What clients say…

Each and every business owner in our Executive Networking Group thanks you! Your incredible program has helped a diverse group of people to focus on what’s important and maximize our potential to obtain a wide variety of goals. Your passion, sense of humor, emotional intelligence, and attention to detail are contagious. We look forward to working with you again in the future.

– Ryan M. Ross D.D.S
President of Executive Networking
San Luis Obispo CA

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It’s both my pleasure and honor to acknowledge Sara for presenting her workshop “Corporate Culture Today” to our MATRIX Mastermind Group in San Luis Obispo as part of our 2022 focus to become more aware of our own corporate cultures and welcoming new employees. Sara’s candid style and professionalism won over a group of veteran CEOs and their C-suite executives. And to no surprise, she received some of the highest ratings of all our speakers this year. Sara’s presentation was well thought, beautifully put together and expertly executed. Any organization, leadership group or organization would greatly benefit from Sara’s insights.

– Uta Birkmayer
Rocket Masterminds
San Luis Obispo CA

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Working with Sara has been life-changing. She has helped me to focus my attention and energy in order to accomplish my goals. She has helped me dream bigger and overcome obstacles. Her wisdom kept me on track when when I began to lose my way. She is insightful and incredibly smart. Working with Sara is one of the best investments I have ever made—both professionally and personally.

– Lisa Leonard
Author, Brave Love and Founder, Lisa Leonard Designs
San Luis Obispo, California

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Sara was instrumental in creating and executing a process tailored to the particular risk points of our acquisition. Specifically, Sara was able to turn two teams full of anxiety into one cohesive team ready to be part of climbing the proverbial mountain together. The excitement she was able to generate with her process has been the gift that keeps on giving in that it created a foundation of trust, respect and mutual understanding that is required for any high functioning team.

– Eric Egolf
CEO, CIO Solutions
Santa Barbara, CA

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Thank you for the superb job you did for the Spokes Board of Directors. You provided a lot of substance while eliciting and building upon our ideas and concerns. I have quite often done similar kinds of things in my long career as a dean at five business schools, a consultant in the area of global business and strategic management, and a member of the board of directors of about 15 corporations. Thus it was a real pleasure to watch you “handle and guide” us with purpose, humor, patience, skill, and a very nice touch. It was an impressive performance and very helpful.”

– David Blake
Professor Emeritus, Strategic Management
Merage School of Business, University of California Irvine
San Luis Obispo, CA

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Sara designed and delivered an excellent team development workshop for my annual staff retreat. Beforehand, she took great care to understand our goals for the workshop and effectively translated them into a dynamic and meaningful experience that was customized for our team. She is an adept coach and facilitator, putting participants at ease immediately and yielding a high level of engagement. It was incredibly gratifying to see a team wholly investing themselves in learning and sharing ideas, under Sara’s tutelage.”

– Susan Olivas
Associate Registrar
Office of the Registrar, California Polytechnic State University (CALPOLY)

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Sara coached me in an ‘a la carte’ session to help me through a period of critical need in navigating my career trajectory and a high-stakes conversation. She immediately dived into the most essential areas and helped me define my short and long term goals, in the context of my life – family, work, personal situation. In addition, she provided real, practical advice and honed in on some professional areas that I needed to address, which I could apply immediately (and, which I have shared with other #ladyleaders in the tech industry).

I was able to achieve the outcomes I hoped for with Sara’s coaching; which included advocating for myself for more responsibility and pay, and receiving that in turn. I highly recommend Sara as someone who can quickly hone in on areas of need and give practical, tangible coaching as well as help you to think long term, and define how to get there.”

