My 2022, Shift Got Crazy

As I reflect on the past year, I can confidently say that 2022 was a turning point in my personal growth. At 34 years old, I've always been driven to set goals and push myself to achieve them, but this year felt different. Everything just seemed to click into place, and I made significant progress in all areas of my life.

Looking back, I realise that my preparations in 2020 - including exiting businesses that didn't align with my values and shifting my focus to supporting the communities I care about most - set the stage for this transformative year. 2021 felt like a transition period, but 2022 was the confirmation I needed to guide my direction for the next decade.

Now, as I sit in an old cow shed in the heart of Suffolk on a digital detox, I can't help but feel grateful for the lessons and growth I experienced in 2022. As I look ahead to 2023, I have high hopes and wishes for what the future holds.

So here is my 2022 summary, lessons learned and wishes for 2023.

January 2022 started as the previous year did, with a 24-hour Livestream to raise awareness and funds for CPSL Mind , still bemused by the existence of a Blue Monday, we wanted to continue this Shifties campaign to rewrite what the most depressing day of the year means to those associated with our micro business community. It resulted in thousands of pounds of fundraising and 10,000+ reach across social media and traditional media.

With guests ranging from social workers on the ground from the likes of Romsey Mill, a late night session with our apprentice, the moment I won't forget as Courtney Reeve shared her story of dealing with cerebral palsey and the unforgettable #FuckyouLinda moment with Janine Hornsby, MBA, MA, PGCE, BA (Hons) (She/Her) . This fundraiser has put me in top 1% of fundraisers on JustGiving and importantly gives a voice to others in our community yearly.

February, our world was turned upside down, flipped inside out and the world wasn't waiting for us. The tragic news was that George, an incredible young man who worked for us for 6 months, the day after leaving our Kickstart scheme passed away and his family lost a beautiful young soul suddenly. This was a huge shock to everyone and our commitment to support the family still stands to this day, having supported them raise money for Romsey Mill , where we will be creating a George Suite, a space in our Hub to enable young people to get into tech. We also adopted GeoShift, George's Gamertag as the persona for our Curious Entrepreneurs Discord bot, which is evolving daily to become the sidekick of every young person that gets support from Inspire 2 Ignite CIC .

The same month, just a few days after in fact, Christine Griffey and I found out we were going to be parents, this was a surprise to both of us and during a very emotional month, it was a beautiful moment that confirmed that we would change all our plans to make sure we could bring that baby into a better world.

The Shifties community stuck again in February, walking into the office one day I saw the old Beales department store plastered with a ridiculous message from John Lewis, encouraging the residents of St Neots to leave the town to travel to Cambridge. There was an uproar from the local community, so after some investigatory work from myself and a few friends we changed it, and this was the result (also my most viewed post of 2022).

March came around and it was a month where Shift Momentum Ltd and Shifties would dominate the Huntingdonshire business awards scene, partnering up with Huntingdonshire District Council Nykki Rogers and the economic development team to help bring the SME Awards to the district. I think it is safe to say now the time has passed that although it really was a fantastic event, as is any that you have the businesses of the district in one room together, we had hoped the scale of opportunity for the partnership would have a bigger reach and the brand we chose to back did not deliver on what we hoped. Those awards won't be back in Hunts in 2023, however, we are actively working closely with the team at HDC to support the growth of the economy of Huntingdonshire so if nothing else it brought us all much closer together.

It was also a month when I would start to accept invites to speak at events again, something I had wanted to do the year before but was still finding my voice and a subject I could talk passionately about, then the perfect opportunity arose from Akua Obeng-Frimpong and Cambridge Arts Network, a chance to talk about 'CoGrow' (Collaborative Growth Through Community). Tim Britt and I hosted a live discussion at the event, looking at how entrepreneurship could be utilised as a framework for community development.

I got hooked after that and I knew for sure that this framework I had been developing for years with the building of businesses and our Shifties community, could be applied to cases outside of business, the news that there would be Anthropy UK coming later that year and Joanne Lancaster had confirmed a Hunts Place Strategy would be co-created, I needed to get myself ready for action!

April, the decision was made, with all the realisation and wake-up calls the first quarter brought to my life, I would use this quarter to reset life towards a more focused approach to work I was doing locally and with the community at the heart of that!

