In this Business Blast podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Spencer Jacobson, co‑founder and CEO of Guided, a startup that provides coaching as an employee benefit. Jacobson shares a pivotal personal story from 2017—quitting his job, his mother’s cancer diagnosis, a breakup, and a serendipitous $19,000 check—that led him to confront his purpose and launch Guided. He explains Guided’s mission to make coaching universally available within organizations. Jacobson discusses the future of work, arguing that AI will replace many left‑brain tasks and that success will depend on cultivating right‑brain skills such as emotional intelligence, adaptability, and self‑awareness. He offers business advice emphasizing purpose, intention, and treating entrepreneurship as a calling rather than a job. He reflects on personal happiness, recommending letting go of expectations and being present. Jacobson cites the book The Last Word on Power for its stoic lesson on mortality and shares a favorite Nelson Mandela quote about not playing small. The episode concludes with his contact information (Facebook and www.getguided.co).
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Welcome to the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
¡Hola!
All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Spencer Jacobson with us. He is the co-founder and CEO of Guided, which is a startup that makes it easy for organizations to provide coaching as an employee benefit. So welcome to the show, man.
Thanks so much, glad to be here.
Of course, grateful to have you here. We'll dive right into the first one. The first question I have for you, Spencer, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
I love this question. It's a little bit of a, you know, this was going on in summer 2017. So let's see, April 2017, I quit a really good job. But I knew it was time to move on. Right after that, my mother got sick with cancer. She's doing better now. And I decided to go travel abroad and really figure out what was going to be next for me. And I didn't quit that job with any kind of plan. And at the same time, my relationship with my girlfriend at the time started to break down. And it was just all of these things happening at once. And I was on the side of this mountain in Vietnam in such a beautiful place and just so miserable. And I really proved to myself that it doesn't matter where you are and it doesn't matter how good it looks on the outside, but you've really got to dig down and find the purpose within you. What ended up happening was I ended up meeting up with my girlfriend in Europe and we were boarding a plane to come back to the States on the 4th of July and she ended up deciding to stay. And obviously our relationship was in a bit of a breakdown. And so that was a shock. I literally watched them take her bag off the airplane. And so then I'm back in New York City and I have no— at that point I had no place to stay. No job, not a ton of money, didn't really know what I was going to do. I talk to my friend and we're basically strategizing on how to get my girlfriend back. We conclude that I essentially need to man up and just take responsibility for the relationship, stop letting her emasculate me and all these things. I'm sitting— this is 2 days later on July 6th. I'm in Central Park. And we go to FaceTime and I go through this whole spiel of taking responsibility and I'm sorry and sharing with her my vision for the relationship. And trust me, Tyler, it was awesome. This is a great speech. And at the end, she basically just says no. And so at that point, I also have no girlfriend, no job, no place to stay, no money. And I just look up at the sky and I just say, I surrender, God. And I also decided in that moment I was going to stop pretending with my friends that I was okay and stop pretending with my family that everything was all good because that's usually how I operated. And 20 minutes later, I was walking into the lobby of a building to meet up with a friend and I get a call that I'm getting a check for $19,000. Out of the blue that I wasn't expecting. It was literally 20 minutes later. And as I'm on the phone, like 5 beautiful women walk into the lobby of the building. And I just remember this really strong feeling of just God looking out for me. And when I say God, I just mean, you know, universal connection, whatever God means to you. And then that night and the next day, I just really let myself still be sad and broken down with my brother and some really good friends. And I felt so seen and supported for the first time in my life. And actually, that following day, I got inspired to start Guided, which is the company that I run now. And we're going to change the world. We're going to make it so that coaching is an employee benefit at every major organization. And so every single human being gets to connect to their purpose and give their gifts. So the underlying message there, man, is It's— there's a lot, but one of them is really being willing to go through that dark night of the soul, being willing to look at what's really in your heart. And even if a lot of it is painful and, you know, there's a lot of suffering in there, that it's worth it because there's also a lot of the gold, which is inspiring. Wow, man.
Dude, thanks for sharing that with us. That is, uh, I'm glad everything, uh, worked out. And, uh, yeah, man, that was a good story. You had me on the edge of my seat over here, man.
