How a B2B Brief Saved My Life.

Two weeks ago, I woke up with a stabbing pain in my stomach.

As any classically trained hypochondriac would, I Googled my symptoms.

After seconds of scrolling, it became clear that I was dying.

The only mystery left was how. I was spoiled for choice based on my symptoms.

Oddly, I wasn’t panicking. I actually felt quite zen about it all. Pete’s meditations were paying off.

This inner peace did not come from my doctor saying my kidney/liver/pancreas/spleen were all “probably fine.”

No. I refused to believe that.

It  was watching the teams at SCA dissect a B2B brief for Cummins, a company that makes engines. Appropriate timing given the state of my own engine.

Whilst I was working on a separate Somersby brief, while battling my mystery illness, I had the creeping suspicion that I should also be able to crack the B2B puzzle.
I couldn’t.

The frustration was fucking me off.

Faced with death I was already pretty busy replaying my personal failings, mentally drafting several apologies, and trying to figure out how to repair my relationship with my dad (thank you, John Lewis, for the reminder).

I didn't need an additional failing on top of this. At that point, I genuinely wasn’t sure which hell sounded worse: the one I was currently living, or the one potentially waiting for me.

(Although I did buy my dad a record for Christmas, so if I died after that, I’d be haunting the shit out of John Lewis.)

But while I was overthinking everything, the cohort changed my entire perspective by doing something I couldn't:

They made B2B fun.

If you don’t believe me, go talk to Leo and Kojo about Iron Van, Jamie and Theresa about turning Cummins into a Michelin-star experience, or Nick and Ore about a fleet of hologram trucks.

Somewhere in all that chaos, something landed.

B2B didn’t feel like it had to be sensible. It felt playful. Silly. Alive.

And so, weirdly, did I.

When I went back to the doctor this week, he told me I was completely fine. Not dying at all.

Which means one of two things:

1. I should probably stop Googling symptoms.
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2. My cohort genuinely might have saved my life.

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