Over the years I've been referred to as:  an acting coach, acting teacher, life coach, business coach, business consultant, peak performance coach, real estate coach, trainer, sales trainer, relationship coach...Forbes recently referred to me as a "Communications Expert"  and a “Leader-Creator.” My title isn’t important. I think the term “coach” is familiar to people and therefore makes sense to them and that’s fine. However, I don’t think “coach” is an accurate description of me nor is “coaching” accurate as to the thing I do with people. I’m not a “certified coach” under any global organization for many reasons. That is by choice.

People don’t come to me for advice, strategies, or frameworks. They come because something happens when we are in the room together. My work lives in live conversation. I enter situations without agenda, without solutions to impose, and without an identity to protect. In that environment, things surface and reorganize that rarely move through effort alone. I don’t fix people. I don’t optimize them. I don’t train behaviors. I remove interference so clarity, courage, and responsibility can arise on their own.

Coaching is the closest available label, not an accurate one. Coaching suggests goals, techniques, accountability systems, and measurable progress. My work happens prior to all of that. Most of the people I work with are already capable. What they are contending with is not a lack of skill, but an internal structure that no longer fits who they are or the life they are actually living. When that structure shifts, action follows naturally.

How the Work Happens

There is no method I can teach and no process I can package. What I do only works in real time, with a real person. In conversation, defenses soften without being challenged. Truth appears without interrogation. Decisions clarify without being forced. Clients often say, “I don’t know what you did, but something shifted.” Nothing was done. The system recalibrated through contact.

What Clients Are Really Paying For

They are not paying for answers. They are paying for contact. Contact with themselves. Contact with reality. Contact with what they have been avoiding without knowing it. This work is not scalable. It is not automatable. It cannot be replaced by information or technology. I’m certified as a Buteyko Breathing Practitioner and a Hypnotist. The most important modality for me though, is based on what I developed teaching actors.

I have mastered creating an environment for individuals and teams that leaves them engaging with the world, others and themselves with freedom and ease as their natural self-expression.  I have worked with and continue to work with executives and teams and performers in various industries some of which include: engineering, financial services, real estate, NFL, MLB, famous actors and actresses, corporate security, research labs and more.

I am a graduate of Duke University and The American Musical and Dramatic Academy. As a mentor and coach I have been featured in print editions of the Wall Street Journal and the San Diego Tribune, as well as Forbes online. I am showcased in the book WAIT: The Art & Science of Delay by Frank Partnoy. As an actor I appeared on Fox, ABC, NBC and The Discovery Channel.

If you're interested in getting at the source of performance in order to gain freedom and mastery in whatever you endeavor, I'd be happy to talk about whether it makes sense for us to work together.  Email me: walker@walkerclarkcoaching.com