Rachel Coles
Rachel Coles

Modern workplaces today are increasingly inflexible for working mothers. A recent survey in the United States reported that nearly two-thirds of working moms consider leaving the modern workforce, yet Rachel Coles, founder of Conv3rt Marketing, is determined to change that narrative, bringing empathy and compassion to the forefront of her leadership methodology.

Coles approaches marketing with the instinct of a storyteller, always searching for the human reason behind a brand before considering how to promote it. "People buy into the emotion," she says, "That belief has shaped the way the agency is built and led." For her, marketing and leadership are inseparable from her approach to life and motherhood. Those elements go hand-in-hand, influencing the ethos of the company where empathy and ethics are the daily practice embedded in every relationship and every internal decision.

"I knew from day one that Conv3rt had to be built around my personal values," she explains. "We are a marketing agency, but at its very core, we're informed by our deep-rooted care for each other, for our clients, and for our work."

Coles operates Conv3rt with a passion that might appear inherent, but her journey never began with marketing in mind. "I'm one of those people who never knew what I actually wanted to do, until I did it," she shares. At university, she pursued a journalism and English language degree, but soon, she found an unexpected form of direction. "I liked journalism, but I sought something more creative. In my experience, the curriculum was very logical. I felt like I was confined in a box that didn't align with my creative temperament," she shares.

That lineal structure contrasted sharply with her instinct to think expansively, to move between ideas, and to engage with multiple projects at once. "I like that quick way of life, where you're switching between different things. And that spills into my personal life, where if I seek something, I will go and get it. That's the drive I've always operated on," Coles explains.

Strengthened by that go-getter philosophy, Coles found her footing in the world of marketing, and particularly agency work, where variety and problem-solving felt more aligned with her character. Early experiences in the industry, however, revealed patterns that unsettled her.

She noted how performance metrics overshadowed genuine outcomes, and campaigns move forward without meaningful reflection on purpose. "People often did things simply for the sake of doing them, without asking themselves: why are we actually doing this?" she says. Internally, Coles witnessed how workplace cultures frequently failed to support the people expected to deliver the work, especially working mothers who needed flexibility and understanding rather than rigid structures.

A life-threatening childbirth experience sharpened her perspective in ways no professional setback could. The ordeal reframed her relationship with what she was willing to tolerate in her career. Shortly afterwards, redundancy from a health and well-being company created a moment of decision that felt impossible to ignore. With urgency and conviction, she founded Conve3t Marketing with a clear intention to build an agency grounded in values she had never consistently experienced herself.

From its inception, Conv3rt has prioritised flexibility, honesty, empathy, and ethical practice as operational principles. These values first took tangible shape in her hiring decisions. Her first senior hire, Rachel, came through a networking group and revealed during the interview process that she was thirteen weeks pregnant and recently redundant. "Instead of viewing it as an inconvenience, I saw how her capabilities could be an asset for the company in the long-term. I sought to set a precedent," Coles explains.

She notes how team members are hired for who they are and what they can contribute over time, rather than how neatly they fit immediate logistical needs. As the team expanded, many members shared similar experiences of motherhood, mental health challenges, and trauma, creating an environment built on mutual understanding.

Flexibility at Conv3rt is defined by trust, as employees set their own working hours according to what suits their lives, with school runs, medical appointments, and childcare treated as normal realities rather than disruptions. An employee wellbeing hub provides mental health resources, ensuring support is available even when conversations feel difficult to initiate directly. Coles says, "Your mental health is the priority, I need mentally well people to deliver good work."

With trust as the bedrock of the company, Coles regularly advises clients against spending on strategies she knows will not deliver, reinforcing credibility through transparency. Conv3rt spends time uncovering the founder's journey behind each brand, identifying the experiences and motivations that led to its creation, and using that narrative as the foundation for personal brand development. White papers, thought leadership, and founder-led storytelling sit at the centre of her approach, supported by a team where each member contributes specialist expertise within a collaborative framework.

Clients who gravitate towards Conv3rt often share similar value systems, having built businesses from personal experiences and wanting their marketing to reflect that sincerity. "They see us as an extension of their team," Coles says. "We're the consultants, the strategists, everything they actually need."

Ultimately, Conv3rt stands as a testament to Rachel Coles' belief that marketing should feel human at every level, from the way a story is told to the way a team is supported behind the scenes. She explains, "The best marketer is just telling the story. When you really understand why someone built their business and what they've been through to get there, that becomes the marketing."