S5:Trailer 🎙️ Leadership and Success Podcast — Live: Season 5 Trailer

Hi, I'm John Maxwell. When the top companies in the world are looking for trainers, speakers, and coaches, there's one name that stands above the rest, and that's Maxwell Leadership. Our certified team members have gotten proven results for companies all over the globe, and our reputation, I'm proud to say, is second to none. Some of our members have risen to the top of their profession, including the one you're going to meet today. I proudly introduce you to my friend Bob Fabien Zinga.

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Hello everyone, welcome to the trailer for Season 5. And first and foremost, Happy New Year! It's 2026, January 1st today. So I am very grateful for that. So let's start with our moment of gratitude as is our custom. So As we do this, maybe you wanna close your eyes, put yourself in your happy place, take a deep breath and think about one thing you are grateful for today, January 1st, 2025, brand new year. Well, today I'm grateful for the new year. I am so grateful I'm still alive today and getting out of 2025 and moving into 2026.

Basics.

What a blessing this is! What a blessing! What a blessing! What a blessing! So I am really grateful to be here today.

Wow!

All right, let us know what you are grateful for. And actually, I have seen a trend now. Let me see if I can download that picture. We are having A lot of people, just like we used to have those action figures in 2025, it looks like for 2026, the people are now breaking out of 2025 into 2026. Let me, a picture uploaded there, just give me a second. But basically you are going to more and more people do this. They will be breaking out of their iPhone on the LinkedIn. Portal, leaving 2025 into 2026. And I am assuming if you are like me, 2025 was not an easy year, right? A lot of things have changed. At a certain point, I really couldn't even recognize my own country. I'm like, am I still in America? Is America still the freest country in the world? Well, I believe things are gonna get better in 2026. So Whatever hard times you had in 2025, whatever hard feelings you had, my advice is to just leave all of the negative in 2025 and look forward to 2026. So have a positive attitude. I think that is so important, right, for success and leadership. That was actually one of the rules too from General Carlin, because when you have a positive attitude, it doesn't mean that everything will always be perfect, everything is always going to work out, but at least as a leader, that's what you want. So it's not like you are denying the fact or anything, but you do wish things are going to work out and you do believe that you will have the power to want to. So, okay, here's the image I was talking about, people breaking out of their phone. And I am going to give you guys at the end of the show the exact prompt I used with ChatGPT in order to make that happen. And I'm not sure if I'm gonna be able to also show you the short animation I was able to make. Let me see if I can get it. Is that working? Okay, I've got the animation also. Let me show that to you as well. It is very, very short. But again, for me, it really shows me leaving 2025 and moving into 2026, right? Evolving into 2026. And I believe that your tomorrow, right, will be better than your yesterday. Okay, and I also made a quick video too. All right, that's it. So it's really wonderful to be able to use AI like that. So I'm going to keep this one very, very short. Basically, this is the trailer for season 5. So my team already told me I need to update the intro and make sure we talk about season 5 and not season 4. I will probably update a few of the speakers as well. So I'm gonna do it later today. But so season 5 will be very similar to season 4 in that we still have the same curriculum. This is what I believe is the number one bestselling leadership book of all time. So it's the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by Papa John, Dr. John C. Maxwell. And I wanna make sure that you keep reading that book. I read it over and over and over again. It's one of those books I read every single year, but then I will also still have the Maxwell Leadership Bible, right? Whatever, or whatever version of the Bible you have. But I love this one because in addition to the Bible, it actually has leadership articles and posts and a lot of things to make you think about leadership as you go through the Bible. And I think that is just awesome. So those are still going to be the curriculum for this podcast. Again, this is not a religious show. You don't have to worry. I'm not going to try to convert you to Christianism or Judaism or anything like that. We're just going to talk about the principle of leadership and success vis-à-vis ancient pieces of wisdom, but I think they're still applicable today in 2025. Going up, especially when I was a teenager around 16, 17 years old is where I really starting to take my life seriously and really thinking about the future and trying to learn the secret of wisdom, leadership, and success. I think I've been mentored by the best of the best, Dr. Maxwell, Tony Robbins, Darren Hardy, I mean, on and on and on and on and on. The best of the best have mentored me, but really all of those people are truly saying the same thing. And I believe all of the wisdom they have, everything they share, you can trace it all the way back to the Bible. For example, one of the number one self-help books in the world, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, even just the title Think and Grow Rich, it comes straight out of Proverbs 21 when the Bible says, as a man thinketh, so is he. So you may not have a lot of control on many things. You may not control the environment or politics or the executive branch or the weather or a lot of things out there you cannot control. However, one thing you have 100% control over, that's your thinking. You can decide what you are going to think. And as you think, that is going to affect your emotions, going to affect the way you feel, and it's going to affect what you do. And what you do will ultimately decide your destiny. So that's why I think it's so important to just stop and think for a moment. And hopefully this podcast will be helping you guys take a pause, think about things that you already know, who you want to become, and some of the changes you want to make. Alright, so again, season 4, season 5 is gonna be pretty similar. We're still going to have the