Founder Of Present Influence: Johnny Ball AKA The Influence Boss – S3E17 (#113)

S3E17 Johnny Ball.m4a – powered by Happy Scribe

Three, two, one. Welcome back to Boss Uncaged Podcast. Today’s show is going to be an interesting show and because almost guaranteed because we’ve had some offline conversations with our current guests before. So again, I think whatever you’re going to learn from this episode, you’re going to want to comment about, you’re going to want to share about it. We want to hear some insight. What’s your key takeaway? So after the show, I want you guys to go to bossuncaged.com/fbgroup. Again. That’s bossuncaged.com/fbgroup. So today we’re talking to I’m going to deem him the influence boss. So without further Ado, the floor is yours. Johnny, who are you?

Very great introduction. Thank you for that. My name is Johnny Ball, and I am a persuasive presentation skills coach. So I am helping people to be more influential and persuasive within an ethical framework, within their professional lives, because ultimately the skills of leadership communication are critical now just as much as they ever have been, but perhaps more on display for the whole world. Now, that is an expectation for anyone in a business owner or executive position to be able to communicate at the top of their game and to be able to be influential with their status and also persuasive with the words that they speak.

I want everybody to listen to what he said. I don’t want his modesty to fool you, right? I mean, obviously, this man also has multiple podcasts. He’s also like a speaker as well. So I just want to kind of dive into that space a little bit more. Like, how did you become as evolved as a speaker that you are today?

A number of different things. So my first introduction to public speaking was professional public speaking training, where it was essentially being taught leadership skills with a view to becoming a trainer in your linguistic programming, which I did for a while. And so that was where I first started getting up onto the platform and speaking to people. Some of my earliest presentations in front of groups were in front of rooms of 2000, 3000 people. So I Dove in at the deep end because most people never really get to speaking to that sort of size of room. Now, I do tend to speak to rooms more, from 30 to 50 people, up to several hundred. Not so many of the two to 3000 people events anymore. But those were my inductions. What has really progressed me the most, though, has been being an active member of the Toastmasters Organization.

Nice. Very nice. And so, I mean, with that, then you roll into becoming a podcaster. And being that I’m a fellow podcast, I understand what goes on behind the scenes and what develops and how you can find people and stage questions and lead people down the right path. But you have two podcasts. So why don’t you go ahead and talk about these two podcasts a little bit?

Sure. Well, the show that has been running the longest of mine is called Speaking Influence. And that is really about everything that I’ve been talking about. It’s about persuasive public speaking. It’s about leadership, communication, and it’s about the tools or sometimes known as weapons of influence and persuasion. And so I have a wide variety of guests, from professional speakers to professional comedians to experts in rhetoric and political discourse and speech writers. And I’ve had people who’ve escaped from religious cults and really all sorts of aspects on psychology and understanding communication number of communication experts. I have a very wide range of guests, but the themes of the show are always very much around speaking and presenting. And that’s my baby. That’s my big passion in life. And I get super pumped and hyped about talking about that all the time. And then this year I decided to start up another show which is called Points of Change. And that really is about those moments in life, those points in which we find ourselves transforming from one place in our lives to something very different. And so generally, I’m talking to people there who are themselves coaches or have had big transformational experiences and are often out there helping other people to have similar kinds of transformations as well so that you can understand what it takes. What are those trigger points, the flash points, the realizations that got them to have those realizations and what their journeys have been so that anyone looking to have similar kinds of transformations can learn from them and hopefully follow somewhat in their footsteps?

Definitely inspirational stuff. And obviously, I think that you’re leading the pack well. So if you could define yourself in three to five words, what would those three to five words be?

Oh, man, that’s a tough question. Three to five words. Just to pick individual words, I would say I’m very calm and well spoken, happy and enthusiastic. Doesn’t go with calm, perhaps, but I am calm and enthusiastic and friendly. There you go. There’s my five words.

Nice. I think the collective of those words, I would say. And you correct me wrong. I would think that you’re very persuasive as well. In addition to those.

Oh, yeah, I would hope so.

Great.

I perhaps see that more as a skill that I’ve acquired rather than a trait that I own. But yeah, maybe there’s some truth in that now.

