Our Story

The story behind MindSpring™, WellSpring and TruthSpring is one of those incredible journeys that defies explanation but one thing is for sure: we did not do this alone. It began in 1993 when Beverly and Gary Adams of Matthews, NC, offered to rent us a home in Asheville for far less than they could have rented it. We could not have made that “leap of faith” without their generosity and kindness.

We started MindSpring™ Consulting, Inc. in 1995 with only a chair, a small desk, a compact, 2 megabyte Mac Classic II Computer and a deep desire to teach. We thought we were really something when we upgraded the computer to 10 megabytes.

We rented an office not far from home for almost 10 years. Early on in our relationship with our landlord, Lee Towery, we tried to get out of the initial three-year contract because we were afraid we weren’t going to make it. He said, “Don’t quit now. You can do this.” His belief in us kept us in the game and soon things began to turn. 

We began designing a powerful leadership development curriculum founded upon emotional intelligence, before that topic became a trend. In 1999, we met our first USDA Forest Service client, and eventually dear friend, Dave Anders, and we started to get busy!

In our first meeting with our CPA, Stuart LeBlanc in 1996, he looked over our financials, noting we grossed a total of $800.00 (not a typo) in 1995. He spent time with us, listening to our plans and said, “I’m concerned that all revenues are going to rent but I think it’s a great idea. Keep going. Don’t give up.” He is still our CPA today and we could not be here without his help and guidance. After 10 years of growth, Stuart said, “It’s time to purchase your own building. No more rent.”

One day, right on time, Laura Hale, a dear friend and local real estate agent, came by the office to pick us up. “Where are we going?” we said. Laura replied, “I’m taking you to your new office.” It was a property we had passed many times but were not able to see the potential until she showed it to us.

With the help and advice of Laura, Stuart, real estate attorney Ron Sneed, Terry and I purchased our first property on Tunnel Road. Ron Dyke, contractor, Carleton Collins, architect, and Terry Dyer, a genius carpenter and builder, joined the team and MindSpring™ soon had its own home. Terry’s parents, Don and Karen Irwin, were always there in helping us with the construction phases from helping us erect our first sign in the rental property to laying the new floor in the new training room in the MindSpring™ building and installing the kitchen cabinets.

In the meantime, our “Leadership through Emotional Intelligence” program became the foundation of the Middle and Senior Leader programs for the USDA Forest Service. We had clients all over the country from federal agencies to Fortune 500 companies, healthcare and educational systems, large manufacturing firms and small independent companies. Consistently, we focused on creating exceptional learning and teaching platforms, quality content and most importantly, our own development as teachers. We continued to enjoy a great deal of success, and while it is important to make money to keep growing a business, that has never been our focus.

Our emotional intelligence work continued to reveal the inherent relationship between our physical health and our ability to function at our best at home and at work. We needed to expand our campus. Charlie Campbell worked with us so we could buy his property next to MindSpring and the team came back together to build WellSpring Wellness Center.

Today there are more than a dozen gifted practitioners who found their way to WellSpring. These exceptional individuals provide exceptional services in acupuncture, naturopathy, Yoga, T’ai Chi, massage, Reiki, homeopathy, speech therapy, meditation, men’s health, Individual, and couples counseling.

Even with so much going on, something else was percolating in our own evolution. Something was still missing.

Both Terry and I have worked with significant teachers over the course of our lives: Dr. Tony Speed of Farr Associates, Nancy Willis, and Robert Wilkinson. When we met Robert we realized we were learning the missing pieces of the puzzle. Robert was an extraordinary human being whose knowledge and understanding of human life exceeded anything we had previously experienced. The perfection of it all is that without Tony and Nancy we would not have met Robert and certainly would not have been equipped to understand what he taught or understood his role in our lives.

We enjoyed the privilege and challenge of 12 years of learning and studying with Robert, and the foundation of TruthSpring was born. When Robert passed away in 2020, we both knew that Robert’s role in our lives was more than that of a teacher. He had shown us the path to consciousness which picks up where everything else leaves off. Practices like self-awareness, mindfulness, and traditional therapy are all useful but they all have their ceiling of understanding. On the other hand, consciousness is the journey not only of the individual but that of the human species. It is the truth of who you really are working its way through your unconsciousness. This is the missing piece of the puzzle we had always been looking for.

In 2018, we met with our digital wizard who has been with us since 2010, Ashleigh Stoia, who owns Kind Creative Group, and said, “We have an idea.” Ashleigh is the brains behind the creation of “Becoming You,” which begins here in March 2023. Without Ashleigh’s dedication and never-ending persistence over the last five years, “Becoming You” could not exist.

Terry and I understand that we are byproducts of the love and kindness given to us by countless individuals over the years. We are the beneficiaries of the wisdom and advice of extraordinary individuals and teachers who transformed our lives, and we are forever grateful to them and the roles they played in our lives. We are recipients of tremendous opportunities given to us by our many clients who believed in us and our work. We have learned that great work is not accomplished by one person; there are always people who helped in ways big and small but always significant.

TruthSpring is the culmination of our life’s work and our relationship together. It houses everything we have ever sought and everything we could ever hope to share. “Becoming You” is our best attempt to fulfill the purpose of our lives, the mission of our work and in so doing, repay what was given to us by so many, including many of you.