159 | Overcoming Homelessness & Becoming a Successful Leader with Joe Winters Jr.
Our guest today on the pod is Joe Winters Jr. After overcoming homelessness and getting a bachelor's degree, Joe became a motivational speaker and launching the Daily Path Podcast. Within 7 months, it became a top 10 ranking podcast on Apple Podcasts for education, ranking behind Tony Robbins, John Maxwell and TED Talks podcasts. Today he is a leadership coach that works with purpose driven leaders and small business owners around the world.
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SPEAKERS
Joe Winters Jr, Paul Zelizer
Paul Zelizer 00:01
Hi, this is Paul Zelizer, and welcome to another episode of the enterpreneurs podcast. This podcast is all about the intersection of three things, conscious business, social impact, and awareness practices. Each episode I do a deep dive interview with the thought leader in this intersection. Someone who has market has that experience and is already transforming many lives. Before I introduce today's guests and our topic, I have one request. If you could go over to iTunes or whatever app you're listening to the show on and do a rating and review hit the subscribe button. It helps tremendously. Today I'm thrilled to introduce you to Joe winters, Jr. and our topic is overcoming homelessness and becoming a successful leader. After overcoming homelessness and getting a bachelor degree, Joe became a motivational speaker. And he launched the daily path podcast. within seven months, it became a top 10 ranking podcast and Apple podcasts in the education category, ranking just behind Tony Robbins, john Maxwell and Ted Talk daily podcast. today. He's a leadership coach that works with purpose driven leaders and small business owners around the world. Joe, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me, Paul. Really excited to have you here. I like to joke My name is Paul and I'm podcast obsessed, and you seem pretty podcast obsessed. So I think we're gonna have some good things to talk about. Absolutely. I love podcasts. And anytime I can have a conversation with someone else that loves podcasts, it's always a great conversation with you been, you know, podcast obsessed, I'm positive, it would be a great conversation. So Joe, we're called the webinars. And one of the ways we like to get to know somebody is to ask you about a wellness or an awareness practice that you personally use to bring your most resilient your best self to Work Day after day? Absolutely. That's a really great question. My practice is what I like to call when our one and you know, it looks different for different people. I mean, it's not a concept that I credit myself, my routine, I credit myself, but you know, just being someone that's a fan of personal development, I've heard time and time again, from highly successful people. If you really want to be successful, you should win the first hour of your day. And so in the first hour of my day, what I like to do is the very first thing when I wake up is pray prayer, I like to thank God for giving me another opportunity to live given me another opportunity to pursue the purpose that He has given my life, and given me another opportunity to spend time with family members and friends and my clients and people that I truly enjoy banging around. So it's really a gratitude practice, I would have to say the very first thing that I do when it comes to my prayer, and then after my prayer, I didn't meditate for five minutes. After meditating for five minutes, I listen to yoga or I'm sorry, I listening to listen to motivational videos, I personal development videos while doing yoga for five minutes. And then after that, I make sure that I'm in the gym before the end of our one. And that's my practice, nice micro habits. If you're listening to this podcast, you know, I meditate seven minutes a day, because I'm like, seven minutes, I can do that. Like you know, absolutely. And if you get really busy, I say to my clients go to go to two minutes go to one just it's the practice itself unsettling our nervous system and taking that deep breath. Not that we didn't do it for three hours or a failure, but five minutes or seven minutes. Just love those micro habits. They are game changing. So cool. Absolutely. So, you know, going from homelessness to like a Apple podcast, top 10 podcasts and coaching people all around the world. That's not like, you know, a typical trajectory give us a little bit of a top level of like, What happened there? Yeah, of course. So
Joe Winters Jr 03:59
as far as being homeless, I will, I like to say there was three phases of me being homeless. The first phase is the first eight years of my life. The second phase is identified as the phase in which I spent time with my father. And then the third phase is when I was, you know, out on my own, I like to call it getting on the road, right? And so the reason why they're broken up into three phases is because in the first eight years of my life, my mother was alive. So at eight years old, unfortunately, my mother was killed, but in the first eight years of my life, I knew 100% what it was like to have someone who loved me unconditionally. And my mother showed it day in and day out no matter what we were facing. In the first years of my life. We weren't homeless the whole time, but we were back and forth between, you know, a hotel, a homeless shelter and on our bed. Months an apartment. And so that was the first eight years of my life in which my mother was a huge inspiration to me, and really serves as the catalyst for a lot of the things that I do. And then after that first eight years, my father was released from prison. So my father was actually in prison at the time of my mother's death, he was released from prison. And I would, you know, along with my brothers, obviously, go and live with my father, who was very abusive, mentally, physically and emotionally, which is what caused the third face the quote unquote, me getting on the road, because it was me just, you know, basically leaving my father's home and in during homelessness on my own, and I to make it clear, at the time of me being in my father's home, we did not always have a home, there was times where we would have to live in a car, you know, parked out an abandoned field or vacant house or something like that, but it was the abuse that made me say, okay, you know, what, I'm gonna go in, and do this on my own. And so, you know, my time with my mother, and my time with my father looked very different. Although both times I was homeless, to time with my mother, there was love, unconditional love, there was inspiration, there was motivation, there was leadership. And the time with my father, there was just a bunch of lessons as to what not to do as a man. And so going on to be homeless, on my own and, and, you know, going back and forth between legitimately sleeping on the pavement some nights to spending nights with teammates and classmates of mine, I was able to kind of get just a, I like to say, a world view, like a greater world view than what I had, I think the average person thinks you have to really travel from one country to another country to another country to, to really have a open world view. But I don't agree with that. I, I do think that traveling to different countries, does increase your worldview, or does expand it, but I don't think you have to do that in order to have a greater worldview. And when I was, you know, going back and forth between several different teammates, homes and classmates homes, I learned a lot, because one culturally, from one house to the next was completely different. So the experience was, was rich. And one thing that I could say is that over the course of my life, there was always people who stood out to me based on their desire to want to really help me become a better person. And that desire from the people that stood out in my life serves as the inspiration to me in my life today, and paying good paying for it, like giving back to people that that needs to help. And because of that, I started my podcast, and my podcast transformed into into a business and and now I'm blessed to work with entrepreneurs and business owners around the world.
