Welcome to Protocol
Read this to upgrade how you think, see your blind spots, and build a life that actually feels like yours.
Protocol is about the journey we go on when we change our way of thinking.
It doesn’t matter if that’s a business, a career or an identity. Protocol is for anyone going through a reinvention who wants to think more clearly and act with more intention.
The mission statement
I recently made a huge transition in my life.
I spent over a decade (far too long) as a software engineer. In that time, I became exceptional at “technical” thinking. But the career never sat well with me. So, when the time came to make a leap, I jumped ship. I entered the world of Search Engine Optimisation as a solo practitioner.
The switch was…not as elegant as I’d hoped.
The reality? In most ways, shifting from engineering to marketing has been amazing. It’s shown me the blind spots I’d developed through years of building software. But the change of mindset, from a career to a solo endeavour, has been jarring. It’s taken experimentation, hundreds of hours writing and—most of all—time, for things to start making sense.
My mission is to share that journey with you.
There won’t be any quick wins or hacky solutions to anything here.
You’ll get deep explanations, unusual takes, and personal experiments. You’ll get stories from my transition from software engineering to entrepreneurship.
Here’s the simple promise:
The more time you spend with my writing, the more differently you’ll think about work, attention, and the systems building your life.
Eventually? You’ll have the clarity and courage to build something of your own.
What’s your story?
My time at university was a total waste.
As an undergraduate, I studied chemistry. To be honest? I didn’t think much of it at the time. But in my final year, I decided to go on and do another degree. For years, I said it was because one of my lecture modules inspired me to keep going.
The real reason? I was delaying entering the real world.
Sadly, that didn’t occur to me at the time. I went on to do a postgrad degree in Chemical Biology. I completed it and graduated—but, from the moment I did, it was clear I wouldn’t be going on in the sciences.
So, at 23…I left university, broke and unemployed, refusing to get a job in my degree subject.
At 24, I got my first job in tech as a software tester. It wasn’t long before I transitioned to “engineer”.
At 32, I got laid off for the first time. My company was being acquired and I was being dropped in the process.
Then, a single year later, I nearly lost my job again. The tech downturn had hit my then-company hard, so they had to downsize. In that moment, it dawned on me: I don’t actually have any control at all.
At 35, I lost my job for the final time. The thing that really surprised me? How little I cared.
I was done with my career. It was my “now or never” moment; I was ready to take the dive into entrepreneurship.
My promise
In this Substack, I’m going to share:
What happens to your mind when you reinvent yourself. Life is full of invisible scripts. We need to hunt them down and rewire them.
The uncomfortable truths about gambling it all on yourself. Even the moments that make me look stupid or ridiculous.
Stories of trial, error, and growth. SEO experiments, creative projects and real moments of self-doubt.
I’ll give you every part of my mind, through ideas, mistakes and frameworks that have changed how I operate.
In return? I just want to make you think. I want to push you to examine your blind spots. And if anything I write has made you think differently, even for a moment, then I’m doing my job well.
So, sign up now so you never miss a single edition of Protocol.
If reinvention is the path you’re on, consider this your first step.