Tom Barrett

Tom likes to describe himself as a “proud hedgehog”, as in the Jim Collins’ “Hedgehog Concept” from Good to Great. He has the privilege of working out of his “Passion” which is to help entrepreneurs get what they want from their business & life, and “Best at”, which is facilitating & coaching leadership teams to climb higher and faster than they could on their own.

Tom began his career as a CPA at Deloitte’s Chicago office in audit, followed by 3 years performing financial due diligence for strategic and private equity acquirers at Ernst & Young.

He spent 13 years in leadership at two innovative entrepreneurial mission-driven organizations, where he implemented tools from various systems and books such as Good to Great, Blue Ocean Strategy and classic strategic planning tools to help grow both organizations.

In 2015, Tom and his wife Traci founded Navigate the Journey, a firm that uses proven processes to help fast-growing companies in the areas of strategic planning, team health, leadership development, human resources, and life planning. He was a Certified EOS Implementer™ from 2018 to 2021, facilitating over 300 EOS® full-day sessions in that time and spoke at the 2021 EOS Conference.

Tom specializes in working with creative and professional services firms including digital agencies, marketing & branding firms, web development and SaaS companies.

An ideal client for Tom is one who recognizes they can climb higher and faster with a coach than without.