Resources Reimagined

Is anyone else tired of spending so much time trying to prove on the internet that we’re good at the work we actually want to be doing?

I love coaching people. Teaching. Facilitating conversations that change something. Writing things that make people think. I’m good at it.

I love helping people feel safer in themselves, use their voices, lead differently, make more money, create change and actually enjoy being alive.

I didn’t start a business because I wanted to become a content creator. I started one because I wanted the freedom to do more of the work I believe matters.

And yet the modern Western business model tells me I also need to be a marketer, copywriter, videographer, salesperson and algorithm strategist.

Post consistently. Build a funnel. Grow an audience. Create a personal brand. Turn everything into “content.”

There’s something strange about a system that tells us to “be authentic” while teaching us how to package that authenticity for maximum engagement.

I’ve personally experienced the other side too: people who are incredibly good at packaging and selling what they do, but nowhere near as good at actually delivering it.

When did being good at marketing the work become more valuable than being good at the work?

I want my business to make money. I no longer believe there’s anything virtuous about good people being afraid of wealth.

But I don’t want my life to become an endless exercise in extracting value from myself.

Not every thought needs to become content. Not every relationship needs to become a lead. Not every meaningful experience needs to become something I can sell.

I’ve spent much of my career in international development, thinking about systems, power and inequality. We have a tendency to individualise systemic problems.

Business not growing? Get better at marketing.
Nobody seeing your work? Post more.
Exhausted? Fix your mindset.

Sometimes those things are useful.

But sometimes exhaustion is a rational response to a system that asks us to be endlessly productive, visible and available.

There’s an irony in trying to help people become more resourced while depleting yourself trying to reach them.

What would business look like if we designed it around human wellbeing rather than endless growth?

What if relationships mattered more than reach? Being useful mattered more than being constantly visible? Success included generosity, creativity, rest, connection and fun?

What if enough was allowed to be enough?

I’m tired of a version of business built around constant visibility, productivity and growth.

I love doing meaningful work, making good money, having fun, contributing something useful to the world, and still having a life.

Surely that shouldn’t be a radical business model.

This is part of the work I’m here to do: helping people build businesses and careers that resource their lives rather than consume them.

At the heart of pretty much every career decision I make is one question: How can I help more people?

It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.

This last week, Dolly Parton has been part of that thinking. I’ve always admired the way she used her success, influence and resources not simply to build more for herself, but to create something that genuinely benefits other people.

It’s made me think about my own work and what I want the next chapter of it to look like.

Because I know the approach I use helps people. I see it in my clients, and reviews like this one remind me of it.

But I’ve also been seriously considering going back to university to become a licensed counsellor in the state of Arizona.

And I’ve been asking myself why. I already have a Masters degree.

I have a background in case management, community services and international development. I’m trained in kinesiology and hypnotherapy, and I’m a Certified Trauma & Resiliency Coach.

My work is trauma-informed and strongly influenced by a salutogenic approach, rather than beginning with “What’s wrong with you?”, I’m interested in what supports health, resilience, meaning and a person’s existing capacity to move forward.

I also bring something that’s harder to put on a qualification list.

I’ve spent much of my career working inside systems designed to help other people.

And I’ve experienced how those same systems can sometimes overwhelm, deplete and even exploit the people working within them.

I understand what it’s like to care deeply about the work and still be exhausted by the system.

To be competent and capable and still feel like something isn’t working.

To wonder whether you need to become more resilient, when perhaps some of what you’re responding to is the environment around you.

And yet I keep coming back to a practical reality:

When people know they need support, many of them simply search for a counsellor.

They know what that word means.

“Coach” is much harder.

It can mean business strategy, accountability, goal setting, mindset, or someone giving you their five-step blueprint for your life.

That isn’t what I do.

Which is why this line from a recent client review really struck me:

“I was searching for something but couldn’t quite articulate what that was.”

I think a lot of people are.

They’re not necessarily in crisis. They may be functioning perfectly well on the outside.

But they’re carrying too much. Stuck. At a crossroads. Repeating patterns they understand intellectually but still can’t seem to shift.

Sometimes the problem is internal.

Sometimes it’s relational.

Sometimes it’s the system they’re operating within.

Usually, it’s more complicated than one or the other.

For some people, counselling or therapy is absolutely the right support.

For others, a trauma-informed, salutogenic, strengths- and resources-focused coaching approach may be exactly what they’ve been looking for.

They just don’t know what to call it.

And maybe that’s what I’m really trying to figure out.

I know this approach helps people. I’ve seen what can happen when people have the space to understand themselves differently, reconnect with their own resources and find a way forward that actually fits them.

I want more people who need this kind of support to be able to find it.

So I’d genuinely love your help.

When you’ve reached a point where you knew you needed support, what did you look for?

A counsellor? Therapist? Coach? Mentor? Something else?

And what ultimately made you choose the person you worked with, their qualifications, experience, reviews, a recommendation, or simply a sense that “this person gets it”?

I’d really love to know. Pls comment below.

You don’t have to know exactly what you need before you ask for help.

“I was searching for something but couldn’t quite articulate what that was.”

So many people come to me feeling exactly like this.

Carrying too much.
Knowing something needs to shift.
Not quite knowing where to start.

You don’t need to have it figured out.

We can start there. 🤍

If this sounds like where you are right now, send me a message. We can have a chat and see if working together feels like the right fit.

You don’t have to know exactly what’s wrong to know that something needs to change.

Maybe you’re stuck in a decision you can’t seem to make.

Maybe you’re overthinking something you’ve thought about a hundred times already.

Maybe the way you’re working, leading or running your business doesn’t feel right anymore.

Maybe you keep repeating a pattern you understand intellectually, but understanding it hasn’t actually changed it.

Or maybe things look perfectly fine from the outside, but somewhere inside you’re thinking:

I don’t want to keep doing it like this.

This is a lot of the work I do.

I help people slow down and get curious about what’s actually happening underneath the problem.

What do you really want?

What are you feeling?

What’s your nervous system doing?

What assumptions are you making about what you should do?

And what might become possible if you stopped trying to think your way to the answer?

I’m not particularly interested in giving people a blueprint for their lives, careers or businesses.

I’m interested in helping them understand themselves well enough to find their own way forward.

You don’t need to have it all figured out before you ask for help. Sometimes figuring it out is the work.

I work one on one with people navigating exactly these kinds of questions.

So if something in your life, work or business feels like it needs to shift, even if you can’t quite articulate what that shift is yet, send me a message.

You don’t need to come to me with a perfectly defined goal.

We can start with: “Something needs to change.”

I had two conversations with clients about money yesterday that made me rethink some of my own beliefs.

We all want to make more money.

And we all have complicated feelings about wealth, capitalism and what having “a lot of money” can represent.

With one client, we realised that every woman who pays to work with her has already done something powerful.

She has used her voice to say:

I need help.
I deserve support.
I’m willing to receive it.
I’m worth investing in.

So more money flowing into my client’s business means more women using their voices.

The money isn’t separate from the impact. It’s evidence of it.

With another client, we talked about financial agency.

It’s not just about how much money we accumulate. It’s about having the power to decide what our money does next.

And somehow both conversations ended up at:

What would Dolly do?

Dolly Parton made a LOT of money.

And she used it to create jobs, give books to children, help people in need, and create an enormous amount of JOY.

She didn’t have to reject wealth in order to reject greed.

Maybe those of us who care deeply about making the world better don’t need to be so afraid of making money.

Maybe we need more of it in our hands.

To help. To create. To change things.

And to have a bloody good time while we’re here. 💗

Sometimes at the end of the day, I look at my dogs and feel bad that I didn’t spend enough time with them.

And then guilty.

Like maybe they spent the day wishing I’d played with them more, cuddled them more, paid more attention to them.

Which is ridiculous.

I work from home. They’re with me ALL THE TIME. They get walks, treats, attention and ridiculous amounts of love. I have literally spent thousands of dollars on these animals.

And also… they’re dogs.

Probably the most present, unconditionally loving creatures on the planet.

They’re not lying there thinking, She seemed pretty busy between 2 and 4.

They’re just happy I’m here.

But here’s what I find interesting:

I made the whole story up.

I decided they might feel neglected.
I believed it.
And then I felt guilty and sad about something that wasn’t even happening.

How often do we do this?

Someone doesn’t reply and we decide they’re annoyed.

We decide our kids need more from us.

We decide we’ve disappointed someone.

We decide we’re not doing enough.

And our nervous system responds to the story we’ve created. The situation might not be real, but the feelings in our body absolutely are.

So now I’m using real energy responding to a problem that may not even exist.

For me, underneath so many of these stories is that familiar MORE.

More for my dogs.
More for my kids.
More for my partner.
More for my clients.
More for my work.

And if “doing enough” is the standard I use to decide whether I get to feel good about myself, I’ll never arrive.

This is part of Resourced Leadership for me, in work and in life.

Having enough space in my nervous system to catch the story and ask:

Wait. What is actually happening here?

Because I don’t want to keep exhausting myself solving problems that only exist in my head.

My dogs certainly aren’t.

They’re just wondering when they’re getting another treat.

Someone messaged me through my website today to tell me I had spelled “organisation” incorrectly.

Apparently, her husband had noticed that I used an S instead of a Z several times on my website and told her it was an indication of my “lack of education” and that she should find someone else to work with.

There was just one problem.

I’m Australian. 😂

“Organisation” is exactly how we spell it.

She, to her credit, thought her husband was being ridiculous and contacted me anyway.

But what stayed with me wasn’t the spelling.

It was the fact that this woman had found someone whose work resonated with her. She wanted help. She was struggling. And before she’d even taken the first step, someone close to her was giving her a reason to question her own judgment.

And THAT is something I see all the time.

We can spend so much of our lives looking outside ourselves for confirmation that we’re making the “right” choice.

What will my partner think?
What will my family think?
What if they think I’m wasting money?
What if they don’t understand why I need this?
What if they think I should be able to figure it out myself?

At some point, part of getting unstuck is learning to trust yourself again.

Not recklessly. Not without discernment.

But enough to say:

This resonates with me.
I want support.
And I’m allowed to make that choice for myself.

Anyway, I’m keeping the S because you can’t take the Aussie girl out of me.

And if you’re someone who is incredibly capable, has done hard things, takes care of everyone else and looks like you have your s**t together from the outside…

but privately you’re overwhelmed, second-guessing yourself, procrastinating on things you know you need to do, and wondering why the hell you can’t just get yourself moving…

You might be my kind of person. Reach out.