A few days ago, I finished a five-day challenge all about paid ads. I went in as a complete beginner, right at the very start, knowing almost nothing, and I came out with a notebook full of scribbles and one thought that has been sitting with me ever since. At the start of this year, […]

There’s a small moment I think a lot of us know rather well. You’re somewhere new, a dinner, a school gate, a wedding, and someone you’ve only just met asks what you do. And there’s a tiny pause before you answer, while you decide how much to claim. Whether to say it plainly and fully, […]

We have half term here this week, and we were meant to be up in Scotland (where most of my family live)… but too many things came up and we ended up staying home, which has actually been lovely. We’ve had cricket matches, plenty of revision happening for upcoming exams, the weather has been incredible […]

Why do some people keep going through the really hard bits of building a business, while others quietly stop? It’s a question I sit with a lot, and the more I think about it, the more I’m convinced the usual answers aren’t quite the right ones. Persistence is one of those words that’s gone a […]

The Bright Line has been running properly since mid-February. About three months in, the community hub has become the thing I check first in the morning. I love it. Real conversations, real questions, properly thoughtful work happening on real businesses. I reply in detail to every post personally, usually same-day, because that’s part of how […]

What’s been on my mind, just in the last few days, is something I’ve been watching play out across the online business world over the last few months. A real wobble in a few corners of the industry, where people I know, and people I really respect, have been quietly questioning whether what worked for […]

There’s a question I’ve been hearing a lot in the last few weeks. It usually arrives once someone has accepted that AI has a place in their creative business. The question is, where does it actually belong? What should I actually be handing to it, and what should I absolutely not? I want to share […]

I spent a couple of days this week inside an AI bootcamp, run by one of the leading voices teaching businesses how to use AI properly. The demos were extraordinary. The kinds of things businesses can now do with AI, even compared to just a few months ago, has changed enormously. But the thing I […]

“I get why service-based businesses need to focus on a specific audience. But I have products stocked in Harrods and Fortnum & Mason. I don’t control who walks into the shop and buys my product. So does this whole ‘ideal client’ thing actually apply to me?” This question came up during a recent live session, […]

I had a conversation this week with a florist who spent 20 years in banking before starting her flower business. And she mentioned this phrase they used to use at JP Morgan. “What’s the so what?” And it’s a really interesting question, which directly applies to how we manage our creative businesses. Meeting Sam Over […]