Latest / The Heart-Led Business Show / From Rugby Pitch to Healing Tech with John Graham Harper

Transcript

From Rugby Pitch to Healing Tech with John Graham Harper · The Heart-Led Business Show

• 0:01
  Speaker: Welcome to the Heart-Led Business Show, where compassion meets commerce and leaders lead with love.
• 0:09
  Speaker: Join your host, Tom Jackobs, as he delves into the insightful conversations with visionary business leaders who defy the status quo, putting humanity first and profit second.
• 0:20
  Speaker: From heartfelt strategies to inspiring stories, this podcast is your compass in the world of conscious capitalism.
• 0:29
  Speaker: So buckle up and let your heart guide your business journey.
• 0:36
  Tom Jackobs: Welcome back to the Heart-Led Business show where we shine a light on heartfelt entrepreneurs.
• 0:42
  Tom Jackobs: And today we're joined by John Graham Harper, the dynamic CEO of Lumaflex, and a champion of red light therapy.
• 0:50
  Tom Jackobs: From conquering injuries in rugby and CrossFit to revolutionizing recovery, John's mission sparkles with purpose, helping individuals embrace health without the fuss of pharmaceuticals.
• 1:02
  Tom Jackobs: Buckle up as we dive into the illuminating journey of a Heart-Led Business powerhouse.
• 1:07
  Tom Jackobs: John, welcome to the show.
• 1:08
  John Harper: Thank you.
• 1:09
  John Harper: I really appreciate the opportunity to share.
• 1:11
  John Harper: You've got a wonderful podcast here, a very professional studio I might say.
• 1:16
  John Harper: You build trust with your audience.
• 1:18
  John Harper: The audience loves your content, so the opportunity to be on your platform and access to your audiences is very much appreciated.
• 1:26
  Tom Jackobs: No problem.
• 1:27
  Tom Jackobs: I'm actually really excited about our conversation today.
• 1:30
  Tom Jackobs: We don't get a lot of manufacturing on the show, so it's always good to get a kinda a different perspective on Heart-Led Businesses, but of course you came out of the health and wellness industry anyway, and you kinda support that with your red light therapy.
• 1:43
  Tom Jackobs: So I think this will be a really cool conversation.
• 1:45
  Tom Jackobs: So I'm really excited, but I always like to ask the first question.
• 1:48
  Tom Jackobs: What's your definition of a Heart-Led Business?
• 1:51
  John Harper: Yeah, I mean from the name of your show, the Heart-Led Business.
• 1:54
  John Harper: The way I read that is like a passion based business, and I've talked a lot about passion based businesses in my past'cause for me, anything that I do myself, any kind of business or any project or venture, whatever it is, big or small.
• 2:09
  John Harper: And then of course, right now it's Lumaflex has always been a passion-based business.
• 2:14
  John Harper: It's been a business that I'm, wakes me up out of bed by itself.
• 2:18
  John Harper: I don't have to motivate myself to do it.
• 2:20
  John Harper: And I've always in my life because I've I've had a lot of failures and I've looked at people that have done businesses where they just care about the money or the, the day's task.
• 2:33
  John Harper: And I see wow, you do have more options.
• 2:36
  John Harper: You do have more it seems like you've got maybe a bit more financial security.
• 2:40
  John Harper: And I've always wondered I should try that, but I've never been able to successfully try it because I get bored and I'm like, ah, I don't, I just gravitate away from it.
• 2:48
  John Harper: Like my energy just goes somewhere else.
• 2:50
  John Harper: I just don't answer the phone or I don't show up and I'm just like, well, I guess my heart wasn't in that, yeah, it's kinda like a blessing and a curse I think.
• 2:58
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 2:58
  John Harper: Yeah.
• 2:59
  Tom Jackobs: That's a great definition.
• 3:00
  Tom Jackobs: You didn't say keep you up at night, but wakes you up in the morning energized.
• 3:04
  John Harper: Yes.
• 3:04
  John Harper: Very well put.
• 3:05
  John Harper: 'Cause I do stay up.
• 3:07
  John Harper: I remember like when I was a personal trainer, I remember staying up at night thinking about my clients, like how can I, how trying to hack their psychology.
• 3:18
  John Harper: How can I motivate them to achieve more?
• 3:20
  John Harper: I remember just, I remember and some clients who were having difficulty, like the weight loss or with people's opinion of them.
• 3:28
  John Harper: I remember I would toss and turn at night just thinking about them and I at that time,'cause I was younger, I never thought like wow, this is strange.
• 3:36
  John Harper: 'cause if your heart isn't in it, you don't care.
• 3:39
  John Harper: You just you show up, you do your time and you're like, Hey, whatever, i'll see you six o'clock on Monday, ready for your session, bye.
• 3:45
  John Harper: But for me, I was always like just something inside of me wanted to do a little bit extra and I was like, how can I.
• 3:51
  John Harper: How can I change, the way that I'm speaking to them, or maybe I should wear a different color shirt, or maybe I should take them outside and train them outside, or may maybe like I can trick them into, I would always go through these scenarios, and I remember a couple of clients.
• 4:06
  John Harper: Yeah, I remember some.
• 4:07
  John Harper: I'm picturing them in my head right now.
