How Laura Leigh Chapman became the Comms Legend

Without creativity I don’t know who I’d be

My love of creativity and connecting with people in lots of different ways is one of the things that took me to Performing Arts College in Bristol, UK after school, training in acting, writing, directing and producing. It’s also what led me to spend my late teens and early twenties volunteering as part of the core team at the then newly established Cube Microplex. And on to front of house jobs in concert halls and at the Bristol Old Vic theatre and for a time, being Bristol’s favourite door person at many a gig, concert, event, cinema and theatre.

Being in those creative environments helps foster an understanding of the power of your voice; of being clear, of listening as well as being heard. They also help the relationship you develop with yourself - your self awareness, courage and confidence. They helped make me who I am.

When, in 2005, I pretty much fell into a full-time job working in corporate internal communications in an insurance company, I definitely didn’t think it would set me on a path that would determine the rest of my career and in many ways, my life. Although insurance wasn’t for me in the long-term, I’m incredibly grateful to many folk in those early years; people who believed in personal and professional development, investing in thorough training and providing huge amounts of mentoring and coaching support.

I found a great deal of purpose in internal communication - communication for employees. Throughout my career I’ve worked to improve the experience for people on the receiving end of any message and to do all I can to ensure communication is delivered in the most sensitive, respectful and well thought out way possible. That’s why I spent over 15 years specialising in communicating change, tackling some incredibly complex and often quite tough messages, including large scale redundancies, office moves and business closures.

In my employed life in corporate comms, I worked in the private and public sector and through an agency as a contractor, and have been around various industries - banking, the environment, manufacturing, engineering, education, and a great deal of time in the arts and media.

In 2017, I decided to go solo and started my own business. Initially, I was providing communication support for large scale change programmes in the media industry, before branching out into different types of communication consultancy, including communication reviews and audits, working with teams to create communication strategies and training and mentoring leaders to help improve their communication.

In early 2020, before any of us knew what was coming round the corner, I started dipping a toe into the world of small and online creative business, looking at how I could take all my experience, knowledge and skill from the big business world and use it to benefit solo entrepreneurs, small businesses and folk in my local community. 

After much experimentation, some incredible experiences and huge learning along the way, I’ve landed here today with a business I love, branded the Comms Legend by my clients and getting to support many different types of creative folk in the arts, culture and media in businesses small, medium and large.

I combine mentoring, training and strategy to support people with every element of communication and messaging from the roots up, whether that’s values, purpose and vision-setting, creating your foundational messages and transformation story, figuring out who you’re communicating with and how, or showing up with confidence as your perfectly, imperfect self.

I’ve had the honour to work with some fabulous big businesses like ITV and Netflix, awesome creatives and organisations local to me in Bristol, like Upfest, Insane Root, Paul “Monsters” Roberts, Spark Films and Circus Antics Entertainment, and a whole range of incredible online small businesses including copywriters, mentors, makers, artists and all sorts of creative folk in between.