Fahlberg

Annette Williams

Senior Director, Global Head, Customer Safety & Services

Quintiles, Inc.

Previous, SVP Operations Drug Safety Alliance, Inc

 

As a recently promoted executive, I had the opportunity to engage John as my executive coach. Over a three year period, we discussed nearly every aspect of leadership, management, and personal development and happiness.  John created a safe, confidential environment where we candidly discussed business challenges and personal issues while considering options and assessing likely outcomes. John's insights came from his many years as a corporate executive having faced the very same challenges.  John has the uncanny ability to empathize one minute and then call you out when required.  Working with John is equal parts laughter and tears which ultimately resulted in some of the greatest professional ah-ha moments of my life. There is no doubt that John's coaching was a critical element in my development as a leader and manager and the success of the company.

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Brice Englert

CEO

Trade Pending

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I have had the pleasure of working with John for nearly 4 years.  My company was only a year and change old and adding a coach/consultant/confidant was an opportunity I had really not considered.  John's experience and strong recommendations from other business owners I respected led me to give it a shot.  I am incredibly thankful I made that decision and for nearly 4 years John has been a great coach and extended part of my leadership team.

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John has served as a critical resource for me in navigating the challenges of growing the business.  His flexible approach to coaching is rooted in simple consistency-of-meetings, exploratory conversations about "what is your biggest problem today/next month", and staying focussed on what matters.  We adopted a strategic planning process that he oversaw in our 2nd year.  That same process is used today.

I highly recommend taking the jump and working with John.  His connections are immense but, most importantly, his interest in your business success is extraordinary.

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Courtney Tellefsen

Founder & CEO

The Produce Box

 

I am thrilled to endorse John Fahlberg as an exceptional executive coach.  I was skeptical at first about coaching.  I had always figured things out for myself and felt I could continue to do so. 

 

After working with John for several months he helped me become a better leader, thinker, strategist and CEO.  He helped me think deeply and analytically about my unique individual needs and worked with me to enhance my leadership skills.

 

John had a long, successful career as an executive in early-stage growth companies.  He used that experience to help me think through and solve my business problems and to grow as a leader.

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I know from experience that you have learned when you tell others about it and apply it in new situations.  I have seen my direct reports become better leaders and managers based on the coaching I have provided them based on John’s teachings.

 

Because of John’s coaching, I am a better leader and we are a supremely better company than we were three years ago.

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Without reservation and with abject gratitude for his time, attention, focus and tactfulness, I can wholeheartedly recommend John.

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Shawn Sweeney

CEO

Pulse Broadband​

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John has been my leadership coach for over two years.  A colleague of mine had worked with John and suggested I contact him.  Boy am I glad I did!  I was struggling with developing my management and leadership skills as our company was moving from a startup to a fast growth company.  I was working very hard but not leading and managing so I was not in control of my days.

 

John coached me through delegation, time management, communication skills, team building and managing up.  He intently listened and thoughtfully provided feedback and suggestions.  We created an actionable gameplay each month.  Each session provided insights there were right on point (I call them “John nuggets”).

 

Fast forward to today - I have control over my day.  I am leading and managing more efficiently.  I am proud of the professional growth that I have accomplished and am looking forward to working with John to further enhance my leadership skills.

 

I highly recommend John to leaders who desire to enhance their leadership and management skills…and have some fun doing it.

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Jeff Cooper

CEO Saltbox Solutions

 

I have had the opportunity to work with John for that past year, as I transitioned onto the leadership team of our growing business. John has been a lifeboat in the ocean of chaos that is a growth-stage start-up. Whether coaching on interpersonal styles, business strategy, management, or tactical operations - John provides an intelligent point of view, backed up by the wisdom and experience he has gained throughout his career.
 

John has provided me with an immense amount of value through keeping me focused on what matters, helping me sort through business priorities, and giving me invaluable, constructive feedback. His communication style reinforces his ability to provide a safe and confidential environment that allows you to discuss the real issues, no matter how big or small. I would strongly recommend John as a coach to anyone looking to better their leadership skills and gain a valuable strategic partner in business and life.

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Kurt Merriweather
Co-Founder/VP Products
The Diversity Movement

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I engaged John as a leadership coach to help me work through some management and leadership challenges I was facing in my new role. I realized that I needed to become a better leader and manager to deliver higher levels of performance. John acted as a sounding board to guide me and challenge me to bring the best out of myself. His wealth of practical knowledge built from his own career as an executive and deep library of resources enabled me to accelerate my leadership development. I cannot recommend John highly enough as a coach. I am now a firm believer that we all need a coach to become better leaders.

