You Need To Do Cool Sh*t Then Write About It

In 2016 I packed all my sh*t up and drove to California.

I was making $500 per week back then, which barely covered traveling in the states.

I don’t know how I did it, quite honestly.

My first day in New Orleans I locked my keys in my car. Total bonehead move which required AAA to come bail me out.

That night, in that sweaty hostel room of 16 people, I could barely sleep. I thought I made the worst decision of my life going on a journey like this.

Fast forward five months, 12,000 miles, and 23 new states, and I had a completely different view.

I changed a lot. I learned things. I got back home in October and immediately created a publication called the Post-Grad Survival Guide.

I wanted to tell my lessons to the world.

Over the last six years, that pub generated 15 million+ views, and was one of the most popular publications of all time on Medium.

Why did my writing succeed? 

Because Doing Cool Sh*t Gave Me A Different View Of The World

Here’s an example. 

San Francisco.

How many times do we hear that that city is some kind of a sh*thole online?

Want to know what I thought of San Francisco?

It was easily the most beautiful city in the United States. 

It was nowhere near a sh*thole.

Sometimes you don’t see the truth until you go places many people don’t want to go. Or…… do things most people don’t want to do.

Going on a road trip across the country by myself sounded awesome to me — but I realized that most people are afraid of traveling in general.

For that reason, I had insights that most people didn’t have about traveling, life, and my country.

It set me apart. It gave me a different message to share. And that’s, in a nutshell, why you need to do cool sh*t yourself.

What If I Haven’t Done Cool Sh*t Tom?

You have. Look, I’m not just talking about traveling the world here.

I’m talking about doing anything that scared you in the past.

If you did something you were scared of in the past, that counts as cool sh*t in my book.

Maybe you went bungee jumping. Maybe you asked the love of your life to marry you. Maybe you ate something exotic — like grasshoppers. Here’s what I want you to do..

Write down 5 of the craziest things you did in your life.

Moments in your life where you felt a pounding in your chest.

Bonus points if not many people attempt what you attempted.

Here’s some ideas of where to look:

• Traveling
• Tough conversations you had
• Starting a business
• Any moment you risked being vulnerable
• Love stories
• Sports stories
• Any moment you dealt with adversity
• Any time you went where most people don’t want to go, both physically and metaphorically.
• Any moment in your life where you felt you were special

You probably have a handful of those moments in your life already.

How To Turn Crazy Experiences Into Great Blog Posts

Great, now that you have five moments written down (bonus points if you have more!), do the following exercise..

1. Break your story up into three parts: beginning, middle, and end.
2. Write down 5 things that surprised you during the beginning.
3. Write down 5 ways you dealt with the adversity during the notoriously difficult middle. Tactics, mindset, prayer, etc. 
4. Finally, write down 5 things you learned once you got to the end of your journey and had broad perspective.

For instance, here’s some for my road trip..

BEGINNING: I thought traveling the country would be nothing but an Instagram travel reel and a dream, but in reality it was super difficult.

Headline: “Travel Porn Is NOT Traveling”

MIDDLE: During my travels, I found going to see a movie at the theatre was a cheap way to turn my brain off and lower my anxiety.

Headline: “How To Lower Your Anxiety For $10”

END: I learned that traveling is more fulfilling when it’s difficult, not when it’s a travel porn Instagram reel.

Headline: “Traveling Is Only Useful When It’s Difficult”

Boom. There’s three articles right there. How are my headlines?

My major point is, by going where most people don’t go, or doing things most people don’t do, we logically learn things they never learn.

And because of that, our writing has a chance to stand out from the masses.

Welcome to my newsletter, 150 days to blogging mastery. This is the third of 150 lessons, which we’ll publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday until the end of the year. Please subscribe on Substack or here on LinkedIn.

For the next month, we’ll be talking about how to generate great writing ideas. Join us!