“The important thing is this: to be ready at any moment to sacrifice what you are for what you are to become.”

- Charles Dubois

 

My Spezio Tuholer

I love helping people understand their patterns and learn more effective ways to lead powerfully.

My projects and past times are varied, but each is linked in one fundamental way. 

Becoming aware of patterns, rather than operating from unknown or unconscious principles, gives people choice and aliveness. This is the essence of my personal passion as well as the source of my professional success. 

As a seeker and an explorer, I have seen a lot, both personally and professionally. I’ve worked with thousands of leaders, travelled to over 80 countries, and led a lot of adventures. I have had a few hiccups along the way--being taken hostage and negotiating our release, surviving a small airplane crash (my instructor was flying), drowning while rafting a class V rapid and somehow waking up many miles downriver, plus many other “hiccups.”

Though I do things that have risk, I’m not a risk taker. I like to have extraordinary experiences and manage risk through precise decision-making. I inch to the edge, assess the risk, and then jump with confidence…. And then repeat it hundreds of times. Whether it’s rafting, flying, driving at the track, learning a martial art, or coaching, this is how I discover and break through my patterns. 

 

My Professional Life  

I am a managing partner at Neuberg Gore, an elite coaching firm for CEOs of fast-growth startups and Venture Investors. I also created a podcast and online learning opportunities at Saturn Leadership.org to make lessons learned more available to everyone. And my blog on adventure learning is intended to make the learning even more fun.  My goal is for everyone to be able to improve their leadership–certainly the world needs more passionate and skilled leaders. 

At Neuberg Gore, I help startup leaders improve their leadership capabilities, refine decision-making, build and delegate to their teams, and create effective company cultures. My approach and tools were so successful that the firm grew quickly and now coaches several hundred leaders.

My individual startup coaching clients include Kickstarter, Sonder, VSCO, Casper, Harry’s, Orbital Insight, ApolloGraph QL, Deep Genomics, Fundera, Prodigy Games, UpGrad, Spredfast, DarwinAI, and many others. On the VC side, I’ve worked with investors at A16Z, Inovia, Coatue, Blank, and led programs for NVP, Khosla, Lerer Hippeau, FirstMark, Lux, and others.

I am passionate about my work and have been focused on leadership and business communication for 25+ years. I have led leadership programs in 80 cities across 15 countries for the Fortune 500, NASA, McKinsey, Burning Man, and a large variety of companies. Some of my favorite projects are McKinsey, IBM, Disney, REI, the Federal Reserve, the US Air Force, Bombardier Aerospace, and Phoenix Nuclear. See my full resume. 

I bring a unique combination of backgrounds in business, leadership, and psychology. My general approach is to shift the behavior first, and then go deeper into the mindsets that make that shift difficult. I earned a BA in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, an MBA from the Haas School of Business at Berkeley, and a Master Somatic Coach certification from the Strozzi Institute. I taught Organizational Psychology at Sofia University (ITP) and Negotiations at Harvard Law School. I’m happy to lecture at Business Schools and at events. Here is my coaching story if you want to learn more about my career.

*I’ve done a lot.

My Personal Life

I live in Boulder, Colorado. My friends all say that I am one of the most curious people they have ever met. I simply love to learn and explore. In my spare time, I love to…​​

  • Fly! Paragliding, antique airplanes, sailplanes, etc.

  • Professionally guide whitewater rafting expeditions (I’m a rescue and medical team leader)

  • Drive high performance vehicles (particularly my Subaru WRX)

  • Teach partner dance

  • Teach and perform improvisational comedy

  • Play piano and flute

  • Participate in Lakota vision quests, sweat lodges, and Sun Dance

  • Travel… I’ve been to 80+ countries

I simply love adventure, connection, and learning…  but most importantly, I love embodied presence–really being tuned into the moment and connecting with something great than myself.

 

“Once we rid ourselves of traditional thinking, we can get on with creating the future.”

— James Bertrand