​Maxwell Leadership Podcast: First 100 Days of Change Your World

Mark Cole:       Hey, welcome to the John Maxwell Leadership Podcast. Mark Cole here with you and, gang, today I have a unique treat for you because John is here with me and ready to share with you in this podcast. And John, I'm very, very glad, always glad to have you. Whether we're on the road or in the studio, it's good to be in the same room with you.

John Maxwell:  No, I love it. I love every time I can, Mark, just joining you. I love the podcast. I love what it's doing for people. We're getting such a great response from it. So yeah, when I can jump in and ride shotgun with you, I love to do it. This is one of those days. Let's do it.

Mark Cole:       Yeah. In fact, if you heard last week's podcast, recently we were in Boston, Massachusetts, and doing an incredible experience. If you did not listen to last week's podcast, you need to go back and listen to it. Download the show notes because it'll make a difference for you. It was that week, while we're in Boston, that it was the first 100 days of the new US president's administration. President Biden had his first 100 days. We were here. The person we were here with, Doris Kearns Goodwin, was commenting all over the media outlets about the 100 days of a president's administration. And it occurred to me, "Hey, we're in 100 days of your new book's release, Change Your World. And I thought, podcast listeners, I went, "Hey, let's have John give us a 100 day report of what is happening with Change Your World." So, John, thanks for joining me today. I'm excited about today's podcast.

John Maxwell:  Oh my God. Yeah. I'm delighted to be with you. Okay, I love the thought of give us a hundred day report. And the first thing I would say about the 100 day report on Change Your World is it's taken me many, many years to write the book, Change Your World. So a hundred day report is very, very minuscule compared to the preparation time. Again, John Wooden taught me when opportunity comes, it's too late to prepare. Change Your World, of course, Rob Hoskins as you know, partnered with me in this book and he's so credible in changing his world with OneHope. I'm so grateful that he helped me with the book. But really Change Your World goes back to my twenties. When again, as the listeners have heard, probably you've heard the story of, of Eileen Beavers, an assistant on my staff who gave me a Christmas present.

It was a book and it was called The Greatest Story in the World. I opened the book, the pages are blank. What happened? How could it be the greatest story ever told when there are no words on the pages? And that's when she shared with me, "John, you write your words on these pages. Your hopes, your dreams, you write the greatest story ever told." And what I did, Mark, is in my twenties, I went back and the first thing I was put on the first blank page, where the words "I want to make a difference."

And that's what I knew. I knew that I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to add value to people. I didn't know how I was going to make a difference. I didn't know when I was going to make a difference, but I knew I wanted to make a difference. And so when I think of Change Your World today, it began, it was birthed in me, honestly, 50 years ago.

Mark Cole:       Wow.

John Maxwell:  And so I think there are so many lessons to learn in this, but one of the lessons I've learned in this is the fact that what we are, what is birthed in us today many times doesn't become fruit until a much later season in our life. Don't despise the seed just because it doesn't produce for you in the next season. Before I could write this book, I had to have a lot of experiences that I never had. I had to meet a lot of people that I'd never met. I had to be able to have moral authority to do things that I had never done. I had to have the "I want to make a difference" seasoned with all kinds of adversity and wins and losses.

In other words, the book to be written, I had to mature to write the book. And you'll know, a few years ago I wrote Intentional Living. And when I wrote Intentional Living, honestly, that was my first attempt to kind of do a change your world book. I'm very pleased with that book, and it's helped so many people. I've sold hundreds of thousands of copies. So it's done very, very well.

But when I finished writing the book, I knew two things about that book, Intentional Living. Number one, it was going to help an awful lot of people because it was all about living your life on purpose and significance. But I also knew when I finished writing that book, it wasn't the book. And I was okay with that. I hope as podcast listeners, I hope you grab this right now. It's possible to finish a product, it's possible to finish a book, it's possible to finish a decision that has been made and know that it's not the final decision or it's not the finished product.

And let me just say this. I think sometimes we have a tendency to be too hard on ourselves and we began to say, "Well, that wasn't what I want it to be." Can I tell you something? There are a lot of things I do that aren't what I want it to be, but they were all I could do because that's all I had at that moment in my life. And so when I finished Intentional Living, Mark, I said, "That's not the book, but if I keep moving forward, like I am that book will come out of me. It's just a matter of timing and time."

