Now and then, I like to get real here on my website. This is going to be one of those times.

One of my favourite things to do is write. It wasn’t until well after I left school that I realised how much I actually loved it. I was never a great student, and even though I liked writing stories, I didn’t know how to use punctuation properly, my sentence structure was terrible, and my paragraphs were virtually nonexistent.

Through my love of sport, particularly martial arts, I became a writer for a living. I still have some lofty goals I want to reach, so when there is a chance to pick the brains of those I feel have made it, I will.

One writer in particular, I won’t name him, but he was a writer and podcaster for my favourite sports and pop culture website, The Ringer. One day, I saw that he had given out his email address so anyone could contact him for advice, and I jumped at the chance.

Like most of the people I admire, I knew his backstory. I also thought he would be interested in mine. Yes, I do understand how naive I sound, but I do think my backstory is interesting as well.

When I emailed him, I told him how I wanted to become a writer and asked how to get my work noticed so I could be like him. I also thought he might become a bit of a mentor to me. I didn’t ask him outright if he could mentor me; I just thought he would ask me to send him some of my work, that he would love it, and decide to mentor me. I can’t believe how much of a dreamer I am as an adult.

His advice was exactly what I needed to hear, but the friendship and mentorship I thought would come from the email exchange never materialised. He told me that to get noticed, I needed to start my own blog or use platforms like Substack and/or Medium. Despite being slightly disappointed, I did precisely that: kept writing here and jumped on Medium and Substack.

One was for my personal stories and anecdotes, the other was for pop culture and sports. While my writing got me noticed locally (I was a guest on a local radio show while living in Broken Hill), thanks to one of my Substack stories, I failed to get the attention of The Ringer or even Barstool Sports.

After some time, I stopped writing on both platforms because I had just changed jobs and wanted to focus on doing well, as I thought that job would open doors for me. While there were some opportunities, bullying ultimately set me back at that workplace.

After some time spent wondering what to do, I returned to watching MMA and professional wrestling and began interacting with fans of both sports. I would come across another Ringer writer whom I decided to ask for some advice as well.

I won’t name this person either, but he was a pro wrestling writer at The Ringer (where else), but has since moved on. This writer has written some great pieces, and since I was looking at doing more pro wrestling writing, he was the perfect person to get advice from.

When he did an AMA-type thread on Twitter (it will never be X to me), I asked how I could get noticed by The Ringer so I could work for them. His answer was honest and helpful.

He said write so they can notice you and offer you a job. While I had actively been trying to get the editors at the Ringer to notice me, maybe I hadn’t tried hard enough. So I got a new idea, start my own sports and pop culture website.

I started Game On Oz because there was a hole in the Australian market for a sports and pop culture website, and I hoped to become so big that one of two things would happen. The first was that Bill Simmons would notice my website, decide to expand into the Australian market, and buy Game On Oz.

The other thing was that Simmons would see that I could build a website, that I was actually a good writer, and that I could do video as well (I had started doing NRL YouTube Shorts) and offer me a job. Unfortunately, I had to step back from Game On Oz due to burnout. I still have the website up, in case I want to go back to it.

Since I decided to stop creating content with Game On Oz, I have returned here to write pop culture and create other sports content, building my portfolio. I have also started a website for combat sports and pro wrestling. When I started writing about MMA, I called myself The Fight Writer. I decided to go back to that name and re-establish the identity I once had in MMA.

I have some lofty dreams, I know that, but I want to realise them. And to realise those dreams, I’m going to continue to do what both men told me to do, and what I know I can do.

Just Write!