I almost talked myself out of this. I’ve been building my personal brand for a while now. It’s shifted more than a couple of times but that’s as many as I’m willing to admit. But somewhere in the middle of strategizing my current direction it started feeling a little stale. Slow. Not as fun as…
The Free Tool I Use to Format and Preview Every LinkedIn Post Before I Hit Publish
I’ve been posting on LinkedIn consistently for a while now, and one of the quiet problems nobody really talks about is the formatting. You write something. It looks clean in your notes app or in a Google Doc. You paste it into LinkedIn and suddenly everything is a wall of text. The bolded texts changes…
How I Was Using AI Wrong (And Maybe You Are Too)
What’s more important? To sound like you or the version of you that you think people want to see? This is an age old question if you think about it. We’ve always had to choose this. For example, when you want to impress a girl do you think “let me be 100% me” or do…
I Had to Lower My Reading Goal to Enjoy Reading Again
Hear me out on this reading goal thing. Two years ago, I set a goal to read 36 books. I fell off completely. Didn’t even finish the year reading. This year, I told myself I’d be more “realistic.”I set the goal to 24 books. I fell off AGAIN. And this time, I started doing something embarrassing….
Don’t write for an imaginary audience before writing for yourself
I struggle with calling myself a writer. I am not a formal writer. I am not an academic one either. Even though I’m starting master’s program I’m starting soon, I hesitate to call myself a “writer” But I love writing. I love thinking on paper and screens. Writing helps me clarify what I am actually…
I Was Paralyzed by the Blank Page… Until a Friend Showed Me a Way Forward
I would sit and stare at the blank page, my cursor blinking at me with no end. Will it be good? Who’s going to read it? Why would they care? These thoughts stopped me every time. I’d open my laptop with the best intentions, crack my knuckles, and then… nothing. The white screen always won,…
Why My Teaching Background Made Me a Worse Writer (And How I’m Learning to Unlearn)
I used to be a teacher. For two years, I was trained to speak only on what I knew. To source it. To back it up. To be sure. Every lesson plan required citations. Every claim needed evidence. If a student asked a question I couldn’t answer with absolute certainty, I learned to say “Let…
Welcome to New York
As I grab my bag from the overhead I hear, “we have arrived at JFK, welcome to New York.” Words I never thought I would hear in my life. I come from a small town with a population of about 23K. I would’ve been lucky just to leave the city, let alone Texas. New York…
You Don’t Have to Pick Just One niche
You Don’t Have to Pick Just One “So what do you do?” One of the storytelling group members asked me this, and I had a loooong pause. Not because I don’t do anything. Because I do too many things. I’m a writer who doesn’t want to be an author. A graphic designer with a bachelor’s…
The Pot Paradox: Why You Must Change Before Your Environment Can
Everyone talks about how we’re like plants: we can only grow as big as our pot allows. Change your environment, they say, and you’ll change yourself. Move to a new city. Find better friends. Get into different rooms where opportunity lives. It’s compelling advice. And it’s not wrong. But there’s something crucial they miss. To…
