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About Coach Matt

About Me

I've written one book, started several businesses, scripted two dozen plays (and directed dozens more,) and spent twenty nights at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

I love to learn. That’s what drives me, and what most characterizes my 20+ years as an author, director, entrepreneur, business leader, and teacher. And it's what I most love about being a coach.

Chat with Matt.
About Coaching.

About Me

I've written one book, started seven businesses, scripted two dozen plays (and directed dozens more,) and spent fourteen nights at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

I love to learn. That’s what drives me, and what most characterizes my 20+ years as an author, director, entrepreneur, business leader, and teacher. And it's what I most love about being a coach.

Chat with Matt.
About Coaching.

Autobiography

Previously, I was the founder and Artistic Director (later Executive Director) of Available Light Theatre. I led the company through 15 years and more than 100 productions.

In testimonials about my creative work, I’ve been called “wicked smart,” “inspiring,” “provocative,” “riveting,” “AWESOME,” “a gifted communicator,” “supernatural,” and “a theatrical force of nature.”

(Check out Slay dot blog for samples and endorsements from my artistic life.)

While earning my living as a professional artist, I learned the most by working with curious, ambitious collaborators. I thrive when I'm helping creative people to outperform their expectations.

So, now I do that as an Achievement Skills Coach and a certified Positive Psychology practitioner.

My coaching education includes 175 hours of training in the theory, skill, and practice of evidence-based coaching with The Flourishing Center of New York City. The Applied Positive Psychology Coaching Program (APPC) is recognized by The International Coaching Federation (ICF) as an Accredited Coach Training Program.

My Mission

Hard-Earned Happiness
Getting to satisfaction, and making it last, often requires effort and discomfort. And the most difficult parts are rarely what we expect them to be.
Plus-Side Purpose
Your best work will add joy and solidarity to the world. When you hitch your desires to a cause larger than the present moment, the results will be far more rewarding.
State of Readiness
Each day, you can focus on your intentions and measure your success by them. There doesn’t have to be any difference between your best self and who you are today.
Learning from Uncertainty
The unknown is an excellent teacher. As Pema Chodron said, "Reality is like a river. It's flowing, it's always changing. This is a wonderful thing."

Even More About Matt

Matt's writing and directing of new plays for Available Light, BlueForms Theatre Group, and others have been lauded by American Theatre magazine, the National New Play Network, New York Press, the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards, NYtheatre dot com, the Central Ohio Theatre Critics Circle, the Greater Columbus Arts Council’s Artistic Excellence Awards, and many more. His adaptations of sci-fi and graphic novels have been featured by The Comics Journal and io9 dot com.

As a speaker and performance poet, Matt kicked-off the first TEDxColumbus event and encored at the second, then riffed on the real-time web and rapped about e-commerce for Resource (now IBM iX) Interactive’s iCitizen. Other gigs include speaking and event emcee-ing for the Young Presidents/World Presidents Organization, the Columbus Foundation, Estée Lauder, InkTank, the Cincinnati Public Library’s Writers Weekend, the Columbus State Leadership Society, and others.

Matt has taught classes and workshops at Columbus College of Art & Design, Denison University, Columbus State Community College, Otterbein College, Miami University, New Albany High School, Columbus’s Arts Impact Middle School, Eastland Fairfield Career & Technical School, and for Healing Broken Circles at the Marion Correctional Institution.

Here’s a photo I took at 10,400 feet up in the Rocky Mountains after one of the more difficult hikes of my life.

And here’s one I took on the Colorado River, at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. I’d love to tell you about that trip sometime.