Maxwell Leadership Podcast: Experience Breakthrough (Part 1)

Mark Cole:
Welcome to the Maxwell Leadership podcast. This is the podcast that adds value to leaders who multiply value to others. My name is Mark Cole, and this week I am really excited to start a two part series on experiencing breakthrough. Now let me tell you why John Maxwell wrote a book. In fact, if you’re watching by YouTube, I’m already holding it up. We’ll talk about it later. John talks about it in his lesson today called put your dream to the test. And if you’re listening to this podcast live, it’s middle of February.

Mark Cole:
You’re six, almost seven weeks into a new year, and I’m going to tell you it’s not too late to slow down, brush the dust off of your dream, and begin chasing it in 2024 and beyond. Why? Because your dream is your dream, and you need a breakthrough to accomplish your dream. Every one of us, we’ve never had a dream that did not require a series of breakthroughs in the pursuit of that dream. And speaking of breakthroughs, if you want to experience it for yourself, one, listen to this podcast. Then two, get your tickets to Day to Grow on March 9 in Orlando. We’re going to be in Florida, and you can find out more information about this day2grow.com. That’s day, the number 2, grow, .com. But until March 9 rolls around, be sure to download the bonus resource for this episode and watch this episode on YouTube at maxwellpodcast.com/Breakthrough.

Mark Cole:
That’s all for now. Get your dreams in your mind, get your passion in your heart, and listen in to John Maxwell.

John Maxwell:
The thesis of the book, put your dream to the test, is kind of simple. Basically, the thesis is the more reasons you have to achieve your dream, the higher the odds are that you will. The more reasons that you and I have to achieve a dream in our life, the higher the odds are that we will. Basically, what I mean by that is, if a person only has one dream, one reason to achieve a dream, they only kind of have one kind of motivating force in their life. Maybe when they were young, they just kind of glamorized it. But if you only have one reason to pursue your dream, because dreams are tough and difficult, pretty soon there’ll be so much adversity that you’ll give up that reason. But the more good reasons you have to achieve a dream, the less you want to let it go. And so when adversity comes, which it does to all dreams, if you have a lot of good, solid reasons for wanting to achieve that goal and that dream, you’ll just hold on to it a lot more.

John Maxwell:
And so the ten questions that are in the book, put your dream to the test are the ten reasons for you to have a dream. Now, as I was writing the book, and this lesson is kind of an addendum to the book, it’s not the book at all. What I’m sharing with you today isn’t in the book, but it’s a partner of the book, because as I looked at the book, put your dream to the test, and I looked at putting together a training kit for people such as you, I realized that there was a part that was missing in the book that I wanted to add that will help you kind of what I would call fill in the gaps in your dream journey. Okay? And that’s what these breakthroughs are. These breakthroughs, in fact, in your notes, I’ll define it, are events that mold us and move us forward. There’s a molding change, DNA in a breakthrough. We’re never the same when we’ve had a breakthrough internally, and we’re never the same when we had a breakthrough externally, because they mold us and then they move us. They change us, and then we go forward closer to that dream.

John Maxwell:
And so when I talk about the breakthroughs, I want you to think of the fact that it will change you inwardly and it will move you outwardly. Dreams are difficult, and you have to have some help. And these are breakthroughs that I had that helped me break through. They literally helped me go to another level that if I wouldn’t have had them, I perhaps would not have. And as I give you my breakthroughs, I want you to look at your dream. What’s your dream? And I want you to ask yourself, have I had this breakthrough yet? Number one, the first breakthrough that kind of built my dream was what I call my groundbreaker. This one broke ground for me. In other words, this groundbreaker encouraged me to start.

John Maxwell:
It broke new ground. Now, you know the dream. The dream is to add value to people. But in 1972, as I sat in a Holiday Inn restaurant with Kirk campmeyer, he looked across the table and asked me what my personal plan for growth was. I didn’t have one. I was embarrassed that I didn’t have one. I stumbled for a while. Finally, I looked at him and said, I don’t have a plan for growth.

John Maxwell:
And that day in 1972, Kurt looked at me across the breakfast table and said, john, the only way that you’re ever going to reach your potential is to have a personal growth plan. And that was a huge breakthrough for me. Because up to that moment, I never realized I needed a personal growth plan. All of my life I had been basically in learning experiences by going to school and college and curriculum and things like that. And I somehow had this idea that when I finished my college work, that that was done. And now I could get on with my work. And little did I realize that I had to continually, on a daily basis, improve myself. And so this was my first breakthrough.

John Maxwell:
And here’s what’s interesting is look at the dream. The dream is to add value to others, add value to people. The first breakthrough I had wasn’t adding value to others at all. It was adding value to me. The personal growth plan was for me to get better. And I didn’t put it all together that day. I wasn’t smart enough. I didn’t realize that if I could get better myself, I could help people get better.

John Maxwell:
What I could learn, I could pass on to others that you cannot give what you do not have. I didn’t have any of this understanding at all in my life. All I knew is that day I needed to develop a personal growth plan. And if I could develop a personal growth plan, that would add value to me. And what I want you to know about your dream, whatever it is, is there are parts of your dream where it will look like you’re serving yourself. But I wasn’t serving myself to serve myself. I was serving myself so I could serve others. I was getting better so others could get better.

John Maxwell:
I didn’t realize it at that time because I had a passion to grow. But that was my first breakthrough. It was the groundbreaker. It broke ground for me. It got me going. It got me started in this dream of adding value to people. Breakthrough number two was what I call the icebreaker. When you think of an icebreaker, you think of the fact that you maybe were clogged up and couldn’t get going very well.

John Maxwell:
And all of a sudden, somebody broke the ice for you. Maybe it’s in a conversation with a group of people. Maybe you met somebody. Maybe it’s an acquaintance that got you a job. But it was an icebreaker. It kind of thawed everything out and it really got you moving. And the icebreaker for me encouraged me to share with others. It’s not enough for me to grow.

John Maxwell:
Now I’m already beginning to understand that what I’m growing in I must share with others. And I can tell you exactly when it happened. It happened on July 4, 1976. I’m a 29 year old pastor, and it happens to be the 200th anniversary birthday of America. And we’re having an outdoor rally and we have about 5000 people. We only had about 30,000 people in our town and we had about 5000 people, an outdoor rally. And I’m preaching about America needs revival. And about halfway through the message, God spoke to me.

John Maxwell:
The clearest he’s ever spoke to me in my life and said, john, you’re going to have a ministry with leaders. Now, up to that point, never thought about having a ministry with leaders. Wasn’t any kind of passion of mine, but I knew he spoke. And on the way home that day, I shared with Margaret. I said, margaret, this is really weird. I’m up there teaching on America needs revival, not even thinking about leadership at that point. And I said, I can tell you God spoke to my heart and I’m going to have a ministry with pastors and leaders. And she looked at me, said, well, john, what are you going to do about it? I said, nothing.

John Maxwell:
Absolutely nothing. If this is a God thing, he’ll open the doors. I learned a long time ago, if it’s a God thing, you don’t need a crowbar. You don’t need a bulldozer. If it’s a God thing, the doors will open. And that very week, I received two opportunities, first time opportunities to come and speak to pastors about how our church was growing and about leadership. And it was an icebreaker for me. Now, notice this.

John Maxwell:
All of a sudden, I’ve gone from adding value to others to adding value to myself so I can grow. Now watch how the dream just kind of matures and expands. Now I’m starting to add value to leader. Didn’t start off that way. I just wanted to add value to people. But the others that I was supposed to add value to was going to be basically leaders. Now, let me stop for a moment. Let me back up to the groundbreaker.

John Maxwell:
I would encourage you on your own time, obviously not now, to ask yourself, what is the groundbreaker in my dream? What broke the soil and got me started? I would like you to ask yourself, what was the icebreaker in my dream? Because all dreams kind of get started and then real quickly get clogged. I mean, that’s just part of the process. What kind of broke the ice and got me through and started me moving again? The sequence I’m giving to you is just how it happened to me. Your sequence on icebreakers, groundbreakers may be different. That’s not important at all. But what I’m saying is to receive and achieve your dream. You’re going to almost have to have these breakthroughs that I think are wonderful because they’re God things. They’re beyond you, they’re beyond me.

