High Performance Coach Kris Quintana, founder of Champion Strategies Coaching, sits down with Michi Lantz and talks about rebuilding life and business after brain injury, why expansion can feel threatening, and how leaders can move out of survival mode without forcing growth that their nervous system is not ready for.

Kris Quintana (she/her) has one of those backgrounds that makes you do a double-take. She is a former martial arts school owner training for her 7th degree black belt. Kris also spent years as a software developer in the HR and Finance sectors. She holds a philosophy degree from UC Berkeley and is a Certified High Performance Coach who works with business owners navigating some of the most complicated seasons of their professional lives.

What connects all of it? A deep belief that running a good business and being a good human aren’t separate pursuits. For nearly two decades, Kris built and led her own martial arts school in the Bay Area, growing it to a team of 24, consistently outperforming industry retention benchmarks, and eventually executing a successful business sale while keeping 90% of the students through the transition. She knows firsthand what it costs to build something from scratch, and what it takes to let it go.

These days, through her practice at Champion Strategies Coaching, she works with select business owners who are in the middle of change: Career pivots, leadership challenges, the messy intersection of family and business. She’s not interested in quick fixes. She knows that what most business owners actually need isn’t another strategy. It’s clarity, accountability, and someone who’s genuinely been in the arena.

Kris brings something rare to the coaching space: the analytical precision of a software developer, the discipline of a world champion martial artist, and the kind of warmth that comes from spending twenty years building real relationships with real people.

Connect with Kris Quintana
Website: https://www.coachkrisq.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kris-quintana/

Resources or websites mentioned in this episode:
Mirasee

Credits:
Producer: Michi Lantz
Editor: Michi Lantz
Executive Producer: Danny Iny

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