John Preston: One Sided Pancake

In this engaging episode of "Humor in the C Suite," host Kate Davis chats with John Preston about the intersection of humor and business strategy. John, an accomplished television professional turned entrepreneur and sales coach, shares his journey from the newsroom to founding JP Business Academy. He introspects on how humor plays a crucial role in making business concepts more approachable and education digestible for entrepreneurs. Dive in to uncover insights from John's successful initiatives like the JP Business Academy and "40 Flushes to Grow Your Business."

Key Takeaways:

• Humor in business education serves as a powerful tool to disarm, engage, and make complex ideas accessible.
• Many small businesses fail due to a lack of business knowledge rather than poor products.
• Practical anecdotes, relatable storytelling, and humor help entrepreneurs reflect on their own business decisions and practices.
• It's essential for salespeople to practice and refine their sales techniques to maintain high energy and connect authentically with clients.

Additional Links & Resources:

• Interested in being a guest on Humor in the C-Suite? Reach out to book a call with Kate!
• Learn more about me and my work at katedavis.ca

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Humor in the C-Suite! If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow the podcast, share it with your friends, and leave a rating or review. Your support helps the podcast continue to grow. 

Hosted by Kate Davis
Edited by Chris @ Wider View Studios

Transcript

0:00:03 - (Kate Davis): Hello, I'm Kate Davis, and this is Humor in the C Suite, a show about how leaders use humor to create an extraordinary work culture. Hi, everyone, and welcome to this week's episode of Humor in the C Suite. My guest this week is John Preston. In his 22 years in television news, John mastered the art of making complex ideas easy to understand. Since his television days, he's grown to realize how much that skill is needed in the world of business.

0:00:29 - (Kate Davis): And during that time, he launched a series of hyperlocal magazines in the central Kentucky area. In addition, he became a hall of fame sales coach and business mentor for helping others launch dozens of additional magazines across the country. Along the way, he realized that most businesses fail not because they don't have a good product, but because the owners lack the knowledge and the skill to run their businesses effectively.

0:00:52 - (Kate Davis): So JP Business Academy was created to help save sales folks and entrepreneurs get to where they dream of being. John is also the mastermind of 40 flushes to grow your business. The world's number two business series. A groundbreaking bathroom reader format that makes business education digestible for busy entrepreneurs. This innovative approach recognizes that the best learning happens in short, focused bursts. And through the JP Business Academy comprehensive sales education platform, John helps dedicated sales professional master ethical customer centric selling. We had a great talk about how he uses humor to not only teach, but to.

0:01:34 - (Kate Davis): To really connect with people, his customers, his clients. We had a great conversation and you guys are going to love this episode. So please welcome John Preston. Oh, my gosh. I am so grateful for your time. I love everything you do, and we have so much get through. You've lived like just so many different lives.

0:02:00 - (B): Yeah.

0:02:01 - (Kate Davis): So I thought we would just start sort of there and tell everyone your story and where you're at now and everything you're doing. And then I'm gonna ask you how you lead.

0:02:11 - (John Preston): Okay. Well, that should take about the next seven hours, so we should be good to go right here. I get. I guess if you could. I kind of gone a very circuitous route to get to where I am. I started out in college wanting to be a physicist. And so I studied physics in college and then actually spent some time with a physicist and said, nope, that's not my future. The guy was. I mean, he was just basically sitting around waiting for lab results to come back. And I just like, no. So I had been competing for my college's debate team and speech and debate team at the time, and so I went into TV news.

0:02:50 - (John Preston): I worked in TV news for 16 years. I got out of that and took a job with a newspaper group as their digital person, and then eventually took over circulation, fell victim to some corporate downsizing, then started my own magazine with the help of a company called Best version Media, launched four magazines here in Kentucky and then mentored about probably 60 or 70 other publishers, helped them launch their magazine, train them in sales and everything else. And over time, I learned two things.

0:03:28 - (John Preston): One is I just have this passion for helping small business owners. I realize that small business owners, you know, they're struggling in today's world, and it's not because of the reasons. Most people think the reason they're struggling is they're very good at what they do, but they don't understand how to run a business doing it. And there's this feeling when you're starting a new business that if you've got a good product or you provide a good service, that you're going to be successful.

0:04:02 - (John Preston): And the sad truth is, the bad plumber who understands how to run a business has much greater chance of success than the really good plumber who does it. So the first thing I learned was I need to find ways to educate these small business people so that they can compete with the big corporations. The second thing I learned was that I have a knack for taking very complex ideas and breaking them down into simple stories that people can relate to.

0:04:35 - (John Preston): And as we know, stories are so much better teaching tools than lectures or anything like that. So I decided about eight months ago that I was going to break out from that. I decided my messaging and the things I was helping these publishers grow and develop were skills that needed a much bigger audience that could help a lot more people outside of the circle of where I was. So that kind of brings us to where we are today with the JP Business Academy with 40 flushes, which I'm sure we'll talk about here shortly.

