about justine
“Life is at its best when love, money, and creativity are growing in harmony.”
—Gay Hendricks
hi, I’m Justine.
I’m a business coach, writer, and speaker, dedicated to helping growth-focused creative entrepreneurs and freelancers position, market, and profit from their creative expertise.
When I moved from London to New York City in 1996, with little more than a psychology degree and English accent, the concept of being a successful entrepreneur with a passion for marketing and business was as foreign to me as putting maple syrup on your bacon (I’ve since become a convert!) After a stint waitressing (what kind of a New York coming of age story would it be without that?), I landed my first job answering the phone in a design agency. I’m almost 100% certain the only reason I got the job was because of my English accent, but I didn’t care; it was my ticket to somewhere.
One year later, I was hired by an up-and-coming creative representation agency, where I learned every aspect of positioning, managing, and growing the careers of top-level creative professionals. From putting together portfolios that stood out, writing winning proposals, pricing, and negotiating top rates, to managing a project from beginning to end, I learned that every element was crucial to building a successful and profitable creative career.
In 2006, I branched out and opened my own creative management agency, Plum Creative, where I built a reputation within the advertising and design industry for helping retail and lifestyle brands find the perfect talent for their projects and managing the project from beginning to end. We were working on great projects with clients who valued the talent and paid what they were worth.
And then the recession of 2008 happened.
Almost overnight, the work dried up. I was paying myself out of my savings and the pressure of not knowing how long I’d be able to hang on had my stomach in knots.
Little did I know, this seeming “disaster” was about to lead me from a business I enjoyed, to the one I was born for.
I wasn’t the only one experiencing an overnight plummet in clients and income – freelancers and creative businesses of all shapes and sizes were struggling – and it seemed they were all beating a path to my door hoping to find work!
While I didn’t have projects for them, I did have time. I’d spend an hour or two with anyone who asked, helping them identify what made them stand out from the crowd, define who their ideal client was, re-work their portfolio to resonate with those clients, and sharing a few names of people they could call. They walked out of my office transformed; lighter, clearer, and armed with a plan.
I had an epiphany – along with a wealth of expertise, experience, and relationships in the advertising and design world – I had an uncanny ability to help creative folks identify their value and package it into a marketable and profitable proposition. What if I could share these essential business strategies, processes, and tools with the creative community on a much larger level?
And so, my coaching business was born.
I’ve spent the last 10 years developing and testing my Profitable by Design framework, helping creative entrepreneurs identify and articulate their value, land the clients they want, and proactively build a fulfilling, efficient, and profitable creative business.
Like many entrepreneurs, I’m also a working parent with young kids, and it was during this time that my son was diagnosed with ADHD. As we navigated the diagnosis and started to learn more about Neurodivergence, I had another bolt-from-the-blue realization. A high percentage of my creative clients also had ADHD! It turns out that creativity, entrepreneurship, and ADHD are happy bedfellows. So many things made a lot more sense; why so many creatives struggled and why traditional business strategies didn’t work for them.
Seeing an opportunity to support creative entrepreneurs of all stripes, I made the decision to get my certification as an ADHD Life Coach (I’m on the home stretch!).
If you’re ready to embrace your creative brain (wherever it lives on the Neurotypical/Neurodivergent scale), shake the feelings of self-doubt, overwhelm, and perfectionism that has held you back, and arrive at your desk every morning knowing exactly what you need to do to move your business forward, we should talk!
Book your free 30-minute introductory call with me and share your business challenges, ask questions and we’ll talk about solutions.