John Maxwell:
They’re bigger than us. They’re because of other people. They’re because of opportunities that perhaps we don’t even think about or deserve. Let’s go to the third breakthrough. The third breakthrough I call the windbreaker. The windbreaker. You know, when you’re in a storm or something, you need to have a little windbreak. Sometimes, if it’s just kind of windy outside, what do you do? You put on a windbreaker? You put on something to kind of just keep you a little bit warm with the high winds.

John Maxwell:
Or sometimes, if you’re in a major thing, you get behind something solid that breaks the wind for you. And what my windbreaker moments were is this encouraged me to stand because the adversity of dreams wants to knock you flat. And so what happens is, in this instance, I was able to stand because I had windbreakers in my life that protected me from the adverse winds of the dream that was trying to steal it from me. Now, here’s interesting. What’s my dream? To add value to people. And then I started off with my groundbreaker by adding value myself, by personal growth. And then my icebreaker allowed me to understand I could add value to leaders. And now what’s happening about this adding value at this windbreaker? Here’s what I’ve discovered.

John Maxwell:
Others started adding value to me, that it wasn’t a one way street, that others were adding value to me and they were helping me and they were coming alongside it and partnering with me. In fact, in the book, put your dream to the test, one of the questions is the people question, have I included the people? I need to realize my dream. And the question for you is very simple. Who are the windbreakers of my dream? Who are the ones that stand up and help me with the difficulties and adversities and come around me and help me to withstand the issues that sometimes, Cole, when the dream is there because you got to have them. I have to have them. No man stands alone. Life is way too difficult and dreams are way too steep to climb to do it all on your own. So who are the windbreakers in my life that give me the breakthroughs? Let’s go to number four.

John Maxwell:
The fourth breakthrough is what I call a cloud breaker. What happens if you’re flying a plane in a plane and you break through the clouds? What happens? All of a sudden, you can see. Everything’s beautiful, everything’s bright, all of a sudden it’s not just barely see out your window. All of a sudden you can see for miles what happened? Well, you broke the clouds. You broke the clouds and all of a sudden you see what you didn’t see. All of a sudden your whole picture is bigger. The parameters of your vision are so much larger. And again, in my dream to add value to people, I had a cloud breaker breakthrough back in 1985.

John Maxwell:
I went up to Arrowhead Springs. That’s where Bill Bright had his campus crusade for Christ headquarters. And I had met him and we had done a few things together. I had spoken for his school, so we had a good relationship. But I was in the middle of a $35 to $40 million relocation deal in San Diego with the church, and I was just overwhelmed. And Dr. Bright has the gift of faith. So I went up and had lunch with him and we spent a couple of hours together.

John Maxwell:
And I just poured out my heart about the church and the relocation and all the zoning issues and all the stuff that consumes a local pastor. And he listened and then prayed over me and we just had the most wonderful time. And then he said, john, have you got a few extra minutes? I said, of course. He said, I’d like to show you something that I’m about to launch. He said, that I think will bring the great commission to the world. And there we sat there in his office and he put in the tv, the Jesus film. He said, I’m getting ready to launch this Jesus film. And he said, millions upon hundreds of millions are going to get saved.

John Maxwell:
And Dr. Bright had no braggadocia to him at all. He was a humble man who had, he was a humble man who had great faith. So he made statements that were out of sight, but it wasn’t because he thought so highly of himself, but he thought so highly of God. Now get the picture. Get the picture. I want you to get this because this always brings great amusement to me. I’m talking about a cloudbreaker.

John Maxwell:
I go to him with a $35 million moving dirt issue and for 2 hours he listens and gives advice and prays for me. So when I get done with my 80 acres, he then says, could we talk about winning the world for God? And I’ll never forget, while I’m watching this, I’m crying and I’m laughing. I’m crying because I’m under conviction of how I thought this was such an amazing thing we’re doing in San Diego. And it’s a drop in a bucket compared to what the big things God’s going to do in the Jesus film. And then I’m laughing. I’m laughing at myself and I’m saying to myself, John, get over it. No matter what you’re doing, it isn’t the biggest thing in the kingdom. It was a cloudbreaker for me.

