TIM SCHUSTER
For people doing meaningful work in complex environments.
An invitation to see differently.
Mpls, Minn • Founder, PopUpThinkTank
Most of what I do doesn't have a clean name.
That's because the first job is usually figuring out what you actually need.
Often leaders are looking for a vendor: a training program, a coach, an offsite. Sometimes that's right. More often, the real need comes a step earlier: someone to help see the problem clearly and design what fits. From there, we build it together with people from my network, or I point you to the partner who's best for it.
That can look like 1:1 coaching, L&D architecture, a session that gets 60 people thinking together, or one conversation that changes how you see a problem you've been staring at too long.
Organizations don't transform because one person has the answers. They transform when a small group changes the questions.
I help make that possible, in whatever form it needs to take. The best work happens when we're both learning.
A NOTE ON “I”
You'll notice I say “I” a lot. That's honest about who you'll talk to first, and not quite honest about who does the work. I'm the front door. Behind it is a network of facilitators, coaches, and partners I've built since 2019, and when the work calls for them, they're in the room. Meet them below.
What we won't do
Sell you a fix that fades by next quarter.
Measure success by whether everyone enjoyed it.
Growth is often uncomfortable. Lasting change matters more than a good review.
Treat leadership as only an individual skill.
Character matters, and so do the systems and culture around it.
Sell the work one way and deliver it another.
How our first conversation goes is how the work will go.
And we pay attention to play. Not games in the boardroom, but humor, generosity, and ideas held lightly. Where that still exists, a system is healthy enough to learn. Where it's gone, that's usually where we start.
Most leaders I meet don't need more advice. They need space.
Space to think.
To step back.
To be challenged.
Space to pause.
To periscope up.
To be encouraged.
Space to breathe.
To know and be known.
To tell a new story.
And sometimes, space to find a deeper story, one that reframes everything that's been crowding you. Nothing changes out there until it changes in here.
What happens in that space
01
I ask questions.
02
You ask questions.
03
I ask about your questions.
04
A reframe, a deeper narrative, a better metaphor.
05
A simple practice or insight to carry with you.
My job is to be fully present, so you can be, too.
Coaching isn't mainly about what the coach does. It's about who the coach is. Who the coach is creates a space that can hold it all. And not perfect, but productive.
WHAT CHANGES
You start showing up for your own life. Here. Now. This.
From there comes new capacity for complexity, clarity, renewed meaning, and energy that doesn't drain back out. It shows up in how you relate to your team, your boss, yourself, and your work. We skip the quick fixes and do the work, which is why it lasts.
WHY ME
I know what it takes to stop outrunning your own life.
My practices are ordinary on purpose: journaling, walking, reading, moving my body, occasional hiking/camping, and weekly sauna + cold plunge. What brought me here is curiosity, because curiosity conquers fear more than courage ever will.
Oh—and my coach’s name is Thor.
ONE-ON-ONE · EVERY OTHER WEEK · 50 MINUTES · SIX MONTHS
The conversation starts with a conversation.
Neither of our résumés can predict whether this will work. Thirty minutes together will.
When the work is bigger than one person
I'm the front door. Behind it is a bench of 25+ facilitators, coaches, and learning designers I've built since 2019. Lasting change happens in four places at once, so when the work calls for it, we cover all four.
PopUpThinkTank founded
2019
Organizations served
40+
people engaged
1,000+
facilitators, coaches, and consultants
25+
ORGANIZATIONS WE’VE PARTNERED WITH
…alongside 20+ founders, startups, and mission-driven organizations.
Four places change happens
Every engagement starts with one conversation and one diagnosis across all four. Then the right people come into each room.
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Leaders who grow
For executives: meaning, identity, complexity, and the story they lead from.
Jess Yocum · Frederick C. Jefferson III · Maxine Attong · Elle Zimmerman · Dr. Ellen Contente
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Managers who lead well
For managers: feedback, goals, coaching, psychological safety, and accountability.
Becky Lunders · Dan Leavitt · Kate Schnurr · Tim Melone · Kristin Chase
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Teams that trust
For teams: trust, candor, and how the group sees and works with itself.
________________
Maxine Attong · Bridget Burnham · Kim-Monique Johnson · Otisa Eads · Dr. Antonia Apolinario-Wilcoxon · Maria Soyka
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Systems that support
For the organization: diagnosis, talent systems, listening, and change architecture.
