Built from the inside out.

I arrived in London to build a career in hospitality carrying a hospitality degree and not much else, and the job I landed was carrying suitcases — a luggage porter, because I was big enough to lift the bags. I didn't walk into a five-star career. I worked into it, one shift at a time, making plenty of mistakes along the way.

There were promotions I didn't get on the first try. Decisions I got wrong before I got them right. Moments I doubted whether I had what it took to run a hotel, let alone win an award for one. What got me through wasn't talent — it was refusing to accept "good enough," and being willing to fail, learn, and go again.

That grind eventually led to becoming a General Manager by 30, a Hotel of the Year win, several hotel openings, and a seat on advisory boards for the AA and Visit Britain. But none of that happened in a straight line. I've led teams through the chaos of COVID restructuring, sat in rooms negotiating acquisitions I wasn't sure would close, pushed rebrands that met resistance, and driven digital transformations that didn't always go smoothly the first time.

I tell people this not to impress them, but because I think it matters. If you're running a business and you've made mistakes, missed targets, or wondered whether you're cut out for this — I've been there. Excellence was never handed to me. It was built, slowly, out of every setback I refused to let be the final word. That's the same standard I now help other businesses build into how they treat their customers and their people. Not perfection from day one. Just the discipline to keep getting better than yesterday.