Jason Womack Joins Us On The Steve Jobs Inspired Join Up Dots Podcast
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Introducing Jason Womack
Jason Womack is our guest joining us on todays Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots podcast interview.
He is a man who has driven himself to the top of his game as a coach, productivity expert, and author.
Quite simply Jason Womack is the guy to turn to if you want to make your best even better.
He has earned two Master’s degrees after studying US History and Spanish Literature.
He then went on to earn another in Education to understand how to teach.
Add another masters in Psychology and then you really have an intoxicating and powerful mix that can look into the core of all of us, and help us raise our game.
As an executive coach, Jason provides practical methods to achieve quality work/life balance.
How The Dots Started Joining Up For Jason
He has worked with leaders and executives for over 14 years in the business and education sectors.
His focus on creating ideas that matter and implementing solutions that are valuable to the organisation he has been very busy indeed.
While travelling worldwide, he trains and competes regularly as an age-group triathlete too.
Now if all that education seeking and performance enhancing would make me you like me, want to throw yourself down on the nearest sofa, with a huge tub of Ben and Jerry’s and take it easy, then Mr Womack is not like that at all.
Our guest seems to have a limitless amount of energy.
Since 2003, he has completed four 1/2 Iron-man distance races, several half-marathons and several smaller triathlons around the United States, he consistently places in the top 10% of his age group in both 5K and 10K races.
Well let’s bring onto the show to start joining up dots, as we discuss the words of Steve Jobs with the one and only Jason Womack
Show Highlights
During the show we discussed such weighty topics with Jason Womack such as:
How it is vitally important to show gratitude everyday of the week!
Why you must pay special attention to what the people you surround yourself are doing to develop themselves!
How as a kid he had no TV in house, and in a funny way he feels was a great way of developing himself!
Why the word “Trust” is so important to his daily life!
How to turn yourself into a dimmer switch, to change the power you show people dependant on who they are!
And lastly….
How most people fall into two camps: Past lovers and Futuristic and how you need to decide which is your group and stay with it!
Jason Womack Books
How To Connect With Jason Womack
Return To The Top Of Jason Womack
If you enjoyed this episode with Jason Womack then why not listen to some of our favourite podcast episodes such as Amy Shiflette, Sean Swarner, Jack Canfield or the amazing Alfie Best
Or if you prefer just pop over to our podcast archive for thousands of amazing episodes to choose from.
Audio Transcription Of Jason Womack Interview
Intro [0:00]
When we’re young, we have an amazing positive outlook about how great life is going to be. But somewhere along the line we forget to dream and end up settling. Join Up Dots features amazing people who refuse to give up and chose to go after their dreams. This is your blueprint for greatness. So here’s your host live from the back of his garden in the UK, David Ralph.
David Ralph [0:25]
Hello, everybody in internet land. How are you? Oh, I hope you’re well. This is Episode 53. And I’ll be honest with you, I don’t like to moan but I don’t feel very well today. So I’ve got an earache. I’ve got a sore throat and my nose is running. But it won’t bring me down. I promise you because I am a professional and be I don’t want to let you down. And so my best is going to get even better today. And there’s a reason why I said history is because today’s guest is a man who is on this planet to make our best, even better. He is a man who’s driven himself at the top of his game as a coach, productivity expert and offer and he’s quite simply the guy to turn to if you want to make your best even better. He’s earned two masters degrees after studying US history and Spanish literature, and then went on to earn another in education to understand how to teach at another masters in psychology and when you really have an intoxicating and powerful mix that can look into the core of all of us and help us raise our game. As an executive coach, he provides practical methods to achieve quality work life balance. He’s worked with leaders and executives for over 14 years in the business and education sectors, and will be focused on creating ideas that matter and implementing solutions that are valuable to the organisation. He’s been very busy indeed. While travelling worldwide, he also trains and competes regularly as an age group triathlete to now it’s all about education seeking and performance enhancing would make you like me, you want to throw yourself down on the nearest sofa with a huge top of Ben and Jerry’s and take it easy. Well, he’s not like that at all. Our guest seems to have a limitless amount of energy since 2003. He’s completed four Half Ironman distance races, several half marathons, and several smaller triathlons around the United States. He consistently places in the top 10% of his age group in both five K and 10 k races. So without further ado, once we have him sitting, I guess in one spot, let’s start Join Up Dots with the one and only Jason Womack. How are you today? Sir?
