Meet Jody Friedman

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jody Friedman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jody below.

Jody, so good to have you with us today. We’ve got so much planned, so let’s jump right into it. We live in such a diverse world, and in many ways the world is getting better and more understanding but it’s far from perfect. There are so many times where folks find themselves in rooms or situations where they are the only ones that look like them – that might mean being the only woman of color in the room or the only person who grew up in a certain environment etc. Can you talk to us about how you’ve managed to thrive even in situations where you were the only one in the room?

I think what you mean by this question is how have I leaned into being authentic and me, and not trying to be everyone else or like everyone else.

This goes back to when I was young and I noticed that people operated like sheep – I don’t mean this in a bad way, but there were a lot of copycats, followers, and not so many leaders. I didn’t like that. I always felt like I had the need and desire to be myself and march to the beat of my own drum. And sometimes that made me the odd man in the room with a different opinion from everyone else, or who had an odd sense of humor that was different from anyone else, or who was too sensitive and emotional compared to everyone else.

How I learned to be successful when I’m the only one like me – I think it’s leaning into that. I’ve never tried to be anyone else. Even as a performer on stage, I was always myself.

I’ve also had this relentless drive because I get a lot of personal fulfillment out of accomplishments and challenges that I give myself that I think are seemingly impossible, and then breaking them down and finding out how it works and how to accomplish them. I believe that everything can be broken down into smaller pieces that make up the whole. From English homework and math homework in high school – where I had a 4.8 GPA – to running a six-minute mile to make the soccer team. And this was no joke, they were state champs in Florida for many years in a row, including the year that I was on the team.

What I’ve learned is that each of these achievements required me to wreck the room I was in – to change my mental, emotional and behavioral state so I could get to the next level of my life. But not with the blueprint from my past. With blueprints to an unknown future, diving into what that future might look like, knowing I wanted to be in that room and stepping into that room gracefully and willingly.

That approach carried through to writing an essay that got me a scholarship to Israel when I was 17, getting accepted into the early admissions program at Florida State, graduating summa cum laude with a 3.87 GPA, landing an internship at Good Morning America where I got the opportunity to interview celebrities on the red carpet at the Oscars in 2000. Then building multiple seven-figure businesses, training to be a keynote speaker, being a father, being a songwriter and creative, working as a music supervisor.

Am I an overachiever? Absolutely. Do I enjoy it? Absolutely.

I’ve always had coaches throughout my entire life – teachers, coaches, leaders that I learn from, mentors, colleagues. Always willing to learn, because I think that’s the greatest gift we have – our ability to learn and break down what seems impossible into achievable steps.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

So as I’ve always done, eventually I reach a point in my career where it just is, and I need a new challenge. I’ve mastered what I’ve done. I’ve mastered music publishing, I’ve mastered being a music supervisor, I’ve mastered the art of licensing music. I can do it with my eyes closed, and I’ll probably do it for a long time. But with that came evolving to coach other musicians how to do it, and now with Elite Music Coaching, we have systems in place that can help millions of musicians learn to do the same – to make good money from their music licensing their songs to film, TV shows, trailers and ads.

So the next logical evolution for me is to help others in their life do what I’ve done throughout my entire life, which is wreck the room over and over again.

What does wrecking the room mean? This is what I’m most excited about. I believe that we all operate from inside a room. This room is created from stories we stopped questioning a long time ago, and they aren’t even our stories. They’re other people’s stories that influence how we perceive ourselves, the identity that we’ve given ourselves, the lie that we tell ourselves every day because of this assumed identity – whether you’re the perfectionist or the performer or the invisible one.

The only way to build the next level of your life is to tear down the walls and wreck the room that you’re currently in. And this isn’t an easy process, but it is doable, and I’ve created a framework surrounding this that helps high achievers and leadership teams build the next level of their organizations using my Wreck the Room framework.

This is not a one-and-done thing. This is a way of life. Every time you wreck the room, every time you outgrow the room that you’re currently in, you have to wreck that room to step into the next room.

And what I’m most excited about is offering my Wreck the Room framework to leadership and teams at companies that are struggling with hitting their numbers or their quotas, aligning the right people with the right roles, or creating a culture that supports both wellness and that innate drive to achieve, succeed, and grow.

Because here’s the thing – most companies are operating from rooms built on outdated models. They’re trying to motivate their people with the same old approaches, wondering why engagement is down, why turnover is high, why their top performers are burning out. They’re stuck in rooms that worked five years ago but don’t work now.

I help leadership teams and their people recognize what rooms they’re operating from – both individually and as an organization – and give them the tools to wreck what’s not working and rebuild something that actually serves their goals. Whether that’s a sales team that’s plateaued, executives who feel trapped by their own success, or entire departments that have lost their edge.

The companies that are thriving right now? They’re the ones willing to wreck the rooms that are keeping them small and build new ones designed for where they want to go, not where they’ve been.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Looking back, I think the most impactful thing in my journey is that I never limited myself. And what I mean by that is anytime I was interested in something, genuinely interested, I pursued it and became knowledgeable enough to operate in that world.

As a result, I learned how to run a business. I learned how to produce music, I learned how to master working in Excel, I learned how to be a capable graphic designer and web designer. I learned how to code HTML and CSS. I learned how to speak in front of small crowds and large audiences. I learned how to lead. I learned how to facilitate a room. I learned how to craft an unforgettable speech. I did all this because these were things that I was personally drawn to, so I didn’t try to do things outside of stuff that – if it didn’t light me up, I wouldn’t do it. It has to light you up, it has to be genuine.

But I would say don’t go halfway in. If you’re going to commit to doing something, commit. Show up for yourself. Learn it. And along the way, you’re going to make mistakes. You’re going to fail. And that’s awesome when that happens, because that is when you learn the most.

My advice for folks who are early in their journey is this: follow your genuine curiosity, but when you do, go all in. Don’t dabble. Don’t just scratch the surface. Dive deep enough that you can actually operate in that world. Because every skill you develop, every area of knowledge you gain, it all connects. The graphic design skills helped me build better marketing for my business. The coding knowledge helped me understand how to build better websites. The speaking skills helped me communicate my vision to investors and partners.

It’s all connected, and when you don’t limit yourself to just one thing, you become this multifaceted person who can solve problems from angles that other people can’t even see.

We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?

I believe it’s best to go all in on your strengths. I also believe it’s not a bad idea to be well-rounded if there are other areas where you feel like it would be beneficial to understand enough so you could then delegate it to someone else. I think it’s okay to go there and learn those things. But when you find something that you’re strong at – and that word “strong” I don’t use lightly – you go all in on that.

When I realized that I was good at motivating others and inspiring change, encouraging transformation, building businesses, eliminating noise, and destroying the wreckage that holds people back and helping them recognize what that looks like – and not only recognize it, but helping them wreck the room that they’re currently in – when I realized I was good at that, I realized that’s uniquely me – and I went ALL-IN. And perhaps it is my biggest strength, because that is who I am at my core in everything I do.

And for some people, that’s really intense. And I am an intense guy. There’s no doubt I am an intense man. But I think sometimes that’s what people need – a little tough love and less pacifying.

I think it’s so important to play to your strengths and go all in on your strengths, but don’t neglect areas that seem like they’re challenging, as long as they light you up. Going back to what I said before, they have to light you up. If you’re not excited about it – for instance, I don’t love social media. But I get lit up over the idea of attracting people to my world through social media and opening the floodgates of who I can then impact, because I’ve always been focused on impact in my life. So that excites me.

The result from learning how to properly operate on social media excites me. And as a result, I’m learning how to systematize and craft my message in a way that is on brand for my social media accounts, even though I don’t like social media. I don’t like spending time on it, but I’m looking at it and using it as a producer, not as a consumer. And producing content that brings people into my world, that helps them feel my message – that excites me because that’s my strength: getting my message out there to people in a way that impacts them and changes them and helps them build the next level of their life. That is where its at for me.

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