Joining Potent: A new chapter in my career.
Starting as a Business Development Executive at a branding and marketing agency.
On 1 September 2026, I joined Potent as a Business Development Executive.
It was a meaningful next step for me because it brought together several things I had been exploring: agency work, marketing, business growth and the challenge of finding the right clients.
Until then, I had experienced different parts of the agency world through learning, projects and outbound work. At Potent, I had the opportunity to focus on business development within a branding and marketing agency.
That meant learning a new side of the work.
Understanding what we were selling
Potent works with founder-led businesses on branding and marketing. Its services include brand identity, social design, websites, motion graphics, videos and LinkedIn management.
The work is creative, but the conversations around it are commercial.
A business owner may not wake up thinking, “I need a brand identity project.” They may be thinking about launching a new division, modernising an established company, entering a new market or making their business look more aligned with the scale they have reached.
Understanding that difference became an important part of my role.
I had to learn how to look beyond a company’s industry and understand what might be changing inside the business. A growing company, a second-generation business owner taking over, or a founder preparing for a new launch may have different reasons to invest in branding and marketing.
The challenge was to recognise those situations and start relevant conversations.
Learning from the inside
Joining a business also gave me a closer look at how an agency thinks about its services, positioning and ideal clients.
I was learning about Potent’s past work, its portfolio and the kinds of businesses it wanted to work with. I had to understand the value of the work well enough to explain it to someone who might not know the agency yet.
That is different from simply sharing a service list.
A business development conversation should connect what an agency does with what a potential client is trying to achieve. To do that, I needed to understand both sides: the work Potent could deliver and the context in which a business might need it.
It pushed me to improve my research, communication and ability to identify opportunities.
A new kind of responsibility
There is a certain comfort in learning a tool or completing a defined task. Business development is less predictable.
You can research carefully, write a thoughtful message and start a conversation, but you cannot control whether the other person replies or whether the timing is right.
That uncertainty was something I had to get used to.
I entered the role with energy and a willingness to learn. I wanted to contribute, understand the business and turn conversations into opportunities. I also knew that experience would come from doing the work consistently.
What I did not fully appreciate at the beginning was how difficult it can be to turn outreach into actual business.
The first weeks gave me plenty to work on: understanding the agency, researching prospects, testing messages and building a pipeline. But as the weeks passed, I had to confront a harder question.
What happens when the effort is there, but the results are not?
That question would become the focus of my next chapter.
Next chapter: The first two months at Potent did not produce the business I had hoped for. I had to look honestly at what was not working and reconsider what progress should look like.