Steve would be the first to admit it was a long and entirely unplanned journey that saw him evolve from a Mechanical Engineer, to a high-technology entrepreneur, to an investor in environmental sustainable forestry projects in developing countries, to a professional coach. The common thread is he loves to create value and help people.

Steve stumbled onto coaching in 1996 while doing some volunteer work and he knew he had found his calling. In coaching he could bring together the diverse parts of his experience and passions and use them to help others. Better yet, he could do it all from his home, close to his family.

Having completed CTI’s certification and leadership programs, Steve is now a senior Master Certified Coach who works with individuals, business owners and leaders to help them make powerful changes in their lives, careers and organizations. He coaches his clients to identify their callings, connect to their passions, and build on their unique strengths to make a big difference in their world.

Steve is also passionate about building and setting high standards within the young profession of coaching. He continues to write, speak and devote a significant portion of his time to help other coaches succeed. Steve has served in many leadership capacities within the coaching community, including 2005 President of the International Coach Federation. Steve was also named 2007 Canadian Coach of the Year.

If he is not coaching, you will find Steve outside, with his family and dogs, near the beaches and forests of Vancouver, doing yoga, or reading about developmental psychology, marketing, leadership and spirituality.

Come on in, The Water’s Fine!  I am a certified coach, originally from the US and have been living in Amsterdam since August, 2005.  I am trained to work with individuals, relationships and teams to help them maximize their potential.

As a coach, I have worked with clients in the following sectors: sporting goods, apparel, banking, law, non-profit, journalism, insurance, market research and education. As a result of my coaching, clients have improved communication and presentation skills, removed fears of handling conflict and stressful situations, increased confidence levels, strengthened relationships with their bosses, peers and staff, achieved more fulfilment in their lives and found new fulfilling careers. I am also a faculty member at ING’s Business School, leading one of their leadership development programs as well as coaching the participants.

Before becoming a coach, I worked in various areas of marketing: promotions marketing, public relations, retail brand marketing, premium merchandising, sports and event marketing. A majority of my work in marketing was done on a global or regional basis and some were market-specific projects. I was also the General Manager of a multi-million dollar office in Hong Kong for a marketing agency.

Through my experiences of living in the US, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong and The Netherlands, along with my international business experience, I can effectively work with my clients who come from all over the world. I look forward to the opportunity to work with you as well!

MacReynolds & Company, Inc.

When Sue MacReynolds introduces herself as an executive coach, she proudly explains that she was once a leader in a high-tech, government consulting firm. She led technical projects and highly educated technical people for over 20 years in the Washington, DC area. Her transformation to executive coaching began long before she knew about the coaching profession - when she realized that there were people and organizations in the middle of every technological transition, and the people were a major factor in the success or failure of their programs.

Sue registered for her first CTI coaching class in the fall of 2000, after deciding that she wanted to incorporate coaching techniques into her management style. She realized that the "critique and criticize" techniques of management were no longer working and weren't creating the type of supportive learning environment that she wanted to be a part of. As the leader, she realized that it was up to her to make the change.

CTI's fundamental skills of listening, asking powerful questions, finding new perspectives, and, most importantly, believing that nothing is wrong and everyone is creative, resourceful, and whole made a profound shift in how Sue treated her staff. She started seeing their strengths, not their weaknesses. She started valuing what they contributed, not wishing for something else. And, she now had an approach to guide them in developing their own careers, rather than expecting them to be just like her.

Over the next year, Sue helped start an internal coaching program within her company and become one of five internal coaches, built her private practice, started operating a coaching business, and completed her CPCC.

The following year, she gradually (and she'll admit, not without some struggle) saw herself transition from her technology management career to her coaching career. CTI's leadership program gave her increased confidence in her leadership presence, and to know that she can handle anything that life sends her way. Her certification pod - still meeting 3 years after they started - was there to encourage, cry, cheer, and drink "virtual mimosas" with her on her journey. And, her CTI coaches were there to keep her focused on her goals and her best self through this transition.

Today, she's a CPCC and a PCC, with a full-time coaching business. She coaches individuals in career transition and does pro-bono coaching for people who are unemployed. Among other projects, she coaches executives and leaders to improve their business results and their lives. Sue is active in her local business community, and has the time and flexibility to be with her husband and children more than she ever has before.

She is proud to claim CTI as her coaching school. CTI added heart, intuition, love, true openness (not that pretend kind she used to have), and an inner confidence to round out her management and business experience. She didn't need more knowledge. CTI gave her the tools to bring more of herself to her life.

