I have been working with a client for the past three years to get his business ready to sell. He has owned this business for over 30 years, and it is one of the most successful businesses of its kind in the Midwest. But now as the door on that part of his life closes, he is having high anxiety over the next door opening. We have prepared a detailed plan for the new business including three years of detailed budgets and cash flow, and we have spent hours praying for God’s dire

We live in a world that has many circumstances that we find uncomfortable, and sometimes very painful. But we are not alone, are we? I have a client who is well known in his industry (national and internationally). He leads an enormously successful business. Life has been good. He travels internationally and has friends all over the world. He has two lovely daughters and two beautiful grandchildren. But life has not all been a bed of roses. He lost his wife five years ago aft

In this tense world that we live in, a huge roadblock is stress. It seems to occur frequently when we take ourselves and our circumstances too seriously. The last few weeks I have been grinding in my consulting practice. Feeling stressed, I decided to take a break and go to our house in the north woods. It is a beautiful pace on a large bay on a large lake surrounded by 60 to 75 foot trees. It is just the place to clear my mind by seeing some beautiful sunrises over the bay,

I had an interesting meeting with a coaching client this week that I want to tell you about. I asked my coaching client, “What is the number one issue that you would like to get help you with?" His response was, "I have just absolutely hit a wall in my career.” We have all used that phrase “I’ve just hit a wall.” Sometimes we use it at the end of a day when we have completely lost our energy, and in certain circumstances it can become a synonym for giving up. I suspect that i

Have you ever found yourself feeling bitter or offended? According to recent surveys, many people in our country are feeling this way. A while ago, I heard a song for the first time called "What Grace Can Do" by Cochran and Co. The song talks about how God comes running for us even when we feel that we just don’t deserve it. We feel unworthy of God’s love, but he shows it to us anyway. At about the same time I had a new client. I have never had a client as bitter as this man

My newest coaching client is so negative and pessimistic about the world that it makes it difficult to get started on coaching her. Yet, she reached out to me after leaving a very lucrative position at a very successful company. People in the industry call it burn out. Some are saying that the more AI is infiltrating our companies, the more unhappy workers (including the executives) are. A recent Gallup survey shows that where AI is integrated, 25%t say the workplace culture

I have a current coaching client that was, in her words, facing the most daunting challenge of her career. She felt like the course of action that had been assigned to her by her CEO would create hardship for the current customers and team members of the business. On the one hand, if she is successful with this plan, she moves up to be President of one of the subsidiary companies. On the other hand, being honest and trustworthy to team members and customers puts her in a posi

Lately, I have been focused on strength. I have a very close friend who is going through a period of time here he needs strength. I have a coaching client who is needing strength to move forward with her side gig, which I believe has greater potential than her current business. My grandson got a burn on his leg yesterday and he needs the strength to make it through the school day today without thinking about his pain. We all need strength from time to time. But where do we fi

I have great news to share with you this week! I’m so excited to share that I’m finally writing a book. Below is the book summary for a little sneak peek: "The Spirit has been very busy making a story out of my life.” I didn't plan to write a book about faith. I planned to build companies, lead a global profession, raise two sons, and grow old with the woman I met on the same day I had my heart broken by someone else. Then came cancer. Then open-heart surgery. Then a five-yea

I am working with an executive right now who thinks kindness in the workplace is a form of weakness. He is convinced that kindness establishes a “country club atmosphere” and it doesn’t belong in a well-run company. He said, “People will take advantage of that and then you will have total chaos.” He also said that it is something extra that people don’t expect. We have a lot of work to do because I believe that kindness is not extra. It is what makes people stay, grow, and th

I met with a client this week. He is very unhappy with his life in general, but he is clinging to what looks impressive. He just doesn’t know it!! He has a very impressive business, a fantastic house, some amazing cars, and a very large investment portfolio. He is driven by quick progress, obvious success, and clear proof that things are working. He is so totally focused on what looks large and impressive that he totally misses the small things. This week I asked him, "How bi

I have heard people say the phrase "Isn't it a coincidence?" more and more lately. However, I realize that a coincidence is a higher power than me putting things together. A while ago, I was in the eastern part of Michigan not far from the Great Lakes working with a manufacturing client. It was a family-owned business and was referred to me by a fellow professional who knew that our firm had done a lot of work with manufacturing businesses. So, why the referral you ask? It in

One of my coaching clients recently told me that life in general is so distracting, so busy and so intense that she doesn't know how to relax. I asked her to describe what happens in a day, a week, and a month. I won’t list everything that she listed, but what I will tell you is that she is buried in her phone, computer, meetings, and taking kids to where they need to be all day long, every single day. Even her workouts at the gym are precisely timed to maximize her workout w

I have been asked many times to speak to groups about hope and how to bring more hope into the world around us. This week I met with a new coaching client, and his first words to me were, "Ted, I have lost all hope. My wife has filed for a divorce, and she has applied for full custody of the kids." I wish I could say that this is an unusual scenario in the world that we live in, but in the business world it is so easy to get our priorities in the wrong order. It is easy to fo

For whatever reason, my coaching clients and my consulting clients have all been talking about baseball lately. I love the game having played it for over 20 years and coached for equally as many years. There are a lot of similarities between coaching a baseball team and coaching a client. In fact, there are a number of lessons learned in baseball that are transferable to business and life in general. Last weekend was a huge baseball tournament in the Minneapolis area. My olde

How do we fill people around us with hope? The world around us is full of people who are suffering from grief, depression, anxiety, worry, strained relationships, etc. How can we lift them up? Last weekend I watched my youngest grandson play in a baseball game. After the game, I saw him across the field talking to one of his teammates. When he came over to where I was sitting, I asked him what they were talking about. He said, “I threw a ball from short to first base, and he

Much of my business consulting and coaching has been focused on making businesses run more efficiently, improving teams, making processes more streamlined, increasing performance, etc. But this week, I received a different request. It was, “My family is a mess. Help me make it better. I have been so focused on growing the business, building net worth, and accumulating assets that I have totally lost track of my family. When I do spend time with them, I feel like a total stran

Today I was trying to isolate in my mind my biggest lesson as CEO of two large financial advisory practices. It is well known that authority gets it done. There are all kinds of traditional, authoritative, hierarchal business structures that are widely used and commonly known. But what builds loyalty? Because it seems to me that I hear too many CEO’s today complaining about lack of loyalty. And they tend to blame it on newer generations. I hear statements like, “This is a Gen

Last week, I worked with one of my most successful clients. From the outside looking in, I am sure that others are envious of them. He has several very successful businesses. He has several homes around the world. He has a collection of automobiles. He has a huge portfolio of investments. He has a beautiful, loving family. So, what, you ask, could I do for him? What was his question? He told me, "I just feel empty; I don't know what I am striving for anymore." Then he asked m

Today is about external success vs. internal exhaustion. I see it as an epidemic out there. One of my most successful clients told me something today that shocked me. He said, “I am exhausted by my life.” Not because anything is going badly. His business is doing extraordinarily well. It is growing. It out pacing the benchmarks of others in his industry. Personally, he is financially thriving. He is well respected in his industry and in his community. He is in great shape, an