1956 – Embracing an Aliveness Mindset for Greater Effectiveness with Jack Craven

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1:10With us right now, it is Jack Craven. Jack, you are a leadership and executive leadership coach. You are the author of the book, Aliveness Mindset. Lead and live with more passion, purpose, and joy. And Jack, your website is jackraven.com. Jack, thank you so much for joining us. Pleasure to be here, Josh. Look forward to our conversation. Yeah, absolutely. So I would love to hear it from you about the impact that you have in the world today, who you serve and what you do. I'm an executive leadership coach. I serve CEOs and C-suite executives in terms of helping them find more passion and purpose in their lives, helping them be more effective leaders, helping them identify what it is they really want to get out of life and helping them make that a reality.

2:03Yeah. Who would be some examples of folks that you've worked with? Now, I should mention that for your website, you've worked with leaders in a lot of large organizations, small companies. And then I just want to shout this out too is your volunteerism. You do a lot of great work with organizations like YPO. And so I just want to say thank you so much for giving back at the level at which you do. But maybe you could share a little bit about folks that you've worked with and maybe what some of those challenges that they were facing were and how you work together and help them overcome or work through those.

2:41Yeah, thanks. I say that a lot of times the people that I work with are going through some challenge in their leadership. and it may be related to they've they're not sure what their next chapter is going to be and for younger people it might be that they've maybe gotten the promotion that they wanted that they've achieved some success and yet they feel like something is missing or it's not as great as they thought it was going to be or that they're facing a problem leader and they don't know what to do about how to manage that leader so there's a variety of things and what I help them do is I give them tools, one of the first things I do is to reduce their reactivity, being triggered.

3:20It's hard to think clearly when you're in a state of fear or reactivity. And from that place, I help them access the emotional intelligence within them so that they can make more clear decisions about what they need to do and what it is again, what it is they want. If that goal of that, that step sale or that reaching that milestone isn't fulfilling to them, what is it that they really want. Yeah, it's really interesting because, you know, and I've thought about this, about how we come up with the goals that we do. And I wonder how often we come up with goals because somehow that's just what became, we heard that maybe echoed or repeated or maybe our mentor, those were our mentors goals, or maybe we read it in a book and we kind of shrugged our shoulders and go, So, yeah, yeah, that's what I want.

4:15And it's almost like, you know, one thing I know I've heard quite a bit is people who talk about, you know, I just want to kick back on a beach and enjoy passive income for the rest of my life. I'm like, well, maybe. But what I've heard from lots of people who have gotten that, it doesn't last real long. Usually achievers who accomplish those sorts of things get a little antsy and they find themselves, well, that was fun for a couple months. but I need to get back to doing this. I need to get back to doing some things. Yeah. I think what you're, what you're highlighting here, Josh, is this, what is society value?

4:52You know, and what society values are things like status prestige selling out, you know, having a series a, whatever that might be. And the reality is, is that can leave us feeling like there's, there's something within us that's missing. Maybe something, our passion, the giving back piece that you're talking about all of the research that I've read is that it's really the deeper meaning is what drives us, the intrinsic rewards. And I think that we can get so caught up with the extrinsic rewards and the money that we lose sight of that. But internally, we know that there's not an alignment about what it is that we want to leave, what is it that we want to be known for.

5:30Yeah. So in your conversations or in your work with leaders, what would be like an example of a very common pattern that, you know, they, maybe they worked for a promotion, they got the promotion, they've got the corner office, and something's still missing. How do you help them discover then what it really is that they want so that they can truly feel that sense of fulfillment or freedom or security or whatever it is that they're looking for. Yeah, that's where the art comes into play. And one of the things I do in terms of part of my process is I help them think about moments in their life when they felt most alive.

6:15Most of the people I work with, they orient their happiness based on whatever's on their calendar. Oh, I had a good meeting. I closed this sale, whatever that might be. But it's fleeting. When I start having them think about when do I feel most alive, then other traits come up, things that they value. It might be a sense of purpose. It could be I took ownership. There was a love, there was a passion involved. When I have them think about what helps them be alive, and then I help them identify those traits, then I help them think of more like a daily affirmation that I call anchoring mindset, which helps them kind of rejigger those feelings of aliveness.

6:57And there's a very different way you see the world when you're showing up versus kind of in fear and reactivity and obligation versus how you show up in the world when you're feeling passion and when you're feeling alive. You're much more collaborative. You're much more creative. You're able to identify what it is you really want. And many leaders kind of bury what our wants are because we deem ourselves as being selfish or we make some other kind of judgment, not giving ourselves permission to want what we want. Yeah, you know, it's interesting, Jack, and I'm sure you hear this all the time too, for people who maybe don't know exactly what it is, but what they know is, you know, I feel called to do X.

