Who is creative mentoring & coaching for?
Creative mentoring and coaching is for creative people at a pivot point. You might be a freelancer figuring out how to grow, a designer considering your next career move, a creative returning to the industry, a small studio owner trying to sharpen your offer, or someone who simply knows you're capable of more but can't quite see what the next version looks like yet.
Sometimes the work is practical: pricing, pitching, clients, positioning, portfolio direction or your business model. Sometimes it's more personal: confidence, career direction, leadership, difficult conversations or trusting your instincts. It can also be about personal branding and finding your unique selling point — getting clearer on what makes you different, what you're really good at, who you want to work with and how to communicate that without sounding like everyone else. We work on the thing underneath the thing, so you can build a career or creative business that actually feels like yours.
How it works
I usually start with three focused sessions so we have enough time to get underneath the surface and create some real traction. Each session is 60–75 minutes, with the cadence set around you — there's no fixed weekly slot required. We might meet close together while you're working through something urgent, or spread sessions out while you put things into practice. After the initial three, we can decide whether ongoing mentoring makes sense, or simply check back in a few months down the track.
My approach is collaborative, honest and practical. I'll ask questions, challenge your assumptions, share what I've learned, help you spot patterns and give you another perspective when you're too close to the work. Creative coaching can help you get clearer on what you want, make decisions and take action. Creative mentoring brings experience, perspective and a senior brain to the conversation. Business coaching for creatives can look at pricing, clients, positioning, offers and how you actually want to work. They overlap because, in creative careers, they're rarely separate problems.
And I believe confidence matters creatively. Not performative confidence or pretending you know everything — the quieter kind. Knowing what you think, trusting your instincts, articulating your value and making decisions without needing everyone else to validate them first. Confident people can be more creative people, because they have more space to explore, take risks, challenge the obvious answer and make something of their own. That's a big part of what I want these sessions to enable.
A little about me
I've spent 14+ years working across advertising, branding, design and strategy, including FCB New Zealand and Saatchi & Saatchi London, on brands including Air New Zealand, Whittaker's, Sharesies, Vodafone and ANZ. I've also built things myself — co-founding Picky Images, creating Stretchy Social Yoga Club and now building Studio Dawn — so I know what it's like to move between creative work, business, uncertainty and figuring things out as you go. I also trained as a yoga teacher, which has given me a different lens on confidence, self-enquiry and the beliefs that shape how we show up. I bring all of that into the room, but the work is always about you: where you are, where you want to go and what might help you get there.
Ultimately, this is about unlocking potential. Your work, your career, your business, your confidence or your next chapter. I believe people are often capable of more than they can currently see. Sometimes they just need the right perspective, a little challenge, and someone experienced enough to see the possibility with them.
If you're looking for a creative mentor for freelancers, creative career coaching, help finding your unique selling point or simply someone in your corner while you work out what's next, come and say hello.
Kimberley 🌞