Unlocking Transformation: The Power of Self-Development with John Geraghty

John Geraghty’s inspiring journey from struggling with alcoholism to becoming an acclaimed optimal performance coach showcases the power of personal transformation. After battling alcohol from a young age, John made a life-changing decision at 29 to rebuild his life through personal development, including reading a book a week for 30 years. His transformative approach is centered around his Prism of Perspective framework, which teaches that our beliefs, energy, and presence shape how we experience life. By consciously reshaping these beliefs, we can unlock profound change. John’s own physical transformation is equally remarkable—having gone from being clinically obese and in chronic pain at 45 to achieving exceptional health at 62, all through mindful movement. His story shows that lasting growth doesn’t require drastic changes but rather consistent, small improvements over time. As John says, "Wherever you are is where you are," and with honest self-assessment and small steps, you can start transforming your life today.

Highlights from this episode:

• Overcoming alcoholism at age 29 after 15 years of struggle
• Developing the Prism of Perspective framework for personal transformation 
• Understanding how our beliefs filter our experience of life
• Generating energy through fundamental practices, psychology, and flow states
• Finding flow states to increase productivity, creativity, and learning
• Creating physical transformation through consistent small actions
• Building incremental, compounding growth in all areas of life
• Starting with honest self-assessment and making manageable changes
• Physical transformation is possible at any age with just 15 minutes daily

John Geraghty's Bio

John Geraghty is an Optimal Performance Coach, speaker, and author of The Prism of Perspective. John’s journey to becoming a sought-after leader in personal and professional growth was shaped by his own life-threatening challenges, including overcoming alcoholism. Through his resilience, he reshaped his health, mindset, and definition of success. Now, John helps seasoned business leaders, align their decisions, relationships, and well-being with a long-term vision of fulfillment and impact. As the creator of Fitness Presence, he is redefining how we approach exercise, making it more effective and injury-free. John's mission is to inspire others to tap into their full potential, cultivate deeper connections, and step into a life of purpose, joy, and impact.

• Website: https://john-geraghty.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-geraghty/

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Episode Transcript

Todd Bertsch (00:10):
Welcome back to the Bolt Podcast.
I'm Todd Bertsch and I'mthrilled to be your guide on
this inspiring journey ofpersonal growth and leadership.
Together with my guests, we'lldive into transformational
stories, uncovering how small,intentional changes can create
massive positive results in yourlife From overcoming challenges
and setting impactful goals tobuilding lasting habits and

(00:33):
living with confidence, healthand positivity.
We'll explore it all and, ifyou're ready, to embrace a
growth mindset, and unlock thebest version of yourself, then
let's spark that transformationtoday.
Today's guest is John Geraghty,an optimal performance coach,
speaker and author of the Prismof Perspective.
John's journey to becoming asought-after leader and his

(00:57):
personal and professional growthwas shaped by his own
life-threatening challenges,including overcoming alcoholism.
Through his resilience, hereshaped his health, mindset and
definition of success.
Now John helps seasonedbusiness leaders align their
decisions, relationships andwell-being with a long-term

(01:17):
vision of fulfillment and impact.
As a creator of FitnessPresence, he is redefining how
we approach exercise, making itmore effective and injury-free.
John's mission is to inspireothers to tap into their full
potential, cultivate deeperconnections and step into a life
of purpose, joy and impact.

(01:38):
Listeners, get ready for aninspiring episode on how to tap
into your full potential, John.
Welcome to the Bolt Podcast, myfriend.
Thank you so much.

John Geraghty (01:49):
Todd, I'm so excited to be here with you.
We've had an opportunity youwere on my podcast and I've also
had an opportunity to listen toquite a few of yours and love
the work you're doing.
I love your heart and whereyou're coming from, so I'm
really excited for thisconversation.

Todd Bertsch (02:03):
Yeah, man, it's great to have you on the show.
Thank you for joining early.
Most of my West Coast guestsare much later in the day.
I'm a morning person.
This is when I am, like, at mybest.
So really I appreciate youjumping on because I know this
is super early for you, but Ihave to imagine I think you're
an early riser.

John Geraghty (02:20):
I'm an East Coaster, so yeah.
I've been up for a few hours bynow.

Todd Bertsch (02:24):
Yeah, good, good.
So, yeah, you and I are soaligned right when we talked and
that's why I wanted to have youon the show.
I have so much respect for whatyou're doing and the
intentionality that you bringinto everything that you do, I
think is really powerful, so I'mexcited to get into this, john.
So, to kick things off, justtell us a little bit about these

(02:45):
challenges, thislife-threatening challenge that
you endured, and how did thisreally influence your life and
becoming the leadership coachthat you are today.

John Geraghty (02:57):
Well, thank you for that.
I think it's really helpful tothink back at.
How did it go off the rails?
Why did it go off the rails?
What was alcohol providing forme?
And I started drinking at 14years old and up until that time
in my life I had my family.
You know my family dynamics.
My parents divorced when I waspretty young.
My father was completely out ofmy life and you know so.

(03:18):
My mom was very loving, but youknow, we were living in a space
where stuff was starting tochange and so when I went from
being like an excellent studentand pretty athletic and
everything and between eighthand ninth grade is really where
my life seemed to crumble- andit seems odd, but like that
summer it's.
And right at the beginning ofthat school year I went from

(03:40):
always felt like I was a facaderight, I was an imposter, but I
was like I was an imposter thatwas having success, and so I
didn't really believe in what Iwas doing in myself, but I was
still creating a lot of greatoutcomes.
And then over the summer I getreally bad cystic acne, you know
, like one of a hundred peopleor thereabouts, you know,
probably get it whatever youknow.
So pretty bad.
And it went from being a prettyattractive kid that had lots of

(04:02):
cute little girls to a personthat I found to be hideous
looking.
And then I went from being kindof like what would have been
the best student in my middleschool.
And the day that high schoolstarted I met in class the kid
that will ultimately become ourvaledictorian in high school and
our teacher in our socialstudies class gave us a semester

(04:22):
assignment and it was, yeah, Iforget what it was, but what I
do remember is he turned his inthe next day and it was
completed and I looked at it andI was like, wow, I've never
done anything like that.
And so all of a sudden like Iwasn't really that cute, maybe I
wasn't really that smart.
And then in PE class I'd beenthe fastest kid in my middle
school.
And then James Shanks beat mein the 50 yard dash, so

(04:44):
everything like I think I hadhad been held holding onto this
like I'm the best.
I didn't really believe it, butI would.
The results were kind ofshowing up that way.
And then all of a sudden, likeimmediately everything collapsed
and about three months later Igot introduced to alcohol and I
blacked out the first time Iever drank.
Blacked out, got drunk thefirst time I ever drank and did
that for 15 years.

