300 – The Power of Consistency

John Over the last two decades, I’ve been on an insatiable quest to learn everything I can about leadership. What makes the best leaders so good? After running companies small and large over the last 20 years, today I speak on stages all across the world to audiences who are interested in that same question. My name is John Laurito. I’m your host, and I invite you to join me on this journey as we explore this very topic and what makes the best leader so good. Welcome to tomorrow’s leader. 

John Hey now. Okay. So today is an incredibly special day. And I don’t know if you are aware of this or if you’ve been keeping track. But today is a day like no other in the tomorrow’s leader world. And that is because today this what you were listening to right this moment, wherever you may be and this may be your first episode, maybe it’s your 10th, maybe it’s your hundredth. And some of you, maybe it is your 300th episode because you have been a faithful follower since the beginning. And yes, today this is the 300th episode of tomorrow’s leader. Wow. I got to say, I am proud. I’m pumped. It’s awesome. I mean, you realize how many. First of all, I know you got to look up the stat, but something like 98% of podcasts. Only the last two months or less. I started this thing a two and a half years ago, so this was back in the beginning of 2020. Here we are in July, almost August of 2022. So more than two and a half years ago. And I will tell you, I mean, this is really cool getting to this point. I know when I started this thing, I had no idea where it would go. 

John To be honest with you, I don’t even know what the purpose of it was. And I really mean that it was really just to create content and share ideas and interview people and learn from great leaders and have connect with great, interesting people. But I had no idea where this would go. And to be honest with you, I still don’t. I mean, I still think about what’s this going to look like three, four or five years from now, ten years from now? And I will tell you, the one thing I know is I am not going to stop. I’m going to keep going and I’m going to keep going. And I’m going to keep going and keep going. And that is the really cool thing. I think back and I will tell you, you know, in two and a half years, I have not skipped a week. We’ve not missed a week of tomorrow’s leader. And the goal has always been to put out, ideally, three episodes. Sometimes it’s been tough a week, which is a lot. You think about that, you know, one guest episode, two solo episodes, that’s a lot. I mean, you know, for somebody, if somebody was a full time podcaster, okay, yeah, you can do that. Podcasting is one of many, many things I do. And working with clients and full time responsibilities and all kinds of stuff going on. This is, you know, right now it is 11:00 at night. It’s 1047 on a Thursday evening. And I’m doing this because I love it. Honestly, I love it. But here’s the interesting thing. As much as I love it, there are tough, tough times. I mean, there are weeks where I’m slammed busy, I’m tired, there’s weeks. You know, I’ve had COVID, like many of you out there, stuff’s going on. 

John I’m just not feeling it. I’m off my A-game, whatever the case may be. And I will tell you, there’s been days and weeks where I have thought like, okay, is this really worth it? Like, okay, do I keep going? I mean, especially in the early parts of this, I mean, I had no idea. I mean, is anybody going to listen? I have no I really have no idea. I’m talking into a camera and speaking into a microphone. And it’s all a whole lot different than speaking to a live audience. We can get immediate visual and nonverbal feedback. You know, here you have no idea. Combined with the fact that tracking your audience and your statistics is not the easiest thing in the world, strangely, it should be a lot easier. But, you know, it’s really kind of interesting. It’s a whole new world. It’s a whole new world. And then the da da da da da da da da da. Okay. All right, shut up. But seriously, though, it’s it literally. Is this just unchartered territory for me now? It’s not now I feel like I feel like this is my my thing. Like this is my comfort zone. I get in here and I feel at home. I feel like this is natural and it’s become easier and easier and easier for me to keep going. And the tough parts are still ahead of me. I know, but the biggest and most difficult but tough parts are behind me. The days where I really, truly thought about, okay, do I just not do I just stop because it’s time consuming? Is it really working? Is it doing anything? Is it providing value? And you know what would be interesting? That would be one of those days where I’d get a listener who would send me a note or give me a call and say, Hey, you know what? I got to let you know, I really love your podcasts. 

