Build Your Bench Coaching, san fransisco, CA (2026)

06/04/2026

Why my allyship didn't start at a parade.

(A couple of days late for Tuesday, but kicking off a series I'll be running every Tuesday for the rest of June).

June is Pride Month, and my feed is already full of corporate logos turned into rainbows.

I appreciate the visibility, but for me, allyship didn't start with a marketing campaign. It started in the middle of a plague.

I grew up in the 1970s and 80s in a strict evangelical environment. In my world, being gay was considered the absolute worst thing you could be. It was the beginning of the strongest gay rights movement yet, but you wouldn't know it in my house. I wasn't even allowed to watch Three's Company because John Ritter's character pretended to be gay just to live with two women. It was scandalous. The only representation I saw were the tropes—the "sassy gay neighbor" like Jim J. Bullock on Too Close for Comfort.

Then, the mid-80s hit. I was in high school, becoming more aware of the world, and the AIDS crisis exploded onto our TV screens.

People were dying of this terrifying new "gay cancer." I vividly remember the news reports—young men, emaciated, covered in Kaposi's sarcoma lesions, going blind, and practically begging the world to care that they were dying.

The response from my religious community? "This is your own fault."

There was a distinct, chilling lack of compassion. Looking back, I can confidently say that my "deconstruction" began at that exact moment. When you watch a community fight for its literal life while the people meant to protect them turn their backs with judgment, it changes you.

I am an ally because I remember.

06/04/2026

You cannot develop a team while you are drowning in checklists.

We are officially entering the "Talent Review" season in the retail and corporate world.

It is the time of year when we sit down with our teams and ask beautiful, ambitious questions like, "What ignites you?" and "Where do you want to be in your career?"

But here is an Earned Perspective from the front lines:

Those conversations are completely useless if your managers do not have the Capacity to actually mentor their people.

Right now, front-line leaders are buried under daily compliance audits, safety checklists, and corporate reporting. You cannot ask a leader to actively Design a career path for their best employee when they are actively fighting a war against their own administrative tasks.

If you are serious about talent development, you have to automate the noise.

A Strategic Architect builds a Digital Bench to handle the compliance, freeing up the human manager to handle the coaching.

05/26/2026

The Operator works late. The Architect goes to dinner.

I haven't posted in a few weeks.

I am one month into my new role as General Manager at Athleta. I am in the middle of unpacking a new house in Portland. The sheer volume of the operational noise of taking on a big P&L and a new city has been, frankly, overwhelming.

Last week, I had a dinner scheduled with another brilliant local CliftonStrengths coach who is also in the throes of starting her practice, raising a child, and renovating a home.

As the end of the workday approached, the to-do list was massive. The instinct to cancel dinner and stay late at the store to "catch up" was overwhelmingly strong.

But here is the uncomfortable operational truth: The list is never done.

Working late is not a badge of honor; it is usually just an inability to triage.

So, I didn't cancel. I took control of the list. I used my Digital Bench to organize the chaos, mapped out the next day, and I walked out the door. We had a phenomenal dinner. Today, on my day off, I took my dog to a gorgeous rose garden while my laundry was in the dryer.

If you do not fiercely protect your own boundaries, the business will happily consume every hour you give it.

Hold the line. Go to dinner.

04/30/2026

Today is my birthday. Most people ask for a spa day or a nice dinner. I apparently asked for a million dollar P&L and a high-performing retail floor.

Let me explain. When I moved to Portland in January, I decided I wanted to pick up a part-time retail gig to get out of the house while I built my consulting business. I love retail, and I spent a decade at Gap Inc. previously, so I threw my hat in the ring for an Assistant Store Manager role at the Athleta in Brewery Blocks.

They called me the next day.
They didn’t want me for the ASM role. They had an unposted opening for a General Manager, and they specifically wanted someone with my exact background in leadership design and people development.

It was the absolute right fit at the right time. So, on April 20th, I officially stepped into the GM role.

This is a small store with a mighty, brilliant staff driving spectacular results, and I am deeply grateful to be part of an organization that looks at a Strategic Architect and says, "Yes, we want that on the front line."

To answer the inevitable question: No, I am not being hired to install a corporate AI system at Athleta.

Instead, I am doing exactly what I tell my clients to do. I am bringing my own personal Digital Bench with me. I am using my Custom AI Systems to manage my own operational noise—so that I can dedicate 100% of my "Human Premium" to coaching this brilliant team on the floor.

I'll be writing all about this integration tomorrow in To Prompt, Divine.

If you are in Portland, please come say hi. I'll be the one fiercely protecting my team's capacity, organizing the leggings, and accepting birthday coffee. ☕️

04/22/2026

Today is a rare calendar overlap: It is both Earth Day and Administrative Professionals Day.

I spent the early part of my career as an admin. My mother was an admin for most of her career. So I can say with absolute, earned perspective: much of the time, the job feels exactly like being shoved face-first into a pile of... well, compost.

