What Clients Have to Say...

Physician's Legacy Empowers Patients
When I contacted Dolly Garlo I really could not define what I wanted to do next in life – but I knew I needed a change from my practice in medical oncology.  I was beginning to feel that no matter how hard I worked or how passionate I was about every one of my patients - I was not making enough difference in how patients were cared for in the hospital everyday. For more than 20 years I listened to patient stories and saw their anxiety and frustrations during their hospital stays. I had accumulated a spiral notebook of ideas and thoughts on how to improve bedside patient care in hospitals as part of my own written ventilation against the status quo.

One of these ideas was a device to allow patients to access for themselves their as needed oral pain medications without having to wait on the nurse to bring each and every dose in the hospital. Most of my cancer patients had these medications at home prior to their hospital admission. They were able to take them responsibly at home, but when they were hospitalized that autonomy was removed from them resulting in delayed medications and poor pain control. A feeling of loss is part of a cancer diagnosis but surely we didn’t need to compound it by taking away a patient’s control over their pain medications.  In fact, I thought that all patients who needed oral pain medications in hospitals could use such a device.

Dreams are one thing – but bringing them into reality takes a leap of faith and courage.  Without time spent with my coach, Dolly, I would not have been able to finally declare that what I wanted to do next was to create this device and bring it to market. Step by step, together, we worked a plan – first with a patent application – then finding a company to make a prototype – then with building a business team – then with finding a design firm to actually create the device – then with raising capital to move forward – all the while networking to find others to join in -- and the dream has become a reality.

There have been obstacles along the way with twists and turns – but somehow as Dolly says –“once you keep putting your foot out into the universe to move forward somehow the universe responds” and the project unfolds.  Amazingly the universe has provided the talented passionate people and resources needed. The MOD® (Medication On Demand ) device gained FDA clearance and entered the healthcare market. The next part of the journey involves putting them at patient bedsides worldwide.

My legacy will be our company’s mission – “Improving patient care at the bedside”.  I keep this quotation from Mark Twain on my desk: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”  Without my coach Dolly, I would still be sitting on the dock in Florida wondering about what it would have been like to follow my dream to develop a new medical device for the delivery of pain medications in hospitals.    

Sharon Conley, PhD, MD
Founder & President/CEO, AVANCEN LLC
Ormond Beach, FL
www.avancen.com

 

Legacy Evolves From Business Experience + Dreams
To say that Dolly has helped me realize what I really want to be doing and execute on that vision would be an understatement.  I have been in the Finance and Equipment Leasing business since my first job out of college almost 20 years ago.  I knew nothing about finance or leasing. I went into the finance industry as a way to get close to Hollywood, since my dream had always been to work in motion pictures.  I did so well at the job however, that I never pursued my vision of working in film, and went on to start my own finance company.  Here I am 15 years later.  Working with Dolly, I discovered that I still had an interest in Movie Making.  No sooner than we had that conversation during which Dolly mentioned that my business skills would serve nicely in a producer role, she made a request that I begin exploring the film industry again.  Quite directly, I got an email from a Director/Writer team looking for a Producer. We joined together several months after that and formed a production company called South Austin Pictures that now has made 2 feature films over the last 2 years.  While I still run my financing and leasing company, I have treated this experience as my film school. I don't know whether you call it divine intervention, or simply the results of actions and mass given to ideas that then create these results, but it’s been amazing.

Through this process, I have been trying to figure out what I want my Legacy to be, so I can implement that.  I know the business I’ve built so far in my life is one form of the Legacy I will create, and I know there is more I really want to do.  I have established myself as a producer and my ‘film schooling’ has produced two films. That is a start toward producing films with the types of subjects and messages that I want to develop and leave for others. I am heading in the right direction.  My current challenge is to shed myself of my old ways and transition out of finance work – harder than I imagined - so I can continue to advance my dreams and my Legacy.  I think Dolly is a great person and someone who can help you realize your visions and dreams, by turning those into goals and taking actions to bring them to life.  Her work embodies the quote by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe:  "Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it." And she encourages and supports what Chicken Soup for the Soul author Mark Victor Hansen suggests: "By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands — your own." With her help, that is exactly what I’m doing.

Lou Manitzas, CEO
OneSource Financial Corp.
osfcorp.com

Generating Business
I needed help in developing a plan to generate business for my law practice.  Dolly helped me to clearly identify my practice counseling middle market clients in a wide spectrum of corporate and securities transactions, with a focus on merger and acquisition transactions and venture capital, financing and recapitalization transactions and how that has generated substantial proceeds for clients and enabled them to realize their goals for growing their businesses.  We then broke down the process of marketing and business development into concrete steps, and she held me accountable to implement the plan.  The results have been phenomenal - I received a promotion as a result of the new business generated and was named as a "Super Lawyer" by Texas Monthly magazine.  I attribute these successes in large part to Dolly's assistance in developing my marketing plan and the support in executing it.

Robert R. Kibby
MUNSCH HARDT KOPF & HARR, P.C.
DALLAS | HOUSTON | AUSTIN
Munsch.com

A New Life Journey
It was a pleasure working with you.  At a time in life when I was looking for answers our paths crossed and your counsel was instrumental in taking the next step in my life’s journey. Working with you I was able to bring ideas to the surface that were of interest to me, start a new career, and meet my goal of living a more meaningful and better quality of life.  If not for you, I would have still been going to a cubical every day, not much of a life. Today I enjoy my work, appreciate the abundance of time I get with my family, and the adventures I encounter.

May your journey be blessed with the all the best!

Bret G. Pels
Texas USA
bretpels.com

Whole Life / Whole Business Makeover
I had several goals in my coaching with Dolly -- I wanted to become a coach myself and I wanted to get out of a profession that was increasingly frustrating and dead-end. Within five months of starting with Dolly, I had my own business and all that implies...licensed by the county, registered with the state, business name, logo, business account, web presence...the whole megillah! I have been a professional coach since 2003, working with a wide variety of clients and specializing in helping small business owners and women who want to make changes in their lives.

The "new job" piece took longer...when you've been a media executive for 30 years, it's difficult for people to see you as anything else. I did, in fact, achieve that goal as well, and through it all, Dolly was there, holding my hand, encouraging and supporting me. And because coaching is so holistic, Dolly also helped me through a number of personal issues as well.

Jackie Harder
Key Dynamics
key-dynamics.com
and President, Key Largo FL Chamber of Commerce

Couple Coached Toward Family Financial Success  
My husband and I were coached by Dolly several years ago in the areas of mid-career development and family financial stability. As with most things in life, we had no idea of the impact that season of our lives would have. Although our coaching relationship with Dolly ended successfully, we continue to reference what we learned about ourselves under her purview. That learning is really part of our family dialect and culture now. It is not unusual for one of us to pluck one of her articles or tools from our file--still. These are now the basics for us and we continually go back there; especially when we are in difficult situations.

Although Dolly is empathetic she is also very professional. She gave us the tools to set our own goals, evaluate our progress and constantly encouraged us. She has an amazing gift to really hear and respond with appropriate feed back (usually in the form of articles, tools, ideas and challenges.) Yet in the end, we knew we really did it ourselves because it was our plan and our success and she was our coach. She always said, “I can’t do it for you.” An awesome experience and life-long tool.  In this quick blurb, I can’t truly capture what her work has meant to us.

Lorie Schumacher
Park City, Utah
lorieschumacher@comcast.net

Clarity Expands Energy and Time
What an amazing and empowering experience I felt as a result of working with you. I didn't know what to expect after hearing you speak at Celebration of Life.  I just knew I wanted to work with you. The least I expected was to get a boost somehow in my business and to look at what I was doing that had me feel like I was a spinning wheel.

Working with you surpassed all of my expectations. I had no idea my personal life, core beliefs and behaviors were affecting my work to such a degree. The wheels have stopped spinning, I accept my feelings without resistance, and the smoke has disappeared.

Our sessions where powerfully clearing. With the noise that was going on in my head, it was hard to see how to structure my time in a way that would quiet the noise and whirlwind that I felt.  Solutions just fell together. Just like that. A situation arose. And after a session with you, a solution was always clear. 

Thank you for the expansion of energy and time I am now enjoying.  I am happy to say I am going to market very soon with my new product.

Linda Kennedy
President, Watchful Eye Designs, LLC
Park City, Utah
wedbags.com

Phenomenal, Brilliant Work
Note:  Joia was Dolly’s first coach in 1985.  Since Dolly completed her own coach training and began work as a coach, the two have been coaching each other on a regular basis.  This is what Joia had to say after one of their recent sessions:

Yesterday's coaching was 'BRILLIANT"!!!!!   It was absolutely phenomenal!!!!! 
I appreciated it immensely.  You solved such an incredible dilemma. 
I just wanted you to know the excitement lingers today.......
SOOOOOOOOOOO GRRRREAT!!!!!
You are the BEST!!! Thank you!!!

Joia Jitahidi. The Executive Coach
Austin, Texas
aMusingWorld.com