How to Lead with Grit, Passion, and Lifelong Learning with John Hewitt

Feeling overwhelmed by leadership demands and struggling to make a meaningful impact? In today’s episode, we explore insights from John Hewitt, a trailblazer in the tax industry. As co-founder of Jackson Hewitt, founder of Liberty Tax Service, and CEO of ATAX, John has transformed the industry with over 10,000 offices across the US and Canada. His innovative work in tax software and office development set industry benchmarks. Recognized as Entrepreneur of the Year by the International Franchise Association, John has guided over 5,000 franchisees and authored iCompete: How My Extraordinary Strategy for Winning Can Be Yours.

John shares how relentless grit and passion have shaped his success, emphasizing the importance of continuous learning and feedback in leadership. If you seek practical advice on leading with resilience and making a lasting impact, this episode is a must-listen. Tune in to discover transformative strategies that could redefine your approach to leadership.

To connect with John Hewitt and gain further insights, visit LoyaltyBrands.com. 

Books Mentioned

• Made in America by Sam Walton
• How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
• The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker 
• iCompete: How My Extraordinary Strategy for Winning Can Be Yours by John Hewitt

Ready to Finish 2024 Strong?
Don’t wait until December to address your challenges. There's a few months left in 2024, now is the time to plan for a strong finish! Book a free strategy call with Dr. William Attaway to create a plan for impactful results. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to John Hewitt
• 3:04 The Power of Perseverance
• 5:57 Grit and Resilience: Overcoming Obstacles
• 11:39 Listening and Learning: Driving Innovation
• 15:09 Empowering Others: Improving Lives
• 21:11 The Joy of the Journey: Finding Purpose
• 27:31 Continuous Learning: The Key to Leadership Success

Transcript

Dr. William Attaway: 0:00

I am honored today to have John Hewitt on the podcast. John has been a serial entrepreneur for the last 55 years. He is the co-founder of Jackson Hewitt, the sole founder of Liberty Tax Service and now the CEO of ATAX. Together, these companies account for more than 10,000 tax preparation offices in the US and Canada. In addition, john was a pioneer in the development and use of specialized tax preparation offices in the US and Canada. In addition, john was a pioneer in the development and use of specialized tax preparation software, which is now the industry standard practice. He was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year by the International Franchise Association and has helped over 5,000 people become franchisees. He's also the author of I Compete how my Extraordinary Strategy for Winning Can Be Yours, john. I'm so glad you're here today. Thanks for being on the show.

John Hewitt: 0:53

My pleasure Thank you.

Intro / Outro: 0:56

Welcome to Catalytic Leadership, the podcast designed to help leaders intentionally grow and thrive. Here is your host author and leadership and executive coach, dr William Attaway.

Dr. William Attaway: 1:14

I would love to start with you sharing a little bit of your story with our listeners, particularly around your journey and your development as a leader. How did this whole thing get started?

John Hewitt: 1:24

I was a student at the University of Buffalo and my degree was in mathematics and I had no clue what I wanted to be. I don't even know what a mathematician would do, but I was good at math, so I picked that as a degree and my dad tried to buy a franchise from H&R Block.

John Hewitt: 1:45

He was an accountant and they were growing exponentially and we lived in a suburb of Buffalo called Hamburg and there was no H&R Block there. So he called up and tried to buy a franchise that I would run for him while I was a student. And they said well, as a matter of fact, we're going to open a company store there. Why don't you have your son take our tax course? Maybe you could work for us? I took the tax course, I worked for them, loved it, and I was blessed at 20 years old to find out what I wanted to be when I grew up. You know most people I interview over the years and for jobs and or franchises, I ask them what they want to be when they grow up and most people don't know at any age, and I was blessed at a very young age. So I started working at H&R Block and 12 years later I was running 250 H&R Block locations.

Dr. William Attaway: 2:40

Wow, that's remarkable. So that, I would imagine, required you to really accelerate your learning about what it means to be a leader.

