Niall Cleaver

Documenting the journey of crafting a timeless coffee cup brand | CEO & Founder of Cupsly

My story isn’t about a polished entrepreneur. My journey hasn’t been traditional. I left school without an English qualification, uncertain of what the future held. 

That failure shaped me, it forced me to think differently, fall into business, and ultimately embrace creativity, resilience, and the belief that change is possible, even when doubted. Fast forward to today, I’m growing and scaling businesses while sharing the real lessons that come from it.

Founder

Are you struggling to grow an engaging community for your business or personal brand.

Stop right there, I think I have you covered ⬇️

This is me (Niall), I'm a 22-year-old who is fascinated by growing communities in the online space. Actual communities that have meaning and purpose. 

The services we provide at Social Library 

➡️ Personal Branding (LinkedIn)

➡️ Guidance & support consulting


Drop me a message to discuss your social media strategy, review how well your current socials/posts are doing, and research how we can build your community and gain you more followers and leads.

or you can email us @

hello@sociallibrary.co.uk

Building vs scaling a business. What's the difference?

A few years ago, I learned one of the most valuable lesson in business. I left school with qualifications that made it hard for me to get any sort of job.

Luckily, my family ran a business. I jumped in and started learning. And here’s what I learned: There’s a huge difference between building and scaling.

Building a business:

Proving the idea
Short-term survival
Doing everything yourself
Energy, speed & scrappiness

Scaling a business:

Letting go of control
Long-term decisions
Patience, systems & people
Making sure it works without you.
Alignment throughout the whole company.

Building feels exciting. Scaling feels uncomfortable. Both are essential. I didn’t realise how different they both were until I lived them.

But the one thing that never changes between both? 
The hard work that comes with it.

Growing @thistlescientific and sharing the lessons while I do

I just spent 2 hours yesterday in one of the best meetings of my life!!!

What about? How do we build further on our foundation?

Yesterday was a special day, do you know where you get the team together and you leave feeling excited for what's to come? That's what happened.

It's been a pretty wild couple of months for Thistle, but it always comes back to the same thing. How can we deepen the connection we can have with researchers?

The personal touch.
The real support they deserve.
The professionalism and trust they have in us.

This year, we’re looking at how we double down on that.

We’ve set some big objectives, and the whole team is ready for them. If yesterday was anything to go by, this next phase is going to be an exciting one.

We can't wait to share more on this very soon.

We’re excited to announce our new collaboration.

I'm genuinely proud of the impact we're creating in research at Thistle Scientific. It started with one clear objective to make research the best it can be, not only to impact our lives, but also to impact the lives of generations to come.

Last week was a big reminder of this as we announced our collaboration with arcorisbio AG, which will help accelerate the industrialisation and commercialisation of their breakthrough MUSE® platform.

A collaboration that will help keep the world safe.

One of the best mistakes I learned pretty quickly in business.

Thinking strategy comes first in business. But it doesn’t… 

Understanding who you’re building for is.

I’m nowhere near successful yet. But I’ve been lucky to spend time around people who definitely are. And one topic comes up over and over again: 

Strategy.

How did you come up with your strategy?
Why has your strategy been effective?
When do you adapt your strategy?

The answer usually sounds complicated.
But, it keeps coming back to one word: audience.

Before you can plan anything, you have to understand them. What do they care about? When do they need to hear from you? How do they feel when they see you show up?

This is where a lot of founders go wrong. No strategy is 100% correct. It’s custom‑made based on how well you understand the information your audience is giving you.

So copying what works in another company or industry rarely works. You’re playing a different game, with different people, at a different stage.

Strategy is an understanding game.

I used to panic hearing the word strategy in business.

It sounded complicated... but it wasn’t.

I would hear the word and be like that sounds proper technical. I'd just nod like I understood exactly what it meant, when I didn't but now I get it and it's simple.

It's just a plan.

What are the objectives?
What action will you take to hit them?
Which data tells you it's working or it isn't?

We love to make words sound more complicated than they are. 

It's easy to overcomplicate things when you hear all of the advice online but it's simpler than you think. If something isn't working don't wait, go and find the reason why.

Try something. Learn. Adapt. Evolve. Repeat.
Just enjoy the process of figuring out.

That's what business is!

When I was younger, I hesitated on the idea of working for my family business.

Today, I’m 3 years in, working alongside nearly 50 incredible people.

It’s crazy how life works. Some days you’re completely against something before you’ve even tried it…then you try it and realise it was exactly what you were meant to do.

I always had this doubt in the back of my head:
That I had to prove myself somewhere else first.

That’s why:

- I started posting on LinkedIn.
- I kept looking for “my own thing”.
- I started learning more about business.

Now it feels like all of that happened so I could come back better and help continue to grow a business I genuinely care about. But this growth has hardly been me. It’s been the team I get to work with every single day.

A few things this has taught me:

- Don’t write something off until you’ve actually tried it.
- You can prove yourself elsewhere, but always bring the knowledge back

So don't resist an opportunity just because it didn't fit your picture in that specific moment of your life. It might be worth taking a closer look.

Stop listening to too much advice.

Read that again... throughout my journey, I've fallen for many distractions. Stuff that didn't feel right personally, and so many of us are going through this.

There's advice here, there and everywhere.

And it's very hard to know which is the right or wrong advice, and you know what you'll never really know. The only way to find out is to...

