Our
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Get to Know Us
Successful Coaching was founded to provide exceptional quality consultancy, research and training to charities and social enterprises as well as the public sector. Founded by charity and social enterprise expert, Anna Day FRSA, our goal is to act as a reliable, trusted partner to charities to help them achieve their research, training and consulting goals.
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Our Consultants are hand selected for assignments based on their expert knowledge, aptitudes and skills. Our team are friendly, expert and happy to work as part of your team and autonomously to achieve successful research, training, consultancy. Overall, we pride ourselves on working expediently and diligently to serve charities to improve their work in helping serve their causes.
Our Team
Successful Coaching is led by a team of experienced, expert, professionals who are passionate about providing the best training and research for charities and corporate companies.
Meet Our Coaches
Anna Day
FRSA MSc MCIOF and GWLN Fellow
CEO and Founder
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I am a charity expert who has over 13 years experience in leading charities up to £2m turnover and managing staff teams up to 170, and over twenty in the sector. I have raised over £24m for charities (largely small, local causes) whilst working largely part time in the sector.
I focus on getting results fast for charities who might need turnaround support, diversifying their income, or provide interim management solutions when things go wrong. I generally specialise in charities with turnovers of less then £2m. I coach and train CEO's.
I am a qualified coach, hypnotherapist and training towards a Level 4 qualification in Counselling and Psychotherapy. I was a CEO for over 10 years for local, national and international causes.
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I also have teams of allied consultant professionals who work alongside me to do this, who are trusted experts in the field.
Simon Green
Organisational Culture Coach
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Simon is a skilled charity leader with 20+ years / significant experience in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors.
Described as a humble, visionary and compassionate leader Simon led a complete transformation of his charity from a struggling homelessness service into a thriving social business offering the best possible trauma-informed and asset-based services to young people who have experienced homelessness.
Simon has extensive experience in the following areas:
• Building a strong organisational culture with clear values and behaviours, including establishing Psychological Safety
• Building a Psychologically Informed Environment using resident-led approaches
• Building and growing a thriving staff team, including managing challenging staff issues through building trust and healthy conflict
• Vastly improving customer experience, including the Power of Moments
• Developing future leaders
• Leading networks
• ‘Developing up’ – improving Board effectiveness
• Managing staff performance effectively, including challenging colleagues
• Leading and managing large-scale capital development projects
• Responding to crisis, including dealing with significant funding cuts
• Establishing a highly effective fundraising function (raising c. £3m in first 4-years)
• Establishing new social enterprises, including a conferencing service, nursery and café
Simon is a qualified coach and is passionate about supporting leaders to find their feet and build their confidence and expertise by helping them work through their challenges to achieve their goals.
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Francesca Manca
Strategy Coach
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I am a strategy coach with more than 25 years’ experience.
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With Underwing, I help profit for good, neurodivergent-led and female-led businesses soar like never before.
My mission is to help as many entrepreneurs and professionals as possible succeed working around their lives and needs, and guide them to find strategies to overcome their challenges. I love working with businesses who make an impact in the world.
My goal is to give my clients tools to succeed and grow without burning out, and strategies that give them the confidence to take their business to the next level. I am a prolific speaker delivering talks, workshops and training to private clients and the public sector.
I look forward to working with you!
Roz Knox
Therapist
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I experienced Hypnotherapy for myself in 2015 for severe anxiety. I was astounded by the effects of looking within myself to heal past trauma. I then embarked on a personal journey of self discovery and have trained extensively in a vast amount of therapeutic skills, and continue to do so with CPD. Wanting to pay this forward to help others to heal, while working as a dementia carer I opened my own private practice in 2016 and have since helped all manner of ages from all walks of life with fears and phobias, anxiety and depression, PTSD, and past trauma.
I am incredibly proud of my role as a dementia carer, especially through the pandemic. I am also incredibly proud of my time spent volunteering for the crisis text line, talking to people anonymously on the brink of self harm and suicide. I have the skills of personal experience, qualifications and expertise in creating an empathic bond with others, including clients. I use my organizational and good time keeping skills to reach others in a professional therapeutic setting internationally via zoom. It is my key value to reach and help others to live their lives to the fullest in order for them to feel content, happy and empowered.
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Emma O'Brien
Associate Coach
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EMMA O’BRIEN is a strengths coach and personal development hypnotherapist.
She offers a range of specialist coaching and facilitated solutions that help leaders, professionals and teams:
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Flourish and collaborate more effectively doing more of what they do best
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Understand their strengths and weaknesses and how to manage both more effectively. Rapidly overcome self doubt and anxieties, including impostor feelings and fear of public speaking, so that they can perform confidently and with greater self-belief..
