Amanda Northcutt (00:01)
Hello, you're listening to the Level Up Creators podcast. Amanda Northcutt here, founder and CEO. Welcome to a very special series of the Level Up Creators podcast where we're featuring participants from the MRR Accelerator Cohort 2.

Today, I am so pumped to welcome a very special guest, Jon Giganti. Jon is the USA Today bestselling author of With Intention, a former corporate sales exec who helps scale a company to almost a billion dollars, former D1 soccer player for Bowling Green. And now he's helping high performing leaders and teams grow with clarity, purpose, and sustainable success. Through our work together in the accelerator, we're building something incredibly aligned with his mission and it's going to scale with intention. Welcome Jon.

Jon Giganti (00:57)
Hey Amanda, that's so kind. Great to be here with you. Thanks for having me.

Amanda Northcutt (01:00)
Yeah,

great to be here together in this environment. I'm so excited to share a little bit more of you with the world and let's kick off with going back to college. You you play D1 soccer. I know I have a degree in sport management that's pretty useless, but I do know the statistics around how hard it is to become a D1 athlete here in the States. So take us back to that and take us through today. All the way through today.

Jon Giganti (01:03)
Yeah.

All

right, sure. Yeah. Yeah. So it's so interesting because I've just I was with two of my former teammates last night actually had a dinner and then found out that they were downtown. I live in Columbus, Ohio. So I met them out. And of course, you go back and you start reminiscing about the good old days and all that stuff. So it's a fascinating world now for soccer has grown so much in this country and the games changed quite a bit. But I think back to my time playing. So I played soccer at Bowling Green.

We were mid-major school, so it was a Mac conference, like not supposed to compete for national titles or anything like that. But I went to college with three of my high school teammates. So we decided, we all were getting recruited multiple places, but one of the guys who I was with last night was one year older than his brother and then another teammate of mine that ended up following him. So he went to Bowling Green and we played our senior year of high school and we all went for

recruiting trip and loved it and saw the team was on a good trajectory. So we decided to run it back and let's all play college ball together. And so ended up an incredible run for three seasons. were Mac champs, two Sweet 16s, competed, lost to Wisconsin and my sophomore year in the NCAA tournament first round, they ended up winning the title. Lost to Indiana who's like the Alabama or Ohio State, you know, a footballer. I'm sorry, Texas A &M. Your name?

Amanda Northcutt (02:55)
I know where we stand, worry about it.

Jon Giganti (02:55)
Yeah.

So, you know, I had the it was awesome. I had the opportunity to play on the field played against some players that played in the World Cup and professionally at about 10 teammates that that all that had the chance to play professionally. ⁓ So I would love to say my story ended up this fairy tale. It was amazing. I had this incredible career and all that. it but it's not the story and that's OK. So. ⁓

The story is actually one of not really honestly reaching my potential in that environment. And it's a, I mean, high stakes, high pressure. Um, you've got to be ready for, know, you gotta have your game face on every day to make it. Everybody was good. So I grew up and I know you were an athlete. you know, like I grew up being one of the better players on every field I was on since the time I was three, four or five years old. And so you kind of grew up with this, um,

I can never fail attitude. Like I knew when I showed up my freshman year and didn't start, didn't earn a starting job, like kind of knew like, okay, freshman year, but it was almost laughable. Like it's only a matter of time. I'm going to earn it. No spot. Cause I never not started for any team I've ever played on. ⁓ and so I had a pretty good freshman season, but here's the thing. This is really important piece of it is like the, what I was personally cracking inside. was just a lot of stuff I hadn't dealt with. So

Family stuff, dad had some mental health stuff ⁓ growing up. Family kind of swept it under the rug. And I was fine until I got into this environment. And again, high pressure, probably doing way too much partying. Honestly, that's part of this. But in between my freshman, sophomore year and my parents got into big fights, ended up getting divorced. And I go back to school and I never said anything to anybody. I didn't want to acknowledge it.

And I just kept playing. won a starting spot, even was MVP at one of our tournaments. So I was good enough to be one of the better players on the field. But I felt something cracking. just felt something wasn't right. But I never said anything to any of my teammates. These guys are some of my best friends to this day. They know their story now. But ⁓ by the time I got to be a senior on this high performing team, I played still, but I lost my starting spot. I just never reached the potential that I

I longed for, I wanted to play Pro Ball, didn't make it. And so it's a story of, you know, honestly not taking out my trash. So I had all this stuff pent up and over time, and you said, you know, I'll give a little bit of a CliffsNotes version, but I moved to Chicago after school, I get a job in the financial world, end up in randomly in the software business. I was a trainer for a software company.

know, present and teach and train. And eventually got into sales and ⁓ about midway through my career, I started having panic attacks presenting. So I would literally like get up in front of a room. And this is really the odd part about all this. mean, is that my freshman year of high school, I was a speech champion saying I worked high school in Cleveland and my English teacher pulled my mom.

