Josie Campbell - Stagecraft for the Boardroom.
- Mark Walmsley FRSA AGSM
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
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Meet Josie Campbell - Your Voice. Your Space. Your Power.
Josie Campbell is a distinguished voice coach and communication trainer whose career has spanned acting, education, and executive coaching.
Based in Dubai, she is the founder of Space Shift, a unique framework that harnesses the power of theatre techniques to help professionals communicate with confidence, clarity, and presence.
Josie’s professional journey began in the classroom, where she taught for many years in the UK and the Middle East. With an enduring passion for performance and pedagogy, she decided in mid-life to follow a long-held dream. She enrolled at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, undertaking a Master’s degree in Actor Training and Coaching. The course, and the experience of immersing herself in dramatic arts later in life, was nothing short of transformative.
While the programme was designed to prepare graduates to teach actors, Josie’s dissertation explored something more unconventional — executive presence in women, using theatre as a lens and a toolkit. Upon returning to Dubai, she rediscovered corporate training, a field she had once dabbled in, but this time with renewed purpose and sharper tools.
Out of this fusion of disciplines, Space Shift was born. The concept is grounded in the theatrical understanding that space is never neutral. It carries meaning, power, and emotional resonance. Josie coaches her clients, ranging from senior leaders to rising professionals, in the nuances of how space, movement, breath, and presence shape communication. She brings a depth of insight that goes far beyond the usual advice to "project your voice" or "stand tall". Her work is deeply embodied, creative, and often transformational.
Josie has worked across sectors including banking, insurance, healthcare, tech and the Arts. Her flagship programme, Communication for Women, addresses the real challenges many professional women face: feeling unseen, unheard, and undervalued in the workplace. By helping them find and embrace the "who" of their voice, she restores their presence in rooms where influence happens. Her training provides practical tools, but also creates a space for reconnection, agency, and authenticity.
Beyond her corporate work, Josie remains an advocate for the arts and the wider role they play in society. She is a vocal supporter of using theatre for wellbeing and transformation, aligning herself with broader cultural movements such as social prescribing in the UK, which recognises the role of creative engagement in public health.
Her rich international background, born in Zambia, educated in the UK, and now working in the UAE, gives her a culturally agile perspective. Josie’s work is global in scope and human at heart. She understands that while environments differ, the need for meaningful, embodied communication is universal.
Josie continues to evolve her methodology, staying curious and open to what the stage, and the boardroom, still have to teach. She brings depth, humour, and grace to every room she enters, inviting others to do the same.
Our interview on Spotify
In a warm and wide-ranging interview with Mark Walmsley, founder of the Arts and Culture Network, Josie shared her professional journey and personal passions. They discussed her transition from acting to corporate training, her creation of the Space Shift framework, and her commitment to helping women find their voice in male-dominated industries.
Josie reflected on her childhood in Zambia, where she grew up surrounded by open spaces and the sounds of nature, a sensibility that continues to inform her understanding of physical space in communication.
Her fond memories of the Chinzombo safari camp were contrasted with her dynamic life in Dubai, where she now helps professionals worldwide become more effective, empowered communicators.
Mark and Josie explored the concept of a "cultural age" as proposed by Paul Schafer, and discussed the increasing role of wellbeing in corporate life. Josie expressed her enthusiasm for initiatives like social prescribing, which position the arts as an essential component of public health and emotional wellbeing.
The interview also took a whimsical turn, imagining Josie embarking on a fantasy year-long global project to build a league table of women’s confidence, complete with TED Talks, book deals, and a university lecture tour. Josie embraced the fantasy wholeheartedly, reinforcing her belief in the transformative power of creative engagement.
The conversation closed with a playful cultural tour, a quick-fire round of preferences, and the enduring impact of 80s music, Watership Down, and Queen Victoria’s legacy. It was a portrait of a coach who is as thoughtful and insightful as she is approachable and inspiring.
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Mark Walmsley FRSA FCIM AGSM
Chief Culture Vulture
Arts & Culture Network
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Mark Walmsley FRSA AGSM
Chief Culture Vulture
Arts & Culture Network
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