Meet your Career Alignment Coach, Esme

Hi, 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 - 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 absolutely 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 possibly climb down from the ladder when I've got this far" fears. 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 this work matters to me - but so does the deeply human side. I built As Folk for the women doing exactly what I was doing: succeeding at someone else's career, and quietly wondering how they got here.

What we do here

A lot of women arrive at As Folk having already tried the logical things. The promotion. The job move. The telling themselves it'll get better when things calm down. And they're tired - not because they're not trying, but because they've been trying in the wrong direction.

Career alignment coaching goes deeper than CVs and job titles. Together we work through your values, your strengths, and what you actually need from your working life - building the clarity and confidence to move towards something that genuinely fits.

That's the work we do here.

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

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

Our vision

So many women reach their thirties having done everything right, and still find themselves quietly wondering if this is really it. Not because they made the wrong choices, but because they were handed a map that was never really theirs to follow.

As Folk exists to change that - to give women the space, tools, and support to reconnect with what they actually want from their careers, and the clarity and confidence to start building it.

A real, sustainable, values-based working life that fits who they are and the life they're trying to live.

Our brand

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 altitude does something to your thinking - everything quiets down and you can finally hear yourself again. That's what career coaching should feel like. Not a dramatic overhaul. Just enough space and perspective to work out where you actually want to go, and start moving in that direction.

All As Folk’s imagery is our own, captured on various adventures that have bought inspiration, growth and joy along my own journey.

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

Our values

Freedom
We believe work should add to your life, not slowly take it over. That means financial security without the trap, ambition without the burnout, and a schedule that leaves room for the things that matter. Every piece of work we do together is oriented towards more options, more choice, and more of a life that feels genuinely yours.

Determination
This work asks something of you. Figuring out what you actually want takes honesty and courage - and a willingness to sit with some uncomfortable questions for a while. We don't settle for "fine" here, and we don't think you should have to either.

Authenticity
No scripts, no performing, no pretending to be a version of yourself that fits better in a role that was never right for you. The work we do at As Folk is rooted in who you actually are. That's not just a nice idea - it's the whole point.

Informed
Everything we do is grounded in real psychology, neuroscience, and evidence. You'll always understand the why behind the work - because coaching works best when you're not just following a process but understanding yourself more deeply along the way.