Metropolitan Business Association

I'm leading the Metropolitan Business Association (MBA), an organisation dedicated to developing an English-speaking business community of small business owners and entrepreneurs in Barcelona and empowering its members to achieve sustainable growth through a network built on respect, collaboration, and mutual success.

President & Co- Founder

Ask Maria Kelly

As Fractional Chief Strategy Officer, I help businesses scale with confidence by providing the strategy, structure, and skills they need to grow smoothly and sustainably.

✅ Business Strategy & Growth Coaching: Partnering with entrepreneurs to develop clear strategies that drive sustainable growth.

✅ Leadership Development: Empowering leaders to enhance team performance and navigate challenges effectively.

✅ Process Optimisation: Streamlining operations to improve efficiency and scalability.

✅ Team Training Workshops: Conducting customised training sessions to build cohesive and high-performing teams.

Founder & Principal Consultant 

North Paddington Food Bank

Implemented and managed the on-boarding and DBS vetting of 400 new volunteers to respond to the high demand of home deliveries for people self isolating or vulnerable in the wake of Covid-19. Tested and integrated a volunteer software program to manage the process going forward.

Senior Volunteer

Sotheby's

Leading the Division’s Auction & Private Sales Business. 
Consolidated the core activity of both divisions ensuring global consistency & synergies within regions and departments. 
Led the Middle East development launching the first Watches Auction in Dubai.

Global Deputy Managing Director Jewellery & Watches Division

Working alongside the Managing Director, created the  Luxury & Lifestyle Division & successfully delivered <$500 million of aggregated auction sales.

Deputy Managing Director Luxury & Lifestyle Division

Business lead for two Global Departments: Jewellery and Watches

International Division Director Jewellery and Watches

Management of the North America regional specialist departments: 
24 Departments split across three divisions: Fine Arts, Decorative Arts and Asian Arts.
Led the integration & partnership with RM Sotheby’s (cars)

Senior Vice President, Head of Regional Specialists

Management of the North America Regional Fine Arts Division
Guest Speaker at the Sotheby's Institute of Art Summer Study Program

Senior Vice President, Division Director

Led all Financial, Operational, HR & Administrative functions in Switzerland. 
•	Compliance Officer Switzerland
•	Deputy Money Laundering Officer Switzerland
Officer Promotions:
•	Senior Director 2012
•	Director 2007
•	Deputy Director 2006

General Manager & Business Director Switzerland

Lead the Swiss Administrative group, the Shipping Department, Security and Risk in Geneva. Oversaw the client experience.

Office Manager

Organised the physical movement of all Works of Art, Jewellery and Watches in and out of Geneva for annual values exceeding $ 300 million. Managed Security, Risk and Building Maintenance.

Shipping Manager

Effectively ran the administration of the Geneva Import & Export Department. Coordinated shipments of consignments and purchases of high end jewellery, watches and works of art for auction.

Shipping Coordinator

Split between the Shipping Department and the Sales Administration Department.
Assisted the Shipping Deputy on all administrative tasks, including Inventory management and SAP and invoice procurement and administered the auctions.

Sales Administrator & Shipping Assistant

CAMAIEU INTERNATIONAL

Camaïeu is a French retail clothing company which manufactures and sells its own collections of women's clothing.

Sales Assistant

EMS Eynard-Fatio  Retirement Home

Gave daily care to elderly "end of life" patients

Health Care Assistant

Fondation Baur, musée des arts d'Extrême-Orient

Museum Assistant

🚀Accelerate Your Leadership Transition in 90 days 💥Growth Strategist for Leaders Who Care 🎯Executive & Corporate Coaching 🎯Career Coaching For Frustrated Professionals Who Want to Get Unstuck

You didn’t start your business to feel stuck, stressed, and overwhelmed. But here you are, you’ve hit a wall. You’re busting your chops, yet things aren’t coming together. Your business is running you instead of the other way around

You had a vision: freedom, growth, & work that truly mattered. But somewhere along the way, things got complicated:

‼️ You’re working hard, but growth isn’t happening fast enough
‼️ Your team should be your biggest asset, not your biggest challenge
‼️ Decisions are piling up, you feel stuck & scaling seems impossible

What I Do

I work with entrepreneurs and business owners hitting a wall in strategy, leadership, or processes. I deliver a clear, practical plan so you can stop second-guessing & start scaling

No vague advice. Just clarity, confidence, and action

How We Make That Happen

✅ 1:1 Business Strategy Coaching – Get unstuck, simplify decisions, & confidently move forward

✅ Fractional Chief Strategy Officer: People | Processes | Leadership – High-level strategic support to optimise your team, streamline operations & strengthen leadership

✅ High-Impact Team Training Days – Hands-on workshops to improve communication, collaboration, & performance

What You Can Expect

✔ No cookie-cutter solutions. Just practical, tailored strategies that work
✔ A clear, actionable plan for your business & you
✔ A trusted partner to help you scale with confidence

Why Trust Me?

