HOME ABOUT CONTACT SERVICES PRODUCTS FREEBIES BLOG


HEY, I'M DR. NESS!

A 3x award-winning psycholinguist turned branding and marketing strategist for online coaches – here to help you become a household name.

Whether you're brand new to the industry or one of the OGs, there's nothing worse than knowing you're meant for more but not yet reaching your full potential.

(Except, perhaps, realising it has nothing to do with the transformation you're facilitating, and everything to do with how you're selling it.)

 

Yep – the problem isn't what you have to offer. It's how you're talking about what you have to offer.

I'm here to help you get better at that, so you can step further into your purpose, be of deeper service, and make the difference you want to see in the world.

 

Here's how I ended up doing this…

 

MY WHY:


My path didn't start in a business school. It started on a neurology ward.

When I was 19, my then-partner had a bike accident that rendered him comatose due to brain damage. He suffered a diffuse axonal injury (the most severe and devastating type), as well as an acute intracerebral haemorrhage with intraventricular extension.

His amnesia was so severe that he didn't know who he was, never mind who I was… but most catastrophically, when he awoke, he'd lost the ability to communicate. Partly because of how the injury affected his cognitive processing, emotional regulation, and executive functioning, and partly because of the speech impairments it left him with. Even after more than a year of rehabilitation, there was little to no improvement. And it was heartbreaking to watch someone I loved struggle so badly to think clearly and speak freely – especially because it caused so many of his deepest, most meaningful relationships to deteriorate as a result.

Witnessing all of this made me obsess over two questions:

  • Extraction – how can I help people work out what's really inside them?
  • Expression – how can I support them in getting it out into the world, where it counts?

The compulsion to answer them is what drove me to pursue a PhD in psycholinguistics, where I learned how deeply psychology and language shape our ability to connect with other people. I then got curious about what that same science could do commercially – which is what led me to branding and marketing!

 

 

WHY MY ACADEMIC BACKGROUND SHOULD MATTER TO YOU


Here's the thing most people miss: psychology and language are the foundations all branding and marketing are built on.

Get them right and everything works. Get them wrong and nothing does.

 

And yet, despite their importance, I've never met another strategist in this industry who's also a doctor of psycholinguistics.

That's why I can say, with absolute conviction, that I offer a solution completely different to – and better than – anything else out there.

 

Of course, I still use the tried-and-tested formulas and templates others rely and depend on.

But my background in the cognitive sciences lets me go above and beyond them, too.

 

I truly am an expert in how words provoke thought, evoke emotion, and drive action.

And the academic theories, principles, heuristics and cues I apply to business are precisely what give my clients the unfair advantage they need to succeed.

  • CHECK THE STATS \
  • CHECK THE STATS \
  • CHECK THE STATS \
  • CHECK THE STATS \
  • CHECK THE STATS \
  • CHECK THE STATS \
  • CHECK THE STATS \
  • CHECK THE STATS \
  • CHECK THE STATS \
  • CHECK THE STATS \
  • CHECK THE STATS \
  • CHECK THE STATS \
  • CHECK THE STATS \
  • CHECK THE STATS \
  • CHECK THE STATS \
  • CHECK THE STATS \
High-Profile Clients
100+
Brand
Collabs
50+
Magazine Features
12
Awards
3

MY CREDENTIALS

  1. BA (Hons) in Linguistics
  2. MLitt in Linguistics
  3. PhD in Psycholinguistics
  4. Postgraduate Degree in Education
  5. Postgraduate Degree in Research Methods
  6. Psychological Therapies Diploma (DBT, CBT, SFT, ACT, CFT)
  7. ICF Accredited Business Coaching Certification
  8. Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Qualification
  9. Institute of Sales Management (ISM) Certificate
  10. NLP Master Practitioner
  11. Published Academic Researcher
  12. Soon-to-be-published Hay House Author

 

Beyond the letters after my name, I've spent 20+ years in branding, marketing and sales – working with Fortune 500 companies like Coca-Cola, Amazon and Disney, A-list names including Khloé Kardashian, and hundreds of coaches who've shaped the personal development space, including Tony Robbins).

(More on exactly who, and the results we got, just below.)

 

CLIENTS I'VE WORKED WITH

People:

Tony Robbins, Dean Graziosi, Natalie Ellis of Bossbabe, Danielle Canty, Brendon Burchard, Anna Nassery, Amy Sangster, Danielle Leslie, Sabrina Philipp, Margot Miller, Sarah Anne Stewart, Alyssa Nobriga, Mel Wells, Kaitlyn Kaerhart, Lucy Sheridan, Persia Lawson, Shaa Wasmund MBE, Suzy Ashworth, Emily Williams, Camille Knowles, Ashley James (as seen on This Morning and Made in Chelsea), Jamie Kern Lima (founder of IT Cosmetics), Khloe Kardashian, and more.