John Hewitt: 2:52

Absolutely. There's no school in this country for CEOs or leadership. There's only the school of hard knocks. You know, they say, the people who have been most successful have made the most mistakes. So yeah, I learned at the school of hard knocks.

Dr. William Attaway: 3:13

Yeah, it's easy for somebody to look at your journey and say, oh wow, he knew what he wanted to do. That young, 55 years, nothing but just up and to the right, like he's had nothing but success from the outside. Looking at your highlight reel, has that been true?

John Hewitt: 3:30

Again. Not only do people that are the most successful make the same mistakes, they overcome the most obstacles. I've never seen anyone on the planet, no matter how apparently fortunate, to skate through without adversity. It's winning and succeeding is just never giving up. The most important attribute in winning and succeeding is perseverance. Everyone gets knocked down. Everyone has their anchors to bear and their barriers to overcome. Winners just get up there each and every time and keep going.

Dr. William Attaway: 4:09

Where did you learn to do that? What was it in those formative years that gave you that drive and that grit of resilience?

John Hewitt: 4:19

You know I don't. First of all, I always remember heaven. And you know one of the differences between me and most people I didn't realize until about 20 years ago and I was heard at Kathy Lee Gifford on a talk show and she had written a book and she said one of her chapters was called Age of Bliss. And what she said in that chapter is that, and in the interview she says up until the time you're six, seven or eight, you think you can do anything. You can be Batman, you can be Superman, you can be President of the United States, you can be a pilot, you could whatever. You think you're an astronaut, you can be anything. And then everyone around you holds you back, even your teachers and your parents, your friends, let alone your enemies. You can't do that. You can never do that.

John Hewitt: 5:16

So she says we get early in life, we get knocked out of our sense of bliss. And I realized at that point how fortunate I was and blessed. They never knocked it out of our sense of bliss. And I realized at that point how fortunate I was and blessed. They never knocked it out of me. I was always too ornery and too stubborn and too cocky and too confident. They never knocked me out of the age of bliss. I have skated in that my entire life.

Dr. William Attaway: 5:42

Wow, that's a gift. Exactly I have you know ornery and stubborn. I call that grit and resilient those are fire.

Dr. William Attaway: 5:54

Nicer way to say you know, it's interesting, though, in talking with so many entrepreneurs those are the non negotiables, those are the things that that you, that keep you. Those are the non-negotiables. Those are the things that keep you going. Those are the things that, when you face the obstacles and the adversity because we all do, no matter what you see in somebody's highlight reel, we all face the obstacles those are the things that you're like no, no, I'm not. Why would I quit? No, no, I will succeed. And that's what I hear in so much of your story.

John Hewitt: 6:28

Yeah, I saw. I'm not a fan of Dennis Rodman and many of your listeners may not be old enough to remember him, but he was a great basketball player. But he was. He fought with everyone, even his own teammates. He fought with referees. He fought with his the opponents, even his own teammates. He fought with referees. He fought with the opponents his own teammates. And I saw him being interviewed about Michael Jordan. He played on, I think, two years of Michael Jordan's victories in the NBA finals, two of his rings and the interviewer said how did you get along with Michael Jordan? No one liked you and he said because Michael and I we didn't talk or talk about it, but we have the same philosophy Once we cross over the line and get on that court, we would rather die than lose. We give 200%. Everyone else might be given 99% or 100%, but we're given 200%. Well, we would rather die than lose, and so we respected each other. For that, I would rather. I mean they got to kill me, to stop me.

Dr. William Attaway: 7:35

That is the grit, that is the resilience, Particularly as a pioneer and with what you have done in your journey so far being a pioneer in tax preparation software I would imagine you faced a lot of pushback on that as you began to pioneer that particular development. Would that?

John Hewitt: 7:56

be, accurate in a couple of ways. Number one is when we finished it in 1981, there weren't even a million PCs in the country and people didn't understand computers. So one was that we couldn't sell it. I mean H&R Block in their naivety. They had an annual report in 1983. People ask us why we don't computerize. We say we tried it, customers don't care, it doesn't save us any money, we're never going to computerize. I mean that's what we were facing. And the one was in the world and the industry and no one wanted it. We couldn't sell it. And so what do we do with it? Well, fortunately we bought Mel Jackson Tax Service and changed to Jackson Hewitt, which we became a billion-dollar company. So I founded a billion-dollar company with that software because no one else would want it.

