The Black Sheep Story

I've been in marketing for over fifteen years. I started at B&Q, where I progressed from Advertising Coordinator to Category Marketing Manager and led the TradePoint marketing team of 14. That's where I learned that marketing isn't about fancy campaigns — it's about understanding what customers actually want and getting it in front of them.

From there, I moved to Oak Furniture Land, a £200m+ retailer where I ran marketing operations and pricing strategy. Then to Carnival UK — P&O Cruises & Cunard, where I worked on onboard revenue planning and diagnosed 70% of revenue gaps across the fleet.

My first stint as Black Sheep Marketing in 2019 saw me managing paid media for Russell Kane's national tour (cut ad spend 50%, increased ticket sales 5%) and Off the Kerb Productions (contributing to Trevor Noah's sell-out O2 date), alongside building lead generation funnels that delivered hundreds of leads per week.

Then came six years as Head of Digital Marketing for a £300m+ building products group — the role that defined my approach to marketing. I grew website sales from £2.2m to £7m, achieved £6.79 ROAS on Google Ads, and built a world-class team with a Gallup Q12 score of 4.79.

But the work I'm most proud of there was the lead generation. I launched an entirely new Garden Buildings division from zero to £12m turnover in four years — building landing pages, PPC campaigns, and Facebook lead gen funnels that converted at 5% (double the industry average). Then I built a trade account signup programme from scratch that generated 10,000+ leads per year, opened 4,000+ new trade accounts annually, and delivered ~£30 ROAS — £3.3m in account spend from just £9k/month in ad budget. That's the kind of lead generation most agencies only dream about.

Through all of it, one thing became painfully clear: small and medium businesses get a raw deal when it comes to marketing support.

Big agencies charge big fees. They assign juniors to your account while the senior who pitched you moves on to the next sale. You end up paying for meetings, reports, and "brand workshops" that produce beautiful documents nobody reads.

That's why I came back to Black Sheep Marketing full-time.

The name "Black Sheep" isn't accidental. I've always been the one in the room who asks uncomfortable questions. Why are we doing it this way? Is anyone actually looking at these numbers? What would happen if we tried something completely different?

Most recently, I've become deeply invested in AI and automation for business. Not the hype. Not the buzzwords. The practical application of AI tools to solve real business problems — from automated reporting to intelligent content creation to building custom AI assistants that actually know your business.

My personality profile (Red-Yellow Insights, if you're curious) means I'm results-driven and enthusiastic. I'll push you to think bigger, move faster, and measure everything. But I'll also make sure we're having fun doing it — because marketing should be exciting, not exhausting.