David Fox
You don't rise to the occasion. You fall to your level of training.
Ten years training Delta Force. Six years deploying with wilderness search and rescue. Now coaching leaders to fall to a higher level.
Most leaders I coach are not in trouble. They're plateaued.
They've built something real. They're carrying a team, a company, a family, and a private suspicion that what got them here is not going to get them where they want to go next. They don't need a therapist. They don't need motivation. They need a coach who has actually been the thing they're trying to become.
That's the work I do.
The Principle I Coach By
Special Forces operators have a saying.
You don't magically rise to the occasion. You fall to your level of training, coaching, and preparation.
So the only question that matters is: what level are you falling to?
You already know the answer. You know there's more in you. You know the level you're operating at right now isn't the ceiling. You want a coach who is going to push that ceiling higher, with rigor and respect for the level you've already reached.
You don't magically rise to the occasion. You fall to your level of training, coaching, and preparation.
Where I Learned This
For ten years, my company trained the world's most elite warriors.
Delta Force. Navy SEALs. Marine Raiders. Air Force Pararescuemen. Army Rangers. I stood in front of those operators as an instructor, which means I had to earn the right to teach them every single time. Operators detect inauthenticity instantly. To stand there and have them lean in, I had to operate at their level.
Looking back, I was mastering the pillars of high performance before I knew they had names. Focus when conditions don't allow it. Clarity when the stakes are unrecoverable. Courage that's a habit, not an emotion. And the biggest lesson those operators taught me: the most lethal people on the planet are also the most humble. The minute you stop learning is the minute you stop being an asset to your team.
Why I Joined Search And Rescue
Their motto: these things we do, that others may live.
After years of training Pararescuemen and the Marine Special Operations Command's Combat Search and Rescue Corpsmen, I wanted to live the discipline myself.
So I became the civilian version. For the past six years, I've served as a Search and Rescue technician with Pennsylvania Wilderness Search and Rescue. We deploy across eleven counties in eastern Pennsylvania to locate lost and missing people in any conditions, at any hour. We train weekly. We respond when families are at the worst moment of their lives, and we do the work.
Search and rescue demands the same skills high performance demands, sharpened to a finer edge. Clear thinking when clarity is hardest. Discipline when nobody is watching. Every rep I take in the field shows up in my coaching. When you're working through a hard call under pressure, you have a coach who has logged the reps in places where the call had to be right.
"You hold me accountable while also caring about how I feel and the progress I'm making. You ask thought-provoking questions that broadened my perspective and improved my life."
RAYMOND M., US Navy
Fortune 500 Clients. Then Companies Of My Own.
Before I trained Special Forces, I spent more than a decade designing consumer-behavior-change programs for Fortune 500 clients.
Procter & Gamble. General Mills. Johnson & Johnson. Mars brands including M&M's and DOVE Chocolate. As a partner and account leader at consumer marketing agencies, I built campaigns engineered to move millions of consumers to act, and I learned how to make behavior change measurable.
That work shaped how I coach. Behavior change at scale uses the same principles as behavior change in one client: awareness, intention, commitment, action. I was working the framework before I knew it had a name.
Across thirty years, I've also founded and led companies of my own in consumer goods, defense supply, and innovation consulting. I've raised capital. Navigated growth. Made the wrong hires and the right ones. Operated in the gray, which is where most of business actually happens. I hold a BBA from Villanova and an MBA from the Temple University Fox School of Business.
When I coach founders and operators, I'm coaching from inside the experience. Not outside it.
What 2023 Proved
In 2023, my wife Jen noticed what looked like a bruise on my neck. It wasn't.
It was an extremely rare and aggressive metastatic cancer that strikes 0.003% of people who have the common form. Treatment included three surgeries, seven weeks of daily radiation and chemotherapy, and a year of physical recovery.
I share that not as a survival story. I share it because the principles I had been studying through the High Performance Institute, and the principles I'd been living since my Special Forces years, were tested at the limit during that year. They held.
The framework I now coach is not theoretical. It's been stress-tested under conditions most people will never face. That's the kind of methodology I want behind me when I'm coaching you.
Who I Work With, And Who I Don't
I work with senior leaders, founders, and operators who are already strong and want to be sharper.
People who have built something they're proud of and refuse to coast on it. Executives navigating inflection points. Founders carrying the weight of what they created. Lawyers, physicians, and other professionals who can't afford to falter or flail. High performers in any field who want a coach who will tell them the truth at speed.
I'm probably not the right coach for everyone. The work asks you to act on what we surface, and to want truth more than validation. If that fits, we'll do good work together. If it doesn't, better to know up front.
"The distinction between high achiever and high performer will stick with me forever. With Dave's guidance, I realized there are more peaks and valleys in my performance than I wanted to admit."
KRISTIN R., Consultant
Working With Jen
Two coaches. One firm.
I run &FOX with my wife and co-founder, Jennifer Fox. She brings the executive lens and strategic rigor. I bring the operator's instinct and field experience. You typically work with one of us as your primary coach. You get both perspectives in the work.
You've read this far.
You're probably ready for what's next.
Book a 30-minute Introduction call. We'll talk about what you're carrying, where you want to take it, and whether I'm the right coach for what you're navigating.
Book a 30-Minute Introduction Call