(05:05):
So all through high school, allthrough college and the
beginning of my working years, Iwas a functioning alcoholic, in
that I would show up.
I didn't perform really well inhigh school, I didn't perform
really well in college, and soeverything was falling apart and
I tried to get sober a bunch ofdifferent times.
But right around when I justturned 29, october birthday,

(05:27):
right at New Year's I'm lookingat my life and I'm looking.
I have some skills right.
I'm a pretty good communicator.
I had some successprofessionally in sales, but I
was looking at it.
I'm like no matter what if Ikeep drinking.
I couldn't deny the fact that Iwas going to end up in jail,
kill someone in a car accident,just totally sabotage my life.
And so I knew I had to getsober.

(05:50):
And at that time Anthony Robbinswas just coming out with his
personal power series and myroommate had purchased it, and
so I listened to it and therewas a section in it on I think
he calls it the Dickens pattern.
I've kind of used it.
I call it the Scrooge patternbecause it's really about
Scrooge and it's the idea thatwhen, if you think about Scrooge

(06:11):
right, the way that theyshifted his behavior is they had
him look at his past, hispresent and his future.
Right, the ghosts came and theyshowed him like here's where
this behavior has cost you inthe past, here's where it's
costing you in the future.
This is what it's going to costyou.
And so that's literally the usethat pattern to challenge, to

(06:36):
really look at where alcohol wastaking me.
And we were always moving towardpleasure and away from pain.
So, up until that time, eventhough there was destruction in
the alcohol in my life, I still,on whole, saw it as a pleasure,
right, as something that wouldrelieve the insecurity or the
discomfort.
And I had to switch it so thatit felt really so bad.

(06:56):
The idea of like, okay, I'mgoing to end up in prison or
under a bridge, or having killedsome you know really bad stuff
which I wasn't under a bridge,or having killed some you know
really bad stuff which I wasn'tthat's probably what would have
happened.
And so once the associationbecame so strong, then I was

(07:18):
able to begin to put togetherdays, right, and I, because the
Anthony Robbins stuff was soimpactful I leaned into I didn't
do AA, I leaned into personaldevelopment, and I, since that
time.
I've read a book a week for 30years, essentially.
Oh gosh Of personal development,communication, relationships,
organizations, whatever it isthat I felt the need.
But I began to be a learner andI think I was also trying to

(07:39):
make up for the 15 years that Iwasn't, Because I kind of blew
off school.
I got through, but me and thedean's List we're not that
familiar with one another.
So I began to be a learner andI got really interested in what
got me into coaching, I thinkeventually, was you know, some
people are like people don'tchange.
I'm like no people.

(08:00):
People change.
I became a different person.
You know, I transformed my ownlife and it changed me so much
and the reward was so great thatit began to be something that I
felt like I really needed andwanted to share with people.
And so I got into the financialservices industry, which was a

(08:21):
career that I was building.
In that industry I had a periodof time, just a short, brief
period of time, where a bunch ofclients three clients at big
life-changing events that didn'thave to do with their money, it
had to do with the rest of theway they were living their lives
.
I thought, hey, maybe I canexpand what I'm doing.
I thought I'd do both, but Iwas just once I started coaching
and developing.
It was, you know, it was thething that lit me up and I was

(08:43):
like you know what?
I got a long time to go herewith my career.
I'm gonna do what lights me upand that's really how I got into
coaching and development.
And I'm a learner.
I love to learn.
Obviously, I read, you know,read a book a week and then what
that allows me to do is, ifyou're really a learner, what
you you learn to teach, right?
I don't learn to keep it inside, I learn to share it, just so

(09:04):
that those natural attributesthat I was suppressing so much
came into play.
And it's been a really funjourney.
I feel like I'm livingauthentically doing this work.
So, yeah, it's kind of how Igot started.

Todd Bertsch (09:19):
Man.
Thank you, john, for beingvulnerable and sharing that
intimate details.
Wow, what a story.
Vulnerable and sharing thatintimate details Wow, what a
story.
I mean good for you.
I mean kudos to you, for not alot of people will, on their own
, make that choice.
We all have the potential, thecapacity, the innate ability
right to change, evolve, but youstill have to make that choice.

(09:42):
You know, I do believe in ahigher power and the fact that
you, that book, that messageright, was brought into your
life and it sounds like it had atremendous impact on you.
You had to make the choiceright to make that next step.
But that came into your lifeand it sparked curiosity in your
mind.
It said, hmm, what if?

(10:02):
What if I did things a littlebit differently, what would my
life look like?
And look where you're at today,brother.
I mean and I love what you saidabout reading I never really
thought about it like that, butthat is powerful.
I'm going to quote that, quoteyou on that.
You know you learn to share andyou know it's interesting.

(10:23):
You and I and we talked aboutthis on your show we have almost
identical parallels.
You're just a little bit olderthan me, but I went through the
same thing about the same ageand, interesting enough, went
down a similar path, and it'sinteresting how we find our path
and our journey and our purposein life.

(10:43):
I think the most effective andpowerful coaches are ones that
have been through some trauma orsome really life-changing event
, like you and I have, because Ithink you have to go through
something to really build thatresilience and that deep empathy
for people and to be able toshare that in a vulnerable way

(11:06):
opens yourself up, get you outof your comfort zone, and people
can look at that and say, wow,this guy is real, he's authentic
, he's been there, so I think hecan help me Right, and it's I
don't know, it's just reallypowerful.
John, thank you for doing thatand sharing that with us.

John Geraghty (11:21):
Yeah, you know, like you mentioned curiosity, I
think you know when we'recurious, both about what you
know maybe we're consuminginformation on the outside but
really curious about ourselves,right, and we take the time to
think about, like, what do Ireally believe in?
You know, what are my beliefs?
Not something I, you know here,believe this, right, but really

(11:42):
looking at your life and say,what do I believe in?
What's my purpose?
Like, why am I here?
One of the things I think I liketo think about is, like, if you
were, if you were God, right,if you were God and you were
responsible for creating valuesthat were emanating out into the
universe, what values would youchoose?
Because that's essentially whatwe're doing, right, we're

(12:03):
living our values.
We are a center that puts outinto the world right, it
radiates out into the world whatwe believe in.
And if we're living thosevalues, you know, we are in
effect creating more and more,kind of, like Gandhi said, right
, be the change you want to seein the world.
And I think curiosity, takingthe time to know who you are and

(12:24):
what you believe in, allows youto be.
The name of my company isCourageous Authenticity, and I
think it's because, if you knowwho you are and you've done the
work, you can be courageouslyauthentic, because you now
you're not there by accident,right, it's not.
You know if somebody, if manypeople, are going to see the
world differently, right,everybody sees the world
differently.
But if you are solid on whatyou believe, because you've done

(12:47):
the work, it's okay that otherpeople may judge you.
Or you know, okay, they'rejudging you because their values
are different than yours,that's okay.
But if you know what yours are,then you can really lean in.
And I find that to be a reallygreat place where curiosity, you
know, curiosity has played ahuge role.
Yeah, absolutely.

