Building Resilient Careers Through Healing with Dr. Johnny Parker

In this episode of Career Coaching Secrets our guest is Dr. Johnny Parker, an internationally recognized leadership consultant, executive coach, and expert in trauma-informed leadership, who shares transformative insights on how personal healing, emotional intelligence, and purpose-driven work shape truly impactful careers; drawing from his decades of experience working with leaders, organizations, and communities, Dr. Parker explores how unresolved trauma can influence leadership styles, decision-making, and workplace culture, while offering powerful strategies to build resilience, lead authentically, and create environments where people can thrive this episode is a must-watch for anyone seeking deeper meaning in their career or looking to lead with empathy and strength.

You can find him on:
https://johnnyparker.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/drjohnnyparker/
https://www.instagram.com/drjohnnyparker/
https://www.youtube.com/@drjohnnyparker5402

Transcript

Dr. Johnny Parker 0:00

I would say for me personally, I think it's every life, every leader needs a place where your soul can catch his breath that people would think it's boring. Like I don't have time to have stillness, to be be intentional about moments of stillness in your life.

Davis Nguyen 0:17

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets, the podcast where we talk with successful career coaches on how they built their success and the hard lessons they learned along the way. My name is Davis Wynne, and I'm the founder of Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to $100,000 years, $100,000 months, and even $100,000 weeks. Before Purple Circle, I've grown several seven and eight-figure career coaching businesses myself and have been a consultant at two career coaching businesses that are doing over $100 million each. Whether you're an established coach or building your practice for the first time, you'll discover the secrets to elevating your coaching business.

Pedro Stein 0:49

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. I'm Pedro and I'm joined by Dr. Johnny Parker, who believes that great leaders last because they lead themselves first. Yet even the strongest hit walls they cannot break. For more than a decade, he has studied how psychology, theology, story, and identity shape performance and presence, taking him from coaching senior executive to teaching positive psychology at Johns Hopkins University. His work has led to being named International Coach of the Year and featured on the cover of Success International Business Magazine. Dr. Johnny helps leaders who feel stretched, thin, or quietly runny on empty, rebuild clarity, restore confidence, and regain consistency in 90 days through his core seven and turn the page programs. Welcome to the show, Dr. Johnny.

Dr. Johnny Parker 1:51

Hey, it's great to be with you, Pedro.

Pedro Stein 1:54

Yeah, I'm excited that you're here from the day we met, you know, and pretty pumped about recording an episode with you, Doctor. Now, before we go into what you do now, I'm curious how this all actually started, right? So, what was going on in your life when coaching became more than just an idea?

Dr. Johnny Parker 2:13

You know, I had a lot of external success uh early in my life. I started my career as a marriage and family therapist, and I had a lot of success in that. I wrote a best-selling marriage book. I'm traveling internationally, I'm on CNN International, I'm on Fox News Radio, I am it, I'm everywhere. Snap, crackle, pop, making more money, traveling internationally. Uh, I'm early in my marriage, and but I hit a wall, Pedro, because I got to here I write a marriage book, and then my marriage goes through a dark place. And I can remember specifically, I was turning 40, and my wife said, What do I want for my birthday? I said, I just want to go to go alone to the ocean and just really think, pray, meditate, and figure out what's going on. And what I found was I was not as healthy as I appeared to be successful. And not only did I see that in my life, I saw that I started to really reflect on the people, the kinds of people that I had been working with up until that point. And I saw the same story in their story and their lives. So I said, you know what? This was a pivot for me to really look at when I've been at my best, what was going on. And for me, I call that the fringe of my life look snap, crackle, pop. You know, I got a lot of things that I thought I wanted: money, uh, notoriety, best-selling book, uh, international travel, keynote speaker. But my backstage, Pedro, there was panic attacks, there was depression, there was a lot of stress. And I did not know um, it was very confusing because I because how did I get this external successful life? But internally, I had I had outperformed my um, you know, my inner life.