Brands:

Coca-Cola, Estée Lauder, Amazon, Walt Disney, Kellogg, Nespresso, Audible, St. Tropez, Cetaphil, CeraVe, Ann Summers, Boux Avenue, Bumble, Happn, Kopparberg, Bulleit Bourbon, Captain Morgan, Smashbox Cosmetics, Bobbi Brown, M·A·C Cosmetics, Too Faced, BECCA Cosmetics, Tom Ford Beauty, Clinique, Deciem (now The Ordinary), GlamGlow, La Mer, Origins, Bumble and Bumble, Aveda, Boots, Boohoo, Missguided, Nasty Gal, Ladbrokes, etc.!

 RESULTS I'VE GOTTEN


A fitness coach went from £1k-£100k months in just a year and a half – off the back of a complete brand positioning overhaul.

Pitched and won 5 awards for a business owner whose thought leadership I developed from the ground up.

Zero to seven figures in three years for a life coach who's never run a live launch in her life. We achieved this via funnels only.

Helped a mindset coach swap million-dollar years for million-dollar months, largely through podcasting – hosting her own and guesting on everyone else's.

Wrote and pitched the proposal and sample chapters that landed a natural chef and functional nutritionist a major book deal.

A business coach made it to the TED stage after I helped her ideate and create her keynote before putting it in front of the right people.

Marketed a love coach's brand so strongly that she got picked up by an agent and became a recurring guest expert on a major dating show.

Built a membership and masterclass funnel for an identity coach that pulls seven figures a year into that product alone.

Ghostwrote the articles that got a business coach featured in Forbes and Entrepreneur.

Repositioned a manifestation coach from budget to luxury so well that she was able to triple her rates and still sell her programme out.

 

HOW I DO IT:


Everything runs on one proprietary framework: The Distinctive Communication Method™ – leveraging psychology and language to shape how people perceive your brand and receive your marketing, so your words get you the exact result you want.

Some people have issues in one of these areas and some in both – to greater and lesser extents. Which is exactly why I have three strategic offerings, so there's something for everyone:

  • The Power Hour – sixty focused minutes on your single most pressing problem
  • The 30-Day Sprint – a month to diagnose and fix your foundations, with finished assets to show for it
  • The 3-Month Container – deep, ongoing partnership (minimum three months, though most people stay years – because I integrate fully as a fractional CBO/CMO, guiding at executive level)

And for a select few, I also offer execution – where I don't just make the plan, I put it into action myself. I write, of course, but I offer design too… and all the boring techy bits that bring everything together.

 

  • The Power Hour – sixty focused minutes on your single most pressing problem
  • The 30-Day Sprint – a month to diagnose and fix your foundations, with finished assets to show for it
  • The 3-Month Container – a deep, ongoing partnership where I integrate fully as a fractional CBO/CMO, guiding at the executive level)

OUTSIDE OF WORK

A few things you won't find on my CV...

  1. I'm Manchester-based, but actually a Geordie – born and bred in Newcastle, with the broadest accent to prove it (even after a decade away from the toon).
  2. Despite the surname, I'm actually not Scottish. Only my step-dad is.
  3. At 34, I'm not married, and don't have children – besides my two Ragdoll cats, Willy and Wally.
  4. And though a man may have featured in my origin story above… I am, in fact, a lesbian. Loud and proud.
  5. Like most of my clients – I'm neurospicy AF, but find it has far more pros than it does cons.
  6. I'm Type A at work, and Type B at home, much to the displeasure of my friends and family.
  7. And I'm a bit of a walking contradiction, e.g. I start my days early at the gym, but end them late in a TikTok scroll hole.
  8. I should probably be watching my cortisol, but will always prefer a White Monster over a matcha.
  9. But as much as I love caffeine, I don't drink much alcohol... I spend more time staying in these days than I do going out.
  10. If you lose me, I'm probably curled up in a corner reading a book or someone's tarot cards.
  11. I'm very spiritual for a scientist, obsessed with astrology, numerology, and the rest!

FOLLOW ALONG
ON INSTA

@drvanessamcintosh

THE SECOND OPINION

Sharing my perspective to help you find yours.

We can't always say how we feel on social media without getting censored. So if you want my unfiltered take – my newsletter's where it's at.

Every Monday I'm dropping my best insights on what it actually takes to become the go-to authority in your space. What's working right now, what's not worth your time or energy – plus behind the scenes, priority access to new offerings, and the occasional discount.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

PRIVACY POLICY

FULFILMENT POLICY