Why I Started a Blog While Working a 9-5

A lot of people ask me why I decided to start a blog while working a 9-5. “Isn’t blogging dead?” “That’s cool — what are you writing about?” “How do you even have time to run a blog?” Different questions from different people, but what I’ll say is this: it’s given me a sense of purpose and pride, and it’s something that’s kept me going when I’ve felt stuck in a funk or a rut in life.

The Moment It Started

I remember it clearly. In 2024, I was having a pint with my mum back in England — our first visit in 12 years since moving to Canada. A lot had happened by that point: Rachel and I had bought our house, I’d played my first football season here and won the playoffs (huge for me — I’d never really won anything before). Life was looking good, except on the career side. I’d started feeling stagnant at work, and I was missing some of my old hobbies. 2024 had been too hectic — work and getting the house over the line had taken up all the room.

I used to stream on Twitch, with some small success. But after we moved into Rachel’s parents’ house, I didn’t feel comfortable doing it with them around, and it started feeling like something I had to do rather than something I wanted to. The fun disappeared, so I stopped, even though it had been making a bit of money each month.

Around that time, my mum mentioned she wanted to start a blog herself, and told me I should look into it too. A few months later, I had my regular catch-up with my friend Corey, where we talk through business ideas and startups — the same conversations that eventually led to another idea of ours, Book It! I pitched him the blog idea. We’d started having these chats after university specifically to keep the skills we’d learned in school sharp, since once you’re in the working world, you stop reaching for them as often.

Not long after, I started Building-Up. Corey started an e-commerce site around the same time. Here we both are.

What I Was Hoping For

On the grand scale, I’d love to own and operate my own media company one day — to step away from the regular 9-5 entirely. I know it’s a cliché, and I know everyone wants some version of the same thing, but it’s still true for me. I don’t feel fulfilled running on the same hamster wheel every day, so I want to build something of my own and shape it into something bigger — enough to eventually replace my income and let me focus on it full time.

On a smaller scale, this blog has also just been a creative outlet. A lot of my life is fairly start-and-finish, black-and-white, with not much in between. Building-Up has taught me skills I never had before and pushed me well outside my comfort zone. It’s been a genuinely good learning experience, and I’m hoping to keep learning as it goes.

The Reality of Doing This Alongside a Full-Time Job

It’s been surprisingly harder than I expected. I try to schedule time for it, but like most people, my availability is thin and unpredictable. I’m not a parent, but I sort of play the “dad” role in my friend group and family — I’m often the person people come to for help, for appointments, for questions. On top of that, there’s football in the summer, working on the house, and trying to stay present for Rachel and for my friendships.

I’ve stayed up late plenty of nights re-designing the website when inspiration hits, and gotten up early other mornings to get things done before work. I once spent two and a half days creating three Pinterest pins each for over 20 posts on this blog — only for the URL to get flagged on Pinterest right after I migrated hosting providers, making all of it pointless. There have been a lot of grinds and setbacks along the way. Fittingly, the blog itself actually started as an email campaign before it became what it is now.

The Hard Parts I Didn’t Expect

The hardest parts have been image creation and SEO keyword research for me . Everyone online makes it sound simple — “just do your SEO optimisation” — but almost no one actually shows you how, properly. I do my best, but sticking mostly to free tools means hitting roadblocks constantly, which makes creating content harder than it should be.

I’ve also never really liked or used social media much myself, so the learning curve there has been steep — which is a big part of why my time on Pinterest was so short-lived.

What’s Kept Me Going

Honestly, it’s the hope that someday this becomes something more. It’s also the one thing in my life I actually have full control over — my day job may still feel stagnant even after years there, but I control exactly what happens with this website. And I still genuinely want to help people with what I write. I know I don’t have much of an audience yet, but if this ever helps even one person get closer to where they’re trying to go, that’s enough for me.

Where I’m At Now, and What’s Next

This is post #24. It’s been a rollercoaster getting here, and honestly, I didn’t think it would take this long. But here we are.

My hope is to reach 50 posts — really push to get there — and then start making YouTube videos that tie into the content I’ve already written. Partly that’s about growing the brand, but it’s also about pushing myself out of my comfort zone. I’ve always been shy about putting my face online, but people who know me say I’m personable and would do well at it. Either way, I’m trying to keep doing the things that feel scary and uncomfortable, because that’s usually where the actual growth happens — as a person and as a professional.

If you’ve got any thoughts on how to grow this, I’m genuinely open to hearing them. And if you’ve read this far — thank you.