Todd: 0:00

This is the Cluttered Path, a compass for midlife. Have you ever wondered why some people have the ability to simply captivate an audience, while others struggle to get their message across? Today, we're talking to John Brink, an entrepreneur and author whose success is rooted in mastering the art of communication. In his most recent book, Billion Dollar Communication Skills, John reveals the communication techniques that transformed his life and his business. But here's the twist. John was born in Nazi-occupied Holland in 1940, and his early life was shaped by the horrific violence of war. Now, English is also not his native tongue, yet John immigrated to Canada as a young man, ended up building a successful company, and along the way, mastered the art of public speaking, all while dealing with learning disabilities and PTSD. Now in his mid-80s, John is still thriving as president and CEO of the Brink Group of Companies. He's authored a number of books, and he's also a ranked bodybuilder, among many other accomplishments. John, welcome to the show. Yeah, nice to be here, Todd. I look forward to our uh discussion. Excellent. Now, I gave this very brief introduction. So, with your permission, John, I'd like to just talk about your life story and then dig into that most recent book you wrote, Billion Dollar Communication Skills. Does that work? Sure. Okay, let's start. Can you tell us about those early years in Nazi-occupied Holland?

John: 1:33

Yeah, so as you already said, uh Todd, I was born November the 1st, 1940. So in a month from now, I will be 85 years young. And so uh the first thing that I remember of the war was uh when I was about three, three and a half years old. My parents were married in 1938. They were in love, they had uh rented a beautiful house, a little duplex actually, and so they were in love, and uh very quickly had a boy and a girl, and then my mother was pregnant with me, and then everything changed because Hitler, the dictator in Germany, decided to uh that uh part of Poland or all of Poland should be part of Germany, and the next step would be to invade and take on Western Europe and in our case Holland. So my dad, in April of 1940, was drafted into the Dutch army, and the last time they saw him was in Rotterdam, and the Germans then didn't feel that Holland capitulated quicken off and they bombed the city, this major, major, beautiful city, Rotterdam, the center of it. And that's the last place that somebody saw my dad, and it would be five years before they knew if he lived or died. So my mom then was alone with the two kids, and then obviously pregnant with me. Uh, it was a difficult, difficult time for her and them, and everybody around them. And it was not just one helps the other, everybody was into survival. First that I remember when I was three and a half years old, uh, you know, was the Allied forces that started bombing the war infrastructure from the Germans. And right, and I was born in northeastern Holland, in the extreme northeast, about 10, 15 minutes from the German border. So a lot of the air traffic bombed over our houses and our cities, and I remember hundreds, hundreds of planes in the air, daytime, nighttime, a sound that is still with me, will never hear again. Hundreds, hundreds, two hundred, three hundred planes. And in the distance, uh, my mom would take us outside on the flat roof behind our house to look in the distance because not it was so pretty, but rather she felt safer outside than inside. And in the distance we could see the cities burning across the border. You know, Willemshafen, Kiel, Hamburg, and on and on and on, all those cities close to the North Sea and the northwestern part of Germany. And so the next thing that I remember is that the hunger in 1944, when the Germans cut off all the food supply to our region. And I remember even now, 80 years or more than 80 years later, I can still feel the feeling of hunger. And every morning, my brother, my sister, and myself, we would go with gunny sacks into the railroad yard, pick up anything edible and burnable. The reason that we did as kids, they wouldn't shoot us, they booed us one, but we'd be back the following morning. And then the winter of 1944, 445, and hold on, but the coldest one on record, and I still remember a little part of our house that we heated, a very small part, and we sit around this heating system that we had, and uh you burned in the front and you you you froze in the back, and I can still feel it, the feeling of cold and hunger, and then anxiety, because there was always that sense of anxiety. And then as the war uh as the Allied forces landed in Normandy and made the way, the Americans, the Canadians in the UK, as they landed in Normandy and made their way to free to free Europe, is that the Canadians won north through France, Belgium, the west side of Holland, and then they landed in in June of 1944, and as they made the way at great cost of lives, obviously along the way, when they came to closer to northern Holland, again visualized Holland, close to the German border. They the Germans had nothing left, and they would blow up all the bridges behind them to try to get back to Germany and slow down the Allied forces. And so I remember April the 12th, 1945. We were liberated by the Canadian Army, and it made such an impression on me. They were probably with 100, 150 feet behind us was a little schoolyard. There were about 25 Canadians from the Canadian Red Cross were there, and every morning we would go down there and they would feed us with bread and bread, with butter and cheese, and the butter and cheese was bigger. It was paradise, and we called everybody Johnny. Obviously we didn't speak the language, but we did, really. And it made such an impression that I knew when I grew up I would go to the land of my heroes, Canada. And during that point of the liberation, we saw far too much that we should not have seen. Dead bodies, uh, I still can see visually, uh, you know, carts with legs and arms hanging out this side, several people being shot right around our house area where there was a bridge that was blown up, and things got very, very rough. And so PTSD is still very much part of my life. The inner child, I got counseling for that actually in my 50s. I had no idea what it was, but the little boy that lived then in 1945 and saw too much was still very much part of me, and the counseling helped me very emotional, actually. Anyway, so that was all still part of it. And uh so it was tough and rough, and uh and for some people, with all due respect, may think that once the war is over, everything goes back to normal. It simply doesn't. It can take generations as it did for us. My dad did come back uh, you know, after the liberation of Holland, but life is never the same again, and he was never the same again. Being affected by PTSD, alcohol became uh part of it, and he, you know, we cared about each other a lot, obviously, but uh it's very very difficult.

