My detour is over...

In May 2024 I started my own business after leaving comfortable jobs at Google and Adobe. You can read more about my reasons in the original post.

This newsletter was named Detour Diaries to represent the idea that I didn’t know exactly what direction I was heading in - just that I was going to be open to a variety of work and see what happens.

Let’s have a quick look back at last year before I share the big update that led to the subject line of today’s post.

I haven’t written anything here since March 2025. Not because I didn’t want to. Partly because I got caught in a trap of overthinking whether what I’m writing is interesting to read (though, really, I should just write it anyway), and partly because my brain has been more focused on life and work projects.

My last post focused on working towards YouTube monetisation. I had set myself a goal to start making money there before the end of the year. It happened much more quickly than I expected. By the end of May I had made my first ad revenue, and before the end of the year I had also taken on two sponsorships.

However, like with this newsletter, I struggled to release a video every week. I managed it whilst running to get monetised, but my uploads slowed to a walk once I got monetised. Again, partly because I was busy with projects, but partly letting perfectionism get in the way.

In 2025 I proved there’s an opportunity to grow more of my own business on YouTube, so I’ve set myself the goal to release 1 video per week from Feb - Dec this year.

I also started sharing a weekly tip in a newsletter for working professionals using Google Workspace and Gemini called Workspace Boost. I kept up the consistency with this one and expect to reach 1000 subscribers soon.

Most of the subscribers to Workspace Boost come from my YouTube videos, and I also plan to launch a related course this year.

Projects for clients still form the bulk of the work I do. There’s a good mix, from creating and updating course content for Google Digital Garage, through to one-off workshops for businesses, and more recently, creating videos for Jotform (an online form building app) on their own YouTube channel.

As summer 2025 rolled around I realised that my whole business is focused on technology. I’ve loved theme parks and rollercoasters for a long time - so it seemed a good choice to see if I could create something in that space. I setup a new YouTube channel and pivoted my TikTok and Instagram accounts.

Then I set out to ride every major rollercoaster in the UK, tracked on a dedicated website, releasing one short video per day. I never expected what happened next.

My TikTok videos gained 2.5M views, I appeared on Heart Breakfast every morning for two weeks (they have 4.5M weekly listeners), and even showed up on ITV News. I unexpectedly ended up with a Guinness World Record for ‘most rollercoasters ridden in a week,’ too!

I’ll share a dedicated post about that adventure soon.

As I said, the detour is over.

Not because the business is ending, but simply because it’s no longer a detour. This is just what I do now. And I won’t be doing it on my own…

Caroline, my amazing wife, just left her job for us to become 50/50 partners in the business and its success. I’m so excited to see what we can build together! It’s a move that will bring us more flexibility, increased fulfilment and, no doubt, a few challenges along the way.

This year will see an even bigger focus on creating more for ourselves as well as client projects, and further experimenting to see if it’s possible to build a revenue stream by sharing fun challenges and days out at theme parks.

I plan to keep sharing behind-the-scenes updates, thoughts and feelings as we build a business to sustain ourselves long into the future. (And keep an eye out for posts from Caroline here too!)

I’ve realised over the years that even seemingly huge life decisions are reversible. So, if it really does all go wrong, we’ll figure it out. Perhaps that means pivoting, or maybe finding employment again, but I’m quietly confident (or even perhaps a healthy dose of delusional) that we’re going to build something amazing.

I appreciate you following along with this journey, and I hope we can share more interesting insights as we go. Feel free to hit reply or leave a comment with any burning questions!