I help close the gap between what you want and what you actually live and create.
For more than thirty years, I’ve worked at the crossroads of meaning and expression. I help individuals and authors clarify who they are, what they stand for, and how to best offer that truth into the world—through self-knowing, books, relationships, brands, businesses, and bold decisions.
The work is simple to describe, but hard to do: we close the gap between your insight and your expression of it.
Clients come to me when they’re ready to level up in how they’re living. I specialize in the hard transitions: identity shifts, career reinventions, creative rebirths, relationship redefinitions, and the sacred mess of becoming something new.
I’ve worked with bestselling authors, startup founders, global executives, Fortune 500 companies, Buddhist teachers, and artists across disciplines. Together, we write books worth reading and build lives worth living.
I am a recognized sifu (師傅) and lineage holder in Northern Kung Fu, an ordained Zen priest, the award-winning author of 5 books, and have been participating in and leading men’s work for two decades.
Bi-monthly, I host Integral Edge, through Integral Life, where we make sense of the metacrisis era. The goal is to cut through polarization and trend-noise by integrating neuroscience, psychology, technology, and contemplative wisdom into what actually matters, and how to live it.
TRAININGS
Ordained Zen Priest who teaches Mondo Zen and Integral Zen under lineage of Junpo Denis Kelly Roshi and Doshin M.J. Nelson Roshi.
Certified Practitioner — Polarity Partnerships: using the Polarity Map®, principles, the Polarity Assessment™, and the 5-Step S.M.A.L.L.™ process.
Zen Sensei: this signifies a deep understanding and embodiment of Zen principles as well as proficiency in guiding and instructing others. (The title sensei is not granted lightly in Zen.)
Authorized Northern Kung Fu & Qi SiFu: I was given the title of sifu (師傅) and made the lineage holder in 2014 under Da SiFu Master Jong Hoon Jeon in the White Tiger Academy lineage. Additional and ongoing trainings in western boxing, grappling, Muay Thai, Krav Maga, Jingua Hard Qi Gong, Iron Body, Tai Chi, and more.
Certified Mondo Zen Facilitator: helped to co-write a book on Mondo Zen and contributed extensively to the creation of this modern Zen koan process, created by Junpo Denis Kelly Roshi and continued by others in his lineage.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Award-Winning Author: 5 books, 2 fiction and 3 non-fiction. A Heart Blown Open won the Nautilus Award for Silver and was a finalist the Foreword Book-of-the-Year Awards
Men’s Work: Lead twice-yearly retreats for men looking to up their game; have been in the same men’s group, with the same men, for nearly 20 years.
Integral Theory Expert: comprehensive knowledge of the work of Ken Wilber, Robert Kegan, Terri O’Fallon, and others, and application in day-to-day life. I worked for and with Ken Wilber from 2006-2009 and he has endorsed 4 of my 5 books.
Jin Gui “Golden Shield” Qi Gong: 15+ years training of this “iron style” of hard Qi Gong.
Somatic-BasedMeditation: trained in and worked with Reggie Ray (co-founder of Naropa University and head of Dharma Ocean) and helped extend his community into the digital world.
Award-Winning Copywriter: I was selected as one of JD Supra’s “Top 1o Authors” in their Reader Choice Awards (out of 34,000 other writers)
Upcoming Books
The Cultural Translator:
Seven Steps to Turning Conflict into Connection Across Deep Divides
I worked closely with Rich Tafel as a developmental editor, structural strategist, and high-level thought partner on The Cultural Translator. A central part of my role was helping break down complex developmental psychology and worldview theory into language that is both accessible and actionable. I helped shape the manuscript’s structure, clarify its conceptual framework, strengthen its case studies, and turn a rich but highly layered body of thought into a more coherent and compelling book.
The Cultural Translator explores how our deepest divisions are driven not just by politics, but by different ways of understanding truth, identity, and human meaning. It offers a practical framework for bridging conflict without collapsing conviction. Rich teaches this work in settings ranging from the NYPD and universities to leadership fellowships, professional associations, and civic institutions. He brings to it a rare combination of pastoral depth, political experience, and lived credibility as someone who has spent decades translating across America’s hardest cultural divides.
Strength with Heart
Updating Masculinity without Losing the Man
Keith Martin-Smith, Fred Rabinowitz PhD., Daniel Ellenberg, PhD.
I collaborated with Frederic and Daniel to bring their initial manuscript to full form—expanding its length, rewriting it from the ground up, and weaving in key developmental and spiritual dimensions. I helped shape the book’s opening contextual chapters and closing integrations, ensuring the arc was both intellectually rigorous and emotionally resonant.
Strength with Heart explores a new vision of modern masculinity—one that unites strength with compassion, discipline with presence, and courage with care. Moving beyond both the traditional “strong man” and the modern “sensitive man,” it maps how men can grow through power, tradition, achievement, and equality into an integrated, antifragile form of manhood built for today’s world.
** Currently represented by The Amy Rennert Agency, Inc.
The STAGES Model of Human Development:
A Comprehensive Map of Ego, Awareness, and the Evolution of Meaning
Terri O’Fallon
Keith Martin-Smith
To bring this groundbreaking work to publication, I am collaborating closely with Dr. O’Fallon through an intensive, months-long process of refinement and creative partnership. Our weekly one-on-one sessions focus on clarifying complex ideas, tightening the book’s arc, and ensuring accessibility without losing scholarly rigor. Together we decide what to condense, what to expand, and how to preserve the essence of Terri’s voice. We raised $30k to privately fund the start of the book.
At the heart of the STAGES model lies a simple but profound insight: human development can be described not by what people think, but by how they construct meaning—how self, time, space, and mind interweave into coherent worlds of experience. This structural precision allows Terri to chart the repeating patterns that underlie all development, showing how concrete, subtle, and metaware tiers unfold through predictable shifts in learning, social preference, and awareness.
Shinzen Young
A Spiritual Biography of one of Zen’s Most Illuminated Minds
Paddy Kamen, with support from Keith Martin-Smith
I’m collaborating on a forthcoming biography of Shinzen Young, serving as developmental editor to refine the story arc, deepen the clarity, and bring coherence to decades of material. My work includes restructuring chapters, editing for narrative flow and precision, and shaping the book’s developmental and spiritual through-lines—from early life to late-career legacy.
The book chronicles Shinzen’s journey from his birth in New York City, through years of monastic training in Japan, to his pioneering role at the intersection of Buddhism, neuroscience, and consciousness research. Now in his 80s, Shinzen continues to explore the cutting edge of the science of meditation, uniting ancient wisdom with modern inquiry in a way that has influenced teachers, scientists, and seekers worldwide.
More at https://www.shinzenbook.com/
