I lead from experience first. Then I name the idea.

The story

I joined the Army in 1996 and stayed nearly twenty-two years, retiring as a senior officer. I led soldiers in places where connection was not a soft skill; it was the thing that kept people alive and brought them home. I learned more about leadership from a platoon sergeant who told me the truth than from any course I ever took.

Somewhere in the middle of that, as a company commander, a training program landed on my desk from a psychologist named Martin Seligman. It was about resilience, and it was the first time anyone had shown me the science behind what the best leaders I knew were already doing. It changed how I led. Eventually it took me to the University of Pennsylvania, where I earned a Master of Applied Positive Psychology, studied under Seligman, and later taught alongside him.

After the Army I went inside big companies: organizational development, facilitation, coaching, global project management at 3M. I watched good leaders get ground down by bad systems, and I watched what happened at home when they did. That is where "terrible leadership doesn't stay at work" comes from. I saw it come home.

So I started Awesomer. The name is a wink and I'm keeping it, along with the title on my business card: Chief Awesome Officer. The work is not a wink. I help executive teams become the team their company needs, and I do it in the room, with real conversations, because that is the only place it has ever worked.