Today’s guests on episode 51 are Joy and Tyler Black. Many of you may be familiar with Joy, who has rapidly built a successful online business as a coach for pregnant and postpartum rock climbers. If you follow Joy on Instagram, you know her as a fun-loving and engaging mother of three, with a reputation for solid technical and personal coaching. Tyler on the other hand, is not a climber at all. He’s a biologist with a contrasting, yet highly complementary personality. In that way, they make for fantastic interview subjects on the discussion of relationships, money, career, and parenting.
Joy and Tyler Black: An Introduction
Joy and Tyler shared a common early interest: debt. With a focus on paying down this debt, Joy was able to leave an unfulfilling desk job and begin her work as a coach, relying on Tyler’s steady income as a biologist to cover their life’s expenses. As Joy’s business grew, they were able to shift focus from debt paydown to pursuing financial independence.
But along the way, Joy has managed the inevitable bumps in the road of solo entrepreneurship, including crushing hours, demanding tasks outside of her primary skillset, the psychologically draining world of social media, and the emotional toll of coaching women in a particularly important phase in their lives. Looking back though, she wouldn’t trade the experience and personal growth that this path has provided.
This is a really fun yet insightful story of two people with very different world views who really make it work. This is a discussion of money, personality, parenting, and the life-long pursuit of meaning, recreation, and career.
Topics Discussed with Joy and Tyler Black
- Joy’s career journey: leaving an unfulfilling job and becoming a coach for pregnant and postpartum rock climbers
- The power of niching down in business
- Managing debt and beginning a life in pursuit of financial independence
- An in-depth discussion on partner support: financial, child-raising, etc.
- Musings on early retirement
- Gender roles and mindsets on career and money
- The gamification of the FIRE movement: Who can save the most or retire the earliest?
- Should we feel guilty for building wealth?
- Personality and money mindset: logic and reason versus feeling and emotion
- The behind-the-scenes reality of the solo entrepreneurial life
- Pursuing financial independence with three children
- The mental toll of social media for an entrepreneur
- The psychology of market volatility
- The often-unspoken support systems behind the “quit your job” or “chase your dream” internet advice
- Knowing your self-worth in a career and the downsides of the job-hopping culture
- So much more!
Get in Touch with Joy and Tyler Black
Other Interviews and Posts Mentioned
Paige Claassen: “This Was a Big One For Me” (Clipping Chains)
Steve Bechtel: The Glass is Already Broken (Clipping Chains)
Mettle, By Steve Bechtel: A Book Review (Clipping Chains)
EP 128: Callie Joy Black (The Nugget Climbing Podcast)
Peruse all Clipping Chains posts and interviews here.
Books Recommended by Joy and Tyler Black
Tyler’s Recommendations:
Man’s Search for Meaning (Viktor E. Frankl)
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (Nassim Nicholas Taleb)
The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns (John C. Bogle)
Joy’s Recommendations:
Mettle: Lessons From the Gym and the Crag in Pursuit of Better Climbing (Steve Bechtel)
Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art (James Nestor)
Come As You Are: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life (Emily Nagoski)
Why Did No One Tell Me?: What Every Woman Needs to Know to Protect, Heal and Nurture Her Body Through Motherhood (Emma Brockwell)
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