BLAXLAND CONSULTING LIMITED

𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗰𝗼𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗩𝗖𝗣 – 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗶𝗱-𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗲-𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 

Diane is a senior adviser to private equity portfolio companies.  She helps investors and portcos to deliver robust growth against value creation plans - including via post-merger integration.  She has a sweet spot in Tech-enabled B2B Services including Professional Services in the UK and EMEA.

Her experience includes:

- pre-deal MDD and post-deal operating reviews of portcos - eg for Blackstone, Mercia, Silverfleet, LDC, Rockpool, Foresight
- rapid recovery of post-merger integration and transformation, ahead of an IPO (backed by TPG)
- commercial risk analysis for a PE portco, triggering an exit via secondary buyout (backed by ICG)
- recovery of an off-shore proposition, re-positioning for growth ahead of a merger
- design and global rollout of a post-merger data integration model.

Her skills include P&L management, business strategy, sales, operations, business transformation, and change management – drawing on her experience in startups, scaleups and global business.

Founder

Career Coaching by Diane Blaxland

🚩 How will you know if my Career Coaching is right for you? Five quick signs: 

•	there is a gap emerging between your career and your satisfaction level 
•	addressing the gap is increasingly important to you 
•	there are risks if you do something, and risks if you do nothing 
•	you have some advice, but you want to take a wider, longer term view 
•	talking it through with an experienced executive feels like a good place to start 

#ExpertLeaders #Careers #PersonalDevelopment

Catalysis Advisory Ltd

𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗣𝗘 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗰𝗼 𝗕𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝗱𝗲𝘀:
🔺 𝗽𝗿𝗲-𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 - 𝗕𝟮𝗕𝟮𝗖 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 (𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲)
🔺 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁-𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗺𝗶𝗱-𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 - 𝗕𝟮𝗕 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗘𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀
🔺 𝗽𝗿𝗲-𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗕𝟮𝗕 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵, 𝗕𝟮𝗚𝟮𝗖 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵, 𝗕𝟮𝗕𝟮𝗖 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵, 𝗕𝟮𝗕𝟮𝗖 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗳𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗕𝟮𝗚 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗰 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵

Business Advisor

Johnson Controls Inc

$5b EMEA region of $20b Business Services division of $40b Fortune100 listed company

Director Change Management, EMEA

Blaxland Consulting

Advising clients on operational and commercial change.

CPA Global

£100m global Business Services company, backed by Private Equity

Director Strategy

Williams Lea

£20m Division of this £1b global Business Services company, part of DAX30 company DeutschePost

Managing Director 

Clifford Chance LLP

£100m+ M&A practice of this £1bn global Professional Services firm

Head Business Development Operations

Blake Dawson Waldron

A$350m international Professional Services firm (now part of £1b Ashurst LLP)

Business Development, Sales & Marketing management

CEO & Founder Expert Leaders™ | Career Direction & CV Coaching | £1B PSF | $40B Fortune100 | PE scaleups | London Business School

I help professionals step into clarity, confidence, and growth - especially when navigating complex career transitions in challenging or unfamiliar markets.

My clients are technically brilliant, ambitious … and many are internationally experienced. They’re often MBAs, engineers, M&A/finance experts, consultants, lawyers, or technology & data/AI specialists. 

They're ready to step into senior leadership, but something isn’t landing. Their pitch isn’t quite resonating. The growth opportunities they seek feel just out of reach.

That’s where I come in.

With more than 10 years in senior leadership - including as Managing Director responsible for 550 people - I’ve led growth, transformation, and turnaround across organisations from under £10m to over $5Bn. 

I’ve advised private equity investors and portfolio companies on operations, building robust solutions to complex problems. 

And I bring that same level of focus, clarity, and strategic thinking into my coaching practice.

My sweet spot lies in tech-enabled B2B services - including engineering, data/AI, finance, legal, and consulting. 

Highlights of my work include: 

▪️Steering post-merger integration for a $6Bn PE-backed global professional services firm, resolving operational failures, client complaints, and transformation across 15 countries.
▪️Leading the recovery of a £1bn NHS Trust’s lab project post-dispute, bringing together investors, clinicians, scientists, suppliers, and engineers to co-create a viable solution.
▪️Delivering commercial risk analysis that identified a -70% risk to a target exit valuation for a PE-backed £100m B2B services firm, unlocking a £1Bn exit in under three months.
▪️Repositioning a struggling new BPO offshore (India) proposition for profitable growth, delivering 50% savings to the client in a new £3m contract while also tripling profit margins.
▪️Rolling out a post-merger Sales/Marketing/Finance integration model for a £1Bn global professional services firm across 30 offices in 20 countries, deployed to 4,000+ staff.