0:05:10 - (John Preston): And really with another online sales training platform I've released, it's all designed to take complex learning and make it very simple. And it's why it lines so perfectly with your mission is really and truly. You talk about humor in the workplace. One of the things that humor does is it makes things unintimidating. So many people are afraid to start learning because they've convinced themselves that they're not learners.

0:05:43 - (John Preston): And where humor can break through that in the workplace, you have to find other ways to simplify learning, at least in the beginning, until they really start to believe they can learn. That's kind of where we start next.

0:05:58 - (B): Yeah.

0:05:59 - (Kate Davis): And. And I love the fact that you saw that disconnect between people having these great products, not being able to connect, you know, in terms of. With their sales or with, you know, the people that they're trying to sell to or their audience, their customers, their clientele. So knowing that disconnect and simplifying it, I think is a really important mission.

0:06:22 - (John Preston): Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And it's. It's just needed. I mean, you know, unfortunately. And the reason I wrote 40 flushes was the people that I found who often need the most help.

0:06:37 - (B): Yeah.

0:06:37 - (John Preston): You know, your plumbers, your roofers, your blacktop sealers. Those guys.

0:06:42 - (B): Yeah.

0:06:42 - (John Preston): They're often the folks with the least amount of time to learn.

0:06:46 - (Kate Davis): Right.

0:06:47 - (John Preston): And they're the folks that. That are often too proud to admit they don't know things.

0:06:53 - (B): Yeah.

0:06:53 - (John Preston): And so I felt like by writing a book that they, you know, that has cartoons and jokes and everything that they can read for 10 minutes a day while they're in the bathroom and actually learn some valuable lessons is. Would be an effective tool.

0:07:09 - (Kate Davis): Okay, well, let's. Let's start with the 40 flushes, because some of our listeners might not know where that is, and I love it. Hilarious. And. And it really does break down and simplify what you're trying to teach. You want to just give people a quick. I'm old school, so I would say Cole's notes, but okay.

0:07:29 - (John Preston): Yeah. It's called 40 flushes to grow your business. The world's number two business series. And. And it really is. It's. It takes 40 very valuable business lessons. Everything from. From what hats to wear and how much time to devote to being an ENT entrepreneur versus being the guy doing the work, all the way through marketing and advertising and really understanding ways to differentiate you from your competitor.

0:08:02 - (John Preston): And it's all done in very simple narratives. I partnered with a cartoonist to do a custom cartoon for each lesson. We created jokes, we created poems. And then at the end of each flush, which is a day's lesson, you've actually got a series of five questions to take that lesson and think about how it relates to your business.

0:08:29 - (Kate Davis): Wow.

0:08:29 - (John Preston): So you can actually take that learning. And my goal is just, first of all, to teach them something that they can actually practically implement. But second, really get them to start to see how much they don't know. Because there's so much about business, especially in the realms of advertising and marketing, that is very counterintuitive. What it looks like is happening on the surface is really eroding your business just beneath that surface.

0:09:05 - (John Preston): And so a lot of times, businesses will encounter those situations and look up and say, hey, I had the best year I've ever had. I had to hire new people, but we lost money. How did that happen? And it's because there are a lot of things involved in running a business that what you think is happening is actually having the exact opposite effect.

0:09:27 - (Kate Davis): Wow.

0:09:28 - (John Preston): So helping them first see that those things are happening in their business to give them a context of where they're falling short.

0:09:37 - (Kate Davis): Right?

0:09:38 - (B): Yeah, absolutely.

0:09:39 - (Kate Davis): And how would you like just talking to you and your energy, I can feel the humor sort of oozing off you. But how are you using that in your teaching style, in your leadership style from when you, you know, you were in corporate and stuff like that? How, how are you using it in your day to day life?

0:10:00 - (John Preston): Well, I mean, the humor actually find its, finds its way into my anecdotes. I teach a lot through anecdotes that causes people to reflect on their own purchases, their own buying habits, their own decision making. And humor just makes its way into those stories. And once again, it's disarming. Because when you start talking about complex ideas, for example, one of the things that I see so often in business is I'll meet with a business owner who will tell me that, oh man, I don't need to do anything. I'm so sick. I can't service all my clients. I've got now I'm going to have to hire more people.

0:10:48 - (John Preston): You know, I've got all the customers I can handle. And then you look up three months and they're out of business. And it's because no one found a way to break through to them and help them understand that some customers create more work than actual profit. And so they actually erode your profit margin and that kind of thing. And, and you know, you could tell somebody that. Yeah, but if you tell somebody that their, their natural defense mechanisms are going to go up.

