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00:00:01
The 21-Day Challenge That Books Coaching Clients
20 Plays6 days ago
In this episode, Ken Freire sits down with performance coach Jon Lester to unpack his journey from high school educator to building an authentic, purpose-driven coaching business. Jon shares how listening to conviction, starting as a side hustle, and prioritizing service over sales helped him grow Relentless Pursuit 247. Together, they explore why community—not pushy tactics—has become Jon’s biggest lever for impact and growth, especially for men seeking leadership, accountability, and brotherhood.
Resources Mentioned
• Relentless Pursuit 247 (Skool Community) – https://www.skool.com/relentless-pursuit-247
• Atomic Habits by James Clear – https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits
• The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy – https://darrenhardy.com/thecompoundeffect/
Timestamps
• 00:00–02:35 – Jon’s background in education and the calling to pursue coaching
• 02:36–04:16 – Recognizing discontent and the conviction to change paths
• 04:17–05:56 – Why Jon chose a side hustle approach instead of quitting outright
• 05:57–08:38 – Landing his first client and realizing coaching was the right path
• 08:39–10:22 – Lessons learned from rejecting pushy sales tactics
• 10:23–12:35 – Community as the biggest lever for growth and transformation
• 12:36–15:22 – Balancing free value with paid coaching offers
• 15:23–18:14 – Using 21-day challenges to build discipline, trust, and momentum
• 18:15–23:56 – Encouragement for struggling entrepreneurs and playing the long game
• 23:57–29:59 – Rapid-fire business trends, advice for kids, and where to find Jon
Recommended
Transcript
00:00:00
Ken Freire
Welcome to another episode of the Solo Scaled Podcast. I'm your co i'm your host, Ken Freire, and today I'm here with Jon Lester, who's gonna be walking us through his journey on how he's grown his business. Jon, welcome to the podcast, man.
00:00:15
Jon
hey Ken, thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here and get a chance just to share what's been going on and my journey.
00:00:21
Ken Freire
Yeah. Well, John, you and i were talking right before the show about how there's so many ah pushy, manipulative tactics out there. And we're trying to do it differently. We're trying to figure out how can we grow our businesses in an authentic, real way. And you've been doing that and you've been in the educational space, the health and wellness space for quite some time now. And you've been doing Today, you're going to share your story of how you're growing your business. So before you talk about your actual actual business, walk us through what got you started in the business in the first place.
00:00:53
Jon
Okay. So that's a great question. And as you said, I've been, i was an educator by trade. Like I went to college, I went for education um and I did that for about 13 years and in physical health education, high school level, great time.
00:01:07
Jon
Absolutely loved it. But, you know, there's, there came a point in the last, about three years ago where, you know, and for some people out there, like when you feel something on the inside, when you feel like somebody's tugging at you, especially like, you know, for me, it was like the Lord was tugging on my heart. It was And for a while I battled with it. I was like, I'm not really sure what he's getting at here. i'm not really sure what this direction is.
00:01:27
Jon
But the more that I talked to people, both in my church and my school, my close friends and family, it it became really apparent that season of life was changing.
00:01:37
Jon
It became very apparent that I was being called in another direction from education and didn't really know what that looked like. But over time, just like I said, having those discussions, it became pretty apparent that I'm a really good coach.
00:01:51
Jon
You know, that's, that's what I do. I coach kids all day long in the classroom. I coach after school in different sports. I do this, I do that. It's what I love doing. It's really a talent and a gift I have. And they were like, well, you should really pursue that in some way, shape or form.
00:02:05
Jon
And so, you know, I basically sought out a couple of mentors, started doing some research and, found what I thought would be a really good avenue, a really good market and a niche and a passion of mine and put together what I call the re the Relentless Pursuit 247. And that's now my business. It's my it's my performance coaching, helping ah men really step into the leadership role that God's called them to be. And I absolutely love every second of it.
00:02:34
Jon
So that's kind of how I got there. you know It was ah very much a leap of faith, very much outside my comfort zone. But ultimately, if you're feeling called to do something, then You should pursue it. You should be obedient on that.
00:02:46
Ken Freire
Yeah. Okay. So let's let's do a little bit of deep dive because i think there's a lot of people who are listening to this who are like, I feel that discontentment.
00:02:49
Jon
Sure.
