Adapt, Survive, Thrive.

My first thought when I saw this image make a reappearance recently in irishtimes.com was how huge my 14 year old teenager has got in the last year!! The second thought was a flashback to the first 8 weeks of  Lock down 1, when everyone was reeling from the effects of Covid and the changes it brought to our way of life.

I remember it being like a roller coaster ride for Coalesce. We were just about to launch our new brand, our diary emptied over-night and our clients who’d been left mid cycle in their communications process needed to find a way to get imagery to the press.

There were no ‘working with Covid safely protocols’. Everyone was just figuring things out. We pivoted so many times in that period our heads were spinning, but the rebrand went ahead, albeit one month behind schedule.

We started expanding into video. We sought solutions for our clients everywhere ; virtual video, virtual photography, using our own kids and spaces as models. Every week there was a new challenge and we faced into it.

A few weeks ago I was in a Going for Growth discussion group, talking around our experiences and challenges with communications over the last year. My list of experiences felt like a stream of firsts.

First time engaging in social media, first time communicating a brand, first time clarifying our vision and mission, first time hiring and on-boarding staff remotely, and expanding and motivating a creative group who were going through the same experience as us.

Has Covid been a positive experience for Coalesce?

From a revenue perspective – no. Revenues are down across the board even though we managed to diversify into different services which protected us from the worst effects of Covid.

But from a growth perspective the experience has been really positive even though that sounds like a contradiction.

Our company has doubled in size during Covid, both in staff and services and we’re continuing to use this Covid space to grow. More client services are in the pipeline and more job opportunities are coming down the line. As the economy opens back up and offers new opportunities we will face into each of them the same as we did last year.

I could use the ‘fight or flight’ analogy to describe our reaction to Covid but I’d like to think our instinct was more like hoping on the roller coaster rather than fighting against what was happening.

You adapt, survive and then you start to thrive. Kind of like living with the 14 year old teenager in lock-down while  home schooling. You choose your battles wisely and just roll with the punches.