Non-executive director

I advise and mentor marketing agency founders, owners and senior teams:

• Chairing or attending board meetings and making them more effective
• Coaching or mentoring board members on a weekly, fortnightly, monthly or ad hoc basis
• Giving honest, direct and impartial advice on (most) agency matters from experience, whether on a phone call, email, WhatsApp or in person
• Giving proactive advice on performance, reporting, risk and opportunities

I’ve been in most roles you’d find on a typical agency board myself - from Director to C-Suite, including founder - for agencies and consultancies providing most marketing services to both B2B and B2C brands…and I’ve done it for agencies that have been acquired; agencies that have acquired other agencies; agencies that expanded to the US and across Europe; agencies that have raised investment; and agencies that chose to stay as bootstrapped indies.

What's your mentoring style?

I listen. I’ll help you to fully understand the problem (and its root causes). I’ll give you different options. I’ll talk about my experience in similar situations. I’ll give you a direct recommendation if you ask me to.
It’s my role to help you to manage and grow the business you want - not to tell you to do it how I’ve done it.

Can I engage you as a mentor, without the board responsibilities?

Yes.

Do you work with small agencies? Or network?

I’ve been on boards for agencies employing between 2 and 250 people (even Rise at Seven was just me and my co-founder once) and worked in group roles across networks of up to 1,500.

I’m more likely to be appointed as a non-executive director by agencies with at least £1.5m turnover. I may be able to help owners of smaller agencies as a mentor (with weekly, fortnightly, monthly or ad hoc coaching calls) or as a consultant (helping you through a specific challenge on a project basis).

How do I know engaging you as a non-exec is right for me?

A non-executive director might be right for you if you’re looking for:

• Regularly scheduled time with an advisor (often face-to-face)
• Someone to proactively push you (and your senior team)
• Advice at short notice
• Someone who is up to speed with the state of play in your agency before you pick up the phone
• Someone who will use their network to open doors for you where they can
• Someone who’s in it with you for the long haul.

If you want someone to be hands on with your marketing, new business development, client services, strategy, people and operations problems, then I may be able to help as a consultant instead.

I also train agency staff at all levels (not just board level) to become more commercial and more strategic.