0:11:20 - (B): Yeah.

0:11:21 - (John Preston): And by incorporating these anecdotes and these stories into my teaching techniques, it disarms them. And, and they don't put up the walls to new ideas that they might otherwise put up.

0:11:36 - (Kate Davis): It really has the power to lower defenses. For sure.

0:11:39 - (John Preston): Yeah, absolutely.

0:11:40 - (B): Yeah.

0:11:40 - (Kate Davis): And did you grow up in a home where humor was a big part of that?

0:11:46 - (John Preston): I did, I did. I mean, you know, I can, I can tell you we watched a lot of stand up comedy growing up. Yeah, I've always been, been a big fan of stand up comedy. I mean, obviously it's one of the channels on my Sirius XM that I have have their and also just recognizing the humor in the world.

0:12:06 - (B): Yeah.

0:12:07 - (John Preston): I mean, everywhere you go, there's things happening. And one of the things that I tell my clients is everything that happens to you, you've got a choice. You can either view it through a negative lens or you can view it through a positive lens. And basically the bottom line is no one's ever going to see a one sided pancake. And. And it's because there's two sides to everything.

0:12:35 - (B): Yeah.

0:12:36 - (John Preston): And. And so you make the choice to see it the positive way as opposed to the negative way.

0:12:42 - (B): Yeah.

0:12:43 - (John Preston): And once you make that decision in your life, humor just finds a way to help you focus on the positive.

0:12:50 - (B): Yeah.

0:12:51 - (Kate Davis): Can you share an example of that in, in your teachings?

0:12:56 - (John Preston): Okay. I tell you. Okay. I'll just kind of share this story with you real quickly. This is one that I tell in my workshops.

0:13:02 - (B): Yeah.

0:13:04 - (John Preston): Imagine that you're out of town and you, you're at a conference and you go to stand up and suddenly this pain shoots down your leg and you're like, oh my gosh, I need to get to a chiropractor. I pinch the nerve in my back and. And I always, I often will ask people, I was like, now, how many of you will take off driving and looking at billboards until you find an ad for a chiropractor up on a billboard and nobody ever raises their hand? I'm like, how many of you will drag yourself home?

0:13:36 - (John Preston): You'll crawl into your living room and start flipping through magazines until you see an ad for a chiropractor. And since I come from the magazine world, it's so funny watching their reactions because it's like they think I'm expecting them to say yes. That's what they do. And they're almost embarrassed not to. That's right. And I was like, of course you wouldn't. That would be stupid. Because your back's hurting and suddenly you see this sense of relief. It's like, oh, gosh, I wasn't expecting to do that.

0:14:08 - (John Preston): And then I'll say, now, how many of you would pull out your phone and do a search for chiropractor near me?

0:14:14 - (B): Yeah.

0:14:14 - (John Preston): And every hand goes up. Yeah, every hand goes up. And so I'll say, now. I'm gonna say, of course you would. That's how we get create lists of choices. Say now, now. I want you to think about this for a second. How many of you always skip those top ads that say sponsored? And suddenly every hand goes up and I'll be like, of course you do. You know why? Because it's cheating. We think that's cheating. We look at those names and we're like, those people cheated to get to the top of that list.

0:14:48 - (John Preston): And we don't like to reward cheaters, so. So we skip them. And then I will casually ask. I was like, I don't want to embarrass anybody. I don't want to embarrass anybody. But I'm just curious, how much money have you spent trying to be in one of those top spots that not a single person in this room would have looked at? And you can just kind of start to see. Because what I'm doing is. Yeah, I'm getting them to reflect on themselves as a customer.

0:15:19 - (B): Yeah.

0:15:19 - (John Preston): Because if you reflect on yourself as a customer, you're going to really, really connect with business a lot better.

0:15:25 - (Kate Davis): Well, Right, Yeah.

0:15:27 - (John Preston): What's that?

0:15:28 - (Kate Davis): I said it's all about authenticity.

0:15:31 - (John Preston): It's about authenticity. It's about being real. And so then I'll say, now I'm going to tell you how people use search. And. And you're going to know I'm right. I've got the evidence, but I don't need it. Because you're going to know. Because I guarantee you, this is exactly what you're going to do. You're going to look at that list and you're going to scan down the entire first page looking for names you recognize.

0:15:56 - (John Preston): Because we as human beings automatically think, if we've never heard of a company, they're not very good. So it's like, if I haven't heard of them, they can't be very good, because if they were pretty good, I'd hear them. And so we eliminate everyone we haven't heard of and we narrow it down to the folks we have heard of. And from a business perspective, that's why name recognition is essential, because it clears the first filter.