Shifties would set the path towards decentralisation, with 1400+ members I really wanted to use this community as an experiment to implement a fully autonomous organisation, with no single leader and full equity to be split across those who want to help drive that, the true CoGrow way. I would put myself forward as the chair of St Neots Initiative (www.stneotsinitiative.org.uk) and we would register a community interest company for me to CEO that would become the vehicle for the work we were doing with Region of Learning at Shift Momentum of which I could see the need was far bigger than this project could take on its own.

This would also mean stepping out of Shift Momentum day-to-day, Christine had the task to rebuild the consultancy to become the agile vehicle that would enable her to prepare for the inevitable arrival of Henry in September. I would still do some consultancy work, as long as it aligned with something I was passionate about but the focus was the aim of the quarter and that decision was the best I made as Shift Momentum has had a fantastic year as a result of her leadership.

First (because we didn't have enough going on!) we would move house, we bought our first house 7 years ago and I have been saying for a year now that with a recession incoming we wanted to sell at the peak and get ready to reinvest in the retiring boomer businesses that would come out the end of a tired market, a decision I will happily gloat about today, definitely sold at the peak of the market and my inbox is full with people selling their businesses.

With that out the way, May came with a new light in our life in the form of 3 life-changing moments. Inspire 2 Ignite CIC was officially registered with its first employee, the incredibly driven talent Sam Squire who was the human-development-focused resource required to fulfil the 100% success rate I wanted to see for the 16 - 24-year-olds that saw Entrepreneurship as the vehicle for their development post-traditional education. I was voted in unanimously as the new chair of St Neots Initiative, an organisation that has 30 years of history and I was the 4th chair in its history (more on that later in the blog) and a historic moment as a father, the first holiday in 18 years for Flynn, my firstborn and I.

I became a father at 14 years old, a hugely complex relationship with his mum meant this wasn't possible when we were younger, but it was worth 18 years for this proud Dad moment. Not sure how many people can say at 34 years old they are proud of the man they produced, I am, here in Cyprus with both our girlfriends and with his little brother in the making (literally!).

June, we had a surprising opportunity thanks to Rachael Burcher and 阿斯利康 with the chance to showcase our ambitions of Inspire 2 Ignite CIC and collaborate with Form the Future CIC to coach three of the winning teams from the Enterprise Day's, pitching their original business ideas to an audience at Cambridgeshire County Day as part of the platinum jubilee celebrations. It was also the first time of two that I would meet Lord Karan Bilimoria , later again at Anthropy in November, hugely inspiring day all round and more confirmation that this community interest company would be the answer the community needs to those that do not want to pursue entrepreneurship education in an academic setting. Not to say there is anything wrong with that route, it just doesn't suit us all. The engagements directly with young people confirmed so much of what we are doing today with the rapid growth of Curious Entrepreneurs on Instagram and the feedback we are getting from unsatisfied employers in the area looking at new routes to talent in a challenging job market.

We also saw this month as the beginning an ongoing capital distribution in Huntingdonshire, having built a great relationship with the Growth Works team, through meeting Eliza Ellis- Hyman MSc who at the time was matching our energy to get startups in the area to apply for funding, to date we have directed more than 100 businesses at that scheme directly and indirectly, which also led us to uncover other routes to financing for businesses locally. Which in turn has enabled six figures of financial support to micro businesses in Huntingdonshire and beyond, even with Shifties being in transition, it is amazing to know the impact this alone has had locally. 2023, I see Shifties taking much more of a lead role in as a community with so much support coming out of government and the micro business economy booming post-lockdown. No one understands this market in Cambridgeshire as well as we do, and that is why Shift Momentum Ltd continues to drive so much growth through its entrepreneurial consultancy, exciting times for clients and friends in the Shifties community.

July, to quote Sally F. , was a month where we realised what we were building with the CIC was going to be a huge success. There was a moment in the month when we found ourselves at a rather lovely location in Cambridge at an event that I had no idea what it even was, to be honest, but Katy Davies said to meet her there. It was an institute of manufacturing event at Madingley Hall, the sun was shining and Sally met me prior to the event in the car park, we would go and see how receptive Manufacturing would be to us personally and our mission to bring entrepreneurial talent to the industry.

