Every Business Needs an Amy (Ours Just Happens to Be Lovely)

A few weeks ago, I introduced you to Amy Lovely. Military spouse. Mum. My PA. Beyond the CV Champion.

But now she's had a little while to settle into the madness that is JB Property Law, I thought it was time for a proper catch-up. Not a polished "meet the team" interview. I wanted to know what it's actually like working with us.

Is genuine flexibility really genuine? Can you build a career around military life and four children?

And, perhaps most importantly, does Amy regret answering that job advert yet? Thankfully, apparently not.

She applied for an admin job...

When Amy applied to JB Property Law, she thought she knew what she was getting. Another admin role.

She'd done admin before. She expected to come in and use the same skills she'd used in previous jobs. Except that isn't quite what happened.

"I was wrong! Joanne has given me so much more responsibility and opportunities and I am finally excited about where my career could go now. An actual career!"

That last bit got me. An actual career.

Because Amy hasn't suddenly become more capable since joining us. She was already capable. What she's had is an opportunity to actually show it.

Since joining, her role has already grown. She's managing our social media, helping build the Beyond the CV website and, next, she's going to start learning the admin side of conveyancing.

And apparently I'm partly responsible for something else too:

"I'm doing things that I never believed I would be able to do and not only has it given me new skills but also newfound confidence!"

This is exactly why I don't particularly like putting people in boxes. I employed Amy because I needed a PA. It turns out I got considerably more.

A typical day? Apparently we don't have those.

I asked Amy what a typical working day looks like. Her answer? There isn't one. Which sounds about right.

At the moment she could be working on social media, building a website, helping me with the business or preparing to start learning something completely new. And apparently she genuinely enjoys that.

Although there are, in her words, occasional:

"AARRGHHHH moments where I question if I can do it."

But then she gives it a go anyway.

Amy told me:

"I say yes to everything because no one has ever given me the opportunity before."

That sentence probably says more about why businesses need to look differently at recruitment than I ever could. How many people are sitting in jobs well below what they're capable of simply because nobody has ever said:

Go on then. Give it a try.

Then there's the flexibility

This is probably the part I wanted to ask Amy about most.

Lots of employers say they're flexible. Amy has experienced the version where "flexible" still means set hours, using annual leave to attend your child's school play and being expected at regular office meet-ups.

That isn't necessarily flexibility when you're part of a military family. Military life can change in an instant.

Amy's husband is currently an instructor for Phase 2 training. There are days away, nights working, early starts and late finishes. She can't simply assume he'll be available for school pick-ups, childcare or everything else that comes with raising a family.

And that's before you even get to postings, deployments and solo parenting. So what difference has genuine flexibility made?

In Amy's words:

"The real flexibility of this job has genuinely been life changing. I feel like I can juggle everything without compromise. I still work hard, be a present mum and a supportive military wife."

And this is the bit businesses need to understand. Flexibility doesn't mean Amy works less.

It means sometimes she works while the girls are at school or nursery. Sometimes she picks something back up once they're in bed. Sometimes work fits around swimming lessons.

It means she doesn't have what she described as that "sheer panic" of wondering how on earth she's going to make everything work.

She's still doing the work. I'm still running a business. Our clients are still looked after. The world has not fallen apart because somebody did some work at 8pm instead of 3pm. Who knew?

"Military life has thrown us a curveball."

I also asked Amy whether she feels she can say those words to me without worrying about how I'll react.

Her answer was: "Without a doubt."

And I think that's important.

I understand military life. I know plans change. I know solo parenting happens. I know sometimes the Army has other ideas for the family diary. I also know that if Amy moves, she moves.

It doesn't suddenly make her less talented. It doesn't change her work ethic. It doesn't erase everything she knows.

In fact, Amy said something about this that I absolutely love:

"She knows that if I move then I move, but my work ethic never wavers, that if I am solo parenting that I still work hard and show up."

That's it.

That's the difference between accommodating a military spouse and actually understanding one.

Before JB Property Law, Amy had almost accepted that a career would have to wait

This was the part of Amy's answers that really struck me.

Because her CV could easily have been misunderstood. Different locations. Different jobs. Starting and stopping. Admin roles despite previously being a manager.

But there's a story behind those lines.

At one posting, Amy secured a job before the family even moved. Then she discovered there were no nursery places available for her two youngest children. She had to give up the job before she'd even started it.

She's been asked by employers how long she would be staying in an area and where the family would be moving next. Other applications simply went unanswered.

And eventually she reached the point where she thought she'd have to settle for a job that simply worked, rather than building a career, until her girls were much older.

Read that again.

Not because she wasn't ambitious. Not because she wasn't capable. Because the traditional working world didn't fit the life she was living.

Today, she describes herself very differently:

"I have never felt more determined, driven, motivated and confident than I do now."

That's what opportunity can do.

And yes, somewhere in all this I had another idea...

Of course, this wouldn't be JB Property Law if I hadn't subsequently announced:

"Amy... I've had an idea."

And that idea became Beyond the CV.

Amy thought it might be a small additional project alongside her admin work. Then I mentioned a website. Then meetings. Then companies started becoming interested. Then I mentioned a podcast.

Apparently that's when Amy went home and told her husband:

"This is going to take off."

She's now our Beyond the CV Champion and, importantly, she's able to bring her own experience into what we're building.

Because she knows exactly what it feels like to look at your own CV and worry that the gaps, moves and lack of progression are all an employer will see.

As Amy puts it:

"Behind every postcode change we were there re-building a life for a family."

That's Beyond the CV in one sentence.

But it's only one part of Amy's role here. And perhaps the most powerful evidence for everything we're talking about isn't the campaign at all.

It's Amy herself.

Because she nearly didn't apply

This blew my mind.

Amy's application for JB Property Law was a last-minute decision. She nearly didn't send it. She thought:

"I won't get it. This is too good to be true."

Imagine if she'd listened to herself. I wouldn't have my PA. We wouldn't have Amy running our social media. She wouldn't be preparing to learn conveyancing. Beyond the CV wouldn't have Amy's voice helping shape it.

And Amy says she would have missed:

"The chance to build a career and really go far... the chance to be a mum, wife and an asset to a team. I would have missed out on a whole new future!"

When I recruited her, I didn't just look at her previous job titles and how often she'd moved. I spoke to her. I got to know her. I listened. And I saw something.

Every business needs an Amy

I started this business doing far too much myself. Eventually I realised I needed help. I thought I needed an admin assistant. What I actually needed was an Amy.

Someone who can keep me vaguely organised. Someone who will listen to my latest ridiculous idea and, rather than immediately running for the hills, usually says, "Right, how are we doing this then?"

Someone who has ideas of her own. Someone I can trust. Someone who wants to learn. Someone who cares about what we're building. And someone who has grown in confidence because she's finally been given the room to show what she's capable of.

So yes. Every business needs an Amy.

I was just particularly lucky that mine happens to be as Lovely as her name.

And when I asked her one final question. Knowing everything she knows now, would she still have applied? this was her answer:

"I would apply for this job over and over again every time! It actually makes me emotional how much of an impact this opportunity has had on me. It has changed me, it has allowed me to grow, allowed me to dream."

Well, Amy. That makes two of us emotional.

And for the record, we're only just getting started.