Elephants in Rooms
Hi, I’m Ken LaCorte. I spent 20 years behind-the-scenes at Fox News and now host “Elephants in Rooms”.
Here, we jump into topics that many people avoid and that the mainstream narrative often vilifies. Even when they’re true.
If you’re looking for true insight into issues – without straw men or sensationalism – you’ve found the right place.
Elephants in Rooms
Derick Johnson | America is getting softer
Our society is getting softer.
Toxic feel-good movements are thriving, the military is struggling to recruit, and there's a new "offensive" words every week.
Derrick Johnson is a former Army veteran and personal coach who helps people become both mentally and physically strong. We talked about America's softness, the changes he's seen in the military, and the benefits of life coaching over traditional forms of therapy.
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Western society is getting weaker. So I think laziness is a virtue in a society where people constantly want you to be productive 24/7 from speech codes and safe spaces. To toxic feelgood movements that do more harm than good
Unknown:this morning supermodel Tess Holliday revealing her struggle with anorexia. I always thought that I over ate, even the
Ken LaCorte:military is getting kinder and gentler.
Unknown:Hi, my name is Gianni and I use he him pronouns, instead of saying something like, Hey, guys, you can say, Hey, everyone, or hey, team.
Ken LaCorte:I spoke with former Army veteran and personal Coach Derek Johnson, who's seen those changes, there's a major
Derick Johnson:shift where there's things that drill sergeants can and cannot say anymore, which blows my mind because it's making the military weaker. And
Ken LaCorte:he now coaches people to get stronger, both physically and mentally. We talked about that, the problems with psychiatry, and a lot more. So did your career kind of start in the military.
Derek Johnson:It started with ROTC in high school. And then I went through college ROTC. And then from there, I did eight years in the Army National Guard. So total 12 If you're counting ROTC, but active and non active was a total of eight. And in the army, it is satellite communication. So I've always been drawn to tech, and how things work and so forth. definitely been a tech nerd. But um, I would love training with the Ranger guys. But going Ranger Special Forces just wasn't my thing. I loved the exercise side to it. But I just didn't want to go on hundreds of deployments. And so far, I just had a different path in life, I would have been in the military
Ken LaCorte:if I didn't have to, like run through fields and and get shot at if I could, like, do computer satellites and stuff. I might have done that. But yeah, exactly. But so so the army, we you in the army or what? Yes,
Derek Johnson:well, I was the US Army. And then I went Army National Guard. So would they call us weekend warriors. But basically, you go to drill every month, and then twice a year, you would do annual training, whether it's in the summer or the fall. And then also, there's actually the first ones that go on deployments. And my unit didn't go on deployment when I was in, but they do their rounds, depending on what states and what city you're in. But the Army National Guard is always the first to go. And
Ken LaCorte:I remember during the first Gulf War, you know, we hadn't called the guard into service in a real in a substantive way in a long time. And so guys are doctors and accountants out there. And it was like, you know, come on, put on a uniform, and it's time to we've decided to go to war with Saddam Hussein and it a lot, you know, they didn't grumble about it publicly. So I'm reading these days. I don't know what's going on in the military as an outsider, right, I see some things I don't you know, I don't understand that. What's really affecting life there. I'm reading and I read this morning, literally, in Military Times today that there was a hearing, I think, yesterday on the hill, or very recently, that the army is missing their recruiting goals, not only the recruiting goals, but they're actually shrinking the size of the army by 7000 this year and anticipate 23,000 Next year, because they just can't recruit enough guys. And the New York Times puts up the article and of course, they cite COVID Because they cite COVID For everything in life, right? Well, they recruiters, they can't COVID spot. Yeah, they can't go to the mall. And how do you record? How do you recruit kids if you can't go to them? And and obviously, some of it might, and then they were like, well, you know, the economy is so good in the sense of low unemployment that they can't they can't pull people in. Do you have any insight just based on on having so much time there? What's why they're having a hard time now recruiting for the army, there was a separate report saying the future of an all volunteer army is at doubt, which I think is a little.
Derek Johnson:Yeah, so number one, I would look at it depending on what new source is coming from. So one, it is true that recruitment is lower. But also if somebody looks at what states city and area it's in, like one of my friends is one of the top recruiters in Florida. And he's crushing it on numbers. Now, even this year, and last year compared to years previous. So it all depends on the location. But I think more so what it is, is the mentality in America has shifted when it comes from the media. So a lot of young guys, they see different opportunities to not want or maybe need to go the military path because of the digital space. And I think also the view of the military seems to be quote unquote, much softer, because now, like when I was in basic training, then we had an African American female from South Carolina, and then we had the country white guy who just was Ranger and it was just a badass. So those drill sergeants, they will kick your ass physically and mentally. But nowadays, you actually have a stress card. Yeah, basic training in the army, which is insane to me a
Ken LaCorte:stress card. Hey. Like it's like a physical card.
Derek Johnson:Yes,
Ken LaCorte:we're like a secret sauce.
Derek Johnson:I don't really have a physical card that you can pull out. It wasn't when I was in, but not drill sergeant, I keep in touch on social media, and he just sends me some stuff about what's happening, and it blows my mind. So basically, I'm about to stress where I'm, quote, timeout. If Johnson is stressing too much, I can get a 10 minute or 15 minute timeout to catch my breath and do everything. But they're missing the point of the physical and mental threshold. Once you get past that, then you grow as a soldier as a man and female. And
Ken LaCorte:so it's like, so the sergeants yelling at me, He's not calling me names anymore to get over that, get over that, that obstacle or whatnot. And I can flash a card if I'm starting to stress out too much. Or if I'm having a heart attack, or what's what's the deal?
Derek Johnson:No, literally, when it comes to stressing out too much, or if somebody says something wrong, like it's so saturated, and it also depends on what army base you're at. So if somebody's at Benning, they don't care because it's all males. But I went to Fort Jackson for basic. So you have males and females and basic. So that base, you do have it. And I'm not sure how all the other branches are. But definitely in the army, there's a major shift where there's things that drill sergeants can and cannot say anymore, which blows my mind, because it's making the military weaker. And I feel like a lot of infiltration from higher is spilling in to make the military or the economy in the states of the nation much softer.
