July 25, 2024 • 49 mins
Can failure actually be a stepping stone to success? Join us as we welcome Jonathan Strahl, a close friend and accomplished technology consultant, who shares his transformative journey from political science student to a leader in the tech industry. Jonathan reveals how his initial career aspirations evolved and how his competitive spirit and adaptability were crucial in navigating the dynamic world of technology. His story is a testament to the power of following one's passions and taking calculated risks, offering valuable insights into career development and personal growth.
In our engaging conversation, we delve into the concept of "failing forward" and the pivotal role of embracing mistakes in one's professional journey. Jonathan discusses the four F's—fail fast and fail forward—and the three E's—embrace risk-taking, embrace imperfections, and embrace a growth mindset—as essential principles for fostering a productive work environment. By turning failures into learning opportunities, Jonathan demonstrates how to create a non-judgmental space that enhances team performance and company profitability.
We wrap up with a focus on building meaningful relationships and effective leadership. Drawing on wisdom from Dale Carnegie and John Gordon, we highlight the importance of a positive attitude, consistent effort, and genuine care in achieving excellence. Jonathan shares his experiences and the pivotal role of trust and appreciation in his growth as a leader. This episode is filled with actionable advice and heartfelt stories, promising to inspire anyone looking to elevate their career and personal life.
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Episode Transcript
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Kenny Massa (00:09):
Hello, today we are bringing to you an episode that
is very special.
We are bringing one of our owninto the episode, where we could
explore his mind and understandmore about his path to success,
specifically in the businessworld.
I've had a personalrelationship with this person
for a long time now literallyalmost a decade or right around
(00:31):
then and I see him as a brother.
Some people think he is my realbrother because we look alike,
apparently, and we have had many, many experiences together as a
group with this individual.
He's near and dear to our heartand we've been able to see him
go from a college student to anamazing person in the business
(00:54):
world who manages and helpspeople, guide them through their
path of success in the businessworld as a whole.
He is an amazing person.
He is a great husband and anamazing friend.
So welcome, jonathan Straw.
James LaGamma (01:14):
He's an amazing fur dad.
Oh, he's a fur dad.
Kenny Massa (01:17):
Fur dad, recent fur dad, kind of recent Recent fur
dad.
Jonny Strahl (01:20):
Yeah, Thanks for having me, gents Appreciate it,
great introduction.
Thanks, kenny Vincent Ferdad.
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Gents Appreciate it, Greatintroduction.
Kenny Massa (01:27):
Thanks, Kenny.
I want to get started on justkind of understanding from where
you were many years ago cominginto college.
I think the first time I everheard of political science was
from you, so I had no idea whatthat was prior to knowing you.
And then I had the fortune ofseeing you go through that and
(01:51):
kind of change your path throughcollege.
Really that has now led youinto the tech world and we've
seen you go through changes.
So the one thing that I want tokind of start off with and lay
the foundation for ourconversation today is what
industry are you in, what do youdo in the business world and
(02:12):
how did you get there?
Because I've seen youpersonally or we've all seen you
personally kind of change andshift and maneuver different
positions.
So can you lay that foundationfor us?
Jonny Strahl (02:23):
Yeah, no, that's a great question.
It's always a fun question,right?
So I clearly, as you mentioned,I work in the technology
consulting space.
Essentially, what I do is helptechnology groups strategize and
create ways to navigate in thecrazy chaos, technology driven
world that we're living in,which is very exciting.
(02:44):
So, at the end of the day,helping create customer
experience goals, tapping intotechnology trends that are going
to either A save money, makemoney or mitigate risks, in the
short sense, right Was nottechnical, like to think.
I'm sometimes technical, butI'm nowhere close to the experts
(03:04):
and the wonderful people I workwith on a daily basis.
But it's been quite the journey.
It's crazy to say it's almostbeen a decade of working in this
industry and you know you'realways learning something new
every single day and for thatyou know I'm very appreciative.
But also I have the opportunityto work with even more amazing
(03:25):
people just in the industry.
Kenny Massa (03:32):
Awesome.
I think that one thing I wantto kind of ask on top of that is
has your background or yourunderstanding in college and
what you studied in college?
Has your background or yourunderstanding in college and
what you studied in college?
Jonny Strahl (03:51):
has that helped shape where you are today or the
role that you're in?
Yeah, so let me give you alittle bit of a context or
background just to how I evenfound myself in areas where
maybe I flourish or do well, inareas where I've struggled and
had to learn.
Right, you know it'sinteresting, right, you always
read these books or you articlesyou can listen online.
It's like follow your passion,follow what your interest is in
(04:12):
and go, reach for the stars.
And for those that are watchingthis or listening in, like I
encourage you to do that, pleasedo that.
I think in the day in life welive in, you'd rather try to
reach those goals, reach thoseaspirations, follow your dream,
because you never want to finishin life saying I should have,
(04:33):
could have, would have.
So please follow that.
Do whatever makes you happy andpassionate, because you can
always fall back on it or fallback on a second plan if
anything changes.
You can always fall back on itor fall back on a second plan if
anything changes.
Now context we all met atStetson, right?
We all graduated, we all wentto Stetson.
More or less Football broughtus there.
(04:55):
And then there's academics,right, and you mentioned and
hinted at it, I was going to gothe political science route,
really quickly realized that isnot the route for me.
I wanted to go more into lawschool.
After speaking with professors,colleagues and mentors, our
coaches, essentially they werelike, hey, just change the
(05:18):
degree and obviously do whatyou're kind of interested in.
So I always thought I was goingto go to the sports route.
I think all of you know oursenior year.
I kind of distanced myself.
There was a lot of discovery ofyou know what the heck am I
going to do?
And you know the trials andtribulations with football.
The love was still there but Iknew I wasn't going to be the
next Tim Tebow, johnny Manziel,whatever it was, at the NFL.
(05:40):
So I kind of just wanted totake a risk and I could have
taken the safe route and went to, you know your traditional
sales and selling tickets for asingle A baseball team and those
are the a lot of the routes andangles I was pretty much going
to approach.
But I was like, hey, I'm young,talked with a lot of individuals
, what do you want to do?
(06:01):
Well, I landed on three thingsand how I approached it and it
was.
I couldn't sit behind a deskand just literally punch numbers
or look at data or just dothings that weren't necessarily
chasing something right.
I had to have an environmentwhere there's a competitive
spirit, where I can communicateskills and go out there and do
(06:22):
things and try to find solutionsright.
And then the second was likethe career development versus
growth, which I think skills,and go out there and do things
and try to find solutions Right.
And then the second was likethe career development versus
growth, which I think are verydifferent, but I wanted to find
an opportunity that couldprovide that.
Especially I'm getting out ofcollege, don't know what I want
to do.
And then the last thing was whatindustries in 10 years?
Is there a disruption and it'snot going to go anywhere?
(06:45):
And I landed on three.
It was medical, which didn'twant to be part of that, to be
honest.
Sports wanted to phase out.
And then technology.
So here we are today what Iwill say.
My background in college at OneWay Shape or Form did help
influence the way youcommunicate with individuals,
your listening skills, all thosegreat, maybe non-traditional or
(07:10):
traditional, whatever you wantto call it.
Things were definitely helpedin advance in college, but from
the tech stack and, from whatI've learned, I'm extremely
thankful because the company Iwork for and started with they
invest a lot of time, energy andeffort and you know it's a lot
of us don't get a degree, or wedo get a degree and we don't
(07:32):
land up with that degree anddoing what we're doing in future
state, which I think that's apretty much a testimony to all
of us on this call.
Kenny Massa (07:40):
Yeah, very fair to say.
You mentioned your organizationand we've seen you in different
types of leadership roles andother capacities and other
organizations that we've allbeen a part of together, whether
that be athletics orextracurricular activities,
you've been able to achieve thatleadership role.
(08:02):
Can you talk about yourascension towards that
leadership role and kind ofwhere that's placed you and also
the shift that that's takenfrom a personal perspective from
going to kind of just enteringa position to now having to
worry about others more on aconsistent basis?
Jonny Strahl (08:19):
Yeah, that's a great question and I think and
we'll probably talk about thisfuture state but you know, at
the time and growing intoleadership roles, especially in
college, like you know, theeffort, the want to be involved
and the commitment kind of ishalf the battle of finding your
(08:41):
way in those types of leadershipopportunities, right?
So there's always a focus on,hey, I want to be within an
organization to maybe grow,right, but what the biggest
piece was the development withinthe career and then shaping you
the way you would like to knowin order to really lead someone.
(09:11):
So, for me, when I think aboutleadership and just the career
growth piece and having to playboth roles where you're expected
to produce and expected toobviously lead people and help
making sure they're seeingsuccess and they're doing the
things that are going to makethem win in the long run, you
know that's what gets me going,that's what you know makes me
come to work, right, I thinkanybody who has the opportunity
(09:33):
to impact others, you find out.
It's always about the people,right, and if those people are
around you and you're doing theright practices and addressing
things that can only help themelevate in their role, good
things will come.
Now it's the delegation pieceof.
How do you delegate X amount oftime to being a producer,
growing, obviously, being in asales environment, that's one
(09:57):
thing, but then helping thosethat you're working with or
reporting to you for, howeveryou want to call it, they're
hitting their quotas and theexpectations.
It's something that's a thrill,honestly, and it's an
opportunity that I've alwayswanted.
So, again, it's an excitingopportunity where I'm at in my
career today.
James LaGamma (10:20):
You know, I remember back in the day when
you actually were going throughthe interview process, and I
remember how cutthroat thatinterview process Shoot I think
it was like three or four roundsand it sounded very intriguing,
especially as all of us weregoing through interview
processes at the time.
(10:40):
This was before even Kenny hadaspirations to become an
entrepreneur.
And you take a leap and you getthe job right.
