For this month's Inside Track feature, Director on Demand founder Russell Thomson chats with Raspberry Flamingo founder Claire Taylor Foster about everything from the life-changing accident that shattered her leg to building one of the region’s most distinctive copywriting agencies – all while adding a splash of colour to South Yorkshire’s business scene along the way.
When I sit down with Claire Taylor Foster, founder of Raspberry Flamingo, at Cutlers’ Hall in Sheffield, it doesn’t take long to see why her Barnsley-based copywriting and content marketing business has such a strong identity. Claire is sharp, warm and full of stories about resilience, reinvention and the power of saying yes – often against the odds.
I start with the obvious question: how did she get here?
“I always knew I loved the written word,” she explains. “Being creative with the written word – but I’m not a fiction writer. I always thought I would be and I’m not. I failed miserably at it.”
That early realisation led Claire to study Communication Studies at Sheffield Hallam University before joining an advertising agency “far too long ago to remember”. There she learned to write copy for radio, TV and magazines – the foundation of everything that would follow.
From there she went to work for the architects behind Meadowhall. “I was part week in London and part week on site when it was just a muddy field and concrete being poured,” she recalls. When the project ended, they wanted her to move permanently to London. “I didn’t want to, so I stayed up in Sheffield,” she says.
Staying proved the right move. She eventually joined the University of Sheffield, starting as an admin assistant and working her way up to head of department, with marketing responsibility always part of her role. When voluntary severance came along in 2010, she took it – though she admits she had “no idea what was next”.
What came next was varied: running a training business, then delivering corporate training for clients such as Google and Siemens. The pay was great, but it wasn’t her material. “It just wasn’t doing it for me,” she admits.
Then came a conversation that sent her off on a completely different path. “My husband asked me what I wanted to be growing up,” she laughs. “I said Linda Barker from Changing Rooms. He said, well, do interior design then.”
Claire retrained and launched a design and decorating business that took off instantly. “It just flew,” she says. “Female decorators aren’t that many, and certain cultures don’t want men in the house. I’d got six months of work on the books, a team of four or five – it was flying.”
Then everything stopped.
“I fell off a ladder and shattered my leg. I couldn’t walk properly for 16 months without an external frame on and walking aids. Life sort of stopped. I was bedridden for 16 months out of the 18.”
It was, as I say to her, a real sliding doors moment.
“At first, I felt like I was in a black hole,” she says. “I didn’t know if I was ever going to be able to walk again properly. I couldn’t see a way forward.”
Recovery was long and painful – seven operations, even a life-threatening reaction to anaesthetic. But gradually, as her mobility returned, so did her sense of purpose.
“I had to think, if I couldn’t ever walk again properly, what could I do? How could I earn money?” she says. “I looked back over every job I’d ever done and asked what one thing I loved most. It was always the writing.”
She reached out to her local business network with a simple message: if she went back into marketing and copywriting, would they use her? “People said yes – can you start now?” she laughs. “I wasn’t even fully off the medication, but they just accepted the change. I was so humbled.”
And so, Raspberry Flamingo began to take shape. The name, however, didn’t come easily.
“I was going to call it Communicate Copywriting because it said what it did on the tin,” she says. “But it sounded so boring it made my soul sink.”
One night, in frustration, she simply asked the universe for inspiration. “I said in my head, somebody tell me what to call this business,” she recalls. “I woke up next morning and it was like somebody said Raspberry Flamingo in my head.”
The name stuck after a moment of perfect coincidence. “I texted my friend and said, is Raspberry Flamingo the most stupid name you’ve ever heard for my business? She texted back immediately and said, at this moment I’m drinking raspberry tea out of the flamingo mug you bought me. That was that.”
Raspberry Flamingo launched in 2018 as a solo, part-time venture. Then the pandemic hit.
“All of a sudden, I was getting calls from tradespeople and others who’d had to shut down,” she says. “They were all looking at their websites and marketing. My phone just never stopped ringing.”
To cope with demand, Claire brought in extra hands. “A friend who was an ex-English teacher had joked about helping a new website myself. I couldn’t put my name to what they had.”
That growth mindset – seeing opportunity and acting on it – has defined Claire’s journey. “I see opportunities,” she says. “And I don’t see why you shouldn’t say yes to them. If you can do it, why not?”
Her work with the BMC also led her to Castings Technology, where she now supports marketing strategy. Alongside this, she still runs Raspberry Flamingo and consults for clients in sectors from engineering to finance.
Another milestone came this year when Claire became a Freeman of the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire – something she’s clearly proud of. “I’d been coming to the first Tuesday manufacturers’ breakfast for 18 months,” she tells me. “People kept asking why I wasn’t a Freeman. I just didn’t feel the time was right. Then one of the female Freemen said, come on, let’s do this now. So I applied – and I got in.”
I remind her of a podcast we recorded years ago about imposter syndrome and ask if that played a part. She laughs. “100 per cent it was,” she says. “I think it was the thought of, what if I’m turned down? Would they accept somebody in marketing to be a Freeman?”
When we talk about routines, Claire’s philosophy is equally down-to-earth. “I don’t have any morning routines,” she says. “Some mornings I can’t really walk for a little while, some mornings I’m up at half past five. That’s the thing I love about being self-employed – you can be as flexible as you want.”
Her working style is intuitive and energetic. “I like to do what feels right to me at that time,” she says. “Everything gets done for clients on time – hopefully a little early – but I like to work on what I feel like working on in that moment.”
That flexibility feeds her creativity, and her curiosity drives everything she does. “You can get inspiration from sitting having a cup of coffee and watching people,” she tells me. “Talking something through with somebody gives you a different perspective on your thoughts. I’m very careful to only talk to people who’ll be totally honest with me.”
For Claire, it all comes back to people. “Working with companies that you absolutely love being part of – that’s all the inspiration I need,” she says. “It’s just working with people you want to work with.”
And if she could make one rule for everyone to live by? Her answer sums up her outlook perfectly.
“Everybody should be taught that you only have to feel positive 51 per cent of the time for good things to happen,” she says. “If you’re giving out negative energy, negative things happen. But if you can tip the scales just slightly towards the positive, it’s going to be a good day.”
WHAT IS INSIDE TRACK?
In an age of curated success and quiet comparison, Inside Track is about flipping the script. These conversations focus on honesty over hype, and people who turn setbacks into stepping stones. The aim is simple – to source inspiration, not envy.
To find out more about Russ’s work and how you can join the conversation, visit director-on-demand.co.uk.