Jason Womack [2:33]
I’m doing fantastic. And I just want to say thank you, first of all, for reading that long introduction. And second of all, for giving me something to to aspire to
David Ralph [2:42]
do. Did it feel like a long introduction, because I must admit, when I when I sort of get those introductions together, I sort of put them together from a myriad of sources. And most of the time I look at them. And I think, David, what are you doing with your life? All these people are doing these amazing amount of things, cramming it into a done? And I don’t really know what I do it myself. So did did it seem like a long introduction? When you listen to that? Do you think Oh, do I actually do all this kind of stuff,
Jason Womack [3:08]
I like looking at it through your eyes, and I use the word you’re very relatively because everyone that I do get to work with, you know, look, by the time that you’re going to sit down and work with someone as a mentor, or a master teacher or a trainer. And you know this from, from the old days, we want to know who we’re sitting across from, we want to know who we’re breaking bread with. And so you know, when I originally got the email from you, I’ll be very transparent, I immediately went to the internet, I typed in your name and the name of your organisation. And there, we start to get a kaleidoscope. And I think if it’s one thing that I’m really a proponent of is, and this is what we’re going to get to talk to today is we are in the position and the business of building a portfolio, no longer building a resume. And the reason I say that is because while I’m very excited about getting to chat with you, but the whole concept for me of joining up dots or remember when Steve Jobs says connecting the dots, it really truly was about looking around and saying hey, what what are the tools? Who are the people? And what are the experiences I have access to?
David Ralph [4:22]
Did you remember? Yeah, I normally play the speech sort of later on. But I’m going to do straight away because you built it up so well there. But do you do remember that the time that you actually heard these words, because so many the guests that I speak to, I would say 99% say to me, I actually use these words myself, or I have bees on my fridge or I have bees on my notice board? Did you remember when you actually heard the first time?
Jason Womack [4:46]
Not only that, David, I actually play a portion of that speech in every seminar I present worldwide.
David Ralph [4:55]
So what is the strength? Well, actually, I’m going to ask you about afterwards, I’m going to play the speech. Now. I’m going to ask you that question I was just leading up to what is the strength of these words, in their form for you. So
Steve Jobs [5:05]
this is Steve Jobs. Of course, it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards. 10 years later. Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path. And that will make all the difference.
David Ralph [5:42]
So does it make a difference? Jason?
Jason Womack [5:45]
I want to key off of something, a word that I heard you use, I believe I counted three, maybe four times the word trust. And I look at that word trust is both a noun and a verb, I look at it as a thing. You know, do I have have trust in this relationship? Do I have trust in the path that I’m on. But I also look at it as as an active process. Do you know I trust we trust I am trusting. And I think what what I get when I when I consider those words from from Mr. Jobs is show up, continue to show up. And there’s going to be days when I give everything that I’ve got, I give what I would call my best. And there’s some days when it resonates with the planet, it works with the people that I’m working with. And there’s other days, when and I’m not going to say my best wasn’t good enough. But maybe what it was, is that the dots were not ready to be aligned just yet.
David Ralph [6:48]
I agree with that. I agree totally. Because I what I get from that is coming to the same thing as trust, but just do stuff, just take action and just get off your backside. Say to yourself, okay, if I’ve got three hours to myself today, instead of watching three episodes of Grey’s Anatomy, do something that might benefit your life, because you had those three hours and three hours and three hours. And you’re going to start making an inroad. And when you start making an inroad to something, quite often, it creates a passion in you as well. And then suddenly, that three hours you you managed to make it four hours, five hours, and then you’ve got a chance of a different type of future.
Jason Womack [7:30]
really seeing the advantage that modern society and the cultures that I get to spend my most time with. And just for point of reference, over the past six weeks, I’ve gotten to do work in the country of Canada, throughout the United States, Indonesia, Hong Kong. Next week, I’ll be visiting New York City and Providence, Rhode Island. And the advantage that I’m seeing that we have right now is this incredible access to and I’m going to go they’re science, specifically, brain science. And so a part of today’s conversation with you, I would love for us to spin around this concept of what we know right now what we’re beginning to tap into when it comes to neuro psycho biofeedback. Okay, that was a lot to take in at one time. But what we know about the way the brain works, here’s the fundamental is the brain wants to close the gap. The brain wants to fill time, the brain wants to solve problems, especially the male brain, and I’m speaking from experience. But when I’m in a situation, and and again, these are topics that we’re going to get to today, but I’m just trying to let people know where we’re going. What got me into the advising and coaching business was I tend to attract people who have a vision of how life could be, but aren’t right now in a position to make life that way. Meaning they see something wrong, they found a problem they have something they could complain about. And the way the brain works. And what I study for people is how do we close that gap with minimal effort and maximum output?
David Ralph [9:13]
And is it is it is ease? Well, that’s the wrong word. But is it just the matter of closing the gap? Do we all have that gap? And is it something that fundamentally will hold us back unless we reach it?
Jason Womack [9:28]
Not only that, but its culture, its experience, it’s education, it’s intuition. I’ll give you a classic, classic example. When a United States citizen and American travels to your country of England, we want to look one way before we cross the street, right? If I approach the end of a sidewalk, and I’m about to cross through to the other side, every part of my being wants to look that way. But when I’m with you, and I’m in your country, I have to be able to look the other way. And so how do we train ourselves to take what works? Yes, it’s absolutely appropriate for me to approach the end of that street, and just automatically look that way, maybe that out of my peripheral. But you and I both know walking around the city streets of Central London, we better take another look the other way twice.