Now you're in a whole newenvironment, right?
(11:04):
You talk about growth anddevelopment.
My question to you is how didyou essentially I'm going to use
the term fail forward to makesure that you continue that
growth and then take those failforward moments and coach up
your team members, whetherthey're lateral to you or under
you, to help them essentiallymake the same mistakes but then
learn from them and grow intheir career?
Jonny Strahl (11:31):
thus, bringing forward a more profitable
company and team and all thatkind of stuff.
Great questions.
So I'll say this when you lookat what the concept of your
question was failing forward,right, I think you look at it
this way.
It's like how are youemphasizing the learning from
the mistakes or setbacks thathappen, right, and rather
viewing them quote unquote, andI share this with individuals, I
(11:52):
share this with the team, Ishare this with myself.
Internally, it's stop lookingat so much as failures and then
how can you turn those misstepsright into growth and just
success, future state, intogrowth and just success, future
state.
I feel like probably everyone'sheard this before, but I tie it
into four F's.
It's fail fast and fail forward, right.
And then I tie big acronym guythree E's here.
(12:15):
It's really living by.
Just embrace risk-taking.
So when I say embracerisk-taking, it's okay if
there's education and ananalyzed thought process of
taking that risk.
I can tell you a leader,someone that's in your role,
someone that you've worked withbefore, whether it be in life or
(12:37):
in your career work environmentthey probably made some similar
mistakes and it's how can youactually bounce back and learn
from that?
The second is just embrace yourimperfections like, give up the
obsessive need to be perfect,right Um, and just get out there
(12:57):
and do what you think may beright, and again, it's okay to
fail.
But what are you learning inthe moment, right, um.
And then, lastly, like this ismy biggest, my biggest thing I
think I've learned over theyears is you just got to embrace
a growth mindset, right?
And if you truthfully have agrowth mindset and cultivate a
(13:21):
mindset where, if you have asetback, how am I going to seize
that opportunity if it's everpresented to me again?
Or what did I do to learn fromthat presented to me again?
Or what did I do to learn fromthat?
When it comes to the failingforward piece, though, as a
whole, and how do you practiceit every day and how do you
communicate with your team, it'sjust really kind of going back
(13:42):
to the basics.
I am never going to be someonethat's disappointed, or I'm
never going to ask someone to dosomething that I don't feel
comfortable or that I've neverdone before either, and you know
what A lot of those trials andtribulations were because I
failed and I learned from it,and it's all coming down to
trust, right.
So if you can create anenvironment where, if you're
(14:04):
leading someone and they cankind of understand where you're
coming from, I think you canhave a high performing team from
, I think you can have a highperforming team Just to kind of
cap off the fail forward portion.
James LaGamma (14:21):
From a management perspective, I'm interested to
hear your thought process.
When you have a team memberthat failed and even though they
have that growth mindset, theydon't know what they did wrong
or what's the learning pointthat they should get from this.
How do you go about?
I guess not necessarily.
Do you directly tell them hey,this is where you messed up, or
(14:42):
do you try to get them torealize the problem and kind of
figure it out themselves?
What's your approach on that?
Jonny Strahl (14:50):
So this is a very interesting and great question,
and here's my leadership styleof what I try to do is I try to
understand before, even if itgets to that point, hopefully,
where I understand how they takefeedback, like what is the best
way to communicate with thatperson?
Because, I'll tell you this,there's some people that are
like yo, just hit them straight.
(15:11):
Then there's some individualswhere we have this, saying you
got to use the sandwich effect,like you give them the good and
you give them the middle.
It's like, eh, this is whatkind of went wrong and how can
you improve.
And then, hey, end it with likea little bit better news, right
?
That's the ideal situationwhere you have a relationship
(15:36):
where you understand what theywant and how they want to be led
or provided feedback.
We love that word feedback,right, I will say this my goal
is to never give you the answer,right?
I always want to take aconsultative approach and
understand the thought processbehind why the decision was made
to do whatever it was.
And then it's talking throughand it's never a gotcha moment.
(15:56):
And I think that's one thingthat's very important is you
never want to treat it like ahey I gotcha moment and the
biggest thing is is ensuring hey, I'm not mad, I'm not upset.
What's most important is whatare we learning from this?
How are we moving forward?
And then, obviously, justcreating that environment where
hopefully there's a successtransition from that moment.
Ryan Selimos (16:23):
I'm going to key in on that word transition that
you just used.
But before I do that, johnny,just to kind of paint the
picture for everyone, would youmind just sharing with us in
your current role?
How many individuals are youleading?
Are you currently overseeing?
Jonny Strahl (16:39):
Yeah.
So it's interesting.
We talk about the wordtransformation right, where I
think every company out there isgoing through this crazy
transformation and that'ssomething internally we're going
through as well, I think,directly, indirectly.
We call it a stretch assignment.
You know, I've had theopportunity to lead anywhere
from five to seven and thenobviously just have an
(17:01):
opportunity to be the emphasisor the voice for certain
divisions or verticals, which isvery exciting, which I'm
extremely thankful.
But with that there's a lot oflearning.
So yeah, I would say give ortake.
You know, roughly the three tofive window is what we like to
be comfortable at and that'stypically what we would consider
(17:23):
, but it can sometimes be more.
Ryan Selimos (17:27):
And your current role.
Correct me if I'm wrong here.
I could be a little bit off.
Like aren't you in charge ofthe location where you're almost
overseeing?
I feel like when you told me itwas like upwards of 50 or more
individuals that you wereresponsible for in one form or
another.
Is that accurate with thatstatement?
Jonny Strahl (17:48):
So we have field offices, right Right, where you
know, depending on how many youknow, reps or sales individuals,
or on our delivery team, youknow that office could consist
of anywhere from 20 to 30 people.
Okay, it depends on the market,it depends on the area, it
depends on the region, and thenyou know, we're also aligned
(18:09):
vertically and divisionally,where what that means in
layman's terms is, essentially,how are we supporting groups
within a specific industry, froma hey, let's call it media and
entertainment, and then add thecore application standpoint, um,
which that can grow up to, youknow, another between talent,
(18:35):
delivery, and then also your,you know, your sales, your
account managers, et cetera.
You know, can, can easily goabove 50.
So, um, again, there's a lot oftransformation, which is
exciting because it's, at theend of the day, and you guys can
all understand this, it's howcan you best support your
(18:56):
customer and helping them rightand internally.
That's what our main goal isand since the pandemic, it's
been a constant.
You know, don't want to saychange, but constant.
Ryan Selimos (19:06):
Hey, let's rethink the strategy around the best
way to support that end clientand I ask that because, right,
you know, if you're someone,whether you have influence,
impact in some form or fashion.
You know upwards of 50 or morepeople, as you've mentioned,
maybe not directly but in someform or fashion.
You're recently 31 years old.
(19:26):
Happy birthday there.
But I want to talk about, likeyou, the biggest thing I think
as a young leader in corporateAmerica, the biggest challenge
that we face all the times isjust tenure and experience.
Like you have to go throughthose trials and tribulations.
You have to be enrolled, just acertain amount of time to go
through that, and you found away to kind of break through and
(19:49):
speed up that process in asense.
So what's one piece of careeradvice that's helped transform
your perspective and really aidyou on that journey as you move
through leadership?
Jonny Strahl (20:08):
Um, love that.
Thank you for teeing me up andmaking me feel so important.
I think here I'll say this outloud, and I think it's important
to set the the the theunderstanding here.
It's like I struggled a lot,sure, um, there was a lot of
questioning whether or not, youknow, this was the right
(20:30):
opportunity for me, and thereason why is because I found
out very early.
It doesn't matter where you camefrom, it doesn't matter what
you put up on the scoreboard,the talent you had.
College is college.
You're coming in and you'redealing with great people,
people that know what they'redoing, and you're dealing with
an industry and an organizationwhere there's people just as
(20:51):
hungry as you, an industry andan organization where there's
people just as hungry as you.
So your work ethic and yourpassion and your grit doesn't
necessarily mean much, unlessyou're quote, unquote, obviously
.
How are you growing?
How are you helping customers?
What's your impact from aleadership standpoint and also
externally with the customer?
And a lot of that came becausefor once, it was like hard work
(21:12):
and just grit just didn't matter.
I became uncoachable and thoseare things that, like it was
never unlike myself, like Inever.
I was always coached, we werealways coached.
We grew up coached rightplaying sports like you have to
be able to be coached to getsomewhat good right.
Um, and it was because I wasjust having a rut and got a lot
of feedback.
(21:32):
Learned a lot, a lot of greatmentors, a lot of great people
surrounded themselves around me,didn't push me off, invest a
lot of time and energy and Ilearned right, came coachable,
focused on the things that greatpeople were doing, learned
where my gaps were.
So I think the one to answeryour question as a whole from a
career advice that transformedmy perspective.
(21:55):
So a mentor, and this is a bookthat probably many people have
read.
You probably read it.
Someone on this meeting read ithow to Win Friends and
Influence People by DaleCarnegie, right, I think the
main quote and what I'm tryingto remember is you can
essentially make more friends ifyou become interested in them,
(22:17):
versus trying to go out thereand make people become
interested in you, and I tiethis into.
You need to be maniacal aboutbuilding meaningful
relationships, and when I saymeaningful relationships, that
could be externally orinternally, that could be career
driven, that could be personaldriven, and a meaningful
(22:39):
relationship is not so muchgetting caught up in the numbers
and the targets and what you'retrying to hit from a milestone
or goal for yourself, but it'sgenuinely understanding and
connecting with people bothpersonally and professionally,
and the business and theoutcomes and the deliverables
(23:03):
will come with that.
Building meaningful connectionswith people internally has
changed my life.
I would not be where I am today, I would not be half the person
I am today, I would not be thehusband, the future father I
want to be right.
