LeT’s tell your story
We help mission-driven people and teams define and tell a compelling story that cuts through the noise and connects you with the right people.
Our Relational APProach
Our superpower is our deeply empathic, relational approach to storytelling and strategic advising. We root our work together in building deep, trusted relationships. Our narrative-shaping work starts with who you are, what you care about, and the impact you want to have on the world.
our story
Hi! I’m Sara, Founder of Attuned Advising. I started Attuned over half a decade ago as an equity-based consultancy because I wanted to support leaders who were doing meaningful, often messy, human work of building audacious organizations reshaping this world for the better— when I started to realize that my superpower in deeply listening and mirroring people’s stories back to them in a coaching setting was actually the necessary work of narrative shaping.
So that’s what we do: tell your story beautifully by learning who you are and what you stand for.
Our Offerings
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We support startups and nonprofits in crafting compelling narratives.
Startup support:
Shaping narratives that resonate with investors, customers, and early adopters
Translating complex products or services into clear, human-centered stories
Developing messaging for launches, pitch decks, and first commercialization
Nonprofit support:
Vision and mission articulation
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
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We offer our flagship narrative coaching to help leaders tell their stories.
We support with voice, storytelling, positioning, and understanding audience’s needs.
Like all of our services, our coaching model is steeped in empathy, deep listening, and collective care.
Our team
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 parenting & 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 to storytelling, coaching, advising and everything she touches. Prior to running her Attuned Advising, she helped scale organizations like Girls Who Code and Teach For All in their early days. In her community work, Sara co-founded a cooperative play-based forest school, trained as a homebirth doula, and support Brightworks School on the Learning Architecture Committee. 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.
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.He is a Zen Buddhist practitioner, cinema-enthusiast, proud husband, and son.
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
“I’ve worked with Sara on several extended projects that involved many highly invested stakeholders with differing perspectives and under circumstances that were initially fraught. Sara has a rare combination of deep EQ and sensitivity to interpersonal dynamics and a deep knowledge of techniques for actively building trust and alignment to enable groups that started off as lower trust to build deep rapport and work together effectively to make major decisions and to collaborate on a shared vision.
I’ve not worked with anyone with such a deep skill set in navigating complex group dynamics, and it felt like a super power throughout these projects having Sara in my corner to brainstorm, strategize, reflect, and plan how to unstick processes and move a group forward productively.
Sara is an expert at reading the room, authentic facilitation skills, honoring people and relationships in a work context, and all of the communications and emotional dynamics of work. She took several situations that seemed almost impossible to resolve and found a path forward that healed the group dynamics, built trust, and kept projects moving forward productively.
Sara is an amazing leadership coach, a thoughtful and skilled sounding board and guide, and has an excellent eye for thoughtful leadership and communications during a crisis. Anyone wanting to build trust, navigate a crisis situation, or develop as an authentic leader would be so lucky to have her in their corner.”
— Laura SKelton
Ex-Engineering Manager, Airbnb
Board member, Electra
“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
“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
“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
“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
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.