I said, never forget. And he said, I think Jon's got a chance to be the first four time speech champion in our history. ⁓ so speaking was not, I was naturally pretty good at it. And I worked really hard. would like bust my butt every morning with my mom practicing. I remember for that speech, there's a lot of effort. got, I honestly think I got a little cocky after, after I was the speech champion and told that I finished third the next year. And then I ended up transferring schools, but.

play soccer. But anyway, you you fast forward in the business world again, another high performance environment got promoted pretty early in my career, had some success, but it was all surfacey. And again, I found myself cracking on the inside, but guess what? Never said anything to anybody. so on paper, like no one would have ever known it until I had a panic attack in the middle of a fricking sales presentation in Chicago and had to leave the room like and faked a headache.

because I had a therapist tell me that's what I should do and still never said anything to anybody until like a year or two later. And so that process, I wouldn't change a thing. That process has been like every piece of that story is vitally important because it's taught me that you gotta, there's this old adage with executives that I would say, especially men, but I would say anybody.

humans probably never let them see a sweat, right? Like, don't, no one wants to show weakness and it's bullshit. And so I'm on this mission to uproot that. And so I left my corporate gig last year and I'm doing this work full time and it's fun. really exciting.

Amanda Northcutt (07:58)
Yes, man, that's just an incredible story and just the way that you have woven in all of your life experience and things that have happened really over the last three decades into this with intention methodology and the Giganti group. tell us a little bit more about what you do and how all of this past experience and maybe trauma is my word, not yours, but it has informed, ⁓ has informed your work. What are you going to spend the rest of your life doing because of how the last three decades have gone?

Jon Giganti (08:20)
Yeah, that's good.

Yeah, I would say so probably at my darkest moment was panic attack around that same time. Go figure. got, I had an account asked for me to be taken off because I wasn't serving them the right way. was pretty selfish. Sales rep early in my career and I got moved teams and then another account who I was really close with good friends with. They were going to go to a competitor and luckily we had a little clause in the contract that

kept them from going and gave me an opportunity to adjust a little bit and figure things out. But I had an executive, I'll never forget it's again, many, many years ago, my son Gabe was now 17, he was probably four or five. I'm taking him to a soccer game on a Saturday morning. And this executive calls me he calls me Jonny when he liked me and I knew if he called and he was calling me Jon, it wasn't good news. So he says, Jonny, I believe in you.

But I want you to reinvent yourself." then he pauses and he's like, no, no, no, I want you to invent yourself. And it was, I get chills even saying it because there was just the amount of belief I need. mean, at my lowest moment. And so I went on a mission to learn everything I could about transformation and getting better. And I read books and I hired coaches and I joined a mastermind that was life-changing. And I just dug really deep. started, I was going to therapy, but I started to actually be okay.

telling people I was going to therapy and being more open about stuff. And then I just saw the evolution of that. I told them that absolutely it was trauma, traumatic experience for sure. But it was a flip of like, what can I do with this? you know, I feel like life's always about data and meaning and data comes at us every day, all day. And it's, are we going to do with that? What meaning are we going to attribute to it? And so.

I've just been on a mission since then to build this. frankly, I didn't have the resources. I had to go scour and figure it out myself. So I would go pay for assessments and again, read books and go join classes and different things. And I want to bring that at scale to people. It's almost helping the former version of myself, but I feel like a lot of people in our assessment right now is in beta. We've had about 40 people take it. It's been really cool to see, but

I feel like a lot of people are craving awareness and don't know where to go to get it. And so that's really, that's the first step in my model's awareness. And then that's, know, putting people down a path to transformation.

Amanda Northcutt (11:01)
Yeah, almost like this little, the little intuition inside of you, sounds like you ignored for a really long time. You're helping people who are feeling that and don't know where to reach, right? They're grasping at straws potentially and know there is more and they're not living up to their full potential, but you you're providing the roadmap and you're like the perfect example of been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Like you have been through the shit, right? And you have come out the other side because like,

of your awareness, like you became aware of the situation, you admitted to it, you went and you got the help, and then you built the roadmap. So let's talk a little bit about what changed in your career. So I guess your boss had that conversation with you around like 2012, somewhere around there. What happened at that time, and then what did that mean for the rest of your career, basically the next 12 years?

Jon Giganti (11:47)
Yeah, somewhere around that point.

Yeah, so once I got that second chance, I did, I changed my entire approach. So one, was, and the with intention model is two things. It's self intention. So how do you build yourself? And the second piece of it is others intention. So you're not building yourself just to be selfish. You're building yourself to serve others. And so I changed my approach to sales, for example. So I used to think about selling and it was all about me and my quota and everything else.

Yeah, I was a good enough guy to build relationships and close some deals, but it just was not. It was very up and down, I would say. And so this account that was going to leave us, when they said, I mean, we had to scramble, we flew down to Texas and pitched them and we came up with, hey, we think there's a $10 million impact here. You got to give us a chance to do this. And I never really sold that way before, like ROI and value and all that stuff.

It was more pitching products and that sort of thing. That's I love about all the work you guys do. And so, and I was kind of a lone ranger too, where I would go on myself and we had a consulting organization that was just wrapping up in our company. And I realized like, oh my gosh, I don't have to do all this myself. I can actually leverage the team. And so we conducted, we called it a process for you. So we said, you got to give us.

like three days we're going to fly down and we're just going to spend time with your team and get to understand your business. And then we'll come back a couple of weeks later and we'll do a readout and then we'll help build a path to the $10 million. And so ⁓ that process, I mean, just aha moments the whole time. Cause I'm like, shit. If I lead with curiosity first and actually care about the customer and where they want to go, it's not about where I want to go. it's amazing how

that builds a connection and trust. And when you ask the right questions and they feel that you care, they're gonna give you a lot of layers. And so over the course of the next two years, we built a whole plan with these guys to ⁓ basically attack that $10 million with our products and services.

