Meet Jeffrey Kramer

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeffrey A. Kramer.

Hi Jeff, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I spent over 35 years in public service and related organizations as an accomplished executive and leader who led teams, and designed and built things. Important, impressive, even award-winning things, but things nonetheless. For most of those years, I overachieved and over-delivered, and that takes its toll. Late into my career, I realized I wasn’t happy anymore. I still loved construction, the process of solving problems and seeing things built, but the J-O-B wasn’t delivering the same J-O-Y any longer. To make things worse, I noticed I was becoming more and more demanding and inflexible, with my perfectionism addiction reaching a peak.

At some point during my journey into dissatisfaction, one of my mentors said something powerful to me – “It’s hard to see the picture when you’re inside the frame.” I decided to step out of my frame and take a long hard look at myself, my life, and what I wanted to do from that point forward. I realized I was happiest and most energized when I was helping others, coaching or teaching them, or when I was speaking for an audience. That’s when I knew that I needed to convert all those years of experience, the skills and knowledge collected, into something that builds people instead of things.

After that, I worked with a number of coaches to discover my perfectionism addiction and strategies to manage and redirect it positively, on my coaching and speaking skills, and on the business skills, I would need to know. That’s how my side hustles as an author, coach, and speaker who helps people and organizations become Perfectly Unhackable in work, life, and play began. And now, several years down the road, I’ve retired from government service and am focusing more fully on this new and more fulfilling journey in life.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Anyone who tells you that moving from employee to entrepreneur is smooth or easy is fibbing (I’m being nice there too). It is a constantly challenging and bumpy road. And if you are starting out as a side hustle the challenges amplify.

 In my case, it was a side hustle for several years while working full-time as an executive in government. I owed it to my employer and our citizens to be all in on them, so my fledgling business didn’t get all the attention I would have liked to give it. That was frustrating for sure, and it also slowed down progress on many ideas and goals. As a solopreneur, I’ve also had to teach myself a lot of technology to cobble together websites, CRMs, LMS, social media, and so on. I can show you a trail of different programs, applications, and training courses I started and abandoned when I realized they weren’t a right fit for me, either my business or my personality and tolerance level. I’m getting there, but I still, have plenty of room to improve upon things.

Then there’s the do it or delegate it dilemma. There’s a point where you are either doing well enough to hire a VA or contract staff, or where you have to do so in order to get things out the door. I’m moving in that direction and arguing with myself about when it’s time to offload to paid help so I can focus on business building and creating. And let’s don’t even get started on the financial part of the business – bookkeeping, taxes of all kinds, invoices, and collection. So the challenge becomes not only when you need to offload to paid help, but what aspect of your business do you want help for first?

The struggle to create content and programs is always there for me too. No matter what assessment you look at, I’m always the logical, procedural, implementer type, not the creative. So developing the content is slow and frustrating. I’m grateful for some colleagues who can listen to me talk about what I want to do, and can turn that into the framework or content I am thinking about but can’t crystalize myself. That’s a key – if you are creative get yourself an implementer partner, and vice versa! For example, can you imagine a perfectionist writing a book about perfectionism? Yeah, me too. The self-edits and self-criticism were pretty severe, which strung out the writing time to probably double what it should have been. Fortunately, The Perfection Paradox got finished, and ultimately was even a finalist for an international author award!

Perhaps my biggest struggle has been learning to productively redirect my addiction to perfectionism in healthier ways. I suffered from such an extreme level of perfectionism that it drove obsessive-compulsive behavior and was severely damaging to myself and my relationships with others around me. I was exposed on September 23, 2014 – I call it Perfection Revelation Day – and I’ve worked hard every day since to flip this into a positive thing. Now perfectionism is one of my superpowers, not because I strive for it, but because I understand it and can help myself and others to be freed from our flaws and pursue excellence instead.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My company was very intentionally named Ascension Leadership Group, LLC. Ascension means to rise up, to go higher, and my goal is to help others rise up and reach new heights of success. It exists as an umbrella organization under which I operate two separate “doing business as” entities.

Through The Center for Successful Project Delivery, I provide training and advisement services related to the procurement and delivery of construction projects. Through my career experience, this is something I become known as something of an expert in, so now I am able to support owners (public and tribal government agencies) contractors, and design professionals with training and support services. There’s a need for this in the industry, so I have chosen to make myself available for this purpose even though I “retired” from the public works construction industry. I am also a faculty associate in the Del Webb School of Construction at ASU teaching the next generation of constructors and owners about government construction, procurement, and project delivery.

My real passion, though, is the personal and professional growth and leadership development programs and services I provide through the personal-branded Jeffrey A. Kramer business and my Ascending Leaders Community. I love getting to speak and teach about topics like discovering your genius, overcoming your limiting beliefs, understanding who you are designed and called to be, and escaping the clutches of perfectionism. I call this becoming Perfectly Unhackable in Work, Life, and Play, and individuals and organizations accomplish this when they Clarify Their Calling, Overcome Their Obstacles, Define Their Direction and Escape To Excellence.

I’m also very excited about some big things coming in the last part of 2022, including the launch of the new Ascending Leaders Community, which will host a variety of courses and coaching resources, and the launch of the Ascending Leaders Podcast.

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
There are so many shifts happening right now. There is a mass influx of people who want to be coaches, and the barrier to entry is so low. Since it’s an unregulated industry, anyone who wants to can say they are a coach. Of course, that doesn’t make them one, but does the consumer really know that? If you are looking to work with a coach it’s important you understand their training and experience. I have been very intentional about the coaches I’ve worked with and the credentials I’ve earned, and feel it’s paid huge dividends in the high quality of coaching I’ve received and can now provide.

For authors the movement toward hybrid publishing and Web 3, and the ability to protect and own your digital intellectual property is huge. Many authors are tired of not owning their own work after publishing with a traditional publishing house, or of only getting paid royalty on the first sale. Musicians get paid royalties every time their song is played, but authors? One and done in the past. But Web 3 and the ability to link your book to an NFT and digital contract is a game changer for authors and their IP. This is all very infant stage, but connecting books, events, and more to NFTs, digital contracts, virtual reality courses, and even events in the metaverse… I know it sounds crazy, but the movement is already starting.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jeffreyakramer.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeffreyakramer/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKramerALG
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/jeffreyakramer/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ascensionleader
• Other: https://linktr.ee/Jeffreyakramer

Image Credits
Jessica Rogers (Jrogers Photography), Duane Darling (Studio D Creative Services), Sharon Kramer, and Jeffrey Kramer