Latest / The Action Catalyst / REMASTERED: The Carpenter, with Jon Gordon (Leadership, Inspiration, Author, Giving)

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REMASTERED: The Carpenter, with Jon Gordon (Leadership, Inspiration, Author, Giving) · The Action Catalyst

• 0:00
  Host: If you're not familiar with Jon, I mean literally his
• 0:02
  stories, his principles or strategies are used by NFL
• 0:07
  teams, NBA teams, fortune 500 companies, hospitals, school
• 0:11
  districts, nonprofits. He is the author of The Wall Street
• 0:14
  Journal bestseller The Energy Bus. And so Jon agreed to share
• 0:19
  with us a little bit about his new book The Carpenter. So Jon
• 0:22
  Gordon. John, thank you for being here. So one of the things
• 0:26
  I love about your your is your style, like your stories, why do
• 0:31
  you write in sort of the story format? Or parables? Where did
• 0:35
  that come from? How did that develop?
• 0:37
  Jon Gordon: I believe I was inspired by stories as well.
• 0:40
  When my mom was before she passed away, she gave me a book
• 0:43
  called The greatest salesman. And so that was, you know,
• 0:46
  saying book, impact on Who Moved My Cheese and fables like that.
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  And the One Minute Manager, those are books that was stories
• 0:55
  and fables entire lessons through the story. So I really
• 0:59
  wrote two How To books before I started adding tables. You
• 1:03
  haven't heard those books because they didn't. And I was,
• 1:07
  I was at a book fair. And I had like five people in line. And
• 1:12
  the guy next to me wrote a book called Marley and may remember
• 1:15
  that movie. Yeah, John Grogan? Well, John, actually, he has a
• 1:19
  line out the door down the block hundreds of people. And I
• 1:23
  remember thinking, You know what, I should read his story.
• 1:26
  And from that moment on, I felt compelled to write stories. I
• 1:30
  never wrote a story before the energy bus was the first story I
• 1:33
  wrote, it was really well received. And I realized that
• 1:36
  was my voice. And that was the kind of book that I meant to
• 1:39
  write. And those are the Booker's fire me. And I was
• 1:42
  meant to write those kinds of books that inspired others.
• 1:45
  Host: One concept that I just I love is a concept that you
• 1:48
  introduce called energy vampires.
• 1:50
  Jon Gordon: Well, the first talk I ever gave, I talked about
• 1:52
  energy vampires, people who suck the life and energy right out of
• 1:56
  it, it was so well received. When I talk about energy
• 1:59
  vampires. Now everyone gets an image of someone who's an energy
• 2:02
  vampire in their life. It's iconic. I don't even have to
• 2:05
  explain what an energy vampires people just look over it. Right,
• 2:08
  right. And so it's such a compelling kind of image. And
• 2:13
  when I was reading the energy bus, I believe that it's what
• 2:15
  most people have resonated with that, that message that there
• 2:18
  are negative people will hold us back here and negative people
• 2:21
  that will sabotage our team. And I've had NFL coaches tell me
• 2:25
  CEOs, CEOs tell me that I learned I had to deal with the
• 2:29
  negativity, I would see it, I recognize it, but I wouldn't
• 2:32
  deal with it. The energy bus has allowed people to have a
• 2:35
  framework and a dialogue, to call people out that you will be
• 2:39
  energy vampires sabotaging us, and to the entire organization
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  to say we're not going to allow negativity to sabotage us and
• 2:46
  the work that we're here to do. And so as a, as a person who
• 2:49
  strives striving for success as well, you can't allow those
• 2:53
  energy vampires if you're in sales, if you're coaching
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  salespeople, if you're facing rejection, and people who are
• 2:58
  negative, you have to overcome that negativity yourself. So it
• 3:01
  relates to people who are trying to do their career. It relates
• 3:04
  to people trying to build teams, and also people who try to build
• 3:07
  organizations. I mean, I had energy vampires in my life,
• 3:10
  people said you can't do it, you're not going to make it. And
• 3:12
  I've learned that our positive energy, our belief, and our
• 3:15
  faith must be greater than all the certainty and doubt not
• 3:18
  everyone is gonna get on your class. Don't let the energy
• 3:21
  vampires sabotage your blog posts, as Simon says, no energy
• 3:25
  vampires allowed those remember what Gandhi said? He said, I
• 3:28
  will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet,
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  and neither should you.
• 3:33
  Host: So turning our attention to the book The Carpenter, where
• 3:37
  did the inspiration come from?
