Modern Day Pirates: Maps

The Photograph

Geoff Talbot — Tue, 05 May 2026 15:55:51 GMT

May 4th, 2025

I just snapped this photograph today

It’s important to me for reasons that I will never fully share… with anyone ever.

I will come back to it constantly, though. Perhaps every day for the rest of life.

It captures me at a pivotal moment.

I made a big decision before this photo was taken. A hard choice.

For the longest time, I’ve lived for other …

The Key To Your Success

Geoff Talbot — Mon, 04 May 2026 00:34:47 GMT

Tears were streaming down my face as I took my shoes off at Airport Security.

I was about to hop on the big bird and leave my home in Auckland, New Zealand.

Leaving behind everything I had ever known.

My family.

My friends.

My work.

My faith community.

I was heading to London, a place I had never been before, into a life that had no guarantees.

I was shit scare…

But this, my friends, is a cautionary tale.

Geoff Talbot — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 04:17:46 GMT

Kevin lit up the room like a giant ball of fire.

Best looking kid in the school.

A mischievous grin. Joy that flowed out of every pore in his body.

So much talent.

As much as I admired him, as a kid in little old New Zealand, growing up, I felt pretty small around him.

Insecure even.

There was no way I could compete.

He was the most talented and charismatic ki…

I felt it tear off my pelvis

Geoff Talbot — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 19:29:52 GMT

I slipped and did a violent split.

I felt the excruciating rip of my hamstring as it tore from the bone in my pelvis.

It was 2020, Slide Rock, Arizona, and I slipped 😂 ironically, on a rock and collapsed into a snow-fed stream.

Clearly, my gymnastic days were over.

I remember sitting on a bag of ice on an eight-hour drive all the way back to Los Angeles,…

Who is thee...

Geoff Talbot — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 23:34:58 GMT

I’m in the backyard

Walking in circles

Trying to get my head straight.

Thinking about our community of 300 completely sold-out solopreneurs that I’m growing.

Sometimes I struggle to find the right language to describe what I am doing, and it annoys the f*ck out of me.

So forgive me if I don’t make sense, and ask me questions if it tugs at your soul and you w…

Thighs Rubbed So Raw They Bled

Geoff Talbot — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 23:03:08 GMT

I walked up and down the corridors of the hospital for 12 straight hours demanding answers.

I walked so much, I rubbed my inner thighs so raw that they bled into my underpants.

In 24 hours, the best moment of my life, the birth of my child, had turned into an unfathomable nightmare.

I encountered the face of something that I knew existed but had never met before.

Racism. Prejudice on a systemic scale that still sickens me.

10 years later and the PTSD still lingers.

The problem didn’t stop with bleeding thighs; it went on for months and months.

It cost me everything I owned.

I slept for less than two hours a night.

I was fighting a monster that few people see, an ignorant, greedy, ravenous beast that had no need for the truth.

I realize that I am talking in metaphor and deliberately so.

I won’t share the full details of this story ever.

However, I will tell you what I have learned from this story.

Never give up when you know that you are right.

Always persist.

Fight for those that you love.

And also this:

Huge personal growth comes from encountering great obstacles.

I am 3X the man now than I was before.

I am stronger in my character.

Wiser in my understanding of the world.

Kinder in the ways that I relate to those on the margins.

I think this is the key to understanding any tough time or challenge. If you persist through it, you will become more fully human.

The Key to Overcoming & How It Can Help Your Business

There’s a problem with never telling your story.

Other people will.

And they will own it, even though their narrative is incomplete and sometimes incorrect.

When you share your story, you take back your power.

How much you share is up to you.

Watch this video here:

10 Tips on How To Share Your Stories On Social Media

It's My Birthday... Soon

Geoff Talbot — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 15:57:42 GMT

It’s my birthday in two days.

A milestone birthday.

I am beyond excited.

The kids will probably celebrate me and make a big deal about Dad hitting the big one, but here’s the truth…

I wouldn’t mind if no one celebrated me at all…

Why?

Because I’ve already chosen my own birthday gift.

I’m going to give myself the greatest 12 months of my life ever.

A year ful…

The Church of Woody Allen

Geoff Talbot — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 00:23:22 GMT

I grew up in the church, and the Head Pastor used to love quoting Woody Allen.

This was before “Woody’s indiscretions were known to the world.”

“Woody Allen says that “80% of success is simply showing up.” So if you show up to church regularly, you will change, and you will grow.”

This was the essence of the message.

So much wrong here.

It’s also an overly s…

Purrfection

Geoff Talbot — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 01:55:52 GMT

Perfection will kill you every single time because it stops you from “showing up” authentically, right now.

It delays action.

It inhibits connection.

It sees failure as a weakness rather than a tool for growth.

In the next 12 months, my commitment is to build really imperfect things that are built on the back of failure.

I will fail often.

I will stumble glor…

You can have anything you want...

Geoff Talbot — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 17:31:23 GMT

You can transform "any area" of your life.

At any age. No matter the odds.

Despite what others say. No matter how shitty you currently feel.

This week, I smashed a physical goal that two years ago seemed like a fantasy.

Real Geoff on the Journey to Future Geoff

Here's the truth, though:

I had to be bold enough, brave enough, stupid enough 😂 to say that goal…

Emasculate or Emancipate

Geoff Talbot — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 22:11:34 GMT

Dana grew her business by 400% in 12 months with the social media strategies that I outlined in the video below.

Laura went from $10 Million Production to $25 Million Production and became one of the leading agents in Northern California

Another friend, known only as XXX, got distracted, jumped on every social media craze possible, and is now working a se…

When my son trapped his little sister in the cupboard

Geoff Talbot — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 22:55:31 GMT

Two years ago, my 7-year-old daughter hopped into the very small closet in our camper van when I wasn’t looking.

Her 11-year-old brother saw her, so he snuck up to the closet and casually leaned against the door, trapping her inside.

Such a big brother #sshole maneuver.

Soon I heard screaming from the cupboard, and I ran over and let her out.

She was terrif…

In a World of Chaos, Talk to People - Live with Geoff

Geoff Talbot — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 22:38:40 GMT

Thank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.

Available for iOS and Android

How to Get Clients from Social Media

Geoff Talbot — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 01:29:27 GMT

A short reflection on being truly known, deeply loved, and fully supported and why conversations still matter more than content.

Ball and Chain

Geoff Talbot — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 22:35:35 GMT

She was 73 years old and as mean as hell…

He was 57, on the board of a large company, and the epitome of a self-made man…

She lived in a tiny little retirement apartment on the wrong side of town…

He owned an expansive 6-bedroom home with a large garden…

And yet on this particular evening, she was bossing him about and belittling him like he was 9 years old…

This Map Is Only for the Brave

Geoff Talbot — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 22:40:15 GMT

The wind is blowing sideways here in New Zealand. Rain is slanting through the valley. The dark clouds are clinging to the hills like a bad omen.

Storms.

It’s hard to find your True North in the middle of one.

Human life is many things, but one constant remains: every single person faces seasons with storms.

Storms can be personal.
Storms can be national
Stor…

Pissing the bed

Geoff Talbot — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 21:43:50 GMT

After nearly having a heart attack on Sunday, I made one of the best decisions of my life on a Monday.

I hopped in my car, drove to the closest gym to my house, and hired the very first personal trainer I met.

That was the only criterion in my decision-making process:
Closest gym. First trainer.

I couldn’t afford to fuck around anymore. The gravity of my si…

These Words Might Cut You

Geoff Talbot — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 21:40:59 GMT

I don’t want to hurt you with these words.

But if you read them honestly, they may cut you just a little.

Have you given up on yourself?

I’m seeing it everywhere lately. People quietly surrendering the dreams they once had for their own lives.

Brave people, beautiful people, laying down their fire… settling into an endless gray couch of “I guess this is jus…

Old Things Have to Die

Geoff Talbot — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 21:38:54 GMT

Old things have to die.

Thanks for reading Modern Day Pirates! This post is public so feel free to share it.

This photo is from October, 2009. It’s me in a suit with a beard I had cultivated for 12-months.

I was proud of that beard and a tailor had personally tailored that suit to fit me perfectly.

I remember this photo well. I was standing on the edge of w…

Drooping Like An Empty Sack

Geoff Talbot — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 21:37:26 GMT

The water was flat, and his sail was limp, drooping like an empty sack.

His ship — The Good Pirate — bobbed gently, like an empty bottle in a murky pond. He was going nowhere.

In one half-drunken moment, he adjusted his eyepatch and considered abandoning the ship altogether, trying to swim for land. Anything felt better than this soul-destroying stillness.