Feedback - what it's like to work together
Originally, I sought Angela out to help with rebranding my business and repackaging our services. Right from the start Angela saw the differentiation opportunity I’d missed, and tabled an idea that could quickly and clearly communicate the value we offer to clients.
I’m Sarah Gillis, the Founder of Aspire Australia, where for over 25 years my team and I have been helping clients to reunite with their partners, bring their parents or extended family here or start the next chapter of their career in Australia and realise their dreams of migrating to Australia.
The focus
Originally, I sought Angela out to help with rebranding my business and repackaging our services. I needed to clarify and define what I was offering and was anticipating a pretty straightforward experience.
But right from the start Angela saw the differentiation opportunity I’d missed, and tabled an idea that could quickly and clearly communicate the value we offer to clients. From there, we developed a 7-Step Migration Action Plan (MAP) that visually defined exactly what we did in an easy and compelling way.
As the owner of the business, you can get so ingrained in what you’re doing, that you can’t see how it looks to someone else. Before this initial work we did together, we’d not necessarily considered how little the client knew about the process and laid it out so clearly for them. Our new MAP immediately built trust and credibility for Aspire.
The difference you made
Angela had, and has, so much experience of other businesses – how they work and how customers and clients respond. So her advice is not theoretical, it’s creative, and it’s also practical.
In our case, she seemed to just know that once the MAP was implemented on our website, it would provide distinct points we could use as hooks to explain the entire migration application process, step by step, to people. And it did, allowing us to break it down, to make it accessible and reassuring and to also make their financial investment easier to understand.
This new approach transformed an unknown experience into a process with certainty and that made sales conversions easier and elevated the brand, giving us confidence in the market too. And that was just the start.
The results and what I value
I trust Angela, her judgment and her wealth of experience. That’s really important because there are a lot of sharks out there.
She’s honest and direct. Having her on my support team means I feel confident and motivated. Encouraged. She’s not sucking up to me and telling me what you think I want to hear – she’s sharing what she sees and what she feels needs to change. I need clear steps, nothing wishy-washy. Angela creates action plans. That’s useful. That’s valuable.
Angela also has a great network and often puts me in touch with people she knows in areas of business where I wouldn’t know where to start.
Thanks to our work together I ended up moving from an office the size of a cupboard to investing $50K fitting out a new office, and hiring six staff.
And all businesses change over time, so it’s about every couple of years I come back to talk through the next steps with Angela. I value that continuity.
I recommend you
If a business owner is feeling uncertain about what to do next or has multiple pathways, ideas and options and is feeling confused, or if they know they want to achieve a very different outcome, but can’t see how to get there… If they don’t have someone external and neutral, someone without self-interest to talk with, they should definitely connect with you.
I know when that conversation happens, when they see how quickly she develops insight into their challenges and issues and begin to lay out a way forward they’ll see her value and hire Angela on the spot!
Just like I did.
Angela is able to integrate ideas into the bigger picture of my business and life because she understands my long-term vision. She’s connecting the dots that I don’t necessarily see.
I’m Carolyn Tate and I describe myself an ex-banker, who then became a small business owner 23 years ago. There’s been a continuing evolution in my business focus over the years and I am now an educator and a writer. My passion is writing books that make a positive impact on the world, and I support women to find their voice and write stories of purpose, justice and equality.
The challenge
Throughout my entrepreneurial journey I’ve regularly repositioned and recalibrated my business and brand in the marketplace. Then I’ve developed a fresh strategy and determined new services and how to successfully market them. The challenge has been managing the ups and downs of business as a solo operator. Even when I created and was running my business school about five years ago surrounded by people, I was still a solo Leader and the key decision maker and that’s hard.
How we work together
We all need thinking partners.
Each time I’ve shifted into a new business territory Angela helped me understand what it means. She’s critiqued, analysed and suggested, helping me find clarity when I needed to make good decisions.
Angela is not a theorist, she actually owns and operates businesses and so has empathy for the challenges we face because she’s experienced them herself.
Trust is important and I can tell her anything and everything about my business – the turnover, what’s working, what’s not, my frustration and fears. Angela considers issues not just from a business perspective, but from a personal perspective. And because she knows me as a human being as well as a businesswoman, she understands what I really want in terms of my values and therefore, what’s going to stick and what’s not. She makes sure I’m not setting false goals – goals based on what the market or some guru tells us we should want!
Angela helps me stay focused and keep my eyes on the prize, regardless of what’s happening around me.
The balance we strike
For me, there’s a constant tension between what’s profitable and marketable vs purposeful and sustainable. What’s often missing in the coaching world is a dose of reality. Angela is always honest, making sure my ideas are viable (commercially and professionally) as well as personally satisfying. Her insight comes from having been around the traps, having worked with so many businesswomen and from working for herself, and on herself, for so long.
That experience means she’s developed wisdom and I benefit from that.
The questions that lead to clarity.
That wisdom shows up in every session we have.
For example, I’ve raised the challenge of getting more people to my Writers Circles. Angela asks critical questions to help me identify the real problem that needs to be addressed. And then our discussion moves into creative and iterative thinking to solve the problem. She always has fresh ideas that move me forward on a clear and positive path.
She’s also able to integrate ideas into the bigger picture of my business and life because she understands my long-term vision. She’s connecting the dots that I don’t necessarily see. A great recent example was the idea she had about creating an anthology from my participant’s stories – it blended marketing, revenue and credibility and I’m excited about it! She helped me see how I could expand the reach of my Circles geographically to increase reach, impact and revenue.
What do you value the most?
It’s her business acumen, and her ability to get to the heart of things.
Angela sees what people’s problems are because of her experience and knowledge. She’s quick, sharp, and incisive and able to quickly understand what’s blocking their growth and what needs to change.
After every session we have, I feel empowered and hopeful. Let’s be honest, we can sometimes find ourselves in a cloud of doubt as a business owner, wondering what we’re going to do next. One of my biggest challenges has been the tendency to jump from one thing to the next without thinking it all the way through.
Because Angela knows my purpose and my vision, she’s able to hold me true to them, and make sure my actions are aligned. She helps me stay the course and not succumb to bright shiny object disorder! That’s what builds traction and it’s one of the most valuable things about working with her.
There’s still a lot of work to be done in my business to evolve it, but that commitment and focus is far easier when I have Angela on my team.
Who do you recommend Angela to?
I’ve often referred women to Angela who are doing meaningful work in the world and are ready for the next step up or for recalibration.
They’re women wanting to streamline their business or take it up to another level. They’ve been working for themselves for a long time, are great at what they do and have good connections and loyal clients.
They’re at a point where they know that they can do better.
They’re frustrated they’re not making progress and are stuck in a loop. They want to do better and need to spark some fresh thinking. That’s where Angela adds immense value.
I know they’re in good hands with her. The feedback I get confirms this – so I’ll keep sending women her way.
It was fantastic working with someone not immersed in my business. Angela could see things from a different, fresh and independent perspective. We were able to formulate a realistic, tangible, staged plan to turn the vision we’d created into a reality.
I’m Amanda Lecaude, the Founder of Organising Students. We’re specialists in organisational skills and time management with a focus on academic and executive function coaching for students. Along with their parents, caregivers and schools, we equip our students with the tools, skills and strategies for study, school and life.
The challenge
When I first met Angela, I already had a successful business, but I had an idea in mind for a new opportunity.
After running a pilot workshop for students and receiving great feedback, I knew there was potential to expand. I needed someone to bounce ideas off, to help me develop a strategy and anchor me in accountability as I juggled the business I already had and the business I wanted to evolve into.
I’d seen Angela present at a conference and her approach to marketing and depth of experience resonated with me, so I got in touch. I’m so glad I did.
What happened
I flew from Melbourne to Sydney for our first strategy intensive in 2015. In that first, of now many experiences, we captured all the initial ideas and then narrowed them down to formulate a plan.
It was fantastic working with someone not immersed in my business. Angela could see things from a different, fresh and independent perspective. We were able to formulate a realistic, tangible, staged plan to turn the vision we’d created into a reality.
The result
I formed a new segment of my business that very day.
With support from Angela since then, Organising Students has evolved from simply hosting School Transition Workshops to a multi-faceted business with mentoring, keynotes, products, webinars and staff.
Working with Angela has made this journey easier. I might have got there in the end. But who really knows? While I had the ideas in my head, it was her ability to ask the right questions that drew out the solutions. Her suggestions and insights have been invaluable. The plans we’ve made together and the processes she’s advised me on have all been so helpful.
I’ve become well-known in my industry and the Organising Students brand now has great credibility. I’ve been invited to speak on podcasts, give keynotes at conferences and I had my first book published in May 2024. Our turnover has quadrupled and our services are booked-out with extensive waitlists.
So, the question now is, where to from here?
My next steps
The beauty of working with Angela is that she plants seeds for the future as well helping me focus on the here and now. Our long history means she understands that I’m an incubator and that I need time to consider the options we develop together. The space allows me to make better decisions, but she doesn’t let me stagnate either!
In our last strategy workshop, in addition to working through immediate and short-term strategies, we explored options for franchising and licensing. We’ll revisit them when I’ve had my incubator time.
What I especially value
I love that I can tap in and out when I need Angela. She understands me and my business thoroughly and continues to bring fresh ideas to me. In the years we’ve worked together, I’ve never felt the need to see what or who else might be available to help.
I’ve still got all the notes from when we first started working together. So many of our original ideas have been developed and become the backbone of Organising Students and they are still in place – like the Student Success Plan. They’ve morphed and evolved and remain as the original thinking was sound.
Anyone in the small business space who doesn’t have someone to support them in this way will benefit from working with Angela.
I’m grateful for all of the value she has added.
We consolidated my ideas into a framework we named “The Fatigue Solution”, created a
Visual wheel and a 3-phased approach. We pulled this concept across to Linked In and positioned me as the “Creator of The Fatigue Solution”, effectively taking ownership of this space.
I’m Catherine McCoy the Founder of iNaturally where I’ve been practising as a naturopath for over 18 years. I started out as a general practitioner, but over time my practice has evolved. I began to notice women saying how exhausted and fatigued they were feeling and I knew I wanted to focus on this aspect of health.
What did you need?
I was so busy running the business that I couldn’t find the time to focus on taming and directing the great swirling mass of ideas I had. It was so frustrating to see that when a client was in front of me I could easily pull all the things together and create a plan for them to go forward, yet in contrast, I could never pin my thoughts down to create the same level of clarity and strategy for the next stage of my business! Then I found you.
Our first steps
When we had an initial ZOOM consultation it was so good. I thought, “Oh, my God, she actually gets me!”
I liked the way that you drew out and were able to articulate my thoughts by asking questions that connected me to the big picture. You were immediately able to sort, process and elevate my ideas into a coherent whole. And I really loved the way that you could see things that I couldn’t see, possibilities and angles that I didn’t even know were there.
What we mapped out made sense and I was never forced out of out of my depth because you quickly understood the way I work. That’s not in great big huge pictures, or big grandiose ideas – I like order and logic and very achievable goals. I like seeing things mapped out in a way that clearly shows how to get from A to B, a way forward, that makes sense to me.
What we focused on
We consolidated my ideas into a framework we named “The Fatigue Solution”, and created a Visual wheel and a 3-phased approach. We pulled this concept across to Linked In and positioned me as the “Creator of The Fatigue Solution”, effectively taking ownership of this space.
The result – an authority initiative
It was at your Business Project Retreat that it all came together. We created structure, clarity and credibility not just for me, but for my clients as well. We clarified my messaging, rejigged the website, and developed an action plan that was the right fit for me.
I’ve found my clients are now more able to self-identify – when they contact me they’ve often already read the page and found themselves in the description and in the visual model. They have a clearer understanding of what they are experiencing and why. The Fatigue Solution concept offers deeper credibility and they seem readier to invest.
The unique value you added
I needed someone to sift through the white noise that was in my head, extract the gold and put it on a page. I knew it was all in there. I just didn’t know how to get out.
I’ve come across a lot of different business support options, but in comparison to your approach, so many seem very much cookie cutter. “It’s like, if you do this you’ll make $10,000 a week or whatever”. I knew that that was not what I needed.
You add immense value because you’ve been in business for a long time, you’re someone who loves to learn and grow, you’re happy to work deeply with me one on one, not in a group. And you’re a lovely person!
But the standout for me is that you have the ability to conceptualise and respond to what the public is looking for. You have such broad knowledge and sharp instincts – take branding and copy, as just one example. You can take a paragraph and quickly make changes to make it better, because you seem to have that ability to just… know. Your marketing background comes out strongly.
And you keep things simple. You’re never full of fluff and you never offer up any bull***t.
What’s next?
I feel that any growth or evolution in a business needs time for to settle. Then you can see whether you need to elevate it to the next level, or whether you need to tweak it.
That’s not something that happens overnight – it could be a month, it could take six months, it could take 12 months, until things are clear. That’s when I come back and say “this is what’s happening. This is where things are now and this is where I want it to go next”.
You have longevity when it comes to working with people in this way. You help us to evolve and build sustainable businesses. That’s what I value and that’s why I’ll be developing my next business chapter with you.
We’d been sponsoring many events but they dried up during COVID. Angela helped me pull together the concept for an online event we’ve called the PMO Leadership Symposium. It’s since become a successful in-person event. She gave me the confidence and support to move from sponsoring events to staging them, which created extra depth to our brand credibility.
I’m Louise Gardner, the Managing Director and Founder of Pledge Consulting. We’re specialists in project delivery support, helping organisations deliver projects effectively, through frameworks, planning, and assurance health checks.
What did you need?
I needed help from someone who understands the challenges of being a solo Founder. I wanted to grow the business and needed new skills and insights to get me there. I knew I didn’t know what I didn’t know.
I wanted a thinking partner to talk through my ideas with, so we began working together in 2020.
Our first steps
We’d been sponsoring many events but they dried up during COVID. Angela helped me pull together the concept for an online event we’ve called the PMO Leadership Symposium. It’s since become a successful in-person event. She gave me the confidence and support to move from sponsoring events to staging them, which created extra depth to our brand credibility.
Three years later, what began as a lead generation pipeline for the business has morphed into a business unit, a profit-centre of its own. We’ve added Masterclasses and additional events in two states. And now there’s more on the horizon, thanks to our most recent strategic planning workshop.
Continued Support
I return to the table with Angela twice a year as my ideas build up as I need her external lens on the business. That’s the primary driver. Sometimes I’ll think “I’d really like Angela’s opinion on that” so I’ll gather these thoughts for us to talk through before I make a decision.
The value she provides is very simple. It’s measurable. It’s tangible. It’s dollars on the bottom line. The strategies turn into actions that create significant revenue. I wouldn’t do it otherwise. It’s an expense a small business doesn’t need unless it returns value on the investment. And Angela does, every single time. Her insights and experience around marketing, consulting, social media, her contacts and networks, have significantly contributed to my business growth.
As an example, in the case of the new events revenue stream, there’s been a 200% increase because of our initiatives. That’s the business case proven!
I’m financially cautious, but as the business has grown I’ve realised I need more help not less. Working with Angela, I don’t feel like $1 has been wasted. It’s been an investment that’s consistently delivered a return in the four years we’ve worked together.
What’s unique?
I think Angela is unique within her niche. What she brings to a business owner like me is something quite different. She has a broad range of practical experience and business acumen and gives me the confidence to take action.
We have a long-term relationship because she knows our business and she knows me. There’s such value in that. I’m not going to wake up one day and say, “Oh, I’m a bit bored with Angela now, she knows our business too well, and I feel like explaining it to somebody else today!”
Business owners need this
Business owners need an external lens with someone who has experience and knowledge. That’s why Angela is a great option.
I tell other business owners she’s not a magical unicorn, that she can’t do it for people. They have to be ready and willing to take action and that can be quite scary. But I’ve always found Angela to be really supportive. I leave our sessions with a clear to-do-list with concrete steps to take to make them happen.
And isn’t that what we all need? Clarity on what we’re doing and the strategy to get us there.
