About

Meet the Rebel with the Pen

Warning:

I’m a truth-teller with a wild streak. I challenge. I call out. I call up.

I’ll push you to see your story, your work, your life from angles you’ve never considered.

I don’t do average.

Mediocre gives me the ick.

Settling is not welcomed here.

I see from multiple points of view

and believe at any time we all have permission to edit, pivot, and write the next chapter anytime - anyway - we choose.

I’m a rebel.

A wild heart.

A hopeless romantic.

And I’ll give it to you straight.

No sugarcoating.

No pom-poms.

If you’re looking for someone to dig deep and perform the surgery

in your story, your projects, your mindset, your perspective

I’m the one who won’t let you stay the same.

And just so you know…
I write how I talk.

I say ain’t and y’all.

No grammar checks.

No proper punctuation.
(don’t worry, when I ghostwrite your work, you get copyeditors and proofreaders. I’m here for the meat-and-potatoes part.)

I expect you to read between the lines and catch the life lessons woven into every sentence, syllable, and section.

If my storytelling wakes something up in you

my job is done.

If you're cool with that...

let's keep going.

Things that Make Me - ME

Hi, I’m Robyn. I’m so happy you are here.

I’ve got a soft spot for stuffed animals, leg warmers, capes, Stevie Nicks, squirrels and wildlife.
I’m a frosting-first kinda girl, pickle eater, peanut butter M&M and red-wine lover.
And yes, sometimes I eat them together.

Law & Order junkie. Benson and Stabler SVU reruns on repeat.
True crime addict. Falling asleep to medical dramas like they’re white noise.
The smell of coffee makes me gag. Mayo and Greek yogurt don’t stand a chance.

I hate crowds. Complainers. Excuses. Laziness.
Wet socks are my kryptonite, sometimes changing mine three times a day.
Bird watching became a thing after 45, and if you’ve ever really watched them eat you know.
Twice-daily treks with bird seed and raccoon snacks are now part of my routine.

Don’t invite me past 7 p.m. or to a networking lunch. I’ll want to say yes but I’ll choose home.
Hell yes to deep-dish pizza. Hot tea with lemon.
An irresponsible amount of chips and salsa. Always with red wine.

I’m usually reading three books at once plus the Bible.
Notes. Journals. Napkin scribbles. Ideas scattered across every countertop.

I have two amazing, supercool, creative, compassionate, witty, crazy-talented, resilient, badass, not-a-hole kids.
My proudest accomplishment. No contest.

I’m a Tampa native, USF grad, dreaming of a Montana farmhouse with my husband.
Goats. Mini-cows. Otters. Somehow a red panda.
Also a beach house in Cape Cod or Oregon, perched on cliffs with waves crashing against bold boulders.
Me in my office, writing novels, free from intrusion, distraction, and definitely not within reach of the kitchen pantry.

The beach is my peaceful, powerful, healing sanctuary.

I believe in old-school analog ways of getting out of your own way.
Grey tape and zip ties. There is always a way.
I’ve been working and working out since I was fifteen.
Gym junkie turned fitness expert. Training. Coaching. Grinding.
Not a habit. Not a hobby. It’s my DNA.
True Gen Xer. Hard-work ethic. Hustle. Relentless. Never give up.

I walk when I write. Feed squirrels daily. Talk to wildlife like coworkers.
Two housecats. AC always at 66.
Night owl. Early bird. No rhythm. No reason.
Creativity hits when it wants. I chase it every time.

Facing death more than once made me allergic to laziness, excuses, and sitting still.

The Work

I’m the author of The Machete Mentality, with seven more books in progress...plus yours.

Two-time certified high performance coach, transformation and mindset junkie, wake-up artist, and speaker on fearless communication, reinvention, resilience, and rewriting your story.

Founder of The Edit, a leadership collective for women.

Creator of The Reckoning is Your Revival, my weekly publication on the aftermath of adversity.

All things faith, fire, fight, and the fortitude it takes to rise from wreckage.

I write on grit and grief, heartbreak and healing, love and loss, resilience and self-power.

I don’t hand out sugar. I hand out spine to wake you the hell up so you stop settling, stop surviving, and start fighting for the life you actually want.