John Hewitt: 8:57

And then when we started, taxpayers typically are 40 years old or average and they were afraid of a computer. But what happens if I? I mean it was almost like if they pressed the wrong key it would explode. I mean the computer, like would just blow up. I mean you're not an older member of a world where back in the 60s, when they first invented microwaves, most people were afraid of microwaves, that it was unsafe and those radioactive rays were going to give you cancer, and I mean, it's a different world back then. And so we face the ignorance or the uneducated people that just thought it was horrible, or thought it was horrible. I thought it was like the devil.

Dr. William Attaway: 11:15

It's so true when I think about populations that like change, or populations of people that are even amenable to and open to change mountains and accounting is not one of the fields that I think where people long for change and are eager to jump in on the latest and greatest. Would that be an accurate assessment.

John Hewitt: 11:38

Well, it's interesting to me that you say you, when you think of people that like change, I think of people that like change as no one I mean. So so the conversation, when I think of group of people that like change. I've fought the whole of society and the whole of the business world my entire career, because I've never had a human being say to me that I don't want to improve. And I have a fanatical commitment to improve. But to improve you need to change and you know, at one point, at Liberty Tax, when I was early, the mission statement was set the standard have fun, improve each day. And one year I had an epiphany and I said well, let me ask my executive team at their yearly review how did you improve? And it was like I read two books or I mean, not one of them changed.

John Hewitt: 12:42

And so I realized the epiphany was, I realized everyone says they want to improve. Just don't ask me to change. Just don't ask me to change. And it's not changing. It's the pain of change, the pain of change that people resist. Unlike you, I've never I mean I've never seen a group of people that embrace change. See, everyone around me hates change. Don't ask me to change. Don't ask me to change, even though they say I want to improve, I want to get better, I want to do this, I want to do that, just as long as I don't have to change.

Dr. William Attaway: 13:24

So I think accounts are typical of everyone.

John Hewitt: 13:27

The vast majority of people I've ever met don't want to change.

Dr. William Attaway: 13:33

I think I can certainly understand that and I think you're right. And the truth is, like you've said, growth only happens on the other side of change. Exactly, you know, everybody wants to grow, hopefully.

John Hewitt: 13:46

I heard when I was doing a podcast or on Facebook something the other day I heard someone say discomfort If you're going to do major things on Facebook something. The other day I heard someone say discomfort. If you're going to do major things, you have to understand is you're going to be uncomfortable. You have to be prepared for discomfort hmm, hmm.

Dr. William Attaway: 14:10

So many of the people listening are entrepreneurs and they're familiar with discomfort because the entrepreneurial journey is not the easy path, right, this is one where there are obstacles. There are going to be challenges. You have not only been a serial entrepreneur your whole life, but you have empowered and encouraged and equipped other people in their entrepreneurial journey. I mentioned that you helped over 5,000 people become franchisees. How have you been able to pour from your experience into other people to help them in their entrepreneurial journey?

John Hewitt: 14:45

Yeah, when I think of it, 5,000 is such a huge number of people, because, not, I mean, half of them have partnerships, so it's more than one group, and most of the others have a spouse. So partnerships, uh, they've had. I've helped over 8 000 families and they had over 100 000 of employees. So it's been a challenge. The Part of my obsession, or passion, is that I have to have the best system. That's my responsibility as a franchisor. I have to have the pulse of the future. I have to give you best practices. I have to observe and find best practices for you, or I'm doing you a disservice. So in doing that, I realized long ago that there is no system that's working today that's going to work five years from now. You have to improve. To have the best system, it has to be an improving system, and so my fanatical commitment has been to improve the system. And in doing that I learned long ago that the best way to improve is listen to your team. You know we have. I've prepared, my companies have prepared 100 million tax returns and I've prepared like one a year, my own right, so for the last 30 years. So they see customers, I see the big picture, they see customers. So I have to listen to my employees, my franchisees, and they tell me. Every year we sit down with them and say tell us how to improve. And they tell us what their customers need and what's happening in the marketplace. And I'm happy to say that every year we implement more than 50% of the suggestions that come in from the field.

