Career, Business & Executive Coach | Mindset & Mental Fitness Coach | DISC® Certified | Mentor

On paper, things are going well.
Day to day, it feels harder.

Revenue is coming in.
The team is bigger than it used to be. 
The business is clearly working.

But decisions feel heavier. 
Everything still lands on you. And it is harder to stay out of the weeds.

You have the same job title. Founder. Business owner. CEO.
But the job itself has quietly changed.

What used to work does not work in the same way anymore.

• operations are more complex 
• people issues take up more space 
• decisions are more interconnected

So you keep jumping in and sorting things out the way you always have.
It takes more time. More energy. More of you than it used to.

At the same time, the business is no longer a small startup. 
And it now needs something different from you.

This is a phase many founders hit as the business grows.

It shows up when the business grows, but decisions, ownership, and responsibility still sit with you.

I have seen this pattern repeatedly across my career. 
In startups. In large organisations. And in my own business.

Each time the team grew, the role demanded more.

That transition is where my work focuses:

- how decisions are being made day to day, and why they keep landing back with you
- where ownership really sits in the team (not just on paper)
- what deserves your time now - and what no longer should

Every business at this stage looks different.

The team, the context, the pressures, and the founder’s role are never the same.

That’s why this work is always one to one. 
No cohorts, templates, or fixed programmes.

We work on what is actually happening in your business, and what leadership needs to look like at this stage.

Outcomes my clients experience include:

• simplified operations and clearer priorities 
• avoided or corrected costly team decisions 
• fewer decisions landing back with the founder 
• stronger ownership and accountability in the team 
• stepping out of firefighting and regaining thinking time 
• highly reduced stress at work and at home

Clients often tell me I make complex situations feel simpler and create the space they need to think clearly and make decisions they trust.

My background:

-	30 plus years in leadership roles 
-	Experience across startups and large organisations 
-	Responsibility for people, HR, operations, and sales 

> CIPD in HR Management
> Certified, ICF accredited coach
> Performance & Neuroscience Coaching
> Positive Intelligence Coaching & DISC

☎️ If you are ready to regain control of your business, you can DM or book a 30-minute consultation via the link in my profile.

Monica Federico

I used to think managing emotions at work meant not losing your temper. That was it. 
Keep a lid on it and you're fine.

But that's not where emotions do the most damage.

The real cost comes from the ones you don't notice.

⊙ Being helpful to the point of overload.
↳ That's not generosity. It's a need to be liked.

⊙ The need to stay involved in everything.
↳ That's not a personality trait. It's fear - fear of losing control, or fear of judgement if something isn't perfect.

⊙ Avoiding a difficult conversation with someone who's creating problems.
↳ That's not being measured. It's discomfort dressed up as patience.

These aren't character flaws.
They're emotional responses that became habits.

And habits feel normal.
That's the problem.

Most of us don't struggle with the obvious emotional moments.
We struggle with the ones that look like work style, leadership preference, or "just how I operate."

Winning isn't just about staying calm when things blow up.

It's knowing which of your daily habits are actually emotions in disguise.

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Founders & business owners (10-100) → regain clarity & control as the team grows | 1:1 Leadership & Performance Coach | ICF Accredited Neuroscience Coach

School teaches us WHAT to think.
It almost never teaches us HOW to think.

That’s why many smart people still make bad decisions.

Clear thinking isn’t IQ.

It’s trained mental habits.

Here are 6 that I personally use and will change how you make decisions:

1️⃣ Pause Training

Most bad decisions come from emotional reactions.
Smart thinkers pause first.

Pause → Observe → Respond.

2️⃣ Mental Subtraction

Clear thinking usually comes from removing noise.
Ask yourself: "What can I eliminate?"

Clarity appears when complexity disappears.

3️⃣ Compression

If you can’t explain something simply, you probably don’t understand it yet.

Use the 3–1 rule:

3 bullet points →
1 core idea.

4️⃣ Cognitive Flexibility

Avoid mental ruts.

Ask:
• What would a beginner think?
• What would an expert do?
• What if the opposite were true?

Better thinking comes from new angles.

5️⃣ Pattern Recognition

Smart thinkers notice signals others miss.

Look for:
• repeating problems
• repeated successes
• cause → effect patterns

Patterns help you predict outcomes faster.

6️⃣ Environment Design

Your environment shapes how clearly you think.

Design spaces for:
• deep focus
• fewer distractions
• better mental states

Better environment → better decisions.

Thinking smarter isn’t about IQ.
It’s about training how you think.

When you build these habits:
• decisions become clearer
• stress drops
• you stop overthinking

And you start making better decisions, faster.

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Your brain runs your business. 
Not your strategy. Not your systems. 
Your brain.

I had a week full of life admin, the kind that clutters your head and leaves little space for anything else.

It reminded me of something worth sharing.

