“I loved Clean so much I bought the company!”

After working her way to the top floor of the media business, Judy Rees joined the Clean community in late 2005 and is now part-owner of Clean Change Company.

She divides her time between marketing Clean Change Company’s services, supporting and developing the Clean community, and offering executive coaching and business consultancy using Clean.

“As a journalist and a media executive, I could see Clean’s potential immediately,” she said.

“It may have started in the world of therapy, but it could change many more lives by being adopted in business and other organisations.

“Its focus on story and metaphor is particularly valuable in organisational change and development, helping companies to build brands that honestly represent their aspirations.

“And in particular, I’m fascinated by Clean’s potential as a research and interviewing tool. You can use it to find out a person’s ‘truth’ in a way which genuinely respects uniqueness, rather than just paying lip service to diversity.”

Judy comes from the East Midlands and worked as a reporter and news editor on papers such as the Lincolnshire Standard, Coventry Telegraph, Birmingham Evening Mail and Nottingham Post.

Her success was based on honest reporting of real people’s real stories and a disdain for ‘spin’ and media management. She was involved in a number of radical grassroots campaigns for social change and remains committed to equality of opportunity and sustainable development.

During the dotcom goldrush, she swapped the newsdesk for the boardroom at Teletext in London, one of the most profitable companies in the British media. There she became Executive Editor, managing a department of more than 100 journalists and overseeing the launch of a number of online and digital television services.

During the same period she earned a masters degree in media technology administration from the London College of Printing, with studies focussed on technological globalisation, management theory, and project management.

And it wasn’t all plain sailing. Like many successful people, she experienced a personal crisis and needed help. It came in the form of NLP (she is an NLP Master Practitioner) and, ultimately, Clean.

She explained: “I won’t go into the grim details here; I’ve never been good at talking about myself or my problems. And that was the point, I suppose.

“With Clean I didn’t have to relive the unpleasant stuff or even speak explicitly about it. And yet, everything changed.

“I don’t claim my life is perfect now. Who’d want a perfect life anyway? Much too boring! But I’m moving in the direction I want to go, and I’m about a million times happier than I was. I’m a walking advert for Clean.”