Own Your IT Coaching

Make your ceiling of yesterday your floor of tomorrow

Coaching for professionals who've built real success and know there's more in them, from the executive who lived it and the coach who helped him get there.

You've done what was asked, and then some. But the work that used to feel like a calling has started to feel like a script. Our coaching helps you get clear on what you're actually wired for and build a rhythm that takes you past the ceiling, one steady step at a time.

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  • 23 years Retail leadership, sales floor to EVP
  • 1.3M Associates Cedric was responsible for
  • ICF Certified executive coach
  • 30 years Coaching and HR, through Korn Ferry

You’re Not Lazy. You’re Performing.

From the outside, it looks like you’ve made it.

You got promoted. You got trusted. You became the one who handles it. That takes real skill, and it's nothing to apologize for.

But performing a role and owning it are two different things. The good news? The drive that got you here is exactly what takes you further.

  • You know how to work hard. You’re just not sure you’re working on the right thing anymore, and you can’t tell the difference.

  • You keep measuring yourself against whoever seems a step ahead, and it’s quietly wearing you down.

  • You’ve read the books and saved the posts. The ideas are good. You just haven’t had a system to put them to work.

  • You have a question you haven’t said out loud: “Is this as far as I go?”

You haven’t failed. You’ve just been building on a ceiling that was never yours.

Competence can be lonely.

When people depend on you, they stop asking how you’re doing. They assume you’re fine because you always seem fine. So you carry it yourself.

Every decision stays in your head. Small doubts get heavier. You second-guess moves you would have made without blinking five years ago. Momentum doesn’t fade because you’re lazy. It fades because you’re carrying too much alone.

The bigger your role, the more this matters. How you lead doesn’t stay inside your job description. It shapes your team, your culture, and the people at home waiting for you to get off the phone.

The itch you feel right now is worth listening to. Most people wait another year. You don’t have to.

The Missing Piece

You’ve already put in the work. Here’s what makes it stick.

  1. Books and podcasts give you great ideas. Coaching helps you turn those ideas into what you actually do on Tuesday afternoon.

  2. Working harder got you here. Pointing that effort in the right direction is what takes you past a ceiling that was never yours.

  3. Leadership training gives teams a strong shared foundation. Coaching connects it to what’s specific about you: your talent, your wiring, your goals.

  4. Figuring it out yourself is where most high performers start. But it’s hard to read the label from inside the jar. Even the most gifted people can’t fully see themselves while they’re inside the work.

The best athletes in the world still have coaches. They’re not weak or confused. They have coaches because talent has blind spots. Nobody thinks less of a quarterback for listening to his coach.

A reader holding a copy of Own Your IT

The missing piece is simple: someone outside the jar, a framework proven on real teams, and a rhythm that holds up when no one’s watching.

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How We Coach

A coach doesn’t replace your strength. A coach keeps it from becoming your ceiling.

Coaching isn’t about fixing you. You’re not broken. It’s about showing you what’s already there. Everything we do starts from one idea:

Your IT is already in you. Our job is to help you name it, build a rhythm around it, and put it to work where it counts.

Everything starts from one idea

Internal Talent × Intentional Time
=
The IT Factor

Why coaching works: three things you can’t give yourself

  1. Perspective

    We see what you can’t. That isn’t because we’re smarter. It’s because we’re not stuck inside your assumptions. We’ll name the habits you’ve learned to justify and show you options you didn’t know you had.

  2. Accountability

    We’ll ask you to show the work, not just talk about the plan. Over time, your words and your actions start to match, and you learn to trust yourself again.

  3. Alignment

    We connect your talent to your purpose so your effort stops being scattered. Your energy starts moving toward something that actually matters.

The rhythm we coach you through

  • Want It.

    Get clear on what you’re actually wired for and which of the Four Blocks to build on next.

  • Work It.

    Build a daily rhythm and the discipline to show up when no one’s watching.

  • Win It.

    Turn steady progress into results, impact, and a legacy you can pass on.

What a session feels like

Cedric’s first coach was his piano teacher. Every lesson ended with a plan. The next week, he had to show progress. That meant proof, not intentions and not effort.

That’s how we coach. Every session starts with the truth about where things stand, with no dressing it up and no tearing yourself down. Every session ends with a clear next step. You come back and show what you did with it.

Along the way, you’ll use the same tools from the book: the Four Blocks diagnostic to name which block to build on next, the A Leadership Cycle to work through real decisions, and the V.O.I.C.E. checklist to know whether an opportunity is right for you.

How we talk to you

Warm, direct, and real. We’ll celebrate your wins and we’ll call your bluff. Early on, coaching can feel like it interrupts your routines. It asks the questions you’ve gotten good at avoiding. Stay with it, and that same stretch turns into the structure you lean on when things get hard.

