My Story

My professional journey started in 2002 as a new financial advisor. I found a natural market with business owners and young married professionals. As my practice was building, I noticed that many of my clients needed more than financial advice, they needed advice about life in general. There were many clients who were unhappy in their careers, relationships, and overall health. I was unable as a financial advisor to give much more than financial planning advice. However, I had a desire to do more.

 

I attended multiple trainings and invested heavily in my own personal development. In one of these training sessions, the speaker put a challenge to the crowd that if they wanted to be on this stage to make the changes they needed. I knew that he was speaking to me and I started to figure out the changes that I needed in order to live my life on purpose and help clients with more than their financial aspects of life.

 

At this same time period, my father passed away suddenly and at a very young age. While it was a horrible experience I was inspired to make major changes about who I was and the direction that my life was being taken. My wife and I began to make health, relationship, and career changes that affected the rest of our lives and afforded me the education needed to help others to live their lives with true purpose.

 

I was working in the personal development space and saw many clients start and fail and return again. So many of them were individuals with poor or no relationships. I theorized that the breakthrough in personal development should come through marital relationships. Ironically, several marriages close to us at the time were ending in divorce and it pained me and wife greatly. This only fueled my desire to better understand how to help before couples needed therapeutic intervention. In 2010, I published the ebook, "Rescue Your Marriage: How Couple Development can Save Your Ship" and began coaching couples on this concept and saw great success. 

 

The first couple that came to me had divorce papers ready and had been to several therapists. They were in a really bad way financially and needed help with their overall health. When the coaching was over, they transformed their situation into a $50,000 financial cushion and were working together as a couple, eventually opening their own family business. 

 

In addition to this success, I saw first hand that personal development was anything but personal. My wife and I learned how to face challenges and grow together not just in our relationship but to reach our personal goals as well. 

 

Couple Development turned from a theory into a practice. This helped me introduce the concept of Couple Development to UVU students and for whom I wrote and published a manual for in 2011, called "Couple Development: How Couples who Build Thriving Marriages are Healthier, Wealthier, and Happier."

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I now speak and coach business owners and self-employed individuals to Make Time work for them so they can achieve their goals and am the founder of the Make Time Institute.

 

Education

 

I began training on this idea that couples working together for change have better results and more lasting change. I needed to fine-tune my Couple Development concept and obtained a Masters degree in Psychology and a Doctorate in Family and Human Development. I was able to fine-tune the Couple Development concept and evaluate it with several pilot study groups throughout my academic experience. 

 

My dissertation focused on the main reason that couple development was so successful-teamwork. I found that with a national sample, couples with shared values and goals were more likely to be happier individually, more satisfied with their relationship, and financially better off than couples who were not. In essence, if couples were working as a team they would be able to accomplish their goals in all areas of their life. My dissertation has been downloaded over 6,290 times and dozens of couples have achieved incredible transformation through the process.  Check out the Abstract here and access the full Dissertation here  https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/4927/ 

 

Speaking

 

I have enjoyed 10 years of teaching students about physical, psychological, relational, and financial health. I have shared the findings of my studies and academic professionals about the findings of the Dissertation and my pilot studies of the Couple Development coaching program.

 

My first professional speaking gig happened to be about couples communicating about money. This turned into regular speaking engagements about the topic and the ebook, "How to Talk about Money with Your Spouse". Money is the most divisive topic for couples and using the couple development program dozens have been helped to improve their relationship and their finances.

 

I have spoken for organizations, churches, and businesses all over the country about Marriage and Money management. I have given several seminars and trainings to financial advisors about working with married couples with relationship problems. FPA, NAPFA, NAIFA, FTA, and others have asked me to speak for their local, regional, and national meetings.

 

Current 

 

I am currently working on a book entitled "Achieving Balance: Make Time to Reach Your Business and Personal Goals." It hit #1 on Amazon's Bestseller List. Check it out here.

 

When I am not working hard, I am spending time with my family. My wife and I met and married over 21 years ago. We enjoy time together outside enjoying nature and sports, working on our home, vacationing alone, and serving in our community. 

 

As homeschooling parents of 8 children, my wife and I stay busy with education both inside and outside the home. Our family vacations are often associated with learning and understanding of the world that we live in.

 

When I am not spending time with my wife and children, I am serving in my church and finding solace in playing the guitar. I jump at the chance to play volleyball and soccer. I love to hike, mountain bike, and go snowboarding with my family.