0217: The XChange Approach: Conversations for Exponential Outcomes with co-founder & CEO of XChange Jon Berghoff

EA interviews episode 217, inspiration, transformation, success stories and the imperfect action round. Seven days a week, join Mario Ficcini for today's expert Authority Effect interview. Do you have wisdom? Do you have expertise? Do you want to share it with the world? But you just. Maybe words aren't enough. I very much felt this way. And if you've ever seen an episode of EA Interviews, clearly I didn't lack on the visual and it's so important. If you haven't, go to eainterviews.com every single one of these episodes. If you didn't know. I've filmed on video and visual is, I believe, where people connect the most short of being in person. It's the best way to do things. And I'm super excited to have the CEO and co founder of Exchange Approach here, John Berghoff, because he's going to be talking to us about this and, and why it's important the art of design. I'm gonna bring them up right after we thank our sponsor. Every business needs a book, including yours. Visit freebusinessbookpublishingcourse.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction, lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Once again, that's free businessbook publishingcourse.com Here he is, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. John Bergoff. John, how are you feeling today?

Hey Mario. I'm doing well, buddy. Thanks for having me. Good to see you.

I am excited to dive right in and ask you, what is the Exchange approach?

Well, it's an answer to what we think is a problem and an opportunity. It's both the name of our method and it's really any human interaction that's designed to unlock collective wisdom in any group environment. And I'm more than happy to be here to talk all about that with you today.

Well, I'm glad you are too because as I was saying on your intro that visual is such a great medium and I can't tell you how many. It sounds like you can apply this to a lot of different areas. But since we're talking business, I can't tell you how many times I've been in business meetings and it's just like.

I try to avoid these now, but early on it was just like how did they get this guy to speak? Or how did they get this woman to speak? And it was just like there was, they were having a hard time conveying the value and then just writing the notes. It was just like, is this over yet? There was no connection in anything. And how do you. How do you. How does your approach solve this? Or if you're in a great meeting, make it better and more memorable?

Yeah, yeah, it's a good question. And I think you just described something. Probably many of us can relate to being in a. In an environment where there's something we're supposed to be achieving and we walk out of that meeting, that learning environment, collaboration, whatever it is. And unfortunately, it's not uncommon for us to have a sentiment that something was left on the table. We didn't fully get everything out of that, and that's our passion. Anyone who leads, teaches, or convene groups, how do we design the kinds of human interactions that bring the best out of everybody possible? So there's a lot of ways to do it, and we could start where you want and go where you want, but that's our deep passion here.

Well, I want to ask you, how did you get into it? What's the backstory that led you to this point? Because I think expert authority world wants to know how come you're doing this now even though you have an impressive background?

Yeah, well, I had a coach not long ago who definitely convinced me that everything I do today in some way is healing some part of my soul from my younger years. And I think there's two stages in my life that I'm today trying to now give out the solutions that I wish I had. I think one of those was before we founded Exchange, I was an executive for the Vitamix Corporation. They make high end blending equipment and amazing company, amazing culture. Do you own a Vitamix, Mario?

My sister does, yeah.

All right, well, thank her for her purchase for me.

So while I was at Vitamix, I had this experience of feeling like on one hand, I had a lot of strengths and capabilities as an executive, but I also was looking around at a situation where we were dealing with so much change and challenge and complexity that I felt like I don't know if I have all the answers. To lead our organization through what we were facing. And the other time in my life that I'm now trying to help others that are in the same situation I was in was when I was a consultant. Vitamix was originally a client of mine, and I was trying to figure out how to enable an organization to tap into their collective strengths, to connect to a deeper sense of purpose, to be able to come together to solve their biggest challenges. And so what got us to where we're at today was being in quite a few situations where I really didn't have the answer. And then eventually realizing that my passion was figuring out how to design the questions and the conversations to unlock that wisdom from as many others as possible. Because we eventually realized here at Exchange that that's something that the world right now and really right now seems to be calling for, is we've got to find whole new ways in how we convene, how we teach, how we learn together. Because we're facing challenges right now that we've never faced. In fact, I'll share a quick, fascinating story. Just yesterday somebody sent me a video and I don't know when this video was shot, but Richard Branson was interviewing Simon Sinek and somebody sent me a one minute clip yesterday. And Richard Branson asked Simon, what do you think is the entrepreneurial opportunity of our time? And I don't know if he's shared this answer widely or ever before. I had never heard it from him. And Simon says, with very little hesitation, he says, we need to change the way we're having conversations with each other. And that's at the core of what we do here. Sometimes what we do can look or feel really sophisticated, but at the end of the day, it's about how do we design conversations so that we move away from a few people having the answers to unlocking the intelligence from as many people as possible.