Ken LaCorte:So, okay, that it all just kind of blew my mind on that. So so I get the should there almost be two tracks in the military. And maybe this is it's like, I mean, they're the guys that it's like, alright, take this club, take these guns, you have to run over that hill. And there's there's three Geheimnis behind there, go shoot him in the face and get back here, right. And then there's guys sitting in, you know, in the mini mall in Tampa, directing satellites and drones from 100 miles away who have a different kind of pressure, but mainly about the physical type of pressure. So it's like, you know, and I believe women can do a lot of a lot of those other roles, just as well as men, they're really not good at punching guys in the face all that much. It's a pretty low percentage who can get away with it. But, but stress, I mean, even flying out even flying a drone, you're gonna get stressed out on things that's that's, I thought that that would be something that they want you to leave if you can't live under a high degree of stress. Because almost every role in the military, you're going to face life and death at some point now,
Derek Johnson:exactly. Because things can change. And no matter what job somebody has in the military, whether it's the Army, the Navy, or any other branch is at the end of the day, you sign on the line and are ready and going to serve your country for combat. And people forget that, that even if they do have a quote unquote desk job, or accounting or whatever specifically, they're doing even working in the hospital, we all know how to shoot said weapon to a certain extent, then you have the infantry guys, obviously, that's their main job. But as you mentioned, the two paths, I totally believe that that is the major shift is that the majority of the military is not infantry, Ranger Special Forces, paratroopers and so forth. Those schools have not been infiltrated by their quote unquote softness, because we need those guys and those females, but just in general, it blows my mind. Because if you go to most bases, you'll see more overweight and obese soldiers, male and female than ever. Like, that was my biggest pet peeves in the National Guard was just physically, if somebody was my first sergeant or my captain, I just wouldn't respect them. I respect him as a man or female. But internally, I'm like, if you can't even pass the PT test, or you don't fit in the uniform correctly, then nobody's gonna take you serious because at that point, you're a walking billboard. So
Ken LaCorte:yeah, nobody likes to hear it and the whole fat shaming thing is is has and and I love I love my fatness is is a movement that's come up in the past years. But if you're in the military, or if you're a cop, I mean, when I see a fat cop, that's probably even worse, because they actually have to run some time. I mean, if if you're Paul Blart guarding the mall, that's fine. But when I see an overweight guy, it symbolizes a lot of things. Because no matter what anybody says, it does come down to a discipline. You know, I've been overweight in life, because I was, uh, you know, because I wanted to eat more than I wanted to be thin. And and yeah, I don't know. That's, that's bizarre. Yeah,
Derek Johnson:I think definitely, if you're in a position where you're wearing the uniform, and you're protecting the citizens, the country, your local community, you have to fit the part. Like obviously there's a guy that used to be a defensive lineman, he can still run pretty quick and he's in shape and you can tell about the performance but just in general, it just really irritates me and always has seeing military or the local cop, or even like an EMT, morbidly obese, where you see them in emergency situations and they can't keep up they can't handle it where I just don't understand how people are still allowed to ride these waivers of health issues or minor injuries. Because like when I was in, I've seen guys come back back from a torn ACL or a torn meniscus, and then they perform again a year or two later, and other people roll their ankle playing flag football and override that profile, which is the medical form where you don't have to do PT physical training. I know so many people in the military that we're hiring that would ride that profile for years. And it would just irritate me, because they will still go through the ranks, but we've never really trained with it's not all it's just a small percentage, but that's how they
Ken LaCorte:arrived at that it's been going on forever. I mean, I do read a lot of military history of World War Two. And you know, there were always guys who were happy to shoot themselves in the foot or get an easy, I mean, there's always a percentage of guys who are like, Yeah, I'm here. I don't like Nazis, but I like me even better, you know, so, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna go through that back door. I guess, in so many ways. What I'm hearing is the military is kind of like United States society. I mean, US society is getting fatter and, and you know, you can stress somebody out by by calling them the wrong hair. You know, it's very easy to accidentally freak somebody out these days. Do you think we're, why do you? Why do you think our society is growing softer, if you think it's growing softer? So I think the
Derek Johnson:reason for it is just the infiltration, not that one party is better or worse than the other in my opinion, but the infiltration of just the media and control, censorship, everything starts at the top and trickles down, where it even goes to the kids soccer game, where some local soccer clubs, basketball clubs, they don't have a winner or loser. It's just everybody gets participation starts from the top and spills down where I think it's the intent just to make society give in to any little thing, whether somebody wants to get a vaccination, or doesn't or wants to get this or do that or not, or feels on edge to say how they truly feel it's putting everyone in a box where people are becoming not just softer, but they're turning into somebody they truly aren't. And like your grandpa, my grandpa, my dad, there, maybe were just very strict men, and they raised men were now it's like the dads are getting weaker, which spills over to the kids. And it's just very sad to see where people they can't even have this conversation, because then they will get offended and get all riled up. And that's exactly what the plan is. And the agenda is just to get everybody up in arms where we can just have open discussion, I understand his or her opinion, I appreciate you sharing that vice versa. It's like I conversation is rare to have now. Yeah,
Ken LaCorte:I mean, it might just be that's what happens to success. I mean, you know, I mean, people used to poor people used to starve to death or be worried about that in years back now. It's in America, you know, they tell me how many hungry kids go to bed. You know, the companies that are raising, raising money on things like that. But every time you look at poor people, you don't see a whole lot of super skinny people. You see a lot of chubby people, I mean, some bad health habits going on? For sure. I just wonder Yeah, I remember there was a there was a meme out there that it was, what was it hard times make strong men strong, men make good times good times, make soft men soft, that make bad times. And I wonder if we're in one of those those kinds of cycles going on right now my old boss used to joke, I think he was joking that you know, you need to get a real war every every every 20 years to Yes, to remind you that that life is harder. Now, that was probably a little much. But
Derek Johnson:I truly believe that is very cyclical, where we just have the seasons. And I truly believe we're going to have those seasons of the shift in the mentality where the next generation will go up and so forth. But the scariest thing about it is an example could be walking in public, and still seeing some states in some cities where the father is wearing a mask, the mother is not and the kids are not. And people say Thou shalt not judge. But in the south, you see that and you're instantly thinking, all right, we know who wears the pants in a relationship outside of like the medical side, but like, the mentality of how the Father is not in control of his masculinity, and the woman is running their relationship in the household. And then it trickles down to the kids and then little Jimmy goes to class and he's not getting his way and he's all offended by every little it's, it's wild. Like you can see that just in public settings where it's scary to see. And then you go to some cities where you see a normal family owning their space and just like being the traditional family where I just feel I know it's just
Ken LaCorte:a mask who I was doesn't look like they need to wear a mask. I always in my head just say I hope he has some disease or something and I'm not going to judge them maybe that guy's just getting over chemo and I otherwise it'll it'll, it'll get you a little nutty as you're going around on things like that. But I think I think that's also the rise of Jordan Peterson has become one of the more or more. He's kind of, he's probably the most popular psychologist in America right now. Now a lot of people have never heard of him but he is massively and the guy could sell out arenas to talk about deep seated things. I mean, he's he's really not even talking about politics all that much. He's, he's basically talking about psychological uses of getting your own shit together is kind of the fundamental of his message. And he aims it at primarily, or at least, it's been received by primarily young men, men in their 20s 30s, who, I don't think ever got that message who never got out either because they grew up without a dad or because they grew up with an Alan Alda feminized man who just, you know, told him, it was all about their feelings and whatnot. But man, I see those guys, you know, I see some of my friends who are like that. They're not happy that you know, when you're so in touch with yourself, and you're and you're kind of not, you know, it's not like, we need to go back to the 50s, where women stayed in the kitchen, and I went to work, but parts of that made a lot of sense, just in the way that males and females and male and female relationships intertwine the way so the way that nuclear families worked, and is that disappeared? I think that that's responsible for a lot of, you know, recent increases in suicide. I think a lot of this. I think a lot of the of the drug overdoses are actually hidden suicides, a lot of COP shootings are actually suicides. I mean, there's a lot of, of weird mental health going on there. And that goes into it ties into the physical stuff. And a lot of that is people don't, especially men don't have their shit together don't understand the importance of that, and especially when the PlayStation works works good. How do you see that? Do you see that reversing at all? Did you have you seen that in your kind of your history going up?