Emma is certified by Gallup to use CliftonStrengths and strengths based development. Research shows taking a strengths approach positively impacts employee wellbeing, engagement and productivity as well as team/organisational profitability. She draws on 18 years experience in HR & Organisational Development, including roles as a Change Specialist on multi million pound transformational change programmes and Employee Engagement Manager within an organisation that achieved 99th percentile employee engagement levels in Gallup’s Global Database and won multiple Exceptional Workplace Awards. She is qualified as a Rapid Transformational Therapist and Clinical Hypnotherapist and has 5+ years experience helping individuals create positive change.
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Jessica Wiggins
Group Coaching and Team Development Coach Associate
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Jess Wiggins is an Associate Coach with us. She was formerly Deputy Head of a successful law firm & has over 15 years Leadership & Management experience. She is also a qualified Coach & Group Coaching Facilitator.
Jess' vision is for business to be used as a force for good & she uses this vision to support Leadership & Coaching expertise to support Leaders of charities to drive the growth, change & impact the world so desperately needs.
Meet Our Researchers and Associate Consultants
Nicola Upton
Nicola has 20+ years experience in leadership, in large and small charities. Nicola has served as a CEO and Director leading service delivery, fundraising, and public engagement. She has led multiple change programmes including strategic transformation and restructure.
Nicola has substantial experience in organisational design, staff development, governance, HR, strategy and finance, and social enterprise, and is a qualified and experienced trainer and facilitator.
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Nicola is committed to supporting charities to improve their resilience and capacity, and to help to answer the ‘knotty questions’ they have with practical, achievable solutions. Nicola takes pride in providing advice, mentoring, and coaching with warmth and a focus on supporting others to discover their strengths.
Cris Alonso DrPH, MPH, CPM
Research Associate- Specialist in reproductive justice and public health
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Dr Cristina Alonso is an expert consultant, midwife and Harvard educated Doctor of Public Health with 20 years of experience developing local solutions for complex global health issues, leading government policy change to grassroots implementation. Cristina is skilled at developing community based participatory research methods and turning results into meaningful action. Her ability to build trust and adapt to communities she works with is grounded in cultural rigour, an understanding of the inherent capacity of vulnerable communities to be resilient and aims to uncover solutions to complex problems. Cristina deeply believes that the knowledge, values, and creativity of marginalised groups, including youth, must inform research, quality improvement and policy.
Cristina is also skilled at building government and community-based partnerships to identify health equity problems, create meaningful solutions, and systematise processes for sustainability. Cristina enjoys hands-on work, which has meant she has dedicated the last 23 years to working within healthcare systems to ensure justice, dignity, and equitable access to quality care. Cristina currently works with organisations to develop strategic plans that address persistent health inequities. She has worked in diverse settings including Afghanistan, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and the United States. After founding birth centres in Mexico, she worked with international organisations to establish and implement standards of care for quality improvement in perinatal health. During the COVID-19 pandemic she conducted ground-breaking research on the importance of social and economic networks within immigrant communities in the United States that informed the successful vaccine outreach strategy that targeted communities of colour. Her research and policy design during the pandemic was awarded “Outstanding Dissertation Award” by the Doctor of Public Health Coalition.
Georgie Whiteley MRes BA Dip Psychology (in progress)
Research Georgie Whiteley has 8 years’ experience in research, having worked for Girl Effect, where she set up and managed a digital peer research programme for adolescent girls in Bangladesh delivering research for leading NGOs such as CARE, BRAC, UNFPA, Nutrition International and Population Council. She also piloted and evaluated a new research app in Nigeria, which enabled girls to self-report via their mobile phones. Her recommendations were adopted in the second iteration of the product. In addition to this, she went on to become a Senior Researcher at Nesta, where she led a research programme with senior policy makers in Europe exploring the future of work.
She also managed international research agencies to produce an evaluation of training in Northern Europe and built a relationship with the Digital Skills Partnerships Department of Culture, Media, and Sport, which led to a research commission. She went on from this to become Young Women’s Trust’s Research Lead where she produced a research report on the effect of Coronavirus on young women’s work and mental health to support lobbying which was covered widely in national media including the Mirror and the Guardian. She set up and designed a digital peer research programme for young women.
Since becoming a freelance researcher, she has designed a series of successful research projects which includes; Research on exploring using media to change norms for adolescent girls Girl Effect and the Gates Foundation; Designing and conducting qualitative research with low income families to inform the design of programmes to encourage reading with children for Book Trust. She also analysed a national survey with carers and produced a report that will be published to support campaigning and policy work for Carer’s Trust, amongst many other pieces of research conducted throughout her time as Consultant. Georgie is training as a Psychotherapist
Pankaj Upadhyay MBA
International development research associate
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Pankaj has over 15 years executive director with 15+ years of experience across practice, advisory, teaching, and research in entrepreneurial projects with a sustainability focus. Vast strategic
experience, both in India and globally, in building complex, multi-stakeholder partnerships, with a robust and dynamic ability to bring vision to reality.
