TMB
Clarity
Timothy M. Buchanan
Helping you think clearly, choose wisely, act with purpose.
Two Consecutive Years · NY Statewide PD Catalogue
Speaking Credentials Include
Pennsylvania CTE NYCTE Colorado CTE CSAE

Timothy speaks to educators on communication, resilience, and work ethic — and writes fiction and life-skills curriculum that carry those same principles directly into the classroom.

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Real Communication Skills

Practical, high-engagement training educators can put to use with students immediately — not a theory lecture.

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Resilience That Sticks

Neuroscience-backed strategies for helping students respond to setbacks with mental toughness instead of giving up.

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A Work Ethic That Lasts

CTE-focused training that helps students find purpose in work, closing the gap between graduation and lasting employment.

Speaking & Training

Programs for Educators

Each program stands on its own and can be booked individually. All are especially well suited to Career & Technical Education (CTE) programs and teachers, though open to any educator audience.

Flagship Course · New York State Catalogue
NOW You're Communicating

Timothy's flagship communication training, active in a major statewide organization's training catalogue in New York for two years running. A practical, high-engagement session on the communication skills educators need to reach their students — not a theory lecture.

Neuroscience-Based
Rewiring the Brain

A session built on the science of neuroplasticity — how the brain physically changes in response to habit, repetition, and mindset — translated into practical takeaways educators can put to use in their classrooms immediately.

Fall 2026 · New York CTE Teacher Training
Career & Technical Education Series
A three-part series for CTE teachers. Sessions are standalone — teachers can attend any one independently, in any order.
Building a Work Ethic That Sticks
Helping Students Develop an Internal Compass

Using self-discovery, self-awareness, and reinforcement, this session equips teachers to help students develop foundational life principles that build a strong and dependable work ethic. Teachers will learn practical strategies for guiding students to identify their core values and align them with the expectations of the workplace, positioning graduates to find stability and success with employers who share those values.

Finding the Gap
Targeted Strategies for Helping Every Student Overcome Barriers to Employment

Teachers will learn how to identify the specific skill gap or personal barrier holding each student back from finding, keeping, and succeeding in a job after graduation. This session moves beyond generic workforce preparation to equip teachers with targeted approaches that meet each student where they are, turning individual weaknesses into a pathway for lasting employment success.

Beyond the Diploma
Equipping Students to Find Purpose in Work and Life

The transition to full-time adult work can become discouraging fast for young people, and many abandon a promising career before it has a chance to develop. This session equips teachers to facilitate purpose-discovery conversations and activities that connect students' personal values and interests to their career direction, giving graduates the internal motivation to persist through the challenges of early working life and build something meaningful.

Life Skills Curriculum · Name It, Own It, Do It Series

Values Based Success

A workbook that puts Timothy's Values, People, Purpose framework directly into students' hands, one value at a time.

Values Based Success, Volume 1: Building Your Baseline — book cover
Volume 1 · Building Your Baseline

This workbook walks students through twelve foundational values — self-control, responsibility, patience, time management, honesty, mental toughness, persistence, teachability, courage, self-discipline, respect, and attention to detail — through weekly reading, discussion, planning, and reflection. Each value comes with its own definition, common misconceptions, and practical steps, so students build character the same way they build any other skill: with repetition and accountability.

Volume 1 is available now, with additional volumes in the series planned.

Values Based Success, Volume 1 on Amazon

The Apprentice Trilogy

Stories That Build Character

Timothy speaks to libraries and schools on how reading with teens builds character and shapes behavior — and the Apprentice Trilogy is his own answer to that idea in story form. Coming-of-age fiction for pre-teens and teens, built to be read alongside the same character-development conversations his training sessions raise in the classroom.

The Apprentice: The Courage to Seek — book cover The Journeyman: The Courage to Act — book cover The Craftsman: The Courage to Live — book cover
The Apprentice — The Courage to Seek
The Journeyman — The Courage to Act
The Craftsman — The Courage to Live
Character development research bears this out. Economist James Heckman's work shows that character skills form early and compound over time — but among programs that reach teens specifically, the most promising ones share a common thread: they mirror real workplace mentoring and apprenticeship, teaching persistence, cooperation, and follow-through through hands-on relationships rather than lectures. It's the same principle behind Hans's apprenticeship in these books, and behind the CTE programs Timothy trains teachers to deliver.
Heckman, J. J., & Kautz, T. (2013). Fostering and Measuring Skills: Interventions That Improve Character and Cognition (NBER Working Paper No. 19656). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Reader reviews — The Apprentice
"Lessons for all ages"
"Masterful storytelling, what an enjoyable read. My kids loved it too"
"If you love JRR Tolkien & CS Lewis, you will love The Apprentice. Fabulous Read & Great Message!"
"A perfect book for the whole family"
"Great life lessons!!"
"A great book of life lessons through faith and love"
Reader review — The Journeyman
"Everyone will enjoy this read! BUY it"
Reader review — The Craftsman
"An intriguing book with practical ideas to build character"
— Amazon customer reviews

The Apprentice Trilogy on Amazon
Available for library ordering via IngramSpark

Track Record

A Trusted Voice at State Conventions

NOW You're Communicating has been active in a major statewide organization's professional development catalogue in New York for two consecutive years. Timothy has served as closing speaker at the Pennsylvania CTE state convention, and has spoken at the NYCTE annual meeting, the Colorado CTE state convention, and the Colorado Society of Association Executives (CSAE). All programs are built to be entirely family-friendly and appropriate for school and library settings, with no exceptions.

About Timothy

A Former Educator Who Still Thinks Like One

Timothy M. Buchanan

Timothy spent years teaching at the MBA level before turning his attention to the classroom conversations that shape people long before they ever sit in a business seminar. He lives in Olin, Iowa, where he writes fiction and workbooks built around the same conviction he brings to every session he leads.

That conviction is simple: Values, People, Purpose. Character comes from naming what you value, treating the people around you like they matter, and knowing why the work is worth doing in the first place. It's the thread running through the Apprentice Trilogy, through Values Based Success, and through every session Timothy brings into a school, district, or library.

If you're weighing whether to reach out, that's the whole introduction — a teacher and a writer, still trying to help young people build something that lasts.

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