Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jonas Cain. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Jonas, appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
As a leadership and team building workshop facilitator, there are three key components that promote business success: content, delivery, and sales.
1. Content. The content must be accurate, accessible, and actionable. It can’t be theory; it can’t be dense and hard to understand; and it can’t leave clients hanging. In other words, merely having knowledge and skills isn’t enough—they must also know how to apply their knowledge and skills in meaningful ways. I continually gain content through research, including books, magazines, trade journals, videos, articles, interviews, and workshops, and the like. There is no shortcut here. It’s a life-long learning process. One thing that was a big help when getting started was enrolling in a speaker trainer course that included a license to use their materials. This was a huge help, as it gave me material to start with as I worked to develop my own. And, it also included courses in presentation, which leads to delivery.
2. Delivery. This is how the content is delivered, and this is where I professionally shine. My approach incorporates storytelling, music, magic, and group activities that work together to engage my clients through attention, interest, and desire. I learned this approach as an entertainer, both as a magician and musician. When I decided to transition to workshop facilitation, I translated my entertainment work into allegories for the content being delivered. At first, I tried to do the presentations without the magic, music, and stories, but I found that people just didn’t care. It was only when I fully embraced these strengths, that people started to care and take notice.
Delivery goes hand-in-hand with content: equally accurate, accessible, and actionable. After a few years in business, I realized there was a gap between accuracy and accessibility and actionability, so I enrolled in graduate school to study learning systems design, earning a masters degree in education. As a result, I am now able to create a curriculum for any knowledge, skills, or attitudinal development that my clients may need. This one decision has been a game-changer for my business, for it makes me more competent in my work, more marketable to clients, and the education degree makes me more relatable to clients, since many clients include educators and school administrators. When being introduced to a group of educators before keynote presentations, it can be comforting for them to hear: “He’s one of us.”
3. Sales. Content and delivery won’t matter unless there’s an audience for it, and this is where much of my work lacks. I started this business in 2016, and the first three years were spent developing the content and networking to build relationships with clients. The work had paid off and by 2020 I had consistent contracts coming in and a travel schedule that fit my lifestyle. When the pandemic hit, everything came to a halt and the business model I had used became obsolete. Although much of my work can be done virtually, via video conferencing and online courses, it wasn’t in the spirit of what I had built, and my lack of excitement for the new model made it a hard sell for me to sell others on. As a result, sales haven’t been great these past few years, however I have been encouraged by the number of clients coming back to in-person professional development. In the meantime, I leveraged my education degree and experience as a musician by becoming a music teacher in public schools. Turns out, the apparent set back was actually a set up, giving me the opportunity to spend meaningful time with the very people I seek to serve. What better way to help a client than to step into their shoes first? Everyday at the school becomes a field study that provides valuable data to help my clients with.
With delivery as my strength, sales is my weakness, and I work to balance this by researching books, articles, videos, podcasts, and the like on sales tactics. One thing that has helped greatly is by staying in touch with past clients and past workshop attendees. They are often a great source for future work through repeat business and referrals.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
After working for years as an entertainer, I experienced a personal tragedy that changed the trajectory of my life. One week after proposing to my best friend, she died suddenly and unexpectedly. It shook me to the core. I no longer cared about things that used to care deeply to me, and I no longer knew who I was because I no longer had a grasp on life itself. After three years of grief, depression, and poor coping mechanisms (substance abuse that led to suicidal ideation), I eventually came out on the other side of grief when I realized I was still alive, despite not feeling alive. And I came to understand that the person I was yesterday doesn’t have to be the person I am today; and in a similar way, the person I am today doesn’t have to be the person I am tomorrow. This was an important understanding, for in the preceding years it felt like I had been playing a game of musical electric chairs. A game where you lose even when you win.
After surviving and working through the grief, I became fascinated by what helps people be well, which led me to the study of positive psychology—the study of what’s right with people. This study is an authentic pursuit for me. It’s not mere theory. Everything I share with clients is material that I have personally put to use in my own healing journey.
The core of my curriculum is The Three Pillars of Positivity, three core competencies that the happiest, most resilient, and most fulfilled people are strong in: Mindset, Purpose & Relationships.
Mindset. A positive mindset empowers you to gain new knowledge and skills while enhancing your capacity to take control of your experience of life. Your mindset is the boat that keeps you afloat.
Purpose. Clarity of purpose empowers you with motivation to pursue meaningful goals with sustained focus and effort. Purpose is the sail providing you with direction.
Relationships. Meaningful high-value relationships empower you with valuable social support for mutual growth and success. Relationships are the wind for your sails, fueling your continued journey forward.
Summarizing decades of research on principles and practices for being well by living well, The Three Pillars of Positivity offer a memorable and meaningful model for experiencing joy—making the science of positivity equally accurate, accessible and actionable.
Using these Three Pillars, I offer keynote presentations and professional development workshops for conferences, meetings, and other similar events. Topics include:
1. Let it RAIN. This workshop helps you navigate the three stages of change by implementing four practices for developing and honing psychological flexibility.
2. A Happy Heart. This workshop enhances your well-being by helping you identify mindful habits that uncover abiding joy.
3. What’s Your Story? This workshop overcomes the negativity bias by writing your origin story and creating tangible anchors for enhanced clarity, confidence, and courage.
4. Identify Your Throughline. This workshop helps you craft meaningful goals that align your inner and outer purpose—connecting who you were with who you are (and with who you will become).
5. Follow Your “Blissters.” This workshop shares practices for developing dynamic consciousness to live a fulfilling heart-centered life.
6. How to Get Started. This workshop distinguishes between getting started and actually beginning by providing a six-step strategy for achieving results by design.
7. Predictably Different. This workshop enhances your communication skills by identifying the underlying motivators of common behavior patterns.
8. The Common Ground. This workshop helps you develop meaningful relationships with the important people in your life by implementing strategies for authentically connecting with others.
9. Your Positive Influence. This workshop helps you use your influence as a force for good by identifying the contextual application of the four primary influencing styles.
These programs are for you if you want to foster fascination, curiosity, and wonder; pursue meaningful goals that reflect your authentic self; and develop high-value relationships for mutual support and growth.
I think of myself as a Facilitator of Fascination, helping to create circumstances that help clients lean into their life with fascination, curiosity, and wonder, rather than with frustration, apathy, and resentment. The best reward is when I hear a client express how our work together has helped them in specific and meaningful ways. That’s why I do this work. It’s less about my own success and more about the significance of the work for the success of the people I serve.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
Everything I create—whether it’s a keynote presentation, a workshop, a song, a magic trick, or a story—has the direct purpose of helping to uncover the abiding Love and Joy that’s all around us. Love and Joy are ever-present. It’s just that they are often covered up by distractions.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
My favorite part of being creative is drawing connections between seemingly separate and unrelated ideas. It helps to create new perspectives that help us see the world in a new way. When a story can be interwoven with an illustrative piece of magic, which can be brought to life with a piece of music, which can be made meaningful and actionable with a thoughtful reflection question for group discussion, the result becomes much more than the individual parts.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.hashtagpositivity.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theofficialhashtagpositivity/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hashtagpositivity
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hashtag-positivity
- Twitter: https://x.com/hshtgpositivity
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/hashtagpositivity
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/hashtagpositivity
