Jonathan Pritchard: Using Force Multipliers to Increase Business

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Jonathan Pritchard is the founder of the Hellstrom group and international consulting company working on six of the seven continents. And for more than 15 years, he’s traveled the world as a professional mentalist, performing on national TV and radio for troops overseas and on Vegas main stages. And he is on a mission to improve the experience for your customers and employees.  

What’s up, Jonathan? Thanks for jumping on. Hey, thanks for having me, man. So let’s start with, uh, you know, something relatable here. America’s got talent is obviously a big show and you were on it. So tell me about that experience. I was that that was one of the best and most challenging and frustrating experiences of my life.  

Uh, but, but the actual experience of going through it is way different than watching it on television. Uh, so it was, it was months and months of my life and back and forth emails and then going out for the actual auditions and those are just grueling all day affairs and, and it’s just months. Until you get in front of the judges and there’s Howard stern, Heidi gloom and Milby and Howie Mendell.  

And you actually, you walk out on the stage in front of 3000 people. In in the audience, like they’re in real time. And then in the back of your head, you know, there are like 15 cameras that I can’t see right now, but every single thing I do will potentially be seen by millions of people. No pressure. Yeah.  

Right. So, so it was kind of one of those right before going out on stage. Just telling myself, this is what I want. You’ve literally asked for this. This is what you’ve been preparing your whole life to do. Don’t mess it up. And then if a mechanic goes, Hey, Jonathan, Oh, you ready? I’m like, yeah. And then he’s like, All right.  

See out there and then a production assistant don’t walk out like what? Oh, I am getting some serious mixed signals here. Right? So the doing the intro out there, then they go, alright, so walk out. Right. So this is just a really weird experience to go through in real time. And while you’re going through it, thinking about how weird it is, And then how weird it would be if you’d go on and make the show.  

Right? So there’s all sorts of ways you could get distracted, but the only way to not freak out is to just go, you know, you’ve done what you’re about to do a thousand times. Now this is just 1,001, and this is what you do. So don’t worry about it. And then the instant I stopped thinking about what it would be eventually.  

You just calmed down and kind of get in the flow. So I think that’s a good transition to dig deeper into exactly what you do. What do you do, Jonathan? Oh, man. That. I wish were an easier question for me to answer. Um, in the most direct way it is. I use a unique cocktail of applied psychology, showmanship, and Moxie to help my clients connect with their audience.  

So that’s kind of a roundabout way of saying I’m a mentalist, which is a magician that graduated to mind reading. So instead of, of finding your card and making it hop out of the deck, I would instead ask you to think of a playing card during the show. You say the six of diamonds, and then I point, and it’s in a sealed envelope that was stamped a week ago and signed off by the mayor and held by the police commissioner.  

That, that whole thing. So, so yeah, how, how much, um, and I don’t know, you know, I know nothing about that world, so I don’t know what starts to push, giving away trade secrets versus what doesn’t. So, you know, answer as much as you want. How much of that is really mind reading versus grooming your, I don’t know.  

What’d you say, guess grooming your participant to ha make a predetermined decision. Ooh, it’s that is it’s a spectrum. More show more so than an either or, um, because it’s think of it kind of like a. I make furniture and I have a workshop. And in that workshop, there are all sorts of tools that are best used for a particular need.  

So the mentalist has a whole workshop full of psychological techniques that will either get the person to think what you want them to think or tell you what they’re thinking without them even being aware of it. So it’s, it’s just really a whole grab bag full of applied psychology principles that you use depending on which one you need.  

So it’s pretty, pretty dynamic. It sounds like. So, yeah. So our business is, or our audience is largely business owners and entrepreneur. And I think that you have, you definitely have a unique industry you’re in, but. There’s probably a lot of value. You can still bring on, you know, customer engagement, employee engagement.  

