I never met or heard Thomas Leonard speak but have come to admire what he accomplished for years. Thomas Politico who was one of Thomas Leonard’s first clients and taught at Coach U for years was my first coach. Politico regaled me with many personal Leonard stories, and more importantly clarified the true coaching process that Leonard created.

I have tried to figure out how Thomas Leonard cannot be called the Father of personal coaching. He was certainly a marvelous creator, trainer, communicator, and passionate advocate of Personal Coaching as he called it. His passion, and his efforts to promote personal coaching to everyone who would listen must be considered the single most powerful and effective driving force behind the development of the entire coaching profession.

When I read about Tony Robins and other people who claim to be the father or grandfather of life coaching for self-promotional purposes, I cringe. Thomas Leonard created a wonderful very needed, and very effective new human improvement process that did not exist as an organized and defined process or profession before him. Sure, he used the Internet as one of his greatest communication tools, but he also drove his RV everywhere, created Coach U, and Coachville conducted untold seminars, and recruited so many great people to enter this strange profession called personal coaching. It is my understanding that he was the inspiration behind creating the ICF and also had a hand in developing CTI before he left the Bay Area for New York. The Wright Brothers who are considered the fathers of airplane flight were not the first people to try to fly heavier than air machines (I think 7 to 9 tried before them) but they were the first to actually fly. Thomas made personal coaching fly.

I am not into hero worship, or undue adulation, but I have to greatly admire what he did, recognize his remarkable contributions and thank Thomas because I would not be talking to you, I would not have created the coaching business we have, and would not have revitalized my life if it were not for Thomas, and I never met him. Now that is what I consider a very powerful influence.

What is becoming sadder each day, is how fewer and fewer supposed trained and certified coaches are even aware who Thomas Leonard was, let alone his contributions. Please expand this blog to include all of the stories you receive about Thomas and record them for more people to read and appreciate.

I am really enjoying reading about the Thomas stories that are appearing here. I hope they continue for a long time.

If you think it appropriate and are willing (I know these things are close to the heart) I would love it if you chose to post the email Thomas sent to Carl.

We all promise not to send a copy to Carl, yes?

—-

Flo, I just know your thoughts echo so many thousands of others. Thank you for sharing and keep. it. up!

—

Cheryl and Lee, you both touch on something that seems so paradoxical, doesn’t it? I love your examples! Thomas really was so …. well….human, wasn’t he? Which is probably why I cringe when people talk about him as if he were a God. LOL. I can just imagine Thomas rolling his eyes and saying ‘puhleeze’ before he turned away…much as you both describe. Your stories illuminate this in
a way nothing else could – the point of this whole experiment. Yay!

—-

Paul – what a great ‘little something’. And talk about entering the conversation in the potential clients mind! I mean, who says there aren’t enough coaching clients where there are rivers
of demand such as the one you stepped in?

—-

Mary Ann – bless you for your essay – there is so much in it and I hope you’ve made it widely available elsewhere too.

In particular I loved this “Thomas didn’t seem to dare to believe…he naturally believed.” There was such an ‘of course-ness’ about him that just ‘was.’ I love how you’ve described it – it’s different from ‘being a leader’ and is part of leadership at the same time, I think.

—-

Angela — it is a lovely energy to read through these, I agree. Yours are also lovely little somethings. It was these small-seeming moments that made up the fabric of our experience of the man, and I’m grateful to share them in virtual company, rather than alone.

Let’s spread the word as is and feels appropriate. I’m getting sparked to post a few more in the next while…perhaps over the next weeks. Ciao for now!!

If I could tell him anything, I would tell him this:
Thomas, I’m proud to tell you that I hung in with my true passion of Art and Coaching. I brought those two passions together, and now help others to work with an expressive arts tool. I now also have a Strategic Alliance with Coach U. Since I’m a graduate of the school you created, I’m particularly honored to see Coach U embracing my brainchild, the web based Art Guidance Cards Program. I am now offering demo teleclasses to the students and instructors of Coach U — It feels like I’ve gone full circle in many ways, having received so much support and knowledge through Coach U. Now I will be teaching my own Art Guidance coaching technique there. What an amazing feeling. Part of the full circle is that you, Thomas started Coach U several years ago. And the soul mate I met and changed my mind to go on the tour, is the programmer who has helped with the technical know-how to create the technology for the online Art Guidance Cards at http://www.GuidanceCoach.com.
Thomas, you were like a mentor to me. This time of the year I always think of you. You died February 11, 2003 but your legacy lives on. I know you would be proud of me seeing what I’ve done with my passion of art coaching so far.

