LeaderImpact Podcast
LeaderImpact Podcast
Ep. 63 - John Westbrook - Redefining Success Through Endurance and Wisdom
What if overcoming a turbulent childhood could set you on a path to becoming a beacon of hope for others? John Westbrook, whose 44-year career in business growth and development is matched only by his remarkable personal journey, opens up about his early life in a dysfunctional and abusive household, revealing how he grappled with being a "poser" and performance addict, constantly in search of validation. Hear about the pivotal moments that helped him overcome these struggles and find his genuine self, including a life-changing volunteer stint in the Solomon Islands. His insights into stability, positivity, and teamwork offer a roadmap for anyone looking to excel both professionally and personally.
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Welcome to the Leader Impact Podcast. We are a community of leaders with a network in over 350 cities around the world, dedicated to optimizing our personal, professional and spiritual lives to have lasting impact. This show is where we have a chance to listen and engage with leaders who are living this out. We love talking with leaders, so if you have any questions, comments or suggestions to make the show even better, please let us know. The best way to stay connected in Canada is through our newsletter at leaderimpact. ca or on social at Leader Impact. If you're listening from outside of Canada, check out our website at leaderimpact. com.
Speaker 2:I'm your host, Lisa Peters, and our guest today is John Westbrook. John has spent his entire career growing businesses. In his 44-year career, he has worked for the Business Development Bank. He was a principal with the management consulting practice of KPMG, vice president of sales and marketing with Dollco, one of Canada's largest printers, and spent 24 years as vice president of client services with Acart Communications, a preeminent social marketing advertising agency. John also invests in his community through his involvement on the boards of several organizations and is currently a volunteer director with Whitestone, a ministry serving ex-offenders who have returned to the community. He lives in Ottawa with his wife, Sharon. Welcome to the show, John. How are you?
Speaker 1:I'm fine, Great to be here with you.
Speaker 2:Lisa, it is great to finally meet you. I've heard lots about you and excited to have you on the show, so thank you for joining us. That's quite the bio and I know I've read a little bit more about you. There's a lot more companies and some really great marketing and communications, and I know there's more. So I'm wondering if you can start with a little bit of your professional journey and how you got to where you are today.
Speaker 1:Okay, I was born in kind of a dysfunctional some would say abusive household. I dropped out of high school like I didn't finish high school, worked in as a house painter for a couple of years and then I realized I need to go to university. I did that. I earned two degrees. I started with the business development bank and there I realized that the dysfunction from my house, you know, had an impact on me. I was a poser and a bit of a performance addict. While I was with a bank I would work all night long writing a credit app just so I could get an attaboy from my boss. I'd never heard a responsible male tell me anything positive or nice, so I was feeding on that.
Speaker 1:After the two years at the bank, I went overseas and lived in the Solomon Islands as a volunteer with CUSO for three years. I came back. I worked for KPMG for 11 years, started at the junior level, ended up as a principal, which is a non it's a partner, but a junior partner or a non-equity partner. From there I went into pure sales for the printer, and that was great. And then, from then, 24 years at Acart Communications. I think for the first part of my life, my childhood, this dysfunctional family caused me to be wanting to be a poser, wanting to perform, wanting to strive when I didn't need to, and that kind of marked the first half of my career.
Speaker 2:Wow, you know, I think, well, I don't know, I feel like I can resonate with a bit of the poser and the performance addict and I think of now, you know, here we are doing a podcast and then I go out and I promote, promote, promote and I'm just like I perform, like I literally perform. And I think of when I was young and had my babies and I went back to work early because I just I had to, because I mean you can't forget about me, and I just I was looking for that at a girl. Good for you. And I don't know if anyone really cared, like, as you said, that I'm like you know all that work I did. Does anyone really remember me? Or you know? And I wonder if people are feeling that yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah you, I was doing that to create a counterfeit me like a poser. You know I'll get people to like me or I'll get people to. I will do all of this proposal and work all weekend just to be liked and I. It's really dysfunctional. It's kind of counterfeit. It took me many years to figure that out, but towards the end of my career I figured that out, thankfully. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I'm going to ask you another question, but are you going to dive into that a little bit like how you got over that? Because I, I mean, I don't want to, I know because that is so.
Speaker 1:Go ahead with your question. I will answer that. Go ahead with your, okay, all right.
