SECOND WIND

This week is about something I've been thinking about a lot recently. People often say that time heals everything. I'm not sure that's true. I think time changes your relationship with what happened. In this episode I look back at three moments that completely changed my life: losing my dad, leaving a 31-year career, and selling everything before leaving the UK. At the time, each one f...

This week starts on a train platform in Malaysia with one suitcase, two rucksacks, and a quiet realisation. A year ago we had a house, two cars, a garage full of projects, thousands of records, and all the things that come with building a life over three decades. Today everything we own fits onto a luggage trolley, and Yvonne still thinks we could carry less. I talk about clearing my late dad'...

Everybody talks about escaping. Escaping the job. Escaping the commute. Escaping the mortgage. Escaping the UK. Escaping the routine. But almost nobody talks about what happens the morning after. This week I talk about the strange reality of life after the thing you've spent years trying to reach finally arrives. Leaving a 31-year career, selling everything we owned, leaving the UK, and buildi...

This week’s episode starts with a simple question: What if the thing you’ve been trying to grow isn’t actually the thing you want? After spending the last year and a half building a YouTube channel from zero, I found myself looking at subscriber numbers, view counts and performance charts in exactly the same way I once looked at sales targets. The numbers were growing, but so was the pressure. Som...

This week I answer one of the questions I get asked more than almost any other: Would I ever go back to work? To answer it properly, I go right back to the beginning. From my first job at Halfords in 1993, through Scottish Power, Belkin, British Gas, Hive, and eventually running sales across large parts of Europe, this is the full story of the 31-year career that shaped most of my adult life. Alon...

This week’s episode is probably the closest I’ve come to explaining where all of this actually came from. Not YouTube specifically. Not travel. Not even the decision to leave the UK. The deeper thing underneath it all. I talk through the real timeline for the first time properly, from football obsession at nine years old, to guitar and music production, DJing for twelve hours straight without want...

This week I talk through the strange feeling of building something slowly from nothing, after launching Second Wind properly as a podcast and watching the first real signs of life appear on Spotify and Apple. We get into the reality behind “durability over virality”, why 99 listens and a genuine first comment meant more to me than chasing explosive numbers, and what it feels like trying to rebuild...

This week we talk through why I finally launched Second Wind properly as a podcast, and how these live streams slowly turned from random conversations into a real archive of rebuilding life after redundancy. We also get into GameStop’s attempted bid for eBay, Ryan Cohen’s wider strategy, and why I’m still holding positions most people dismiss as madness while generating income through covered call...

This week we talk through why I’m still holding GameStop while most people write it off as a meme stock, and why the company sitting on billions in cash changes the entire conversation. At the same time, the British Gas Ombudsman finally sided with me after nearly two years fighting over the handling of my late father’s account. But the bigger battle is still ongoing. The £13,500 insurance dispute...

The stock market recovered. Then wiped thousands back off the account in a single day after SoFi announced what looked like strong earnings. At the same time, I’m fighting two separate legal battles connected to my late father and the hospital stay that nearly killed me in Kuala Lumpur. This episode moves between market volatility, grief, bureaucracy, and the strange reality of building a life abr...

The investment account went from -$38,000 to +$18,000 in a few weeks. At the exact same time, Yvonne drank an “aloe vera cleanse” in Bali that nearly wiped us both out for 48 hours. This episode moves between market recovery, options trading, and the reality of slow travel when things go wrong. Explosive dehydration. A smashed foot in the shower. Back spasms from jumping jacks. Monkeys attacking p...

The stock portfolio went from -$32,000 to +$3,000 in a matter of days. At the same time, the NHS finally called me after a 17-month wait for a kidney stone appointment… while I was sitting in an airport leaving Malaysia for Bali. This episode moves through market volatility, grief, health scares, and the strange psychology of building a life outside the normal system. We talk about why some people...

The stock account recovered from -$32,000 to -$8,000 in two weeks. The insurance company now has until May 4th to decide whether they’ll even allow the arbitration process to continue. And somewhere in the middle of all that, I realised I’ve now been self-employed for nearly a year and a half. This episode drifts through market volatility, grief, ageing, health anxiety, and the strange reality of...

Down $32,000 at one point. Still selling options. Still sleeping fine. This week we talk through what it actually feels like watching an account swing violently while trying to build a life without a salary in Southeast Asia. There’s also the reality outside the charts. Walking a border collie through Kuala Lumpur at 7am while strangers shout from cars. Accidentally extending a house sit because w...

House sitting three animals in Kuala Lumpur. Walking a border collie at midnight while fireworks go off across the city. Playing jazz music to calm a stressed dog while trying to build a completely different life outside the UK system. This week we talk through the real mechanics behind the move. Covered calls. Patreon growth. Losing 14kg after redundancy and surgery. Why one viewer burned through...

Tax forms. Visa strategy. House sitting with dogs and cats across four countries. HMRC wants answers. British Gas wants you gone. Your old friend shows up after 16 years in a Malaysian mall. You're navigating a system that doesn't quite fit anyone who leaves. Here's how you stay compliant, stay sane, and keep moving when the bureaucracy catches up.

Six months out, no job, multiple income streams. YouTube, Patreon, options trading. Here's the real breakdown: your UK train ticket cost £7,300 a year. Your Malaysia apartment is £290 a month. Your council tax was £280. Your rent here includes the gym, the pool, the electricity. The numbers that made you leave. The numbers that prove it works. This is how you actually fund a life when you walk...

Left a 31-year sales career at 48. Started making videos on a canal walk in Northampton. One comparison—UK council tax vs Malaysia rent—went viral with a million views in days. The internet had opinions. Most of them wrong. Here's what actually happened when you step off the ladder and start building something from scratch in Southeast Asia. No plan. No safety net. Just you, your wife, and the...