‘If we hide our light, then no one’s going to see it. We need to bring our light and share it.’
Tony Martingnetti is the Founder and Chief Inspiration Officer at Inspired Purpose Coaching. For about 20 years, he has been helping people navigate change and unlock their potential. Listen to his inspiring insights.
‘There’s no fast-pass to getting to where you want to go. Listening to other people’s stories is helpful, but keep in mind that it’s your journey and you decide what to do about it.’
In this episode, learn about some essential skills to build your leadership strengths, as well as the benefits of leadership coaching:
– building your intuition
– connecting to people with people-centric leadership
– Gap Thinking vs. Gain Thinking
– setting your intention daily and more
Find Tony online:
Inspired Purpose Coaching: https://www.inspiredpurposecoach.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonymartignett1/
John: Thank you for tuning in today. Don’t forget to subscribe and share this episode. My guest today is Tony Martignetti, the founder and chief inspiration officer at inspired purpose coaching. Tony has twenty years of experience helping people navigate change and unlock their potential, Thanks a lot for being on this show, Tony.
Tony: Oh, I’m so thrilled to be here. Thanks for having me.
John: It’s gonna be a lot of fun cause I’m excited to hear about how you became who you are today. So, if you don’t mind sharing with the audience members, you know as far back as you would like, to let people in on what made you become who you are today.
Tony: I love this because this is the kind of thing that I like doing with other people too, is getting to explore you know what really were the moments that unleash your gifts into the world and I like to start really early. When I was a child, I was an artistic child who loved to draw and paint, and one of the things I noticed about myself now, when reflecting back is that I loved to create environments, and rooms, and worlds that were very different, they had different emotional experiences. It’s weird that this is what happened but I loved-I wanted to be an artist, I wanted to you know to do this for the rest of my life but what I found is that there were a lot of well-meaning adults who tolled me “you gotta find something better to do with your life” you something that’s a bit more lucrative that’s gonna make a better path for you, So of course I listened to their advice and I became a pre-med major. So I started my college carrier in the sciences which I also had a passion for, but mostly it was because I’ll become a doctor, why not? and then that ended up shifting into the field of business because I think my chemistry background was not solid so I was feeling a little bit pressured to find something that’s gonna be more me. Business had this element of being foundational, being you know something that you can lean on forever and so that set me off in the carrier of being in the finance and strategy area of many different industries. First, high tech then eventually into biotech which was amazing for me because I loved being part of an organization that helped save lives and I was so curious I would constantly find out more about the industry, reading up on things and just getting as many people as possible, So for me that thirst for learning more for doing more and getting more through that industry was like driving me through all the things I was doing, There’s always in that finance capacity, so that was most of my life.
John: Yeah, so I wanna take a look deeper in terms of, you know your upbringing.
Tony: Yeah.
John: If you don’t mind sharing with us. Were your parents you know very, very present during those years early stages, and did you have siblings like what was it like growing up?
Tony: I love that question so my parents my father and mother they actually ran a business together. My dad was an immigrant from Italy, My mothers family came from Lebanon and my dad had always been a work hard-working hard is the path to success and I think that was ingrained in me from the very beginning, is that the only way to make it in this world is by working hard and I was involved in the business from a very young age, my brother and sister were also very driven and we were also involved in the business. Whenever I had free time we would do work with my dad from a very young age and the business was, a few things, we actually built commercial real estate, commercial buildings and we also ran an alarm systems company that did alarm systems for residential and commercial, so I got to learn a lot of these traits just by following my dad, What I learned also was the value of the dollar and how important it is to be mindful of your money because you have to make sure that it lasts. A lot of these things that are ingrained in you in early days you also have to unlearn them because they serve you to a capacity, to a certain point but then they can be detrimental at some point so, for example, work hard is the way to success, sure it serves you to a capacity that you can get to a point and it’s helpful but then there’s the element of working smarter you can’t just work hard and keep on beating the same-same horse if you will, it has to be flipped in this direction of how can it be more effective, how can I find leverage points? how can I ensure that I am taking care of myself in the process of becoming who I am? and so I think that was one of the things that-from my, you know how I grew up it was great to have that experience but ultimately being able to flip that script and say ” How can I turn that around?” right?
John: Those are great points and I’m glad that your parents taught you like it’s hard work, you know, perseverance, or grind or whatever it may be as well as coming from an immigrant family right?