So it sounds like you could have all these great leaders and all these business owners, CEOs, artists, celebrities, whoever, the greatest minds in the world, and if you're asking them the wrong questions, you're not going to get the result you're looking for.

I think that's true. I think that's true. I think there's a quote from a gentleman who's been a researcher for a long time at IBM. I think his name is John Kelly. He says in the future we will be judged not by our answers, but by our ability to ask the right questions. I think the degree to which we in communities and teams and companies are trying to figure things out that not one of us has a playbook for. We've got to ask the questions that connect us to the highest possible purpose, that invite us to unlock our best learnings from where we've been or where we are or help us to see what a better future could look like. And yeah, I think here's how important I think questions are. So I'm wearing contact lenses right now, Mario, and if you've ever put a lens in front of your eye, we at Exchange like to say that.

The world changes before the answer even arrives. Questions are fateful. They change the future before the answer arrives. And if you think of a lens as a metaphor, you put a lens in front of your eye even before you open your eye, it changes what you see, how well you see, really how you see the world. Questions are that significant. We can ask questions that do all those things we just mentioned, or unconsciously, our conversations could be driven by questions that pull us in really unproductive directions. So, yeah, long answer, longer. Yeah, Questions are pretty damn important to us.

So that leads me to my next question. How do you ask better questions? How do you know if it's a good question or not?

Yeah. Well, I think it all begins by starting with what's the highest outcome that we want to create in this interaction? What is it that we want to unlock from this group or this team? Right. So if you start there and you say, well, what we want to unlock is we want to connect them to a greater sense of purpose. Well, here's an example where if we fail to ask a question, we'll think we can inspire people to connect to purpose, but actually unintentionally have the opposite effect. And that would be a, you know, the old model of leadership would be that I tell you all the reasons why what we do is important.

So.

So realizing that if I want to connect you to a deeper sense of purpose, now I have an outcome that I want to get from this interaction, I can now go to our questions that we could choose from, and I could design a question that specifically invites you to reflect in a way that invites you to connect to a deeper sense of purpose. I give you two examples. One could be as simple as this. And it's as teacher Peter Black would say, sometimes questions need to be embarrassingly simple or embarrassingly obvious. They need to be accessible and relevant to whatever we're trying to do. So I could ask you something as simple as, why is being here right now important today? In fact, Mario, let me ask you this question. Why is being here right now important for you? And I'll give you a second to reflect on that question. As you reflect on that, I'd encourage you to think about all the different possibilities of how you can answer that. Right. For example, if I could, I could even share a simple parable that you or your audience probably heard a hundred times before, the parable of the bricklayers. And we can be reminded that we can ask these three bricklayers who are doing the same thing, the same question, why are you here today? And yet they could give three completely different answers. One could say, I got to pay the bills. The second could say, because this is what I do. The third could say, well, we're building a cathedral so that people could connect to their creator. Same question, completely different answers. So, holding that little parable in mind, we what would be your second or even third or maybe even your fourth bricklayer answer to why is you and I being here right now important for you? If you don't mind me turning the question back to you, what comes up for you?

Anything that emerges that is fantastic. And I had the answer even before you shared the parable, but when you were sharing made me smile even more. Because for me, God gave me the vision for this show years ago. And my goal is to connect the planet and exponentially elevate the identity of humanity. And I treat every episod as a piece of art, if you will. And I know that it's a evergreen little capsule that whether someone's listening now, watching now, or five years or 10 years from now, it can, like you said, exponentially change the direction of what they're doing. And my goal was to bring on people such as yourself to unlock the collective wisdom and just share the process that, you know, it's taken me decades to even be able to access the people, frankly, because normally you get a book or maybe a clip on TV or something on YouTube or whatever, and it's like, man, I wish I could talk to them. And I was like, I know these people. I am an author, speaker, CEO. I, you know, I just thought of it as organizing a really cool party that's ongoing and we're all going to share and help each other.

