Mastering the art of learning, growing, changing and feeling good – with Charlie HillNovember 12, 2020

We’ve always described ourselves as mastering the art of real estate. What this means is that we’re constantly learning. We won’t ever wake up one morning and decide we know it all.

Recently, my brother, Patrick and I have been reflecting on why Charles Marlow exists.

We have always wanted to create a life that feels good for ourselves. Intrinsic to this has been and is the feeling that we’re enabling other people to feel good by finding their dream home on Mallorca or Ibiza, whether that is on holiday or more permanent. 

As the Charles Marlow team has grown, we’ve worked to create a business that feels good for everyone in it and their families. Today, we have an incredibly talented and caring team connected to each other’s lives in such a way that we’re attuned to the impact we have on each other.

We all take responsibility for what we contribute. We know that the choices we make outside of ‘work hours’ impact the business we’ve grown together.

The end result is that we feel good about what we do, which makes us even more capable of helping our clients feel good. But it goes beyond this.

Now that we’ve become one of the leading businesses that attract visitors to the Balearics, we’re asking ourselves: what is our responsibility to these people? And what is our responsibility to those who already call the islands home and have done so for many years?

The answer goes back to why Charles Marlow exists. We exist to make people feel good.

For us – the Charles Marlow team – feeling good used to simply be about arriving at a destination with a group of friends and indulging ourselves. Perhaps guzzling or bingeing on wine, for instance. It’s reasonable to say that this was the same for many people.

Today, I believe the islands deserve better and also that our clients want to contribute more. We know that if we help them feel good, they’re more likely to want to do good things.

This is why we work so hard to make people aware of the community they’re arriving into, why it feels special and who the people are who’ve helped make it what it is.

We connect people to local wine makers, for instance, so they can enjoy wine from the land that nurtures us all and begin to feel a true sense of belonging. Hand in hand with this, we emphasise to our clients that their contribution to the community, to the island, matters. Feeling good can then become about simple things like not being wasteful that grow into a commitment to protect and preserve the magic of Mallorca and Ibiza for everyone.

To achieve what we want to starts, for all of us, with taking care of ourselves and our families. Then, from there, the team we spend so much time working with, the local and international communities we’re in regular contact with, the islands we call home and the planet of which we’re guardians.

It’s taken us time to put structures in place, combining regular meetings with a respect for downtime to make sure that each team member can contribute to the Charles Marlow experience overall. 

We’ve listened, reflected, learned and grown and now we’re ready to start acting.

I’m now seeing why this new work is so vital. It is our contribution to creating a sense of momentum, a movement for good if you will. 

To be honest,  I’m constantly reminded that we’re not where we want to be yet. But I don’t have a problem with that. I know that, as we search with open hearts and minds, try to be better at making our clients feel good and live up to our broader responsibilities, we are growing in the right direction.

Thank you for all being a special part of the story so far. It feels good to be creating the next chapter with you.