Because of this, I used to have a very dark joke about these two holidays sharing a date. I would tell executives that they needed to make sure they were properly composting their administrative professionals once they were done using them.

In the corporate ecosystem, we have historically treated our support staff as infinite, consumable resources. We take brilliant human beings and burn them to the ground doing manual data entry, playing calendar tetris, and acting as human bridges between broken software platforms.

Thankfully, we are finally seeing a brilliant, long-overdue shift. We are watching the "Assistant" evolve into the "Administrative Business Partner." We are recognizing that these professionals are strategic assets, growing far beyond filing and scheduling.

I desperately hope this trend continues.

But here is the uncomfortable operational truth: You cannot ask your admin to be a strategic business partner while simultaneously drowning them in mechanical friction.

A Strategic Architect protects their most precious ecosystem by building a Digital Bench. You automate the 85% administrative noise so your people actually have the Capacity to be the strategic partners you need them to be.

Celebrate your admins today. And then stop treating them like human APIs.

04/22/2026

You cannot force a harvest.

Today is Earth Day.

If you spend enough time observing a healthy ecosystem, you learn a profound lesson about growth: You cannot force a harvest, and you cannot optimize a forest through sheer willpower.

Nature thrives on balance. It requires deep roots, thoughtful care, and a profound respect for the seasons. A master gardener doesn't stand in the soil and demand that a seed grow faster; they tend to the environment. They ensure the soil is rich, the water is sufficient, and the space is cleared of weeds.

The healthiest ecosystems are never the result of relentless extraction. They are the result of deliberate, sustainable stewardship.

Take a moment today to step outside. Breathe the air. Look at what happens when an environment is given the thoughtful care and space it actually needs to thrive.

Happy Earth Day.

04/21/2026

There is a dangerous phenomenon that happens when we manage a business purely from a distance.

I call it the Empathy Gap. And it isn't just a C-Suite problem—it happens to anyone who doesn't regularly visit the front lines of their own operation.

From the top of the mountain, the spreadsheets look pristine. The operational rollouts look flawless. The strategy makes perfect sense.

But when you actually step onto the floor—when you stand where the work is actually being executed—you often realize that the "flawless strategy" is causing unnecessary friction for your people.

We sit at our desks designing complex procedures, completely blind to the fact that our front-line managers do not have the Capacity to execute them. We are handing them heavy, beautiful anchors while they are trying to swim.

A Strategic Architect does not govern exclusively from the clouds. They build systems rooted in Earned Perspective.

Get out of the office this week. Go look at the actual work.

04/15/2026

What ignites your top talent? (And what is suffocating them?)

There is a massive sign on the wall at the venue I am at today that asks a simple question: "What ignites you?"

I am spending the next two days in Grapevine, Texas, getting certified in Jo’s brilliant Catalyst System before the Future of Strengths Forum kicks off. We are hosted at the House of Shine—an absolutely incredible organization dedicated to helping people discover their unique spark. (Seriously, if you are ever in the area, you must visit this place).

I am surrounded by world-class coaches, and we are having deep, profound conversations about human potential.

But as a Strategic Architect, I have to offer an uncomfortable operational truth:

You can spend thousands of dollars identifying exactly what ignites your top talent. You can map their strengths, understand their drive, and frame their purpose perfectly. But if you take that ignited, brilliant executive and bury them in 20 hours of manual data entry, calendar tetris, and administrative noise every week... that spark will suffocate.

Fire requires oxygen. Human potential requires Capacity.

You cannot ignite a team that is drowning in friction. You have to build the infrastructure—a Digital Bench—to absorb the administrative noise so your people actually have the space to shine.

What is suffocating your best people today?

04/15/2026

Competence without safety is just a weapon.

I am writing this from Texas, where I am spending the week ahead of the Future of Strengths Forum.

We spend billions of dollars in the corporate sector trying to identify the "strengths" of our leadership teams. We map them, we color-code them, and we put them on nice little placards on our desks.

But here is the uncomfortable, undeniable truth: Strengths without psychological safety is just weaponized competence.

If you put a brilliant, highly capable executive in a room where they are terrified of making a public mistake, their strengths do not scale your company. Their strengths are entirely consumed by the exhausting, invisible labor of self-preservation.

You cannot optimize an environment built on fear.
A Strategic Architect does not just mandate performance; they Design the safety required to unleash it.

I'll be speaking on this exact dynamic this Saturday. If you are in the room, come say hello.

04/14/2026

Headed to Dallas to speak at the Future of Strengths Forum! We’re gonna dive into strengths & psychological safety. Interested? DM me for some virtual options to watch live!

Build Your Bench Coaching

06/04/2026

06/04/2026

05/26/2026

04/30/2026

04/22/2026

04/22/2026

04/21/2026

04/15/2026

04/15/2026

04/14/2026

Address

Telephone

Website

Alerts

Contact The Business

Shortcuts

Share

Category