Amy Gray, Founder, New Leaf Consulting LLC

06/02/2026

If you've finally gotten sick of trying what USED to work very well and are ready for what works well RIGHT NOW: You've landed in the right spot.

You are a reinventionist -- someone who has spent the past several years trying to kickstart their business after the (INSERT ONE OR MORE OF THESE: pandemic / AI / global unrest / political divisiveness / mid-life / industry collapse / illness / accident / stint in prison (half-kidding here) / dumpster fire of life etc.) SWEPT THE LEGS OUT FROM UNDER WHAT USED TO WORK.

Ammiright?

You keep pulling the starter cord on the lawnmower engine of your 'old' life, trying to get it to 'catch' and turn over again, so you can continue on your merry way. The problem is that the engine just WON'T start up in the same way anymore. It can't. Things have shifted in the world - the things that made the 'old way' work are no longer viable.

Don't let that scare you. Let that MOTIVATE you. You are SO ready to enjoy work, rebuild (or build!) your wealth, and attract opportunities that light you up.

I can help. My process is not cheap, but it is effective --- and the best part? If it leads to just ONE well-paid corporate speech or workshop at $15k or higher, you will have achieved full ROI already.

My method is disarmingly simple....but that does not make it easy.
My 6-step Category of One Theory is the equivalent of dramatically sweeping off the table of old ideas and starting tabula rasa............... time-travelling back to the beginning of your paid employment and goldmining for treasure.

BELIEVE ME, it is ALWAYS THERE. Hiding in plain sight. You'll likely let out a little laugh when you realize that you've been sitting on the BIGGEST potential source of income combined with personal JOY for many, many years.

Curious about how I do that? Here's the first of two links - Part 1 of 2: Category of One Advantage: Not for the Weak or the Normal. Weirdos Wanted. Have a peek. And welcome!

15 min: What's your incomparable 'mash-up' of value in the market today? My 25 years of positioning icons like Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak, TOMS Founder, Blake Mycoskie, TED All Star Aimee Mullins, and more, taught me the BEST way to attract lucrative paid speaking, and the process actually works...

03/31/2026

THE CATEGORY OF ONE speaker search is coming..... get ready to enter and tell your friends about it!

I am bone tired of seeing the same names over and over again in elite paid speaking. Event hosts are, too.

I want to find the next big thing......and it might be YOU.

It will revolve around a very simple * yet not easy* entry form and short video.

There will be a fee to enter-- and you will gain something valuable in return, no matter what. I will personally review what you send and offer my candid, caring, private assessment of the strength of your Category of One profile.

With no hidden agenda.
With no sales pitch to buy anything or do anything with me.

I simply want you to know what I feel is working. And what I believe still needs work in the concept you submit.

I'll use my 10 years hiring the best speakers in the world to keynote at my events, AND a quarter of a century of elite personal representation for celebrity and rising celebrity speakers-- to help you.

All entries will be considered before narrowing the field down to top 10, then top 3, then I will announce THE WINNER.

I will post the rules, entry details and PRIZE info by late April.

I would love nothing more than to change someone's life forever by recognizing their genius and amplifying the heck out of it around the globe.

I have seen firsthand (several times!) how absolutely life changing it is when someone realizes they are onto something big and go on to create a massive revenue stream from sharing what they know with the world.

Stay tuned!
Gah!!!
I'm so excited about this -- the prize will be spectacular--

And if you have any ideas about what would make this contest absolutely fabulous, and/or what you would hope to see in the prize, let me know!

03/30/2026

Graceful endings: A HIGHLY underutilized competitive advantage. Make your business a standout by proactively and positively managing client exits. Beginnings are nearly always exciting and fun-- but we all seem to dread endings. Why? They are as common as beginnings -- but typically filled with negative emotions and poor behavior.

I love beginnings, don't get me wrong. It is just that I also really enjoy positive "endings," too.

My work has specific beginning and end metrics. The services I adore providing have a clear impetus that make them valuable..... but not for everyone...... and my work is not always needed long term.

I am PERFECT for some and would be wildly disappointing for others.

Sometimes a client starts out as the perfect match..... and then their needs evolve over time.

Let's normalize that being a positive-- and not failure.

Let's see it as evolution and growth. Let's not avoid transitions.
Let's normalize that what is best may lie elsewhere.

That is not failure, that is clarity.
For me, itis genuinely wanting the BEST for my clients and myself.

When there is a continued match in needs: BEAUTIFUL.
When there is an issue: RESOLVE IT. When one or both outgrow the options: LET GO WITH GRACE.

Help your clients by recognizing when their needs are not met best by what you provide-- then help them land elsewhere, happily, and with proactive good will.

There comes a point in many client /employee / partner relationships where staying together becomes a disservice to their mutual growth.

I build in the exit at the start - so my clients know exactly what to expect if and when they are ready to graduate from my services. We both know what we can lean on one another for at each point in our journey: Beginning, middle, and end.

No surprises.
Just great people who have the rock solid knowledge that mutual benefit is the only relationship we want.

How do you navigate endings with grace?

03/27/2026

Steven Bartlett is fabulous, but this notion stopped me cold:

"I started calculating the "Enough Number" for each role in my life. What's the minimum attention each person / thing actually needs to feel valued?

