How We Got Here - Career Stories Jonathan Torrey

In this episode I chat with Mike Johnson. He's a fellow podcast host who also appeared on Tea with Gary V. We chat about how he came up with the idea for his podcast, what challenges he's faced, and why it's so important for you to put yourself out into the world. 

You never know who's listening, reading, or scrolling, and we live in an era where anyone of us can reach the world with a phone and an internet connection. 

We also talk about the importance of figuring out your overarching goals and not tying your success, identity, or self-esteem to a singular vessel of delivering on that goal. Listen for more details. 

Enjoy! 

Today's episode is my full-length interview with Pauleanna Reid. She is a motivational speaker, millennial mentor, celebrity CEO, ghostwriter, and critically acclaimed author of her fiction novel Everything I Couldn't Tell My Mother. 

This interview is all about how someone who failed her 11th and 12th grade English classes monumentally succeeded in the art of writing. Pauleanna shares exactly how she got from point A to point B with unique and practical advice. 

Pauleanna offers a lot of insight in this interview on topics that affect all of us: we talk about why our culture and generation struggles so much to fulfill ourselves through work and how to fix it. We talk about how she took the leap from dropping out of college to starting her own businesses. 

And we also talk about how to reframe your past experiences and how to navigate things like mental health, networking, mentorship, etc. 

Pauleanna is a rock star and there's so much to learn from her in this interview! 

In this short clip, I chat with Pauleanna Reid, an accomplished author, public speaker, and mentor about passion and purpose.  If you're struggling to figure out your sense of purpose or what you're really passionate about this episode is for you. Not only does Pauleanna give examples from her own career, but she also makes some really important practical distinctions about passion and purpose in today's culture. Pauleanna really nails it when describing why our culture and generation really struggle with fulfilling ourselves through our work and how you can overcome that challenge! 

In this short clip, Pauleanna Reid talks about how she got her first client for celebrity ghostwriting. It came by way of a mentor and further demonstrates how important it is to have mentors and sponsors in your life. because if you execute against their advice, they can connect you with the right opportunities. 

Pauleanna also worked as an executive assistant in an early part of her career. She didn't realize it, but she was actually doing ghostwriting for the CEO's that she was assisting. You never know how a previous job can contribute to a new opportunity, so it's really important to reexamine your past experiences and not be afraid to reposition them to figure out how they might fit something that's been presented to you. 

In this short clip, I chat with Pauleanna Reid, an accomplished author, public speaker, and mentor about how she vaulted herself into the world of professional writing. 

The story she shares is really important for everybody to hear. She met with a mentor. She executed the mentor's advice over a long period of time and it turned into a bigger opportunity for her. She talks about the distinction between self-worth and market value.  You may know that you're a really strong writer, programmer, etc. but if the market doesn't know about your capabilities, you're not going to get connected with the right opportunities. 

There is another layer to building the skill set: it's exposure and it's putting yourself out there to the world and giving the market a chance to adopt you for whatever skill set you have.  

In this full-length interview, I chat with Tom Levine. Tom is an author, teacher, and speaker. He's written for Spawn, he's published novels, and one of his books just got picked up for a movie script. 

In this conversation, we talk about how Tom got to where he is today and how it's a little bit difficult to be a creative when you're putting out work into the world. We talk about overcoming challenges and finding vessels for your overarching goals. Tom talks about a day in his life, and he gives a lot of really great practical advice for young writers, experienced writers, and people who are just interested in creative endeavors. 

Tom's been doing this for a long time and he's found a lot of success so I'm really excited for this episode.