A quick hello from the new Sanctus George
Hey Sanctus gang!
I’m joining the team as George №2, and into the role of Partner Development. I’ve had a pretty varied career history so I won’t say that I’ve taken a straight path here, but I feel like everything I’ve been doing over the last few years has been working towards this. (Thanks, hindsight!)
As I’m sure is the case with anyone reading this, I’ve had my own past struggles with my mental health. I was previously in a sales job, and I was topping the billing figures, winning awards and being featured in national magazines. But, while on the outside I was “killing it”, the reality was that I was crying in the toilets and then hiding behind a fake smile out on the office floor. Of course, this wasn’t sustainable.
My journey was at least doubled in length due to a lack of awareness, knowledge and conversation, and also because of a huge feeling of shame & stigma that I carried around with me. Once I recovered, I felt I needed to do my bit to change this for others.
That’s how I came across the mental health heroes at Sanctus. I told them over a year ago that I wanted to work here, so in what feels like the world’s longest job interview, I’m glad I can now make it Facebook official.
Day-to-day I’ll be building relationships with the current community of awesome partners, as well as with the new partners that come through our doors. One thing that really attracted me to this was that Sanctus hasn’t been built on blagging or bravado.
It gives me the opportunity to ingrain myself in businesses, without the pressure of faking it just to get a sale. I was once told I was too nice and too honest for sales (thanks, I guess), but it’s just those personality traits that Sanctus is built on. The “non-salesy sales”, combined with my own personal experiences and desire to make a real difference, is what I want to bring here.
While I’ll be working with the partners, I like to see myself as a representative of their employees, and a voice of what can happen when mental health isn’t handled in the right way.
Having been a part of the conversation around mental health for the last few years, I’ve seen first-hand a dramatic shift in the number of people becoming more open and positive. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but I’ve got no doubt that we’ll get there.
I’d love to think that soon we’ll be working with a global community of partners doing the right thing for their employees, but for now I’m looking forward to focusing on the short term.
Can’t wait to meet you all over the coming months, and if you fancy saying a quick “hey” you can reach me at george.bell@sanctus.io x