It’s been a big few months at NGNY—full of deep reflection, restructuring, and re-commitment to how we want to lead, deliver, and partner with our clients and communities.

This is the first in a new series of retrospectives I’ll be sharing. Each one is a chance to step back from the day-to-day and share a more personal, behind-the-scenes view of what’s happening across the business.

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A Personal Shift: Embracing Solo Leadership

One of the biggest mindset shifts for me over the past few months has been acknowledging the weight and reality of solo leadership.

For most of my career, I’ve built businesses in partnership with others—Liam and I co-founded NGNY over a decade ago and have worked side-by-side on so many foundational decisions. But in the past two years, since Liam stepped away from the day-to-day to focus on Indigitek (and relocated to Berlin), I’ve increasingly found myself leading the business operationally on my own.

It’s something I felt, but not something I’d fully owned—until recently.

That shift in mindset has been significant. The day-to-day decisions, the pressure, the momentum (or lack of it)—it sits with me. Liam is still involved in a strategic capacity, and his input remains incredibly valuable. But on the operational front, it’s clear: this part is mine to carry.

What’s changed is my willingness to stand in that. I’ve started to reframe what this kind of leadership looks like—less about doing everything myself, more about owning the direction, trusting the team, and making the space to grow into the next version of the business. And I’m grateful to have strong people around me helping reflect, guide, and challenge me along the way.

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Restructuring: Letting Go of Our GM

With that shift has come hard decisions—including parting ways with our General Manager.

This wasn’t driven by performance issues—it was a strategic call about how best to structure NGNY for where we’re at. We’ve stabilised a lot in the past couple of years. And in that stability, I saw an opportunity to return to a flatter structure—one that’s more aligned with our team culture and the kind of leadership I just described.

We’ve got depth in the team. We’ve got experience. We’ve got clarity. So now it’s about leaning into that—removing unnecessary layers, increasing shared accountability, and fostering a culture where everyone’s bringing leadership to their role.

It wasn’t an easy decision. But it was the right one.

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Rebuilding Client Support + Maintenance as a True Service

Another shift we’ve been working on quietly but deliberately is how we deliver website support and maintenance.

We’re moving away from being a technical safety net and toward being a strategic digital partner. That means rethinking our onboarding process, our value proposition, and the rhythm of how we stay in touch with clients.

We’ve now built an interactive onboarding process in Miro that helps us map out the next 12 months with each client: what’s happening in their organisation, what the website needs to do to support that, and what features are “must-haves” versus “nice-to-haves.” From there, we can proactively support feature development, align around timelines, and bring real clarity to what a partnership looks like.

Ultimately, we want to move beyond “set and forget.” We’re aiming for long-term alignment—helping organisations see their website as a living part of their work, not just a static asset.

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Hosting Challenges + Rebuilding Trust

Of course, not everything has been smooth sailing. One of the harder realities these past few months has been the fallout from infrastructure issues in our hosting environment.

We’ve had technical challenges that led to performance issues—and in some cases, to client losses. That’s hard to stomach. These aren’t just clients to us; they’re people and organisations we believe in. And when the infrastructure doesn’t hold up, I feel like I’ve personally let them down.

It also revealed something deeper: we haven’t been proactive enough. For some clients, they hadn’t heard from us in months. When something went wrong, we weren’t top of mind—not as partners, not even as providers. That silence hurt us more than we realised.

So we’re fixing it. We’re investing in more structured account management, clear communication rhythms, and stronger value delivery—especially for our hosting and security clients. We know we can do better, and we’re committed to rebuilding that trust.

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New Projects, New Energy

Even with the challenges of the past few months, we’ve had some fantastic new partnerships come through that are helping shape the next chapter.

• Vision 2020 Australia – We’re proud to be working with Vision 2020 Australia, the sole national peak body for the eye health and vision care sector. We’ve been engaged to deliver a new website that better reflects the breadth of their work, improves accessibility, and supports their mission to prevent avoidable blindness and improve vision care for all Australians.
  
• NAILSMA (North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance) – We’re also supporting NAILSMA through a brand refresh and new website presence. Their work in land and sea management across Northern Australia is long-standing and deeply connected to Country. It’s a privilege to walk alongside them as they continue that important work.
  

These kinds of projects bring real energy into the team—not just because of the creative and technical challenge, but because of the purpose that sits at their core. This is the kind of work we want to keep showing up for.

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Buledya Dinner Series – Brisbane & Adelaide

Finally, it’s been incredibly grounding to host the first two events in our second Buledya dinner series—this time focused on AI, data sovereignty, and the deep impact of emerging tech on First Nations peoples.

We kicked off in Brisbane with a group of 14, and the conversation was sharp, broad, and energising. In Adelaide, the energy was equally powerful. There’s something about sharing food and having real, off-the-record conversations that allows us to go deeper.

These dinners have become a vital part of how we think, how we listen, and how we evolve our work at Buledya. It’s shaping not only our thinking but also the way we show up as partners in digital, design, and strategy.

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Being a business owner isn’t for the fainthearted. These past few months have been full-on—but they’ve also brought clarity, deeper purpose, and a renewed sense of what matters most.

Thanks for reading.

— John