And so I just kind of was patient. And I just said, "Okay, I'll write a few more books." And then I came to this place, and one of the reasons I came to this place is because Rob Hoskins and I began talking. When Rob came into my life, it was like a missing piece. Because I mean, he has a whole chapter on measurement that, honestly, I would have never written because I couldn't write it, because it wasn't in my expertise. And he just came along and he put that chapter in that book. And I thought, "This makes this book so much better." He took me to a whole other level.

And so what I just say here is Change Your World is a result of 50 years of trying to intentionally go forward to change my world. And one day I was able to have credibility enough to write the book. Because what I love about this book is this is not theory. This is not like, "I think if we do these certain things, this will really make a difference in people's lives." This is fact. This is proven fact based on our track record, through EQUIP and the John Maxwell Leadership Foundation, and in countries such as Guatemala, Paraguay, Costa Rica, getting ready to go to two more countries with millions of people.

We've done this. Been there, done it, learning how to do it better. But it already works. And that's what really excites me because now when a person gets Change Your World, they're not listening to person who hopes to make a difference. They're listening to a person, or really two people in this case, Rob and John, who are making a difference.

And basically we're saying, "This is how we do it, and this is how you can do it. And we give you permission to do it." And what I love about the book is just full of information. It's almost like a guideline now on how to change your world, but it's also like an empowerment. Now go do it. And that's why I love our web page. And then go to changeyourworld.com. They can take the values assessment test. They can download the material to have transformation tables. They could download the iLead program for school kids. I mean, it's all theirs, and it's all free, and it's all available because we want them to change their world.

And so none of this would have happened in the short season, right? So many times we say, "If I can't get it now, I'm just not going to pursue it." And I say to that person, "How immature. Shortcuts don't pay off in the long run. And by the way, you'll never be all that you can possibly be unless you embrace the process." And that's huge.

Mark Cole:       Thank you for that first point because we're going to come back to the book in just a moment. But what's so funny about that concept, John, that you just said, "Mark, the first thing I got to say about this book is it's taken me a long time to write this book." 50 years is a long time. And then I go, "Hey, John, I want to talk about the impact of this book. And I want to do it in the first hundred days." And I'm just kind of laughing because you and I were just with Doris Kearns Goodwin, and she said, "Every president that has been doing what the current presidents are doing these days have given a hundred day report. They all complain about it because it's not fair to judge them on the first 100 days, because this is a full body of work." And yet today I want to judge you on Change Your World, that's taken you 50 years, and I want to know how it's working in a hundred days.

John Maxwell:  Oh, this is really funny. I love the fact that we're both laughing at ourselves. Yes, it took us 50 years. Now let us give you that a hundred day assessment. Here's the one thing that I'm going to say, and then you can ask me any questions you want to. But here's my a hundred day assessment.

What I'm going to share with you out of the hundred days or, Mark, what you're going to share. Honestly, you know more about the impact it's making than me because you're on the front lines and I'm not. But whatever we share about the hundred day report is just a very small part of what's going to happen. It's just one picture of a movie. It's just one slide. But it's okay. All's well that begins well. So we don't despise starting well, do we?

Mark Cole:       No.

John Maxwell:  So we're all into it. But understand, we don't think like this is the capping. The gun just shot. We just started our first few steps in the race.

Mark Cole:       Yeah. You say mass movements don't start with a mass, they start with a few. Changing the world doesn't start with a book in 100 days, it starts with understanding that there is time that's needed. You know, for many of you that may be listening, I'm getting ready to tell John that we've sold over 210,000 of these books now, John, are in people's hands around the world. 210,000.

John Maxwell:  That was on two months?

Mark Cole:       That's on two months.

John Maxwell:  Wow. That's not even on a hundred days.

Mark Cole:       No, no, no. And so I just want to let you know, from my understanding that's the fastest launch of any book that we've ever had.

John Maxwell:  That's the fastest. Oh yes, no, no.

Mark Cole:       So how's the book doing?

John Maxwell:  Pretty good. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Oh yes.

Mark Cole:       But let me say this. We have 125,000 people just on the podcast that listen in every week. And I got to tell you, John, not even 50% of our podcast listeners have bought the book yet. Don't get mad at us.

