On today’s episode of the Secure Retirement Podcast, I sit down with Steve Gordon for part two of our conversation. Steve and I discuss how I kept both my business and my personal life moving forward from rehab, when complications occurred during my recovery that kept me mostly isolated for 49 days.
How’d I do it? Listen as I share the mindset tools I used to press forward, including:
The number one thing you need to determine before moving forward
How to leverage the who and not the how for your business and personal life
The 2 ways to reach your targets
How not to get stuck in the dip on the path to your goals
The one book I return to time and again
And much more
Mentioned in this episode:
Transcript:
Steve Gordon: Welcome to the Unstoppable CEO podcast, we're actually doing a joint episode of The Unstoppable CEO, The Advisor Inner Circle and John H. Curry's Secure Retirement podcast. My name is Steve Gordon. I am here with John Curry. John, good to see you. Welcome.
John Curry: Hello Steve. Hi, folks.
Steve: So this is a number two in a series of what I think is going to be three episodes, John. And for those who maybe missed the last episode, I'll give kind of a quick recap to get everybody up to speed. But we haven't done a joint episode like this in about six months, because in late February, and then in early March, you had a bit of a health crisis. The result of that was that you had your right leg, amputated above the knee, we talked kind of in depth about, you know, the story behind that in the last episode. So if you're coming in, new to this episode, I really recommend you go back and listen to that. We talked about some things around mindset and how John really was able to use a lot of the mindset tools that you know, we come across in business and entrepreneurship and personal development.
And use that to turn what what is you know, for, for everyone that hears about is a shocking and really almost horrific thing to have happened to you. But you've, you've found a way to press forward and really move your life ahead in a very positive way. And that's really the focus of these three episodes, because I've had the privilege of observing this transformation. And I just think there's so much to learn from it. I wanted to have this conversation and bring it out to folks, John. So that's, hopefully that sets the stage, if you feel like I left anything out, fill in the blanks, please. But.
John: Well said.
Steve: So, we talked a lot about this mindset shift last time, and we shared a couple of tools that you used to make that shift, you know, and one of the things that that happened in this process, I mean, if it's bad enough that you went through the first surgery, you had your leg amputated, you were in the hospital for about a week, and you were in rehab for two weeks, and then you went home to continue recovering. And if it all ended there, that would have been enough for most people.
But the same issue started to become a possibility in your other leg, you know, with the circulation blockage, being a potential there and the doctor feeling, you know, concerned about that. And so why don't you walk us through real quickly what happened with the other leg because this turned it from something that you know, maybe it was a two month recovery, and then we're four months in now. And you're you're really just kind of back within the last week or two.
John: But it was two things, there was some infection, and they were they did the amputation in the right leg, which is what prompted another stay. So while we were reviewing and checking out the infection, the surgeon said look, I know that you've been concerned about the left leg. And you made it clear that when you walk in the door, there's gonna be like to John Curry express lane. That you're going straight to the head line to have ultrasounds done and things like that. So we're, we're kidding around about it. He said I understand that. He said I've lost some sleep over this myself. So I want to do a bypass on that left leg. So what he was doing is anticipating the sense having a problem and blood clotting backing up in it. So he said when you heal, then we'll do that. And then we got to thinking about it. And we did an angiogram on Tuesday, May 11th to be exact.
And we decided because what we saw on the screen, screening and the ultrasound, that it didn't make sense to wait. So we decided that he would go in and do the bypass, which meant going in cutting me open in the groin again. Putting a tube down my leg and connecting an artery and then big slit in my calf. And while I was under his he played it, he will go clean up the infection in my right leg. So I ended up with a hole big enough that a tennis ball would go in. And this morning when I can change the dressing which is nothing more nasty than a band aid over with some neosporin inside it. On the wound. It was about the size of a nickel hole.
Steve: That's fantastic.
John: Thank you, man. Speaking of productivity, one of the things that helped that was a machine called a wound back. So for three weeks, 24/7, that was on me while I was in rehab the second bout and that machine just did an amazing thing, make it more productive for healing. But that's the gist of it without belaboring the point.