Pedro Stein 4:01

Wow, I'm processing everything you told me, you know. First of all, let me pinpoint one thing that I feel is crucial here. It's like the vulnerability aspect. I mean, you had skin in the game, right? You were talking about marriage counseling and therapy and all of that, and you and and your own marriage later down the road went south. So wow, that's that's impactful. But I want to understand one thing, right? Um, there's a shift that happened to you, right? You were doing the marriage stuff, and then at a certain point you shifted to coaching, right? Which is therapy to coaching. So, how that played out because I had people in the show that were in the same uh shoes as you, like they were therapists, and then they changed to coaches because and they told me because they want to get their hands dirtier, they want to have more action, they were they wanted to be more active in the other sides. How that played out for you, Dr. Johnny.

Dr. Johnny Parker 4:57

Yeah, well, because I began realizing that many of the people that were coming to me were CEOs, they were professional athletes, they were C-suite leaders, they were uh high performing, highly impactful, highly responsible, highly driven people. And I saw the same patterns in their life. And so I said, you know, I don't want to continue to focus on it in the counseling realm, even though I understand it, I support it, and I affirm it, on pathology, on what's wrong with people. I want to focus on what's right with people. And that's why I began to really focus on positive psychology, which is all about human flourishing. And as you shared, I was able to teach that at a premier institution called Johns Hopkins University. And so that's what shifted me to want to take it to, and I was getting organically, Pedro, invited into the CEO space, the C-suite, into organizations, and to help them with how to build a team that thrives, how to build and how to have life work rhythm of a work-life balance, how to stay focused, how to build a team that eliminates toxicity. So all this stuff. So yeah, I said, Oh wow, and it paid better, be honestly. Or a leader, a CEO.

Pedro Stein 6:27

One thing that uh former guest told me is that the therapists uh are so regulated, right? So much red tape. Uh, is that something that also helped you moving towards coaching? You know, the bureaucracy and all that red tape that you're like, oh, now I can help internationally and now I can serve business outside of the state. Did that play now?

Dr. Johnny Parker 6:48

Absolutely. Yeah, it was you know, coaching has become a more and more it's more is moving more and more to being regulated and being police. And I've gone through the program ICF International Coaching Federation, and I'm I'm gonna associate, uh, ICF affiliated or approved coach. So I think that's important for the field, but yes, that was very, very freeing that I can do this work, don't have to go through insurance companies, get paid more money, and really do something that was life-giving to the client, and it was enriching for me as well. It was a win-win.

Pedro Stein 7:23

Okay, and and once you were out there, right? You made that shift from therapist to coach. Who are the people that kept showing up? You know, you kind of mention it, you browse through it. You said CEOs, you you mentioned athletes, but the ones you did you you notice uh, like, oh, the tribe changed, I'm serving different people right now, and how that played out for you.

Dr. Johnny Parker 7:45

Yeah, definitely. I began to get many, many, many men, excuse me, in that 35-year-old corridor, right between that 35 and 50, seemed to be the avatar, seemed to be the sweet spot. Without me going after them, uh, they were coming after me. I didn't chase them because I stew it impact. I don't chase clients, I stew at impact, and as I stood at that impact in their lives, they began to uh be attracted to me. And they were quite like they were also attracted to my vulnerability, my transparency in my own story. So that began to uh happen organically because I didn't really know about the marketing side of this stuff, and uh, and so I didn't know anything about that. That came later, but uh I began to notice male 35 to 50 and some women, some women, but and they were highly performing, highly driven, winning externally, but losing themselves and their soul internally.

Pedro Stein 8:48

Okay, now let's give a step back here and talk a little bit about marketing, right? So a little bit about business side. Let's pretend I'm one of those uh your ideal client profile, right? The CEO and athletes 35 to 50, and um, I'm looking for someone in your space or someone who can help me with that. How would I be able to find you? No, how do they who how do they usually find their way to you in the first place?

Dr. Johnny Parker 9:13

For example, yeah, a lot of like 95% of the people who find me, they refer to me. They refer to me, they've read my book, or they've heard me at a keynote, they've heard me at a keynote, so that's where most of it, but 95% referral, and just I mean, this has this happened just this week. I mean, I've got like three or five calls, all from someone that I helped experience impact and transformation, and they gave my name, and uh, or someone picked up my book. Hey, I've been going through your book, and I want to know if I can engage you. Just happened also because we just did a talk, uh, my wife and I, to ambassadors and diplomats. The other I'm in Washington, DC, so we get a lot of those around here. So I just gave a talk the other night recently, and boom, so we posted that, and people have seen my work around the country, around the world, and and reached out to me on LinkedIn and other parts of social media saying, Hey, I'm using your work in this particular country, I'm using your work in this particular state. I didn't know that, so that's how it happens. It's a book, it's a keynote, it's a referral.

