Jon Vroman As an accomplished Ultra Marathon Runner (yes, that's 52 miles), Jon Vroman knows a thing or two about commitment. Now, with a flourishing non-profit foundation to his credit, a new coaching program sweeping the country, and a chapter of a new book ready for release this year, this sought after motivational speaker and life coach is making it clear that his passion for running takes a back seat to his desire to change lives.

Listen to Interview:

Section 1: Front Row Foundation

GOOSE: Alright, so we have on the line a wonderful individual by the name of Jon Vroman. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Jon now for several years and what can I say, he’s an absolute dynamic guy. He worked at the direct sales association as a corporate executive and recently, actually left that organization to begin his own personal growth company called the JV Group. He’s an incredibly dedicated athlete as an ultra marathon runner and truly is a student of life. One thing that everyone has to say about Jon is that his attitude is absolutely infectious. So, we’re privileged and honored to have him here with us today; welcome Jon Vroman.

JV: Thank you very much.

GOOSE: Thank you man, I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to us. The reason we wanted to talk to you today is a couple fold, but the major thing I wanted to talk to you about was this organization you founded called The Front Row Foundation. So for those who aren’t familiar with it, maybe you can give us the elevator speech on Front Row.

JV: Sure. Well, the Front Row Foundation is a non-profit started in 2005 and the idea that we wanted to send individuals who had life threatening illnesses to the front row of their favourite sporting event, concert, or any type of live performance for that matter. And the idea would be that we would create this outstanding and amazing day with the recipient and their family, where we take them to dinner and we take them to the event; we would try to get them back stage or onto the field if it were a sporting event, try to get them autographed goods and just create a memory that would last a lifetime.

GOOSE: That’s a very cool concept and I’m sure the recipients are very appreciative. What’s the big focus on being in the front row?

JV: I don’t know if you’ve ever had the chance to sit front row at an event, but it is absolutely top notch when it comes to energy, when it comes to the experience, you can see the faces of the singers, you can hear every word that athletes are saying when they’re talking to each other. It’s a totally different experience than being in the balcony or in the back row, or in the nose bleeds or whatever people call it. In fact it all started when I was at an event in the balcony and I was having a great time, was enjoying a concert, in fact when one of my favorite singers Jason Mraz and I noticed the people in the front row, and they were having a conversation essentially with Jason. They were screaming out requests and he was commenting back, and I thought in that moment, that there was a difference in people that were in the front row; there was difference in the event for those people who were in the front row. It was just a different experience. So I made a commitment at that point in my life that I always wanted to live life in the front row; and so that was where the original idea had developed, and that’s why people get so inspired and excited about this, especially because we’re talking about being in the front row at the event of their dreams. Somebody’s just a raving fan of; a sports team or whomever and we get them in the best seat in the house and it creates just a remarkable experience.

GOOSE: That’s very, very cool man. Congratulations on that. You’re obviously getting a fair bit of support from the venue coordinators to co-ordinate all this. What’s the feedback been like from the public so far?

JV: Everybody absolutely loves it. We’ve been featured in newspapers, in magazines, everybody that hears about Front Row is totally 100% supportive of the idea. When we contact producers or agencies that are involved with these tickets and they hear about what we’re doing; usually the first thing they say is, "Wow, that’s so unique. I can’t believe that hasn’t been thought of before." And number two they say, "We’ll give you whatever you need." And that’s how we’ve ended up with many of our tickets; they’ve been donated to us and when they haven’t been donated, we’ve used the money that we’ve been able to raise to purchase tickets in the situations where we can’t get them donated, but ultimately, the support is overwhelming from all parties involved.

GOOSE: Very cool Jon. So, how many success stories so far; how many events have you guys put on?

JV: Well, I’m losing track at this point – which is exciting, but several dozen – must be over thirty at this point. In fact, we just created another Front Row experience this past weekend for a thirteen year old girl named Liona, who is battling leukemia and we sent her to The Colour Purple, the musical, Oprah Winfrey’s musical; and she went in a big limo and we took her out to dinner with her family and her sisters, and she sat in the best seats in the house at that event and even got back stage and met one of the actresses. It was quite an incredible time.

GOOSE: That’s beautiful man. So, do you get a chance to meet with the recipients beforehand or are they usually at a distance?

JV: You know, any chance I get Chris, I love to meet the recipients, and what’s great about Front Row currently, is that we’ve been fulfilling these dreams of front row seats all over the country. We’ve had them in California, in New England, we’ve had them in Toronto in Canada, and so we’ve had our events all over. And so when they are out of my area, it’s harder for me to meet them, but always on the phone, and always connecting with each recipient to get to know them and their story, and we usually become friends. And I can’t think of an event where we haven’t become friends with the recipients that we’ve helped.

GOOSE: I can’t imagine a situation Jon, where you meet someone who doesn’t want to be your friend.

JV: Oh, thanks Chris.

GOOSE: Very cool stuff. When I was speaking with Hal Elrod last night, who’s involved with Global Empowerment Coaching, he had mentioned that they donate 100% of the proceeds from the "Can’t Change It Bracelet" to "Front Row" which I thought was very cool. Do you get a fair amount of corporate sponsorship or involvement or what are your plans for growth in that area now?

JV: Well we have big plans for growth in that arena. The support from all of our friends, the families of the recipients, and families that even just have heard about Front Row, but aren’t even connected directly to us, the support has been outstanding. From corporate sponsorships, we’re really looking to expand into that avenue of fund raising and connect with big organizations and try to partner with them in ways that we can support their organization, and they can support our organization. Those big donations are really what are going to take Front Row to the next level. So we are looking for $25, $50, and $100,000 donations and larger. Currently, our organization is thriving from the smaller donations from individuals, and last year we raised over $100,000 in that way. This year, we have a run that went from seventeen people in 2007 to over a hundred people in 2008, and the amount of money that we’re going to raise is going to be exciting, but nothing can quite touch that corporate sponsorship level, which we’re excited about and we’re really open to those relationships in the future.

GOOSE: Jon, I’m not making any promises, but if we have any readers or listeners who want to get their organization involved or even on a personal level, what’s the best way for them to get a hold of you or to make a donation?

JV: Yes, well, thanks for mentioning that, and they can reach us through our website which is frontrowfoundation.org and they can also e-mail me directly at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; those are the easiest ways.

GOOSE: Very cool. Well I hope something comes of that and we look forward to tracking your progress on that. One last question for you on foundations, this is your baby correct? You started this up from the ground?

JV: That’s correct, along with a very good friend of mine, Jamie Bogger. He and I both really developed and nurtured the idea in the very beginning and then of course, I like to say we’re co-founders with all of our friends who lent a hand and supported the organization.

GOOSE: Cool. So have you been involved in any foundations before Front Row?

JV: No, this was our first; this was our first foundation that we’ve created.

GOOSE: That’s great, man. So my question then is; do you have any recommendations for someone looking to either start their own or to get involved working with an existing foundation?

JV: Yes I do. The answer is that I would just dive in, get involved. You know, when it comes to another organization and volunteering, often times it can prove to be more difficult than you would imagine to volunteer. Because a lot of times, people step up and say, "I want to help" and they want somebody to tell them what to do. I’ve found the best kind of volunteers are the ones that take whatever they’re good at, whatever their niche is or whatever they can contribute, and just give it to the organization, just do it, just step in and start helping. For those looking to start their own organization, I always tell people that it’s much easier to begin a non-profit organization than they might think. You know, we didn’t really know how to do it, we just knew that if our dream and our passion for creating it was big enough, then we would find a way to do whatever it would take to start Front Row. And so we found the resources and we reached out to people, and with the internet and the friends that we had connections with, starting it was relatively easy. Now, creating it and building it has been the real fun, challenging part of the organization.

