Sati Leadership Coaching
Happiness Brings Success
"I cannot thank Andy enough for his impact on my company." — Seth G., Software Company CEO
“Andy combines a contagious peace and calm with exceptional talent. He earns my highest recommendation.” — Houston P., Consulting Company CEO
"Andy is an extraordinary coach." — Erin A., Software Company CS Leader
"Andy helped my cofounder and me strengthen our relationship tenfold." — Michael N., Software Company CEO
"I can't recommend Andy enough!” — Aubrey B., Large Software Company DEIA Leader
"Andy positively transformed our team dynamic, both operationally and culturally." — E. Johnson, Software Company CTO
“I knew Andy was the right coach for me as soon as we met." — Priscilla S., Apparel Company CEO
“Andy has been an inspiration, and I trust him with a variety of challenges." — Ronald N., Software Company CEO
“I freaking love your coach." — Software Company CEO Wife
"Andy is the first person I go to when I need help solving a hard problem, whether it’s making a tough decision about work or a relationship. I highly recommend working with him." — Sarah B., Software Company CEO
“Andy is a compassionate sounding board for all things work and life related." — Chad E., Software Company Founder
"Andy is a great resource for me when I need insights on managing the stress of running a business and dealing with family issues." — Jesse A., Energy Executive
"My retreat and conversations with Andy changed my life. I can't recommend working with him highly enough." — Paige J., Independent Consultant
“Andy is exceptional at finding simplicity in the complex." — Sam W., Entrepreneur
"After years of therapy and multiple therapists, Andy's work was more effective in a shorter amount of time." — E. Johnson, Software Company CTO
Andy is a massive asset any company would be lucky to have — plus he's just a good guy.” — Matt M., Software Company CEO
“Andy is incredibly intuitive, saying just the right thing at the right time.” — Kerry G., Mindfulness Coach
“Andy is a super warm coach and mindfulness expert." — Jacob F., Software Company CEO
"Andy teaches self-care in an authentic, unique way. I most appreciate the ability to be open and transparent without the feeling of judgment." — Sam R., Private Equity Executive
“Andy is my first call when I'm stuck." — Kendall Y., Independent Consultant
“Andy brings a fresh perspective. I enthusiastically recommend him.” — Chris P., Software Company COO
“Working with Andy has been a joy. His passion and talent serve as strong motivation to excel.” — Ian M., Public Software Company Engineering Lead
“Andy is that rare combination of creative and analytical.” — Chris T., Software Company CEO
“Working with Andy has been a joy." — Ian M., Public Software Company Engineering Lead
"I can trust Andy with difficult topics and value the advice he offers." — Katie C., Software Company Marketing Director
"Andy has encouraged and challenged me to think differently and support me along the path to success.” — Jae K., Restaurant Group CEO
“Andy is that rare combination of creative and analytical.” — Chris T., Software Company CEO
“Andy’s passion is contagious." — Sam L, Software Company CEO
“I sincerely enjoyed working with Andy. Highly recommend." — Anna S., Software Company CEO
"I learned a lot working with Andy.” — Ken S., Software Company COO
"I cannot thank Andy enough for his impact on my company." — Seth G., Software Company CEO “Andy combines a contagious peace and calm with exceptional talent. He earns my highest recommendation.” — Houston P., Consulting Company CEO "Andy is an extraordinary coach." — Erin A., Software Company CS Leader "Andy helped my cofounder and me strengthen our relationship tenfold." — Michael N., Software Company CEO "I can't recommend Andy enough!” — Aubrey B., Large Software Company DEIA Leader "Andy positively transformed our team dynamic, both operationally and culturally." — E. Johnson, Software Company CTO “I knew Andy was the right coach for me as soon as we met." — Priscilla S., Apparel Company CEO “Andy has been an inspiration, and I trust him with a variety of challenges." — Ronald N., Software Company CEO “I freaking love your coach." — Software Company CEO Wife "Andy is the first person I go to when I need help solving a hard problem, whether it’s making a tough decision about work or a relationship. I highly recommend