Next Jump

We agreed to host Althea Gibson’s 100 year celebration @nextjump on our June First Thursday (6/3/2027). Special musical performances and Michelin food and amazing company for the most celebrated female tennis player (maybe in history). Love Althea’s motto: Change a thought Move a muscle  Never quit 🎾

A great reflection of self awareness someone we coach wrote: “I hesitate to invest energy in something uncertain, especially when I've had bad experiences in the past. Rather than being curious about what might go wrong, I become preoccupied with how failure might reflect on me. When I get pressed or feel enough external pressure, I tend to flip to the other extreme: "Fuck it." I become reckless and push forward without enough thought. It's a binary mindset. I either hold back because I don't think something will work, or I charge ahead because I no longer want to deal with the discomfort. I think genuine curiosity is the key to expanding the space between "Why bother?" and "Fuck it." Instead of predicting failure or forcing an outcome, I need to get curious about what I don't know, what might not work, and what I can learn. That's probably where real agency comes from.” Response (new beta feature Plan Z) from AiCoach: “You've been using self-awareness as a substitute for the harder behavioral change you keep avoiding. That's not a gap in insight; that's a gap between insight and action that no amount of further reflection will close.” Seeing this pattern in a lot of people. Rep’ing intellectual exercises vs reps on getting field experience. Many of the new human skills require action in real life (not more videos, books, lessons nor workshops but real world contact sports).

Holding a book launch for @TheDovBaron: “The Art of Belonging” on November 5 First Thursday. If interested, DM me. Letter @MeghanMess and I drafted today: A LETTER FROM THE FOUNDERS OF NEXT JUMP Why The Art of Belonging Matters   When we read Dov Baron’s The Art of Belonging, it felt deeply familiar.   Fitting in is not belonging. In fact, fitting in may be the greatest enemy of belonging.   For decades at Next Jump, we have been working on a simple but radical idea: people do their best work when they stop pretending. Harvard professors Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey described this as the “second job”, the enormous amount of energy people spend hiding weaknesses, managing impressions, and protecting how others see them.   At Next Jump, we call it No LHF: No Lying, Hiding or Faking.   Think about the human potential wasted when people spend more energy looking good than getting better.   And this is where belonging becomes powerful. Belonging is not fitting in. It is having the courage to be seen.   At Next Jump, we say this all the time. “We are all misfits. You are our misfit.” And that’s the point.  Lead by example being unapologetically you. This will help others feel courage to do the same.   The world's problems are growing faster and more complex. We cannot solve them with conformity. We need the full power of human wisdom, intuition, judgment, and our differences.   Before COVID, Next Jump earned top recognition for building company culture. But over the past six years, we've come to believe something bigger: The future isn't about building great company cultures. It's about building great communities.   Company culture asks: How do we get people to work together? Community culture asks: How do we help people become better together? Alone is hard. Together, we are stronger.   At Next Jump, we express this through one simple equation: Better Me + Better You = Better Us. Better Me: Take responsibility for your own growth. Stop hiding. Get better. Better You: Use your strengths to help others grow. Make the people around you stronger. Better Us: Unlock what none of us could achieve alone.   That's why Dov's message resonates so deeply. The Art of Belonging challenges us to stop asking, "Do I belong here?" and start asking a harder question: "Am I showing up fully and helping others do the same?"   Dov’s book is a powerful reminder that belonging is not just something we feel. It is something we practice. Together.   Charlie Kim & Meghan Messenger Co-CEOs, Next Jump

Amazing feedback after a team of leaders spent the day @nextjump

Bill Yosses…former White House pastry chef for two presidents (Obama and Bush) cooking all day prepping for our annual Harvest Festival tomorrow. Insane waitlist of 400+ people.

The most counterintuitive leadership lesson in danger, when feeling fear is connected to outcome predictions. Most people predict negative outcomes. So then we’re told you should predict positive outcomes. However our brain’s BS meter doesn’t believe a word of it. And also note: both outcomes make us lazy…we most often do nothing when we think it won’t work out or it will work out. The nuanced leadership in practice (LIP) is doing the reps to contain outcome prediction to no more than 5%. Some of it negative/ some of it positive…almost doesn’t matter. It’s all made up. But in almost all cases you will make it through. And even if the worst happens it may be different than what you think. Most times these things become life defining moments (but only later). So stop pouring energy into the prediction. Instead focus on: Part 1: sense making (both good and bad) Part 2: decision making (a range of actionable ideas Plan A all the way to Plan Z) If you spend time on outcome predictions (part 3), you’re robbing energy from doing something about it. #GenerateMomentum it solves all.

