Thirty years.
Many lives lived.
One through line.

Within 6 months of starting work, Annabelle Drumm was Head Trainer at the top Apple computer dealer in New Zealand. She was responsible for the creation of more than thirty courses, a team of trainers and flying between cities, serving clients that included Saatchi & Saatchi, Air New Zealand, Nokia and the BNZ. Starting in reception, she got the promotion by learning faster than anyone else in the room. Demand for her time from C+ suite executives for one on one training continued to grow, along with her reputation. She understood something that most trainers miss: the goal is never to teach software. It’s to make a person feel capable.

That insight, that confidence and capability are inseparable. It’s run through everything she has done in the four decades since.

Annabelle spent fifteen years as a professional performer: dancer, actor, television presenter, producer and choreographer. She co-founded the Ipanema Dance Company, specialising in corporate events, awards nights and festivals; performing nationally. She worked on “Xena: Warrior Princess” and “Hercules” as an actor and choreographer. She performed over 150 shows a year at peak and was featured in television commercials for Coca Cola, Air New Zealand, Fisher & Paykel and Carlton United. Her work was broad and, guess what? She never had to wait tables. Never.

This is not incidental to her coaching. She knows what performing under pressure feels like from the inside. The creative vulnerability, the public exposure, the discipline required to deliver at a high level consistently and that quiet empty feeling in a creative career when the project is done and the audience has gone home.

In 1995, Annabelle co-founded Talent-on-Line Entertainment Network, one of Australia’s first internet booking agencies, promoting performing artists from five cities around Australia and New Zealand to a global clientele. The agency managed a talent pool of around 300 acts booking corporate work and festivals, sending performers to Europe, the UAE and Asia.

She doubled turnover four years in a row, sealing over 600 contracts annually. She managed staff, performers and the full operational complexity of a live entertainment business whilst working school hours and raising young children.

She achieved this, not by working harder but, by refining internal operational processes to ultimate efficiency. Her conversion rate exceeded 75%. Again, not through aggressive sales tactics but, by simply responding faster and more clearly than any competitor.

From 2009 to 2016, Annabelle ran Kitegirl Coach (we can call it Phase One). It was a business coaching practice serving owners and senior professionals in creative industries: media, entertainment, event management, design, advertising and entrepreneurship.

The results were real. A creative director achieved 400% income growth in six months. A creative studio founder achieved 600% company growth in twelve months. She also produced a suite of 26 iPhone apps, the first featured by Apple as “What’s Hot” in Australia, Russia and New Zealand; plus created an online training course attended by more than 800 students.

She is a past member of the International Coach Federation and Women in Film and Television, was invited to be a member of the inaugural Arts and Culture Advisory to the Inner West Council; a graduate of the Neuroleadership Institute and a graduate of the Thought Leaders Million Dollar Expert Immersion Programme.

From 2014 to 2021, Annabelle was a presenter, broadcaster and producer for 2MBS Fine Music Sydney 102.5 FM. For seven years she presented Fine Music Breakfast, breakfast being the top presenting slot in any radio station, as well as hosting monthly specials and features. She served as anchor host for station’s live simulcasts of “Live at the Joan” from the Joan Sutherland Entertainment Centre (which is the photo on the homepage).

She delivered musicology pre-concert talks for the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs at the Sydney Opera House and the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra at The Concourse, Chatswood. Today she continues as a passionate theatre critic for Sydney Arts Guide.

These years deepened a capability that was already central to her coaching work: the ability to communicate with clarity, warmth and authority to an audience she cannot see, on topics that matter deeply to the people listening.

Phase Two! Annabelle is relaunching Kitegirl Coach with a clarity about her work that only comes from having stepped away from it for a time. She’s added to her perspective and returned with fresh eyes.

Annabelle has two sides to the practice this time. Firstly, as with the original version, she continues to coach business owners and established creative professionals who find the standard business coaching playbook simply does not fit their world. Secondly, on a more timely note, she is providing career transition assistance during the world’s fast paced changes.

She has been where many of her clients have been and are going. She has made the mistakes, fallen down and got up again, found the way through. Annabelle coaches, mentors and trains with honesty, generosity and a passion to help you fly strong.