Praise for Melanie as a Coach

Melanie is a great blend of being your personal cheerleader and challenging trainer. She helped me see things about myself that I was overlooking. She pushed me to aim high while also finding realistic approaches to get there. I'd highly recommend her to anyone stuck in a rut, creative or otherwise.”

"I felt like I'd won the lottery after our call! I'm so excited to get started and very glad to have you as the coach for my team."

 "Your coaching has been very valuable.  I find myself, most often when I’m driving,  pausing and recognizing the blue meanies traipsing across my brain and realizing it’s really easy to give them the finger and toss them out the car window! And working with you on my imminent retirement paid off in spades. I think I would have been running around in circles had it not been for that...with much gratitude, thank you." 

"This time last year, this book project felt so impossible. I knew it was a good idea, but it felt so big, and I was so worried about how to begin, how to structure it. In the past, finishing something was something I struggled with. But now, by talking about it with you, and doing these exercises--it's really opened up the process. I'm really excited about the progress I'm making and I'm on track to complete a full draft by the end of the year."

“If you’re going to work with Melanie, be ready to stop judging yourself and to start inviting curiosity into what is happening with your creative life. Whatever creative homework you come up with, do it. The results will be real and transformative.”

"After working with Melanie, I am feeling more calm, expansive, and open to new ideas, and creating new ideas."

"I signed up for coaching sessions with Melanie to achieve a couple of specific goals, but what I gained from our work together turned out to be a broader and deeper shift in my thinking about what is meaningful to me and how to best spend my time. Melanie not only helped me to identify some thought patterns that were holding me back from directing my energy and time to what matters to me, but she also offered me concrete and effective exercises to counter these patterns.  This was unexpected and a delight, which also describes my sessions with Melanie.  She challenges me, she is direct, and she has a fun sense of humor - all wonderful qualities for a coach."      

"Doing this work with you...I'm being more bold. I can check it out with someone who'll give me an honest assessment."

“One of the things that has made me feel strong and good about the work we have done together, is that I have pulled up the quality of my life in general—I have managed several very difficult conversations in a way that has proved transformative, I have been able to take better care of myself, in every way, while in the middle of an exceptionally challenging time professionally. I see that I have more confidence and clarity.” 
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"I cannot say enough about this amazing stepmom coach who has walked the walk of a stepmom and understands the in's and out's of the challenges that we deal with as stepparents. She's more than a coach, she has your back!"

“Extremely supportive and encouraging. An absolute gem! Thank you, Melanie. You have a great talent and skill at this. Your responses and pregnant pauses have helped me open up what I needed to open up, Your spirit and your generosity are unmatched!”    

 "I have worked with Melanie as a coach for several years around both business and personal issues. During this time she has helped me articulate and achieve goals for my life and my business. Some of the things I value about Melanie's coaching is her acute perception, her insight and her honesty. She holds me accountable. She does this without imposing her values and ideas on me.  
           Melanie quickly perceives what is going on below the surface and names it. With Melanie's coaching I am able to see where anxiety is driving my thoughts and actions. I see where I am running a story that doesn't serve me well. I'm able to take a step back and consider how to best move forward. Once the garbage is out of the way, it's easier to see what deserves my attention and does not; what is the essence of what I want to create and what is a diversion. With Melanie's support, I have created goals and a plan to get there and then achieved those goals. I highly recommend Melanie as a coach."   

“It is fun and encouraging to work with Melanie. She asks intriguing questions so you can really look at yourself and what you would like to do and be in the world, and she compassionately re-frames situations in a way that makes the impossible possible. The kind of work Melanie does creates freedom in which you can bring your best self to all aspects of your life.” 

"As my coach, Melanie was observant and thoughtful in her feedback. She was both direct and supportive - balancing these like a well-trained dancer. I became more focused and effective because of my work with Melanie."    ​

"You played a BIG part in the progress I made with my writing last year and as I sit here preparing [my draft for my] editor, I want to say thank you again for guiding me, growing me so capably. I’m excited to be pulling together an actual document!"