Paul Zelizer 08:21
What a story, john, thanks for sharing that with us. So like getting on the road that days, like how old were you when you left? And somehow you found your way into college? I can.
Joe Winters Jr 08:35
Absolutely. When I when I first got on the road. For the first time I want to say I was 12 years old. But it became much more consistent when I got into high school, so around 14
Paul Zelizer 08:49
and you found your way to college and what do you study in college.
Joe Winters Jr 08:52
I found my way to college, I studied psychology. In my undergraduate program at Lamar University actually bounced around from the University of North Alabama, I play football there, and I studied psychology there. And then I transferred to Texas a&m commerce didn't like the school and I did get into a little bit of trouble. And then I finished up my undergraduate at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, where I got my bachelor's degree in psychology, and that I took a semester off. And after that semester off, I went to UNC to obtain my master's educational leadership.
Paul Zelizer 09:30
So the podcasts like from a very, he learned a lot. And there were some painful lessons there as well as some beautiful ones. And not uncommon, you know, I also have a bachelor's and master's in psychology. So you know, it's not uncommon if there's been some, you know, bumps along the road for like, what, who are these humans and what makes them tick, right? If we've had a little bit of that experience, you know, right, not not an uncommon story to get Got a psychology degree? And and so you finish your education? And like, did you immediately jump into the world of podcasting and thinking about leadership? Or was there another iteration before that?
Joe Winters Jr 10:15
Um, yes and no, it all kind of came together. At the same time, I would have to say, like I finished college, December 2017. And after finishing college, December 2017, I had dinner with one of my mentors, who was telling me, john, I really think you will, you will do the world a disservice if you don't share your story. And so when he said that, to me, it was it was still in the month of December 2017. And I hadn't made up in my mind that month that I was going to share my story, but I didn't, didn't, you know, go at it right away. I didn't start my podcasts until months later. And April, April 2018. And, you know, in that short gap, I basically returned home took up two sales jobs, one of the sales job, I love the product I love the company could not stand the CEO to step, you know, to save my life. And then the next company loved the CEO, he was phenomenal, but the product was just not really that good. So I felt like the, you know, the sales wasn't really sustainable for the life that I was, I was looking to build at the, you know, point that I was in, in my life, which I think really happened like that for reason, because that was my push to, you know, Joe, you know what, it's time to start your own your own business. And when I, when I started, I started as a motivational speaker and personal trainer. And I actually launched a podcast and a YouTube channel at the same time. And my thing at that point was personal development. It wasn't leadership, it was personal development, because I just wanted to share lessons that I had learned from my upbringing, lessons that, you know, if I didn't develop myself, I would not be where I am today, and I wouldn't have been robbed was at the point of starting my podcast. And it wasn't really until I was real, you know, creating results in people's lives through my podcasts and being hired to go speak at high schools and universities where I started to realize a lot of the principles that I was preaching, were principles of leadership. Because I mean, obviously, as a leader, in order to lead others, you do have to start with yourself. So me personally, I see leadership and personal development now as something that cannot exist without the other. And so that's, you know, every message that I deliver, it's about how can we better ourselves? And how can we contribute to those around us in developing the life they want as well.
Paul Zelizer 12:53
When you launch the podcast, it It took off within seven months, you're like a top 10 podcast in your category, like any sense of what happened there?
Joe Winters Jr 13:03
Yeah, you know, I'm going to so I'm gonna be practical, and I'm gonna be a humble with this explanation, I can really only tell you what I what I truly believe. So this is my honest assessment. First and foremost, it was the decision to say that I'm going to be consistent and provide quality instead of being inconsistent, attempting to provide quantity. So when I first went into the game, I was trying to podcast every single day. Well, I learned really fast, I was nowhere near as smart as I thought I was. Ouch. Yeah. So it was it, that humbled me. And so then I said, You know what, I'm going to deliver one message a week, every single Monday. And I've I've stuck with that schedule. And six months in seven months, and I began to, I began to place in the top 10 for my category, but I think there's I think that was probably the most important move that I could do from a producer's standpoint. Now, from a host standpoint, I attribute my success to two things one, my courage to just simply be who I am, I never got on any podcast episode and tried to pretend that I was someone that I wasn't. I only talked about things that I knew. I only talked about things that I had lived my thing was, I want to share tips, tools and strategies from both my experience and education. Because how I see it is if I'm, if I'm telling you something that I've lived, you can't discredit me, because I've lived it. So you can't say, Well, you know, what credentials Do you have to prove that I don't need the credentials if you know I live through and I'm telling you what i Lift through and what was produced as a result of me overcoming whatever it was that I was facing. And so just being super authentic, I think played a very large role. But then, you know, the second thing God attributed to, I really can't take credit for it, but it's my voice. I can't tell you how often I'm told that I have such a great voice. Like I, you know, I can't really I can't, that's something that I don't, I can't really take credit for. But I get it. I mean, every week, just almost every day, so.
