I was lucky enough to be partnered with Sara whilst going through outplacement coaching following redundancy. Initially, I was sceptical about coaching and was unsure what someone could offer to me as I returned to work from maternity leave. How wrong I was. Sara was immediately calming, personable, and honest. Sara was able to identify my strengths and worked with me to create my new business through her flexible coaching sessions. Our time spent was beneficial both on a business and personal level and I would highly recommend Sara to anyone looking to re-asses and re-energise their career options.

I’ve only known Sara for a short time but she has already made a really positive and big impression on me, and my team with her extensive career coaching knowledge and engaging voice. From a personal point of view Sara has gone over and above to help me with my CV, my only regret is that I didn’t meet her 6 months or so ago.

Sara is easy to talk to, helpful and supportive and makes you feel at ease straight away encouraging any questions, putting concerns to rest making a positive out of what may be considered a negative. The team have come out of the workshops buzzing, singing Sara’s praises making other staff look forward to their sessions. There have been nothing but positive comments, my team feel good about themselves reminding them that they’re very employable. We’re in great hands to deliver a really good CV at the end of the process.

I look forward to working with Sara over the next couple of months in my journey to finding another role. I would definitely recommend Sara to anybody who needs an expert to assist with CV writing, interview techniques and to build confidence in finding a new job when faced with a redundancy situation.

Sara has provided Urbis Lighting with various training solutions over the past 8 years. This may range from taking Senior and Middle Management through a management training programme to the provision of appraisal training for a small group of shop floor supervisors. Sara takes care to make sure she fully understands our requirements prior to the commencement of the training and adapts well to the culture of the company and to the level of staff she is training. The investment of her time in the initial discussions certainly pays off. In addition her style makes training, of even the driest subjects, interesting, informative and fun. You certainly remember what she tells you.

My experience of the training course was a very rewarding one that will help me grow and progress a great deal in the future. I learnt so much about myself from the teaching which allowed me to make positive changes. The program Sara ran made me aware of the areas that needed improvement and gave me the skill set and confidence to take action and resolve these issues. I have found so much more happiness and joy in my life since partaking in the course. I owe a lot to the program and without Sara’s excellent coaching I certainly would not have been able to make the changes. We had many people on our course and with so many varied ideas, opinions and personalities I was amazed at how exceptional Sara was at adapting to individuals learning styles. The course has given me a new found confidence in dealing with many areas of my life and I now feel I can overcome many difficulties that previously would have left me angry, frustrated or confused. These changes not only affect me but also the people around me and with the arrival of a new daughter I feel proud of the new and improved father she will gain from this great training program. Thank you.

I have used Sara on a number of occasions to supplement our recruitment processes. She uses a variety of psychometric instruments followed up with feedback and discussion to highlight potential strengths and weaknesses of candidates. We are then able to further explore her findings during an interview. I have always found Sara to be very professional and intuitive and feedback from candidates, whether successful or not, has always been positive.

Sara she is a very enthusiastic and practical trainer and an insightful coach. I engaged Sara to analyse and feedback on the results for 360 management appraisals. She followed up each initial session with a series of coaching sessions - which had specific objectives and we were extremely impressed with the outcomes. We have now extended the project to other managers in the business.

One of Sara's major strengths is her ability to adapt her style according to the coachee and the objectives. This means that she can work effectively with a wide variety of people.

We have been able to measure tangible benefits of the programmes in terms of increased production and quality. I would have no hesitation in recommending Sara.

I engaged Sara to improve the inter-personal and confidence skills of my software development team. I felt that members of my team could benefit from improvement in their customer facing skills, presentation, confidence and assertiveness.

Different team members had different areas in which they could benefit from Sara's training. Having discussed my requirements Sara tailored a course that was both inclusive for the entire team but also focused to improve specific skill areas for individuals.

Sara gave a compelling and effective training day in a very professional manner. Sara was able to engage all team members and weave in to the day a mix of elements focused to improve the skill areas we had identified. This is particularly impressive with a technical IT team who can, quite frankly, be geeks!!

Further to this initial training day I engaged Sara again, to carry out 1-1 coaching with specific team members focusing on their specific needs.

I have no hesitation in recommending Sara in providing high quality and effective training and coaching!

Sara was very supportive. She shows that she knows what she is talking about. She actually listened to what we had to say. She was excellent.

Sara has converted me from a sceptic to wanting to implement a strategy.

Well presented, well structured and above all helped to bridge the departmental barriers and promote team ethics.

The course was a real eye-opener for me. Not only did I learn new techniques, but I also learned a great deal about myself i.e. my style and how much I already knew and did naturally. It sort of reminded me of KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid. The "Tell, Show, Do" was so simple yet so extremely effective. I also did not realise how much enjoyment one could get out of training others - Once you put your focus on your delegates and forget the nerves you are onto a winner. Building rapport: I will remember this for the future. It is much easier when you get this right. Sara was absolutely brilliant as a trainer, really engaging and gave good feedback whilst building confidence. I feel great!

I found this session really useful. I can't believe how much progress I have made in a month. The main thing that came out of today is that I must focus on those things that only I can do. I'm sorry Sara, I know that you want some development feedback but I cannot think of anything that you could improve on. You listen really well. You always look interested and you encourage me to look at things from a different perspective.

This is an excellent course to attend even if you don't train regularly, as you can put most of what you learn into many situations, eg presenting and meetings. I had become a little bored with my training sessions but I am now looking forward to changing them to include a great deal of what I have learnt. I shall make my course more interesting for the delegates but also for myself.

I have had a very good experience during the coaching sessions, as things have been highlighted that have enabled me to change my attitude to my work and helped me become a more effective manager. I would put my experience down the fact that Sara would use questioning techniques that meant that I would have a greater input into the sessions and then listening to my input during the sessions enabled us to work toward an end goal of becoming more effective and gain more confidence in my current role. Having joined the company recently and coming from a totally different manufacturing background, these sessions have helped me immensely to improve in my role as a manager.

I really enjoyed this course and actually think that I can use it a lot outside of work too as I have learnt how to deal with difficult people, how to calm my nerves and how to talk to different people! But I think that I will use all of the techniques I have learnt in my next training session. Sara was extremely clear and confident in her training abilities. She was friendly and warm as a person and I found her to be the sort of person I learn from. Thank you very much!.

Sara has worked with me a number of times and is always a positive influence on me. On this occasion she has managed to change my perception within Stannah in a very short period of time. She always manages to bring the negatives out of me and turn them to positives. Feedback is always very clear and actions given are explained clearly and presented in a format which is easy for me to follow. The techniques she uses means it is not a chore attending the coaching sessions and the work I have to put in is beneficial to me and the business.

Sara, you have an inclusive style which enabled all to give their best, thank you. I can be a reluctant pupil and when bored can become disruptive; you kept me interested and entertained throughout. I feel more confident and once again thank you.

Again, another brilliant module.  Very informative and interesting whilst being very enjoyable and funny - always fun - Sara is excellent.

Possibly the best course I have ever been on. Confidence building. Masses of useful practical hints to improve presentation skills. Good bonding between delegates, supporting each other and giving constructive criticism

I think that this has been an excellent course for me to go on. The content has been exactly what I needed. It has been very hard work, very participative, a bit unnerving but very worthwhile. I have been particularly impressed with Sara Smith. She has given us all expert, practical advice and has just added so much simply because of her own knowledge and expertise. I would highly recommend this course, and particularly Sara, to anyone.