Johnny Berguson Trained a Trick Horse, Borrowed $500, and Built a Company That Serves 250,000 Churches

Anthony Codispoti (00:00)

Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories Podcast, where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome adversity. As you listen today, let one idea shape what you do next. My name is Anthony Kotuspodi, and today's guest borrowed $500, trained an Arabian trick horse to perform at rodeos, recorded his lessons onto cassette tapes.

And that led to him building one of the largest church audiovisual suppliers in North America. His name is Johnny Burgesson. He is the founder and president of Kingdom Inc., an audiovisual supply and media production company he started in 1980. Kingdom has twice appeared on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private companies in America and was ranked among the top 1,000 e-retailers in North America.

They have served over 250,000 churches and ministries around the world. The company produces proprietary microphone lines, custom duplication equipment, websites, apps, and full digital production services, all built around one mission: helping faith communities reach more people. But before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is brought to you by my company, Ad Back Benefits Agency. And you'll want to hear this because it's hurting almost every business you know.

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All right, back to our guest today, the founder of Kingdom Inc., Johnny Burgessen. Thanks for making the time to share your story today.

Johnny Berguson (02:24)

it's so good to be here with you.

Anthony Codispoti (02:26)

So,

Johnny, you started training horses when you were 13 years old. You would eventually create a horse training cassette course. Walk me back to that time. Where did the idea for that course come from? How did the product actually get made? And in those early days, how were you selling and distributing the product?

Johnny Berguson (02:46)

Okay, well it started when I was thirteen years old. I was riding my horse at a gallop through open fields, and suddenly one of my reins came unfastened. And I said, Steady, my horse flowed to a slow lope, and I said, Whoa, and he stopped. So I thought maybe I could teach my horse to work without a bridle, bridle bit of reins. And so I started training him. Next thing I knew.

He'd do anything any other horse would do without a bridle on.

Anthony Codispoti (03:20)

Okay.

Johnny Berguson (03:21)

And

Anthony Codispoti (03:21)

And and that's a big deal 'cause most horses they they they're coached, they're taught to to use that as part of their, I don't know, feedback mechanism. That's how they know what you want them to do.

Johnny Berguson (03:32)

Right, right. And so it amazed people what my horse would do. And somebody s well, somebody saw me out back of my dad's house. I was, you know, just riding my horse. And he said, you know, you should take that horse to a horse show. So I did. And before anybody could stop me, I took him to a trail class without bridal bit of reins. That's an obstacle course in the trail class.

And I was disqualified for lack of a suitable Western head stall. But people who organized the show said, Would you like to show what your horse does during intermission? So I'd performed a little exhibition during intermission. And a fellow who had a rodeo nearby heard about it, and he asked if I'd come show what my horse would do at his rodeo. And

I just kept getting asked more and more places and every place I would go I would teach my horse a couple more tricks.

Anthony Codispoti (04:37)

Okay. And then how did the idea come about to take what you had taught your horse and teach other people how to teach that to their horses?

Johnny Berguson (04:46)

Well, I was trying to teach someone to train their own horse. And

We moved out of town. We were about 40 miles away from where they lived, and so I would write letters and tell them in the letters what to do. And and I'd call on the phone sometimes, but it seemed to work pretty well. And then when I was I was actually out of work and couldn't find a job and

I thought I should put out an audio cassette course on horse training. My wife said you can do it if you want to, but it will never ever make us a living. And I couldn't imagine it making us a living. But I was praying and reading my Bible one day and I read the verse in Proverbs in all labor there is profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. So I came running to my wife and

And I showed her I says, Look, in all labor there is profit. I'm going to start the horse training tapes.

Anthony Codispoti (05:57)

Okay, so give us just a little insight. What was it in the training? What what how were you teaching people to to use their horses in a way that was non-traditional?

Johnny Berguson (06:09)

Well, I train horses according to biblical principles for child rearing. And you know, he who bears the rod hates his son. He who disciplines him diligently,

Loved him. Now I didn't abuse my horse in any way. As a matter of fact, I would throw up my riding whip and my horse would go get it. He would fetch like a dog. And he knew that I he I wasn't gonna do anything I shouldn't with it.

Anthony Codispoti (06:44)

Okay. And so the the whip is how you were training a and the horses responding to the whip or to verbal

Johnny Berguson (06:50)

Well, I would use the whip like

an extension of my arm and I would just touch him places and show him what I wanted him to do when I was training him.

Anthony Codispoti (07:00)

Okay. yeah.

