From networking to collaboration - how three Chamber members are working together

I became a qualified Leadership and Career Coach 5 years ago, working as part of an internal coaching network. However, my journey to becoming a coach began 18 years ago when I became a manager of a busy contact centre and engaged a coach to help develop my leadership skills.

In early 2020 I decided to offer freelance coaching to share my experience and support people with challenges such as remote working, career change and work life balance. I realised that a website would be a great place from which to share my articles, videos and newsletters, so I decided to work on my brand and website with a specialist to reflect the professionalism of qualified coaching.

I joined the Chamber and started attending learning and networking events. And that’s where I met Richard Excell, from Excell Design & Marketing. 

I met Jo through one of the Chamber’s Member Meet-Ups during the early stages of the Coronavirus pandemic. With events having to go online it became the best way to network and meet other members. The format gives everyone a chance to not only tell us what they do, but importantly what they are struggling or succeeding with as a business. So many great conversations have come out of these meet-ups and have invariably lead to referrals for services and products.

The initial conversations we had, discovering and exploring the strengths and offerings Jo has as a coach, what makes her unique and understanding why clients would use her services.

Inevitably, Jo’s values and ethos helped to form her brand along with her experience and proven success in the field of coaching. I’m always intrigued to find out what makes other people tick, what their take is on everything, what their passion is - and how this combines to motivate them in business.

Working with Richard was an absolute dream. During our initial meeting, Richard clearly set out his recommendations, process, pricing and timescale based on what I wanted, which meant I knew exactly what to expect.

It was immediately obvious that Richard is very creative and knowledgeable. I was absolutely thrilled with the first drafts of my brand and outline for the site, which demonstrated how completely Richard had understood who I am and my passion for coaching. I was presented with various brand options and Richard made sure I was completely happy before progressing to the site content.

I’ve now got such a lovely website that I’m extremely proud of. I’ve already received my first website enquiries shortly after launching the new site. I’m looking forward to working with Richard soon on a marketing strategy.

Jo approached me via email and said Richard had recommended me. Jo was looking for some natural looking headshots that would help to convey her personality and represent her new brand, and she wanted something a bit different. We then chatted over email and Zoom to finalise the details ahead of our photo shoot.

Jo was really open to all the ideas I suggested. Building a rapport with clients is a very important part of my job - if I can get clients to relax and enjoy themselves then we can create brilliant photos together. Jo made that easy by being very enthusiastic and curious during the shoot. I also felt that she trusted me and was happy to go with the flow. 

The best thing about working with Lauren is her fabulous energy. I had never done a professional shoot before and was pretty nervous - particularly as we were in the streets of Brighton. Lauren quickly put me at ease and before long I wasn’t even aware of other people in the street. Working with Lauren was absolutely brilliant and the photographs were lovely quality with lots to select from. I’m thinking of doing another shoot with Lauren, so I have more photographs for videos and social media posts.