Todd: 8:16

Yeah, yeah, I'm tearing up here, man. Oh yeah, you're making ooh.

John: 8:22

So let me take you a little bit further then. So the then gradually obviously uh takes a long time to get things back to a sense of normal. But uh, you know, the Canadians to me as a little five-year-old made an immense impression, and I knew once I grew up, I would go to the land of my heroes, Canada. And it's always stayed uh with me. And so academically, uh, you know, let moving a little bit further, I was not a success story. Uh I failed grade three and I failed grade seven three times. And so they said to my parents, Well, what are you gonna do with this guy? And and they loved me regardless. Uh, some people suggest I send him to the mentally challenged school. He said, No, we're not gonna do that. And so so my dad had a friend that had a furniture factory, and uh, so at 12 and a half years old, uh, he got me a job in the furniture factory, and uh so and I loved it. I was in there for uh uh you know quite a number of years and worked in it, and then when I was 18, I was drafted into the Dutch Air Force, uh special forces actually. I don't know why, but I uh was there for a little bit more than two years, good experience, and then again after that worked in the forest industry in Holland. Uh, climbed very, very quickly, but still my dream was there to go to the land of my heroes, Canada. So, and then the other part, uh academically I was not a success story. All the people around me, the friends that I used to have that went to college and university, uh kind of looked down on me because I was a laborer. I'm proud of that today, but then it was kind of looked down on. But I always knew, uh, Todd, that I was just as smart, not smarter than all the others, and I had to prove it to me, not to anybody else. So when uh in 1965, I'd been thinking about this already for a while. I had a very, very good job, very, very good position, but I decided I have to start over again and go to the land of my dreams, but not only go there, but build a lumber mill. And I want to start with nothing. And so I left Holland in July of 1965 as a suitcase, three books, two sets of clothes, very little money, flew into Montreal and landed in Montreal, took the train. I'm gonna go to British Columbia, that's where all the trees are, and so I took the train across Canada, four days, five nights. My God, that is a long way. And so I couldn't speak English, didn't have a didn't know a soil and uh didn't have a job, landed in Vancouver, went to the immigration department there, and couldn't speak English, but fortunately there was a German fellow and I could speak some German. I told him I wanted to build a lumber mill. He said, Go to Prince George, 500 miles north. That's where they're building mills, and all I did. And the Greyhound bus, I uh went uh to Prince George and uh uh so it was 12 hours on the and the bus, came off the bus in Prince George, which was a boomtown, and and so at my suitcase, three books, two sets of clothes, and I counted my money at least three times. I had $25.47. And and so uh needed to get a job because my dream was to build a mill. And and started then from the bottom up and uh, you know, as a cleanup man and walked all the way to the mill and uh uh you know and gradually climbed up fairly rapidly, uh, you know, cleanup man in a lumber mill, then a lumber pilot, then green chain foreman, then a foreman, then a superintendent, all within a year and a half. Wow. But even that didn't go fast enough for me. So then I because I'm under building mill, and and and then I had an opportunity to manage a little small mill and had an option to get one-third of the ownership if I stayed for five years. And where was the mill, John? Well, it was a little mill in the Yukon Territory, and for all those people watching us, uh uh British Columbia is a big province, about a thousand miles from Vancouver all the way to the Yukon border, which is next to Alaska, and so that's where their little mill was. And so uh and for a little uh fellow like me coming from Holland, uh, if you ask me, what is the climate in Holland? I say the rain is colder in the winter. That's the difference. Otherwise, it always rains. The Yukon territory, it can snow in July, and you don't know if it is late or early, and I've seen that 62 below. So running a sawmill was not easy there, but I did for five years, then came back to Central British Columbia, started again from the ground up, and then started building my mill and incorporated Brink Forest Pricks, the first company, October the 1st, 1975. So next week, Wednesday, it will be my 50th year of starting this company with three employees and myself working 16 hours a day, seven days a week for the first 10 years, and and then building up to where it's now. I'm not bragging about how big the companies are. We have about 10 companies and and a lot of employees and all the other kind of things. But uh, you know, so what is the foundation? If if you look again at my 2547, what it says underneath is this attitude, I'm always positive. I want to stay away from me if you're going to be negative. Passion, whatever I do, I give it 125%. Work ethic, I work harder than anybody. Even now at 85, I get up at 5:30 in the morning, I always make my bed and I always think I'm late. And then so I step out and I'm outside. I said, I'm in paradise. How much better can I get in the world than ever you are? And so that's kind of what my days are like.

