From an early age, Johnny Dzubak was driven by passion. He grew up in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, a town strongly associated with coal mining, and in a family that had been solidly blue-collar since it had come over from the Old World. Over the last 40 years, many of these towns have become economically devastated, and Greensburg was no different. Searching for an opportunity, Johnny left home at the age of 21 for Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
There, Johnny worked in promotions and publicity for musicians and shows and learned the art of persuasion and influence. In his bartending job and later on, bar management, he noticed that socialization is top down: people will look to and mirror the behavior of those in charge at a bar when things can begin to get out of hand. Johnny knew that in those situations, whatever he was feeling was irrelevant – he needed to maintain his cool and the crowd would follow his lead. And that is exactly what he did.
Johnny settled into a comfortable groove and before too long a happy decade had passed. But boredom crept in and Johnny began to take an interest in self-development. Never one to take things lightly, he went “all in” and began reading and learning about the subject voraciously.
The research into self-development, combined with this on-the-ground experience dealing with people on a daily basis, led to a gig, as Johnny took a part-time position up in DC helping a personal development company with weekend boot camps. One fateful weekend, Jordan and AJ Harbinger were visiting the program that Johnny just happened to be a part of as an instructor and as “fate” would have it, spent time that weekend becoming fast friends and discussing plans of what would become the mission of the Art of Charm.
Part of what Johnny has always loved about music is the ability to create lasting art. At the Art of Charm he gets to work with people, and instead of tuning guitar strings, he’s strengthening heart strings. He’s creating art within people, by having them seek out what they are passionate about in direct ways, by confronting the past, to calibrate a present, to achieve a future. It’s not music you can hear, but it is the changes you can see. While he doesn’t believe he has all the answers, he certainly has quite a few, and he’s dedicated to continuing to study and never being satisfied with where he is either personally or professionally.
“Hmmm. Probably on drugs – I mean, look at that hair.” “No doubt, he was definitely up all night partying.” “Pfft. Dude thinks he’s too cool for school. Probably a total douchebag.” “I bet he can barely string a full sentence together.” Sometimes, it’s as if I can read people’s thoughts like they’re written in speech bubbles over their heads. … Read More
Self-sabotaging social behavior tends to be impulsive and automatic. This means you could plan to do better, only to have your own actions undermine everything once you’re uncomfortable again. Although this can make it very hard to make progress towards your goals, it is entirely possible to correct your course.
After spending a month learning about happiness – and the important role that relationships play in this happiness – we wanted to dig deeper. What do we mean by relationships? What are the secrets to building healthy relationships? What’s the science behind how relationships contribute to our personal happiness and well-being? Here are our biggest learnings on the power of … Read More
When we use the word value it means something very specific to us here at AOC. For us, value is how we derive attention, approval, and acceptance, which humans need to feel good about themselves. You can think of it as oxygen for the human soul. Think about it; ever since the time you were born you have devised … Read More
In 2018, you may be just one word away from epic adventures: when you start taking risks in life by saying “yes” to new opportunities. Everyone’s seen the meme that answers the question “Why are people afraid of change?” It’s a calculated risk any time we leave our comfort zone. Working on building your social circle and attracting more high-quality … Read More
It’s never too late to learn new methods to help develop social skills. Today we share some of our favorites. In the last few weeks, we’ve talked about low-value people, value vampires, and today we want to talk about why you should continue to develop social skills. The right skills will help you build a social circle of high-value people. … Read More
Without proper time management training, you’ll have a much harder time doing the things you want to do while still accomplishing all you need to accomplish. In this post, we want to share some of our best tips and tricks for time management training. We know how it is to be so busy you feel like you can’t get everything … Read More
How can you improve your social health if your social circle needs more high-value members? How can you improve your social health in your current social circle? In our last post we discussed “value vampires,” those people who suck away attention from you and others. These value vampires can hold you back and bring negativity into your space. In this … Read More
What Are Social Skills? Don’t Let Value Vampires Suck the Goodness out of Your Life. From the “what are social skills” series: understanding value can help you spot value vampires. Are you a value vampire? Or do you let value vampires feed on you? Before you answer that, let’s take a minute to recap the concept of value. We usually … Read More
So you’ve made yourself get out there and go to some networking meetings. Good for you! But are you concerned because you didn’t walk away with a meeting already set up? The good news is you stepped out of your comfort zone and made contacts; the bad news is that you may not know what to do next. How do … Read More