Host of The Daily Fight / The Silent Roar (still toggling back and forth...sometimes it’s both).

Raw, unfiltered, straight-up truths. The rants, the reckoning, the real-life fire most people are too scared to say out loud.

I unleash the voice in your head, the one that refuses to stay silent, and let it break surface.

I do surgery in life.

I cut until the lies are gone, the excuses are over, and the edits are clean.

I rewrite the parts of your story that don’t fit anymore.

And I don’t mind sharing my own scars as I rise and you rise into your future self, your forever self, your now self.

Every version of you, every past identity, on your team for the ride.

The Core

Most importantly, I’m a Christian who believes every person carries a fighter inside with God-sized goals. The difference between living them or losing them is your ability to wake your warrior and fight for your future self.

Everything I’ve been through—every setback, scar, and story of survival—birthed the work I do now. The adversity, the aftermath, the reinvention. That’s the fire I write from. That’s the fight I bring to the table.

Now I help women rewrite their story, create their next chapter, and live inside their own happily-ever-after in progress.

Armed With Faith & Fortitude

Sometimes it takes tough love, full transparency, and a whole lot of tenacity. That’s what I bring to the table to help you get there.

I’ve been coaching, training, and transforming lives for 26 years. What started in the gym grew into high-performance coaching, then into building my business over seven years ago. Today it’s evolved into Written by Robyn Lynn—my ghostwriting studio for stories born in fire, faith, and fight.

Now I’m reigniting my own life and career as I step fully into writing, publishing, and speaking. I lead The Edit, a leadership collective for women ready to cut, rewrite, and live their next chapter. I run The Reckoning is Your Revival, my weekly publication on faith, fight, and rising from the wreckage. And I host The Daily Fight / The Silent Roar (sometimes both, depending on the day)—my raw, unfiltered space for the truths most people are too afraid to say out loud.

I’m finally living my dream as a full-time writer, author, and thought leader. And I’m using every scar, setback, and survival story I’ve lived through to fuel this work.

But here’s the real talk. Sometimes I’m just as scared, frustrated, or impatient as you are. The difference is I refuse to quit. My faith in God, my faith in my future self, and my faith in my own fortitude keep me moving. I know where I’ve come from. I know how far away that place is now. And I know the fight it took to get here.

MY MESSES HELP YOU MAKE LESS

Heartache. Grief. Death. Divorce. Chronic pain. Eating disorders. Weight gain. Weight loss. Financial ruin. Homelessness. Eviction. Addiction. Rejection. Abandonment. Affairs. Lies. Betrayal.
I can cover the whole nine yards.

Eleven years ago, I was in the fight for my life.
A rare infection overtook my spine, my bones, my body, my legs.
Emergency surgery. Part of my spine gone. Chronic pain stayed.
That was one of twelve surgeries across my life—two of them emergencies.
I shouldn’t be here. But by His grace, I am.

I’ve managed the pain. Rewritten the story. Rebuilt my life.
Redeemed through the reckoning. Reinvented again and again.

From fitness trainer to gym owner.
From mindset coach to certified high-performance coach.
From keynote speaker to full-time author.
From surviving to breaking generational chains.
The first in my family to do things differently. To do things bigger.

This is my triple threat.
Street cred from adversity and endurance.
Education and expertise in writing, journalism, and communications.
Authority and experience from decades of coaching, speaking, and building businesses from the ground up.

It all stacks. It all serves.
It’s what makes me able to dig out the story, write the story, tell the story—
from multiple points of view, different angles, deeper layers.
It’s what makes me relentless about transforming a mess into meaning.

So when I help you take your wreckage and turn it into something unputdownable—
a book, a manuscript, a thought-leadership brand—
I’m not just writing words.

I’m handing you credibility, courage, confidence.
The language that makes you unshakable.
The authority to walk into rooms, get booked on stages, consult from your lived experience, and influence lives you haven’t even met yet.

Because your story isn’t just about you.
It’s about the people who need to hear it.
The ones waiting for you to stop hesitating.
The ones waiting for you to be brave.
The ones waiting for you to fight for your future self.

And I’m here to help you do it.