Todd: 14:19

Yeah. Yeah, you make me think of my mom. She I was born in the mountains of western North Carolina here in the States, and my mom, well, both my parents actually grew up with abusive alcoholic fathers. I never met either of my grandfathers, right? But with my mom, it was just a horrible existence growing up. And her dad, very abusive, in and out of jail. And there were 10 children in the family, and my mom cared for her little sister. And her little sister, she was almost three years old, two years, nine months. She contracted diphtheria. And my mom was essentially her mother. And they took her, she got so sick, they eventually took her to see a doctor, and the doctor said, Hey, we need to get her into the hospital. But my grandfather just said absolutely no, would not allow them to treat her. And he said, Well, she's going to die. And the guy didn't care. They just took her home, and within a few hours after getting back home, she died. And then this is how cruel my grandfather was. He made fun of my mom. His daughter had died, and my mom was hurting for it. Just anyways, but all that to say this my mom was a very positive person, or she is a very positive person, very happy person. So despite circumstances, huh? Today, or yeah, she's 84 and she lives in assisted living at this point. But she worked in textile mills her whole life, and uh after retirement, she uh she's she's a very positive person. So I appreciate you saying that. That's good. And how did you do that? I mean, what what do you think instilled that in you to have that positive attitude?

John: 16:03

Yeah, that is a good question. In spite of it all, as your mom, I always have felt this way. And I lived in my own little world more than anything, and and obviously academically, first the war years were hard, saw far too much that we should not have seen, had an impact on that. Uh people didn't talk about that, what we saw and what we did on a daily basis. And then academically, uh, you know, that uh I was not successful and usually laughed at even by the teachers, and say, as usually when they read the results of tests that we did, and the rating system was from one to ten, ten being the best. And then as they would go through, they say Pete had a nine, very good Pete, and Margaret had an eight, and then John as usual had a zero, and yeah, everybody laughed about it. It's a but John will not amount to much other than he has no future, and so uh, you know, so and but I lived in my own little world. I was very industrious already. I was always active, delivered papers, anything to make a few uh uh dollars, and and so and and then even in in the lumber industry there and in the militaries, I was very successful because I was determined, did all the things that I had to do, and then some, and then, but I knew I knew I had to start anew for myself. It took me, even when I was in Canada already and already successful, already had several companies, and everybody said, Oh, you're so successful and blah, blah, blah. And and I didn't feel that way. I thought I still had failed. And then I was not a good communicator. I could interact with maybe three or four people around my company, but not outside of that, because I didn't have the confidence. And and so then a couple of things happened that changed my life. The war years obviously did, going to Canada did, and then in 1997, and if I I'm sitting in one of my boardrooms here of one of my companies, and I have a studio, and I have the actual book there. I want to a bookstore in Prince George that I picked up in January of 1997. I have the actual book still there, and I would then show it to you. It's saying, Driven to Distraction is the title of the book written by Dr. Halliwell. And and as I went through that book, and I was standing there, I said to myself, I cannot believe what I'm reading here. It's about ADHD and it's about dyslexia. And I said, Oh my god, that's me. And I wrote in the book, the actual book is still there, and and so I opened the page, and there I wrote in Dutch because I was ashamed of it, because it was suggested that it is a mental dysfunction of some sort or disorder. And and so, and and there I'm building all kinds of companies and blah, blah, blah. Go to the banks and negotiate with them, and I want X amount of millions of dollars to do this, that, and the other thing. And oh, by the way, I have a mental disorder as well. Have a nice day, right? So uh so obviously that doesn't the stigma, the stigma has become less, but not as much as it should be. That's why I'm so proactive still, even now, about it. So the more I saw about it, the more I read about it, then went home, looked