This is a story about a dance club bouncer, intuition, and a career update

Read on to learn some of the inspiration behind Good Question Coach

This past weekend, I went out for a friend’s birthday and the bouncer was enjoying a game of improv with the ID-check line. “Welcome! In your picture you look like a guy who plays a lot of tennis. Next! Hey, how’s it going. Ok, you… listen to a lot of public radio,” he decides for the person in front of me. Next! Then it’s my turn:

“Alright! I see you! You look like a behavior technician. Next!”

Behavior technician? I love it. It’s kind of nonsensical but eerily coincidental.?

His gut assessment based solely on my DMV photo stood out to me because, in a way, it summed up what I've been doing for so long: observing, analyzing, and helping others to navigate their behavior and relationships. Friends and colleagues come to me often for advice. They relay that my open-mindedness matched with my social experience make me an excellent sounding board. I’m humbled by how many people confide so much in me.

Speaking of which, later during that night out, our rideshare driver opened up to me about his life and children. As he’s describing their personalities I ask him: What’s the quality that’s the most divergent between the three of them?

“I like that, let me think,” he says with a long pause. “That’s a good question!”

“Thanks,” I say, “I’m full of those.”?

I get a knowing smile when I turn back to look at my friend, who has heard me quip this line many times before.

My ceaseless curiosity about people tends to get me asking questions. Over the years I’ve been told repeatedly that I should have a talk show. Ok, maybe the ambition is deeply seeded in there somewhere. But there’s another role that feels most fitting for me right now. And that is obviously behavior technician.?

I started thinking specifically about behavior when I was 16 and on an international trip with teens from different summer camps. That was the age when my sense of self was just coming into focus. Testing out my popularity with a bunch of kids from around the country, it was the first time I became aware that I used humor as a social tool. I’d been joking around to feel liked… with some mixed results that I wanted to figure out. That introspection felt profound, novel, and electrifying. By the time I was 18, I was acing AP psychology and picturing the mind as a vast space to explore. This felt infinitely fascinating, at least enough to go on and earn a bachelor's degree in the Biological Basis of Behavior.

From there, behavior, interpersonal relationships, and social awareness remained an interest that threaded throughout my career. Never as the fabric, per se, but certainly as the embroidered detail that made colleagues notice. I’ve been praised for my ability to unite teams and communities, mediate conflict, and mentor. I guess the behavior technician in me has been working her magic for a while.

Whether by serving as a fundraiser, change strategist, program leader, community builder, entrepreneur, startup mentor, or chief of staff, I’ve always found success by seeking to understand others both as individuals and as collectives; as constellations of communication styles and social patterns. I naturally track and appreciate the nuanced complexities of people to counsel them effectively.

So then, it may not surprise you that all of these experiences have led me here. I’m taking a big step and shifting this expertise to the front and center of my professional life. My main focus is now coaching mastery of relationship skills to align and thrive at work. Today I’m enthusiastic to introduce you to: Good Question Coach.?

Get a taste of what’s possible! I have an event coming up in Berkeley, CA on Saturday, Sept. 7. It’s called Insight Quest: A workshop on navigating challenges with new perspectives. What a fun thrill it has been to design, and I hope those who can will join me. Gain a sense of my facilitation and coaching style, not to mention useful strategies to be more empowered.

All of this career growth and change feels natural and exciting; my intuition is firing on all cylinders. Just like that bouncer at the bar! After all, if his intuition says I’m a behavior technician, who am I to disagree?