Hey Reader,
Every major opportunity in my career has started the same way: with a conversation.
Not an ad campaign. Not a funnel. Not a marketing plan.
A conversation.
At 21, it was Chris Eubank Sr. What started as a cheeky request for an interview on borrowed Cosmopolitan letterhead turned into me becoming the first licensed female boxing manager in the UK. One conversation.
A few years later, it was James Dyson. He wasn’t “Sir James” yet. He was an inventor battling years of rejection, desperate to bring a bagless vacuum to market. How did I meet him? Through lunch with a friend’s dad, who happened to be helping James write ad copy. That introduction changed my career — and I’d like to think I played a part in putting Dyson into homes around the world.
Then came Bob Geldof. Through my lawyer, of all people. A random introduction led to me becoming a founding director of Deckchair.com — one of the very first online travel companies, years ahead of its time.
And then Dan Wagner. I first met him when he was pitching another project I was advising on. That one conversation sparked a relationship that ultimately saw us co-run a $150m investment fund together and become lifelong friends.
Every needle that has ever significantly moved in my career has come from a conversation, not a campaign.
This is what I call The Compound Conversations Effect.
Just like compound interest, conversations grow in value over time. A single introduction can reshape your next decade. A coffee today might become a partnership years later. The payoff is rarely instant, but when it lands, it’s exponential.
Business culture loves to glorify marketing spend, funnels, and ad strategies — and they have their place. But the moments that change your life? They rarely come from dashboards or algorithms. They come from people. From trust. From conversations.
And here’s the kicker: you can’t hack this. Conversations compound because of relationships built over time. Because you show up consistently. Because you invest without expecting anything immediate in return.
Harvard Business Review found that 85% of professional success comes from soft skills and relationships, not technical ability. READ THAT AGAIN …
And in entrepreneurship? Ask anyone with a track record. Their biggest break didn’t come from Meta Ads. It came from someone they knew, someone they’d helped, or even a random connection.
I know, because my entire career has been shaped by those compound conversations.
3 ACTION TIPS / TOOLS
- The Weekly Conversation Rule
Commit to one intentional conversation every week with someone who isn’t a client. A peer. A mentor. A potential collaborator. Or even someone younger who gives you a new perspective. A year from now, you’ll have 50 new seeds planted — and you never know which one will change everything.
- Ask for Introductions, Not Favours
Once a quarter, reach out to five people and ask : “Who should I know?” People love to help, but they don’t always know how. An introduction is an easy, high-impact way for them to add value — and one intro can be worth more than £100k in ad spend. Just make sure to have zero expectations - you are not meeting people to sell, you’re there to connect and learn.
- Don’t Forget “Lumpy Mail”
In a world drowning in digital noise, the personal touch stands out more than ever. Flowers. A handwritten card. A small gift that shows you actually know the person. Not generic, not “corporate swag” — but thoughtful and personal. The small things are the big things …
Ads can buy attention. Funnels can buy efficiency. But conversations? Conversations build trust. They compound into opportunity in ways money can’t.
From Eubank to Dyson, Geldof to Wagner, my career isn’t built on campaigns. It’s built on conversations.
And yours can be too — if you make space for them, nurture them, and never underestimate the power of a handwritten note in a world full of emails - so keep an eye on the letterbox as well as the inbox as I might be sending something your way who knows?!
We’ve got this …
