Mary Vaz Coaching
Strategic Transition Coach
Mary Vaz is a strategic transition coach based in Australia, helping senior leaders navigate what comes next in their careers with greater clarity and intention.
A certified coach and HR professional with over 30 years of experience in senior human resources leadership roles across Australia and Southeast Asia, Mary brings an insider’s understanding of the organisational realities senior leaders face, from succession and timing to reputation, relationships and career leverage.
Through Mary Vaz Coaching, she acts as a confidential thinking partner for senior leaders who are successful in their current roles but beginning to question whether the chapter they are in is still the right one. Her work helps them consider both the strategic realities of a transition and the more personal question of what they want their next chapter to look like.
Project highlights
A clearer strategic position
The new website repositioned Mary from a burnout-focused coach to a strategic transition coach for senior leaders, giving her a clearer and more focused way to communicate her work.
Greater confidence in showing up
With her positioning, messaging, and website now aligned, Mary feels more confident communicating with the clients she wants to serve and sharing her work more intentionally.
A cohesive brand beyond the website
The brand identity gives Mary a consistent visual foundation she can continue using across her business, including her newsletter and other marketing materials.
A foundation for future growth
The website was built to support Mary’s evolving practice, with a flexible structure for future services, newsletter growth, and ongoing content as her business develops.
Project goals
When Mary first came to me, she had already been coaching for several years, but her practice was evolving. Her existing website was still centred largely around burnout, while Mary was moving towards a more focused positioning: helping senior leaders strategically design their next chapter.
At the same time, she was preparing the foundations of her business for a future transition into full-time coaching. The new website therefore needed to do more than simply give the existing site a visual refresh.
It needed to:
Reposition Mary as a strategic transition coach for senior leaders, moving away from the previous burnout-focused positioning and speaking more directly to the clients she wanted to serve.
Strengthen her credibility and give the right visitors confidence to reach out. The website needed to feel thoughtful, considered and appropriate for the seniority of both Mary and her target audience.
Create a flexible foundation for the coaching practice she was building, with room to introduce future services and grow her newsletter audience over time.
The “Before”
Mary’s coaching practice had evolved, but her existing website was still largely built around her earlier positioning as a burnout coach.
“Through the passage of time, my work and my clients evolved. I wanted my website to reflect that.”
- Mary Vaz
Without refreshing the website, there was a growing disconnect between Mary’s evolving practice and how she was presenting herself online. The site did not clearly reflect her new focus on senior leaders navigating strategic career transitions, nor the depth of experience and credibility she brought to that work.
Colors & Fonts
I chose a grounded palette of warm neutrals, deep teal, navy and burnt amber to balance the sense of calm and safety Mary wanted with the credibility needed to connect with senior leaders.
The warm neutrals create a spacious, considered backdrop, while deep teal and navy bring depth, trust and quiet authority. Burnt amber adds warmth and energy, connecting back to Mary’s “Burn Bright” philosophy and providing a distinctive accent without making the brand feel loud or overly corporate.
To create a visual identity that feels both credible and human, I paired Lora and Inter.
Lora is used for headlines, bringing warmth, character and a sense of considered elegance without feeling overly formal. Inter supports the body copy with a clean, highly legible typeface that makes longer content easy to read. Together, they balance authority with approachability, reflecting Mary’s role as an experienced strategic thinking partner while keeping the website calm and welcoming.
Logo
The primary logo is simple, considered and quietly authoritative, reflecting the senior audience Mary works with while still keeping the brand warm and personal.
“Mary Vaz” takes visual priority in Lora, with “COACHING” set beneath in spaced small caps. This hierarchy was intentional. The brand is built around Mary herself and the trust of a one-to-one coaching relationship, rather than presenting the practice like a corporate consultancy. The ink navy adds credibility and restraint, while Lora softens the overall feel with warmth and character.
The simplified MV brand mark provides a more flexible option for smaller applications such as social media icons, favicons and presentation materials. The primary version uses burnt amber to connect it visually to Mary’s “Burn Bright” concept, with alternative versions in teal, navy and warm neutral for different background colours.
