Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area
Hello! I’m a leader, creative, and coach who inspires individuals and organizations to take bold next steps that align with their strengths and values. I’m a bestselling author and coauthor of nearly 70 books, with more than a million copies sold. My expertise includes leadership, business strategy, seeing the end from the beginning, spotting winners and losers, ethics, coaching, volunteer mobilization, writing, editing, and dreaming up first-of-a-kind products. I've spoken regularly to groups from 50 to 1500. ► BESTSELLING AUTHOR, EDITOR, AND BOOK COACH Leveraging my three decades of business and publishing expertise, I guide other leaders through writing projects of all kinds. Learn more at KJBOOKCOACH.COM. As an editor, I led a $6M publishing line and rescued the reboot of a classic title with lifetime revenue exceeding $100M. I'm a nonfiction specialist across all ages. My writing includes books, video scripts, curricula, digital content, presentations, discussion guides, and reference tools. I've written for industry-leading publishers on my own and with top coauthors on topics spanning self-discovery and conflict resolution to spirituality, school violence, service learning, personal finance, entertainment, and more. Factoid: I wrote three books in four weeks for the release of Universal Pictures’ Evan Almighty. ► EXECUTIVE CAREER TRANSITION COACH With a diverse background as an author, publishing leader, pastor, businessperson, and career transition and executive coach, I thrive where purposeful change and growth are the rule. Career coach to almost 400 clients across industries, levels, and functions. Learn more about the help I offer at NAVIGATEFORWARD.COM. Factoid: In 2013, I began a shift from ministry into coaching. I’ve had a front-row seat to leaders and organizations great and ghastly, and I care about creating environments that empower people to do their best and do good.
► In the 34 years since my first book, I've authored or coauthored nearly 70 books for adults, students, and children from industry-leading publishers including HarperCollins (Thomas Nelson, Zondervan), Tyndale, and Bethany House.
► I now help business and nonprofit leaders write their own impactful books at KJBOOKCOACH.COM.
► My coaching projects include
► I partner with Navigate Forward to support select executive clients in finding their next professional role or their journey to an encore career that aligns with their passion, skills, and goals. I act as strategist, coach, and guide to ensure the right tools, resources, and focus are put in place to drive success. I often work with leaders in science, engineering, IT, and other technical fields. ► Navigate Forward works exclusively with executives to help them envision and chart a new course with a sense of purpose and passion – whether to prepare for a job search, board assignment, or encore/portfolio career. For more information about Navigate Forward's comprehensive high-touch approach, visit www.navigateforward.com.
► I deliver diverse career, life, and executive coaching for clients across industries including energy, agriculture, finance, small business, and the arts.
► As a Career Coach, I helped more than 300 clients across industries, levels, and functions land their next role, leading them through a highly personalized process of assessments, branding, resume development, networking, interview skills, and offer negotiation. ► My passion for helping career transition clients resulted in my achieving the highest client satisfaction scores in our local office. And in 2016, the CPI Twin Cities team received the highest candidate satisfaction scores among more than 300 Career Partners International offices in 50-plus countries, scoring 96.4% and earning the award for Leadership Excellence in Global Outplacement.
► Provided vision, teaching, and care for a unconventional congregation meeting at the Hopkins Center for the Arts, a public venue in downtown Hopkins, Minnesota. > Teamed with lay leaders to focus in core areas of connecting, worshiping, and serving. > Triaged and rebuilt congregation amid simultaneous crises threatening organization’s survival. ► Factoid: Leading ERC capped 18 years of ordained service and a dozen more in preparation and proving. > I got my start at age 16, volunteering my summer with 32 US and Canadian teens to build concrete block cabins at a youth camp in Maracaibo, Venezuela. > I met my future wife the following summer serving together in Frenchman's Head, Ontario, a settlement of the Lac Seul First Nation, three years after a road was cut to the village. > The 14 pastors in my family range from Methodist to Mennonite. I've served as clergy or lay leader in half a dozen denominations. > I fully scripted and preached nearly 700 sermons. > I officiated 60+ weddings and 30+ funerals. > You might spot me up front in a Belgian robe and artisan stole. Or in shorts and an untucked shirt. > My teams and I implemented strict "safe haven" policies to protect children and youth in 1989, in the first days of my first pastoring job, more than a decade and a half before any hierarchy told us to. > As a solo pastor, I had my assistant lock me out of the church's giving software, choosing not to know what anyone contributed. I wouldn't let anyone own me. Or feel shame for what they didn't or couldn't give. > I led thousands of youth and adults on epic adventures like service trips, camps, retreats, road cycling, river rafting, and bridge jumping, often clocking 25k "people hours" on a single trip. > I've walked with people through the very best and worst of life. I've seen a thing or two. > I'm grateful to my wife, many dozens of paid staff, hundreds of volunteers, and countless adults and students who shared joy and pain and reality with me.