the origin Story
Every story has a beginning …
There are moments in life that can be defining, a story so specific, so vivid, so completely yours that when you tell it, everything changes.
This is that story.
It was my first day at Toshiba as a placement student and I was super nervous. Given that I was sitting in their headquarters reception, it must have gone well, and somehow, I had stood out amongst all the other candidates who applied.
I was welcomed by my new managers Jeremy and Steve. After the tour and introductions, they whisked me into a meeting room. It was here I decided to ask the question I had been curious about since the placement was offered.
“Why did you choose me?”
Sitting across the table, I waited. Would they say it was my professional appearance? The quality of my answers? My knowledge of business studies? My interest in product marketing? With heightened levels of active listening, I sat in silence.
Their answer was none of the above.
“Jamie, your story about 28 bags of sprouts is why you are here.”
- Jeremy & Steve, Toshiba 2000
During the interview they had asked what I was most proud of. I find a question like that super powerful, it taps directly into your emotion and pride, and what comes next is a natural energy that doesn't need to be rehearsed. So I answered it. And without realising, I told a story that would change my life forever.
It was Christmas Eve 1998. I was working at the local greengrocer's in Ramsgate. The shop was crazy busy from 8am to 5pm. Baskets were being filled with many things, but one vegetable in particular, one that divides opinion, was top of everyone's list … Brussels sprouts.
They were flying off the shelves.
As we closed up that evening, I was overcome with curiosity. Sprouts in 1998 came in green netted bags, each holding around 10kg. I pulled all the empty bags from the yard bin and tallied them up.
I walked home, a thirty-second walk, bursting with pride. Not just because of the Christmas tip in my hand, but because I could not wait to tell my parents and brother the story about 28 bags of sprouts.
That story, told to Jeremy and Steve with passion and complete authenticity, was the reason they offered me the role. It allowed me to stand out, to connect, to influence them to choose me. If I hadn't told it, I wouldn't have got the job. And I wouldn't be here today.
The decision to tell that story … changed my life forever.
Stories. Change. Lives.
In a world being reshaped by AI, the deeply human ability to connect, inspire and tell stories is the most valuable skill there is. That has never been more true than it is right now.
Growing up by the sea
THE EARLY YEARS
Three schools, a paper round, Solent University, Clinton Cards in Southampton.
Years that had nothing to do with marketing on the surface, and everything to do with learning how to read a room, connect with people, build relationships, face adversity, and communicate in a way that gets a result.
The career that proved it
TOSHIBA | SAMSUNG | SODEXO | 20 YEARS
The sprouts story got me through the door at Toshiba.
What followed was twenty years inside global organisations, from product manager to European marketing at Samsung, to CMO and board director at Sodexo before the age of 32.
Through organisation redesigns, global brand launches, transformation programmes and real commercial pressure, the same truth kept surfacing.
“Communication between people is the most valuable currency for impact and outcome. And the way to raise that value? … Storytelling.”
The move to purpose
After a decade at board level, something shifted. The decision to prioritise my long-lasting happiness, and ask what I actually wanted the next chapter to look like … led somewhere unexpected. The answer was always there in the sprouts story.
The thing that had opened every door across twenty years wasn't the strategy, the budget, or the title.
It was storytelling …
Where the story stands today
AUTHOR | SPEAKER | COACH | FRACTIONAL EXEC
A bestselling series of five books on storytelling, happiness and growth, for leaders, individuals and children. Speaking to audiences from Samsung to Santander on human connection in an AI world.
Coaching the leaders of today and tomorrow at every level. Working fractionally as an embedded senior leader inside the businesses that need it most.
And a monthly newsletter, The Allotment, reaching readers around the world with ideas that help people grow.
“It all started with 28 bags of sprouts. Stories change lives … and I know this, because one story changed mine.”
Where the story meets the work
Almost 30 years on from that Christmas Eve, the mission is the same, to help people and business grow … through the power of storytelling.
