Jim Weinstein Biography
Brought up in the New York suburbs (Eastchester), I attended Wesleyan University in Middletown Connecticut where I majored in Political Science. Graduating magna cum laude Phi Beta Kappa I was accepted to Harvard Business School where I concentrated in marketing. I graduated with distinction and thereafter began working in New York for one of America's largest ad agencies, Benton and Bowles, as an account executive. I rose quickly in the organization, being named Vice President four years later. In the subsequent 15 years I worked at several other major agencies, including Wells Rich Greene as Executive Vice-President and Chiat/Day as Director of Account Management. Among the clients I serviced were Procter and Gamble, Sony, Coca-Cola, Bayer, Mitsubishi, Fisher-Price, and Energizer (the bunny was developed under my tenure as the lead account manager).
In my 40s I embarked on a process of inner work and exploration that led me to move from New York to Los Angeles and to ultimately discover the path of my current career. It started with my running a community-based clinical trials organization, Search Alliance, and then co-founding the internet's first psychotherapist search site, 4Therapy.com. I enrolled in Antioch University's clinical psychology program, earning a Master's degree and accumulating 3000 hours of internship training, after which I opened a successful private practice in Beverly Hills.
Missing the seasons and the intellectual environment of the East, I moved to DC in 2005, making a professional pivot to emphasize career guidance. The reason for the pivot: I had concluded that the more directive approach embodied in coaching vs. therapy would enable me to make a difference to a much larger group of people. While therapy certainly plays a valuable role in achieving individual satisfaction, I increasingly saw that coaching had a much faster impact and, in most cases, led to equally profound change in people's lives. And the skills I developed as a therapist enabled me to provide tailored coaching that was maximally effective. In the time I have been here I have been fortunate enough to build a thriving practice working with a very diverse, motivated, and intelligent group of clients. I am proud to have helped many hundreds of clients to dramatically improve their career and life satisfaction.