About Thom Dismuke

Thom spent over 30 years building a career in technology leadership, starting in the pre-internet days of IT operations. He worked his way into information security, holding roles at companies including Microsoft, Experian, SafeNet, and Gemalto, and founding his own dot-com startup along the way. He earned his MA in Management from the University of Redlands, built a deep bench of industry certifications, and by most measures had done what you're supposed to do.

Then, within the span of a few years, the ground shifted under all of it. Both of his parents died. His marriage ended. He was laid off. The career, the identity, the life he had built. None of it looked the way it had.

What saved Thom wasn't a new job title or a quick pivot. It was the work he had already begun doing on himself. He had been coached in strengths-based development and emotional intelligence, and that foundation gave him something essential: he knew who he was and what he was working with, even when everything around him was unrecognizable. From there, he rebuilt through sustained self-inquiry, contemplative practice, and a disciplined effort to understand what remained true when everything else had fallen away.

That rebuilding became the foundation of his career coaching practice. Thom now works with experienced tech professionals navigating career transitions — the kind of disruption that no amount of resume polish can solve. He brings the credibility of someone who has lived inside the industries his clients come from, and the depth of someone who has done the interior work that most executive coaching approaches skip over.

This practice is called Epic MindLab for a reason. A lab is a place where you experiment. Where you test ideas, explore possibilities, and treat every result, including the ones that surprise you, as useful data. That's what I want our work together to feel like: a space where curiosity leads the way, where you can try on new directions without pressure, and where even the unexpected turns become fuel for what's next.

Every person carries epic potential, the capacity for something far larger than what their current circumstances suggest. That potential doesn't disappear when you lose a job, end a marriage, or watch the life you built stop making sense. It's still there, waiting to be unlocked and focused. We are the authors of our own story, even in the chapters that feel like they're writing themselves. Especially then. The path forward may not be visible yet. That means you haven't built it yet. That's what we do here. We find the potential that's already in you, clear away what's obscuring it, and put it to work.

My approach draws on traditions that most coaching practices treat as separate worlds. Zen, Daoist, and mindfulness traditions alongside Stoicism and Socratic inquiry. They're complementary ways of asking the same fundamental questions: Who are you when the roles fall away? What do you actually value? How do you think clearly when the stakes are high and the path is unclear?

I blend strengths-based coaching with emotional intelligence development because I've seen what happens when people understand both — not as abstract concepts, but as lived, felt knowledge. Validated assessments like CliftonStrengths® 34 and the EQ-i 2.0® build that understanding. Then we do something with it. Self-awareness in service of better decisions, stronger relationships, and clearer direction.

The real breakthroughs happen when we expand the frame. The Relational Fluency Architecture™, the proprietary coaching framework woven into every engagement, develops exactly this capacity: relational intelligence. When you learn not just how to understand yourself, but how to understand others, and beyond that, how to think with others rather than just about them. That shift changes everything: how you lead, how you navigate conflict, how you build the relationships that sustain a meaningful career and life.

I bring a strong presence, natural curiosity, and genuine commitment to your understanding of yourself and your success. All sessions are virtual — I work with clients across the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Let's find out what you're built for.

COACHING & MINDFULNESS

ICF Associate Certified Coach (ACC)

Certified Life Coach

Certified Mindfulness Coach

ASSESSMENTS

EQ-i 2.0® Certified Practitioner 

CliftonStrengths® Trained Coach 

Change Style Indicator Practitioner

EDUCATION

MA, Management, University of Redlands

TECHNOLOGY BACKGROUND

Over 25 years in technology leadership spanning the pre-internet era through today, including information security, IT operations, and entrepreneurship. Previously held CISSP, CISA, CISM, PMP, and ITIL certifications along with vendor credentials from Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and the SANS Institute.