Tony: Yeah.
John: Like even myself coming from my parents came from Vietnam, it was all about survival. It was about making sure that we had enough to survive, shelter, food and we didn’t have a lot of toys right? It was like-
Tony: Yeah.
John: This is what you put in and as you become, you know more wise or you mature more and your more cultured when you figure out what other people are doing.
Tony: Yeah.
John: And then when did you kind of figure out that finance was what your kinda ingrained to continue pursuing in all these other opportunities that you were faced and profanity yourself? Because again commercial real estate alarm that was small business to then you wanted to do the medical but then you focused on finance because maybe your background or what your strength and interests were to then that went to double into that arms, you know the TAC as well as finance which was a good foundation I believe to then why leave that completely to do what you do now.
Tony: Yeah, I love this question because it really leads me into this, you know what was it that-were the qualities and values that I always espoused myself and I didn’t realize it until again everything Hien sites 2020. I had always had this adventurous spirit in this curiosity that was ingrained in me those are the values I still hold today. As I was growing up my rebellious part of like rebelling against upbringing was I would always want to go out and find out more about the world like what I wasn’t seeing what I wasn’t you know experiencing so I would always push the envelope outside of what I was in to, even to the point where my dad at some point said: “hey look we got this business this security business and I’m gonna either sell it or I’m gonna pass it on to you guys to take ownership of it”. My brother and I, and my sister and we all collectively-after seeing all the pain my dad went through as the owner of a business, having been double-crossed and seeing the challenges and tribulations of building a business from scratch, a service business. We call kinda decided that we needed our own path to take and it’s kinda crazy when you think about it cause now here I am I’m an entrepreneur now of my, you know creating my own path but at that point I was saying “Uh, that’s crazy I don’t wanna work for myself, I don’t wanna do this thing” I instead decided that I wanted to be part of the corporate machine, which I’m grateful cause I learned so much in that prosses and I had to follow my curiosity about what was out there, like what I could learn from being part of the workplace in a business like the biotech industry. That all came from my curiosity of really seeing “what is this all about” meaning at the time when I got into biotech it had already gone into a few decades of experience and I think there was still a lot to be done. I had worked on one of the first few gene therapies after the first few failures and it was amazing being part of that, so for me, I felt excitement, I felt the curiosity of learning about what it means to be saving lives and to in a finance capacity of helping these businesses to fund their innovations and to just see what it means to just run a business, so for me, it was just that, the passion and the curiosity, and the sense of adventure that goes into running a business like that.
John: Yeah, I think self-discovery throughout that journey and it takes you to so many pasts and as you go back in perspective fine site. Throughout different stages of your life did you ever live with a kind of regret, not wanting to take on that new adventure that your parents or your dad kinda presented because you know maybe your maybe younger at that time not knowing what you know today? How would life be different because that was a great opportunity where you would maybe-was able to be mentored by your dad for you know doing it for so many years as well and maybe did you have that mentorship even throughout these stages when your on this journey of entrepreneurship yourself.
Tony: Yeah, It’s a great question because there’s two things that come up to me. Number one is that I was the first person in my family to truly live the world of corporate life. My brother did not go to the path of corporate he was more of a, you know he worked in construction, more electrical engineering that kind of stuff, and my sister got a lot of green she decided to raise her family and wanna have you so both of them brilliant people but they just decided not to go to the path of what I did and I always felt as though my family didn’t quite understand what I was up to and they couldn’t necessarily follow what I was doing but I would always share with them my experiences and my dad always had some advice to share and I would always think about how he connected dots between his experience and my experience cause I wanted them to relate to me, I wanted them to understand me and I think that’s a challenge cause when you try to bridge the gap between different generations even if you did have the same experience it’s still not the same experience because generations have gone by and there’s definitely been different workplace environment that we’re in ultimately I have no regrets because ultimately what I have learned is that I had to follow my path on my own and make my own mistakes and make my own decisions and at the time when that opportunity was passed to me I didn’t know who I was and I had to let who I was evolve it’s one I’ll leave you with here is to say that I have this feeling about intuition. Intuition is something that has to be built, it’s a muscle you grow. You don’t just-your not just born with an intuition it says “ok do this, do that” or “this is what’s right for you” at that point I didn’t know enough to make the right calls.
