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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

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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Business

How FFA Kids Helped Me Refocus My Presentation

It had been years since I agreed to talk with a group of youth. Why? Because something shifted in those audiences a few years back for me, and I haven’t dared return. So, there I was, standing back stage as the arena filled in with over 11,000 FFA youth from across Ohio. I never feel nervous before an event. I feel excited, anxious, and generally confident in what I’m about to do. Of course, there are those feelings inside of imposter syndrome or being tired from a bad night’s sleep in a hotel, but this day was different. I felt sick to my stomach. There is always a moment before stepping on stage that most people don’t think about unless you’re the one waiting to be introduced. The room is set. The audience is waiting. The expectation is there. And in that moment, it’s easy for the focus to turn inward. You begin to have a conversation with yourself: How will this go? Will this connect? Will this be received the way I hope? Those are natural questions. But over time, I’ve found they aren’t the most helpful ones. Because they center everything on you, the performer/speaker/presenter. And the more

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Business

The Missing Link in Leadership: A Promise People Can Trust

Most leaders don’t struggle with knowledge, motivation, or expectations.They struggle with consistency. They’ve read the books. Attended the conferences. Taken the notes. Perhaps you’ve spent time reading “Atomic Habits”, “Think & Grow Rich”, and “The Greatest Salesman in the World”. All excellent works and classics of self-help and higher thought for leadership. And yet—despite reading the books, attending inspiring conferences, even hiring coaches to elevate performance as leaders…. Teams still feel disconnected.Customers still feel uncertain.Cultures still drift. Why? Because leadership isn’t built on what you know.It’s built on what people can count on. You’ve heard me say it, “Why set a Goal when you can Make a Promise?” Do you know how many people resonate immediately with that statement? The Promise is a choice, a clarion call of character, an investment in integrity. The most effective leaders don’t just set goals.They make a Leadership Promise. A goal says: “Here’s what I hope to achieve.” A Promise says: “Here’s what you can expect from me—every time.” A goal says: “Once we reach this marker, we will have arrived.” A Promise says: “This is what I stand for, what I believe, who I am, and nothing will get in the way of

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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

Does Your Company Got Talent?

As the two co-workers took the stage, ready to sing a karaoke version of what Billboard has called the greatest song duet of all time, the epic ballad “Endless Love” by Lionel Richie and Diana Ross, I sat off to the side squinting and squirming anticipating the train wreck we were about to witness. Having never seen anyone at any TV competition, professional performance, let alone company party, pull off this most gorgeous number, I expected the worst. I should have known better. The next thing we know, the entire crowd stood in awe, not just applauding, but waving our phone lights in unison, cheering and shouting with glee, at one of the best numbers I’ve ever seen performed not just by amateurs, but by anyone. For the next 90 minutes this continued, from a saxophone solo wailing “Careless Whisper”, to Hula Dancing tributes, a roping champion cowboy, an operatic Hawaiian with a perfect man ponytail, a Backstreet Boys tribute, others Taking Care of Business, to a piano solo by a chef, the night went on and on with talents unknown, peers shrieking at the surprising gifts of their friends and leaders, led off by the CEO doing a standup

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Business

The Carbon Promise

  Imagine showing up at a high school to speak to the faculty and realize THEY’RE ALREADY TEACHING THE PROMISE!!! This happened to me recently, when I drove to Central Utah, to a city named Price, and visited Carbon High School. Principal Jarad Hardy had reached out to say he had seen my video about “Goals vs. Promises” a few years back, and liked it so much, he shared it with the staff. The next thing they knew, the faculty had created The Carbon Promise, and it is displayed in every classroom in the school!     To me, this is a dream come true. Not only that a school would own the Promise messaging, but that I wasn’t even there when it happened! The power of online and video is real. But the real power is in the hands of these great LEADERS, Teachers, Administrators, for not just watching a video and forgetting about it, but rather, putting their thinking caps on, and acting on what they watched, committing to something amazing for the students. This makes me so happy. You can imagine how different this experience was for me as a Speaker… Usually I have to convince the

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Business

The Cookie Promise

Can you imagine how I felt when I showed up and my presentation had been turned into a COOKIE?   What kind of client does this? Only the awesome ones. This experience reminded me of being a kid at the local bakery with my Mom the day before my birthday! My nose to the glass, peering into the case of custom cake options that included Sesame Street, Care Bears, Superman, G.I. Joe, or Race Cars. 7-yr old me, carefully choosing which character I wanted as the theme of my birthday party, anticipating friends soon arriving for my special day, the cake had to be the perfect mood for our experience. Cookie Monster is the one I chose over multiple years!  Once chosen, I would excitedly point, my Mom would assure me it was a great option, and the baker would happily pull the pre-decorated cake out and, with squeezy-colorful-icing-writing-utensil, ask me how to spell my name. J-A-S-O-N Watching the baker of this very cake turn into the artist daVinci while writing my name with icing in perfect cursive was literally the icing on my cake! How proud I was when my friends would arrive, presents in hand, as they cheered upon

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Engagement

10,000 Educators

  In the past 2 weeks I have spoken to an estimated 10,000 educators all over my home State of Utah. Had you told me when I was in 3rd Grade sitting in the hall in time-out because I had disrupted the class again, that 35 years later I would be speaking to teachers who probably would have also sent me to the hall, I would have looked at you sideways and made a really weird face. In one of these sessions there was a chance for Q&A. It was a question from a teacher who asked: “What is your higher education and university background which qualified you to speak to us today?”  My answer: “To be honest, I didn’t go to college as you can probably tell! And so this is just as ironic for me to be here as it may be for you to know that!  But the truth is, that full-ride scholarship I mentioned before that I was offered to go to BYU for basketball, well, that ended up not being there after my 2-year mission to Brazil.  But, when we discover that which we are made to do, and can teach others how to discover

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Business

Your Favorite Part

“The Raptor Daddy Dinosaur routine!”  “TJ The Shuttle Driver – Yee-Haw!”  “The part where you took Facebook off your iPhone to be a more present Dad!”     These are some of the many responses I get following a presentation of “The Promise” when signing books and asking attendees what their favorite part was, or what stood out to them the most. What is most delightful is that pretty much every person has a different response.  It is astounding to me that so many different aspects of the same speech touch everyone in a unique way.  It is whatever way they needed for that moment.   “The fact that you were singing and not just speaking like most boring speakers we’ve had.”  “Your Broken Arms by Journey is now stuck in my head forever!”  “I loved the ICM Process and am going to utilize that in our team meeting next Monday with those I lead.”     Meeting strangers that are now lifelong members of The Promise Movement, committed to leadership at the highest level of commitment, who become immediate friends of mine, is one of the greatest joys of my life. Recently I came off stage following a presentation to Mille

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