Jordan Tarver Self-Published a Book About Getting Unstuck. TikTok Turned It Into a Bestseller

In December 2024, Jordan Tarver filmed himself close to tears. “TikTok, you have literally changed my freaking life overnight,” he said, holding up a copy of his book. For six months, he explained, he had been in a rough place, full of self-doubt about what he would amount to. Then a video about his book took off.

Tarver is the author of You Deserve This Sh!t, a short, plain-spoken guide to getting unstuck that he wrote and published himself. He sells it mostly through his own videos on @jordantarver on TikTok, and he is open about what is riding on it: the book, he says, is his livelihood. Here is how a loans editor turned a self-published book into a bestseller, and what the book actually teaches.

Key takeaways

• Jordan Tarver is an independent author who self-published You Deserve This Sh!t, a short self-help book about getting unstuck and finding your path.
• He built his readership on TikTok, where he has about 196,000 followers, and sells his book directly through TikTok Shop.
• His TikTok bio says his books have sold more than 90,000 copies; Penguin Business published an Indian edition of his second book, Pursuit of Purpose, in 2025.
• Before writing full time, he was an editor at Forbes Advisor, where he rose to lead editor for mortgages and loans.
• His book is built on three pillars of self-discovery: awareness, comfort zones and intentional living.

Who is Jordan Tarver?

Jordan Tarver is a self-help author, speaker and content creator. His his website describes him as a global bestselling author and keynote speaker who changed course after surviving a traumatic car accident. The bio on his Penguin book page puts it this way: almost dying, followed by a soul-searching solo backpacking trip, “taught him how to live.”

His career before that was in personal finance media. According to his LinkedIn profile, he joined Forbes Advisor in December 2020 as deputy editor for loans and became lead editor for mortgages and loans in February 2023. His Forbes Advisor author page now lists him as a former staff editor. Muck Rack lists a business finance degree from California State University, Fullerton.

What is You Deserve This Sh!t about?

You Deserve This Sh!t is a short self-help book for people who feel they have outgrown their old life but cannot yet see the new one. Tarver says he wrote it to read like “a conversation with your best friend or older sibling,” because so many self-help books he had read went “way over my head.”

The book is built around three steps he calls the three pillars of self-discovery: awareness, comfort zones and intentional living. “As you move through those three pillars,” he explains in a May 2026 video, “the gap of your old life and your new life starts to shrink,” because you get clear on what the new life is and what steps move you toward it. He pitches it as a two-hour read.

The three pillars of self-discovery in You Deserve This Sh!t

How did TikTok make his book a bestseller?

Tarver has been posting book recommendations and self-improvement videos on TikTok since at least 2022, and his account now has about 196,000 followers and 3.9 million likes. By December 2023, wellness author Light Watkins wrote that Tarver had used TikTok to push his book into the top 100 of all books on Amazon.

The bigger wave came a year later. A December 2024 video recommending the book, which promised it would help viewers figure out “exactly what you’re meant to do in this lifetime,” has about 5.5 million views. In January 2025 he said he had sold more than 50,000 copies, and his current TikTok bio puts the total for his books at more than 90,000.

Jordan Tarver’s You Deserve This Sh!t book recommendation

His most-watched videos are direct, transparent asks. In a November 2025 video with about 8.5 million views, he explains that he is an independent author, that the book is his “complete livelihood,” and that he put it on a Black Friday flash sale anyway “to give back.” In February 2026 he asked viewers to help him sell the last 170 copies in his old fulfillment warehouse so he could switch providers and offer free shipping.

What is Pursuit of Purpose?

Pursuit of Purpose is Tarver’s second book: a step-by-step, research-backed framework for finding your purpose in 30 days, with a companion workbook sold separately. It covers identity, direction, self-sabotage, strengths, core values and self-limiting beliefs. The project began as a digital program and became a book in 2025, and Penguin Business published a 224-page Indian edition in July 2025.

Why did Jordan Tarver move to Spain?

In February 2025, Tarver and his wife left the United States and moved to Spain. “Our dream life is here,” he wrote. In a video from their new couch, he argued that experiences and the memories of them are what define a life, and asked viewers what was holding them back from chasing whatever makes them feel more alive.

Jordan Tarver on moving to Spain

Before the move, he shared one of his dreams as an author: to see a stranger reading his book on a plane.

What can founders and creators learn from Jordan Tarver?

Tarver’s path holds a few practical lessons for anyone building a business around their own work:

• Own the channel. He sells his book through TikTok Shop from his own videos, so the person who explains the book is the person who sells it.
• Be transparent. His biggest videos tell viewers exactly what is happening, from losing reach to clearing warehouse stock, and ask for specific help.
• Make it simple. He wrote a short, conversational book on purpose and markets it as a two-hour read.
• Give people a first step. One of his early viral videos is a 10-to-15-minute journaling exercise: write a letter from the “dream version of yourself” to your current self, dated a year out.
• Keep the community close. Beyond TikTok, he runs the 1-1-1 newsletter, a Substack and a daily inspiration text line.

He joins other creators who built a business teaching in public that Booked Impact has profiled, including Lauren Burke and Nicole DeTommaso.

Jordan Tarver thanks TikTok for changing his life

Frequently asked questions

Who is Jordan Tarver?

Jordan Tarver is an independent author and speaker best known for the self-help books You Deserve This Sh!t and Pursuit of Purpose. He is a former editor at Forbes Advisor and has about 196,000 followers on TikTok.

What is You Deserve This Sh!t about?

It is a short self-help book about getting unstuck and finding your path. It is built on three pillars of self-discovery: awareness, comfort zones and intentional living.

Is You Deserve This Sh!t self-published?

Yes. Jordan Tarver describes himself as a self-published, independent author and sells the book mainly through TikTok Shop and Amazon.

How many copies has Jordan Tarver sold?

His TikTok bio says his books have sold more than 90,000 copies. In January 2025 he said You Deserve This Sh!t had passed 50,000.

Did Jordan Tarver work at Forbes?

Yes. According to his LinkedIn profile, he joined Forbes Advisor in 2020 and became lead editor for mortgages and loans in 2023. Forbes Advisor now lists him as a former staff editor.

Where does Jordan Tarver live?

He and his wife moved from the United States to Spain in February 2025.

This profile is based on Jordan Tarver’s public TikTok videos, his website, his publisher’s listing and published profiles. Booked Impact did not interview him, and he did not review this article before publication.