Episode #2 - David Corlett

Business development and Loop program

This week Nic sits down with David Corlett, Business Director at Workbrands. They speak about David’s career journey and the world of branding and business development. David gives his tips about how a startup can generate leads and recruit their first business development team member.

Finally, Nic and David discuss the new Bristol-based Loop Programme: A growth programme aimed at tech startup and scaleup founders who want to benefit from a panel of experts.

Join the conversation on Twitter.

Read the transcript

Nic:
Hi and welcome to the Tough Cookies podcast where we interview individuals who build, scale and support startups in the Southwest.
Hi, I’m your host Nicolas, and I’m joined today by Dave Corlett, Business Director at a company called Workbrands. Hi, Dave.

Dave:
Hi, Nic.

Nic:
How are you?

Dave:
I’m very well, thank you. How are you?

Nic:
Yes, thank you. Thank you for joining me today. So I wanted to talk to you about essentially three things, one, something about you. The second part, if we can try to get some tips, some information on how to do biz dev correctly, specifically for service agencies. I think that’s something that not a lot of people would touch on quite a lot. And then lastly, we’re going to talk a bit about the new program that you’re launching in Bristol, which is called Loop, which is a program for startup founders. So you’ve got quite a lot to touch on today, but can you tell me more about you for a moment?

Dave:
I’ll Try. Yeah. So like you said, I’ve been doing business development for independent creative agencies for around 12 years now. How did I get into it? I guess? I’ve always generally had an appreciation for World of Brands going right back to when I was a kid. I used to love football and the thing that always grabbed me about football shirts was who made them and who the sponsor was. So I was always really interested in the design of those kind of things. And then from that, I formed I guess how brands are designed.

Dave:
I didn’t go to an especially good school up in Nottingham where I’m from, which didn’t really have many kinds of direction on getting into the world of advertising and marketing, but I definitely knew that was something I was wanting to do. So, that’s how I pitched up in Bristol.

Dave:
I went to good Old Newey, University of the West of England way back in 2001 to 2004 on a media studies… culture and media studies course, which I thought and got a bit of advice was the best way to do if you haven’t gone through that kind of classic business and marketing route through college.

Dave:
Again, finishing that there wasn’t much… There weren’t that many opportunities in the world of advertising and marketing. I still didn’t really know how to get into it, so I decided the best thing to do would be to get a sales job, which was interesting, very rough and ready, quite a small sales job at a publisher, but really gave me a really interesting grounding into the world of how certain businesses buy and pay for and use advertising. So it was actually quite fascinating in a way to be part of that in its own way.

Dave:
I also found out that I wasn’t very good to sales to be brutally honest. I was quite good at the relationship building part, but not necessarily the sales side. So really at that point decided that I wanted to really make an effort to try and get into the world of marketing, and then a couple of friends worked for agencies in Bristol, said “Look, it’s actually a really fantastic place to go and work the agency world”, but obviously not really having a grounding or a background in it, I had to look at other options.

Dave:
The wonderful Adlib, recruitment consultants here in Bristol pointed me in the direction of business development. And, it wasn’t really something that I considered too much or knew anything about at all to be honest. But I managed to get an interview at an agency and this is showing how long it was. They were called Hyper Launch New Media back when new media was a term to describe digital marketing effectively. But what they did was a lot of it, they had a lot of entertainment clients. So you see a lot of online PR, web build, social media campaigns in its infancy.

Dave:
And I managed to get the job and from then on, I was completely hooked, and my first meeting I’m actually secure was with the new, I forget what they’re called now, but it was basically Disney’s new digital arm. And the week before I’d been selling advertising space to the local curry house, the owner of the local curry house. So to then go and be in a meeting like that where effectively Disney UK are talking about how they’re going to migrate a lot of their services over to the digital world. It was absolutely fascinating and I was hooked from then on in.

Dave:
So I spent a year and a half at Hyper Launch. It was brilliant, made some really good friends. We got a couple of decent clients, the likes of BBC, a couple of book publishers and Disney as well, turned into a client. So it was good first meeting to get and then-

Nic:
Ergo, was that all on your own doing or-

Dave:
Do you know what?

