Origin Story

The origin of ThomasMarc & Co. isn’t a business plan — it’s a lived experience. It began when life brought everything to a halt and demanded a new way of leading, living, and listening.

In the midst of a high-performing executive career, I experienced a traumatic brain injury that disrupted everything — work, identity, and the sense of self he had built. What followed was years of recovery, reflection, and rediscovery. Through study across neuroscience, behavioral psychology, mindfulness, and developmental practice, I began to reconstruct not just my health, but my understanding of leadership.

That experience became the catalyst for founding ThomasMarc & Co. It taught me — and now informs our practice — that leadership isn’t about control or performance; it’s about awareness, adaptability, and connection. It’s about how you meet challenge, and who you become in the process.

Our story is a reminder that growth often begins in the moments we wouldn’t choose. From disruption can come perspective, and from loss, a new kind of strength. That truth shapes how we coach, how we listen, and how we partner with every client who’s ready to grow from the inside out.

The breakthrough! The successful development or sudden advance. That a’ha! moment when a seemingly abstract puzzle becomes a clear picture.

We know we are capable of anything, yet breakthrough moments like these seem random and attainable only through relentless persistence.

And when they do happen, we feel relief to have found a way, and frustration that it took so long to know something we intuitively already knew.

At the high point of my career in media and technology, my life-altering breakthrough was set in motion after being air-lifted out of the Cascade Mountains with a life-threatening traumatic brain injury.

Recovery was a challenging experience, and presented hard questions about meaning, values, and purpose. I wrote about my reflections on the experience here.

The answer came into focus after immersive study of neural plasticity, self-determination theory, neurolinguistics, cognitive behavioral therapy, and positive psychology.

To be a true partner in learning how to effectively approach the challenges that shape who we are, and want to become.

Adversity is simply a part of the human experience. The struggles and hardships – physical, mental, spiritual, intellectual, or emotional – are what teach us the most about ourselves and how to navigate life.

My values and passion for coaching are grounded in this idea.

How people might see difficult challenges in a new light might support those who struggle with or avoid the challenges in life only to miss an opportunity to better themselves and others, and better understand what it is that holds each of us back from reaching our highest potential.

coach, founder