October 8, 2024 • 9 mins
As business owners and leaders, it’s easy to get caught up in numbers—what we achieve and how we do it—while overlooking the most important question: why?
Jim Johnson’s story explores how focusing on personal success over serving others can lead to missed opportunities. Through personal experiences, including moments of betrayal, Jim shares how a shift in mindset—from self-centered to team-centered—transformed not only his business but also his leadership.
When leaders prioritize their team’s success, the results are undeniable: stronger connections, growth, and fulfillment.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jim Johnson (00:00):
This is a part of my story that's a little bit
tough to share sometimes, butit's important because it was
another one of those thingswhere I had this massive mind
shift about how people work andhow we lead for them, not for
us.
And, uh, I, I, I got screwed forlack of a better term.
Um, I did my job.
(00:21):
I did what was expected of me,surpassed my goals by miles
because I started to shift theway it That I help people
achieve what they were after andcame down to the end of a
season.
We had signed a contract that ifI did a certain thing, I would
be paid a certain bonus.
Well, the company I was workingfor decided they didn't want to
pay the bonus.
(00:41):
They wanted to use my bonus toget me some help because I was
working a lot of hours and went,wait a minute.
I already did this with a lot ofhours.
I earned that bonus.
If we want to renegotiate, wecan certainly do that.
They said, no, we're going touse it.
And so long story short, whatended up happening is, Hey, I
can't work for you because youbroke your word.
So I'm going to go start my owncompany.
(01:04):
And this is a story that you seea lot in a lot of industries.
And so word to the wise and bigwarning on mind shifts about how
you treat people and how yougive your word to people.
If you don't give your word andkeep it.
You're going to run intosituations where you're going to
create your competition.
And that's exactly what happenedin this case.
(01:24):
My whole burning desire was togo beat them as fast as I
possibly could.
And so now I had this thingdriving me that, hey, I got
screwed.
I'm going to go start my ownthing.
And not only am I going to dowell in that, I'm going to beat
you at it.
And so I was focused on that.
And because I was focused onthat, Um, I went about hiring a
group of guys.
(01:45):
I didn't go after any of theirguys.
I hired my own guys, went aftermy own thing.
And the goal was to do 5 millionin the first year.
And we did no problem.
Then we didn't beat them, but wehad a great start to our first
year.
Then it was time to go ahead andgo get them.
And so I decided to go intohiring phase, training phase,
bringing on all these people,thinking of that math equation.
(02:07):
That's important of each personmeans a certain amount of
dollars.
And, uh, sure enough, we blewaway all of our goals.
We did 22 million that secondyear because we hired the right
amount of people that averagethe right numbers, set proper
expectations, gave goodtraining, and, uh, we achieved
the goals that we were afteragain, this achievement of goals
(02:28):
and things like that.
And that went pretty well forquite some time.
Uh, about four years, uh,everything was running smooth,
going amazing and, uh, I walkedin on January 3rd of the year
and my partner was with me.
We didn't have anything goingon.
It was middle of the winter inMinneapolis.
Most of our offices were, um,pretty, uh, low key at that
(02:51):
point in the year and we hadwalked in and we were going to
do some planning session and wegrabbed the mail and inside the
mail was a bank statement.
We had never looked at itbefore.
We'd never looked at one inalmost five years and we decided
to open it.
And as we opened it, we saw thefirst couple of checks and there
was a check for 5, 000 to ourbookkeeper's husband.
(03:12):
I'm like, that's weird.
What was that for?
Did we approve that?
I was like, what's this for?
I knew they were moving.
So maybe we had agreed to thismoving stipend or something.
And we went a few more checksand there was another one for 5,
000.
And then the bells, you know,the spidey senses went off and,
uh, we started to look into itand make a long story short over
about a three month time span,we figured out that the
(03:34):
bookkeeper had pilfered about585, 000, which was significant.
We didn't have the money wethought we had.
Um, and she had done it in avariety of different ways and it
wasn't the money that made me soangry.
It was the why.
Like I, I, I took you from beinga bookkeeper making 50, 000 a
(03:55):
year to being a, a small partnerin our business making 250, 000.
Why would you do this to me?
Why would you do that?
The next step of that wascalling her on the carpet.
Yes, there was a problem.
Um, and so she was leaving andit caused a huge fracture in my
company.
(04:16):
A guy that I looked at as likemy little brother decided to go
into business with her.
Which completely broke me.
I mean, it just absolutelyshattered everything.
I'm like, what in the world ishappening?
How can this person steal thiskind of money from me after
everything I've done?
How can this guy that I tookfrom delivering pizzas, um, to
making a hundred thousanddollars plus a year do this to
(04:37):
me?
How could all these people dothis stuff to me?
And they weren't the first two.
There were several circumstanceslike that, um, over that
previous year.
Where it was me asking, howcould they be doing this to me?
And so when something repetitivelike that happens, I tend to go,
why I start asking thosequestions.
And how do I, how do I solvethis?
(04:59):
And as I dug into it more andstarted to ask why a lot, um, I
started to realize it wasactually me.
And this was a massive mindshift for me.
This thing that everything thatwe had been doing to achieve the
numbers that we were after.
Was about glorifying me and Ididn't realize it until a guy
(05:23):
that I looked at as my littlebrother wanted to be in business
with a thief instead of Workingwith me, that meant I was worse
than a thief that I was a humanbeing that wasn't about other
human beings, but more aboutmyself.
So it changed me that day wasliterally transformational.
(05:46):
I went from being selfish andall about me to selfless and all
about we, how can I serve youbetter whenever I change to
that?
How could I serve you better?
The first thing that happenedwas everybody looked at me like
I was insane because I literallylike.
Transformed overnight from beingthe most, what are you doing for
me?
How many sales are you making?
How much work did you get done?
(06:06):
How did you get everything doneso we can hit these numbers?
Everything was about me andwhere I wanted to see us get to.
And when I went in and startedsaying, how do I help you get to
where you need to be?
What can I do to make your jobeasier?
We literally changed the purposestatement of our business to we
make it easy and not just forour customers or the insurance
(06:26):
companies or our vendors, butalso for everybody that worked
for us.
And nobody believed me at firstbecause it wasn't who they knew
and it wasn't the culture theywere used to seeing.
They literally looked at me likeI had horns growing out of my
head or something, but throughsome consistency and being very
(06:46):
like, Hey, I want to help you.
I want to serve you.
What can I do to help you get towhere you want to be in life?
Um, I started to get some beliefin it.
And people started going, Hey,he really is this new person.
Now, along the way, a lot ofpeople left because they were
used to this other culture andnow it was something different.
They didn't feel right to themfor where they were, but the new
(07:09):
people that came in, as I wasmore and more consistent.
The more they wanted to work forus, the more they wanted to be a
part of what we were doing,because we were doing something
as much for them as we were forour clients, as we were doing
for the business.
We had this concept that we werea team doing something together
that benefited all instead ofbenefiting an individual or the
(07:34):
pride of a human being.
Whenever that shift happened,our numbers went through the
roof.
It was insane what we were ableto accomplish together as a
team.
Our turnover went down.
We were able to retain peoplelonger.
We grew better leaders.
We were able to open newoffices.
We were able to do things that Iwould never been able to do
(07:55):
before because I made it aboutthem instead of me.
And what's the best thing aboutall that?
This is 20 years later.
Now I see these people thatafter I shifted to being self
listens to the selfish achievinggreat things.
Achieving things that they neverthought was possible.
(08:16):
Hitting potential that theydidn't even know that they could
do.
That is my proudest moment as ahuman being, is to see others
doing well because I decided tostart serving them instead of
them serving me.
I promise you, if you start tomake it about your people, your
people will make it about yourclients and your clients will
(08:37):
make it about your business.
It's not the people making itabout your business.
It's your people making it aboutyour clients, creating an
experience that they get to havein your business because you put
them first.
They start putting your clientsfirst, which will put your
business first.
Don't forget that one.
It's a massive mind shift thatwhen we are able to achieve that
(08:58):
as business owners.
The fulfillment and joy of whatyou do and the lifestyle that
you get to live because of itbecomes so much more fulfilling.
There becomes a purpose to whatit is that you do in this life,
that every day you have impacton somebody that helps them be a
(09:20):
little bit better.
