Coaching Gen Z to Lead with EQ and AI with Jeremy Williams | RR326

Janice Porter: 00:00:00

Steve, hello. Hello everyone, and welcome to

Janice Porter: 00:00:06

this week's episode of relationships rule. My guest

Janice Porter: 00:00:09

today is actually helping shape not just the future of business,

Janice Porter: 00:00:13

but the future of its leaders. Jeremy Williams is with me all

Janice Porter: 00:00:17

the way from France, which I find very exciting and romantic,

Janice Porter: 00:00:21

actually, but that's not even part of the conversation. Jeremy

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is the head of coaching at founders path, where he's

Janice Porter: 00:00:29

training the next generation of teen entrepreneurs in skills

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like aI blockchain and emotional intelligence. He's also the

Janice Porter: 00:00:37

creator of peer coaching 460 a program designed to foster

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connection and collective intelligence across industries.

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Today, we're going to explore how Jeremy is using the power of

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relationships to develop entrepreneurial minds in Gen Z,

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and why emotional intelligence may just be the edge that

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tomorrow's leaders need most welcome. Welcome to the show,

Janice Porter: 00:01:00

Jeremy,

Jeremy Williams: 00:01:01

thanks, Janice, great to be here and excited for

Jeremy Williams: 00:01:04

our discussion.

Janice Porter: 00:01:06

Perfect. Well, let's jump in by starting with

Janice Porter: 00:01:09

founders path. What drew you to this role and how did the

Janice Porter: 00:01:12

mission resonate with your own journey?

Jeremy Williams: 00:01:16

Right? Well, I actually first met the CEO Aaron

Jeremy Williams: 00:01:19

of founders path in January of this year, just after he had

Jeremy Williams: 00:01:22

kicked off his company. So the journey, and within a couple of

Jeremy Williams: 00:01:26

minutes of listening to Aaron pitch what his mission was, I

Jeremy Williams: 00:01:32

was sold. Because as far as I'm concerned, I think many people

Jeremy Williams: 00:01:36

would agree with me in many countries around the world, the

Jeremy Williams: 00:01:39

education system has broken in many senses, and many people,

Jeremy Williams: 00:01:44

parents included, and I'm one of those would feel that the

Jeremy Williams: 00:01:48

education system, in many cases, is not preparing our children

Jeremy Williams: 00:01:52

for the reality that they're going to go into. Yeah, so this

Jeremy Williams: 00:01:56

seems sort of misalignment of education in the real world, I

Jeremy Williams: 00:02:00

think is really starting to cause concern for parents and

Jeremy Williams: 00:02:03

businesses alike. So the idea of helping teenagers develop their

Jeremy Williams: 00:02:08

emotional intelligence and all the aspects that come under

Jeremy Williams: 00:02:11

that, along with, you know, their tech knowledge, so going

Jeremy Williams: 00:02:14

beyond just consuming content, but actually creating it using

Jeremy Williams: 00:02:18

this amazing technology, you know, the importance of building

Jeremy Williams: 00:02:22

really solid relationships, and how the emotional intelligence

Jeremy Williams: 00:02:26

and artificial intelligence and blockchain, all of this tech can

Jeremy Williams: 00:02:29

work together, hand in hand, to really open their minds and

Jeremy Williams: 00:02:33

allow them to create businesses and solutions that the world

Jeremy Williams: 00:02:37

really needs. So that's why I got involved with founders path.

Janice Porter: 00:02:42

Well, I do you have teenagers yourself?

Jeremy Williams: 00:02:45

Yes, we have an 11 year old and a 13 year old.

Janice Porter: 00:02:48

So are you? Are they being involved in this

Janice Porter: 00:02:51

program? Because I can't see why they wouldn't be, except that

Janice Porter: 00:02:54

dad doing it

Jeremy Williams: 00:02:56

exactly. Dad's going first. I'm running one of

Jeremy Williams: 00:03:00

the cohorts along with my team of coaches, but yes, hopefully

Jeremy Williams: 00:03:03

they'll be joining in the coming months and years. Absolutely

Janice Porter: 00:03:07

Okay. So what's it like coaching? Is it 13 to 17

Janice Porter: 00:03:11

year olds in advanced topics like AI and blockchain and how

Janice Porter: 00:03:16

do relationships play a role in this learning? I know you're

Janice Porter: 00:03:19

just into your first cohort now, but you probably got enough of a

Janice Porter: 00:03:22

take on it to answer that.

Jeremy Williams: 00:03:25

Yeah, I mean, there's, there's no getting away

Jeremy Williams: 00:03:27

from the fact that this, obviously, this period the

Jeremy Williams: 00:03:30

teenage years. You know, it's a period of change, radical

Jeremy Williams: 00:03:33

change, discovery. There's a lot going on. So was ranging from,

Jeremy Williams: 00:03:38

he has a coach, from a coach's perspective, there's the

Jeremy Williams: 00:03:41

discipline needed to make sure that there is clear rules in

Jeremy Williams: 00:03:44

place, which I think is absolutely essential. But

Jeremy Williams: 00:03:48

there's also the mindset, because they're coming out of

Jeremy Williams: 00:03:51

the traditional education system, or they're still in it,

Jeremy Williams: 00:03:53

of course, but we need to reboot their mindset into more of an

Jeremy Williams: 00:03:56

entrepreneurial way of thinking, and their minds to, you know

Jeremy Williams: 00:04:00

generative AI as an example how to prompt, because it's not like

Jeremy Williams: 00:04:04

using Google, as many of us now know, technologies like

Jeremy Williams: 00:04:08

blockchain and of course, then as we go into the emotional

Jeremy Williams: 00:04:11

intelligence side of things, so it's certainly mind opening.

Jeremy Williams: 00:04:15

It's a challenge. However, what we have all noticed as coaches,

Jeremy Williams: 00:04:21

is the energy, the enthusiasm and the passion to make positive

Jeremy Williams: 00:04:26

change in the world is palpable. It's from the first session. We

Jeremy Williams: 00:04:31

all notice that really, that gives us a lot of it was me, a

Jeremy Williams: 00:04:35

lot of, you know, optimism for our future.

Janice Porter: 00:04:38

So they all had ideas and of how they want to

Janice Porter: 00:04:41

change the world, so to speak.

Jeremy Williams: 00:04:43

Yeah, most of them. I mean, we started off

Jeremy Williams: 00:04:45

with the icky guy model. And you know, the passions that they

Jeremy Williams: 00:04:49

have and what they're good at, you know, what the world can pay

Jeremy Williams: 00:04:52

them for? What could you make positive change? So we discussed

Jeremy Williams: 00:04:55

that model along with some others, to get them thinking,

Jeremy Williams: 00:04:58

put them into small groups. But. Some of the initial ideas that

Jeremy Williams: 00:05:01

some of them brought to to the first workshop were great. And

Jeremy Williams: 00:05:05

now we're sort of, in many cases, 6789, 10 weeks into the

Jeremy Williams: 00:05:09

cohorts, and we're moving well into the product phase now and

Jeremy Williams: 00:05:14

off into marketing. So we've got five sprints. We start off with

Jeremy Williams: 00:05:18

research, then we move through to product and then marketing,

Jeremy Williams: 00:05:22

sales and pitching, okay, the process of starting a business,

Janice Porter: 00:05:27

right, right? So I'm curious. This isn't on my

Janice Porter: 00:05:30

questions here, but I it always comes up for me some other

Janice Porter: 00:05:34

things. And the thing that's coming up for me right now is,

Janice Porter: 00:05:37

you're, you're doing this over video conferencing right over

Janice Porter: 00:05:41

Google meet. And these are kids who are probably, well, you've

Janice Porter: 00:05:47

probably got all different kinds. You've got the, what I

Janice Porter: 00:05:49

call the But, sir, but Sir. Who was this kid in my class when I

Janice Porter: 00:05:53

was in school who would interrupt the teacher all the

Janice Porter: 00:05:55

time because she had an idea that she had to or she had to

Janice Porter: 00:05:58

answer first, and then there's the listeners, but generally

Janice Porter: 00:06:03

speaking, I'm picturing these kids all have their phones in

Janice Porter: 00:06:06

front of them, because that's what they are normally doing in

Janice Porter: 00:06:08

front of their phones. They're not interacting as much. So did

Janice Porter: 00:06:12

that be? Was that an issue? Or were these kids initially, you

Janice Porter: 00:06:16

know, all in

Jeremy Williams: 00:06:18

well, we encourage them to use the

Jeremy Williams: 00:06:19

technology alright? Because this is not a traditional coaching

Jeremy Williams: 00:06:24

journey from a coaching perspective, but also a

Jeremy Williams: 00:06:27

learner's perspective. We don't have PowerPoint presentations

Jeremy Williams: 00:06:30

with lots of slides and lots of content. We're not teaching them

Jeremy Williams: 00:06:33

a mini MBA, right? That's really clear. So what we do is we have

Jeremy Williams: 00:06:38

our, you know, the curriculum that we follow. We have the

Jeremy Williams: 00:06:41

missions that we ask them to complete between the workshops,

Jeremy Williams: 00:06:44

which are weekly, 90 minute workshops. Okay, we have a clear

Jeremy Williams: 00:06:48

deliverable in the workshop. They're highly interactive. We

Jeremy Williams: 00:06:51

put them into two breakout sessions of about 30 minutes

Jeremy Williams: 00:06:54

each. You start off with a 15 minute warmer and a review of

Jeremy Williams: 00:06:58

their mission to 30 minute sessions where they work

Jeremy Williams: 00:07:02

together in small groups, leveraging the tools, excuse me.

Jeremy Williams: 00:07:06

And then we finish off with a 15 minute cooldown, setting the

Jeremy Williams: 00:07:09

mission. And then off they go. So we get them to use chatgpt,

Jeremy Williams: 00:07:13

Gemini, grok, you know the go to AI tools for many people now,

Jeremy Williams: 00:07:19

where with the product sprint that we're well into now. We're

Jeremy Williams: 00:07:24

using during the workshops in groups, they are actually

Jeremy Williams: 00:07:28

building their products and challenging each other. Okay,

Jeremy Williams: 00:07:31

what they're actually building? So we're we're advising them on

Jeremy Williams: 00:07:35

the tech, but they're also discovering it. So we are,

Jeremy Williams: 00:07:37

effectively as coaches, we're guides and we're project

Jeremy Williams: 00:07:40

managers of this six month journey, yeah. So

Janice Porter: 00:07:44

when they're in the breakout rooms, do you have

Janice Porter: 00:07:46

you can't be in more than one place at a time? Are you going

Janice Porter: 00:07:49

from group to group, or is there someone else in there helping

Janice Porter: 00:07:52

you?

Jeremy Williams: 00:07:52

No, exactly. I actually set them up in their

Jeremy Williams: 00:07:55

groups, and then I give them a few minutes to settle in, and

Jeremy Williams: 00:07:58

then I rotate through the rooms just quick visit, check the

Jeremy Williams: 00:08:02

direction, answer any questions.

Janice Porter: 00:08:04

Got it okay. So what? Why do you think you're an

Janice Porter: 00:08:08

emotional intelligence practitioner? So why do you

Janice Porter: 00:08:12

think emotional intelligence is so critical for entrepreneurial

Janice Porter: 00:08:16

success, especially with these young people? So start them

Janice Porter: 00:08:20

young?

Jeremy Williams: 00:08:21

Yeah, great question. So we're obviously in

Jeremy Williams: 00:08:25

an era of AI, and the buzz is palpable, and everybody can feel

Jeremy Williams: 00:08:29

it right. So the way I look at it is that this technology is

Jeremy Williams: 00:08:34

not going away. We have to embrace it. There's no doubt

Jeremy Williams: 00:08:38

about it. So I see a world that we're moving into where we've

Jeremy Williams: 00:08:42

almost got half of the equation is our tech master. So

Jeremy Williams: 00:08:56

we've got the tech mastery on one side of the equation how we

Jeremy Williams: 00:08:59

can leverage that to really boost our productivity. And on

Jeremy Williams: 00:09:03

the other side, we've got our emotional intelligence, so how

Jeremy Williams: 00:09:06

we can build and nurture meaningful connections with

Jeremy Williams: 00:09:10

other humans. There's something that we've communicated to our

Jeremy Williams: 00:09:15

team, teenage founders, you know, many times throughout the

Jeremy Williams: 00:09:18

journey so far, is that getting the balance between these two

Jeremy Williams: 00:09:22

aspects is critical to their success, because business is

Jeremy Williams: 00:09:26

about people. It always has been about people, and it always will

Jeremy Williams: 00:09:30

be. The technology will come and go, and it will have a greater

Jeremy Williams: 00:09:33

impact. There's no doubt about that. But people buy from

Jeremy Williams: 00:09:37

people, so you've got to be able to build those relationships and

Jeremy Williams: 00:09:40

nurture them.

Janice Porter: 00:09:42

That's like music to my ears, right? But are they

Janice Porter: 00:09:45

buying it? Can you see like, have you? Can you share, like, a

Janice Porter: 00:09:49

moment or a story where you've seen a breakthrough in one of

Janice Porter: 00:09:52

the students because of that, because of relationship or

Janice Porter: 00:09:55

coaching interaction?

Jeremy Williams: 00:09:58

Yes, absolutely. I mean, for.

Jeremy Williams: 00:10:00

Example, one of the things I advocated very early on was that

Jeremy Williams: 00:10:03

feedback, I said to my students and the other coaches too, is

Jeremy Williams: 00:10:08

like you have to think about feedback as a gift, and as

Jeremy Williams: 00:10:12

you're developing your idea and you're moving towards your MVP,

Jeremy Williams: 00:10:16

you need to be sharing it with people and getting their

Jeremy Williams: 00:10:19

feedback, and not taking it personally, taking it in a

Jeremy Williams: 00:10:22

constructive way. So we talked about the GDD feedback model. So

Jeremy Williams: 00:10:25

what's good, what's difficult, and anything that you would do

Jeremy Williams: 00:10:29

differently. So, very constructive, yeah, which is

Jeremy Williams: 00:10:33

great. I put them into some breakouts, and we actually role

Jeremy Williams: 00:10:38

played, you know, how to push and pull feedback. And I said to

Jeremy Williams: 00:10:41

them, you know, the first thing you need to do before you

Jeremy Williams: 00:10:43

actually ask people you know for feedback is to reflect on, how

Jeremy Williams: 00:10:47

do you as an individual receive feedback when, especially when

Jeremy Williams: 00:10:50

it's pretty critical, you know, from parents, from brothers,

Jeremy Williams: 00:10:53

sisters, you know, classmates, friends, etc.

Janice Porter: 00:10:57

And did they know themselves well enough to know

Janice Porter: 00:10:59

that answer?

Jeremy Williams: 00:11:01

Most of them, I think, had a pretty good

Jeremy Williams: 00:11:03

understanding of that. A lot of them said, hey, it's quite

Jeremy Williams: 00:11:06

difficult, especially when it's it's a little bit edgy, you

Jeremy Williams: 00:11:09

know, it's not what I would expect. So we discussed that,

Jeremy Williams: 00:11:13

and I put them into breakouts, and we role played some

Jeremy Williams: 00:11:15

scenarios. We they shared some of the work they've been working

Jeremy Williams: 00:11:18

on, and they got some constructive feedback. And we

Jeremy Williams: 00:11:20

won't really accept, oh, yeah, that's great, right? It's like,

Jeremy Williams: 00:11:24

okay, this is not like a back slapping, you know, exercise.

Jeremy Williams: 00:11:27

But there's always something that could be better, no matter

Jeremy Williams: 00:11:30

how good it is. So let's, let's, you know, move in this

Jeremy Williams: 00:11:33

direction. And we saw, we've seen some great results since

Jeremy Williams: 00:11:36

then, so very important part of the journey.

Janice Porter: 00:11:39

Oh, totally. Because, I mean, that's going to

Janice Porter: 00:11:41

help them in life, like in spades, really. I mean, 10 fold,

Janice Porter: 00:11:46

that's going to help them, right? And if you know how you

Janice Porter: 00:11:52

respond to things early on, then you've also got a longer time to

Janice Porter: 00:11:58

change those things that maybe don't work for you. So I think

Janice Porter: 00:12:01

that's really that's really good. Is there one little

Janice Porter: 00:12:04

instance, without saying a person's name, that you could

Janice Porter: 00:12:07

share, where you saw something brilliant happen? Yeah,

Jeremy Williams: 00:12:13

there was one particular instance that comes

Jeremy Williams: 00:12:17

to mind where a guy had got particularly attached to a

Jeremy Williams: 00:12:22

particular color scheme for his app. And he put together some,

Jeremy Williams: 00:12:27

you know, like a mock up in Canva, and was sharing it Yes.

Jeremy Williams: 00:12:30

And two or three of his peers challenged him on the color, the

Jeremy Williams: 00:12:34

colors that he had chosen. And I knew because he'd already said

Jeremy Williams: 00:12:38

that he was really attached to this particular colors. And he

Jeremy Williams: 00:12:41

was challenged by some of his peers. And the following week,

Jeremy Williams: 00:12:45

you know, he we, we got everybody together, and he

Jeremy Williams: 00:12:49

shared what he had done, and he changed the colors, and he

Jeremy Williams: 00:12:52

actually said, you know, that was hard for me, because these

Jeremy Williams: 00:12:54

are my favorite colors. This is the image I had from week one.

Jeremy Williams: 00:12:58

And, you know, I listened to the feedback. So have to listen to

Jeremy Williams: 00:13:02

my customers for his

Janice Porter: 00:13:03

words. So fantastic. Yes. And how old is

Janice Porter: 00:13:07

that person? 14? Okay, perfect. And how many of the 20 I know

Janice Porter: 00:13:12

you have 24 people in this cohort, how many of them are

Janice Porter: 00:13:15

male and how many of them are female? Just

Jeremy Williams: 00:13:17

curious. So sorry, just a quick correction.

Jeremy Williams: 00:13:20

So we have 10 Max. Oh, I'm

Janice Porter: 00:13:21

sorry. Okay, 10 groups. Where did I get 24

Jeremy Williams: 00:13:25

from? 24 weeks, six

Janice Porter: 00:13:27

months? Oh, okay. I knew I got it from somewhere.

Janice Porter: 00:13:29

Okay, so you have 10 children or teenagers in this group. How

Janice Porter: 00:13:33

many are male and how many are female?

Jeremy Williams: 00:13:35

Generally, I would say the spread is about

Jeremy Williams: 00:13:37

5050, at the moment.

Janice Porter: 00:13:39

Good, good. She's encouraging. Yeah, that is

Janice Porter: 00:13:42

encouraging. Yeah, awesome. All right, so, and by the way, just

Janice Porter: 00:13:48

as an aside, if I ever get a chance to work with them, let me

Janice Porter: 00:13:52

know, because I love to to, you know, see how, how the future is

Janice Porter: 00:13:56

coming and, and what's, you know, the the positive side of

Janice Porter: 00:14:02

what's coming up, right by seeing, yeah, it would be great.

Jeremy Williams: 00:14:06

Yeah, it's really exciting. And also, we're

Jeremy Williams: 00:14:08

gamifying the experience as well more and more, so with awards

Jeremy Williams: 00:14:14

and badges for it and points for achieving certain goals. Yeah.

Jeremy Williams: 00:14:18

So there are some big changes afoot, and we're listening to

Jeremy Williams: 00:14:21

our, you know, to the feedback from the students each session,

Jeremy Williams: 00:14:24

and their parents as well. And we're iterating constantly,

Jeremy Williams: 00:14:27

because it needs to be gamified. They love the idea of

Jeremy Williams: 00:14:31

competition and positive encouragement. So, yeah,

Janice Porter: 00:14:36

that's really interesting, because we have

Janice Porter: 00:14:39

gone through, and I don't know I haven't taught for a long time,

Janice Porter: 00:14:42

but I used to be a school teacher years ago, and it got to

Janice Porter: 00:14:46

a phase where everybody got a ribbon right in sports, for

Janice Porter: 00:14:53

example, and there was no competition. And has it swung

Janice Porter: 00:14:57

the other way, or is this just something that. The kids are

Janice Porter: 00:15:00

craving and they want it, and so this is a good place to put it

Janice Porter: 00:15:04

in.

Jeremy Williams: 00:15:05

No, it's absolutely they really want it.

Jeremy Williams: 00:15:07

They love the competition. Yeah, we can't have awards for

Jeremy Williams: 00:15:12

everybody. I mean, that has to be the focus.

Janice Porter: 00:15:16

Was playing this game last night with my

Janice Porter: 00:15:18

granddaughter and my husband and my daughter, and she's sick,

Janice Porter: 00:15:23

just turned six, and it's a tricky game, actually, it's

Janice Porter: 00:15:27

called uzzle, which is kind of interesting, I thought, yeah,

Janice Porter: 00:15:31

and it's a series of blocks that have different images on them to

Janice Porter: 00:15:35

and you can turn them and find the right combination. So you

Janice Porter: 00:15:38

have a card you turn over, and it's got the pattern that you

Janice Porter: 00:15:43

have to put together with the blocks, and there's easier ones

Janice Porter: 00:15:45

and different, more difficult ones, and she's pretty good at

Janice Porter: 00:15:48

it, for someone who just turned six, but she didn't win the

Janice Porter: 00:15:52

second time, and she didn't like that, she cried because she

Janice Porter: 00:15:56

didn't win. And so, you know, there's a lesson there. Of

Janice Porter: 00:15:59

course, you can't win all the time, but I love that she has

Janice Porter: 00:16:02

that competitive spirit that she wanted to win, right? So we had

Janice Porter: 00:16:07

to, you know, balance that out a little bit too, but she's only

Janice Porter: 00:16:10

six, so I'm glad she has a competitive spirit.

Jeremy Williams: 00:16:13

That's good. It's really important. I mean,

Jeremy Williams: 00:16:15

it's, yes, the journey is important, but the outcome is

Jeremy Williams: 00:16:18

also very important. So it's a balance of the two, isn't it? I

Jeremy Williams: 00:16:21

mean, taking part is super important, but you have to

Jeremy Williams: 00:16:24

compete to win Absolutely.

Janice Porter: 00:16:27

Yeah, so I thought that was interesting.

Janice Porter: 00:16:29

Okay, let's switch gears now a little bit, and let's talk about

Janice Porter: 00:16:32

your peer. For your peer, coaching 460 I love that. I

Janice Porter: 00:16:37

don't know where the number comes from, because I always

Janice Porter: 00:16:40

hear coaching 360 right? That 360 a lot of people use that. So

Janice Porter: 00:16:44

Was that intentional? And what does it mean?

Jeremy Williams: 00:16:47

Yeah, okay, so peer coaching 460 so the four is

Jeremy Williams: 00:16:53

for four people. That's what it stands for. Okay? The so it's

Jeremy Williams: 00:16:58

four people over four weeks, four consecutive sessions, 60

Jeremy Williams: 00:17:02

minutes a session, all right? 60 came from, okay. So the the idea

Jeremy Williams: 00:17:08

was that in many of the the consultancy training sessions

Jeremy Williams: 00:17:13

that I've run over the years, I very often had so you have a

Jeremy Williams: 00:17:16

company that would say, Okay, we have a need for, you know, to to

Jeremy Williams: 00:17:19

improve our communication or feedback. So there's a big buzz.

Jeremy Williams: 00:17:23

They get a ambassador, high up in the C suite, they they put it

Jeremy Williams: 00:17:28

out for tender. They get to the company. They choose the

Jeremy Williams: 00:17:31

company. The company comes in, you know, they have a one, you

Jeremy Williams: 00:17:34

know, a meeting. They work out that's a need analysis, and

Jeremy Williams: 00:17:37

needs analysis that is done, and then obviously the training is

Jeremy Williams: 00:17:39

put together, big buzz. And it's rolled out, everybody turns up

Jeremy Williams: 00:17:42

because, in many cases, they feel pressure to turn up. Yes,

Jeremy Williams: 00:17:46

everything starts. And then normally what happens is, over

Jeremy Williams: 00:17:50

time, less and less people turn up, and you end up with sort of

Jeremy Williams: 00:17:55

30, 40% of the original sort of hanging on whilst the session

Jeremy Williams: 00:17:59

finished. All the cohort finishes, and there's a certain

Jeremy Williams: 00:18:01

amount of value there, yes, but the retention is always tricky.

Jeremy Williams: 00:18:04

There's all there are always reasons why not to turn up. And

Jeremy Williams: 00:18:07

what I felt, and I also heard from quite a few students and

Jeremy Williams: 00:18:14

participants over the years, was that, hey, great subject, but I

Jeremy Williams: 00:18:18

really wanted to share a real challenge that I was facing, but

Jeremy Williams: 00:18:23

my boss was in the training, or colleague that I was having a

Jeremy Williams: 00:18:28

bit of a challenge with was in the session. So I couldn't say

Jeremy Williams: 00:18:30

anything, even though I wanted to, yes, this started to come

Jeremy Williams: 00:18:34

back. This feedback started to come back to me time and time

Jeremy Williams: 00:18:38

again. I remember thinking, well, there's an opportunity

Jeremy Williams: 00:18:40

here, where you could have one to one coaching, for sure,

Jeremy Williams: 00:18:43

mentorship that would help in that situation. What about

Jeremy Williams: 00:18:46

something in the middle, where you could, if you have a

Jeremy Williams: 00:18:50

challenge, you could meet up with peers from different

Jeremy Williams: 00:18:54

companies, different industries, with different roles, and get

Jeremy Williams: 00:18:58

inside from their perspective, and that's where I came up with

Jeremy Williams: 00:19:02

the term collective intelligence. Because my

Jeremy Williams: 00:19:06

sentiment was, well, if you've got a challenge as a business

Jeremy Williams: 00:19:09

professional, no matter who you are, it's not sure that someone

Jeremy Williams: 00:19:13

else has had a similar challenge, somewhere else in the

Jeremy Williams: 00:19:16

world, in another company, at another time. If you could pull

Jeremy Williams: 00:19:21

on that. So the idea was and is, and that's what we do, is that

Jeremy Williams: 00:19:28

you come together with three other professionals, you have a

Jeremy Williams: 00:19:32

session that's dedicated to your challenge, so you share for X

Jeremy Williams: 00:19:38

amount of minutes. Okay, so 10 minutes, typically, is how it

Jeremy Williams: 00:19:41

works. The first 10 minutes your challenge clearly and concisely

Jeremy Williams: 00:19:44

as you can you then get a period of time where your peers ask you

Jeremy Williams: 00:19:48

questions just to ascertain the specifics of your challenge. And

Jeremy Williams: 00:19:53

then what we ask the candidates to do is switch off their camera

Jeremy Williams: 00:19:57

and mic, pick up a pen and paper and just acquire. You observe,

Jeremy Williams: 00:20:02

okay, their peers, deliberating over their challenge and looking

Jeremy Williams: 00:20:05

at their perspectives, taking notes if they so wish. And then

Jeremy Williams: 00:20:07

for the last that's 20 minutes, and for the last 20 minutes, you

Jeremy Williams: 00:20:10

bring everybody back together, and we share the insight. And

Jeremy Williams: 00:20:15

the idea is that that candidate then leaves that session with

Jeremy Williams: 00:20:19

some actionable points that they can then take away and apply

Jeremy Williams: 00:20:23

straight away. And then next time they come back with the

Jeremy Williams: 00:20:28

peer coaching hat on and their colleague takes the hot seat. So

Jeremy Williams: 00:20:33

you build a community, a very intimate community, during those

Jeremy Williams: 00:20:36

four weeks of four professionals from four different industries,

Jeremy Williams: 00:20:40

perspectives, and what normally happens is those people connect

Jeremy Williams: 00:20:44

on LinkedIn, and then when the cohort is finished, they've all

Jeremy Williams: 00:20:48

got insight from their peers. They've built connections.

Jeremy Williams: 00:20:50

There's been a psychologically safe environment, and they

Jeremy Williams: 00:20:54

hopefully go on to, you know, stay connected and continue

Jeremy Williams: 00:20:58

building love it. And that's what I'm doing. I'm building

Jeremy Williams: 00:21:01

that community.

Janice Porter: 00:21:02

So it really doesn't matter what industry

Janice Porter: 00:21:06

they're in, really, it's just that they're not in that same

Janice Porter: 00:21:09

company, but they've experienced a similar issue. So do you do

Janice Porter: 00:21:14

you have to screen that out first so you can match people

Janice Porter: 00:21:18

up?

Jeremy Williams: 00:21:20

I've been doing this manually at this stage

Jeremy Williams: 00:21:23

because I'm relatively new to this, but I'm actually right now

Jeremy Williams: 00:21:26

in the process of creating an app, and I will actually

Jeremy Williams: 00:21:29

interview candidates myself, so for 30 minutes to profile them,

Jeremy Williams: 00:21:36

yes, and I will actually have an AI. I'm building, at the moment,

Jeremy Williams: 00:21:40

an AI agent that will actually match based on criteria that I'm

Jeremy Williams: 00:21:45

defining, that will actually match complementary profiles and

Jeremy Williams: 00:21:50

schedule.

Janice Porter: 00:21:52

That makes me think of Have you seen boardy,

Janice Porter: 00:21:56

B, O, A R, B, O, A r, d, y, no, I haven't. Okay, check that out.

Janice Porter: 00:22:03

It's an app, or it's, I don't, I guess it's an app. I've actually

Janice Porter: 00:22:07

saw it through LinkedIn, where somebody I knew had connected

Janice Porter: 00:22:12

with boardy, and then he shared boardy with me, and then I had

Janice Porter: 00:22:17

my own conversation. And boardy is, is an AI tool, I guess, who

Janice Porter: 00:22:22

matches people to network them, right? Or networking. So it's a

Janice Porter: 00:22:27

similar kind of thing, where you'll get the information and

Janice Porter: 00:22:30

then it will match it with people I don't know. Anyway,

Janice Porter: 00:22:33

it's quite fascinating, so I'll talk to you about that offline

Janice Porter: 00:22:36

if you want. But anyway, it sounds similar to what you're

Janice Porter: 00:22:39

doing, but but fascinating so you too, just like your students

Janice Porter: 00:22:46

in your in your founders path, are leveraging technology, but

Janice Porter: 00:22:54

being sure that you're focused on the human side of things and

Janice Porter: 00:22:59

people, getting help from people and building relationships. I

Janice Porter: 00:23:03

love that

Jeremy Williams: 00:23:04

absolutely. And I'm really focused on striking

Jeremy Williams: 00:23:07

that delicate balance between the human side and the tech

Jeremy Williams: 00:23:11

side. And I think companies that do that and get that balance

Jeremy Williams: 00:23:15

right, or will have a huge advantage over the companies who

Jeremy Williams: 00:23:19

just stick with, you know, we are people centric, and we're

Jeremy Williams: 00:23:22

going to resist the technology, or we're running around with all

Jeremy Williams: 00:23:25

this tech, but we don't quite know what we're doing with it.