– Amaya Becvar Weddle
Director of Research & Product Marketing at MINDBODY Software
San Luis Obislpo, CA

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Sara has helped Camp Ocean Pines navigate our executive transition. Hired initially to guide the board through our strategic plan process, Sara focused the plan on our top priority goal of succession. When the plan was finished, we hired her again to help us navigate through targeted leadership changes. She is a good workshop style leader, confident in front of groups, and very helpful in one-on-one settings as a coach to both board members and executive staff. We appreciate the ongoing relationship with Sara because she smooths our path through an executive transition that would normally be a bumpy. Time and money is well spent hiring Sara to consult on the succession of a seasoned executive director to a newly minted but deputy executive director. Executive transitions are like brain surgery, not always successful. Our company happily hired Sara to guide us through this process so we can avoid the organizational inefficiency and corresponding negative financial revenues that come with this change.”

– Chris Cameron
Executive Director
Camp Ocean Pines, Cambria

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Sara provided me coaching and editing on a presentation that I created for a high-stakes job interview. Being in a career transition over the age of 50, Sara’s guidance was critical. Even after two other professional colleagues provided feedback, Sara’s input provided valuable insight and detail that made all the difference. In addition, she provided interviewing prep coaching. As a result, my presentation and interview were a great success. Sara is masterful in her work – her coaching and training are her passion, and a natural gift that she shares with so many.

– Amy Gleason,
M.A. Owner / Instructor
ESL Sacramento

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Sara’s executive coaching has helped me translate my values into a defined leadership approach and helped me to tactically apply that approach to managing team members, group dynamics, inter-departmental conflict, meeting facilitation, giving feedback, and strategic decision making.
The value to my company is a positively engaged sales team with momentum to reach and exceed our sales goals.
Sara’s approach affirmed my good instincts and challenged my blind spots. As a result, my leadership effectiveness and contribution to our organization has grown significantly.”

– Jeff Bower
Vice President of Consulting,
TekTegrity, Inc. San Luis Obispo, CA

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Our large non-profit organization recently received the National Community Action Partnership’s Award for Excellence, making CAPSLO the 8th of over 1,000 Community Action Agencies to earn this award. Sara’s assistance in helping us to achieve the award was invaluable. She has worked with us over the last several years, assisting our Board of Directors and management in identifying key areas of organizational strengths as well as challenges and areas for development, facilitating strategic planning, and conducting community advocacy and Board development. She is truly a member of our team.

Our large nonprofit agency worked with Sara during the development of our Strategic plan. She was adept at helping us to identify our strengths as well as challenges during this time of growth and cultural change within our organization. Sara greatly assisted us in developing structure and clarity around our plan, while also staying realistic. She kept us on track and focused – not an easy task for our group! I would highly recommend her.”

– Grace McIntosh
Deputy Director,
Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo, CA

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I worked with Sara for a few months to distill my professional background and passions into a new business venture.  Sara’s experience, business savvy and personalized encouragement were pivotal in helping me solidify my vision and launch my small consulting business.  She helped me create a framework for how to build the business while also coaching me on my strengths, areas needing growth and detailed advice on how to position myself for success.  Sara is personable, attentive and supported me with clear, concrete guidance throughout the coaching term.  I’d highly recommend Sara’s coaching and consulting expertise to anyone wanting to grow professionally or launch a new endeavor.”

– Susan Flaming
Katapult Consulting
Long Beach, CA

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Sara LaForest and Tony Kubica have played a significant role in helping Santa Rosa Consulting establish a brand footprint in the Healthcare IT Consulting market. As a young company, we have strived to make our presence known in our market and to be an industry leader in both client and people satisfaction. Their direction and guidance has had measureable benefits. For four years in a row, Santa Rosa has received the highly coveted recognition as being one of Modern Healthcare’s Top 100 Best Places to Work and ranked in the Top 25 Best Places to Work in Healthcare for 2013. Additionally, Santa Rosa achieved INC Top 500 in 2013.
Sara and Tony have helped create the cornerstone of our culture by working with us to establish our core values. These implemented core values have been validated over the years when they facilitate our Climate Survey to our employees. We deeply value the information retrieved by their processes. Their involvement in our people programs, we believe, has directly impacted the high degree of employee satisfaction we enjoy at Santa Rosa.