Well, so let me thank you, first of all, for letting me put you on the spot. And I want to acknowledge a couple things about your answer. For one, if all of us have an answer that is that clear and aspirational, I think we're in a great place. I love that the very first thing you shared was that you feel that you're being called by a God given vision. Right? So your answer immediately comes from a place of not job or career, but calling.

Right.

That you already, like you said, we're dialed into that third bricklayer answer. I want to share something really interesting with you, though. We've designed and facilitated thousands, tens of thousands of conversations guided by a handful of different types of questions, not everybody has arrived at the clear, articulate, aspirational answer that you have the first time we present that question. Think about you walk into most teams or organizations, that's Not a question that necessarily the masses have all really refined an inspiring answer the way that you have, which is great. So one thing to think of is that when you bring a question like that to a group, there's a power not only in the question, but in the choreography of the conversations that follow the questions. And this is at the heart of what we say is unlocking heads and hearts, unlocking collective wisdom and intelligence at speed and scale. I want you to imagine something. Imagine that we had 50 people live on this zoom or in this workshop with us, and we gave that same question, but we dropped into groups of three. Whether you are all part of a team or a workshop, it doesn't even matter. Same question can work in many environments. In those small groups of three, if each person shared their answer, let's presume, and I'll tell you from our research and our experience, everybody comes at that from a different place. What happens in that moment where we hear each other's answer is I hear you say something like, I'm following a God given vision. And all of a sudden I think, wow, that's really inspiring. There's no reason that a part of your answer can't become a part of mine. Right? Because the limitations of our language often becomes the limitations of the rest of our lives. So there's a power not only in the questions that we bring into any group, but how we choreograph the conversations. And if we had a group here, I'd not only send them into the small groups, have them do that, we'd bring them back out and we'd have a handful of people share, and there's a power there as well. And them noticing what was common across all their answers or anything that was distinctly inspiring, that was different. Appreciating both what was the same and what was different, how they. And how they came to that answer. So these are all.

I appreciate the insight. That's a real expert authority insight. And I appreciate it because I mean, while you could say, well, there's nothing wrong with having monthly goals, quarterly goals such as that, and there's not, and I believe you should, as a business or organization, you know, there's always a monthly or quarterly go, or weekly or daily, whatever the case is, but, you know, what are you aiming for? What's the vision for the future? If you can't even brainstorm 12 months out, what are you doing it for?

Yeah, yeah. And questions that invite us to look ahead to the future. That first question is what we call a purpose question that invites a Reconnection in the present moment to a bigger purpose. But there's different questions we can ask, either looking ahead or questions we can ask to study from the past. I could ask you right now. And we won't keep going, because I would just keep going with the questions. But I could ask you, of all the interviews you've ever done, when have you been at your best? When's one interview that stands out maybe more than any others, that, when you think about it, is one that causes you to reconnect to that purpose? And if I were to do that and invite you to tell stories or story after story, I could then ask you, what did you bring to those interviews? What did others bring to those interviews? And that's a powerful way of learning from the past, right? I could then ask you, hey, if we were celebrating a year from now, if you fell into a deep sleep and woke up a year from now and looked around and everything you're doing have become more than you ever thought was possible, beyond possible. What are you seeing, hearing, feeling, doing? What are people saying about you? How is the impact you're creating expanding and creating ripples that you'll never even see? I mean, these are all just invitations to go backwards. Go ahead. And when we bring these into group settings, there's a magic that gets unlocked when there's conversations that ensue following these initial questions. And that's what we love to see and do.

You know, I always ask people about the transformation. What's the biggest transformation you've had from your process or your company? And I can already tell.

I'm sure you've got hundreds of them, because I'm just smiling ear to ear right now going, this is awesome. Like, what you're asking, this whole thing. I'm just like, I do have answers for all these, and I do want to touch on one real quick, please. About the. Which is the best interview? And I wanted to ask you, how would you define best? Because I could make a very strong case this right now is my best interview because it's 200 some after the starting point, and I've only gotten better as a host and a producer and whatever. You know, the more you do, the better you're going to get. I could also argue the best one. And I think this is my real answer is the first one, because I was scared out of my mind and I did it anyway, and it's what launched the show.

And I was actually explaining, I think, the process and the vision God gave me and everything. So when you Said which one was your best and connected you to the purpose.

I make a strong case for episode 0,000.

That's awesome.

But there was at least a dozen or two in between where it was like, well, this is the one that launched this, and this is the one that did that. And this episode was the first time I did xyz.

