How to Elevate Your Gifting Strategy and Strengthen Business Relationships with John Israel – EP 284

April 2, 2026

Interview with John Israel

How to Elevate Your Gifting Strategy and Strengthen Business Relationships with John Israel

One of the most overlooked ways to build lasting business relationships isn’t a marketing tactic or networking event; it’s with thoughtful and intentional gifting. ​

When done well, the right gift can create memorable experiences and strengthen relationships in ways that a generic Christmas card or gift simply can’t.​

John Israel is the founder of Mr. Thank You. Despite building a very successful career at Cutco, he found himself overworked, unhappy, and deeply unfulfilled. That realization sparked a bold experiment: writing five handwritten thank-you notes every single day for an entire year. What began as a personal commitment to live out the value of gratitude ultimately evolved into a global movement that helps leaders and organizations leverage appreciation and gratitude as a powerful competitive advantage.​

In our conversation, John shares the surprising lessons he learned from writing over 1,800 thank-you notes in one year, including how gratitude can strengthen relationships and create opportunities that money alone can’t buy. You’ll also hear how simple acts of appreciation can transform the way you lead your team, serve your clients, and build meaningful connections, both in business and in life.​

If you’re looking for a simple but powerful way to stand out in a crowded marketplace, this episode will challenge you to rethink how gratitude shows up in your daily habits.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

✅ How leveling up your gifting game to creatively and intentionally express gratitude can become a powerful competitive advantage in business and leadership.

✅ How intentional gifting can turn thoughtful ideas into unforgettable memories and create lifelong partnerships and relationships.

✅ John’s Rapid Relatability Formula for building deeper connections with clients, staff, and business partners.

Featured on This Episode: John Israel

✅ What he does: John Israel is the founder of the Mr. Thank You Project, a global movement focused on elevating gratitude in business and life. After committing to write five handwritten thank-you cards every day for a year, his experiment evolved into a powerful platform where he teaches leaders and organizations how gratitude can strengthen relationships, drive loyalty, and create meaningful impact.

💬 Words of wisdom: “In every life experience, there is a gift, but it is your job to find it.” – John Israel

🔎 Where to find John Israel: Website | LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram

Key Takeaways with John Israel

  • The Origin of the Mr. Thank You Project
  • The Biggest Lesson from the Mr. Thank You Project
  • Using Gratitude as a Business Advantage
  • Why Generic Appreciation Falls Flat
  • The Rapid Relatability Formula
  • How To Level Up Your Gifting Game
  • Where to Learn More from John Israel

The 3-Step Formula to Build Deeper Connections Instantly

Inspiring Quotes

  • “If you can’t appreciate what you have now, who’s to say you’ll be any happier when you finally get what you say you want?” – John Israel
  • “How long does it take us to feel gratitude from a previously painful experience? And the answer is as long as it takes you to find the gift.” – John Israel
  • “What if what you’re experiencing right now is exactly what you have to be going through to become the person who you’re eventually meant to be?” – John Israel
  • “Money you don’t lose is money that you make.” – John Israel
  • “The best referrals people have to give you don’t just come from an incentive program. They come from seeing a demonstration that you care about the relationship more than just the business,” – John Israel
  • “When you know something personal about a person, and then you reflect it back to them, that shows that you’re listening, that shows that you pay attention, that shows that you care.” – John Israel

Resources

Want My Team’s Help?

  • Tax Strategy Masterclass
     Learn the 28 most effective tax strategies the wealthy use to save thousands.
    lifestyleinvestor.com/tax

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Read the Full Transcript with John Israel

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Justin Donald: What's up, John? Good to have you on the show,

John Israel: Justin, it has been a long time, man. I'm excited to be here with you.

Justin Donald: Well, I love having friends that I have known for years and years and years, where we just have history together, and you're one of those people. I feel like I've had this front row seat, or somewhat front row seat, to your career taking off, and it's cool seeing what you have built with the Mr. Thank You project. I actually remember when this was just like, “Hey, I'm just going to try this out and see what I think and see where it lands.” Like, I remember when this idea was just an idea, and you hadn't even started it yet. And then I remember getting one of your thank you notes that was super powerful and super meaningful, and I was like, "This thing I think has legs,” and it has.

