I was an FBI agent for 22 years, so there aren’t many good photos — really almost any photos — of me doing my thing. But at least there is this one.

One day after a meeting in a market in Islamabad, I was waiting for my partner and as he walked out of a shop, he snapped this photo. I remember some joke about me making a good tourist. Anyway, this is likely the lone photograph from a 22-year career leading elite teams in some of the most dangerous parts of the world.

The content of that day remains classified, but what I can say is I was working to help someone make a significant change in their life, to find their courage to do that, and at the same time I was working to keep a team focused in the face of extraordinarily challenging, high-stakes situations. Imagine trying to achieve goals with far-reaching implications under the constant threat of the local government arresting you, the local resistance trying to blow you up, and your own government making it all the more difficult to achieve what they’ve asked you do to do.

It didn’t start out like that. I was captain of soccer, track and cross country teams when I was younger, and loved the responsibilities of that role, helping my teammates find their potential — but the stakes were relatively low.

Over the decades life evolved and I found myself, seemingly suddenly, the senior member of intelligence teams trying to achieve improbable things in difficult locations under constant threat of harm. And I found myself wanting to truly understand how to help my teammates reach their individual potentials all while attaining the collective goals we’d set for ourselves, with global ramifications.

Within the churn of running from one hotspot to another, I slowed down just a bit to get my coaching certification and began to focus my efforts not just on intelligence gathering, but also on making my teams the best they could be. We accomplished many fantastic things around the world; there are even a few unclassified stories I can share with you.

I’m not a traditional personal coach. I bring far less less cheerleading, less hugging, and less hand holding than what currently defines this role. I will, however, work tirelessly with you to face difficult problems, overcome challenging obstacles and see you achieve your absolute best. I will always want the best for you and I bring a mix of objective questioning with deep insights and empathy; this is what defined my time in the Bureau as a highly effective Supervisory Special Agent and I aim to apply this same level of expertise in helping you find who you really are at your core and how to live that with integrity in the world.