From Condé Nast to LoveReading and brave&bold: Deborah Maclaren on Building Two Purpose-Driven Businesses, Donating £100K+ in Books to UK Schools, and Why Purpose Is Your Competitive Advantage

Deborah Maclaren is Chief Executive of LoveReading and LoveReading4Kids, and Co-Founder of brave&bold, a female-focused consultancy providing fractional expertise to organizations. But her path to building two purpose-driven businesses came after nearly three decades in media and publishing, where she started at Condé Nast, and climbed the corporate ladder becoming Head of Sales at Future Publishing, and serving as Commercial Director at Highbury House Communications overseeing 45+ magazines.

On paper, her career was flourishing but alongside that corporate success, Deborah was volunteering and those roles were motivating her in a completely different way. They showed her what was missing and she realized she didn't want purpose to sit on the edges of her life anymore. She wanted it embedded in what she did every day.

Nominated for Northern Power Women Awards 2024 as "A Person With Purpose," a Fellow of the RSA since 2020, trustee of two children-focused charities, and judge for The Week Junior Book Awards, Coram Voices, and The Shine Media Awards, Deborah has built a career that proves purpose isn't just about sleeping well at night. When done properly, it becomes your strongest competitive advantage.

In this Q&A, Deborah shares how volunteering revealed what was missing from her corporate career, her framework for balancing mission with margins across two very different business models (social enterprise vs. consultancy), and her strategy for growing purpose-driven businesses with small teams and limited budgets when you're competing against well-funded competitors and giving away 25% of your profits.

From Condé Nast to Building Two Purpose-Driven Businesses - Why Volunteering Showed You What Your Career Was Missing

Q: You're Chief Executive of LoveReading and Co-Founder of brave&bold, after spending nearly three decades in media and publishing (Condé Nast, Future Publishing as Head of Sales, Highbury House Communications as Commercial Director overseeing 45+ magazines). You've also spent 8 years as a trustee of your local scout group, 10+ years as a school governor, and 1.5 years as a charity trustee - roles you say "make my heart sing." Walk us through the realization that your volunteering was showing you what was missing from your career, and what made you decide you had to build businesses that gave you purpose. For women in senior corporate roles who feel something's missing but aren't sure how to transition, what advice would you give about identifying what truly matters to you and building a career around it?

A: For a long time, I didn’t consciously frame it as “something is missing.” On paper, my career was flourishing. My first job after University was at Condé Nast based in Vogue House in London, by 25 I was running a multi-million sales department in a big publishing company. Senior roles. Big brands. Responsibility. Momentum. 

But alongside that, I was volunteering. What started as fundraising for my local church developed into a role as a school governor, and I later added charity trustee roles into the mix. Saying no isn’t my strong suit! But I realised that those unpaid, community-focused roles were lighting me up in a completely different way. 

What struck me was the contrast. In my day job, I was driving commercial success; in my volunteering, I was seeing the real-world consequences of my time, my energy, my skills and my experience. The outcomes from a lack of people stepping forward, from systems not working, and of children having experiences that they wouldn’t ordinarily have had. Seeing the inside of a broken system. Schools with declining budgets. Institutions struggling to make ends meet. Having to make incredibly tough decisions. Children without books. Families falling through gaps. And I realised that the work that made my heart sing wasn’t the work I was being paid for.

That’s when it clicked: my volunteering wasn’t “extra”. It was pointing very clearly to what mattered most to me. Contribution. Fairness. Education. Literacy. Impact. And it was highlighting the absence of those things in my career.

I didn’t wake up one morning and quit everything. It was gradual. But once I saw the pattern, I couldn’t unsee it. I realised I didn’t want “purpose” to sit on the edges of my life anymore, I wanted it embedded in what I did every day.

For women in senior corporate roles who feel that quiet discomfort, my advice is to pay attention to where your energy goes outside work. What matters to you? What do you make time for when no one is paying you? What problems make you angry enough to act? Volunteering is an incredibly honest mirror - it shows you what you value without the noise of salary, status or expectation.

You don’t have to leap straight into entrepreneurship. Launch a brand new business. But start by naming what matters. Purpose doesn’t arrive fully formed. I feel incredibly privileged to have found mine, developed mine - partly through serendipity, partly through searching for meaning. And I’m thankful for that every day.

Building LoveReading and brave&bold - Two Different Models, Same Purpose-Driven Foundation

Q: LoveReading is an online bookstore (donating 25% of cover price to schools with £100K+ donated since launch); tackling the school funding crisis you've witnessed firsthand as a governor where teachers choose between "heating or library books." brave&bold is your female-focussed consultancy helping businesses by providing fractional expertise. How do you think about building multiple purpose-driven businesses with different models (social enterprise vs. consultancy)? What's your framework for balancing mission with margins across different ventures, and what advice would you give women about when to bootstrap, when to give away profits, and how to structure businesses for both impact and sustainability?

