I’m Laura Mariani — a writer and published author.

I write about identity, work, life, women, relationships, ambition and the absurdities of being human, usually starting with something I've noticed and following it wherever it leads.

Identity is the thread that keeps appearing.

Who we think we are. Who we become. What happens when the person we think we are no longer fits the life we're living.

Because who you think you are changes everything.

I write about identity because every failed change I’ve seen — in business, careers, or life — failed at the same place: people tried to become someone new without changing who they believed they were. They struggled to believe they were allowed to be different.

Systems don’t fail because strategies are wrong — they fail because people still belong to the old identity that once gave them value. Change doesn’t stick at the level of motivation, habits, or goals.

It sticks at the level of identity.

I know this not because I’ve watched change from the sidelines, but because I’ve spent much of my professional life designing, leading and implementing it — first as a manager, then as a director and later as a consultant and project lead, working across organisations, cultures and countries.

Again and again, I saw people being asked to behave differently, take on new roles or build completely new futures while still seeing themselves through an old version of who they were.

That tension interests me.

It is there in careers, relationships, ambition, confidence, reinvention and the choices we make about our lives.

It is also there in my books.

My background is in global change and transformation. Before becoming an author , I spent over 15 years as a Senior HR Director working across FMCG, retail, media, pharma, energy, and technology — leading large-scale organisational change in the UK and internationally.

I’ve worked as an international speaker, advisor, and non-executive director — supporting organisations and founders through change, leadership transitions, and growth.

I’m a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (FCIPD), Fellow of the Australian Human Resources Institute (FAHRI), and Fellow of the Institute of Leadership & Management (FInstLM), and a member of SHRM and the Change Institute.

I don’t come to questions of identity and change as a theorist. I come to them from years of doing the work — designing, leading and implementing change across organisations, cultures and countries.

My writing sits at the intersection of psychology, identity, creativity, and real-world change. I don’t write theory. I write from practice.

I published my first non-fiction book in 2017.

It was called STOP IT! for a reason.

Years of interviewing, promoting, and working with women showed the same pattern again and again: highly capable women shrinking their language, deferring credit, and waiting to feel “ready” before stepping forward.

The problem wasn’t competence. It was identity.

That became the thread running through everything I write.

Since then, I’ve written books about identity, self-image, career, change and bilingual identity, exploring the different ways we see ourselves, the lives we create from those beliefs and what happens when the person we think we are no longer fits.

I’m an introvert, an only child, and I learned to read and write at two.

Creativity was always where I felt most alive — through books, music, art, and language. I studied classical piano, paint for self-expression, and write because it’s how I think.

I didn’t follow the “starving artist” route. I took the sensible one — and became very good at it. But writing never left.

With books, I lived a thousand lives. They were my first mentors — the first place I learned to try on new identities without asking permission.

Books taught me that identity can be rehearsed, challenged, and rewritten.

Now writing is the work I want to do.

I write books.

I publish essays and shorter pieces through ThePeopleAlchemist on Substack.

I create self-paced courses for people who want to explore some of these ideas more deeply, and I offer identity coaching for those who want a more personal application. The work is different in form, but connected by the same underlying question:

Who are you becoming and does the way you see yourself allow that person to exist?

I love to travel often and still believe books are mentors, companions, and quiet revolutions. With them, I lived a thousand lives.

I want to live a thousand more and maybe, just maybe, offer that possibility to someone else through my work.