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Nathan Shackles

CEO

Applicant Stack

 

I believe every CEO and business leader needs a coach and John is one of the best in my experience.  I initially started working with John to help me transition from a technical leader to a business leader as the CEO of my software company. John helped me identify gaps in my leadership style (spoiler: I'm an introvert) and determine effective strategies to lead my team.  We then turned to business issues, and John helped me identify issues with our sales structure and processes that were holding us back and come up with a plan to transform the way we do sales.  Then, when my company was unexpectedly approached by a strategic buyer a year after John and I started working together John helped me effectively navigate the transaction process and avoid pitfalls that I could have easily fallen into.  Through all these coaching scenarios - leadership training, business consulting, and transaction execution - John has been a trusted advisor who has been vital to my company’s growth and successful exit over the past couple of years. Working with John is the most important investment I have made.

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Will Barfield

President & CEO

Barfield Revenue Consulting

 

As a super satisfied client, I would like to share that I highly recommend John Fahlberg as an Executive Coach.  I chose to work with John last year after meeting with a handful of other excellent coaches in town, primarily due to his fantastic career background, his network of connections, his overall sphere of influence, and his league of satisfied clients.

 

John’s input, guidance, and appropriately tough love have made a tremendous difference in my development as a first-time CEO and business owner.  I came to him because I knew that there was a ton I didn’t know, and John has done a beautiful job of leading me while letting me drive, and he’s held me accountable to our work together while making sure not to overwhelm. 

 

I’m a more-developed professional thanks to John, and my business is on a very exciting and successful trajectory.  I hope that John and I will be working together for a long time.

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Natasha Goldstein

CEO

The Account Keepers

As the Founder & CEO of a fast-growing, people-based start-up, I've been working with John for about a year. John has decades of experience running, advising, funding, and mentoring startups. His experience is truly invaluable. There have been many instances where John's advise has made all the difference, and created better outcomes for our organization. John is an excellent listener, and doesn't just hear what he understands or what is reflective of his personal experience; he listens for what matters to the person he is coaching. John helps you make decisions that are right for you, and your business, based on your unique goals and vision. I would recommend John as a coach to anyone without hesitation.

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Jason McGinnis

CEO NeoNova

 

After I was promoted to CEO, I felt that having an executive coach would help me navigate the “unknowns” that I would face.  I also hoped that it would help me be a better leader for my team.   I interviewed several people but ultimately found John to be the best fit for what I was looking for.   He is candid & direct, a good listener, extremely trustworthy, funny, and flexible enough to work around my travel.  I feel I’ve grown a lot as a leader over the last two years, and I contribute much of that credit to guidance & advice I’ve gotten from John.   

 

 

Matt Williamson

President & CEO

Windsor Circle, Inc.

 

John has been invaluable to our efforts as a fast-growing startup. John has been an officer and CEO in early-stage growth companies. He has “been there done that”. As such, he has been insightful as a coach and has helped us develop our strategic direction and plan. He has also focused on helping us dig deep into the personalities of our various team members to foster understanding areas for deep collaboration and potential conflict so that we can maximize the upside and minimize the distractions of personality clashes. It's been so effective that we've written blog articles about it. http://thenext10khours.com/2013/08/22/the-power-of-myers-briggs-for-start-ups/

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Scott Pell

CTO Pulse Broadband

 

I met John at an early Executive Leadership meeting of the company that had acquired our company.  He was the Executive Coach for my new boss.  After seeing John in action, I asked for and got clearance to also work with him.

Best thing I have ever done.  Over the course of the next several months, John coached me through the highs and lows of being a “new” executive on the Executive team of the company that acquired us.
 

The title of Coach is a high designation in my book.  John is a true Coach.  He listened to my struggles and helped me walk through my own process to make decisions.  John has broad business and coaching experience which allows him to provide “real world” insights. Every step of the way, John was honest, transparent, encouraging, empathic, challenging and positive.
 

I am grateful for the work John has done with me.  I look forward to working with him in a new role I start soon.  I simply cannot say enough good things about John as my coach and friend.

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Cathy Crumpton

Past President & CEO

Drug Safety Alliance, Inc

 

John Fahlberg is an excellent business consultant and executive coach. John led our senior management team through a rigorous strategic planning process that resulted in redefining our vision, mission, values, goals and action plans. We executed our plan and surpassed our goals.  John was extremely adept at leading, challenging, clarifying and focusing our team through this process. John is also a very effective coach. John has broad experience as a senior officer and CEO in growth companies. John's coaching style is very empathetic and supportive while yet probing, challenging and questioning. He helps you look inside yourself to find your key motivations and to assess your strengths and weaknesses as a leader. I have become a better leader because of John's guidance and coaching. John has a warm personality and Is fun to work with.

