Leaders Who Get the Most Give the Most

Belay ad:
What if the best thing you could do for your leadership is stop doing so much? Most leaders think growth means working harder, saying yes to everything, and staying in every detail. But real leadership capacity doesn’t come from doing more. It comes from freedom. The freedom to think, to plan, to lead instead of react. When you free up your time and attention, you show up sharper in every room. you make better decisions. You lead with vision instead of survival mode. Belay’s free resource, the Freedom Framework, shows you exactly how to create that space by delegating the right work to the right support so you can lead at your full potential.

Belay ad:
Text Maxwell to 55123 to grab your free copy or learn more about Belay’s personally matched assistance today.

Mark Cole:
I think as we frame this lesson, I want you to think certainly finances and be generous, but certainly another thing is be generous with your experiences.

Mark Cole:
Be generous with your competencies. Be generous with your time. Be generous with your network, people that you know. Hey, welcome to the Maxwell Leadership Podcast. We are so delighted that you’re here today. In fact, I’m really excited because John’s gonna talk today about the different kinds of generosity. And what we hope to do is to add value to you in this concept of generosity and believe that by doing that, you will go multiply generosity to others. And so, I’m so excited, Traci, to have you with me today.

Mark Cole:
It is so good to see you. We’re friends, we’re friends, we’re friends first. And it was so good to catch up with you just a little bit before we started listening to John. But let me ask you a question. Who do you think modeled or who taught you the most about generosity?

Traci Morrow:
Oh, that’s a great question. I would say it was definitely in my family, starting with my grandparents. Their home was always a place where anybody was welcome to come stop in, and they would set down another plate and they could stop in at any time. And then we— but we were only there a couple of times a year. But my parents really cultivated a space where our home was an open space. Anybody was welcome. Everybody was welcome to come in. And I can remember even people were welcome to come, and if they were displaced, they could come and stay in our home.

Traci Morrow:
And so I just can remember we have cousins that I now call like my sister cousins because they came in and lived with us for a while and felt like siblings. And so what that did is it just taught me like what we have is open to share with other people, even as much as bringing them in and calling them family. So, that was always a beautiful thing to me. What about you, Mark?

Mark Cole:
Well, it’s so funny. As you were talking about family, I was thinking, well, hands down, it’s my dad. And there’s a lot of stories that I have told about my dad, and the generosity of people, and what my dad did. But, you know, it’s interesting because as John breaks down today, 3 distinct methods that he demonstrates and works the muscle of generosity, I’ve gotta— John is not just an honorable mention, he’s a top mention. And when you hear him teach in just a few moments, podcast family, podcast friends, You’re going to see John living out, teaching out what he lives out. And I love lessons to where I can see John teaching something that he has so diligently and intentionally lived. And that’s certainly the case today as he talks about 3 kinds of generosity. Here’s what I want you to do, podcast friends.

Mark Cole:
I want you to go to the link MaxwellPodcast.com/Give. And that’s where you’ll get the show notes. We’ll include some other things. In fact, we’ve got a really cool special. Speaking of generosity, we’ve got a really cool special we’re going to give those of you that want to go to the next level of growing yourself. We’ll put all of that in our show notes right there at MaxwellPodcast.com/Give. We also will encourage you to go there. We’ll put a link there today for you to submit your video questions.

Mark Cole:
And this is not America’s Funniest Home Videos, by the way, so don’t submit those. But your leadership questions, you’ll be able to submit right there in the show notes. And we’re going to have an episode ever so often on answering you, our podcast friends’, questions on leadership and living leadership out. So look forward to that. Hey, grab a pen, grab a paper, download that free bonus resource there at MaxwellPodcast.com/Give, and let’s get started with John Maxwell. Here he is. is leaders who get the most give the most.

John Maxwell:
Top 20% of whatever you do, you’re gonna do well for yourself. You’re gonna have a nice life. When you get into the top 2% of what you do with other people, you’re gonna get ridiculously blessed. In every way, including money. So, so what do we do with money? I mean, when we— I mean, how much is enough? And, and what do we do with money? The moment I see people who do well that are highly generous, I know that they will always own their money, but their money will never own them. I, I, I feel good. I say, okay, they’re good. They can have— they can have a lot of money, but the check The balance, the stabilizer on money is being generous.

