Interview by Mary Mckeone
Jerko Bozikovic is someone who knows how to enjoy life. We are meeting on zoom to talk about his experience of the recent online Insight I seminar and his enthusiasm bounces through the screen. Although during the seminar he was in my resource group, I only know that he lives with his partner, Joram, also a UK Insight grad., on a farm in Belgium, that they have chickens; peacocks; three goats; nine cats and a vegetable garden. Jerko’s day job, I discover, is a corporate trainer, an executive and life coach, and a keynote motivational speaker. He, also, has a long history with Insight and was very involved in the 1990’s and early 2000’s.
Insight, he tells me, first came to Belgium in 1993. Aged twenty-four and a professional dancer, he took the seminar the following year. “It was fun,” he says, with the bonus that, “a bunch of friends, colleagues and family were involved. A big family affair,” he adds, laughing. But it was more than simply fun. It is clear when he speaks that the work of Insight touches his heart deeply. Between 1995 and 2000, still dancing, he became the Belgian City Director of Insight on a voluntary basis. Involved in organising four or five seminars a year, it was a vibrant community with participants coming not only from Belgium but other European countries such as the UK, France, and Spain. By 1997, he considered becoming an Insight facilitator and went to Los Angeles where he did Insight IV. He co-facilitated a Teen seminar in Boston as well as an Insight I in San Francisco and whilst up to now he has prioritised other aspects of his life, becoming an Insight facilitator is still a goal. “The Insight principles are the foundation for my life, both personally and professionally. And though I have done lots of other personal development courses, for me Insight is the most complete, the most valuable [work] on every level.”
Often Jerko’s involvement in seminars was as an organiser or an assistant so his recent online participation is the first Insight I seminar he has done since 1994. As he describes his experience, his face visibly lights up and his speech quickens. “I found it really intense, at times a roller coaster and I didn’t anticipate the impact it would have on me. The richness of knowledge I got from it, the richness of the experience I went through…to be a participant was the best gift I could give myself.” What fascinated him was how many of his experiences during the seminar mirrored to him ongoing experiences in his life and particularly those in his relationship.
What did he think of the Insight I online version? “During lockdown I have had to do all my corporate training and life coaching online, so I knew what could be achieved virtually. But I had no idea how many of the Insight I processes would work online, and I was sceptical whether it could be pulled off. I, also, thought for some of the exercises I had no more [inner] work to do, but I was amazed at how beautiful, how profound I experienced them. I felt so connected to people, and although online is different to being in the room, it is in no way less, nor was there any absence.”
Jerko lists the many advantages he sees with Insight online. With the seminar zoomed into your home, there is no need to travel or fork out money for travel or accommodation which for some can make the difference between participating or not. It is, also, he thinks, equally as powerful and intimate as being in the room, something which surprised him. Another advantage, he sees, is that online is “available to a much wider audience yet requires less time, energy and money to organise. This means more seminars can be put on each year with a bigger uptake.” But he recognises too, that there is much to recommend having a seminar in the room and that online is an addition rather than an alternative. That said, he sees it as a great opportunity to expand the Insight community both within the UK and globally.
Insight UK & Belgium are organising Insight I ONLINE Seminar in November 2021.
For further information please check the NEXT EVENTS here.
