From Chords to Chronicles: Digging Up Suffolk’s Secrets

For 17 years, my professional life has been dedicated to the Suffolk landscape. As the owner of a holiday cottage business, I’ve spent nearly two decades encouraging people to discover the beauty of our county. I didn’t want to just build my holiday cottage portfolio, I wanted to give people reasons to stay here.

Giving people reasons to stay in Suffolk. Is probably why we have more blog content than anybody else in the industry, with well in excess of 1,000 blog posts.

I’ve always known that to stay relevant in business, you have to adapt; in today’s world, that means being a prolific creator of video content.

As I’ve always had an interest in folklore and local history, a few months ago I decided to produce a few videos on these topics to boost the profile of my business and build trust with potential guests. The logic was purely commercial: give people a reason to choose my Barns, Barges & Cottages over a faceless hotel.

But then, something unexpected happened.

The Creative Pivot

To understand why this snowballed, you have to understand where I was coming from. For most of my life, my creative outlet was music. I spent years in bands, writing and performing, but life eventually had other plans. Osteoarthritis in my hands meant I had to put down the guitars.

I didn’t just lose a hobby; I lost the “studio” environment, which is that technical process of taking a raw idea and producing a finished piece of art. For a long time, that creative side of me was essentially on “mute.”

The Best of Both Worlds

What started as a calculated marketing strategy for my Holiday Cottages quickly became the creative outlet I had been missing. As I began digging into Suffolk’s legends (the Black Shuck, the ancient ruins, and the whispers in the marshes) I realised I wasn’t just “making content” for a business. I was songwriting again, just without the guitar.

I decided to combine my love for Suffolk’s history with my technical, albeit amateur, background in producing something. I wanted to see if I could blend the commercial need for visibility with my personal need to create. I didn’t expect it to explode but it has.

With a Little Help From My Friends

For years, I’ve been working with Andrew Laws, who I meet with every week on all things creative, digital and marketingy, and as the filming increased he’s also become my YouTube coach as he does a ton of it very well. We’ve always got one extremely well, possibly because he’s also a musician, and he has the ability and permission to be able to tell me when something is rubbish and how to do it better!

The Snowball Effect

The response has been, frankly, staggering. In just a couple of months, my YouTube and Social Media channels have grown hugely, with thousands of views and hundreds of comments. I’m struggling to keep up with answering them, much as I like to.

But the real “lightbulb moment” happens at the front doors of my Holiday Cottages. Guests are now arriving and telling me, “We’ve been watching your videos!” From a business perspective, that’s the “holy grail.” It means gaining trust and security with customers before they’ve even unpacked. From a personal perspective, it’s even better; it means these stories are resonating.

The Next Chapter

What began as a way to get more eyes on my business has evolved into discussions about a weekly radio segment, invites to talk at history clubs, and collaborations with authors. It turns out that by chasing a commercial goal, I accidentally found a way to bring my creative passions back to life.

Suffolk is a land of stories. I’m just glad I found a way to tell them.