David Ralph [10:28]
And most of the time I was drunk walking around the streets of London, I’ll be honest,
Jason Womack [10:32]
he gotta be careful. So from the time and you know, you’ve got some kids and you’ve been through that, that that row a couple of times, several times. Now, when you think about what they do to figure out the world they live in one. They are insatiably curious, what does this do? What does this taste like? What will this look like if I take it apart? The other one is they are darn persistent. You know, we’ve got some family friends and they’re there. I shouldn’t say infant, their their toddler now, this week took her first steps, and they have it on their cell phone camera. Here are their first steps. What was fascinating is this has been a process that’s been going on for a few weeks now. But here’s the deal. You know, after the 33rd time that the kid fell down, the parents did not look at the kid and go, look, you’ve tried this 33 times it’s not working. Just give up.
David Ralph [11:29]
Why? So if somebody is out there and is, you know, it’s as much to do with culture? How do they change? How do they learn to look the other way if they need to, if all they are at the moment, is purely existing, they’re not living their existing, they’re in that contentment zone, where they’re in a job, and it’s paying the bills. But deep down deep down, there’s something in the normal way that they want to change. How do they start looking in a different direction?
Jason Womack [11:58]
Well, there’s two options, we have the you want the fast and easy way? Or do you want the hard takes a long time way?
David Ralph [12:04]
I think the heartache a long time is the one that actually achieves, don’t you?
Jason Womack [12:08]
Well, for figuring this out the hard and take a long time way I would say figure out and do it. The easy fast way is to attach yourself to the shirt tails of 234 or five people who are looking, acting, living experiencing and having something akin to what you’re interested in. So for example, when I got to London the first time before I got there, I went to my social online profile, namely LinkedIn, because that’s my more professional one. And I started reaching out to people who had worked in lived in are currently stationed in the City of London. And what I did is I was going over there to deliver a couple of workshops on a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, I arrived on a Sunday. And I gave myself two days, full days, Monday and Tuesday. Now I did this, David, I don’t know this might have been a decade ago, the first time I did this. And I set up a breakfast, lunch, happy hour and dinner for meetings over two days. And over those eight days, I think I learned more about how the City of London works than if I had read the Fodor’s guide if I had downloaded the Lonely Planet guide if I had tried to research it through some internet search engine. So for me, I’m always looking and I wrote a whole chapter about this in the book, I’m always looking to develop what I call my social network, not my social media network. That’s another discussion that we could have later on my social network are the five people that when I have a problem in some certain situation, the five people that I could call and they would answer the phone and the second or third ring.
David Ralph [13:55]
Because Jim Rome, he’s got the classic quote has any that you are the average of the five people you surround yourself with. And you have to be so careful. If you surround yourself with negative people, then ultimately that’s going to rub off of you if you surround yourself with successful people. And then once again, so was that a focus of his speech he’s coming? Or was that something that you naturally knew was right in heavenly,
Jason Womack [14:21]
somehow or other this is back when I was still teaching and secondary education here in California, this is back in the 90s. Somehow or other I came across that I didn’t meet or hear of Jim Rome till much later now, who knows there was something in the water, there was something in the ether. But somehow, and by the way, what I want to do for folks listening right now, and by the way, thanks for bearing with us, we got some good things we’re going to talk about. What I would like to do is take this out of the theoretical, you know, because look at everyone can, yes, agree they’ll shake their head up and down. Yes, Jason, if I hang around negative people, I’ll be negative. If I hang around positive people over positive, let’s go practical. Here’s what I need you to do. Here’s what I did, I took out a piece of paper and I drew a matrix of sorts. And down the left hand column, I wrote the initials of the five people who I had spent the most time with over the past 168 hours, the past week. So that the whoever those five people were who I’ve spent the most time with in the past seven days. And then what I did, David is I made these columns, and the columns I make, and I still do this to this day, the columns I make are things like, how many days of workshops? Do they attend as a learner every year? How many weeks of vacation do they take with their family away from work every year? How many books do they read every year?
David Ralph [15:47]
How much? I’m like, how am I going to know about Jason? So,
Jason Womack [15:50]
you know, I asked him, I literally asked him, I go Hey, about how many books did you read over the past couple months? And they’ll say, Oh, I think it’s two or three, which really means one or two? I’m gonna go great. So they’re reading two books every two months. That’s 12 a year. I’ll talk to someone else. Hey, about how many conferences Did you go to last year? Oh, I went to that once. I think it was about 10 days worth, they’ll tell me great. So I’ll put down seven. You know, people are always exaggerating a little bit. And it’s not that I’m going for the exact but I need something to hold my hat on. And then here’s what I found, David is that if my associates of the five people, cumulatively, the five people that I spent the most time with averaged reading 10 books per year, guess how many books I read per year, if the average of the five people that I spent time with were spending seven days a year in conferences and workshops, darn it, I was right there with them. I was average. So I started doing things like I found a guy, I remember when I first I added my first millionaire to my group of five. And the next year, my income went up by 8%. Now, was it going to do that anyway? Was I on the track to have those dots Connect? I don’t know. But here’s what I can tell you practically. I started adding people who read more books, attended more conferences, took more vacation and made more money. And I started doing the same.
