Aria Consulting International

Aria Consulting International Our Mission
To help organizations and leaders achieve unprecedented success and breakthrough performance. ARIA was formed to offer a different and better way.

Aria Consulting helps organizations achieve their best performance, everyday. Since 1997, we have delivered tangible, sustainable results for our clients. ARIA was founded by practice leader Christine Grimm, who observed something interesting in many organizations: training was disengaged, often being facilitated without a connection to strategy, values or what was really important to leadership.

Learning and development was a meaningless experience for employees and a waste of resources for the organization. Our Values

Relationship Focus
The foundation for all of our interactions is the establishment and maintenance of long-term, trusting relationships. Authenticity
We are candid and authentic in our interactions and engagements. Collaboration
We strive to collaborate and partner with all contacts, at each stage and level of client organizations. Minessence
We take complex concepts and ideas, and break them down so that everyone can grasp and apply the learning, immediately, in both their work and personal lives. Practicality
Our job is to help leaders, teams and their organizations run better, faster and stronger, in the most practical and appropriate manner. Our Capabilities

Develop clear, actionable values, vision and strategy
Create cultural awareness and alignment
Develop an entire team of leaders, at all levels
Build organizational capabilities that can effectively turn your organization from good to extraordinary

06/12/2026

Joy at work isn’t one-size-fits-all. Different DiSC styles experience and sustain joy in different ways. When managers and teammates understand those differences, they’re better equipped to support the people around them. Here’s a look at what fuels joy for each DiSC style.

05/07/2026

Motivation looks different for everyone. What energizes one person may not resonate with another, and understanding those differences is key to building stronger teams and more effective working relationships. Different DiSC styles are motivated by different things. Here's a look at what drives each one.

04/21/2026

Not a conference room. Not a hotel ballroom. Not a weekend seminar.

Five days in the Montana wilderness with no distractions, world class coaches, and a small group of men who are ready to do the real work.

The setting is not an accident. There is something about wide open land and fresh mountain air that makes it easier to think clearly, be honest with yourself, and actually decide what comes next. Comment MONTANA to learn more.

04/14/2026

Your brain is not your enemy, it is simply loyal to what it has learned, even when what it has learned is slowly destroying you. That truth sat heavy with me as I listened, almost like someone gently but firmly holding up a mirror I had avoided for too long. This book did not speak at me, it spoke to me. It reached into those quiet corners where habits hide and exposed them, not with condemnation, but with clarity. As the narration unfolded, it felt less like instruction and more like a conversation, the kind that makes you pause, reflect, and admit to yourself, this right here is where I have been getting it wrong. What struck me most was not just the science, but the humanity in it, the understanding that we are not broken, just patterned, and patterns can be changed.

1. Your habits are not random, they are rehearsed survival strategies: One of the most powerful realizations is that your so called bad habits are not accidents, they are your brain trying to protect you in the only way it knows how. Whether it is procrastination, overthinking, or self sabotage, these behaviors were learned as responses to past experiences. The author explains that your brain wires itself based on repetition and emotional intensity, so what you now struggle with may have once served you. That hit deeply, because it replaces shame with understanding. You stop asking, what is wrong with me, and start asking, what did I teach my brain to do. And in that shift, there is both accountability and hope.

2. Awareness is the first interruption of the cycle: You cannot change what you do not notice. The book emphasizes that most of our behaviors are automatic, running beneath conscious thought like background music we have stopped hearing. But the moment you bring awareness to a habit, you disrupt its flow. The narration makes this feel almost empowering, like turning on a light in a dark room. Suddenly, the patterns become visible, the triggers become clearer, and you begin to see the chain reaction that leads to your actions. That awareness is uncomfortable, yes, but it is also liberating, because now you are no longer just reacting, you are observing.

3. Your brain rewards familiarity, not necessarily what is good for you: This one stung a little. The brain prefers what it knows, even if what it knows is harmful. That is why we return to the same mistakes, the same toxic cycles, the same limiting beliefs. The author explains that comfort is not always a sign of correctness, it is often just a sign of repetition. Listening to this felt like waking up from a quiet illusion. It challenges you to question your instincts, to pause before following what feels natural, and to understand that growth will often feel unfamiliar, even wrong at first. But that discomfort is not danger, it is change in progress.

4. Small changes are not small, they are the foundation of rewiring: There is something deeply reassuring in the way the book strips away the pressure of dramatic transformation. Instead of chasing big, overwhelming changes, it brings you back to the power of small, consistent actions. The brain rewires through repetition, not intensity. This means that even the tiniest shift, repeated daily, begins to carve a new path in your mind. The narration carries this with such calm confidence, almost like a steady reminder that you do not need to fix everything overnight. You just need to start, and then keep going, gently but consistently.

5. Triggers are the hidden architects of your behavior: Behind every habit is a trigger, something that sets the behavior in motion. It could be an emotion, a place, a time of day, or even a thought. The book teaches you to become a detective of your own life, to trace your actions back to their starting point. And when you do, patterns begin to reveal themselves. This was one of those moments where things just clicked. You begin to realize that you are not as unpredictable as you thought. There is a structure to your behavior, and once you understand it, you can begin to intervene, to change the script before it plays out fully.

6. Replacement, not removal, is the key to breaking habits: Trying to simply stop a habit often leaves a void, and the brain does not like empty spaces. It will fill that gap with something, often the very behavior you are trying to escape. The author emphasizes the importance of replacing a bad habit with a better one that serves a similar purpose. This felt practical and deeply compassionate, because it acknowledges that you still have needs, emotional, mental, even physical. You are not just removing something, you are redirecting yourself. And that makes the process feel sustainable, not forced.

7. Identity shapes behavior more than willpower ever can: Perhaps the most profound lesson is that lasting change comes from how you see yourself. If you still identify as someone who procrastinates, who lacks discipline, who always falls back, your actions will eventually align with that identity. The book encourages a shift, not just in behavior, but in self perception. You begin to act not based on what you feel like doing, but based on who you are becoming. Listening to this felt deeply personal, almost like an invitation to redefine myself. It is not about pretending, it is about choosing, again and again, to align your actions with the person you want to be.

Book/Audiobook: https://amzn.to/4cjUW3A

You can access the audiobook when you register on the Audible platform using the l!nk above.

04/03/2026

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03/25/2026

"I spent years building escape routes. In my career, I kept one foot out the door, just in case. In my relationships, I held back just enough to protect myself from getting hurt. In my dreams, I kept a whispered backup plan—'if this doesn't work out, I can always fall back on…' I thought I was being smart. Safe. Practical. But somewhere along the way, I realized that all those exit strategies weren't protecting me—they were suffocating me. I was living in a constant state of 'almost,' close enough to see what I wanted but never close enough to touch it. That's when I picked up Matt Higgins's *Burn the Boats*, expecting a reckless call to chaos. What I found was the permission I didn't know I needed to finally go all in."

Matt Higgins is not a man who speaks about risk from a comfortable distance. He is a self-made billionaire who started from the ashes of poverty, a high school dropout who cared for his dying mother while sleeping in a car, a teenager who clawed his way from nothing to become the youngest press secretary in New York City history, and later, a shark on *Shark Tank*. *Burn the Boats* is not a theoretical manifesto on entrepreneurship; it is a raw, unflinching, and surprisingly tender memoir-manifesto hybrid born from lived desperation and triumph. The title refers to the ancient military tactic—made famous by Hernán Cortés—of ordering his men to burn their ships upon arrival, leaving no option but victory. Higgins argues that this isn't just a strategy for conquest; it is the essential mindset for anyone who wants to break free from mediocrity, fear, and the quiet agony of the un-lived life.

Here are 5 lessons from the book that lit a fire in me:

**1. Safety Is the Real Trap**
The most counterintuitive lesson in the book is that playing it safe is often the most dangerous thing you can do. Higgins argues that clinging to a "secure" job you hate, a relationship that diminishes you, or a dream you're too afraid to chase is its own kind of slow death. He reframes risk not as recklessness, but as the necessary price of liberation. The real risk, he suggests, is waking up decades from now wondering what your life could have been. This lesson gave me permission to stop confusing comfort with safety.

**2. Your Pain Can Be Your Compass**
Higgins shares his own story with gut-wrenching honesty—the poverty, the loss of his mother, the humiliation of being told he would never amount to anything. Instead of allowing those wounds to define him, he learned to use them as fuel. He teaches that our deepest pain often points toward our deepest purpose. The things we desperately wanted to escape can become the very experiences that give us the clarity, hunger, and resilience to build something extraordinary. It's a heart-warming reminder that nothing we endure is wasted.

