Laura Wagenknecht, MSW, CEC, CMT

Executive And Leadership Advisor, Corporate Trainer

Laura is an experienced trainer and has taught at Universities for years. This makes her uniquely qualified to engage people and make workshops fun, interactive, and interesting.  Recently as a SCORE mentor and volunteer, she has been providing workshops locally about networking and influencing others so that companies and entrepreneurs can get more high-quality clients/customers.

Laura has also climbed the ladder to success and has held many different leadership positions, including being an Executive Director/CEO of an organization. Because of this experience, she knows how tough it is to be in lower-, middle-, and upper-management – each bringing their own set of challenges.

For example, Laura took over an organization that was struggling to meet payroll every week and was destined to close that year. In just one year she changed the organization into one that not only made payroll easily but was able to hire more staff because she generated a 22% profit.

Some of her achievements include:

  • Brought in more than $16.5 Million in revenue
  • Created a successful fundraising campaign that generated a 475% increase in profits
  • Consulted with physicians to set up their offices and negotiate better contracts with insurance companies
  • Increased sales for the store by 12% and drastically improved customer satisfaction ratings while working in retail

Laura has had diverse work experience, working in retail, the healthcare field, as a therapist, in nonprofit, and in higher education. This invaluable knowledge enabled her to help a wide array of people in her consulting business and increase their productivity and revenues.

Experience

I have been in the industry for 40+ years and have the expertise to assist you.

True Professional

Ethics and compassion are key traits of our organization. I treat every client with respect, assumed competence, and value.

Privacy Guaranteed

Everything we will discuss will stay 100% confidential and will never be shared with any third party. No exceptions!

Unique Ideas

Every client has different needs, so we will come up with a plan adjusted to fit your specific situation.

Strategic Partners

Barrie Barton

Public Speaking Coach

Together, Barrie and Laura present workshops regarding women’s effective communication, messaging, influencing others and leadership.

Whether it’s delivering your signature speech, pitching an idea to potential clients or performing your authentic stories, Barrie Barton is dedicated to the art and strategy of personal and professional engagement, communication and presentation.

Her clients have titled Barrie as a “Speaking Whisperer, Message Spelunker, Word Distiller, and Performance Polisher.” In her role as a Speaking Coach, she uses empowering tools of presentation skills, stories, and messages that matter to motivate and encourage clients to reach their finest potential.

As the founder and lead facilitator of Stand and Deliver Asheville, a presence-based public speaking and communication skills coaching program for professionals, organizations, and entrepreneurs, Barrie offers speaker labs, individual coaching, and training for businesses and organizations.

She also serves as Artistic Director of Story Choreography Projects where participants' authentic stories are artistically and collaboratively blended together into performance. Story Choreography Projects is an eye-opening, transformative and entertaining process and experience for participants and audiences alike.

Paul Royce, M.B.A., ACC

Certified Executive Coach

Paul and Laura collaborate to help build high-performing teams. They have developed workshops and training modules specifically targeted at high-performing team cultures, communicating simply and powerfully, resolving conflict, executing projects effectively, strategic planning, and organizational change initiatives.

Paul Royce, M.B.A., ACC, senior consultant for PGR Management Consulting Group, is a Certified Executive Coach based in Ottawa, Canada and provides high-performance Executive Coaching and Management Consulting services to help individuals and organizations reach their respective professional and strategic goals. Paul brings a unique combination of credentials and experience to his coaching and consulting assignments, having more than 25 years of domestic and international business experience in the IT/IM, Financial and Government sectors. He is an accredited Certified Executive Coach and upholds the highest standards set out by the International Coaching Federation (ICF). He is also a repeat contributor to the Harvard Business Review and is an outspoken advocate of Coaching as the primary learning method of top leaders.

Paul completed graduate school at the University of Bradford Management Centre, European Centre for Total Quality Management (TQM) in the U.K. He has done work for numerous organizations in various senior management and consultancy capacities from lead trainer of a large nationally known software company, an interim in-house Quality Consultant at National Westminster Bank, International Banking Operations in the U.K.

We envision a more inclusive, equal and just world made up of capable, compassionate leaders creating a world of vital and successful workplaces.

Mission

To promote the strengths of each person so that they can find the leader from within and develop these skills to increase their career potential, and share their knowledge, skills, talents, and experience to become the mentors of future leaders.

Values

  • Creativity – We encourage creativity, innovation, and risk-taking to respond to the rapidly changing needs of businesses.
  • Diversity – We celebrate the richness created by a variety of cultures, beliefs, and life experiences. We encourage leaders and businesses to promote diversity to keep new perspectives in the open.
  • Environment – We strive to create a safe, nurturing environment which promotes trust, honesty, direct communication, and personal/professional growth.
  • Partnership – We believe that by actively working together in partnership, we strengthen the participation and productivity and progress, as well as increase and improve results. We believe that collaboration is at the heart of growth.
  • Promotion – We believe that leaders have a responsibility and obligation to mentor and cultivate aspiring leaders under their leadership.
  • Quality – We constantly work to improve the quality of everything we do to be responsible stewards of our resources.
  • Respect – We share a common humanity, and we work to affirm the individual uniqueness, worth, and capability of each person and business collective.