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The Promise Blog

Business

Did AI Write This Post or Did I?

  Let me guess. You can easily determine between what is written by AI and what’s not. You take great pride in this ability. You catch it in your feed before the hundreds who commented using bots as their autoresponder. So the question is this: Did AI write this post or did I? I assume you’ll be able to easily know by the end, if you read that far. Or perhaps you’ve already figured it out? I’ll give you the answer so you don’t have to read this whole dang thing: This blog, and all of my posts, books, content, are written by me. Here’s a video where someone asked me privately if it was AI, while another commented publicly, “Bro, aren’t you a comedian?” You can read my response on the video.     Is that video AI or is it me? It’s crazy we have people wondering that now. All the more reason to have LIVE EVENTS with each other. Truth is – I have a very unique writing style. In fact, I hired a very accomplished editor to go through my book before submitting it to the publisher. She returned with the following: “Jason, I don’t know

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Business

What Problem Do I Solve?

  This week’s blog post is an open question to you, my reader, with an ask that you’ll think through this very simple question: What Problem Do I Solve? For 10 years we have tried to find the answer to this question for my work specifically. We have leaned into The Promise – yet, that’s more of a philosophy. We have taught Signature Moves – yet, that is a process.   We have been told the reason I am chosen for many events by planners looking to bring me in are among the following:  “We need someone who is engaging and entertaining to speak in between the content heavy speakers.” “You are going to bring a self-help message of inspiration and humor.” “We just need something entertaining.”   Those who call themselves “fans” of mine have said kind things like:  “You make me laugh.” “My family thinks you’re the best.” “You help me keep better promises to myself and my work.” These are all wonderful compliments. But, we still haven’t gotten to the PROBLEM of what having Jason Hewlett speak at your event actually helps the client & event planner solve.   My speaker peers have the problems they solve

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Business

The Broken Team

  Doug sent a frantic text, Jenny replied in Slack, marketing in turn launched a premature email campaign, and customer service was immediately inundated with angry clients. Leadership meets, confusion all around, too many cooks in the kitchen, while ten people are working on the same task without being assigned to work together on any given project. The wheels are falling off the bus, or rather, they did a long time ago. In business culture, it is easy to observe where things aren’t working. Just set up a call with any employee and let them tell you the truth, once you’ve established what they say won’t be held against them. Just look at the confusion coming into customer service due to the latest mistake sent out. Just take a gander at Slack and see how well that’s being utilized. The Slack one is so frustrating I made a silly and comical song about it just to see if it would get a laugh from people in general who have complained to me about their teams not using it, showcasing how important it is.     In leadership, however we can, we must utilize our Signature Moves to inspire, lift, call

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Coaching

Father of the Bride

  Perhaps the most intimidating and important speech you’ll ever give is the Father of the Bride speech. At least that’s how it feels to the first timer, who is sweating through his corduroy trousers, not quite sure how to gather so many essential thoughts in front of all the most important people of his life. A few years ago I made a video that assists men in creating their speech. Luckily, I have never given that intimidating speech, as my daughter is not getting married anytime soon, but putting myself in the place of a soon to be father of the bride, I came up with some teachings that seemed to resonate. The GIRL acronym just appeared in my mind, and it seemed almost elementary, as I wondered if I should put it in the video… Turns out, that is the most essential part of this one, and memorable to all who have utilized it. Want to know what GIRL stands for in this instance? Watch the video to find out! (Actually, I am keenly aware of the amount of people who are willing to read my words but not interested in watching the videos, LOL, so here’s the

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Business

Who Does This Remind You Of?

  If I were to ask you who is the most reliable person you work with, what face and name comes to mind? We all have that person. Hopefully! If you’re lucky, they make up your team, your “work family” as I prefer to call it, and continually fill you with gratitude as one of the most underrated, and essential secret traits of success: consistency and reliability! The truth is simple: You Don’t Need to Be Impressive…You Need to Be Reliable. Reliability—not necessarily talent, brilliance or flash—is what actually builds trust, opportunity, and long-term success. When I think of reliability my mind goes to: the finance director who sends a report every night (just before midnight) to share the data from the day with the company founder and I, and has never missed doing so in 2.5 years (even on his honeymoon!); the person who thinks he’s “just an IT guy” but in reality is the one everyone turns to to get things done immediately, even outside of the IT realm, because he is so capable; the assistant who goes over the upcoming plans and events, and then checks off the boxes again to make sure nothing falls through the

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Business

Put the Screens Away

“As quickly as this phone can connect you to the world, it can just as easily disconnect you from your family.” – Jason Hewlett     I have spoken many words in my life and career, and hope this quote will be one that will live on as a part of my teachings of The Promise. I am not chosen as the Keynote Speaker of major conferences to bring a message about family to the audience, as most planners can’t justify that to the check writers who are needing top and bottom line results as the leading reason to have a speaker. Within the teachings of Leadership, Teamwork, Accountability, and Inspiration, the audience walks away with practical tools to discover their Promise in their work, with their teams, and within themselves. And then there’s this story, about me as a Dad, working on myself to keep Promises to everyone in business and life…and what about my Family? It all comes down to what we do OFF stage more so than what we do ON stage. I can be great in a sales meeting, under the bright lights, on my stage…but what if I am not working on myself behind the

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Business

Unclear Expectations: Establishing The Promise

Disappointment usually shows up when expectations aren’t clearly communicated up front. For the last 2 years in discussions with disgruntled employees in organizations I consult with, the main cause of heartache is when unclear expectations leads to broken promises that were assumed and never articulated.   Example: I met with a longtime celebrity in the athletic field, now decades past their prime, yet still very relevant due to a legendary career, employed to be a new face & personality of a growing health company. He was brought into the company to raise brand awareness, land some customers through his reputation and connections, while also doing media when the opportunity arose. Months went by of an appearance here, a show or event there, and little, if any, evidence that customers were buying. The leader who made the hire was continually encouraging and asking for numbers, results, eyeballs, and proof of this arrangement working. There was eventually a discussion of needing podcasts and interviews to be consistently delivered in order to justify the paycheck, yet the former celebrity was feeling they were doing way more than asked, while the check-writer was aghast for lack of proven results. What it came down to

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Business

The Secret to Motivating Teams

The secret to motivating your team? Sit down with them and go through the ICM Process. This is the opposite of the “let’s discuss what you can do better” conversation. It is a recognition of every employee’s talents, gifts, strengths, and empowering them to use these as often as possible. As I have taught this simple, yet profound, process to leaders for many years, it is not only transformative for the employee, but the leader gets quite a bit of insight as well. Imagine sitting with someone you have mostly only discussed improvement with, and instead, flip the script to dig in to what they see is the best of what they bring? Most employees are doing all they can to comply, conform, and not shake things up, in an attempt to stick to the rules and meet all goals. In turn, motivation for asserting oneself and even overall greatness can begin to wane. However, when we encourage those we lead to stand out in a sit down world, this empowers their ideas, creates ramped up performance, and allows everyone to feel they have a stake in the progression beyond simply being a part of the team: They are a

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Business

Drawn to New Heights

  A month ago I was leading a Speaker training & retreat with my colleague and master coach, Cheryl Knowlton. It was our final retreat and will always be a memory I’ll never forget to work with her and our students. I glanced over at the couch and was admiring the muscles bulging from my friend and fellow speaker Ernie Harker’s shirt. As I looked closer I realized he was drawing someone in the room. He is known for his ability to draw people on stage or in the audience, and gifts them to friends, to an always stunned reaction, since he’s masterful at this talent turned skill turned Signature Move and Promise. I was shocked to see that I was the subject of this drawing!     I have been all over the world and, for years, received perhaps some of the most offensive and bizarre quick drawn, paid for, portraits/caricatures someone can have drawn of them, often times in an attempt to embarrass the one being drawn. But as I looked over Ernie’s shoulder I was ecstatic to think it looked incredible, and was flattering to say the least! An artist must focus on the Signature Moves features

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The Final Retreat

For years, I had what was known in our home as Mentor Mondays. This was due to so many texts, emails, and phone calls from executives, hopeful speakers, and struggling entertainers to “pick my brain” over lunch. Eventually my brain had been picked, pecked, and prodded over enough soggy salads at lunches around Utah that we shifted things to say: Can you come to me and let’s talk? We funneled everyone to Mondays, into 2 hour time slots and a revolving door of mentoring that sometimes saw people from 8AM-8PM learning the craft of running a business, following their dreams, and keeping The Promise to their hopes in life. It was my best way of giving back, after I had the same experience to begin my career, where Chris Poulos had welcomed me into his home, free of charge, to sit on his couch and learn from the greatest philosopher and spiritual mentor I could have asked for outside of my own wonderful parents growing up.     For years, day and night, I came and went to the Poulos household in Orem, UT, with his lovely spouse Gail in the background doing genealogy work at the living room table,

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