Melissa Kidd runs Coaching Creatives. And when she started her business, she really dreaded going to networking events. She hated walking into a room full of people she didn’t know, never introduced herself in an interesting and memorable way and moving on from conversations was often awkward. But she knew networking was a vital part of growing any business.
So something had to change.
Fast forward a few years, Melissa is often referred to as a leading networking coach. She regularly speaks at conferences and gives talks on her take on Networking Know How. Having spent three years, studying what successful networkers were doing differently, she developed a number of workshops. These focused on the things that she was getting wrong – ie she wasn’t strategic, well prepared or that interesting or memorable.
Helping professionals with their answer to that ubiquitous, “What do you do?” question is one of her specialities. The engaging opening gambit, ironically, isn’t always easier said than done.
Using a blend of communication, psychology and business development skills, she helps professionals to become more confident and effective networkers. Oh and having previously worked as a copywriter, she’s allergic to jargon or any other kind of long-winded business waffle.
Emily’s career has been entirely about communication and creativity. Graduating from Oxford University with a degree in German and Russian, she went on to spend a decade in account management and strategic brand planning at large and small London advertising agencies including St Luke’s, RKCR Young & Rubicam, Wunderman, Rapier, McCann Erickson and Publicis.
Her time in advertising saw her developing creative communication strategies and running creative workshops for companies such as Renault, PepsiCo, HSBC, The Automobile Association, British Airways, American Express and the Royal National Institute for the Blind. As a co-owner of St Luke’s, she also helped the Electoral Commission to tap into the psychology of political participation and to increase voter turnout in the 2005 General Election.
Emily then went on to complete postgraduate training in creative facilitation methods at the Institute for Arts and in client-centred psychology at The Metanoia Institute. A qualified coach and associate member of the Association for Coaching, Emily has been employed to coach such diverse groups as excluded teens at South Camden Community School and advertising executives at McCann Erickson. Emily is an associate and runs the Creativity Coach Ltd