Author: admin

I’ve just finished re-watching one of my favourite films with Robin Williams…

And as much as the world is going to hell in a hand basket in real time,

This scene always makes me sit back and reflect

We’re only here for a short time.

We need to find and do what makes us happy.

Order that extra dessert.

Wear that wacky outfit.

Asked that guy/girl out.

Make and share your art.

This experience on earth is beautiful but we have to be willing to risk it all.

Stephen Walker.

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker, Stephen Walker, Unit 146317, PO Box 7169, Poole, BH15 9EL, United Kingdom

Usually when I’m doing any type of writing.

The music I listen to hasn’t got vocals in it at all.

Why?

Cause when I get in the flow of things, then lyrics end up being peppered in and around whatever it that I’ve written.

But today was just a nice chill day going through an absolute gem of an album that I re-listen to purely because of the lyricism and word play.

Generally rap music gets a bad rap (lol) due to the nature of the lyrics and subject matter but honestly it’s just poetry with a beat.

Don’t get me wrong. You can’t slap a 90s boom bap beat on a Edgar Allan Poe poem and call it music but the sentiment is there.

Well. After I turned my brain into fantasy mush by re-watching all of the Lord of the rings and Harry Potter films, I had to just come back down to earth some way or the other.

And so Albert Einstein helped me out

There is no lesson here. It’s just music and something I thought I’d share.

Now go make with the Hip Hop and listen.

Cause when your head is stuck between Platform 9¾ and the dark and desolate realm located in the southeast, east of Gondor and the Anduin River aka Mordor.

And your attention is battling for Middle Earth.

Sometimes you just need a day to appreciate some music.

Stephen Walker

https://www.facebook.com/stphnwlkr

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

We need to have a talk.

Not the kind of talk where I’m mad.

Though honestly, maybe mad would be easier. Mad burns hot and fast like a shot of cheap whiskey. Mad gets things off your chest and moves on.

No, this is worse than mad.

I’m just disappointed.

The kind of bone deep, soul crushing disappointment plops right down into your stomach.

Yesterday was Friday the 13th.

And not one of you beautiful degenerates made a single Jason Voorhees reference on my timeline.

Not one “ch ch ch ah ah ah” sound effect. No hockey mask emojis. No jokes about avoiding summer camps or crystal lakes or teenage counsellors with questionable survival instincts.

Nothing.

Radio silence from my fellow horror nerds I thought I knew and loved.

You start to wonder if you’re living in some parallel universe where the cultural reference points that make life bearable have just…

Anywho…

The Friday the 13th franchise that taught us valuable life lessons like “don’t have premarital sex at summer camp” and “maybe don’t split up when there’s a masked killer on the loose” and “seriously, why does anyone still go to Camp Crystal Lake when it has a 100% murder rate?”

Jason Voorhees is the persistent bastard who refuses to stay dead.

Which, honestly, is a mood we should all aspire to in 2025.

The man’s been shot, stabbed, drowned, blown up, sent to space (yes, that happened), and dragged to hell, and he still shows up for work the next day with his trusty machete and inexplicable ability to teleport behind unsuspecting teenagers.

That’s dedication to craft right there.

But apparently, we’ve all become too sophisticated for such simple pleasures.

Too busy doom scrolling through man made hellscapes and arguing about AI ethics to pause and appreciate the pure, unfiltered joy of a seven foot zombie in a hockey mask systematically working through a cast of characters who couldn’t make good decisions if their lives depended on it.

We live in an age of manufactured nostalgia.

Every streaming platform is desperately mining the past for content that’ll trigger some warm fuzzy feeling of recognition.

Hollywood’s rebooting franchises that should’ve stayed buried. Social media’s constantly cycling through “remember this?” posts about things that happened six months ago.

But when an actual, legitimate cultural anniversary rolls around…

One that deserves recognition, celebration, maybe a few poorly photoshopped memes.

Suddenly everyone’s too cool for camp.

I’m not asking for much here, okay?

A simple “Happy Friday the 13th” would’ve sufficed. Maybe a gif of Jason emerging from the lake.

Hell, I would’ve settled for someone just acknowledging that today was statistically more likely to result in machete related incidents than your average Friday.

But no. You all decided to spend yesterday posting about productivity hacks and coffee recipes and whatever other mundane Tuesday energy content fills the void where your sense of fun used to live.

So here’s where we stand…

(cause this place here is a dictatorship ya know?)

You’re all nearly dead to me. Not completely dead…

I’m not that crazy.

You could still make up for it.

You could start sneak in a Friday the 13th reference into your next chat.

Develop an appreciation for practical effects and creative kill scenes.

Recognise that sometimes the best way to deal with life’s existential horror is to embrace the fictional kind.

Or you could continue living your reference free existence, blissfully unaware that you’ve let down the ghost of every slasher film ever made.

Your choice.

But know this…

The next time Friday the 13th rolls around, I’ll be watching. Waiting. Ready to judge your commitment to the sacred traditions of acknowledging arbitrary calendar based horror celebrations cause I’m a nerd.

And if we can’t come together as a society to appreciate a good hockey mask wearing, machete wielding, summer camp terrorizing legend, then what’s the bloody point of civilisation anyway?

Jason deserved better from you.

And frankly, so did I.

Ch ch ch ah ah ah, indeed.

Stephen Walker

P.S. This isn’t a serious email. I am paying homage to Jason tonight by watching the OG Friday the 13th. But I will be watching you too…

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

It’s hard to do the things you love when life kicks you in the face.

But here’s a quick little permission slip to do the things you have put aside.

Tonight, just 5 minutes from my place I’m heading to a little gallery where a friend of mine. Rob, will be exhibiting his work for a few days. I’ve known Rob for probably going on 15 years since I’ve been back in the UK.

It boggles my mind that I’ve stopped doing the things I used to love. Which is going on little adventures out to art galleries and supporting the locals.

Maybe it was my GF at the time or some other life handed bullshit.

But I made an active decision this year to follow what I enjoy and love to do.

Be it obsessively write about everything I do. Or my hobbies I’m slowly getting back into.

Way too many people say you shouldn’t do XYZ cause it’s not professional.

Fuck that.

We are human. We need to chase the things that give us meaning and give us that little bit of connection we’ve lost.

I don’t want to be stuck scrolling this sadness rectangle in my hand. I want to go out and experience things like I used to. Make the type of memories that don’t need to be posted on social media (cause let’s be honest. if we had social media when we were younger, we’d all probably be in prison lol)

But the point is this. Do the things that light your soul on fire.

Whether that’s taking yourself out on a solo date to watch a film.

Picking up a hyper niche hobby and going balls deep with it.

Or supporting your local art galleries and artists do cool shit.

Now if you excuse me.

I need to go shower. Be somewhat presentable and go look at paintings while bullshitting others about art, cause hey, that’s what art really is. Standing around. Talking shit. Having a drink and bullshitting about the old masters who pushed paint around on the canvas.

If you want to tell me I’m wrong.

Drop me a message here: https://www.facebook.com/stphnwlkr

Stephen Walker

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

Repeat after me.

I am a writer.

I am the fury and the fire.

I will finish the damn thing I started.

No pity parties. No snot nosed tantrums. No “oh, the words aren’t coming today” melodrama. That shit’s for amateurs. My resolve is forged from titanium.

These pants? They’re adult pants.

The diapers of my excuses? Reduced to ash. Scorched in the crucible of my own ambition.

I will light the match. I will burn the whole forest down.

And when my excuses come scuttling out like cockroaches on fire, their tiny legs sizzling…

I won’t flinch. I’ll stomp them flat. I’ll smash them with my wordhammer until they burst like overripe watermelons full of lies and self pity.

This blank page? It’s not my enemy.

The blinking cursor? Not my tormentor.

These characters? Oh, they’re mine. They scream when I tell them to scream. They bleed when I say bleed. They kiss, fuck, kill, cry, and collapse because I command it.

And if they give me any lip? I’ll send them to the gulag of forgotten side characters, where the marmots nibble toes and the plot holes swallow you whole.

This plot? Might be passed up as “just a story”

It’s a weapon. A noose. A steel trap.

I’ll use it to strangle my doubts, hang my insecurities, and watch them thrash until they’re silent, until every last whisper of “you can’t” is choked into oblivion.

The words?

Oh, they’re my army now. My mercenaries.

Tiny soldiers, built from 26 letters, carrying ideas too big for their brittle little shoulders. They march in formation, hauling metaphors and similes and bad ass imagery like ants dragging a goddamn mountain. Hell, sometimes they even surprise me, forming sentences no one else has dared to write.

Like:

“Gertrude’s haunted crockpot whispered forbidden recipes for demon soufflés, and every time she ignored it, a cat somewhere spontaneously combusted.”

That’s mine. I own that.

Because I am the captain of this absurd journey. The mad scientist of this laboratory of chaos. And yeah, it’s hard. It’s supposed to be hard.

If it were easy, every latte sipping poser with a Moleskine and a dream would be cranking out Pulitzer winning novels in between Instagram posts. But no. This is the mountain goat’s climb. The gauntlet. The hellish, glorious uphill march.

My hamstrings might snap under the strain and twang like broken banjo strings. My backbone might liquify into Jell-O.

My kneecaps might launch into the stratosphere like rogue champagne corks. And maybe, just maybe, a yeti will descend from the snowy peaks, rip off both my arms, and use them to beat me into a fine paste.

But even then. Even in the face of utter annihilation.

I won’t quit.

I’ll grab one of my severed arms in my teeth.

I’ll slug that yeti in his frosty balls until he howls like a banshee and tumbles into the abyss.

I’ll duct tape my limbs back on.

I’ll realign my spine with a wrench and a prayer.

I’ll puppet my busted legs like a deranged marionette master until I stumble across the finish line, bloody and victorious.

Because I am not weak.

I am not fragile.

I am a writer.

I will finish what I started.

I am the warlord of these words.

The architect of this goddamn chaos.

The ruler of this story.

Repeat after me:

I will write.

I will conquer.

I will burn the excuses.

And when I’m done, when the last word is written, I will look at the smoldering battlefield I’ve created and whisper,

“I did this. This is mine.”

Amen.

And good luck.

You got this.

Stephen Walker

https://www.facebook.com/stphnwlkr

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

I’m a creature of habit.

And as always. Whenever I’m out and about, I follow my regular route.

On this regular route I always see two cats. At a quick glance they’re identical. Mother and kitten.

Now if you’ve ever seen The Matrix (1999) you’ll remember the scene where Neo sees a black cat meow, shake itself off and walk away.

He then carries on, turns his head and as he looks again, he sees the cat do the exact same thing before saying “Oh, Déjà vu!” which basically means “already seen”

And so here’s the micro lesson for today.

Already seen.

Artists of all shapes and genres, business folk and marketing weirdos ALWAYS worry about being unique and coming up with new ideas, concepts and what not.

They lie awake at 3am, staring at the ceiling, wondering if their latest project is just a rehash of something that’s been done before. They Google their ideas obsessively, searching for evidence that they’re either brilliant pioneers or complete frauds.

But the thing they forget about is that sometimes the audience just needs to see the same thing over and over again, cause they might’ve missed it.

Think about it. You’re consuming content, sucking down information from seventeen different platforms while simultaneously trying to maintain the illusion of productivity. Your attention is scattered across more surfaces than a broken mirror in a fun house.

What are the odds you caught that profound insight the first time it scrolled past your eyeballs?

Zero.

The odds are zero.

Your “groundbreaking” idea? Someone’s probably done it. Your unique angle? It’s been angled before. Your revolutionary approach? There’s a decent chance it revolutionised something back in 1987, and everyone just forgot because the internet wasn’t around to make it permanent.

And you know what? That’s exactly why it needs to exist again.

Because the person who needed to hear it in 1987 was probably in diapers. The audience who would benefit from your particular flavour of wisdom wasn’t ready for it when it first appeared.

They were busy dealing with other crises, consuming different content, living in different headspaces.

Personally I can’t even remember something I read a few days ago, unless I’ve actively saved it for later study.

We need to stop thinking that repetition invalidates value.

Every story is a retelling of older stories. Every business model is a variation on commerce that’s existed since humans started trading shiny rocks for food.

Every creative breakthrough is just someone taking existing elements and rearranging them in a way that resonates with their particular moment in time.

Shakespeare straight up stole most of his plots. Led Zeppelin built their entire catalogue on blues riffs that preceded them by decades.

Every startup pitch deck contains the same twelve ideas that have been recycling through Silicon Valley since the invention of venture capital.

And somehow, mysteriously, these “unoriginal” creators managed to build legacies that outlasted their original sources.

The cats on my route aren’t performing some weird glitch from The Matrix when they repeat their behaviours.

They’re just being cats. Consistently. Authentically. Without apologising for not being the first cats to ever exist.

Maybe that’s the lesson. Maybe the goal isn’t to avoid the déjà vu?

It’s to become the kind of person whose version of “already seen” feels necessary, valuable, and somehow inevitable.

Your voice. Your angle. Your particular way of explaining why the world is beautiful and broken and worth paying attention to.

The person who needs to hear it hasn’t heard it yet. And they’re walking their own route, following their own habits, waiting for their own moment of recognition.

Already seen. About to be seen again.

And thank god for that.

Finding the good stuff and being reminded of it when we needed it is always a good thing.

Unless it’s some asshole phoning us 4353 times a day wanting to talk to us about our cars extended warranty.

Fuck that.

Stephen Walker

https://www.facebook.com/stphnwlkr

P.S. If you have a kitty. Show ’em to me.

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

“If your vision told you to choose a different path, then the right opportunity is waiting for you on the new one.” – Yellowstone

I’ve had two existential crises in my life.

​

Real existential crises:

​

Where my sense of meaning completely collapsed, leaving me lost, confused, and feeling like nothing that used to matter to me actually mattered, anymore.

​

It was as though the color had been drained from my world, plunging my reality into shades of grey.

​

These were two of the scariest times of my life.

​

And I’d like to share the first one with you now, in case you’re going through a similar phase of your own life.

​

It happened in 2009, when a career-ending hip injury forced me out of basketball and into a period of total uncertainty.

​

Until then, my life had been consumed by basketball:

​

By early mornings, empty gyms, dusty weight rooms, and the relentless pursuit of mastering my craft.

​

But looking back, it wasn’t even about basketball, for me:

​

It was about the feeling of purpose that came from pressing towards a distant mountaintop…

​

…Testing the limits of my mind, my body, and my will against the highest goal I could imagine.

​

It was about seeing how high I could climb:

​

And, more importantly, who I could become, in the process.

​

Then, all at once, it was gone — and with it, so was my sense of purpose.

​

I tried to keep training, at first.

​

But without clarity on what I was training for, all of my workouts felt flat.

​

So I tried to pursue new goals…

​

(powerlifting, bodybuilding, even academics)

​

…But nothing gave me the feeling that basketball did.

​

Everything felt lukewarm, so-so, kind of interesting but mostly not.

​

Until late one night, sitting in my college dorm room, when I tumbled down the online business rabbit hole, and felt the color rush back into my life.

​

Suddenly, I had a fresh new set of skills to learn.

​

A new mountain to climb.

​

And a new craft to master.

​

This new craft, however, came with benefits that basketball couldn’t offer.

​

Money was the obvious one (and it’s been a damn good one)…

​

But even better than money was the feeling that I was finally in control of my own destiny.

​

No coach could put me on the sidelines.

​

No teammate could hog the ball and ice me out.

​

No scout could decide he likes another player better, and kill my dream cold.

​

It was all in my hands, now.

​

For the first time, I was finally playing a fair game.

​

And I could continue playing that game for as long as I wanted to — for the rest of my life, even, without needing to worry about age or physical breakdown.

​

Of course, business came with it’s own challenges.

​

But those challenges only amplified my sense of purpose, as I forged myself against a new mountain that could be scaled to seemingly limitless heights.

​

Today, 15 years later…

​

…That mountain continues to reveal new vistas, new potentials, and new opportunities that I never knew existed.

​

And I know it will continue to do so, for as long as I continue to climb.

​

If you’re currently standing at the base of that mountain, preparing to make your own journey…

​

…It would be a pleasure to guide you inside FounderLab.

​

We are closing applications at midnight tonight — so, if you want in:

​

​Here’s where you can apply before 11:59pm EST.​

​

I hope it brings new purpose, new meaning, and new color to your life, the way it has for mine.

​

T

​

P.S. If you have any final questions about the program, just hit reply. We’re less than 14 hours away from closing, so now’s the time to ask!

“To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour.“ – Winston Churchill

​

​

​

​

​Unsubscribe | Update your profile | 5-420 Erb St. W, Suite 433, Waterloo, ON N2L6K6

And live by them.

We give up whatever type of power we have over our own lives by giving people full control and access to us when they don’t deserve it.

I mean if you’ve been paying any attention to the clusterfuck of the world in the last 12 months.

You’ll know how bad it is.

Hard pill to swallow?

You don’t owe any anything at all.

The longer you keep bending your knee to other people’s will. The further back you’re going to get pulled.

I want to do great thing and I want you to do great things too.

You can great your own rules one by one and start applying them to your life. They can be in person ones or even ones you use online.

Yeah I might sound like a dick for creating rules like this but if you don’t make ’em. Well. People are gonna walk all over you.

If you’re meeting a client. If they’re late. You leave. Unless they’ve had the hindsight to tell you they’re gonna be late. There’s no need wait. As they say. Time is money and the way you treat your own time is a massive reflection on oneself.

I have a strict no phones rule too (Within reason) we’re out for a meal or drinks or whatever. Be present. If you’re going to be on your phone every 30 seconds. Well… That’ll be the last time I invite you.

This here list. If you’re here. You’re here. If you leave you’re dead to me. No coming back. No oops I accidentally unsubscribed.

Dickish? Of course. Do I have higher quality humans in my life because of it?

Yes.

There are too many time wasters and people who just want to take take take.

That shit needs to stop.

Respect yourself, your art and your love for all the things.

Keep the good ones close and vomit out the ones who just take the piss.

Stephen Walker.

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

“The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.”

Which is a rough quote and an attribution to famous Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky.

I went deep on Russian literature for year and yes. With everything going on in the world via Russia and Ukraine. Anyone who sings any praises about Russia are quickly shunned while being called a Nazi too.

Which is wild but expected, especially in 2025.

However back in 2020 when the world was going to shit.

A young lad. Probably about early 20s asked me how to fix his situation in life. Now usually places like Twitter are known to be a cess pool of epic proportions because there’s no real structure of what is being shared there. So you can easily get sucked into the many sub groups or niches of Twitter.

Anyways. I recommend he strapped himself in and read The Brothers Karamazov.

The sentiment certainly aligns with major themes in his work, particularly in The Brothers Karamazov where characters grapple with finding meaning and purpose in life.

The novel explores similar ideas through characters like Alyosha and Ivan, and their discussions about faith, suffering, and what makes life worth living.

And so the quote about is often also wrapped in the way Dostoevsky saw the world.

Basically what I said was he needs to find a purpose to become attached to. Something that’ll add meaning to his life. I mean when we were raised by our parents we were, unfortunately lied to a lot of the time.

Not by their own faults and beliefs. Just by how everything back then was “sold” to us.

The hardest thing to do nowadays, is to stand on your own two feet while battling through your own demons and going against what society deems “normal”

So if you’re feeling stuck. If people are trying to get you down and belittle your goals and dreams.

Lock yourself away for a few days and read The Brothers Karamazov.

It may not give you all of the answers.

But it’ll wake you up enough to the point where you’ll tell the ones who are trying to hold you back to fuck off.

Stephen Walker

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

“Find something you love and let it kill you.”

That quote is famously said to have been written by Charles Bukowski.

Bukowski was genius in his own right and it was disputed for decades that he didn’t write it.

Although it does align with his overall philosophy and style.

You can’t do any wrong by reading his work and finding small truths that can apply to your life.

This is something I see all the time.

People complaining about their lives (They’re allowed to) but unwillingly wanting to change things for the better.

It can be hard to make that switch when it’s so easy to look at everything that sucks, but you need to dig a little deeper and find out what you truly love. Then give that your 100% undivided attention.

Even if its something you truly pursue until you die.

Art is art and finding that thing that lights your soul on fire is something a lot of people don’t ever get to experience, cause the people they trusted. Lied to them and told them this is how life should be.

So this is a little love note from me to you. Giving you permission to find that thing and pursue it.

(It helps if that thing can also be sold/monetized) cause then you won’t really work a day in your life. However that saying goes…

But yeah. You need to stop being scared to chase your long lost dreams. Follow your heart, art and soul.

We’re only on this planet for what is considered a blink of an eye.

Might as well have fun, right?

And success will eventually come.

Stephen Walker

P.S. If you wanna go down the Bukowski rabbit hole. I’d start with this…

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

So there’s this thing about human nature that productivity gurus will never tell you in their $497 courses about “optimizing your potential” and it’s this…

We’re fundamentally hedonistic creatures pretending to be rational ones.

Stick with me here. This isn’t going where you think it’s going.

Last Tuesday, I was having one of those days. You know the type of brain fog thick as London smog, motivation flatlining like a heart monitor in a morgue, and the prospect of doing anything productive felt about as appealing as volunteering for dental surgery without Anesthesia…

But then I got a text. Mate’s birthday. Drinks at the local. And despite every fiber of my being wanting to stay home and merge permanently with the sofa, I went.

Today was that day.

Why? Because it felt good. Because I like my friend. Because birthday drinks are inherently more appealing than staring at a blank Google Doc while my cursor blinks judgmentally at my creative inadequacy.

On top of this week being an absolute shit show of epic proportions…

I chose the path of immediate pleasure over the “responsible” choice of forcing myself to work.

But here’s where it gets interesting and this is the bit that’ll make you rethink everything about motivation and goal setting.

That night out? It led to conversations about projects I’d forgotten I was excited about. Connections with people who ended up collaborating on work that actually mattered. Ideas sparked by alcohol lubricated discussions about everything from horror films to the psychology of email marketing.

Yeah it’s not even 10pm here as this email goes out, but all of the effort was made.

Plot twist… Hedonism might be the most underrated productivity hack on the planet.