I love that. Well, I love that you're honoring the importance of the courage that it took to take the first step. And the other part of your answer is honoring that in the present. Maybe this is my best self. So I love what I got to learn about you just based on how you answered that right there. I mean, it reveals even some of the things you value, which is being present to anything that's good or true right here, right now. And you're also honoring an aspect of your own legacy, and you're honoring equality. And so if you think about what goes on when we give out questions and we invite conversations, there's so much for us to uncover and discover about each other when we are present to then listen to how each other is bringing their whole selves into these conversations. So thank you for sharing that. I appreciate that.

Well, thank you for asking, because I'm like, was it 50 when we launched the new studio? Or this one when we got the microphone? Or was it episode 100 for breaking episode 100 or 200? I'm like, there are so many. Or even recently.

Just a few before you, I had Mark Victor Hanson on the show, author of Chicken Soup for the Soul. And I was. That was kind of a cool thing for me because I remember reading the book as a kid and never in a million years would have imagined that.

That's awesome. That's awesome.

So. But I'd still have to say 0000 because I was freaking out. And I actually. I remember coming home that night going, I need to go get some groceries and this and that. And I started crying in the car and just drove straight home and hit the record button. I think I figured out the groceries a few days later, but I was just, like, so focused on, I need to do this. Because I could tell that it was just like. And I was crying in the episode. It was. I had.

That's so good.

It just. It started the ball. And then after a few of them, it. It got easier and easier. And I've been changing stuff, stuff like that. It's way more refined now and smooth. The first 10 or 12, I even had a look at the questions. Now I know what to Ask you. And sometimes I throw in stuff where it's just like, I'm just gonna ask it because it's my show and it wasn't on the sheet, but I'd encourage anyone to do it hundreds of times. You'll get better, but you gotta do the first one.

Yeah. Thanks for sharing that. Thanks so much for sharing that. And forgive me, I've long lost track of. If there was a question that you.

Had asked me, well, I'm going to ask it now. And it's a perfect segue because like I was saying, I could feel the transformation. And I love it when my VIP guests do this because PJ Dixon did it early on. And I go, can you do the exercise real time? He goes, if you're willing to. I'm like, heck, yeah. And it's so. I literally can feel it right now. So thank you for asking it. And I felt part of the transformation. And the question is, what's your biggest transformation? Out of all the people you've helped in everything, where was the biggest? They were over here. And you took them to a new place.

Oh, gosh, yeah, you're right. There's so many.

There's a few that come to mind. And I'll just start with one here. Last year, we were invited to train the top 200 or so 250 master faculty members for the Keller Williams Organization, the real estate company probably familiar and you know, they pride themselves and they're known in their industry and outside for being a training organization. And what an honor for us to be invited in to train the top trainers of an organization that's such a human centered, purpose driven organization like Keller Williams. And I'll tell you, it was a seminal moment for us for a particular reason, because I was invited in by a dear friend, Jay Papazon, the author of the One Thing. He's a VP of Learning for Keller Williams. And Jay said, john, we want you to come in and do a half day session and teach us how to unlock collective wisdom. And I said to Jay, and now he knew me and he knew about our method. So I said something that he understood and he okayed to a lot of other folks, it would make no sense. I said, jay, I'll come in and I'll do a half day. And thank you. It's the highest honor to be asked under one condition. I will not be teaching anything. And he laughed and let us come in there. But I will tell you what we ended up doing. We had four hours. We are in those four hours. I presented four Questions spread across three different conversational choreographies. And these are questions that invited them to connect to a sense of purpose. These are questions that invited them to explore stories and lessons from the stories of when they have seen learning experiences at their best, because that's what they do in their profession. These were questions that invited them in teams of different size to not only share their stories of when they've seen a learning experience at its best, but to study the stories and then to decide what are the factors that led to those, and then present those lessons to each other in front of the whole room. And through all of these conversations and interactions, I spoke for no more than about 13 and a half minutes. And the only time I used was to get the questions out there and the instructions and long story a little longer. Part of what made that experience so deeply meaningful is not only the heart of that organization, but it was rated, we were told afterwards, the highest rated training in their company history. In fact, we're training them again next week. We're coming back to show them how trainers and leaders and teachers can use our method digitally. All this stuff works really well, a lot of it even better on Zoom. It's amazing. And it was. That was a seminal moment for us because oftentimes we'll go in, we'll facilitate, but then we'll tell them what's going on behind the scenes here. It was, no, we want to prove a point that the wisdom is in the room and that when the sage on the stage is willing to be the guide on the side, that when the idea of leader as hero is willing to be leader as host, and when we can go from this idea that what people need are all of my answers and all of my knowledge to no, I'll use my wisdom to design the questions to unlock their knowledge. It was one of the most beautiful proof points, and we've seen many, but it was just one that always stands out. For me, Mario, is one that reminds us that what the world we think is begging for today is for experts who want to unlock expertise in others. And the cool thing is we believe there's no reason for anybody who leads, teaches, or convenes groups to not lean into this, this art, this science, this practice of designing interactions that bring out the best in others. So that's one that stands out in, in a really big way. And I could share more, but I'll stop at that one.

