My Story

Let’s go right back to the beginning…

I left school with fairly decent grades (not that this matters but I think the mindset and work ethic to do well at school is much more valuable than the grades) and was ambitious and knew I wanted to do well for myself but didn’t know what I wanted to do.

You see as I was growing up, my Dad had really bad problems with his back which lasted the best part of 10 years if I remember rightly and severely affected his ability to work. Eventually he managed to have an operation that could have left him paralysed but luckily helped to restore his back to a functioning level although manual work was or should have been a thing of the past.

It struck a chord with me that all it takes is one health issue and you are unable to work and could lose the life you had spent years trying to build. This made me realise that I had to secure my financial position so that no matter what happened to me, my life wouldn’t be seriously affected if I was unable to work. I’d also seen people completely burned out and worn down through a lifetime of work in a job they hated, so at the same time, I promised myself that I would do whatever it takes to be free.

At this age, I was still focused on the ‘normal’ path society sets out for you so I thought “I know I’ll just pick some things that I have no interest in but that the educational system and society thinks are valuable and that will lead to something”.

So I chose the exciting worlds of Maths, Physics, Computing and History (history because I had to choose 4 and I didn’t know what else).

About 6 months later I dropped out of college.

“At this point I decided to just say “f**k it” and follow my passion.”

I’ve been into health, fitness and weight training since I was age 14 (I’m 17 at this point in the story) so enrolled at another college to do an Advanced Diploma in Health & Fitness. It was only a 3 day per week course so took a part time job at a nylon bobbin factory for 3 of the other days.

Take 100 empty little bobbins off the machine, take 50 full big bobbins off the machine, oil it and put new runners on it, load 100 full bobbins back on the machine, load 50 empty big bobbins back on the machine, thread them all up, start machine… repeat another 3 times and for the rest of the time do the dogs body work like cleaning everything. Exciting job it was not, but we had a laugh.

 

So this was my life for the next 12 months but I finished the course and got qualified and at age 18, ended up getting a job at the fitness club where I trained at the time – Total Fitness.

My first day I turned up all bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready for my first day in my first full time job and ready to start my working life as a ‘proper adult’. After the general introductions and usual first day shenanigans, I was released into the world of work. This next part I’ll never forget for as long as I live as it served as one of the key turning points in my life thus far. I thought:

“Holy shit this is literally your life. Every single day from now at age 18 to age 65-70 when you retire with about 28 days off each year. This can’t be it surely? You just keep doing this for the next 40-50 YEARS? What the hell?”

Life just served a huge reality punch.

Despite this, I enjoyed health and fitness and had only just started my working life really, so decided to give it chance (not that I had much choice right then) and the people there were a great bunch and I’m still in touch with some of them now… but I never really got over that hard hitting reality of my first day.

My brain was fundamentally changed that day by the shock realisation that this is not the right path to be secure. I had absolutely no idea what to do with myself and felt lost with nothing in front of me, no direction and 50 years of being trapped in what I call ‘the cycle’ staring me in the face. So I decided to run away…

One of my friends who I met on the health and fitness course (who I’m still connected to on Facebook at the time of this writing), was a few years older than me and had traveled around Australia for a year or so before returning to England. Each day at college he would tell tales of his travels and also put me on to a book – The Wrong Way Home by Peter Moore. Please read this it’s outstanding!

This, combined with his past stories, resulted in me concocting a plan to ‘find myself’ by running away from my problems to travel round Australia and see where I ended up.

 

I had focus again and direction with my life. The end was in sight. I was about 6 months away from getting my visa and getting the fuck out of dodge. All good… and then I met a girl.

Although she was supportive of my travel plans and didn’t want to be the reason I stayed, I did what most blokes would do and… I stayed!

It was back to square one. I was trapped in the job for the next 40+ years, I was stuck at my parents place with no chance of affording my own place, no prospects for the future and not earning enough money to support myself on my own. I wasn’t going traveling. I had absolutely no idea what to do with my life. Have you seen the movie Human Traffic? Yea I could definitely relate to that at this point in my life.

These depressive feelings gradually got worse and worse until one night it came to a head and I ended up on my knees on the living room floor crying my eyes out not knowing what to do with my life or how to escape this rat race hell that was staring me in the face for the next 40 years.

I was in a bad place and didn’t know where to turn or what to do but luckily the internet did exist. Barely.

I picked myself up, dusted myself off and went upstairs to search for ideas and ways to better myself to get to a point where I could support myself independently from a financial standpoint.

 

I didn’t know it at the time but it is this exact moment when I took my first step to chasing my dreams and taking control of the direction of my life.

I searched for the usual keywords – business opportunities, online business, how to make money etc and even though I didn’t know what I was really looking for, after a fair bit of searching I stumbled across a site that had a very convincing long form sales letter landing page complete with video. It was a Herbalife distributor.

Next minute I’m having a phone call with my new ‘mentor’ (an Irish lady in her 30s – think she was an office manager or something in the day) and spending every penny I owned on the sign up costs and my first big stock order and I’m now a Herbalife distributor too. Penniless but full of hope and optimism and feeling good again.

The stock arrived, I had a call with my ‘mentor’ and arranged to go along to an event at a hotel full of other distributors. Everyone was drinking the Kool Aid and everyone was going to be rich and tales were told of people coming from nothing but who were now killing it. It served the purpose and I was fired up.

I hustled up some regular buyers of the supplements in the gym (shhh!) as well as another recruit. This is as far as it got. Either I failed or I was too impatient or I didn’t like what I was doing – honestly I can’t quite remember but I sacked it off anyway, but what I didn’t stop doing was chasing my dreams of financial independence, getting out of work, success and one day being able to emigrate out of the UK. I hated living in the UK and the shitty weather and the wanderlust of almost going travelling round Australia never left me.

I had two major life goals. Emigrate and get free and I was going to achieve them or die trying.

