Standing outside the publishing house on my first day as a publishing assistant, I thought I had made it. This was the job I had worked towards for years, and a part of why I studied English Literature. I imagined that desk as the start of a creative career.

But as the days turned into months, the excitement faded. I wanted something more dynamic. I didn’t know exactly what that looked like yet, but I knew I wanted to be closer to the action, to see the impact of what I was doing and to keep learning.

That search led me somewhere I never expected: door-to-door marketing.

I worked with charities, speaking to people every day about causes that mattered. It was challenging, but I loved the immediacy of it. For the first time, I could see a direct line between the effort I put in and the results I got back. More than that, I learned how to read people, adapt on the spot and communicate with all kinds of personalities. Those lessons have followed me through nearly every role since.

From there, I moved into e-commerce and advertising sales, getting my first real taste of digital marketing. Alongside that, I started writing content on the side. I taught myself SEO and began writing about property investment and development, an area I had always been curious about. Before long, I had written over 200 articles. 

That was the moment I realised writing didn’t have to mean choosing between creativity and something practical. I could use words to explain complicated things clearly, hold someone’s attention and help them find exactly what they needed.

Learning by Doing

That curiosity eventually took me into agency life, where I built a much broader set of skills. Content, PPC, social media, Canva, video editing, and how all of those pieces fit together.

Life was hard during this period. I went through a spell of homelessness while trying to keep my career moving. I don’t say that for sympathy. I say it because it changed how I see everything since. It taught me I could start with almost nothing and still find a way through.

At one point I was working from an old iPhone 6s because that was what I had. If I didn’t know how to do something, I taught myself. If I couldn’t teach myself, I found someone who could show me.

Slowly, everything I had picked up started to connect. I could write SEO content, build websites, create graphics, run social media, and understand the thinking behind a brand rather than just the words sitting on the page.

I remember writing PR pieces for Lawyer Monthly and Real Deals on an ordinary Tuesday afternoon. Less than a year before that, I had been struggling to find somewhere to sleep. That contrast has never left me.

Growth really Works

My next real step came when I was approached about a marketing role at Growth Works. The programme was struggling at the time, but I could see what it might become. I worked on its positioning, its branding, its voice, and watched it grow into something genuinely strong.

I understood that it isn’t about producing or churning out more content. It’s about understanding what you’re actually trying to say, who you’re saying it to, and why any of it should matter to them.

That work led to my first official client, the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority Growth Hub. I carried everything I had learned into that role: building relationships, testing new ideas, finding ways to make things work instead of waiting until I had all the answers.

One moment I still think about often is standing on stage at the Cambridge Small Business Awards to present an award. I looked out at the room and had one of those rare, clear moments when the distance between where you started and where you’ve ended up suddenly hit me all at once.