frolicking in a field somewhere
Joined May 2009
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Madi Taskett retweeted
people are so insecure on here
jobs are good, solopreneur is cool, living in a suburb rocks, cities are great, bali is awesome, being a nomad is cool, settling down in one place for 30 years is epic
humans are weird, you can enjoy them all
Madi Taskett retweeted
All it takes is one year. Just one. To completely change the entire course of your life. One year of committing to your goals. One year of avoiding distractions. One year of ignoring your doubts and insecurities. One year of saying yes to the things that scare and excite you. One year of waking up early and getting after it. Most people overestimate what they can do in a day and underestimate what they can do in a year. Don’t be most people. Go all in.
Madi Taskett retweeted
"self" publishing is a funny phrasse
self-publishing is basically "full-stack publishing" - you take more ownership, capture more upside, make more decisions, learn more skills, control your creative outputs
Madi Taskett retweeted
I committed to monkhood.
Now I’m selling The Ultimate Sales Machine.
I wasn’t planning on announcing my monkhood until after the sale… but then I realized I was hiding. And if I’m truly committed to finding the right steward for my family’s legacy, I can’t hold back now.
For 13 years, I carried The Ultimate Sales Machine—protecting it, evolving it, doing everything I could to ensure my father’s work lived on.
This decision didn’t come easily. But I’ve debated this spiritual path for 14 years—and I’m finally ready to accept what I know is my true destiny. I even told my father about this before he passed.
Once he was gone, I stepped into his business—out of duty, grief, and love.
Now, it’s time to find someone who will take it even further.
I NEED YOUR HELP! If:
👉 The Ultimate Sales Machine has impacted you, please share this post.
📩 You know someone who might want to buy it? Tag them below.
🔗 You think it might be you? Fill out the form (link in comments)
For potential buyers, here’s some highlights. The Ultimate Sales Machine is:
• A platform beloved by 255,000+ businesses
• A timeless proven system that’s helped clients generate billions in sales
• A cult classic book, translated in 16 languages, still selling thousands per year without ads
• A loyal audience hungry for real leadership
This is your chance to build on one of the most trusted marketing & sales brands in the world.
We’ve already had serious buyers. But I’d regret not opening the door to others—just in case the next steward is someone in my own community.
I want to thank my Guru—Sarva Loka Maa Her Holiness Sri Sri Sri 1008 Guruji Poonamji. She helped me find the courage to step into this business—and now, she’s given me the clarity to step into my true purpose.
Building a 1,000-acre healing center unlike anything that exists today is the next step. (More on that later.)
If this resonates—or if you know the next person who can carry my father’s legacy business forward—I’d be forever grateful for your support.
With a bit of fear… and a whole lot of trust,
Amanda
Madi Taskett retweeted
I turned 40 last week, here are 40 reflections I wrote down...
On Change & Transformation
1. Blowing up my life and walking away from a successful career to embark on something much more uncertain was the most important decision in my 30s. It led to so many great things. At the time, it felt scary and foolish. Now I wish I had done it earlier.
2. You can reorient your life in a new direction quickly but the underlying rewriting of scripts and rewiring of your nervous system takes much longer than you would ever expect.
3. Following your “bliss” as Joseph Campbell has put it, is one of the most worthwhile things to do with your life. But I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. Following what truly matters means you must walk away from parts of yourself that you love and parts of yourself that others love. This can be quite the roller coaster of emotions.
4. “The moment” when people take bold action is often a post hoc fabrication. Real change is slow and confusing. I want more people to know this so they might feel permission to embrace the slow and more confusing journey of going after things that matter to them.
5. We unconsciously adopt narratives about the shape of our lives from previous generations, movie plots, and our peers. These “scripts” are often useful but tend to outlive their purpose as we age. Much of life is about figuring out which stories to discard as you age.
6. I have two regrets from my twenties: not living in another country and not taking more risks career-wise. Both would have pushed me out of my comfort zone. It seems that life will eventually push you out of your comfort zone whether you want it or not, so you might as well do it intentionally as early as possible.