0:16:25 - (John Preston): And then after we do that, we look at the ones we've heard of and we try to decide which one gives us the warmest, fuzziest internal feeling, which ones gives us warm, fuzzy feelings when we see the name. And whichever one gives us the warmest and fuzziest feelings, that's the guy we're going to call. And so we call them up. We call. And this is the other thing. I'll kind of make it really lighthearted. But, you know, when we do that, we're going to call the phone number that Google gives us.

0:16:57 - (John Preston): We're not going to call the special phone number that they bought to put on their billboard so they could track ads. We're going to call whichever one Google gives us and we're going to show up at the office and the receptionist is going to say, well, how did you hear about us? And without thinking, we're going to say, I did a Google search. And we're going to Forget there were 14 other chiropractors on that same Google search that didn't get the customer that day.

0:17:27 - (John Preston): And she's going to write down Google search and at the end of the month that business owner is going to look at that and say, you know, I've gotten 15 customers this month from Google and none from that billboard. I need to shift my advertising and buy some of those sponsored spots at the top of that Google search. And suddenly they've eroded the very thing that was getting them customer.

0:17:51 - (B): Yes.

0:17:52 - (John Preston): And those kind of situations happen over and over in the business world because people don't think about how they make decisions themselves.

0:18:02 - (B): Yeah.

0:18:02 - (Kate Davis): And humor can really lend to that. Like just, you know.

0:18:06 - (John Preston): Absolutely.

0:18:07 - (Kate Davis): Do you find it really helps build strong relationships within the marketing realm of that?

0:18:14 - (John Preston): It does, it does. I mean the key is with humor, humor is such a spectrum. And, and, and you can, you know, some people won't, even a light hearted joke won't impact them at all. They need something stronger, a little bit harsher humor and other people, harsher humor will offend them. So you really have to, you have to kind of feel the audience out and get a sense of where that line is, where they're comfortable with humor because it's such a spectrum.

0:18:50 - (Kate Davis): Especially when you're working with salespeople and trying to teach them, you know, the gift of that and the struggle that so many people have within that.

0:19:00 - (John Preston): It's one of those things. There's a lot of, a lot in sales comes back to how you connect with people. Regardless of your product, regardless of your presentation, it's how you connect with people.

0:19:13 - (B): Yeah.

0:19:13 - (John Preston): In approaching it with a sense of humor seems more real.

0:19:21 - (B): Yeah.

0:19:21 - (John Preston): So many people get caught up in, in what they think a salesperson's supposed to say or how they think a salesperson is supposed to act rather than being their genuine self.

0:19:34 - (B): Yes.

0:19:35 - (John Preston): And humor helps you, helps you bring you back to where your genuine self really is.

0:19:41 - (Kate Davis): Yeah, absolutely. Do you find it enhances team collaboration when you're working with teams?

0:19:48 - (John Preston): It does. As you know, one of the things you always have to be aware of in this, I'm sure you've run into this occasionally is as long as there's not someone in there who Feels like humor is a weakness because if there's somebody in the group that views humor as like a low level communication, they're going to ruin it for everybody else.

0:20:15 - (Kate Davis): And how do you deal with that?

0:20:17 - (John Preston): Well, I think you identify that and you kind of. The way you deal with anything, I think, is always being entirely transparent about what you're doing and why you're doing it. I think if you just start cutting up and joking up in the middle of a presentation or in the middle of a meeting and no one has context of that, then you open your door for people misinterpreting what you're trying to do. And I think if you're able to go in, I'm a absolute firm believer in being entirely transparent about what you're doing and why you're doing it.

0:20:55 - (John Preston): And so if you're in that situation and you're going to use humor to keep the mood light and to keep the conversation from getting too heavy, because sometimes those conversations can really bog down in the minutia.

0:21:09 - (B): Yes.

0:21:09 - (John Preston): And so if you basically say, I'll tell you before we get started today, I just want you to know, don't be surprised if I throw in some, some misdirections and some humor in here because one of the things I found is that these meetings can be so boring that, that they accomplish nothing. So I want to try to keep this mood light and moving forward. So don't be surprised if you hear some stuff that, that's just a little bit on the crazy side.

0:21:36 - (John Preston): And I think being transparent with that and introducing it at the beginning and preparing people for what they're going to expect from you opens the door for you to use those tools more effectively.

0:21:49 - (B): Yeah, absolutely.

0:21:50 - (Kate Davis): I love that. It is, it really is. Because I, I was actually going to ask you if you ever had, you know, or challenged, like, had misinterpretations when you've tried to use humor. But if you're bringing it up that way, there's no surprise, you know, there's no surprise.

0:22:08 - (B): Yeah.

0:22:10 - (Kate Davis): That's amazing. Hi, it's Kate. I can't believe you made it halfway through the show. Look, if you or anyone you know would like to be a guest on Humor in the C Suite, I would love to have you, so email me. Katedavis.

0:22:26 - (John Preston): Cat.