So what’s it like to work with you or, or how do you help your clients, um, embrace your craft and apply it to a business model? The, the shape that working with me takes is really informed by how I got to the consulting side of things. And, and that’s mainly because sure. We can talk about tricks and, and mind reading, demonstrations, that kind of thing, but really they all rest on fundamental human psychology principles of how people think about experiences and interact with reality.  

So I don’t have a gift. I don’t have some special voodoo or mojo that nobody else would ever have. What I do have is a lifetime’s worth of experience of working directly with live audiences. So techniques that I’m using onstage to create the experience of what it really looks like he could read minds.  

All of those are just communication principles. And then I started seeing a lot of business gurus and business consultants and business speakers talking about the principles of communication. And then I realized, wait a minute, I stand on stage in front of 3000 people and can convince them that I can read minds and predict the future and do all these fun things.  

I understand these principles. Better than other people do. So I started realizing that those principles are incredibly valuable regardless of the audience you’re trying to reach. So for example, if you are a company that exhibits at trade shows. You have people walking by your booth who have somewhere else to be, they don’t know about you.  

They don’t care about what you’re doing, right. That they don’t know enough. So that’s, that’s a marketing issue. How do you get attention? How do you get attention in a positive way that makes them want to, to learn more? Well, you were salespeople could have the strategy of sitting back and waiting for people to come to them, but that passive approach isn’t going to be in your best interest.  

So you have to have an active approach. Well, now that that’s advertising. Hey guys, how’s it going fine. Right. That’s not a good end. Yeah. Like, Hey, did you get your free sample? You’re like, Ooh, free samples. I love samples. What’s that? I see you’re generating positive interest that way. Right. So you have to have somebody that is comfortable putting themselves out there in front of strangers.  

Right? So. Most people’s strategy for exhibiting at a trade show is well BS. Four salespeople are really good salespeople, not realizing that a trade show is a show. So that is a totally different dynamic. So if you kind of run, run the math. If you’ve got four salespeople who could speak one-on-one to about four or five people an hour, well then that’s 20 people an hour that your business could connect with.  

So the way that I help is I bring the show to it might when I was 13 years old, I was juggling fire on sidewalks. To draw a crowd. I would do a 12 minutes show and then pass a hat or party money. Like that’s literally what, what my clients want me to do at trade shows. So what I do is I set up. And I do a show where I, I can get people to stop in their tracks.  

Walk over column over. Yeah. Come on in. Did you get a chance to win a hundred bucks? Yeah. We’re giving away a hundred dollars right now. Come on edge. You get your sample. Now two people are like, I want a hundred dollars. So then they walk over. And then now there’s one person over here. That’s looking at these two people going, I wonder what they’re looking at.  

And like, yeah, don’t be shy. Carl, come on over, calling them by name was like, Oh cool. What’s this. Now we got three people and now two people over there wondering what are they doing now? We’ve got five people. And then those five people attract the next 10. Right. So now that we’ve got 15 or 20 people crowded around the show starts, which is a custom scripted corporate presentation that weaves together the mind reading tricks with the messaging of my client so that we know those people are being amazed.  

Like how would the world, did he know the name of my first pet? Let’s see, we know more about our clients and we care more than the other guys. Right. That’s why you should go with widget go. Right. So now those people can’t forget widget co because it is indelibly linked with that moment that they will remember literally for years.  

So then I do my 12 minute presentation and say that is specifically designed to appeal to my client’s ideal prospects. So now I can say, if you want to learn more, go talk to these four fabulous people. They’ll get you set up. If that’s not you, here’s your free takeaway. Use it in good health and looking forward, go tell your friends.  

Well in 12 minutes, you just got a whole hour’s worth of exposure the other way. And then I do that two times an hour. So that’s why I’m kind of a force multiplier for clients to take a more proactive approach to deliver their message in a way that resonates and is fun to their ideal audience. So that that takes shape in so many ways, whether it’s internally.  

Okay. You want to show your employees, you appreciate them at this annual awards gala. Cool. I’ll be your MC I’ll deliver some entertainment. Oh, so you want your sales team to engage and connect with your prospects more effectively. Cool. Let’s do a two day training workshop where I teach your sales team how to be a world class engager.  

Oh, so you’re at a trade show. I’ll be your force multiplier. Right? So every, every way that accompany connects with human beings, what I know is valuable. So, so that’s why it’s such a big question. Because it is so useful because it’s a fundamental human skill and an approach to building better relationships.  

So how did, how did you get in this to begin with. Like what’s day one. So you talked about how you went from, you know, entertainment to the consulting side, but even before that, like how did you, I mean, you mentioned, uh, when you were younger, you were juggling fire where like, where, if you had to pinpoint the beginning of this journey, what was it?  

It was seeing Lance Burton on the Carson show and the magic was cool, but the response was even better. Oh, that’s phenomenal. Wait, if I’m him, I get to work with cool people do cool stuff and make people laugh. That’s awesome. That’s what I want to spend my time doing. So then I got really interested in magic and my parents got me a magic kit for Christmas that year.  

And, and then every beginner magic book or kit here are the car tricks. Here’s the rope tricks. Here’s some coin tricks. Here’s mind-reading tricks. Here’s illusions. You can build at home like, wait, wait, go back like illusions. You can build at home. Like, no, no, go, go one more back. Like mind reading tricks.  

Like what, what is that about? So, so I’ve always been fascinated by the mind reading angle of being so good at communicating you create that impossible experience, but this has been a lifelong passion for understanding how and why people think. So it really did start when I was like five or six years old and it has over the years been the context.  

That’s best suited for my curiosity, anything I could possibly be interested in. This is a context where it’s useful. All right. So there’s, there’s one, Jonathan, that’s perfected this, but a lot of people listening go, Hey, I got a trade show coming up, or I got this event coming up or this type of thing would be perfect.  

So. If we can’t hire a hundred Jonathans how do we recreate a hundred? Jonathan’s like, where do the listeners begin to understand you? You clearly highlighted that you don’t necessarily have to be the sales guy to, to attract an audience, but what type of personality, maybe, maybe what type of personality is best suited for, um, this type of approach or like where do people begin if they want to see if this makes sense for them to explore.  

Got it. Okay. Several layer approach answer. Um, yes. I am limited by physics to only be in one place at any given time. So yeah, I wouldn’t be able to do two events on the same day. However, I own ROI trade shows.com. So I have a whole team of cool people. Who could be at your trade show? So that’s the, the blatant sales pitch.  

The second layer sales pitch is even if our team can’t be there, our team could go train your team on how to be better. So there’s the second blatant sales pitch. The third layer is it’s. I I’m intensely introverted. But I recharge my batteries by being alone and seeing nobody for a couple days on end. I am perfectly happy being by myself and, and doing absolutely nothing.  

So if you are out there in podcast land thinking, well, it’s easy for Jonathan because he’s, he’s extroverted. I’m not, so it’s not necessarily a personality type that. Prefers being extroverted. It’s more about understanding the behaviors that get you the results you want. And I discovered early on that outgoing, gregarious behavior is the thing that creates all my success.  

So it’s the willingness to be proactive about creating connection and doing it in a way with a mind, for the benefit to the other person. Because of course it makes sense that you would want those people to talk to you because they could give you money. Right? Like that’s the, that’s the me benefit way of approaching the relationship.  

But the best place to start is to think about how your company product or service makes your clients’ lives better. What, what benefit are you to their life? So then you can identify their problems more effectively and you are rabidly focused on their situation, their problems, the worries they have. And then speak to those in a way that resonates so that the listener goes, Oh my God, this guy understands my problems better than I do.  

Yeah. So now they go, well, now I’m willing to listen to what you have to say, because you clearly understand where I’m at right now.  

