From Burnout to Employee Ownership | Susie Cresswell of Whitewall Marketing

In this episode of Scale HER Up – The Female Entrepreneur Show, I’m joined by Susie Cresswell, founder of White Wall Marketing, a Glasgow-based marketing and comms agency specialising in the built environment – think shopping centres, retail parks, office blocks and high-end residential.

Susie shares how she went from a demanding, male-dominated corporate role in property to launching her own agency after realising there was “more to life” than never having time to post a birthday card to her niece. With no savings, a loan from her parents to cover the mortgage and a determination to do great work rather than chase titles, she started freelancing from her spare room and grew from there.

We talk about the power of a niche – how her specialist experience in property and the built environment led to a client base that has stayed loyal for 20 years – and why she spent years trying to “get away” from that niche before fully embracing it. She explains how White Wall started with associate collaborations, then shifted to building an in-house team, at one point reaching 22 people before right-sizing to a core team supported by long-term freelancers.

Susie also shares how her view of marketing channels has evolved: digital and “traditional” are all just tools in the same toolbox. What matters is the research, the planning and understanding where your audience actually is – whether that’s TikTok and Instagram for younger customers, or websites, search and even handwritten notes and direct mail for others.

A big part of the conversation focuses on team, culture and flexibility. White Wall now runs with a blend of employees and freelance specialists, some of whom have worked with Susie since day one and even sit in the office as part of the team. She talks about adapting to changed expectations around work, creating a culture where people are encouraged not to work late by default, and recognising that different working patterns suit different people and life stages.

We then dive into a huge milestone: moving White Wall Marketing into an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) and appointing a new Managing Director. Susie explains why she chose employee ownership instead of a trade sale or management buy-out, why she transferred 100% of her shares, and how she now sees herself in a founder role supporting the new leadership team through an earn-out period.

Throughout, Susie is very honest about imposter syndrome, burnout and learning to be calmer. She talks about making pricing mistakes, managing redundancies after losing a major contract and during COVID, and how HR has gone from “I’ll just handle it” to bringing in external support to protect both the company and the team. She has learned what she is good at – and not good at – and is unapologetic about building a business that reflects that.

This is a relatable, down-to-earth conversation about building an agency over 20 years, embracing niche expertise, looking after your team and planning succession so the business can thrive without you.

In this episode, we cover:

1. What White Wall Marketing does, and why it focuses on the built environment
2. How Susie’s career in property and managing agents led naturally into that niche
3. Starting the business with no savings, a loan from her parents and a year of working from home
4. Her early “associate model” and why she eventually moved to building an in-house team
5. Growing to 22 people at the company’s height and then right-sizing to a smaller team with trusted freelancers
6. Why digital vs “traditional” is a false divide – it all starts with research, planning and understanding where your audience is
7. Examples of standout tactics, including handwritten notes and direct mail in a digital-heavy world
8. The realities of HR in a small agency: pricing, tough conversations, hiring, retention and the emotional weight of redundancies
9. Blending employees and freelancers, including long-term freelance team members who sit in the office
10. How expectations around work have changed since “we never had lunch and worked every hour”
11. Moving to an Employee Ownership Trust and appointing a new MD to lead the next phase
12. Why she believes she’s not necessarily the right person to lead the next digital chapter – and why that’s okay
13. What she’s learned about herself: being calmer, solution-focused and recognising that different perspectives make the work better
14. Her message to other founders: there is always a solution, you only get one life, and you don’t want to look back and regret not going for it