Background 

Anne Clinard Barwick, Founder and Principal...
It’s safe to say that from the very beginning I have loved helping people reach their full potential. I began my career in training and social services before receiving my Master's Degree in Recreation Therapy to work as a Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist (CTRS).  I spent many rewarding years working with adolescents and adults in behavioral health before returning to my roots as a Trainer and Performance Consultant, working with over 17,000 employees for Carolina’s Healthcare System, currently known as ATRIUM Health. It was there that I realized my passion for Organizational Development (OD) and completed my OD Certification which expanded my ability to affect teams holistically.  I loved working with the proven processes that harnessed organizations most effective and productive potential.    

Eventually I returned to my mother’s company, Effectiveness Training and Consulting (ETC), as Director of Training.   My mother (the late Helen Hall Clinard) wrote a book Winning Ways to Succeed with People: 7 Powerful Skills which profoundly influenced my personal and professional path. Our travels and work with organizations in the US and UK such as Goodyear, Microsoft, Moses Cone Memorial Hospital, FM Global, and The British Civil Service, hold extremely fond memories and invaluable learning experiences for me. I felt on purpose as I guided and inspired companies to enhance their knowledge of interpersonal skills.

Vision

While taking a brief break from the professional world to raise my two wonderful and energetic daughters in their early years, I weaved in bits of time to read and dream about my passion for leadership at both the individual and organizational level. A Strong U was formulating in my mind through various ideas and mission statements, and it was becoming harder to hold back as my daughters were becoming more self-sufficient. 

When our family became involved in an opening of a new School in our community, I jumped at the chance to consult with them in the building of new teams and processes. I also had a wonderful opportunity to work individually with the staff members on a project we called “Dream Management”. It was through this experience that I fell deeply in love with coaching around people’s passion and purpose as I helped the staff align their professional and personal goals with their overall values. It also provided me a chance to take a hard look at my own personal values and whether I was walking the talk and pursuing my own dreams. As fortunate as I was to be able to stay at home with my daughters, I realized if I was not pursuing my own passions of working and building my business then I was not only living an uninspired life, but I was not being an authentic role model to my daughters. So, in 2013 I started a new journey of making A Strong U official. This not only included the legal aspects of starting a company but the emotional ones as well. I knew if I wanted to coach others on living their lives with passionate purpose, I needed to make sure I was on target with mine. I attended Women’s Leadership Development courses, added a consistent practice of meditation and Pilates to my routine, went back to school for my Professional Coach Certification (CPC) and currently hold a PCC (which means I’ve coached over 500 hours), and I also became an Energy Leadership Index Master Practitioner (ELI-MP). Through all of this, I truly believe in the coaching process, and I never plan to be without my own development coach/cohort again.

My Coaching Certification Program really sealed the deal of finding my purpose and has put a sense of flow back into my life. The tools utilized seemed to awaken my soul, and I feel the passionate determination as I did in my 20’s and 30’s. I’m well in to navigating my 5th decade, and I am more than happy to show my daughters that there is no age limit to the feeling of purpose. I get so excited about sharing these proven processes with my clients through my STRONG Coaching Approach and my clients are making incredible leaps and bounds around their goals because of them. Check out my testimonial pages to read some of their success stories…and if these inspire you then let me know if I may help you shorten the journey to this place of purposefulness. It’s so awesome!

What's In The Name?

My late grandmother’s name was Daisy Strong Cooper Hall. It seems appropriate that she had the word Strong in her name.  She was such a positive leader in her community and an inspiring matriarch in our family. She was one of the first women to graduate from The University of North Carolina Law School in 1925 and holds the distinctive honor of being the first female student editor of the North Carolina Law Review. She also raised six dynamic daughters, the oldest of which was my mother. To use the word Strong in my company’s name seemed fitting in so many ways. The U in A Strong U is a play on letters. It represents the specific and intense learning that can happen at a University level and the strength and progress that can result when YOU open yourself up to new insights and knowledge.