#DEFIANTORIGINSTORY

July 4th 2024

It is wonderful to be nominated to share my origin story and contribute to this fantastic movement by David Ballew , who instantly became one of my favourite human beings a couple of years ago in London. Bryan Pe?a the visionary behind this great idea has been a wonderful support to me and has become a firm friend over the years so thank you both.

However, having to follow industry legends really isn't good for the ego and I fear my story might pale in comparison!

I am industry lead for North America at Worksome, focused mainly on creative and consulting companies. From a small town in the UK, then London, stint in NYC, 2 years in Spain, back to London and now living in Calgary Canada. Yes, Calgary, famous for Ice hockey, Mountains, an odd tomato drink called a Cesar, -50 winters and Cowboys; If that doesn't help you, Jeff Nugent used to live down the road and Taren Dube of Murmur is one town over

Falling in to Recruitment and Staffing

As mentioned, I grew up in a boring town in the UK and played team sports 24 hours a day, I think the way sport brings individual recognition but as part of a high performing team, has guided what I have looked for in the companies I have worked for and driven the jumps i've made.

Like a lot of people, I fell into a Recruitment career for the promise of riches, playing hard and teamwork. I worked for Computer People, Reed and others on the contract desks specializing in tech into large enterprises. Recruiting at the start of your career is great, lucrative but terrible for your liver with all the perks that go with success.

However, the appearance of a collaborative team environment is exactly that and after many years I became disillusioned and craved a different challenge.

I decided to start my own business as that seemed to be the career path for recruiters, as transitioning to a different industry however appealing just wasn't on the cards financially.

I HATED IT. I realized then and there that founding things was not for me (Its why I have the utmost respect for people that do!).

However, 3 pertinent things came out of that experience. Firstly, due to the slow down in the tech market, I had turned my attention quite early to recruiting into the marketing and advertising industries. Secondly, it became apparent to me that technology would have a huge part to play in the world of sourcing contractors/freelancers and Thirdly, I would have to move away from the physical act of recruiting to find the team environment I was craving.

A dream move and the creation of the first enterprise level FMS?

In 2014, Shib Mathew, Chris Cater and Hugo Rodger-Brown were forming YunoJuno, one of the first online talent marketplaces based in London focused on the Advertising sector (I know right) and I jumped at the chance to run biz dev. I will always be grateful to all of them for the opportunity.

A meeting with Louise Clark and alongside Chris Cater in 2015, would change the course of my career. Instead of talking about the skills they were looking for, we spent the meeting discussing how they had no information about their 2nd biggest spend category, freelance hiring process was killing productivity, they were exposed to huge risk, didn't know who they were hiring and had zero visibility. Could we solve this for them? Sound familiar? I hear the same messaging today 10 years later!

Bold statement time but I genuinely believe we then created the first FMS and if not the actual first technology, very definitely the first enterprise level deployment of FMS technology across 2000 users, 70 business units and revenues of ￡30m+ a year in a single account.

Although in ran its course, great times, amazing team and the first taste of what a small but focused team with a great idea can achieve.

Two Families at once........

Luckily, the best 2 things ever happened, I got married to the wonderful Lottie Paterson and had two wonderful children Henry and Betsy and in quick order along came my Worksome family.

After a meeting over 2 bottles of wine with Mathias Tao Agger Linnemann and a long Tapas lunch with Morten Petersen I was sold on the extraordinary team and vision at Worksome and joined as the first UK employee in March 2019.

I was joined by Mathias Tao Agger Linnemann and Sam Orrin in a tiny office in London's Borough Market and we set about signing one of the largest advertising networks in the world in our first 12 months alongside the amazing Christina Brun Petersen , Hans Peter Nielsen Worksome teams in Copenhagen.?

In the last 5 years, we have disrupted the world of freelancing, deploying Worksome technology across some of the largest enterprises in the world, on 3 continents, created a unique product that just doesn't exist elsewhere, created offices in London and New York, have formed partnerships with the leading vendors in the contingent space, hired some of the best minds in the business around the world and have an incredible outlook for the next 5 years. I couldn’t be in a better place with better people.

It was going so well.......

Life has a funny way of checking you when you least expect it and as some will know, I was diagnosed with Colon Cancer a few years ago out of the blue and it turned my world upside down.

I hope you'll never have to find out what go's through your head when you get news like that but I found myself thinking of the effect on my family firstly and my colleagues second.

I won't expose our personal challenges but I do want to highlight the reaction of Worksome as it speaks to why I see them as family and not just colleagues.

I rang Morten and I was signed off indefinitely that second, all my treatment was covered, the teams all reconfigured in days to manage my workload and I was told not to worry financially and to get better. Post operation, I worked through chemo for 12 months and I am glad to say I received the all clear 9 months ago. During that time everyone across Worksome checked in on me weekly , sent me presents and texted me on chemo days.

That’s the difference between colleagues and a family, when it all goes against you, family just have your back no questions asked and that is Worksome.?

Learnings

Cancer I found had a way of teaching me lessons in a very short space of time so here's somethings I believe in.

1. Adapting to change has been the number 1 skill in my life. Nothing stays the same professionally or personally so expect change and work with it not fight it. Reinventing yourself is a good thing and doing something new when it feels right is essential.
2. Mindset is everything, I believe things manifest when you know what you want and you have focus. The biggest threat to mindsets is peoples opinions so surround yourself with people who are on the same journey and if you are lucky the same destination.
3. You are in full control of how you react to situations and how it affects your life. There is no good or bad just how you choose to interpret things, some of the worst news in my life has had the biggest positive gains.?
4. Prolonged Stress is dangerous (seriously), take time out, work is just work so spend time outside of work doing things you love.

To bring it back to sports, I believe great Individuals can win you games, a great team will win you a division but if you want to win a Super Bowl you best be with family and friends.

Thanks for taking time and I nominate Rich Wilson of Gigged.AI to share next week!