Patrick founded Adapt in 2015 & operated the business without external support for over 5 years.

But when the pandemic hit in 2020, Adapt, alongside a whole host of other agencies, found the going pretty tough.

Towards the end of that year, Patrick decided to look for advice on how to get Adapt back on a growth path. And having known Matt for a number of years as agency-owner peers, a conversation started on how they might more closely collaborate to take Adapt to the next level.

Patrick began work with And Then The World late in 2020, and by the New Year, it had become evident that there would be some difficult decisions ahead. 

Adapt had handled a lot of what the pandemic had thrown at all agencies, but it was inescapable that Covid had changed the environment dramatically.

Meeting every fortnight, and holding frequent discussions outside of those core sessions, Patrick, Matt & Stacey began to tackle the root causes of Adapt’s challenges, including:

- Reassessing the team’s billable / non-billable staff split
- Setting a path for reducing reliance on Patrick himself
- Increasing financial awareness & accountability
- Focusing on the key concept that the business should work for Patrick, not him for it

These were not always easy discussions for Patrick, or indeed for the And Then The World team, and there were some painful moments for all involved along the way. 

But Patrick stayed the course, knowing that he had set a positive direction of travel for Adapt, even when the inevitable short-term reverses occurred.