The conversations
that leaders avoid
are the ones that
change everything.
Our approach
เข้าใจ. Kao jai.
To understand is
to enter the heart.
In Thai, my first language, the word for understanding is kao jai. It is built from two parts. Kao means to enter. Jai means heart. To understand someone in Thai is not to have followed their argument. It is to have entered their heart.
I have spent twenty five years in rooms across fifteen countries where people were technically understood and genuinely unseen; where the strategy was sound, yet no one would voice the underlying truth; where a leader was fluent in the language and still could not reach the room.
If you have been in that room, you already know why you are here.
What this is not
This is not a programme.
Not
No eight-week
curriculum.
Not
No framework
you are walked through.
Not
No model
handed to you.
What I offer is
a conversation.
Honest. Personal. Rigorous.
It starts where you actually are.
It is often uncomfortable. It is always yours.
01
Understanding
That enters.
02
Candour
The conversation underneath.
03
Presence
Before method.
04
Adaptation
Leading across difference.
Why a coach?
The more senior
you become,
the fewer people
tell you
the truth.
Leadership becomes quieter.
Not because people have less to say.
Because they have more to lose.
A coach has no stake in your politics and no reason to flatter you.
Who it is for
Executive coaching in Bangkok, for leaders working across cultures
Leaders in Thailand and across Asia Pacific
Most of the people Marisa coaches are running something regional. A country lead reporting into Singapore. A managing director whose team spans four markets. A specialist newly promoted into a role where the technical part turns out to be the easy half.
Sessions run in Bangkok in person, or online for leaders elsewhere in Asia Pacific. Either works. What matters is the regularity, not the room.
In English or in Thai
Marisa is a bilingual executive coach, native in both languages, so the conversation happens in whichever one the thinking happens in. Leaders often begin in English and move into Thai when the subject gets closer to the bone. That is not something to manage around. It is the point.
For a Thai leader working under a foreign manager, and for a foreign leader working with a Thai team, it removes the layer of translation that usually sits in the middle.
When culture is part of the problem
Not every coaching conversation is a cross-cultural one. But when a decision keeps failing to stick, or nobody raises a problem until it is already expensive, the cause is often not the strategy. It is what the room is not saying.
Twenty five years of intercultural consulting across fifteen countries sits behind that half of the work.
How we work together
Coaching that meets
the moment you're in.
Three ways. One partnership.
Explore
For leaders doing sustained work on how they lead.
- Three sessions each month
- Unlimited email and calls between sessions
- A strategy and review session every quarter
- A personalised assessment
Recommended
Inspire
For leaders in the middle of something significant.
- Four sessions each month
- Unlimited email between sessions
- Three just-in-time sessions when something urgent lands
- A strategy and review session every quarter
- A personalised assessment
Expand
For leaders who want a steady, ongoing thinking partner.
- Two sessions each month
- Unlimited email between sessions
- A strategy and review session every quarter
- A personalised assessment
Swipe or tap to compare
Before you get in touch
Questions people ask
What is the difference between executive coaching and life coaching?
Executive coaching is about how you lead: the decisions in front of you, the relationships around them, and the way you show up in the room. It is bounded by your working life, and the measure of it is what changes at work. Life coaching is broader and not what Marisa does.
What actually happens on a discovery call?
Thirty minutes, no obligation, no pitch and no pressure to continue. You describe what is going on, Marisa asks questions, and between you decide whether this is the right work with the right person at the right time. If it is not, she will say so.
Do you work in Thai as well as English?
Yes. Marisa is natively bilingual in English and Thai, and delivers coaching, workshops and keynotes in either. She has worked across fifteen countries, so sessions are often mixed-language and mixed-culture by design.
Who is this for?
Board directors, CEOs and senior leaders, and the teams around them. Marisa has worked with leaders at organisations including ExxonMobil, JPMorgan, Unilever and Colgate-Palmolive. If you are earlier in your leadership than that, the workshops are usually the better entry point.
How long does an engagement run?
Coaching is monthly and ongoing rather than a fixed course, with three ways to work together depending on how much contact you want. Workshops range from a half day to multi-module programmes running over months. Scope and investment are agreed on the call, in writing, before anything begins.
Begin With a Conversation
Thirty minutes. No obligation, no pitch,
no pressure to continue.
Its only purpose is to find out whether
this is the right work, with the right person,
at the right time.