way it affects so many thousands of other people to do the same.

 

[00:37:24] Hal Elrod: And being that as Jon Vroman, Jon Berghoff and we all talked about, all of us when we put on the Best Year Event, that there was such a synergy and even Jon Vroman, you made a great point. You go, “Hal, the Miracle Morning is how you start your day,” and the Front Row Factor or the Front Row Philosophy is really how you kind of live the rest of the day like Miracle Morning gets you started but how do you really live and maximize every moment of your life and that’s what this bad boy does. Jon Vroman’s holding up the third book in the series.

 

[00:37:50] Jon Berghoff:  But at the end of the day you give a gift.

 

[00:37:54] Hal Elrod: It’s such a funny – you give at the end of the day and nobody better to teach you that than Giftology. But, actually, JB, I’d love to or JB, JV. By the way, does anybody else watching realize that I’ve got a Jon Vroman, Jon Berghoff, John Kane and John Ruhlin all surrounding me? I’m surrounded by Johns. I feel so insecure. I’ve never felt – so I always felt insecure growing up having the name Hal because it was a weird name growing up and people calling me, they spun it into other weird making-fun-of-me names but then now I’m more insecure because you guys are all named John.

 

But JB, Jon Berghoff, I would love to hear actually because you really you articulated it and you actually brought the idea to me, hey, why don’t we partner with the Front Row Foundation at the Best Year Ever Blueprint? Why don’t we combine this annual Front Row event that we do and just bring it to the Blueprint where everybody’s already there. They’re already likeminded. They value contribution. They value personal development. Why don’t we do it and put it together? So, JB, I’d love for you to kind of take over, Mr. Berghoff, and share the way that you articulated it to me then and that you can articulate it now, how do we integrate Front Row Foundation into our event in November and how we’ve done it and how are we going to do it again?

 

[00:39:03] Jon Berghoff: Happy to. And, Johnny Kane, this is coming your way at the end so be ready, buddy. The seed of this partnership and I think there are some cool lessons here that hopefully it can be revealed through me telling the story. Seeds of this partnership were really planted years ago when we actually ran an event called the Big Give and actually all of us were there at the first Big Give. And the Big Give was an idea and the idea was what if we bring people together for a day and we run an event where they get to develop themselves. They get to evolve as entrepreneurs, as parents, as people and we combine that with celebrating through a fund raiser, through a gala for the Front Row Foundation. So, we actually did several of these Big Give events starting back in, was it 2011 or 2012? I mean, we did it for two or three years and then we took a couple of years off and then after the first Best Year Ever Event, Hal, Jonny Vroman and I, I’ll never forget it.

 

We’re in a hotel room Sunday night after the event was done and Jonny and I, we were struggling with something. What we were struggling with was we had just finished the first Best Year Ever Event. That was December 2014 and we were looking ahead at 2015. We’re struggling because we had just announced the dates for the 2015 Best Year Ever Event and we were sitting there thinking, “Well, when do we host the Annual Front Row Foundation Gala or celebration?” And Johnny had actually planted a seed. He said, “Here’s a crazy idea that probably doesn’t make any sense but what if we did them at the same time?” And that seed was planted and a number of months went by where we hadn’t really talked about that again. It was just an open question of how do we host these two different events for this community where a lot of people are part of the same community. Well, a little bit later in 2015, part of our process just upholds the curtain back for those of you who had been to the Best Year Ever or if you’re coming this year, we can’t wait to see on November 17, 18, 19 in Sunny San Diego, BestYearEverLive.com.

 

[00:41:04] Jon Berghoff: So, here’s the deal. A few months into 2015, we started our process for designing the Best Year Ever which always starts with our guiding principles and our guiding principles are not statements. They’re questions. It’s one of the reasons we love the partnership between the Front Row and the Best Year Ever is because the Front Row philosophy is about asking questions. You heard Jon talk about hope earlier. Hope is inspired when we ask a question like what kinds of images of my future give me the most excitement? If I were to imagine waking up a year or two, three years from now and looking around and my life everything being in harmony and everything operating the way I want it to and fully flourishing and thriving. What does that look like? What does that feel like? Who am I with? What am I doing? Who am I being? Those kinds of questions inspire hope or when we look back like Jonny said, and we celebrate. I would argue and add something to Jon’s point that we not only look back and celebrate the moments that are obvious but we eventually learn how to celebrate every moment, and that’s where the true power lies. That’s what we call meaning making. When I can look back and take moments that may be in the moment or a tragedy and I can look back and ask myself, was there a gift in that moment? And sometimes only time tells us what that gift was. Was there a lesson? Was there a strength that that built that I can now invest into my future, my family, whatever might come ahead of me?

 

So, we love that philosophy because the Best Year Ever Event is all about inviting people to ask the kinds of questions with hundreds of people together that are going to transform their future. And so, one of the questions that we were asking and planning for the Best Year Ever Event was how might we integrate a sense of purpose into the Best Year Ever Event? Because one of the things that all five of us believe in deep in our core and we might use different words to say it but we all believe as entrepreneurs that the reason to go to work every day is not to go to work. It’s not to make money. We go to work and we make money so that we can make the biggest positive difference in the world that we possibly can so that we can use our highest strengths and do what gives us passion so that we can elevate others in whatever way we’re doing that.