Jeremy Williams: 00:23:28

But it's cool. People get frustrated because, no, they've

Jeremy Williams: 00:23:32

not had any training, and they're just thrown in with

Jeremy Williams: 00:23:34

these new systems. They don't know what they're doing. So

Jeremy Williams: 00:23:37

it's, it's, you can go one way or the other as a company, yeah,

Jeremy Williams: 00:23:41

for sure, strike the balance. Yeah,

Janice Porter: 00:23:44

interesting. So, um, so now you've worked with

Janice Porter: 00:23:49

executives and you're working with teens. What similarities

Janice Porter: 00:23:53

come up when it comes to growth and leadership? Because I'm sure

Janice Porter: 00:23:58

that you can see the future CEO in your group and the future

Janice Porter: 00:24:04

account exec, whatever. I don't know. Do you see similarities

Janice Porter: 00:24:08

when it comes to working with execs and now with teens?

Jeremy Williams: 00:24:13

Yes, there are similarities. But you know, the

Jeremy Williams: 00:24:16

thing that really strikes me, and what I love about working

Jeremy Williams: 00:24:19

with the teenagers is that they look at things in a very simple

Jeremy Williams: 00:24:24

way. They Don't over complicate.

Janice Porter: 00:24:28

Well, they haven't had the time to do that,

Janice Porter: 00:24:30

right? Yeah,

Jeremy Williams: 00:24:31

exactly, yeah. So the the innocence, in a way,

Jeremy Williams: 00:24:35

is great, because they look at things in a very simplistic way.

Jeremy Williams: 00:24:38

And I mean that in a

Janice Porter: 00:24:39

positive sense, yes, I hear you, yeah, I love

Janice Porter: 00:24:42

it. And

Jeremy Williams: 00:24:43

I think we should take a leaf out of their

Jeremy Williams: 00:24:45

book, because I've seen so many companies, you know, executives

Jeremy Williams: 00:24:50

in companies that just over complicate things, especially

Jeremy Williams: 00:24:53

with technology, like another app for this, another app for

Jeremy Williams: 00:24:56

that. And I know one company have like, 35 different apps.

Jeremy Williams: 00:25:00

Purpose that they use. So the onboarding takes an eternity,

Jeremy Williams: 00:25:04

because if you know how to use these it's it's just a complete

Jeremy Williams: 00:25:08

mess, and it causes a lot of stress. So for me, the idea of

Jeremy Williams: 00:25:12

keeping it simple straight to the point. And again, with the

Jeremy Williams: 00:25:17

founders, I was just having a discussion with them last week

Jeremy Williams: 00:25:20

where I said, if you can, like Richard Feynman famously said,

Jeremy Williams: 00:25:24

explain it to me like I'm five, right? The people who can take

Jeremy Williams: 00:25:30

something complex, strip it down into the bare essentials, and

Jeremy Williams: 00:25:33

communicate it so a grandmother would understand it, yes, 10

Jeremy Williams: 00:25:37

year old will understand it, and a business executive would

Jeremy Williams: 00:25:40

understand, if you can do that repeatedly and do it very well,

Jeremy Williams: 00:25:44

you will be worth your weight in gold, because so many people

Jeremy Williams: 00:25:48

over complicate simple things.

Janice Porter: 00:25:50

Oh, that's such a good lesson and statement.

Janice Porter: 00:25:53

Honestly, I totally agree it's so true, and that's why I think

Janice Porter: 00:25:56

they say it from the mouths of babes, right? They always say

Janice Porter: 00:25:59

from the mouths of babes. It's an expression I remember from

Janice Porter: 00:26:03

years ago, because they say it like it is, or they say it as

Janice Porter: 00:26:07

you know, simply as they can. So I love that.

Jeremy Williams: 00:26:11

Yeah. Just one thing, if I may, the Toyota

Jeremy Williams: 00:26:15

five. Whys we use this a few weeks back. What is this? Aha.

Jeremy Williams: 00:26:21

So a Toyota when they want to develop a new

Janice Porter: 00:26:26

oh, five wise. Okay, got it, yeah.

Jeremy Williams: 00:26:29

So you just drill down by asking, why, why?

Jeremy Williams: 00:26:32

Why? And when we were looking at the product for the team

Jeremy Williams: 00:26:35

founders, and we were digging into the features, that's what

Jeremy Williams: 00:26:38

we actually employed in the breakouts. And they thought it

Jeremy Williams: 00:26:40

was really funny initially, but I was like, no, no, there's a

Jeremy Williams: 00:26:42

lot. No, there's a logic to this first question very often that

Jeremy Williams: 00:26:47

children ask, isn't it? It's one of the first words, yes.

Janice Porter: 00:26:50

Why? Yeah, yeah, that's good. So when you say

Janice Porter: 00:26:54

product, are you saying it generically? Are some people,

Janice Porter: 00:26:58

some of the kids, looking at a service, or are they all doing

Janice Porter: 00:27:01

some kind of technology, app or product?

Jeremy Williams: 00:27:07

It's a variety. Generally speaking, we're

Jeremy Williams: 00:27:10

looking at apps, but some of them are starting websites, with

Jeremy Williams: 00:27:13

shops, you know, with product that maybe will be because at

Jeremy Williams: 00:27:18

the moment, the founders are Polish okay, we're in the

Jeremy Williams: 00:27:21

Polish. Yeah, and we have a few groups in English that we've

Jeremy Williams: 00:27:27

been trialing, but in September this year, we're going to go

Jeremy Williams: 00:27:31

global, so English, of course, will be the main language that

Jeremy Williams: 00:27:35

will focus on.

Janice Porter: 00:27:37

So yeah, okay, so now I've got more questions,

Janice Porter: 00:27:40

because, okay, I forgot about that. So the first group is

Janice Porter: 00:27:43

Polish, children, teenagers,

Jeremy Williams: 00:27:47

the first few groups,

Janice Porter: 00:27:48

yeah, do you? Do you speak Polish? No, so you're

Janice Porter: 00:27:52

doing it in English, or,

Jeremy Williams: 00:27:53

yeah, we check their English level before we

Jeremy Williams: 00:27:56

onboarded them. Oh,

Janice Porter: 00:27:57

okay, but, but why I'm asking is because how

Janice Porter: 00:28:02

global is global today? Like, are the Polish teenagers as

Janice Porter: 00:28:08

savvy as or not, or more savvy than the North American

Janice Porter: 00:28:12

teenagers? I don't know. I'm like, I'm curious. Or is it

Janice Porter: 00:28:15

global?

