Stage X Studios - The Next Chapter

A new chapter is here: Stage X Studios.

It’s hard to believe we’re already at the end of 2025. It feels like five minutes ago that I set up Cobra Consultancy Group and started working for myself for the first time in January this year.

This first year was an eye-opener.

Late invoices in the early months are enough to put anyone into panic mode. You start questioning whether you’ve made the right decision, whether stepping away from employment was the sensible move.

Looking back now, those early scares were exactly what pushed me forward.

They were the reason SETL (School Estates Thought Leaders) became a real and 2nd business.

SETL started as an idea: an online community for school estates professionals across the UK. A space where people working in school estates could speak to each other in real time. Nothing like it existed.

It was simple, and it worked.

The community grew to around 20 people in the early days, but there was no monetisation. I was stuck on a key question: how do you create a valuable community without damaging it by charging people to be there?

Then, in May 2025, I attended an expo.

Exhibitors were paying substantial amounts of cash to put their brand in front of potential buyers for a couple of days. And that’s when it clicked.

What if the community was the exhibition?

A place where businesses could have their brands and services visible 24/7, 365 days a year - not for two days, but all year round.

The model made sense.

We brought on respected businesses already working in schools and continued growing the community. SETL now has close to 150 members and operates as a living, breathing online space where professionals share best practice and businesses get consistent visibility.

That model created a second income stream and took pressure off Cobra been the main income driver.

For the first time, I had breathing space.

But I'd gone from 1 new business to now running 2, a lot to take in since I was employed a few months before. But I was also aware of how fragile just one income stream is. It would only take a few bits of bad luck for it to all fall down, so I needed to create more.

So, from there, the next step felt natural.

Off the back of SETL’s success, I decided to launch a new education estates expo in Leeds coming April 2026. A focused, sector-specific event built for school estates professionals.

I have never built an expo before, but I knew there was a gap in the market.

The response has been strong. We already have close to 30 exhibitors confirmed and over 100 delegates registered. This will become a third income stream and reduce pressure even further.

With Cobra steady, SETL established, and the expo in motion, I realised quickly I was good at building and creating, and I wasn't getting overwhelmed, as my systems were working. So It made sense to keep going and building more income streams.

I now wanted a space for creatives and founders.

People building things. People like me. People who would understand me.

That led to The Founders Club been created in November this year.

Unlike the other projects, this didn’t need its own company, its own billing system, or its own structure. It was just an idea - and that’s when everything clicked for me.

Looking back across everything I’d built this year, one thing was clear: creativity has always been the constant. I enjoy bringing things to life. Testing ideas. Seeing what works.

The problem was never ideas - it was structure, and making sure everything I built had a place.

And that’s how Stage X came to be.

Stage X Studios is the umbrella business that brings everything together.

One structure. Multiple paths.

It operates across six arms:

• Communities

• Events

• Media

• Ventures

• Investments

• Talks

With Stage X in place, ideas don’t need permission. They don’t need justification. They just need to belong somewhere.

If something works, it can scale.

If it doesn’t, it doesn’t break everything else.

That’s where I’m at now.

A system that allows me to build, collaborate, and create without being boxed into one lane - and without starting from scratch every time.

If you’ve read this far, here’s the simple truth:

Just over a year ago, I was employed.

I had a good job. A solid career in construction sales. Nothing was broken.

But I reached a point where “comfortable” wasn’t enough.

What the last year has shown me is this:

when you demand more from yourself, what feels fixed suddenly isn’t.

For years, I assumed construction sales was where I’d stay. Until I decided to build something on my own terms.

That decision led to my first business.

This decision - Stage X Studios - is the next evolution.

Stage X is me stepping away from operating inside the businesses I build, and towards designing the structure they live in.

I don’t want to be the worker in the system.

I want to build the system.

Stage X gives me the freedom to create, collaborate, and turn ideas into reality - without asking permission.

If you have an idea and think it deserves a place to grow, drop me a message.

You never know where it might lead. ✌️