John Maxwell:
Now you’ve heard me talk about there are 2 kinds of people, pluses and minuses, you know, and that whole process. Amy Alcock wrote a poem many years ago. There’s 2 kinds of people on earth today, just 2 kinds of people, no more I say. Not the good and the bad, for it’s well understood that the good are half bad and the bad are half good.

John Maxwell:
No, there’s 2 kinds of people in life, I mean. It’s the people who lift and it’s the people who lean. That’s a terrific little poem. And she’s exactly right. She’s talking about there are some people that they lift, they’re a plus. There’s other people, they’re weight, they lean, they’re a minus. And so for me, I’ve really tried to, in my life, to living a highly generous lifestyle. And I have different kinds of generosity, and I’ll give ’em to you briefly.

John Maxwell:
I have what I call open heart generosity. And open heart generosity is just the fact that I wanna have a generous spirit toward people. So every day I’m gonna intentionally add value to them, every day.

John Maxwell:
I already have today. The day’s young, but I’ve already added value to people. I’ve already done it intentionally every day. So it’s open heart generosity. It’s just a spirit of being generous, generous in your thanks, gratitude, praise. You just, you have an open heart for it. Then there’s what I call open mind generosity. Open mind generosity is always thinking of ways to help people, thinking of ways to add value to people, thinking of ways to serve people, and also thinking of ways to give people the benefit of the doubt.

John Maxwell:
And so I always, when somebody says something that’s not really particularly nice about a person, I pretty well open up and say, well, let me see if I can think of something that is nice about that person. Because let me just, do we not all have flaws in our life? Now, do you want somebody to judge you based on your flaw? I mean, gosh, that’s just, we want people to look at us, you know. And hopefully see the best in us. Well, that’s open mind generosity. There’s a spirit that’s the heart that’s generous to people. There’s the mind that’s kind and gives people the benefit of the doubt to people. And then thirdly, there’s an open, what I call an open hand generosity. And the open hand generosity is about money.

John Maxwell:
And it’s the fact that I keep a very open hand. And everything that I am blessed with that comes into my hand, because it’s an open hand, it can very quickly go to others. If I tighten my fist and I have what I call a clenched fist mindset, then I’m gonna hold onto what I have and you’re not gonna get it. You’re not gonna, you can’t even pry these fingers loose. I’m gonna keep onto it. Now, So the good news is I’m gonna always have something. The bad news is I’m not gonna have much because let me explain it this way. A clenched fist gives nothing, but a clenched fist is unable to receive anything.

John Maxwell:
So if God wanted to bless me with a clenched fist, he couldn’t because I’d say, no, this is mine.

John Maxwell:
I’m holding onto it. There’s a, you know I’m a person of faith, so I’m allowed to do this once in a while. There’s a scripture verse that is my generosity verse. And it’s 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 17, okay? Now listen to these words, these are huge. Tell those rich in this world’s wealth to quit being so full of themselves. Oh, I love that. Oh, just, I just, quit being so full of yourself and so obsessed with money, which is here today and gone tomorrow. Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the riches that we could ever manage.

John Maxwell:
And why does he pile on all the riches that we could ever manage? To do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous, And if they do that, they’ll build a treasury that will last, gaining life that is truly life.

John Maxwell:
So that’s my verse.

John Maxwell:
And what that verse means to me is that I’m a seed sower. And by the way, the ground doesn’t say give me your need, the ground says give me your seed. See, I consider the success of my day not based on the harvest I reap, but on the seeds I sow. So I’m never in a harvest mode. I don’t get up in the morning and say, I wonder what I’m gonna get today. I wonder what I’m gonna receive today. I get up every day and say, I wonder how much I can give today. I wonder what I can do for others.

John Maxwell:
Now, this is huge.

John Maxwell:
It’s just huge.

