I'm Sophie Stardust

Sometimes that means stepping back with you and working out what needs attention. Sometimes it means shaping a marketing plan, fixing a process, organising a project, creating the assets or getting your team moving in the same direction.

And quite often, it means you saying, "Can you just sort this?" and me saying, "Yep."

I'm strategic, but I'm very much a doer.

One of the most useful things about my background is that I don't fit neatly into one box.

I understand the bigger commercial picture, but I can also get into the detail. I can help you think through an offer in the morning, sort the messaging afterwards, brief a freelancer, tidy the workflow, build the Canva assets and make sure somebody has remembered to send the bloody email.

I've spent years working both as the business owner making the decisions and as the trusted person inside someone else's business helping make those decisions happen.

That means I tend to spot connections, gaps and unnecessary complications quickly. I'm also quite happy to question whether something needs doing at all before we spend three weeks doing it beautifully.

That combination of strategic thinking and hands-on delivery is now at the heart of my work.

How I got here

There wasn't a grand masterplan.

I started making handmade cards and wedding stationery in 2001 and turned that into media8, my design and print business, in 2003.

From there, one thing led rather enthusiastically to another.

I co-founded Guided Media and helped build EatoutNorfolk, an online dining directory accompanied by a quarterly magazine. We eventually sold EatoutNorfolk as an ongoing concern.

I founded The Holistic Directory, combining an online platform, publishing, events, networking and marketing support for independent businesses. I trained as an NLP Practitioner in 2011, which added another layer to the way I work with people, behaviour, communication and decision-making.

Then came planners. I launched my own diary planner in 2014 and went on to sell thousands of copies while developing bespoke planners and journals for other businesses. Publishing became a significant part of my work and I've since been involved in the production of more than 100,000 planners and journals.

I've also built memberships, run events, created marketing campaigns, worked inside other people's teams and supported businesses through launches, growth, change and the occasional "how has this become such a mess?" moment.

Not all of it has gone perfectly. That matters too. I've taken risks that paid off and others that very definitely did not. I've overordered stock, overestimated demand and learnt first-hand that enthusiasm is no substitute for sound commercial judgement.

Those experiences are a big part of why I'm good at what I do now. I don't look at somebody else's business from the safety of theory. I know what it feels like when your own money, reputation, energy and confidence are tied up in the decision.

What I do now

Today my work deliberately spans several worlds.

Alongside my own strategic and implementation work with founders, I provide operational and project support across businesses for one client, work with the another supporting speakers and the wider delivery of a large event, and have worked closely with Rethink Press since 2023 supporting non-fiction authors with book marketing and launch strategy.... to name but a few.

This variety suits me.

It keeps me close to what is really happening inside businesses rather than observing from the sidelines. On any given week I might be working on business operations, speaker communications, a launch campaign, a website, a publishing project, a client journey, an event or a piece of strategy.

Different businesses. Different problems. Lots of transferable thinking.

And there is a common thread through most of it: helping good people make good ideas work better.

A few things I've picked up along the way

• You rarely need to add as much as you think you do.
• A complicated business is not automatically a sophisticated business.
• A brilliant idea can still be the wrong idea for right now.
• There is a cost attached to every yes, even when the opportunity looks exciting.
• A strategy that relies on you permanently running at full capacity is a bad strategy.
• And success is allowed to mean more than making the number at the top of the spreadsheet bigger.

I care about profitable, well-run businesses, of course. But I also care about the human being running them.

I want your business to give you opportunities, challenge, interesting work and financial reward while leaving enough of you available for the rest of your life.

That principle runs through the way I work now: build something that works in the real world and supports the life you actually want to live.

The official bits

What other people say

And finally...

I still like building things.

I like ideas. I like interesting people. I like seeing the point where a slightly tangled business starts making sense again.

I'm not interested in turning you into somebody else's version of a successful founder, and I'm certainly not going to hand you a beautiful strategy document and disappear while you figure out what to do with it (unless you want me to!).

I'll help you work out what matters, make sensible decisions about what comes next and, where it's useful, roll my sleeves up and help you make it happen.

If that sounds like the kind of person you could do with in your corner, lets talk!