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Marc Pons

President

Chapel Hill Tire Care Center

 

John Fahlberg has been my coach, mentor and business advisor since 2007. His wealth of experience and knowledge has helped me navigate the maze of never-ending critical leadership and business issues. John is a great listener and has an easy-going style. Yet, he challenges me to think through all aspects of critical business decisions and to assess and improve my leadership style and traits. Over the years. John has led my team through strategic planning processes that have resulted in better plans and results. I have also grown as a leader through John's guidance and counsel.

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Graham Snyder

CEO

SEAL Innovation

 

John’s experience and skill provide a foundation and a perspective that is rare to find. Unlike a traditional advisor or consultant, John is less about dolling out tidbits of dogmatic advice, and more interested in exploring the roots of the executives' decision-making processes and digging deep into the challenges they face and practicalities that will affect their solution.

 

Ed Fadel

Serial Entrepreneur, Co-founder & CEO Respiron

 

I have worked with John on many occasions and in many different capacities over the last 20+ years as an entrepreneur. He has been a Board member, strategic advisor, coach, mentor, and confidant to me and to my companies and has proven to be invaluable and impactful in each of these roles. His coaching and counseling are always spot on. More importantly, he helps an entrepreneur/executive build skills, tactics and approaches to management that last and become part of the “tool box” to be drawn on as needed. In my experience, the results of working with John have been meaningful and measurable and the experience enjoyable and rewarding. I will continue to work with John whenever the occasion arises and can recommend him unconditionally to others looking to improve their company and their own leadership skills and capabilities.

 

 

Bill Harper

CEO & Chief Creative Officer wmHarper

 

John is the sledgehammer to any business barrier. A perfect blend of been-there-done-that, objective third-party, confidant and coach, John efficiently and effectively pushed us to new heights. Equally comfortable working one-on-one or with the entire team, his process quickly identified the challenges we faced and guided us on how best to overcome them. His dedication to our success was evident at every step and his insights continue to guide our growth months after our last session together.

In short, John is an asset to any team serious about growth and development.

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Ted Baxa
President & CEO
Frontlight Digital

 

Professionally, John's impact has been enormous. Our consulting practice's profitability has increased substantially each of the two years John has served as an advisor and coach. He has been an invaluable thought partner on three key projects and facilitated connections that accelerated our ability to execute them by months. He's also helped make me a better consultant and service provider to clients, particularly in navigating the "softer" people/organizational factors that play such a role in engagement outcomes. It's on the personal dimension that John's impact has been the most meaningful, however. John has helped me identify and focus on my strengths, acknowledge and accept more of my weaknesses, and he has helped me cultivate at least some modicum of patience and perspective. He has done that largely through a Socratic teaching approach--guiding me there mostly with questions, not answers--punctuated with the sort of direct, pointed feedback you'd expect from a no-nonsense midwesterner with decades of c-suite leadership experience.

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Brian Kessman

President

Lodestar Digital

 

As a first time entrepreneur, John gave me clarity and focus and helped me to prioritize what really mattered at that critical stage of my professional career. His experience in having walked the same path, and having helped many others do the same, kept me on track and moving at full speed. He was easy to talk with and to confide in. His style of patiently listening to my challenges and concerns before switching into coaching mode (and not pulling any punches) was exactly what I needed. I came out of each meeting with John with new realizations about my working style and what I should be doing next. He was completely dedicated to my success and exceeded my expectations as a coach. In essence, he got me through the early ups and downs of my business and kept me from throwing in the towel. 

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Eric Kaplan

Co-Founder & CTO

Armanta, Inc.

 

John Fahlberg is a patient, tireless listener who is able to quickly cut to the essence of an issue, be it questions of personal career development or business strategy. In the time I have worked with John he has helped me think about my career in ways I hadn't considered before that positively impacted my approach both as a leader as well as a professional. It can be difficult to find a truly objective sounding board. We have family and friends but they all have something at stake in the game. John is able to quickly zero in on key issues and help drive quickly towards a solution. I highly recommend him as a business strategist and as an executive coach.

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David Smith

Co-Founder, Co-Creative Leader

Immortology

 

John is the cure to business myopia. When your nose is pressed so firmly to the grindstone you lose sight of the opportunities - and threats - surrounding your business, John will help you see things straight. Through focused strategic exercises and a lot of coaching, John helped us clarify and resolve some issues that were holding us back. His tireless passion for our success came through in every second he spent with us. His tremendous business experience and sage advice make strong and invaluable medicine for young companies like ours.

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Steven Kent

President & CEO

Protea Digital, Inc.

 

John Fahlberg has been a superb resource. He has been a fantastic advisor for me as I build my business. He has a wise mix of knowing when to push back, and when to encourage. As a founder. I have to make critical decisions every day, and John has been an important part of my strategic thinking. The experience he brings to the table is invaluable in putting issues in perspective, and there are few business situations he hasn't delt with before. John has helped shape the direction of our company. I have no hesitation in recommending John's services to any emerging business leader.