John Maxwell:
Every year, every year, I intentionally raise my standard of giving. See, most people, they’re saying, man, I wonder how I can raise my standard of living. And there’s nothing, by the way, there’s nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all wrong with that. I’m just telling you, if you wanna be successful, you don’t wanna take the path of most people because most people aren’t successful. In fact, I get a little worried when I’m in a crowd, I say, oh crap, what happened? I’m kind of like everyone else for a moment. That’s not good. And most people, their whole mindset is, you know, what am I gonna receive? I never worry about that.

John Maxwell:
It’s not even, it’s just, now I receive a lot, but I receive a lot, but that’s not my focus. Why focus giving a lot? Because I know the law of nature, and the law of nature is if you sow a lot of seed, the harvest takes care of itself. The problem is in our culture, we want people, we have people who want a harvest and they haven’t sown anything. And I always make sure, always make sure that I give more than I receive, always. If you don’t give away what you got now, you won’t give away what you’re gonna get later. You see, it’s a mindset. It’s a mindset. I know people that are not at all wealthy that are extremely generous, and I know some people that are very wealthy and they’re Scrooge.

John Maxwell:
They’re just tight, they’re stingy. But I’m just gonna, I just say to you, be generous.

Mark Cole:
Hey, welcome back everybody. Anne Frank says, no one has ever become poor And I love that quote. Generosity is so important. And like I said at the beginning of this episode, John lives this content out so much. It’s pretty remarkable. And Traci, it’s good to be debriefing it with you today.

Traci Morrow:
Yeah, I’m excited to debrief this too. And I really, I don’t think anybody would in our podcast audience, but I hope our Type A leaders aren’t going to just say like, oh, this isn’t one that’s going to add to my leader leadership journey, because this is absolutely about the leader themself, this lesson.

Traci Morrow:
This is really something that I believe from the people that I know in my life, and I’m sure you can say the same, Mark. This is really what sets John heads and shoulders above so many people that I know. He has got to be one of the busiest people on the planet. like the most focused leaders, and yet he slows his step to intentionally be so generous. And this lesson is truly one that he lives out. And so I’m excited to kind of break it down and hear from not just your experience. I want to like get you— I know you’re dying to dive into this about John, but I want to kind of direct it just a little bit. So he kicks it off in talking about, you know, talking about the top 20%, the top 2%.

Traci Morrow:
That gets you kind of thinking about financial success. success and then couples it with generosity. But I want to kind of detangle that and distance that from finances and really get people thinking about— because it almost makes you think right off the bat, directs you thinking of when you’re successful financially, when you get to that top 20% and 2%. And he says a little bit later, it doesn’t matter. Like, if you aren’t generous when you don’t have money, you won’t be generous when you do have money. It’s not like all of a sudden, oh, I’m making $1 million, now I’ll be generous. I wasn’t generous when I made $900,000 a year. I wasn’t generous when I made $20,000 a year, you know, when I was just starting out.

Traci Morrow:
So, can you just talk a little bit about— it really is about being generous no matter what money you make. This is all about generosity in your spirit and who you are. And then maybe kind of dive in a little bit about just being a generous human being.

Mark Cole:
Yeah. And, you know, I’m glad you said that, because often we say, oh, he’s so generous. And it’s because they just gave a ton of money to some nonprofit, or they gave a A great tip to some server somewhere. But I’m glad you said that because I think as we frame this lesson, I want you to think certainly finances and be generous, but certainly another thing is be generous with your experiences.

Traci Morrow:
Yeah.

Mark Cole:
Be generous with your competencies. Be generous with your time. Be generous with your network. People that you know. And I’ll tell you this, I have found that people that are generous in one or more of these areas find it easier to become generous in a new area when something unlocks in their mind. What I would say to you podcast listeners, I get it all the time in the road. You go, man, the podcast, Mark, is just incredible. It helps me so much.

Mark Cole:
I just heard that 5 times over this last weekend at 4 different events, just people coming up random, just saying the podcast is a game changer for them. And every time I hear that, I go, well, multiply that value, make it better, go do something with it. Even with the podcast, I wanna challenge us, to the person who’s given much, you’re given access to something like this podcast, go find a way to make it impacting to others. Take what I teach, take what Traci says, and go teach it, make it better, or pass it along, send the link, get somebody involved. Because a generous person I think John said this. In fact, he got a hand clap in the audience that he was talking to that says, if you don’t give away what you’ve got now, you won’t give away what you’re going to get later. And I love that. And you heard the audience that John was speaking to today loved it as well.