• 4:09
  John Harper: Ones that would just make me toss and turn because it's,'cause fitness is something, it's like physical stress and the people that have mental stress from family or business.
• 4:20
  John Harper: You're telling them, pay me number one, you gotta pay me.
• 4:23
  John Harper: And then number two, you have to like deal.
• 4:25
  John Harper: You're paying for stress.
• 4:26
  John Harper: You're not paying me to be your friend or to massage you, or you're paying me to help you burn calories.
• 4:32
  John Harper: So you're, it's like you're paying for torture.
• 4:35
  John Harper: And I was always, was so perplexed by this, I was like.
• 4:39
  John Harper: For me, I was like, who I couldn't see myself doing that.
• 4:42
  John Harper: Of course, now, later years competing, I can see the value of coaching if it's done right with that right motivation.
• 4:49
  John Harper: But I was always trying to motivate them in a way to where they really, like they got results and they had fun doing it.
• 4:57
  John Harper: It wasn't like, when's the session over?
• 4:59
  John Harper: But yeah, I remember that.
• 5:00
  John Harper: I learned a lot in personal training because you learn people, you learn like psychology.
• 5:05
  John Harper: What makes people tick, what resonates with people?
• 5:09
  John Harper: How do you train someone who just had a divorce, is like, is in a workspace where the woman who, like her husband cheated on is in the workspace and she has to deal with that.
• 5:23
  John Harper: And she lets it all out at this session.
• 5:25
  John Harper: And you're also like, okay, I'll list, like I'm the one you can, share your burdens with, but then we also need to burn calories.
• 5:33
  John Harper: And you're telling him, come on, do 10 more, do 10 more.
• 5:35
  John Harper: But you're trying to say it in a soft voice so you don't trigger, something from this terrible experience she had.
• 5:41
  John Harper: I remember this client one, one client specifically, and then like in the other side, it's a young guy who is like John, I need to have abs and I need them now.
• 5:52
  John Harper: I need to have abs now.
• 5:54
  John Harper: What he's saying is I want to be confident.
• 5:56
  John Harper: I want to be out there.
• 5:57
  John Harper: I wanna be able to meet, somebody that I love and I want to, I want to seal the deal kind of thing.
• 6:01
  John Harper: I can read that, but he's saying, no, come on, I want to get abs.
• 6:05
  John Harper: But then he's also going out and he's partying and he's drinking.
• 6:09
  John Harper: For you, very important is social life.
• 6:11
  John Harper: And you want that body to add as a component to the social life.
• 6:14
  John Harper: Put some guidelines there and and then, and he, but if he wants to feel confident and empowered oh no John, let me take you out.
• 6:21
  John Harper: It's on me.
• 6:22
  John Harper: I'll take you out to the club.
• 6:23
  John Harper: No.
• 6:23
  John Harper: Okay.
• 6:25
  John Harper: I remember all these characters and you learn how to deal with them and I've learned so much, from that.
• 6:31
  Tom Jackobs: What about you?
• 6:32
  Tom Jackobs: You'd mentioned that you've had a lot of failures in business, so can you recant a few of those and why you think that you may have failed?
• 6:39
  John Harper: Yeah, like having a passion-based business I think if you aren't very inclined to numbers or details as I was in my past.
• 6:49
  John Harper: it's an obvious thing that's gonna happen is that the business isn't gonna run well.
• 6:53
  John Harper: And that's something I had to learn in my, in my later years and up till now and I'm still learning.
• 6:58
  John Harper: Obviously I'm still learning.
• 6:59
  John Harper: I used to open gyms, gym businesses, and gym businesses even to this day, I think most gym businesses are all passion-based businesses.
• 7:10
  John Harper: There's a guy that's has a gym, a CrossFit gym near the office in Miami.
• 7:15
  John Harper: And I walk by this gym every time I go to the gym that I go to, which is right next to it, which is a boxing gym.
• 7:22
  John Harper: 'cause boxing is my big passion.
• 7:24
  John Harper: And that guy, I see him there every day.
• 7:27
  John Harper: He has to.
• 7:28
  John Harper: He has to wake up at six o'clock, open the door, welcome everyone in.
• 7:32
  John Harper: He has to stay fit himself, and I look at that guy and I'm just, and he yells out, come on John, keep going.
• 7:38
  John Harper: He's got this energy.
• 7:39
  John Harper: He sends out to me and I send it back to him.
• 7:41
  John Harper: Yeah, keep it up, brother.
• 7:43
  John Harper: Just look at that guy and I'm just thinking not taking nothing away from awesome gentleman, like he's changing people's lives.
• 7:48
  John Harper: It's great, but it really is tough on you because you everything, the, all the responsibilities on you and most importantly, how do you scale?
• 7:57
  John Harper: You have the fixed cost, you've got rent, you've got staffing, right?
• 8:00
  John Harper: What if you get sick?
• 8:01
  John Harper: What if you can't show up?
• 8:02
  John Harper: What if all your clients are like, oh, we don't like the new trainer.
• 8:05
  John Harper: We want you back.
• 8:06
  John Harper: And you're like, well, I'm trying to deal with a death in the family, or, I'm, I've got legal issues I need to deal with.
