Mentoring and coaching
Expertise, insight, and empathy on your side as you navigate content challenges.
Working in content is .
Content is complex, and full of knotty, interesting problems. It gives you a chance to use different skills. You get to explore different areas of your organisation. And the potential and impact of the work is huge, too.
All the good things about this role also make it tough. The problems can feel insurmountable. You might find yourself working on things outside your comfort zone. You have to be able to communicate, convince your stakeholders, and argue for your place at the table. In some sectors, the stakes and the pressure are high. And there’s just so much to learn.
Being part of a community can make a huge difference to how you feel about these challenges. It’s the difference between feeling isolated and fed up, and feeling understood and fired up.
Slack groups, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other digital communities can help, but what you really need is someone in your corner. Someone who’s been through it, gets it, and has advice to share.
That’s what I offer to content practitioners and teams, through a mix of mentoring and coaching. Someone in your corner, to give you perspective and advice when you need it. I’ll coach you through problems, by asking questions and holding up a mirror so you can see things differently, solve problems, and have those big breakthrough moments. But I can also give you advice — when you want it and need it — to help you choose the right course of action, based on my years of working in content.
I really, really enjoyed my mentoring sessions with Lauren! She’s an absolute treasure trove of information and an utter gem to work with. We took a really personalised approach that left me feeling much more confident in my role, and really energised and excited about content strategy more widely. Book her!
Benefits of having me in your corner
- A different perspective: get an external point of view on what you’re doing, to help you reframe challenges, spot assumptions, and leave behind the institutional baggage. Getting to the heart of the problem is my speciality.
- Lightbulb moments: sometimes having someone else help you reflect on a challenge is all it takes to get unstuck
- Expertise on tap: not sure how to approach a specific piece of work or want to know how other similar organisations approach something? Just ask. I’ve been working in content for a long time, in in-house, agency, and consultant roles, so I’ve covered a lot of ground.
- Facilitation when you need it: I can act as a facilitator to help your team work through problems, create an environment for different conversations, and break deadlocks.
- Develop skills and experience: coaching and mentoring builds your skills and experience, and helps you progress your career (or helps your team or employee progress)
- Build resilience: having someone to talk to from the outside gives you a chance to offload, feel understood, and get the space you need.
Who is this for?
- Solo content practitioners who wish there was someone else who ‘gets it’ in their organisation, or that they had someone to bounce ideas off
- Teams going through a big change like a website redesign, restructure, or a new strategy, who want someone to give them some guidance, reassurance, and advice throughout the process
- Leaders who want someone to nurture a more junior member of staff, but don’t have the time or content expertise themselves
- Leaders who’ve hired their first content person, and want to give them some specialised support and development
- Content people taking a step up who want someone to guide and support them as they grow their team
- Third sector teams that want some advice and support, but don’t have consultancy budgets
About me
I’ve been working in content since 2007. I started in-house, and led the content teams at uSwitch and uSwitchforBusiness. After that, I moved agency side to Brilliant Noise, where I built the content team and led on strategy projects for adidas, American Express, Tetra Pak, and more.
I started my own business in 2018, to focus on supporting charity and cultural clients with their content strategy needs. Since then, I’ve done the best work of my career for Samaritans, Change Grow Live, Art Fund, and more.
Things I’m really good at: reframing things, simplifying things, pinpointing the problem, creating order and calm from chaos, getting things moving.
Read my bio and see my CV.How it works
- No obligation call to talk about what you’re looking for and see if we’re a good fit.
- If you decide that you want to work with me, we’ll have a kick-off call to set some foundations for our work together.
- You book in your sessions at a time to suit you as a video call (or face-to-face if you live within 30 minutes of Brighton). Sessions can be 60-90 minutes, depending on how you want to use them.
- Use the session however you need to: talk through a problem, get feedback on a deliverable, ask for critique, practice for a presentation or difficult conversation. It’s up to you. I’ll email you a reminder to think about what you’d like to discuss before the session.
Pricing
From £70 to £250 per session, depending on:
- Length of the sessions
- How many sessions you want to sign up for
- Whether you’re paying or your employer is