Doesn’t this look like an amazing place to be? Can you imagine what you’d learn about yourself here? This isn’t a professional rock climber or mountaineer … it’s a FinTech Exec looking for what’s next. He found his passion and a new path on this mountain. And so can you. Do you still have passion? Do you know your path? Could you use a hand? I have less than 10 nights left on my calendar for this summer … maybe 3 or 4 more trips. Don’t miss your chance to come find what you need. It’ll be worth every penny, I promise Reach out to me here.
I often speak with clients about the difference between saying ‘Yes’ to abundance and ‘No’ to scarcity – really about understanding when it’s appropriate for either. My dear friend and co-collaborator Ariana Friedlander provides a great real-world example of success in that often-uncomfortable space. And thanks for the shoutout , Ariana! #THEbackcountrybusinesscoach #succes s #coachingworks
Multi-Day Backcountry Coaching Package My favorite thing to do is take clients on multi-day backpacking trips in the Colorado backcountry: The Backcountry Immersion Experience You'll likely end up in the best shape of your life, understand what it means to walk through life with grace, and maybe - just maybe - have the experience of a lifetime (that’s what they keep saying, at least…). In the end, you'll learn how to live your best life. The thing is, to be effectively prepared for such a thing, it could take up to 6-months of physical training and mental discovery. And because there are only so many weeks of comfortable weather for such adventures in the short Colorado Rockies summer, I’m taking reservations between now and January 15 to save a spot for YOUR adventure!. I will create a custom mental and physical training program to meet you where you are and help you get the most out of your personally-crafted wilderness experience. It’s a significant investment in yourself that will pay dividends beyond expectation (and also makes an incredible, uniquely thoughtful Christmas present for someone you love). 3 slots spoken for, 5 left. Get in touch today to set some time to talk about what's possible… #backcountrybusinesscoach #getoutside #coachingworks #liveyourbestlife
Such an amazing time getting in one last backpacking trip of the season along the Continental Divide with Shyam D.! So impressed with how Shyam handled a significant effort and some adverse weather with a giant grin and the drive to show his two young daughters what can happen when you don’t give up ?? We laughed, we cried, we had amazing conversations throughout, and we learned some important things about ourselves and how we see the world along the way. So grateful for the experience … thank you for your trust in me, Shyam ? I can’t overemphasize how valuable a couple days in the woods can be for your soul (it’s why I do what I do). I’m taking reservations for next spring with a limited number of slots to fill. If this resonates with you and you’re curious about what an adventure like this can do to improve your experience of life, don’t delay. I was booked solid again this year and expect the same for ‘23… Get in touch today if you would like to join me this year.
Had a fantastic time this past weekend sharing one of my favorite ‘secret spots’ with Ford Church and his fam! The best testimonial ever is hearing “That was awesome!” from the kids ? Who wants to go for a hike??? # THEbackcountrybusinesscoach #coachingworks #getoutside
Grateful to spend an incredible weekend camping and hiking the four 14’er Decalibron loop with Colorado Young Leaders ! Shout-out to Hayley Krawitz, Lauren Steavpack , and Jennifer Landers- Executive Director for creating such an amazing, first-class experience. Thank you for allowing me in? And a special shout-out to Vicki Carey-Davis, MPA, MNM for first introducing me to CYL? My interaction with this fantastic nonprofit consistently reinforces how capable this next generation is. If you don’t see it that way, get involved with your local youth groups … it’ll change your perspective on our future for the better, I promise - and they love the support! #THEbackcountrybusinesscoach #getoutside #getinvolved #thefutureisbright
As much as I enjoy taking others into the Colorado Backcountry - to see their wonderment, to watch them thrive - I appreciate the opportunity to sneak in a couple nights at tree-line, all by my lonesome, whenever I can. There's something so empowering about being comfortable with only what's on your back, excited to have no idea where you're sleeping each night (how many of us can say that?), and completely content without another soul in view for days. And the solitude - what it does for the reset button of your soul… When you're in a place of complete awe, all that free space in your head gets filled with the most amazing things: what to do next with your life, fresh solutions for whatever seemed to be in your way, what you need to be happy, that we live on an amazing planet… I can honestly say that as much as I enjoy being in proximate relation to others, I LOVE being alone. Which is why I'm always a bit surprised to come across some who can't even bear the THOUGHT of being alone … let alone actually spending some quality time with and by themselves. They're fairly easy to spot, always trying to cram as much into every day as possible. I have come to see it as having to do with being so terrified of what that voice in their head will say to them … if they only stopped moving and gave it a minute. But what I find is that developing an actual relationship with that voice can lead to some serious contentment (and who couldn't use a little more contentment these days?). Yes, you