Show Notes
In this episode, BBB community member, Fiona Partington, shares her story of transition and what has inspired to grow her coaching business in 2026.
She talks about joining Better Bolder Braver in July 2024 after discovering it through an AoEC alumni session, and why the community model matters more to her than consuming marketing content alone.
She describes trying to work through The Coach’s Marketing Journey alongside a demanding job, and how the live sessions, chapter-based check-ins, and confidence focused reflections have helped her stay connected and keep moving.
Fiona outlines the coaching work she is building, including her role with Future Dreams, a breast cancer support charity in North London. She explains the two client groups she is most drawn to, people navigating work / life balance decisions and people making big life changes around career, family, and location. The common thread is rebuilding confidence during transition.
She also addresses her relationship with marketing, moving from discomfort about self-promotion to a clearer view that marketing is simply how people find out a safe space exists. She shares her preference for one-to-one, human centred coaching over personality based approaches, and her belief in word of mouth rather than chasing vanity metrics. Fiona is active on LinkedIn and is currently building her presence without a website.
Finally, Fiona speaks candidly about integrating her own health experience as a breast cancer survivor into her work, including what she has learned about acceptance and the reality of “never going back to normal”. She closes with her next steps for 2026, including joining the January Coach’s Marketing Journey sprint and building a sustainable balance between cancer related coaching and wider transition work.
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Seth Werkheiser is a writer, musician, a "wizardly guide to platform independence" and the founder of the Social Media Escape Club. I met Seth for the very first time whilst creating this episode! We talk about escaping social media without a rigid detox plan, why a newsletter beats a feed, the "work-work balance" almost nobody admits to, and why community - not content - might be the actual antidote to burnout. We also cover: Seth's path from third-generation musician to music blogger (2001) to AOL Music editor to email marketer for record labels and a music publicist - and how that same "help creative people get seen" mission has never really changed
In this episode, I get to profile one fabulous member of the Better Bolder Braver community, Simon Hill. Simon is a coach, facilitator and consultant who works with people-helpers of a particular kind - leaders in charities and social purpose organisations - and he's been part of our community for two years now, most recently taking the reins as chair of our book club. We talk about what actually happens in a community like ours - how the thinking and feelings associated with marketing are slowly absorbed (after the eleventh time, or in Simon's case, the fifteenth), and how marketing starts to feel more human and less daunting. We cover the five P's of Positioning, the power of kindness at work, why good contracting is quietly brilliant marketing, and Simon's beloved concept of entering every conversation without Memory, Understanding or Desire - or as he calls it, “MUD”. There's humour, there's parenting, there's talk of doodling, and there's a couple of very good book recommendations.
What if your best marketing move wasn't saying more - but asking better questions? In this episode, I'm joined by Rob Lawrence: seasoned podcast producer, experienced coach, and - I'll be honest - one of my marketing heroes. Rob is also, rather wonderfully, the reason Better Bolder Braver exists at all. It was his generosity in inviting me onto the Association for Coaching podcast that kicked the whole thing off. Together we explore one of the most liberating ideas in good, ethical marketing: that coaches are already equipped with one of the most powerful marketing tools there is. They just might not have recognised it yet. What we talk about Why asking questions often generates more engagement than sharing expertise - on LinkedIn, in podcasts, and in life How "holding the space" in marketing creates the same trust and intimacy as a coaching relationship The connection between self-awareness in coaching and self-awareness in marketing Why you don't need to say something new every week - and why saying the same five things, creatively, is actually the goal How questions can move your ideal clients through the Journey of Consciousness - from "I didn't know I had a problem" to "I'm ready to work with you" The difference between posting publicly and taking conversations offline - and why Rob's quieter LinkedIn strategy works beautifully Rob's 10-year weekly mastermind with his Australian counterpart Steve Palfreyman - and why he calls it his single biggest business secret How to translate your best coaching questions directly into your marketing