Steve: Well, so that's what sent you back to rehab. So you were in the hospital for a few days was was it a full week? I don't recall.
John: It was a full week and then three full weeks over in rehab. So, so I had in a space for four months, I had 49 damn days in the hospital and rehab hospitals.
Steve: Yeah, and, and tough. You put the soapbox out and stood on it and gave us all a speech about COVID last time. Quit using it as an excuse, but but the hospitals are still using COVID as an excuse to not let anybody come visit you. And so you were alone for a lot of that time, because of visitation restrictions. And so you had all this time where you needed to recover, but at the same time, you are like most of us, you know, you get bored, and you had things that you wanted to get done. And you knew that coming out of out of all of this, once you were back in the world that they were just some of the normal kind of conveniences that had to be.
You had new accommodations, you needed both in your house, to get a wheelchair to move around, with the vehicle, you know, with a number of other things, and you had things going on in the business as well. And I came to visit you one day in rehab. And you were at one point during that day. You were telling me you were a little frustrated, you know, because you couldn't, you felt like you just weren't making any progress. And I had, you had already ticked off all the things that you had gotten done or had in the works.
John: Well some of them you witnessed and some of them you participated in.
Steve: And I said yeah, I said, you're an idiot. You're the most productive man and rehab quit complaining. And it's true, because you'd walk in the halls there. And I described this the last time that you'd walk in the halls there and walking back to, you know, to your room, you'd hear people, you know, they'd be complaining to nurses. They'd be you know, moaning in pain and not to minimize the pain that they were in or any of that, but, but you are an anomaly in that whole situation. Both from my experience and then listening to the medical staff that would come in and out while I was there visiting you. It was very clear that that you were on a different trajectory than everybody. And so the day I was there, you know, I witnessed, you know what, well, I don't know if it all happened that day. But let me just kind of recount what I recall. So you had a large piece of property out of town, I don't remember how many acres but it was big, big piece of property.
You sold that in rehab, you sold both your trucks bought a new truck, all from the rehab bed, I think this was still at the point where you're pretty much stuck in the bed, most of the time. We're gonna get to the team and the business and all of that because business pretty well continued, as if you had been there. Great credit to you for building the team and great credit to your team for for executing and doing a fantastic job. And you also during this time, got moving on renovations to your house from the rehab bed so that that would be underway. Am I leaving anything out? I'm sure there's probably more.
John: Some of it had gotten started a little bit sooner. But all of this started while I was in either the hospital or the rehab hospital because I quickly realized that things had to be done. And Steve's right. I literally sold a Tahoe and a Silverado pickup truck, did a trade on the pickup truck and bought another truck, a Nissan Titan in fact, without even able to sit it. Because I had been bedridden, like I said for 10 days. And finally, I was able to use a wheelchair. So when I called the owner of the dealership and he had a salesman bring it over. And I wheeled outside first time I've been outside in two weeks, I guess.
Maybe roughly. We can add, and I was able to look at it, but I couldn't even get in it. I couldn't because I couldn't stand at the time. And I looked at it and I said okay, what is this? What is that? It seemed to work. And I said okay, go appraise mine. And if you guys give me enough for it, we'll make the deal. So about two hours later, I get a call. Okay, not only are we going to do the trade, we'll actually I owe you money. So good. So that's nice. That's nice. And then I enlisted Steve's aid during that, but he and his wife Erin. He actually, on that was on a Friday, we were together on Saturday, I had found this house I was shaking out. So Steve actually went to the property and using his phone and videoing.
Steve: FaceTime.
John: FaceTime. Thank you. Showing me every room in the house and we determined that wasn't going to work for me because of the amount of work it would take to fix it up and to make it wheelchair accessible.
Steve: I had forgotten through all of this you were shopping for a new house. Yeah, and that whole process and then decided no, I better just renovate what I've got.