Johnny Berguson (07:01)

I would get him to pick up his foot, in other words, to kneel, I would tap him on the foot and he would pick up his one hoof, I'd then do the other one, and I did them back and forth really close together until he finally knelt down.

And I just used it like an extension of my arm, telling him what I wanted him to do.

Anthony Codispoti (07:25)

Got it. Okay. So you see this verse in Proverbs. It gives you the inspiration, the motivation that you're going to move forward with this. And so then what was your next move? How did you begin to advertise this?

Johnny Berguson (07:37)

Well, I bought some little one inch ads and some horse magazines. I couldn't afford anything else. And so I bought little one inch ads and horse magazines and I had a picture of my horse sitting down and I had I'd already been on the seven hundred club television program and I had a very interesting photo of my horse sitting down. And so there was my horse sitting down that was taken by a seven hundred club.

club photographer and

I said, you can train your own horse, Western English tricks, and free book, and just gave an address because I couldn't say that much about it. And the free book convinced people they could train their own horse. And I told them all about my horse training tapes, and that's how we got started.

Anthony Codispoti (08:33)

That's

how you got started. How did you get on the seven hundred T V show?

Johnny Berguson (08:37)

Well, that's rather interesting. I wrote them and to see if they could transfer a videotape that I'd had. my horse and I had been at the Nebraska State Fair, my previous horse, and we'd been and there was a very professional video that they'd done. We were at the in their fair coliseum and we did

My wife and I weren't married at that time, but and I had a different horse.

And we had a really professional video of my horse. My horse will do all kinds of things. And so I just wrote to them. I didn't realize what a big deal the 700 Club was. I just wrote them a handwritten letter and said, Would you be able to transfer a videotape for me? And would I be able to pay you to do this? And the next thing I knew, I was being asked to be on the 700 Club with my next horse.

But and I said he's not even trained yet. I'm just in the process of training him. So I was on the seven hundred club with my horse Sheik a couple days before he was technically three years old. And he'd do just about anything any other horse would do without a bridle.

Anthony Codispoti (10:10)

Got it. Okay.

Johnny Berguson (10:10)

Well otherwise we

do with right, he'd do without.

Anthony Codispoti (10:13)

So you get on the 700 Club TV show, you start buying these small one-inch ads, you're getting some momentum. At what point did the idea come about where you started to include a free cassette alongside the horse training course that included your spiritual testimony, basically your story of finding God and what that relationship meant to you? Where did the idea come from?

Johnny Berguson (10:39)

That was always part of the horse training course, a free tape that had my Christian testimony. And that idea came from a college professor I had had. He suggested that I might want to consider someday using my horse to spread the gospel. And I didn't really know how I would do that.

but he just suggested it to me and so I never forgot that.

Anthony Codispoti (11:10)

Okay, at what point were you really starting to gain traction with these training tapes?

Johnny Berguson (11:16)

right from the start. We just it just really worked. I later read that what we did was impossible. If we made a profit right from day one.

Anthony Codispoti (11:32)

And

people were just so intrigued because you you hooked them with this free book, right? So they get this

Johnny Berguson (11:37)

Right.

Anthony Codispoti (11:37)

free book and and the book has what? Just sort of like an outline of what they'll get in the course that encourages them to make the full purchase.

Johnny Berguson (11:43)

Yes, that's an outline of what they'll learn

to do and that they will be able to do it.

Anthony Codispoti (11:48)

Okay. and

Johnny Berguson (11:50)

Bill.

Anthony Codispoti (11:50)

were you getting feedback, whether it was positive or negative, about the spiritual testimony tape that you included?

Johnny Berguson (11:57)

I got all kinds of feedback. Four to four anywhere from four to six people a month would contact me and tell me that they had received Jesus as their Lord and Savior because of the horse training tapes. I don't know how many people didn't contact me and tell me, but that went on for about fifteen years.

Anthony Codispoti (12:21)

Okay, so talk to me about how the shift from selling horse training tapes to supplying products to church churches unfolds.

Johnny Berguson (12:31)

Well, I started supplying churches with blank cassette tapes just to try to save them some money. And my wife said to me, Why are you doing this after about six months? Because I had

We'd sold about eighty thousand cassette tapes and didn't have in money to speak of this and my wife says, Why are you doing this? I says, if we can sell enough cassette tapes, we'll make a lot of money. And so I wanted to I was just trying to save churches money and so I sold the things very inexpensively.

Anthony Codispoti (13:16)

We're talking about audio cassette tapes, not VHS or videotapes.

Johnny Berguson (13:18)

Right, audio test okay.

Anthony Codispoti (13:20)

Okay. Okay. So you start to get some traction with that and at what point do you start expanding into some other products?

Johnny Berguson (13:28)

Well

I made some other products. This is

I made some other products right from the start. I mean, I made something called Parables for Children. I would when I would go places with my horse to perform, I would tell some stories that illustrated a spiritual truth. And I mean I had the stories like The Pig Who Lived in a Castle, Murder Murce Miracle Medicine. They were just really intriguing sounding stories.

And I take two or three minutes to tell these stories and they all illustrated a spiritual truth.

Anthony Codispoti (14:16)

So you started your business kingdom in the basement of your home in Blastburg, Pennsylvania. Sounds like you were profitable right from the start, but did you need additional capital to fund your growth or was it all being funded from the profits and the sales of your business as it grew?

Johnny Berguson (14:38)

Well, the first cassette tapes, blank cassette tapes we started selling, I had

There used to be card deck advertising. You would get these little card decks in the mail, and they'd have maybe forty to sixty cards in them, and there'd be a every card would have a different advertiser. And a place called Faithful Response Cards contacted me because they saw one of my ads on the back cover of Christian Life magazine. I was trying to sell my

Parables for children. And when I bought that remnant space from I always tried to buy remnant space because it was cheaper. And when I bought that ad, it did something amazing. It sold exactly what the ad cost me, which meant I had to give away free product. But this place called Faithful Response Card.

Thought there's a big advertiser. I'll see if they'll advertise with us. And so they contacted me and I asked them if they had any remnant space or leftover space they hadn't sold. And could I buy it cheap? Or would they want to do something per inquiry? Well, they did one card with me on a per inquiry basis. And then they contacted me just before they went to press and said, we have one other card that.

we can sell you real cheap. We'll just sell it to you for our our cost of the paper because otherwise we're going to have to throw that card away. And they told me that they didn't I told them I think I should offer some blank cassette tapes there. And they said they says, you can buy blank cassette tape, blank audio cassettes anywhere.

You can buy them in any department store. You can buy them in any town. They're everywhere. And it said you'll you'll that will never work. So I put the Parables for Children on one side of the card and I didn't have a business reply card, so I thought I'll just offer some blank tapes on the back. Well, the place got mixed up.

And they ran my ad backwards. They put the blank cassette tapes on the front. I never told them. But you know what happened? In two weeks' time, I had orders for 5,000 blank cassette tapes, and I had to go to a bank to get a loan so that I could fill all the COD orders. We didn't take credit cards, and I had all these orders for COD tapes.

And I

Anthony Codispoti (17:45)

So for

for those people listening, who, you know, maybe a little bit on the younger side, COD is cash on demand, right? And so explain how that worked.

Johnny Berguson (17:52)

Right.

Well, I would send them out and they'd go through the post office or UPS. I sent them out UPS actually. And when you send it C O D, they would then pay the UPS driver, you know, w like two ninety-five or whatever, plus two forty seven shipping and handling or something like that. And

Anthony Codispoti (18:20)

So I I have to ask because I I agree with what you were being told, like nobody you can buy blank cassette tapes anywhere, right? You know, probably

Johnny Berguson (18:28)

Right.

Anthony Codispoti (18:29)

the grocery stores back then, I don't remember, but certainly like Radio Shack. Like, why do you think people were responding to your ad and and doing COD and waiting for them to come through the mail?

Johnny Berguson (18:40)

Because I was selling them in bulk and cheap.

Anthony Codispoti (18:44)

These were lower prices than what they could find if they were to go to a retailer. Okay.

Johnny Berguson (18:47)

Yes. Yes.

Anthony Codispoti (18:49)

So you took out this loan from the banks that you could buy, you know, the five thousand or so cassette tapes that, you know, you had people had ordered. how quickly were you able to pay off that loan?

Johnny Berguson (19:01)

as soon as the COD orders came in. It wasn't Right. Right.

Anthony Codispoti (19:04)

So a matter of weeks? Yeah. Okay.

Johnny Berguson (19:08)

Matter of like two weeks.

Anthony Codispoti (19:11)

Okay, so let's let's zoom out, Johnny. Looking at present day, tell people what Kingdom Inc. does and who it serves.

Johnny Berguson (19:19)

Okay, we manufacture our own brand of pre-filled communion cups. We have designed all kinds of pulpits. We have our own brand of wireless microphones. We also sell all the major brands. And what I found was is that the if we would compete one of our products against a major brand.

We would sell more of both. I would compete them, and no matter which one sold, we won and the manufacturer won.

