About
Hi, I’m Angie!
Business Coach, Communication Expert, and Recovering Jerk
Every time I introduce myself as a recovering jerk, it gets a ton of laughs.
And there's definitely a part of me that's like...
Yes, give me your praise!
But unfortunately the "jerk" bit is the truth. I haven't always been a good person.
Here's how I lost my shit and cost myself a good client…
This was many, many years ago. I'd landed a retainer with the very first company I ever sent a cold pitch to...
I wound up working on a project with an agency whose staff I ADORED... and whose client I ABHORRED.
The agency loved my work. I loved the work… when I wasn’t butting heads with the agency’s client (which was rare).
Fast forward about six months and I’m at a live event - a conference I’d been planning to attend for the better part of a year. I’d given a month’s heads up to the agency AND their client, not to mention repeatedly reminded everyone involved about my upcoming time off.
So tell me how, on opening night of the event I’d done everything humanly possible to prepare my teams for (aside from tattooing it on my forehead), I found myself in the staff room, angrily putting out “email fires” despite all the advance warning that I’d be offline.
"How could they do this to me?"
Nursing a slight buzz and a whole lot of anger, I vented to a couple understanding colleagues. They did what most awesome, caring people do and encouraged me to own my authority and “fire” the client since they were driving me nuts.
Feeling good and self righteous (not to mention vindicated), I sent a quick email to my agency client letting them know I was terminating the contract and could no longer help them. Then I closed my laptop and enjoyed the event.
See what I did there? Did you catch the critical mistake?
I couldn’t stand my client’s client… so I fired my client.
It’d take me years to realize that. I didn’t have the people skills (or confidence) to articulate to the agency that I couldn’t work with THEIR client. Instead of asking to be removed from the problem child’s account, I projected my frustration onto the agency, cut ties with them, and left them in a bind.
I torpedoed a perfectly good relationship with people who thought the world of me. I left them scrambling in the middle of a campaign, having to do my work AND find someone to replace me or risk losing their client... purely because it felt good to be righteously angry and fire someone in the heat of the moment.
So yeah... a real jerk.
I wish I could say I learned my lesson with that one experience, but it’d take me years of letting my ego drive the struggle bus before I realized *I* was the problem. I didn't know:
• how to talk to people when I was upset
• how to bring up problems without everyone getting entrenched and defensive, or sounding like I was complaining
• why so many client projects would start great and come off the rails spectacularly
• how to delegate to people without micromanaging them within an inch of their sanity
• how to support my staff and direct reports so they felt empowered and excited to come to work, instead of crying when they had to get on a call with me (true story, unfortunately)
The further I’ve gone in business the more I’ve seen this pattern repeating. We, as humans, will go SO far out of our ways to avoid having uncomfortable conversations for fear of blowing things up…
...that we'll unintentionally blow things up through avoidance, and destroy important, impactful relationships (like I did).
I find it funny how right now, there are hundreds of courses popping up teaching you how to talk to and prompt AI to get it to do what you need it to do…
Meanwhile we’re still over here leaning into our human-ness, afraid to talk to each other because we don’t want to disappoint people or start an argument. Or we're desperately trying to avoid hearing, "No!" in regards to something we really want.
Here's the thing...
Until now, leadership and communications and people skills weren't something people thought to worry about until they became a "serious" business with employees, benefits, and a 7- or 8-figure annual revenue.
I think it's about time we changed that.
Leadership and communications aren't skills you need ONCE you get to the next level. They're what you need TO get to the next level.
If you start working on these skills now, as you are, odds are your company will grow into something that doesn't NEED an expensive team facilitator to come in and undo a whole lot of unintentional dysfunction.
That's where I come in.
About Me - Angie Colee
I'm a business coach with a master's degree in turning intellectual property into revenue generating assets. I've written for, consulted with, and run creative teams for well known companies like MasterClass, Lowe’s, Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula (PLF), Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad brand, Orzy Media, and Copy Chief (to name a few). To date my work has generated more than $70 million in sales (and that number is continually growing thanks to the repeatable systems I installed).
Enough credentials - here's the REALLY important stuff:
ENTJ
Enneagram 3
4-6 Generator
Gryffindor House
Merida is my Disney princess.
Goofy is my spiritual guide.
In my spare time, I'm a blues and rock singer.
Claim to fame: I once went awkwardly silent when Chris Tucker (of Rush Hour fame) asked me for directions.
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