Garry L.

I've spent 20 years helping grow businesses through growth strategies, business improvement and governance. Throughout this career, I've helped innovate and introduce new products to market, including completely disrupting the email marketing industry, leading the evolution towards marketing automation. I developed the first-ever marketing automation business model and innovated in the areas of media attribution and databases, creating the UK first Customer Data Platform (CDP). All my businesses have shown significant growth and part of that comes from my skills in sales & marketing. I have a strong passion for these areas, I believe they should be the centre of any business and everything works around them, as this is the thing that drives company growth. I think string, thought leadership is key, through both written evidence and strong presenting, where you understand the client need and articulate how you can solve it. As an executive & non-executive director, as well as a founder & entrepreneur, I've always put a strong emphasis on building the company culture of my businesses and working hard with teams to build inclusive working environments where I believe people work best when they feel appreciated. I've been a mentoring for people within my businesses, but also for business owners in other companies, who I have helped in their personal development, as well as the business they work for. I've written the go-to-market and business strategies for multiple businesses, taking ownership of their delivery and ensuring that the whole business is bought into the strategy. I have done extensive market research to ensure propositions are aligned to not just the business but the industry as a whole. My current business is all about helping startups and small businesses to grow and take control of marketing. I coach and train people so that they can do the work themselves, avoiding large agency fees and expensive marketing budgets. I firmly believe people can do more if they understand a subject and are encouraged to take control of it. Working efficiently is a big part of what I teach and a lot of this is about knowing what not to work on because the choices and options are so vast they often make people and businesses feel overwhelmed. As part of this, I've developed a unique set of tools for small businesses, allowing them to work like big brands but with less effort or budgets. These include a marketing plan for small business, audience avatars, social media conversation starters and a channel mapping tool. Throughout my career, I have written extensively about these subjects, in industry journals & magazines, for company blogs, in white papers, on publications like Medium.com, as well as presenting on the subjects at key industry events. I left my role as CEO at RedEye to focus on setting up a new business dedicated to helping business owners take control of their working lives but also to dedicate more time to my passion for writing, in whatever format. I intentionally took the decision to offer my writing skills below what I am told they are worth because my goal in leaving my executive role was to help more people and businesses at all levels. Previously I'd helped massive global brands make millions more, but in reality, billion-dollar companies don't appreciate that as much, so I wanted to work with businesses that I can have more of an impact on. I put this into my writing and hourly rate, but only working with businesses where I think I will help them and add value. Finally, my non-work passion is sport. Basketball, football, soccer, athletics, martial arts and trail running are some of the things that I love to participate in, watch and write about.