7:44An example. So my last company was doing pretty well. I was finding that as the CEO, So my schedule was just not very taxed. I had a good team. It was fairly autonomous in terms of big stuff that needed to get done. So I found myself with some free time. And again, I was training for a marathon, kind of doing some fun things like that. But then I was like, you know, I've gained some valuable skills and was familiar with a local organization, our local SBDC, our, you know, there was, they were involved with some organizations that were helping a minority and women-owned and veteran-owned businesses.

8:28and I just started volunteering, serving on boards, doing pro bono mentoring, pro bono workshops, you know, that sort of thing. And I was kind of helping in areas that I was an expert in. And what ended up happening, as you can imagine, is, you know, you just get out and start doing good things. Well, that then led to new opportunities and opportunities. I got to tell you just like really was very self-edifying. And I'm like, and it was quite accidental. I just followed my curiosity. I followed my heart. And that seemed to open up new things. In fact, it was, you know, I had, I remember very clearly I had, you know, someone that was on a board that I was serving with and they said, you know, you're really good at this.

9:20Can we hire you for that? And I was like, um, and it was, it was around PR. And I had to call one of my friends who was like an actual legit PR person. I'm like, I'm not, you know, I was a journalist for a while, but I'm not like a professor. And anyway, uh, you know, short story. That's why I have my influence today was because of that work that I did way back when. So I, you know, just kind of my example of the kind of following your love and passion and stuff, you know, again, when you get to that position and you don't have, Let me just ask this question, my long-winded warm-up here. Is that kind of right?

9:58Like you just kind of, you don't necessarily have to see the full staircase, but you take that step at a time? Exactly. And what you're referring to, and I want to acknowledge Angela Duckworth's book, Grit, The Power of Perseverance, is exactly what you're talking about, which is sometimes people can say, follow your passion. Others say, follow your curiosity. I'm saying either or don't judge it just something called you to work with that board and then you don't know what happens so this is really part of there's the discovery phase then you get feedback you're doing well then it leads you to another path another turn so I I'm inviting everyone to follow the current and you don't have to know the destination just trust your instinct there's something here that's calling me to do this and I don't have to know what the next thing is I trust that it's going to lead to something meaningful or rewarding.

10:52And if it doesn't, I'll adjust and I'll pivot and I'll figure out the next chapter. Yeah. You know, let me ask you about this, because I've also heard this, you know, follow your passion. I'd say for maybe earlier stage may or may not be great advice. I've heard some people kind of push back on that a little bit. You know what I like in I think this is kind of illustrated in Atomic Habits a little bit, But it's like doing the thing that that you seem to have a lot of perseverance around. Like it's like you can outlast anyone in X. And I think, you know, James Clear would say that's a pretty strong indicator that you might have some special skills here.

11:38Podcasting, not much. Most people going to podcasting don't get to this level of episodes. I don't know. I just I like it. So it's cool, you know. And so, you know, I found a lot of meaning and purpose in that as an example. I will use that excuse. You talked about perseverance. One of my aliveness mindsets is tenacity. And what I think is what you're speaking to here is the willingness to go in for the long haul. And the way we get better is we try it, we get lots of feedback, we improve, and then we keep going. And I think the more that you're willing to do that is you're discovering what that might be.

12:16So many leaders I know don't have outside hobbies or interests. Many of them are in their 50s or 60s, and they think waiting for a day where that's going to happen. Guess what? Start now. Just explore. Make the time. I don't care if you're in your 30s. You may have more limited time because of your family situation or your work. What I am inviting, though, is carve out some time for you to do something that's meaningful, even if it's a small amount, to begin practicing that muscle right now. Jack, your book is titled Aliveness Mindset. I'm looking at it right now on Amazon. It's available both in hardcover and Kindle.

12:59The subtitle, Lead and Live with More Passion, Purpose, and Joy. You have a lot of five-star ratings on this book. Tell me who needs who should be reading this book and the transformation that will take place. Yeah, it's for people who want to orient their life to have an intention of I want to bring my best version of myself every day in my life. I want to bring aliveness into my life every single day. I don't want to make it a random experience. And I'm willing to be tenacious to make that happen, to identify what it is that I want, to identify what's a mindset that's going to help me feel more alive.

