I don’t know why I signed up for Ship 30 for 30.
I wasn’t a writer.
Sure, I had ideas and dreams and thoughts I wanted to get out there. But that nagging voice usually kept those trapped inside. Even when I did share, no one seemed to listen.
I don’t know why I signed up for Ship 30 for 30, but it changed everything. It showed me what was hiding inside all this time. I learned why people weren’t listening before, and how to change that. I found direction—a purpose in creation. And it gave me the tools to follow that purpose.
Turns out, I am a writer after all.
Becoming A Writer
Some sort of magic happens when you create something every day for 30 days.
You prove you can do something great and stay consistent. Not just to everyone else, but to yourself.
It took me hours to write my first atomic essay. I had no idea what I was doing, and every sentence felt like agony. That first night, I thought I’d made a huge mistake. I was embarrassed how long it took me. But I pressed on.
And a few days in, I started to unlock something.
I could see what worked for me, and what didn’t. I stopped agonizing over every sentence and just poured words onto the page. The hiccups were still there, but I learned to stop caring about the little things. I knew getting to publish was more important than perfection, which was never achievable anyway.
“Writing is easy. You just open a vein and bleed.”
Those first few days felt like the hard work of pushing an immobile train down the tracks. I was moving a massive weight that hadn’t been used in years, and Newton’s laws of motion were fighting against me. Once writing became something I just did, I started to build up that momentum.
And the community pushed me forward too. We rallied around each other, building each other up and celebrating our wins. Offering constructive feedback and sharing tips along the way.
By the end of my first 30 days, things were moving at full steam and I was writing my atomic essays in less than 30 minutes. While it never truly felt easy, it became a routine that felt natural.
Writing was what I did now. I was a writer.
Finding My Niche
A lot of attention is given to the idea of finding your niche when you start writing and publishing content.
I think it’s more important to let your niche find you. Ship30 is the perfect place for that niche discovery.
With the atomic essay format, you will iterate quickly and gather feedback. Write about whatever sounds interesting, discover what resonates with others, and find what brings you fulfillment to write about.
Writing About ADHD
I knew I wanted to write about ADHD.
I wasn’t diagnosed with ADHD until I was 36 years old. The more I learned about ADHD, the more frustrated I was that no one told me sooner. If someone had only known these basics, they would have quickly known about my ADHD and could’ve saved me years of self-blame, frustration, and pain.
While I was interested in exploring some other topics for the writing challenge, there were pivotal truths about ADHD I wanted to get out into the world.
Pretty quickly, my writing became focused on ADHD. I found a deep satisfaction in writing about a topic so important to me, and it seemed to resonate with many others as well.
I made it my mission to help those with ADHD better understand how their brain works, and especially to reach the estimated 70-85% of adults with ADHD that don’t know they have it.
Because of the spark I found in writing for Ship30, I’m seeing that mission play out every day as I hear from people that have been helped or inspired by the content I create.
Like-minded Community
I’ve met so many amazing people because of Ship30.
There’s something magical about this community. It attracts people with that special spark—I don’t know if it’s passion or ambition or what. But everyone here seems to have it. They aren’t satisfied with sitting still, they want to make things happen. They want to do more, be more.
That community drives me to keep creating. I talk daily with people I met in Ship30, and have built friendships that will last for years.
The community’s encouragement and positive momentum becomes contagious—everyone wants everyone to keep going and find success.
It’s truly inspiring.
Building An Audience
The growth I’ve had in my online presence has been staggering.
Before I started, I had around a thousand followers on Twitter and no following anywhere else. I didn’t have any sort of newsletter or even an active blog.
But less than a year later, my twitter account is up to 9k followers. I started new accounts on Instagram and TikTok and have grown them up to 11k and 62k followers. That’s a total audience of over 80,000 people.
These aren’t just vanity metrics. These are real people that have seen content I created this year, and actively took the step to follow me so they could see more. People I can reach and help support in their journey with ADHD.
In addition to social platforms, I now have a weekly newsletter with close to 4k subscribers, I’ve been invited as a guest on several podcasts, and I’ve been invited to speak at conferences.
I even started writing my own book, Refocus: A Practical Guide to ADHD.
Thanks to the success I’ve had with Ship30, I’m writing my book in public so my audience can be part of the process in helping me know what they most want me to write about.
I didn’t even talk about all the amazing support material you get by joining Ship30. Extremely useful and practical talks, interviews, strategies, tools, and everything else. Those are worth the price of admission alone. And they’re on top of all the reasons I already think Ship 30 is worth it.
I’m not saying that Ship 30 for 30 will give you an audience of 80,000 people, get you invitations to speak on podcasts and at conferences, or be the kickstart you need to finally write that book.
But I am saying, that’s exactly what it did for me.
Ship 30 made me a writer.
If Jesse's story resonated with you, click here to hop aboard the next Ship 30 for 30 cohort.