- PNC is proud to support "Business Forward," where community leaders discuss the issues confronting business in Central Illinois.

(uplifting music) - Welcome to "Business Forward."

I am your host, Matt George.

Joining me tonight, good friend of mine, Tom Bower.

Tom is the owner, and he started a business, Bower Communications, but he's done a lot more than that.

We're gonna get into that in a second.

Welcome, Tom.

- It's nice to be here.

- Well, I'm glad you're here, and I've known you for a long time, and I've always thought you were, I'm gonna just throw words at you, how I look at you and feel about you.

- Okay.

- Compassionate, funny, leadership, guru.

That's how I look at you.

- Funny, I've gotta brush up on funny.

- Well, right.

(both chuckle) But you always do have a little, you know, sometimes it's dry, but you always have some zingers in there, which bring, it brings a room down and to where you just calm people.

And I've always thought that's a talent.

- That's really good.

Thank you.

- Yep.

Well, welcome.

- Yeah.

- So let's start off with you.

Where are you from?

- Here, Peoria, Illinois.

- Okay, well, I love it.

- St. Francis.

- [Matt] St. Francis.

- Yeah.

- All right.

So where'd you go to school?

- I went to Peoria Richwoods, and then I graduated from there, and I went to Northwestern up in Evanston, Illinois.

And after that came the military.

This was Vietnam time.

Praise God, I was never dispatched to Vietnam.

- [Matt] Okay.

Matt, I served 18 months in France, and then I was sent from there for a year to Tripoli, Libya.

- [Matt] Hm.

- And then I had eight months to go, and they shipped me back to McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kansas.

- [Matt] We can handle Wichita, Kansas.

- That's right.

(both chuckling) If you get a chance to spend a year in Tripoli, Libya, don't go.

(both laughing) - There's the humor.

And don't worry about it.

- That's right.

- Well, I was gonna bring up your military experience 'cause I always find it in when you talk about leadership, when you talk about business.

And I always find it interesting.

And I had a conversation with John Beers.

- Sure.

- And John was in the Marines, and he talks about that everything from manners to attitude, to habits, all of those things are really instilled in you in the military no matter where you're at.

- Yes, sir.

- Did you feel the same?

- Exactly.

- [Matt] And then how it relates to business.

- It's probably the greatest experience of my life.

- Wow.

- Was that 3 1/2 years.

And everybody says, "Yeah, but what about your college experience?

You had the opportunity to go to Northwestern and all of this."

Couldn't touch what I learned in the military.

- [Matt] Wow.

- And make no mistake about it, this goes back to one of your words.

We had fun.

- [Matt] Yes.

You have to have fun.

- Yep.

- And it doesn't matter what it is.

I tell you, the older I get, the more I use that word.

- Yep.

- Because I think you start out in business, and you're grinding, and you wanna do well, and you're trying to get there for your family.

You're doing all this and everything.

And then there comes a point where you just have to sit there and take a step back and say, "You know what?

I need to have more fun while I'm doing this.

I'm taking this too serious," right?

- [Tom] Yep.

- And so just so people know, you're a management and personal business consultant, a speaker.

You're a writer, a builder, an enabler, a teacher.

You're a success coach, mentor.

But one thing I know about you that I like and I've heard you say, people in business are your business.

- That's right.

Amen.

- Is that your motto?

- Not precisely, but I might make it my motto.

- But then I just made it up.

People in business are his business.

- Are my business.

- It's your business.

- Yep.

- [Matt] You're a people guy.

- [Tom] Yeah.

- That is pretty cool.

- [Tom] Yeah.

- So we were gonna talk about resilience today.

- Okay.

- And I always love that word.

I actually, I talked to Larry Weinzimmer last year about the same word.

And I went into, believe it or not, I had a meeting with a team in December.

And I asked everybody on the team, there's 20 people on this team that I'm working with this project on, and I asked everybody, "I want one word that's gonna describe what you're going to do or what your path looks like for 2023."

And I'm not joking, mine was resilience.

And then we started talking.

- [Tom] Yep.

- And you bring up resilience.

- Yep.

- Crazy.

- Yep.

- But before we get into the business, I don't mean to interrupt you, but before we get into the business talk, I wanna talk about when I first met you, I met you through Rotary.

- [Tom] That's right.

- And Rotary North.

- [Tom] Mm-hm.

