Break Through That Barrier

Coaching

No one has a crystal ball.

That’s why we must create the future we want.

What I want is to get to know you and your team, learn what challenges you’re facing, and help you chart the best course.

Whether it’s a one time engagement, ongoing advice and coaching, or something in between; I will help you make sense of technology, marketing, and strategy in these uncertain times.

I firmly believe in the martial arts approach: Slow down to speed up. Take a breath, look at the big picture, and then move forward.

I also believe that better is more important than bigger. If you’re the best, the growth will come (whether you like it or not).

Let me help you get outside of the day to day and find your way to that next breakthrough.

How I Can Help

In addition to helping technology businesses (TechBiz) grow, I also help businesses grow with technology (BizTech).

While it may be constant, change can also be hard. You know you’re facing a challenge, you may even know exactly what needs to be done about it, but the solution is just outside of your current grasp. I’ll help. I’m a life long agent of change. Together we’ll cut to the heart of the issue, chart a course, identify the blockers, bring people onboard, and intentionally and mindfully execute against our plan.

Digital is not just for tech companies anymore, and it’s not just for the Fortune 50 either. If you haven’t re-thought your business in the face of today’s onslaught of enabling technologies yet – it’s time. I’ll help you navigate the trends, decode the tech, see past the hype, and truly harness the best of today’s information technology. Ask me about Security, SD-WAN, SASE, AI/ML, Cloud, Edge, SDN, NFV, 5G and anything else you may have heard or read about. If I don’t have the answer, I know someone who does. Let’s do this!

The global SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic and resulting lock-downs, quarantines, and general need for social distancing accelerated several trends that I’ve been watching for years now. Many businesses have been thrust into a new and unfamiliar world of remote employees and distributed teams. Even if you’ve coped with these changes flawlessly, have you fully considered their long-term ramifications? Have you capitalized on them as an opportunity? Do you know the difference between remote and distributed? Are your processes, tools, and culture purpose fit for this new way of working? Are you still relying on synchronous communication? No matter your answers, I will help you chart a course into the future of work.

How do you reach today’s ever distracted consumer? Marketing is more than content and community (although those are crucial). It’s more than great storytelling (but you definitely need that). Every compelling campaign starts with delivering a great product or service, and only then goes out into the world to talk about it. Start with first principles, find a job to be done, solve a challenge, answer questions before they’re asked, and win more deals. I’m here to guide you and your team through this process, step by step. Let’s talk!

Whether you’re feeling a little lost, a bit stale, or just looking to keep the momentum up, a great place to start is with your organization’s strategic direction. It’s easy to get so bogged down in the day to day that you don’t realize you’ve drifted off course. It’s even easier to get so busy that you forget to set a course at all. Let’s take a moment to survey the landscape, check in with clients and employees, and get back to basics. Is it clear why you’re organization exists? Do you have an obvious “North Star” that guides your decision making? Are you doing everything you can to build the organization you want? I will help you build a rock-solid strategy that ensures you are always skating to where the puck is going to be, not where it was.

Some Brands I’ve Worked With

Chris was the driving force behind the creation of the ISOC Colorado chapter. I appreciated his leadership and technical skills and his determination. I enjoyed working with Chris on this project and I am looking forward to doing it again.

Yannis Konstantopoulos, Lumen Technologies

Chris was always on top of current technology and how this technology would fit into his current network environment. Chris was a pleasure to work with and will be an asset to any organization lucky enough to hire him.

Steve Braden, Streakwave Wireless

Chris is a strong team player with tremendous attention to detail. His approach was always well thought out with solid backing to his ideas. His role and growth in the company were key to its survival. He was also very willing and able to wear multiple hats and was a flexible asset to have on hand.

Mikael Rasmussen, WavMax Broadband

Chris is an excellent organizer and leader with vision and energy. He pulled together the Colorado Chapter of the Internet Society, wrote the inital by-laws and saw the process through to the actual chapter formation.

Karen Mulberry, Internet Society

Chris Grundemann was among the most energetic and competent members of our Council throughout his time as an elected member. I found(find) Chris a most thoughtful man who brought insight and experience to the role, but was also always a genuine and professional member exerting leadership with tact and good humor. I think highly of Chris both as a technical professional and community leader, but also as a trusted friend.

Bill Darte, ARIN Advisory Council

Through the several tasks that we spent together in a professional environment, I have seen Chris accomplish things that many would consider impossible – both as a professional and technically – and neither has been a disappointment. Chris is a calculated risk-taker. He has an uncanny way of determining what the target market needs and has the capability of tweaking his designs and implementations accordingly. As a pragmatic leader and a realist, he can grasp ideas in a holistic manner and still pay attention to minor details. Chris has a well-deserved reputation as someone who is diligent and personable – two qualities that define him completely. As someone who is a creative thinker and possesses a can-do attitude, Chris is a pleasure to work with.

Kyle Smith, Markley

Chris is very knowledgeable, is always willing to explain and discuss, and is great at pulling together everyone’s input and moving things forward. Working with him has been a great experience.

