Dan Newton

A new chapter is here: Stage X Studios. It’s hard to believe we’re already at the end of 2025. It feels like five minutes ago that I set up Cobra Consultancy Group and started working for myself for the first time in January this year. This first year was an eye-opener. Late invoices in the early months are enough to put anyone into panic mode. You start questioning whether you’ve made the right decision, whether stepping away from employment was the sensible move. Looking back now, those...

We spend most of our lives chasing freedom. Time freedom. Financial freedom. Freedom from stress, from pressure, from expectation. We tell ourselves that once we’ve saved enough, achieved enough, or escaped enough, we’ll finally be free. But freedom doesn’t live at the end of a finish line. It starts the moment you create. Because creation is the one kind of freedom nobody can hand you, and nobody can take from you. The Shift At some point in adulthood, most people quietly stop creating. They...

For a long time, my career followed a familiar rhythm. Every couple of years, I’d move on, take a step up, and find myself in a new role that built on what I’d done before. Most people knew me from the roofing industry, that’s where I first built a name for myself. I worked in specification sales, meeting clients up and down the country, managing projects, and building relationships. It’s also where I first started growing my LinkedIn network, sharing work, stories, and experiences from life...