I was in survival mode from day one. Growing up lower middle class means always reaching, always wanting — and being beaten back at every turn. I learned early that nothing comes easy and nothing is guaranteed.
I worked as a sternman on the Atlantic Ocean. Backbreaking work in Maine heat and cold that tests your resolve until it becomes the norm. Lobstering was the plan, it was my family's tradition. Then a series of licensing laws put me on a waiting list for twelve years. Twelve years. The rug pulled out from under me before I even got started.
So I pivoted. I joined the Merchant Marine as an Ordinary Seaman sailing with Military Sealift Command. I worked my way to Able Bodied Seaman, earned my place at SUNY Maritime Academy, graduated, and sailed as an Officer. I sailed the world and experienced some of the best and worst parts of human existence. It was a hard, lonely life and an honest one.
Then I met my fiancée. And I walked away.
I came ashore and built again. I finally got the lobster license and bought a boat but the waters around Maine heated up and lobsters were not as plentiful. Another rug pull. I applied for the Transportation Security Agency and was hired as a Transportation Security Officer, earning the rank of Supervisory TSO.
I became aware that no one will do things for us. We alone control our actions. Every reinvention taught me something. But the real shift wasn't outward. It was inward. I stopped asking how to survive and started asking what happiness actually is — and why it feels so out of reach for so many of us.
That question became everything. It led me to create two original coaching frameworks — IIMM and LEFIS — built on one core belief.
You already hold the answers. You just haven't been heard long enough to find them.