It’s amazing how I’ll pause right there. Just briefly. It’s amazing how that’s just such a basic fundamental of a business is understanding your audience and every product or service. You have to look at it as solving a problem. And so what problem of your customer or audience can you solve? And then the rest will take care of itself.  

Exactly. I, I, I love martial arts. I I’ve been practicing martial arts every day for nearly a decade and it. To the point that you just made. It’s kind of like, everybody loves the advanced stuff. Like I want to learn the advanced techniques. I want to learn the, just really cool stuff. Well, the really cool stuff is just the basics done perfectly.  

So everybody thinks, Oh yeah. Yeah. I’ve heard of these basic sales principles. Yeah. Yeah. I’ve read them in a million books. Okay then why aren’t you doing them? If you’re, if you’re constantly searching for the next best, greatest, newest thing, you’re ignoring the basics in no amount of advanced level stuff is going to make up for failing the basics.  

Yeah. So I was kind of also point out going, listen, no hack, no business tip or trick, or here’s the best practice is going to solve a fundamental mindset issue in your business. If you don’t believe in your product or service, you don’t understand how your clients are thinking. You don’t believe in your skills.  

Nothing else will solve for that problem. So that’s why to me, every business issue is a mindset issue, and I have a narrow, but deep understanding of exactly that dynamic. So it, it helps on a lot of levels simultaneously. You know, it’s funny that you mentioned about the importance of basics because, um, I had a client once say, I don’t know if it was, you know, his quote directly, or if he was referencing a quote from somebody else, but it was along the lines of, you know, there’s, there’s only a few ways to make money, but there’s lots of ways to lose it.  

And I like that a lot. It’s it’s like the same concept. There’s there’s only a few. Basic business fundamentals that, or martial arts or whatever it is that lead to those advanced things done perfectly. And so when you try to skip ahead or cut corners or look for that, you know, that magic bullet, um, you know, that’s where you get into the lots of ways of losing money when you should have stuck to the few basic ways to approach a business and, and, and kind of the more safe, secure, guaranteed, slow and steady route.  

Right, right, exactly. It’s um, another thing you said that was interesting where you talked about being an introvert, um, that’s kind of pressure on my mind because I was listening to something the other day and they were talking about how, um, you know, a lot of wildly successful people, one thing that they have in common and even on the superstar level, like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos is they’re introverts.  

You being one yourself. Would you have any opinion or feedback on why you think that is that it seems like introverts, um, that that’s often a common characteristic of successful people. I, I think. If I have to play armchair psychologist, um, I think, I think it’s because I am perfectly happy spending days by myself thinking about one thing and I don’t have notifications turned on my phone.  

I, I rapidly protect my attention so that I could spend eight hours straight. Forgetting to eat, thinking about this one thing. Yeah. And that literal single-minded focus over time without requiring, you know, what I need to be around other people and to feel energized and to come up with some ideas. Right?  

Like instead, I’m just going to sit with this one thing for way longer than any sane person should. Develop data years of my life to a single thing that kind of compound interest doesn’t happen by spending your time over here and over here and go in and do this thing and go in to see these people that, that kind of thing.  

So, so yeah, I think that might be it. So it’s not that you’re an introvert you’re obsessive is what we’re getting element of that. Like, you’ve, you’ve got to be weird to think shuffling cards for 12 hours a day is fun, right? Like that, that, that, uh, Penn Jillette of Penn and teller that, uh, Penn and teller, that was kind of one thing that they, they were talking about is.  

Most magic tricks and methods are simply explained by the magician is willing to spend more time on something than anybody else would like. Nobody. He would devote a year of their lives, learning how to shuffle cards in a way that nobody would be able to tell it was a wacky way of doing it. I, I would, I, I have, right.  

So it’s just the, the willingness to sit with a problem and look at boy, this solution is going to require two years worth of work before I would even be able to evaluate whether or not it’s a good idea. And that sounds like a good idea of how to spend my time. Well, don’t think that way that’s just not normal.  

