Building Championship Teams Through Servant Leadership With Jevon Gondwe

Intro: 00:00

Welcome to the You Can’t Take it With You show, where we feature stories around generosity designed to inspire and encourage others to do meaningful things in their communities. Now here’s your host, Jim Dunlop.

Jim Dunlop: 00:17

Hi, Jim Dunlop here, a wealth advisor and host of the show, where I sit down with people who get it when it comes to generosity. I’m excited to have guests who can give us stories on generosity to not only inspire our listeners, but to give practical ideas on ways we can give. Today’s guest is Jevon Gondwe. Past guests include Peter Greer, Jim Langley, and Phil Cubeta. But before we get to Jevon, I want to share that this episode is brought to you by Advent Partners.

Ready for good. Advent is a financial planning team dedicated to helping you make informed decisions that simplify your financial journey. At Advent Partners, we’re ready for good. Our bold, ten year vision is to help clients donate $100 million to transform lives through generosity and planning, united by generosity, relationship excellence, authenticity, and fun. We empower meaningfully meaningful lives and lasting community impact. 

To learn more about Advent Partners and how we can guide your financial success, visit readyforgood.com And now let me tell you about today’s guest. Jevon Gondwe is a unique combination of leadership experience that spans three NCAA National championships for Messiah University close to 15 years leading teams as an entrepreneur and designing leadership, training and resources in seven industries. He has thousands of hours of experience coaching professionals on personal performance and his training and speaking engagements. Engagements have inspired over 30,000 people. 

Founder of two different companies, Jevon focuses on equipping team leaders to connect, inspire and lead championship teams through relationship building and authentic servant leadership. An avid reader, Jevon is on a mission to have an unspeakable impact on the lives of others and always aims to leave people better than he found them. Husband, father and Marvel movie fan. Jevon lives in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania with his family. I had the privilege of meeting Jevon for the first time at the Messiah Business Institute a few weeks ago in Mechanicsburg. 

However, I was pleased and excited when we met to learn that my adopted and now hometown of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania is where Jevon grew up. And with that welcome.

Jevon Gondwe: 02:23

Yeah, fantastic. Very excited to be on here. And I just feel like my mindset and values line up so much with yours, Jim, as well as, you know, Edvin partner. So thank you for having me on the show today.

Jim Dunlop: 02:34

Well, I would love to start off with a little more background if you could share our listeners how you got to where you are today. The day we met was kind of crazy because obviously we have a lot of people in common. You growing up in the town that I now live in, and it was kind of exciting to make a bunch of connections. So but beyond those, give me your little Autobiography. You know, we tempted our listeners with your bio.

You’ve had a pretty incredible journey. If you don’t mind sharing a little bit more.

Jevon Gondwe: 03:03

Yeah, absolutely. I’ll try not to go fourscore and seven years ago on you. But everyone’s journey starts with their parents. And for me, you know, where I’m at in life has so inspired and influenced by who my parents are and were. And so, yeah, I grew up in Gettysburg, my father being from a small country of Malawi, so most people probably have to look that up.

It is in eastern Africa. My mom’s from Wisconsin and you know, she was a reading specialist. My dad was a PhD professor at Gettysburg. So that’s how my family actually ended up in the Gettysburg community. So two, two different parts of the world all settling, you know, in south central Pennsylvania, kind of created some unique dynamics. 

And through my dad, soccer was so pivotal, you know, to my to my foundation. So I only knew two things about myself growing up. It was I love people, I want to help people in some way, and I want to play soccer, right? So, you know, I didn’t know if I’d be a professional athlete, a professional soccer player or what, but you know, that that that really drove me ultimately to get to Messiah and be a part of those great championship programs. We’ll probably talk about that a little bit in our conversation, because that was pivotal. 

And then kind of from Messiah, my whole career has been really in some level of developing people and had the opportunity to start my first business in 2011. At the same time, I was running a soccer program. And so soccer again, coaching, leading, developing not only players but coaches. And now again, now, almost 15 years later, running a couple businesses and doing a lot of teaching on leadership and coaching and everything. And just very passionate about that space. 

And on a personal level, you know, my wife and I met in 2012, we’ve been best friends ever since, and I would not be where I am today if it wasn’t for who she is. She makes me better, I always say, and I’m serious, but kind of joking. They always say opposites. Opposites attract, right? Well, she’s very motivated, driven, successful, accomplished. 

And I’m the opposite of that. Right. So we kind of we worked very closely hand together. But and we’ve got a little man three and a half years old at this point and excited about life and impacting the next generation.

Jim Dunlop: 05:04

So a couple of things just in that that I want to unpack a little bit more is what’s your son’s name? Kai. Kai. Now is Kai playing soccer yet?

Jevon Gondwe: 05:14

He is. Yeah. He was he was kicking a soccer ball before. While as soon as he could stand up, I was swinging his feet into a into a ball. So.

Yeah.

Jim Dunlop: 05:22

And and what’s your your wife’s name?

Jevon Gondwe: 05:24

Tara.

Jim Dunlop: 05:25

Tara. Okay. Very good. And and I just have to step back a little bit. It’s not every day that I find a couple.

One from Wisconsin and the other from Malawi. How did your parents meet?

Jevon Gondwe: 05:37

Yeah, that’s a great story. So they met basically in college. And this will there’s one story I wanted to share a little bit, but I don’t end up connecting.

Jim Dunlop: 05:46

We yeah, we can come back to it if that’s helpful.

Jevon Gondwe: 05:49

My dad he so from Malawi. He came to the US, ended up staying with a host family, you know, in in Illinois and then ended up going to I think it was Wisconsin University where he met my mom. So they met in in college. And then he had a lot of different options in terms of where he wanted to go once he became a professor or excuse me, once he got his PhD and they ended up settling on, on Gettysburg.

Jim Dunlop: 06:12

So that’s that’s pretty incredible. So I know that, as you know, this is a podcast about generosity and just your story and my interactions with you have been pretty cool. And so what is your generosity origin story? Because I know it’s a really important part of your DNA.

Jevon Gondwe: 06:30

Yeah. No, I appreciate that. And again, I love the just the concept of this podcast because we need more people that are successful, thriving, moving forward. In my opinion, thinking with this lens right of giving. And certainly my parents were pivotal in that and how much they gave to me and helped me in a lot of ways, just the opportunities I had with soccer.

I mean, through the roof. But on a more kind of exterior perspective, playing soccer for the Messiah men’s program that laid the foundation for my entire professional career, you know, and just an interesting dynamic. If people don’t know the story of Messiah’s culture, I mean, they’ve got, I don’t know, 11 national championships over a, you know, 15 year period. They’re one of winningest soccer programs in the history of, of of men’s soccer. The current coach, you know, Brad McCarty as of right now is winningest coach of all time in the record books. 

I mean.

Jim Dunlop: 07:19

Wow.

Jevon Gondwe: 07:20

Yeah. By percentage, he is the winningest coach of all time. And so you think that that culture would come with high egos and, you know, all about winning and competition and things like that. And don’t get me wrong, we want to win. We want to compete.

But at the heart of it is servant leadership. And I’ll give you an example of that. You know, when I got to Messiah as a freshman, I didn’t know what to expect. I was intimidated, nervous, you know, all these things. Uncomfortable when you’re doing anything for the first time and didn’t really know how it would fit in. 

But I was excited to be there, and one of the first things that really stuck out to me was, was a was a practice, right? We come into practice. You’re working hard. It’s it’s preseason. It’s August right. 

It’s super hot. And in most cultures, as soon as you have a break, you get your own water, you do your thing. You know, if there’s any type of pickup or cleanup or anything, you know, you pick up the soccer balls or move the goals. It’s always the freshmen, right? It’s always this kind of we we did our time right. 

And so the seniors spit on the young guys and you go get the stuff. But what was amazing about that culture, and I’m assuming it still lives out to this day, is the seniors. If they were the first ones to get the water, they’d grab a water bottle and they’d pass it back to the next guy, and then that guy would pass it back to the next guy. And so usually whoever got there last was oftentimes the first to actually get something to drink. And there’s the same thing happened at, you know, if we were going out for food, the coaches were always the last ones to eat. 

And why? Because it makes it puts your focus on the other person, right, versus what your needs are. And that just got so embedded. You know into me during that. Which is why then when I got the transition to entrepreneurship, it really and just leadership in general that got woven in into into everything for me.

Jim Dunlop: 09:00

That’s it’s an incredible story and certainly counter to, you know, what we would expect. Usually it’s the newbie that has to show up and, and and do stuff. What a powerful message that sends to every player, both the ones who have been there a long time and can really embed that culture. Then in the newer ones, I think that’s pretty neat.

Jevon Gondwe: 09:22

Yeah. And I think too, like, you know, I know so many of the listeners on here tonight are people of influence, right? You know, you’re you’re someone that obviously wants to learn. You’ve probably created some kind of financial results. You know yourself, you know, as a listener.

And so I’m not necessarily put myself in that category. But I’ll say, you know, us like it’s on us to be that example, because if it doesn’t come from someone who already has authority and influence, It’s very difficult to do it as a freshman coming in and be like, hey guys, let’s, you know, you can do it to a certain extent. But when you have credibility and influence, it makes all the difference. And actually, if I could share another story on this like, please. Yeah, that’s been impactful for me. 

And this is kind of my story into business for myself. And I kind of random. So I won’t go too detailed here, but I met the right person at the right time. Him and I had no background. We had some mutual connections. 

I’ll just use his first name. This guy named Adam, and he was someone who had a different background, transition to entrepreneurship. And he was the first person that really took an interest in me, that I could be successful in the world of business. And he invested a lot of not only his time, his money into me more than I can really get into on this show. But the one thing he did for me, that I really want this to be a big message that I share. 

He gave me a book, he invested a book into me, and it was called The Slight Edge. I’m not. I have no financial interest in the book, but if anybody decides to get it, it’s a it’s a phenomenal read. There’s lots of books similar to it. But that investment where I don’t know, my parents had given me books. 

It was just different when it was someone I didn’t even know that well. Taking his money. Something small, probably $6. But that book, I appreciated it so much more. And so I actually read it because it was given to me. 

And that small habit led to now 13, 14, almost 15 years later, reading on a daily basis, growing. And it totally changed the trajectory of my life, that one habit that’s now compounded. And I think for me, the moral of the story there is, yes, you can give financially, and that’s a phenomenal way to do. There’s a great ways to do that. But when you can give something that turns into action, that that grows somebody that empowers somebody to do more, that’s when there’s a memory made and that’s where people want to do more. 

So on the flip side of that, guess what I do? Often I give books. I love giving books. I love coaching people and investing this book based on something I know about them. In fact, when we first met. 

Now you bought it yourself. But when we first met, I recommended that. What a book for you, right?

Jim Dunlop: 11:43

Yeah. The Go Giver, which excellent book. I love the the the fable format. I think it’s it’s just powerful storytelling.

Jevon Gondwe: 11:53

Yup. So that’s just continue to, to live out to this day. Whereas I think when it’s when it’s financial again is fantastic, but when it’s tied to something of a mission or a purpose, that’s when it sticks to. So people pay it forward so that giving goes beyond your giving. And there’s a multiplication factor that can be generationally impacted.

Because I’ll teach these kind of habits, you know, to my son and our future kids.

Jim Dunlop: 12:17

So well I think that’s that’s pretty cool. And so looking at the generation in front of you. But now let’s look back for a moment, the generation behind you. I know we like to hear stories of generosity in action. I know you have a pretty powerful one about your dad’s journey.