John: Well, I and I decided that let's talk about that. Because because there's two reasons for it. Number one, it will accommodate my needs quicker. And give me the most efficient and effective way to utilize the space I've got. And if I decide I want another place, I still have this local, close to the office close to everything as my home base. And I may decide not to buy now, although I saw, I'm looking at one tomorrow that, if I, if it gives me what I think it is, I may buy it on a link somewhere and have both. If not, at least I have what I've got. But the whole point, though is is productivity is determine what needs to be done, and then do it.
Steve: Well yes, and I want to kind of talk about how you got things done. Okay. First of all, I was gonna say, well, most people couldn't get that much done if they wanted to, without all of that and not from a rehab bed. I'm going to change that and say, I think I would have had trouble getting all of that done in the time you got it done. Not dealing with what you were dealing with and being out in the world and being able to operate normally. Because I do think I'd have a hard time getting all that done. It was it was kind of amazing to watch. And this isn't about patting you on the back. I think the thing to learn here is, as I watched you do that, you were able to and I talked about this in the last episode, because you'd flipped your mindset and you got focused on growth and where you were going. And you had this, you know, this future point that you were kind of aiming at you had a target and you were moving and people could see and sense that you were moving that attracted people to you that wanted to help you.
Okay, and so then you leveraged this concept that we've talked about a lot that, you know, our mentor, Dan Sullivan, talks about, wrote a book about it with Ben Hardy called Who Not How. And so sitting in that rehab bed, you weren't able to do much of anything except pick up a phone and send a text and send an email. And so you were able to because of all of those things, having that future focused, hey, I've got this target. I'm going here. Who can I get to help me get there? What do I need? Once you decided what you needed, you started reaching out to people and enlisting them in your mission? You know, and it was a compelling mission, people wanted to help. So talk a little bit about that, because that to me, that's the key for accomplishing all those things.
John: Well, let me spell about time on team for just a minute. And then we'll circle back on how to determine the right who. I'm very fortunate. And every time I say that, somebody's gonna say yeah, but you did this? Yes, I did. I did the work. I hired April Schoen And then I hired Jay Wolfe. April hired Audie. April brought Zac to the table. All that's true. But all of this started, when I realized, I determined what needed to be done was to build a team of people. So that no matter what happened to me, if I died on the operating table, which I could have during the open heart surgery in 2008. They warned me that I could, they said you may doubt your operating table. This is a dangerous thing we're doing. There's no guarantee. So but I had peace of mind of knowing this time that I had everything in place than I did during my heart surgery.
But I realized years ago. That's what 13 years ago now, I guess it was July 10th will be 2013 years ago. Heart surgery. You were there with me through it. So I realized that I had to build a team so that I could have freedom. What kind of freedom? Well, if I ever wanted to retire, freedom to truly retire, take trips, do things. But also realized because friends around me who had suffered strokes and heart attacks, what if I become incapacitated? I think I'm Superman. I think I can do whatever the hell I want to do. I think I'll do it to be 100 years old, and still be strong. But I don't know that. So if I become incapacitated, who's gonna take care of my clients? So I started on this journey of looking for the right people, the who I didn't know as who then.
And then I hired April, she joined me as a paid employee for five years, then she became an advisory in her own right and doing very well. So I've been very fortunate to have those people in place and Jay Wolfe, who worked with another advisor in our firm, that advisor died, his son decided not to continue the business and, and wanted me to take over some of the clientele. I said okay. And he says, I got another issue. I have a very, very loyal employee that I think would be a good fit. So I called him the very next day again, don't wait too long. By the way. Back to April. The minute I got the email about her from a colleague, I called her got a voicemail left a message she called me back and we talked.
And then the minute that that my friend told me about Brent told me about Jay made a call. Talked to next day. So it comes back to action, you can think about it all damn day long Steve, but if you don't take action, it doesn't mean you got to get it all done today. But I wrote something down, we were talking a while ago, determine what needs to be done, then take action. It might be the smallest piece of action, but at least start moving forward, at least move in that direction. Also thought about something else that I forgot to mention. The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said, what does not kill us makes us stronger. And so we can learn from all these adversities of will or we can give up, give up hope. But the team helped me in a lot of ways to be more productive. Not just because of business.