John: And that’s where living and life experience and being engulfed in so many different assets in life, in different areas, areas, jobs, carriers, life span like people that you, you know catch you throughout so many years taking that all in gives you a better perspective in every aspect and that molds you to who you are today. So, a couple of questions like growing up: what was your dream job? What did you wanna be? Because you’re ultra curious.
Tony: Yeah.
John: You are kinda an artistic, creative kind of person but what did you wanna become?
Tony: Okay. So, let me start with my first dream job was I wanted to be Indiana Jones, I wanted to be an explorer, you know someone who’s out there trying to uncover the mysteries of these long lost ancient treasures that’s what I really wanted and if I couldn’t go with the second one I would say, I would wanted to be like a James Bond spy cause it would mean at least, you know different places around the world would have you but then there was this element of wanting to get into finding a way to bridge the gap between the arts and business and I think architecture was the thing that kept coming to my mind as I was in those early formative years because I loved the power of what building stands for. The building stands like a legacy to me, they’re like when you look at a powerful and-a building that stands the test of time and you think about what it took for that person to make that happen, the person who’s the thought master behind it, the leader behind that. It’s really powerful because they had to have the vision, they had to have the ability to enroll people in their vision, and they had to be able to really think about how to execute on that and be able to create something that would last the test of time and I think about things like, you know like the Eiffel Tower, you know the Pyramids, you know the Octotroph. These are buildings that like, define cities they live in and the people behind them they probably never even understood what they were doing how much of an impact they would have overall.
John: Wow, so at such a young age you wanted to be like an icon you wanted to be the one bigger than-to creating a lasting impression that’s amazing, and then growing up like your parents were business owners and therefore did you have a strong sense of relationship with your parents because you know you work for them but it’s different versus having a parent present right? like actually handing your activities and really putting that foresight of wanting you to export in whatever interest and whatever you wanted to pursue.
Tony: It’s a great question in the sense that you know, gosh I wouldn’t be anywhere I wouldn’t be where I am right now without their love and support and the lessons that they have taught me. There were moments along the way when you think about “Oh you know I wish that I could have had more freedom to operate in the way that I wanted, you know along in my childhood I did a lot of working with my dad but there were a lot of reasons for that. He was teaching me lessons about the value of hard work, he was teaching me that, you know these things that I was doing like whether it be, you know moving stone around running electrical wiring doing all these hard labor things they were teaching me how to build that character and how to realize that these skills that I was building were gonna server me long term not just in the sense of learning how to do them but to build the character of “this is how things get done in the world” and to appreciate the people who do them and to know how to do them on your own so that when the time comes and you have a family you can support yourself and to fall back on these skills if you ever needed to. So I’m so grateful for all those lessons even though maybe at the time they were moments when I’m like “I just wanna hang out with my friends, I wanna go play sports” and instead it was more “Hey we got this stuff to do let’s do it.”
John: You know that’s good. I mean as a parent now It’s like you’re always trying to juggle that right? You’re gonna try and figure it out and everyone has their own ways of doing things and it’s ok there’s no perfect way. It’s just you make it happen so I love that. So let’s prevent your coaching and how long have you been running your kind of business? and pros and cons, and things that you would like to explain and share with us as well as maybe some challenges that you faced over the years.
Tony: Yeah, so first of all three and a half years is the long year of my business right now and this is the second business I’ve started. The first business I’ve started was the financial consultant business when I was still in Industry fuel and this time around was different because I came stepping into a role where I was doing something that I really wasn’t known for. So the first pick challenge was I don’t know how to gonna show up I don’t know who I need to be the serve the people in the deserve and so that there was a lot of internal journey that I need to take to become a person I am now and that’s why this three and a half year feels like Ten and it’s been very productive but it’s also not an easy road I think I called an emotional road posture because of the fact that I have to go to those moment plans. I challenge myself okay in my real path for you to do now to ensure that I’m doing right things actions and in my be in my right person to make these work.
John: What was that favorite moment that you like to work like to pick on that business and the journey of yours?
