07/04/2026
Today is my birthday :)
And I know a lot of you will agree with me that, as birthdays come and go as you get older, those birthdays seem to mean less.
Especially with kids - everything is aimed at them.
Truthfully, this year, I didn't want to celebrate.
Even more truthfully, I felt I didn't deserve it this year.
Whilst there have been amazing things over the last year that are worth celebrating, we definitely pivoted at the end of 2025. And as with everything, not all of it went to plan.
In 2025 I celebrated speaking on more stages than ever before.
Including my first speaking gigs outside of the UK/Ireland as I debuted in the USA and India, with more coming very soon (which I will let you know about shortly!).
I always see my birthday as the end of one business year anyway - our company was founded in May, so April always felt like the "planning" month.
But I was in a bad place at the start of this year, and I don't mind saying it.
Business ownership can be a lonely place at times, despite having amazing people around me.
"Pressure is a privilege" was a sentence that rung true recently.
So, as the talk of "birthday" started a few weeks ago, I didn't feel like I wanted to acknowledge it at all.
In reality, I expected that to continue into this week.
But something shifted last week.
My mindset realigned with where it should be.
That "voice" telling me I wasn't good enough, I wasn't worthy of any celebration, was silenced for a while. And clarity shone through.
I remembered 2 things:
1. I am really good at what I do, and have helped countless businesses to see their customer journey completely differently.
2. Mindset is everything. Working on how I view a problem is half the battle to solving the problem itself.
These things I can focus on.
So, not long after we were talking birthday, I relaunched my in-person training days.
These days are a lot of effort to put on. They cost a decent amount as we don't have a physical premises.
They take time, and energy. Time because I live in Armagh and the days are usually better hosted in mainland UK, and energy because I give my all to training that entire day.
But the response has been incredible.
Within a matter of days, 85% of the spaces on the first date were reserved. At the time of writing this email, I have 3 spaces left for the first date.
A real reminder of why I do this - to help businesses grow at scale with WhatsApp.
It prompted us to launch 2 more dates, in 2 more cities. You'll now see us in Birmingham, London and Manchester in the next 4 months.
I could focus on the challenges, or I could see the positives. The positives that we only have 3 spaces left for Birmingham. The positive that 25% of tickets are reserved for London despite us not promoting it yet!
And whilst I don't always get it right, I know that the positive way of looking at it, is always going to be the best way to progress.
PS. If you wanted to join me at one of the next in-person training days, you can join the waitlist below: https://masterclass.chris-dillon.com/waitlist