Nic:
Can you take the credit for that?

Dave:
I’m going to take the credit, because it was so long ago and I don’t think anybody’s around now in that world to tell me otherwise. But if I’m brutally honest, I really can’t remember. We’re talking about the heady days of 2008 I think now, 2007, 2008, so it was quite a long time ago. But it was actually a really good grounding and they hadn’t had any business person before, so I was learning the ropes. They were learning the ropes in terms of process and strategy. There was a lot of stuff around, obviously the outbound and the salesy stuff, which I was quite used to my previous role. Also things like PR, entering awards, case studies, all of that stuff that encompasses the kind of modern new business person’s role. I was getting a good grounding in there.

Dave:
And then I decided to go to London to try and find fame and fortune and see if the streets are paved with gold.

Nic:
As everybody does.

Dave:
As everybody does, yeah. And again, I got really lucky joining a fantastic creative agency called Flourish, who did a lot in the world of experiential marketing. Absolutely fantastic bunch of really good agents. They have some amazing clients and lots of cash or at least all of their Euro 2008 year, 2012 corporate hospitality experiences, and they had Google as a client, and again, a really small team. Again, it was the first time they’d had someone doing business development as well, so I could obviously impart a little bit of wisdom and input from my previous role.

Dave:
Yes, I joined Flourish. And we, over the course of five years, managed to grow them from quite a small agency, I think seven full time staff, grow the team quite a bit, get some really interesting clients and the Arsenal Football Club. A few others besides that and just before I left they were sold to WPP, brought into that fold and they really deserved it, because it’s such a fantastic team and they still do amazing work called Set Creative now.

Dave:
From there I spent a year and a half at a branding agency called DixonBaxi. Again, if you look them up, you’ll see that they’re an absolutely amazing agency, do some really cool stuff. It was completely different. The world of branding requires a lot of different thought processes in terms of the buying behavior from clients. You’re not talking about general marketing activity that has a line in the budget. You’re effectively talking about a business that may or may not want to completely rebrand. So there’s a bit of an education there and it was an interesting time. Definitely.

Dave:
I’m working with two founders, Simon and Aporva, and then I got a little bit of yearning to come back to Bristol. My wife definitely did. She’s from Bristol originally, so made my way back here. We bought our first house in Bristol and I joined an agency in Bath called Ready. I was there for the best part of three years. We did a lot of work in the beauty sector, a lot of promotion and tactical campaign stuff. And now I find myself, I’m moving on to Workbrands, who are a creative agency based in the Paintworks here in Bristol.

Nic:
That’s a lot of different views on different types of agencies and a different type of work and I guess something that we can come up very quickly on. You were touching before that you’re not a really good salesman and I think that it’s something that is being misunderstood. What’s the difference between sound space, staff marketing, like everything supports each other, but it’s also muddled in a smaller team, it’s like muddled into the same person. So what’s the difference between all that?

Dave:
I think the way I’ve always seen it is as a salesperson, you’re always trying to close. I did some sales training in my early days, and the old ABC adage was always brought into the fold, “Always be closing.” I think with business development, there’s an element of that. I think you’re always trying to move people through the funnel to the next stage, and ultimately to that close, but I think it’s more about the gradually building that relationship, and not really being too pushy. Being pushy enough to obviously be able to move people through, and qualify, and effectively generate those leads, moving from leads to interest and all that stuff.

Dave:
But ultimately I think what I wasn’t very good at and probably still aren’t, to be honest, is that final closing process, which I find you don’t have to do all that much of in this world really. Ultimately, quite a lot of the time, we pitch or we send proposals and we’d sit on our hands really and wait for that decision to be made internally by the client. You don’t know. You can’t, in a way. So there are elements of the sales process that are really familiar, and that I still follow to this day, but ultimately I think, again, in my early sales days, what I really wasn’t very good at, was making that close. If there was a no, I was always a bit too nice to come back with the general objection overcoming strategy, and I would just go, “Okay, fair enough.” Set the phone down, onto the next person, which would run my boss at the wrong way to no end, to be honest.

