Welcome

At the age of 23, I was living in California and was recently married. I quit my job working as a software developer at a very prestigious technology company and sold my house. We wanted to move back to South Florida to be closer to our families and I wanted to start a business. We built a house, had three beautiful children, and I still own the business I started back in 2003. By the time I was 33, my marriage was broken and I moved out of the marital home in late December, 2012.

My divorce was a harrowing ordeal. We had attorneys, forensic accountants, a child psychologist, a guardian ad litem (GAL), and multiple parenting coordinators. My attorney was by all accounts - spectacular. He was highly intelligent, had four decades of experience, and was very adept at getting what he wanted. He understood the law and wouldn't allow himself, or me, to get pushed around...not even an inch. After 13 months, the divorce was finalized and we had a signed Parenting Plan. Everything was memorialized in writing and I was relieved to finally have an agreement in place.

Immediately following the divorce, I noticed profound issues with my Parenting Plan. Mistakes, omissions, contradicting verbiage, and clauses that could easily be misinterpreted. Suffice it to say, the Parenting Plan I had in place had shortcomings everywhere. I wondered how so many eyes could see this document and overlook the inevitable challenges that I would have to address.

Today, my ex-wife and I get along well and our children continue to thrive academically, socially, and athletically. Make no mistake, there were numerous post-divorce meetings with parenting coordinators, school administrators, attorneys, along with half a dozen mediations.

Retrospectively, we both failed to use foresight and we both fell victim to the immutable truth that the average mom and dad has no experience with creating a Parenting Plan. We put our trust and faith into attorneys and other professionals that are trained to help us, only to learn that the document that governs our minor children could have been so much better. 

This is my reason for creating SplitStrong. 

By the time you're done with the Parenting Plan PhD event, you will be equipped with the methods and tools so you can turn stories into information - information into knowledge - and knowledge into wisdom. It's not good enough to be smart or right. You have to be effective.