Work History
Featuring a potent mix of both sales and marketing roles, my career to date is spread across multiple industries and disciplines, producing what I believe to be a more well-rounded profile any business could find valuable.
I’m looking to deploy this experience in a way that makes a huge positive impact on the business I work for, my family, and the world around me.
Invictus Energy
Solo developed SEO-led website strategy that continues to generate high-value leads. Developed and launched two sub-brands, produced lead-generating content for multiple channels before moving to the BDM role.
- SEO
- Content
- Business Development
Kays Medical
Seeing how quickly the Covid-19 pandemic was developing, I made the hard decision to put Content North on hold and secure income in a sales role.
Happily, I hit the ground running in medical sales, revitalizing accounts, securing new business and negotiating some high ticket sales to the benefit of my company and my customers. This was a challenging time for the world, and I’m proud to have done my bit during Covid to ensure medical grade PPE was available, covid tests were sent out on time, and Occupational health services could be ran promptly. As covid died down, I became more involved in vaccine sales and first aid training/supplies.
- Account Management
- Salesforce
- First Aid / Occupational Health
Content North
If you ever got your hands on a time machine, please do me a favour and let me know that 2020 is a bad year to strike out on your own. Covid forced most of my clients to close their doors after just 3 months.
I’ll always be proud of my second spell as a freelancer, not because it was a great success, but because of how much I achieved in such a small amount of time, on my own and with no resources. Who knows what could have happened if I hadn’t made the tough choice to find more stable employment.
- SEO
- Content Development
- Website Development
Own Your Space Limited
Working at Own Your Space gave me the grassroots agency experience I felt was missing from my portfolio. Working alongside a larger team and managing existing clients while prospecting for new ones was challenging but rewarding.
It is here that I really got a grip on technical SEO, helping one major client surge forwards in the rankings. Use of the full SEMrush suite, Google Analytics and other analytical SEO software, along with multiple CMS’s made for a fast-paced environment.
- CRM and Teamwork
- Technical SEO
- SEO Strategy
Get Claims Advice
GCA is a claims management company that works exclusively with financial mis-selling cases, usually pensions.
The poor reputation of CMCs in general, the lack of awareness in the market, and tough regulation made building GCA’s brand and customer base challenging, but ultimately possible.
Using primarily on-page SEO do to a perceived lack of link opportunities, I quickly grew GCA’s online SERP presence, obtaining thousands of high-value leads for the business.
Other highlights include helping to write the TV advert script, successfully pitching to have an ITV Tonight documentary made (aired 2017), and consistently beating household brands in the SERP results.
- SEO Copywriting
- Content Management
- WordPress
Content North
If you want ever fancy taking a steep learning curve in your career, take my advice and spend a year as self-employed. You’ll make every mistake you thought possible and more, and hopefully survive long enough to learn from those mistakes and put the lessons to good use.
I loved working as Content North as a freelance copywriter and WordPress developer. Ultimately, the offer of a stable income made sense for my personal situation, and I shelved full-time self-employment, but I have a feeling I’ll be back one day.
For now, I’ll take the lessons with me.
- B2B
- Analysis
- Website Development
Swell UK / Reptiles / Pets
By the time I finished my degree, I’d already decided to try to make my mark in marketing, so when Swell (a company I had regularly temped with over the previous two Summers in sales and customer services) were looking for a temporary copywriter, I jumped at the chance.
The first three months were spent completely writing product and product category content for thousands of SKUs in the ponds, aquariums, pets and reptile keeping niches, as well as guest posts for outreach. At the end, rather than release me, I was offered a full-time contract, a pay-rise and the title of Brand Manager, adding product line purchasing and management, sales analytics and more to my task list.
Swell was great fun, although ultimately I had no interest in fish and reptiles, and wanted to see what else I could write about. Being an occasional risk-taker, I took a leap and went self-employed, with Swell (and later Bark Bites) as my first client.
- Copywriting
- On-Page SEO
- Purchasing
University of Salford
After almost 5 years in motortrade sales and purchasing, I reassessed my career and decided it was time for a change while I was still young.
A love for the written word and the nuances of communication led me to University and an English Literature course.
Three years is a lot to sum-up, but one standout moments for me personally includes achieving two 85+ marks in “Representing the Holocaust” – a module exploring holocaust testament from a literary standpoint (which I then applied to literature attesting to the Cambodian genocide of the 1970’s). I believe this stands out to me not just because of the high marks, but because I truly taught myself to engage both intellectually and emotionally with my subject matter.
During my time at Salford I also helped my friends in Media and Production produce some short films for project work, and appeared in the amateur dramatics society’s Winter production in several supporting roles.
I put the pen down on my last exam and went to work full-time the very next week at Swell.
- 1:1 BA Hons English Literature
- Academic Writing
- Video & Acting Work
UKCGR / Carcraft / WeBuyAnyCar
My career that culminated in the Auction Remarketing role at UKcgr started in the UK Car Group call centre back in Feb 2007.
Recently returned from travelling, I quickly found work here on the inbound sales team. Like most telesales roles it was fast-paced, results and KPI focussed and had a high turnover rate of staff.
Almost a year later, I had built a reputation for hitting goals, assisting with new staff training and had begun to think about what was coming next. A slot for a Trainee Purchasing Analyst came up, and my application was successful. In this role, I analysed group stock for the retail arm (Carcraft), and purchased cars online and over the phone to fulfill group needs.
When the 2008 financial crash hit the motortrade hard, I managed to get a job within the group with WeBuyAnyCar.com who were just getting busy!
With them I helped grow the wholesale remarketing arm by selling cars over the phone, later via an internet auction, and finally via physical auctions all across the UK.
The decision to leave was difficult, but I was ready for a change.
- B2B Sales
- Auction & Internet Sales
- Purchasing
WH Smiths
It might seem odd that I include my part-time job from 16 to 18, but its because something important happened here:
Back then, a new Harry Potter book coming out was big news for WH Smiths, and we were tasked with selling pre-sales for £1 to secure a copy on release day.
I not only outsold my part-time colleagues every weekend, but the full-time staff too. During one week, I’d personally secured more pre-sales than the whole store in the next town. I realised then that I had a talent worth nurturing, and than I was hungry for success.
I still am.
- B2C Sales
- Customer Service
- Pride