Todd Bertsch (13:08):
We always say at our office we have core values
which we really believe in andstand tall.
You know, at the end of the day, we just want to hang our hat
right on the rack and feel goodabout how we handled ourselves,
the relationships, our clients,the work that we're doing.
If we do that, there's nothingelse we can do.
You know, our clients, the workthat we're doing If we do that,

(13:30):
there's nothing else we can doWe'll feel good about it.
So the work's going to be theretomorrow.
But aligning with those corevalues is what we set out to do.
And, john, this is a great segueinto the prism of perspective.
I mean, this has been kind ofyour life's work and it's very
unique and I love learning aboutit on your show and I really
want to spend some time herebecause this is a really cool

(13:51):
model.
So, if you can take us throughwhat the prism of perspective is
all about and it starts withyour life and your beliefs,
right, your mindset it reallydoes.
Yeah, and then this was a book.
You have a podcast about this.
One-to-one coaching Like thisis really the center of who you
are and what you're doing.
So here, man, the floor isyours, take us through, educate

(14:15):
us.

John Geraghty (14:16):
So there's a quote that I love and Robert Box
I believe he's a Englishphilosopher, mathematician, and
he said all models are wrong,some are useful.
I hope Prism of Perspective isuseful and we'll send out the
graphics on it so people canlook at it if they really like
it.
But if you've ever seen theDark Side of the Moon album

(14:36):
cover, which most people have?

Todd Bertsch (14:38):
Yeah, that was the first thing.
When I saw that, I said, oh.

John Geraghty (14:41):
Dark Side of the Moon.
So the idea is, if you thinkabout how light works, right,
white light goes into a prismand then it's refracted and it
pulls out all the differentcolors of the rainbow, but all
those colors are actually insidethe white light.
And so if you think about ourlives, I look at the prism
having three sides, right, soour life comes at us like white

(15:03):
light and all of theopportunities, all everything
that's in the world is coming atus in this way, and then we're
going to filter it through thethree sides of the prism, which
I call our beliefs, our energyand our presence.
And so the beliefs the mostpowerful influence in your life
is your identity.
Beliefs, because they act as athermostat for your life.

(15:26):
Right, you're not going to actsignificantly outside of what
you believe is true, and I knowthat you do a lot of
visualization work, you do a lotof affirmation work.
You know those are the thingswhen you get clear.
Right, you're affirming whatyou believe to be true about
yourself.
And so you know you never wantto say anything about yourself
that you don't want to be true,and you do want to say about

(15:47):
yourself what you do want to betrue and it can be aspirational.
I mentioned the name of mycompany is Courageous
Authenticity.
When I named it, there wasstill growth, right, but I mean
I was not as courageouslyauthentic as I wanted to be, but
it was a value that I had.
I was like I want to live acourageously authentic as I
wanted to be, but it was a valuethat I had.
I was like I want to live acourageously authentic life.

(16:07):
And so, like you said,visualize what does that look
like.
How do you affirm that intoyour life?
And so you create theseidentity beliefs, which, to me,
are your life story, kind ofyour hero's journey.
How'd you end up here?
You overcame all thesedifferent things.
You know, I shared a little ofmy hero's journey.
Right, your purpose from whereyou are today, right, it has to
continue to evolve.

(16:28):
So I'm 62.
And so a lot of people havethis vision, especially business
owners and entrepreneurs andthings along those lines, and
maybe they built the businessthat they wanted and they have a
clear vision for that, but theymight find themselves at 62,
really unclear about whatthey're going to do next.
So what is the impact you wantto have based on your current

(16:49):
skills, talents, gifts, passions.
How do you want to employ thoseto make a difference in your
life?
So you can think about okay, Iwant to arrange my energy and my
attention in a way that's onpurpose living on purpose, right
, not accidentally.
I'm living with intention.
I'm living on purpose.
Then you think about what arethe values right?
Not accidentally, I'm livingwith intention, I'm living on
purpose.
Then you think about what arethe values right?
So we talked a little bit aboutthat.

(17:10):
How do you want to show upwhat's most important for you to
emanate into the world?
If there was tons of thatenergy, if there was tons of
that in the world and you weretrying to create the ideal world
, what would that be?
So now you know I'm going tolive on purpose and this is how
I'm going to show up as I try tocreate that outcome.
You get clear on the vision.
I like to think of it from a fewdifferent sections.

(17:31):
I like to think about theimpact I have with my
relationships, my family, thecommunity, professionally, but
also me, like how am I evolving?
What skills am I developing?
What's going on physicallyright?
I want to think about when I'm75,.
I want to be physicallyfunctional when I'm 85, I want

(17:53):
to be physically functional.
I want to be able to do thethings I want to do.
So having that vision of an85-year-old still being able to
crush it, you make differentchoices than if you're somebody
that's 62 and says I'm in prettygood shape for my age, right,
or you know, I don't even knowwhat that means Like cause you
really shouldn't be diminishingas long as you're doing not

(18:15):
overwhelming stuff.
That's the other thing.
We can stay physically vital byjust doing the basics right.
There's biohacking galore outthere, but I'm like, okay, 90%
of it.
Are you getting enough sleepand rest?
Are you eating food that'snutritious and whole and gives
you all your vitamins andmicronutrients?

(18:35):
And I supplement I thinksupplementation's good.
I also take hormones becauseI'm 62 and I find that I live
better that way.
Are you exercising enough thatyou're challenging your body?
You're creating a physicalenvironment that your body has
to continue to be ready for.
In a way, our body is arepresentation.
Our current level of fitness isa representation of the

(18:57):
environment that we're forcingit to live in, and so if your
environment is like you'resitting back on a chair clicking
, you are in perfect shape to dothat, right?
You come home from work, yousit down on the chair and you're
like, okay, yeah, I can'treally walk very far.
Why would your body give youthe capability of doing
something you never ask it to do?

(19:17):
On the flip side, if youconsistently ask yourself, your
body say, hey, you know what, weneed this strength, we need
this cardiovascular, we needthis cardiovascular, we need
balance, we need coordination,we need flexibility, right?
If you consistently tell yourbody like, okay, in our life,
this is stuff we're going toneed, then your body will
continue to hold on to it andmost likely continue to expand

(19:39):
in its capacity for a reallylong time.
And so I think that's good.
And when you think about thebeliefs, when you start to
believe those things, you startto see opportunities for it.
Right.
And so the beliefs beliefsabout yourself.
Next are beliefs about others.
How do you see others?
Because we're in acollaborative world, and if you

(20:02):
have judgment about differentgroups of people and you're
starting to separate yourself,martin Luther King said you
can't influence people for whomyou have contempt, right?
So think about how you'reseeing different groups of
people.
Are you looking at how you'redifferent or are you looking for
opportunities to work togetherand collaborate right.
And then, finally, how do yousee the world?
Is it a dangerous place?
Are there scarce resources?
Or is that just a story?

