Sotchoku Logo a Colorful painted Japanese characters on a white background. Art-inspired presentation board featuring Samurai leadership principles applied to modern communication.

One Difficult Conversation Can Change Everything

Learn how to lead with both candor and respect – because together they build trust, and trust drives performance.

Snow-capped Mount Fuji at sunrise with pink cherry blossom trees in the foreground and a colorful sky representing the happiness after using the Sotchoku framework and the HOLD Technique.

We envision a world where candor and respect walk hand in hand — where fear gives way to courage, and relationships rise to their highest potential. Because true success is not what we build, but who we build it with.

Our Vision For The Future

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Patrick Coggins giving a presentation on the Sotchoku framework at a conference to provide leadership communication training. A slide presentation illustrating methods for how to give feedback as a leader without damaging relationships.

Lead with Candor.

Lead with Respect.

Let’s Start the Conversation.

Whether you’re ready to transform your leadership team or inspire an entire room, this is where we begin.

I speak at conferences, lead immersive workshops, and partner with organizations that want to build high-performance cultures grounded in trust, accountability, and results.

Bring the Sotchoku Framework to Your Next Event

Patrick delivers engaging keynotes and breakout sessions that challenge leaders to rethink how they communicate, build trust, and drive performance. Whether it’s a room of CFOs, a leadership offsite, or a company-wide event - this is where mindset shifts begin.

Popular Topics Include:

  • Sotchoku: The Art of Candid Respect

  • How to Build High-Trust, High-Performance Teams

  • What Happens When Leaders Don’t Speak Up

Bring a Workshop to Your Leadership Team

Workshops are highly interactive, tailored sessions for executive teams, emerging leaders, or cross-functional groups. We go beyond theory and into real conversations, practicing the Sotchoku framework and the HOLD technique with live scenarios and guided facilitation.

Common Workshop Formats:

  • 2-hour intensive virtual

  • 4-hour session in-person

  • Full day session in-person

Workshop Outcomes:

  • Master the HOLD technique for delivering hard feedback with clarity and care

  • Build conversational muscle through guided practice and real life case studies

  • Improve team trust, alignment, and execution

A Japanese samurai warrior sitting in a meditative pose among pink cherry blossom trees, representing the Sotchoku Hold Technique. Visual metaphor illustrating the balance of candor and respect in the workplace, inspired by Samurai leadership.

Sotchoku is a leadership philosophy rooted in a simple idea: that clear, direct conversations delivered with respect are the foundation of high-performance cultures. Based on timeless Eastern principles and modern behavioral science, Sotchoku equips leaders with tools to navigate conflict, inspire trust, and speak with courage — even when it’s hard.

What is Sotchoku?

Meet Patrick Coggins

Executive advisor. Leadership speaker. Creator of Sotchoku.

I help executive teams and finance leaders unlock the performance potential hiding behind avoided conversations. As co-founder of CFO’s Domain and creator of the Sotchoku framework, I’ve spent over two decades advising leaders at the intersection of accountability and culture.

My journey began in finance search, where for 20+ years I helped companies identify and hire world-class finance talent. I saw firsthand how the right person in the right role could elevate an entire business—but also how quickly performance could falter in a culture where truth was avoided, conflict was mismanaged, or trust had eroded.

That insight changed everything for me.

Today, I focus not just on the talent that drives results, but the culture that sustains them. I work with leadership teams to build environments where people speak candidly, listen openly, and lead with clarity and respect. Through keynotes, workshops, and the Sotchoku framework, I help leaders hold the conversations they’ve been avoiding—because that’s where performance, alignment, and transformation begin.