at Google, and on and on until I understood it. And then, so that was I was already 67 years old then, and 57 years old in 1997. So then five years later, after I picked up the book, I went to my doctor, delivered our two daughters, and was a personal friend in 1962, and and so I went into his office and he said, Hey John, why are you here? I said, I think I got ADHD. And so we looked at it, and I do. And so, but I already knew, I say it's a superpower, and I believe that very much and still do today. So it changed my life. All of a sudden I started the question of who am I has always been with me up to that point. Then the other part, communication skills. This was in 1997 when I found a book, Driven to Distraction, written by Dr. Halliwell, who's a medical doctor, is a professor, has written 18 books, is recognized globally as an uh, you know, understanding uh ADHD and dyslexia. He is ADHD and has dyslexia. And so uh that became a very, very important part. The other thing that I did, and by coincidence, in 1990, a friend of mine said to me about communication skills. I want you to go with me to an organization. I said, Well, where? She said, Toastmasters. I said, What's that all about? She said, about communication skills. I said, Okay. Are you gonna ask me anything? She said, No, you just sit there and watch it. I said, as long as because if you're gonna ask me something, I'm not going. No, no, you're not asking. In the middle of the meeting, there's somebody stood up and said, Hey John, tell us all about it. I said, Oh, I'll never go back here. But I did. I stayed there for 10 years, became a distinguished Toastmaster, the highest ranking in Toastmasters. And so, and for those people watching us from around the world is that Toastmasters, if you Google it, in North America in particular, there are thousands and thousands and thousands of clubs of Toastmaster clubs, 10, 20, 30, 40 million people have had a taste of Toastmasters to bring them to a certain level of communication skills. I was a disaster. And the thousands and thousands of people that I've seen entering Toastmasters, I I don't think I've ever seen anybody like me. I could have crawled out of there on hands and knees. Let me out, let me out, but I stayed.

Todd: 22:27

And and and that changed my life. Yeah. So you had a lot of you, there was a lot of stuff working against you, even from childhood. And it sounds like it you kind of used that as fuel, as motivation. And there was another, I mean, there were other things. In the book, you talk about the social stigmas around your family being farmers, and that was another thing you faced. Uh, can you tell that story about the the girl that rejected you?

John: 22:53

Yes. I like it. So I grew up, as I said earlier, in northeastern Holland, in the extreme 10-15 minutes from the border, a province called Groningen, and they speak a dialect there in that region. So if I speak di and I love to speak dialect, not as doesn't sound like uh Span is in the and not not not that kind of a dialect, but it was uh not uh in my opinion, but I love that anyway. So I grew up speaking dialect. So then obviously I went into the Air Force and I had to speak high Dutch. I had to acquire that ability, and I barely got that under control. Then I go to Canada and I have to learn to speak English. So and and coming back to your question about the girl that rejected me, is that northeastern Holland is mainly farmers because uh uh probably si uh 40, 50 percent, 60 percent sometimes of Holland is below Z level, and and and particularly in those regions where I grew up, and the ground is all sea bottomed, but very fertile, make grew very, very good for farming. And so there were a lot of farmers, big farmers, and then there were farm laborers. So you had you know the the workers and the people that had the money and had control, and there was the status of that, you know, being up there or being down here. So that uh so I always remember going to a dance and uh, you know, and then dancing uh with a girl that that was uh a daughter of one of the rich farmers, and it wouldn't take very long to uh to say, how much land does your family have? I said, let me see, one, two, three, four, five, six, six flower pots full. And and and there was no other dance after that. So I didn't go and make it. But I laugh about it now, and uh, but it was very much so then, as we still see in some regions as being up there, you know, and and my grandmother always used to say they were farm laborers, my grandmother and my grandfather uh were farm laborers, and she always used to say be all the same, then being naked, nobody can put a hand in their pockets.