I would not be the friend I amtoday if it wasn't for building
(23:26):
and really trusting thoserelationships out there.
Kenny Massa (23:32):
Good way to put it.
I think that with understandingpeople and continuing to
understand yourself and evolvingthrough just life's course and
continuing to advance yourcareer, I think that you
experience things and you startto understand how to perform
particular activities.
One thing that I'm really bigon is creating habits right,
(23:56):
Especially in an environmentwhere habits are difficult to
create right.
People want to get away fromhabits a lot of the times, but
there's habits that can becreated that are good, and
there's techniques that are goodand strong and powerful.
And there's techniques that aregood and strong and powerful.
Now we always hear of the wordlike work smarter, not harder.
(24:22):
What is one way that or onehabit that?
Jonny Strahl (24:38):
you swear by that really lives by that term, like
work smarter that you feel isreally crucial to the workforce,
or just work in general thatcan advance someone's career.
Yeah, that's an awesomequestion and I think working
smarter is something I struggledwith early on, right, and you
kind of hit it.
Right.
It's like work harder, you workhard, things should come with
it, but that's not necessarilythe case.
You know there's so many hoursin the day, right, you've got 24
hours, eight hours.
You're quote unquote sleeping.
You're at the gym, driving thisand that two, three hours all
(25:01):
together You're working.
You're spending time withfamily, friends, your dog, your
children, whatever.
Speaker 1 one thing that I'veI've found very valuable and
this is maybe not the bestexample, but it's an example
that's relevant.
That's coming to mind I talkedto someone about this a few
(25:23):
weeks ago is being naturallycurious with, like, continuous
learning.
So when I say that, like, youcan literally be naturally
curious about anything, right.
However, if you're naturallycurious about something in your
industry, it's only going tocome more natural to want to
(25:45):
look or research or dive into alittle bit more future state.
Or at the end of the day, orwhen you pick up a book.
Is it something relevant thatis dedicated to learning or
enhancing the ability for you toshow up to a customer better?
Is it understanding theevolving industry trends that
(26:06):
are happening every single day?
And that's something where it'slike okay if I could spend an
hour almost doing something Iactually enjoy and like, but
it's actually helping me furthermy understanding and
development within what I do foran occupation like it's a no
brainer.
So if you can actually findsomething and really focus in
(26:29):
that area, in that aspect, it'sonly going to benefit you and it
quote unquote doesn'tnecessarily make it feel like
you're working Right.
We can go on YouTube.
You know I have zero idea howto develop Right.
But if I go on YouTube andunderstand, hey, how does this
framework work, how, what is anAPI?
What does this do?
How?
How does that impact X, y and Z?
(26:52):
But it's doing it from astandpoint of like you're just
naturally curious about it andthen you're able to kind of
speak the lingo.
It only makes you sound more oflike a business professional.
So staying up to date with thelatest trends, methodologies,
you know it's just be smartabout it, right, and that's
(27:14):
something I try to dedicate atleast an hour a day.
Um, and if it's during businesshours and it's relevant, who's
to say that's not work?
Cause it really is Sure.
Kenny Massa (27:27):
I agree.
James LaGamma (27:31):
You know, um, I've got, I've gotten to like as
a, as a, as a former roommateof yours, I got to kind of see
you, uh, grow and and and kindof go through this journey
firsthand, in in in some ways,um and it it was, it was, it was
(27:51):
fun to watch.
I have to be honest, I know howmuch nerves you had in the
beginning, where you're like, ohshit, what the hell is all this
crap?
What am I getting myself into?
And then you were having yourtroubles, as you talked about
before.
But then I also saw you change,as you mentioned.
You wouldn't be the friend thatyou are today.
(28:13):
You wouldn't be the husbandthat you are today.
I've seen the growth that's comewith what work's actually
brought into your life,definitely a different person
than who you were when we werein college.
I mean, still the fun, same oldJohnny, but there's a little
bit more to Jonathan, as Ryanwould like to say, that meets
(28:35):
the eye.
Jonathan, as Ryan would like tosay, that meets the eye.
And from an outside, looking in, I'd say I've seen you hit
multiple successes.
I've seen you move throughoutyour company, changing to
different areas and different Ithink you use the term verticals
.
I don't know if that's theright industry term here, but I
(28:56):
kind of want to understand.
Even with contests, these aremetrics that you have to kind of
formulate.
Well, I've achieved success,but in the grand scheme of
things, what does successactually mean to you, as you've
gone through this journey in theworkforce and with your company
, and how you've developed overtime?
Jonny Strahl (29:16):
and with your company and how you've developed
over time.
Yeah, I think you would ask methis question maybe five years
ago.
It was about hitting salesquota, achieving goals very
specific, right X amount ofmoney, this that, reaching
milestones, which are all veryimportant, right.
(29:38):
But over time you understandreally the purpose and the why
changes and I think someonewho's really invested in growth
not only myself, but also inothers like you, start to
realize, like, what matters most, and I think it's the direct
impact on you know what successmeans to you, and I always tie
(30:00):
it back to the people, um and Isay that in a professional sense
, but it's also in a personalstandpoint you know success.
You know it's a journey, right,like it's not a destination.
I feel like sometimes peoplehave this persona like you're
going to get to the destinationand it's done right now, like
it's always a journey.
James LaGamma (30:20):
The bender continues.
Yeah, exactly, if you will, andSorry for ruining your train of
thought.
Jonny Strahl (30:31):
No, it's good.
I mean the bender continues forsure, hey, I mean the bender
continues for sure, hey.
And it always goes back to me,like it's going back to the
meaningful relationships pieceand you know, positively having
a legacy.
And you know you talk aboutcontinuous growth,
(30:53):
self-development myself.
How can I be better in allfacets of life which will get
into future state, which I knowwe're very excited Overall
impact and just the fulfillmentpiece, like you know,
business-wise, hey, I want to beable to help a client achieve
what it is that they're lookingto do and if they can do that,
(31:15):
love it.
That makes me extremely happy.
Empower colleagues, help themget to their full potential,
help you all be better, have animpact in a positive manner for
each of us, right, and at theend of the day, like you know,
(31:36):
when, when of life comes to anend, it's like you can do and
say all the things you want, butit's always about what people
say about you and I think that'swhat's most important.
And I would like to think that,when it's all said and done,
like John was his authentic self.
He was transparent, also camewith empathy, but at the end of
(32:04):
the day, you could count on him,whether it be for advice,
whether it be for help, whetherjust for being a good individual
that's trying to help you out,and I think, if you're doing the
right things, part of thisjourney that'll come.
But yeah, it's, and it's alwaysgoing to change, right?
(32:24):
You know kids, your husband,you want to be great at those.
I think sometimes work comesthird right, but that's what I
look at and how I define successto this date, right now it's.
James LaGamma (32:43):
It's nice that you've evolved from what
probably most people out ofcollege start off with and it's
monetarily driven right.
Of course.
I you have the goals you wantto reach, those successes and
and uh, you know, now it's.
You're basically investing inthe people and yourself yeah I
just it's fantastic see and it'sjust been awesome to watch from
(33:05):
the outside looking in.
Ryan Selimos (33:06):
Johnny appreciate that well, john, you stole my
second question, which was abook or resource that's
transformed you, because youkind of hit on that already.
So I'm going to go off the patha little bit here, something
you actually said to me withinthe last week because it stuck
(33:26):
with me a little bit.
You made a comment that youdemand excellence from your team
, and I think that's a very faircomment to say and I think the
proof is in the pudding fromwhat we've talked about thus far
.
My question for you is we're inan environment, we're in a
(33:47):
culture where I feel like that'snot as easy said to be done,
basically because we all want todemand excellence but it's hard
to communicate that Right.
So how do you kind of navigatethe environment we're in, you
know, socially, from a workstandpoint, where you want to be
(34:10):
cut and dry and, hey, black andwhite, demand excellence, like
we are going to be above thestandard, but at the same time
you can't be as direct, and Iknow you mentioned, you know
sometimes it's down to theindividual, but I do think that
there's some contradictory there.
It's contradicting where, onthe one hand, you know we're
(34:30):
going to expect the best, andeven more so, but on the other
hand, you can't always be thatdirect in communication of it.
So how have you navigated thosewaters?
Because, as a fellow peopleleader, I've struggled with that
myself and I think that's whyyou know when you made that
comment last week.
It's just resonated with me alittle bit, so I'd love for you
to be able to maybe share itwith us and anyone else
(34:51):
listening.
Jonny Strahl (34:55):
Okay, I would say this so funny enough.
I think I'm sure you guys allhave read the book.
It's a pretty fairly easy readand that's why I like the book.
The Energy Bus by John Gordonright, there's so many sales
books out there.
There's so many leadershipbooks out there, right, there's
(35:17):
so many sales books out there.
There's so many leadershipbooks out there, like
self-development.
There's just so much out there,right.
I'm really looking at thebookshelf and it's like start
with, why never split thedifference, like how to win
friends and influence peoplewhat that book did?
It's very simple, essentially,you're the driver, right, you're
either in or you're out in away, and there's a lot of
(35:41):
variables and a lot of factorsthat you can control.
And when I talk about thedemand for excellence, I try to
make it so simple and the threethings I look at is attitude,
effort and care.
And if you have the rightattitude, the right amount of
effort and you actually care,you'll probably be pretty good
(36:05):
at what you do and you cancontrol all those right.
It's that simple Attitude.
I've struggled with this.
Sometimes you're having a badday, ryan, I'm sure, like you
know.
Sometimes you're having a badday, ryan, I'm sure, like you
mentioned, as you lead somebody,you can't show that out, you
can't.
You can't freaking, you can'tmob, you can't kind of let that
(36:26):
attitude or the things that aregoing down in your world lean on
others or impact others.
You can control your attitude.
