🚨 I’ve opened up 3 one-to-one coaching spots for December. If you’re keen to grow your audience and develop your personal brand, and you think we’d be a good fit, apply now.
Season 3, episode 13 is here!
I recently went live with Taylin John Simmonds to talk about the honest reality of making money as a writer, and afterwards I thought to myself, “Hey, this would make a great podcast episode!”, et voilà!
Taylin’s currently testing ghostwriting on Substack in public, shared his coldest cold email stats, and explained why books might be the worst way to make a living (but still worth doing).
What we covered:
Why Taylin sent 10,000 cold emails for Substack ghostwriting clients and what happened next (he’s running the entire experiment in public to see if it’s actually viable)
The credential commoditisation theory he’s been sitting on for six months (spoiler: it’s about why your programmer friends can’t find jobs)
LinkedIn ghostwriting as the most lucrative platform right now, with clients paying $1,000-$5,000/month, and why Substack might be different
The Mark Manson approach to writing books: test your chapters as blog posts first, let virality validate your ideas, and only use titles that have already proven themselves
How to write about whatever you want while still serving your audience - the bridge technique that lets you sneak consciousness development into business content
Why opening with mundane stories (lawnmowers, coffee steam, chopping onions) connects better than dramatic tales of spirit quests in Peru
The painful pattern of spending six months building products nobody wants versus testing ideas in public after just a week or two
Make sure to subscribe to Taylin’s publication before you go!
What’s next?
I’m ready and waiting to support you in the next stages of your creator journey. Here’s a reminder of how I can help:
Start Your Podcast on Substack: A complete course guiding you from concept to launch, based on everything I’ve learned so far during my own podcasting journey. Learn to plan, brand, record, edit, publish, and promote your podcast while building an audience. Perfect for creators eager to share their voice with the world.
The 1K Daily Writing Challenge: Build a consistent habit by writing 1,000 words daily for 30 days. Along the way, you'll get encouraging video prompts, accountability support, and plenty of inspiration to ignite your creative spark. Nail your rhythm. Find your flow. Transform your writing journey forever.
Substack Basics: A video guide showing you exactly how to: set up your first publications; create polished posts from scratch; share, structure, and schedule effectively; and master Notes, CTAs, and growth levers (bonus section: Going Live on Substack).
Sustainable Scalable Social Strategy: This 6-part, online, self-driven course will guide you through the same process I used to develop a strategy for my social media management. When you finish, you’ll have a sustainable social strategy in place that will help you scale your business properly.