Derek Johnson:Yes, for sure. So I was definitely blessed to have a quote unquote, alpha male Father always provided went to work, even if he didn't feel like it, and so forth. So just seeing that working hard up early, always in shape year round. And then same thing with my uncles and grandfathers and also my basketball or football coaches, and so forth. So was just surrounded by good southern men that got their shit together. But the shift was, when I would start to hang out at my other buddies, or my teammates, or friends houses and seeing how their fathers interacted, were like, it was totally different, where at first was a culture shock, and had nothing to do with like sexual preference or anything. But just in general, where it was very. It wasn't like the father was owning his space was very passive. The father was very passive, and no trickle down to the son and the whole family be offended by every little thing, you'd crack a joke. And they're like, very on edge, you're like, Whoa, what is happening here, and it was rare back then. But now, it's so common to see everyone's so on edge. And you shouldn't say this, you shouldn't say that. And I truly believe that people lost touch of the feminine side, the masculine side, and how men just need to show up and serve others. Because at the end of the day, if we look back in time, the men were the hunters and gatherers, they went, they took care of the family, the mothers took care of the home, and so forth, not saying that mothers can not provide as well, but we're missing that piece. And especially the biggest issue is, at least I believe the biggest issue is that lack of father figures is causing all the issues in the world, whether it's crime, whether it's suicide, whether it's aggressive and abusive relationships, it's lack of father figures. And then also number two would be the like, the relationships they had with their mothers or the women, the providers in their life growing up as well. And people are carrying this trauma or these experiences with them into adulthood, and not getting the help they need or just simply the guidance. I have some friends who didn't grow up with their fathers and our basketball coach was their father figure, right? And because they solidify that relationship, they turned into a man and if they didn't play sports, there's no telling who they would be or how they would have turned out so you
Ken LaCorte:don't get a call of duty.
Derek Johnson:Yeah, probably be at home.
Ken LaCorte:Yeah, I read yesterday, I read yesterday, it was kind of a highlight of studies. Because the single biggest predictor of especially a boy but probably girls as well, if you're going to have kind of fucked up life is is is having is having a two parent household is about and that that's code for having a father in your household or not. And it was everything from obesity to night, I think like 90% of kids who end up homeless or or or runaways at some point in their in their early years. 90% of them was a single single parent household. And then it was like and the list goes on. It's like criminal poverty. It's like, and it's a tough cycle, you know, and a lot of that came from just unexpected consequences. I mean, I mean, you look, you look at the Lyndon Johnson years in the in the 60s. Yeah. You know, when they. And it's like the best thing that the left does, I was just talking to somebody yesterday on this, the best thing that the left does is as opposed to the right is, is they see problems and they go try to fix them. And there's something good about that. Right? Oh, pedestrian deaths are up, let's put barriers. Let's paint everybody orange, let's do something. And usually it's the Conservatives are like, calm down, maybe they just need to look twice. And and certainly the Great Society was was a massive, long term failure to big parts of this country, mainly the black community, where they would see, you know, you would see a young, single mom struggling to survive. So it's like, alright, well, let's, let's give her a support net, that's high enough so that she doesn't have to have to be that poor. Well, now all of a sudden, that numbers gone from, you know, from high teens, low 20s to 70 plus percent single motherhood at a time because it was just easier to do, right. I mean, you know, and then all of these other problems ripped around from that. And I don't know how you undo some of that, because, you know, you can't be like, you had a baby, just just go live in the streets again. Yeah, but it's, it's, it's, it's sometimes sometimes you can help people and really hurt their lives, even when your intentions are good. From homelessness, to, to welfare to to, you know, sometimes just, it's a lot of things, I see that in all aspects of society.
Derek Johnson:Yes, for sure. I truly believe that if males in general, like one thing that I always respected, my father that he did was he would go to the Boys and Girls Club. And he would always have a boy every couple of months that he would like, hang out with train, be his mentor, and so forth. And then the older I got, I would go to charter schools and be a mentor and a coach and so forth. And just realizing the impact and keeping in touch with some of the guys were one of the guys have been in and out of jail since he was 14, or bootcamp, anything of that nature. And just him having a father figure at that time period, drops that seed or that nugget, where they're like, Wow, somebody believes in me, somebody supports me, no matter how much fucked up stuff I've done, or I've seen, and maybe they were just a product of their environment. But I believe that if as men, if we all just volunteer a few hours every single month to either a Boys and Girls Club, church at any community where, where boys and teens need men just provide some time, there'll be a major shift that would happen because I truly believe that some just needs to be heard. They need to be heard, felt and understood, where if they have a male, even if it's a different ethnicity, or color, we were like, wow, he spoke to me like a human and like I was his son. This is crazy. I've never felt this because I was told you, me or whoever is not going to like me, or whatever preconceived notion they have, or were taught,
Ken LaCorte:do you see a an age, at which before a certain point, they're receptive to things and after a certain point, they're like, go after yourself. This is This is life. In other words, when you're talking kids like that, and you've seen this, because I've never done that, you know, I'm one of these guys. It's like, like, I see problems with certain communities. But I'm like, some middle aged white guy, it goes down to the, you know, goes volunteers in the hood. I would not anticipate somebody being like, oh, please share your wisdom with me. I just as I might feel weird if I was a kid, and somebody from a different different community came in, but when you see kind of like the ages, when when do you see that effective and less. So if you've noticed, something like that,
Derek Johnson:I would definitely say the most important is middle school, middle school, because that's when teens really get into sports. And they're learning more about themselves not saying it doesn't work for elementary, but I think middle shift Middle School is that shift, where they either say it's this way, and this way only, or they get those aha moments where the preacher at church or a basketball coach, or one of the teachers that just pulls them to the side and ask what's wrong? What what's going on, I see you've been a little bit different in class. And those key moments are needed so much more than ever, because even I, I've had moments where a teacher noticed something and I just wouldn't open up. And I was like, wow, he actually cared enough. And not just that, but actually noticed that there was a shift in me being more quiet in the class. And having that conversation, and then looking back in retrospect and reflecting on it thinking, man, if he did that to me, and I had both parents and everything was just personal stuff going on. If more men could do these were more kids and teens would have these moments. That would make such a major shift. Because at the end of the day, every human just wants to be heard and understood. And even if some of the aggressive kids they're the ones that are overlooked, if somebody just sits down with them one on one, after they yell or whatever, they need to let out and they calm down. There's a way to just have that General Conference. Session. I truly think that if so an example could be if somebody goes to a local elementary school, middle school or high school, if they have a workout first and then after the workout or playtime, then they sit down and talk. The attention span is so much more there because they're released. Oh, yeah,
Ken LaCorte:I think you do that with dogs. You do that with dogs. Cesar Millan had a great show he was the the dog whisperer. Yes. And somebody had had their little fucking yap yap dog that would be going crazy. And you know, part of his genius was, the first thing that you do is you give it a long walk, okay, the dogs a little bit more tired. And then then he's ready to kids like that to you. You let them run for a little bit. And then they turn off some of that energy, which what you want you what you what you want, when you're back in your 30s and 50s. But too late, you're smarter, you're smarter, but slower.
Derek Johnson:Yeah, for sure. But I definitely believe a middle school is most important, mostly throughout high school, but definitely around the age of 17 to 18. That's when that shift that begins to happen, where they start to stay in their ways. Or they just have so many preconceived notions of how other people view them, or how they view others because of how they were trained by their environments. And if they have those moments early, a lot of men can be saved to go down the wrong path, because they lacked father figures, or even just a positive success example, not just the drug dealer, or the professional athlete, like there's more paths and just do those two paths. And that's what I love about the power of social media is people can see, wow, there's a lot of other opportunities for these different cultures, ethnicities, or wow, this guy used to be in jail. Now he has a business and has 200 people on staff, and he's providing opportunities to people that normally wouldn't have them.