Mark Cole:
If you can’t be generous with your money, you’re not going to be generous with your time either. If you can’t be generous with your time, you’re not going to be generous with your talent, with your experience.

Mark Cole:
What we want to awaken today is the human element in all of us that to the person that has a lot, it is our opportunity to give to others, to share with others, to express appreciation by being grateful and by giving generously to those around us.

Traci Morrow:
Absolutely. And I’m so glad we kicked it off by kind of framing it that way. You, no matter who you are, if you’re a teenager listening in your parents’ car, or you are just somebody who is just starting out and you’re living in an apartment barely scraping by, or if your career is starting to take off, now is the time to, if you haven’t practiced it before, start thinking, what is the kind of leader, of human being that I want to be? Because this is so much about you, the person, as the leader. And so we’re just a little over the halfway mark, a little bit farther than that, halfway of the year. We all know at the end of the year, you are always great, or at the beginning of the new year, you kind of share about your year-end review and how you go through all that. Excuse me. And there’ll be a time when you talk about that. But just over the halfway mark, how do you, as you are assessing what your year is looking like, any course corrections, how does generosity in these 3 areas or any— John talked about open heart, open mind, being open-handed with your generosity.

Traci Morrow:
There are different ways of that, like you just mentioned a few of them. Your time, your resources, your thoughts, those are all, whatever resources that might be connecting you person to, hey, I’ve got a person you should know. John always says, is there somebody I should know, you know, that I should know? What are some of the things that you are always checking and looking into in your personal leadership journey, Mark, that John has taught you that is your generosity is a part of your review and what you do as a leader?

Mark Cole:
Well, certainly it is, it’s financial. But as we said, it’s much greater than that. But I’ll start looking at the end, toward the middle of the year, and certainly as we’re getting close to the final quarter of the year, and go, where am I on my standard of giving? Am I in line? Is there something I need to do? Is there some way that I need to step up my game somewhere to make sure that I can give to those I committed to at the beginning of the year? But I’ll tell you something else that I do inventory of often, probably monthly more than it is biannually, I do an inventory of lessons I’ve learned, of things that I’ve discovered. And I ask myself, how many people have I paid that forward to? How many people have I taught that new concept with? That’s something that I start toward the middle and definitely toward the end of the year, asking myself, what have I learned and how well have I learned it? And what the answer to how well— the answer to how well I learned it is how much I have paid it forward to somebody else. Because I believe the only real learning that we have is a learning worth repeating and a learning worth replicating.

Mark Cole:
And the way to do that is to pass along. And I look back now, I mean, 9 months, we’re in the 9th month and I’m going, I’m like, man, I have about 3, if not 4, life-changing, leadership-shaping experiences/lessons that I have learned. And as you asked that question, I went, I know one of those I’ve not even shared with anybody else. It’s still a very internal lesson, which is not very generous.

Mark Cole:
And I think it’s constantly asking ourselves, what am I doing to better the lives of others? This is why John is so good at teaching this lesson. And Traci, is because I’ve seen him for years. Every day, I think of ways to add value to people. Every day, I add value to people. Every way, I look for ways. Every day, I ask, how can I add value to you? John is passionate about adding value as a spirit of generosity.

Traci Morrow:
Yeah, yeah. And so, you are not just a leader of a large team and organization and many organizations, and being alongside of John in many of your travels in the ways that he is connecting with leaders of countries as he’s bringing values-based lessons to these countries. But also, you mentor leaders of large organizations. And so one of the questions that came to mind as John was teaching that is, I think some— well, I’m sure that there are some leaders who aren’t very generous. And I don’t know that you would be mentoring those, or hopefully, if they aren’t very generous, you would be mentoring them. But how might How might the level of a leader’s generosity or lack of generosity show you the kind of leader that you have in front of you? So, you’re mentoring them and you’re starting to notice this is a really highly successful leader and they aren’t very generous. How does that— what does that tell you about the leader when you’re working with them?

Mark Cole:
Well, I think a lot of times it tells that they’ve got selfish tendencies or they’ve got tendencies that will advance themselves more than they advance others. Many times, a generous leader is looking for ways to advance others beyond him or her. And a selfish leader is looking to try to retain all the power and all the position. So, I think when you can see a glimpse into someone’s perspective on generosity, you’re gonna see their perspective on people advancement around them. I think another thing, when you can get insight into a person’s heart, or their thoughts, or their disciplines around generosity, you’re gonna see an attitude of gratitude. Gratitude and generosity often goes hand in hand. I think that gratitude— I think entitlement squeezes gratitude out.

Mark Cole:
I think people that are bitter about certain phases, or certain chapters of their life, they have a time with gratitude. And so, I think it— I’ve said this often, Tracy, and I’ll say it here again today. I think gratitude is the antidote to bitterness. And by the way, a lot of other things. When you get into a situation, you can find something to be grateful for, it is hard to be bitter about something and grateful at the same time.

Traci Morrow:
Mm-hmm.

Mark Cole:
And so, if you’re feeling bitter, you’re feeling struggling, you got a particular relationship or somebody that is taking advantage of you, if you can find something to be grateful about related to that relationship, you’re going to, in my opinion, have a great tool to combat bitterness creeping in and staying in your attitude toward that person or that situation.

Traci Morrow:
And perhaps insecurity, maybe a lack of confidence. That’s another good one. A leader. Have you ever seen generosity— I mean, having an open-handed generosity, the kind John talks about, is a beautiful gift. Have you ever seen generosity generosity work against a leader? To what degree does discernment and wisdom and responsibility need to be tempering generosity? Have you ever seen it work against a leader?

Mark Cole:
Yeah, often. Not daily, but certainly weekly, to where you’ll see people that take advantage of a leader’s generous heart and take more and still complain and still give challenges. I remember, I remember a time that John was being particularly generous with his time with a person that he did not have to do it. He just felt like what you can do for one, try to do what you wish you could do for all, do for one. And he gave his time. And I can remember him getting a phone call in the middle of this gift of about half a day. And he got a pretty significant emergency phone call. And the person that John was giving half a day to came to me and then came to a couple of other members of John’s team and complained about how rude John was for taking a call in the middle of, quote, his time.

Mark Cole:
This is my time. And John took that.

Mark Cole:
And I went, oh, wow. And I went, do you know that John normally charges X for a half a day. He said, of course I know that, but that’s not what our arrangement was. Our arrangement was he would give me this time and he interrupted it. So can I have another half day? And I said, no, you can’t.

Mark Cole:
Yes, exactly. For an unexpected, pretty emergency-oriented phone call. My point in even using that example is when I told John, John said, Oh, I’m so sorry to disappoint him. I’ll give him another half a day. And I just watched John be able— he talks about it in open-minded generosity. John authentically, authentically thinks of ways to see better in people.

Traci Morrow:
Hmm.

Mark Cole:
And it’s interesting discipline that it really shapes the way he sees people and the way he thinks of people.

Traci Morrow:
And that has— there has to be a discernment there. I would love— boy, I wish we could pull John out onto a chair next to you and ask him, did he discern this particular person? Or would he have done that for any person? I’m just curious. Some people give and give and give and give. And I’m certain that it probably happens to you. It happens to John often, where there is a taking advantage of a generosity because you start to expect that generosity, and there’s an entitlement then to that generosity that can bring bitterness to the person. I think that’s where we come up with the saying, no more Mr. Nice Guy, of like, okay, I’ve been taken advantage of too much, which can bring about bitterness, which brings us back to your statement, gratitude is the antidote of bitterness. Because if you start to feel that bitterness sneaking in, those leaders out there that are like, I already tried to be generous, it kind of bit me on the backside, and so no more Mr.

