Choosing to Invest in Yourself and Redefining Greatness (Live from Arcadia)

Be Great. Be Arcadia.

Season three kicks off with something special: the only recorded session from our 2025 Arcadia Leadership Experience. Recorded live in front of 65 attendees, this episode blends honest reflection, leadership lessons, and the heart of what’s next for our constellation (aka community). We share the story behind Arcadia, how it began as a consulting business and grew into a movement, and what it means to “Be Arcadia.” 

Throughout the conversation, we open up about choosing to invest in yourself, redefining success, and why greatness isn’t about perfection, but about the daily pursuit of better-than-average. If you’ve ever felt called to invest in yourself or find harmony in the chaos, this is the perfect place to start.

What you’ll learn:

• What it really means to live with intention
• Why “greatness” and “harmony” go hand in hand 
• How choosing yourself can transform not just your work, but your life

Jump into the conversation:

(00:00) Introduction

(02:06) Podcast evolution and future direction

(04:22) Origins of Arcadia

(06:59) Building harmony and greatness

(09:54) Pursuing greatness and overcoming average

(14:49) Investing in personal growth

(15:41) Chasing passion and core values

(16:26) Choosing to invest in yourself

(17:06) Reevaluating success and energy

(19:42) The Arcadian journey

(22:03) Gathering leaders for growth

(25:17) Launching the Arcadia community

(30:12) The Arcadia declaration

Check out Arcadia: https://www.BeArcadia.com 

Connect with Sam Yarborough: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-yarborough/ 

Connect with Jason Yarborough: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yarby/ 

Produced in partnership with Share Your Genius

https://www.shareyourgenius.com

Transcript

[00:00:00] Jason Yarborough: The people that we lead also need us to be better people so that we can become better leaders for them. And some of the best leaders I know don’t have an ego. The worst leaders I know have an ego. If we go back to that intersection of what Arcadia or harmony and greatness is, there’s no ego. And therefore, as a leader, you’re going to be constantly pushing everybody else’s line of average and how they could become great, how they become better. Welcome to the Friends With Benefits podcast — a business podcast about revenue-generating partnerships, not a podcast about business time with friends. We are your co-hosting couple. I’m Jason.

[00:00:45] Sam Yarborough: And I’m Sam. Welcome to the show, friends.

[00:00:48] Jason Yarborough: Friends, welcome to season three. We’ve made it.

[00:00:51] Sam Yarborough: Man, I’m so excited to be back. I missed it.

[00:00:53] Jason Yarborough: It feels like we haven’t podcasted in a year.

[00:00:56] Sam Yarborough: Because we haven’t. I’m so sorry.

[00:00:57] Jason Yarborough: It’s been a while. A lot has happened since we last recorded season two. We’ve had summer — a full summer.

[00:01:04] Sam Yarborough: Yeah, we sure did.

[00:01:06] Jason Yarborough: A lot of camping. We hosted an event.

[00:01:08] Sam Yarborough: We did — the second Arcadia Leadership Experience.

[00:01:12] Jason Yarborough: And it was a pretty dang good time.

[00:01:14] Sam Yarborough: I agree. We had 65 of y’all…

[00:01:17] Jason Yarborough: Join…

[00:01:17] Sam Yarborough: …us in Montana.

[00:01:18] Jason Yarborough: But today’s podcast episode — the kickoff to season three — is also from the Arcadia Leadership Experience.

[00:01:25] Sam Yarborough: Yes. None of the sessions at ALX, as we refer to it, are recorded except for this one. So we decided to share it with you.

[00:01:32] Jason Yarborough: Treat it as a live recording. And I think one of my favorite parts was when some of the folks in the audience started to hum the theme song, and I was like, oh wow — did not expect that. That was super fun.

[00:01:43] Sam Yarborough: Brand recognition.

[00:01:44] Jason Yarborough: That’s right. Also, since we last podcasted, you’ve had some major changes.

[00:01:50] Sam Yarborough: I quit my job.

[00:01:53] Jason Yarborough: Is there an applause button?

[00:01:56] Sam Yarborough: I’m pretty happy about that.

[00:01:57] Jason Yarborough: Super happy.

[00:01:58] Sam Yarborough: So I am now full-time on Arcadia, which is very exciting because there’s so much work to be done.

