Adelaide entrepreneur and leadership coach Angela Giacoumis has shared her experience of rebuilding her life and business following a difficult divorce. A mother of five children aged between six and 17 at the time, Giacoumis described the separation as a challenging period marked by significant personal and financial strain.

During the divorce, Giacoumis chose to relinquish her share of the family home to retain ownership of her staffing and recruitment company, Careerlink, which employed around 200 people. She recounted facing overwhelming debt, renting accommodation, and managing the pressures of maintaining a business while supporting her children through the upheaval.

“I couldn’t even contemplate the amount of debt that I had at that time,” Giacoumis said. “The bills were piling up and I was conscious, too, of the impact on the kids. Children don’t choose divorce. My focus was on continuing to earn an income.” She emphasized the emotional toll, acknowledging days when she was unsure if she would manage to persevere.

Despite outward appearances of a stable and affluent family life, Giacoumis revealed that unhappiness prompted the decision to separate. “From the outside, we had it all – the big house, the big property. We looked like this perfect family, but we weren’t happy,” she said. “I learnt that sometimes you need to let go for things to shift.”

Several years after finalising her divorce, Giacoumis met her current husband, John, at a dinner following a work conference in Las Vegas—over 13,500 kilometers from her home in Wattle Park. Their relationship developed when John relocated to Melbourne for a six-month work contract, eventually leading to marriage after 12 years together.

“I never thought I’d say ‘I do’ again. I truly felt I was fine on my own for the rest of my life, and meeting someone was not on my radar,” she reflected. John, she said, has become both her partner personally and professionally.

In 2018, Giacoumis sold Careerlink and subsequently developed the Bravery Compass, a tool designed to help students, teams, and leaders cultivate courage and resilience. Drawing on her own experiences, she teaches that bravery is not inherent but can be learned and strengthened through incremental actions.

“I don’t teach brave leadership from a framework I read about. I teach it from a life where I had to find it in the dark, with no guarantee it would work,” Giacoumis explained. Her story has resonated widely, with a social media post reflecting on her journey attracting tens of thousands of responses.