We’ve touched on it a little bit. Could you could you tell me a little bit more about that and what kind of the end result is.

Jevon Gondwe: 12:42

Yeah, 100%. I think, you know, given the fact that the proximity to Gettysburg for yourself or myself, I’m sure there’s a number of people who are listening here who have a familiarity with Gettysburg College. But even if you don’t, as you’re listening to this, I think this is a powerful story and example. So give some context to the story. So I mentioned my father from Malawi.

He came to the United States about like 21 years old. Right? So he’s he spoke four languages, right. Like he just, you know, but a whole new culture to be in America and to be in the cold, you know, to be, you know, to be in Illinois. And he ended up staying with his host family, the Keefer family. 

And this is something that they did. They were a very wealthy, very affluent family. He was a, you know, executive for a large corporation. If I told you the name, you guys would know the name. And and so he they did this, they offered up their home, they provided room and board, but they also provided an environment to, to grow. 

And so that’s at 21 years old. Well, 41 years later they continue to have a relationship. My father had a great perspectives. Add tons of value to them and their kids because he was like a mentor to their kids who were who were younger than he was. And so there’s a great dynamic built. 

There were kind of like my adopted grandparents, you know, in, in a lot of ways. And so my father actually ends up he passes away in 2004 ish. Right. And so he’s 62 years old. He had taught at Gettysburg College as a professor for 27 years. 

Had a tremendous impact. Started a lot of programs around, you know, diversity issues, giving more opportunities for people like himself outside the country, inside the country that wouldn’t have had the opportunities otherwise to be professors. And that family ended up starting an endowment in my father’s name. And people can look it up, you know, if you just look up Derrick Gondwe or Gondwe Memorial Lecture, you’ll find it. And they’ve got a full speaker series. 

So now don’t quote me on the number, but probably close to 20. Yeah, probably 20 years or so. Every year there’s a speaker that comes in. It’s all paid for by the endowment that talks about issues of social justice, economic reform, to really move that forward from a financial perspective, but also from an equality and equity perspective. And it’s also provided funding for college professors, for education, for PhDs, for different. 

As a scholar, there’s been a number of them over the years. So there was an investment they made 20 plus years, well, 40 years ago, into my father to be able to be in that environment, build that relationship. And then 40 years later, you know, they put that endowment that now has ripple effect. Now, for now, again, the dates are hard to follow here. But 20 years now from that endowment.

Jim Dunlop: 15:10

Yeah.

Jevon Gondwe: 15:10

Still impactful. My family we go every year to that lecture. And if everyone’s ever interested in going to the lecture you can find it online. So you know every year they do one.

Jim Dunlop: 15:19

So oh that’s really cool. And what did what was your dad’s area of focus as a professor, did you say?

Jevon Gondwe: 15:25

Yeah, he was an economist. Yeah.

Jim Dunlop: 15:26

Okay.

Jevon Gondwe: 15:27

He’s an economist. Yep. So he actually has a couple books published in that under that umbrella.

Jim Dunlop: 15:31

Oh, well, that’s really cool. So I want to again shift gears a little bit here. Some more. And I could you talk a little bit about the work you’re doing now. We’ve hinted at it a little bit about your, your entrepreneurship and some of the businesses you do, but talk about your work now, but also kind of your general philosophy and approach to that work.

And the influences on that.

Jevon Gondwe: 16:00

Yeah, absolutely. So I’ll share again some just context, because I do think some of these values, we may all have them in different capacities. We may not. But these are a couple of things that I really believe in. So I’ll give you just some quotes that I live my life by that are very popular, but sometimes they’re not.

So one is Zig Ziglar, you know, he talks about you can have everything you want in life if you will just help other people get what they want, right? So you can have everything you want in life if you help other people get what they want. Right. And and that really embodies everything that I do when it comes to entrepreneurship business. But even just meeting someone at the grocery store, like, how can we add value? 

