Meet Coach: Joli Riley

My Background

Prior to becoming a business coach, the part of my leadership career I loved the most was coaching and empowering my team members.  A contractor who worked for me for 6 months said on their last day “I’ve learnt more from you in 6 months than the past 6 years”.  In career progression, too many people focus just on looking up but often promotion passes them by if they will leave a vacuum – so I have always empowered the people beneath me and cultivated a succession plan.  A boss once said that on day 1 of a project I started making my exit plan.  They also said that I was the best person in company at empowering others – I forged a reputation as being the person who would start new practices/regions, set up the teams, stabilise and then move onto the next project. 

As a former COO, I know the pressures of running business.  The CEO worked out where he wanted to go and I worked out how we were going to get there (and then got the team to drive us there).  I’ve built several practices within businesses – growing them to £3m ARR over 2 years.

I’ve had a very global career – working in North America for nearly 10 years (New York, Seattle, Toronto, Chicago), I was Regional Director for APAC based in Singapore and overseeing Hong Kong and Australia, as well as working in South Africa, Sweden and Poland.  

I have been a SCUBA instructor since I was 20 and am now a SCUBA instructor trainer coaching aspiring instructors.   I am a boat-handling instructor and was a civilian instructor for the Royal Naval Reserves.

Clients I love to work with

Clients who have a desire to improve and are lifelong learners – don’t stop moving, keep improving!

Clients who are ambitious and want to grow their business and themselves.

Clients who want to foster great working environments for their employees so that employees love coming to work.

What I’m great at

I bring positive energy to everything I do.  Running the business is no longer fun – let me help inject the fun back into this for you.

I’m great at understanding complex problems quickly and being able to translate them into something easier to understand (in a visual way).  Struggling to get clients to understand what you sell, your value or your employees to understand your vision? Let me help you communicate this. 

I love getting under the hood of a problem – it can be too easy to put a sticky plaster on symptoms but I prefer to fix the root cause and create a longer lasting solution.   Got a problem and not sure how to fix it – let me work with you to help you uncover your path forwards.

I’m great in a crisis – calm and able to stay positive and put one foot in front of the other until I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’ll be your champion in the corner when the going gets tough.

My best advice for small business owners

It can be lonely at the top – at times it will feel like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders.  Working with a coach gives you guidance, accountability to stay on track and is cathartic – allowing you to serve your team, clients and your friends/family at your best.

All the top athletes have coaches – give yourself a winning chance – you deserve it and you owe it to everyone that relies on you.

Most business owners start a business that they are good at – but as a business owner you need to direct the business rather than do it yourself.  Derive the value you create from the results of your team rather than what you do personally. 

Why I coach

It’s a hugely rewarding experience – to see businesses grow and thrive with owners who are less stressed and able to enjoy time with friends, family and who are mentally strong. 

I enjoy the variety of learning about different businesses – no 2 days are the same which keeps me fresh and interested.

There’s never been a better time in history to be an entrepreneur – there are less global barriers with people able to work effectively remotely, great technology to support, a huge wealth of information.

Let’s Talk

If business coaching with me sounds like something you’d like to explore, I invite you to book a confidential 15-minute call so we can each assess whether or not it will be a fit. If it looks like it will be a fit for both of us, we’ll schedule a longer complimentary coaching session so that you can experience what coaching is like before you commit to a longer program.