Tom Schaeffer

Thomas Schaeffer & Co.

𝗧𝗵𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘀 𝗦𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿 & 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 is a boutique agency providing ghostwriting and content strategy for executives who want to amplify their voice, sharpen their positioning, and expand their influence.

We work with leaders at pivotal moments—whether building thought leadership, leading a transition, or shaping a second act beyond corporate. Our services combine high-level ghostwriting, content systems, and selective coaching to help executives turn experience into leverage and build a presence that creates real opportunities.

Founder

Executive to Entrepreneur

𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗘𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗿 is a coaching and content platform for midlife professionals ready to leave the corporate grind, clarify their next move, and build a business that fits their life. We offer 1:1 coaching, frameworks, and practical guidance for reinvention.

Float Left

Float Left Interactive was a pioneer in TV app development and the first company to build Roku apps for media brands.  For over 12 years, Float Left has enabled media brands to deliver and manage the next generation of TV experiences on every screen.

🏆 2022 Streaming Media 50
🏆 2021 Streaming Media 50
🏆 2017 Streaming Media 100
🏆 2016 CableFax -> Most Innovative People in Multiscreen
🏆 2015 Streaming Media 100

Co-Founder, CEO (acquired)

The Weiss Group, Inc.

Developed internal and external web applications in direct support of company’s marketing initiatives.

Senior Software Engineer

Teledata Inc.

Developed EPA compliance software, specifically targeted to address fuel tank leak detection.

Software Engineer

Bridgeway Benefit Technologies

Provided programmatic and logical fixes for technical problems on ISSI’s Benefit Fund Administration System.

Account Representative /  Programmer

Ghostwriter for Influential Executives and Entrepreneurs || Transforming Ideas into Influence Through High-Impact Writing || Former CEO, 2x Founder, 1x Exit

I’m a former CEO turned writer and coach. I help midlife professionals turn experience into leverage—through writing, clarity, and reinvention.

After scaling and selling a 7-figure software agency, I walked away from the startup grind to build a simpler, more intentional life.

Along the way, I discovered something powerful:
Most executives don’t need another job.
They need clarity—and a path that’s finally theirs.

Today, I work with high-achieving professionals in transition—those ready to move from corporate to consulting, from founder to writer, or from executive to entrepreneur.

Here’s how I help:

1. Executive Ghostwriting
For founders and CEOs who want thought leadership that drives inbound demand—without spending hours writing content. You bring the insight. I bring the structure, clarity, and voice that earns authority and attracts opportunity.

2. Executive to Entrepreneur Coaching
A 12-week 1:1 experience to help you reinvent your career, clarify your offer, build a simple content system, and land your first client.
It’s for professionals who are ready to turn experience into independence—building something of their own, on their own terms.

At the core of both is a simple idea:
Use your expertise to build leverage and freedom—because your next chapter should serve your life, not the other way around.

[Coaching: exectoentrepreneur.com]
[Substack: exectoentrepreneur.substack.com]
[About Me: thomasschaeffer.me]

Writer

A ghostwriting agency for founders, CEOs, and business leaders looking to build influential personal brands.

Normal 40

Normal 40 was created the day I resigned from a life I spent 15 years building. I had achieved more than I thought possible only a decade earlier, but my work there was done, and I knew it. So, I quit.

Normal 40 is the crossroads in life where the comfort of what you've already built meets the desire for change. It's a place where you question if your current path truly aligns with your known potential, where you feel lost, alone, and trapped in your own success--where you have nobody to talk to about how you feel ... really.

Normal 40 is not about the years behind you but the years in front of you. Normal 40 is a state of mind where you decide whether to settle for the life you have already built or muster the courage to explore something new.

This is where you decide: Do I live the rest of my professional life on defense, or do I go back on offense? Do I want to guard against losing what I have and run out the clock, or do I want to go for something more? Do I want to take the shot before I run out of time?

It's a feeling that twists in your gut, wakes you in the night, keeps you perpetually annoyed, and steals your ability to be present anywhere or have the joy you once had. And worst of all, you know it--and you've not yet done anything about it.

I left my job to put my life back on offense. I had no guarantees. I had kids entering college and 5th grade. I had a mortgage and was not independently wealthy. But I had a greater story to tell and a wife who was up for an adventure. So, I made The Trade of a Lifetime.

My mission is to inspire change in a thousand lives. I want to inspire people to create a plan to chase what is inside and ensure they don't get ten years older, look back, and wish they had tried.

I am a certified Executive Coach. I coach elite performers who have dedicated the last 20 years of their lives to something great but have another chapter to write. I help them write that chapter. And we do that ... on offense.

Founder and Elite Performance Coach

Strategic Advisor & Coach

Raven Industries

Acquisition Strategy │ Alignment Leader │ Executive Coach │ Business Analytics  

Created acquisitions department from scratch and dramatically grew acquisition pipeline and closings by 300%.  Helped build division strategy and growth portfolio. Analyzed targets, identified opportunities and accelerated company’s strategic growth strategy through acquisition or strategic investment. 

Pipeline Development
Quadrupled the acquisition pipeline in first two years leveraging only existing company resources, successfully closing five acquisitions since 2017.

New Opportunities 
Sold four product lines or subsidiaries out of two divisions in 18 months; invested proceeds into new opportunities.

Strategic Solutions
Embedded acquisition strategy across all operating divisions as part of long-term growth strategy.

Acquisitions
Created pipeline of acquisition targets and built connection to target. Prioritized targets by strategic fit. Lead negotiation. Managed buyer/seller relationships through due diligence, close and post-close.

