Private Advisory Practice

Strategic counsel for consequential change

For high-responsibility people navigating identity transition, difficult decisions, and the life that follows.

Divorce, career change, retirement, relocation, loss — or the quieter recognition that the life you built no longer fits.

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The Work

A clear place to think when life is changing

Change can arrive all at once or build quietly over time. Soon, one decision is touching several parts of life. A career move can affect a relationship. Money changes what feels possible. Relocation can unsettle work, family, community, and your sense of self.

I help you see the full picture: what has changed, what still matters, who will be affected, and what each path asks of you. We prepare for the conversations and decisions ahead, then make sure the plan can hold up in real life. The work is private and direct, with room for the full reality you are carrying.

You are the one who has to live the decision. My role is to bring close attention, structure, direct counsel, and, when useful, a written record of what we decide. I will help you see the options and their consequences clearly without pretending there is one painless answer.

Choose your starting point →

You may know something has to change before you know exactly what

People come to this practice in the middle of an acute change, at a crossroads, or as a new chapter begins to take shape.

Relationship change — A separation or divorce can reshape family, home, money, parenting, work, and belonging at the same time.
Career and compensation — A new role, departure, or compensation negotiation can change how you see yourself, your financial life, your family's rhythm, and what success means.
Retirement — The role ends on a date. A new rhythm, identity, and sense of contribution usually take longer.
Relocation — A move affects work, partnership, children, money, and community. It can also mean leaving behind routines and a version of yourself tied to a familiar place.
Loss and caregiving — Grief, caregiving, estate responsibilities, and everyday obligations can pile up while decisions still need to be made.
Proactive reinvention — You can have a successful life and still know its current structure no longer fits.

People call me when what looked like one decision starts changing the rest of life.

When everything touches everything

A crisis does not stay in its lane. A divorce can become a family, financial, home, work, and identity question in the same week. Career change, retirement, relocation, and proactive reinvention can create the same kind of overlap.

We keep those connections visible so you can judge a decision by how it will affect the life you have to live.

The work may include preparing for a difficult conversation with a spouse, comparing career paths, planning a compensation negotiation, evaluating a relocation, or designing a transition into retirement. It can also mean setting boundaries around caregiving or deciding what the next version of your life needs to protect.

What matters can take time to say

Major decisions need good information. They also need room for you to say what is true when responsibility, loyalty, fear, grief, and ambition are all present.

Clients often tell me they can say things in our conversations that they have not been able to say anywhere else. I take that seriously.

Safety matters because it makes honesty possible. So does directness. I listen closely to what you are saying, what you are struggling to say, and where the story you have been telling yourself no longer matches the facts.

I ask direct questions and stay with the point. If urgency is distorting the decision, I slow us down. If reflection has become avoidance, I say so. I may offer a perspective for you to test, challenge, or build on.

Being heard clearly can help you hear yourself.

When written work is part of the engagement, your Decision Brief, Full-Picture Brief, or Season Close Brief gives you something clear to return to after the conversation ends.

The Method

The Seven Stations

The Seven Stations help us see where change is showing up in your body, mind, emotions, spirit, ground, relationships, and work. Together, they give us a way to understand the season, make the decisions in front of you, and build what comes next.

Body — Energy, sleep, health, stress signals, and physical capacity
Mind — Attention, beliefs, narratives, assumptions, and the quality of your thinking
Emotions — Grief, fear, anger, hope, shame, relief, and emotional range
Spirit — Meaning, faith, values, conscience, and your relationship to what is larger
Ground — Money, home, stability, legal realities, time, and practical structure
Connection — Primary relationship, family, community, belonging, and support
Vocation — Work, leadership, contribution, purpose, and the next professional chapter

Walk Through Fire

Walk Through Fire names the stretch after life has changed and before your identity has caught up. You have to live that passage. My role is to stay alongside you with clear eyes, direct counsel, and respect for the decisions only you can make. The phoenix represents the rise: the emergence of an identity capable of inhabiting the new reality.

Private assessment

When an engagement calls for a full assessment, the private nine-area Deep Tune looks at current condition, importance, fit, pressure, and required attention across your life. I read every response, prepare a written interpretation, and review it with you before the brief is finalized.

Ways to Work

Start with what you need now

The right starting point depends on what you are facing and how much support you need. You may need one good conversation, a map of the whole picture, focused preparation for one decision, or sustained counsel while several parts of life are moving. If you know what you need, you can begin directly. If you would like help choosing, book an Alignment Call.