Custom Graphics
I also created a set of custom graphic elements inspired by the idea of burning bright from within. The starburst motif extends the brand beyond the logo and can be used as a subtle background accent, section detail or anchoring icon for the Burn Bright Not Out newsletter. A matching family of minimal line icons carries the same visual language throughout the website, helping the brand feel cohesive without becoming overly decorative.
The result is a flexible identity system that can work across Mary’s website, newsletter and other brand materials while maintaining the calm, thoughtful and considered feel of the overall brand.
Stock Photography
Mary described her brand personality as visionary, wise, thoughtful, gentle and supportive, which I used to guide the curation of stock photography.
I selected imagery that reflected the feelings she wanted visitors to experience: inspired, reassured, calm, understood and safe. The photography focuses on senior professionals in natural, considered settings, with genuine expressions, calm interiors and a strong sense of presence, so the visual direction could feel credible and senior while still remaining warm, human and approachable.
I also worked with Mary to select suitable brand photos and headshots from her own image library, choosing those that best matched the new visual direction and showed her as composed, approachable and credible. This helped create a more cohesive brand presence across the website, with Mary’s own photography sitting naturally alongside the curated stock imagery.
Content Strategy & Website Flow
During our strategy session, Mary and I clarified her evolving positioning, target audience, core service, and the distinctive way she supports senior leaders through strategic transitions.
Using her brand questionnaire, our strategy conversations, and her existing LinkedIn and newsletter content, I wrote the core website copy across the key pages. Mary reviewed the copy throughout and provided feedback to ensure the messaging stayed true to her voice and way of thinking.
The key challenge was repositioning her away from a burnout-focused message and towards strategic transition coaching, while keeping the copy calm, thoughtful and credible for a senior audience.
This included shaping the messaging around her role as a confidential thinking partner, her Strategic Transition Intensive, her “burn bright from the inside” philosophy, and her personal and professional story.
Website
I brought together the brand identity, imagery, and copy to create a calm, considered website that reflects Mary’s new positioning and speaks directly to senior leaders navigating career transitions.
The website guides visitors from understanding Mary’s perspective and approach, to exploring ways to work with her, and ultimately to reaching out. The structure also creates space for visitors who are not ready to engage yet to stay connected through her “Burn Bright Not Out” newsletter.
This supported the key project goals of repositioning Mary, strengthening her credibility, and creating a professional foundation that could evolve alongside her coaching practice.
The completed website includes:
Core pages: Homepage, About, Contact and Media Features
Dedicated service sections for Team Effectiveness Consulting, Systems Change Facilitation, and Coaching
Clear pathways for prospective clients to enquire and apply to work with Mary
An integrated newsletter sign-up and newsletter landing page
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Results
Mary shared that the new website has helped her feel clearer and more confident in communicating with the clients she wants to serve.
Here are some project highlights.
-
A clearer strategic position
The new website repositioned Mary from a burnout-focused coach to a strategic transition coach for senior leaders, giving her a clearer and more focused way to communicate her work.
-
Greater confidence in showing up
With her positioning, messaging, and website now aligned, Mary feels more confident communicating with the clients she wants to serve and sharing her work more intentionally.
-
A cohesive brand beyond the website
The brand identity gives Mary a consistent visual foundation she can continue using across her business, including her newsletter and other marketing materials.
-
A strong foundation for future growth
The website was built to support Mary’s evolving practice, with a flexible structure for future services, newsletter growth, and ongoing content as her business develops.
CLIENT TESTIMONIAL
“My new website has boosted my conviction to communicate more clearly”
“When I first approached Fiona, my work and my clients have evolved through the passage of time and I wanted my website to reflect that.
What I appreciated throughout the project was Fiona’s strong commitment to the process, which allowed us to successfully meet the milestones we agreed upon at the outset. I also valued her attention to detail, care for her clients and collaborative nature.
Fiona is methodical and applies project management principles when working with her clients. This works for me as it mirrors the way I prefer to work. She has been thorough in her approach and responsive to my follow-up inquiries.
The new website has boosted my conviction to communicate more clearly to the clients I want to serve. The brand kit Fiona developed for Mary Vaz Coaching also helps me stay focused and consistent when I create other materials on Canva.””
Mary Vaz
Strategic Transition Coach
Mary Vaz Coaching, Australia
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