My framework is whoever I'm working with.
I get asked all the time what my coaching methodology is. What system I use. What model I'm certified in. What program clients walk through.
The honest answer is that I don't have one.
I have decades of experience, a deep toolkit, and a clear point of view about what gets in the way of leaders growing. But the framework I build around you is yours. It comes from your situation, your patterns, your goals, and the leadership tensions you're actually carrying right now.
That's the job. Not to plug you into a curriculum. To walk alongside you while you figure out what your next chapter of leadership actually requires.
"Billy is a true servant leader. He cares more about you and your organization than his own. His persistence, integrity, and commitment have made a difference in my life and so many others." - Justin Fatica
I’m a Tour Guide, not a guru.
Some coaches show up as experts. They have the answers. They have the model. They have the certification.
That's not me. I show up as a tour guide.
I've walked this trail before, with thousands of leaders, across hundreds of organizations, in environments ranging from family-owned firms to private equity portfolios to founder-led startups. That gives me a sense of where the rough patches are and where the views open up.
But the path you're on is yours. I'm here to walk it with you. Sometimes I'm a step ahead because I've seen what's coming. Sometimes I'm a step behind to make sure you don't lose your footing. Most of the time I'm right beside you, asking the questions that matter most.
And it might not be me.
The framework is about you. That means the right coach for you might not be me.
I've been at this long enough to have built a network of more than thirty coaches I trust, most of them connected through SOS Leadership and the SOS Coaching Network, two of my other businesses. Some are former clients who became coaches themselves. Some are people I've trained. Some are people I've simply learned from and now refer to without hesitation. Each brings their own background, style, and lens.
In most of my engagements, I'm the one doing the work. In some cases, I bring in a coach from my team because their experience is a better fit for what you're navigating. In others, you and I work together while another coach supports someone else on your team or in your family. The shape adapts.
This isn't about handing you off. It's about making sure you get what you actually need. And it's part of why I can say with confidence that I'll find a way to make almost any situation work. The network is bigger than me on purpose.
Most Leaders Wait Too Long to Hire a Coach
If you're reading this, you've probably been considering coaching for a while. Maybe years. Most people who hire a coach can't fully articulate why they did it until well after they've started, and most of them wish they'd started sooner. So let me try to name what's actually on the other side.
You get clarity you couldn't reach on your own. Not because you aren't smart enough. You are. But the people closest to you are usually too close to be honest with you, and you're usually too close to be honest with yourself. A good coach is the one person in your life with no stake in the outcome except your growth. That's rarer than it sounds, and it changes what you can see.
You get a thinking partner for the decisions that actually matter. Most leaders don't need help with the easy calls. They need someone to think with on the hard ones. The decisions where there's no obvious right answer. The conversations they've been putting off. The moves that look strategic on paper but feel different in their gut. Having someone to work through those decisions with, in real time, often makes the difference between a year of progress and a year of drift.
You get accountability without judgment. We all have good intentions. Most of them die quietly somewhere between Sunday night and Wednesday afternoon. A coach is the structure that keeps your intentions from disappearing into the noise of daily life. Not by nagging you. By holding the bigger picture steady while you handle the day-to-day.
You get a steadier version of yourself. Pressure, fear, ego, and isolation pull leaders into patterns they don't always recognize. Coaching is partly about catching those patterns earlier, owning them faster, and getting back to clarity sooner. Over time, the gap between who you are at your best and who you are under pressure gets smaller. That changes how you lead, how you decide, and how you show up at home.
And honestly? You get someone in your corner. Leadership is lonelier than most people admit. Having a guide who knows your situation, remembers your goals, and is genuinely on your team makes the whole thing more sustainable.
That's what coaching actually delivers. Not a transformation. Not a five-step program. Just a steadier, clearer, better version of the leader you already are. The leaders who wait often tell me later they wish they hadn't. The ones who start usually wonder what took them so long.
Three Ways I Coach Leaders
One-on-One Coaching
This is where I do my best work and where the deepest growth tends to happen.
Most of my clients are founders, CEOs, senior leaders inside larger firms, or emerging leaders being prepared for what's next. The titles vary. The pattern underneath is usually the same. You're carrying something complex, you don't have many people who can hold it with you, and you're ready for a thinking partner who will tell you the truth.
Engagements typically run six to twelve months, with two to three sessions a month and availability in between for the leadership moments that don't wait for the calendar. We start with a DISC assessment as a shared reference point and move into a mix of reflection, direct feedback, and practical guidance from there. No fixed curriculum. The conversations follow what you're actually navigating.
If you're at a moment where the next chapter of your leadership requires someone walking with you, this is the engagement that fits.
Team of Two Coaching
Some of the most important leadership work happens between two people who are building something together.
Co-founders. Business partners. A CEO and their COO. A boss and their second-in-command. Spouses running a company side by side. The way two leaders show up together can multiply results or quietly undo them, and the dynamic is rarely something either person can see clearly from the inside.
Team of Two coaching is built around the communication patterns, behavior styles, and underlying dynamics that shape those partnerships. Sometimes my wife Ashley joins me when the situation calls for it. We've spent years working together professionally and personally, and we bring a real perspective on what helps a team of two thrive rather than fracture.
If you're in a partnership that matters and you can tell it could be working better, this is the engagement that fits.
Group Coaching
Sometimes a group of leaders is navigating similar terrain at the same time. A leadership team going through a growth phase. A peer cohort of founders. A group of high-potential leaders inside a larger company.
Group coaching brings a small set of leaders together for shared conversation, structured reflection, and the kind of honest exchange that's hard to replicate any other way. The dynamic is different from one-on-one work. Leaders see themselves more clearly when they hear other leaders name the same struggles, and they grow faster when they're sharpening each other along the way.
I take on group coaching when the chemistry and the goals are right. It's less common than the one-on-one work, but when it fits, the growth compounds across the whole group rather than landing with just one person.
If you've got a group of leaders ready to grow together, this is the engagement that fits.
Across all coaching engagements, you also get:
A DISC assessment for you, plus complimentary assessments for up to two additional people on your team or in your personal life
Access to training materials and modules
Access to a network of more than 30 coaches when a specific challenge or relationship calls for it
Availability between sessions for the leadership moments that don't wait
A Note on Access
Let me be direct about something.
If you think you can't afford to work with me, you're thinking wrong. You can't afford not to.
Growing leaders is my passion. It's what I've spent my whole adult life doing. People pay me to coach them, and that's part of how this work sustains itself. But that's not the only reason I do it.
I do this work for free, and I do it for fee.
I've made almost every situation work over the years. Sliding scale. Sweat equity. Pay it forward later. Whatever shape we need to invent. What I care about is whether the leader across the table from me is serious about growing. If you are, let's talk. We'll figure out the rest.
What’s Included?
What Clients Have Said
How to Get Started
Most coaching relationships start the same way. A real conversation between two people figuring out if there's a fit.
There are two ways to begin working with me.
Free 15
A fifteen-minute speed coaching session. No cost, no pitch, no expectation that anything comes after it.
Bring one thing you're navigating right now. A decision you're stuck on. A relationship that isn't working. A leadership moment you want a second set of eyes on. We'll spend fifteen minutes on it together, and you'll leave with something useful, whether or not we ever talk again.
Free 15 is open to anyone. New leaders, experienced executives, people curious about coaching, and people who would never call themselves a coaching client. If you've got fifteen minutes and something worth thinking through, the door is open.
[Book a Free 15 →]
A longer conversation
If you already know you're looking for a coach and want to explore what working together might look like, let's start with a longer conversation instead. Tell me where you are, what you're navigating, and what you'd want to see shift. From there, we'll figure out together whether coaching is the right next step and what shape it should take.
[Start the Conversation →]
About Billy
I've spent more than twenty years walking alongside leaders. Founders, CEOs, executives, husbands and wives, parents, people trying to figure out what's next. The titles change. The work underneath is more similar than most people expect.
What I bring to the work is experience and a clear point of view. I've coached and trained thousands of leaders. I've founded more than ten companies. I've stepped in as interim CEO and COO for organizations in transition. I teach leadership at the university level. And I've written about all of it, most recently in The Upside Down Leader.
What I bring to the relationship is something harder to put on a resume. I show up honest. I hold what's heavy without rushing you through it. I tell you the truth even when it's uncomfortable, especially when it's uncomfortable. And I stay. Most of my clients are still in my life long after our formal engagement ends.
At the end of the day, my most important roles are being Ashley's husband and Lincoln's dad. Everything I know about leadership runs through those two relationships first.
Let’s Talk
If you're interested in bringing this work to your audience, I'd love to learn more about your event. Fill out the form below with a few details, and I'll follow up within 48 hours to start the conversation.
Whether you're planning a keynote, workshop, leadership retreat, or full conference experience, we'll talk through what your leaders actually need and design something that fits.
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