On investment

The people who come to me are rarely deciding for themselves alone. A decision made well here is lived by a partner, a family, a team — often long after the season ends. I price the work for that weight, and I keep the practice small enough to give each engagement my full attention, including the written work between sessions.

Each season I set aside a few supported-rate places for people whose situation is a strong fit and for whom the standard investment would create real strain. If that is you, say so during or after the Alignment Call. I will tell you plainly whether a place is open and what the fixed investment would be.

Ask about supported-rate capacity
Open Counsel
For one conversation about your life, without a multi-week commitment.

One 90-minute conversation about your life as it is right now. We can go deep on the one thing that weighs most, or move more lightly across several that are pulling at you. You decide where we begin. There is nothing to prepare, and a short written summary follows if you would like one.

$750
Book Open Counsel
Full-Picture Review
For a layered season that needs a coherent map before anything else.

You complete a private nine-area Deep Tune. I read your full response, prepare a written Full-Picture Brief, and meet with you for 90 minutes to walk through what I see and hear what I may have missed. Together, we identify what has changed, what still matters, where the pressure is highest, and the smallest responsible next step. I then revise the brief to reflect what we confirmed together.

If Fire Navigation is the right next step and begins within 30 days, the full $1,250 is credited toward that engagement.

$1,250
Begin the Review
Precision Intensive
For one consequential decision, negotiation, or conversation that needs preparation and follow-through.

The Intensive can span up to 30 days. We clarify the whole decision, prepare for the moment that matters, create a written Decision Brief, and meet again afterward to make sense of what happened and adjust the plan.

$1,500
Book Intensive
Fire Navigation
For a significant identity transition or a season with several linked decisions.

Fire Navigation is a 90-day private advisory engagement. It begins with a whole-life assessment and written interpretation. From there, we use strategic sessions, optional 30-minute check-ins, and support between sessions within a clear scope. We close with a written record of what changed, what still needs attention, and what the next season requires.

$7,500or three payments of $2,500
Start Fire Navigation
Private Advisory Day
For a complex season that requires protected time and room for the unexpected.

This is a one-month engagement built around a protected day of counsel. We prepare beforehand, leave open time for the questions that cannot be predicted, and end the day over dinner. You receive a written Retreat Map, an integration session, and follow-through coverage for up to one month.

From $3,000approved travel, lodging, and special venue expenses are separate
Request a Day

Established-client paths

Ongoing Advisory is offered by invitation in renewable 90-day chapters after we know the terrain and how we work together. Alumni can return for a focused 30- or 60-minute session when a new question can be handled without a full engagement.

About Keenan

The experience behind the work

Before building this practice, I spent nearly a decade at Bank of America and Carlisle & Gallagher Consulting Group.

During my five and a half years at Carlisle & Gallagher, the firm grew from roughly $20 million to $200 million in revenue. I consulted for and sold work to five of the nation's ten largest banks.

They hired us to help with complex challenges and major programs. We assessed the current state, defined the desired state, identified the gaps, and built the strategy and implementation plan. My final consulting engagement was advising a Strategy Executive at a top-two bank.

That same way of thinking shapes how I work with clients today.

I later left corporate life, moved to India, and built Conscious Motivation while finding my way through my own identity change. In the years that followed, I became a primary caregiver, lost both parents, carried estate responsibilities, and rebuilt after a fire.

Today, I bring both of those experiences to the work: clear thinking for complex decisions and firsthand knowledge of what it is to keep making decisions after life has changed.

Read the full story

How this practice fits with other support

This practice provides strategic counsel, whole-life reflection, decision preparation, and written interpretation. It can work alongside attorneys, financial advisors, therapists, physicians, and other licensed professionals. It does not provide legal, financial, tax, medical, mental health, or emergency services. When another professional should lead, I will say so directly.

Want help choosing a starting point?

The Alignment Call is a 30-minute conversation for people who want help deciding where to begin. We will discuss the season you are navigating, what is at stake, and whether this practice is the right fit. You do not need perfect language for what you are going through before we talk.

Before we finish, I will give you a direct recommendation: working together, another kind of support, or a reason to pause. You will not need to make a decision on the call.

Book an Alignment Call Begin directly

Free, 30 minutes, on Zoom. Your time is confirmed as soon as you book. Either of us may decide it isn't the right fit, and that is a good outcome.