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Steve

"I love seeing an entrepreneurial spirit in leaders and helping them make something out of nothing - radically impacting their family, community, and companies."

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Steve has been married for 28 years to his wife Christine, and together they have 4 children; Jonathan, Benjamin, Isabela, and Jacob (ages 23-14).

Steve earned an undergrad degree from Cal Poly (Mathematics) and a graduate degree from Bakke Graduate University (Entrepreneurship). A University of Colorado football fan, he can be found cheering his oldest, an inside linebacker for the Buffs. #SkoBuffs! He spent the past dozen years as an entrepreneur and founder of 2 businesses in the fast-growing sleep space.

The first, he helped lead a franchised multi-state retail mattress concept that grew to over 4 regions nationally (Steve also co-owned 4 Denver area locations), and second, a B2B and B2C e-commerce natural pillow manufacturing business. He spent the first half of his career in non-profit leadership internationally with Cru that took him to live in Chile, Spain & Mexico.

More About Steve

Why Steve Joined Acumen.

"Acumen provides me a great avenue to help other CEO and owners of businesses increase their impact and growth. Acumen fit perfectly with my vision and mission of inspiring, empowering business leaders’ way of life, thinking, and leadership to help them grow as a company and leader, to find more joy and have a bigger impact on those around them.

CEOs & Business Owners have the chance to make so much impact. They are the key that makes cities, communities, and industries come alive. I love when a CEO has that “aha” moment and their vision increases, their joy explodes and they see what and how they do brings so much influence to a community."

Challenges Steve is seeing CEOs facing today.

Joy.
There are so many challenges that land in the lap of the one who is in charge…employees, cash flow, industry changes, regulations, and culture. Even when CEOs are at the top of their game, making money, growing their business, and helping their team win they find themselves empty and joyless.

Community.
Following a lack of Joy, many CEOs are working hard, beating themselves up to be better, and facing challenges alone. Their staff, neighbors & church community see them as successful and having it all together but these leaders are lonely. They want a group of men and women who understand them, are not impressed by them, a place where they can be honest and real. They want a place to be human and to have fun.

On a personal note...

How I recharge for the day.

Time on my porch with a cigar talking to my wife and/or walking my dogs…Filled with weekend rides on my Indian Dark Horse motorcycle through the beautiful foothills and windy roads of Colorado.

Words that describe me best.

Passion
Vision
Leadership
Redemption

Favorite activity after work.

Watch University of Colorado Football…Look out for Inside Linebacker Jon Van Diest, #31…oh yeah, smoke another cigar.

Acumen is an exclusive community of CEOs & Owners focused on helping you grow your top line, optimize your bottom line and enrich your storyline.

Our affinity-centric approach creates a community that’s both an advisory board and a peer mastermind. In combining the best of both, Acumen unifies professionals whose businesses are in similar seasons and have similar characteristics, like revenue, employees, locations, competency, and demographic similarities.

Our commitment...

We develop healthy, growing businesses.

NOT a hospice or lifeline for a sinking ship.

We work on CEO/Business Owner issues.

NOT networking or small group study.

We are humble and teachable.

NOT for the “know it all” or
the person who has “all the answers.”

We share values, virtues & beliefs.

NOT for people whose walk
and talk lack significant alignment.

Steve Van Diest

President, Front Range