CAN establish a healthy relationship with the voice(s) in your head. You can start advocating for yourself to that voice. Let it know that you've got things under control and that it can just sit back quietly on the couch in your head. Thank it for trying to help. After a bit, you'll find that the voice quiets, is more along for the ride, and can actually be a pretty good cheerleader when you need one. What a change in perspective - in mindset - from being terrified of the shame or pain or fear some quiet headspace may bring, to having a loving, joyful, supportive relationship with that best friend in your head… Yes, joy AND contentment await! And no better place to learn how to get there than in the woods. Where life slows down so much that you can watch yourself engaging with your thoughts. Where you can practice focusing on finding a healthy mindset in real time, so that you can return to the 'real world' with a better understanding of how to create the best experience of life for yourself. If this is intriguing in any way, let’s schedule some time to talk about the possibilities - and what's in it for you. Get in touch today. #THEbackcountrybusinesscoach #getoutside #findyourself
Jeff initially followed the career path that was expected of him. “When I was growing up, I wanted to be an English teacher. I really love language. I love reading. I love teaching. That was from a very early age. But that wasn’t good enough for my father. You couldn’t make any money as an English teacher. And to him, money was success. And he expected me to be successful.” So Jeff went to business school and worked on Wall Street for 20 years. Navigating Wall Street was “soul-sucking work… What I realized is I never really felt at home in that space. It was the land of fear and intimidation management, where you really tried to make people feel smaller than they were in order to get them to do what you wanted them to. And I just didn’t accept that.” Listen To The Full Podcast Here While he was unhappy working on Wall Street, the idea of starting his career over again after 20 years was daunting. “It was a very challenging thing for me to go through because I had spent a career doing this. And the idea of starting over really wasn’t very appealing to me. It made me miserable just considering that. And that’s what really led me towards coaching.” But, before Jeff went into coaching, he led a startup that “raised money to build affordable housing. I was the COO, which meant that I got to create my own culture. So I created an organization that was very flat.” A flat organization gets rid of traditional hierarchical structures and middle management. He explains, “you’ve got people that are really client-facing that are doing all the work. And then you’ve got a very thin management layer over them, just making sure…the goals of the organization are being…addressed.” One of the benefits of adopting a flat organization was, “Everybody had a say in what it was that we did. Everybody was respected for their opinion.” This experience challenged Jeff to cultivate his skills to co-create with his team. “People are coming to me with questions that I have no experience from which to answer. So I became really good at asking them good questions knowing that they had the answers within themselves. So we co-created this organization between us where I’ve got entry-level folks that are really passionate… And you know, there are challenges all over the place. But we gave each other the benefit of the doubt that this was a growth opportunity… And it ended up being an extraordinary experience.” One of the challenges Jeff faced in this leadership role was working with a parent company who didn’t share the same leadership philosophy. So he had to convince them the investments they were making in developing a culture remarkably different from their own, were worthwhile. “One of the many things I learned on Wall Street was how to tell a good story…You can paint them this picture of reaching goals and achieving the greatest things and having a very progressive outcome at the end of this. If you give us money now, then this story will happen.” Not only was this work more rewarding but the experience changed Jeff’s life. He started volunteering in prisons to teach entrepreneurship. “It really changed the way I went out into the world and what I felt I could contribute to the world for this sort of ‘second career.'” This leadership opportunity was a stepping stone for Jeff to marry his passion for the great outdoors with his love of helping people. He founded the Logos Group in 2014 where he serves as the Backcountry Business Coach. Jeff brings clients on backpacking trips because being in the great outdoors offers a unique opportunity for transformational growth. When Jeff takes leaders “into the backcountry, I could really get them away from the boxes that are so comfortable in the devices, the relationships, I could get them out of that space where they only have themselves to rely on. And I could guide them through that sort of self-discovery of their own so that when I took them back into civilization, they would really understand who they were as a human. They would understand that we’re all humans, and then…they would start to treat everybody that they interacted with as humans as well.”