John Maxwell:
You know what I was able to do? I was able to see, I want to add value to people, and then I wanted to add value to leaders. The moment I saw this Jesus film and I saw this vision of Dr. Bright, you know what? All of a sudden I said to myself, I’m going to be able to add value to more leaders, not just the leaders that are in my room. I’m going to be able to add value to maybe thousands, maybe millions of leader. All he did was take me up higher and let me see more clearly that there’s a bigger picture than what I was involved in. It was a cloudbreaker for me. Hey, John Maxwell here. I’m in the studio.

John Maxwell:
We’ve been recording all day and I was thinking about really one of my very favorite experiences that we have, and that is called day to grow. If you want to grow, you want to grow in every area of your life. I tell people all the time, you don’t want to go to something. You want to grow to something. But if you’re passionate about personal growth, development, your team and growing them, you do not want to miss day to grow. I’m going to have some real players with me, Dion Sanders, Jamie Kern, Lima, myself. Oh, my gosh, you don’t want to miss it. So market, come and see us on day to grow.

John Maxwell:
I will promise you this. You come and bring your team. At the end of the day, you’ll come up and shake my hand and say, one of the best days I’ve ever invested in for myself and for my team. I’ll see you there.

Mark Cole:
Hey, welcome back. As I promised you, John was going to get into put your dream to the test, I’ll tell you what I did this year. I’ve not done this every year, but this year I pulled back out. Put your dream to the test, because I too felt like my dreams were getting a little stale from its application to the bigness and the magnitude of what we’re chasing, not only in my personal life and my family life, but also in my business life. So I’ve picked back up. Put your dream to the test. It’s a powerful resource. We’ll give you a link in the show notes so that you can take part of that book. If you have not read it, or if you’ve lost it, given it away and you need it again.

Mark Cole:
The other thing is we have a put your dreams to the test digital online course. This is hours and hours of john walking you through the ten questions and how to solidify your dream. You can find that in the show notes. We’ll put a link there. You’ll be able to get that for $79 today. That’s normally $399. And that discount is our gift to you to get you started on the way. Tracy, we were literally talking just as we listened to john today and then kind of cut off the recording and started talking.

Mark Cole:
We were talking about how john just really tells stories to give us an image on what kind of breakers we need to have as it relates to chasing our dreams. So I’m glad to have you back. You’re a person I honor. You’re living the dream, lady, in my opinion.

Traci Morrow:
Well, I’m honored to be here, and I am excited to help our listeners and you and me also to really grab hold of not just the dream, but breaking through some of these things that john talks about today. And I look forward to hearing you break it down a little bit more. Mark, john leaves with a couple things that I want to highlight. He says, the more reasons that we have to achieve a dream, the more apt we are to achieve it. And he then goes on to say that our dreams first change me inwardly. He says, you, but I always like to personalize it when I write it in my notes, and I hope that you guys all do as well. First, my dream changes me inwardly, and then they move me outwardly, and we’re going to be talking about movement. And first of all, he know what is my dream is what I wrote down for myself.

Traci Morrow:
And so, mark, can you articulate your dream, first of all? And second of all, why is it important for us to be able to speak and articulate what our dream is?

Mark Cole:
Yeah, I liken our dream a lot of times to my purpose. So you’ve heard this quote so many times, so many people said it, we don’t even know who to attribute it to. But there’s two great days in a person’s life, the day they were born, the day they discover why they were born. I believe somewhere in the dream revelation is why you were born. What is that big idea, that big sense of fulfillment that you can have in your life if you will stay the course of chasing your dreams. So a lot of times when I’m asked, hey, what is your dream? I’ve got a lot of dreams that I’ve had. We just crossed over last year, 50,000 certified coaches, speakers and trainers with Maxwell leadership. If you want more information on that, we’ll put a link on how to john the team and become a Maxwell certified coach teacher.

