I've been doing this since 2015

I got into digital marketing in 2015 and taught myself the rest. No marketing degree, no graduate scheme, just learning by doing the work, getting things wrong, and doing it again until I actually understood why something worked instead of copying what everyone else was doing.

I believe in teaching people, not keeping them in the dark about their own marketing.

Since then I've worked agency-side for businesses in England, Scotland, Florida and Texas, running paid media on behalf of their clients under NDA. Over that time I've managed more than 175 accounts and over US$5,000,000 in ad spend for clients in the US alone, plus CA$100,000 for clients in Canada and tens of thousands of Australian dollars for clients there. In total I've worked with clients across the USA, Canada, Australia, Belgium, Mexico and the UK and Ireland. A lot of that work sits under NDA, so I can't put client names or logos on this site, but I'll always share whatever I'm able to.

For the last 5 years, most of that work has been with agencies outside the UK, mainly in the US, stepping in to do work they didn't have anyone in-house to do. I've decided it's the right time to bring that experience back to Hartlepool, so local businesses here can get the same level of experience without needing a big city or international agency to get it.

I've managed teams of marketers as a marketing manager, and helped grow one agency from 15 clients to over 100 by scaling up their Google Ads service. For a while I ran a weekly live Google Ads Q&A too, where an agency's clients would join a call with whatever was going wrong, and we'd fix it there and then, live, in front of everyone else on the call. I do the same with clients now, explaining what I'm doing and why as I go, so we can both make better decisions about what we're trying to achieve.

Tool-wise I work in WordPress, Google Data Studio, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Microsoft Clarity, Squarespace and most of what else you'd expect.

Why I went solo

I'm a big believer in Simon Sinek's "start with why", explain the why before the what or how. So here's mine.

I run Gate Digital to make a living, that's not in question. But underneath that, I believe every business owner has a right to understand the things that directly affect their business, whether people can find you, whether they remember you, all of it. A lot of agencies make that sound more complicated than it is, because a client who doesn't understand the work is a client who keeps paying without asking questions. I'd rather teach you how it actually works, so we're having an honest conversation, not me leading you somewhere you can't see.

I'd become pretty disillusioned with the agency model, watching clients pay a lot of money for not a lot of delivery, again and again.

That belief is part of why I went solo in the first place. I've also got kids now, and I wanted the flexibility to watch them grow up instead of missing it building someone else's business. I do this because I want to help people grow, not just collect a retainer and coast.

My fiancée Alisha keeps me organised behind the scenes, the admin, the diary, the stuff that would eat into client time if I tried to do it all myself. She's not on your account and she doesn't touch the marketing side, but she's a big part of how Gate Digital runs day to day.

If enough small businesses in Hartlepool understood this and grew because of it, that's more jobs, more money spent locally, a town that does better. That's genuinely why I do this.

I want to work with people who see the value in doing things properly, step by step, not chasing shortcuts. I like working with people who want to grow, not just do the bare minimum to get by. A lot of the businesses I want to work with couldn't otherwise afford someone with 10+ years of experience in-house, or through an agency. That's the gap I'm trying to fill.

Most people who start working with me stick around, the average is about 3 years. Not because they're locked into anything, there's no contract, just a month's notice if you want to leave. They stay because it works.