 

[00:43:08] Jon Berghoff: And so, we had asked the question, how do we kind of reinvent the Best Year Ever Event so that we don’t just talk to people? Because many of them are entrepreneurs, we don’t just talk about, “Hey, how do you do things so you can make an impact?” but how do we actually redesign the event so that people are making an impact in real-time? And the answer emerged and it became so obvious and the answer was in the middle of the event, on the second evening, Saturday night, we’re going to actually host a Front Row Foundation Gala and we called it a celebration with an auction and we tell stories and we honor recipients and we honor ourselves and we just love the present moment. And the first year that we did that in 2015, it was a huge risk. We thought to ourselves that people might be turned off by this because they paid a lot of money to come develop themselves. They were happy with last year’s Best Year Ever Event and now we’re telling them in the middle of it we’re going to honor this wish organization. And we thought some people might not like that. We weren’t sure what would happen.

 

And what turned out to happen was we’re blown away. And not only did everybody show up for that Saturday night celebration but they showed up with their hearts, with their souls, with their minds and with their wallets and we had this fun little fundraiser that raised something like $110,000 just out of nowhere. And there we were sitting in the middle of an event that was originally designed to help people who came to that event to have their best year ever and now they are standing there helping us to help others who are battling life-threatening illnesses who many of them would never meet. And that told us something. It told us that this whole idea of not just talking about but actually integrating and including in the event some aspect of contribution of giving was something that people were just, they were yearning for it. They wanted deep down inside and we created that possibility. And the crazy thing is that was an experiment that we realize right then and there, we’re never going to run an event again without having some element of contribution.

 

[00:45:05] Jon Berghoff: And since then, that’s inspired. Johnny Ruhlin just did this in an event. He raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. We had inspired many other communities who are at that first event the same strategy to integrate fundraising with a personal empowerment event. So, that’s how that partnership started but I want to circle back and close this out just by pointing out that it’s really not about the fundraising. It’s really about the alignment of values that we believe that for someone to live their best year ever, they’ve got to learn how to hold on to continuously a positive image of the future. They’ve got to learn how to continue to celebrate the past and the present and that’s what the Front Row Foundation is all about. So, yeah, it’s about helping a wish organization but it’s about reminding ourselves how much that philosophy is a beautiful philosophy to literally live our best year ever, our best day and our best moment that we can. Johnny Kane, I just wanted to invite you to say something because I just had a feeling that you had something to add to this.

 

[00:46:01] John Kane: Yeah. Jon, a lot of things I agree with what you said but some things I don’t. Because I think it is about fundraising and maybe not at Best Year Ever Event but I want to speak to some experiences that have happened recently for the group. There are people listening that may be saying, “Well, how would I share my talent, my time and my treasure to support an organization like Front Row?” In fact, the most common question I get is what difference can I make? And I think that I want to share a few stories that could help people connect with how they could connect. So, many of you recognize that on this call, there are four individuals who are revolutionaries in each of their own industry and event. And if you know the story about a time everybody on this call, Jon, Jon, Hal and Mr. Ruhlin, you will know that each in their own way revolutionizing a piece of the world and we all have this Front Row connection in common.

 

One of the things that happen is that there are people out there when they hear Jon Vroman speak, two-time College Speaker of the Year, there are college students who simply go to the website and become ambassadors and for $11 a month can contribute to being an ambassador for the Front Row Foundation. Obviously, that number can increase. The 11’s kind of based on the two hands up. Get it, right? So, for $11 you could be part of the mission here. I think that’s important to recognize. It’s great to hear about John Ruhlin racing a couple of hundred thousand dollars. Boy, he does that on every casual Monday but I would say that inspiring to know that for $11 you can be part of this. It’s also inspiring to know that we have people who at their picnic and party that they have every single year which is it’s fun to have a party but what about when you do a lip-synching contest at that party that raises $10,000 and sends two people to an event? What about the Front Row Summit in July when the Front Row this year decides to invite our families and Aaron and Mrs. Dahey and his other families, our kids are together.

 

[00:48:07] John Kane: What about what happens when the kids build an arcade out of cardboard and then come in and sell tickets to their own parents? Brilliant, guys. I mean how do you not buy your own kids’ tickets? Even a golden ticket worth $800 for all the prizes? I mean, everybody could play games. Now people are buying $800 tickets to a cardboard arcade. I don’t know how you did it but the brilliance was our children have to feel, got to raise almost $4,000 which is what is close to what we spend to send a recipient to an event that we’ve inspired children to do this. We have people running races. We have people having backyard games. We have people having pub crawl. What’s beautiful about this is that there is the opportunity to participate any way you freaking feel like it. Whatever you like to do, you can turn that into a way of creating someone’s best day. So, if there’s any point whether you’re able to go to an event or if you have something you like to do, there’s a way to turn that into a way to help someone experience the best day of their life and possibly the thing that their family will remember forever.

 

And so, what I love about this is you can connect this to what inspires you. You may be inspired by the Miracle Morning or the Front Row message or John Ruhlin’s Giftology message or Appreciative Inquiry and the work being done by the Flourishing Leadership Institute, all revolutionary work in the world. But the great thing is if you’re not, you can just rather be you and make a difference for this cause and I think that’s a message I want everyone to hear today. There’s a way for you to connect with this and there’s nothing small about the way you choose to connect and it would be my hope that today that we have people who raise their hand and say, “I want to step in and step up. And while I’m doing what I love, can we help other people have the best day of their life?” So, I agree. It’s not about fundraising but it’s about connecting what you’re passionate about with a way to help others and maybe it’s not for Front Row but you can do that for something else in your life. I think that’s a powerful lesson from the book and something you, gentlemen, are all exemplifying the way you live.

