Client Success Stories:
Hear A Clip From
Lauren Vallario
"When I went to Amber for coaching, I assumed I would be getting hacks, tools, and productivity coaching, but what I gained was a whole lot more. I gained a partner who was able to meet me where I was at and help me take my business to where it needed to go. I have since found clarity on my numbers, updated my pricing structure, refined job descriptions, conquered my inbox, overcome leadership challenges, created and stuck to better boundaries, extended myself more grace, become more productive, created more leverage, devised a plan to stick to my goals, executed many of them, increased my profitability, and opened up my time for content creation and partnerships I’m passionate about - projects that would have short-circuited my brain before. Most importantly, I’ve learned I don’t have to do it all myself. I have a supportive team I can lean on and the skills to lead them confidently. I am not nearly as overwhelmed as I used to be and I ‘feel’ better and more successful than my higher profits could ever show."
~ Lauren Vallario, CEO/Principal Designer of Lauren Vallario Designs
Lauren Vallario had already been in business for 11 years when she first heard I might be able to help her. And by all accounts she was already successful. She had a beautiful family and owned a profitable design firm that specialized in kitchen and bath design. But Lauren’s day to day did not feel successful… As her business and clientele list grew over the years, she had become more overwhelmed, exhausted, overextended, and she constantly felt guilty about not spending enough time with her family.
Lauren’s commute to the office was one hour and 15 minutes each way. Still is. Many moms might appreciate that chance for quiet, alone time away from the stresses of laundry, dishes, tantrums, and other responsibilities at home. Lauren didn’t feel any peace during her commute though. She was the only point of contact for contractors and clients who all had her phone number, so she was practically forced to work really long hours. She consistently took calls during her commute each way and her deep work and thinking was pushed to nights and weekends. She wanted to experience something different on her commute, maybe talk to her husband, listen to podcasts, or simply have the space to think, but she had no boundaries regarding her time with her clients, contractors, or employees. She felt stuck.
Lauren eventually hired two full-time employees to help reduce the overwhelm. Her junior designer did the CAD work and helped with site visits while her interior design assistant focused on admin, product sourcing, running around for samples, and keeping the office organized. She thought bringing them on her team would take some of the load off. And in some areas it did… but in other areas it added work. Now, Lauren also had to play the role of a leader, and delegating tasks and reviewing work took time and brain power. She also lacked boundaries with her new team members, willingly making herself available to them at all hours. Before she had been drowning in a sea of tasks and projects. Now she was drowning in a sea of projects and leadership responsibilities. It felt different but it didn’t feel good.
Then, a pivotal moment happened. Lauren found me through a friend who mentioned how her coaching with me had been going. She started listening to the Small Business Straight Talk Podcast on the regular, and decided to embark on a business coaching journey of her own with me. One of the first things I had Lauren do was change her voicemail, asking callers to contact one of her employees for assistance. I also had her take her cell phone number off her email signature. Those two tweaks made a big and immediate difference. Now, everyone calls the office instead of Lauren’s cell phone and one of her assistants takes the call. That buffer protects her time and she feels more in control of it.
I strongly encouraged Lauren to track her time so she would understand how it translates into revenue and it was eye-opening for her to say the least. It started with helping Lauren and her team move to Harvest because of its reporting capabilities. Utilizing the full functionality of their time tracking software, Lauren better understood the team’s capacity, where their time is actually spent, what areas of her business require more training for her team, where she needs to be higher touch versus where she can let them run free, and what additional support or shortcuts could be useful to them. Once she analyzed the data of how long certain tasks actually took, who performed those tasks, and at what rate, Lauren was able to accurately price all of her jobs hourly instead of by project because she had the intel, which proved to be much more profitable.
Additionally, I helped Lauren’s team get their task and project management system, Asana, to where it needed to be. Previously they had been using the free version and there was no strong rhythm. Lauren had a newer executive assistant (EA) whose primary role was to support Lauren in building processes and systems to help keep the wheels spinning and she was great. She just needed extra support to fully step into her role. I told her to document every task in every phase of recurring projects, then to build templates based on that. Her EA ran with it and created numerous SOP’s (or as Lauren likes to call them, the “How To’s”) then added them to Asana, which significantly increased the efficiency of the team. They still continue refining the SOPs but the difference in having them to reference has been night and day. Lauren’s EA taking over that massive project helped her break the habit of doing it all herself.
Two years into her coaching journey, Lauren and her team are no longer wrestling with as many challenges. Running her business feels lighter. She increased her revenue but even more importantly, her profit. She has a clear mind to work on the business and her goals. She still wakes up early but now it’s because she wants to. Before, her early mornings gave her anxiety because she was working on things that drained her during that time. Now, she purposefully uses her mornings to calmly enjoy her tea when the rest of the house is quiet, and work on the more strategic moves in her business that light her up. She knows that is the time she can be the most productive and is excited to work on those initiatives which give her energy.
With my coaching support and her own hard work and determination, Lauren has found clarity on her numbers, updated her pricing structure, refined job descriptions, conquered her inbox, overcome leadership challenges, created and stuck to boundaries, extended herself more grace, become more productive, created more leverage, devised a plan to stick to her goals, executed many of them, increased her profitability, and opened up her time for content creation and partnerships she’s passionate about - projects that would have short-circuited her brain before. The biggest change though, was probably the mindset shift that occurred. Before, every time something needed doing Lauren’s first thought was, I can just do it myself. It'll take me two minutes. Now, she has processes her team can rely on so she lets them take on projects and tasks, and own them without needing to step back in.
Lauren originally came to me for what she assumed would be productivity hacks, tools, and coaching, but she has gained a whole lot more. She got a partner who can see the connections between the things that felt like separate problems but weren't and helped her solve them. A partner who was able to meet her where she was at and coach her through taking her business to where it needed to go. A partner who held her hand through doing the foundational work she didn't even know she needed, but which helped her really turn things around and feel successful instead of completely overwhelmed in her day to day.
Hear A Clip From
Ellen Nystrom
"I originally reached out to Amber hoping she’d give me the secret magic formula to having enough time because I perpetually felt like I never had enough, despite trying all the time management tools and strategies in the book. During our work together, I quickly came to see that there is no secret magic formula for having enough time but I felt really comfortable with Amber so I let her behind the scenes of my business to see my struggles. We worked a lot on my calendar and my relationship with time which had been negatively impacting all the areas in my business and life. I am now better equipped to manage my business in a sustainable way which has created more freedom and joy in both my professional and personal lives. A great example is that during my time being coached by Amber, I took my business to such a healthy place that I was able to take a step back from my work and enjoy a four-week sabbatical which enabled me to recharge and then re-engage with a fresh outlook."
~ Ellen Nystrom, Owner of Nystrom Design
As many small business owners do, interior design firm owner Ellen Nystrom dreamed of taking a sabbatical from her business. That vision felt even more desirable post-Covid when she struggled with burnout but it also felt less attainable. Ellen perceived a sabbatical in which her business stayed healthy in her absence and her clients remained happy without her there to walk them through decision making as implausible, if not impossible.
But she kept thinking and she kept dreaming. Ellen started imagining what a sabbatical could do for her mental health and mindset, what it could do as far as helping her show up her best in her business upon her return. She hired me as her coach and explored how she could possibly prepare to be gone from the business routines and structure that helped her be successful for a long period.
