“Don’t be the person who looks back and says, ‘I wish I’d done that’
Just start. Figure it out as you go. Every successful business you admire was started by someone who didn’t have all the answers either; they just began before they were ready.“
Your Loughborough Story
- Can you tell us about your memories of your time at Loughborough Grammar School?
Most of my best memories revolve around sport. Rugby, football, cricket, the days away, the competition, the changing room atmosphere. But it was the journeys back on the bus after a win that stuck with me most, some hilarious times.
2. How did your time at Loughborough Grammar School influence your life and career?
Probably not the answer the school is expecting, but it taught me that grades and exams don’t define you. Being defined by how good your future looked by a letter or a number on a piece of paper wasn’t something I ever bought into.
I wasn’t the most academic student. But I was driven, competitive, and obsessed with the things I cared about. The confidence built on the sports field, the friendships, the experience of competing and sometimes losing, that shaped me far more than anything I studied for.
3. What do you wish you had known when you were in Sixth Form?
Controversial answer, but university wasn’t the right path for me. It was just the path I thought I was supposed to take. Finish school, go to university, get a job. That’s what you’re taught from an early age, and nobody really questions it.
But entrepreneurship isn’t taught in classrooms. The skills that built my business, resilience, risk-taking, and learning by doing, I didn’t pick up anything in a lecture hall. I picked them up by failing, by figuring things out on the fly, by being thrown in the deep end.
If I could go back, I’d have started earlier. Backed myself sooner. Not waited for a certificate to tell me I was ready.
Alumni Career Wisdom
- Could you provide an outline of your business, what you do and the clients you serve?
I’m the founder and Chief Playmaker of Socially Powerful, a global technology-powered marketing agency. We turn over £40m+ annually, built from scratch over the past nine years, entirely without outside investment.
We run influencer and social media campaigns for some of the world’s biggest brands, including Amazon, TikTok, and L’Oréal, connecting them to audiences through creators who actually move the needle. We have offices in London, New York, Dubai, and Macedonia, employing over 200 people globally.
- What led you to where you are now in your business/career?
From 17, I was a professional freestyle footballer, working on TV commercials alongside Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. It wasn’t conventional, but it taught me early to back yourself. The entrepreneurial instinct was always there.
When that chapter closed, I started my first business, a content agency that cost me nearly £500k of my own money. Brutal lesson of hiring too quickly and being too arrogant to see I was failing, but it taught me more than any success could.
Then, as that business was about to fold, someone emailed me asking for help with “influencers.” I had no idea what that meant. I said yes anyway and figured it out afterwards. That moment built Socially Powerful, now a £40m+ global agency with 200+ people across four offices.
Failure first. Opportunity second. Say yes before you know the answer.
- Could you provide an outline of your job role?
As founder, I set the vision for where Socially Powerful is going, not just next quarter, but the next five years. Our goal is to hit £100m in revenue by 2029. I live in the space between where the industry is and where it’s heading, and I build towards that gap before anyone else sees it.
Day to day, that means driving new business, taking calculated risks on big bets, and making sure the company never gets comfortable. My role is to dream bigger than feels sensible, back those instincts, and pull the business forward…I love a bit of risk!
- What are your career highlights?
At 17, I flew to Barcelona to freestyle alongside Lionel Messi and Ronaldinho for a Pepsi Max commercial. It still feels surreal. But looking back, it was the moment that proved to me that anything really is possible.
The second highlight is harder to put into words. Building Socially Powerful from the worst point of my life, mentally, after losing everything to somehow that business becoming a global agency with 200+ people and offices on three continents. That one means more to me than any commercial or accolade ever could.
- What’s one piece of advice you would give to current pupils thinking about starting a business?
Don’t be the person who looks back and says, ‘I wish I’d done that’
Just start. Figure it out as you go. Every successful business you admire was started by someone who didn’t have all the answers either; they just began before they were ready.
You’re young. You can afford to risk it all at your age. The cost of failure now is low. The cost of never trying is much higher.
- What advice would you give to pupils looking for a career in your industry?
Connect with business leaders you admire and ask for an opportunity.
- What are the key skills you need to work in your industry or to start a business?
I’ll focus on business. The key thing is being comfortable with failure; the sooner you realise the reins come off and you can just go for it, the better.
Understand that you’ll face rejection more than you’ll hear yes. That’s just the game.
And if you’re starting a business, document the journey. Put yourself out there and bring people along for the ride.
Final notes
- What ambitions would you still like to realise?
Taking Socially Powerful to £100m in annual revenue. For me, that number means you’ve been at the forefront of an industry, shaping it, building it, leaving a real mark on it.
It’s an unfathomable number. But it’s one I’m determined to hit.
- Do you have any advice for current pupils/graduates who don’t know what to career path to follow?
Think about what you’d genuinely love to do. Not what pays well, not what sounds impressive,what actually excites you and what you wouldn’t get bored doing day in, day out.
Figure that out first. Then find a way to monetise it.
