I've spent my working life learning people. People-centered work has been at the heart of things over the last twenty years, collaborating with people as an artist, college instructor, communications director, pastor, design facilitator, and coach. Throughout these multidisciplinary pursuits, I've had a singular focus on seeing people get unstuck, build their creative confidence, and take their next step.
The most challenging part of working with the creative potential of people (my own and others') is stuckness. It's when 'resistance', as Steven Pressfield calls it, gets in the way. Or it's the way tiny acts of self-sabotage stack up, creating 'the mountain is you' as Brianna Wiest writes. And it's certainly the pain of bearing an 'untold story inside of you', as Maya Angelou teaches us.
Stuckness is the arch nemesis of creativity. It's the shadow, the self-limiter, the snuffer of good ideas. There are just too many things to get stuck in:
comparison
decision paralysis
who you used to be
someone else's version of success
waiting for permission
limiting beliefs
your head
career treadmills
a creative cul de sac
boredom
scarcity
See also, mid-life.
This is why coaching can be so transformative—particularly in midlife. The heart of coaching is a creative act; it's co-creating your future. You can find your future by design or by default. There's the future you drift into by default—the one you will eventually arrive in due to little consciousness or creativity. And there's another future by design—the one you could co-create with clarity and commitment.
I work with the creative potential of people as a Certified Professional Coach, primarily in the areas of creativity, leadership development, and transitions. People describe me as transparent, non-anxious, playful, thoughtful, and empathetic in my coaching style. Having been through a number of career re-inventions and seasons of transition, I've learned how to get unstuck many times!
It's my joy to partner with people in the midst of change. By giving you a conversational space with high compassion + high challenge, you will work through your blocks, combat fear with curiosity, unfurl your thoughts, co-create strategy, and find tangible momentum forward.
Outside of work I'm a husband, father of four, writer, friend and neighbour in the Strathcona/DTES of Vancouver BC, avid Oilers and Raptors fan, and lover of all the things that make up a good dinner party — story, hospitality, people.