When our brain chemistry takes a hit, everything else follows.

Low dopamine and our drive goes flat.
Low serotonin and decisions get murky.
Low oxytocin and our team relationships start to fray.
Low endorphins and stress just compounds.

The problem is that modern founder life quietly attacks all four.

Constant phone use. 
Working alone. 
Rarely moving. 
Not enough sleep.

None of it seems much of a problem. 
All of it is cumulative.

The fix isn't complicated. 
But it does require you to treat your brain like the operational asset it actually is.

This weekend I'm making a point of walking outside, putting the phone down, and sleeping more.

What are you up to this weekend?
(Image credit: Tj Power)
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"I never saw it coming."
But looking back, I wasn't really looking.

I had a high-performing sales manager. 
Numbers were strong. 
The team was running well. 

So I focused my attention elsewhere - on the departments that needed me more.

What I didn't know was that he'd already done the maths.
To reach the salary he wanted, staying would have taken years. Moving industry would get him there faster. 

By the time I found out, the decision was made.
I couldn't have stopped it.

But I might have seen it coming, if only I'd stayed in the conversation.

That's the part I got wrong. 
The silence I mistook for satisfaction.

In corporate, losing a high performer is painful but manageable. There are pipelines, succession plans, and structures that absorb the hit.

In an SME, there's none of that. 
The impact is immediate.

And you have fewer tools to keep people. 
No quick promotion ladder to offer. 
No big brand to lean on.

What you do have is the relationship. 
The conversations. 
The attention you pay to the people who are quietly holding things together.

When you stop, they notice. 
Even if they never say it.

You don't always lose them because you're doing something wrong.

Sometimes you lose them because you stopped doing something right.

When did you last give them a reason to stay?
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Your team might read your company values once.
But they watch you every day.

They notice when the 1-2-1 gets cancelled.
Again.

They notice when we say "my door is always open"...
then rush every conversation.

They notice when deadlines slip for us but not for them.

We can write "integrity" on the wall.
We can open every meeting talking about our values.
It won't matter if our behaviour tells a different story.

Because our teams are already collecting evidence.
Every small action either confirms or contradicts what we've said.

Here's two things worth checking this week:

1) Pick one value you talk about. 
↳What would your team have seen from you in the last month that proves it?

2) Look at your calendar. 
↳ Does how you spend your time match what you say matters?
That's where culture actually lives.

The good news is that behaviour can change.
And when it does, your team notices that too.

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Your performance review process should be consistent. 
Your approach should not.

Six reviews in one week.

When you'd rather just get on with it, it's easy to have the same conversation with everyone and get through the list.

And if some of those conversations feel awkward, it's probably because feedback hasn't been happening along the way. 

A performance review shouldn't be the first time someone hears something important.

Before you walk into any of those rooms, stop and ask: 
where does this person actually sit right now?

Not "good" or "not good." 
Not "performer" or "underperformer." 
More precise than that.

 • Capable but disengaged
 • High potential, high impact
 • Reliable and steady
 • Engaged but underperforming
 • Disengaged and underperforming

Most people won't sit neatly in one place, but this is a useful starting point before the conversation.

Each pattern needs something different from you.

The one that's easiest to get wrong? 
Your reliable, steady performer. 

They deliver, they don't make noise, so "keep doing what you're doing" becomes the default. 

We tend to spend our energy on high performers and underperformers. 
The steady ones get left alone. 

And that's often where quiet disengagement starts.

The framework in the graphic gives you a starting point for each one.

They all need your leadership. 
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Helping founders regain control as their business grows and leadership becomes more demanding | Performance Coaching | ICF Accredited Neuroscience Coach

Our brain craves certainty. 
But nuance is your leadership advantage.

Most leadership advice pulls you toward extremes.

Be decisive or be empathetic.
Hold people accountable or protect morale.
Be self-reliant or ask for help.

But the best founders I work with don't live at the extremes.

They've learned to hold two things at once.

→ No one is coming to save you. True.
You are responsible for what you tolerate, what you prioritise, and how you respond.

↳ And asking for support is still taking responsibility. Also true.
It means recognising where you lack perspective, knowledge, or simply can't carry the pressure alone.

→ You are accountable for your reactions.
That means understanding your triggers and choosing how you show up.

↳ And you are allowed to draw a line.
Responsibility doesn't mean absorbing poor behaviour or pretending everything is fine.

→ You will need to grow to lead at the next level.
Scaling brings new pressures, new decisions, new dynamics. What got you here may not be enough to take you further.

↳ And you are not broken.
Development isn't about fixing yourself. It's about expanding your range.

In practice, this might look like:

- Investing in someone's development while being clear about the standards required.

- Taking ownership of what you can control, and genuinely letting go of what you can't.

- Caring about your people and still making the tough calls that protect the business.