[00:02:04] Jason Yarborough: For those that are new and don’t know, Arcadia is our company where we do the event and some other stuff. This podcast is now a production of that. You can learn more about…

[00:02:12] Sam Yarborough: …us at bearcadia.com. And also, we started a community that we lovingly refer to as a constellation.

[00:02:22] Jason Yarborough: That’s right — those are all one big beautiful picture made up of a bunch of stars.

[00:02:26] Sam Yarborough: Also, you can learn more about that at bearcadia.com. But we’re really having a fun time with it. People who came to the event wanted more ways to continue to grow as leaders and bravely and safely invest in themselves. And so that’s what we’re doing in the constellation all year long. If that sounds like something you’re interested in, let us know.

[00:02:46] Jason Yarborough: We’d love to have you there. It’s been a great time. In the first, what, six weeks we’ve been running this, it’s been super fun — really great conversations. We’re able to go deep and create a space that people are looking for, which also, in turn, leads to some of the changes that we’re going to see here on the podcast.

[00:03:04] Sam Yarborough: Agreed. So yeah, the podcast is still going to be what you’ve known and loved. We’re still going to have all the same friends.

[00:03:12] Jason Yarborough: Same theme song.

[00:03:13] Sam Yarborough: Same theme song. But we’re going to talk less about how to build said programs and more about how to build the life we want. We’ll still definitely touch on business, but we’re going to talk more holistically about the people behind the titles and the salaries and what makes them human — what makes them tick, what makes them thrive.

[00:03:34] Jason Yarborough: A lot of purpose and intention. And one of the things we talk about at our events is creating a space to allow folks to safely and bravely invest in themselves. We want to bring that through within a podcast that allows you to also hear how people are doing that for themselves — and really encourage you, the listener, to do the same thing.

[00:03:53] Sam Yarborough: So this episode is, as we discussed, a live recording of Jason and me at the Arcadia Leadership Experience, talking about what it means to be great and be Arcadia.

[00:04:06] Jason Yarborough: So with that — be great, be Arcadia.

[00:04:06] Jason Yarborough: So with that, be great. Be Arcadia. Well, we’re going to bring it home. Last year, we closed the session out and actually used it as our first-ever live recording of the Friends With Benefits podcast. So we’re going to do the same thing with this session. We’re going to…

[00:04:24] Sam Yarborough: We’re still friends. We still got…

[00:04:26] Jason Yarborough: …benefits, guys. Oh, you have benefits. So yeah, we’re going to record this — the podcast. If any takers want to hum the intro music, we’ll take it. So here we are. How’s everybody doing? Good? Lunch makes me happy to see you guys all out there.

[00:04:42] Sam Yarborough: It really does. Okay, so we’re just going to get into this here.

[00:04:46] Jason Yarborough: Yeah, let’s just jump right into it. Let’s just have a conversation.

[00:04:49] Sam Yarborough: All right, so this is the Arcadia Leadership Experience.

[00:04:52] Jason Yarborough: ALX.

[00:04:54] Sam Yarborough: Let’s just start from the very beginning. Why did we start this? Where’d the idea come from? What are we doing here?

[00:05:00] Jason Yarborough: Yeah, we’re having a good time. The idea came, what, almost two years ago. I was working with Will at Reveal, and we stepped out to start Arcadia — really thanks a lot to Simon at Reveal. We had started the company to help other companies — clients of Reveal — better understand how to integrate partner data strategy and tactics into their go-to-market activities. That’s a lot of the success I had running partnerships at Drift and Terminus back in the day — implementing this stuff.

I started thinking about what we actually do to do that — how we work with sales and marketing teams to solve that alignment problem. What we’re trying to ultimately do is establish harmony. So I started thinking about harmony — how we do that, how we build these relationships, etc.

Then I happened to come across this word “Arcadia,” and I sat on it for a while. I was like, man, I love what it stands for, what it is — even outside of work. Long story short, I started Arcadia as a consultancy to help sales and marketing teams understand how to implement partner data strategy and tactics into their daily activities.

Started doing some work for clients — consulting work was great. It was what it was.

So we started talking — we both have extensive careers and experiences in conferences. We started to daydream: what would it be like to have our own event here in Montana? It’d be super rad. Started floating the idea past a few people, and they were like, “Yeah, if you ever do something, we’re there.”

I’m like, all right — put your money where your mouth is.