And then we got on and there was a big whole team approach and I wasn't doing all the work, but I was kind of orchestrating it. So there's another thing like, ⁓ this is interesting. This is you can leverage the team and I don't have to do it all just like a sports team. ⁓ but we would get on a call every week with these guys. build a scorecard. Very simple. If you saw it today, you would laugh. It's so archaic, but it's just like, Hey, you do X X to Y by when, right? So goal setting, like let's have defined criteria. Here's how we're to get to the 10.

there's five different things we're going to do. And we started meeting every week. And after a couple of weeks, when we were starting to show results, the higher level, we were sold to the claims side of the business and insurance. And the executive team would call the CEO and be like, you got to get on the phone, you got to see these numbers. Like think initially they were sending it, but then they started calling and the guy then would start getting on our calls. And so we built this cadence of really accountability and part, call it.

partnership, right? A partnership approach versus vendor approach. We ended up, I think it was $30 million impact by the end of this a couple of years later. And here's what's crazy about all this. Our main competitor came in and offered him the business for free. And this was a couple million dollar account of ours at the time. And my boss never told me that they were offered for free on purpose because he wanted to see. And so

And it was just an incredible journey of like, and then we ended up selling a bunch of new stuff, again, all directed towards what their vision and goals were. Almost like sales became easy because it was, I knew where they wanted to go and I'm just coming, showing up and saying, here's, if you can say yes or no, but here's a way to get there. So it completely transformed my approach. And then I honestly used that same approach with every account going forward. And then I eventually got promoted to lead a team, which I, that's how I taught my team.

do whiteboard sessions and vision and strategy meetings and it was always gold when you can get in a room and really care and learn about someone that made the sales process of audience.

Amanda Northcutt (16:15)
So I'm seeing a lot of threads and kind of like through lines, but I mean, it feels like 2012, 2013, that was a major turning point for you, Jon. And it sounds like your approach to work obviously changed significantly. You went back to the team, M.O., right? Back to soccer and, ⁓ I don't have to do this by myself. I don't have to like push this boulder up the hill and I don't need to be talking about.

widgets and features and benefits, I need to be talking about value outcomes and transformation. I need to be working toward making the business case and matchmaking. Tell me a little bit about how your experience as a D1 athlete informs your approach today. I mean, you have this very unique bridge between athletics at a very high degree and business at a very, very, very high level as well. And I know a lot of your methodology kind of incorporates those two things and you've

work in both sport and business. I guess draw a straight line between those two things and how that informs the with intention methodology.

Jon Giganti (17:19)
Yeah. Yeah, I think it's most people think about team building or sales or sports or any performance in the head, right? It's very much X's and O's and how do I get the right mindset? Very important, by the way. I'm not saying it's not. I think of it as a heart connection. So, and I think it's a dual. You've got to connect the head and the heart. So what I've seen is the best teams are connected.

with both, especially from a heart standpoint. So, ⁓ whether it's culture building for a sports team, if you truly connect it, you truly have, you know, I've to lot of leaders and one of the things I say is just vulnerability is a superpower. And once you take your cape off and you show that you're a human, it's unbelievable what, how much trust you can build with your team. don't care what level you're at, not to say you have to, you know, every day start crying in front of everybody and, and

unleash everything. I'm not saying that, but man, if you just take off the mask a little bit, it just frees everybody else up. So, and I think the heart connection is true in sales too. think in any conversation, any human can have, if you show up with a good heart posture and an open heart posture that I want to help serve, ⁓ people feel that and there's an energy to that. And I think that the best salespeople, the best coaches, the best performers and

It's interesting because you can have success in any realm, ⁓ I think, without having it. But I think it's, it's fleeting, dare I say, maybe a little fake as well. So, yeah, my mission's just to help build heart connected leaders and teams. Cause I think that's where the magic is. And I, I feel, I mean, feel as I talk to more and more people that the message resonates and they get it. Not everybody knows how to do it. And it's a little scary for a lot of people too.

by the way, to like really get there. But I think that's, that heart piece is so important as individuals and then as we're serving them.

Amanda Northcutt (19:23)
Yeah. So you work with professional sports teams and you go in and at this point, it's 2025, are you seeing more of the posture of don't let them see you sweat or acknowledging that vulnerability is a superpower? What's the affect? What's the locker room kind of affect at this point? And are organizations like that, how are they showing their openness to the with intention methodology?

Jon Giganti (19:48)
Yeah. Yeah. I think it's very open. I think it's uncomfortable at times for people, but I think people are ⁓ becoming better living into that discomfort a little bit of, ⁓ and maybe it takes a little bit of nudging or some conversation. but yeah, I think people realize that success can be fleeting and it's not about the trophy. Right? Like if you look at any, mean, there's Tom Brady's been interviewed a bunch.

lately and there's been a bunch of other athletes that talk about winning the ultimate prize, Tom Brady said I won the Super Bowl and yeah, it was cool for like a day and then all of sudden he's thinking about the next one, right? Nick Saban from Alabama said the same thing. Like he's thinking about the next, I mean, it's just one of the clients I work with in professional sports has talked about it. He's won multiple titles and it's always about the next one. And

Amanda Northcutt (20:31)
yeah.

Jon Giganti (20:45)
What's interesting is having some dialogue now.

this individual is not always thinking he wants to win, of course, but knows that there's a higher purpose to all this. And if he can build teams and people and human beings, the winning is almost secondary. And that's really, it's not the case at that level because you got to win. That's all part of it. Wins and losses really matter, but you can do it in a more sustainable way. And I think there's an authenticity play here where if a leader can show up as their authentic selves and

frankly cut out a lot of the bullshit, but I think it opens everybody up and it's going to lead to better team cohesiveness, team connection. So yeah, I I feel, I would say anybody I talk to, especially when I go in and talk to teams, sales teams or sports teams, and I get to share my story and then share the, hey, this is the with intention blueprint. Here's how I think you can implement it. It's always fascinating to me to see the...

the looks and just the conversation that honestly takes place as people start to open up and just like it's almost a freedom for people and just like, okay, yes, we can go there and it's gonna actually help us perform.

Amanda Northcutt (22:04)
That's really cool. What an incredible psychologically safe environment you're creating in a historically toxic masculinity filled environment. you're bringing this, but you have all the credentials, right? The D1 athlete, the sales guy. And so you have been in what I would describe as a woman as toxic male cultures before, probably. Is that fair?

Jon Giganti (22:32)
Sure, yeah, absolutely.

Amanda Northcutt (22:34)
and you had a pretty big life event that kind of turned some light bulbs on for you. And then, you you walk the walk on the other side of that, on the other side of the street, if you will, ⁓ from that toxic masculinity, ⁓ don't let them see you sweat and close the deal no matter what kind of situation to, okay, we're gonna be aware of our feelings. It's okay to feel feelings.

It's okay to be vulnerable. Not only is it okay, it's encouraged. and just to having, allowing, giving men permission, women too, but you're the sports teams I know you work with are men's teams. ⁓ giving those athletes permission to let their guards down and showing them the path of what's possible, not only on like the win and loss common column, but as you're talking about with Tom Brady and Nick Saban, there's so much more to living a fulfilled life. ⁓

than just the wins and losses. so tell me a little bit more about how your life outside of work changed kind of in the 2010s after that conversation with your boss and how your approach with intention methodology sort of informs kind of like the whole person. Like we're not just talking about going to work and showing up at work this way, but it really is all encompassing.

Jon Giganti (23:55)
Yeah. So one of the biggest shifts for me was, ⁓ taking the time for myself to start the day. Right. So like, it was total hustle culture, whoever could send the first email, you know, the earlier, the better. I think they probably even messed around at times and like send an email the night before, but scheduled it for 5.36 AM to make it look like I was waking up super early or something. But I mean, we would get up and it was always catch the first flight out.

Um, there was, there was pride around all that. so through this process, there, I mean, look, it was, it was rough. I mean, if you think about this, I'm having panic attacks. Um, I've got five miles to feed at home. I've got three young kids at the time married. And when you're not, when you're not able to present in a meeting, like I would try and, if I didn't have a formal presenting role in a meeting,

I would actually like try to get as far away from the screen or the center of attention as possible. Like that's not good for someone, sales person. So my income had gone down at that point because I wasn't closing deals and I was, you know, again, got to move teams and all this stuff. So ⁓ I went from being this, you know, you start to numb the pain and you go and I'm probably partying too much and not making the best decisions. ⁓ And I knew I needed

to change, you know, again, my approach overall, but also there's actually a faith element to this. was never, ⁓ I grew up with just very lukewarm faith and I'm a Christian, but like very, very lukewarm. And I finally, through this process, I was actually interviewing, I had a couple of years of okay success and I started to interview some of our top performers at our company and one of the guys,

I'm talking, I'm interviewing about success habits. And I'm thinking like, you're to wait, tell me about how you wake up and crush it and make all these calls or whatever. he's like, yeah, I wake up every morning. I get on the treadmill and I listen to this thing called Right Now Media, which is a, was it like Christian Netflix or something. So he's talking about like enriching his soul to start his day. And here I was trying to study the habits of top performers and this like hit me in the face going, my gosh, what if I started my day with some type of more enriching?

habit and regardless of faith, like it could be meditation or journaling or just sitting still. ⁓ And so I started a practice of actually waking up and reading the Bible every morning. And I just did it every day and it became a habit. And it's funny because at that time, this was before James Clear wrote Atomic Habits, but his blog was out and I had met him back in 2012 at a conference. we were friends and I was following all this stuff when he started writing.

You he was the first, I was in the sports and business environment where I knew like I got pretty good at both, but I didn't really understand the science of habits. Like my parents, I just got pretty good at soccer. So they would take me to practice and then I got, we keep getting better. And it was like the self-fulfilling deal. And I learned the concept of like process over outcome and, ⁓ 1 % better every day and all this leading versus lagging indicators. know, there's a bunch of research and books on those sorts of things. And I started to realize that.

man, if I could put, I could start my day with intention and the first hour a day is my time. Maybe sounds a little selfish, but it's really not because it set me up to, serve clients, serve colleagues, serve my family. And, um, that was before with intention, you know, the framework was built, but this was like the early stages of it. And it was honestly, I look at all this, like I'm a living, breathing lab by the way. And the work's never finished and I'm standing shoulder to shoulder with everybody. I don't have all the answers.

done a lot of work in this area. ⁓ yeah, just, you know, going through that process, realizing that, ⁓ the emails can wait a little bit and the phone calls and maybe if I just spend some time.

you know, in some quiet time. And actually just this week, I started a practice where I'm taking a walk without headphones or...

anything, any technology. keep my phone at my desk right here and I just, we have a park across the street and I'll on a 45 minute walk and just do a little reflection and prayer and just like trying to just be still and that I'm early on on it. And I never thought I would be doing a practice like this, but it's been so far like life changing to be able to, I don't know. I feel, and actually from a data standpoint, I have this whoop that I track. My heart rate variability has gone up this week.

