What changed
It changed my life. For the first time I had a place to think out loud without being advised, managed, or judged. My wife, my friends, my family were always there for me, and still are. But talking this through with them was never quite the same: they’re not trained for it, and they’re living their own lives too. The coaching was different. One hour that was completely mine, about today and what comes next. We looked at the patterns that kept dragging me down, built new habits, set a real direction. Life didn’t suddenly become perfect. But I finally knew what I was living for and walking toward.
Why I coach
I know from the inside what it costs to look fine for years while feeling stuck, and what it takes to get unstuck. The listening, the empathy, the space, the questions: I had used them for years with my clients as a Senior Customer Success Manager. But there it served renewals and company growth. I wanted the human version, where the only agenda is the person in front of me.
And there’s a bigger reason. When one person starts working on themselves, everyone around them feels it. They stop waiting to be rescued, take ownership of their life, and become steadier and more honest, the kind of person who makes others want to do the same. Partners feel it, teams feel it, friends start asking what changed. Change spreads person to person, and it always starts with one. Watching that happen, from the first conversation to who someone is a few months later, is the most inspiring thing I get to witness.
Deep conversations are where I come alive. I’m curious about people, I notice the small things, I stay calm when things get heavy, and I hear what’s underneath the words. Creating space for someone to think out loud has always come naturally to me. Coaching is the first thing I’ve found that uses all of it: the curiosity, the listening, even the years of feeling stuck myself.
How I coach
I don’t give advice. Nobody could have advised me out of it, and I won’t pretend I can advise you out of yours. You’re the expert of your own life. My job is asking the questions that are hard to ask yourself, and staying in your corner while you find answers that come from you.
The people I work with usually carry a lot, and carry it well, so nobody thinks to ask how they’re really doing. If that’s you, this is where you get to be the one who’s listened to.
The credentials
I trained through the Co-Active Training Institute (CTI), widely considered the gold standard of coach training, and became a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC). That took over 200 hours of training, supervised work with real clients, and an oral exam. Since then I’ve been coaching people from different countries and walks of life, most of them carrying some version of the same feeling: fine on the outside, a bit off or disconnected underneath.
There is no license for coaching, so from the outside it is hard to tell who has been trained and checked. That is why I also hold the Associate Certified Coach (ACC) credential from the International Coaching Federation (ICF), the world’s largest professional body for coaches, and independent of the school that trained me. I am also a member of the ICF. The credential binds me to the ICF Code of Ethics and is renewed every three years with continuing education.