Ken LaCorte:You know, when I was a kid, it was what the schools cared about more than anything else was Don't do drugs. This was this was Nancy Reagan and to the 80s, middle of the 80s. And so you know, you'd always go in here Don't do drugs. In fact, they almost introduced us to drugs. They did a little too early. They did it by and they did it in in junior high when you're like what the fuck is all that stuff? And then by the time you're in high school, and people were like, do you want to reefer it was like, they didn't do that anymore. They actually didn't call it reefer back then. But but but close. And, and I noticed in the subsequent generations when my kids went to school, the the big, the big social thing that the schools were pushing was was anti bullying, and it was all about that they'd have every couple of weeks they'd have an anti bullying seminar and, and, you know, I, I'm sure they saw kids suicide people, you know, bullying is not fun when you're when you're, you know, especially if you're skinny little kid in school. Yeah. But that was kind of all it turned into. And I wonder how much of our society's kind of outgrowth of that came from that movement in there. Because, of course, you know, bullying also implies Well, now you have to stop saying things and don't bully things. Don't Don't be mean to people, which is good. But then then those kids graduated and went to high school or went to went to college, where it was in culture can't speak at this college, it will burn it down, because she's going to say words that are going to hurt things. And then you know, and you can almost see the progression of that generation through the rise of the censorship culture going on in America, because then they were the 23 year olds, who were now senior vice presidents at Facebook and Twitter. And and it was the same mantra. Well, you can't you can't bully. I just saw that. That Reddit said that they are banning the word groomer. Yeah, because, you know, the right started using that as a, you know, obviously groomer is you groom young kids for sexual for sexual things, it's been a known world. The right is now using that to poke it in the eye for certain things, which is, I'm sure overboard in certain instances. On the other hand, when I see you know, a, an eight year old kid and there's a drag queen, he's shoving dollar bills in the guy's in the guy's outfit on my it's getting close to groomer Ville, you know, I'm not sure about that. And, and, you know, and I just see them chiseling away at this censorship culture growing up around that I think we're getting, we may be peeking out of this right now. But it's, it's still pretty bad. I had a conversation yesterday with a guy who got fired from a major position at a major at a major news organization. And it was literally all because he upset the Black Lives Matter guys there. And I literally read what he wrote. And it was like, scientific gobbly gook that I could barely understand. But yeah, it wasn't like it was actually really smart. And he got blown out for that. So it's like,
Derek Johnson:yeah, that's, that's my biggest annoyance with it is people take one sentence, whether it's an audio clip or writing, and then they run with it, and they didn't hear the whole interview. They didn't hear the whole conversation or read. And then they just take this and then they run with it and somebody gives some agenda or
Ken LaCorte:and sometimes it's not even that it's either mansplaining or white splaining or something that just causes somebody you know, because the opposite of a bully is a victim. And so there's a definite subculture of people who are just waiting to be victimized by something.
Derek Johnson:Oh, yeah, they wake up just looking for something to be offended about. Like, it's, it's Yeah, it makes their day if it is person that's on is just like looking for something to oh, this car is too close or this person is is or this person looking at me? Oh,
Ken LaCorte:yeah, it's like it's like it's like the opposite of it's like the opposite of the guy on roids, right. He's just like, looking for somebody to make fun of them so you can beat the crap out of him. It's the same, same notion on that I remember one time a friend was driving through San Francisco and in an SUV, because he had worked shit in there. And literally somebody rolled down the window was screaming at him because he was you know, using too much gas and sending too much carbon in the air. And you're you're trying to shame me because of my work truck, which I can't get everything in, you know, in a Hugo here.
Derek Johnson:So go ahead. I was just gonna bounce off of that is that that is the scary part that people in high positions are getting, quote unquote, canceled, fired or made an example of, but people don't realize that when somebody makes an example of somebody, there might be an agenda behind it, where it tries to keep everyone else quiet, where maybe everyone agreed with what that person said. And they're like, Well, I don't want to say I agreed with him or her because then maybe I'll be and it's more so like, alright, we hit his Oh, yeah, man, stay in your box, and you stay in your lane, where people they only see what said person said they don't see the ripple effect that it has where everybody then is
Ken LaCorte:mute. Well, that's intentional. I mean, like, if you just decide if you just decided that, hey, everybody who eats blueberries in America has to die. You don't even have to say you just have to shoot about 50 of them. And all of a sudden, we all figure it out. I mean, if I worked in a large corporate, I don't know what I would do right now. I mean, I my career when it Fox there was this didn't exist as much in society. It didn't exist at all. In that corporation. I don't know how I could handle working in a corporation where if I said something that was innocuous wasn't hate driven. I mean, that's that's the difference. Now is there? Like, it's not what you intended? It's, it's, it's how it was received? Yes, exactly. So it's like, you know, because you can say things out of love. And that can be very harsh. I mean, sometimes, you know, I'd have young employees, and I would be real harsh with them. It's just like, you know, you have some now like, Hey, you're lazy, and you're not gonna have a job here. And, and if you did that to be mean, to him, that was one thing. And people can tell when you're giving them advice, for sure for them or, or to make fun of them. But when you're like, internally on somebody's side, trying to help them out and give them some harsh advice, you could say almost anything to him. Or at least you could back then and now they run to HR, and then then they have your job, I guess.
Derek Johnson:Yeah, for sure. And it all depends on people's communication skills. I think during this whole climate of quarantine COVID, people's communication skills are so low now that they don't know how to open up or simply have a conversation. Like one thing that I did in Florida and Tampa area where we go to target, and everybody be all paranoid, everybody's there to buy some food or whatever, I would just hold the conversation with people, because everybody's on edge. You don't know what media outlets are watching them. It's like, hey, how do you like that pasta? What are you What do you make it with? And at first, you're like, Oh, he's asking me about the pasta. And then they lower their mask, we smile, we have a conversation and you're like, holy shit, you have a normal human interaction again, and you're gonna think about this situation the rest of the day, and maybe start to lighten up some. So that was always my goal, going out in public was just like reminding people like, Hey, get out of your head for a sec, good here and talk.