 

[00:50:23] Jon Vroman: Johnny, I’m going to just say what’s brilliant about what you just shared is that this whole thing, this whole decade of creating together, these events that we’ve blended, the idea of the Miracle Morning is showing up for you and the Front Row philosophy is about showing up for others, all of this is harmony. Jonny Berghoff said this and I learned this years ago from JB talking about one of his primary questions was, how do I have all things in my life work in harmony? How do I take the things I value most and piece them together? And then, Kane, you beautifully articulated like our friends, the Muellers, who have this backyard barbecue that they host the lip-sync battle and they raised $10,000. They’re blending. They’re constantly asking, “How can I both live big and give big at the same time?” And big is all relative. To somebody, $11 a month is a big contribution and in different stages of our lives, we have different resources at our disposal to be able to give in different ways.

 

And people come to the summit because they want to give not only just a financial contribution and many can’t. They’re not in a position to do that but they can give time and energy and their brain power behind something. But the thing is that the common thread, the through line of this story is a group of people who value relationships, who value their life and their time, doing life together, choosing to say, “Hey, we’re going to do the summit and come together as a family. We’re going to go to this Best Year Ever and come together as a family. Like the Best Year Ever is a family reunion. The Best Year Ever is like one of the best excuses to go hop on a plane and see your real family in life in a sense. When I say your real family meaning a chosen family. You shouldn’t say real, a chosen family. And then one through line here also with all this is these are intentional decisions. This isn’t happening by accident. These are people who are saying how can I choose my environment?

 

[00:52:26] Jon Vroman: One of the pieces of the Front Row factor, we have three areas of focus. It’s like what’s my mindset? And your questions direct your mindset. Who are the people around my relationships? We call that who’s in your front row? And what’s in my front row is sort of the environment I choose to be in. And the Best Year Ever is empowering environment with these incredible people and this harmony of purpose and intention of giving back so that we don’t get to the end of our lives and say, “Man, I wasted all those days.” Matthew Kelly, our mutual friend, Johnny Ruhlin, I think you brought Matthew to the table and introduced him to the group. And he always says we spend the first half of our life thinking we’re too young and the second half of our life thinking we’re too old. And I think what’s great about this community is it’s like now is the time. Now is the time. So, I just wanted to say that this is a beautiful harmony. And for anybody listening out there, if you’re asking, “How does this apply to me?” ask yourself how can your world work more in harmony? Ask yourself who do you want to do life with? And how can you be intentional about finding ways to grow and give at the same time? I think that’s a beautiful combination. Johnny Ruhlin, what do you think about all this?

 

[00:53:31] John Ruhlin: That’s a great question, JV, and I’ve been having some fun making comments with Mr. Elrod so to be perfectly – the last three minutes sounded really, really powerful.

 

[00:53:44] Jon Vroman: I should mention this. By the way, guys, there is a chat box going on as we’re talking and, yeah, there’s some fun. We should post the chat box with this. I even thought to myself, I wonder if the chat box is being viewed live? Everybody is… Is this being broadcast along with the rest of the webinar?

 

[00:54:05] Jon Berghoff: I don’t think so or I don’t hope so.

 

[00:54:08] Jon Vroman: So, Johnny Ruhlin, what we were just talking about is we were talking about your $100,000 pledge that you recently made to the Front Row over five years, how the Ruhlin Group is – well done, buddy. It’s just amazing. Thank you so much for that.

 

[00:54:24] John Ruhlin: Dude, I’d like to think that if we get Advisors Excel or a few of these other organizations on board, 100K is going to look like a drop in the bucket. So, dude, you know I’m working behind the scenes to make sure that some special things happen to have multiple commas and multiple zeroes.

 

[00:54:40] Jon Vroman: Always.

 

[00:54:41] John Ruhlin: Yes.

 

[00:54:41] John Kane: Maybe they’ll give you a t-shirt if you couldn’t get that done.

 

[00:54:44] John Ruhlin: Yeah. Dude, I’m still waiting for mine. I mean, yeah, apparently.

 

[00:54:48] Jon Berghoff: Yeah. I’ll give you a Dixie Cup with your name written on it with a sharpie.

 

[00:54:54] John Ruhlin: Dude, are we going to talk about like the tattoos or the fact that like the 25K that JK raised doing the freaking Iron Man? I mean, he was like…

 

[00:55:00] Hal Elrod: Yeah, the Iron Man I was thinking need to be mentioned.

 

[00:55:02] John Ruhlin: I mean, that needed to be mentioned. The tattoo challenge I think is a pretty strong gauntlet to throw down.

 

[00:55:08] Hal Elrod: I mean, John Kane doing an Ironman, it’s a miracle.

 

[00:55:11] Jon Berghoff: Yeah. It defies gravity.

 

[00:55:12] Hal Elrod: It defies logic. It defies gravity. It defies everything.

 

[00:55:17] Jon Berghoff: Physics. Physics.

 

[00:55:18] Hal Elrod: Physics, yeah. It’s like when humans believe either like…

 

[00:55:22] Jon Berghoff: The world was flat.

 

[00:55:23] Hal Elrod: Flat or a human couldn’t run a four-minute mile like, yeah, anyway. John, talk about…

 

[00:55:30] Jon Vroman: Put some stats too, JK, when you did the race. How tall are you? What were you weighing it out on fight day?

 

[00:55:36] John Kane: I think what would be true is when you don’t have any real business talent, what you do is you mutilate yourself and your body to raise and there’s really no other way you can do it. If I had half the gifts that you guys, I would find a smarter way to raise money for the foundation but self-mutilation has been the strategy so far.

 

[00:55:55] Jon Berghoff: You know, four out of five of us have done that.

 

[00:55:57] John Kane: Yeah. So, anyway.

 

[00:56:00] Hal Elrod: I just fake cancers and car accidents. That’s my big contribution.

 

[00:56:07] John Kane: It’s like I feel guilty laughing about that because that makes me – I want to laugh and cry at the same time.

 

[00:56:12] Hal Elrod: This is being recorded so I actually am really upset that you…

 

[00:56:16] John Kane: Yeah. Well, hey, I would say really simply I was inspired by attending the funeral of someone I barely knew who they lost their dad and the dad was a few years older than I was and I was inspired to just do something. And a series of things lined up and a lot of people lined up to help toward a goal of just doing something I was passionate about. And I guess the biggest lesson, you can listen to the podcast that it’s like podcast, I don’t know what number, but it’s one of Jon Vroman’s. Well, we talk a lot about that story if you’re interested. I’m not going to eat up a lot of time. I would just simply say the theme of that is that we don’t do anything alone, a lot of people help. When you set a big goal, it’s amazing the things that come to your aid and the people that come to your aid and the people that will help when you’re willing to step out there.

 

I would say it was a little disconcerting sometimes running these races where someone would say, “Is that the pizza delivery guy?” or, “No, he’s actually in the race,” yes. So, yeah, I get it. It doesn’t matter what shape or size you are. I’ve learned that there’s a way if you really want to do something and I think what happens when you have a cause like the Front Row and you look behind me here, there’s a little plaque and the plaque has five recipients that were able to be impacted by doing an event and I thought how cool it would be to see how many people we could impact with one event. And I think that having a bigger purpose is what helped that process and a lot of people can speak to that. The tattoo was just a bad decision. So, moving forward, I’m going to try to avoid those.

 

[00:58:04] Hal Elrod: Yeah.

 

[00:58:05] John Kane: The tattoo wasn’t a bad decision. The tattoo was really about…

 

[00:58:11] Hal Elrod: What tattoo? Just so everyone listening knows. You got to – what’s the tattoo?

 

[00:58:13] John Kane: I got a Front Row tattoo on my arm and we were at a fundraiser and we were trying to get to $100,000 and I had nothing to give but said, “If you guys throw in more money, we’ll tattoo ourselves.” And it was late in the night and I can’t speak to everybody’s state of mind but in the end, it started to catch on. We’re projecting to raise $1 million next year in tattoos only for the Front Row Foundation. So, the self-mutilation campaign will extend and we’re challenging everybody out there. Right now, the most amount of money ever raised with one tattoo is $15,000. The challenge is to say could someone raise $25,000 with that tattoo? $50,000? Could you do a tattoo fundraiser? If you don’t like that, you can donate your birthday which is kind of a – it’s a nice thing to do. Hal did that but a lot of people do that but if you want to go big, tattoo. The first neck tattoo I think could raise $100,000 so I think we should consider that.

 

[00:59:10] John Ruhlin: Yeah. It has to be $1 million for me to get a neck tattoo. I’d thrown down that gauntlet.

 

[00:59:14] John Kane: A million from…

 

[00:59:15] Jon Vroman: Is that right? Guys, I feel like we should pursue that mission.

 

[00:59:19] Hal Elrod: Yeah.

 

[00:59:19] Jon Vroman: I think there are people out there that would pay $1 million to see Ruhlin get a neck tattoo of the Front Row.

 

[00:59:23] Hal Elrod: Now Ruhlin selflessly meant if someone donates $1 million to the Front Row Foundation, he’ll get a neck tattoo. That’s so sweet.

 

[00:59:30] John Ruhlin: Dude, I have no tattoos and I have no plans on getting one but seven figures for the cause, I could be convinced.

 

[00:59:37] Hal Elrod: Yeah.

 

[00:59:38] John V: As crazy as it sounds, by the way, I want to add to this story. JK, you’re a moment maker. I think you’re brilliant at this in many ways in life. I could tell stories for hours about it but there we are sitting on Jon Berghoff’s back porch with a group of extremely committed, fun people who all were chipping in things that could add value to the group and people were bidding on them. So, somebody would be like, “I have a house in Florida, if anybody wants it, throw in some money to the Front Row, you can have it.” And then somebody else would say, “I got tickets to this event. If anybody wants to go to it, I’ll toss those and you can donate to the Front Row. You can have them.” And that idea generated by Jon Berghoff and the community through the process that he uses of Appreciative Inquiry which is a game changing philosophy and process which has revolutionized many of our lives and businesses. That night was a great example of what happens when strengths come together and conversation is built and creativity is allowed into the situation.

