Consulting · Westcliff-on-Sea / Essex
Michelle Passfield
Marketing withMichelle
The Feature
The Power of Connection
After more than 30 years in marketing and business development, Michelle Passfield knows that real growth rarely starts with another tactic — it starts with understanding people, building trust and knowing where to focus.
THE POWER OF CONNECTION
There is a particular kind of professional fluency that comes from years of understanding clients, building relationships and seeing what genuinely helps businesses grow. Michelle Passfield has spent more than thirty years working across marketing and business development, and today she brings that experience directly to SMEs that need clarity, direction and commercially useful advice.
Her career has spanned professional services, higher education and the public sector, including fifteen years within City and international law firms. It was around eighteen years ago, while working within that environment, that Michelle was introduced to client relationship management in its most structured form.
Through meetings focused on clients, CRM, effective business development and communications, she saw first-hand how strong professional relationships are built and maintained. She also learned the importance of resilience, particularly when navigating difficult conversations in competitive, high-achieving environments.
That experience shaped a belief that now sits at the heart of her work: business development is ultimately about people, relationships and meaningful connection.
Michelle founded Marketing withMichelle in 2019. Today, she works with SME owners who are often excellent at what they do but feel stuck when it comes to marketing and business growth.
Usually, they have too many ideas, too many channels competing for their attention, or simply no clear idea of where they should be focusing their time and money.
Michelle helps move them from chaos to clarity.
Her approach is deliberately bespoke. Rather than applying the same formula to every company, she starts by understanding the individual business, its challenges, its customers and what the owner is realistically able to implement.
The result is practical, strategic advice tailored to where that business is now and where it wants to go.
“Strong businesses are built through trust, authenticity and meaningful connections.”
Michelle has also recognised a recurring challenge among the SMEs she advises: even with a strong strategy in place, many business owners simply do not have the internal capacity to manage and implement their marketing consistently.
It is an insight that is influencing how Marketing withMichelle will develop in the future. For now, however, her focus remains firmly on providing strategic advice, mentoring and support to businesses that need help finding the right direction.
Her belief in relationships extends beyond consultancy.
Michelle created Connect & Chat withMichelle as a business community built around genuine professional connection rather than transactional networking. The idea is simple: create an environment where people can properly get to know one another, build trust and allow meaningful business relationships to develop naturally.
She also mentors entrepreneurs through the Young Entrepreneurs Network and sits on the advisory board of the Estuary Festival.
In 2026, Michelle was named as one of f:Entrepreneur’s Top 100 female founders, recognising both her work and the impact she continues to make through business and community.
For SME owners overwhelmed by marketing advice, unsure what to prioritise or struggling to turn activity into genuine business growth, Michelle offers something refreshingly straightforward: experience, perspective and advice built around the realities of their business.
Thirty years of marketing experience matters. But it is her understanding of relationships, clients and connection that gives that experience its real value.
Find out more at withmichellemarketing.co.uk.
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Thirty Years. No Fluff. Just Results.
Strategic marketing for small businesses that are serious about growth.
Michelle Passfield spent fifteen years inside City and international law firms, including Freshfields, before founding Marketing withMichelle in 2019. She is CIM-qualified, f:Entrepreneur Top 100 recognised, and genuinely allergic to generic advice. Whether you need a clear marketing strategy, fractional support, one-to-one mentoring or practical training, Michelle works exclusively with small businesses and entrepreneurs, building something bespoke around your actual situation. Clients consistently say the same thing: she listens, really listens, then helps you see your business differently. That clarity tends to change things.
Start the conversation today.The Interview
5 Questions with Michelle Passfield
Thirty-plus years, one Freshfields-shaped career, and a consultancy built entirely on the radical idea that marketing should actually work.
1. You spent 15 years inside City and international law firms before going it alone. What did that world teach you that most marketing consultants simply don't have?
It taught me that relationships are everything, and that the best business development is almost invisible. In professional services, you can't shout about yourself the way a consumer brand might, so you learn to build trust quietly, consistently, over time. That discipline shapes everything I do now with small business owners.
2. What's the single biggest mistake you see SME owners making with their marketing?
Doing too much of the wrong things. There's so much noise out there, and so many people telling small business owners they need to be everywhere at once, so they end up spending time and money on activities that aren't right for their business at that moment. My job is to cut through that and help them focus on what will actually move the needle.
3. You founded Connect & Chat withMichelle as a business community, not just another networking group. What's the difference?
Networking can feel transactional, like everyone's quietly handing out business cards and waiting for their turn to speak. Connect & Chat is about genuine relationships, the kind where people actually want to help each other. I created it because I believe strong businesses are built on real connections, and I wanted to create a space where that could happen properly.
4. You're recognised as one of the f:Entrepreneur Top 100 female founders in 2026 and you mentor entrepreneurs through the Young Entrepreneurs Network. Is giving back a deliberate part of how you run your business?
Completely deliberate. I've had brilliant people in my corner throughout my career and I know what a difference that makes. If I can help someone think more clearly, challenge their assumptions a little, or simply feel less alone in what they're building, that matters to me as much as any consultancy brief.
5. Finally: fractional marketing director, consultant, mentor, community builder. How do you describe what you do when someone asks at a dinner party?
I help small business owners stop guessing and start growing. The title changes depending on what a client needs, whether that's strategic thinking, hands-on support, training or just someone with thirty years of experience asking them the questions nobody else has thought to ask. But the aim is always the same: clarity, confidence and results.