John Israel: Yeah. Here we are, almost 10 years later. So, I started the Mr. Thank You project back in October of 2016, so yeah. It's been almost 10 years.

Justin Donald: Wow. That is incredible. So, let's dive into this, because you and I knew each other from the Cutco days. You'd done very well selling. During the college years, I had sold and did well, and then I kind of went the management route, and then you continued in the professional sales route. And you always excelled. I think you built some teams under you. You helped mentor some other people on the sales side of things, and you've done a lot of gifting over the years. I know that you've worked closely with John Ruhlin, our good friend that really just passed too soon, way too soon. And I know there are some cool collaborations that could potentially be in the works currently and in the future with Giftology.

And I've had Rod on the show, of course, I had John on the show a couple of times, and it's fun seeing what you've been able to build. But you went in this totally different path, like no one had done what you were embarking upon. So, where did this idea of Mr. Thank You even come from?

John Israel: Yeah. So, what you kind of addressed a good part of that, which is, so I was a longtime Cutco person, but very specifically, my market was business-to-business sales. So, we targeted real estate professionals, mortgage professionals. We would sell them a year's supply of gifts. They would run out. We would sell them more. So, it was a great model. And so, it was this irony, Justin, where I had built a really lucrative business, and I was in a better place financially than I had ever been, right? So, we bought our first house, I was married, we had our first child, but I was over it. Like, I was overworked, overwhelmed, and just so unhappy. I was ready to walk away from all of it.

And it all came to a headway one day when I came home from work and ready to do what I typically do, which is complain about my day.

Justin Donald: That's a great indicator right there, right?

John Israel: Yeah. That was life.

Justin Donald: Repetition of complaints

John Israel: And I walk in the front door, and before I can say anything, I just see my wife, Monica. And she's sitting on our couch, and she's nursing our infant son in one hand and handwriting a thank you card in the other hand to some people who supported her during her pregnancy. And it was one of these, like, it was like a painting. It was one of the most beautiful images I'd ever seen. And I couldn't appreciate it because I was so stressed and overwhelmed from my job, I couldn't appreciate anything. And I don't know how to describe what happened next, except for to say that I believe God spoke through my wife that day. It said something that changed my life forever, which is, if you can't appreciate what you have now, who's to say you'll be any happier when you finally get what you say you want?

Justin Donald: That's powerful.

John Israel: And because, Justin, you, myself, a lot of our friends, we have a lot of the things that we need, that we truly need, right?

Justin Donald: That's right.

John Israel: We've got our health, we've got our families, we've got these things, and yet I still found myself unhappy with what I had. And I didn't have a name for it then, but I do now. But I suffered from a problem called perpetual discontentment. Perpetual discontentment, which is the never-ending feeling that what is isn't enough. And I want to ask if you suffer from that, Justin, but I find every entrepreneur that I talk to typically does, but it's not always bad, right?

Justin Donald: Right. Well, it can be used as a driver, right? I mean, if put in check, it can be really good, but if left to like just wreak havoc on your life, it could be devastating.

John Israel: Yeah. And you and I both have been in positions where we've achieved a sales goal or a marker, and we get the Rolex watch or whatever the accolade is, and we sit there, and it's like…

Justin Donald: That's it.

John Israel: A little deflating. It's like it's not as much as you thought it would be, and I think high achievers have that part of them. So, for me, it was this irony of ironies, right? I was the most ungrateful gratitude salesman on planet Earth. So, I decided to embark on a journey, and I had a coach I was working with, and his big thing that he taught me was it's important to embody your values like to live out what you care about. If you say gratitude matters to you, how would I know that without you having to tell me? And so, we started with this mission, so I created a mission for my business, which was our mission at Mr. Thank You is about elevating the level of gratitude on the planet.