John Hewitt: 16:44

The easiest way to improve is to embrace criticism. Most people hate, hate, hate, criticism, even my staff. I say that it's so hard. I mean, if everyone says, yeah, john, you're the greatest thing since sliced bread, I agree, john, I agree. Then if both of us agree, one of us is useless and I pick you. You need people that argue with you. You need people that criticize you. It's so much easier to improve if you have criticism.

Dr. William Attaway: 17:16

Is that something that you came to naturally, this teachable spirit that you have, listening to other people, because I find listening to be a superpower that leaders can develop over time. But a lot of people struggle with hearing feedback, with hearing this type of input from other people. Was this natural for you?

John Hewitt: 17:36

I think it's natural because I'm an introvert and even though I do presentations like this and I appear to be extroverted, I only do it to win, right, if it wasn't part of winning. When I go to a party, right? And I'm not a good mingler, I don't like chit-chat, I'm a good people watcher. I love to sit in the corner and watch people and observe. You know, one time I got into an argument in college because they it was funny, because you asked that because the professor said what's the definition of genius? And I usually didn't talk up in college, but this time I had to because in different students that were defining it different ways and one of the things they said is they have to be, they have to give back, they have to.

John Hewitt: 18:37

Genius has to be talkative and convincing or share. And I said I raised my hand and said no, you don't Genius, why is that required of genius? That's a different word. That is not genius. That may be caring or considerate I mean, there's other words but genius does not require you to share, in my opinion. And so, no, I learned listening because I'm an introvert. I'm so much smarter if I ask two or three or four people and then come up with a consortium, an answer that has not only what I think but others involved. If you and I you're a smart guy, if you and I have an argument, I believe that neither one of us is 100% right. On business, that's right. Right, I mean, I might be 98% right, you might be 99% right, but the answer is somewhere in between, and so I'm always listening to try to get, to try to improve and get better.

Dr. William Attaway: 19:44

That. That is what I call a teachable spirit, john, and that is one thing that I challenge people because I believe that is one of the things that makes a leader catalytic. I believe that's one of the things that moves you from mediocrity into excellence that willingness to understand that you don't know everything I don't know everything and to listen for what you can learn, because you can learn from anybody in your story, and I just I commend that and I really hope our listeners are leaning in that direction, that they're taking that example and saying man, I want to be more like John in this. I want to listen for what I can learn.

John Hewitt: 20:22

I have a great example of that, of how I learned from one of the worst franchises I ever had. So 20 years ago I get this lengthy email complaining and what had happened? This franchisee out in Los Angeles had a television station called him on April 15th and said we'd like to come out and do a story. So he was wow, what do I do? What do I do? So he called in the corporate headquarters and all of the marketing department was up and not no one can answer his call. So I got a scathing, scathing email from him about how we left them out to dry and we should.

John Hewitt: 21:04

And and I went to the marketing uh, this my chief marketing officer. And she first said well, we're all out in the field. It was April 15th. And I said well, how many of television stations in this country, radio stations and newspapers are going to make a phone call during the season and do a story on tax? She said everyone.

John Hewitt: 21:28

And I said do we have anything in the operating manual on what to do when the press calls? And then do we teach it in training at our basic training, intermediate training? Do we teach in training any module on how to handle the press when they call. And she said no, no, and she said this is the worst franchise that ever lived. I said but we can learn from this. And so from now on we're going to have a section in the operating communion, you know, section, the operating manual. It says what to do when the press call and we're going to do a half hour presentation at every training and here's how to handle the press. And so we improved the system from the worst franchisee that in her. In her she was offended by the criticism. She said this is the worst franchise that ever lived. But you can learn from anyone. You can learn from anyone in any situation. And Sam Walton said that in his book Made in America you just don't learn from your competitors, you learn from every experience in your life.

