Putting Down Roots In Greenville During A Pandemic – Opinion piece

Many of us remember (and always will) March 16, 2020 as the day the world started to shut down. For me and my family, it was particularly memorable – it was when we uprooted our family in the UK and moved to South Carolina the day before it all happened.

The context

My husband Spencer and I were asked to consider relocating to Greenville in December 2019 with his employer, shortly after they had acquired the company that Spencer was Chief Technology Officer for in the UK. We had never really heard of the Carolinas, but a quick internet search captured our interest which then led to Spencer visiting and scouting the area out. A dinner at Jianna’s and seeing the waterfalls downtown area and he new we’d like it. So that was it. Decision made. With our then 2.5 year old (Bodhi) and 6 month old (Sonny), we decided to go for the new adventure. This was all before even a whisper of the dreaded C word.

We originally planned to move March 30, 2020 but once the word about COVID-19 started to spread in February 2022 we quickly rescheduled flights (not once but twice) to an earlier date, left our home in the UK to be packed, and flew to Greenville landing on Sunday March 15, 2020. Walking through the Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta was a surreal experience. An airport that was so often busy and bustling, was almost empty.

The journey

After quarantining in their new rental house in the Hartness neighborhood (near to the Pelham Road) and getting their feet settled in, I knew I had to get back to doing what I loved. I had spent many years learning my craft in PR, social media and digital marketing, from working at Dyson (the British vacuum cleaner company) and knew I wanted to continue helping businesses grow and scale in this space. But where to start, was the first question.

In July 2020, I started freelancing for Greenville based company Find Great People and implemented a brand refresh, along with launching a new website. From this, the ball started rolling and Bodhi and Co. came to life.

Settling on new soil

Like many families, I knew in order to settle and put down roots in Greenville, I needed to find a job she loved doing. After freelancing, I soon realized that there are a lot of organizations and growing brands that don’t always quite have the need or budget for a CMO / VP of marketing type role. However, they might need some strategic thinking for a specific project, or a clever way to communicate to their customers. And that’s where we step in.

The inspiration behind the name comes from my oldest son’s name Bodhi, which means enlightenment and free from ego and anger. I did also set up Sonny as a URL (my other son) so watch this space on this one!

My favorite thing about it? All of the companies and brands that we work with have a real sense of purpose. Whether that’s through sustainable practices, giving-back to the community, or improving other people’s quality of life, it makes our work that much more exciting and meaningful.

Why work with us?

Bodhi & Co. has a different approach to marketing, as we offer a few different ways of working with us. Clients can work on a retained basis, where we allocate time to set number of services and we can shift and pivot our focus if needed or we can work on a project basis, where we have a specific end goal, timeline and fixed one-time cost. By offering these options, we hope to make things more attainable for start-ups, scale-ups and nonprofit organizations who could really benefit from a strategic marketing boost. If you think we can help you, do get in touch dani@wearebodhiandco.com