About the Potting Shed

The Potting Shed offers creative coaching. It was founded by me, Sandi Marshall, and is rooted in a simple belief: creativity helps us live, work, and lead with more clarity and courage.

The name comes from a real potting shed at the bottom of my garden, where I make jewellery. For transparency: I’m no gardener, so no actual potting takes place in my potting shed. But it is where ideas take root.

What The Potting Shed Offers

I work with individuals, groups, and teams through:

• individual coaching

• group coaching

• team coaching

• events

Everything I do at The Potting Shed is focused on unlocking and nurturing creativity. In people, in leaders, and in communities.

I help people return to creativity after life changes, move forward with projects that feel stuck, or simply find ways to prioritise creativity in busy lives. I also help leaders become more authentic, more grounded, and more confident in the decisions they make.

Whether you’re a leader or not, this is a space to stop second‑guessing and start leading your own life.

Why I Founded The Potting Shed

I believe that engaging in creative practice is always positive. Creativity helps us understand ourselves, make sense of the world, and imagine better possibilities. Yet many people feel excluded from creativity, or struggle to give it the time and space it deserves.

Creativity takes many forms and is available to everyone. I believe we’d all be happier, and the world would be better, if creative practice was valued and accessible for all. Creativity should never be limited by barriers, physical, social, or cultural, and I’m committed to designing coaching and events that welcome people as they are. Everyone deserves to follow their creative dreams.

I’m also deeply excited about creativity in leadership. I’ve been a leader for over a decade, including more than five years as a charity CEO. I’m currently Co‑CEO of Walthew House in Stockport, supporting people with sight and/or hearing loss. I also serve on the Board of Sector 3 and am a founder Director of Creative Women CIC.

Leadership has shown me that creativity isn’t a “nice to have”. It’s how we solve problems, build teams, navigate uncertainty, and stay human in the process.

My Creative Practice

I’m a writer and jewellery maker, with a long list of other creative pursuits (knitting, doodling, and whatever else catches my curiosity). I know the ups and downs of the creative process: the joy, the doubt, the resistance, and the courage it takes to honour your own creative potential.

It took me years to claim the identity of “A Creative”. But creativity has always been central to how I think, lead, and make sense of the world. When I’ve felt stuck, creativity has been the thing that helped me move again.

My Coaching

I’m an ILM Level 7 qualified coach for Executive and Senior Leaders, and a member of EMCC and ILM. I take my coaching seriously: ethical practice, regular CPD, supervision, and ongoing learning are non‑negotiables for me. I also volunteer as a coach with Queen Bee Coaching.

What I love most is helping people realise their potential and grow in ways they hadn’t imagined.

What I Believe

Creative practice (in leadership or in life) is courageous. It asks us to show up as ourselves. It asks us to imagine, to experiment, to trust our instincts, and to keep going even when things feel uncertain.

I’m here to support you if you feel the pull of your creative potential. If you know there’s something more inside you. And if you’re a leader, I’m here to help you recognise leadership itself as a creative practice.

Because creativity is always transformational.