Well, I appreciate you for sharing that because I'm totally on board with, you know, there's so Many people that are experts, but I think a lot of people have the answers they're searching for, but no one ever bothers to ask them. It's just, you know, here's another book. Read this. Do your homework, you know, be here at this time. Do that thing. When you give the ability. When you give people the ability to think, it's huge. So I want to ask you, where can people learn more? This isn't the end, but I want to make sure people, I know they're clamoring right now. Where would you like them to learn more that they can?

Sure. Well, we've got, you know, we give away. We believe the idea that the energy of information is seeking to be free. So were somewhat unconventional, although I'm seeing this has become more normal, which is, I think, is a good thing. But we've got a book, an ebook, somebody goes to Exchange Approach the letter X, the word change, xchangeapproach.com and then eae, we've got. For the expert authority effect, we've got an ebook just for your audience that actually shares with them all of our frameworks. We give it all away, all the questions, the conversational or it gives an example of the most common conversational choreography we use, gives you an example of four question types, and I think 16 different examples of those questions, and even a script of how to lead a group through this process. So go grab it. And then, of course, we have workshops that I do once a month where I lead people experientially at no cost through this process firsthand. I lead those. And we have trainings every couple of months. If anyone ever wants to talk to someone on our team and figure out if our approach would be good for them to learn, we're happy to talk to anyone at all.

Well, much appreciated. And I definitely want to check it out myself because what you're doing is so invaluable. I'm just really glad we got a chance to connect. So thank you for that. And I'll make sure it's on your show notes page on eainterviews.com Cool.

Thank you, Mario.

So I have a few more things I want to ask you before we thank our sponsor and do one of the fun things that I love doing.

Why don't we.

You ready to do the thing?

I'm ready to do anything you'd like. Yeah.

Why don't we show Expert Authority World that cool thing you got set up and just take a couple three to five minutes and walk through it.

Oh, I'm happy to. Yeah. I was showing you before the show that a lot of what we teach and what we do, and I'm going to adjust this based on how you got your screen set up or based on these pictures that we draw to explain our work. And, you know, maybe. Maybe what I could do is draw a picture and also answer a question. So even if somebody can't see the picture, this should serve them or give them some value of some type. How does that sound?

That looks awesome.

Yeah. Well, I'll draw four pictures for you that in these four pictures, I think explain the essence of our mission and our purpose here at Exchange. And the first picture, and this is not our own. This was originally an idea presented by Eric Teller, who's the longtime head of the Google X project. And one of the things that Eric Teller talks about, Mario, is that we may very well now live in a time in human history where the rate at which the world is changing. Let me go. Like this. Is now surpassing our ability as human beings to adapt to change. So everything that we're here to talk about today is to the extent that this is true.

What does this mean for those of us who lead, teach, and bring groups together? And we think it means two things. One is it means people need to be led and guided more than ever before, but they need to be led and guided in a whole new way. And a lot of what we've talked about today is based on a fundamental change in beliefs, a shift in paradigms, and based on the idea that we've got to figure out how to move away from a few people having all the answers to as many people as possible.

Unlocking their collective wisdom. And as we've already talked about, the way we do that is through the design of questions. So if anyone's listening and not watching, we've got pictures that we're drawn to. Talk about this. Mario, you got to tell me. I don't know if you can still see this. You still see this? I think you can.

I can. And I'll tell you what, I actually took me off the frame too. So it's just your sheet of paper, and we can see everything full screen.

