This year marks 9 years of Compass. You’d think I’d be able to predict a quarterly flow by now, but this year has blown to smithereens any prediction that I would have told you at the start of 2026.
This year, Luke, myself and our 2IC Em, all ended up in hospital within a two week period. Between us, we barely take sick days, and when we do, the other two-parts of this triangle fill the gaps. But within a fortnight, we found ourselves in a continuous thread of “Omg!!! Noooooooo!” texts and all of us setting our out-of-office simultaneously. This was a learning.
In both a surprise and delight move, Luke and I also welcomed a baby recently; a little girl who was meant to be here all along, but somehow we never saw coming. After 9 years as a founder, I am terrible at defining and scoping what I actually do, so arriving at what and who we needed to fill the gaps that any absence would take wasn’t as linear as it could be. This was a learning.
We also saw AI take hold faster than ever before, with more 5-minute-generated briefs landing on my desk than ever before. We saw quality drop, but expectations lift. Everyone wanted thinking that was distinctly human, but in in-human timeframes and budgets. This was a learning.
We are six years on from COVID, and this year we saw a shift in how people want to meet and work. Virtual events became cringe, and we navigated a working world in which some were all-in in terms of in-person, and others (like the Compass team) wanted to hold onto the best bits of what we learnt about life and flexibility from these years. This was a learning.
And we saw both the media and content landscapes change shape. We were both told that AI could fill content gaps, but also that people didn’t want to read content generated by AI. We saw media titles consolidate, shut down and journalists become more pressed than ever. But in the absence of options, we saw relationships and true bespoke pitching become key. This was a learning.
So what is the cullmulatIon of this learning? What can I say that I know now?
Well, to be honest, not much other than the most nimble, flexible model of business and thinking wins. I think we need to prepare to be on a steep learning and refinement curve in the year to come, and this needs a structure in place that encourages time to be invested where it counts. Sure AI can save you some time in some places, but this time isn’t free time – it needs to be spent doing what makes us uniquely human; building relationships, getting to the core of a brands, using our critical thinking skills and offering creativity thinking in place of a prompt.
AI is not the devil, but nor is it going to solve all our problems or make it less busy. It should be used for scaffolding but not thinking or replacing human creativity. For example, I ran a task that got it to summarise everything I did for a month so I could better see the gaps that my maternity leave would leave. Genius. But everytime I try to get it to write something for me, I fall asleep reading the likeness of something I’ve read before. It’s boring, a bit cringe and the definition of meaningless contribution.
The changes in our team capabilities, availability, health and my own endurance to keep the plates spinning, have taught me to be laser focussed where it counts. We are all so busy, but we do a lot that we don’t need to. If pressed hard enough, you become ruthless about your energy and vision. When you are clear on what the goals are, you focus naturally follows, and the all the many things on your to-do list seem like clutter in response. Alongside growing a human, this year I was able to grow the Compass team, capabilities, clients and also join my first board – proving it’s not how much you have in the tank, it’s how you use it.
I also learnt this year that minutes are a currency much like dollars, but they don’t attract as much attention as money in this current cost of living crisis. ‘Cost of living’ is one of the most ubiquitous phrases in the media landscape this year but something I keep considering is the cost of how we choose to live.
As we enter our 10th year of business next year, I’m proud to say that we will also choose the life that supports the work that our team does. It’s that passion and balance that’s made us resilient, willing to change and will ensure we are still here in another decade’s time.
Happy year’s end everyone, I hope it’s been one of many, many learnings.
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