Leadership Bible as a curriculum and the 21 The Irrefutable Laws of Leadership as a curriculum. And we are also going to have a lot of interviews, and I'm also going to have some solo episodes where I'm gonna be speaking to you from whatever article I am writing. I'm gonna still continue to try to write a leadership article every single day. I call it the Leadership Excellence and Accountability Devotion. So I do that every day. Let me share my screen for just a moment. So these things here are not going to change. So for those who follow me, if you go to my newsletter, I also have an emerging tech cyber newsletter, but I don't do a podcast out of this one. That's just about anything to do with tech, cybersecurity, AI, and things like that. So feel free to subscribe and follow me. But the leadership and devotion and excellence and accountability devotion newsletter, that's the one I write every day when I interview people or when I just write about something I'm thinking about leadership today. So I'll tell you, so this is not going change. So I am going to continue on those interviewing people, getting the leadership principle we're talking about and finding again the same principle in the Bible, not as a religious text, but as a text to really teach us wisdom, which is ancient, but still applicable in 2025 in the age of AI. So I will continue doing that. And also the people I do interview, I have another newsletter, Friend in the Spotlight. Eventually everybody's going to be spotted, but this, I don't do that every day. I only do it once a week, right? So I give everybody the spotlight on my platform for an entire week. For example, today is Thursday, I do it every Friday. So tomorrow is going to be somebody else. When I restarted this, this year, last year in 2025, I was having trouble having people to feature. Now I have way, way too many people and not enough weeks in the year to do that. Basically, if I interview 52 people, I can only spot 52 people a year. That's it. There are 52 weeks a year. There is nothing I can do about it. But last year I actually interviewed almost 800 people. So you can tell only half of them are going to be featured. So eventually they will. The more people I interview, they're going to be added to the queue. Eventually they are going to be featured here, but I just wanted to let you know it's going to take me a while to get to everyone, but eventually we will be there. And again, the idea is when I feature you as a friend in the spotlight for the entire week, I am asking everybody who follows me, which I am maxed out at 30,000, I have almost 35,000 other people who follow me. So about 65,000 people who follow me on LinkedIn, I want them to follow you on LinkedIn or connect to you if they know you, and then endorse you for your skills and click on all of your posts and add comments, but really show you some love during that week and also want to celebrate all of your achievement. So I do it for everybody I connect with, everybody I interview, but I also want to specifically put the spotlight on people of color and women. I think they they are usually not celebrated for whatever reason. So we want to make sure we show off all of the work that you are doing and just celebrate you. Now, for this year, I have also decided— every single year I go through the book of Proverbs in the Bible, right? It's really the wisdom book. The book of Proverbs is usually, you know, You can find that right after Psalm. King David wrote Psalm, but his son Solomon, who was king after him, wrote the Book of Proverbs. So it's really principles for guiding one's life. So what I will do, we have 31 days in January, every January 31 days, and there are 31 chapters in Proverbs. So every day of the New Year, I go through the Book of Proverbs. I used to do it by myself, Every New Year, January 1st, I read Proverbs chapter 1, January 2nd, I read Proverbs chapter 2, and so on until I read the entire book by the end of the month. And I do it every single year. I mean, that's also when I really plan for what I'm going to be doing for the next year. And then when I got married, I started doing this with my wife. So now I think I want to open it up to the Leadership Success community. So this is going to be a special podcast, not like the regular one where I just go through my leadership article or I interview interesting people. So I'm calling this the Ancient Wisdom Mentoring from the Book of Proverbs, right? It's a very special edition of the Leadership and Success Podcast, and we're gonna be getting ancient wisdom and leadership lesson from the Book of Proverbs. So today being January 1st, I will start Season 31, Episode 1. It's going to be Proverbs Chapter 1, and I do Season 31 and not Season 5 so that people don't get confused between the special edition for the Book of Proverbs with 31 chapters. So Season 31, and then I will leave Season 5 the way we've been doing it. And also it will take forever, right? I will probably be like 1,000 years old or something for me to go from Season 5 to Season 31 because I do one season every year. For example, in 2026 today, I start Season 5, and then in 2027, January 1st, I will start Season 6 and so on. I think that it is safe to keep Proverbs there. And then what I'm thinking, since I'm gonna go from Season 31, Episode 1 through 31 for 2026, so probably next year in 2027 when I do this again, if I decide to do it publicly too, then it'll be again Season 31, but this time I'm gonna start maybe Episode 21 for the first day and then go All the way. Oh, maybe actually, yeah, it doesn't matter because it is unlimited. So I'm starting season 31, episode 1, probably next year I'm going to start season 31, episode 101. And then I will do that. And then if we do it again in 2028, then it is going to be season 31 and episode 201. This way you will see the distinction between year. But anyway, that's an idea I had. So I'm going to start this today. So right after this podcast, In about 10 minutes or so, I will start for the first time the Proverbs 31 study. Again, it's not religious. I'm not going to try to convert anybody to Judaism or Christianity or anything. Whether you believe in God or not is not important. Whether you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ or not, that's not important either. Even if you are an agnostic or an atheist, it doesn't matter. If you want to learn about leadership principles that are ancient and still work today, then I want you to join me for the next 31 days.

