About

I mean, I’m not intimidating—look at me. It’s like, “Is that my favorite college professor?” If that sport coat were red, you’d think I’d just come down your chimney with toys.

So what is it? Why haven’t you scheduled a time to talk with me?

Is it because you’re already doing what you most want to be doing with your life—because your personal and professional goals are already totally aligned with your company’s goals?

Is it because you’re killing it with revenue growth, profitability, and scaling?

You haven't scheduled that call!

Is it because you’re already aware of all your blind spots, and you already know how everyone feels about you and how you impact everyone?

Is it because your company culture couldn’t be better? Is it because you know everyone else is the problem?

How’s business? How’s the team? Everyone rowing in the same direction? Everyone feeling good about sharing ideas, being honest when they don’t agree, no politics? How’s the family? Get to take your daughter to college? See your son win the marching band trophy? Sleep good?

Schedule The Call!

Now, this woman who owned this little toy store was our biggest fan. We had built a really great relationship with her, and, unbeknownst to us, she had been elected president of the Small Toy Store Association. “You have to come to the Toy Fair in New York,” she said.

We balked at first but finally scraped together the last bit of money that we had and got a small booth with a couple of chairs and a fold-out table onto which we draped an old banner from another trade show. We hadn’t been able to get our product into toy stores, so we weren’t aware of the climate of panic that had swept the association: nothing was selling.

So the big meeting convenes, and our biggest fan, now presiding over the association and, therefore, the meeting, stands up in front of everybody and says about our toy product, “Look, this is the only thing selling in my store.” We started taking orders that day with buyers standing in a line just handing us their credit cards.

We drove up to that toy fair that weekend a month from losing everything. That day we drove home a $9,000,000 company with 400 orders from 400 toy stores that, prior to that day, wouldn’t return our phone calls.

Over the next 6 months, the foundation of my business philosophy crystallized, a philosophy I had been practicing but hadn’t articulated, a philosophy that is now at the center of all of my executive coaching and consulting and speaking. If you’ve already read through my site, you might have guessed what it is:

YOU CAN’T DO IT ALONE!

Prior to that Toy Fair, my partner and I had made sure every supplier and manufacturer was paid on time, every supplier and manufacturer and retailer was treated with respect and kindness and honesty. We were their partner in business, and because of the relationships we had built, well…

All those suppliers and manufacturers stood behind us over the next six months, and in 2008 we won Toy of the Year. In 2010 our company, Wild Creations, was named the Fastest Growing Business in South Carolina. We were awarded a Blue-Ribbon Top 75 US Company by the US Chamber of Commerce, and in 2010 we were named one of Inc. magazine's 500 Fastest-Growing Companies in the United States. We won over 40 national awards for our team’s innovative toy designs and became a finalist for Ernst and Young's Entrepreneur of the Year in 2011.

YOU CAN’T DO IT ALONE.

If you’re considering hiring an executive coach, it means you’re succeeding. It means you’ve taken your company as far as you possibly can as the person you are at this moment. And now, for your company to grow, YOU have to grow—you have to grow into the executive that can lead your company through its next phase. And I hope it’s clear now: