Our Story
We’re a small business too! We know how important it is to have a website that really speaks to your ideal customer because we’ve been in your shoes.
Working with other small businesses in the UK (and beyond!) is our passion.
Our Story
We’re a small business too! We know how important it is to have a website that really speaks to your ideal customer because we’ve been in your shoes.
Working with other small businesses in the UK (and beyond!) is our passion.
Hi! I’m Maggie, the founder of Mythic Coding.
Growing up in the central desert region of Australia, my access to the internet was rather limited as you can probably imagine. At the time, Australian internet was pretty rubbish even in the cities, so it was practically non-existent in remote communities. Safe to say, I really hadn’t been exposed to the wonders of the internet.
That all changed in one incredible year.
In 2009, while on a student exchange program in Belgium, I discovered what was possible with the internet. European internet speeds were lightyears ahead of Australian speeds, and I had free reign to explore this new online world as much as I wanted.
With my newfound power, I started my very first website. I built it with a free website builder, which had a free theme and drag-and-drop elements to build pages, and a free domain name. I had zero clue about HTML, CSS, PHP, or any other coding languages. I didn’t even know they existed!
But I built a website anyway.
And to be perfectly honest, it wasn’t that great – as you’d probably expect from someone’s first foray into a skill they haven’t yet mastered.
The Second Attempt
In 2013, I needed a new website. I was determined to take it seriously this time. This was going to be my ‘home base’ on the internet, the cyberspace where all my awesomeness would live. I was going to be a rich, famous, published author after all, so I needed a place to showcase my amazing talent…
…but I wasn’t rich, famous, or even published yet. Which meant I had a problem.
I simply didn’t have the spare cash to pay for an expensive web designer to make me a website when I wasn’t earning any money from writing (turns out, you need to be published if you want to make money from books!). My day job working as an apprentice chef paid my bills and not much more.
However, I’m a learn-how-to-do-it-yourself kind of woman, and learning how to build my own website sounded kinda fun! So I got to work.
I started researching how a total newbie could build their own beautiful site. I was already familiar with drag-and-drop builders from my first foray into web building, and I was looking for something similar, but more sophisticated. Something with more flexibility.
The Discovery of WordPress
My research led me to WordPress, a blogging platform that had the sophistication and flexibility I was looking for. It offered thousands of fully customisable themes and thousands of extensions that could make your blog do practically anything you could imagine. It made building my own website seem like an achievable goal.
I took the plunge and bought the necessary domain name and website hosting I needed in order to begin building. I barely even knew what I was buying. For an absolute beginner, it was slightly overwhelming. I remember being so confused after getting everything, that for a couple of months, I just left it all alone! I had several logins to various places, like my hosting provider, my cPanel, my WordPress site… I had no idea how they all worked together or what I needed to do next.
If I had given up at that point, Mythic Coding wouldn’t exist today.
A little while later, on a day that I was feeling particularly determined and optimistic (and probably very sick and tired of my day job as a chef), I picked up my login details and sat myself down with my laptop. I was going to figure out this WordPress thing and become a hugely successful, rich, famous author who also had a fabulous website where all her fans could hang out.
And I did!
The first few iterations of my author site were pretty basic. I still had no real knowledge of any coding languages, so all customisations to themes were standard colour and font changes that already came with the theme. But it was a working website, I had a blog and I even had a tiny bit of traffic! Mind. Blown. 🤯
My First Client
Not long after my site was up and running, I finished my chef’s apprenticeship. After three years of training to be a qualified chef, I knew it wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life. To be fair, I knew what I wanted to do before I became a chef (not sure if I’ve mentioned it yet, but I was going to be a famous, published author). However, I needed a way to make money while I waited for fame and fortune, and being a chef had seemed like a good idea. But I hated it…
So I quit the kitchen as soon as I qualified and went to work as an admin assistant for someone who would later become my first client: my mum.