Following Herbalife was more of a ‘proper business’ if you like. I was age 19 and I had a taste of something. I didn’t really know what it was and although I didn’t manage to pull it off, it lit a fire in me.

I was on a spinning course (exercise cycle class for anyone that doesn’t know) and became friends with another instructor on the course (who I’m still friends with today). I kind of knew who he was anyway as he lived locally and went to my high school but was a few years older. Anyway one conversation led to another and we talked about opening up a supplement shop… so we did.

“Anyway one conversation led to another and we talked about opening up a supplement shop… so we did.”

We started to plan the shop, despite having only just connected and I decided I needed to learn more about business to open a shop and quit my job. Rich Dad Poor Dad and Think & Grow Rich were the first two that I went through. These books catapulted my mindset. Now I was motivated to achieve success more than ever before and I think for the first time, I 100% believed I could do it. Basically the books raised my bar and re-programmed my mind to understand that this is actually achievable.

So we made it happen. We opened the shop and at age 19 I quit my job to run it.

While I was sat in the shop I had a lot of time on my hands so I continued to read. I knew from my very first day in work that I needed to get out of a typical day job and take control of my own life. I didn’t need the mansions, the cars, the flash lifestyle. I needed security and the one thing that no amount of money in the world can buy. Time. I need to be master of my time. I needed to be free…

“I didn’t need the mansions, the cars, the flash lifestyle. I needed the one thing that no amount of money in the world can buy. Time. I need to be master of my time. I needed to be free…”

Now before anyone dives at the keyboard to comment “but you can do that at any time!”… yes I know that, but I didn’t want to live off the land and still wanted a good standard of living and to never have to worry about money, despite not needing to be rich.

I wanted to enjoy life and have my time to do so. Also you WILL get old and if you’ve not planned for it then what are you going to do? To solve this problem, I believe I have to remove my income being dependent on me working. Live for today, plan for tomorrow.

 

My goals were becoming much clearer to me. I had found a target and locked on and nothing and nobody could ever force me to let go of this goal. Working to achieve it gave my life purpose.

I am NOT working like a dog day in day out for the next 40+ years without purpose and an end goal. You’d grow a bit older, settle down, have a family, become a tired old man waiting for retirement completely burned out by life and having given your best years to the system just like everyone else, then you eventually pass away in the same area you always lived… and so ‘the cycle’ continues.

I am NOT watching life pass me by like this while every day getting up to an alarm at a time I don’t want to get up at, going to a place I don’t want to be for most of the day to come home and go to bed at a time I don’t want to go to bed at, because I have to get up at a time I don’t want to get up at… then you add more financial commitments and kids and life just gets harder and more tiresome and your time becomes more scarce and… STOP!!! No fucking way is that life for me.

Phew! Always get a bit emotional telling this story and bringing my reasons up to the surface. Pain is a great motivator so if you are not happy then find you fire and channel it… and the pain is only just starting at this point. You have to pay the price and the higher you set your bar, the higher the price you have to pay.

You won’t know what it is at this stage but you will have to pay it. Someone said this to me or I read it but didn’t quite know what it meant at that point but now I do and so shall you when you look back.

Right so let’s get back to it again…

I’d found clarity around my goal and the books taught me that property was one of the few truly passive income generators. This is the vehicle I needed to achieve my goal. It’s worth mentioning here that this is 1 of 2 of my major life goals, that were now crystal clear. The other goal is I needed to get out of the UK and emigrate overseas to a sunny climate. I’d never been, but Australia seemed to have some sort of pull over me that never went away since I nearly went traveling there at age 18 but more on this later.

The supplement shop was open around a year. We’d found a couple good wholesalers and had built up some regular customers just from footfall traffic but the shop wasn’t making much money so I’d took a part time job at JJB gym in Wigan to help supplement my income. Knowing what I know now we didn’t market it very well or even at all really so I’m not surprised it didn’t do too well, but as with every decision I’ve made whether right or wrong, I’ve learned lessons from it and this was no different. I was stronger because of the experience.

The goal posts had moved further away though and I couldn’t see a way to turn it around. I was young and impatient as I desperately wanted to be able to support myself financially on my own before anything and as my main priority before the 2 main life goals. I was around age 21 at this time. I made the decision to move on.

I had learned that property was key to achieving my life goals so thought to myself that in order to make property work for me, I needed to first understand the financials.

 

Now a strange coincidence led to the next chapter.

Out of all the clients I trained at the gym, I only ever stayed in contact with one client who I’m actually still in touch with today. I was around age 19 when he booked in for a training session with me and became a regular client. He was one of many regular clients who I got on with but the only one I stayed in touch with and I still don’t really know why.

I’m now around age 21 at this point in the story and he was around age 40 and owned a mortgage brokerage and had been in mortgages, finance and property for a large part of his working life.

I gave him a call.

“Alright Scotty what can I do for you lad?”

“Hi sorry to bother you but just wondering if you could answer a quick question for me?”

“Sure, what’s up?”

“Well I was just wondering what you have to do to be a mortgage broker? What qualifications do you need?”

“You just need your CeMap exams”… we then proceeded to talk about these and the role in general.

“Tell you what, if you get yourself CeMap qualified then come and see me and we’ll have a chat”

So I did.

I studied the CeMap course materials, passed the exams and now at around age 22 I’m a fully qualified mortgage broker.

Unfortunately the role with my client friend from the gym wasn’t suitable for me at this time but I did get some great training from them for a couple months and met some great people.

So far I’d tried MLM (multi-level marketing) and worked hard at it but got nowhere before opening a shop and working 6 days a week dealing with all the stress of the hard work and uncertainty, combined with the disbelief of many (not my parents, who were always supportive and believed in me). I think the whole situation definitely contributed to me and my girlfriend at the time parting ways – and now I was embarking on another change of direction and starting out as a mortgage broker.

