Becoming Someone New

For a long time, my career followed a familiar rhythm.

Every couple of years, I’d move on, take a step up, and find myself in a new role that built on what I’d done before.

Most people knew me from the roofing industry, that’s where I first built a name for myself.

I worked in specification sales, meeting clients up and down the country, managing projects, and building relationships.

It’s also where I first started growing my LinkedIn network, sharing work, stories, and experiences from life on the road.

I didn’t hate it. Far from it.

Those years gave me a foundation, people skills, commercial awareness, and the confidence to communicate.

But after a while, I started to feel something I couldn’t ignore: the itch.

It wasn’t frustration or boredom.

It was growth.

I was outgrowing my environment faster than it could expand around me.

The Move That Didn’t Fix the Itch

After leaving roofing after 7 years, I spent nine months at a building surveying firm.

It made sense at the time, a natural next step, same skill set, different sector.

But what I didn’t realise then was that I hadn’t really changed roles, I’d just changed the scenery.

The job title was different, the projects were new, but the feeling was the same.

I was still in sales, still client-facing, still building other people’s visions.

And again, I didn’t hate it.

I respected the work, learned new skills, met great people.

But deep down, that familiar voice came back:

“There’s more you could be doing than this.”

It wasn’t arrogance. It was awareness.

That quiet sense that the version of myself I’d built so far had served its purpose, and it was time to evolve again.

The Realisation

I remember one afternoon, sitting in my car after a client meeting.

It had gone well, solid conversation, good chemistry, the kind of meeting that would have excited me a few years earlier.

But when I got back in the car, I just sat there.

No buzz. No spark.

I knew exactly how the next steps would go - proposal, follow-up, repeat.

It was all predictable.

And that’s when it hit me.

I wasn’t doing anything wrong, I’d just stopped growing as a person.

And when you stop growing, even success starts to feel flat.

That moment stuck with me. Because I knew I had a choice:

keep playing the same role, or step into something new, even if I didn’t yet know what that was.

The Uncomfortable Question

The question that changed everything for me was simple:

What if I stop selling for businesses and start building my own empire of businesses?

That thought both excited and terrified me.

Because honestly, who was I to think I could build something bigger?

I was a salesman, right?

I’d spent years selling roofs and consultancy services.

And suddenly, here I was, imagining building my own businesses, creating a national platform for education, hosting events, creating a movement around an entire sector.

It sounded ridiculous.

Like I was stepping into someone else’s story, someone with more credentials, more experience, more… permission.

But here’s what I’ve learned since:

You’re never actually ready for the next version of yourself.

You grow into it by moving, by taking a leap of faith.

The Leap

So I made the jump.

I started Cobra Consultancy Group, my own business development company - not as part of some grand master plan, but as a way of taking control and starting my own empire.

After years of working for other people, I wanted to build something of my own.

This was how I’d create a new identity for myself. Or so I thought.

I knew how to win work, open doors, and build relationships, that was my craft.

So I thought, why not do it for myself?

Cobra became my first real step into freedom. It was lean, simple, and all mine.

And for a while, it worked.

I was building pipelines, helping companies land deals, running BD strategies - everything I was good at.

But after a few months, that same familiar feeling crept back in.

The itch.

Because even though I owned the business, I was still doing business development.

Still operating in the same way, just under my own name.

I’d escaped employment, but not the identity.

That’s when it became clear: I’d outgrown business development too.

What I really wanted wasn’t just to win work for others, I wanted to build things.

I wanted to create brands, experiences, platforms, stories.

Something massive. Something that could grow beyond me.

So I started to shift.

Cobra evolved from a BD consultancy into a digital marketing agency, helping businesses with their positioning, storytelling, and presence.

That pivot gave me creative freedom.

It allowed me to think bigger, to experiment, to build things from scratch.

And that mindset is what eventually led to SETL - School Estates Thought Leaders.