But also along the way, I look at clients as being teammates. It's not about me, telling you what to do. It's about us working together as a team to get you where you want to go. So we have a great clientele of people that respect us, trust us, they love us, we love them. It's not just about making money. This is this is a, it sounds corny, but I love the people on my team. They love me. I mean, they come see me, you know, when they couldn't come see me for a while. I'm only allowed one visitor per day, for a certain limited time. So when they could see me, it was special. But we talked on the phone, pretty much every day. If it went by just for two or three minutes. The client wise, they took care of our clientele. And that's not my clientele. I tell people real clearly.
Company officials oh, you got this, you've done it. And then no, no, you don't understand. This was team Curry. This was not my clientele anymore. It is our clientele. Our clientele. And I will say this to business owners and advisors, especially. There's way too much ego involved. It's all about me, me, me, my my my I did this. I did that. No, you didn't. You had some help. You had some help. So for me when I made that transition to going from being doing it all by myself, Dan talks about being the rugged individual. I learned this back in 1994, to building a unique team around you changed my world. And I'm living proof right now of that happening. Because the business has prospered. And I got in trouble the other day with April because I made it she'll probably hear this and some point says telling the truth here.
I'd made a comment towards her, you guys don't need me anymore. You're doing such a good job. You don't need me. I think I'll just go ahead and retire. Well, if she got on my butt the other day, we had our team meeting and then she had a we had a one on one. She says you've got to stop saying that. It irritates me when you do that. Yes, we can do some things and don't need you. But we you're wanted here. We love you. We want you here. And you want to be here. So stop saying that. And I said, you're right. And that's that was my sense of having some humor. But you know what? She was right. People don't want to hear that. They just want to just say please, and thank you and let them know you care. Let them know you care.
Steve: Absolutely. I don't envision you retiring. I don't, you don't have enough hobbies to keep yourself busy.
John: Well I hope and pray I never retire. I hope that what I do is I carve out time to go do things I want to do with my lady. Go do some things about myself. I can promise you when the weather cools down, I've already talked with two people that do fishing, fishing guides, and I will be bass fishing again. I do not want on a boat. I don't want to run a boat. I don't want to pull a boat. The thing I'm going to do is drive up to the landing. And by then I'll have enough prosthesis we should talk about that as far as productivity, goal setting here in a minute too.
But from the standpoint of that growth mindset you talked about. People say to me, are you going to get a prosthesis? Well of course, why wouldn't I? But it's almost like hell yes. How quickly? I've been set back a three weeks to a month because of the infection I mentioned earlier. But I met with a guy last Friday. We're moving forward. We're ahead of schedule on that. We'll probably start work on it. A couple of weeks, three weeks max. Anyway, did that cover what you wanted to cover there?
Steve: Yeah, I think so. And I didn't expect this to be a very long episode. But I wanted to point out that even in the midst of all of this, you were incredibly productive. And again, point is not, yes, acknowledge the accomplishment. It was pretty amazing to watch. But you know, you don't need me patting your back over that on a podcast. Though, to me, the lesson to share here is that we can all get done the things that we want to get done.
If we're clear and decisive about what it is that we want to do. That we have a target out there in mind and that we go in list people who have the unique talents that are necessary to get it done. And I think too many people try and do it all on them. Take it all on themselves. Business owners especially think we got to do it all ourselves. And speed, I think comes from going out and recruiting other people to be a part of your mission.
John: I want to modify something you said. In two ways. Number one, I don't think we'll always get what we want and be productive. But I think we have to go back to what I wrote down. Determine what needs to be done, and take action. And I'm going to share we did we've done this before, in other things where you and I talked about. One time, they gave me one heck of a hard time down in Winter Park, because I was whining about something. Going vacillating back and forth justifying buying a watch band. And Steve says, won't what you want. And again, we get that from our mentors, Dan Sullivan.