Important to note is I didn’t want to ‘be a mortgage broker’. The life goals mentioned earlier hadn’t changed and I only went into this career as I thought it was moving me towards my goals (it was) and I one million percent believe that this is the right thing to do for anyone pursuing goals.

Know exactly what you want to achieve and take jobs or start businesses or move to that country or do whatever it is that moves you towards your goals. Never stop moving towards your goals. Keep the end in sight and never stop working towards it and everything else is a means to an end.

 

I was 19 when all this started so to be spending most of your time working and learning and still not having any time or money was tough… but that was nothing compared to the next few years.

The only job I could get at the time was with a large estate agency chain. Mortgages wasn’t what I expected it to be. Buying a house is often the biggest financial transaction and commitment in a person’s life. If you are not very well versed in this world, it is also quite a complex area where people need ADVICE. True, genuine, helpful advice.

What people don’t need during this process is an ‘advisor’ who is heavily targeted to sell sell sell! Mortgages, insurances – I was heavily targeted in every aspect of the job. It was super stressful and felt wrong. Having said that, after years of hardship, I was finally starting to earn more money with some future prospects (finally, financial independence!).

I could stick it out while building a property investment portfolio and having a comfortable life in the process. My office also wasn’t too far away and my manager wasn’t too bad… then a new guy started!

The guy was a tyrant. No matter how well I was doing it was never enough. He would call me constantly and was never off my case. I had also been moved to a different branch that was miles away from where I lived.

I was getting up really early for the gym and the commute, getting to the office for 9am, doing a full day at the office and of course everyone else was working during the day so I had to do appointments with clients in the evening before the long commute home or the even longer commute to my then girlfriends place.

I also had to work half a day on Saturday morning so the 6 day week of really long hours, long commutes and a tyrant of a boss constantly on my case meant at the tender age of 22, I felt real stress for the first time in my life.

I felt real exhaustion. I would wake up after a good night’s sleep feeling like my body weighed 500lbs and I’d not slept for a week. I’d sit in my office and feel like the walls were closing in and I just wanted the world to swallow me up.

I was about 12 months in and I was at breaking point.

I searched online for the most tranquil wallpaper background to have on my computer screen (actual wallpaper I used below) so I could look at it every day and imagine myself there (I get a shock later on relating to this but we’ll get to that). I’d also made a collage of images of Australia and stuck it behind my computer at home so I’d be looking at it every day longing for a life I only dreamed of in a country I’d never even visited – so for all I knew it was just a dream!

I had however learned a lot about property which was the only reason I went in to this area at all. Because it supported my end goal and like I said earlier, that’s the only reason why you should do anything I believe.

What can I do to change the current situation then? I thought if we had our own place I wouldn’t have this awful commute and if my office was a lot closer to where we lived then I’d have eliminated the commute problem entirely. Then if people would just get the f**k off my case and leave me to do the job then I could cope with the long hours if there was a pay off.

So I managed to secure myself a new job as a telephone mortgage broker for a financial solutions company. Basically if a remortgage could help people consolidate and get on top of their debt then I would help them with this.

The boss was great, the team was great (I’m still in touch with some of them), the job was great, the office was local, the earning potential was great. For the first time in a long time I was happy. It was time to take the next leap forward, solve the long commute to my GF’s place and get out of my parents house.

I thought that if we were living together and a lot of the stress was removed that we’d be much happier and I knew I could borrow more than the value of the house (due to the mortgages that were available at the time) and use the money to buy 2 more investment properties.

Never losing sight of my goals, I saw this as an opportunity to take a giant leap forward towards my goals despite my gut instinct strangely telling me not to do it. My gut instinct was right.

I bought the house at the peak of the UK property boom with my girlfriend at the time, in July if I remember rightly and by the end of November or start of December (I don’t remember exactly), we were parting ways. The only way to get her off the mortgage at the time and for a clean break, was for my Dad to do me a mahooosive favour and put his name on the mortgage also.

 

This is simultaneously the start of the worst chapter of my life and also the time when someone truly special entered my life

As it happened, the work Christmas party was scheduled for a week or so after my break up. I was stood outside chatting to 2 friends/colleagues and overheard a conversation between some of the girls from another department who were stood next to us. I joined in the conversation and this is where at the age of 23 and unbeknown to me at the time, I met the love of my life Joanne.

One of my lifelong closest friends moved in my house with me that same month, I had just met an amazing girl and I had my own place. Life was good… for about another 4-6 months tops.

While all this was going on, the start of the financial crisis was taking shape in the UK. Finance and property were the hardest hit, especially mortgages, but I don’t think anybody expected it to be as bad as it actually was.

I had already borrowed more than the value of the property to buy two investment properties. I had been to America and started the process to buy an investment property in Buffalo NY and also started proceedings with a unit in Scotland. Obviously I had to pull out of these deals when the break up happened so lost some money as a result of this, which meant the house was in negative equity.

The property market then crashed over the next 6-12 months and the mortgage lenders pretty much stopped lending money to anyone other than someone with a large deposit and crystal clear credit rating. This resulted in 2 things:

1. My income was halved
2. I lost about £20k off the value of my house

“My Dad was on the mortgage and there was a large sum that would have to be paid if I ‘gave the house back to the lender’ and I couldn’t afford to pay it so they would chase my parents for it which would destroy them and everything they had worked for all their life. Not an option. I was trapped.”

Trust me I looked at and explored every single option possible and none of them were available for the above reason. I had no choice but to hang in there. But for how long?

In the end the decision was taken out of my hands. I was made redundant.

There were NO mortgage advisor jobs. None. Well actually there was one. About 60+ miles away in Wales, for another £4k less than the job I’d just lost. Not surprisingly 30 people applied for the role.

