I moved to Chester with my wife and young son in 2022, because of the situation in Ukraine. I was not sure it was the right decision.
It turned out to give me things I could not have planned for. UK clients I could meet in person. A local ecommerce community I could actually be part of. Connections that only exist because I was in the room. But settling into a new country and a new business landscape takes time, and at the start it does not feel like a strategy. It feels like an upheaval.
The Second Decision I Was Not Sure About
Ecommerce Camp UK was the same. After nearly twenty years in this industry I had come to believe that face-to-face networking mattered more than ever, not less. COVID changed the landscape, and human connection stubbornly stayed at the centre of how business actually gets done.
Even so, the questions were real. Would anyone come? Did the UK ecommerce community need another event? Was this worth what I was about to put into it, because I put in a lot.
I trusted myself. That is the whole answer, and it is not a satisfying one, which is why people avoid saying it.
Chester, Manchester, Birmingham
Chester in 2023. Manchester and Birmingham in 2024. After the third event I stopped wondering whether it was right. The community had answered the question for me.
And the fourth edition was not something I did alone. Yotpo, Corefinity and Sansec backed it because they saw what it actually was rather than what it looked like on a sponsorship deck. I have written about what it meant to land the first sponsor, because that was its own kind of proof.
What Trusting Yourself Actually Means
It does not mean ignoring advice. It means noticing that the people advising you are reasoning from their situation, not yours. They cannot see what you can see, and they are not the ones who have to live inside the decision.
Who knows better than you what is right for you? Nobody. That is not arrogance. It is just true, and acting on it is the difference between a life you chose and one you drifted into.
I have written more about the longer arc of this in three years in the UK and what I have learned about building a business here.