So I'm getting impatient with people. Now I'm telling you what they don't want, including clients. After yesterday, briefly, and I got to get off of it. I don't want this. I don't want this. I don't want this. I said great. I've heard that several times. Now tell me what you want. And I'll let you know, can I help you or not? If I can't, we'll save some time? Because I'm not gonna lie to you. If I can't do it, why would I lie to you and tell you I can do something? If I can't deliver I'm gonna look like a schmuck. So I'll either say yes, I can help you that or no, I can't. And if I can't, maybe I have a colleague or even a friendly competitor who can help.
But I think we have got to learn every walking person out there or rolling around in a wheel chair if you're not walking. You've got to find a way to just get rid of this hang up of saying I don't know. And I'm to the point where I don't answer every question. You asked me the question, I'm going to say is that really important that you have the answer? Well, not really. I just, I'm just curious. Then why the hell would I spend 45 minutes or an hour of my life researching something you don't even care? Don't do it. Find out if the person truly cares enough that they will invest some of their own time.
I don't care who you are. If we cross paths. You can be a client, you can be an advisor, could be a friend, future friend. My style is real simple. Let's get to the point. I don't mind some chit chatting. I do. I probably talk too much in that area. But let's determine what we want to do and go get it. And if we don't want it, what do we do, then we say whoops, this isn't working. It's okay. Let's undo it as nice as we can. Let's don't create enemies. I told you this morning about a challenge I have with the guy working on my house, dealt with it head on yesterday today, and we're good. We're good. But if you let things fester up, then it's like my leg it becomes infected. And it's more complicated. Just to deal with it up front.
Steve: Well, I want to modify that I don't think it becomes infected. It's not the right way to say it. You become infected by the negativity.
John: Oh, there you go. I like that better.
Steve: And that, and that'll eat you up and kill you. If you let it go far enough. So I had another thought. But we'll come back to it. I think in the next episode, I think this is probably a good place to kind of just put a bow on on this because the key here folks is get get clear, get clear, take action on what you want. Know what you want it is I think it's more difficult to know what you want then what you don't want. The clear evidence of that is whenever you ask, at least whenever I asked one of my kids what they want for dinner they can or where they want to go for going out somewhere. They always know where they don't want to go, but they can never tell you what they do want. And so I think it's difficult thing, but no progress can be made until you know what you want.
John: And let's talk about this for a second before we end this and maybe we'll pick it up next episode. But most people listening to this we're going to be asking okay, but how do I determine that? How do I determine what I want? So then I think you have to determine what do you want of yourself? You know, health wise, fitness? What do you want spiritually? What do you want in relationships? Family? A loved one? What is it you're looking for? I think that is a you can we can do an entire episode just on how do you determine what you want? That w a n t is a big word.
Steve: It is. And I think we've all struggled with that. Part of it is giving yourself permission. Right? We're so I think trained. Sometimes, you know not to be really honest about all that we really want sometimes, you know, we feel guilty about that. And I think that's a little bit foolish to do so but it's there. It's real. You know, I think it's a hard thing to get clear about I do like the idea of breaking it down into the various areas of life. You know, I've you know that I've made big fitness goals. I turned 50 a couple of weeks ago.
John: Yeah you old fart.
Steve: One of my big goals was to be in better physical shape at 50 than I was at 20. I actually achieved that. I set that goal when I was 45. I achieved it. I don't know, by the time I was 47, almost 48. And so then it was just a matter of, okay, how do I build on top of that, and honestly, one of the, I kind of got into a little bit of complacency there because I had achieved that goal, but I hadn't, I hadn't looked out ahead to the next mountaintop as it related to fitness. And so it's sometimes it's hard to do when you've achieved something to say, okay, well, what's, what's the next meaningful goal that I really want?
And it's not always immediately apparent, sometimes you got to think a little bit, and you mentioned in the last episode of the book, The Dip by Seth Godin. I remember reading that you and I had a conversation around that, for those of you who haven't read the book, he describes this process, you know, you set this goal, and then you start going towards it. And at some point, usually, in the process of achievement, there is this, this dip this kind of valley of despair that you get into, because you realize, this is gonna be a lot harder than I thought it was, and maybe obstacles pop up that you hadn't anticipated. And you know, and he describes kind of two, two paths there. You either are in the dip, and you've just got to push through it, and you kind of come up the other side, out of the dip.