With 25+ years of experience in business strategy, leadership, and operations, I bring real-world expertise, a global perspective, & a results-driven approach

Key Credentials

⏩ Triple-Accredited Professional Coach
⏩ Senior Executive Leader (Sotheby’s, $500M+ in annual sales)
⏩ Co-founder & President, Metropolitan Business Association 
⏩ Member of the Professional Speakers Association Spain
⏩ Officer of 22@ Toastmasters Barcelona Club 

What Clients Say

"Maria’s insight made a tangible, emotional, & financial difference to the company." 
— Zoe Loveday, Managing Director, SSK

"Maria’s intervention was critical in accelerating awareness around opportunities ahead, resulting in significant positive change."
— Bruno Vinciguerra, CEO, Bonhams

Beyond work? You’ll find me

🤝 Speaking at Toastmasters
🌍 Building the Metropolitan Business Association 
🐶 Hanging out with my husband, Yann, & our jack-a-bee, Cookie

📞 If you’re ready to stop spinning & start scaling book a call to talk about how I can support you

Your business should serve you, not consume you. Let’s fix that!

👉 Get my best business tips in your inbox: https://askmariakelly.ck.page

Maria Kelly

This one feels like a "pinch me" moment
I’ve had something under wraps for a while, and today I finally get to share it.

Today is my first day as a Professor at CIEE Barcelona.

I'll be teaching Strategic Management to undergraduate study-abroad students, the kind of course that blends classic strategy thinking with how organisations actually make decisions in the real world.

We'll cover frameworks, yes. We'll talk about AI and how it can be used ethically and responsibly as part of modern coursework (not as a shortcut). But the real focus is on judgment, decision-making, and what happens when context, culture, and people complicate all the neat theories.

I want students to leave this course with more than good notes. I want them to build confidence in their thinking, learn how to challenge ideas constructively, and understand that good decisions rarely come from theory alone.

The group work and the conversations we'll have, that's where the real learning happens and I can't wait to see what they bring into the room.

Feeling grateful, slightly nervous in the best way, and very ready to step into the classroom.

Wish me luck!!

I'm an early adopter at heart, so when Lea 🌈 Turner launched The HoLT I was one of the first to join.

A few years in, I can only say how brilliant this community is.

I've made friends, found suppliers, connected with people to work with, and honestly? It's just been a genuinely great place to be part of.

So I'm pretty proud to announce that today The HoLT Directory launches, and I'm a Founding Member!

Ask Maria Kelly is officially listed inside The HoLT Directory - a completely free, searchable directory designed to make finding brilliant support easy.
It's packed with hundreds of trusted expert small business owners and solopreneurs, covering a full spectrum of services:

Automation pros to architects. Contract lawyers to copywriters. PR to paid ads. SEO to speakers and everything in between.

Easy to use. Free to access.
Just great services, great people, and absolutely NO KNOBS!

If you're a business looking for reliable experts you can actually trust, this is a link you'll want to bookmark.😉

Check it out here: www.the-holt.com/directory

This Christmas, I made my entire family cry.
And here’s how you can too.


➡️ I used ChatGPT to write custom song lyrics for each person, pulling in shared memories, inside jokes, and things I've always wanted to say but never quite found the words for. 

➡️ Then I fed those lyrics into Suno, chose music styles I knew they'd love, and turned them into actual songs. 

➡️ Finally, I designed lyric sheets in Canva, got them printed, and on Christmas Day, I handed them out and pressed play. 

The confusion lasted about ten seconds. Then the tears started. (Mine included.) 😅

This is another example of how you can use AI in your everyday life.

A year ago, I couldn’t have created a song in 15 minutes. The quality and range of styles are impressive. It gave me a way to express something deeply personal that I simply didn't have the skills to create on my own.
I also really had fun creating these songs.

That is the real opportunity with AI: use it to boost your creativity.

Start with an idea, then let it help you deliver it in a way you couldn’t have before and in much less time.

Have you used AI to create gifts???

