Year End Review 2021
What a rollercoaster of a year. It has been a really good learning curve for me and some amazing highlights that have helped me to hone my craft. It has also been great work alongside some fantastic co founders and really stretch my own leadership craft in the same way I expect my clients to do the same. So here are some key review point for me.
Mentoring I have really benefited from great mentoring this year. Sometimes I am asked why I still have mentors. For me it is being able to tap into not only the wisdom of others, their worldviews and networks, but also knowing that as time goes by such relationships are incredibly reciprocal too. And your outlook on the world can allow them to see the world through your lens.
My main mentor Liam Black is a gem. This is our second year now of proper consistent mentoring and I am not letting him go anywhere in a hurry. His ability to cut through the bullshit, challenge me on my assumptions, and of course his powerful insight running and chairing purpose driven organisations always gives me a sense of balance. That we do that on two hour walks where I do most of the talking when we are going uphill doesn’t go unnoticed. A true gem and he has played an instrumental role in honing my success and thinking over the last two years.
In addition to Liam, I am a member of a mastermind group (so secret they cannot be named) and also part of small mens group who provide peer mentoring and support. This peer mentoring has been priceless, as all of these inputs tap into various areas of my own development. I also host a mastermind group for Black professionals call Black Founders Hub, but I will talk about that a bit a later.
Personal Brand I have been going back and forth over my personal brand. Wrestling with how I present to the world and the promise of value. This may seem a bit weird to some but there are many who are still asking if I do presentation workshops, personal branding and career coaching and other services. Granted I am in the middle of redesigning my website and some other of my assets, I realise I need to be both very clear about what I do, and who I serve as a result.
Doubling down on that kind of clarity in my content and marketing for the foreseeable future.
Writing I have really enjoyed writing this year. I am part of a small motley crew of writers who meet every week day morning between 7 and 8 am on Zoom. We mute (and get messages if we aren’t) and churn out content for articles, books, podcasts, presentations and papers.
Even though I didn’t get to publish my leadership book this year, I am very confident that with the expert wizardry of my editor we will have something out soon. Of course self published, I don’t trust publishing houses. Sorry, not sorry.
I used to hate writing especially for business if I am honest, especially long form. But working alongside this group and having a damn good editor (with his fricking red ink all over Google docs) has made me fall in love with good writing for business.
Learning This year I took on a number of courses for self development.
Angel Investment School, is a course for budding angel investors founded by my friend Andy Ayim. I joined a cohort of ambitious investors to learn more about angel investing. I missed a couple of live lectures but am grateful for a community that have helped me to shape my investment thesis and are a good source for deal flow.
Organic Course Selling Mastery is a course I took that helps knowledge professionals like me learn how to build and sell profitable online courses. Something I want to do more of to reach more people without it having to take too much of my time
Micro Acquisitions. This is a brilliant course helping people like me to buy, grow and sell small companies. So many conversations around this subject can focus on huge companies, that it was nice to learn from this course how it can be done for smaller businesses.
Advisory This year I cut back on board roles. I stepped away from a number of board offers and only have advisory or board seats on two companies. The first is The New Blxck a media company that of one my mentees is building. The second is Forbes Family Group, a private family firm. The latter is a very exciting opportunity to be on the board of a very successful entrepreneur and dear friend, Dean Forbes. This will help with my ambitions as a burgeoning investor too.
Ventures
My core business Q Squared has had it’s best year yet in terms of revenue and impact. Madeline and I have been really honing in on the core brands that drive our passion for learning and development. We have really doubled down on the concept of building communities for learning and have been excited about the progress made this year and the plans for the coming year.
My second business I am a cofounder in is Black Founders Hub. We are mastermind group that is focused on helping founders of professional services firms from an African or Caribbean heritage to grow their businesses. We have had two cohorts this year and it has been terrific to work with a group of ambitious owners who want to grow their impact and profitability with the help of a community of fellow founders. Next year we level up even more.
My final business I am a founder of is Evermoor. I mentioned earlier that I have ambitions to build and invest in small and emerging businesses. Well this is the vehicle that is allowing me to do that and I am excited about the next few years. My learnings in angel investment, micro acquisitions and sitting at the board of FFG will definitely help in shaping that.
Learnings
One of the biggest learnings for me this year was the need to expand the team. As we grow we need to hire the best people who have skills better than us and leverage that accordingly for the good of the companies I am involved in. It’s never nice having to replace staff but this also comes with the territory as the businesses grow for maximum performance.
I also learned that most of the companies/organisations who promised to make big strides to hiring, promoting and developing black talent were quite dishonest. They set targets they could never meet, overpromised and underdelivered and in many instances have moved on like the people they said they would support don’t exist. Still for me it is important to remind my clients that if you want to be fully inclusive, you don’t just park race and ethnicity because it’s not trending anymore. So I came still calling out senior leaders if they talk shit on this.
I dodged a bullet this year. I almost took on a director role for a media company, only to find out that the owner of this company was not a man of integrity. As with all big leaps that I take I did my due diligence and found that this was not a person I wanted to be associated with personally or professionally. Charming for sure, but also a chancer and I bounced before it even got potentially messy. Rest assure my investment community and network have also been advised to keep away from him.
I read and listened to just over 52 books this year. My top podcasts on rotation are Akimbo, The Knowledge Project, Time to Talk, Pivot, Diary of a Ceo, Every Day Leadership, The New P&L and Techish. I read Lord knows how many articles across politics, business, history, economics and tech each week and share a list of my top six Sunday reads each week. Without comment.
Looking forward In Q Squared, I have had the pleasure of working with some amazing clients this year including Shopify, Facebook, Google, iTech Media, HSBC, Unltd, Media Arts Lab, Lloyds, Credit Suisse, Tate & Lyle, and Linklaters. Next year I am doubling down on doing more with less. I want to ensure that existing or new clients we go deep on measurable and impactful leadership.
With Black Founders we are looking to expand our community and offerings, aiming to have an even bigger financial and operational impact our existing and new members.
And I am looking to invest more into some exciting business opportunities in finance, healthcare and e-commerce.
It’s all very exciting but mostly at the hear of what I do is to remain unapologetic in my approach to leadership, work with integrity and be compassionate. Cos if you’re not nice, what’s the point? Roll on 2022. Gonna squeeze the most out of every day that I have.
