About
Hi, I’m Jonathan.
I work with people to help them achieve their goals.
Extraordinary Results Begin With One Small Change.
My role is to simply help you identify & clarify where you want to be. We focus on what is it that if you were to wake up one morning – that’s different in your life, and what success would look like to you. This could be with work, your business or personal life, and then help to evoke strategies & come up with actions, based on what fits best with your goals, personality, and long-term vision, to close that gap to get there.
I’ll keep you accountable for your actions so we make sure progress is made. It is the progress that is key (to your success and happiness), not just creating the route plan.
I think everyone has something they want to do or achieve.
And everyone will face obstacles, challenges, or knowledge that they may feel prevents them from achieving that ‘goal’. Some know where they want to get to, but not sure about getting there. Equally, there are those who just know ‘here’ is not quite right and don’t know what steps are needed.
Sometimes we just need to talk it through with someone to help get more clarity, dig a little deeper, see it all from a different angle. Sometimes we need to get back on track after a setback. And other times it maybe we need a little nudge.
I’ll support in the creation of actionable steps to close that gap and make sustained progress towards that longer term goal. Progress, small and fast, slow and steady, which ever combination which works for the person/scenario.
Focus and Action.
Just one degree of change can make a huge impact a year later.
When is a good time to talk?
A few client testimonials
“Positive, innovative, driven, competitive, and attention to detail are just some of the words that spring to mind when describing Jonathon. It was a pleasure to work with him and also train with him.”
“Jonathan is a driven individual always trying to push things further and to improve strategies and results each time. Jonathan has a real ability to think out of the box which will always give you a competitive advantage to the competition.”
“I always come away with clearer thinking, better plans, and a deeper understanding of how to deal with an opportunity or situation.”
Jonathan Geitner
20+ years in business
Initially from a sales background, working my way up from the bottom in hospitality and hotels and fortunate enough to have launched hotels from scratch, seeing the whole operations, sales, revenue, and marketing all working hand in hand for the better good with a blank sheet of paper and writing the rule book as we went along. With my successes and love for sales and marketing, I soon transitioned into being someone who turned hotels around that were not performing well – whilst winning awards and accolades along the way, including the best Sales & Marketing team (CIM).
One particular hotels growth moved from becoming the worst-performing Marriott hotel in UKEMEA to the best performing hotel.
I then began networking with real entrepreneurs and start-ups in London, and witnessed how excited although challenging the journey was, to get a business off the ground. I had to get involved.
So evolved something called TheEntrepreneurNetwork and also Launch48, and then began consultancy work whilst beginning my first big venture. Rough Runner, was a roller coaster journey, wearing every hat under the sun, from IT and Web Developer to Sales and Marketing, to Hirer, and Firer, and Operations Manager.
Now I’m what many would say an entrepreneur. I would just say I like to run businesses, I enjoy working with a great team, and I thoroughly love creating things from scratch and seeing a group of people pull together.
I also enjoy helping other startups on their journey and helping other businesses succeed. So if you’re just looking to talk about the journey, drop me a line.
Also a keen sports enthusiast, having accomplished many sailing races, including that of the Sydney to Hobart, Miami to Jamaica, the Fastnet numerous times coupled with marathons, triathlons and various adventure sports.
A brief history…
Gym Jam
Founder & CEO
April 2020 – present day
My most recent venture, Gym Jam, is a fitness app for those who are tired of fitness apps. We help you cultivate better, fitter habits that stick. Our goals are to see more people becoming more active.
Check out gymjam.app
Chiswick Festival
Co-founder
April 2020 – present day
A local festival in between the two lockdowns that will continue and become an annual event. Comedy, music, food and drink over 21 nights at Chiswick House.
In just 4 weeks we organised 21 nights of events – acts included Dara Ó Briain, Russell Kane, Joel Dommett, Simon Brodkin & Tom Allen to Key Note speakers like Jeremy Vine through to amazing musicians and incredible classical performers, who’ve performed with the likes of Clean Bandit, Eminem, 50 Cent, Ed Sheeran, Bring Me The Horizon, Maren Morris, Alison Moyet, Dermot Kennedy, Rhys Lewis, Marc Almond and Tom Chaplin to name just a few.
