Former military & corporate leader turned Leadership Development Trainer, Coach, & Speaker.

Now I'm on a mission to improve leadership & team performance for medium-sized businesses who don’t have an internal leadership development program and can’t afford one of the big consulting agencies to build one for them.

I joined the military after already having lived in a foreign country for two years, attended two years of college, being married for a little over a year, and having a 1-month old baby. You could say I already had a lot of “life” experience compared to the majority of the other recruits I was with in basic training. I was definitely more mature, responsible, and deliberate in my decision-making. So, it was no surprise when I was promoted very early in my career into a leadership position. The problem was that I wasn’t prepared for actually leading people.

Even though the Air Force sent me to Airman Leadership School not too long after being promoted, I learned a lot of leadership lessons through the school of hard knocks. I used to be - and sometimes still am - the kind of leader to rush into a decision without fully thinking out what it could affect beyond just what I was looking at. The hardest part for me to grasp, the part that definitely took the longest, was how to effectively lead people. That skill took several years, and even more lessons learned the hard way, before I finally figured it out and was able to start honing that skill. My leadership journey continues to be very rocky and full of wrong turns, u-turns, and some off-roading to get back to a stable team environment. But that’s what leadership is about: making decisions with the information you have available and learning along the way. That doesn’t mean you have to go it alone, though.

My guess is there are a lot of leaders out there who learned, or are learning, much the same way I did. I’d be willing to bet there are even more leaders just starting their leadership journey who are hoping to avoid some of that, but they don’t know where to turn or how to get that knowledge. Studies show that over 70% of new leaders don’t receive any training at all until they’ve been a leader for at least 10 years. So, even though you want to be a great leader, you’re not given the tools to succeed.

That’s why I’m here! I want to share my lessons-learned, experiences, and pitfalls to prevent new, seasoned, and prospective leaders from making the same mistakes. I’m here to minimize your bad leadership experiences so you can become the leader you want to be… So you can become the leader everyone wants to follow and build high-performing teams!