Age: 35
Founder and Owner, Jadin | Jones
Lucas Jadin spent his early career teaching middle school and coaching high school basketball in Appleton. Today he’s coaching the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Green Bay Packers.
The Freedom native co-authored the book “Win in the Dark” before launching Jadin | Jones LLC in 2022 alongside his business partner Steve Jones. The firm works with organizations across the country on building winning cultures, and the client roster speaks for itself.
Jadin traces much of his success back to the classroom. “If you’re great in those environments, there isn’t a lot that you can’t do,” he says.
Jadin channels that same energy into Inspire Sports, the nonprofit he founded with his family 12 years ago, creating athletic experiences for kids with special needs alongside high school mentor athletes. To date, the organization has served more than 2,000 participants and 5,000 mentors.
Best advice received: K – A = 0….Knowledge without action equals zero. A lot of people have great ideas. But very few people are willing to do the work required to actually be great and execute those ideas through the finish line.
Biggest fail: My biggest fails usually all circle back to unclear communication on the front end. I’ve learned to really work to be clear in communication up front and to lean into tough conversations instead of avoiding them. Because we all know they never seem to just go away, but rather get bigger and bigger.
I wish I had known: that things tend to work out when you combine consistency and courage. When I made the jump from teaching full-time to being an entrepreneur, I struggled with all of the uncertainty that it brought. We were just going to have our first son. It felt like a huge risk. Looking back, the biggest risk would have been staying status quo.
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