So we started talking about Arcadia and the principles of Arcadia. And yeah, if we wanted to have this partner conference, it couldn’t just be partner people. We had to have the go-to-market team in the room. We had to have the CROs like Andrew, and CMOs like MK, and everybody in the room who can help guide and lead that conversation to help us actually understand and find harmony.

So we started talking about how this was going to be a big lift. We could get the partner people here, but getting the other side of the equation might be the challenge. But it wasn’t. We had a 50% split last year, and it was great.

We decided — let’s put this event on. Let’s do it Montana-style. I think I pitched to Tyler, “Let’s come to Montana and do some Montana shit with us.” And he said, “Send me the DocuSign.”

And he did.

But more importantly, what we began to explore was that we’re very much people that are about people. So instead of doing just a GTM conference — a GTM thing — let’s make it something very experiential, something relational, something that people actually walk away with.

I go to all these conferences and remember none of them. It seems like a big waste of money, really. Let’s build something people can experience — where they can build relationships, find harmony for themselves. Even being outside and being in nature contributes to the revitalization of yourself and reconnection to yourself and others.

So we launched what you see now as the Arcadia Leadership Experience — to help you better understand the progression of your career, to better understand yourself, build better connections and relationships.

And ultimately, after last year’s event, we started talking more about what it is we’re creating. We came to the idea that what we ultimately want to do is create a space that allows you to safely and bravely invest in yourself — a place where you can choose to invest in yourself on the career side, personal side, all fronts.

We want to help you find harmony — find Arcadia — in all that you do.

That’s kind of where we’re at now. Still doing some consulting, but leaning more heavily into what you see now as Arcadia.

If you look at the signage, the program, anything we talk about — my signature says, “Be great.” The sign says, “Greatness is possible.” “Greatness is ours.” “Arcadia is possible.”

I’m sure you’re probably thinking to yourself, “Okay, cool. What does that really mean?” Sam, what does ‘Arcadia is possible’ mean, and what do we mean when we say it?

[00:09:09] Sam Yarborough: Well, you just talked about how this all started as an event, but I think we learned firsthand — those of you that have returned, thank you for being here — you were teachers to us in this.

It’s become something so much bigger than these three days we spend in the wilderness in July.

Arcadia means harmony, but it’s a mindset, really. You just used the word “choose,” and I think that’s such a thoughtful, important word because we all get to choose this.

You all chose to be here. We get to choose how we enter the world with our energy, as MK talked about. We get to choose how we show up — with our mindset and how we show up for ourselves first, and each other second.

That influences everything we do. There’s a huge ripple effect to that.

So I think Arcadia is not a destination — it’s a journey. And it’s something you wake up every morning saying, “How can I be great? How can I make harmony possible today?”

[00:10:17] Jason Yarborough: I love that. And to add on that, I think there’s a beautiful intersection of harmony and greatness — and what that means in our life — and it’s really in choosing to invest in yourself wholly and intentionally.

We’ve used the word “ego” quite a few times the past couple of days, which I found interesting. I feel like that’s the opposite of the balance of harmony and greatness.

We’re really pursuing our whole self in everything we do — with intention and purpose.

[00:10:45] Sam Yarborough: Agreed. And I think the other thing too — we talked about this the other night — what’s the opposite of greatness?

And I think the opposite — well, I’m stealing your words here, but I agree — the opposite of greatness is average.

And I think it’s very easy for all of us to wake up in our lives and be comfortable and just go about our ways and become complacent. We’re going to talk about this in a second, but that was me two months ago. You called me out on this.

And you have to have groups of people around you that witness that in you and have safe space to call that out.

But it’s a mindset every day to say: am I settling, or is there more?

[00:11:26] Jason Yarborough: Absolutely.

[00:11:27] Sam Yarborough: So let’s talk about that. How do you pursue this? What does that look like? And why now — why does that matter now?

[00:11:36] Jason Yarborough: Yeah, it’s something I think about a lot — and Pete, I’m really holding it together up here, man, by a thread.

[00:11:44] Sam Yarborough: Jason’s the crier between the two of us.

The pursuit of…

[00:11:46] Jason Yarborough: Arcadia — you mentioned it. Greatness is a mindset, and it’s choosing not to be average.

I think we get lost in this trap of thinking the opposite of greatness is failure. But no — failure requires effort, just like greatness does.

Greatness requires effort and pursuit and doing hard shit — doing hard things.