• 8:12
  John Harper: There's so much pressure on you that it's something that I feel like fitness people we lay in bed and we always want to scale and we start off as a trainer.
• 8:22
  John Harper: Or now it's like a fitness influencer.
• 8:24
  John Harper: All this great feedback from clients.
• 8:27
  John Harper: They say, oh, you're so awesome.
• 8:29
  John Harper: You're such a great motivator.
• 8:30
  John Harper: Oh, John, I really rely on you.
• 8:32
  John Harper: You get all this great validation and then you go, you know what?
• 8:36
  John Harper: I wanna open up a gym.
• 8:37
  John Harper: I wanna do this times a hundred and that's and every fitness person I just want to have my own gym, I wanna make it exactly as I want, I wanna get the machines that I like, and if, and I remember telling myself when I would open the gym, I said, even if no one comes to the gym, I'll just use it for myself.
• 8:55
  John Harper: I remember I would have this somehow thinking that the lights would stay on, the doors would stay open, I could just train there in my own little happy place.
• 9:05
  John Harper: It doesn't really work like that.
• 9:06
  John Harper: Like you have to be very selective about the equipment.
• 9:09
  John Harper: You have to tailor the gym to females because if you get females, you get males by default.
• 9:15
  John Harper: If you tailor the gym towards males, women are like no, this is not for me.
• 9:20
  John Harper: So a male, you have to take this into account with your branding, soften it up.
• 9:25
  John Harper: Don't crowd the gym with too much equipment that isn't used, or you don't get the ROI on that, that space.
• 9:31
  John Harper: You're like why am I buying a calf machine?
• 9:34
  John Harper: Only I use that.
• 9:36
  John Harper: Like literally all 90% of the clients do not ask for it and don't use it.
• 9:40
  John Harper: Why did I buy a calf machine?
• 9:41
  John Harper: Probably could have used that, to buy like, to help, with the showers or the locker room, right?
• 9:46
  John Harper: And those sort of things is I went into the gym business with that whole.
• 9:50
  John Harper: I want this like a kid in a candy store.
• 9:52
  John Harper: And at the end I started to realize oh yeah.
• 9:55
  John Harper: Rent is overdue.
• 9:56
  John Harper: Staff is asking when are they gonna get paid?
• 9:59
  John Harper: I'm the one waking up at six in the morning to unlock the door and I'm tired.
• 10:02
  John Harper: 'cause I just finished my last session at 10 because some guy flew in from Dubai and is I want a session now.
• 10:10
  John Harper: And then you start realizing like, oh, welcome to the business world.
• 10:13
  John Harper: There's a place to have your passion, but you need to have that.
• 10:16
  John Harper: You need to have discipline, you need to crunch up what makes sense.
• 10:20
  John Harper: What is ROI, what is what makes sense on the, to make this last, we want to keep the doors open.
• 10:25
  John Harper: I want to keep doing this.
• 10:26
  John Harper: But it took a long time to learn that.
• 10:28
  Tom Jackobs: When I opened my gym and it was very similar to what you're exactly describing, so it must be something in our DNA that says, oh, we have to have that very specialized piece of equipment that we only, that we think everybody needs, but nobody really needs.
• 10:45
  Tom Jackobs: Or like at what I did was I really spent a lot of money on the bathrooms and had really nice tile put down, and I was like, I'm renting this place and why am I putting all this money into things that people don't really pay attention.
• 11:00
  Tom Jackobs: Like they might say, oh, That's a nice bathroom, but they don't care if it's gonna be, sandstone or marble or tile.
• 11:06
  John Harper: That's exactly right.
• 11:08
  John Harper: That you really need to take a step back and be like.
• 11:11
  John Harper: Is this my dream, my like my little happy place?
• 11:13
  John Harper: Am I picturing the gym that is owned by like a group like 24 hours or Gold's Gym, where it's a completely different business model and they have a completely different like roadmap, different strategy.
• 11:26
  John Harper: They have a board, they have a group, and it's just me and I'm saying I want my own Gold's gym.
• 11:30
  John Harper: Whereas I'm like, well, maybe I cut my, the equipment spend in half.
• 11:34
  John Harper: May, maybe I think about elevating personal training.
• 11:37
  John Harper: Maybe I recruit personal trainers, work, work on that side of it.
• 11:41
  John Harper: Then having this walk, people just walk in and trying to sell memberships.
• 11:45
  John Harper: I remember one lady, one Brazilian lady, it was so funny.
• 11:49
  John Harper: It was like, it was one of those, you slap in the face of the business world as I'm this young kid.
• 11:54
  John Harper: In the gym.
• 11:55
  John Harper: Look at what I made.
• 11:56
  John Harper: Beautiful.
• 11:57
  John Harper: Oh, customer walks in the door.
• 11:59
  John Harper: Cus she comes in and I remember she tells me, she goes, John I only want to, I only want to use the treadmill.
• 12:07
  John Harper: only wanna run.
• 12:07
  John Harper: And I'm looking at like, all this equipment that I've bought, it's I only wanna use the treadmill.
• 12:11
  John Harper: So do you have a membership option that's cheaper just for the treadmill?
• 12:15
  John Harper: I remember thinking this is the customer, like feedback that's coming.
• 12:19
  John Harper: And they, and I was like that didn't make no sense.
• 12:22
  John Harper: If I go to Starbucks and I say, oh, like I'll provide my own water, can I just buy the coffee grind?
• 12:27
  John Harper: I'm thinking to the lady like, I need this membership.
• 12:30
  John Harper: How can I twist her brain?
• 12:33
  John Harper: And I probably, I think I ended up just giving her a deal.
• 12:35
  John Harper: And then of course, she didn't just use the treadmill, she walked off and used whatever she wants, but it was a good lesson class.
• 12:40
  Tom Jackobs: And so many purpose led and Heart-Led Business owners, I think go through that same thing because it's what we love and it's what keeps us going and we don't think about the customer as well.
• 12:51
  Tom Jackobs: But let's shift gears now.
• 12:52
  Tom Jackobs: So what got you into red light therapy and your current business?
• 12:56
  John Harper: So as a fitness professional, right?
• 12:59
  John Harper: Going from training, master training, and then I started doing, like in the early days of I think it was called there, there was like video content back in like the P90X era.
• 13:08
  John Harper: Where video content was becoming famous.
• 13:10
  John Harper: So I went into that and I started doing a workout series.
• 13:14
  John Harper: I then went into fitness AI through, through all of this, I I want to look the part, practice what you preach kind of thing.
• 13:21
  John Harper: And it was like the little ego in my head saying hey, you're, you've got an edge because you are like, you're fit and most importantly you're competitive.
• 13:31
  John Harper: So I competed throughout that whole time.
• 13:34
  John Harper: Just to keep make sure that my profile was intact.
• 13:37
  John Harper: Like I'm putting all this effort opening all these the, these gyms and people are like, oh they, I don't wanna be the guy that just gets lazy.
• 13:45
  John Harper: I want to be, no.
• 13:45
  John Harper: Oh, that's the guy.
• 13:46
  John Harper: He's competing and he has a gym.
• 13:48
  John Harper: It's a good, it's like a good way to, to get a sale or to get interest, to get exposure.
• 13:54
  John Harper: So rugby was my main sport that I paid, played for quite a long time.
• 13:59
  John Harper: Then two shoulder injuries and a left knee injury took me out of rugby.
• 14:04
  John Harper: and I want, I wanted to, I was that yes, man, when you're a yes man, you just yes to everything.
• 14:11
  John Harper: Yes.
• 14:12
  John Harper: And I prided myself on being, I.
• 14:14
  John Harper: I guess that was another ego thing, right?
• 14:16
  John Harper: Like I just saying Yeah.
• 14:17
  John Harper: Yes.
• 14:17
  John Harper: To everything.
• 14:18
  John Harper: And I remember a friend of mine a Dutch.
• 14:22
  John Harper: A Dutch, yeah.
• 14:22
  John Harper: He was a designer an architect.
• 14:25
  John Harper: And He was like, he was exploring competing and boxing.
• 14:28
  John Harper: And I remember flying in to see him.
• 14:31
  John Harper: I remember we like went to Dubai together.
• 14:33
  John Harper: It's the first time I've been to Dubai was with him.
• 14:36
  John Harper: I remember just toying with the idea.
• 14:38
  John Harper: I guess to just one up him.
• 14:41
  John Harper: I was like, oh, I'm gonna do the competition.
• 14:43
  John Harper: I'm gonna, I'm gonna box two.
• 14:44
  John Harper: I'll be a boxer.
• 14:45
  John Harper: And I just raced into this co this this fight.
• 14:49
  John Harper: And I've, during, throughout all the gyms that I built, I always had an MMA side.
• 14:54
  John Harper: I always had a boxing side, so I would always do the classes of the, of the coaches that I had.
• 15:00
  John Harper: So I was fairly good.
• 15:02
  John Harper: Like I wasn't, something to put on a screen.
• 15:04
  John Harper: But I was, I wasn't a disaster.
• 15:06
  John Harper: And I remember yeah, I jumped into this boxing session and then I won my first fight and then I was like, that's it.
• 15:13
  John Harper: Heavyweight champion.
• 15:14
  John Harper: Here I come and I got this idea like.
• 15:17
  John Harper: That's it.
• 15:18
  John Harper: All roads lead to John being a heavyweight champion and I got really into boxing and I liked boxing because you can see your opponent, there's, there is, there's obviously the guy's trying to take your head off, but with rugby, frustrating thing about it wasn't always the big boys.
• 15:32
  John Harper: I.
• 15:33
  John Harper: That would hurt me.
• 15:33
  John Harper: It was the little guys that would trip me, that would catch me off guard.
• 15:37
  John Harper: Like I'd be receiving a ball and I would go in and he would trip me and I would, my own weight was usually the thing that would create the injury.
• 15:45
  John Harper: So there was a lot, there's a lot of uncertainty with rugby.
• 15:47
  John Harper: It's very fast and you have to be nimble.
• 15:49
  John Harper: And some of the smaller guys, they're very good at chopping down the big guys, at certain times when you're not looking.
• 15:57
  John Harper: Whereas with boxing, you're like, I see the guy, I see his hands.
• 16:00
  John Harper: I got an option I can defend, I can go back.
