About John Rhoads
Through a wide range of personal and professional experiences, John passionately believes we each have a purpose. Our personal dreams, talents, and vision fit into a bigger picture about how the world works! He is a highly motivated individual and thrives on guiding others to their own passion and inspiration. John started developing his coaching and mentoring skills in 2003, working with teens through several youth programs. Because of these initial programs John began to develop the skills for meeting individuals where they are and finding creative solutions to helping individuals find meaning in the world. John pulls from a wide variety of influence (i.e., Robert Bly, Ken Wilber, Gurdjieff, and others) to create his approach to being a life coach and mentor.
John serves as a Primary Coach, and as the Staff Administrator, for the 8-day Tri-Life Leadership Training Program. Completing, and then staffing, this intensive, experiential program has been a transformational point in John’s life. The staff guides participants through the program which include a series of intense intellectual and emotional exercises promoting emotional intelligence and self-reflection. By creating a safe judgment-free, environment, participants are able to look within themselves to find the answers to why they behave the way they do. With understanding and self-compassion, the wounds of the past are able to heal through forgiveness and empowerment. It has been the Tri-Life program that has created the coach that John is today. By paying it forward as a coach and mentor, John is living his purpose of helping others find meaning in their lives.
Everyone has a purpose
John had the unique opportunity to serve as the coaching director of a non-profit, targeting individuals in situational or generational poverty. This experience solidified John’s belief that EVERYONE HAS A PURPOSE. It is an amazing and humbling experience to coach individuals with such diverse experiences and such a wide and varying range of obstacles to overcome. One of the most rewarding outcomes of this experience for John was witnessing the sustained, whole-person, transformational change possible through goal setting, affirmation, and finding purpose. Always enthusiastic about a challenge, John excels in developing innovative solutions to overcoming challenges such as criminal convictions, discrimination, substance abuse, domestic violence, and lack of educational opportunities (all while finding the opportunity to have some fun).
Everything is connected
Working as a trained biologist, John was involved in habitat restoration projects in the Hudson River and New York Harbor; integrating human needs with habitat restoration and enhancements. From this experience John views the human condition from an ecosystem perspective. This perspective translated and integrated into a systems approach operating within the broad range of interactions between individuals and organizations in the context of financial systems in the mutual fund industry. These seemingly unrelated fields are part of the foundation of John’s skills and strengths of being able to see how larger systems work and how individuals play a role based on their unique abilities and purpose. This is the same as a cell functioning inside of a tissue, as part of an organ, inside a living creature, within a population, as part of an ecosystem… Each of us has a role to play!
It has been through all of these experiences that John developed the belief that everything around us is connected and we as individuals all have a purpose to fill regardless of our history or circumstances. This purpose provides meaning and fulfillment allowing us to overcome the obstacles we face in life. John offers a unique coaching experience. He offers an empathetic and non-judgmental perspective in how to identify and overcome the obstacles preventing each of us from achieving the vision and purpose of our lives.