Ex Emirates flight attendant, Social Strategist & The Secret To Happiness | Dan Wilkinson (Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet!) | Episode #122.

After dropping out of university and a Swinburne University BASc Biochemistry degree through lack of passion and zero desire to be stuck in a laboratory in 10-15 years time, I have served drinks and cleaned ashtrays back of house at Melbourne’s Crown Casino, spent 6.5 years jet-setting the globe with the rock star’s lifestyle without being the rock star as an Emirates Airline flight attendant, set a life up for myself as music industry professional, driving operations & logistics for music festivals/events around Australia such as Splendour In The Grass, event production and festival photography for triple j, created a music supervisor role for Ballistyx Snowboard Show on Channel GO! managed rock & roll bands and much, much more.

My life now, is so surreal. My main crust at this stage of 2017 is as a social media strategist and content producer. I work in an industry that didn’t exist 15 years ago guiding national and global brands on their social media strategy in the digital sphere, including the likes of Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate, Peroni Italian Beer, Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Kraft Peanut Butter, Bulmers Original Cider, Miller Genuine Draft, Cancer Council Australia, Salesforce (through Mahlab Content Agency) and many more.

And all of this from a guy with no degree who dropped out of university not once… but twice! The 1st was the BASc and the 2nd a Masters of Entrepreneurship & Innovation, which I left as I was spread too thin and didn’t wish to wait 4 years to start chasing new opportunities… I’m still not convinced that you can teach entrepreneurship, but that’s another story 😉

Not only am I now back working for myself making the same ca$h money in 2.5 days/week that I was making in 5 days/week only a ago, but I am also lecturing at Macleay College in Sydney, have brand and lifestyle that I have created for myself called Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet!, I am being paid for social media influencer work through the reach of my social media channels, I have a weekly show on Bondi Beach Radio called Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet! that is has also been a podcast on iTunes for 2.5 years now too and I have SO much planned for 2017.

Now… absolutely NONE of this is designed as a boast. All of this shit is real. I did this myself through a shit-ton of hard work, mistakes, early mornings and the borne of the desire to love what I do and be happy. And I’m sharing this piece not as a “Yay, me”, but because I believe that we should be living and pursuing what we love for a living and I believe that it is a life that you can have too!