HALEY FRANCIS-HALSTEAD
✏️ Data Wrangling & Debrief Expert
🚀 Director of Operations
⚡️ Strategic Superstar + Cosmic Baddie
✂️ Jill of All Trades
The Girl Who Always Did the Damn Thing
I built all of this for her.
The girl who grew up in a hometown with one stoplight and left for the big city.
The girl who looked at every option for the 5th-grade wax museum, didn't like any of the female figures she was given, and went to the textbook to find her own. Amelia Earhart. Obviously.
The girl who picked up a new hobby at a farm festival, went all in, won an archery state championship, and moved on to the next thing once the trophy was in hand.
The girl who got bullied out of cheerleading and track for having Tourette's, and came back as track team manager, a job she invented for herself because she still wanted to cheer everyone on.
The girl who won business competitions and got to travel the world because of it.
The girl who played JV volleyball as a senior and won "most improved." She didn't take it personally. Cheering on her friends was always the whole point.
The girl who went to art school, then invited herself on a study abroad trip to Japan meant only for science students. She wrote a letter to the department and got accepted anyway.
The girl who joined a sorority when everyone said don't pay for your friends, became VP of Recruitment because no one else stepped up, and learned a few lessons along the way. Like never wearing high heels again.
The girl who was named Top 100 at Indiana University. Twice.
The girl who now speaks on stages, even when she blanks out up there, because she's got stories to tell.
⭐
That girl grew up, and I never stopped being her.
I don't wait to be ready. I don't wait to be invited. I don't wait to be good enough.
I do it for her, because she is still me. The spirit that lived in that little girl never left. I grew up to become who she always wanted to be.
A leader. A role model. A team player. A sister. A star. And one day, a mom. 🥹
She was always going to change the world. I'm still brave enough to believe it, too.
This is who I am. This is who I've always been, and who I'll always be.
Why I’m Qualified to be your Director of Operations
65+
consultations for creatives, coaches, and heart-led businesses
7+
years of Virtual Assistant support
7+
of project management experience
2016
Freelancing since 2016.
I believe everyone deserves a business and life they are obsessed with, filled with freedom, fulfillment, and the space to explore their artistry without compromise. I understand the self-doubt, overwhelm, and fears around monetizing your gifts and passions while staying true to your values. I hope to inspire my clients to navigate these hurdles so they can thrive freely and uncompromised.
My Story
Since I was a kid, my brain has been wired a little differently. Where others see chaos, I see patterns ✨ It’s just how my brain works, and this sixth sense has taken me from managing nationwide rollouts to running two businesses of my own. Now, I help countless founders and creators reclaim their time and protect their creative energy while launching their next big thing ⭐
👉 Building a business isn’t always Instagram-perfect. It’s beautifully messy and wildly unpredictable. Some days I’m loving it, and other days I’m wondering if adult life comes with a user manual. Lucky for me (and possibly YOU!), that’s exactly where my left and right brain baddie energy thrives. I show up to create stability without sacrificing creativity, turning chaos into strategy, and helping others do the same.
👉 Beyond all the systems and spreadsheets, I’m here to build a life that FEELS as good as it looks AND have plenty of love to share with others. Success isn’t just about checking boxes (even though I do it all day er day)…it’s about creating something that feels TRUE to you.
So here’s to the folks who color outside the lines and the doers brave enough to design their own path 👏
My support system is out of this world! My partner Ty and Paw-ffice Assistant Sunny, keep me grounded, inspired, and entertained when I am offline. They are the best boys in my life, and I'm so lucky to have built a life with them.
🔥 Rapid Fire Stuff About Me You Should Know 🔥
I live in Austin, Texas, USA, and run my business from around the world 🌎
Fav Movie: Dodgeball
Fav Pod: Normal Gossip
Fav Song: Disco Man, Remi Wolf
💩 Stop shoulding all over yourself.
Should-based thinking is operating from external standards instead of internal knowing. It's doing things because you're afraid of what happens if you don't — instead of because they actually align with who you are and what you're building.
It sounds like: "I should be further along by now.""I should post more consistently.""I should've launched by now."
And after enough shoulds stack up, you end up in mandatory mode — going through the motions, checking boxes someone else decided were important, slowly depleting the creativity and courage that got you here in the first place.
The bridge between should and must — between disconnection and alignment — is curiosity.
And I built a way for you to recalibrate your compass.
🧭 Curiosity Compass
A bullet-point practice to ease analysis paralysis and activate your curiosity.
Take inventory of the swirling thoughts in your mind and focus on what needs the most attention👇
⚡️ Ready to fire up a room? Good. Me too.
My job on stage is simple.
Create a mirror. Hold it steady. Let the room see themselves clearly — their patterns, their potential, their permission to do things differently. I've been that person in the audience. The one who needed someone to say the thing they already knew but hadn't let themselves hear yet.
My sessions are injected with lived experience, real storytelling, and a problem-solving spirit that makes the room remember who they are — and what they're actually capable of.
→ Part introspective. Part practical.
→ Backed by neuroscience. Built from real life.
→ Every room leaves with a tool AND a fire under them.
🎤 Talks that make the room remember who they are. Let's fire up your room.
-
Available as: Keynote | Breakout Session | Workshop
You're not burnt out because you're doing too much. You're disconnected because you've been doing the wrong things for way too long.
This talk explores how "should-based thinking" quietly disconnects us from our instincts, our creativity, and our ability to make decisions we actually trust — and how curiosity is the most powerful reconnection strategy available to us.
Backed by neuroscience. Built from lived experience.
-
Available as: Keynote | Workshop | Breakout Session
Most founders skip the debrief and go straight to the next thing. So they bring the same unexamined patterns with them every time.
This talk teaches the Retrospective Framework — a structured debrief method used by high-performing tech teams and rebuilt for creative founders — so teams and leaders can extract the pattern from what already happened and move forward with direction instead of just momentum.
The room walks away with:
A repeatable framework for debriefing any launch, project, or pivot
The ability to spot patterns in data AND gut feelings
A clear process for turning experience into expertise
-
he best solutions don't come from the loudest voice in the room. They come from the most curious one.
This talk introduces design thinking as a problem-solving framework for non-designers — giving founders, operators, and creative teams a repeatable process for tackling challenges that would otherwise feel impossible.
The room walks away with:
A practical design thinking framework they can apply immediately
Tools for reframing problems before trying to solve them
A new lens for navigating complexity with creativity and confidence
Best for: Corporate teams, university audiences, creative communities, entrepreneur conferences
Resume
-
Architected and managed end-to-end operations for 6-figure product launches, coordinating cross-functional teams and keeping timelines on track
Designed scalable operational frameworks for small business owners, reducing decision fatigue and increasing day-to-day efficiency
Led post-launch retrospectives to identify gaps, document learnings, and implement process improvements across future cycles
Specializes in untangling complex workflows, building systems that actually stick, and equipping business owners to make confident decisions without the chaos.
Known for bringing both strategic clarity and creative problem-solving to organizations that need structure without rigidity.
-
Indiana University Indianapolis, Herron School of Art + Design
Serving as a member of the Associate Faculty teaching History of Visual Communication, Design Thinking 101, Portfolio Design, and Visual Design for User Interface.
Implemented course materials to engage both fine arts students and non-art majors.
-
Collaborated with entrepreneurs to establish their vision, aspirations, and objectives for their businesses and transformed those into service design concepts.
Oversaw project timelines, budgets, and resources to ensure successful project delivery while considering the entrepreneurs' goals and budget constraints—organized service design workshops to foster partnership and creativity among associates and small businesses.
-
Company: Earth Rooted Assistants
Marketing funnels for heart-led, spiritual-minded coaches and facilitators in the wellness industry
Virtual assistant training programs
Conduct business consults, sales calls, project management meeting kickoff calls, day-to-day operations for VAs
-
Company: Mobile Recell
Created repeatable and efficient product development processes using prioritization and design thinking frameworks.
Coordinated engineering optimization efforts based on product performance, uncovered flaws from rapid product releases, and prioritized numerous time-sensitive solutions.
-
Company: Mobile Recell
Designed high-fidelity cross-platform applications for Fortune 500 companies used by 18,000+ users to purchase their corporate-issued iPads and mobile devices.
Leveraged hypothesis-driven experimentation and design thinking methodologies to understand the user base.
Related Experience & Awards
Digital Nomad Kit, Virtual Excellence Academy Certificate | 2024
South by South West Conference | 2023, 2024
Founding Culture Team, Mobile Recell | 2020-2022
Top 100 Outstanding Students Recognition Indiana University | 2018, 2019
Previous volunteer for philanthropic organizations:
Special Olympics, Girls on the Run, Riley Children’s Hospital, and Best Buddies
Education
Indiana University Indianapolis
Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Visual Communication Design
Purdue School of Engineering and Technology
Organizational Leadership Studies Certificate