Dr. William Attaway: 22:38

It's so true because there is no such thing as a wasted experience. Every experience in your life and my life is something that can be used either for our benefit or for the benefit of those around us, if we are willing to share it and be open-handed with what we've learned, and that's what I'm hearing from your story, John, the book that you wrote I Compete how my Extraordinary Strategy for Winning Can Be Yours is another example of that open-handedness, right Of saying, hey, this is some things I've learned that can benefit you. Who did you write this book for?

John Hewitt: 23:13

You know, our mission statement is very simple. I love, love, love. Our mission statement. It's having fun, improving lives. And when I mean having fun, to me it's thank God it's Monday. If on Monday morning you're not looking forward to going to work, you're going to the wrong place. Life's way way too short, right? So if you live thank God it's Friday, then you're working the wrong place To me. I never had a job, right. I'm always having fun. So having fun is and then improving lives.

John Hewitt: 23:45

You know, when I was a kid and I was in high school, somehow I was poor. I knew I was going to get rich. I knew I was going to be successful. I thought I would just make a few million and retire. I mean, I'm 16, 17. I'm lazy, I'd be happy to just make a few million and retire.

John Hewitt: 24:03

And you know what I learned? That the journey is the joy, and there's nothing more satisfying in life than improving others' lives and making the world a better place. So when we say improving lives, we mean our investors, our franchisees, our employees, our vendors, our customers and the world around us. We have to give back. I've never found anything as rewarding as improving others' lives, and I've created a thousand millionaires and changed tens of thousands of people's lives for the positive. That is just so. That's what keeps me going. Most people my age are retired I'll be 75 this month and most people are on a beach somewhere. To me, it's such a waste I'm at the peak of my. To me, it's such a waste I'm at the peak of my experience and knowledge and ability to help and mentor and change lives to go sit on a beach somewhere.

Dr. William Attaway: 25:11

God didn't bless me with all the blessings I've received, just to go sit in a corner somewhere and mellow, wallow away. I love that perspective and, again, demonstrating that open-handedness, you know and say, hey, how can I help others? A thousand people became millionaires because of your investment in them. That alone, what an incredible way to pour what you've learned out into the lives of other people to benefit them, not just their family now, but their families for generations.

John Hewitt: 25:38

Exactly. That's a great point, because when you create a millionaire, it typically affects them for generations after that, their children and their grandchildren, and some forever.

Dr. William Attaway: 25:50

You have to be a continual learner. To be where you are, you have to be always learning, always growing, and we talked about this. How do you stay on top of your game, john? How do you level up with the new leadership skills, the executive skills that you're going to need to lead at the levels that you're growing to, because a year from now, five years from now, your company is going to need you to lead at a different level. You've got to be continually growing. How?

John Hewitt: 26:19

Yeah, that's exactly right. When you start a business like we started Jackson Hewitt with my ex-wife and myself and then it grew to 500 employees and a billion dollar company, I mean most CEOs, most executives can't make that transition. 99% can't make that transition. But it starts with being a lifetime student and understanding that the John Hewitt that was there in 1982 needs to be a different guy every step of the way. When you have a company doing $300,000 of revenue and then $3 million, $30 million, $100 million, $500 million, $1 billion million, 30 million, 100 million, 500 million billion dollars, if you don't grow, then you're not going to make that and most people can't. Most people fall out along the way. That's like venture capital 101, change out the CEO. I mean even one of the best CEOs, leaders of all time, steve Jobs. Even he got fired from his company, I mean, and because the board thought that he had met his limit and he went on and did far more, proved them wrong. But most people just can't make it. So it's a commitment to improvement and part of that is reading and reading from other experts, and there isn't any book that I've ever read in management or business. I took more than a few nuggets out of it and I just take like.