0:22:30 - (Kate Davis): Are there any specific techniques or strategies that you've actually used within your leadership style that you've said? Okay, I'm, I'm going to keep that because you seem, you know, like not.

0:22:42 - (John Preston): Not really specifically, because I'm a very Unscripted person.

0:22:48 - (B): Yeah.

0:22:49 - (John Preston): And, and, and when I think one of the dangers you can fall into is if you're doing a presentation and you just happen to throw in either a pun or a misdirection or some kind of little humorous line and it lands well, and the person responds positively to it. And when you're done with your presentation and at the end you're sitting there thinking, man, I got to remember to say that again. And, and then you go into the next presentation and you're thinking about, where do I fit that in?

0:23:28 - (B): Yeah.

0:23:29 - (John Preston): Suddenly your energy's gone because you're. Any time you are thinking about what you're saying, your energy level is going to drop. And so, so by, by trying to work that in, it ends up having the exact opposite effect that it was meant to have. Now, I do recognize that some people need that structure. They need a presentation that is crafted and worked. And in that regard, what I always tell salespeople is if unless you are just a natural, energetic speaker and can think on the fly and react to objections and really read the situation, which most people aren't, I mean, that. That's just not the way most people are. Most people need more structure.

0:24:20 - (John Preston): They need literally almost like a flowchart, if they say this, I say this kind of thing. So for people, for, for those people that need that structure, what I warn them against is constantly changing their presentation. Because if you do a presentation and you don't make a sale or you don't get the results you want, it's natural tendency to want to change something before you do the next one. And so what happens is when you do it again, you're doing that new presentation for the first time.

0:25:00 - (John Preston): So every time you do a presentation, you're doing that particular presentation for the very first time. And so you're never able to get comfortable with the presentation because you're always having to think about what you're saying. It's amazing. When I'll sit down with a salesperson and I will actually have them do a presentation for me, one of the things I really watch for is I watch their energy level because their energy level has to stay high.

0:25:31 - (John Preston): And so as they're going along, I'll notice, I can tell which parts of their presentation they're consistent with, and when they're trying to change it and add stuff in because their energy level becoming like this, and then it'll. It'll plummet. And to a customer that comes across as shifty or like you're not sure about your Your product.

0:25:54 - (B): Yeah.

0:25:54 - (John Preston): When in fact, it's just. You're not sure what you were going to say.

0:25:57 - (B): Yeah, absolutely.

0:25:59 - (Kate Davis): Do you find though, like, with. With those two things, can you oversell so you look like you're trying too hard if you know your stuff?

0:26:11 - (John Preston): And once again, it's funny. Can you imagine if. Let's say. Let's say I decided today I'm kind of a mediocre to bad golfer. Okay. And let's say I just decided. I got up this morning and decided I wanted to win the British Open. And I decided that my mission today is to win the British Open, but I'm not going to practice and I'm only going to show up at the golf course during tournaments. What are the chances that I would ever win the British Open?

0:26:55 - (John Preston): None. Zero. And yet most people, most salespeople approach their career just like that. They want to be a great salesperson, but they only want to do their presentation during sales calls.

0:27:12 - (Kate Davis): So. Interesting.

0:27:12 - (John Preston): So it's crazy when you think of it in terms of athletes.

0:27:17 - (B): Yeah.

0:27:18 - (John Preston): But in sales, that's the way most salespeople approach their careers. They don't practice.

0:27:22 - (B): Yeah.

0:27:22 - (John Preston): I worked with one girl one time that was struggling. And. And we said, I tell you what, here's all I want you to do. I want you to go home tonight. I want you to do your presentation in front of your phone. Put your phone up on a mirror and you do your presentation in front of that mirror to yourself. And she'd been selling for a long time and she'd had a little bit of success, but she'd never actually done that.

0:27:48 - (John Preston): And she called me back that night and said, oh, my God. God, I have rbf. I'm like, rbf, what are you talking about? She goes, I have resting bitch face. And she just looked like she was angry when she was doing her presentation and she never realized it and it was costing her sales because she'd never actually sit in front of a camera and watched herself do it and seen it the way the customer sees it.

0:28:23 - (Kate Davis): Yeah, it's so true. Even with stand up. I mean, the amount of time.

0:28:27 - (John Preston): Absolutely.

0:28:28 - (Kate Davis): I, it's, it's all stage time. And I would, especially when I was first starting out, I would just film myself because I had all these weird, like, I'd say a joke and I do something we like my shoulder would always lift or I'd always make this weird sound I had no idea I was making until I watched.

0:28:46 - (John Preston): And those are things nobody's going to tell you. Nobody say, hey, would you Stop that weird shoulder thing you do. No one's gonna say that.

0:28:53 - (Kate Davis): No, no. But it's so distracting to what you're trying to do in your energy.