Like my sleep's getting better, just, I swear ⁓ there's a correlation there for sure to like getting my parasympathetic nervous system tuned in. I think you've done a little bit of work with all this type of stuff too, right? So, know, so it's all this stuff is so important.

Amanda Northcutt (28:40)
Nice.

Yeah, it's, it's transformational without a doubt. Okay. Well, let's talk a little bit more about what you offer. know you, got kind of, we talk about your bread and butter in four categories, like professional sports, D1 sports, executive teams and sales teams. So what makes you the right guy to come in and any for any one of those four environments and help create a peak performance culture with intention.

Jon Giganti (29:04)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, look, I would say I've been successful at high levels, but I've failed at a high levels. And I'm not afraid to admit it. I'm not afraid to lead with the failures first. So I think I've been in the room and, you know, I've seen the good and the bad. So just just being able to have that lived experience and being able to to teach that and coach to that.

And the way I approach everything is truly, said it earlier, this partnership approach, like ⁓ allowing the trust to build in whatever environment is in the room. For whatever reason, I think it's a gift from God, but I've just been able to build trust quickly with people. And so it's ⁓ getting in the right rooms, building trust with the right leaders, getting leaders connected, because I think that's...

That's a huge opportunity I'm seeing out there that these high performing teams aren't truly connected. And I don't think it's as hard as people think. I think it's, it can be as easy as just getting in an environment and having the right conversations. so, yeah, I'm seeing a lot of people, stress is increasing, right? Employee engagements decreasing overall in the business world. ⁓ I would say in the sports world, it's interesting. You're getting a lot of.

⁓ Probably even there's always been ego that drives any any of this stuff, but I think even more so now you have social media and you have you know, the brands are a big deal and a lot of money is at play, right? So you're managing a lot of egos and personalities coaches are making a lot of money. So jobs are on the line. You're getting because you've got a friend in the world who's getting they're calling for his head. The supporters just sent an email out last week saying

coach, sporting director, and president should all be fired. Like that's crazy. ⁓ but that's the environment. That's what you sign up for. So yeah, I think it's, ⁓ the right com, I think people are ready for this conversation too. I think coming out of COVID especially people want this human connection. I don't know if you're feeling that, but I feel it every day. I just feel like people are way guards are down there's, but there's still a stigma around a lot of stuff.

Amanda Northcutt (31:42)
yeah. Yeah.

Jon Giganti (31:49)
Still, think as humans, don't want to show weakness, but I think the more we can lean into that.

Amanda Northcutt (31:54)
So when you are spending a day with an executive team or pro sports team, what do you hope that they remember about your time together? What are the one, two or three most absolutely important things for them to carry forward?

Jon Giganti (32:09)
Yeah, I think I want them to know they're cared for, but I want them to get to know themselves. Right. So this is part of what we're building with this assessment is that we're all wired a certain way. And it's fascinating when you look at 40 different assessments, everyone's different. We all have this beautiful, unique DNA and the way we and then experiences in life. so ⁓ being able to give people that awareness.

realize it's not, it's a mirror. doesn't, and there's some things in our assessment that are, uh, we call them blind spots and weaknesses. Like that's okay. You have to be aware of those things. also have superpowers and strengths, right? Like it's the both hand proposition where you live into those superpowers a little bit more. build the strengths, but you also should be aware of those weaknesses. So I just see people, um, I mean, I was just sitting in a room yesterday with a

consulting client who's also taken the assessment. ⁓ and just knowing a little bit more and giving him a little bit more awareness to how he operates. And then there's just trust between us a little bit. And I see him working in the room and it's just, it just leads to so many rich conversations. Then we go to dinner and you're talking about different things and all man, we, and we're some folks on his team or are taking the assessment. Now we're to do a readout and a team.

Scenario which is to me. That's the fascinating part. I love the individual piece. That's really cool but ⁓ It's like you and Natalie on your team right being able to put the connect the dots and see how The teams work together how you could work better. What are your strengths and maybe deficiencies? What someone else is and so I look I have this crazy vision of being in a room and seeing ⁓

let's call it a sports team and knowing the wiring of every player and the wiring of the coaches and the wiring of the medical staff and the wiring of the front office where it informs behaviors and how people connect. And if I, if I know you a little bit better and how you think and why you operate the way you do, I'm to be able to serve you better, right? And play and be a better teammate or a better coach or whatever that may be. And I just think, and then the, you know, the business world, yeah, there's

There are some good assessments out there. Like we used to use disc and it was really interesting because I'm not really heavy eye. My boss was a very heavy D. So D is like direct eyes and influencer. So I had to learn to communicate more directly with him and I had to learn to not get so offended if he was direct with me. like, so that's awesome. So we were able to communicate a little bit better. But I think there's a lot of layers to this. And so that's where, you know, the with intention operating system of sorts at

at scale in organizations. That's the dream scenario. That's what I'm doing.

Amanda Northcutt (35:07)
Okay, so know thyself, know your teammates and your coach or your boss and vice versa, and know how to relate with one another better so that you can achieve peak performance as a team. And then you've got, you know, a strong POV around vulnerability and, you know, heart centric, heart first, kind of lead with your heart in all areas of life. And I will say about your assessment, this was incredible. So Natalie, my COO and I took this assessment and Jon,

Jon Giganti (35:09)
Yeah.

Yep.