Sally laughed as I turned up in my usual casual attire, shorts and a bright purple tee that had the word 'collusion' embedded in a heart on my chest. I didn't quite get the memo on the dress code. Anyway, that didn't matter, an hour in and Katy and I had joined forces to match our energy which attracted Richard Hefford-Hobbs and others to a fascinating conversation that unlocked so much of what I had already assumed about the challenges faced in the industry.

It really was quite insignificant on the front of it, but actually, it led to further meetings and I know with people like Katy and Richard in Manufacturing, I have no issues directing young people in that industry with so much combined passion for it to thrive! I knew for sure after that day that we will go on to support manufacturing along with construction and professional services for some time to come, it would be hard but our visibility of young people in the area confirmed they just aren't connected yet properly and it would be us that bridges that gap.

Then with my new chair hat on there was a realisation that local politics, ego and quite frankly, bullshit would of course show its ugly face again! It was my 3rd month and I found that being the chair of a volunteer organisation was a whole new ball game. Where I spent my last 7 years defaulting to unconditional trust, here I was having to scan my network locally for some negative energy coming my way.

Now I have to be careful here, I do not believe anyone involved in driving growth for social and economic benefit in their community to be anything other than focusing on their version of that. Saying that, wow I now have a complete understanding of why St Neots as a town is where it is right now, a bit of a mess!

There is a serious lack of expertise, focus, strategy, belief and backing for the town. Pair that with a weird history and lack of leadership, and it was July when I realised we were in for a ride with St Neots Initiative and if St Neots wasn't destined for another decade of slow decline then we had to do something ourselves. More on that to come.

That leads me to August, I could write an entire blog on just this month, it was incredible. I have to start though with Ideas Fest: AKA Glastonbury for Business , this was hands down the best business conference I have ever attended, why?! Because it was nothing like a business conference, it attracted all the right kinds of Entrepreneurs to one place, Wickham of all places. We heard from incredible people like Ruby Raut Steven Bartlett , Michael Acton Smith and Will King ?????? in a setting that was setup for a music festival, Frankie James and her team nailed it!

It was also the first time Sam and I got to attend an event as the Curious Entrepreneurs, to say we were curious would be an understatement, I managed to sneak backstage to meet Steven Bartlett thanks to a confidence trick. We ended up at a house party the first night with Michael Acton Smitt and a real highlight of that was talking the night away with Syd Nadim and his crew, which then resulted in Sam and I sleeping in my car as both of us a nightmare with our tent situation! Well, Sam forgot his poles and my sister stitched me up and lent me a windbreaker instead of a tent, which she found hilarious of course! Either way, it was truly memorable, top that off with meeting the likes of ???? Dani Wallace ???? Inge Hunter and Jennifer Mckenzie who I think had adopted Sam by the end of the two days!

I saw Francesca before we left to thank her for the incredible experience and to express our interest in getting involved in 2023, that conversation expanded since and we are going to have our own set there next year! Curious Corner was born, it will be where it is at next year and we plan to combine music with inspirational talks all day long! (and night!).

Here's the moment Sam met Steven Bartlett, was one for his bucket list and I told him before this that we were determined to get him on our Curious Entrepreneurs podcast next year, time will tell if that happens!

More inspiration came off the back of an event where I quote:

"It would be so much easier for me, my relationships and my life generally to just keep the blinkers on, and earn loads of ?? whilst focusing on our own personal outcomes. I might even find that I am happier in the short term and can find peace in the long term with that.

However, when you watch the appalling leadership of some people in power both nationally and not enough local leaders able to join in the change required, I just don't see how we aren't going to have huge issues without new voices and more of the right kind of energy coming through from our communities."

I wrote this on the night John gave me the microphone to share our ambitions as a community initiative and share my passion for enabling young voices in the right places! It was also a time where we lost our Prime Minister and what would be a chain of disasters from our government.

The St Neots Initiative had this month given me the go-ahead to confirm we would be sponsoring Anthropy UK , I was already attending as a speaker at the event and John O’Brien MBE had gifted me the focus I needed with some timely mentoring in late 2021, which led me down the path to wanting to contribute in some way, but for us to sponsor and get involved in such a meaningful way from August leading up to the big event in November meant that we could put our ambition to make St Neots a better place to live, work and play on a national map.

We have since aligned our strategy to Anthropy' core questions, ours;

What is the quality of life we expect for a citizen of St Neots for the next 30 years?

