I write and coach. Here’s my dream for you:
- Make more money
- Tell better stories
I write for businesses that need to find a compelling story. Marketing only works if your message moves people.
I work with writers and artists who haven’t cracked making a dime. You could be making a living from anywhere in the world. To you, I offer coaching.
Whatever side you find yourself on, I can help you find the sweet middle ground.
Why it works
Here’s the open secret in marketing: SEO optimization doesn’t work. Ads don’t work. When’s the last time you clicked on an ad?
You’re just afraid to be yourself
My brother is gay. I spent time with him this weekend, and he said something amazing.
“I know it’s not a choice, but I would choose to be gay if I could. It makes me spicy.”
He explained that the very thing that makes people hate you is the exact thing that makes you cool. So don’t wish away your coolness. My brother is extremely cool. He has beautiful, dark tattoos and drives a black Cadillac. It’s a whole thing.
Another example: RuPaul is cool (and worth $65 million) because drag queens make “normal” people clutch their pearls. …
Work will never be the same
In 1929, the 5-day workweek was introduced in Great Britain. This occurs a couple of decades after the biggest revolution in work ever: the industrial one.
Henry Ford solidifies this idea. Factory workers learn the assembly line, productivity skyrockets, and the work-life balance is born. After the catastrophe of the Great War, there is no going back. The “weekend” is now sacred.
Fast-forward to today; we’re going through the other biggest revolution in human work: the information one.
That means we should begin to see hints of the next “weekend.” What will it look like? 4 hour work weeks? Everyone…
Creativity means making things most people hate
I’m currently living with an old friend. The other day, he had a question about my blog. “You mostly write, like, motivational stuff, right? Like, mindset?”
“I guess that’s what I tend to blog about, yeah.”
It was completely innocent. He was just curious if I ever wrote articles about movies. However, I was stuck on one thing. “You write about motivational stuff?”
I was unreasonably upset. I didn’t like being summed up like that. It felt embarrassing to admit that’s what I write about. I wanted to just hide behind the blanket of “I write.” …
Life is never a full reset
I’m living in Berlin right now. My friends are here. I love the work that I do. I can do pretty much whatever I want. I can fly to Spain next week or take a train to Greece to meet a new friend.
I’m finding that the more I relax, things just seem to come to me. No need to force it. It’s certainly a welcome change in my life.
I sleep 10 hours a night, work a few hours during the day, and walk around the city at night. I have absolute freedom — exactly what I wanted.
Except…
No one could stop you if you were in the right place
I’m embarrassed to admit this.
I love podcast interviews with Tony Robbins. Or Gary Vaynerchuk. Or *insert hyper-productive (mostly) dude.* I listen to interviews and copy their behavior. After about a week, I burn out and assume they must be superhuman. Why doesn’t that work?
You can’t get there by copying behavior
Gary Vee’s biochemistry is synced with his goals. Endogenous cocaine releases in his own brain all day. He is driven to do what he does by a pharmacy of chemicals totally unlike your own. You can’t fake that.
You don’t even want to.
You need to go way deeper to achieve your own success. The…
You can work your ass off, but you don’t have to
My best friend’s brother seemed lost. He had no specific ambitions for life, was very shy, and didn’t want to go to college.
Everyone worried about him. Would he be “OK?” His brother was getting a master’s. His friends had a 401k, a leased BMW, and a house they couldn’t afford.
He had a job as a bartender.
As a bartender, he learned social skills. He forced himself to talk to hundreds of strangers a day. Eventually, he was a social butterfly. We forgot he was ever shy.
One day, he moved to Colorado on a whim. He posted a…
The Creative Life Is Possible
Everything has already been said, so say it again
My client has a huge project for his company. If successful, it would change the company completely. He has trouble imagining himself as the sort of person who could pull it off. He can. He’ll see once he does it. That’s how these things go.
However, I know how deep the doubt runs. You lay awake at night, thinking, “I’m a sniveling worm. No way I can do this. I’m a child.” I understand that struggle.
I was pointing out, emphatically, that this is not trivial. That pain is worse than physical pain. It’s real. I found myself saying, “THE…
Death is fine, fine, fine
I drove home to help my mother move out of the home I grew up in.
She informed me that her little dog (Yorkie) could no longer walk well enough to relieve herself. She was 18.
My brother and I took her to the vet to be put to sleep. We stayed with her until the end. We cried a lot, despite it not being our dog.
It’s unbelievably strange to watch something pass on. To go from animated to lifeless. What exactly leaves the little body? Nothing with any weight. A process.
We’re more like a whirlpool than any…
The Creative Life Is Possible
My best education in writing was being a handyman
Malcolm Gladwell tells the story of judges and their success. What is the best predictor of a successful judge? Not ivy league status.
A better predictor is if the person has any experience with blue-collar work. Blue-collar makes for better people. Better people make better long-term relationships. Relationships are key to success.
Personally, I’ve never had a better teacher than working as a handyman. I was struggling to learn to pay the bills with writing. I learned to admire working people. I learned kindness and humility.
Now that I’m more comfortable and work from anywhere, those lessons haven’t worn off…
Taylor Foreman
Lost southern boy shooting the breeze. I write about creativity and money. taylorforeman.com
