Jacki Leahy, New York City
"Michelle Ward helped me realize I have the power to change my life. In just the first session I realized I had a deep fear of growing up! Basic things like keeping track of a budget, pursuing a rewarding career, and even keeping the apartment tidy…were secretly scaring me so I avoided them! She asked questions that challenged my dormant fears and all of a sudden I could clearly see how having a well-stocked bank account, job I love, and tidy bedroom would all bring inner peace and a sense of purpose. She supported me SO well that I did about 2 year's work of realizations and metamorphasizing in 3 months! I'm serious! I am now a real estate agent with the confidence to create my own wealth and the courage to bring those ugly hidden fears to the surface.

Michelle will help you clarify your own goals and keep you on track to realizing them through insightful questions, space to reflect, and a weekly challenge to keep you in motion. She does it all with a powerful mix of a breezy tone, empowering words, and a healthy dose of hilarity. Sign up with Michelle, trust the process, and get ready for the ride of realizing your best life!"

Wendy K., Japan
"When I started my coaching sessions with Michelle, I expected to be supported and at the same time not judged while making my own life choices. Even when my focus shifted, Michelle supported me in each situation. Her humor, patience, honesty and power tools were strengths that helped in this process, and she even managed to make homework fun! I also greatly appreciated her ability to break tasks down into manageable steps. Keep up the great work, Michelle! You rock!"

 

 

 

Celina McMahon, Massachusetts
"I expected to be challenged & encouraged to explore different perspectives when I started coaching with Michelle, and she delivered. Michelle ended each session with a challenge - sometimes a concrete action, sometimes more of an awareness one - depending on what we were talking about that session. She encouraged me in every session with acknowledgment. She offered challenges to my views and helped me brainstorm around new ways of thinking. She used questions to helped me explore my expectations of myself and the challenges I was having. One of the greatest things I liked in our sessions was her enthusiasm and energy. I always had more energy after the session than before. She created a positive, fun place where I felt safe and comfortable to talk, a space for me of comfort and friendship. Michelle could relate to a lot of the same challenges I am experiencing and that helped me relaxed when sharing. The biggest highlight for me were just how much we laughed about things, how much fun it was to talk to her."

Sophie Hainsworth , Australia
"Michelle has an amazing gift for "just knowing what to say", for reading what I need, for pointing out my strengths and creative skills, and for guiding me to best manage my time with my personality. She is such a positive person, and the energy she excels is a powerful tool that she has. Michelle knows how to use just the right mix of talking and listening, which was great because I wasn't looking for someone just to listen - I was looking for interaction too. Every week was so much fun with Michelle, I cannot think of any one that was better than the other."

 

 

Mark Stone , Canada
"Michelle will cheer you on, make you accountable, and ask the right questions that will steer you to where you're supposed to be. But above all, she genuinely cares about your success. Her energy, enthusiasm and great sense of humor make her one of a kind."

 

 

 

 

Tiko Davis , Georgia
"I was very unhappy with my current job, had a slight idea of what I really wanted to do...but, really needed some help figuring out all the details. I was very comforted by Michelle's warmth and spunk and felt that I found someone who would truly understand what I was feeling During our sessions, I went from being totally flustered, frustrated and overwhelmed...to being confident, at peace, and totally excited about my new career options!"

 

 

 

Mike Cullen , New York
"I was looking for some direction for the next phase of my life (my current job isn't going to last forever!), & I wanted to sketch out some ideas for the steps I needed to take. Michelle's honesty & diplomacy were appreciated & her enthusiasm was infectious, & I found myself looking forward to my challenging - but always fun - weekly homework assignments. I now have a much better idea of what the next step of my life is."

 

 

 

 

Julie D., Montreal
"I decided to sign-up for group coaching with Michelle because I didn't know what to do with me. I wasn't feeling happy with my job, I wanted change, but I didn't know for what. Often, I was feeling stressed and oppressed by my behavior and I wanted to find my path. I was looking for help to organize all my ideas & thought in order to focus on something. Michelle really helped me feel more comfortable with myself. Everything seems more easier & simple with her. She's funny & friendly & didn't judge & almost every time she was targeting right. I now know myself more than before, so I can focus on what I'm good at, & make my work more interesting for me. I now have a good subject to start my blog (& express myself & get out there!) & I've decided to sign-up in a graphic design school, so I'm happier! I have gained not less than that."

 

 

Jessica Gonacha Swift, Georgia
"I hired Michelle as my life coach because I loved her positive energy, and I was feeling really stuck in a spiral of negative energy. I needed someone to help get me unstuck, and she seemed like the perfect person! Getting to talk to someone that really understood what I was feeling was so wonderful. Plus, Michelle's hilarious, and it was just so much fun to TALK to her. She's a great listener and could really quickly get to the heart of what I was trying to say, and often pulled things out of what I'd said that I didn't even know were there. It was great when she could help me connect something that just wasn't happening on my own. I could feel that she was very present and that she genuinely wanted to help me. It was really inspiring that Michelle was able to think of really wacky yet practical things that I had never considered-- she was great at opening my eyes to different ways I could perceive a situation or how I was thinking about something. She gave me permission to do whatever the heck I want to do, and that is HUGE! I gained a new sense of being my own boss, in business and in my life. I am learning to let go of the "shoulds" in my life more now, and just living instead. It feels really good. I think the permission to be whoever I want to be, work however I want, and trust that I know what is best for me is the biggest thing I gained. It's invaluable."