Todd: 25:18

What a great saying! That's awesome. Yeah, I was I was born in the southeastern United States, and uh there are some stigmas around our accents, and so I appreciate from your book you talk about dealing with an accent as it may get in the way of when you're communicating with people. So yeah, I I appreciated that. It was just practical information.

John: 25:38

Exactly. So but it did then my toastmastering, you know, in combination, so it a couple of things happened taught that were important. Who am I became clearer with ADHD and dyslexia? The more I understood it, it was not a not a deficiency, but it was potentially a superpower. And so looking at myself and looking back, I can do that now at 85. I got nothing to prove to anybody. Uh, you know, so I I love every day, I love living here in North America and in Canada in particular. I do business in North America and all kinds of places, and I'm at peace, and I call it paradise. Lucky, lucky us collectively. And so uh, you know, and and then communications became uh the other part, but that did for me. It gave me confidence that I was not better than, but just as good as any of the other friends that I had that went to colleges in university. I learned the hard way, and I did. And so I became then gradually at peace with who I am, and then communication skills is something that came natural to me. I've always been a storyteller, and and so and then I started writing books, and people said to me, Yeah, it's such an interesting life you have to write a book about it. And and so I for 20 years I writing books is not easy, as you well know. So I went through all the ups and downs and and start stopping, starting, stopping, starting, and then about six, seven years ago, I said, if I don't do it now, it will never happen. And so I wrote this one, Against All Odds. It's all about not how successful John is, but all about the ups and downs along the way. And and this one became very, very popular. And then from there on in I went on about writing a book about ADHD and all those other. I feel I have an obligation to share that with others, and it became very much part of my life.

Todd: 28:02

Yes. That's how we came up with the name The Cluttered Path for our podcast. Ups and Downs of Life. We make our plans and it looks rosy heading into it, but then you're gonna encounter obstacles along the way. So that's the way it works. Exactly.

unknown: 28:18

Yeah.

John: 28:19

So looking back, uh, I'm very contented.

Todd: 28:22

Nice. That's great. Now, your your company was very successful when you had your terrifying first experience with public speaking, and someone called on you to give your first public speech. And can you tell that story?