And when your emotions start running the meeting, you’ll hear this from us: don’t bring your feelings to a fact fight.

Who You’ll Work With

One of us ran Store Operations for the largest retailer in the world. The other one coached him through it.

Cedric Clark

Cedric started out selling fishing licenses in sporting goods for $7.50 an hour. Over 23 years, he worked his way up to EVP of Store Operations at Walmart US, where he was responsible for the hearts and minds of 1.3 million associates.

Before all that, he was a classically trained pianist who started at age four and later performed with the Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall. He also played Division I basketball after walking onto the team at the University of Arizona. The discipline didn’t start at Walmart. It started on a piano bench.

Randall Ian Thames

Randall started in sales at 3M and Johnson & Johnson. He wasn’t the smartest in the room, but he outworked it. He noticed that the gap between people’s talent and their results was usually bigger than anyone wanted to admit, and he started helping peers close it.

That became his life’s work. He’s an ICF-certified executive coach with almost 30 years in HR and executive coaching, including work through Korn Ferry with EVP- and CEO-level leaders. He founded InSpirit and built the Discover · Develop · Display Your Best™ framework.

Where the two paths met

Randall was Cedric’s coach.

At the time, Cedric led through execution, results, and his own output. Randall helped him see that leadership works more like conducting an orchestra. A conductor doesn’t play every instrument. He knows when to bring someone in and when to let someone else carry the melody.

That one shift changed how Cedric led. It’s also why this coaching exists. We’re sharing what worked for us, tested on real teams with real numbers on the line.

Is this coaching for you?

This coaching is for you if…

  • You’re roughly 30 to 45, you’ve been building your career for years, and you’re in your highest-earning window.
  • You’re successful on paper but you feel stuck, and you can’t quite name why.
  • You’re ready to hear the truth about where you are, even when it’s uncomfortable.
  • You’d rather build a steady rhythm than wait for the next burst of motivation.
  • You want your next move, whether it’s a promotion, a new title, or a pivot, to fit who you actually are.
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It’s not for you if…

  • You want a quick fix or a new title without changing how you show up.
  • You’re looking for therapy or help working through past trauma. (We’ll gladly point you toward someone who does that well.)
  • You’d rather talk about the plan than do the work between sessions.
  • You want someone to tell you who to be. We help you own who you already are.
Start With the Book

Program Options

Three ways to work with us

One-to-One Coaching

Personal coaching built around your goals, your wiring, and your pace. This is the deepest level of support, for leaders at a turning point who want a coach fully in their corner.

Group Coaching

A small group of professionals working through the Want It. Work It. Win It. rhythm together. You get coaching, accountability, and people who know exactly where you’re coming from.

Team Coaching for Organizations

For HR, L&D, athletic, and school leaders who want their people speaking one shared language. Your team gets the same framework, the same tools, and a rhythm they’ll keep using long after the kickoff.

Is it worth the investment?

People spend thousands on trips, gadgets, and things that are gone within days, then hesitate to invest in the one thing that could shape their direction for years. The real question isn’t what coaching costs. It’s what a clear direction could be worth to you over the next five years.

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REAL RESULTS FROM REAL PEOPLE

“I have worked with Cedric and Randall and know them to be outstanding leaders who share a passion for helping people improve. Their book is a terrific resource for re-thinking our patterns and assumptions and increasing our appreciation for learning and doing.”

Frank Blake Former Chairman and CEO of Home Depot

“Cedric and Randall offer practical lessons and real-life examples that clearly demonstrate what is required for continuous growth. By thoughtfully sharing your own experiences, you illuminate the dedication, support, and intentionality needed to foster meaningful growth in ourselves and in the lives of those we encounter. Whether in faith, family, work, or recreation, this clearly explains that genuine success is found in our willingness to continually learn, improve, and encourage others. Thank you for taking the time to thoughtfully share how we can become all we were created to be.”

Dacona Smith Board Member and Former EVP and COO, Walmart Stores

“Own Your IT captures a truth every retail leader eventually learns: that the associates closest to the customer are often the ones with the most leadership already in them, just waiting to be developed. Cedric’s own rise from an entry-level job to leading operations for more than a million people is exactly the kind of story that should be required reading inside any organization. This book gives leaders a practical way to invest in that talent instead of just hoping it surfaces on its own.”

Michael Bender Respected Retail Executive

“I’ve spent years telling people to ‘Be a coffee bean.’ Encouraging others to change the room instead of letting the room change you. Own Your IT is the operator’s manual for how to do that. Cedric and Randall don’t just tell you to transform, they hand you the framework to make it stick. This book is pure coffee bean energy from cover to cover.”