Speaker 2:So we always talk about pivotal moments on our podcast because those are just really important moments in our life. So I'm wondering if you can share a couple snapshot of those pivotal moments along your journey.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think for me a pivotal moment was going to the Solomon Islands as a volunteer. For three years I went with CUSO and I went. I was making like one quarter of the salary that I would have at the business development bank, but I realized I was going to the beach every day. I was happy, everyone on the island was happy Like it was it was. I realized there is another way to live your life and people without any of these material goods are amazingly happy. So that that was a a good pivotal moment. And then, I guess, another one for me.
Speaker 1:You know I worked four years for Dollco Printing and when I started the sales were around $14 million. I grew that to like $28 million. We had $5 million on the bottom line. We were voted one of the best performing companies in Canada privately owned companies in the top 50. And I got fired and it was an eye opener for me. I was sitting as if I owned the world, but my boss had another vision and had another person that could see the business growing from 30 to 60 million and that was a very humbling experience for me and it was a very good experience for me. And you know what my boss, and this new guy that he hired grew the business from 30 to 60 million, so it was eye-opening for me.
Speaker 2:I was very hurt very humiliated, very humbled.
Speaker 1:I was like whacked on the side of the head and had to scramble to get a new job. But it was good for me. It was in the big picture of things, yeah.
Speaker 2:We've talked about it. Yeah, I thought I was a hero. You know, know, I'm the guy and I wasn't the guy so that was the thing, yeah, when you're in it it is so hard and you don't see the other side. Right, you're living in, I just got fired. I you know this, the sadness of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:The shock. Actually that's great, but things did turn out.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I find it interesting. So when you went away to volunteer for two years and the salary is a quarter, as you said, and you found yourself at your most happiest moment and the people there were happy, yet you came back. You came back to the corporate world.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know I felt I was missing out, not having a real job. I had a real job. I was like assistant provincial planner and budget director For where I was living. I had a senior role. I had a driver and a car and I could order a helicopter to go and visit a hydro project or whatever. But yeah, I felt I was missing out on the career. But, I you know I had lots of friends that stayed and made a career in international development and they had very good careers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I'm glad you said just that missing out because I think a lot of people have that, you know, fomo, the fear of missing out. Like what am I missing out on? I should be wheeling and dealing and corporate jets and you know, or whatever. Whatever yours is, it's not all that. But yeah, we, that is real, the fear of missing out. It is a real. So I thought I just felt it, or you know, but so I'm glad you said it. Yeah, we talk a little bit about their best principles of success and I'm wondering if you, if you can share yours and if you have a story that illustrates that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would say maybe two things. The first one would be endurance. Like my marketplace career was 44 years. Now I'm on my second career doing ministry and it's like four years. But I would say endurance is one. And like last year, my wife and I walked the Via Francincina, which is a Roman road that goes from Canterbury, england, to Rome, and like we didn't walk the whole thing, we walk sections of it, it's a pilgrimage.
Speaker 1:But you know, some days are rainy and some days you get scraped and fall down and bleed, and some days are sunshine and some days are magnificent, that are just breathtaking.
Speaker 1:And I think a career is all of those things it's. So, you know, endurance and maybe the toughest years are not the years in the valley or on the mountaintop, they're just days where you go to work and you work and nothing spectacular happens, but it comprises a whole career. My second principle would be just emotional intelligence. You know, warren Buffett's sidekick, charlie Munker, had this expression that the single most important thing about running a business is being emotionally stable and controlling your emotions when things go bad. So just emotional intelligence is huge like showing up on time, being positive, asking questions of authorities in the right way, enjoying the success of other people, being a good team player, being someone who's hard to offend, like all of these things that you know comprise emotional intelligence, just being steady and pleasant and a great team player. So those would be my keys endurance and emotional intelligence.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when you spoke of endurance and you talked about you know, sometimes it is really hard and you're going through the hard times. Maybe those are the times you're learning the most. Our group is currently reading I think it's called Great to Good, good to Great. It's by Jim Collins. It's the second book and we were talking about the recipes to success. And as long as you have a good recipe right, you'll get through the good times and the bad times, because ultimately you know, you know that you know the plan and the times are going to be good and they're going to be bad, but if the recipe is good, if the, if the, if the ground is good, it'll be okay.
Speaker 2:So, obviously you had good ground. You got through the hard times. But yeah, I think we do learn a lot more in those hard times. And emotional intelligence. I sometimes wonder, as I have entered a different transition of my life, if my emotions are all intact right now. That's a great point. I think we do. You make some great points there, so thank you for sharing those. So we talk a lot on the show about failures, failings and mistakes and I'm wondering if you have anything you can share. We know that we learn more. As you said, you know we learn more in those trials. Do you have one that you can share? A failure that you learned?