Fair enough. Yeah. Now, but I like it though, because I’m. You know, sometimes you got to have that forward momentum to be able to, um, I mean, it just boils down to the same thing that we touched on earlier about, um, it’s just the basics done really well. And so you got to understand that you gotta, at a basic level, you got to put in the time to do that thing really well.  

Exactly and a good way to kind of understand it is. Um, when I was a kid and first starting magic tricks, I just terrorized my parents. It was just, Hey dad, dad pick a card. No, I’ve seen this with John. No, no, this one’s totally different. Right? I promise. Yeah, exactly. So they, my parents are saints. Like I.  

Wow. Thank you so much, mom and dad for being awesome. Uh, but it was, it was that I would do a trick and then dad would go, okay. Yeah, next time don’t flash the card. I saw the card or whatever it is. Right. And that baffled me because I was like, wait a minute, I read the book. It said to save this. And it said to do this.  

I said that in did that, but he wasn’t, there was no magic trick, so it’s not enough to do the right thing. And it’s not enough to say the right thing. You have to do the right thing, say the right thing the right way at the right time and time. Right. If you ignore any one of those four elements, there’s no effect.  

And that’s literally applicable to every single business in sales and marketing. You have to have the right message delivered the right way at the right time to the right person. Yeah. I don’t mean to, to toot my own horn, Jonathan, but I can pull a coin out of my son’s ear and he still hasn’t figured it out.  

See it’s, you know, your audience, your skill set is matching the sophistication of your audience. That’s that’s a really good thing to know. I think he just turned nine and I think, I think this is the year that I’m going to screw it up though.  

You’ll see through the veil and realize that there is no magic. It’s all disappointment. Yeah. And, and I think at that moment, I’m gonna run with it and I’m going to sit them down and I’m going to say, here’s the truth about Santa Claus. Here’s how babies are made and just, it’s all coming out all. That’s the right time to do it, man.  

Just get all the disappointment over all at once. Yeah. Rip that bandaid off. All right. You know, one thing I’m curious about in the line of work that you’re in, I got to imagine you get skeptics a lot that don’t understand, like you’ve communicated that at the, at. Behind the scenes, it’s really a psychological play and you admitted there’s no voodoo and craziness, but I got to imagine you get the people that say that’s BS and like, but they’re not willing to look at it from the literal perspective either.  

They’re like stuck in the middle of just being a denier. Like, do you run into people like that generally? Yeah. Um, a lot of it has to do with how my skillset is framed. Um, so that’s what, like, nobody needs a mentalist with nobody. I pretend I pretend to read minds. Thanks for your time, Jonathan. Thank you.  

Good night. Right? It’s like on, on the lyrics level, nobody needs somebody who pretends to be a mind reader for living right on the other hand, everybody needs. Somebody who could help them understand how they’re thinking and how their clients are thinking and how their messaging is perceived. So that’s why I frame what I do.  

That’s why I started my consulting company. I am the founder of the Hellstrom group, literally an international consulting agency. I’ve done work on three of the seven continents. The other people that, that are part of the group have filled in the rest. Right. So I I’ve worked with BP state farm United airlines, fortune 500 companies working at trade shows and doing sales negotiation skills trainings.  

Right? So these are all very useful things that people pay a lot of money to get better at. If, however, I said, I’m a mentalist, I read minds for a living. Like we don’t, we don’t need a joker. We’re not going to pay you $10,000 to come in and pretend and like play Patty cake. Like that’s, that’s insane. What, what person in their right mind would do that.  

Right? So it’s, it’s really a function of helping people understand. The value of what you do more so than selling them on how you do it. Right? Because I don’t go to the dentist because he has a nice drill. I don’t go to the dentist because he’s got a better syringe than the other guy. I go to the dentist because I’m in pain and he can stop it real quick.  

