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 when a mutual friend lobbied Lee to vote for Julie as President of the Psychology honor society. After Julie won, they happened to sit next to each other in the next semester’s psychology class. Lee became interested in Julie, but he was not very smooth. 🙂

So, Lee wrote Julie letters from an imaginary exchange student named Hermann von Wagner from Leipzig, Germany, the city in which the field of psychology was born (a small inside joke for Lee). Hermann wanted to get into the Psychology honor society so he kept writing notes requesting so to the president, Julie.

After a month of correspondence between Julie and “Hermann”, Lee revealed that he was the person behind the letters. By the grace of God, Lee’s unconventional (and risky!) move eventually led to a first date, a 36-year (and counting) marriage and three thriving children.

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, we combined our love of people, business, and leadership with our desire to serve. We co-founded a leadership advisory firm, The L Group, which is as much of a personal calling as it is a business. We have a deep passion for our work, compassion for people and a personal commitment to encourage and equip leaders.

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!