Paul Zelizer 15:37
So I like to joke, but it's not really a joke about my spiritual highlighter. And one of the things he said, Joe want to pull out my highlighter and circle, the consistency. I like to talk to my clients, I'd say, steady loving presence in the marketplace. Steady loving presence in the marketplace. And what I hear you did, okay, you came out strong, I'm gonna do this every day. And and I said, ouch, as a joke, but also because as somebody who you know, produces a podcast and actually went to twice a week, like twice a week, it's a big commitment, right? So every day, I'm like, Oh, my God, big, deep breath. And I'm not surprised you throttled back. But you landed on a frequency. And you saw early on this was really important. And that builds trust and a sense of just habit that somebody's like, Oh, I know, Joe, you said every Monday, a new episode, and it's there. And it becomes if I like Joe's podcasts, it becomes part of the rhythm of my week. And it's really hard to have that kind of experience. If you're like, Oh, I got a great idea. I'll publish it. And then three months later, you have another great idea. Okay, yes. And that just makes it really hard to get traction with almost anything, whether it's a podcast or YouTube channel, or newsletter, any way of staying in touch with people and building your audience would really benefit from your idea consistency trial. So thanks for naming that. And I do have to just say, you have a fabulous voice. I'm Count me in the camp of man, I just love listening to you.
Joe Winters Jr 17:08
Thank you.
Paul Zelizer 17:10
Oh, you know, thank the universe for giving Joe such an awesome voice. And, you know, usually if you got Right,
Joe Winters Jr 17:17
absolutely, you know, that's, that's something that I cannot stress enough, you know, john Maxwell, he said that, if you really want to find your purpose in life, you should look at your talents and your passions. Your Passion will tell you what you're designed to do 90% of the time, because it's that fire that just lights us up when we're talking about whatever it is that we're passionate about, but your talents will tell you 100% of the time, because God has already designed you with the tools and the things necessary to achieve the purpose that he gave you, and gave your life. So, you know, I am a firm believer in God, for those that are not a firm believer in God, you know, I still would say that it still is very much true, you're brought into this world with talents that were given to you for a reason, whether it's one talent, or whether it's 10 different talents, and it's very important to, to figure out what that talent is, and actually use that talent to to its fullest extent, because everyone's not giving the same talent. Right. And I think that there is a certain level of like humbleness that has to come with it, because oftentimes, we overlook our talents because they come so natural. And so we're more likely to just say, well, there's no real, there's no way that this is really what I'm supposed to, you know, use to become the best version of myself for us to create a Purpose Driven Life. Because it's easy. And the average person likes to believe that in order to reach their greatest version, they have to do a bunch of profound things. And that's not true, you honestly. It's about doing the simple things consistently not doing the hard things once or twice, right. And so to using that, whenever we're looking at our talents is, it's the exact same exact same thing, like our talents will, without a doubt tell you or at least give you a great idea of what you should be doing with your life. And so, you know, being told that I have a great voice I've I've actually been told that since I was what in like the sixth grade, I denied it since the sixth grade. I remember when I was a freshman in high school. The choir teacher would say to me all the time, young man, I promise you I will get you a better scholarship. If you come and join choir, then you would get playing football. I looked at her like she was crazy and said look man, I am a football player. I am no singer. You know, just full of pride. Well, just, you know, really bring clarity to the picture here. I've never been ranked as a football player in my life, I was blessed to go and play college football as a result of hard work, dedication and consistency. But I was never ranked as a football player my entire life. And I've been playing football since I was seven years old. Now, how is it I jump on a podcast? And I begin a month later, Billy ranked in seven total money. How does that how does that happen? There is something to be said about making use of our talents.
Paul Zelizer 20:27
So you come in to the space, you know, it's not just any podcaster podcasting started in the personal development space. And now you're more in the leadership space. And we'll talk about that in a second. But one of the questions I have for you, Joe's, you came into some spaces where there are at least the popular folks don't look like you.
Joe Winters Jr 20:47
Absolutely.
Paul Zelizer 20:48
What was that, like you come online, you get all this traction. But most of the folks you know, like that your if you look at your ranking, you know, Ted's been called out. You know, historically, Ted's been a pretty white brand. You know, Brock, you know, Tony Robbins, we know what Tony Robbins look like, right? Suddenly you're like ranking with those folks. And most of them don't look like you What was that? Like?
Joe Winters Jr 21:08
It was it was very inspiring and motivating. Because I've, I'm one of those type of people that if you tell me it hasn't been done, I'm excited to be the first person to do it. So it was it was it was pretty, it was pretty exciting and motivating and inspiring, because it's just like, man, wow, like, as a result of being myself being authentic. I'm showing up in a space that if for if we are going off looks, doesn't seem like it was either designed for me or, you know, maybe hasn't been tapped into by people who look like me or, you know, like, I can only speculate. I can't I can't say you know why it is that way. But it was most definitely something that I did notice. And I thought to myself Hmm, like this, this is what happens when you when you say yes to who you are. This is what happens. Right? Because when I started my podcast, I'm gonna be honest, so many people were like, Joe, why are you starting a podcast? Who's really gonna listen to you? Why are you starting a podcast? You just graduated college? Are you really successful? Right? Like, what? What makes you feel like, you know, what did you really achieve that, you know, makes you feel like you deserve to have an audience. And for me, one thing that I can say is that, graduating with my first degree, the success wasn't my degree, the success was mastering personal development, going from homelessness and considering suicide. And, and when I say considering suicide, I'm talking about being at the point of actually almost taking your life to not doing those things. And going on to work your tail off and being consistent in a space that is very, you know, institutionalized. And so there, there seems like there's just so many walls put up in front of you, me graduating was a symbol of discipline, if anything, my success was, you know, being a discipline being not being a college graduate. And so just looking at it from that angle, and going into my podcast, it's like man, like, as a result of being myself. I'm able to contribute to others the way that I want to, but also there is a, there's a payoff. There's recognition. I don't I don't like to really talk about the whole recognition thing, because I, you know, if you can't tell, like, I'm someone that, you know, I like to remain humble. But at the same time, I would be lying if I told you that it, you know, it wasn't exciting to be recognized for being myself. You know, I don't think I was top 10 at that time, because I was an expert, because I surely wasn't. You know, and some people would disagree, they would say, Well, no, I mean, you are an expert in personal growth. I mean, how many people can can save it? You know, they've overcame the things that you've overcame, you know, we look at statistics, right? statistics does not favor where I am right now. You know, someone that saved the things that I've seen, wouldn't be here. So I don't know. I think that's a really long winded way of just saying that. It was very inspiring. It was very motivating. But also humbling.
