Meet your coach

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I grew up  on the south side of the tracks in a small, rural Illinois town surrounded by corn fields and coal mines. An average childhood in an average family, an average graduate from an average small high school with no real plan for life beyond commencement.

Like a small boat caught up in meandering ocean currents, life carried me from place to place all around the United States, from the Midwest, to the bitter north, to the deep south, to the majestic Inland Northwest, to the rough and gritty Detroit Metro area. 

Somehow, with minimal college education and no degree, I always managed to do well in the workplace, first in retail management followed by a 24-year stint in the print and digital media industry in which I finished the final nine years of my career as a senior business development executive for most of the nation's largest media companies. 

Those I have worked with, and those who worked for me  over the years  described me as a self-assured, assertive, visionary, and curious problem solver who enjoys challenges and is capable of innovative thinking that surprises others with unusual yet effective solutions. I found myself in the unlikely position of being considered a thought leader, coach, consultant, and enjoyed many occasions of standing on stage teaching and inspiring others at conferences around the country.

In the midst of all of that I spent time as the leader of a spiritual community and made several journeys to South America to do what I could to make life better for impoverished and forgotten children in rainforest villages and urban slums.

In 2019 I retired from corporate life to focus on building businesses that were better aligned with who I was remembering myself to be and the purpose I was rediscovering.

It was in Detroit, during the darkest days of the pandemic, that I stood on the precipice of ending my life in complete despair, my “north star” having vanished behind the clouds of an unhappy, unfulfilling life and several destructive wrong turns.

I chose to keep breathing, and in early 2021 an unexpected awakening caught me by surprise. I came to understand many things about myself, spirituality, and how life works. Most notably was a new understanding of how every life unfolds across seasons. I call this the Five Seasons of Life. It was in the midst of this emerging revelation that I led myself through a process of becoming reacquainted with my true self, rediscovering the purpose forged in me from the moment of conception, and began crafting a new plot for the remainder of my years.

Out of this awakening a coaching practice was born, not out of a pursuit of money, but purely out of a rediscovery of this as my purpose and a desire to help others become the best version of themselves and build businesses out of their own reclaimed purpose. I put people first, and then the financial fruit of my labor followed.

I refer to myself as a writer, teacher, coach, daydreamer, a nostalgic, insatiable vagabond, and occasional contrarian, but at the end of the day someone who simply wants to live fully, laugh often, experience beautiful places, have breathtaking experiences,  and leave the world a better place because I existed.

"To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson