My story
My Background
Hi, it’s Les, good to meet you!
Here’s a little about me, my background, how I came to be running lesblythe.com, and how my business has developed over the last 10+ years.
I’m actually Scottish and was born and bred in Dundee. At 17 I moved to England for work, and a few years ago I made the move out to South Africa where I live now.
I come from an IT background and ran my own IT company in Manchester, UK for 10 years.
I’ve also worked for IBM, Fujitsu, and Xerox in the UK where I spent my time in Sales & Marketing roles as a customer-facing Account Manager/Director.
I was still employed by IBM (UK) when I visited South Africa on vacation.
I liked the place so much I decided to stay – the rest, as they say, is history.
The early days
I set up this website in 2011 and, with my IT background and experience, it was natural for me to focus on helping IT and tech companies market themselves effectively.
I’d noticed most marketing companies were generalists and lacked specific IT and tech skills – a huge gap in the market.
My mission was straightforward.
“To deliver exceptional service, with a genuine commitment to the success of your business, and a positive “can do” attitude that ensures I become your trusted, go-to digital partner.”
My approach seemed to work quite well, and I was lucky enough to work for some Fortune 100 companies as well as some exciting startups.
Fast forward today (well a couple of years ago actually)
My agency business was doing well, I was making money and had a good bunch of clients – and I was learning – A LOT!
So much in fact, I felt ready to pass my knowledge on and help as many people as I could “model” my success.
The obvious place to start was copywriting for a couple of reasons – it was highly in demand, I’d compounded my own copywriting skills, and felt confident I could help other aspiring copywriters.
I knew I needed to develop a copywriting course, not just another blah, blah, blah copywriting course, but one that actually got students to a minimum viable copywriting ability with the necessary skills to land clients and make real money – as quickly as possible.
Over the course of 2 years or so, my 6-Step Fast-Track Copywriting program was born – it was a difficult birth!
Don’t ever let anyone tell you that writing a course that truly adds value is a quick and easy process, it’s definitely not.
That said, 6-Step Fast-Track Copywriting is now a reality and helping people all over the world.
A photo from my time at Amdahl (Fujitsu). This win effectively eliminated IBM from both companies. IBM “head-hunted” me shortly afterwards!