MEET MARIA ORLANDO

My name is Maria Orlando. I am a Purposeful Business and Leadership coach and mentor, an expert in Digital Marketing, Communication, and Leadership for businesses with purpose. I am certified in Positive Psychology Business coaching.

I help purpose-driven brands, companies, and entrepreneurs identify the strengths that determine their success, activate their purpose, and grow a sustainable, profitable, and tailor-made business that stands out from the competition. I do it through innovative communications strategies and leadership development. The method I use is from my experience of 10+ years in companies and specific techniques that mix design thinking facilitation, emotional and experiential digital marketing aligned to values and purpose.

If a client tells me that something is impossible to do, I say: “No, we will find another solution to make it possible.” And it has always worked.

At the first meeting, when I ask people I work with what they love about their business and what they hate about it, most of them answer: “I LIKE what I do BUT…”. Unconsciously, they use “like” instead of “love” and that “but” means everything.

Throughout my career, I have seen lots of business owners and companies getting lost along the way. Do you know why? They didn’t have a purpose, a method, or proper guidance. Many of them gave up on their business just because it was draining their soul and life. They lost any self-confidence. Others didn’t reach their goals because they didn’t apply a tailored strategy and a balanced approach. Having a clear purpose, a well-structured method and atomic habits make you achieve concrete, faster, and more long-lasting achievements, without feeling drained from your business.

Do you want to build a driven-purpose brand? Do you have a business with a purpose, but you do not know how to communicate its uniqueness to make it profitable? Or, do you feel lost because you have employees but not followers supporting your purposeful goal? You are in the right place. I will help you facilitate the process by providing an innovative business and leadership approach aligned with your soul and purpose. It will give you concrete and long-lasting results.

To be successful in what you do, you need to create a working method, a long-term sustainable system that covers all aspects of your life and your business to ensure that what you do continues to produce concrete results.

I am Italian, and my journey into marketing and leadership started over 10 years ago. Finding my purpose in each thing has helped me overcome some difficulties and dissatisfactions, such as the ones related to an Italian system that doesn’t often work properly. Experience and hard work taught me to understand what I want and what I do no longer want.

Since the beginning, I chose to work on international projects embracing the challenges of professionals and companies from more than 40 different countries around the world. I learned to listen to their emotions, to align strategy with culture, and to help them communicate their purpose by enhancing their strengths, growing a business with purpose without sacrificing their vitality.

By working in the corporate world, I have learnt to look at things from different perspectives: as an employee, as manager, as director, and as an entrepreneur too. And this has made a difference in my approach to people and business. So I have understood that:

• A business with purpose has more growth than any other, stands out from the competition, and has more long-lasting results. Customers fall in love with it and they do not want to disappoint not only the brand itself but also the people behind that brand.
• When you don’t treat your team as a resource you will have employees but not followers and you will find more obstacles than opportunities for growth.
• Most people do not see their strengths and so they do not apply them. Moreover, they often sabotage themselves and accept roles that are not aligned to their values or purpose because of a lack of self-confidence.
• People often build a business that focuses only on profits but not on purpose, decreasing revenues but also life standards and wasting precious time. A lack of purpose and of team excitement leads to lower productivity, more difficulties to overcome, dissatisfaction.
• The lack of communication is not a myth but real and it destroys relationships and businesses, every single day.
• Many people survive rather than live. This lack of a quality life won’t bring positivity to your business.

P.S All those things have solutions. And these are all opportunities to improve yourself and your approach to business.

To be aware of what you want you to have to learn to understand who you are and then become it.

After graduating in European Languages ​​and Cultures I started to work in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry as a project manager and event planner. I was responsible for planning international events. I have always been passionate about this industry together with technology.

These experiences opened my eyes to a world where the purpose is everything. In this case, it was improving people’s lives by spreading innovative medical technologies for the eyes and the brain. I managed to achieve incredible results in just 3 months by implementing an emotional but strategic marketing plan, focusing on empathetic public relations, and putting thought leadership into practice. The result was an increase in participation in events as never seen before, as well as an increase in new customers. From almost completely empty classrooms we had plenty of people and we had to search for bigger spaces. I started to manage small teams, partners, and stakeholders for negotiation, caterers, hoteliers.

Although I worked 10 hours a day, weekends included, reaching 17 hours a day during the events, my purpose was my benzine. But I started to lose 3 kg in 3 months and I was living an unsatisfactory quality of life for some reasons such as the fact I didn’t see the growth I was hoping for, although the business increased dramatically. Being independent for me is very important, as a professional and as a woman. It is something I cannot give up.

I understood it was time to embrace the change. Since the beginning, I started to study digital marketing, management, leadership, and NLP, learning from American mentors. It helped me stand out from the competition when digital marketing was still a fresh concept in my country. This has allowed me to always keep up with the times and to look for more job opportunities. I worked for Compagnia della Bellezza, Luxury Life International, Cinecittà World, following many projects in the luxury industry about fashion, beauty, sustainability, and lifestyle such as Monaco Yacht Show, Milano Fashion Week, Isabell Kristensen Couture, Gstaad Hotel, but also about virtual reality, technology, augmented reality, wholesale e-commerce such as Ribilio, and even videogames.