John Maxwell:  Come on! I can't believe that.

Mark Cole:       But I do have to show you right in the middle of this podcast if you want to know the big thing that I want you to do, whether you've heard John talk about the Change Your World concept in previous podcast or whether this is the first time you're hearing it, go to changeyourworld.com and pick up a book. You can do it right there at changeyourworld.com. Pick up a book. But don't pick up one because you're not going to change the world by yourself. Get one for your family members. Get a book for your team, and really began to embrace the concept of this book that says, "If it's going to happen, it's not going to happen because of someone else. Change Your World is going to happen because you have caught the vision to change your world." And so changeyourworld.com. We're going to tell you some other things that'll happen at change your world before we're done with the podcast here. But before we go any further, podcast family, don't let me down. Go get a book and join the movement and make a difference in your community.

John, this book, I love the first quote that you start out with this book. But you gave us a great concept of why this book was so important to you, how long it took, but why is this book so important for this time? It's almost like serendipitous, if that's your flame of belief, podcast listeners, or your faith is so important. It's almost like God orchestrated this book for this moment for such a time as this. Why do you think this book, Change Your World, is aligning so well with the need for this message right now?

John Maxwell:  Well, the times make this book important. You know, I look at all the books that impacted my life. As you know, Mark in my library, in my office, I have a section of shelving area where I have the books that impacted my life the most. And I made an interesting discovery a few years ago because I would, I would pull those books out maybe 15, 20 years later after they made a great impact on my life. And I'd look at it, maybe even kind of speed read a little bit. And I'd always say the same thing. I think, "Well, you know, this is a good book, but why did I think it was so great?"

And the reason I thought the book was so great was because when I read the book, at that moment I was receptive to that idea in that book because the times had prepared me for that book. And so it's almost like a great book is great because it appears at the right time. We've heard that statement a lot of times that when the pupils gather the teacher will appear.

Well, it's like the time we're living in now. Mark, I don't have to go to anybody and say, "Do you think our world's a mess?" Everybody knows our world's a mess. It's like a hundred percent unanimous. "Yes. Our world's a mess. Our world's a mess." "Well, would you like to make a difference?" "Of course, I'd like to make a difference." The reason that we're frustrated sometimes is because we have a desire to make a difference, like I did as a kid in his twenties. We have a desire to make a difference, but we don't know how to make a difference. And that's why I love this book.

I'm in love with the book, because it takes you, that wants to make a difference, and by the way the book is entitled change Your World. It's not entitled Changing The World. Changing the world is too big of a task for any of us. It's too big. But changing your world, changing my world, I can do that. You can do that. This book is your guide. It's the book that you pick up and say, "Okay, I want to make a difference with my family. I want to make a difference with my coworkers. I want to make a difference with my neighbors. I want to make a difference with my friends."

Okay. You take this book and we will take you chapter by chapter and show you how you can really make a difference. You referred to a quote I have at the beginning of the book about hope. Hope has two beautiful daughters, anger and courage. Anger at the way things are, and courage to make a difference. If you're listening to this podcast and you're kind of angry about the way things are, and you're saying "This world isn't reaching its potential. We're better than this," because we are by the way. Then you need to take courage now to start a book like this and say, "I'm not going to be a book reader only. I'm going to be a book doer."

When you finish reading Change your World, if you put it on your bookshelf and you do nothing, then I am an utter failure. I have totally failed my mission. My mission is to start a movement. Rob's mission is to start a movement. We want to start a movement with you and with your friends on learning values in small groups, and then beginning to act upon those values. Because what we've discovered, Mark, as you know, when people learn good values, and then they began to live them, they become more valuable. They become more valuable to themselves. They become more valuable to others.

So that's the purpose of the book. And thanks for just letting me kind of share my heart, because I hope that this book, when it does go on your shelf, goes in that shelf part like I have, a section that I have, this is a book that changed my life. I hope that it makes it there because if it makes it there you will be very fulfilled because you're making a difference.

