Origin story to kick off 2025
Mission: help agency leaders sleep better at night.
Buy why?
5 years ago I was on an easy trajectory
Stay in the global leadership team in marketing procurement at the big global brand. Nice job title and salary. Let the pension grow. Take amazing holidays. Refurb the apartment if I wanted.
But I was unhappy, and busy with ideas to do something new, improve my work-life balance.
Frankly I wanted to travel more, ride my bike more.
A lot of the time (at all the brands I worked at I realised I was spending a lot of time and emotional effort chasing unrealistic savings targets, forced to negotiate hard where empathy and creativity or marketing strategy should have been the focus, and so-on.
I preferred pure marketing. I loved what agencies did and wanted to be on their side.
It took 14 years to come to that tipping point.
So in 2019 I asked 5 agency owners that I was friendly with:
“hey is their anyone helping you get better at selling to brands, navigate procurement, negotiate more confidently, price your work and tell your story more effectively? I think I know what works”
They all said they’d need help.
So I jumped.
Then covid hit. Budgets got slashed. And I made it through.
I did Mark Ritson’s Mini MBA in Marketing and I finished my professional procurement qualification – MCIPS – to fill the spare time.
I developed workshops and other programs that I’ve honed, killed, re-imagined and continue to offer my clients.
I’ve started working with Chris Do and The Futur as my business mentor.
And I love my job
QQ agency leaders: what’s your why / what’s your origin story
Pro-tip: brands buy emotion, they buy storytelling, and the ‘why’. Cut through: articulate your ‘why’
**Full disclosure: I still do occasional brand-side marketing procurement projects, but it’s liberating to pick and choose those now rather than being forced into – for example – a hardball savings negotiation which I know will hurt the agency.
I can now pick my projects based on more expansive, fun aims: for example I helped put in a place a global media contract last year.
The aim of the brand? Create a world class media operation.
Count. Me. In.
We co-designed media performance metrics and bonuses with the agency across 10+ countries.
Both agency and brand were amped up to get rolling and loved their end of the deal. Win-win