Anthony Codispoti (19:57)

I I wanna understand this better because you know, you guys have ended up serving over two hundred and fifty thousand churches and ministries like we talked about in the intro. But you can find so many things so easily online now. Why are these churches and these ministries coming to you, Johnny, at kingdom.com versus going to any other online retailer that they could go to?

Johnny Berguson (20:22)

Well, we have a lot of very loyal customers. And they can go someplace else, but they can't go someplace else that will care as much about them as we will. we care about our customers. It's my goal to never, ever, ever lose a customer because of poor customer service. And I instill that into our salespeople thoroughly.

Anthony Codispoti (20:52)

Talk more about that, the customer service training and the kind of support that your customers get from Kingdom.

Johnny Berguson (21:01)

Well, we once made a mistake on a job we were printing and

We had we're we're in Pennsylvania and this was for s they were having a special event. This church was, and I I paid for somebody to take this these cassette labels, you know, like maybe a nineteen dollar and ninety-five cent job, to drive three hundred and twenty miles round trip.

to deliver them the same day to Buffalo, New York. We would also arrange for I'd have someone go to the airport and put things on a plane and arrange that people could get to pick up their product at an airport. If we'd made a mistake, we'd try to do whatever we could to rectify it.

Anthony Codispoti (22:10)

Even if it meant you were going to lose money on that order, a lot of money on that order.

Johnny Berguson (22:12)

Yes, yes, yes.

Anthony Codispoti (22:15)

Yeah. Okay. you mentioned that you have your own lines of certain products. I know one of them is a your kingdom microphones. You guys

Johnny Berguson (22:26)

Yes.

Anthony Codispoti (22:26)

have, you know, built and engineered this. I'm and I'm curious, is it is this like a path towards better margins? Is there something that your products do that the other products out there don't?

What's the differentiator here?

Johnny Berguson (22:42)

They're cheaper for the same quality.

We cut out a lot of the middlemen.

Anthony Codispoti (22:50)

Got it. And you do this with multiple product lines, right? You've got the microphones,

Johnny Berguson (22:55)

Yes.

Anthony Codispoti (22:56)

you've got your duplication equipment. what else?

Johnny Berguson (23:01)

We have video cameras, we have camcorders, we also have robotic cameras, our own line. We sell everybody else's too. But we try to have our own line of anytime I see an opportunity, I take it. And my wife is an excellent, excellent manager, and so she manages our business, and together we make a great team.

Anthony Codispoti (23:28)

Yeah. did you envision yourself being a businessman when you first got started with all this?

Johnny Berguson (23:35)

No. I did I thought it would take me away from ministry. I was traveling with my horse, going all over the country, being at horse shows, fairs, and rodeos, and presenting a brief gospel message every place we went. And we'd been on the 700 Club, things like that, and I did not want to go into business.

And it was sort of forced upon

Anthony Codispoti (24:00)

Yet here you are.

Johnny Berguson (24:02)

us when suddenly in one week's time every place that was scheduled to go for the entire rest of the year called up and canceled. Every place we were supposed to go. We were supposed to go to a mega church. Their thing was canceled. We were supposed to go to a horse show.

in the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum and supposed to be twenty-five thousand people a day there for a week and I don't know how maybe you know twelve hundred two thousand horses the whole event got canceled. I was supposed to be there with my horse for a week and they wanted me to help judge the horse show as well as perform an exhibition and

The whole event got canceled. We were supposed to go to small places, tiny churches, big ones. Every place we were gonna go for the whole rest of the year called up and cancelled. And I said, Lord, this is not normal. And that's when I was out of work and couldn't find a job.

Anthony Codispoti (25:12)

Got it. Okay. So all of these things get canceled. All these doors

Johnny Berguson (25:16)

Yes.

Anthony Codispoti (25:16)

seem to be closed. but you found a window to go through instead. The

window of opportunity.

Johnny Berguson (25:21)

Right. And that

a after after we got the business started, I started getting phone calls and I could travel with my horse again.

Anthony Codispoti (25:32)

Okay. So you guys have made the Inc. five hundred list of fastest growing private companies, not once but twice.

Johnny Berguson (25:41)

Yes.

Anthony Codispoti (25:43)

I want to better understand how the growth has continued to happen.

Johnny Berguson (25:50)

Well, to make that list it's over a five year period, so it's exponential if you do it more than once. Because you have to do exponential to what you've already done. And we actually would have made it three times, it's just they didn't know about us the very first time.

Anthony Codispoti (26:11)

Okay. But what are you guys doing?

Are you great at marketing? I've heard the attention to customer service and certainly that can help with word of mouth and helps with customer retention. But what else has fueled this growth for you in the past?