If I didn’t get this job right now, I’d have no income at all the following month. That would mean I’d start falling behind with mortgage payments and destroy everything my parents had worked all their lives for.

The interview process was intense. I passed the phone interview then about 15 of us that they selected out of the 30, were invited to their offices where we would have to give a presentation TO THE REST OF THE CANDIDATES as well as the employer on “Why They Should Hire You”… I kid you not, this is what I had to do followed by a face to face interview.

One thing I did know though. This job was mine. It had to be. I had no other option. If I didn’t get this job everything would come crashing down.

I got it!

It was even less money and would cost me at least £10 per day in fuel just to get there but at least I had some sort of income for now.

On my very first day everyone was called in to a meeting. The meeting was to announce redundancies. WTF? They’d just taken me on! Apparently I was safe. At least for now.

I was now around age 24, I was living on around –£500 per month personal cashflow and having to buy food on credit cards (which will increase my debt and therefore my outgoings next month) and I had no solutions available to me that wouldn’t take my parents down.

I didn’t care what happened to me as I know I could handle it, get back on my feet, dust myself off and do better but they have literally done everything they could and made sacrifices to help me all the way through my life so I could never live with myself if I destroyed their life and their retirement through this.

The only way out of this hell was to earn more money. Believe me I looked at every single option possible and spent literally days trying to work a way out from my situation but there was only one. Earn more money.

All the while I was desperately trying to hide as much of this and as much of my depression from Joanne as possible. While all our friends were out socialising and dating and having fun, we couldn’t afford to do anything other than sit in or go to a friends house and no matter where I was, I wasn’t really there.

I could laugh and smile among friends but inside an inaudible voice was screaming “help me” and every second of every day from the moment I woke up to the moment I fell asleep, all I could think about was my situation.

I could be anywhere but I was always nowhere. The darkness that was clouding my mind wouldn’t allow me to relax, feel free or enjoy myself no matter what the situation. All I could think about was being trapped in the mess of a life I had created and the ticking timebomb that was eventually going to sink my parents.

I remember seeing all my friends progressing their careers, earning good salaries and not really having a care in the world (obviously that bit wasn’t true but it looked like it was) while I was wondering how to pay for my next meal while preventing my mess from destroying everything my parents had worked for and just trying to keep it all together.

Do you know what though? Some people did have it much easier than me and some people have it a hell of a lot harder but what the f**k has that got to do with me? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Society tries to instill in people the romantic notion that everything needs to be fair and equal blah blah.. bullshit. No matter how much you want it to be like that, the reality is life isn’t fair. Deal with it. You need to focus on your own situation and do what you need to do to change it because nobody else’s situation matters when it comes to this.

So I had to do something. But what? How could I possibly turn things around? I turned back to the internet and started searching.

I was just looking for a second income initially. Just £500 per month to at least break even so I could breathe and have more coming in than going out. I searched for things like second income, online jobs, make money online etc and after a while I stumbled across an affiliate marketing training site.

.

This is when I first got introduced to digital marketing…

The website looked legit (8-9 years ago!), the opportunity looked legit, there were well presented testimonials and stories of the founders and everything just oozed success and freedom. It was enough to suck me in.

I was buying food on credit cards at this time and felt like crying if someone asked me to run them a mile down the road because I couldn’t afford the petrol (that actually happened) but I HAD to do something and I knew I’d do whatever it took to change my life. I was backed into a corner and I had two options:

1. Give up and destroy everything my parents had worked for
2. Take action, fight, work my fucking arse off and do something about it and get myself out of this mess

I chose option two and signed up at I think $37 USD per month (massive commitment for me at this time).

Holy shit this was huge. There was soooo much material to get through to learn this stuff and so much to do and lots of stories of success and people earning $100, $500, $1000 per day. Wow. If I could get to $1000 per month it would change everything. I was in the right place I thought.

So I started.

I would get up at 5am which was 2 hours earlier than I had to get up for work. This was so that I could get in two hours of learning and take any action I could. I would then come home after a long day and a long commute and go straight upstairs back to the computer and continue to work and learn until 11pm which was the latest I could possibly stay up so I would have just enough energy to function the next day.

At weekends I would get up early to do more of the same until mid morning when Joanne got up. Joanne had moved in with me now and my friend had moved out. She lived in a different town and had moved away from friends and family to be with me and this was her first time out of her parents place and she never saw me.

I was either at work or upstairs glued to my computer. In the little time we had together, we couldn’t afford to do anything other than sit in because of the shitty situation I’d got myself into and now got her into. She was a young girl around age 19 and I was around age 24/25. We were ‘supposed’ to be enjoying our youth but instead it was groundhog day every day and she was suffering because of me.

Every now and again, I would burn out and feel lost and every time that happened I would drive up to a place called Rivington which was out in the countryside, high up overlooking the land below. There was a certain spot up there and I would park the car and go and sit on the fence looking out to the view (below – fence is just out of shot).

I would sit there as long as it took, sometimes up to two hours but eventually my mind would clear and the answers of what I needed to do came to me.

I continued this practice whenever I needed to find the right answer or direction and I would deploy this tactic today if required because it worked. Get out in nature, somewhere high up looking down below and ideally with water in the view and just wait for as long as it takes for you to clear your mind and obtain the right answers.

“It was just noobs and people who weren’t successful and didn’t know what they were doing who always seemed to make the most noise and dish out the most advice to others.”

This situation went on for 3 years and during this time I would keep following everyone’s bullshit while getting lost in contradicting advice in forums and communities. It was just noobs and people who weren’t successful and didn’t know what they were doing who always seemed to make the most noise and dish out the most advice to others.

This still happens today (just go in any forum or Facebook page/group) and it makes life so hard for you. I don’t doubt these people are well intentioned but if you are one of them then please stop giving people advice unless you have proven your worth in doing it. You know who you are!