00:02:55
Ken Freire
I know I should be doing something else or pivoting, but they're not.
00:02:59
Jon
Mm-hmm.
00:03:01
Ken Freire
And you said it like, if you you're not comfortable with the leap of faith. You're like, I just did it. What was like the conviction or the thing that finally kind of pushed you over the edge that you're like, all right, I got to do this?
00:03:14
Jon
That's a great question. um What was the thing that really pushed me over the edge? I think it was my attitude coming home from work every day. It was something that my bride picked up on. you know I used to in my early parts of my career as an educator would come home. I'd be excited, full of energy, talking about my day, loving what I do.
00:03:33
Jon
And she could tell that the passion and the fire was kind of gone. you know The last couple of years in particular that I would come home and Not necessarily that I would complain or this or that, but I would kind of grumble. And she just like, do you really like what you do anymore?
00:03:45
Jon
And if I got truly honest with myself, it was no. You know, I went together with a paycheck. It was stable income for the family, for food on the table. But did I really love what I was doing anymore? Not really.
00:03:56
Jon
And, you know, she's like, well, you should really look to do something that you love. And it was like in that moment, like conviction, like, OK, I knew I've had this stir going on. this is like conviction saying, okay, I need to pursue it. I need to actually just go do it. I may not know what it looks like. I may not know exactly what the end result will be, but this is it.
00:04:15
Jon
Like I need to make this shift. I need to make this change.
00:04:18
Ken Freire
now And did you make that change right away, like in the sense of, hey, ah quit my job and went full time?
00:04:21
Jon
No.
00:04:25
Jon
No.
00:04:26
Ken Freire
Or was it more like, hey, let me do a side hustle? Like what was your logic behind that?
00:04:28
Jon
Yeah. Yeah. I wish I could, ah but I also know that with a family with two kids to feed, ah throwing away a teaching salary with benefits that was very stable and predictable income for something that is entrepreneurial, that definitely has a lot more variables, not the case, right?
00:04:35
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:04:45
Jon
So it was more of a I'm going to follow this calling. It's going to start as a side hustle, and I'm going to try to basically slowly build, slowly build over time to the point where I can walk away and this can become my full-time thing.
00:04:56
Ken Freire
Yeah, and and I think that's the one of the best ways to do it, right? Because you have income, you you're not walking in a scarcity mindset or desperation.
00:04:59
Jon
Yeah.
00:05:05
Ken Freire
Like how many times have you seen people do stuff out of desperation? Because they're like, I just got to feed my family the next paycheck. And it's like, you would never do that if you were in an abundance mindset or you're like, I'm safe, I'm secure in my finances.
00:05:17
Jon
Mm
00:05:19
Ken Freire
Right. So I appreciate that. That's the the route you took. um Walk us through when you started your business, what was the thing that like really helped started helping you grow where you're like, i think I want to do this.
00:05:34
Ken Freire
You know, like I, I, my business, i like the side hustle.
00:05:38
Jon
I think it was starting to put myself out there a little bit. It was starting to look at exactly what I could offer other people. um I got to meet with a lot of close friends of mine, a lot of close brothers in Christ, talking to them about just what potentially could help them, essentially. Like, how can I serve them?
00:05:57
Jon
It was starting to ask questions of, how can I serve you? What are some things you're looking at how can you How are you looking to become a better leader? It was starting to ask just a lot of questions and finding out that there was a lot of people with a lot of needs.
00:06:09
Jon
And I felt like there were some things that maybe I could help with. So, you know, that gave me a little bit of confidence that I was and like confirmation that I was moving in the right direction. It wasn't like I was asking these things there, but it was going, what are you talking about?
00:06:23
Jon
Like, that seems out of not just no, it was it was a lot of confirmations along the way little things is that just were like telling me, okay, I'm moving in the right direction.
00:06:34
Ken Freire
Yeah, what was the, um you know, was there any one of those little like small moments that you're like, all right, I'm going all in, this is exactly what I want to do i that happened?
00:06:48
Jon
Yeah, it was actually one guy that I met through social media on Facebook. He's a guy from Texas. He was a guy that came up on my feed as looking for some help just getting in shape.
00:06:59
Jon
He had actually been hit by a truck while riding his bicycle and broke his leg in multiple places.
00:07:04
Ken Freire
Mm-hmm.
00:07:06
Jon
And he was you know laid up for like four or five months. He put on like 40 pounds. It was affecting all areas of his life. And you could tell it was just kind of like a cracker. And I just reached out one day, I was just like, hey, man, like, let's chat. Let's just see how I can help in any way, shape or form.
00:07:20
Jon
um And that was about it. That was early on. And, ah you know, we put some things in place. We talked a lot about just what he wanted to do.
00:07:31
Jon
ah He was essentially like my first client, right? That first client into the business. But he's now like one of my close friends, you know, apart from the coaching thing, he became a really close friend. We still talk very often all the time. But we were able to help him get to a spot physically where now he's best shape he's been in in a while. He's had me pictures of him lifting weights the other day, benching a good number he hasn't done since like high school.
00:07:55
Jon
His, his marriage improved in a lot of different ways because of the confidence and the energy that he brought now from that experience and from like all of his progressions. ah It was, you know, it seems small, but it's like just working with him and seeing what,
00:08:12
Jon
coaching can do for people that I was like, I'm all in like, if this is the kind of satisfaction that it brings, like, it doesn't even matter the fact that I didn't even charge him for this.
00:08:23
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:08:23
Jon
Right? Because it's like, I was just getting my feet wet. I wanted to see what this would look like. It's not about the money. It was about truly helping and serving people. And that the feelings that it gave me I was like, Okay, if I can do this now for a living, like for a career, I am I'm all in.
00:08:36
Ken Freire
Yeah. That feeling is so awesome when you're like, I've made a genuine impact this. in someone's life. And it's not even just their life. It's like now they the the side effects is their family is is alive more, they're thriving more, their relationship.
00:08:52
Ken Freire
You're like, oh, I got to be a part of that.
00:08:52
Jon
okay
00:08:55
Ken Freire
Thank you, God. I appreciate that.
00:08:56
Jon
Exactly. Yep.
00:08:57
Ken Freire
um So fast forward to today. What's your business look like? And what's kind of been the biggest lever for continued growth?
00:09:07
Jon
That's a great question. So fast forward to today, we have tried a few different things in the business as far as to grow the business. um One of the things early on was the pushy sales tactics, right?
00:09:19
Jon
I did make a mistake early on in my career of i wouldn't say it was a mistake, it was a learning lesson, right?
00:09:19
Ken Freire
yeah. Yeah.
00:09:23
Jon
I think it's only a mistake if you don't learn something. And I signed up with a mentor coach, who was, you know, talking all the talk about helping you grow this and that, but it was very much a We're going to be super persistent. We're going to be super pushy. It's a numbers game. Just talk to them over and over and eventually they'll cave. And I'm like, that's not really the message I want to be sending.
00:09:47
Jon
I agree that it might work for you and that's cool, but that's not the way I want to run my business. And so fast forward to today, it's it's it's like we've talked about in the beginning. it's We're operating from a point of authenticity. It's operating from a point of, I'm not here to push you.
00:10:02
Jon
I'm here to find out if this is, first of all, is a good fit for both parties. And two, how can I truly serve you? What are some things you're going for here? What are some things that we can truly help with? And if it's great, cool, it's going to work, it works. And if it doesn't, my I'm not going to push it on it, right? It's like, because you got to be buying into it. So that was one like learning thing that I had to do early on.
00:10:21
Jon
um But fast forward to today, probably the biggest lever I've been finding, and that's just from having a lot of conversations with a lot of my clients and a lot of other people, particularly men, because that's who I work with most of the time, is that guys really want community.
00:10:37
Jon
guys really want community, but they're scared to ask for it. Right? I think as men, sometimes we are so much into this lone wolf mentality, this idea that we have to do things on our own and asking for help is like a bad thing. Like it it diminishes our value as a man by asking for help.
00:10:53
Jon
But in reality, they crave community because so many of us don't have those connections. They don't have that like brotherhood. They don't have that accountability. And that's what I've been finding. So a lot of what we do now in our business is like,
00:11:07
Jon
The basis of it is a brotherhood. The basis of it is a community where guys can come together, lean on each other. And then, yes, we have some other coaching stuff that goes on, too. But it starts at that level of brotherhood because it builds trust. It builds connections. It builds and networks. And guys thrive in it, right? Once you start seeing guys open up about certain things, like I had a guy the other day talk about, could I challenge him to put his phone away after 9 o'clock at night?