We believe the rigor, transparency, and the outcome driven approach that Kubica and LaForest deliver is best in class. We enjoy having them on our team and appreciate everything they have done to continue to move Santa Rosa Consulting to its next evolution. We look forward to working with them for many years to come!”

-Laura O’Toole,
Executive Vice President, Chief People Officer
Santa Rosa Consulting, Tennessee

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As part of our growth strategy, Kubica and LaForest persuaded us to do a client survey to learn more about our brand perception and value. This was a right answer. It is more important what our clients think and feel about our services than what we feel about those same services. What we got back was valuable data to focus our decisions on improving client service and further brand distinction.”

-Peter A. Sullivan,
President, Arlen Corporation,
Rhode Island

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I have been in health care for many years as practitioner, teacher, administrator and board chair. As a result, I have met with a number of consultant/advisors. I believe the Kubica-LaForest team is as good, if not better, than any with whom I have worked. Their consulting, facilitating and analytical skills combined with their business acumen and team energy would put them among the best, if not the best of all. I recommend them without hesitation and with enthusiasm.”

-Edward A. Iannuccilli,
M.D., Executive Vice President,
University Patient Safety Organization
Rhode Island

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Sara facilitated a strategic planning off-site for Anchorage’s Municipal Commission for Military and Veterans’ Affairs. The resulting vision, mission and action plan continue to be the foundation for how we operate as a commission today — relevant, responsible and action-oriented. Having been a part of many such efforts, I can say that Sara is one of the most objective and neutral process leaders with whom I have worked. Her tailored approach and natural sense of how to bring out the best in a group create the perfect environment for full engagement while ensuring plan ownership and action energy are clear takeaways for the client.”

– Donna Boltz,
Commissioner, Owner,Perceptive Leadership,
Alaska

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Our organization worked with Kubica LaForest Consulting on a corporate rebranding and web development project. They had a very strong ability to identify our corporate strengths, understand the market space that we work in and translate that information into a solid corporate brand strategy. It has been a real pleasure to work with a company that promises a high-quality deliverable on-time and within budget.”

– Bill Smith,
RPH – President, The PSO Advisory
Rhode Island

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Our company was at a serious crossroads with both internal and external pressures contributing to a company-wide malaise that threatened our very existence. The time Sara and Tony spent with our management team has proven invaluable. Our first meeting was the best 3 hours our team has spent together in at least 5 years. Once taboo subjects were tackled and we have moved on together in a positive direction. Best of all what we learned has transferred into our dealings with our employees, resulting in a happier, more focused work force.”

– Patrick B. Mallon,
Manager, PCF Aviation, LLC
California

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Your work with the Hogan Assessments provided a powerful structure by which we could safely and effectively explore our retrospective strengths and weaknesses. Unlike other personality tests we have taken (i.e., the MBTI and DISC) the Hogan focuses specifically on our tendencies and implications for the success of our partnership and our business. Tony and Sara’s coaching and interpretive work was powerful, insightful and has created a new awareness for us.”

-Kelly M. Bowen and Melissa A. Jefferson,
Founding Partners, Inside Lead Counseling and Consulting
Colorado

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Sara guided us to recognize where we are now and where we need to go if we are to grow into the organization we want to be. She took us from individuals rambling about in our vision and our goals and pointed us, as a group, in one direction—she helped us layout a roadmap. Sara was able to bring out the best in all of us and set us on an agreed-to course of action. I was amazed at how easily she maintained control and kept us focused.”