Ken LaCorte:And you know, and it's harder, it was really hard to through a mask. I mean, you give a smile at somebody I mean, because you say you say a sentence to a stranger in the supermarket with a smile on your face versus something else. And, you know, we get a lot of verbal cues through that, or a lot of nonverbal cues through that. And it kind of I don't know, the first month it was like, this is very weird, because I'm like a stranger in you know, even more of a stranger to other people here. Which
Derek Johnson:exactly for sure, we everyone felt like a sheep for a moment, because everybody didn't know what to say. And you mentioned, I liked that you mentioned the smile. And I knew that there was a psychological play at this whole thing. It wasn't just that this little thing is going to protect you from whatever virus is more. So alright, we're going to make an example of everyone you have to do this or you'll be frowned upon. And at a certain time period, you will start to lose your personality, you will start to drift away from people and it did a lot of mental damage to people where suicide went up, anxiety went up, depression went up, spousal abuse went up, neglect went up, everything skyrocketed, but the media would just say oh, Coke was the biggest issue. But me and my field I saw a lot of clients or even friends, binge drinking, binge eating. You could go through the drive thru one of the key moments where I knew that this was bigger than just a virus was in South Florida. The gyms were closed. So I said okay, perfect. I have weights, I'm going to bring him to the beaches and just try outdoors is fun. And then there's a park on Bayshore Boulevard in Tampa where there's a lot of stations where you can jog and use the pull up bars and everything else, they had a barricade over these things. And in that moment, I was like 20 meters from this pull up bar is the water and the wind is blowing, it's completely fine to be out here in a workout or something like so. I can't do pull ups out outdoors by the water, but I can go get McDonald's, I can go to the liquor store, and you want me to watch Netflix or your bullshit media that's going to be toxic. So you can control how I think. And I'm sitting here eating a Big Mac drinking, yelling at a friend,
Ken LaCorte:I believe you were I'm not sure I I don't know if I buy the whole concept that this is some like, you know, Star Chamber thing to ruin our personalities. I think that the answer is, is a little bit simpler in its in its kind of politics. So a friend of mine, he was the city manager for that. Right when going COVID hit now COVID was a real thing. I mean, you know, I mean, drugs are starting to starting to fill up but but right at the early stage, he said they were de luz by phone calls, you know, because the question was, do we close the beach? Right? And, and I was like, what was the percentage of people saying, Let's live our lives. Don't overdo this versus what percentage of people were saying you're gonna kill us close it down. He said it was about 95% of the phone calls they got in we're saying you're gonna kill us close this down. Now you're not doing enough. It was the paranoid hyperactive people who were calling that and he was like, and they didn't just call and just give their their impression. They called and we're and said things that politicians don't want to hear, which is you're killing people and I'm never gonna vote for you again. And I'm going to remember this as long as you live as as I live. And so it wasn't like a you know, I know people like think somehow Soros is behind all this shit. But but the paranoid people called up they influenced politicians. And you know, the one thing that politicians have to do, they have to look like they're doing something. Right. So they closed a beach here, where I live in Sausalito, similar, we have hiking trails, right? They they literally and they only did this for a few weeks. But it was just you can see it in action. They closed off all the parking up in the mountains. I mean, you're you're miles away from anybody in the Marin Headlands. And they made it so you couldn't park there in case you walked and took a hike out on a trail on someone and, and then it all kind of wrapped up because then later you wouldn't be on a hike. And somebody would would literally like if you weren't, if you weren't dressed appropriately over your face, they would they would, some of them would fall to the ground. Like like they were truly afraid. Which Yeah, but you know, politicians, this is part of their they're dealing like, they just have to look like they're doing shit and and and will vote against them. If they don't, they'll lose their job. I mean, look, Donald Trump lost his job, if it wouldn't have been for COVID. And if he would have been a more paranoid guy, now he was he was trying to walk that line of I don't want to destroy the United States economy and start these, these extra welfare payments and on all these, these, these payments that are going to cause inflation, which he started that and that's part of the reason why we have inflation here, Joe Biden then jumped on top of it, everybody loved it, you know, politicians writing checks to people. That's like they just viewed as votes. They love it. Yeah, but But you when you look at the numbers of the last election, where Trump really, really lost was he lost on old people, because old people were scared of this thing to death. And with some justification, right? Because old people if it didn't affect you, you're healthy young guy. I'm less healthy, less young. But but you know, when you looked at like the elderly, who vote 100% of the time, I mean, you know, they could barely get their tapioca pudding in there all day to show they're gonna get voted. And he lost that group. I mean, you know, when you look as he, he did better among minorities than he did in the first in the last election. He did better than a lot of groups. But it was his, his apparent I won't say it was lack of action, or even that it was the wrong move. But his apparent lack of action. And of course, his, you know, his personality never helps. Which, which, which cost him that presidency? And so, yeah, and it's gotten calmer here. I saw that flow, excuse me, San Diego, just reimplemented masks for for schools there. And, but it's getting a stronger backlash than it did the first time because at least here in the States, you're overseas. The death rates are still kind of low enough where people are going to live with that, right? I mean, it's, you know, certain point, millions of people die in America every year and a couple 100,000. Yeah, exactly. Versus versus something. But everybody's getting it. I mean, two thirds of my friends got this thing, and I did in the last three months. I mean, this new variant is a lesser variant. That's everyone's everyone's good. So you do you do both health coaching and then related life coaching? So yes, how does one get to be that? How does one get to be a life coach? That seems like kind of a ballsy thing you got to be like, You know what I know my shit. And these other guys don't? How do you get to
Derek Johnson:that? So number one, it all depends on the person if they're looking just on straight the money or actually to make an impact. And also just in terms of life coaching, or mentorship versus therapy, not that therapy does not work. But my experience people in the military, family and so forth is just repetitive speaking about problems. Like I know people that have been in therapy for 1215 years, they got a coach within six months, their life change, finances, change, and everything. Where it makes you wonder, what do they do here, just get prescribed stuff and just talk about their problems every Tuesday morning, and take notes. And they were doing it for so many years, but life didn't change. So you see it not saying it doesn't work? Do
Ken LaCorte:you see a coach as a kind of more aggressive
Derek Johnson:plan with action steps step by step, rather than just tell me about your problems? What happened? 15? Yes, we have to learn about people's past and what their struggles are.
Ken LaCorte:Because a lot of times something that happened bagless solution a lot of times something in the past. Is your your building on that stuff. Yes, for sure. For sure. But you are but keep going on that we give them we give them a plan on that.
Derek Johnson:Yeah, so giving them a solution. So opposed to pushing them towards a subscription, or excuse me a prescription or anything of that nature. It's more so like, alright, let's identify what the patterns are. At what point did the shift happen? Was it because of family? Was it because of this traumatic experience and so forth? And then what do you want to work on right now, and then taking action on regards to or in regards to what they want to focus on, whether that's physical health, mental health or their career, but it's more so giving them an action plan, and giving them the guidance and the tools and the resources, which are proven to give them the best results?
Ken LaCorte:Yeah, that's interesting, because one thing I noticed about therapist is, therapists often have a lot of problems themselves. And that was because, you know, we, we want to become what we see when we're when we're young. Right? So when you ask a child, what do you want to be when you grow up? It's like, nobody says, I'd like to be a statistical analysis. I mean, you know, they, they want to be a teacher, because they see teachers or certain things they see a ballplayer or a singer or those things that we see. Yes, and if you are somebody who spent your whole life in therapy, that's more likely to be one of the things that you might want to be when you grow up. So it's like I my therapist, friends are I love them and and, and some of them are very well rounded. Other ones are still kind of struggling through that. But but there's also kind of a an education path on that. Is there an education path to be on a life coach as well? For sure
Derek Johnson:So what got me into it was coaching. Also being what's. an athlete, being in the military, helping my soldiers, helping my friends and so forth, where I just naturally got drawn to leadership, because I always had the mentality that people depend on me, and I know how it feels to not have people around you that fully support you had a great upbringing, but things happen in life people change, but with that being said is I went through Les Brown's training in South Florida so I lived in Miami at the time, and he's from the Miami Fort Lauderdale area. So I did his training in person at his at his school and also went through Tony Robbins life coaching certification training as well. So those both of those gentlemen definitely had a major impact on me when I was a teenager or also in college going through things I would play their DVDs, listen to their tapes. First time I heard Tony Robbins was in the backseat of my dad's car, he played on the tapes, and I was like, hmm, this is interesting. And I like I had an aha moment where my friends were like, Why does he listen to that crap? And I'm like, hey, it helped me and he's helped millions of people so this stuff works it's simple. Yeah.