David Ralph [17:18]
Because Well, you know, I think it comes back to Steve Jobs speech about belief. If you do surround yourself with people and they are in your eyes more successful or more productive or more of this or more that you actually have visible proof. And you believe that actually Yes, I’m I am letting myself down. Or I can raise my game. Oh, I can push myself. I remember reading this thing about geniuses. And there’s two types of geniuses. There’s ones who can create stuff and no one’s ever seen before. And there’s ones who can improve upon things that have been already out there. So they can see like a car and go, Okay, if we could improve the car? How can we do that? And we’ve used to managing yourself with all those people, I kind of think you fall into the same category where you kind of think, yeah, it is possible, because I’ve seen them. So you ultimately are going to improve.
Jason Womack [18:07]
The other thing that you just made me think of is what are the topics of discussions when I sit down with people because in my experience, most people will fall into one of two camps? Yes, there’s going to be crossover and a little bit of of mixture. But most of the time people will talk about a what happened or be what could happen. They’re talking about the past or they’re talking about the future. My job if I’m going to get to where I want to be if I’m going to make my best any better is to find people who a are willing to talk about a future be that’s better than the current or the past.
David Ralph [18:48]
Is that so important? Because I have you done the test Strength Finders 2.0 by Tom, Rafe.
Jason Womack [18:57]
I went through that book in the assessment thought it was amazing. Amazing.
David Ralph [19:00]
Yeah, I thought it was amazing. I’ve talked I’ve spoke about this several times. But But if you’re coming across this episode, first of all, there’s a book called Strength Finders, 2.0. And it’s a very small book. And that the key point to it is you get a code for a website. And you can go on the website and you can answer. I think it’s about 176 questions, and they’re very much in the grey areas, and you’ve got about 20 seconds on each to answer. And you will answer one question and give it your best shot. And then about 10 down you suddenly feel Oh, Blimey, this is almost the same as that one before? How did I answer that one? And at the end of it, it comes out with your five strengths. And the points of it all is that instead of focusing on your weaknesses, focusing on the things that you can do really well I you’re going to enjoy yourself be you’re going to improve quicker. And and see, it’s it’s you know, there’s no point in focusing on weaknesses is a trait that we’re, we’re forced through school and through our parents don’t always go Okay, you’re doing really well on this, but let’s get you to it on this other bit. Now, my number one thing was futuristic. And when it came out, it was the first time ever, but I felt justified or being futuristic. Because I’ve always been an old people have always said, Are you a dreamer? Or Oh, yes, your base your bad. And it was the first time ever that I looked at info, that’s a good thing to be a futuristic past that that’s not going to hold me back, that’s actually going to push me forward.
Jason Womack [20:24]
I love all the assessments that are available out there. And, you know, over the past 20 years, and I got to spend a little bit of time studying psychology kind of capital P psychology. And essentially what I find is that anybody who’s willing to dive into and spend some time looking at whether its Strengths Finder, and we could probably go through the whole list of all the assessments out there. I think the macro view of this is as or more important than the micro, I did Strengths Finder. I did my Myers Briggs, I did the Winslow assessment I did the as Bab the macro view of this is you’re willing to look in the mirror and say, Who are you? And I think a lot of people will end the day and they’ll look back and they’ll say, what did you do? but not a lot of people are willing to end of the day looking in the mirror and saying, Who are you? How are you? Where are you going?
David Ralph [21:26]
Who have you been Jason?
Jason Womack [21:29]
Boy, that’s that’s the Pandora’s box. Ever, ever since I was a kid? I I know I’ve been told that I’m curious. Want to know why? As a child I used to you know, I used to drive up the adults crazy because I would why and then why and then why? A couple of things that are probably important to to the folks listening to this. As far as background, I’m a unique, well, we’re all unique. But I didn’t have TV when I was growing up from the time I was five until was about 14 we didn’t have a TV in our house now had access to it. Because I would go visit with friends or the school. I remember we got one of the first televisions in our school. But I really think that that that kind of nine year period, what it gave to me was the ability to go find what I was interested in. Now at the time, all I had was was books, but I can tell you, David, I remember when I was a kid early, early, early on. And we were just learning programming. I mean, you know, it was 10 dash 20 dash 30 dash. And we were going through this and I can remember thinking Why couldn’t I just push something on the paper book that I was reading and have a video appear? Why couldn’t I just press a word in the in the book I was reading and have the dictionary show up? Now I’m not gonna, you know, call Jeff Bezos and say, Hey, Amazon, you know, the Kindle was my idea. But I think I was I was in that track, to realise that we are, we are one question away from a better future.
David Ralph [23:09]
And to have children yourself.
