Today we’d like to introduce you to Jon Antonucci
Hi Jon, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I got my entrepreneurial start growing up in the foothills of Colorado, where I provided lawn care and lemonade stands for my neighbors, starting at only seven years old. At age 11, I had multiple business pursuits and began karate classes at the local Boys and Girls Club. By age 12 I made use of my “firstborn” natural leader tendencies, teaching my first class.
When my family moved to Arizona, I got my first W2 job, quickly becoming the go-to person at the local Safeway. At age 17, I was given my own martial arts class to teach and by the time I was 19, I was leading 15 classes totaling over 500 students.
Unfortunately, this bright star was not mature enough for my early success. Before I turned 20, I made the stupidest decision of my life, choosing to accompany 3 of my friends in the arson of a building in South Phoenix, AZ, which left my best friend dead and sent me to prison!
Thankfully, I was able to redeem the terrible situation by first addressing my own character flaws and second by using every day productively: participating in every rehabilitation class offered, completing multiple certificates and degrees, and actually rooting myself in the faith that I had previously pretended to hold. Because of my transformation, I was given many opportunities to empower others in their success.
By the time I was released, I had been instrumental in the development of the Inmate Peer Program—creating and facilitating rehabilitation classes, and other opportunities that provided tools for success to those who wanted to leave a life of crime and return to society as productive, contributing members.
After release, I refused to allow the label to “felon” to get in the way of me working to help people. I have enjoyed the privilege of being the Training Manager and subsequently, the Director of Revenue for an international specialty logistics company, consulting for multi-million-dollar businesses, being a keynote speaker, sharing my story of hope in a variety of settings, and serving in my church.
I am now pursuing my passion for empowering leaders through a company I began in 2023. SML Consultive provides leadership coaching, training, and workshops for organizations that value servant-minded leadership that is rooted in love.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Depending on how one looks at it, my road has been both incredibly smooth and also as bumpy as can be!
Certainly, a 14-year prison sentence is no picnic. Yet, even in that situation, I was able to experience such wonderful personal growth and got to be a part of such transformative work in the lives of others.
Was it easy? NO!
Was it valuable, absolutely!
Going back further, we grew up quite poor. I am the oldest of 5 children in a single-income household. We did not have things other kids had, but that taught us incredible work ethic. I attribute the massive success that all of my siblings and I have experienced to the wonderful example of work ethic provided to us by our father.
From some perspectives, I have certainly lived a charmed life…but only in the sense of how hard I worked for it!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about SML Consultive?
When I say “Leadership Development” there’s an image that immediately comes to your mind.
It probably involves the executive team of an organization and provides them with coaching and consulting. That is NOT what we do.
We like to say that we serve the “Forgotten Leaders.” These are the front-line leaders, who bear a tremendous weight of responsibility for their teams and the overall success of the organization and are often provided with no tools to succeed in their position.
We exist to serve these leaders! The department managers, the shift supervisors, and the team-leads. The leaders who have teams they interact with every day. The leaders who are the drivers of culture. We serve them.
How do we serve them?
We provide dynamic and engaging leadership tools that empower effective engagement with internal clients (staff), fostering a culture of collaboration and impact that facilitates increased employee retention and customer satisfaction. This means that we do NOT offer click-through training or check-the-box training. All of our solutions are live (and preferably in-person), where we feel we can add the most value for organizations who are looking to truly empower their front-line leaders.
Our real-world solutions are customized to meet the unique needs of the individuals and organizations we serve, ensuring dynamic impact and the opportunity for leaders to positively impact their teams and leave a legacy that changes the world—starting with the team and organization they are serving.
What were you like growing up?
If I were to describe my younger self in one word it would be “outgoing”.
If I could use three, it would be “entrepreneurial”, “disciplined”, and “outgoing”
Despite being known to hide behind my mother during my formative years, by the time I could ride a bike, I was ready to meet the world. If you were a part of my family, you were known as Jon’s dad, mom, brother, sister, etc. I didn’t know a stranger and that helped catapult me to the success I knew as a teen and young adult.
And, amid all of this, I was educated from home all of my life, which provided me with ample time to both obtain a decent education as well as pursue all of the business interests by which I was so enamored.
I was an entrepreneur from a very early age. It was at only 7 years old that I moved the neighbor’s lawn and thus began Jon’s Lawn Care. Over the years, I delivered newspapers, sold catalog items, helped stock the local convenience store, and served in myriad other ways. If there was something to be done, I was actively looking for a way to do it!
Pricing:
- Let’s work together to create the solution you need for a price that makes sense!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.servantmindedleadership.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/servantmindedleadership
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ServantMindedLeadership
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@servantmindedleadership
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/sml-consultive-phoenix
- Other: https://g.co/kgs/MwFjAf6
Image Credits
All imaged used with permission of SML Consultive