And so that one ties in, you know, really well. Then we talked about The Go Giver. Right. And this there’s a five laws of giving. You know that Bob Berg. 

And I think his name is John Mann. The two authors of the book, you know, talk about. But the one I kind of focus on the most is add more in value than you receive in payment, add more value than you receive in payment. So I mean, just some examples of that, right? Like it’s such a simple thing. 

But if you’re in customer service, which we all are in some capacity, if you’re a professional, you’re an entrepreneur, you’re giving service. Well, you have a product that you’re selling, right? There’s a product there. But even if you’re giving it like transactionally, if you are smiling, if you’re if you’re asking great questions, if you’re, you know, going the extra mile for that person and they let’s say they spend $1,000 on a product, but you impact them beyond what that product is, that’s adding more in value than you receive in payment, and so you are giving more than you are receiving. In that way. 

But the way we think about giving, we also receive, right. And with giving so that that those couple ideas, those kind of philosophies wrap around then how I operate when it comes to what I do business wise. I can share that more in a moment. Anything you want to share on that before I touch on the business side?

Jim Dunlop: 17:54

No, I kind of was following your timeline. You leave Messiah, you have a number of different opportunities and start some more. You start some businesses. Tell us about that, that journey for you and what it was you were doing and and and where and where you are today.

Jevon Gondwe: 18:09

Yeah. So I always knew I wanted to everyone wants to be special, right? Like, you know, maybe not everybody, but I grew up thinking that, like, everyone wants to do something a little different. And so I even though I’ve worked in corporate America, you know, for many, many years, I always knew I wanted to create other options and have more value, more impact based on the areas that I was passionate about and my strengths. And so my corporate career was really around leadership, coaching, workshopping again, working in a lot of different industries.

But on the side, I was able to build up a business with my wife actually in the e-commerce space. And so through that model, we actually built a team of independent business owners all across the country, and it really provided a whole new environment and platform to kind of experiment with a low risk environment to develop and grow and coach people. And so you combine that with my corporate background and experience, you know, working, you know, with the state, working with nonprofits, working with a lot of different companies and different sizes, different size organizations positioned me well to really what I, what I do now. And so that’s influential. Skills was kind of the combination of all those things, along with the championship background for Messiah is focusing on what I call team leadership, right. 

So you think about how can I, as a, as a leader of other people, add more value to my team than I receive in payment, right? And so my focus with that is really a lot of it’s the interpersonal skills, you know, of leaders, right. How do I connect with my team? How do I inspire my team? How do I ultimately build a phenomenal environment that people want to be a part of? 

How do I increase, you know, retention and increase productivity in a way that people actually want to buy in? So one of the things you mentioned earlier, the Connect to Lead series is a specific offering that I’m that I do, that anybody can sign up for that’s really focused on people that are team leaders, and it’s basically a five week series all virtual. It’s a hybrid experience. So it’s instructor led classes with me, small class sizes, 10 to 15 people. And then I also do coaching along the way in that class and provide exercises. 

So people are actually going through these classes over five weeks. But they’re also applying what they’re learning with their team so they can actually apply it. And so it’s skills like active listening. Right. How do I do that effectively with my team. 

How do I coach people effectively? How do I provide inspirational feedback. So it’s skill building. You know in the team leadership environment. So that’s what I’m so passionate about because I think when you can develop the leader and they can develop their team, that’s where you have some of the most value. 

And and you’ve probably seen this gym like a lot of people grow up in, in corporate America or really any industry. And they learn what to do. They learn their skill set, you know, financial planning, for example, people learn how to do finances, right? They know all the X’s and O’s of finance, but there’s not as many opportunities to continually develop their leadership. So once they have to lead other people, they know how to do the job, but they don’t always have the skills to lead effectively. 

So that’s the gap. You know, that I really want to help close, you know, for leadership right now.

