When Brian meets people, he knows all too well that no two people are the same. He is meeting their hopes and dreams mixed with a lifetime of experiences and all that they face in the present day. As a leadership coach, Brian’s focus is on people, but when ‘God enters the room’, they embark on a God-influenced journey.

“Some people feel stuck in life and are uncertain how to move forward,” shares Brian. “I help people find the direction they need to create significant and lasting change.”

People who need a shift in perspective seek out coaching. Working with Brian, he brings a God-honouring posture to sessions, even with clients who have no faith or differing faiths.

Brian specialises in Transformative Coaching, which represents a shift away from more traditional, self-focused methods of leadership coaching. Instead, Transformative Coaching encourages an awareness of God in decision-making rather than self-reliance. “For some, it is a catalyst for submitting to God to make real change, while for others, they may be considering God for the first time,” he says.

Prayer is a huge part of this Christ-centred approach to coaching. Brian prays for his clients. He also asks God to work through him. To ask the questions that empower a person to come to new conclusions and motivate the steps needed to change from the inside out.

“I remember four years ago working in a Muslim country, finding myself in a situation I never thought possible — alone in a room with a Muslim female executive. It was a new experience for me, and I was especially conscious to lean on God,” shares Brian. “Through our conversation, she saw a new side of herself that she had never seen before. Tears rolled down her face. I believe she started to see ‘God’s image’ imprinted in her.”

It was a powerful moment for Brian, too, as he realised that God opens the most unlikely situations for His work. Back then, Brian had been coaching for many years, since 2009. Working as a leader for OM in the Middle East, he undertook a coaching course to gain the skills necessary to lead his team and to serve and support those who were serving others. The coaching was so helpful he began to work with business executives in the region.

As Brian’s coaching business gained momentum, he decided to focus on it full-time. “As a Christ-follower, I realised that if God were not at the centre of this work, then I would have to quit coaching. At this time, God stepped in and changed my perspective,” he shares. “God transformed the coaching career I had into something that was eternally useful: Transformative Coaching.”

Transformative Coaching is also part of Brian’s journey to grow closer to Christ and trust Him for everything. His journey with God began when he was a teenager growing up in a Christian home in New Zealand. After moving to Australia, he met and married Alison* at a time when God placed a desire for cross-cultural work in their hearts. Together, they spent 20 years in the Middle East, where Brian needed to ‘walk by faith, not by sight’. He shares, “There, I learnt to be a husband, father and leader, and the desire to cling to God’s Word grew strong and is the foundation of my life.”

Now, Brian is trusting God to take the transformative coaching concept globally by 2027 as a tool of the Gospel, to be made available and used across many cultures and at various socioeconomic levels.

“When I embarked on this venture with a small group of people across four continents, it seemed out of reach, but God…. God knew it was part of His plan to extend His Kingdom to the ends of the earth.”

*names changed