Pedro Stein 10:26

Okay. Now let's talk about the mechanics behind the scenes for for a moment. Like the how did that how do you structure your business, right? The coach and practice. Low imagine I read your book, or I referred to you, or even I joined a keynote, I I watched you in the keynote stage and for a keynote, and I look at your stuff. I'm like, hey, Dr. Johnny seems like a pretty cool guy. I want to work with him, right? So, how would that look like from my perspective? Like, if I if you're being if I'm being on board at as a client, you know?

Dr. Johnny Parker 10:58

Yeah, well, first we sit down, we just affirm and listen to your story, Pedro. I don't take you any place you're not ready to go. I push it back on the client. This is your story. If you will, I get to be a life editor in the Pedro Stein story, but this is your story, and my goal is to help you know that story, get high definition clarity on your story, align that story with your core, what really matters to Pedro, and master that story. So we we have what we call the transformation, where we begin to walk out of that experience with a an inner excellence and a relational wealth and a professional mastery. But that's what we do. So we sit down and we really listen to the story that's not working, because people come to me oftentimes to come into with some kind of anxiety, some kind of angst, some kind of pain. And what's not working, and we want to listen. What's the story you want? If we have seven, ten sessions, where would you like to be? What's the story that you that because we we say in my work, every life is always telling a story. The question is, is your life, is your career, is your work, is your relationship, your business telling a story you want to tell? And oftentimes people are like, No, my my it's it's like different genres of story, Pedros. For some people, it the story is a mystery, for some, it's drama, for some, it's horror. We say we get that, but as we do the work together, we want to help move that story to a transformation of adventure and love so that you're showing up in your story from love and not for love.

Pedro Stein 12:31

Okay, so you mentioned uh a couple times the word story, and that caught my attention. And the reason it caught my attention is because I want to ask you something like sometimes I feel like people have surface level answers to really deep questions, right? Like, oh, I'm looking for the new house, I'm looking for the new car, the brand phone, and all of that. So, how do you like you have that on a day-to-day basis, talking with people and and trying to find that uh the the story, the real intention behind it? Do you see people don't don't really think about that, the real goal, the real intention behind stuff? How do you how do you you manage to to get deeper down there to understand what they really want, you know?

Dr. Johnny Parker 13:15

Yeah, we tr we we seek to give them um what we call the Fab Five in terms of their questions, in terms of the story, and this helps to begin to get uh get them some language because we want to help them hear themselves. That's my goal. I want to help you hear you, but my goal also, I want you to feel as your coach that I see you, I hear you, because people need to be seen, people feel they need to be heard, and so I really make sure that my client feels seen by me and heard by me. And so we take them through the fab five to go deeper, to move them what we say from water ski to scuba dive, and so with the fab five, Pedro, we're asking the question who am I identity? What do you want to impact? Why do you want it intent? Who are you becoming integrity? How do you want people to experience you inspirational? So we call that the Fab Five, part of our framework, along with other parts of our framework, and we walk people through the Fab Five to just begin to prime the pump on the story, what's really going on inside. There's a proverb that says there's deep waters in the heart of a person, and it takes wisdom to bring it to the surface.

Pedro Stein 14:45

Interesting. Okay, you're getting me to a rabbit hole here, Dr. Johnny. You're getting me to uh the scuba dive experience.

Dr. Johnny Parker 14:52

The scuba dive, my friend.

Pedro Stein 14:55

You know, uh there's also one thing that I would love to ask you that I feel like sometimes it even happens to me, right? It's like we don't realize sometimes skills that we have, right? It's like I have two kids and I just browse through stuff that I know, but sometimes it's not that simple. And they tell me, hey dad, how do you do X, Y, and Z? And I'm like, oh, blah, blah, blah. You know, and just go for it. And do you feel like CEOs and people don't realize sometimes the the the really really like the skill set they already have? Like, um, oh, that's so that's your strength, right? That's your your you have such a strength doing uh doing that, and uh you should focus on that. Do you see like people sometimes just focus on their weaknesses?