What does the infrastructure of our place need to look like to support that?

What makes a good economy that can enable that?

Finally, what message does St Neots want to send to the rest of the district and country?

The ripple effect of this movement has had on the people involved in St Neots Initiative is priceless and I am forever grateful to John and his team for giving us that opportunity to get so involved.

It was also a proud employer month for me and Christine as one of our apprentices flew the nest, Rico Burchill was to leave the company well short of his expected time with us to become self-employed, at just 18 he had his record month with his Web 3 side hustle of ￡20,000 profit. Confirming what I knew the moment we employed him, he was unemployable and should pursue the life of a Curious Entrepreneur. To say I am proud of that young man would be an understatement, check out this podcast episode we recorded earlier this year labelled 'Where does Rico fit in the system?', his mindset is something to be very curious about and we continue to watch and support him on that journey.

September comes around, as if we hadn't enjoyed enough life-changing moments this quarter, it would be signed off in the best way! 15th September at 4:45pm my second son was born, Henry Hughes. The most profound experience of my life by a long shot and mostly just so proud of Christine Griffey for bringing a happy and healthy young boy into this world, for once we were early to something as he was not due for another 2 weeks but it really was amazing and forced us to stop and enjoy it all!

I had one other commitment I had to attend, it was the opportunity to speak about CoGrow again at the Hunts Place Strategy meeting 5 days later! The question I led with for my talk "How do we design a future economy with trust at the heart of it?!" Check this snipped from the Q&A after:

I think I did ok for someone who hadn't slept for a week, I thank Paul G. for inviting me to speak as he wanted a local voice on the stage. The conversation since and my involvement in the process, in particular around equitable economy planning seems to suggest I have some idea and valued contribution to this conversation, it is the reason we are still building in Huntingdonshire and the promise of action from the Place Strategy team led by Kate McFarlane has since enthused those in my network that growth is coming to the district!

It was also a big month of growth for Inspire 2 Ignite CIC, in particular our Curious Entrepreneurs podcast, we quickly hit the 3 figures of downloads for the show and we also got confirmation that Bev Hurley, CBE would say yes to joining my board of advisors, who could, like me, see the opportunity long term for entrepreneurship to have much more presence in our education system. The real value here for me was her incredible energy to support me stay true to my disruptive self, regularly reminding me of my unique ability to get shift done on a daily basis!

Then October appears in our life, the final quarter, which would be the quarter that confirmed all of the 7 years of work would come to fruition in 3 intense months!

It started with another Anthropy build up event hosted at Coutts in London, I have to quote Dame Julia Cleverdon DCVO, CBE from that event, it was the moment I knew I had to spend more time with this lady. "The measure of leadership is comparable to a tea bag, you only know its strength when it hits hot water".

It was also nice to spend time with Vicki Ayton who has become my Anthropy bestie, hearing about her journey into setting up a CIC has been inspiring and we now have a habit of meeting before each event for a pre-drink to share stories and support each other.

Then back to some more reality in St Neots, I could see a clear path to everything that the town needed our Initiative to be in the future, with 3 projects confirmed the focus:

Job Finder, someone has to address the gaping hole in our infrastructure locally to connect local people with the fantastic employers of the town!

Rebranding the initiative to meet our ambition for the town and match our 4 pillar strategy of people, place, prosperity and perspective.

Celebrating local people with a new founded community awards and this would start the process of a key part of what we hope to achieve, gaining 51% of the voice of our town by way of them giving us their email addresses for ongoing communications.

Issue I was having was speed of movement could not be achieved with the way we were setup, a lot of people having their say but not a lot of follow up action outside of meetings, I was not going to slip into a talking shop situation as that goes against everything I got into this for and those that were standing up to take actions on deserve a vehicle that will enable more of that!

It confirmed we have to change the structure of what we are doing if we are to meet the ambition we are displaying locally and nationally, our constitution and structure was setup as a partnership literally decades ago. We now have wheels in motion towards changing that along with the new rebrand in 2023, so excited to finally see this happen properly! It also opens the door for new voices that bring action with them, revitalising my belief in what this initiative could yet become!

What do you think of the new branding? Much better than a black and white otter don't you think?

