I'm Jean-Marc Santolin. I live in Brussels, I work in marketing, and I spend a good part of my free time on projects that don't pay.

What I do for a living

Marketing consultant at The House of Marketing for seven years. I work on performance marketing and CRM for large Belgian brands. Before that: Essent (content strategy), RTBF (brand identity), Engie (building an offer for electric vehicles), HMS (customer lifecycle management), Worldline (marketing automation).

I'm the kind of consultant who ends up in the spreadsheet as well as in the strategy deck. Strategic, operational and technical — I've never found a good reason to pick one.

What I do the rest of the time

Economy of Francesco. A global movement of young economists, entrepreneurs and changemakers convened by Pope Francis. I coordinated the Vocation & Profit village, then was called to the Assembly, where I'm now Vice-President. It's the group I'm proudest of having helped structure.

Six months in the Philippines. Volunteering with Kaloob, a small organisation I helped with communication and tooling. It's where I learned that good intentions and good execution are two completely different skills.

Six months in Mexico. A career break, to build a relationship that mattered more than the career. My wife is Mexican; I met her in Switzerland. I also volunteered a lot and tried to start something of my own.

THoMcast. I launched The House of Marketing's podcast and hosted around twenty episodes.

Why this site exists

Two reasons, and I'd rather be honest about both.

The first is that I have opinions about marketing, business and where technology is taking us, and I'd like to stop keeping them in my notes app.

The second is that I believe the people building things with a purpose — friends of mine in Kenya, Mozambique, Mexico, Brazil, the Philippines — deserve better execution support than they get. Business knowledge is not neutral. It can be pointed at something worth doing.

I'm not selling anything here. That may change one day. Not soon.