My Local Marketer Podcast

About My Local Marketer Podcast

This podcast aims to shine a light on the successes, key learnings and insights from Reading's people and businesses. In the present and the past. We explore their recipes for success, the mistakes they've made and how you can avoid them, as well as inspirational stories that will give you a feel-good boost.

Publisher

Maria Lloyd

Category

business · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

7 Jul 2024

Latest episode

15 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

1 of 99 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   15 Oct 2026

   Ep.99 David Berry | How to Master Real-World Networking

   This episode features David Berry, Sales and Marketing Manager, from the Holiday Inn Reading-South, discussing his approach to community-focused hospitality, creative marketing, and the real-world challenges facing the sector. The conversation explores the practical realities of building strong local engagement. David outlines his work with the RG2 discount card and community spaces, explaining how opening the hotel's doors to local charities, SMEs, and co-working groups delivers practical, long-term local support. The discussion also delves into the strategic use of social media and video marketing, highlighting how business owners can leverage spontaneous, unscripted video content on platforms like LinkedIn to build brand visibility while emphasising the importance of keeping customer touchpoints authentic, natural, and relationship driven. Finally, David highlights the enduring power of local networking and staff community, explaining how building genuine face-to-face relationships over time and investing in a loyal, locally recruited team provides greater stability and long-term momentum than online presence alone. KEY TAKEAWAYS Play the Long Game with Local Networking: True networking success requires patience and genuine human connection rather than a quick hunt for leads. David emphasises that you must invest 6 to 12 months into building trust, doing your research, and simply being yourself, noting that relationships formed offline eventually yield long-term momentum. Cut Through the Admin and Remember Your Core Purpose: David highlights that it is easy for businesses to get bogged down by spreadsheets, admin, and over-complication. Growth comes from remembering the core reason you exist rather than hiding behind a laptop. Crowdsource Your Ideas Directly from Clients: Instead of guessing what your market wants, ask your network and customers. David notes that some of his best commercial ideas came directly from listening to client feedback, ensuring time and effort aren't wasted on unwanted products or services. Recruit for Personality Over Paper: When scaling or maintaining service quality, systems and processes can be taught, but a genuine personality cannot. Focusing your hiring strategy on attitude and cultural fit builds a strong internal community that naturally translates into exceptional external customer care. TIME CODES 00:00 Welcome to David! 00:41 Challenges Holliday Inn Reading South faces 01:36 How David has tried to encourage people to Holiday Inn 02:45 The RG2 card 03:57 Example of a business owner who used the space 04:28 Why and how David uses LinkedIn 06:03 David's advice for people on how to network effectively 08:31 What marketing has worked for Holiday Inn 09:50 How David comes up with his LinkedIn video ideas 11:35 How David collaborates and gets ideas from his network 13:13 How Holiday Inn manages processes 14:47 David's advice on not overcomplicating tasks 16:48 David's talks to schools and groups 17:47 The importance of customer service roles and what other businesses can learn from these roles 19:33 How David found his speaking opportunities 20:11 David's inspiration and process for filming his LinkedIn videos 21:37 David's plans for Holiday Inn Reading South going forwards 22:22 David's final thoughts for listeners

2. 

   1 Oct 2026

   Ep.98 Ferhan Janjua | How to Optimise Your Local Digital Presence for Real Growth

   This episode features Ferhan Janjua, owner of Reading Web Agency, discussing his transition into tech-based digital marketing, his philosophy on website design, and the integration of AI and local SEO. The conversation explores the practical realities of building a modern digital presence. Ferhan outlines his work with local SEO, explaining how optimising Google Business Profiles with high-quality imagery and consistent reviews delivers quick, tangible results for service providers and shops. The discussion also delves into the strategic use of AI, highlighting how business owners can leverage AI for back-end planning and coding while emphasising the importance of keeping customer-facing assets authentic and unreplicable. Ferhan details his methodology for avoiding generic overcrowded markets by anchoring AI outputs in personal brand vision. Finally, Ferhan highlights the enduring power of offline relationships, explaining how community engagement and real-world networking often provide greater business stability and long-term momentum than online presence alone. KEY TAKEAWAYS Highlight What Makes You Unreplicable: Put on your website the parts of your business that are really hard to replicate. Use high-end photography of your actual space or products, showcase strong customer reviews, and highlight your unique local community engagement so competitors cannot easily copy your distinct value. Lead AI with Brand Self-Awareness: To use AI effectively, you need to be deeply self-aware about your brand, tone of voice, and core vision. Because AI naturally pulls from average market data, you must lead it with your own distinct opinions to avoid blending into overcrowded, generic markets. Audit and Align Your Multiple Touchpoints: Recognise that your website is part of a broader network of multiple touchpoints (online and offline, such as shop signage, social media, and your Google Business Profile). Conduct a regular audit to ensure all these touchpoints are aligned. If you're a business that serves a local audience, prioritise getting a strong, active Google Business Profile up and running first. TIME CODES 00:00 Welcome to Ferhan! 00:18 How Ferhan got started with his business 01:38 How Ferhan's business has developed 03:24 How Ferhan approaches website design 04:28 What is the purpose of a website? 04:53 Ferhan's advice on website structure 06:07 What to include on your website 08:00 Ferhan's thoughts on how to use AI in your business 11:37 Why you need to lead with yourself and AI to follow 13:00 Ferhan's key business advice & the role your website plays 15:06 Your business' multiple touch points 16:03 Advice to develop your Google Profile 17:39 Audit your online presences 18:19 Ferhan's final thoughts

3. 

   24 Sept 2026

   Ep.97 Pete Doyle | The Business of Creativity: Why Life Experience is Your Greatest Asset

   This episode features Pete Doyle, local musician, composer, and full-time guitar educator at PDM Studios. He discusses his transition into full-time music, his community-driven guitar projects, and his unique approach to adult group education. The conversation explores the practical realities of building a creative career later in life and how Pete uses group music-making to combat isolation. Pete outlines his work with the "Play the Guitar" project, volunteering at Launchpad's life skills centre, and running workplace guitar workshops at Green Park. He details how he teaches mixed-ability groups by breaking chords down into individual notes and intervals, uniting beginners and experienced players into a cohesive guitar orchestra. Finally, Pete highlights his creative composition process, detailing how he blends organic acoustic elements with technology and environmental observation. He also shares his current projects, including upcoming compositions before concluding with his future ambitions, such as releasing an album and forming a massive guitar orchestra to play at the Proms by 2028!

Inside a recent episode

Ep. 11 Building Success with Lessons from the CIA | Rupal Patel

Published 19 Sept 2024 · Transcript excerpt

[…] It's not as if you make a call one day, and instantly you've got a million pound deal. So what worked well for you over time? How has it changed from those early days to now? Did you have you do something different, or is it something different you would have done? I don't think many people will like this answer, but for me the reality and for many others that I know has just been consistency and persistence, and a lot of what that entails is just a number scheme. So as you said, in the beginning, when I was growing my business, both of them actually, it was constantly pitching, being on the phone, putting myself in front of potential clients or customers, having conversations, not with a pitch, but just putting myself out there, planting lots of seeds, doing all of that cold calling, that cold pitching, that cold introduction, and then sort of following up, following up, following up, following up. […]

Who has been a guest on My Local Marketer Podcast

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Pete Hefferan
• Dave Jenkins
• Mary Genis
• Chris Mitchell
• Becky Nallon

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Spotify

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 51 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

88

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

32