What Clients Say

“With her gentle and perceptive guidance and insight, Valery brought our diverse and slightly scattered team together around our common objectives and desired impact. Valery led an inclusive and reflective session that left all participants feeling seen, heard, and understood. This renewed our resolve to keep at it!”

“It was a pleasure working with Valery. We found her templates quite helpful and appreciated the structure she brought to our process. It helped us get to the finish line in a succinct way.”

“Valery is thoughtful and smart, and kept our team on track through a months-long project. She is creative and strategic, and easy to work with. In fact, we hired her for a second project while working on the first. I’d highly recommend Valery.”

“Working with Valery Navarrete and Heather Cayouette throughout our strategic planning process was an incredibly meaningful experience for our organization. Strategic planning can sometimes feel overwhelming, but Valery and Heather created a space where staff, board members, and community voices could come together in thoughtful and productive conversation. They brought both structure and heart to the work.

Valery’ ability to guide complex discussions and distill them into clear direction is remarkable, while Heather’s thoughtful facilitation and insight helped ensure every voice around the table felt heard and valued. Together, they created a process that was not only strategic but deeply reflective of who we are as an organization and the community we serve.

As an Executive Director, I appreciated their collaborative approach, their professionalism, and the care they brought to the work. They didn’t just help us build a strategic plan, they helped us strengthen our shared vision for the future.”

“With Valery’s leadership, our Board arrived at professional strategic plan that we all understand and use to guide our decision-making.  Using a solid framework that achieves results, Valery listened, picked up quickly on our context, provided relevant knowledge and research, and facilitated  commitment to our identified goals. This was all accomplished within our allotted time frame. We’re very pleased to have chosen Valery to lead the development of our much needed strategic plan.”

“Valery’s creativity, community-focused approach, and understanding of the social impact sector supported us to move beyond our day-to-day operations to think about the bigger picture regarding our impact.”

“Valery was incredibly patient, attentive, and supportive during our strategic clarity process. Our small but mighty team would 100% recommend Valery as a [consultant]! We are wholeheartedly grateful to have had the opportunity to work alongside her.”

“Valery helped our team dive deeper and build consensus around our strategic priorities at a really important juncture for our organization. She centered equity in her approach and brought us insight and perspective at every juncture of our two-hour facilitated session.”

“Valery was a proactive, responsive, organized and focused consultant to help our strategic planning task force stay focused and make headway with vision and clarity. Her recommendations absolutely supported our process and thinking. In addition, Valery is a pleasure to work with and shared our strong sense of values – which was integral to how we do the work. I would work with Valery again and recommend her at any time!”

“Valery is an exceptional facilitator who leads with kindness and curiosity. She led our team through a strategic clarity and impact exercise that lasted nearly nine months. She kept us on track with the work, helped us dig deeper into our thinking by being curious about our ideas and wording, and helped us to create an incredible intended impact statement, theory of change, and action plan that will provide us with what we need to create a new program and effectively align all of our work to achieve our impact. Valery managed to keep a group of ‘big thinkers’ on track as we batted ideas around and asked, ‘Oh, what if we did this, too?’ We could not have done this without her!”

“Our team worked with Valery over an eight month period to clarify our organization’s intended impact and Theory of Change. Valery brought out the very best in our team – she listened closely, adapted to our needs as our work progressed, supported everyone in our team to be heard, and maintained an unwavering focus on what we were trying to achieve together. With her support, we have a much clearer understanding of the impact we are working to achieve and how we do that.”

“Thanks, Valery, for your leadership on the development of our strategic plan. We’ve had such an overwhelming response. Its simple messaging and practical milestones make it a powerful living document guiding our work.”

“Organizational structural resets are extremely tough to navigate. Fortunately, Valery and Marlo . . . guided us masterfully throughout the delicate process of creating new and sustainable ways to manage our internal priorities. They both took the time needed to get to understand our internal structures and coached our team extensively to ensure long-lasting results. They both proved to be human-first and were very insightful in steering us the right way!”

“I really appreciated the time Valery created for me to explore and reflect my goals and tensions with my career. As someone who has multiple interests and ambitions, and is a new mom – I needed the time to reflect on my career goals, interests, and where I want to focus my energy. In addition, we explored the natural tensions that come up with what work and my career means to me, and what I can focus on while also being a parent.”

“Valery has a strong ability to listen, ask meaningful questions, and offer perspective. The experience felt focused, respectful, and genuinely helpful. I would recommend working with her to anyone looking for professional guidance and accountability. She creates a space that encourages reflection and forward momentum.”

“Valery truly had a way of understanding me — like she read my mind and instantly grasped what I was thinking. Without ever telling me exactly what to do, she gently guided me with insightful, reflective questions that completely shifted my perspective. By encouraging me to explore things differently, she helped me discover my voice — and gave me the confidence to speak up to leadership on countless issues.

With Valery, I felt empowered and secure. I learned immensely from her coaching—she helped me articulate my thoughts, boost my confidence, and advocate for what matters. I’m so grateful for everything she taught me.”

“Working with Valery was powerful. She asked me challenging questions that encouraged me to look at issues in new ways. She provided interesting and new frameworks for developing and fine-tuning my business plan and project ideas. She held space for me to ponder some of the emotional blocks I had around money and sales. During my time with Valery, I got clarity on my priorities, smashed through some major mental blocks, and regained momentum to get my passion projects off the ground. I felt both challenged and supported the whole time, which is not an easy balance to strike. Thank you Valery!!”

“Working with Val has been such a wonderful and transformative experience. Over the past year and a half, she’s helped me rebuild my confidence, believe in myself, and reconnect with what truly inspires me, all in a deeply insightful and supportive way. Val is an exceptionally skilled career coach and her passion for helping people truly shines through in every interaction. She brings a combination of empathy, expertise, and intuition to her work. Her ability to truly listen, understand what you’re saying (and sometimes what you’re not lol) and guide you to meaningful reflection is remarkable. She’s kind, genuine, and encouraging, but also honest and straightforward when it matters most, a balance that makes her guidance both supportive and effective.”

“Through The Circle I gained a deeper understanding of my own unique leadership style and strengths, knowledge on how to thrive as a racialized woman in leadership, and a community of amazing women to lean on for support and friendship. I would highly recommend The Circle to all women of colour!”

“Valery’s group and one-on-one coaching provided relevant perspectives and connections to valuable resources to support my current professional goals. The whole experience was fantastic.”

“My coaching sessions with Val were incredibly rewarding. Her insightful guidance and practical strategies deepened my understanding of complex situations and foundational principles. This clarity was key to developing new processes and approaches for what truly matters. I highly recommend Val to anyone seeking professional growth and impactful change.”

“[T]hank you again for the amazing coaching sessions . . . They really helped me think about what I was doing at work and why I was doing it and . . . also helped with my confidence, which is something with which I’ve often struggled.”

“Valery created a thoughtful, inclusive intentional space! Thanks to her I was connected with a great cohort of women and also learned about other racialized women doing incredible things! Valery and the cohort were instrumental in helping me carve out intentional time and space to reflect, plan and think – all acts of resistance as a racialized woman!”

“I really appreciated the way Val met me where I was at. Her flexibility with topic changes was very helpful and expertly handled. The session recaps were a real value-ad bonus that made me feel heard and understood.”