Life was hell. It was consistent 16 hour days and I had nothing to show for it other than more debt, a damaged relationship and lost years… but I knew from the moment I started learning about this stuff on day 1 that I’d found my way out.

I’d discovered an unknown passion and I knew, I just knew deep down in my soul that this was what I needed to do and I was on the right path. It is this self belief that I could do it (that many would describe as delusional) and just knowing that this was the right path, combined with having no other option but to keep moving forward, that made me keep going with nothing to show for it. That and a whole world of hurt.

Pain. I was almost at rock bottom and the road had been so hard and long and failure was not an option and I’d failed so many times and so hard for so many years and I’d never stopped trying and working towards my two goals:

• Get financially independent and not destroy my parents lives
  • Then get out of work (or be in a position where I have the option to work therefore it’s on my terms)
• Get the hell out the UK to a nice sunny climate (emigrate to Australia)
  • But I knew if I just packed up and went, even before all the shit started, that I was just running away from my problems and I had to reach a certain point in my life before this is the right thing to do.

“What I found is that pain is the single biggest motivator you can get.”

I had been trying and failing since that first day in work 7 years ago and despite this, things had just got progressively worse. The pain that was bottled up inside me was unreal. I was hurting (emotionally) every second of every day but what I found is that pain is the single biggest motivator you can get (especially when all bridges are burned behind you and there is no plan B).

See in the early years it was all about desire to gain but for years now it had been all about pain. I bottled it up and channeled it into working harder than I’d ever worked in my life. Working and getting nothing in return except more pain.

The best way I can describe my situation at the time and the way I always did and still do describe it, is it was like I was engulfed in darkness and far away in the distance there was a tiny light. Coming from the light in the distance was a thin rope and I was clinging on to that rope for dear life with a finger and thumb, arm outstretched, trying to pull myself towards this light and no matter how tired I was, no matter how hard everything was and no matter if all I wanted to do was collapse into a chair, I dragged myself to that computer and I worked – pulling myself towards the light. The only things keeping me going all those years were:

• An unwavering self belief that this was the right thing to be doing and that I was going to do it. I knew I was going to do it. There was not a single shred of doubt at any time despite everything that was going on around me.
• That there was no other option other than to succeed and to get myself and Joanne out of this mess and save my parents from losing everything.
• A passion for the actual work itself. I couldn’t get enough of it and my mind was craving to learn more.

So this was our life for years. The only things that happened during these years are I was eventually made redundant from the job and took another job as a debt advisor just to get some money coming in. They were a great bunch of people to work with and, like most places I’ve worked, I’m still in touch with some of them today.

But life just kept getting worse. It was looking like I might get laid off again and I was sick of sales and sick of finance and sick of trying and failing to keep my head above water financially and sick to fucking death of this bullshit life that I was living every day and that Joanne was living because of me. I was however, much more knowledgeable around digital marketing and SEO and I loved it.

The switch in my head flicked and it was time to look for a job in SEO. It didn’t actually take me long to find one. The wrong one.

Another debt management company had an SEO role open so I applied and they offered it to me. I didn’t really know what it entailed though, it was all new to me, but I handed in my notice and although the salary didn’t help me financially, I was finally out of finance and into something I loved and was passionate about.

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Day 1: I turned up and they sat me in a chair at a computer and said “away you go”. What the f**k? I told them I was new and had no experience. I didn’t know what I was doing or where to start. It wasn’t right so I had to leave. I was out of work.

Shit! I’d only just got out of finance, I couldn’t take a step backwards and go back into a finance job. There were hardly any finance jobs anyway. Shit, shit, shit.

I frantically started applying for SEO jobs but didn’t have any success. Often I wouldn’t even get past the recruiter. Fuck you! Someone just give me a chance please! Just a chance and I know I’ll be good and won’t let you down. Then an agency got in touch…

I actually thought they were the recruiter at first so that call really didn’t start off very well! They invited me in for an interview which I felt went ok, then I got called back for a second interview to meet the other owner of the business. That went ok too. Then I heard nothing. They said they were happy with me and should know something soon but nothing. So I kept applying for other jobs but still, nothing. Time was running out.

My credit cards were maxed, I had no money coming in and I’d been out of work for as long as I possibly could have been with still no job lined up. I’ll never forget this next moment and I still well up with tears every time I take myself back to this point.

The phone was by the window (an old one that wasn’t cordless that someone gave to us because we couldn’t afford a modern cordless one). I walked to the phone, picked it up and stared out the window. My heart was in my stomach and I think for a few minutes I just stood there staring out of the window but at nothing in particular.

I dialed my parents number and waited while it rang. Each ring caused my stomach to turn and each pause seemed to last an eternity. I was ringing to tell them I was at the end of the road and as of next month, everything they had ever worked for was going to start to be eaten away because of me and my life choices so far.

My Dad answered the phone. I explained everything to him, all the while never breaking my gaze from the window. I wasn’t focused on anything, I was in a kind of trance. Everything I’d been through and put Joanne and my parents through and all the sacrifices that had been made over the last 7 years had led to this point and I still had nothing.

Now it is important to note that my parents were fully aware of the situation and everything we’d been through over the years and they have always had faith in me and supported me in any way they could.

So my Dad answered and after I explained the situation to him, do you know what the first thing he said was?

“Don’t worry, I know it will be alright. I’ve just got a feeling you’re doing the right thing and something is going to come up. Hang in there and don’t give up”

I’d just told him I had nothing and was at the end of the line and he might end up losing his house and all his life savings and this was the response I got. Wow. OK. Well I’d better keep myself together then and do what he says!

So I hung up the phone and went back upstairs and continued searching and applying for jobs. I widened my search to any sales jobs and sent off absolutely tons of applications. A couple days later a recruiter called me and I had an interview with a property investment company, sourcing and selling investment properties for clients.

