NEUROPSYCHOLOGIST • EXECUTIVE & PEAK PERFORMANCE COACH
NASA HUMAN PERFORMANCE STRATEGIST
Everything shifts the moment you decide
to invest in the one asset that compounds forever
— yourself
"Our Coaching will provide you everything you need
to get you back on track."
* I've worked with leaders from Google, Nvidia, Microsoft, Deloitte, Apple, The Federal Reserve, U.S. Coast Guard, and U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The career you once dominated isn't working anymore — something has to change, but what?
You're a high-performing professional. You built your career on your ability to think, solve and execute at the highest level.
Work was fulfilling. But something changed.
Now you're more distracted, unenthused or feeling overwhelmed — going home with things left undone. You're busy every single day and yet somehow feel you've accomplished little.
You've Lost Your Edge and Can't Get It Back
You still care about your work, but your creativity, drive and confidence have diminished — what happened, and how do you get them back?
It's Harder to Stay Focused & Keep Up, Let Alone Get Ahead
Distractions are everywhere and multiplying, constantly pulling you off of your most important tasks. AI has accelerated change — how do you adjust?
You're Ready to Move On — But to Where?
You know deep down that this isn't it anymore. The problem isn't the decision to leave, it's deciding exactly why, how and to where — you just feel stuck.
🔸HOW IT WORKS
Transformation That Leads to Success
"The people who change the world — the ones who look back with that deep, settled sense of having truly lived — they don't just build great products.
They build themselves with the same ferocity."
— Dr Jim Polk
"I don't just fix problems — our work together will redefine your limits and make you into the best version of yourself, one that can succeed at whatever you choose."
Dr. Jim Polk Neuropsychologist | Executive & Peak Performance Coach | NASA Human Performance Strategist
The Coaching
I'll Support You Completely — And I'll Always Tell You the Truth
Coaching doesn't work because of a framework. It works because of the relationship — and the relationship only works if it's honest. So here's the deal I make with every person I work with.
I'll be the most committed ally you've ever had in your corner. And I'll never let you off the hook.
You'll get crystal clear on your goals, unwavering support, and a partner fully invested in your success. You'll also get someone who holds the line when you're tempted to lower it. That's not a contradiction — it's the whole point.
The people who get the most from this work don't want to be coddled. They want to be held to more.
Creating Your Roadmap & Compass
We Don't Begin With What's Wrong — First, We Paint a Portrait of Your Future
Lasting change needs a why. And the strongest why is pinned to a vivid vision of the life you actually want.
So in our first real session, I won't ask you to list what's broken. I'll ask you to do something most people have never done with another person: paint the life you actually want, in vivid detail.
You wake up in that life. Who's beside you? You walk to the window and open the drapes — what do you see? You look at your calendar for the day, and there it is: your work and your life, mapped together, supporting each other.
That picture becomes our compass. Every decision we make from that day forward points back to it.
🔸YOUR LIFE — AFTER
When Clarity Replaces Confusion
The future doesn't show up by accident.
It arrives the way every future arrives — as the direct result of the decisions you're making right now. The ones you notice. And the ones you don't.
🔸WHAT TO EXPECT
Gain Clarity in Your Purpose
Get clear and focused on the goals and objectives that will radically change your life.
You’ll stop carrying the weight of not knowing — the second-guessing. Your own certainty is back. You'll stop auditing yourself and start moving.
Regain Control of Your Attention
Learn how to screen out distractions and anticipate roadblocks — to keep them from ever happening.
You'll get more important work done, in less time and of better quality, with less effort. Leave work each day feeling satisfied that you've accomplished your goals.
Build a Roadmap to the Future
You'll stop guessing and see exactly where you're going — and exactly how to get there.
With a clear path from here to there, you'll wake each day knowing what today is for. You'll enjoy less stress, have more confidence, and be more successful.
Stay on Track
With regular sessions you’ll have the accountability you need to see consistent change in the right direction.
You won't drift. Someone's in your corner who knows exactly where you're headed — and won't let you settle for less than you're capable of and what you set out for.
🔸PROVEN RESULTS
Meet Admiral Chris Bartz
Want to know what it's actually like to work with me — and what it can produce? Then you need to meet Admiral Chris Bartz.
When I first met Chris he was a Captain, the Executive Assistant to a Vice Admiral at the Pentagon and on the short list to make Admiral himself. A man who began his career as a helicopter search and rescue pilot flying into hurricanes and danger, while everyone else fled — saving dozens of lives. This was a strong and powerful man. A success by any standard.
But something wasn't right. He'd started to doubt and second guess himself, and the anxiety that never touched him in a cockpit was now sitting on his chest at a desk. High blood pressure. Tingling in his hands and feet. No real sleep. His neurologist and cardiologist had run out of answers — so they sent him to me.
Admiral Chris Bartz, USCG (Ret.)
Former Leader Cyber Security Operations — USCG
Prior Director Exercises & Training — U.S. Cyber Command
Former Deputy CIO — U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security
We didn't start with his symptoms. We started with a question almost no one had ever asked him:
"What life do you actually want?"
He painted it. A home on a mountain lake. Consulting from there, flying to clients once a month. Healthy. Present with his family. And a decision to accept the promotion to Admiral — but on his terms.
That vision became the compass for everything we did next.
We rebuilt how he lived, one decision at a time. Meditation, more sleep, better diet, no lunches at his desk, taking time to relax.
Then, neuropsychological training I helped develop at NASA for fighter pilots and astronauts — that sharpen focus, metacognition, and stress control in the highest-pressure environments on earth.
"Techniques most coaches don't even know exist"
By the second month, his blood pressure was normal and the tingling was gone. By the third, he was off his medication completely and anxiety gone — years later, no medication and no symptoms.
With his health restored, we addressed his career — the star, the postings, his eventual transition to civilian life, and his whole life, not just his career. Because the whole life is the point.
Here's where it led: promoted to One-Star Admiral, then Two-Star, then director positions in top U.S. agencies. Today he's a civilian still in his 50s, consulting — making more than he did in uniform, working fewer hours (mostly from home), dividing his time between Washington and his mountain lake home.
The exact life he painted that first year. He lives it now.
"I couldn't have accomplished all I've done without Jim's coaching. He gave me the vision, the plan, and the accountability to see it through — and eight years later, we still meet every quarter to keep me sharp in my civilian career. If you're serious about becoming the best version of yourself, work with him. I did, and it changed everything." — Admiral Christopher Bartz, USCG (Ret.)
PRIVATE COACHING
How We Work Together
I partner with a small number of private clients at a time. Every partnership is built the same way: we begin by detailing a crystal-clear vision of what it is that you want to work towards — career, life away from work, or both.
The next step is a performance assessment unlike any you've encountered before, the same neuroscientific assessment I helped develop and implement with NASA astronauts and fighter pilots — in situations and environments that are unforgiving, demanding and where top performance is essential.
After the assessment, we'll create your Action Plan, a written roadmap detailing your goals, the steps needed to achieve them, potential roadblocks, and likely distractions.
We'll build on your strengths and shore up the skills that will pay off most.
Coaching will include training based on your assessment to maximize your focus, creativity, stress management and metacognition (the skill that allows you to monitor your own cognition and problem-solving) — all to maximize your performance and productivity.
Then we execute — together.
The Commitment
Private coaching runs 3, 6, or 12 months — but that's not a menu, and I won't ask you to diagnose yourself. The right length depends entirely on the scope of the outcomes you are driving. We'll determine the appropriate structure together in our first conversation, but here's how these timelines most often unfold:
3 MONTHS
One defined, high-stakes outcome, pursued to completion. A transition, a promotion window, or a critical decision that cannot be gotten wrong.
6 MONTHS
For change on more than one front — how you focus, how you lead, and where you are headed. We execute the full arc of the performance roadmap together to drive comprehensive, lasting change.
12 MONTHS
For leaders playing the long game: stepping into a bigger role, leading a team through a reorganization, or working toward a position that is still a promotion or two away. The goals evolve as you advance — the coaching advances with you. This is how I worked with Admiral Bartz.
● One thing to know walking in: private coaching is a serious investment in yourself. We'll discuss the details, and whether this is the exact right fit, when we talk.
THE PATH IS SIMPLE
Three steps. One decision.
1 ➢
Apply for a strategy conversation about Private Coaching
Tell me where you want to go and where you are — and where you're stuck. If we're a fit, you'll know it in that call.
2 ➢
We design your Private Coaching Program
Three, six or twelve months — built around your vision, not a template.
3 ➢
Become who you're capable of being
Clarity, focus, and a partner who won't let you settle. That's the work.
🔸PROOF THAT GOES BEYOND THE CLASSROOM
I didn't just study Peak Performance, I flew with the people who depended on it to stay alive.
NASA - Human Performance Strategist & U.S. Air Force Aviation Psychologist
"I'm Dr. Jim Polk, and I helped develop systems to monitor and improve focus, memory, reaction time, and attention in USAF fighter pilots and NASA astronauts — then spent decades applying those same neuroscience-based principles to executives, technology leaders, and high-performers around the world."
Pictured: Me climbing into an F-15 Strike Eagle for a sortie to monitor a pilot during a wartime scenario.
Do you have a hunger to increase the quality of your life?
Results that speak for themselves | 46+ years. 25,000+ clients worldwide.
YOUR GUIDE
Dr. Jim Polk
Neuropsychologist · Executive & Peak Performance Coach · NASA — Human Performance Strategist
Why I do this work.
I was born in blue-collar Flint, Michigan. An auto factory job was my destiny — like my father, and his father before. I knew that wasn't for me, but how to get out?
I had a gift, I was fast. Beating seniors as a freshman, near an NCAA record. A track scholarship, my way out — was within reach.
Then a speeding car broke my leg, and my escape vanished in the blink of an eye.
Next I earned my pilot's license at 16. Dreamt of an Air Force scholarship. Then my vision worsened, and that dream disappeared too.
Undaunted, I hit the books and made pre-med at the University of Michigan. Two years in, my circumstances changed in such a way that I had no choice — my father's alcoholism had destroyed the family, and I dropped out to care for my younger sister.
The factory jobs in Flint had dried up. So I mopped floors and scrubbed toilets in the bar where factory workers partied. Flint wouldn't let go.
I remember it like it was yesterday. 3 AM, Saturday, January 8. On my hands and knees scrubbing vomit
from a toilet, I yelled into the empty room: "Enough."
Monday morning I walked into a recruiter's office. Six weeks later I shipped out for my first stint in the U.S. Air Force.
Success didn't come in a straight line for me, and there were more roadblocks. But at four pivotal moments in my life, four people showed up who acted as coaches — who urged me to believe in myself, refused to let me settle, and pushed me forward. Like Admiral Bartz said he wouldn't have gotten so far without my coaching, I very possibly wouldn't be here without those four.
Perseverance, Persistence, Focus and Coaching led me to my Doctorate and the life of my dreams.
I want to be that person for you.
I've lived the disappointments. I've lived the roadblocks. I've been where you likely are right now.
Let's get you to the best version of yourself — and the career and life you desire and deserve.
TESTIMONIALS
See what others are saying
“Starting a new diplomatic post in a foreign country was emotionally overwhelming and deeply isolating. Jim helped me regain clarity, confidence and a sense of control so I could fully adapt and succeed in my new environment.”
Foreign Minister - Kyrgyzstan
Aibek Omokeev
“On the surface, everything looked successful — but inside, I felt stuck, exhausted and disconnected from my purpose. After working with Jim, I found clarity, energy and passion again, and both my life and company reached new heights.”
CEO, Business Point Law
Joel Gulick, Esq.
“Jim helped me communicate with greater confidence, lead more effectively and perform at a higher level. I became more decisive, more creative and far more willing to take the risks necessary for real growth and success.”
CLO, Farm Credit Association
Dr. Corey Adams
"One decision can change your destiny. One decision can get you
to the career and life you desire and deserve."
TWO WAYS TO BEGIN
Choose your starting point
PRIMARY PATH
Work With Me Privately
A 3, 6, or 12-month engagement. My full attention on your situation: biweekly 1-on-1 sessions, direct access between sessions, a comprehensive neuroscientific assessment of your Core Performance Drivers that I helped develop for NASA astronauts and fighter pilots, regular action plan reviews, and a roadmap that we execute together — it starts with a conversation.
START SMALLER
The Four Keys Program
A complete career-transformation system — the same four pillars I use with private clients, for either reigniting your career, or moving to a new career altogether. It's a guided program that you can begin today.
Imagine the deep satisfaction when you become the person you're meant to be
You've read this far because part of you already knows
You know you're capable of more, that there's a version of yourself you've been putting off — the one who's focused, clear, and moving again. It's the one you most want to become.
THE DRIFT
There's a word for what's been happening: drift
Not failure, not collapse — just the slow slide of busy days that never quite add up to the life you meant to build. It doesn't announce itself. It accumulates.
So why haven't you started? Usually it's not for lack of ability. It's that life is full and comfortable enough to keep tolerating, the effort feels like one more thing on an already-full plate, and some quiet part of you isn't sure things can actually be different this time.
BUT IT CAN BE DIFFERENT. IT CAN BE AMAZING — YOU JUST HAVE TO DECIDE
And I understand what it's like where you are. I've had doors shut in my face, lived with distractions and had to start all over again from the beginning.
And at those times, people have stepped in to encourage me, guide me and hold me accountable.
And I'll tell you plainly: there is no time like today to begin again. Because another year will pass much like this one, busy and full and still short of what you're capable of.
The good news is what that also means. The one thing standing between you and everything you just read about isn't talent, or time, or luck. It's a single decision that's entirely yours to make.
One conversation. No pitch, no pressure. An honest look at where you are, where you want to go, and whether working together is right for both of us.