And it takes a lot to close something that you’ve been working on for six years because there’s a sunk cost fallacy. Everyone’s like, “But I put six years of my sweat and tears into this. How can I give it up?”
I want to talk through that first before we talk about the happy stuff.
Let’s break through this. This is therapy.
Sure.
Let’s break through this pain. Talk us through the decision because we talked about this. It’s like, “Would it be so much easier if I shut down the business?” There’s thinking about it. There’s drowning yourself in a glass of champagne about it. Then there’s actually doing it.
Run us through it because, like you said, you’re working with great brands. Your work’s amazing.
Bear in mind, you also just spent 20 grand on a new rebrand, right?
Forty.
Okay, 40 grand on a rebrand. Let’s just say that.
I mean, just to bring that up. It looked sick.
It was cool.
I went to your new launch. It was so cool.
I was like, and you were like, “Yeah, this is the agency 2.0. It’s a new era.”
It was really cool.
You seemed hyped, and then you were like, “Yeah, no.”
Yeah.
I’m like, “So, talk us through this because it was crazy.”
I think it was… I’ve always been a very philosophical person.
I’ve always been thinking, “How can I maximize the reward for the time that I put into things?”
Since 2022, I had the idea of shutting the business down and exploring other revenue.
I got into consulting. I got into events and started different businesses and all the shiny objects and those sorts of things.
I think the real killer for me was hiring the wrong people.
I didn’t realize how much of an effect a single person can have on a team.
Naivety of being 26 at the time when I hired those people.
I’m still like that, and I’m 38.
Fine. Okay. Fine.
That makes me feel better.
I still do that.
That makes me feel better.
No, it’s still…
Yeah.
Yeah, that’s good.
Okay, I’m glad that’s the case because it kind of just killed it, really.
I think it became this point where I created a really nice job for myself, and I was hiring people that were on sort of double or triple my salary, and kind of thinking, “You do like a third of the work that I do.”
I just didn’t like doing it.
I completely fell out of love with it.
I fell out of passion for it.
The industry, I felt, was just in a bit of a shambles as well.
I think creatives aren’t valued as much as they once were.
For most people now, done is okay, and okay is kind of fine.
When you have someone charging a lot of money for that finesse and that perfection touch, they don’t even appreciate it.
You are kind of churned and burned as an agency.
I think it got to the point where, in 2022, we’d been working with this client for three years on retainer. Big brand.
Had a great relationship with them.
It came up to renewal, and I was like, “We’ve got to go through a tender process. We’ve got to get five different agencies to tick all the boxes.”
I just thought, “We do great work for you guys already. Why have we got to go through this whole process?”
They chose someone else because they were 10% cheaper.
It kind of made me think, “What’s the point?”
This is the way the industry is going.
This was the early days of it.
At the end of 2023, which was the rough fucking year, I said to my kind of business partner-ish sort of person, “I’m going to rebrand it.”
“I don’t enjoy it now. I think it needs a big refresh.”
“I’m going to bring it a new lease of life.”
Spent a fortune rebranding it.
Lots and lots of hype.
Trying to create almost like the fire up my backside again and refuel that energy for it.
I thought that would solve the problem, but I was kind of ignoring the culture aspects and the industry changes as well.
We launched it as Odyssey in 2024, which you came to the launch party for.
That was in May 2024.
About five months later, it was just the same problems popping up again.
Cultural problems.
Client problems.
I just thought, “I can’t be bothered.”
So I sat the team down in a room like this, and I just came in and said, “Guys, I’m letting you all go tomorrow.”
It was rough.
Rough.
How did you go from that though?
You went from spending 40 grand, and you were like, “Right, yeah.”
Know that I’m also just like…
I don’t mean to, but it’s quite a decision.
We’ve all done it with stuff.
We’ve tried to keep things, whether it’s a relationship.
You’re in a relationship, and you’re like, “Oh, but we can make it last.”
“Let’s go on another holiday,” and spark some romance into it or something.
I’m so glad my fiancé’s gone, by the way, in case he thinks I’m talking about him.
But it’s like that sort of thing.
You try to relight that fire, like you said.
You did that.
What then made you think…
Because I feel like a lot of people keep it going.
People do that.
Whether you stay in a job that you just don’t enjoy because you feel like, “Oh, I’m here. I could be on my next progression of my career.”
We’ve all done it.
Relationships, everything.
We all do that, right?
But how did you decide?
Because it was inevitably the right decision.
We’re only here and can only talk about it because you are happy, and it’s got a happy ending, which we’re going to get to.
I just really admire it.
I really admire that you could have the strength to be like, “I invested so much into this, but it was wrong.”
“I was wrong to have done this.”
“Actually, it’s better to cut it off.”
I don’t think most people have that strength.
A lot of people would have carried it on.
“I’ve just spent this much money doing it. Let’s try it out for at least another couple of years to justify this cost.”
Then be miserable and sink into burnout, depression, or whatever.
But you didn’t do that.
How did you come to that and decide this was the right decision for you?
I think you can always get more money, but you can’t get back more time.
For me, that was it.
My analogy for the whole situation is that it felt like we were in a plane that was falling out of the sky.
I hadn’t yet put my own oxygen mask on, but I was putting everybody else’s on.
Oh, God.
I think it made me realize I needed to look after myself a bit more.
Health.
Mental health.
Borderline depression.
Just eating shit.
Not seeing my partner for weeks on end because I was out on shoots.
There were people that thought I didn’t enjoy it.
It became a very negative thing.
Honestly, I just had enough of it.
That was kind of it.
At the end of the day, people are adults.
There’s no such thing as security in any job.
It literally was when I walked in, I just said, “Guys, I’m letting you all go.”
There wasn’t any fluff.
They’re all adults.
They can’t change my input, but they can change how they react to things.
That’s on them.
That’s not my issue.
If they have a problem with that, they need to do all that themselves.
It’s a little bit cutthroat.
That’s kind of business.
Ultimately, I did it for the benefit of myself, which sounds very me, me.
But I’m not there to please anybody else.
I’ve got a mortgage to pay, bills to pay, and family to sort out.
I’ve got to put my own oxygen mask on first.
That’s what they tell you to do as well.
They do tell you to do that, and so many of us don’t.
You’re saying it sounds cutthroat, but I’m also jealous because I don’t do that.
I put everyone else first.
I constantly get told, sort of calling someone today, “You need to start putting yourself first.”
I do that.
I am a victim of that, and it’s something that can get exploited.
I think there’s a balance.
You did it respectfully, like you said, and it was the right decision.
I have great relationships with the guys, by the way.
I’ve either got them other jobs, or I still work with them on a freelance basis, or support them with other work and stuff.
It’s not like it was, “That’s it. Out the door.”
It was very much like, “Look, you’ve put four years into the business. This is the situation I’m in.”
So, the respect was reciprocated.
Yes, they were frustrated with me, but they understood why I made that decision.
Some didn’t deal with it well.
Some did.
The ones that did, you know, don’t burn your bridges.
I think the ones that did respect that decision, we still have a really good relationship.
Well, I wouldn’t say friends, but we still have a good relationship with each other.
Yeah.
It depends on how you react.
You were just honest and transparent, and that’s what you can be.
