meet your coach Esme

Hey, I'm Esme, the career alignment coach behind As Folk.

I spent my twenties climbing the ladder, ticking the right boxes, and succeeding in all the ways I thought I was supposed to. Good jobs, then promotions, pay rises, management responsibilities. From the outside it probably looked great, and people would tell me how well I was doing.

On the inside, I was slowly waking up to the fact that the career I'd worked so hard for had nothing to do with who I actually was, what mattered to me, or the life I wanted to live.

I went through all of it. The confusion. The denial. The "maybe I just need to try harder." The "I can't climb down from the ladder when I've got this far" fear. And then a late ADHD diagnosis in my early thirties helped me understand that so much of that discomfort wasn't a personal failing. It was misalignment. That reframed everything.

I retrained as a career alignment coach, bringing 7+ years in HR and a CIPD Level 5 with me. I'm ACC certified with the ICF and hold EMCC accreditation. The neuroscience and psychology behind how I coach matter to me, and so does the deeply human side of it. I built As Folk for the women doing exactly what I was doing: succeeding at someone else's career, and wondering how they got there.

vision

As Folk exists for the women who did everything right and still ended up wondering if this is really it. Not because they made bad choices, but because they were handed a map that was never really theirs to follow.

Most of them arrive having already tried the logical things. The promotion. The job move. Telling themselves it'll get better once things calm down. And they're exhausted, not because they aren't trying, but because they've been trying in the wrong direction.

That's what As Folk is here to change. To give women the support to work out what they actually want from their careers, and the confidence to start building it. A real, sustainable, values-based working life that fits who they are and the life they want to live.

More than anything, I want to make a real difference to women's lives. To help them stop settling, choose for themselves, and build working lives they're genuinely proud of.

A lush green valley with a small stream running through it, surrounded by hills and mountains under a partly cloudy sky.

as folk’s story

story

I grew up in the north of England, where "folk" just means people. Ordinary, real people, and that felt like the right foundation for a coaching practice. One that's for people as they actually are, not as they think they should be.

The mountains are personal. I've always found that being outdoors does something to me. Everything goes quiet and I can finally hear myself, and feel most like me. That's what coaching should feel like. Not a dramatic overhaul, just enough space and perspective to work out where you want to go, and start moving towards it.

All of As Folk's imagery is my own, captured on the adventures that have brought me inspiration, growth and joy along my own journey.

Snow-covered mountains surrounding a calm body of water, with rocks and ice on the surface.

Snow-covered landscape with a forest of trees at the base of a mountain, under a clear blue sky.

values

FREEDOM
I don't think work should take over your life. It should give you financial security without the trap, ambition without the burnout, and a schedule with room for the people you love and the things that make you feel like yourself. So much of what I do comes back to having more choice and more of a life that actually feels like yours.

AUTHENTICITY
No performing, no pretending to be someone who fits a job that was never right for you. Everything I do is built around who you actually are, because I spent years building a career around who I thought I should be, and I know how much that costs.

SAFETY
You can't work out what you want while you're braced to be judged. With me, you can say things you haven't said out loud to anyone, change your mind, contradict yourself, and still be met with warmth. That's the space I create in every session.

COURAGE
Choosing what you actually want takes guts, especially when it means stepping off the path everyone expected you to stay on. I pride myself on being honest with you, offering challenge you when you need it, and help to take real steps instead of just turning ideas over in your head.