Questions for Jer — Asked & Answered
The fifteen questions that shaped the plan, now with Jer's answers (2026-06-12; full text captured verbatim in source/documents/). Each answer below is compressed to what it decides; a Round 2 section at the end holds the follow-ups the answers opened.
I. The goal itself
1. What does success look like in five years? Answered. Jer's vision, his words: "Every client of Wild Dogs adding value to themselves and their communities in mind, body, and soul." Clients across sectors and the globe, a handful of highly reputable ones — "maybe even some Big Shots." → This is growth-with-reach, not deeper-not-bigger. The ladder stands. The vision is now written into The Path.
2. How many hours a week, for how many years? Answered: 30 hours/week. And a hard date the plan didn't have: Jer retires from the missionary position in March 2027 and wants the client base built up by then. That date now anchors the roadmap.
3. What must this earn? Answered: a barbell. He doesn't need a big number — but wants premium pricing to win premium clients, and full freedom to work pro bono (he's already running a discounted/free cohort for an Indian client whose professionals span India, Bangladesh, Tibet). His words: "willing to charge the highest rate and also work for no rate at all." → The cross-subsidy architecture ("hunters feed the pups") isn't an option to consider; it's his existing practice to formalize.
4. What are you afraid this becomes? Answered. Anything that fuels ego or steals family energy is a deal-breaker. "A 529 Steakhouse, not a McDonald's" — premium but authentic, zero "coffee-cup jargon." → Brand guardrail, now quoted in the Strategy Brief's "What not to lose."
II. The faith fork
5. Open, confessional, or two streams? Answered: status quo — and it's a conviction, not an evasion. Jer holds his labels loosely and situationally (the HyLife office where people swore and asked for prayer; the mission field where faith is shown, not announced; Jesus' own sometimes-ambiguous approach as the model). Open to being challenged on dual-track "as long as that wouldn't make me a hypocrite to my more loose way of wearing my faith." → The plan accepts status quo: faith-integrated person, faith-silent material, no labeled streams. The fork is closed.
6. What actually happened in the Fall cohort's room? Answered. It was not run as a Christian course — Jer said so repeatedly and recruited a non-Christian participant (she withdrew for workload, still a friend). The cohort happened to be Christians, which let that part of life into the vulnerability. None of the material is Christian. Jer's read: the depth came from vulnerability and community, "and maybe God sprinkled some pixie dust too." → Confirms the magic is replicable with mixed rooms; supports status quo.
III. The people
7. How big is the existing pool? Answered, and bigger than feared: a 15-adult missionary team (5 did the 21 Laws; all coached); a Canadian company's leadership team in the 21 Laws; 1:1 clients (a company president, a pastor, an athletic manager in Chiang Mai); the India cohort running this fall; a preliminary First Nations opportunity in northern Canada. Lifetime: hundreds taught since 2003 — Kenya's "village university," then ~20 years teaching weekly at HyLife. But: "this doesn't keep me quite busy enough for 2027." → Pipeline-building is the job between now and March 2027.
8. Which alumni could host or become Guides? Answered with four names: Joe Crain, Becky Hess, Marvin Lorenzano, Joseph Naimodu. → The Guide track is real, not a 3–4-year hope.
9. Will the Fall cohort say yes? Open — Jer will know by July. And he named the core growth problem in his own words: getting "eagles" who don't know him to invest. One client's spouse says they're "a better person" after sessions — the intimacy is the product, and it's hard to sell to strangers. → July is now a checkpoint in The Path; the compressed-knowing machinery in Finding the Pack is aimed at exactly this.
IV. Economics
10. Can your best people pay these prices? Answered: mostly no — Canadians probably yes. Many current clients are already discounted. → Confirms the barbell: premium Western/B2B seats fund the rest; regional pricing is reality, not theory.
11. What did the Fall cohort pay? Answered: ~$200, framed as a beta group. → Repricing is an identity transition, not a rate change. The story: "the beta is over; the program is proven; founding alumni get founding terms."
