What keeps you up at night?

Police sirens, mostly.

Caffeine after 2pm, season 2 of The Gentlemen on Netflix, and the never ceasing urge to check the front door is, in fact, locked.

My one year old! 😆 Beyond that, running my own business is the least stressed I’ve been in about 15 years. Product marketing delivered via a consultant, rather than from inside the hamster wheel of launches with 20 people pulling at you, can be a much more effective way to do it for everyone involved.

I spend a lot of time thinking about how we avoid getting so stuck in the weeds to make time for the cool stuff.

How algorithms work, and finding the best messaging to inspire an audience to take lower funnel actions.

Often my two cockerpoo dogs hogging the bed. Sometimes my to-do list. But I like to keep busy. Being part of LHV’s journey is a truly exciting opportunity – it’s not often you get to help build a new bank.

Video ideation. It’s a blessing and a curse but it never turns off. I’ll get into bed and suddenly I’m thinking about different hooks and questions I wanna try for future videos.

Trying to scale human connection, which by definition, doesn’t scale neatly. And growth in general… because it’s messy, unpredictable, and a lot harder than LinkedIn makes it look.

The night terrors of my neighbour’s six-year-old. There’s something about hearing a spine-shivering “DAAAADDDDYYY” at 3am that has a way of putting everything else in perspective.

Quite literally, new ideas just before bed. I’ll suddenly become convinced we need to pitch something immediately, and then spend far too long lying awake figuring out how to make it happen. Surely that’s not just me.

How to bring food to the table while keeping the family happy, mostly.

My kids climbing into bed at 3am. Everything else I can handle.

Not much, I tie up my loose ends and plan the next day’s priorities and plans before bed. Getting a good night’s sleep is super important!

How isolated we’re all getting due to social media and phones. It makes me really sad that so many people now choose TikTok / Instagram / Netflix over spending real time with friends, and that these platforms have encouraged us to become more self-centred while also polarising our politics. I believe we’ll eventually find our way back to each other, though I don’t yet know how.

The U12 girls football team I coach, mostly!

The decimation of media publications, and brilliant journalists not having stable roles. The Fourth Estate is essential to a functioning society, and we all need to spend more money on our news to keep it that way.

The future for my kids on almost every level.

Assessing whether I have the right balance of focus between what’s “urgent” and what’s “important”.

Making sure we’re growing fast and sustainably and that we’re learning faster than the market is changing.

Honestly, not much. I live by the ethos that we only get one life, so let’s enjoy it. I love a challenge and pushing myself to experience new things and I love fintech and the community, but at the end of the day, it’s just a job. I’m helping businesses make payments simpler - not curing cancer.

The baby crying next door.

Marketing performance and ROI, talent and team dynamics, and how to ensure we stay ahead and innovate - I often have ideas in the night, not always good ones!

The fear that someone is going to steal my number plates.

Reporting on organic content. If anyone has solved this, DM me. And not with another ‘semi good but actually kind of shit’ tool - I’ve likely tried it already.

Right now? Everything. As an early-stage founder building a vertical AI company, everything is a source of caution and concern. Everything is new, everything is untested, and what got us here is unlikely to get us there. It’s also exciting, and a time for learning and creating new, better ways of working. That’s what balances my serotonin.

Cashflow and pipeline. I’m a cliché business owner, I’m afraid. Run out of money? Your business is done. No new leads? You’re treading water. Other things pop up here and there, but these two are always there, lurking in the background.

Talent and revenue, in that order. Also, whether I’m being the best husband / father I can be ;).

Ideas. My brain waits until 11pm to present its best work.

The technology industry is becoming increasingly extractive. How do we deliver value to customers, society, and shareholders without breaking any of them? I think there’s too much cynicism and pessimism where we should operate from optimism.

My teenage sons coming home ludicrously late and deciding that’s the time they want to chat to me.

Sounds cliché, but I lie awake worrying about the impact of AI on future education and job opportunities for my teenage daughters.

Making sure my time, my team, and our resources go to what truly drives value and not just what feels loud and urgent.

