My name is Thomas, and Woken Wild is the result of the last couple of years of my life. A couple of years ago, I started my photography business. With investing my savings into camera equipment, I realised quickly that just because I post high quality photos doesn’t mean that I’ll get bookings lining up at the door... I actually have to put in the work to grow an authentic following within my niche to get more eyes, and that’s what I did. I would buy books on social media marketing, listen to podcasts in my car, and was always looking for a new technique that could help me connect with a wider audience. Before long, my photography account had grown from a few hundred to a couple of thousand, and kept growing to several thousand. What’s more, I was getting enquiries mainly through my Instagram DMs and they were converting to bookings, I was making it! From this I decided to see what else I could do as a project, so I started a couple of location ‘feature’ accounts and these both grew with the same success.

Within a year, I was actually asked to help a couple of friends with their social media accounts for their small businesses. Nothing crazy, just advice more than anything. I’m lucky enough to have a circle of really creative friends, and seeing them get value from what I had learnt to do for myself was a great feeling. This then led to me running a social media account for a friend in Brighton, and I was getting paid for the time I put in! This then got me reaching out to some businesses that I admired, and I started getting paid a little more and would post on behalf of small businesses, go through their analytics with them and drawing up plans and goals that I wanted to achieve for them. Whatever this was turning into, it was becoming a passion…

That’s what led into Woken Wild, Digital Marketing. I had a few clients, and because of the potential that this was all showing it was a choice between; 1. Keep this going as a little side gig that let me do something else while getting paid for my time, or 2. Create something with its own brand and identity, making it easier for me to share exactly what it is that I offer. I had seen many social media marketing companies, and how they had scaled their clients businesses to amazing heights. But I didn’t want to be the owner of a generic marketing company. I wanted something that reflected me and the people I connect with.

As I mentioned earlier, I have a great circle of friends who love to create, work with their hands, and are pretty impressive when it comes to their work. These include luthiers, photographers, videographers, artists, coffee roasters, and writers. I grew up with friends like these going on adventures, road trips, setting up bonfires in the countryside and exploring forests and fishing on lakes. This was my world for a long time, and I wanted to create a digital marketing business for those who are in any creative sphere. The wild ones who love the process of creating something, whether polished or rugged. Woken Wild has been the subject of many notebook pages and phone voice memos, but now all those ideas are in this! I’m looking forward to seeing where the journey goes, and hope you’ll be along for the journey too.