1 Year Anniversary ofTime2Thrive, and Why I Don't Write About Writing
Writers who ONLY Write About Writing- Booorrrriiinngg!
This is the first anniversary of my Substack newsletter!
I’m so grateful for all I’ve learned and how far I’ve come. And I’m especially thankful for you, the readers. A couple of thousand emails go out weekly, and I’m humbled to know that you want my words in your inbox.
Thank you for trusting me with your email! It means a lot to me.
Special thanks to all of the supportive Substackers who comment and like my stuff every week. You are the best!
When I started, I wasn’t sure what my topic would be, but I knew it wouldn’t be about writing or marketing. I am so done with brand-new writers who ONLY write about writing, selling, and getting subscribers. If they have skills, a track record, or some life experience, fine. Otherwise, I wish they’d write about anything else.
But I still had no idea what that would be for me.
Then I listened to a podcast interview where the guest said:
“What can’t you shut up about that your friends are sick of hearing about, but you still want to talk about it? You should write about that because you’ll never get bored.”
That’s why I talk about health, fitness, and food. My wife is sick of hearing about it because I never shut up about whole foods, the sick care system, and big box food giants stealing our birthdays with their ultra-processed slop.
We need more writers who tackle actual life problems. For those of you who are also writing and despairing because you think that only sales, writing, and “how to grow a giant Substack” newsletters can make it, I am here to say that’s not true.
In one year, I published 64 posts, and the first four don’t even count because I hadn’t picked my topic yet. That’s only one post a week in most cases. I started with 100 email subscribers that I brought with me from elsewhere.
And now, I have over 2000 subscribers. I did a lot of commenting and networking, too, but I’m still not writing about marketing, writing, or readership growth. So it is possible!
I want to ask a favor. Can you let me know what you want to see more of? Your feedback helps me choose the next big thing that I won’t be able to shut up about.
If there are some specific topics you want me to cover, leave me a comment, and I’ll see what I can do.
This week, I’m breaking my “Don’t write about writing” rule.
The following are my thoughts about those who teach but never do. If you write about writing, please don’t be offended, but think about it, okay?
Do you add value? If so, then great! But if you are just a noisy noisemaker who writes to see themself writing and sells selling to make money, then…. MEH
Don’t Write About Writing!
Are you thinking about writing to help writers write?
Don’t. There are enough.
Grab the writing bull by the balls and write about ANYTHING other than writing.
Not everyone who is writing all this stuff could possibly be legitimate.
Some writers just write about writing. Some investors just tell other people how to invest. Programmers that just teach people to program. This isn’t a bad thing, I guess. You never need to use your skills to create something original if you don’t want to.
But. Why would you expect to make money from selling people something you don’t (can’t, haven’t, won’t!) even use yourself to make money?
Cough* scam* cough.
Some of these people can help you live a better life. But some of them are just in it to suck the money out of wannabe coaches, so they only coach coaches to coach.
Life Coaches Who Teach Coaches How to Life Coach?
I see thousands of life coaches online, but I don’t know anyone who pays one regularly to improve their life.
We could probably all benefit from some coaching. I’ve had a few sessions myself. The problem is finding one with a track record of coaching normal people.
Life coaches who just coach other coaches seem like a Ponzi scheme to me.
“Hi. I’m an unlicensed therapist, I mean, a life coach! I charge $10,000 monthly telling super successful people how to push the boundaries. Take my course, and you can be a coach, too!”
It seems like those can’t do, teach. Shouldn’t you be a successful human being before you start telling everyone else how to be successful?
There are great life coaches out there who can help you accomplish amazing things. I bet that they do more than just sell coaching courses, though
The Divorced Single Woman Who Teaches Relationship Tactics
I know a person who teaches a course on how to have a successful love relationship. It might be an excellent course. But the problem is that she just got divorced from a disastrous marriage, has a string of unstable interactions with the opposite sex, and is unable to maintain a healthy relationship. Her history speaks for itself.
Her co-dependent and abusive love-life implosions make her an ineffective teacher. She doesn’t have credibility.
That doesn’t stop her from running the course, though, and “empowering” women. And guess what? The ladies hand her money. They get together for weekend retreats and learn all about how to relate.
Yoga Instructors Who Teach Other Yoga Instructors to Be Yoga Instructor Teachers
Way back before the pandemic, yoga retreats that instructed yogis on how to become yoga instructors were all the rage.
It’s pretty obvious that yoga instructors can barely make a living. Unless they teach other yoga instructors, who teach more yoga instructors, and so on. These retreats can be quite the money maker, from the looks of it.
Marketers That “Build Their Business” By Writing About How to Sell Business-Building Marketing
These guys take the cake. And then eat it.
They write article after article about how to sell. But they’re selling selling!
“Huh, what should I write about this week? What NEED can I fill for people? I know they “need” to know how to make money online by never actually doing anything meaningful! So I’ll write ANOTHER article about how to market.
“Marketing marky mark mar market!
“Subscribe! Subscribe!”
Writers Who Write About How to Write
To me, there’s nothing sillier than always only writing about how to write. When do they get to the part where they create anything new?
Never is the usual answer.
If a successful long-term writer writes about writing, at least they have experience. Not like some noob who has less than 20 stories on a medium-sized or sub-stacked platform and thinks they now have the writing bull by the balls — so much so that they can start giving meaningful advice like the guru that they are.
Writers who ONLY write about writing — booorrrriiinngg!
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to see a man about a goat.
I laughed most of the way through this because I totally felt your exasperation. I've been in that camp for many years because even before Substack, that's what everyone on Medium was writing about. Writing about writing and how to make money writing. It's ENOUGH!
Oh and, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!! I love your stuff and no matter what you're writing about it always makes me giggle or laugh 😁
Happy Anniversary Tim! Yes to all of this, I love it.
I'm not sure what I'd like to see more of but I think it's very helpful for folks to know what to DO when they are just starting out to change their lifestyle. What does breakfast look like, what about the cravings, how do I walk if I can't go more than 100 steps. The very basics are often overlooked when folks are further along the path.
Thanks for your great work.