The office was miles away and I’d still be in the shit financially but it was very closely tied to one of my main life goals! I went for the interview and they offered me the job! Then from out of nowhere around the same time, the SEO agency also called back and said they wanted me to join them. My Dad was right!

Can you believe it? It seems, at least in my experience, that every now and again if you are pushing towards your goals, that you get given a very clear, very distinct choice of two paths that could ultimately lead to the same end goal and you have to choose one.

I followed my gut and my passion and chose the agency.

“I’ll always be forever grateful to the two owners of that agency for giving me a chance when nobody else would. This enabled me to rise out of the darkness so I could take my first step forward on my new path. A path that would eventually solve everything and lead to achieving life goal one and no doubt life goal two soon”

I LOVED working with these lot. The company and culture was perfect for me and we all worked really well together. The income started off low and didn’t solve my situation in the slightest but I was happy doing something I loved in a great environment with great people.

But the agency developed and was growing fast and so was I.

One thing I never stopped doing was learning. The drive, passion, resilience, work ethic, laser focus and all the other traits built up over the hard years were now ingrained in my soul.

I was up at 5am and out the door with a 40 minute drive to the gym which was over the road from work. In office for 9am, work done by 5.30-6pm and then I’d stay exactly where I was and start on my courses (whatever course I was going through at the time), only leaving around 9-10pm. The key difference now is that me and Joanne were not depressed, had removed the main cause of stress and could enjoy life at weekends.

I’d always have a course on the go (still do to this day – NEVER stop learning) so my knowledge and skills were ever increasing. You need to remember that 99% of the population is not prepared to sacrifice their free time in this way (that’s absolutely fine by the way if you are happy with you life). They might do for a little bit or a bit here and a bit there but… Every. Damn. Day. For Years? Not many people will do that.

What that usually means is, so long as you can execute and have great work ethic, you progress at a much faster rate than Joe Average. It is the small minority of people who work at achieving very specific goals for hours and hours over a long period of time (years) that achieve success. Consistent hard work pays off.

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The start of a serious side hustle…

A good friend had a successful business for years but unfortunately he was also a victim of the tough economic times that the UK went through and things didn’t work out. As it happened, he was getting back on his feet around the same time as myself so was looking to get back into business.

We were both interested in health and wellness and this included complimentary and alternative therapies as well as nutrition and physical activity. A holistic healthy lifestyle basically and we both agreed that looking after yourself mentally and physically contributed towards the success of almost all areas of your life.

On top of this, it seemed that more and more people were becoming aware of all the harmful chemicals and toxins in our food, our environment and our everyday unhealthy lives and were pissed off with being lied to by corporations and governments, so were turning to alternative, natural.. well alternative, natural everything really.

The importance of keeping active and looking after your mental and spiritual health was also growing, along with the the belief that most health concerns can be prevented if you just look after yourself holistically (despite what the corporations and governments might tell you).

It seemed like a great place to start so we did.

Over time, costly mistakes were made but we now have our own brand and product with plans to launch several more products this year. I’ll be documenting my hustle in the business category on this blog and on social media, so tune in to these areas if you want to learn more about this.

 

What happened next, nobody could predict… well actually a psychic did but that’s another story!

So it was nothing but hard work, struggle, stress, depression, strained relationships and lost time with nothing to show for it for about 8 years until in the space of about 2-3 years, everything finally started to pay off and I:

• Progressed to Head of Digital and developed my digital marketing skills exponentially
• Dug myself out of the mess I was in and cleared off debt
• Saved my house and avoided destroying everything my parents had worked for
• Was finally able to enjoy a nice life with Joanne with healthy disposable income
• Had a growing business and our own brand and product

Life was good, I was happy and moving towards my goals. Remember one of my two life goals was to emigrate and I was just waiting until my life was at a certain level before pushing the button on this. I didn’t quite know what that level was but my gut was telling me this.

I expected it to be after the other life goal was achieved and work was optional. It wasn’t.

One of the owners of the agency decided to part ways to start an app which, combined with a couple other things, made me have a look into backup options just in case anything happened to the agency and therefore my job.

I spoke to a couple recruiters who dealt with some leading agencies but I wasn’t feeling good about this and hoped that everything would be ok where I was at. I thought:

“I’ll just have a look at Australia and see if I can even get in”

A few searches later and I find out that due to my age, I need 457 sponsorship or permanent residency sponsorship to get in and there seems to be a couple 457 sponsorship roles around for SEO and SEM.

I thought I’ll just fire over a couple emails just so I know:

1. If I can get in the country
2. What options and roles will be available
3. What’s involved – process, costs, timescales etc

About 2 days later I’m speaking on the phone to a recruitment agent here in the UK who responded to one of my enquiries. He had recently returned from a stint in Aus and gave me some insights into the digital marketing industry there and the lifestyle and a few other valuable bits of information and said that he would put me in touch with his recruitment agent contact in Sydney. He said that she will tell me straight away whether or not this is a possibility for me.

Then he hit me with the bombshell…

“If you get accepted, you have to be ready to emigrate in about 6 weeks. Also the digital industry in Australia is developing and so is the availability of native candidates for the roles. As soon as they can source candidates locally they won’t need to sponsor overseas applicants. If I were you I’d do this now rather than later or you might not get in.”

Wow! Ok well I still don’t know anything about it so I’ll just speak to people and get all the facts.

That night I went home and updated Joanne on the call I had earlier with the recruiter. I asked her if it came down to it and an offer was on the table and everything was all great, would you go? If you say no I won’t pursue it but if you say yes I’m going to go for it providing everything is ok.

She said that she always knew it was going to happen one day as I’d always said since first getting with her, that I needed to move abroad at some point as one of my major life goals – Australia ideally or Canada. She told me she would go for it if everything was alright, despite being understandably nervous. So I progressed the discussions.

A couple days later I have a Skype meeting arranged with a lady in Sydney who owned a recruitment agency with great experience in placing candidates in digital and in placing people from overseas.

