Winning Best New Marketing Company of the Year

It’s crazy how much life can change in five years.

5 years ago, I was living in China during COVID, playing professional football.

For 22 years, my entire identity was being a professional athlete … and I was fortunate enough to live that dream for 8 of them.

3 years ago, I walked away from the only thing I had ever known to start again.

The life of a pro athlete is incredible, but it’s also very infinite and self centred.

Sport is amazing, but it’s also a game with many things outside of your control.

Business felt like an infinite game… one where effort, culture and people compound over time.

I realised that if I kept devoting my life to football for the next decade, I would finish as another footballer.

If I went all in on business, I could build something that outlived me.

15 months ago, when we started this company, we had a handful of people and lots of ambition but not much else.

We didn’t have the best systems or structures.
We didn’t have the most experience.
We didn’t have most things figured out.

But we did have belief…
Belief in people.

Belief that if you cultivate the right environment and culture, you attract the right talent.
Belief in people over profits.

Fast forward to today, we have over 50 staff.

If you told me 5 years ago what my life would look like today, I wouldn’t have believed you.

Back then I thought success was about status.

Now I know it’s about people.

Winning New Marketing Company of the Year is an honour.

This award may have my companies name on it, but it genuinely doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to our incredible people.

They built this … I just had the privilege of leading it.

The idea that you can achieve anything great in life alone is the greatest myth.

You can go fast alone … but further together.

As amazing as this award is, we didn’t start this company to win awards.
We started it to win the long game … and we’re just getting started.

Sport taught me how to compete.
Business taught me how to contribute.

Getting into direct sales was the best decision I have ever made.

The real prize was never the award.

It was the person I had to become to be worthy of it.