It was also a significant hire month for Christine and Shift Momentum, as Lynnette Ellison arrived with a bang! We needed someone that could replace my energy in the company and that has the same emotional attachment to what we were trying to achieve socially and economically. We weren't advertising and Lynnette just so happened to ask me for a reference as she was leaving the charity she helped build, I said no but would like to offer you a job!

To say we were all enthused by her arrival was an understatement and although it really was a rushed start into the deep end, 2023 will present the opportunity for Lynnette to really embed herself in the company, mostly I am proud of her for taking the leap to join a business like ours which feels like its permanently in hyper growth, some calm to come to that process I feel!

Then one rant I have to get out that October unearthed for me!

Can you imagine being homeless and whilst in shelter, if you decide to work to earn a living, that same housing project taking 65% of your income?!

That was the circumstance of a young lad who walked through our Momentum Hub door in October, this set me on a path of discovery I hadn't planned for! Outraged by it quite frankly and confirmed ( Danielle Bridge back me up please!) that unless we address social care then get used to 24% of economic inactivity from this country, is there no wonder why county lines become more appealing to a 19-year old in these circumstances then meaningful employment. Wake up please, this will be addressed locally in 2023 and I can't wait to unearth its ugly skeletons!

November, wow what a month! Started with a trip down to Eden Project, Cornwall for the first event of its kind, bringing together 1,000 plus people at the first ever private event held there, of course, Anthropy UK . Here is what St Neots Initative made of it:

Personally, it was incredible to spend time with some of the team Anastassia Arzumanova Christine Griffey Lynnette Ellison Sam Squire Pam Branch Debbie Phillips + Heather Thomas Lee Candler Stephen Ferguson Darren Murinas .

I ended up on 4 sessions across the 3 days, and got to spend time with the wonderful Smiley Movement Christina Medici thank you for inviting me to your session, a privilege to facilitate a meaningful conversation with a powerhouse panel on the opportunity for collaboration with charities and brands. Finally got to spend some time with Dame Julia Cleverdon DCVO, CBE , safe to say I am obsessed with her energy, what a woman! Got to meet Andreas Kolind in person, Duro Oye likewise and so many others I am not sure if I would break the limit of tags here!

A full summary of what we learned can be found in Sam and my Anthropy Project Update here, thank you again John O’Brien MBE for having us, next year we are bringing a few buses of curious entrepreneurs that I assure you!

Then as if that wasn't enough for us in one month, we decided we would launch Inspire 2 Ignite CIC when we got back, damn over 100 people showed up!! ??

It was a night of emotional magic, hosted at the inspiring Stobbs IP OBE , thank you to Claire Breheny . We had a chance to hear from industry Bev Hurley, CBE Chris Dell Frankie James Katy Davies Tim Britt Kelly Cartwright Sally F. , the parents of young people involved, the young people themselves most importantly and supporting partners in our process Michelle Lord FRSA , Anne Bailey and Christine Griffey in particular!

We asked questions like "What are the challenges of industry?" and "What is your commitment to young people in 2023?"

The result was a hugely well-received newborn community interest company, full write of the inspirational evening here:

Mostly I am proud of the one takeaway from both Anthropy and the launch event, summed up by a picture taken at a recent Hunts Place Strategy meeting with Sam and then a video from the founder of Eden Project, Sir Tim Smit.

2023 will be led by what the youth tell me is right, we are building their future, so let's at least give them a seat at the top tables!!

That brings me to an emotional end in December, at least for me writing this! My December is all about reflection, planning and gratitude as I prepare mentally for the year to come.

Every year I do a retreat to close the year off, I am writing this from a Cow Shed in Suffolk. I have not connected with the news, social media or other digital noises for a week now and won't be back online (with the exception of posting this today) for another 5 days.

This is a chance for me and my little family to connect at a deeper level, for me to find my compass again and to recover from what you can see above, a crazy year!!

One of my targets this year was to continue my personal brand growth, to ensure I am in the right rooms too! Here is a snapshot of my LinkedIn growth, courtesy of SHIELD AI.

I can't quite believe that almost 600,000 people have seen my content on this platform in 2022, I appreciate you all and I wish you all a happy new year.

Don't ask permission, get on with it and be sure to bring your community along with you for the ride!

I hope to collaborate with more of you this year, for now back to my break to recharge for 2023!