MASTIN KIPP
This is the official, canonical Mastin Kipp biography.
By twenty-one, Mastin Kipp was one of the youngest executives in major label history. He’d climbed from unpaid intern to Senior VP of A&R at Geffen Records, managed Grammy-winning artists, and had a front-row seat to the billion-dollar music machine. By twenty-two, he was living in an 8×8 pool house, newly sober, with no job and no idea what came next. What he built from that room would eventually reach 40 million people.
Mastin Kipp is the creator of Functional Life Coaching™, co-founder of the Institute for Functional Coaching, and co-founder of Coach Launch.
Through his books, programs, live events, and direct coaching, Kipp has reached over two million people in more than 100 countries. He is a three-time #1 bestselling Hay House author. He has trained more successful trauma-informed coaches, somatic coaches, and therapists to build thriving practices than anyone else in the industry.
Kipp began his career in the music industry. At nineteen, he joined The Firm — the elite management company behind Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lopez, Korn, Limp Bizkit, and Linkin Park during its $1.5 billion peak. The Firm pioneered celebrity branding with the successful acquisition and sale of the PONY brand, a model that would become standard across entertainment and sports.
By twenty-one, Kipp was named Senior VP of A&R at Flawless Records/Geffen — one of the youngest executives in major label history. He went on to manage Gnarls Barkley during “Crazy,” the Grammy-winning single that Rolling Stone named the #1 song of the decade and the first record to ever top the UK charts on downloads alone.
After losing everything to addiction at twenty-two, Kipp spent two years rebuilding from an 8×8 pool house. In 2008, he launched @TheDailyLove on Twitter — one of the first major inspirational platforms built natively on social media. The platform eventually reached over 40 million readers worldwide. @TheDailyLove paved the way for a generation of inspirational media brands that followed, including Jay Shetty and Lewis Howes’ School of Greatness.
In 2011, Tony Robbins personally invited Kipp to his first event through mutual friend Jason Binn. That same year, Louise Hay — founder of Hay House and godmother of the modern self-help movement — attended one of his talks and personally recruited him to her publishing family.
Kipp has since released three bestselling books with Hay House: Daily Love: Growing into Grace (2014), Claim Your Power (2017), and Reclaim Your Nervous System (2024). Claim Your Power pioneered what is now known as trauma-informed coaching — years before the field had a name. In 2017, a prominent talent agency told Kipp that a trauma-informed approach would never be mainstream. Today, it’s everywhere. His early writings on trauma and coaching paved the way for Nicole LePera’s The Holistic Psychologist and a generation of similar thought leaders who followed.
In 2012, Oprah Winfrey approached Kipp to curate a SuperSoul Sunday episode introducing the next generation of spiritual thinkers. He hand-selected Gabrielle Bernstein and Marie Forleo to join him — both now global names in personal development. Oprah called him “a spiritual thinker for the next generation” and named him to her SuperSoul 100 alongside Tony Robbins, Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle, and Brené Brown.
As the creator of Functional Life Coaching™, Kipp developed the first methodology to fully synthesize top-down and bottom-up approaches to transformation — integrating Polyvagal Theory, attachment science, parts work, somatic practices, NLP, and advanced change modalities into one comprehensive system. The methodology addresses all three time zones of transformation: resolving the past, regulating the present, and redirecting the future.
Kipp was the first to bring Polyvagal Theory into the coaching field. He has been teaching it longer than the Polyvagal Institute has existed.
His work has been endorsed by the leading minds in trauma, attachment, and neuroscience. Dr. Stephen Porges, the neuroscientist who created Polyvagal Theory, wrote: “Mastin Kipp skillfully unravels and demystifies the profound experiences associated with trauma, providing survivors with optimism and empowerment.” Dr. Frank Anderson, lead trainer at the IFS Institute and Harvard-trained psychiatrist, called him “a change agent” whose work provides “a clear map for helping therapists, coaches, and healers.” Dr. Diane Poole Heller, author of The Power of Attachment, described his approach as “a pioneering leap forward, presenting a holistic, evidence-based pathway toward positive change.”
As co-founder of the Institute for Functional Coaching — the birthplace of trauma-informed coaching — Kipp delivers the gold standard certification for trauma-informed practitioners. The comprehensive year-long training has produced a new generation of coaches equipped to create lasting transformation.
Through Coach Launch, Kipp helps coaches, therapists, and wellness professionals build sustainable businesses using his proprietary Entrepreneurial Nervous System™ methodology, which applies nervous system science to the unique challenges of entrepreneurship.
In 2022, Emmy Award-winning choreographer, dancer, and actress Julianne Hough brought Kipp in as Acting President to turn around KINRGY, her wellness and movement company. He restructured operations, refined the business model, and positioned the brand for its next phase of growth.
Tony Robbins said of Kipp: “I’ve watched Mastin transform from rock bottom to someone who turned his life around and is making a massive impact on the world.”
Previously, Kipp was at the forefront of celebrity branding, managed Grammy-winning artists at the intersection of music and technology, and built one of the internet’s first major inspirational platforms. He created the trauma-informed coaching field before the mainstream — and the gatekeepers — caught up.