Paul Zelizer 24:39
I'm so glad you're here, Joe. Yeah, it's still impacting lives and your story is really profound. So So let's do this. Let's take a break hear from our sponsor, we come back I want to hear about what it looks like now and how you work and what the revenue streams are and how it works as an entrepreneurial venture. Before we do that, I just want to say we have a very different kind of sponsorship than many podcasts on this podcast. So we don't have like a website service or meal delivery plan sponsor to we have hundreds. It's called the aware printers community. And what we do is if you have a business that's about having positive impact and paying attention to the kind of personal development, the inner part of having positive impact and the outer part of having positive impact, then you might be interested in the aware printers community. To give you an example, this morning, there's an incredible amount of to LinkedIn pods, people who want to get better at using LinkedIn for growing impact and personal development kind of businesses and we're sharing our strengths and liking and commenting on each other's posts and connecting each other with people to follow and have a really rich and meaningful LinkedIn experience is supposed to just like I don't know what to do here. Tomorrow, we're having a call in our podcast success team with me ha the fail coach who's done over 100 guesting episodes in the first six months of 2020 is going to come teach us about what he learned and how he does it. And why podcast guesting is such a successful strategy. So we find people who are doing awesome things, and learn from them in very nuanced ways. We have an opportunity to share what you're bringing to market your latest course or a book and help get the word out. So you have an impact business. And you could use a little help getting the word out and being in community with folks who know these kind of businesses and can help you find the resources you need and emotional support and sense of community. Go check out the web printers community at aware printers, dot community, forward slash community. So thank you so much for sponsoring this podcast. So go talk to me a little bit about this transition, you start you go from personal development that's really working for you. But eventually the light bulb goes off and you say, aha leadership. Like, how did that transition happen? And what did that mean, in terms of you made a reference earlier into this, you know, actually becoming a business, there was something about thinking of leadership and what you were teaching. And that's sort of like where that, you know, the engine kind of went into gear and you started to get some real traction as a business?
Joe Winters Jr 27:23
Well, when I had been studying john Maxwell, I there is a lot of people in our industry that I study, but someone that I really study often is john Maxwell. And so I had been studying his five levels of leadership. And the first level is when people follow you, because they have to write this is people following you because you pay them or because you birthed them. So they, they, they have to follow you. The second level is people follow you because they want to the third level is people follow you, because of what you've done for the organization. The fourth level is people follow you because what you've done for them. And then the fifth level is people follow you because of what you stand for, who you are, and what you believe. And so, me gaining the traction the way that I did as a host. And studying john Maxwell, at the same time, I was able to look myself in the mirror and truly believe, Joe, you are a leader. And it's not because people have to follow you because people don't have to turn on my podcast, right? people choose a ton of my podcasts for, you know, be either because they want to or, you know, because of what I've done for them and their life based on my content or because of who I am what I stand for what I believe. And so because of that I begin to really want to study leadership more, which was a big part of the reason why I went back to school to get my master's in Educational Leadership. But I really wanted to study leadership more and become more of a a student of leadership because I guess it's it's a realization of, I've made good of my life. How do I contribute to others and help them do the same? That's when we start talking about leadership? Right? So yeah, I don't know if I answered your question there.
Paul Zelizer 29:25
Totally. Yeah, definitely makes sense. And I'll put a link to john Maxwell's work in the show notes we're gonna have nice sometimes have like this mini competition to meet up with how many awesome resources can we put in the show notes so we're gonna have a bunch Joe, you're gonna, you're gonna fill it out, I can tell. So we'll put john Maxwell's work in the show notes and give people something to look at. I love that piece about that last level of leadership, people resonating with what you stand for and what you're up to. And not just a cult of personality, a party called sometimes in the personal development movement. There's there's really Strong people, and they're very inspiring. There's a bit of a personality piece there. And that last level, again, kind of pulling out my spiritual highlighter, when you're doing something with attention to values and attention to the positive impact in the world, at least for me, those are the kind of leaders that most inspire me. Love, forgotten about john Maxwell's teaching about that. So thanks for bringing that on. And I see you doing that, Joe, thanks for articulating that.
Paul Zelizer 30:30
So you start offering one of the first things that I understand right, that you start off, when you start doing some coaching, you're like, Oh, I get it. It's not just about inspiring people personally, it's about bringing this into making people or helping people become more effective leaders, and they start hiring you as a coach. Right? Absolutely. So a little bit about your coaching work.
Joe Winters Jr 30:51
But we'll do we'll do and I guess I just want to make one quick acknowledgement there. It really started with training, I would have say leadership training and and then went to coaching. So for me at first was being hired by companies to consult with them and simply come in and do a leadership training gone, you know, self awareness, or self actualization, empathy, motional, intelligence, things that fall into leadership and play a large part in a leader bank effective. And then that, for me, that I would have to say, the biggest thing that drove me saying, okay, I want to do more. So coaching, was having my daughter and realizing that I don't want to be on the road more than half of the year doing training, because that means that I'm on the road, half of the away from my daughter. And so that is the reason why I said, Okay, you know, what, let me really incorporate some training or some coaching, where my income just isn't once, you know, dependent upon me being at a specific location. So, yeah, but as far as my process, I really like to start with an assessment. And, you know, I have like actual software where we do questionnaire assessments. But when I say an assessment, I mean, that I'm a very personable person. So I like to do them through in depth conversations, and just get a great idea of where a person is in their life, where price who want to go, and how I can serve them as a coach. That's 100%. My work as a coach, I'm, I'm not Michael Jordan, right? I'm Phil Jackson, like, I'm not, you know, it's, it's not about me, per se, it's about the player, right. So my clients are the players. And when I started my career, I will say, I made the mistake of making it about me, I made the mistake of making it about the wealth of knowledge I've developed as a result of overcoming homelessness, getting college degrees, and also interviewing other phenomenal leaders, I made the mistake of making it about me, not really realizing that great coaches never makes it about them. great coaches always make it about their players. 110%. So that's my, that's my focus. When I'm when I'm coaching.
Paul Zelizer 33:23
It got traction, it really provided well for you. How old is your daughter? Now?
Joe Winters Jr 33:28
My daughter is two years old now.
Paul Zelizer 33:30
Wow, they really they change our lives, don't they? Why?
Joe Winters Jr 33:34
Why 2%? Why don't you say, you know, when I, when I when I started speaking and training. I remember being in a webinar with Lisa Nichols. And she said, if you are a speaker and a trainer, you also are a coach, you have a coaching business, whether you're developing that side of your business or not. And it's important to really decide, you know, which takes I guess the lead in your business, right? Do you want to do like 80% speaking and training and 20% coaching, or vice versa? Or do you want to do like, you know, 60% training and speaking, and then 40% coaching? Well, when I when she said that originally, I didn't get it. So in my head, I'm like, Nah, like, I'm 90 95% I wouldn't do speaking and training. Yeah, well, my daughter changed that real fast.
Paul Zelizer 34:30
Coming here, and we'll do that. I like to say that the two biggest personal development courses you never knew you signed up for our parenting and starting a business 100% it's like, okay, buckle your seatbelt, cuz you're gonna grow right there. You could take not that I don't take personal development courses still, but nothing compares to those two experiences in terms of how much I've grown and stretched and hit some uncomfortable places along the way.
Joe Winters Jr 34:59
I just don't I have to agree with
Paul Zelizer 35:02
along the way, your coaching or training that's going well, and along the way, I'm not sure of the sequencing here, but somewhere along the way you decide to offer a community membership type thing. The Daily path warriors, talk to us about that.
Joe Winters Jr 35:16
Yes, thank you for bringing that up. So somewhere along the way, and that somewhere along the way was actually very recent ago, I started the community daily path warriors. And our first month was actually last month.
Paul Zelizer 35:31
Oh, my, it just happened. I had no idea is that fresh? Okay, you heard it here, people fresh off the breath.
Joe Winters Jr 35:38
Yeah, it's, it's, it's 110% fresh, I just want it to be able to provide insane value at a super affordable price. And so I had been figuring out a way, you know, that I could do that. And that came across, just simply start in the community, where I can actually do a monthly group training. And then I wanted to, I pride myself on over delivering never over promising and so with the over delivering, that I like to do, I wanted to also include in there one private coaching session per month with me, which if you're looking at the communities have their personal development coaches or leadership coaches, they're not providing anything like this or, you know, if you're getting the one private coaching session, it's usually by someone on their team that they've tried Don't get me wrong, best do really good. But you know, I'm in my membership community right now. It's still very fresh and early to where the members who are joining now that are part and joining now, their one on one coaching session is with me, and they're never going to be pawned off. So that's like the, you know, I guess like that, just the cookie, the extra cookie with the mill?
Paul Zelizer 36:53
Yeah, well, so let me ask you this joke, because I love membership communities, and, you know, where printers community, I just, I just love these humans. And like, it's not, it's more complicated. And it takes more leverage to start a community. Like, if somebody's listening, and they're like, oh, Joe has a community positive community and they love it. I'm gonna start a community like when's the right time? And right up, you can't see me. But air quotes, right? Yes. What's a good time to be thinking about or at least? What why now, in your business development journey? Are you thinking about community? And why didn't you do it a year ago? Or why not two years from now?
Joe Winters Jr 37:30
Absolutely. Man, that is a loaded question. And that's a phenomenal question.
Paul Zelizer 37:35
I love asking those complicated questions, right? I don't have a clue. Let me ask Joe, right?
