I began to have time to take on other challenges. I started making phone calls. Speaking to people. Reconnecting with contacts from “back in the day”. I began sending emails. Proposing collaborations. And that is how I began working with other clients.
My 2016 turnover tells beautiful stories. That year, I issued invoices with two, three and four zeros. I accepted everything. I did not question what lay behind the projects; I simply dived into them. I wanted to do. To have clients. To work. I wanted to gain existence. And I am very grateful to the people who believed in me, even in what I was unable to deliver for them.
Challenges such as the launch of the now-defunct Pure Relax boutique – with website, flyers, photography, copywriting, advertisements, newsletters, among other work – took place in 2016. Conversations began towards the end of that year regarding consultancy for the Cool Card group, including the creation of Prime Pass and work with the group’s other brands within the same loyalty platform concept. The very brief attempts to write copy for the Cars and Cars website also occurred that year. Initial discussions around the creation of the visual identity for Foz Clinic happened around that time as well. It was an intense, complex year, full of things happening.
The patterns I identify in those projects were these: the image of myself running from one side to the other – and failure in every case. If my first two clients had been a flop for various reasons, the new ones were so due to my lack of preparation (I was in a process of healing, as mentioned in the previous chapter, and perhaps that made me want it too much).
It is important to say that I do not know how to do anything at a technical level. I do not know how to film. I do not know how to draw. I do not know how to photograph. I do not know how to edit. I do not know how to code. I am, above all, a thinking being. I trained in communication. I know how to think. To plan. To project. To evaluate. To decide. To choose. To sense whether it is this way or that. To analyse. To research. To prepare. To sell. Among other qualities and knowledge I believe I possess – yet which, technically speaking, are of little or no use when we are talking about small-scale jobs. And I never wanted to do small things. I tried to solve each project here and there. With this person and that person. But never with anyone with whom I truly identified, connected, and integrated on an ongoing basis. These were jobs in which I negotiated fees. The cheaper, the better.
I did not have qualified people working with me. That year I did not yet know talent. I had no way of satisfying the needs of the clients I was gradually seducing. Today, I understand that in B16’s sector it is essential to work with talent. To have a portfolio of it: freelancers, artists, agencies, partners, solutions. Increasingly so. I see each collaborator as a visual artist. As talent. And, normally, the greater the talent, the greater the difficulty in working with it.
Surprisingly, 2016 brought with it one person: João Costa.
It was at the end of 2016 that I began working with him more closely. A game changer. I learned a great deal from João. He transformed my life from that point onwards. He fuelled what B16 would later become. He, Marcelo and I were already grey matter in full ebullition. We experienced unforgettable moments in that first B16 office. I keep them with deep affection. We both bodyboard. We both appreciate underground cultures such as skateboarding, graffiti, and music, among other themes. We share similar upbringings. In a way, we grew together.
And I, who thought I had a marketing and communication agency – believing I needed to wear a blazer and smart clothes lest the “evil eye” appear – realised that year that substance carries a force far beyond the formal value of packaging.
I, who thought I had a marketing and communication agency where formal frameworks, business models, diagnostics, analyses, figures, positioning, and target audiences were more important than the solution itself.
Even I, who thought I had a serious and formal marketing and communication agency, found myself playing with figurines, colouring with wax crayons, crumpling and gluing paper as I had done when I was a child.
It was with João that I learned to play again. Decades after cowboys and Indians, I invented characters, chose props, created settings, narratives, stories and endings. This time there were processes. It was serious. João taught me about framing. About conflict. About resolution. “Framing, conflict, resolution,” he would say. With Playmobil. With Lego. With all sorts of toys. We played seriously. We made sound effects with our mouths. Like in the films.
And those toys – little did I imagine – changed our lives.
Those toys, which at the time were few and today are many, changed the direction of B16 forever. Today we have hundreds of figurines stored, scattered and displayed in our zen garden, in our dojo, in our office, in our home. Some tell beautiful stories. Others were victims of murders, looting and destruction. Others were stolen through too much love. Others were gifted. Others simply hid somewhere. Out there.
João is special. Very.
He is sensitive, fragile and delicate.
He is funny, intelligent and captivating.
He is insecure, confused and troubled.
He is culture, knowledge, style and personality.
When he wants to be, João is company for every moment.
And there are days when João is an artist like few others.
From him come pieces, visions, projects that are absolutely innovative, genuine and artistic.
Over the ten years of B16, various states of mind have shaped our relationship. Regardless of all of them, I owe him a great deal. B16 owes him a great deal.
João was wind entering the house on a dry summer’s day.
He was a light, cool breeze that brought ideas, smiles and motivation.
To forget João would be to deny the success B16 enjoys today.
He was essential. Transformative.
He was company.
Epilogue / Conclusion / Postscript / Final Note of PART I
2016 marked the beginning of a professional path I had neither anticipated, planned nor imagined. It was a new moment. A new life. Something not idealised that ended up becoming a way of life that still shines today.
Starting a business is healthy. It can be driven by countless reasons: a way to earn money, to change one’s life, to change direction, to fulfil a dream, among many others. An opportunity. A mindset. So many things. In my specific case, it coincided with several factors at once: geographical, social, operational, structural, family-related, personal, among others.
Ten years later, I still remember:
Ricardo Nascimento in certain particular moments;
My Friend and Professor;
The disappointments that taught me so much during that period;
Faro and its people;
The people with whom I worked;
The mistakes I made;
The steps I took.
I remember myself in those days. And the first day at the Business Support Desk. We are different.
I am not afraid of work. I never have been. I never will be. I love what I do. I love the way I do it.
I am.
And although I am not able to capitalise on every opportunity that comes my way – because I am not driven by money – there are moments when causes draw the very best from me. I move mountains when I feel that way. If accompanied, I move continents.
The years that followed prove it.
B16’s path proves it.
The warrior I tattooed on my arm proves it.
If we act with love, with passion, with values, the results come.
In 2017, beautiful things arrived. It is the year of the next chapter.
