Apparently, I’m still not finished.

The website, that is.

We’re still testing things. I’ve written some of the copy approximately 1,000 times, only to read it the next day and think: Nope. That’s not quite it.

Which feels like a good metaphor for running a business. You evolve. You learn. You look at something with fresh eyes and realise it needs another iteration.

It’s a bit like writing a book. Every page of the site is a chapter of the business so far, and I’m still editing.

Keeping my name

People suggested keeping my own name may limit me. That an agency-style name would feel bigger, more scalable, more credible.

Maybe they were right. Maybe they weren’t. I kept it.

Because people choose the person behind the business. Their experience, their judgement, their way of questioning, and their instinct for when something doesn’t quite sound right.

I help the people behind businesses to be understood: their expertise, their story, their reputation, in words that sound like them.

Finding clarity

Getting there hasn’t been straightforward. There’s been self-doubt, imposter syndrome, and that familiar: Am I good enough? Should I be further ahead?  

The irony isn’t lost on me. I spend my working life helping other people find clarity, yet finding it in my own business has sometimes felt almost impossible.

So I asked the people who’ve worked with me for the good, the bad and the ugly.

They took the time, and it helped enormously. If you run a business, you’ll know the feeling. You can’t see it clearly because you’re standing in the middle of it.

People at the heart of it

A website isn’t about what I want it to say. It’s about the person who arrives there. What do they need? Can they find it? Does it feel like somewhere they want to stay?

Mark and Phil at ITERO88 have been brilliant. They developed the site, and as user experience specialists, they read the data, analyse how people use it and keep refining it. That person is at the heart of every decision.

My good friend Katie of Katie Walden Illustration brought warmth and personality with her hand-drawn illustrations.

Roth Read Photography captured colours in my photographs that were already there before I properly realised it (the photoshoot, two years ago now, and yes, I’m showing more signs of age). I’ve moved away from corporate blue towards something warmer. More me. There’s a bit of ‘Mummy Bear’ in there too, the protective instinct I bring to my work. I look after the people behind businesses and everything they’ve worked so hard to build. I don’t want them to sound like everyone else.

Not finished and that’s okay

I suspect I’ll always tinker. I’ll always rewrite the copy and wonder tomorrow whether it could be better.

My mum used to tell me the story of the tortoise and the hare. Slow doesn’t mean you’re not moving, and maybe that’s something younger me needed to understand.

To the wonderful team at AD:VENTURE for supporting this next stage through grant funding, to the people who choose to work with me, and to everyone who believed in me when I didn’t quite believe in myself, thank you.

This isn’t the finished version. It probably never will be. Businesses evolve. People evolve. Words evolve.

Where I am today is not where I will be tomorrow. At some point, though, you have to say: Enough is enough. Put it out there. Keep moving.

So here it is. For now. Just me.

If you spot something that doesn’t quite sound right, you know I’ll want to hear about it.

And if you’re a founder who’s rewritten your own copy 1,000 times, I can help.

Have a look around and see where the next chapter takes you.