Think about it. When was the last time you forced yourself to do something “good for you” and it actually stuck?

How’s that gym membership working out? That meditation app you downloaded with such optimism? The morning routine you swore would transform your life?

Now compare that to the things you do consistently without thinking about it. Checking social media. Watching Netflix. Grabbing coffee with friends. Meeting deadlines when there’s actual consequence (and thus actual motivation) attached.

We follow pleasure. Always. Even when we think we’re being disciplined and rational, we’re usually just finding ways to make the “right” choice feel rewarding enough to pursue.

So here’s the radical idea. What if instead of fighting your hedonistic nature, you weaponised it?

The Strategic Hedonism Playbook (Totally not made up lol cause I’ve drank enough Guinness to kill an elephant…)

1. Make the path to your goals inherently pleasurable.

Want to write more? Don’t force yourself to write in some sterile productivity environment. Write in cafes where you enjoy the atmosphere. Write about things that genuinely fascinate you, not what you think you “should” write about.

2. Attach social rewards to solo work.

That friend’s birthday that got me out of the house? It worked because humans are social creatures who derive pleasure from connection. So build social elements into your goals. Join writing groups. Find accountability partners. Make your progress visible to people whose opinions you value.

3. Embrace productive procrastination

You know how you suddenly become incredibly motivated to organise your entire life when you’re avoiding one specific task? That’s not a bug. It’s a feature. Use it. When you can’t bring yourself to work on the big scary project, do smaller adjacent tasks that still move you forward.

4. Follow your genuine curiosity, not your “should” list

The things that naturally capture your attention aren’t distractions. I’d hazard a guess and say that they’re breadcrumbs leading to work that won’t feel like work. That random rabbit hole about Victorian funeral photography might seem unproductive, but it could spark the creative project that changes everything.

5. Make rest genuinely restful.

Stop treating downtime as something to optimise. Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is absolutely nothing. But do it properly. Not scrolling-while-feeling-guilty nothing. Actual, unapologetic, restorative nothing.

The beautiful irony? When you stop trying to force yourself into someone else’s definition of productivity and start working with your actual human nature, you end up getting more done and enjoying the process.

Because here’s what the hustle culture evangelists won’t tell you and it annoys the shit out of me…

Sustainable success isn’t built on willpower and discipline. It’s built on creating systems that feel so naturally rewarding that you’d choose them even when you don’t have to.

It’s built on strategic hedonism.

So the next time someone tells you to “just power through” or “find your why” or whatever other motivational platitude is trending this week, remember this…

The most successful people aren’t the ones who’ve conquered their human nature.

They’re the ones who’ve learned to work with it.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to follow my hedonistic impulses and grab another pint with a friend. Purely for productivity purposes, you understand. It’s nearly 22:00 and well… I got shit to do.

The work will still be there tomorrow. And I’ll probably be more excited to do it.

Hoping I don’t have a massive hangover on top of it all…

Stephen Walker

https://www.facebook.com/stphnwlkr

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

Bear with me.

I’ve ended my day with a few Espresso Martini-zzz cause this week has been a rollercoaster. There has been some epic wins and some epic losses.

Like I always say…

There is balance in all things.

Now you’ll know I am the one person who will honestly say that they are far from having their shit together.

In actual fact. My shit is far from being together.

(I can’t think of a witty metaphor or analogy right now but whatever. You get the point)

But just to remind you… I’m not your favourite guru who pretends that everything is perfect 100% of the time.

And as always. I choose progress over perfection.

Now I had a short call with an ex client and friend and they wanted to know how I dealt with burnout.

Now there is no magic fix. Or pill, potion or some weird hack that’ll remove it but there are some steps you can follow.

Here’s a little context.

From 2005 to 2010 (When I found myself back in the UK)

I was a freelance illustrator and graphic designer. Well before social media kicked off and well before I knew better. I made my art my whole personality…

Now don’t get me wrong. If you’re learning something new. You’re gonna have to make some sacrifices to get good and in my cases. Going balls deep was the way it had to be done.

Sadly what people don’t tell you, is that there is this thing called burnout which will come for you. Just like DEATH.

Burnout will find you and he will fuck with you in such a spectacular fashion, that he lies to you and makes you believe it’s all your fault.

It’s not though.

We’ve been pre-programmed to give to others and not look after ourselves. You put your family and friends first and well…

You? Meh. I’ll get there eventually.

(Which is the worst thing you can do)

and so when you get close lined by burnout because you ignored the warning signs. The recovery process can takes days, weeks, months or even years and even in some cases decades OR never.

We don’t want that at all.

So how can we stop this little shit from ruining our lives?

It starts with you and you alone.

You need to CHOOSE yourself.

You need to be selfish. You need to say no to everyone and everything else.

You need to step back and do the things that set your soul on fire.

If that means staying up till 4am binge watching the worst shit ever while eating a tub of ice cream for 3 weeks straight. Well then yeah. Do that.

It means saying no to family and friends when they want to suck the energy right out of you.

You don’t have to go out. You don’t have to meet friends for a meal.

The only thing you need to do is pick you.

You need to go back and do the things that weren’t tied to anyone else, your income or any other expectations that society holds you down to.

The all work and no play is true. It’s doubly true for when you neglect who you are as a person.

If you want to finger paint a wall. Do it.

If you want to dance naked in a forest while it’s pissing down with rain. Then do it.

We’ve been boxed in too much and told how to dance and who to serve and that shit needs to stop.

We’re about love and art and all the things that make use uniquely human.

We need to go back and play.

And has my home boy Piccaso once said:

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”

Stephen Walker

https://www.facebook.com/stphnwlkr

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

So picture this nightmare…

King couldn’t write a better horror novel tbh.

You’re innocently scrolling through Twitter.

Sorry, “X” cause apparently we’re all living in Elon’s mid life crisis now.

Christ knows how the algorithm works its magic but all of a sudden. Right in front of my eyeballs, are literal pages of Alpha Male bullshit.

It’s basically where grown men with profile pics of wolves or themselves in poorly fitted suits spend their days dispensing “wisdom” about how real men should behave.

It’s like stumbling into a self help seminar run by people who’ve clearly never helped themselves to anything except delusions of grandeur.

The urge to punch myself in the face was immediate. And persistent.

Here’s a sample of the profound insights I witnessed during my accidental deep dive into this testosterone soaked hellscape…

“Real alphas wake up at 4am to dominate the day.” Man, you know what waking up at 4am actually means?

It means you’ve got insomnia, a newborn, or you work shifts. It doesn’t make you a wolf pack leader.

And in my case it makes me tired.

“Women are attracted to men who display high value.”

High value? What are we, cryptocurrency? Last I checked, humans aren’t trading cards you collect and upgrade through gym selfies and dubious investment advice.

But here’s the bit that really made my brain try to crawl out through my ears for the second time in the last 3 months…

The endless threads about “female nature” written by dudes who clearly haven’t had a meaningful conversation with a woman since their mom asked them to take out the bins on a Friday night.

These are grown adults.

Presumably with jobs and responsibilities, spending their time crafting tweets about “maintaining frame” and “passing shit tests.” It’s like watching someone cosplay as a human being based entirely on pickup artist manuals from 2003.

There is some tragedy there too.

Some of these guys probably started out just wanting to feel better about themselves. Maybe they were lonely, insecure, struggling with confidence. All completely normal human experiences that deserve compassion, not exploitation.

But instead of finding genuine help, they stumbled into this ecosystem of grifters selling them a fantasy of masculine dominance that’s about as authentic as a three dollar note. It’s self help for people who think emotional intelligence is a character flaw and vulnerability is a marketing weakness.

You want to know what actual confidence looks like? It’s being secure enough to admit when you don’t know something. It’s treating people, all people as complex individuals rather than NPCs in your personal success story.

It’s understanding that relationships aren’t chess matches where someone has to win. I mean I see that all the time and it’s exhausting just watching people fight those types of battles.

What happened to just being a good human?

I can write a lot more about this topic but it’s just mad to see this still being pushed as hard as it is. Between A.I. and Alpha Bro Bullshit, it’s like the cycle is never going to end.

Anyways.

I’m about to go inhale a pizza because that’s the second most Alpha thing you can do.

The most Alpha thing you can do is share this email with a friend and then tell them to massage this link:

https://stphnwlkr.com/list

Stephen Walker

P.S. This is the place where all the cool kids hang out. We still beers from our parents and smoke cigarettes behind the school gym.

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

“Be humble or get humbled.” – MindTraps

I got schooled.

​
Clowned, exposed, humiliated — embarrassed as badly as I’ve ever been, in my career…

​
…All while standing in front of a group of the most successful entrepreneurs in my industry.

​
​The year is 2011, and the place is Las Vegas.

​
The setting is a rented conference room at the Wynn hotel, and the group is 12 of the heaviest-hitters in the sports training industry.

​
(including ILoveBasketball, JumpUSA, Alex Maroko, Todd Herman, and several others)

​
​We’re here for a mastermind meeting:

​
To network, cut deals, share what’s working in our businesses, and maybe, if there’s time…

​
(there’s always time)

​
Get a little twisty.

​
So there I am, up at the front of the room, giving a presentation on what I called:

​
​”The ultimate online business model.”

​
What was so ultimate about it, you ask?

​
Well, everything.

​
Literally — it included everything:

​
Paid ads, emails, micro-sites, affiliate marketing, blogging, webinars, SEO, SLOs, OTOs, cross-sells, upsells, front-ends, back-ends, you get the idea.

​
Beaming with pride, I display my brainchild for the room to see:

​

(real screenshot of the funnel I sketched out in 2011)

​
​”I’ve done it,” I thought to myself.

​
“I’ve revolutionized marketing forever.”

​
Never has there been a business model…

​
…Nay, a business masterpiece…

​
…So glorious, so disruptive, so utterly game-ch —

​
— “What the hell are you building, the Pentagon?”

​
My body stiffens.

​
​Who said that?

​
My eyes rapidly scan the room, anxiety welling up and becoming panic as I recognize the voice:

​
​Craig Ballantyne.

​
I don’t even know why he’s here, honestly:

​
​He’s way too big a fish for our little pond.

​
Craig is an OG of the fitness industry, and had been running a multi-7-figure fat loss empire since I was in middle school.

​

He rarely spoke…

​
(no joke, I think he was actually reading a book during my presentation)

​
​…So when he did speak up, the room went dead quiet.

​
The silence hit me like a gut punch.

​
Craig continued:

​
​”I know businesses doing a million a month sending paid traffic to a VSL — nothing else.

​

Do you really think your little 10k/month business needs all this crap?”

​

As the color drains from my face…

​

(probably, I couldn’t actually see my face)

​

…Craig softens — slightly:

​
​”Listen man, all you need is: ​
​

One offer.
One way of getting traffic.
One funnel that converts traffic into customers.

​
That’s it. None of the big boys do any of this fancy sh*t.”

​
​Time moves in slow motion as I thank him for his advice, and drag myself back to my seat feeling three feet shorter.

​
As the weekend continues (along with the “Pentagon” jokes), I begin to digest what Craig said:

​
​One offer, one traffic source, one funnel.

​
And slowly, as the shock of embarrassment gives way to acceptance and understanding, his message begins to sink in:

​
Maybe business doesn’t need to be so complicated.

​
Maybe I’m making this way harder than it needs to be.

​
Maybe trying to be smart is the dumb move.

​
And maybe, just maybe:

​
​Scaling this basketball business can be a lot easier, and a lot more straightforward, than I think.

​
I flew home on Monday morning with renewed hope, and — not quite clarity, not yet…

​
…But the quiet sense that clarity would soon come — and that, when it did:

​
My business and my life would be unlocked in ways I could not yet imagine.

​
I was right.

​
​Tomorrow, Part 2…

​

• T

​
​P.S. It’s almost time.

​
Tomorrow, I will begin accepting applications for FounderLab:

​
​A live, 6-week incubator for early-stage online businesses who want to scale to 10k/mo, and beyond.

​

I am only accepting 15 founders.

​
And the first to apply will get first priority.

​
So if you’d like to join our early-invite list, reply with the word “interested” and I’ll make sure you hear about it first.

​
In the meantime, here’s where you can catch up on earlier parts of this series:

​
​Part 1: This advice could ruin your life​

​
​Part 2: The business I never told you about

​
More to come…

“More companies die of indigestion than starvation.” – Bill Hewlett

​

​

​

​

​Unsubscribe | Update your profile | 5-420 Erb St. W, Suite 433, Waterloo, ON N2L6K6

I’m off to go watch Final Destination Bloodlines again.

Yeah yeah I know. I’m a nerd.

Even though the majority of horror films are considered B rated garbage.

I have always been a fan of horror because of how versatile the genre can be.

I wrote a massive post about this years ago about how you can have everything inside of a horror film from romance, action, mystery and drama. With everything in between and still end with incredible horror and it just felt okay.

Now if you take any of the other books/movies out there and tried to mix some horror into it. It just wouldn’t land.

It’ll feel out of place. Imagine trying to take Pride and the Prejudice and horror-fy it.

Holy shit would it be bad. There’s no swinging that back around into some romantic/drama after people were brutally savaged.

The point is. We’ve all got some horror in our lives. The extent of it won’t be as wild as the movies make it out to be (unless it is, cause damn, you should probably write more about it tbh) but we can always turn it around to share an uplifting message or at the very least. Inspire someone.

And in Bloodlines. Tony Todd did just that. From Candyman to The Crow to Final Destination his presence was felt.

He made those films great, no matter how wild they were at the time.

And while I’m watching it again. I’ll have to try my best to not shed some tears as the dedication from the team and the message he had via his final bit hit hard.

R.I.P to the legend himself.

I’ll catch you all later.

Stephen Walker

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

Pull up a chair.

The slightly wobbly one that makes you wonder if it’s gonna collapse into a million pieces if you lean back too far.

I’m not going to blow sunshine up your ass about how everything’s brilliant and we’re all crushing it in 2025.

Cause let’s be honest, are we? Really?

You know that feeling when you wake up and your brain immediately starts doing that thing where it catalogues everything that’s wrong, broken, or slightly off kilter in your life?

It’s like it’s doing some morning inventory of personal failures and mounting anxieties?

Yeah. That one.

I want to know how you’re actually doing. Not the LinkedIn version where everything’s “exciting opportunities” and “grateful for the journey.” The real version.

The one where you admit that sometimes you stare at your phone for twenty minutes pretending to be busy because engaging with actual productivity feels like climbing Everest in flip flops.

I’ve noticed and tell me if I’m full of shit or if I’m just projecting my own existential nonsense out into the internet…

Everyone’s running on fumes and pretending it’s premium unleaded.

We’re all out here performing competence while internally screaming at the joke of modern existence.

Social media algorithms feeding us the same recycled content and it makes it feel like it’s some super charged Groundhog Day.

A.I. grifters promising solutions to problems they created. Corporate overlords monetising our attention span until it resembles a goldfish with ADHD.

And through it all, we’re supposed to just… cope?

Optimise? Find our passion and turn it into a side hustle?

That’s some bullshit.

Here’s what nobody talks about in the productivity guru circle jerk…

Sometimes the most radical thing you can do is admit you’re tired. Not the cute kind of tired that gets fixed with a good night’s sleep and some expensive coffee. The bone deep exhaustion that comes from existing in a world that treats human attention like a commodity to be strip mined.

So today is about the real talk, no filters, no Instagram worthy wisdom.

How are you holding up?

Are you sleeping?

And I don’t mean the sleeping bit where you just doom scroll tiktok for another 3 hours before your alarm shouts at you.

When’s the last time you felt excited about something?

Are you eating actual food or surviving on whatever requires the least effort to consume?

(I’m a professional 2 day old pizza enjoyer…)

When someone asks “how are you,” do you give them the automatic “fine, thanks” or do you ever tell the truth?

Here’s what I’m learning. The people worth knowing are the ones who’ll sit with you in the messy, uncomfortable honesty of admitting that sometimes everything feels a bit much.

They won’t try to fix you or offer unsolicited advice about meditation apps. They’ll just nod and say “yeah, man, it’s been a weird one.”

Look, I don’t have answers all the answers.

I’m not gonna go all Tony Robbins on your ass and tell you to unlock the power within or some shit.

I’m not about that life.

This is about checking in. Really checking in.

The world’s going to keep being chaotic and overwhelming and occasionally brilliant despite itself.

The algorithms will keep serving up the same bullshit. The grifters will keep grifting. The endless content carnival will keep spinning.

If you’re struggling.

I got you.

If you’re tired.

It’s not a personal failing.

There’s always a reasonable response to unreasonable circumstances. And if you’re just trying to figure out how to keep going without losing yourself in the process, well… join the club.

