Getting to know me.

If you like to know the people you work with…

In 2010, I sort of fell into the website and content creation, and I’ve been happily entangled ever since. At that time I was self-employed as a workplace trainer and also volunteering for a community group called ‘Dads for Kids’. This charity’s web-guy had to leave, so an opportunity was birthed.

The boss asked me, “What do you know about administrating websites?”

After I answered, disappointment etch its way across his face. “I know the addresses start with dub-dub-dub,” was not the answer he had hoped for, but I sensed opportunity and quickly added, “But I learnt how to build and code databases a few years back, so I know I’m a good learner. I’m willing to have a go.”

Two weeks later, I had built my first website from the ground up.

As a result of that website I met the owner of a web design and hosting company. He eventually invited me to come and work with him, and he took the charity websites onto his books (still for free). Though I still love training, I closed my training business and focused my efforts entirely on the web.

Learning its complexities was frustrating at times, but when I moved into a design and strategy role, then learnt about SEO, content and copy creation, I knew I had found a space to excel in. Six years later, I made the decision to focus my services and professional growth on content, copy and research. These are undoubtedly the areas I most enjoy and am most appreciated for.

A Jack-Of-All-Trades and a Master of One

My background is diverse, so I legitimately claim the title of ‘Jack-of-all-Trades and Master of One’.

For better or for worse, I have worked a broader range of industries than anyone I know. From the shop floor to management, as employee, Director and consultant, from penthouse periods of success to gutter seasons of failure, my perspectives are earnt and are rarely just uninformed opinion. I’ve also travelled broadly, have studied extensively, and have had many more challenging life experiences than I would like.

Thankfully however, all of this has produced some good fruit in my life.

At a more meaningful and personal level,  I am ‘junkie-passionate’ about discerning truth from lies, and finding solutions when they can be found. This can make me a little difficult when I get the convinced or locked in on an idea, but as I approach sixty I can honestly say I’m much better at harnessing those attitudes than when I was younger. Quality focused, I also love to learn. I’m fascinated by people and I deeply care that people (especially the young) avoid unnecessary pain.

Life Has Trained Me For This Service

I love to harness what life has blessed me with, and employ it to the endeavour of writing.

During almost 60 years of living, I’ve accumulated:

• A remarkable range of skills,
• A wealth of valuable experience,
• Healthy humility through wins and losses, and
• A desire to pour out my life on that which is worthy.

Well aware of my short-comings, I also know my strengths

• I love the word-wrestle of writing, and the pursuit of effective and then optimal communication.
• I’m a strategies and contingencies guy. As I approach a crest, I’m thinking about the valley ahead and the risks it may hold.
• Thorough in my questioning, I’m comfortable looking foolish if it secures the information I need.
• I have a seemingly innate knack for identifying inconsistencies and contradictions.
• With above average analysis skills, I map problems accurately and with care.
• I have a commitment to evidence and rationale. I like it when you ask me “Why?”
• Quality-focused, I’m fastidious about quality assurance and control.
• My perspectives and experience are broad, so it’s hard to pull the wool over my eyes.
• I also love to harness and use what life has taught me.

The Decades Before Web

My 5th grade teacher was strict, challenging and meticulous; he was also safe, encouraging and a great masculine role-model. He drew out of me values and skills I didn’t know I had. He also put into me a belief in myself as a writer. In all honesty, it was very possibly the first time I felt that I was good at something.

Why do I share this? Because on my last day in fifth-grade, he called me back after the class had thundered out the door to begin the Summer holidays. Walking back to him I was surprised to see him thrust out his huge hand, and as I accepted the hand shake, he looked me in the eye and said, “When you publish your first book, send me a copy.”

It was a mind-blowing compliment from a man who didn’t hand them out freely! Unfortunately, I’ve written lots of words that have gone into websites, professional texts, technical manuals, teaching and training programs, sales letters, scripts and academic projects, but the published book is yet to happen.