John: 28:36

Yes, I've been always an advocate of lumber manufacturing. I think we live in a country in Canada and northern eastern BC in particular, and northern BC with this beautiful, beautiful timber. We should do more, add more value to it, social and economic. And so I've always been an advocate of that. So then I was very good. I am a very good writer, not a good reader. Obviously, I didn't know that then dyslexia. And and so uh, you know, so I wrote a report uh about what we should do politically in the province of British Columbia to stimulate value-added manufacturing. And so uh I was then invited to the incumbent government of the day in Victoria, BC, to make a presentation to a number of senior bureaucrats and a number of ministers of economic development. I think uh the premier of the province was there, the minister of forests was there, and and a number of uh a setting of about 10 or 12 people, and I had presented my written proposal, and so I was uh uh supposed to articulate my points, and so I got a setting. So as I walked into the room and visualized this dot, so it's it's one of the government. Of British Columbia's major buildings, that's where the government is, and then the main boardroom, and there is a chair for me, and what are sitting there in front of me is 10 or 12 of the senior, senior bureaucrats and the ministers of the crown. Wow. And so I they had in front of the madam my presentation and say, here is John Brink, CEO of the Brink Force Products, uh, in regards to how do we develop value added manufacturing. And John, the floor is yours. Wow. That's scary. I sat there, I couldn't say a word. Absolutely nothing. Nothing. Zero. So and so then I'm sitting there, and then they said, okay, you're okay. You know, so uh, you know, we we we saw your presentation and we like it. So the so the points trying to help me along the way, but it didn't work. Nothing. Zero, nothing, nothing. And and finally they said, then so we will take your presentation. We have already looked at it, I think it's good points, and and say thank you for making uh uh giving us the presentation and writing, and so uh thank you very much for being here. So I walked out of the room, uh shame, shame, absolute shame. And and so I was devastated. That was before I went to Toast Francis, but yeah, and so as you saw in my book. So what it does is it shows the combination of all the above. So I went back and I was devastated because there I had the opportunity to make that presentation in something that I spend my life on trying to stimulate activity and further manufacturing and and social and economic values and all of the other things that I believed in, and I couldn't do it. And so, but it also became the foundation. So if I look back then, it was one step. And then what happened after that? Obviously, I joined Toastmasters in 1990 for 10 years, became a distinguished Toastmaster. Tens of millions of people have been part of Toastmaster, less than 1% of them go to the highest level of becoming a distinguished Toastmaster. I did, and then uh obviously the next one is the book, uh, ADHD and dyslexia, and now I know who I am and that changed my life. And so if I look back at the inventory, is I was always good of me. Uh say what happened in grade three, what happened in grade seven? Obviously, ADHD dyslexia was the key point, but I've always been good at numbers. And I was always a good writer, but not a good reader. And then the other parts were I'm a storyteller, but but most of the time there was no opportunity for that because I did not have the confidence, because I thought, as the teacher said, well, John will not amount to much. You know, so he becomes a laborer somewhere around the line, and uh, so I hope he's happy, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So, but until I knew who am I was critically important. So once I knew that late in life, when the doc at 62 diagnosed me as saying I'm ADHD, changed my life. And so I started writing books and I'm now on my sixth one. Obviously, I'm a very active presenter, I believe, and being very proactive about interacting about ADHD, dyslexia, and other neurodiversity issues that I believe are very important. And then the other one saying that you can. You can. You know, you are individually special. And so, and giving people confidence because that was one of the ones that I I was challenged with. The other one that you uh referred to in your opening is that also late in life, uh I nearly died on on I had an issue with diapaticulitis, uh, took out 12 uh 20 centimeters of my colon. Uh, and then I knew I had to do something more about diet and exercise. And so I started going to the gym, hired a trainer, and after about doing that for about six years, somebody said to me, Hey John, have you ever thought about competing? I said, Me at 68, 70, and he said, Well, why not? So I did. I I uh uh competed bodybuilding and physique in northern BC, then provincial, then national, and then the Arnolds, and then and now again I'm training, and this is the book, uh Living Young, even in your mid 80s. That's a picture of me. And uh excellent. So and I love it. And then diet to me is very, very important. And at the end of the day, quality of life is what it is.

Todd: 35:39

Yeah, well, burning question I have is when did they come at you with the speedo and say, put this on?

John: 35:47

You like that? So for those people watching us, so then I said, Okay, I'll compete. Yeah, so that's good, and I I was in good shape, yeah. So they said, Okay, what you should do is uh, you know, so we do the tanning and all that stuff, and you go down to that and that location, you get your tanning and say, okay, you know, so whatever. And and so I had no idea. So anyway, so the uh so I go and uh and uh change, and I have my little uh tied thing on, uh, you know, and my my uh underwear, and and especially for that location and for that uh uh venue show. And and uh so then there are two or three women and they say, Okay, are you ready? Uh did you bring your sock? I said, sock? No, I got two socks. No, no, sock. Okay, so no, I don't need a sock. So I took it all off and I thought, oh my god.

Todd: 36:43

I had no idea. You're giving us insight that no one knows about, so they recommend stuffing a sock down there. Okay.

John: 36:51

Stuffing a sock down there, meaning that once you take it off, that you put it in a sock so that they don't have to manhandle your danglio. Yes, yes. Say I'll put the sign of this and then and so on, you know, so obviously, you know, so but but and then once you go showing, and then there are probably and uh the first one was in northern British Columbia, and there were probably five, six hundred people, all my friends that think of me as uh I'm the CEO of this this these big companies, and I start walking on the stage in this little tiny little outfit showing. So that was uh something uh you know that that that that didn't quite come natural, but I I I said I I said I would do it, I did it, and I came in second bodybuilding, third in physique. Wow, and then congratulations eventually, and the same happened nationally, and then I qualified for the Arnolds, and I'm doing the same again now. And uh at 86, I will be competing in the Arnolds.