Ellen made up her mind and set the goal of taking a two-month sabbatical during the summer, win or lose. Throughout her early years, summer had become synonymous with stepping away from routines and trying something new so summer seemed like the perfect time of year to test the sabbatical waters. Ellen entered the planning phase, tweaked her calendar, rescheduled meetings, stopped taking on new projects, and forced herself to be okay with extending timelines in the name of work/life balance.
Sabbatical-wise, Ellen built in a lot of travel, a lot of rest, and also a lot of flexibility into her plan. She utilized the principle of bookending to create freedom in her days and worked with me to diminish the fears that were clouding her decision-making. Ellen got clarity on what she wanted to get from her sabbatical, structured her schedule to ensure she did just that, aimed to experiment with getting into her creative flow faster, and delegated to her team members who were tasked with holding down the firm.
The mindset work, scheduling, and strategic planning paid off. Ellen achieved her goal of taking a sabbatical and having a healthy business to return to. Her business did not come crashing down like she originally feared. Instead, she returned to her business with renewed energy and focus and I coached her through a progressive return, including such strategies as not overpromising meetings right away and taking her time to get back into the flow of each project, then setting new milestones.
Ellen and I continued working together following her sabbatical. I provided coaching support dissecting her calendar, hiring a new team member, and determining the right pacing of her meetings. We solved for the immense pressure and build up ahead of meetings that had Ellen dreading them, despite always enjoying her time with her clients during the actual meetings. Through experimentation and with a bit of encouragement, Ellen learned she can push things out instead of pushing through and riding it out just because she had set deadlines, thus reducing her overwhelm. Ellen no longer believes time management is something other people just know how to do and she doesn’t. Instead, Ellen has vastly improved her time management and leadership skills which has enabled her to reopen her Reinvent Your Room service package. That package is not only lucrative for the business but it can also be handled by her junior team members without Ellen having to step in, so she remains free to work on her high-value activities that only she can do.
Through her dreaming, planning, and execution of her sabbatical, Ellen discovered that the impossible can be made possible. Once she believed that in her heart and mind, her new line of thinking allowed Ellen and her husband to purchase a weekend getaway cabin, another long-held vision board dream of Ellen’s. It’s quite amazing what one can achieve when they replace their self-limiting beliefs with positive thinking and get the support they need to execute confidently.
Hear A Clip From
Myrna Everett
"I didn’t think I needed Amber as a business coach. I listened to her podcast religiously though and referred other people to her. I was doing well, after all. I had built a legacy of high-level service and profitable operations. Looking back now, my business had been operating successfully but I had been operating at a breaking point. I was a one-woman show wearing all the hats which came at a steep cost. I was at full capacity working weekends and starting my days early just to keep up. Sure, I was consistently servicing my clients but behind the scenes, my hair was on fire. I was constantly consumed by the daily crises of vendors, installers, and client communication. I hired Amber and she helped me transform my mindset, navigate hiring, and create strategic systems which have helped me grow my team and start replacing myself in my sales and design roles. As such, I have been able to take guilt-free time off and spend more quality time with my loved ones."
~ Myrna Everett, Founder at Home Vogue Interiors
Myrna Everett is the founder of Home Vogue Interiors, a successful custom window coverings business that she started in Canada in 1993 and moved to San Diego in 2005. Long before we started working together in 2021, she had already built a legacy of high-level service and profitable operations. Myrna’s exceptional skills and technical expertise were undeniable, but her business model was operating at a breaking point. Together, we addressed her growing pains and worked to find solutions and better approaches.
Myrna was the ultimate one-woman show, wearing all the hats in her business for years. This dedication came at a steep cost: she was at full capacity working weekends, and starting her days early just to keep up. She was consistently getting tasks done without clients complaining but she routinely showed up to our coaching sessions "hair on fire," consumed by the daily crises of vendors, installers, and clients. The thought of relief seemed impossible. When asked to pull her role apart for delegation, her initial reaction was a blank stare back at me, insisting, "It's just one job. I can't pull it apart".
Still, we pressed on. Our work together was a four-year journey mainly focused on transforming Myrna’s mindset and strategic systemization. First, we had to address her deep-seated resistance to delegation. She resisted outsourcing accounting, believing something was going to get missed, but eventually ceded control. There were some hiring pains that came along with growing a team but once she put the right people in place, Myrna was able to unload tasks off her plate and into their capable hands. She found her lighter load to be a huge relief.
Next, we tackled Myrna’s complex quoting process. She insisted her manual, hand-written calculations were faster, but eventually realized that building digital formula driven spreadsheets was necessary for scalability, admitting the final calculators were way more efficient - even for her.
Even before we started working together Myrna had reached a turning point when she forgot to order for a paying client and had to do damage control. That single event prompted her to admit her memory-based system was "broken” and spurred her to start using the project management system AirTable. We worked together to maximize its functionality and create cohesive systems in AirTable which had quickly become her golden foundation for growth.
Finally, we moved to strategic hiring. Myrna successfully brought on a project manager who almost immediately streamlined everything, transitioning the business from Myrna’s old school paper files to a digital environment. The ultimate validation came when Myrna actually took time off from her business. Her project manager stepped up, used the systems and processes they'd built together, and kept the business running smoothly, even making sales in Myrna's absence.
Today, Myrna is transitioning out of the sales and operational roles she's held for over 30 years and stepping into her role as CEO and strategist. The transformation is evident in her personal life: after her first vacation with her project manager handling everything, Myrna's family commented that she was actually present, something they'd never experienced before as she was usually on her phone throughout vacations. She has since taken a guilt-free three-and-a-half-week vacation, secure in the knowledge that her business is no longer dependent on her constant presence. She is now focused on her next big step: interviewing to replace herself in the sales and design role so she can devote her energy to leading and growing her business.
Myrna has experienced quite the evolution - from running a successful business on the front end but headed toward a breaking point on the back end, to running a successful business on both the front end and back end, AND in a strategic way that has essentially made replacing herself possible.
Hear A Clip From
Amy Pearson
"Having Amber as a sounding board - someone I could ask my questions and pose my hypotheticals to - has been so incredibly impactful. And work-life balance now vs. before working with Amber has been night and day. I have always been pretty good about protecting my weekend hours but now I don’t go back to work after picking the kids up from school. I hang out and relax with them more. I find time to tackle home projects that used to be left until way late at night. I go to the gym and go on walks. I am able to take care of myself more. I even inverted the time I work in the business vs. on the business. It’s been a huge transformation. Amber really helped me successfully pull myself out of survival mode and transition to thriving mode. Now, I actually enjoy working on my business!"
~ Amy Pearson, Principal Interior Designer of Amy Pearson Design
One year ago, Amy Pearson was the owner and principal designer of a successful design studio in Portland, Oregon, a loving wife, and mother of 14 year-old twins. Her family was her entire world and her "why" for all of her business decisions - one of those decisions being hiring me to help her make some necessary changes in the way she operates as a business owner.
Though Amy was running a successful business, she was stressed out, burned out, and constantly feeling pulled between wanting to work less so she could spend more time with her family to wanting to work more so she could increase her revenue and afford private school for her kids. Decreasing her workload while increasing her revenue seemed like an impossible challenge to Amy but I listened to her plight, dove into her business, and was confident in the old adage where there is a will, there is a way. I remember telling Amy, “This is solvable and you are closer than you think.”