Care I think you truthfullyhave to care about what you're
doing and if you care, I meanit's pretty important, right.
And then just the effort piece,I mean give the effort, effort
(36:55):
to want to understand and wantto learn and want to be great,
good things will come.
So if you put it that wayattitude, effort and care,
that's the way I lead, that's mymentality and it's three simple
things that you three on thiscall could all control.
Ryan Selimos (37:16):
I appreciate that because, yeah, I think it's when
you hear that right, withoutthe explanation, you know, you
maybe you tie it to metrics,maybe you tie it to, you can tie
it to so many different things,but when, as you just broke it
down so simply, for us it's allit's, it's all on, it's all on
that individual that you'retalking to.
And, like you said, I believe,yeah, if you care, if you
(37:37):
thoroughly care about something,you probably are going to put
forth the most amount of effortpossible because you care, and
then it ties into I'm alreadyblanking on the third thing Can
you remind me Attitude, effort,effort, the attitude, and yeah,
I mean it all ties and it's allwithin your control.
(37:58):
At the end of the day, you look, you just have one person to
look in the mirror for thosethree specific topics.
Jonny Strahl (38:04):
So, again, listen, it's, it's important to
understand.
Everybody's going through things, right, sure, but you talked
about you said, metric right,you have the right care to hit
that metric.
Yeah, if the attitude isappropriate to what that metric
(38:25):
looks like and do you careenough, right, and it's not even
so much about hitting a metric,it's like what's the reason
behind the metric, which I think, as a leader, it's important to
validate and to appropriatelyhelp your team understand what
that metric is there for, right.
But, yeah, there's just threethings that you can control and
(38:46):
it's that, and I've realized,like, especially with different,
you know, generations in theworkforce and the workplace,
like there's a things that, like, you can control.
And if you can control thosethings, I'm going to be able to
fight with you, I'm going to beable to try to do whatever I can
do to help you and I'm going tohave a significant more
conviction to help champion foryou, for whatever it is, you see
(39:09):
, future site, whether it beinternally with our organization
, whether it be elsewhere,that's what it's all about, you
know it, whether it be elsewhere.
James LaGamma (39:20):
That's what it's all about, you know.
It's how can I help champions.
A quick follow-up question onthe care, attitude and effort
and in your scenario you talkabout you're driving the bus
right and you're either on it ornot.
Have you come across thesituations where maybe there was
(39:45):
attitude, care and effort butit just doesn't, it's not
working out well?
Do you put the extra time,effort, attitude and care into
that person?
Or at what point do they haveto get off the bus?
How do you handle thosesituations?
I mean, you say you want tochampion them and I feel like
you like a good underdog storytoo.
(40:07):
Right, so you could be reallyinvested in them, but at some
point shit or get off the pot.
I know, yeah, I don't know.
I just curious.
Jonny Strahl (40:20):
So there's been multiple instances right, and I
think you all have probably hadthese, these challenges in a way
.
Also, I can tell you this likeI root for people who are maybe
underperforming or notsucceeding or not hitting the
ground running, like maybe wewant them to or the company
expects them to, and thatsometimes has been a challenge
(40:46):
for my leadership style.
I've been provided feedbackwhere it's like hey, you got to
kind of get a little bit more,not harsh, but you got to set
expectations.
But I firmly believe if thosethree things are there, there's
some shape, some way.
Somehow you could potentiallyhelp that person see success.
(41:08):
Now, listen, as an individualwho's expected to lead and
develop and help, if you'veexplored every avenue, you've
done, truthfully, what it takesto try to get that person up to
speed.
There needs to be a mutualconnection where it's like, hey,
this just isn't for me, butwe've exhausted all options, I
will, uh, I'll never and saybye-bye, like that's just not my
(41:30):
mentality, that's not my style.
And a little bit of that isbecause I think there's a lot of
people we've seen succeed andthey didn't maybe hit the ground
running or they didn't do whatwas asked or hit the expectation
that was needed and especiallyin a sales environment like it's
a very sometimes cutthroatindustry.
But I think the organization Iworked with and the culture we
(41:52):
built that's not our philosophy.
And sometimes it's verybeneficial and it works out, and
then sometimes that individuallater decides to walk away or it
didn't work for both parties.
So yeah, the underdog piece isfor sure something that really
resonates now that you say it,because it's the truth.
James LaGamma (42:13):
I mean, now you have that underdog but you also
have a high performer on yourteam too.
Do you have that conundrum ofam I putting too much effort
towards an underdog where if Iput more effort towards the high
performer and they can double Xtheir output?
I mean, where do you kind ofset up that strategy as a
manager to be able to help bothparties?
(42:33):
Because there is definitelyteams that have all of these
from different spectrums, right,and you want to be able to help
both parties.
There is definitely teams thathave all of these from different
spectrums, right, and you wantto be able to cater to everyone.
You don't play favorites either, but you know there's a little
give and take there.
Jonny Strahl (42:44):
It's a great question and that's that's
something that I think is validfrom a.
If you you look at it like, ifyou look at the highest
performer, I guess it's what arethey doing well?
And really understanding, hey,what is it truthfully that you
do need help or improvement on?
And I think it's understanding,does that individual that might
(43:09):
be high performing like arethey?
Are we meeting just to meet?
Are we meeting just to catch?
Are we meeting just to catch up?
Is there a reason behind it?
But also having anunderstanding of, like I flat
out want to understand, like youknow, where that person is
within their kind of journey orcareer within that moment, and
what's going well and what's notgoing well and what can I help
(43:31):
out with.
I think my meetings are a lotof time, like hey, we have an
hour here.
Like I want to listen to youand I want to focus on what's
really most important for you toget out of this.
Um, now, if you're exhaustingmore energy in that person that
might be underperforming andtaking away from those that are
overachieving, in a way, that'sa, that's a going back and forth
(43:56):
, and you kind of got to analyzeand identify like is it a gap
on my part, right?
Um, so we all have one-on-oneswith our teams, right?
You know, we have that thattime.
But that's a very good questionand I sorry for the hard
questions.
The short answer is like, hey,I, I'm gonna spend time with the
(44:21):
person who needs it, right, andif they're asking for help, if
they want help and there's thatattitude, care and effort, sure,
let's give it to them and Iwill go out of my way, right,
and I will do whatever it takesand I will be in the weeds with
you.
Um, and then there's justpeople and we've all had them,
y'all like people that are justreally good and sometimes it's
not even that they need help,it's they need a little bit more
(44:41):
of a push because they have somuch more potential and they
just don't know.
It's there.
And that's the cool part.
And the follow-up question toyour point, ryan, when you
talked about like expect kind ofgreatness in a way, but you got
to be able to push thatboundary Right.
And it's not so much comingfrom a place where, like, we're
trying to be like, hey, you'redoing good but you can do better
(45:03):
, but like I hope and I wouldthink all of you guys have had
people in your lives that havepushed you and maybe weren't so
much quote unquote your bestfriend and you probably looked
at them in a way where you'relike dude and maybe weren't so
much.
Quote unquote your best friendand you probably looked at him
in a way where you're like dude,what is wrong with?
Like, am I going to?
And then in the end game you'relike, damn, now I see why that
(45:25):
person did that, because theysaw the true potential.
Yeah, but yeah, great question,james.
Thanks for putting me on thespot with that one.
I'll report back to you on that.
Kenny Massa (45:35):
Well, john, before we go, I got one last question,
easy question, if there's oneword that you could give Easy.
James LaGamma (45:47):
We're big on one thing lately.
Kenny Massa (45:50):
If there's one thing or one word that you could
say is important for a leaderor a manager to embody, what do
you think that is?
Whether it's a character, it'sa trait, anything.
Jonny Strahl (46:14):
I was going to give three words.
I would say Three words.
James LaGamma (46:22):
I mean, come on, we did that in football, right,
we came up with an acronym.
Yeah, we did, we did.
Jonny Strahl (46:29):
That's so true I would say, in in the day, in the
age of where we're living in,and just the people itself.
I think one thing is veryimportant is trust.
I agree a few others, but likeI'm going to throw a little
(46:49):
curveball and say trust.
Kenny Massa (46:52):
I was thinking.
Jonny Strahl (46:53):
Your word was empathy, so I was going to say
that but, I'm not going to sayempathy because I said it
earlier, I swear I was going tosay empathy.
I didn't want to say empathy,but I would say trust, because I
think if you develop trust,there's some empathy behind it.
Right, hey?
All right, empathy.
Gary V baby.
Kenny Massa (47:12):
All right, all right, john, we love it.
Ryan Selimos (47:16):
I'm going to steal the floor.
One last question.
I promise it's the last one.
Jonny Strahl (47:19):
This is for the fans out there.
Ryan Selimos (47:21):
We need to know.
We need to know.
It's come up, Jonathan.
Are you AI generated?
We need to know.
The question has been asked.
We are here today.
Are you AI generated, John?
Jonny Strahl (47:39):
I'm a pretty shitty AI generator.
Kenny Massa (47:41):
There's a lot of better things that I could
create than me.
Jonny Strahl (47:44):
I'll tell you that .
James LaGamma (47:47):
Don't sell yourself short there, John.
Don't sell yourself short.
He's AI generated.
I thought.
Jonny Strahl (47:53):
AI was supposed to be the best and greatest
technology.
I don't know If this is whatthey're putting out.
Kenny Massa (47:59):
We got a long way to go.
Oh, my God.
James LaGamma (48:03):
Oh man, that's good, that's good.
Kenny Massa (48:05):
Well, thank you for shedding light on your voyage
and on your ascension towardswhere you are today, and we have
all personally seen you growand change drastically from the
day that we've met you.
Today, we appreciate everythingthat you teach us and help us
(48:27):
understand as a leader because,like all of us, you embody a lot
of really importantcharacteristics as a friend.
