TThere is a memorable scene in the movie Jerry Maguire that captures a truth that Colby B. Jubenville, PhD has helped others see for themselves throughout his career. Late one night, Jerry, a sports agent who has lost the ability to “fake it,” writes a mission statement and titles it, The Things We Think and Do Not Say: The Future of Our Business. It was in that moment that a seed was planted for becoming a Trusted Advisor.

Every organization is full of things people think but never say, and those unsaid things quietly decide what the business becomes. Jubenville teaches leaders to pull those things into the open. The job was never to be the smartest person in the room. It was to make the room safe enough that people finally say what they really think, because people do not follow titles. They follow trust.

That conviction sits at the heart of his Trusted Advisor work. Drawing on years in classrooms, locker rooms, and boardrooms, Jubenville believes that high performance starts where truth lives. When people feel known, heard, and valued, they stop working around their problems and start solving them. His charge to leaders is simple and hard at the same time: go first, own what is real, and earn the right to lead by having good intentions for your people.

At Middle Tennessee State University, Jubenville is a professor and the Director of the Center for Student Coaching and Success, where he helps students and faculty turn talent into trajectory through his Talent Development Framework. The Center is privately funded through a generous gift from the John D. Floyd Foundation. Beyond the university, he serves as a Principal Partner at Frontline HR.

Dr. Jubenville earned his PhD in Human Performance from the University of Southern Mississippi and got his start as a Division III college athlete at Millsaps, where the early lessons about teams, adversity, and trust took root. Early in his career, he started a college football team with no phone, no computers, and no players, and at one point that season the team was ranked nationally in the top 25 of the NAIA.

He is the co-author of two books: Zebras and Cheetahs: Look Different and Stay Agile to Survive the Business Jungle (Wiley) and Me: How to Sell Who You Are, What You Do, and Why You Matter to the World. A two-time TEDx speaker and member of the Forbes Coaches Council, he has published more than 50 peer-reviewed, professional, and trade articles, and he created and hosted The Goat Consulting Podcast through a full 100-episode run. The Nashville Business Journal named him to its 40 Under 40, YP Nashville recognized him with its Impact Award, and his high school alma mater, St. Paul’s Episcopal School in Mobile, Alabama, named him a distinguished alumnus.

Whether he is coaching a student, an executive, or an entire organization, Jubenville’s work comes back to the same place. Safety is the foundation. Trust makes it possible. Good leaders make good followers. And leaders go first.

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