Joe Winters Jr 37:42
So as far as starting a community, my advice is a little bit different than the average person, when talking about communities, the average price is going to weigh and say you need to have a large audience. Because you really do want to leverage your large audience to make sure you pack out your community. And there is this desire to want to have a large community from launch until the end of time. So people want to start a community and have 50 people in it right away, or 100 plus people in it right away. And if that really is your desire, and psychologically, you know that you're going to screw yourself up. If you don't obtain that, then I would have to say, you most definitely want to build a solid engaged audience first. Now, if you are like me, and you really prioritize results and relationships, then you can start one from the very beginning. But there is a key. And the key is to make sure that you 110% design your community, including your boundaries. If you don't include your boundaries, whenever you are creating the community, then starting one, when you have a small audience is going to be extremely hard. Now I'll tell you why. Firstly, because there is a smaller number. I think the average person gets anxiety in wanting to provide more with the hopes that that's what's going to increase retention. Right there is this idea that if I don't have any people in my membership, they're going to start leaving, and so I need to start providing much more in order to keep them you know, I just feel like that that's that puts you in a bad position, right? Like the best thing that you can do. I sit down, take your calendar, assess your time, Monday through Sunday or Saturday or Friday, however you want to do it assess your time, and then really come to grips with if I was going to show up and do something without anyone there. What would it look like? I know that for one I know once a month I will furnish her without a doubt Stand in front of the camera and deliver an impactful message. Because one, it does give me practice for when I'm, you know, going to speak on much greater stages than I've ever spoke on before. It allows me to bring more clarity, and my messaging, it allows me to practice storytelling, there is a lot of benefits in me, for sure doing it once a month. Now, there's a lot of obviously benefits and me doing it every week. But I know that I would burn myself out if I tried to do it every week. And so with that, with me knowing that, Okay, I'm going to do it once a month. This is just something that I know for a fact that I would do, even if no one showed up. It makes it easy for when someone joins my community, for me to stick to what I'm what I'm promising. So that way, I'm not over promising, but instead I'm over delivering. Does that make sense?
Paul Zelizer 40:54
totally makes sense. Yeah. Again, pulling out the spiritual highlight around the circle the words boundaries and burnout. Absolute community done well, it's fabulous. It's rich, and the interaction, not just the opportunity to share, you know, what I might have to offer bring fabulous guests, but also the exchange between, um, a relational guy, right? Why do I love podcasts and interview podcasts because I love hanging out here and learning about what you're up to Joe and who you are, like, I'm a relational guy, right? And watching humans connect with each other that care about, in my case, impact and awareness based businesses. Like that's just it's sacred, right? But but it also can be, especially in the more personal development and social impact space, we tend to over give and a community is a fabulous place to over give and burn yourself out, should you want to have that experience.
Paul Zelizer 41:46
So I just want to circle those two key concepts and to really just, you know, Echo or cosign what you said, was like, pay careful attention and look at like, what else you've done, and and how skillful are you about setting boundaries, you know, what do you need to make it worth your while to invest it and grow it, and your personal sense of like your return on investment and the timeframe that works for you, if you're looking for a quick return on investment, don't start a community upfront, and you have a small group, right? small audience? And if it is a place to build some so your why No, your why. And also these questions about boundaries and sense of return on your energy invested and what are you looking for? And is this the right time, and if you're not sure, it gets some help from somebody who knows communities, because I've seen them be fabulous, and I love the carpenters community. But earlier on in my journey, I tried to start some community stuff. And it didn't feel like it was a good return. And I really felt depleted and wish I hadn't done it. Earlier phases and binary. So just just really appreciate what you're saying. Yeah.
Joe Winters Jr 42:51
Well, thank you.
Paul Zelizer 42:52
A book talking about hot off the presses, you have a book that's hot off the press. Tell us about that.
Joe Winters Jr 42:59
Absolutely. My book released this year, on Mother's Day, obviously, that was inspired by my mother. And it's, it's a practical guy, to overcoming adversity. I in the first chapter, I detail my story, you know, or at least provide an overview, I've gotten some feedback, I will say the only constructive criticism that I've gotten from readers is they wish I would have told my story opened up more about my story in the book, because I really more so only did so in the first chapter to just kind of really lay the the foundation of this is the worst that I've faced. And these are lessons that I've learned. And then the rest of the book is I want to give you steps to overcome the worst lessons that you have faced or are facing or will face. And you know, what I believe you can implement to overcome them. But I also did include places in the book for the reader to actually apply their story. So there's places in the book for the reader to write in problems that they're facing for them to write in solutions, they believe they want for them to write in, how they're going to bridge the gap. And then there is like a, like actual space for project for them to just visualize their future in the back of the book as well. And I really wanted to do that. Because towards the end of finishing my book, so many people said to me, wow, Joe, you're just so motivated, you're an author, and that it was always followed up with. I wish I could write a book. And so that gave me the idea of getting the reader to write a mini book in the back of my book with the hopes that that could inspire them to write a book if that's what they wanted to do, because they could take what they wrote in the back of my book and have a at very minimum a solid foundation to the book they want to produce.
Paul Zelizer 45:03
Beautiful. I never heard that before. And I've heard people saying, I wish I could write a book. But what a creative way to harness that energy. That's Wow, that's really cool.
Joe Winters Jr 45:12
Thank you. So you're
Paul Zelizer 45:14
doing leadership work, Joe, and, you know, your your guys paying attention. We're in a moment we're having a moment. My daughter would like to say here in the US and around the world, you know, are these confluence of crises and lots of conversation about leadership? For instance, one that I'm talking about with my network on LinkedIn, I live in New Mexico. And our governor has been featured in New York Times about her response. She's a Latina woman, who's used to be a public health commissioner and is just doing a fabulous job. New Mexico's coronavirus cases are really on the decline. And when you look at it, it's compassionate, really thoughtful leadership that has a huge factor in this like all around us are states that are spiking and some of the top in the world and we're like getting written up in the New York Times. Thank you, Governor, Michelle Doohan. So talk to us a little bit about like leadership now. What are you? How is this moment that we're collectively facing, impacting the issues that people are bringing to your conversations? And how is it impacting you as a leader?