I’m pretty sure I get my entrepreneurial spirit from her. She and her business partner have a successful business, and when I joined them in mid-2013, I was the tech-savvy younger person. At first, I was just helping out with admin tasks, but mum and her partner knew they needed an online presence if they were going to continue to grow their business and compete. Mum knew that I had built my own author website and asked me to have a go at creating a simple business website that would showcase their services and that they could post blogs to.
I was excited and much more confident about building a website this time around. To be sure, that first iteration of their website was fairly basic, but in their industry at the time, it was one of the only ones out there.
It was at this point that I started seriously thinking about whether I could turn my new skill into a new career. Despite the confusing start I’d experienced with my author website, I actually loved the process of creating new sites. They offered the chance to constantly challenge myself and always learn new things, something that really appeals to my nature.
A Move to the Other Side of the World
Over the next few years, while working a variety of different day jobs, I slowly expanded my skills. Learning HTML, CSS & other programming languages would allow me more freedom when it came to customising WordPress themes. I practised my growing skills by building more and more complex sites for family and friends, even learning how to build e-commerce and membership sites with WordPress.
Then, on Christmas Day in 2014, my husband and I made a major change. We moved from our home country of Australia to a new land – the United Kingdom. In order to make the move as smooth as possible, I went back to working as a chef, knowing that chefs are always in demand and it would be easy to get a job. However, as you can probably imagine, it wasn’t long before I had had enough of kitchen work. I transitioned into the front desk department of the hotel we were working in and focused my spare time on developing my side business.
A Move to the Other Side of the World
Over the next few years, while working a variety of different day jobs, I slowly expanded my skills. Learning HTML, CSS & other programming languages would allow me more freedom when it came to customising WordPress themes. I practised my growing skills by building more and more complex sites for family and friends, even learning how to build e-commerce and membership sites with WordPress.
Then, on Christmas Day in 2014, my husband and I made a major change. We moved from our home country of Australia to a new land – the United Kingdom. In order to make the move as smooth as possible, I went back to working as a chef, knowing that chefs are always in demand and it would be easy to get a job. However, as you can probably imagine, it wasn’t long before I had had enough of kitchen work. I transitioned into the front desk department of the hotel we were working in and focused my spare time on developing my side business.
Mythic Coding Becomes a Reality
With my rich-and-famous-author plan not really working out for me (I did self-publish a fantasy series under my pen name around this time), I decided to switch to my other passion; building websites. In mid-2016, I finally started my business and called it a really epic name that reflected my love of fantasy and magic: Mythic Coding!
Also at this point in time, mum’s business was expanding and she and her partner wanted more functionality for their online presence, such as a membership site and online store. With the extra work they were giving me, I was able to drop to part-time hours in my day job and spend more time on building websites. I was absolutely elated!
Mythic Coding Today
A lot more happened in my life since starting Mythic Coding, including another lifestyle change that found my husband and I living on a boat. One of the unique things about the UK is its 2,000-mile network of old industrial canals. Many people live and holiday on these canals, and after researching whether we could get internet on board in order to be able to work from anywhere, we bought a narrowboat and started cruising around the system!
Mythic Coding has continued to grow and allows me to live a different, more exciting life than slaving away in a hot kitchen all day. It continues to challenge me and encourage me to learn new things, which makes the job all the more interesting. As you can probably tell from the life story I just shared with you, boring isn’t really my style!
Mythic Coding Today
A lot more happened in my life since starting Mythic Coding, including another lifestyle change that found my husband and I living on a boat. One of the unique things about the UK is its 2,000-mile network of old industrial canals. Many people live and holiday on these canals, and after researching whether we could get internet on board in order to be able to work from anywhere, we bought a narrowboat and started cruising around the system!
Mythic Coding has continued to grow and allows me to live a different, more exciting life than slaving away in a hot kitchen all day. It continues to challenge me and encourage me to learn new things, which makes the job all the more interesting. As you can probably tell from the life story I just shared with you, boring isn’t really my style!
Our Team
Knowing how much freedom a remote-working lifestyle can give, all our team members work from home. (Besides, there’s not enough room on my 6-foot-wide boat to accommodate team members!) Thanks to the wonders of the internet, we can work, communicate and collaborate on projects, bringing new websites to life every day!