Dave:
I think as long as you recognize within business development it’s just that you are developing relationships, and people buy from people. There’s much more that goes on in the sales process. Every sales team and every organization is slightly different I think, but within the agency world I’ve always found that it’s much more about building those relationships and letting things run their course, as long as you do the right things, in the right process, and the right way.

Nic:
How did you see the world of free standing, moving every time? Obviously 12 years in that space you’ve probably seen things shifting. Is there a massive difference where I would just like the blind new terms, the old techniques?

Dave:
Yeah. I think it has changed quite a bit. I think obviously the proliferation of things like social media and content marketing, and also I think generally speaking, my primary audience, which quite often is marketing director, marketing teams within the client world, are a little bit less receptive to some of those more traditional tactics such as cold calling and email. That’s not to say that they don’t work, but I read a recent report by the Design Business Association about business development that said that something like 78% of clients don’t respond to cold emails, for example. Now personally, I would say that remaining 22% is still worth going after in some way, but whereas I used to devote probably 70, 80% of my time purely to cold outreach, now it’s much more on certain strategic… There’s much more strategy behind that and then you have to really focus on what your proposition is, how you can offer value to prospects, whether it’s insights or opportunities or anything that really gives them something of value.

Dave:
Whereas back in the day it was much more around what your credentials are, how good you are, what projects you’ve worked on that generates an amazing results. Now, it obviously still has a place, but it’s much more about offering value and being really nailed on and honed in on your proposition, because ultimately that is the offers… That is the value that you offer to your potential clients. And if you start having those conversations, which you become again a lot more prevalent within the role, and that there are also better opportunities and there are better conversations as well, because you’re handing your tokens to the right people who are interested for the right reasons, and you’re able to ultimately win that to work and the work that you want to do as well.

Dave:
So ultimately it’s all, it’s all positive and it’s the things that have moved in the right direction for the right reasons. And I’m quite glad, to be honest, that I’m not spending all my time doing cold outreach because sometimes it is like banging against the wall. The things that we do these days around programs like Loop, which I think would maybe come on to just feel so much more wholesome and valuable. But ultimately, you feel like if you offer somebody value, generally there’s a positive aspect to it. So it just makes the role a little bit more enjoyable.

Nic:
And so if you were… what’s been interesting to [inaudible 00:11:31] we don’t have a biz dev, why I need a biz dev, if anything, but we don’t really have a dedicated biz dev person. We tried to always say the team should be doing biz dev or at least that’s how we approach. Everybody in the team is responsible for biz dev, because they meet with our clients really or our leads on a regular basis, when they go to events, when they go to various functions. But if you had to give tips to, say, a new freelancer starting in your world of brands, branding, or tech development or a… Which I guess is like the other side of biz dev. If you were to give tips, to a starter just starting, somebody that doesn’t come hire biz dev, but needs to put some processes around their lead generation. What would you, what would you say, where do you say to start?

Dave:
Well, I think the first thing to start really is that proposition side of things. What do you offer that makes you different or distinct within the marketplace? And just trying to articulate that. Also who are your perfect clients? Obviously the agencies, they tend to say we could do work for any brands, Jack of all trades, master of none kind of thing, aren’t really going to get anywhere in today’s world because ultimately clients really want to hear how you can address their problems, first and foremost. So going into things like doing customer personas and really delving into who these clients are, what keeps them awake at night and how your proposition helps solve that problem is really the first point from a strategic point of view, I guess. So, that’s definitely one thing.

Dave:
I think another thing is setting yourself up with the tools to make you really organized. I think I’ve always said that my CRM system is like my guiding light, my Bible if you like, because ultimately that’s where every single conversation, every single email that’s sent out, every single phone call, every single meeting, the notes of every meeting recorded. And I always try and approach that on the basis of if I was hit by a bus tomorrow, and somebody had to come in and take over my role, would they know what’s going on with every single potential prospect? Would they know what’s going on with every single piece of outbound content that’s been disseminated out there? And ultimately really making sure that, because if that’s your approach, then you’re always going to have a steer, I guess, on what’s going on, so just being really organized.