Joe Winters Jr 46:21
Absolutely. Personally, I would like to answer how it has impacted me as a leader fires. I've actually tried to do more observing in this time, with the hopes that it is that action that helps lead other people, because I think that we're in a time where people aren't doing enough observing. They're just doing a lot of talking. And I say that respectfully. A lot of people are talking on issues that need to be talked about every issue that is that we're facing right now. And we're talking about right now. This is the time to talk about them. This is the time to take knowledge them. But I think that so many people are quick to talk. They're not, they're not actually observing. So, you know, in this time, I've tried to really just listen and learn more than anything, especially before I speak. Now, as far as the issues that we face. I like to believe that. Honestly, I like to believe that we are in the best position right now as a country than we've ever been. And here's why. You can't really overcome something until you face it. Would you agree? Or no? Do you have a different take on that?
Paul Zelizer 47:47
Oh, definitely. It's awareness, one on one, you can't change something if you're struggling to acknowledge that it even exists.
Joe Winters Jr 47:53
Absolutely. So with that being the case, like, for example, racial inequality, or the justice system, I'm not going to sit here and I'm not going to make it seem like all of the justice systems bad. I'm not gonna sit here and I'm not gonna play victim and say, everything's against me. And everything is against my success and preventing me from being the best version of myself. I'm not gonna sit here and say those things. But what I will say is that, obviously, there's problems in the justice system. Obviously, there is racial inequality. Obviously, there is other horrible things going on, like child sex trafficking, all of these horrible things that are going on. The reason why we are in the best time that we've ever been in, is because we're actually talking about them. We're not just trying to sweep them under the rug. We're not saying Oh, yeah, there's, there's kids that they're being taken and forced to have sexual intercourse. You know, we're not just taking a sweep under the rug. Oh, that that's something we shouldn't talk about. That's disturbing. Let's not talk about it. I'm getting tired of talking about it. Because I think that before now, that's the way that it's been. I think before now racial inequality is something that should just sweep under the rug. I mean, obviously, there was prominent times in history, where we were in a time like this, but in my life, in my short life, I've never seen it. In my short life. I've never seen our country, really having a global discussion about the problems that are that we're facing in our world. And so the fact that we are Yes, the problems that we're facing, they're traumatizing it. It sucks. But I mean, that's always been our reality. It's just now we're talking about them. And so I think that that's good. That's the that's, that's the that's going to really be the first step to just true change is having the conversation and keeping the conversation alive in such a way that will help us reach the results that we are looking to reach. Recently I had wrote a or not recently, but earlier this summer, I wrote an article on LinkedIn, everything rises and falls on leadership. This is john Maxwell's one of his favorite quotes. Everything rises and falls on leadership, or this is some john Maxwell said, but it's one of my favorite quotes that he said, Everything rises and falls on leadership. And in the article, I wrote, what I believe are four leadership steps towards the change that we need. The first step is that we must all agree on world peace. If I have to tell you one of the most sad things that I have seen in this time, it's the fact that I don't really believe everybody really want the world to arrive at a peaceful state. I don't think that I think a lot of people say they want it. But realistically, they want it, if everything could be the way they want it to be, they don't want it if that means everyone living in a world being 100% themselves. And we all learn to get along with one another. So that's one of the things that I think that's the most crucial step, we must all agree that we want world peace. If I was to walk into a room with 100 business professionals, I don't care your color, black, white, Hispanic, and we're talking about racial inequality. And the first thing you throw at me is, well, you got blacks out there that are, that are, you know, not complying with the police officer, you're not someone who wants world peace, because you're trying to fight me with fire. And I'm not trying to fight at all, I'm trying to have a conversation about something that I see is wrong. You see, if I if we were talking about homosexuality, I gotta go here, because I love I love also, you know, looking myself in the mirror, and when I say looking myself in the mirror, this, you know, is as it pertains to my faith in my face, you know, homosexuality is a sin. And so you have a lot of people outside of myself, I don't do this, but I'm aware that a lot of people who identify as the same or like, you know, as the same in the same faith as I do, when it comes to homeless, people that are homosexual, there's no regard for why they became homosexual. There's no desire to listen to why they chose to be homosexual, there's just simply a use, you shouldn't be homosexual, because it's a sin. And God says, so now, you know, like I said, like, I'm a firm believer in God, and, and whatnot, but I refuse to tell somebody that like, I want to, I want to listen to your point of view. If you want to talk to me, about your point of view, I want to listen, and I want to learn. And so that, you know, I can really go, like all day, talking about the first day, because I, because realistically, like if I'm just throwing it out there, Paul, it doesn't matter. What issue we talk about, there is someone that opposes with fire without trying to listen. So the first step is we must all agree on world peace. The second step is leaders must take ownership, I think empathy is, is taught. And if you categorize yourself as a leader, then you have to embody empathy. So every day, you have to be intentional about being patient with others and understanding of where they're coming from. The third step was leaders must master their emotions, you know, again, I could walk into a business room, or I could walk into a room with 100 business leaders. And if I'm talking about racial inequality, you get upset and you and you have an urge to just instantly respond with a point of view that you want to make because you got into a fight with another person of color in a different room who might have been ignorant, because that's usually how it happens, right? You usually have a conversation with someone who, who said a bunch of things that just did not make sense. And now every time you have that conversation with someone else, you're treating them as if they're having the same conversation, that last person who wasn't making sense as having when you're not, they got to different point of views, right? A leader must master their emotions. If I walk into the room, and we're talking about racial inequality. Don't talk to me about the conversation you have with another person of color. Like just because I'm a person of color doesn't