About
From building brands to building better businesses.
I'm Gary Neville, founder of Neptune. For more than 20 years, my career has revolved around one question: what helps businesses and people perform at their best?
Gary Neville, founder of Neptune
- Hons degree in Visual Communications
- Certified Employer Branding Professional
- Diploma in Coaching & Mentoring
- Founding member of the Talent Champions Council
I began my career in design and communications and founded my first business in 2002. Over the years that work evolved into brand strategy, positioning, marketing, business development and commercial growth.
I built businesses, employed people, navigated the financial crisis, raised investment for a technology venture, spent time building a business in the United States, experienced failure as well as success, merged a business and eventually exited it.
Those experiences taught me as much about business as any textbook ever could.
But one particular conversation changed the direction of my career.
The conversation that changed the direction of my career
“My customers”
I had completed a significant rebranding and repositioning programme for an organisation. There had been research, strategy, a new brand identity, a new story and a major external launch.
Some time later, I was sitting in reception talking to a receptionist I had come to know. She had worked for the organisation for around 18 years.
Looking at the new branding in the lobby, she said something that stopped me in my tracks.
She told me it was a shame that when “my customers” came through the door, she couldn’t explain the story behind the new brand.
The phrase my customers stayed with me. Here was somebody who clearly cared deeply about the organisation and its customers. Yet despite years of service, nobody had properly helped her understand a major change she was now expected to represent.
From a brand perspective, it was a missed opportunity. From a people perspective, it was much more significant. We had invested considerable time understanding how customers should experience the business but had not created the same connection for someone responsible for delivering that experience every day.
That changed how I thought about my work.
I became increasingly interested in what happens inside an organisation: how strategy is understood, how leaders communicate, whether employees feel connected to the business and how all of that ultimately affects performance.
Personal
Why the people side matters to me
There’s another part of the story that goes back much further.
I didn’t thrive academically at school. At one point I was encouraged to leave and take up a trade. I remember feeling that I didn’t really belong in that environment and questioning whether I was good enough.
I also remember being forced to enter poetry recitals in primary school. I became so anxious about speaking that when I reached the stage, I froze completely. Not one word came out.
Much of my work today involves helping people find the clarity and confidence to communicate, lead and contribute. It also involves helping organisations create environments where people understand why their work matters and feel more connected to what they are part of.
I wouldn’t claim those childhood experiences somehow predetermined my career. They didn’t. But I understand what it feels like to lack confidence, to feel disconnected and to believe your voice doesn’t matter.
Perhaps that’s one reason the work matters so much to me today.
In Gary’s words
Clarity, communication and connection
A short introduction to the 3Cs for Performance™ and the thinking behind Neptune, from Gary.
Where it has led
I work with entrepreneurs and organisational leaders who are trying to move something forward - a business, a strategy, a team or themselves.
Sometimes they need a strategist.
Sometimes they need a facilitator.
Sometimes they need someone who understands communication and employee engagement.
Sometimes they need a coach who will give them space to think and the confidence to find their own answer.
Let's talk
Trying to move something forward?
A business, a strategy, a team or yourself. Whichever it is, it starts with a conversation.