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I Have Been Many Things:
Taliesin, Transformation and the Conditions for Sustainable Growth

I Have Been Many Things:
Taliesin, Transformation and the Conditions for Sustainable Growth

Why an ancient Welsh poem says more about my work than any job title ever could

One of the questions I've wrestled with throughout my career is "What exactly do you do?"

The honest answer depends on which part of my life you happen to catch me in. By day, I might be helping a team untangle complexity, improve a service or navigate organisational change. In the evening, I might be supporting a founder who feels overwhelmed by the weight of her business. At the weekend, you might find me walking through woodland, attending a Druid gathering or contemplating what my fruit trees are trying to teach me this week.

On paper, none of this appears particularly connected, and yet when I look back, I can see a thread running through all of it.

Oddly enough, I think an ancient Welsh poem explains it best.

 

The Song of Taliesin

Taliesin is one of the most famous figures in Welsh mythology, a poet, seer and keeper of wisdom. One of the most well-known passages associated with him contains a repeated phrase:

" I have been... "

A stag.
A salmon.
A bird.
A sword.
A bridge.

Various animals, objects and forms appear throughout the poem and people interpret these verses in different ways.

My own interpretation is that they describe visionary experiences, deep meditative journeys or altered states of awareness through which Taliesin experienced life from many different perspectives. Whether that interpretation is historically accurate is almost beside the point. What speaks to me is the idea that wisdom comes from seeing the world through many lenses.

Taliesin remains himself, yet he has also been many things.

 

" I have been... "

That idea resonates deeply with me. Throughout my life, I too have been many things.

I have been an art student answering calls in a cable television call centre.
I have been the person behind a deli counter serving customers, forearms scorched by rotisserie heaters.
I have been a skipper sailing a water bus, powering forward a small boat over tall waves like a 'bucking broncho'.
I have been part of web design and graphic design teams.
I have been the person taking incoming calls for a football radio programme.
I have been a medieval re-enactor.
I have been someone helping jobseekers structure CVs and recognise strengths they had forgotten they possessed.
I have been a co-owner of an independent record label.
I have been a music gig organiser and merchandise seller.
I have been a business analyst.
I have been a project delivery professional.
I have been a line manager.
I have been a counsellor.
I have been a coach.
I have been a supervisor.
I have been a complementary therapist.
I have been a business owner.
I have been someone rebuilding after loss.
I have been someone learning how to stop carrying responsibilities that were never mine to carry.

Each role offered a different perspective. Each taught me something about people, change, resilience and growth.
The jobs may appear unrelated. The lessons are not.

 

The journeys within

Alongside these outward experiences have been inner ones. Through meditation, Druid practice and guided inner-journey work, I have experienced the world from perspectives very different from my everyday life. Like Taliesin, I have found wisdom in unexpected places.

I have been a charging stag.
I have been a soaring starling.
I have been an otter.
And perhaps most surprisingly, I have been a seabass.

Whether you view such experiences as imagination, symbolism, spirituality, meditation or something else entirely, each offered a different lesson.

 

The stag taught me about courage. Not aggression. Not dominance. Courage. The willingness to step forward, to be seen and to occupy space.

Many founders and leaders I work with are remarkably capable, yet visibility is often one of their greatest challenges. They second-guess themselves, delay action or shrink parts of who they are to avoid criticism or rejection.

The stag reminds me that leadership often begins with standing where you are and allowing yourself to be seen.

 

The starling taught me about collaboration. Starlings fly in vast murmurations, thousands of birds moving together in remarkable harmony. There is no central command directing every movement, yet they rarely collide. Each bird responds to those around it while maintaining its own autonomy. There is something profoundly instructive in that.

The healthiest businesses and teams often operate in much the same way. People understand their role. They trust one another. They act independently when needed while remaining aware of the wider system they are part of.

Many founders struggle because they try to carry everything themselves. The starling reminds us that sustainable growth often requires trust, delegation, community and healthy interdependence.

 

The otter taught me about curiosity, creativity and play. As businesses grow, it becomes easy for everything to feel serious. Every decision feels important. Every mistake feels costly. Creativity rarely thrives under constant pressure. The otter reminds me that experimentation is often where innovation begins. Sometimes progress comes not from pushing harder but from becoming more curious.

Many of the women I support need permission to rediscover that sense of playfulness and exploration that existed before every decision felt like a responsibility.

 

And then there was the seabass. You might expect the deepest lesson to come from the stag or the starling. The lesson that stayed with me most came from a fish.

What I experienced was a profound stillness, a quiet and surprising serenity. No rushing. No striving. No pressure to become something else. Just calm presence. For someone who has spent much of her life solving problems, supporting others and carrying responsibility, that lesson was unexpectedly powerful.

Many founders are so accustomed to operating under pressure that calm can feel unfamiliar.

The seabass reminds me that sustainable growth requires periods of steadiness, recovery and reflection. We cannot build healthy businesses while remaining permanently in a state of urgency.

 

Creating the conditions for sustainable growth

When I look across everything I have studied and practised, from business analysis to counselling, from coaching to complementary therapies, from public services to Druidry, I see a common question beneath it all:

" What creates the conditions for sustainable growth?"

Not growth at any cost. Not growth fuelled by stress, overwork or self-sacrifice. Sustainable growth. The kind that strengthens rather than depletes, that allows people to remain connected to themselves while building something meaningful.

The business analyst in me looks at systems.
The counsellor looks at beliefs and emotions.
The coach looks at possibilities.
The supervisor looks at reflection and learning.
The complementary therapist looks at recovery and restoration.
The Druid looks at seasons, cycles and relationships.

Different lenses. The same question.

 

The orchard beneath the business

This is why I often return to nature-based metaphors:

You cannot force an orchard to thrive.
You cannot demand fruit from a tree whose roots are struggling.
You cannot shame a sapling into growing faster.

You create the conditions.

You improve the soil.
You nurture the roots.
You remove what no longer serves.

You work with the seasons.
The growth follows.

People are not so different. Neither are businesses.

 

Why this matters

Many business coaches focus on what you should do next. That's important.

But before action comes understanding.
Before growth comes conditions.
Before strategy comes awareness.

The women I support are often intelligent, capable and deeply committed. They do not usually need fixing.

What they often need is courage.
The courage of the stag.

Connection.
The collaboration of the starling.

Creativity.
The curiosity of the otter.

Calm.
The serenity of the seabass.

What they often need is space, perspective and support to reconnect with qualities that have been buried beneath responsibility and expectation.

Sometimes my role is to help them look at their business differently.
Sometimes it is to help them look at themselves differently.
Often it is both.

 

Still Emma

Like Taliesin, I have been many things.

The art student.
The call centre worker.
The water bus skipper.
The record label owner.
The business analyst.
The counsellor.
The coach.
The Druid.
The founder.

Yet none of those things fully define me.

They are simply different perspectives through which I have learned to understand growth, change and transformation.
Today, I bring those experiences together to help founders and leaders create the conditions for sustainable growth. Not just in their businesses, but in themselves.

Because the strongest businesses are rarely built by people who push harder.
They are built by people who learn how to grow without losing themselves in the process.