Todd: 37:52

Excellent. That is awesome. Good stuff. One of the things I like about your book is I mean, you're you've been hugely successful, lots of money, you're CEO, you're managing your businesses, but your book doesn't, you're not telling stories. There's nothing self-aggrandizing, self-aggrandizing about what you still you just tell the stories, and it's yeah, you came from humble beginnings, and you just tell the stories about you tell funny stories about the things that happened to you along the way. So I I appreciate that from your book. So it's not you weren't bragging, so I like that. Now let's let's switch over to communications. From your book, you mentioned some things that get in the way of effective communication. Can you talk a bit about that?

John: 38:33

Yeah, so the uh and this is the book, Billion Dollar Communication Skills, is the last one that I wrote. Actually, it's a bestseller on Amazon. It came out July 31st. And uh, you know, so and and communications is so critical uh in in life, in all segments of life, in relationships, in friendship, in applying for a job, in teaching, and all of those things, and then if you want to be successful in business, communications is critical. All those elements. And I felt I had to write a book about that as well. And then particularly I thought, as you know, uh the cover of the book critically important. So I thought what I do, billion-dollar communication skills. I talk about the six or seven successful entrepreneurs that became billionaires, and what made them successful in every single case is they are good communicators, either acquired that skill, but not always that way, and acquired it, but everyone will recognize that that is what made them successful. And this book is not about saying, uh, how do you become a billionaire? But yeah, we know for sure already, unless you're effective communicator, you'll not get there.

Todd: 40:02

Right. Yeah, I like that you provide those examples along the way: Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and you give their picture and quotes in the book. It's that's awesome. So now, how do you prepare for a speech?

John: 40:14

There is always a sense of anxiety. So even I do, having done hundreds and hundreds and thousands of speeches and presentations, there has to be a sense of anxiety. So that brings me to where I want to be. And I know that once I make a presentation, they will maybe forget what I talked about, the details, but they never will forget me on stage. I am different, and and so I like to interact with the people that are in the audience. And it may be a thousand people, it may be 500, it may be 20, and maybe 30, whatever they are. And I give it all that I got, and I like to be part of their lives and lay in front of them. I need to understand who they are, what are they expecting of me? I want to know what the setting is. I'm not good, I'm not a good reader, obviously, dyslexia and all the other kind of stuff, even not stuff that I write, but I have an amazing memory, and I'm a very, very good presenter. And so uh so I get ready understanding as who is in the audience. The other part that is important to me is that what are they expecting, and then what is this setting? And what I found, Todd, is that there's a lot of people that are presenters that have not prepared well, something will go wrong in the audio or something will not work well. And I always make sure that I have everything is prepared. I want to go to the setting, I want to understand where they are sitting, where is the lectern if there is one? What kind of microphone, what kind of a headset do I have? I like to move around, I like to be behind a lectern, but I want to walk on either side. So I have to understand it. And that's what I do.

Todd: 42:16

Excellent. That's good. Now, there's a you told a story in your book about a little boy named PO. He had ADHD in autism and he wrote his own book. And before one of your big speeches, I think that you said there were 400 people in the audience. You interacted with P.O. before the the speech, and he shared his book with you, and then you went off script at the end of your session there. And uh, can you tell that story about P.O.? Yeah.

