A single question from a colleague—“Can you look at this?”—set off a chain of events that reshaped our host Jay Johnson's career.

In this episode, he walks through the moment misaligned expectations between faculty and international students became visible, how listening and clear onboarding turned conflict into engagement, and why that experience pushed him toward a practical approach to behavior change that goes beyond feel-good ideas.
Jay shares the personal detours that mattered: early math anxiety, a third-grade comment that stuck, and the realization that his brain processes emotion and decisions a bit differently. Debate and theater gave Jay a stage, but research gave him a mission: help people explain what they see, predict what will likely happen, influence with integrity, and manage themselves under pressure.
This story isn’t about perfection or hacks; it’s about building culture through patterns you can actually change. When teams learn to see repeatable loops—meetings that kill debate, feedback that arrives only in a crisis, calendars that glorify burnout—they earn the power to intervene early and ethically. Knowledge becomes action when we pair it with timing, structure, and accountability. If you’re curious about turning awareness into habits that stick, or you want a roadmap you can use tomorrow, you’ll find it here—straight talk, field-tested tools, and a clear path to more trust, better performance, and calmer conflict.
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Meet the Host
Jay Johnson works with people and organizations to empower teams, grow profits, and elevate leadership. He is a Co-Founder of Behavioral Elements®, a two-time TEDx speaker, and a designated Master Trainer by the Association for Talent Development. With a focus on behavioral intelligence, Jay has delivered transformational workshops to accelerate high-performance teams and cultures in more than 30 countries across four continents. For inquiries, contact [email protected] or connect below!
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayjohnsonccg/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jayjohnsonccg/
Speaker Website - https://jayjohnsonspeaks.com