Nice. So let’s just talk about your business a little bit. So obviously, you’re helping coaches, you’re teaching on speaking. You’re also formulating these ideas and sharing common ideas on your podcast. What is your business? What are you really doing behind the scenes right now?

I am working on a book, and that is going to be all about influence and persuasion in presentations. And I have a working title for it. I’m not going to show just because it might be the end title that I end up with, but that’s still about third written still being researched, hoping to have it done in about the next six months. And so it’s really going to be about effective leadership communication from live platforms, live stages to virtual platforms like this, whether it’s being on podcasts or running virtual events and those kinds of things, to be as influential and persuasive as you can be in those environments to help people really step up their presentation skills in those things as well. Because we’ve all been in countless Zoom meetings or whatever else for the last year or so, probably more so than ever. My work was already along that line anyway. But so many people still don’t really know how to handle themselves or come off well in those kinds of situations and can be very hard to listen to for a long time and a bit boring. And I want to help people step out of that and stop trying, spending so much time worrying about what other people are thinking of them or whether they’re presenting themselves well and to know what they want other people to think of them, to actually project the image they want rather than hope that it lands somewhere in the region of where they want it to.

Yeah, I definitely agree with that. From being a podcaster, it’s always you have to kind of heighten your voice and then tone your voice down. Heighten your voice and tone your voice down. So for you, I think because you have a well established European accent, does that help you with that tonality that you’re talking about?

I think it helps with some of their clarity in speaking, for example. And I know that I have a tendency to be a very fast speaker in normal life. I do like to speak fast, and with a lot of work, I’ve slowed that down to be clearer, because a lot of the work I do is group coaching work. And I have international clients from just about everywhere, but all in English. But of course, when English isn’t your first language, you need somebody to be speaking slowly and clearly so that you can understand hopefully most of at least of what’s being said. So I have had to learn from experience and practice to slow myself down and improve my clarity, hopefully without it becoming boring, without it becoming monotonous or too slow. Because some people, especially if you’re a native speaker, you can keep up with the speed and you can listen faster. But if you’re not, you really need somebody who cares enough to want you to understand what they’re saying. And I do always think the responsibility of communication is with the person communicating. So it’s your responsibility to be as understood as you possibly can be. Whatever gets understood is whatever gets understood. That’s not necessarily down to how you communicate. But if you want to, if you want people to understand you well, you have to be as clear as you can be.

Got. You very nice. So let’s just talk about Johnny Ball as the kid, right? So, I mean, right now you live in Spain, but you grew up in UK. So let’s talk about your early days. Did you know early on that you would be possibly stepping into this? Were you the guy that was always running for President of class? Were you always raising your hands? Like, what were you as a kid?

Well, I don’t know if they really have that stuff in the UK, in schools with class presidents, maybe they do now, but not so much. When I was a kid, but I was pretty quiet as a kid. I was very introverted and reflective and I was the kind of kid who would spend my break time playing music in the classroom. So I preferred to be doing creative stuff. But I was always into the arts, always doing drama and performing. And I realized quite early that those are my passions. I went to a music school and learned several instruments, but I also was in the drama group there. I did lots of drama productions and ended up carrying that through to my University degree as well. I did law English and drama. I started off doing law English and music and switch to drama because I wanted to do more practical stuff. So the speaking side of me now, I feel, comes from the frustrated actor of me.

Nice. So, I mean, talking about being an actor and being in front of thousands of people on stage, everyone that has a speaking journey always has, like the one most memorable hiccup or mistake they’ve made that they have deemed that they never want to make again. So what was your biggest mistake on stage that you ever committed to?

I think one of my biggest mistakes on stage was I don’t even really remember it, but it was one of my earliest speeches where I hadn’t got into this habit of throwing myself down and I was teaching an element on a stage in front of several thousand people. And I just raced through the whole thing so fast that it wasn’t very well understood. And before I knew it was over, I was so nervous at the time that I honestly don’t remember a single thing about it other than people coming up to me afterwards and saying that I was speaking way too fast. That was the most embarrassing thing because it was such a big audience and I really wanted to do well. And whilst I said everything right, I wanted to say I said it too quick and I was racing away and a lot of people were a bit lost. Even native English speakers were struggling to keep up with what I was saying. So, yeah, that was a bit embarrassing, but I have had those things of forgetting what I actually wanted to be saying. Usually I managed to save myself with that, though. I’m quite a good improviser. So I’ll go somewhere else and I’ll come back when I get what I was supposed to be saying.