And it was beautiful when I wrote it out. It was like, that's it. And then there was a problem that I heard inside of a quote, and it's one of those quotes, and when you hear it, you can't unhear it, but it's by Ralph Waldo Emerson. And what he says is, "Excuse me, I cannot hear what you are saying because who you are speaks so loudly.” And what I love and simultaneously don't love about that quote is that it challenges us to be consistent with our words. Like, it challenges us to not just say, “Hey, this is what I care about,” but to actually prove in our behavior. And the problem was if you talk to a hundred people who knew me at that time, they'd say some nice things like driven or successful, but they wouldn't say grateful.

They wouldn't say appreciative, and they certainly would not say happy to describe me. So, how can that be? How can I be this guy who says he's about elevating gratitude on the planet, but I don't live it out in my life at all? So, I embarked on a journey where my coach was saying, “Hey, the big thing here is we just need to find a way for you to live out this value of gratitude every day for a year. What's a moment or experience that you've seen gratitude in its purest form?” And I thought back to that moment, seeing my wife Monica, when I walked in the house, and I see her nursing our infant son and writing handwritten cards. And I was like, "Well, what if I do that?” Not the nursing part, but the handwritten card part.

I was like, what if I make a commitment around just expressing gratitude every single day for an entire year, just to see what happens? And I did not expect that it would become like this life-changing journey that I got to write a book about. I was asked to give a TED Talk on, and now I get to work with companies all over the world, teaching them this idea of gratitude as a competitive advantage.

Justin Donald: Totally.

John Israel: It's really worked into this whole movement.

Justin Donald: Yeah. You've worked with big-name companies and institutions like Harvard, and it was really cool to see you, like what you've been able to build just having a chance to be on Good Morning America. I remember watching that clip. I mean, it's really impressive what you've been able to build from what was originally just a 365-day experiment.

John Israel: Yeah. And to clarify for the listeners, because there were rules to this. So, it was a year-long journey. So, the commitment was five handwritten thank you cards every day for a year. So, it couldn't be a text or a video, had to be handwritten. Two is everyday resets at zero. Okay, so I can't skip three days and then write 20 cards in a day. Three is I can write a max of three cards for any one person. So, this means if I can't think of somebody, I can't write the 75th thank you card to my mother, right, which she might appreciate, but they would lose their impact. And the fourth rule was really interesting. This is around accountability. And my coach said, “Hey, John, I love this idea, but where's the accountability? Like, what happens if you miss a day?” And my initial response was like, "Okay, for every day I'm going to miss, I'll donate $100 to charity.” Felt pretty good about that. And he looks at me and says, "Add a zero.”

Justin Donald: Ooh, that's good.

John Israel: And I was like, "Excuse me? You want me to donate $1,000 everyday?” Like, that's bananas. Now, he said, "Check this out, John. I don't want you to have to donate any money. But when you think about throughout the year, how likely is it you're going to donate $100 or several hundred dollars to charities anyways?” I was like, yeah, we kind of do that with our timing process, yeah.

Justin Donald: Yeah. You can justify those days off.

John Israel: So, then he says, "So, then how many days are you going to miss if the bounty is $1,000?” And of course, the answer is zero. So, that became the fourth and final rule was $1,000 to charity for any and every day that I missed. And in total, when you do the math on it, five cards times 365 days is 1,825 letters of appreciation in one year's time.

Justin Donald: Wow. What would you say was the greatest or even most surprising lesson that you learn? This could be business. This could be personal. I mean, that's incredible discipline, but there have to be mountains of takeaways of what you've learned.

John Israel: Yeah. There are different varieties of them, right? There's like the personal takeaways, there's the business takeaways, and truly like just life-changing personal development. I'll give you kind of an interesting, funny story that I didn't expect to happen, but it's around this concept. So, now when I speak, I talk about how do you build life-changing relationships. Like, how do you build connections that open deals, that create access that you wouldn't otherwise have, and honestly, live a fulfilling life? Because that's a key of relationships. And so, one of the things that I learned that's so important is this concept called emotional resilience.

