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Introduction 0:01
Welcome to the #PirateBroadcast, where we interview #interestingpeople doing #interestingthings. Where you can expand your connections, your community, #kindnessiscool and #smilesarefree. Let’s get this party started.

Russ Johns 0:18
Isn't it a beautiful day for the pirate broadcast, and we're here, interviewing interesting people doing interesting things. And we're gonna be talking about impact over attention with Jake today, and I just want to welcome you, thank you so much for being here. All the gratitude in the world. And if you're not joining us on LinkedIn, you can join us on Facebook, Periscope, YouTube, and also Russ, John's dot com, after the show on on the podcast. So follow, like and share and all those social things that we do to make an impact today. So good morning, how are you my friend?

Jake Jordan 0:56
Buenos Dias. I'm well. How are you?

Russ Johns 0:59
Oh, very well, very well. I was interested in connecting with you because we had actually done the 10 tips, 10 days, challenge a couple of times and I wanted to talk about that and making the impact and building communities and some of the things that you've been involved in and just catch up and actually have a conversation. You bounce around on social media so much, and you don't always get the opportunity to sit down have a conversation. So I thought, well, we can have a conversation and invite a few friends.

Jake Jordan 1:37
True. It's funny to me how many people that you cross paths with over and over and you never really sit down with, so I'm glad to be here chatting with you.

Russ Johns 1:45
Yeah, no kidding. No kidding. So what are you up to? What keeps you motivated? What keeps you excited today?

Jake Jordan 1:52
Yeah, so I actually have a daily podcast, where a buddy and I just get together and talk about our goals for the day, and make bets. And then, do some things where we were just challenging each other. That's a fun thing that we do and we're not trying to do anything with it other than just challenge each other and have a good time. So I came straight from that at 7:45 over here, rushed over. But you know, I spent my time largely helping people, my family, my friends, my clients, everybody, figure out how discipline and accountability and frameworks can really improve their life. Because I believe that everyone really has a thing that they were meant to do while they were here and I like helping them figure that out and do that better. So that's, that's my passion.

Russ Johns 2:50
I love that. I thank you for sharing that because a lot of people struggle with that goal, they struggle with the idea of how do I find my gift? And even do I have a gift? I believe everyone has a gift, everybody has a message and they just have to figure out how to share it with the world, you know, not everything is the same. And we all fit in this ecosystem together, all connected in some way, shape, or form. There's always a thread that connects us. So I I often wonder, how does one go about discovering that gift? ?What's your perspective on that?

Jake Jordan 3:36
Yeah, I think we make it too complicated. It's kind of one of those things where you live in a glass jar. So sometimes you can't see the label on the outside, and everyone else can, so I feel like it's like that for a lot of people. I feel like the things that you are so naturally good and gifted at, that you don't even consider them gifts. You're just like, oh, that's just what I do. Like me with with planning and accountability. I never really pin that down for myself. Until my 30's, I was like, I'm actually really good at this. How about that? So I think there's a lot of people out there that have put together programs and things like that. I use several myself with friends and I use another format for my my clients. But you know, Simon Sinek is the one recently who kind of brought that back to light. He's got a good book called, Find Your Why: A Practical Guide for Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team after studying what we know. It's actually a group of stuff. It's a start with why, it's like a follow up but actually tells you how to go through some exercises that basically just tell you, hey, recall some of the best times in your life and what you were doing and what made them so fun. What activities were you performing, just things like that, that when you put them all together and you overlap them, all of a sudden you start seeing some patterns and some values and you can really start to pinpoint, this is what I'm about, but I just didn't really think of it this way before.

Russ Johns 5:04
It's almost like you need another perspective to help you see around the corner, see outside the jar, the pickle inside the jar can't read the labels. So you have to have some help. The best coaches have coaches. So if you're willing and able, and interested in expanding on yourself and your skills and your understanding of who you are and what you're doing in this big world, it's nice to be able to connect with someone like Jake and and get that out there. So what are some of the projects that you're working on that helps people? You have to tell us more about that because a lot of people...the whole point of the #piratebroadcast is...now that you're a pirate, you're in the pirate community. You've got some other people that might be able to connect with you and see you and figure out, hey, what's Jake doing? I want to learn more about Jake. So take us down that path?