Tony: Yeah, so actually that was the biggest moments that challenge Me and scared to have me because I came to the point after leaving true some moments of burnout and will depression I’m burst out all of that and learn some tools long away to get better but ultimately the worst part was I was sitting bored room and in small balcony you know there was forty people in the room and as a look around I see those people like looking in there cellphones and checkout there was true leaders arguing each other about who is right who is wrong there was a classic example of toxic leadership and never realize I’m clutching a really big patient right now and I don’t want to continue a paycheck and show up and flaws there was really consummating to society about to myself and so I decided that moment I gonna do something about this so I decided to get up to the hotel and my thought was you need to change you need to lead the room I’m gonna do something hidden the world. One person at the time one leader at the time and what I wanted to do to have a more inspirational way to approaching leadership to be more peoples centric to be thinking about what am I doing today as a leader to help the people so they can actually help others outside in the nation if you are not rich people that how can you help the in society at large.
John: So did you have and any clear business mind with you laugh like you should like people work? Because there will be some you don’t need like the place you have so you don’t need to track so that you have some sure comfort when you think that there’s a new adventure of yours?
Tony: It’s such a great question because when I like people you know hey I did this thing at automatically when always prescribe that’s the best pattern of everyone and yeah I’m sure some many save that and I know that I can always full back plan you know nothing no decision that pedal I should have no disclaimer about that there’s and pedal decision you can always go back you can always find a different path and always feel. But at that moment I thought it very scary and fuel because I didn’t have a failure plan.so I just left out into in unknown because I was in this place very feeling like I needed to do something I just couldn’t accept the current situation at it was. So what I to open to people now is that if you do not make a change like this trying to do no way that is safe for you take measures rest which is a term I use when I found in states. You know, think about why you are in a great job why you have testing waiters in a way to do it at night find more information so that you can take that leave and really have a clear plan and the place so that moment you say became ready or you can say I know how to execute that plan.
John: So, cause that what you have done differently work on and a plan before you take on?
Tony: Yeah, what have done differently for me personally I think I did exactly the way to do it because it put me in a place where I had to learn a lesson that I got in comfortable was exactly but I needed no that you realize for me to learn who I needed to be. One of my favorite quotes that came to me at that point was I don’t have anything you need to feel everything I can not put you to pole little bit but it’s you know that have anything that going to feel everything you know that means is that open to a point I wasn’t really to feel the downside and the four ranger motions and because the fact that I put myself out there I was actually up to this element like I could be at the bottom up and I can do the motions and I can put myself back that place where I still execute and be the person I need to be on a daily basis.
John: So, that’s poly decks, that’s good because you know going into a new favorite moment in your life is spent on a business journey, fear, patience, inspiration and then fear like you need to do something to move you and its different people for you right? People irresponsible with any change like a clear change and stability and financial stability so for you to do that because that’s a different plier and other right? So focus in your own life so don’t think your advice but use it to prepare yourself so that you make right decision for you so the last three years so how was is that been growing your own tunnel and clear concept and serve others to running those business coaching to get a new client so that how was your journey been?
Tony: Yeah, well it’s spend nothing sure amazing what I think about the impact a measure myself on impact and I think about the lives and impact all over the years and it’s makes me so grateful like you know if I think about thing that created because I have comeback was a child I’m creative now and I’ve realize I want to put myself at the box and I love that I can put the find in the stone cause I have to I’m a business owner I do that but also can put the creative hand and say yeah like clean a piece of work and share with other people the conversation I have are the piece of arts and I’m not say to be you know considered the art because two people created together conversation that is mean to train from the work together one person at the time and that’s the beautiful to way to look at it and the past year I’ve cast to campfire but its recorded the hundred thirty beautiful conversation with people about there’s story you know what is practicing into this world you know how they are doing in this amazing things in the world and honest to be part of that that was my first book all the climbing mount and again you know allowed myself just being in perfect with just let it be so it’s spend and amazing journey and if I can continue to think about the where I’m coming from and not worrying about what I need to go to I think that’s the most important part of how I look at the world gap thinking, gain thinking vs. gap thinking which is important way to prime the world.
John: Oh, that’s good to know because a lot of people who is chasing for more right? They have all these goals and they have asked for creations but your can not leaving it what was missing and you wanna it to feel them what you were listening to so many years you know your dream job right? You can not leave it now and it so awarding when you making an impact make imagine cause that’s bigger and anything you can do right? when you able to give and touch others and not expecting in return but it just doing a designed that your heart, right? And that’s why life is about right? The more you can touch others the more people you can touch the more people you can influence and impact and that’s the most important awarding thing people can ask for and any mistakes that you like to share or like any challenges or things that you’ve done differently and for all the entrepreneurs listening on this upsells?
