Change Your Environment To Change Yourself
Mark is a skate coach based in Huntington Beach, California. He teaches neurodiverse kids how to skateboard, and on the side he creates custom, one of a kind grip tape art for fellow skaters. On paper, that might sound like a niche corner of the world. But the longer we talked, the more I realized Mark’s story was really about something much bigger: chasing a passion without losing sight of the people who matter most.
A Volunteer Opportunity That Turned Into a Calling
Mark told me he had always wanted to be a skate coach, even before he knew what that would look like in practice. About two years ago, he stumbled across an event where neurodiverse children were learning to skateboard from professional coaches. He volunteered that same day. Someone handed him a student and said, teach him how to skate.
That single afternoon turned into something he kept showing up for once a year, until two months before we recorded this episode, when he started working for the company full time. His first official student was a boy named Ian.
What struck me most was why Mark fell in love with the work in the first place. It was not just about helping kids, although that mattered deeply to him. It was also about being able to stay close to the thing he loved most, skateboarding, and build a life around it instead of clocking into a job that pulled him away from his board.
Grip Tape as a Canvas
Mark also makes custom grip tape art, the textured layer that goes on top of a skateboard deck. Growing up, he noticed that pre-made custom grip tape was expensive, so he and his friends started designing their own. Music and mood shaped a lot of his early work, and eventually it became something more intentional: a way to keep a rider grounded, both literally and emotionally, while they were flying through the air.
His style leans into vibrant, almost neon color, the opposite of anything muted or black and white. But what keeps his work fresh, he told me, is not sitting alone with a sketchbook. It is going out and inviting other people to design pieces alongside him. He will approach someone at a skatepark and ask if they want to make their mark, literally, on a piece of grip tape. Every design becomes one of one. Once it is out in the world, it cannot be recreated.
We talked about how rare that kind of collaboration feels right now. With so much conversation swirling around artificial intelligence, Mark pointed out something simple but true: no AI can replicate the experience of two people creating something together in real time. That kind of human connection is becoming harder to find, and it is worth protecting.
What Scottsdale Taught Him About Selling
Mark had just come from an event at the Elliott Group headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona, and I asked him what he took away from it. His answer stayed with me. He said the lesson was not about convincing someone of anything. It was about encouraging what someone is already feeling and gently bringing the conversation back to the decision in front of them.
That reframe, from convincing to encouraging, is one I think applies far beyond sales. It is a posture of respect. It assumes the other person already has the answer somewhere inside them, and your job is simply to help them see it.
The Realization That Stopped Him in His Tracks
Here is the part of our conversation that I keep coming back to. I asked Mark what he was personally working through right now, outside of coaching and art. His answer was not about scaling his business or landing bigger clients. It was about his family.
He told me that no matter how many hours he poured into learning a trick, building his grip tape brand, or growing as a coach, none of it would matter as much unless his relationships with his sister, his brother, and his parents were right first. He put it simply: when he goes out into the world, he is dealing with sisters, brothers, moms, and dads anyway. So he decided to start there, at home, before anywhere else.
He talked about wanting to spend more evenings with his family and even started planning gym sessions with his sister, not because it was convenient, but because he had decided it mattered more than anything else he was building.
The People Who Shaped That Decision
I asked Mark where he found the courage to make that shift, because reprioritizing family after building an identity around a passion is not easy. He credited a mentor, Sean Sanabria, who has pushed him toward consistency, faith, and honesty, even when the truth was uncomfortable to hear. He also mentioned drawing courage from watching Andy Elliott talk about the importance of family.
What stood out to me was how Mark described Sean. He said Sean tells him the hard truth, not what he wants to hear, and that alone had changed him. I believe that is what real friendship looks like. Not agreement for the sake of comfort, but honesty delivered with care.
This is something I think about often, and it happens to be my word for the year: intentional. Mark’s choice to prioritize family, to be selective about who he lets influence him, to seek out mentors who tell him the truth rather than flatter him, all of it was intentional. Nothing about real growth happens by accident.
Advice Worth Holding Onto
Before we wrapped up, I asked Mark what advice he would leave for anyone listening, whether they were leaving a corporate job to chase something new or just trying to figure out their next season of life. He offered a few things:
Make decisions quickly. Speed matters more than people think.
Get one percent better every day and stay consistent, rather than chasing a single big breakthrough.
Keep an open mind so you can actually hear what other people are offering you.
And do not only seek out the most impressive person in the room. Talk to everyone. Mark said he used to gravitate toward whoever looked the most successful or well-known, until he realized the quietest people in a room often carry the biggest hearts and the most to teach.
Closing Thoughts
What I loved most about this conversation was how ordinary the setting sounded, a skatepark in Huntington Beach, a piece of grip tape, a decision to call his sister more, and how extraordinary the lesson underneath it turned out to be. Mark is proof that you can chase a creative passion with everything you have and still recognize that none of it means much if the people closest to you are not part of the story.
If you want to connect with Mark, you can find him on Instagram or catch him at the Vans skatepark in Huntington Beach, where he says you can grab a coffee and a skate lesson in the same afternoon.
About me:
I am currently a Master Facilitator for The Elliott Group in addition to being on the board of advisors for our Cultural Transformation Department in ELLIOTT ARMY.
With over 14 years of client service experience, I have held substantial leadership roles in the automotive industry. I’m also an accredited coach, a speaker, a triathlon finisher, and a wife. To contact me for engagements, you can reach me at [email protected].