Jake Jordan 6:02
So my vocational way of doing that, because I have a personal statement that says, I .equip and embolden the cause-driven. so that they can make the changes happen that they want to see happen. The way I translate that into business is I work with a company called Quirk Growth and we've specifically worked with for good, for profit companies, and help them connect that that purpose in that passion to their marketing and communication so that they can grow at work. We particularly love going kind of that route with with companies that are past the startup stage, but kind of more the 1 to 10 million. So we spend time doing some of those types of activities to refocus organizations to start. Sometimes we do talk about better market positions and sometimes we talk about their marketing. But at the end of the day, we're really business coaches, for customer organizations.

Russ Johns 6:59
I love the fact that you had on cause driven organizations. It's not necessarily a nonprofit, either, it's for profit. Everybody needs to realize and understand that, hey, you can make an income and do good. It's two separate things. And the more you make, the more you can help in a lot of respects, so hats off to you for that. I really want to dig down a little bit deeper and kind of find out what was your path to doing what you're doing now? Is it, I woke up one day and just jumped out of bed and said, hey, this is what I want to do, or was it a kind of a bounce off the walls kind of thing and down a couple of different paths?

Jake Jordan 7:50
Yeah. Yeah, I think most good things happen that way, right? An overnight success story that took 15 years.

Russ Johns 7:58
It's a 15 year overnight success story.

Jake Jordan 8:02
Yeah, that's, that's the common one. Actually, I had this thing that's very typical, right? When I turned 40, I went, uh, what am I doing? You know, like, what am I doing with my life. I had been at an ad agency for multiple year, and I had run my own real estate investment business for multiple years. That's where impact over attention came from. I got tired of chasing attention for other people, so that they can make money. I'm a Christian, so that informs my value set and how I see the world. Loving and serving others is number one for me. So that means that I have to do things that are impactful in other people's lives, not just create these attention circles. That's really just a skill set more than anything else. Whereas impact can come from your heart, it can transform things. So I just had kind of one of those sets in groups of moments, where I said, it's time to kind of do a hard reset and really understand how I want to leave a lasting impression, if you will.

Russ Johns 9:15
Absolutely. Absolutely. I want to see a couple of people in the community here, giving us a shout out. Andrew, thank you so much. Buenos, good morning, so he's here. Gabriel's in the house. Hey, what's up MD's here. He says, how are you guys? I think I'm good. I'll have to check. Paolo says, good morning from soon to be locked Italy but far from being stopped. Stay connected. Stay safe. Gabriel says hello, gentlemen. Awesome day for me, two of my favorite people together. Thank you so much. John Hill says, that sounds like a really cool idea.

Jake Jordan 10:05
That's my podcast partner in the morning.

Russ Johns 10:11
Well, good morning, John. We'll have to bring you on, too. Andrew, having daily check in colleagues is a powerful way to stay on track. Like a workout buddy brings accountability. Absolutely. Marisa, good morning from San Diego. She say, you're up early. So it's like, now that the time change in Arizona is mountain time. Gabriel says Jake Jordan is an amazing and inspiring person. I have to agree with you there, Gabriel. Marisa, a good call early morning, early on the west coast. Gabriel says I want to learn more about Jake's accountability group. So let's talk about your accountability group.

Jake Jordan 10:59
Okay. Yeah, so I started an accountability group for founders, and executives of cost driven organizations. Because it's kind of like a groupme or WhatsApp. Discord is another one of those, and I run a group in there. We just have daily check ins as well. And weekly calls where we discuss how things are going together. It is what it sounds like, it's a group of people that are trying to do successful things in their life. I'm just trying to gather up people that are like minded so that we can continue to hit goals, but also create that synergy of, hey, I have a problem here maybe that we could tap into. Or can we help someone find something this week that they need to move that thing forward? So like I said, my big push for people is to get into...and I kind of broke this down last week, I want people to have strong discipline in something. I want people to put it in a framework, so they stop thinking about it, Just put it into a framework that works and work the system that I do, and then get into a strong community that supports you. Because I believe that's the three legged stool that takes people to impact and gets people to places they need to go.

Russ Johns 12:20
So recap happens again.

Jake Jordan 12:24
Yep. So be disciplined in something. A great quote I love, who knows at this point who it's by, but discipline equals freedom. Okay, get in discipline, number one. Number two, put it in a framework. So you don't have to think about it. And number three, get with a supportive community. That's what I'm trying to do, create the community, put together a framework for people so they don't have to, and be disciplines for them or with them or around them. I've tried to model it and equip people to do those things.

Russ Johns 12:57
Get very focused on it and then you don't have to worry about, am I doing it or am I not doing it? Because it's crystal clear. How would that differ from a mastermind group? Or, you know, a small group? Is this able to scale or is it an accountability group that is open and available for anyone that wants to have some accountability in their world?

Jake Jordan 13:22
Yeah, yeah. So it's, it's a pay what you want group. So if you want to pay $1, pay $1 if you want to pay me $1,000, I'm open to that, too. But yeah, it's it's open to anyone. There's a set of 30 days of emails that you get just by joining that helps you with some structure. After that, it's just a mastermind. We just get together and you can check in daily, you can check in weekly, it's really open to you to use to your extent. I just show up and do the thing and hopefully people continue to do stuff.

Russ Johns 13:54
I like that. I show up and do the thing. Yeah, I have thrived in masterminds over the years, and I just really enjoy the accountability, and also the honest feedback because it's a safe place to be able to ask questions without feeling as it's a judgment or a political forum or any kind of a platform that people are going to attack you on. It's just really everybody's there working together to lift each other up and that's what's really makes a difference.

Jake Jordan 14:37
I totally agree. I love masterminds. I don't think I'd consider this a mastermind group. There is a masterminding aspect to it, just a straight accountability group. I think the difference for those that don't really know would be that a mastermind groups sole purpose is to get together and solve problems together to really support and help. There are other types of groups and hybrids, but I also attribute a lot of my real estate success that I had to mastermind groups as well, because you can you get people doing different things at the same time, you can speed up your learning process so quickly.

Russ Johns 15:13
Oh, yeah, that question. You could search YouTube for forever. So you can phone a friend and say, hey, what's your experience in this? You'll get an answer, you know, yeah, it's good stuff. And for anyone that has not joined a mastermind, or been in an accountability group, or any kind of a collection of individuals moving in the same direction, it's an incredibly powerful experience. I encourage, and I just can't say enough good about the process.

Jake Jordan 15:49
Definitely.

Russ Johns 15:50
So what are some of the things that you see people...2020 has been an incredibly interesting year, and so on. So what do you see coming up to the top for people's concerns? Where people are moving their interest and energy? I mean, do you see something there that is gonna be...you're seeing more of over the course of this year? And as we go through this COVID thing?

Jake Jordan 16:24
Yeah, I think like a lot of other people, I've seen two outcomes. I've seen people freak out and kind of spend a little bit and cause themselves more problems, just by freaking out and burying your head in the sand. There's a fair amount of that going on, but I also do think, this has in more people than typically would have happened, has opened up a part in their, I don't know what you call it, their minds, their souls, their own being to really discover "how am I spending my time?" I really think a lot of people have been reflective on how can I...and this is a big thing. I've never seen something at this level shut so many things down, and things like that. I love Ryan Holiday, his book The Obstical is the way. It's the one that I first read of his that really kind of changed some of my thought processes. The way that it's blocked, it doesn't mean it's no longer the way, it just means it's blocked. So you either find a way over, around, or through. I think it just kind of brought some of that up for people and kind of back to the beginning of the episode we were talking about what am I really about? What do I really want to work on every day?

Russ Johns 17:47
Yeah, well, what it does is it forces creativity in a way that you had not discovered previously. His studies on stoicism and thinking in those terms are really, I think, enlightening for a lot of people that are trying to overthink. It goes back to what's your why? It's like, okay, why am I doing what I'm doing? And then because of the roadblocks we're receiving today, in a lot of cases, it's like, well, that's something I have to do, but maybe not. Maybe not.

Jake Jordan 18:31
Yeah.

Russ Johns 18:32
So there have been things that you've dropped off your agenda and your to do list as far as life goes in this current situation.

Jake Jordan 18:42
Oh, gosh, yeah. One of my flaws, I guess I'd say, your strength to write is..I've dropped quite a few projects that I had planned for 2020, but I felt like it was for the right reasons, not because... It was early on, too. I planned to write a book in 2020. I had plans to actually go on a bit of a speaking tour, which obviously got shut down. But I don't have plans to resurrect that. I had a couple of entrepreneurial ideas that I shut down, that were just ideas to spin up another business. So I am solely focused on impact cost driven organizations and helping them grow this upcoming year. I'm just looking for the right ways to do that. That would be most effective. So yeah, I dropped a lot.

Russ Johns 19:35
Yeah, yeah. Some big goals can continue to be big goals and it's really about being accountable. Mark Lacour. I want to point this question out because I want to talk about this a little deeper. Hey, Mark, how you doing? Question: how much accountability is too much?

Jake Jordan 19:54
That's a good question. I love that.

Russ Johns 19:56
That is a good question.

Jake Jordan 19:57
Yeah. so I like to say that accountability only works when it's invited. So most people don't like accountability, the word. They actually kind of cringe at it. It gives a little friction in their brains if they've never been a part of an accountability group. Because most of the accountability that we've been given in our life in the formative years was by parents and teachers and coaches, and they were telling us to do things we didn't want to do.

Russ Johns 20:24
It's like they're related to authority.

Jake Jordan 20:26
Yes, because it's related to authority. So accountability feels bad. But if you have something you want to accomplish and you feel like it's valuable, other people are the best way to get there. Because once again, that's from the outside of the glass, they can see things that you can't see, it's not possible, and you have to have those people around. So I don't think there's too much accountability. I don't think there's such a thing. I think everyone has different levels of accountability they tolerate. But like, right now, I have my morning show with John, I have discord group. I have social media, schedules, I have calendars I stick to, I have alarms on my phone that I get. I've got accountability all over my life. But it doesn't feel like too much. Because it's embedded, I want it.

Russ Johns 21:24
Well, I think it's internalizing accountability and saying I want to grow, and I want to be accountable to something bigger than myself, versus I have to do this or else. So I think there's a different path in each situation. And I think it really has to do with what you internalize and how how you see growth taking place. I think outside accountability, that new perspective, you know, like your group is providing others, because a lot of people, they don't give themselves permission to actually think that they can think big enough. Right? I mean, how many people have you seen that are amazing, talented, and crazy talented in some areas of their life, they don't even recognize it. Sometimes it takes a new perspective, or someone else pointing it out and saying, hey, Jake, you're incredible human being and you're really talented. You can help more people in your life by doing X, Y and Z with your skills and a lot of people don't see that.

Jake Jordan 22:39
Yeah, I think, and Kenyatta said it in the comments, that accountability is ownership. I strongly believe that. Maybe another answer to that question might be, is how much ownership do you want to take of the things in your life? Because sometimes that's hard to take ownership of things. You have to take things on the chin. It's not easy. So that might be a sideways way into the answer as well.

Russ Johns 23:05
Yeah, no kidding. How much ownership do you want? I think, for myself, I kind of amplify what you said about dropping projects. The more I drop, and the more focus I place on what I'm doing. It seems to be clear, it seems to be easier, it seems to flow much smoother. And things start happening when you when you focus on a single goal, versus multiple goals. Chase two rabbits, catches none kind of idea. Is that a lot? It's like, okay, yeah, I still have projects that I have to remove.

Jake Jordan 23:55
Tony Robbins said something like, you can't have everything, but you can have anything. So it's the same idea that when you narrow your focus, you can pretty much get most anything you want in life, if that's your sole focus. It may take some time and I may have to do a bunch of things wrong first.

Russ Johns 24:20
Well, I always say that life is an instrument. You just have to keep practicing. It's like any instrument. It doesn't really sound great until you practice it a little bit. Like the 15 years of overnight success you were talking about. So it's one of those thing. I want to give a shout out to a few more people. Michelle is here. Michelle says, good morning. Love Jake's attitude and honesty. I've learned a lot from him in the short time I've known him. Thank you so much. Yes, absolutely. Kenyatta says, Gabriel, absolutely. Pirates unite. Then I was just gonna grab, there's one thing I saw going through the feed. Gabriel is saying, yes, Kenyatta, total ownership is important. I've struggled at times in life being accountable for my own life and actions. It was only when I started to hold myself accountable, did I see changes in my life. So, I know there are times in my life where the only thing I was looking at was the thing in front of me at the moment. Sometimes that luck has led me down some very challenging paths and depression, dark times. So how does that play into it? I know a lot of people...the suicide rate is up, mental illnesses are increasing. How do you see that changing or evolving out? As it relates to accountability, and it relates to community, because I know you've done a lot of good things in the community. I want to help more people get out of the mindset that doom and gloom and look at the bright side of things. How does that fit into your world?