Traci Morrow:
Nice Guy, got too bitter, and now might be the call to you to bring back, okay, let’s bring back gratitude to combat that bitterness. And maybe let’s revisit being a generous leader again. Because just because someone took advantage of your generosity doesn’t mean you shouldn’t continue to keep— don’t let someone take that part of you as a leader who wants to be a generous person. Well, John’s last words, just be generous. It’s the last thing he said.

Traci Morrow:
Just be generous. And I love how he said that. Okay, next he talked about his favorite scripture verse, and I love how he said, I can do this every once in a while. Yes, you can, John. Yes, I can. He talked about 1 Timothy 6:17, and some of you may not have heard that scripture verse in that way. Maybe you’re not really a regular Bible reader. He read that from the version of the Bible that is The Message.

Traci Morrow:
So if you ever want to read that kind of talk, you’ve never heard scripture talked about in that way, that’s the version. that’s the message, but it kind of encapsulates being a river, not a reservoir. And you even talked about this. There are different ways to give of your time and your resources, but how do you raise— John talked about doing it. How do you so you can get out of the people pile so that you aren’t just like everybody else giving your 10% or being generous in a way that everyone else is being generous, but how do you next level? How do you personally, Mark, from based on what you’ve seen with John and what you’ve learned from John, because generosity pulls out the— when you’re around someone who’s generous, it makes you more generous. How do you personally raise your own standard of giving annually? Like, how do you up the ante for yourself that you make it fun and joyful?

Mark Cole:
Yeah, so on, for years now, on the giving side, giving financially to to things, to people, to gifts, to— or not to gifts, but to organizations. We try to raise our giving by a percentage point every year. And so, that’s just something we do financially. What I do on the give back, part of our job, part of our ecosystem is we charge for our time, for mentoring, for coaching, for speaking. It’s just, it’s a time game. And so, we charge for that. Certainly most of my job is running companies, but I get, I don’t know, 50, 100, 150. Kimberly would know how many requests I get a year to do mentoring.

Mark Cole:
Will you mentor me? I’ll pay for you. Will you mentor me? I really need some access to you. And so what I decided, oh man, probably 15 years ago, maybe longer, I decided that mentoring was a game changer for me that gave me a career track envied by many. Many people would love and probably do a better job with the career opportunity, with the calling opportunity that I have. And I decided about, again, 15, maybe longer, 18 years ago, that because mentoring was a game changer for me, every year I’m going to give 5 people access to me once a month in a mentoring relationship. And so I’ll take all X amount of numbers that come in over a given year, and over the holidays, I will pray and sort through those. I’ll ask a series of questions of people, and then I’ll pick 5 that I just give back to every year because of what I’ve been given because of mentoring. I mean, I’ve been mentored by the CEO of some of Atlanta’s biggest and best producing companies gave me time in a given year.

Mark Cole:
And so that’s one of the ways that I try to practice generosity with my time and mentorship. So the other day I was on a call with a mentorship group of people, and one of the guys that just asked the question, there was something about his question that I just went, hey, I want to spend time with you over the next year, and I just want to gift you a call every single month to work through this situation. It’s a pretty big situation he’s working on. He gets on that call every single month, Traci, and is effusive in his gratitude of, quote, my generosity. And I think all of us need to find ways that we have been exorbitantly blessed And find a way to pay that forward, to keep that spirit of generosity.

Traci Morrow:
I agree. I agree. And I think every person listening can come up with a way that— a place that they can serve, some space where there is a need. And if you’re like, I don’t know what my gifts are, well, just look for the need that is around you. And don’t downplay the small things, whether that’s just cleaning up a neighborhood park or a neighbor who needs help moving or somebody who just needs something that you hear a need of. of just showing up, something as simple as that. But also, you know, what are some things that you enjoy doing, maybe in your family life or in your community outside of that, where you enjoy sowing seed? Are there places that you do? You’re a very busy man. So are you very picky? If somebody’s just starting in with generosity, is it just in the business realm that you enjoy sowing seed? Or is it also in your community, in your church home, in the family space? Kind of show us Yes.

