Wei-Ming Lam

Wei-Ming is a contagiously joyful presence, regardless the setting. He takes that into his coaching to create safe and courageous space for individuals and groups to create enduring change that lights them up from the inside out. 

He is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach as well as trained in Neuro-Linguistic Programming.

Outside of coaching, he finds himself in service of others by teaching yoga, guiding meditation, and as a proud uncle of two little nephews. 

His career is defined by crafting extraordinary experiences for students, teammates, and community members. In his past lives, he dove deep into the world of climbing, teaching both indoors and outside, and led the customer facing team of Stone Summit Atlanta, one of the nation’s largest climbing gyms. At Tuft & Needle, a direct-to-consumer start-up, he specialized in supporting its award-winning company culture. 

My grandfather named me Wei-Ming. It literally means “great light.” I strive to live up to my namesake and find myself on a mission to support joy and possibility in every person I meet. It’s been a circuitous path to find myself where I am now, but it begins, like all of us, with my parents.

They didn’t follow a traditional path. My mom was born in China, moved to Hong Kong, grew up in Brazil and became a doctor in the US. My dad immigrated to Illinois to study computers back in the day when they took up entire rooms.

Although a straight-forward life path was an option, I never could sit quite right with it. I went to film school instead of pursuing STEM, consulting, or law. I climbed El Capitan and spent months on the road in my car instead of settling down. Something in me demanded that I be a seeker of answers and a spreader of light in this life.

This inner searching was catalyzed in my early twenties when I grappled intensely with the black dog of depression. I’m hugely grateful for that run-in with mental health because it forced me to realize something was definitively wrong with how I was experiencing life.

Rather than retreat further into darkness, that bleak season inspired a relentless commitment to understand and integrate my past. To re-wire my brain to operate from a place of equanimity, joy, peace and love. To understand why we’re here.

I read voraciously searching for answers, learned to swing dance, attended a 10 day silent meditation retreat, talked to therapists, downed my meds, practiced yoga, visited temples, and churches. Most of all I climbed a lot of rocks.

In the solitary beauty of nature, I thought I had found the answer. Forget about the myriad of life’s options, complexities, burdens. Just climb hard.

I ditched pharmaceuticals. I still occasionally sit in the therapist’s chair. Yet, eight years into this vertical passion, my body was waving the white flag and my soul wasn’t full. The black dog still lurked in my shadow.

The hole in me wasn’t filled by yet another lofty summit peak. I needed to find something more durable, more meaningful. Climbing, it turned out, is a beautiful pastime, but not a source of true fulfillment.

A synergy of fate and curiosity led me to a culture focused role at a start-up. Surrounded by some of the most passionate, smart and creative people I’ve ever met, it was learning on steroids. I was fortunate to be able to impact the company in diverse ways including new hire on-boarding, event design, emceeing town-halls, teaching yoga, guiding daily meditation, and even running a full fledged in-house espresso bar.

Through nurturing a welcoming office atmosphere, constantly interacting with teammates, visitors, and wayward travelers, I realized my place in the world was not alone on a cliff face, but in the thick of humanity, championing people 100%.

Eventually, intuition steered me away from the office and into the world of yoga and coaching.

Through the practice of yoga, I’ve finally understood that yearning curiosity can coexist with a grounded and committed spiritual practice. I bring this loving energy combined with the grit learned from many years slogging up vertical walls to my coaching practice.

I look forward to serving you as we turn the light on your awareness.

In my spare time, you’ll find me reading, exploring the outdoors, practicing yoga, and playing with my two nephews.