Ken LaCorte:Because Because there's definitely and I've seen it work we have we have a joint friend who is big on that self improvement and I've seen it work for people and I've seen it not work for people right i mean like Tony Robbins was like to me it was like interesting but then he was just a little too too fucking good looking and here I am in my jet as I'm ripping my shirt out, you know, he was remember how we had helicopter lessons so it didn't resonate with me but other guys do and
Derek Johnson:and yeah, for sure. And that's the best thing about it depending on their personality a couple months
Ken LaCorte:ago. He was he was looking at the Andy Frisella hard 50 244 Yes Where were you take a cold shower in the morning you do you know he has a handful of things that you do with and I did a different version of that because I don't really need to drink a lot of water one was read 10 minutes of a nonfiction book which I do all the time. So I added in some things and and I tell you sang for 30 days. I'm going to commit to these handful of things that I might not like. It affected me it really it affected me in a in a very Good way, it just started exactly part of it as it gets your confidence up, you know, like I had been, I'd been pretty hardcore I was I was I was not as upbeat as you but I was as hardcore as you through life. You know, you had a certain point you do okay in life and you relax a little bit, you know, you don't quite have the grapes coming down on you, but But you realize, I don't have to work anymore if I if I really didn't feel like it, and that, that softens you up. And then you have to, you have to say, All right, I can either but I'm too young to like, just go the soft route. And that's it, I'm, you know, you'll see me in crappy shorts at, you know, walking through the loop, or I'm sticking on this path. And I want to accomplish more things in life. And that sometimes needs a re sharpening of the sword. And some of the things that those discipline based programs offer up work. Both psychologically, I think some of its mental, some of its physical, it was a number of things. So they really do and I'm seeing I'm guessing you see these kinds of changes in people's in people's lives? So here's a question. Cuz certain things just work for certain people and others don't? How many of how many people that come in to you? Do the majority, like hit it? And it's like, that's their thing to some just like, you know, what, I don't want to do this, or how to how does that mix work? And then how do you deal with with the ones who like, okay, for whatever reasons, this isn't work, I was talking to a psychologist, friend of mine, and it was a guy, that guy just couldn't work. He had a job he was online, but he just couldn't do. I mean, he was so and and you know, they give them drugs? They did all sorts of and and and from a psychological standpoint, the answer was, I have no idea what to do about this person. And you'd have a different path. So how do you deal with that?
Derek Johnson:So number one is all about identifying what they want to work on and learning about the person and realizing everyone is different. So it's not a plan that fits each person. Obviously, if somebody's trying to lose 20 pounds are certain basic things that somebody needs to do, but in terms of the psychological aspect is also identifying their personality type, what triggers them, what motivates them, and so forth. Everybody has a different human need. So realizing what their human need is and what they drive off of, you know, what's going to help this person so like an example could be some people like Tony Robbins, David Goggins, Andy Frisella hardcore, they cuss a lot, some people that's their pet other people they prefer Jordan Peterson, more soft spoken, because every now and then, and some people prefer prefer the yoga master, right? Really slow, really soft spoken. But if you're able to identify what each person likes, then you can approach that person in that way knowing okay, this person may get offended if I use the word fuck. But this person says, hey, if I'm, if I'm weak for two weeks, please speak up, be that drill sergeant that I need. And the other person just needs that accountability. It's and most importantly, is as a leader to read their personality, knowing how to communicate with you know, with each person that
Ken LaCorte:that is that is so that is so true. So I ran an office of about 40 people at Fox News. And when I came in, I'd never run, you know, I'd had I'd run I'd read some campaigns and some other things. So I'd always had a handful of people, but I've never had a leadership thing on that. And this is back at 2020 plus years ago, and I told myself, you know, I'm going to try I'm going to treat everybody the same, which is a fucking mistake. I'm like, you know, I'm, you know, especially like males, females, I'm going to be as, as as non sexist as I can. Well, at a certain point, like after the first couple of months, my number two guy closes the door. And he's like, the girls are crying in the hallways. Because I would say, because, you know, when you say certain things to different people, they do take it differently. So when I would say, that's that idea sucks, though. No, I don't like that at all. So some of the guys they were like, fine. And that's how I grew up. You know, I grew up talking mainly, you know, interacting socially, probably more with men than women. And they heard men heard that script sucks. All right, I'll give them another one. Yeah, women interpreted it more as I suck and can thinks I suck and therefore I'm no good. And it was the exact wrong approach to them. And, and, you know, we didn't have training, it says like, Okay, you're in charge of the West Coast go. I mean, there was no there was no training course in that. But that was a very big lesson that once I said, Oh, okay, I'm trying to be equal and by being equal I'm, I'm coming up with unequal things because people need to be talked to differently and it in once I kind of, like, had that conversation and figured that out made things made things much better. Okay, so I'm online. I see. I, I see Derek Johnson. I look people have lost weight. They can jump over buildings and whatnot. And I'm like, Okay, I sign up. have something like this. A How much does something like that cost and be what happens.
Derek Johnson:So the first step is to have a zoom call, I prefer to zoom. I'm old school I like to face to face, if we're not in person and learn about if we're even a good fit, learn about what your goals are to see it for how I can even help that person, some people, I'm not a good fit for them. But I definitely make sure to provide them resources of other people programs or things, maybe even books, podcasts that would help them that would align with them. So I'm definitely not for everyone. You're not for everyone. So that's the first thing to put out there. Because like we said, not everything works for everyone. And you have to, like the people that you work with. So I only take on people that I know, we would click and we would do great together because for in the past as a personal trainer in gyms, so you like, we don't suck now what happens? Yeah, so I learned what your goals are. And we go from there, we have another call, I lay it out and show you exactly step by step, what we would work on what the duration is of the program, how things are set up, and so forth. And then you decide if that's a good fit for you. But it's all tailored to you and your goals and your needs.
Ken LaCorte:Now, okay, so let me and just so I can get an idea of what that means. So I'm a I'm a 23 year old guy, I've got a shitty job. still live at home, I want to improve both my health and I want to I want to find some some better type work. Without getting too too specific. Give me a rough idea. I mean, are you rough idea of what a plan like that means? In other words, is this some physical? Is it all mental? Is it job? Hell yes. So
Derek Johnson:it's going to be, it's going to be three pillars. So one is physical, two is mental. And three is going to be our zoom calls conversations. Or if we're in the same area, one on one in person meetings. And that's where the magic happens. Because we dive deeper to be able to pinpoint patterns, habits, cutting off certain things in your life, people, anything that needs to be eliminated before we add anything on. So that's my approach is first look, what can I eliminate or get rid of that's not serving me anymore. Maybe I'm a late night binge eater, maybe I'll watch too much this, maybe I'll do too much of that. Taking those things away before we go cold turkey on some things, because a lot of people are just doing a lot of things that they've done for decades that are not serving them anymore. So we take away those things slowly. We're not going cold turkey overnight. And then we start to add things where they get some traction and momentum, where they begin to feel more confident inside and outs that correlates to their relationships, how they view themselves. And outside of that I pride myself on the workout. So have them in a training app where they would have it all laid out. So Monday,
Ken LaCorte:well, you almost we almost always put a physical element into that. Yeah, haven't always put a
Derek Johnson:physical element because calms the mind, even if the goal is not abs are to lose weight, but at least new interesting and fun workouts that they maybe haven't done before. But well, most of
Ken LaCorte:them aren't gonna work out at all if they're if they're kind of that loop. So that is something like that a psychologist would never even contemplate. Yeah, because I don't think I've never heard of a psychologist saying, All right, here's your workout routine? Yes, do they
Derek Johnson:know I don't have the experience with that. But most don't. And I think that that's what's missing is because you have to take in the body, the mind. And a person's will have what they even want. Because therapy helps in some ways. A personal trainer can help in some ways. But if you have the full encompassing with the body, mind, spirit, then you can take more action and get results inside and out. Because an example of what got me into life coaching, I would see clients that lost 80 plus pounds, I would see them traveling six months later, years later, where I'm like, No, Jimmy or Michelle, they gained it all back have a conversation. But I'm not angry at them. I would feel annoyed with myself because I feel that I let him or her down. As in I didn't provide them the tools to give them the mental flip of the switch so they can win long term.