That teacher is probably the most significant one I ever had, and he’s still alive. My hope is to dedicate to him a published book before he passes.

From 18 to 30 years: Broad and Invaluable Experience, Much Zeal and Little Foresight

My first working decade was youthful, reckless, but not without value.

The first three years included teacher’s college, Australian representation as an Air Force Cadet, two failed (or perhaps insufficient) business attempts, as well as work as a cleaner and casual jobs in front-line customer service and sales.

The next year I solo back-packed in Africa, Europe and North America. In Africa I almost died from sickness when I was a four day drive from hospital. When in England, I drove a shovel and a jackhammer on a road-crew. In America, I led two teams as part of a Summer Camp leadership team. It’s safe to say I came back very different from how I left.

The next half decade included a stint in the NSW Police Force, and a sincere launch of the teaching career I had trained for.  After years of contract work, cross-city commutes and domestic relocations, I sadly gave up. Both my resignations from the police and teaching are an embarrassment to me. Both were moments of youthful ignorance and naivety.  Also, though I own the decisions, I also hadn’t beed trained to persevere. That training would come however.

It was also during this time, in my mid-twenties, that I became a Christian. I am still zealous for this relationship, and I neither push nor hide my experiences and convictions. Truth and love permit nothing less. It is also in discipleship that I have learnt to persevere.

During the years after teaching I tutored, ran basketball clinics, designed and delivered professional development and study skills programs, worked with the long-term unemployed (which was an awesome job!), became Office Manager in a distribution company and then became General Manager of a 12-staff Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Clinic .

It was in one of these last two interviews that I was asked an awkward question: “You’ve done a lot for a bloke still in his 20’s. Your resume tells me either you can probably do anything you put your mind to, or, you can’t hold down a job. Which one is it?”

I suggested he go with the first option, and then I tried to prove him right.

From 30 to 41 years: Training, Teaching, Self-Employment and More

Shortly after turning 30, I decided to marry five people. Yes, five; a wife and her four daughters (aged four to 16). As a result, the next decade was a blur of both privilege and demands.

Family meant bills; bills meant that luxuries like re-training, being picky or building a career were not an option. For almost a decade I did whatever work I could, whenever it came, and under whatever terms it was presented. There was a six-year return to teaching, time as a vocational trainer and team leader at TAFE NSW, six months as a financial controller/administrator, and casual roles in warehousing and disability support.

Pay the bills! That was my mantra.

Thankfully, in hindsight, I now see some benefits to the breadth of experience I gained, but I also paid a high price vocationally and financially – which was made all the worst by a separation soon after my 40th birthday.

After an unsought divorce came into effect, I lost my way for about 18 months. The financial bills were paid through work as a forklift, warehousing and logistics trainer. The grief and anger bills were paid with too much drinking, an amplified anger, and a retreat into trying to regain control – the most dramatic of which was buying a van and living in it for almost 18 months.

This period was when I decided to volunteer with Dads for Kids, and this is where this story returns to where we began. I entered into the tangled world of website development and content creation – and this is where I have stayed.

My Goals Now

My mantra is no longer ‘pay the bills’, and I do not regret the choice I made at 41.

With no financial assets, cash reserves gone, very little superannuation and (I believed) my best financial years behind me, I saw two options. The obvious option was to work my butt off for the next 25 years, hopefully building finance and retirement resources as I went. Alternatively, I could try and be faithful to whatever I felt God led me to do, and trust him with the likely gaps and fears.

I chose the alternate path.

Now I try to live as rightly as I should, speak as truthfully as I should and help who I should. In all these goals, just for the record, I’m still very much an amateur. But I do keep getting back up and having another go.

Part of that ‘helping’ means helping you.

All of this experience is brought to the goal of understanding your website and content challenges, helping you solve them with strategy and content.

This is who I am and this is what I do.

To learn more and enjoy an initial no-obligation conversation, phone 0403 302 490 or complete the form below.