Thomas Leonard died 4 years ago in February of a heart attack at a young age in his mid-40s.

About 7 years ago, when I stumbled onto coaching and then decided to get coach training I attended CoachU – the coaching school that Thomas Leonard had started and then later sold to retire and maybe move onto other endeavors. Shortly after my entrance into coach training Thomas came out of “retirement”.

My first introduction to Thomas was in these stimulating chaotic “beta” teleclasses of his. When he offered his Perfect Life Coaching Program – his very first beta version of it – I just had to be part of it.

Thomas would have an idea. He would bring it to class and just throw out these ideas and in something that could only be called “magical” before the end of the call, he would have taken the idea through several stages of growth, development and then into some kind of evolutionary leap.

Bouncing ideas around the “room” on the call with everyone chiming in somehow he managed to teach, coach and bring the idea to its next evolutionary leap without seemingly doing anything. It was widely exciting.

Thomas never seemed to plow through anything. It was always like his mind was generating these highly developed and organized gamma waves that just naturally and with unbelievable speed took a thought beyond its normal possibilities. He never seemed to get bogged down following an agenda or laying something out in a linear fashion. He seemed to me to be truly a catalyst for ideas beyond the ordinary.

Since Thomas’s passing, the coaching profession periodically speaks of the need for a new leader. But I don’t really think that Thomas was a leader. I certainly don’t think he was the leader of the coaching industry. Rather, I think that Thomas was a true evolutionary. And not even an evolutionary coach but rather he was a true evolutionary when it came to human development. It was his vision for human potential that drew thousands of people to connect with him.

Everything that Thomas did and created was about the potential of human development. He took the idea of what it meant to be human and just kept evolving and evolving it. He just kept taking human potential further and further. He did not seem constrained by the limits of the world as we know but rather seemed to be almost driven by possibilities of human life that he could envision.

Thomas didn’t seem to dare to believe – he never seemed timid and maybe he feigned uncertainty a little so as not to seem too arrogant – rather he just seemed to naturally believe – to know – that living the Perfect life is the next natural step for humanity.

He took the idea of living the perfect life right into reality. What he could envision as perfect he seemed to know that it could be lived as perfect.

The Perfect Life. To me this is what Thomas was at the core – an evolutionary visionary who “knew” that the perfect life could be lived in our lifetime. He was an evolutionary who causally proclaimed that life is so much more than we could even dare to envision.

These days in the coaching profession, we talk a lot about what coaching is and how to distinguish it from other helping professions. We seem to be in the midst of legitimizing ourselves. The buzz in the coaching world is all about learning how to make coaching thrive in the mainstream. Every good idea if it is going to stick around has to do this sooner or later.

But for me I feel blessed to have been exposed to and interacted with what I believe is the true heart of coaching – the evolutionary potential of human life. The possibility that everyone (i.e. “Everyone’s a coach”) has the potential to live “The Perfect Life”.

More than anything I think that this is what has spurred the development and blossoming of coaching – the remembrance in those attracted to coaching, either as coaches or those who want to be coached, that it is time to take that evolutionary leap articulated by Thomas – life can be perfect, life can be what we really want, we don’t have to be constrained by the limits of the world we now see.

I think that sometimes the coaching profession gets sidetracked and dumbed down by presenting itself as just goal setting or getting more results. Not to say this isn’t a useful approach – but it can be very normal. When we get trapped in this limited view of what life is all about it might be helpful for those of us who knew Thomas in some way to reach back to those exciting, chaotic widely evolutionary interactions and bring a bit of that into the present.

Thomas left his legacy to us – and it wasn’t as the leader of the coaching profession – it was and is about the evolutionary potential of human development. Perhaps we have to dare to believe the possibilities – which Thomas somehow just knew.

My most memorable personal interactions with Thomas

Thomas had the habit of sending out emails with tidbits of ideas and inviting comments. I regularly emailed him my comments and once he responded to me “Brilliant – as usual”. I can’t tell you how many times his comment has helped me stay true to the deluge of the unconventional ideas I have. That little response of his set me in directions I would have never have taken otherwise.

