Fear, Fun & Faith
As a result of his ‘Breakthrough’ course, John delivered his personal brand of passion, humour and encouragement to many business people, the Cabinet Office and the Treasury. As well as being a highly sought-after motivational speaker, John has also held regular slots on BBC Radio, and has appeared in a ‘Fly on the Wall’ documentary on central television.
“Upon returning from the course, I sent an email to all the managers in our building to let them know I was prepared to do a 15 minute presentation in any team meetings all about how I’ve overcome my disability, and within two or three days I received at least 20 invitations to attend team meetings. To every single one I went to, there was a mixture of laughter and tears, and people were saying it was too short, that it should be available on the NHS as it’s like good medicine! That was a great feeling.
“Not long after that, I began to get floods of emails from people opening up their hearts to me, and one of the Senior Officers said to me, ‘John, your talks have transformed this whole office. The change is amazing – people are really enjoying coming to work, there’s a big smile on everyone’s faces.’ I was flattered, and he followed with, ‘I’d like you to attend our board meeting, there will be 24 Directors there that I’d like you to talk to.’ I agreed and went to speak to the Directors, from which I got a standing ovation! It all blew up (in the best way) from there, I began getting invited to all sorts of places, Peterborough, Norwich, Lincoln, Ipswich, Leeds, it was amazing. I was still being paid for my job but I was having a ball at the same time!
“My talks led to me winning the National Civil Service Outstanding Achievement Award for my services to Equality and Diversity in 2006 and for bringing outstanding change to offices across the country. That then led to me being invited to the home office (HMRC), Ministry of Defence and prestigious places like that. And then, I was awarded an MBE of all things! I was presented my MBE for bringing transformation and positivity into the workplace by The Princess Royal at Buckingham Palace on 13th February 2015. It was such an honour."
Using his motivational talks, John has since authored a book also titled, ‘Fear, Fun & Faith’ - a ‘one man mission’ to change traditional views of diversity, and inspire thousands of people across the country to take hold of their dreams and take positive steps to achieve their goals.
“I wrote my first book based on my most popular talk; Fear, Fun & Faith, which came out when I was 60. It was because of the hugely positive emails I'd received because of my talks that I decided to write the book.
“I love to encourage people – I always say, no-one ever died from an overdose of encouragement. It is so empowering and there’s unfulfilled potential in everyone, whatever age you are. I don’t believe in retirement, it’s all about re-fire-ment. We just keep living, learning and exploring new opportunities. Life has taught me that every person has a genius inside of them just waiting to be released in some way. Don’t just live for the weekend but set out to enjoy every day you are alive.
“I’ve written four books now, all of which are in a way, an autobiography, lessons learnt, sharing that faith and encouragement with others. Fun, Fear & Faith being the first, followed by Bitzaro to Buckingham, a journey of faith and celebration, my third book Beautiful Game, Beautiful Memories is all about my love for Aston Villa FC and finally my fourth book, The Well Overflows shares what started out as over 50 daily articles of positivity and hope shared on Facebook during the 2020 coronavirus lockdown, all collated into one keepsake book.” Please email John personally to purchase one of his books.