College teacher turned ghostwriter | Scaling founders, coaches, and consultants to $100K+ /mo | Writing to build wealth and better self | 98,000 on Twitter (X)

Taylin John Simmonds

3 years ago, a friend lent me $40K to pay off my debt. So I could focus on business.

2 years ago, I offered to pay it back. He said no. Reinvest. Pay me later. 1 year ago, first payment. 

Yesterday, I paid him back!

Find the people who bet on you before it makes sense. Then spend your life proving them right.

College teacher turned Substack ghostwriter | Thoughts about craft, ideas, and AI as a creative partner (not a replacement) | 2B impressions | $4M+ revenue generated | All in on Substack

One pattern I’ve noticed in all the people that inspire me: They live a diverse life.

They layer unrelated skills. 
Read widely. 
And have friends you'd rarely see together. 

A rich life isn't only about money. It's about the range of experiences that made you who you are.

Stop calling yourself a content creator. Content creators chase algorithms. You're cultivating a body of work.

You're not in the content game. You're in the depth game.

And depth doesn't scale. It compounds.

I'm noticing a quiet rebellion against balance. 

People who disappear into their craft. 12, 15 hours a day for weeks. Then step back completely. No guilt. No routine. No splitting the difference. Full immersion, then full recovery. 

Seasons, not schedules.

You don't actually want to stop working. You just haven't found work worth your devotion.

The goal isn't to do less. It's to care so deeply about one thing that everything else becomes noise.

Find that thing. Then you'll never need convincing to start.

Everyone's trying to escape work. Fewer hours. Passive income. Early retirement. That's not freedom. That's avoidance.

You don't want to do less. You want something worth pouring everything into. Work that's worthy of your full attention, your full energy, your full devotion.

Find that first.

If AI is speeding up your writing process, you're using it wrong.

AI should slow you down. Stress-test your ideas. Pressure-test your arguments. Find the angle that actually matters before you write a word.

The bottleneck was never your writing speed. It was your thinking clarity.

You don't need 100 clients. You need a handful of the right ones and the devotion to serve them so well they never want to leave.

No empire. No team of 30. No "scaling to seven figures."

Just craft you're proud of and a livelihood that lets you live well.

A book you highlighted but never practiced is a book you never read.

Understanding doesn't live in the notes you took.

It lives in the choices you made differently afterward.

A life-changing habit I picked up recently: Fifteen minutes of breath work before work.

The breath brings me out of my head and into stillness. A stillness that makes creative work feel effortless.

Your best work is hiding behind the ritual you're skipping.

The real value in the AI age isn't what you know. It's who you can inspire.

Give them an aim, a compelling reason, and the next small step when everything feels overwhelming.

If you want to matter in the AI age, don't just share knowledge. 
Lend direction.

You're behind because you've never given 100% of yourself to the thing you care about.

Subtract everything that isn't it. Give it everything you have. Not 40%. Not most days. Everything.

You've never seen what happens when you actually commit. Find out.

Be different, stay free, and make money teaching stuff you enjoy. 100M+ views. 150K readers. INFJ, Coach, Writer. Regular tips to set you apart at the Mastery Den newsletter ⮕ masteryden.com

Connect with me and learn how to master your writing habit and make an impact with your words: https://www.alexmathers.co <- Get your free productivity checklist when you join.

I'm a writer, coach, illustrator, film-maker and course creator.

I have a readership of over 200,000 to my newsletters and articles.

My focus right now is helping you overcome sabotage, build confidence, find your voice and develop a writing habit that changes the world.

I write stand-out articles that generate tens of thousands of new eyeballs weekly for brands and individuals who want to grow.

"Alex is a hell of a writer. When I observe people who write well I feel empowered."

- D. Selinger, Illusionist, Business owner

“Alex has a command of the medium that I don't have. His tweets were better than I could have written. We all need someone outside of ourselves to see us - and perhaps speak for us - better than we can do ourselves. Alex has impressively risen to this challenge.  I highly recommend his writing service."

- Derek Sivers, Founder CD Baby, entrepreneur, writer

--

Businesses founded:

Red Lemon Club - A blog for creatives, leaders and entrepreneurs about creativity and consciousness.
Ape on the Moon - 'The best in contemporary illustration and animation'
Book of Lift - 'Daily questions to help you succeed, one step at a time' (productivity planner).
Alex Mathers - Impactful writing and courses.
Alex Mathers Coaching - Transformational coaching and coach training.

I built a global design business in my twenties, working with international clients, without any formal training in either business or design.

I work with a handful of people each year as a coach to help them realise their full potential and expand their businesses.

"I had the pleasure of working with Alex for several months. I found our coaching calls to be insightful and frequently surprising. Alex has a knack for distilling what can feel like big, complicated problems into actions and patterns that I can then control and manage." ~ Chris Hough

I'm self-taught in illustration with a degree in Geography and a Masters in Real Estate. Clients include Google, the BBC, Mars, Barclays, Saatchi & Saatchi, Two Dots Games, Wired Magazine and Time Out London.

My personal site: www.alexmathers.net

Speaking includes:

OFFF Design Conference, Barcelona
Icon Illustration Conference, Austin, TX
Behance, Tokyo
DXSaigon, Ho Chi Minh City
New Designers, London
Association of Illustrators, London
Ilustratour Conference, Valladolid, Spain

35+ podcast interviews various.

Alex Mathers

I quit a habit this month that I'd been telling 
myself I'd quit for three years.

I'm not going to tell you which one because the 
internet turns every personal struggle into content.

The thing that finally made me stop was getting 
sick of who I was becoming by not stopping.

. . .

Want more energy to create remarkable things?

You will triple your productivity in days...

When you join my daily newsletter and grab my productivity checklist.

Coach, illustrator and author of 8 books. Helping you develop a resilient mind and a writing and publishing habit for impact. 205k readers. 200M+ views. Regular tips at my newsletter ⮕ alexmathers.co

This should be a law written above my bed.

Energy is rewarded to those who can resist temptation.

Whenever I hold back on that thing I know is bad, 
the Universe gifts me with energy for the rest of the day.

I like energy.

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The Battle

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