7. I’ve never looked back and regretted being more adventurous with my life. Assuming this is true still now, it means I can probably be more adventurous than feels comfortable right now too.
8. There are many rules worth paying attention to, but many more are negotiable. We live in weird times and thriving in life likely requires weird approaches. If you aren’t shaking things up in random ways, you are missing out.
On Work
9. The desire to escape work is pervasive and keeps far too many stuck in less-than-ideal situations. People dream of one day becoming financially free. This is a mistake. You can’t escape work, you can only transcend it.
10. Finding your “good work,” the work that feels satisfying in the moment and satisfying upon reflection, can take years to find. But once you find it, you’ll be happy you never gave up.
11. The 14 months I spent writing my first book was the most satisfying work experience of my life. If that is the only thing of note I create for the rest of my life, it will have been worth it.
12. A “good job” can still be bad work. It’s easy to confuse a life that makes sense on paper with one that fills your heart and soul.
13. More people should try self-employment or freelancing for at least a year. Learning how to make money independently and stay productive without a boss is invaluable.
14. Time for tinkering, following curiosity, and reading about random things can feel like “wasting” time but tends to lead to interesting opportunities.
15. Burning out happens faster when working for yourself because there are no built-in limits. But this can be a good thing—it means you’ll waste fewer years doing things you don’t care about.
Money & Success
16. Attaining impressive achievements feels great, and I wish people would stop pretending otherwise. The problem is you’ll get addicted to the feeling and be surrounded by other addicts too.
17. Defining success on your own terms will create tension with those around you. It is easier to succeed like those around you but more satisfying to make progress against your own secret mission over the long term.
18. Having success early in life is a blessing and a curse. It can show you that many achievements leave you feeling empty, but it also means watching your peers accomplish things you know you were capable of.
19. Having an impressive job or career is the easiest way to run from both your inner world and outer world responsibilities while still being seen as a respectable adult.
20. Money is one of the most powerful forces in the world. Never underestimate its role in shaping all of your decisions as well as those around you.
21. Making less after making a high income is a cheat code for figuring out what you value. I learned this when I went from six figures to $30k after quitting my job.
22. I spent too little when young and took too few risks. If that was true then, it’s probably true now. If you were good at saving money at 23, you’re probably still good at it at 40.
23. Money fears are the home of the deepest anxieties of life: dying, belonging, being loved, and being accepted. The happiest people I know have decided to tango with these fears directly.
On Relationships
24. I’ve always found relationship advice from married people unhelpful. “Communicate,” they say. Sure. But every relationship is unique to the world you build with that person.
25. Meeting Angie felt lucky, and I don’t know what to tell people still searching other than “don’t give up.” My life changed in an instant. I’m glad I never gave up.
26. Marrying someone from another country adds permanent tension to a relationship. The mistake is trying to “solve” this. The upside is embracing the tension—it makes life more interesting.
Becoming a Parent
27. I had some theories about parenting. Then I had a child.
28. Becoming a father is the most humbling thing I have experienced. The first two years have forced me to admit, “I don’t know and it’s okay” more times than I can count.
29. Anxiety about your kids is probably the most acceptable kind of worrying. But if I see everything my child does as a reflection of me, I’ll undermine the connection I hope to have with them.
30. I’ve never experienced more moments of joy and love than I have while spending time with my daughter. She is my greatest teacher.
31. I suspect having a child toward the end of my 30s makes it easier than if I became a dad in my 20s. Despite this, I am a bit sad that I’ll have “less time” with my children than a younger parent will.
32. The returns to having a great spouse with a young child are incredibly high. Having someone you can laugh with about parenting struggles is priceless.
33. It’s been sad to see so many people in my generation opt out of becoming parents. But I understand. If I hadn’t met Angie, I don’t know if I would be a parent now either.
34. Parenting has added constraints to my life, and I would be lying if I said I “had it all.” But I don’t regret this time one bit.
Happiness, Life & Misc…
35. There is a state of alignment you can reach in which magical things will start happening to you. I would have rolled my eyes at this ten years ago, but now I believe it.
36. I’ve never seen a single person become happier by spending more time following politics or the news.
37. Reading history gives you more appreciation for the present. Humans have always been crazy.
38. Leisure and deep rest, the kind that recharges our soul, is a practice. And it’s incredibly hard to commit to in a world obsessed with hustle and achievement.
39. “Have you tried doing less on the problem?” is an underrated strategy for getting unstuck. Most people try to do more.
40. Writing is one of the most powerful acts in the world. It’s never too late to start. But beware: writing will expose what you truly desire.
Madi Taskett retweeted
We did it! We tested 300 Bay Area foods for plastic chemicals. We found some interesting surprises.
Top 5 findings in our test results:
1. Our tests found plastic chemicals in 86% of all foods, with phthalates in 73% of the tested products and bisphenols in 22%. It's everywhere.
2. We detected phthalates in most baby foods and prenatal vitamins.
3. Hot foods which spend 45 minutes in takeout containers have 34% higher levels of plastic chemicals than the same dishes tested directly from the restaurant.
4. The 1950s Army rations we tested contained surprisingly high levels of plastic chemicals.
5. Almost every single one of the foods we tested are within both US FDA and EU EFSA regulations.
Check out our full results below.
Madi Taskett retweeted
The sneaky bottleneck to producing good writing quickly is how you sequence and prioritize different levels of editing.
You can lose months focusing on prose when you should have been focusing on story.
Madi Taskett retweeted
"This is the trap of prestigious career paths. Instead of thinking about what you want to do with your life, you default to the options most admired by your peers."
-The Pathless Path
Madi Taskett retweeted
Announcing: Writing Examples
Today is launch day! We built this website to celebrate great writing.
It’s 100% free. Each article deconstructs a piece of writing from an iconic writer. The goal is to give you X-Ray vision into what makes sentences and paragraphs come alive (so that you can improve at your craft).
Every example has an analysis of why the writing works. Analytical often means dry. But instead of going technical, we’ve gone technicolor. There are text-explainers, summary graphics, and videos that come together to make the writing instruction lively and multi-dimensional.
It’s a place where you can discover how great writing comes together. Where we lift up the hood and see the mechanics in action. It isn’t about giving you a set of rules to follow. It’s about showing the diversity of ways writers approach their craft, so you can develop your own style.
What are some of the articles about? You’ll learn how to describe a party like F. Scott Fitzgerald, how to tell a story like George Orwell, how to write a speech like John F. Kennedy. There are other articles inspired by the likes of John Steinbeck, James Clear, Winston Churchill, Edgar Allen Poe, Charles Dickens, Steven Pressfield, and Jerry Seinfeld.
Writing Examples is a crusade against the sterility of contemporary writing. So much of the advice you read says the same thing: “Be direct. Cut the fluff. Get to the point. Stick to short sentences.” And yeah, sure, this advice has merit. It’s useful in certain cases, but the problem is writers take these rules to be universal, which has homogenized writing styles. Even in my own writing, there’ve been so many times where I’ve stripped away my own voice in the name of “correctness.” I regret that.
The truth is, there is no one way to write well, just as there is no one way to speak well. The way you speak in a boardroom is different from the way you speak on a first date, which is different from the way you speak with your childhood best friends. Writing is similar.
Writing Examples is the opposite of Grammarly. It celebrates the wild, wacky, and the weird because it’s the bedrock of personality. The site’s explicit purpose is to inject some High Noon Chutzpah back into the world of writing. To teach you how to write with distinctly human fingerprints in a world that’s about to be flooded with AI-generated content.
Forget playing it safe. That’s the most dangerous thing you can do in a world of instant writing. I want you to write with personality. I want you to play with punctuation. I want you to ditch the corporatized hogwash. I want to expand your sense of what great writing can be. And I want you to have fun doing it.
