We recently connected with Samuel Popejoy and have shared our conversation below.

Samuel, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s kick things off with a hypothetical question – if it were up to you, what would you change about the school or education system to better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career?

Public school, a relatively new concept at the federal level, takes a one-size-fits-all approach that passed its prime somewhere circa 1970. By the time I hit elementary school in the ’90s, I had no idea how sheltered I was in my Gilded Age marble school building in the South Hill neighborhood of Bellingham, Washington. It wasn’t until I entered middle school that the immense and compounding failings of public education began taking their toll on me, a process of miseducation that only started becoming remedied upon choosing an alternative high school in 10th grade.

A graduate of The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, I now balance my career as a work-from-home, freelance content writer with my true occupation, homeschooling my two (soon to be three) beautiful children. In Amaryllis and Tai, I have seen the potential children have when removed from the oppressive confines of public education. We chose to relocate to Idaho due to the state’s permissive homeschooling laws, which do not even require parents to report that they intend to homeschool.

Over the next few years, my wife and I hope to become resources for other parents seeking to homeschool in Idaho. We plan to launch a new website in the near future that will serve as a hub of information on curricula, products, and skills that might benefit homeschooling parents and children already living or planning on relocating to the region. Our children need our help to face the future like never before, and the time has come to decentralize from the systems that failed us, refocusing on the unbelievable potential nestled within oft-forgotten childhood dreams.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

While my background is in the humanities, I had no idea my predilection for writing would ever become gainful until the brothers who owned the fledgling CBD company where I worked asked me to write their blog in 2014. Thankfully, those initial articles for Liberty Lotion appear to now be scrubbed from the internet, alongside the potentially unwise Listverse articles I penned shortly afterward.

My career shifted for three years until my wife became pregnant with our first child, making it apparent that my current occupation couldn’t deliver family-raising wages. Our basic understanding of the internet economy informed us that there was plenty of opportunity to be found for those who could export a digital skill: web design, photography, or — perhaps — writing.

I credit my wife with giving me the impetus to give it a shot. Before long, I was making enough so that she could quit her job and focus on mothering full-time. We’ve always lived modestly, but I credit God with giving me the talent and timing to grasp the providence necessary to keep our family independent and afloat. As an attuned Reiki practitioner and long-time student of natural medicine, our medical practices are, perhaps, unconventional, but my profession has even allowed us to eat an all-organic, specifically chosen diet that has helped heal dietary sensitivities and undoubtedly prevent many illnesses.

I value my time so much that I do my utmost to avoid any inefficiencies in my professional life. Perhaps some would call that cutting corners, but I’ve personally found that faith always finds a way to fill in the gaps. One of the greatest joys we’ve recently come across is our fellowship in a local Anglican church, which has allowed me to expand my professional scope while also providing opportunities to donate my time and skill to community members in need. Since I was a child growing up with Vajrayana Buddhist grandparents, the principle of Right Livelihood has been centrally important to me, and I finally seem to have found my way to a path in which I’m able to satisfy my own need to do moral good while also providing for a growing family.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Originally, I found clients through job boards, also known as content mills. Though it was against the policy of some boards, I would find content I had written through searches for specific phrases on Google and connect with the brand, offering my services for a lower price than the content mill charged.

I’m not sure how well this strategy would work these days. Now, I have a robust list of clients and a 5-year-plus portfolio, so generally, work comes to me passively, and I can then choose whether to take it on or not. I still experience some lean periods, but I haven’t actively sought new clients in over three years.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I provide excellent content within a niche topic that is constantly expanding. Clients I have worked with commonly praise my services when speaking to colleagues, creating a small word-of-mouth buzz that has led to many within the CBD and hemp space becoming aware of my writing. They may not know I wrote it, though — much of my work has been ghost-writing, and I haven’t made any specific effort to make myself known at conventions or similar in-person or even digital gatherings.

Contact Info:

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuelpopejoy
• Other: A book I wrote and published: https://www.amazon.com/What-Reality-Past-Present-Future/dp/B0B1DSRYP6