Its funny how life can tie you in knots despite your best efforts.

Take two years ago for example.

We had signed up to move into a new office in Solihull. I’d sorted the contract, got the furniture, did all the boring admin bits. Then, when the moving date was finally agreed…… I was on holiday, leaving Kate and Heather to do the move-in and furniture-putting-togethering without me.

I felt very guilty.

The cocktails helped though.

And now, fast forward two years, and last week I got to see our brand-new office, resplendent with custom wall designs and lots of hangy-up-things, which had all been painstakingly put together by …………. Kate and Trace.

Because I was on holiday.

Again.

I felt very guilty.

The cocktails helped though.

I guess if they will insist on doing things during the school holidays then there is every chance I won’t be there, given The Current Mrs. Rudolph books our family holidays three years in advance, but do they listen???

To be honest I haven’t said that last bit to them anyway for fear of being shouted at (nothing new) and/or a mass walkout (which would be new, but not nice!)

Anyway, what I’m trying, and completely failing to tell you is that Alice has asked me (shouted at me for not doing it already – see last point for example) to write a blog about our move and how we got here.

Not literally obviously – I think that happened in a van – but in the context of the last nearly six years.

And I think I can sum it up best by saying it’s been absolutely the most bewildering thing I’ve ever done, so far at least. And for me, that’s saying something.

From sitting in my spare bedroom/office in 2017 wondering what the hell I’d done and knowing I had enough money in the bank to pay the bills for 6 months or get another job, to hiring two people and moving into our first office (more of a cupboard) and quickly realising why things like chairs and desks are so highly thought of and can in no way be passed off by bean bags, to moving into a grade two listed building which had the “character” of not a single straight wall or floor, and was charming in the short term but drove me to distraction not long after, to now being in our shiny new purpose built office (or Red Quarters as the team have named it), with the faint smell of new paint still lingering, lights which all work at the same time, heating AND air conditioning, not to mention 8 of the most inspiring and amazing marketers and human beings I’ve ever met, who have helped build a six figure business that works with global brands, is just, well, bewildering, as I said before, and I cant begin to explain that feeling to you.

I was “fortunate” enough to launch a business into a pandemic, a global economic crash, fallout from Brexit, five prime ministers, four chancellors, and Donald Trump, and yet we’re still here, still battling away, sometimes winning, but always smiling and trying to be present and enjoy what we do.

I think my biggest learning though is that really, the only competition you have is with yourself.

There is more than enough to go around in our space, so businesses that do what we do are opportunities for networking, partnerships, collaborations, and learning, not for battling, being toxic, and grinding each other down.

I’ve also learnt the importance of coasters, that you should never buy a coffee machine without measuring a television, that occasional tables can cost more than the domestic income of a country, and that speedboats have truly awful suspensions.

So, I hope that helps.

What was the question again?