Why the long, short and the tall of it?

For me, 2024/2025 was one of those transformative periods where it feels like the universe isn’t just telling you something - it’s standing next to you with a megaphone. Sliding doors moments, epiphanies, and a few tragedies. Not quite the Odyssey, but life-changing nonetheless.

It started with a session with my brilliant coach, Vonnie Alexander, where we went through the Ikigai framework. It was clear I had an itch to scratch - I just needed to figure out what it was (radio presenter did come up a lot but I snort a lot when I laugh, which is a lot, so I’m not sure it fits into the ‘What The Worlds Needs part’).

That led to the start of my coaching training.

We lost a dear friend to suicide, and our 100-year-old Nan. Two totally different lives, but both my husband and I reflected a lot on what our lives meant, and how quickly it went — even when you make it to 100.

We decided we wanted to be “experience rich,” so we sold our house and most of our possessions. I say that like it was easy. It wasn’t, and most days I still have an internal battle over what I “gave” up in order to “get.” And anything I sold on Vinted essentially gets spent on Vinted, but I’ll get there.

And when I came to the crossroads of taking another big job or backing myself to start my own thing, there was really only one way to go if I was serious about an experience-rich life.

I now run a business consultancy called 50 Feet Tall. Most days, that means thinking about what makes people, and the businesses they work for, grow - both from a revenue and personal perspective.

But the benefit of controlling my own time and work is that I also get to do some of the other things I’m good at and enjoy. Writing is one of them (at least the enjoyment part).

So, this is where I’ll write about things that don’t quite fit into a client deck, but sit alongside the work 50 Feet Tall does.

Sometimes it’s advertising. Sometimes it’s the workplace. Sometimes it’s society more broadly. Sometimes it’s just why we’ve collectively decided that enjoying your life — and helping others enjoy theirs — should feel like a guilty admission, rather than the point.

We spend a lot of our lives acting like there’s more time than there is. Like joy is something to get to later, once the job’s more secure, the body’s more acceptable, the to-do list is done.

So — the long, short and the tall of it:

The long: how we build lives, a planet, communities and businesses worth being part of, now and for others in the future.The short: we’ve got less time for it than it feels like...The tall: the aim, always - things, people and businesses that leave us standing a bit bigger than they found us.

I’m too contrary to stick to a niche, and too impulsive to stick to a schedule. But hopefully, when I do show up, you’ll get some useful meanderings about joy, and what keeps getting in the way of it.

(Photo: Latest in our ‘experience-rich’ life - we spent time in El Calafate, Argentina last month - beautiful, bloody cold and full of gorgeous tame stray dogs who behave better - this one’s following me to tea - than my own trained dog…)