You cause this ripple effect,not only with them, but
everybody they ever come incontact with that.
It's not about you and yourlegacy or your legend or any of
that kind of stuff.
It's about your impact is goingto impact other people to be
better human beings and do rightby others.
It's an amazing feeling.
(09:40):
I hope you get to feel it too.
This is a part of my story that's a little bit
tough to share sometimes, butit's important because it was
another one of those thingswhere I had this massive mind
shift about how people work andhow we lead for them, not for
us.
And, uh, I, I, I got screwed forlack of a better term.
Um, I did my job.
(00:21):
I did what was expected of me,surpassed my goals by miles
because I started to shift theway it That I help people
achieve what they were after andcame down to the end of a
season.
We had signed a contract that ifI did a certain thing, I would
be paid a certain bonus.
Well, the company I was workingfor decided they didn't want to
pay the bonus.
(00:41):
They wanted to use my bonus toget me some help because I was
working a lot of hours and went,wait a minute.
I already did this with a lot ofhours.
I earned that bonus.
If we want to renegotiate, wecan certainly do that.
They said, no, we're going touse it.
And so long story short, whatended up happening is, Hey, I
can't work for you because youbroke your word.
So I'm going to go start my owncompany.
(01:04):
And this is a story that you seea lot in a lot of industries.
And so word to the wise and bigwarning on mind shifts about how
you treat people and how yougive your word to people.
If you don't give your word andkeep it.
You're going to run intosituations where you're going to
create your competition.
And that's exactly what happenedin this case.
(01:24):
My whole burning desire was togo beat them as fast as I
possibly could.
And so now I had this thingdriving me that, hey, I got
screwed.
I'm going to go start my ownthing.
And not only am I going to dowell in that, I'm going to beat
you at it.
And so I was focused on that.
And because I was focused onthat, Um, I went about hiring a
group of guys.
(01:45):
I didn't go after any of theirguys.
I hired my own guys, went aftermy own thing.
And the goal was to do 5 millionin the first year.
And we did no problem.
Then we didn't beat them, but wehad a great start to our first
year.
Then it was time to go ahead andgo get them.
And so I decided to go intohiring phase, training phase,
bringing on all these people,thinking of that math equation.
(02:07):
That's important of each personmeans a certain amount of
dollars.
And, uh, sure enough, we blewaway all of our goals.
We did 22 million that secondyear because we hired the right
amount of people that averagethe right numbers, set proper
expectations, gave goodtraining, and, uh, we achieved
the goals that we were afteragain, this achievement of goals
(02:28):
and things like that.
And that went pretty well forquite some time.
Uh, about four years, uh,everything was running smooth,
going amazing and, uh, I walkedin on January 3rd of the year
and my partner was with me.
We didn't have anything goingon.
It was middle of the winter inMinneapolis.
Most of our offices were, um,pretty, uh, low key at that
(02:51):
point in the year and we hadwalked in and we were going to
do some planning session and wegrabbed the mail and inside the
mail was a bank statement.
We had never looked at itbefore.
We'd never looked at one inalmost five years and we decided
to open it.
And as we opened it, we saw thefirst couple of checks and there
was a check for 5, 000 to ourbookkeeper's husband.
(03:12):
I'm like, that's weird.
What was that for?
Did we approve that?
I was like, what's this for?
I knew they were moving.
So maybe we had agreed to thismoving stipend or something.
And we went a few more checksand there was another one for 5,
000.
And then the bells, you know,the spidey senses went off and,
uh, we started to look into itand make a long story short over
about a three month time span,we figured out that the
(03:34):
bookkeeper had pilfered about585, 000, which was significant.
We didn't have the money wethought we had.
Um, and she had done it in avariety of different ways and it
wasn't the money that made me soangry.
It was the why.
Like I, I, I took you from beinga bookkeeper making 50, 000 a
(03:55):
year to being a, a small partnerin our business making 250, 000.
Why would you do this to me?
Why would you do that?
The next step of that wascalling her on the carpet.
Yes, there was a problem.
Um, and so she was leaving andit caused a huge fracture in my
company.
(04:16):
A guy that I looked at as likemy little brother decided to go
into business with her.
Which completely broke me.
I mean, it just absolutelyshattered everything.
