Birmingham entrepreneur in line for national award after ‘creating his own path’

These are the words of Birmingham-based entrepreneur, Rudy Heywood, who completely changed careers after a chance conversation in a shop with the well-known actor Idris Elba.

He’s now up for a Great British Entrepreneur Award, having built a highly successful digital marketing agency which holds the record for one of the highest performing ad campaigns in the UK, and works with a variety of global brands.

Despite tough trading conditions, the Famous Wolf agency has grown 300% in the last 12 months.

Rudy’s personal journey to success, plus his commitment to supporting aspiring entrepreneurs and small businesses in Birmingham, has won him a coveted spot as a Midlands finalist in the Creative Entrepreneur of the Year category.

Known as the ‘Grammys of Entrepreneurship’, the awards celebrate the ‘most exceptional and inspiring business stories across the UK’, with shortlisted candidates recognised for their innovation, impact and resilience.

Rudy, who founded Famous Wolf in 2019, said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to be named a finalist. It’s an incredible honour to be recognised alongside some of the UK’s most exciting and ambitious businesses. It might be my name on the shortlist, but this is a huge testament to the hard work of the entire team around me and our mission to deliver strategic marketing campaigns with genuinely measurable and impactful results.

“My whole drive now is to inspire other young entrepreneurs that whatever your background and challenges, if you want it bad enough, you can achieve it. And if there isn’t a clear path, create your own. I would advise anyone who is thinking of starting a business to just go for it. Don’t listen to the nay-sayers, do something you love, work as hard as you possibly can - and don’t dream too small.”

The road to success

The road to success certainly wasn’t easy for Rudy. Born to a Jamaican father and a White British mother, his parents worked long hours and lived from one pay packet to the next.

His dad, an electrical engineer, was paid half the salary of his white colleagues and instilled in Rudy the notion that he would have to work 10 times harder than everyone else just to be seen as equal.

Upon leaving school, Rudy pursued his dream of becoming an actor. He secured an agent and landed a scholarship at the prestigious East 15 Acting School, winning roles on the West End stage and TV shows including Girls in Love, Doctors, and Shameless.

But the industry was tough, especially for Black and mixed race actors and, after a couple of years, Rudy started questioning the path he had chosen.

The turning point came when he bumped into Idris Elba in a Covent Garden health store, who told him: “This game is hard. And it’s even harder for people like us.”

Discovering a true talent for marketing

Broke and burnt out, Rudy decided to pivot. With no clue what to do next, he secured a graduate job in advertising sales, where he quickly discovered he had a real talent for impactful, results-driven marketing.

His career rocketed as he built high profile creative campaigns, closed seven-figure partnerships, travelled the world and sold hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of ads.

In just a few short years, Rudy worked his way up to become a regional director for a global multi-media agency, overseeing 150 staff. But behind the scenes he suffered racial abuse at the hands of senior directors. After months of trying to fight the system, Rudy decided it was time to create his own path, and build his own agency.

“I remember one weekend thinking, ‘there’s no point in all this, I don’t need to play these games’. I realised I was never going to win, and my mindset changed. I decided I’d just make my own world and build an inclusive business that is run the way I want it to be run,” Rudy explained.

He already had a wealth of knowledge and experience in digital marketing, and what he didn’t already know, he learned. He put in 20-hour days learning, developing, networking and pitching, and by the end of the first year, he was hitting £10,000 per month.

Then when covid took 75% of his client base overnight, he pivoted, creating an affordable, e-learning platform to help small businesses build a digital brand and generate sales via social media. As well as helping those firms survive, it also created a future pipeline for when the world opened back up.

Famous Wolf is now one of the fastest growing independent marketing agencies in the UK, with

clients including: Sennheiser, Wix.com, Alliance Automotive Group and Toca Social.

Rudy and the wolfpack are looking forward to joining the other finalists at the 2025 Allica Bank Great British Entrepreneur Awards ceremony at Grosvenor House Hotel in London this November.

Previous winners include the founders of BrewDog, Grenade, ClearScore, Zilch, and Unbiased, many of whom were recognised early in their entrepreneurial journeys.