Mark Cole:
We just crossed over 50,000 in October of 2023, and yet now the dream is, I believe, with 100,000, we can really make a dent in the world around us. And so we’re pursuing that. And some would say, well, that’s a dream. Some would call that a vision. I think really what I think of when people ask me this question of dreaming, I really want to live my life in such a way that it impacts people to realize and pursue their greatest potential. Now, again, I answer the vision purpose question a lot like that, but I just really do. Now I have a lot of smaller dreams that says, hey, I want to do a growth platform to where people can join and be in community around growth. I’ve got a lot of ideas that I would call dreams, but if you distill it down, Tracy, they all link back to one thing.

Mark Cole:
I believe the people around me deserve my best so that they can reach their best. And when we can do that, I think the world is going to be a better place around us.

Traci Morrow:
I agree. And that is purpose, and that is a great dream. And for those of you who are listening now, we’re going to break down these first four breakthroughs that John talks about built his dream. So I’m just going to ask you, let’s touch on each of these four. Mark the first one, when he talks about his groundbreaker, what encouraged him to get started, and that really is he hits on his growth plan when he was asked, do you have a growth plan, John? And so I’ll let you expand on that. But first, I’d like to know, what was your very first growth plan, Mark? And then over the years, has that changed? Has it become something that has become more simplified or has your growth plan expanded and become more complex over the years?

Mark Cole:
Definitely more expanded. And some would think more complex. I think it’s much more simple, but it’s much more complex. It started first year with one page, which was back in the year 2001, and then I just finished my life plan a month and a half ago, and it’s 18 pages this year. Some years it’s been 24, 25 pages, but it’s definitely expanded. I do not think it’s more complicated. I think it’s more simplified. Let me say this.

Mark Cole:
It was 30 when I was challenged to grow intentionally. And I think that’s a really important distinction because if you’ll allow me podcast family tracy, I’m going to take these first four groundbreaking or breaking opportunities, these breakthroughs that John talks about. And I’m just going to kind of give an overview from my perspective. Now, that’s going to sound more like a talking head than I like to be here. But just give me just a moment, because I’ve watched both John use these breakthrough tools, or these breakthrough mindsets really is what they are. They’re more of a mindset. I’ve watched him do that with starting a company. I’ve watched him do that with starting this 50,000 member coaching certification company.

Mark Cole:
I’ve watched him do this in starting a nonprofit and then reengineering the nonprofit to go from training to transformation. And every one of your dreams will require you to go through breakthroughs. Now, John uses his language. Some of it may feel cheesy to you and irrelevant, but let me tell you this, the core components behind each of these breakthroughs is extraordinarily important to the life of a significant leader. If you want to do just success, what happens to you? And be satisfied with that throughout your life? By the way, bad decision. You’re not going to be satisfied with just focusing on your success. But if you decide to just focus on success on your own, what you can accomplish, what can happen through you, there’s a chance you won’t understand some of these breakthroughs. But when the world around you begins to be the thing that breaks your heart, that makes your heart beat, that keeps you up at night, that wakes you up in the morning.

Mark Cole:
When an idea or a thought that is beyond you, a dream of doing something so significant that it outlives you. When that happens, you will go through breakthroughs. John talks about the first breakthrough as a groundbreaker. Now, here’s what that meant for me at 30. Tracy, you asked me at 30. I had been extremely successful. Many of you know my story. I had been extremely successful for the first 30 years of my life.

Mark Cole:
I had accomplished things no person my age had accomplished in several areas. But what I had not done, Traci, is ensure that I was prepared internally to grow at that level. That’s why it was a groundbreaking moment for me when David Hoyt asked me to get a personal growth plan for the year 2021, it was groundbreaking for me. You know why? The ground, if you will imagine the ground around my heart, the ground that I thought was Mark Cole, the exterior focus thing that you could feel and stand on and the terra firmer of Firma, of Mark Cole’s life. The ground had not ever in 31 years been broken up to realize, I need to be bigger on the inside than the outside. Now John says, this is what he did when he began to say, I want to add value to people. In other words, it wasn’t about John. It wasn’t about big.

Mark Cole:
It wasn’t about anything massive. It was just about his desire to add value to people. I’m going to quickly go through two, three, and four as the breakthroughs trace, and then we’ll come back and you can ask me more questions and we’ll have some discussion. But this icebreaker mindset, the breakthrough that encouraged me to start for John, it was not 1776. Don’t tell John I said that, gang. It was 1976. And John heard this audible voice, this purpose statement that was so loud, it was written in the skies of his life, and heard this voice say, you’re going to focus the rest of your life on leadership. That was an icebreaking moment for me because John was just pretty happy at the point, pretty content to be adding value to people.

Mark Cole:
But now there is a responsibility, a next level. It was a breaking of the ice. Some of you leaders are dealing with glass ceilings in your life and in your leadership, and you know who I’m talking to. And it is time for us to look for a way to break the ice, the ceiling that is on us. So John had this ice breaking experience for me. The icebreaking experience was, I came to enjoy John’s company 23 years ago, and I said, I don’t want to lead. I will just be a great day worker. I’ll be a great day laborer, and $75 a day I would call and get people to come to a conference until I had an ice breaking experience.

Mark Cole:
And it was on a softball field, of all things, when our company softball team says, mark, we want you to coach the team. And I went, I’ll coach it. But when we’re out here, there’s no work positions allowed. So I will talk to the president of the company the same way that I’ll talk to the stock guy in the company, because out here, we’re going to grow and develop off of what we’re producing out here, not on what our position and title is from nine to five. It was an icebreaking moment for me. I get asked all the time, Tracy, what was the moment where people recognized that you could lead? And I’m convinced my icebreaking moment that I should lead. Others, not just myself, was on the softball field. But let’s go real quickly to the wind breaking.

Mark Cole:
I could spend all day on this, but I told you, I don’t have time to really go through this. But my word this year is stand. My 2024 word is stand. And I can just imagine the visual in this that when you get locked into your dream, imagine Tiger woods when he gets locked into that shot that he wants to make the fan screaming, the wind blowing, the elements in the weather, all of these things want to come in. And you’ve got to have a wind breaking moment that says, the wind will not break me. I’ll break through the wind and stay focused on what I’m supposed to do. That’s where I am to share it again. I would love to talk about that more, Tracy, but I want to go finally to the cloudbreaker.

Mark Cole:
I will tell you this when John says, I realized so first one, the groundbreaker was add value to people. The icebreaker was add value to leaders. A little bit of a distinction. The windbreaker was let others add value to me, which then solidified John’s ability to get to number four, which was the cloudbreaker, which is when John said, I believe I’m supposed to add value to more leaders exponentially. And I just gave a report to our board. Tracy, you’re on our foundation board. I just gave a report to our board last week that we had introduced 1 million people to faith last year to date. Last year, we crossed over.

Mark Cole:
We crossed over 50,000 certified coaches and speakers. We crossed over 36 million copies of John’s books sold. We trained 2.8 million kids during the school day with values based curriculum. Now, those are big, big numbers, right? We would have never been able to see those numbers if we had not started walking at the groundbreaking level to get to the place where the clouds would part and we could see opportunity from an exponential belief system rather than an incremental belief system. And if you don’t have a cloud breaking moment in your life, you’ll stay incremental in your influence and never get to exponential. So, Tracy, let’s talk a little bit more about some of these breakers.

Traci Morrow:
I’m so excited, too, and I love that you just summarized them all. It’s interesting to me how we can all listen to the same lesson and it hits us in a little bit different way. So let me just summarize quickly how I saw those four. I saw the groundbreaker as when he said, this encouraged me to start as dreaming the dream and the icebreaker as speaking the dream, and the windbreaker as finding a supportive team around the dream, and the cloud breaker as feeding the dream and getting encouragement. And so now, in that mindset, I would like to kind of go back to, we kind of hit on number one, dreaming the dream, and you kind of expanded on that. The icebreaker, as I see speak the dream. And when he talked about this, encouraged me to share this with others, that others was that I was supposed to add value to others. And he talks about, a lot of times, John will talk about action.