So that leads me to another in depth question, right. So if you’re on stage and you’re saying that sometimes you may lose your footing, are you more of a slide presenter or you memorize and kind of have key points and you just kind of go off top of your head with those topics.

When I’m on a live stage in front of people, I do not generally use Slideshows. I want people to be looking at me and paying attention to me. And that’s not an ego thing that’s I see the slides in those situations as often a distraction. People have a tendency to put lots of writing on the slides, and if I use slides at all, they will only ever be images and they will be as limited as possible because I feel they can very easily be a distraction to any kind of presentation that you’re doing. Whereas when I’m doing a lot of webinar work or online events, I’m more likely to have slides accompanying me. And again, it will generally just be visual illustrations because I don’t want them to be a distraction and I don’t want people do this thing about putting all their points on a slide and reading them off. It doesn’t help anyone if you’re reading off the same thing that they can see on your screen, definitely.

So you’re talking about your highs and lows. You’re talking about things that you’ve overcome. You’re talking about some strategies we always hear about someone being overnight success, and that’s the perception on the front end as a viewer looking in from the outside. But the reality that’s usually supported by a 20 year thing to get you to that point. Right. So how long have you been on your journey to get to where you are currently?

Oh, boy. But you know what? I used to be a flight attendant for an airline, which is a very different job, and so it was really about the age of 30, and I’m coming up to 50 soon. So it was about the age of 30 that I realized I wanted to do something more with my life and started training up to be a coach. And it was on the journey of training up to be a life coach and business coach that I discovered the public speaking side of things. I would say probably about 16, 17 years that I’ve been on that journey, and that’s been a massive evolution for me. What I thought I wanted early on has changed and developed, and where I am right now is just so exciting and so fantastic. I have coached both in business and life, hundreds and thousands of people from around the world in groups, and one to one been privileged enough to work for a large personal development company in the US, which I still do some work with as well. And so I’ve been trained up by some of the very best people when it comes to online presenting and delivering, coaching and training online as well. And so I’ve been very lucky, very blessed in my work. And so, yeah, as a Speaker, I would say certainly for the last 15 years I’ve been honing my talents as a speaker to a point where I do very well. I’ve won some awards and competitions, some humorous speaking competitions. I like to think I’m a funny guy sometimes, and I’m actually working on some stand up comedy at the moment as well. That’s just for me, for fun.

I think that’s definitely cool because I’ve talked to several different podcasters and public speakers and a commonality. But I’ve figured out pattern behind the scenes. Like a lot of them are taking up comedy classes, and I guess that’s kind of like figuring out how to move an audience and how to invoke that emotional reaction versus just like the linear reaction. Is that part of the reason why you use comedy and you’re speaking?

You know what? I’ve always used it a bit anyway. I always tended to be a bit of a Joker, although when I was living and working in the UK, I could fall back on a lot of pop culture humor because it’s very shared. Working more internationally now, you can’t fall back on that stuff because it’s not shared, and so you have to be able to share that. But humor is, I think, more international than we tend to think. There’s just a lot of pop humor that is not so commonly known. But one of the reasons why it’s so important to me and I mentioned earlier that I’ve had professional comedians on my podcast is because I see comedy and humor as being a very critical skill of influence and persuasion. The ability to be able to make people laugh is highly influential and incredibly persuasive. And that’s a lot of what I’ve talked to some of the professional comedians have had on my show around. And I still want to have many more conversations around this because I feel like in the academic studies on influence and persuasion, which I read all the time, this does not get studied anything like as much as all the other areas that more people are perhaps more familiar with.

Definitely understand. I think it’s probably under used to a certain extent, and I think it’s one of those things, to your point. It’s highly influential. And we can kind of see that in the comedians of today’s world, like they’re going from being backstage comedians to multi millionaires with multi different businesses running industry standard corporations now, versus if you go back 20,30 years ago, they were literally just trying to figure out when the next show was. So I definitely think that’s an interesting time. I think we probably talk about that all day. But this progressed right? So if you could time travel back because you’re saying that you didn’t start this journey until your 30s. Right. So obviously between your early days until you’re 30 years old, is there one thing that if you can go back in time and change or do all over again or leave a little whisper in your ear and say, hey, do this versus do that? What would that one thing be?

