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What if joy at work is less about perks and more about practice? I sit down with Berkeley entrepreneur and mentor Jerry Beckerman to trace a path from a bustling Telegraph Avenue cookie shop to Passion Spark, his Socratic-based program that helps people connect what they love to how they earn. We talk about the discipline of imagination, the real meaning of risk across body, feelings, and spirit, and simple ways to turn rote tasks into play so the work sustains you instead of draining you.

Jerry opens the hood on building a customer-first experience starting with imagination, and then scaling production with intention. He shares how a single editorial mention doubled sales overnight, why word of mouth outperforms ad spend. We dig into the hard part too: when excitement fades and routine creeps in. Jerry’s antidote is to choose play on purpose, set personal metrics, and measure success by alignment rather than assets.

We get practical about careers and midlife pivots. Jerry lays out four “realities” for mapping passion to income: direct entry, delayed payoff, part-time bridge, and lower materialism. We explore trusting your gut like an expert, then verifying with research, so you get the best of intuition and evidence. Goal-free evaluation helps avoid tunnel vision, and the Socratic method builds ownership in teams by asking better questions instead of prescribing answers. We close on civility: how micro-choices like a smile or hello shift culture, and how Jerry’s Kindness and Civility Polls use introspection to raise productivity and reduce burnout.

If this conversation sparks something, share it with a friend who needs a nudge toward “enough,” rate the show, and hit follow so you never miss an episode. And if Jerry’s work resonates, reach out, your next step might be one question away.

Jerry Beckerman is the President and Founder of Passion Spark.

To contact Jerry Beckerman please email him at [email protected]

To learn more about Civility Poll and Passion Spark please click here.

Declan Spring is a licensed CA REALTOR® DRE#01398898