I’ve Been Where You Are
At 63, after fighting through a battle with cancer, I was laid off. I remember thinking my career was probably over — that no one hires a 63-year-old who just spent the better part of a year focused on beating cancer instead of chasing a title.
Instead of updating a resume and hoping someone would take a chance on me, I took a hard look at what I actually wanted. I’d spent 40+ years in corporate America — I knew exactly what it meant to be a line item on someone else’s spreadsheet. I decided I wasn’t interested in being that again.
With the help of a Career Ownership Coach, I found a different path — one where I wasn’t waiting to be chosen. Ten years later, I’ve built something of real value, on my own terms, and I’ve never looked back.
Now I do this work for people who are standing exactly where I was standing — whether that’s a layoff, a health scare, a corporate restructuring, or just a quiet feeling that there has to be something more sustainable than the next job.
I spent over 40 years in sales and marketing of complex enterprise software for the pharmaceutical and chemical industries — starting hands-on in chemistry and working my way up to Vice President of Sales. I watched an entire industry grow from a curiosity into something indispensable. I understand corporate life because I lived it, at every level.
I’m not here to sell you a job or a franchise. This is an educational — often soul-searching — process. My role is to help you move from curiosity to a clear-eyed understanding of what business ownership really means: the risks, the rewards, and whether it’s genuinely the right fit for you and your family. For most of my clients, franchising is unfamiliar territory, and the fundamentals of it are often counterintuitive to anyone who’s only ever worked inside a corporation. That’s exactly where I come in.
Here’s the thought I leave every client with: if you work for someone else, you’re a cost — and somewhere, on someone’s spreadsheet, corporations have an obligation to manage and reduce costs. In franchising, you become a profit center instead, because the franchisor depends on the royalties you generate. Costs get cut. Profit centers get resources.
Outside of coaching, I’m a husband, father, and grandfather — married to my wife of 50 years, and these days you’ll usually find me a few feet from our grandson. When I’m not working with clients, I’m in the basement growing orchids or in the workshop practicing fine cabinetry. I’ve learned that patience shows up in strange places — orchids, cabinetry, and helping someone rebuild a career all take the same thing: time, care, and trusting the process.
The satisfaction I get today comes from watching the people I’ve worked with become successful business owners — the same transformation I went through myself.
In business for yourself, never by yourself.
Neil