Dr. Johnny Parker 15:38

I do, uh, but more and more people are starting to embrace the idea of staying in your area of strength because that's where you're gonna get the energy. And uh, and the studies that show that people who stay in their area of strength, in their genius zone, are 85% more effective and impactful. And so there's definitely, but but you're right, there was a time when many people felt like, you know, to get better, I gotta focus on my strengths, get better at my strengths. No, because that dilutes that, I mean, get focus on my weaknesses, that dilutes your strength. So, no, we want to take you in your strengths and help you um deepen that. We don't want to weaken that, deepen that. Some parts of your weaknesses, you're gonna have to hire someone else to do that. Okay, some parts of your weakness you need to get a little bit better, but we don't want to spend a lot of time there. We need to get some growth, be aware of it, but we definitely want to take you deeper in terms of what you already is your genius zone, and and stay and highlight that.

Pedro Stein 16:40

Okay, that makes perfect sense. Now, I want to understand one thing you have different programs. Um, and I would love to understand is like how does that play out? Do you have like just one-on-ones? Do you have like one to many? How that how does that work? You know, just trying to understand uh the point of view from your perspective and how do you want to impact people, right?

Dr. Johnny Parker 17:03

Sure, sure. So for sure, we have one-on-ones, we have B2B, business to business, so we have uh so we we have all the above in terms of that because we have we have uh where we have businesses, two or three businesses that are on retainer with us. So we we and uh so they're on retainer, so we we have that level, and then I have the one-on-ones that are ongoing, and typically for us, that's a year, that's a year's commitment that we're working with someone and at least a year to uh really get at the story they want. So we have different ways of engaging uh our clients.

Pedro Stein 17:39

Seems like a pretty customized experience, right? You're you're having you're having the the the first call to understand uh doing the scuba dive and all that, the fab five, and and everything you just laid out to me, the one-on-ones, the the the the the group setting, the one to many, right? So, how do you think about managing your time and energy so the business doesn't start owning you, for example, you know?

Dr. Johnny Parker 18:05

Yeah, well, you know what? You just hit my that's that's such a personal, richly personal part of my story and the story I take with others because that's the danger. There are many leaders, many CEOs, many, many career coaches, many people developing businesses that can scale and lose their soul, lose themselves. And that happened to me. And that's happening more and more with people that's paying attention to the front stage as they should, and that matters, but they don't have a firmly anchored, rooted, grounded wellness in terms of the backstage. And that's really where my work focuses more and more today, because what happens, they start off well, they run well, but they drift from the core, they drift from themselves, they drift from their family, they drift from their health, and they have less peace, they have more chaos, they have less, they have more stress. And so that having lived that, Pedro, in my own story, that's that really is the burden that and uh and the passion that I bring to career coaches and bring to CEOs, C-suite, NFL owners, NBA owners, and I bring to the uh leaders from the Silicon Valley, too, because we we hear what happens we live in a world that's very, very front stage focused. And here and you hear the chant all the time on social media. It sounds like this be more, do more, have more, get more, be more, do more, have more, get more, be more, do more, have more, get more, be more, do more, have more, get more. Don't you? I mean, that's it. That's this that's like the song, that's the chant every day. And you're like, yeah, yeah, I want to do it, I'm gonna do it. And we go for it. We all go for it. But the danger is if you stay with that chant over time, you will outperform your inner life, and you're gonna suffer. It's gonna show up. It's just a matter of time, and it just it seems like it shows up a lot, with particularly with men, and and and I had it with women as well. Somewhere in that 35 to 50 year old, it hits they hit a they they hit a wall, man. They they hit a wall, and they're they're they've been successful, they're not broken per se, they've drifted, they've been successful, but they know something is slightly off. Something is slightly off. Um I'm not proud of the story that I'm living. Uh, if they're married, they see it in their marriage, if they got kids, they feel it with their kids, they look at it with their team. I mean, you said, I mean, do you remember last summer with the a year ago when the whole cold play, kiss the the the cold play, the kiss cam? Yeah, that's an imperfect example. Now, Pedro, his name, Andy Byron, okay, that's the CEO of astronomers, this company, a tech company. He didn't say 15, 20 years ago when he married his wife, I don't know how long they've been married, that I mean these vows today, but in 15, 20 years, I'm gonna go to a Coldplay concert and be with a woman that's not you. He didn't say it, but it happened. Neither did he say to astronomers, we developed the company, hey, we got to have these core values. We did this at some executive retreat 10 years ago. I mean this. This is this is we all are committed to this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We buy into this. This is our culture. But in 10 years from now, I'm not gonna mean this, but it happened. It's called drift. It's called drift. So I want to help. So, my work, I want to help leaders, career coaches, remember their core, remember what keeps them centered, what keeps them anchored. How do I succeed as a career coach externally on the front stage without losing me, without losing my soul on the backstage?