I managed, coached, and empowered small teams at the beginning. Then, as a director, I got to manage teams of 25 people, both on-site and in other places in the world, working on multiple projects at the same time. Crazy? Not at all. What’s the secret? A thought leadership, dedication, love for what you do, purpose, organization, ethics, and a positive mindset. You need to love what to do to be successful. I also managed very active virtual communities of 56000 people. They even purchased only because they felt understood. Read that again.

In the meantime, I worked as a freelance digital marketing consultant, life and business coach helping

• people find their purpose, their strengths, and the loss of self-confidence
• CEOs build a winning communication strategy and organize all the processes of the companies, leading the teams to be more aligned and efficient
• women to shine, to overcome the challenges they meet every day as women, to showcase their true abilities in order to achieve the goals they are passionate about, and to take control of their life
• children to fight against school abandonment and non-integration and poor children to defend the right to education
• sustainable businesses to make an impact on the world

Throughout these years I have never given up on training, getting important certifications at Bocconi University about the management of fashion and luxury companies, food and beverage and international leadership, and much more, such as the Business School by Marie Forleo. I got officially certified in Positive Psychology Business coaching and Design Thinking for Innovation.

I live for traveling so in 2014 I launched my slow travel blog Travellector which is based on planning tailor-made trips according to the personality of each traveler in order to have a more immersive experience and save time. This is because I am experienced in the Myers-Briggs model. And only in 2019, I started this website although I am working on it only now.

This section is about some goals I have achieved. I am not interested in showing what I have done but in showing that you can do it. We often do not know we have strengths that can make a difference. If you learn to discover strengths and weaknesses, you can make a difference too.

During these years, I have applied emotional and strategic marketing plans increasing sales, awareness, improving efficiency, organization, and communication by stimulating mutual collaboration on all operational levels, from the employee to the executive, contributing to the success of businesses. My kind of leadership starts from the discovery of yourself, action, and inspiration.

• I have worked for Compagnia della Bellezza, building and managing the digital marketing and communications strategy during fashion and beauty events such as the Milan Fashion week and the ones related to hair couture and the launch of new collections. We had one purpose: enhancing the beauty of women so that they could feel more confident about their beautiful souls.
• I have worked on some international projects about luxury and sustainability, from California to the Côte d’Azur. I have managed the entire production of a luxury magazine, curating the visual brand and the strategic communications of every single professional or company in it, such as Isabell Kristensen, Gstaad Hotel, The Ninth one-star Michelin restaurant. Of course, I have managed and empowered my team, and the magazine has been considered the best one ever. Btw, today I believe in luxury with a purpose. I am happy today to have carried out several projects that have financed associations. I have found a purpose in everything I have done that has allowed me to wake up every day with a mission.
• I have worked in the natural wellness industry to raise awareness of the importance of mind and body well-being, focusing on Ayurveda and meditation. I believe in a sustainable business that respects the environment in which we live.
• I have worked as Digital Communication Manager in virtual and augmented reality. I am addicted to technology and innovation. When I worked for a videogame company, I created a big community of players driven by emotion through communication strategies based on neuroscience. When people feel you listen to them, they also feel affection towards you without knowing you. When it happens, then sales have a boost. I was also responsible for managing all the relationships with stakeholders, partners, and journalists by building profitable relationships in the world with professionals working at Playstation and Xbox. They appreciated the creative impact of communication. Many players bought the game only to support the team. Sometimes they wrote me only to say thanks.

• My name is Maria Orlando, but people often call me Maria Sole Orlando because of my positive approach to life, people, and work. In Italian, Sole means sun.
• Ask me anything about Greek and Nordic mythology, and I will be able to tell you some legends that will stimulate your imagination. I’ve always been a book-eater. When I was a child, I went to the book shop to buy some books with mom, each Saturday. And I was heartily happy.
• I am passionate about technology, augmented virtual reality, and artificial intelligence. Robotics fascinates me, especially the possibility of using these innovative tools to save time and improve life.
• Meditation and positive psychology have helped me control stress, love myself, and overcome great sorrows in my life, such as the end of a relationship that lasted 15 years, the abandonment of my father, and the tragic loss of some friends. Never forget that you can always start again and again and again. YOU have the power and nobody else.
• I love TV series, especially historical ones. I grew up in a country rich in culture and history-rich. When I was a child, I wanted to be an archaeologist. I liked to discover new things about the world. I imagined great battles, loves, and challenges inside a Greek monument or an Egyptian pyramid.
• There is nothing more rewarding for me than traveling. It changes you forever.
• I play the piano, yes, and I have a diploma in solfeggio, yes. Music is my best friend even when I work.
• I like to train outdoors. I could run for hours (or almost).
• I want to live abroad. I am working hard on this.