mean me and that other person of color, share the same feelings. Talk to me about the issue at hand, and actually be able to handle your emotions in a way where we can have a sincere and genuine conversation where we're both trying to understand Where the other person is coming from. And by the way, I'm not exempt from any of these steps that I'm giving. If you want to talk to me about something that I don't believe in, or something that I don't like I have, I have to handle myself in a way where I can be open minded, and listen to your point of view. That's the only way we can have a genuine, sincere conversation. And then the last one, my fourth step is that leaders must speak up. Right? Gary Vaynerchuk said, hate feeds off silence. So the things that I'm talking about right now, I'm very aware that, you know, some people don't want to hear it. I'm aware of that. And I'm sorry, Paul, if someone in your audience doesn't want to hear it, but I am aware that some people, they don't want to hear it. And but the reality is, is that if you are a leader, or if you identify yourself as a leader, you must be willing to speak up 110%, you got to be willing to speak up about the things you see done, right? You got to be willing to speak up about the things you're saying done wrong. You cannot sit back and say I'm a leader. And I'm going to pick and choose what I speak up about. Because see, if you do that, and my personal and professional opinion, you're not a leader,
Paul Zelizer 56:23
you're letting popularity be the main guide, in terms of where you lead and what kind of things you raise. I think that's where we get pretty off track as humans versus values and things that are the kind of positive impact and community I call impact goals. So when you start learning values and impact goals, lead, you're going to get into some hard conversations as a leader. I can't agree more, though. And that's you're not doing anything wrong. When that happens. This is kind of the terrain of that values and purpose and impact driven leaders find themselves in and when we start letting popularity run the show, that's when we start becoming those folks who are doing harm to communities that individuals my opinion, but my podcast, we get to talk about that. If you're really pissed at me go start a podcast and then right, exactly, I might disagree with you. But I'll listen at least a little bit to see what what you're saying. But my podcasts, my rules, values, purpose and impact. But those drive don't chase popularity God do we get in trouble as humans when we do that? Absolutely. Joy, I was laughing when you said I could talk about this all day I could I could hang out and hear attacks you all day. I love what you're saying, I love this conversation. I don't want to do that to you. Or this. If there was one thing, Joe, that waven't gotten to on this topic of overcoming homelessness and becoming a successful conscious leader that you think is really important. Or there's something you want to leave our listeners with? What would that be? Absolutely.
Joe Winters Jr 57:59
You have one life to live. So do not live with the finite mindset. Do not live responding to every purpose driven person with you can achieve your goals because you're smart, you're brilliant. You're resilient, you're ambitious, and I'm not, don't play by that game. Too many people play by the game of or by the finite mindset, too many people. And and I know because I get it a lot being somebody that grew up homeless, I get it from a lot of my peers, and in people that were around me and my time of homelessness has saved me now. And they're quick to go Joe, you've always been ambitious, you've always been resilient, you're tough, don't do not deflect and, and demote yourself that way that you have one life, and we are infinite beings? So whatever it is that you want to do? pursue it 110%? And if you have a question on, well, man, how do I really, you know, get to where I want to be? Or if you feel like Well, I mean, that sounds great. But I just I'm not sure that I got what it takes. That's what a coach is for, you know, and I'm not I'm not saying that to plug my coaching services. But one thing that I have to say that we did not talk much about really, is that in the last, for the last 14 years, I've had two mentors minimum. So there has been two mentors that have served me for the last 14 years, and I've actually acquired other mentors in different areas of my life over the course of the last 14 years, one of the things that I've found to be true is that when you want To know the road ahead, ask someone who is coming back, aka a coach, a mentor. You don't have to, you don't have to play the game. By yourself, you don't have to play the infinite game by yourself. Right? surround yourself with other people that understand there are infinite beings. me as a coach, that's what you get if you were to choose me as your coach. And if you weren't to choose me as your coach, and you were going to choose someone else, make sure they also have an infinite mindset. If I've seen one thing, that is a problem in the coaching industry, it is coaches with finite mindset, posing as if they're playing by the infinite game, when in reality, they're serving as a lit squatter to the people that they coach. Realistically, you got coaches in today's industry, that really do not believe they can achieve whatever they want to achieve. And when they speak with clients, they don't really believe their clients can achieve everything that their client aspires to achieve. So I say that to say this, if you don't make the decision to select me as your coach, please, please, please make sure that when you are assessing the coaches that you're looking to acquire, that they too, are playing the infinite game and not with a finite mindset.
Paul Zelizer 1:01:34
Joe, it's been fabulous having on the podcast. Thank you so much for sharing. I'm so glad you're still here, and that you said yes to this really sacred work.
Joe Winters Jr 1:01:44
Thank you, thank thank you for having me on the show. And thank you for what you do we it really, it really brings me hope. Having people like yourself in this world, Paul, Mitchell, john.
Paul Zelizer 1:02:00
So that's all the time we have for today's episode, we'll put a link we got a bunch of things, Joe, Joe's in the running for lots of things in the show. We'll put the podcast in the book and the membership community and the coaching and the trading and john Maxwell's work and lots of other good things in the show notes. I want to say thank you for listening. And before we go a quick reminder, we are now twice a week. It's fun, and it's a commitment to publish twice a week. But what it means is we can tell more awesome stories and we love listener suggested guests or topics. So if you have an idea for something you think would be beneficial to this conscious business community to learn more and have a deep dive conversation, go to where printers.com and go to our contact page and make that suggestion please. For now, I just want to say thank you so much for listening, please, please take really good care in these poignant times.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
coaching, conscious business community, conscious leadership, homelessness, personal development, listen, john maxwell
WHAT IS AWAREPRENEURS?
Awarepreneurs is a popular conscious business and social entrepreneur podcast. You can find out more at www.awarepreneurs.com
September 17, 2020