A: LoveReading and brave&bold look very different on the surface. One is a social-purpose online bookstore, the other a consultancy - but they’re built on the same foundation: using experience, influence and commercial skill to create positive change.

The development of LoveReading into an online bookstore with social purpose came directly from what I’d seen as a school governor. When teachers are choosing between heating and books, something is broken. The idea that we could build a business where every purchase funds reading for pleasure felt like a practical, scalable response. A community-driven engine where every booklover can help build the next generation of readers. Giving 10% off RRPs and donating 25% to schools is a bold choice. But it’s the point, not the afterthought.

brave&bold came from a different but equally familiar problem. It was created to make space for women who wanted - and deserved - to work differently. A community. A collective of highly experienced midlife women who don’t want to step back, opt out, burn out, or squeeze themselves into roles that aren’t fit for purpose. Women who want flexibility without compromise. Peer support rather than competition. And the chance to do meaningful work with organisations that genuinely value what women bring to leadership and organisations.

It’s about who we work with, how we work, and why. brave&bold exists to help organisations build braver, more human brands - and to create meaningful, flexible work for experienced midlife women who’ve often been sidelined by traditional consulting models. By traditional organisations.

My framework is simple:

• Mission first. But not mission-only
• Margins that sustain the mission

For women building impact-led ventures, the key questions are:

• Where do I need to be generous?
• Where do I need to be disciplined?
• What must this business fund in order to survive and grow?

Bootstrap when you need control and clarity. Give away profits when it’s core to your impact model. Structure your business so purpose is built in - not bolted on - and so sustainability isn’t treated as a betrayal of values.

brave&bold exists to place brilliant women in environments where they are respected, trusted and listened to - and to support mission-led, purpose-driven organisations that understand the value of diverse thinking, lived experience and grown-up leadership. It’s as much about how we work with each other as who we work for. Collaboration over hierarchy. Confidence without ego.

So while LoveReading is about redistributing value through a social enterprise model, brave&bold is about redistributing power, opportunity and visibility - particularly for midlife women whose expertise is too often overlooked.

Growing Purpose-Driven Businesses With Small Teams and Limited Budgets - Partnerships, Community, and Why Purpose Is Your Competitive Advantage

Q: LoveReading runs on a small, passionate team with limited PR or marketing resources ("you don't have any money, especially when you're giving away 25% of your profits"). You've built growth through partnerships,, won a Small Business x Sage pop-up shop on Oxford Street, and been nominated for countless awards. For female founders building purpose-driven businesses competing against well-funded competitors, what's your strategy for growth when traditional marketing isn't an option? How do you leverage partnerships, community, and mission-aligned collaborations to scale impact without scaling costs, and how do you communicate that your differentiation is purpose - not just price or convenience?

A: The honest truth is when you’re giving away 25% of your income, there isn’t much left for glossy marketing or PR. So we’ve had to grow differently. And intentionally.

For LoveReading, partnerships have been everything. We’ve worked with organisations who genuinely share our values - The Week Junior, the National Literacy Trust - not because they had the biggest numbers, or biggest budgets, but because our missions aligned. When purpose overlaps, amplification becomes mutual rather than transactional. You’re not renting attention; you’re building trust together. Supporting eachother. 

Community is the other engine. Schools, teachers, parents, authors and illustrators don’t just buy from LoveReading, or recommend LoveReading4Kids, or visit LoveReading4Schools - they believe in it. Wholeheartedly. That belief travels further than any paid campaign. None of this journey has been about spend. It’s been about crafting our story, building our relevance and creating momentum. And about people wanting to be part of something that matters. That makes a difference.

We take exactly the same approach at LoveReading through our affiliate programme. Rather than spending on advertising, we work with literacy charities, authors, illustrators, educators and mission-aligned media brands - giving them tools to recommend books their audiences already care about, and to generate income or funding for schools at the same time. It’s ethical, transparent and mutually beneficial. Everyone wins. Especially readers. Ultimately our schools. Every shopper, supporter, affiliate is helping create the next generation of readers.

That same philosophy sits at the heart of brave&bold.

brave&bold was built as a community, not a traditional consultancy. A collective of experienced women working collaboratively. Supporting one another. Sharing opportunities, and doing better work together than any of us could alone. We’re stronger together. Greater than the sum of our parts. That collective strength is what clients feel, and it’s what allows us to punch above our weight without scaling costs or compromising values.

For female founders competing with well-funded players, my advice is simple: stop trying to outspend. And start out-meaning.

Purpose isn’t a slogan. Or a strapline. Or a soundbite. It’s a growth strategy. Especially when it’s tangible, measurable and visible in every decision you make. Be explicit about why you exist. Show your impact clearly. Invite others in. Build community, not just customers.

When people understand that choosing you means contributing to something bigger, price and convenience become part of the equation, not the whole story.

Purpose doesn’t just help you sleep at night. When done properly, it becomes your strongest competitive advantage.

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