Section 2: Ultra Marathon Man

GOOSE: Very cool, thank you for the segue because that leads me into my next question. Changing tracks a little bit, you mentioned passion and the fact that your passion really drove you to develop Front Row and to create something on a topic you knew virtually nothing about in a foundation sense. Now, I’ve had the chance to hear you speak at several events and I know that passion is big for you, as is persistence. I know you have a passion for personal growth and I want to talk a little bit more about the JV Group and what your plans are with that, but initially, where did your passion for personal growth come from Jon?

JV: Well, that’s a good question. You know, I tell people that I’ve had two major growth spurts in my life; the first growth spurt happened in my teens and that was what I call the physical, external growth spurt. That was me growing into a man. I’d been a really small person up until about fifteen; and I say I was small, I was actually about five feet tall and weighed less than a hundred pounds. I was so small that my mom took me to a doctor and they did a bone scan. I have the medical records that show that at fifteen, I had the bone age of a nine year old. So when people would say I look young, it was absolutely true - I looked like I was nine at fifteen. Now the real interesting part of that Chris is that I was actually driving a car at that time because in Maryland, you could get your permit at fifteen and a half, and I’ve got some really funny stories with that. But as you can imagine – and I can laugh about it now very, very easily and it’s quite a great part of my story; but I was really picked on quite heavily in school and I wasn’t really a big hit with the ladies as you can imagine, and I just didn’t really embrace being short. So, my physical growth spurt was one of my obsessions for growing; it was just to be taller and I was obsessed with getting taller, so that was really where the obsession began. And the short of the long story is that I realized very quickly that just the external growth; and you know the metaphor here is that my growth was that of a physical nature. Going from being a shorter person to an average height person, but really what I learned in life is that it wasn’t about the growth of your bank account or how big the house was, or how big your cars were or how big your network was, it was really about this internal growth which happened for me when I started with what I consider to be the company that changed my life forever – which is the company where we met, which is Vector Marketing. And that was my second growth spurt and to me, that was my internal growth spurt. Where I knew that my growth had to be from within; and I became obsessed with learning and growing and changing my life. Really, change became the word that I built everything around. So I wanted to take everything that I didn’t love about my life, change that and turn into the person that I always wanted to be. So that was my obsession for growth and how it began early in my life and since then, it’s just been ongoing and persistent and it’s just what I know I was born to do.

GOOSE: Thanks Jon. Talk about persistence here; you’re an ultra marathon runner. Now for those who aren’t familiar, what is an ultra marathon Jon?

JV: Well, first let me clarify, Chris, that sometimes I’m ultra marathon walker. But anyway, an ultra marathon is really anything over a full complete marathon of 26.2 miles or I don’t know what that translates to in kilometers, but…

GOOSE: 40 k

JV: But either way, the two ultra marathons that I’ve completed have been 53 miles each.

GOOSE: So it’s back to back marathons.

JV: Correct.

GOOSE: That’s incredible. So obviously, that’s a big sign of persistence. Where did that come from? How did you get into something like that and why do you give yourself so much to something?

JV: Well, you know, my desire to be persistent; really, you could tie this very easily back into being very, very short. One of my favorite movies is Rudy and the movie is all about a guy who is really just short and wanted to play football and I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie Chris, but it’s incredible.

GOOSE: "Five foot nothing, a hundred and nothing doesn’t have one ounce of athletic ability, but he’s got heart…"

JV: And I was truly inspired be that movie. That’s a much longer story as well, but essentially, I was flat broke and my dad gave me a five dollar bill and said, I know you don’t have any money, but all I want you to do is go rent Rudy. And I did, and that was a turning point in my life. And what was consistent with that, was another gift that came from my father - who’s had a great deal of influence over me in my life - was a plaque that hung on his fathers’ wall. The plaque is titled "Persistence" and has a quote by Calvin Coolidge. It hangs in my office and as I speak to you at this moment, I’m looking at the plaque. It says, "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not, nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not, unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not, the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." And I just truly believe that in my life, anything that I wanted to accomplish or achieve, that persistence would be the number one skill that I would need to have in order to attain those goals. And so that’s really where the persistence developed in my life and since then, it’s just been showing up in different areas such as the running.