Jeremy Williams: 00:28:16

No, it's, I mean, we've started because the

Jeremy Williams: 00:28:18

company is Polish. We started off with the Polish market,

Jeremy Williams: 00:28:21

which makes sense, yeah. What I've been very impressed with is

Jeremy Williams: 00:28:24

the level of English. You know, 13 to 17 year olds with A, b2,

Jeremy Williams: 00:28:29

plus level of English. So, you know, they can have a good

Jeremy Williams: 00:28:31

conversation and very, very well. But once we get to

Jeremy Williams: 00:28:36

September, when we say we go global, then we'll open it up to

Jeremy Williams: 00:28:39

different countries that will be English speaking primarily, so,

Jeremy Williams: 00:28:43

okay,

Janice Porter: 00:28:43

but, but, but, back to the Polish teenagers.

Janice Porter: 00:28:47

How? How sophisticated are they compared to North Americans,

Jeremy Williams: 00:28:54

right? Okay, so, good question. There is

Jeremy Williams: 00:28:57

definitely in these countries. So Poland, Germany, to a degree

Jeremy Williams: 00:29:04

as well, maybe France, but to a lesser extent, there's a real

Jeremy Williams: 00:29:08

focus on maths and science, definitely. So that's very clear

Jeremy Williams: 00:29:14

to me, okay, focus and also as well English, the importance of

Jeremy Williams: 00:29:19

the English language global. If they want to go, you know, to

Jeremy Williams: 00:29:23

Silicon Valley, they obviously speak a good level of English.

Jeremy Williams: 00:29:27

So that's very evident, absolutely

Janice Porter: 00:29:31

So, but, but so well, I don't know. Does it come

Janice Porter: 00:29:36

out like the I was going to say socially? So their interactions

Janice Porter: 00:29:42

with each other, perhaps, is that, as are they as

Janice Porter: 00:29:45

comfortable? Is it different? Sorry,

Jeremy Williams: 00:29:51

yeah, I would say that. I would say the

Jeremy Williams: 00:29:53

interaction in the groups and with each other is seems to be

Jeremy Williams: 00:29:56

very fluent. They challenge each humor. There. It? No, I would

Jeremy Williams: 00:30:01

say I'm so far so good from what I've experienced.

Janice Porter: 00:30:06

Okay, I'm just curious, because maybe it's

Janice Porter: 00:30:08

leveled off now, you know, because the world is so small

Janice Porter: 00:30:12

these days and and everyone's caught up, you know, maybe

Janice Porter: 00:30:16

that's it, yeah, and I get that, so that's, that's cool. All

Janice Porter: 00:30:19

right, so can you, I'm sure that you would say yes to this, but

Janice Porter: 00:30:27

how and what was going to be the biggest thing do you think that

Janice Porter: 00:30:31

comes from what you're doing with young people towards

Janice Porter: 00:30:38

business leadership? Is it going to up level the leadership that

Janice Porter: 00:30:42

we're going to see in the future. We have to, of course,

Janice Porter: 00:30:45

but you know, like, is it going to, I guess my question is,

Janice Porter: 00:30:50

really, is it going to augment the education systems? Is it

Janice Porter: 00:30:56

going to bypass the education systems, or is it going to help

Janice Porter: 00:31:00

them get caught up in the future?

Jeremy Williams: 00:31:05

Yeah, that's the billion dollar question.

Janice Porter: 00:31:06

Yeah, yeah, it is, isn't it? Yeah,

Jeremy Williams: 00:31:09

we're already, how I look at it is that we're

Jeremy Williams: 00:31:13

already seeing millennials in positions of power, in very big

Jeremy Williams: 00:31:18

and influential global companies and now in government as well.

Jeremy Williams: 00:31:21

So we've definitely had a changing of the guard in the

Jeremy Williams: 00:31:24

last five to 10 years, that's for sure. And I think the change

Jeremy Williams: 00:31:28

that many of us have experienced as a result of that has been

Jeremy Williams: 00:31:32

pretty radical. You know, we've seen company culture changing.

Jeremy Williams: 00:31:36

You know, the Google type office has been replicated millions of

Jeremy Williams: 00:31:40

times now around the world. So well being being more of a focus

Jeremy Williams: 00:31:45

place to work, you know, back to office after the lockdowns, etc.

Jeremy Williams: 00:31:49

So we've already seen a huge acceleration in, you know, many

Jeremy Williams: 00:31:53

aspects of modern business, this next generation that are coming

Jeremy Williams: 00:31:58

through are very straight talking. From what I can see,

Jeremy Williams: 00:32:02

they have very clear vision of doing things in a very fair way.