– David Brown

Membership Chairman for the Alaska Writers Guild
Alaska

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We have worked with several consulting/marketing firms and rank Kubica-LaForest as one of the most insightful and strategic teams with whom we have partnered. Sara LaForest and Tony Kubica effectively challenged our thinking and helped us to look at our business from outside of the box. During past experiences with branding and website development, we found that we were writing all of the content, proofing and re-proofing, and doing most of the design of our marketing collateral with little help from the contracted firm. They asked the right questions and probed for the specific information that they needed to provide us with outstanding results…and they understand what entrepreneurial leaders need to grow their businesses”

– David Piacitelli,
President and Lynn Zarrella, Director of Operations, Top Line Systems
Rhode Island

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Your work in helping me to establish and market my unique company brand, and with client/business building strategies has been instrumental in the successful start-up and continued growth of my business.”

– Anne-Karin Konig,
Owner, PawTrotters Petcetera,
California

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There was a moment of clarity when it all came together and our Board grew by leaps and bounds. As we transition from a special interest board into a 501C3 charitable board your words and outlines will serve us well.”

– Jim Misko,
Author, Realtor & President, Alaska Writers Guild
Alaska

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You were extremely helpful in moving our board to focus on our future goals… we now have a plan to guide us to future successes. Your enthusiasm and professionalism kept our board engaged the entire retreat.”

-Bonnie Quill,
Executive Director, Mat-Su Convention & Visitor Bureau
Alaska

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Our meeting Wednesday went beautifully – it was fun watching Brian use the things he’d learned from our session right on the spot. Your time made what could have been an uncomfortable and unproductive mess a smashing success.”

-Quentin Algood
Owner, ITS Alaska Computer Services
Alaska

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You do an outstanding job and really energize meetings. I feel like I can move forward and clearly see the vision that you helped us outline for the Chamber….”

-Erika M Bills
Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce President,
 AVP Business Development Officer – Northrim Bank,
Alaska

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I sincerely enjoyed the GWCC Board Planning Retreat. The value and the process that you put us through was incredible. We walked away with a mission, vision, AIMS, and it was the best process I have ever experienced. We walked away a “team”. You provided leadership when we were wandering, kept it interesting, easy to follow and we accomplished so much!”

-Susan Crowder
GWCC Board of Directors, Network Account Executive, Matanuska Telephone Association,
Alaska

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Sara LaForest has provided consultation and organizational development services to our state network, including the state office and five Affiliate programs. Sara was also invited by the National Office of Communities In Schools to certify and serve as a Master Trainer for the national network. Ms. LaForest has demonstrated her ability in planning and coordination of board, committees and other groups, including agenda development, record keeping, report writing, budget development and oversight and evaluation activities. She has effectively and efficiently conducted event planning and coordination. She is a skilled and responsive trainer/facilitator whom ensures relevancy for her clients/customers. She is highly organized and committed in her service and able to work with diverse groups and people. Additionally, she offers us assistance with outreach, networking and marketing/messaging activities, and has worked to promote our resource development.

As the State Director, I have worked closely with Sara over the last several years. She is an experienced and dedicated professional for whom I hold high esteem. I am pleased to offer my highest recommendation and endorsement.”

-Tom Morgan
State Director
Communities In Schools of Alaska, Inc.

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Training, Workshops and Speaking

 

When we initially sat down to discuss the parameters and mission of RISCPA’s Leadership Program we were immediately impressed with your creative and comprehensive approach to our specific needs. Uniquely, through your involvement, we have developed a thorough program placing emphasis on the core competencies of leadership training; not only for our membership, but for up and coming individuals throughout the professional business community around us. Our program has gained significant recognition both here and nationally.

Suffice it to say, RISCPA is most fortunate to have embraced the winning Kubica-LaForest team supporting a critical component to our training mission.”

-R.A. Mancini
Executive Director
Rhode Island Society of Certified Public Accountants

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The two courses you taught on resource development at the Communities In Schools National Conference would not have happened without you. The session would not have been as smart, practical and engaging without your enthusiasm and energy. Thank you for your extraordinary contribution.”

-Janella L Franklin
Vice President, Development – National Office of Communities In Schools, Arlington, VA