GOOSE: Cool, very cool. So, you’re a pretty busy guy Jon, I mean, between JV Group which we want to hear a little more in a second and for those who don’t know, you’re now engaged and I assume planning a wedding?

JV: That’s correct.

GOOSE: As well as the foundation? How do you maintain a balance in your life? You seem to be pretty well adjusted.

JV: Well, yes, sometimes. And sometimes it’s okay to not be where people call "being in balance". For me, that expression doesn’t necessarily mean that I put an hour into this specific subject every single day, and then everything is scripted out perfectly. I think that being in balance has a lot to do with being present with whatever it is you’re doing. For example, if you’re getting frustrated a lot or you’re stressed out, that you’re obviously not in balance. So for me, it’s about looking at the activities that I have every day and asking myself, how are they fitting into the big picture of my life. And sometimes, how I live each day to others might seem out of balance. I’ll work for hours and hours and hours on end. But then other times, I’ll take days off and I won’t work at all. But my balance comes from being "in line"; making sure that my activities are in line with my values. That my activities are in line with my goals in life and the things that are important to me like growth, contribution, you know, whatever they might be. The relationships with my friends, with Tatiana or my family, spending time with my niece. And if I can sit back and I can look at my life, and I can say honestly; hey, I’m really proud of that, then that’s balance. That process alone comes through just taking time to reflect or taking time to ask the questions. So balance really begins with taking a moment and asking yourself good questions to find out what it is that you want from your life. And that’s to me what balance is.

GOOSE: That’s fantastic. Okay, another question for you as far as the definition’s concerned. The term success gets tossed around a lot, means a lot of different things, it seems to change from decade to decade, for the Jon Vroman 2008 snapshot, what does success mean to you?

JV: Success is waking up every day and continuing to do what I love, and to do what I feel I was born to do. So when I can wake up, and I can grow personally, and I can share whatever it is that I’m learning with others, and I can give back and I can contribute, then that to me is success. Because sure, I have financial goals and I have goals of how fast I want to run this race or I have a goal of taking a vacation to this area, or a goal of reading X amount of books. And I would say that Chris, I probably don’t hit the majority of my goals, but what’s important, I think to me when it comes to feeling successful is to again, know that what I’m doing on a daily basis is aligned with who I am as an individual. I try to be the most authentic person that I can be. So I guess success ultimately then is being authentically you – that is success.

GOOSE: I like the laser focus on that, too. Those who don’t know, Jon Vroman signs his e-mails "Authentically, Jon"

JV: That’s one of my goals in life - to just be authentically myself, every day.

GOOSE: That’s fantastic. So, Jon, what advice could you give to someone listening regarding a book program or process that they might consider? I like to ask speakers, authors, coaches, if they have a most influential book or a book that they just can’t stop picking up and reading through again for the 44th time.