00:11:36
Jon
because he was realizing that it was being a time suck in his life and it was taking away from his family time. And I was like, for a week, just put it away. And so he did. And not only did he do that, he came back and he told me he canceled his TV subscription.
00:11:49
Jon
I'm like, what did you do?
00:11:51
Ken Freire
Hmm. ah
00:11:51
Jon
He's like, he's like, no, seriously. like, I canceled it because I went from the phone to the TV. And he's like, I want to show up better for my family. I want to be there. And night I want to be there and actually be present, not just physically, but like emotionally. He's like, I'm not saying it's going to be gone forever, but I felt convicted that I needed to get rid of it in the moment.
00:12:11
Jon
And I'm already seeing differences. My wife is noticing my attention for them. My kids are noticing, oh, daddy's here. He wants to do this and that. And I'm like, how powerful is that? But it's because they've been in this community and they feel comfortable to be vulnerable.
00:12:27
Jon
Right. And that's not something you always get. So the lever has been community.
00:12:33
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:12:33
Jon
And that's and that's been something that we're going to continue to grow. And it's been it's been great.
00:12:38
Ken Freire
Yeah, I think about um from from our Christian faith, right? We have a triune God. There's natural born community.
00:12:44
Jon
Mm hmm.
00:12:46
Ken Freire
And there's so many times we think that we're supposed to just be that lone ranger like you talked about, but we're actually designed for community. We're designed to have people around us, really tight, close-knit friends that we can live life together with.
00:12:53
Jon
We are.
00:12:59
Ken Freire
And in some ways, that's what you're providing with these guys. Like, hey, I have a space where I can share my thoughts. I can share where i'm at. And they're being challenged and encouraged.
00:13:09
Jon
Right.
00:13:10
Ken Freire
you know So it's not like, hey, I'm just going to stay here where you're at. You're like, no, no, I'm going level you up, which is pretty huge.
00:13:15
Jon
Yep.
00:13:16
Ken Freire
And obviously performance coaching, that's what you're doing.
00:13:18
Jon
Exactly.
00:13:20
Ken Freire
what What do you...
00:13:20
Jon
you
00:13:21
Ken Freire
Sorry, go on. You were going to ask...
00:13:23
Jon
no yeah you go ahead. cause You had a question on your on your head. So.
00:13:26
Ken Freire
Well, I was just going to say, you know as you're growing the community, growing your business, what's kind of been the the the hard part or maybe a challenge that you're facing right now that you're trying to overcome?
00:13:29
Jon
hmm.
00:13:39
Jon
The hard part, trying to think hard part right now. A hard part has been finding the balance because we have, you know, we like our community is free.
00:13:50
Jon
or We have a free community.
00:13:51
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:13:52
Jon
It's great. that's where they come in, they get their things. ah Finding the balance between giving insane value, making those connections, having that community at the free level, but then leveraging that also into like the coaching world, figuring out a balance of how much coaching to give away necessarily for free before saying like, hey, this is something that really we should work on one-on-one and transitioning them over to that.
00:14:16
Jon
But it's really about just giving them insane value and building that trust and building the fact that, you know, you are a subject matter expert in that area. And it's like, If you build that trust, it's like they know they're yeah you're coming at them from a place of servitude, of love, not of, hey, I just want to make money off you.
00:14:33
Jon
Because that's not what it's about at the end of the day. To me, it's like what you said, genuine impact in people's lives. And for me, it's all about how can I bring value to this interaction, to this conversation every time we meet?
00:14:44
Jon
I hope that they leave our interaction a little bit better than they were before. So definitely the challenge, and it still continues to be a little bit of like, how much exactly. And I don't think there's a written rule.
00:14:55
Jon
It's like you could read Hermasi all day long.
00:14:56
Ken Freire
I wish there was.
00:14:56
Jon
You could read Myron Golden. You can read all these things. But at the end of the day, it's figuring out what works for you and your business. So it's still, I think, a little bit of trial and error what we're doing. But um people are engaging, which to me is like one of the biggest factors of them getting a lot out of it is that they're engaging, they're showing up, they're doing the things. And hopefully that'll transition as we transition a little bit.
00:15:18
Ken Freire
Where can people find this free community at?