Dave:
And then I think just trying a few things really. But again, all that stuff about value comes straight back into it really. If you find that you’re being a bit too salesy, as I call it, a bit too focused on what we do so well, “We’re great at this, we’re great at that.” People don’t really respond to that. Ultimately, if you can try and go through that kind of process of articulating what you do, and try and replace all the word we with the word you, not obviously directly, but in terms of how you articulate things, what’s the benefit of you as a reader, as a potential client. Then you’ll find that actually your proposition and what you’re trying to say to people becomes a lot more prevalent, because ultimately speaking directly to them and their needs really.

Dave:
So, and again, it is a trap that a lot of agencies fall into and I’ve done it in the past. You get a little bit hung up around how great you are. At a certain thing or certain challenge or something, but ultimately find that you turn people off. And actually I see it quite a lot when people prospect me, and I’m sure you do the same as well. “We’re really good at this. This is what we do, we do this really well.” And you just think, well yeah, but so do a load of other people. What makes you really different, and what makes that relevant to me. If you can adopt some of that in the mindset of what you did from any business point of view, you’ll find that you get a lot more traction.

Nic:
Is it all an element of… I’ve always been mindful that there is also a big element of luck, because the reality is never really a big difference between two agencies doing the same thing, and most of them are doing it as well as they can and usually quite good. But there’s also an element of [inaudible 00:15:15]. There’s an element of human connections or being here at the right time. Just speaking in a way that the other one doesn’t speak, isn’t it? So how do you manage to tame luck, if there is a way to do that.

Dave:
I do think you’re definitely right. I think there is an element of luck, but I think at the same time you make your own luck. So you put yourself in those situations and then the luck, it comes about as part of it. So a good example really recently is Work Brands are really trying to push our proposition within the technology space. So we’re doing some really interesting work with technology businesses around making their content more visually engaging. And we have set ourselves a target of winning a number of quite large tech clients. Part of it has been working with a copywriting agency that we’ve used for quite a bit, and a couple of weeks ago, the copywriters recommended us to a potential client that fits perfectly within that bracket. Everything happened really quickly and now we’re already working on a project for them.

Dave:
You know, that was kind of luck in the sense that they could’ve really recommended anybody, and they just turn up and they happened to be the client that actually fits perfectly within that sphere of the kind of clients we’re trying to target. And it hasn’t come about through any form of our outbound bits and pieces. But also because we’re pushing this element of collaboration with complimentary agencies, and that is a core part of our business strategy.

Dave:
One of those agencies has decided to recommend also, and it’s turned into the perfect client at the perfect time. So there’s lots of different examples of that happening, but I think ultimately, there’s certain things you can control within the new business process and certain things that you can’t. But as long as you’re being active and present and visible and doing something that feels right and you know is true to what you do, the luck thing takes care of itself, really.

Dave:
And you do find that sooner or later you’re plodding along and something great happens. I’ve seen it so often. I’ll pop some emails out to some people that I think are really relevant and pertinent in addressing a particular issue, and probably won’t get a lot of traction. And then nine months down the line, somebody will come to me and say, “Actually, you know the email you dropped to me, actually now I’m ready to talk. So let’s have a chat.”

Dave:
And it can turn into something really valuable. So again, even got no real control over that. But by putting yourself in that situation, just actually playing the game, you make your own luck.

Nic:
And on one end, I’ve always been fascinated, because we do [inaudible 00:17:26] and I know how to recruit the developer now and I have a lot of [inaudible 00:17:27] around recruitments, and especially for a tech person, or a project manager, whatever. You know how to recruit for them. But how do you recruit your first biz dev? Is there any tips for me on how to recruit my first biz dev? Because if I understand well, you’ll still supposed to be really good at selling, so you should be really good at selling yourself. You’ll still good. I like appearing and saying what I want to hear, so how do I go for hiring the right one.

Dave:
Do you know what? I’ve never actually recruited or business development person, but obviously I’ve been part of the process of being recruited, if you like. It’s a really tricky one. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t be looking for somebody who is a particularly good… No, that’s probably not true. I would look for somebody who’s a good salesman, but not a good car salesman, not somebody who’s got the gift of the gab, because ultimately you don’t really need that. The persuasion comes through the quality of your proposition. The relevance of your proposition, the quality of your work, and ultimately it needs to be somebody that from the off is a real people person, from the start.

Dave:
I think being driven is always a massive element of it. So you really want to be looking for somebody who you get a sense that they’re, that they’re very driven, because ultimately you need to be an optimist in this job. You get knocked back on so many occasions, but you still need to be someone who comes into work the next day, and think “We’re going to get something today. Something’s going to happen.” So somebody who really believes in themselves and this is a real optimist.

Dave:
And also you really need to look for evidence of somebody who’s a self starter as well. Because the role, in small agencies like ours, nobody comes in and tells you what to do every day. You have to set your own agenda. And you have to be really good at setting that agenda, and time management, and things like that. So again, I’m not quite sure of exactly the right questions to ask, but it’s definitely something around that motivation, self-starter, being really comfortable with managing their own time and again, that real keenness, to be optimistic all of the time really.

Dave:
I mean, again, obviously experience plays a part. So I came from a sales background, and that is actually what appealed to my first boss. He was quite keen on the results that I’d achieved from a sales background, and obviously bringing in people from a sales environment, they do naturally have a curiosity for people, and having conversations and stuff. So I’m not necessarily saying that doesn’t work, but I think the last thing as well is… And again, I’m speaking from the experience of my current employer who has really struggled to fill the role that I’m in quite a long time, because they found that they were bringing people in who weren’t quite good at the business development side of things, but not for creative agencies.

Dave:
I think you really need somebody who understands your world, essentially. Somebody who understands your world can talk to people about your products quite comfortably, and your process as well. Somebody that you don’t necessarily have to teach the ropes from the start. I think it’s definitely a plus point, because ultimately they just can’t speak the same relevant language in the same language as potential clients. So yeah, I guess that’s a few tips.

Nic:
Okay. So you’re going to launch a new program to which [inaudible 00:20:37] is partnering. It’s called Loop.

Dave:
I’m excited.

Nic:
And can you explain in a few words what Loop is about?

Dave:
Yeah, so I think as I said before, Workbrands are pivoting into the tech space and that incorporates… I mean obviously tech is such a broad thing to say, really. So we’ve got a couple of software clients, we’ve got an AI client, and we find that we really enjoy… Our team particularly enjoys getting stuck into that kind of work. So obviously-

Nic:
Be brand perspective. Is that correct?

Dave:
It’s from brand and design and marketing perspective, yeah, so we’ve done a couple of branding exercises for some of our clients, but we’ve also done a lot of things like taking quite long, boring copy articles and turning them into really cool engaging video content. We’ve done a lot of taking content that’s static and making it move with little flourishes and animation and things like that. Just really making things more visually engaging, because ultimately these businesses are very competitive. Their content leads in a lot of places, particularly in terms of that awareness and consideration part of that funnel and that cycle. So creating engaging content that really grabs people is a great way to help them stand out. And a lot of them just aren’t really doing it. So doing a lot of work around that.

Dave:
But in terms of… We’re in Bristol. Bristol’s got an amazing tech startup and scale up scene. There’s some fantastic businesses that are really thriving at the moment and a lot that are under the surface a little bit. So when we started having the conversation about how do we get involved in the tech scene in Bristol, again going back to that thing that adds value, we could just create some really cool decks of our work or whatever and disseminate that around to its relevant founders and marketeers.

Dave:
But again, that’s going back to “This is what we do.” We really want it to do something that gives value. So we hit on this idea with some partners of ours who are [inaudible 00:22:23] of creating a growth program for startup and scale up founders. The way it works is both doesn’t affect them. I’ve got quite a lot of contacts within the Bristol arena spanning lots of different business advisory’s services. So you’ve got HR, you’ve got PR, obviously I was from the branding and marketing side effects on from accountancy, legal partners and all sorts of different people in investor relations. People that can give advice on getting government grants, for example. So we decided it’d be a great idea to bring some of those people to get on yourself, obviously from product development point of view [inaudible 00:22:58] .

Dave:
So we decided that a really good thing to do, would be to bring all of those experts together, and take a cohort of founders, and every month, a different expert comes in and talks about a different topic across the course of nine months. And it just gives a little bit back to the community. We’re not asking for any payment for it. Basically just something that would cover the costs of hiring out the spaces and things like that.

