Episode #557: Chip Scholz

Chip Scholz is an executive coach, author, and storyteller who writes about how people grow, change, and eventually let go. For nearly 30 years, he has worked with leaders and organizations navigating transition, uncertainty, and growth. Earlier in his career, he worked in sales, management, and public affairs, where he saw firsthand how easily identity becomes tied to roles, titles, and recognition. A layoff later in life gave him an unexpected reset. He moved across the country with his family, started his own coaching practice, and began building a life centered less on status and more on usefulness. Over time, his work and writing have come to focus on a simple progression. First, we learn to lead ourselves. Then life forces us to live what we know. Eventually, leadership asks something harder—letting go of control, identity, or the need to be needed. That arc shows up across his books: Small Decisions, Big Shifts explores how change actually happens; Every Dog Has Its Day reflects what it looks like to live those changes; Handoffs examines what it means to release control and pass something on Across all three, Chip returns to the same idea: the moments that shape us are usually quiet, and the work of a life is learning how to respond to them.