• 3:38
  Jon Gordon: Well I had a carpenter come to do some work
• 3:41
  in my home and he was slammed. And it was even during the
• 3:44
  recession, and I had, how are you so busy, go to recession,
• 3:48
  etc. Well, my current one that I deeply work. This is a guy who
• 3:53
  really cared about his work. He cared about his clients. He put
• 3:57
  everything he had to every project. So he was always busy.
• 4:00
  The average carpenter wasn't busy during this time. But he
• 4:04
  was. And the premise was when you care, you stand out in a
• 4:08
  world where most don't care. Now the book evolved from that as I
• 4:12
  started writing the story, different ideas started coming
• 4:14
  to me, principles started coming to me. And really, the greatest
• 4:17
  success strategies evolve. I believe, the best book I've
• 4:21
  written. Everyone has read it says it's the best book. People
• 4:25
  have loved it so far, had about 500. People just read it. The
• 4:29
  feedback has been incredible. I've had some NFL coaches read
• 4:31
  it and see you read it. If it fails, people read it. And it
• 4:34
  seems to resonate with everyone because these three strategies
• 4:37
  are love, serve and care. And if you love what you do, you love
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  others. You serve people you care about the work you do, you
• 4:46
  will stand out. So I obviously go deeper into all of that in
• 4:50
  the book, but it's a great message and the story is
• 4:53
  compelling about a guy and his wife was trying to build their
• 4:56
  business and they use these principles to build it.
• 4:59
  Host: Can you kind of speak to the importance of slowing down,
• 5:02
  taking rest, creating margin, meanwhile, sort of balancing
• 5:06
  that with the drive to produce results in your life?
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  Jon Gordon: The reason why we're so busy and stressed is because
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  of fear. Fear is causing us to work at this rapid pace to feel
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  like we're not going to be successful. Unless we go go go
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  with the carpet if you can, if you do everything with love,
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  you'll be so much more powerful. So it's about slowing down,
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  realizing the fear that is driving you love what you do
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  love your customers take time to recharge and rest don't operate
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  out of the sphere. And then you'll actually slow down to
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  produce more, you'll actually be more productive visually working
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  smarter, you'll be delegating better, you'll be spending more
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  time with your clients, improving your relationships,
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  loving, serving, caring, and from doing that your customers
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  will work for you, you'll have to be you'll be able to work
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  less, but accomplish more. When you're operating out of this
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  love. Instead of fear, busyness and stress. I see where I today
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  as the biggest enemy of great leadership, great teamwork,
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  great customer service and great sale. When you're busy and
• 6:10
  stressed, you're operating out of fear, and you're activating
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  the reptilian part of your brain, give me my reptiles,
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  they'll never make a good pet. They're all about survival. So
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  the reptile wants to eat you. Well, when we are when we're
• 6:22
  busy and stressed. We're all about survival. We're not trying
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  to thrive when I help others thrive. We're thinking how can I
• 6:28
  get through the day without blowing a gasket. So I'm trying
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  to get people from moving from this fear based, limited mindset
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  stress, weak energy, because it's more powerful energy of
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  love, of gratitude, of serving of caring and power. When you do
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  that, you will be so much more powerful, the greatest salesman,
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  that book really inspiring as I wrote this book, I was thinking
• 6:51
  actually, of that book. And I want this to be like a modern
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  day version of that, that helps people to live and work in such
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  a way that will make a difference. And I speak to a lot
• 7:00
  of salespeople. And I know that a lot of the top salespeople
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  have this kind of mindset. I mean, the ones who have
• 7:06
  sustained success, you can be great for a year. But these are
• 7:10
  the principles that are cause you to have sustained success.
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  And that's what this is all about. So it's not about me,
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  because it's a one year yeah, that being successful over time.
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  And so people have a hard I have to work on it know how hard I go
• 7:24
  out, I have to work to accomplish what I need to
• 7:26
  accomplish. But I also have learned that I actually
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  accomplished more when I lived.
• 7:32
  Host: How do you think this concept of grace ties into
• 7:36
  somebody's ability to sell, lead or influence other people in
• 7:40
  general?
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  Jon Gordon: It usually applies to the law of generosity. I
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  mean, the more you give, the more you actually receive, to
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  have to give away. And so when you're giving you become a
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  conduit for all the developments to happen in the world, you
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  become a conductor, I wrote about this this week in my
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  newsletter, there are resistors. And there are conductors in the
• 8:02
  electrical world resistors, they hold on to their electrons. And
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  so they only have a limited power, that conductors actually
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  freely give away their electrons. So their power comes
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  from the current that moves to forget it. So the more we're
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  open to just be a given person. And given the way, the more the
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  greater power moves through us, and allows us to become a
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  greater power source in the world, the more you give it just
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  come back. I don't know how it works. But I know it does.