Jim Dunlop: 21:11

Tell me about the work you’ve been able to do with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Jevon Gondwe: 21:16

Yeah. So the Commonwealth was a phenomenal experience. In fact, I the programs that I’m really modeling right now for influential skills. A lot of it was inspired from my time there. I spent about a year developing programming.

A lot of it was virtual training workshops, coaching individuals, building out websites for ongoing learning resources. So kind of a really a broad perspective to that. So I had the chance to work with about about 700 Commonwealth employees that took classes with me over the course of time, or that I did public speaking engagements for the agency, had about 2500 employees. And so the resources that I put out there were available to all of the employees, and then they could sign up for classes with me. So that’s one of my favorite things to do is teach. 

Hence my both my parents being teachers. Fun fact is, I was terrified of speaking in public. If you go back to college days, I would practice for four hours for a three minute presentation because I was terrified of speaking in front of people. Now, I love speaking at conferences in front of thousands of people and because it can add value. But yeah, so a little bit of my experience at the Commonwealth and I’ll be doing some more government contracts this year, you know as well, and doing some work with some other agencies too.

Jim Dunlop: 22:27

So one of the things, one of the themes that keeps kind of emerging on these episodes and it’s it’s emerged again today, is this idea of intentionally generous acts that will have a ripple effect. And so, you know, you talked about it even in the idea of if I give more value to you than you’re expecting, or then more than you’ve paid me for, and and I give you skills or an experience that allows you to continue to go and do that for others. It’s this ripple effect. And I think some of them, the most inspiring ideas around generosity, start with this idea of this ripple effect. As I as I listen to you and others that it’s it’s one of my my favorite things to hear is just, I’ll do this thing here, which will have this larger impact over here.

And I probably don’t ever get to know all of that yet. And certainly your father is another example of that. And the the lecture series that lives on in his name today.

Jevon Gondwe: 23:31

That’s 100% it. Right? And sometimes it happens because it happens. We don’t think about it. But when we do it really intentionally, The Compound Effect.

That’s another good book, by the way. The Compound Effect. But the compound effect of that. Yeah. It’s it’s exponential right. 

And you know, my father, you know, whatever. People have different beliefs, but who knows what, you know, 20 years later, you couldn’t have predicted this, right? Like, you don’t know. You couldn’t have predicted that we’d be in the space that we’re in. And I still bump into people through the Gettysburg community that were, that were directly or indirectly impacted. 

You know, by how he lived his life, right? And that’s that’s my hope is that, you know, if if I have half the impact that my parents have had and their and their network of networks, then, you know, I’ve done, done okay. And that also something earlier just on success. Like, you know for me that’s what success is right. It’s how many people are better off because of your because of what you’ve done. 

Right? Because of your influence. How many people are better off. And so thinking about again, putting other people first to me is the best way to take the pressure off yourself to, you know, focusing on others.

Jim Dunlop: 24:39

Yeah. So I want to I want to take a moment here and just I want to summarize. We’ve talked about a couple of books and some of these I’m familiar with and some I want to go check out. Now, obviously we started with The Go Giver and that’s a nice quick read or a listen on audible, which which I did in the car and really, really enjoyed it. And then we you talked earlier about The Slight Edge, the book that was a gift to you early on.

And, and then you just mentioned a another one and.

Jevon Gondwe: 25:16

And yeah.

Jim Dunlop: 25:17

The what?

Jevon Gondwe: 25:18

The Compound Effect.

Jim Dunlop: 25:19

The Compound Effect. Okay. Yeah, I, I, I want to make sure I made note of that one. And then the other one that we had talked about before we hit record was Start Something That Matters. And do you want to mention that?

Jevon Gondwe: 25:32

Yeah. That’s so Start Something That Matters. I don’t don’t quote me on how to say his name, but Blake Mycoskie many people know him as the person who founded Tom shoes, and I’m not going to tell the Toms shoes story. Many people know that story. You can look it up the Tom shoe story, but the simple concept is, hey, when you buy a shoe from Toms, they donate a shoe, right?

