The work
And how one thing leads to another
Every piece below started with something true and important that wasn’t being heard: a proposition, a body of expertise, work nobody outside the building knew about.
Every project here led to another one. That wasn’t the plan. It’s what tends to happen when the story holds true.
Jump to: Books · Brand storytelling · Reports and case studies · Journalism
Books
Six published. Two in development.
Co-author of the First Aid for Feelings Manual, and ghostwriter or developmental editor on five further titles – including Stretch: Optimize Your Strengths with Dr Paul Brewerton and James Brook, and Leader iD: Discover Your Leadership Profile with Glenn Wallis and David Pilbeam. Subjects span leadership, emotional intelligence, strengths-based psychology and wellbeing.
Two more in development: a book on growth mindset with success coach Anand Chulani, and one on positioning B2B businesses in the age of AI.
First Aid for Feelings Manual
Co-authored with health activist and social entrepreneur Thor A Rain, a self-care manual that turns a practitioner’s method into something readers can understand and use, especially as they’re struggling in the moment.
Brand storytelling
ieso Digital Health
$56m
US investment raised
4 months → 3 weeks
staff onboarding
25 days → 4
patient referral time
47% → 98%
training completion
ieso Digital Health
Four contracts. $56m investment secured. Training completion 47% → 98%
Four separate briefs over several years, each one a different problem.
Positioning for their first digital product – an online version of GAD-7 and PHQ-9, the NHS screening questionnaires for anxiety and depression, with CBT worksheets that adapt to the results. The science was sound. The explanation wasn’t, because “AI in mental healthcare” reads as a threat to exactly the people who have to trust it. I wrote the positioning, then the words inside the product itself: onboarding, guidance, and the screens where someone finds out how they scored.
That led to six months as interim head of marketing, then editorial direction on a second product, then comms across a full platform transformation – therapy platform, booking system, AI integration and database, overhauled in parallel while patients were still being treated.
Mindler has since acquired the UK business.
Microsoft UK
Hired to research. Kept on to write
After a values-in-action report where I identified 30 one-minute stories showing how the company lived its societal values, I was retained as Microsoft UK’s CSR newshound. Each new story led to more projects with individuals, internal teams, and external contractors I met along the way.
The brief: turn the proof buried across our entire UK business into stories that show our positive societal impact.
Microsoft UK – Succeeding Together
19 partnerships, one book, launched at their global conference
One such project was a book of 19 partner success stories, written for Microsoft UK and published for its Worldwide Partner Conference in 2008. Each took a complex commercial relationship – gold certification, market entry, a new revenue stream, a landmark account win – and shaped it into a story a business reader could follow and act upon.
The brief: turn the proof buried across 19 partnerships into stories that show prospective partners what is possible.
The Communication Practice
Belonging, explained by people who build it for a living
Created brand guidelines and wrote every word of the website for an experiential learning company that uses lived-experience research and drama-based learning to build cultures of genuine belonging – plus the script for the short film that became their homepage hero.
The brief: show leadership and wider teams why belonging matters, and how it’s built.
Aspuna Group
It started with a profile. It became a partnership
I first met Aspuna’s founder when Judge Business School asked me to write a profile of her business for its Cambridge Social Ventures directory. She was building what would become the world’s first social-impact commodities asset management business, working with smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.
That first interview led to rather more than a profile: brand guidelines, every word of the website, and the repositioning that carried them through a pivot. Complex value-chain economics, shaped into language investors, development agencies and farming communities could all act on.
The brief: turn a complex new business model into a story three very different audiences can relate to.
I became their communications partner, then a non-executive director. I’m now writing the positioning for the founder’s next venture.
BT Lynx – The Collaborative Workplace
Two companies’ IT capability, read as one proposition
Positioning brochure for a BT Group IT services alliance. Deep technical capability – infrastructure, security, service management – shaped into a clear case for the business buyers who decide. One of a series of commissioned whitepapers.
The brief: make two companies’ combined IT capability read as a single, simple proposition.
Waterstones – Our People
Corporate values brought to life
A book of stories colleagues share about each other, showing how their days are made brighter, and their business goals are met through the people living the Waterstones values.
The brief: surface the values already alive within an organisation and shape them into stories that aid recruitment and retention.
Reports and case studies
SmithsonHill – Delivering the UK Agritech Cluster
Launched at the House of Commons. CIPR award-winning
A whitepaper making the case for a new AgriTech cluster in south Cambridgeshire. Dense economic evidence – industrial strategy, food security, the “Cambridge or overseas” argument for keeping knowledge-intensive business in the region – shaped into a clear, persuasive case for government and investors. Launched at the House of Commons and recognised with a CIPR award.
The brief: turn complex economic evidence into a case government and investors can’t ignore.
Ormiston Families – Brighter Futures Strategic Report
A three-year strategy, told through the families living it
Ormiston Families is a charity that supports families in the East of England to build resilience and make choices that improve their children’s life chances. This pamphlet, which includes service user stories, was commissioned to launch a new three-year strategy.
The brief: bring a new strategy to life for funders and supporters using service users’ stories.