Amanda Northcutt (35:36)
did this readout with us and it was so illuminating and helpful. And we've done a lot of other, like out of the box assessments as well. mean, DISC, Enneagram, Myers-Briggs, Strengths Finders, and while those are all somewhat helpful, it did not feel, it felt generic, right? Whereas your assessment, I mean, really hit on the nose. ⁓ It reflected back to us some things we already knew. So it shined a mirror there and that was great, but it was also so illuminating in things that

we were not aware of, have blind spots around. And so was so useful, you're talking about strengths and superpowers, and then we've got like growth edges and things that we need to work on and just having the awareness that, and being vulnerable with my COO about my non-strengths, if you will, my growth edges. And that was a really, really great experience. Natalie and I were like texting that Friday night just about how great we were feeling about.

just each other and the work that we're doing together and the team that we're leading. And it was really, really transformative. And I know that's just the tip of the iceberg of what you bring to the table, Jon. I think you were just this, you have so much street cred. You have, like I said earlier, been there, done that, and got the t-shirt. And you have put all of this experience together and packaged it up with the Giganti Group.

you have something really, really special going on. I mean, you already have the best selling book and you're already coaching and consulting and speaking at a very high level. And, you you and I both know that the sky is the limit for you, but you have this really, really unique special sauce that you're bringing forward and ⁓ people need to know more about you and they need to bring you into their organizations to the end of peak performance in a very different way than what we've been taught for a very, very, very long time.

whether the words you put to it are, I like your hustle culture more, ⁓ but toxic masculinity, hustle culture, we're going about this wrong. We're like pushing the boulder up the hill as opposed to working together to get to the end of, it's the championship, but then it's also like, what is life after the championship and what does it mean to have a camaraderie and brotherhood or sisterhood on a team, sports, executive, whatever. So I appreciate.

what you're bringing to the table. And all of our clients are very mission and vision focused, right? That's a requirement to work with our org. so share a little bit about how people can work with you. And then I've got a couple of questions for you about the accelerator.

Jon Giganti (38:07)
Yeah.

Absolutely, because you all and your team's amazing. So I want to talk to you like I can't be building this without you. So we got to dig into that. People can find me my websites. Is that what you're asking? How they can work with me? Yeah, so [Jonjugante.com](http://johnjugante.com/). I'm linked in. I post a few times a week there. I've got a cohort that's actually my second cohort that's starting with performers and leaders here pretty soon.

Amanda Northcutt (38:23)
Ciao!

Jon Giganti (38:40)
And yeah, I mean, the book, of course, on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Audible as well. we actually I get I hear from a lot of people that they enjoy listening on Audible versus reading it because I actually recorded the book myself. did. had a producer in a nice studio and everything else, which was painstaking, by the way, like two days before that thing. And this guy made it made me sound a lot better than I did because there were a lot of fits and starts with that thing. ⁓

So the book is probably a good first starting point. I have a newsletter as well that I publish every Saturday morning. And I would say I wrote this down as you were talking because I want to make this clear. Winning is important, right? We all want to win. There's nothing wrong with winning. But just can we do it in a more sustainable way, in a more human way? And that's what I believe this is all about.

Amanda Northcutt (39:31)
That's right. And you got the flashlight. You're showing us the way. You have blazed the trail and you're sending the elevator back down for a whole lot of other people who are kicking ass and taking names. like I said, sky's the limit. So we're very excited to be working with you and helping you build your dream business because we believe in the impact and legacy that you're working toward. And ⁓ it's pretty awesome. So thank you for letting us be a part of it.

Jon Giganti (39:56)
Thank you. You guys are amazing.

Amanda Northcutt (39:58)
Thank you. So tell us how you came to be in the accelerator. What kind of attracted you to this insane seven month sprint? Yeah, I'll start there.

Jon Giganti (40:12)
Okay, so talk about assessments. There's this assessment called COLDY, which is awesome. I took the COLDY assessment and couldn't understand it. It's a little complex, but I've come to understand it a lot better as I'm building my own assessment. And one of my key things is I'm a fact finder and a quick start, which means like I go, if I get interested in something, I'll jump all in and I'll just do a ton of research and go all in.

And so when I knew I was leaving my corporate gig and building this business last, I left last November, but last May, I joined a cohort of a digital writing deal. It was like you write for 30 days and publish. And although I had written a book, there was an element where I'm like, no one wants to hear from me all time. I'm not going to publish that stupid for 30 days. I don't want to be annoying to anybody. And I finally, read Austin Klean's book, Show Your Work, which was awesome. And it's just about.

almost having this living breathing practice. I started to approach publishing that way. And then I went down this rabbit trail of like digital writing and digital marketing and like, all right, I'm starting my own business. So I need to, I'm not just a sales guy anymore. I need to like learn about all this. ⁓ after I did that, those 30 days of writing, I came across.

someone online on LinkedIn, which then led me to Amanda Goetz, who obviously you work closely with. And so I did her, she did this 35 art digital writing thing. And so I jumped into that and she offered a month of her office hours. I, again, quick start fact finder. So I jumped into that and you presented on one of the calls. And I, by the way, the whole time I was learning about Amanda, I was probably in it for three months, Amanda Goetz.