 

So, there we are with like 25 people raised tens of thousands of dollars. JK throws out this idea and four people commit to the Front Row tattoo. Now at this point, there are seven Front Row tattoos that are out there and I want to tell you that the first tattoo I think is worth mentioning here by the way. I want to throw this out there. The first tattoo is a great story because it shows a little bit about how we all live life in the front row differently. Sometimes when I say live life in the Front Row, people think they have to be the type of person that stands up and screams and dances and shouts and that that’s the only type of person that lives a front row life is a total extrovert. Well, we created an event for a guy named Derrick Boykins years ago and he was in his 30s, wonderful guy, a father of two kids, lived in Philadelphia. He was a big fan of the 76ers and we sent Derrick go see the event and he was on the court and got a chance to meet the players. It was an awesome event.

 

[01:01:34] John V: And I went to go see Derrick after that event and hang out at his house and I took him his video and his photo book with our event coordinator, Shannon, at the time. And I remember thinking I don’t know if he really was impacted by this because he was so reserved about it. He was more introverted in the way he expressed his emotions and I remember saying to Shannon, “Did we really hit the mark here? Did we really change his life? Did we really transform him? Was he really excited about this?” Because that’s what we’re always looking for is somebody that’s so grateful for the day. And I remember thinking that we had missed something there and how could we get better? And somebody sends me a message and they said, “Hey, Jon, looks like somebody is more committed to Front Row than you.” I said, “What are you talking about?” He said, “Look at this picture,” and I looked at my phone and it’s a picture of a tattoo that says Live Life in the Front Row from shoulder to shoulder.

 

[01:02:22] Hal Elrod: Wow.

 

[01:02:22] Jon Vroman: And it’s Derrick Boykins who got the tattoo across his back literally. The guy is 6’2, 200 plus pounds. It’s a huge tattoo. I was like, “I misjudged.” I clearly did not see the impact that this has on Derrick but what it’s evident of is how committed he was to the lifestyle of being in the front row every day, wanting that reminder and wanting to have that with you as a forever thing. And so, the people that have now committed to having a Front Row tattoo which I’m just blown away by, I love the idea of what it stands for because these people that have gotten these tattoos, I think about Scott who’s in his 40s owns a big business, two teenage boys, no tattoos, totally sober, commits to getting this done. And he’s like, “It was the easiest decision because this is how I want to live. This is who I am.”

 

And so, I want to talk about the fact that there are so many different types of people out there listening and there are so many different types of people out there whether you’re introverted or extroverted or a little bit of both at different times and different contexts but you can choose to be in the front row of life. And simply that means getting close to the people, places, things, thoughts, ideas, whatever they are that make you come alive. That’s what this is all about. So, my invitation to everybody listening is join our community like join the Miracle Morning Community. Join the Front Row Community. Come play with us at Best Year Ever. Come to the Front Row Summit. Be around like-minded and like-hearted people that will support you in achieving your biggest dreams and goals. So, I just wanted to toss that out there.

 

[01:03:54] Hal Elrod: And, JV, I think that what something you said made me think about the distinction between our communities meaning that we’ve got the Front Row Community, we’ve got the Miracle Morning Community but we actually have a separate integrated community that is the – we’ll call them the in-person community, right? Because so much of our community is virtual. They’re online. They’re listening to the podcast. They’re supporting each other virtually but there’s a much smaller group. I mean, 110,000 people in the Miracle Morning Community but at the live event, at the Best Year Ever Blueprint which is our live event that we all do together, there are 300 people there and they also go to the Front Row Event and they go to that Miracle Morning Event we have last year and they end up being in the Quantum Leap Mastermind, quite a few of them. And so, there’s this different almost level of community and, Vroman, you always say proximity is power. And I think that really is important for anybody listening to this or watching this, if you’re inspired, if you considered being a part of our in-person community, go to BestYearEverLive.com and come for the annual event.

 

And again, it’s a blending as you guys so eloquently put it, it’s the harmonious blending of the Front Row Foundation, the Miracle Morning Community coming together for the Best Year Ever Blueprint because the one thing we all share in common, we share a lot but one thing we share in common is that every year, one year ends and the new year begins. And very few of us have a structured revolutionary process for how do you extract the value from the year you just finished? How do you extract the most value so that you can really maximize your growth from the year you finished? And then how do you eloquently transition it into a plan, a blueprint if you will for the coming year? And so, to celebrate the Front Row Foundation and to become the best version of yourself and take it into the new year, BestYearEverLive.com, and join us in November. So, I didn’t mean to go on some sales pitch but that’s who I am. But anyway, you guys, I know all of us will be there except John Cain and it’s going to be a magical experience for everyone except John Kane. So, we hope you join all of us and when I say all of us, I mean the four of us except John Kane and we’ll see you in San Diego.

 

[01:06:05] John Ruhlin: This guy is brutal.

 

[01:06:09] Jon Berghoff: Oh, it’s so good.

 

[01:06:10] Hal Elrod: I have a feeling John Kane will be there. I have a really good feeling, yeah, out of sheer guilt and peer pressure.

 

[01:06:16] John Ruhlin: It’s what we’re all about.

 

[01:06:17] John Kane: I feel a lot of gratitude for the elevation that I feel from this group. It’s special.

 

[01:06:22] Hal Elrod: Yeah. Now that I keyed you up with those sweet comments, John Kane, I mean, is there anything that you want to close us out? You’re one of the best.

 

[01:06:28] Jon Berghoff: Do we each get a closing comment?

 

[01:06:30] Jon Vroman: Yeah. Let’s do that.

 

[01:06:31] Hal Elrod: Yeah. All right. That was my closing comment. Now I’m done.