We really just trust you.
We trust you a lot of reallyimportant characteristics as a
friend, yeah, we really justtrust you.
We trust you a lot.
Trust.
There you go.
Jonny Strahl (48:42):
Trust, love that.
Thanks, jance, I appreciate thetime.
Thanks for drilling me withsome questions.
I was hoping there was onequestion you guys didn't ask me
and you guys didn't Timemanagement, because I got no
time.
That'll be a separate episode.
I was waiting for that one tocome up and I was like let's
just go ahead.
Kenny Massa (49:02):
James might take that one.
He's good at that one.
James, you can take that one,awesome.
Well, until then, the bannercontinues.
Hello, today we are bringing to you an episode that
is very special.
We are bringing one of our owninto the episode, where we could
explore his mind and understandmore about his path to success,
specifically in the businessworld.
I've had a personalrelationship with this person
for a long time now literallyalmost a decade or right around
(00:31):
then and I see him as a brother.
Some people think he is my realbrother because we look alike,
apparently, and we have had many, many experiences together as a
group with this individual.
He's near and dear to our heartand we've been able to see him
go from a college student to anamazing person in the business
(00:54):
world who manages and helpspeople, guide them through their
path of success in the businessworld as a whole.
He is an amazing person.
He is a great husband and anamazing friend.
So welcome, jonathan Straw.
James LaGamma (01:14):
He's an amazing fur dad.
Oh, he's a fur dad.
Kenny Massa (01:17):
Fur dad, recent fur dad, kind of recent Recent fur
dad.
Jonny Strahl (01:20):
Yeah, Thanks for having me, gents Appreciate it,
great introduction.
Thanks, kenny Vincent Ferdad.
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Gents Appreciate it, Greatintroduction.
Kenny Massa (01:27):
Thanks, Kenny.
I want to get started on justkind of understanding from where
you were many years ago cominginto college.
I think the first time I everheard of political science was
from you, so I had no idea whatthat was prior to knowing you.
And then I had the fortune ofseeing you go through that and
(01:51):
kind of change your path throughcollege.
Really that has now led youinto the tech world and we've
seen you go through changes.
So the one thing that I want tokind of start off with and lay
the foundation for ourconversation today is what
industry are you in, what do youdo in the business world and
(02:12):
how did you get there?
Because I've seen youpersonally or we've all seen you
personally kind of change andshift and maneuver different
positions.
So can you lay that foundationfor us?
Jonny Strahl (02:23):
Yeah, no, that's a great question.
It's always a fun question,right?
So I clearly, as you mentioned,I work in the technology
consulting space.
Essentially, what I do is helptechnology groups strategize and
create ways to navigate in thecrazy chaos, technology driven
world that we're living in,which is very exciting.
(02:44):
So, at the end of the day,helping create customer
experience goals, tapping intotechnology trends that are going
to either A save money, makemoney or mitigate risks, in the
short sense, right Was nottechnical, like to think.
I'm sometimes technical, butI'm nowhere close to the experts
(03:04):
and the wonderful people I workwith on a daily basis.
But it's been quite the journey.
It's crazy to say it's almostbeen a decade of working in this
industry and you know you'realways learning something new
every single day and for thatyou know I'm very appreciative.
But also I have the opportunityto work with even more amazing
(03:25):
people just in the industry.
Kenny Massa (03:32):
Awesome.
I think that one thing I wantto kind of ask on top of that is
has your background or yourunderstanding in college and
what you studied in college?
Has your background or yourunderstanding in college and
what you studied in college?
Jonny Strahl (03:51):
has that helped shape where you are today or the
role that you're in?
Yeah, so let me give you alittle bit of a context or
background just to how I evenfound myself in areas where
maybe I flourish or do well, inareas where I've struggled and
had to learn.
Right, you know it'sinteresting, right, you always
read these books or you articlesyou can listen online.
It's like follow your passion,follow what your interest is in
(04:12):
and go, reach for the stars.
And for those that are watchingthis or listening in, like I
encourage you to do that, pleasedo that.
I think in the day in life welive in, you'd rather try to
reach those goals, reach thoseaspirations, follow your dream,
because you never want to finishin life saying I should have,
(04:33):
could have, would have.
So please follow that.
Do whatever makes you happy andpassionate, because you can
always fall back on it or fallback on a second plan if
anything changes.
You can always fall back on itor fall back on a second plan if
anything changes.
Now context we all met atStetson, right?
We all graduated, we all wentto Stetson.
More or less Football broughtus there.
(04:55):
And then there's academics,right, and you mentioned and
hinted at it, I was going to gothe political science route,
really quickly realized that isnot the route for me.
I wanted to go more into lawschool.
After speaking with professors,colleagues and mentors, our
coaches, essentially they werelike, hey, just change the
(05:18):
degree and obviously do whatyou're kind of interested in.
So I always thought I was goingto go to the sports route.
I think all of you know oursenior year.
I kind of distanced myself.
There was a lot of discovery ofyou know what the heck am I
going to do?
And you know the trials andtribulations with football.
The love was still there but Iknew I wasn't going to be the
next Tim Tebow, johnny Manziel,whatever it was, at the NFL.
(05:40):
So I kind of just wanted totake a risk and I could have
taken the safe route and went to, you know your traditional
sales and selling tickets for asingle A baseball team and those
are the a lot of the routes andangles I was pretty much going
to approach.
But I was like, hey, I'm young,talked with a lot of individuals
, what do you want to do?
(06:01):
Well, I landed on three thingsand how I approached it and it
was.
I couldn't sit behind a deskand just literally punch numbers
or look at data or just dothings that weren't necessarily
chasing something right.
I had to have an environmentwhere there's a competitive
spirit, where I can communicateskills and go out there and do
(06:22):
things and try to find solutionsright.
And then the second was likethe career development versus
growth, which I think skills,and go out there and do things
and try to find solutions Right.
And then the second was likethe career development versus
growth, which I think are verydifferent, but I wanted to find
an opportunity that couldprovide that.
Especially I'm getting out ofcollege, don't know what I want
to do.
And then the last thing was whatindustries in 10 years?
Is there a disruption and it'snot going to go anywhere?
(06:45):
And I landed on three.
It was medical, which didn'twant to be part of that, to be
honest.
Sports wanted to phase out.
And then technology.
So here we are today what Iwill say.
My background in college at OneWay Shape or Form did help
influence the way youcommunicate with individuals,
your listening skills, all thosegreat, maybe non-traditional or
(07:10):
traditional, whatever you wantto call it.
Things were definitely helpedin advance in college, but from
the tech stack and, from whatI've learned, I'm extremely
thankful because the company Iwork for and started with they
invest a lot of time, energy andeffort and you know it's a lot
of us don't get a degree, or wedo get a degree and we don't
(07:32):
land up with that degree anddoing what we're doing in future
state, which I think that's apretty much a testimony to all
of us on this call.
Kenny Massa (07:40):
Yeah, very fair to say.
You mentioned your organizationand we've seen you in different
types of leadership roles andother capacities and other
organizations that we've allbeen a part of together, whether
that be athletics orextracurricular activities,
you've been able to achieve thatleadership role.
(08:02):
Can you talk about yourascension towards that
leadership role and kind ofwhere that's placed you and also
the shift that that's takenfrom a personal perspective from
going to kind of just enteringa position to now having to
worry about others more on aconsistent basis?
Jonny Strahl (08:19):
Yeah, that's a great question and I think and
we'll probably talk about thisfuture state but you know, at
the time and growing intoleadership roles, especially in
college, like you know, theeffort, the want to be involved
and the commitment kind of ishalf the battle of finding your
(08:41):
way in those types of leadershipopportunities, right?
So there's always a focus on,hey, I want to be within an
organization to maybe grow,right, but what the biggest
piece was the development withinthe career and then shaping you
the way you would like to knowin order to really lead someone.
(09:11):
So, for me, when I think aboutleadership and just the career
growth piece and having to playboth roles where you're expected
to produce and expected toobviously lead people and help
making sure they're seeingsuccess and they're doing the
things that are going to makethem win in the long run, you
know that's what gets me going,that's what you know makes me
come to work, right, I thinkanybody who has the opportunity
(09:33):
to impact others, you find out.
It's always about the people,right, and if those people are
around you and you're doing theright practices and addressing
things that can only help themelevate in their role, good
things will come.
Now it's the delegation pieceof.
How do you delegate X amount oftime to being a producer,
growing, obviously, being in asales environment, that's one
(09:57):
thing, but then helping thosethat you're working with or
reporting to you for, howeveryou want to call it, they're
hitting their quotas and theexpectations.
It's something that's a thrill,honestly, and it's an
opportunity that I've alwayswanted.
So, again, it's an excitingopportunity where I'm at in my
career today.
James LaGamma (10:20):
You know, I remember back in the day when
you actually were going throughthe interview process, and I
remember how cutthroat thatinterview process Shoot I think
it was like three or four roundsand it sounded very intriguing,
especially as all of us weregoing through interview
processes at the time.
(10:40):
This was before even Kenny hadaspirations to become an
entrepreneur.
And you take a leap and you getthe job right.
Now you're in a whole newenvironment, right?
(11:04):
You talk about growth anddevelopment.
My question to you is how didyou essentially I'm going to use
the term fail forward to makesure that you continue that
growth and then take those failforward moments and coach up
your team members, whetherthey're lateral to you or under
you, to help them essentiallymake the same mistakes but then
learn from them and grow intheir career?
Jonny Strahl (11:31):
thus, bringing forward a more profitable
company and team and all thatkind of stuff.
Great questions.
So I'll say this when you lookat what the concept of your
question was failing forward,right, I think you look at it
this way.
