Who am I?
I am a catalyst for change.
What does that mean? I act as an all-in-one source for all the support, encouragement, strategies, and resources you need to do your thing to the fullest.
It is one thing to have an idea, a goal, dream, or passion, and it is a completely other thing to actualize it all into full fruition.
Change, the pursuit of what you want, in any form, can be quite the challenge to be sure – it’s tricky stuff.
What I do is act as a conduit for what you seek – living your higher potential, the pursuit of a passion, starting/growing your business, creating more happiness and fulfillment and less stress and anxiety, optimizing your health, building/improving your relationships – whatever it may be …
I’m here for you.
My Story
Like Jonathan Livingston Seagull, from the book by Richard Bach, I realized at an early age that I didn’t want to merely “hang with the flock to find food and shelter.” I wanted to discover the world, find out what I was capable of, bring new creations to life!
Life is an adventure and meant to be lived to the fullest.
However, this would turn out to be the hardest thing to actually experience in my life.
My own struggles began in my early teens, driven primarily by stubborn cognitive issues like ADD and dyslexia (story in detail below) and dealing with health challenges like when I ended up in a wheelchair with 8 broken ribs and a shattered hip.
I tried everything in my power to overcome in spite of it all – reading over 300 books, taking countless seminars, and so much more, only to remain stuck and frustrated.
The beautiful twist is that at my darkest hour, I discovered a breakthrough
My #1 struggle, its devastating impact, and how it lead to what you see before you...
I’ve described it in many ways
ADD, Dyslexia, poor memory, lack of focus, fuzzy thinking, feeling out of it, stuttering, stammering, glitching out, and on and on.
But that wasn’t the worst of it.
I call it my “flow glitch,” a Tourette’s-Syndrome-like flinch in my muscles that had a devastating impact on my #1 passion for decades – the dream of performing as a Jazz-Rock guitarist on the world’s stages. I attended three different music academies and practiced day and night. But for some reason, I would make a hundred tiny mistakes – the simpler the song, the more mistakes. The harder I tried, the worse I’d play. Talk about a conundrum to say the least!
It affected every facet of my life:
- Feeling awkward and anxious when socializing, especially in groups, always 1 or 2 beats behind everyone else.
- Dancing and feeling stiff and self-conscious.
- Singing off-key and not remembering lyrics.
- Going blank with paralyzing stage fright when about to perform on any level.
Put it all together, and I couldn’t help but believe there was something seriously wrong with me and that I was different than anyone else.
I tried everything in my power to fix things – reading hundreds of books, taking seminars, trying Nootropics (brain supplements), seeing doctors, therapists – nothing changed.
So, I ended up “turning down the volume” and basically hid in my cave. For years.
And during this time, I experienced the costs of a muted life – addictions, hitting bottom, hopelessness, what it is to be without home, to contemplate and act on ending it all.
And yet…
I know sweet victories in spite of it all and feel more alive and excited than ever, because…
I fixed it! I solved the problem by wiping the slate clean and starting over… beginning with a simple question…
“What does life itself want”? My answer:
Life wants ONE thing – to move, grow, and expand, and EVERYTHING comes from this singular thrust of life! This simple idea would change everything.
With MOVEMENT as the central theme, I added principles of music, nature, and simple physics I had learned in electrical engineering, and voila, the “holy grail” of all personal growth approaches that freed me of my cognitive glitches and also opened the doors to higher abilities, creativity, and flow that we ALL CAN ACCESS.
I call my approach Life as a Wave.™
And it’s based on a fundamentally SIMPLE game at play: I am either being a “conduit” for the movement OR I’m getting in the way of it! Period. End of story.
The #1 culprit to moving forward in our lives is what I call the Slippery Mind which is the part that judges, labels, and creates “stories” that in the end, blocks the movement.
Free up the mind, and movement happens. It’s physics.
The most incredible thing about making it all about movement … is that I can get real-time feedback using things based on rhythm like my #1 teacher …
My drum!! If you know what to look for, drumming and other activities can show you second-by-second if you’re “being the conduit” or not … in ANY area of your life!
