Better Leaders. Stronger Teams. Better Performance.
Strategic Advisory | Executive Coaching | Organizational Performance
A trusted perspective. Better conversations. Stronger leadership. Improved performance.
Meet Phil McCarthy
Business Experience. A Coach's Perspective. A Commitment to Developing People.
I have always believed that the best way to improve performance is to help people become better at what they do.
That belief has shaped my career as an entrepreneur, business owner, strategic advisor, executive coach, educator, and coach.
Through North Star Advisory, I work with CEOs, executive teams, business owners, and individual leaders to help them navigate challenges, make better decisions, develop their people, and improve organizational performance.
My work is built on relationships, trust, honest conversations, and the belief that people and organizations are capable of more than they sometimes realize.
A Different Perspective
My professional experience has taken me across several different environments.
I spent 20 years in sporting goods retail as the owner of Breakaway Sports, where I experienced firsthand the challenges and opportunities of building and operating a business. I understand the demands of ownership, customers, employees, sales, competition, and making decisions that affect the livelihood of a business.
I have spent more than 30 years coaching lacrosse and ice hockey, working with athletes and teams to develop their skills, confidence, leadership, and ability to perform under pressure.
I also teach entrepreneurship and leadership at the University of Denver. I bring the same philosophy into the classroom that I bring to coaching and business: challenge people, establish expectations, provide feedback, encourage ownership, and help them get better.
These experiences have shaped how I approach my work with leaders and organizations.
Teach Like a Coach
I believe leadership and performance are developed, not assumed.
Great coaches understand that every individual brings different strengths, experiences, motivations, and opportunities for improvement. They establish clear expectations, build trust, provide honest feedback, and hold people accountable while helping them reach their potential.
I believe organizations benefit from the same approach.
My philosophy is built around a simple process:
Act. Observe. Learn. Adjust. Repeat.
It is about taking action, understanding what is working and what isn't, learning from experience, making adjustments, and continually improving.
It also means creating an environment where people can be challenged, take ownership, learn from mistakes, and keep moving forward.
How I Work
I don't believe every organization needs another consultant with a predetermined answer.
Sometimes leaders need someone who can step back, ask a different question, challenge an assumption, or provide an objective perspective before an important decision is made.
I work as a trusted thought partner to leaders at multiple levels of an organization. I build relationships, listen, observe, ask questions, and help people think through the challenges in front of them.
My role is to help leaders see things more clearly, strengthen their teams, and improve the way people work together.
The best advisory relationships are built on trust, candor, perspective, and a shared commitment to getting better.
Beyond the Business
I have always been drawn to environments where people are challenged to grow, teams work toward something meaningful, and performance matters.
Whether in business, athletics, or education, I believe success comes from preparation, commitment, accountability, and making the people around you better.
That is what drives my work through North Star Advisory.
Better leaders. Stronger teams. Better performance.
Let's Connect
If you are a business owner, CEO, or leader looking for an experienced and objective thought partner, I would welcome a conversation.
“There’s nothing more exciting than being on a great team and celebrating wins together.
Get the culture right and performance follows.”
— Phil McCarthy
Performance matters.
Phil's approach to coaching is built on one conviction: the mental and emotional architecture and processes that makes great athletes also makes great leaders, great teams, and great organizations. His work is grounded in what he has seen across 30 years of coaching and being an entrepreneur— that the will to recover, the discipline to adapt, and the commitment to the people around you are not soft skills. They are performance infrastructure. North Star Advisory builds that infrastructure inside your business.
As the founder of Northstar Advisory, Phil has condensed 30 years of expertise in coaching and leadership into a playbook of solutions to help you perform better when it matters most.
“His life is his message.”
“Phil McCarthy makes everyone around him better. Every teammate, every colleague, every team and anyone he engages will tell you that Phil is the best.
He inspires as he challenges, somehow making everyone want to run through a wall for him. Especially me. He embodies the athlete’s mindset and his life is his message. He makes us better.”
