Our Story

From an early age, God instilled within us a passion to understand and encourage people.

Youth sports and school leadership roles triggered Lee’s thirst to learn more about leading groups of people. Julie’s fascination with psychology started in third grade as she followed her father’s readings and her mother’s teachings. 

We both studied psychology at Florida State University. We met Spring of our junior year when a mutual friend lobbied Lee to vote for Julie as President of the Psychology honor society. Julie won, so the following Fall semester she assumed her role. The same semester, we happened to sit next to each other in a senior level psychology class.

Lee became interested in Julie but was looking for a unique and memorable way to reach out to her.  So, he made up an imaginary exchange student named Hermann von Wagner from Leipzig, Germany, the city in which the field of psychology was born (an inside joke for Lee). Hermann wanted to get into the Psychology honor society with a 2.0 GPA, so he wrote notes requesting to be admitted to Julie, the new honor society president.  Lee later learned that Julie is the eternal optimist, so she considered the possibility that Germany might have had a difference grading scale and maybe a 2.0 GPA was the equivalent of an A in Germany.

After a month of correspondence between Julie and “Hermann”, during class Lee turned to Julie and asked, “So, how is Hermann doing?” Julie was equally taken aback and impressed by Lee’s creative (and a bit whacky) approach. His unconventional attempt to connect with Julie led to a first date, a 38-year (and counting) marriage, a 26-year business (and counting) and three thriving adult children (no more counting).

After college we earned our respective graduate degrees, Lee in Organizational Psychology and Julie in Preventive Medicine, which enhanced our insights and toolkits.

Our passion for people and leadership accelerated as we served in executive leadership roles. This enabled us to apply the science of human behavior in the world of work. These roles also gave us the opportunity to help our team members grow both personally and professionally.

In 1999. our firm was born out of a personal calling to help people identify their God-given gifts and realize their potential. In short, to equip and encourage leaders whether you are leading yourself or others.

We believe that good leadership changes the world for good!

Our partnership with clients has produced clarifying models and actionable tools for healthy growth. We look forward to sharing them with you.