Every person has a story, we think that’s worth sharing.

From a young age, the creative need was present. “He’d do so much better if he paid more attention and stopped drawing,” a common quote from most of my high school teachers. Also a common trait amongst creatives, and I saw this early on. So the self-doubter in me was aware of the struggle it might be to make a living from being creative. So I became a butcher.

A 1-year traineeship turned into a 3-year apprenticeship, to get a trade under my belt as a sort of fallback job. Well, the fallback ended up leading to a store manager position with an equally handsome income. After doing this for a few years, the passion deep down was yearning and as much as the process of turning muscle into meals was okay, it wasn’t enough. I valued my time in this industry as it helped me understand the importance of process and communication, but the time for change had come.

2 years of full-time study was the answer, which reignited my passion and curiosity for all things creative. The degree was Visual Communications, and the learning was broad but hands-on. A real ‘learn-as-you-do’ kind of college, I appreciated every moment spent there and learned not only the skillset I use every day but an appreciation for craft and concepts.

From college, I freelanced for a few individual companies before landing a role in a creative agency. Now, this is where my ‘dream-come-true’ moment began. Large clients to work on great briefs, great creatives around me inspiring the best from each other, and some really amazing relationships were made…but you know where this is going because every story needs the anti-climax. Well, our humble creative agency was bought out by a large, multi-national Advertising Agency, and while my colleagues were all a bit worried, I saw this as an amazing opportunity. Sure enough, the big bosses worried about the money side of things more so than the ideas and the creative environment. It became a corporate soul sucker that encouraged speed over creativity, turnover instead of curiosity, and one-by-one colleagues’ jobs were being made redundant, and my time came as well.

A blessing in disguise I can see this now, but at the time I really thought I was living the dream. I was approached by some other agencies but found myself wanting to steer clear of any possibility of a repeat, so the wife and I decided to sell up, hit the road and live from our van, see Australia and appreciate life once again. This downtime really helped me to see the important things in life. Moments over money, purpose over paycheques…and people, making sure people are at the center of why I do what I do.