Johnny Berguson (26:25)

Well, I believe God has blessed us, but

And our salespeople are very, very committed to their customers. We care about them. They will they don't have to be a Christian to be to work at Kingdom, but most of them are. And if they're not, they're our mission field. We hire anybody and everybody that can do the job. And many of our salespeople will pray with their customers if our customers need prayer. I mean, where can you go and find that?

Anthony Codispoti (27:02)

So you attract the best of the best.

Johnny Berguson (27:04)

We try.

Anthony Codispoti (27:06)

Yeah. the cassette tape business, the CD, the DVD era, streaming apps, now you're in digital production. You know, you've been in business so long, over 40 years now, that you've had to completely reinvent what Kingdom does and what you sell multiple times. As you think about those different transitions that the company has made along the way, what was the most challenging of them and how did you navigate it?

Johnny Berguson (27:36)

Going from analog to digital, because when it went from audio cassette tapes to CDs, you couldn't put the C D in a player and have it start up in the same place. And then later when they made players that would start up in the same place, if you took it to a different player, like from your car to in the house, you had to start out all over again.

And so that was a

That was a difficult

Anthony Codispoti (28:13)

But i that's sort of a limitation of the technology. Is there anything for you guys

Johnny Berguson (28:16)

Right.

Anthony Codispoti (28:17)

to be able to do to remedy that?

Johnny Berguson (28:21)

yes, and that's in a new patent pending product that we have under development right now. And we we intend to saturate the word of God all over Tayoka County, Pennsylvania, and then all over Seminole County, which is Sanford, Florida, and then Austin, Texas, and then we intend to go to the entire country with it.

And I can't really say what it is, but it's a way that we can do this. And I hope that you know, maybe maybe six months or a year from now you have me back on the program to tell about it. I'm hoping it's going to be such a big thing that everyone will wanna know about it.

Anthony Codispoti (29:08)

Okay, so you can't tell us what it is and I understand why, but what is going to be the end function for the user? That they'll be able to take their C D or their D V D from one device, put it in another device, and it picks back up at the same place? Or am I misunderstanding?

Johnny Berguson (29:25)

It's better than that.

Anthony Codispoti (29:26)

Better than that. Okay. What a great teaser. All right, we're gonna have to have you back because I'm on the edge of my seat. I want to know more about it.

Johnny Berguson (29:36)

Yes, well, I would love to tell you about it, but my wife says I can't because she's talking to the attorneys about it and we just can't say anything much more about it.

Anthony Codispoti (29:48)

Totally understand.

Yeah. I so I want to talk. Obviously, it's become clear that, you know, your faith is a big part of you, of what drives you, of what fuels the business. you know, the I talked to a lot of business owners on the show, and many of them are strong in their respective faiths. not all of them sort of present in such a unified way that you do.

Some

people they prefer to keep their professional side professional and their spiritual side more on the personal side of things and not kind of let them bleed in. There's a concern that you may turn some people off, you may offend them. but that's not been your approach. And I'm curious if it's ever cost you anything or if you've only found that it's helped to fuel you and the business in a positive way.

Johnny Berguson (30:42)

No, it has it has cost things occasionally, rarely, I would get someone who returned the horse training tapes because they said, This I don't I don't like the Bible stuff here. This is not what what I wanted. people I re still remember somebody wrote me a letter and wanted to make certain that the 700 club wasn't gonna get any of the money.

that I was that they had sent me for the horse training course. And I said, you don't say that when you go to the grocery store. And I said, I said, this is not, I said, if I make money off your product, I'm entitled to do whatever I want with it. This is not specifically going to fund the 700 club, but I do support them.

I support many ministries and organizations.

Anthony Codispoti (31:43)

Mm. Interesting.

Johnny Berguson (31:46)

And

it also it also cost one of our largest sales ever for robotic video cameras.

Anthony Codispoti (31:56)

How so? What happened there?

Johnny Berguson (31:58)

Well, we had the sale all lined up and people somebody saw something somewhere and th decided they didn't like what we stood for and decided to cancel their order. They'd already placed the order. But that's uncommon.

Anthony Codispoti (32:19)

They didn't they didn't realize

that you were standing on a foundation of faith, even though they're looking at kingdom dot com.

Johnny Berguson (32:29)

I don't think they understood exactly what our foundation of faith was. We believe Jesus Christ literally rose from the dead. And I don't care what Christian church you go to, they're all teaching the same thing. Maybe a little bit different, but it's essentially the same message. And I

I don't know how you can get away from being who you are. Anyone who wants to be, I mean with me, what you see is what you get.

Anthony Codispoti (33:10)

Yeah. Do you still send out the your spiritual testimony with every order?

