My name is John. I live with my wife, daughter, son, and dog in South Eastern Pennsylvania. I have a Bachelor's Degree in Film & Media Arts from Temple University. I have an MBA, also from Temple University (no, they did not give me a discount).

From the time I was 14, I've worked in movie theaters, waited tables, driven trucks, sold cell phones, bartended, and worked on major motion pictures and commercials. From 2006-2011, I worked in a live TV studio (where I became interested in business and went for the MBA). From 2011-2022 I worked in multiple areas of IT for a major pharmaceutical company. In every one of those endeavors I found a level of success to be proud of. At the same time, I also could never shake the feeling that there was something more I should be doing.

In January of 2019, I was officially diagnosed with ADHD. I had started harboring suspicions months earlier when I stumbled across information about ADHD online. In October of 2018, I signed up for an evaluation at the Perelmen School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania which then led to my diagnosis.

It was an amazing, and very emotional, experience to have a new lens with which to think about my life, my relationships, and my accomplishments. I came to a new understanding that, despite many, MANY setbacks and failures throughout my life, I'm actually an incredibly resilient person. I've always been able to pick myself back up and find a way forward. For the first time in my life I was able to appreciate some of the difficulties I've faced in life as moments that developed a strength and not as evidence that I was lazy or didn't try hard enough.

I know it's become a bit cliche to talk about the impact of the pandemic. But going through that experience threw many things about my life into much sharper focus. I recognized how much effort I was putting into masking my symptoms at work, but couldn't seem to put effort into thinking of ways to actually deal with them. Sometimes I would spend hours on tasks that everyone else seemed to be able to finish easily, but I wouldn't tell anyone. Other times I would put off a task until it became an emergency. The sudden urgency would give me the dopamine hit my brain required. It helped me power through, but it also caused a lot of unnecessary anxiety along the way.

On the flip side, I've always been aware of certain strengths I had, but I was also aware that I wasn't learning how to better utilize them to make life any easier. Most days, I only had enough energy left to rely on those strengths to just keep my head above water. I've always been known by my friends and colleagues as someone who is smart, funny, empathetic, creative, and kind. I enjoy being those things, but I started to resent having to use them just to survive. It had become clear that my personal strengths and values were no longer aligned with the work that I was doing. Something needed to change.

When I discovered ADHD coaching, I brought up the possibility of becoming one with my wife and children, who all immediately endorsed the idea. "You have to do this. You'd be really good at it!" While my ADHD sometimes can interfere with my ability to see things clearly, I'm insanely lucky to have loved ones who can help bring things into proper focus. They've witnessed the positive changes I've been able to make as I've better understood my brain and how it operates. They also know about the bittersweet moments I experience when I contemplate the ways my life might have been different had I known sooner.

Becoming an ADHD coach is the next step in my journey. That's why I'm working to complete my ADDCA Coaching Certification. My goal is to walk alongside my clients to help them avoid the same stumbling blocks I’ve struggled with, to help them understand their ADHD so that they are freed from the burden of having to mask it, and to learn to rely on their strengths to successfully navigate their own unique experience. I want my clients to feel like they’re capable of getting what they want from life.

A lifetime of failures has given me two things that I hold dear. A pretty good sense of humor and an excess of empathy. I don't take myself too seriously. I'm just out here trying to learn and grow, and to help others to be a little closer to who they want to be.

Thanks for checking out my site, I hope you find what you're looking for! If you'd like to set up an introductory call, click here. If you'd like to start coaching, package information can be found here.