00:15:21
Jon
So we, a few months ago, actually relocated from Facebook over to school. So we're actually on the school platform, which has been tremendous. I feel that school has a lot more features and ways for guys to connect and resources that we're able to provide. Like we can offer courses, we can offer calls straight on the the the page, not necessarily having to go to Zoom. It's it's really good. So school's been great.
00:15:42
Jon
That's where we're at right now.
00:15:43
Ken Freire
Okay. And then for those of you who are not familiar with school, that's S-K-O-O-L dot com.
00:15:48
Jon
Yes, yes.
00:15:51
Ken Freire
but
00:15:51
Jon
Good point.
00:15:52
Ken Freire
But what's the name of the school group so that we can put it in the show notes?
00:15:56
Jon
Okay, it is a relentless pursuit 247. Yep, just right after the business name.
00:15:59
Ken Freire
Okay. Relentless Pursuit 247. You can find it in the school platform.
00:16:04
Jon
Yes.
00:16:06
Ken Freire
That's great. I love school. There's a lot of great communities that I'm part of. Now I'm going go check it out, man. i'll be like, all right, let's see it.
00:16:10
Jon
Yep.
00:16:12
Ken Freire
But so your challenge is going from like how much value to coaching and that kind of process.
00:16:18
Jon
okay
00:16:21
Ken Freire
Have you found something that you're like, so far that you like that you're like, this kind of is working for you?
00:16:26
Jon
isn
00:16:26
Ken Freire
Or what? And what's that process?
00:16:29
Jon
um So the the free community been great, but the one thing that we've been finding to help try to kind of like bridge guys over is we've been running little mini challenges.
00:16:35
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:16:37
Jon
So we call them actually, so right now we're in the middle of one, it's called a 21 day no quit challenge. And it's designed to be a little bit more of a,
00:16:42
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:16:46
Jon
little bit more like a mastermind idea where they come in and the idea is for 21 days, they're going to get 21 leadership principle teachings from myself that I'm going to do like quick little video drops every day, six to 10 minutes on a different leadership principle.
00:16:47
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:16:57
Jon
There's daily workouts, there's daily nutrition stuff. It's really about helping guys develop consistency and stackable small habits that really help build discipline. Because that's really what's lacking. A lot of times is like just a lack of consistency and accountability. They start something fall off, start something fall off.
00:17:14
Jon
their confidence goes down. So it's like these are designed to help them get that confidence, get that discipline in three short weeks. And then and usually like right now, we're we the first few we've run free, just come in, get the value, get these things. And then on the back end, being like, okay, if this works for you, and you want to take it further.
00:17:32
Jon
Now we have these other options that you can do because like the workouts are yes, I have different level like beginner, intermediate advanced, but it's still not like tailored to them.
00:17:39
Ken Freire
Oh, yeah.
00:17:41
Jon
So it's kind of like, a nice bridge where I can sprinkle in some things throughout where it's like, hey, if you want to take this a little bit further, have this coaching. This is what I do with guys. But don't feel like you have to type of deal. It's just going to be there. um The first challenge we ever ran was like 12 people.
00:17:57
Jon
The next time it was 31. So it was like it's it's definitely getting some traction and people really love it. Guys love challenges. They do. Guys love challenges. Piece cake. Right. um and feeling like they're a part of something.
00:18:10
Jon
So we have weekly calls, where people get to share some wins, daily accountability stuff. I mean, it's a lot of fun. And the guys have a blast, but it's been a nice bridge towards that more like coaching style of things that a little bit more beyond just the like the community.
00:18:17
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:18:26
Ken Freire
Nice, man. um And I've always enjoyed jumping into a challenge and just been like, OK, let's just see what I do for the next 21 days. My business partner and i um we just did a 30 day book challenge.
00:18:38
Ken Freire
So from podcast to book.
00:18:40
Jon
o
00:18:41
Ken Freire
So we're like, you know, because a lot of people struggle.
00:18:41
Jon
Okay.
00:18:43
Ken Freire
They were like, I want to write a book. They don't know how to. um and we were told this was a complete experiment, man. So I was like, oh, will this work? We said, let's get on our podcast. And each day is a chapter of the podcast of the book.
00:18:57
Ken Freire
So we had like the outline and him and I are riffing.
00:19:00
Jon
Okay.
00:19:00
Ken Freire
And then we we use AI to help assist. Now, here's the big thing was that like, it didn't write it for us.
00:19:04
Jon
Yep.
00:19:05
Ken Freire
It was all of our ideas and thoughts. We already had the outline, but it assisted us. And man, the chapters turned out pretty darn well. We were kind of surprised.
00:19:14
Jon
That's awesome.
00:19:14
Ken Freire
We're like, oh, this actually worked. So, and now the book is going to come out here and in mid-December, end of December.
00:19:22
Jon
Oh, that's exciting.
00:19:23
Ken Freire
Yeah. And because we were just testing it, but it was like a challenge. Now, here's the fun part.
00:19:26
Jon
Yeah.
00:19:26
Ken Freire
The reason why I bring it up. We've been announcing it in public in LinkedIn. That's where we're on a lot.
00:19:32
Jon
Hmm.
00:19:32
Ken Freire
And on LinkedIn, because we were sharing it, there's other people who are like, hey, I'm going to try this challenge. I'm going to do podcast to book too. And they're doing it now. And we're like, oh, you can do it. They're like, I found a name.
00:19:43
Ken Freire
I did it. ah like And it's just cool to see what happens when you put people in a challenge, how they rise to the occasion.
00:19:46
Jon
Hmm. Yes, exactly. Exactly. You mentioned that rising up. I mean, we have guys that are pushing themselves in ways they hadn't done before. And it's like, it's great to see.
00:19:56
Jon
And they're excited about it. And they should be. It's like we celebrate that.
00:19:58
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:20:00
Jon
Yep.
00:20:00
Ken Freire
Yeah. John, for you, man, as as we look at our conversation and start to wrap up, there are people who are listening to this. They've been growing their business and they've been struggling.
00:20:11
Ken Freire
They're like, man, I'm not getting as many clients.
00:20:11
Jon
Yeah.
00:20:13
Ken Freire
It's been really hard.
00:20:15
Jon
Yeah.
00:20:15
Ken Freire
um And they might have even not had like this is our full time thing now. Right. Like what's ah what's a good word of encouragement for them to just help them through this process?
00:20:25
Jon
The best advice I can give. And it's something that was given to me early on when I'll be honest, like the first time. So when I first launched my business a few years ago, after a couple months, I think I went into it with the wrong mindset of like, I'm going to be instantaneous successful, right? I'm going to be an overnight success. I'm going to go from John to Eric Thomas, hip hop preacher overnight.
00:20:45
Jon
That's,
00:20:45
Ken Freire
ah
00:20:46
Jon
that's That wasn't the case. And I always have super high expectations for myself. So it's weird for me to like jump all in on something and not see the immediate success.
00:20:55
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:20:56
Jon
And the first couple of months in is like, I just want to throw in the towel. I was like, oh, maybe this isn't for me. I went in, I tried it, this and that. And I was talking to a friend who had been in the entrepreneurial space for many, many, many years, kind of like a mentor.
00:21:10
Jon
And the best advice they gave me was, John, I didn't start feeling like I even got off the ground. until year four. i was like, I don't want to wait for years, like what may not take that long. But what I'm saying that what they tried to tell me was, if it's something you truly have been called to, if it's something that you truly have a passion for, that it'll work out in the end, but you got to continue just to show up and and work.
00:21:35
Jon
Like all great things are not overnight success. If you want something that's going to make massive impact and have massive change, it's a long game you're going to play. And honestly, you're going to love every second of it because you're going to be doing things you love to do.
00:21:46
Jon
So if you truly feel called to this, just show up every day. Just show up every day and ask God, how can I move this thing one inch, one nanometer further today than I did yesterday?
00:21:58
Jon
Because if you do that, and I know like if you haven't read Atomic Habits or The Compound Effect, I highly recommend both those books because they're both about small, almost very insignificant things that you can do each and every day that compounded create massive change, massive change.
00:22:16
Jon
But it starts at those little things. It's like, you don't have to go zero to 60 because usually the big grand sweeping things you do anyway are not sustainable. What is sustainable is that one step in front of the other every single day. So for myself, it's like, yes, early on, don't see the, you don't see the initial maybe income that you want to see or whatever, like hundreds of clients pouring in.
00:22:39
Jon
But it's also, I have this person that uses this analogy all the time. When a plane is taking off, it uses most of its energy in the very initial launch launch phase. Like when it's taking off, when it's on the runway, it's getting that initial traction and and that initial momentum going.
