Good on paper
The role other people would love. Solid pay, real respect — and a quiet, constant sense that this is not the life you meant to build.
Career & life transitions coach · Richmond, VA
I help people who have outgrown the life they built.
You did everything right. The job, the title, the plan. And somewhere along the way it stopped fitting. I work with thoughtful people in the messy middle of a change — so the next chapter is chosen, not defaulted into.
No pitch, no pressure. Just twenty minutes to say the thing out loud.
- ICF-certified (PCC)
- 12 years in HR
- 400+ clients
- In person in RVA or on Zoom
Is this you?
Most people who call me say one of these four things.
If you recognize yourself here, you are not stuck and you are not broken. You are between chapters — and that is a very coachable place to be.
The Sunday dread
By four o'clock on Sunday your chest tightens. The week has not even started and you are already counting down to Friday.
The post-layoff reset
The role ended and took some of your identity with it. Before you fire off fifty applications, let's decide what you actually want next.
New to leading people
You were promoted for being excellent at the work. Nobody taught you the other job: feedback, boundaries, and holding a team together.
ICF-Certified Coach (PCC) · Richmond, VA
My story
I spent twelve years on the other side of the table.
I was the HR director people came to on their worst Tuesday. I sat through the restructures, wrote the offers, and watched brilliant people quietly disappear into roles that were slowly flattening them. I could see it. I mostly could not help it — not from that chair.
So I trained, got certified, and built the chair I wished had existed. Since 2015 I have worked with more than 400 people through promotions, pivots, layoffs, first management roles, and the plain old question of what now. Some of it happens at my table in Church Hill with good coffee. Some of it happens on Zoom at 7am before the kids are up. Both work.
I am warm and I am direct. I will ask you the question everyone else has been polite enough to avoid — and then I will stay in it with you while you answer it.
— Marguerite
- 12Years in HR
- 400+Clients coached
- ICFCertified PCC
How coaching works
Three steps, and none of them are mysterious.
This is not endless open-ended talking. We work in a container with a beginning, a middle, and a deliberate ending.
Discovery call
Twenty free minutes on Zoom or the phone. You tell me what is going on; I tell you honestly whether coaching is the right tool and whether I am the right person. Sometimes the answer is no, and I will say so.
The 90-day container
Six sessions across three months. We name what you actually want, find what is really in the way, and run real experiments between sessions. You get notes, prompts, and my email between calls.
Integration
We close on purpose. You leave with a written map of what changed, the practices that worked for you, and a plan for the next six months. Many people check back in a season later. No subscription, no drift.
Programs
Three ways to work together.
Every program starts with the free discovery call, and every price is the whole price — no coaching-industry mystery pricing.
Single Session
One decision, one conversation.
$180 per 75-minute session
- 75 minutes, in person in Richmond or on Zoom
- A short intake form so we skip the warm-up
- Written session notes within 24 hours
- One concrete next step you actually agree to
- Credit applies if you continue within 30 days
90-Day Momentum
The core program. Where most change happens.
$1,450 or 3 × $500
- Six 60-minute sessions over three months
- Values and strengths mapping in week one
- Between-session experiments and prompts
- Email support between calls, answered in a day
- Resume and narrative review if you are job searching
- Written 6-month plan at close-out
Six-Month Partnership
For bigger pivots and new leaders.
$2,700 or 6 × $470
- Twelve sessions over six months
- Everything in 90-Day Momentum
- Stakeholder and 360-style feedback gathering
- Leadership practice: feedback, boundaries, delegation
- Two 20-minute check-ins between sessions each month
- Quarterly review of the plan as things shift
Payment plans available on every program, and a small number of reduced-fee spots are held each quarter for people between roles. Just ask on the call.
Client words
What people say a season later.
I came in wanting a new job. I left with a new job, a boundary with my father, and a Sunday night I do not dread. Marguerite never told me what to do. She just would not let me get away with the vague answer.
Laid off in March and spiraling. Six sessions later I had turned down two roles that were wrong and accepted one that was right. The difference was knowing what I was actually choosing for.
First time managing a team of nine and I was faking it loudly. She gave me language for hard conversations and a way to stop taking everything home. My team noticed before I did.
Good questions
Before you book.
Is coaching the same as therapy?
No. Therapy tends to work with healing, diagnosis, and the past; coaching works forward from where you are now toward what you want to build. Coaching is not therapy or mental health treatment, and I am not a licensed therapist or counselor. If what you are carrying calls for clinical care, I will say so plainly and help you find a good Richmond-area therapist — and plenty of my clients do both at once.
How long until I actually see change?
Most people feel a shift in clarity after the first full session — usually relief at finally naming the real thing. Visible outside change, the conversation you have been avoiding, the application sent, the boundary held, typically shows up in weeks four through eight. That is exactly why the core program is ninety days rather than a weekend.
Do we meet in person or on Zoom?
Whatever you will actually show up for. I meet clients in person in Richmond — Church Hill, Scott's Addition, or a quiet corner of the Fan — and everywhere else on Zoom. Many clients mix the two: in person to start, video when work gets busy. Walking sessions along the river are available and surprisingly effective.
What if I do not even know what I want?
That is the most common starting point, not a disqualifier. You do not need a goal to begin — you need an honest description of what is not working. We start there, and the wanting gets clearer as we go. If you knew exactly what you wanted, you would not need me.
Free download
The 20-minute career reset worksheet
Four pages of the questions I ask in a first session. Print it, take a coffee, and give yourself twenty honest minutes. It is genuinely useful even if we never speak.
One email with the worksheet. No sequence, no spam, unsubscribe any time.
Free discovery call
Twenty minutes. No pitch.
Tell me roughly what is going on and when you are usually free. I will email you back within one business day with two or three times that work.
- Call or text: (804) 555-0142
- Email: [email protected]
- Where: Church Hill, Richmond VA — in person around the city, or on Zoom anywhere
- Hours: Monday to Thursday, 8am to 7pm ET. Some Friday mornings.
What happens on the call
- You talk for most of it. I ask questions and take notes.
- I tell you honestly whether coaching fits, and which program I would suggest.
- If it is not a fit, I point you somewhere better. No follow-up sequence either way.
An honest note: coaching is not therapy, counseling, or mental health treatment, and it is not a substitute for care from a licensed clinician. If that is what would serve you best, I will tell you and help you find it.