Yeah, yeah, I could— and there's like, I could tell that, that story in like the 60-minute version too, which is, which is pretty fun.
We'll have to— well, if you're down, then we'll have to do another one because I would love to hear the 60-minute version.
Dude, there's a lot of ins and outs and lots of other stuff that went on in that time period.
Yeah, no, I'm sure. And yeah, I wish— well, this is only audio, but literally I just realized, like, as you were saying it, like, my back is like curved and I'm literally on the edge of my seat. I was listening.
I was like, wow, dude.
Yeah, great storyteller, dude. Very descriptive. I have a visual of it. And yeah. So cool, yeah, maybe in the future we'll definitely do another one, but we'll move on to the next question. Thank you again for sharing that with us. The second one I have for you, Spencer, is what is the most valuable piece of information that we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Wow, another, another, another really good question. The thing that I am most percolating on right now that I think is so important is the skills that people are going to need to thrive in the future of work. And that future of work is really starting now, but it's going to accelerate. And basically most left-brain activities are going to be replaced by AI automation and technology. And what's really going to leave people as differentiated and able to stand out and thrive are right-brain, more right-brain skills, which is more cognitive adaptability, emotional intelligence, self-awareness, you know, being able to relate abstract thoughts and ideas. And so a lot of that work can be a little bit more challenging to do because those skills are a little bit more amorphous in being able to acquire and also sometimes a little bit uncomfortable in acquiring as well because they require looking inward a little bit more. But I think that's probably the most important thing that I could share with people is that if they want to really be able to thrive and stand out in the faster future, it's learning and cultivating more right brain skills.
And what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry specific, and maybe, you know, just from hearing your story, it's up to you, but maybe you want to go in for like somebody just starting out, starting out in entrepreneurship, like what would you tell them?
That entrepreneurship is not a job. And it's the right time to step into entrepreneurship when it's a calling. And so I'd really urge anybody to find the deeper purpose, find the bigger why for why you're doing whatever it is you're doing, whether it's starting a business or starting a family or hiring somebody, really connect to the deeper why before you do it, because intention is everything.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Don't worry so much. Just don't worry about how things are going to turn out so much. Just really focus on doing the things that light you up and saying yes to the things that you enjoy. And I wish I spent a lot less time caring about what other people thought.
And that perfectly probably ties in with the next one. In your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
Yeah, I think on that last question, I think it's If you can let go of expectations, letting go of a way that you think that things should be or should look and being able to accept what's happening in the moment and be authentic with yourself and what's happening. So it's basically letting go of expectations of others, of yourself and what you think you know, people are thinking about you or how you think things should look or how somebody should be treating you and really just get in touch with what is happening right now and accept it.
And what's the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
I'm gonna go with I'm going to go with a book called The Last Word on Power. That book had a massive transformational effect on me. And the biggest thing that I learned from that book, The Last Word on Power, was being able to accept that I'm going to die. And that my life will be however happy and fulfilled as it is, and I'll have done whatever I did and that there's no escaping it. And that also there's no such thing as the way life should be or shouldn't be. And all there is is the way life will be and is. And I think that's a really freeing— it's a bit of a stoicism. Concept, but it's a really freeing concept too, because if you really get that, then you understand how free you are to just go do what you want to do in life.
And next one is, what is your favorite quote and why?
Let's go with, "There's no passion to be found in playing small and in settling for a life that's less than one you're capable of living." And that's Nelson Mandela. And it's always been such a call forward for me because I notice how much of a role fear has played in my life, getting me to— basically, for me, I authentically have these massive hopes and dreams and ambitions, but I also have this fear of failure and fucking up and looking bad and all that stuff. And so, it causes me to play small. And when I play small, I'm not being authentic because I actually have these authentic huge ambitions and hopes and dreams. But then if I'm actually stepping into those big hopes and dreams, it's really scary. But everything works when you actually play to the level that is authentic to you and really living the biggest possible life you can.
I love it, man. Thank you so much again for coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is where's the best place for people people to find and/or connect with you online?
Yeah, the best place to find me is on Facebook. Just find Spencer Jacobson. Um, you can also reach out to us at our website at www.getguided.co. Um, those are the two best places to find us. Perfect, man.
Thanks again for jumping on.
Absolutely. Thank you, Tyler.
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