Benton Harbor native, Zach White, 36, didn’t know a seed was planted in his heart and mind as he sat across from his divorce attorney several years ago.
He wondered how his life as a husband, 11-year mechanical engineer at a Whirlpool Corporation, homeowner with a mortgage, mechanical engineer graduate of Purdue University and University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, was crumbling into a heap of what he calls his “biggest failure as an adult.”
In 2020, the seed planted at his lowest moment started to bloom, and the time was right, so he left his high-paying engineering job to become an entrepreneur and founded his own company, Oasis of Courage, or OACO as it is known. OACO has office space in Benton Harbor’s Dwelling Coworking, 175 Territorial Road, where professional engineers in need of obtaining vision, balance and career objectives can meet White in person, or can opt to receive customized coaching services in other virtual formats.
The name of his Berrien County-based company, Oasis of Courage, is intentional. “I found it takes incredible courage to take a stand for the quality of life you want, for your own happiness and growth,” said White.
White’s focus to help other engineers avoid the kind of suffering he encountered is the foundation of his business. Since Berrien County has dozens of industries, corporations, and manufacturing-related jobs the pool of engineers who might utilize White’s coaching services and servant-leadership is appealing to more and more clients – the word is out about this unique business.
“Looking back,” said the founder of Oasis of Courage, an organization which exclusively aims to transform the lives of professional engineers suffering from burnout and beyond, “I realized that was where the seed was planted, and it did take years to grow. In my rock bottom moment I was in, I realized I had to find a new way to approach my life.”
White, and his team of coaches, have already helped transform the lives of 635 engineers and executives from corporations such as Google, Apple, Amazon, General Motors, FaceBook, Microsoft, Upwork, Nissan, Capital One, Whirlpool and more. OACO’s clients are local, national and international – wherever engineers are at risk and want to genuinely transform how they manage their lives and grow their career potential.
White felt like his “middle-class, southwestern Michigan lifestyle as an affluent, successful engineer” warranted him to portray and keep up his social media-worthy, perfect life. “The truth was I was keeping how bad my life felt a secret,” White volunteers. “It looked good, but it felt bad. I was very unhappy.”
Nobody knew his pain.
He bravely divulged how his own mom, sisters, and best friend had no idea about his unhappiness. The only person who knew was his wife – and she was unhappy, too. The couple was not in a good place.
What new approach did White pursue?
He Hired a Coach
Coming out of his divorce mandated something new. It wasn’t a book or a podcast, but a human being-coach who helped him rebuild his own professional career, personal relationships, and taught him how to achieve a balance in these areas. “I hired my first coach, Donna,” he said. “Working with a coach changed my life. I loved the experience. I found success in every domain of life at a whole new level after my divorce.”
As a result, White rediscovered a new kind of success. He earned job promotions in his field, risked loving again, and today is happily married. He shares how so much has changed in the area of intimacy and how he is a better husband.
The coach White sought out years ago– Donna, is the one he freely gives credit to for transforming his life.
“Without Donna in my life, we would not be having this conversation today about Oasis of Courage.”
Suffering from Burnout
“I realized there are so many people I was working with, and who were surrounding me in the engineering world in Michigan, around the nation, and even around the world that were living a life of burnout.”
For most, burnout has a narrow definition. White, learned the hard way, that it is much more broad and unique for every person.
Working too many hours, losing sleep, health issues, and lack of energy is what White believes is the typical definition of burnout. “But the truth is that burnout is showing up in our lives as engineers in so many ways,” said White. “You can be burned out working the minimal 40 hours per week if you’re terribly unhappy. You can have burnout if your personal relationships aren’t working, and your boss isn’t recognizing you, or you have bad relationships with your peers and you dread going into the office on Monday morning. Those things all contribute to burnout and it has a thousand faces. It can be health, mental, spiritual, or just purely being unhappy, and feeling like there is nothing you can do about it.”
Making money and waiting around for retirement was not the way of life White wanted. In fact, “it was unacceptable” in his eyes.
He doesn’t want other engineers to suffer the way he did, so he’s committed to helping fellow colleagues in the engineering industry rediscover their lives, grow, find a balance between work and home, learn to set boundaries, have the courage to say what needs to be said at the work place and in relationships. Living with balance is rooted in one area – courage.
White sees engineers as typically introverted, lone wolves, who are not willing to have difficult conversations. “That’s a skill set they don’t have naturally,” said White. Engineers are taught to solve problems in their field, but sometimes lack the strategies and tools to deal with their life issues. “They don’t teach us that in school,” he said. “There’s so much relational and political efforts in the work world that you have to learn to navigate to be successful in your career, and in life.”
That’s what he helped his first-ever client, Jon Kline, a GM engineer be able to do. “Jon came to me and said he and his wife were having early signs of marital issues. He wanted to build his career and not head for a divorce. He believed in my Lifestyle Engineering Blueprint coaching and utilized the eight-week flagship product we offer.”
White keeps Kline’s feedback on his phone and looks at it often to remind himself about the value of helping engineers just like Jon. The breakthroughs and barriers Jon hurdled as he was guided and mentored by OACO changed the trajectory of his life and career.
That’s what keeps OACO growing.
“Working with Zach has brought about positive change in all areas of my life beyond just helping me enhance my career,” said JT Whitman, Operations Supervisor at Skidmore Pump, in Benton Harbor. “I’ve become bolder, more decisive, more confident, and much more aware of my own psychology. I would recommend working with Zach to anyone who wants to become the best possible version of him or herself.”
Tyler Mathews, Senior Project Analyst at Whirpool, agrees. “Zach has been instrumental in guiding me through the personal growth that I needed to make the jump to the next level, and ultimately a promotion! Zach has taught me how to create a focus in my life that wasn’t there before.”
There’s a Prerequisite for Prospective OACO Clients
Clients are screened by White because, believe it or not, there are clients he will not work with. He won’t take a client’s money just to increase profits. For White, it’s much deeper than money. It’s his reputation as a coach. “Some clients are not coachable,” he admits. “If a client only wants success in their career and is willing to throw everything else away, there’s no judgment, but they are not the kind of client OACO can help.”
White wants clients who deeply desire results – this means they are willing to change, step out of their comfort zone, figure out tough situations, and then get into a community of like-minded engineering leaders who continue the sustainable, balanced way of life they’ve learned through OACO’s program.
Burnout is universal. However, OACO’s way to solve it is specific and uniquely tailored for each client’s life story.
If you’re a Berrien-County engineer or know an engineer or executive anywhere who possibly struggles with burnout, OACO might be the solution to re-start life in a new way. Reach out to Zach White at zach@oasisofcourage.com, @oasisofcourage, or call (269) 235-9633
