Hi!
I’m Meredith Richardson.
I love to help heart-centered, hard-working individuals and boards to do more, stress less and have more fun!
I work with Goal Getters and Superheroes who are ready to prioritize joy, decrease stress, and still smash their goals.
Does that sound like you? Click the button below to set up a time to talk.
You give me $25 and 25 minutes.
I give you active listening + strengths-based, solution-focused coaching.
My background
I think I’ve always been an Ideation Guide at heart.
I love to learn, brainstorm, be intuitively strategic, and get things done.
This means that when I’m having a conscious strategy session with you, I’ll be asking questions to learn about you, asking questions to get you thinking outside the box, and offering strategic suggestions to help you attain your goals as quickly and easily as possible.
It’s that drive to do things quickly and easily that got me into hypnotherapy. I have yet to find anything that can create change faster than that.
I used to be a mediator and a conflict coach, and I helped over 1,500 people to navigate conflict successfully. I started in this work as an attorney, working in three states - Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.
I was married to someone I would describe as a Rebel, with or without A Cause. (My experiences getting around his rebellious nature probably helped me to be an even better mediator. 😉😂)
I also used to proudly sit on more boards and committees than I would like to admit to now.
The truth is that I spent a lot of time as a Superhero, always in action, running around trying to save everyone, while pretending I didn’t have needs. Maybe you can relate.
If it hadn’t been for two people trying to kidnap me, I might have just kept on burning the candle at both ends for years until I slowly burnt out.
But two people did try to kidnap me, and that changed everything.
I couldn’t be a Superhero anymore. I suddenly had a lot of needs, and I needed to tend to them.
That was when I learned the hard way the sad truth about being a Superhero - just because you are there for everyone else doesn’t mean that they will be there for you when you need them most.
I found out who my friends were … and weren’t. I lost relationships. That hurt. A lot.
In 2018, I left everything behind - my career, my marriage, and even my country - in order to save myself. I wandered the world, studying Norwegian, writing a memoir, doing international petsitting, and creating an online coaching business. After covid hit in 2020, I settled on the Oregon Coast.
While I was wandering, I took stock of my strengths (and weaknesses) and created new paths forward for myself. Then I did it again, and again, and again.
My life today is similar to, but better than it was before the attempted kidnapping. I’m in a loving relationship with a very kind man. I have intentionally created a loving community for myself and I seek out healthy, happy, kind, nurturing people. I still volunteer - I am heart-centered and a recovering Superhero, after all! 😁 I “just” have a well-balanced, happy life that brings me daily joy.
Hypnotherapy was incredibly healing for me, and I’m proud to offer hypnotherapy now, to help my clients heal as quickly and easily as possible!
I’m also happy to offer conscious strategy sessions with NO hypnotherapy involved, recognizing that some people don’t actually want me playing with their subconscious mind.
Ready to dip a toe in? Click the link below to schedule 25 minutes with me for just $25! You’ll get 25 minutes of strengths-based, solution-focused coaching. If you want more, we can talk about that. If that’s all you need, then you can just keep rocking on as your bad self (bad in a good way, of course).
Media
I’ve been published in Newsweek and featured in Authority Magazine, Thrive Global, and The Story Exchange.
What is an Ideation Guide?
Some people purport to have all the answers.
As an Ideation Guide, I have the questions to get you to the answers that work best for you.
We’re all different, and what works for one doesn’t necessarily work for another.
I believe that you know you best.
So, let’s play to your strengths and work with what works for you. Let’s support your weaknesses (we all have them). Let’s make life fun and easy wherever you may be - at work, at home, volunteering, or somewhere off having fun.
Why do you need an Ideation Guide?
As an Ideation Guide, I facilitate your creation of ideas and solutions, and then I help you to strategically attain your goals.
With individuals, I do this through conscious strategy sessions, which tap into the power of your conscious mind, and hypnotherapy, which taps into the power of your subconscious mind.
With groups, I provide facilitation, strategic planning, and training, all from a strengths-based, solution-focused approach.
When it comes to change, people and organizations often do this instead:
1. Say they want to change, and keep doing exactly what they have been doing, so that nothing changes, and the complaining continues.
2. Treat the presenting problem, rather than the underlying problem, which is like putting a Band-Aid over a puncture wound.
3. Grease the squeaky wheel, and none of the others (all of which are doing just as much work; they just aren’t squeaking about it).
4. Crisis management rather than preventative care. If it’s not on fire, they aren’t tending to it.
None of this works as a long-term solution.
What if the problem that you see isn’t really the problem at all?
I help you to…
Identify your goals and any obstacles in your way, whether they are external or self-generated.
Figure out how to overcome the obstacles in the easiest way possible, playing to your strengths and supporting your weaknesses.
We recognize that what you have been doing hasn’t been working (so far).
The big question is why.
Once we know why, we can begin to explore possibilities as to what could work.
The solution will likely look very different from what you have been doing because…
You’ve been addressing the presenting problem rather than the actual problem and/or
You’ve been using old tools or strategies that don’t actually meet your needs and/or
You haven’t been playing to your strengths and supporting your weaknesses.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
If you’re ready to make a change, one that makes your life easier and more joyful, then it’s time to think outside the box that you’re in, and create a new path forward. It’s time for an Ideation Guide.