Work/Business

Below you will find a selection of the most recent entries from bloggers in our Work/Business section.

To view the entries from individual bloggers, click on the links below:

Claire Doole - Claire Doole Communications

Claire is a former BBC correspondent and international spokeswoman who is passionate about helping people communicate with confidence. Since 2006, she has successfully trained hundreds of professionals in the art of presenting and public speaking, talking to the media, managing communications in a crisis, and writing for the web. In addition, she has coached C-level executives and public figures to give powerful TEDx and TED style talks in Europe and the Middle East. A Swiss and UK national, Claire trains and coaches in French and English.
Elizabeth Ballin - Life Coach

As a long time member of the international community in Geneva, Elizabeth Ballin has been coaching adults and students from all parts of the world. She has coached business professionals, musicians/artists, couples, families and adolescents. She is a fully accredited Life Coach by the International Coaching Federation. Elizabeth Ballin, Life Coach
Patrick Hoza - US Tax & Financial Services

Since 1990, Patrick has many years of experience with US individual expatriate taxation under his belt, including High Net Worth Individuals, streamline/voluntary disclosure filings and tax consulting, as well as working with large multinationals like Novartis, BP, Hewlett Packard and General Electric. He has extensive knowledge in serving both US expatriates and resident and non-resident aliens with their US tax-related issues. Patrick Hoza is a Tax Director at US Tax & Financial Services, with extensive experience in all aspects of Individual US tax and Expatriation, including Hight Net Worth Individuals and large multinationals.

Patrick started his career in 1990 in California, with Westpro Ltd., as a Senior Tax Consultant, then spent the middle part of his career working at KPMG and Ernst & Young. During his time with Ernst & Young, he worked and lived in Russia, France and finally Switzerland. He has gained a valuable working knowledge of the respective income tax regulations in all of these countries.

Patrick holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Colorado, is a member of the National Association of Enrolled Agents and is a Certified Acceptance Agent.

Melitta Campbell - Business Coach
Business Coach and Mentor with nearly 3 decades of business experience and a passion for helping women confidently build a business they love. She is also the founder of the Swiss Entrepreneurs Club and president of the Swiss Riviera Toastmasters Club in Montreux. Originally from Wales, she now lives in Montreux in a chalet she has renovated with her husband overlooking the Swiss Alps.
Sunita Sehmi - Walk The Talk
Founder of Walk The Talk, Sunita has been training, developing and now coaching Business Communication skills in both companies and educational establishments for over twenty years. She has a passion for helping people to maximise their potential and created Walk The Talk with the sole aim to drive each and every client to perform their best.

Robert Harris- Forth Capital
With over 25 years experience working for some of the major financial institutions in the City of London, Robert is a founding partner of Forth Capital, the leading expat financial advisory company in Switzerland. Regulary quoted in newspaper articles and magazines, he is well placed to advise expats on a variety of financial issues that may arise during their time living in Switzerland.

Debbie Croft - Croft Coaching
As the founder of Croft Coaching, Debbie has a passion for helping people overcome challenges, embrace change and live life to the full; with an ethos of “work hard, play hard”.
Sarah Santacroce, https://humane.marketing/coaching

Areas of Expertise: Conscious Business Coaching, Humane Marketing, LinkedIn

Sarah Santacroce is a Conscious Business Coach for Coaches and service-based solopreneurs, founder of Humane Marketing and author of Marketing Like We’re Human, Selling Like We’re Human, and Business Like We’re Human. Since 2006 in marketing, entrepreneurship, and conscious business coaching, she’s supporting changemakers worldwide through workshops, programs, and her signature Conscious Business Coaching. Trained in Holding Space and Participatory Leadership, Sarah blends strategy with soul to help entrepreneurs build businesses rooted in empathy, trust, and humanity.

Sarah has been a guest on nearly 100 podcasts and has been podcasting since 2016. Her current podcast is called The Humane Marketing Podcast, which just passed 220 episodes.

Diana Ritchie - SSC Sàrl
A Director at Swiss Career Connections, Diana will provide you with some useful tips for job hunting.

: Published: 25 January 2026

By Claire Doole, www.doolecommunications.com

Organising an event should be like cooking a great meal: a careful balance of technical know-how and creative flair. Get the mix right and your guests leave satisfied, inspired, and possibly asking for seconds.

Get it wrong… and you’re serving up something bland, or overcooked
Sadly, many organisers fail to find the right ingredients. They over-season with PowerPoint presentations, dilute the panels with speakers who lack incisive insights, and wonder why the audience sneaks out before dessert.

But last year, the organisers of one of the most enjoyable events I moderated absolutely nailed the recipe. They served up the right blend of policy substance and creative flair.

So, let me share what made this event so deliciously satisfying.

The Dish: The ALMA Journey
The ALMA (Aim, Learn, Master, Achieve) journey celebrated the achievements of young people not in employment, education, or training who had taken part in a transformative European Commission programme, working for a short period in another European country.

In short: a meaningful initiative, a powerful story — and the perfect base ingredient.

Here, in 8 easy steps, is their recipe for success.

: Published: 15 December 2025

By Sarah Santacroce, Humane Marketing

Growing a coaching business is an exciting journey. You support people through meaningful change, build deep client relationships, and create a livelihood around service.

Why coaches need both structure and soul

Many of my clients (coaches, entrepreneurs, healers) start their business from the heart. They want to help. They want to serve. They want to make a difference.

But relying on purpose alone can lead to:

Unclear offers
Inconsistent clients
Marketing that feels confusing or scattered

On the other hand, relying only on structure, business plans and financial goals, the classic “hustle harder,” “more funnels,” “scale fast” approach, doesn’t feel aligned and makes you want to just pull the plug and give up altogether. I certainly felt that way when one of my business coaches told me just ‘get the yes’ on my Clarity Calls. ‘Just have them put it on the credit card’ she said. But that didn’t feel good at all with my soul. It’s not how I wanted to run my business. I wanted my clients to have sovereignty and feel good about working with me! So I quit working with that coach.

Because growing a coaching business requires a middle path:

A business that has enough structure to support you and enough soul to feel meaningful.

: Published: 09 November 2025

Celeste Saulo WMO

By Claire Doole, www.doolecommunications.com

From the time humans gathered around fire, our minds have been drawn to stories. It’s instinct — the way our brains lean forward when a tale begins, eager to connect, to feel, and to imagine what comes next. Stories don’t just entertain us. They move us and inspire us.

I am always struck by it – rooms filled with overcomplicated PowerPoint slides and speakers piling on facts like bricks, rather than telling a good story whose emotional pull, if well told, we will always remember.

Below are three examples of good storytelling during an event that I hope will inspire you to tell more stories.

1) Stories on panels: At Geneva Peace Week, I helped the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom design a panel where the speakers were asked to share their stories with the audience. The team created a space for the audience to think differently and listen deeply. People were shown to their seats by torchlight. They listened in darkness to an audio recording we created to mark an event in history, and then the moderator went on stage.

She turned on the light next to her and asked each speaker one by one to turn on their side light and tell a 3-minute story before she moderated a discussion. It was a STAR panel (something they will always remember).

: Published: 11 September 2025

By Claire Doole, www.doolecommunications.com

Geneva brands itself as the humanitarian capital of the world. Its ecosystem of UN agencies, international organisations and NGOs contribute to what is known as “International Geneva”. Yet since the arrival of President Trump in the Oval Office, international Geneva has been facing an existential crisis.

Many of these organisations depend heavily on US funding – in some cases it accounts for up to 25% of their budget. On top of this European donors are shifting development budgets to military spending and the UN has itself launched an initiative - UN80 - to downsize in order to be more efficient.

In these uncertain times, leadership communication is more important than ever.

Heads of organisations are having to make tough decisions on the programmes they cut, the contracts they don’t renew and the people they fire. According to local media 30,000 jobs are expected to go.

In times of crisis the ways leaders communicate can determine whether people feel trust, clarity and resilience or confusion and fear. More generally if done well it can drive change and enhance performance. Successful leaders influence guide and inspire others towards a share goal.

: Published: 13 July 2025

By Claire Doole, www.doolecommunications.com

In last month’s post, I shared some tips and techniques on the art of handling audience questions - whether you’re online, in-person, or in front of a tough crowd.

Now let’s take things a step further. What happens when the question is messy, hostile, or downright confusing? How do you respond when you're caught off guard—or worse, when no one asks anything at all?

Below are some tips and techniques:

Reframe convoluted questions: If a question is overly long, vague, or hard to follow, help your audience by tightening it up.
“I am sorry I can’t quite grasp every detail of your question, but I would like to respond to your part about X”
Be clear when you don’t know the answer: You can’t have all the answers. Here are three options on what to say when you don’t have the answer:
i. Say ‘I don’t know’ – you’ll get back to them. Never, ever, guess.
ii. Ask someone in the audience to respond who is an expert on the subject.
iii. ‘I’m not 100% sure’ When you say this you’re not saying ‘I don’t know’, you’re saying ‘I’m not completely sure’, which is a totally different thing.
Answering challenging questions: When faced with a challenging question from that angry staff member, board member or at an official hearing – you need to employ the ABC technique I teach in media training - acknowledge the question, potentially reframing it before you bridge to a broader point you want to make – moving from the specific to the general.
Read more ...