“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” – Matthew 16:26
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted here.
I just wrapped up a successful 4-year stint as the full-time marketing manager at an ISP marketing agency. That job was originally offered to me because the owner read my articles that I wrote here on geographic microtargeting.
Once I began my new role, I stopped posting on this site because all of my work during that time was covered by NDAs, and I found it difficult to write articles without talking about my recent experiences.
I recently made a successful exit from that role in order to focus on my personal life moving forward.
COVID changed my perspective on a lot of things. Isolated at home in a new city with very little support network, my wife and I went through an extended period of loss, trauma, and health issues.
Dealing with all of this really brought our priorities into focus. We were forced to think through what was truly important to us, and we decided to take radical action in order to pursue a life that we found truly fulfilling.
So, we sold our brand new 4-bedroom house in the city, and moved to the country… into a one-bedroom cabin with a loft on 30 acres that I had spent over a year tearing down to the studs and rebuilding myself into a farmhouse. It still needs a lot of work, but it finally feels like home here. We bought a herd of fluffy Scottish Highland cattle and 40 laying hens.
I’m sure most of our friends & family thought we were crazy. But who cares? This is our life, not theirs.
Here… here, we are happy.
We may be stressed out – quite frequently at times. We may be hectic. We may be running from one problem to the next. We definitely miss the stable income of my previous job. But here on the creekside among the cows and chickens, we have finally begun to truly experience joy, probably for the first time in either of our adult lives.
We have finally been able to focus on our mental and physical health… I’ve lost 60 pounds in the past year in trying to tame these 30 acres into a working farm.
I try to spend my days doing things that bring me joy. One of my favorite things has always been writing. So, here I am. I’m back.
I still plan on primarily writing about digital marketing – my main source of income is from freelance work, where I consult, train, and manage ads for a small select list of clients.
However, I might also write on other topics that interest me from time to time. I have started a fence-building company, where I hire farmers that need supplemental income to help me build farm fences for farms that need help building them. I love the work and being on-site, but I primarily see myself as a middle man, solving two problems at once – finding income for farmers that need income, and labor for those that need labor.
I might also write about our farming & homestead journey. Unlike the marketing, these won’t be written from the perspective of experience, but from the perspective of curiosity and experimentation, as part of my learning process. We are new to this, but eager students.
Anyway, I hope you choose to stick around. If you are interested in all things digital marketing but don’t care about fluffy cows or fences, probably 80% of my content will still be relevant to you. I’ll be posting tutorials, analysis, strategy tips, and shortcuts that I use as part of my freelance work.
If you’d like me to cover anything in specific, please let me know!
- Trey
Get Nerdy With Me 