And emotional resilience is our ability to metabolize painful experiences into positive progress. And so, the example I'll give is actually relevant for right now because it's NCAA basketball season, right? I know you're a fan. I'm a graduate of Gonzaga University at Spokane, Washington. And so, for the first time in school history during the project, my team makes it to the NCAA National Championship game. Crazy like biggest news for any alumni, any fan. So, we're playing the UNC Tar Heels championship game. It's Monday night, and it's like 13 lead changes. We're winning. They're winning. It's a nail-biter. We're up in the last minute. Last second, someone hits a shot. We lose the game.

And I'm not a huge sports guy, and I always thought it was interesting. If you watch the Super Bowl, you see people who's like the winning team, and everyone's celebrating, and then the losing team, everyone's like flipping over cars and lighting trash cans on fire. And I never understood it until that day because I was so upset. Like my team, my baby loses the biggest game in school history. Well, here's the interesting thing. It's like 9:00 or 10:00 at night. My wife puts the kids to bed. I haven't written my cards for the day. So, I got to go wrap my cards, and I'm in the worst mood ever.

Justin Donald: Oh, man.

John Israel: This is a silly example, but it's going to make a lot of sense.

Justin Donald: Yeah.

John Israel: The point is, is that I couldn't do it. I couldn't harness an ounce of gratitude because I was so upset that my team lost. Now, this is where learning definitions is important. So, the definition of gratitude by Dr. Robert Emmons, he's a foremost researcher on the topic. He says, "Gratitude is the emotion one feels when you receive a gift or experience something as a gift.” Let's unpack that. So, someone gives you a gift unexpectedly. It's not even your birthday. How do you feel? That joy, that excitement, whatever you call it, that in essence is gratitude. But the other part of this definition is actually more important, which is the experience of something as a gift.

So, what does that mean? So, just to go back to maybe your early days, Justin, when like that first girl that you fell in love with, maybe you're like middle school holding hands. You're like, "We're going to get married one day.” And it's over. Whatever age you were, anyone was listening to this. How does that feel? It's awful. Yeah, it's awful.

Justin Donald: Devastating. Yeah.

John Israel: And it's like men are terrible. Women are terrible, right? But yet with time and perspective, we can look back on that previously painful experience and say, “Well, I'm actually really glad that happened.” I'm actually really glad that relationship ended because of all the things I learned about myself that I couldn't have learned any other way. I'm actually really glad that relationship ended because it allowed me to meet the person that I married, that I started a family with. So, I can actually be really grateful in this moment from this previously painful experience. So, the question becomes, how long does it take us to feel gratitude from a previously painful experience? And the answer is as long as it takes you to find the gift. And in every life experience, there is a gift, but it is your job to find it.

Justin Donald: That's good. That's really good.

John Israel: And so, when I share this story with audiences, I'll ask them, I say, "Raise your hand if some of the greatest character qualities you possess have come from going through the hardest times of your life.”

Justin Donald: Oh, yeah. Hand raised.

John Israel: Everyone raises their hand. So, then I say, "Then why are you complaining about it? Why are you saying that whatever you're going through right now, you shouldn't be going through? Because what if what you're experiencing right now is exactly what you have to be going through to become the person who you're eventually meant to be? Like, what if you're exactly where you need to be right now?” And so, I'm at my desk, my team loses the big game, and I'm like, racking my brain. Where's the gift? Where's the good? And it was like an epiphany. It was like, "Oh, I didn't watch my team lose the national championship like we just watched arguably the best team in school history played the game of basketball. Like that deserves to be celebrated.” You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to write a handwritten card to every single player of the entire Gonzaga men's basketball team.

Justin Donald: That's cool. You're five right there. But you went beyond five for the whole team.

John Israel: Oh yeah. It was like 15, 20 kids. So, I went on ncaa.com, espn.com to look up all their highlights, their best games, so that every card was hyper specific to their contributions. Even the retros who didn't play to say, “Hey, championship teams are not made in the championship games. They're made every practice that led up to it. So, thank you for helping our team become the best in school history.”

Justin Donald: That's cool.

John Israel: Dude, it was crazy because it wasn't months, weeks, or days. I'm talking minutes from upset anger that shouldn't be happening to feeling pure and authentic joy.

Justin Donald: Yeah. Well, and I love it because they're going through probably even a stronger emotional like struggle with they just lost the game, right? And so, now they're going to receive something that can be an instant gratitude shifter. I mean, that's awesome.

John Israel: Well, absolutely. And the crazy thing that I learned, so there are two correlations to this. Number one is we actually thought about this from a business perspective and thought, well, man, how do we apply this to business? So, we actually implemented a strategy. So, in our gifting business, we get cancellations from time to time, as most every business does. So, we built in a strategy that the moment we get a notice of cancellation, we automatically send that client a thank you card. Nothing fancy, just, “Hey, thank you for the opportunity to potentially serve you. We appreciate the time that we've spent together. If there's anything that changes in the future, we'd love to win your business back.” Send this out to every cancellation. Here was the stat we tracked, 50% of those cancellations came back and repurchased within six months.

Justin Donald: Wow.

John Israel: That's a crazy stat because you talk to investors all the time, right? Money you don't lose is money that you make. And it's wild because I shared this stat with Brad Johnson, one of our mutual friends who's in the financial services space.

Justin Donald: Love Brad. Yeah.

John Israel: And he said, "You know what? I started doing this, and actually, I had that happen. We lost an advisor one time. So, I sent him a thank you card, just saying, ‘Hey, man, how much we've appreciated working with you.’” And he actually emailed him back and said, “Hey, Brad, I'm so sorry. I never wanted to leave. It was a decision with my partners. They made it happen. If we get the opportunity, I absolutely want to come back and work with you guys again.” So, it's interesting. Why does that work? Why does that happen? And I think there's actually a lesson for all of us to learn, which is when you think about relationships and loyalty, when does loyalty matter most? Loyalty matters most when things are hard.

Because when you think about it, no one feels good having to cancel. No one feels good having to return something to a store or cancel an agreement. No one feels good about that. Justin, have you ever returned something to a store and then received a thank you card from your salesperson?

Justin Donald: Never. Zero.

John Israel: Never. Right. But what if you did?

Justin Donald: I would say you just went the extra mile because that's never happened before. It would be memorable because it's never happened. You'd be the one.

John Israel: You'd be the one that you would come back to and be like, “I have to work with this person because nobody does that,” because they're telling you that the relationship matters more than the business. And that is something that in business we look for because we have to have a deep level of trust to do commerce. So, here's the end of that story, which is, so two months go by, I forget, I even do this whole thing with the Gonzaga Bulldogs, right? And on my birthday, May 21st, I'm out to dinner with my wife, and she says, "Oh, something showed up for you in the mail today,” and it's an envelope, and it's addressed from Gonzaga Men's Basketball. And I open it up, and inside is a handwritten card from Mark Few, the head coach of Gonzaga Men's Basketball.

So, for any listeners who don't know who Mark Few is, Mark Few is one of the winningest coaches in the history of NCAA basketball. He was one of the head coaches of the US men's Olympic basketball team that won the gold medal last year. Dude makes tens of millions of dollars, meaning this is the point. I could not pay him to do this. And actually, in fact, since we're doing this on a podcast, I actually have that card. It's right here.

Justin Donald: Oh, that's cool.

John Israel: And I couldn't have paid him to do this. But this is the point, Justin, which is the best people have to give you cannot be bought. The best referrals people have to give you don't just come from an incentive program. They come from seeing a demonstration that you care about the relationship more than just the business, and that's who we seek to do business with because we know they're going to do the right thing. And, dude, that was a life-changing experience. And so, that was one kind of long story about an experience, but it had so many different parts to it, and there were hundreds of those experiences throughout the entire year.