V. Facts only Jer had
12. Maxwell licensing? Answered: not licensed — and mostly moot. The 21 Laws are the skeleton (~20%); the "muscle and meat" is Jer's. The actual 19-lesson curriculum (now in the repo) confirms it: 75–80% original frameworks, stories, and research per lesson. Remaining exposure is the "21 Laws" name and assigned Maxwell reading; there's a clean independence path (rename the arcs, attribute once) if Guides ever license it. → Downgraded from blocking risk to housekeeping.
13. What's behind the website password? Answered: nothing yet. Planned: "Off Leash Bytes" — ~30 podcast-style audio blurbs as a paying-client bonus, a few already recorded, graphics in progress, feedback invited. → Feedback given in the Strategy Brief; the Bytes slot perfectly into the Pack continuity design.
14. What happened with the 2025 launch? Answered. Finished in the Fall. A 2026 cohort (all newcomers) is being worked on but unconfirmed; fallback is reconvening top leaders he knows. → The Path now carries a confirm-by date and the fallback.
15. Will you record? Answered: some recorded — "I could be stretched to record more. Help me out." → Help delivered: there's now a dead-simple story-capture protocol in The Path.
Round 2 — the decisions that unblock the plan
Trimmed to what matters. The income floor is the keystone — answer it first; it gates four of the six pending changes in "Red Team 1 — Where the Plan Should Change."
0. The income-replacement floor (answer this first). What does the mission provide — salary, housing, insurance, schooling — that ends in March 2027, and is it a cliff (income stops) or a glide (savings/pension/sending-church tail/spousal income cushions it)? Every price, gate, and deadline derives from this. Until it's a real number, the plan is provisional. (Gates Red-Team changes B1, B4, B5, B6.)
1. Coaching-first or cohorts-first? The biggest strategic fork. You lean toward 1:1 coaching ("(I think…)"); the review found it's faster to revenue, near-zero to acquire, your stated preference, and how every client to date arrived — yet the plan files it as a "fallback." Which is the default engine for the next 12 months — repriced coaching off your network, or cohorts? (Both doors stay open; this just sets the lean.) (Gates B1.)
2. Marketing baseline. How many email addresses do you have today, and any LinkedIn presence? The funnel math starts here. (Gates B2.)
3. Have the four Guide candidates been asked? Joe, Becky, Marvin, Joseph — has any said yes, and could one co-host the 2026 cohort? May we design the host role around them specifically? (If none can, the Guide trial slides — fine, but we'd know now.) (Gates B3.)
4. The 2026 cohort: confirm-by, gate, and fallback. Drop-dead date to confirm before triggering the fallback (propose end of August)? And rank the fallbacks if it doesn't fill: (a) small cohort of leaders you know, (b) skip 2026 / go coaching-heavy, (c) fold into the India cohort, (d) push to Jan 2027. Which keeps March 2027 most alive? (Gates B5.)
5. Does the HR-lifecycle wedge cross your OD line? You killed the thesis-as-B2B-tool because it's OD. The "HR lifecycle audit → cohort → coaching" wedge sits near that same line — is it the HR-function consulting you already do (keep it, timing fixed), or OD you'd rule out (cut it)? Your call. (Gates B6.)
6. Business plumbing (important, not a Red-Team gate). Legal/tax structure for a Canadian in SE Asia selling globally, payment processor, pricing currency — one hour with the right accountant before the first repriced invoice.
Already decided or handled (no action needed): faith positioning = status quo; spouses = assume yes (chairs single, events spouse-inclusive — veto if wrong); accreditation = skip unless the B2B/HR line matures, then HRCI/SHRM not ICF (a badge is a trust substitute your trust-based clients don't need); Off Leash Bytes = release ~5 free, gate the rest; the Fall recordings = to be located; Radix migration = flag any data/relationship friction; Lesson 15 (Law of the Picture) = minor — integrated, lost, or never written?