\ One of the benefits of Backcountry Coaching is “when you go back into the real world if you will, and you realize that you can do anything. There’s nothing to be afraid of.” These trips also help clients become more aware of their different modes of thinking. Jeff explains, “One of the things I really try and help leaders understand is the difference between the thinking they do and the thinking that comes to them… We really have these two sources of thought, if you will, our experience of the world in and of itself is based on thoughts. One is our prefrontal cortex our intellect where we sit, we think, we turn. We’ve got this phenomenal analytical and computational tool at our disposal… And then there’s this other space of presence and consciousness where thinking just kind of comes to us… If we can back out of our thinking process, and sort of take a deep breath and avail ourselves to the present moment, these amazing things come to us.” Jeff doesn’t just teach this work, he’s applied it to his own life and business. Differentiating between the two modes of thought also requires disentangling your ego. “When I first went out on my own as a consultant. It’s not an easy road being an entrepreneur; selling something called coaching. People don’t are used to buying coaching, they are used to buying pants, right?… When I would come across frustrating experiences, my ego would tell me, this isn’t for me, I need to go find another job… I would tell my ego just go sit over there, I’m okay. And I would just be filled with this rush of clarity of peace that I was making the right decision I was being true to myself just by having that little conversation around what my ego thought I should do to protect myself.” We concluded the interview by exploring what co-creating means in his work now. “We have the choice from the beginning, whether to see ourselves as the victim of our circumstances or as a co-creator of our life…. I really try and help clients create for themselves as opposed to seeing themselves as victims…Most people come to me with a transformation for themselves in mind… It’s really a lot of working with them to help them create what that vision really is for themselves to get all the excess thinking, all the ego speak out of the way, so they can really get attuned to who they are and what’s really driving their internal why and then creating a life for them from that space.” Jeff’s passion and wisdom in this interview is sure to inspire entrepreneurs and leaders to take action to free themselves of the thinking they do so they may gain insights from the thinking that comes to them! Source: Rosabella Consulting
Nietzsche is quoted as saying, “To live is to suffer. To survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.” But what if the suffering itself was optional? What if you can shift your mindset to look forward instead of back? This concept is what today’s guest, Jeff Kinsey , and your host, Stu Swineford, have in store for you. Jeff is the Founder of The Logos Group, an organization specializing in strategic planning and executive coaching to help anyone live their best lives. He also volunteers with Breakthrough that works with incarcerated individuals to help them prepare for reintegration into society. Jeff went from trying to justify making rich people richer to giving people a home that they had never had before. This is a fantastic conversation jam-packed with concepts you can apply to bring peace and fulfillment to your life. Action ask: Experiment letting thoughts go by. Listen To The Full Podcast Here – My guest is Jeff Kinsey, the Founder and CEO of The Logos Group. They provide strategic planning and executive coaching to people in the nonprofit space as well as purpose-focused organizations and leaders, trying to help people figure out how to change their mindset, how to make sure that they’re working at their best so that they can help the most effective leader possible. He does this through a variety of cool means and techniques, including sometimes going out in the woods with his coachees and spending some time wandering around and talking about their mission. We had a great time talking with one another. We both love the outdoors and love being able to supercharge our impact and ability to help others. He’s a great guy. I hope you enjoy the show. I certainly did. Here we go. — Jeff , how are you? I’m doing great, Stu. I appreciate you meeting me down here in beautiful Colorado. We were both doing that mountain thing. We’re trying to figure out bandwidth, internet and all that fun stuff. It’s always a challenge. Thanks for meeting me here. It works out perfectly. We get to sit across from each other and talk. It’s great. I’m excited to have you share your story, how you help nonprofits navigate the space and make leaders of all types better leaders. That’s what your jam is. That’s what I try to make it at least. There’s a bit of arrogance in there that I try to avoid but I had this experience of my first career, where I worked for Wall Street banks for twenty years. I tell the story about how banks don’t produce anything but they persuade people. They end up being a laboratory for how to engage effectively with people. I learned in my twenty years how people work effectively together and then how we work intrinsically as well. Being able to take that experience and apply it to the nonprofit ecosystem here in Denver. We have a lot of folks that are very passionate about what they do. They don’t necessarily have a high level of business acumen. At the end of the day, you are faced with doing a lot of things themselves, a lot of stress and burnout. What I try and do is take these people’s skills that I developed working for banks and apply them to the nonprofit space to make sure that the people that are passionate about changing lives in the community continue to do that, don’t burn out and go back to the private sector. There are so many great nonprofits in the area. Boulder is big with nonprofits. Denver has a huge nonprofit community