From selling air conditioning to manufacturing colourful hiking socks

Rob Taylor, a 37-year-old entrepreneur from Bolton, has embarked on an exciting new chapter after successfully completing a digital marketing course with Fearless Academy through Skills Bootcamps. Having sold his air conditioning business, which had been running for seven years, Rob found himself ready to dive into a new venture.

Inspired by the course, he turned his final project into a comprehensive business plan, leveraging the digital marketing skills he learned from the course.  

Rob has already secured funding for his innovative idea manufacturing colourful hiking socks and is actively working towards turning it into a reality. In this blog, we hear directly from Rob as he shares his remarkable journey with Skills Bootcamps. 

Let's hear from Rob.

A few months ago, I was feeling a little lost. I’d recently sold my air conditioning business and was looking for a new challenge. I’m a creative soul and I wanted a career that would offer a little more by way of intellectual stimulation than I’d managed to find cleaning dusty air-con filters.  

I knew I could write, and I had a long-standing interest in Psychology. I’ve also always had a knack for catchy word play and strap lines. After some consideration, I decided to delve into the weird and wonderful world of digital marketing.  

It was pretty daunting to be 37 and trying something totally different. I wasn’t quite sure where to start. One evening, I came across an advert for a “digital marketing bootcamp” delivered by a company called ‘Fearless Adventures’ based in Manchester. It was 12 weeks long and to be attended virtually or in person every Monday and Tuesday. I decided to apply and after a successful interview, I was accepted into the course. To my surprise, I quickly realised how exceptional it was within just a few days of enrolling. 

Over the ensuing weeks, we learnt a little bit about everything: social media marketing, PPC, graphic design, SEO, affiliates, influencers, UX, UI, CRO, email marketing and CRM. It was a suite of strange and esoteric acronyms that I was sure I’d never fully understand. Yet there I sat, not just knowing what these things were but understanding how to do them, why to do them and how they all tie together to market products online. At one point I used Canva (another thing I’d never heard of before the course) to produce a ‘brand guidelines” document for a fictional eco-friendly coffee cup company. I sat looking at those six pages for the rest of the evening and I couldn’t believe what I’d produced.  

The course was completed by submitting a final project encompassing all that we had learned. I came up with a hiking sock brand and put together a 35-page marketing brief for it. When I showed it to my friends, they all asked who made it. When I explained that it was me, they stared at me in disbelief. I don’t blame them -three months ago, I wouldn’t have believed me either.  

I'm thrilled to share that I have successfully secured funding for my sock idea and I am in the process of turning it into reality. I don’t know what the future holds but I’ve never felt more confident or excited about it. The world feels like a beautiful land of opportunity once more and here I am at the start of a great adventure and feeling absolutely fearless about it. 

I fancy myself a wordsmith, but I can’t find the words to explain just how much this course surpassed my expectations. If you’re looking to get started in digital marketing or if you just want some extra skills to boost your presence online, my only advice to you is to go for it. 

Check out the current digital marketing courses available through Skills Bootcamps: Current training opportunities - Greater Manchester Combined Authority (greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk)