Jethro D. Jones: Welcome to Transformative Principle.
I am your host, Jethro Jones.
And boy, I'm so excited for this conversation.
This is gonna be good.
So upfront, I have an ask for you today, and if you're listening and
you listen all the way through, you're probably gonna want to say yes to this.
So I'm asking for 10 beta testers for my school X book study.
But I'll get to the rest of that in just a moment.
First of all, I want to say thank you for listening to this podcast.
You are amazing.
I am so grateful to you.
I started this podcast in 2013 because I was not getting the kind of
leadership development that I felt like I should be getting, and this has been.
My journey of learning how to be a Transformative Principal, and seriously,
it has been amazing according to my feed.
This is episode 782, and I know the title of this one is not
technically Episode 782, because I've done some weird numbering
things over the years, but this is.
The 782nd episode on my podcast feed, and that's just unreal.
I can't even believe it.
This podcast has been downloaded more than just about any other
podcast for leaders out there?
Well, for educational leaders, you know, I'm not in the realm of, uh.
Of other leadership podcasts that get millions of downloads every week.
But, but I, I did break, I believe 2 million, uh, a few weeks ago.
I switched host recently, and so I don't know exactly what my actual
download number is, but lemme tell you, this has been amazing and I thank you
sincerely, from the bottom of my heart for listening, uh, for all these years.
Now, I don't know if you remember, uh, what happened in 2020.
But there was something, uh, momentous in my life, which happened that I
released a book called School X. Now, you probably don't remember that, or
didn't notice or weren't paying attention because lemme tell you what the last thing
on everybody's mind was at that time.
Redesigning our schools because we were busy dealing with a pandemic.
I remember I did a lot of reopening workshops that year to help people
know how to reopen their schools, and that's what everybody was focused on.
And in the middle of this, I released a really amazing book that I was actually
looking for something last year.
And.
Saw this piece in my book and thought, oh, I should, I should bring that up.
And I went and read a bunch of things from my book and I was like, wow,
uh, this is actually really good.
In fact, I was surprised at how good it was and how valuable it was, and
I thought, that's kind of a bummer that nobody knows about this because I
released it during a global pandemic.
So, uh, at the end of 2024, I created a little book study.
On this, and I released that in 2024.
And the feedback so far from people has been phenomenal and people are really
liking it more than I thought they would.
And I'm not saying this to brag, I'm saying this because I'm kind of surprised.
I knew that it would be good, but the feedback has been more positive than
I thought, and that's pretty awesome.
I. So that's fun when that happens.
This is where the beta test part comes in.
Well, lemme tell you one more thing before I get there.
There was one session where someone could not make it to the session.
She forgot she had a community event at her school that night.
And so she couldn't come to the session and she actually watched
the two hour recording later.
And she wrote a thousand word response to it almost.
Uh, that has never happened to me before where somebody has watched
a recording of something I've done and then put so much time and energy
into responding to what I created.
I mean, that's pretty awesome.
So.
It's valuable and she certainly found value in it, and so are the
people who are attending each week, and I'm having a lot of fun with it.
One of the things that I have learned is unique about me is that
my focus is so practical about you actually being able to implement
the stuff that I'm teaching that.
It.
It is unique to people and they don't expect that.
So here's what I'm looking for for beta testers.
Now, if you are listening to this show right now and you're like, I listen
to Jethro's show every week, whenever it comes out, then this is the thing
that you will want to be a part of.
Lemme tell you what I'm gonna do.
I'm going to create an asynchronous version of this book study for people
to go through at their own pace.
And what I want beta testers for is to help me transform what I did live and in
person into something that is meaningful and valuable for them, uh, when they are
not, uh, in, in that thing with me live.
Now I'm gonna do something that is, uh, a little.
Unique.
Also, when people go through the asynchronous thing, there's
going to be time for them to get one-on-one connection with me, uh,
outside of that asynchronous thing.
So when you get to a certain point, there will be a point in the thing
where it'll be worthwhile for us to meet and talk through some
of the stuff that you're doing.
So it's not exactly like taking a class at, at a university, for example.
But the idea is kind of similar in that it helps get you some feedback, gets
you some attention, and makes it so that I can still connect with people,
because that's what I really like to do.
There's gonna be some things where you'll submit things online and I'll
be able to give feedback that way.
And then there are other places where you'll be able to actually
meet with me and we can chat about something more in depth now.
I don't exactly know how to make that work, but I have some ideas and I
need some people to run it by first to get an idea of what that looks like.
So one of the other things is I've been teaching a lot about ai, um, all across
the country for the last couple years.
I. And I'm going to really lean into using AI to support this
work, but not do it for me.
Like I've already done the work to create the course and everything, um,
but you know, I think I can make it a little bit better and a little tighter,
and I'm gonna use AI to help with that.
One of the things.
For example, and here's, here's a perfect example.
You can see this if you go to Transformative principle.org and check
out the before and after that I'm gonna play for you, for you to listen.
Now, first, uh, I'm just gonna take a small snippet talking about the
Eisenhower Matrix and I'm gonna play that for you so that you can hear it.
So let me start with that right here.
One of the things I talk about in the book is this, Eisenhower matrix of urgent,
less, urgent, important, less important.
The saboteurs will tell you that everything is urgent and important.
In their own way, the avoider will say it is more important and urgent
for you to not say something than it is for you to say something.
The avoider will say exactly the opposite.
I, uh, is what you need to do, uh, and from the pleaser and vice versa.
And so these, all these saboteurs will work together and say
everything is important and urgent.
And that is just not true.
And so as you are coming up with your vision.
And your, your vital vision and dealing with the saboteurs, you are
going to be able to say, oh, this is a saboteur saying to put this off
or to do this or to focus on this.