and many purpose-driven leaders as well. It feels like there are so many businesses, mine included that started with an idea, didn’t do the stuff upfront and then you’re 2 or 3 years in it’s like, “What am I supposed to be doing here?” Having someone on your team at an early phase of that growth can be such an important thing to engage. When did you move away from banking? That was years ago. I’d taken about twenty years moved around various banks, trying to find a culture that resonated with me. It was a challenge. What I found instead was that there were a lot of folks doing the same thing that I was. Trying to find someplace where they felt like they could make a difference where they were valued and where the suggestions they had would be taken seriously. In the banking world when you’ve got 40 layers of management, any idea is a risk. Find a work culture that resonates with you, a place where you could make a difference. It’s something that’s for the most part be avoided. I never found a home in that space. We would always try and talk ourselves into some level of satisfaction with helping rich people get richer. That didn’t do it for me. When I got out of banking and got into raising money to build affordable housing, that changed my life completely. I went from trying to justify making rich people richer to giving people a home that never had a home before. That was extraordinary to see that impact. That led me to look into how I could apply the skillset that I have and the things I know to help other nonprofit leaders like that. I started volunteering in prison, teaching children entrepreneurship in prison, helping an organization that does that to do it more effectively and transition through a leadership change that they were going through. I found that there’s this fantastic space here in Denver that’s very intimate in the nonprofit world. Everybody knows everybody. Everybody’s there to help each other out. We’re all trying to make the community a better place for all its members. I spent a little bit of time looking into the prison non-profit area that you’re working in. Tell us a little bit more about that. It’s interesting the work that you’re doing. I appreciate that. I can’t take credit for it other than it was something that spoke to me. I try to live my life to not succumb to fear. If I get afraid of something, I like to go at it. Maximum security prison was one of those things that I had some fear around. When the opportunity presented itself to get involved, I jumped on it. My background in business and entrepreneurship, being able to help folks that are being released, not go back again. If I could help them with a skillset where they could at least have the confidence to go out and get a job, let alone start a business, I was all over that opportunity. What I found when I went into prison was it’s this incredible well of the human spirit. I’ve become a human spirit junkie. I love to go in and meet these incredible men and women that have a lot to add to the community. For whatever reason some institutional racism, they don’t have that opportunity to add the value that they want to the community. It’s interesting how as a society, we look at prison as punishment as well as serving his time as opposed to cleaning the slate. That’s not how it works for most of the people who go into that system. They come out, still ostracized and aren’t able to get jobs. They are constantly having to say, “Yes, I’ve had a felony.” That keeps them from getting hired. You’ve done your time. We should be getting people to give that next chance or hopefully 2nd, maybe 3rd or even 4th chances in our society. That’s how it’s supposed to work but it’s frustrating that it doesn’t work that way. It’s cool to hear how you’re helping with skill-building while they are incarcerated after the fact. How’s the program set up? It’s a combination of both. The idea is 90% of these folks are going to get out. Who do you want to come out to? Is it the most rehabilitated person that understands themselves and doesn’t want to be part of that old life they put them in or do you want somebody that’s been forgotten and treated like an animal to come out and does something else that ends up going back in again? We would be better off if every member of our community is as strong as possible. We start on the inside. Try and focus on folks that have a chance of release in the next eight months because it’s an eight-month cohort type of program. We’ll go inside and help them to develop business ideas, with interview skills, resume building and self-confidence at the end of the day. When they come out, they know they have some options. When they do get out, we have a post-release program as well to support them along the way. They get very little support on the way out. It’s a very daunting place on the outside. If you’ve been in a maximum-security prison for twenty years, you don’t know what the internet is. You come out and everything is internet-based. It’s like, “What do you do? How do you find a job? How do you interact with anybody on the outside?” We try to provide a lot of support on the tactics of getting IDs, phones, computers and things like that and how to go about finding a job. Also, a lot of mental health support. It’s a terrifying place on the inside and outside. Trying to help these folks be as supported as possible so they know they have people that care about them and continue to provide skills to them to reintroduce them to the society where they want to be productive members. Is your role mostly in the same capacity in terms of coaching, life skills, confidence and all of those things? Is that where you’re landing?