If I could go back to myself, as I would probably try and go back to when I was at University doing my performance arts and the likes and give a little whisper in my ear about having a try at public speaking because I would have always enjoyed it. I guess I had done aspects of that. I grew up in a Church environment, so regularly you get pulled up onto the stage to do readings and things like that. I was already somewhat used to speaking in front of people from that. But doing it in a way where you’re actually up on the stage not playing a part so much as being yourself, that was exhilarating for me. It was very different and a very different kind of performance. But I wish I discovered that early on.

So I think you just brought up about being younger and talking about Church. Do you come from an entrepreneurial family? Like, obviously you’re very savvy in your entrepreneurial endeavors. Where did that hustle mentality come from?

Oh, man. I don’t know if it did. I have one entrepreneur in my family, my uncle, who was a chemical engineer and started up his own detergent business. But that’s about it. So maybe from that side of the family, the hustle mentality is something that I’ve developed and really had to push myself with because it doesn’t come naturally for me. I’ve had to work really hard at it.

Nice. So you’re talking about, like, hustling and juggling things to a certain extent, right. So how do you currently juggle, like, your work life with your family life?

Well, that’s not too much of a struggle. I keep some sacred time for family life, and I keep the two things very separate. So I will work hard in the week, and I’d usually work Saturday mornings with some of my private clients. But Saturday afternoon to Sunday night is sacred. It’s family time is off limits to clients and the lights. I’m a believer that is the quality of time that you spend with people that is far more important than the quantity of time that you spend with them. So when I’m with my family, I’m not on my phone, I’m not checking my messages or think about what else is going on, what’s coming up on Monday when I’m back in the office, I’m with them, and I do my best to be fully present with the people that I’m with in my life. And so when I’m at work, I don’t feel bad about being fully present with that. And we can’t do everything or be everything to everyone all the time, but they understand what I’m working to. I’m very lucky to be really well supported. And so people understand sometimes if I can’t do the things that everyone else wants to do or if I’m working late and those sorts of things, they get it. And sometimes I do have to do interviews at weird times because of time changes, or I’m doing presentations or online events at weird times because they’re for other countries. And that’s just part of the life.

Very interesting. And I think you alluded to your scheduling to a bit. So in that scheduling, what is your morning routines? What is your morning habits look like?

My morning routine always starts off with gratitude. I know this is probably one that a lot of people say, but it’s the first thought I have every day. One of my favorite talks that I give is about how gratitude saved my life. And I believe that it did and turned me around from when I was at a time when I didn’t really care if I woke up the next day or not to turn around. I love my life and I’m excited and happy every day. And I put that down to a continued practice of daily gratitude. So that’s always my first thought when I wake up. It’s trained into my head now and then. Second to that, I set contention for myself, for the day, for how I want to show up in my life. And then that gets followed up by some journaling. And at the moment, I’m also spending about 20 to 30 minutes doing some comedy writing, working through a comedy program. And then I usually get things moving a bit. Things moving. So I’m not a breakfast person, but I like my bulletproof coffee and a glass of water, and then I’m ready to go get it.

Yeah, I can definitely see that just by talking to you. And we talked before. I can see definitely journaling and writing that I didn’t realize that you were doing comedy to this extent, but I could definitely see that. And part of that is also like books. I would think that I think you mentioned your book earlier on. So this next question I’m going to ask you is a three part question. Right. What books did you read on your journey? I mean, particularly from your 30 to 50 age range, what books helped you go from where you were to where you are? Two is what book are you reading right now to help yourself evolve? And three, let’s dive into a little bit more about the book that you are writing.