It's like how are youemphasizing the learning from
the mistakes or setbacks thathappen, right, and rather
viewing them quote unquote, andI share this with individuals, I
(11:52):
share this with the team, Ishare this with myself.
Internally, it's stop lookingat so much as failures and then
how can you turn those misstepsright into growth and just
success, future state, intogrowth and just success, future
state.
I feel like probably everyone'sheard this before, but I tie it
into four F's.
It's fail fast and fail forward, right.
And then I tie big acronym guythree E's here.
(12:15):
It's really living by.
Just embrace risk-taking.
So when I say embracerisk-taking, it's okay if
there's education and ananalyzed thought process of
taking that risk.
I can tell you a leader,someone that's in your role,
someone that you've worked withbefore, whether it be in life or
(12:37):
in your career work environmentthey probably made some similar
mistakes and it's how can youactually bounce back and learn
from that?
The second is just embrace yourimperfections like, give up the
obsessive need to be perfect,right Um, and just get out there
(12:57):
and do what you think may beright, and again, it's okay to
fail.
But what are you learning inthe moment, right, um.
And then, lastly, like this ismy biggest, my biggest thing I
think I've learned over theyears is you just got to embrace
a growth mindset, right?
And if you truthfully have agrowth mindset and cultivate a
(13:21):
mindset where, if you have asetback, how am I going to seize
that opportunity if it's everpresented to me again?
Or what did I do to learn fromthat presented to me again?
Or what did I do to learn fromthat?
When it comes to the failingforward piece, though, as a
whole, and how do you practiceit every day and how do you
communicate with your team, it'sjust really kind of going back
(13:42):
to the basics.
I am never going to be someonethat's disappointed, or I'm
never going to ask someone to dosomething that I don't feel
comfortable or that I've neverdone before either, and you know
what A lot of those trials andtribulations were because I
failed and I learned from it,and it's all coming down to
trust, right.
So if you can create anenvironment where, if you're
(14:04):
leading someone and they cankind of understand where you're
coming from, I think you canhave a high performing team from
, I think you can have a highperforming team Just to kind of
cap off the fail forward portion.
James LaGamma (14:21):
From a management perspective, I'm interested to
hear your thought process.
When you have a team memberthat failed and even though they
have that growth mindset, theydon't know what they did wrong
or what's the learning pointthat they should get from this.
How do you go about?
I guess not necessarily.
Do you directly tell them hey,this is where you messed up, or
(14:42):
do you try to get them torealize the problem and kind of
figure it out themselves?
What's your approach on that?
Jonny Strahl (14:50):
So this is a very interesting and great question,
and here's my leadership styleof what I try to do is I try to
understand before, even if itgets to that point, hopefully,
where I understand how they takefeedback, like what is the best
way to communicate with thatperson?
Because, I'll tell you this,there's some people that are
like yo, just hit them straight.
(15:11):
Then there's some individualswhere we have this, saying you
got to use the sandwich effect,like you give them the good and
you give them the middle.
It's like, eh, this is whatkind of went wrong and how can
you improve.
And then, hey, end it with likea little bit better news, right
?
That's the ideal situationwhere you have a relationship
(15:36):
where you understand what theywant and how they want to be led
or provided feedback.
We love that word feedback,right, I will say this my goal
is to never give you the answer,right?
I always want to take aconsultative approach and
understand the thought processbehind why the decision was made
to do whatever it was.
And then it's talking throughand it's never a gotcha moment.
(15:56):
And I think that's one thingthat's very important is you
never want to treat it like ahey I gotcha moment and the
biggest thing is is ensuring hey, I'm not mad, I'm not upset.
What's most important is whatare we learning from this?
How are we moving forward?
And then, obviously, justcreating that environment where
hopefully there's a successtransition from that moment.
Ryan Selimos (16:23):
I'm going to key in on that word transition that
you just used.
But before I do that, johnny,just to kind of paint the
picture for everyone, would youmind just sharing with us in
your current role?
How many individuals are youleading?
Are you currently overseeing?
Jonny Strahl (16:39):
Yeah.
So it's interesting.
We talk about the wordtransformation right, where I
think every company out there isgoing through this crazy
transformation and that'ssomething internally we're going
through as well, I think,directly, indirectly.
We call it a stretch assignment.
You know, I've had theopportunity to lead anywhere
from five to seven and thenobviously just have an
(17:01):
opportunity to be the emphasisor the voice for certain
divisions or verticals, which isvery exciting, which I'm
extremely thankful.
But with that there's a lot oflearning.
So yeah, I would say give ortake.
You know, roughly the three tofive window is what we like to
be comfortable at and that'stypically what we would consider
(17:23):
, but it can sometimes be more.
Ryan Selimos (17:27):
And your current role.
Correct me if I'm wrong here.
I could be a little bit off.
Like aren't you in charge ofthe location where you're almost
overseeing?
I feel like when you told me itwas like upwards of 50 or more
individuals that you wereresponsible for in one form or
another.
Is that accurate with thatstatement?
Jonny Strahl (17:48):
So we have field offices, right Right, where you
know, depending on how many youknow, reps or sales individuals,
or on our delivery team, youknow that office could consist
of anywhere from 20 to 30 people.
Okay, it depends on the market,it depends on the area, it
depends on the region, and thenyou know, we're also aligned
(18:09):
vertically and divisionally,where what that means in
layman's terms is, essentially,how are we supporting groups
within a specific industry, froma hey, let's call it media and
entertainment, and then add thecore application standpoint, um,
which that can grow up to, youknow, another between talent,
(18:35):
delivery, and then also your,you know, your sales, your
account managers, et cetera.
You know, can, can easily goabove 50.
So, um, again, there's a lot oftransformation, which is
exciting because it's, at theend of the day, and you guys can
all understand this, it's howcan you best support your
(18:56):
customer and helping them rightand internally.
That's what our main goal isand since the pandemic, it's
been a constant.
You know, don't want to saychange, but constant.
Ryan Selimos (19:06):
Hey, let's rethink the strategy around the best
way to support that end clientand I ask that because, right,
you know, if you're someone,whether you have influence,
impact in some form or fashion.
You know upwards of 50 or morepeople, as you've mentioned,
maybe not directly but in someform or fashion.
You're recently 31 years old.
(19:26):
Happy birthday there.
But I want to talk about, likeyou, the biggest thing I think
as a young leader in corporateAmerica, the biggest challenge
that we face all the times isjust tenure and experience.
Like you have to go throughthose trials and tribulations.
You have to be enrolled, just acertain amount of time to go
through that, and you found away to kind of break through and
(19:49):
speed up that process in asense.
So what's one piece of careeradvice that's helped transform
your perspective and really aidyou on that journey as you move
through leadership?
Jonny Strahl (20:08):
Um, love that.
Thank you for teeing me up andmaking me feel so important.
I think here I'll say this outloud, and I think it's important
to set the the the theunderstanding here.
It's like I struggled a lot,sure, um, there was a lot of
questioning whether or not, youknow, this was the right
(20:30):
opportunity for me, and thereason why is because I found
out very early.
It doesn't matter where you camefrom, it doesn't matter what
you put up on the scoreboard,the talent you had.
College is college.
You're coming in and you'redealing with great people,
people that know what they'redoing, and you're dealing with
an industry and an organizationwhere there's people just as
(20:51):
hungry as you, an industry andan organization where there's
people just as hungry as you.
So your work ethic and yourpassion and your grit doesn't
necessarily mean much, unlessyou're quote, unquote, obviously
.
How are you growing?
How are you helping customers?
What's your impact from aleadership standpoint and also
externally with the customer?
And a lot of that came becausefor once, it was like hard work
(21:12):
and just grit just didn't matter.
I became uncoachable and thoseare things that, like it was
never unlike myself, like Inever.
I was always coached, we werealways coached.
We grew up coached rightplaying sports like you have to
be able to be coached to getsomewhat good right.
Um, and it was because I wasjust having a rut and got a lot
of feedback.
(21:32):
Learned a lot, a lot of greatmentors, a lot of great people
surrounded themselves around me,didn't push me off, invest a
lot of time and energy and Ilearned right, came coachable,
focused on the things that greatpeople were doing, learned
where my gaps were.
So I think the one to answeryour question as a whole from a
career advice that transformedmy perspective.
(21:55):
So a mentor, and this is a bookthat probably many people have
read.
You probably read it.
Someone on this meeting read ithow to Win Friends and
Influence People by DaleCarnegie, right, I think the
main quote and what I'm tryingto remember is you can
essentially make more friends ifyou become interested in them,
(22:17):
versus trying to go out thereand make people become
interested in you, and I tiethis into.
You need to be maniacal aboutbuilding meaningful
relationships, and when I saymeaningful relationships, that
could be externally orinternally, that could be career
driven, that could be personaldriven, and a meaningful
(22:39):
relationship is not so muchgetting caught up in the numbers
and the targets and what you'retrying to hit from a milestone
or goal for yourself, but it'sgenuinely understanding and
connecting with people bothpersonally and professionally,
and the business and theoutcomes and the deliverables
(23:03):
will come with that.
Building meaningful connectionswith people internally has
changed my life.
I would not be where I am today, I would not be half the person
I am today, I would not be thehusband, the future father I
want to be right.
I would not be the friend I amtoday if it wasn't for building
(23:26):
and really trusting thoserelationships out there.
Kenny Massa (23:32):
Good way to put it.
I think that with understandingpeople and continuing to
understand yourself and evolvingthrough just life's course and
continuing to advance yourcareer, I think that you
experience things and you startto understand how to perform
particular activities.
One thing that I'm really bigon is creating habits right,
(23:56):
Especially in an environmentwhere habits are difficult to
create right.
People want to get away fromhabits a lot of the times, but
there's habits that can becreated that are good, and
there's techniques that are goodand strong and powerful.
And there's techniques that aregood and strong and powerful.
Now we always hear of the wordlike work smarter, not harder.
(24:22):
What is one way that or onehabit that?
Jonny Strahl (24:38):
you swear by that really lives by that term, like
work smarter that you feel isreally crucial to the workforce,
or just work in general thatcan advance someone's career.
Yeah, that's an awesomequestion and I think working
smarter is something I struggledwith early on, right, and you
kind of hit it.
Right.
It's like work harder, you workhard, things should come with
it, but that's not necessarilythe case.
You know there's so many hoursin the day, right, you've got 24
hours, eight hours.
You're quote unquote sleeping.
You're at the gym, driving thisand that two, three hours all
(25:01):
together You're working.
You're spending time withfamily, friends, your dog, your
children, whatever.
Speaker 1 one thing that I'veI've found very valuable and
this is maybe not the bestexample, but it's an example
that's relevant.
That's coming to mind I talkedto someone about this a few
(25:23):
weeks ago is being naturallycurious with, like, continuous
learning.
So when I say that, like, youcan literally be naturally
curious about anything, right.
However, if you're naturallycurious about something in your
industry, it's only going tocome more natural to want to
(25:45):
look or research or dive into alittle bit more future state.
Or at the end of the day, orwhen you pick up a book.
Is it something relevant thatis dedicated to learning or
enhancing the ability for you toshow up to a customer better?
Is it understanding theevolving industry trends that
(26:06):
are happening every single day?
And that's something where it'slike okay if I could spend an
hour almost doing something Iactually enjoy and like, but
it's actually helping me furthermy understanding and
development within what I do foran occupation like it's a no
brainer.
So if you can actually findsomething and really focus in
(26:29):
that area, in that aspect, it'sonly going to benefit you and it
quote unquote doesn'tnecessarily make it feel like
you're working Right.
We can go on YouTube.
You know I have zero idea howto develop Right.
But if I go on YouTube andunderstand, hey, how does this
framework work, how, what is anAPI?
What does this do?
How?
How does that impact X, y and Z?
(26:52):
But it's doing it from astandpoint of like you're just
naturally curious about it andthen you're able to kind of
speak the lingo.
It only makes you sound more oflike a business professional.
So staying up to date with thelatest trends, methodologies,
you know it's just be smartabout it, right, and that's
(27:14):
something I try to dedicate atleast an hour a day.
Um, and if it's during businesshours and it's relevant, who's
to say that's not work?
Cause it really is Sure.
Kenny Massa (27:27):
I agree.
James LaGamma (27:31):
You know, um, I've got, I've gotten to like as
a, as a, as a former roommateof yours, I got to kind of see
you, uh, grow and and and kindof go through this journey
firsthand, in in in some ways,um and it it was, it was, it was
(27:51):
fun to watch.
I have to be honest, I know howmuch nerves you had in the
beginning, where you're like, ohshit, what the hell is all this
crap?
What am I getting myself into?
And then you were having yourtroubles, as you talked about
before.
But then I also saw you change,as you mentioned.
You wouldn't be the friend thatyou are today.
(28:13):
You wouldn't be the husbandthat you are today.
I've seen the growth that's comewith what work's actually
brought into your life,definitely a different person
than who you were when we werein college.
I mean, still the fun, same oldJohnny, but there's a little
bit more to Jonathan, as Ryanwould like to say, that meets
(28:35):
the eye.
Jonathan, as Ryan would like tosay, that meets the eye.
And from an outside, looking in, I'd say I've seen you hit
multiple successes.
I've seen you move throughoutyour company, changing to
different areas and different Ithink you use the term verticals
.
I don't know if that's theright industry term here, but I
(28:56):
kind of want to understand.
Even with contests, these aremetrics that you have to kind of
formulate.
Well, I've achieved success,but in the grand scheme of
things, what does successactually mean to you, as you've
gone through this journey in theworkforce and with your company
, and how you've developed overtime?
Jonny Strahl (29:16):
and with your company and how you've developed
over time.
Yeah, I think you would ask methis question maybe five years
ago.
It was about hitting salesquota, achieving goals very
specific, right X amount ofmoney, this that, reaching
milestones, which are all veryimportant, right.
(29:38):
But over time you understandreally the purpose and the why
changes and I think someonewho's really invested in growth
not only myself, but also inothers like you, start to
realize, like, what matters most, and I think it's the direct
impact on you know what successmeans to you, and I always tie
(30:00):
it back to the people, um and Isay that in a professional sense
, but it's also in a personalstandpoint you know success.
You know it's a journey, right,like it's not a destination.
I feel like sometimes peoplehave this persona like you're
going to get to the destinationand it's done right now, like
it's always a journey.
James LaGamma (30:20):
The bender continues.
Yeah, exactly, if you will, andSorry for ruining your train of
thought.
Jonny Strahl (30:31):
No, it's good.
I mean the bender continues forsure, hey, I mean the bender
continues for sure, hey.
And it always goes back to me,like it's going back to the
meaningful relationships pieceand you know, positively having
a legacy.
And you know you talk aboutcontinuous growth,
(30:53):
self-development myself.
How can I be better in allfacets of life which will get
into future state, which I knowwe're very excited Overall
impact and just the fulfillmentpiece, like you know,
business-wise, hey, I want to beable to help a client achieve
what it is that they're lookingto do and if they can do that,
(31:15):
love it.
That makes me extremely happy.
Empower colleagues, help themget to their full potential,
help you all be better, have animpact in a positive manner for
each of us, right, and at theend of the day, like you know,
(31:36):
when, when of life comes to anend, it's like you can do and
say all the things you want, butit's always about what people
say about you and I think that'swhat's most important.
And I would like to think that,when it's all said and done,
like John was his authentic self.
He was transparent, also camewith empathy, but at the end of
(32:04):
the day, you could count on him,whether it be for advice,
whether it be for help, whetherjust for being a good individual
that's trying to help you out,and I think, if you're doing the
right things, part of thisjourney that'll come.
But yeah, it's, and it's alwaysgoing to change, right?
(32:24):
You know kids, your husband,you want to be great at those.
I think sometimes work comesthird right, but that's what I
look at and how I define successto this date, right now it's.
James LaGamma (32:43):
It's nice that you've evolved from what
probably most people out ofcollege start off with and it's
monetarily driven right.
Of course.
I you have the goals you wantto reach, those successes and
and uh, you know, now it's.
You're basically investing inthe people and yourself yeah I
just it's fantastic see and it'sjust been awesome to watch from
(33:05):
the outside looking in.
Ryan Selimos (33:06):
Johnny appreciate that well, john, you stole my
second question, which was abook or resource that's
transformed you, because youkind of hit on that already.
So I'm going to go off the patha little bit here, something
you actually said to me withinthe last week because it stuck
(33:26):
with me a little bit.
You made a comment that youdemand excellence from your team
, and I think that's a very faircomment to say and I think the
proof is in the pudding fromwhat we've talked about thus far
.
My question for you is we're inan environment, we're in a
(33:47):
culture where I feel like that'snot as easy said to be done,
basically because we all want todemand excellence but it's hard
to communicate that Right.
So how do you kind of navigatethe environment we're in, you
know, socially, from a workstandpoint, where you want to be
(34:10):
cut and dry and, hey, black andwhite, demand excellence, like
we are going to be above thestandard, but at the same time
you can't be as direct, and Iknow you mentioned, you know
sometimes it's down to theindividual, but I do think that
there's some contradictory there.
It's contradicting where, onthe one hand, you know we're
(34:30):
going to expect the best, andeven more so, but on the other
hand, you can't always be thatdirect in communication of it.
So how have you navigated thosewaters?
Because, as a fellow peopleleader, I've struggled with that
myself and I think that's whyyou know when you made that
comment last week.
It's just resonated with me alittle bit, so I'd love for you
to be able to maybe share itwith us and anyone else
(34:51):
listening.
Jonny Strahl (34:55):
Okay, I would say this so funny enough.
I think I'm sure you guys allhave read the book.
It's a pretty fairly easy readand that's why I like the book.
The Energy Bus by John Gordonright, there's so many sales
books out there.
There's so many leadershipbooks out there, right, there's
(35:17):
so many sales books out there.
There's so many leadershipbooks out there, like
self-development.
There's just so much out there,right.
I'm really looking at thebookshelf and it's like start
with, why never split thedifference, like how to win
friends and influence peoplewhat that book did?
It's very simple, essentially,you're the driver, right, you're
either in or you're out in away, and there's a lot of
(35:41):
variables and a lot of factorsthat you can control.
And when I talk about thedemand for excellence, I try to
make it so simple and the threethings I look at is attitude,
effort and care.
And if you have the rightattitude, the right amount of
effort and you actually care,you'll probably be pretty good
(36:05):
at what you do and you cancontrol all those right.
It's that simple Attitude.
I've struggled with this.
Sometimes you're having a badday, ryan, I'm sure, like you
know.
Sometimes you're having a badday, ryan, I'm sure, like you
mentioned, as you lead somebody,you can't show that out, you
can't.
You can't freaking, you can'tmob, you can't kind of let that
(36:26):
attitude or the things that aregoing down in your world lean on
others or impact others.
You can control your attitude.
Care I think you truthfullyhave to care about what you're
doing and if you care, I meanit's pretty important, right.
And then just the effort piece,I mean give the effort, effort
(36:55):
to want to understand and wantto learn and want to be great,
good things will come.
So if you put it that wayattitude, effort and care,
that's the way I lead, that's mymentality and it's three simple
things that you three on thiscall could all control.
Ryan Selimos (37:16):
I appreciate that because, yeah, I think it's when
you hear that right, withoutthe explanation, you know, you
maybe you tie it to metrics,maybe you tie it to, you can tie
it to so many different things,but when, as you just broke it
down so simply, for us it's allit's, it's all on, it's all on
that individual that you'retalking to.