Jake Jordan 26:25
Yeah, so I have depression directly in my family, I haven't suffered specifically from the disease itself. I've been depressed, I understand to degrees. But once you've known someone who's depressed personally, daily, it's really interesting to see how that toll has on people. I believe the community has made a comeback. In the US in particular, because we have become such an isolated society. Home of the free is fantastic. But free from other people to do whatever we want, whenever we want is not freedom. It's chaos. So I believe that we are turning a corner as a nation. How about today, timing wise? I think we're turning a corner as a nation, as a whole, forget the media and the established community, if you will, we're turning a corner to realizing that isolation is not a good thing. I shouldn't be completely separate from my neighbor. And I shouldn't not know the people on my street and things like that, because we realize that there's so much more we can do together. We may not agree on what those things are, but the togetherness part seems to be coming back a little bit. So I think when you talk to large groups, or when you talk out on social media, where anyone can say anything, you don't see that, but when you get into smaller groups and bring up discussions like this, no one disagrees. Everyone's like, yes, why can't we just get along and figure things out together? And so communities, it's one of my three chair legs, right? It's super important. And the way that addresses...I think mental illness and depression and, maybe not mental illness so much, but it's fresh, and for sure is I believe that most people who go through depression...I don't know about the disease itself, so I won't speak to that, but they go through depression because they don't feel seen. They don't feel like someone is there listening. They don't even have to agree, they just don't feel seen. So they dive down in a pit because they feel like they're alone. Their pain is their own. And the discouragement is their own, even if they know other people go through it, they don't feel that. It's more like an idea versus a felt. So anytime that I've had to pull myself out of depression, I didn't do it myself. So other people pulled me up out of it. If I hadn't had those communities, things could have gotten much worse.

Russ Johns 29:09
I I totally agree with you. I mean, if you listen to the mainstream media, we're all going to die tomorrow. If you listen to some of the chaos on social media, it's not so bad. It's still pretty terrible. However, in the pirate community, in some of the smaller groups, people are coming together. It's bringing more awareness of the idea of community. I have friends all over the world as a result of reaching out and having an outreach and conversations and 10 days and 10 tips. Things like that, that bring people together are really a powerful tool to find a cause. Find a hero and bring people together. So I applaud your efforts. Jake, I love what you're doing. I encourage you and support you and everything that you're doing. I just wanted to highlight and bring you to the pirate community and share a few more people with you.

Jake Jordan 30:20
Awesome.

Russ Johns 30:22
You know, it's it's amazing what we can accomplish when we just say, hey, let's do something.

Jake Jordan 30:28
Yeah, and I think that has a lot to do with fulfillment. Just having something to go towards and to do it with a group of people that you care about. You can't ask for much better life than that.

Russ Johns 30:39
Yeah, absolutely. So how is the best way people can get ahold of you? How do you like people to reach out to you?

Jake Jordan 30:47
So I'm a LinkedIn guy, as you've already alluded to, so come follow me or connect with me on LinkedIn. Then my website is impactoverattention.com. Yeah, if you want to check out my day job that I love. Fantastic, guys, I love them so much as Quirk, like, quirky, quirkgrowth.com.

Russ Johns 31:12
Fantastic. Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for taking the time, Jake, I really appreciate it. We haven't really had an opportunity to have that much conversation over time. Just in LinkedIn and so it was really a pleasure to hang out and learn more about you. So

Jake Jordan 31:28
Thanks so much, Russ. I appreciate it. I'm going to be spending more time in the pirate community now.

Russ Johns 31:33
Don't be a stranger. Don't be a stranger. As always everyone, you know the drill. $kindnessiscool, smilesarefree. So you #enjoytheday. Don't go away, Jake. Take care.

Jake Jordan 31:50
Alright.

Exit 31:51
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