Finding authenticity amidst the noise
How a tech innovator and entrepreneur harnessed courage to find more integration
What I’ve discovered after speaking to hundreds of creatives is that courage comes in different forms.
For Tom Parson—a tech innovator, musician and teacher—stepping up meant making a difficult decision to terminate the company he’d founded. On the inside, it meant recognising the separate aspects of his creativity are connected. In the end, creating from an integrated place is infinitely more powerful, both for the creator and the audience.
Here’s Tom’s journey to creative courage in his own words …
Amidst the noise
A few months ago, I stood at the edge of a difficult decision: whether or not to let go of the business I’d spent a decade building.
Huddle Digital was my first company. I started coding freelance as a teenager, and by my twenties, I’d co-founded a software agency that delivered intelligent, complex digital products for ambitious clients such as YMCA, the RAF and the GM Chamber of Commerce.
But by last year, the wheels were coming off - the industry was changing, finances were tight, and my health was suffering. I was feeling more and more disconnected from my creative self.
My co-founder and I decided to wind the business down in its current form, and let our team and many clients go.
That ending was painful.
But in the space that it created, I heard the start of something new.
Space to listen
What happened when I let go of what wasn’t working?
I started hearing the quieter sounds. Things that were always there, bubbling under the surface.
In recent years, I’d invested in new creative callings:
Teaching coding to beginners and watching their confidence bloom
Attending a music camp in the US and releasing tracks on streaming platforms
Attending a “30 Days of Art” challenge on Substack and falling in love with intuitive drawing
These weren’t just side projects - they were clues. Clues that I wanted my work to feel more alive. More authentic. More me.
I started thinking: what if my next business wasn’t just a job, but a container for the things I care about? The things that light me up?
Even better - what if it gave others the same kind of reconnection to purpose and creativity that I was rediscovering for myself?
That’s how Big Echo was born.
Democratising innovation
Big Echo is an innovation consultancy founded on 3 core principles:
Everyone can innovate - innovation isn’t just for Uber and Netflix
Co-creation is better - making things with people, not for them
Empowerment over dependency - giving teams the tools and confidence to keep innovating
Innovation isn’t just something that happens in labs or startups.
It is borne out of the process that’s never been questioned: the weekly report that nobody reads or understands but still gets sent anyway, the awkward customer journey everyone quietly tolerates…
Big Echo helps businesses to spot those moments and fix them, fast.
We enable clients to achieve 3 key outcomes using tech innovation:
Find alignment on the problem - before jumping in with tech (like a new app or AI solution) think: will this truly help us and our users?
Validate ideas quickly - rapidly build a prototype solution, get feedback early, and develop it into a launchable product.
Manage change effectively - ensure the new tech is loved by stakeholders and users, and stands the test of time.
The name ties into all three outcomes - echo as mirroring, echo as amplification, and echo as reverberations through time.
I also love using ‘Big’ instead of ‘Loud’ - a more childlike and uninhibited phrasing that’s intended to wink at our no-bad-ideas attitude to innovation.
My whole self
For a long time, I wore different masks in different rooms - shaping myself into what I thought people wanted to see. Professional here, creative there - never fully integrated. I’ve always admired people who can just show up as themselves, no matter the context.
Part of this came from being an insecure overachiever - driven to prove myself, but quietly convinced I was never quite enough. That mindset makes me very productive, but it’s also exhausting.
And it rarely leaves room for intuition and joy.
Big Echo is my way of choosing differently.
It’s work that’s technical and creative, fast and reflective, serious and playful. Built from both my strategy brain and my art brain. From years of client meetings and late-night jam sessions. From boardrooms and rehearsal rooms.
I’m finding ways to bring my music into my work - with psychoacoustic workshop soundscapes to promote creativity, focus and empathy.
It’s also a business built with boundaries - because I now know what burnout feels like. Now I choose authenticity over performance.
Go slow to go fast
I used to fall into the trap of all-or-nothing thinking.
A couple of years ago I completed the Second Nature weight loss programme, and one of the things they talk about is self-sabotage through an all or nothing mindset: “Well, I’ve had a chocolate digestive now - I might as well get a takeaway.”
I am definitely guilty of downplaying things that don’t achieve a big outcome. Believing that if it isn’t making an impressive impact, it doesn’t matter.
With Big Echo, I’m giving myself permission to start small, to test, to iterate. Just like I have done for clients for years. (Funny that…)
It’s taken time for me to unlearn the idea that you need to “have it all figured out” before showing up.
Creativity, after all, isn’t tidy. It’s messy, emotional, non-linear. Embracing that has been scary, but transformative.
A new kind of consultancy
Big Echo uses a Robin Hood business model - income from corporate clients funds innovation support for community organisations, charities, artists and small teams who can’t usually afford it.
It’s one way I’m trying to make innovation more accessible - and I have big plans for it!
I really believe that if we all felt a little more able to express ourselves at work, we’d build better products, happier teams, and more meaningful businesses.
We need creative workplaces. And we need to remember we’re all creative people.
Big Echo is my attempt to bring that to life.
A bit about Tom’s company, Big Echo
Big Echo offers SMEs fast, low-risk ways to define problems, test ideas & launch solutions. They deliver rapid sprints and inclusive workshops that get solutions moving in days, not months. We prototype ideas that test your assumptions quickly before you burn your budget. And we empower teams to embrace a tech-positive culture and learn how to keep innovating long after we’re gone.
What’s next in your creative journey?
As your guide into creative courage, I'm here to help you transform those invisible blocks—the fear and shame that live beneath the surface—so you can express authentically and freely.
Here's how I can support you:
Make an appointment for a virtual coffee (free). I hold 3-4 slots every month for a 20-minute chat so we can either get to know each other, or reconnect. This is for everyone! Perfect if you’re curious about meeting new people and making, or deepening, connections.
Book a 30-minute Creative Breakthrough call (free) to gently uncover the exact fear or limiting belief sabotaging your creative expression so you can finally share your work with confidence
Read my manifesto for creative courage (free). Follow my story in serial form about the core principles of my creativity, my journey into creative courage and why I founded Wordplay Coaching.
Creative Courage Circle: an ongoing intimate group for deep creative healing and mutual witnessing, so you can express authentically without feeling alone on your creative journey. Membership is by invitation only—please contact me to explore this option.
Bespoke 1:1 Creative Transformation journey based on the principle of finding your Essence process. This entails 6 months of personalised integration work to embrace your hidden aspects and create from your complete authentic power.