Who I Need to Thank for the Last 5 Years...

There is no such thing as “self-made”. Each of us owes an innumerable debt to 10s, if not 100s or 1000s of people, without which we would not be where we are today. And now that I have the opportunity to look back on the first 5 years of WeTeachCRO, there is no better moment to recognise that.

Family

Perhaps not the usual way to start a post about a business anniversary, but given the context of my business, it may become a little clearer.

Firstly, there is my wife Simone, without whom I would not be writing this. She has provided stability & security for us both when my chosen career could not, and has backed me through every high & low. About a year into the business, a friend of hers asked if she was proud of what I had achieved, and then questioned why she didn’t answer “Yes, absolutely…” immediately - and her response was that frankly she had never expected me to fail! And you can’t buy faith like that :)?

Secondly, there is my sister Stacey. First member of the “team” (before there even was a team!) and has become increasingly integral to daily operations since then. She has lived & breathed every step of the journey, and might actually care about the success of the business even more than I do! Through the thick & thin, she has been a voice of reason & a constant source of support. Even in the most difficult (COVID-affected) period of the business, she was there with such gems as

It’s not that the business isn’t viable Matt, just perhaps not viable at its current scale…

Lastly, there is my dad Adrian. The latest member of the family to join the team, he’s only been with us for a few months. And whilst it is a little too soon to talk about the impact he has had in the team itself, there is a huge confidence boost that comes from a lifelong mentor willingly entrusting his income to you & the company you have built! He has placed enormous faith in me that the business I own will continue to support him financially so that he can have more spare time to devote to other, frankly more important(!), things such as his grandchildren & my mum, and probably doesn’t even know that that is how I see it…

Friends

In my experience, friends have become team members, and team members have become friends, but I want to use this section to talk about those that have never had any formal dealings with my company but have added so much nonetheless.

Firstly, to every single friend that has ever asked me

How’s business?

- might not sound like a lot, but sole owners carry around a lot of baggage, and a sh*tload more personal doubt than they might let on, so showing that you care enough to ask & being prepared to listen to us offload some of those worries is invaluable. So I owe a thank you to every one of you.

Secondly, to Ben Jones, the friend who has probably supported me the most in the last 5 years. We didn’t even know each other when I started the business in Jan 2017, but since we met, he has been a confidante, an advisor & an avid listener to all my plotting & scheming! When we had offers to buy the business early in Year 4, he helped me work through why it wasn’t the right call - if he hadn’t, maybe I wouldn’t even be writing this! More recently, he’s talked me through what I need to make my first sales hire, an area that I don’t know well & really needed some more experienced counsel on. Never more than a 5 min walk & a coffee away, Ben has been hugely helpful in the last 2 years or so.

Lastly, to Iain Greig. The friend I spend most time with, and possibly the least judgemental man I have ever met! Listens to my business ramblings on a far too frequent basis & never complains(!), and when I’m done with my outpouring, he offers down-to-earth, common-sense advice & reminds me that I can only do so much because I am only a man; credit to Marcus Aurelius’ alleged assistant there I think(!), but still unfathomably valuable.

Ex-colleagues

As is always the case, there are a ridiculous number of ex-colleagues that I could (& possibly even should!) thank, but in the interests of brevity, I’ve attempted to keep it a little shorter!

Those mentioned below are firmly in the category of without you, I don’t think I’d be writing this, and I very much hope that I haven’t done anyone a disservice by not mentioning them by name; I am truly grateful to all of you!

Firstly, there is Karl Scrivener, Phil Williams, Manas Datta & Tom Waterfall. Without these fine gentlemen, I wouldn’t have got my first agency-side role back in 2014. Karl was the recruiter that called me to say that he wanted to put me forward for the role, even though I hadn’t seen it myself! I was unemployed at the time after a difficult few months, and I’ve little doubt that his call to me that day changed the trajectory of the next 7+ years of my life! Phil, Manas & Tom were then my interviewers at Webtrends Optimize, and so if they had not determined that I had passed muster, I may not have realised how much more agency-side suited me. Thank you all :)

Secondly, to Hugh Kimber, Tom Howcroft, Rhett Thedvall, Michael Lee & Dale Farrey - these five introduced me to the world of consultative sales at a time where I had zero experience of it. They valued me for my knowledge of how the day-to-day operation of a CRO programme worked, and in return shared their experience of how to sell. Without that exposure, I’m not sure I would have had the same confidence in holding those conversations myself in later years. And in the agency world,? if you can’t sell, you don’t eat!

Lastly, to every line manager & superior I have ever had. I won’t name you all, but believe me when I say I remember you all. Some of you taught me how I should manage others, and frankly some of you taught me how I shouldn’t(!), but regardless of whether my experience with you was broadly positive or negative, each of you has shaped me into the people manager I am today. And when you run a service business, you are a people business. I won’t pretend that I always get my people decisions right, but by seeing each of you work every day before I had that responsibility for myself, I at least shifted the odds in my favour.

Team

One of the greatest joys of the last 5 years has been my ability to handpick each & every member of my team. Some I knew from previous roles, some were friends first before they were co-workers, and others I have gotten to know solely through work, but regardless of where we first met, they have all been integral to our success over the last 5 years.

It isn’t easy to single out individuals as we have always been a team that needed each other to accomplish anything, but there are a few callouts that I want to make.

Firstly, to Neil Webley. Neil was part of WeTeachCRO before we even used that name(!), joining us on our first official day as a trading business on 1st January 2017. And after 5 long years, he is still with us. There is no way to count the hours that he has spent counseling me, nor what spending most working days together (in spirit, if not in body!) over that time has taught me. Neil epitomises the values of diligence, independence & moral fortitude that we have learned are so central to our team functioning effectively, and I could not have asked for a better copilot.

Secondly, to Sam Irvine, a member of our team that has since moved onto a bigger agency. Sam joined us straight from the Met Police, eager to start a new career. And over the next 3 years, he became a really impressive consultant. That proved to me that WeTeachCRO was the sort of place that could take intelligent, committed people with no experience & help them to become enviable practitioners in their own right. And that is a formula we have followed ever since, much to our benefit.

Lastly, to Laura Fox, our in-house marketer. Laura has only been part of the team for just over a year, so whilst it may seem a tad odd to be talking about her amongst people I have to thank for the last 5 years(!), but she has brought a lot to me personally over that time. When Laura joined the business, it was just before the darkest period of agency ownership for me - we were struggling financially, we’d had to make some difficult decisions, and I’ve never felt more like packing it all in & getting a real job! But fast forward 12 months, and Laura’s work has made me see that there is a bigger, brighter future ahead for WeTeachCRO. We still have to work for it of course, but those step-change moments are few & far between in my experience, and this one happened right when I personally needed it the most.

Clients

Before I complete this thank you list, I have to speak about some of our clients. After all, without their business, we would not have made it 5 minutes, let alone 5 years! And there are some very notable individuals in this section that have made an irreplaceable difference to WeTeachCRO, and to me personally, over that time.

Firstly, to Nick Leech, the man who made it all possible! Nick was Group Marketing Director at Host Europe Group (now part of GoDaddy), and he was the first person to engage my business to run their CRO programme. Without Nick being willing to take that risk, my business would never have gotten off the ground so fast. Nick is still at GoDaddy, and whilst we haven’t worked directly with him in years after he moved into a different part of the business, I will NEVER forget what he did for us. 5 years later, GoDaddy is still a client & going strongly, and none of that would have happened without Nick.

Secondly, to Candice Lott, George Crofts & Aleem Koroma. Candice first introduced us to her team at Nando’s when they were looking for a CRO partner back in 2018, and whilst she has since moved on to other things, there is no doubt that we would not have had that opportunity without her. George & Aleem have been our daily contacts at Nando’s for the entirety of our 3+ year association, and they have optimised what a positive agency-client relationship should look like. Championing our influence to other parts of the business, proactively sharing their knowledge of Nando’s with us whenever it is needed, and treating any missteps we’ve made with the context that they need. Could not have asked for better partners than this :)

Lastly, to Simon Champion-MacPherson. Simon was the first person to open my eyes to the prospect of partnerships with other agencies. In his role at the time, he contacted me to see if WeTeachCRO would be interested in working alongside his team on a new CRO endeavour with a longstanding client of theirs, and until that message came through, the idea of inter-agency partnerships had never crossed my mind! Almost 5 years later & agency partnerships have become an integral part of WeTeachCRO’s daily operations - and without Simon, that may never have happened.

Summation

Probably the best summation I can give is to (badly) paraphrase Sir Winston Churchill in saying?

Never was so much owed by one man to so many…?

It has been the most incredible 5 years to date, and I very much hope that in 5 more years, there will be many more thank-yous to write.