My Story

Top Ten Skills represents the evolution and marriage of his two earlier businesses, Ivy League Coaches and Academic Leadership Consulting, both aimed at teaching students vital skills missing from their formal education and how to use those skills to achieve. Top Ten Skills prides itself on dealing with all the issues (motivation problems, broken-down communication, organization, etc) and stressors (homework, time management, applying to colleges, etc) that are most prominent in a student's life and help them become effective and successful leaders who know where they want to go and how to get there.

It all began when John, at the time a high school Latin teacher, was introduced to Life Coaching by his wife, Amois (you can visit her website here). Intrigued by what he was hearing, John enrolled in a training program as well and then began to integrate the theories and lessons into his teaching. Additionally, he took on private clients and began to conduct workshops, sharing his important new knowledge with an eager community of students and their parents. He developed his own curricula, adapted from his previous teaching experience and his life coach training, focussing specifically on teaching middle school and high school students the tools and training they needed to succeed. And it worked. His clients were performing better in school, performing better on the field, getting into their top-choice colleges, receiving the money to afford them and enjoying himself.

His initial success was inspiring and he gave up teaching to work towards a new vision of each and every high school student being empowered to make the most of themselves and their lives. In the past three years, he's worked with over a hundred students, given nearly a hundred workshops (click here to see when the next one is scheduled) and seen tremendous results and ever-increasing success among his audience and clientele. His business has grown from a lone individual working in Southern Oregon, to a small but highly select international network of life coaching college consultants. Together, these dedicated inspired individuals make-up Top Ten Skills, working tirelessly to promote personal growth, goal-setting, and scholastic achievement in the adolescent and young adult population.

If you have any questions, please call us at (503) 288-5045. We are strongly committed and enthusiastic about what we do and delighted to talk with you.