Carrying the Torch: The Power of Giftology with Sara Hardwick
The Jon Gordon Podcast
Jon Gordon
4.8 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 25 August 2025
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of The Jon Gordon Podcast, I sit down with Sara Hardwick from Giftology to dive deep into the legacy of our great friend and Giftology founder, John Ruhlin. Sara opens up about how the Giftology team has carried on John’s mission of generosity, relationship-building, and faith following his unexpected passing.
We explore the powerful “return on relationships” philosophy that made John’s approach to gifting and human connection so unique, how intentional generosity can transform your business and personal life, and what it looks like to truly honor someone’s legacy. Sara shares behind-the-scenes stories, how Giftology helps leaders and entrepreneurs grow through strategic gift-giving, and practical ways you can bring more heart and impact to your work.
About Sara,
Sara Hardwick is a dynamic force in the realm of relationship strategy and business development, serving as the Community Relationship Strategist at GIFT∙OLOGY. With a passion for nurturing meaningful connections, Sara leads the R.I.C.H. Relationship Society, an educational membership designed to revolutionize referral-based business practices. Her journey into this role began while still in college at The University of North Carolina when she built the internet's largest gifting community where she put into practice her innate ability to blend savvy communication with operationalized gift-giving. This early success laid the foundation for Sara's trajectory, focusing on unlocking loyalty in clients, employees, and referral partnerships through the power of generosity and strategic relationship-building.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the John Gordon podcast, where we share John's interviews with guests, as well as key strategies and lessons from his keynotes, coaching, and more. |
| 0:09.3 | We want to encourage you to check out Johngordoncertified.com if you're interested in growing as a leader, coach, speaker, or trainer. |
| 0:15.6 | When you get certified, you'll be able to teach, coach, and train others on John's most impactful mindset, leadership, |
| 0:21.1 | and teamwork principles. For more information, visit john gordoncertified.com. That's J-O-N-Gordon |
| 0:26.9 | certified. Now let's jump into today's episode. |
| 0:31.7 | Hey, this is John Gordon with the John Gordon podcast. And today my guest is Sarah Hardwick. Sarah, |
| 0:37.0 | how you doing? |
| 0:42.4 | I'm so good. Thank you so much for having me on today, John. It's great to have you on. |
| 0:50.6 | So you have worked with Giftology for a long time. We have a mutual friend who passed away and John Ruin. He wasn't just a friend, he was obviously a business associate |
| 0:55.1 | with you, an amazing human being. He passed on. Talk about what that's been like since his |
| 1:02.7 | loss because this company that he started is still going on. It still happened. So often when |
| 1:08.7 | a founder passes away, especially an author, especially |
| 1:12.6 | someone was out there as much as he was, the business doesn't continue, but you all have decided |
| 1:18.3 | to carry on, continue running this company in his memory and his honor and also in the way |
| 1:24.5 | he did things. The guy was so generous, so giving. One of our, one of our last |
| 1:31.7 | conversations was he wanted to send a gift to a friend of mine and literally wanted to help |
| 1:38.8 | pay for it and to impact this friend. My friend has a place in Italy. We stayed there and he said, |
| 1:44.8 | you should send them a gift. And we sent him a set of knives that were engraved. And it was the |
| 1:50.2 | greatest gift. Our friends loved it. They loved the gift. And John helped make that happen. I'll |
| 1:56.8 | never forget that he made that connection happen. And that's what giftology was all about. |
| 2:02.1 | It was that heart and that gift giving. |
| 2:04.8 | And now he's gone. |
... |
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