0:28:59 - (John Preston): Yeah.

0:28:59 - (Kate Davis): And we have no idea.

0:29:01 - (John Preston): Coming back to the humor, you know, the ability to have those conversations with people without their defenses going up is where humor plays such a big role.

0:29:14 - (B): Yes.

0:29:14 - (John Preston): I mean, because if people feel attacked, they shut down. In fact, there's some tremendous studies out there with functional MRIs that show when someone's view of themselves or their world is challenged, the portion of their brain that deals with logic completely goes black. It stops firing.

0:29:43 - (B): Yeah.

0:29:44 - (John Preston): Because, you know, evolutionary. That was. Those are the kind of things that got you killed when you started. You know, if you had a fear and suddenly you started trying to rationalize it away, you ended up dead before you. You reproduced.

0:29:55 - (Kate Davis): What?

0:29:57 - (John Preston): So. So. So it is recognizing that. So the key, I think humor prevents that from happening. Humor opens that door for you to have conversations that may challenge their set beliefs, but yet in a way that doesn't fire up that mechanism for shutting down their logical pathways.

0:30:21 - (Kate Davis): I. John, that is great. Like, you know what? I've. I've done many episodes of this show, and I've never had someone put it that way, but it's so true. I mean, you know, you can say it lowers your defenses, it makes you more open, but to really challenge someone and you do it with a sense of humor really does keep them like. It enables them to look at themselves and go, oh, yeah, I can see that. Or, you know, I might try that.

0:30:47 - (Kate Davis): And, yeah, I love that. Are. I'm still on resting bitch face. But, you know, but it's so true. And I love the fact that you're able to use a platform to. That's so funny. You know, like, you've gone from a very. You know, you start in physics, you go from this serious world, you know, of professionalism to running magazines and realizing people are really missing that one. That one thing in their business, and especially the small guys, you know, and it is so interesting because, honestly, I never touched the sponsored ads either.

0:31:28 - (Kate Davis): So, you know, and it is.

0:31:29 - (John Preston): And no one does.

0:31:31 - (Kate Davis): And it's about being authentic and. And real.

0:31:35 - (John Preston): It's interesting, you know, when you look at. I. Coming from a physics background.

0:31:40 - (B): Yeah.

0:31:42 - (John Preston): Everything was about, you know, facts, data, interpreting the data, all of that kind of perspective.

0:31:50 - (B): Yeah.

0:31:51 - (John Preston): And if you had told me 15 years ago that I would end up on a podcast talking about how humor can break down defenses, I would have given that an absolute, total bullshit call. I didn't just call BS on.

0:32:06 - (B): Yeah.

0:32:07 - (John Preston): What I've realized from working with people is that all of us live our life right on the edge of being paralyzed by fear and insecurities. And, and if we find ways to, to pull ourselves away from that edge, we automatically become more effective in what we're doing.

0:32:35 - (Kate Davis): Absolutely.

0:32:35 - (John Preston): Because I mean, it's amazing the amount of time that we spend trying to decide what we're going to do next as opposed to actually doing something.

0:32:50 - (B): Yeah.

0:32:51 - (John Preston): And that's why we're so ineffective and we probably operate 5% effectiveness. But anything that can pull us away from that edge and allow us to be more decisive in our decision making, to be more confident in the way we approach it, to be more structured towards a goal, to understand our goals. Anything we can do that moves us away from that edge is going to make us more effective and better in life.

0:33:21 - (John Preston): And I think humor can be a great tool for moving us away from that razor's edge.

0:33:28 - (B): Yeah.

0:33:28 - (Kate Davis): Because it really does help you stay curious, you know, and playful. And it's okay to take those risks and it's also okay to fall on our faces and get back up.

0:33:38 - (John Preston): It is okay to fail.

0:33:39 - (Kate Davis): You just got to get back up. You know, I think all the real successful business owners that I know have failed a couple times before they understood the true essence of what it takes to run a business or lead a group. And that's trial. It's trial and error. It's science. It's all those things. But having a gift like you and giving that people that leg up of having instead of them having to learn that lesson, having someone teach that lesson, I think is.

0:34:10 - (Kate Davis): Makes a huge difference to people and where their business.

0:34:13 - (John Preston): And I think if you can just. So many people in this world, and this is just a sad truth, so many people in this world decide or don't decide at some point during their life that they're through learning. What I've learned now has gotten me to where I am. That's good enough. And there's no need for me to continue learning. And I think in this day and age, that's the, that's the dividing point. That's the fork in the road for people that determine whether you're older years are lived in bitterness or lived in growth.

0:34:55 - (B): Yes.

0:34:56 - (John Preston): And, and, and being able to inspire and get people. And so many people stop learning because they're afraid they can't anymore.

0:35:06 - (B): Yeah.