Mark Cole:
So, those of you that have been listening to the podcast for some time, you know that I structure my life, the life that I intentionally want to live, I structure it on 5 pillars, 5 foundations. And so, it’s personal, it’s relationship, it’s giving, it’s— or finance, rather, it’s community, and then it’s my calling. And in every one of those, I have a litmus test of generosity that I have to flow out. as much as flows in. So in every one of those, I have a mechanism that allows that giving gate to open as I receive stuff in the reservoir of my development in that particular area. And so I’ve talked to just about one. I have people that I ask to mentor me in any given year. And so my gate for that, my outflow, is to make sure that I’m pouring out of that to others.

Mark Cole:
And each one of my foundational pillars of my life has that outflow gate to it.

Traci Morrow:
Okay. So I love that, that out of your 5 pillars. So if somebody is listening to this, you might have things that are your priorities, your core priorities, you might call them your core priorities in your life or your pillars. And you, each person listening might think, oh, what are some ways that I can be generous in these ways? I’m just trying to make it as practical as possible for the people who are listening because you have learned from John, I’ve learned from John, and now these people are learning how do they plug it into theirs. But is there a way, I mean, I think people, everybody hears about through Maxwell Leadership and through our coaching program, but they also maybe learn about, hey, we travel with John internationally and we do these things through values-based learning. You and I didn’t talk about this ahead of time, so I hope I’m not putting you completely on the spot. But if somebody was like, well, what is this? What is the nonprofit? What if I wanted to get involved in something that John poured his heart into that is now operating in a nonprofit? sector. How would I— what if I wanted to get involved in that aspect of what John was doing? How would we plug somebody in if they wanted to inquire or learn for the first time to find a reputable, trustworthy place where they could maybe learn how to partner with what John’s doing and what you’re doing in the nonprofit sector?

Mark Cole:
Yeah, thanks for asking that question. We don’t talk about it a lot, but we have We have really 2 distinct nonprofits. One is values-oriented, and it’s the nonprofit, you’ve heard us talk a little bit about this, to where we put values-based learning mechanisms, we call them roundtables, into public schools all around the globe. We have 10 million kids right now that are learning values in any given school day as a part of our nonprofit. at work. And we can equip those students for $4 a kid, we can— a student, we can give them curriculum, values-based leadership curriculum for a year. And so, you can find out more information about that with MaxwellLeadership.org. And then we have also a faith-based oriented organization that really designed to get people acclimated and engaged in faith.

Mark Cole:
And so, you can find out more about that at iequip.org. And both of those, whichever one kind of fits you, is something that we do as a part of generosity. We discovered a long time ago, Traci, and I’ll kind of wrap with this, but we discovered a long time ago that John’s content that was given to us and 40 million pairs of hands have bought a Maxwell that we needed to get that content into areas that needed it the most, but had the least amount of access to it. So we do that globally. We do that in school systems, areas that have a great need for leadership training. We give them the content that in other settings we charge for, or we are able to put a premium on it. And that’s because that’s our giveback.

Mark Cole:
That’s what we want to do. That’s what I want you to do, gang. I want you to have this. concept that leaders who get the most are the ones who give the most. Jack Welch said, every great leader has a generosity gene. Have you found yours? Hopefully we’ve stirred that into you. John made this statement. He said, a clenched fist gives nothing, but a clenched fist is also unable to receive anything.

Mark Cole:
And so how are you in the area of generosity? Not just money, but in your time, in your network, Where are you as it relates to your fist? Is it open or is it closed and tight? Do it. Do a generosity check today. Check in yourself and see how well you’re doing in this idea or in this attitude of giving. One of the things that I wanna give to you today is the 15 Laws of Growth. Typically, it’s $500. We’re gonna discount that 80% today for those of you that wanna take that next journey. For some of you that just want another podcast to kind of go deeper with, We did a podcast called What Serving Others Has Taught Me. We’ll put that in the show notes.

Mark Cole:
We want to continue this journey because here’s what we know. If we can inspire you to grow, if we can inspire you with gratitude or inspire you with generosity, the ripple effect of multiplication to value of others will make a difference well beyond your time, well beyond your legacy. And that’s what we want to do. what we want for you. So go make a powerful, positive change because everyone deserves to be led well.