Reflecting on 2020 and a year in lockdown - Jo, Chloe and Jess

This picture summarises how we spent the majority of this year communicating as a team. Thank goodness for the internet and thank goodness for Zoom! That said, it wasn’t always as jovial as things seem to appear here. What follows is a reflection on a year in lockdown from the perceptive of a CEO, Sports Agent and Talent and Production Assistant.

First up Jo:

This week a year ago I’d just spent three days in Berlin at the Laureus Awards, came home for a cup final in Nottingham, ran a half marathon in London the next day then got straight on a plane to Amsterdam to help launch a Women In Football campaign. 

I came home and promptly every bit of liberty ended with the lockdown. My crazy life surrounded permanently by friends, colleagues, acquaintances, travel, madness, was swiftly replaced by silence in my flat and the company of the tv and the radio only. 

I can’t remember my first zoom, but I was soon exhausted by the energy needed for continual positivity and calm, -I definitely didn’t feel positive or calm!

Running a business by yourself is lonely at the best of times- but running a business, or attempting to in a pandemic when your main source of income- football- actually stops is beyond difficult. 

I’m used to fixing things, to bringing solutions to the table for clients but being unable to affect what was going on around me was pretty hard. 

In a week I’d gone from jet setting around Europe to calling up gym gear suppliers for equipment for professional athlete clients to train with at home, and ringing round everyone who owed us money! The first bit wasn’t as glamorous as it sounds…and the second definitely wasn’t the most fun! 

While we were all worrying about everything we could worry about I got quite upset wondering what was happening to those who lived by themselves but didn’t have work or friends or family to keep them going. I kept thinking about the elderly and remembered a charity called Sporting Memories. Their participants relied on their weekly meetings at football clubs reminiscing on football memories and going through memorabilia to help loneliness and also dementia. What were they doing now? If I was struggling they definitely were! So I called them up and asked if we could recreate some meetings on zoom and if I could possibly record them for a radio series. 

Sporting Memories for Talksport funded by the Audio Content Fund was born and making a twenty part series kept both me- and I hope some of the participants who let us record their sessions- going for those few dark months in early lockdown! 

I also think I got so much closer to my clients as a result of us all going through something so tough together. I continually bang on about the team mentality and the team ethos we have here...but every client pulled together and everyone looked out for each other. I often feel like a proud Mum with my clients but actually in lockdown so many of them were a like family to me- checking in, having zooms, doing pilates classes together, every Friday sitting down to do Sam Matterface’s quiz and every Saturday and Sunday dancing round to Spoony’s House! Everyone just caring for each other. 

I clearly remember a pilates class we did in deepest darkest lockdown when you weren’t allowed anywhere and Kyle Walker had to rush off at the end as he had a show to go and present for the BBC. All of us (clients and staff) cheered because one of us had some work. Everyone was going through their own anxieties and worrying about what the future held for them individually but it was such a surreal and gorgeous moment as we waved our guy off to work, so happy for him as a team. I feel a bit emotional looking back at it in a way! 

When football came back, so did the team. I’ve never been so relieved to have them back from furlough. I am not someone who likes to do anything alone...including work! Three months with no football is not good for a football based business, three months without Chloe or Jess is not good for Jo (nor our poor clients!). So we will go again in 2021. We know how strong we are as a team which means we are strong as a business. For that I feel very very lucky.

Chloe:

I was in Berlin to ring in 2020 and I went to bed that night (cough *morning*) thinking “That’s it, 2020 will be my year”…I don’t think anyone could have imagined what was in store for us all three months down the line!

The word lockdown is scary in itself but this year it’s brought on a whole new meaning! Yet we’ve all learnt how to live with it; working from home, exercising from home and generally being ‘stuck indoors’…all things we have never had to do before. Amongst many negatives, however, this year has taught me more than ever; not only have I have reprioritised what is important to me but I’ve also learnt a lot about myself.

