Welcome.

We’re so glad you’re hEre.

Attuned Advising is a relational coaching and strategic advising consultancy rooted in empathy.

Why? Because empathy shapes every aspect of organizations for the better—from how we lead to how we craft our stories, how we design products & programs to how we cultivate thriving teams.

At Attuned Advising, we bring you a strategic coaching and advising approach that’s as deeply empathic as it is effective. Our relational approach fuels care-centered leadership, thriving teams, innovative design, and human-centered storytelling that sparks resonance and change.

Empathy isn’t just a value; it's the foundation of everything we do. Whether you're a founder, executive, thought leader, public figure, or team leader seeking advising grounded in care and connection, we're thrilled you’re here.

Our Relational APProach

Our superpower is our deeply empathic, relational approach to coaching and strategic advising. We root our work together in building a deep, trusted relationships through deep listening, curiosity and collaboration, building the foundation for strategic advising and thought partnership you can trust and lean on.

Through conversations, we get to know you deeply—who you are, what you care about, what shapes you, and your dreams for your organization’s impact on the world.

We craft strategies and narratives together as unique as your fingerprint, bespoke to your style, aligned with your convictions.

our story

Sara founded Attuned Advising over half a decade ago to support leaders—tech founders, corporate executives, nonprofit directors, and educational leaders—in doing the deep, transformative inner and outer work required to build equitable, diverse, inclusive teams.

As the Attuned practice grew, we realized that the most impactful work we did wasn’t just about organizational policies or structural changes—our work was about deeply listening to, understanding, and supporting the people that made the work possible.

That human-centered approach, it turns out, is also the best way to support teams, build intuitive products and programs, and tell captivating stories.

Across industries—whether in tech, education, politics, or nonprofit spaces—we saw that the deep listening skills we leaned on for advising were also the key to cultivating thriving teams, building successful products & programs, and telling compelling stories.

That's the heart of what we do: we listen deeply, build relationships, and collaborate to help your teams, offerings, and stories thrive.

Our Offerings

  • We offer personalized empathy-driven coaching for founders, executives, and team leaders committed to conscious, care-centered leadership. We lean on multimodal tools like nonviolent communication, restorative justice, somatic attunement, and mindfulness.

    We support leaders to:

    • Build trust-based relationships

    • Navigate complex team dynamics with clarity and care

    • Cultivate emotional intelligence and conflict resolution skills

    • Build strategic alignment

    • Lead with integrity and confidence through a relational lens

  • We help co-founders and leadership teams strengthen collaboration, navigate conflict, and lead with mutual accountability.

    We facilitate conversations to:

    • deepen trust

    • navigate conflict

    • support alignment

    • build tools and frameworks for partnership

  • We provide high-level guidance for organizations seeking to align internal culture, values, strategy and external messaging.

    We support teams as thought partners with:

    • Strategic planning

    • Organizational design

    • Mission, vision, core values articulation

    • Strategic communications & positioning

  • We thought partner with mission-driven organizations to align their work with their storytelling, telling stories that inspire empathy and change.

    We know storytelling is not just about communication—storytelling is in our bones. Stories crack open our worldviews, touch into our humanity, remind us of our shared connection. Stories remind us that we belong to each other. Stories are our primary pathway to connection. Stories are the antidote to our divisive times. Stories are what will bridge us to a world rooted in collective care.

    We support your storytelling by thought-partnering on:

    • Vision and mission articulation

    • Messaging strategy development

    • Narrative alignment

    • Strategic narrative approaches to op-eds, speeches, thought-leadership pieces

    • Website copy strategy

    • Campaign messaging and content development

    • Annual reports and impact narratives

Our team

A kind, grounded woman with curly hair wearing a brown sweater and dangling earrings, standing outdoors on a grassy field.

Meet Sara

Sara Sadek, Founder of Attuned Advising, is a mother and writer, coach and advisor, educator and community builder here to co-create a world radically rooted in empathy and care with you.

Sara’s spent the last decade consulting and advising cross-industry founders and executives in education, tech, politics, and edtech. For years, she served as Senior Advisor to Fenway Strategies—the premier speechwriting company founded by Obama’s speechwriters—on all things social justice.

Sara’s gift is her deeply human, relational, and care-centered approach, which she brings to everything she touches.

Prior to running her own consultancy, she helped scale nonprofits like Girls Who Code and Teach For All in their early days, and founded a cooperative play-based forest school. Sara started her career as a Teach For America corps member, teaching 5th grade in West Harlem.