**3. The Power of Forcing Functions**
One of Higgins's most practical insights is the concept of "forcing functions"—decisions that remove the option of retreat. Whether it's quitting your job before you have another lined up, publicly declaring a goal, or making a financial commitment you can't walk away from, forcing functions compress time and demand action. He argues that human nature is to delay, hedge, and wait for the "perfect moment" that never comes. By burning the boats, you stop negotiating with your own fear and finally give yourself no choice but to rise to the occasion.

**4. Resilience Is Built in the Fire, Not the Classroom**
Higgins has little patience for the idea that resilience can be learned from books or seminars (a gentle irony he acknowledges). He argues that true resilience is forged only through adversity—when your back is against the wall and you have no safety net. The lesson here is deeply reassuring: you don't need to feel ready before you take the leap. You become ready *because* you took the leap. The person you need to be is waiting for you on the other side of the decision you're afraid to make.

**5. Success Is Not Just About You**
What makes *Burn the Boats* unexpectedly heart-warming is Higgins's insistence that the goal of burning your boats is not just personal wealth or fame. He frames success as a responsibility—a way to create freedom for your family, to build something that outlasts you, and to become a person others can count on. He talks about his mother with such tenderness, about the weight of lifting his family out of poverty, about the obligation to make your sacrifices mean something. The book ultimately becomes a love letter to the idea that going all in is not selfish; it is the most generous thing you can do for the people who depend on you.

*Burn the Boats* is not a gentle book. It is a swift kick in the pants wrapped in a warm embrace. Higgins writes with the intensity of someone who has lost everything and rebuilt it with his bare hands, but also with the compassion of someone who genuinely wants to see others break free from their self-made cages. I closed this book not with reckless impulsivity, but with a strange, calm clarity. I realized that the boats I had been so carefully preserving—my backup plans, my hedged bets, my safe exits—were not keeping me safe. They were keeping me small. And for the first time, I felt ready to watch them burn.

02/26/2026

I didn’t realize how much my habits were running me until I picked up The Dopamine Discipline by Tommy Baker. I thought self-control was about sheer willpower, but the book reframed it as a strategic reset of the brain’s reward system. It isn’t just about stopping bad habits—it’s about understanding how dopamine drives motivation, focus, and desire, and then designing your life to channel it purposefully. Reading it felt like uncovering a blueprint for reclaiming energy, attention, and mental clarity. These are the 7 lessons I carried from it.

1. Understanding Dopamine Is Understanding Yourself. The book starts by breaking down how dopamine motivates behavior. I realized that many of my impulses—scrolling endlessly, overindulging in entertainment, or succumbing to distractions—weren’t failures of character but neurological responses. Recognizing this shifted my approach from shame to strategy.

2. Habit Architecture Shapes Outcomes. Baker emphasizes that environments and routines create dopamine triggers. I noticed how my surroundings, notifications, and idle habits kept me in loops of instant gratification. By redesigning context—limiting cues, creating friction for bad habits, and lowering resistance for productive ones—I began to reclaim control without relying on brute willpower.

3. PMO and Impulse Patterns Are Manageable. One of the most challenging insights was seeing compulsive behaviors as learnable patterns, not personal flaws. The book provides concrete steps to break cycles of po*******hy, ma********on, and overindulgence by replacing them with healthier dopamine-stimulating activities. Understanding the neurological basis made abstinence feel less like deprivation and more like optimization.

4. Delayed Gratification Is a Skill, Not a Punishment. The book reframes restraint as a tool to increase clarity, satisfaction, and energy. I practiced intentionally delaying small pleasures, which paradoxically heightened enjoyment when I finally indulged in healthy rewards. Training the brain this way strengthened focus and reduced impulsivity across other areas of life.

5. Awareness of Triggers Is Crucial. Baker emphasizes monitoring both internal and external triggers. Stress, boredom, and social cues often drive lapses. I began journaling urges, noting patterns, and anticipating challenges. This proactive awareness created a buffer against reactive behavior.