We got to work. First order of business: addressing Amy’s billing because the way it was structured- she was leaving money on the table. She was also being de-incentivized to work on her business even though that is where the passion and excitement lie, and that enjoyable work doesn’t feel like repetitive chores that aren’t profitable. She was literally floating after changing to flat rate billing. So much weight had come off of her.
Second order of business: Making a new hire. Over the year, Amy flipped her business model and decreased her unsustainable workload by hiring and training an assistant, improving her mindset, minimizing stress, increasing her capacity and profitability, and inverting the time she worked in the business vs. on the business - huge wins that she learned to celebrate!
Today, Amy’s weekends remain protected but now she doesn’t go back to work after picking the kids up from school. She spends more quality time with them and her husband. She finds time to relax and tackle home projects. She goes on walks and to the gym. She is able to take care of herself more. Amy had successfully pulled herself out of survival mode and transitioned into thriving mode. And her daughters? They are thriving too… in private school which Amy was able to pay for in cash. The transformation has been monumental, not just for Amy, but for her family, too. As it turns out, Amy’s challenges were solvable which has me smiling from ear to ear.
Hear A Clip From
Jenny Slingerland
"Before being coached by Amber, my business was thriving but running it didn’t feel good. I was a slave to my inbox, struggled with my ADD, had difficulty prioritizing, and my mind and body weren’t in a healthy place. I felt like I was short-circuiting. Amber gave me strategies to turn all that around AND make more time for my family. She helped me form a game plan to transform my business so it fits in with the life I crave and empowered me to make the necessary changes to see results. I wanted to change my life and with Amber’s help, I did!"
~ Jenny Slingerland, Owner & Principal Designer of Black Ink Interiors
Jenny Slingerland is the high-achieving owner and principal designer of Black Ink Interiors. When Jenny first came to me, her business was already thriving, profits were climbing, and the phone never stopped ringing. Still, running her business didn’t feel good.
Jenny was struggling as an entrepreneur wearing all the hats and feeling the pressure of ‘the buck stops with you.’ She was investing everything she had into her business and very little into herself. She wanted to be more present with her family but kept feeding the monster, giving the business more and more of herself. And no matter how much she gave, it didn’t feel like enough.
Jenny was a slave to her inbox and overwhelmed because she had a hard time letting go of tasks and delegating to others. She was also struggling with her ADD which made prioritizing and staying focused difficult. Jenny’s mind and body weren’t in a healthy place even though her business was. She felt like she was short-circuiting and got to a place where she’d had enough. Jenny realized she needed somebody to give her direction on how to manage her ADD, hold her accountable, and form a game plan for transforming her business so it fits in with the life she craves.
I look at Jenny today and am so proud of the progress she’s made in taking back control of her business and life. She is no longer bogged down working IN her business and actually works ON her business. She weighs opportunities against her goals and only goes down avenues she deems worthy of her time and energy. She anchors down her list of priorities and makes them happen instead of making excuses for why they can’t.
Jenny now executes strategies to curb her ADD and enable her focus. She no longer lets her inbox determine her day and is okay with something not being perfect but perfect enough so that her team can take the reins on some tasks and she can stay in her zone of genius.
Finally, Jenny got the permission she needed to create a schedule that allows her to work from home two days a week so she can be more present in her daughters’ lives. She now walks them to and from the bus stop twice a week and follows her passion for art by teaching art classes - things she could never have imagined doing before. Once Jenny’s eyes were opened to what was possible, she felt empowered to change her family life and did. Major props, Jenny!
Hear A Clip From
LuAnn Nigara
"Working out had been a non-negotiable for me six days a week. Once I started my podcast, all that time got sucked up as well as other personal time for my husband and passions. I was okay with that for a time because this huge, new project was so gratifying. I strongly believed I could produce an amazing podcast OR live a fulfilling personal life, but definitely not do both. Amber disagreed. She stepped into my life as a coach with different perspectives, knowledge, and strategies that helped me transform my mindset and realize what was possible. I let go of the notion that only I could do certain tasks in my business, made a new hire that has worked out brilliantly, and adopted an AND mindset that allowed me to reclaim what I’d lost in my personal life when I started my podcast. You really can have it all. Amber helped make that possible."
~ LuAnn Nigara, Keynote Speaker, Author, and Viral Podcast Host of A Well Designed Business
A few years back, a new client confidently said, “I bet I’m going to be your most difficult client.” I immediately became eager to dive into LuAnn Nigara’s successful business to help her fix what about it made her feel “difficult.” Running a business at LuAnn‘s level no doubt comes with a lot of chaos but I was determined to help her find more calm, create more efficiency, and have more time to live outside of her business, doing things she enjoyed. What that required was a giant mindset shift. Here’s how it all began…
Throughout her many years as a business owner, working out had been a non-negotiable for LuAnn six days a week. It boosted her energy, gave her all those feel-good endorphins, and kept her from getting “chubby and soft” (her words). That all changed once LuAnn started her very successful podcast and it sucked up all her free time. She let it continue like that for four years because she was:
Loving doing the podcast
Making a difference in others’ lives
Seeing higher revenue
LuAnn had willingly replaced recreation, personal time, and working out for something else that was extremely gratifying. The change in her personal life and freedom was dramatic but she accepted it. She had to, right?
I disagreed. I wanted her to have both and I knew she could. My goal was to help LuAnn figure out how she could regain all that she’d lost in her personal life while continuing to produce her amazing podcast and run her business. I was confident LuAnn could transform her mindset from thinking OR to living out AND. We just had to find the right strategy.
I dove into LuAnn’s business, approached it from a different perspective, and asked an insane amount of questions to find out where we could reclaim the most time to achieve the biggest breakthrough. I found the answer in her weekend routine. She was spending 6-12 hours writing the intro/outros to her three weekly podcast episodes every weekend! I recommended she give outsourcing her intro/outros a shot. LuAnn admitted her check engine light had not been working, continuing at the speed she was going was not sustainable, and something needed to change. Still, she firmly resisted outsourcing her intro/outros as she was emotionally attached to them and believed they were her secret sauce that only she could write.
My relentless recommendations to LuAnn eventually paid off. She hired a few writers, loved the intro/outros they wrote, and made final edits if needed before each episode aired. The result? The quality of the intro/outros didn’t suffer because the experienced, professional writers expertly mimicked LuAnn’s voice. LuAnn reclaimed her weekends for spending quality time with her husband, working out, and doing whatever else she wanted to do instead of what she had to do. It felt great and freeing not having the looming intro/outro deadlines hanging over her head every weekend.
Conquering LuAnn’s long-held beliefs that a) she was the only person who could write her intro/outros and b) she had to choose between serving her listeners at the highest level OR having time for herself on the weekends, was just one of the many strategies we worked on together to help LuAnn minimize the chaos, create more balance, increase efficiency, and give her more time to operate in her zone of genius. We also made moves to systemize parts of her business, switch gears less often, reduce the trips down time-consuming rabbit holes, stop bottle-necking projects, get out of her inbox, batch tasks, track her time, be more intentional with it, and achieve other mindset breakthroughs she can build upon. I am happy to say LuAnn’s check engine light is working again and she’s operating at peak performance.
