I love to play!
I love playing, laughing, and exploring.
There is nothing I like better than exploring mountain streams with my family, swimming under freezing cold waterfalls, trying to catch frogs, and tracking animals.
I also love hanging out with teens and young adults . I absolutely love being able to challenge people to really dig deep and show up how they really want to show up. I am grateful for the ability to see the best in people and I have no tolerance for laziness or excuses.
When I play, I Play! (yes, Play Huge) and I expect people around me to come along on the journey.
I am intrigued by excellence. I want to push the limits of what I think is possible. I like to play around in uncertain, challenging, and uncomfortable situations.
The journey to this day
My wake up call happened when I was 18 - after the state championships, loss of my dreams, preliminary journey to college, and exploration of independance.
The "gift" of realizing that life is fragile and nothing is promised - my very own version of "what would you do if you were given 4 months to live?" - happened when my dad died.
It sucked then. And now having lived more years without him (22 years) than with him (18 years), it still hurts bad.
Amazingly and even through the years of depression, lonliness, uncertainty, anger, and tears, I woke up.
I got a gigantic shove into life.
Gigantic Gift
The gift that emerged was my desire to work with young people. But not in a shallow, easy & standard way. I wanted to be a wake up call for that spark that lives deep inside.
The real conversations, the raw emotions, the frustration and anger, the celebrations...that is what I want.
The moments of uncertainty, of feeling lost, of feeling alone, of not knowing where to turn, of finding the water source...these are moments I and, I suspect, you experienced alone and without any guidance...and it's these moments where having a trusted guide makes a big difference.
I do real work with real people who are committed to figuring out what their life is about.
I love it.
And I am massively honored to do it.
I love my journey. I love playing in this space.
Learning from young people
I have worked with thousands of teens and young adults. I have been a teacher, camp counselor, a baseball coach, and life coach to parents and kids. I have led SuperCamp, an Accelerated Learning summer program, 44-day outdoor adventure trips, and been a school administrator.
I have learned through personal and professional experience how to listen and draw out the unique passion and talents that each person possesses. I believe there is nothing more important than young people discovering and cultivating their unique combination of imagination, courage, talent, and passion.
Stay-at-home dad
During these adventures, my wife and I had kids.
One of the questions that I ask my clients is "What are you committed enough to to do whatever it takes to make it awesome?"
My answer: my family. I am a committed partner and parent of 2 young kids 6 and 8. The only way I can do the work I do is to make sure I am walking my talk, so my wife and I have shared childcare responsibilities for the last 8 years. We have taken on deepening our relationship digging up all kinds of ugly and working through it together. We have discovered that love is an action and it takes dedication.
I am grateful to have a partner who pulls me into the depths of what is possible.
When the kids reached their school years, I got certified as Life Coach and then I began to write. And after a couple years I published my book – Launch Your Life:5 secrets to knowing what you want in your teens, college-years, and early career
Launch Your Life
One day my daughter was listening to a song from the timeless album Free to Be You and Me. “Some daddy’s are authors” says the song, to which my daughter said, "that is you daddy". What? Me? An author? Huh.
I don't imagine myself like that. I am a guy who really, really cares about people and has some ideas that I really believe can help. And because of my struggles in school, and my days at SupeCamp, I learned that how information is conveyed is really important – actually more important that the information itself.
So, Launch Your Life attempts to convey the things that I really believe will help you in as many ways as I could create, so that you can find your way in there.
Riding around Portland & 350.org
I am deeply concerned about climate chaos. I think that we are in big, big trouble.
My committment to being part of the change that is necessary to slow down the impact of climate change is riding around Portland on my bike – and usually with our kids. We ride on our bike, which we call "our own little parade", everywhere...daddy gets quite a workout!
It's too easy to point fingers and lay blame, so I focus on the most local of change - myself and my family.
Finally, it is probably important to know that I am a master of 4th grade humor and always assume that if you did not laugh at my joke, then you must not have heard it. My wife, quickly becoming my comic sidekick, offers warnings and/or reminders to our friends when I get on a roll – or a bun, or even just a plain old slice of bread. Did I mention that I like play on words?
I am grateful and honored to do the work that I do and would be honored to work with you.
Please feel free to call, (503) 234-4843, or email me here with any questions, stories, or comments.
Or click here to begin your journey with my free workbook and yEs-zine.
Still hesitating on whether to download the free workbook? If you have not already, see is this you?