Dave:
So we’re actually absorbing quite a lot of the costs off the back of it, like the word website build and some of the other things as well. So Roy Millman, who’s the founder of Affecton, coined quite a good phrase when he said, “You know, there’s a lot of talk about tech for good in the industry. Why don’t we do something that’s good for tech in terms of giving back to the local community especially.”

Dave:
So we’ve got to the point now where it’s all up and running and we’ve got a program sorted out. I think it’ll deliver in the first one. This is probably a good time to let you know that. So we might have to do some prep work on that, but that should kick off at the end of March.

Nic:
There’s a launch event, I think.

Dave:
Yes. There’s a launch event at the Engine Shed on the 25th, morning of the 25th of February where interested parties, interested founders, interested business people and marketeers can come along and find out a little bit more. All of the experts will be there. So there’ll be the chance to quiz them and chat to them. And we’ll also hopefully be hearing from a couple of founders within the local tech scene who could have really done with this kind of program when they launched their businesses as well. So talking about how valuable they feel it is from that perspective as well.

Dave:
So there’ll be a really cool event. Tickets on Eventbrite right now, free tickets to come along. And also the website, which is [inaudible 00:24:28] has a registered interest form where any founders who would like to potentially be to apply to be on the program can go and submit their information.

Dave:
And yeah, I think it’s going to be brilliant to be honest. We’ve never done anything like this before and we’ve been involved in the kind of branding the program, which has been brilliant for our design teams. While they really enjoyed it, the branding looks fantastic. So all in all it’s going to be really cool thing.

Nic:
I think it’s really good idea. I mean I’m really looking forward to it. There’s elements of like… I know that we’re doing the first one, but this element about like we’re going to give a talk in the… In a wider context of almost like a lesson kind of thing. So it’s like a drink, feeds, check in with the founders and this is going to be continued as well where we’re going to return back and see how people are moving along and everything. I’m very excited about it.

Dave:
Yeah, definitely. I think the idea is to hopefully build relationships with these families, and support them as much as possible. I think also you’re exactly right. It’s an opportunity to really pass on some of your wisdom to them. I think we’re hoping to maybe set a couple of tasks so that people will have something to go away and think about that really kind of hammers home the point. I think a lot of… From what we found from speaking to founders, like the ones we’re trying to attract to the program, is they come to launch their business based on their expertise, which quite often is the product or service that they’re looking to launch. They don’t have experience in recruiting people, they don’t have experience in branding, they don’t have experience in running a business, and all the trials and tribulations that come with it quite often.

Dave:
So you know, they can go out looking for that kind of information. And there’s obviously tutorials and courses and things like that, but we wanted to offer some really practical, helpful, useful advice in a setting that also helps them bounce off each other, as well. So that maybe there’ll be 8 to 10 on the first one, fingers crossed and hopefully they’ll get to know each other and be able to bounce ideas and knowledge and insight off each other as well. So hopefully it will be a really wholesome exercise that will set these founders up for the future essentially.

Nic:
Cool. I’ve got two last questions for you. More personal-

Dave:
Okay.

Nic:
To Dave as a kid’s age when he was nine year old, what do you want him to do? Was that all about sales, were you an entrepreneurial kid or-

Dave:
No, it certainly wasn’t. Nine years old. I probably wanted to be a footballer, I think, to be honest, because I was just starting to play 11 a side football and loving it. I think realistically, I probably knew that was never going to happen because I wasn’t that good, to be honest, like many kids out there.

Dave:
I do have distinct memory of when I was a bit older of wanting to be a paramedic, but I don’t think that lasted too long. Yeah. No, I don’t think so. I think I was probably just enjoying my childhood.

Dave:
I did love design, though. Me and my brother used to… We support a football team called Southampton and we always used to have great fun designing what their new kit would look like for the next season. So I think from a design point of view, I’m taking that into my career and obviously not being a designer but being in within environments. So take DixonBaxi, for example. When I was there, they were just rebranding Eurosport, the global sports channel, which was just an amazing project to sit in on, and watch the wheels turn, and watch things unfold. Absolutely fantastic. And I love being around designers because I think that they work their magic in so many amazing ways. It’s really inspiring actually.

