As a marketing or communications leader, you’re expected to turn your organization’s expertise into influence: earning trust, standing apart from competitors, and (for your own job security and ego) creating value leadership recognizes.

But deciding what to say is harder than it sounds.

Whether it’s a LinkedIn post or a major report, you need a core idea worth saying.

And that idea isn’t necessarily what your experts want to talk about. Or what you think your audience wants to hear.

Teams do plenty of thinking before writing begins. But that process often captures answers rather than interrogating them, or stops before finding an idea strong enough to build everything else around.

Great writing doesn’t fix that. Finding and developing the right idea does.

I work with marketing and communications teams to interrogate expert opinions, test them against what the audience actually cares about, and push until we find something genuinely worth saying. Then, when needed, I develop it into the argument, story, and finished writing that makes it land.

My background spans journalism, editorial leadership and consulting. Since 2016, I’ve worked with marketing and communications teams across North America, Europe and Australia in financial services, healthcare, sustainability, energy and consulting.

How I help

Every project is different, so we agree the scope, inputs and deliverables upfront.

Broadly, my work falls into three areas – and I can work with your team wherever I add most value:

1. Idea & Direction

Find the idea in your expertise your audience will actually care about

Projects tend to start in one of two places: either there’s plenty of expertise but no clear, distinctive idea tying it together; or there’s already an idea on the table that hasn’t yet been tested hard enough to know whether it’s the right one.

I interrogate source material and expert thinking to find and test the strongest idea (what we’re saying) and work out the direction (where we’re going with it). Where an existing idea stands up, I’ll sharpen it. Where it doesn’t, I’ll look for something better.

I’m trying to answer: Why will the audience care? What are we telling them they don’t already know or haven’t thought about that way? What will saying it help you achieve? Is there enough evidence to defend it?

The crucial part is getting beyond the obvious answers: knowing what to challenge, what to pursue, and when you’ve found something strong enough to build around.

Outcome: A clear, differentiated idea worth developing – and a direction your team can take forward or I can develop through to finished copy.

2. Development & Writing

Turn the idea and raw material into something people will want to read and trust

Once the idea and direction are clear, it can look as though the hard part is done. It isn’t.

Good source material doesn’t necessarily tell you what matters, what it means, how the pieces fit together or where the story lies. I interrogate it to draw out connections, identify gaps and ask the questions needed to strengthen the piece.

I develop the argument (what makes the idea hold up), find the story (how we make the audience want to follow it) and write and refine the piece – bringing in further research or expert interviews wherever they’re needed.

Outcome: A finished piece built around a distinctive idea, a defensible argument and a story and voice that make it land.

3. Training for Marketing & Communications Teams

Help your team get better at finding ideas, building arguments and telling stories people want to read

I offer tailored training focused on the difficult parts of turning expertise into effective communication – from getting more from subject experts and identifying ideas worth developing to building stronger arguments, finding stories and writing with a human voice.

This builds on my experience designing and delivering writing skills workshops as an in-house managing editor.

Outcome: Participants leave with practical techniques for turning expert thinking into stronger ideas, arguments and stories – and writing that sounds like a person.

If you want to find a stronger idea, make more of the one you have, or help your team get better at both, let’s talk.

What They’re Saying

James is definitely one of my go-to freelance writers - top of the list. I joked about not giving him a recommendation because I didn't want him to get too popular and have no time left for our many projects. His background as a journalist helps us get to the core of our stories and articles. And his passion for climate action brings depth and human understanding to some truly complex topics. He is thorough in his pre-work and research, professional when interviewing our key clients, and delivers projects in a timely manner that frequently require little to no editing. He understands the tone of our brand and consistently makes my job that much easier.

Beth Hollett

Senior Manager, Marketing & Communications, Deloitte Canada

My experience working with James is one I'd happily repeat. He demonstrated great technical subject matter expertise, was highly professional and very easy to work with. His writing style is clear, confident and human which is exactly what we were looking for. I would recommend James for B2B content development in the Energy sector.