• 16:02
  John Harper: It just seemed like a more, like it was working in my favor.
• 16:06
  John Harper: I could manage the, the, I manage the stress of it best.
• 16:10
  John Harper: But after fighting for, it was about four years, I started to get very severe headaches.
• 16:15
  John Harper: Remember my wife getting very concerned she got me into to have a checkup and they found a tumor in my head.
• 16:24
  John Harper: he said, he was saying like, I was like, how'd this tumor happen?
• 16:28
  John Harper: He said, have you ever been in a car accident?
• 16:29
  John Harper: I was like, no, this, have you ever had a very serious fall?
• 16:32
  John Harper: Have, is it and then the, I said, well, I, I'm boxing.
• 16:36
  John Harper: And he said, well, yeah don't box.
• 16:37
  John Harper: 'cause that's creating trauma in your head.
• 16:40
  John Harper: And it's created this tumor.
• 16:41
  John Harper: And the tumor was about the size of my thumb.
• 16:43
  John Harper: It was about that big.
• 16:45
  John Harper: And he said, you have 11 months to plan this surgery.
• 16:48
  John Harper: Or the tumor is gonna grow into your brain, which is gonna be very dangerous for you.
• 16:52
  John Harper: You potentially could die if it grows too deep, but also be very hard to use this microsurgery to get it out.
• 16:59
  John Harper: It'd be very difficult to take it out, the full piece.
• 17:02
  John Harper: I down a bit like my wife and I now, we're very much into the way of the dao this ying and yang, and she's very like her frequency's very mellow.
• 17:12
  John Harper: We play off well with each other.
• 17:13
  John Harper: Like I kick the door down, I get the deal, and she does like the contract.
• 17:18
  John Harper: So it, it's worked well.
• 17:22
  John Harper: But I started, I needed to adopt this more a more collected way of behaving or else obviously my, my health and potentially my life could be at risk.
• 17:32
  John Harper: So that's where I deloaded a lot and with her bless her heart, she actually was the one that introduced me into red light therapy for these injuries.
• 17:42
  John Harper: So even for injuries, as I was recovering and, injuries would flare up throughout this whole time.
• 17:48
  John Harper: She would push me onto red light therapy and I remember she bought this lamp for me and it was this lamp that is still quite common in medical, like in, in some hospitals I've seen the lamp.
• 17:59
  John Harper: It maybe is it's been, it's been colored white, it like has a nice finish on it, but it's still the same design.
• 18:05
  John Harper: The same same technology, but it's not so user friendly.
• 18:09
  John Harper: It's it's as a lamp you would imagine, has a very large weighted base, you have to like wiggle it around the house, and I remember she would, she'd say, aim at the pain 20 minutes before bed.
• 18:21
  John Harper: And the bulb was this, it was a red bulb that would get very hot.
• 18:26
  John Harper: I was like, okay, red eye therapy.
• 18:27
  John Harper: I remember in the beginning thinking, know it's like Feng Shui medicine, like I'll just do it to appease her.
• 18:32
  John Harper: And I remember the heat of the lamp.
• 18:35
  John Harper: It would get so hot that I would play this dance game where like the injury, I'd move it and I'd have the heat and I'd, oh, okay, it's too hot.
• 18:44
  John Harper: I'd go up and down.
• 18:46
  John Harper: And try to get,'cause I thought the heat is what it is.
• 18:49
  John Harper: 'cause my wife being Chinese Asians believe in heat therapy.
• 18:53
  John Harper: Whereas in the west we use cold therapy to for inflammation.
• 18:57
  John Harper: Yeah.
• 18:58
  John Harper: And I.
• 19:00
  John Harper: I, and I remember the aha moment was my left knee.
• 19:03
  John Harper: That was when I was like, what?
• 19:05
  John Harper: This it really triggered a very an interest in red light therapy because I remember getting very serious about my knee doing this treatments 20 minutes a day.
• 19:14
  John Harper: After about a week, I didn't have pain in my knee.
• 19:16
  John Harper: And the knee was something that was always painful.
• 19:20
  John Harper: I would sit in a car, like in a taxi or in a, in a plane.
• 19:24
  John Harper: And if I had my knee at a 45 degree angle.
• 19:28
  John Harper: It would always hurt.
• 19:29
  John Harper: It would get re, it would unbearably painful.
• 19:32
  John Harper: Like I would try to, I would push my leg into the car seat or the seat in front of me, just try to stretch it out.
• 19:38
  John Harper: And I would have this like heat cream and I would massage my knee because it would just get so painful.
• 19:44
  John Harper: Just being in this position.
• 19:46
  John Harper: I remember after a week it didn't, I didn't have that.
• 19:49
  John Harper: And then I remember after about another week, we just.
• 19:52
  John Harper: I just stopped using it on my knee.
• 19:53
  John Harper: I was like, we're done.
• 19:54
  John Harper: I, we don't need, I don't need this anymore.
• 19:57
  John Harper: And since then, my knees have ne that knee has never acted up.
• 20:01
  John Harper: Never.
• 20:02
  John Harper: Funny, like I, there's so many times when it was such a, it was it was something I dealt with for years that I just thought, that's me.
• 20:08
  John Harper: It's my knee.
