> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Michelle DeAngelis - URL: https://www.smdp.com/communityprofiles-michelle-deangelis/ - Published: 2008-09-08T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-24T20:56:20.000Z - Author: Guest Author - Tags: local, Santa Monica, #archive-import *Photo courtesy Michelle DeAngelis DEANGELIS A mission to raise the world’s joy quotient* *By CHRISTINA YOON Special to the Daily Press* NEILSON WAY “If you could wave your magic wand, what would you create right now?” It’s a question that Santa Monica-based corporate consultant and life coach Michelle DeAngelis admits can sound a bit corny, but she insists that it opens the door to a whole range of frustrations and challenges for her clients. “In there, there will be the seed of an idea that we can fertilize and grow,” DeAngelis said. DeAngelis has turned her optimistic outlook on life into a big business. She has run a management consulting practice for the past 14 years and boasts over 200 corporate clients. She has been featured in magazines including Cosmopolitan and Self. On Sept. 2, DeAngelis released her debut book, “Get a Life That Doesn’t Suck,” which she will be signing at Barnes and Noble on the Third Street Promenade on Tuesday, Sept. 9 at 7 p.m. The book reflects the straightforward, irreverent advice she gives her clients, which range from state government offices to busy business people who hire her to help them organize their hectic lives. DeAngelis, who ran a division of Bank of America for six years before starting her own consulting company, uses her own experiences as a corporate employee and manager to identify her clients’ stress points. “What I found was there were so many unhappy people in corporate America,” she said. “It’s important that they know that there is a whole other way to live.” DeAngelis’ sunny perspective, however, is delivered without a trace of that syrupy jargon that often scare people away from self-help gurus. “This isn’t a frou-frou fairy dust kind of thing,” said her client Kathy Kilbourne, the chief financial officer of Wells Fargo Foothill, based in Santa Monica. Kilbourne hired DeAngelis about a year and a half ago to help her reorganize her back office after she came on board. “Literally within a minute, I knew she was the person,” Kilbourne said. “She’s got this knack for reading between the lines.” Kilbourne was so happy with DeAngelis’ results that she offered one-on-one coaching sessions to her top managers. “I told them I don’t care what you talk to her about,”she said.“I know it’s going to trickle back to the corporation eventually.I learned that there’s a lot of overlap between the professional and personal sides of your life.” Kilbourne followed her own advice and works with DeAngelis regularly. “I’m new to the organization, I’m young and I’m a woman,” Kilbourne said. “I need someone I can blab to, be very open and not mind my words. I get very impatient with people who use business buzz words and try to act important. It’s very efficient with her because she’s authentic. She doesn’t beat around the bush.” DeAngelis hopes that this same pragmatic positivity will come across in “Get a Life That Doesn’t Suck.” “One thing that helps is the title of the book,” she said. “Let’s hope I’ve written it with enough of an edge that it doesn’t taste sugar-coated. This is not Pollyanna. This is a conscious way to show up in the world and make choices that make your life.” While chapters like “Dèjoy Vu: Make Every Day a Joyride” may sound unrealisti-cally saccharine at first, the advice that DeAngelis provides is designed for use in “People think joy is fluffy, they think joy is optional, but it’s not,” DeAngelis said. “It’s very practical. It comes down to something as simple as eating regularly so you don’t have a blood sugar crash and snap at people.” The book is designed much in the same way that DeAngelis designs custom sessions with her clients. Readers take a quiz at the beginning to gauge their “joy quotient.” The quiz is designed to identify readers’ “gaps,” or the difference between people’s thoughts and their actions. The book then addresses these gaps using DeAngelis’ 10 “Ahas,” which are mottos to remember through the day, such as “expect surprises,”and “say what you mean,do what you say.” DeAngelis’ longtime clients are so won over by her work that they have eagerly picked up the book even though they speak to her in person regularly. Terri Skladany, the chief deputy at the Arizona Attorney General’s office, hired DeAngelis in 2004 after a national search and still uses her services for her top attorneys. Skladany pre-ordered DeAngelis’ book on Amazon.com and is eagerly awaiting its arrival in Arizona although she speaks with her regularly on the phone. “One thing I can be absolutely sure about Michelle is that she’s not cookie cutter,” Skladany said. “She’s focused on your desired outcomes and ensuring that you move in a way that makes sense with you.” After working together for four years, Skladany has seen that DeAngelis’ strategies are not just ideas thought up in an office, but that she lives them herself. “She’s probably the least static person I’ve ever met, but she’s not one of those people that’s just into everything,” she said.“She’s open to opportunities but also discerning at the same time.” Kilbourne said that it is this attitude that makes her such a successful coach and consultant. “She has this mischievous twinkle in her eye. She looks at you and you just have to get excited and be positive.” DeAngelis’ book is another step toward her goal of spreading the happiness she says she has enjoyed throughout her life. “I want one million people to be able to create one more joyful moment,” she said. “That’s one less time you kick the dog, get in an argument and one time you don’t yell at the barista. Just imagine the difference that can make.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/090808-01_01.jpg) DeAngelis DEANGELIS A mission to raise the world’s joy quotient (Photo: Photo courtesy Michelle) *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 8, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/090808.pdf?ref=smdp.com)