0:35:06 - (John Preston): And I think using humor and hopefully with 40 flushes, just introducing them to the idea that they can still Learn.

0:35:15 - (B): Yes.

0:35:17 - (Kate Davis): And it doesn't have to be, you know, eight hours in school every day. It can be 10 minutes in the bathroom and then. Yeah, yeah. You know.

0:35:25 - (B): Yeah.

0:35:25 - (Kate Davis): You do the final flush and you're good to go.

0:35:29 - (John Preston): Yeah. I tell you, it's. What's interesting is the book was originally going to be 60 flushes.

0:35:34 - (Kate Davis): Okay.

0:35:34 - (John Preston): And so I finished 60 flushes and realized it was too long. So I have 20 flushes all ready to go for book two.

0:35:43 - (Kate Davis): When we get around that, it's like. Do you remember that whole series, the. The soup stories? What were. Chicken soup.

0:35:52 - (John Preston): Chicken. Chicken soup. Yes.

0:35:56 - (Kate Davis): You're just the next generation.

0:35:57 - (John Preston): I mean, so. I mean, there's a lot on my plate I'm hoping to be able to get to. So 40 more flushes to grow your business. 40 flushes to make more sales, which will be sales training there. 40 flushes to using AI in your life. I mean. Wow.

0:36:13 - (Kate Davis): Yeah, it's endless. It's endless. And are you so. Okay, so we're getting to the end of this. I always love to end humor in the C suite by asking our guests, what is the funniest thing that's ever happened to you?

0:36:29 - (B): And.

0:36:29 - (Kate Davis): Okay, I would love for you to share a couple stories or one story that really, you know.

0:36:35 - (John Preston): Well, I tell you what, before we do that, Kate, I do want to mention one other thing for your. I'm going to throw in a little plug. I mentioned my online sales training. It's at the sales success society.com. it's a membership you sign up for, and you've got access to all kinds of classes and workshops and support that comes into there. And right now I'm offering a free class to anybody that wants to learn how to handle the objection. I need to think about it, which is the hardest thing you can do in sales. You do this great presentation, you get to the end, and the client, you think they're pulling out their credit card, but instead they say, well, I need to think about it. Can you call me tomorrow?

0:37:17 - (John Preston): So I have a whole course on how to handle that situation so that you actually can turn maybe those maybes into sales.

0:37:25 - (Kate Davis): So I'm taking that course.

0:37:29 - (John Preston): I hate objections dot com. I love that website on that. I hate objections dot com.

0:37:35 - (Kate Davis): Amazing.

0:37:37 - (John Preston): And so. So anyway, I wanted to throw that.

0:37:40 - (Kate Davis): No, I love it. I'm gonna plug it all as well with all at the end. But it's. It's just so genuine and it's. It's just so playful, you know, and. And I think that's what resonates with me about it, it's not, you know, you're talking. Sales is a serious topic for many people, but when you put it, when you put it that way, it's just fun. And that's what's going to sell. That's just going to make people think, I want to go with this guy, he's way more fun.

0:38:11 - (Kate Davis): I'm going to buy my car from this person.

0:38:13 - (John Preston): You know, not only that, you know, these sales meetings don't have to be boring, they don't have to be dry. They don't have to be something that everybody just does as a necessary evil. They can be enjoyable.

0:38:27 - (B): Yeah.

0:38:27 - (Kate Davis): Amazing. Amazing. You're such a gift man. I love it. I love it. And, and it's, it's funny because I've had, there's so much science to back it all now like you said.

0:38:40 - (John Preston): Oh, absolutely.

0:38:41 - (Kate Davis): You know, so there's no more, you know, just what the doctor ordered. All those sayings, it's, it's factual, it's scientific. Humor really does, you know, give you that leverage whether it's in your advertising, whether it's in your sales and it can really connect you with people in a really genuine, fun way that makes you stand out so well.

0:39:03 - (John Preston): It's interesting. You know, I'll just kind of taught one last thing on you. But real quickly, is, is as we're moving into a world that is more and more influenced by AI.

0:39:14 - (B): Yeah.

0:39:15 - (John Preston): Humor is something that AI has trouble replicating. Yes, it really is. Yeah, it really is. And so, I mean, I don't know if you've ever asked any, any AI agent to, to tell you a joke. Let's just say they ain't funny and go from, go from there. So, so, you know, that is, that is something that really, it's going to separate our communications with people more and more. If you have the ability to infuse a little light heartedness into your conversation.

0:39:48 - (Kate Davis): And just like you said earlier on, you know, people are going to remember the stories, they're not going to remember the stats. Right, right.

0:39:57 - (B): So narratives.

0:40:00 - (Kate Davis): Absolutely.

0:40:01 - (B): Yeah. Okay.

