Tom Cronk

Tom has been working with us for the last 7 years and has had a hugely positive impact on all of our businesses.

We’ve launched a lot of new things since Tom’s early days, and he’s constantly adjusting and expanding with us.

Over to you, Tom.

Photo by Department Two

Please tell us what your role in the business is?

I’m Group Head of Marketing for a handful of good businesses including The Good Life Society (amazing events), Glen Dye Cabins and Cottages (perfect Scottish holiday rentals), Hawarden Estate Experience (a great farm shop, pub, restaurant and events space in North Wales) and Some Good Ideas, the thing you’re looking at right now.

In many ways I don’t really know what ‘marketing’ actually means. It’s just a job title that I tell people so they don’t look at me blankly.

To sum it up though, I see my job as helping our in-person teams and our other bits, like websites and social accounts, connect deeply with our guests and customers. I want to make them feel something when they interact with us. The ultimate goal is to turn them from customers or guests into a sort of fan of the business. And sometimes they become friends too. That’s a good feeling.

I think we’re getting there.

Where do you do most of your work?

Pre-COVID, I used to work from our café in Notting Hill. That was amazing, and we had the best coffee I’ve ever had. The downside was the habit I developed for really expensive jelly from the deli over the road.

More recently our tiny London team has bounced around shared workspaces in Paddington, Southwark and we’ll soon be somewhere near Victoria. But, right now, I’m typing this from my dining room table in our one bed flat in Kent. It’s lovely, so I’m not complaining.

I’m looking forward to a little less Zoom.

How many people do you work with closely on a day-to-day basis?

Probably around 10 or so, split between London, Hawarden and Glen Dye.

What is the biggest challenge that you face at work every day?

I work in a really nimble little team of hyper-creative people so often the toughest thing is keeping up. Some of our ideas just make me smile. That’s when I know they’re a winner. They’re almost fully formed right out the box. Great! But then it's my job to try and boil that idea down into something tangible, and ideally in a handful of words, or via an image, so people know what the hell is going on now.

I hope we keep people on their toes. I certainly have no interest in being the marketing guy for a perfectly good, but run-of-the-mill place, location, event or whatever. I think I’d get bored pretty quickly.

Talk us through lunch. A sandwich at your desk or a full hour in the park?

Lunch is a chance to stand up and take the seven steps to the kitchen. I’ll make a sandwich or some pasta or something for the two of us, and then we’ll sit on the sofa and eat it much too quickly.

I don’t take much of a lunch break, but I do occasionally slope off at 4:45pm (don’t tell the boss) to go and walk Fred, my mum and dad’s Labrador, who’s just up the road.

What is the biggest lesson that you’ve learned that you wish you’d known when you started your career?

Can confidence be a lesson? (The fact that’s a question might suggest I have a little way to go yet).

If it can, I’d say that. I think my job can be done by just about anyone. It’s not rocket science. But I do think having confidence in your convictions, making a bold move, reshaping something before it gets stale, starting a brand new thing, whatever, that’s when you need to be confident.

After all, if I don’t sound like I believe in it, what hope have we got? I believe in everything we do, deeply, by the way. But then I would say that, wouldn't I?

Email. Friend or foe?

Friend. It’s my primary form of communication with our teams, but there are a fair few WhatsApp groups, too.

The newsletter (formerly known, archaically, as the e-newsletter) will always, always be king.

Email can take a business stratospheric, if you know what you’re doing.

Do you use a digital or paper To Do List? And how effective are you at getting everything done?

I make endless lists in Notes on my phone and my laptop. Shopping lists often pile in on work to-dos and vice versa. When I’m home all day anyway life and work just seem to blend into one so it works.

I’m good with a deadline. I poured a full pint of water over my laptop at uni (the night before an essay was due) and managed to rewrite the whole thing (3,000 words from shaky memory) in a night. I made the 9am deadline. And it wasn’t a complete heap of shit. I’m much better with deadlines imposed by others rather than myself.

Do you leave work at a set time each day?

I think I’m pretty good at leaving on time. Normally 5pm. I’m crap at leaving work at work, though. All my emails and notifications for all the businesses come through to my phone.

It means celebrating ticket sales and campsite bookings at all hours (I genuinely do), but it also means a bad review or nasty comment on a paid ad (they turn up some colourful characters) ruins my weekend.

I need to get better at that.

How do you relax? Do you look after yourself properly?

It hardly feels very 2021, but it’s booze. Specifically craft beer. I’m a sucker for it. During lockdown it’s become my thing, and the thing that all my mates do, too. When you’re not spending £500 a month on the commute drinking £8 cans of amazing beer is achievable… not so much when things go back to ‘normal’.

When it’s not beer it’s long walks in the countryside with Fred (the dog) and Holly.

How confident are you about the future of your business?

After a considerable wobble in March 2020, for obvious reasons, I’m feeling hugely confident. I think we’re, just about, ahead of the zeitgeist with our events (mainly happening in Hawarden, North Wales), the cabins and cottages in at Glen Dye are world-beating, the farm shop and pub are the strongest they’ve ever been and our events space can finally host weddings again.

We need to make up for lost time, but we’re getting there.

What is your secret time-wasting technique at your desk?

Instagram, both personal and business-related. The amount of time I spend on my phone is scary.

I recently took over our wedding feed (@goodlifeweddings) and it’s algorithm is so not me. It’s all Kim K and Britney and Taylor Swift. I’ll know I’ve had it a while when it all switches to West Ham transfer rumours.

Otherwise it’s Rightmove. I want a garden.

Do you listen to music as you work and if so, what has been playing today?

Almost always. Today I’ve had Tame Impala, Brand New, The Streets, Manchester Orchestra, Wolf Alice and a whole load of stuff Spotify just sticks on when the album runs out.

I’ve been working my way through the back catalogue for Desert Island Discs recently. A full Kirsty Young crush isn’t far away...