Gavin Bell is the founder and CEO of Yatter, a paid advertising agency headquartered in Edinburgh.
Since launching the agency in 2021, Yatter now manages over £10m in client ad spend each year.
Gavin Bell has a wealth of experience scaling brands through advertising prior to founding Yatter, having consulted with some of the largest global brands.
Here, he shares the top three influences that have helped shape his life and career so far…
The person that has inspired my working career the most, and why
I struggle to answer this question because I try and seek inspiration from lots of people. I think you can learn something from everyone – and often you need to take inspiration from certain people at certain times in your career.
You can get the most valuable piece of advice from someone, but if it lands at the wrong time for you, it can be worthless.
When I first got into marketing, Gary Vaynerchuk was a big influence for me. I loved watching his content, seeing him grow Vaynermedia. It was his value-first philosophy to marketing that I adopted and it paid dividends for both me and our clients.
Later on, as I developed a speaking career, I took a huge amount of inspiration from Marcus Sheridan. I attended a number of his events on becoming a world class communicator, which I still try to work on every day of my life. Marcus’ philosophy of “they ask; you answer” is again, something that we use in our own business and with our clients.
The place that has inspired my working career the most, and why
I grew up in the Shetland Islands, a set of islands at the northernmost tip of the UK.
It’s the place that inspires me most for a number of reasons. When the weather is nice, it’s one of the most peaceful and beautiful places on earth. When the weather is bad, it’s harsh and dramatic.
From a young age, I was driven by an entrepreneurial spirit. I started by selling items on eBay, built my first website at 14, and even launched a small grass-cutting business.
Now, I find immense joy in returning home to recharge.
As a business owner, it’s important to find the time to switch off and think. That’s where you get your best ideas. But, with Slack, email and a phone pinging every 2 minutes, it’s near enough impossible.
But in Shetland, you’re isolated on an island and never more than six miles from the sea. There’s something about it that just flicks a switch in my head and I’m able to totally switch off from work.
My best ideas come from hiking the hills, overlooking the dramatic cliffs and sea.
The thing that has inspired my working career the most, and why
I’ve read countless business, marketing and personal development books over the years, but there is one that I keep going back to: How To Win Friends And Influence People.
It’s a masterclass in people, communication, relationships and believe it or not – marketing. Despite being written in 1936, it’s still just as relevant today, because it’s not written upon tactics and strategies, it’s based in human psychology.
In fact, I think I’m going to dig it out and read it again now!
