Chris Reeve, a digital marketer, met Robert Ashton at a networking event and partnered with him on Swarm Apprenticeships. Robert's solution-oriented mindset, public speaking, and book The Life Plan reshaped how Chris thinks about business and life. Robert pushes past traditional practices with crowdfunding and modern marketing strategies.
So my name is Chris Reeve and I work for a digital marketing agency called Digital Boss, and I run social media channels and create websites and run influencer marketing campaigns for both local businesses and personal brands worldwide. So I met Robert quite a few years ago now at a local business networking event, and we got talking, and very quickly I came to realize that this guy is very unique. He's a one-off, and straight away he made the time of day to pull me to one side to offer me as much value as he possibly could. And from there, funnily enough, he ended up employing me. So I started working with Robert on his new social enterprise called Swarm Apprenticeships. He'd originally hired me to work on his marketing campaigns, ended up doing some business development and also a bit of personal assistant work for him as well, which I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed. I managed to meet lots and lots of people locally, and the amount of people that he's introduced me to now that I'm still working with is quite substantial. So working with Robert has definitely impacted the way that I'm doing what I'm doing today, 100%. And the reason why is, and something that I picked up very, very quickly through working with him closely, and his other clients do the same thing, is the power of questioning. He doesn't take no for an answer. He's always trying to find a solution. He's a solution-based thinker. Don't get me wrong, he's in check with reality, but he's always trying to find a solution. He doesn't write anything off. He's always trying to think, you know, look, how, why is this not working for someone? And if someone's having a torrid time, he's really, really keen to help them out, whether that be in business or their personal life. And yeah, so Robert can benefit people in a number of ways, and one of which, which I noticed obviously with working with him, was his public speaking. He is very, very inspirational. He's got his head screwed on, and he's a disruptor. And I don't think that's an issue. He can walk in a room and he can not only inspire people, but he can get people to actually take action. And there's a lot of talk in 2018, a lot of it, and Robert just ensures that although talking is important, it's also important just to take some action and crack on. So through his public speaking events, he basically makes sure that, you know, you've A, taken away value, but B, you can actually implement that, and he makes it relevant to you. And that's probably one of the main things about Robert Ashton that I really value. I think some of Robert's greatest achievements have actually all been through his content that he's produced via his books. The first thing I did when I came on board with Robert originally was I read his book, The Life Plan, and it literally did change the way I was thinking about my life. I read it on the bus every morning on the way to work. And again, he just has this way of breaking things down, making them super simple, but actually being able to implement those. And, you know, there's a lot of complicated stuff going on in the world, and for him to be able to just filter that down so you as a young person can crack on and do it, That for me was super, super powerful. I think Robert will leave a legacy on a lot of people and a lot of projects and a lot of businesses. I think he, again, he's disrupting and he's kind of going against the grain proudly and he's saying, well, actually, no, why have you always done it like that? And why aren't you thinking in the new world in terms of implementing social media strategies, marketing campaigns, You know, you've done it like that forever and a day, that's okay, but why don't you try and change it and use this method? You know, why don't you try and crowdfund? And I think that's the biggest legacy that Robert will leave behind as such. And I think that a lot of business people in Norwich, Norfolk really, really value what he has already done and the amount of knowledge that that man has got. I mean, literally the most, the best thing that anyone could ever do is pick up the phone, Book in a one-to-one with Robert and just literally just suck as much out of him as you physically can. Be a sponge because he has got so much business knowledge, it's unbelievable.