- Great, great club.

- [Tom] Yep.

- And when I was thinking about this last couple weeks talking to you, I've thought about not just the business side of Tom Bower, but the personal medical side.

And I was debating on whether to bring it up.

But in talking to you, it really goes to who you are and how you've beaten the odds and been resilient over the past.

I mean, we're talking in the '80s.

Is that correct?

- That's correct.

- Why don't you talk about that?

- I sure will.

'82 is when it all started.

One night, I went out for a run.

That was part of my style.

And I came home.

My wife is fixing dinner for the kids, and she said, "What's wrong with you?"

And I said, "Nothing.

I'm fine."

And she moved me over in front of a mirror, a floor-length mirror, and she said, "I want you to look at yourself.

And here's what I got, Matt.

- [Matt] Huh.

- And- - [Matt] You were shaking.

- Yeah, violently.

- Okay.

- And I had a couple beers, went to bed, figuring the next morning it'd all be fine.

It was worse.

And we staggered along for just a few days, and we did what everybody does.

We went to see the doctor.

And he got me on some high-powered muscle relaxer kind of things, which didn't- - Didn't do anything.

- Accomplish anything.

And here's where we began the trail.

I kept getting referred to neurological groups from Peoria to Iowa City, Milwaukee, Toledo, Pittsburgh, Raleigh-Durham, Kansas City, Kansas.

And I wound up, this makes perfect sense, at the Mayo Clinic.

And (sighs) they...

I'm sorry to hesitate.

- [Matt] That's okay.

- They had me at the conclusion of all the exams and everything, they had me in a conference room, maybe 15 or 20 doctors.

And of course my mind ran to, "Everybody's here 'cause they wanna look at the weirdo."

They looked at me and then kind of poked around a little bit.

And finally one of the nurses said, "Mr. Bower, here is what we're gonna do for the next steps."

And I listened, and I listened, and Matt George, I stood up, and I said, "Friends, there aren't gonna be any next steps.

I'm done.

I thank you.

You're great people."

And I turned, and I walked out.

I had exhausted myself and all of the alternatives that I thought I had, and we're still doing all of this kind of thing.

But I kind of think that all of us at some point have to take charge of what we are, who we are, take responsibility.

And my wife was out in the car, and I said, "Let's go home."

- Hm, that's strong.

But she's an angel.

- [Tom] She's been pretty good.

- Yeah, (chuckles) you're a lucky man.

- 52 years.

- [Matt] Like I said, she's an angel.

I know you are well enough.

- Yeah.

And from there, a lot of people have heard of Botox by this time.

Allergan Pharmaceutical in Orange County, California flew me out there.

And basically what they wanted me to do was to go to work for 'em.

They wanted me to help them sell this thing that they had called Botox.

It was their product.

And they shot me up here all over the place.

Not a fun morning.

- [Matt] Mm-hm.

- And the Botox worked brilliantly for a short period of time.

All of the shaking stopped.

- [Matt] Started subsiding.

- Yeah.

- Hm.

- And... - [Matt] And you were young.

- Yes, sir.

- I mean, you're in your late 30s, something like that.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- I've come to realize that neurology is tough medicine.

Everybody thinks that I had Parkinson's or have Parkinson's.

Not so.

Parkinson's is a distant cousin.

My problem is cervical dystonia.

Very few people, including the medical fraternity, are even familiar with cervical dystonia.

But the Botox quit working, and we just started all over again.

- Wow, and so let's fast-forward to these last few years because I knew you during those days.

- Yeah.

I, Matt, I was over at St. Francis, and I just happened to bump into an MD lady as I was going past the cafeteria.

And we stopped and chatted for a few minutes, and she said, "Let's go up to my office, and we can continue our conversation."

So we did.

And she said very casually to me, "So how you doing?"

And I said, "Oh, I'm okay."

And she said, "No, you're not."

That's become part of who I am, that little tidbit of conversation.

- Wow.

- Before I left her that afternoon, she had me enlisted in the neurology section down to Vanderbilt in Nashville.

And my wife and I went down there, and it didn't, It turned out okay, but I couldn't handle the drive.

They want you back in a week.

They want you back in two weeks after that.

Then they want you back in four days.

All perfectly fine, but I couldn't handle it.

- [Matt] Almost like you had to be down there.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- A friend of mine said, "Bower, for crying out loud, why didn't you rent an apartment?"

