49: Notice What Makes You Come Alive with Jay Vogt

Jay Vogt is the founder of Peoplesworth, an organizational development practice that works with mission-driven organizations, which started in 1982. Jay has worked with nonprofits in healthcare, education, human services, arts, culture, the environment, and more. He has worked with fast-growth companies in the organic food world like Stonyfield Yogurt, and Applegate. Jay is a master facilitator of meetings and retreats and specializes in leading large group meetings of 35 to 350 participants. A published author, Jay’s TEDx talk on the art of facilitation, “Changing the Way the World Meets” has been viewed nearly 100,000 times.

Unlike most people who transition to an entrepreneurial career path, Jay made this move at a younger age, 27 years and he has never looked back. That’s not to say that it’s been a smooth, confident ride all these years. He made choices along the way as to how he would manage his practice, choosing to only engage local clients so that he could be home at the dinner table every night, calling it his “country doctor” model. This choice challenged him to redefine his concept of success and design a life that would make him feel more alive. This included, for example, taking several sabbaticals in which he chose experiences over income, risking the stability of his client relationships. Surprisingly, his clients found his choices appealing and engaging.

In this episode we discuss:

• The learning and growth journey Jay took to move from working at a university extension service to launching his own practice.
• Jay experienced significant mindset shifts that enabled him to embrace his most meaningful career path while also overcoming significant fears.
• The values that Jay adhered to and which helped him, including this quote: “chance favors a prepared mind.”
• The “mortgage money” work he did while he was building his practice.
• Jay’s fundamental operating principle, genuinely caring about the worth of people.
• The life hack Jay learned for accomplishing most of what he would like to do in life, without having to make huge life or career shifts.

Links:

• Jay Vogt on LinkedIn and Twitter.
• www.peoplesworth.com
• www.homesanmiguel.com
• www.essentialworth.com
• Jay’s TEDxTalk – The Art of Facilitation: Changing the Way the World Meets

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