Hear A Clip From
Tim Clothier
"I was the classic overworked business owner. Coming home late, never finishing projects, pulled in a million directions at once. Fast forward to today – I now have a daily schedule; tasks get done and things don’t drop through the cracks. I spend time each week working on business development rather than chasing my tail to just keep the business running. I delegate better, feel calmer and most importantly – spend time with my wife and my son. Amber has been instrumental in developing systems so I can run and grow the business I want and be the husband and father I promised myself to be. Amber has become an integral part of my team. She communicates ideas and concepts extremely well and is an excellent motivator. She now also works with my key management staff, which has helped them professionally and personally. If I could sum up my coaching sessions – I would say coaching is a business asset that is a key ingredient to growth and success."
~ Tim Clothier, CEO of Illusion Projects
Tim Clothier is the CEO of next-level fabrication shop Illusion Projects Inc. which originally got its start in taking magicians’ large-scale magic props from idea to completion. Once Tim got married and the let’s-start-a-family-discussions began, he knew he had to get his business house in order fast so he could be a good dad. Due to his upbringing, Tim was already hyper aware that he wanted to be a present dad which hardly aligned with how he had been running his business. He was consistently starting work at 8am and leaving work after 9pm six days a week. He knew his future child(ren) deserved better. Around the same time, Tim was feeling so exhausted from working so hard day after day that he asked himself, “Am I a business owner or just working really, really hard for a job that is not paying me enough for the work I’m doing?”
Tim’s biggest wakeup call came shortly thereafter when he arrived back at his workshop one morning after a late night there and realized he had left the doors open. Things HAD to change. Tim got to planning and identified some changes he wanted to make in the way he runs his business and how it affects the rest of his life.
He wanted to STOP:
Getting caught up in the day-to-day instead of moving projects forward
Operating in firefighter mode 100% of the time, making him constantly feel scatterbrained
Underestimating how long it takes to complete tasks
Spending way too much time at work
Allowing constant interruptions from his staff
The rinse and repeat of wake up super early, work until super late, sleep
Attempting to wear every hat
Being the self-proclaimed “world’s worst micromanager” which prevents others from doing their jobs
Being a “horrible chokepoint” holding everyone else up
The Tim Show! and actually allow his talented team members to execute their own creative ideas and flourish
So, Tim started planning how he could make those changes. What he could not have planned on was how big his business was going to get during the transformation. The demand for Tim’s services exponentially increased and his plan for changing the way he ran his business so he could be home with his family more first and foremost, was at risk of imploding. Tim needed someone to help him stay focused, be organized, and get unstuck, just as he helps his client get unstuck with their ideas. His mentor recommended he talk to me about coaching and seven years later, here we are, still meeting together twice monthly for private business coaching sessions.
During our seven plus years together, I have become what Tim calls an “integral” part of his team. I work with his key management staff to ensure the business is running smoothly and Tim is able to continue achieving his goal of going home at a reasonable hour each night to be with his family. I’ve sat on the hiring committee to help him choose the right assistant out of 140 applicants. I love motivating Tim, helping him prioritize his ideas, and working with him to overcome his challenges as he continues to scale his business. We have accomplished a lot throughout our years working together (I say “we” because I partner with my clients in their success) and I am so proud of Tim for how he has transformed the way he runs his business and for what he has been able to achieve.
Since Tim started private coaching sessions with me, he has been ABLE TO:
Lead his team more effectively and stand tall in the visionary role of the company
Breathe and maintain a greater space to think and create
Go home a lot earlier to spend quality time with his wife and son
Hire more team members to reclaim time for focused design work
Take his son to school when he wants to
Take sick days and not be worried if his team is moving forward on projects
Successfully manage interruptions because there are far fewer these days
Not be stuck in the shop all day
Have a CEO Day once a week in which he does big picture planning off-site, away from distractions, and flushes out the steps to execute his vision and ideas
Deliver projects to clients on time
More readily step outside his comfort zone because he has the bandwidth to execute
Effectively manage his inbox, sales calls, and projects
Magically bounce between his CEO role and creative role in no time at all
Tim created his business because he loves to push the envelope and do things that haven’t been done in terms of design, and he wanted to share that passion with the world. Now that Tim’s much better equipped to navigate any situation that arises and run his business confidently, he is achieving his vision daily and actually enjoying the journey that once felt entirely too overwhelming and time-consuming. Top hats off to you, Tim!
*To discover the new projects Tim took on, the personal goals he smashed, and the successes he achieved since his initial interview, check out Tim’s Update Interview
Hear A Clip From
Vita Vygovska
"Knowing how goal-oriented, efficient, and productive I am, everyone thought I was crazy for wanting to hire a business coach. I figured that top athletes in the world have coaches to help them reach peak performance, so why shouldn’t I? The long hours and amount of work required to keep my business thriving had been wearing on me. I knew there had to be a better way so I made some hires to assist with the workload. New employees meant new challenges though. Amber stepped in to help me navigate some hiring changes and take my time management and productivity to new levels. My business is still thriving but now, it feels way less messy. My quality of life has also improved, I am more present with my family, I feel more balanced, and I have more time for self-care. I have evolved into a better version of myself (Vita 11.0)."
~ Vita Vygovska, Owner of Vitalia, Inc. WIndow Treatments & Awnings
Ever come to a crossroads in your entrepreneurial journey where you had to make a difficult choice between two paths that look and feel very different and lead to two very different places, both of which would be better destinations than where you currently are?
Vita Vygovska, the owner of Vitalia Inc. Window Treatments & Awnings, came to such a crossroads about 12 years after becoming a self-proclaimed corporate dropout and starting her own business as a solopreneur. It was just a few years ago that Vita came to the realization that she didn’t want to be doing a lot of her tasks anymore. She was working very long hours and the work was wearing on her greatly. Vita knew there were plenty of tasks she could delegate but just the idea of developing a team seemed scary - not on the financial level necessarily but just the high responsibility leading a team involved. She worried whether she’d have enough work for team members all the time as her business has a seasonality and ebbs and flows for other reasons as well.
Building a team seemed scary but Vita knew she didn’t want to continue as is either. As a solopreneur, she was maxing out on time, revenue, and net income. Sure, she was working at peak productivity but at the same time, she was feeling resentful for the amount of work she had to do and the amount of time she had to dedicate to her business to stay at that level. Vita was at a crossroads where she had to say no to some clients OR develop a team so she could continue to say yes to clients. The decision of which path to take took a lot of soul searching and journaling. It was somewhat of a tumultuous process for Vita but once she decided scaling up was the answer instead of scaling back, she pressed on full speed ahead.
Vita asked herself: How am I going to grow my team? How am I going to become version 11.0 of myself in order to support my team? Who is going to help get me there? Vita decided hiring a productivity coach was the next right step in scaling her business. Knowing how goal-oriented, efficient, and productive Vita is, everyone thought she was crazy for wanting to hire a productivity coach. Vita shared her analogy that Olympians have coaches even though they are the top athletes in the world. Why shouldn’t the best business owners have coaches to help them reach peak performance? As Vita said, “Having a coach is non-negotiable.” That’s where I came in.
I partnered with Vita on her entrepreneurial journey once she had already scaled her business to a team of five but I coached her through some necessary employee changes. Her revenue was at $500,000 as a solopreneur and now she’s exceeded $1 million two years in a row with a team of seven supporting her along the way. According to Vita, her quality of life has improved, she’s more present with her family, she feels more balanced, and she has more time for self-care. We restructured Vita’s day so her journey is more enjoyable and running her business feels less messy. She feels that she has evolved into a better version of herself (Vita 11.0) and loves that I held her accountable during our time working together. As Vita said, “When the chemistry is right, it’s amazing.” Vita truly is a great student who was willing to learn and change her actions to change her life!
Hear A Clip From
Michael Costantino
"I took a leap of faith when I hired Amber to be my coach and that decision is one I now know I’d make 100 times over, having experienced the results. Amber helped me surpass my annual revenue goal in February! We then started dreaming bigger and I’ve been upleveling my goals ever since, including building my team. That growth was made possible by Amber helping with the key areas where I struggled: delegating, time blocking, staying focused, creating SOP’s, work/life balance, reducing overwhelm, and implementing a time management system that could keep up with the growth. I no longer let every buzz, beep, and click distract myself but instead, use effective strategies to cut out the noise and use my focused time to intentionally get my best work done. Thanks for partnering with me Amber."
~ Mike Costantino, Co-Owner, President, and Principal Architect for Montebello Architecture & Design
As a business owner, sometimes we fall short of our goals.
Sometimes we overshoot our shot. Other times a change in circumstances or resources prevents us from hitting our goals or we simply don’t put in the required effort. Still, other times the opposite of falling short happens and we crush our goals in record timing. That’s what happened to Michael Costantino, the Co-Owner, President, and Principal Architect for Montebello Architecture & Design. Shortly after growing his team, he became a goal-crushing machine. His entrepreneurial journey didn’t exactly start out like that though…
After starting his business in 2018, Michael hired his first employee and felt like he was stumbling through figuring out how to lead a team. On the design side, he found it difficult to delegate tasks and decide which portions of projects he could pass off. On the leadership side, it was hard finding time to train his growing team while also navigating the many other challenges of being a business owner. Michael was also hellbent on providing exceptional service to his clients so he was making himself available all day long. That meant he allowed every buzz, beep, and click to distract him from what he was doing and therefore didn’t have enough focused design time. Michael was working long weekends to compensate and while his wife was fully supportive, he didn’t want to be away so much and miss out on quality time with her and his daughter. Michael sought support from business podcasts and stumbled upon my Productivity Straight Talk podcast. A year later, he took a leap of faith and hired me to be his coach.
After working together for some time, Michael and I set realistic revenue goals based on his previous year. We were optimistic he’d hit them but midway through February he had already surpassed all of the goals he had set for the entire year! That’s when we really ramped up what was possible and dreamed even bigger. Ever since, Michael has had to keep upleveling his goals as his team and business have grown.
So what had changed? Well, Michael had started running his business with a growth mindset, a better stocked tool belt, a great deal of intentionality, and a coach who supported him through building a team of three employees plus contractors and navigating tremendous growth in a short amount of time.
During our time working together, Michael specifically learned:
- He can ask for help in both his business and personal life which gave him greater balance
- How to time block effectively which helped him manage his time better and stay focused for longer periods
- How to trust his team and delegate more to them which freed up his time
- A new task management system that enabled him to keep up with the growth
- How to create SOPs and dummy proof their hiring process which minimized hiccups during scaling
- How to invest his best time into his best activities so he could continue achieving at a high level without constantly feeling out of balance and overwhelmed
Contrary to popular belief, it IS possible to not feel overwhelmed all the time in your business. Sometimes a decision just needs to be made, a system created, a process documented, a workflow shifted, boundaries maintained, or you simply need to stop overcommitting yourself to tasks and activities that don’t align with your goals.
Once we partnered up, I dove into Michael’s business, asked the tough questions, pinpointed what projects and tasks should be focused on, and helped him identify solutions that could work to overcome his challenges.
Asking for help is not a weakness. It’s giving yourself the opportunity to grow.
Hear A Clip From
Robyn Howard
"Working with Amber has been transformative. She helped me get clear on what type of client I wanted to serve which laid the foundation for niching down from four different types of clients to one. That radical change to my business model was the breakthrough that made everything else just click! I had far fewer “exception” clients so I was able to automate my systems and create SOP’s which made delegating much easier. I was able to serve more and better clients because I no longer had to create varied marketing to speak to four different types of clients. I reclaimed time for priority tasks and quality time with my kids. I also made major strides in finding my CEO voice which helped me lead my team more effectively and increase my business’ revenue. I owe so much of that growth and success to Amber’s guidance and support. Now that I'm intentionally working ON my business, I have reduced the amount of time I spend IN in my business from 6+ hours each day to less than 8 hours each week! Everything about my business feels better and I am so much less overwhelmed these days."
~ Robyn Howard, Owner at Top Level Content
Robyn Howard is as great of a coaching client as they come. She’s extremely coachable, actionable, and comes to every session prepared to unload and strategize so she can get the most out of the sessions and leave with action plans she’s excited to execute. Robyn finds so much joy and freedom in running her business these days but it wasn’t always like that…
A couple of years back, Robyn was running her successful blog content writing agency that supported SEO and digital marketing companies in sourcing blog content for their clients. She was also parenting her two children with special needs who had their own demanding schedules. Robyn was grateful for her full client load but at the same time, she felt like a duck, smooth sailing on the client-facing surface, but paddling for her life beneath the surface. That’s because Robyn was doing most of the work in her business herself and was therefore completely overwhelmed.
Robyn sought support in productivity podcasts, became a listener of mine, and went on to take one of my masterclasses, join my group coaching program, and then become a private coaching client. Together, we dove deep and got to the bottom of her overwhelm. Mainly, Robin wasn’t running her business efficiently and she wasn’t using her CEO voice. Instead of investing her time intentionally into the projects and tasks that needed to get done, she was operating in firefighter mode - running from fire to fire to fire, putting most out, getting burned by some. That incessant fighting was wearing on her mind, energy, and passion for her work greatly. She needed to catch her breath. So, we created goals to free up time so she could breathe, minimize the chaos, and reclaim time for marketing and sales so she could pursue her bigger goals.
One place Robyn and I worked on together to reclaim loads of time was in getting clear on who she wanted to serve. A self-proclaimed people pleaser, Robyn had been serving four different types of clients which had made automating her systems and processes difficult. It also made delegating incredibly challenging because there were so many necessary exceptions. She kept so much how-to knowledge in her head that she would constantly get interrupted by her team members asking her how to complete certain tasks or communicate with particular clients. Total time suck.
Once Robyn got clear on the type of client she actually enjoyed serving, she niched down from four different types of clients to one and radical, positive changes occurred. She had far fewer “exception” clients so she was able to automate her systems and processes. She was able to create SOP’s which made delegating much easier. She was able to serve more and better clients because she no longer had to create varied marketing to speak to different types of clients. She reclaimed time for priority tasks and quality time with her kids. She made major strides in finding her CEO voice which helped her effectively lead her team and increase the business’ revenue. Everything felt so much better after Robyn got really clear on who she wanted to serve and how she could best serve them.