Well, I never thought of it.

But we wound up going to Northwestern Medical in Chicago right along the lake.

And I met a surgeon up there who talked to us, Joshua Rossman.

I believe that's right.

And he explained what they wanted to do for me and to me.

Awful tough, basically brain surgery.

- [Matt] Right.

- DBS, deep brain surgery or stimulation.

And the course is two surgeries.

We were up there, and then we were back in two weeks, and they did the other side.

And even the nurses are saying to me, "What happened to you?"

And I said, "Well, I've had the DBS surgery, I guess."

And they contended that, they said, "Nobody improves this much this quick."

And I said, "Well, I don't know anything about that, but-" - And you don't care because now- - Yeah.

- You're feeling better.

- Some other things have followed.

But who cares?

- [Matt] Who cares?

- I'm seizing your words here.

You can't overwhelm me.

I... - Well, so let's just transition just a little here.

- Yeah.

- Because I always think these past few years, now you take these real-life experiences.

I mean, you went through, let's just put it bluntly, heck.

I won't say it on here.

- Ta-dah.

- But you went through it resilient as can be.

You're gritty as can be, stubborn.

But you can now take all of that and use that in your coaching.

And you're the type of guy that never, you're never gonna stop.

- That's right.

- I mean, as long as you're going, you're going.

- [Tom] Yep.

- So your message and your strategies now that when you motivate students, and you work with nonprofit leaders, I heard you before coming into the show.

You're setting up another lunch.

You're constantly on the move, but you're constantly teaching.

- Well, that's kind of you.

That's- - Mentoring.

- Yeah.

- [Matt] I love it.

- It's become part of my DNA.

- [Matt] It is your DNA.

- I love at this point where I've been.

I mean that, and I love where I'm going.

- [Matt] I love it.

- I'm asked to speak from time to time, and I do a leadership forum once a year.

Kind enough to know the manager at the Peoria Country Club, and he said, "Bower, why don't you have your forum out here?"

And I said, "Gee whiz."

- [Matt] That's awesome.

- So for the last six years, we've had the forum, and forum's a discussion, Matt.

It's your contribution, your contribution.

And we sit and talk, and we talk business, but we also talk just as you and I have done about what has made you the man that you are.

And there I get into my conversation in the hall at the hospital, and she took me to her office and said, "No, you're not."

- Isn't that amazing?

- Yeah.

- I love that.

- The forum is something that's special.

- [Tom] Thank you.

- And I have always loved it.

I've loved taking future leaders, or that's not a good term, leaders, and making them better leaders.

- [Matt] Yes sir.

- That's a good way of putting it.

And everybody that, I keep interrupting, I'm sorry.

Everybody that comes out of it loves it.

- Yeah.

And you've been kind enough to have the children's home participate.

Most recent was Tessa, and I love that girl.

- She's- - She's delightful.

- [Matt] She's very, very sharp.

- Yeah.

- So when you talk about leader's path, and I know we have a slide, when you talk about leader's path, why don't you explain the leader's path?

- [Matt] I'll be happy to.

Can we somehow- - [Matt] No, it's on the screen.

- [Tom] Oh, is it?

- Yep, go ahead.

- Thank you.

Okay, I need to put my glasses back on here.

- [Matt] You don't have to look at it.

Just talk.

- Okay.

We all live our lives basically from point A to point B, which is to say we follow a fairly standard script.

We graduate from college.

We may do the military.

We may not.

We may do graduate school.

We may do PhD work.

We begin a career.

Very often we marry and have children.

That's exactly what I did.

And you just go along from point A to point B.

And sooner or later, something is going to happen.

This is part of us.

- [Matt] Could be anything.

- [Tom] Yeah.

We hit B, and we get thrown down in the ditch.

That's my language.

And this could be, we got fired from a job.

- [Matt] Divorce.

- [Tom] Divorce is a good one, a death in the family.

All- - Medical.

- Absolutely, a whole family of things.

And so we're down in the ditch, which is C, and people fight and scratch and kick to get back up to where they were, which is point D. And they continue doing the same thing to which I say I'm sorry, that's not good enough.

- [Matt] That's right.

- And if you're willing to take the hard things that come along, become resilient enough to start to wonder what could be, and you can do this at age 50, 55.

- [Matt] There's no age tied to this.

- Absolutely, none at all.

