The Conversation
Most of the people who find me are already carrying a lot.
You’ve done the degrees or the diplomas. You’ve passed the exams. You’re the person other people lean on when the numbers get complicated or the stakes climb.
What you often don’t have is a quiet, genuinely safe place to think out loud about what your work and life are doing to you, with someone who understands the technical world you live in and is willing to stay in the conversation until action becomes possible.
That is what this work is for. Not a program. A longer-term relationship around your judgment, your energy, and the next stretch of your career and life.
Everything we discuss remains strictly confidential.
Step 1
A free discovery conversation
We begin with a short conversation, always free of charge.
The point is simple: to see whether I’m the right person for what you’re carrying. You can tell me what’s going on and what feels heavy. I’ll ask a few questions and reflect back what I’m hearing. If it feels useful, we talk about what working together might look like. If it doesn’t, we end the call with no pressure and no awkwardness.
This first conversation isn’t an audition. It’s a quiet trial run: two serious people seeing whether this kind of ongoing, confidential dialogue would help.
What to bring
You don’t need a résumé, a pitch, or a plan.
It helps if you come with:
the decision that feels heavy right now, even if you can’t name it cleanly yet
what has changed recently, or what you suspect may be changing
one outcome you want to protect, such as your health, your family, your integrity, your time, or your future options
If you’re unsure, that’s fine too. Uncertainty is often the whole point of the call.
Step 2
A first full session
If we decide to proceed, we book a full one-to-one session, usually about an hour.
This is where we slow things down. We name the real decision, not just the polite one. We look closely at where you are now: the work on your desk, the pressures in the background, and the quieter questions you rarely say aloud.
Often the first session brings immediate relief simply because the full, unedited situation can finally be spoken without consequences.
Step 3
Small experiments between sessions
Most people don’t need a grand reinvention. They need a safer way to move.
Between conversations, I’ll usually invite one or two small experiments if you feel willing: sounding out a trusted colleague, revising a line in your résumé, setting a new boundary, noticing what drains you during a normal week and what restores you.
I’m not a pushy coach asking you to smash comfort zones. Discomfort is information. If a suggested step feels wrong, we treat that reaction as data rather than failure and adjust accordingly.
The real work often happens between sessions: you reflecting more deeply on your own life, testing small changes in the real world, and returning with new observations.
Step 4
A rhythm that fits your life
Some people begin with one or two sessions close together, then settle into a rhythm that fits the rest of their life, often every three to six weeks.
There is no contract and no package. You can pause, stop, or return as circumstances change.
Over time, familiarity makes the work quieter and faster. I learn your patterns, your strengths, your constraints, and your ambitions. That familiarity allows me to be useful quickly when something shifts.
How we meet
We talk one to one. No group, no recording, no observers.
Some people prefer video, some prefer phone. Occasionally we are in the same city, like Toronto, and meet in person. The format matters less than the fact that, for that hour, you do not have to perform for anyone.
Rates
Professional advisory
CAD $250 / hour
Early-career and mid-career professionals carrying significant responsibility, or facing a consequential decision.
CAD $500 / hour
Executives and emerging C-suite leaders, including partners in professional firms and senior managers in major institutions.
CAD $1,000 / hour
Founders, firm owners, senior partners, and board members whose decisions carry broad organisational and societal consequences.
Student advisory
Student work is a separate offering, with its own scope and boundaries.
CAD $125 / hour
Post-secondary students who want a steady, confidential place to think about education choices, early direction, and the transition into adult work.
Student advisory is not career placement. It is decision support, confidence, and direction.
Many students are advised by people whose world is the university. That advice can be helpful, but it can also carry an understandable bias toward more school. Our conversations make room for the full set of options, including work, apprenticeships, gap years, transfers, and different pacing, so the decision fits the student, not the institution.
Sailboat days
Occasionally, once we know each other well, we may take a conversation off-screen and onto my sailboat on Vancouver Island for a working day on the water.
These days are rare, weather-dependent, and arranged only when the relationship is already established. They are for thinking with a different horizon, not for ticking through an agenda.
First conversation
If you’re curious, start with a short discovery conversation. There is no charge.
You can tell me what’s going on and what feels heavy. I’ll ask a few questions and reflect back what I’m hearing. We’ll see whether this kind of private, ongoing dialogue would be useful for you.
Even if we never work together again, you will leave that first conversation with something useful.
Details are on the Connect page.