I spent decades thinking I was many things - perhaps too many things. Turns out I was only ever the person I was supposed to be.
A firestarter. A storyteller. Rara avis. A rare bird.

Sidonie Henbest

About Sidonie

I realised long ago that even when I was trying to be very quiet, everyone could still hear me. So, I figured I had better work out how to take a trait and a talent and turn it into something that served more than me.

My voice has taken me to some far-flung places and allowed me to meet and work with some incredibly special humans. From the United Nations youth assembly to operas in Outback Australia and cabaret in many a (Spiegel)tent, and even the occasional Happy Birthday for very special people like the late Hon. Bob Hawke. Beyond the thrills and challenges of a soloist career, some of my most precious and life changing moments have come from the collective experience of making music, and from helping people find and embrace their voice — on and off the stage.

But the range has never stopped at music. From diving into the fast paced and ruthless world of PR in London at 21, to finding myself as employee number three in a UK tech startup, complete with multiple rounds of venture capital and an eventual international acquisition, taking on every role from client services to coding along the way. I learned that my voice — this time as a tool of clarity and authenticity — could secure FTSE 100 client relationships and revenue streams.

A big “life moment” led me back to Australia and a reconnection to my roots in the arts and cultural sector, where I co-founded a production house, an arts management and PR business and built two independent festivals into enduring cultural events. I helped guide a major arts institution through crisis-comeback, COVID, and record-breaking growth, and raised millions in revenue in a time where the cost of living challenged everyone’s status quo. If the rare bird thing is true, it’s because the range has always been the point. It allows different thinking into rooms it would never otherwise have the opportunity to enter.

The instinct to see what’s possible and say yes to it. And the ability to find the words that make other people see it too. A blend of entrepreneurial mindset and narrative power.

The deeper story.

I’ve coached leaders through some of the hardest decisions of their careers. I’ve sat with people in the space between who they are and who they’re becoming and helped them close that gap.

For all the rooms I’ve held and the things I’ve built, the most important work has been quieter. I’ve guided hundreds of teenagers to learn to listen to their own voice, trust it, and let it be heard by others, and I’ve taken adults aged 18 to 80 on journeys of self-acceptance and confidence building through vocal workshops and choirs.

And in between all of it — my life. The unscripted, demanding, cataclysmic events that led me to the most valuable lesson I’ve ever learned and the phrase that has become my mantra:

Very few things actually kill you.

What I’ve learned from living that truth is that we are more resilient, more capable, and braver than we will ever know — and the hard things that happen to us are never the whole story.

But resilience alone isn’t the work. The work is Re-membering — the conscious, courageous act of bringing back together all the parts of ourselves we’ve purposefully and accidentally left behind. Not to recover who we were, but to become who we must be, right now. And that is my life’s work.

What I do.

I work with individuals and organisations at pivotal moments — when the story has to change, the voice is ready to be found, or what comes next is waiting for the language to carry it.

For individuals, that looks like Ignition Sessions — coaching that cuts through the noise and gets you back in contact with yourself. With what you already know and with the decision you’ve been circling.

For organisations, it looks like narrative strategy, brand positioning, and the kind of facilitation that creates the conditions for honest conversation and real forward movement.

And sometimes it looks like a soprano walking into a room and changing everything by opening her mouth. That too.

Your time is now.

Turn On.
Tune In.
Take Action.

Everything I do — the coaching, the consulting, the performing, the writing — is organised around a single idea.

This isn’t about becoming someone new. It’s about Re-membering who you already are and the bringing back together of the parts of yourself that were quietly separated somewhere along the way.

The reclaiming of your own authority, your own narrative, your own voice, your own knowing.

The credentials, worn lightly.

Certified Wayfinder Life Coach. Currently completing postgraduate business studies at Adelaide University. More than two decades across strategic communications, brand and marketing, leadership, performing arts, and cultural sector leadership in Australia and the UK.

Co-founded festivals. Led national cultural organisations through growth and crisis. Built brands. Developed audiences. Raised funds. Held space for leaders at every level of complexity.

Host of Rebrand Revolution — a podcast exploring how the language we use about ourselves shapes what we believe we’re allowed to become.

What I believe

  • I believe human beings are innately capable — far more so than most of us ever allow ourselves to claim.

  • I believe you are exactly where you are supposed to be right in this moment.

  • I believe the body doesn’t lie, but the mind will absolutely try to talk you out of what the body knows.

  • And seeing as very few things actually kill you, there is almost always a next chapter waiting, that only you can write (and live).

“We often think of survival as something that merely happens to us, that we are perhaps lucky to have. But I like to think of survival as a result of active self-knowledge, and even more so, a creative force.”

— Ocean Vuong, poet