An extraordinarily articulate, analytical and accomplished practitioner and academic with proven, demonstrable experience of achieving wide scale social change, and executing successful sustainable development programmes both in India and globally.
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Pankaj is deeply passionate about animals and wants to open an animal sanctuary one day.
Isla Haigh
Senior Consultant
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Senior charity professional with over 22 years’ experience in managing complex international programmes, risk and social impact.
In her most recent role as a consultant, she has led on separating out a charity’s governance structure and assets, shaping strategy, driving new processes, managing change, designing online platforms, database management, training, and establishing M&E frameworks to ensure that charities are having the impact that they strive for.
She is also a qualified coach.
Ronie Walters
As an ICF and BPS accredited coaching psychologist with lived experience of disability I am a lifelong advocate for social justice, and the importance of seeing beyond the label. I am passionate about supporting people improve their wellbeing so they can live both life, and work, to the fullest. I have done this in numerous ways including social enterprise, community sports, mentoring, research, and now coaching.
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I have a 1st class honours degree in psychology, an MSc in applied positive psychology, and a PhD in behaviour change, health inequalities and health communication. Over the past 15 years, I have worked in the third sector as a director, where I have honed my leadership and management skills.
As a neurodiversity and mental health coach, I use my diverse experience and expertise to empower individuals and teams to achieve their goals. With a strong focus on positive psychology and effective communication, I can help clients overcome obstacles, develop new skills, and achieve lasting success.
Neil Peters
Associate Consultant​
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A values-driven, strategic Programme Manager with significant volunteer management experience currently selfemployed.
Confident at managing multi-dimensional programmes and simultaneous workstreams.
A skilled leader, invested in the success and cohesion of the teams that work for me, I am a strong communicator, used to collaborating and building relationships with a variety of internal and external stakeholders.
Founder of suicide prevention consultancy, Nuthatch Consultants. Specialises in suicide prevention and mental health. Presented a series on Men’s Radio called Men Talk Mental Health. Advisory board member, R;pple Suicide Prevention
Anne Marie Douglas
Research Associate​
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I have direct lived and learned experience in embedding lived experience in organisations, and a trauma informed and empathic approach.
I deeply understand the theory and practice of embedding lived experience practice ethically and meaningfully in organisations, and can share learning on using a 'co-production continuum' that allows for movement between different 'types' of involvement that is really helpful for services who connect with and engage those most marginalised, for varying degrees of time, and with varying communication and access needs.
I can use a well honed coaching model to support organisations as they go on their journeys to deepen service user involvement that fits their local context and creates ownership. As Founder of Peer Power Youth, I have implemented 'Shared Decision Making' circles across the organisation based on sociocratic principles.
Most importantly, I am sensitive, supportive and empathic in approach. The practice of co-production requires us to delve deep into power, privilege and intersectional experiences and also to be ok with the receiving, and responding to feedback regularly, and it isn't easy. It requires routine, safety, structures and trusted relationships at its base, and I'd argue that if it is really easy, are we really doing anything truly transformative?
This is the work I am most passionate about, in particular the ethics around lived experience storytelling ( I have various resources to deliver on this to create a 'storytelling code of ethics') and also lived experience employment ( I am leading a project with funder Esmee Fairbairm at the moment to increase funders' understanding of the realities of ethical lived experience employment for VCS orgs) .
Katie Barton
An empathetic and adaptable Project Manager, who delivers creative solutions to problems and results for the organisation.
Excellent at engaging and motivating others, accomplished at facilitation and communicating with people from all backgrounds, and ensuring that stakeholders work in partnership to fulfil strategic aims and objectives
Katie Holland
Associate Consultant​
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I am a social enterprise and charity specialist specialising in working with and for people with learning disabilities and those who are neurodiverse.
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I set up a charity in 2014 working to provide specialist housing support to people with autism and I have a lot of experience coaching and facilitating for charities working in these areas. I will be starting an MSc in Neurodiversity and Developmental Disorders in 2025 and I am growing my work in specialising in this area of coaching and capacity building.
Having been a charity CEO for a number of years, I also have a specialism in coaching and mentoring CEOs and leaders of small/medium charities, helping them to understand themselves better, maintain a healthy mindset and lead their organsiations effectively.
TBA
Associate​
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TBA
Associate