I don’t care what tool he uses to do it. All I care about is the outcome for me. So the mentalism is kind of the most interesting thing to talk about, but it’s the least effective way to communicate the value I bring to my clients. That’s a good point. So how do you, how, how do people get introduced to what you do mainly?  

I just say I’m the founder of a consulting company, helping companies at trade shows and, and corporate soft skills training. And then they kind of go, Oh, okay, cool. And then we talk about that more. So eventually they’ll get into, so how did you get into this? You go, Oh, well, I’ve, I have a strong, uh, performing background and being comfortable in front of an audience. 

It started kind of teaching people how to be better presenters and then realizing that booking myself as a speaker and an entertainer over the years, that was all sales and negotiation and marketing skills. So just kind of teaching people how I’ve done for myself. Uh, everything that I’ve done and how it applies to their business.  

And eventually there’ll be like, wait, you’re a mind reader. Now that’s in the proper context because they understand the value in. Then eventually once they get to wait, you’re, you’re a mentalist. You, you could read minds now. It makes sense. Instead of leading with their assumptions. Yeah, I have, I have an uncle that would pull a coin out of my ear, or he did an awful card trick with 21 cards and it was, it was four hours long and it was boring.  

Get out my experience with, with magic and mentalism what even is mentalism like, is that just kind of like a, uh, A more insufferable magician. Like I don’t, I don’t get it. Right. So if I allow their misconceptions to dictate the perception of the value I bring, that’s doing as both a disservice. So I, I can’t for the benefit of my clients.  

I can’t let them get distracted by the shiny mentalism ball. So that’s why I I’m the founder of the Hellstrom group. I created ROI trade shows. I’m the, I I’ve started several businesses that helped my clients get more leads, get paid more. Yeah. Actively improve their sales teams, that kind of thing. If they care how I do that, then we could talk about the mentalism.  

But they, they don’t care. Like really the thing that matters the most to them is wait a minute, you can get me four times as many leads from a single trade show as I’ve been doing for the past 10 years. Holy crap. Yeah. I don’t care how you do it. You bring in a dancing monkey and that works fine. I don’t, I couldn’t care less.  

All I want are those results you’re telling me you can get me. Yeah. Now, now I imagine you travel a lot in this industry. Is that the case? Yeah, I, I always tell people, like I live on the road. I get my mail in Chicago, but basically my home is a rental car in a hotel room. Did I give you credit? I get it.  

Is that you like is, do you enjoy it? Like, for me, I couldn’t hang with that, but I could see the other side of the coin where that’s like a thing that, you know, people embraced that part. Is that just come with the territory or do you enjoy that world? I’ve I’ve kind of, um, I I’ve kind of learned, find my balance where, uh, at one point in my life, I used the travel as an escape valve from having to deal with my real problems at home.  

So instead I would just stay on the road more. And then there there’s, there’s more times where like, Oh, I hate traveling. And then my bank account doesn’t like that. So, so I’ve learned to kind of find a balance that I’m happy with. And like, my sweetie we’ve been together several years and I was like to say, how can I miss you if I don’t go away?  

Yeah. So there’s, there’s that kind of ebb and flow. When I’m on the road, I’m gone a hundred percent. There might be a whole day where I’m in a, in a trade show. In a conference building with zero cell reception. I’m I’m on from 70 in the morning when I meet up with the client and were talking about our strategy and make sure all of the details are managed and then I’m on the trade show floor.  

And then the. The trade show floor is open for two hours and then it’s lunchtime. And then I go have lunch with the sales team and connecting and then, okay. It’s back. So I’m actively engaged in the present moment. Basically all day. I, I’m not going to take the time to, to take out my phone and be on the trade show floor, representing my client’s company, texting my girlfriend.  

I’d be like, I missed Jewish movie. It’s just, but no, that’s not professional. Yeah. So there might be time, like long stretches of time where I’m out of pocket. On the other side of that same coin when I’m home, dude, I’m home. Really, I don’t, I’m not thinking about other like I’m I’m fully present, so I can be there 24 seven and I’m I’m there.  