And that was just one of the many areas Robyn and I worked on to alleviate her overwhelm. Robyn now creates her schedule guilt-free and puts out far fewer fires. She’s better able to adapt and reset when her plans get hijacked and she has the bandwidth to dream bigger for herself and her business. Because she’s now intentionally working ON her business, Robyn has reduced the amount of time she spends IN her business from 6+ hours each day to less than 8 hours each week. That change has been transformative. It has been such a pleasure to watch Robyn evolve as a business owner and make running her business more joy-filled. Her journey has truly been an amazing one to partner in, and it’s far from over!
Hear A Clip From
Jessica Risko Smith
"I brought my challenges to my sessions with Amber and she brought the hard truths of what habits I needed to change and what actions I needed to take to be a better, more impactful business owner. But -- she did so with empathy and compassion that set the stage for me taking strategic, determined action. I had so many ah-ha’s working with Amber and was able to navigate some of my greatest challenges in business because of them. Having a coach who understands the intricate challenges business owners face and who is able to support you in overcoming them made all the difference."
~ Jessica Risko Smith, Owner at Jessica Risko Smith Interior Design
Before launching her business, Jessica Risko Smith had a long career at Gensler where she worked with Fortune 500 companies. Jessica was able to gain a full range of experience at the worldwide corporate design firm, especially in business systems and processes. She eventually took what she learned and opened her own firm in Santa Barbara, choosing to specialize in residential interior design.
Jessica was a one-woman show for a couple of years as she built her clientele and residential portfolio. She didn’t have the support of a large team but drew on her background at Gensler who had a well-defined team for everything. After she had her second child and moved to a new office space, Jessica decided it was time to grow. She first brought in a bookkeeper then kept adding others to her team. As a budding business owner, Jessica was a natural but as a lifelong learner intent on honing her craft, she constantly attended conferences and listened to podcasts. Over a decade and countless satisfied clients later, Jessica was still doing a lot of listening and absorbing but she had gotten to a point where she couldn’t implement what she was learning in a way that felt supported. She recognized that her team, although awesome, simply didn’t see the business the way she saw it and they couldn’t help her navigate her biggest challenges:
Hiring
Being the kind of boss she wanted to be
Deciding when to wear each of her many hats
Knowing what tasks to prioritize each day
Managing self-criticism
Celebrating her wins in a compassionate way
Recognizing her own capacity
Creating efficiency systems
Her all or nothing attitude
So… Jessica took action and entered my world as a coaching client. I commended Jessica for investing in herself. I also let her know that in order to see the changes she desired, she’d have to be brave and vulnerable. And boy, was she ever! Jessica willingly poured out her life, business, setbacks, and ideas during our sessions which allowed us to deep dive into limitless possibilities for positive changes. Together, we continuously reflected on what she already accomplished… is in the middle of… made decisions on already… tried that hasn’t worked… tried that has worked… and discussed how her wins can empower her to make decisions on what’s next and where to invest her time. Now equipped with a sounding board and supportive strategies backed by a coach who understands the intricate challenges business owners face, Jessica began investing her time more intentionally. She even dug more design time into her foundation which paved the way for more joy-filled work and higher profitability.
According to Jessica, I gave her the hard truth in areas where she could improve but with empathy and compassion that set the stage for determined action. Jessica is now working more efficiently, touches things less, judges herself less, systemizes more parts of her business so they can practically run themselves, leads her team more confidently, moves through decision making more quickly, and is no longer kicking the can down the road indefinitely because she creates realistic goals for how much she can get done. Instead of setting impossible goals and feeling bad about the 80% of her tasks she couldn’t accomplish as planned, Jessica now schedules only 20% of her work - her most important work that moves the needle forward - and if she is able to accomplish more, great!
Jessica absolutely loves owning her business because it merges her passion for interior design which allows her to be creative and her passion for business which challenges her to grow. She especially loves owning her business now that she’s ironed out many of the challenging kinks. Jessica’s journey to become a better, more impactful business owner has been remarkable to watch - and this chapter of growth all started when Jessica realized she couldn’t go farther on her own and took action to get support via private coaching.
Client Testimonials:
Have time now to create new products and services!
I kept getting frustrated with my unpredictable schedule and how to grow my business when I felt like I didn't have time to focus on activities that moved the needle. I'd done nearly everything (Amber) recommended on her show but when I finally sat down with her for a coaching session, she helped me see the time block that I had in my schedule each week that would allow me to focus on growth. Since our session, I was able to do a big product launch that I never would have considered in the past. I'm months ahead in content scheduling and have time now to create new products and services that are going to help me diversify. Thanks Amber!
Great support. Just do it!
Not having a sounding board for business items and processes was a huge frustration of mine. I listened to Small Business Straight Talk every morning and one day I decided to take Amber’s advice in her closing quote, “No change? No change. Without taking action, nothing will change for you or your business.” I took the plunge, hired Amber to be my business coach, and never looked back. Amber was a great support and really helped me through a major transition in my business. She supported me in achieving my goals, staying focused, and she gave me great action items to complete which helped me work through issues and create new systems with our team. Working with Amber was a great experience which highly recommend. You won't regret your investment working with her. Just do it!
Packed with step by step digestible information!
Amber's masterclasses (and podcasts) have improved my day to day productivity while chiseling away the overwhelming feelings of being an entrepreneur. Packed with straight forward, step by step, and digestible information, her teaching has allowed me to immediately implement activities I've been wanting to improve for years. Thank you Amber, I wouldn't be making this progress without you!
Coaching is a business asset that is a key ingredient to growth and success
I was the classic over-worked business owner. Coming home late, never finishing projects, pulled in a million directions at once. I knew something had to change (my wife DEFINITELY knew something had to change!). I needed someone to help me to do this as I knew I couldn’t do it myself. My business mentor recommended Amber to me and I decided to book a session. I canceled and moved the first session three times as I was too busy to make it happen. It became a running joke with my staff that I was too disorganized to schedule time with the organization coach. Fast forward to today – I now have a daily schedule; tasks get done and things don’t drop through the cracks. I spend time each week working on business development rather than chasing my tail to just keep the business running. I delegate better, feel calmer and most importantly – spend time with my wife and my son. I vowed to not be the business owner dad who missed soccer games or birthday parties and was never home at dinner time. Amber has been instrumental in developing systems so I can run and grow the business I want and be the husband and father I promised myself to be. Amber is excellent in helping understand the business and create a custom structure with me that works. She asks the right (and sometimes) hard questions to get me to think about where the business is going and how I can organize my life to achieve those goals. Amber helped me understand not just vision and goal setting, but how to effectively create a plan to have the time to work towards and ultimately achieve those goals. I honestly don’t know how I managed to keep everything together before I worked with Amber. Amber has become an integral part of my team. She communicates ideas and concepts extremely well and is an excellent motivator. She now also works with my key management staff, which has helped them professionally and personally. If I could sum up my coaching sessions – I would say coaching is a business asset that is a key ingredient to growth and success.
Loaded with practical, realistic, and usable tools and advice!
Prior to this course, I was swimming against my procrastination habit because I felt overwhelmed and struggling with perfectionism freezing my progress. The ideal week and weekly review I learned in this course have helped me to feel more confident about what is happening, and what is going to happen, with my to-do list, project list, and schedule. I can more readily recognize where delegation of a task is the best answer for the things that I don't need to do myself.