Mark Cole:       I love what you said, John, about being a book doer not just a book reader. In fact, when John and Rob wrote this book, they looked at myself and our team and they said, "Gang, we're not just trying to sell this book. We're trying to implement this book as a movement." Be a book doer. And so at changeyourworld.com, where I challenged you to go pick up the book a moment ago, there is a values assessment there that is based on the transformation values that John talks about in the book. And the point of that free assessment is to give you a picture, a before and after picture. You've seen those, those of you at the first of the year who try to lose weight like me. You take the before picture and you take the after picture and hopefully the after picture looks a little more what you wanted to. Sometimes that doesn't work that way for me.

But this values assessment is a before and after picture. We want to give you an assessment, a baseline, of where your transformation values are now. And then when you read the book, when you get in communities of transformation, we want to take another snapshot and show how you've grown in those values. It's a brilliantly done resource, and it's called the values assessment. It's at changeyourworld.com. It's free. You need to be taking it. You need to be sharing it with who's going to hold you accountable, that posts a community of transformation table. You're going to see growth.

Also at changeyourworld.com. there is this ability to join or start a table of transformation. We call them transformation tables. You can join one with people all around the world if you want to just be a part of a table. What John is going to challenge you to do, because he's challenging everybody, is to start a transformation table of people in your community, in your family, at your offices. Get them thinking about the concept of changing their world. Angry at the way things are but the courage to do something about it. And we want to get you to start tables and you can do that. You can join a table at changeyourworld.com. John, thousands, tens of thousands over 20,000 now have joined tables to make a difference in their community. Over 25,000 or 30,000 now have now taken the free assessment and are saying, "I want to make a difference."

I want to give you a couple of notes right here. We went out to Google Analytics and we've just kind of said, "Okay, who is coming to changeyourworld.com? Who's coming." We have had 173 countries join changeyourworld.com. 173 countries.

John Maxwell:  That's about 85% of the countries in the world.

Mark Cole:       Now let me say this. I'm going to call out the top 10 because I'm proud. I believe our podcast community is part of the ones that's driving this. I've just got to brag on our podcast community for a minute. And by the way, we'll check the analytics after this podcast and see if they listened to our challenge. The United States tops the list. But you know who number two is? Romania.

John Maxwell:  Romania, number two.

Mark Cole:       Now, let me tell you, I'm excited about that because never before. We've launched John's books before simultaneous in Spanish and in English, but never before a third language. And this year for the first time ever, we launched English, Spanish, and another language, which was Romania on the same day, January 26th. And John, it proved that it worked because the second largest visitor to change your world is our friends in Romania.

John Maxwell:  Way to go, Romania. Way to go John Maxwell team. We've got a lot of coaches there and I'm very excited.

Mark Cole:       You had a fun experience this week signing a book.

John Maxwell:  Yes. Oh yes. Yeah. In fact, just this week was it?

Mark Cole:       It was just this week, yep.

John Maxwell:  They brought a book to me of which I couldn't read. And I said, "You know, I can't read this." They said, "Well, it's in Romanian." And I haven't even been to Romania yet. I was scheduled to go, and because of COVID it's not going to happen quite yet. It's going to happen. I can hardly wait to come to Romania. I love those people. But, anyway, so I signed my first Romanian book and may I sign thousands more.

Mark Cole:       I know. So your book has gone before you.

John Maxwell:  That's great. Gone before.

Mark Cole:       So then let me just give a shout out to the numbers three through 10: Nigeria, Canada, Philippines, United Kingdom, Mexico, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, and Columbia top out the top 10 list.

John Maxwell:  Oh my goodness. That is great. Thanks for sharing that.

Mark Cole:       Yeah. You know, John, we've really started this community and we're now getting stories back. We only have eight or nine more minutes of podcast time here, but I thought we'd share a little bit of what we're seeing as the impact in this 100 days.

John Maxwell:  I would love to hear it.

Mark Cole:       Some of this you're going to hear for the first time. Podcast listeners, all of you will be able to hear, but there's some key messages that are emerging as we interact. John. And the first is this statement. And is this not what we want here? Here it is: It is awesome to see that everyone has a voice and has value. That's the first takeaway that's coming out from these participants. It's working. People have a opportunity with their voice to make a difference, and everyone has value.

John Maxwell:  I love that. Voice and value.

Mark Cole:       Voice and value. The second thing is that the lessons build one on the other and how the people that are coming can start with this forgiveness lesson and that powerful, powerful lesson on forgiveness. We'll talk about a story about that in just a minute, but there's always this anticipation of the next opportunity and the next lesson. I think that's because people really do want to belong to something, don't you?

John Maxwell:  I do. I think they don't only want to belong to something, I think they want to belong to something that changes them. And the greatest motivator to continue is positive change now. And I think that's what we're seeing happen.

Mark Cole:       Yeah. The last one is that the content is really good. After 86 books, that may be a redundant compliment.

John Maxwell:  It's about time. It's about time.

Mark Cole:       No. The content's really good, but I am surprised that learning around the table is just as important as the content.

John Maxwell:  Oh, yes.

Mark Cole:       Why did you choose the table?

John Maxwell:  Oh, this is huge. In fact, last week we did a round table with Doris Kearns Goodwin. Doris, myself, and the 30 people that participated in those two days of round table, 15 one day, 15 the next. They would all tell you to a person, 100%, that the teachings of Doris took a whole new level of meaning and application because the perspective of others around the table. It's what I call sometimes pile-on learning and pile- on perspective. That all of a sudden, Mark, when I hear something and I share. I share something that another person hasn't thought of, which encourages them to share something, and we just keep building this incredible house of knowledge, and then hopefully house of action.

And so it's very exciting to me. You've heard me say that there are three questions that people ask about a leader. Question one is, do you like me? Number two, can you help me? And number three, can I trust you? And those three questions are best answered in a round table, in a small group. I mean, do you like me? If you're sitting side by side with somebody, you begin to feel their care for you. Can you help me? Of course, everybody's pitching in their thoughts, their ideas, what they're learning. Can I trust you? Trust is always formed in groups of interaction and groups where you get to know the person, more than just know what they're representing.

And so the magic is in the round tables. I have a chapter in Change Your World which basically says that we change our world one table at a time, and that's exactly what happens. People that are in the table get a dynamic of learning and growing and encouragement that people that read the book without the table will never get.

Mark Cole:       John, let me give you an example of exactly what you just said. And this is a testimony straight from one of our round table participants at changeyourworld.com. changeyourworld.com. This is happening. One of the men on my focus groups today is a leader at the Department of Justice in the United States. He is leading four groups in the Department of Justice in Washington, DC. He had to do a proof of concept beta with them to get this approved and is now working with the Chief Learning Officer to see how they can roll it out in a large scale in the Department of Justice. I have offered to connect him with one of our teammates so that we can help bring some department changes at a large scale.

And I'm going to tell you, John, you have said it multiple times. You cannot legislate morality. It comes around tables, talking about values and it's happening in the justice department.

John Maxwell:  Love, love, love that comment. How encouraging these are.

Mark Cole:       Isn't that great? I got a couple of more that we've been working on here. I've got to share with you just a couple of more share a couple more.

John Maxwell:  All right. Share a couple more. [crosstalk 00:26:09] me just a little bit more. All right.

Mark Cole:       But I'm encouraging not you, but I'm encouraging our podcast listeners, John, because of the global perspective of 173 countries, our podcast community has caught this. Mike is somebody that I get to grow with every single day. Listen to this. Recently, he was in a church parking lot, cleaning up a church van that had been egged by a bunch of kids in the community. So listen to this. You get the picture. He's cleaning up the church parking lot. And he had this full circle moment that he was reminded in his younger years. Him and some friends were in a parking lot, fully prepared to steal the wheels from the cars in that parking lot. Moments before he was going to jack up the van and steal the wheels, the police arrived and took him to jail, and then decided to give him a second chance.

While he was cleaning off the egging of that church van, he realized it was the same parking lot where he had been many years before going to steal. He was so convicted that he decided to start a change your world round table with these kids to try to help them rather than condemn them. He now has over 39 people going through transformation tables.

John Maxwell:  I love that story.

Mark Cole:       Isn't that incredible?

John Maxwell:  That's the value of the virtues of what the table brings.

Mark Cole:       What's interesting is these tables are working in almost every environment that we know. There's not an environment that they're working in that we did not anticipate that they could work in. It's designed to work in the most professional environments. It's designed to work in homes like we just did. Hey, we've become marriage restores. I mean, 20 years of marriage, and we're finally giving them revelations. And I'll go with one more, which starts at a very short level, John. And then I want you to give any closing content and challenges.