working with him." — Sarah B., Software Company CEO “Andy is a compassionate sounding board for all things work and life related." — Chad E., Software Company Founder "Andy is a great resource for me when I need insights on managing the stress of running a business and dealing with family issues." — Jesse A., Energy Executive "My retreat and conversations with Andy changed my life. I can't recommend working with him highly enough." — Paige J., Independent Consultant “Andy is exceptional at finding simplicity in the complex." — Sam W., Entrepreneur "After years of therapy and multiple therapists, Andy's work was more effective in a shorter amount of time." — E. Johnson, Software Company CTO Andy is a massive asset any company would be lucky to have — plus he's just a good guy.” — Matt M., Software Company CEO “Andy is incredibly intuitive, saying just the right thing at the right time.” — Kerry G., Mindfulness Coach “Andy is a super warm coach and mindfulness expert." — Jacob F., Software Company CEO "Andy teaches self-care in an authentic, unique way. I most appreciate the ability to be open and transparent without the feeling of judgment." — Sam R., Private Equity Executive “Andy is my first call when I'm stuck." — Kendall Y., Independent Consultant “Andy brings a fresh perspective. I enthusiastically recommend him.” — Chris P., Software Company COO “Working with Andy has been a joy. His passion and talent serve as strong motivation to excel.” — Ian M., Public Software Company Engineering Lead “Andy is that rare combination of creative and analytical.” — Chris T., Software Company CEO “Working with Andy has been a joy." — Ian M., Public Software Company Engineering Lead "I can trust Andy with difficult topics and value the advice he offers." — Katie C., Software Company Marketing Director "Andy has encouraged and challenged me to think differently and support me along the path to success.” — Jae K., Restaurant Group CEO “Andy is that rare combination of creative and analytical.” — Chris T., Software Company CEO “Andy’s passion is contagious." — Sam L, Software Company CEO “I sincerely enjoyed working with Andy. Highly recommend." — Anna S., Software Company CEO "I learned a lot working with Andy.” — Ken S., Software Company COO
A serial entrepreneur turned meditation teacher, I coach kind leaders who value personal growth.
On average, my clients report a 15% increase in happiness after 6 months of coaching.
Who Is Sati Leadership Coaching For?
If you know there's more to this life than hours spent working and zeros in a bank account, then I might be your person. I help kind leaders prioritize happiness and a life of meaning that compliments the success of their companies. I specialize in supporting individuals and partners with:
Burnout, perfectionism, and overworking
Stress, anxiety, and overwhelm
Time management, prioritization, and focus
Balance
Life transitions
Imposter syndrome
Slumps and depression
Relationship challenges and boundaries (especially navigating toxic masculinity and narcissism)
Poor sleep
After selling my company, I was certified by Gay and Katie Hendricks as a Big Leap coach and by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach as a mindfulness meditation teacher. I love supporting people who are fundraising, hiring, or developing company values…as well as folks in-between gigs.
What Is Unique About Sati Leadership Coaching?
In 2016 my life looked perfect on paper — I was running a successful venture-backed startup, engaged, and taking epic vacations. And I was miserable — working 80 hour weeks, barely sleeping, barely exercising, and barely seeing friends or family. Not so shockingly, everything fell apart...and it's the best thing that happened to me. I landed in my meditation practice, and as I re-prioritized my own well-being, the company followed suit and was acquired.
If you identify with any of this, I'd love to help you learn from my mistakes 🙃 and shift in months what’s taken me decades. I coach by playfully weaving together the foundations of my own path:
mindfulness meditation
emotional intelligence
community support
relational psychology
somatic awareness
health and wellness
indigenous wisdom
pursuing meaning
The heart of my coaching is balancing healthy masculine thinking and strength with feminine feeling and ease — for most, this involves shifting from thinking to feeling.
What Is Sati Leadership Coaching?
In a nutshell, I teach leaders how to…
🤗 be happy
✌🏻 find peace
↗️ change skillfully
👨👩👧👦 improve relationships
🥳 have fun!
💁🏽 pursue meaning
🗣️ communicate effectively
🏢 love their vocation
🕉️ meditate skillfully
👁️ see clearly
😌 feel feelings
🌿 live healthily
…and then all the rest of the “success” stuff just kinda magically happens 🙃. But seriously, you mostly already know, and there’s plenty of straightforward advice out there on all the other things. What I do is help high-performing leaders get out of their own way 🤷🏻. I do offer occassional strategy advice when appropriate — that seems to be about 5% of the time.
Curious? Reserve some time for a free guided meditation + brief chat with the scheduling widget! Most clients prefer to meet over Zoom, and I am also available in-person in the San Fransisco Bay Area.
What Is Sati?
Mindfulness is a Victorian translation of the Pali word, sati. More accurately, sati means remembering.
Pali is the original language of the ancient Buddhist texts that teach us what’s now known as mindfulness meditation.
Mindfulness Meditation
“A Wandering Mind Is An Unhappy Mind” — Killingsworth et al. (2010) Science. This landmark study found that, regardless of the activity, people are generally happier when present.
With mindfulness meditation, we’re not looking for anything new or different, like peace or happiness. Nor are we controlling the mind or removing anger, sadness, or fear. We’re practicing sati — remembering our innate purity, re-membering our bodies — by noticing and allowing things as they are, even when they feel unpleasant, an inherent part of life. This gives uncomfortable sensations space to release, bypassing otherwise subconscious attempts to find relief through unskillful reaction.
By resting the attention on the breath and kindly returning to it each time the mind naturally gets distracted, compassion builds from the inside, out. This leads to acceptance and equanimity that gradually extend from ourselves and the beings that bring us smiles to include those we find most difficult.
Our awareness slowly expands to illuminate what was once too difficult to see. Previously subconscious grasping and aversion soften, and the body-heart-mind orients away from suffering and towards peace and connection. With clear seeing, unpleasant cycles lose their grip, and we remember how to lead from the heart. We learn to relax into the ever-changing present moment and develop the wisdom to know when, and how, to respond skillfully, using the mind to gently guide attention. We wake up to the many joys that already surround us, generating lasting contentment.
In the words of psychologist Carl Rogers, “when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.”
An important note — mindfulness meditation isn’t all unicorns and rainbows. There are some pitfalls where it’s very important to have a skilled instructor to guide you.
Hey, I’m Andy 👋🏻
I’ve been on a fruitful healing journey for over 25 years. With an abundance of information at your fingertips, I can help you navigate what makes the most sense for you, now. I combine strong pattern recognition with a high degree of attunement to others to quickly learn what many never see, and then I connect the dots through storytelling…my approach is authentic, kind, and individualized — I like to think of it as human. Many call our time together “life-changing.”
My grandad introduced me to mindfulness practice as a kid, and while I’m no Zen master (yet!), I’ve meditated daily for many years — for thousands of hours, with celebrated teachers, and 5 months on retreat. I’m a Highly Sensitive Person, Eagle Scout, speak 4 languages, and graduated valedictorian of a fancy boarding school I attended on financial aid and where I played soccer and tennis in the state finals. I went on to earn a 4.0 in computer science from Columbia on scholarship, have surfed all over the world, raised millions for a software company I started, and then my universe came crashing down. Falling into my practice, I began rebuilding with a softer strength. The company took a turn, and after selling it, I trained for 2 years with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach to certify as a trauma- and DEIA- informed mindfulness meditation teacher. I’ve spent over 15 years practicing methodologies from the Hendricks Institute, through which I’m a certified coach with advanced certifications in body intelligence and conscious loving. Most recently, I completed Hatha-Raja Yoga teacher training and consider myself a lifelong student of plants 🌿. I’m humbled to say that my net promoter score is 100%.
