hello there
I’ve been a Personal Assistant/Executive Assistant/Director of Operations for nearly 20 years, working in some wildly different settings. Having learnt a great deal about how people work, I now use my experience and boundless enthusiasm to help others transform their lives. I especially love working with creative souls.
The life of a PA is nothing if not varied. It requires creativity, instinct, nuance and ungodly amounts of organisation. The very nature of the role is to pre-empt other people’s needs so it’s about forward thinking and smoothing the way. It’s about creating efficiency, providing support, problem solving, connecting to the pulse of the business. All skills which I bring to my clients when offering business consultancy.
I’ve worked in schools, hospitals, private households and, lest I forget my baptism of fire, for a travel agent (selling Teletext holidays to the Balearics whilst doing my GCSEs, the glamour). I’ve seen my fair share of filing systems, organised countless events, set up offices, homes and most recently, a charity (the wonderful charity, LEGS, where I learnt the true meaning of doing meaningful work).
Fun fact…I was part of the team who set up the first new flower market for 150 years in London, where I was photographed by The Telegraph looking like Boris Johnson.
I have a constant desire to make things. “A jack of all trades, master of none” approach to creativity has led me to try my hand at pretty much every craft you can imagine. And yes, I buy all the kit every time. So I can lend you anything from a gilder’s knife to a calligraphers’ ink stone. I’ve dabbled in the world of Etsy, selling hand made cards under the name Hot Buttered Post, motivated mainly by not wanting to lose what I thought was an exceptionally great store name, and not at all by the sales.
It’s a rather clichéd coming of age story but it took me until my early thirties to get clarity on what makes me happy. Up until 2019, if you’d asked me what my purpose was I’d probably have said something like “work hard, play harder” or something equally soulless. I was a people pleaser of the highest order and derived a huge sense of my self worth from the validation of being irreplaceable at work. Today, my joy is mined from creativity and connectivity. Which is why I am making it my purpose to work with people to fulfil their potential and find their own path to joyful work.