Johnny Berguson (33:17)

Well not with every order, because

We have orders for all kinds of things.

Anthony Codispoti (33:26)

Does it still go in select orders, or is it still part of your process at all?

Johnny Berguson (33:29)

yeah, yeah. We

we don't we I don't sell a lot of horse training.

I s I don't think I sell any of the horse training tapes today, but I put the horse training tapes on the C Ds and I send that out and if you somebody orders that they would get a free C D with my Christian testimony on it.

Anthony Codispoti (33:56)

Got it. But it doesn't so when you made the transition from selling the horse training tapes into the bigger business line, at some point you migrated away from including that testimonial tape with every order that went out.

Johnny Berguson (34:12)

Well that that was because that order was appropriate for those those things. I mean if somebody orders a microphone or if someone orders pre-filled communion cups,

You know, maybe I should.

Anthony Codispoti (34:35)

I'm not

here to plan ideas, just ask the questions. so you know, I I want to talk about the size and the scale that you guys have gotten to, because most people who start a company, you know, would think, hey, if I got a few hundred clients, like that's dynamite. Like I I've got I've built a really nice business, but you've t built something that's touched a quarter of a million ministries.

I

what's the thing about how you approach this market that most people in a similar space maybe have not picked up on or they've gotten wrong?

Johnny Berguson (35:12)

Well, I d can't tell you what anybody else is doing wrong, but I can tell you what we I think are doing right. We truly, truly care about our customers, and my goal is to give you the best customer service you've ever gotten from any company ever. We we just we care about you and we want you to get what you pay for, and

I really have instilled that into everybody in our company. Whether you're Christian or not, we give good customer service.

Anthony Codispoti (35:53)

So aside from the patented product that you guys are working on that I'm super intrigued by, what does the future of Kingdom look like? What are the growth plans? What is left undone? What do you still want to do?

Johnny Berguson (36:08)

I don't know. I don't know what's left to do. We keep seeing. Every time I see an opportunity, I try to take it.

And

Tell me an opportunity. If it's an opportunity, I want to take it. I think that's what an entrepreneur is. He tries to see an opportunity and take it.

Anthony Codispoti (36:33)

When you think about opportunities and you evaluate them, what does your filter look like? Does it have to be something that is supporting specifically churches and ministries? How do you think about it?

Johnny Berguson (36:48)

I don't think about it that way. I said I think about will this help people? If this will help you, I'd like to provide it for you. We our local courthouse has their microphones and things like that for transcribing the court cases. They got their equipment from Kingdom. there's we have products on aircraft carriers. We have products

Everywhere.

Anthony Codispoti (37:21)

Do you have specific government contracts or people just come to you and find the site naturally?

Johnny Berguson (37:26)

No, well we

yeah, yeah. No, we we do have some government contracts, but that's not the majority of our business.

Anthony Codispoti (37:34)

Yeah. Wanna shift gears.

Johnny Berguson (37:37)

The majority of

our business is

People mostly churches,

Anthony Codispoti (37:44)

Majority. Okay.

Johnny Berguson (37:46)

Christian people, and other people.

Anthony Codispoti (37:49)

So it's B to B as well as B to C. You're selling

Johnny Berguson (37:52)

Yes.

Anthony Codispoti (37:52)

both to businesses and to customers. Yeah. And

Johnny Berguson (37:54)

Mm. Yes.

Anthony Codispoti (37:55)

what is your marketing efforts look like today?

Johnny Berguson (38:00)

We send out a ton of emails. I mean a ton of this. We also still put out a physical catalog. it used to go out monthly plus some other catalogs. now it goes out nine or ten times a year, the physical catalog. And we also you know have a website. We have at kingdom.com, we have

We d we just

We mark it in every way we can.

Anthony Codispoti (38:37)

And I know the company's gotten to a size now, Johnny, where you don't have your hands in every single little thing that's going on, but I'm curious if you're aware of any ways in which your team is using AI and their efforts today.

Johnny Berguson (38:53)

My wife is using it every day. And she's managing our company and she tr takes a look at things to see if

There's a better way.

Anthony Codispoti (39:08)

Yeah. Sounds like she's a great manager. So you're the visionary. You're the one that's always looking for the opportunities. And then Juanita is the one that she's the executor. She makes it all happen. Yeah. That it sounds like you're a great combo there. Great team. I want to switch gears on you for a moment, Johnny. And I'd like to hear from you what was the hardest thing you've ever had to overcome personally, and what did it teach you?