All of that senior experience now feeds directly into my career coaching.

Many of my clients are mid-career or post-MBA, and sense a need to reframe their narrative, sharpen their presence, and navigate a system that may not easily understand their value. 

We don’t just talk. We rehearse. We edit. We test. We build influence from the inside out.

Whether you're preparing for interview, pitching for promotion, or making a full pivot, I’ll help you to tailor your story, build trust, and move forward with strategic clarity.

🎯 Diane Blaxland

Every advanced freelancer I talk to wants the same thing…

Growth.

They want to keep growing their income without more stress, long hours, or burnout.

Of course, growth is never just about more money. What’s the point of the surplus if you’re too busy to enjoy it?

It’s really about creating more freedom and options.

These seasoned, focused pros want to build a strategic, future-proof business where they’re highly sought after and delivering maximum value to clients at a premium price.

They want to systematize everything to minimize work time and maximize personal time. 

The trouble is, the more driven you are, the more susceptible you are to maxing out the hours you can work.

Talented solopreneurs run into roadblocks:

- Being overcommitted and unfocused
- Overthinking & second-guessing
- Overwhelm

Eventually, you’re just over, over, over it, you know?

Symptoms like unpredictable income, complexity, and burnout have the same root cause:

**Weak or nonexistent systems and processes.**

Therein lies your opportunity:

1. Get clear on the life you want and the business that can get you there.
2. Position yourself as the obvious choice for dream clients.
3. Create juicy offers tied to their desired outcomes.
4. Build a system for getting predictable leads.
5. Give clients what they want and need.

Once you get all the pieces working together, you start earning more while working less. You’re on your way to having a $300K Flywheel. You 

That’s what happened to me. After I taking a more methodical and process-oriented approach to growth, I cracked $300,000 for the first time.

But again, it’s not about the money. It’s about the freedom and options.

Because I had time to focus on my own passion projects, I finished and published my book, Free Money. I improved my health.

My wife and I started traveling more with our kids.

What I’ve learned over 15+ years of freelancing is that advanced freelancers don’t have unique problems. But they do have unique situations.

Do you want help building the lifestyle you really want and the strategic, future-proof business that supports it?

Apply to join the private Freelance Cake community: https://bit.ly/FreelanceCakeCommunityLI.

It’s for advanced freelancers focused on strategic growth through strong systems and processes.

Austin Church

I hear horror stories from advanced freelancers who tried to hire, and after listening to the sordid details, I always give the same advice: “Try again.”

The smartest entrepreneurs I know have made bad hires, and plenty of average intelligence have built excellent teams not because they made no mistakes but because they parted ways with the wrong people quickly.

They recognized the mistake, undid it, and tried again.

You can’t really know what you’re getting until you have worked with a person for three or four months.

Some people interview really well, and then can’t do the job. Other people are as twice as nervous and half as articulate as poisonous frogs who licked their own skin, but if you give them a chance, they will impress you.

Some people will make a strong start only to flame out. Some people will make mistakes at first but take responsibility and improve quickly.

So I tell freelancers, consultants, and agency founders, “Try again.” Not because I’m smarter than they are but because I’ve made bad hires, so-so hires, and great hires, and none of us can get better at making great hires unless we use the bad ones to improve the process.

If you don’t already have a hiring process, my friend Michal Eisik has something for you. 

Tomorrow, she’s delivering a free training called “Hire Without the Backfire: The 3 Hiring Mistakes Business Owners Make (and How to Fix Them).”

Here are the details:

- Tuesday, February 10
- 2:00-3:00pm ET
- Register here: https://bit.ly/4aiitB2.

If you can’t make it live, you can register to get the replay.

Hiring the right virtual assistant changed my life. Hiring the right freelancers has relieved pressure more times than I can count. Try it, and if it doesn’t work the first time, try again.

Austin L. Church

Founder of Freelance Cake — Coaching, coworking, and community for advanced freelancers who want the growth without the burnout | Details in About ↓

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🎯 Diane Blaxland

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The Battle

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