Adventure: Why Attention Isn’t Enough
Transcript
Welcome to Reculture.
This is a podcast about better messages.
Messages that don’t just tell us what to react to, but help us understand where we are. Messages that don’t just pull us in or grab our attention, but point us somewhere.
Because whether we're navigating a brand, a team, a family, or even just our own lives, we're all living inside stories—whether we’ve chosen them or not. The real question is how we navigate the story we’re becoming.
A Childhood Story About Adventure and Identity
Hi, my name is CJ, and I want to begin with what you all came here to see…a slideshow of childhood pictures of me.
When I was a kid, like a lot of kids, I was always embodying a different superhero. I grew up on Batman, Zorro, Ninja Turtles, and The Princess Bride. There was a lot of swashbuckling going on. Socks stuffed in my shirt for muscles.
Around the time I was six, I decided I had enough experience in the superhero business to create my own. I called him…Action Adventure Man.
And I was serious about this. I drew flyers by hand and taped them to telephone poles around my neighborhood. They said something like, “If you need a crime solved, call Action Adventure Man.”
The phone number was my mom’s phone number, because I wasn’t allowed to answer the phone myself.
And while some might see that as mildly delusional, I wasn’t just playing. In my mind, I was stepping into an entire story.
Why the Desire for Adventure Never Fully Leaves Us
I don’t think that instinct ever really leaves us.
One of my favorite movies growing up was Hook. It asks the question: what if Peter Pan actually grew up?
And he does. He becomes a successful adult, a husband, a dad, a sharp business guy. All good things. But he loses Neverland in the process.
There’s this moment where one of the Lost Boys grabs Peter’s face, looks into his eyes, and says, “Oh… there you are, Peter.”
Before Peter could relearn how to fight or remember how to fly, he needed to be seen.
I think there’s always a little Neverland left in us. But we also have bills to pay. It’s a little more comfortable to dress like Robin Williams in pants than Robin Williams in tights.
But I don’t think that sense of adventure ever disappears. There’s just a lot competing for our attention, and it gets harder to notice it’s still there.
Attention vs Adventure: What Actually Moves People (Peter PAN & HOOK)
Attention is powerful.
In Hook, when Captain Hook captures Peter’s kids, he gets Peter’s attention instantly. It snaps him out of his routine.
But we also live in a moment where attention has become the primary currency. If something captures attention, it’s considered a success.
And yet most of us aren’t suffering from a lack of information. We’re drowning in it.
What we’re actually longing for is formation.
If you carry responsibility for other people—if you lead a team, a company, or a community—you feel this tension.
You’re not just trying to get attention.
You’re trying to move people somewhere.
Better messages don’t just capture attention.
They send people on an adventure.
Attention captures.
Adventure forms, directs, and moves. Adventure changes us.
Why Everyday Adventures Matter More Than Big Moments
Adventures don’t have to be extreme.
They can be simple.
There’s a quote from Kurt Vonnegut where he talks about going out to buy a single envelope, not because he needs it, but because of everything that happens along the way—the people he meets, the moments he experiences.
That’s the point.
Adventures don’t have to be wild. They can be mild.
Think about pickleball. So many people picked it up because they were looking for something to do, something to step into after being stuck at home.
Or this past year, when I made my own outdoor Christmas decorations—plywood cutouts of characters from A Charlie Brown Christmas—and shared the process. It took off because people are hungry for things that feel doable, tangible, and participatory.
Adventures don’t have to be impressive.
They just have to be chosen.
And that’s how people move—from being captured to taking action.
People don’t move because they’re told to.
They move because something invites them.
The Three Forces That Move People: Joy, Awe, and Courage
When messages actually move people, they tend to pass through the same three forces:
Joy, Awe, and Courage.
Joy opens people. It disarms them. It makes them more receptive, more present, more willing to engage.
Awe reorients people. It reminds them they’re part of something bigger. It pulls them out of their current frame and into something more expansive.
Courage moves people. It gives them the ability to act, to step forward, to take the next step.
This isn’t a formula. It’s more like a map.
It’s how people tend to move.
Why Most Messages Fail to Create Movement
In work, in culture, in organizations, there’s a strong pull to skip the journey and go straight to action.
There are bills to pay. Decisions to make. Pressure to perform.
But when we skip formation and jump straight to action, something gets lost.
You can see this in real-world examples.
Some efforts are polished, efficient, optimized for output—and forgettable.
Others invite people to participate, to contribute, to create together. They’re messier, less controlled, but far more meaningful.
One approach produces output.
The other creates a shared journey.
Messages that skip formation might get compliance.
Messages that invite adventure create commitment.
Why People Stop Choosing Adventure (A Personal Story)
I have a photo of my dad as a kid, dressed like a superhero.
And I think about it often.
Because somewhere along the way, he stopped going on adventures.
Even small ones started to feel overwhelming.
He became afraid to leave the house. Afraid that something would go wrong.
I think most people don’t stop going on adventures because they don’t care.
They stop because discomfort starts to feel like danger.
But something changed recently.
My dad had the opportunity to move across the country…from Tampa, Florida to San Diego, California.
It scared him.
There were a lot of “what ifs.”
But he did it.
He made the five-day drive with his dog.
And he came out the other side.
There’s a quote from John Steinbeck that says, “To find where you are going, you must know where you are.”
Understanding the Story You’re Living Inside
This is where my work lives.
Helping people understand the story they’re in and step into a better one.
If this resonates, it’s probably because you care about where messages take people, not just whether they land.
Creating Messages That Lead to Action and Transformation
This is the work I’m exploring right now.
Through talks, stories, and working with teams to create messages that focus on formation, not just information.
Messages that don’t just capture attention, but send people on adventures.
After all, I am Action Adventure Man.