Jason Womack [23:12]
We don’t know Jody and I, we’ve been been hanging out together for about 2021 years now. Married for 15. And two things came together, we I was a high school teacher. I did that for about six years. And Jodi actually worked in the grammar schools as the librarian. And then what we found is that the contribution we love making as we help people magnify the vision of why they’re on the planet, for small business owners, that’s helping them build their business. We’ve worked with family businesses, we’ve worked with large organisations. And that whole growing someone’s vision has really, really been interesting to
David Ralph [23:54]
us. So hugely hypothetical, but if you did have a little Jason, do you think that you would limit the amount of television that he watched? Oh, wow, that’s
Jason Womack [24:05]
a good question. I’ve never thought of that before. Um, because we do we have these nephews and nieces. And I’ve got younger cousins, and I’ve got all my friends who have kids and, you know, screen time, I really think that that we’re going to have a lot of research to look back on. I mean, here, let what do we reference Steve Jobs here for a moment? I mean, Steve Jobs and screen time. I think in 1020 years, we’re going to have some pretty interesting feedback about the kind and time of screen time that people have right now. You know, what, hypothetically, would I wouldn’t? I’m not sure I’m in a position to answer that. The good that I see people doing in in in that interactive. You know, what I would say is this, what I’m really interested in watching is, how will this young young, young generation, and I’m talking about the four or 567 year olds, when we add two decades, to their desires, I’m very interested in what they will have created to interact much more seamlessly with the screens than we have currently.
David Ralph [25:23]
And, you know, how could they do that, though? Because how can you separate the constant technology, which is, you know, my son sits on the sofa, and he’s half watching the telly, and he’s half doing something on these tablet. And you kind of say to him, why don’t you should turn the telly on watching that, but you can’t be watching it because you’re doing this. So how can you sort of reduce the amount of technology but to make it more productive for people?
Jason Womack [25:50]
I think it has to be a lot more intuitive. And it has to be a lot more based, it’s based basic psychology, we will lean in, let’s use your Sheryl Sandberg for a little while, we will lean into where we’re getting the most. The most engagement with the chemical side of our body, the kinds of chemicals that fire when we are acknowledged. I don’t know if you remember if you’re old enough, but you know, when I was a kid, we had Romper Room. And I can remember like we would we would walk over some friends house and, and it was the weekend. And there she was I forget the woman’s name. But she would look into the camera. This was way back when and she would say, I see Susan and I see George and I see and we were just waiting, we were waiting to hear our names. The moment that we can make that technology that experience that that screen time, the moment that we can tap straight into the viewers mind, how do we serve up something that is more interesting to fewer people? So if you think about that idea of what TV or screen time was as old from a psychological and engagement viewpoint, we looked at how loud could we make things? And how much repetition could we give. And if we’re going to talk about this topic of our own engagement with the world, what every single one of us is looking for back to something we talked about earlier, David is closing the gap. So what’s the ultimate gap? I think the ultimate gap or the dots to connect are, who am I? Why am I here? And what can I do to be a better me tomorrow than I am today. And so whatever people can do to put themselves in a position to get feedback on that. It’s one of the most significant things I see to human potential development, not the work that they have to do. I mean, there are a lot of people who are willing to do the work. My question to them is when? How often? And who are you getting feedback from that the hard work you’re doing is worth it, that would make you want to continue going on.
David Ralph [28:03]
And that is that’s the key thing isn’t it is the feedback. And I think so much in life nowadays. Just whizzes on, you know, I’m doing a daily show at the moment. And I really passionately want to become better and better and better as a host. But in many ways, it’s so much one guest comes on, I do the show, I added it bang, it’s out the next one comes on Bumble, I haven’t really got enough time at the moment to reflect on the improvement. And because it’s so fast and so interactive with the other guest, I haven’t got the chance to you know, assess the feedback, really, it’s just push it out, push it out, push it out. So in a normal life, with people getting out within to work coming back, how do they get feedback about their actual performance, except for in a corporate world, your monthly targets your quarterly targets?
Jason Womack [28:57]
Those two things on my mind in response to that problem number one is, and for anybody listening right now, please, please, I’m going to give a little plug here, jump over. And if you’re getting value from Join Up Dots podcast, leave it some stars and leave it a rating because David, you and I both know, you know we’re going to date stamp this when we’re talking about it versus when it’s published. But I went look, you have 13 amazing reviews over on the iTunes review store, you have looked them up and you, you Hey, I tried to do my homework. Now you and I both know when you get a new review, that gives you a good 48 to 72 hours of juice of energy of momentum. So for anyone who’s wondering what difference they could make to their world, here would be my first number one activity, go think someone and don’t just send them an email with thank you in the subject line, actually sit down and visualise Why are you thankful? What did they do that made your world a better place? How is who and how they are contributing to who and how you are? David, I write a handwritten thank you card every day, every day of my life, at least one handwritten thank you card with a stamp hand addressed goes into the mailbox, sometimes it’s more. And what I found is yes, in a way that that thank you card is for the person who’s receiving it. But the real, the real aspect of it, I get to spend about five to seven minutes in gratitude. I get to pause. You know, people ask me, you know, Jason, do you meditate as meditation part of your performance technique? And I used to answer Well, no, not really. But you know what, I think, and this has been going on for a few years now. I think my thank you card process is my daily meditation. I’m focused, I’m mindful, I’m present. I’m aware and I’m connected to my world. So that would be my first little response to that the prompt that you put out there. And when we’re talking about, you know, that engagement process of moving forward of getting from from where we are, right now to where we’re where we’re going, I have to come back to, you know, what is that environment that you’re surrounded by what is the group of people you’re surrounded by, I’ve got one end of the day technique that I that I teach my clients can I kind of talk a little bit about that you tennis. So at the end of the day, and here would be the first five day experiment that I would ask everyone to engage in. here in the States, you can buy these little, they call them three by five note cards, just imagine a stack of note cards, you can buy these at any supply or stationery store. And if you put five of these cards that are about the size of your hand, the palm of your hand, if you put five of these cards next to your nightstand with a pen. Just for the next five nights, I want you to write down three things at the end of the day. Now you might use different words, but here are mine. So at the end of the day, every day I write down, I call it a CG A stands for accomplish. What did I notice? The world around me accomplish? It could be at work, it could be in life, it could be something I read in the news, it could be something I heard on the radio. But what got moved forward today. The second thing that I write down C stands for complete. What did I personally complete? What did I tick off the checklist? What What to do? Do I no longer have to worry about doing because it’s already done? And then the third one, and I’ve alluded to this, but let me let me put a magnifying glass on it. The third one is G, it’s gratitude. What is it very specifically, that I’m grateful for having seen been a part of or heard that day. So a accomplished see. Complete, gee, gratitude. At the end of the day, I look back on these three things. And what happens is I come fully present. But also I give myself the feedback on my own experience. Where you’re right, sometimes life goes by so darn fast, we don’t get a chance to celebrate the win, because as soon as we win, we’re on to the next competition.