(20:22):
We've been sold and at somelevel the brain's wired to look
for danger.
But if you flip that and startto say we live in a really safe
world, think about all thethings that happen where someone
doesn't get hurt, there isn't acrime, it's way more safe.
Right Magnitudes.
You think about abundance.
Any person listening to thispodcast is living with a level

(20:45):
of abundance most likely thatkings didn't have.
Regardless of the amount ofgold they had or whatever they
had, they did not have theabundance to impact the world,
create the world, connect withthe world, travel the world that
we have.
So the stories we tellourselves to me, so many people
are like no, don't tread on me.
Somehow or another, we're beingtread upon Top few percent of

(21:09):
people in the richest country inthe world and life is horrible
and it's a terrible thing, Ibelieve, if we flip it and have
gratitude which I know isanother one of your big things.
There we go Be grateful, becauseyour gratitude shifts what
you're looking for.
You look for what's great inthe world.
You look for you know what isthat, and so that's the beliefs
piece.
Energy piece is how do yougenerate energy?
And I look at it three waysfundamental, psychological and
flow.
Fundamental is the things wetalked about exercise, nutrition

(21:31):
, sleep, rest, the middle part,positive psychology practices.
We talked about affirmation,gratitude, forgiveness,
compassion, visualization,breathwork, meditation,
mindfulness, journaling.
All of those things are tools.

(21:52):
I like to think of all of thoseas like clubs in your golf bag,
and you should probably besomewhat adequate at all of them
, but there's probably a handfulof them.
You want to play all the time,right?
You probably play your threewood all the time.
You play your five iron orwhatever it is.
You want to have some go-tosthat when you get anxious or you
get frustrated or whateveryou're like.
Oh, I know what to do.
Let me change the way I'mbreathing, let me change the way
I'm standing, let me get reallymindful and be in the present

(22:15):
moment.
Right?
What are the practices that youhave access to?
What tools have you developedso that you can really thrive?
Then the next piece is anotherarea that I love is really about
how do you live in flow,because there's a huge
difference between how we showup based on whether we're in
flow or we're in overwhelm andflow?
For those of you unfamiliar,it's defined as a state of

(22:38):
consciousness where we feel ourbest and perform our best right,
and so when we think about that, it's like we're tapping into
our greatest resources.
And you ever show up somewhereand like your state's just not
right.
You can't even think ofanything.
You're like oh, my name's Todd,what's my last name?
Right?
But other times you almost areamazed by what you're capable of
.
Well, the difference is howwell you're tapping into your

(23:01):
highest and best resources,aspects of your capabilities,
right, always cognitivecapabilities.
Even physical stuff iscognitive.
The muscles are there, but thebrain and the neural system is
what's making everything move.
But if we're in flow, in thatspace, right at the edge of our
capabilities, without going intooverwhelm, we tap into a
cocktail of neurochemicals,neurotransmitters dopamine

(23:26):
oxytocin, anandamide, serotonin,endorphins.
So it's almost like we're takingthis super drug peak
performance cocktail, but it'sperfectly designed to allow us
to optimize our lives.
And so when you're thinkingabout energy, are you in flow?
Did you find that space whereyou're challenged but not

(23:46):
overwhelmed, not bored?
You don't want to be boredbecause there's not enough.
You don't want to beoverwhelmed, you want to be
right in that Goldilocks space.
And so, being intentional aboutfinding Goldilocks and building
it into your life through theway you intentionally calendar
your day calendar, your weekcalendar, your month calendar,
your year, think about I want tobe putting in times where I

(24:07):
have rapt attention.
I'm focused exactly on what Iwant to create.
It's got all of my attention.
I'm going to go hard and I'mgoing to give myself a little
recovery time and I'm going todo it again, and those things
give you the energy to go, bringthat vision that you had to
life.
Last piece is presence, kind ofthe Viktor Frankl space between
stimulus and response, and sowhen you think about that you

(24:29):
say, okay, I want to be present.
And kind of the mindfulnesspractice.
A lot of these things work thisway, right, so the beliefs are
empowered by the practices youhave down here, and so is your
presence right If you have agood mindfulness practice,
breathwork practice, somethingthat might trigger you.
Otherwise, you're like, oh,that's cool, I can get back into
my state so that you can act inalignment.
I think of it as self-awareness, situational awareness, and

(24:52):
then influence.
And so self-awareness to me isunderstanding what are my
identity, beliefs and how am Ishowing up right now.
How do I bring them together?
So, all of a sudden, I gettriggered and here's how I want
to behave, here's how I'm aboutto behave.
If I'm present enough, I can gooh, let me pull those together.
Right, you know?
And even if I misbehave overhere, I hopefully have the

(25:17):
integrity to say hey, you know,what I responded to you in a way
that you know was out ofalignment.
That you know I didn't meanthat and I came at you too hard,
so you may even mess it up inthat present moment if you're
not right, but then you canrecover.
Situational awareness is payingattention like, hey, I just did
this.
How'd that person respond?
How did it hit them?
What's important to them?

(25:37):
Because we're going to do thiscollaboratively.
If we're going to do anythingthat really matters, we're going
to do that and when weunderstand our beliefs, our
energy and our presence.
That allows us to live ourlives as creators and partners
and collaborators.
If we don't, we end up lookingat the world as if it's
dangerous.
It's against us, people areagainst us and we live our lives

(25:57):
as victims or whatever.
And so the rainbow part of this, the different colors are how
are you showing up?
Low level is victim, fighter,negotiator, contributor, and
then you get into collaboration,partnership and co-creation as
you move up and it's really avent, energy, vibrational lift.
So that's kind of that.
And so, through the Prism ofPerspective, the book is a story

(26:20):
about someone who kind of goesthrough that self-awakening.
It's like a self-developmentnovel, I would call it.

Todd Bertsch (26:26):
The podcast.

John Geraghty (26:26):
We really look at people's lives through that and
I encourage everybody to kindof look at your life and think
about, like, what are yourbeliefs?
Are they really empowering you?
Are you telling yourself astory that gives you access to
your highest and best so you cancreate what you want?
Are your practices aroundfoundational energy, positive
psychology practices and evenscheduling?

(26:46):
Are you getting yourself to theplace where you can really rock
and you're really acceptingresponsibility to be present, to
live in alignment with yourvalues?
Because it's cool to have themstated, but if you allow
yourself to act outside of yourvision, it's important.
Victor Frankl says the mostimportant thing is a space
between stimulus and response,where we can choose our

(27:08):
behaviors and our attitude.
So, regardless of what'shappening, we can always choose
that and get back in alignment.
And those things together, Ithink, are really great tools to
help people continue to growand develop and become who they
want to be.
And that's the yeah, you'reright, that's what I'm
passionate about, that's thework I love to do and that's
really a lot of the frameworkabout the coaching and

(27:29):
development that I do.
Really, looking at thosedifferent elements, and I think
of them all as like little dialsthat you can dial in tighter,
like, are you dialed in tight onyour identity, beliefs in a way
that they are compelling andinspiring and clear, and you
know what that means?
And are you looking at how yousee other people?
And are you like one of thetalk about compassion as a

(27:50):
practice?
I used to do this compassionmeditation where you kind of
start off with yourself and yourfamily and you build your way
out being compassionate, youknow, and you, over a few
minutes you're like all of asudden compassionate with the
whole world.
Well, I was doing that practiceand I was realizing I'm like,
okay, I'm kind of lying tomyself because I have judgment
about this group and I gotjudgment about this group, and

