My Journey

My journey at Semantic (without the highlight reel)

In 2026, I’ll have been running Semantic for 10 years, and will have been at the company for 18 years. Now if I’d have said to 22 year old me that I’d still be in the same job, all these decades later, I’m not sure he’d have believed me!

Of course, calling it ‘the same job’ is wildly inaccurate now. The job evolves constantly, and looking back I think there are some key phases that helped shape how I approach things today, and going forward.

I suspect other ‘employees to managers’ can relate to this. There’s a whole variety of challenges to unpack in terms of going from colleague to boss, from working in the business to on the business, and from follow-ship to leadership.

Fortunately, with Semantic, clients include theme parks, leisure attractions and other brands that I LOVE. Essentially it was a combination of helping my favourite brands + technology that still keeps the role fresh and challenging to this day…

Years 1 to 5: the ‘learning the ropes’ years

• I had been attempting to study chemistry at uni, it didn’t go well
  (sidenote > quit early and follow your passions!)

• I was a junior ‘Support Ninja’ focused on doing great work for great clients

• We had fun as a lifestyle business

• I’d lean on humour and silliness
  (sidenote > don’t say things for laughs that make you look thick!)

Years (roughly) 5 - 12: the ‘responsible’ years

• Project based

• Focused on delighting clients and over-delivering
  (side note > over-delivering is good, to a point)

• Realisations that growth was constrained by capacity and competition

• Trying to be ‘all things to all people’

• Diluting the service, ‘busy fool’

• Slow realisation that this was not a quick / reliable route to grow

2019 - 2020

This was the start of a major turning point. Merlin Entertainments (our biggest client at the time) had signalled they were shifting all web development in house, and that we wouldn’t be needed any more.

The pressure was on to rebuild the pipeline and retainer revenue to keep the lights on…

… then the pandemic happened. So suddenly it wasn’t just losing our biggest client - it was lockdowns, uncertainty, and an entire sector grinding to a halt. Looking back, it’s hard to separate the two. They blended into one long period of firefighting.

• This was the start of our shift to a productised solution (called LOOP By Semantic, a website platform tailored to the sector)

• Saying yes to anything and everything to keep cashflow in the pandemic
  (side note > don’t do this, it kept things moving but came at a cost)

• The period of trying to do everything myself

2020’s

• We launched our own LOOP By Semantic platform

• We’re shifting the focus of the whole business

• The team is more focused and able to add more value in a more scalable way

• I re-learnt priorities as an MD, after the firefighting of the pandemic

• Laser focus on margins and profit (no compromising quality / service)

• Learning to let go and systemise so that things aren’t reliant on (just) me

• Refocusing my role onto the things I’m best at, with help for the stuff I’m not.

• Refinding that belief in what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and where we’re going.

So all in, the last 5 years especially has been a period of significant transformation throughout the business. This has been challenging to keep everyone on board, to balance customer and business-development needs and to cope with economic uncertainty.

It’s been a wild ride, and has taught me so many lessons. Often things that people ‘say’ but they don’t sink in until reality bites.

Refinding Focus is my chance to document some of the lessons, reflect on the sacrifices, think about new things, and find balance heading in to my 40’s so that perhaps others might not fall into the same traps.

Thinking about my 30’s… that’s a whole decade that’s passed. That’s pretty emotional for me actually, thinking about how much further ahead we could have been if I could have kept the focus, optimism and belief through the challenging times.

Could I have taken more risks? Perhaps.
Could we have backed ourselves more and been more picky with work? Definitely
Are we in a better place now, with a route to scalability and legacy? Probably
Should I have tried to stay more balanced with social / personal life? Probably
Should I have focused more on my strengths and delegated more? Oh yes!

On the flipside, are we a stronger, more focused, more resilient business now?

Hell yeah!

Anyway, that’s the backstory. 18 years condensed down into a few hundred words. From employee, to boss, to owner, covering everything from support, design, coding, analytics, sales, management, accounts, finance, pitching and more.

Busy fool. Sure, at times.

But here we are, together, trying to make sense of the madness. Trying to make sense of AI, business and staying positive in what feels like an increasingly troubled world.

I’d love for you to be along for the journey - subscribe or drop me a message and I’ll see you in the next post.