Introduction
I grew up on the streets of London and went to a pretty rough, all boys school in Tottenham. The school developed such a bad reputation - not because of me, I hasten to add - that parents stopped sending their children there and it closed down in 1988. I’d already left in 1986, with one qualification; an O’ Level in English.
Like most teenagers at the age of 16, I was still unclear about what I wanted to do for a career but knew that a solitary O’ Level in English wasn’t going to cut it if I wanted to have any chance of landing a role at a top company.
So I enrolled at another school, which was the polar opposite of my previous school in terms of reputation. A lot of my classmates had famous parents. My best friend at the time, was Mick Jagger’s nephew. And being a rebellious 16 year old, I once turned down an opportunity to have dinner and an audience with Jack Nicholson.
But that’s another story…
What mattered was I was able to improve my grades by orders of magnitude and get into University.
After graduating with Honours in Business, while searching for that perfect career role in marketing, I’d take up temporary roles. One such role was at Cornhill Publications in central London, cold calling prospective customers to sell advertising for an annual oil and gas industry periodical.
My manager had instructed me in no uncertain terms that I should only speak to CEO’s and Managing Directors. So, I decided I’d try and sell advertising to Siemens PLC, the global powerhouse. Using some self-taught techniques, I managed to get through to the Chairman and CEO, a Mr Jurgen Gehrels, and successfully pitch him for advertising using the carefully scripted sales sheet I was given.
But that’s another story…
What mattered was I seemed to have a knack for sales. So sales roles continued to follow; in retail, fashion, travel, SaaS and technology.
Selling always came naturally because I didn’t try to “sell”, I communicated (value). And ultimately design is communication.
Working in product development and the software industry and being able to understand the customer, allowed me to encroach and collaborate with some great teams and have influence over the user experience and design aspects of SaaS projects. My creative urges came more and more to the fore, and I began learning to use imaging solutions like Inkscape, Gimp, Adobe XD, Figma, and web development platforms like Squarespace and WordPress.
Then I discovered Webflow, and my mind was blown.
I’ve sat on many sides of the table; as a customer, as a solution expert, as an entrepreneur…
Woody Harrelson once declined to invest in my start-up.
But that’s another story…
What matters is he said no. And being able to “think creative”, as well as “commercial” and “strategy” has led to what I love doing today.
I've been fortunate enough to travel most of the world and connect and work with people from many different backgrounds.
I lived in Hong Kong for two years. And Wildwood, New Jersey for a few months in 1992. I've probably been to more states in the US than I'd guess most Americans.
But I've never been to Italy...
Conclusion
So, if you’d like to discuss how we can work together, I’d be delighted to hear from you.
