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She may be from Wales, but Bethan Turner is a walking advert for Taunton and Somerset.
Bethan has helped promote numerous local businesses and organisations since settling in the area 15 years ago.
Using her experience in the commercial and charity sectors, she set up her own marketing company All About You to help small businesses, charities and the private sector tell their stories.
Bethan was born in Penarth, but her family moved around with her father’s job in Royal Mail.
She went to Manchester University, where she read history and modern languages, which saw her spend a year in Germany.
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“I loved Manchester and the music scene and had lots of friends,” said Bethan.
“After university, I got a job in the big Boots store there.
“I was then accepted on a company management scheme and worked in lots of different places such as Yorkshire, the North East and London.”
In the capital, she met her future husband, Rob, who is from Mid Devon farming stock.
She added: “He was on a lads’ weekend and I was in the pub with friends.
“I loved London, but it was really expensive. Rob came to live there, but he hated it – the noise, the traffic.
“We spent a number of years trying to move closer to the South West.
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“When my parents retired to South Molton, on the fringes of Exmoor, it was an incentive for us to move down here.”
Bethan and Rob, who have a teenage daughter, Erin, initially lived in Chard, but later moved to Monkton Heathfield when he secured a job in Taunton.
“You can do anything you want here,” said Bethan.
“You can enjoy city night life in Exeter or Bristol, the great train links make going up to London easy, while a five-minute drive and you can be out in really beautiful and varied coast, hills, lakes and canal walks.
“Having lived in so many other places, it’s helped me see all the really good aspects of Taunton.
“I get nostalgic when we’re on the Somerset coast and point out where I used to live in South Wales.”
Bethan, who worked for a spell for housing developer David Wilson based in Bristol, has always had a passion for marketing new products and services.
She said: “It’s always difficult juggling a young family, which is one of the reasons I decided to set up on my own after Erin was born.
“A few friends, people I knew and charities had said, ‘Can you have a look at this, can you help us’, so I decided to give it a really big push for a year and see how it went.
“Everybody loves things about their industry, but there are some things you don’t like and that’s when you need help.
“Some people in marketing have really big egos and I just wanted to approach things a little differently.
“I’ve done lots of different marketing and events for different organisations.
“A large part of what I do is trying to share my expertise with people who don’t have the skills to be shouting about it themselves.
“I try to spend time with people. That’s when so many stories come out.
“One of the reasons I’m content in life at the moment is I’m living somewhere where I enjoy living and I get regular reminders that the work I’m doing is having a good impact.
“Wherever I’ve lived, being part of the local community has been important to me. Doing the work I do means I get lots of opportunities to give some of that back.”
Most of Bethan’s work comes through word of mouth. She keeps abreast of local issues through clients such as Taunton Chamber of Commerce and local businesses and organisations.
“It helps me understand how national policies and economic decisions have an important positive or negative impact locally,” said Bethan.
In her spare time, she loves the theatre and has been on stage in several amateur productions at The Brewhouse and the Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre, including a performance of Cats at the former.
Rob and Erin share that interest and mother and daughter have appeared together in a couple of productions.
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