Meet Patrick Cosgrove
From Surviving to Soaring

I didn’t grow up in a picture-perfect home. My childhood was filled with chaos, fear, and uncertainty. My parents were physically abusive to each other, and my father was an alcoholic. When I was little, my sister would throw a blanket over me so I wouldn’t see the violence.

When I was nine, my parents divorced. At twelve, my dad took his own life. That moment shattered my world. I remember begging God to let me die too. Around that same time, I almost lost my life twice, once when my spleen was removed and again when my appendix ruptured.

By fourteen, my mom was dating a drug dealer. I was home the night the police raided the house and took him to prison. We stayed in his home for two years while he served his sentence, and when he got out, he kicked us out, my mom and me, onto the street.

At sixteen, I was homeless, sleeping in my car, trying to figure out where to go. I tried staying with my sister, but she told me it wasn’t safe, people were threatening her husband’s life. So I was on my own.

I share this because who you are is built through the trials you face and how you choose to rise from them.

Finding Strength in the Fire

All that pain gave me a deep compassion for people. It taught me to see beyond the surface, to understand what holds people back, even when they can’t see it themselves. That same understanding has become one of my greatest gifts as a business coach today.

When I work with business owners, I see the patterns, fears, and stories that hold them back, because I’ve lived them. I know what it feels like to hit rock bottom and still find a way to climb.

My turning point came in high school when a friend asked me to play soccer my junior year. I had never played before, but he said, “Don’t worry, you’ll just be the goalie, you don’t have to do much.”

That simple invitation changed my life.

I trained harder than I ever had at anything. By my senior year, I became an All-State goalkeeper, and our team made it to the state championship. In the semifinal game, it came down to penalty kicks. I blocked three out of five shots and sent our team to state, the first team from Northern Nevada to ever win.

That moment showed me something I’d never seen before: that I could rewrite my story. I could create a different life than the one I was born into.

Building a Life of Purpose

After high school, I worked on an old-fashioned cattle ranch in southeastern Oregon called Rock Creek Ranch. It was 30 miles down a dirt road, surrounded by miles of open land. It felt like stepping into the 1800s.

There were 3,000 head of cattle and 300 horses, many of them bucking horses. If you got thrown, you walked home, sometimes twenty miles. That’s where I learned grit, discipline, and what it truly means to earn confidence through action.

After the ranch, I moved to Phoenix, Arizona, to play college soccer. I made the team as a walk-on and earned a full-ride scholarship my second year. During college, I met a woman in the mall — her name was Julie. A year later, we were married in the Mesa Arizona Temple.

We’ve now been married 25 years and have four amazing children.

Turning Pain Into Prosperity

During college, I worked on a ranch for a man who owned a plumbing company. One day, he said, “You should become a plumber.” That moment set the direction of my business life.

I spent two years as a service plumber, two years in new construction, and then I started my own company Plumbing Masters in Phoenix, Arizona. Later, I founded Patrick Riley Heating, Cooling, and Plumbing, built it from the ground up, and sold it successfully.

Since then, I’ve built and scaled multiple service companies across the U.S. But what drives me isn’t just business growth, it’s people’s growth.

Every obstacle I faced taught me how to see the story behind the struggle. It taught me that success isn’t about ego, it’s about empathy, discipline, and belief.

Why I Coach

I coach because I believe in transformation, not just in business, but in life. I’ve seen what happens when people face their fears, confront their past, and build something that truly matters.

I know that inside every person is a version of themselves that’s stronger, more capable, and more powerful than they realize. My mission is to help them find it.

When I look back at the boy who grew up in fear, the young man who felt hopeless, the kid who almost gave up. I see the foundation of everything I teach today.

Pain built my purpose.
Struggle built my strength.
Faith built my future.

And now, my purpose is to help others do the same.