cat·a·lyst:

an agent that provokes or speeds significant change or action

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Where do I begin?

Years ago, I heard a story about the rescue of trapped miners.

In a rural area, a mine collapse trapping two miners. The rescue attempt began immediately, but the mine did not have the right equipment to attempt a rescue. A company on the other side of the country heard about the tragedy and reacted. They assigned a team to disassemble one of their huge multi-million dollar machines and fly it across the country to assist with the rescue. As soon as they landed, the team began to assemble the machine. When the team arrived at the site, they did not know if anyone was still alive, but they knew they had to attempt a rescue.

Rescue teams, engineers, civilians, media, locals, and many others had gathered to help or witness the rescue. You can imagine the site lit up like a football field surrounded by hundreds of people. Both miners were rescued, but as the lights and the roar of the crowd washed over the second minor he asked in shock, “All this for me?”

Typing out this about page is a struggle for me because my entrepreneurial pursuit is not “about” me, but about you.

Even though I had a career, I still couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do when I grew up…

I struggled to figure out my purpose in life. Even in my thirties, I still couldn’t nail down what I was supposed to do. I did a ton of research on personal mission statements and determined that my mission was to help others be more successful in their lives. (I know, a little too vague to act upon.)

My personal mission statement: “To base my success on how much I help others achieve.”

Later on, I came across Zig’s quote:

“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” – Zig Ziglar

I was getting close, but I had yet to nail it down. I attended a small group at my church on how to discover God’s purpose for your life. I went through the class and still did not have an answer. (Are you kidding me!)

However, in a weird turn of events, the church’s leadership asked me to begin teaching the class.

I met one of the pastors at a local restaurant to discuss if I was the right guy to take over the class. Remember, I’m the guy that can’t figure out my purpose and I’m being asked to teach others how to find their purpose.

“I’m honored and there is nothing more that I would like to do than lead this class, but I’m not the guy…”

He said that he knew, but they saw something in me as I went through the class. I understood the concept behind the class and they were sure that I was the right guy to take over the class.

Of course, I said yes and began to teach the class.

Things started to gel…

It wasn’t long before I understood my purpose. At my very core, I am a trainer. When I looked at what common theme was present most of my life, I saw how I was always attracted to training. In the late 90s, I was the giving product demonstrations on new computer technology via Sidea at big box computer stores. Then I worked in the Education and Training Department for Publix Supermarkets in their corporate offices. I left the corporate world, to go into law enforcement and began to excel at training. My first gig was Crowd Management and Riot training. Once that door opened, I was an agency-wide trainer. Soon I was a Driving instructor, then my training resume began to grow as I began to instruct Firearms, Police Rifle, Less Lethal Weapons, Precision Pistol, PIT, and many other courses.

However, my favorite was when I became a Street Training Instructor. When a new officer is hired, they would go through approximately one month of classroom training and then three months of on the road training. I was now training new hires on how to be a law enforcement officer. This was the most amazing part of my law enforcement career. I became my Lieutenant’s top trainer and if you came to our division as a newbie, then you spent at least a month or two in my car as my trainee.

Even though, I strapped on body armor every day and wore a gun on my hip, I had the heart of an entrepreneur. I loved training, but I was not sold out to life as a cop. Even though my career was amazing, when I took off the uniform, I became John the screen printer. I had a warehouse where I printed custom t-shirts for local businesses and organizations.

(I love t-shirts, especially funny ones. As I am typing this, I’m wearing my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Tee and look more like a three hundred pound turtle than an entrepreneur.)

My plan was to grow and scale the t-shirt company and leave behind my law enforcement career. As I grew my shop, I had dreams of teaching others how to grow their screen printing businesses. My vision board had “consultant” on it.

However, my purpose wasn’t to be a printer.

Three words came out of my pursuit to find my purpose.

train. equip. teach.

All this time I had been searching for what “business” to run, but never thought about focusing on what I was supposed to be doing! Everything changed when I discovered my purpose and began to focus on my new mission: train. equip. teach.

It wasn’t long before I was burned out working at my agency. After 40 days of prayer and some fasting, a lot of long talks with the wife, and some wise counsel, I made a life-changing phone call.