Are you tired? Is something missing?
“Mental health is a key part of performance. It's not a nice-to-have or an indulgence. It's the foundation for excellent decision-making, resilience, and a steady hand at the wheel.” — Anonymous CEO
You probably know what to do; the catch is how to juggle it all. As Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) says, “the way out is in.”
I can help you learn to care for yourself in ways that give blossom to a whole new form of success — one that brings the lasting security and fullfilment you’ve been seeking, minus so much struggle. Another from Thay — “Do not try to find the solution with your thinking mind. Nonthinking is the secret of success.”
“The Purpose Of Life Is To Be Happy”
— H.H. the Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama says happiness is simple 🙃…
Look at the things in life that bring you happiness…do more of them! Look at the things in life that bring you unhappiness…do less of them!
It really is that easy.
All it takes is some skillful practice of meditation, ethics, and seeing things as they truly are.
And yes, there are bumps along the way — “no mud, no lotus” to quote Thay again.
In the words of the Buddha, the path is the middle way — balance.
On Authenticity And Integrity…
It’s important for me to say — I’m skeptical of many practitioners in the wellness space and struggled for years to participate in it. In the end, I realized this is my calling, formalized my coaching training, and took the plunge…with a firm commitment to bring authenticity and integrity into this world.
Sati Coaching™ is for curious, open leaders who are in touch with their sensitive side and share a heartfelt desire to grow. A recovering tech CEO, I've won numerous awards for embodying an individualistic culture that I now realize is destroying our world. I used to be a poster child for this short-sighted way of being and now see through the oppressive dogma it instills, consistently choosing peace, love, joy, meaning, happiness, and health over its perverse allure. If you, too, are noticing the cracks in this lifestyle, are ready to wiggle free, believe and respect there is something more, have questions or fears, or would like support, I hope you'll please drop me a line 🙏🏻. It lights me up to assist this demographic as I believe we have a tremendous ability to change the world, for the better.
On the contrary, I don’t…
support people with toxic masculine traits or who attack (when angry)
tolerate (passive) aggressive behavior or controlling tendencies
…I’ve already experienced enough of these for this lifetime 🙃.
Feel like this might be a fit? Check out the 5 Commitments of Sati Leadership.
Community And Sustainability
A registered member of the global .eco community, The Sati Leadership Group is committed to the wellbeing of all, especially our planet. To start, as clients develop happiness and compassion, they bring that to others and to our world. Then, a minimum of 5% of revenues support clients in-need and organizations that promote what we practice.
Guiding Advisor — Thanissara
Thanissara started Buddhist practice in the U Ba Khin Burmese school of meditation in 1975. She was inspired to ordain after meeting the meditation Master Ajahn Chah, from the Thai Forest Tradition, and spent 12 years as a Buddhist nun, where she was a founding member of Chithurst Monastery and Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in the UK. She has facilitated meditation retreats internationally for the last 30 years and has an MA in Mindfulness-Based Psychotherapy Practice from Middlesex University and the Karuna Institute in the UK.
With her partner Kittisaro, she co-founded Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat and helped initiate and support a number of HIV/Aids response and Community Development projects in rural KwaZulu Natal in South Africa. Thanissara and Kittisaro next founded Chattoonaga Insight and then in 2017, Sacred Mountain Sangha in California, a nonprofit committed to supporting our collective evolutionary journey with its imperative for inner awakening alongside systemic transformation. Thanissara has written several books, including two poetry books. Her latest book is Time To Stand Up, An Engaged Buddhist Manifesto for Our Earth. Thanissara is a member of the Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Teachers Council.
Thanissara is the guiding practice advisor for The Sati Leadership Group.
Let’s Chat!
Use the scheduling widget to reserve 15 minutes for a free guided meditation + chat. No strings attached.
Alternatively, you can fill out the form below with any question or comment.
I look forward to connecting with you 🙏🏻.