For owners
Crossroads Coaching
One-on-one coaching through the MARKERS Method™. We start from your assessment, meet on a fixed rhythm, and every session ends with your next three moves.
Start with the assessment
Leadership coach · Keynote speaker · Cybersecurity educator
Travis
Durbin
Every leader reaches a crossroads. I help you see it early and take the road that builds.
Certified John Maxwell coach, Boeing-trained project manager and cybersecurity professor. I coach business owners, leadership teams and the next generation of the workforce, with an engineer's discipline and a teacher's patience.
Crossroads of Wealth™
Your business has grown past what you can carry by yourself.
Every owner who makes it past startup reaches this junction. Three roads leave it, and only one leads where you started the business to go.
ROAD 1
The Grind Road
Work harder and carry more. The business becomes a job that owns you.
ROAD 2
The Shrink Road
Pull back to a one-person job, or walk away from what you built.
ROAD 3
The Builder's Road
A business that pays your family and runs without you.
The MARKERS Method™
Seven mile markers, traveled in order.
A later marker won't hold until the earlier ones do. The assessment shows which one you're standing at and your next move.
- MMeasure Your NumbersReal profit per job, real pay per hour, real runway.
- AAllocate the MoneyPay yourself first, on a schedule. Taxes and profit set aside.
- RReprice for ProfitPrices built from real costs, your pay and a profit line.
- KKnow Your RoleYour "Only Me" list, and the first three things you hand off.
- EEstablish a RhythmOne weekly meeting, five numbers, 90-day priorities.
- RRun on SystemsEstimate to payment on one system, key processes written down.
- SScale Through LeadersLeaders who decide without you, and time for the future.
Work with Travis
Coaching, training and keynotes for people at a turning point.
For leadership teams
Leadership Development
Workshops, mastermind groups and lunch & learns from a certified John Maxwell coach and DISC trainer. Leaders learn to communicate at the next level, and teams learn how each other work.
Plan a sessionFor colleges & workforce leaders
5 Stones Workforce Method™
Prepares nontraditional and overlooked students to become confident, career-ready professionals through identity, direction, execution skills, real-world networks and a leadership mindset.
Bring it to your campusFor conferences & events
Keynotes
Practical, faith-grounded talks with humor that makes audiences laugh while they learn, and tools they still use long after the event.
See the talksAbout Travis
An engineer's discipline. A teacher's patience. A coach's conviction.
Travis's determination to avoid a life of poverty and mediocrity carried him through a computer security degree, two master's degrees and into a doctorate. He has managed projects at Boeing, coordinates a college cybersecurity program, and spends the rest of his time helping people go from lost to launch-ready, especially the ones who were never supposed to win.
- Industry
- Project Manager, Boeing
- Education
- Cybersecurity Program Coordinator & ProfessorSt. Louis Community College, a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense
- Coaching
- Owner, 5 Stones Leadership GroupCertified John Maxwell Coach · DISC Trainer
- Doctorate
- Strategic Leadership, Regent UniversityIn progress, expected 2027
- Master's
- Engineering Management · Information Systems ManagementWashington University in St. Louis
- Bachelor's
- Computer & Information Systems Security / Information AssuranceSouthern Illinois University Carbondale
$ credentials --verified
SAFe® 6 Product Owner / Product Manager
SAFe® 6 Practice Consultant
AWS Academy Educator
Maxwell Leadership Certified Team Member
Maxwell Leadership DISC Trainer
$ focus --list
CybersecurityInformation assuranceAgile at scaleProgram managementCloud (AWS)Engineering managementWorkforce developmentLeadership communication
Speaking
Audiences laugh while they learn, then leave with tools they use.
For colleges, tech programs & workforce events
From Backpack to Badge™
How to turn students who were never supposed to win into confident, career-ready professionals, built on the 5 Stones Workforce Method™.
For owners, chambers & business groups
The Crossroads
The three roads every growing business faces, and the seven mile markers to the Builder's Road. The room takes the assessment live.
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“Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.”JEREMIAH 6:16
Start here
Book your free 45-minute Crossroads review.
We go over your assessment together and you leave with the first three moves for your mile marker. For speaking and workshops, tell Travis about your event.
Wentzville, Missouri · serving St. Louis and beyond, in person and on Zoom.
Thank you! Travis will reach out within one business day. (Demo: nothing was sent.)