MY HEART IS ON MY SLEEVE

At the end of the day, what we all want is pretty simple.
To feel connected.

To feel like somebody actually sees us, hears us, gets us.

To feel like we’re not crazy for carrying what we’ve carried.

That’s what I bring when I sit with your story.

No judgment. No filter. No sugarcoating.
Just truth.

And space for you to be real.

I’ve lived the broken side and the rebuilt side.
The deathbed and the comeback.
The “I don’t know how I’ll make it” side and the “by His grace I’m still here” side.

So when I work with you, it’s not theory.
It’s not surface-level.
It’s lived. It’s scarred. It’s been rebuilt again and again.

And that’s why I know how to pull out your story in full.
Not scraps. Not captions. Not watered-down bits and pieces.
The whole damn thing.

A story that carries weight.
Language that gives you backbone.
Words that open doors before you even walk in.

That’s the freedom.
Owning your story. Standing in it.
Letting it speak louder than you ever had to.

The Story After Survival

You’ve already done the work.
You rose.

You fought.

You built.

You survived what tried to break you.

Now you’ve got a story to tell.
A new chapter to create.
A bigger stage to step onto.

My role is to take what you’ve lived through

the adversity, the aftermath, the wins, the scars

and help you turn it into something unputdownable.

A book.

A manuscript.

A body of work that outlives you.

Words that carry weight.
Language that gives you credibility and authority before you even walk into the room.

Taking what’s already inside of you and giving it form.

Taking the story you’ve carried and making sure it works for you.

I’m here to help you build what’s next.

To write it.

To own it.

To lead with it.

So, you keep creating, keep rising, and keep living in alignment with the values that got you here.

That’s the freedom.
Your story.

Your next chapter.

Powerful. Credible. Unforgettable.

THE INVITE

Thanks for being here. For real.

If you’re still reading this, I already know one thing about you: you’ve lived through enough life to know your story isn’t small. And deep down, you know it’s time to do something with it.

So here’s the deal...

this is where you stop shelving your story and start shaping it.

This is where the wreckage turns into words that matter.

This is where you take everything you’ve fought for and give it form, depth, and impact.

Read my stuff. Share it.

Let it challenge you.

Then let’s talk.

Schedule a call.

Subscribe to my weekly Reckoning.

Show up where the words are.

Because the truth is

your story is already speaking.

The only question is whether you’re going to let it whisper from the shadows or stand in the light where it belongs.

I grew up middle class. Never had abundance. But always had just enough.

Lived in the shadows of a sibling's fires, which taught me to take care of my own independent little me. Taught me resilience. Taught me how to make it happen, keep going, never give up, you got this mindset - it is what my inside voice learned to chime in every time I felt alone or defeated.

I was creative. Into dance and journalism, writing my own stories and reading books. I still see the little me laying on the floor looking up at my bulletin board on the back of my bedroom door. I had cut out and pinned a magazine quote from William Arthur Ward, “If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it.”

Today, my house is full of quotes and signs and boards still battling for better dreams.

I was blessed with 4 parents, but somehow, I fell short of feeling filled up and always felt second best, back burner and in the shadows of everything else.

NOT ALL WHO WANDER ARE LOST

I fell in love with fitness at 15. And started teaching it at 19. Found out real fast, I was a badass at making up fitness routines and coaching others to challenge themselves physically.

But I fought eating disorders. Jellybeans and diet pills were not exactly nutritious for a personal trainer living healthily.

Went bankrupt in college after I realized all those damn credit cards they gave you added up and weren’t really free.

Full of wanderlust, I traveled freely meeting strangers and partying it up, pretending to be anybody, but me. Hitchhiked and learned how to scuba dive the same week I had knee surgery. I never let anything scare me or hold me back from adventuring.

Boxed in the ring. Blew out my shoulder but got right back up and kept fighting until the bell rang over me.

THE BIGGEST BATTLE IS YOU vs. YOU

I was fearless and scrappy and hungry for something more

Love

Desire

Significance

Some kind of importance

It was always a war within me

I got married, had two kids. Was a stay at home mom driving a fancy SUV. It was the epitome of living the American dream.