I didn't know that Level Up was helping her, but I'm living, breathing in her environment, money networks and Slack and taking her 35 day thing and saw a lot of value and a lot of fruit in that community. And then you presented and I'm like, oh my gosh, this is incredible. You presented the bow tie funnel, which I had never heard of. I didn't know what that was, but I'm like, oh, you have awareness that builds trust. And then you invite into an offer and you, you know.

a purchase decision and then you build this loyal raving fan ambassador. I'm like, oh my gosh, is magic. This is unbelievable. This is like really the sales process I used in the second half of my career, but like just distilled it down so good. So yeah, that was the background because I was so impressed with Amanda gets his stuff. And then when I heard you and the team were the collaborators on that, I was like, oh my gosh, I need to learn more. So

when I reach out.

Amanda Northcutt (43:00)
Thank you. We're so glad you did. We just thoroughly enjoy working with you and it's just good all around. We have the best clients in the world and the best team, I believe. Okay, thank you.

Jon Giganti (43:12)
You knew, you knew, I gotta say,

like that's been, the team has been incredible. And the care from the team. So, dealt with this family situation with my daughter early on in the cohort and the care that everybody provided sent the family dinner. I mean, that's incredible to me and just thank you for that. That means.

I know the business stuff is going to go how it needs to go. It's important. the human element, I'm all in. That is amazing. you guys, everything you do, even with Katie Peters today, we were trading messages back on some stuff. And I like the voice text, which hopefully that doesn't annoy you because I know I send that to you guys too because I'm driving and thinking or walking and whatever. And it's just how I get my thoughts out. And she's so gracious.

text. Sometimes they're a little longer than they should be.

Amanda Northcutt (44:11)
Now Katie, Katie's the best. She's amazing. Well, how was your experience? Just spend a minute talking about like what your experience has been so far as compared to what you were expecting perhaps. And maybe talk about your cohort members a little bit, folks going through this program with you.

Jon Giganti (44:13)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, incredible. Can I share my story though, booking the first call with you? Like, because on your thing, can I say the amount? can say the amount, right? Okay, so on the question that said, do you have a budget for 140k? And I'm like, crap, click, like I left, and I didn't book the call. And then you kept coming up. And then I started listening to some podcasts and, and I just started digging in and

Amanda Northcutt (44:31)
Yeah.

Yep, absolutely.

Jon Giganti (44:58)
And then that's when we started setting up conversations and probably, you know, that was cool too. Just seeing your process. There wasn't just one and done. Like, yeah, it's going to call and I'm going to pitch you on it. It was not. You are such a great matchmaker. I will say this. The biggest thing I'm learning after being in sales for 25 years is I have a lot more to learn about sales. Like honestly, I'm learning. Thank you. I'm like how and it's different now because I'm selling my own services and myself. It's different than selling someone, you know, a piece of software, but just

the idea of matchmaking and like really getting to the heart of the values, outcomes, and transformations. I've never used that language before. And so, you know, I've been, I've learned how to sell and so what's the vision and how do we connect the dots, but like that piece. So if you can take a guy like me who's has the experience and up level, and I see you up level on everybody else, but the experience has been first class, no stone unturned. mean, I've got.

folders and I mean it's like, I don't know if we're gonna go into this at all, but building out my 10 year vision. And what's cool is it's actually the with intention process. Awareness is the first step. The first thing we did was the business audit, right? Where are you today? Then it was, where do you wanna go? So what's the vision? And so that's my awareness, agency's ownership, ambition is the vision, then take action and then you adjust. I'm in this process with you guys, so.

And I know there's like I always love when I get the notion, you know notifications there's an update or there's a document or whatever because it's Christmas morning for me where I get to read through stuff and It's intense like no doubt about that. It's not easy at all. There are moments of when I first read my Initial strategy document that you help me put together. I was like, oh crap. This is this is big and this is scary

but awesome and it took me a couple of days to finally realize like, is okay, let's live into this. ⁓ you know, there's, I'm not immune to doubts. Like I have them, I've gotten pretty good at punching them in the face, but they still come up from time to time. And it's just thinking bigger and just trusting the process.

Amanda Northcutt (47:11)
Yeah, and that's a lot of what the accelerator is about, right? Thinking much, much bigger. Because we see your potential. We see all the ingredients and we know, okay, here's what terminal velocity potentially looks like. And it is oftentimes bigger than our clients are initially thinking. ⁓ But that's really important. I I really, really do think that we have the absolute best and most capable clients in the world. You guys.

Jon Giganti (47:29)
Yeah.

Amanda Northcutt (47:37)
all know your shit, you're all thought leaders, you're all subject matter experts, you all have this incredible life experience, since we're working with folks who are like mid-30s to mid-50s, really, mean, everyone has expertise. And we believe there is so much more untapped potential for thought leaders and experts that is not being advertised. know, a course is not a be-all, end-all scenario, a low-ticket membership is not, a challenge is not, you know, we're working toward...

Okay, how can we help our clients become author, speakers, and advisors through productized services that earn monthly recurring revenue so that our clients can build generational wealth, live a life with lifestyle architecture, have tremendous, leave a tremendous legacy and have a whole lot of impact. And so our whole MRR method process is meant to kind of extract, like what are all the ingredients this person has and what are their ambitions and desired lifestyle architecture is a huge piece of this.

Some of our clients wanna build massive businesses and others wanna have more of a lifestyle businesses and we're working to accommodate any of those scenarios but using that same methodology. So thank you for saying all that, I really appreciate it. I this is a process that we deeply enjoy and one of my favorite things, like I'm a maximizer to the T and I love seeing and drawing out potential in people and I know that you have that as well and that's like a.

deeply ingrained quality, I think it's completely inextricable from both of us, right? We see it we wanna draw it out and both have really interesting ways of doing that. yeah, yeah, please.

