I am a natural enthusiast and a real believer that brands have the power to help change the world for the better. I am also convinced that being different not just better is inspirational to potential customers. I believe we spend too much time selling to people and too little time discovering why they buy us.

My story started at Unilever working with Bird’s Eye Walls looking after brands like Solero, Magnum and Cornetto. After seven years I took a two-year sabbatical and had a crazy adventure living and working in a slum in Cebu City, The Philippines,  supporting children as part of a locally run feeding and educational programme. Whilst there the entrepreneur in me kicked in and I set up a taxi and in-slum bakery business to help fund the projects I was working on.

I have always been attracted to brands that are on a mission, that have a clear purpose and act as challengers in their sectors and so when I got back to the UK decided to join Classic FM. This was a brand that needed a clear strategy build around its purpose to make classical music accessible to all. We created a positioning based on mood driven programming and used it to kick start growth across our record label, concert division, magazine publishing and B2B sales teams. As a result the radio station reached it's highest ever weekly audience numbers of 7 million and the Classic FM record label became the UKs most successful compilation brand.

When Global Media and Entertainment bought the company I became Global's Group Director of Marketing, looking after brands like Capital, Heart, LBC and Classic FM. We created the first national competitor to BBC Radio 1 in  Capital when we launched it nationally and then the world’s largest commercial radio brand Heart.

In 2016 I began mentoring starts ups through Seedcamp and realised that despite their pace and energy, many lacked an emotional connection with their customers. They didn’t understand why their customers were inspired to buy them and what made them different from the market leaders.

So I created MyBrandTruth with two objectives. Firstly, to work with large corporates like Haymarket Media Group to help them think and act more like a start up. Secondly, to work with start ups themselves across IOT, Foodtech, Edtech and SaaS using customer insight to differentiate their positioning and grow their business.

The results speak for themselves with one start up raising 20 million on its first funding round and another doubling in size within months of repositioning the brand.