2025 was a big year for myself, Chris Naylor, and Bnode - the Huddersfield-based ethical digital marketing agency and training provider.

What have I learnt over the last 12 months or so - both personally, and in business? Read on to find out…

1) Early on in the year I learnt the importance of changing your phone biometrics for your face if you dye your hair (more on that later) BEFORE trying to pay someone new via a banking app 🙃

2) Back in July I learnt that the weather wasn’t the only thing that was HOT - I was too! 🔥 At least, according to a flyer from West Yorkshire's Halifax Opportunities Trust and the Elsie Whiteley Innovation Centre, anyway. 😊

3) I also learnt to my cost not to skip putting sun cream on your extremities, even in the Lake District… ☀️ OUCH!!!

4) I found out that not only are business cards still a thing but braille business cards are a thing - because visually impaired people attend networking events too...👩🏻‍🦯

5) I learnt the hard way that not everyone appreciates or finds funny my habit of playing around with much-loved songs… It's one of my neurodiverse quirks, but apologies to my friends who found it irritating and annoying - sorry guys. 😬 

6) Back in August I learnt that I’m actually a human chameleon, when what I was wearing exactly matched the decor and furniture in the new Daphne Steel Building at the University of Huddersfield’s National Health Innovation Campus! 🦎

7) I was pleasantly surprised and humble to learn that myself and Bnode had been nominated for and actually won two awards - Ethical Tech Business Leader of the Year 2025 and the Innovation Award for Sustainable Digital Marketing Services 2025. I still don’t know who made the nominations, but I massively appreciated it, so big thanks - whoever you are! 🌟 

8) I learnt that you have to be careful with home hair dye, after an epic blonde hair dye fail and my efforts to fix it ended up turning my hair ginger! Yes, it did happen, and yes, there is a photo of it… 👨🏻‍🦰 Any resemblance to Angry Ginge is purely coincidental...

9) Posting about GP’s Online Appointment Booking system back in October led to an accusation of “manufactured outrage” but boy did it get a lot of traction and engagement! 150 Comments - some supportive, and some not so much. By the way, there was nothing artificial or manufactured about me calling this out - I was genuinely dubious about how accessible the system would be and still am… 😡 

10) Also in October, I enlisted the help of my LinkedIn friends and connections when I tried to find out who the mystery sender of an unsolicited but much appreciated and very tasty bag of jelly sweets was… I’m still none the wiser, but I certainly enjoyed the sweets, so thanks, whoever you are - you’re the best! 🍬

11) I learnt that good things come to those who wait, especially as far as a promised but much delayed client testimonial was concerned… 🧘 Better late than never...

12) I was well chuffed when I found out that I'd been selected as one of the few people to sit on the Advisory Board for Leeds Trinity University's School of Computer Science. 🖥️ An accolade and real honour...

13) I learnt that I'm a good loser when Flat Stan First Aid Limited pipped Bnode to the Mid Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce Diversity and Inclusion award. The work they do is really amazing and they're very valid and deserving winners. 🎖 It was great to be nominated anyway, and have a night out with the Mid Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce and fellow nominees and award winners.

14) In November, I found out that myself and Bnode had been featured in the Good Business Charter's national email and newspaper publicity campaign to promote businesses and organisations that hold GBC Accreditation and raise awareness of the great work that the Good Business Charter does. 🌟 Bnode's logo was there along with other businesses and organisations of all sizes and sectors, including other Yorkshire-based ones, in full-page ads taken out in The Guardian, The Times and The Telegraph. You can read a longer news article about it on here, in the GB Shared News for Yorkshire.

15) And finally, I learnt to overcome my reticence about discussing - and discomfort over thinking about - putting my prices up. I reflected on why it’s OK for my vehicle insurer, streaming service providers, broadband and mobile phone providers etc. to put their prices up annually but not OK for me and my business to do so, and came to the conclusion that yes - it’s absolutely OK for me to do it. 💷 Maybe you can empathise with that yourself? 

Many of the 15 things I've learnt relate to LinkedIn Posts I made over the course of 2025, so take a look at them and send me a Connection Request if we aren't already connected. 

Don't forget the GB Shared Introductions function too.

Image description: a photo of Bnode's Chris Naylor with short but styled ginger hair.