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  Either way, it's amazing how many times it just comes back.
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  And the more we give, I get so much cheering in my life. And I
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  do. And it's just amazing how we just have more to give. And so
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  that we give even more away or how you think it would work the
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  other way. But it doesn't, the more you give, and you would
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  expect anything in return. That's when things come back to
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  you tenfold. But then you just keep on getting up to like my
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  goal, honestly, I want to be so I was able to do so already so
• 9:00
  successful, that I can give away so much to the world so much
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  that people need so much to the poor, so much of the homeless
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  school in Africa, I want to help homeless people build homes in
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  Mexico, I would have all these different organizations to do
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  what they're doing to make an impact. And honestly, that's,
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  that's my hope is to give, I will give my life away because
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  you know what? True power doesn't come from accumulating
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  cheap power comes from giving a man Eric glory, quote, my
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  pastor, they said you can't outgive God. So you look at the
• 9:32
  university, look at how much energy exists in the universe.
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  There's so much energy, right? And so why do we think that
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  there's too little for us to have and to give with so much
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  energy in the universe. There's abundance, that when we believe
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  in abundance, there's there's plenty for us and even more to
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  share with everyone else.
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  Host: Now here's an interesting sort of dichotomy. So you know,
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  there's this power in giving, and yet there's sort of this
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  seeming contradiction of About don't give out of obligation. So
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  can you just kind of expand on that lesson and kind of clarify
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  the distinction for us?
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  Jon Gordon: Well it's about giving with a cheerful heart,
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  it's giving with a loving heart, you're giving together, none of
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  that obligation, you don't give him because you feel you have to
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  You're giving because you because you want to, because you
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  want to help others. So it's a very selfless kind of give very
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  generous, very giving. And that's the kind of giving you
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  get so in your life, and you live in such a way it comes back
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  to you. And the energy bus, I call it being a love magnet. If
• 10:34
  you put out there share the love, the love comes back. And
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  the best salespeople I've ever met, they're love magnets, they
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  just, they love their clients, they just cheerful people, they
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  get a great heart, they give out of that heart. It's amazing how
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  they just as successful as a result of that. And so to me,
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  that's the thing, you're not given out of obligation given
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  because you weren't good enough because you have to, and you're
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  giving a cheap heart. When I get when I would, April 15 came I
• 11:03
  had to pay my taxes. I had to admit I was not very cheerful. I
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  felt like I wasn't giving it an obligation. I felt like it would
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  be in taken for me. I don't think the government is will be
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  very wise with a lot of my money. I feel like they can be
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  much more efficient. But when I give to the charities that gave
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  and I have my kids, for instance, right now check the
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  other day, we wrote out to single homeless shelters and
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  other things that we're getting rid of, it just felt so good to
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  do that with them and have them write the checks and give it
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  away. That felt great. But I did enjoy giving application of the
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  taxes and a funny story, that idea IRA, the IRS called me and
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  they said Will they call my assistant and they said was a
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  huge on board on my account when they want to talk to me for I'm
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  always honest, whatever I've done, or I'll forget anything.
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  And so they said, well, they want to talk to you, but I was
• 11:57
  away. So I called him back on Monday. And they said oh Jon
• 12:01
  Gordon, I said yes. How can I help you? They said, you're
• 12:04
  probably wondering why we're calling? I said yes. They said
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  we want you to speak to our managers. We want them to have
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  more positive. I said the IRS, you want them to have more? They
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  said yes. They said how much would you charge for something
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  like that? So I had to take for a sec. I said, Well, whatever I
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  normally charge up to add 30 in taxes, and then she said that's
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  okay, we'll just take 30% of that you'll never win. That is
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  so yeah, generosity is also generosity of spirit. And it's
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  love and it's compliments. And it's because and it's also time
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  and energy and volunteering. So there's so many ways that we can
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  be generous. So you may not give money, but you might get some of
• 12:44
  your service, you might get some of your time. Now newsletter
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  this week was about a guy who actually started giving away
• 12:51
  some photography services and helping others in need. Next
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  year, he gets a he gets a huge job from Disney to do a big
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  photo shoot to them that takes them all over the world that
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  maybe you started giving. He gets this opportunity. It was incredible.
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  Host: Jon, thank you for giving us your time and your insight
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  and just keep doing what you're doing. Man. You're a blessing to
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  the world. And it's an honor to have you here and I appreciate
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  you pouring into us.
• 13:16
  Jon Gordon: I appreciate it. Thanks so much.