An Interview with Tim Denning
Tim is a businessman, a blogger with 500M+ views, and a CNBC/Business Insider writer, inspiring the world via personal development and entrepreneurship.
One of my leadership goals as a writer and editor is to introduce influential writers and leaders to my audience via interviews starting in 2019.
Recently, I joined Friend of Medium subscription, and when I asked the early adopters of the program, I found that these avid readers expect curated content and visibility of the work of influential writers.
To fulfill my objectives, I’ll persist in curating impactful and eloquent content, introducing its writers to my audience.
In this post, I’ll share an interview I enjoyed conducting with Tim Denning whom I have been following for a long time.
As Tim is an influential writer on this platform with significant business, leadership, and entrepreneurship experience, he has a large following of over 325K readers.
Tim is a familiar name to many within our community, yet I aim to introduce him to our newer audience and writers joining our platform. This introduction allows them to explore his content, benefiting from his wealth of experiences and distinct viewpoints.
Last year, I tasked one of our editors, Aiden (Illumination Gaming), to investigate AI tools to understand their knowledge about our editors, publications, and writers.
Surprisingly, the findings revealed that, aside from myself, Tim is the key person these tools have the most information about. This aligns with expectations, considering that his content is most likely utilized for the training data of these tools. Aiden published that eye-opening story about Tim on the Lampshade of ILLUMINATION as an example of how much AI tools know about us.
On a personal level, I avidly follow Tim’s content despite the age and background differences between us. His depth of maturity and substantial business experience offer a unique perspective, making his stories thought-provoking and insightful for me.
After being a Friend of Medium, I graciously share Tim’s content on my socials so that more people can learn from his insights for free.
Given Tim’s busy schedule, we have kept this interview concise, providing a brief background. He has contributed significantly to this platform and my publications, offering a substantial body of work for exploration.
Please enjoy this exclusive interview with Tim Denning.
G’day Tim, tell us a bit about your background.
I suffered a near-fatal battle with mental illness. Out of sheer frustration, I used writing as a way to talk about my experiences and make sense of the crazy world I lived in.
In 2011, my life collapsed, and I got an entry-level job in banking. Everyone made fun of me. Work was hard. I was tied to a phone. I hated myself.
In 2013, I attended a Tony Robbins event that changed my thoughts forever. It became the foundation for everything that would happen later. In 2021, I retired from banking to pursue writing full-time.
What are your hobbies?
I don’t really have hobbies. I am driven by obsession. I think about writing 24/7. And when I’m not writing, I am with my 1-year-old daughter, fully immersed in the moment. That is all I care about, and everything else is a meaningless distraction. Family has been the greatest gift in my life. It inspires me to write to my past self and my daughter when she is an adult.
What are the top three books that affected your life?
There are so many. Any book by Tony Robbins would have to be on the list. Escaping mental illness was made easier thanks to the book “Man’s Search For Meaning.” And Gary Vee’s first book, Crush It, taught me the power of the internet and what was possible.
Why do you write on Medium?
I joined Medium in the early days because it kept appearing in the Google search results. I saw people like Ramit Sethi build multi-million dollar book empires by using Medium. In the end, I wanted to find an audience that liked reading short essays. Medium did that for me, so I stayed longer than expected.
Do you write on other platforms?
The other main platform I write on is Substack. I write there because I own the audience and email list, and no one can take it away from me. Here’s my Substack account: https://timdenning.substack.com/
What are your values as a writer?
My core value as a writer is to show some level of vulnerability. To speak the things people tell me I shouldn’t say. Or to share a story that’ll make me look bad but is the truth of my life.
I like to write as I talk. I want people to feel like they are talking to a friend, not listening to some super-smart writer who thinks they have all the credentials and is some silly expert.
I’ve learned over the years that people online love to read the work of a normal person like them. That is me. I’m not that talented, and I came from humble beginnings. So, I feel like that makes me somewhat relatable, and that aligns with who I want to be.
The last thing in the world that I want is to be famous or placed on a pedestal. The world has enough gurus. I am not your guru. My goal is to share ideas and hope some of them resonate. My goal is to make people think, not believe I am right. I am wrong about many things.
What are your top five stories that you want to share with your audience and why?
1. “I Took Naval Ravikant’s Tweet Thread & Made $1.55M With It — Here’s How” — This article has blown up on multiple platforms. Many of these concepts have helped me reach financial freedom at 34.
2. “Retiring Is a Huge Mistake That Destroys People’s Lives” Every day I still get emails about this article. It seems to have helped a lot of people rethink retirement. I never want to retire.
3. “The “New Rich” Are Bizarrely Quiet (Not Flashy Show Ponies)” — This article is a big deal to me because it helps you stop playing status games and seeking fame. It’s the way of life I believe everyone should consider.
4. “The 10,000-Hour Rule Is One of the Biggest Lies in History” — This is the concept I used to build my 7-figure online business. It rejects all the common approaches to success.
5. “The Best Life Lessons I’ve Learned from Studying the Lives of 10,000+ Ultra-Successful Individuals” — I love to study the greats. This is what they’ve taught me.
Why did you join ILLUMINATION publications, and how did you find it so far?
I joined Illumination, the publication in the early days thanks to writer Genius Turner. I asked him why his writing reached such a large audience, and he told me a lot of it had to do with Illumination. He said the community attached to the publication was like no other.
So, I submitted a few articles and had a similar experience. As a fellow Aussie, I found you to be hugely supportive of the writing community. I just loved what you were building and the seriousness with which you were doing it.
For some odd reason, a few newer writers looked up to me, so I wanted to write for Illumination so they, too, would submit articles to the publication and get the same nurturing support I received.
In a way, I wanted to pay it forward. Most people don’t know that when I had zero Media followers, Benjamin Hardy, PhD (a well-known Medium writer back then and a best-selling author these days) jumped on a call with me and offered to get me into the biggest publications. He had no real reason to do it other than he felt called to. Joining Illumination was my way to take what he did for me and help others get that sort of help.
Who are the top ten writers you follow?
James Altucher (when he used to blog), Ayodeji Awosika, Ryan Holiday, Jon Morrow, Mark Manson, Tim Ferris, Dan Koe, Morgan Housel, Sean Kernan, and Chuck Palahniuk.
What are the success factors for you as a writer on Medium?
I have no idea why I had any small success on Medium. If I had to give an answer I’d say that I collaborate a lot with other writers. We share each other’s writing to help it reach a bigger audience because writing isn’t enough. You must focus on distribution as well. Publishing and then waiting for people to find your work doesn’t work.
What are your plans as a writer?
My near future plan as a writer is to focus on the new book I’m writing, which will be self-published soon. If you want read my best work along with 100k+ other smart people and live the good life, then subscribe to my newsletter here.
Many thanks to Tim Denning for allocating his precious time to give us a glimpse into his life. Apart from Medium and his website, you may connect with Tim on LinkedIn and Twitter, where he shares his insights freely and publicly. Tim is also part of ILLUMINATION’s Slack Workspace.
Here is an interesting and informative interview with Tim Denning conducted by another inspiring writer of our community Sinem Günel.
Here is a glimpse of what others said about Tim on his website.
My Favorite Stories from Tim’s Collection
I read hundreds of stories from Tim, especially those published in my publications, but these three were very special to me, so I want to amplify them. They are also published on ILLUMINATION-Curated, giving voice to accomplished writers like Tim.
I hope you will enjoy these pieces as much as I did.
I also introduced several other influential writers. Here are some recent samples that you may start exploring.
Yogesh Haribhau Kulkarni (PhD)
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