Time to Change Project (CTI Prison Project)

Kathryn Kemp worked over 20 years in corporate America in the hospitality and real estate industries, including as a financial analyst and manager for a $500 million real estate portfolio. Despite her skill at the job and fondness for her colleagues, she wanted a career change. Exploring new options, she learned about coaching and attended one of CTI's information nights. She immediately enrolled in all of the courses, took them and became a certified coach.

Kathryn left her company in May 2002 to start her own practice, specializing in coaching executives and teams. About that time the prison project was looking for volunteers and donations. Kathryn chose to contribute to this program by assisting CTI classes in a federal prison in Denver.

After San Quentin Prison in California invited the CTI program into their facility, Kathryn became a liaison between Time to Change, CTI and San Quentin. Her job was to schedule all classes, gain gate clearance for faculty, as well as interface with the parent non profit which offers many prison services. She assisted all of the courses and returned weekly to help the inmates keep skills fresh, practice coaching and keep the community alive.

Kathryn exudes enthusiasm about the transformative nature of this work. She exclaims,"I've gotten the best coaching I've ever gotten in my entire life from the inmates during their classes." She is amazed at the way the men read the level three - and sees their hearts as huge. She continues, "The guys in our classes want to be there - they are not forced to be there. They are just like people in the outside - people who are up to making big changes in their lives." According to Kathryn, the inmates are tired of the life they are living and want something better.

One man in particular illustrates the change seen. He entered the first class - bald head, tattoos, bad attitude, saying, "This class is crap." At the end of the class he said, "I never knew when I spoke softly that my words would soak into other people like water into a sponge."

Two of the inmates in San Quentin declared their intention to become CTI leaders when their term ends. Three of them affirmed they plan to start juvenile coaching and another man has a vision for a chain of recovery centers - he calls it Recovery Plus, a holistic approach to recovery that includes coaching among other services.

Now that the inmates are introduced to the possibility of the greatness within themselves, choosing greatness is really a serious decision for them, as it would be for any of our coaching clients who want to make big changes in their lives. As she watched the inmates struggle and fight it and be with it and embrace it, Kathryn exclaims, "To watch them go through the gyrations of committing to a better life and to support them in achieving their goals - what a gift!"

Kathryn credits her CTI training as changing her life immeasurably, especially in gaining soaring self-confidence and leadership skills for the front of the room in her work with inmates.

Co-Directors, AmeriCoach

What started as a labor of love for CTI trained coaches Ursula Pottinga, CPCC and Ann Betz, CPCC has turned into a tremendous professional development experience and opportunity with a bright future. Ann has also solidified her business plan for this program through her involvement with the pilot Business Development program, for which she is now also a leader. Both credit the skills they developed in their CTI training as the backbone required to make this program viable and successful.

Their fledging agency, AmeriCoach started as an experiment. It grew out of Ann's consulting work with Project for Pride in Living (PPL). As a nonprofit organization that helps low and moderate income people become self-sufficient, PPL relies heavily on volunteer labor. One of the resources it draws upon to accomplish its work is AmeriCorps, a national program involving more than 50,000 volunteers. Ann saw in these civic-minded front-line workers an opportunity to have a real and lasting positive impact on individuals as well as the programs they support. "We focus too much on leaders," she says. "They don't have enough power to make change on their own."

Thanks to good connections, persuasive arguments, and a lot of hard work, Ann and Ursula recruited 13 CTI-trained coaches from across the country and Canada to participate in the pilot year of the program. All 13 agreed to work for small stipends. Between October 2002 and June 2003 they were paired with 21 AmeriCorps volunteers. These men and women each dedicated at least one year of their lives to serving others in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area through PPL or the Minnesota Promise Fellows corps. In addition, they received-free of charge-a minimum of six months of coaching, as well as four coaching-related training sessions.

In addition to the intriguing challenges this work presented, Ann had a personal motive as well. After becoming established as a coach, she had grown increasingly uncomfortable with a focus on finding clients who were able to pay, rather than on discovering and reaching out to the people she felt called to serve. But she had bills to pay and a family to support, so pro bono work wasn't a viable option. She also found that the one-on-one relationships she formed with clients weren't enough to satisfy her extroverted, big-picture nature. "When [AmeriCoach] was created, it was, 'Oh yeah, this is where it all comes together. I'm working with people I like, people who deserve it, groups rather than individuals.

The financial picture for AmeriCoach is as encouraging as the outstanding feedback from participants. Ann and Ursula have worked with a business consultant and are currently pursuing 501C3 status. Grant funding will help pay for this year's programming. And they have made some changes based on feedback from past participants. They hope that all of this leads to positive changes within AmeriCorps and for those involved. "I've always known that we need to honor individuals for who they are," says Ann. "AmeriCoach does that in a visible way."