Pedro Stein 21:47

You know, I I feel you, and I can only imagine, like, for example, you gave you told me uh someone in another country uh was reading your book, right? And they're like, hey, I'm implementing the stuff you wrote. in my in my country and all that and blah blah and i'm thinking like this is this this must energize you right this is so cool and at the same time how hard it is to to sometimes step back right because if you love the work so much and you you care so much to impact people it's hard to not just press and move forward you know it's like I'm having fun doing this and it energizes me but at the same time it's gonna deplete me so that finding that balance and I and I feel like in my skin I love my work you know I'm doing podcasts I'm I'm I have my own practice and sometimes I need to hold myself back and I'm sure if that's your case but I'm like this is so fun I don't want to stop you know sure yeah yeah no for sure but I'll say this we you said a cuss word that we don't like you say what did I say balance we don't say that word Pedro it's not it that's what messes us up it really does because we we say it we hear it all the time life um when we say work life balance work life balance that's just the order of it is off work life balance no no no no no life is not a balance life is a rhythm so in my work we teach life work rhythm and so to your point yes we all want to do great work on the front stage externally and that's my whole book front stage backstage external success requires internal health I wrote the book a year ago and so that's an important piece of this but the deal is if you don't write your front stage backstage story of life work rhythm Pedro or for any of us life will write it for you life will write it for you and is I'm a part of the Harvard Business Review Council and Harvard does a study and said that that when we are intentional about regular reflection over on our lives we actually have greater productivity when we spend 12 to 15 minutes a day over a 10 day period reflecting on our lives reflecting on our story reflecting on how we're showing up you actually increase your productivity by nearly 25% that's counterintuitive but yeah you actually increase your productivity by paying attention to the backstage and to being intentional about moments of reflection which is what I do as a regular practice for myself nice okay now let's talk about future a little bit you know let's do it so Johnny what's the direction you're aiming this business towards you know are you thinking more about growth leverage building a team or refining what already works you know what feels most exciting right now oh what's exciting is I'm I'm certifying people in my frameworks I'm taking people through my frameworks that's really really cool really really exciting and now I have uh we're gonna be you know I'm I'm taking my one of my um my sons are excited about the work and so uh I'm taking them through it for themselves and so framing people so certifying people in my framework deepening partnerships that's exciting deepening partnerships with organizations and that I'm I'm really thrilled international internationally known organizations so that's that's really cool really exciting and uh and and again my wife and I on some occasions when we have we have that high profile highly impacting highly driven performing leader and they're married my wife and I get to do that work with them maybe trusted advisors that's exciting to be able to involve her in that way and yeah just um being able to take the work international as we're as we did last year we were in Dominican Republic we were in um uh Mexico and so we're we're we're we're taking it international so that's really cool nice it sounds exciting you know and even when things are going well there's always something under construction right so what's the what's the main thing you're actively working on or trying to improve in the business right now yeah I well it's kind of what I shared earlier that I have to always guard scaling the business and not losing me.

Dr. Johnny Parker 26:16

That's really really front and center for me. Scaling the business without losing me scaling the business and not losing what matters most my marriage relationship with my three sons my um friendships and my health my well being so that's that's that that's the big thing because I got all kinds of ideas and goals and and things that that excite me I just got to make sure that I stay in my own rhythm as I scale the business that I don't lose me I don't lose what matters most to me.

