Meet Joseph

Founder, lead facilitator and coach

With 25 years of navigating the world of sustainability and impact, I help individuals understand what gives their career meaning. My mission is simple: Help people find how their life and career can be a force for good in the world

I've spent nearly twenty-five years doing the thing this programme teaches.

I changed career direction twenty three years ago: a sideways step from marketing into climate and impact. Since then, I have worked for some of the world's and the UK's leading organisations around impact and sustainability. Since that day over 20 years ago, I have worked across the sustainability and impact space, working in technology, assessment, social good and civil society. I've been in mega corporations with canteens, baristas and lifts and I've worked for organisations where there are 6 people in a small room!

Over the last 10 years, I have focused on helping people find their own place in this complex, messy world so that they can create a positive impact on others and in their own lives. I think it is important to show where I have worked in this space so you know that I have some experience and perspective that is useful in helping you not only find your path, but to navigate a change in your career.

Where this programme comes from:

Whilst designing and running programmes that help people tackle big societal challenges, something kept happening that I wasn't expecting. At the end of those programmes, people would often tell me they'd changed jobs. Some had discovered the kind of work they really wanted to do. Others had found new confidence because they now had stories and experience they could talk about. Quite a few stayed exactly where they were, but started doing work they genuinely cared about.

It made me realise that people rarely changed because somebody told them what job to apply for. They changed because they'd spent months doing meaningful work, alongside good people, and slowly became someone different.

I started wondering what would happen if you designed a programme around that idea from the beginning. over/under is my answer.

The closest ancestor of this programme.

At Xynteo I led, delivered and supported programmes such as LEAP, SSLP, Europe Delivers and the Leadership Vanguard: six to nine month cohort programmes helping senior people at companies like Unilever, Baker Hughes, and EDP create real change from the roles they already held. These projects were built around improving complex social, environmental problems whilst also driving growth. Same question as this programme, redesigned for people without a corporate sponsor.

Inside the career transition industry.

I delivered the Associate Programme at On Purpose, the UK's best-known career transition organisation. I've seen from the inside what genuinely helps people and spoken to people making major changes to their lives. This programme takes inspiration from that experience. For those able to get on to this course, I have seen the transformation it can drive and recommend it wholeheartedly. For those who can't wait, I offer this course as a way to get started.

Behaviour change that actually happened.

At the Carbon Trust I was the behaviour change lead and developed programmes for public and private sector organisations based on changing behaviour for social and environmental good. I spent five years running behaviour led programmes helping individuals drive impactful change in their organisations. Alongside this I did a Post Graduate Degree in Behaviour change and have led national schools campaigns, international programmes to support communities and built educational collateral and interactive tools. Since then I worked on behaviour change programmes at Waste and Resource Action Plan (WRAP) and UKGBC

Rooms where decisions got made.
At PwC and Xynteo I designed large-scale collaboration, including work with multinationals in regenerative and extractive businesses including Uniliver, Heineken, NHS, Coca Cola, Hubbub and bids at the £14 million scale: rooms full of competing interests, turned into decisions. I understand the difficulties and practicalities of doing good inside and outside of major corporations. Those methods are the systems tools in this programme.

Alongside my day job.

I value community and find that volunteering gives me a different type of impact that I feel a different kind of conection to. My coaching practice provides pro-bono support to circular businesses through Re-London. I have recently started volunteering at Haringey Giving, a grass roots organisation who's exist to enable positive change through local giving in Haringey

Accredited coach. ICF accredited (ACC, Barefoot Academy).

I coach founders and senior professionals on exactly what this programme works on: identity, direction, and the gap between intending and doing.

Where the method comes from.

This programme is those five things combined: leadership programme design, career transition delivery, behaviour change science, systems facilitation, and coaching. I believe this combination is unique and a powerful approach to drive change. That's the honest reason it exists as a business.

Why I built it.
I keep meeting brilliant mid-career people who want to create impact, but didn't know how to get involved. People that wanted to respond to the chaos in the world, but feel trapped by their situation. For those able to take a year out, I'd send to On Purpose today. This is for everyone else: create the impact from where you are, and let the evidence carry you. It's the only move I've ever lived.

