A Week in My Life: John Readman, Founder, Modo25

Wednesday

Today is the big day! The BOSCO launch and Modo25 office unveiling event. We moved into the office over lockdown, this was our first opportunity to get the whole team together and invite industry friends, partners and clients to network and have a face-to-face event.

Despite the buzz of the event, I don’t sit twiddling my thumbs. I have an 8am meeting with a development partner, 247 Commerce, who will support the reselling of BOSCO. I follow this up with an internal catch-up with the team at 1morechild.

Charity is at the heart of Modo25 and Modo is the name of a child that is part of the 1moreChild campaign in Jinja, Uganda. The office is buzzing today ahead of the event and the whole team has made the journey to the office– with team members travelling from Canada and Australia for the week. As it is the summer holidays, my daughter is in the office to help look after our office dog, Roxy, and we grab some sushi on the go. It’s great to get that quality time with family – even during a busy day.

Ahead of the event, I have a client user feedback meeting with Stuart Paver to discuss BOSCO, feature developments and what he would like to see from the platform. From 3pm, it’s event time. The team have worked tirelessly on pulling everything together and it goes off without a hitch. The event unveiled BOSCO, the digital marketing intelligence platform and office space at the ribbon-cutting event that was attended by Andrea Jenkyns MP.

We have invested seven figures into BOSCO™, which enables retailers to use complex AI and machine learning to grow their profits. The SaaS platform connects all of the internal marketing and sales data of a business with extensive algorithmic modelling to predict which channels are the best to invest in for future success.

Chief executive of Leeds City Council Tom Riordan and Stuart Paver also spoke at the event. Wrapping up at 6pm, my evening is spent preparing for Modofest, which includes marinating BBQ food and stocking up on beer, ready to host 35 people.

Thursday

I kick the day off at 4am with some exercise in preparation for Tough Mudder on Sunday. Members of the Modo25 team have all signed up for the event, raising vital funds for 1morechild – so far, we have raised over £1,000 which is fantastic. I do a final slide check ahead of the whole team meeting which is happening at Bowcliffe Hall. I arrive at the venue just after 8.30am and with nothing ever running smoothly, our COO Abi has a flat tyre, causing a last-minute panic. Thankfully, she still manages to make it on time.

The whole team meeting is held annually and is an opportunity to get everyone into a room to plan, reflect and discuss what’s on the horizon for the agency. The whole team shares stories of success, learnings, improvements and what we want to achieve for the upcoming year.

We held the event at Bowcliffe Hall and it’s a brilliant venue, it gets the team out into the countryside in scenic surroundings. We round the meeting off with some awards from across the year from ‘Team of the Year’, ‘Client Team of the Year’ and ‘Most Embarrassing Moment’. As we are incredibly flexible at Modo25, the meeting provides the team with the whole opportunity to come together, catch up and build upon an already great team atmosphere.

After the meeting, we all retire to my house for a BBQ and a good old knees up, with our very own Modo25 resident DJ spinning the decks until the early hours of the morning. The whole day was a success and everyone is excited for the year ahead.

Friday

At Modo25, since launching in 2019, we have always operated on a four-day week. I believe the team must have a greater work/life balance and it’s brilliant to see more and more businesses following suit and realising the benefits of a shorter working week. I have taken this day as an opportunity to recover from Modofest and spend some quality time with my wife and children.

Having that extra day in the week rewards me with the chance to catch up on life admin, tidy up from Modofest and just catch up on life, which when working full time and running your own business can sometimes be a struggle. I also operate a charity cycling business called Ride25, so I spend my afternoon catching up on admin for this and planning the next leg of our ride to Australia.

It’s great to sit back and reflect on the amazing week we have had a Modo25 and BOSCO. The team, agency and offering are continuing to grow and we have big plans for the next year.