About Me

Strategic storyteller and content marketing coach

Would you like to be able to market yourself in a way that works and feels right? To send out a clear message that pulls the right clients towards you? And to use your marketing to build a business that improves the quality of your life?

Some people make it look so easy, don’t they? They have a great story of why they set up in business, and you can see that they’re driven by a purpose that shines brightly and draws others their way.

You can see exactly what they do, and what makes them special.

They’re instantly recognisable. Whether they’re speaking or writing you can hear their voice as clearly as if they’re sitting down and talking only to you.

Their marketing appears effortless, plus it’s valuable and never pushy. They’re appearing in all the right places, and consistently pulling in great leads.

You can tell what they’re selling, and instantly get a picture of the person that would benefit. Even if that person isn’t you, the value is bright as day.

That’s the power of great storytelling and that’s what I can harness for you and your business.

How I can help you

Being able to tell a good business story doesn’t happen through luck and it’s not magic. It’s a matter of asking and answering the right questions, some soul searching and research, and more often than not a shift in mindset.

Sure, it’s creative, but it follows a process that in itself can strengthen your business. Great business storytelling is strategic, not fluffy.

Helping businesses and organisations tell great stories was the part of the role I loved best during my time as Creative Director of Valuable Content, and it’s what I’m focusing on now in my new business. During my time at Valuable Content I co-created a business school in a pub, taught Google how to write better content, and helped hundreds of people navigate the digital marketing landscape and so help their businesses fly.

I love stories

My interest in words and stories stretches back as far as I can remember. I’ve worked as an English teacher, oral history television researcher, brand manager. I’ve studied Creative Writing and co-written two books on marketing with valuable content. As a child I questioned stories and put them back together differently. (I harbour a life-long fury as to why big sisters get such a bad rap in fairy tale land.)

I’m fascinated by the huge power that words have to shape and spread ideas – words truly can change the world – but I’m just as fascinated by the mechanics of what makes one sentence sing and another slump. Part word visionary and part word geek.

Who I work with

The people I work with tend to be experts in their field (even if they might not see themselves that way.) They’re often selling ideas and services rather than products. Frequently unsung heroes - clients rave about them but not enough people know about them - they’re not big fans of marketing. However they are committed to getting great results from their business development efforts, and they want to do it in a way that feels right too. I work with people who want to find a way of developing their business that chimes with their mission to leverage their expertise to help their customers, and which fits with the pressures on their time and budget.

They rarely have the financial resources that big brands can throw at marketing and advertising campaigns, but that doesn’t matter – the days of pushy, interruption-style marketing are numbered.

A simple, rewarding marketing approach that works

The web has changed the way people research, communicate and buy. Get clear on your purpose and message and then share valuable content, consistently and with generosity, and you’ll draw the right people towards your business. This approach has become known as content marketing – it is simple, and it works. Like so much of life, its success depends as much on mindset as it does on method. Think of your ‘marketing’ as ‘helping’, as ‘being of value to your customers’, and everything else falls into place.

“Think of marketing as helping, not selling and everything about it becomes more rewarding.”

Make the most of the digital opportunity and win

Over the last few years content marketing has gone mainstream, spawning an industry and pundits that not only make it seem terribly over complicated, but also lose touch with its real strength.

Content marketing’s super power is drawing the right people towards your business and turning your customers into your biggest fans. Small business owners and lone marketers are perfectly poised to take advantage of everything that it offers.

Over the past decade I’ve helped hundreds or people to make sense of the digital universe. I’ve shown them how to join up all the elements – branding, blogging, video, your website, social media, email newsletters, SEO, PR – for a powerful, united and very natural approach to marketing. I’ve taught the value of educating and entertaining clients through the content that they share - get this right and business development can be joyful rather than a chore.

I love showing people how to cut through all the noise and use what they write to build the business they really want – marketing, in a way that feels right.

I’ve had the pleasure of sharing the valuable content marketing journey with many fantastic people, businesses and organisations. I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t.

I’d like to show you how.

One-to-one support and online courses

You can work with me one-to-one, and I’ll help you tell your story and create the content you need, or you can buy one of my courses and do the work independently, at your own pace.