Justin Donald: Yeah, I love that story and it makes me think of the way most people do business, and I think most people miss the mark. And so, I'm curious from your experience, like what are some of the common mistakes that leaders make when they're trying to build like authentic relationships? Real human connection with clients or employees or whoever it is, vendors, but it seems like sometimes they fall short. Like, how can we instead use gratitude to fix that or improve that or enhance that?

John Israel: It's a great question, and I think that the answer is more in the process that we go through in making a connection in the first place, right? So, here's what I mean. So, corporately speaking, business-related, a CEO, a leader, dealing with his sales team, his staff, clients. Typically, what goes out when it comes to this concept, gratitude, appreciation, is a generalized canned message that everybody gets the same, right? No offense to my insurance guy, but I get a Christmas letter from him that is the exact same thing he sends to everybody. Nothing wrong with that. I send Christmas letters with similar words.

But it's like even on my birthday, I get a card, but it's like super generic. I know he didn't actually write it. He didn't even know it was my birthday. I know his CRM sent a trigger off, and it mailed me a card that he paid $0.50 for, right? No personalization, I don't think there's anything wrong with that, but I think we're missing an opportunity to make it your connection.

Justin Donald: Or even to stand out in the crowd from the rest of the crowd, right? I mean, there may be an element of connection in there. There may not. It might just be something memorable, but to at least be an outlier.

John Israel: Well, and I think that the way that we do that is you need to know something personal about the person to actually make that level of connection, right? So, what I teach, whether it's a sales group or a leader, is like when you're onboarding a new person, or this could be someone that's literally worked with you for years, and you've never had a deep conversation with them, I call this the rapid relatability formula. It's the three things to talk about to build a connection really quick, right? I call it story, significance, struggle, right? Story, significance, struggle. Story is, “Hey, tell me your story. How did you get here? What made you interested in this business, in this industry?” How did you get here?

The interesting thing is when people tell you about their story, they're inadvertently telling you about their value system. They're telling you about how they've made decisions in life up to this point. I remember I was in an office building for a while, and there was a front desk woman that everybody had access to. She was always nice. Never spoke with her. One day on Christmas, actually, it's right around now, just after Christmas. We come in, I ask her, “Hey, what's your story?” And it was just us in the coffee lounge area. So, I just asked her, I'm like, “Hey, I don't know this lady at all. What's your story? How did you get here?” And we just had an off conversation. She happened to mention something about recovering from cancer.

I was like, "Oh, my gosh,” because she was like 25 years old. And I was like, "When did you get cancer?” She's like, "When I was 11.” And then I was like, "Tell me what that was like.” And then we had this amazing, powerful conversation about her recovery from cancer and how over Christmas break, she was on the news because the hospital that she was at in Dallas had a train set that would run 24/7 in the children's hospital, and they were remodeling the hospital, and so they were going to remove the train set. So, she actually got like 10,000 signatures for the hospital to not remove it. And so, she was on the news over Christmas break saving the train set at the children's hospital.

And I was like, "You're a remarkable human being. How have I not known that you exist?” And then so, when I wrote her an authentic card later on that day, and I left it on our desk, I talked about that because when you know something personal about a person like that, and then you reflect it back to them, that shows that you're listening, that shows that you pay attention, that shows that you care. And I think that part of this is, actually, it helped me feel a personal connection to her. So, I think the stories are a big part of that. So, that's the first part. Significance is what are you excited about? What are your goals? What are your dreams? What are you looking forward to?

Because when people tell you about those items, especially if they work for you, right, or they're a client, and they're telling you about their goals and dreams, well, that tells you also how to package and position whatever you're going to talk about, your offer, to serve what they really want. And then the last one is struggle, which is what are you struggling with? What's really hard in your life right now? This is one of the things that not everybody likes to go there, and I wouldn't say that maybe the first time I meet someone, I would ask for their deepest, darkest secrets, but if I'm talking to somebody and we have a conversation and I just say, "What's the hardest part about your job?” Like, what's the most difficult thing?

