About Jim Koetting

A Leadership Story That Started at Home

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Leadership, for Jim Koetting, did not begin with a title or a promotion. It began in a small house in Missouri, in the noisy company of three younger brothers and a younger sister who watched him, copied him, tested him, and depended on him long before he understood the word “leadership.”

As the oldest of five, he learned early that influence begins at home, where you cannot pretend, posture, or hide. You lead your siblings by who you are, not who you claim to be. In many ways, that was the true beginning of a leadership journey that would eventually span decades, industries, triumphs, failures, and redemption.

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The Boy Scout Who Discovered a Definition of Leadership

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That early formation shaped the fifteen-year-old boy who suddenly found himself responsible for fifty-one young scouts at a summer camp deep in the Missouri woods. For ten straight days, he organized them, encouraged them, pushed them, supported them, and somehow kept the group together.

When the dust settled, those boys had earned 327 merit badges—an outcome far beyond anything the adults expected.

Later, Jim would look back on that summer and realize it was the first time he had truly carried the weight of responsibility for a large group of people. Somewhere in the Boy Scout handbook he had read an unassuming line that became the cornerstone of his leadership philosophy:

Leadership is getting the job done and keeping the group together.

He has spent a lifetime living out the tension and beauty of that sentence.

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The Fall, the Bottom, and the Decision to Lead Himself

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In the years that followed, Jim’s life took sharp turns—some exhilarating, some devastating. He became an entrepreneur at sixteen, booking bands, producing live shows, and discovering the thrill of creating an experience that brought people together. After college, he moved from programming computers to serving tables as a sommelier, and then unexpectedly found himself selling cars. The car business introduced him to the psychology of pressure and persuasion. Xerox later taught him how to sell complex systems to multiple stakeholders. Each chapter added another layer to his understanding of human behavior, communication, and influence.

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But beneath the surface, his life was unraveling.

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By twenty-two, Jim was an addict and an alcoholic. He had no money, no home, and no future he could feel proud of. He could not afford treatment and had no one who could fix what he had broken. In that darkest period, he was forced to draw upon the earliest lessons he had learned as a boy: no one was coming to rescue him; he would have to lead himself.

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It was the most difficult transformation of his life, and the one that, more than any professional accomplishment, shaped the man he would become. He has now been sober for thirty-six years, and the countless men and women he has helped find sobriety stand as a quiet testament to the strength forged in that season.

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Building Companies, Systems, and People

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Jim’s professional life unfolded in sweeping arcs.

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He built a top-performing insurance agency and later entered financial services, eventually founding an RIA firm specializing in institutional investing. After the success of his book Public Fund Investing for Dummies, he was asked to design national accreditation programs for public treasurers. More than a thousand leaders completed the program, and through this work, public entities across the United States have likely saved more than six billion dollars by learning to identify, measure, and mitigate risk.

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He built an online life insurance company that sold twelve policies a day and earned awards for developing institutional financial software that changed the way organizations managed their investments. His work even brought him into conversations with two U.S. presidents and into the Oval Office itself.

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Jim also built global software teams, traveling across continents to align cultures, personalities, and motivations. He discovered that while people may speak different languages or live within different customs, the fundamental drivers of human behavior remain universal. People want to be seen. They want to be challenged. They want to trust the person leading them. And they want to believe that their leader is genuinely for them.

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Over time, he noticed a pattern. Yes, he had built companies, technologies, and systems—but what he kept being asked to do, again and again, was unlock people. Salespeople began reaching levels they never thought possible. Engineers hit deadlines and delivered machines and systems that exceeded expectations. Stuck teams started to move. Fragmented groups began to function. Jim was not just building organizations. He was building people.

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Leadership Begins at Home

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For all the attention his professional achievements have received, Jim believes his most important leadership role is found at home.

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He has been married to his wife for thirty-two years. Together they have built a life defined by loyalty, growth, and honest conversation. Their two daughters both graduated at the top of their universities, summa cum laude, and are now nationally recognized in their fields. They are movers, shakers, and respected voices in their industries.

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Jim considers this his most significant leadership accomplishment.

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When he interviews people for leadership positions or evaluates senior leaders, he often wants to understand how they are leading the people who know them best. Not because life is simple or families are perfect—he knows they are not. There are exceptions, complexities, wounds, and chapters in every family story.

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But he believes leadership is about alignment.

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If someone feels disconnected from their spouse, estranged from their siblings, or frustrated by the direction of their children, the most honest place to begin is with the person in the mirror. Families do not demand perfection, but they reveal truth. And truth is the soil from which real leadership grows.

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This conviction shapes the way Jim leads, hires, mentors, and challenges leaders. It is not about judging anyone’s story. It is about inviting them into a deeper, more honest version of their own leadership.

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The Musician, the Producer, and a Different Kind of Leader

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Music has always been woven into Jim’s life. He played in several bands over the years, including an acoustic Beatles cover band, and it was through music that he discovered one of his most enduring leadership metaphors.

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In any band, there are musicians—and then there are producers.

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The musician plays the notes. The producer brings out the greatness.

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A producer listens differently. A producer sees what others cannot yet see. A producer draws out potential, shapes talent, harnesses personality, and turns scattered effort into something extraordinary.

Eventually, Jim recognized that the best leaders operate the same way. They do not simply motivate people. They liberate them. They create an environment where people rise above what they thought possible, where personalities are harmonized rather than suppressed, and where performance becomes a shared work of art instead of an individual struggle.

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This “producer’s mindset” has become central to Jim’s view of leadership. Whether he is working with an executive team, a room full of emerging leaders, or a group of engineers or salespeople, he approaches them not as cogs in a machine, but as gifted musicians in need of a producer who knows how to bring out their best.

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The Work Jim Does Today

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Today, Jim is a trusted mentor, speaker, advisor, and guide to leaders, teams, and organizations across the country. He is called in when communication has broken down, when culture feels stuck, when teams are misaligned, or when a leader knows there is more potential in the organization than they are currently seeing.

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His work is centered on four essential dimensions of organizational life: culture, communication, relationships, and systems. When these are aligned under a leader who brings both support and challenge, teams perform with remarkable energy and clarity. When they are fragmented, everything becomes harder and more exhausting than it needs to be.

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Jim does not speak or consult as a distant theorist. He comes as someone who has lived every stage of the journey—from young success to collapse, from addiction to sobriety, from rebuilding a life to standing in the Oval Office, from launching companies to sitting with leaders in their most honest and vulnerable moments.

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He understands what it feels like to be responsible for others. He understands what it feels like to lose everything. And he understands what it takes to rise again and lead with wisdom, steadiness, and strength.

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His mission now is straightforward and deeply personal: to help leaders grow into the kind of people others want to follow; to help teams function with greater trust, clarity, and productivity; and to help organizations build cultures that bring out the best in people.

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Jim is not the hero of the story. He is the guide. He is the trusted voice beside the leader. He is the producer behind the performance. He is the match that starts the blaze.

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And he believes—with every chapter of his own life as evidence—that great leadership is possible for anyone with the courage to grow.