Vanessa Bamford Strategic Mentor

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Australia
Adelaide, SA
Vanessa Bamford Strategic Mentor

Helping entrepreneurs build legacy, wealth & freedom — without burnout, guilt or losing themselves. My approach is direct, strategic, and human-first.

I help ambitious business owners simplify financial strategy, make confident decisions, and scale sustainably — without burning out or losing control. After growing up in a family business and building a career in financial strategy and advisory, I saw firsthand how overwhelming leadership can feel when you don't have the right support or clarity around your numbers. Today, through mentorship, edu

cation, and speaking, I work with business owners who are ready to move beyond the hustle and into real leadership. I’m not here to overwhelm you with jargon or cookie-cutter advice. I’m here to give you real-world strategies, clear action steps, and the confidence to take control of your business and financial future. Whether you're ready to finally understand your numbers, scale with clarity, or build a business that gives you back your time and freedom, I’m here to guide you.

🔹 Strategic Mentor for Business Owners
🔹 Speaker on Financial Confidence & Leadership
🔹 Founder of Vision Beyond Advisory
🔹 Co-Founder of Business Like A Girl

Ready to lead powerfully and grow sustainably? Let’s connect.

07/04/2026

Delegation means letting go.

Stop micromanaging your team and the people you’ve hired to do a better job than you.

Every time you step in and make decisions for your team, you’re making $50 decisions.

The trade-off is that you could be making $5,000+ decisions, and you’re losing time making decisions in the wrong areas.

This is one of the biggest shifts that has to happen when a business grows.

I’m curious… what $50 decisions are still taking up your time right now?

Vanessa x

31/03/2026

I’m a business and finance strategist, and after working with women in business for years there’s one thing I see over and over again.

You can have the best strategies in the world but if your nervous system is stuck in survival mode, none of it will work the way it should, and you’ll push yourself constantly trying to make things happen.

I learned this the hard way.

I ran my first business to just under $1M while raising two young kids, running a team, and living on coffee and takeaway.

From the outside it looked successful, but behind the scenes I had burned myself to the ground.

At the time I thought the solution was better habits — sleep, walking, eating well, taking time out.

Don’t get me wrong, those things helped.

But the biggest shift came when I started understanding my nervous system and learning how to regulate it.

Because when your body isn’t operating from survival mode anymore, everything changes.

Your clarity.
Your decision making.
Your leadership.
Your capacity.

I unpacked this in more detail inside my recent masterclass Properly Paid.

If you’d like to watch the replay, click here - https://www.businesslikeagirl.com.au/properlypaidmasterclass

Vanessa x

23/03/2026

This photo was taken during one of my first ever podcast interviews as a guest.

I remember it clearly because I was in the thick of crawling out of some of my deepest mental challenges, yet I was sitting there talking about my passion for making an impact on mental health.

I remember walking away from it feeling like a fraud.

I wanted so badly to make an impact for people, yet at the time I didn’t even have my own mental health in check.

I vaguely remember being asked a question about how I looked after myself, and looking back now I can see just how far I had to come.

At the time I was a mum to two kids under 10, running a business, and I’d even taken on a foster child to support.

I genuinely believed being a good human meant doing everything for everyone.

Most of it came from good intentions… but if I’m honest, a lot of it came from desperation to change things externally, when the most important work was the change that needed to happen within me first.

Women in business, and mums in business, are incredible. We can push ourselves to superhuman levels. But the lifespan of how long we can sustain that is short.

Once I hit my 40s my body was no longer willing to play the fast game anymore, and honestly I’m grateful for the lessons that came from that.

Learning to slow down.
Learning to find my calm.
Learning to listen to my intuition and my heart.

Because something I see all the time now working with women in business is this:

Most of the time the biggest blocks in business aren’t tactical, they’re internal.

The way we see ourselves.
What we believe we’re worth.
What we’re willing to ask for.

This is exactly what I’ll be unpacking inside my free masterclass Properly Paid tomorrow.

How to stop undercharging and attract clients who truly value what you do.

📅 18 March
🕙 10am Adelaide time
📍 Live on Zoom

If you want to be in the room for this, you can save your seat here - https://www.businesslikeagirl.com.au/properlypaidmasterclass

Vanessa x

09/03/2026

This is me, being lazy.

Getting ready to go out for dinner, on a five-day family holiday at the beach, after doing sweet FA all day. I look pretty refreshed.

So yep, lazy you might call it.

I call it regulating my nervous system and rejuvenating my soul to build capacity for more.

Laying around, staring at the beach on a winter’s day, colouring in with Netflix on… that’s my type of lazy.

I’ve spent 16 years running around in my business just to be able to say I can now be lazy.

And to be honest, I’d recommend it to anyone who runs a business.

Being lazy is probably exactly what you need.

Vanessa x

02/03/2026

Are you an introvert, ambivert or extrovert?

I’m an introvert.

Big social spaces with lots of people send my body into chaos. I feel wired, scattered and anxious because I pick up on people’s energy and it’s a lot.

I’m still learning this about myself. Learning that it’s okay to be quiet, that I process slowly, and that I get overstimulated really quickly when there’s too much going on.

When that happens, my brain switches off and I go quiet. I’ve been called grumpy. I’ve been called rude. But how I show up has got nothing to do with anyone else.

Nurturing me is my responsibility.

So sometimes you’ll find me quietly removing myself from environments, going outside for a walk alone, and finding calm for a moment when things feel like too much.

Recently, I removed myself from a group event. The facilitator asked if one of my friends should come out to check on me. They didn’t. They left me. And later told me it takes courage to do what you need for your own peace rather than staying uncomfortable for others.

I agree.

I’d rather make others uncomfortable than sacrifice myself anymore.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this too?

24/02/2026

This might sound blunt, but it needs to be said.

If you don’t pay a small business for work you’ve received, you haven’t raised an issue, you haven’t disputed the service, and you just ignore requests to pay, that’s not an oversight.

That’s a values issue.

Small businesses don’t have finance departments chasing money for fun. They’re run by real people managing cashflow, paying wages, covering expenses, and doing the work they committed to.

Ignoring invoices puts unnecessary pressure on people who have already delivered what you asked for.

If there’s a problem, communicate it.
If something isn’t right, raise it.
If the work has been done, pay for it.

Small businesses are allowed to stop tolerating behaviour that would never be accepted anywhere else.

16/02/2026

One of the biggest shifts I’ve made in business has been learning what abundance actually means.

It’s not about earning more for the sake of it.
It’s about capacity.

Capacity to deliver properly.
Capacity to make clear decisions.
Capacity to show up consistently without running on pressure or adrenaline.

For a long time, I built from constraint. Even when the business looked successful on paper, the pressure underneath shaped everything, how I worked, how I delivered, and how sustainable it really was.

Building from a financially abundant place changed that.

The quality of delivery improved.
The work landed deeper.
Outcomes became more consistent.
And the business stopped relying on sacrifice to function.

Yes, I lost people along the way. That’s part of alignment. The right clients value the work differently when it’s delivered from capacity rather than stretch.

Abundance, in my experience, isn’t a mindset exercise.
It’s a leadership decision.

And it shows up in how well the work is actually done.

09/02/2026

After working with businesses and their numbers for more than 15 years, one thing has become very clear to me.

Most people already know what they should be charging.

Pricing issues rarely come from a lack of understanding. They come from a lack of self-trust. From not feeling ready to hold more responsibility, more expectation, or more visibility.

That’s why “just fix your pricing” advice often doesn’t land.

It skips the part where confidence and safety are built.

When price increases are forced, they usually don’t stick. The discomfort just shows up somewhere else, in hesitation, over-delivery, resentment, or burnout.

The shifts that last come from understanding what’s underneath the resistance, and choosing to back yourself anyway.

Pricing isn’t just a financial decision.

It’s a leadership decision.

03/02/2026

I think the label that bothered me the most was being told,
“Before I knew you, I thought you were really intimidating.”

That’s the last thing I’d ever want to be.

When I receive feedback of any kind, I always reflect on it.
Self-leadership matters deeply to me.
If there’s an area where I can become more aware, I will.

What I’ve learned over time is that calm, confidence, and directness can be misread when people don’t yet know you.
Especially when you’re a woman who knows herself, loves business, and doesn’t perform small talk.

Owning all of this has made me a better leader.
I don’t shrink myself.
I don’t over-explain.
I don’t harden either.

I lead with honesty, kindness, and clarity.
And I trust that the right people feel that.

You don’t need to be understood by everyone.
You need to be honest with yourself.

26/01/2026

Today, I received a message that brought me to tears.

Someone thanked me for helping them pursue the career they’ve always dreamed of. Not because I mapped it out for them or gave them the answers, but because I reminded them of their worth.

It took me straight back to the hardest decision I ever made.

There was a point where I realised the way I was doing life was no longer enough. On the outside, things looked fine. On the inside, I knew I was living too far away from purpose. I wanted to make an impact. I wanted my life to mean something beyond ticking boxes and staying safe.

Choosing that path wasn’t easy. It came with loss, discomfort, and a lot of uncertainty. But days like today remind me that choosing purpose and impact — even when it hurts — changes everything.

I believe most people don’t struggle because they lack ability. They struggle because they don’t see their own worth. They live day in, day out, with their own inner critic as the loudest voice in the room.

Sometimes it takes someone outside of you to see past the self-doubt, the wounds, the stories you’ve carried for too long, and remind you of who you are underneath all of that.

I genuinely believe everyone has something powerful to offer the world. The difference between changing your life and staying stuck often comes down to belief.

And if you need reminding of who you are and what you’re capable of, go and find the people who already see it. Or reach out, I’ll remind you. ❤️

20/01/2026

Recently, I contacted three different businesses I was genuinely interested in working with. All of them were well regarded. All of them were good at what they do.

What stood out wasn’t their follower count or how polished their content was. It was how they showed up in a very small moment.

Two of them made time to respond and have a conversation. The third didn’t, not even in an automated way.

There’s no judgement in that. Everyone runs their business differently.

But it showed me something about capacity. About space. About what’s happening underneath the surface.

When I’m choosing who to work with, I pay attention to those small moments. Not because I’m looking for perfection, but because I’m clear on what I want to build and how I want to grow.

Leadership has a way of revealing itself early, often before the work ever begins.

I’m curious… what small signals do you pay attention to when deciding who you want to work with?

05/01/2026

This year wasn’t neat or linear, but it was honest.

These are the lessons 2025 gave me, through leadership, growth, and a lot of uncomfortable moments in between.

I didn’t learn them from getting it right.
I learned them from listening more closely to myself.

If this year stretched you, challenged you, or changed you… you’re not behind.
You’re learning.

I would love to hear what this year taught you?

- Vanessa x

Address

South Australia
Adelaide, SA

Website

https://linktr.ee/vanessabamford

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