That’s why last year we talked about challenging yourself and doing hard things. We had a lot of really great conversations around the fire last year about doing hard things — me, Julian, Will, and a few others who aren’t here.

We had some great chats about that.

I feel like to chase great things — to chase greatness — you have to put yourself out there and dedicate yourself, discipline yourself, and take some risks.

We took the big risk on this last year, and it paid off. And I’m not saying that we’re great, but what I’m getting at is: greatness is ours — it’s a pursuit.

We never get there. We’re constantly chasing better.

I’m constantly chasing better than average.

I wake up ridiculously early because I’m chasing better than average — for myself, for my body, for my family.

I’m chasing better than average in the work that I do, in the events that we put on, in the community, in the people and conversations.

If you talk to me, I try to bring a different level of conversation because I want it to be better than average.

If you take the principles of Atomic Habits — 1% better — it’s just better than average. Let’s keep pushing, keep pushing.

Because my line for average keeps moving.

If I keep pushing that line, that average keeps moving. That greatness barrier keeps growing.

And it looks different for all of us. We talked about this the other day. It looks different for me. It definitely looks different for you.

[00:13:17] Sam Yarborough: I don’t get up ridiculously early.

[00:13:20] Jason Yarborough: And I think there’s all of us in here — maybe, Willie, you and I were having this conversation last night — about this group…

[00:13:27] Sam Yarborough: It’s unbelievable, is what he’s trying to say.

[00:13:30] Jason Yarborough: It’s a special group. You guys are blowing my mind all week.

There’s no pretentiousness here. There’s no fake.

It’s a solid crew.

I’m humbled, floored, and honored — fucking crying talking about you — because I see it.

We’re all better than average.

We all have the opportunity to chase it and be great — with the things that we do, the lives that we live.

And it’s not just about the work. The work is cool, it’s fun, it pays the bills — but how can we be great in our relationships, in our marriages, in our friendships?

How can we be great in the offers we put out there and the things that we do?

How do we show up as a dad? How do we go home to our spouses and decide, “You know what? We’re going to be great. We’re going to be the envy of all the other spouses.”

Chase that.

And I think it matters now because we’re up against so much shit — in the work we do, in society, in everything else. Things are just hard.

We make things extraordinarily hard on ourselves.

So finding that one thing that brings us harmony, brings us peace, allows us to invest in ourselves and chase something that actually matters — I think that matters now.

Because if you look at the work we do, we’re all in these roles where we’ve maybe taken on some money, high valuations, super duper pressure.

You’re like, “What am I supposed to do here?”

How do you come back to yourself and focus on what matters?

How do you make the main thing the main thing?

If you understand what that means from the professional side — we’ve had some really good chances to chat about what it means from a partner perspective, a go-to-market perspective — how we can incorporate more of that into our work, but also find it in the personal side of things.

[00:15:02] Jason Yarborough: We find this peace, we find this harmony, to know that we’re on the right path — that we’re going to the right place. Morgan summed it up greatly. A lot of the things I’ve been thinking about lately are what Morgan talked about — what are the areas that I need to stack rank, so to say?

I was talking to Morgan earlier — I actually hired a coach recently because I felt like, okay, if I’ve gotten to a six or a seven, I need help getting past that. I need somebody to coach me on how to get to the next level and find that for myself.

I think we can push ourselves pretty decently far before we hit that point of realizing, “All right, I need an outside perspective.”

And again, this matters now because as a society, I think we get lost in the shuffle. We get lost in the acceptance of average.

If we’re looking at Morgan’s chart — four or five is average. We get stuck there, we get complacent there, and we get okay with it.

And we lose out on what makes this life special. It’s really all we’ve got.

And I want to do some pretty damn great things — and have a whole lot of fun doing it.

I like to do it with all you guys.

So I think it matters now because we all need something to chase and pursue and feel alive with.

And how you find that — I hate when people say, “Find what you’re passionate about, and you’ll never work a day in your life.”

[00:16:19] Sam Yarborough: Bullshit.

[00:16:20] Jason Yarborough: I work every day — and I love what I do. I feel like I work every day.

But you have to find those things — those internal drivers, the things that matter.

Use Morgan’s chart as a starting point. I’m happy to share some of the things I’m thinking about and working through right now with my coach — to better understand what my core values are.

I’m 45 years old and never really laid out my core values.

Now I’m trying to go through this exercise and figure out how to be more value-oriented.

Those things are making a big difference.

I’m learning about emotional regulation and affects and stuff like that — the mind and the body.

So enough of my crying.

So, I’m talking a lot about choosing to invest in yourself.

This place — Arcadia — is for you to invest in your whole self.

And we mentioned this the other day: it’s choosing to make a difference in the things that we give our life to.

If you think about that for a second — the things that we give our life to.

How do we invest in ourselves and make those better?

And Sam, I think you’ve got a good story around what it means to really choose to invest in yourself — especially as you go through what we call the Arcadian journey.

[00:17:26] Sam Yarborough: Well, I’m still on that, as we just talked about. This is not a destination.

But, I mean, like I said — this was a month ago. I quit my job.

And that was a really tough decision. Pancreatic, I’m sitting up here unemployed.

But the word “ego,” again — I was holding onto this. I had a C title, I made a lot of money, I was doing a lot of the “shoulds.” Everything should be great.

And it wasn’t.

I didn’t necessarily recognize that in myself — you did.

So thank you for calling me out on that.

But I settled for a lot in that role.

Jason pulled me aside and said, “Hey, you’ve lost your spark.”

And that hit hard.

But I was like, “Yeah, okay, whatever.”

And then I went to a conference in New York — a Salesforce conference — and I ran into some colleagues that I don’t know well, but have seen on the conference circuit.

And two of them said a very similar thing.

And I was like, oh shit.

I’m not concealing this as well as I thought I was.

And I also didn’t recognize that I was losing my spark.

Then we had the conversation about the things we give our lives to.

And that’s what really stuck with me.

Because we get to do this one time.

And my ego was so in the way of me seeing what I was giving my life to.

My energy was not in a good place for my kids.

My energy was not in the best place for us.

I thought my energy was in a great place for my team, and that I was doing the right thing for our family’s future.

But at the end of the day, I was not doing the right thing for myself — which meant I couldn’t be the right thing for everybody else.

And those are really hard things to look at.

Because you look at the world and you think — you should be a C title. You should be making lots of money. You should be chasing these definitions of success.

And for me, this was only a month ago, so I’m not going to sit here and tell you I have it figured out.

But I’m reevaluating what success looks like for me, for us, and for our family.

And I think it’s a really healthy exercise to take into consideration.

Because we get one chance at this.

And if my energy’s not right, the rest isn’t right — and your life isn’t right.

And we’ve had a lot of amazing conversations here this week.

I appreciate all of the conversations I’ve had with you about what you’re coming up against at work — but even more so, what you’re coming up against personally.

Because those two things are not separate.

You are a whole person, and you have to consider that when you’re going through these things.

[00:20:07] Jason Yarborough: Absolutely. Again, if Arcadia is possible, I think it’s possible for everybody here.

Hopefully we’re communicating that Arcadia is a mindset — it’s not just harmony, not this idyllic version of natural splendor.

It’s a mindset of how you pursue and chase these things.

How is it possible?

[00:20:25] Sam Yarborough: Well, I think — I’m not going to give you the answer. I don’t know the answer.But I know what’s working for me, and I know I’m exploring different things.For me, the answer to you all would be — ask the question. Be curious. Understand. I don’t know. I do know — who was in the sound bath yesterday? I was there. But she said something that stuck with me: “If this feels uncomfortable to you, why?” And I think that’s the first thing to take forward. Notice where things aren’t good, and lean into that. 

For me, what’s working is making space for myself. I’ve really come into meditation. I’m obsessed with sound baths now. I’m finding ways where I can protect my energy. And I’m starting to make things again — I’m an artist. I gave that up. These are the things that fill my bucket. And I think it’s so easy for us to push those under the rug because they’re not lucrative, they’re not important, they don’t serve a purpose. But at the end of the day — this is it. This is the purpose. So leaning into that a little bit more is what I’m doing. Is that the right answer for you? I don’t know. But are you exploring that? I think that’s the question.

[00:21:39] Jason Yarborough: Yeah. I think you mentioned it earlier — and it hits the nail on the head. I think the journey — the Arcadian journey, if we may — starts with choosing yourself.

[00:21:50] Jason Yarborough: It’s hard to choose yourself, especially as parents, as partners, always constantly giving of yourself. If you’re in a leadership role — constantly giving of yourself. But I think there comes a point where you have to stop and say, “Am I choosing myself? Am I making the best decisions for me — for what’s best for me in my life and my career? Am I continually elevating those levels and pushing that line of average out further? Am I finding the peace that I’m looking for — the harmony that I’m looking for?” And I think every leader — especially leaders — needs and should have that.

[00:22:30] Sam Yarborough: Okay, you just said the word “leader.” Let’s talk about that for a second. Why did we gather this group of leaders? What’s the point of doing this together?

[00:22:40] Jason Yarborough: That started back in the early days of Arcadia. I felt like there weren’t a lot of places for leaders to really invest in themselves.

I kind of felt the — call it charge or mission or whatever — to invest in leaders and give them a place to develop and grow, to drive the progression of their careers and their person. That’s why we went with the Arcadia Leadership Experience.

You have to be in a leadership role to attend. That’s why there was an “apply to attend” kind of thing. There are exceptions, sure, but it’s a leadership event.

We wanted to really invest in leaders. The other side of the coin is that we believe this — we believe better people are better leaders. And better people need to be around better people — people whose averages are maybe slightly higher than ours, people who push us higher. People we can have peer-to-peer conversations with — people chasing the same pursuit. 

If you notice, when you come in, your conversations are immediately level-set as you walk through the gate here. We create an open space that allows you to feel safe and brave — to have those conversations and invest in yourself. We feel that’s what helps you become better people. And I think the people we lead also need us to be better people so that we can become better leaders for them.

And some of the best leaders I know don’t have an ego. The worst leaders I know have an ego. If we go back to that intersection of Arcadia — harmony and greatness — there’s no ego. We’re constantly pushing our own line of average. And therefore, as a leader, you’re going to be constantly pushing everybody else’s line of average — how they can become great, how they can become better. You’re no longer just serving yourself, but serving others, because you’ve figured out what matters to you. You want to be great. You want to help others chase great. And it’s like — we want to gather a group of you guys. Not a ton. Like, 65 is maybe the number. Any bigger than this, and it feels like we can’t form that tight-knit relationship.

[00:24:54] Sam Yarborough: Otherwise, we’re going to have to do this for two weeks, which would be difficult, you guys.

[00:24:58] Jason Yarborough: And we really, truly believe that better people are better leaders. That’s where we want to help you all consistently grow, connect to, and connect with so you can figure out — what are the parts of my life where I can continue to grow?

I love that Morgan set us up so great yesterday. Those are the parts of life that matter. Most of those, I’ve written down. I probably should write “finance” down as well and see what that looks like, but I’m focused on the other stuff. I’m a relationship guy.

[00:25:27] Sam Yarborough: I got that one, Cooper.

[00:25:28] Jason Yarborough: Yeah, thank you. So that’s why I think it’s important for us as leaders to gather — so we can have a place that’s invested in you, the leader, to help you grow in your own leadership pursuits and your own personal pursuits.

[00:25:43] Sam Yarborough: Well, let’s talk about what’s next, because two days in July is really lovely. But how do we take this feeling, these connections, and carry that forward?

[00:25:54] Jason Yarborough: I mean, again, I’m going to echo what I said at the beginning. We wrote this down, and it’s kind of the drive right now — to create a safe space where you can safely and bravely choose to invest in yourself.

ALX is not an event. It’s more of a launching point for the Arcadian journey. And so as a result, we want to provide some opportunities for you all on a recurring basis — whether weekly, monthly — and we are going to be launching the Arcadia community as a result. We want to bring other leaders in and create experiences that matter, whether they be virtual, online, or smaller in-person gatherings — maybe like San Diego. Hello, guys. I got a few of you out there that we… in the Sunshine State.

[00:26:39] Sam Yarborough: News to me.

[00:26:41] Jason Yarborough: That one just came to me. Like, we need to be in San Diego. I’m just kidding. It’s in the backyard. So just providing, again, a space for us all to safely and bravely invest in ourselves. And again, it’s going to be very much like what we have here. It’s not going to be go-to-market stuff all the time. We might bring in some woo-woo stuff every now and then — get over it.

We’re going to bring in some coaching, some other leaders to talk about leadership and principles. We want to create a space where we can have these conversations — not just in a rainstorm in July or a heat storm in July, but all year round, every week, every month, whatever it might be.

[00:27:19] Sam Yarborough: Right now, I’m feeling like I just need to have a moment of gratitude and say thank you.