Okay. So I would start with saying the books that probably have been most transformative for me in my journey, one of them because I talk about influencer proposal a lot. What woke me up to that, what got me onto it. I don’t know if you’ve heard of a guy called Mark Joyner. He is the guy who had simply and it’s the whole sort of scheme to help you get things done and become more productive. And he’s had some books in that as well. And one of the books he had was this book called “Mind Control Marketing”, which I think was only available through his site. And that was where I first became aware of all these hidden influence and persuasion things going on, particularly in the world of marketing. And that fascinated me. It triggered that’s where the whole journey into influence and persuasion started for me. And I would say from that, that led me to Charlie Needs book on influence and Psychology of Persuasion, which I still read regularly. In fact, I’ve just downloaded the new revised and expanded edition of that. So I want to see what’s new, what they’ve added to it. And I’d say, other than that, probably one of the other most influential books have had on me just in terms of life philosophy was “Four Agreements”, Don Miguel Ruiz book “Four Agreements”. And those four principles for me are things to live your life by.

Nice. And again, what books are you reading now?

Right now, I always have a number of books on the go. So I’ve just finished an audiobook of the great courses in psychology. That was about 36 hours of audio, I think. So it was quite a mission to get through it. It was enlightening. I just finished reading yesterday a book on influence that I got from my Kindle Unlimited account, which was a pretty short book. It was okay, but it was nothing special. But I’m also reading a book by a Mentalist at the moment as well, which is part of my research. And I’ve got another research book on the go, which I’m rereading for notes for my book, which is from a political speech writer who I’ve had on my show before, a really good book called Winning Minds by Simon Lancaster. And that has a lot of very powerful speech writing tips and tricks in there. And so I’m trying to capture a few elements of that. A lot of the books I’m reading at the moment are about the art of rhetoric and a lot of influence and persuasion stuff as part of the research for my book. And so I haven’t got a lot of time for personal or fiction at the moment.

I definitely lean towards a nonfiction myself. So I want some more insight to like your book. I know you don’t want to allude to the title, but kind of like walk us through. If I’m a reader, what am I going to be able to get by reading your new book?

The goal for the book is that people who read it are going to be able to have a basic understanding about how influence works, the relationship between influence and persuasion, because they’re not the same thing, although they’re very tied together. And so influence is more things like your status and your perception, your confidence, the things that people look to, your humor, like being able to make people laugh. Those are things that give you influence with people. So influence is more something you have. Persuasion tends to be more something that you do. And so we persuade people that’s much more active thing. But often you need both. You need the influence and the persuasion for the persuasion to work. So that’s really a lot of what this is about. One of my biggest goals from the book is to teach influence and persuasion within an ethical framework. That’s always my goal with teaching these things anyway, because they’re all things that can be used unethically. So I hope, at least by teaching it within an ethical framework, that people will resonate with that. And people who perhaps don’t want it in that sort of way won’t feel like they can connect with the book. That’s my goal. But I see one of the reasons why the whole influence and persuasion stuff really struck a lot with me was seeing all this hidden stuff going on, everything going on beneath the surface that we don’t notice, and we often don’t notice unless it gets overused. And then we do start to notice it and become aware. But when these things get overused, they also become ineffective. So people move on to other things. But I don’t know. I don’t know if you’ve ever had the experience of having someone Con you, like a professional Con artist Con you in your life. I have a couple of times, and they’re very good. And part of me wanted to understand how that works as well. And so that’s an interesting something I’ve been studying as well. It ties in with a lot of the studies that I do. And so often we don’t know exactly how people are using psychology against us to get what they want. And if you understand more of how that works, you’re at least more likely to recognize when it’s being used against you and be able to say, oh, hang on a minute. I know what you’re doing, and so you could do something about it. So I do see it as an empowerment tool, teaching this stuff as well. And I hope that teaching more of this to people who want to be leaders, who really want to be leaders in their life, in the world, because often these skills only really get taught in the top schools, the ones that people are paying millions to send their kids to, churning out tomorrow’s leaders, the politicians and lawyers of the future are the ones who tend to get taught all this stuff. And it doesn’t often come into general schooling for people. And it’s a real shame. So much of this stuff people have never heard of or have no understanding about, and it’s being used on them all the time. And so I see it also as a way of leveling the playing field and creating more future leaders who will have the same skills.

Yeah. I would definitely think, like everyone that’s a marketer is probably going to be biting at the chops to get their hands on that book, because from a marketing standpoint, that’s what we do as marketers. We understand to a certain extent, more psychology than the normal person and what works and what doesn’t work. So we’re testing these things out on a regular basis. So I definitely look forward to you got to put me on your mailing list. I want to get access to the book one. Sure so.