(28:10):
so what I had to do is reallyfigure out where were my
judgments, where were myseparations, and think about,
okay, how do I practicecompassion specifically in that
area?
And think about how do I movefrom?
If you think about energy,right, so you might have really
really really low energy withsomeone a hatred energy right,
so you might have really reallyreally low energy with someone a
hatred, a contempt, dislike,you know, pity, sympathy,

(28:30):
empathy, compassion and lovewould kind of be an escalating
scale and so figure out, likewith this group, that I'm
prejudging where are they for meand how do I figure out, okay,
how do I incrementally moveupstream?
Those are the things that wework on a lot in our work, and
the people that I love to workwith are successful business

(28:53):
owners, entrepreneurs andprofessionals who are mature,
kind of 45 to 65 range that wantto continue to thrive, want to
challenge the belief system thatwe're at the end.
This is a period of my life.
I believe that we should reallybe crushing it.
We have more capabilities, moreskills, more experience, more

(29:15):
insight than we've ever had.
This is not the time to get offthe playing field.
This is the time to dive in andthink about.
What do you really want tocreate in every aspect of your
life, you know, so that that wecan make that happen?

Todd Bertsch (29:27):
Ooh man, john, that was incredible dude.
Oh my gosh.
Wow, that was.
I mean you and I, I'm all aboutall that stuff Like you were
talking.
We talk about all those thingsand just kind of micro pieces
man, that's a that's a hell of amodel and we're going to show
this.
We'll have it in the video aswell, so when you send the
graphic and we'll have links toall your stuff in the show notes

(29:49):
.
I absolutely love this, john.
I absolutely love it.
I can tell you're passionateabout it.
I believe in all this as well.
We talk a lot about this on theshow.
You know, I think for a lot oflisteners it's just about
getting started.
So hearing this sounds like alot and I love the golf metaphor
I'm not a golfer for a lot ofdifferent tools, right, a lot of

(30:12):
education and knowledge abouteach one of the clubs and the

(30:33):
weather and it right, there'sall these different things and
it can feel overwhelming andthat's how a lot of people see
personal growth.
It's like, wow, john, that wasgreat.
I absolutely love that.
But man, how do I get started?
So and I know you work, likeyou said, and I love how
intentional you are You're likeI'm working with 45 to 65, that

(30:53):
20 year span, like this is mygroup and I absolutely love that
.
But what if there's somebodywho's maybe younger than that
that is struggling?
They have the curiosity, sothey are open, right To some
degree to at least exploringthis.
How does somebody get started?

(31:13):
Like what would be a first we?
We talk a lot about just makinga small shift, just getting
started.
Right, don't.
Don't be afraid of all thisJust get started with one thing
what would you recommend?
I?

John Geraghty (31:25):
think the recommendation is somewhat
bespoke, based on where theindividual person is right.
Are they really havingchallenges around their energy?
Are they having challengearound self-confidence?
Are they having challengesaround their relationships, you
know.
So what I think that isimportant that you're bringing
up is you don't have to, youdon't address it all at the same

(31:46):
time, right?
You really think about okay,over the next 90 days, where do
I want to grow?
What is the area that I'd liketo get better at?
And one is kind of doing anaudit, figuring out like where
are you and, being honest, Do alife audit.

Todd Bertsch (32:01):
Yep, I have a tool for that.

John Geraghty (32:03):
Yeah, yeah.
So you know, pick up Todd'stool around.
You know how do you audityourself in these different
areas.
Give yourself an evaluation.
You know where are you on ascale from?
I'm horrible at this.
I'm in a bad space all the wayto where I'm totally crushing it
, and then looking at it andsaying, okay, where is the place
that, if I were to make achange, it would have the most

(32:26):
significant impact in helping mecreate the life that I want?
And for me, one of the mostimportant things I've learned is
all growth is incremental andcompounding and so, wherever you
are, all you have to do ischallenge yourself a little bit
at the edge, become a littlebetter.

(32:47):
So, if it's, if you say youknow what I don't really I'm
kind of always like looking outin the wind to figure out like
who people want me to be, ratherthan looking internally Then I
would say, okay, it's probablyimportant for you to think about
really what are your values?
You know what?
If you looked at the world andyou looked at all the different
things in your society, wherewould you like to have some

(33:09):
impact and just getdirectionally clear about your
purpose and get directionallyclear about what that would look
like and think about okay, whatare my gifts, what things am I
going to use?
Because I know a lot of usdon't recognize our natural
gifts because they come so easyto us and we don't really think

(33:32):
like, oh, this is something thatreally adds a lot of value.
But look in your life and thinkabout how have you solved
challenges, how have you met,overcome obstacles, what were
the gifts you were using?
And get kind of clear on whoyou are.
This is what my purpose is,this is what I'd like to create.
Here's who I want to be.
And then think about okay, nowI'm going to take those and put

(33:53):
those to use on an ongoing basis.
And what is wonderful is thatthere's a long tail of human
development.
In other words, we keep gettingbetter and better and better,
but we get a lot of it at thebeginning.
Right, the difference betweenbeing in the bottom quartile as
it relates to someone whounderstands who they are, what

(34:15):
they value, what their gifts are, et cetera, and even just kind
of moving up to like being inthe middle of the pack huge
difference.
And then you just take thatfrom there.
So think about, like my storywhen I was 29 and I was
alcoholic, right, you know, mynext steps weren't like cool,
I'm put the drink down, I'mrocking the world.
Right, it was.
I'm a little better and for medependability was a bad issue.

(34:37):
Right, dependability to selfand others.
Right, integrity on what I said, my word.
So gradually building that,build your confidence.
Right, when you holdcommitments to yourself, all of
a sudden you're like I'm alittle bit more dependable than
I used to be and then it allowsyou to kind of build from there.
So I think that's criticallyimportant.

(34:57):
I think you have to have energy.
So energy practices, I wouldsay you don't have to get really
rigid with anything.
You can move thereincrementally.
Begin to move right.
If you're not really moving.
Begin to challenge your body,awaken your body.
One of the things that I saythat, I think, is I say it
intentionally to get somebody tolike look at you like you're a

(35:19):
jerk.
I'm like man, I love my bodyand I don't.
I'm pretty fit and all thatstuff.
But what I love is that I dolove my body, right, I treat my
body in a great way.
I love it, just like I love mywife and I treat my wife really
well and I love my kids.
So do you have a lovingrelationship with your body,
because your body will love youback, whatever you do?

(35:42):
You're maybe familiar with thesaying you can't out give the
universe right, so you can't outcontribute to your body.
When you start to do things,little things, eat whole foods
and nutritiously, in properamounts, and do some movement,
that you're awakening your body.
All of a sudden you have arelationship with this thing
you're going to take everywherethat is now rewarding you in

(36:03):
every second now.
So I think those are you know.
I look at it again.
I think the identity beliefspiece like understand who you
are.
Spend some time with that andyou can write your stuff down.
But it's all dynamic, likewhatever you come up with today,
it should continue to change.
Your purpose is going tocontinue to evolve as you
understand more.
Your vision is going tocontinue to evolve.

