About Milan
Hi, my name is Milan! I am a mindset coach and I help my clients with emotional, personal and professional development.
I grew up in Leicester, UK before studying Engineering at Cambridge University. My curiosity and love for learning led to roles in supply chain and consulting. After 6 years, I decided to be more purpose-driven and switch to more socially impactful work.
I get excited when I can really help people, especially those who are already doing good in the world, to be more fulfilled, impactful and ultimately thrive in life. I love deeply understanding and supporting people to evolve and grow.
Clients come to me to process heavy emotions, navigate difficult relationships, get out of mental ruts, build virtuous habits and systems, uncover purpose and values, and 'level up' in life.
I simply want to help with the things that really matter to you, for you to create an extraordinary life.
One of my core values is the pursuit of purpose through social impact
My Journey to Coaching
A Growth Mindset
My journey as a coach began with Lori Shookvensen - an emotional intelligence coach, but it began at 22 when I became an operations manager on General Electric's leadership development programme. Success was dependent on people skills; the interpersonal and professional skills that are important in adulthood, but not taught in formal education. I turned to Dale Carnigie's How to Win Friends & Influence People, but quickly found that my richest lessons were in changing my own mindset and behaviours. It was a shock moving to Scotland. I had no friends and I felt very isolated being so far away. I began practising mindfulness and reading personal development books such as Simon Sinek's Leaders Eat Last. It shifted my mindset and perception of loneliness, and more broadly, about my personal development. I grew into a young adult who embraced curiosity and exploration as a pathfinder for my joy. At work, mistakes were my best mentors. I learnt the hard way about relating to people authentically and managing with empathy. I learnt the personal and professional foundations that I needed to grow into adulthood.
At 25, I had to dig really deep at A.T Kearney, a global strategy consultancy. I overstepped my boundaries by working 15 hour days under high-stakes, relentless pressure and at pace. It was gruelling and unnecessarily miserable, but I grew tremendously. The hardest lessons I learnt were actually not work related, but to prioritise my wellbeing and tune into my values instead of pursuing the materialistic ideals of society e.g. chasing 'status'. By dropping societal expectations, I elevated my reality by taking steps away from toxicity in my life and towards where I could thrive. On reflection, I think I moved from Kegan's socialised mind to a more self-authoring mind. By 26, I joined Clarasys, a technology consultancy well known for its progressive and people-oriented culture. It was refreshing to experience healthy organisational values that fostered psychological safety, joy and sustained high performance at work. I flourished and embraced positions of increasing responsibility, including as a Product Manager on the C-19 Test & Trace programme. This was also when I was trained by Lori to become a coach.
My challenges have been a large part of my growth in adulthood, but it was applying a growth mindset to it that helped. In my development both personally and professionally, I reflected on my patterns and uncovered what really mattered to me: Connection and purpose.
At 29, I left consulting to explore ways to be more purposeful through social impact. I explored EA (Effective Altruism) and its core principle of doing the most good using reason and evidence, and at an EA conference in Prague, I met my coach, Tee Barnett, a Personal Strategist. I was his pilot coach for TBCT, Tee's coaching training and matchmaking programme. TBCT aims to boost the total number of skilled practitioners supporting people doing scalable good.
Tee's guidance along with his coach Emily Crotteau has been deeply profound for me. Together they created a deep, experiential coaching programme and the fertile soil which deepend the roots of my own personal development and coaching craft. Thank you, Emily and Tee for sharing so much of your wisdom, kindness and support, and to my coaching cohort.
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Read Tee’s findings on the impact of coaching leaders doing transformational social good in the world
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Listen to Tee's podcast, Any Thoughts On, with Emily, to hear skilled advisors, mentors and practitioners discuss their craft
My grounding mantras
Temet Nosce:
Know Yourself
Memento Mori:
Remember your Death
Memento Vivere:
Remember to Live
My Professional Experience
General Electric - Supply Chain & Operations Management
A.T Kearney - Strategy Consulting
Clarasys - Technology Consulting & Product Management
In my career I've valued curiosity and learning. After graduating with a degree in Manufacturing Engineering, I moved through supply chain, then consulting roles and worked with more than 20 companies in different sectors. The projects were diverse and hard, but the experience helped me to understand different people and work cultures. At work, mistakes were my best mentors for interpersonal skills. I learnt to manage people with emapthy, communicate skillfully, align stakeholders, and lead teams with humility. The range of my experiences helps my coaching when looking at professional and personal challenges for coachees. It allows me to relate and offer helpful frameworks in different contexts.
I also strongly care about mental health and wellbeing. I took positions to help others, especially in challenging environments:
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As the Wellbeing Lead at A.T Kearney's London office, I introduced several initiatives such as mindfulness practices, a Health Week, and invited keynote speakers to talk on mental health and sleep. I also improved the nutritional options available in the office.
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As a Not-For-Profit community co-lead at Clarasys, I helped to define and build our social impact goals, set up charity fundraising events, and grew our team from 4 to over 15. We had achieved a shared vision of social impact and clear outcomes to get there.