Welcome to my Notes.

Welcome to Notes by me ‘Alex’. A place where I write down my practical notes, ideas and thoughts around the things I’m most interested in: marketing, branding, psychology and business. You might find them useful. You might not. Either way, they’re here if you want to read them.

If I’m honest I started this ‘blog’ (there’s something about that word that makes me cringe) for myself. I spend quite a lot of time reading, listening and thinking about these topics, and I wanted somewhere I could store all my notes on them in one place. However, as I started writing the first few I thought that they might also be helpful, even if it’s just a few sentences, to someone else. So here they are.

Anyway, a bit about me.

I worked in marketing for two years, before I decided to take a mid-life career break at 23. I’ll get onto that later.  I did however actually start out my, so far short career, in a completely different industry - accountancy and finance. Even though I did think at the time that I had wasted 3 years of my career in finance, in hindsight it gave me a good foundational knowledge of business and how they are actually run. However, what it most importantly taught me, is what I didn’t want to do in life: wear a shirt and tie to sit in front of a computer and despise Monday mornings.

So, why did I switch to Marketing?

If I’m honest at the time I knew a few people who worked in the marketing industry, who earned good money and lived a lifestyle I liked - so my interest was initially peaked for those reasons.

Then, after having a lot of free time during covid (what a fun time that was) to research into the industry, what started out as just curiosity quickly grow to become a genuine interest. I saw marketing as a way of being able to have a positive and meaningful impact on the businesses I worked in. Something that still to this day is why I enjoy marketing so much.

Since then, my interest has evolved into a real passion for marketing, branding, and business strategy (I know how boring). I find it fascinating how different brands approach growth. How they evolve over time. How strategy, storytelling, and customer experience all come together to shape businesses that people genuinely connect with. How purpose-driven brands, those that think long-term, prioritise their building community between their customers shared desires and interests. And, how brands can become stand for some bigger than the products or services they sell.

Now for the part you’re really waiting for, ‘My mid-life career break’.

Like any wise 23 year old, I quit my job to travel the world for 7 months. And by ‘the world’ I mean Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia. I travelled all down the East Coast of Australia (Cairns to Melbourne), road-tripped through New Zealand in a motorhome (Auckland to Queenstown) - a country you need to visit if you haven’t already - and backpacked across Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand.

I wanted to mention my experience travelling because I believe if you have the opportunity to its one of the best things you can spend your money and time on. And, by 'travelling' I don't mean the type of travelling that involves growing a ponytail and playing a guitar around a fire pit. I mean just getting away from the routine of home life. It really does give you perspective, fresh ideas, and renewed sense of motivation - not just for work, but for life in general.

That’s all from me. And, if you were wondering - no, I didn’t get AI to write this. I wrote it myself, which probably explains why there’s a few grammar and punctuation! Errors. But, at least it sounds a bit more authentic than the boring crap we're all used to reading these days, well I am anyway.

Please note. As some wise old guy once said, “work smart, not hard.” So, I can’t promise I haven’t used AI to assist with writing any of the actual ‘Notes’ (Notes = less cringe word for ‘Blogs’).

Enjoy my Notes, not ‘Blogs’.