Jon Giganti (49:07)
Yeah, it's can I just make one because it's

cool. It's actually really cool to watch you interact with your team and just to see the way you built it because it's I mean, it's a growing team and how many how many team members do you have now? Yeah, just to see like you like an orchestrator and putting and knowing what your strengths are and then knowing how the team fills their unique ability and strength and that that's been fun to me because as I build my business and.

Amanda Northcutt (49:20)
We have 10 full time in a suite of contractors. Yeah.

Jon Giganti (49:36)
Initially was probably thinking more solopreneur type business, but you guys have me thinking bigger of maybe I do need a team and maybe there is more scale here and impact. So I have ideas that pop up every day. I talk about you guys every day in every conversation. Like, what, because everybody asks, hey, what are you up to? How's it going? I'm like, well, as a matter of fact, I'm in this incredible business accelerator and it's the craziest thing.

to invest in, here's what I'm doing. It's awesome. honestly, I view you guys as like an indispensable piece of the team. And I'm going to crush my negotiating power. But my hope is that even after the accelerator, I mean, I would love to continue to partner. My hope is that because I know what my strengths are and it's not a lot of this back office stuff. Like it's cool and I can jump into it. But to have like, honestly, thinking partners. That's how I view. mean, I just did a call with Monica yesterday.

Talking about my cohort, she was amazing. She helped me think through some of that. I did a call with Erin a couple weeks ago on LinkedIn, and it's like just being able to have a trusted team to talk to and brainstorm with. It's awesome. I didn't expect that, by the way, but that piece of it has been amazing.

Amanda Northcutt (50:51)
will you answer my next question? I was going to ask you what's been kind of like most surprising or unexpected, but yeah, I mean, we're meant to be the expert in the back pocket for any facet of running like a boutique coaching and consulting firm like this. So I'm glad, I'm glad we're delivering on that. And our intention is to have a long-term relationship with our clients too. I mean, we want to elevate you to your full potential as founder and CEO and make sure again, you're spending your time doing, you're delivering client services and doing keynotes and writing amazing content and.

Jon Giganti (51:03)
Yeah.

Amanda Northcutt (51:19)
bringing your ideas forward to the world. And our job is to remove all of the obstacles for you to do so.

Jon Giganti (51:25)
Yeah,

here's what's cool about what you guys are doing and I'll throw myself in there what I'm doing. Because I thought, know, what if this doesn't work out and do I go back in?

What keeps me going, and I see this for you guys, is all the lives that you are impacting and the multi-generational impact of future generations. So if you don't press on and build your team and continue to do this work, those folks are going to lose out, right? If I don't continue to press on, if I don't build this, any of that future impact is not going to happen. And so for me, that's a cool thing to think about of like, my gosh, let's keep going. ⁓

I couldn't say enough good things about the work you guys are doing. It's world class and obviously you cut your teeth and high level sales and leadership and that's very evident too and everything you do, the team's first class professional and all the stuff has been fantastic.

Amanda Northcutt (52:22)
Thank you, I'm really appreciative of you saying that. What would you say to someone who is considering joining a cohort?

Jon Giganti (52:31)
Don't overthink it. You're here for a reason and you're, um, you know, listen to your gut and sometimes you get a bet on yourself and yeah, it's a big financial investment, but there's also the guarantee, which is incredible, right? But, um, but on yourself, I just think it's, it's anytime I've done anything like this, which I've done, like heroic public speaking was a big investment. went through that process.

been in masterminds, different things. Every time I've invested and I've, you know, if it's a bigger investment, sure, there's always like a little discomfort like, ah, is this worth it? Is it all right? But every single time, because it changes the person. You're not the same person when you finish an experience like this, like you evolve. And look, could I have built this business without you guys? Was I going down a path? Yeah, but it would have looked totally different. I was already going to go down this like community path.

If I didn't interact with you guys, now I'm going more high ticket, which makes total sense for my network and what value I provide. And so what probably would have taken me five years to build with a lot of bumps. I already know it. can feel it. We're going to cut that time down. mean, December, let's go. I mean, we're building for that. Like we're not messing around. So yes, it's keeping me focused. It's yeah. I would say for anybody better on yourself.

Amanda Northcutt (53:52)
Yeah.

Jon Giganti (54:01)
Get out of your comfort zone. if you have the fear, sometimes you gotta, you know, the best way to get over a fear is just to attack it head on. That's how I feel. So don't hold back.

Amanda Northcutt (54:13)
Thank you. Love that, Jon. Appreciate your point of view. And y'all go to [jongiganti.com](http://jongiganti.com/), follow Jon on LinkedIn, grab his book with intention on Amazon or his website. And do have a quick parting shot and anything else you'd like to share before we sign off?

Jon Giganti (54:30)
Yeah, just it's not about us. It's about others. Just pay it forward. Whatever you do, just make sure you're in service with others and good things will happen. Thanks for having

Yes.

Amanda Northcutt (54:43)
Very well said. Thank you so much. And thank you listeners. We know that your time is precious and we appreciate you sharing yours with us. If you're a subject matter expert looking to build a fully customized business in a box with a five figure MRR guarantee, head over to [MRRAccelerator.com](http://mrraccelerator.com/) to learn more. And don't forget to follow me, Amanda Northcutt on LinkedIn for daily consulting insights. That's it for today. We'll see you next time on the Level Up Creators Podcast