Mentoring, for the few.
I mentor a small number of creative founders and freelancers – five at a time, no more – on the unglamorous, keeps-you-up-at-3am stuff: growing your creative business, pricing your work, and staying visible while the whole industry shifts under our feet. My magazine, podcast and community will always be free, for everyone. This is the other thing: one-to-one, just for you.
THE 3AM QUESTIONS
Sound familiar?
Busy but broke
You're fully booked, working evenings, and somehow the bank balance doesn't reflect it. That's not a workload problem – it's a pricing problem wearing a workload costume.
Brilliant but invisible
The work is genuinely good, but the right people never seem to see it. Meanwhile, studios with half your talent get the press, the followers and the clients. Visibility is a craft – and nobody taught you it.
Hit a ceiling
You've been going a few years and something's stopped. You can't quite name it, but you can feel it – every year starting to look a little like the last one. That ceiling has a name, and we'll find it.
This is for those who are a few years in: the founders, freelancers, and creative leaders looking to grow. If you’re just starting out? My best advice is already free. Come find me when you’re ready. I’ll still be here.
WHY ME
Twenty-six years of watching what actually works.
First as a journalist, then in PR and marketing, then running my own businesses since 2007 – and for the last seventeen years through Creative Boom, where I've read over 40,000 pitches, interviewed hundreds of creatives, and watched a whole generation of studios launch, grow, wobble, pivot and (mostly) survive.
HOW IT WORKS
Two ways in. Neither involves a discovery-workshop invoice.
Both start with you telling me what's going on – and both come with an honest promise: if I think one session is all you need, I'll say so rather than sell you three months of support.
01
The Strategy Session
Ninety minutes, one-to-one, on the thing that's bothering you most. You bring the problem; I bring the pattern-spotting. You leave with a plan written down, plus a follow-up note from me within the week.
02
The Quarter
Three months, properly alongside you. A monthly 90-minute session, plus a written check-in between each – you send the messy situation, I send back what I actually think. Paid upfront, renewable, never a rolling, forever arrangement.
03
Founding Rates
These are founding rates for the first five mentees, and they'll rise in 2027. Partly because everything should cost a little less before the success stories exist – and partly because people willing to bet on something early deserve the better deal.
THE SHORT VERSION
“Getting to know Katy and her team has been a real highlight. Her support for James Cropper and for me personally is something I’ve truly valued. Having a woman in the creative space I can turn to for advice and encouragement has made all the difference. More than anything, this has felt like a true partnership built on shared values, trust and care, simply good people coming together to create something great.”
Jordan Scott
Head of Marketing, James Cropper Paper & Packaging
WHAT WE’LL WORK ON
Six things every creative business has to get right.
Voice
What makes your work unmistakably yours, and why, in a world drowning in competent-but-generic, that's now your entire moat.
Visibility
Being found and trusted now that search is becoming AI and attention can't be bought, only earned. My home turf: almost two decades on the receiving end of every pitch imaginable.
Money
Pricing your work without flinching, retainers versus projects, and why busy-but-broke is a pricing problem. (Business models, not investments – I'm not a financial adviser and won't pretend to be.)
Clients
Choosing them rather than being chosen. Spotting the red-flag brief before the contract's signed, saying no when the bank balance says yes, and turning the good ones into ones who come back.
Growth
It doesn't always mean headcount. I've watched studios double in size and halve in quality, and freelancers out-earn bigger agencies. We'll work out what growing well looks like for you.
Endurance
How to still love this in a decade, and build a business that funds a life rather than a life that feeds a business. Twenty-five years in, I know where the potholes are.
£325 a session. £1,650 a quarter. Founding rates.
Both plus VAT. These prices rise in 2027 – partly because everything should cost a little less before the success stories exist, and partly because people willing to bet early deserve the better deal. Five places only: I still run a magazine, and I'd rather support five people brilliantly than fifteen adequately.
WHO’S THE MENTOR?
I’m Katy, and I’ve probably read your pitch.
I’m the founder and editor of Creative Boom, one of the UK’s leading creative industry publications. But that's chapter three. Before it: five years in radio journalism, PR in Manchester, freelancing, then co-founding Boomerang, a marketing agency still thriving nearly two decades on. Qualified journalist, experienced PR and marketing professional, and still surviving through everything from the 2008 global economic crash to the pandemic and AI.
1m+ creatives reached every month across Creative Boom’s platforms.
The magazine
1m+ downloads of The Creative Boom Podcast, 200+ episodes and counting.
The podcast
Nearly 10,000 members of The Studio, online and IRL, with 14 chapters globally.
The community
Still have questions?
Here are some answers.
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Arithmetic, not marketing. I still run a magazine read by over a million people a month, and I'd rather mentor five people brilliantly than fifteen adequately. When a place opens up, the mentoring page is where you'll hear about it first.
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Everything is booked in advance – proper 90-minute sessions in the calendar, not "quick calls". The structure is the value: you get my full attention, and you get it predictably.
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On The Quarter, yes – one written check-in between each session, by email. You send me the messy situation; I send back what I actually think, within two working days. Not WhatsApp. Never WhatsApp.
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Give me 48 hours' notice, and we'll rearrange happily. Less than that, and the session's spent – your slot is real, and so is my calendar.
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Sometimes, genuinely, yes. And if I think that's you, I'll say so rather than sell you three months. If your question is specific – a pricing decision, a positioning knot – one session with a written plan is often the whole answer.
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Investments, pensions and anything a regulated financial adviser should handle – I'm not one and won't pretend to be. And this is business mentoring, not therapy: if our conversations drift somewhere that needs proper support, I'll say so warmly and point you to the right place.
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No. And that's a promise, not a snub. While you're a paying mentee, you won't appear in the magazine, the podcast or anything else. Nobody will ever be able to say you bought coverage, and nobody will ever be able to say I sold it. It protects us both.
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I'd honestly rather you didn't pay me yet – everything I'd tell you in year one is already free in the magazine, the podcast and the community. Come find me in a few years. I'll still be here.
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I read every application myself and reply within a week, whichever way it goes. If it's not a fit right now, I'll tell you straight – and probably point you to free things that'll help in the meantime.
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If we're both getting something from it, yes. But quarters have a beginning, a middle and an end on purpose – no rolling-forever arrangements, no drifting into friendship-with-invoices. Each renewal is a fresh decision for both of us.