The course covered the content I was expecting and so much more! I liked how the productivity tools and sessions built upon one another and the last session was fire! I watched it two more times because it was so loaded with practical, realistic, and usable tools and advice! I particularly liked how the sessions built up to the last grand finale session where the information blocks from the earlier sessions all came together.
The program is a doable commitment (one hour per week) and affordable (great price point!) while being jam-packed full of helpful and workable information. I liked being able to re-watch portions of the videos in order to squeeze every last bit of information I could out of each session. Really nicely done. I appreciate Amber's positive energy and her friendly but direct manner of instruction/coaching.
Life changing results!
I hired Amber because I knew her expertise would help me gain control of my schedule and elevate my business. Our work together has been life changing and has allowed me to manage my time better and streamline my commitments. I highly recommend working with Amber if productivity, time, or email management is something you struggle with.
Walked with me like a friend and a professional coach
I found Amber's podcast serendipitously over two years ago and enjoyed her content. Her style was friendly and professional, and I used her tips and got encouragement in my business. As a newer realtor, I was getting information coming in from so many sources, but I continued to go back to Amber's messaging over and over. In about December 2020, after putting in 50 - 60+ hour work weeks the whole year, I needed some clear focus to create the business I wanted and not just be run over by the business. I hired Amber for 1:1 coaching, and she quickly figured out where I was coming from, what my strengths were, and what my weaknesses were. She helped me create a work week that included boundaries, family time, and organization, and taught me how to implement an assistant so I can focus on what I love (serving people) while knowing the other work was also getting done. Her Master Classes are excellent as well. Amber has walked with me like a friend and a professional coach. I trust her and truly appreciate the opportunity to work with her.
Small changes that made a HUGE impact.
She helped me to organize my schedule and prioritize my day. Many of her suggestions were small changes that made a HUGE impact. I highly recommend Amber to anyone.
I'm an all-around better boss
Amber was amazing to work with. I appreciated her honesty, no-nonsense approach, calm demeanor throughout the coaching process, and objective way of looking at problems and helping me find solutions. She listened closely to everything I said and helped me find themes and the REAL issue causing them.
Before I was really struggling with time management, scheduling, and productivity. I was saying no to the wrong things, looking out for everyone else’s needs instead of my needs and the needs of my business.
Now I have a much better handle on my workload. I time block which has helped immensely. I have a project management system and SOP’s in the works. I am better able to evaluate situations and respond versus react. I learned how to coach myself through mindset issues (it’s an ongoing battle!!) and I am an all-around better boss.
A solid growth decision
Being an avid Productivity Straight Talk Podcast junkie for the past 4+ years, and having dabbled in a few of her free mini-courses, I finally took the plunge and reached out to Amber for a free discovery call last year! It was a solid growth decision. I have loved working with Amber one on one and having her help me dive into my business-specific hangups.
Amber has a wonderful way of helping me to focus on what is truly important to get my business to the next level. She has business insight that helped me see the big picture of how to move forward with both my personal and business goals. She takes a holistic approach in her coaching, knowing that one's personal life is as important as one's business life and she knows how to encourage and motivate her clients to move forward.
If you are on the fence about getting into coaching, no matter your profession, I would highly recommend jumping on a Discovery Call with Amber, to see how she can help you successfully grow your business and take your business to the next level! I have also enjoyed the insight, tips, and road map laid out for my business, being an active member of Leverage Lab.
I benefit daily from Amber's coaching
I hired Amber as a business coach because I knew I needed to tighten up my schedule to service my clients better. I also craved support in fitting people in without sacrificing my schedule and sanity. Amber was a pleasure to work with and greatly helped me in customizing a plan that works for my unique brain. I now benefit daily from a more organized calendar, a process for capturing information, and clarity in using my time purposefully.
You really can have it all
Working out had been a non-negotiable for me six days a week. Once I started my podcast, all that time got sucked up as well as other personal time for my husband and passions. I was okay with that for a time because this huge, new project was so gratifying. I strongly believed I could produce an amazing podcast OR live a fulfilling personal life, but definitely not do both. Amber disagreed. She stepped into my life as a coach with different perspectives, knowledge, and strategies that helped me transform my mindset and realize what was possible. I let go of the notion that only I could do certain tasks in my business, made a new hire that has worked out brilliantly, and adopted an AND mindset that allowed me to reclaim what I’d lost in my personal life when I started my podcast. You really can have it all. Amber helped make that possible.
I had been operating at a breaking point
I didn’t think I needed Amber as a business coach. I listened to her podcast religiously though and referred other people to her. I was doing well, after all. I had built a legacy of high-level service and profitable operations. Looking back now, my business had been operating successfully but I had been operating at a breaking point. I was a one-woman show wearing all the hats which came at a steep cost. I was at full capacity working weekends and starting my days early just to keep up. Sure, I was consistently servicing my clients but behind the scenes, my hair was on fire. I was constantly consumed by the daily crises of vendors, installers, and client communication. I hired Amber and she helped me transform my mindset, navigate hiring, and create strategic systems which have helped me grow my team and start replacing myself in my sales and design roles. As such, I have been able to take guilt-free time off and spend more quality time with my loved ones.
Amber helped me evolve
Knowing how goal-oriented, efficient, and productive I am, everyone thought I was crazy for wanting to hire a business coach. I figured that top athletes in the world have coaches to help them reach peak performance, so why shouldn’t I? The long hours and amount of work required to keep my business thriving had been wearing on me. I knew there had to be a better way so I made some hires to assist with the workload. New employees meant new challenges though. Amber stepped in to help me navigate some hiring changes and take my time management and productivity to new levels. My business is still thriving but now, it feels way less messy. My quality of life has also improved, I am more present with my family, I feel more balanced, and I have more time for self-care. I have evolved into a better version of myself (Vita 11.0).
Invaluable, eye-opening experience
Very quickly Amber was able to point out activities in my day that are monopolizing my time and help me to develop strategies to address those in a more effective way. Amber realized that I had one foot in my new role as an entrepreneur and one foot in my former role as support staff. That realization alone was an "eye opener" for me to lean on the support staff that I have, trust them to do their tasks effectively, and confidently focus my energy on the responsibilities and opportunities within my new role. Thank you Amber, this experience has been invaluable!
Solidified business systems and got them up and running
Amber helped to solidify business systems and helped get them up and running. I highly recommend Amber if you need accountability, motivation, and help putting systems in place.
Created the results we needed.
Amber provided training and created the results we needed. Her knowledge is what we lacked, her skills where exceptional, and the value was so worth it.
Challenged my professional AND personal growth
With Amber’s guidance, I have implemented an abundance of new processes, hired a new staff member, and opened a new office. I am also working on a potential partnership with another professional and she is playing an integral part of that process. Amber has challenged not only my professional growth, but also my personal growth. I am looking forward to working with Amber for some time to come!
I'm now focused and intetnional
Awhile back, my pipeline changed drastically so I became very interested in partnering with a coach to help me take a dive into my business and share their insight on where, what, and how I needed to improve. Amber made me feel comfortable sharing "the real life" challenges I'm facing that have impacted my growth and productivity. She coached me through staying focused on time management, my Daily RAP, and being more aware of time tracking on projects to have a better handle on how to price a project to be more profitable. My biggest takeaways from our time together (we're six months in) have been gaining clarity on how important it is to be very intentional with how I spend time each day as the owner of my firm, the necessity of tracking time on projects so I have real data to review when estimating design fees for potential clients, and staying focused on my High Level Responsibilities.
