My story

When I stepped away from 23 years of corporate life and started a business my inner chatter was full of ‘you can’t do that’, ‘who are you to do that’, ‘what will they think’, ‘what if you fail’. But the want to do something different was louder than the noise in my head.

I had to work on all that noise distracting me from what I really wanted to do. And I had to remind myself that I had form, I have experience, I can really help people to achieve amazing things.

When I was a teenager I obsessively read books by Sir John Harvey Jones, Charles Handy, Dale Carnegie and of course Sue Jeffers. I dreamed of working for Saatchi & Saatchi, Anita Roddick at The Body Shop or Richard Branson at Virgin.

It all felt like a far away dream for this young girl on a farm in Cumbria. There was no internet then. I got my dreams from Carlisle library business book shelf. I escaped the beauty of the Lakes, and went to the slightly different backdrop of Luton University to study Japanese and Business. I met many good friends at Luton, so say what you want about the place, it is now part of my roots.

Eventually I moved to London and started big city dreams. I worked selling beer to nightclubs (a graduate’s dream first job!), I sold the internet when it was a thing on a CD that big organisations didn’t want as it messed with their fire walls, then I joined a very small coffee business , with 5 stores and an office that was in it’s factory in Lambeth.

My first taste of growing a business. We went from 5 to 200 stores across the UK, and grew Costa Coffee into a recognised high street brand. After a spell of backpacking around the world I came back to work for Whitbread restaurants, then RAC, and for a short while for Aviva after the merger.

It was during garden leave, when my role was made redundant (the first time), that I went to Cuba. I flew on Virgin treating myself to Premium economy. I sat back in the seat, sipping Champagne, thinking it would be a great place to work and remembering my childhood idolising Sir Richard. After a few weeks travelling Cuba I landed back, refreshed and ready to get a new job. The day I landed I got a call from a recruiter saying an airline was recruiting for the Head of Internal Communications, and would I be interested…

Virgin was everything I hoped for. It was hard work and an amazing experience. But business moves on and so does life. It felt like I needed a change. It felt like there wasn’t a chance to promote so I side stepped into another business closer to where my husband-to-be was based. Vodafone did some great things, and some not so great things.

Being made redundant wasn’t the best timing in personal life, in fact it couldn’t have been worse. I felt like I hadn’t just lost my job, I felt like I’d lost the life I was planning as well. So I had to make it a good thing somehow. I had to not let it own me. I had to own what happened next.

Creating change in your life is a game played in your mind.

So here I am today. I’ve started 3 businesses, written a best selling book published by Penguin, I host a podcast, I write, I ramble and coach amazing, talented, ambitious people who inspire me every day.

From those crazy, wild dreams of a little girl in rural Cumbria, to all around the World working for brilliant brands, I’m now back to where I started, sharing Cumbria and my experience with others.

I’m looking forward to working with you.

Book a call and let’s discuss how we can create big change for you.

eleanor