My Journey to Owning My Power

Oct 2
3 min read

By Aly Johnson

This time last year, I quit my job.

The digital marketing agency I’d worked at for eight years had hired a specialist consultant to 5X our growth, and I was buzzing to work alongside them. They were an expert in their field. Their knowledge of SEO was second to none, and they executed it with such ease; I couldn’t wait to learn from them.

That, dear reader, did not happen.

They operated with negative vibes, finger pointing, and open bullying, laced with passive aggression. Their poison seeped into everything they touched. Within a few short weeks key account managers quit, and we begun haemorrhaging clients.

It was a massacre on all fronts.

I stuck it out for a while, hoping once the initial onslaught had ceased they would calm down and begin to lead from a place of understanding and support. This early chaos had to be some sort of brutal onboarding, a kind of initiation test that I didn’t understand.

But it wasn’t. This was simply how they were. Treat ‘em mean, keep ‘em dejected?

By the end of the summer, I’d had enough. I handed in my notice, choosing unemployment over belittlement.

I’d agreed with my husband I’d take some time off to decompress. To put this into perspective, I spent six years in the military prior to working in SEO. I served two combat tours in Afghanistan. I saw action. But that consultant wreaked more havoc on my mental health than active service ever did.

I spent October licking my wounds, vaguely entertaining the idea of job-hunting in the new year. But while I sat and mused about what the future held for me, something sparked. A tiny flame. The kind that glows in your gut when you know something is right.

For the first time, I saw so clearly a vision of what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it.

And while I refuse to credit the consultant for kickstarting my business, She's a Peach, their hideousness was clearly the catalyst that sparked that flame.

In the following dark months (winter, not my mood), my vision became crystal clear: I wanted to help women take up space that’s rightfully theirs.

And the vehicle I’d use? SEO, of course. Not the dry, techy, gatekeeper version, but the human kind. The kind that gives women visibility. Credibility. Authority. The kind that makes you Googleable and unforgettable.

And I’d lead differently. I would lead with grace, clarity, and compassion. I’d channel the eight months of leadership training I completed in 2008 when I became an officer in Her Majesty’s Armed Forces. I would do what the consultant could never do: I would teach, coach, support, and believe in my clients. I would be a great fucking leader so my clients could fly.

I soft-launched She’s a Peach in February 2025,

giving myself space to move intentionally. I didn’t want just any clients, I wanted the right ones. Women I vibed with. Stories I wanted to help tell. Legacies I wanted to help build.

And today, when I get messages from my clients like: