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The Mattertree Method™
Every Great Performance Begins Before Anyone Takes the Stage.
Whether we're helping your organization develop leaders, strengthen performance, or build your next innovation strategy, every engagement follows the same proven approach:
LISTEN
Understand the people, priorities, opportunities, and challenges before recommending solutions.
DIAGNOSE
Identify the barriers preventing individuals and organizations from performing at their highest level.
REHEARSE
Develop the leaders, teams, and strategies needed to create lasting change.
PERFORM
Turn preparation into measurable results through sustained leadership, innovation, and organizational performance.
The Mattertree Difference
Complex Challenges Require More Than One Perspective.​​
​​​​Today's leaders face challenges that span people, performance, culture, innovation, and growth. Solving those challenges requires more than leadership theory—it requires practical experience across multiple disciplines.
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Mattertree founder Karlton Butts brings a unique combination of experience as an engineer, attorney, business executive, Fortune 500 consultant, certified executive coach, and #1 Amazon bestselling author—providing clients with a multidisciplinary perspective rarely found in a single advisor.
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Grounded in real-world business experience and guided by the Mattertree Method™, every engagement is designed to deliver practical solutions that create lasting results.
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​​Because better leadership isn't the goal. Better organizational performance is.
SERVICES
Every organization has different goals, challenges, and opportunities. Mattertree's three practice areas provide flexible solutions that can be tailored to your organization's unique needs, whether you're focused on developing your people, strengthening your organization, or accelerating innovation and growth.
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People Performance — Unlock Individual Potential.
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Organizational Performance — Synchronize Teams and Leaders.
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Innovation & Growth — Create What's Next.
PEOPLE PERFORMANCE
Unlock Individual Potential.
Exceptional organizations are built by exceptional people. Mattertree helps executives, attorneys, and emerging leaders strengthen leadership capabilities, improve performance, and maximize their potential.
Services:​
Executive Advisory
Strategic one-on-one advisory services for managing partners, general counsel, executives, and senior leaders seeking a trusted advisor to help navigate complex leadership, organizational, and business challenges.
Attorney Performance Accelerator
A structured coaching and performance development program that helps attorneys strengthen efficiency, productivity, communication, professional and client relationships, business development, and long-term career success while improving firm performance, engagement, and retention.
Leadership Development
Individual leadership development engagements for emerging leaders, new partners, and high-potential professionals. Great for succession planning!
ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE
Synchronize Teams and Leaders.
Exceptional organizations are rarely limited by talent. More often, they struggle with alignment, communication, execution, and culture.
Mattertree helps executive teams, law firm leadership, and legal departments identify the barriers preventing peak performance and implement practical strategies that strengthen collaboration, improve decision-making, and accelerate results.
Services:
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Opening Stage Assessment
Every engagement begins with understanding your organization.
The Opening Stage Assessment identifies opportunities, uncovers potential performance barriers, and provides strategic recommendations for moving forward. It is an ideal starting point for organizations seeking objective insight before committing to a larger engagement.
Leadership Soundcheck™
A comprehensive organizational assessment designed to evaluate leadership effectiveness, communication, decision-making, organizational alignment, meeting effectiveness, and overall performance through 30, 60, or 90-day engagements.
The Leadership Soundcheck provides practical recommendations and a roadmap for improving execution and achieving strategic objectives. Learn More
Leadership Experiences
Customized executive retreats, equity partner retreats, strategic facilitation, keynote presentations, workshops, and team experiences designed to strengthen leadership, improve organizational performance, inspire action, and create lasting cultural change.
Each engagement is customized to your organization's objectives and may include stakeholder interviews, assessments, strategic planning, and other pre-engagement activities to maximize the value of our time together.
INNOVATION & GROWTH
Create What's Next.
Innovation is more than developing new products. It is creating better ways to serve clients, improve operations, leverage emerging technologies, and build sustainable competitive advantage.
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Mattertree helps organizations develop practical innovation strategies that transform ideas into measurable business results while strengthening long-term organizational growth.
Services:
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Innovation Strategy & Advisory
Strategic guidance for organizations seeking to improve products and services, optimize operations, leverage emerging technologies, foster a culture of innovation, and identify valuable innovations that may warrant evaluation by qualified intellectual property counsel.
Important Note
Mattertree provides executive advisory and business consulting services. Although Karlton Butts is a registered patent attorney, Mattertree does not provide legal advice or establish an attorney-client relationship through these listed services. Organizations should consult qualified legal counsel regarding the protection, prosecution, licensing, enforcement, or other legal matters relating to intellectual property and their business.
FEATURED SERVICE
Leadership Soundcheck™
Realign. Refocus. Reignite.
​The Leadership Soundcheck includes focused 30, 60, or 90-day programs built for executive teams facing a rhythm problem - alignment challenges, internal friction, or slowed progress. Through targeted diagnostics and facilitated sessions, these programs identify core issues, realign leadership, and deliver a tailored roadmap that accelerates performance and restores confidence in the team’s direction.
PROGRAMS:
The Executive Boost
A fast, focused diagnostic to identify what’s off — and what needs attention.

Perfect for first-time clients, this 30-day engagement helps surface the real issues slowing your leadership team down. Through stakeholder interviews and a facilitated session, you’ll walk away with sharp insights, a strategic debrief, and a clear path forward.
The Leadership Reset
A tailored engagement to get your executive team back in rhythm — aligned, cohesive, and moving forward together.
In this 60-day engagement, we dig deeper into what’s holding your team back — and actively realign around purpose, priorities, and performance. Through a mix of diagnostics, team sessions, and strategy mapping, we help your leaders get back in rhythm and move forward together.
The Full Soundcheck
The complete tune-up for executive teams.
A deep, strategic engagement designed to align leadership, resolve persistent friction, and build a team capable of scaling performance, trust, and culture.
This 90-day engagement is built for lasting impact. From in-depth discovery to leadership sessions, 1:1 coaching, and a custom execution playbook, we help your team move from misaligned to high-performing — with the clarity, trust, and rhythm to sustain results.
Find Out If Our Leadership Soundcheck™ Is Right For You
Take our free 3-minute assessment to identify where your leadership team might be out of rhythm and where we can help. We offer a short complimentary call to discuss your assessment results and how our Leadership Soundcheck™ can get you back on track.
FEATURED WORKSHOP
​Corporate Soundtracks:
Harmonizing Values, Mission and Purpose​
​Our interactive, music-driven workshop transforms your company’s values, mission, and purpose into an unforgettable experience. Using music as a powerful mnemonic device, we create a high-energy, engaging environment that aligns your team with company goals, boosts morale, and fosters meaningful connections. Customized to your needs, this workshop turns learning into engagement and strategy into success. Build a more connected, motivated, and profitable company—one beat at a time!
FEATURED KEYNOTE
​The Soundtrack of Leadership:
The Music In Us​
What if the secret to building exceptional teams isn't found in another leadership theory, but in the timeless lessons of music?
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In this engaging keynote, bestselling author, musician, and executive advisor Karlton Butts reveals how the principles that enable great bands to perform at their best can help organizations strengthen collaboration, navigate change, and elevate performance. Through compelling stories, music, and practical insights, audiences discover how individual excellence becomes collective success.
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Whether you're leading an organization, managing a team, or contributing as an individual, you'll leave with effective strategies to strengthen relationships, improve collaboration, and help your team perform at its best.
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Because the greatest achievements are rarely solo performances. They're created when people come together to make something extraordinary.
Here's a testimonial from an audience member:
"Thank you again for an amazing retreat. I don't know if you know how much your keynote address resonated with our team, but it was awesome."
ABOUT KARLTON
Elevating Success.
Mattertree founder Karlton Butts brings a rare combination of experience that enables him to help leaders and organizations solve complex challenges from multiple perspectives.
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Over the course of his career, Karlton has served as an electrical engineer, technical consultant, attorney, business executive, entrepreneur, board member, certified executive coach, and bestselling author. He has advised executives, led high-growth business initiatives, helped launch global innovation strategies, negotiated complex business transactions, and guided organizations through periods of growth and transformation.
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His career includes experience with NASA, McDonnell Douglas, Booz Allen Hamilton, Finnegan Henderson, Loeb & Loeb, Intertainer, Acacia Research, and Mattertree, giving him a practical understanding of leadership, innovation, technology, business strategy, and organizational performance.​​
​As a lifelong musician and the author of the #1 Amazon bestselling book The Soundtrack of Leadership: What Music Teaches Us About Leadership and Culture, Karlton combines the lessons of music with practical business experience to help organizations transform individual excellence into synchronized performance.
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He understands leadership from every angle—technical, legal, strategic, and human.
IN THE NEWS
TESTIMONIALS
“I've had the privilege of working with Karlton a few years back where we were launching an innovation initiative with a Fortune 200 company. His contributions were invaluable, not just because of his integrity and intelligence, but more importantly his way of going about achieving things both as a leader and a mentor."
Jeff Stein
CEO, UOVO Wine
Let's Transform Challenges into Opportunities Together!
CONTACT
+1 310 893 0320
1230 Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 300
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266