The long version...

Last week I wrote a post about 'my story', it was part of a 5 Day LinkedIn Challenge that has changed my outlook on the platform - if you want more from LinkedIn check out the challenge, it's running again in August and it's free.

Anyway, part of the challenge was to write some posts, one of which being your 'story' in a post - 1,300 characters. I misread that as 1,300 words, so I have a long version too...

I have many connections on LinkedIn (officially 802 and growing) all mutually connected from different industries that I've operated in over the years. From working in B2B IT, public-sector healthcare, business networking, or more recently via my own businesses with UW & UoL - as well as friends, acquaintances and maybe even some family!

For those who don’t know me as well as others, I’m from Altrincham in South Manchester and am a Partner with UW (amongst a couple of other things). My background is Marketing & Sales. After graduating from The University of Sheffield in 2011, I ended up like most graduates looking for a job that they think they deserve, really without any idea of the wider-world I was about to step into.

I didn’t have that many irons in the fire but applied for some roles, one of which a week or so later resulted in me attending an assessment centre, then on the same day I was offered a job with Pareto Law - I bagged a 'grad-role' and it wasn’t even the end of my ‘final summer’.

At Pareto the training we received was great, the job demanding but exciting and autonomous, I even crashed my company car within 24 hours of getting the keys. For one reason or another, by the time the following January came around, of the 15 people recruited at the same time as myself, I was 1 of 5 left! Something wasn’t quite right, so I started a new job hunt.

Quick story: when I interviewed for my next role, I was actually supposed to be on a couple of appointments with the Sales Manager that afternoon, so I actually resigned in the morning in order to protect my interview slot. A bit bold - I know, but ultimately it paid off and I started at Innov8 - where over the next 6 or so years I worked in a couple of roles, had some good career progression and mostly enjoyed my working day. During my time at Innov8 colleagues became good friends, we had some good office fun too - on one occasion notably we discovered not to mess with the usual Fryday (cooked breakfast) order and replaced someone's (remaining nameless) usual order with a salad sandwich that paid the ultimate price, followed by a pity-party before we revealed all.

It was during my time at Innov8 I also started my own home-based business with UW. At first I was only interested in consolidating and saving on my household bills, as I’d bought my 1st home.

Deep down I’d always wanted to have my own business, either the time wasn’t right or I was delayed in taking the next step because of the risk associated with starting a business. So when I was shown the open opportunity UW offers, I jumped at it. I could start alongside working full time and grow it steadily reducing any risk. I was also playing lacrosse internationally from 2012-2017 and whilst in the early years of my business it was another plate to spin, it didn’t matter too much, as I could put the business down and pick it up again when time allowed.

Fast forward a couple of years and in June 2018, I left Innov8 to go to Healthcare Communications. It was a great opportunity, a fresh challenge and something I wanted and needed to do. The team there are great - you can see that 1st hand with the way they have adapted and have supported countless NHS Trusts during Covid-19. But as of last summer (2019), after 12 months there, I left full-time 9-to-5 as the opportunity to work for myself became possible.

I’d started looking at ways to commercialise my passion for lacrosse and coaching, and alongside a change to the UW compensation plan that provides meaningful up-front income. The chance to work for myself was feasible - now or never. It was less risky, rather than a leap into the unknown - a measured step. And as if the stars aligned, a couple of opportunities to do some contracted work became possible too - all from just conversations with good people with whom I shared my plan with.

When people ask what I do, I describe my work as diversified - I help people in a multitude of ways. It truly is something that I enjoy and I don’t need to travel 000’s of miles a year.

I help lacrosse players improve their play and firmly believe sport is a learning opportunity, with so many transferable skills into life.

I help my contracting clients with their needs, from ideas through to execution.

I help UW members, saving them time and money in the process. A common misconception is I don't 'sell it' or even have to. I simply show potential new members another option, an option most haven’t even heard of or considered before and if it’s right for them, they will make that decision. I truly believe UW offers a fair and smarter way to manage a household spend, especially for busy professionals.

This brings me up to where we are today.

12 months ago I was returning from Prague after coaching the England U20 Lacrosse team, knowing I had 2 more weeks of work to complete. I'm going to put finger to keyboard in another article looking back at my 1st 12 months being self-employed. I'll try and make it a lesson's learnt and not just give you all the good stuff!

If you have made it this far, thanks for persevering. In some way, shape or form you have been part of my story, so thank you.