________________
Becky Lunders · Dan Leavitt · Kate Schnurr · Tim Melone · Kristin Chase
Mapped to the four quadrants of Integral theory. Our team has led learning and talent work at Facebook, Google, Microsoft, FranklinCovey, Universal, the U.S. Department of State, UnitedHealthcare, and the UN World Food Programme.
“Strategic, execution-ready insights I can immediately apply to engagement and action planning.”
Dan Hildebrandt
Director, Strategic HR
“Exceeded my expectations. Resonant insights I'm excited to bring back to my work and life.”
Janie Cervantes
Sr. Training Partner, QVC
“Insightful cross–supply chain discussion with clear strategic value.”
Kris Singh
Tate & Lyle
Pick a Door
Each card is a way into a conversation about leadership, change, or growth. Find the one that sounds like your week, and let's start there.
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Hold the Tension
Three people say their thing is urgent, and none of them talk to each other. Your job isn't to eliminate the tension but to hold it so the system can move.
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Nonanxious Presence
Stress spreads through a team like secondhand smoke, and so does calm. A regulated leader can reset the whole room.
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Say No, Stay Connected
You keep picking up the slack and quietly resenting it. Boundaries let you stay close to people without absorbing their anxiety or their workload.
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![Change]()
Pause Like the Birds
One bird flies, a few follow, and they all land back on the wire. That pause isn't failure. It's a flock building the readiness to lift together.
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![Leadership]()
Why Triangles Hurt
When tension between two people gets routed through a third, whole teams get tangled. Seeing the triangle is the first step out of it.
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![Leadership]()
Both/And Problems
"You own it," but every decision still needs approval? That's an unmanaged polarity between autonomy and control, and it can be managed.
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![Development]()
Support Without Action
Four years of "I support your development," and nothing moves. Let's figure out what real support looks like and how to ask for it.
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![Development]()
See the Lens
Early in our careers, pressure and expectations have us. Growth begins when we can see them, along with the story we tell about who we must be.
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Knowing Before Explaining
Your gut often spots the pattern before your head has words for it. Head, heart, gut, and body are all ways of knowing, and leaders need every one.
Start a conversation → -
![Leadership]()
Nothing Grows Forever
Like the life of a star, growth and decline come in cycles. Strategy isn't another playbook for certainty. It's thinking about your thinking while the ground moves.
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![Leadership]()
Where to Play
Most strategy conversations are really about capabilities, like which CRM to buy. Deciding where to play and how to win comes first.
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![Change]()
Experiment Toward Small Wins
Hypotheses over declarations, contingencies over plans. A failed test is still a result, and learning loops turn small wins into momentum.
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![Facilitation]()
Ideas Are Engagement
Everyone nods in the meeting, and then nothing changes. When people help generate the ideas, they show up for the follow-through.
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Ask for Help
Ben Franklin won over a rival by asking to borrow a book. Asking for help builds trust faster than doing favors.
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![Coaching]()
Growth Needs Relationship
Nobody develops alone through a book or a course. Growth happens with someone who can see what you can't see yet.
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You Are the Instrument
Before any tool or technique, the most important thing you bring into a room is yourself. How you show up changes what's possible.
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![Leadeship]()
Proper Amount of Woo
Trust, energy, culture: some leaders find them too woo, and others can't get there fast enough. Either way, the invisible stuff drives results.
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![Resource]()
The ROI of Oxygen
What's the ROI of better listening? Soft skills never show up cleanly on a line item, but try running a team without them.
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![Resource]()
Nature as Mirror
Ecotones, immune systems, scouting ants. Nature's patterns don't hand us answers; they help us ask what we're seeing in our own context.
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![Facilitation]()
Better Maps for Complexity
Integral's four domains, Spiral Dynamics, holons within holons. Good maps don't simplify complexity; they help you see more of it at once.
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![Development]()
Exercise as Medicine
Movement is how leaders regulate and recover, not a status symbol. What if going for a walk is a generous act of service to your team?
A Brief History of Everything
How humans develop, how our world changes, and why the biggest story gets very personal very quickly.
No PowerPoints. No screens. No workbooks.
Connect with Tim
If something here resonated, that's enough of a reason to reach out. Whether you're navigating something complex at work, looking for a thinking partner, or curious what it might look like to bring this into your organization — a conversation is a good place to start.
Next step: Let's talk.