John I listen all the time and I look forward to them and I’d be like, Wow, really? That’s awesome. That’s amazing to hear. So I cannot tell you how much your feedback to me matters. It matters so much to me that you’re listening and that you get value out of this and I really mean it. I love to hear that. So please let me know, especially if there’s certain episodes. Give reviews, please. By the way, this is my quick little pitch. Please give reviews. The more reviews you give, go on Apple Podcasts, go down below all the way to the bottom and you’ll see a place to give you a review, give reviews and go down below. Give a five star review, you know, give whatever you want and I can influence you. But that propels it and gets it to larger audiences. So I greatly, if you’re wondering, hey, how can I give back? I’ve loved and enjoyed these podcasts. I’m going to give back to John. That’s how you can do it. Go down and review and share it with people that you think could benefit. But I will tell you, it’s been amazing, right? I mean, 300 episodes, I think about and somebody many, many people have asked me. Somebody was asking me recently, how do you think of topics? Well, honestly, I talked to CEOs and doing these podcasts. I talked to CEOs all the time and business leaders and leaders of organizations and people up and coming in leadership and just asking them questions, hey, what’s going on? What keeps you up at night? What’s the thing that you’re concerned about? What have you figured out? What’s your big aha moment? You know, all that’s really cool stuff. And that’s how I build content and that’s how I also continue to learn and never stop learning and leadership. 

John I’m always learning. I’m learning from people like, Wow, hey, that’s a really unique approach or thought or spin on that or how you handle that. I love that, you know, and that’s something I can use and transfer and share to another client or bring to the audience here. So it’s just really, really cool stuff, but. You know what I love the theme of this is consistency. You know, it’s the easiest thing in the world for anybody to do is quit. Honestly, the easiest thing we ever can do any time we’re doing anything is just to stop. I mean, it’s the easiest thing we can do. If I’m starting to work workout regime, I’m doing my workouts. All the sudden I just decided, Hey, I want to stop. It’s the easiest thing in the world to stop. You just don’t do anything. If I’m on a diet and I’m really working hard at it and all of a sudden I realize I hate it, it’s so easy to stop and it’s enjoyable to stop, right? We get the rest. We get the evil we want, whatever. We stop doing stuff because it’s the path of least resistance. It’s so easy. It’s like a magnetic pole to quit. And you just have to fight that and you have to keep going. And what I will tell you, and I don’t care what it is, you know, I think so many times people don’t realize the power of consistency. You know, if I want to go to the gym, it’s not if I go to the gym for 8 hours once a week, that’s not going to do anything. It’s really not. Well, maybe a tiny, tiny little bit. But if I go 30 minutes every day, that’s going to do a lot. 

John You know, it’s it’s not about just doing a bunch at once. It’s consistency. And if you stick to that consistency over time, it honestly doesn’t take a lot to make a massive difference. So my challenge to you is think about something in your life, some area of your life, and I want to challenge you to play a game. And that game is to think about something that you’ve wanted to do. And I don’t care what it is. You know, everybody has New Year’s resolutions and the vast majority of those New Year’s resolutions never get filled. And why are we to New Year’s? New Year’s resolution is kind of a lame reason. It’s a flip of a new year to start a new, you know, turn a new leaf, start something new, hit the reset button, whatever. Why not? Now you’re you’re listening to this. It’s early August, whatever it is. Why not? Now start something and whatever that is. If you’re thinking about developing a new hobby or you’re saying, You know what, I got to do a morning routine, I don’t have one start one. If you’re saying to yourself, you know, I got to do a daily journal, you know, I’ve just been wanting to do that. Do it started. Have you been saying, hey, you know what, I want to take photography classes I really wanted to do. I’ve been talking about it forever started do something, start it today and don’t stop. Just keep going and think about something you can do even just a little bit. I don’t care if it’s if it’s if it’s reading and you’re not being a good reader, you want to read more. You don’t have to read, you know, three chapters a day. You can read one page a day, and now you’re in the habit of reading, literally. 