David Ralph [33:29]
As you were talking there, I was thinking to myself, when was the last time I’ve actually written anything, because most of the time, you just sort of pass out of an email and you sort of Type and Type and Type. And it made me remember maybe about a year and a half ago, I decided that I was going to write a letter to my family, I was going through a few sort of health issues. And without being dramatic, it was worrying at the time, it turned out to be stress, but at the time I was a goner. Now I can look back and sort of laugh at it a bit. But that being stupid, um, but I wrote these letters, and I wrote these letters to my wife, and my kids, and my mom and dad, and you know, friends, and that to sort of say, you know, thank you so much, I remember this. And I remember that. And if it wasn’t for you doing this, you and I really sort of wrote from the heart, like, if I did, died, two days later, they would have my last memories of them. And literally all of them just thought I was having a bad moment or sort of a breakdown or whatever. And it really struck me strangely that it wasn’t me having a problem of being grateful it was them accepting it. IVF two point about so when you send the concept 100%
Jason Womack [34:44]
is strange isn’t 100% and you know, I will I will be very transparent. Many of those thank you cards I write, I do not sign my last name, nor do I put a return address. So literally a thank you card might land at the hotel manager of the hotel I just stayed at or the restaurant maitre D where I had a wonderful dinner at, because I’m not doing this. And I’ve had to really question this over the years I’ve been I’ve been doing this for about about 12 years now. And what I’ve found is that the less attached I am to hoping that they get it, the better. Yeah, the more engaged I am in the process of being grateful. That really is is what I’m in it for. Now, you you’ve struck on something very, very important to me, which is I call it practice on the small things so I can perform on the big ones. This is one of my tenants of productivity. In fact, when I start practising something new, if you’ve not written a letter to someone, and the first letter that they get from you is this heart opening, engaging, loving, very present, I could go on, but you get where I’m going, if that’s the first one they get from you, they might feel a little off. So for me, you know people will, it’s that New Year’s resolution experience where people go from zero to 100. Very fast. I had a mentor of mine, David years ago, she says, Jason, when you walk into the room, you tend to be about a 100 watt light bulb. She said, what I want you to do is start practising walking in, not with a switch on the wall, but the dimmer dial. She said come in at 10 and then go to 20 and then go to 40. And then by the time the day is over, you’ll be at 120. And people will be with you.
Unknown Speaker [36:49]
Why
David Ralph [36:50]
wanted I’m losing my voice here. Why did she say that thing? Because I was a trainer for years. And I always used to come in bang, it was the big performance, you know, as the memorable bit I took control of the room. I had the audience. Why did she want you to do so crank it up?
Jason Womack [37:07]
two things. One is that will work for people that it works for for audiences that expected the moment that you start changing audiences, I might be in a boardroom with the sea level of an organisation. The next day, I could be in an incubator working with startups, the third day I could be speaking at a church and the fourth day I could be speaking for a school district, different audiences will accept and move into different kinds of energetic. So as long as that person, you know, I’m thinking of kind of those super excited. Not necessarily motivational speakers. But when everyone is in a room for that kind of a presentation. They know what’s being expected. They know what’s happening. If I were to walk into the room with, you know, if I were looking at it in a room and and Bill Gates, and you know, if there were different people in the room, I would speak to them differently.
David Ralph [38:11]
Yeah, I think I was always generally speaking to the same kind of audience and so exact, but you got to know me. So I could play that.
Jason Womack [38:19]
By the way. What why you would continue to do that is because of the feedback you got. Right? Right. At the end of the programme, you would get the sheets or the emails or the comments in the hallway. And they would literally tell you, David, we love your energy. We love the way that you got us enthused you. We love the examples you gave to us. Am I right?