 

[01:06:34] John Ruhlin: Mike drop.

 

[01:06:35] Jon Vroman: And usually when we say we have a closing comment, there are at least 30 minutes.

 

[01:06:38] Hal Elrod: Well, I have 30 minutes.

 

[01:06:40] John Kane: Go out, everybody, because we’re going to be here a while.

 

[01:06:44] Jon Berghoff: Should I hit record now? Should we start the episode?

 

[01:06:46] Jon Vroman: If you just keep running as you listen to this, you’ll be an ultramarathon runner as well.

 

[01:06:51] John Ruhlin: Yeah.

 

[01:06:52] Jon Vroman: Hey, I’m going to piggyback on some other ideas mentioned. One, JK you talk about donating your birthday to the Front Row Foundation. I want to take that as a moment to recognize Hal. First of all, Hal, dude, I’m amazed by you and I’ve known you for years and I shouldn’t be shocked. I shouldn’t be amazed because I know who you are and I know what you’re capable of. I’ve seen what you’ve done but, dude, the fact that you faced cancer this year and the way that you did it, the way you handled it, the way you carried yourself, the level of positivity you brought to that, you also brought the human experience. You had moments and I witnessed them. You shared them. I know this was very real and you felt that. I know that you had, you were talking pre-call today about this bone marrow test and how painful that was. And there’s so much right about what you endured. But through what you endured, dude, you donated your birthday to Front Row and you raised $10,000 doing that and I watched these donations pour in. I watched the comments. I watched the people that expressed their love and gratitude for you and I just want to say that that number, that represents to me the impact that you’ve had in the world and I just want to tell you that I love you for that. Thanks for being a real leader. Thanks for walking the talk.

 

And also, dude, I’m so happy that we now get a chance to create a Front Row Event for you and I want to let everybody out there listening know that we are creating a Front Row Experience for Hal to be able to go to the event of his dreams in the front row. And so, we’ve been working on that. It’s been a busy year for Hal. He’s been very committed to his health and he’s focused his attention there but we are very close to now committing to a Front Row Event for Hal and I just wanted to let everybody know that and I just wanted to tell you, Hal, that we love you and we appreciate you and we’re super excited that we get a chance to sort of turn this around on you since you’ve been giving to so many for so long that we’re going to give you an event.

 

[01:08:51] John Kane: Jon, I want to report that we’ve been able to come through with the Mummers tickets for the Mummers Parade to Hal Elrod in Philadelphia.

 

[01:08:59] Jon Vroman: Mummers Parade, Philadelphia. There’s nothing like it.

 

[01:09:02] John Kane: Yeah. We got him a – he can stand on Broad Street just standing on the street, watch it happen right in the front there.  

 

[01:09:09] Hal Elrod: That’s – wow. I don’t know who they are but it sounds like the Front Row Experience of my dreams. It sounds really…

 

[01:09:15] John Ruhlin: Yeah.

 

[01:09:16] Hal Elrod: Fantastic. Yeah. How about that? How about a Front Row Experience where you surprise the recipient with you’re like, “Hey, trying something new is part of living life the front row so you’ve never heard this band but this is who you’re going to see.”

 

[01:09:27] John Kane: Check out, just google the Mummers String Band New Year’s Day Philadelphia. You’ll get a real flavor.

 

[01:09:34] Hal Elrod: Wow.

 

[01:09:34] John Kane: It’s actually awesome but I’m not sure it’s your dream event.

 

[01:09:38] Hal Elrod: Well, before John Kane pulled a Hal and made an inappropriate comment, Jon Vroman, thank you, man. I love you, buddy. I really appreciate that. And be careful what you wish for. I’ve been joking for years that one day I want to have a Front Row, of my own Front Row Experience and then I called Jon. I’m like, “Dude, I might have a cancer buddy,” and then I literally made the joke that, “Hey, this would be possibly a Front Row opportunity.” And the lesson there everyone is there’s humor in everything. Find the humor, find a smile in amidst of adversity and amidst the challenge. Find the humor. It’s a lot easier to go through the challenge in our lives when we’re laughing.

 

[01:10:13] John Kane: You should also know the way he abuses the people that support him. That’s another great character of Hal.

 

[01:10:19] Hal Elrod: Only verbally though, only verbally and emotionally. I’ve never physically hurt any of you. I’m very strong.

 

[01:10:25] Jon Vroman: It took Hal 60 seconds after he told me his diagnosis to make a joke. And it wasn’t that he wasn’t taking it seriously. It was that that’s how Hal progresses was that constantly bringing the best to whatever situation he faces. And I watch that over and over again. Dude, even when I came to the hospital to see you, I walk in, you’re in your bed, you’re literally hooked up to IVs and you’re like, “Dude, let me make you this smoothie. I got this great recipe,” and I’m like, “Wait a minute. I’m supposed to be serving you, buddy.” You’re very much Hal all through this experience and we love you.

 

[01:10:59] John Kane: I just want to also comment that if they can see this chat box on Facebook, I have noticed that my comments are all G or PG and I’m not associated or responsible for any of these other comments. I’m not associated with these gentlemen on this level. I just want to make that comment.

 

[01:11:16] Hal Elrod: Yeah. The nude photos were not from John Kane.

 

[01:11:18] John Ruhlin: Yeah. In a way to distance yourself. That’s pretty good.