Tony: Yeah, I mean it’s more I say it’s right there’s no fast to get where you wanna go but its an exception of listening to other people stories and hearing how they never get their path is helpful but keep in mind it’s your journey you have to decide on how you wanna go back. So that I think that’s the new answer looking for some way to get restricted to keep steps there’s no way to do that however do you lean from other people do you learn how they dumb things in along the way.
John: That’s amazing because I always talk to people the same like personalized, customized base on your exceptive your skills, your perspective live right? Because you can not make exactly how other people’s have done and that became sarcastic in your life stories your real life but also watching and listening all that are great like some nuggets that you can use for your personal life right? I will take it and go with it you need to turn your own and people use it and you know everything is different so make your own upon and give after a long way right? So where do you see yourself In my next part ten years of business? How was the business going like what really makes you wake up and feeling excited?
Tony: So, first of all what makes me answer the last question comeback was makes me wake up in a day even in excited is I was think about one conversation I looking for today and that’s the thing that’s makes me going in a day and say what am I most excited about wanna my most inspired by today and that’s something attention I say for myself and I don’t have something like that in week head in my day head that I breathe like a plan a week because I wanna be proud of the things that I’m doing and if I’m not saying something I can not be proud of and eventually think what I’m doing cause I control about right? And when I’m thinking about five or ten years from now I think five because ten is so far out there and I think will ten years a proud of being like you know out of plan probably populated to know-how but in five years I can see myself doing more work with people for around the world doing retreats helping people to step outside to comfort zones and really making sure the people see there’s more to life that the more currently leaving into I have this mission of you know having burned out few things in the past and so that’s what I’m doing after is getting people to realize that we don’t have left in this triad no of constantly running running running so we can start to be more of all really want to be by sending intention of what we wanna do every day.
John: That’s amazing, so the last have questions on to drive into so what makes you different like what drives you to become so passionate in this kind of mission of impact and transformation burn out to discovery of being creative have what is the main drive for you?
Tony: Yeah, well I feel like there’s so many years for me of holding myself back from being grateful I could be and so, the main driver for me is to people get to experience what it feels like to be fully themselves and to not hold themselves back and fear of breaking people out because we only to be full yourselves in fact means there’s some part might scared people of then so be it then selected tries me that’s there annulment of I want people to reveal themselves fully and I keep on taking about us there’s reason about in the museum I want to see a piece of work inside in the activity museum and it’s by the mega box the light inside when the light on the mega box becomes illuminated the whole room lights up and I think about at people if we hide our light then no one gonna sees it but you need to bring that light and share and so I think that’s one thing that we need more on this world people light up and sharing inside of them even if they feel it ugly to be brave and to share that.
John: And that’s a very doubting task because a lot of people there that are very afraid even share with their loved ones, colleagues, friends, family members right? It’s very difficult so that takes a lot more ability it just take some different space so I love where are you going this but I know it’s also in challenge for you as well.
Tony: Yeah, not everyone is gonna get it that’s the hard part of us but that’s okay. That’s okay not everyone is mean to get it.
John: Yeah, it’s great that you own this mission so I love someone that’s passionate about doing something they love and feel doesn’t wear life has but to for your journey right? your back so can you share with the other members how they can reach out to you and also any last thing comment that you can share?
Tony: Thank you so first of all the best place to find me is my website inspired purpose coach.com and on the website, you can take the leadership assessment which is a great tour for people to feel like you know where me in my journey and it’s gonna a full check and the other thing you can checkout is my new book which is climbing a right mountain in Babylon amazon is a great thing to pick up I love to hear thoughts on it and in terms of some parting words, I would say that one thing that people should be taken about is one of my proud of today in how can I designed my life so that I’m proud of everything that I did each in every day.
John: It’s great because that’s the parting word is not about three five-ten years like do it today stop waiting right? Take actions to do something that makes you happy something that you can look forward to and feel good about it so, be proud it’s amazing I mean I love this conversation, Tony. I really appreciate your time and great wisdom and sharing with the audience members about how you became the coach you are today. So pick up the pock listeners, listen to his podcast, check out his website, all the show notes will be there with the links and thanks again, Tony for being on our episode today.
Tony: Thank you so much this is been a real pleasure.
John: Thank you.
