EARLY LIFE
Before there was a stage.
Foster care. Group homes. Juvenile detention. Long before I stood in front of a room, I was trying to find my place in the world.
The person. The presence. The possibility.
Sensei Dave
Armstrong.
Speaker. Coach. Author.
Air Force veteran. Nonprofit founder.
There is a life
behind the message.
From the man on stage
To the life
behind the message.
Keep scrolling. The next chapter changes the frame.
Skip the story and explore speaking ↗ORIGIN / 1974
BELONGING / LOSS
Looking for somewhere to belong.
Gang involvement. Losing my mother while I was in juvenile detention. These experiences became part of my life. They did not have to become the whole of it.
AGE 18
No home.
At 18, I was homeless. The next chapter was still unwritten.
24 YEARS / U.S. AIR FORCE
A different future became possible.
Twenty four years of U.S. Air Force service. New responsibilities. People depending on me. A different way to see what my life could become.
LEADERSHIP
Responsibility became a practice.
Leading Airmen. Inspector General experience. Learning that leadership asks you to care about the people behind the work.
DISCIPLINE / SENSEI
Discipline became identity.
Martial arts. Teaching. Building three schools. Sensei became more than a name. It became a responsibility to help others grow.
AUTHOR / SPEAKER
Experience became something to share.
After the uniform, I had to find purpose again. Books. Speaking. Coaching. What I had lived became a way to help other people see possibilities of their own.
PAUSE / CANCER
Life tested the lesson again.
A cancer diagnosis. Hospital. Recovery. After service, leadership, and building a new life, the philosophy had to be lived again.
RECOVERY / PURPOSE
The next step still mattered.
Recovery asked me to return to the ideas I share with others. The work continued: helping people thrive, learn, grow, and take more chances on themselves.
PURPOSE
Someone helped me see a future.
Ron Barnick, my CASA and GAL, became a mentor to me. Today, Inspire To Aspire carries that belief forward for young people in foster care and juvenile detention.
CURRENT / STILL BECOMING
LEAVE MEASUREMENT BEHIND.
YOUR WHYHAS TO BE BIGGER THANYOUR WHY NOT.
The message I live. The message I bring into your room.
The trajectory / past and present
Before there was a stage.
The room today.
EARLY LIFEPRESENT DAY / SERVICE
Scroll to open the room. Drag the handle or use arrow keys to explore either photograph.
Present day / service
Now, the room
is bigger.
The life behind the message becomes service
to the people in front of me.
The life behind the message
The story behind
the stage.
Spend a little more time with the person behind the message. A deeper film about lived experience, human connection, and the work that followed.
THE LIFE → THE MESSAGE → YOUR ROOMExplore speaking & training ↗
Your people. Their next chapter.
What does
your room need?
Every audience brings its own challenges.
Let’s start with what you want to make possible.
CONNECTION BEFORE CONTENT.Keynotes / workshops / Empathic Leadership
HELP MID-MANAGERS CREATE INTRINSIC MOTIVATION, NOT JUST COMPLIANCE.
Lead with accountability, awareness, communication, and humanity. Create the conditions where people are more likely to take ownership and care about the outcome.
Explore leadership for your team ↗Leadership training / mid management
From compliance
to commitment.
Managers can ask for compliance. The goal is a team that cares about the outcome.
EMPATHIC LEADERSHIP
Lead with accountability, awareness, communication, and humanity.
FROM COMPLIANCE TO COMMITMENT
Create conditions for purpose, room to make decisions, confidence in skills, recognition, ownership, and belonging. Help people see how their contribution connects to the team’s mission.
Three days together, followed by six months of monthly conversations.
Talk about your leaders ↗See Sensei Dave in the room
See Sensei Dave
in the room.
A short look at the performance, the room, and the people in it.
In print. In conversation.
More of the story.
Appearances and published work, not endorsements.
News coverage · 2006U.S. Air ForceNCO mentors through martial artsIndependent reporting on Dave’s longstanding work mentoring young people.Explore the feature Published writing · 2026The ImprintYouth Need More From Us To Combat The Coldness of the Juvenile Justice SystemOn connection, mentorship and possibility within juvenile justice.Explore the feature Podcast · 2026Foster FriendlyFrom Foster Care to the Air Force to the StageAmerica’s Kids Belong: trust, consistent adults and a different future.Explore the feature Podcast · 2026Veteran Led“I Would Be Dead or in Prison.”Accountability, military leadership and rebuilding purpose after service.Explore the feature Interview · 2021Authority MagazineMental Health ChampionsA conversation about mental wellness, relationships and supporting others.Explore the feature Speaker profile · 2025Toastmasters District 109Sensei Dave Armstrong / winTIconAn independently hosted conference profile and speaking background.Explore the feature
The connection is personal
What people
carry with them.
I got to experience his charisma and how commanding Dave is on stage.
AbbiLife Coach For TeensDave is such a phenomenal individual with a great heart. His advice, encouragement and support is just invaluable!
CarolynEntrepreneur & SpeakerI could relate to everything about Dave’s story. He means so much to us foster care alumni and so much to the world!
CharmaineFoster care alumna, USATony Plyler
Charmaine Knight
The connection, in her own words.
The stories that shaped the stage, on the page
A life lived.
A story shared.
For people finding their way, and the caring adults walking beside them. The books carry the experiences, relationships, and lessons beyond the room.
Explore the books ↓
Why Me
My Fight For Life
A personal story of adversity, mentorship, and finding a way forward.
From Gangs to Greece
The journey, the caring adults, and the possibilities that changed a life.
The work beyond the stage
Someone helped me
see a future.
That matters.
Young people deserve possibilities they may never have imagined.
Through Inspire To Aspire Youth Empowerment, I work to help young people in foster care and juvenile detention develop confidence, emotional regulation, leadership identity, and hope for their futures.
This is where the story becomes service.
Meet Inspire To Aspire ↗The ongoing conversation
There is always
another chapter.
Speaking. Coaching. Honest conversations about growing as people.
This part is about you
Stop negotiating
with your potential.
Get clear on what you want, recognize what is getting in the way, and build the accountability to move. You bring the decisions. We do the work together.
Your goals. Your next chapter.
1:1 Coaching
Personalized work around growth, decisions, purpose, leadership, relationships, accountability, and your next chapter.
Shared perspective. Personal growth.
Group Coaching
Perspective, practical tools, accountability, and shared growth with others doing the work.
Let’s make the next chapter matter
What could this
make possible
for your people?
Tell me who is in the room, what they are facing, and what you hope they will carry with them.
info@upna.net ↗Prefer email? Use the address above.