-About GRIT
Marketing that thinks.
Strategy that tells a story.
GRIT is a strategic creative consultancy working with cultural organisations, ecommerce businesses, and founder-led brands who want commercial clarity without losing their voice.
Why Grit Exists
The gap most marketing falls into
Most marketing gets stuck between two failure modes: too creative to convert, or too commercial to connect. GRIT sits at the exact intersection between the two.
We help organisations find the language, structure, and story that makes their marketing work — not just look good. The method combines strategic rigour with creative intelligence. The result is marketing that performs and positions at the same time.
Who we work with
Three kinds of organisations.
One approach.
Ecommerce & Digital Businesses
You're growing, but your messaging is lagging behind your ambition. GRIT aligns your story, your offer, and your conversion pathway.
Cultural Organisations & Education Bodies
You're doing meaningful work that's hard to communicate to stakeholders, funders, and enterprise partners. GRIT translates mission into market language without diluting it.
Slow-Life & Values-Led Founders
You refuse to grow at the cost of what matters. GRIT builds sustainable marketing systems that work with your pace, not against it.
The person behind it
24 years at the intersection of creativity and commerce
Helen McNulty founded GRIT after two decades working with arts organisations, engineering firms, enterprise agencies, and tourism bodies across Ireland and the UK.
What she discovered along the way: the organisations that grow with clarity are the ones that understand their story first. Strategy without narrative is a plan that goes nowhere. Narrative without strategy is content that converts nothing.
GRIT was built to close that gap.
Helen trains and consults nationally as an Associate with the Entrepreneurs Academy and InterTradeIreland. She has developed brands, value propositions, and marketing systems for organisations including Vagabond Tours, KWETB, All My Friends, and Thomson Process Engineering.
| 24 years in strategic marketing & brand development |
| QQI Diploma, Digital Marketing & AI — 2025 |
| Train the Trainer — QQI Level 6 (Distinction) 2024 |
| Associate Trainer, Entrepreneurs Academy — nationwide |
| Consultant for Evolve |
| Mentor, InterTradeIreland All-Island Programmes |
| ACORNS 11 Programme alumna |
| Network Ireland Creative Business Woman Finalist 2025 |
"Strategy without narrative is a plan that goes nowhere. Narrative without strategy is content that converts nothing."
24
Years
60+
organisations
4
core methods
All-Island
delivery
How GRIT works
Four frameworks. One integrated approach.
Storytelling
Not the soft kind — the structural kind. Story becomes the architecture for how you position, present, and sell. Every GRIT engagement begins with finding the right story, not the prettiest words. Based on proven narrative frameworks used in cultural, commercial, and enterprise contexts.
Value Proposition Design
Using the VP Canvas (Strategyzer), we diagnose the gap between what you offer and what your customers actually want. This is the fastest route to finding misalignment — and the clearest path to fixing it. Especially useful for organisations entering new markets or audiences.
Design Thinking
Human-first problem solving applied to marketing challenges. We start with the customer journey, not the brand identity. What does your audience need at each stage? What's stopping them? This lens prevents the most common strategic mistake: solving the wrong problem beautifully.
Natural Business
A planning lens drawn from Kate Raworth's framework, natural cycles of growth and Frederic La Loux's Reinventing Organisations — ensuring growth doesn't happen at the expense of the things that sustain it. For values-led businesses and cultural organisations, this isn't a nice-to-have.
It's the operating system that makes slow, deliberate growth coherent.
Selected clients
Tourism & Culture
Vagabond Tours
Brand repositioning and storytelling strategy for one of Ireland's leading adventure tourism companies. Shifted the entire marketing team's approach from brand-led to guest-led storytelling.
↑ Contributed to a remarkable year of commercial growth — Derry Nairn, Marketing Director
Education & Enterprise
KWETB
Full rebrand and launch communications for a new advanced manufacturing innovation facility in Celbridge — from naming and brand architecture to enterprise-facing value propositions and digital marketing plan.
↑ Full brand & communications system delivered pre-launch
B2B Engineering
Thomson process
B2B marketing strategy for a precision engineering firm serving pharma, data centres, and oil sectors. New identity, case study programme, ABM approach, and digital marketing system.
↑ 21–24% YoY business development growth sustained over 5 years
If you're building something that matters and need the strategy, story, and systems to support it — a diagnostic call is the place to start. Thirty minutes. No pitch. Just clarity.