Today marks the end of the 1st Quarter of 2023.
And the start of the next phase of my journey.
From what began 6 months ago as a decision to uproot my entire life by ending my relationship and moving back home based on nothing more than a gut feeling, I’m more aligned than ever to who I am, ready to commit the next 10 years of my life to a problem that sets my heart alight.
I couldn’t have told you why I needed such radical change back in September. I didn’t know myself. But after many months of reflection the lessons have become clearer. Like wiping away rain from a pair of glasses, the time alone with my brain has shown me who I am, what’s important to me and where I want to go next.
So where to?
I’ve realised I’m a community builder at heart.
I love people. Their uniqueness. Their happiness. Their potential. But most importantly… being the reason why someone believed they could do anything. From an introduction to a mental model to a new skill, nothing brings me more joy than being a conduit for another person’s growth.
On reflection, this should have been obvious to me. I never really fit in at school. I was an outsider who always avoided conforming to group norms. I chose individuals rather than groups to make friends with. And it often left me feeling misunderstood, lonely and disconnected.
But, once I went to university everything changed. I went by myself, not knowing anyone there, in search of “my people”. It was in Enactus, Nightline & Running that I found them. In each were individuals who loved building businesses for good, helping others through their lowest moments and pushing their bodies to the limit. I didn’t just fit into one of the groups. I fit into all of them. And it was in my final year at university in 2020 just before the pandemic that I was at my happiest. I was living with fellow Enactus students, regularly volunteering for Nightline and reaching new personal bests in my Running. All three were overlapping. And things were great.
Until lockdown (remember that?) brought everything to a screeching halt. Out went the in-person communities. In came the virtual ones. I closed my first business back then. But, guess what I started next… A community of young people who wanted to help start-ups adapt to the challenges of the pandemic alongside my housemate Ryan. It was a passion project that kept evolving. Until it became a Gen Z Talent Accelerator & Consultancy (buzz word, buzz word, buzz word) that I poured my heart into. We built a community of 39 team leaders, each sharing “the vibe” that we’d identified in every single one of them. In one short year rather than finding my next community, I’d created one.
Those were good days. Ones full of excitement, joy and challenge. But, like all things that matter, they had to evolve or die. Stagnation got the better of me, the business needed serious commercialisation and we didn’t want to lose sight of our initial purpose. So, we closed it at the end of 2021. In it’s place I filled the gaping community hole with hosting dinner meet-ups and writing sessions, growing my own online audience and coaching business owners to realise they could do anything. It worked. But, something was still missing.
Breakup. Move home. Introspection. And now this newsletter I started 12 months ago as a way of hitting publish on a half-written book has evolved into a community of multipotentialites in their 20s. I’ve published weekly newsletters, hosted monthly virtual reflections and now even delivered our first quarterly in-person meet-up (very exciting indeed).
On Friday 24th March 35 multipotentialites in their 20s came together to learn from a Master and meet like-minded people with many interests.
was our guest speaker and she absolutely blew everyone away. She gave us the full run-down of everything she’s learnt about mastery, dropping nuggets of wisdom in every sentence. Her experience, communication and honesty enabled the deep, meaningful conversations that followed. Bringing together people from across my life in one room was truly amazing and the feedback I received has left me buzzing ever since.Here’s just one example:
“Thanks for yesterday man. Without any fluff or BS, it's the first time after 2.5 years in London that I was in a room with so many people who I feel I could genuinely be friends with and develop very meaningful conversations. I'm craving for that more than anything lately, and it's not easy to find. You've got something special there and I'm very happy to be part of it.”
Now if that ain’t what community building is all about, I don’t what is!
While community building has clearly become one part of the puzzle, as has my recent obsession with the future of work. Having never been full-time employed before, I’ve only ever known summer internships, part-time work, freelancing, contracting and entrepreneurship. I’ve literally done everything BUT “a job”. It wasn’t some grand plan because I hate working for someone else. It was more because I believed I’d learn more faster through different routes. And that everything was negotiable. If only you learnt how to ask. Which has meant I’ve been living the future of work - as a multipotentialite with many interests, earning via portfolio work and on a squiggly career.
But, after asking myself how I can achieve my purpose “To empower individuals to create organisations of the future” at scale something became obvious. To have the big corporates trust me with something so all encompassing as Organisational Design I needed case studies of my future of work ideas being successfully implemented. It was one thing to read, consult and advise. It was a whole other thing to get back in-front of the coal face, do it myself and learn along the way.
So, after a lengthy (yet innovative… they paid me for a case study) 5-stage interview process, I’m accepting a 4-day a week (almost) full time employed role with The Portfolio Collective as their Executive Team Co-ordinator. This means I’ll be running all the projects, working directly with the COO and in the perfect position to embed the future of work ideas with a team that I know has so much to teach me. It’s exciting. It’s aligned. And I genuinely can’t wait to get stuck in again. Especially as I get to maintain my other interests like building this community, business coaching & ironman training on my 5th (and let’s face it probably 6th) day each week.
Life is about to get busy. Like really busy. And I’m excited for it. Because I’m in peak physical fitness. I’m proactively choosing the path I want. And everything is starting to come together nicely.
So, here’s to trusting the process. Even though change is scary in the moment, every time you let go of one thing you create the space for the next thing. You’ll never know what it is until the unending march of time decides to show it to you. All you need to do is trust your gut, dance with the uncertainty and spend more time creating your future than reminiscing on your past.
This Month’s Lesson: Leave all your options on the table. Don’t rule things out because you’ve never done them. Explore every possibility. And trust yourself to negotiate a situation that works for you.
What’s Coming Up Next
Settling Into the New Role
The new role is going to take some getting used to. I’ll need to learn the ins and outs of the organisation, meet the team and embed myself within the various projects that are all being implemented right now. To give myself as much time as possible, I’ve spent the last few weeks getting ahead on writing these newsletters and setting the groundwork for the community expansion.
Reaching The Next Level of Fitness
With personal bests in the half marathon (69:55) and officially in the 5k (15:18) the season of races is just getting started. With 13 weeks until the big Ironman UK day there’s a lot happening between now and then. The base training is there, the speed is there. So, it’s now about getting to the start line in one piece and mastering the 4th discipline of triathlon: nutrition
Evolving the Community
Following the successful first meet-up last Friday and a behind-the-scenes 3 month pilot of the community it’s time to take things a little more seriously. I’ll be inviting everyone who attended to be part of the WhatsApp chat with invitations to the monthly virtual meet-ups, quarterly in-persons and a whole host of other ideas I’ll start experimenting with.
More Generations Over Dinner
After successfully bringing together three generations over dinner earlier in the month alongside Avivah (see more here), we’ll be running these events pretty much monthly. I’ll bring 3 under 40s and she’ll bring 3 over 40s for an evening of conversation. It’s gonna be great fun, I can already tell. And I’m sure it’ll evolve into another community because I just can’t help myself.
A Final Note
Today really does feel like it marks the end of one chapter and the start of the next one. The last six months feel like they’ve been setting me up perfectly for everything that’s ahead. Community build. New job. Ironman training. It’s going to be relentless for a little while. But, I’m ready for it.
Thank you for being a part of this journey, it means a lot. Bringing everyone together in-person reminded me exactly why I do this. It’s super aligned and I can’t wait to bring even more community experiences to everyone.
Loved this diary, Charlie! It's been awesome watching your growth over the last two years, and I'm excited to see how your new role goes. No doubt you'll smash it! 🙌