Why there's never been a better time to launch a digital comms consultancy
Most years I come back to work in January with a mix of grogginess and general reluctance, but this year is different. I couldn’t wait to get cracking (and that’s not because the kids really were ready to go back to school).
That’s because I’ve got some news.
After 19 years working for PR and marketing agencies I’ve decided to take flight myself and start my own consultancy.
I’m teaming up with Jo Jamieson, who also happens to be my wife (don’t worry, we’ve worked with each other twice now!).
The company is called Brightside.
Our focus will be helping business leaders, comms teams and agencies with their communications strategy and social media output.
I don’t know about you, but when I look at my social media feeds, I’m staggered by how grey and uninspiring a lot of the business content is.
We’re here to help change that.
Social media is at a really interesting point right now. Because it’s so fast and cost-effective, lots of people are skimping on creativity and not making it feel personal.
Also, I’ve seen over the past few years, that there’s a real desire for audiences to hear from people directly. Brand channels are still important, but it’s actually business leaders who can have the biggest impact for brands.
That’s a massive opportunity and it’ll be the focus of our business. I’ll be writing more about how we can do this in coming months.
Why now?
I’ve been working for agencies for the past 19 years and in that time I’ve learnt so much and worked with some amazing people – but the itch to start something myself couldn’t be put off any longer.
Agency structures – at least in the PR world – tend to be made in a way where you are rewarded by climbing up the hierarchy. And I was finding that the more time I spent agency-side, the further I was heading into general management.
I think I was frustrated by not spending enough time with clients and team members “doing the work”. And there are definitely people more suited than me to running big agencies. It’s not an easy job.
I get a much bigger kick helping people directly, so a big part of our offering is coaching and mentoring individuals and teams.
The timing was right for Jo too – as she explains in her post – so we’ve decided combine our capabilities to create Brightside.
For those that know me well, it’s probably not a massive surprise. As my long-time collaborator Daf (who runs Cite) said, “this is the email I’ve waited years to receive!”
The club I didn’t even know existed
It’s early days for Jo and I, but I’m already staggered by the response from people we know. Everyone is so supportive and wants to help.
From old contacts like Bruce, who’s been doing this for years now and been super-generous with his time, to Emma Ewing, who has become our first client and offered tons of advice. Or the likes of Liam and Ed, who’ve advised us on some of the minutiae, like choosing an accountant. There’s been loads of other people, including Vicki, Emma, Dan, Richard, Dave, James, Jo and Rachel and my previous employer Harvard. I hope we can repay everyone in kind.
Jo and I met at Berkeley PR. And when I told its CEO Chris Hewitt about our news, he welcomed us to a very exclusive club. And that’s how it feels. That as well as being a tiny bit scary and extremely exciting.
We’ve got capacity
While we’ve got a busy first quarter mapped out, we’ve still got some capacity to take on work. We’re setting our stall out to work with business leaders, comms departments and agencies, in three different ways:
Strategy – developing messaging and the story that will have the biggest impact across PR and marketing channels
Coaching and training – helping business leaders to build their profile to support the brand; and developing social media skills in agency or in-house teams
Co-management and content creation – running your channels and creating truly engaging content
So if you’re looking for a fresh perspective on social media and want help to join it up better with everything else you’re doing, get in touch.
And if at some point you want to do the same as Jo and I, give us six months – we’ll hopefully have some great tips to pass on, just as others have done with us.