Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Saint Yvon . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Saint , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The Coffee & Clarity series hands down! Honestly, that series was one big therapy session for me. But instead of sitting on a couch in some fancy office, spilling my thoughts to a professional stranger who gets paid by the hour, I found myself spilling my compartmentalized thoughts behind a keyboard, and breaking them down into three self-help books.

This book series was the most authentic and vulnerable piece of work that I have ever written in my life. It made me take a long look in the mirror and realize after all these years, I wasn’t the person I pretended to be. There were things I still needed to work on, as well as heal from. This forced me to have some tough conversations with myself and some of the people whom I love the most. I spent a lot of time self-reflecting and maturing within the few months it took for me to write this series. And it was tough as hell. Every sentence, every page, every story—gave me these unprecedented chills. I was literally reliving some of the most cringing and embarrassing moments I have ever experienced in life, while sharing them with the world. It was like giving the world a key to my personal diary and letting them read it out loud. As much as that gave me anxiety, it also made me a bestselling author. I can’t be mad at that at all.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a writer. There is no other way to explain it. I love to write! I’m a 5x author who is from Virginia where ain’t shit to do but write. I’m passionate about my craft and I love to chisel naked statues of endless ideas until it becomes a beautiful masterpiece that my readers can enjoy. To me — writing is about being able to connect with everyday people like you and I, through the prolific words printed on that uncoated paper. It’s about taking two different individuals from opposite sides of the universe and allowing them to connect through captivating stories. It’s about giving people a voice and telling stories that matter — Those type of things brings me fulfillment and success in this field.

I’m not exactly sure how this whole writing thing transpired. It could’ve started back when I attended my first Book Fair and laid eyes on those Captain Underpants Novels. It could’ve stemmed from the first time I listened to Nas’ vivid storytelling on his classic Illmatic album; or keeping Tupac’s Shed so many tears record on repeat. I also could’ve been inspired from reading To Kill a Mockingbird by the legendary Harper Lee or Slam by the late great Walter Dean Myers. But if I had to take a wild guess about how I became a writer, I’ll say just say I was born to walk in my passion.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I feel as though when you choose to do something for a living, something that’s not considered ‘normal’, it can make a lot of people uncomfortable—friends, family, strangers, whomever. It’s a lot of non-creatives who don’t understand the creative process, let alone the emotional roller coasters we (creatives) encounter every single day. I know a lot of people who tend to project their fears or doubts onto me because they’re not too fond of the path that I chose.

One of the hardest things about being a writer is having to protect my peace, dreams, and aspirations, while constantly staying motivated to finish the things I started – If I’m being honest that has been a major struggle for me recently. The slightest bit of doubt or discomfort in people’s reaction to my career path, has lead me to be indecisive about this whole journey.

As a creative it’s in our nature to be misunderstood. Not everybody will understand or be receptive to our creative gifts and ideas. But that shouldn’t stop us from doing what we set out to do. If you’re confident in yourself and your work that’s all that matters. Some people will root for you during the race, some will keep silent, and some people won’t even show up, but everybody will be there at the finish line.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

This is sort of long but it’s the God’s honest truth — I became a full-time author because I got laid-off from my job.

During the early stages of an on-going pandemic, I was working a nine-to-five as an IT technician. It was far from my dream job, but it was a steady paycheck — every two weeks to be exact. I walked into my manager’s office that day—February 21, 2020—totally caught off guard by the news. Ten words. Ten jaw dropping words left my boss’ remorseful lips as she muttered in a scratchy voice, “I’m so sorry, but we have to let you go.” My jaw clinched and my eyes widened. I wasn’t expecting to wake up that morning, get to work on time even after sitting in a long line at Starbucks, be ready to tackle any difficult tasks that were thrown my way, and be told that I was being laid-off.

It sucked. I was given a severance package and a “Hate to see you go but life goes on. Best of luck on your endeavors,” pat on the back from management and my coworkers. And that’s how this whole thing began.

During that time, I didn’t know anything about taking risk. Although I had been doing so my whole life, this was a little different. I didn’t know the art or science behind risk taking. I didn’t know the on-going sacrifices that were implemented in the risk-taking process or even the writing process. Let alone, the business aspect of it all. Nobody told me how one minute I would be confident in my work and the next minute I would look myself in the mirror and say “Man, fuck this shit!” However, in a moment full of confusion and discomfort, I decided to take the biggest risk of my life — I decided I wouldn’t return to a nine-to-five ever again in life because I was going to do the unthinkable — pursue a full-time writing career. No resources, no working capital, and no effective plan. Just do that shit like Nike.

We take risk from the moment we wake up. It’s a risk for us to drive to Walmart with our gas tank sitting below empty. It’s a risk catching a flight across the country with just $100 to our name. There’s risk in dropping our kids off at daycare in hopes they’ll be protected by a stranger or even diving into an ocean filled with interesting creatures that are more than capable of swallowing us whole. But that’s what life is — being swallowed whole by the choices or mistakes we make, along with those routine risk that could cause us to grow a head full of grey hairs. Whether minor or severe, risk taking is a daily action for us. It’s something we practically should be immune to by now, but truth is…we’re not. And losing my job taught me all of those things.

A risk isn’t just something you do. A risk is something that’s not promising but your unmatched faith allows you to believe that if you play your cards right, anything is possible. Which can be true. But within that risk is unforeseen challenges, unexpected road bumps, continuous doubts, or at times, disbelief in your ability to overcome the unknown — all the things that have summed up my journey as a full-time writer thus far. Despite the endless headaches, financial hardships, numerous flirtations with borderline depression, and so on—I find the strength to keep trucking.

Although there’s a risk…there is also this thing called faith. Faith in yourself or the most high, and all the things that you set out to become. I learned that being a full-time writer isn’t just a risk, it’s my purpose.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.saintyvonwrites.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saintyvonwrites
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/saintyvonwrites
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/saintyvonwrites

Image Credits
Kenny Bundy (Liteshot Photography) Jermaine Dabney (20VSN Photography)