I recently had the honor of speaking to an association of financial executives at their monthly keynote event at a beautiful wedding venue in Denver. I was excited to share a different perspective on leadership for this modern, post-pandemic era and figured that, being a financial executive myself for 20 years, they’d consider me one of them and be open to exploring something different. You see, the traditional leadership model throughout most of Corporate America for at least the last 50 years – and especially in financial services – has been based on Fear and Intimidation: you did what you were told and what you thought about it was your problem. The Human stayed home while the Cog made the Company machine their priority. We had a lively first 20 minutes, trading stories of horrific leadership mishaps from our careers, commiserating about poor management and woeful misbehavior. It seemed obvious to me that we were on the same page, that we had all been mistreated or witnessed first-hand the mistreatment of others … until I got into the crux of my presentation. If we, instead, respect and treat each other as the humans we are, the results will be exponentially better than under the old carrot-stick and whip environments we ‘grew up’ in. The room went silent. Honestly, I’m still a bit shocked at the push-back I received once we got to the Q&A. I see the Great Resignation as an obvious rebellion against inhumane treatment at the hands of corporate overlords. They simply couldn’t understand how 4 million Americans would forgo traditional employment in the hopes of finding something more fulfilling. Are Humans simply the Labor input in a Cost of Goods Sold computation? I find that offensive. I explained that we are witnessing a global power shift from employer to employee, and if they didn’t come around, all those vacant cubicles would stay empty. They didn’t see it that way. To them, it was a battle of wills. Eventually the hold outs would need to eat, and come crawling back. I described how the Millennials and Gen Z – who grew up witnessing us as their burned out, abused, depressed parents – wanted more out of their brief time on Earth and weren’t willing to settle for being treated like merely a means to production. Not only did they not buy it, they mocked their own children for being lazy whiners … like, who’s fault would that be, anyway? Is it really a bad thing to put your joie de vivre ahead of corporate profits? Is that really why we’re on this planet, to keep the wheels of Capitalism rolling? That’s horse shit. Don’t believe the stories. I used my 23-year old daughter as an example of how the ‘kids’ these days are not willing to undergo mental abuse because ‘that’s the way it’s always been.’ They couldn’t understand why she didn’t just do her job… heck, they did! And that’s the problem. I think sometimes when people are victimized – especially when they don’t realize that’s what’s happening – it’s an easy Ego play to feel others deserve the same (“This made me stronger, just wait until they see what it does for them”). They forget how marginalized they felt the first dozen or so times it happened to them. They’ve been numbed over the course of their career to expect this abusive behavior; to accept that they deserve it. They’ve even learned to believe it was good for them, made them stronger, or better, or successful. It’s a lie we have to force ourselves to believe in order to trudge along… and it can be used to justify treating others the same. But using Fear and Intimidation to coerce expected behavior is never acceptable. You’re not even supposed to train your dog that way. It reminds me of the old fraternity days: I was hazed and survived, therefore, I will haze the next suckers. We used to think if we forced a group of new recruits to hate us sufficiently, they would bond into a cohesive unit. And if we did it just right, they’d have enough respect for the perpetrators to feel part of the larger group once they made it through the gauntlet. Sometimes it worked, oftentimes it didn’t. Turns out it’s not that easy to get a bunch of negatives to come around to something positive. And the group-think seemed to make it all ok. The corporate world that I experienced wasn’t a whole lot different … probably helps explain why I was relatively successful there – I had had the fraternal pre-training. And then I learned of a more Human way to lead, one where leadership means facilitation, not direction. Where humans are allowed to be human and respected for their lived experiences and individual contributions. Where we’re not ‘bent to the wheel’ but