Rachel Middlewick, Founder

After leaving university and a brief stint selling ads at Granada Satellite & Cable, I joined Haymarket Media Group - drawn in after a pub-based interview, an after-hours office tour and a truly inspiring female boss.

As so many of us ex-Haymarketeers testify, we were lucky to have been part of an entrepreneurial business - and a place that encouraged individuality in its people. I stayed for eighteen years.

With frequent new roles I learned every aspect of media leadership, culminating in running the Outdoor Leisure portfolio and developing a digital product strategy to attract new younger audiences to a legacy brand.

I also worked in content marketing agencies across a range of sectors including retail, sports (The FA + UEFA + Manchester United portfolio was a highlight!), B2B and membership. First within Haymarket, then River and Hearst.  I managed client relationships and ran the teams, latterly becoming Strategy Director, responsible for client work, leading pitch teams and evolving the agency product and marketing strategies.

It was then that I formalised my marketing training with an MBA and learned the value of deep customer and market research. This I took forward into the transformation era….

Since doing that, I have worked with a range of content businesses - from media to brands to events and L&D. All seeking to evolve their business models, grow, and transform. You can read some case studies here.

I believe in co-creating solutions alongside existing in house teams so that they are empowered and bought in to the strategies we implement. I am passionate about driving change that sustains businesses through attracting and retaining audiences with a deeply relevant and valued product. There’s always a new opportunity, we just need to find it!

The only thing guaranteed in business is change. And sometimes a new perspective makes all the difference. I’d love to chat if you think I can help you.

After years of evolving content and product strategy for media and brands a natural step was taking the role as Chief Commercial Officer at PA Media with a brief of overhauling and uniting the commercial operation behind a new vision, underpinned by an end to end data strategy – the first of its kind within a news agency. I was lucky to have data, sales and marketing all within my remit and I appointed some incredibly driven, smart department heads. I left PA having implemented a new strategy and operation across the content division, winning awards, driving 15% growth in retained contract value against budget and reducing staff turnover by 42%.

After leaving PA I did a CIPD course in Organisational Design. In retrospect, perhaps should have done that first! Nonetheless, it formalised the experience I wanted under my belt to launch The Positive Consultancy.

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