Jeremy Williams: 00:32:06

One thing that is really, has really struck me, and I'm big

Jeremy Williams: 00:32:10

fan of this, they're massive advocates of meeting up face to

Jeremy Williams: 00:32:14

face. Oh, I love that, yeah. So they, obviously, they're very

Jeremy Williams: 00:32:19

savvy with the with the online stuff, they're very used to it

Jeremy Williams: 00:32:22

now, but they're crying out to meet up face to face and have

Jeremy Williams: 00:32:27

real human connection at events. That's something we're also

Jeremy Williams: 00:32:32

considering doing as we scale founders path as well, so that's

Jeremy Williams: 00:32:37

already in the pipeline, so that they're very focused on

Jeremy Williams: 00:32:41

emotional intelligence, on how they show up in the eyes of

Jeremy Williams: 00:32:45

stakeholders. So that brings me a lot of comfort. So I think

Jeremy Williams: 00:32:50

with AI taking more ownership of the deliverables that we've all

Jeremy Williams: 00:32:55

become preoccupied with, you know, KPIs, OKRs, etc, I think

Jeremy Williams: 00:33:00

what this is going to do is it's going to bring the business

Jeremy Williams: 00:33:05

world at large back to focusing on the journey, to move away

Jeremy Williams: 00:33:10

from this obsession with destination, which the AI is

Jeremy Williams: 00:33:13

going to take care of way better than humans can, because it'll

Jeremy Williams: 00:33:16

be much faster, much more accurate. It's going to push us

Jeremy Williams: 00:33:19

back to focus on what's important, which is, as what we

Jeremy Williams: 00:33:22

said earlier on, it's the people in life and business. So yeah,

Jeremy Williams: 00:33:25

if you're going to focus on the relationships and building those

Jeremy Williams: 00:33:31

and nurturing those relationships, you have to spend

Jeremy Williams: 00:33:33

time. There's no app, there's no quick fix to building a

Jeremy Williams: 00:33:37

meaningful trust based relationship with another human

Jeremy Williams: 00:33:40

being, you have to spend the time. So that's something that

Jeremy Williams: 00:33:45

this generation really want to do. And I think that's

Jeremy Williams: 00:33:49

absolutely, very timely, and it brings me a lot of, you know, a

Jeremy Williams: 00:33:54

lot of warmth to see that, because that's where we need to

Jeremy Williams: 00:33:56

go, in my view. Oh,

Janice Porter: 00:33:57

absolutely. And that's music to my ears. As I

Janice Porter: 00:34:00

said earlier, I love it. It's, it's, it's interesting, and it's

Janice Porter: 00:34:05

necessary, and especially over here in the North America

Janice Porter: 00:34:08

nowadays, for sure. All right, thank you. And what would you

Janice Porter: 00:34:15

say? Your best piece of I'm putting you on the spot business

Janice Porter: 00:34:20

advice is today for my listeners. So those are people

Janice Porter: 00:34:25

you know. Who are they range from Baby Boomers down to

Janice Porter: 00:34:31

through you know, the generations who are listening to

Janice Porter: 00:34:35

you. What's your best piece of business advice today?

Jeremy Williams: 00:34:41

It would be to become comfortable with being

Jeremy Williams: 00:34:43

uncomfortable. I like that. And I think in this era of

Jeremy Williams: 00:34:50

exponential technology, obviously, especially around AI

Jeremy Williams: 00:34:54

in particular, is play with the technology in work and outside

Jeremy Williams: 00:34:59

of work. Be, be curious about it. You know, really explore it.

Jeremy Williams: 00:35:04

So you know what the pros and cons are of this technology, but

Jeremy Williams: 00:35:09

at the same time, don't lose focus that business is about

Jeremy Williams: 00:35:12

people. So I look at it as that, you know, that circle and

Jeremy Williams: 00:35:16

there's a split down the middle, tech brush up that as best as

Jeremy Williams: 00:35:20

you can, and the emotional intelligence side, building

Jeremy Williams: 00:35:23

relationships, trust, talk the talk, but walk the walk. And I

Jeremy Williams: 00:35:27

think that will be my best advice. So become comfortable

Jeremy Williams: 00:35:31

with being

Janice Porter: 00:35:33

brilliant. Love it. That's great. And anybody

Janice Porter: 00:35:37

listening who may be interested, as you go global with founders

Janice Porter: 00:35:43

path. How can people find you, get hold of you, ask you

Janice Porter: 00:35:47

questions, etc. I will put it in the show notes, of course, but

Janice Porter: 00:35:51

feel free.

Jeremy Williams: 00:35:52

Yeah, so founders path.pl, is the

Jeremy Williams: 00:35:55

website, so that's

Janice Porter: 00:35:57

Poland, right. That's poland.pl

Jeremy Williams: 00:36:01

and then my profile on LinkedIn as well,

Jeremy Williams: 00:36:05

because I I've got founders path right on my on my profile there

Jeremy Williams: 00:36:09

as well, you can be directed to peer coaching and to founders

Jeremy Williams: 00:36:13

path from my LinkedIn, yeah,

Janice Porter: 00:36:15

have you did? Have you ever been over to North

Janice Porter: 00:36:17

America?

Jeremy Williams: 00:36:19

No, I would love to come over. It's on my

Jeremy Williams: 00:36:21

bucket list. I've done many other places

Janice Porter: 00:36:23

on North America. Okay, well, let me know if

Janice Porter: 00:36:25

you're coming west coast. And thank you. Yeah, no, I'm in

Janice Porter: 00:36:30

Canada, but I'm on the West Coast. I'm in Vancouver, right?

Janice Porter: 00:36:32

So, and you got a clear path down to Washington, Oregon,

Janice Porter: 00:36:37

California,

Jeremy Williams: 00:36:38

right? It's too tempting, isn't it? I'll have to

Jeremy Williams: 00:36:41

take you up on that. Yeah, it

Janice Porter: 00:36:42

is. I know I actually, last weekend, had

Janice Porter: 00:36:46

dinner with a woman that I had met and become colleagues,

Janice Porter: 00:36:50

LinkedIn, colleagues, and, you know, we exchanged some business

Janice Porter: 00:36:54

ideas and stuff. And she's in California. She was up here for

Janice Porter: 00:36:57

a conference, and she and her husband met my husband and I for

Janice Porter: 00:37:00

dinner, and it was like we were old friends. It was like, it was

Janice Porter: 00:37:03

fantastic, you know, because we've been connected for so

Janice Porter: 00:37:06

long, so that's always fun. So thank you. Thank you for that.

Janice Porter: 00:37:10

And just to wrap up, I'll just tell my audience that I think

Janice Porter: 00:37:14

that we've heard today that entrepreneurship isn't just

Janice Porter: 00:37:17

about ideas, it's about people. And you, Jeremy, have shown us

Janice Porter: 00:37:21

that when we equip young leaders with the with emotional

Janice Porter: 00:37:24

intelligence, strong relationships and a sense of

Janice Porter: 00:37:27

purpose, we're investing in a future where business is more

Janice Porter: 00:37:30

human, more collaborative and more impactful. So whether

Janice Porter: 00:37:35

you're mentoring, leading or learning yourself, your work,

Janice Porter: 00:37:39

Jeremy, Jeremy Williams's work reminds us that connection is

Janice Porter: 00:37:44

the foundation for growth at any age. I love it. Thank you so

Janice Porter: 00:37:48

much for being here, and thank you to my audience as well. If

Janice Porter: 00:37:52

you like what you heard, please reach out and check Jeremy's

Janice Porter: 00:37:55

work out. I'm sure he'd love to have a conversation and remember

Janice Porter: 00:38:00

to stay connected and be remembered. You.