Coaching with Eric
“For magic consists in this, the true naming of a thing.”
― Ursula K. LeGuin, A Wizard of Earthsea
My approach is client-centered, keeping your needs, goals, and values at the forefront. Together we will create a space in which asking hard questions - the ones we work so diligently to avoid - can be asked.
We will work just as hard at finding those hard answers as well, and growth though exciting, is often challenging to those various sacred cows you may knowingly or unknowingly hold.
But sacred cows are for tipping*
With the understanding that all power is in the present moment, I will work with just about anyone that is ready to do the work.
By whose values and rules are you living? Yours, or ones you just inherited and work so hard to maintain, yet you never chose them. What is holding you back? What is silencing your voice? What is constraining your choice?
*Cow tipping is the purported activity of sneaking up on any unsuspecting or sleeping upright cow and pushing it over for entertainment. This is an urban legend. I grew up on a farm, and learned to not disturb cows while they are sleeping.
The Starfish Protocol
The Starfish Protocol is the tool we will work with together to create. When we meet, I work with pen, ink and watercolor paints to capture what we uncover together.
Chatting comfortably, we work through each step in the process in a relaxed and curious manner. Utilizing a tool called a Personal Reading using common playing cards, we will uncover hidden insights and map out the 5 arms of the Starfish.
At the end of our time together, your current Starfish Map will be completed. I will let the Map dry and then pop it in the mail. Some clients stick it on their fridge to remind them of the course they have plotted, others place it on a home altar. Some fold it up and carry it in their pocket to have with them as a reminder of what they have chosen and to have it handy to make edits and additions as they get more insight.
Book Your Starfish Protocol session now
you may stop and simply be
“When I was young, I had to choose between the life of being and the life of doing. And I leapt at the latter like a trout to a fly. But each deed you do, each act, binds you to itself and to its consequences, and makes you act again and yet again. Then very seldom do you come upon a space, a time like this, between act and act, when you may stop and simply be. Or wonder who, after all, you are.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore
I am a Certified Professional Coach (CPC). I completed my training locally at the ICF accredited Invite Change with their 16 month CPC program in Transformational Coaching.
I current hold a current credential of Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with the International Coaching Federation (ICF).
This reflects my dedication to providing high-quality, ethical coaching that creates a safe, supportive environment for clients.
With 10 years as a professional landscaper and 25 years of experience in the tech industry, including time at Microsoft (10 years), Amazon (5 years) , Groupon (4 years) and Apple, I incorporate tools like Needs-Based Awareness (NBA), Emotional Intelligence, and elements of Nonviolent Communication aka Collaborative Communication (NVC) to empower you beyond our sessions, ensuring growth and clarity throughout your journey.
Transitioning from blue-collar work to the tech industry in my 30s taught me invaluable lessons about imposter syndrome, boundaries and saying “no” gracefully.
I learned about servant leadership in high school youth group of all places, and find the echoes of what I learned there in the secular business version of servant leadership.
As my professional career grew in the tech industry as a Quality Assurance Analyst, from Microsoft to Amazon, I became aware of the massive push for people to judge their lives by how “productive” they are. Having watched “productivity” devolve into just being “busy” I began to look into redefining productivity for myself. I encourage all my clients to so the same. “Being busy” is not the same as being productive.
After a year of working 6 day weeks early in my career at Microsoft, and realizing my early-career mistake of missing all that family time, I learned the lesson that the corporation will take whatever you give (time management and work-life balance are yours to define),
With the advent of AI, and the massive push by almost all tech companies to blindly run down this path, and as I was working to wedge more AI into Siri at Apple in 2025, I realized I would no longer work in the tech industry, severely limit my personal use of AI online where possible, and moved to the education of humans.
Currently, in the mornings, I am a paraeducator at local school district working with special needs students in a vocational program and I am currently pursuing my Master in Teaching, Special Education degree (2026,27). In the afternoons and evenings I am a professional coach.
(AI-free zone: All rambling sentences, misspellings, and poor grammar are my own.)
A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.
John A. Shedd, “Salt from My Attic” 1928
What is Coaching?
“Partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. The process of coaching often unlocks previously untapped sources of imagination, productivity and leadership.
We all have goals we want to reach, challenges we’re striving to overcome and times when we feel stuck. Partnering with a coach can change your life, setting you on a path to greater personal and professional fulfillment.” - ICF
ICF Code of Ethics
I am an ICF trained and PCC credentialed professional coach. I take seriously and work by the code of ethics developed by our professional organization and find all of them are required in setting a clear coaching agreement between coach and the person being coached. This agreement creates the safe “container” for the coaching process to work its magic and enables the session to go deeper faster.
The current Code of Ethics pulled March 1st, 2021 are below and the pdf can be found here.