Seeing Divorced Families in a New Paradigm
The man with the funny hair has a name, and his name is Rob Pinna. He is the Team 1 Team Lead for the Denver/Salt Lake City based team in Landmark’s Team, Management, and Leadership program. Ask Rob who he is and he will tell you – dad, husband, entrepreneur.
Rob’s journey with Landmark began in 2007 when he completed the Landmark Forum after being introduced to it by Annie. Along with his wife, Katherine, Rob began the Team, Management, and Leadership Program in August 2013. Though Katherine chose to withdraw from the program after completing the first weekend, Rob continued on, both fully supporting each other in their choice.
As dad, Rob has not only brought the new model of communication to his three kids, Renee, Nicole, and Jackson, and step daughter, Peyton, he has also brought his kids to the new model of communication. Both Renee and Nicole completed the Communication: Access to Power and the Advanced Communication Course: The Power to Create during Rob’s first two quarters on Team. Family conversations now show up inside the new model of communication, with authenticity and the ability to be straight with each other with no significance.
With Jackson, Rob has transformed his relationship to saying no, a gift for any parent. In the past, saying no to Jackson would bring up feelings of anger, guilt, and blame, as if to say, “How dare you ask me!?!?” Saying no to his son’s request was like saying, “No, I don’t love you.”
Now, he is able to say no powerfully by realizing he is responding to a request, and saying no does not diminish, alter or devalue his son or his love for his son in any way.
As husband, Rob is making a difference with his wife, Katherine, as well as ex-wives, Betsy and Arlene. Betsy completed the Communication: Access to Power course in Rob’s 2nd quarter.
As entrepreneur, Rob is making a difference for thousands of other families as the founder of Cofamilies – dedicated to helping divorced parents raise great kids. Cofamilies is a coparenting calendar and mobile checkin application that coordinates schedules, finances and joint parenting decisions.
Rob has also made Cofamilies his Game in the World, taking on a different aspect of building the business each quarter. In Q1, the Cofamilies’ iPhone app was created. Q2 saw Cofamilies become investor-ready. Now in Q3, Rob is creating a Cofamilies’ service for divorce coaching. Though Rob is no stranger to entrepreneurship, finding himself back in this particular saddle has been a challenge.
After watching his very successful business go belly up in the early dot.com days, Rob stopped seeing himself as someone who could run a large company or be responsible for other people’s money. He took himself out of the business creation game and became a business consultant, helping others successfully build their businesses. Though very skilled in this role, Rob realizes that without his entrepreneurial spirit, his ability to contribute is diminished. Through his first two quarters in the TMLP, Rob has seen the limits his past business experience imposed on the success of Cofamilies. Instead of being focused on building a successful company, Rob’s focus was on not failing, losing money, or letting anybody down. He was afraid to step up to the plate and swing the bat, all the while comparing his level of success to that of his peers.
For those who attended the February 2014 TMLP weekend, you may remember Rob on stage doing jumping jacks as he attempted to say and be the Denver Team possibility, being free to play. With fear of failure in the background, Rob was anything but.
Now, halfway into the quarter, Rob finds himself getting in communication anytime he is disempowered and using recreation in all his conversations which has him free to make requests and not make the response significant. There is no winning, no losing, no failing, just freedom; the freedom to play big and know, if he swings and misses, there’s another swing coming.
This is also showing up for other team members. The team just completed a home run Communication: Access to Power course in Salt Lake City, where a number of Denver-based team members traveled over the mountains to coach and support the course, some stopping along the way to play on the ski slopes in Utah. This represents a huge victory. A few years ago there were no communication courses or team members in Salt Lake City. Now, Salt Lake City is adding new communication courses to the calendar each year and new team members each quarter. With a near capacity Advanced Communication Course scheduled for June in Denver, the team is poised for growth and, like their Team 1 Team Lead, Rob Pinna, free to play.
Author and Interviewer: Brian Weinberg
Brian is an alumni of Landmark’s Team, Management, and Leadership Program and currently lives in Boulder, CO where he works as an electrical engineer in the aerospace field. When he’s not sitting at his desk, he is usually sitting on a meditation cushion or bicycle seat, or writing poems and children’s books on the backs of napkins and receipts. Brian is passionate about organic food, real nutrition, and music, and is currently developing his skills as a songwriter and musician.
