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About Me
Karen C Guth, MS, CPCC, ACC
As a business consultant and professional coach, I believe deeply in the benefits of both of these approaches in navigating the growth of your enterprise, and of you. I have a particular interest in developing emerging leaders in a company, and in healthy co-leadership between those who are partners in both business and life.
I didn’t start out in this field. As a young person my dream was to be a writer, which I pursued in my first few years of college in Iowa. Restlessness got the better of me, and my affinity for the natural world shifted my attention west to the mountains. I spent the summers of my 20’s as a whitewater guide on the rivers of California and Idaho, and the winters pursuing degrees in geology, which I put to good use as an environmental consultant for many years.
I received my business training from co-founding and co-leading a successful small business in Portland, Oregon: Provvista Specialty Foods. My partner in this endeavor was my husband, Joe Guth, and during 19 years of growing both our business and our family, we learned a few things (some of them painful!). When we sold our company in 2011, I couldn’t stop thinking about how the experience had shaped us, our family, and our many employees. As I began to consult with other small businesses, some familiar patterns emerged, and I started to focus as much attention on my clients themselves as I did on their companies.
This larger focus led to my training and certification as a coach through the Co-Active Training Institute (CTI). From the beginning my primary interest in coaching has been to work with business owners to craft a strategy that fits with their own vision and values. This approach invites a great deal of self-reflection and inquiry, and ultimately a more successful and balanced client and business. My lens has further expanded in the last several years to encompass the needs of entrepreneurial couples, who face unique challenges in their co-leadership, both at work and at home. It was this interest that led me once again to CTI, and their transformative Leadership Program, which I completed in February 2020. In 2021 and 2022, I took advantage of the many expanded online course offerings to complete training in Organization and Relationship Systems Coaching (ORSC), a game-changer in working with partnerships and teams.
Why the long personal history? Ultimately, the thread that runs through each of our lives shapes who we are, and what we bring to the table—revealing our values, and our purpose or calling. And that is not the end of the story. I still write (I have a novel in progress), I still draw inspiration and rejuvenation from nature, and my family continues to be what sustains and motivates me. What lies in front of us, though, is uncertain. We can choose to take with us what will serve our future, and leave behind that which bogs us down and holds us back. What we carry forward is our gift. Our responsibility is to cherish that gift, develop it, and offer it in service to our relationships, our dreams, and to the world. My own gift is to shine a light on yours.