In a personal coaching call I asked Thomas to tell me what he thought about my energy overall –he hesitated for a second and it seemed like he didn’t want to be mean or anything – “You’re a little too tight”. Wow, that was a lot. But again his response was right on and set me on a path that has helped me immensely in finding a lighter more at ease part of myself.

Somewhere in some conversation he mentioned that he thought I might be pathological and I might benefit from therapy because who needs all the certifications I have anyhow. This one I worked out on my own and learned to love and embrace that side of me – but again his comment opened up new venues in my life.

I can imagine thousands and thousands of people having similar uncharted paths opened up in front of them from some conversation with Thomas – and even from their own coaches.

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
– Marcel Proust

And Thomas certainly had new eyes.

So I must do my part. I’ll contribute a few things that, though they may seem small, are significant to me.

I only met Thomas once in-person, at the Coachville conference in Sydney, but I was on his R&D Team so I received emails from him very frequently. When he died, I was shocked and I felt angry. I didn’t realize until he was gone how much I had been relying on him to inspire me. I was working very hard to establish my coaching business at the time. I wasn’t making much money then but I had tons of energy and passion about what I was doing. Once Thomas was gone there was an emptiness left behind, more than I had experienced with any other deaths to that point or since.

It was strange the first time I actually met Thomas. I was arriving at the Coachville conference and he was just standing in the doorway as I arrived. I saw him but I didn’t approach him, and he didn’t say anything. I didn’t really clue in to who he was because he was just standing there quietly on his own. I went to the registration desk instead. Later I realized how weird that was that the person we all came to see was standing there on his own.

I learnt a lot at that conference, especially about how to be real. It struck me the way Thomas was just being himself standing on the stage with a bunch of Powerpoint slides. There were no gimmicks like tricky games or high tech, but the content was so rich. We had many chances to interact with our neighbours in the room. It was so easy to manage that kind of seminar, no matter what size the group. I’ve used that same kind of seminar system myself on other occasions, knowing that a fancy facilitated process or plan is not as important as giving people the chance to interact with each other and with great content.

At one point there was one audience member who was sharing some kind of business problem and it came to light that he was day trading. Thomas said that he won’t coach anyone who is taking those kinds of risks (or something like that), and he let the guy sit down. I was stunned and impressed by the demonstration of using the edge.

Another time when Thomas really surprised me was when he sent an email to the R&D Team to get feedback on an idea about a coach matchmaking site. He got the idea from a matchmaking site he was involved with and he shared that link with us. I was so surprised to see a gay matchmaking site. It just never occurred to me that Thomas was gay. Of course it didn’t matter to me at all, but I was so surprised and wondered what impact that might have on many other readers. I was so impressed by his openness. It was like a kind of naivety.

Thomas taught me the most through Coach U’s Personal Foundation Program. The ideas are so simple yet provocative. I’ve used pieces of that program with many hundreds of clients and I know it has also made a huge difference to many of them, most notably the idea that it is good and natural to have needs and to get them met. I live by that now.

Will anyone else share some little things please?

Thanks for facilitating this topic. I thought of Thomas this weekend too, remembering him on his 4th anniversary.

And thanks for asking about the Internet Marketing conference Thomas and attended in the spring of 2001. Yes it was Carl Garletti, the copywriter who put it on.

Thomas was excited about going to this conference where he wanted to nail his understanding of Internet Marketing. He was amused by the $777 pricetag and suggested I meet him there for the conference.

Now I’d had some exposure to Internet Marketing training and was unimpressed by all the hype. Thomas, thought this was going to be a very educational event and I thought perhaps he knew something I didn’t so agreed to sign up and join him.

We got to the conference and it seemed a bit disorganized. So we found Carl and I asked him for an agenda. He said he didn’t have one. I asked him about the focus of the varios talks. He fumbled a bit and said, “Urrr, they’ll be talking about the Internet.”

With that, we were already a bit concerned about what we’d signed up for. Once the event started, we sat through one speaker after the next giving a little info about marketing but mostly offering us the opportunity to buy their several hundred dollar product after their talk.