• 20:09
  John Harper: Like I've got that bad knee.
• 20:10
  John Harper: I'm gonna be like, those old uncles that are like, oh my back.
• 20:13
  John Harper: I just thought that was it.
• 20:14
  John Harper: And then fast forward 6, 6, 7 years.
• 20:18
  John Harper: We, I started development.
• 20:20
  John Harper: It took about three years to develop the first Lumaflex version, and we are coming up to our anniversary in 10 days.
• 20:29
  John Harper: 10 days from today is our anniversary when we launched in Miami.
• 20:33
  Tom Jackobs: Oh wow.
• 20:34
  John Harper: Yes!,
• 20:35
  Tom Jackobs: How many years?
• 20:36
  John Harper: That's two years launched and almost three years in development.
• 20:40
  Tom Jackobs: Wow.
• 20:41
  Tom Jackobs: That's amazing.
• 20:42
  Tom Jackobs: And so the red light therapy, like obviously for those three years, that's really passion based, right?
• 20:47
  Tom Jackobs: Because you're not selling anything at that point.
• 20:50
  Tom Jackobs: What kept you going other than the passion for, building something, a technology that's gonna really help people?
• 20:57
  John Harper: It's this motivation and you're visualizing in the future creating something cool.
• 21:03
  John Harper: 'cause my wife has asked me this a lot, she's what's your, what's your, you, everyone has their thing.
• 21:08
  John Harper: What is it?
• 21:09
  John Harper: It's like child trauma or is it like, are you in a race or do you want to beat, your childhood friend?
• 21:16
  John Harper: Is it like this friendly competition?
• 21:17
  John Harper: Is it like your brothers?
• 21:19
  John Harper: And for me, it's this thing where like I've always had this thing inside me where I was like, I always saw myself as doing something very impactful, like creating something and having this legacy.
• 21:30
  John Harper: I did that.
• 21:30
  John Harper: Like I, this legacy thing.
• 21:32
  John Harper: And I think it was, and a lot of that, those feelings, especially, when you're at night and it's the end of the day and you've done some development work and you just let your mind wander and you visualize what's coming.
• 21:42
  John Harper: That would, I am, I dunno what it is, but I get really excited about that.
• 21:46
  John Harper: If something starts to go the right way, I immediately create the story in my head of what's coming, of what's happening.
• 21:52
  John Harper: That's very much and then the next day I'm like, out of bed and I try to action that scenario that I pictured out.
• 21:58
  Tom Jackobs: I'm sure if you were only motivated by the profit and building just a business or profit, that probably would not have happened.
• 22:06
  John Harper: Yeah, I just, I think because I'm so bad with numbers and I have wonderful, trusted people to take care of the numbers, I don't know what it what it means.
• 22:14
  John Harper: Like when someone back in the day, like the, oh, this could mean, your company could go IPO.
• 22:20
  John Harper: I was like, well, what would really change?
• 22:21
  John Harper: I'm not gonna go buy a jet or a car that is like a fancy car.
• 22:25
  John Harper: I don't really have it it's not really I don't under equate, I don't know what I would do with it.
• 22:30
  John Harper: I'm not picturing myself in that.
• 22:32
  John Harper: I'm more picturing myself like giving a speech.
• 22:35
  John Harper: Or and everybody clapping.
• 22:37
  John Harper: It's that's the well done, John.
• 22:39
  John Harper: You did good kind of thing.
• 22:40
  John Harper: That's what I see when I'm driving.
• 22:42
  John Harper: I remember a friend of mine, he had a really nice Porsche and he like, let me, he was like, here, borrow it.
• 22:48
  John Harper: Take the wife on a weekend.
• 22:49
  John Harper: Go to the beach.
• 22:50
  John Harper: And I remember after the weekend I was bored with it.
• 22:53
  John Harper: I was like, what do we, what is what happens now with it?
• 22:55
  John Harper: I didn't I was like, I don't, I didn't know what was next.
• 22:59
  John Harper: I was like.
• 23:00
  John Harper: Is there something supposed to happen?
• 23:01
  John Harper: There's something like, I'm over that.
• 23:02
  John Harper: I don't, I'm okay.
• 23:03
  John Harper: And he was like, do you wanna barrow it again?
• 23:04
  John Harper: I was like, nah, it's, nah.
• 23:06
  John Harper: You can't fit anything in it.
• 23:08
  John Harper: It's too small.
• 23:09
  John Harper: That's crazy.
• 23:13
  Tom Jackobs: So you mentioned that you have that you're not very good with numbers, but you have good, trusted staff around you.
• 23:19
  Tom Jackobs: Is that like one of your big pieces of advice for other purpose led and Heart-Led Business owners is if they're not good at the numbers that either get good at it or get some people around you that are good at it?
• 23:31
  John Harper: 100%.
• 23:32
  John Harper: Yeah I'm very much a team person.
• 23:35
  John Harper: I've noticed that about me.
• 23:37
  John Harper: Like the funnest thing I like to do is build team.
• 23:40
  John Harper: Then build a company, then build a product.
• 23:42
  John Harper: But the a team thing is very much inside me.
• 23:46
  John Harper: Like I always want a team and we all have like our team meetings, we all pump each other up and we're all like learning from each other.
