Hello Lovely

My Story

I started out as a probation officer. Yep. Before any of this, I was working in the criminal justice system. And it was working with young offenders that lit something up in me. I could see that the system wasn't reaching them, These lad hated talking to professionals and developed a shut down style or giving the most minimal answers to questions. So I started using something different. Music. Rap lyrics. Creativity.

I created a Rap Therapy programme in prisons with young offenders. It had real impact. So much so, I won an award for it. That was a turning point. I realised this was what I was supposed to be doing, not pushing paper in an office, but using art and culture to change lives. So I made the leap. I became a community artist. And I haven't looked back since.

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This was back when Community Interest Companies were still new. There was barely anything online about them. No courses, no guides, no YouTube videos walking you through it. Just dry government pages and confused accountants who didn't fully understand them either.

So I did what I had to do. I figured it out myself.

I set up 4Elementz CIC, and what followed was ten of the most educational years of my life. Educational in the best and hardest ways possible.

The wins were real. Lottery Community Fund funded every single year for 10 years. Arts Council England funded for 7 years. Children in Need funded for 6 years. Heritage lottery grants. Plus police funding, council funding, and more. Around £250,000 over ten years. £70k in the last year before I decided to close it. 

I used a grant to design specialist courses for prisons. Then I sold those courses to three prisons and donated them to two youth offender institutions. The work made it back into the very system I started in, but this time on my terms.

We got buildings to renovate. We hosted exhibitions. We published books. Having a CIC took what I was doing as an artist and gave it structure, credibility, and reach. It massively boosted my portfolio and opened doors I never expected.

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But I also made mistakes. Big ones.

Here's the part most people leave out. Not me.

I fell out with a close friend who was my director. That was painful and messy. When you mix friendship and business without the right foundations in place, it can go wrong and it did.

I missed tax deadlines. Not because I was careless, but because nobody tells you what you're supposed to be doing! There's no welcome pack when you start a CIC. No checklist that says here's what HMRC expects from you and when. I didn't know what I didn't know.

I also didn't understand how to evaluate my projects properly or collect the right evidence for funders. That came back to bite me hard at audit. Funders don't just want the impact, they want the proof. I learned that the stressful way.

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I changed my mind like the wind! I'm very ADHD and I get so many ideas for community projects. At one time I opened 3 different CIC's doing totally different missions then realised that was a nightmare to manage. So closed them. It's easy to get carried away when you really love it. I learned to focus on one CIC and choose a mission that really aligned with my passions. That is now my current CIC Oberi Art. Link and info to that is below. 

These weren't failures. They were lessons. They developed my own CIC's to what is now the perfect model that runs like a dream. This is the model I now teach. And every single one of the fails built the support system I now give to my students so they don't have to go through what I went through.

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CIC Tribe started by accident. Honestly? I didn't plan any of this.

I was just really good at getting funding. And people started noticing. The questions kept coming, how do you do it? How do I start a CIC? Can you help me?

So I looked at what information was already out there. And it was awful. Dry. Jargon-heavy. Accountants giving technical breakdowns with zero warmth, zero real-world context, zero talking to people straight. Nobody was saying it how it actually is.

So I did it myself. I created my flagship course, started a YouTube channel — and it blew up.

Four years later, I have posted every single week on YouTube. Every. Single. Week. That consistency is how you build real trust.

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The impact so far? Over 1,000 courses sold. Over £50 million in grants secured by my students. Most get their first £20,000 in funding within 4 months. Some have hit £100,000 in a single year.

Community organisations making real change; schools, youth clubs, mental health projects, arts initiatives, women's groups — all funded and running because someone took the course and went for it.

That's what gets me out of bed every morning.​

I'm telling you all of this because I want you to know exactly who you're dealing with. Not a polished brand. Not a guru who's never made mistakes. A real person who started from scratch, figured it out the hard way, got extraordinary results, made some proper messes along the way, and built something solid because of all of it.

The mistakes I made are the exact reason the support I offer is so thorough. I've been where you are. And I know how to get you where you want to go.

Watch this video above and see the evidence for yourself. Then head over to the Reviews and Social Proof page and hear from the people who've done it.

Welcome to CIC Tribe!

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