00:22:54
Jon
Because that's just where it needs to get in order to get up into the air. They're like, that's how it is in your business. It's like the most work is going to be in the beginning because you need to get that momentum going. And the only way to get momentum, first of all, is like you can create momentum. But then if you want to keep it, you got to stay in the game.
00:23:10
Jon
And I'm like, I can't, you know, try something for a couple weeks, back off for a couple months, try for a couple weeks, back off a couple months. It was like, you got to keep it moving forward, whatever way. So if you've truly been called to it, if you truly feel like God is like, put it on your heart to do it.
00:23:24
Jon
Wake up every day and say, thank you, God, for this, for this calling. Help me move it forward today in some way, shape or form, whatever it looks like. And it may not be on the income side. A lot of times it isn't. But every great interaction you have with somebody, every great conversation you have where you feel like I left that person off in a better place than they were, there's victories and all of that. Like that's the stuff that keeps bringing me back every single day is like, who can I help and who can I serve today?
00:23:50
Ken Freire
And it sounds like you're really good at reminding yourself. I think it was, ah is it Benjamin Hardy who talks about remember the gain, not the gap, right?
00:23:58
Jon
Yeah, the gain, the gap.
00:23:59
Ken Freire
and The gain gap. And you're just like, hey, what have I done?
00:24:01
Jon
Mm hmm.
00:24:02
Ken Freire
Who have I helped? Who have I accomplished? and And in small small things, it's not like, oh my gosh, this person lost 50 pounds in one day.
00:24:04
Jon
Yeah.
00:24:07
Jon
Right.
00:24:10
Jon
Yeah.
00:24:10
Ken Freire
That's not possible,
00:24:14
Ken Freire
but it's all the little wins. Like, hey, they did 10 push-ups today.
00:24:16
Jon
Yeah.
00:24:17
Ken Freire
Congratulations. Or I did 10 push-ups today. Congratulations. Like, cool. All right. Let's see what if we can do 11 tomorrow.
00:24:21
Jon
Yeah.
00:24:22
Ken Freire
If we can do 12 the next day.
00:24:23
Jon
Mm hmm.
00:24:23
Ken Freire
You're like, the the atomic habit is such a big deal.
00:24:26
Jon
Yes, it is. And it's like the other thing I want to recommend to people to is like what you said the gap in the game.
00:24:32
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:24:32
Jon
our natural tendency is to look at the gaps is to look at where we fell short is to look at where we could have done things differently instead of looking at what progress have i made too busy we're looking up at the mountain and see how far we still have to go that we haven't turned around to look back and see how far we've gone up the mountain and it's like the more people can turn around and see that they go oh i am getting there i am getting there i'm a big hiker sorry i like hiking analogies
00:24:48
Ken Freire
Oh,
00:24:53
Ken Freire
oh man. I'm... i amm Yeah. No, no. i mean I love hiking too. And I'm a huge victim of that too, man, where I'm like, all right, I've climbed a lot in the Rockies and I'm like, let's go.
00:25:05
Ken Freire
And I'm like, let's just keep going fast, fast, faster, or faster. I'm like, all right, we're at the top of the hill. Cool. But like, there's so much beautiful scenery that I missed because I was just trying to get there.
00:25:13
Jon
Right.
00:25:14
Ken Freire
for Like enjoying the process is huge.
00:25:14
Jon
Right. and
00:25:16
Ken Freire
Even in the entrepreneurial route. And I know, cause I've been there, you're there, right? Like we've both been there where it's just like, I need to make money because I need to provide for my family. So sometimes enjoying the process can be a little hard.
00:25:27
Jon
Right.
00:25:29
Ken Freire
But the more you can enjoy the process, the better off you're going to be.
00:25:33
Jon
Mm-hmm. Exactly.
00:25:36
Ken Freire
John, as as we wrap up our time together, I've been doing this with all of our guests. I'm creating an expert-led business trend report. And there's five questions that i ask everybody, rapid-fire questions that I want to want you to answer.
00:25:50
Ken Freire
And we'll just see where it goes. um um
00:25:53
Jon
Okay.
00:25:53
Ken Freire
I'm promising myself not to try to make commentary. Okay. So question number one is this.
00:25:56
Jon
Let's do it.