John How long does it take you to read one page, one page a day? Just getting in the habit of doing that. And it creates this consistency and it creates this not having to think it in grains. It, it wires it into you. It’s muscle memory. You don’t even have to think about it. It’s just, hey, okay? It’s just what I do. I don’t have to think too much about doing podcasts. It’s almost like it just bubbles up in my mind, and it’s kind of in the back of my mind. As I’m going through my week, I’m keeping notes and thoughts and tabs and I’m writing stuff down. I’m putting in my phone because it’s important to me and I’ve been consistent enough. It’s ingrained in the whole rhythm of my week. I’m talking to somebody, I’m thinking about podcasts, the people around me in my circle. No, I’m always looking for ideas and they’re like, Hey, you got to do a podcast on this. You got to do a podcast on that, you got to do podcasts on this, and they’ll come up to me with stories and things that have happened to. Then I’ll use it in a podcast that’s kind of cool. So I’ve got my circle that’s, that’s helping me be consistent in helping to make this even better and better. So think about that. The power of consistency is on believable. And I just want you to think about something. I don’t care. Hey, listen, if you want to if you want to do to have a different, you know, become a different person, you know, there’s things you can do to start becoming a different person. I mean, you know, gifts give a stranger a compliment every day. Meet somebody new every day, whatever it is. 

John But challenge yourself. If you’re like me and you struggle with drinking water that then then figure out what you’re going to do. I got this big jug here. Look at this thing. That’s 15 ounce jug. I get to keep it near me and it’s pink because. And thank you, Ed Forest see CEO of Lincoln who gave me who told me about non tablets I think it’s called none and you and I think it’s what it is that actually makes water gives you extra electrolytes makes it taste better. I hate water. He and I were talking about this is like, hey, try this stuff. I tried it. It’s actually now. Now I drink more water actually, because I put these little tablets in there. It’s actually pretty cool. So. Anyways. Thank you, Ed, but you don’t think about all the things that you can do that just a little tiny step every single day will make this dramatic difference. I don’t care if it’s physical, mental, spiritual, health, relationship, knowledge, whatever it is. Just do something every day. So that’s my challenge. See how many days in a row you can. You can do your new thing, and before you know it and let me know how long it takes you before you don’t even really have to think about it. And I’m not telling you, don’t do anything big. Don’t think. Don’t think about. Hey, I’m going to I’m going to run, you know, eight miles every single day and see how many days don’t I mean, literally say I’m going to run down the block every day, whatever. I’m going to break a sweat every day, whatever you want to do, anything that will help develop consistency. Okay. That’s my challenge to you. That’s the message of today’s podcast, number 300. 

John And I’m looking forward to the time where this is 3000. And I mean it honestly. I’m just going to keep going. And you know what’s a cool thing? I have no idea where this is going to go. I really don’t. People say, What’s your vision with the podcasts? You know, when I started. My vision was was different. It was, you know, hey, I’m going to I’m going to be this is going to be my my main thing. My I’m going to make money in revenue. All of you know what? I you know, this this that’s not my vision with this. Now, maybe it turns into something huge, and I think it can. We’re in 91 countries right now. We just went from 90 to 91. It was only months ago we were in 70 countries. So this thing’s getting around the world. That’s really cool. More and more listeners every single day. That’s what I love about this thing. And these are here for life. They’re not going anywhere. These 300 episodes, you can bet, can be ten years from now, you can still access these things. So it’s kind of cool. So they know two and a half years ago I started a new chapter in my life that this is a part of it and it’s just it’s now so much easier to be consistent. It’s not easy, but it’s easier because cranking out three episodes a week is not easy. And especially next week I’m on vacation, which I’m super excited about the beach with my family and you know, I’m not going to be doing podcasts there. So I’m doing that’s part of why I’m here at 11:00 at night to cranking them out. So you get to listen to them. 

John And I don’t have to worry about having a gap. You get some consistency. Well, I’m taking a little, little break, but. Okay, that’s all I got for you today. It’s all about consistency. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being loyal listeners. I’m so excited about this. What a cool thing. What a cool accomplishment. And I appreciate you. I really do. I appreciate you. Thanks, everybody, as always. Like share, subscribe, go down below, give five star review and we’ll see you next time. Bye. 

Thanks for joining us on today’s episode of Tomorrow’s Leader. For suggestions or inquiries about having me at your next event or personal coaching, reach me at John@johnlaurito.com. Thanks, lead on!