COACHING
Find, develop, and unapologetically express your authentic self. You know you have more in you than what's currently coming out. Maybe you can feel it and can't name it. Maybe you named it years ago and put it away for something more sensible. Either way, you're standing at a threshold. I provide actionable tools to help get you to the other side.
IS 1:1 COACHING FOR YOU?
(HINT: YES)
This is for those at a threshold. At any age. With any title. Or crazy dream.
Life has started to feel like you’ve been performing a version of yourself that's stopped fitting, maybe one you built, maybe one someone else handed you, and you're ready to find out what's underneath it so you can reunite with the childlike wonder you gave up for adulting.
Maybe that shows up as feeling stuck, directionless, or burnt out. Maybe it's the particular flavor of disappointment that comes from constantly seeking and never succeeding. Maybe it's a job that pays well but doesn't light you up anymore. Or maybe it never did. Maybe you used to create things, or write things, or play things, and you can't remember when you stopped, or why. Maybe you just want to find your way back to the real you.
I believe radical self-expression can set us free. Creativity, an inherent skill inside us all, is one of the truest ways to get there, but it's only a vehicle, not the destination. What matters is reconnecting to your authentic self, however that happens for you, and expressing your gifts in ways that best suit you, no one else. And part of that journey is unlearning many of the things that got you here in the first place.
Different things work for different people, and if books, talk therapy, or other programs haven't fully gotten you there, that doesn't mean one won’t finally click. It just might mean you haven't found the structure, or the person, that speaks to you at the time when you’re ready to hear it. My approach can be a starting place, or it can fill in gaps nothing else reached. It’s simply another set of tools for your toolbox that I also have in mine.
HOW WE WORK TOGETHER
The purpose, joy, and freedom you're looking for are usually closer than you think. My role is to help you stop looking past them and transition from being a seeker to a finder.
I don't hand you a fixed curriculum and march you through it in order. People aren't linear, so the work isn't either.
What I do have is a framework built from a lifetime of fearlessly trying new things, teaching, breaking down what gets in the way of our authenticity, and studying what actually helps: Identification, Inspiration, Expression, Connection, and the nurturing practices that let you sustain all of it over a lifetime.
Every engagement starts with a conversation. From there, the shape of the work depends on what you actually need — a short reset to get unstuck, an ongoing practice built around one part of the framework, or a longer arc that moves through more of it at once.
Once we begin working together, we’ll get clarity on what actually lights you up, what your non-negotiables are, and map out your North Star with real steps to move toward it. That's true for just about everyone. From there, we’ll go wherever the real magic is: maybe clearing out inherited beliefs that were never actually yours, maybe rebuilding a practice of taking in the world on purpose again, becoming what I call a dot-collector, someone who fills the well deliberately instead of waiting to stumble into inspiration, or maybe giving yourself permission to finally let something out after decades of keeping it in.
Practically, this means sessions on a regular cadence, typically every two weeks, with something to sit with or practice between them. I bring the framework, the questions, and the experience to know when something's worth staying with a little longer. You bring honesty, and an actual willingness to do the work between calls. How many sessions, and over what stretch of time, gets set together once we've talked, because it depends on what you're working through, not a package I picked for you in advance.
In short, I'm offering a clearer read on what's been in your way, a working practice for expressing what's true for you, and the beginning of a different relationship with your authentic self as well as your own creative capacity. One that doesn't depend on a title, a platform, or anyone else's permission. All you have to do is show up and do the work.
MAKING PEOPLE HAPPY MAKES ME HAPPY
"I went into this with some serious skepticism, but it took no time at all for me to realize just how powerful Chad's insights and guidance truly were. He helped me find real clarity about my ambitions and gave me practical tools for making the right decisions to reach them. Those decisions have been paying dividends ever since."
"Chad helped me broaden my horizons while sharpening my focus. That might sound scientifically impossible, but once you've been through this eye-opening experience for yourself, it all makes perfect sense. I found that the direction and answers I'd been seeking were right in front of my face; I just needed someone to help me recognize them and go after them."
“Stepping into a new career path, this work helped me sharpen my focus and identify my personal vision. It also helped me chart a map for where I wanted to go and gave me pragmatic navigational tools for steering a steady course. These tools were things I came back to again and again, whenever I hit rocky waters of doubt. Throughout the process, Chad's warmth, humor, and insight gave me the confidence I needed to step into my new role.”
"When I decided to work with Chad, I wasn't satisfied with my current job and career. I felt stuck. This work helped me rethink what really made me feel good in the workplace and gave me a set of tools to reach my goals. It's been four months since we finished working together. In that time, I've become a freelancer. I work fewer hours, make my own schedule, and finally have time for my own projects."
“This work gave me renewed hope that I could create a career for myself based on what I love doing. It helped me define the non-negotiables I need in a job to be truly happy and fulfilled. Chad kept me focused and motivated.”
SO, HOW DID I GET HERE?
My childhood dream, and everything I worked towards from the age of 16, became reality at age 32. I'd worked with some of the best creative companies in the world and built a few of my own. On paper, it looked like I'd made it. In practice, I felt like I'd become someone else to get there. And when I finally arrived, I was still unhappy and unfulfilled. My outer world didn't match my inner world, and I wasn't sure how I got there, what I needed to change, or how to change it.
I'd assumed the stress was just the cost of doing the work, not realizing I'd been out of alignment for most of my dream career. High highs, low lows, and the belief that this was simply what a career in art and commerce required. I found my happy place sometimes. The rest of the time was wearing me down, in the business and outside of it.
I tried what a lot of people try when something's off. Change jobs. Self-medication. Talk therapy, which gave me a safe place to say things out loud, but not much more than that. Every self-help book and podcast in reach. None of it moved the needle the way I wanted it to, partly because I didn't have the healthy structure, discipline, or accountability I needed.
What actually shifted things was more specific. A Vedic meditation teacher who taught me how to quiet a mind that never stopped narrating, and how to actually be present. A career coach, a University of Santa Monica graduate, who gave me clarity and a compass point after I'd shut down my childhood dream and lost my footing. The change in me was obvious enough that people started asking what I was doing differently, so I asked the coach if she'd take me on as an apprentice. She said yes, and taught me how to do for other people what she'd done for me.
Those acquired tools eventually led me to run my own coaching practice, helping people find and build careers that didn't require them to disappear inside them. It also led me back to the classroom, teaching creativity and critical thinking at UT Austin and Art Center College of Design, and eventually to a return to my own uncompromising art practice as a career.
Eventually I completed the two-year Advanced Spiritual Psychology program at the University of Santa Monica, which didn't just give me language for things I'd already been circling, it gave me real tools, tested across hundreds of hours working with other people through the same deeper stuff. It's also where I recognized how I actually share my gifts with the world, through art, and through coaching. That's where something clicked: however different our circumstances, most of what gets in the way traces back to the same handful of things. Limiting beliefs. Self-worth. Old stories we keep telling long after they've stopped being true.
I don't have all the answers. I'm a work in progress, same as anyone I'd work with. I've peeled away plenty of layers of my own onion, and here's what I've learned: there's always another one underneath. What's changed is that I can recognize my own patterns from further back now, and can tell the difference between the voice that's actually mine and the ones I inherited and stopped believing a while ago. And I can quickly move through virtually anything that gets between me and my highest self. That difference shows up in real, transformative ways. Thanks to a practice that keeps giving me back to myself.