More About Me
So, how did a brainy musician become a visionary leadership coach?
Great question! Settle in…
It all started when an awkward, somewhat misfit high schooler decided to buck his family’s expectations and study music instead of biology in college. Music had been a passion of mine for years and I delighted in learning as much about the great classical composers as I possibly could. It was the beginning of me trying to figure out the world with all of its attending art, history, economics, religion, and sociology.
I quickly developed a reputation as a walking encyclopedia, an authority on music history and other geeky things everywhere I went. In graduate school I noticed new gifts and strengths coming online. While I was there to write music, it was actually my written words that garnered the greatest praise from both professors and my fellow students.
I also began to delight in conversations with everyone I could find about the meaning of life. Seriously, I probed deep for this, debating and philosophizing with everyone I could find who had any kind of opinion or perspective I could learn from. I became deadly in arguments, quickly and easily seeking out the weakest parts and exposing their flimsiness. These days I don’t shoot to kill like I used to, but instead offer this as a service in the spirit of humility to help others develop a worldview and perspective of greater integrity. It’s an essential element of every relationship I have, personal and professional, and one should expect if you talk to me.
I still love music. Deeply. But eventually I discerned it was not the path I should continue. I went into business, building the largest for-profit music lesson provider in Central Wisconsin. In time it may very well grow to be the largest of any kind. I also purchased a business that provides string music for weddings throughout the state of Wisconsin and since then there has not been a single year I have not recouped the purchase price. It was a great investment.
From entrepreneurship and business ownership I learned marketing, systems, mindset, management, budgeting, leadership, and so much more. Eventually I found I was giving advice to other business owners about all these things, and I became a consultant. I love consulting. I am always happy talking through business strategy, systems, team dynamics, organizational structure, marketing messages, digital presence, and the like.
Eventually I noticed something. Something unexpected and deeply special. I noticed that in working to uncover the root causes of business problems, problems like stagnant growth, cultural dysfunction, deep frustration of all kinds, we almost always traced them to issues of leadership. It was never really about the tactics or strategies that played out on the ground. Rather, we always found weaknesses in the leadership - insecurity, indecision, unclear thinking, hesitance to talk pursue, and even fear of, what they REALLY wanted.
I found that leaders often lack the crucial skills, knowledge, and self-awareness to accurately diagnose the problems within. And so they perpetuate, the leader not ever wanting to look them squarely in the face, defensively looking everywhere else instead. But you can’t ever hide from true problems. Some leaders, some very special, self-aware leaders, understood their responsibilities to step up. And the results are inspiring.
From this, I realized the greatest value I was bringing to consulting was actually guiding and coaching the leaders. Coaching doesn’t even begin to describe it for some. We talk for hours, covering the entire human condition, which is somehow essential for certain leaders to understand their place in the world. From these talks and coaching sessions comes a deep connection with purpose, an abiding confidence to take action, and an unfailing peace about their place in the world. Clients tell me my coaching is like nothing they have ever experienced, that I have an incredibly deep, thorough, and comprehensive understanding of the human condition which helps to give them the peace, insight, and vision they need to keep doing the highly challenging work to which they are called.
And so I completed the journey from musician to leadership coach, with stops that included business ownership and consulting along the way. But this is where I am meant to end up. There is no doubt. Schedule a session with me and you will see why I say that.