And, like you said, I believe,yeah, if you care, if you
(37:37):
thoroughly care about something,you probably are going to put
forth the most amount of effortpossible because you care, and
then it ties into I'm alreadyblanking on the third thing Can
you remind me Attitude, effort,effort, the attitude, and yeah,
I mean it all ties and it's allwithin your control.
(37:58):
At the end of the day, you look, you just have one person to
look in the mirror for thosethree specific topics.
Jonny Strahl (38:04):
So, again, listen, it's, it's important to
understand.
Everybody's going through things, right, sure, but you talked
about you said, metric right,you have the right care to hit
that metric.
Yeah, if the attitude isappropriate to what that metric
(38:25):
looks like and do you careenough, right, and it's not even
so much about hitting a metric,it's like what's the reason
behind the metric, which I think, as a leader, it's important to
validate and to appropriatelyhelp your team understand what
that metric is there for, right.
But, yeah, there's just threethings that you can control and
(38:46):
it's that, and I've realized,like, especially with different,
you know, generations in theworkforce and the workplace,
like there's a things that, like, you can control.
And if you can control thosethings, I'm going to be able to
fight with you, I'm going to beable to try to do whatever I can
do to help you and I'm going tohave a significant more
conviction to help champion foryou, for whatever it is, you see
(39:09):
, future site, whether it beinternally with our organization
, whether it be elsewhere,that's what it's all about, you
know it, whether it be elsewhere.
James LaGamma (39:20):
That's what it's all about, you know.
It's how can I help champions.
A quick follow-up question onthe care, attitude and effort
and in your scenario you talkabout you're driving the bus
right and you're either on it ornot.
Have you come across thesituations where maybe there was
(39:45):
attitude, care and effort butit just doesn't, it's not
working out well?
Do you put the extra time,effort, attitude and care into
that person?
Or at what point do they haveto get off the bus?
How do you handle thosesituations?
I mean, you say you want tochampion them and I feel like
you like a good underdog storytoo.
(40:07):
Right, so you could be reallyinvested in them, but at some
point shit or get off the pot.
I know, yeah, I don't know.
I just curious.
Jonny Strahl (40:20):
So there's been multiple instances right, and I
think you all have probably hadthese, these challenges in a way
.
Also, I can tell you this likeI root for people who are maybe
underperforming or notsucceeding or not hitting the
ground running, like maybe wewant them to or the company
expects them to, and thatsometimes has been a challenge
(40:46):
for my leadership style.
I've been provided feedbackwhere it's like hey, you got to
kind of get a little bit more,not harsh, but you got to set
expectations.
But I firmly believe if thosethree things are there, there's
some shape, some way.
Somehow you could potentiallyhelp that person see success.
(41:08):
Now, listen, as an individualwho's expected to lead and
develop and help, if you'veexplored every avenue, you've
done, truthfully, what it takesto try to get that person up to
speed.
There needs to be a mutualconnection where it's like, hey,
this just isn't for me, butwe've exhausted all options, I
will, uh, I'll never and saybye-bye, like that's just not my
(41:30):
mentality, that's not my style.
And a little bit of that isbecause I think there's a lot of
people we've seen succeed andthey didn't maybe hit the ground
running or they didn't do whatwas asked or hit the expectation
that was needed and especiallyin a sales environment like it's
a very sometimes cutthroatindustry.
But I think the organization Iworked with and the culture we
(41:52):
built that's not our philosophy.
And sometimes it's verybeneficial and it works out, and
then sometimes that individuallater decides to walk away or it
didn't work for both parties.
So yeah, the underdog piece isfor sure something that really
resonates now that you say it,because it's the truth.
James LaGamma (42:13):
I mean, now you have that underdog but you also
have a high performer on yourteam too.
Do you have that conundrum ofam I putting too much effort
towards an underdog where if Iput more effort towards the high
performer and they can double Xtheir output?
I mean, where do you kind ofset up that strategy as a
manager to be able to help bothparties?
(42:33):
Because there is definitelyteams that have all of these
from different spectrums, right,and you want to be able to help
both parties.
There is definitely teams thathave all of these from different
spectrums, right, and you wantto be able to cater to everyone.
You don't play favorites either, but you know there's a little
give and take there.
Jonny Strahl (42:44):
It's a great question and that's that's
something that I think is validfrom a.
If you you look at it like, ifyou look at the highest
performer, I guess it's what arethey doing well?
And really understanding, hey,what is it truthfully that you
do need help or improvement on?
And I think it's understanding,does that individual that might
(43:09):
be high performing like arethey?
Are we meeting just to meet?
Are we meeting just to catch?
Are we meeting just to catch up?
Is there a reason behind it?
But also having anunderstanding of, like I flat
out want to understand, like youknow, where that person is
within their kind of journey orcareer within that moment, and
what's going well and what's notgoing well and what can I help
(43:31):
out with.
I think my meetings are a lotof time, like hey, we have an
hour here.
Like I want to listen to youand I want to focus on what's
really most important for you toget out of this.
Um, now, if you're exhaustingmore energy in that person that
might be underperforming andtaking away from those that are
overachieving, in a way, that'sa, that's a going back and forth
(43:56):
, and you kind of got to analyzeand identify like is it a gap
on my part, right?
Um, so we all have one-on-oneswith our teams, right?
You know, we have that thattime.
But that's a very good questionand I sorry for the hard
questions.
The short answer is like, hey,I, I'm gonna spend time with the
(44:21):
person who needs it, right, andif they're asking for help, if
they want help and there's thatattitude, care and effort, sure,
let's give it to them and Iwill go out of my way, right,
and I will do whatever it takesand I will be in the weeds with
you.
Um, and then there's justpeople and we've all had them,
y'all like people that are justreally good and sometimes it's
not even that they need help,it's they need a little bit more
(44:41):
of a push because they have somuch more potential and they
just don't know.
It's there.
And that's the cool part.
And the follow-up question toyour point, ryan, when you
talked about like expect kind ofgreatness in a way, but you got
to be able to push thatboundary Right.
And it's not so much comingfrom a place where, like, we're
trying to be like, hey, you'redoing good but you can do better
(45:03):
, but like I hope and I wouldthink all of you guys have had
people in your lives that havepushed you and maybe weren't so
much quote unquote your bestfriend and you probably looked
at them in a way where you'relike dude and maybe weren't so
much.
Quote unquote your best friendand you probably looked at him
in a way where you're like dude,what is wrong with?
Like, am I going to?
And then in the end game you'relike, damn, now I see why that
(45:25):
person did that, because theysaw the true potential.
Yeah, but yeah, great question,james.
Thanks for putting me on thespot with that one.
I'll report back to you on that.
Kenny Massa (45:35):
Well, john, before we go, I got one last question,
easy question, if there's oneword that you could give Easy.
James LaGamma (45:47):
We're big on one thing lately.
Kenny Massa (45:50):
If there's one thing or one word that you could
say is important for a leaderor a manager to embody, what do
you think that is?
Whether it's a character, it'sa trait, anything.
Jonny Strahl (46:14):
I was going to give three words.
I would say Three words.
James LaGamma (46:22):
I mean, come on, we did that in football, right,
we came up with an acronym.
Yeah, we did, we did.
Jonny Strahl (46:29):
That's so true I would say, in in the day, in the
age of where we're living in,and just the people itself.
I think one thing is veryimportant is trust.
I agree a few others, but likeI'm going to throw a little
(46:49):
curveball and say trust.
Kenny Massa (46:52):
I was thinking.
Jonny Strahl (46:53):
Your word was empathy, so I was going to say
that but, I'm not going to sayempathy because I said it
earlier, I swear I was going tosay empathy.
I didn't want to say empathy,but I would say trust, because I
think if you develop trust,there's some empathy behind it.
Right, hey?
All right, empathy.
Gary V baby.
Kenny Massa (47:12):
All right, all right, john, we love it.
Ryan Selimos (47:16):
I'm going to steal the floor.
One last question.
I promise it's the last one.
Jonny Strahl (47:19):
This is for the fans out there.
Ryan Selimos (47:21):
We need to know.
We need to know.
It's come up, Jonathan.
Are you AI generated?
We need to know.
The question has been asked.
We are here today.
Are you AI generated, John?
Jonny Strahl (47:39):
I'm a pretty shitty AI generator.
Kenny Massa (47:41):
There's a lot of better things that I could
create than me.
Jonny Strahl (47:44):
I'll tell you that .
James LaGamma (47:47):
Don't sell yourself short there, John.
Don't sell yourself short.
He's AI generated.
I thought.
Jonny Strahl (47:53):
AI was supposed to be the best and greatest
technology.
I don't know If this is whatthey're putting out.
Kenny Massa (47:59):
We got a long way to go.
Oh, my God.
James LaGamma (48:03):
Oh man, that's good, that's good.
Kenny Massa (48:05):
Well, thank you for shedding light on your voyage
and on your ascension towardswhere you are today, and we have
all personally seen you growand change drastically from the
day that we've met you.
Today, we appreciate everythingthat you teach us and help us
(48:27):
understand as a leader because,like all of us, you embody a lot
of really importantcharacteristics as a friend.
We really just trust you.
We trust you a lot of reallyimportant characteristics as a
friend, yeah, we really justtrust you.
We trust you a lot.
Trust.
There you go.
Jonny Strahl (48:42):
Trust, love that.
Thanks, jance, I appreciate thetime.
Thanks for drilling me withsome questions.
I was hoping there was onequestion you guys didn't ask me
and you guys didn't Timemanagement, because I got no
time.
That'll be a separate episode.
I was waiting for that one tocome up and I was like let's
just go ahead.
Kenny Massa (49:02):
James might take that one.
He's good at that one.
James, you can take that one,awesome.
Well, until then, the bannercontinues.
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