Pedro Stein 26:49

Okay I mean some advice time right now I would love to to dive into your experience right you've been around uh long enough in the game to see trends come and go sure people give business advice nonstop especially online right we're scrolling the internet and it's like AI is dead next post AI is gonna take over all that all that stuff now what would you say it's like something uh you hear repeated a lot that you think people misunderstand or overvalue you know yeah um I think the the thing that I I hear repeated a lot um I don't know how to say this without sounding redundant that the the whole I notion of work-life balance and what that really is and the misnomer of that and and I think that gets misunderstood big time I think that's that's that's missing the mark there and setting people up for disappointment I think that's a big one that comes to mind immediately and I think that um um that with all the trends and all the new things that happen you know you got all the apps and you got the TikToks and all the social media platforms and a new platform at the end of the day to live a well-lived life it's important to really have moments of doing a fat five moment on yourself and really looking at who am I what do I really want what does it matter and to really be intentional about shaping the story the life that I feel like I was born to live and tell that's never going to go away I'm still at the core of every human life whether you're in Brazil DC Maryland black white Asian Latino it doesn't matter we all have a need core needs to be seen to be heard to be known and to be loved that's never going to go away no matter how many things change uh technology technological in the world that's never going to go away and we have to continue to speak to those things continue to look at what some would say soft skills no I agree with Simon Sinek soft skills are human skills and so uh so so to could to be great at the basic to be great at human skills is never going to go away no matter what happens in technological world do you have like top of the mind top of your mind here like an example of someone that went through your program you don't obviously know names and uh just like something that you saw happening using the Fab5 that they actually found the rhythm just so we can try to understand the outcome here I'm just trying to pinpoint something and and instead of trying to picture it when I hear from you you know someone that went through it and you're like they changed from X to Z and this happened.

Dr. Johnny Parker 29:43

Oh yeah absolutely there there's a there's a person there's a couple of people come to mind I'm trying to I'm editing in my mind as I say that I'm thinking of leaders I worked with from the Silicon Valley who came to me and were highly stressed highly stressed highly stressed highly stressed and as we applied the framework of Fab Five along with other tools and resources we saw the transformation happen. We saw that we saw the transformation happen of moving from performance to presence moving from more stillness versus strategy uh moving from a um a success to significance uh moving into the the inner excellence that they've wanted moving into a relational wealth with themselves with their team because this person pretty much owned a company and um and moving into a professional mastery over their life and work. So that's what that's the joy of the work is watching that happen see it happen in my own life practice it in my own life but to see it happen with with clients and to know that if it trickles if you know the trickle down effect right so to win and impact that person as a CEO senior vice president C suite leader well guess what it's gonna impact their team it just it just trickles down throughout the culture and the team and so that's that's the multiplying effect of it all yeah the ripple effect I love it now on the flip side what's something boring or not as hyped that you wish more people actually paid attention to you know I would say for me personally I think it's every life every leader needs a place where your soul can catch his breath that people would think it's boring like I don't have time to to have stillness to be be intentional about moments of stillness in your life and so for me personally I spend I have some woods and trees and stream near my home I go out there a lot and I just think I pray I journal I reflect and uh I just I I think people think that is boring. And I think the other thing uh I have a practice that I bring to a lot of my clients that at first it's it feels strange to them but they they have said it's been incredibly impactful. We call it spa Pedro so spa is SPA it stands for you get still you stop and you get still and then you get present and you breathe you just practice breathing in for four or five seconds holding your breath for four or five seconds and you're blowing out like you're blowing out a candle and then you just affirm your firm gratitude your firm uh joy you affirm and the power of that is especially with the breathing you're actually slowing down the amygdala the part of the brain that deals with decision making and emotions well when you do that you're gonna be able to make better decisions when you do this and you're gonna have greater clarity in relationships and and managing your emotions so I tell a lot of my clients it may feel boring but do not schedule back to back to back to back to back coaching or meetings. Career coaches you need to hear that you don't want to go back to back to back your calendar loves it your brain said what did I do to deserve this because your brain is in battle mode and and that's what you're in you're in battle mode you're in this you're always on on on so you need to let time for your brain your soul to just breathe and uh so some people find that oh I don't have time for that I need to keep it going I got big momentum but no it may feel boring but stay with it because in the long run it's going to help you sustain your impact as you sustain yourself.