Damon West Bestselling coauthor of The Coffee Bean

“Own Your IT offers a refreshing perspective that teaches that lasting success comes from discovering your God-given potential, developing it through disciplined action, and multiplying its impact through leadership and service to others. I appreciate the emphasis on success being measured by how a leader impacts others and investments in those relationships. The book also details the necessity for developing a cadence for leadership with the introduction of the “UP Leadership Model” which is unlike any other model that I have seen. This book is a must read for anyone who desires to better understand why fulfillment goes beyond titles, compensation, and achievement alone. There is true value in living and leading in alignment with your values.”

Cassandra Wheeler Director of Supply Chain Management

“Own Your IT highlights the single most important statement that impacts my current position: don’t bring feelings to a fact fight. I’m able to disarm and win the argument without emotion by sticking to the facts.”

Eugene S. Craig, Jr., M.D. Medical Director, Divine-Light Behavioral Health, Inc.

“Own Your IT reinforces something I have seen throughout my career: talent matters, but what we do with it matters more. Cedric and Randall offer readers a practical way to think about their strengths and the work required to develop them.”

N. D. Jones (Natalie Jones, Ed.D.) USA Today Bestselling and Award-Winning Author

The Coaching Process

How it works

How you’ll know it’s working

You’ll make decisions faster and second-guess them less. Your effort will have a direction. The people around you will notice before you say a word. And one day you’ll realize the discipline doesn’t feel borrowed anymore. It’s yours.

Take the Free Assessment
  1. Step 1

    Take the Free Self-Assessment.

    In about five minutes, find out which of the Four Blocks to build on next: Lack of Clarity, Inconsistency and Burnout, Stuck Despite Success, or Fear of Failure.

  2. Step 2

    Join the interest list.

    Tell us a little about where you are. You’ll be first to hear when coaching opens.

  3. Step 3

    Have a fit conversation.

    Before you commit to anything, we’ll talk. You’ll find out if we’re the right coaches for you, and we’ll find out if we can actually help.

  4. Step 4

    Start with the truth.

    Your first session uses the first step of the A Leadership Cycle: Acknowledge. We look at where things really stand, name your block, and set goals you can measure.

  5. Step 5

    Build the rhythm.

    Each session ends with a clear next step, and each session begins with the progress you made. We track it together and celebrate the wins along the way.

Trust and Safety

What happens in coaching stays in coaching.

  • Confidential, always.

    Randall is ICF certified, which means our coaching follows the International Coaching Federation’s code of ethics, including strict confidentiality. What you share with us stays with us.

  • A safe place to think out loud.

    Coaching is one of the few places where you don’t have to be the strong one every minute. You’re allowed to wrestle. You’re allowed to say “I don’t know what my next move is yet.”

  • Fit before money.

    You’ll talk with us before you spend a dollar.

This is your itch. Your burn. Your window.

Be first in line when coaching opens.

Join the interest list and you’ll hear before anyone else when spots open. There’s no cost and no commitment, just first access.

We’re two guys who read every submission ourselves. No spam, ever. Just an honest heads-up when coaching opens.

    FAQ

    Frequently asked questions

    Got any questions?

    Let us know! Reach out and our team will get right back to you.

    Contact Us
    How is this different from therapy?

    Therapy often helps you heal from the past. Coaching helps you build what’s next. We work on clarity, decisions, habits, and leadership. If something comes up that needs a licensed therapist, we’ll tell you honestly and help you find the right support.

    How is this different from consulting?

    Consulting brings expert answers to a specific problem. Coaching helps you build your own answers and the habits to act on them, so the rhythm stays with you long after the sessions end.

    What if I don’t see results?

    Coaching is a partnership. We bring perspective, structure, and accountability. You bring honesty and follow-through between sessions. When both show up, progress becomes something you can measure. If something isn’t working, we’ll say so and adjust.

    How long does coaching take?

    It depends on your goal. Clarity usually comes first. Changing how you lead and how you show up every day takes consistent work over months.

    Can I afford this?

    Look at the return, not just the price. Think about what a clearer direction, a better decision, or your next role is worth to you over the next five years. Interest list members get investment details first.

    When does coaching open?

    Soon. The interest list hears first and gets first access to spots.

    Is this faith-based?

    Faith shaped both of our stories, and it sits quietly in the background of everything we do. Coaching is built around your goals and your wiring. You’ll never be asked to share our beliefs.

    Can you coach my whole team?

    Yes. Team Coaching gives your people one shared framework and language. If you’re in HR, L&D, athletics, or education, choose “Team coaching for my organization” on the form below, or bring Cedric or Randall to your next event through the Speaking page.

    Want a Head Start?

    Find out which of the Four Blocks to build on next.

    Take the free assessment and discover where you’re strongest across the Four Blocks, in about 5 minutes. You’ll get your result instantly, plus a free chapter of Own Your IT matched to your answers.

    Take the Free Assessment

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