Meet Jodee Bock | Thought Leader, Life Purpose and Career Coach, and Accidental Entrepreneur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jodee Bock and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jodee, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I call myself an accidental entrepreneur because it occurred to me after one of my bosses told me, after hiring me for a position called Leadership Development, that what I did was “touchy-feely crap that made him puke.” It took a few weeks, but after having a conversation with him about that comment, and completely owning my response, it became clear that companies and bosses like mine, whether they knew it at the time or not, really needed people like me at my most authentic.

I had hired my first Life Coach (who even knew what that was in 2003?) and she helped me work through my relationship with this boss, reminding me that sometimes as I vented to her, I was not allowing him any space to be real himself. I was judging his behavior through my own experience. By working with her, and by listening to her encouragement, I determined that becoming a Life Coach (by this time it was 2005 so a little less foreign, but not much!) was the next right step for me.

I took that old Zen saying “Leap and the net will appear” quite literally because had I stopped to think about what I was doing, I may not have done it.

Stepping off the cliff of relative safety into a world of Personal Development where the numbers of colleagues and certainly potential clients is much, MUCH smaller, was a huge risk, but one I’ll never regret. It’s been difficult and challenging, not just because of the personal development I have to do in order to listen to my own calling, but also to treat it as a business and not a hobby or a side hustle.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
How much space do I have? 🙂

It’s only in looking back that I’m able to connect the dots of my career, and, with my current level of awareness, experience, and wisdom, see things much more clearly.

I started my career as sports and news editor of a small weekly newspaper (remember those?) in a tiny town just south of the Canadian border in north central North Dakota. From there I hopped around looking for my place to belong. I was a Sports Information Director, a Communications Coordinator, a Sales and Marketing Manager, a Corporate Trainer, a Leadership Consultant, a Real Estate Team Leader, a partner in a business networking venture, a Director of People Development, and, eventually, a coach/consultant/speaker/author … maybe a title yet to be determined.

Through that entire career journey, I now see that the insatiable curiosity I have had as far back as I can remember, and which was suppressed by teachers who just didn’t know what to do with it early in my life, is the catalyst for all the best work I’ve done with, for, and on behalf of others.

My current brand is Get REAL With Jodee Bock, where REAL is an acronym for Radical, Energized, Authentic, and Learning-focused. I use that platform to coach, speak, train, and inspire people who may be, as I was, restless and discontented with traditional companies or any situation which occurs as a bureaucracy. There are lots of other paths to success which may be unconventional, but can be life- and soul-affirming at the same time.

Studying books like Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon MacKenzie, Leadership and Self-Deception by the Arbinger Group, Humanocracy by Gary Hamel & Michele Zanini, Becoming a Conscious Leader by Gina Hayden, The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek, The Nine Lies About Work by Ashley Goodall & Marcus Buckingham, and anything by Brene Brown, Jim Collins, or Neale Donald Walsch are helping me build my own, personal take on what makes us human.

Studying others has given me permission to write my own books including The 100% Factor, Own Your Story: The Invitation, Own Your Story: Goals to Glory, Say What?, and P.O.W.E.R. Tools @ Work.

My private Facebook page (Get REAL) is a place where people can feel safe to explore thoughts and feelings they don’t know where else to share, and my podcast (Circle Up & Get REAL) is a place where listeners can hear stories of others who are living their own truths. My next venture, which is still in formation, will be a membership group tentatively called The REAL EA, where EA stands for Early Adopters (on the Diffusion of Innovations curve by Everett Rogers).

Alone we can do a little. But together we can live in infinite possibilities and see them through to new realities that are beyond anything any of us can do on our own.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
My city – Fargo – is quite unique. It’s on the border of Moorhead, Minnesota, which provides an interesting vantage point right smack dab in the middle of conservative North Dakota and progressive Minnesota.

So if it were a week-long trip, I might start with a drive west on I-94 to Theodore Roosevelt National Park and Medora, about 4 hours straight west. We would stay one night there, and drive down the Enchanted Highway on the way back to Fargo. Then we would spend the next day visiting shops and breweries in downtown Fargo. We might eat lunch on the rooftop of Rhombus Guys Pizza or at the Boiler Room or a couple of other choices downtown. Then we would do a walking tour of the Fargo murals, and stop for ice cream at Silver Linings, where we could take our picture in front of the wings mural.

We would have choices for entertainment: the Plains Art Museum, Trollwood Performing Arts at the Bluestem Amphitheater, a Redhawks baseball game or, if it’s in the fall, an NDSU football game would also be fun. Brew pubs abound in the community, so we could head over to Junkyard in Moorhead, or Brewhalla or Fargo Brewing to grab a pint.

Then we’d head east on I-94 to lakes country (which is much more fun in the summer) and visit some friends who have lake homes within an hour of Fargo.

If we wanted to get adventurous, we could drive 3 more hours east to Minneapolis, but that would be someone else’s hometown tour, or even 4 hours north across the border to Winnipeg.

The DOING of stuff is fun no matter where you are in the world, but it’s the opportunity to just BE YOURSELF with friends and trusted others that makes wherever you are second in importance.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I wouldn’t be where I am today without Think and Grow Rich and all the people who supported me in learning about it – Bob Proctor & Paul Martinelli and my fellow LifeSuccess Consultants – and those who have trusted me in facilitating the learning and application of its principles.

True personal development groups invite the Master Mind into the conversation and dialogue and all the participants are better because of it, so a huge shoutout to my Saturday, Wednesday, and Friday groups, and also to the Get REAL Circle.

And, of course, to CJ, my first Life Coach.

Website: www.jodeebock.com AND www.powertoolsatwork.com

Instagram: instagram.com/JodeeFromFargo

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/JodeeBock

Twitter: twitter.com/jodeebock

Facebook: facebook.com/jodeeb AND facebook.com/REALTrans4mation