Pedro Stein 33:45

Okay I have a question like about that is it more like on a day-to-day basis or is it more like when you get triggered you know when you have that that moment that and it and nothing's going the way I want to go and I may have like uh a bad response like for example you know whatever in the business it's like like right now I need to do that or is something that I just need to add to my routine oh it needs to be both you need definitely needs to be a part of you need to have it as what I call a big gulp in the morning because it sets the trajectory like you just took a sip right now but then you need to have sips throughout your day you need a big gulp in the morning where it's a little longer version but then you need you need a sip at 113 in the afternoon when your circadian rhythm and your energy starts to take a dip right so you need to have big gulp morning sips throughout the day interesting okay and uh Dr. Johnny before we close this out if someone resonated with what you shared and wants to follow your work where should they go you know mainly we're gonna have in the description on the links and all that it's just like and if you want to expand a little bit about your book you know you have you have the spotlight.

Dr. Johnny Parker 34:58

Oh fantastic Pedro yeah they can go to my name my website johnnyparker.com and there they will be able to download some really really cool resources one is all around thriving it's a tool called Rise that we developed in 2020 that helped T-Mobile helped a number of um Fortune 500 companies apply this tool because the tool is baked in grit and resilience so they should download that and there's another tool there that talks about life work balance versus work life balance versus life work rhythm so there's some really really cool tools there so johnnyparker.com and then the book yeah the book is um the newest book is Friends Days Backstage that came out a year ago so I've written six books and Friends Days Backstage is the whole idea that your external life so external life for career coaches and anyone in this space is a leader you have technology you have social media you have you have your family you may be married you may not be married you have friends you have fitness you have finances you have productivity performance you have all these things on the front stage that all matter and we affirm that we say the backstage matters more because the backstage is the root system the front stage is the fruit the backstage is the root and so we the the book talks about how to really anchor your backstage in the framework in the book is story. So we we look at your soul the deepest part of who you are we look at your transparency that you have to have that transparency with yourself with um with safe people mostly safe people and we'd say even a faith factor is a big pack factor there uh spiritual and then we look at optimization how do you stay well in your story physical emotional relational mental and so there's that and then we the rhythm that I shared earlier that's a part of it and then you yield career coaches and leaders always give themselves to a purpose to a cause that's greater than themselves.

Pedro Stein 36:54

And then we have the neuroscience we bring a lot of the neuroscience and positive psychology all to the book and uh so the book is uh yeah so that's the that's the that's the book in a in the nutshell you know I feel the need to highlight some part of our conversation today um that really stood out to me I would say when you told me about the panic attacks in the backstage uh how you had that skyrocket early days 20 year old you know and everything that happened after uh with your own marriage you know uh when I mention this the capacity situation especially in the coaching space that's something that hits a lot of coaches and you're like oh that's a that's a danger for me I still need to guard myself and all of that so to me that shows you can uh be so vulnerable um and that is such a powerful asset to a true coach because at the end of the day you're building relationships with your coaches and your clients however you want to call them so you're in the same level you know you're leveling the playing field towards vulnerability and that is so much easier to create connection with the coach because you're like hey I've been through the stuff you you're going through I had skin in the game been there done that and it's not just saying out loud it's like really owning it you know so I commend you on that um another thing is like you mentioned that you don't take uh about when you're the first call right I don't take you to any place you're not ready to go that's what you told me that's the quote which to me shows it's a testament of integrity right it's not about just pushing someone to a process and saying hey you need to buy my program you need to do X, Y, and Z. It's just like hey, if this doesn't make sense this is not gonna end well for both of us. So let's stop right there and maybe I can send you to someone who can potentially help you you know so I really like that the Fab five uh framework you told me that you take people from ski to scuba diving what are ski to scuba diving that is so funny and such a great analogy it's like we're gonna dive deep right and last but not least uh life is a rhythm right I really like that the way you framed it and how you you see life and how the work balance for you and I think for most people that don't realize it's like it's a myth right we're the whole person so we need to find a way to find that rhythm. So this is my long-winded way of saying Dr. Johnny that I really appreciate you taking the time and being open with us today.

Dr. Johnny Parker 39:39

It was great having you on I enjoyed it Pedro and uh it's been fun thank you and thank you for having me on.

Davis Nguyen 39:47

That's it for this episode of Career Coaching Secrets. If you enjoyed this conversation you can subscribe to YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening to this episode to catch future episodes. This conversation was brought to you by Purple Circle where we help career coaches scale their business to seven and eight figures without burning out. To learn more about Purple Circle, our community and how we can help you grow your business visit join purplecircle.com