Okay, that's cool. Well, I'll finish with two other. Just simple pictures that talk about kind of what's at the heart, what we do. And we've talked a lot about today about the importance of conversations right above the surface. What we do to Exchange really just looks like conversations. What's below the surface. Our highest hope is that we do it in A way that creates exponential outcomes. But at the heart of it all, if somebody says, well, what's really going on when we're unlocking collective intelligence? There's a tremendous amount of research that suggests that collective intelligence is available, but it's not a default that will tap into it. And it's available when we design interactions that unlock wisdom, strengths, purpose, intelligence, not only at a personal level, but also at a relational level and how we relate to each other and also at a collective level. Let me give you a really practical example of an entire industry. I gotta get rid of that pen right there. An entire industry that we believe is long overdue to be completely flipped upside down just based on this one model. And it's how we come together to learn, Mario. And particularly in conferences, mastermind groups, workshops, seminars, all of what we call these different learning environments, there's an evolutionary leap that we have believed for before COVID was overdue to be just flipped upside down. And it's the movement away from bombarding people in learning environments with entirely passive information towards a whole new way of unlocking what's possible when a group comes together. And there's three simple questions that we think are at the base of this. Number one is, how do we move as much of the learning as possible from passive to active? That's one of the most important questions when we're thinking about designing a learning environment or a learning experience. The second question that we ask is how do we move away from all the learning coming from the experts to actually crowdsourcing as much of the learning as possible? And I don't think we have time for a lot of examples, but actually, the Keller Williams story I just gave you was an example of doing exactly this. An entirely active learning experience where 95% of the four hours, 100% of the participants were 100% engaged. And in that case, they were actually crowdsourcing wisdom around their own highest priority questions. There is one more big opportunity, Mario, that I think is one of it is something we haven't talked about today. But I think it's one of the most important questions that we can ask inside of any learning environment, and that is this. How do we design the interactions that we lead to move the focus at least for a moment in time, if not for more away from, hey, we're here to serve the individuals that are here to learn, to actually building a sense of community. And what we're seeing is that the learning communities of the future, the trainings, the workshops, the industry conferences, the sales conferences, the Learning environments of every imaginable type are the ones that are figuring out how to design experiences, Mario, that deliver on all three of these simultaneously. And that's our passionate exchange. When we're in a learning environment, when we're working with a team or an organization, it's a slightly different set of questions, but a lot of this still applies. And just one more thing about that sense of community. And if you want to pull off the pictures here, you're welcome to. But one more thing about that sense of community. Right now, you and I are here on Zoom, and that's great, but the whole world has been stuck on Zoom.

And that's symbolic of actually an underlying problem that all of us in positions of expertise and authority need to really pay attention to, and that is that the fabric of our civilization right now has been shredded apart, and that is social cohesion, all the institutions and places where people would be eye to eye, heart to heart, belly to belly. And this is great. And we do all of our trainings, and we're doing all the things we do right now on Zoom. And we never would have thought this was possible before the second week of March. That being said, we think it's really important to ask the question, even if we're stuck on Zoom now or for a while, how do we facilitate interactions that don't just strengthen the content that people get, but build connection and ultimately a sense of belonging that we believe is one of the more important questions to be asking when we're bringing folks together in all these different environments right now. So thanks for letting me draw some pictures.

I thank you so much for doing it, because I was watching the whole thing, and I'm like, this is fantastic. I wish we did have more time. And I have, like I was saying even before with that transformation question, I was just like, yeah, this is gonna be hook, line, and sinker with him. He's probably got hundreds of stories. So thank you for sharing your wisdom with Expert Authority World. I'm getting a lot out of it, and I know they are, too. I have one more question. Two more. I'm going to ask you something. So this is the fun part before the sponsor.

All right.

And it's called the Wheel of Whatever.

And my question for you is.

What question would you want to ask someone? And it can be anyone in the world.

It could be.

So you can ask anyone you want, whatever you want. What's that question?

Gosh. Well.

It would be a question I'd want to give to any one of, or if I could Cheat all of my three children.

Okay.

And it would be something along the lines of and I've got a 10 year old boy, a 9 year old girl and a 6 year old boy. And it would be something along the lines of what do you want to do this weekend that would fuel your heart's desire? What would you love to do with dad this weekend that would make you smile more than anything else? I think I know what some of their answers are, but I just love the look on their faces. If I get to ask a question like that.

That's a great question and I love that you have the opportunity to ask them.

Hey, thank you. I will commit to asking him that question and I'll follow up and let you know what they say.