Then life happened one too many times. Started lying. Started hiding. Started living a double life. It weighed me down and started killing everything inside of me.

Then one day, I got really sick and found myself in the battle for my life at just the young age of 36.

I was struck with a rare infection that invaded way too much of me. I was misdiagnosed. I was ignored. I was shoved aside. I was left to die as the infection grew stronger inside of me.

Septic. ICU. Emergency surgery. And then God stepped in and saved me. All the while, I watched my stepmother die way too young from ovarian cancer. Taken from me. I was Pissed. Sad. And lonely.

HURT & HEALING SIMULTANEOUSLY

Survivors guilt. PTSD. Chronic pain from surgery. Nerve pain, dead leg. My body parts that look just fine but don’t work the way they fully should be.

My marriage got lost and died. A sad divorce that sometimes still pains me. Lots of regrets turned lessons because salvation saved me from beating myself up over all the do-overs you think about but never get to live out.

Now I believe all our choices bring us up to date and exactly where we should be. Even when it looks ugly.

Then I met a boy who changed everything about the old me. Brought me to life, YET also killed so many parts inside of me. Unhealthiest relationship I ever had, BUT grew me & rose me up from the dead.

Founded a business that grew from a dirt field. Finding out real fast how entrepreneurship is an unending rollercoaster with no harness or seatbelts protecting you as you free fall into your hopes and dreams while living a very uncertain reality.

FACING FAILURES FORWARD

There has been financial ruin multiples times. Abusive behaviors and more lies. Emotional emptiness. Mental tornadoes gripping most of the beginning trying to figure out life starting over. And over. And over.

There’s been death, divorce, and more surgeries. A broken nose, breast explant and the joy of finding a final Forever Love that is still growing daily.

There’s been rejection and abandonment issues alongside the rainbows and sunshine and unicorn days where overnight success seems to fall in place so simply.

I’m unconventional. Write like I speak and still say ain't and ya'll. I don’t care about misspellings or punctuation. It’s the content in my message, my heart, my passion and my mission for better that matters when I’m spilling my story and helping you walk a path to better.

I still curse.

I am way better than I was. But NOWHERE near being done. It’s just nice knowing God sticks with you through all the messy stuff.

I’m sure I missed something. But that’s enough for now. Once you get to know me. You’ll see I’m nobody different or better or more ahead of the game. I’m just listening to the force relentlessly pursuing that life living inside of me.

Career Bio

Author. Speaker. Leader.

Robyn Tanner is the author of The Machete Mentality, a Certified High-Performance Coach, ghostwriter, keynote speaker, and host of The Daily Fight podcast. She’s the founder of Written by Robyn Lynn, a boutique writing studio for stories born in fire, faith, and fight—specializing in cinematic, page-turning books for women with power and pain.

She’s survived 13 surgeries—including two life-threatening emergencies—partial spinal removal, septic shock, PTSD, divorce, homelessness, and more. Her comeback isn’t a marketing line—it’s real. She’s clawed her way back and built a life, a business, and a mission from the wreckage.

Her unapologetic style blends raw storytelling with high-level strategy. Robyn doesn’t just write—she performs story surgery. She pulls the truth out of your past, sharpens your voice, and helps you turn your mess into a manuscript. Whether she’s ghostwriting your book, developmentally editing your drafts, or mapping the next chapter of your thought leadership, Robyn is the story architect behind women who are ready to be read, remembered, and respected.

With 27 years in coaching, fitness, and transformation work, Robyn’s background gave her the tools to ask the right questions, push the edges, and get beneath the surface—to the story beneath the story. She knows how to interview, challenge, and extract the real truth—and translate it into words that carry both weight and legacy.

She was named Yahoo’s #2 Mindset Coach Changing Lives (2021), Best Gym Owner of the Year (2019), and one of Tampa’s Top 50 Dynamic Women (2024)—with multiple nominations for Best Personal Trainer & Gym in Tampa.

She’s not here to fix your story—she’s here to help you rewrite it, create the next chapter, and live your happily ever after (in progress).

She’s a proud wifey, mama of two, USF Comm grad, Tampa native, Law & Order junkie, and animal whisperer who believes in high quality—not high maintenance—and refuses to shrink for anyone.

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