Toni Reece: Hi there. I’m Toni Reece, and welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living magazine. Today I have John Whitehall with me. Welcome, John.
John Whitehall: Thanks, Toni. Thanks for having me. It’s really a thrill to be here.
Toni: Well, we’re happy to have you here. So, take a moment and tell us a little bit about yourself.
John: I am a Berks County native. I’ve lived here since 1964. If you know Wilson High School area and so forth, we were the first family to occupy a house in Whitfield, that giant, sprawling suburban development. I remember it was just our house and dirt when we moved in. I’ve been a lifelong Berks Countian, so I really, truly understand the vibe of Berks County and Reading.
I am a trainer of sorts, a coach. I work with businesses large and small who depend upon a sales force for growth and future opportunity, but often find they aren’t up to the task, so I help them put in a new system with corresponding metrics to help smaller firms be competitive with larger firms, even where price is the main concern.
Toni: Wow. That sounds like a very important job.
John: I think so.
Toni: Okay, well, let’s go into the Project.
John: Sure.
Toni: What does inspiration mean to you?
John: Inspiration to me is a feeling. It’s something that kind of comes from within, but it’s prompted by things that are outside stimuli, right? So, something like just being here and talking about inspiration is inspiring to me. There are certain people that you know in your world. It’s almost these Mount Rushmore faces of people who inspire you and have maybe changed your life or changed the way you think. To me, that’s what inspiration is. It’s the impetus that gives you a new idea that causes you to act moving forward.
Toni: Do you know when it happens?
John: Not always. Sometimes it’s in your rearview mirror. Recently, I’ve been asked to give a testimony for a colleague of mine who has been doing what I do for 25 years. As I thought about this—and I’m going to be doing a video for his—I don’t think it’s a retirement party; whatever this celebration is—I’m going to be doing this this afternoon, and yesterday I was considering how much this gentleman inspired me and really put me on the path that I’m on today. But until I was reminded of that, I don’t know that I was necessarily thinking of him. There are people who inspire you all the time. You just have to be aware enough to understand when they do.
Toni: I call that the invisible obvious.
John: Yeah. That’s great. Can I borrow that?
Toni: Absolutely.
John: Yeah. That’s fantastic.
Toni: So, how do you take that when that happens, when you either know that you’re inspired or as you said, it’s been in the rearview mirror, how do you take that and put that into action here in Berks County?
John: One of the things that I’ve been—I mean, I am a major procrastinator, and recently I read a book called The Three Second (or five second) Rule. I don’t know if you ever read this book. The idea is that you have a certain amount of time that if you don’t act, you won't. I’ve tried to adopt this going forward so that as I see these moments, I try to be inspired and have that show in my actions. It doesn’t always go that way, but that’s my intent.
Toni: Is a particular project, work, community situation where you were like, “Okay, you know what? I’ve been putting this off for a really long time. I need to take what I’ve learned and put this into action and move it because I’m inspired to do so?”
John: Yeah. I think those kind of opportunities—as I said, I’m a procrastinator—so those kinds of opportunities are flying by me all the time. It’s choosing the ones that are really right for you that I think are really important.
Toni: How do you choose?
John: It’s kind of a gut thing. You know when it hits you, right, and you know when the opportunity is there. Sometimes the windows are very, very small. Very, very short. If you don’t get in there and do what needs to be done, you’re not going to be able to reap the rewards.
But back to something you said earlier, the inspirational part of what I do is when I see people really break out of their comfort zones and begin to act and behave and communicate differently, and begin to personally grow. I have in my office on my bulletin board every handwritten thank you note I’ve ever received. That’s my wall of inspiration, and boy, when somebody takes the time to actually, physically write a note—not a text, not an email, not a smoke signal, whatever it is—they send you a card, that is just the most wonderful thing in the world. That’s what gives me the energy I need to do what I need to do.
Toni: That’s fantastic. Who in Berks County inspires you?
John: Wow. Well, I’ll tell you, it’s my mom. My mom is 86 years old and still drives her car.
Toni: Fantastic.
John: She has an iPhone. She can take a picture and send it to you. She can text. She can email. She has a computer. At 86 years old, I think that’s incredible, because she was way beyond living with these things. For me, all these technical advantages came in as I was growing, as I was going through my career. She was already retired when these things happened, and I just think it’s amazing that she’s picked all this up. She’s busier than I am most of the time, and I think that’s inspiring. At 86 years old, she’s still out there doing what she does.
Toni: Absolutely. Way to go for her. Is there anybody else in the community that inspires you?
John: Yeah. I have a couple people who I work with. They’re actually not in the community, but they’re in my professional community. I have a couple of coaches who I work with, and they’re just people like me. We get on the phone and beat each other up and celebrate wins and cry about losses and things like that. Then I have a couple of coaches who actually help me from a tactical standpoint grow my business. My favorite coach is a guy by the name of Captain Brad McDonald. He was a nuclear submarine captain for 17 years. When this guy tells you to do something, he gets your attention.
Toni: I would imagine.
John: Yeah. He doesn’t stand for any of my BS. He tells you what to do, and more often than not, he’s right; but you would think a guy like that, the guy who I’m describing, wouldn’t be fun and energetic, and he’s all of those things in spades. He’s just really a terrific guy. He’s a great inspiration to me.
Toni: So, what would you like your legacy to be?
John: Wow. I would like my legacy to be that I helped people overcome their fears, bust out of their comfort zone, and realize their full potential. This is what’s really important to me. This is what I live for every day. This is why I get out of bed in the morning.
Toni: I would imagine the work that you do would cause others to be inspired.
John: I would think so. It’s interesting; I do a lot of free talks, and when I do these free talks, usually one of my current students or past students will just show up, just as a way to support me. Afterwards, it’s always interesting to see them networking in the crowd and them saying, “Hey, listen. You really need to take stock in what John’s saying, what he does.” I don’t do a lot of selling in those things. My people tend to do that for me. To me, that just makes me feel warm and happy inside.
Toni: So they’re carrying your legacy forward.
John: I think so. Yeah.
Toni: Well, that’s fantastic. So you’re actually living your legacy.
John: I’m trying to. I’m trying to be the best person I can be every single day and try to help as many people as I can.
Toni: Not a bad way to go about life, is it?
John: No, not at all.
Toni: Thank you so much for showing up for the Get Inspired! Project.
John: It’s been an honor to be here. Thank you very much.