After a lengthy chat, she thought that I was a good match for some roles although it would probably require taking a step back down to an SEO or SEM manager position and working on clients rather than running internal operations and strategy.

I thought if it gets me in Australia, then I’d be willing to consider it if the money was sufficient as I knew that I could go above and beyond once I’m in; help grow the agency and develop their services and strategies and move back up again in position. I’ve said a couple times, every decision should count towards your goals so therefore a step down would just be a means to an end to achieve life goal one and emigrate to Australia.

I was only getting information anyway at this stage to know what my options were, so I agreed to her setting up some Skype interviews with potentially interested agencies so I could learn more about them and what they do and see if I thought it was the right move.

About a week later I had a Skype interview arranged with one of the owners of an agency in Sydney.

Due to the time difference the interview was about 10pm at night UK time so there I was, sat in joggers… with a shirt and tie on! 🙂

It lasted about one and a half hours and we got on well and were both clearly passionate about digital marketing. It also sounded very similar to the agency I was currently at and loved.

A second Skype interview was arranged and following this they made an offer.

The next steps were to deal with the immigration lawyer and get a visa application prepared and submitted, hand my notice in, sell all our possessions, rent our house out, move back in my parents place and be ready to emigrate within 6 weeks! … Oh and there was no guarantee of your visa being accepted. *gulp*

Shit just got real!

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The achievement of life goal one

We decided to minimise risk in that I’d go over first and make sure it was alright – seeing as none of us had ever been to Australia – while Joanne would remain in her job in the UK.

We still had to sell all our possessions and move into my parents place though, so the uncertainty and watching all your home getting cleared out was emotional to say the least. I was about to roll the dice and completely change our finally ‘comfortable’ life for the unknown.

So the ball was rolling when I got an email from the immigration lawyer asking for all sorts of documents, one of which was my degree.

“I don’t have a degree.”

“Well you need one. If not then you need 5 years work experience in your role so do you have that?”

I had exactly 5 years.

Before I continue, I just want to clarify something that hit me at this point.

I think there is a very important lesson below:

I didn’t know at the time but there were a very strange sequence of events and coincidences that were in play since the day I started chasing my dreams and working extremely hard to achieve specific goals. Let me summarise these below along with my theory on this:

• Met a person at college who inspired me to look at Australia – his stories and the book he gave me, made me choose this amazing country as a destination of one of my major life goals (emigrating from the UK)
• Met a girl at the gym which prevented me from going to Australia at the time on a working holiday visa
• Met a client at the gym who owned a mortgage brokerage
• Met a friend at the gym who I started a supplement shop with
• Read lots of books while sat in the shop and learned about property being a key vehicle to achieve life goal 2
• Wanting to learn more about property resulted in the client from the gym getting me into mortgages
• Financial crisis in the UK put my back against the wall (with me working in mortgages) and forced me to teach myself digital marketing
• Teaching myself digital marketing enabled me to change careers
• I had been in the role the exact amount of time that is required for eligibility when one of the directors left which caused me to look at Australia
  • If I looked earlier, I would have destroyed everything and wouldn’t have got a visa
  • If I looked later, I might not have got in due to companies being able to source talent locally

This chain of events was set in motion the moment I made a decision to WORK TOWARDS achieving a clearly defined goal. Every person, every opportunity and every event over the last 8 or so years, all happened at exactly the right time to enable life goal 1 to be achieved.

In addition to this, understanding mortgages, property investing and digital marketing and working with lots of different businesses at the highest level (business owners, CEOs, managing directors etc), is going to enable me to get to a position where I can generate good income, invest in property and therefore achieve life goal 2. The path was carved out to take account of both goals it seems.

So what’s the lesson?

 

So here we are… Sydney, Australia!

We’d had some emotional farewell golf games, meals and nights out with friends at the weekend and even more emotional farewells with family but now it was Monday morning and the taxi was here to pick me up and I said even more emotional farewells to my parents and Joanne and set off to the airport.

It was a 7 hour flight followed by a 13 hour flight but the first one was delayed slightly which meant I had about 30mins in between the two. I had to literally run off one flight and straight to the gate where the next one was boarding.

I didn’t have time to grab a bottle of water and I was really dehydrated (yea yea alright I had a few whiskeys on the first flight) so explained the situation to the air hostess as I got on so as to add context to my desperate ask for water.

She gave me the water but then when everyone had taken their seats, she came back over to me and explained that there was a leg room seat available if I wanted it given my journey that I’d just told her about. Result! 🙂

The reality of the whole situation didn’t actually hit me until I collected my bags and left the airport. It was night time, I was worn out and all of a sudden I was totally on my own a million miles away from everyone and everything I was familiar with.

As I was walking to the taxi I thought.. oh shit!

I checked into my hotel (I only had hotels booked for 2 weeks by the way. After that I had nothing so had to find a place to live within those first 2 weeks of arriving) and said to myself, I’ll go to bed and rest then explore and see what the crack is tomorrow.

The next morning I headed out and saw Sydney city for the first time. I remember thinking that everyone looked well turned out, there were hardly any chavs and the place was really clean and green. Looks like a great city I thought… but it’s still just a city and I moved to the other side of the world for the beach lifestyle.

The second week I was in a different hotel in the suburbs close to where I was going to be working and close to the beaches. My plan was explore the city week one, check out the office and try to find an apartment as close to the office as possible before checking out the beaches and relaxing in week 2.

Finding an apartment was a bit stressful to say the least and knowing I had to have a place ready to move into by the end of 2 weeks was really on my mind. They have a set inspection date usually where all interested people attend and what I found was that they go really quickly. You have to have your application in and deposit paid right away to secure it.