John Maxwell:  Sure.

Mark Cole:       But Monique. Monique is an incredible, incredible part of our John Maxwell team. And she decided she's going to start some round tables. Now she's a coach. She does Mastermind. She's out there. She's building a business. She decided to start a transformation table. She had all of these people that signed up and then had a technology problem, and nobody showed up because technology failed her. Well, nobody except her husband. Her husband showed up. He was the only one at her table that first week. She waited 20 minutes for others to join. But with the challenge of the transformation journey, she just decided she was not going to have the table and just cancel it and go another day. Go another time.

And her husband looked and said," I showed up and you need practice and you need to work on this." So Monique and her husband started their first transformation table. She said, they learned so much in that first table around them, that now she and he joined another table, and now Monique has encouraged others. Now she has started over 10 transformation tables, and it started with nobody showing up except her husband. And now she is championing 10 of our tables right now.

John Maxwell:  Well, it's another beautiful story. And just think about the joy of the fact that, "Hey, if you have one person, that's a start." I think so many times, Mark, we don't do things because we wait for the ideal. And what we fail to realize is we move to the ideal. We don't wait for the ideal. In other words, this was the example that the technology didn't work so not everybody got on. It was obviously going to be a virtual table with some other people, and they didn't get on. And how many times do we feel like she did "Well, I'll just do it another time." We despise small beginnings when many of the things in our life that have brought us great return and great fulfillment started as small beginnings.

I'm glad you gave that as the last kind of report, wonderful report, because I want to just say to you that you don't have to start big. You don't have to be great. You just have to start. You just have to start. In fact, I would ask myself a question. After you read Change Your World, why wouldn't I start? Because Change Your World requires action. It doesn't happen unless you and I just make a commitment, not only to know something, but to do something.

Now, here's what I know. All of us have had experiences of doing something we really didn't want to do, but we knew we should do it. And only when we started doing it, we begin to enjoy it. By the time it was over, we're glad we did it. Every one of us have had that experience of, "Well, I really don't want to. Okay, I'll do it." And then we get into it. And then all of a sudden we think, "Man, I'm so glad. I'm so glad I did what I really didn't want to do."

This is one of those cases where I will promise you 100% guaranteed satisfaction and fulfillment if you will start a transformation table. If you'll get the book, okay, step one, get the book. Step two, read the book. Step three, go to change yourworld.com to get the values assessment, to get the lessons for the table. And step four, do a table. Maybe it's just with your husband, but do a table. But I will promise you 100% fulfillment and satisfaction. You are into this three weeks of doing the table, and you will say it's one of the most fulfilling, gratifying things that I have ever done, because you will all of a sudden begin to understand you are visually participating in something that's making a positive difference in someone's life.

And once you do that, as I tell people all the time, once you've tasted significance, success will never satisfy. Mark, I'm so glad. Thank you. I probably wouldn't have brought myself to talk about Change Your World, and I'm so glad that you asked, and asked me to do this podcast with you. And I just think it just helps a lot of people. Kind of they've been thinking about it, but they haven't yet done it. And I think you helped us today to kind of step over that line.

Mark Cole:       For saying that, John, and thank you for doing it. Your time is precious. You add value to us week in and week out. But I want to tell you, we give 100 day reports for everything else in the book, politics, business, religion. And I'm going to tell you, I'm not taking away from anything in those streams of influence, but you've given us a message. Your life's work has given us an idea that really can make a difference. And so podcast family, I do. I try to challenge you every single week, but I am really challenging you here.

Make this a true moment of appreciation to John Maxwell, Rob Hoskins. They have created this concept, not just this book. Not a book reader, a book does, a movement. And I'm going to challenge you. Changeyourworld.com is where you can get all the components of participation to be a book doer, not a book reader. Thanks for joining us on the John Maxwell Podcast. Not only go to changeyourworld.com, but forward this podcast link to somebody else. Download it yourself. Subscribe today, and then get somebody else involved with you so that together we can make a difference. And by changing your world, we will change the world.

Thanks for joining us today. We'll see you again next week. Have a great day. Until then let's learn and let's lead together.