3 critical layers
Discover in every conversation and communication how to quickly uncover what is most important to others.
6 powerful questions
Unlock emotional intelligence and belonging while busting bias, and accelerating connection.
4 leverage points
Engage, grow, and keep the best talent while helping drive amazing business results.
3 mindsets
Bolster resilience and restore a sense of peace, because winning on the outside while suffering on the inside, isn't winning at all.
Our team of coaches
unlock exceptional potential and impact.
Comprehensive Executive Leadership Coaching
A 6-month high-impact process when the stakes are high and the potential is worth the investment.
Large Scale Provider of Coaching
Leverage our team of curated coaches
for a consistent streamlined approach to coaching your leaders
and gain valuable insights from across the organization.
The SSBI Coaching Process
Engaging experiences designed to develop emotionally intelligent leaders who get results.
+Positive Talent Conversations
Equip every manager to engage, grow, and retain your best and transform the dreaded appraisal into a meaningful conversation.
Every Conversation Matters (ECM)
Accelerate performance, enhance trust, and transform conversations with visual hacks and strategies
designed for sustainable culture change.
ECM 3x3 DIY Certification
A 3-phase journey for measurably healthier and higher-performing teams.
Founder &
Chief Coaching Officer
Executive Assistant &
Coaching Scheduler
Partner &
Director of Client Success
Co-creator of Every Conversation Matters (ECM)
Leadership, like a river, can bring life or destruction and suffering. Our goal is to develop leaders who bring vitality and growth to their team, organization, family, and world.
Where life-giving leadership is present multiple streams flow together including a focus on Connection, Communication, Performance and Development, and the Inner Game. We've spent decades focused on the confluence of these key areas.
We intend to help you develop habits designed to shift and scale leadership culture, so you and your people show up consistently for each other and for your customers. More info, PowerPoints, and complicated models won't get you there.
We aspire to be trusted advisors with long-term relationships with our clients. We get to know you and your organization and you get to know us. Leadership development is a life-long journey, culture change takes time, and doing it with trusted friends and colleagues is simply more rewarding!
Our logo is the Ensō circle, borrowed from Japanese calligraphy and Zen philosophy. Full of rich layers of meaning, the contours, edges, and gaps remind us of the beauty of the perfectly imperfect art and science of life and leadership, which we aspire to practice with gratitude, acceptance, and awe.
At 16, I dropped out of school, earned a GED, and took a couple of classes at the local Community College. I eventually scrapped my way through an undergraduate degree, worked in outdoor adventure, and was involved in non-profit outreach work with youth and at-risk communities.
Drawn to help the under-resourced, I moved to Cambodia for a few years. While working in Southeast Asia, I attended classes in the Philippines and completed a Master's in Organizational Leadership. Along the way, I was beginning to coach and train leaders and multi-cultural teams from all over the world, many of whom were doing really challenging work in some of the most difficult places on the planet. I earned professional International Coach Federation (ICF) coaching credentials and started Epic Rivers in 2006.
Truthfully, even with "credentials" I wasn't ready to be an entrepreneur and run my own coaching practice.
Thankfully, amazing mentors knew I needed more experience in larger organizations to develop the art and science of coaching and developing leaders and to learn about complex organizational culture and change management from the inside.
I worked in leadership development for a large international disaster relief organization, supporting thousands of volunteers and leaders in 20+ countries, and then in healthcare focusing on leadership development for physician leaders and administrators.
Both industries had little tolerance for the theoretical and this honed my natural tendency toward simple and practical.
Next, I had the amazing opportunity to serve as Head of Coaching at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL Americas), a top-10 globally ranked provider of executive education.
I led and grew one of the largest coaching practices in the world for 5 years, with an incredible team supporting over 500 coaches delivering more than 20,000 hours of coaching annually, and training thousands of leaders in coaching and conversation skills. Revenue more than doubled and the work was fulfilling.
When Covid hit our global business hard in 2020, I took the opportunity to shift gears and signed on as a Partner at Pilgrimage Professional Development Group, as a Strategic Advisor and Coach for AIIR Consulting, and as an Executive Coach for Kramer Leadership.
All three are ongoing partnerships I continue to enjoy with people I respect, doing work I love.
My primary focus is now Epic Rivers Leadership
and growing a team to build on an idea that started back in 2006.
Story to be continued...
COACHING
Chuck approaches coaching in such a new, different, and innovative way.
Andy Kearney, Sr. VP, Customer Success
Anthology
Chuck is an excellent executive coach. He combines real world experience, candor and pragmatism in helping a leader grow. I walked away from time together as a better leader. I would recommend him to anyone looking for an executive coach.
John Crowley, Pres. & COO
Healthy Blue NC
Chuck is the best manager I've ever worked with. He is exceptionally professional, fair, competent and confident.
Alyson Ebaugh
He coached me around a very complicated situation; his questions were excellent. Chuck is an exceptionally supportive coach. He encouraged me to stretch and provided words of encouragement specific to the situation. It is without reservation that I recommend him.
S. Goebel
Being coached by Chuck has impacted my life. It has helped me improve and move to another stage of self-direction and self-management and helped me grow.
Sophany Pang, Founder
Kone Kmeng, Cambodia
I had the good fortune of being paired with Chuck after I transitioned careers in spring 2021. I cannot recommend Chuck highly enough. Chuck was a guide and resource at a critical junction in my career. He listened and responded to more than my surface level concerns. Through his coaching I was able to address both tangible challenges I was facing in my new role while also deepening my self-awareness, which led to positive outcomes as a supervisor and leader in my organization. His ability to build rapport quickly, meant I trusted him with more sensitive concerns. This coupled with his industry knowledge led to a dynamic coaching experience. I'm grateful for Chuck and am always on the lookout for a way to work with him again in the future.
- Sarah Piff, Professional Services Leader
Aiir Consulting
Chuck is an awesome executive leadership coach! I've been working with Chuck for a year. He has positively impacted my leadership style! I find his perspectives thoughtful and insightful. Chuck has helped me in my newly expanded leadership role to build a high performance team, while meeting aggressive revenue targets and introducing new fundraising initiatives. Chuck has played an instrumental role in helping me to:
- Focus and deliver a consistent vision for my team
- Drive growth through people
- Provide an environment to encourage risk taking and accountability
LaToya Crowe, Marketing Executive
Air Force Aid Society
Chuck has shown extraordinary ability to connect with clients. He was instrumental in providing exceptional education to external coaches who were enhancing their coaching capability. Chuck has demonstrated excellent strategic thinking and execution competency to position the coaching practice to sustain its strong market presence. Indeed, it has been a pleasure to work with Chuck.
James McPherson
Senior Healthcare & Human Resource Executive
TRAINING & FACILITATION
I have been very impressed with the content and presentation of Every Conversation Matters and have successfully introduced it into my current organization as a cornerstone of our culture. Everyone benefited and walked about with useful skills they started to use immediately.
Joan Shields, Sr. VP of Leadership,
El Pomar Foundation
He has trained our team to facilitate ECM sessions and it will remain in our L&D offerings. You can’t beat simple and practica. It just works!
Kiva Elliot, former VP & Chief Diversity Officer,
Cone Health
It had an immediate impact, and we heard positive feedback from everyone who participated.
Nona Henderson, OD,
Virginia Dept. of Conservation & Recreation
Highly motivated and goal oriented. His ability to connect with people is second only to his communication skills. One of Chuck’s most powerful assets is his prowess for cutting to the heart of a conversation topic. As a speaker, his ability to “get to the point” has garnered many fans.
Rick Martin
Chuck is one of the best trainers and teachers you could find. He has a natural gift of communication that makes him engaging regardless of the topic.
Scott Evans, Leadership Development Consultant
I've had the pleasure of working with Chuck in a number of different avenues. Chuck has provided coaching, consultancy and produced thought provoking content for impactful leadership development. Most recently, Chuck coached me through a challenge. He is an incredible listener, got curious, and empowered me for my best solution.
Susan Terrel, Healthcare HR Executive
During the time I worked with Chuck I sought his expertise and advice often. He was able to interact with multiple groups of supervisors and staff employees to facilitate positive response to an environment under colossal change. He was always positive, had excellent insight, excellent listening skills, and always moved t issues forward.
Phil Lotti, Healthcare Executive
Chuck is one of those unique individuals who have the capacity to strategically lead and also move things through to execution. He has an incredible grasp of human dynamics and change management which not only makes him a superb facilitator, it also allows him to craft strategies that are not only accepted well by his partners but also produce the intended results. Ron Hill, former supervisor and VP HR,
Principle at Korn Ferry
Let's Connect on LinkedIn