The coffee from Black Sheep. Training too late on Zwift.

Whatever that week’s curveball is: event logistics going sideways, campaign optimization rabbit holes, the eternal ‘prioritise vs. backlog’ battle or my 18-month old twin boys.

My four year old getting (currently) spooked by the dark 🥱.

Professionally, it’s keeping up with the pace of change, currently being dominated by AI. Sort of like building the plane while you’re flying it. Which platform / tool is the best holistic fit for purpose and most efficient, while our marketing plans and goals continue to evolve?

The unpredictability of marketing campaign outcomes - especially when trying to measure the true and quantitative impact of awareness-led channels like OOH or forecasting the effectiveness of influencer campaigns. How many people actually saw the work and how many made the buying decision because of the ad on this channel?

Wondering if and when AI will replace us all!

Nothing. Although if I have an exciting idea at 4am, I’ll be half thinking about it for about an hour.

Building a team and a career that is future-proofed.

Brand cohesion. Blockchain.com has pretty much the longest tenure in crypto of any business. It’s global, with an institutional and consumer arm and a wide suite of products. Ensuring both creative excellence and design consistency across so many people and touch points is usually what I obsess about late at night when the caffeine won’t leave my system.

Very little. I’m an Olympic-level sleeper. But if I am stressed (or sparking with ideas), I’ll end up dreaming about them.

My new dog. And trading performance. I check numbers daily, and any variance from plan keeps me restless.

Currently it’s the [August] UK heatwave - it’s making bed time a struggle. But when it comes to work it’s about how to stay innovative as a challenger brand.

Other than my 7 and 10 year old kids? Getting my head around the amazing possibilities (and potential perils) of AI and its impact on marketing.

The emdash witch hunt. It’s an expressive piece of punctuation with a specific purpose. I’m more selective and cautious using it now, which is a shame. Presses play on calm meditation.

Everything, yet nothing! I think about everything from client performance (how can we do even better?) to my team’s happiness in their roles. Then I realise that I’m in control of these things and I fall asleep!

Lack of air-con. Growing within budgets.

Mostly my teenage kids.

A lot, but mainly it centres around if everyone is happy: family, team, and stakeholders in that order.

Attribution models and the haunting question: “What’s the ROI on that?”.

All the marketing possibilities I haven’t tried yet.

The nagging feeling that you might only be as good as your last campaign. I’m getting better at reminding myself that this is a complete fallacy.

How to grow with limited (no) budget.

My six-month old son.

Not much - sleep is my secret weapon! But I’m an early riser and do my best thinking before the rest of the house wakes up.

I am really good at sleeping. I can sleep anywhere, any time.

Honestly, the number of women pushed out of work after having children is terrifying. I get a call almost every month from someone going through it, especially in tech. That, and wondering if I’m setting the right example for my daughter when it comes to work/life balance. Mum guilt is real!

I think about pace a lot. No, I don’t mean how fast I can finish parkrun - but more about how quickly everything’s changing at the moment. And am I changing with everything quickly enough?

Growth. It’s a long, hard grind. And no matter how many smart people you chat to you, nobody has easy answers. It’s just trial, error, learn, go again… you know the drill.

The creeping suspicion that we’re one algorithm update away from irrelevance. And the strong black coffees from 7am.

Not getting a good night’s sleep - it’s the equivalent of turning up to work drunk. Remember, 90% of things we worry about never happen.

Nothing. I get at least 7 hours in so I don’t have to worry about AI stealing my job. Solid sleep sets me up for the challenges I face every day as a financial marketer.

I have a two-year-old, so he does a pretty good job! But apart from Leo, I’d say it’s probably waiting for regulatory approval on our recently-announced acquisition of Community Unity Bank in Michigan.

Right now, my seven-month old son. But in general, mostly just the worry about staying relevant on social. You’re only as good as your most recent win on social, and people move on very quickly.

Probably the menopause (!) but otherwise fretting that our big new brand campaign, soon to launch, works as hard as I think it should.

Should I bring children into a world full of existential AI and climate change dread? Also scaling our tone of voice.