about Jim
I've been a full time life coach since 2011, and for every year since they've awarded it, I've been accorded Top Pro status by Thumbtack.com as a measure of customer satisfaction. (Only 4% of Thumbtack professionals are Top Pros.) I also do speaking engagements and organizational coaching, drawing on my background in the corporate world.
I had a broad range of experience before I began coaching, starting with degrees in English and Computer Science from Colgate University and including various writing and computer programming jobs. I worked for a couple of start-ups and spent 13 years working for Microsoft.
My favorite experiences have all involved helping people do it better: I've been at different times a teacher, a cross country and track coach, a tutor, and a people manager, and becoming a life coach has felt like a natural culmination of all of that work.
As an extension of my coaching, I write. In 2006 I self-published a book on healthy approaches to dating called The Last Place You Look (which earned a Recommended Review from Kirkus Reviews), and since then I've written two others: Verse Advice and Use Your Words.
I live in Melrose, Massachusetts with my wife, the acclaimed author Nancy Werlin.
about the merlin
I'm a bird watcher, and I was drawn to the merlin--a small falcon--as a metaphor for both the coaching practice and for the approaches you'll be taking as a result of your coaching. It has a reputation for being a very direct flyer, but it's also highly maneuverable when it needs to be. It's sharp-eyed, fast, and fearless, and as you might imagine, the merlin is a very efficient hunter.