I don't need a word of the year.
I need a way to stop saying yes to the wrong things.

So I'm using three words as filters instead.

➡️ Stability 

2026 needs to give me financial security and predictability. A business should support you, not keep you up at night wondering if you can pay next month's bills. I want to stay self-employed AND sleep well. I want to believe that both are possible.

➡️ Commercial 

My time, energy, and expertise have to translate into actual paid work. I'm prioritising revenue over visibility for its own sake. You know what I mean... that exposure that looks great on paper but doesn't lead anywhere concrete? I'm letting that go. If it doesn't help me earn, it's not getting my yes.

➡️ Focus 

I'm stopping the habit of spreading myself thin. This year is about a small number of activities with a clear path to income. Everything else can wait (or disappear entirely, and that's ok too).

Now every idea, opportunity, collaboration, or shiny new project runs through one simple test:

❓ Does this support stability? 
❓ Is this genuinely commercial? 
❓ Does this deserve my focus right now?

If the answer is no to any of them, it waits.

I’ve always taken pride in being available and supportive. Saying yes has felt generous and right, but I need to get my head around the fact that prioritising myself and my business is not selfish, it’s necessary.

If this is going to work long term, I have to be as intentional with my own needs as I’ve been with everyone else’s.

So if you’re a business owner feeling stuck with growth and want a clear, honest conversation about how to move forward, reach out. 
That’s exactly the work I’m prioritising.😉

Unpopular opinion: The question isn't whether students should use AI.
They already do!

The real question is whether we're brave enough to help them use it well.

At CIEE Barcelona, professors set their own AI policy. I chose to allow it, and here's why: my job isn't to police what they do. It's to prepare them for the real world.

So I encourage my students to use AI as a learning tool to:

✅ Explore ideas they're curious about
✅ Clarify concepts that feel confusing
✅ Practise applying what they learn in real scenarios

I even recommend specific tools I believe genuinely help.

Because we all learn differently. Some of us need to read it, others need to hear it, some need visuals or quizzes to make it click. Giving students the option to learn through the format that actually works for them means they're more likely to do the work.

And if Footloose has thought us anything, banning something students are already doing just encourages them to do it in secret. 

Now, I still expect them to write their own work and disclose when they've used AI. In class, we apply the learning together, individually and in groups. Because what I've learned from my own experience is that memorising content for an exam you'll forget the next day isn't learning.

What I care about is whether they understand the concepts and can use them in real situations. That's how learning actually sticks. 

AI can help them get there, or it can be misused. My role is to teach the difference.

These students are stepping into a world where AI will be everywhere. Ignoring that reality doesn't prepare them, guiding them does. Leadership in education now means adapting how we teach, not clinging to outdated controls.

If we want people who can think on their feet, make decisions, and apply knowledge in real life, then our teaching has to reflect the world they're entering.

If you're teaching, training, or leading people right now, this conversation matters. What's your take on the use of AI in school?

Stop rebuilding slides from scratch!

There's a faster, cleaner way to do this now, and I'm genuinely excited to share it.

I discovered Gamma at the end of last year and thought it was brilliant. But what changed this year is a new beta feature they just launched called Remix.
 
Why? It solves one of the biggest problems with AI-created slides: Consistency.

Here's my situation: I create a slide deck for each of my Strategic Management course at CIEE Barcelona, each class covers a different topic, but the structure and visual identity need to stay the same.

A problem you may have noticed, is that when you ask AI to recreate slides (or anything) from scratch, it doesn't behave consistently. Layouts will shift and colours change. 

You may have seen these videos going around on socials of people entering the same prompt to create a picture over and over, and the picture morphing into something completely different. 

Remix fixes that:

➡️ I start with one solid slide deck in Gamma

➡️ I prompt Remix to keep the same layout and colour structure

➡️ Then I paste in the new slide outline for the next class and seconds later, the new deck is ready

➡️ From there, I only tweak content or add a slide if needed.

And tadaa! I have a consistent slide deck for my next class.

If you create slides regularly, this is genuinely worth trying.
You'll thank me later!😉

Feeling the January pressure?
Yep, me too.

I took a proper break over Christmas with no work just rest. But coming back was harder than I expected.

Everyone’s already sprinting: New goals. New routines. Same crap.

There’s this unspoken rule that you have to “start the year strong", be everywhere, do everything, plan your next six figures before the first week’s out.

But what if you didn’t?

This week’s newsletter is about saying no to the hype, yes to your own pace and how I’m using three simple words to guide every decision in 2026.

