Vanessa Bamford Strategic Mentor

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

Watch my FREE masterclass Properly Paid Woman by clicking the link in my bio 💜 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 t

he right support or clarity around your numbers. Today, through mentorship, education, 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.

A few years ago I was asked to speak on a panel for a Xero road show in front of a room full of accountants and bookkeep...
17/06/2026

A few years ago I was asked to speak on a panel for a Xero road show in front of a room full of accountants and bookkeepers.

The whole time I was sitting up there I had one belief running through my mind.

That I don't fit in. This industry had shown me that. I was so very different from them all, and because of my previous experiences working in other accounting practices, I had a real belief that no one liked me.

Sitting in front of my peers, where I didn't feel respected, I didn't feel liked, and I didn't feel like I fit in, was really, really hard.

What got me through that moment was this. If I felt like that in that room, there had to be some other people who felt the same. In a majority of people who might not have liked me or resonated with me, there had to be a minority who did, and I wanted to find those people.

Straight afterwards a young girl came up to me and told me how much she felt so similar to how I had felt. That was the memory I held onto; it only takes one person to hear what you have to say for it to matter.

You are never actually alone, it’s just that you might be a minority, and if your voice is big enough and loud enough for them to hear, there will always be someone somewhere who is going to benefit from the one thing you have to say.

Now I want to ask you, what is the room you have been afraid to speak up in?

I used to have every Friday off with my kids, but in reality I didn't always do it very well, until the guilt set in.The...
10/06/2026

I used to have every Friday off with my kids, but in reality I didn't always do it very well, until the guilt set in.

The moments of "hey mum watch this" while I was smiling and nodding at my kids, on the phone to a client trying to sort out an issue. Every ding of my email pulling me back in. Always on, always reacting. The business got me every time, but I thought I was succeeding because I was there with the kids in body but not in mind.

I even remember when my son was in year two and he filled in a Mother's Day card for me. He wrote "my mum is good at working." It broke my heart.

It was through the pain of the guilt and shame I felt, and the constant state of anxiety from never truly switching off, that I eventually made the changes. I learned to listen to my body. I took the time to truly learn what calm felt like, instead of the constant state of chaos and anxiety my body had learned to live in my whole life.

I came back to my reason why, which was my kids and the impact I wanted to make. I set strong boundaries around my days. I communicated to everyone that I no longer worked Fridays or Mondays. I found solutions and never settled with "it just is what it is." I have a choice.

Everything is a choice.

I want to leave this with you to sit with, what is the one thing you keep telling yourself you will change, but haven't yet?

I used to think I had to resolve the fear before I could keep going.Sixteen years in business has taught me that's not h...
05/06/2026

I used to think I had to resolve the fear before I could keep going.

Sixteen years in business has taught me that's not how it works, but it took watching my son race motocross to really understand why.

About four years ago we bought him a peewee 50 for Christmas to ride on our farm. I thought joining a club would be the safer option; that is not how that went.

He fell in love with riding almost immediately, and then with racing. I remember standing on a hill at his first race watching the older boys on the 85cc bikes, when one of them came over a jump, landed crossed over, and flipped into the air onto his head. He got up and fell back down and my body turned to jelly.

I have asked my son to consider butterfly catching ever since, because that is genuinely what my nervous system would prefer. He just loves it and he's really good at it, so I watch.

Every race I have equal parts pride because I know how hard he's worked, and equal parts fear because anything can happen. I've learned that both can exist at the same time, and that trying to resolve those feelings is the wrong goal.

What this sport has taught me is that I never had control to begin with. When fear sets in, the only honest move is to accept that, and trust that you will work it out.

That is what I bring to every hard decision I make in business, and it is what I try to give the women I work with when the next level feels like too much to trust.

I’m curious, is there a fear in your business right now that you are trying to control instead of move through?

Vanessa

A few months ago a message came in from a past client that brought me to tears.She told me she was now pursuing the care...
27/05/2026

A few months ago a message came in from a past client that brought me to tears.

She told me she was now pursuing the career of her dreams and all I'd done was remind her of her worth.

That message took me straight back to the hardest moment of my own career, when I decided the way I was doing life was not good enough. I wanted purpose, I wanted to make a difference, and I didn't want the next sixteen years to look like the last sixteen had.

Choosing that path wasn't comfortable; it came with loss and uncertainty and a lot of letting go, but it is the most important and best decision I've made.

Most women I work with already know what they are capable of, they just keep building from a place that doesn't reflect it yet.

My belief is that everyone deserves to have the life they could only have imagined. The only thing stopping you is you.

I would love to know, what's the next version of your career you're building toward?

I was exhausted, overcommitted, and still saying yes to everything. The sparring match just happened to be the place whe...
20/05/2026

I was exhausted, overcommitted, and still saying yes to everything. The sparring match just happened to be the place where it all caught up with me.

I've seen the same thing in so many women I work with. Not in boxing gyms, but in their businesses and their schedules and the way they keep adding more when everything is already full.

The excuses start to build up and underneath them is something worth paying attention to.

If you're constantly coming up with excuses for not achieving the thing you want, it's worth stopping and getting really honest about what's really going on.

Which part of your life are you still showing up to that you know you should have let go of by now?

Vanessa x

I see this same pattern now in the women I work with.The one-thousand-miles-an-hour version of building a business, wher...
13/05/2026

I see this same pattern now in the women I work with.

The one-thousand-miles-an-hour version of building a business, where you tell yourself if you just get through this season, the reward is waiting on the other side.

It's not, and I learned that the hard way.

The difference is, I now get to help women change things sooner, before they end up where I did.

I’m curious, what's the pace you've been running your business at?

Vanessa x

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

This photo was taken during one of my first ever podcast interviews as a guest.I remember it clearly because I was in th...
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

This is me, being lazy.Getting ready to go out for dinner, on a five-day family holiday at the beach, after doing sweet ...
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

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