On day three of Genoa Black's existence, Gaynor Duthie showed up for work. There was no salary. There was a shared understanding that if the business gained traction, there would be equity. She had just come back from Australia via a stint with a charity in Africa, had no pressing obligations, and decided: nothing to lose. Let's give it a go.
That was 2013. Today, she's the managing partner of a strategy, brand and marketing consultancy with 14 people, teams in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Los Angeles, and a client list that spans over 1,000 Scottish SMEs alongside luxury hospitality clients and international projects. In this episode of Scale HER Up, she joins Brenda to share what the journey has looked like — including the advice that changed everything.
Why strategy comes before marketing — every time
Genoa Black has three divisions: strategy, brand and marketing. And the order is deliberate.
When a client comes in thinking they need a marketing campaign, the first question Gaynor's team asks is: do we understand your brand? Do you have clarity on your proposition, your positioning, what genuinely makes you different? Because if the answer to those questions is no, running marketing is premature at best and wasteful at worst.
"There's no point starting with going straight into marketing if they don't have that brand clarity. We would never jump straight in on a marketing brief if we weren't clear and comfortable on the brand."
It's an honest conversation to have — and a commercially brave one, because it sometimes means slowing things down. But it's the right call. Clients who go through the brand clarity process first often find that it changes how they think about their business entirely: what makes them different, who they're really for, what story they're actually telling.
The strategy division itself came last — and came out of COVID. When marketing budgets were the first thing to be cut, Gaynor's team realised that what clients valued most wasn't the tactics. It was the thinking. The problem-solving. The trusted advisors who could help them navigate what to do next. So they resourced for that properly, brought in management consultants, and strategy became the third core division.
"Don't do the job you've got. Do the job you want."
Gaynor has been at Genoa Black since day three. She became a partner in 2014. She took her first director role — client services director — in 2017. Six months later she was deputy managing partner. Six months after that, managing partner.
It's a quick progression. And a lot of it traces back to a single piece of advice someone gave her early in her career:
"Don't do the job you've got. Do the job you want."
She took it literally. She watched the people above her — how they acted with clients, how they approached briefs, how they managed the team, how they handled themselves in difficult moments — and she modelled herself on what she wanted to become. She stopped waiting to be promoted to the next level and started operating as if she were already there.
"I've always been ambitious. I've always been wanting to push to that next stage. As soon as she told me that, it just clicked."
The hardest part: people
Ask Gaynor what's been most challenging, and she doesn't hesitate. It's people.
She's a self-described people pleaser. She's managed people older than her for most of her career, which brings its own dynamics. And early on, she had to absorb a piece of wisdom that sat uncomfortably with her personality: "You can't always be everyone's friend."
The way she's made peace with it is practical. When she needs to make a difficult call — whether it's a conflict between team members, a decision that won't land well with everyone, or a change that's right for the business — she comes back to one thought: putting the business first is the same as protecting the team.
"My job is to be the custodian of the company. If I'm putting the business first, I'm protecting the team. That's what I keep reminding myself."
She's found that having a support network makes this manageable. Her dad led a business for many years and understands the particular loneliness of that position. Her best friend runs a chain of beauty salons and brings a different perspective on the same kinds of pressures. Together, they give her a sounding board — someone to think aloud at, which is often how she reaches her own clarity.
"They'd probably say I talk at them. But I do sometimes just arrive at the decision myself through talking it out."
On AI: embrace it, don't rely on it — and don't forget emotional intelligence
Gaynor has a clear and considered view on AI, and it's one worth listening to.
Genoa Black is embracing it. Every conversation, every brief, every project invites the question: where could AI support this? But relying on it — letting it substitute for expertise, judgement or relationship — is where she draws a firm line.
"Don't rely on it. It can drive efficiencies. It can enhance thinking. It can challenge you. But it does not replace the expertise we've built across 1,000 companies."
She's also watching something that concerns her at an industry level: the displacement of young talent. Designers, writers, strategists early in their careers — people who are still developing their craft — are seeing work that used to give them their first rungs on the ladder being absorbed by AI-generated alternatives. For businesses that think short-term, that might look like efficiency. For the talent pipeline, it's a long-term risk.
"We really need to think about how we embrace AI but also nurture a talent pipeline. People coming out of university have had a hard enough time. We need to focus on bringing new talent in."
And her counterweight to artificial intelligence? Emotional intelligence.
"Emotional intelligence is just as important as artificial intelligence. It's understanding the nuances of who you're talking to. It's being able to read a situation. You really need to think about what's the emotion involved before you can be truly effective."
On boundaries — and the out of office she almost never sent
Gaynor is honest about what it cost her to get to where she is. For almost twelve years, she put one out of office on. Once. She covered for colleagues from her holiday. She didn't tell clients she was away when they had something coming up, because it didn't feel like the right thing to do.
"I probably put myself to the phase of burnout and sacrificed my own health to try and please someone else or be available."
Having her son changed it. Not because it made her less committed to the business, but because she finally had a boundary that felt non-negotiable, and for the first time she could feel the difference.
The advice she'd give her 18-year-old self: learn to protect your own boundaries earlier. Not to say no to opportunity — but to be aware of where you end and where the job begins.
What's next: LA, international growth, and lessons for going global
Genoa Black's next chapter is international. They've been to Los Angeles three times this year, working with clients there — beginning with connections built through a relationship with chef Curtis Stone.
Gaynor's approach to going international is the same as the approach that built Genoa Black in the first place: deliver good work, build good relationships, and let further opportunities follow from there. It worked in Scotland. It's working in LA.
Every trip balances delivery with development — client work alongside meeting new people, making new connections, planting the seeds for what comes next. Los Angeles alone is the sixth biggest economy in the world. The opportunity, she says, is real.
"As long as you've got the relationship and you do good work, opportunities follow. We're just applying that on an international level now."
About Gaynor Duthie
Gaynor Duthie is the Managing Partner of Genoa Black, a strategy, brand and marketing consultancy with teams in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Los Angeles. She joined the business on day three in 2013, became a partner in 2014, and has led the company's growth across three divisions serving over 1,000 Scottish SMEs and an expanding portfolio of B2C and international clients.