 

[01:11:22] John Kane: And I will pray for your souls.

 

[01:11:26] Jon Vroman: Jonny Berghoff, do you have any comments, thoughts about how to wrap this?

 

[01:11:30] Jon Berghoff: I don’t know if anything needs to be added. Hey, this was fun and I think our plan is to publish this both in obviously your Front Row Podcast Community but in the Achieve Your Goals Community. And so, in the spirit of those who showed up here not knowing what they’re going to find, I hope that if you actually got all the way this far into the conversation which if you hear those words, it means you did, that whether or not we were explicit about it that there were some pretty clear lessons that we’ve all benefited from. Not always on purpose, in some cases, on accident, we’ve turned out to help each other in big ways and I just jotted down a couple of my own. Just listening to us hang out here today I thought, “If I was listening to this for the first time, what might I not actually know went on behind the scenes for the last 20 years?” and maybe today started to give a glimpse of that but so I’m just going to summarize. I wrote down three or four different words.

 

One of them is the unlimited potential and power of our relationships that we can do everything we want to do to try and create a new life, a better life to achieve our goals but at the end of the day, the potential that we all have is going to be magnified by our relationships, maybe more than anything else. And I’ve learned that from you, Jonny Vroman and Johnny Kane and I hope everyone realizes that the five of us for anything that we have achieved or that we feel fulfilled about in our lives, a lot of it has happened because we have been there for each other. And that led me to the next word I wrote down which was patience, patience. The five of us were all friends 19, 20 years ago and we all had different ambitions of different types. And I think if any of us, I’ll speak for myself, if I would’ve known how quickly 20 years can go by, I think I would’ve been able to be more patient along the journey and realize that timing is always perfect.

 

[01:13:18] Jon Berghoff: I think about Johnny Ruhlin here, this guy has endured 15 years of me and others telling him what an idiot he is. And now he’s like a global freaking gifting icon and you can’t keep him off TV or off the biggest stages in the planet. And the funny thing is we joke about it but I think all of us all along knew that he was building a 20-year overnight success, and the same thing is true about you, Jonny Vroman. I mean, we love to tell the story about how you left an opportunity to go create one and being a speaker. But really you had for years been developing yourself as the kind of person who could then become that College Speaker of the Year twice in a row. I think about Hal and Hal, I mean, we’ve all seen this. I’ve been really lucky that I’ve been able to see it in a way that very few have but Hal was promoting the Miracle Morning 11 years ago, 12 years ago when it was nothing to anybody. It was just a thing that he was doing and one of our mutual friends Katie Haney said this is a cool thing. And then a few more people said this is a cool thing. And then Hal spent a decade getting the message out there and I just think about the patience that we may have had or didn’t have and I look back and think just a great reminder that our timing is always going to be perfect.

 

And there’s one more word that I wrote down when I was thinking about our conversation. Here, you know, it’s just the word joy and I don’t know if people realize this but before we push record or stream this into the community, we’re making just as many jokes. We’re laughing just as much and for some reason I don’t know who to credit it to but we’ve all seem to find a way to have a lot of fun along the journey and that could sound like a simple idea, easy to overlook how important or valuable it is but it’s what makes it all worth it. So, we are having as much fun as it looks like we’re having on the camera and off the camera and I hope everyone can maybe just take something from that to enjoy whatever you can in your own journeys. That’s my closing comment.

 

[01:15:17] Hal Elrod: Beautiful. Live life in the front row, everybody.

 

[01:15:20] Jon Vroman: Ruhlin, did you have anything you wanted to add?

 

[01:15:24] John Ruhlin: Well, that seems anticlimactic.

 

[01:15:26] Jon Berghoff: Product offering?

 

[01:15:28] John Ruhlin: I was just thinking – yeah. JB keeps showing Giftology which is a nice shout out, big glasses, headphones. I think I want to give a shout out to Berghoff. I think that in many ways, dude, you’ve been kind of the mastermind behind a lot of the things I think a lot of us are doing. I think you’ve led the way in many respects with the investments that you’ve made 15 years ago with Tony Robbins and so many other courses but I think that you’ve been the facilitator, the person that is oftentimes planting seeds or architecting a lot of the things that have allowed Hal and JV and myself and even the giving back to Cutco and supporting Kane. And so, you’re on stage but really, you’re like the puppeteer behind the scenes helping make things happen and thinking five steps ahead and challenging all of us to step up our game. And I think what you’re doing with Flourishing Leadership has the opportunity to be a game changer for not just a handful of companies but entire organizations, countries and what you’ve been able to accomplish with the partnership with Cooperrider.

 

And I think all of us recognize that years ago when you’re that 17-year-old idiot that you’re also really brilliant and incredibly talented and you were operating on a different frequency than almost any other person that any of us had ever met. And so, I just want to make sure that you get your due in across the world here as this goes out that you don’t have a social media account, you don’t have an email list but you figured out a way to plug into the relationships that matter and understanding how to help us launch and I don’t think a lot of us would be as successful as we are. And I know that the big – I think it was a $5,000 or $10,000 donation early on to the Front Row, that was one of the biggest donations to that point by far, put everybody else to shame when you probably didn’t have $10,000. You just probably had to go freaking sell your bike or something to be able to pay for it but, dude, your 300-mile run for EO like you put yourself out there and, yeah, we’ve supported you but you’ve definitely been on the cutting edge of self-development and understanding. It has supported us so that was something that was boiling up inside me that I felt like needed to be shared before we cut out.

 

[01:17:43] Hal Elrod: I do like how you slip in the opportunity to call him an idiot in your monologue there.

 

[01:17:48] John Kane: Well done. Well done.

 

[01:17:50] Hal Elrod: Yeah. Great dialogue.

 

[01:17:53] John Ruhlin: Hey, six positives for every one negative so, I mean, that’s a JV quoted comment. I think there are at least 30 positives for every one idiot so, dude, I think you should be feeling the love.

 

[01:18:05] Jon Berghoff: I appreciate it, Johnny. Appreciate it, buddy.

 

[01:18:08] John Kane: Well played. Hey, I’m going to come back to an action-oriented thought. It’s great to feel good and make jokes and things but I just want to be really clear that if you’re listening to this, make a decision today to do something with this podcast today. Whether it’s to create a Front Row moment for somebody, whether it’s to become an ambassador, create an event, show up for the Best Year Ever Event. I’m listening to my own advice on that. Show up somewhere where these people are. I will tell you that will be a blessing for your life regardless of the event. Show up for the Front Row Summit. Keep showing up for these things and I would say that what makes this awesome is just you making a decision to do something with this information.

 

We haven’t said a lot about John Ruhlin’s book but I’m going to say something about it. It’s that even if you’ve never planned on giving someone a gift again in your life or maybe you don’t like gifts, you don’t care. That’s not what the book is about. The book is about relationships and it’s about the power of thinking differently about appreciating people and it’s intriguing and powerful and I would want everybody to go buy the book and read it because there’s something there that has nothing to do with buying something for somebody and that could be lost in this podcast. In fact, there’s a lot there that kind of ties this all together so I want to mention that.

 

But Jerry Otteson was a legend in our Cutco business and a blessing to so many people and at the end of his sales presentation when he would show people the Cutco product and they would be sitting there, sometimes they would say, “Well can you leave me your card?” And he had a card that he would hand across the table and the card would say, “Don’t you sit there. Buy something.” That was his business card and we would’ve gotten probably 20 of those mailed to us when Jerry was alive.

 

[01:20:06] John Kane: And so, my point today is you don’t have to buy something. You can go listen to a free podcast but there’s something you can do today to take action on what happened and that would be a blessing. And what would be powerful would be for you to share in these communities how this call today impacted the action you took. That’s what I’m curious about. And it looks like I may be leaving my family for the ninth straight week this year to go to California, who knows? But I guess, I’m inspired to take some action today and I love you guys and it’s an honor to be with you. Thank you for…

 

[01:20:41] Hal Elrod: Dad, we love you too.

 

[01:20:42] John Kane: …what you’re doing for the world.

 

[01:20:43] Jon Berghoff: Thanks, Johnny Kane.

 

[01:20:45] Hal Elrod: Thank you, John.

 

[01:20:46] Jon Vroman: Guys, we weren’t far off on the 30-minute prediction. Does anybody want to push it to the end? Does anybody want to throw out another question, another action?

 

[01:20:54] Jon Berghoff: I got one more post-it note that I wrote a couple of things down on.

 

[01:20:59] Jon Vroman: Hal, you got anything, buddy, for the Miracle Morning Community? This is going to your crew right now.

 

[01:21:03] Hal Elrod: Yeah. They’re watching. You’re watching. Miracle Morning community, you are actually this is live in the Miracle Morning Community Facebook group so I love you guys and gals. But I just want to acknowledge everybody for how much time we took to really prepare this thing from start to finish. We rehearsed it the last six weeks. I feel like we nailed it. We delivered it just like we rehearsed it.

 

[01:21:24] Jon Berghoff: Pitch perfect. Pitch perfect.

 

[01:21:26] Jon Vroman: Hey, you know what, I am going to say something about that very quickly. Hal, you joke about that but that’s actually what I’ve learned from all you guys is just how successful you can be with very little prep.

 

[01:21:39] Hal Elrod: Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

 

[01:21:42] Jon Vroman: Meaning, you know, I mean, by the way, I could apply that to 100 different things but I remember going and seeing Oprah live and I remember Tony Robbins was there as the guest. And then Tony’s in the audience and Opera was up on stage and 10 seconds before they go live to everybody, Tony’s like, “Are you going to start or am I going to start?” Only seconds before they’re going three, they go, “Why don’t you start, Tony?” Two, one and then he’s like, “All right everybody, welcome back,” and I’m sitting there going, “That’s all the prep they do?” I would’ve been sure that it was more scripted than that but I think what’s brilliant is that sometimes in life we just need to take action, imperfect action, right? It’s our friend Carl Drew, great mountain climber and great human being, humanitarian. He always says, “Don’t wait to get things perfect to get them going. Just get them going and worry about perfect later if you will.” And I think that that’s my call to action to everybody today is that when I look around at this call, in this video chat, I see a bunch of guys who really care deeply but you don’t let perfection get in the way of just doing something. Just going out there and making that introduction, saying hello, taking an action, trying the business idea, whatever it is and just make it happen by taking action. That’s how you get to the front row. Go take the seat, get in there, go to the event of life and make it happen.

 

[01:22:57] Hal Elrod: All right. Love you, guys. Love everybody. We’ll see you next time. Take care.

 

[01:23:00] Jon Berghoff: BestYearEverLive.com.

[END]