About Mark Newton
Here’s a little bit about Mark Newton:
- His parents divorced when Mark was ten.
- Over the next decade, he moved a lot — living first with this parent, then that. It was an overwhelming time. Mark was mostly on his own to figure out how to create the life he wanted to live.
- During this time, his father asked for — and took — his advice. Mark discovered he had a natural gift for listening and that lots of people liked to tell him things they didn’t tell others — and to seek his advice.
- He also discovered during this time that he was both artistic and very skilled with his hands, which led him to developing a deep interest in architecture and construction.
- He also loved to write.
- Following these interests, he attended Washington State University to study architecture, building and writing.
- It was there he met his future wife in a humanities class. She was very beautiful and shared with Mark his love of writing and design. They both wrote for the college newspaper, The Daily Evergreen.
- After graduation, Mark and Cynthia moved to San Francisco. There, Mark cut his professional teeth in the competitive design and construction market of San Francisco, first as an architect, then as a builder.
- Mark’s favorite architect and builder is Christoper Alexander.
- His favorite writer is Virginia Woolf.
What happened next?
After a decade in the Bay, Mark had become licensed as both an architect and as a building contractor. As he looked down the road to the next decade he would spend creating his own design/build firm, he decided instead to attend San Francisco Theological Seminary.
Funny how life can take these sudden turns, isn’t it?
Why did Mark decide to take this sudden turn in the road? There were many reasons. It was in part because he applied to Berkeley to get his Master of Architecture with his architectural hero Christopher Alexander, and was not accepted to the program. Christopher Alexander was then the epitome of Mark’s aspirations. Alexander was an architect, a builder, a professor and a writer. It was also because along the way he had discovered that while he loved to design and build, what he mostly loved to do was work with people. A third factor was his desire to repay his grandmother Irene’s kindness to him as a boy when his family was falling apart. He thought that perhaps as a pastor he would be in a position to help people build the lives they wanted to live.
Mark was both right and wrong about the church. He was in fact able to help many people in practical ways. But he was also heavily restricted by the tenets of the church. He had become, after all, a representative of an institution.
Then there was family.
During these years, Mark and Cynthia welcomed two children into the world. While in many ways he wanted to leave the church, Mark felt compelled to remain at the church for the stability of the family. Also, there was a major disruption within the church about a decade into Mark’s time there as a pastor, which took about another decade to repair.
These disruptions come along in each of our lives, don’t they?
But after two decades in the church, the children graduated high school and went off to college. It was then that Mark saw an opening by which he could help people without the constraints of the church and also do what he loved to do: design and build. (Why not help people design and build the life they wanted?) So he opened his life coaching business here in Portland, where he has been coaching for over a decade.
(You’ve probably noticed the pattern of decades in Mark’s life. Maybe you’ve noticed this pattern in your own life? Or perhaps some other pattern that has shaped you?)
One last thing about Mark Newton is that he is not religious. He is, rather, deeply empathetic, creative and practical. You can ask him more about this if you want to.
And what about you?
You are a smart, creative person with an interesting history of your own. At the moment, you are feeling overwhelmed about all that has happened so far and where you want to go from here.
What you want is clear, definitive action. But at the moment, both clarity and action keep slipping through your fingers. So you spend your days frustrated and your nights wondering what to do.
Mark can help you.
Mark is not interested in “fixing you.” Instead, he wants to help you design and build the life you’ll love coming home to.
He can help you quickly get to the bottom of what currently has your thoughts in tangles.
And just as quickly you will together create a blueprint to get you focused and moving. You will be amazed at how quickly and precisely you will discover the root causes of your overwhelm and create what may seem like a miracle of progress.
But only if you make the first move. Mark can’t make you ask for the help you need.
Perhaps you’ll decide that now is the time to overcome the tangle of overwhelm by exploring a coaching relationship with Mark.
All it takes is 60 free clarifying minutes to find out more about Mark Newton and get started on your own journey to the life you’ve always wanted.