Most marketing advice is written to sound clever.

I’ve spent over a decade in marketing, and deliberately not in one corner of it. Brand, content, campaigns, email, search, events, websites. In house first, where I learned what it feels like when the budget is yours and the board wants a number by Friday. Then agency side. Now on my own.

Here’s the pattern I kept noticing: most businesses aren’t short of marketing ideas. They’re short of a reason to pick one. So they do a bit of everything, nothing compounds, and twelve months later nobody can point to what actually worked.

That’s what I’m usually brought in to fix. Not a campaign. A decision.

How I work

I learn how the business actually makes money before I suggest anything. That sounds obvious. It’s skipped more often than you’d think.

I’d rather be embedded with your team than send reports at you from a safe distance. The useful conversations tend to happen in the room, not in a PDF.

I’m co-founder of Storyboard Digital, a small agency here in Sheffield. Having sat on both sides of an agency pitch is the thing clients tell me they find most useful, and I understand why: it’s much easier to spot decoration when you’ve been the one adding it.

Elsewhere

I’m a member of BNI Pioneers in Sheffield, and I split my time between the UK and India. If we haven’t met, the fastest way to fix that is a short conversation.