Senior Director Corporate Development

President – Aerostar Division, Aerostar International, Inc. (2010-2015)
CEO and Chairman of the Board – Vista Research Inc (2012-2015)

Change Agent │ P&L Management │ Business Strategy Design and Implementation │ Operational Leader

Lead executive in charge of company strategy and P&L. Led transition of the company from a multimillion-dollar contract manufacturing company into a world-leading proprietary product company for aerospace and defense and commercial markets. Responsible for strategy, business development, business and manufacturing operations and P&L in five plants simultaneously across four states. 

Sales Growth
Grew sales of proprietary products by 40% per year over 3 years, while simultaneously winding down contract manufacturing operations. 

Acquisitions
Led acquisition of sensor technology company Vista Research to support proprietary product growth, an acquisition enabled by personal vetting and receipt of Top Secret (TS) Security Clearance. 

Profit Growth
Quadrupled profits from stratospheric technology through new partnerships with NASA, Google, DoD, US Navy, DARPA and Joint Special Operations Command.

Mergers
Merged one of Aerostar’s sister divisions, a contract manufacturer of non-proprietary but high-tech electronic systems, into Aerostar. Over 18 months, profitably exited $50M of that business and retained highest caliber talent.

Product Management
Strategically exited $60M of contract manufacturing revenue by 2015 and replaced it with $50M of more-profitable proprietary products.  

Market Leader
Established Aerostar as the world leader of proprietary product sales in stratospheric balloon capabilities. 

Joint Venture
Decisively created a JV with strategic partner that enabled deployment of service teams into Afghanistan to support products in theatre. Awarded the Secretary of Defenses “Rapid Fielding Award.”

Organizational Leadership
Led company through ISO:9001 qualification. Closed facility that was no longer strategically viable.

President – Aerostar Division, Aerostar Intl, Inc │ CEO / Chairman of the Board – Vista Research Inc

Organized sales channel, built relationships, and created transitional strategy. Completed plan outline; promoted to Company President in six months.

Vice President of Business Development

Product Development │ International Market Share Growth │ Business Planning

Wrote and executed on a plan to grow distribution throughout Latin America, Europe, Australia and South Africa. Hired staff in Latin America, Europe, Canada and Australia, and worked with internal engineering teams to ready product for international markets. 

Growth Strategies
Created, and led implementation of, a long-term international growth strategy for Applied Technology Div.

Revenue Growth
Doubled international sales revenues from in two years (2008-2010). Revenues then doubled again by 2014.

New Accounts
Landed two major OEM accounts (Canada and Brazil).

International Sales Director

First Bank & Trust

Created and launched strategy to move bank into a larger loan market and swiftly grow. As the second employee in new market, recruited six other leaders to build and launch a loan production market focusing on the highly affluent. 

Business Development
Established a substantial real estate lending business within one year.   

Sustainable Revenue Building
Created a new department in a bank with a radical business concept that didn’t exist anywhere else in the market. 12 years later, division was still leading the market while five other banks in the market tried and failed to match the concept.

United States Senate

Outreach Coordinator, Office of US Senator Tom Daschle (1999-2004)
Regional Director, US Senator Tim Johnson (2002)

Assisted in agriculture and economic development legislation; represented Senator across South Dakota. Managed outreach and constituent communication, as well as public presentations.

Outreach Coordinator, Office of US Senator Tom Daschle │ Regional Director, US Senator Tim Johnson 

By February 2022, I was at the top of my game and I had caught what I chased: The C-Suite office. Pay. Travel. Image...everything. Then, I quit.

Most think I left unhappy; I'm smarter than that. What I did was harder. 

I left something extraordinary, a place that I helped to build—a place that helped build me.

The story: Most elite performers I know have a bigger dream resting inside them, but the very success they've built is now holding them back. They feel trapped by golden handcuffs, tethered to a career, schedule, or life that no longer inspires them. At the same time, they're wrestling with the newness of risk aversion and the fear of regret, wondering if they'll ever take control of their life's best days.

I know what that feels like because I've been there. After decades of leading companies, building teams, and achieving milestones, I realized my biggest challenge wasn't building another quarter of growth—it was redefining my life. That's why I created Normal 40: a movement, a mindset, and a process designed to help elite performers step out of their own shadows and into their next chapter.

At Normal 40, our relationship-based process starts by helping you articulate your dream—identifying the bigger life you've been waiting to build. We then organize those dreams into bold, actionable steps, remove the perceived risk, and design a life aligned with your aspirations. This is about betting on yourself, avoiding future regret, and creating an impactful family legacy.

Our framework guides executives, physicians, entrepreneurs, attorneys, and career professionals through the discomfort of change. The truth is, you don't need more credentials, money, or even more time. You need clarity, courage, a community, and a guide who's been where you are. 

I have been that guide to thousands.

I've had the honor of leading people through this journey, from Vintage One Cohorts to the Normal 40 Insider Community--I've been there.

My book, The Trade, is a best-seller endorsed by leaders like General Stan McChrystal and Ryan Daniel Moran, and my Normal 40 Podcast has become a trusted space for real talk about midlife transitions and reinvention.

Here's what I've learned: The golden handcuffs are real but not unbreakable. Success doesn't have to mean stagnation. And the life you want? It's already within you—you need the proper process and support to bring it to life.

If you're an elite performer with a dream that won't let go, I'd love to ramble. 
Your future self is waiting--don't let them down.

Let's be up to something--pure.

taplio

The Battle

Tom Schaeffer

Lon Stroschein

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