Teal — this was not part of our script, but I talked to most of you, many of you, before you chose to come here. Jason and I keep coming back to that: you chose to be here. And that is such an honor for us. We woke up this morning and we were like, holy shit, we’re at this event, and all these people are here because we said they should be.

So truly, such an honor to have you here. Thank you for sharing your energy with us. Thank you for being open.

Thank you for putting your best foot forward and having conversations. I hope that you walked away with connections that are going to help you do more business, connections that push you beyond average — and friends that are going to last until next July and beyond. But yeah, as Jason mentioned, many of you have expressed this — we feel it. There is a need for this space. The Arcadia community is launching in September.

[00:28:26] Jason Yarborough: Where can we find out about this said community We’re using the word “community” because people know what that is. But what we’re really going for is constellation. If you’re a sponsor, you got a discount code for your ticket that said “Constellation.” That’s how I see an ecosystem — a constellation consists of a group of stars that form some sort of image. That’s why the cohorts are constellations — Ursa Major and the others that we have. It’s a group of ridiculously bright stars that make up some beautiful image, some beautiful, broader, bigger story. And that’s what I think we all are here. Because we’re not just in partnerships — we’re in startups, we’re in marketing, we’re in sales, we’re across the board.

[00:29:11] Sam Yarborough: We’re in parenthood, we’re in relationships, we’re in pursuit. We are people.

[00:29:15] Jason Yarborough: And we are one big, beautiful constellation. That’s how I view Arcadia — how do we help you become brighter and do bigger, greater things through what we’re doing with Arcadia?

[00:29:28] Sam Yarborough: And if one star isn’t lit, the constellation’s not complete. And I think that’s the other beautiful part of this — without each other, we are not as great. And so many of you asked where Archie came from.

Archie is the bear on your hats. There’s a lot of symbolism behind a bear, which we can get to.

But bearcadia.com is where you can learn more.

Also…

[00:29:49] Jason Yarborough: Not barcadia.

[00:29:50] Sam Yarborough: It’s not barcadia. Don’t you dare.

[00:29:53] Jason Yarborough: You’re disqualified if you call it that.

[00:29:55] Sam Yarborough: But we would love to support you all. We would love to stay connected with you all. Again, we’re just totally indebted with gratitude to you guys. Thank you for being here.

[00:30:06] Jason Yarborough: Absolutely. And I’ll say — if there’s anything we want you to walk away with, it’s knowing that Arcadia is a mindset. As you go home and people ask, “What did you learn there?” — it’s learning how to reshape and shift the mindset of how we think, how we go through life, how we operate. Arcadia can be an operating model if you wanted to go that route. That’s what you’re into. But for me, it’s a mindset — how we chase greatness and how we pursue harmony for ourselves and find that intersection of intentionality and purpose — and no ego and no bullshit and no assholes, per Steph’s policy. So I think as we go… maybe we should have Will Taylor read the Arcadia Declaration?

[00:30:48] Sam Yarborough: I’m in. Let’s do it.

[00:30:50] Jason Yarborough: I just like Will Taylor’s voice. I think he’s got…

[00:30:51] Sam Yarborough: Okay, and I was going to say — I don’t have it in front of me, so…

[00:30:53] Jason Yarborough: It feels kind of weird. But we do everything with intention. We wrote this declaration last year. We really stand by it. We talk about it quite a bit, for whatever reason. But we think it accurately and adequately sums up what we’re about — the work that we do, the lives that we live, and the reason that we’re here. So I couldn’t think of a better reason to send this off than a quick poetic reading by this little angel.

[00:31:21] Will Taylor: Well, I don’t know how I feel about being called “little,” but “angel” — I’ll take. Makes me feel better about my height. You’re bigger than me, Will.

The Arcadia Declaration:

Together, we are great. Our ideas are the future. We are whole people seeking harmony. Relationships are the driving force. Arcadia is possible. Greatness is ours. Thank you. Appreciate you.

[00:31:52] Jason Yarborough: You guys — it means the world to have you here.

[00:31:54] Sam Yarborough: Truly.

[00:31:55] Jason Yarborough: I also couldn’t read that because I would’ve cried. But I love you all. Thank you so much for, again, choosing to be here — investing your time, your resources, your money, your family, everything it took to be here. We do not take it lightly at all.

With that — be great.

[00:32:11] Sam Yarborough: Be great.