DESIGN YOUR LIFE: A Roadmap For The Season Ahead

What if your next chapter could be your most aligned, resilient, and whole?

Design Your Life is a reflective and interactive mini-workshop for senior fellows who are anticipating or navigating change—professionally or personally—and are ready to begin aligning their time, energy, and purpose.

Especially for those who are:

• Entering or navigating retirement
• Experiencing a life transition
• Hungry for more meaning and fulfillment

Participants will leave with:

• The basics of a roadmap for the season ahead.
• Renewed confidence in the face of change.
• A renewed sense of story, resilience, and possibility.

Note: Those interested in continuing the journey will be invited to participate in an ongoing community of practice scheduled for early 2026.

Space is limited -- register soon to confirm your spot.

Matt C. Barnes is a Houston-based storyteller, community builder, and social entrepreneur who has been following fulfillment and purpose wherever it leads.

In the last 6-years, powered mostly by God, Guinness, and Gluten (not necessarily in that order), he has:

• Earned recognition as a Moth Storytelling finalist, entertaining audiences with personal narratives that highlight resilience and purpose.
• Become a frequent radio and online personality offering innovative and countercultural (some would call it misguided and reckless) perspectives on parents, education, and radical youth leadership.
• Frustrated with the slow pace of change in education, Matt co-founded the annual Young Entrepreneur Award (YEA.education), which celebrates youth who break with tradition and address real-world challenges outside of school.
• Inspired by Father Greg Boyle and Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, Matt became a baker's apprentice, then co-founded Rise Again Bread, a bakery that houses, employs, and trains homeless men and women to make amazing bread (instagram @Rise_Again_Bread).

Matt's failures are too catastrophic and numerous to count (including his failed HISD school board run in 2019 -- proving that some failures are blessings in disguise). But, through it all, Matt has slowly learned how to fail forward, how to design a life of fulfillment, and how to help others do the same. Matt now coaches weirdos like him who are seeking to live life on purpose.

Mike Marsh is a three-time Olympian, educator, and reinvention strategist whose journey is shaped as much by resilience as it is by achievement. He’s moved through the peaks of elite performance and the valleys of transition, learning how to rebuild with quiet strength, clarity, and unwavering integrity.From the Olympic track to leadership roles behind the scenes, Mike has spent his life in spaces where excellence is expected—but character is often tested. He’s weathered pressure, recalibrated through change, and emerged not diminished, but sharpened.Along the way, he has:- Served as Head Men’s Relay Coach for Team USA, where he championed athlete-first preparation and performance—even when it meant pushing against comfortable norms.- Taught as a Bible school instructor, where teaching became a space of mutual transformation—challenging others to grow while deepening his own sense of purpose, faith, and voice.- Discovered that resilience isn’t forged in the spotlight, but in the quiet, unseen work of staying rooted—through seasons of loss, waiting, and reinvention.Now in what he calls “the second half of life,” Mike is exploring what it means to move forward with purpose—not chasing titles, but living in alignment. His focus is on walking with those who feel called to something more—people ready to shift, to heal, and to build lives that reflect who they truly are.His story is a reminder that resilience isn’t about bouncing back—it’s about moving forward with deeper roots and clearer direction.

Host or Publisher American Leadership Forum Houston/ Gulf Coast