They give a shoe. And the story behind that is really, really powerful. But Start Something That Matters is a book written by that founder about, hey, if you want to start anything, whether it’s nonprofit or for profit or an organization, how do you start something that has ultimately has an impact? So it’s got some great practical ideas from the from the ground up of how to do just that. Start something that matters. 

Again, I feel like I need to say this again. I get I have no skin in the game with any of these authors, but I just I love reading because the more value you add to yourself, the more value you can give out, and it costs you nothing to give it. And so I’m just such a big advocate of, of learning so that you can give to others. So I’m glad that we’re going to talk about some books. I always joke, but I’m very serious. 

You can’t talk to me for more than 15 minutes without getting a book recommendation. So maybe I have to write my own one day and I can recommend my own book, I guess.

Jim Dunlop: 26:45

Very good. So as as we wrap up, I still have a few things I want to touch on, but I wanted to talk about influential skills, and we talked about it and that was to circle back. I know you had wanted to make an offer to our listeners if they were interested.

Jevon Gondwe: 27:04

Yeah, absolutely. So again, big on adding value. And I believe in what you’re doing with Advent Partners. And I just I see so few organizations that have these kind of missions. And in a world of finance where a lot of times people that make a lot of money, I shouldn’t say a lot of times I think stereotypically we can grow up thinking, if you’re not, if you’re not around wealthy people or people that have means, it can be stereotypical through movies that they’re the bad guy.

And so the more people that are doing great things with their money, you know, the better. So anyway, yeah, so the Connect to Lead series, you know, specifically is a premium premium leadership program. And so what I’d love to offer is anyone who is connected to having partners, or either you’re listening to this or you’re a client or any of your clients that may be on that have teams of their own that want to take advantage of it. If they go to my website and sign up, all they need to do is mention Advent Partners and I’ll be giving them an exclusive discount, you know, for for signing up for the, for the program. So.

Jim Dunlop: 27:59

Well, I think that’s perfect. That leads us to as we wrap up, and if you want to reach out to Jevon directly, you can find him at Influential skills.com. That’s his website. You can learn a little bit more about his work, as well as the different offerings that he has there. Jevon, one final question that I have for you that I like to ask all of our guests is if I paid for really nice sized billboard in a very well-trafficked area.

So a place to broadcast a message where you’re going to reach a lot of people, what would your message be?

Jevon Gondwe: 28:37

Yeah, that’s a I love that type of question. First off, it has to be New York City, right? Like, I just when I think of a large billboard with lots of traffic, I think of New York City and I think appropriate for New York. But really, anywhere is a lot of what we’ve talked about, which is for me, it’s not about it’s not about you serve others. Right.

It’s and when we think that way, it just man, the world would be a better place, right, if we really focused on others. And by that, by doing that, we’d stress less about the problems that we have, and we probably have less problems. If I add one more, though, I would say believe in yourself. That’s why I do. What I do is because I want to raise people’s ability to achieve their best life. 

And so much of that comes down to their own beliefs. So yeah, those those two, if I can steal a second one, you know, if you’ll pay for the second one.

Jim Dunlop: 29:25

Sure.

Jevon Gondwe: 29:27

New York City is pretty cheap, I’m sure to get a billboard, but.

Jim Dunlop: 29:30

Yeah, well, I know you think of it. There’s lots of places with horrible traffic which would reach lots of people. Right? Well, Jevon, this has been a real pleasure talking today. I really appreciate you taking the time and sharing thoughts and, and also a little bit of philosophy on how you live.

I think lots of people could benefit from that.

Jevon Gondwe: 29:53

Absolutely. Thank you for having me on. It’s been a pleasure.

Jim Dunlop: 29:55

All right.

Outro: 29:57

Thanks for joining us to hear stories of generosity that remind us that you can’t take it with you. Visit our site at canttakeitwithyou.com. For more details on today’s episode and to subscribe to future shows.

Disclosure 30:15

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