My business has truly been transformed!
Despite years in business, my business wasn't operating at its full capacity and it certainly wasn't providing me with the things that I originally set out to achieve as an entrepreneur. Through months of tracking, small tweaks, reviewing and generally getting back to basics, not only is my company growing rapidly, but in a direction that fulfills more of my personal goals as well.
My coaching experience with Amber was extremely valuable. Her guidance, persistence, and experience gave me greater insight into my business, as well as confidence to make the decisions that needed to be made. As with all things, I am sure I left things on the table simply due to time and resource constraints, but my business has truly been transformed!
Business running smoother, with less stress and increased revenue
Amber has become a valuable and trusted member of the team. She has helped us pause and think through our processes and change many aspects of how we run our business and client relationships. In doing so, we have greatly improved our efficiency and productivity. Our business is running smoother and with less stress. Our staff is more focused and organized. Our calendar, reviews, systems, travel, etc. all has been greatly improved and more productive. We have increased our business revenue as well as peace in the office. We will continue to work with Amber as a trusted and valuable resource on an ongoing basis.
Always brought her A game!
I was struggling with how to make my business run like a well-oiled machine. I did not have my processes in place yet. I was struggling to understand the bookkeeping. I was putting out fires left and right. I wasn’t getting enough sleep and I was so busy all day but getting very little done. The amount of hats I wore was making it tough to get it all done.
Amber always brought her "A" game to the coaching calls. We started with productivity strategies but it always turned into broader topics she could help with, as well. I learned how to time block, which was the biggest help! I learned when to hire, how to get finances in a better position, and how to set realistic and stretch goals. I also learned where my bookkeeping was going completely out of whack (and yes I'm on bookkeeper #3) and learned that my work time was valuable enough that it made sense to hire support at home. So, I not only hired a housekeeper to come a couple of times a month but hired a personal assistant to help with picking up/taking kids to school/practices, starting dinner, folding laundry, etc. That way my time at home was quality time with my family and my time at the office was focused on work. Overall, I cannot say enough great things about Amber and her coaching!
Gave me a better understanding of how to time block
I struggle with distractions and lack of planning. I also have no consistent way to track to-dos or tasks and fail to make concise plans. A lot of it is in my head or in a running notebook that I don’t do a great job of using. This program gave me a way to approach improving my time management skills (or lack thereof) and a better understanding of how to time block in order to fit in " all the things." Since doing the Time Management Made Simple program, I anticipate big changes on feeling less overwhelmed!
I can finally breathe
I knew I wanted a calmer life for myself and a more balanced life of running a business. I just didn't know how to go about it. I constantly felt like I didn't have a minute to breathe and I was miserable. I was constantly putting out fires and trying to do too much by myself. Then, I discovered Amber's podcast and decided to reach out about coaching. Once we got started, I quickly learned to protect my time. I block schedule and manage my day versus let the day and circumstances manage me. I hired more people to do the things I hated doing and implemented some automated systems. I can finally breathe and I owe it to Amber.
Huge benefits to my productivity!
I love Leverage Lab® and am learning so much! I joined because I enjoyed the Productivity Straight Talk Podcast and the Email Masterclass. I felt overwhelmed with the way things were going and wanted some productivity strategies to help me manage my business and life better. Amber takes her time answering all my questions and gives well thought-out solutions to try. Power Planner has especially been a game changer for me. I'm still working on implementing it fully but can already see how planning my week effectively and being in execution mode has hugely benefits my productivity.
Extracted the roots of my issues
Amber demonstrated such a gift of intuition and the ability to quickly get laser-focused on the specific problems that were getting in the way of being productive. During our strategy session, she put me at ease with her warm personality, extracted the roots of my issues, and provided an actionable plan for helping me implement the strategies we discussed (so long, sticky notes and redundant notepads!). She knows her stuff, and the passion she feels for her work shines through when you work with her.
Take the next step and schedule a Discovery Call
Having Amber focus her insights on my business' productivity challenges was unbelievably valuable.
If you think Amber is great on her podcast, take the next step and schedule a Discovery Call to find out how you can work with her!
Amber De La Garza, is my hero!
Amber De La Garza, is my hero! Her two-part masterclass Dominate Your Calendar & Conquer Your Email has proven to be an excellent investment for my business. Understanding the difference between checking email and actually processing email has been a game changer for me and a huge time saver. Finally, I now have effective techniques to tame my inbox, resulting in more time to grow my business. I love starting each day with a cup of coffee and a manageable email inbox—thanks, Amber!
Empowering and decisive guidance
I was pleasantly surprised that there is a business coach out there in this "influencing" world that really has a heart and true understanding for people. Someone who can take the time to hear you out as an individual and give guidance that is not judgmental or belittling but empowering and decisive. I am grateful for the work Amber and I did together.
Business coaching: the key ingredient to growth and success
I was the classic over-worked business owner. Coming home late, never finishing projects, pulled in a million directions at once. Fast forward to today – I now have a daily schedule; tasks get done and things don’t drop through the cracks. I spend time each week working on business development rather than chasing my tail to just keep the business running. I delegate better, feel calmer and most importantly – spend time with my wife and my son. Amber has been instrumental in developing systems so I can run and grow the business I want and be the husband and father I promised myself to be. Amber has become an integral part of my team. She communicates ideas and concepts extremely well and is an excellent motivator. She now also works with my key management staff, which has helped them professionally and personally. If I could sum up my coaching sessions – I would say coaching is a business asset that is a key ingredient to growth and success.
Able to reduce waste and surge forward!
I had the pleasure of working with Amber from the beginning of 2017 to 2018! I had never had a coach before other than my physical trainer so this was an eye opening experience. I found that I was able to throw all "my balls" into the air and, with Amber's talent and assistance, catch them, put them in order, and have them make sense so that I could continue to work at my optimum! So much of the time, there are time wasters and I found by concentrating and discussing my business with her, I was able to reduce the waste and surge forward!
Exponentially increases the time you have
You won't regret working with Amber but you will regret it later if you don't work with her. Working with Amber exponentially increases the time you have available to invest in other areas of your life and business.
I now have a clear path!
Amber helped me with next steps. I was feeling so overwhelmed with my accounting before our strategy session. Amber helped me to see how my reluctance to dig into the finances was holding me back in my business. She gave me actionable steps and held me accountable to some goals. I am still doing the work, but I now have a clear path and my finances are more organized than ever!
Increased staff's ability to handle a greater workload
I hired Amber for her coaching and training services. She helped design new and more efficient systems for my staff and, as a result, increased their ability to handle more workload. I highly recommend her company and services!
Changed my life!
Before being coached by Amber, my business was thriving but running it didn’t feel good. I was a slave to my inbox, struggled with my ADD, had difficulty prioritizing, and my mind and body weren’t in a healthy place. I felt like I was short-circuiting. Amber gave me strategies to turn all that around AND make more time for my family. She helped me form a game plan to transform my business so it fits in with the life I crave and empowered me to make the necessary changes to see results. I wanted to change my life and with Amber’s help, I did!