Case Study: Founder CEO (Tech & Education)
Coaching for restored self-trust, sustainable leadership, and improved business performance
Outcomes
Stronger self-trust and steadier judgement during cashflow pressure and high-stakes delivery.
Clearer accountability in leadership conversations, with less emotional fallout afterwards.
Improved delegation and operating structure, reducing founder load and increasing leverage.
Better boundaries and recovery rhythms, protecting decision quality and consistency.
A return of family presence, leisure and adventure alongside ongoing ambition.
Measurable improvements in confidence, life direction, and finances.
The Organisation
A founder-led personal development business with a national footprint and growing international reach. The company serves senior executives and leadership teams through flagship events, speaker partnerships and member-based programmes. The operating model is high-trust and high-stakes: delivery is visible, reputation travels fast, and revenue can be lumpy. Growth sits alongside the practical realities of cashflow cycles and supplier commitments.
My Client
Founder and CEO, building the business for close to two decades. Colleagues describe her as driven, resilient, meticulous, warm, tenacious and smart. She connects quickly, spots potential in others, and is energised by learning, thought leadership and creating new products.
Her values include integrity (“do what I say, say what I do”), care, growth and family. At her best, she’s clear on what matters, direct without being harsh, and able to hold emotional weight without becoming guarded. By the time we began, that steadier version of her felt harder to access.
The Challenges
After several years of prolonged financial pressure, the business had moved into survival mode. Cashflow became the organising principle of everything.
Over time, that pressure compressed her confidence and her range:
“Cashflow feels directly proportional to my capabilities.” When numbers tightened, she tightened.
She carried the responsibility of being the stabiliser for the whole system: “I have to not allow them to carry the stress… that’s the exhausting bit.”
Trust had been knocked by leadership disappointments. Delegation felt risky. Investor advice conflicted with her judgement. Decisions became heavier and more solitary.
Values conflict built internally. She cared deeply about psychological safety and being people-first, while carrying anger, grief and fear she didn’t feel she could show. Suppression showed up as irritability, withdrawal, and a cycle of guilt and shame afterwards.
On intake she rated: leisure/adventure 2/10, finances 3/10, close relationships 3/10, mental clarity 4/10. Most mental space was taken by cashflow, replaying conversations, and fear of failure.
“I’m completely burnt out,” she shared on her initial call. Underneath was the fear that if she couldn’t get back to herself, she’d have to walk away.
Our Coaching
Seven months with roughly monthly 75-minute sessions, plus targeted support between sessions during acute decision points and cashflow cycles.
Our work centred on four linked outcomes:
Self-trust and steadiness: reducing urgency-driven decision-making and rebuilding confidence in her judgement.
Emotional honesty and responsibility: saying what was true, setting expectations, and holding accountability without losing warmth.
Trust and delegation: clearer roles, distributed ownership, and a stronger leadership bench.
A life beyond the business: restoring recovery, family connection and leisure as part of leadership capacity.
The work stayed close to reality: performance decisions, redundancy calls, supplier and cashflow negotiations, senior hiring, and stepping away for a meaningful break as a real-world test of structure and delegation.
Key Shifts
1) Self-trust under pressure
Early on, business volatility was felt as personal volatility. The core work was separating cashflow reality from identity, so decisions weren’t made from fear and self-doubt.
More self-trust and steadier responses under stress have led to fewer reactive cycles.
2) Cleaner accountability without hardening
She became more direct about expectations and consequences, while staying true to her values. This reduced emotional leakage and lowered the guilt/shame spiral after difficult conversations.
A line that mattered for her was simple:
“I’m done with carrying people.”
3) Delegation backed by structure
Hiring a senior operational lead created leverage and shifted the centre of gravity. Delegation shifted from hope to decision rights, roles, and cadence, so the business didn’t depend on her being constantly “on”.
Where is she now
Business has improved dramatically, allowing her to make senior hires, build better support systems, and release the constant anxiety that had plagued her.
Her self-belief is back, and her vision is clear again, helping her take aligned risks with confidence, leading to multiple significant global successes this year.
Understanding herself and her needs better has meant working more effectively with her team and taking more decisive action.
Clearer personal and professional boundaries. while staying warm and people-first. Improved delegation, reducing the sense that everything depends on her.
Less time lost to guilt/shame spirals after hard moments. More leisure, family presence and capacity alongside continued ambition.
Self-ratings improved materially: mental clarity 4/10 → 6/10, leisure/adventure 2/10 → 5/10, life direction 4/10 → 7–7.5/10, finances 3/10 → 5/10, close relationships 3/10 → 5/10.
“I’m just going for it… I’m backing myself. It feels great”