Johnny Berguson (39:34)

that's easy. Panic attacks. I suffered from debilitating panic attacks for over twenty years and I did everything I could think of to get over them. And I finally eventually went to see a psychologist. I mean I saw many psychologists over the years, and I saw pastors and had

One pastor told me, Well the fearful and unbelieving will have their part in the lake of fire. That didn't help any. And I

I finally saw.

a psychologist who is also an episcopal priest.

And he told me that I had done everything that he knows of that I should do to get better, and I hadn't overcome them. And he says, I think you have a physical problem. And he sent me to see his doctor, and he discovered that I had temporal epilepsy in a portion of my brain that causes either.

fear, anger or panic and I knew it w wasn't right to get angry, so I would suppress feelings of anger and then come out later in a panic attack.

And after I found that out, they put me on a medicine called Depokote, and I haven't had a panic attack since.

Anthony Codispoti (41:22)

That's incredible.

And so this came about. You talked to psychologists, you talked to many of them, but there was finally one who said, Man, you've tried everything. I think you should see this doctor. There may be something physically wrong with you. So they did a brain scan, they found something, temporal lobe epilepsy. And

Johnny Berguson (41:43)

Yes, yes.

Anthony Codispoti (41:43)

and and explain again how that works. What was going on there?

Johnny Berguson (41:48)

Well, part of my brain was misfiring and I it was an area in my brain that would cause fear, panic, or anger. And I would suppress the I feel these feelings of anger and I would suppress them and and then later it would come out as a panic attack.

Anthony Codispoti (42:11)

so you would feel these feelings of anger, you'd stuff it down inside, maybe be okay

Johnny Berguson (42:16)

Right.

Anthony Codispoti (42:17)

for the moment, but then it resurfaces later. This undealt

Johnny Berguson (42:20)

Right.

Anthony Codispoti (42:21)

energy, this this emotion comes back

Johnny Berguson (42:23)

Right.

Anthony Codispoti (42:23)

out in in in a panic attack. And so once they put you on this medication, you haven't had it any problems since.

Johnny Berguson (42:30)

Right, right.

Anthony Codispoti (42:32)

That's incredible. How how long had you been seeking a solution to this? You said you'd been having the panic attacks for 20 years, but

Johnny Berguson (42:40)

I've been

seeking a solution for twenty years. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (42:43)

For that whole time. Wasn't like you

had it for a long time and then I'm gonna go get some help. It you had

Johnny Berguson (42:47)

I

I felt like I must be the world's biggest coward.

Anthony Codispoti (42:51)

Mm-hmm.

Johnny Berguson (42:53)

And I just they were debilitating.

Anthony Codispoti (42:56)

Yeah. Yeah, you know, I've known a lot of people who have experienced panic attacks over the years and please, please.

Johnny Berguson (43:03)

I do want to say something that may be helpful to

people. if you if anyone, I'm certain they're available on the web, the Midwest Phobia Clinic can help people with panic attacks. Midwest Phobia Clinic, and they used to put out some audio cassette tapes that would tell you what to do or help you do.

And they probably have it in some type of digital format now.

Anthony Codispoti (43:36)

Is that somebody that you had tried and and it didn't work for your specific situation because you had this physical issue?

Johnny Berguson (43:45)

After I had the physical issue, the psychologist who told me that he said, Well, you've you've been acting this way for 20 years, and he said, You should go through these tapes because I think they'll help you, because you have habits that you need to overcome.

Anthony Codispoti (44:09)

And so you did these tapes how many years ago?

Johnny Berguson (44:13)

Twenty years ago.

Anthony Codispoti (44:14)

Twenty

years ago. Okay. So it's been twenty years that you've been on this medication, you've been doing these tapes, or you know, maybe you've stopped doing the tapes and and now you feel much better. Things feel more resolved.

Johnny Berguson (44:25)

Right. Right.

Anthony Codispoti (44:27)

Yeah.

Johnny Berguson (44:29)

Maybe

twenty five years ago, but yes.

Anthony Codispoti (44:31)

Okay.

Yeah. I'm curious, you you know, you and your wife running the business, running Kingdom. you guys are, you know, faced with decisions that you have to make every day, some of them smaller, you know, just sort of, you know, everyday run-of-the-mill kind of decisions, some of them big bigger decisions to make. How often are you leaning on your faith for guidance and trying to choose the path?

Johnny Berguson (44:59)

Constantly. I always

Anthony Codispoti (45:01)

What does that look like?

Johnny Berguson (45:02)

want to do the right thing. I want to do the right thing by people, whether they're a customer or an employee. And we've had, we've had thousands of employees over the years, and I get letters from people.

