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/ — the methodology is the B2B audit instrument, per the Strategy Brief). 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): Jer is not licensed and doesn't need to be; the curriculum is 75–80% his own IP. Housekeeping 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.