All right.

So that's really all I wanted to say. This is just a trailer. It's not a full podcast, just to let you know what we're gonna be expecting this year. So my very, very first episode tomorrow, premiering season 5, I'm gonna be speaking to a 4-star general, the one and only General Gary M. Brito, United States Army retired. He is the People's General "Four-Star Warrior" and "Future Focus." We're gonna be talking about leading the army of tomorrow. And then after him, I will be talking to a police officer, Dr. Beth Sandborn, school safety leader, advocate, and scholar practitioner. We're gonna be talking about "The Missing Piece," and she's written two books. We're gonna be talking about it, "The Missing Piece" and "Piecing It Together." So, and then after her tomorrow too, so it's gonna be a very busy day tomorrow. I'm gonna be talking with Terry Maxwell, She's a business architect, growth catalyst, conscious capitalist, and we're gonna be talking about conscious capitalism in action and her book, Succeed on Purpose. And after I talk to her tomorrow, I will also talk with the one and only Dr. Shona Dahl Springer. So she has a PhD, she's trusted, relentless, perceptive. And if you remember, we had her co-author for number one Amazon bestselling book, Relentless Courage. That was Sergeant Michael Segru. We talked to him on our very, very first mental health day. If you remember, I had him and James Corbett. James Corbett was the one who founded Project Refit. That's where a couple of years back, someone tagged me. Every year now I do during Thanksgiving, 21-day grateful challenge. That's where every day I am grateful for something on LinkedIn. And then I tag a member of my network. To be grateful to for the next 21 days. And I encourage them to tag someone each one of those days. So we just get LinkedIn extremely grateful around that time. Anyway, so the co-author for that book is going to be here tomorrow. That's Dr. Sharna Doug Springer. And then after I speak to her, I will be speaking with the one and only coach, Dr. Deena C. Brown. And we are going to have a really great conversation. She's a founder, speaker, Maxwell Certified Executive Coach like me. We're going to be talking about stillness meets strategy. She has two books, one, Destiny, and the other one, A Guide for Leaders. So we're going to be talking about that tomorrow. I can't hardly wait. And then I believe I might still be talking with Daya Ramesh, I believe, on Sunday. She's a cybersecurity leader, a founder, operator, and a mentor. We're going to be talking about cybersecurity being existential, but I think she may want to reschedule that. If she does, that is, that is okay. I will bring her back sometime down the line. But then next week we're going to be speaking— actually, it's going to be Saturday with Colonel Chevy Cook, United States Army. He's a mentor-in-chief, soldier, scholar, and strategist. We're going to be talking about Beyond Control. Actually, I am looking forward to one specific discussion with him. One of the most recommended book on this network, as you guys know, has been Simon Sinek, right? Start with Why. If we go back to the Leadership Success Podcast digital library or bookshelf, you are going to see I do have a list of the current books that we are reading right now that are being recommended within the last 5 or 6 weeks or so. But then I also have the Leadership Success Podcast most recommended books. And one of those books is this one, right? Start with Why. It's been recommended at least a dozen times this past year. Again, I've interviewed almost 100 guests and at least 12 of them said you need to read this book. And in the Navy, they do recommend that too. I believe it was at one point, at least when I was a junior officer, on the Chief of Naval Operations reading list. But anyway, my friend here, Colonel Chevy Cook believes that there is something wrong with that thinking, or at least it's not adequate. So anyway, we're going to be discussing that tomorrow. So we're going to see for season 5 more recommendations from my guests. When I speak to someone, I at least want them to recommend one book. Many of them have recommended several. For those who recommend at least 10 books, I will create a separate bookshelf just for them. We really love reading here. We don't always believe everything we read, but at least it causes us to think. So I like that a lot. So I definitely look forward to that. And then after him, I'm gonna be speaking next week with the one and only legendary CIO, Chief Information Officer, Lee Jones. He's a global system builder, a textured and calm under pressure. So we're gonna be talking from legacy to resilience. That is going to be so much fun. And then I will be speaking to two-star admiral, Melissa Burt, United States Coast Guard.

