Drugs, jail, escaping a cult, and now running exceptional businesses- Jason Bockman has integrated his shadow, and is one of the most exceptional people I’ve ever met.

I ran into Jason Bockman at the gym a few weeks ago. He had seen my podcast featuring cannabis entrepreneur, Tony Sansone III and he wanted to tell me that he liked it. I told him that my podcast was all about interviewing people with an expertise and he responded, “the only thing I think I have an expertise in is hiring great employees and keeping them engaged.”

Bockman owns a famous Saint Louis donut company called “Strange Donut,” people here love it. He went on to tell me that he had a less than 2% annual turnover rate of his employees. In an industry with over a 130% turnover rate, this is nothing short of astounding. I was intrigued so I invited him over to the studio. I wanted to have him on the podcast because I like his personality and he runs a cool shop, I had no idea what I was in store for.

As we talk about during the episode, Jason and I had known each other for years. We had always been friendly but never made the time to get together. This was a serious oversight on my part, because once I got to know Jason during the interview, I realized he is a man that grew up in a dungeon, went through hell and is now living in a palace that he has built after so much of his shadow has been integrated into his life.

We talk about business lessons too:

Jason runs at least two businesses that we discussed, but I get the sense that he has even more going on. We deep dive into keeping ahead of the competition and how to create trends instead of getting swept up by them.

Catch the full recording here:

During the introduction I spoke about the South Dakota State University Collegiate "Learn, Grow, Lead Conference;" October 11-13 that I will be giving a talk at. For more information visit their website:

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