About Big-hearted Leaders
And Ivana, your coach.
Big-hearted leaders engage their hearts, together with their cognitive abilities, knowledge and intuition.
I'm Riley Rolfson, I work with leaders who deeply care about their teams, their organisations and their personal development.
Now more than ever, or as ever, we need big-hearted and open-minded leaders.
The kind and generous ones, the inclusive and curious ones, the ones who have the strength to stand tall in the storm and know that it is the storm inside us that needs taking care of.
The ones that will open their hearts and try to understand others even when others don’t want to understand them. Those who will know that a difference in opinion can bring a positive outcome. Those who treat others with respect even when they don’t feel respected. Those who know that sometimes patience is as important as determination.
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After graduating with my MBA, I was hit with over 100K in student loan debt. Not exactly the way I expected to start my new career! But with smart financial decisions and a little hard work, I was debt-free in a year and well on my way to early retirement.
Now I use what I’ve learned to help people just like you find financial freedom. I’ll show you how to earn more, save more, and put your money to work for you with smart investments.
Ivana’s career includes 5 years in a non-profit organisation and 15 years of corporate work that took her from London back to her native Croatia and then Sofia, Bulgaria and across Central and South East Europe.
She has spent 10 years in diverse leadership positions and lead teams up to 20 people.
She worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers in London, British Airports Authority in London, Colliers in Croatia and SEE, GTC in Croatia and CEE and SEE.
Ivana is a Professional Certified Coach accredited by International Coaching Federation. She received her coaching training from Coaches Training Institute in London. CTI® has trained over 55,000 coaches and has also trained employees in more than half of the Fortune 100 companies. CTI’s Co-Active Coach® Training Program is widely recognized as the most rigorous coach training in the industry.Â
She is a trained trainer and facilitator and delivers coaching, facilitation and training in both English and Croatian languages.
Background
Ivana’s past corporate work includes organisational effectiveness, internal communication, business development and corporate real estate negotiation roles.
After 15 years in the corporate world, and completing one of the most challenging projects in her career, she left her job in order to take a break, travel the world and discover a new path for herself.
During her travels, once again she realised how similar we all are, no matter where we come from and what we do. Deep down, we all want to show our uniqueness and we want the world to notice.Â
Training to be a coach felt like a natural step and has proved to be the right one. Her coaching combines learning from her multicultural exposure through her work and traveling, leadership positions and personal development training.
Originally from Croatia, she now lives in Queenstown, New Zealand with her partner, and is keen on assisting leaders to grow and engage all of their capacities in their professional and personal lives.
Education
– M.A. in Business, major in Finance from University of Zagreb, Croatia
– School for Personal and Professional Development, Croatia (attendee 2005-2007 and assistant/mentor 2012 – 2016)
– Trained Co-Active Coach by CTI London (2012-2013), the oldest and largest in-person coach training in the world; ICF accredited program
– Coaching from Source (16.5 CCEUs) by Coaches Rising
– In This Together – Communication wisdom for the world of work by Diane Musho Hamilton
– Art of Developmental Coaching (7.5 CCEUs) and Power of Embodied Transformation (5 CCEUs), both by Coaches Rising
– The Next Stage Integral Facilitator Training (23.5 CCEUs), by Ten Directions
– Training in the Art of Participatory Leadership
– Leadership in Action, vol 1, London, by Pete Hamill and Strozzi Institute
– Impact and influencing skills and Winning presentation training with PricewaterhouseCoopers in London
– International Coaching Federation member
My Story
I always knew I wanted to go far in life, so I worked hard to become the first person in my family to graduate from college. After graduation, I thought my future was a guaranteed success. Then once I started having to make student loan payments, my dreams of a better life seemed out of reach.
I felt frustrated and helpless, but I had worked too hard to let my dreams slip away. I dove into financial literacy and came up with a system that allowed me to eliminate debt, save more, and invest for my future. Now I empower others on their journey to financial freedom.
"Working with Riley has changed my life. I’m only 2 months away from debt-free!"
- Martin Marino
"Last year, I was 49 with no retirement savings. Thanks to Riley, I’m now financially on track."
- Bill Bayaud
"From buried in debt to living the life of my dreams, Thank you, Riley!"
- Susan Smith
Why I Do It
Financial literacy is not a term I ever heard growing up. While my parents did their best to provide for our family, they lived paycheck to paycheck most of their lives. Seeing my family struggle inspired me to aim higher. But despite my best efforts, I still found myself drowning in debt.
Once I was debt-free, I realized that the methods I used could help others like me who wanted the same but didn’t grow up with the framework to make it happen. So I made it my mission to help as many people as possible create healthy financial habits and a better life for themselves and their families.
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