About Me

Hello, I’m J.R. Heimbigner.

Writing has always been a passion of mine. Yet, it took me 30 years to realize it. Looking back through the pages of my past, it is clear that I was meant to be a writer and author.

I believe that every writer and author is on a journey. We start somewhere, often doing something we don’t enjoy. And on our journey, we discover our true calling is to put words into the world.

I want to share a little about my journey to help connect you to your journey.  Before we begin, I want to share something from Bestselling Author, Jon Acuff:

“Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle, or your middle to someone else’s end. Don’t compare the start of your second quarter of life to someone else’s third quarter.”

My meaning is that I don’t want you to compare your place in the journey with mine. I want to encourage you and help you along in your story.

So, let’s begin.

The Journey isn’t a Straight Line

I grew up as the fifth generation to live on my family farm in eastern Washington state. I believed from a young age that my destiny was to take over that family farm, but in the end, I didn’t.

I worked as a janitor, apartment cleaner, thrift store cashier, farm hand, and road construction worker during college. It took a lot of hard work to get through college.

Going to college, I majored in Sports Management and was privileged to work in that field during school and for two years after college as an event manager for Washington State University and a short stint at Arizona State University.

I left my field of study.

Then, I did a minor pivot and worked for Campus Crusade for Christ for three years. During this time, I worked in a regional office, helping manage conferences and events while sharing my faith in Portland, Oregon.

During this season of life, I met my wife, lived in downtown Portland, and started a family. In starting that family, I had to make another pivot in my career.

This led me to change careers and work for a major insurance company. I have worked for this company for the past ten years, moving around within the organization.

Yet, working in all these roles, I never felt quite satisfied. Only when I was writing did I feel the peace and purpose I longed for in making so many career changes.

Writing paralleled my career path.

In college, I started a blog called The Adaptations of Life. I shared anything and everything that came to mind during that season of life. It’s long gone now, but it was a space where I could write out my problems and lessons learned.

When I started working for Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ), I had a personalized blog that helped me stay connected with my financial supporters. During this season, I learned blogging and email marketing without realizing it.

There was a three or four-year gap in writing for me. When I went from Cru to the insurance world. I had given up on writing for a while. But that didn’t last long.

How I went from writer to author

Yet, in 2017, I could not help it any longer. I started my current blog and joined a variety of platforms to write on a variety of topics. From 2017 to 2019, I started to hone my craft and learned a ton.

Finally, in 2019, I wrote my first book, Productivity Success. It was based on my struggles with my job and how I overcame almost getting fired.

Since that time, I have written and published eight more books. Three of them are Christian devotionals:

• The Book of Proverbs
• The Gospel of John
• The Gospel of Matthew

These books are hands down my best and most consistent sellers as a self-published author. However, I have also written several other books:

• Goal Setting (based on a widely successful article I wrote and my personal practice)
• Life Planning (based on a widely successful post I wrote and my personal practice)
• Transform Your Medium Stories (I use Medium to help me write books)
• Substack Books (How to use Substack to write books)
• The Tales of the Daughters of the Enchanted Kingdom (Short stories for my kids)

These books have changed my life. They have taught me there is a power in the written word that can impact me and change the lives of those who read them.

The Other Ways I Spend My Time