JV: Yes, I have quite a few of those books. You know, when it comes to authors or people that I would recommend; Matthew Kelly is one of my favorite authors. I picked up a book a while back which really sparked the idea of the ultra marathon that was called "The Ultra Marathon Man" by Dean Carnasis. He’s an incredible human being and the book – whether you’re a runner or not, is just a fantastic book and I recommend it to everybody. I’d happily recommend tons of other books, you know, I don’t even know where to end the process if I begin because there are so many that are great. But what I would say about, you know, creating success in whoever is listening to this; creating success in your life starting now, or developing the life, a different life. Maybe you’re not in a good place and you want to get to a good place or maybe you’re in a great place and you just want to get to the next level. But where ever you are, I’d say take time to think about where you want to be, who you are, what your life is about, what it’s going to be about. And I see most people never even take the time to do that. They spend more time planning a vacation than they do planning their life or thinking about their life. I would also say to choose a mentor. Take somebody around you, whoever it is - a boss, a friend, a parent, a, whomever, a spouse, somebody that you’ve heard on TV or whatever it might be, get somebody to listen to, and allow yourself to be guided by that person. Hey look, I don’t believe in everything that I learn from my mentors. I don’t follow blindly, but I know that if I can pick somebody who’s got a lot of the similar value that I have, I can follow or model their success and that’s something that many great people talk about. Standing on the shoulders of those before them and obviously, it helps us to grow from others. So I say, choose a mentor and then again, ask yourself careful questions; to make sure that you’re asking yourself "who am I, and what do I want in life?" Consistently do that and I think that everybody will find their most authentic version of themselves and also find fulfillment and happiness on a real, true, deep level.

Section 3: The JV Group

GOOSE: Thanks Jon. You mentioned choosing a mentor. Now I know recently you made the shift from going from an amateur mentor to somewhat of a professional mentor, if I could put it that way, maybe you could talk to us a little about JV Group and what it is you aim to do with that?

JV: Sure, yes, thanks for asking too. JV Group started when I thought about what had been the greatest influences in my life. What I came up with is that my environment, my group, and it was the people that I had surrounded myself with. I focused on changing my environment or reaching out to different people. I was getting all sorts of new ideas, and I was changing and growing at a pace that I was personally astounded by because I was around these amazing people. And so I personally believe that who’s in your group is one of the biggest questions that we can ever ask ourselves. So JV Group was really my group – the people that were around me. And that didn’t even have to be people that I knew personally, but it could be people that I was reading, the authors, the speakers that I was listening to – hey, they were part of my group. And so I started the JV Group thinking that this would be the personal growth company. Where I would speak, coach, write, and communicate in lots of different ways. Everything that I was taking in, processing, developing into my, creating as standards in my own life, and then I would make them unique and fun, change them into being a unique Jon Vroman style or the other people that work for the JV Group, their personal styles and what comes back out is something that’s new and different. Ultimately in the end Chris, if we can impact one person, (I think we all believe that we can impact one person), then we’ve done great work. I mean, if we could impact more – even better. So the JV Group is going to be a personal growth company that’s focused around yes, coaching, speaking, writing, and just sharing information to help others live their best life possible; their most authentic life possible.

GOOSE: You talk about standing on the shoulders of giants, Jon. I’m just reading here that over the last five years, that you’ve also become a senior leader with the Tony Robbins organization; where now you’re in a position to lead large teams of participants through various seminars; how’s that going so far?

JV: Well that has been a wonderful environment and again, I highly recommend it. It’s just a tremendous group of people. I’ve been through maybe eight or nine seminars at this point, of all different types, and pursued that environment because each time that I’m there I change, grow, and develop into a person that when I look into the mirror, I’m just even more proud of. So my way to contribute back to that environment was to become a leader in that organization and focus on giving back just as others had given to me. And so it’s a wonderful place to be and I truly am honored to be part of that team.

GOOSE: That’s very exciting. Well Jon, sounds like you’re up to a fair bit. As I mentioned before, Jon’s a passionate individual who definitely loves life, and lives it to the max; a guy who’s full of adventure and passion. Jon, we appreciate you coming in and sharing some of those thoughts with us. A last thought or message for our listeners?

JV: Keep growing. You know, my tag line of the JV Group is "Live to Grow"; and I would just say that I hope everybody lives to grow each and every day.

GOOSE: Beautiful. Well, thanks again Jon. This is Jon Vroman checking in from his office in Virginia Beach, Virginia and once again, we appreciate the time and wish you all the best with your future endeavors.

JV: Thank you Chris.