Thomas was amazed by all this and had very little patience for it. I had a bit more patience but all in all, we had all we could take by the middle of day two in this four-day conference. Thomas commented about the speakers bragging about making $20-$30K a month. He told me, “I guess I know more than I thought, I made $80K last month on the Internet!”

When I returned home, I emailed Carl explaining how I felt the conference didn’t nearly live up to its billing and asked for a refund. He denied it and I mentioned it to Thomas. Thomas asked me to forward the email to him, and about 20 minutes later, I received his copied response to Carl.

It was classic Thomas and I saved the email to this day. I wouldn’t say it was rude, that would be I believe, more accurately a projection from Carl. The email was lasar, strong, and it offered Carl an opportunity to improve how he was doing business.

Ten minutes later, we received Carl’s short response indicating he’d credited each of us our fee and that perhaps Thomas would be better off focusing his energy more positively. Thomas replied with his thanks and that he was trying to help him.

I remember that during our hookey from the conference, Thomas and I had a great time playing. I was surprised that he could be very playful. We went several hours to a water park having a great time under the hot desert sun. He was a bit scared of some of the water rides and implied that though he was a bit chicken there that in fact, “I take financial risks instead.”

We went off to Circus, Circus and had a ball playing carnival games. We kept winning the pinball horse races and gave our stuffed animal winnings to any small children who would take them.

I miss Thomas for his energy, passion, and brilliance and I’m thankful the time I had as his friend and coworker.

Thanks for offering this forum to share this Andrea.

I was especially interested in the interesting graphic depictions he used to describe the environments – they looked a bit like space ships. Because I was so interested in the topic I came up to ask him a question about what a couple of things meant on the graphic. He looked away – I don’t know if he was embarrassed or what – and said that he was still working out the particulars. It was obvious that the discussion was over. It was strange to me that it switched so quickly from a compliment to a painful moment for him. I guess he was expecting perfection and hoped nobody would point out the unfinished business.

I was surprised that a little thing like the insignificant detail I was asking about would have that much impact on him. That must be the super sensitive thing….

Thomas was not happy with the way the name tags looked so they asked me to sit down at the laptop and make the format corrections. But there was no mouse and I was unfamiliar with laptops at the time. I was able to make it work….but Thomas was really hyped and he demanded that somebody get me a mouse – and made a comment that the learning curve was too steep (yes he was stressed and wanted the name tags to be perfect and to be completed now!)

Shortly thereafter Deborah Brown-Volkman showed up and took over this important task. This must have been right after you made that fateful call Andrea to get out of the shower now! Too funny. Deborah was as cool as a cucumber – in charge.

I was reassigned to the registration desk where I greeted members as they signed up – so honored to help out. Then Thomas came up beside me and put his arm around me. OMG, I acted like it was no big deal….but it WAS. I felt like I was back in junior high. I wish I could have looked at him and smiled…or something to acknowledge that special moment.

Thomas really kept you running during that conference Andrea. And it was fabulous!

After leaving a 16 year stint in Corporate America, with Sylvan Learning Systems, Inc, I could not imagine that the ‘next thing’ could match the fun and satisfaction that I had at Sylvan.

Guess what?

My work as a Business and Life Coach fills me with joy and purpose and an ongoing quest for betterment.

It provides me with rich content for my own growth as well as for that of my clients.

It allows me to share all that I know with wonderful clients and colleagues…in a way that honors each of us.

It is, for sure, my life’s purpose.

Thank you, Thomas, for creating this profession in time for me.

I remember meeting Thomas briefly on his trip down under to Sydney. For abot a day I was listening to him coach a room of people. I was inspired to be a coach myself. (I was brand new to the idea at the time but enormously attracted to it.) I approached Thomas with great reverence, in my “early days” with no real personal growth behind me at all.

I thanked him for his great teachings, his great web site and then for some unknown reason began to tell him a few minor details I thought he could improve about what he was doing…his eyes glazed over, he turned away and basically I was not welcome any more.

In spite of myself, he still taught me in that moment. He deonstrated his idea of “tolerate nothing.”

Thank you Thomas – I have grown so much since then, and am still learning from great teachers. I miss your great teachings and idea advances so much too. Your legacy lives on in people like me!

“This is a contribution to ‘A Little Something about Thomas Leonard”