Having lived away from home for over eight years, spending lockdown with the family was a lovely positive; ritual dinner times and family arguments about whose turn it was to cook was back! I also got to enjoy lots of walks with my beloved dog which is always a bonus!

Work did begin to slow down however and then with the cancellation of all sport, work was put on pause and the furlough scheme was introduced. At first, you would think the idea of no work would sound appealing but being at home with no sense of purpose, I really missed my job! We all kept in touch as much as possible, both the office team and our clients were great...I’ve never appreciated my work so much. There was this horrible sense of uncertainty of would my job even be there to go back to and will work survive, but thankfully after three months, before we knew it sport was back and so was work! Who knew I’d have missed Super Sunday so much!

Working from home does have its benefits but also its downfalls; no sticky hot tube commute or canteen lunches but then also no office ‘banter’, no multiple tea breaks and no physical events which meant no networking… zoom calls in our workout gear was the new black-tie dinner! Jo’s dress rack in the office was gathering dust! Having to make big decisions is that little bit more daunting on your own too, not having that quick person to ‘bounce off’ like in the office was missed.

Despite this, I’ve never spoken to our clients more…I loved catching up and checking in with them, we were all in the same boat after all and so in those three months I focused on that…group facetimes, zooms, group Pilates classes and the ‘what you watching on Netflix’ chats kept us all going! I tried new things too like cooking more, reading more…I even knitted a scarf (yes I actually purchased knitting needles!) All things that kept me busy and things I will try to continue when things eventually go back to normal. 

PS. I will never ever take travelling to football games or tournaments and dressing up for granted again…bring on the Summer, Euros, Olympics and football awards season!

Last but not least, Jess:

I love every day being different but anyone who knows me knows I love a plan. I like to know and anticipate what my week/month might look like well in advance ….. let’s just say that went out of the window in 2020!

If someone would have told me during my final year of university that football wasn’t a secure career path to go down as one day all sport around the world would suddenly stop, I honestly would have laughed in their face.

Yet here we are in 2020, working in football….with no football. Tongue Tied, therefore, had no choice but to put me on furlough.

Like most people, I can’t say it was the easiest of times. But here are a few skills I did learn, and if you’re reading this and furloughed until September, and running out of ideas on what to do, I’m hoping these might help:

• Reading. I never thought I would have time to read. Turns out I do. Jo encouraged me to read The Sport Industry emails every day I was furloughed to essentially give me something to do and help me increase my knowledge of the industry. It has become such a habit that it doesn’t matter how busy I am, as soon as the update email comes into my inbox I make sure I take 15 mins to read it, just so I’m always up to speed with the latest news in the sports world.

• Exercising. Since my swimming days, I can’t say I’m thrilled at the idea of exercising just for the sake of it (I’ve very much being wired to train to win). What I realised in lockdown was that if I didn’t move enough during the day there was no chance of me getting any sleep during the night. So I decided to do something I’ve always wanted to do, but just never had time: Learn all choreographies to the songs from High School Musical 1-3. Doing seven year old Jess proud. Turns out I need to move to sleep, but that no longer means running around like a madwoman. In fact, gardening, cleaning my windows and hoovering works just as well!

• Coping. All my coping mechanisms have changed. Prior to lockdown, my coping mechanism for everything was to be busy. Now I’ve realised I don’t need to get out of my house, being at home is actually just fine. Being with me is actually just fine.

• Rest. It’s taken me a global pandemic, but I’ve realised the most important part of being able to perform at your best is resting. Even when I was training as an athlete I don’t think I realised how essential this was. Having more time to relax and actually, s.i.t d.o.w.n really boosted my creative abilities and within a few weeks of being back off furlough, Tongue Tied Productions was working on a podcast with England Rugby star Jack Nowell and Red Bull.

Although I can take some positives from the last year, I’m very excited to draw a line under 2020/2021. I felt so lost without football and sport and my job, and I’m very much looking forward to implementing these newly acquired skills into my new normal.