An Inspired Chat with Tyler Knott Gregson

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Tyler Knott Gregson. Check out our conversation below.

Good morning Tyler Knott, it’s such a great way to kick off the day – I think our readers will love hearing your stories, experiences and about how you think about life and work. Let’s jump right in? What makes you lose track of time—and find yourself again?
It started as the writing, and it’ll always be the writing. I get lost in words, I get lost in the attempt at making them spin together in some beautiful way, in translating them from nothing to something. I have always said I feel more like a conduit than a conductor when I write, and I think it’s here where I get the most lost, in order to be the most found. Being Autistic, there are VERY few times in a day, a week, where I just get to feel myself disappear. Writing is one. Always has been. Hopefully always will be.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am Tyler Knott Gregson, an Autistic poet, author, and professional photographer that lives in the mountains of Helena, Montana. I’ve been struck by lightning, I’m allergic to more foods than I can count, and I’ve written well over 4,000 poems. I have 6 books of poetry, and a children’s book I wrote with my wife, Sarah Linden Gregson, who also travels the world with me as my business partner with Chasers of the Light, our photography company.

I’m always working on something, and my favorite thing to date is my Signal Fire. It’s a newsletter/blog/safe place to share poetry, long-form essays, photography, and the best writing I’m doing. It’s bloomed to a community of over 13,000 people all over the world and it’s truly beautiful.

Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
This, and I stayed it. To a weird fault, I’ve always been this, and I think I always will be. For some reason I don’t quite understand, my autism planted this seed of absolute and rock solid resolve in just always being the exact same way outside as I feel inside. No different. I am incapable of being anything else, and so the way the world “tells me” I have to be never registers. Sometimes this is wonderful, sometimes this is really, really hard. It’s the only way though.

If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
Just hang in there, just believe in where your intuition tells you you’re headed, just be still and be calm and be understanding that you’ll NEVER, EVER line up with the way others line up. This is ok. This is magical. EVERY amazing thing you do, you create, you hope for, will come from this inability to match them.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Is the public version of you the real you?
They are one and they are the same and there is no variation. I am one way, all the time, all the ways. I called my new book The Never Was because I feel this way, something that “never was” able to fit in, never was able to change, never was able to acquiesce. There truly is (and those who know me know) no distinction between the public and private version of me. Sometimes I think it’d be easier if there was. Sometimes, I love that there is not.

Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. What do you think people will most misunderstand about your legacy?
I think that I care at all about whether or not there Will be a legacy at all. I just make things because I must make them. I just make them because it quiets the noise inside. No other reason. If I don’t let it out, it explodes into more than I can handle. There’s already too much, why would I ever dare add to it?

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tylerknott.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/tylerknott
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/TylerKnottGregson
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChasersoftheLight

Image Credits
They are all me. Tyler Knott Gregson.