Ken LaCorte:Talk to me about that. Ask him about that third about that third pillar for a little bit so because it changed a little bit one one was was body mind our meetings, the other was body mind spirit, when you look at that. What's that extra element? Besides we're gonna get you on track here? We're going to toughen up your mind. And presumably, sometimes I would assume that getting new education or getting their mind right. Tell me a little bit more about what you call that third pillar and what that means.
Derek Johnson:So when it comes to their faith or their spirit, it depends on what they believe in. So I'm not pushing a certain religion but if they have relationship with God with Allah, I just recommend that they do one of the three, pray more, meditate more or visualize more, or one works better for others. But as being able to pinpoint which one of those works since
Ken LaCorte:they're a non believer, you're having them do meditation to calm and you're having doing visualization. So that's, that's pretty close to the mind thing, but it's a little bit of a higher level is that a higher kind of looking down on your life is that is Is that a fair way to say that?
Derek Johnson:Yes, for sure. So I like to focus on perspective hopping. So how we view ourselves how the world would see us how we want to how we want to be recognized in the future with our legacy, and how God whatever our power, that person believes in us, them and their support system. So being able to tap out because most people are stuck in here, but if they're able to slow down for a second, see how they look from different perspectives, also in a conversation, right, then they can get some more clarity and calmness because everybody's stuck in here where they're like, me, me, me, I don't want to get up. I don't want to do this. And they're just very neurotic.
Ken LaCorte:I literally try to do that once a year. And for a go away for a little bit of time. And during, during a big pivotal moment after my dad died, and business was changing. I just went into the woods and a little cabin. You know, I mean, close to Ted, Ted Bundy, but you know, a very, very cabin far away. And and, Brian,
Derek Johnson:how did that help you?
Ken LaCorte:It it helped a lot. It didn't solve all of my problems. But what it did is it allowed me to look at my life from a 60,000 square foot and say, Where do I, where do I want to go over the next five years? Where do I want to go to the end of my life? How do I how do I want to be viewed by myself and, and, and the people I love and, and, and I literally took the time to write down, you know, write down the business plan. And it was everything from for me, it was like, Okay, I'm going to pay attention to these spheres of focus, there is my personal home life, there is professional, there is health, there is there is my larger circle of friends and wider family. And for all of those to spend, you know, spend hours thinking about am I being a good enough father, even though my my children are grown and gone? What am I doing to my health and you know, seeing Okay, now here are the goals that I want to do. And then that special element that I would say which is was is somewhat, it can be very spiritual, or it can be more philosophical and ethical is how do I want to live that life? In other words, I know that I want to hear my now my goals at work. But now I want to talk about the things like the ethics of me pursuing that, you know, what are my shortcomings on, on on on my personal problems? I interrupt people too much. It's a procrastination, sneaking to try to try to find the easy path sometimes. And I'd literally write that down and work on it. You know, it needs those other elements of staying on top of that, doing visualizations, doing doing all of that, but I found it. Yeah, life altering, and very, very cool.
Derek Johnson:Awesome. I'm really happy that you had that experience. And you slow down and be like, I just need to get away from a bit. Because
Ken LaCorte:when you're just you know, man, you can fall into a routine so easy. You know, you drive into the office, you do your thing. Yeah, you edit your scripts you come you know, and it's just and you don't think that way. So it's good to do. I tell you, you know what, I think this is partially you. But I also think that it's partially the difference between because it really opened my eyes between the life coaching and psychologists. Because a lot of people in the mental health care when I talk to him, they're not in their heart. They're not sure they're doing any good. I sense that a lot. I sense like, like, you know, you have to be a psychiatrist to actually deliver the drugs, and a lot of them are just, you know, okay, I'm having a counseling session with you to make sure that, that you know, you're not going to shoot somebody on Zoloft, or whatever that is, for sure. I don't get from too many. And some of them, I don't want to act like they all think they're frauds or anything, but I rarely get the what I'm getting out of you, which is I'm excited to do this, because I'm helping somebody and I can see that. And I can sense that you do that. And that's, that's, that's
Derek Johnson:cool. That's my favorite thing about it is my girlfriend. During the holidays, she'll be spending time with family, I'll be on the couch, I'm like, Hey, and then the family is going to come to dinner. Well, yeah, one second. And then I look at the holiday or birthday posts of clients active or in the past, and I'll see the changes. This guy's in a new house, this guy's on a vacation with his family. This client has their first child, this guy went on his first date in 10 years, all these different things where I just shoot them a message is between me and them where I'm like, Man, this is this is amazing. And just seeing people have a real smile and a picture. That right there gives me a drive. Because if I'm able to work with them, and we work as a team, and they have a positive impact that's going to trickle to their kids to their co workers. And I like to look at things as a ripple effect, because this is the same in reverse. If I'm pissed off in traffic, and I throw a guy finger, he might get offended, and he's gonna bring that energy to somebody else. Right, everything trickles. So, I like to use it in reverse in a positive aspect because I know how it feels to be in that dark place where nobody understands me. Nobody cares to talk or listen. And they're just like, you're labeled as this. We only see you as that. And then that's when things can go downhill. So being able to be that person for somebody else, because then they can be that person for somebody else as well. And the process continues,
Ken LaCorte:you know, you're too young to see, because you grew up in an internet age. You're too young to see how everything that you're doing right now couldn't have been done 40 years ago, now, the Internet brings the bad stuff, right? I mean, the Internet brings social anxiety it brings, you know, the people who are posting up, you know, the comparing yourselves to FOIA to somebody else's Instagram feed, which, you know, good luck on that. But, you know, back in the day, there just wasn't that kind of information. I mean, the Tony Robbins is of the world and there were always guys who were out there. Yeah, you might mercial after infomercial. Yeah, like infomercial, and they'd sell you like, like a, like a bunch of cassette tapes or albums that you could listen to, and, but that was about it. Or they come into town once every six months, and you go to you go see him at Dodger Stadium, they have a seminar. Yeah, they do some seminars and things like that, you know, I mean, it's been going on probably as early as humans have been around. But you know, the, the Dale Carnegie courses were popular in kind of the mid 1900s, on how to present and how to deal with people. And that's still the best book on presentation and human interaction that I've ever read the one with a stupid name, How to Win Friends and Influence People. So
Derek Johnson:as people and nowadays, I truly believe that one of the most important things is even if somebody doesn't have a business, or is not trying to sell a product or service, just to have a personal brand, because now they're a walking billboard, whether it's their Facebook, their LinkedIn, even if they're not in business, but if they're an intrapreneur, or an entrepreneur, but people will be surprised how many opportunities or even lose what's based off of their social,
Ken LaCorte:what's an intrapreneur
Derek Johnson:intrapreneur. So somebody that works on their self development, and they work within a company, but they treat it like as it's their job where that person goes through the ranks in the company got it higher and faster than somebody else, because they're doing all these seminars, etc.