You can come out of the ditch and climb higher than where you've ever been, and that's point F. And you can continue your life in the F, G range, again at a level that you've never known was even possible.

And so that's one reason that I say I'm okay.

- Yeah.

- I'm not hurt.

- [Matt] Yeah.

- I get up every morning and shower and shave and used to wear a neck tie every day.

But we don't do that anymore all the time.

- [Matt] Isn't that crazy?

- And I continue my path, F, G. And one of the results of the things that we have done with FG has been the leadership forum.

And I would just tell you we do that once a year.

And I've had the opportunity to enlist some co-facilitators with myself for the forum.

Those people- - [Matt] They're special.

And I know who some of 'em are.

- Yeah.

- And when someone goes through the forum, I like to describe it as this.

It's a leadership life think tank.

- You're a good guy.

That's right, that's what it is.

- I mean, that's what it is because it's not just getting better in business.

That's a piece of it.

It's that point, you know, You don't wanna stay status quo.

It's getting up to F, like you say.

- [Tom] Yeah, yeah.

- But there's also the personal piece, and I think a lot of times in business, people forget the personal piece.

The personal piece is actually the most important piece.

A lot of times when it comes to your family, your inner soul, your beliefs, your faith, whatever it may be, that's really the circle that drives your business.

- You're right on.

That's really good.

You start to understand that your old priorities kind of drift away.

- [Matt] Yeah.

- All of a sudden, you realize that your wife is a wonderful person or that your kids are God's gift to your marriage.

You start to understand one of my favorite things.

If a dad and a son want to do something together, all you gotta do is just grab a baseball and a couple of gloves, go out in the backyard, and play catch.

- [Matt] Yes.

- You don't have to have a bat.

You don't have to have dugouts, nothing.

And I've started a lot of people down the course of going to the backyard and playing catch with their son.

You don't have to be 60 feet away.

Not none of that matters.

- [Matt] It doesn't matter.

- It's the idea that you're doing that.

Keep it simple.

- [Matt] Keep it simple.

- And pretty soon you're gonna find out that maybe there's some things about your son that you never knew before.

Also, it doesn't matter if it's a little girl.

Little girls can throw a baseball as well as I can.

- Yeah, I don't think you wanna mess with my daughter Izzy on any sport right now.

- [Tom] That's right.

- She's pretty tough.

(both laugh) - Really good.

- Well, I love that.

I love that.

It's kind of like the "Field of Dreams" visual.

- Yes sir.

- And you, you're a baseball fan.

I'm a baseball fan.

And it's funny because I was just down with my dad, and my son plays 11U baseball, and he can throw the ball pretty hard.

And two years ago, my dad kind of, We're on the beach, and my dad kind of picks up a stick and acts like he's in the batter's box.

And my son, you know, he throws the ball.

Let's say it's 50 or whatever.

And right down the middle, my dad goes, "You know what, I'm gonna go back to my chair.

I mean, this is a little too fast for me."

And it's funny because every day, I like to play ball or I like to sit there and play a game or tease him or make, you know.

And I think that's life.

I wasn't like that.

I'm a better dad now- - Yes.

- At age 52.

- [Tom] There you are.

- Than I was at 25.

- You're way out of the ditch.

- I'm out of the ditch.

- You're at the upper level.

- Yeah.

- Yep.

And I would say, as you suggested, you're going to enjoy business like you never have before.

You're writing your second book, Matt George.

Where did that come from?

All of these things.

You're going to Harvard for crying out loud.

- Let me read something real quick 'cause we're coming towards the end: "Tom Bower changes the quiet, stagnant, quote, same-as-yesterday individuals into effective leaders from executives, entrepreneurs, education professionals to healthcare providers, those in volunteer organizations, small businesses.

He transforms B producers into A.

Whether it be one-on-one or a focus group, Tom inspires, 'The most important person in the room is not me.

It's you,'" Chuck Stoner, a friend of yours.

Tom Bower, thank you for coming on.

I appreciate.

That was a fast 30 minutes.

I'm gonna have you back on, and we're gonna talk again about resilience.

I loved it.

I love what you do in the community.

It chokes me up talking about it because I love you as a guy, too.

So, thank you.

- You're a great guy.

- I'm Matt George, and this is another episode of "Business Forward."

(gentle upbeat music) - Thank you for tuning in to "Business Forward," brought to you by PNC.