Speaker 1:I do indeed. You know I told you the story of getting fired from DOLLCO and I joined Acart Communications and you know, great new job, great salary, great title, and within a couple of months there were three big opportunities came our way. One was with an existing client, a government department, one was with a major shopping center and one was with the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club. They were all due on the same day and like, rather than you know, you know, the best way to have quality is to you know, or you know, real quality is to limit quantity. I went for all three and I, you know our firm came in second on all three. So we totally missed out, like, rather than investing in one or two, and wow, that was so painful, that was such a painful lesson.
Speaker 1:I was this new guy. I was like this, you know, going to be the, the superhero. I was pulling the all-nighters, that kind of thing, and we came second and one, one of them, what. We were already the incumbent. So I lost the existing business. So, but my boss was very gracious and he knew how invested we were, and a few years later we went on to win the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club account and we've had that ever since, I think. Since I've left, I think the account is still there. So, yeah, I think that's an important lesson and it's really, you know, it's about boundaries, like what's an appropriate boundary, like making good decisions, not being greedy, having focus all these things are so important. Brokenness in me that you know, wanting to be a performance addict, wanting to be the superhero, wanting to be loved, I think that you know, led to that mistake and that's was a great learning moment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I always reflect on when we do things that didn't go the way and you know I would ask you. At the time it seemed right and so you know. So if I asked you, did you have a team behind you? Maybe you looked and went we've got some depth here, we could handle this, and I know three for three and they're all due on the same day, yeah, that is a lot, but I want to think that at the time you kind of looked and went. We can do this Hindsight.
Speaker 1:Definitely I had a great, yeah, like a great. In an ad agency, there's usually a media team, there's a creative team and then there's a strategy team and an account team. And, yeah, I can't, I can't blame the team it was. I can only play and I wasn't my boss. My boss wasn't forcing me to go for all three. I can only like and I wasn't my boss. My boss wasn't forcing me to go through all three, like.
Speaker 2:If I want to lay blame, it goes at my feet, all right. All right, we know that you've been part of Leader Impact and we grow personally, professionally and spiritually for increasing impact, so I was wondering if you'd be willing to share an example of how the spiritual makes a practical difference in your life as a leader.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you asked me about overcoming my performance addiction and then, like halfway through my career, well, into being an adult I think it was my 30s I became a Christian and then it's a journey. It's not, you don't become perfect overnight. It's like that pilgrimage. I went on through Italy.
Speaker 1:It's a walk, and one of the things I've learned is that let God run your business, not you. Is that let God run your business, not you? And to be a person that is humble, be a person that is absolutely. Integrity is everything. Be a person who creates a vision for your company and sets the course, which is a spiritual principle. Be a person that prays for the business and prays for your staff and prays for your suppliers. Be that person, so humble, vision casting takes on a servant leader who takes on the hardest parts of every job and gives the and apportions work according to people's abilities.
Speaker 2:And those would be the principles, but humility would be up there yeah, um, you know, if, if people stop listening at let god run your business, um, I'm wondering if, because they they're like, yeah, okay, but then you went on to explain that you know everything. You, you know we still work hard, we still have a bottom line, right, and I wonder if you've ever you know those are misconceptions from some people and I'm wondering if you've ever had to defend, if you've ever had to. You know, if, if you ever in a conversation and someone said, really you're just going to trust this to God, and I don't know, I just it depends how forward you are Okay.
Speaker 1:There's a difference between being like, you know, like performance is essential and like I. Hard work is essential, hustle is essential, being on time is essential. All of these things are important and you know, there's no question, those things are extremely important. But I think when I said like God, ridden your business, I mean understand that, like I'm a fallible human being that can make mistakes, and if I'm praying for insights and supernatural abilities, then those come, those will come, yeah.
Speaker 2:Good. You are uniquely you, john. So at Leader Impact, we are leaders who have a lasting impact. So, as you continue to move through your own journey, I'm wondering if you have considered what you want your faith legacy to be when you leave this world.
Speaker 1:While I was at Acart the last 12 years I was also board chair of Jericho Road. It's an organization that takes, identifies schizophrenics that are on the street, probably using street drugs, takes them off the street, gets them to see a doctor you know a family physician gets a referral to a psychiatrist, provides a home for them and they do very well and we had, when I was there, we had eight homes. I'm going to a Jericho Road event two days from now, so it's a great charity. And then, when I retired and were from the marketplace in 2020, I started a ministry called Whitestone. We work with ex-offenders and ex-addicts and we do five things. We find them a really good job and I'm not talking a minimum wage job, I like to find them $80,000 jobs we connect them with a church, with new friends, and we connect them with a prayer partner, someone that we call it a praying Monica, like St Augustine had a mother Monica that prayed for him for 17 years, so we have a person assigned to each of our guys and then like a mentor. So mentorship, prayer, new friends, a great job and connect them with the church.