Katie Osborn, New York
"I hired Michelle because I had a lot of balls in the air and was finding it hard to focus on where to go first. It was great to have someone that was completely objective and was just there to help me focus on what I could accomplish and where I could go. Michelle gave me great ideas for being pro-active and kept me on track with what I was striving for, which allowed me to focus on my strengths and get to my goals one week at time. Meanwhile, I was able to fight through those annoying bumps in the road that can throw you off your game when you least expect it.Michelle's a great listener who gives great feedback and is really big on celebrating success, which is completely awesome! She inspired me every week."

 

 

Andi Whaley, Colorado
"In the time I've been working with Michelle, I have become much more clear about what I like about my life and what needs to change. I don't have the gnawing something's-not-right feeling. There are things that are still not right, but I know exactly what they are and I am working actively towards fixing them. I know what I want to try next. My ideas about what I want to do to change my life (finances, career, living situation) have gone from being theorectical to being put into practice. It's one step at a time, but it is clear, marked progress that I can celebrate. The great thing about her is that she doesn't tell me what I should do, she makes me figure it out through asking me questions that I don't think to ask myself, such as, what could you do right now, even a small thing, to change this? What are the possible outcomes and how would you handle them? She is entirely non-judgemental and yet calls me on it if I try to wiggle out of something...she listened very carefully when I told her what I needed out of this experience and she holds ME accountable for making sure that happens. I find that I stay on task better when I have to tell someone what I did and why I did it, and someone who celebrates my victories with me. I think a little more about the decisions that I make in regards to my productivity because I have an action plan for the week. Without Michelle, I think I may have stayed stuck wondering which direction to take for a long time. Working with Michelle has entirely changed."

Stephanie Gravalese-Wood, Massachusetts
"The group coaching environment was great! We fed off of each other's energy, and it helped in feeling like you were not alone in the general struggle of self exploration and needing change in your career. The best thing about group coaching was when Michelle saw my hangups as opportunities to grow and helped me understand and celebrate my strengths. By asking a question or framing the issue I was having in a certain way, she allowed me to break free from what was holding me back. So many times I said something that was important, specifically something that was said with clarity, and I remembered it was recorded and I could go back to it later. It helped having someone else see the strengths and potential that I didn't see in myself."

 

Sara Carbaugh, Ohio
"What do you say about the woman who has changed your life?! When I began life coaching with Michelle, I wasn't really sure what to expect. I definitely didn't think I was going to change my attitudes and views about my life and my business so completely! Since I started working with Michelle, I have increased my self-confidence, improved my relationship with my clients and switched the focus of my virtual assistant business from working with anyone and everyone, to working with "my people": Creatives! Michelle is an unbelievable help when I need to brainstorm or even when I need a kick in the butt to do the scary things in my business. Everyone should have someone like Michelle in their corner. Michelle brought out a whole other side of me that I never knew existed; the real me! I highly recommend Michelle to anyone who needs a change in their life because she will be there for you no matter what you want to do with your life!"

Sarah Ivie, Texas
"I wanted to work with Michelle because she focuses on creative types (and alliterates and rhymes). I expected coaching to be more practical than therapy - figuring stuff out, learning more about myself, but also DOING something. I got so much more than I expected. Michelle really helped me figure out practical ways to tackle my dreams! Her seemingly-simple exercises were really enlightening and she seemed to genuinely connect and empathize with every step of the journey. She is the perfect combination of supportive and nudging and excited about my success, even celebrating along with me! I ended every phone call feeling encouraged and I've never accomplished so much in so little time! I feel like I truly learned tools that I'll use for a long while."

 

Charlotte Dauphin, Virginia
"The highlight of my group sessions was when Michelle would listen to what I said when I was really confused & then cut through the mental fog & say something insightful - and then come up with an action plan to fix it! She's a great listener and summarized our feelings succinctly & with clarity, and she has a super friendly personality that puts people at ease when they might be nervous about revealing their hopes/dreams to a group of people. My group session experience was SO POSITIVE & wonderful! I also got really concrete tips from other group members in my position, & we were able to comment on how we knew what the other people were saying, feeling, going through, etc. My group sessions really gave me the confidence to move forward."

 

Faith, California
"When the recession hit, for the first time in my life I struggled to find a job...and I realized I was struggling because I didn't know what I wanted. Looking back, I had patiently dated a million jobs, expecting Prince Charming to fall into my lap. When the scheming little bastard refused to show, I decided to get out there and hunt it down. This new goal brought out my demons, but I pushed forward by telling myself that Group Coaching would still be worth it even if I only found a better "date," and not my elusive Mr. Right. Every group coaching session was fun and energizing, even when all four of us showed up feeling like basketcases! No matter how rough the week, Thursday night had the magical power to lift us all up. Temporary feelings of loserhood shriveled, and with renewed confidence we hashed out concrete tasks to keep the momentum going for another seven days. Instead of just knowing my own story - the anxieties, roadblocks, and triumphs - I had the privilege of witnessing three more. Now that these group sessions are behind me, I am realizing how much I dip into those other stories, searching for and finding solutions, strategies, hope, and inspiration. Happily, Group Coaching resulted in much more than a "better date." By the end of the sessions I had developed a new professional dream, a personal mission statement to guide it, and an action plan to make it a reality. Many thanks to my Fairy Godmother, Michelle!"