Listen to your gut and try.

In a world full of advice after advice, trust yourself first. 
There's no right or wrong way to do anything.

If it works, it works!

P.S. Have a little day in the life vid

Dan Cons

Public Nectar

Public Nectar is a performance marketing agency that helps brands grow profitably through paid social, Google Ads and email marketing.

I’m responsible for assessing the fit of potential clients and helping them decide whether working together is the right choice for their business.

Account Executive

The Remote Goat

I help eCommerce marketing agencies increase sales revenue by closing more leads over the phone through my Conscious Closing Framework.

Ads by Nomads

Ads by Nomads is an eCommerce growth marketing agency that helps clothing & accessories brands grow by increasing their profitability and sales revenue through Facebook Ads, Google Ads and email marketing.

I run the business and also handle all interactions from the first time someone speaks with us, through to deciding they want our help growing their e-commerce store.

I've got ten years of experience working in the digital advertising industry, specialising in e-commerce. I know how to get to the heart of the problem and come up with solutions that have helped hundreds of e-commerce brands achieve their revenue and return on ad spend [ROAS] targets.

Criteo

Criteo is a global technology company that enables brands and retailers to connect more shoppers to the things they need and love. 

At Criteo, I was responsible for working with large advertising agencies like Zenith, Starcom and Wavemaker to help brands like HP, Reckitt Benckiser and Heineken increase e-commerce sales revenue, volume and market share through key retail partners.

Sales Manager, Brand & Agency (UK Tier 1)

Ve Interactive

Ve is a global technology company who provides Connected customer engagement solutions for e-commerce businesses that want to find and grow their audience, convert more customers and optimise marketing spend.

In this role, I was responsible for helping apparel brands maximise the return on their programmatic advertising spend and managing a team of digital consultants who do the same for e-commerce companies across multiple industries.

Head of Client Direct Programmatic Sales

I was responsible for the management and growth of the Home and Garden, Consumer Electronics, Food and Bev sectors. 

Working with brands like Miele, Nestle and Henkel. My team consisted of three digital consultants, three account managers and a client implementation specialist who ensured the successful acquisition, maintenance and optimisation of our client’s programmatic advertising and conversion rate optimisation campaigns.

Head of Retail

I was responsible for the management and growth of the Charity and Education sectors. 

Working with charities like Oxfam, Save the Children and Unicef. My team consisted of two digital consultants and one account manager who ensured the successful acquisition, maintenance and optimisation of our client’s programmatic advertising and conversion rate optimisation campaigns.

Head of Charities and Education

Working in the Education, Recruitment and Charities team, I was solely responsible for introducing our website performance technology and generating revenue from sectors where Ve Interactive had marginal presence at the time. Further responsibilities of mine included mentoring junior members of staff, attending and presenting at conferences, uncovering new partnership opportunities and maintaining timely and accurate details of my sales activities to my sector director.

Senior Digital Consultant

Educate

I was the most senior person on the UK digital team, reporting directly to the sales director, tasked with maintaining sales performance whilst increasing revenue from key university clients. My other main responsibilities included attending and presenting at industry conferences, maintaining media relationships, developing new product offerings, mentoring and appraising team members, training sales staff, assigning territories and team forecasting.

Senior Account Manager

Working on the UK and International digital teams; I was responsible for generating ad revenue from UK University/College marketing departments and ad agencies. My duties included weekly prospecting, cold calling, arranging and attending meetings to cross sell Educate's digital portfolio, helping them to recruit students onto courses at all education levels. Further responsibilities include executing campaigns and reporting on performance.

Account Manager

Sales Expert for Marketing Agencies

As a former agency owner, I know how much you want to succeed.

But to do that, you need to close more sales. 

The problem is you’ve got an overload of inbound leads and can’t keep up with demand. 

And that makes you feel frustrated as you've become the bottleneck in your business, which is impacting your ability to grow. 

I understand how you feel. Missing out on potential clients is super frustrating. 

And that is why I have used my Conscious Closing Framework to help companies like yours close  £5M+ in sales to eCommerce brands. 

I have worked with agencies like Zenith, Starcom and Wavemaker and sold to brands like Heineken, Beats by Dre, Mars and many more. 

And although the global brands and agencies are great, my real love is freedom. 

And that’s why I want to help independent eCommerce marketing agencies and their clients get the sales they need to live the life they want. 

So if you are ready for me to take closing sales off your plate, here’s how it works: ⬇️

✅ Step 1: Book a call
 
Let’s chat about your offering, what you’re currently doing, and what you're looking to achieve to see if working together might be a good fit. 

✅ Step 2: Review your plan
 
I’ll apply my framework to your needs so you can see how I can support your growth and help you decide whether working together is the right for you.

✅ Step 3: Leave it to me

Sign the agreement and start putting calls in my calendar. Get ready to hear - all of these guys are going ahead. Let’s begin the onboarding process.

So, send me a DM, and we can have a chat. 📥.

Or, if you’re not quite ready for that yet, check out my free newsletter: 
  
➡️ https://theconsciouscloser.carrd.co/

So you can stop stagnating and start scaling your agency. 

✌️

taplio

The Battle

Niall Cleaver

Dan Cons

Followers

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taplio

The Battle

Niall Cleaver

Dan Cons

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Niall Cleaver's LinkedIn Performance

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