FamilyCarersNet – Cambridge Judge Business School venture
Mentoring lived-experience writers
FamilyCarersNet was a social-enterprise venture, born out of Cambridge Judge Business School, serving the UK’s unpaid carers. Alongside writing features, I built and mentored a team of correspondents who were carers themselves. The stories carried because they came from people who’d been there.
The brief: make one of the least-visible jobs there is visible – and build a team of writers who can sustain it.
Cambridge Social Ventures – Impact report
Five years, 800 founders, one story everyone could see
An impact report for Cambridge Judge Business School’s social enterprise programme – five years of work with more than 800 social entrepreneurs, told through the founders whose ventures it helped build. The work grew from previous profiles. As did commissions from the entrepreneurs I profiled, and from Pioneers Post.
The brief: turn five years of stats into a handful of stories that prove the human return as clearly as the financial one.
Journalism
Two decades of reporting, across wireless technology, training and development, and social enterprise – much of it commissioned by editors I’d first met as a client-side writer.
A selection of what’s still readable.
Pioneers Post – Social Enterprise World Forum (2020)
A series of founder profiles for the global news outlet for social entrepreneurs and impact investors, commissioned for the Social Enterprise World Forum 2020. From a Kaytetye changemaker redesigning the future at YLab, to a Colorado recycling pioneer born in a school bus, to a teenage founder training the next generation of African leaders.
The brief: bring four very different social enterprises to life for funders, peers, and the merely curious – each in its own voice.
Professional Academy – guest columnist (2018-2020)
A regular contributor to Professional Academy, the CIM and CMI training provider, while mentoring its Level 4 marketing apprentices. A run of features on the themes I’d built a practice around years earlier: strengths-based leadership, story as a way of teaching, workplace culture, and persuasion that respects the reader.
The brief: turn management research and marketing theory into features a working professional would actually finish – and go on to read the next.
Read the columns:
- The Uncomfortable Truth: No Such Thing as a Great Leader
- 7 Leadership Fables Every Leader and Manager Should Read: Why Showing Not Telling Works
- Converting With Content: Moving Leads Through a Sales Funnel
- HR Advice: How to Change Workplace Culture
- 5 Reasons WFH Pays
WirelessDevNet – European technology correspondent (2000-2003)
The brief: report on a fast-moving technical field every week, for developers who take joy in catching any corner cut – and host evolving conversations around it.
What clients say
We overhauled our therapy platform, booking system, AI integration, and database – all in parallel, while caring for patients in vulnerable moments. Nicki built the communications backbone that held it together: internal updates, training materials, user guides, change management content. Staff onboarding dropped from four months to three weeks. Patient referral times dropped from 25 days to 4. NPS held throughout. Crucially, while we had a history of clinicians dropping out of training, the work led by Nicki resulted in a staggering 98% completion score. Digital transformation projects often fail because nobody explains what’s happening in language people can actually use. This one didn’t.
After witnessing the types of messages and stories Nicki unearthed in the research project I commissioned whilst Director of Citizenship for Microsoft UK, research which later became a book of 30 one-minute stories from around the UK, I recommissioned her as an internal newshound, finding and feeding inspiring stories and unusual angles to the CSR agency we had retained to set up our own internal citizenship news service. Whilst the agency was well equipped to do this themselves, we knew Nicki and trusted her ability to find golden seeds in the most unlikely places, to plant them in a way which would engage our intended audience and to do so quickly and consistently.
When you’re a social impact business creating a new business model, explaining what it is that you do is vital. Retaining Nicki as our communications partner was a wise move. The repositioning work she led is really helping us explain our unique proposition as the world’s first social impact asset manager to a wide range of stakeholders. This has led to us winning new contracts with non-governmental and governmental organisations in the Global West and sub-Saharan Africa. She is strategic, creative and someone who you can absolutely trust to help you nail your messaging and make sure it holds true. She’s incredibly down to earth and good fun to work with too. I cannot recommend her highly enough.
Nicki’s talent for copywriting went hand in hand with her ability to collaborate effectively. She worked closely with our design team, bringing a user-centric approach to the project. Her keen understanding of our target audience allowed her to craft compelling copy that seamlessly aligned with the design elements, resulting in a cohesive and impactful user experience… Her ability to work seamlessly with design teams and her exceptional copywriting skills make her an invaluable addition to any organisation.
What I love about working with Nicki is her ability to do perpendicular thinking. She’s able to listen to what needs communicating and then transform that into readable and relatable communication. It’s like a super-power… her contribution has been so helpful she’s now co-authoring the First Aid for Feelings Manual… I recommend Nicki for anyone who needs help from a writer who has the ability to think beyond the obvious, who’s got a brilliant “bullshit-detector” and delivers every time.
Nicki has supported me on several book projects and publications. Her creativity, copywriting, and proofreading skills are exceptional – delivering outcomes that are clear, engaging, and memorable for our audience. Her positive energy, empathy, and collaborative approach complement her expertise and professionalism perfectly.
Nicki has undertaken many projects for us and is well able to translate our random ramblings, and some pretty complex concepts into accessible, reader-friendly language that appeals both to business readers and to a wider audience. She is also a highly effective and natural storyteller.
Nicki has an uncanny knack of taking content that is well-researched but not readily accessible to readers and editing it in a way that retains the depth but increases the readability significantly. She is a quick study, grasps central ideas fast and is able to offer insight that adds lots of value to the original manuscript. Despite a really busy work schedule she turns work around quickly.
Nicki’s initial work with me was on uncovering some of the Stars of the company – “Hidden Heroes”. My aim was to foster feelings of pride in a new team implementing a new strategy and wanted to encourage my Team to implement and celebrate the strategy. The team look forward to reading her amusing and insightful pieces and even to being interviewed, this has been a great success for us. The stories have been so successful that we now use Nicki to write for our customer newsletters too. From the cleaner to the chief exec, Nicki has done some great work in helping us to clarify, communicate and celebrate our key messages, personal profiles and unique contributions. It is an absolute pleasure to work with Nicki and I can thoroughly recommend her.
I have worked with Nicki on a number of corporate white papers and supporting collateral and have found her to be the most credible and creative writer I have worked with. She brings new ideas and fresh approach to the text, which means that you produce a piece of work that stands out and differentiates your organisation. I would recommend her to any of my colleagues and look forward to the next time we collaborate. She makes the whole thing seem easy and fun, which for formal document creation is a godsend.
Nicki has the ability to communicate the essence of a person, team or organisation. She has done remarkable work, for example, in bringing to life the values of organisations. I recommend Nicki to anybody – and any organisation – that wants to bring their story to life.
I am thrilled to recommend Nicki, whose expertise as a copywriter has transformed our patient communication strategy. Her role in crafting our style guide ensured our materials are clear, engaging, and consistent. Nicki’s creativity in overcoming challenges, especially with competing stakeholder demands, has been invaluable. Nicki’s wealth of experience is matched by her kindness, compassion, and unwavering encouragement, which has been fundamental in building my confidence. Her deep understanding of methods to support mental wellbeing shines through in the positive and supportive environment she fosters.
Nicki did a fantastic job copy writing a number of publications for us. She was able to easily immerse herself in our organisation and quickly understand both how we operate and how best to put that across in the most effective manner for our customers. Whether it was technical process or people oriented stories the results were effective both adhering to the brief and bringing her own considerable skills to bear bringing our stories alive. We will be using her services again.
Nicki was great to work with. She was really skilled in writing for different audiences particularly around sensitive matters such as mental health. She was able to respond quickly and calmly when needed, and adapt to changing priorities. She delivered on time and worked collaboratively with the team. Nicki is passionate about mental health and cares about her work. Thanks for all of your help Nicki!
Nicki is one of those rare people who actually does MORE than she promises! A fluent writer, passionate about supporting sustainable social change. She willingly gives her time to projects that make a difference – and brings to her paying clients insight, intuition and intelligence. I’d happily recommend Nicki to anyone.
Nicki did an excellent job for us. We had the information to complete several case studies, but did not have sufficient resource to complete the work. Nicki stepped into the breach, quickly got to grips with the subject matter and the projects and produced some great case studies on time, on budget and to a very good standard… and she was nice and easy to work with.
Nicki demonstrated an exemplary use of storytelling techniques in creating a Citizenship brochure for us which was thought provoking, engaging, compelling and positive. I would not hesitate to recommend her. She is great to work with and delivers the results every time.
Nicki has a wonderful way of bringing people to life through the written word. She always finds the best angle and manages to inspire and enthuse. A pleasure to work with.
Nicki has a natural talent to tell stories and shape them in a way that connects with the audience. We had a great experience working with Nicki thanks to her enthusiasm, her creativity and her extraordinary writing skills.
I am always in awe of Nicki’s writing skills. We worked on many projects together. In every case Nicki worked under tight deadlines, managed to grasp the concepts and tone of voice for the content. Nicki’s collaborative style of working on a project truly engaged all the team.
Nicki is a very creative person with none of the temperamental bits that creatives often have. She’s great at producing and realising ideas – and equally great at facilitating others’ creativity: in short an excellent colleague. Her writing – especially telling true stories – is excellent (I look forward to her first book!) and she meets deadlines consistently without compromising on quality.
As a small business owner aiming to increase my online presence, Nicki’s support has been invaluable. She always gives clear and concise advice. She can work across multiple platforms, including WordPress, which has been really helpful. Nicki doesn’t just correct basic copy. She has been incredibly flexible, helping me with both on and offline content, including blog posts, instructional books and online course notes. In addition, her knowledge of SEO and excellent audience awareness means she makes relevant suggestions to improve my content. On a personal note, she has taught me how to use commas and write in active voice! This has made my blog content more engaging and easier to read for my teachers and parents.
Provides more than SEO savvy content – knows a lot about positive psychology, resilience & well-being too. She basically makes me look fantastic. I have used her to write content for presentations, workshops, articles, web content. Incredibly wise, quick turn around, monumentally creative and a joy to work with.
Nicki was one of the most reliable and effective PR account directors who worked for me at Pipex/UUNET/Worldcom. Her prowess came close to us awarding this local firm our entire UK and European business at one point – only scale restricted the choice. On a personal level Nicki was also a trusted and reliable asset at all times.