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Meet Tommy Acierno

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Tommy Acierno.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Tommy. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Leadership has a knack for finding me. It started way back in my Junior year of High School when I was selected to be the Drum Major (an honor typically reserved for Seniors).

Fast forward ten years and I found myself in one of the most amazing companies in the world, Google. To my surprise, I received a promotion that put me in a place to manage a team. Fast forward another ten years and I found myself in the most unique situation. You see, for the longest time, I’ve been very effective as a mentor-based manager. I guided my team towards answers and solutions based on my extensive history and experience. And then something happened that I didn’t expect: my team faced more sophisticated challenges, they were more sophisticated and smarter than I was (thank goodness).

And I felt stuck. I knew that change was coming, but I didn’t know how or when. About that time, my wife began studying as a Health Coach. And this was the first I learned about the profession of coaching. From what I understood, coaching focused on asking powerful questions that empower people to derive their OWN answers. “This is it,” I thought. “This is the solution I’ve been looking for.” I didn’t need to be an expert on how to solve my teams’ challenges. I only needed to ask better questions. So in the winter of 2016, I enrolled in a professional coach training program.

As I sat down in my first training weekend, something stirred in me. I felt at home. I felt at peace. I felt like I had connected the dots from a lifetime of experiences. As I said, leadership has always found me, and along the way, I’ve been searching and growing. Personal growth and development have been a calling for me for much of my life. This, too, goes all the way back to High School when I first read Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman. His book introduced me to the idea of living a conscious life — that life is something that you can practice, hone, and refine. I learned very quickly that while coaching uses amazing tools like powerful questions, the core of coaching is about living with an abundance of conscious awareness, acceptance, presence, wisdom, and freedom. My journey of personal development was a solo journey, and not something that I openly discussed much with others. Sitting there in the training room, learning to become a coach, I was surrounded by people who not only wanted to live a more conscious and powerful life, but they wanted to learn the skills to help others do the same thing!

I absorbed the material like a sponge and had a raw talent for utilizing the coaching tools. I saw before my eyes as people released old energy, thoughts, and beliefs and then consciously chose new ones that were infinitely more supportive. As I sat across from people during my coaching sessions, I noticed that I had a persistent belief running through me the whole time: the person in front of me is brilliant, is a genius, and is remarkably powerful. I noticed that from one client to the next, and that’s when I realized that EVERYONE has a reservoir of potential that’s filled with brilliance, genius, and power. I began coaching my team and other employees at my, then, company. After about six months, I formalized the role and created the first-of-its-kind Leadership Development Coach position at the company. I served an organization of about 100 people.

To my surprise, yet again, I received a massive intuitive message from my higher consciousness. The message was, “It’s time to bring coaching to the world.” And I said, “Are you sure?” The confident reply was, “Yes!” After a 12-year career with the same software group, SketchUp, which included two acquisitions (one by Google and the other by Trimble), I put in my notice so I could start my private coaching practice. Armed with nothing but my passion for coaching and intuitive guidance, I lept with total and complete trust.

That following fall of 2018, a friend encouraged me to pursue an opportunity to teach other coaches in the classroom and study to become a lead trainer for my coaching school. This new direction and opportunity felt so right and, yet, unexpected at the same time. I applied and was accepted into the program. I’ve spent a good part of 2019 traveling across the country teaching new life and leadership coaches through my coaching school, iPEC (the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching). And as I reflect on this part of my journey, I can’t help but laugh at my intuition’s message: “Bring coaching to the world.” At first, I thought that this meant to coach others. I didn’t expect it to mean TEACH other coaches.

I continue to own and operate my private coaching practice while also spending time supporting and teaching new coaches. Where my journey goes next is still up in the air. But if history is any indicator, there’s a great chance that it’ll be a surprise!

Has it been a smooth road?
As an internal coach for the SketchUp team inside of Trimble, I had a great deal of access to clients and coaching. I had the freedom to create my role and operations as I saw fit. I had a salary, benefits, clients, and no need for sales, marketing, taxes, or another of the other nuances of entrepreneurship. Rightly so, other coaches I knew thought I was a bit crazy for leaving all of the perks of internal coaching (including working with really wonderful people) in order to create my own company.

So when the realities of marketing and sales came into full view, I realized just how little I understood about these activities. I, of course, began by connecting with people I knew, and I let them know about my coaching services. This translated into my first clients and got the ball rolling. But to create a more sustainable business, I’d need to find new ways to connect with potential clients. I have experimented with many methods and, honestly, this is something that I’m still growing, tweaking, developing, and understanding.

We’d love to hear more about your work.
By far the biggest reward of creating an intuitively-inspired business is the raw fulfillment that I feel. And even as an Internal Leadership Development Coach, I shifted into feeling so much more aligned with my gifts.

As a result, I aspire to reconnect other professionals with fulfillment. Specifically, I focus on helping others experience fulfillment with their career, relationships, and spirituality. Now, when I say spirituality, I don’t mean religion. I mean the part of you that is connected to meaning, trust, and, of course, intuition.

By developing the mind, heart, and intuition, my clients begin to KNOW what steps to take towards fulfillment, TRUST that it’s the right path (because we often second-guess ourselves after an intuitive knowing), and then LEAP into the unknown. Know, Trust, and Leap was the exact recipe that I used to completely transform my life, and it’s the recipe I use to support my clients.

This work has really helped me tune into my gifts, which I turn right around and use with my clients. I rely on a powerful intuition to best serve the right questions, observations, and insights with my clients so that they tune into their higher levels of energy and consciousness. Together, we put them back in the driver’s seat of life (as opposed to being at the effect of life). My clients are here to do big and bold things in the world. But when they rely entirely on the logical mind to find all the solutions, it falls short. They need guidance from their heart and intuition as well, which I help them connect to and utilize.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Professional coaching has been expanding rapidly over the last several years. Many of us in this profession do so because of the flexibility and freedom. The majority of work with our clients happens online or over the phone.

That being said, Denver and Colorado have ALSO experienced rapid growth over the last several years. It’s becoming quite a hot spot for technology, innovation, and creativity. For those of us coaches who do in-person work, Denver is a wonderful city to reside in. We have tech companies (large and small), start-ups, entrepreneurs, and four distinguishable seasons. It’s a gem and place that I’ve been proud to call home all my life.

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Image Credit:
Kellie Ogle

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