I'm like, what in the world ishappening?
How can this person steal thiskind of money from me after
everything I've done?
How can this guy that I tookfrom delivering pizzas, um, to
making a hundred thousanddollars plus a year do this to
(04:37):
me?
How could all these people dothis stuff to me?
And they weren't the first two.
There were several circumstanceslike that, um, over that
previous year.
Where it was me asking, howcould they be doing this to me?
And so when something repetitivelike that happens, I tend to go,
why I start asking thosequestions.
And how do I, how do I solvethis?
(04:59):
And as I dug into it more andstarted to ask why a lot, um, I
started to realize it wasactually me.
And this was a massive mindshift for me.
This thing that everything thatwe had been doing to achieve the
numbers that we were after.
Was about glorifying me and Ididn't realize it until a guy
(05:23):
that I looked at as my littlebrother wanted to be in business
with a thief instead of Workingwith me, that meant I was worse
than a thief that I was a humanbeing that wasn't about other
human beings, but more aboutmyself.
So it changed me that day wasliterally transformational.
(05:46):
I went from being selfish andall about me to selfless and all
about we, how can I serve youbetter whenever I change to
that?
How could I serve you better?
The first thing that happenedwas everybody looked at me like
I was insane because I literallylike.
Transformed overnight from beingthe most, what are you doing for
me?
How many sales are you making?
How much work did you get done?
(06:06):
How did you get everything doneso we can hit these numbers?
Everything was about me andwhere I wanted to see us get to.
And when I went in and startedsaying, how do I help you get to
where you need to be?
What can I do to make your jobeasier?
We literally changed the purposestatement of our business to we
make it easy and not just forour customers or the insurance
(06:26):
companies or our vendors, butalso for everybody that worked
for us.
And nobody believed me at firstbecause it wasn't who they knew
and it wasn't the culture theywere used to seeing.
They literally looked at me likeI had horns growing out of my
head or something, but throughsome consistency and being very
(06:46):
like, Hey, I want to help you.
I want to serve you.
What can I do to help you get towhere you want to be in life?
Um, I started to get some beliefin it.
And people started going, Hey,he really is this new person.
Now, along the way, a lot ofpeople left because they were
used to this other culture andnow it was something different.
They didn't feel right to themfor where they were, but the new
(07:09):
people that came in, as I wasmore and more consistent.
The more they wanted to work forus, the more they wanted to be a
part of what we were doing,because we were doing something
as much for them as we were forour clients, as we were doing
for the business.
We had this concept that we werea team doing something together
that benefited all instead ofbenefiting an individual or the
(07:34):
pride of a human being.
Whenever that shift happened,our numbers went through the
roof.
It was insane what we were ableto accomplish together as a
team.
Our turnover went down.
We were able to retain peoplelonger.
We grew better leaders.
We were able to open newoffices.
We were able to do things that Iwould never been able to do
(07:55):
before because I made it aboutthem instead of me.
And what's the best thing aboutall that?
This is 20 years later.
Now I see these people thatafter I shifted to being self
listens to the selfish achievinggreat things.
Achieving things that they neverthought was possible.
(08:16):
Hitting potential that theydidn't even know that they could
do.
That is my proudest moment as ahuman being, is to see others
doing well because I decided tostart serving them instead of
them serving me.
I promise you, if you start tomake it about your people, your
people will make it about yourclients and your clients will
(08:37):
make it about your business.
It's not the people making itabout your business.
It's your people making it aboutyour clients, creating an
experience that they get to havein your business because you put
them first.
They start putting your clientsfirst, which will put your
business first.
Don't forget that one.
It's a massive mind shift thatwhen we are able to achieve that
(08:58):
as business owners.
The fulfillment and joy of whatyou do and the lifestyle that
you get to live because of itbecomes so much more fulfilling.
There becomes a purpose to whatit is that you do in this life,
that every day you have impacton somebody that helps them be a
(09:20):
little bit better.
You cause this ripple effect,not only with them, but
everybody they ever come incontact with that.
It's not about you and yourlegacy or your legend or any of
that kind of stuff.
It's about your impact is goingto impact other people to be
better human beings and do rightby others.
It's an amazing feeling.
(09:40):
I hope you get to feel it too.
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