Dr. Christmas.com coached by Rick Tamlyn

After honing his visual skills at Macy's Herald Square in New York City and while waiting for his big "acting break", Bob Pranga became Dr. Christmas. He's on his way to achieving his life-long goal of becoming famous with a major book deal, major DVD, and continuous television appearances. Bob and his partner have designed over 2500 trees and provided holiday decorating for "the house next door" to the homes of Hollywood's finest.

Bob credits the big turn around for the success of his business with the coaching he did with Rick Tamlyn. Bob knows this sounds like a cliché, but he says what made the difference for him was that Rick gave him permission to make his business a game. Rather than setting goals, Bob found that to be successful he needed to follow his own rules, not someone else's. He was set free from the midwestern beliefs he grew up with that demanded that you follow life and work in a certain sequence. Rick encouraged Bob to make up his own career.

The kicker for Bob is that last year a college testing agency contacted him to find out more about what he did. The representative told Bob his company was including the job of "Christmas decorator" among the options college students could explore in their curriculum. Bob loves that the profession he invented is up there among doctor, lawyer and engineer. He also loves working with Rick because the venue of coaching was not a "stuffy office." "We did most of the coaching in Rick's swimming pool," Bob relates with a chuckle, enjoying the anarchy of it all - since anarchy is one of Bob's cherished values.

The Birth of Coachingtoys.com

Marcy never imagined she would become president and creator of coachingtoys.com when she stepped into her first CTI class. It has been an awesome journey and the Co-Active Coach Training Program, the Co-Active Leadership Program and The Business Development Program combined to provide fertile ground, inspiration and learning to make her business a reality.

She fell in love with the Co-Active Coaching model and the Co-Active Coaching community. It was during the process of training that she spontaneously developed some product ideas for the coaching profession. This really got her excited. It was a perfect blend of her artistic, creative talents with the profession of coaching she had fallen in love with. In researching products she discovered that many coaches were creating products that weren't easy to find.

Marcy was drawn to the Co-Active Space Leadership program because of the changes she saw in others participating in the program. She wanted some of that, to be able to bring a more authentic presence to her work and life.

Wild and powerful it was - According to Marcy, "This program is exquisitely and creatively designed, and the learning builds from one retreat to the next." She experienced both significant and subtle shifts in each retreat. The program allowed her to successfully do things that she never thought she could do and get invaluable feedback. By the time she was three quarters of the way through the program, she had gained confidence, a deeper understanding of what she brings to the world and she made a decision to have an impact.

As Marcy relates it, "The idea of Coaching Toys Inc. was birthed here and would not exist if it weren't for this (leadership) experience. I gained clarity about what is important to me, the courage to take a stand for it and willingness to take risks."

Having a great idea is one thing - making it real is another altogether. - She had set out to create an Internet business, something she had never done before and faced a big "Now What?" moment. She cashed out equity in her house for start up money and began working with a graphic designer for the Web site.

This is when the pilot program for the Business Development Program showed up. Perfect timing as it was time to get down to the nitty gritty of creating a business - yikes - hard stuff for a creative human service type. The BDP experience was rich and extremely helpful, according to Marcy. She needed a business plan and was taught how to do it. The seven entrepreneurial skills continue to guide her today and she meets weekly with a success team that grew out of that class.

The result of all of this is that Coaching Toys Inc. made its initial debut at the ICF conference in 2002 and it created quite a buzz. The Coachingtoys.com Web site was launched in February 2003. The company and the vision will continue to grow and unfold and Marcy sees a lot more people involved in shaping its future down the road.

If someone would have told her six years ago that this would be where she would be standing today she would have said, "No way!" She is awed and humbled by this journey and grateful to CTI for the gifted training they bring to the world.

Driving a racecar at high speeds is perhaps the most exhilarating experience of aliveness possible! Robert Cornish should know because he has done that successfully for over 20 years of his life. What's more is that the way you have to BE - the mental processes of focus, concentration, commitment, and sensory awareness, in order perform this activity are appropriate and necessary for success in any life or business activity. Once you have experienced what this is like, it becomes a powerful metaphor to draw upon to meet any challenge presented in the business world.

Robert combined his racecar driving skills with the coaching skills he learned through CTI to enable his racecar driver clients to improve their performance on the track. Along the way his clients, many of whom were executives and business owners off the racetrack, began to tell him that something surprising was happening, the unique learning and performance techniques Bob was using and the intensive coaching he was providing, were also helping them in their business and personal relationships.

This experience led Robert to explore ways to expand what he was doing to a wider audience. He was inspired also by the work of Sir John Whitmore and Tim Gallwey who discovered that ski coaches actually were more effective than tennis instructors in enabling tennis players to improve their game.

