The Simmonds Signal

Write to bring peace to your mind. Write to create financial abundance. Write to find your people. Write to discover your personal path to spirituality. Write to know yourself. Write.

Insights, actionable tips, and philosophies for writers, creatives, and storytellers…

My Daily Death Sentence

Ever catch yourself staring at the office clock at 9:17 AM, already fantasizing about the sweet release of 5 o'clock?

I've been there.

Soul-crushingly there…

Picture this:

Me, walking through the door of my college classroom, shoulders slumped, taking that deep sigh that says "here we go again."

Teaching the same classes.

To the same ungrateful students.

Marking the same homework with the same comments.

For the seven-thousandth time.

After 7 years, I wasn't just out of energy. I was drained of purpose.

I was becoming that professor.

Do you know the one?

• Coffee-stained write t-shirt

• Hair like Doc from Back to The Future

• Muttering about the good ol' days while students roll their eyes

The worst part?

I used to LOVE teaching.

At 23, standing in front of students twice my age, I was electrified by the challenge.

• Building masters curriculums from scratch

• Seeing that "lightbulb moment" in students' eyes

I was continuously reaching for more of my raw, untapped potential on the daily.

Until suddenly, I stopped growing.

Became stagnant.

Sound familiar?

The Growth Paradox

Conventional career wisdom is outdated.

• "Do what you love!"

• "Find your passion!"

• "Just quit and follow your dreams!"

Empty inspirational quotes from those who don't face your mortgage payments or needs to provide for their family.

But here's what they're missing:

You're not only passionless. You're purposeless because you're trapped in the prison of mastery.

Your brain is wired for novelty, challenge, and growth.

Once you've mastered a role…

… Once your neural pathways can sleepwalk through the work…

… Your spirit begins to wither.

This isn't a character flaw. It's human nature.

It's a problem with the traditional career advice you've been sold…

The Ghost Who Ghosted Himself

When I escaped teaching to become a ghostwriter, I felt reborn.

80-hour weeks felt like freedom.

Every day stretched my skills and molded my mind:

• Exploring fresh topics

• Interviewing 7-figure founders

• Expanding my domain of writing mastery

I was no longer lacking challenge.

I was drowning in it. And thriving because of it.

But then came mastery again.

And with it, the return of that soul-sucking sameness.

Different field. Same problem.

The conventional career path of go to school, get a job, work for 40 years, and retire, is a trap designed to extinguish the creative spark that makes you effective.

Your dissatisfaction is a natural response to an unnatural expectation:

That you should do one thing forever.

Your job hatred isn't a moral failing.

It's an evolutionary alarm bell.

You weren't built to be imprisoned by your own competence.

When mastery becomes mundane, meaning murders motivation.

My Liberation Protocol—The Prison & The Path

If you're still reading this, you've made a decision.

Not just to skim another email.

But to confront the uncomfortable truth about what's killing your spirit at work.

This isn't about finding a new job.

It's about discovering your life's work.

A path so wide you couldn't possibly exhaust its challenges in a lifetime.

My liberation protocol will show you how I did it:

1) Play Infinite Games

Infinite games are careers that exist in domains that never stop evolving:

• Writing

• Science

• Entrepreneurship

• Branding & design

• Software development

• Future-focused learning

Each morning, I devote 1-2 hours to playing infinite games.

For me, that's obsessively writing:

• Exploring raw curiosity

• Refining ideas until they cut like razors

• Challenging myself to transform fuzzy thinking into lucid insight

There is always another idea to refine. Another writing skill to master. Another concept to incorporate.

And after just one hour of this work?

I feel f*cking alive.

So alive that when I switch to client work—writing the same content for the same industries—it doesn't drain me.

Find an infinite game that you're obsessed with.

Carve out 1 to 2 focused hours each day to play it.

2) Trade Rusty Shackles for Golden Handcuffs

My ghostwriting business isn't my purpose-driven calling.

It's my profit engine.

The money printer that funds my life.

A job I don't love passionately – but also don't hate.

And guess what?

That's completely fine.

The "follow your passion" narrative is processed content for processed minds.

The reality?

No matter what work you do:

• Certain aspects will bore you

• Certain tasks will drain you

• Certain hours will test you

But there's a massive difference between:

1. Work that bores you sometimes

2. Work that erodes you all the time

With ghostwriting, algorithms change. Industries evolve. New clients bring fresh problems to solve.

I'll take that over traditional career stagnation any day.

Identify the next career step you can take that will challenge you with focused work.

It could be a new project at your current job, a slight career pivot, or starting a side hustle.

Start molding your golden handcuffs now.

3) Make The Honest Exchange

Like Alex says, your first business won't make you rich.

But it can be a meaningful step in the direction of building life changing wealth and stepping into a career you hate significantly less than your current job.

I personally see ghostwriting from this perspective:

It's a stepping stone business.

Not your forever work.

But one that creates more wealth, demands less time, and delivers more enjoyment than most alternatives.

If you feel trapped in soul-crushing work, unable to increase your earning power while doing something you mostly enjoy...

...ghostwriting offers a legitimate escape route.

(Though not the only one.)

It allowed me to exchange my rusty shackles for golden handcuffs.

If you're ready to make the same exchange, I won't charge you $5,000 like my mentor charge me.

I'll offer you access to join our free ghostwriting community:

The fastest way to ruin your life is to continue following someone else's plan.

This is your invitation to write your own.

Until next time,

-Taylin John Simmonds

PS. I haven't written like this in a long time.

The truth? I've been going through some personal sh*t behind the scenes.

• A bad breakup

• Moving countries

• Processing tsunamis of shame, guilt, and sadness that crashed over me without warning (stories for another day)

Some days, keeping myself afloat took everything I had.

But I'm awakening from my dark night of the soul.

I feel so raw. So creative.

And ready to stretch my writing muscles until they burn—until I become the writer I know I can be.

So I'd love to know… Does this format resonate with you?

PPS. When you’re ready, here’s a few ways I can help you:

1. Watch this podcast to learn how I built a $500k per year digital writing business from square one. This is by far my favorite podcast I’ve been on.

2. Watch this free training on how Alex Renner went from struggling copywriter to $15k/mo ghostwriter (while travelling the world)

3. Watch this video created by my mentor, Dakota, to learn more about ghostwriting. Whether you’re an amateur or seasoned writer, this is you fastest path to earning 6 figures as a writer (I’m biased, of course).