STARTING XI MARKETING by JACK PRYCE

I'm Jack, a former Pro-Youth Footballer and now Creative Strategist.

I've been trained by some of the best managers and players in Scotland, including the likes of Aiden McGeady. I now bring that same level of discipline and drive into my work as a Creative Strategist and Marketer.

How can I help your team?

As an ex-pro footballer, I know the sporting ecosystem inside and out, and I can help deliver strong results for your sports business, whether that's tennis, rugby, padel, basketball, or boxing.

Most marketers know sport from the outside. I know it from both sides.

From the inside, as a player:

I know what goes on in the locker room before a big game — the nerves, the excitement, the belief, the doubt. I know what great management looks like, and what poor management costs a team. I've seen how the right tactics and strategy can lift a squad, and how quickly things unravel without them. I understand the psychology of competition — what drives players to perform, what puts them off, and what it truly takes to build a winning culture. I know how rivals are studied, how preparation shapes confidence, and how fine the margins are at elite level.

That's not something I've read in a textbook. That's lived experience.

(We almost won the league in my final season. I know exactly what the difference felt like.)

From the outside, as a fan:

For 8 years I had a season ticket at Kilmarnock. I know what it means to live and breathe a club. I know about the loyalty, the passion, the rituals that make a fanbase what it is. I know what kind of content and messaging actually connects with supporters, because I was one. Fans are a community with an identity, and speaking to them the wrong way is just as damaging as not speaking to them at all.

(And yes, I must admit, I played for Kilmarnock's arch rivals, and scored my favourite goal on the same pitch I spent 8 years cheering from the stands. As a lifelong centre-back — who scores very rarely — that goal was incredible! The game is full of ironies.)

This dual perspective is what I bring to your marketing.

I translate the strategic thinking, from guiding strikers away from goal, the psychological insight, from pre-match routines as silly as tying my left boot before my right, and the understanding of what moves people, whether they're in the dressing room or in the stands, into creative strategy that actually resonates.

For the past 2 years I've been applying that same athletic thinking with clients like Dr. Johnny Hadac — Amazon #1 Best Seller, 1M+ followers — on his marketing and creative strategy.

Here's what he had to say:

"Jack has highly effective communication and gets tasks done in an orderly fashion. He has helped me build a better audience, and increase my sales in ways I wasn't familiar with. That's exactly why I recommend Jack to you. 10/10."

— Dr. Johnny Hadac, Amazon #1 Best Seller

If you'd like to see more, message me on LinkedIn to view my portfolio.

Message me on LinkedIn!

ABOUT ME

FROM THE PITCH
TO THE PAGE

Ex-pro footballer. Creative Strategist. Someone who's lived the game from both sides of the turnstile — and now writes for the brands inside it.

I was going to be a footballer. That was the whole plan. Not a daydream. The actual career.

I was pretty close, too.

I trained under some of the best managers and players in Scotland. I was playing against Premier League clubs in England. I had a game I'll remember for the rest of my life. My decisive goal helped us to victory.

Then I got the call. "Come and train with us."

This was my chance at playing in the Premier League — the most watched football league in the world. And I was just a young Scottish centre-back with a hard chip on his shoulder.

But, unfortunately, as sometimes happens in life, things didn't go according to plan.

While training alone before I'd made the trip, I had my first epileptic seizure. The training stopped. The dream I'd spent thousands of hours chasing shattered in a second.

I didn't sit with it long. If I couldn't do football, I'd do something else with the same obsession. Different work, same standard.

One night I opened my laptop, bored, and fell down a rabbit hole called copywriting. I read everything the greats wrote, and it led me to discover marketing.

I started studying marketing the same way I'd studied football — obsessively. I consumed everything. I learned the strategy, the psychology, the craft of connecting with an audience and moving them to act. I treated it the same way I treated pre-season. Head down. Standards high. No shortcuts. Pure dedication.

Why this matters to you:

I'm not pretending to be a veteran of boardrooms or shirt deals. What I am is someone who has lived football from both sides of the turnstile.

I know what a dressing room sounds like. I know how players talk, what they care about, what they laugh at, what they roll their eyes at. I know the standard you hold yourself to when you're chasing a contract. The same standard I now hold my work to.

As a fan, I know what it means to belong to a club. The loyalty, the rituals, the identity. I know what kind of message lands with a supporter and what makes them switch off — because I've been in the stands, in all weather, season after season.

Most marketers writing about football have only ever watched it. They guess at the language. They write what they think the audience wants to hear, and it ends up off target.

Mine always converts.

When I work on your campaign, social content, or brand strategy, you get someone who's lived the game from the pitch and the terraces, not just the sofa.

I lost one career in sport. I built another one that uses my unique perspective as a superpower. Now I write for the brands inside the entire sporting ecosystem.

Whether that means Football, Rugby, Tennis, Padel, Basketball or Boxing — it doesn't matter.

If you want someone who understands your world from the inside out — message me on LinkedIn to see my full portfolio.

Message me on LinkedIn

SERVICES

At Starting XI, we specialise
in three areas:

EMAIL MARKETING

I've spent 2+ years writing emails for 7-figure brands, mentored directly by a protégé of Dan Kennedy — one of the most influential copywriters ever to put words on a page. That training shapes every email I write.

CREATIVE STRATEGY

I've delivered creative strategy for Amazon #1 Best Sellers and fast-scaling SaaS companies. The brief is always the same: cut through, connect, and convert.

BLOG WRITING & ARTICLE DEVELOPMENT

I've written SEO blog content for marketing agencies including A Call to Thrive Digital Marketing Agency, trained in writing copy that ranks.

But we don't stop there.

Starting XI offers a full range of services for sports brands and businesses that want copy and strategy that actually understands their world:

Email Deliverability Social Media Copywriting Ghostwriting SEO Copywriting Brand Storytelling Video Scriptwriting Content Strategy