Yeah, absolutely.

Cool. So with that, I think that’s more like a legacy thing, right? I mean, you’re creating this book and you’re putting your last 20 years of influence into this book and to help people become more persuasive. Where do you see yourself 20 years from now?

I see myself hopefully still talking about all this stuff and writing even more about it into the future. There’s a lot that I want to get out there in terms of information, and I hope I never get bored or tired of speaking about this stuff. I don’t think I ever will. It’s too much of a deep passion. Sometimes you find those things you’re like, oh, yeah, that feels like what I was put here for to do, and that’s what I’ve connected with. I found my purpose. I chose that as my purpose. That’s my whole mission in life is one of education and empowerment, but also of entertainment as well, because I think it should be fun. The journey for this stuff should be fun. And so that’s why I’m hopefully bringing in a lot more of the humor side of things as well to things to make the educational journey more lighthearted and fun for people because we remember more when we’re having fun.

Very, very true. True. So let’s just talk about the tech side of things. Right. Obviously, in your business, you have to have some kind of systems in place, some kind of technology to essentially manage some things. So what tools, software wise, do you use on a day to day basis that you would not be able to do what you do with your clients without it?

Well, definitely my Google Calendar and Calendly, the app I use that for managing my calendar, are critical for me. So a lot of what I do wouldn’t happen without those things. And outside of that, I don’t have too many systems. I am not deeply into tech or anything, but I do have a new website, which is still I’m still working on setting up with lovely people from SuperPass, and that is going to enable me to do a lot more things. So I’m Loading up online courses onto there, and people will be able to access my podcast directly from there as well. And that’s definitely a tool that is going to allow me to do more than my WordPress site that I had before ever could. So those are the things I’m pretty excited about, but I use a lot of write. I like to write stuff down. I’m a bit old school. I have several journals. I have my gratitude Journal, I have my productivity Journal. I have my daily Journal, my comedy Journal. So I like to write stuff down into those by hand.

Very nice. I think we share that same record. I just released my eight book, and my new book is essentially for book readers. It’s for book clubs. So the goal of this book is a Journal to Journal about the top 90 books that you’ve read and have the takeaways in the palm of your hand so you could walk away with it. This is just kind of like not necessarily a global pitch, but you’ve brought up Journaling at least five to six times on this episode. And I want people to really understand the impact of journaling. It kind of gives you an opportunity to get information from your head onto pages so you can recap them again and correct me if I’m wrong. I’m thinking that’s what you’re using it for to a certain extent. You’re getting all these ideas out of your head and put it into one place to be able to hold onto it and recap later. Is that correct?

Yeah. Otherwise the thoughts just drift away with the ether. They’re gone. But having the stuff written down is solidify stuff, and it reminds you of where you were at yesterday and the day before. And you can check back on things like especially with my productivity Journal, I find that that’s just a great way of helping me see am I achieving what I want to be achieving where there’s room for improvement and sometimes realizing I’ve done more than I thought I had because very often we feel like we haven’t done so much. Actually, I’ve done quite a lot, but my personal journey, that’s very much about getting stuff out of my head. A lot of comedy journaling is as well. So, yeah, it’s important to get stuff written down for me, but often I don’t know what I think about things until I write them down. And I hear this from a lot of writers as well. It’s a great way of formulating your thoughts. People think, I don’t really have that many opinions or I don’t know what I really think about things. If you want to know, start writing stuff down and you will find out what you think about things. It’s a great way to discover yourself. But I love what you’re saying about book club. I’ve done something I’m going to come back to when I have a bit more time. But I used to do these 92nd book reviews, and I want to come back to doing them for all the books that I love and try and not narrow down. I don’t want to give people the content of the book because I want them to read them, but I want them to know why I loved it and why they should read it, too. And that’s what the general intention I have with those 92nd reviews is not to give them the summary of the book, but to give them here’s the juicy bits for me. Here is the meat of this book, and here’s why I think you should read it. I will come back to doing those.

Yeah, definitely. I like that. I mean, you’re not telling them the key takeaways per se, but you’re giving them enough juiciness for them to bite into it. And it would be nice to hear them rebuttal. Right. Like, this was your takeaway. But what is your serious takeaway? What was your juicy bit? And you can kind of collect that data and kind of present that, whether it’s a YouTube channel or something along those lines will be definitely interesting.

