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I want to tell you about something that hit me like a punch to the chest. I've been in a training called Alive — a science-based framework for designing a life that actually feels fulfilling. Earlier this month, in the middle of an exercise with peers, I got called out on my own limiting belief. One I had been buying into so completely, I didn't even see it as a belief. I thought it was just the truth. As a coach, I know this work, and I still got caught. The leverage for rep

Recently, I read something that made my heart sink. It was an unpublished article written by a nonprofit CEO. The only safe space she had found to put words to what she was carrying was a document nobody would ever see. She was venting. She was heartbroken. And the words on the page almost had an audible exhale — like the keyboard was the first thing that had actually listened. As an executive coach, a facilitator of a local CEO peer group here in Traverse City, and someone w

AI is all of a buzz right now, and I've been formulating some thoughts. Leaders are using it to write emails, automate tasks, and outline reports. Some are even turning to it for problem-solving. And the question I keep hearing underneath all of it is: what does this mean for coaching? I did some research. Here's what I found. The International Coaching Federation (the global association that I belong to) participated in a study measuring AI against its core coaching competen

Every so often I use this space to make a direct ask, and today is one of those days. But first, a story. For years, a pattern played out every time I got in front of an audience. I would prepare carefully. I'd work out my entrance, rehearse my opening, think through every transition. And then the moment I stepped in front of an audience, something would happen. Time would speed up. My mind would go somewhere else. And the words out of my mouth weren't anywhere close to what

Last week, in a coaching conversation, a leader spent the first few minutes describing a challenging employee. The behavior she wanted corrected. The frustration she'd been carrying. The conversations she'd tried. She had been focused on this person for months. I realized where her focus was placed and said, "As I hear you talk, this phrase comes to mind...What you focus on grows." She paused, and I heard the shift in her understanding. She had been growing the problem. And t

This Sunday, I'll hear it again. The squeal of tires leaving pit row. The pop of exhaust cracking out the back of an Indy car at 225 mph. Thirty-five years of that feeling — and it still sends chills up my spine every single time. My arms stand at attention before my brain even catches up. This year is going to be different, though. For 17 years, I lived in Speedway, Indiana. Race weekend meant an alarm clock of helicopters overhead and the cannon booming from the track at da