Our Story
Ecommerce: A love story
our Story
2005...
Yes, that’s a long time ago now! Nathan was an Air Traffic Controller in the Royal Australian Air Force, and Tess was studying to become a teacher. This is the year we met, and also the year that Nathan decided he didn’t want a job anymore. Know the feeling…?
Fast forward to 2023, and we are living in an incredible beachside apartment on the island of Penang, dolphin spotting from our balcony while our now eight year old son goes to the epic International School right next door. It wasn’t always like this though…
To give you some context, PayPal only launched in Australia in 2005, that’s how early we were! There was little to no education or resources as to how to sell online, and any that existed were very USA focused. We were selling on ebay, and making enough to get by though, until October 2008 when the Global Financial Crisis turned everything on its head.
Ebay went from being quite profitable to unprofitable within a matter of weeks, and we had to rethink everything.
That’s when we started down the path of selling through our own websites, and boy was that a rocky road to go down. Google spankings, clunky Google Ads, almost non-existant social media – those were rough times! Throw in doing all this while living through the earthquake in Christchurch in 2010, and things felt a bit shaky at times… (yes, dad joke).
But after some extreme experiments (one of which involved starting over 30 ecommerce sites and using every SEO method anyone had ever mentioned to figure out what would work – and stay working), we managed to break through, while working from our very cool little apartment in the western suburbs of Bangkok, Thailand.
Since then, the one thing we are constantly amazed at is how consistent and steady our particular brand of ecommerce has been, not just for us, but also for those we have mentored over the years.
We still see more opportunities and niches than we could possibly do ourselves, and still so few people taking the plunge and putting in the effort and time required to change their lives like we did.
We also want to see more people take control over their own lives, as we believe that only people who have control can make true change in our world without having to do what their bosses or governments tell them.
Our true passion is helping others do just that. While it’s not the only vehicle to achieve this freedom, Ecommerce has been the model that has allowed us the kinds of choices that we wish others had too, so this is what we teach.
We don’t know where you are on your journey (free free to tell us using our contact page), but our hope for you is that however you do it, you eventually achieve whatever goals you are reaching for. Most people won’t put in the effort, or make the sacrifices that are necessary in the early days. Please don’t let this be you.
See you on the other side!