encouraged to think outside the veritable box. This is why I take leaders into the wilderness. When none of the social constructs we’ve (perhaps unknowingly) grown to rely on are absent, we’re forced out of the box to learn what’s waiting for us in that space: wisdom, inspiration, creativity, love. What it means to be human, really. It’s amazing that in a place where there is scant trace of other humans, you can find empathy for humanity. It’s hard NOT to be kind when you’ve felt that. When I spoke of this the other night, it was incorrectly assumed that I suggested we need to coddle employees and stand at the ready with a big hug. That if the (typically) white- (typically) man-in-charge wasn’t cracking the whip, then the office would degenerate into a Daycare Center by lunch. In essence, that humans didn’t have enough self-respect and self-discipline to show up and do their job. Fear and Intimidation was the only way. There is something in between, of course … there always is. Treating people as fellow humans does NOT mean treating them as children – that’s the patriarchy we’re finally coming to see clearly as the bane of our current system. To accept that we humans are really all the same, regardless of our station, is to accept an equality between us as individuals: that a billionaire is NOT a better human than someone living on the streets. That silver spoon in your mouth does not make you better than me. It’s just a spoon. Understand that our differences are used to pit us against each other through man-made (i.e., illusory) social constructs – they’re not REAL! But they do have very real, very negative consequences for a multitude of people throughout our community when they aren’t acknowledged or understood… Once we accept that we’re all the same: That we all make meaning of our experiences through thought That we are all innately perfect bundles of mental health, if not for our thinking That there is no ‘them’ … only ‘us’ Then we can begin to not only accept what we see as differences between us but get curious about what makes us different. To seek to understand how and why we see things differently (and how what we ‘see’ as different, isn’t really all that different). This approach only happens from a place of presence, of living life where life is lived; in the moment. Where curiosity resides. From a place of love. Because it’s a lot harder to wield the blunt instrument of Fear and Intimidation when you understand someone enough to feel love for them. And when we feel loved, when we feel valued, when we feel like we’re part of something bigger than ourselves, we’ll achieve more than you’ve ever seen us achieve before. At least it’s worth a try, right? So, how does this story end? Well, I had intended to wrap with two reflections: One about The Reciprocity Collective, an incredible nonprofit I work with that provides basic human need and employment support to the unhoused community. TRC is a model of modern nonprofit management, with all stakeholders represented throughout the organization and charged with treating each other with the same humanity as we do our constituents. It’s been very successful in making an exponential impact. And the other about the entire keynote being an exercise in how reframing can lead to a positive mindset and a successful keynote (so much for that!). Instead, the Q&A devolved into an argument amongst the crowd about where the 4-million Americans who supposedly vanished from the workforce were hiding. It got to the point where the senior person in the room had to commandeer the microphone and say, “Thank you Jeff, that will be all for tonight, have a good evening everyone, goodbye.” I didn’t even get to show the final slide with my contact information … perhaps a blessing, in hindsight. I guess they weren’t ready. I’m still baffled that we could spend so much time commiserating about the abusive management behavior we had all been subjected to and yet still argue to support it. That they couldn’t quite see that all humans walking Earth are the same, are equal, and deserve to be treated as we would all like to be treated, and that in doing so, the outcomes would be exponentially better. That said, I did get a sense that the younger folks in the group were biting their tongues, that they may have agreed with the perspective I was promoting and were just biding their time. That keeps me hopeful. There’s still hope that what’s best for us as a species will prevail. There always is. *If you or someone you know is suffering from Fear & Intimidation Management, I can help – it’s what I do (jeff@logos.pitfirecreative.com)