Personal leadership or navigating big change can be lonely, but you don’t need to go that journey alone.

The reasons why people first turn to career coaching can be negative. Often there’s a change ahead, a pressure or a need to shift things in your career. Your manager might have said you need to level up pre-promotion. Or your board are demanding you improve your leadership skills as CEO. Worst of all, you might be facing a layoff.

Regular sessions can bring optimism back into your career or founder journey. They help unlock new skill sets, and kickstart the process of significant change.

Everything from marketing, tech, sustainability or business development. My career has spanned different countries, sectors and business models. It is one of the reasons I like coaching big career and cross-country changes. Within executive coaching I work across the founder team, including CEO, CMO, CPO and COO profiles.

Career coaching clients can have a background in everything from marketing to engineering. They often work in climate, social business or non profits. Sometimes they're creatives at agencies, VC partners or operators at scaled-up tech companies. Or they might be in a corporate or financial industry and looking to move into tech, VC or social business space.

One thing unifies the individuals I work with. They’re passionate about scaling their impact and want to find belonging and purpose in what they do.

I started my career in media after studying business and journalism. Working as a radio producer for the ABC, I honed my ability to ask questions and engage audiences at scale. From there I pivoted into tech through social media, and on day 2 was doing paid advertising.

I became interested in business strategy, international growth and localisation. I gained real world experience at Trivago as it scaled and had an IPO exit. From there I started wanting more impact in my work. So I pivoted into climate and movement building. I joined Germany's first B-Corp in 2018, becoming Chief Marketing Officer at Ecosia.

During the pandemic I helped incubate and launch one of Europe’s biggest climate VCs, World Fund. Parallel to this I started my first startup board role. And now I love working as founder advisor. I help develop marketing strategy, scale teams, fundraise and build resilient business models. I also do similar work for non profit foundations, a refugee charity, a Fair Trade org and a media regulator. One could say I like to mix things up.

My career journey has had sector pivots, country changes and huge learning curves. It has been a lot to navigate. But it's one of the reasons I like to coach people through big career change.

In 2022 I studied career coaching at NYU. I followed that up with leadership coach training in Boston at Harvard. I became an associate of Harvard Medical School’s Institute of Coaching in 2023. As a coach, I am committed to the International Coaching Federation’s Code of Ethics.

In academic background I have a Business degree with a Marketing major. I also studied a Journalism bachelors and have a Diploma in English from Goldsmiths. In 2021 I was honoured to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

As an advisor I help founders and executives tackle organisational challenges and opportunities. Those I'm advising are in leadership positions a startups, non profits and VCs. They're looking for ways to disrupt the status-quo for positive, systemic change.

Each advisor relationship differs. It can involve advising on marketing, user growth or climate messaging. Or it could involve diving in deep on brand building, business development and international expansion. Advising can include coaching team members and supporting recruitment.

Within my advisor capacity I support several founders with fundraising input. I also help VCs with both founder and LP introductions.

Set up an advisor knowledge sharing call.

Whether VC or bootstrapped, founders face huge pressure to prove, pivot and grow their startup. Being an entrepreneur is not for the faint of heart. Coaching in this space is often crucial to success and focus. I work with climate or social tech founders from Pre-Seed, all the way through to Series C or beyond.

Coaching can zoom in on specific challenges around leadership, fundraising or team building. It can also be broader and offer a safe space and sounding board for founders as they navigate the sometimes lonely path of founder to C-Level leader.

The coaching relationship with founders can evolve to me becoming an advisor, or independent board member. As part of the board I help founders maintain their original purpose. I act as a balance to the interests of more traditional VC investors who can focus on profit. This can come at the cost of positive impact or the founding team's original purpose.

Career coaching sessions use questions and conversation to unlock insights. My sessions draw from design thinking, brand strategy and narrative development. There will be ‘homework’ and reflective activities. This ensures the thinking process does not stop at the end of a session.

There will be times when it makes sense in our sessions to switch into mentoring mode. This happens when you want direct input, feedback or knowledge. It might be about team management, career progression, job applications or negotiation techniques.

Traditional coaching is usually about the individual and not their specific context. It uses positive reframing, and finds ways to mute your ‘saboteurs’. But for me it is important to recognise in the coaching process the systems we operate in. There can be very real prejudice you could be facing. And it can be a challenge to create and find psychologically safe spaces to thrive and belong within.

There are going to be times when we will be navigating challenging topics. So we go in deep I can recommend trained therapists. They specialise in climate anxiety and high stress tech environments. Coaching should not replace therapy. And I have huge respect for those who are qualified to help us navigate the impact of our family, past and heritage.