About John Richards

That’s me on the wing – My wife, Lyudmyla, and I live in our beautiful home over in the foothills of Santa Barbara that you can see off in the distance behind the plane.

To start with - I want to point out that this website is not about me – it’s about you and the business owners and company executives that I love coaching - working toward growing their businesses profitability and expanding their enjoyment of their lives.

However, because you came to this page, I will assume that you want to know a little about the author of this website. So, please excuse all the necessary I’s and me’s that follow and I will give you a brief overview of the story of John Richards.

Starting at the beginning - I was born on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. My father was a high level naval officer and my family had to relocate to seven different locations before I was 12 – which strongly encouraged me to be highly adaptable quick study and fast learner in life.

I have been married three times to three wonderful women and widowed twice. My first wife perished in and accident which I, obviously survived but was given up for dead at a hospital they took me to after an accident.

I have had 9 lifetimes of financial experiences – including reaching a net worth of over $1 million twice and also needing to file for bankruptcy twice – and in all honesty, I defiantly prefer the experience of the former to the latter.

I have had over thirty years upper level management experience and over twenty-five years providing management/executive coaching and organizational consulting and trainings. I e enjoyed founding six different businesses organizations, have been president and CEO of seven companies and held executive management positions with six additional companies including The Reader’s Digest; Capitol Records; The Benson, Stagg & Associates subsidiary of Republic Corporation; Ogilvy & Mather Advertising; and The John-David Learning Institute.

Some of my hobbies include reading and writing,  growing cymbidium orchids, and I love to cook. I have the highest levels of curiosity than anyone I have ever met and am a voracious reader. My most favorite forms of mental relaxation is spending a couple of hours surfing Amazon non-fiction books – and if I spot a book that I think I might want to read in the next 12 months I hit the Add-to-Cart button without hesitation.

I’m a heavy-hitter at Amazon books – purchasing over 150 books a year – and I read, review or skim an average of 8 to12 or more books per week – not only books related to business, but on dozens of various topics. I am especially interested in any current books on personal productivity & performance by qualified authors and I regularly reference over forty books on coaching and consulting in my personal library.

In addition to books, I read the Amazon book reviews on dozens of books each month, subscribe to book summaries and over a dozen magazines and newsletters – I read blogs, websites, and to get into a good percentage of my more than 50 daily emails. If you would like to see my book recommendations please hop on over to the BOOKS page.

 The Self-Dynamics Institute in Santa Barbara, which I founded in 1997, is my most current enterprise. SDI provides me with the structure for my ontological research and writing, as well as for the development and production of the live events that I present in Santa Barbara. If you are interested in learning more about SDI and my live events click on over to the SDI EVENTS page.

I founded Horizon Business Systems over 2o years ago as an operational structure for business consulting work at that time. By the late 1980’s my business consulting work had evolved into my totally focusing on the work that I love - coaching business owners and company executives. Out of my many years wearing their shoes, I love seeing the people I coach and work with experiencing dramatic growth in their businesses and careers. If you are interested in learning more about my coaching programs click on over to the SERVICES page.

In addition to my Santa Barbara live events I present courses on business coaching, NLP meta-programs and using the Enneagram model in coaching both in Santa Barbara and Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Occasionly I will do a presentation in the Los Angeles area to introduce people to the awesome outcomes they can experience through participating in my Santa Barbara events. So I invite you to come to Santa Barbara and, in only 1 to 3 days, experience a guaranteed trans-formative re-creation of your life and your business. 

If you would like to read more about my business background, the dozens of companies that I have served, and my experiences with The Reader’s Digest, Capitol Records, Psychology Today magazine, and selling one of my companies to Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, please click HERE.

Again, thanks for taking your precious time to visit my website – I hope to have the privilege of meeting youand being of service to you and your company in the future.

Sincerely with my best wishes for your success, John.

John has authored and co-authored several books including:

  • Author of the “The Illustrated Enneagram” which sold over 20,000 copies;
  • Author of “The Nine Keys Personality Identifier Instrument which has been translated into French and German and sold over 10,000 copies internationally.
  • Co-Author, along with Tom Flautt, of the famous 1996 Enneagram-MBTI correlation research study with several thousand participants;
  • And a co-author with Mike Jay and Mari Smith of the 2008 Amazon best seller “Upping the Downside: 64 Strategies for Creating Professional Resilience by Design.”
  • Creator of the Horizon Nine Keys IMPACT course, the Developing Self Mastery course and the various Self-Dynamics live presentations in Santa Barbara.
  • Author of many articles on personality and ontological structure published in a number of national publications.

John received a B.A. in Business as well as work done toward a masters in Psychology. A few of the dozens of trainings and certifications he has received include:

  • Both the est and numerous advanced trainings with Werner Eerhard;
  • A 9 month series of courses with Fernando Flores, Hermenet;
  • Several advanced trainings with Bryon Regnor, Landmark Education;
  • NLP Practitioner training & certification with John Grindler & Judith Delozier
  • NLP Master Practitioner certification with Wyatt Woodsmall
  • NLP Trainer training with Richard Bandler, Wyatt Woodsmall & Tad James
  • Hypno-Therapy training and certification with Tad James
  • An 18 month MythoSelf training with Joseph Riggio
  • Several trainings and Advanced certification with Dr. John-David of The John-David Learning Institute while I was consulting and temporary COO of JDLI;
  • More than a dozen different trainings on the Enneagram Typology system with Helen Palmer, Don Riso & Russell Hudson, Michael Goldberg and others.
  • Several extensive workshops with Stephen Wolinsky;
  • Both level One & level Two Spiral Dynamics certification with Don Beck;
  • A half dozen courses and trainings with Mike Jay on Spiral Dynamics and various assessment models.
  • Several trainings on the Myers-Briggs MBTI and the DISC personality models.