• 23:53
  John Harper: I empower them.
• 23:54
  John Harper: They respect me and have this back and forth thing.
• 23:57
  John Harper: I, I hire all definitely hire people that are smarter than you.
• 24:00
  John Harper: Definitely.
• 24:01
  John Harper: Definitely.
• 24:02
  John Harper: Like without a shadow of a doubt.
• 24:04
  John Harper: And then if you make them.
• 24:07
  John Harper: And they don't have anything to worry about.
• 24:08
  John Harper: I'm like, I'm not in this for, to scam anyone.
• 24:10
  John Harper: Certainly not you.
• 24:12
  John Harper: At the end of the day, love and connection is what is the most valuable thing for people?
• 24:15
  John Harper: It's part of, it's definitely a human need.
• 24:17
  John Harper: So if people have that and they have comradery in the workspace you can get incredible things done.
• 24:23
  John Harper: Like in the, just this week, there's some days where everybody is just keep going.
• 24:28
  John Harper: When you have that.
• 24:29
  John Harper: And everyone leaves the office.
• 24:31
  John Harper: And then what you do is at the end of the year or the end of the quarter you take everyone on a team.
• 24:37
  John Harper: Like I love doing that team building events where you go to the beach, you go out some nice food, and then you gave like a like a certificate, like best'cause we, I'll ask everyone in the whole team, I'll say pick somebody who you nominate is has done the best in the year.
• 24:54
  John Harper: So they all pick and we just see who's, who has the most names.
• 24:57
  John Harper: So it's like we as a team, we all decide, and then he gets to go up and stand on stage and get this little award.
• 25:05
  John Harper: And once he's done that his output is like, is more than double.
• 25:10
  John Harper: He just can crash that.
• 25:12
  John Harper: And then you're like he's he's, it's so validating to have that.
• 25:16
  John Harper: That he's not thinking how can I use this to my advantage?
• 25:18
  John Harper: He doesn't think this, he's got, we're just like, no, I wanna do that again.
• 25:22
  John Harper: I wanna just outperform myself and do it again.
• 25:25
  John Harper: So it's, I think like psychology definitely plays a lot into it.
• 25:28
  John Harper: Being humble.
• 25:29
  John Harper: Humble is a, is an important thing.
• 25:31
  Tom Jackobs: That's interesting.
• 25:32
  Tom Jackobs: I hadn't heard that first in terms of building the team first and then building the business around the team.
• 25:39
  Tom Jackobs: And it totally makes sense because then you have the firm culture and you don't have to go through the trial and error with people that aren't a culture fit.
• 25:47
  Tom Jackobs: And it sounds like you're finding people that are motivated by that achievement and not.
• 25:52
  Tom Jackobs: Necessarily motivated by the money aspect.
• 25:55
  Tom Jackobs: And so they, when you give the rewards and the accolades that they're like, Yes.
• 25:59
  Tom Jackobs: This is exactly what I want.
• 26:01
  Tom Jackobs: And the money's a good thing.
• 26:02
  Tom Jackobs: And I mean, it's a nice bonus, but it's that achievement, that certainty, that connection and that love that really keeps'em going.
• 26:09
  John Harper: Even people that ah If people are driven, they have a passion that to do.
• 26:14
  John Harper: It's very difficult to find those people.
• 26:16
  John Harper: And everyone who has that will have down days.
• 26:19
  John Harper: They'll say, we had a problem in the family.
• 26:22
  John Harper: I'm now responsible.
• 26:24
  John Harper: I need to cover this cost.
• 26:25
  John Harper: Or they'll have financial issues.
• 26:27
  John Harper: Everyone has these financial issues and so you have to expect that as well.
• 26:31
  John Harper: So it's like, as long as they know, like all I gotta do is show up and do the best thing I can and I'm gonna be okay.
• 26:37
  John Harper: Everyone will have these sort of fluctuating points.
• 26:40
  John Harper: It's very hard to have a group of people all in it for the, come over here to change the world.
• 26:45
  John Harper: It's yeah just wait until like you get a knock on your door and you're like you got a problem.
• 26:50
  John Harper: And then it's okay, sorry.
• 26:51
  John Harper: I don't think I can show up.
• 26:51
  John Harper: That's what I told you.
• 26:52
  Tom Jackobs: And when you're hiring the right people based on your purpose and aligned values, that it's easier like for them to show up and show up as fully as they can.
• 27:02
  Tom Jackobs: And if you do have you give them grace for as much time as you need, and I love that.
• 27:06
  Tom Jackobs: It's great.
• 27:07
  John Harper: Yeah.
• 27:07
  John Harper: Like I've always thought about like businesses that say I mean, I can't think of one in particular, and of course I don't wanna shoot myself in the foot, but like some business that is not necessarily an honorable business.
• 27:20
  John Harper: If it's selling like an insurance policy, which doesn't favor the person, that you know it, I was always wondering like, how do you, because for me, if someone is in it for just the money i'm like in the business that we're in with the testimonials that we're getting these pe it's a very powerful thing.
• 27:38
  John Harper: Every human out there, they'll start to shift over to be like, wow, I like this feeling of being part of this company that's doing this nice change.