Angela is an exceptional listener who draws out all your random thoughts and reflects them back to help you make sense of what’s important and then guides you with a framework for change. A wonderful combination of warm and engaging, with a no-bullshit, direct approach, she instils confidence and promotes action.
I decided to work with Angela because I felt like I was stuck professionally, not really knowing where to take my career and how to balance that with moving into my next phase of life wanting flexibility to pursue travel and perhaps explore other projects. Usually very decisive, I found that I was stuck in a loop of uncertainty and felt like I needed an objective viewpoint and framework for making these important life decisions.
I hesitated to engage a coach for quite a few months because I had never worked with one before and didn’t know what to expect. Finding the right coach for me was important. I came to Angela through a personal recommendation, we had a discovery call, and I immediately knew she was the right fit. The combination of Angela’s directness, supportiveness and proven expertise in self-leadership clinched the deal!
Unexpectedly, within the first coaching session with Angela I gained enough insight into my own values, strengths and skill sets, coupled with some very clear actionable steps, to start exploring options and start gaining some momentum – I was becoming unstuck! It was surprising to me that I could start getting clarity so early on in the coaching process.
Angela is an exceptional listener and can draw out all your random thoughts and reflect them back to help you make sense of what’s important and to help guide you with a framework for making change. She is a wonderful combination of warm and engaging, with a no-bullshit, direct approach. She instils confidence and promotes action.
The blend of strategy and principles of self-leadership that she shares apply to all of us, and the gift Angela gives is to help you see how you can apply them to your own circumstances to confidently make the changes you want.
I fully recommend Angela to anyone who wants to get un-stuck!
I loved having you as my strategist because you utilised all the information available and came up with ideas and the way forward that is perfectly aligned with me. Everything we covered was personalised for me and the synergy and energy in the session was so inspiring.
I was looking for someone like me (someone who is a coach, mentor and strategist) to help me strategise the way forward with my business and I’m so glad I found you.
I’ve had so many benefits from the VIP workshop – it was amazing!!!
In particular, the transformation I provide to my clients is now so clear, which is invaluable. I’d been trying for so trying to find the right words, and I needed you to help me unpack and articulate what was actually right in front of me that I just couldn’t see.
I loved having you as my strategist because you utilised all the information available and came up with ideas and the way forward that is perfectly aligned with me. Everything we covered was personalised for me and the synergy and energy in the session was so inspiring.
When you work with Angela you have a strategist who becomes your right hand – she’ll bring out your full alignment.
I LOVED the workshop and am looking forward to our next one!!!
I signed up for the Self-leadership Sessions because I have a strong desire to continue to grow as a person and as a leader, to harness more of my inner strength, to become more empowered and grounded in my abilities, and to support my vitality, so that I can show up in the world as…
I signed up for the Self-leadership Sessions because I have a strong desire to continue to grow as a person and as a leader, to harness more of my inner strength, to become more empowered and grounded in my abilities, and to support my vitality, so that I can show up in the world as my best self, and support others to do the same.
Having had the opportunity to experience Angela’s fabulous coaching in the past, I was confident that the content would be full of quality information and strategies, and her sparks of wisdom during the group conversations would be invaluable.
I was right.
I have already learned simple, effective strategies that I have been able to put into practice with immediate effect. I can already feel a positive shift in how I am “showing up” and I believe any professional woman looking to thrive will benefit from these sessions.
Working with Angela is a joy! She asked just the right questions at just the right time to help me clarify my thinking and make some initial strategic decisions. She is approachable, knowledgeable and experienced – the perfect combination of traits for me to partner with to redesign my business moving forward.
I chose a Business Strategy session with Angela to gain clarity about where to strategically focus my energy to reinvent and relaunch my business after completing a long sabbatical to complete my doctoral dissertation. From this session, I developed a broad plan and some immediate actions to work on. Angela is a joy to work with – she is approachable, knowledgeable and experienced – the perfect combination of traits for me to partner with to redesign my business moving forward. She asked just the right questions at just the right time to help me clarify my thinking and make some initial strategic decisions.
I can highly recommend Angela to any individual or business wanting to hone their thinking and translate that into action to optimise their next chapter!