Robert MacPhee

Robert MacPhee is a facilitator, coach and author whose work is about getting clear on what matters most and then living by it. Fresh out of UC San Diego, he and a partner grew a summer job into a business with several hundred staff, and he later held senior roles in large companies before turning to training. He spent a period as director of training at the Canfield Training Group, working alongside Jack Canfield, and he helped found the Transformational Leadership Council, a network of personal-growth teachers that he went on to run as executive director.

His Values Based Life approach splits values into two kinds: priorities, the areas of life where you want real results, and ways of being, the qualities you want to bring to them. Keeping the two apart, he argues, makes values easier to name and to act on. He teaches the method through a self-paced video course, live groups on Zoom, retreats, one-to-one coaching and programmes for companies and schools, working from Sonoma, California, through his firms Heart Set and Excellent Decisions. He has written two books, Manifesting for Non-Gurus (2010), a five-step method for drawing in the results you want, and Living a Values Based Life (2023). At Esalen he leads an experiential weekend on finding and using your own values.