Become the Leader Others Want to Follow

Are you ready to take the limits off your leadership by: Investing in your leadership effectiveness and personal victory; Overcoming procrastination, passivity, and small thinking; Increasing your talents and creating new streams of income; Becoming the leader who raises champions

The Backlund Leadership Academy is unique & effective because we:

  • Repeatedly immerses our students in our 25 foundational beliefs for happy and healthy leadership.
  • Prioritize beliefs, mindset renewal, and cultivating hope above all other leadership skills.
  • Equip students to overcome the mindsets (strongholds) that limit a leader's inner victory, relationships, and influence (i.e.: regret, disappointment, shame, insecurity, the victim mindset, inferiority, perfectionism, and passivity).
  • Focus on the power of our words. When we change the way we talk to ourselves and others, we change our lives.
  • Embrace gladness as the “oil” that helps create healthy relationships and an empowering organizational culture.
  • Focus on building big people above building a big organization. Steve’s book, The Culture of Empowerment, is a key component to the academy.
  • Include fun and powerful belief workouts in the morning and evening to transform mindsets and increase our load-bearing capacity.
  • Emphasize intentionality and the “investment mindset.” Students develop systems to move forward in the important and non-urgent issues of life, and overcome insecurity, procrastination, and passivity. 

The Backlund Leadership Academy will radically transform and develop your leadership. We prioritize mindsets, beliefs, communication, personal development, intentionality, and cultivating hope & joy.

  • Participation in Madtatory Live Weekly 90-minute Leadership Development Meetings and Bi-Weekly Connect Calls

  • Daily Video or Audio leadership teachings with Steve Backlund (Monday - Friday). Students will start by going through the 8-week Mentorship Program, which focuses on Steve Backlund’s 8 Pillars of Leadership.

  • Learn to publish a book through Amazon KDP.

  • Jump-start your dream of starting a business, writing a book, writing a regular blog, building a course, and more, with the “Igniting Your Dream” Leadership Project (required for graduation)

  • Learn how to easily and quickly publish a book “the Igniting Hope Way” through Amazon KDP

  • Learn how to build a course through Thinkific's Platform

  • Learn Steve Backlund's strategies to overcome procrastination and passivity by strengthening intentionality and proactivity.

  • Join Optional Leadership Topical Zoom calls with the Igniting Hope Team and powerful guest speakers.

Countdown to BLA Launch! Space is limited.

Join us September 1, 2025 until May 29, 2026

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Be developed through our 8 proven Leadership Pillars:

“Spend 9 months with me, and you will never be the same.” Steve Backlund

Are you ready to take the limits off your leadership by:

Investing in your leadership effectiveness and personal victory

Overcoming procrastination, passivity, and small thinking

Increasing your talents and creating new streams of income

Becoming the leader who raises champions

  • Inspiring and Leading Yourself

  • Transformational Beliefs

  • Intentionality

  • Healthy Relationships

  • Speaking Life

  • Faith-Filled Decision Making

  • The Culture of Gladness

  • Empowering Others, Building Big People

Instructor

About Steve Backlund:

Steve Backlund is an encourager, leader developer, joy activist, and a revivalist teacher. He travels extensively throughout the world encouraging churches, leaders, and organizations into catalytic levels of hope. He has a unique anointing to release hope and joy paired with a revelatory teaching gift that creates new wineskins for greater dimensions of God (both personally and corporately).

Steve Backlund

Igniting Hope Co-Director

Instructor

About Connie Jones

Connie Jones is a John Maxwell Certified Coach and Leader Developer. She is a radical encourager with a passion to see the Body of Christ rise up into her magnificent place of identity and authority. She has been blessed to serve the church during the past 25 + years as a youth pastor, associate pastor, senior leader, and itinerate minister. She is a graduate of BSSM and Rhema Bible College and now works for Igniting Hope Ministries. She and her husband, Aaron live in Redding CA with their greatest treasures, their three sons: Joran, Braden, & Jesse.

Connie Jones

Associate Director of Igniting Hope

FAQ

  • How much time will the academy require per week?

    6-8 hours per week

  • How much can I do on my own time?

    2.5 hours of live commitment time per week. The LDM (Leadership Development Meetings) as well as a bi-weekly connect call with your LDM group are a requirement to attend live. The course content can be completed on your own time.

  • Do you offer any discounts?

    Yes, we offer an early bird $297 discount if the $4,297 balance is paid in full by July 31, 2025.

  • Are monthly payment plans available?

    4 monthly payments are available - $2,000.00 down payment, $575.00 / month for 4 months (Total balance due by December 31, 2025).

  • Can my spouse join me for free?

    Due to limited capacity, only one person per registration can join BLA.

  • When are the live Zoom Leadership Development Meetings with Steve Backlund?

    The Leadership Development meetings are offered three times per week. The application will give you the option to select your top two choices. - Tuesday at 9: 00 am Pacific Time - Tuesday at 5:30 pm Pacific Time - Wednesday at 10:30 am Pacific Time

  • How much time will I have to connect with my fellow students?

    You will be in a weekly LDM group with 15 other students. The live calls are 90 minutes long. You will also join a bi-weekly connect group with the same students for even greater connection.

  • Can I receive a refund if I decide to withdraw from the Academy early?

    Once someone has paid for their spot as one of the Leader Development Group, we will probably be turning away others who wanted that spot. Because of this, having people quit the academy after starting, and then expecting a refund, would be unfair to those who wanted to be a part. Therefore, we are not planning on refunding the cost for the academy to those who choose to discontinue.

Invest in yourself and apply today!

  • Investing

    Investing in your leadership effectiveness and personal victory

  • Overcoming

    Overcoming procrastination, passivity, and small thinking

  • Increasing

    Increasing your talents and creating new streams of income