Speaker 1:It's been great. We've worked with about 130 men and women and it's been lovely. And I told you at the beginning that I was born into an abusive, dysfunctional home. Just about every person I've met that's ever been to prison was born into an abusive, dysfunctional home. So these guys are these people are my brothers and my sisters. I can totally relate and, um, you know, as you bring healing to others, you know God brings healing to you, so it's it's so sweet, it's so sweet yeah.
Speaker 2:So how long have you had white, white stone?
Speaker 1:Yeah, started in November uh, november 2020, the month I retired from the marketplace and yeah, it's been good. We actually meet in the same ad agency where I worked. I was there last night, had the use of the kitchen. We've got three different boardrooms there. It's all. We serve a meal and we do a little study or help, and we have a fantastic time.
Speaker 1:You know one thing I would say, is that these men and women leaving prison never, ever heard someone say I'm proud of you, or they've never heard someone say great job, or no one's no one ever said oh, man, I love you, You're awesome.
Speaker 1:And when these are people that have committed serious criminal offenses and when they hear these things they turn into small children they're just like they melt. They melt. So it's amazing working with them. And, uh, I just had the privilege of being with leader impact in mexico. Uh, on on the middle of april, we were in Ixtapa Mexico and I brought one of our um program participants from whitestone there. His His name is Sam and you know he was charged and convicted with murder and, yeah, he was traveling with me to Mexico and it was great. And now he's a completely new person, has a great job, goes to a good church, he's connected with a group and just able to participate in people's lives like that. It's so good for my own heart.
Speaker 1:And so good for my own healing yeah.
Speaker 2:I sometimes don't know if people understand what volunteering can do for you. It's almost selfish how good it is for you. Right, totally.
Speaker 1:Totally. There's a little. There's a little section in the Bible. I think it's Isaiah 58. It says when you bring healing to others, god brings healing to you. And it is so sweet. Like we have a Tuesday night meeting with a meal and time together, and like I'm, I get home. I got home last night at 10 and it's just sweet, sweet, sweet time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, beautiful, Wow. Thank you for sharing that. That was good, and my final question for you is what brings you the greatest joy?
Speaker 1:I think it's. You know we are commanded to love. You know the Bible says in Matthew 22,. You know, love the Lord, thy God, with all your heart and your soul and your mind and your strength, and then love your neighbor as yourself.
Speaker 1:So we're told to love other people and then, three chapters later, we're told to love the least, the last and the lost. So I get to do all these things with Whitestone, so loving on the unlovable it is pure joy.
Speaker 1:You know, our ex-offenders tend to be in three groups. They're either like a sexual offender a group of those. They're either an addict that needed to commit crimes to support their addiction, or they're a violent offender who, you know, didn't have any controls when they were young, and usually the violence is committed within the family all terrible crimes, you know I I appreciate that. But they um, giving them love and seeing them turned around and, uh, seeing how they can become new people, it is so, so sweet. And seeing how they give back, it's just a beautiful experience for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wow, that's a great answer. I haven't heard that one on the Greatest Joy. That is really good. Thank you for sharing, john. That brings us to the end of the podcast, but I would like to know, if anyone wants to find you or find Whitestone, what is the best way to connect with you?
Speaker 1:If you want to find Whitestone, it's whitestonecanada. ca Whitestonecanada. ca and find me. You can find me on LinkedIn. You can also track me down by scrolling to the bottom of the website as well and sending a line of email. Lisa, thank you, it's been a privilege to be on this podcast and thank you.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you. I love being here, I love hearing the stories. It just makes my faith a little bit stronger every day. So thank you for everything you do and sharing today. It's been a wonderful last 30 minutes, thank you.
Speaker 1:All right, thanks, lisa.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, this ends our podcast, and if you're part of Leader Impact, you can always discuss or share this podcast with your group. And if you are not yet part of Leader Impact and would like to find out more and grow your leadership, find our podcast page on our website at leaderimpactca and check out our free leadership assessment. You'll also find on our webpage chapter one of Braden Douglas's book Becoming a Leader of Impact. You can also check out groups available in Canada at leaderimpactca or, if you're listening from anywhere else in the world, check out leaderimpactcom or get in touch with us by email info@ leaderimpact. com and we will definitely connect you. And if you like this podcast, please leave us a comment, give us a rating or review. This will help other global leaders find our podcast. Thank you for engaging with us and remember impact starts with you.