Dan Miller is the author of 48 Days to the Work You Love. He has an amazing daughter named Ashley who helps him run his live events. I called Ashley and asked her if she had an opening in the next Coaching With Excellence event. She said that she did and I told her to save me a seat.

I submitted my two weeks notice and began the pursuit that brought you to this about page.

The Sanctuary…

In January 2013, I was at Dan’s amazing Sanctuary where he hosts a lot of his live events. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be a coach, but I just knew that the time there would change my life.

It did.

Being there, I knew I was going to be a coach. Even though, I knew that I was supposed to be coaching entrepreneurs, I had some doubt. Thankfully, a private Facebook message cleared up that doubt.

We need to have a quick flashback…

Prior to making it to the sanctuary, I went to an Icarus Session.

At the Icarus Session, you are supposed to stand up in front of a whole bunch of strangers and say “Here, I made this.” I had not made anything other than a decision, but I took my 140 seconds of time to announce it to the world. I was not sure what my future looked like, but I made a decision to fully embrace my purpose in life and I was going to make it my full time job.

This guy RJ talked about how he beat Crohn’s disease and was going to launch a fitness business. Later than night, I told RJ that there were some things that he needed to know about how to run a business that no one would ever tell him.

I wasn’t trying to sell him. I just wanted to help him do amazing things.

What does a cop know about business?

You would think a cop would have no business telling an entrepreneur how to run a business, but it was like I was born to do just that. John Sr, my father, was an entrepreneur and an amazing teacher. I grew up in the back of his first restaurant. As a kid, I learned by watching him and he set me up for success by treating me as an owner of the family business. Over the years, we owned and operated three restaurant concepts in my hometown, Lakeland, and an additional two food concepts at the Orlando Convention Center.

As a teenager, I went and applied for my first business license. I sold Mad Hatter hats. (It wasn’t as profitable as I had hoped.) After that, I built web sites and offered hosting. My skills landed me a job in corporate America which led me to work for the government. When I joined my agency, I focused on it, but in just a couple of years I was back to the the side hustle and launched the screen print shop. I consumed everything I could about leadership, entrepreneurism, and small business and worked on my days off.

Back to the Sanctuary and that Facebook message…

As I’m listening to Dan, my phone alerts that I have a Facebook message. Now you are not supposed to stop listening to Dan and check your Facebook, but I did. RJ said that he was thinking about what I said about running a business and he wanted to hire me to help him focus on his business.

That was the bolt of lightning.

At my most natural and at my core, I just wanted to help others win in business. My fight is for the solopreneur with the dream, the owner of a microbusiness, the entrepreneur with vision, and the person stuck in a job that they hate.

My purpose became:

train. equip. teach. entrepreneurs.

I drove back home and began to develop what became Catalyst John, Inc.

I began meeting RJ at Starbucks. I paid for his coffee and coached him for an hour per session.

As I networked, my clients increased. At the same time, I became one of Dan Miller’s certified coaches.

I ended up moving into an downtown office and continued to grow my local coaching business. However, I soon began to realize that I didn’t want to just coach people in my city. I want to be able to coach people across the country and decided to begin to find clients outside of Florida.

So, I did just that. I began to pursue my first out of state client and landed one in Pennsylvania. My next one was from Alabama and I moved into a new time zone (Central).

Now this is where things got amazing…

After about 20 months as a coach, I received a message from a person interested in hiring a coach. We met on Skype and she hired me on the spot. I get excited just thinking about it because she was my first international coaching client. My newest client lived in the United Kingdom.

Now I’m working on taking this business to the next level.

I hope that you are part of that journey.

I specialize on training and coaching entrepreneurs on how to really pursue their vision for their business and their dream lifestyle. It is about helping them focus on their purpose, their plan, and of course – massive profit.

I have been in high speed pursuits. I have bailed out of a car to tackle a criminal, run through houses, jumped a fence or two, and chased suspects through a field and the woods.

Sometimes, I was by myself, but most of the time I had backup. Let me tell you, it is always better when you have backup.

I’d love to be your partner in your pursuit. Please join my email list and connect with me.

– Catalyst John

Helping You In Your Pursuit.