So it’s, it’s kind of a nice, a nice balance. Yeah. Yeah, you have that clear division. Um, and it does go a long ways. I think that’s super important for especially early entrepreneurs. Um, you know, I mean I’m 13 years into it and I’m just kind of used to those days. I I’m the opposite where a lot of my, um, I don’t have clear separation.  

And so I have transition. So for example, uh, you know, a lot of times I work at home, I have a dedicated home space. That’s just, it’s the office and, but it’s downstairs. And so when I’m done, I go upstairs. Hey kids, dad, let’s go play downstairs. No, I just, I just came from downstairs and, you know, In years past we’ve, you know, I bought an office building and had the team work there and, um, And that was one nice thing, you know, ultimately I ended up wanting to be home and, and so we ended up selling office space, but that was one nice part of having the office is that 10 minute drive home for me, it was only 10 minutes, but I could, I could make that separation.  

And I think that, uh, you know, that says a lot that you’re even able to figure that out and like go all in. Like you said, a hundred percent on, on those different sides of the coin. Yeah, there’s a, I’m sure it’s apocryphal. However, it makes so much sense to me, which is there’s a rock star who would be on tour and doing everything.  

And then when he was coming off the road, he would get a hotel in his hometown and then stay at the hotel for a couple of nights, but spend the day with his family and then spend the night at the hotel. And then come back. So it’s kind of like a decompression chamber because the rock star, you, where everybody you meet is in love with you.  

And, and we got the stars in their eyes like, Oh my God, you’re so cool. Well, you’re, you’re living the dream. You’re touring. And then you come home and you’re like, Hey, take out the trash. All right. You you’re supposed to, you didn’t empty the dishwasher. You’re like. On rockstar, Jonathan rockstar, Jada that does do dishes.  

So it can be jarring to have those, those kind of versions of you at odds with each other. But knowing that those two are oil and water kind of help you understand, Oh, okay. This, this is a loving way of engaging with people and having. Deep seated relationships. This is a part of it. This is a good thing.  

Don’t run away from it. Embrace it. Okay. That’s good. Alright. Yeah. Yeah. I think the awareness is the key is just understanding that, that you can have those two sides and where their places are, you know, um, as we kinda get closer to wrapping up, I wanted it. You just sorta book think like a mind reader. Uh, what’s the book all about the book is all about mindset, motivation, memory.  

Basically all the stuff that a lot of self help books theorize about, but from the viewpoint of an actual, honest to goodness professional mentalist mind-reader. So it’s basically my 15, 20 years worth of traveling the world. After the show, people I’m signing autographs and people would be like, man, I can’t even imagine doing what you do for a living.  

And they mean that one in, I can’t even imagine how you’re able to make it look like you could read minds and predict the future. That’s cool. But too, I can’t even imagine being on tour and not living a data entry job life. Like I, I don’t get. But I can’t even imagine it like, well, if you can’t imagine it, how are you going to make it real?  

Right. If you can’t imagine a life that’s, other than the misery you’re currently in, how likely are you going to be not miserable in the future? Sure. Like the 0% likelihood of anything being different. So basically I started talking with people after the shows about how I’ve gotten to be where I am and the same twenties.  

So. Principles questions. Ideas kept coming up. The people were different. The details were different, but the ideas behind them were always, so then start getting emails back a year or two later. Hey, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me. It made all the difference. Here’s what I’m doing now and it couldn’t be better.  

And it’s all because you took the time to talk to me. My God damn it. No. Okay. Now I know this actually has some, some value, I guess. Yeah. I can’t just hoard this any more. I actually have to share it. Okay. So I basically wrote the book to have those conversations with people I’ve never met before. So if you’ve wondered about how to think about this or motivation, that and mindset, this.  