• 27:47
  John Harper: But if you have a company where you're not actually doing that.
• 27:51
  John Harper: It's hard to shift people.
• 27:52
  John Harper: 'Cause I do pride myself.
• 27:54
  John Harper: Like I say, Ooh, I know, all you're thinking about is clocking in, clocking out.
• 27:58
  John Harper: And I'm like, just watch.
• 27:58
  John Harper: Wait, I'll gimme two weeks and I'll I start like planting seeds,
• 28:03
  Tom Jackobs: I love it.
• 28:04
  John Harper: Yeah.
• 28:05
  Tom Jackobs: That's great.
• 28:07
  Tom Jackobs: In a profit led business, all you have to go by then is the cash.
• 28:11
  Tom Jackobs: And I think about Wolf of Wall Street, the boiler room type of operations where they're just dialing for dollars and it's like this grind, but all you can give them is more money more money to make them happy.
• 28:22
  Tom Jackobs: There's no purpose necessarily behind it.
• 28:24
  Tom Jackobs: Love that, John.
• 28:25
  Tom Jackobs: I can't believe that our time has gone by so quickly.
• 28:28
  Tom Jackobs: So how can people learn more about Lumaflex and you and all the great stuff that you're doing?
• 28:33
  John Harper: lumaflex.com.
• 28:34
  John Harper: Luma light and flex as in flexible.
• 28:37
  John Harper: We've recently won our ninth award, so we're, we've got more awards than any other red light therapy company and we're nominated for the 10th.
• 28:46
  John Harper: I wanted to close the year with a number 10 award.
• 28:49
  John Harper: We're flexible panel.
• 28:51
  John Harper: I've got one right here.
• 28:52
  John Harper: This is my personal one, And I wanted it to be like an on the go red light therapy device just in your bag.
• 29:00
  John Harper: Use on the go anytime.
• 29:02
  John Harper: I don't take anything away from big devices.
• 29:05
  John Harper: They have their use case, their location fixed.
• 29:08
  John Harper: This is the one you take with you wherever you're going.
• 29:11
  John Harper: And then for me personally, John Graham Fitness at, on my is, usually for a lot of comms like I do a lot of influencer communication there.
• 29:20
  John Harper: A lot of people will reach out there and then we move to email or something.
• 29:24
  John Harper: So feel free to reach out, say hi, and say, yeah.
• 29:28
  John Harper: Tell us about your Heart-Led Business.
• 29:31
  John Harper: When are you starting?
• 29:34
  Tom Jackobs: I'm geeking out here a little bit on the red light.
• 29:35
  Tom Jackobs: Is that both at the, like the six 30 and the infra near infrared as well?
• 29:40
  John Harper: Yeah.
• 29:41
  John Harper: 6 38 50 nanometers for the Essential and the Body Pro exactly the same in terms of treatment.
• 29:47
  John Harper: This is for in-clinic use.
• 29:50
  John Harper: Essential is the take home retail one.
• 29:52
  John Harper: So this one as it's IP six seven with a spare battery.
• 29:56
  John Harper: The goal my North Star is to actually introduce it into the military to have it as a device.
• 30:02
  John Harper: So I need like a very durable, portable pressure tested environment tested, something that's I'm shooting for, let's see what happen.
• 30:09
  Tom Jackobs: Awesome.
• 30:09
  Tom Jackobs: Well, good luck on that.
• 30:10
  Tom Jackobs: Cool.
• 30:11
  Tom Jackobs: Well, John, Thank you again so much.
• 30:12
  Tom Jackobs: for spending your time with us and I certainly appreciate it.
• 30:15
  Tom Jackobs: I know our audience appreciates it as well.
• 30:17
  John Harper: Thank you so much.
• 30:18
  John Harper: Yeah.
• 30:18
  John Harper: I appreciate the opportunity to share lots of mistakes.
• 30:22
  John Harper: It's gotta go somewhere.
• 30:23
  John Harper: Don't make those same mistakes or do learn from it and enjoy it.
• 30:27
  Tom Jackobs: I like to learn from others.
• 30:28
  Tom Jackobs: You know that's easier.
• 30:29
  John Harper: That's it.
• 30:30
  John Harper: Well said.
• 30:31
  John Harper: Yeah, that's, right.
• 30:32
  Tom Jackobs: Awesome.
• 30:33
  Tom Jackobs: And thank you listeners for watching and listening to the show today, but we really do appreciate it.
• 30:38
  Tom Jackobs: So make sure you're checking out everything that John is doing.
• 30:40
  Tom Jackobs: We're gonna link all that up into the show notes, so make sure you're going down there and checking it out.
• 30:45
  Tom Jackobs: And while you're down there in the show notes, I think there's a review button somewhere around there.
• 30:49
  Tom Jackobs: So if you could do me a favor and give the show a rating and review.
• 30:53
  Tom Jackobs: If it's less than five stars, tell me first, but it's five stars.
• 30:57
  Tom Jackobs: Go ahead.
• 30:58
  Tom Jackobs: I really appreciate.
• 31:00
  Tom Jackobs: And until next time, lead with your heart.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: You've been listening to The Heart-Led Business Show, hosted by Tom Jackobs.
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: Join us next time for another inspiring journey into the heart of business.