This is not a program about finding your purpose.

If you're like lots of folks, you may already have a sense of what you're here to do. Recent studies have shown that over 50% of the U.S. workforce feels they have a sense of purpose, however interestingly, most cannot articulate exactly what it is. This program is designed for those who are looking for "what to do, once you ‘sorta’ know what you're here to do." How do you prioritize your actions, stay focused, learn to say no to all the shiny objects, and generally get to a place where you're acting with clear-minded intent towards building a life filled with meaning? That’s the goal.

For nearly two decades, I ran a consultancy that led leaders and their teams to solutions that clarified their purpose and the steps necessary to take action. This program is designed to do the same for you, the individual.

But doing this for you wouldn’t be as effective if I hadn’t already done it for myself. In 2017, my consulting business was acquired and in 2020, shortly after the pandemic started, my time leading that business wrapped up and I found myself asking, "What next?". For the first time in a long time, I didn't know the answer. Over the intervening 17 years I had built my career and a sense of purpose organized around my company. Now with the entity acquired and my time finished, who was I when I wasn't "Michael from Sub Rosa"? This was what I set out to discover.

A multi-month Airstream adventure across America with my wife (Caroline) and our two dogs (Darryl and Mary), countless long, open road conversations with Caroline (and myself), a few existential crises, and some deep soul searching later, we arrived back where we started, in New York City at the end of 2020, feeling like I'd shaken loose some of the cobwebs, gotten honest with myself about a few things, and felt ready for a fresh start.

Sitting down with a blank piece of paper and a general sense of what I was setting out to do, I developed a framework that evolved into a map toward prioritizing purpose. And you know what? It worked. I felt focused. I knew what to say yes and no to, and it seemed to propel me into a next chapter of not only my career, but my life.

After a few months of doing this work, I found myself having lots of conversations with friends who were also in a similar moment in their lives. Global pandemics have a way of doing that I suppose. So I decided to see if what worked for me would also work for them. The process I developed for myself evolved into a program designed to help others access similar insights about about their own interior world and helped shine a light on the path they were walking. And the process worked for them too. It was at this point I decided to share this work more broadly.

And we're gonna do it together.

Over the course of three months this cohort will will meet virtually as a group to discuss progress, orient around next steps, and perhaps most importantly, connect and learn from each other. Lots of this work will be self-guided introspective exercises based on prompts, but other parts will be interpersonal. There will be assignments between the meetings that will help each of you to progress at your own pace. I've developed this approach because I know from my work as a teacher and practitioner of empathy, perspective taking and inquiry are vital to success.

So together, as a cohort, we will work together to help each other get where we need to go.