The membership’s free, the meetings are irregular, and the only requirement is showing up as honestly as you can manage.

So, seriously, how are you doing?

And don’t give me the polite version. Give me the real one.

The wall of text ugly crying as you bite into a block of cheese version.

We’ve got time.

Stephen Walker

https://www.facebook.com/stphnwlkr

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

“Sometimes our misfortunes are the sails that take us to the shores we are meant to be on.” – Dune Prophecy

I don’t think I’ve ever told this to anyone.

​

(it was so long ago I’d basically forgotten)

​
But my first business was not EGTBasketball.

​
​And it was not a success.

​
The time is October, 2009.

​
I’ve locked myself away in my university dorm room as a party roars outside my door.

​
My eyes are wide as I sit, hunched over my laptop, waves of excitement washing over me.

​
​I’ve just stumbled upon the underground world of online business…

​
…A world that, at the time, was almost entirely unknown.

​
Twitter and YouTube still felt brand new.

​
I hadn’t even heard of Instagram, yet.

​
​And if someone called you a “creator” you’d assume it was slang for “broke art student.”

​
But as I tumbled down the online marketing rabbit hole…

​

…Eyes bloodshot, neck straining, frantically clicking through the 17 open tabs on my screen as I maniacally consumed every back-alley blog post, video, interview and e-book I could get my hands on…

​
…A single question dominated my mind:

​
​”Where the hell do I even start?”

​

Even back then, the number of opportunities was dizzying.

​
One expert maintained that blogging was the holy grail.

​
Another insisted “blogging is dead!”…

​
…And that eBay reselling was the NEW, cool, so-easy-even-your-dog-could-do-it way to make money from your kitchen table in your underwear.

​
SEO was the content play-of-the-day.

​
And selling e-Books and membership sites actually seemed pretty viable.

​
But of all the options available…

​
…The one I chose was…

​
…Wait for it…

​
(God help me)

​

…Affiliate marketing.

​

Yep:

​
Affiliate marketing.

​
It seemed easy enough:

​
Just send traffic to other people’s products, and they’ll pay you for every sale!

​
No need to:
​

Build your own website
Create your own course
Change out of your pyjamas in the morning before going to work.

​
​Fool-proof!

​
​Only, I was a bigger fool than I thought.

​
Affiliate marketing, it turns out, is like doing math for a living.

​
Analyzing numbers, data, spreadsheets, CPCs, CTRs, CPMs, CP-holy-sh*t-this-is-not-what-I-signed-up-for.

​
For a kid who failed 11th grade math…

​
(turns out skipping class to shoot extra shots in the gym is not a good study strategy)

​
…Affiliate marketing was about the worst business model I could have chosen:

​
​One that played to all of my weaknesses, and none of my strengths.

​
Thankfully, the story has a happy ending.

​
After a few months of failing as an affiliate, and feeling like my head was made of cement…

​
…A lucky sequence of events led me to launching my own basketball shooting program (Prolific Shooting).

​
This new model — online courses — played to all of my strengths, and none of my weaknesses.

​
Instead of drowning in data, I was teaching what I already knew, and allowing my natural creativity to flow.

​
​For the first time in my life, work didn’t feel like work.

​
It felt like play:

​
Like something I’d already been doing my entire life, for free — but now I was getting paid (and paid well) for it.

​
The rest, as they say, is history.

​
15 years and 8 figures in revenue later, that one lesson…

​
​Build a business that matches your natural strengths

​
…Has been like a shining light, guiding me through the maze of online business:

​
A labyrinth with endless tunnels, each one shiny and shimmering and full of voices that call to you, insisting their path is the best path…

​
…The one that will finally lead you through the dark, twisting chaos and into the light of lifetime financial freedom.

​
This maze was daunting to navigate back in 2009.

​
​But it is exponentially more complex today, in 2025.

​
The online world has never been noisier, more confusing, or more overwhelming than it is today.

​
​But it has also never been so full of opportunity.

​
And, those who are able to…
​

Cut through the noise and chaos
Find the business model that matches their unique strengths and personality pattern
Focus relentlessly on that one business model, blocking all distractions for as long as it takes to break through

​
​…Will gain access to a world of opportunity that has never been seen before in human history.

​
The question now is:

​
How do you match your natural business strengths to your best-fit business model and growth strategy, so you can finally achieve real liftoff?

​
That’s exactly what we’re going to focus on this week.

​
Stay tuned.

​

• T

​
​P.S. This Thursday, I will begin accepting applications for our FounderLab program:

​
A live, 6-week incubator for early-stage online businesses who want a proven system for scaling to $10k/mo and beyond.

​
However, please note:

​
This is not a passive course, this is an incubator.

​
We aren’t window-shopping business opportunities…

​
​We’re building in real time, using a combination of personal coaching and proprietary AI tools.

​
Since I’ll be giving everyone one on one attention, I’m only accepting 15 founders.

​
So please only consider applying if you’re committed to building, launching, and scaling a real business:

​
​Now, not someday in the future.

​
First to apply will get first priority.

​
If you want to get on our early-invite list, reply with the word “interested” and I’ll make sure you get first crack when the doors open.
​
​P.P.S. If you missed yesterday’s email, please read it now.​
​
There is an important message in it, and I don’t want it to get lost as the excitement builds for FounderLab.

“I have led a toothless life. A toothless life. I have never bitten into anything. I was waiting. I was reserving myself for later on — and I have just noticed that my teeth have gone.” – Jean-Paul Sartre

​

​

​

​

​Unsubscribe | Update your profile | 5-420 Erb St. W, Suite 433, Waterloo, ON N2L6K6