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Case Study: Blake Went From Corporate SVP to Founding the Consultancy Helping China's Innovators Thrive in Western Markets
2026-11-09
Blake Stone-Banks is a global marketing and innovation strategist who has spent 25 years working across the US, Europe, and China. He is now founding partner of 8VB Studio, a consultancy helping Chinese brands go global. We worked together 1-on-1 for a year.
Blake has spent his career helping Chinese brands tell their stories in European and US markets, and helping European and US brands build their audiences and business in China.
When he reached out a year ago, he was looking to effect more positive impact from how he worked, who he worked with, and what he was known for—as a marketer, a thought leader, and an entrepreneur.
The problem wasn't a lack of skill. It was how corporate life was investing those skills.
"A year ago, I was quite bored and unenthused by the large organization that I was with."
Blake had spent years building small agencies into larger ones. He had taken RAPP China from just two employees to one hundred. Returning to the US after Covid, he had climbed the corporate ladder to SVP of Strategy in a large organization, but didn't like where the ladder was leading. He wanted ownership, meaningful work he could shape from a different vision of what marketing should be. He just wasn't sure what that looked like yet.
"I didn't see myself as a salesperson, and I realized that within the organization, even internally, everything was about selling."
He also had a specific worry about coaching itself. He'd worked around plenty of mentors and coaches in marketing, and they tended to focus on one thing.
The Solution: Questions Instead of Packaging"My biggest concern was that I would end up with a coach laser focused on the emotional character of how I presented myself...I'd once worked with a coach who was focused entirely on presentation that drives sales. I didn't pursue that because that's not who I consider myself to be, despite my career. I have no interest in selling for the sake of selling. I want to develop solutions."
Foremost, Blake needed to figure out what he actually wanted. So we dug into three things together:
1. Starting from questions, not answers.
We worked from the questions: what do you value, what do you actually want to do, and what needs to happen next?
"[Larissa] never pretended to have the answers, and she didn't pretend that I should have the answers... Working with Larissa was a conversation that moved us outside of the more traditional frameworks that I've experienced with coaches."
2. Clarifying the fear behind the fear and pressure-testing risks.
Blake already knew what he wanted to do. What was in the way were self-imposed beliefs he hadn't examined: that marketing could only mean the narrow, sales-driven way typical of large agencies, and that he couldn't bring other parts of himself to work.
It's no coincidence Blake is also a published writer and translator of science fiction, because bringing brands to life runs on that same imagination. Once he gave himself permission to bring those parts of himself to work, a human-forward way of doing marketing suddenly opened up.
"Going deeper with: what is the fear behind this fear behind this fear, and what really happens if this fails?...What I got out of this was an immediate shift in perspective."
3. Turning clarity into concrete steps.
The point wasn't insight for its own sake. The first three months of coaching laid the foundation, so that he left the company with enthusiasm, rather than anxiety, about what comes next. We built a sabbatical routine around projects corporate life never left room for: published writing, reconnecting with China's leaders in AI and innovation, and scratching an entrepreneurial itch. Once he launched the new consultancy, we focused on challenges of being a founder. When Blake was firmly on that path, our work was done, and I helped him identify the best support for the next phase of scaling his business.
The Results"Working with Larissa, there were no coaching or sales scripts. Our dialogue was practical and tangible about how to see things more clearly and get perspective on what I want working life to be: Here's the team that I love. Here's why I love working with them. Here's what we do together. And this is how we will build that."
Blake went from a successful corporate career to founding his own consultancy focused on empowering China's innovators to grow and build trust in Western markets. In less than six months, 8VB Studio secured three clients, including a Chinese automaker and EV battery company.
"In my year working with Larissa, I've started my own business. We've founded our consultancy in the US and in mainland China and developed a small portfolio of clients.
"I'm in a different place in terms of what my work is and what emotionally drives it. And that work is closer to what I want to see in the world, empowering brands to innovate and thrive in new markets."
He also came away with the confidence to act on it.
What Would Have Happened Without Coaching?"Larissa has absolutely taken me to the next level in terms of confidence about what my work should be and about what I need to do, who I need to work with, and what needs to happen to effect real change in my life and community while building a business."
Blake believes he'd have settled for smaller changes and called it progress.
Why Larissa?"If I hadn't taken the time to work with Larissa, I'd have made some small changes, but I wouldn't have made the foundational changes that allow me to achieve what I'm seeking in life and in work ... I'm genuinely thankful she and I put in the time to define what great looks like and what needs to happen to get us there."
"If you're looking for a coach who isn't afraid to challenge you with deep questions, if you're looking for someone who is going to ask you to do the work, who's going to reflect things back to you in a fresh way that lets you see where you're at differently to get clarity on where you want to go, I cannot recommend a better coach than Larissa."
If that's you, apply for a free strategy session.