John: 42:43

So that was a presentation that I did in Alberta and Calgary. And uh, so they had asked me the the uh Calgary or the Alberta Association of ADHD uh had an annual meeting of some sort, about 400 people there. And so, and and they asked me if I could do the presentation. I said, sure, I will do that. And so I went down there, uh, did all the normal things that I do, and and so and then uh then I was the key presenter, and so uh just before I was asked to go up and and and uh give my presentation, this lady came up with this young fella, and he was about, I don't know, how old would he have been? Uh six uh five, six years old. And and so uh and his uh his mom said it's uh uh P.O. And P.O. and say, Hi PO, did you write a book? What have you got there? And he said, Yeah, I wrote a book, and here's the book, and I said, Oh my god, show it to me and tell me about it. So he he did the book, uh wrote about it, and draw pictures, and he wants to be an author, and and he admired what I did, and he wants to at some point be a speaker as well. I said, No, it's fantastic. So then I had to go up to the stage, and then all those people there, and uh, you know, so and then I did my presentation probably about an hour or so, and then we had QA after that of uh about 45 minutes. And towards the end, uh somebody was asking me a question. I said, okay, stop for a second. I have to share with you what happened to me before I made the presentation. I met this young fella, P.O., five years old, wants to become an author, wrote a book, and and I said, Pio, where are you? Where are you? Stand up, where are you? And and then I see him going like this. I said, come here, come here. And and he came to the stage, and the stage was about uh two and a half, three feet higher, and he was standing there. I said, No, I want you up top here. And so uh, and and then uh I said, make sure you take your book. Yeah, okay, got your book. And I said, stand in front of, and and then he stood there. I said, No, stand in front of me. And and I said, This is P.O. This is what happened. He will become an author. And here he is, that's his book. And uh, you know, I I had the privilege of introducing him as ADHD, the author that will become part of all our lives in the future.

Todd: 45:30

Excellent. So great story. And that was the example you gave about one of your recommendations is hey, prepare, have an outline, but don't be rigidly tethered to that outline. And so that was it's kind of difficult for me coming into this because I had my outline, so I had to point out to you, hey, I'm not rigidly tethered to this.

John: 45:50

So what I do is that I'm not a good reader, uh, you know, not even my own writing, but I have an amazing memory, and I kind of think, you know, with ADHD being a superpower, usually but people like, and I'm not a dog or a specialist in the field, other than I live it, we have certain specialties that we are good at. I was always good at numbers. I was good at writing, and I have an amazing, amazing memory, even now, still at 85, nearly uh uh about 85 years old. And and so I can do a presentation for an hour, hour and a half, and uh, you know, and feel good about it even now. And I do it all the time. Uh you know, I obviously I'm very, very active in podcasting. Uh on the Blink uh podcast, uh, you know, we uh uh we have a million subscribers on YouTube, uh, within uh a few thousand, I think, uh, you know, so and then uh you know I've done well over 500 where I'm the host, and then uh I'm a guest on probably another 200, 250 or so. So I like it, I enjoy it interacting.

Todd: 46:58

Excellent. Yeah, I want to leave you with this story about my father-in-law, his name is Heike Ellermetz. He was born in Estonia in 19, I believe, 36. So he was about eight, around eight years old during World War II. So Estonia, man, the Germans came in and took over, then the Russians, and they kept switching hands. They were refugees, their whole family. So they spent time in a displaced persons camp somewhere in Europe. They eventually made their way into the United States, and both Hakey and his brother Arnie, they ended up joining the Air Force. They became colonels, they both retired as colonels in the Air Force, just very successful lives. And it's just wonderful to hear immigrant stories. And I think coming from outside of Canada and the U.S., when you're coming in, it's like you appreciate what's here, and then you just take advantage of the opportunity we have here in North America. So what a I mean, just inspirational story. So I John, I totally I just appreciate your time. It's it's been good interacting, man. I got kind of choked up at the beginning there, but uh uh, just inspirational story. So uh where where can people find you? Where's the best place to connect with you online? John A.

John: 48:13

as an arrendt or adambrinkbrink.com will show you all the things that we do. Uh obviously all my books, all my presentations, all my uh podcasting, and all those things.

Todd: 48:27

Yes. And then look for On the Brink Podcast on your favorite platform and also on YouTube. So On the Brink Podcast. I've enjoyed watching some of those episodes. So, John, thank you so much for your time. It was a pleasure, Todd. I'm humbled by your story. I like how in your books it's not self-aggrandizing. Yeah, it's very helpful. So you give very practical information in this forum. We can't get too deep into your recommendations, but you give very practical information on how to become a better communicator, not just speaker, but how do you learn to master the language and be able to communicate with others in a way to share your ideas? And there's just so much goodness that comes out of that. And your life, you're just a case study demonstrating that no matter what our circumstances, there's always a way to improve our situation. So, John, thank you once again for joining us. We appreciate your time immensely. Okay, now if you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review and share it with your friends. Until next time, we'll see you on the path. This is the cutter path.