Woo-hoo!

And, uh, as you guys know, the Coast Guard falls under the Navy, uh, during times of war. But we're gonna be speaking about leadership at the intersection of law, trust, and national security. She was the Judge Advocate General for the US Coast Guard, recently retired. So I'm definitely, uh, looking forward to that. And then, uh, I will be speaking— this is gonna be a very special podcast with Charlie Wetzel. In the book, for those of you who've already read the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, you're gonna see in the dedication, John Maxwell, my primary mentor, dedicate this book to one person. And that's right there before you even get to the page of contacts, so literally the third page of the book, this dedication right here. I'm just gonna read part of this. Papa John says, this book is dedicated to Charlie Wetzel. And who is Charlie Wetzel? Charlie Wetzel is this man here that we are going to be speaking to next week. So Charlie Wetzel, Papa John says, is my writing partner since 1994. Together we have written more than 40 books, and I have enjoyed our collaboration on every one. As I have labored to add value to others by identifying and teaching leadership principles, Charlie, you have added value to me and my effort Your insight and skills as a wordsmith have been enjoyed by millions of readers. That is so true. As a result, you have made a greater impact on more people than has anyone else in my inner circle. For that, I thank you. So this is the man behind the scene. We are going to be speaking to him next week. You really want to be there. He's a master craftsman, faithful steward, and multiplier of impact. We're gonna be talking about leadership without the spotlight. Everybody in the world knows who John Maxwell is, and many people know who Kevin Myers is, but Charlie Wetzel is the man behind the man. So he's also written several books like the Marvel Studios Story with his wife, A Christmas Wish. Even one of his books became a short film, The Chocolate Factory. So it is really going to be fun I'm speaking to him next week. And after him, the other person I have confirmed is going to be Tembra Rae Stevenson. I am really, really impressed with her. She's a food justice visionary, cultural engineer, and scholar practitioner. She's the bestselling author of the Wanda series books for children, which you can only find on her website, Iamwamba. So we're going to be talking about leadership with nourishment, and I am So looking forward to it. So those are some of the speakers I have planned and already booked and confirmed for this year. Again, I am going to be at least initially doing the podcast every single day, just like I did for season 4. And I will be interviewing people when we can or doing it solo based on my article. I'm going to continue to use artificial intelligence. I think it's really fun to use AI to really bridge the gap with the distance because AI is allowing me to translate a lot of what we do. Right now, most of the videos we put on YouTube are translated into 20 languages. Of course, I cannot do that. AI had to do it. Back in the day, you would have to spend millions of dollars to have people to translate every movie and videos and then do the automatic dubbing and all of that. But AI pretty much does it now. Almost for free. So we are doing this. And if I speak to somebody from another country, another culture, I will also continue to try to translate, not the interview because YouTube will do that, but the AI recap and do it in their native language. So far this year, for the first time, we broadcasted in Spanish, in my native French, in Italian for the first time, and we did in German too when I interviewed Coach Astrid from Switzerland because she speaks French, English, and German. So that was really, really, really fun. So looking forward to that. And of course, I'm always open for your feedback. Anything you want us to do here different, please let me know. Please follow me on all of the major social platform and podcast platform. And I've already received a lot of feedback, people who really appreciate this podcast and the effort we we put into it and the value they get from it. But if you do, if you like the podcast, please like the episode, whatever platform you use, Apple Podcast, Spotify, Amazon, Audible, iHeart, wherever you get your podcast, like the show and also rate it, right? Give me a 5-star, please. And then I would really, really appreciate it if you take a minute to just write a comment that you love the show, what it does for you. It doesn't have to be long because I think as more and more people do that, it will trigger the algorithm algorithm so that we're going to be reaching more and more and more people. So I do appreciate that. Like the post that you are watching now, add a comment, add a question. So we are still going to be— continue to be interactive here. I'm going to be reading your question, trying to answer you live and having my guest answer to your question live. So I'm really looking forward to 2026. This is really all I wanted to say. And I believe, uh, this is it. So, uh, see you tomorrow for season 1, episode 1, the premiere of the Leadership and Success Podcast for 2026 with the one and only, a man who doesn't need to be introduced, General Gary M. Brito, US Army retired, the People's General. All right, bye for now.

Thank you for tuning in to the Leadership and Success Podcast with your host, Coach BZ. If today's episode added value to your leadership journey, be sure to subscribe, share, and join us again for more wisdom nuggets on how to lead better and achieve greater success. Remember, leadership is the most critical skill of our time. The world will always need leaders to inspire others, drive innovation, and execute meaningful strategy. So why not count yourself among the bold leaders shaping the 21st century? Until next time, stay inspired, stay committed, and keep leading with excellence.