I spent 25 years performing well while privately unraveling.

I built a long career in tech. Service and support, technical writing, knowledge management, product ownership. I was good at it. I was also stuffing everything that didn't fit the role: the doubt, the exhaustion, the question of whether any of it mattered.

An encounter with a Buddhist teacher changed the direction of my life. I've now practiced in that tradition for more than 15 years. It taught me to stop running from my own mind and to sit with what's actually there. That training is the ground under everything I do as a coach.

I left the corporate track and became a certified coach and workshop facilitator. Today I work with senior leaders I call High Functioning Stuffers: people who perform well on the outside, hold it together for everyone else, and have lost the thread of themselves inside a role they once loved.

I also coach strength training at a community gym on Madison's east side. The barbell and the cushion teach the same lesson. You get stronger by showing up for the rep in front of you, especially the one you don't want to do.

I host the Fierce Encouragement podcast, write The Pause, my weekly newsletter, and co-founded Brotherhood of Being, a free virtual community where men practice honesty together.

I live in Madison, Wisconsin. I have two grown sons. I lift heavy things, sit quietly every day, and swear more than a meditation guy is supposed to.