Because you know what? January isn’t the main event; it’s just the warm-up.

WANT THE FULL READ?
Check it out here tomorrow morning:  https://lnkd.in/daTCiBhm

LinkedIn Copywriter | Supporting company leaders with exciting content | Content Creation | Content Strategy 1:1 | Engagement | Social Media Manager | Speaker 😇

You could spend hours perfecting your next post...

Or hand it over to someone who can make LinkedIn work for you.

As a ghostwriter, I help founders build authority on LinkedIn...

-Without the late nights
-Without the content stress
-Without losing their voice

Here's what happens in your first 30 days:

1- Post content that gets attention
↳ I turn your expertise into posts your ideal clients can't scroll past.

2- Show up consistently without effort
↳ No more gaps in posting or guilt about ghosting your network.  

3- Get noticed in the right circles
↳ Stand out among industry leaders and decision-makers who matter.

4- Build brand authority on autopilot
↳ Your thought leadership grows daily while you focus elsewhere.

5- Get your time back
↳ Run your business while I make your content stand out.

If you're:

-Too busy to show up consistently
-Watching others dominate your space
-Ready to build real influence

We should talk!

DM me to book a 15-minute call to see if we're a fit.

→ Or click the link in my featured posts.

JULIA ZATTA

LinkedIn gets a bad rep, 

but for service-based businesses, it’s one of the best platforms to build visibility and generate leads, if you know what to post and why.

- if you are tired of random posting
-know LinkedIn could bring clients, but you’re stuck 
-want to be seen as an expert, not become a content creator

Then, consider joining the 7 Day LinkedIn Visibility Sprint.

For just $24, you’ll get a simple LinkedIn workflow that you can start to implement right now.

It includes:

☑️ seven days of posting prompts
☑️ a simple daily engagement workflow
☑️ a live wrap-up Q&A with content review (You’ll get the replay if you can’t make it) 

Want in? DM me the word SPRINT, and I’ll share the link to join!

Julia Zatta

Helping founders become thought leaders on LinkedIn | Ghostwriter | LinkedIn B2B copywriter | DM me to book a discovery call

Why LinkedIn feels harder than it should

If you struggle to translate your real personality to LinkedIn, you probably...

- overthink your wording
- take hours to write a single post
- hold back your real perspective to stay safe

None of that is sustainable.

What works instead:

- deciding what you want to be known for
- using a simple, repeatable process
- letting your systems beat confidence

When you do that, posting stops feeling like a struggle and starts doing its job.

Building trust.

Stop trying to be 'perfect' on LinkedIn...

Several people inside my LinkedIn Sprint said variations of this:

“I know social media is part of being a business owner... I just don’t find it easy.”

“I enjoy marketing... until consistency is required 😅”

“LinkedIn feels like foreign territory.”

“I’m overthinking everything. I don’t know how to be myself without sounding stiff or ‘too professional’.”

What’s interesting is that all of these people are business owners who love their work.

They know it makes an impact.
They can talk about it for hours.

But when it’s time to turn that thinking into content, they freeze. They feel they need to:

- sound 'professional'
- tone things down
- hide their personality
- avoid strong opinions

That’s the real reason posting feels hard.

So the work we do in the Sprint is about learning how to translate how you already think into content that fits the platform.

One member just shared how she’s feeling since joining:

“Loving the Sprint so far! I’ve already written and scheduled my second post for tomorrow. The prompts make it so much easier to write in a natural way.”

If you’ve been thinking about joining, this is your sign!
The price goes up on Tuesday.

When I need to post on LinkedIn but don’t have the mental space for overthinking, here are the 3 things I do every time. Try this too! ⤵️

1. I repurpose something I’ve already said. 
👉 I review my podcast, Instagram, or emails, and rewrite one idea into a post.

2. I think about the last work conversation I had.
👉 What were they stuck on? What was the next step I helped them see? I share that piece of advice.

3. I review client testimonials.
👉 What was the biggest transformation they experienced? I focus on describing the transformation so it gives readers a bit of fomo.

None of these ideas are hard to write about. 
Because they come from real client struggles, desires and my interactions with them.

This helps me stay aligned with what my audience needs to hear.

Try one of these today and let me know how you get on!

taplio

The Battle

Maria Kelly

JULIA ZATTA

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreMaria Kelly's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJULIA ZATTA's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Maria Kelly

JULIA ZATTA

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Maria Kelly's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJULIA ZATTA's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreMaria Kelly's LinkedIn Performance