David Ralph [38:43]
Well, yeah, you are. But I I kind of I’ll be honest, I stopped believing them. And I think this is a human trait as well. I, you know, when when I started, I used to clamour for those, I used to hand them out desperate for him. And in the end, I used to think, oh, but it’s gonna be good, cuz I know me, they’re gonna say that anyway, you know. And it was it was strange, I didn’t pay attention to the praise, even though I’m sure it was heartfelt.
Jason Womack [39:09]
And let’s go thing that we’ve talked about a little while already, it’s because there was no longer a gap, your mind didn’t have to connect the where I am to where I want to be because you were already there. And it’s no surprise to me that you’re moving in this direction with where you’re going professionally, career wise, and contribute Tivoli. It’s a word I made up. But what you’re contributing now to the planet, I mean, just look at the format that you’ve created, right? 53 episodes every day for the past 53 days. And you’re highlighting what you do and how you are alongside some amazing people that you’ve had the chance to talk to,
David Ralph [39:51]
it does blow me away, I have to be honest, where we’re sitting here now. And I’m trying to think what date we’re recording this sixth of May. And it’s going out on the 20th June. So um, we’ve got a bit of a sort of backlog building up. But even to the point of my very first interview that I did, which was back on March 21. To now, I can’t imagine how I’ve been able to have the conversations with the type of people that I’ve been having them with, with New York Times bestselling authors, actresses, businessmen, online marketers, productivity coaches. It’s just, it’s amazing. And my point of, you know, I, I’m not even surrounding myself with five people, I’m surrounding myself with like, 500 people. And I can feel the change in myself, I wake up every morning, three hours earlier, and I want to because I’m just ready to go. It’s like there’s there’s Rocket Power flooding through me, which I never used to have before. And that’s simply because I am surrounding myself smack in the middle of something, but at the moment is becoming bigger than myself. And I’m being sucked in a direction, which is hugely exciting, really scary at times. But God, I can’t wait to see what’s around the corner,
Jason Womack [41:09]
you’re creating new gaps, and every beat every cell of your body will look for ways to and this is you know, I’ll just put up the, in the United States, there’s this sport of NASCAR of car racing. And as the cars go around and around, there’s some kind of a collision or if there’s some debris in the road, they’ll raise different coloured flags. And some flags mean go faster, some flags mean, come to a complete stop. The flag that I’m seeing us need to be aware of is what I call the caution flag. And the caution flag is the moment we become comfortable. Is the moment that we stop trying to close the gap. Not good. Not bad, not right. not wrong. But I just want everyone to be very aware of where is that the gap? How far out is that? And what is your brain doing on a daily continual basis? To bring you the information you need to get to your next today.
David Ralph [42:13]
Jason, you you wrote a book, how to make your best even better now. Apologies if I haven’t got that title. 100%. Right. But how do you you know, when I was looking at that book, I was thinking, let me that really sets him out there that people are looking at him to make their best, even better? How is he going to continue to make his best, even better? How do you do that? Obviously, you’ve touched on this sort of gratitude and the and numerous meditation and the focus that you have, but how do you make your best even better when from my side of the fence, you’re pretty much near the top anyway.
Jason Womack [42:51]
You know, I’m fascinated by what people will admit when they trust one another. I’m very intrigued by the vocabulary that people use to describe where they are. So I will do things. For example, just last month, I sent an email out and you know, email communication is always a strange one, because we have these mailing lists. And we have these these newsletters and things that we can send out. But I did do one, because I needed to try something. And here’s how it works. I sent an email out to my community, several thousands of people. And I the email was very short. David, the subject line said this, it said two questions. In the body of the email is very short. It said, Hi, David. What are two questions you have for me, Jason? Well, of the of this, of the many emails I sent within about four or five days, I got 130 responses. It was 260 questions. So now what I’m doing is it all just dedicate, you know, a couple hours a week for the next year or so? And I’m going to answer every question as it’s come in. Now, the best getting better aspect of it is here’s what I know. I’m getting the 2014 version of what people need answers to when the book was published in 2012. Now, are there Carrey overs? Absolutely. You know, the way that I wrote the book, I wanted it to be a book of fundamentals. You know, you don’t manufacture antiques, you go discover antiques, you go rediscover something that was already made. And you put it into the current vernacular, the current storytelling. So by me reaching out to the community and saying, hey, what questions do you have about my product, then I can start to serve up so anybody who’s starting something right now, you know, those of you listening to this who are on the solo printer, entrepreneur, entrepreneur, if you’re doing a side hustle, as Gary van der Chuck might call it simply reach out to the close community that you have and say, Hey, folks, what is it that you’re dealing with struggling with, intrigued by? And how can I play a part in helping you get further along the path. And and I really think that’s, that’s, that’s the fastest way I know of to start a business.
