Client Testimonials

 

Most of the companies I have worked with are in high-growth industries that experience rapid change and uncertainty. Several testimonials and case studies follow...

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"We have achieved a growth rate of 38% since Culture Builders completed the State of the Firm and Visioning work. Culture Builders handled extremely sensitive concerns with discretion and good judgment. Culture Builders' ability to frame and quantify complex issues helped us to put together a plan that was both simple and actionable. I recommend Culture Builders to other companies without hesitation."

- Tim Furey, President & CEO, MarketBridge
Read the full MarketBridge testimonial.

MarketBridge is a privately held professional services firm that provides sales and marketing solutions to executives at Fortune 500 companies.

Situation:

At the conclusion of 1998, Oxford Associates (now MarketBridge) was at a critical inflection point in the firm's growth. The company had developed aggressive growth targets for revenue and people.

Needs:

  • Compelling company vision and purpose
  • Systems and infrastructure development
  • Culture that is supportive of growth targets

Culture Builders' Approach:

  • State of the Firm survey
  • Qualitative Organizational Assessment
  • Visioning workshops (company divided into cross-functional and multi-level visioning teams)

Results:

  • Oxford 2000 vision developed by visioning teams
  • Three new task forces, led and staffed by internal people
  • Market-Bridge has grown 38% annually since 1998, surpassing its growth targets
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"Culture Builders has the unique ability to understand both the strategic, financial side of business and the human side of business. I would happily hire Culture Builders again for a coaching or new business development project and will recommend them to other companies without reservation."

- Terrie Lupberger, President, The Newfield Network, USA
Read the full Newfield Network testimonial.

Founded in 1990, The Newfield Network, is the premier coaches training school in the United States.

Situation:

Newfield Network offers open enrollment training programs for personal and executive coaches using a well-established learning and coaching curriculum. The company wanted to add new revenue streams and expand its work with organizations.

Needs:

  • Multiple revenue streams
  • Executive Coaching program operational as quickly as possible
  • New program design, development, and launch
  • Marketing collateral (web, print, email)

Culture Builders' Approach:

  • Customer needs analysis
  • Competitive research
  • Flexible, modular program design
  • Value-based pricing
  • Marketing and rollout plan
  • Marketing collateral

Results:

  • New Executive Coaching Program
  • Launched 2 months earlier than targeted
  • Development and launch cost 75% less than anticipated
 

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Powerful! What a gift Debra's coaching is. I have gotten so much value from my coaching with Debra that I budgeted for this service for all of my managers. Debra listens objectively and encourages me to speak from my heart. She helps me to frame situations more positively, come up with options that I hadn't thought of before, and move confidently towards my goals. Her experience in the corporate world is invaluable - she is a great sounding board for tough business challenges. One of my big takeaways is: be positive, be confident, and get it done."

- Freeman Louis Sands, Jr., Administrator, Univ. of California San Diego Medical Group

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At last, I have a career that excites me, where I can have fun, where I can interact with people in a positive manner, and where my income potential is unlimited.  My wife has commented that over our ten years together she’s never seen me as full of life as I am now. When my corporate position was eliminated last spring, I was lost and felt as if my soul and my life had been beat out of me. 

After years of stressful, critical, demanding and unhealthy corporate cultures, I was suffering physical ailments like sleeplessness, weight loss, irritability, and occasional uncontrolled anger.  The loss of my position – what I thought of as “my identity” – further caused the negative spirals to continue; it almost cost me everything, including my marriage. 

Luckily, I found you, and made the decision to work with you for several months in the hopes of regaining some sense of balance in my life.  The weekly calls immediately became a positive action for me.  You asked questions that lead me to discover inside of myself those traits and qualities that I needed to make positive changes; I learned that the corporate world was not conducive to my personality and being, and that I was better working more independently within a smaller business culture, and to rely on myself more than on the work of others (which was too frustrating for me).

The combination of facilitated discussions with you, and the body exercises you taught me, continues to be valuable to me.  I enjoyed our telephone sessions greatly; your voice is calming, and your ability to ask questions in a way that caused me to think differently, usually lead to several hours of quiet contemplation and insight.  When we worked together in person, I was sometimes self-conscious about my dress, how I was sitting, or other trivial matters.  When we talked on the phone, I would close my eyes and focus entirely on what you were saying, and how you were saying it.  I still hear your voice in my head throughout the day, asking questions about the events currently going on around me.  Yet, those are now my questions, and I’m doing the asking.  I have changed my thought processes working with you!

I have now taken back control of my life.  Having balance between work, family and fun is now paramount to me.  My relationship with my wife is now better than ever.  And I was able to create for myself a career where I am excited and having fun, and making more money than I ever have – yet at half the time away from the family as my previous corporate life.  Most importantly, I learned that I am not “my position” or “my job”.  I am a happy, loving man who enjoys life much more fully.  My wife now refers to me as “NewFred.com” because the change is so remarkable.

Thank you for the changes you helped me to create in my life.  Our time together was worth so much more than the cost of the service.  I will recommend you to everyone I can. "

- Fred Caminite, Real Estate Advisor/Broker, LANGSTON & LOW

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"Debra's guidance provided the boost I needed to 'walk taller', with more confidence in myself. Towards the end of our sessions, I earned a job upgrade, and today I continue to gain respect from my colleagues that I felt I was lacking previously. Thank you Debra!"

-Gerry Wendel, Customer Research Manager, Volvo Cars of North America

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I employed Debra Thorsen to be my Career Coach for a period of three months in the fall of 2002. I was struggling with a variety of issues ranging from unresolved issues related to an unfulfilled career in medicine, confusion of what career path I wanted to take and where my skills really lied, and also how I could structure my career in combination with an impending first child that was on its way.

I found Debra's services to be extremely beneficial, and her coaching helped me to find clarification in many areas. This is a key point to mention, as I found it to be one of the strengths of Debra’s coaching style - that is that she helped ME find clarity, rather than she found clarity FOR me. Her style is such that she can expertly pull out of you the answers and path that are true for you and your situation. Rather than applying some formula or rote methodology that may not have been applicable to me as an individual, her style was such that she really brought me to focus in on what I was bringing to each issue that we explored, and then as a result, to discover for myself what my solutions needed to be. I found it extremely beneficial the way she had me analyze some of the issues I was dealing with, particularly the way she structured her questions to me so that I was really required to dig deep and think things through. I also appreciated her very rounded sensibility relating to career issues. She did not just treat career issues as one sided or like a math problem that needed a simple equation to solve it. Rather, she was able to get me to see the multi-dimensional qualities of some of the issues I was dealing with i.e. the philosophical and emotional components.

I would highly recommend Debra’s services as a Career Coach and suspect that I may use her again at some point in the future when the need arises again!

- Sorel Norlin