About Knock Off Time
I'm just an ordinary bloke in his fifties from Tasmania, Australia who's worked in factories, mines, offices, in mental health, and I've even ran my own business. That adds up to over 35 jobs and I want to show you what they taught me, and how you can escape the 9-5.
Where this comes from
I've had over 35 jobs across a wide range of industries. Some lasted years — some days. What that means is that I've got a lot of inside information that's based on experience and not theory. There are a lot of people online that will tell you to quit your job and try to sell you a course. That's not what Knock Off Time is about. Whatever situation you've been in — I can relate to it. I've been there, and I know how hard it is to get off the treadmill.
What I worked out
Here's what thirty-five jobs teach you: they're all part of the same machine. The uniform changes. The pay changes. The story they tell you at the induction changes. The deal underneath never does. You hand over your hours, they hand you just enough money to keep you turning up, and the good years slip away while you wait on a retirement that may never come. And even when you get there, who knows how much time you'll get to enjoy?
Cleaner or manager, miner or office worker, you're still selling your hours to someone else's clock. And once you understand the mechanics of it, you can start to do something about it.
Why I still clock on
I still work shifts — three twelve-hour days a week. I used to work five, and I negotiated that down to four, ten-hour days, then three, twelve-hour days. I'm not writing to you from a beach or filming videos from the driver's seat of my BMW telling you I got out at twenty-five and so can you. I didn't, and most of the blokes telling that story don't have the experience I have.
What I'm doing is slower and straighter: swapping one shift at a time for work I own outright. A ladder out, not a leap. I'm walking it in real time, in the same conditions you're in — you're not watching someone who's already through the door. You're watching someone still working out how to open it.
Who I'm doing it for
I'm an older dad, with young kids and a partner who deserve more of me than the dregs of a day left over after I'm worn out giving myself to someone else's business. I don't want my kids growing up believing you settle for work you hate just to pay the bills — that that's just what being a grown-up is.
My dad moved through job after job and never found the thing he was looking for. My mum reinvented herself in her late sixties and never looked back. I've watched both roads closely. Now I know which one I want my kids to see me walk, and I want to help you work out which one you should take.
What this is
This is where I show you how the 9-5 machine really works — plainly, and simply from the inside — and how you build a life on the other side of it. Now. There's plenty of free tools to see your own situation for what it is, videos twice a week on YouTube, and a newsletter with the stuff that's more personal and doesn't make the videos. Think of me as someone a bit further down the same road, turned around to tell you what's coming.