Who is Val?Oh so many things.

I was about 7 years into my career when I noticed most managers sucked.

I started in engineering and worked my way through pretty much every language, sector, and company size going. Big scary technical estates, big f*cking problems.

I loved the work but I felt every bit of the missing mentorship, the lack of support, the constant wondering if I belonged.

Then I realised every manager I'd ever had was terrible, and none of them looked anything like me.

Never mind the neurodivergent, queer and disabled version of me.

Turns out I wasn't imagining it. 82% of UK managers are thrown into their roles without formal training. One in three employees quits because of poor management.

Not because managers try to be terrible. Because nobody told them what was expected of them. Or what great looked like.

I kept meeting those managers. So I decided to do something about it.

Racoons don't belong anywhere, but they thrive anyway!

For nearly a decade I've been running fun, inclusive, high-performing engineering teams of 150+ from Series A to Series G, across more sectors and tech stacks than I've read romantasy books. And I read a lot.

I made the course I wish I had when I first had that "holy shit I'm a manager!" moment.

I became an ILM Level 5 qualified executive coach, but the real qualification is the decade of doing it.

The kind of coach I am

This is not "how do I feel about that?" coaching. This is "what's actually going on, what matters, and what are you going to do about it?" coaching.

I am direct, warm, curious and allergic to corporate bullshit.

I will not sit there nodding while you try to decode your life alone. I will ask challenging questions. I will reflect patterns back. I will challenge you when the story you are telling yourself seems too small, too cruel, or too inherited from someone else.

I know what it is to become a manager without any help and figure it out anyway. I know what it takes to navigate unreasonable standards, build something real under pressure, and come out the other side wearing a f*cking crown like the queen you are.

I coach people in the situations I've been in, as someone who is neurodivergent, disabled, queer, and still very much here.

I do not treat confidence, burnout, masking, management or career decisions as individual failings. People exist inside systems. Some of those systems are ridiculous. Whatever is keeping you up at 3am, I've lived it. Nothing scares me.

What I stand for

Weird is welcome. You do not need to become smoother, smaller or more palatable to be worth listening to. Weird, tired, furious, ambitious, confused and brilliant can all come in.

I will tell you the thing

I'm autistic. I don't do performative nodding. You will get the honest read, not the one that's easier to hear — delivered with actual care, not HR varnish.

I'm not an ally looking in

I am queer, neurodivergent and disabled. Not an ally looking in from outside. I know what this costs because I have been paying it too.

In your corner, not your echo chamber

I am fully in your corner. I am also not going to tell you what you want to hear if it isn't true. Those two things go together — that's what good support actually looks like.

The system, not you

I will not reduce every hard thing to a mindset issue. Sometimes you need confidence. Sometimes you need boundaries. Sometimes you just need someone to confirm that yes, the system is broken, and it is not your fault.

If you want someone direct, kind, experienced, and very hard to bullshit, come work with me.

The human bit

I am not only a coach. I make things because making things is how I play, process, and breathe. Play is how we stay kind to ourselves. It is also where the best ideas hide.

Art on Cara

Outraged Racoon Paws (opens in new tab)

I draw strange little beings, haunting portraits, and whatever my brain needs to put somewhere outside my body. It is messy, playful, tender, dramatic, and extremely mine.

See the art

Corporate vampire romance

Stakeholders™ (opens in new tab)

Stakeholders is corporate vampire fiction about power, politics, influence, and the absolute absurdity of tech. It is ridiculous on purpose. It is also, inconveniently, quite serious.

Read Stakeholders

I draw. My brain shifts into a different mode and half my best ideas show up uninvited. I run art sessions for others because creativity and play matter, and I want more people to have access to both.
I write. Because life needs more whimsy and corporate vampire romance to get us through hard days.
I sew. Because I want to wear colourful, fun shit and the shops won't provide.
I run and create TTRPG campaigns and solo play mechanics. Storytelling, improv, and keeping six chaotic players from damaging themselves. Turns out it grows the same skills as running an exec team.
I play video games. Because catching Pokémon counts as spiritual rest.
I read an unreasonable amount of romantasy. No notes.