We 10x our website traffic. We built an audience. And we increased our prices (by a lot).  

We gained huge success for our clients. And we achieved success for us, too.  

We achieved the thing we’d always dreamed of. 

But this isn’t a fairytale story. 

Because even though we achieved this level of success, we were desperately unhappy. 

We were stressed. We were constantly communicating with clients – chasing after them for things we needed or explaining our processes. We hated dealing with scope creep and writing out awkward emails. We felt like we could never catch our breath. 

On the outside, we appeared successful. Like we’d made it. Behind closed doors, we struggled. 

It took its toll on us and on our mental health. The blur between work and life merged.

We would constantly talk about work, and if you’ve ever heard the phrase ‘you work to live, not live to work,’ it definitely felt like we were doing the latter. 

The Tipping Point

We got to the point where we realised we couldn’t continue doing what we were doing. We were too burned out. 

So we made a commitment to making things better. We realised if we could use content marketing to grow our business, could we use it to create a better business? 

Could we use content to communicate better (and actually less) with our customers? 

Could we use it to pre-qualify our leads? 

Could we use it to get fewer clients, but ensure the ones we did attract paid more and respected our processes and boundaries? 

So we set out to create content that did just that. 

The aim wasn’t to get more leads and sales. The aim was to use content to create the kind of business that supported the lives we wanted to lead. 

No client project is ever perfect. So after each project, we examined what we could’ve done better. Where could we communicate more? How could it have gone smoother for the client and us? (We still do this process now, by the way.) 

And all we do is produce content to fill in those gaps. 

Do this a few times and all of a sudden your business is way more efficient – you have more time and, better yet, your clients are super happy with the level of communication and service. 

To find out more you can check out our blog post ‘What is a Content Fortress and Why is it Vital for Your Business’. 

Content Fortress: A Happy Accident Born Out of Unhappy Circumstances 

So that’s why we wrote the book. 

We didn’t set out to do it. 

It wasn’t some carefully crafted ‘new angle’ on content marketing. 

We did it to protect our time, our business and our mental health. We did it for us first. And if you’d have told us at the time we’d be writing a book about it one day we’d have laughed at you (sorry). 

But when we started talking about the concept of Content Fortress to other business owners, that’s when we realised how helpful the concept was. Because they too had struggled with work/life balance, or attracting the wrong kind of clients or spending too much time communicating. They had struggled as we had. 

And that’s the thing about stress and owning a business, it feels like you’re the only one in the world to struggle with it. 

The more we talked about it, and how you can use content to help, the more we could see just how beneficial it was. 

A book just made sense. Ultimately, it’s our way of helping those who needed to feel happier in their business. 

And we hope we achieve that, even for a small number of people. 

Because of all the things we’ve done in our business, this is what we’re most proud of. Is it the most profitable? No. It is the easiest? Nope. But it’s the most rewarding thing we’ve ever done. 

Contribution to MIND – a Mental Health Charity 

MIND is a charity that helps support those who are struggling with their mental health. They do amazing work such as offering mental health telephone support, legal help and lobbying the government for better funding and treatment for those suffering from mental health issues. 

10% of Content Fortress sales will go to MIND. (We wanted to make this a percentage of sales rather than profit, as profit margins on books are tiddly!) 

So if you’ve purchased Content Fortress, thank you so, so much. 

As of December 2020, we have raised £328.40.

This was transferred to MIND via PayPal on the 9th of December 2020. 

On Thursday 4th March 2021, we donated £256.74 to MIND via PayPal.

Taking the total donated to:

£585.14

We’ll donate every few months as sales come in, and keep this page up-to-date so you can see where we’re up too with donations. 

Finally, if you fancy reading the book, you can buy a copy directly from us below.

Martin & Lyndsay

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