Johnny Covey grew up in a family that talked about principles and habits (7 of them, to be exact) around the dinner table. He thought this was what all families did until he realized the difference it made for him as he walked his path. Johnny has never clocked in for anyone other than himself. His list of business startups includes lawn care, dog waste removal, real estate, insurance, mentoring and now author. Johnny Covey came ready to talk with us about his new book, 5 Habits to Lead from your Heart.
HBM: What is the biggest challenge that you faced, starting your own businesses?
JC: “The biggest challenge any business owner faces is to lead from their heart, rather than react from their head. I used to be in my head and worry way too much about doing things the way other people had done them. The things I wasn’t good at in my business gave me serious heart burn until I realized I could find others to be part of my team who were talented where I wasn’t. I got a lot of peace with myself as a business owner when I learned to stick to my strengths. That helps me lead from my heart and create.”
HBM: This is the title of your book. What does it mean to lead from the heart? Why should we as home based business owners learn how to do that?
JC: “When I talk about leading from my heart, I am talking about being true to myself, being able to express myself, be myself. Every business owner is bombarded with experience after experience that puts us into that protective mode, in our heads. When I talk about being in my head, I mean that reptilian part of our brain that makes sure we survive. It’s purposeful when there are real threats, but if you stay in that head mode, you’re on defense. You can never grow your business, move to offense, move to be in your heart and progress. By far, the best way any business owner can create and produce is to lead from the heart. Everyone has felt that feeling of being stuck. The premise of the book is that there is a short list of reasons we get stuck. The book provides a framework to help us identify why we are stuck and what we can change to move. We have to make that move from being in our head to leading from our hearts or we can’t create, innovate. It’s like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: when you’re in crisis mode, you have no energy to worry about solving complex problems. We should learn how to move from head to heart so that we can progress our business to the next level.”
HBM: How do we create change, progress in our home based businesses?
JC: “Ultimately, we have got to get serious about the fact that we are getting in life exactly what we are choosing. If we are unsatisfied with what is happening in our lives, in our businesses, we have to realize that we can choose something different. Henry Ford said, “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got.” I’m suggesting that if you want to change or progress, you have got to examine the thoughts that precede the actions. Have you ever tried to implement change? Do something different? Change is not sustainable if you haven’t changed the thought around that action. So, I would suggest if you think what you’ve always thought, you’ll get what you’ve always got. We create change as we examine our thoughts and make sure they are correct. We hold ourselves back from massively impacting the world when we think incorrect thoughts. When we clear them out, we make room for new thoughts, new actions, which give us new results in our lives.”
HBM: In the book, you talk about experience, something that happens to you and experience, how you respond to what happens to you. Can you elaborate a little more on how those ideas fit into 5 Habits?
JC: “Absolutely. Your experiences do not dictate your experience. We always have a choice. That’s why it’s so inspiring when people choose their way out of painful experiences to create a fulfilling life. It’s like Russell Crowe depicting James J. Braddock, in Cinderella Man. Even in the depths of despair, Braddock gathered his wife and children near him, choosing family togetherness over comfort. He chose his experience despite his devastating experiences. The power to choose is the foundation of the 5 Habits: Choose to Be Courageous, Choose to Be You, Choose to Be Present, Choose to Be Restored, and Choose to Be a Conscious Creator. When we think we are controlled by our circumstances, we damn ourselves. We are destitute because of things outside our control. But that’s simply not true. Human beings are powerful. We choose what we want. We have as many options as we are able to think of.”
HBM: It sounds a little over-simplified when you say it that way. What about deep challenges that have affected the business owner for a long time? How do you overcome those experiences?
JC: “It sounds simple because it really is. Human beings over-complicate things because if it’s so complex, then it’s okay that I’m stuck because it’s hard. Being stuck is important because there are lessons to learn being stuck. But things only hurt until they don’t hurt anymore. Oprah Winfrey said, “You are built not to shrink down to less, but to blossom into more.” I’m saying we can sit down and do the hard work of choosing to work through the hurt on purpose so we can grow and move forward instead of letting it happen on accident. The book is full of simple and powerful principles that many people are already living.
The good thing about having the book to reference is that it provides a framework and a vocabulary to be able to understand what is going on and to work through extremely difficult experiences. When something challenging has happened, we can be deeply affected by it. People joke about carrying around baggage, but that is so real. Holding baggage from our past means we can’t go shopping for anything new. My wife and I are not big shoppers, but for sure she loves a good new pair of tennis shoes. They fit better. They give her better traction on the court and they look good. Imagine if we all were holding on to our old, stinky, worn out tennis shoes. We refuse to let go of them. We hold them close to us and that creates some problems. We can’t hold anything new. We can’t be ready to receive anything new. And we smell bad. I think people get overwhelmed a lot today because there is this misconception that we should just be able to hold more pairs of tennis shoes. I think we’ve got to work through the thoughts that we have and make sure we are only holding on to the thoughts that serve us best, that help us blossom.
When people learn how to move through their past experiences and be ready to have new experiences, it is incredibly empowering and creates an addicting feeling of freedom. There is more to the process in the book. If you have been stuck for a long time, you can’t just recognize, Oh, I want to choose something different. You actually have to not only think about it differently, you have to feel differently about it. So, what do you do to take it to the deeper level? You express that emotion that you’ve held on to for so long. You can’t have room to feel good if you’ve built up a lot of feeling bad. Then you can go to your heart to choose something different. The subtitle is Getting out of your Head to Express your Heart. You’ve got to get out of your head by expressing what’s in your head, but then you can express your heart. Regardless of where you’re at in your business, there’s always another level of expression, of being yourself, of having your business express who you are and your mission and your purpose and where you’re going.”
HBM: Before we finish, tell me about the most important habit for a home business owner?
JC: “The five habits are the process of exploring the levels of going from your head to your heart. They develop on top of each other and you never stop leveling up. Habit 1 Be Courageous, Habit 2 Be You, Habit 3 Be Present, Habit 4 Be Restored. These first four habits get you to the habit you want to cycle back to over and over: Habit 5 Be a Conscious Creator. The last habit summarizes what you’re doing throughout this whole process of being a creator. You’re consciously creating what you experience, what those around you are experiencing and what you’re choosing for you in your business. There is information, there’s a book – 5 Habits to Lead from Your Heart. All of that is information, but the experience of applying the process is what changes you. We do what we do, not because of what we know, but because of what we have experienced. So when you experience something different, you can over and over, develop that ability to be more and more in your heart and choose that experience for yourself.”
HBM: Thanks for your time. Is there anything else you want Home Business owners to know.
JC: “Thank you for having me. I’m really grateful to have the chance to share this message. Snag the book at bookstores across the country or online at Amazon. Reach out to me at 5habits.me and mention this interview and I will set up a Head to Heart certified mentor to spend 15 minutes with you and take you through this process. You’ve heard about it, but if you want to experience it in a really quick way, I want to offer that to your readers. I know entrepreneurs already operate at a deep level from their hearts but I want to teach you how to move from your head to your heart so you can focus on the next step in your business. My favorite part of my business is introducing people to the process the first time. I’m going to pull some of the requests from the pile to be able to mentor you personally. Go to 5habits.me and request some time. Thank you so much.”