Traci Morrow:
Attraction, like when you start to move is when things start to come to you as you are on the path. But when you sit frozen, trying to think about how it’s going to go, you don’t know what’s going to happen because you aren’t in motion. And so as we move towards our dreams, the path becomes more clear. It doesn’t become clear when it’s just all up in our head. And so, to me, I’m thinking of you as a leader, Mark, but also you could take this and answer this a million different ways. So I’ll just tee it up and you can go with it however you want. But I’m just thinking, what is the message? What came to mind was, what is the message for those waiting for the full picture before they take that first step? He quotes Don Shula so many times, it’s the start that stops most people. So many people get stuck with the plan in their head and they don’t have that icebreaker and they’re waiting for that breakthrough.

Traci Morrow:
What is the message for those waiting for the full picture before they take that first step?

Mark Cole:
Well, it’s a real simple one, but I will go a little bit longer, but it’s real simple. You’ll never get there. You’ll never take the first step. See, when we as leaders wait for clarity before we move, we only move to check off a box of what we can control, not to open a box that is full of uncontrollable.

Traci Morrow:
Oh, that’s so good.

Mark Cole:
And so I’ve seen a lot of leaders that say, well, I’m moving. We’re still doing what we did last year. We got a lot of plans and I’m going, yeah, you’re moving for yesterday’s vision, not tomorrow’s dream. Tomorrow’s dream is going to take you into areas that you do not know the outcome. No matter how intentional you are, there is not a way that you can begin moving towards your dreams by waiting to figure it out before you move. You’ve got to move to get there. I mentioned just a few minutes ago, under the cloud breaking thing, we would have never set the goals to accomplish the numbers we’re accomplishing right now. We just set the goal.

Mark Cole:
We just chase the aspiration of the next opportunity that was bigger and more expanded than what we believe we could accomplish. See, a dream is going to take you to something. I believe a real sustaining dream is going to take you to something that is bigger than you. Therefore, you can’t control the outcome. Therefore, you can’t wait till you have it all figured out before you move. You’ve got to move. And it’s in that movement that you begin to build an ability to see greater things. You begin to build a confidence that you can make the journey.

Mark Cole:
That’s why, again, Tracy, I think John’s given us this mindset of these are breakthroughs. You may have different breakthroughs, but you’re going to have to have breakthroughs to get to a dream that’s bigger than you.

Traci Morrow:
That’s right. And I feel like if you get stuck in that mindset of you’re not taking those steps, then you have had these imagined roadblocks. But if they’re in your imagination, you don’t see the tools that come to you when you are in motion, the people who come to you when you are in motion, who help you get past the next roadblock and the next one would be the wind. And as I thought, that’s finding a supportive team. John said, it’s the people question, have I included the people that I need to realize the dream? And so say you’ve gotten through that second roadblock, the icebreaker, and you’ve taken those first steps and now you’ve hit the winds of adversity, and what do you say to somebody who is at that stage of pursuing their dream and they don’t have a windbreaker, they don’t have a group of people around them. They maybe have a dream breaker group of people who around them who are naysayers, who are bringing them down, who are telling them why it won’t work. They’re hitting that stage of the winds of adversity where people don’t believe in them and don’t believe in the dream. What do you just say to someone who needs to develop a team around them who are on board for the dream?

Mark Cole:
Yeah. And John put the question, the people question, have I included the people? I need to realize my dream and I do believe. I just envision when John’s saying the windbreaker, I envision a time that I was skiing in Colorado and the wind was so bad, I needed to put on my skis. And so the guys that I was traveling with created this little windbreak or this little barrier so that I could get my skis on and then off down the hill we went for John, I think John would say his ability to deal with the adversity that has come into his life, and we all have it, leaders, we all have it. Your ability to withstand the adversity, the challenge to break the win rather than win break you, is absolutely tied to the people that you’ve surrounded yourself with again this year for a big statement for me was to stand, make sure that I am standing on the things that I’m certain on. There were ten things, Tracy, that I felt like I needed to solidify. That was what I wanted to be about in 2024. And I went and wrote those things down.

Mark Cole:
And that’s what I mean when I say stand. I think that’s what John’s saying is you can stand through the difficult, challenging times of your dream and still pursue that dream.