And you can use the sage to help you know which things you need to put in which area
and what actually goes where it should.
So these things work together and it's a lot easier to rely on your vital vision
if you have it clearly stated for yourself and make the right decision whenever
you are confronted with any issues.
It's a lot harder if you don't have a clear vision for what you
should be doing to make those clear decisions every single day.
So that was the first live recording that typically you just throw
that in a LMS and then people subscribe and you do your course.
So my thought though is to take that and.
Write a little bit better script and do a better recording that
will give the same information, but make it a little bit tighter, a
little bit less of my uh, awkward.
Live presentation that is, you know, kind of endearing.
Some people say, but not quite as good as as it could be.
And certainly if you're trying to ingest things on your own, you
want that presentation to be tight.
So here is that first one.
Was a minute 23.
This one is only 57 seconds long, so it cut out about 23 seconds, but the,
the text of it and what I'm trying to say, I think comes out a lot better.
So, and here's the other thing.
Looking at this and the video that I used, AI to help me create, which you should go
check out at Transformative principle.org in the show notes for this episode, go.
Go check it out and look at the difference between the two.
But right now, just listen to the difference in these scripts.
One of the key ideas I discuss in the book is The Eisenhower Matrix, a tool for
sorting tasks by urgency and importance.
But here's the catch.
Saboteurs will try to convince you that everything is urgent and important.
The avoider will tell you it's more urgent to stay silent than to speak up.
The pleaser will push you in the opposite direction.
All these saboteurs work together making it seem like everything
demands your attention right now, but that's just not true.
When you define your vital vision, you gain clarity.
You recognize when a saboteur is urging you to delay or focus on the wrong thing.
Instead, you can rely on your sage mind, your inner wisdom to
place each task where it belongs.
With a clear vision, making the right decisions becomes second nature.
Without one, it's easy to get lost in the noise of daily choices.
So take control, define your vision, use the matrix, and
focus on what truly matters.
Okay, so tighter script, better visuals.
You'll have to go watch the visuals to really get the full picture, but it's
definitely an improvement for sure.
Now, uh, that one, because I was just mocking it up.
You listened to the AI Jethro reading that one, which is my.
Voice trained on to, on AI to sound like me, and you probably noticed how
it does and doesn't sound like me.
But the idea is that having that with a transcript explaining the key
pieces there will be more valuable for people who are part of this.
Now, here's the other thing that you're gonna get as part of the beta tester.
Um, I'm going to, there are worksheets and frameworks and things as well
that, uh, I'm gonna share with you.
Gonna get your feedback on.
You're gonna tell me how you like it, what you think of it, but I'm also
not gonna hold anything back from you.
So if you are curious how things happen, I will demonstrate whatever you want to see.
Um, I'm also going to be creating ads to run to this, to, uh, to get the word
out there about it more because the, the quality of it is so good already.
Um, it would just be a shame for more people to not see it.
Um, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna be totally open with you about everything.
You're gonna be able to give feedback up as part of every aspect
of it and, um, and it'll be great.
So, uh, if you are interested in this, here's what you need to do.
Go to Jethro site slash beta to sign up The course will cost.
Right now it costs, uh, $200.
Um, I'm going to give beta testers a $50 discount, and I'm going to limit it.
So only a certain number of people will have a chance to participate.
Um, ideally 10.
The max I will take is 20.
Again, if you are listening to this and you listen to my podcast
whenever it comes out, you're gonna want to be part of this beta test.
It will be asynchronous so you don't have to, uh.
Devote any specific time to meet with me live unless you want to
join me on a work session and watch how I, how I use AI and other tools
to create this kind of content.
Um, you're gonna be able to see everything.
Uh, I won't hold anything back from you, and I'll share all
the details about it with you.
Um, and what I really want are people who are gonna actually do the work
and give me feedback and say, this worked, this didn't, you missed the
mark here, and this could be improved.
And, um, I've never done anything like this before, so I, I wanna work with
you and, and see how it works out.
So once again, Jethro site slash beta, and there's a link to that in the show
notes at Transformative principle.org.
That's Jethro do site slash beta.
Now, once that discount is full, then everybody will be able to just get,
you know, the regular version and be able to not be part of the beta.
Anybody who is part of the beta, I am also going to invite you into the project
that I am using to create all of this.
I use Basecamp for a lot of these things that I do, and so I'm gonna
share that with you and show you how I.
Produce, uh, a, an event like this.
Uh, having started doing events in 2016 with the Transformative
Leadership Summit, um, that was back when, when I started creating content
specifically for school leaders.
Beyond just this podcast.
So I've been doing this for a long time.
I've learned a lot of lessons along the way.
If you are interested in that kind of stuff, which I know a lot of you
are, um, this will be your chance to pick my brain and get some
ideas about what it will look like.
Um, I'm also going to be, like I said, designing some ads and I'd be happy to
have your feedback on what is, what would hit, what won't hit, things like that.
And, um.
This is just gonna be a really fun opportunity to
dig into something like this.
I always find that I work better when I have people that
I can bounce ideas off of.
And you know, honestly, my wife's getting a little sick of my ideas.
Uh, I jest a little bit, but seriously, um, it works a lot better when I
have people to bounce ideas off of.
So there's the info.
If you are interested or if you have more questions, feel free to reach out.
You probably know how to get ahold of me, but if not, at
Jethro Jones on all the socials.
So last time, go to Jethro dot site slash beta BETA and I will see you in here.
We're gonna start in about a week.
So.
Let me know if you want to join.
I would love to have you.
That's Jethro site slash beta.
Alright, thanks everybody.
Thanks for being with me during this solo episode.
Uh, I just love you.
Thank you for being amazing and I wish you the best.