In Dynamic Duos, Mumbrella each week asks two colleagues with a professional and personal affiliation to share with readers the importance of workplace relationships in an increasingly hybridised world of work.
Marnie McManus:
I first heard the name James Bartold one Sunday morning in 2017 from my housemate who had one too many drinks the night before. She raved about how James, the boyfriend of her best friend, had taken care of her after a night out, calling him ‘the best guy – the kind of person you’d want your friend to marry’. Naturally, I was intrigued to meet this amazing guy.
Always curious by one’s professional life, I followed-up with, ‘What does James do for work?’ She mentioned he did something similar to me and suggested we grab coffee. As a career-driven young professional, I was excited to learn I’d uncovered the opportunity to add another successful professional in my field to my network. When we finally met for coffee at Seven Seeds in North Melbourne, it quickly became clear that James lived up to the glowing reputation, both personally and professionally.
Fast forward to 2022, when James sold me on the dream of joining him to build the brand partnerships and strategy business at Bastion Experience. I joined about six months after him, and we quickly found our rhythm. Both driven by a shared passion for sponsorship and partnerships as powerful marketing channels, and our similar working style, shaped by the values instilled by our fathers; a meticulous attention to quality and detail, a commitment to delivering the very best for our clients or those we seek to serve, and an unwavering drive to provide the best lives for our families—fueling our hard work every day.
In addition to our shared values and passion for our roles, I believe our success as a dynamic duo stems from our complementary expertise. While we both have a strong general knowledge base and capability set within our field allowing us the ability to step in to support one another where needed, we truly excel by focusing on our specialised skill sets, or ‘lanes’ as we call them. It’s an unspoken understanding when new work arises—each of us knows whose lane it belongs to. This clear division enhances the quality of our output and drives both efficiency and effectiveness.
Everyday I consider it a privilege to learn from JB and witness his empathetic approach to leadership, business, and relationships. I’m constantly in awe of the respect he’s earned from brands, rights holders, and, most importantly, his peers across the industry. In my (admittedly biased) view, he’s undoubtedly one of the most exceptional operators in our field.
James Bartold:
Marns and I met through mutual friends a while back – a date I can’t remember exactly but let’s call it 2017. I think one of our friends pointed out at the time that they thought we did the same sort of work. However, as none of our friends really understood what we did, they were pleasantly surprised when they found out they were exactly right.
Following our initial encounter, we caught up in social settings but also started doing regular catch-up coffees to chat about all things partnerships. It was evident quickly that I was looking in a mirror. We both loved marketing, brands and partnerships; we were speaking to the same people; we shared approaches on the industry and a deep care for making it better; similar ideals; and a want to create something great!
When I moved to Bastion in 2022, it was clear that what we wanted to build would not be possible without Marns. After a lot of coaxing, we finally convinced her to come join us and since I feel we have managed to build one of the strongest partnership advisory businesses that is full of strategic thinking and insight-led decision making that actually gives clients the outcomes they want. We’ve prided ourselves on being people first, and the sort of people that clients and rights holders want to work with, and then secondly doing exceptional work.
Our relationship is definitely built on mutual respect and the ability to challenge and to drive each other to improve. Being slightly obsessed with Patrick Lencioni (thanks Rohan Sawyer) I’m proud to say that we have managed to build strength around all of the 5 dysfunctions within a team: trust; leaning into conflict; a true commitment to continual improvement; accountability always; and clear objectives for what success looks like for us as individuals and as a team.
In my opinion, Marnie is one of the best operators in the partnership landscape and her knowledge of the why, the how, and the measure of success is unrivalled by anyone I’ve worked with.
Marnie on James:
Most memorable moment with James: Writing a ‘case for sponsorship’ board presentation for a bank with a 2-day deadline. It was when we first established our ‘ridiculous deadline’ working rhythm. James takes the night shifts and I pick things back up in the early hours of the morning, great teamwork which continues to lead to some pretty amazing (fast) outcomes and memories of great accomplishment!
Best word to describe him: Relentless.
Most annoying habit or endearing behaviour he has: Regardless of capacity (or lack there of), new business never stops.
James on Marnie:
Most memorable moment with Marnie: Spending 6 months on a global sponsorship strategy resulting in securing one of the most exciting and largest partnerships that either of us have worked on.
Best word to describe her: Detailed.
Most annoying habit or endearing behaviour she has: Being right, when I’m wrong.
