Unleashing Diony’s Creative Director, Ana Watts

For Entrepreneurs Only’s Unleashing the Entrepreneur Within programme is designed to help businesses unlock entrepreneurial talent from within by giving ambitious individuals the time, support and structure to lead meaningful projects that drive change. For Ana Watts, from Diony, the experience became an opportunity to think more strategically, strengthen client relationships and help shape the future direction of the agency.

As Creative Director at Diony, a full-service marketing agency based in Hull and Leeds, she brings more than 10 years of marketing experience across both agency and in-house roles. Having spent the last five years at Diony, her role spans creative direction, client strategy and team leadership, helping clients build stronger brands, clearer campaigns and more commercially effective marketing.

Stepping Back To Move Forward

Joining the programme was driven by a desire to keep growing, both personally and professionally. The peer-to-peer nature of Unleashing the Entrepreneur Within, which brings together participants from different non-competing businesses to develop ideas and lead defined projects, made it an especially appealing opportunity.

For Ana, the programme created space to step back from the demands of day-to-day agency life and think more strategically about the business. It also offered the chance to work on a project with the potential to create lasting impact at Diony, while learning from the perspectives and experiences of others.

Building A Client Growth Engine

Ana’s project focused on creating a client growth engine at Diony - a more structured and proactive approach to identifying opportunities that help clients grow while also strengthening long-term relationships. The work aligned closely with the kind of practical business improvement projects the programme is designed to support, including business development, performance improvement and developing stronger systems and processes.

Rather than viewing growth only through the lens of winning new business, the project explored how Diony could create more value for the clients it already supports. That meant looking at how the agency could act more consistently as a strategic partner: understanding client goals more deeply, spotting opportunities earlier and connecting clients to the right expertise at the right time.

A Shift In Mindset

The most significant breakthrough from the programme was the realisation that true partnership is what drives performance. FEO describes the programme as a way of injecting energy, pace and fresh thinking into businesses by unleashing talent internally, and that principle clearly resonated through this project.

Ana explains: “In a busy agency environment, it can be easy to focus on delivery, deadlines and outputs. But the experience helped sharpen a wider view of what client success really looks like - not simply delivering work, but building trust, challenging constructively and becoming an extension of the client’s team.

Turning Strategy Into Action

“The programme also helped me build confidence to step into a more strategic space, challenge existing ways of working and take ownership of a project that could influence the wider direction of the agency.” 

That reflects one of the core ideas behind Unleashing the Entrepreneur Within: enabling key people in a business to lead projects that bring best practice, new thinking and momentum into the organisation.

Since taking part, Diony has introduced new initiatives across departments to encourage stronger collaboration, more proactive thinking and a more consistent approach to client development. This has included improving how client insights are shared internally, how opportunities are identified across services and how team members understand the role they play in supporting client growth.

Early Impact

“Although the project is long term, there have already been encouraging signs of progress. Internally, it has created greater awareness and momentum around client growth, while externally, clients have responded positively to a more partnership-led approach that adds value beyond day-to-day delivery.” Ana explains.

The business has already identified a significant number of opportunities that may otherwise have been missed, showing the value of a more structured and collaborative approach. Much like other projects developed through the programme, the impact has not only been practical but cultural, influencing how people think, talk and act across the business.

In Ana’s words, “The experience was a hugely positive and energising experience. It encouraged me to step outside my comfort zone, think differently, learn from others and turn ideas into meaningful action.”

Founder and Managing Director of Diony, Ali O’Sullivan

“Ana’s experience on the programme has been hugely positive, both for her personally and for Diony as a business. It gave her the space to step back from day-to-day delivery, think more strategically, and develop a project that has already started to influence how we approach client growth, collaboration and long-term partnership. What has stood out most is the confidence, energy and ownership Ana has brought back into the agency. 

“Her work has helped us identify opportunities that may otherwise have been missed, while strengthening our focus on adding value beyond the brief.

“As an FEO member, it has been brilliant to see the programme do exactly what it is designed to do: unlock entrepreneurial thinking from within the business and turn it into meaningful action.”

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