Kay Eliseev

UK ER&I Marketing Lead, Deloitte UK

James worked with us on several high profile projects. Managing multiple stakeholders, timezones and controversial and highly politicised topics, he was able to draw out the key messages and convert them into engaging and concise content. James is a pleasure to work with and I wouldn't hesitate recommending him and his excellent writing skills.

Deena Hooper

Senior Manager - Energy, Utilities & Resources Marketing, PwC Australia

I would enthusiastically recommend James. We had an extremely short time to produce a paper that was strategically important for Deloitte. James was highly collaborative and flexible, fitting in with senior stakeholder diaries. The final paper is excellent.

Katie Bennett-Stenton

National Marketing Lead, Deloitte Australia

"James has a talent for identifying and isolating the critical factors that are essential to facilitate success. Capturing these insights and information; translating complexity into simple, clear language; and pulling everything together to form a compelling strategy/plan that helped move our business forward."

Tim Mann

Senior Manager Market Access, BTG

We were concerned that a consultant would charge an arm and a leg for basically repackaging and presenting our own work in a way we really could have done ourselves. Instead James truly added value by bringing genuine industry experience and combining it with professional skill, in so doing he guided us through his tested plan and processes to reach a pleasing end product.

It was a learning experience for all involved within our company to think through, arrange and package our product offering more clearly to our clients. Using James' services helped us focus more on our strengths. It also highlighted areas needing improvement. The end product is drawing attention to our company and brand, promoting us as a “thought leader” in our industry.

James is a professional in digital marketing and brand awareness. He is fully committed and involved in the whole process, from planning and drafting the white paper to planning and executing the marketing strategy to get the word out in the market. Allpress Communications charges a reasonable fee to do great work, and you get to work with the top dog, no matter how small your company!

Henry Venter

Executive Director, ADC Projects

I’ve had the pleasure of working with James on a handful of projects and am always very pleased with his deliverables. He is always very professional when interviewing our stakeholders and clients and has a great ability to turn the output into compelling stories. I look forward to working on our next project together!

Rachel Peters

Global Marketing Manager, Microsoft Technology Practice, Deloitte Global

I've had the opportunity to work with James for the past couple of years and am extremely happy with his work. He’s very knowledgeable and passionate about the content (Sustainability). As a journalist by trade, he is a highly skilled and professional interviewer and an excellent storyteller. He always delivers on time and goes the extra mile to accommodate your needs. Overall, it's been an absolute pleasure working with James, and fingers crossed, I will continue to do so for many more!

Lorie Humeniuk

Senior Marketing Specialist, Deloitte

James was a pleasure to work with. He did a great job writing about a complex topic in a clear way, stuck to deadlines, and we are all very pleased with the end-product!

Stephanie Gladstone Posner

Global Financial Services Marketing, Deloitte Global

James is a professional writer available in a freelance capacity. He had fantastic turn around times and delivered real insight, challenge and value-add ideas to professional documents. The ability to convey emotion and passion in a professional context was excellent. And James is fun to work with! I would happily recommend James

Chris Dodd

Partner at PwC, PwC

We think that explaining complex health economics in such a concise way is a very big achievement. The numerical examples are easy to understand, all four briefings read very clearly, and have been well-received with our target audiences. James did a great job of framing the debate on the problems in the referral pathway for four distinct audiences with different perspectives on implants and different levels of technical knowledge. I highly recommend James for healthcare writing projects.

Hafsa Quadri

Global Manager, Health Economics and Outcomes Research, Cochlear

"I worked with James at Heren Energy, the leading energy price reporting agency, for more than a decade. When he joined the company in 1997, he stood out right away as a talented and intelligent reporter with a nose for news and a penchant for accuracy. He was always a good person to work with: kind, imaginative and humorous. He took on responsibilities willingly and was promoted in due course to edit the company’s flagship journal. While getting the detail right, James always has an eye on the bigger picture - the news behind the news - and this makes him an outstanding journalist."

Patrick Heren

Writer; Energy Commentator

"My regular strategy sessions with James are really useful in terms of looking at our business from another perspective, identifying areas for improvement, setting targets and a plan for reaching our goals. They also provided a much-needed look at our customers – seeing the world from their perspective, understanding their problems and how we can solve them. I'm always inspired by our conversations!"

Julian Ransom

Director, 4th Corner