TEAM Service Provider of the year

In December 2021, l created my plan for 2022. A plan designed to take Green Umbrella to new heights and once again establish and evidence our credibility. Part of that plan included winning awards for myself, and for the business. Two weeks later, I won two awards related to entrepreneurship. Since then, the business winning an award in its own right has been on the to-do list, but every time I saw an opportunity, I looked at the application form and just thought ‘ugh’. I had more important things to do! On the 24th of June, we attended the TEAM Conference as we always do. An event filled with the exact kind of recruitment businesses we want to work with, and partners who also serve this community. For the first time, awards had been introduced into the event. These awards are voted on by members. They nominate, and whoever is nominated the most, wins the award. It’s as simple as that! I didn’t pay as much attention to it as I should have done; we could have emailed everyone asking them to nominate us – we didn’t. So when Green Umbrella Marketing was announced as Service Provider of the year, the team and I were shocked!

Best Social Media Marketing Agency 2022 – East Midlands

Needless to say, celebrations were ongoing, but there is another part to this story. That week had been full of events, and so over the weekend, I was catching up with emails. It turned out this was not the first award we had won as I had first thought! I had received an email from SME News to congratulate us on the title of Best Social Media Marketing Agency 2022 – East Midlands.

After setting the intention to become award winners, within six months we had not only achieved that, we’d become multi-award winners. Just goes to show you can achieve what you set your mind on!

Awards can be naff… you have to ‘buy in’ to secure the award

This was my false belief. I’m not one for praise or for bragging about the good stuff we do. I certainly don’t want to pay for a pat on the back! I already know how good team GU are and I reckon I’m pretty awesome too!

But… my thinking has shifted a little in terms of my beliefs around ‘naff awards’.

The TEAM community includes 500+ of my ideal client base. They were asked to select one business to win the service provider award from a panel of over 120 suppliers in their industry.

And they chose my team.

Because we continuously serve the community, the clients we have had within it have had real results. We didn’t and couldn’t nominate ourselves. As the award was handed to myself and Mark, I was told over 80% of the nominations had been for Green Umbrella Marketing.

I recently shared with one of my mentors in business that I had been told by a peer that as a business leader, I was too humble. This comment had irritated me, and if I’m honest, I think I was hoping I would be told not to listen to this peer. My mentor’s response… ‘I could have told you that!’

Multi-award-winning marketing agency

So here’s my not-so-humble brag. I, and my team are friggin awesome. We’re multi-award-winning awesome. There might not be anything special about us as individuals, but the way we come together and implement the processes and strategies that have been developed in this business over the last 12 years is extraordinary. I’m proud of us all.