Ken LaCorte:Got it. Got it, I actually, that that is a good advice for somebody who works at a large corporation is to kind of think that you are a little, little mini one man business inside of that corporation. Because sometimes people would lose track of Why am I being judged the way I'm being judged in here and treat it, treat it like that actually kind of makes sense. So
Derek Johnson:yeah, and some companies, not all, but some companies, they have outdated training, where they don't realize that the PowerPoints or the speakers that they have come, it's very redundant, it's very fluff, and the staff has maybe they're half asleep, or on 400 milligrams of coffee, just to pay attention to this guy. And if they just did a shift and like, gave them some new training, it would just like spark the interest or spark the knowledge. Again,
Ken LaCorte:a lot of companies don't have hardly any training. I mean, you know, they do the obligatory sexual harassment, or ethical thing every every once in a while. That was if I look back at my career, if I could have changed one thing we didn't do enough of sword sharpening. In other words, sometimes, you know, we we'd have, and I was running, I was running reporter teams produce reporters, producers, we did some investigative journalism, a lot of churn and burn stuff we had, we had production stuff as well. But we, you know, we'd never or very rarely would be like, Okay, let's just take two days and get the cameraman to come in here on the weekend. And we'll pay him extra for that. And we'll say, Hey, here's some new things in and that can make you a better a better operator, what you're doing.
Derek Johnson:Sure thing, company culture is most important nowadays, where, even though things are toxic in the media in some parts of social media, and the news is that we have company culture, and this goes back to if dad or mom comes home from work, or logs off a zoom and is happy at home because they have a good work environment, that spills into their personal life where that piece is missing outside of what we mentioned earlier, when it came to people having father figures and so forth, but company culture has a major role. And if people are happier, not even if they're not getting paid what they want. If the culture is good, and they're happy, and they have the benefits and so forth, that person could be happier than the guy in executive position. That's miserable, high stress, high pay, it's totally it's easy to own. But if the company culture is powerful, then people won't leave that if you're getting paid.
Ken LaCorte:Yeah, no, what you generally find is, is if you're under paying people substantially, that's an issue. But once you get them up to something reasonable, you can go higher and higher and that that minimally affects their happiness, it's really their relationship with their next limb line supervisor. And so it's done each one on a level. So if you're a regional vice president, it's it's the it's the atmosphere and culture pushed by that Vice President above you because that's, you know, that's your boss. And that's, that's where you're coming at it. Exactly. I wonder how in corporate America how they're doing these days with with the move to zoom, I mean, some of them are pulling back and you see Elon Musk's, and that's it. We're trying to accomplish big things because culture is harder to harder to implement when you don't have everybody in the same room. boom in the same physical place, do you do? Yeah. Do you notice that with some of your clients and things or have Yeah,
Derek Johnson:so some of our clients are in a lot of friends from my hometown, and Pensacola, Florida, they work for Navy, federal, or USA or other big corporations, banks, credit unions, and so forth. And some of them have a unique setting where during quarantine, they were fully remote, some now are still fully remote, and some are doing half and half. So maybe two days in the office two days at home and going that route. And the ones that are doing half and half, they seem the most happiest and most productive. Not saying that others don't weren't doing well during quarantine remote. But I have noticed that depending on what industry they're in what role they're in, I do notice that if they do the 5050, they're much happier, calmer, because they get the in person, camaraderie and so forth, then they're like, Alright, I've had enough of the social aspect don't want to be around these jokers five days a week, and then they're at home working in their flow state. So because what all depends on the person and their role,
Ken LaCorte:and one of the things that I think companies need to do more of is, is they use this technology just for working. And there was one company it was a it was a tech company that was 100% distributed before I forget that before COVID, before before this became a deal. And one of the things that they would do is they would have that, you know, they demand the first 10 minutes of a meeting. We don't talk business. They had a number of things like that, because that's when you know, I, you know, I go into the big boy meeting at Fox News and Roger Ailes will be coming in. And well, we don't get there a little earlier. Yes. And it was like that five minutes before the boss came in, when you were talking about oh, your kids doing this or the ball game or even just making fun of somebody. Right, it was like we we gelled more there than we did at any other other other point in it. So I think that companies and people still have a long, long ways to learn about, okay, how do we how do we now implement this new technology and regain or keep some of those interactions that we wanted to wanted to keep before?
Derek Johnson:For sure. And definitely, if those companies and people, especially people that have maybe you've been there a few decades, if they just adapt and stop being stuck in the past ways, then their staff will be happier, the training will be improved sales commission, everything will go up if they just continue to adapt, because as we saw in the past few years, a lot of the big businesses are out of business, because all they did was not adapt, right. So either they had bad products or bad services they just didn't want to adapt with the CEO is like we've always done it this way. And then they go bankrupt, right. And some people, they just don't want to adapt, but going back to fully remote. So my girlfriend, she's been in corporate sales for nearly two decades now where her whole sales team, all those zoom calls, and they're all in different countries, cities and states. But they have such great camaraderie because they do those chit chats in between calls. Like, let's just say I finish the sales call, I hop back into the group meeting, they get feedback, they crack jokes, and so forth. And then they go back into their one on ones and all that where they have that aspect of it. But it all stems back to the person, how they treat others going back to motional intelligence. But if people truly care about others, and are compassionate, and they can give people the tools to do well in their career, then things will be much easier.
Ken LaCorte:Yeah, another another small tool that I've seen, because, again, because sometimes you're just your interactions are. You see it in the car, right? You see the nicest guy sometimes drive driving up, somebody cuts him off. He's like, Yo, whoa, hey, and he never in a million years would have said that to somebody, if somebody cuts you off accidentally with their shopping cart? Yeah, at least at least if you don't have a mask, if you feel like oh, excuse me, oh, I'm sorry. And then you move on. So it's like the medium actually does change, change people's behavior. One other little tool that I saw a company use and said said it worked very well. For them. It was one of those mapping programs that you could kind of show like, if this was a larger company, but you would show like, Oh, you're in a meeting with these five people and it would show an overview of like an office right? And so these five people are now in this meeting room here. These guys are just chit chatting over nothing in the lunch break room and they encourage that so you could kind of see what was going on just like if you're walking and and they say that that helped. That helped cause the inner because what you don't do online is is you know when you're walking by somebody's office and you stick your head in and be like Hey Fred, how was the game that would okay bla bla bla bla you know, you don't do that kind of stuff that actually does help you out a lot. So I don't know we may be at the steal of the very nice and I was also wanting to do in my company, but we didn't do it is you know one of the things is when you're sitting in your office and somebody walks by there's there's not a camera on you but they can see you you look in the office if it has a window or an open door and you can close your door keep your door open. Yeah, keep it open. That's a sign of yeah, come in if you if you have something else, the ability to like kind of interrupt somebody like that, that I would never do like, like you know Online be like, you know, yeah, I mean calling somebody on the phone now is weird is a weird interruptive habit for people but
Derek Johnson:yeah, for sure most people their phone rings, they watch a ring then they text Yeah, it sounds like they're watching it even if they're free
Ken LaCorte:but extra tools and whatnot to, to to kind of refine and change on that I suspect we'll see over the next over the next five years or so.
Derek Johnson:Yeah, definitely.
Ken LaCorte:Alright did well look I will let you go. This was very, very fun. I appreciate your time. I appreciate you inviting me. Oh, totally, totally. Totally. My pleasure.
