Three Founders Walk Into A... with Jess Knights

This week, Emma Campbell and Helen Wingrove-Sanders welcome Jess Knights - illustrator, workshop facilitator, and founder of a thriving freelance creative business in Bristol.

Jess takes us to Southend Seafront on a typically overcast Essex day - seaweed, mud, the faint thrill of borrowed ID and the King Blues at Chinneries. From there, the conversation travels through Camberwell College of Art, a marketing career she never planned, a pandemic pivot, and a diagnosis that changed everything.

No one in her family was creative. Nobody modelled that path. She built it anyway.

This is an episode about what happens when you stop explaining your no, stop outsourcing your belief to other people, and commit - properly, quietly, stubbornly - to yourself.

WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE:

- How Jess got into Camberwell College of Art with what she called a 'humble portfolio' - and what she said in the interview that she thinks sealed it
- Why she took a marketing job after art school, and how that turned out to be the best thing she ever did
- The pandemic, a redundancy, and the decision to go fully freelance as an illustrator
- Working with Forestry England, National Trails, Coeliac UK, the NHS and the Department of Health
- Running PIP - the Illustrators Meetup for Bristol - and how she went from member to organiser
- Her ADHD diagnosis and what it taught her about burnout, boundaries, and saying no
- Why she believes creativity is the canary in the coal mine - it goes quiet first when you're running on empty
- Her seasonal ingredients calendars, foraging illustrations, and why personal projects are not a nice-to-have
- Her dream client - and the all-encompassing museum or heritage project she has been quietly building towards
- Her C-word: Commitment - and why she chose it over creativity, community, and every other obvious option

JESS KNIGHTS
https://www.jessknights.co.uk/
https://www.instagram.com/jessknights_creative/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jess-knights-creative-bristol/

ABOUT THREE FOUNDERS WALK INTO A...
Hosted by Emma Campbell (The Coaching Point) and Helen Wingrove-Sanders (HFBAC - Hiring For and Building Awesome Companies).
Each week, one of us invites a founder onto the show - and the other one knows absolutely nothing about them. The guest tells us where we've walked into. That's the three founders, and that's the show.
New episodes every Friday.
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EMMA CAMPBELL
Founder of The Coaching Point.
Website: TheCPoint.co.uk

HELEN WINGROVE-SANDERS
Hiring For and Building Awesome Companies. Helping bootstrapped, founder-led companies hire the right people using Chemistry First methodology.
The Hiring Clinic (Cohort: June 2026): https://hfbac.com/hiring-clinic/
Newsletter for Founders: https://hfbac.kit.com/newsletter-sign-up

Three Founders Walk Into A... is hosted by Helen Wingrove-Sanders (HFBAC) and Emma Campbell (The Coaching Point).

New episode every week.

Find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen.