Lockdown date leads to new business launch for entrepreneurial pair

An acclaimed former lighting designer and a life coach who started dating during the pandemic are turning their relationship into a new business to be launched later this month

Matt Clutterham and Jenny Jarvis came together on a socially distanced date during lockdown in November 2020.

Now they are joining forces in business with a new venture aiming to give company leaders the ability to make more positive impact on the world as well as their profit margins.

Clutterham’s work as a lighting designer has seen him work on starry West End productions such as Starlight Express, light up a Stormzy gig on The Thames for EE, and create a hip lighting scheme for the GQ Man of the Year awards, plus hundreds of brand and product launches.

Jarvis is a neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) trained life coach helping clients design and live their best lives from her base in Melbourne. Her work has seen her transform clients’ relationships with people, business, money, families and themselves. She credits the lessons and tools she has learned through coaching in helping her get through big life changes and hurdles such as divorce, post-natal depression and neurodiverse parenting.

Now the pair are launching a new venture – Q Branch Consulting, a “brand and transformation” consultancy.

The couple, who believe their business proposition is unique in the UK, are holding a launch event at Amalfi White in Melbourne on February 28.

Jarvis said: “Matt and I are very excited to be launching Q Branch Consulting and we couldn’t hope for a more beautiful setting to hold our opening event than the stunning ballroom at Amalfi White in Melbourne.

“Our own relationship started with a socially distanced date – a walk around Melbourne Pool – and now we aim to use our combined expertise spanning the fields of business, theatrical storytelling, global brand experience and personal development to help business leaders grow and transform powerful brands and teams.”

The company name draws inspiration from James Bond, with Q Branch famously the department responsible for empowering missions with the tools and resources needed for success. But “Q” also stands for “questions” – something the pair say they are passionate about.

Clutterham said: “Successful business is all about relationships – running a business is very much like dating in many ways. The goal of every brand should be to develop and nurture long term passionate relationships with all of its stakeholders.”

Clutterham has been trained and mentored by some of the leading names in the field and has honed his skills over 20 years of working with brands all over the world on their live experience and lighting.

“My life in lighting has really informed my work as a brand strategist, which has led on to launching Q Branch Consulting with Jenny,” he said.

“In lighting, whether it’s a classical play in London or the launch of a new product to the global press, our mission is the same: we must focus the audience’s attention right where we want it to be, we must tell a bold and compelling story that emotionally connects people to the narrative, we must then re-enforce all of this with a strategically designed experience that will leave a lasting legacy. These are all of the same tools and neuroscience that take bland and failing brands and cultures and make them magical.

“Jenny’s integration into my brand building and transformation projects was a game changer. Her work in values and decision-making has been pivotal in aligning our clients’ strategies with their core beliefs.

“Her acute observational skills have been pivotal in pointing out the incongruence between a team’s words and their body language, for example.

“This is how we can both work to uncover a team’s genuine beliefs, which are the bedrock of any sustainable strategy.”

Q Branch Consulting has a main office in Pride Park, Derby, and a second location in central London.