Sara writes weekly essays at folkweaver.substack.com, and is published in HTH Unboxed, Mutha Magazine, and Motherly Magazine.

She is first and foremost an insatiable learner, forever connecting dots across disciplines to weave together the world she wants to live in.

As a BIPOC neuroqueer first-generation immigrant steeped in social justice, Sara actively practices working with folks through a neuroaffirming, antiracist, inclusive, care-centered lens.

A confident, relatable smiling person in a gray shirt in an office environment.

MEET Algernon

Algernon Felice Jr is an award-winning director. He’s won a Midwest Emmy® for his writing, producing and directing, as well as multiple Wisconsin Broadcasters Association awards for his work in brand development and production. AJ has been featured on CNN and the Washington Post for his cultural storytelling, and received his Masters from Johns Hopkins University.
Algernon began his career producing content in partnership with Fortune 500 clientele, including Nike, Adidas, New Balance, Brooks, Saucony and Asics, during which time he filmed and produced in London, Germany, New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago and covered parts of the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. In addition to his work as a producer, Algernon has conducted comprehensive qualitative research that explores systems of political, sociocultural and multicultural communication, and works directly with families in underserved communities to help inform legislation. He continues to consult as a writer, producer and communications strategist on numerous statewide political campaigns, and briefly served as a contributing writer for a nationwide arts and culture magazine.

Algernon currently serves as the Senior Producer at Gary Community Ventures where he, in an effort to effect systemic and social change, directs short films and documentaries that explore the voices, perspectives, and lived experiences of Colorado communities through a lens of multiculturalism, empowerment, equity, and inclusivity. He is a Zen Buddhist practitioner, cinema-enthusiast, proud husband, and son.

Woman with long hair smiling outdoors in a beige jacket, standing against a wall with string lights above.

Meet Emily

Emily Smith has a background in business, psychology, and technology. For ten years, she ran a consultancy helping businesses all over the world design products and strategies that listened to and met the needs of the human lives their organizations touched.

After working with organizations like The Gap, Inc. and MIT, she took an even more complex and equally rewarding job as a mother. She has trained in Nonviolent Communication with Dr. Roxy Manning and Dr. Oren Jay Sofer and believes this work is critical to the deep listening skills she pours into each client relationship.

Her goal is to hold compassionate space for your stories and journeys to unfold.

Nice things people say

“Sara has a rare and beautiful gift for guiding people to unearth their power—to speak truth to power and craft the authentic narratives that fuel bold, transformative movements. In a world that demands courageous leadership rooted in empathy and sustained by community, Sara meets the moment. She helps people lead from their most compassionate, grounded selves. Personally, she’s not only made me a better politician, but a better mom and a better human being.”

— Francesca Hong

Wi State Assembly Member

representing Downtown Madison

Person wearing a white shirt and a red bandana, facing sideways against a plain background.

“Sara has shown up in literal rain or shine to mirror, validate, and empathize with our triumphs and challenges. I have learned so much through Sara's modeling and deep insightful reflection. Sara’s ability to weave her skills and hold space for us to show up in true vulnerability has transformed my life.”

— Sara Van Acker

Co-Founder SF Birth Center

Person smiling with short dark hair, wearing a red cardigan and nautical-themed shirt, standing against a textured gray wall.

“Sara has a remarkable gift for crafting compelling narratives that bring an organization’s mission to life. Her words don’t just inform—they elicit connection, and create a vivid picture that draws the audience in and fosters genuine engagement.”

— Lisa Nowel

Founder of Recess

Director of Marketing at Brightworks

Smiling woman with curly hair, wearing a gray shirt and light cardigan, standing outdoors.

“Sara is a natural, heart focused, intuitive leader and the one to beautifully teach us how being in community is done.”

— Jen Madanat

San Francisco Midwife

Woman sitting on marble steps, wearing a sleeveless yellow top, with long dark hair.

“I can’t say enough good things about Sara - she is a revolutionary, magical person who brings so much of deep, transcendent value to the world”

— Noe Venable

Community Leader

Person with long brown hair in a purple dress in front of a large tree trunk background. 
Attuned Advising unapologetically and unequivocally stands in solidarity with Black liberation, LGBTQIA+ rights, reproductive justice rights, Palestinian and indigenous justice, sovereignty & freedom, immigrant rights, disability justice, earth justice, and more broadly, with all historically oppressed beings in our collective quest for liberation.