Thanking me for helping them get their start. They say, Well I had my first job with you. I had my first job out of high school, had my first job out of college, and I I just want to thank you for helping me get my start. And they tell me where they're

Anthony Codispoti (45:37)

That's a nice feeling, huh?

Johnny Berguson (45:39)

out now and what they're doing. And yeah. And we have a lot

Anthony Codispoti (45:42)

So what does that look like?

Johnny Berguson (45:43)

of employees at Kingdom who've been there over twenty years, so we have a lot of people who stick with us too.

Anthony Codispoti (45:50)

That says a lot. I'm curious, what does it look like for you to lean on your faith in those times of you know hard decision making? Are you praying? Are you listening? Are you just, I don't know, kind of following your heart? Like what is your process?

Johnny Berguson (46:05)

Well, I pray and I ask God for wisdom and the Bible says, Let ask in faith believing, because we're supposed to believe w that God will give us an answer and we're not supposed to doubt. So I pray and I believe He gives me answers.

Anthony Codispoti (46:24)

How do those a answers appear?

Johnny Berguson (46:27)

All kinds of ways.

Anthony Codispoti (46:31)

Can you give me some examples?

Johnny Berguson (46:35)

I can I can give you examples in horse training very easily. I would trying to teach a horse to do something and I would pray and ask God and the next thing I know, he gives me an idea for how to tell the horse what I want him to do.

Anthony Codispoti (46:55)

Got it. And I you ask for the help and then the help appears, the thought, the idea comes to you. Gotcha.

Johnny Berguson (47:00)

Right. Right.

Anthony Codispoti (47:02)

And Johnny, as you think about the work that you're doing now, what is it that you most want to be remembered for?

Johnny Berguson (47:09)

I want to be remembered that I was a Christian and that I lived my life to the fullest for him.

I want to do the right thing.

Anthony Codispoti (47:24)

What's something that you enjoy doing outside of your work, Johnny?

Johnny Berguson (47:30)

I enjoy spending time with my wife and with my dogs.

Anthony Codispoti (47:36)

Tell us about your dogs.

Johnny Berguson (47:36)

We have

We have a couple Hungarian Moody's MUDI. They're kind of a rare breed. my wife surprised me with one for my birthday. She actually got it from Hungary. And the other dog we had, the same breed, we we got from a breeder in Texas, but there's probably less than two thousand of them in the US right now. So and the recently

recognized by the AKC as a breed, but it's they're not that many in this country. A lot of them in Hungary though. They're a herding breed.

Anthony Codispoti (48:16)

I had never heard of them before we got on the call today, and then you were kind enough to hold up one of your dogs. They're beautiful breeds. If you know people are dog folks, like I I recommend you go Google them. They're they've got this kind of curly coat to them. It's yeah, they're they're attractive dogs. but Johnny, for you I've just got one more question today. Before I ask it, I want to do three quick things for the audience. First of all, if you want to get in touch with Johnny.

his email address is johnny.bergson at kingdom.com. And we'll include that in the show notes, but it's johnny.bergesson, b-e-r-g-u-s-o-n at kingdom.com. And their website, you know, we've been talking about it throughout the show, burgess or I'm sorry, kingdom.com. very easy to remember, kingdom.com. It'll be in the show notes, but you don't have to wait. You can go right now, kingdom.com. If you're enjoying the show today, please take a moment to subscribe wherever you're listening.

It also sends a signal that helps others discover our podcast. So thank you for taking a quick moment to do that right now. And as a reminder, you can finally get your wholesale and retail employees access to therapists, doctors, and prescription medications that counterintuitively actually increases your company's net profits. There's no co-pays, there's no deductibles to meet, and those net profit increases can change how the business is valued. You get to keep your broker as well.

So if you would like happier employees and a stronger bottom line, reach out to us today at adbackbenefits.com. So, last question from you for you today, Johnny, and I I have an idea of what the answer might be, but I want to hear it from you. A year from now, what is one very specific thing that you hope to be selling?

Johnny Berguson (50:03)

I hope to be back here on this show telling everyone about the the new product that we have, the patent bending product, that I believe is going to spread the word of God everywhere.

Anthony Codispoti (50:22)

That's exciting. Looking forward to that. Johnny Burgesson from Kingdom. I want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. Really appreciate you being here.

Johnny Berguson (50:32)

my pleasure. I'm so glad I could be here.

Anthony Codispoti (50:36)

Folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories Podcast. Thanks for learning with us. Hey, and if one thing stood out, put that into action today.

Connect with Johnny Berguson:

Website: kingdom.com

Email: johnny.berguson@kingdom.com