David Ralph [45:17]
And so it is as simple as that the more value you can provide to people, the more value you gain. And so ultimately, your best will get better because of what you give to other people for this unique population. And and I keep going back to these super niche
Jason Womack [45:37]
products that people cannot wait to buy, call them early adopters. There are people who are so look forward to the next album that that artist create the next painting that that creative puts together the next article that that author writes the next speech that that next speaker gives, they will they were literally, really stand line for it. And you know, what Jody and I have found is, is it really only took about about three dozen people to buy into what it is that we offer the planet, that we’ve been able to sustain a company for eight years.
David Ralph [46:16]
You know what I want to do Jason on this, and I don’t know if I’ve told anyone really, but there’s on the website, there’s a mission. And my mission really is to see Join Up Dots as a metaphor for Connexions. And so although on a daily basis, I’m connecting with people and I’m connecting with similar content, motivational speeches, inspirational content, whatever the actual metaphor of it is that together, we can start touching across the world. And if somebody is in Bora Bora, we can get them connected to somebody in Israel, who might have the answer to their problems. And to be honest, I haven’t got a clue how I’m going to do. But this is something in the back of my mind. But the podcasts are just a tiny little small part of bringing together an audience who can actually make a difference in the world.
Jason Womack [47:11]
I went to a conference section my wife, God spoke at a conference in Paris a couple of years ago, and there was one for year in the entryway there, there was this one section. And on the back, it said on the one side up on top, it said have an hour, question mark. And the other side it said give an hour exclamation mark. And what you were able to do is to take a post it and you were able to go over and say look at if I had an extra hour, here’s what I could give. And then the other side it was if I could get an hour, here’s what I would ask for. And David, what you were just saying, I just saw some version of that. What if someone in the in the Join Up Dots community, if they had an hour to give to the community? What would that look sound and feel like? And if that person could ask for an hour of someone else’s gifts, talents, education, experience or intuition? What would they ask for? And what if there was this kind of Global Exchange of a bard government value, not by how much money someone makes per hour. But literally, I’ll give you 60 minutes of this if you’d like it. And I’ll ask you for 60 minutes because you have to offer
David Ralph [48:33]
powerful stuff isn’t if you can, if we can do that. And that that’s a dream. That’s a dream that I’m aiming for.
Jason Womack [48:39]
Sign me up, I’ll be I’ll be the first on
David Ralph [48:42]
wall. Thank you so much. Just Just before we go Jason, because we are having audio problems here. And so you are dipping out a lot. This is the part of the show, when I want to send you back in time, so that you had like a young Marty McFly and you have a one on one with your younger self. So we’ve already experienced is that you’ve gained all the countries that you’ve travelled through all the cultures that you’ve you’ve you’ve used. What would you say to that young Jason who’s probably sitting there thinking why the hell happened? We got teli on at the moment. So I’m going to play the tune. And when it dies out, you’re on the mic. This is the Sermon on the mic.
Unknown Speaker [49:27]
We go with the best of the show the Sermon on the Mount.
Jason Womack [49:45]
You know, looking around, it’s fascinating, the more we get to get our passport stamped and more we get to jump out in the world. What I would say to the younger me from the older me for the older me Is everybody wakes up in the morning, they put some kind of food or fuel into their system, they hang around people through the day, they do something that contributes to the world they live in. At the end of the day, they gather around flickering, flashing lights and tell storeys, and at some point they fall asleep. And just remember Jason that everybody might do that differently. But the core of who we are as a species is the same. And to show up and to to listen more. If there’s one thing that I’ll encourage you to do. It’s to listen more, we have two ears and one mouth. And you’ve heard that all your life. But remember, remember that one?
David Ralph [50:45]
Will you somebody that didn’t listen as much as you could have done. I know you said you as a child. That was why why why why but but are you aware but you could have listened more when
Jason Womack [50:54]
I put things together in my head really fast. And I can solve most people’s problems before they’ve completely figured out what the problem is. And yes, I have a tendency to want to get to the solution when someone may want to really understand by speaking what the problem is.
David Ralph [51:17]
Well I know our listeners today will have been all is from the content that you’ve been providing because it has been fascinating stuff and I say this literally every show really. Although it’s an hour show I wish it could go on two episodes to episode three episodes for because there’s so much but I would like to touch on your background, about Americans about how you actually sort of focus your your energies in what direction and whether you do actually like to eat a huge tub of Ben and Jerry’s on the sofa and take it easy every now and again. So there’s so much I want to talk to you about. So as I say to all the guests The beauty about Join Up Dots is it is connecting our past and also our futures and adopts continue to grow forward. So in the future, there’s anything that you’d like to come back on and share with us. Please do that, because I really do believe it by joining up her dots and connecting our paths. We have the best opportunities to build our futures. Jason Womack, thank you so much for being on the show.
Jason Womack [52:10]
absolute honour. Thank you everyone for being here for us. And thank you for supporting Join Up Dots.
Outro [52:17]
David doesn’t want you to become a faded version of the brilliant self you are wants to become. So he’s put together an amazing guide for you called the eight pieces of advice that every successful entrepreneur practices, including the two that changed his life. Head over to Join Up Dots.com to download this amazing guide for free and we’ll see you tomorrow on Join Up Dots.
