I spent twenty-two years in the United States Navy, eighteen of them in special operations and thirteen at a Tier 1 special operations command, conducting national-level maritime missions. Today I am a Certified Professional Coach (CPC), credentialed through iPEC, and the founder of Invictus Coaching.

THE EARLY YEARS

When I was fifteen, a vice principal looked across a desk, told me I would never amount to anything, and expelled me. I had already been arrested several times, was on probation, and owed the city hundreds of hours of community service. Something about that moment stayed with me. It lit a fire to prove I was not someone who could be thrown away.

That fire found direction through discipline. I joined the football team, became captain, wrestled regionally, and earned a scholarship. Then a snowboarding accident broke my collarbone and ended that path before it started. I dropped out and worked construction, staring at a future that looked exactly like the life I never wanted.

Then my best childhood friend came home on leave, fresh out of BUD/S. I saw what that path had done for him. For the first time, the future I had been searching for had a name. I enlisted to find out what I was made of.

NAVAL SPECIAL WARFARE

I entered the Special Warfare Combatant-Craft Crewmen pipeline, which only a fraction of candidates finish. I deployed to Iraq and the Persian Gulf during Operation Iraqi Freedom, conducting riverine and maritime special operations, and supported the Secret Service in presidential protection.

When the chance came to try out for a Tier 1 command, I was recovering from a complete pectoral tear. I asked myself the same question that had defined my life: would I regret not trying more than I feared failing? I trained through the pain and was selected. Over thirteen years I rose through leadership and was chosen to lead a maritime assault troop at the most elite Naval Special Warfare unit in the world.

The cost went deeper than the physical damage. Teammates killed in war. Teammates lost to suicide. More than a decade of missed time with my children, and the strain that eventually ended my marriage.

WHAT I DIDN'T TALK ABOUT

I used alcohol to manage the pressure, the way plenty of men in that world do. I recognized where it was heading and self-referred to rehab while still serving. Years later, in the turbulence of transition and divorce, I relapsed. Once again I took ownership and changed the trajectory.

At one point I recognized something simple and difficult to admit: the man I had become owed himself an apology. That realization became the beginning of a different mission.

BEYOND THE WORK

I am a lifelong builder: woodworking, mechanical and electrical projects, and lately web development and AI. My academic background is in Christian theology. I have run ultramarathons and compete as a Pro-Am Latin ballroom dancer. Above all, I am a father.

The hardest battles most men will ever fight are not fought overseas, in boardrooms, or against other men. They are fought within.