Past Engagements

I am proud of the futures I have helped co-create with my clients. Here are some of their comments and stories.

Being able to talk through how I approach the different roles I hold was very helpful. This has taken a ton of energy from me and I think I just needed permission to not over think it.

Brian is one of the best coaches I've ever experienced. He knows just what questions to ask, has a lot of empathy, is a great listener, super present, and is very selfless. I always appreciate his time and coaching.

We unlocked something that I hadn't recognized as a barrier and will be huge I think in terms of helping me to accomplish one of my goals.

Client Stories

A top-10 retailer’s West Region leader had a clear promotion-ready profile on paper: strategic, analytical, and boardroom-strong. But his readiness risk was visible where it mattered most—inside stores. Frequent visits left associates feeling unseen and disconnected.

As we reviewed Hogan results, Bill told the story of how retail changed his life trajectory. That story revealed a powerful lever: gratitude—not as sentiment, but as leadership behavior.

We built a repeatable store-visit framework that translated gratitude into consistent actions: intentional recognition, curiosity-driven questions, and clear reinforcement of what “good” looks like—without slipping into forced positivity or losing performance standards.

The outcome was a measurable shift in felt experience. Associates began engaging him voluntarily, and his presence in stores became an asset instead of a liability—reducing a key readiness risk for larger enterprise scope.

Untangled Rule: Executive presence isn’t just what happens in the boardroom. It’s what people feel when you walk in the room. We thrive when we translate our values into repeatable behaviors.

Karl, a senior IT executive at a large insurance company, wanted to improve one thing that separates functional leaders from enterprise leaders: communicating with clarity and brevity under pressure. He believed the issue was being more succinct—but as we unpacked recent meetings, the real constraint wasn’t vocabulary. It was listening.

In a contentious leadership meeting, Karl noticed he sometimes talked over others. When we examined what he was doing in the moment, he recognized he was listening to respond, not listening to understand. That distinction mattered. His communication wasn’t concise because he was trying to preempt every possible objection—without first knowing which objections actually mattered.

We shifted the work from “be more succinct” to an executive readiness skill: reflective listening powered by curiosity. Karl began slowing down to clarify what people truly cared about before offering solutions. That allowed him to speak less, say more, and land his points with more credibility—improving his executive presence and influence without increasing volume or airtime.

Untangled Rule: You can’t be succinct when you’re trying to defeat every objection. Curiosity creates compression. Listen. Understand. Clarify. Then speak. Only people who feel seen and understood can be influenced.

Andrew, the General Counsel for a large privately held company with a portfolio of well-known websites, hit a leadership inflection point. His boss (the COO) was receiving complaints from disengaged employees, and several members of the CEO staff were openly questioning the value Andrew brought to the company.

To remove guesswork, I ran a targeted 360—interviewing 15 stakeholders across the organization—to get a clear picture of Andrew’s reputation and impact. The feedback was blunt and consistent. The issue wasn’t legal competence. It was trust, visibility, and perceived contribution.

Andrew’s turning point was humility. He accepted full accountability for his reputation and committed to changing the experience people had of him—not through spin, but through behavior and results.

Together, we built a focused action plan:

resolve long-standing employee equity issues that were eroding trust
build fluency in newer, innovative businesses in the portfolio so he could contribute at enterprise altitude
increase his presence and usefulness with key members of the CEO staff
make the change visible through consistent operating rhythms and stakeholder communication

The result was a meaningful shift in perception and engagement. Employee engagement scores rose sharply during our work together. Follow-up interviews with CEO staff confirmed that while the transformation wasn’t finished, the trajectory was clear: Andrew was back on the right path, rebuilding trust and executive credibility

Untangled Rule: We can’t fix what we can’t see. Once we see it, we own it—especially our reputation.

Untangled Rule: We can't fix what we can't see. Once we see it, we better own it.

Dave, a Sales VP at an industry-leading SaaS company, was a closing machine. Quarter after quarter, he could swoop in late and rescue deals to hit aggressive targets—until the scope got bigger. When another territory was added to his portfolio, brute force stopped working. The business didn’t need a hero; it needed a scalable leader.

We started with a 360 to diagnose what was really limiting results. The message from his team was clear: they wanted more empowerment and autonomy. Dave wasn’t failing because he lacked effort or talent. He was failing because his leadership model didn’t scale.

The breakthrough was recognizing Dave’s true superpower. With customers, he asked powerful questions that led buyers to clarity and commitment. He had a disciplined, repeatable process that consistently produced outcomes. We translated that strength into a leadership system.

Together, we built a new management rhythm that increased autonomy without sacrificing accountability. Dave shifted from rescuing to developing—using questions to drive ownership, strengthen decision-making, and build capability across his team.

The result: less dependence on Dave to close everything, more ownership across the team, and a sales organization that could scale with the territory instead of being constrained by it.

Untangled Rule: Your job isn’t to be the hero. Your job is to build the people. No one else is going to do your job—and at scale, the work is done through others.

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