Jason Pliml

Like most journeys, mine resembles anything but a straight line.

I began my career as a software engineer before leaping off the employee wagon and starting multiple businesses. In those days, people often said, “I wish I could do what you do,” but what they didn’t know was that I wasn’t being honest with them or myself.

I painstakingly focused on highlighting my successes, while filtering out my constant uncertainty, the periodic financial struggles, my raging imposter syndrome, and the missed memories that resulted from prioritizing my fear of failure above all else.

The more I checked the success boxes that were supposed to provide happiness and a sense of accomplishment, the more I noticed the underlying feelings that were actually running the show for me. Recognizing that satisfaction gap started me down the path of seeking answers.

For several years, I hokey pokey-d therapy with one foot in and one foot out. My inner struggles kept bubbling to the surface and I increasingly saw how they resulted in sabotaging my success and hurting people closest to me, yet I continued to focus on upgrading the curtains and wallpaper of a house with a cracked foundation. I was terrified of looking too deep out of fear of what I might discover. 

After years of half-hearted attempts to make change, years during which I began consulting for tech startups in addition to running my own businesses, I stumbled onto a course entitled Sacred Pilgrimage which weaved together psychoanalysis and Buddhism. It was the first time I willingly looked into my depths and uncovered the stark backing track belief to my existence: “I’m unlovable no matter what I do.” Acknowledging that unconscious mantra out loud didn’t magically neutralize its power, but it gave me a clear sense for why I functioned the way I did and why I required so much of the external validation that work conveniently provided.

Consulting for tech founders led me to coach training. Providing sound advice that clients embraced, but repeatedly struggled to implement left me repeating the same advice and watching the same inaction. It was a struggle I was intimately familiar with. I signed up for Co-Active Coach Training in 2015 with the goal of learning techniques to help consulting clients navigate around their internal roadblocks to implementing my advice. Little did I know the coach training program and subsequent 10-month leadership program would rebuild me to my core.

Prior to really embracing this journey, I lived as two people: thriving “work Jason” and struggling “home Jason.” At work, I felt accomplished, creative, in my element. At home, I played the role of supporting cast and backup parent. It brought me delight and peace of mind when I unified the Jasons into a single Me. This was never more apparent than when I reached a level of feeling as competent as a parent as I did as a business owner. 

These days the backing track no longer plays on an endless loop, and I’m able to sit in silence and feel gratitude, rather than a barrage of self-doubt and self-judgment. Instead of introducing myself as Jason the busy, hard working achiever, I confidently introduce myself as Jason, the compassionate, funny, intuitive human who values equity, human connection, and showing up authentically above all else.

My journey has defined my coaching philosophy and fueled my passion for coaching. I’ve been incredibly fortunate that people generously shared life lessons, observations, and wisdom with me, and I’m passionate about paying that forward. I recognize that you can’t become an effective, influential leader simply by learning techniques. To be a leader, you have to transform how you show up each day. As a coach, I invite clients to dive deep into the murky, uncertain places. Knowing that a client feels safe and fully seen through the uncertainty brings unmatched joy. I appreciate Ryan’s invitation to join his surrender experiment and I look forward to working with you and being part of your journey as a founder, a leader, and a fellow human.”