"Melanie is an incredible coach! She is knowledgeable, flexible, and kind. Melanie helped me with a number of goals that I had neglected for years due to fear. She has made a tremendously positive impact on both me in both my professional and personal life."

"Thank you once again for your thoughtful and inspiring coaching session.  You always lead me to a place of hope and new ideas."

"You played a BIG part in the progress I made with my writing last year and as I sit here preparing [my draft for my] editor, I want to say thank you again for guiding me, growing me so capably.  I’m excited to be pulling together an actual document!"

"You started working with me during an especially difficult time in my life, both personally and professionally. You allowed me to stay focused and especially worked with me, sometimes seeming to change your approach, in order to meet me where I was at the time, and allowing me to make progress in achieving my goals."

"An unexpected change is that I am better able to related to people, both personally and professionally—because I am able to get rid of all of the ‘drama’ in my head and be more present."

"I feel like a completely different person. A year ago, doing something like this [writing an article for an academic anthology] would have felt insurmountable. But now there's been a whole shift in how I view myself. I was a person who couldn't follow through with things. But not anymore."

"Melanie is an incredible coach who blends keen psychological insight with nitty-gritty, practical problem solving to launch her clients into a new sense of possibility and creative output. She has a no-nonsense style that emphasizes discipline and action, while also leaving room for compassionate, nuanced conversations about the psychological blocks to action. She also has excellent, specific insights into the struggles faced by writers in general and female writers in particular. Finally, she is always willing to go the extra mile to make sure her clients succeed, whether it’s daily accountability check-ins or willingness to work with schedules. Because her approach is so holistic, I have seen major impacts in both my creative output and in my overall approach to life."

"You were very kind and flexible with me. I really enjoyed our conversations and felt empowered every time we ended."

"I really love the combination of psychological insight and practicality. Whenever I was overanalyzing something, Melanie could break me out of it with a practical suggestion. When a practical fix wasn’t working, Melanie could help me consider the underlying reasons in a compassionate and thoughtful way. I also love how specifically fine-tuned much of Melanie’s insight is to the experiences of writers/artists and particularly women. This is very unique and helpful to me."

"I have much more clarity about my identity as a writer and the ways that it feeds my soul and is ultimately necessary for my well being, regardless of whether it ever leads to publication. I spend much less time questioning whether or not I should/deserve to/am good at writing and much more time just writing!"

“Melanie is a powerful career coach. I started working with her right after becoming a manager, and credit her no-nonsense coaching to getting me off to a great start on that career path. Each session ended with a clear list of actions to take toward a goal, as well as the sense of accomplishment for how far I'd come along the path. She was great at seeing the actions that weren't obvious to me, and coming up with thoughtful questions that helped reveal where I was blocked. I highly recommend her for anyone who is ready to make a commitment to taking on the next level with confidence.”      

“Working with Melanie Figg I have been able to identify specific behaviors and thinking that routinely sabotage my writing process. Our work has helped me develop strategies that can mitigate problem patterns and serve my work.  During the time we have worked together, I’ve transformed my creative process. I’ve learned how to bring the skills I already possess to bear in new ways and developed new tactics to approach creativity and day-to-day work with more objectivity, openness, and confidence.  As I’ve deepened these qualities—objectivity, openness, and confidence—they are finding their way into other areas of my life, helping me integrate the creative process with my life so my daily lived experience feeds my writing process and vice versa.”

“Melanie's style is encouraging and motivating, as well as no-nonsense and straightforward, which I greatly appreciated. She helped me see that many hang-ups or trepidations I had were more like pebbles than mountains. These benefits rippled out beyond just my work on poetry, as I started to gain confidence and address blocks. It was great to have someone to walk alongside me to help me along the path. I would highly recommend work with Melanie to anyone who is on the fence. It will be like rocket fuel for your writing and goals."