my story…
Hi, I’m Paul, and welcome to my website.
I’ve always had an entrepreneurial streak. At 17, I started a monthly newsletter called Scope and began marketing shareware. Before long, that grew into selling computers at the computer fairs of the 90s, then building custom systems, and later moving into IT brokerage, supplying tech to businesses, trade outlets, and individuals.
Looking back, business was only ever part of the story. What I really enjoyed was helping people, sharing ideas, and encouraging others to believe in what might be possible for them. Over the years, that became a big part of who I am.
In 2006, I started a business focused on support, training, web design, and hosting. Since then, I’ve worked in a range of digital and business support roles, helping individuals, communities, and small businesses. My most recent role in Wales was as a Digital Business Advisor, supporting both start-ups and established businesses, and before that I was involved in a community project called Focus Futures.
Then life took a bit of a turn.
In August 2023, I boarded my first flight to Bolivia to reunite with my girlfriend, Vanesa, and begin what turned into a five-month adventure across South America. We spent time in Bolivia, Brazil, and Argentina, and for me it was more than just travel. It was the start of asking a much bigger question: could I really build a life that gave me more freedom, more purpose, and the chance to work remotely while exploring the world?
I came back to Wales on 1 January 2024, going from 40-degree heat to a very fresh Welsh winter. While I was away, I had been offered a 12-month contract as a Digital Business Advisor, so I returned home, got stuck into the work, and spent the year supporting businesses while still carrying that bigger dream in the back of my mind.
At the start of 2025, I headed back to South America to take that next step and try to build a more location-independent life and business. The original plan was to base ourselves in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, before moving to Tefé in the Amazon, where Vanesa had been offered her dream job working with jaguars.
And we did make the move.
We spent four months in the Amazon, and although it was an incredible experience in many ways, it did not work out as we had hoped. That is the honest version. Sometimes the dream and the reality do not line up in quite the way you imagined. But even when something does not work out, it still becomes part of your story, and often part of your growth too.
That is one of the reasons this blog exists.
Just Blog Life is where I share the mix of digital work, travel, lifestyle, personal growth, and all the unexpected twists that come with trying to create a different kind of life. Some of it is about business. Some of it is about remote work and technology. Some of it is simply about figuring things out as you go.
I do not pretend to have all the answers, but I do believe there is value in sharing the journey honestly. If something I write helps you, inspires you, or just makes you feel a little less alone in your own next chapter, then this website has done its job.
Thanks for being here and following the journey.
Paul
whatS next…
For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to create a life with more freedom — the freedom to work remotely, explore new places, keep learning, and build something meaningful along the way.
Some of those dreams already came true. I now have a home by the sea in Mumbles, I found the love of my life, and over the past couple of years I’ve taken big steps towards living and working in a very different way. Not always perfectly, and not always as planned, but that is often how the most important journeys unfold.
What comes next is still being written.
Right now, my focus is on continuing to grow my freelance work, developing new ideas, and building Digital Growth 101 — a project I care deeply about, designed to help small business owners, aspiring entrepreneurs, and side hustlers feel more confident using digital marketing and technology.
I do not have every step mapped out, but I do know this: life moves forward when you are willing to take chances, adapt, and keep going.
So this next chapter is about doing exactly that — building, learning, exploring, and staying open to wherever the journey leads next.
Thanks for being here and following along.