As a result, Robert came to the CTI leadership program with the seeds of his business, Infinitability, already planted, (although the name had not yet been established). He came purposefully to create a workshop training experience that combines coaching skills and race car driving to enable businesses to operate from a more inspired place. At leadership, Robert gained more confidence in himself as a leader, learning more particularly about his unique strengths. He also credits leadership with teaching him the power of intention - creating that stake - what you stand for - and operating from the intention of what you want for the people you engage with- influencing the outcome of what you want them to get, setting the clear intention and operating with that in the background.

As a result of his leadership training, Robert Cornish created a unique workshop experience - not only for racecar drivers, but for business leaders. He sees one of the key elements of Infinitability's workshops as being the power of intention. Robert is determined to have people experience what it is like to set an intention of what they want - whether it is driving a go cart - or a business deal or getting the best out of their personal.

Today Robert and his team of leader Coaches offer intensives both on racecar tracks as well as on gocart tracks. Infinitability specializes in creating workshop intensives where the participant not only experiences the excitement and aliveness of driving a racecar, they also experience and learn how to use the coaching and leadership skills with each other that profoundly enables their learning and performance of this activity to take place. According to Robert Cornish, this workshop is experiential learning at its best. "It is like a ropes course on steroids."

Newstorytel.com

New Story Teleclasses (newstorytel.com) was founded to provide valuable and inspiring teleclasses to enrich lives in practical and sustainable ways through lively discussions facilitated by experts in their fields.

Co-owner Linda Graf, CPPC credits the evolution of this business with the outgrowth of her original leadership project through CTI.

Linda has a business background and loves starting businesses. What leadership gave her was "the opportunity to see what my urge was - what uniquely wanted to come out of me and then see if the community wanted it." Linda suggests that knowing that and then testing it and seeing it work has been really powerful. The other huge piece out of leadership for her was learning to ask for help. She can't underline that enough. According to Linda, "This whole New Story Teleclass thing would not be where it is today had it not been for leadership. This idea popped last August. What we have been able to accomplish since January this year is amazing and it's all because I'm not afraid to ask for help!"

Linda wanted to bring environmental awareness into her community after vacationing in an area in Northern California in an area that was fully "off the grid." She was sitting in her community of Fairfax and I wondered, "What would happen if our community were fully sustainable? What would it look like? It was clear that the cars would be different, the buildings would be different, the food would be different, the banks would be different, the health industry, and the relationships between people would be different." So she asked herself, how do we get from here to there? While Linda believes people want environmental sustainability, an impediment is busy lives. To address the issue and make learning how to create sustainability easily accessible to everyone, Linda and her partner created New Story Teleclasses. The concept is to provide information to people on how to live healthy, sustainable lives in an easily, accessible format - the teleclass.

After less than a year, the Web site is up and 25 faculty are offering classes. Additionally New Story Teleclass provides teleclasses in conjunction with environmental conferences such as a recent Bioneer Conference. By offering these classes after conferences, participants can dial in and access the speakers. Learning about sustainability is accessible to all.

"People often ask me, "Why Africa?" And my response is always the same: "Africa chose me. It was a choice that changed the direction of my life." - Linda Lea

Eight years ago Dr. Linda Lea went to Africa for the first time and fell in love with this mysterious continent. She realized there was a huge space for her to contribute to others, and with a solid background in education, decided that she could provide children with the possibility of a better life. Since that time, she has been to Uganda, Kenya and Uganda four times, and has created two scholarship programs, one for primary school children and one for Maasai girls in secondary school. As the Director of Education Programs for Global Partners for Development, a nonprofit organization working in E. Africa, she has provided 84 girls with scholarships for secondary school in the rural villages outside of Arusha. The scholarship program was a direct outgrowth of Linda's CTI leadership experience. She credits her work as a Certified Co-Active Coach and her Leadership training through CTI in particular in providing the skills necessary to accomplish her work with young Maasai women.

Included in her bigger vision, is a vocational training center for young women who do not have the academic ability to complete secondary education. Linda believes that a world where all women are given equal opportunity without social or financial constraints requires a radical shift in the culture. The vocational center is in the planning stages and will become a reality in the year 2004.

On January 28, 2004 Linda will host a small group of coaches and educators from the US for the first Education Forum to be held in Arusha, Tanzania. She will be representing Global Partners to provide an exchange of information, ideas, and concerns in a question and answer format. The purpose of this community exchange is to form an education alliance between Tanzania and the United States and to give young girls a voice that is rarely heard above a whisper. What an excellent opportunity to introduce Co-Active coaching and to provide leadership opportunities in E. Africa.