As the night got closer, my mum found me a hat to help keep my head warm.
I've been running businesses, standing on stages and coaching people for a long time now. It doesn't matter. When it's cold outside, you're still somebody's son, and your mum still wants you to wrap up warm.
The hat was for Sleep Out for Centrepoint. I do a lot of work with people in lettings and estate agency. The then president of NAEA Propertymark had asked if I'd join a team of Propertymark members and suppliers taking part, and I said yes.
Then I thought about it.
A night in November. Outside. Sleeping in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London.
It was going to be cold. It was going to be uncomfortable. And it was all for an amazing cause.
Sleep Out raises money to help change the story for thousands of homeless 16 to 25 year olds in the UK.
That age range stopped me. Sixteen to twenty-five is when most of us were working out who we were. Leaving school. First jobs. Messing things up and having somewhere to go home to while we sorted ourselves out.
Take away the somewhere to go home to, and everything gets harder. Finding work. Staying in education. Staying safe. Centrepoint exists to give young people that somewhere, and the support to get back on their feet.
I want to be really clear about something. Spending one night outside doesn't mean I understand what being homeless is like. I'd have a sleeping bag, a team around me and a warm home to go back to in the morning.
A sleep out is there to raise money and attention for the people who don't get to go home in the morning. If a few of us being cold for one night helps get more young people off the streets for good, that's a very good trade.
And then it was done. One cold, uncomfortable night in the Olympic Park, with a group of people from across the property world who had all decided to show up for the same reason.
I'm not going to pretend one night taught me everything. But I did keep thinking about how many young people were outside that same night, with no team, no sponsorship page and no end time.
Thank you to everyone who sponsored me, shared the page or sent a kind message. Every donation went to a charity doing work that really matters. If you've never looked at what Centrepoint does, have a look.
