As a digital entrepreneur and marketing technologist, Daniel McClure has been involved with a wide variety of successful businesses around the globe. Through The Modern Entrepreneur, Mixed Media Marketing, and several niche brands, Daniel has developed and sold many membership sites, marketing training courses, premium WordPress plugins & themes and much more.
Daniel also provides digital marketing, analytics and WordPress services to startups, marketing agencies and small to medium businesses, providing the opportunity to work with everyone from local photographers through to multi-national corporations and major sports teams.
Whilst attending university Daniel worked as a brand ambassador for several large brand such as Dell Computers, SuperDry Clothing, and Miller Beer. After graduating university, Daniel worked as a B2B Marketer at PayPal for a while before becoming a full time Digital Nomad and travelling the world whilst working on interesting business opportunities.
Daniel McClure also has a keen interesting in emerging blockchain and decentralised technology such as Bitcoin and was a founding member of the UK Digital Currency Association and occasionally contributes to several related open source projects. He also volunteered time towards managing digital communications in one of the worlds highest crowdfunded projects ($150 Million+) for a decentralised organisation based on the Ethereum blockchain.
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As well as writing about myself in third person, I also enjoy spending my free time; travelling, surfing, snowboarding, SCUBA Diving, drinking coffee, taking pictures, meeting inspired people and going to music events and festivals.
Getting to Know Daniel McClure: 20 Random Facts
- 2011 Winner of the Young Entrepreneurs Challenge by Yanik Silver.
- Helped Found MAD (Marketing Advertising & Design) Society / Student Run Agency.
- Founding Member of the UK Digital Currency Association (UKDCA)
- Has been a Top 10 Affiliate in Several Prominent Marketing Launches
- Received a BA in Marketing Management in the United Kingdom
- Once came last in a surfing competition, yeah I’m that good!
- Once got a bronze medal in a skateboarding competition.
- Started snowboarding at the age of 22 and loved it!
- Learned to SCUBA Dive on a boat in the Great Barrier Reef.
- Started first “business” at the age of 8 selling stickers at school.
- Won a “Blue Peter Badge” at age 11 for an essay on money, that is now buried in a time capsule in the foundations of the “Millennium Dome” due to be opened in 2050.
- Used to read “Argos” catalogues like a book from front to back.
- First “real” job was in Starbucks at age 16. Believe it or not; I hated coffee before working there!
- Learned to surf at age 20 whilst travelling Australia, was in for a shock when I continued in sunny Britain!
- The first film I ever saw at the cinema was Beauty and The Beast with my grandmother.
- WOMAD UK was the first music festival I ever went to as a child. My aunt took me.
- Took my first flight at 6 months old. I don’t remember it!
- Created my first WordPress blog in 2007. It was dedicated to my travels.
- My first computer ran Windows 3.1. I “broke” it whilst exploring the file system.
- Acquired a dangerous amount of “Subway Points” whilst at university and did 99% of my revision in “Caffé Nero”.
Daniel McClure: My Story…
I’ve always had an interest in running my own business but after leaving college and working a few more jobs than I’d care to mention, I found myself working for a high street bank. The money was good, the people were great, but I still felt like something was missing…
I can’t tell you how I came to the decision, because I honestly can’t remember but one day, I decided to throw caution to the wind and book myself a plane ticket to the other side of the world (Australia). The plan, so much as there was one, was to get over there, decide what might be fun and do it. Maybe visiting a few other countries along the way.
There was only one problem…
The ticket had taken the last of my money and the VISA that I’d applied for required that you have at least £2000 in your bank to support yourself. What followed was three months of scrambling to pay off everything I had outstanding and gathering enough money to fly out with. I worked like crazy with sales at work and when I came home in the evening, I would head on to the internet for rapid self-education and my first steps into online business. I learned the ropes as I went along and when it was time to actually leave the country I’d managed to pull together £2600 even after my first two weeks accommodation had been booked. I was hooked…
After spending so much time focusing on my new business ventures I only had a couple 24 hours to physically prepare for the trip so I had the most brutal clearout of my life. Everything that I didn’t need was either passed on (via my family due to time restrictions; thanks!) or thrown out. What was left was 2 boxes of things for safekeeping and a backpack on my back with just 4 hours to go!
Whilst my last-minute preparation of my belongings may not have been ideal, I’d been brewing up something else for a couple of months. During the time I’d spent working up to the trip I’d discovered the world of blogging and had created my first ever self-hosted WordPress blog to document my adventure. Of course if I was going to blog I may as well capitalise on it, so I set up my first affiliate accounts, created travel guides and experimented with PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising. In fact I’d learned so much within that period that when I arrived in Sydney I was contacted by an Australian Internet company who took notice to assist within their own marketing department.
Travelling had so many ups and downs that it would be impossible to go through everything here. The truth is even if I did, it would be practically impossible to comprehend the impact this experience had on my life. For the first time I was living away from home, I was earning a healthy income online, I was working remotely for a big business that was set to go worldwide, all at the same time as exploring Australia and quite literally having the time of my life.
Oh and of course there are the other random travel jobs you find your way into, either for the experience or just when you find yourself in a temporary financial pickle:
- Writing Travel Guides
- Deck Hand on Tourist Boat
- Door to Door Salesman
- Scooter Tour Guide
- Internet Cafe Assistant
- Hostel Cleaner
- Farm Hand
How’s that for a varied professional background? 😉
Whilst I can’t say that there was one defining moment over this period, I decided that I wanted to work in Digital Marketing full-time because I truly enjoyed it. Almost as if to test my decision about three-quarters of the way through my travels a policy change in the platforms I was using made me lose my entire affiliate income. I went from master of my own destiny, to flat out broke in pretty short order. That is when I finally decided I would go to university when I got back to Britain to give myself a solid foundation in marketing and also to experience the student lifestyle whilst it wasn’t too late.
Unfortunately the universities back in the UK didn’t agree with my plans as I hadn’t acquired the relevant qualifications for the course that I had chosen. After being point-blank refused access to the course not once, not twice, but three times, I decided to get a train across the country and visit them in person. It was here that I finally managed to locate and speak to the Dean and we spoke in-depth about my interests and experience. Within days my university application was off with official staff support, I’d applied to one university and one course against all outside recommendations, I knew what I wanted to do and I got it!
As it would be a full year before I could start university, I turned to the fun prospect of seeking a job right at the peak of the British recession when my last job had been at a bank. I felt so close to getting a job so many times that I lost count and began to lose hope. It was about this time I read an article about the psychological damage that unemployment could leave, especially in regards to young and middle-aged men. Enough is enough I thought and this was the official birth of my self-employment.
I headed out alone and first began with freelance web development based on the skills I’d picked up from my blogging. I soon added some affiliate marketing to the mix, and eventually began creating my own digital products. I kept it all up whilst attending university and the business continued to evolve eventually becoming what is now The Modern Entrepreneur.
At the same time I got involved with an organisation called Manchester Entrepreneurs and began helping other aspiring business owners with their technology and marketing. I helped to design, found and launch MAD; a Marketing, Advertising & Design society and student run agency at my own university.
Just before graduating I got a one year contract working in Digital Marketing for PayPal in London, UK. I learned a lot, took my skills to data sets of an entirely different scale and managed campaigns worth millions of dollars. I also became more interested in the world of FinTech and digital currencies which is an interest that has continued beyond my time there.
Working with PayPal was a great experience and whilst I was offered a full-time Digital Marketing job with a great team; I decided to take a chance on the entrepreneurial route, growing my own business full-time, working with entrepreneurs whilst travelling the world, which is what I do now.
In the past few years I’ve spent time for work and play spread over; Singapore, New Zealand, Bali, Fiji, Australia, Thailand, Cambodia, Taiwan and by the time you are reading this, probably Canada and a few others. All the time travelling light and slow, with my backpack & laptop in tow…
So there you have it, the abridged story of how I got to be where I am today. If you’ve found yourself on a similar journey, would like to learn more about any of my interests, want to work with me on a project or just fancy a chat then feel free to send me a message, or connect with me on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.
With a bit of luck you’ve enjoyed hearing my story and we’ll have the chance to connect either here or elsewhere online.
Talk Soon!