Yeah. Those go up on my YouTube channel. I say I will be coming back to doing them. I have a lot of fun doing them. They don’t take too much time to put together. And I know that they’ve been well received in the past, but, yeah, it’s just been a time thing recently got you so going to the words of wisdom, right.

And I’m going to go back to the 30 year old age group to where you were so thinking about yourself, maybe 32, 33 years old, and I’m coming to you and saying, look, like I’m hearing your story. I think you have a phenomenal story. I want to follow in your footsteps. What words of wisdom would you give to me as I’m a 30 year old individual working to become who I’m going to be sure.

One of the things that has probably made the biggest difference to me is surrounding yourself with the right people. And that has been transformative for me. My first, earliest journey into personal development. Whilst I met some amazing people, a lot of the people I was working around I didn’t feel were quite as ethical or on track as I would have liked them to be. And then when I made a shift, I got asked to go and work for someone else who I know is incredibly ethical and got to meet him and got to know him. If anyone ever knows Harv Eker, he’s a super unique guy and very in his integrity and does what he says. And he is the same person on stage as you see on stage, people who do what they say when they do it, people who really do live and honor their integrity, who have a life philosophy and they live by it and they care about their mission and empowering other people and making a positive difference in the world. Spending time around people who are like that will transform you. And it did me. And it helped me to ignite even more the fire that was in me to do what I do now by being around people who were passionate about the things that they cared about and their own mission. Because a lot of people, I think, have the sense of those sorts of things, but they don’t have enough of a desire or drive, and they’re not necessarily surrounded by people who are encouraging that or lifting them up. It might be all fine and calm, but if you haven’t got people who are actually helping to lift you up and fire you up, then you want to find some of those people in your life. So some of that has come through the network that I’ve built, and some of that has come from the people that I’ve chosen to be in environments with and learn from and work from. And that has been super empowering for me and transformed who I am as a person. So I’m not honestly grateful. I owe all of who I am now to those people who have helped me step up along the way.

Wow. With that, obviously, anyone listening, they probably want to contact you, right? So what’s your social media profiles, your website? How can they get in contact with you?

One of the best places to contact me is LinkedIn. I hang out there a lot. So you can find John Alexander Ball or look up Present Influence, which is my company on LinkedIn. And I hang out on Twitter a bit as well. So you’ll see Speaking Influence Podcast or Johnaball @Johnaball on Twitter. Those are the places I spend the most time online. But if anyone wants to get in touch with me directly, they can go to Presentinfluence.com or email me. John@presentinfluence.com and I’m more than happy to hear from people. Wow.

So we’re going to go into the bonus route. A couple of bonus questions for you. So what is your most significant achievement to date? Outside of family?

Outside of family, there are a lot of them, to be honest. I would say probably one that’s most significant for me was turning my life on its head by moving to Spain and making my life here and not knowing if any of that was going to work out, just taking a huge chance in life and saying, well, we’ll see what happens. So that was a pretty big achievement.

Yeah. Another bonus question for you. If you could spend 24 hours with anyone dead or alive uninterrupted for those 24 hours, who would it be and why?

I’d probably choose someone alive, but who would it be? Gosh. There’s so many people I’d love to learn from. One of the people I’ve really enjoyed this is actually someone who died years ago. But if he could come forward in time or I could go back in time, spend 24 hours around Leonardo DA Vinci, I think that would be amazing. Just probably the most genius man who’s ever lived. I think from recently reading a full biography about his life and looking at the amazing works of art he created, I think just being in the presence of that kind of greatness would be amazingly rewarding. Wow.

Yeah, definitely. I’m just thinking about all his achievements and all the things that he has done. I mean, definitely. I would definitely add him to my to do list for sure. Definitely. So, I mean, I was your fellow podcaster, and anytime I close out my shows, I always get whoever I’m interviewing the opportunity to interview me. So for you, this should be 100% natural. Microphone is yours. What questions do you have for me?

I would like to know what inspired you to start podcasting.