I learned from somebody who is a professional thinker like that. That’s what the book is all about. So I basically crammed 20 years worth of experience and insights into 260 pages. And you, you can now download my thoughts into your brain by reading the book where I’ve shared them all. Hmm. You know, that’s, that’s something that I always have kind of an inner conflict with a little bit is for me.  

Um, I always, you know, I’ve never been wanting to question what I want to accomplish. So if there’s this thing I want to do instead of going, Oh, I wish I could do it. I go, how do I do that? And then kind of reverse engineer it, but I’ve, I’ve come to realize that that’s. The minority of mindsets and, and that’s, for me, that’s been hard in the last year, actually the last couple of years where I’ve had to go, you know, I acknowledge that, but I can’t wrap my head around it.  

And so I’ve had to step back and go, okay, you know, they’re not weird, I guess I’m the unusual one, but you know, a perfect example was it was just yesterday. I took a flight out to San Diego and just grabbed an Uber over to the beach. And the guy that was driving an Uber, I was asking about the new.  

California laws that are changing Uber’s policies. And he says, Oh, well, you know, I don’t really know, um, how it’s going to change so far. Nothing’s really changed for me. But one thing that’ll change is, is we’re going to have to do our taxes now. And he goes before taxes were never taken out of our Uber pay.  

And so. Or, you know, we were supposed to report them on our own, but I just never did because I don’t get it. And my mind it’s like exploded. I’m like, what do you mean? You didn’t tackle that problem? Like, it didn’t go away. It’s still there. Like just ignoring it, isn’t going to solve anything. And that’s just something that’s I think is so valuable to entrepreneurs is like, if you’ve got a problem, you’ve got to figure it out.  

You can’t just kick the can down the road. So now it sounds like it’d be a great, um, you know, great topic that you kind of cover in the book. Exactly. And in one of my favorite things is my friend circle is awesome. I’m only friends, so the coolest, best people on the planet, literally they’re amazing. And one of my favorite things was like, Hey, I’m going to write a book.  

They were like, okay, let me know when it’s done. It wasn’t a, Oh my God. So good for you. Like, wow. That’s so neat. How they’re just like, yeah, let me know when it’s done. Exactly. Like, Oh, he says he’s going to do a thing. So he’s going to do the thing, like, okay. Like there’s no question that the statement is going to be any different than the action, right?  

Cause it’s like, of course, like most of my friends have written books. They’re their performance speakers, the consult, like. Yeah, this is what you do and you’re going to do it. So let me know when it’s done instead of no, like people talking about stuff they want to do or problems I have. And using them as leverage for positive attention.  

Oh no, honey. It’s so good. No, yeah. Taxes. What a problem, right? Yeah. That’s, that’s my way of connecting to other people is through my problems lately. Have you ever tried connecting with other people through your actions? I mean, that’s, that’s cool. You’re doing it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, very cool, Jonathan, I appreciate your time.  

Jonathan Pritchard Hellstromgroup.com. That’s H E L L S T R O M. And I think you mentioned ROI trade shows.com as well. Uh, Jonathan, I appreciate your time. I’ll give you, uh, the four for just quick moment. You can throw out any more contact information, give us a pitcher, whatever you want. Seriously. David, thank you so much.  

And, uh, give me the opportunity to, to share my thoughts with folks. I generally family deeply appreciate it. And for anybody who’s looking to connect professionally Hellstromgroup.com is the best place to go. You can see a list of the different companies and in ways I help my clients. If you’re interested in peeking inside my skull.  

As I’m thinking things, find me on Twitter, the_ Pritchard, that’s like being locked in a car with me for free 14 hours. And any, any random idea I have, I will share it there. So that’s the kind of unfiltered way of connecting as kind of a outside observer of what inside of this brain looks like.  

So, yeah, those, uh, those, the best places to get in touch. And I genuinely want to hear from you guys say hi, if, if you feel moved to Jonathan Pritchard, everybody. Thanks so much. Thank you.