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Taking people to the high ground: A.J. Madden builds career helping others

Being "best in class" is what A.J. Madden coaches and what he lives.

A.J., a Lock Haven native who lives in Bellefonte, defines "best in class" as a "100% commitment to excellence and service in everything you do."

He coaches individuals and businesses in maximizing their potential, both in their business and personal lives.

A.J. describes what he does as a "performance coach for successful people." His vocation is to "help people dramatically improve their performance and achieve career breakthroughs, while improving their lives."

His clientele has spread to four countries, 10 states and over 90 categories of business. He has written seven books on high performance leadership and business, and does a series of podcasts on the topic.

A.J. has a two-fold mission: To help successful people get better, and to ultimately donate one million meals to children in need.

Family is important to A.J.

Madden's parents, Al, a school counselor, and Angela, a first-grade teacher, started him on his road to achievement. He says his parents are two of his best mentors. A.J. and his siblings, Mike, Katie (Bidwell), and Kelly (Daily), were taught to always do their best, to be kind and useful and to always keep learning.

All three have found success in business or education. Part of A.J.'s motivation is in being a great example for his nieces and nephews.

A.J. says his uncle, Jim Madden, who helped build a billion-dollar international company, is his biggest business influence.

"He taught me the importance of doing everything to the highest and best level possible, and serving to the highest and best level."

When he was 12 years old, A.J. got excited about the Ross Library and all it offered. He started reading biographies of presidents, athletes and business leaders. He wanted to learn what made them successful. Still an avid reader, he is usually in the middle of several books at one time.

A.J. says he is grateful to have grown up in Lock Haven, with "good quality people." He is thankful for all his teachers and coaches growing up, especially his English teachers, Leslie Smith and Bill Courter.

"Without them, I never would have been able to write my books," he says.

He graduated from Bloomsburg University with a degree in philosophy. A.J. says he started out as a business major but took two philosophy courses and switched his major.

"The business classes were excellent and taught me 'what' to think. But my philosophy classes taught me 'how' to think, which I put the most value in," he said.

After college, he worked and ran hospitality businesses.

"I believed I could find success in business by going out and starting and running businesses, studying how the best businesses in the world did things and seeking out the best mentors and trusted advisors," he says.

Adam Salyards, chief of the Spring Township (Centre County) Police Department, first met A.J. when he was a police officer in State College and A.J. was the general manager of a nightclub.

"I was so impressed with him", Chief Salyards says. "He was the best general manager out there."

A.J. also started applying all those principles he learned from years of reading. Studying how the top people in business and sports achieved success, he "reverse engineered then simplified what they did." His mix of leadership, marketing, culture, customer service, sales, product development and hiring led him to success in business. Others started asking him for advice on how to succeed in their own businesses.

His success, according to A.J., comes from "standing on the shoulders of giants," those who have achieved before him. He has worked with dozens of the world's top experts in his field. He was also coached by Dr. Jason Selk and Dr. Alan Weiss, leaders in the profession.

A.J. started doing business coaching for free before he started his own business. "Not everyone knows what a coach does," he admits. For some time, he drove across Pennsylvania in a $5,000 car, staying at Motel 6s to get his business up and running.

A.J.'s goal, when he coaches, is to provide "10 years of growth in a 6-month process." He talks about finding your goal and then working every day to keep your thoughts and actions going in that direction.

The biggest obstacles to success, he says, are "fear and overcomplicating things."

"Find your fire, what gets you excited, and run towards it," he teaches. In his book, "The High Ground", he writes that "what we most fear doing is what we most need to do."

"One of the keys to success in both business and life is simplicity", he says. "Find ONE highly effective coach or mentor. Learn from them the ONE most important thing you need to do. Then do it. Don't overthink it."

He is an advocate for learning to say "no" to anything that is distracting you from going toward what you want.

His advice is "don't try harder, try different."

His clients speak glowingly of what he has helped them accomplish.

Chief Salyards says he was in law enforcement for 12 years and felt unhappy in his profession.

In fact, he was getting ready to switch careers, when he remembered A.J.

"I called him and we talked for an hour. I started with him as a coach and did weekly calls while I finished my management degree. It started drastic changes in my way of thinking, and I realized I wanted to stay in policing. The organization I worked with wasn't functioning well as a group, so my chief hired A.J. Within two to three months I saw positive improvements and things started to turn around," Salyards said.

Salyards got promoted and nine months later became chief of Police in Spring Township.

"I wouldn't be where I am without A.J.," he insists.

Michael Bart, CEO and co-founder of Reaching Beyond Limits Behavioral Health, LLC, in Kingston, also credits A.J. with positive changes in his life.

"I was a clinician with no experience as a CEO," he says.

He said A.J. taught him about running toward his fear, doing what scares you in business. The skills he learned have given him "happier employees and a great work environment," and his business has grown from four employees to 20.

Kathy Grimme, CEO of University Orthopedics, said A.J. "expedited my growth process and I am a better person for it." She says the principles she learned have been helpful in all parts of her life. She says her management team is more focused and that everyone has benefited from his coaching.

While most of A.J.'s clients are professionals in all types of business, medicine, entertainment, sports and education, he hasn't forgotten his parents' lessons of service to others.

He donates a portion of every client's fee to help feed underprivileged families.

During January and February he is donating 100% of the proceeds from his book to local food banks.

A.J.'s books can be purchased at his website, www.coachajmadden.com.

Another part of his service is coaching veterans who own or want to start a business. He does that for veterans for free. While in the hospitality business, he says he met a lot of veterans in the industry.

"I was impressed by the caliber of who they are and what they do for their communities," he says.

It is also a way of honoring his uncles and grandfather who are World War II veterans.

Excellence and service, the values that guide A. J. Madden to help others become their best selves.