Harrison

Despite my post-secondary education in the States, I was eager to return home not long after my studies were complete. Although I did play football at a semi- professional level in Alabama for bit after I graduated, it didn't take me long to return to Hartlepool, which I did in 2018.

I had another job lined up in the States. But I'd had enough. Hartlepool people - we get taken away, but we always get drawn back here. It's very rare that you leave and you leave for good.

My first job when I got back was for an ALDI supermarket. I entered the job through a graduate scheme they were running at the time. It was 60 to 70-hour weeks, running different stores. It was a lot to take on. I also figured out that retail wasn't for me. I suppose that job put me in the economically fortunate enough position to be able to take a step back and ask myself what I really wanted to do with my life.

Covid strangely helped this along. It sort of forced a rethink because of the lockdowns. I became a development manager for an insurance company at that stage. Because of lockdown, I had a great deal of time on my own to think. That's how I stumbled into my current role as my own boss. I have been a financial advisor on his own terms since July 2021, with a client list of around 100 people.

The vast majority of my business, I don't really do it in Hartlepool, despite being based here. Maybe 20% of my client base is local. That's a big part of what's great about a digital economy - you can be based anywhere in so many sectors.

Being solid in my work life, I now have the space to help those less fortunate than myself through charity work. This year, I did a golf day for a local charity. Reached out to them November time last year to see if I could do anything. We got to chatting and I suggested a golf day as they hadn't held one actually in the town, and I had a few ideas around how to do it effectively. I went ahead with it and we got a great turnout. We're talking about doing it as a yearly thing now.

Most coastal towns in England are just a mirror image of each other. Hartlepool is getting a little more infrastructure these days, but it still has a lot of the same problems that other coastal communities are facing. Having said that, the people of Hartlepool are the people of Hartlepool. I'm glad to be a local entrepreneur.