I found one I liked round the corner from the office. It was perfect for the first 6 months while I sussed everything out and got Joanne over. It had to be mine. Time was running out so I called the property manager over after the viewing and explained the situation and that I wanted to move on the place and if he gave me a lift back to the office, I’ll fill out the contract there and then and pay the deposit!

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Signed and sealed the apartment was mine and ready to move in at the end of my 2 weeks. Time to relax and explore.

So week 1 saw me secure an apartment, recover from jetlag (I was falling asleep at 7pm and waking up at 2am) and explore the city but now it was time to hit the suburbs, relax and explore in my final week before starting work.

Day 1 in the next hotel and I decided to just head out walking towards Manly from Cremorne and see where I ended up, being sure to stop off at Balmoral Beach on the way.

I was walking along a busy main road, taking in all the sights for the first time while following my Google Maps app on my phone to Balmoral Beach. Turn right at the lights it said and you are there in 800 meters or whatever short distance it was.

Huh? It as a busy main road and everyone kind of lives here. It’s like a little village sort of thing, there can’t be a beach there surely?

As soon as I turned the corner I saw it and my heart started pounding and a huge smile started to form on my face. When I got down there I was speechless. I just sat there looking out to sea and back at the houses and apartments behind me thinking… I live here now. This is home!

I did know two guys over here before I came but I didn’t know them well. They were Facebook friends. One of them I did karate with nearly 20 years ago (although he did go to my old high school but a few years below me) and who I’d not spoken to for about 15 years and the other one was a friend of a friend who came to Ibiza with us for a week a couple years ago.

Never the less I reached out and connected with them and seemed to get on really well with everyone which was a huge relief.

The agency and the people I’d be working with were also great and I was happy. Aus was shaping up to be everything I wanted it to be and more.

Ever since being around age 19, I’d been chasing something that was missing from my soul and I didn’t quite know what ‘it’ was but I knew I had to emigrate to find it.  I knew in my heart this was the right thing because for the first time since age 19 (I’m 31 at this time in the story), the missing piece that I had been chasing was found.

One more hurdle to go… Joanne.

When Joanne first arrived, I was still in the little studio apartment near the office in a business suburb, surrounded by high rise buildings. Not the best first impression for her after giving up her cosy little home and moving away from all her close family to start a new life in Australia.

She wasn’t impressed with the apartment but seemed OK with being here and being with me.

The first 3 months were the hardest for her as she couldn’t work until we got her added on to my visa and then it took a little while to find a job and have interviews etc and all the while we only had one salary coming in. She was stuck on her own all day every day and was climbing the walls.

But fast forward another 3 months and she was in work, had got on well with the people I’d made friends with here and we were viewing apartments together that were within walking distance to several amazing beaches and a marina with lots of little bars and restaurants also on our doorstep.

Fast forward another 3 months and we are in our new apartment in a great location which we both love, our new friendships have grown much stronger and we are always doing things both together and with friends. Life is good and she’s loving it just as much as I am. Phew!

Let our new Aussie adventure begin!

That brings me to the end of the story to date so if you are still reading and have read it all then thank you ever so much for your attention and interest and feel free to ask any questions in the comments. I’ll update it periodically when I feel I have enough to write.

I’m still working towards life goal two and just launched this blog (it’s January 2017 right now) and will be active on social media moving forward too, sharing my journey and documenting things around 4 main areas:

• Marketing
• Business
• Fitness
• Life

If I could give any advice based on my experience so far it would be:

• Wanting something it is not enough. It has to be a burning desire so strong that you feel there is literally no other option for you other than to achieve it. It’s already achieved in your mind. You are 100% certain that you will achieve it. You don’t know when, you might not really know how yet but you know that you are going to achieve it and you are willing to burn all bridges behind you to achieve it… possibly because you have no other option. Pain and your back being against the wall is an amazing motivator if you channel it. This intense obsession and laser focused desire is what will enable you to have the resilience to see it through.

• You’ve got to do the work. Every second of every day that you have available you have to use it and allocate it to your goals. You can’t come in after a hard day’s work and chill out and relax and watch your favourite show or play video games. You have to go to work. This is so much more important in the early years when you’re grinding to level up, but these years are also the hardest and longest.

• I’ve heard many successful people say that they believe you can’t ‘teach’ entrepreneurship. I agree with that and let me tell you why. You can teach the principles and skills maybe but you can’t teach ‘it’. I don’t think you can ‘teach’ the mindset described above and without that mindset and the unwavering self belief, you won’t have the resilience and motivation to keep at it consistently and get back up without complaining when shit gets hard. You also won’t have the motivation or work ethic to to achieving it because you will have doubts and be wondering if it is achievable and if you are wasting your time and life.

• The law of attraction only works if you do. I know we said that earlier but I think it’s important and what a lot of people don’t get.

• I believe in the power of visualisation. Looking at a visual image board of your end result every day reminds you of your why. Why you are doing this and where you are visualising yourself ending up. I had the Australia collage pinned up behind my computer and remember that screensaver I mentioned where every day I could look at it and imagine myself there? Well I was off on a trip down the South Coast a couple hours outside of Sydney and Googled ‘Hyams Beach’ and looked at images. My jaw hit the floor when my screensaver popped up…

Lastly, the final piece of advice I think I can give is:

When I was young and like a lot of people of that age, I thought I would have achieved all this by the time I was 25! Haha! Although I’m still likely a good few years off achieving all I originally set out to do, despite all the endless hours and sacrifices, two things are 100% certain:

1. I am much further forward than I would have been and have a much better life than I would have had if I had not made these sacrifices and given my time to do the work consistently for years, despite some hard years and lost time in the early days.
2. If I thought ‘what if I don’t achieve it’ and therefore didn’t risk my time in putting the work in, I wouldn’t be much further forward than when I started.

Start, grind it out and then keep on keeping on! You’ll look back and be glad you did, even if you are only part way to where you wanted to be.

To your success,

Scott