(36:23):
You're going to have adifferent understanding of what
is it that I really value?
You're not going.
This is not going in stone.
Have a different understandingof what is it that I really
value.
You're not going.
This is not going in stone.
This is an introductory, justgetting clear on what it is you
want to do and how do you wantto move?
And the same with the exercisepiece, right?
I exercise every day and I havefor a long time.
I'm pretty, I'm very consistentthere and I you know.

(36:43):
But what I do is I just makesure that I'm using my body, my
bar, to get over.
By the way, to say I exercisedbecause I worked out for 15
minutes who can't do that?
It's 1% of your day.
Literally, 14 minutes and 24seconds is 1% of a day.
So it's 1% of your day and ifyou take 1% of your day and
invest it in this thing, it willpay you back for the other 99%.

(37:07):
The return on investment is sohuge.
What I think is really importantis recognize, wherever you are,
your body's going to adapt tothe environment that you put it
in.
And you don't want to go like,say, you're here physically and
you want to end up here, right,you want to end up here.
Today's exercise shouldactually be right, here, right.
It doesn't have to be where youthink you're going to end up,
just gradually compound and Ithink that's true physically.

(37:31):
I think that's true whetheryou're trying to learn technical
skills or communication skillsor how to be comfortable in
relationships or high-stakesconversations begin where you
are.
Only place you can begin.
I actually heard you quoting laotzu the other day.
Right, the journey of athousand miles begins with one
step.
All of our journeys begin fromone step, and I think that right

(37:52):
before that, in the Tao, itsays something along the lines
like know where you are right.
So your journey from a thousandsteps starts with just one step
.
But a thousand miles startswith one step.
But it also starts where youare.
You don't ever get a Google mapthat says you know, here's
where you want to go, and theydon't bother to figure out where
you are.
So start where you are and thenincrementally compound and grow

(38:18):
in ways that light you up andthink about how much fun growth
is right.
It doesn't have to be this, youknow.
Think about like this is youcreating yourself that, like
michelangelo and the statue ofdavid?

Todd Bertsch (38:32):
you're familiar with that story uh, yeah, I was
actually getting ready to talkabout it, so go ahead and go for
it?
yeah, it's we.
We all have everything that weneed, like marble.
We're just chipping away at itright to find right less, more.
And that's the beautiful thing.
We all have curiosity.
We all have the innate abilityto change.

(38:52):
We just need to make the simplechoice to look underneath the
cover, right, and do an auditand don't be afraid.
A lot of people are afraid ofwhat they're going to find.
You are doing some good things,so celebrate those wins first.
You are an amazing person and,yes, you probably have some
things you so celebrate thosewins first.
You are an amazing person and,yes, you probably have some
things you got to work on too.
But that's what this is allabout.

(39:14):
I do the life audit every sixmonths.
I just want to make sure I'mstaying aligned with who.
I want to be right To myself,but also to others.
And I think an important piecehere that a lot of people don't
realize and we're talking a lotabout ourselves right, working
on ourselves.
But here's the thing guys likewe're working on ourselves.

(39:34):
It affects every singlerelationship in our life.
But you're going to be a betterhusband, a better wife, a
better spouse, better partner.
You're going to have betterrelationships with your kids,
better relationships with yourcolleagues.

(39:55):
You're going to be better inyour profession because you're
going to have more clarity.
You're going to be able tosolve problems better.
You're going to work at ahigher performance.
There are so many benefits tothis.
You just need to start and youhave what you need, right.

John Geraghty (40:08):
Absolutely.
I love the way that you saythat you know you have what you
need.
And when you think aboutpersonal development, like you
said, call it personaldevelopment it's like
self-actualization right, that'show Maslow talks about it.
Like thinking about andself-actualization is a
continuous thing.
You know, I don't know, you'renot going to land on a
self-actualized.
It's a process, right.

(40:30):
And so, wherever you are justcontinually evolving into, like
who are you meant to be, I sawsomething recently.
It said something along thelines like aging is the gift we
get to finally become who we'remeant to be, or something along
those lines.
Right, and so aging andmaturing, we're continually
progressing, pulling off layers.
Right, the statue of David is.
They're chipping away.

(40:50):
Like David was in there.
He didn't bring marble and glueit on.
All of that was in there, andeverything in your life
masterpiece is in there and youwere really thinking about is
like okay, what are the thingsthat are keeping me from really
showing up?
A client of mine I was talkingto yesterday who has done very

(41:11):
well in so many ways for herself, and she said you know, one of
the things that feels difficultis because she's expanded so
much.
You know, sometimes she feelslike she's almost dampening her
light so that others don't feelinsecure or threatened or
judgment in a particular way.
Yep, I can relate to that andwhat I love.

(41:32):
Are you familiar with thatquote by Marianne Williamson?
Our deepest fear no, I'm goingto share it.
I love it.
It says our deepest fear is notthat we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we'repowerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not ourdarkness, that most frightens us
.
We ask ourselves who am I to be?
Brilliant, talented, fabulousand gorgeous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

(41:53):
You're playing.
Small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightenedabout shrinking so that other
people won't feel insecurearound you.
We're all born to shine, aschildren do.
We're born to make manifest theglory of God that is within us,
and when we allow our light toshine, we unconsciously give
others permission to do the same.

(42:14):
When we're liberated from ourfear, our presence automatically
liberates others.
And so what we?
What it's really saying, if I,if you listen, if you know, in
my interpretation of that isit's our responsibility to
continue to grow and to shineright, to let the light shine to
, to, to, to, like you know ifthere's an alcoholic out there,
that's, you know, been drinkingfor 15 years and they feel like

(42:37):
you know, they lost it and theymissed their chance.
Hopefully, my shining lightsays you know, you didn't.
You know there's still greatstuff.
Yogi Berra used to say it's notover till the fat lady sings.
Right, and the fat lady doesn'tsing for a really, really long
time.
Right, the fat lady doesn'tsing for a long time.

(42:59):
So wherever you find yourselfand I know that I've had real
doubts about what was going tohappen for me in my life you
know if there's somebody outthere listening that's
struggling with that you knowthat you can just incrementally
compound great choices with lotsof screw-ups in between.
Right, I'm not at all going in.
If you don't screw up at allagain, everything's perfect.

(43:22):
The number of times I screwedup, from when I was 29 and got
sober to today is countless.
Right, so many.
That was a wrong turn, this wasa wrong turn.
But if you pay attention, justlike a GPS wrong turn, go this
way, wrong turn, go this way wewill compound and end up in an
amazing place and curiosity.

(43:44):
I'm more excited today aboutwhat my future holds than I've
ever been, and I don't know whatthat'll be, but I have ideas, I
have purpose, I have vision andit's going to go in that
direction and it will alsochange.
Right, that will change.
And so all of those things aredynamic and I think, if we can
let go of the feel like, oh, wehave to do this perfectly, we,
we, wherever we are, is not theright place.
Wherever you are is where youare, like that self audit, like
jumping on a scale.
No one ever got heavier becausethey jumped on a scale.

(44:09):
They may have found out theyweighed more than they thought
they did, but finding out thetruth doesn't change the truth.
It just gives you a solidfoundation from which to build
right, and so you know where tostart.
Yeah, let's do that work, getcomfortable with it and make
this the adventure of your life.
It is the adventure of yourlife.
It's the evolving.
It's make your life amasterpiece.
Think of yourself as DavidRight and think about how am I

(44:33):
going to continue to move inthat direction?

Todd Bertsch (44:37):
Beautifully said, John, you know, and it comes
back to one of my favoritequotes by Robin Sharma.
He says you know, the best timeto plant a tree was 40 years
ago.
That kind of sucks.
But the next best time to planta tree is today.
So maybe you didn't plant thattree when you were in your 20s.
You can do it today and likeyou, my friend, like I'm 54 and

(45:00):
I am just getting into my groove, man, right, really just
finding myself and becoming thebest version of myself.
And I'm looking ahead at 20years, I want to keep doing that
same thing.
I want to see my grandchildrenand I want to be out playing in
the ocean with them, right,living a vibrant life and being

(45:20):
flexible and being able to moveand to do all the things that
I'm doing now.
So you can start today.
You can start today.
You just need to make thechoice to look under the sheet
and say who am I, where am I at,like John says, and just take
one small thing journalJournaling and gratitude
practice to me are the twoeasiest.

(45:41):
It's free, it costs no money andit's that reflection point.
Just reflect, right, and that'sthe audit.
If you're journaling, you'restarting to write about where
you're at, how you're feeling,getting in tune with your
emotions, and it's okay to dothat.
It's a good, healthy exercise.
It doesn't mean that you'repushing off all the negative
emotions.
You're just being more attuned.
What are the glasses you'rewearing right now?

(46:04):
What is the lens through whichyou see the world?
Because that's all the beliefs,that's your mindset.
Just be curious, really just becurious.
We all had curiosity at onepoint in our lives, when we were
a kid.
We just need to ignite thatspark and tap back into it.

John Geraghty (46:21):
Yeah, curious, and enthusiasm, right,
enthusiasm, actually, I guess.
Entheos means God within, right, so it's like spirit within.
However, you want to call itRight and so like have that
enthusiasm that you cantransform.
So I want to get like.
So anyway, I got sober at 29,.
But even though I was doing abunch of different things, even
though I've always had prettygood understanding around

(46:42):
exercise and nutrition andthings on those lines when I was
in a career, I switched fromwhen I first first got into
coaching actually, it was rightwhen the market crashed 2008.
And so all of a sudden, I movedfrom a career that I had built
up and was like oh, look at me,I'm awesome, I'm going to do
this other thing.
And then all of a sudden, I gothit with some economic
challenges and things alongthose lines stress, I wasn't
sleeping as well.

(47:02):
I got up to 235 pounds, whichis clinically obese for someone
who's six foot tall, and I alsohad a ton of aches.
I had a lot of inflammation inmy body and things along those
lines.
So I was 45 at the time and theonly reason I'm saying that is
today.
As a 62-year-old, I would sayI'm as fit and healthy as any

(47:23):
62-year-old that I know at all.

Todd Bertsch (47:26):
Dude, you're a beast.
You're a beast Like.
Check out.
We'll have links to his YouTubevideos with him on the beach
showing you some exercises.
You are in tremendous shapeLike shine that light man.
Like you said, you are in greatshape.

John Geraghty (47:40):
I'm physically more capable than I've ever been
in my life and I worked in thefitness industry as a 25 year
old.
Capable than I've ever been inmy life and I worked in the
fitness industry as a25-year-old.
So at 62, working out 15minutes a day, it doesn't take
everything the consistency andto have transformed where I was
at 235, clinically obese, havinga lot of.

(48:03):
I remember one time my daughtercame my daughter was five, I
think she came out into thebackyard and she came out and
she was like oh, my freakingknee.
And I was like you know, yourlittle kid says something.
You're like I shouldn't laugh,but this is kind of funny, right
.
I was like Sky sweetheart, youreally shouldn't say that.
Like where'd you even hear that?

(48:24):
And she goes like this, like adog, you know.
She tips her head and she'slike you're freaking knee,
you're freaking back, you'refreaking shoulder.
So it puts me out like I knowthat I was running around
complaining about physical achesand pains as a 40 year old and
I don't as a 62 year old.
I know that I had chronic back.
I don't want to describe itlike it was always there, but

(48:45):
but every year or two I would bea couple of days where I could
hardly move because my backwould just seize up or whatever.
And I haven't had any back painwhatsoever and I'm super
flexible.
And so I look at it and I'mlike it is not that hard to do.
I think one of the biggestdisservices that the Not

(49:06):
everyone in the fitness industryI'm not saying everyone's
telling the story, but they makeit seem like it's so hard.
They give me, like you know, theidea like you have to lift
heavy.
I'm like, okay, what does thatactually mean?
What does it mean?
I don't lift weights.
I haven't touched a weight in15 years.
I create resistance internally,fighting my own body.
I say kinetically, I usegravity.
But what does it really mean?

(49:26):
Heavy just means that you'rechallenging your body to do
something that's kind of hardfor it.
It doesn't mean you have to goover and, farmer carry your
weight around Again.
I think there's all thesestories about what you have to
do and make it seem like it's sohard.
It is not that hard art.

(49:49):
You can make your body adaptphysically and continue to get
better and better and better byjust challenging yourself on the
edges of your capabilities andtry to do it as many different
ways as possible.

Todd Bertsch (49:55):
Yeah, I think if we just reframe it, in fact,
let's not call it exercise,let's just call it movement,
cause essentially, that's all weneed to do is just get up and
freaking move.

John Geraghty (50:04):
I'll say freaking .

Todd Bertsch (50:05):
there you go, scott, freaking move.
You know, like let's just getup and move, that's all it takes
.
You know, a lot of us sit, likemyself.
I sit at a doggone computer allday long and I got to be
conscious enough to just get up.
Thankfully, I drink tons ofwater and I got to pee every
five minutes, but at least I'mgetting up and walking up and
down the stairs.
It can be tough, you know, andwe need to spend a little bit of

(50:28):
time and, like you said, I lovehow you, how you frame that
like 1% of your day.

John Geraghty (50:34):
the ROI on that right 1% 14 point, some minutes.

Todd Bertsch (50:39):
That's not that long you can.
I know everybody's gotdifferent commitments in life,
but you can.
You can work in five, 10, 15minutes a day just to walk.
You can even do it in parts.
Yeah, you can even.
But you can work in 5, 10, 15minutes a day just to walk or
just to stretch.

