We talk about mentors, coaches, and leaders shaping us—but what if life itself is your coach? In this episode, I break down why you need to stop seeing everything as “happening to you” and start seeing it as feedback for you. From culture to bias to personal opinions, none of it controls the movement of life. Life is rolling on, teaching, shaping, and guiding—if you’re willing to pay attention. Think of it like a people-mover at the airport: step on, let it carry you forward, and learn what it’s showing you along the way.

This one isn’t just motivation—it’s perspective. And it might change how you see every challenge in front of you.

You’ve been praised your whole life for being adaptable. For surviving chaos. For doing more with less. But here’s the truth: survival skills don’t scale. As leaders, the very instincts that kept us alive can destroy our ability to lead. In this episode, I break down the trap of over-adapting — through the lens of faith, trauma, and the workplace. I share how my upbringing gave me a PhD in survival, how it built my career, and how it nearly cost me in leadership — and most importantly, what I had to do to break free. If you’ve ever been told to ‘just make it work,’ this one is for you.

#RareFrequency #TechCoachUnc #LeadershipUncut #FromSurvivalToStewardship #AuthenticLeadership #TraumaToTriumph #BlackVoicesInTech #FaithAndWork #AdaptiveLeadership

Some people just have it—that spark, that energy that makes others follow. We call them “born leaders.” But here’s the truth: raw talent without sharpening gets wasted, and plenty of so-called “non-naturals” have outworked the naturals to become exceptional leaders.

In this episode, Jay Floyd breaks down the myth of the born leader, shares personal stories (including a powerful lesson from his 11-year-old daughter), and unpacks why leadership is both gifted and grown. From sports analogies to real-world coaching insights, you’ll walk away with a new lens on what makes a leader last.

👉 Whether you believe you’re a born leader or you’re building brick by brick, this episode will challenge you to sharpen your edge and put in the reps.

Too many leaders confuse procrastination with laziness. The truth? Most delays are artificial—born from clutter, confusion, and systems that drain energy instead of creating clarity. In this episode, I break down the T-N-T principle—Today, Not Tomorrow—and show you how to spot hidden delays, simplify your systems, and move with explosive clarity. If you’re ready to stop paying the tax of confusion, this is the episode you can’t afford to put off.

After losing her husband, LaKisha Williams faced a crossroads: let grief close her heart, or let God expand it. In this moving Uncut Gems conversation, Jay Floyd sits down with the founder of Reignite Love to talk about faith, loss, resilience, and the surprising truths she now teaches about love.
Discover:

• The moment she chose hope over heartbreak
• Why grief and joy can—and must—coexist
• How faith reshapes the way we date and love
• The top 8 things men actually want in a relationship
   This episode is proof that love still works, especially when God writes the story.

In this episode of Uncut Gems, Jay Floyd challenges the traditional idea of compensation and breaks down the hidden currencies we often overlook—growth, friction, opportunity, and culture. Whether you’re in a thriving environment or stuck in a dead zone, this message is a call to recognize where the real value is showing up in your life. Because sometimes the sharpest paychecks don’t come in dollars. They come in development. That’s "money on the wood."

High achievers, listen up: the grind is lying to you. Jay unpacks how hustle culture masks itself as ambition—but slowly robs you of peace, presence, and purpose. This episode is a call to reject performance addiction and reclaim your soul from the noise.

You are not your LinkedIn headline. In this episode, Jay exposes how our job titles, roles, and achievements can quietly hijack our identity. If you’ve ever felt lost without your label, it’s time to come back to who you were before the world needed a resume.

You don’t need a guru—you need a reminder. In this kickoff episode, Jay Floyd dismantles the performance-driven, expert-worshipping culture of self-help and calls you back to something deeper: your original design. If you’ve ever felt buried under expectations, this one’s for you.

What do you do when you’ve got too many stories to tell and too many gifts to box up?

In this episode of Uncut Gems, Jay Floyd gets all the way real about the release of his newest book, Rare On Purpose—and the internal tug-of-war it took to bring it into the world. He opens up about the creative overload, the pressure to “pick a lane,” and the personal decision to stop fragmenting his voice just to be more palatable.

This isn’t a promo episode. It’s a truth session.
 It’s about identity. Alignment. Calling. And the journey toward wholeness.

Jay also shares:

• Why Rare On Purpose was the first book he chose to release
• What it means to lead with truth instead of performance
• How he’s learning to show up with all of who he is—coach, tech leader, fiction writer, and man of faith

If you’ve ever felt like you had to shrink your story to fit the feed—this one's for you.

📍Bonus: Jay will be at the Databricks + AI Summit in San Francisco this week. If you see him, say what’s up—especially if it starts with “I bought your book.”