Jim Brown

San Francisco Bay Area

Public policy and government relations expert. Attorney. Legislative & regulatory advocate.

Former Senior Director, External Affairs for major financial institution

Member, Board of Directors, San Francisco LGBT Center

Autumn 2020 cohort of Heroes Journey

“The wholeness that it brought I don't think I could have gotten through any other group.”

What drew you to Heroes Journey?

“I was at a real inflection point in my life. And I was looking for a lot of transitions, not only in my career, but in my personal life.

“It's really important to take some time to invest in yourself. And so few of us do that on a thoughtful and regular basis. We're all extremely busy. We all have commitments; we all have financial obligations. But in the end, you have to look at what are your individual needs and are they being met?

“You really look into yourself and say, ‘Can I get where I want to go on my own?’ And the answer for me ultimately was, I need help to get there. “

“I'm not a young guy. So I'm pretty set in my ways, and I hadn't gotten where I wanted to get by the age I was on my own, and with the support network I had. So this was a program that brought together expertise that I wasn't getting anywhere else.”

“The Flourishing Gays program provided a very unique connection to other successful members of the LGBT community, who were still struggling with individual aspects of their life, while being successful in other aspects, and what was particularly valuable was putting all of those aspects on the table, and realizing that they're all interconnected, and working on them as a whole.

“The wholeness that it brought I don't think I could have gotten through any other group or discussion or networking tool. I'd never been involved in any LGBTQ sort of organization that was looking at an internal growth process for me and for the other members. I've been involved obviously, in lots of LGBT causes and nonprofits and political movements. But those were kind of external to me. This was an opportunity to leverage personal experiences of other LGBT members in all aspects of my life, and bring that to bear on how I could improve and be a better person going forward.”

“You really look at your whole life and how it integrates and all of the different components were brought together. It is not just a focus on career or a focus on personal life, or a focus on what your needs were on that particular day, but it was a broader, intertwined perspective of how your whole life kind of came together and the experiences that other people brought to the table.”

“Everyone is living a very busy life; everyone has to balance their expenses. So you have to really evaluate whether it's worth the time and the expense and the commitment that it's going to take. And I not only wanted to be able to justify the cost and the time in a very busy point in my life in the transition between careers and relocating homes, but I wanted to be able to invest the time to make it worthwhile and the commitment.

“In the end, it became obvious that the investment of time and money was worth the ultimate goal that I was trying to achieve – that it would lead to a better me.”

What was your experience of Dominic as a facilitator and coach?

“So I came to the program through a recommendation of a mutual friend, with Dominic. And it was someone who I have great respect for because he is a, I guess I would call it, a deep soul who is very caring, thoughtful and insightful. And I knew that if that recommendation came from that individual, Dominic was going to be like-minded. And that turned out to be the case.

“Dominic was great at not providing answers, but leading you to them. So Dominic would question and raise issues and would help me kind have some introspection about where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do. So I think during both my coaching sessions, and during the Mastermind sessions, Dominic set the platform, and then allowed us in the sessions, or individually in our one-on-ones, to go where we needed to go and do what we were trying to accomplish on that particular day. But Dominic didn't let us get off subject too much or diverge from a really accomplishing something in an individual session. He kept us on time, and made sure that we had goals and tried to accomplish those in the timeframe that was given.”

How did Heroes Journey help you?

“There were many wonderful aspects of Heroes Journey – I felt like I gained introspection and a better understanding of who I was and where my challenges were, and how I could improve individual weaknesses or strengths through the assessment program that we went through.

“I also felt like, I gained a lot of competence. Even though I had been a professional with a law degree and practicing and working for decades, it was an opportunity to really look at a new career direction for me a more secure personal foundation, from the perspective of others who had either been there or were going through the same struggles. And so having those individuals who were not directly involved in my day-to-day life, but yet had some outside perspective and personal experience really helped me put things in context, and to move forward on a variety of issues that I think if I hadn't invested the time, the energy to think about them and be directed about them, I might not have reached some of the conclusions that I think have helped me move forward.”

How have you changed thanks to Heroes Journey?

“One of the hard parts for me, and one of the things that we focused on, in conversations about my own personality assessment and with Dominic was my real need to listen and to be in the moment.

“And I think everybody that was in the group, in many ways, as I said, all have different personalities. But most of them were, to with some exceptions, most of them were kind of type-A people. But there were other people who were quiet. And so being able to step back, and let other people have the platform to share and talk and not be so focused just on myself, but also giving to the group, and being able to listen and respond to those individual needs – I think that was really important and really helped kind of center us all in a supportive kind of manner as we dealt with each other.”

“So the word that comes to mind when I think about how I've changed as a result of experiencing Flourishing Gays was the peace that I have, at the end of the process.

“I was in a very stressful work environment before joining the Flourishing Gays program. I had quite a lot of anxiety about where my future was going both personally and professionally. And the interaction I had with the other members, through the Mastermind program, and through Flourishing Gays was one that put that in a context that everybody's going through struggles, everybody has to deal with those, and I wasn't alone, and I could handle that. Because there were examples of other professionals, other relationships, who had tackled it and overcome whatever those struggles were. So to me at the end, the peace that I had, and the comfort and the ability not to have the anxiety are on what my future held, was really the most valuable component.”