Like, so as an example, I got to meet the pilots on my plane one time. They were sitting at a table outside of our gate, and I sit down with them. I go through my process, “Hey, what's your story? How did you become a pilot? What do you love about your job? What's the hardest part about your job? What do you struggle with?” And they all get like softened up, and they're like, I mean, everything we miss back at home, birthdays, anniversaries, special events. And then one of the pilots gets all excited and says, "Now this year, this is the first time in 20 years that I get to be home on Christmas day.”

Justin Donald: Wow.

John Israel: My heart breaks for this guy.

Justin Donald: That's tough.

John Israel: So, I think about when we actually get to know those three things about a person, what's your story? What are you excited about? What are you looking forward to? What are your dreams? What are you struggling with? You can't but feel a more deeper connection. And so, when I'm writing somebody a letter, I learned that that's my little formula. Like, that's the thing that I need to know about them to make sure that card is not just a, “Hey, thanks for the referral,” or, “Hey, thanks for the wedding gift.” Like, that it's personal, that it's meaningful, and it's shocking how that little adjustment that going a little above and beyond, again, it's not just be more personal, it's, well, how do you do that? It's you have to know more about them.

And I think that was an unexpected outcome is that for me to write all these cards, actually, I had to know people at a much deeper level than I ever cared to, which created a lot more deeper connections throughout the entire year.

Justin Donald: Well, and one of the things I love about that, I learned this early days when I did one-on-one meetings with different staff members and different companies that I built, or even early days in Cutco, and when you really get to know someone, you just tend to like them, right? Like, as you build trust and you are able to go deep, you're able to hear their story, hear the aspects of significance in their life, hear the aspects of struggle in their life, it is hard to not like a person more. So, I've just always found like the more I'm committed to getting to know people, the more I really enjoy them. And for me, before I make big decisions on staff, like I need to know, like I need to get to know someone to see if we are compatible. And is this a person I'm going to like crave learning more about and kind of doing life with? So, I love that framework.

John Israel: And it's funny, so obviously we're talking about gifting. So, we have a new partnership with the Giftology Company. So, our dear friend John Ruhlin passed away last year. And because I've been in the gifting world for a while, I speak on gratitude, we developed a partnership. So, now their team fulfills all of our gifting needs, which is super awesome for our clients to get access to some really cool stuff. But this actually helps in the ability to gift at a higher level too, right? So, I'll give you an example. If you're building a relationship with somebody, a valuable thing to pay attention to is where does energy go in the conversation? What do they get really excited about? What do they get really upset about?

I try to look for the excitement and go deeper with that. So, I met this gentleman a while back, and it was kind of funny. You and I have been in networking situations, and Justin, have you ever had an experience where you're in a networking experience and you could tell you are being prospected?

Justin Donald: Oh, for sure. It happens all the time. Yeah.

John Israel: Like, very specific questions they're asking you, and based on your responses.

Justin Donald: Oh, yeah.

John Israel: And it feels disgusting, right? Nobody likes it.

Justin Donald: Yeah. It is inauthentic. Yeah, I mean, it's repellent is what it is. Like, it's gross. That behavior repels me, like I just want to go elsewhere and disappear.

John Israel: Totally. So, I meet this guy at an event, and we get coffee at his business. He owns a coworking building, and so we like get together, and we're chatting, and I didn't feel that with him. That was the point is that he genuinely was just curious about me, and I was curious about him, and it was pretty clear, like there was no direct path for either of us to do business with each other. But we're like, "Man, I just like who you are as a person.” Now, in the conversation, I hear him talk about his wife. And he's really excited about her. And so, I said, "Tell me your story about your wife.” And so, he shares about how they met, and it's the craziest story, Justin, which is they were on an airplane that seated next to each other, and while they landed, they find out their airline has gone out of business.

Justin Donald: Wow.

John Israel: And they have a connecting flight, meaning they're trapped at an airport that they cannot leave.

Justin Donald: Oh, my goodness.

