If you’d told me at 22 how my life would look at 32, I wouldn’t have believed you.
10 years ago, I wanted to be a Clinical Psychologist.
I left school in 2011, got a degree in Psychology, and spent years working in various mental health roles.
But then, in 2016, a YouTube video changed everything.
I was in my mid-twenties by then, and restless…
Trips to Sri Lanka & New Zealand years earlier had shown me how amazing life could be, and how little time I had to enjoy it.
I wanted to live fully and have adventures.
Yet there I was, living with my parents, working multiple jobs that made me dread Monday mornings.
I was itching for something more.
On a cold, dreary day in 2016, I was lying on the couch in my room when it dawned on me.
Nothing was going to change unless I made it happen.
From there, I started researching ways to make enough money to afford the lifestyle I wanted.
And that’s how I stumbled on the YouTube video.
It was a Ted Talk on a concept I’d never heard about before:
Passive income.
I was hooked.
So hooked, in fact, that I spent the next eight years trying to get my hands on it.
My first attempt was an Amazon FBA business.
It began as a side hustle, but by 2017, I’d become so obsessed that I quit my job in mental health to see where it would lead.
By then, I’d created a brand and started a company.
I called it “Coddiwomp”, from “Coddiwomple”, which means to ‘travel with purpose to an unknown destination’.
My first product was a bright green money belt.
It ended up being my only product…
I went all in.
After spending my remaining savings on 500 units from a factory in China, it was do or die.
And it died. The belts all sold eventually, but too slowly to have any real financial impact.
So, in 2018, I pivoted.
I started blogging.
It might sound random, but I’d created a blog in 2017 to market my money belts.
In the process, I discovered two things:
- I loved writing, and
- Successful bloggers earned passive income
It felt like a natural shift, and I threw myself into it.
Yet there were more changes to come.
By the time the business had fizzled out, I was desperate to go travelling…
I just couldn’t see a way to do it.
I was skint – more so, ironically, than before I’d started on Amazon.
However, Facebook posts from two old uni friends had caught my eye.
They were in Thailand, working online, literally making money on the beach.
A lightbulb went off in my mind.
I didn’t need lots of money to travel. I didn’t even need passive income. I just needed a remote job.
After researching my options, I used my blog as a portfolio to wangle a freelance writing position.
The pay was atrocious, but I felt like I’d won the lottery. That job opened up the world and gave me the freedom I’d been seeking for years.
Suddenly, I could go travelling forever, working wherever and whenever I wanted to.
Seven years later, and that thought still makes me feel like a kid in a candy store.
I convinced my girlfriend to come with me.
My first serious relationship, we’d met in 2015 while travelling around New Zealand.
The plan was to explore South America together, starting in Colombia.
I’d sold, thrown out, and donated almost everything I owned, and packed what was left into a backpack.
By October 2018, everything was ready. But then…
She broke up with me.
We ended on good terms, but I was devastated.
South America lost its appeal.
Flip, everything lost its appeal.
I shut down everything I’d been doing. The blog. The company.
I just closed the door on that chapter of my life.
I wanted a fresh start.
It’s strange how things work out, though.
If that relationship hadn’t ended,
I wouldn’t have any of what I’m most grateful for today.
Post-breakup, I began working on a new blog called What’s Danny Doing.
It was just a distraction at first. But the name seemed fitting.
I felt like I had no idea what I was doing with my life.
It also had a literal meaning, though.
After a few weeks of moping, I’d decided to go travelling anyway – just by myself, and not to Colombia.
The plan was to figure things out as I went, record the journey on my blog, and use it to help people with similar aspirations.
So, in November, I flew to Thailand with three aims:
- Travel as much as possible
- Do freelance writing to pay my way, and
- Build a blogging business that earned passive income
That became my life for the next six years.
However, within a few months, I made a decision that proved unbelievably fateful.
It was February 2019, and I was back in New Zealand.
After touring the country with my dad for two weeks, I’d decided to hitchhike to a stunning town called Wanaka.
It’s probably my favourite place on Earth.
It’s also where I’d met my ex four years earlier.
I thought going there would give me closure.
I ended up getting something totally different.
On one of the final hitches, a beautiful Kiwi girl called Meg picked me up.
I was smitten from the get-go.
We talked for hours on that car journey, and, from there, basically never said goodbye.
We’ve been together ever since, travelling from place to place with stints of work in between.
Indeed, I feel like only two things in my life have stayed consistent over the last six years.
Meg is one. The other is my blogging business…
My original plan for What’s Danny Doing never panned out.
The idea stayed the same, but I realized I could get results without ever making it about me.
I liked that approach better.
After all, I’d never set out to be an “influencer”.
I wanted an asset that made money in the background.
Alongside my writing and travels, though, I totally underestimated how long it would take to build…
I thought I’d hit my goal in 6-12 months.
It took me five years to get anywhere close.
However, by 2023, things were going well.
What’s Danny Doing was making £1-3k every month, enabling me to do cool stuff, like run 1000 miles across the UK for charity in 2022 👇.
I was working on other things by then, as well.
For a chunk of 2023, I was a direct publisher on MSN, which was incredibly lucrative.
Altogether, in my best month as a blogger, I made almost £20k.
It felt good, but it was mostly just a relief.
After trying and failing for so many years, something had finally worked.
I went from feeling a constant, steady, slow-burning shame to being able to breathe a bit.
That year, I trained for and ran a 50K Spartan Ultra, and started fantasizing about the future.
Could I buy a house? Some land? Pay off my debts? Give back to everyone who’d helped me?
Everything felt hopeful. But sadly, it didn’t last long.
At the end of 2023, Google updated its algorithm.
Then, without warning, MSN shadow-banned lots of small publishers, including me.
Within a few weeks, I lost over 95% of my revenue.
In the following months, I worked crazy hours to turn things around and burnt out in the process.
But to no avail.
I can’t lie. It wasn’t a fun season of my life!
However, the silver lining was that it forced me to stop and reflect on what I’d been doing.
Ultimately, I realized I didn’t enjoy it anymore.
It was time for a(nother) change.
After spending thousands on ads, masterminds, workshops, and courses, I landed on what I do today.
In 2025, the goal is to rebuild my business and earn £10k/month as a creator. Here’s the plan:
- Create a personal brand around everything I’ve done for the last 7+ years
- Share what I’ve learned about content creation to help people with similar goals, and
- Document the process.
I’d love you to follow along.
Thanks for reading.
Danny✌️
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The old (still somewhat relevant) “About Me” section from the original blog:
“Danny Newman is a writer, content creator, and digital nomad from the UK. He founded the travel and lifestyle blog What’s Danny Doing, a popular resource for people seeking more adventure, self-discovery, and purpose. A nationally syndicated writer, Danny’s work features in dozens of online publications, including MSN.com and news sites across the US.”
