I followed every rule until it broke me. Then I had to rebuild from the ground up.
I was handed the best my parents knew.
I grew up in a house run on military discipline and religious structure. The rules were simple, and they came with love: work hard, go to a good school, and get a good job.
I was going to be a major league baseball player. When that didn't work out, the structure took over. I never liked school, but I learned to do exactly what it took to get the outcome. And the only outcome anyone ever put in front of me was a good school and a good job.
15 years in strategy consulting.
I went into management consulting straight out of college and stayed 15 years, at firms like BCG and Booz Allen. I advised boards of directors and executives on cybersecurity and risk management.
I even wrote about it, in places like Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review. That started something in me. I fell in love with writing.
Ten years in, I was married with three kids and checking every box. The container worked, for a while.
Then it came apart.
I traveled the world constantly, slept too little, and missed too much. I told myself that's what a provider does.
Then the divorce came. Everything else followed: time away from my kids, my health, and a financial load I couldn't see around.
The only way I knew to support my family was the same path that had broken everything. My identity was fused to the job, and I had no idea who I was without it.
I started over as a beginner.
I decided to become the father my kids deserved, and that meant I had to save myself first. I hired coaches and mentors, and over the years I put more than $250,000 into learning how people actually make this move. First for me. Then for the people I'd go on to help.
Mentors showed me how to compress my corporate job into half the hours. That space changed everything. I started hanging out in founder masterminds, even though I was the only corporate guy in the room.
I started building on the side, consulting first, then coaching. It took 3 failed businesses before one worked.
Corporate to Founder in one year.
I turned what I'd learned into a sequence, and it became Corporate Graduation®: a 12-month program for Directors, VPs, and Executives sitting on 15 to 25 years of career capital. More than 170 people from consulting, tech, finance, and more have made the move with it.
It runs in one order, every time:
A second chance, and we run it together.
I'm remarried to Cecilia, and I'm a dad of four. Cecilia's part of the business now too. She's our Lead Mindset Coach, and she runs the Self work, the part that makes the move hold. I'm so grateful to be on this journey with her.
This is the life I was trying to build the whole time. Corporate Graduation is where I help other people build theirs.
See the work at corporategraduation.com →
