Hi šĀ I'm Martyn
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15 years ago, I quit the idea of building a traditional career in Advertising in London and started working online.
From 2007 to 2017 I traveled around the world endlessly and worked āremotelyā , building my āone manā digital marketing agency.
It was completely organic and I was just making it up as I went along (Itās way easier now because the path is known (for better or worse) as being a āDigital Nomadā.
Buy the time places like Bali were getting overrun with travel influencers. Iād hung up my backpack and settled down in a quiet island in the Caribbean.
Setting new long term goals suddenly revolved around growth.
I wanted to do all the things Iād dreamed of doing while I had been busy living āmy dreamā; My own apartment, a dedicated office space, time for hobbies, a grounded communityā¦
Out of all the things I did or didnāt do during these years the only thing I had even an speck of regret towards was that I hadnāt found my passion for writing earlier.
Iād potentially missed documenting not only my journey but also my independent early online business experience which could have, by this point, become the foundational platform for my personal brand and leverage into what is now known now as the ācontent gameā
I spent the next 3 years settling into a āregular lifeā and a deep learning period focused on the craft of writing.
Applying it to my existing client work (yup still ignoring my own needs here), seemed the easiest way to practice and this worked out very well finically as we all know what happened in 2020.
The hangover of an avalanche of new clients all needing my services during this time (I briefly pivoted into a remote work team buildingh, lol) was great while it lasted.
After 5 years of near back to back work and learning I was physically, mentally and emotionally burnt, and was finally confronted with the fact that I had still been ignoring MY NEEDS.
After a deep reflective period (and a lot of Yoga Nidra/Sound Healing) I managed to restore my shattered nervous system and got back on my feet.
I had to make a change.
I signed myself āoff workā at the end of 2023 and devised a plan for a self-guided year long sabbatical in 2024.
The goal?
Fast track my own āpersonal onboardingā to the creator economy.
I had acquired nearly every skill needed to do what I needed to do but had spent my entire career in the shadows applying it all to other peoples businesses and helping the build their personal brand.
I had to step into the spotlightā¦
But that was the problem
I felt like a fraud, even though I had all the knowledge, Iād never demonstrated it online, outside of supporting and delivering for my clients.
In fact, since 2019 Iād actively avoided social media and posting online after a very successful digital detox (thanks Cal).
Arrrghhh! Regurgitating my āraw knowledgeā in the digital marketing space felt like pissing in the wind, itās been done to death.
I felt like I didnāt have any leverage.
The only thing that kept sticking out like a thorn in my flipflop was the thought that I canāt be the only one in this situation.
And.. if I can solve this for myself it could be useful for other readers.
So the mantra to my my year long āoff-pisteā adventure was ground into stone on my Notion dashboardā¦
āHow can I build a body of workā¦ instead of a body that worksā
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This is that process word-by-wordā¦ page-by-pageā¦ day-by-day.