John Israel: So, they go to the bar, and they sit and have a great conversation. They exchange phone numbers. Eventually, they get flights on other airlines, and eventually, they get together, they get married. And I'm like, "Dude, that's an amazing story.” So, I go home, and I'm a gifter, right?

Justin Donald: That’s a cool story. Yeah.

John Israel: So, I think like, how can I demonstrate something cool here with a gift? So, I go on VistaPrint.com, I find some coffee mugs. I look up the name of the airline because Google has everything, and I find the logo of the old airlines. It was called Mesa Airlines, and I have it put onto the coffee mug, cost me $15. And on the other side, I put a quote that says, “A breakdown is just a start of a beautiful story.” And I mail two of them, one for him and one for his wife, with a handwritten metal thank you card, thanking him for the time and our conversation, very specific. And, Justin, every event I went to after that, this guy could not shut up about that gift, and he told everybody about it.

Justin Donald: That's so cool.

John Israel: And it was one of these things that he's actually become a very strategic advisor in my life now. We've become very dear friends, and we've still never done business together, but I wonder what would've happened if, because he didn't seem like a direct business connection, I just let it go?

Justin Donald: Yeah. How many of those do all of us lose out on in a given year just based on not having that intentionality, not having that follow-up, not having the foresight to try to continue the relationship?

John Israel: Absolutely. So, that's what we try to do, whether it be through our gifting business or keynotes. It's just like we want to help people be better at building business relationships because we think that, number one, that is access to living your dreams, right? Like, the human potential exists inside of relationships. Like, Justin, you have accomplished so much, and you know why I know why? Because how many times have you been a best man in a wedding?

Justin Donald: It's a lot. It's probably 15 to 20 times.

John Israel: That's a crazy step. But that's because you mean so much to so many people. And so, when you think of somebody who has the ability to raise money to access deals and do things, it's because somebody who cares about relationships, even when they can't get something back immediately. And that's something that is dying in our world. And so, we want to really resurrect it and teach people how to build better business relationships. So, that's why we exist.

Justin Donald: I love it. Well, I love your story. I love all that you're doing. It's so cool for me as a friend, seeing the success that you're having and the impact that you're making. It's powerful. Where can people learn more about you and Mr. Thank You, and just all the things in terms of gifting and gratitude and the education that you have?

John Israel: Yeah. Everything can be found at mrthankyou.com. That's just M-R thank you.com. And then on social media, you can find me everywhere by my name, which is John Israel. So, I just go by The John Israel pretty much everywhere on social. That's it.

Justin Donald: I love it. And you know what's really cool? I say this all the time because I think when you marry well, you have a spouse that sees things that you don't. And I think you and I have both married very discerning women, very wise women. And I feel like I've gotten better over the years at receiving that wisdom to actually recognizing that, "No, I'm not right here. Like, I need to listen up. I need to tune in.” And it seems like you have that too. And I know shout out really to Monica, because when she believes something, she's passionate, she's assertive. She'll let you know how it is. My wife is the same way.

And this whole thing happened because of a statement she made to you in an effort to do what was best for you and your marriage, and you received it, which could have been hard in that moment to receive, and you ran with it. Super cool.

John Israel: Yeah. Thanks, man. Appreciate that.

Justin Donald: Yeah. Well, I love ending every podcast episode with a question for our audience. So, if you're watching, if you're listening, what is one step you can take today to move towards financial freedom and really move towards living a life that you desire that's on your terms? Most people live a life by default. I'm talking about a life by design. And what we're hearing from John today is all kinds of intentionality and design aspect of how do I go after life and make it my own. So, thank you for sharing that. I challenge you to pick one thing that John said today and put it into action, and really looking forward to 2026 and seeing what you're doing this year and beyond. And everyone tuning in, we will catch you next week.

John Israel: See you, guys.

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Justin Donald

Justin Donald

Justin Donald is a leading financial strategist who helps you find your way through the complexities of financial planning. A pioneer in structuring deals and disciplined investment systems, he now consults and advises entrepreneurs and executives on lifestyle investing.

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