Relentless by Design: Des Brown on Ambition, Community, and Building in the Margins

Sometimes a channel pulls you in before you realize it has.

For Des Brown, based in the City of Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa, working at an ESP wasn’t just a job — it was immersion. Email revealed itself as a space defined by feedback, shared challenges, and constant movement. Now balancing performance marketing with freelance and publishing work, he stays embedded in both the doing and the thinking.

That dual perspective shapes everything.

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What brought you into email in the first place, and how has your role evolved since then?

Despite dabbling in email product creation, my real email experience came from working at an ESP. Weirdly, I fell in love with the email space, community and how it's evolving as a channel. I now work in performance marketing and run both email freelancing and publishing work in the evenings, marrying both worlds and trying to help email senders in every sphere.

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Which positions have shaped your skills up to now?

Predominantly, my role leading teams that sold email products, and working as the founder of a community built around email. You get feedback about problems that need solving, and where folks need real help, which helped me build my skillset around solving those in creative but effective ways.

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What drives you to balance both a steady role and freelance work? What does each give you — and what does each take away?

Honestly, probably relentless ambition and wanting to genuinely help people. If you're only doing things with selfish gain in mind, you don't build genuine connections. This likely leads to fulfillment behind what I do, but it does take a toll on finding a true balance with any "free" time. My mind is always engaged in one aspect, but it's one of those costs you pay for ambition.

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How do you stay sharp and continue growing your expertise with competing demands?

It's no secret that I cherish my inbox! I've signed up to 350+ newsletters across multiple topics and things that make sense for where I'm going and what I'm building. I'm a firm believer that email teaches me more about email than anything else.

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If you imagine your ideal setup, would you keep the mix — or choose one path fully? Why?

Honestly, the mix keeps the skillset sharp, but I doubt anyone but a few folks out there want to be the master of their time. One path is healthier and also leads to more balance, but the world is a crazy place, and the mix means better stability and more learning, so tough to decide.

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Where Ambition Meets Endurance

There’s a certain kind of drive that doesn’t switch off at 5pm.

For some, that’s unsustainable. For others, it’s the engine.

For Des Brown, balancing performance marketing with freelance and publishing work isn’t just about diversification. It’s about staying immersed. Staying curious. Staying close to both execution and conversation. The overlap sharpens perspective — even if it stretches time.

Not everyone wants that kind of mix. And not everyone needs it.

But in a channel that evolves as quickly as email, proximity creates clarity. And clarity, over time, compounds.

Sometimes ambition isn’t loud.
It’s simply consistent.

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Add Your Voice!

This interview is part of The Email Freelancer Pathways Project, a series documenting the many different paths into email.

Through a short survey, I’m collecting experiences from email professionals to make these career journeys visible — and to help advocate for better access to the tools people are expected to master.

If you work in email in any capacity, your experience matters.

👉 Take the survey here!

📩 Connect with me on LinkedIn or send a message.

With Love from Vancouver
Annett
Founder, EmailBoutique.io

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