Rockstar-turned-writer says charge what you’re worth, turn your calling into a career

This article is part of Tech in Asia’s partnership with The Jay Kim Show where we publish the revised transcripts from the show’s podcast interviews with top entrepreneurs. This is heavily revised from the original show transcripts. For the full interview, go here.

Jeff Goins is a professional writer. He is the author of four best-selling books including The Art of Work.

Here, Goins talks about how to find your calling. He explains his own experience of how he did so, which landed him on stage in Taiwan as a leading member of a Christian rock band.

I hope you enjoy this.

Jeff Goins. Photo credit: Lancia Smith.

Who is Jeff Goins and what do you do for a living?

“I am a full-time writer and I spend most of my time writing books and teaching online courses for writers.

“I became a writer, not in the way that people typically [do] where they’re like, ‘I’ve always wanted to do this […] and then finally I just did it.’

“I did not think of myself as a writer. For me, writing was this thing that I did on the side but never took seriously. If anything, I always wanted to be a rockstar.

“You asked me if I had ever been to Asia. I spent a month in Taiwan traveling with my band, playing at these schools and out in public and at malls and stuff.

“For a very brief season in my life, I kind of felt like a rockstar because, in Taiwan, they’re like, ‘Oh, you’re an American musician,’ and they just assumed we were a really cool, famous rock band.

“I remember one time playing at this all-girls nursing school just outside of Taipei. Have you ever seen videos of when The Beatles played the Ed Sullivan show and these girls are fainting? This was that. It was unbelievable, and it was great for my ego for like 12 seconds.

“I did this after college, and at the end of my year of touring, I realized that music wasn’t as big a deal to me as I thought it would be. I became a professional musician and it was sort of underwhelming.

“I remember having a conversation with a friend, and he said, ‘Man, if I couldn’t play music, I don’t know what I would do.’ I remember thinking, ‘Well, I would just do something else.’ I realized in that moment that this wasn’t my passion. This wasn’t my calling.

“Then, I worked for a nonprofit. About seven years into working for this international nonprofit, I realized what I really want to do [was to write]. I was a marketing director, so I’d learned a lot about social media, and I realized that all this stuff I’m doing for our organization—brand building, copywriting, Facebook—was starting to become a thing.”

You wrote about finding your calling in your book. Could you tell us more about that?

Give me the actionable steps I can do right now to start listening to my life.

Could you tell us your take on the starving artist mindset?

What are some ways that they can thrive as an artist?

How would you want people to remember you?