About me

I’m so glad you’re here, thank you for taking the time to learn more about me.

I love the study and practice of leadership, motivation, and transformational change, and I’m passionate about sharing what I learn. My career as a technical leader has taken me to companies like Netflix, Snapchat, Tinder, and Twitter, where I’ve led some of the best teams in the world.

I’ve led technical training engagements for companies like Nike, Adidas, Verizon, Cisco, PayPal, and many school districts and universities. Before moving into the technology sector, I taught computer science to high school juniors and seniors, which sparked my lifelong love of teaching and learning.

Today, I’m a doctoral candidate at the University of Southern California where I study organizational change and leadership. My area of focus is how organizational culture and performance is enabled by feedback frameworks and leadership behavior. I’m also the Director of Information Technology at Docker, where I lead a phenomenal team that contributes to making the number one most-used developer tool, and I’m an advisor for the incredible team building incredible things at Opnbook.

Other interests

Podcasting

I host the Leadership Bootcamp podcast, available on all major podcasting platforms, and right here on this site. Like the podcast, the educational content I create in my Lecture Series and Leader To Leader are all on the topics of leadership and management. They’re all available on this site, and on my YouTube channel. The content is always free, and is a labor of love which I immensely enjoy.

Reading and Writing

I’m an avid reader of all genres and I’m very proud of my growing bookshelves, which you can see some of in the background of some video podcast episodes. I read somewhere that to be an official library you have to amass at least 1,000 books; that’s the goal. I prefer to read physical books, but not every book makes it onto my bookshelves, so I buckled and bought a Kindle last year, which I actually really like. If you’re a fellow bookworm, let’s link up on Goodreads!

I also love to write, and journal by hand every day. I don’t mind journaling digitally, which I do in my Obsidian daily note, but I feel connected to my writing when I handwrite in a way that digital journaling can’t replicate. I also take notes on nearly every book I read which goes into my Zettelkasten system in Obsidian. I started a Zettelkasten last year and it’s been transformative for my learning.

Physical Stuff

I need reading, writing, and physical activity to feel normal. I love difficult physical challenges, which is why I love weightlifting, physical fitness, and jiu jitsu. I’ve been doing these activities for a long time, and they’re core to my physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing.