(But all my friends call me Cole.)

Now it's my turn to tell you a story.

One of the questions Dickie and I get asked most often is how we met—and how I ended up getting roped into Ship 30 for 30.

The honest answer is: I roped myself in.

About a month after Dickie started Ship 30 for 30, we were connected through a mutual friend and Dickie invited me to give the upcoming cohort a try. I was at home with my family at the time for Christmas (December, 2020) and had been feeling like I was ready to reconnect with my daily writing habit for the upcoming year. So, I hopped in Slack, opened the Atomic Essay writing template, and wrote my first essay.

When I was finished and I exported the image, I knew I had just stumbled onto something special.

See, I have been writing online since I was 17 years old (I'm 33 years old now).

As a teenager, I had one of the first e-famous gaming blogs on the Internet. I went on to study creative writing, fiction writing, and literature in college. But when I graduated, I had no idea how I was going to turn this passion of mine for writing into a career. I took a job as an entry-level copywriter at a local advertising agency in downtown Chicago, but that's not what I really wanted to do. I wanted to write books. I wanted to share my own thoughts and ideas with the world (not write social media copy for pizza chains and coconut water brands).

So, in an attempt to build myself as a writer in the digital age, I gave myself a goal.

I challenged myself to write every single day, on a website called Quora, for a year straight.

Best-case scenario, I would experience some sort of life-changing result and my writing would take off.

Worst-case scenario, I'd spend a year doing something I already loved and enjoyed, which was writing.

Well, writing every single day on Quora changed the entire trajectory of my life.

And in the next transition, I'll tell you exactly how.

Now go check your inbox for the next (and final) lesson of Start Writing With AI, where we will show you how to expand proven Tweets into long-form, pillar assets.

PS… As a reminder, you can share any follow-up questions you’d like to ask us as you go through the email course using the form below!

https://dickie650998.typeform.com/to/NoRRFXNx#lesson=lesson4