Check out chiswickfestival.com
Rough Runner
CEO & Co-founder
Feb 2013 – Nov 2020
An obstacle course event like no other.
We organised and executed over 69 events with over 150,000 people attending. Usually attracting some 8,000 – 12,000 participants and some 3,000 spectators to each event over a weekend.
Unforunately we had to put the business into Administration due to Covid-19.
Check out roughrunner.com
Consultant
Director
Dec 2009 – Feb 2013
A business and management consultant specialising in supporting business owners who may not have the time, resources or experience but needed someone who could hit the ground running.
I focused predominantly in supported business owners within the hotel & hospitality sector set up their businesses from scratch and get the businesses moving.
I successfully helped numerous small boutique luxury hotels open across London, Milan, Rome, and Scilly. Â
– Supporting businesses to write, deliver and implement marketing and sales strategies that leads to better customer engagement, improved customer loyalty & increased sales.
– Build and project manage website development from conception through to a live site with a strong emphasis on the customer journey and UX.
– Marketing and advertising campaigns, both on and offline, actively using social media and engaging with customers, pro-actively doing B2B and B2C sales, creating events as PR stunts, creating loyalty programs
Launch48
Director
Jan 2009 – April 2010
A fun and experiential event, which brought together participants from different backgrounds and levels of experience in the web industry to think/plan/develop and launch one or multiple web apps in one weekend. It’s an entrepreneurial event designed to engage all participants while offering the opportunity to learn and meet new people.
We successfully were sponsored by PayPal, 02 amongst a few others.
Marriott International
Director of Sales and Marketing
Feb 2002 – Dec 2009
Based initially the London Marriott Hotel Regents Park Marriott for just short of a year to help write, deliver & implement a Sales and Marketing Plan to help the hotel improve its financial position and to reach budget. This was successfully implemented we won various new contracts, particularly outstanding was 3 new airline crew contracts where the business was moved from already existing contracted hotels whose location was superior to what we offered.
Following this, I was asked to go to the London Marriott Hotel County Hall where the business had been performing very poorly. Being the flagship Marriott in London at the time the business was then the worst performing Marriott in the UKIEMA and had seen year on year revenues simply decline.
My role was to understand, write and deliver an effective business plan to turn the business around. We did a full business re-positioning on the hotel, re-wrote all the business, sales and marketing plans and implemented them.. These plans moved the business around from a £12m turnover to a £19.4m turnover business in just under 3 years during the recession ended Dec 09. The Marriott County Hall also finished in Dec 2009 with the highest RevPar for every Marriott in the UK and Ireland. Thus the hotel was transformed from the worst performing Marriott in the UK to the best performing Marriott during a recession.
The Savoy Group
Sales and Marketing
Jan 1998 – Feb 2002
The Savoy Group – a collection of the finest luxury hotels in London, including The Savoy, Claridge’s, The Berkeley, The Connaught and The Lygon Arms.
Since the team was established and were responsible for existing accounts, I was brought on to look into new markets, and drive “new” sales through effective marketing, sales and negotiations to a new audience.
Establishing the route planner of what was needed, through the writing of an effective sales and marketing plan, I drove £4m in the second year through new business.
From this point I also managed many of the top key accounts for the collection to maintain and grow business performance so as to meet budgets agreed.
London Marriott Heathrow Hotel
Sales and Marketing
Feb 1994 – Jan 1998
Responsible for the opening of the hotel, for the development of the businesses within the immediate area to include the Airport and all the airlines, encompassing negotiations of crew contracts and all the large corporate businesses around Heathrow as far as Slough’s business parks.
Highly successful opening, becoming the most successful Marriott Hotel at the time within the UKI collection and winning various accolades to include the best sales team in the UK as dictated by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, beating IBM, British Gas and Yellow Pages sales teams (no other hotel even got in!).