Meet the Wanlesses.
(try saying that three times fast)
We’re just a couple of wordsmiths who fell in love with each other’s immaculate grasp of grammar and mutual disdain for beetroot.
Alreet Martin man!
Martin is a born and bred Brit – northern, not southern, just to be clear – and as such has an almost unhealthy obsession with Sunderland Association Football Club and Coronation Street.
That aside, this north-easterner’s a reet canny lad who’s been working in content and communications in both the UK and Australia for almost 20 years.
He firmly believes every business, regardless of size, should have a world-class content strategy to help them tell their story and achieve business goals. Luckily, he has a strategic brain and pretty good content creation skills, too.
Before the birth of By Wanless, Martin was head of content at Mahlab, one of Australia’s premier content agencies, where he helped launch stellar – and in some cases international multi-award winning – content projects for many brands including Direct Advice for Dads for HBF, HRM Online for Australian HR Institute, Create for Engineers Australia, and Empowered for CommSec. Before that, he was in England creating content marketing publications to support some of the UK’s biggest trade fashion events, and he more recently spent a year reimagining professional sports content in Australia for the Newcastle Knights.
So, he can pretty much turn his hand to anything!
If you can get your head around his accent, he’s a top notch speaker too, and has worked his wordy magic at such industry events as Mumbrella, BEFest, Publishers Australia and Association Forum. And while he’s not the judgey type, he has sat on numerous judging panels for awards in publishing, real estate and mortgage broking.
When he’s not talking he’s usually singing anything by Bruce ‘The Boss’ Springsteen. We strongly recommend you familiarise yourself with the lyrics to Born to Run and this instructional video prior to calling Martin for a chat. Ha’way.
G’day Steph!
Steph is a true blue Aussie, born and bred in regional NSW. Her favourite pastimes include wearing hypercolour t-shirts, dodging blue bottles on beaches and bindies in the backyard.
Thanks to her early introduction to classic British humour (Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, Absolutely Fabulous – cheers Mum and Dad) she has an innate appreciation for the Brits and therefore understood Martin’s accent almost immediately (read: three weeks).
Steph’s worked in the Australian media, communications and content sector for close to 15 years now, clocking up experience with a variety of brands including Fairfax Digital, Mars, KitchenAid, IOOF, NIBA (National Insurance Brokers Association), SEEK, Women’s Fitness Magazine, Perth Airport, Travellers Choice and Commonwealth Bank, as well as some of the country’s top agencies.
A natural storyteller with enviable curiosity and an unwavering commitment to deadlines and grammar, Steph strategically crafts tight, concise, compelling copy to grab attention and tell brand stories with purpose.
In her spare time she dreams about dancing with Kate Bush – Wuthering Heights style – and can be found practicing in the lounge room most Saturday nights. We strongly recommend you familiarise yourself with the video clip prior to calling Steph for a chat. You won’t regret it.