13:40I'm willing to also practice with tools to minimize reactivity because I just think I'll be a better version of myself to everybody that I interact with. Yeah. And do you mind maybe just sharing a little bit more? This is a new book. This is congratulations on the launch of this. And by the way, I saw that you were just interviewed on WGN radio in Chicago. Congratulations on that. But what's your hope for this book and kind of the impact, particularly in the business community? I think that leaders can be even more effective and more impactful if they're modeling the best version of themselves, that they're willing to go out of their comfort zones to try something different, to have a different kind of impact in the world.

14:34And my experience is that when you show up the better version of yourself, others take notice. Then they start asking you questions. What are you doing differently? I'm being more intentional about feeling alive every day. And I can tell you that whatever you think your potential is now, you have no idea what your potential can be when you're showing up with greater intentionality and greater aliveness. In terms of whatever your dreams could be, what if that were just the beginning of your potential? Jack, if you were to give maybe just one or two simple action items that our friend listening to our conversation right now could use in their regular life to experience more aliveness and stay in that what you call optimal state.

15:22Yeah. What would be two pieces of advice that you could give our friend listening today? Yeah, thank you for the question. I'd say, listen to your heart what you really want and don't judge it. Let that want just breathe a little bit and then commit to taking action on that want. That's one. The second one would be is think of little things that you could do to feel alive today. That might be walking in nature. It might be calling up a friend. It might be reading a book, going for a bike ride. I don't know what that is, you do. Your listeners do. And what I'm inviting is make that a priority. There's nothing more important than this.

16:08That's that tenacity of I am committed to feeling more alive. And I say it's a game of seconds. Every second you're not reactive is an opportunity to feel alive. That's the way I measure my progress. Josh, I don't, I'm not alive 24 hours, 365, but I'll tell you this, it's the game that I play more than any other game, and it has led to tremendous success. My success isn't tied to maybe this great strategy. This strategy is, I want to feel more alive today. The rest will take care of itself. You have a background in Enneagram, and you and I were talking about that just a little bit earlier before we hit record, I know my personality type.

16:54I know the types of work that I enjoy. I also know the types of work that drain me. And hopefully, again, our friend listening to this might know or be able to easily identify. They might say something like, I really just don't enjoy the accounting or the numbers or that sort of thing. They don't enjoy operations. Maybe they don't enjoy speaking or selling or whatever, but they might look at their role and say, well, but I have to do that because it's a necessary evil. There's a tax on that. And I don't know, maybe you could share just a bit about that. Yeah. So very briefly, one of my tools is reframing.

17:35So if you tell yourself, I have to, how passionate are you going to be about that role versus how can I find meaning? How can I find joy? How can I find some skill that I can develop with the job that I have? Now, at the end of the day, you might think, I can't find it here. Then would you have the courage to leave that job to maybe change careers or do whatever it takes? What I'm inviting is people to take ownership of whatever your job is. How can I get the most out of it? If you feel that you've already exhausted that or you can't, then what am I willing to do to get the job that I do want?

18:13Am I willing to take risk? Am I willing to get out of my comfort zone and whatever it is I need to do so that I find a more fulfilling job? Jack, aside from the book, how do you work with leaders and organizations? My main role is I work one-on-one, again, with CEOs and executives. And oftentimes when I work with those executives, they want me to work with their teams. So those are the primary things I do. I also work with a lot of you talked about YPO, which is young presidents. It's a group of CEOs that are global. I've been a member for 17 years and I lead over a dozen retreats with their forums every single year to help them find more passion, more meaning and more value out of their monthly forums.

19:02So, Jack, your website is jackcraven.com. When somebody goes there to our friend, what would you recommend they do? What are the next steps, particularly if they've resonated? Maybe they're already researching and they came across this podcast episode and now they've heard our conversation. What would you recommend they do from here? They can look at the tab that says Aliveness Mindset. There's a sample chapter there to give you an idea of what the book is about. There's a whole page of offering services to give you an idea of how I work with leaders. They can also, I'm trying to think what else is on the website.

19:38Those are probably the two primary areas. And they can also just learn more about my background and think, wow, that really his story resonates with me. I wonder how Jack might be able to support me in a similar situation. Jack Craven, your website, jackcraven.com, your book, Aliveness Mindset, Lead and Live with More Passion, Purpose and Joy. It's on Amazon and of course at your website. Jack, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, Josh.

20:37Together, we are empowering one another as thoughtful leaders. And as I mentioned at the beginning of this program, if you're looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers, and clients, I have had private conversations with over 2 ,000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from. I've got a free video that you can watch right now with no opt-in or email required where I'm going to share the exact steps necessary to be 100 % inbound in your industry over the next six to eight months with no spam, no ads, and no sales. What I teach has worked for me for more than 15 years and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies.

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