Dave:
And then thinking back to when I was a kid, I probably did want to do that, and not that I knew how you did it in the world of work, but I probably did want to do something around that. But in a way, and I’m quite glad I don’t, to be honest, because I love what I do right now.

Dave:
And actually, weirdly enough, there’s a link in a way to the world of football, I guess, or the world of sport in general, because it is quite a competitive role and you can kind of align it in a way with being a manager of a team. So you set your strategy before the year starts. So before you’re in play, if you like, you really have to think about your strategy and your tactics, and then once you’re in play, you’re playing the game if you like.

Dave:
And you can win or lose. If you hit your targets, you win. If you don’t, you lose it. You go back and you analyze and you see what works and what didn’t and you know, the next year you go again. I didn’t really do too much of that in my early days, to be honest. It was just generally about just you hitting it, basically. These are the people we want to go after, lets do it.

Dave:
I’ve really found the value in annual strategies and plans that have really definitive targets, because then you can analyze and track what’s working, what’s not, and you can really tweak things.

Dave:
And I’m really, I’m a subscriber to the kind of theory of incremental gains as well. You know, you tweak little things here and there and you get better at what you do across the board and everything just starts to fall into place. I’m not saying that’s happening at the moment, or really ever, because there’s always something to work on. But ultimately I think it’s definitely made me a better business developer, thinking about that. I went off on a bit of a tangent there, so sorry.

Nic:
And the last one is going to be about Bristol itself. So your favorite place in Bristol? Could be a restaurant, could be a park, it could be a place, it could be anything. Favorite place in Bristol?

Dave:
Favorite place in Bristol? I’ve probably got a few, to be honest. I really like Wapping Wharf in the harbor side. I live in Bedminster, so I spend a lot of time down there. What they’ve done with Wapping Wharf is fantastic in terms of cargo and obviously Wapping Wharf itself. Also right along the Harbor, all the way down there to where the pump house around there, is absolutely fantastic.

Dave:
When my son was young, the only way we would get him to sleep as a baby was in the daytime, was in his pram, and it had to be moving as well, so I’d take him on a rambling walks all the way around the harbor, an hour and a half, to really make sure he had a good nap, but also just to soak it all in. So I would say that’s definitely up there.

Dave:
I love North Street where I live, the artistic elements, again, going back to the design side of things, the artistic element of it, all the street art and the graffiti and everything like that. There can’t be any other places in the country or even in the world where you’ve got giant murals of Stephen Hawking Greta Thunberg, within walking distance of each other, which you’ll find in Bedminster, because it’s amazing.

Dave:
But I love Clifton as well. Really nice part of the part of Bristol and-

Nic:
That’s a lot of different favorites. So just Bristol in general then.

Dave:
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I think moving to London… London is, for me, London is the best city in the world, 100%. But Bristol is such a close second. I think London is just an absolute marvel, to be honest with you. You can do something different every single day and still not even scratch the surface, which I find fascinating.

Dave:
But culturally and artistically and creatively, actually Bristol tops them for that, I’d really honest to say, but yeah. Yeah, it’s fantastic. I love it.

Nic:
If people want to learn more about you, get in touch? Where do they go?

Dave:
Yeah, absolutely. So you’ll find me on LinkedIn.

Nic:
Dave Corlett?

Dave:
Dave Corlett on LinkedIn. I’m on Twitter @DaveCBD. I think it’s got an underscore in there, but I’m not too sure to be honest. And yeah, I’m more than happy for people to connect with me. Absolutely. And Workbrands as well as workbrands.co.uk, where you can find details of all the stuff that we do.

Nic:
Cool. Thank you.

Dave:
Cheers, man.

Nic:
Cheers

Speaker 3:
This podcast was brought to you by CookiesHQ, a Bristol based software agency who builds apps and websites for early stage founders and growing startups.

Speaker 3:
If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, you can drop us a message @thecookieshq on twitter or head to www.cookieshq.co.uk/podcasts for more episodes.