A national network of school estates managers representing more than 700 schools across the UK and counting.

SETL wasn’t born from a business plan or a spreadsheet.

It was born from that same urge, to create something bigger than myself.

A place where people could connect, learn, and grow together.

That’s when I realised what I really am.

Not a salesperson. Not a BD consultant.

But a builder.......A builder of ventures and ideas.

From Sales to Building Something Bigger

Looking back, the transition from selling roofs to building a national community platform might sound like a big leap.

And it was.

When I first started, imposter syndrome was real.

I’d catch myself thinking:

“Who am I to do this?”

“Who am I to run national events, to host a podcast, to lead an industry conversation?”

But the truth is, nobody is ever qualified to build something new.

You don’t wait until you’re ready, you move, and readiness follows.

The version of me that sold roofs gave me everything I needed to start SETL,

communication, trust, people skills, commercial thinking.

I just had to take those skills and aim them at something bigger.

Outgrowing the Old Version

What I’ve learned is this:

you don’t have to hate where you’ve been to move on.

You can appreciate it, respect it, even love parts of it - and still recognise when it’s time to outgrow it.

That’s what I was doing all along - not rejecting my past, but expanding beyond it.

Every stage of your journey is just a version of you, one that made sense at the time.

But if you stay in that version too long, it starts to limit what comes next.

Most people get stuck in a lane because they fear what’s outside it.

And that’s fine for many.

But for those who feel trapped, this is for you.

You can change lanes whenever you want to.

So when the next version starts calling - listen.

Even if it feels uncomfortable.

Even if you don’t have the answers yet.

Becoming Someone New

The funny thing about transformation is that people only ever see the end result.

They see the new brand, the confidence, the wins, not the months of self-doubt that came before it.

Becoming someone new isn’t a single decision.

It’s a hundred small ones you have to make every day, even when the old version of you is still whispering in your ear.

There are still mornings I wake up and that old voice pipes up -

“You’re the sales guy, remember? The safe one. The one who knows the script.”

And for a moment, I believe it.

Because identity doesn’t just vanish when you decide to change - it fights back.

That’s the part nobody talks about.

You don’t wake up one day and suddenly are the new version of yourself.

You build into it, word by word, choice by choice, action by action.

Some days I second-guess what I post, what I say, what I build. Hell, even this Blog, who cares what I have to say, am I qualified to give my opinion like this ?

Other days, I feel completely free, like I’m finally becoming who I was always meant to be.

And I’ve realised both days matter.

Because the shift doesn’t happen in one bold leap; it happens in the quiet consistency of showing up differently, again and again.

When I started running SETL events, I’d stand there in front of a room of people and feel that tug between old and new.

Half of me felt like an imposter.

The other half felt like I’d finally found my place.

Every time I pushed through that feeling, the new version of me got a little stronger, and the old one a little quieter.

That’s the work I’m doing now.

Not chasing validation - just aligning who I am with what I do.

It’s hard, shifting an identity.

You lose people along the way. You lose certainty. You lose the comfort of knowing exactly where you fit.

But what you gain is worth every bit of it.

You gain possibility.

You gain self-respect.

You gain freedom - to move toward something that feels truer.

And I’m not there yet - not fully.

But every day, I’m getting closer.

Every post, every project, every conversation that comes from this new place instead of the old one - that’s another small win.

Because becoming someone new isn’t about reinventing yourself completely.

It’s about remembering who you really were before the world told you who to be.

The Next Version

These days, when people ask what I do, I smile.

Because I don’t have a neat answer anymore.

I’m not “the guy from roofing.”

I’m not just a consultant.

I’m a builder of ideas, of communities, of platforms that bring people together.

And that’s the point, really.

You’re never done becoming.

You just keep evolving, version after version, until you find the one that feels like home - for now.

Because at the end of the day other peoples opinions should not stop us becoming who we want to become, and the only permission you need to start again…...is your own.

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