I sometimes do open ended stuff like that and I'll say a CEO, a celebrity, whatever. And I love it when people talk about family. And seriously, the great thing is.

You know where they're at.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're the greatest teachers of all.

All right, well, thank you for answering that. We're going to go to thanking our sponsor and come back for the imperfect action round. You've heard me say every business needs a book, including yours. And it's true. And that's why you should visit freebusinessbookpublishingcourse.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. But you know what, don't take my word for it. Take it from a few of my authors like Lori.

I went from having an idea and a possibility to actually getting my book published. Catherine, thank you for making my mom number one best selling author or Mary Alice what he got done for me in three days regarding my book launch.

Unmanageable.

John Cody. I've worked with Mario over the phone and online and he's been very helpful in getting me where I needed to.

Go with promoting my books. Rocio, there's no way in the world I would have been able to do this with somebody else again. I've attempted it in the past. It didn't serve me. As a matter of fact, I ended up more frustrated than anything. So this has been a very seamless process. Adele, if you're looking for an amazing business coach, I highly recommend Mario Ficini or Bill Benner.

I can't make a higher recommendation than.

To work with Mario Ficini.

He has been great for me and right now I won't work with anybody.

Else except for Mario.

Hey, their words, not mine. Visit freebusinessbookpublishingcourse.com to get started now. And I look forward to hearing your transformation as the next video success story. Once again, that's freebusinessbookpublishingcourse.com and we are back with the imperfect action round. John, are you ready to take imperfect action?

I am.

All right, these are 60 second answers. I got three rapid fire questions. What is the fastest path to the profits?

Curiosity.

Excellent. Number two. What? What is the biggest problem you see your prospects making and the fastest way for them to fix it?

Ask me that question one more time.

What is the biggest problem you see your prospects making and the fastest way for them to fix it?

Thinking that they need to have the answers and the fastest way to fix it is to figure out the questions for them to bring to those who they serve.

Excellent. Number three. What is the best way to maximize customer lifetime value?

Oh.

Over deliver and to and to deliver on the needs that they didn't know they even had.

Ooh, that's good. That's real good. All right, let's talk about books. What are some books you could recommend to Expert Authority World that have impacted your life for the better?

Oh, I would start with who Do we choose to Be by Meg Wheatley. Can I say something about that book?

Yeah.

It's an intersection of Meg's life's work and in particular the research about living systems, which our civilization is a living system and the history of the rise and fall of all civilizations. And it's a really somber or sobering look at where we are in the world. And by the way, it was written several years ago. And it's an invitation for any of us who choose to be what Meg Wheatley affectionately calls warriors for the human spirit. And I'd encourage anybody to check out Meg Wheatley's book, if there was only one, that's the one I'd like to recommend.

Excellent. Well, I appreciate you for suggesting that one. I have not heard of it, but I do want to check it out.

Cool.

I want to thank you so much for sharing. This has been incredible. Where would you like people to learn more?

Yeah, go check out our free ebook. And the name of the book, I don't know if I said it earlier, is called Exponential Leadership. And the subtitle is Unlocking Collective Wisdom at Speed and Scale. And we share with you four types of questions, three or four examples of every one of those questions, including a script of how to go in and design and facilitate powerful interactions inside of a team. If you're a leader or a consultant or inside of a learning environment. If you're a subject matter expert, an author, a thought leader, a coach, facilitator, go get the book at Exchange. Approach the letter x ChangeApproach.com.

Encourage everyone to go check that out.

Excellent. And again, I'll make sure there's a note on the make sure there's a link on the show notes page on eainterviews.com John, thank you again. This has been a real pleasure.

Mario, thanks for your time. Appreciate it.

All right, Expert Authority World. We have another great episode here today. I'll see you tomorrow. Have a great day and God bless. You're already the expert, but have you transformed your expertise into a tangible asset that will generate and qualified leads while increasing profit for you 24? 7? And if so, how well are you promoting it? With the Expert Authority Effect publishing method, it's easier and faster than ever. Visit freebusinessbookpublishingcourse.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Visit freebusinessbookpublishingcourse.com to get started. Now once again, that's free business book Publishing Course. Com. Hey, thanks for listening to today's episode. I hope you got a lot out of it. I know I sure did. If you haven't done so already, I invite you to subscribe to the show and also be sure to check out eainterviews.com for complete show notes, the full interview video experience, links to the resources we mentioned, and more. Have a blessed day and I'll see you tomorrow.