Traci Morrow:
And I think sometimes when you get through that place, you got on your skis and you popped up onto the mountain and you were able to ski down. But sometimes you get through the winds of adversity and you’re worn out. And I feel like that next number four was the cloud breaker, where we need to continually feed our dream. That’s how I viewed the cloudbreaker, where he said, this encouraged me to see the dream is birthed. He went and he got encouragement with a man of faith. And so I feel like if somebody is stuck in the wind or maybe they’ve made it through a windy season, a season of adversity, what would you advise to someone who needs to go to a higher plane? They’ve just come out of adversity, and they need to go and regularly get a dose of encouragement. They need to see things above the clouds, above the wind, to see from a higher view that the dream is still intact, and they just need to see it from a different perspective. How does a leader go regularly like John did to go to a man of faith? How does a leader schedule it in, or how do you schedule it into where you go for regular doses of encouragement?

Mark Cole:
Well, so 2023 was a really difficult leadership year for me. 2024 is definitely shaped via an altogether different perspective and experience. But one of the things I determined in 2023 is I needed a spiritual advisor, organizational coach, and I found someone that could actually provide both of those for me, I’m paying more for a coaching advisory role than I’ve ever paid in my life. I am literally investing more than I ever have to get me connected to my opportunities, my business responsibilities and my spiritual fortitude, who I am on the inside. And I just felt like 2023, I had vacillated too much. I felt like that my leadership had been too unpredictable for me, maybe not for those around us, but had definitely been too unpredictable for me. And I think what John was saying there, he got around his friend and he cast a vision that seemed super big to John and it went well. And Bill Bright was excited to get behind what John was doing.

Mark Cole:
But by the time Bill left, he was seeing cloud breaking opportunities with what he was doing and he found partnership in that moment. And I would tell some of you that are really working through this, you know the dream, you started the dream. You’re on the dream journey and you’re experiencing some success, but it just feels like you just are bumping up against something. Go find somebody that has something you don’t have, something that you admire. You may have to pay for it, but go find somebody to speak into your life and stretch your thinking. Because at this stage of the dream, the cloud breaking stage that John’s talking about, you’re going to need somebody else to encourage you to see what you cannot see. And that comes from surrounding yourself with people that are bigger, better, brighter people that you trust, people that you know will lift your perspective to a higher vantage point. So that’s where I’d go.

Mark Cole:
Tracy, you know, as always, we’re out of time. But let me say this, gang, we’ll be back next week to do part two, experience breakthrough. What I wish you would do, what I wish you would do this year, or this week, rather, is I wish you would go through these four breakthroughs that John talked about and find out again, maybe they’re not yours, maybe some of them you’ve already accomplished. Maybe there’s different ones for you. But get yourself in the mindset for this week as we finish up this podcast and getting ready for next week, get yourself in a mindset that 2024 is the breakthrough year of chasing the dreams that’s been in me, of chasing the dreams that I know will benefit those around me. We had a helpful quote that I just love when Jake and our team puts these in and it’s this, a breakthrough is a trailhead, not a resting place. In other words, a breakthrough gives you the opportunity to take a road or b road, not a chance. To go.

Mark Cole:
Thank goodness I have a moment. Let me remind you that we have in the show notes, we have put your dream to the test the book. We have put your dream to the test the online course. You have a really significant discount there. And then, as always, let me close out by greeting one of our podcast listeners, gang that’s listening, your comments, even your questions. If you had questions you wanted us to answer on the podcast, your questions, your comments mean everything to us. Hey, take the beginning of this year. Go give us a star ranking.

Mark Cole:
Hopefully it’s a five star, but give us whatever ranking you want to give us. It helps us. It really, truly does. It helps us get the word out and keep sending in the comments as Megan did. Megan said, excellent episode. John’s first topic, admit when you are wrong, is so key for leaders to create a growth culture that empowers team members to acknowledge their mistakes. It also empowers them to foster a supportive, quicker and more effective problem solving culture. Megan, you got it.

Mark Cole:
She was listening to how to improve your everyday by John. We’ll put that podcast link in the notes as well. Hey, thank you so much. Thanks for being a part of this journey with us in 2024, making this the best year yet. Let’s go, leader, because everyone deserves to be led.