About us
First of all, hello! We’re so happy to be connecting with you here on our blog. We’ll introduce ourselves then share with you what we do and how we do it. We’d also love to hear more about you: your values, your goals, your dreams.
Ablaze Services is the front for Mary, Nadine, and Trudi – three women who live on the territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ speaking peoples and who love bike rides, dogs, and laughing about the ridiculous of it all.
A bit about Mary:
Mary is whip-smart and will tell you like it is, but in such a sweet way that you won’t even mind. In previous lives, Mary was a bookstore owner and a politician, but now she’s the parent to a great kid, a dog, and a cat; a power administrator, and a strategic thinker using her powers for good.
Mary would love to work with you on setting up proactive systems, strategical planning (different, but connected to creating strategic plans), and executive administrative roles.
A bit about Nadine:
Nadine is a truth speaker who has a strong social justice analysis. She loves plants, animals, and learning. She wears a lot of different flower crowns aka. different hats as a city councillor, and equity and inclusion strategist, a facilitator, and researcher.
Nadine would love to work with you on equity-based leadership development, strategic planning, protective and compassionate policy development, delivering workshops, and she also wants to be the keynote speaker at your next event.
A bit about Trudi
You’re going to want to hang out with Trudi. She’s like the friend you always wish you had who will bring you noodles when you need them and then drop the most incisive insight you never saw coming. Trudi generates her power through said noodles, diversifying local government tables, and spending time in water.
She wants to deliver workshops for you on accountability and being an effective bystander, and would like to work with you on anything strategic or policy related. Trudi also wants to coach you to be a more values-aligned leader, regardless of whether you hold an official leadership title.
What we do
We are true multi-potentialites so it’s not exaggerating too much to say we do it all. Whether working on a communications strategy, delivering workshops, providing coaching, or delivering a speech or presentation, we always lead with our values.
We want you to lead with yours, too.
The world is busy and complicated and exhausting. We often have a sense of who we are and what we stand for, but when things get tough, we might behave in ways that actually aren’t values aligned. We subscribe to the principle of fractals (credit: adrienne maree brown) meaning that we believe what you do at small scale, you will replicate at a larger scale. Another way to put this is that if we treat those we work with kinda crappy, if we become the CEO or Executive Director, we won’t magically become compassionate leaders. What we do now is who we are. Let’s line that up with our values.
Let’s be clear – it’s not about perfection. It’s about getting really clear about values that are specific and unique to just you. If you showed your values to your next-door neighbour, they shouldn’t feel that yep, those values reflect them too.
The next step is to look at how those values are reflected in the work we’re doing, how we’re showing up, and where we want to go next.
While this might feel overwhelming, it’s actually joyful, relieving, and inspiring.
Let’s connect and get started!
