In the Beginning 4 of...

After the last blog I decided to cut down to 1 topic, mostly because this one is ultra special. That not to say the rest arent ultra special, but this one fills a sneaky selfish need of mine. Yes, I am on the path to Becoming the Promise I am Intended to Be by serving others but I like to see the mind shift people are having. The books, podcasts, Livestreams all cause them mind shifts I love so much but I dont get to witness the mind shifts. However, the Emotional Bungee Jumpers is a spectacular venue for me to witness the shift. This is the selfish part🤔

The public launch date was January 2023, but the idea started about 3 years ago. It was a sort of an intertwining of two observations. 

The first observation was the result of the jobs I had. I got to work with 2 high caliber organizations filled with hyper talented and accomplished leaders with enormous responsibility. Luckily part of my job required me to learn about their problems. As I worked to understand their thinking an interesting trend surfaced. The trend was in their problem & their self awareness. 

Their problems all had an element of "my team members arent taking initiative" "my people are scared to make a decisions" "my group brings me problems too late" and this was sucking time away from what they needed to be working on. Its important to note these issues were consistent regardless of their title, gender, or volume of responsibility. Some were responsible for entire business units, some were department heads, Vice Presidents, Superintendents, Project Managers, foreman. Their education level or the dollar volume of responsibility was irrelevant these issues existed for all of them.

The other common thread amongst these titans of industry was their self awareness. They were completely unaware of how their behavior created the conditions of dependency that plagued them. There was no malicious intent, they really did want the best for and from their teams; still their mode of operation handicapped their team members.

So what is the behavior that their problems grew from? The behavior was the way the responded to issues. This became super obvious through a little exercise where a handful of these leaders all said the same thing to me "I suck at listening" I respectfully agreed. They were all expert "solutionizers" 

What is this solutionizer sorcery? Solutionizing looks like this:

Team member: Hey boss Im dealing with xyz...

Boss: You should xyz.. (before the team member even finishes their thought)

Yes this solutionizing is even more pronounced in our personal lives, anyhow back to the story. At this point all I had was an observation about a common source of pain for people and a way for them to become aware of how they contribute to the problem.

The second observation came through meeting and working with scores of Leaders. For clarity, all of these Leaders were officially responsible for many careers and some of them responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars. Why is this important? Well because there is an assumption that people with this type of responsibility really are of the highest caliber. 

While these leaders absolutely operate at another level, most of them lacked that special thing. What exactly that special thing is hard to put my finger on. But the small few that had it, had it in an intense and profound way. This special thing was concoction of servant leadership, collaboration, vulnerability, and appetite for personal growth. 

For some reason I found myself spending a whole bunch more time with the folks that had this "special thing". And they all sorta asked me a similar question. They asked "how are you so open all the time, how did you learn to ask the type of questions you ask"

It was reflecting on that question that triggered a collision between The First Observation and The Second Observation. My answer to their ask was:

regarding "being open all the time": I built that muscle through hundreds of reps of saying "My name is Jesse, Im an alcoholic/addict..." at the core of this practice is me building comfort with admitting I have a problem or something to celebrate with a group of people that may or may not give a damn. The point was the power of sharing it with others.

regarding "the types of questions I ask": this also came through many many reps with my coach David Verble. Where I learned to get past myself, past my assumptions and focus on the person in front of me. And the skill of asking interested questions came from learning how to avoid giving advice & avoid asking closed ended questions.

Back to the collision and the leaders with that special thing. I asked myself, "what if had a monthly call with a small group of these special leaders where we practiced vulnerability and deepened self awareness." So I picked a group of super influential leaders that I believed were courageous enough to run a crazy experiment. The experiment began about 2 years after The First Observation. 

The experiment began in early 2022, over that time I was able to witness the group build deep trust and appreciation for each other. Our vulnerability grew deeper every single session. Each of us began to see impact in our personal and professional lives. Relationships in the group and outside the group grew richer. 

These results were directly tied to the purpose behind Lean & Love and through The NoBS with Jen & Jess Experience it was clear to me that building a community to share (or broaden) the experiment needed to happen. But I have crazy ideas that dont make no sense so I conferred with The Famous Lady, my Partner in Crime Jennifer Lacy. And we launched The Emotional Bungee Jumpers and the group is growing way faster than I expected. And you are invited to partake in this experience! 

Be courageous and click the links for a mind shifting experience!