About Jon
I'm not going to tell you to hustle harder.
I spent thirty years in operational management, and I can tell you exactly where hustling harder gets you: sat in your car on a Sunday morning, staring at a shop door you don't want to walk through.
That was me. Retail Operations Manager at Greggs, responsible for fifty-plus shops, good numbers, respected team. And completely empty. I phoned my wife from that car park and said the honest thing out loud for the first time: I've got no motivation left. I can't make myself care today.
Nothing about my training had prepared me for that moment. Because there hadn't been any training. Not for the stuff that actually mattered.
The career they promoted me through, but never prepared me for.
I started young. At 21 I was the youngest pub licensee in the UK, which mostly taught me how it feels to walk into a room where nobody thinks you should be there. McDonald's took me from student shifts through into management, and taught me how good systems hold a business together when the pressure's on. Then Pizza Hut, where I ran delivery units and restaurants, once won a company-wide delivery competition (the prize was a weekend in New York, which I can confirm beats a certificate), and learned that the hardest part of management isn't the numbers, it's the conversations. Uncovering theft. Performance reviews where the other person arrives ready for battle. Telling people with twenty years of service that their shop is closing.
Then thirteen years at Greggs, ending up responsible for operations across more than fifty shops. Investigations, crises, restructures. During the London riots I watched one of my own shops on the BBC aerial footage. A week later I stood in front of its staff, some with thirty years of service, and managed their redeployment.
I got good at all of it. And it was quietly costing me everything, because I was running on willpower and nobody had ever taught me the skills underneath: how to manage my own state, how to actually be heard, how to work with the way I'm built instead of against it.
What changed.
Emotional intelligence came first. Learning to recognise what was happening inside me before it ran the meeting for me. Then NLP, which I went on to study to Master Practitioner level, because it turned the theory into techniques I could use on a wet Tuesday in a stockroom: anchoring, reframing, seeing the situation through the other person's map of the world.
The last piece was understanding my own wiring, what I call a Personal Energy Strategy. Discovering why some ways of working left me drained and others didn't, and that it wasn't a character flaw, it was a design feature. I stopped forcing myself through the wrong doors.
I wrote Emotional Intelligence Unleashed to put the practical parts in one place. I started the podcast and the free community because a book on its own was never going to be enough. And I coach a small number of leaders one to one, because some problems need a conversation, not a chapter.
What I believe.
Everyone is walking around with a different map of the world, and most workplace conflict is two maps colliding. The dread you feel on a Sunday night is information, not weakness. And you don't need to become someone else to lead well. You need tools, practice, and a bit of honesty about how you're built.
I made the mistakes first. That's the entire offer.
And
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this only for middle managers?
It's written for middle leaders, anyone with pressure from above and people below. That includes team leaders, heads of department, deputy heads, ward managers and operations managers. If the pain points fit, the tools fit.
What is NLP, in plain English?
Neuro-Linguistic Programming is a set of practical techniques for managing your own state and communicating more effectively. Think of it as the "how" that makes emotional intelligence usable in a tense Tuesday meeting rather than just a nice idea.
What's a Personal Energy Strategy?
It's an understanding of how you're naturally wired to work, make decisions and lead. Some people are built for steady, sustainable output, others for bursts. When you work with your wiring instead of against it, the exhaustion drops. No prior knowledge of anything is needed.
Is the Facebook group free?
Yes. The Difficult Conversations Club is free and open to any corporate leader who wants to get better at the conversations that matter. (The Empowered Leader's Circle, our members' community where the book handouts and course materials live, comes with any purchase.)
I've bought the book. How do I get my handouts?
Book buyers get access to The Empowered Leader's Circle, and every worksheet and exercise is waiting in its Learning Zone, permanently.
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