John Geraghty (50:48):
You can even do it in parts.
Yeah, you can even do it inparts.
And the other part of it that Ithink is really important is
like you talked about sittingaround.
We talked about flow a littlebit.
So flow when you're gettingflow, flow is wrapped attention
right.
You can really only there'speriods of time 60 to 90 minutes
where you cycle through theseprocesses of focus and you
really need a little period ofrecovery.
When you tap into all thoseneurochemicals we talked about,

(51:10):
it actually is very energyintensive and you need to go
refill up your machine 10minutes at the end of that 90
minutes or something along thoselines.
So in those 10 minutes there'sdifferent things you can do.
So you can do a five-minuteworkout, do some air squats, do
a few push-ups, you know stretch.
It doesn't have to be that much.

(51:30):
If you were to consistently dothree of those a day, 15 minutes
, while you're working, yourperformance at work would go up.
You'd have greater focus andyou'd begin to do that and as
you start to reconnect and fallin love with your body and love
the way your body becomeembodied, you're most likely

(51:51):
going to want to go do someother things right, because
you're going to have this newrelationship with your body
Right there was this, this onebook, I think it's called
Energize.

Todd Bertsch (51:59):
There's two authors.
One is the sleep doctor, DrBruce.
I don't know if you're familiarwith him, but yeah, he coined
himself the sleep doctor.
But anyhow, he talks about justthat time period after lunch,
Like for me, like one to twoo'clock man, I am just dead,
there's nothing I'm going to do.
That's going to be worthwhile.
But he said to try this onething and skip, like skip, go

(52:20):
out and skip.
So I started doing thatthroughout the office.
I have enough space in herethat I can just kind of skip
around it.
It seems silly as hell and itlooks silly.
I want to capture it on videoone day.
But I tell you what.
It's just like smiling.
You get that instant boost ofdopamine right, that hit and
you're like, oh man, I feelalive, I feel awake and so just

(52:45):
little things like that you know, but so I just wanted to
mention that.
but you and I do, we can go onand on man to mention that, but
you and I do, we can go on andon man if, if I need a coach and
I think a lot of times, youknow, sometimes you just need
help.
You know, if, if you'relistening to this, you're like
man, this sounds good, I justdon't think I can do this on my
own.
Reach out, check out, john, orthere's a ton of.
I mean, there are a lot ofcoaches out there.
Do your research and findsomebody.
that lines but if I were to hirea coach again, unfortunately I

(53:08):
have a really good highperformance coach right now, but
, john, I would hire you,brother, in a minute and I would
recommend you in a minutebecause I'm so appreciative of
the work you've done andcontinue to do, and that's just
it.
Like John said, we're notperfect.
We're just trying to be 1%better every day, but we're
embracing the journey.
That's it.
I don't see this as somethingthat ends.

(53:30):
I'm going to continue to dowhatever I need to do to be the
best version of myself for me,and you owe that to everybody
that you serve your teammates,your direct reports, your family
, your kids right your partners.
You owe it to everybody else aswell, but you got to do it for
yourself and you got to makethat choice.
So, john, this has beenincredible man.

(53:52):
Thank you so much.
Appreciate it, man.

John Geraghty (53:55):
Just a couple of quick hits.
Love the work you're doing.
Yeah, thank you.

Todd Bertsch (53:58):
Thank you, We'll continue to have our
conversation.
A book a day or a book a week?
Man, I'm not going to try toI'm a listener now by the way,
I'm a listener now, by the way.
I'm not going to compare myselfto you because I'm going to
have imposter syndrome on thatAudible makes it a lot easier.

John Geraghty (54:12):
It does, and you can speed it up.

Todd Bertsch (54:14):
So cheating a little bit, but it's okay man.
I still like the old schoolbook, but that's all right.

John Geraghty (54:27):
Two books that changed your life or that you
would recommend for somebodythat's thinking about getting
into a personal growth journey.
The first book that reallyimpacted my life and this was a
long time ago, but I still findit to be one of the greats is
Seven Habits of Highly EffectivePeople by Stephen Covey.

Todd Bertsch (54:35):
Somebody else said that.
On the last, I mean StephenCovey man, it's a big one but
you can go in and out of it.

John Geraghty (54:43):
You can go in and out of it, but it really does
have you.
It was the first introductionthat I ever had to paradigms,
which is really the concept ofperspective right it's like how
you look at the world impactswhat you see, and so you know
Stephen Covey was a real pivotalone for me.
A lot of my work is the.
A lot of what I do today isaround creating flow.

(55:03):
You know I have a programcalled the Flow Cultivator and
so I got exposed to that work.
You know it's MihalyCsikszentmihalyi is the guy that
wrote it in the book Flow, butprobably the book that, if
you're going to dive deep intohow to create a high flow
lifestyle, I would say the Artof Impossible by Stephen Kotler
I get his newsletter yeah.

(55:29):
That does a really good job oflaying out not just how do you
find flow right, which is beingat the edge of your capacity,
but how do you build a lifestyleof consistently finding that
corridor, challenge skills,balance and grow forever.
Yeah, so I think that'sbeautiful when you do find it.

Todd Bertsch (55:42):
I've found recently.
I found some pockets of it hereand there.
I'm like, oh, I think I'm inthe flow, man, it's just you
know, and and for the most partI'm not in the flow all the time
, you know, which gives you agreater appreciation for when
you are.
But if you can taste that,you're like, oh, man, if you can
understand what it is that getsyou there right.

John Geraghty (56:01):
So if you understand that you're in flow,
when you're at the edge of yourcapacity without going into
overwhelm, when you have cleargoals, immediate feedback,
you're in the challenge.
Skills, balance, when you havecuriosity, passion, purpose,
autonomy and mastery, there'slink, there's ingredients, and
once you understand theingredients and you understand
how it works, what's going onneurochemically, what are the
timeframes, you can spend muchmore time in flow.

(56:22):
And then the other thing I'dsay is find out how you access
flow right.
So there's different ways.
Some people get in through deepthinking, some get in through
big risks, some throughembodiment, some through what
we're doing right now, which iscrowd-pleasing, right.
So, communicating in front ofpeople or performing Find out
access points into flow thatreally work for you and try to

(56:43):
get in there as much as possible, because it increases your
productivity by estimated 500%,according to McKinsey, increases
your learning from 200 to 700%and increases your creativity by
400%.
So if you think about, like Iwant to create those
environments because it's goingto, it's going to take whatever
capabilities I have and amp themup and it's fun, right, it's

(57:03):
where you feel your best andperform your best.
It's not like, oh, you feelshitty but you get a good
outcome.
It's like no, it's joyful.
All the neurochemistry, it'slike having the perfect
endogenously produced, you know,and so it's really cool.
But anyway, this is so much fun.
You do a great job, man.
You really love the work you'redoing and so grateful to be on
your show here today.

Todd Bertsch (57:24):
Yeah, John, I appreciate you and everything
you're doing.
I look forward to justcontinuing our journey together
and our conversations.
Absolutely.
Have a great day.
You too, thank you.
Thank you for listening to thisepisode of the Bolt Podcast.
You're on an inspiring journeyof growth, transformation, and
joy and I'm honored to be a partof it.

(57:44):
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(58:05):
Remember, real change doesn'thappen overnight.
Folks Start small, stayconsistent and watch as your
growth unfolds.
See you next time.