But there’s more to the mission. Writing Examples is a protest against today’s Internet, where people spend the majority of their time reading ad-polluted articles and doom-scrolling the same few social media sites. Remember when we used to surf the Internet? When every site was its own wave to ride? Now, we’re like phone-addicted zombies, we mindlessly scroll Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram until we feel bad about ourselves — only to repeat the cycle a few hours later.
Writing Examples is different. Heartfelt writing deserves a heartfelt presentation, so every element of the site has been designed from scratch. Energetically, we wanted to honor the gravitas of classic writing without the sleepiness of a drab old library shelf. We said no to ads. We said no to pop-ups. No hijacking your attention. None of the flat white backgrounds that make the Internet feel so homogenous. And we said no to anything that feels like your 5th-grade English class.
Writing Examples isn’t about what’s trending. It’s about learning from the great writers of times past, most of whom you know, many of whom you probably haven’t taken the time to read.
The ultimate goal is to make Writing Examples a one-stop shop to learn about any kind of writing you can think of.
Now, I dare you to dive into the site and get to work.
Madi Taskett retweeted
"If you're out for a walk no matter how slow you're still lapping everyone on the couch."
Madi Taskett retweeted
AUSTINITES:
I’m hosting an AMBITIOUS MORNING event this Saturday at 10 AM where we do ambitious things or things we’re avoiding. Have gotten a lot from doing this consistently.
Reply here or DM me if you wanna join!
Madi Taskett retweeted
I sensed early on in my career money and stuff wouldn’t make me happy if I had to do work I didn’t enjoy.
Took me years to do anything about this.
But now that I have work I enjoy all the money and stuff just seem like secondary things
Madi Taskett retweeted
You are the average of the people you surround yourself with….
But…here’s the thing no one talks about:
Having a high achieving circle can also f*%! with your head.
📚Story time
I recently turned in the final manuscript of my book.
My partner was there to celebrate and shower me with praise.
But when he asked me “how do you feel?!”
I replied: “this isn’t that special. A lot of people write books. I now need it to be a best selling book.”
He paused.
Then he said “Amanda, most people don’t write books. You just happen to surround yourself with those that do.”
And it hit me…
Yes hanging around ambitious people led me to do this hard, scary thing.
But it also caused me to discount the thing itself.
I recently learned that over 82% of Americans want to write a book
But less than 1% actually do.
If you spend 100% of your time with the 1%, it’s easy to forget about the other 99%.
TL;DR
Surrounding yourself with ambitious, high performers will push you to new heights but don’t forget to stop and look around.
Climb higher, see fewer.
Madi Taskett retweeted
The most successful people I know didn’t fight fate.
They let the universe push them in the direction they were meant to go and then worked incredibly hard once they got there.
If something wasn’t working, they adjusted or switched paths until they found something that felt… easy?
Easy might not be the right word, but it’s that feeling when everything just seems to click, like all the pieces fall perfectly into place.
One of them told me the key is learning to recognize when that happens and to go with it. Relinquish a bit of control and, instead of saying, “But this wasn’t my plan,” allow it to move forward anyway.
It’s an exciting place to be, and an even more exciting place to watch someone else be.
Madi Taskett retweeted
A few weeks ago @taskett encouraged me to give a⚡talk on writing from the soul.
I wasn't sure I had answers, but I did uncover my 5 Virtues for Writing:
- Beauty
- Patterns
- Wisdom
- Usefulness
- Expression
❔: What virtues do you write from? When do you know it's time?
Madi Taskett retweeted
All the recent tweets by Americans about Europe's flaws are really because they absolutely love Europe
Europe is America's little brother (or estranged father if you will) and they want to see us succeed and win too
Pointing out our flaws is the American way to wake us up: to Europeans it feels like we're being attacked, but they're essentially telling us to fix our shit or it gets worse. And we're not at all in a good spot right now
It's how true friends call each other out on their shit
We do the same to them by the way, all the posts about homeless/junkies/obesity etc. the last 10 years
America loves Europe and we're brothers, they want us to win too