Or you might be in what he calls a cul de sac, where you know, you've gone down and there's no exit from it. And I struggled, I'll be honest with you, John, I struggled with for a long time trying to understand when I'm in one or the other. And what I actually have come to out of that is that this idea of wanting what you want is, is almost always the answer. Because there are very few things that you can't actually overcome the obstacle with if you know what the obstacle is. There are some, but they're very few. And really, it's more about, you know, if you're down in that cul de sac, it's probably because you've decided, subconsciously that you don't want the goal anymore. And so you've actually stopped climbing up out of the dip, but you haven't acknowledged it. So you're stuck down there.
John: I'm gonna make a comment there. I have been pushed and prodded. For the past 20 years, I won't name the organization but to quote lead this organization. And every time I get tempted, because of the ego you know, we can't do it without you. You're the be the best of this. Man, we need what you got. Come on, man, we need you. And the minute that starts, I either get out the CD of this book, or I go home, I get the book down I read it probably 100 times. I go back in there and I read it and I go people who know what they want, can say no faster and mean it. And then some things you have to push through. Like right now I'm in a dip. Okay, your the dip. The dip is not bad.
The dip is you're you're making progress, but but is it worth it? Not only yes, but hell yes. It's worth it to get better to get healthier, I'm already stronger than most people would have thought I've been coming out of rehab. But I want to be strong enough where I can go get that prosthesis and be able to carry on my life. The guy asked me last Friday, what do you want to do physically? I want to ride a bicycle again, take long walks with my girlfriend. And I don't really care about running or jogging. We'd like to do some martial arts again. But it's not that urgent. But I want to be able to walk up and down steps without having to worry about falling and not have to use a wheelchair all the time. Now that's motivation. So I got news for you. I'll do whatever it takes us legally, morally, ethically right to get there. Okay, so that's what I want.
Now in the dip, dealing with the pain and the aggravation and the headache and sometimes heartache of it. I've got enough motivation at the end of that to get me through that dip. But let me tell you what, I don't have patience for anymore with myself or anyone else. The minute that I see myself on a cul de sac, I address it. That's what happened with the gentleman yesterday doing work at my house. I realize we're on the same thing. I'm getting the same thing over and over and over and over. I said hell no, we're going to blow this thing up or fix it. One or the other. And when you have that mindset, all of a sudden, things get better. Because you're prepared to walk away. And guess what? Things change. They change. But we can do a whole bunch of sessions on this. I like this. I haven't gotten into this a long time.
Steve: All right, well, hey, let's, let's wrap it there. I think all of this stuff ties together. I think being clear on what you want is really kind of the first step to productivity. Then once you're clear, enlisting people in the mission and and getting things done so that it's not all you. And honestly relying on people who are way better at making certain things happen than you are. And and I think understanding when you don't want something anymore, and using that as a productivity tool, as well to get yourself out of commitments, that your, or obligations that you're no longer committed to, I think are all important. So.
John: Maybe, let me say this real quick before I forget. Maybe we have to do sometimes is let somebody do something that's not as good as we are at it. Let that one just kind of sink in for a minute, maybe we'll pick up on that on the other side.
Steve: Let's, let's actually let that be the segue into into talking about team not that your team isn't as good as as they need to be. They're very, very good. But that's that's the reason that most entrepreneurs don't build a team. So with that, folks, we've got one more in this series of conversations. We're going to talk about John's team in the next episode, and how they were really integral to this, this entire process. And we'll talk about it from a couple of angles. From the client angle because we know there are a lot of John your clients will be listening to these. And we're going to talk about it from the business owners angle because there's lessons across there for both. So we'll be back in the next episode. John again enjoyed it. Always learned a lot. Always learn a lot in these conversations. I'm glad we're having them.
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