In this episode, we follow John's journey as a young man as he navigates a path from working at his family's egg farm to the mobile home park they developed and then to the citrus and land business balanced with technology consulting.

Faced with unclear opportunities, he transitions into managing operations at a family-run mobile home park, where he acquires a real estate license and hones his sales and marketing skills.

Despite challenges with the business model in the highest interest rate environment in a century, he creates a customer service department from scratch, emphasizing inspection and quality control to improve customer experiences.

His interest in processes and systems continues through a series of ventures, including involvement in early computerized trading systems and software development.

From becoming the best student of a niche trading product to leading workshops across the USA, his versatile skill set and proactive approach reveal significant lessons on adaptability, learning, and customer service.

00:00 Early Career Moves and Challenges

00:34 Learning the Ropes in Real Estate and Customer Service

02:10 Mastering Customer Service and Process Improvement

05:06 Venturing into Software and Subscription Products

05:35 Deep Dive into Trading and Investment Software

09:51 Expanding Skills into Workshops and Customer Support

10:34 Innovations in Newsletter Automation and Programming

12:01 Reflections on a Diverse Career and Skill Set

And then what'd you do after that?

The short version is I

went to work at the Lake Alfred

headquarters office with my father.

And, there wasn't this really,

really clear plan laid out

for where we were going to go.

We had citrus and land.

And there were people managing

that and there just wasn't a

really clear opportunity for me.

I wasn't going to drive

a tractor in the grove.

Right.

So, um, I had to figure stuff out and I

considered leaving for a bit and going

and getting, learning some other skills.

The people I talked to about

that kind of discouraged that.

So about that time, my parents

had launched a mobile home park.

And, um, they had a partner in

that, and there was need for

additional personnel there.

And I went to the mobile home park and

got my real estate license and began

to learn sales training as well as

marketing as well as customer service.

And so it was a great training ground.

Again, it was a terrible business

model, because we were selling

lots in a marketplace where.

90% of the other vendors

were, were renting the lots.

And that was the, the accepted model.

And everybody was.

It made it a cheaper

investment for the buyer.

And at that time, that was right

about the time the interest

rates were peaking at 18%.

So people that had money in a CD

were not interested in pulling

it out to pay for that lot.

So it was, it was a very

difficult time for that business.

Our timing was just unfortunate.

But I, yeah, I did learn a tremendous

amount and that's where I became the

customer service department there.

I created basically created it.

I mean, otherwise the people that

were doing sales were and when

somebody needed help or had a

problem, they had to pull off of

something else to take care of that.

And I was, uh, I was too young to be taken

seriously as a salesman in that industry.

Like, "You remind me of my grandson."

Or your great grandson.

"Could you call an

adult for me to talk to?"

That's kind of the conversation

we had a couple of times.

And so no.

More than a couple of times.

If I recall.

So me switching into customer

service and the process, what I had

learned at the egg farm about processes

and process improvement and systems

really worked well for me there.

Because I became the person who, when

a new home came in, I did an inspection.

We had to have two or three inspections.

We had one when it first came

in to see if there was anything.

But well, as soon as it was.

So mobile homes come in two parts

and they had to be put together.

So we had a crew that

came in and did all that.

And as soon as they put the two together,

I went in and did an inspection.

And determined.

If there were any big things, like

sometimes something would shift

or, you know, break in transit.

So, you know, I would

start a list on that.

And then once we finished kind of all of

the finish work and setup and everything,

then I would do another inspection to

make sure it was ready for the customer.

Because the last thing you want

is somebody moving into their home

and then finding 50 things that you

didn't know about and present you with

this list or they're hoppin' mad.

Right.

So it was all about making that, that move

in it, that initial experience for the

customer, a really positive experience.

And part of it was pre-framing that.

There's going to be things that

aren't, they're going to need fixing.

Okay.

We've got a list and here's the

list I'll show I'll take you through

and I'll show you all these things.

Live in the house for a week,

week and a half, something

like that and add to the list.

And when we get, when we feel like we

found everything, then we have the, you.

You know, we have the factory

folks come and fix it all at once.

Cool

Good with that?

And, and I mean, it made all

the difference in the world.

Sure.

So I was really, really good at

that and really learned a lot about

customer service in the process.

And, and the age difference was

much less of a concern there.

Right.

Wow.

But we didn't didn't plan this.

We didn't.

We didn't script it.

And so this is very organic.

This is where

we need to go though.

These are the, this is, this

is all part of your history.

This is how I built up

the skill set that I built.

Right.

So I built.

You know, I learned about process and

systems and, I could talk for an hour

about this stuff from the egg farm.

And the things that I learned

about keeping eggs fresh.

Remember the oil?

We put mineral oil on the eggs.

So we had to, if we want

somebody wanted to dye their,

have eggs for dying for Easter,

we had to make sure we had eggs

that didn't have the oil applied to

them because the dye wouldn't stick.

Right.

And so we had to plan for that.

Right.

But, but the oil kept the

inside interior of the egg from

evaporating through the shell.

So it kept the eggs fresher a

month longer than an un-oiled egg.

It was a tiny little spend for us.

Uh, but it, it made it much

higher quality product, right.

And, uh, so the things like that were just

kind of baked into me through experience.

So then my next project was.

Uh, I became involved with a, uh,

actually bought a product, a software

product, and it is a membership

product and software included.

So this was the first, first time I

know of a, of, of selling something

with the model that we now see a

subscription product that we see

everywhere now, first one I'd ever seen.

And, and it was a kind

of a high end product.

