Wild Dogs Leadership — Source Material Reference

Reference material: what Jer's existing documents, website, and promo video actually say. Based on the 4 core docs, the promo video transcript, and wilddogsleadership.com (gathered 2026-06-11), plus (added 2026-06-12): Jer's bio, his answers to all fifteen strategy questions, the full 19-lesson 21 Laws curriculum (source/documents/Foundation/), the complete Team Leadership cohort curriculum + Radix outline + intro-video transcript (source/documents/Team Leadership/), and the six-stage HR lifecycle (source/documents/HR/); and Jer's 2008 Masters thesis on maintaining core values during growth (full text + distilled notes in source/documents/ — a credential and origin asset; its OD methodology is deliberately NOT productized, since Wild Dogs is training/coaching, not OD). Strategic conclusions drawn from this material live in the Strategy Brief.

1. What Jer has built (the existing product ladder)

The two courses are explicitly sequenced: Body (skills, concepts, "toolbox") is the prerequisite track to Soul (inner life, flagship). The unstated anatomy metaphor — Body → Soul — is a real asset and extendable.

2. Jer's core thesis (his differentiation)

From the promo video, stated almost as a manifesto:

1. The head is commoditized. 25 years ago leaders lacked leadership concepts; now "the head is there" — everyone knows 5 Levels, leadership language is everywhere.
2. Dilution. (Citing a Maxwell article) everyone now thinks they're entitled to be a leader, and motivation has collapsed into self-advancement — "what's in it for them."
3. The gap is the soul. "This is not a leadership training program for the mind. It's a leadership training program for the soul." And: "If you want to change the world outside of you, you have to change the world inside of you."
4. Practicality is non-negotiable. Soul ≠ abstract: "It has to be practical if it's going to impact ourselves or communities in our world."
5. Ripple model of impact: self → team → organization → community → world.
6. Anti-self-advancement screening: if your motivation is personal achievement, "this isn't the course for you." He deselects customers — rare and powerful.
7. AI anecdote: he tried AI tools to make the promo video and "they all failed... what was missing was the soul." (Useful later: AI is plumbing, never the soul — this frames any AI product Wild Dogs ships.)

3. Brand values and voice

The wild dog metaphor (from the website):

• Excellence — highest kill-vs-chase ratio of African predators (action-oriented; ~80% hunt success vs lions' ~25–30% — genuinely distinctive brand language no competitor uses)
• Sacrificial — hunters feed the pups and injured first, then go back out
• Team Leadership — teamwork and leadership as synergistic, in work and play
• Resilient — legacy through facing hardship courageously and relentlessly

Method values (website "How we do it"): Mutuality · Connectivity · Practicality · Flexibility · Longevity ("crock-pot process, not microwave event").

Voice fingerprint (from the docs): warm, plain, anti-hype, slightly playful ("Its that simple", "iron sharpens iron, and all that", "That's the fun part of this coaching stuff!"); no-pressure commercial posture ("no strings attached", "no contract and no love lost"); fit-screening both ways; comfortable going deep ("not a therapist or spiritual director" but soul-adjacent). Faith-adjacent sensibility, not explicit. Any material produced for Wild Dogs should keep this voice — unpolished warmth is part of the moat.

4. Strengths to build on

1. Coherent philosophy — head/soul, crock-pot, ripple, mutuality all reinforce each other. This is a worldview, not a course catalog.
2. Structural moat — long-arc cohort formation is exactly what the research says works (spaced practice + coaching beats events), and exactly what big players can't sell because it doesn't scale. "Deliberately small and slow" is defensible positioning, not a weakness.
3. Community already happens — "a special community is formed between the learners" is listed as a side benefit. That's an unmonetized, unbuilt asset.
4. Pack metaphor maps perfectly to community — wild dogs hunt as a pack; the brand begs for an alumni "Pack."
5. Customer deselection builds trust and word-of-mouth among exactly the leaders he wants.

5. Gaps and risks

1. No funnel at all — the site is a brochure with a contact form; addressed in the Strategy Brief.
2. Coaching is underpriced ~3–7× — addressed in the Strategy Brief (repricing is the first move).
3. Maxwell-only spine is attackable. The standard critique (anecdotal, not research-based — Pfeffer's Leadership BS, Shortform reviews) applies. Fixable by triangulating each module with a validated research twin (see course design).
4. Maxwell branding — defused (2026-06-12): not licensed, years of use with no issue, curriculum is 75–80% own IP. Mentioned, not a risk: rename/attribute only if Guides ever license the 21 Laws track (see Strategy Brief).
5. The 15-month course is a market outlier — addressed in the Strategy Brief (back-of-ladder positioning, not shortening).
6. No measurement. No assessments/instruments anywhere — no pre/post story, no "did it work" evidence for B2B buyers.
7. One-man delivery ceiling. Every offering consumes Jer-hours; nothing currently scales him.

6. The strategic insight

Moved: the empty-quadrant positioning insight now opens the Strategy Brief.