So the way the story goes is that literally I had a business, I worked the business literally almost to death. I had a stroke in 2018. And I was always the guy behind the curtain, always the guy influencing people to grow their businesses. And finally after that stroke, I was like, okay, I’m doing all this for everyone else, but what’s my legacy? What am I leaving behind? And my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, was saying, It’s time for you to step in front of the camera. Time for you to step in front of the limelight. So then I kind of came up with the name Boston Cage, did a whole new rebrand, and I started podcasting. And honestly, I’ve never looked back. I was like, why the hell did I not do this earlier on to your purpose that you said earlier? I think podcasting has become my purpose because now it leaves me with energy to leave behind a legacy, breadcrumbs for my family and also helping other entrepreneurs on their journey to follow the steps and other entrepreneurs footsteps.

Cool. What have been the most impactful lessons that you’ve learned on your journey?

One of them, I would think, systems, man. Just having systems in place make podcasting so much easier. So that way I could focus on the communication, the conversation that you and I are having. Like, we’re actually getting into depth, like, going into your past, talking to you about a child versus scrambling, thinking about, okay, I need to get this transcribed, I need to get this file edited. What’s on my schedule. Like, all those things should be kind of second nature, and then you should be able to put all your energy into the interview. Like, actually, that’s where the meat and potatoes are sitting on the table is when you’re having the conversation with the person in front of you.

After anybody in the world of life and business again, maybe living or dead. But who would you think or describe as being the most influential or persuasive people that you’ve ever come across?

I would say Tony Robbins. And the reason why I say Tony Robbins, because I think Tony Robbins has a huge following of people that are influenced by him. And then he has a huge following of people that’s kind of like, there’s no way in hell this guy is really that good. And then they’ll pay and they’ll show up and they’ll even pay for VIP, and they’ll show up and they’ll sit with their arms crossed and they’re looking and they’re like, yeah, okay. And then literally about 45 minutes to an hour into it, they’re high fiving, giving back massages and hugging everyone around them. So to see someone go from being a non believer, it’s almost like being in a Church experience, someone going from a non believer to a believer. And Tony does that every day, all day, over and over and over again.

Yeah. He’s certainly someone who’s mastered those sorts of skills, especially from the stage. And there’s a reason why he’s a big name in personal development. If you could go back in time and ask yourself the same question, you’d ask me, what advice would you give your younger self and at what point would you give it?

I would go back right at my journey when I first got my first degree as a graphic designer, when I was searching, when I was on that graphic design is great, but how do I monetize it? Then I became a web developer. I got a web development degree. That’s great. How do I monetize it? I would have gone back in time and would have told him, go bigger. Stop thinking about how to execute and think about the vision, and stop holding yourself back, making sure you want to know how to do something and just do it.

Cool. What do you think makes what do you think makes for influential or persuasive communication?

I think it’s something that I have learned to do through this podcast is becoming a very good listener, listening to what the other person is saying, picking up on the key tip, because a lot of podcasters are certainly saying not to knock podcasters, but they have a list of questions, and usually they’re trying to knock out the questions, but they’re not listening to the answers and they’re not willing to move away from their structured questions. But it’s easy to organize that. If you just listen to what someone is saying and then you could kind of respond on that, you don’t want to leave something so juicy on the table just to jump to another question. So for me, I do a lot of listening, and I just kind of flow it into the next question whenever that question comes up. But I’m going to talk about that one thing that you just delivered. That was a golden nugget. First.

To me, that’s one of the most critical skills of speaking and presenting. And I say podcasting as well. Some shows have those set questions, and that’s great. I’m very much like you. I like to be fully present with my guests. One of the reasons why I call my business present influence is it’s also present. It’s not just presenting, it’s all about being present as well. And that’s a big theme in my book that will be coming out as well. This whole thing of actually being tuned into what’s going on, tuned into what people are saying to you and responding to that rather than thinking about what you’re going to say next, how you are going to respond instead of what’s actually being said because you may be leaving some really interesting diversions in the conversation on the table otherwise. And I take a similar philosophy to you. Is that enough questions?

We’re scheduled to interview me or your podcast? We’re warming up.

Yes, I will have some great questions for you there as well. Cool.

Well, that’s enclosing. And I definitely appreciate you taking the time and efforts from your busy day and being able to deliver as much information and insight that you did on our podcast today. Thank you.

It’s been a real pleasure. I’ve had a great time.

Great S.A, Grant. Over and out.