So that made sense, but it was investment.

Investment-related and trading related.

And I became just fascinated with the

science and the mystery behind this thing.

And I don't like, I don't like secrets.

I don't like mysteries.

I want to solve them.

So, you know, it, it, it

was a match made, I guess.

So, anyway, I became.

I was asked to.

Yeah.

Within a bout two or three years.

I became very knowledgeable

about this product, asked a

lot of questions and developed.

Uh, and this was again before really

we had the email so much, so I was.

I had a letter writing campaign going back

and forth with the owner of this company.

The questions I was asking.

I was sending him charts and me

asking and he would send back answers

and he liked that I was doing that.

And I became his best student.

And because he was

willing to share with me.

I learned a lot alert faster.

I learned stuff that nobody else knew.

Right.

And so then he asked me to, he wanted

to expand his business and create a new

division, but he didn't want to run it.

That know, like and trust thing.

Yeah.

And so he.

He asked me if I'd be

interested in doing that.

And.

Our business.

Running with the citrus and the cattle

and so forth that I had more free time

than a lot of people in business do.

So I said, yes, I would love to do that.

And again, I saw that as an expansion,

sort of an expansion on our business.

Because I became now a consultant.

I was now.

Hey, you know, At creating a new

profit center for our business.

And, um, and I did that

for well over 10 years and

Well you also did coaching.

I did.

Our history of coaching

goes back to before we met.

That's another day.

Podcast.

But we, yes, I, I was

talking to people about how

helping them use this product.

But that expanded very naturally and

unavoidably into helping them with

their computer problems, because

this was a piece of computer software

that was very early days of Windows.

In fact, I was using it

before, before Windows.

It was a DOS based product.

And, um, and then, you know, as

windows came along, it transitioned.

And so I was helping them operate

their computers and, and deal with

those issues as well as understanding

how to apply this product.

You know, to, to the

decision support that I was.

And you were also doing

the bug finding for the programmer,

who was building this from scratch.

And you became his right-hand man.

I, yes, I was so involved with

him that, um, he, you know, I was

using the, the software every day

and, and testing, trying everything.

And when a new version came out, I

tried the new features and I just,

I seem to be able to find bugs.

Yeah.

We call him Johnny bug

finder, in case anybody.

Yes, that's one of my.

One of my Connie nickname.

That's right.

And a, and.

But he said I was the best, uh, software.

Bug finder and tester that

he'd ever worked with..

And he was a career programmer.

I mean, back to.

You know, the early days of when they

had the big reels of tape and stuff.

So customer service skills, process

development all came into play there and I

just continued to evolve that and because.

I was also doing, using the product

and doing my own trading as I

was helping these other traders.

So I really knew how to, I was a customer

as well as, doing customer support.

So I could relate to their

situation in a way that a lot

of customer support can't right.

I.

I was on both sides.

Product of the product.

I was a product of the product.

Exactly.

And trading is very personal, in that

it Shows all of your psychological

flaws to you, you know, your, your fears.

When you're taking a lot of risk,

a financial risk and at that

time it was the futures market.

So they were, they were big swings.

Uh, you could easily lose a

thousand dollars in a day.

And that can really

play havoc on your mind.

And I experienced that.

And so I I learned to help them

manage that and be aware of it.

And as best you can, I mean,

every it's a personal journey,

so everybody has to do their own.

Well, and you also

developed that into workshops

that we went all over the country.

Yep.

We started doing stock workshops

and then we started traveling and

doing those around the country.

And that was a great experience.

It was more fun.

That was, again, a combination of

some coaching, some customer support.

We had Joseph travel

with us and he was doing.

That was great.

Yeah.

Software support during the workshop.

We had a great time with that and, and

served the customers to at a higher level.

And then they got to have the, you know,

instead of just getting up, calling me

on the phone or this was before Zoom.

So instead of calling me on the phone or

just getting this newsletter in the mail.

You know, they got to have some face time.

I

wrote a monthly newsletter for that.

I did a form of programming to

automate most of the work that went

into that newsletter because it was

hours and hours of work otherwise.

So I wrote that I was able to turn

that newsletter into a, that was again,

part of that process development.

I was learning Excel and I wanted

to be, I thought I wanted to be

a computer programmer and write

the kind of programs like the

charting programs that I was using.

During this period, I was bilingual

with both DOS, Windows, and

the Mac world and using both.

And this was before the internet.

So we had a big satellite dish outside.

It was early days of

the internet, very early.

That was happening.

CompuServe and AOL was,

it was coming along.

Uh, email was a thing, but, in

particular, the, the real-time data that

we needed for, for that kind of trading.

If you were going to do

longer-term trading where you

were making decisions once a week.

But then you could use, you know,

newspaper, there were papers and charts

that were mailed out and so forth.

You.

You could, you could wait.

Um, I mean, I, you might remember I

got the wall street journal and every

night I go through the wall street

journal and typed the prices into the

software so it could update the prices.

But at some point, if you're, if you're

going to trade on the shorter term and

you need a real-time data feed, then

that didn't exist over the internet.

Yeah, it wasn't fast enough.

We still had just dial up.

And so, you had to have a

satellite dish and we had that.

So, yeah, I've, I've worn a lot of

hats and I've learned a lot of skills

and some of them, have aged out.

I mean, I don't think I'm going

to be doing any satellite dish

alignment or installation anymore.

Oh, that.

That was always fun.

But, um, it gave me a lot of

perspective on different kinds of work.

And I think that I bring

that into our present work.