If it feels uncomfortable to hold both, you're probably doing it right.

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Unity Enterprise

Marketing Coordinator

Marketing and Engagement Officer

Andy Mitchell Coaching

I show my clients how to achieve rapid and elegant change in their life. This is done using hypnosis and other techniques to simplify change easily and automatically.

Working with me you will discover how to:
•	Lose unnecessary habits, doubts and fears.
•	Put your feelings about the past behind you.
•	Improve performance in your business, personal and social life.
•	Master your emotions and take charge of your life.
•	Be free from stress or anxiety...quickly.

This approach to changing your life is not analytical and does not involve weeks or months of talking about the past. Instead, you establish what you want and use hypnosis to help you get it.

I specialise in a brief, solution-focused approach. That means that together we will focus on problem-solving and your future, rather than counselling, analysis, or exploration.

Hypnotherapist / NLP Practitioner / Coach

IcarusCharity

Working with veterans, serving personnel and their families to provide mental health support and rehabilitation.

Therapist

Grain to Glass

•	Founded independent marketing consultancy with the aim to help small businesses tell their stories, generate value and make an impact.
•	Brand Planning, branding, activation planning and delivery, communications, training

Founder

Linn Products Ltd

Channel Marketing Manager

Cake Decor Ltd

Development of Marketing strategy covering the full marketing mix including ATL, BTL, pack strategy, press & PR, social media and POP strategy.

Marketing Manager

Beauty Kitchen UK Ltd

•	Create and implement overall Marketing plan for UK /IRE/Benelux and other markets making full use of social media, partnership marketing and retail experiential.
•	Develop new content to be used across all channels including print, social and website.
•	Responsible for all customer promotions ensuring that the range and activity mix added value for customer, shoppers and company.
•	Manage Marketing budget to ensure that campaigns all created a postivie ROI. 
•	Recruit, train and develop team.

Head Of Trade Marketing

Caledonian Brewery

Responsible for the creation and delivery of the annual marketing plan, driving category growth through aligning Caledonian category and brand plans with the customer and drinker agenda.
•	End to end ATL and BTL activity and planning for Caledonian Brewery.
•	Integrated Marketing Plan including ATL, BTL, pack strategy, press & PR, social media and POP strategy.
•	Overhauled brand and brewery branding and POP materials to create a recognisable brand and platform with a sense of place for the beers.
•	Trade and consumer communications across all channels including press and social
Winner of two gold medals at the Scottish Beer Awards 2016

Heineken UK

•	Developed and delivered a commercially robust portfolio trading and promotional strategy via First Point route to market for Own and 3rd party brands.
•	Redefined and standardised the processes needed to support telemarketing sales campaigns and created new process for Activation sell in to customers to free up capacity for Regional Sales Managers.
•	Creation of on trade promotional plan.
•	Overall editorial control for customer facing publications including all Marketing content for e-commerce site.

Marketing Activation Manager

• Creation and delivery of the integrated annual marketing plan for wholesale channel (Regional & National) driving strategic, brand led activation.
• Interrogated insight in the sector, identifying gaps and developing our right to win
•Lead delivery of category review for major wholesale customer, increasing brand penetration and sales.

Customer Marketing Manager - On Trade

Exploited all consumer, shopper and customer insight, drive the category forward for our customers, allowed HEINEKEN to achieve the objectives laid out in commercial brand and customer plans. 

•Championed the shopper by delivering shopper insight expertise and responsible for delivery of brand budgeted volume through ownership and delivery of a shopper and category marketing agenda.
•Created and delivered the annual marketing plan with customers, driving category growth through aligning HEINEKEN category and brand plans with the customer agenda.
•Provided full direction to the account teams on all marketing/shopper insight, to create and implement a customer specific Point of Purchase strategy

Shopper Marketing Manager

I have delivered and adapted our marketing capability programme for Heineken UK's 90+ marketing team across a range of functional marketing disciplines.

The programme is built on core functional disciplines, in order to provide our team with the skills and knowledge that they require to deliver our business requirements.

Through influencing the senior marketing team and identifying the training requirements, I was involved in designing materials whilst implementing the core programmes to ensure consistency and quality of delivery and share best practice. Via coaching and I have been able to help manager’s and individual’s performance and behaviours.

Involved in setting up an external benchmarking forum for Marketing Capability that includes organisations such as O2, Aviva and News International.  Inclusion of external speakers to Heineken to share best practice.

Marketing Development Coach (Mat.Cover)

Responsible for managing, end-to-end planning, implementation and evaluation of all of Heineken UK’s sampling and face to face campaigns. Delivery of over 2,000,000 shopper and consumer interactions across all major Grocery customers including Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury and Morrisons.  Campaigns delivered huge sales uplifts, impacted positively on brand health scores and return positive ROI of 1.7 to 4.3

Full management responsibility of all sampling and CRM budgets.  Control and development of agency relationships – driving continuous improvements to campaign as well as day to day operations.  Included contract terms negotiation.