0:40:02 - (John Preston): Hey, I guarantee you the next time you do a Google search, you'll feel yourself slipping by those sponsored businesses.

0:40:09 - (Kate Davis): Boom. I love it. All right, John, let's hear your funniest thing that's ever happened to you.

0:40:17 - (John Preston): Man, this is a tough one. I mean, because I've always been somebody that sort of just, you know, goes by the beat of my own drum. It puts me in a lot of situations where, where funny things can happen. So I'm. I'm gonna. I'm gonna start with one we can. We can build on, on it, go from there. I am. I'm a big crappie fisherman. I love to fish year round. Obviously, right now I'm incredibly busy. I don't do as much as I'd like to, but I always like to fish. And so my buddy and I like to go in the wintertime.

0:40:52 - (John Preston): Nobody else fishes in the wintertime. It's the lake you have, like to yourself, and a lot of times you can do really well. So it's mid December one morning, spitting snow. It's about. It's about 30 degrees water temperatures, really cold. And we decide we're going fishing. And so we go down this road, we get to the boat ramp, and we always have a system. His truck, my boat. We back in. I get in the boat, drive it off the trailer. He goes, parks the truck while I get the boat ready for fishing. That's our routine.

0:41:27 - (John Preston): So this morning I do it. I get the boat ready, and I look up and he's still sitting on the boat ramp. He hasn't gone. And then as I get closer, I noticed he's pulling up a couple feet, spinning his tires. He's backing up. He's pulling up a couple feet, spinning his tires. I'm like, oh, this can't be good. So I go over and I park the boat. I go around the ramp. We look at it, and the lake was really. The water level was really low, and we had actually backed off the end of the boat ramp.

0:41:57 - (John Preston): So. So the. The tires were no longer on the ramp, and there's a frame underneath the boat trailer that was hitting the ramp and stopping him. So we get out and we look at it, and we're trying to figure out, okay, what the heck do we do now? And so we thought about maybe tying a rope to the trailer, unhooking it, letting it go off the end, and kind of pulling it around to the bank. And then we're like, well, if we let go of the rope, my trailer is going to sink to the bottom of the lake, and I need the trailer.

0:42:22 - (John Preston): So that wasn't the option. So after much debate, I end up stripping off all my clothes, tying a rope to myself, and walking down the boat ramp to the end of it. And. And keep in mind, it's like 30 degrees and snowing. Water's just barely above freezing temperature. And I get to the end and I don't know, I feel with my feet, the end of the ramp, and I'm like, I gotta get behind it. So I don't know if I'm gonna drop off into 20ft of water or 3ft of water.

0:42:58 - (John Preston): So I take the plunge and I end up about neck deep. So I walk around behind the trailer and I get behind it, and because of the buoyancy of the tires, I'm able to lift it real easily. So I lift it up and he starts to drive forward. So here is this not small guy, buck naked with a rope tied to his waist, carrying a boat trailer up the ramp in the snow. I live the next six months praying there wasn't some hiker with a cell phone up in the woods and I was going to suddenly be a viral sensation.

0:43:38 - (Kate Davis): I saw a crazy Sasquatch today.

0:43:41 - (John Preston): Yeah. And let me assure you, nobody would have wanted to watch that video for any other reason than to laugh.

0:43:50 - (Kate Davis): That is a great story and very brave. I have to say. I would never. I'd be like, we're leaving it here. Oh, my gosh. I love it. John, you've just been such a pleasure. All your insights, everything we talked about. You really are a gift. I hope everyone checks you out online, joins your classes, your school. Like, honestly, it's such a great springboard for people to really.

0:44:17 - (John Preston): Absolutely.

0:44:18 - (B): Yeah.

0:44:19 - (Kate Davis): Really engage.

0:44:20 - (John Preston): And one last thing I'll mention.

0:44:22 - (B): Yeah.

0:44:22 - (John Preston): And it was kind of part of the reason why I wrote 40 flushes. You know, the business owners who most need to read it, they don't read usually. So buying a book is kind of a little bit out of their wheelhouse.

0:44:35 - (B): Yeah.

0:44:36 - (John Preston): So if there is someone in your life that owns a business, it is a great gift idea.

0:44:42 - (Kate Davis): I love it for them.

0:44:44 - (John Preston): And also, if you are a salesperson that sells either business to business or advertising sales or something like that, it's a great Christmas gift for your client. Plus, you're always wondering, what can I get my client for Christmas?

0:44:56 - (Kate Davis): I love it. And we'll have the link so people can grab it. Is it available on Amazon as well?

0:45:01 - (John Preston): It is available on Amazon, yeah. 40 flushes is actually just a link through to the Amazon page.

0:45:06 - (Kate Davis): Oh, great. Okay. Perfect. Aw. Thank you for your time, for your insights, for your stories.