Lisa Ruby, Motorola

In a wireless organization the network your products operate on needs to be reliable, dependable and operating at top efficiency. Chris made sure that was a reality. Chris was a leader in the day to day operation of our network, on initiating improvement designs for the future and helping out the other departments to close performance gaps. There was never a problem to hard to solve, a solution he was not willing to seek out or a cutting edge idea he hadn’t already researched.

Wayne Gibson, WavMax

His intelligence and wit are only outshone by his friendly and helpful nature. Working with Chris is always a pleasure and a smashing success.

Susan Forsman, tw telecom

Chris is technically creative, hard working, and extraordinarily effective at working with both internal and external technical expert communities. A pleasure to have had on the team at CableLabs. I fully expect him to significantly move his organization and the industry.

Tom Lookabaugh, CableLabs

I enjoy working with him on a professional and personal level.

Diane Turley, tw telecom

As Chris’ Editor for Exploring IPv6, a Day One book, he kept to his schedule, output exceedingly lucid prose, and gave a sense of instructional design to an extraordinary tough technology to deploy. On time, better than could be expected, and executed with grace.

Patrick Ames, Juniper Networks

Working with Chris has been a real pleasure. He is open, friendly, intelligent, discreet, skilled, productive, driven, resourceful and trustworthy! Our organisation has really benefitted from Chris’s skills and knowledge.

Howard Baggott, Internet Society

Chris is objective, strategically insightful, sharp and on top of his game. He’s a great collaborator who is willing to change his approach mid stream or whenever, to accommodate others. He’s a very dedicated professional with strong personal leadership qualities as well as being open and willing to inspire and empower others.

Duangthip Chomprang, Internet Society

Chris is one of the sharpest minds you will be lucky to come across, whether in a personal or professional setting. His ability to cut through the noise and see the relevant elements and data in any situation is remarkable. 

Chris is intensely focused, dedicated, and capable. He absorbs and synthesizes data quickly, finds the leverage points, focuses on what matters, and delivers results. Any high-performing team will get a boost from engaging with Chris.

Andy Fisher, Myriad360

Chris is always happy to contribute to a discussion or to an issue and is more than happy to lend a hand to both assist team members with their tasks or to lend his expertise in order to benefit the requestor. He is constantly providing knowledge transfer in a peer to peer manner, engaging others to work together to move a project forward or to resolve an issue. Most importantly, Chris is an open and honest communicator about whatever the topic of the moment is, something that is refreshing in today’s world. I could always count of Chris to lend his opinion or his ideas to any subject matter, and this becomes an important contribution for any team. Chris has tremendous talent and is a very hard working, team player. I would welcome Chris to my team at any point in the future.

Paul Diamond, Markley

Chris is one of the most brilliant technologists and charismatic speakers I’ve met in a long time. He’s an absolute creative, has a mind focused on solutions, and is driven by a deep belief in what he does. He’s both an inspirational leader and great colleague. I’d work with Chris again any day of the week.

Lia Kiessling, Internet Society

Chris is highly technical and has excellent organizational and follow up skills. I assigned Chris several initiatives while assigned to my team and his performance was exceptional. He is self motivated and has extensive technical knowledge.

Ray Whinery, Time Warner Telecom

Chris is a talented technologist with a keen eye for marketing. This combination of skills has been a powerful asset in his role. Over the course of the 4 years that I worked with Chris, he presented at numerous events & conferences, and was a thought leadership partner. He was pivotal in honing Myriad360’s mission and developing a cohesive strategy for the company. Chris earns my highest recommendation.

Kirsten Gonzalez, Myriad360

Chris is a focused individual, willing to go the extra mile to help customers, and do the job correctly. He is a great teacher, and a smart man.

Tyson Schaetzle, Tikkom Wire

Chris was one of the go-to guys whenever there were complex problems. He has the knowledge, desire and potential to advance in any position he chooses. It was a pleasure working with him.

Ushesh Desai, Virtela Communications

Together we conquered many challenges, won impossible battles in the vendor industry and created a unique security practice. He has an interesting set of talents of being an engineer, innovator, and a thought leader, but never mixes any of these roles. That is what makes him successful as a leader. “Never be comfortable” is what Chris would tell me, which is what pushed me to do my first tech talk. I now have dozens behind me within some of the largest conferences known in the security vendor industry. Chris is nothing short of supernatural.

Leo Cruz, Myriad360

One thing everyone should know about Chris, he always provides nothing less then quality customer service and technical support. His professionalism and skill far exceeds all expectations because he always goes the extra mile.

David Corbett, tw telecom

Chris is a really hard working person. Very smart technically & could handle issues very promptly. Was very nice working with him.

Nirali Desai, Virtela Technology Services Incorporated

Chris is an exceptionally energetic individual, a talented thinker and an accomplished public speaker. He is a very rewarding person to work with due to the level of organization he brings to every project. He has vision and probity, a rare combination. I has been a great privilege to work with him.