6. Rewiring Requires Patience and Consistency. Changing dopamine-driven patterns isn’t instant. The book stresses incremental progress over perfection. I learned to celebrate micro-wins—short periods of focus, delayed gratification, or resisting a trigger—as progress toward rewiring habits permanently.

7. Clarity and Strength Emerge Through Discipline. Beyond controlling impulses, Baker highlights that recalibrated dopamine circuits improve decision-making, energy, and confidence. I noticed a tangible difference in mental clarity, motivation, and emotional stability. Discipline became less about restriction and more about aligning actions with long-term goals.

Reading this book transformed how I view self-mastery. It made me see that impulses are not enemies—they are signals. With understanding, intentional habit design, and strategic dopamine management, I could regain focus, break destructive cycles, and build sustainable strength. Discipline became less about denying pleasure and more about choosing the right pleasures at the right time, creating a life of clarity, energy, and purposeful action.

BOOK: https://amzn.to/46Ms5mE

You can also get the audio book for FREE using the same link. Use the link to register for the audio book on Audible and start enjoying it.

02/20/2026

Most leadership books focus on motivating willing participants. Leading the Unleadable focuses on a different challenge: what do you do when the talent is strong, but the personality is difficult?
In Leading the Unleadable: How to Manage Mavericks, Cynics, Divas, and Other Difficult People, Alan Willett approaches leadership as behavioral engineering rather than inspiration. The premise is pragmatic: some high-performers resist authority, question decisions, or disrupt cohesion — and ignoring them is not an option.
Here are the 7 reflections that stayed with me:

1. Difficult Behavior Often Masks Strength.
Mavericks challenge assumptions. Cynics spot risks early. Divas often have high standards. The problem isn’t always competence — it’s unmanaged expression. The task is channeling strengths without tolerating dysfunction.

2. Stop Taking It Personally.
The book emphasizes depersonalization. Resistant employees often react to systems, incentives, or autonomy constraints — not you as an individual. Emotional neutrality allows strategic response.

3. Diagnose Before You Intervene.
Not all “difficult” people are the same. Some crave control, others recognition, others autonomy. Effective management requires identifying the underlying driver before applying corrective measures.

4. Clarity Reduces Friction.
Ambiguity creates conflict. Clear expectations, defined metrics, and documented accountability narrow the space for manipulation or misinterpretation.

5. Give Autonomy with Boundaries.
High-talent disruptors often value independence. The strategy isn’t micromanagement — it’s structured freedom. Define outcomes clearly and allow latitude in ex*****on.

6. Consequences Must Be Predictable.
The book underscores consistency. If boundaries are stated but not enforced, credibility erodes. Measured, proportional consequences maintain authority without escalation.

7. Leadership Is Behavioral Calibration.
Managing strong personalities is less about charisma and more about alignment. You are adjusting incentives, feedback loops, and expectations to shape productive behavior.

What stayed with me most was the reframing: “unleadable” people are rarely impossible. They are misaligned. The leader’s role is not to dominate or appease, but to create conditions where talent contributes rather than corrodes.
Leading the Unleadable doesn’t romanticize leadership. It treats it as operational discipline — balancing empathy with authority, flexibility with standards, and performance with culture.

BOOK: https://amzn.to/4qMjfwd

You can also get the audio book for FREE using the same link. Use the link to register for the audio book on Audible and start enjoying it.

02/15/2026

This weekend is overflowing with reasons to celebrate, an eclipse, Presidents Day weekend, Valentine's Day, AND a long weekend to reset and recharge. So we're celebrating by gifting you our “Celebration Weekend Offer”. That means special pricing on the transformations you've been craving:

Malibu (Feb 21): One day of silence, sound healing, and breathwork to release tension and reconnect with your truest self. https://www.avvi.me/serra-silent-retreat

Montana (May 1-6): Find your purpose and passion on the Big Hole River. Get off life's hamster wheel with fly fishing, hiking, coaching, and gourmet meals in one of Montana's most pristine landscapes. https://www.avvi.me/montana

Limited spots available. Your future self is already thanking you.

01/27/2026

I see you. You’re exhausted, doing everything for everyone, and wondering why no one else steps up. Here’s the truth: you can shift this. You can stop doing it all and start attracting the respect, support, and balance you deserve.

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