It’s the time of year when we all look back/forwards/sideways at the things that we’ve done/will do/didn’t want to do, and the time when I indulge my perennial habit of looking at all the things that have comprised my work year (previous years: 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023). I do this as a way to look at the shape of what I’m doing, and to step back from constant flow of work to take stock.
So, in no particular order, here’s what I’ve been up to:
Consulting and workshops: this year I did a lot of travel for work. After a few years with much less travel due to the pandemic, this was the year when it really came back. I worked with a pretty broad range of businesses on projects focused on the intersection of leadership, organisational agility, culture, strategy, change and sometimes marketing and AI. These projects took on many different shapes and flavours, sometimes involving a combination of consulting and workshop-driven work, sometimes just focusing on senior team workshops. But the work was never less than fascinating. The beginning of the year saw the tail-end of a lengthy project with NHS leaders around innovation and agility. Probably my biggest single project of the year was also one of the ones I enjoyed the most – a programme of change for Lloyds Banking Group working with the brilliant Tanya Evans (who also came onto Google Firestarters). I spoke at a couple of their conferences, ran a series of leadership workshops for them, and also travelled around the UK running sessions with their population of ‘catalysts’ for change. I partnered with Trinity Business School Dublin (my first business school partnership) to run a two day session with the European SLT of Diageo, and also worked with Imperial College London teaching on their Digital Transformation programme. There was also leadership work with Astra Zeneca (who I’ve been doing stuff on and off now for five years), Riviera Travel, Morgan Advanced Materials in Munich, Old Mutual in Cape Town, and a series of projects out in the Middle East with leadership teams at various banks, an Esports federation, Telecoms and healthcare businesses. I also enjoyed a project working with a large PR business in London to help shift their thinking and ways of working to be more digitally-focused. Probably the weirdest thing I did all year was running a workshop with an executive team on an island off Dubai in a venue that looked like a Bond-villain’s lair.
Writing: this was the year that I finally moved off Mailchimp which had become prohibitively expensive, and moved my list over to Substack. This move has given me a couple of (perhaps unexpected) benefits. Firstly my subscriber list has grown nicely and I’m delighted to say that after 15 years of doing a weekly newsletter I’ve just passed the 10,000 subscriber mark, which is no small thing for me. It feels as though there’s a vibrant community around the newsletter which I love. Secondly, I’ve committed to writing one decent post each week on the newsletter alongside all the usual links and quotes, which has forced me back into writing regularly again. The last few years have been a bit slower on the writing front (mostly due to the pressures of work) but I’ve missed it, and between here and the Substack I’ve written more posts this year than in any year since 2018 which pleases me greatly. I keep thinking about writing another book. In many ways I’m itching to do it, and ideas are always popping into my head. But it’s such a marathon, and so very hard to find the time in amongst work projects so I’ll see how it goes.
Google Firestarters: I can’t believe that (including the live events which preceded the podcast) Firestarters has been going for 13 years. This year we did another 16 episodes, covering topics as broad as succeeding in content marketing, to navigating uncertainty, to marketing transformation and featuring some amazing guests: Matt Locke; Adah Parris; Andy Cowles; Alison Orsi; Jason Oke, Sophie Lewis; Gen Kobayashi; Ann Handley, Sam Conniff; James Whatley; Vikki Ross; Phil Adams; Tanya Evans; Robin Bonn; Kris Tait, Sue Unerman and Kathryn Jacob. It’s such a privilege to get to speak to and hear amazing insghts from some of the smartest people I’ve met, and we’ve already got some stellar guests lined up for early 2025.
Speaking and events: This year I did a fair bit of in-company speaking and webinars including one for the APA on AI in the ad production process, an IPA/ISBA event on agency/client relationships, a talk for Publicis on AI, another couple on AI for the BBC and IBM, and probably my favourite – a keynote at the BAM Congress in Brussels where the stage had a catwalk out into the audience (and I was tempted to do my best Taylor Swift impression). The quarterly trends webinars that I do for Econsultancy (now in their 12th year) have continued, and I also curated the Richmond Digital Marketing forum for a third year which was a great opportunity to line up some speakers that I’d long wanted to see. I say this every year but I really enjoy speaking so I’d definitely like to do more of it in 2025.
All-in-all, a very busy but fruitful year. Not without its challenges but then, as always, I count myself as very fortunate to be busy with interesting work. Looking at the shape of my revenues, the mix of consultancy, workshops, speaking, writing and other projects has remained fairly consistent but the clients that I’ve worked with and type of work involved has evolved considerably over the last few years. I’m doing far more leadership and change work alongside the marketing-focused projects, and more AI-focused work now of course
In last year’s update I talked about how every project seems to stretch me (and what I know) a little bit more, which is a good thing. I’ve learned a lot this year and I hope that continues. The useful intersections of the different types of work that I do – the knowledge layering – is something that I appreciate and make use of all the time.
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