00:25:59
Ken Freire
What's something in your business you're experimenting with right now?
00:26:03
Jon
ah We are experimenting with different levels of coaching in our business. So one to one group coaching, things like that, looking at different levels to get guys in on different pricing tiers and different like budgets all across the board.
00:26:09
Ken Freire
Okay.
00:26:16
Ken Freire
Sweet. So you're trying be accessible to everybody.
00:26:18
Jon
Yeah.
00:26:20
Ken Freire
Question number two, what part of your business feels the most in flux or like you don't have solidified right now these days? Thinking like marketing, sales, program operations, which one's not like solidified?
00:26:32
Jon
Probably our advertising. Our advertising is still very new. We haven't done much in the advertising realm, particularly in paid ads, but it's something that I think we're going to venture into a little bit more. ah So it's it's learning some skills related to that.
00:26:42
Ken Freire
Okay.
00:26:45
Ken Freire
right. Sweet. What's a goal you're building toward this year that you're really excited about?
00:26:53
Jon
One goal is to impact 100 men in 2026.
00:26:57
Ken Freire
Okay. I love it.
00:26:58
Jon
Work with men between my business partner and
00:27:02
Ken Freire
That's a great goal, man. um Where do you see the industry shifting? And by industry, I mean the expert-led industry shifting. And how are you preparing for it?
00:27:13
Jon
I'm going to talk related to coaching. And I think one of the things people are, are I think it's shifting in authenticity. um Because I think a lot of times we see a lot of that pushy sales and I think it's run its course for the most part. and I think people are realizing that we want down to earth, raw, authentic people.
00:27:30
Jon
And we're willing to just be that in itself to be authentic. And I think you're going to see a massive pushback in that direction.
00:27:37
Ken Freire
All last question. What do you want to pass on to your kids when they grow up?
00:27:42
Jon
I want to pass on to them, really, it's a, if God puts something on your heart, pursue it. Even if it you can't see down the road, like if you can't see them, like you may not be able to see the map, but you know the map maker and being willing to just trudge forward.
00:27:58
Jon
Even if it's something that's out of your comfort zone, something like that, just if it's if it's something God puts on your heart, pursue it. No matter what anybody else tells you about it, how crazy it might be, pursue it, be obedient.
00:28:11
Ken Freire
John, that's a good word, man. And we're going to end it right there. I'm not going to add to it, man, but you're right. You're 100% right. John, for those who might be interested in engaging with you, what's the best way to get ahold of you?
00:28:23
Jon
Some of the best ways I'm on Facebook, that's probably my go to social media platform. But I'm also like I said, on that school platform, I got a YouTube channel. um Any of those you can go to but Facebook's probably the best to find me there. Just type in Jon Lester.
00:28:36
Jon
I'll be the crazy guy either with a frozen beard from running outside in negative 10 degree weather like this morning, or i might be doing running with my son in a Santa Claus outfit like we did a couple of days ago.
00:28:47
Jon
That'll be me. Somehow, shape or form, I'm probably doing something involving activity and maybe not looking the best. We'll see.
00:28:57
Ken Freire
That's awesome, man. Well, John, I love that. I have one of my mentors did the same thing in Minnesota. He would run in the winter all the time and send me pictures.
00:29:05
Jon
Yep.
00:29:05
Ken Freire
And I'm like, yeah, bless your heart. ah
00:29:10
Jon
um I'm at this point. I don't know if I'm insane or just determined and disciplined. I don't know. At this point. I don't know that my brain's frozen.
00:29:16
Ken Freire
we' We'll go with the latter. John, thank you so much for for this episode. Thank you so much for just being obedient and helping these men. I mean, man, we need so much more godly men like yourself who are helping other men reach their potential, living out their leadership giftings, like walking in what I believe God has called us men to be, these leaders in the home, leaders in society.
00:29:41
Ken Freire
And you're doing that, man.
00:29:41
Jon
I have.
00:29:42
Ken Freire
So thank you. Thank you. Thank you for doing that.
00:29:44
Jon
Thank you for being here. Let me be on here, Ken. It was it's a great conversation. So much good.
00:29:48
Ken Freire
Yeah, absolutely. And for those of you who are listening, man, always remember, you may be running your business by yourself, but with SoloScaled, you're never alone. Hope you guys have a great day.