Testimonials

I have worked with many people over the last 15 years in coaching, career change and systems.

Here are a few people and what they have to say about working with me.

Jennifer UK (1:1 Coaching Client) /

"Working with Joe has been one of the best decisions I’ve made since taking the leap to become a solopreneur. Leaving the security of a regular paycheck to set up my own consultancy was daunting enough, and on top of that, I am trying to navigate a career change. When I first reached out, I was feeling completely overwhelmed. I needed help prioritising my career focus, personal ambitions, and even my day-to-day approach to living and working.

From the very beginning, Joe created a safe space where I could be completely honest about my goals and fears. He has a remarkable ability to keep up with my thinking, which is rarely, if ever, linear, and tailor his suggestions in ways that make sense to me.

What I appreciated most was that Joe never relied on cookie-cutter coaching advice. He really listened, challenged me with thoughtful questions, and adapted his guidance to fit both my situation and the way I see the world. Our sessions combined practical strategies (like taming my unwieldy to-do list) with genuine encouragement that helped me rebuild my confidence. Joe also introduced me to new ways of thinking and exploring different frameworks until we found the ones that clicked. His questions pushed me to rethink how I set goals and the unnecessary pressure I tend to put on myself.

Because of our work together, I now feel much more confident about where I’m heading and more in control of what I’m doing in the immediate, mid-term, and longer term. More importantly, I feel equipped with tools I’ll carry forward into the next phase of my career journey.

There are plenty of coaches out there — but it’s not about who shouts the loudest on LinkedIn. If you’re looking for someone smart, supportive, insightful, and genuinely invested in your success, I can’t recommend Joe highly enough."

Emra* UK /

When Emra came to coaching, he was on a career break from his job at a big four consultancy practice, teaching English at a university in rural Mexico. He knew he wanted a working life with more meaning, but every possible future felt equally uncertain.

Rather than trying to decide on the perfect next job, we slowed down and explored what really mattered to him. Together we looked at the role of community, justice, creativity, learning and contribution in the life he wanted to build, alongside the practical realities of career and income.

Instead of chasing certainty, he began making decisions based on what genuinely mattered to him. By the end of the coaching, he had moved from uncertain analysis towards a practical plan for the next stage of his career, with a much clearer understanding of the kind of work, environment and contribution that would allow him to thrive.

Tessa Tricks, (Hubbub, client) /

"I worked with Joe on behalf of environmental charity Hubbub's Community Fridge Network. Our aim was to reduce the burden of food surplus redistribution upon communities.

Working with Joe was a joy. He quickly attuned to the environmental and social sensitivities and was able to help Hubbub design and host a day which energised a range of relevant stakeholders to work on collaborative solutions. Joe's diplomacy, tenacity, curiosity and boundless enthusiasm made the event the success it was.

His research, design and communication skills, alongside his passion, mean that I would trust Joe to bring a valuable addition to complex sustainability issues in the future. I hope to work with him again."

Richard Rugg, Deputy CEO, Carbon Trust /

Over the years that I have worked with Joseph I have been regularly impressed by his well-honed ability to analyse systems with a view to understanding key connections and then designing appropriate solutions tailored to the diverse needs of the beneficiary and stakeholder.
Whether it be identifying the client's priorities, selling the appropriate project or delivering an impactful outcome, Joseph will go the extra mile

Katherin Bowens, (Foreign Commonwealth Office, UK Government client) /

"While I was working for the FCO in Panama City, I had the pleasure to work with Joseph on the project Sustainable Schools, as part of the Embassy’s Science and Innovation Fund in 2016. The programme piloted a range of energy saving initiatives in five schools in Panama City, to explore the most effective ways to save energy across Panama’s school network."

"I was impressed by Joseph’s ability to work in such a challenging environment as Panama City. He successfully organised and hosted a workshop, together with the Panamanian Government, where he generated ideas and piloted solutions with teachers and school pupils to refine the outcome of the project. The fact that he considered the entire school system while observing the schools was key in the success story of this project. I would be happy to work with Joseph again in the near future."