This feature is a question-and-answer session with a Blount County Chamber member. So, here we go with our 258th installment visiting with Martin Laramie, director of training with Abound Coaching and Consulting which offers one-on-one coaching services focusing on personal and professional development, as well as leadership training and development workshops.
Describe more about Abound Coaching and Consulting. Abound Coaching & Consulting is in business to help leaders, their organizations, and their constituents experience personal and corporate growth and development through a unique process of values clarification; whereby leaders and their teams team develop and embrace a common set of core values, aligned with the purpose and mission of their organizations.
How did you get started? As a local pastor for many years, I helped coach and develop volunteers both personally and professionally. During the pursuit of my PhD in business management with a specialization in leadership, the idea of founding a business to help develop individuals, especially current or aspiring leaders and their followers (Teams). Abound Coaching & Consulting was born, and my coaching and training services were extended to both nonprofit and for-profit businesses in my local community.
What is your background? I grew up in the Metro Detroit area, finished my BBA in marketing while pastoring a small church and working in industrial sales. Ministry offered me the opportunity to hone my communication skills, as well as my coaching and training skills. As an outside Industrial sales representative, I learned much about sales and distribution, as well as new product development, quality control, and customer accounts management. Sales also offered me the opportunity to work with local corporate executives and their support staff, such as engineering, purchasing, and estimating personnel. Eventually, I worked my way into management which gave me the opportunity to learn all the duties and responsibilities of a manager of a skilled labor force assembling various machine tools for OEMs in the Metro Detroit area. In 2006, I accepted a buyout from Ford Motor Company and shifted my focus to Higher Education. Working at local colleges and the university teaching various writing and research, as well as business leadership and ethics courses, helped prepare me for the work I now do at Abound.
Describe your customers. My early customers were members of the various churches I pastored who were seeking either personal or professional development. I extended my offering to other individuals in my local community. I did some small business consulting along the way for small businesses in the manufacturing sector. I have also coached executives through various career transitions along the way. Abound has also ventured overseas to train leaders and their followers in India and the Caribbean (Antigua, Dominica). Abound’s primary focus is in the US at present, in the local Maryville/Knoxville area.
What impacts your business environment the most? Abound Coaching & Consulting, specifically myself, has worked with clients in many socioeconomic sectors. Technology and its advancement have offered me many new tools to promote and operate my business. I would not claim to understand all the legal and political influences on my potential business ventures at present. I am a newcomer to the Maryville/Knoxville area and have much to learn. That is why I joined the Blount County Chamber of Commerce for assistance and support along the way as I serve my local community.