Shared learnings with other Heineken companies and helped to set strategy for their sampling campaigns.

Led CRM agency pitch process on behalf of HUK and successfully appointed and integrated new agency and ways of data working with brand teams, realising greater service and saving HUK over £65,000.
Research into digital marketing, CRM and social media strategy for Heineken UK brands.

Customer Marketing Manager – Trial / CRM

•Responsible for managing, end-to-end planning and implementing of the two largest nationwide consumer trial campaigns in the off-trade, Biggest Round 08 and Foster’s Scuba / Kronenbourg Dynamo Systeme.  Delivery of over 1,200,000 shopper and consumer interactions across all major Grocery customers including Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury and Morrisons.  
•Working with our Customers to advise them on how to improve their sampling and trial capabilities.
•Full management responsibility of £2,950k budgets.

Customer Marketing Manager - Consumer Trial

Scottish and Newcastle

•  Responsible for managing, end-to-end planning and implementing of the largest, and most successful, consumer sampling campaign ever in the off-trade (Biggest Round 07).  Delivery of over 520,000 shopper and consumer interactions across all major Grocery and Impulse customers including Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury and Threshers.  Writing and delivering training to over 150 brand ambassadors on brand knowledge, off-trade market and selling.  
•Creation, implementation and management of Below Zero chiller trials to determine the best routes to market for future NPD developments. 
•Leadership role in devising off-trade Ale category strategy including project managing the removal of Newcastle Brown RBs from off-trade and on-trade channels, development of Theakstons Seasonal Ales, management of John Smith’s Grand National BTL campaign for off-trade.
•Management of the Wholesale marketing budget £1.6m annually.
•Development of return on investment (ROI) tool for off-trade.

Customer Marketing Manager

•Bringing together market research, sales data and consumer research and insight to work closely with retailers to provide all areas of Category Management consultancy.  
•Maximising Scottish & Newcastle product range and distribution in customer and trade planograms.
•Other responsibilities include Category planning, SKU development, shopper insights – bespoke and continuous consumer research Market and sales analysis, promotion planning and effectiveness, Last Minute Marketing – trial and test new initiatives, promotional pricing management.
•Advising Tesco on a new beer range and implementing it in all UK stores. This included developing an Ale revitalisation project with Tesco.
•New ranges and merchandising principles for all major convenience chains including Spar, Co-op, Thresher and Bargain Booze.
•Publishing Category Management guide for Convenience Store Magazine.
•Developed new consumer research tool in conjunction with TNS.

Category Development Manager

Are you ready to embrace a life of rapid and elegant transformation? If so, I'm here to guide you on an extraordinary journey of positive change using cutting-edge techniques, including hypnosis.

As a transformational therapist, I specialize in helping clients achieve remarkable results without getting bogged down in lengthy analyses or revisiting past experiences. Instead, we'll focus on your aspirations, enabling you to unlock your true potential and reach your desired outcomes.

When you work with me, you'll experience a powerful solution-focused approach. Together, we'll identify the areas in your life that require enhancement, and I'll show you how to shed unnecessary habits, doubts, and fears. Embracing the future and leaving past emotional baggage behind, you'll gain the confidence to flourish in both your personal and professional life.

Imagine mastering your emotions, gaining control over stress and anxiety, and elevating your performance in every aspect of life. With my proven techniques, we'll streamline the change process, making it effortless and automatic.

I believe in the power of hypnosis to tap into your subconscious mind, facilitating lasting and profound change. As we collaborate, you'll discover how to effortlessly embrace positive behaviours that align with your goals, propelling you toward the life you've always dreamed of.

If you're ready to embark on a transformative journey and experience the joy of accelerated growth, let's connect. Together, we'll build a future of endless possibilities, where you are the architect of your destiny.

Contact me now, and let's start crafting the life you truly deserve! 

Find out more by booking some time with me https://calendly.com/andym-therapies/30-minutes or you can email me on andy@andymitchellcoaching.com

Andy Mitchell

You might notice there wasn’t a Week 7 post last week from my Open Working programme with Third Sector Lab.

Not because nothing happened — quite the opposite. It was one of those weeks where there was simply more to do than there was time or energy to do it.

So something had to give.  LinkedIn lost out.

Marketing Leader and Therapist | 20+ Years Driving Brand Growth, Shopper Activation & Strategic Innovation | Expert in Stress & Anxiety Relief for Professionals

Week 7 of working in the open (a week late) What I worked on You might notice there wasn’t a Week 7 post last week. Not because nothing happened — qui

Open article: When time runs out and choices have to be made by Andy Mitchell • 2 min read

When time runs out and choices have to be made

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The Battle

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