Stewarding People, Space & Systems.
For nearly thirty years, I’ve built companies, teams and systems. Along the way, I learned that sustainable performance isn’t driven by pressure alone. It’s designed into the conditions around people.
Complexity belongs in the system, not on the people.
That idea now shapes how I lead, what I build and where I’m going next.
Music, dance and theatre training. Building Middle Tennessee’s premier training facility, one student and one team member at a time. 165 five-star reviews and counting.
rootsacademy.com →Turnkey space for therapists and healthcare professionals to build their practices. We provide the room, the infrastructure and the quiet. They focus on their clients.
airotherapysuites.com →My sons had an idea. I helped them build it. Now it’s their training ground for entrepreneurship, sales, service and stewardship, with 5% of every job supporting TN Kids Belong.
jetstreamservices.net →Airo, LLC · Managing Partner since 2017 · the holding company for my commercial properties
On February 6, 2026, I started building a better way to run ROOTS. I’m not an engineer. Just me and Claude. It started with the numbers I needed to make decisions. Then CRM. Sales. Customer service. Payroll. Operations. Each problem exposed another.
What started as a dashboard is becoming the operating system for the company.
Levato started by giving us one trusted view of the business. Leads, trials, enrollments, revenue and performance became visible in real time.
Decisions moved from monthly to daily. Managers stopped spending as much time reconciling systems, and we started seeing problems before they became results.
The bigger problem isn’t reporting. It’s fragmentation.
Levato is becoming the operating system for the entire business: CRM, sales, programs, billing, payroll, customer service, marketing, reporting and the customer experience, all connected around one family.
The system absorbs the complexity so the people don’t have to.
Goal: Make Levato the operating system for youth enrichment businesses, starting in 2027.
Nearly thirty years of building has taught me that sustainable performance requires more than strategy, talent or effort. The conditions matter. PEI is how I think about those conditions: Performance + Emotional Intelligence, never one at the expense of the other. Everything I’ve been given is a gift from God — none of it mine to own, all of it mine to steward. These are the fundamentals I lead by.
Everyone deserves a safe, creative, respectful environment. Caring is never the wrong choice. Seek to understand first. Celebrate people often, and let vulnerability do its work.
A healthy mindset is a growth mindset. It changes how we show up at work and at home. We measure the gain before the gap, and we know our strengths and weaknesses... neither of which define us.
Excellence comes when preparation meets discipline and passion. Welcome correction. Honor the process as much as the result. Attend to details, and win or lose as a team.
The space you live and work in matters. I build rooms that feel good to walk into... clean, considered, and yes, they smell amazing. A space tells people what to expect before anyone says a word.
I ask my team to know themselves, so I do the same work. This is how I’m wired, and what I hand people when we start working together.
Bend, Oregon made me... high desert, pine trees, a long way from Tennessee. Engaged to Kristy after 7 weeks, married 5 months later on October 2, 1999 — now 26 years. Three biological kids and one in foster care. We’ve seen 48 states, most of them from a fifth-wheel camper. I ran a marathon once, in 2011, and I still drive the 1968 Mustang Fastback my grandfather bought new. It has never left the family.
Kyle Chowning is the Founder and President of ROOTS Academy, Middle Tennessee’s largest performing arts program, which he and his wife Kristy grew from 165 students to 1,438, with 144 staff and contractors across three facilities. He is the founder of Airo Therapy Suites, Managing Partner of Airo LLC, and co-founder of Jet Stream Services with his sons. He is currently building Levato, an operating system for youth services businesses. Before ROOTS he spent 15 years in media, television and marketing, including VP and SVP of Marketing at Inspiration Networks, Sales and Marketing Director at RELEVANT Media Group, and co-founding Help-Portrait with Jeremy Cowart. Originally from Bend, Oregon, he lives in Franklin, Tennessee.