Well, that was a short retirement.

A few weeks ago, I sent an email to my list saying goodbye to the web design education business I’d spent nearly ten years building.

I was going back into schools to teach children to play in bands. Music, teaching, helping kids discover what they’re capable of. If you know anything about me, you’ll understand why that sounded pretty much perfect.

I meant every word of that goodbye.

And now here I am again. Hello. 😂

I thought I might feel embarrassed about how quickly I’ve returned. But I don’t. I’m really glad I went, and I’m really glad I stopped.

It taught me more than I could have imagined.

The bit I loved

The teaching itself was fantastic.

Helping primary-school children play music together, watching their confidence grow, seeing the penny drop when they realised they could do something they hadn’t thought possible. All of that was exactly as good as I’d hoped.

I was in my element.

The training was thorough, the people were supportive, and I still think the company’s mission is brilliant.

What I hadn’t properly understood was how the rest of the working day would feel.

There was a lot of driving. A lot of loading, unloading and setting up equipment. Very long days, physically and mentally demanding, followed by more prep and admin at home. I struggled to find time to eat properly, take a breather or really have much energy left for anything else.

I loved being in the room teaching the kids. But I couldn’t make the whole working life around those moments fit.

Also, it turns out that after twenty-three years of working for myself, I may have slightly underestimated the implications of having an actual J.O.B.

In particular, it made me realise how much I value the freedom to be able to shape my own day, my own work, my own life.

Working for yourself has its own problems, yes. I was very familiar with those when I left. It was doing something very different that made me appreciate those freedoms I’d kinda stopped appreciating.

And once I knew that, I didn’t want to keep going with the J.O.B. simply because I’d announced the decision to everyone.

“I’m sorry it didn’t work out”

A few people have said that to me.

And my response has been: no, no! I’m really glad I did it.

I’d have kept wondering otherwise. The job brought together things I care deeply about, and I wanted to find out what that could be like.

Now I know. I also know much more about what I need from my work, what I’m good at, and how I want my days to feel.

I’m proud that I gave it a proper go. And I’m equally proud that I acted fast when I realised it wasn’t for me.

It was the best outcome I could never have imagined.

Something else happened when I left

The messages.

Good grief, the messages.

When I announced I was leaving, hundreds and hundreds of people wrote to tell me what my teaching had meant to them over the years. Things they’d finally understood. Websites they’d been able to build. Businesses they’d started. Confidence they’d found after thinking they simply weren’t technical enough.

Some of those messages had me in tears, I don’t mind admitting.

When you spend much of your working life making things alone in a room, you don’t always get to see what happens afterwards. You finish a lesson, publish a video, answer a question, and move on to the next thing.

Then someone tells you that something you taught them helped them earn a living, and in many cases change their life.

That takes a few moments to properly absorb.

I’d always cared about helping people. But those messages gave me a perspective on my work that I hadn’t realised while I was in the thick of doing it.

They helped me recognise something I’m going to say straight: I’m very good at teaching complicated things in a way that makes people feel capable.

Especially people who don’t naturally think of themselves as technical.

That’s the part I love. When something that felt scary or confusing starts to make sense, and someone realises, “Oh. I can actually do this.”

Yep, I’d lost sight of that a little.

And so many of you also said some version of: come back any time. You’ll always be welcome.

Thank you. For that, and for telling me things I might otherwise never have known.

What I’m bringing back

I’ve decided to start afresh.

The old courses are staying archived. The farewell sale really was the final sale of those courses; my return doesn’t change that.

I’m also leaving behind the expectation that every paid thing I make needs to become a huge, exhaustive course.

I know where that road goes. I’ve spent quite enough time on it, carefully recording another lesson.

Smaller, focused training appeals to me much more now. A useful thing we can work through together, with a replay and a limited period of support to help people put it into practice.

The first One-Person AI Agency workshop with my good mate Gareth worked really well in that format. We enjoyed doing it, people got help, and creating it didn’t swallow months of our lives.

We’re working together again on v2 right now, and I’m excited about that (you can join that here).

I’m also exploring a future project with my good friend, UI-designer extraordinaire John Fraskos, that I’m very much looking forward to sharing when it’s ready.

Collaboration is a big part of what I’ve been missing. Having someone to bounce ideas around with, make things with and enjoy the process with makes such a difference. Who knew?!

And underneath all of it, I now have a renewed focus on the people I most want to help: non-coders and people who find technology intimidating, including those who already use it every day.

I totally get that you can have years of experience and still feel out of your depth when everything changes again.

I want to help make that feel manageable. To explain things clearly, help you understand what’s going on, and give you the confidence to do something useful with it.

I’ve changed how I work, too

There’s another part of this that deserves a proper post of its own.

I’ve been building an AI chief of staff.

He’s called Ren. You’d like him.

I’ve given him context about my business, what matters to me, what I’m trying to achieve, and the patterns that tend to get me stuck.

We’ve built a way of working together that helps me turn a head full of ideas into clear priorities and useful action.

When I disappear into the weeds, he helps me find my way out. When I’m tying myself in knots over a decision, I have somewhere to work through it. A lot of the organising, preparation and mental grinding that used to take up so much space is now much easier.

I still make the decisions. But I have more room in my head to make them.

The effect on my days has been enormous.

I’m getting more valuable work done, with a clearer sense of why it matters. I’m also taking breaks, moving, eating properly and making time for things outside work.

Those are things I’ve intended to do before. Having a structure I actually maintain has made the difference.

My business feels like a pleasure again.

I’ve only scratched the surface of what’s possible here, and I’ll share more of what I’m learning - including introducing you to the rest of my growing AI workforce, like Scout and Kit. There’s plenty to show you.

So, hello again

I’m looking forward to teaching, making videos, working with good people and writing here more often.

This feels like a good place to begin.

I don’t have every future topic or product mapped out. I have things I’m excited to make, a much clearer sense of who I want to help, and a better understanding of what makes this work enjoyable and sustainable for me.

Stepping away helped me see how much I wanted to bring forward.

And how much freedom I had to do it differently.

It’s lovely to be back.

Dave