John Hewitt: 27:53

There's one author, his name is Stan Phelps, and I got one nugget right and it was just so powerful. It changed the way that I view customer service and it was. He said that you never arrive at a meeting exactly on time. You're either. If the meeting is six o'clock, you're either 5.54 or 5.52 or 6.04. Almost no one arrives exactly on time. And he said in the same manner you don't often meet someone, a customer's expectations. You either exceed it or fail to meet it. So when I read that, it was an aha moment for me. And while other people judge their own customer service on different scale, my scale is the percentage of people we exceed customers' expectations.

John Hewitt: 28:46

And I got that one nugget from. He wrote five or six books at least and I liked him so much I had him in as a keynote speaker, but I didn't take dozens of lessons. I got that one nugget and I got the one nugget that I referred to earlier from Sam Walton nugget. And I got the one nugget that I referred to earlier from Sam Walton, made in America. Right, I got two from him. One is the you learn from every customer experience, not just your competitor, but also said in the forward. He said people ask me why I've been so successful, and he said the only reason I can think of is I'm just so driven, and that's how I am.

Dr. William Attaway: 29:28

I'm driven, I'm driven to be number one and that's why the name of my book is I Compete. That's so good. You've mentioned several books already, and the answer to this next question may be one of the ones you've mentioned. But if you were to recommend one book for the entrepreneurs and the leaders who are listening to this podcast episode, one book that has made a big difference that you say, hey, if you haven't read this, this is one I would recommend to you? Do you have a book like that?

John Hewitt: 29:53

Well, I have two authors, and just two authors that I agree with everything they write, and one is Dale Carnegie and the other is Peter Drucker. And so if you read Dale Carnegie's first book, there's only two authors that I agree with 100% of whatever I've seen them write, but I would say Dale Carnegie's more all-encompassing.

Dr. William Attaway: 30:19

That's so good, john. Often people walk away from an episode like this with one big idea, one big takeaway. If you could define what you want people to walk away from this conversation with, what would that one big takeaway be?

John Hewitt: 30:37

find something you love to do, work hard, persevere. Find something you love, work hard, perseverevere. Find something you love. Work hard, persevere. Nothing comes easy. That's worthwhile, and perseverance is the number one attribute of success.

Dr. William Attaway: 30:52

John, this has been such an amazing conversation and an honor to have you on the show. I appreciate your generosity today and sharing so freely from your journey and what you've learned so far, and sharing so freely from your journey and what you've learned so far and I believe you are going to learn even more and share even more in the days to come. If people want to stay connected to you and I know they will and continue to learn from you, what is the best way for them to do that?

John Hewitt: 31:25

They can go to me on loyaltybrandscom and I do a mentoring show every week where I mentor entrepreneurs on how to improve their business. The link to that's on our website at loyaltybrandscom.

Dr. William Attaway: 31:33

And we will have that link in the show notes. I love that. I think that's an amazing opportunity for people to take a next step and prioritize growth. John, thank you.

John Hewitt: 31:46

My pleasure, thank you.

Dr. William Attaway: 31:50

Thanks for joining me for this episode today. As we wrap up, I'd love for you to do two things. First, subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an episode, and if you find value here, I'd love it if you would rate it and review it. That really does make a difference in helping other people to discover this podcast. Second, if you don't have a copy of my newest book, catalytic Leadership, I'd love to put a copy in your hands. If you go to catalyticleadershipbookcom, you can get a copy for free. Just pay the shipping so I can get it to you and we'll get one right out.

Dr. William Attaway: 32:26

My goal is to put this into the hands of as many leaders as possible. This book captures principles that I've learned in 20 plus years of coaching leaders in the entrepreneurial space, in business, government, nonprofits, education and the local church, business, government, nonprofits, education and the local church. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn to keep up with what I'm currently learning and thinking about. And if you're ready to take a next step with a coach to help you intentionally grow and thrive as a leader, I'd be honored to help you. Just go to catalyticleadershipnet to book a call with me. Stay tuned for our next episode next week. Until then, as always, leaders choose to be catalytic.

Intro / Outro: 33:10

Thanks for listening to Catalytic Leadership with Dr William Attaway. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss the next episode. Want more? Go to catalyticleadershipnet.