Bespoken's 6th birthday
It's fair to say, Bespoken had a ... difficult birth. This time of year, I get reflective...
In January, 2020, I left a 20-year BBC career to start my own thing. It was an exciting time!
But, within weeks, Covid shut the country down.
Then, within weeks, my amazing wife Amy was diagnosed with stage-4 Lymphoma - a massive tumour filling most of one lung, and a secondary tumour in her abdomen.
That first year is a blur.
I did quite a bit of editing - and even some voiceover work - sat in the Western General hospital car park, waiting for Ames to finish fortnightly chemo sessions.
I'd be firing off client emails, or piecing together Bespoken's web pages, at one end of our kitchen table, while the kids did their home schooling at the other.
Amy is fine now - thanks to expert care from NHS Scotland and incredible support (for the whole family) from the charity Maggies.
And Bespoken has grown to be a core team of 5.
Alongside me now are Carys Wall, Patrick Wallace, Katie Revell and Ailish Hunter - all superb video and audio producers, podcast and storytelling specialists, and craft editors.
We are supported by a kickass supporting cast of freelance producers, engineers, composers and technicians.
Each one is brilliant, and we wouldn't be without them.
In 2025, we did brilliant work: we won incredible awards, worked with global brands, and made beautiful things.
This year, we'll grow again.
Soon, we will launch a **brand new service** - expert media training and public speaker coaching (message me if you'd like an early-bird offer).
But this time of year, I always get reflective - thinking back to that first rollercoaster year, and how lucky we are to still be here and thriving.
To the clients who came on board at that time - a huge and heartfelt thanks for your trust and faith in me.
Those first brilliant clients were (in no particular order):
Anna and Monty at Scene & Herd PR and Marketing - for the OnFARM podcast
Sarah at the Sarah Wiseman Gallery
Fraser, Matthew and Rebecca at the University of Strathclyde for Local Zero
Lyndsay Snoddon at The Union and Jemma Reid at the South of Scotland Destination Alliance for Scotland Starts Here
Rhiannon Evans and Maria Williams at Bauer Media and Grazia, for the Grazia Life Advice podcast, and Love in the Time of Corona with Kate and Matt Dyson (now well worth re-visiting as a historical record of those early days of Covid).
Happy belated birthday to us! 🥂
Watch this space for more great stuff to come...
