Welcome back to the Art of Charm, I am AJ and I'm Johnny and this week's a fun episode. We are digging into Johnny's backstory.

We've received a number of emails from the listeners wanting to know a little bit more about the new host of the show.

So today I put Johnny on the stand and I grill him and hopefully he won't plead the fifth.

I certainly didn't and next week I'll be putting you on the stand.

I'm looking forward to it. If you're enjoying the new show and these toolbox episodes drop a line in iTunes or your favorite podcast app leaving us the testimonial.

We'd really appreciate it. With that we will kick off 698. Johnny's life. Let's do it.

One of the common threads between the two of us Johnny and I is that blue collar background coming from the respalt.

Having this got to work hard to survive mindset given to us by our dads and I know over the years we've laughed a lot about that backstory and how it truly has connected us in such a deep way.

And we call this the question we get this a lot when we take meetings we're pitching the company we're trying to work on some strategic partnerships and the pitch goes well.

Everyone's about to get up and they turn and look at us and Johnny and I know right away.

We know it's coming and it's going to happen. We even bet when it's going to pop up and without fail they go great story guys.

I love what I'm hearing the art of charm sounds fantastic. One thing I just can't figure out. You too.

I don't get it. I don't know how to speak. How are you guys friends and we do have pretty distinct backgrounds and today we're going to highlight your background.

Johnny and we're going to talk about how we met and even when we met the first time it wasn't that instant connection it took a number of years actually for us to get close and working at the art of charm and we've had a diverse team over the last 11 years we've gone through expansion contraction and expansion multiple times like any business does in the very beginning of the business you and I didn't have that much interaction because there was so much staff so much to manage and it took a number of years before we started really click.

I want to dive first into your Pittsburgh background and for those listeners who recognize your Pittsburgh ease well I left from central Pennsylvania there it's been diluted over the years I mean I am now close to 20 years removed from that area and I spent a lot of time in North Carolina to which we'll get into but it's been diluted some people actually wait to see if it comes out when I'm drunk but it doesn't either I couldn't even do it now if I tried.

But it is everyone from that area knows it's a very distinct thing and if you catch me on you call me out I can't wait for the listeners to hammer you on that so growing up in the Pittsburgh area give us a little background on your family life and essentially what your first job was that's what I'm always fascinated by.

You know I was born about 40 miles southeast of Pittsburgh which was a place called Greensburg which growing up at that time in the late 70s early 80s is when the industry of that area started to leave the major industry in Pittsburgh was drying up and even the small factories where I had grown up we're closing up as well so it because it was one of the Pittsburgh surrounding areas there was a it was very centered on this lunch pale mentality that we had talked about in the

the mental models toolbox I certainly grew up in a house where dad was there wasn't there you know from that shift that morning shift until 4 or 5 pm for myself growing up when him working in that way at that factory at PPG Pittsburgh Playglass I think people just get hard when they're helping their family survive and working so much and I'm sure you can relate that to just seem like my dad was always pissed off about something.

Yeah the rust belt scowl so to speak where you didn't want to get on his bad side especially before he ate his dinner when I look back upon it I see him as a little bit cold in the fact that he just wanted to push forward and go to work and get it through another day kind of guy for myself growing up there it wasn't a very expressive household in the in the way that I would be able to say what I was feeling or thinking if I was to complain about something or express

myself in a certain way a lot of the times my dad would say things like well if you want to talk like that talk like that run your mother I just spent 10 hours in a glass factory bending glass for automobiles I don't want to hear it my mom through my growing up was a hairdresser which is definitely I guess rubbed off on me because I never had a normal cut ever really I had no idea your hair looks very normal to me I don't know what all the hubbub is about I was kind of like her test subject as I was growing up like

if it was a new style you better believe that my sister and I were rocking it for the sake of giving my mom some practice at it body waves, palms feathered and we're talking about 70s 80s all of that crazy stuff but growing up there I realized an early age that my town was kind of busted up it was boarded up and I would always have to hear if we would go in the town and I would ask my mom what is this row of boarded up windows oh well that used to be

coffins or sears and well where is it well there was a mall put on one side of it for that suburb and there was a

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