20 years later…
Living “life as a wave,” I now know “heaven on earth.”
Applying Life as a Wave to every area of my life, I can now:
- Sing on key, harmonize, and improvise in the moment with songs I’ve never heard before!
- Dance in flow, my body surprising me at what it can express.
- Play tennis better than when I trained daily as a teenager.
- Talk with flow and ease under nearly any condition (including doing over 1,200 days in a row of Facebook LIVES … something once beyond impossible and now effortless).
- Connect with others – social anxiety and self-consciousness now replaced with comfort and ease.
- Feel the true ecstasy of witnessing what I’m truly capable of, like expressing myself freely in so many ways.
- Enjoy the thrill of seeing my ideas and life’s work come to full fruition (what is before you now!) and impacting the world.
- Having more passion and sense of purpose than ever.
And best of all, I can now help others free themselves from what gets in the way from doing their thing to the fullest…
After decades and hundreds of hours dedicated to my passions and getting blocked every step of the way, I ended up developing a new approach to freeing the mind based on my experience as an engineer and musician. It has worked wonders to break through my lifelong blocks and open the door for me to live my fullest life.
Today…
As a peak performance mindset coach, applying my signature methodology called Life as a Wave,™ I am a catalyst for countless people to free their minds and live their adventure. I’ve been doing it for nearly 25 years now, with folks from all walks of life and all ages.
I would love to help you bring forth what you have within you and share it with a world that truly needs it.
When I coach, I bring the “all of me.”
My background in engineering, music, mind theory, as well as 20+ years of coaching, extensive training in personal growth, building websites and courses for entrepreneurs, running a successful online business, playing Jazz guitar and world percussion, inventing gadgets, and enjoying an active lifestyle skiing, playing tennis, and kiteboarding.
My background
- Studied core coaching competencies through the International Coaching Federation, of which I’m a founding member and technical adviser for the local chapter here in Buffalo, NY., and through Coachville, a premier source for learning the art of coaching..
- Participated on the development team for Thomas Leonard, known as “the father of coaching.”
- Explored other sources of insight and know-how including the 300+ books I’ve read and seminars I’ve taken on personal growth and the nature of life and mind.
- Learned a ton traveling my own uncharted path and working through the myriad challenges of pursuing my passion.
- Studied Electrical & Computer Engineering as well as music at the Philadelphia College of the Performing Arts, Musician’s Institute, and Los Angeles Music Academy.
- Synthesized all of the above into a body of work I call Life as a Wave. Read my ebook, Life as a Wave: 4 Principles of Rhythm & Flow to learn more.
I’ve had some amazing adventures …
- Lived for a short time on a sailboat in the Grenadine islands searching for the ultimate kiteboarding spots (my #1 passion).
- Ran a business selling my tabletop waterfalls.
- Invented gadgets from what I learned as an engineering student like my Automatic Guitar Tuner and Talking Caller ID.
- Studied Jazz guitar and world percussion with legendary musicians like Pat Martino, Stanley Clarke, and Norman Brown.
- Played percussion for an Emmy-winning movie, On Hallowed Ground.
- Climbed to 14,000 feet to ski through the “no fall zone” of Jupiter Peak in Park City, Utah in chest-high powder.
I’ve overcome challenges along the way …
- Learned how to remain positive while living in my van for 6 months when the music thing didn’t work out as planned.
- Chose to not be a victim to circumstance while the helicopter flew me to the hospital after a serious ski accident that left me with 8 broken ribs, fractured collar bone, and dislocated hip.
- Found ways to live my adventures despite my fuzzy mind that often refuses to focus and pay attention.
- Felt peace within myself after years of loneliness and frustration of not being understood.
And I’ve celebrated wonderful victories …
- The benefits of committing to exercising every single day without exception (1,296 days and counting!).
- The freedom of unconditionally accepting who I am, flaws and all.
- The satisfaction of getting lost in drawing, painting, and sculpting.
- The fulfillment of making a difference in people’s lives.
