I’m Phill. Powered by coffee, allergic to fluff, and somehow still standing after 25 years in marketing while the internet has reinvented itself more times than I care to count.
I started in the era of Lycos and AltaVista — back when Ask Jeeves looked like he’d stepped straight out of Downton Abbey. I’ve watched Google grow from a clever idea into the world’s front door, and now I’m watching AI drag us back to the core of what the web has always been: questions and answers. The tools change, the job doesn’t. Give people what they came for, quickly and clearly. That’s it. Everything else is decoration.
I’ve never cared for vanity metrics. A graph that “looks nice” won’t keep a business alive. Decisions need data, not sparkle. And if something wastes budget, patience, or oxygen, I’m not shy about calling it out.
The one thing I do invest in? People.
Teams only work when the egos don’t. Share the credit, take responsibility when you drop the ball, and move on. If you’re putting the kettle on, you ask who else wants one. If you’ve figured something out, you teach it. I back local talent, bring students in on placements, and operate on the principle that you never stop being a learner unless you choose to.
Outside of work, I’m a family man — 20+ years married and 4 mental kids. I’ve got a soft spot for history, a long list of places I still want to see, and a standing belief that nothing resets the brain quite like a few days in Benidorm. As for football… I’m Burnley through and through. Let’s leave it at that before Blackburn fans start sharpening pitchforks.
Professionally, my life’s work has been MonkeyFish Group. Twenty-five years of it. Thousands of client calls, product launches, wins worth celebrating, and failures that taught me more than the wins ever did. I’ve worked with everyone from national franchises like Tesco and Asda, all the way up to global entertainment leaders like Disney and Marvel. And I’ve even worked with the UK Police (never knew they needed marketing.)
Big or small, it’s always the same game: clarity, consistency, and systems that don’t collapse under real pressure.
A few years ago, I crossed paths with Kav. It started as the odd project, turned into a rhythm, and eventually became a fully built partnership. Together we’ve grown The Legacy Room and the training arm that runs alongside it. Kav brings the creative wildfire; I build the calendars, dashboards, and processes that keep the fire from burning the house down.
I’m ambitious — sometimes too ambitious — and I’m getting better at saying “no” to protect the time and energy needed to deliver properly. A “yes” should mean something. These days I make sure it does.
And if you want to know what actually matters to me, it’s pretty simple:
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Help people find the thing they’re really looking for.
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Build systems that do their job without drama.
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Create content that answers real questions.
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Measure what moves the needle and ignore what doesn’t.
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Share wins, own losses, keep learning.
I’ve lived through every fad the internet has thrown at us. Another one will arrive next quarter. Good. Strip the buzzwords away and it always comes back to the same moment: a person on the other side of a screen thinking, “Can you help me solve this?”
If we’ve done our job properly, the answer is yes.
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