I got my first taste of entrepreneurship in my mid-20s, when I took a chance and joined a relative who had started his own ceramic tile business. Despite being genuinely hard work, I fell in love with the process of honing a craft and helping turn a customer's vision into reality. Most of all, the chance to help create a business of value, and do it our own way, sparked something in me.

That spark has followed me through every chapter since: from corporate, to co-founding two of my own firms, to the coaching and advisory work I do now. Through it all I've seen (and experienced) how easy it is for leaders to get caught up in being great at the daily grind of what has to get done while becoming disconnected from where their energy would make the biggest difference.

My passion is helping business owners forge a new path forward. Not to simply grind more or do less, but to create the space where the highest-value work gets the attention it deserves, and where leaders can show up as the person that work requires them to be.

That's why I'm here.

I jumped onto the corporate path excited to problem solve and help others achieve their goals. I spent over a dozen years delivering complex, years-long technology transformations across multiple countries alongside leaders at some of the biggest companies in the world. I quickly got good at the program leadership and organizational skills the work demanded.

But what I came to value most was something else: the ability to guide leaders and their teams through the personal weight of that kind of change. There were plenty of moments spent in countless corporate offices, guiding another exhausted senior leader through a seemingly impossible decision. I loved this aspect of my work, but I was part of a massive organization that wanted me to focus on other things.

I decided to honor that simmering entrepreneurial spark and made the leap, co-founding two firms and serving clients the way I wanted to. I spent 15 combined years helping grow them into multi-million-dollar businesses.

Somewhere in the middle of that success, though, I found myself in strikingly similar moments to the corporate leaders I had helped: grinding through decisions, constantly in motion, but not feeling like I was making progress. And worst of all, feeling disconnected from the spark that had driven me to create a business worth building.

The answer wasn't to work harder. It was to realign and refocus my energy deliberately and break out of the cycle. That experience — living it, not just advising through it — changed how I work with people.

Today I work with business owners and leaders who've forged their own path, built something real, and find themselves ready for someone who's been on both sides of that equation.

Spending time with family and friends tops my list. Whether that's exploring new places, enjoying good food and conversation at our favorite local restaurant or around a table with friends, long walks with my wife and dogs in our Denver neighborhood or in California along the beach, or simply relaxing evenings at home, connection fills me up.

I've also got a lifelong love affair with endurance sports, taking on hard challenges through cycling or running, like big gravel bike rides, a handful of Ironmans, and recently, an ultramarathon. You'll find me out pushing myself both solo and, more likely, in the company of others who share my passion for the physical and mental effort and the joy of moving through the outdoors.

No matter what I'm doing at any given moment, I've found the key to being "lit up by life" is to stay curious and open to new possibilities. Not only does that keep me pushing myself to continually grow, but it makes every moment I'm already fortunate to enjoy that much richer.