Melanie: 5-minute daily call plus scattered proof-of-thought moments
Gym: 30 minutes, 4 days a week (not 7)
Mum: One proper call per week

Every single Enough Number was dramatically lower than what I'd been holding myself to."

This post made feel incredibly sad.
For Steven Bartlett and his health and his fiancée.
Adrenaline and success guzzling at the expense of savoring the climb, and the people who matter. Including himself.

My approach is the opposite of "what's the minimum attention needed to make someone feel valued."
It is "What's the most I could do?"
Scale vs. right sized success.
What do you think?

I proposed to Melanie in Morocco. She said yes. Best moment of my life.
Within hours, I was on a plane for four weeks across five continents.

Cape Town. Europe. Middle East. New York. Miami. LA. Vegas. In the last week alone, I've been in five US cities, had meetings that could reshape my company's next decade, been in rooms I'd dreamed about.

And somewhere between timezone three and meeting four, that familiar feeling crept in: guilt.

Layered, compounding guilt about not calling Melanie enough, missing the gym for the 5th day running, being distracted in a podcast recording because my head was split between company drama and the conversation in front of me.

How can you be hitting professional highs while feeling like you're failing everyone personally?

I have ADHD with hyperfocus - when I lock into something, everything else stops existing. Melanie, the gym, my mum, eating. All on mute until someone unmutes it by being upset.

So I researched guilt. Turns out it evolved as a tribal correction mechanism. You took too much food? Guilt nudged you to give some back.

But crucially, your roles were few - parent, hunter, tribesman - and everyone lived in the same village. Walk across camp, fix the problem, guilt resolved.

Now I have six roles across different cities and timezones. The guilt system designed for managing a village is trying to manage a life spread across thousands of miles. It fires constantly with no way to correct it.

I call this the GUILT GAP - the distance between what people actually need from you versus what you think they need.

I was torturing myself over not giving Melanie two hours of quality time nightly while travelling six countries. After an honest conversation, she said: "I just love knowing you're thinking about me even when you're not here."

Turns out she wanted three minutes and a stupid dog photo. Not hours of presence.

Professor John Gottman's research shows lasting relationships aren't about time spent together - they're about consistently responding to tiny "bids for connection." A photo. A voice note. Responding to the Instagram reel she forwards.

I started calculating the "Enough Number" for each role in my life. What's the minimum attention each person / thing actually needs to feel valued?

Melanie: 5-minute daily call plus scattered proof-of-thought moments
Gym: 30 minutes, 4 days a week (not 7)
Mum: One proper call per week

Every single Enough Number was dramatically lower than what I'd been holding myself to.

When the standard is 100% for everything (600% total), you do what humans do with impossible tasks - avoid them and fall well below. When you know the actual Enough Number, you hit it consistently.

This week I called Melanie every single day. Seven days of guilt used to get me one distracted half-conversation per week.

Less guilt. More presence. Actually better at everything!

Can you relate?

03/26/2026

You know it.
I know it.
Let's get on it!
-Amy

Category of One curator since 2001...omg.

Trusted by Founders and Icons from TOMS, Apple, hospitality, social media, cybersecurity, TED, Wharton, Harvard, The Oprah Show, the NY TIMES bestseller list, and more. What clever streams of wealth can you create in your Category of One? Combine your deep expertise and crazy obsessions to profitably solve problems in a way no one else can. Attract what lights you up and fuels relief.

03/24/2026

I feel this.....you are the pop. Let's own it.

03/20/2026

The premise of Unfinished Business School: Where we learn to succeed and unlearn what holds us back. Yay or nay? Your input sought.

I loved school and one of the scariest times of my life was when the school runway ran out and I had to launch into the real world......

So much of the success I've had in my work life and business is due to the skills I cultivated as a child and young adult in a series of scary survival situations.

Not metaphorical: Actual survival.

So much of the devastation I've weathered in the business world (and frankly, my personal life, too) comes from the downside of those exact same skills.

They are superpowers AND Achilles Heels.

I am inventing a fun and challenging Unfinished Business School curriculum to address these double-edged swords and relaunch, at mid-life, as Amy 2.0-- the improved and intentional hero of my 2nd act.......

I am doing it for me, BUT, I want us ALL to feel relief.

Many feel lost,
disappointed,
scared,
exhausted,
frustrated,
angry,
shocked...
and I want to offer a powerful antidote.

Unfinished Business School

My hypothesis?
If we can mine our work and personal lives correctly and in a clever, fun, illuminating way-- we discover (and remember) what makes us uniquely valuable to the world we live in right now.

The problems we solve profitably-- for ourselves AND our business (whether we own it or work in someone else's).

The Achilles Heels that led to our worst dumpster fires.

The superpowers that led to astonishing successes.

How to synthesize all of it-- to grow personally, contribute more professionally, and create the world we want to live and play in.

Oh, and make it enjoyable
lucrative, &
deeply satisfying.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
And what skills should be in the curriculum?

03/09/2026

I've always been a bit out there.
But my British family think this is especially weird.

Happy International Women's Day
Cover Girl in 2021
Sara Blakely

Your focus on intuition, feminine principles, generosity, fun & business give me hope.
forever

(also, I am the oddball that sent your family all the Budsies 7 years ago 😂)