Claire Raikes describes herself as a Creator, a Communicator, an Intuitive, a Soul- or Spiritual Entrepreneur, a Nature Lover and a Renaissance Soul/Scanner. Others might say she’s a Consultant and  Coach or Trainer.  Her passions and areas of expertise include Online Business & Marketing, Natural Health, Spirituality & Noetic Science.

Before switching to online business, Claire spent over 10 years creating and delivering experiential and integrated marketing campaigns for blue chip brands. Her entrepreneurial bent was obvious early on; in her first agency job, she rose from Junior Account Manager to Board Director (Client Services) in just 4 years. Turnover increased from £250k to £6.5m over the same period. She went on to set up a number of rival companies, including a couple of her own, both of which achieved ’second year’ turnovers in excess of £1m. Key clients over the years include Birds Eye Walls, Muller Dairy, Nestle (UK), Royal Opera House, Van den Bergh Foods, Master Foods and Fox’s Biscuits.

But the ‘work hard, play hard’ lifestyle caught up and when the business hit financial difficulties, she decided to bow out gracefully and take a sabbatical. Fuelled by her interest in personal development, she retrained as a coach.

Around the same time, Claire became ill with a life-threatening digestive condition. Stubbornly refusing to accept conventional medical intervention, she embarked on a natural healing adventure. Documenting the entire journey on a blog, it was 2 years before she became well again by overhauling her diet and lifestyle choices and developing her spiritual and noetic science understanding.  What she now sees as the ‘gift’ of this experience led eventually to her co-founding www.DailyBread365.com – a membership community site delivering body and soul nutrition, education and inspiration – with friend and registered Nutritionist Lucy-Ann Prideaux.

As an early-adopter of the blogging phenomenon, it wasn’t long before Claire found herself being perceived as something of a social media expert and so, in early 2006, BusinessBlogAngel.com was born. Creating business blogging and social media marketing blueprints and blogsites for SMEs, entrepreneurs and global micro-brands, the ‘BlogAngel’ was able to combine her coaching, training, technical and marketing skills whilst achieving her personal goal of creating a life where she could work from home and live anywhere.

After 18 years based in London’s Battersea, Claire was able to honour her ‘hiraeth‘ and return to Wales where she now lives by the sea in Penarth in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Claire is a certified NLP Practitioner with over 16 years of practical NLP application. She is also a trained coach, with special certification and experience of working with teenagers.

In her free time, Claire can be found seeking new experiences: over the years, she has raced motorcycles, walked on hot coals, got booted out of drama school, delivered motivational talks in a second language, exhibited a painting at Dulwich Museum, paraglided off Mount Babadag, broadcast on the BBC’s World Service and been a saucy centrefold!

You can get to know her better by viewing her lifestream here.