Why I quit being CEO to open a make-believe store

Twelve PwC partners, glue sticks in hand, cutting up their exec summaries and pasting the bottom paragraph at the top. Suddenly, the mood shifted.

Their reports went from paragraphs and pages of preamble to…We need to take action #1, because of risk #1. Here’s what that means.

From cynics to converts in ten minutes — all because of one simple principle: put your main point first.

And right there, as a plucky twenty-something, I was hooked on training people to write better.

20 years in the game

Fast-forward a few decades. I’d gone from copywriter/trainer to CEO. 

As is (often) the way, with every step-up, I stepped further from the craft. The one-to-one moments where someone sees the light and their writing changes forever.

And, I realised I had the itch. The itch to do my own thing. I just didn’t know what. But I decided it was time to leave my lovely, secure job.

To:

a) spend more time with my sassy three-year-old 

b) figure out that ‘what?’

I knew two things and drew one diagram

Thing #1: Bad writing is bad for business, and good writing pays.

• $1.2 trillion → annual cost of bad writing to US businesses

• 1 day a week → time lost by teams to poor communication

• 25% increase → productivity boost when teams communicate effectively

• 11% faster promotions → for workers with strong communication skills

Better writing means better outcomes. 

For individuals: confidence, credibility, career growth.

For businesses: time, money, productivity, retention.

For brands: consistency, impact, differentiation.

Thing #2: I’m really bloody interested in accessibility.

As someone with a limb difference, I know the world doesn’t always feel accessible. I can’t reinvent the curb cut or the audiobook. But maybe I could make writing skills more accessible. 

I scribbled down an Ikigai diagram: what I love, what I’m good at, what the world needs, and what people will pay for. 

The overlap was obvious: training, coaching, and helping people become better writers. 

So, how do I put writing skills in easy reach for people?  

Enter: The Better Writing Store

10pm on Tuesday night. Toddler is in bed. Three stories read. I’m walking downstairs, and a thought hit me: what if you could bottle brevity, or can concision?

What if abstract skills like writing with clarity or brevity came in neat little packages you could pick off the shelf?

That’s the idea that started The Better Writing Store.

A place where you can stock up on the writing skills you need — bottled, boxed, and bundled into courses, workshops, and coaching. Pick them up. Use them. Benefit from them.

So, that’s why and how I stepped away from being a CEO to become… Store Manager.

An itch.

A Venn diagram.

A bedtime story and a flight of stairs.