— Todd Burnham | Founder, Burnham Law
Speaking: Bring the playbook to your team.
Phil speaks to law firms, leadership teams, business schools, and athletic teams & alumni networks on the transferable power of athletic experience. His talk — “You Can Look Back. Just Don't Get Caught Staring”. — gives high performers a new relationship with what they've already built, and a practical framework for using it every day. Available as a keynote (30–45 minutes) or interactive workshop (60–90 minutes), customized for your audience. As a college adjunct professor, I design and deliver curriculum and workshop on a weekly basis.
The Performance Playbook
Every high-performing organization has people who built a playbook — in sport, in early-career pressure, in the moments that tested them most. North Star works with those people to open it, apply it, and build the culture that makes everyone around them better. From one-on-one executive coaching to full team alignment, the work is always the same: close the gap between what your best people are capable of and what they're actually delivering.
Leadership Development
Executive Coaching
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We work with your key people to deliver the priorities of their role, help them stay aligned, and grow their influence.
We help leaders become more effective and clear in setting direction.
We help leaders align better with their key people.
We discuss leadership challenges, difficult situations, and business dynamics where an unbiased opinion and strategic insights help.
The typical engagement in this area is a commitment of 6 months, the minimum amount of time to create change.
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We coach executives one-on-one. This is the fastest way to create change.
We soundboard ideas to help leaders make better decisions and motivate key personnel.
We help leaders drive initiatives by coaching their executive leadership teams.
We discuss leadership challenges, difficult situations, and business dynamics where an unbiased opinion and strategic insights help.
The typical engagement in this area is a commitment of 6 months, the minimum amount of time to create change. Every situation is different so we design our time to meet your needs.
Team Performance & Alignment
Business Assessment & Diagnostics
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We help people perform better quicly.
We help teams through difficult or complicated situations.
We bring people together to improve performance.
We help make business units more profitable.
This is a situation based engagement. You communicate the situation, a winning outcome, the people involved and we work with the team to achieve the desired outcome. We will agree on the plan, the timeframe of the solve and the meeting rhythms to fit the situation.
We have been contracted for these services after an acquisition, when leadership changes, or after a key hire.
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We assess the health of the business to co-create the go-forward plan.
If the business needs immediate attention in any particular area we move quickly with a strategy.
We diagnose individual business units to create more profit and efficiency.
We administer assessments on key people and report key themes and recommendations.
The typical engagement in this area is a commitment of 6 months, the minimum amount of time to create change. Every situation is different so we work work with you to design a program to suit your needs.
Meeting Facilitation & Workshops
Coaching & Mentoring
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We work hands-on in person and remotely with your teams.
We facilitate training sessions.
We facilitate department meetings to drive priorities and align teams.
We work with you to develop the presentation topics to meet your specific team needs.
We facilitate half or full day engagements.
We design and deliver talks at monthly or quarterly business reviews to support alignment.
We design and deliver ongoing leadership training sessions for high potential employees and/or new hires and young professionals.
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For College Student-Athletes, Early Career Professionals, Mid-Career Development, Career Change Coaching
We explore where you are at, what got you here and where you want to go.
We will work through specific situations, challenges or upcoming opportunities.
You will walk away motivated with new perspectives and an actionable plan.
The typical engagement here is 3-6 one hour sessions. Sessions are $200 each. The initial 15 minute assessment session is free.
“Phil McCarthy is an outstanding executive coach and tremendous sounding board that the executive team (myself included) uses on a frequent basis (often weekly).
We openly discuss leadership challenges, difficult situations, and company dynamics where his unbiased opinion and strategic insight is extremely helpful.”
— Bill Deane, Senior Vice President, APTIM | Resilient Solutions
Ready to open the playbook?
Whether you're looking for executive coaching, team performance work, or a speaker who will change how your people think about what they're already carrying — let's talk.