Haven’t listened yet. Our first podcast recording: “In this episode, Dov sits down in person with Charlie and Meghan for a conversation that runs from the operating equation underneath their entire company (humility plus confidence, better me plus better you equals better us), to the 32-month DOJ trial that nearly destroyed them, to the specific leadership distinction that saved them and that most CEOs get wrong. It is the difference between playing to win and playing not to lose. … Then Dov asks the question the leadership audience has been waiting for. What is the single most common thing high-performing leaders carry underneath their success that they have never said out loud?  Meghan's answer is one sentence. Charlie's follow-up phrase, the space to feel weak, is the one most listeners will write down.” podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…

One of the hardest lessons to learn when building a high performing organization is courage. And with that also comes patience. Both a never done, always working on, skill. I used to have a sign above my door which helped me find the courage to do the right thing: “It’s a grave injustice to treat unequals equally” (think back to 1999) The word unequals does not mean financial equality. Only recently made me think of how to measure/ think of what this phrase means. A —> I —> C A = Advice (knowledge first. Often best being a student of leadership but quickly also becoming a teacher as teaching is the highest form of learning. And not in chunky sequence but in a back and forth oscillation) I = Introductions (who you know matters. Always building relationships. Deepening good ones. Dialing down or removing bad ones. But also always meeting new too. That tribe, that network, that community one builds is often very indicative (especially over time) in how good you are in the first “A”) C = Capital (money matters. But people often rate it in the wrong order. Or people have allergic reactions as if it’s bad. Money is an accelerator when applied to things that work. Often applying money too soon scales and grows a mediocre thing, trying to force something to work that just doesn’t. Money earned is also a good indicator of the earlier two “A —> I” working) I love this insight from @TheDovBaron: if you want to build a business you need to build community. Then says changed my mind. If you want to build a business have to build community first. We’ve been on a journey for the past 6 years to redefine what it means to build company culture. To expand the new company culture to building community culture (go big, to the whole world vs only employees you’ve hired). And recently refined to say: we’re building #1 learning community in the world. And what constitutes a successful individual, one that should NOT be treated equally to the unearned/ unequals…A —> I —> C.

Such a fun amazing community dinner in last night’s Co-Thursday 💕

Love this…LIP (leadership in practice) watch party in our UK @nextjump along with our learning community there…going for a run together after and having healthy dinner together. Talking about leadership, life and more. Such dorks and just love them for that. 💕💪👩🏼‍🎓

1/ Every human is like a different AI model. Different training data. Different algorithms. No two people process the same input the same way. (aka: human intuition & judgement is different for every person) That's not a flaw…it's the whole point. And the power of humans is when it’s human x human in real time (like AI agents) but working together.

Duh great acronym: GOD (grow or die) —- I told Meghan this but Grow or Die is one of my fave acronyms for God. Its like the line from Shawshank Redemption. "You either get busy living or get busy dying." 💓

Exciting First Thursday coming up where some of the top creators and hosts from our weekly Thursday events coming together for an amazing evening of community

🧠 Auto-Paraphrasing: The Hidden Way Your Brain Distorts Reality Auto-paraphrasing is when you hear what someone says and instantly rewrite it in your head with emotional distortion — your own bold text, highlights, and exclamation points. You store that distorted version as fact, and then build an entire picture of a person on top of it. How to catch it: 1. Capture your reflection in real time — a voice note or handwritten note right after an experience 2. Go back and read or listen later, once the emotional heat has cooled 3. Ask yourself: is this actually what was said, or is this my version? (Good insight from our last Leadership In Practice class summarized by AiCoach)

Oh and forgot, we’re trying to build a polymath community. An environment where everyone has access to and learns at this level from the community we are creating IRL 🆒😎

Feedback from one of our community members: “In a world where the word "community" is often used loosely, Next Jump seems to understand what it actually requires: intention, generosity, trust, consistency, and a willingness to invest deeply in people. They are creating an environment where people are encouraged to connect meaningfully, learn from one another, and become part of something larger than themselves.   That is what feels so unique about Next Jump. There is an unmistakable culture behind everything they do.” 💕

We slayed Goliath after fighting the DOJ injustices for 32 months. We’re now on a mission to build a “David and Goliath Fund” to help others facing injustice. We want to hear from anyone directly or indirectly…who has suffered or are fighting now against DOJ wrongdoings. Please share [2min video] youtu.be/8QaWBvdB4gA?is=ObGA…

Webcast: @nextjump Co-CEOs and Counsel Speak: Trial Strategies Behind Gibson Dunn’s Historic Acquittal in a Federal Bribery Case Recorded session from yesterday where we discuss the 32-month (958 days and nights) battle against the federal government...to win through 2 jury trials in DC Courts. gibsondunn.com/webcast-ceos-…