Ricky Browne

Australian Self-Help Author

Ricky Browne

I write for thoughtful, creative people who want to understand themselves, overcome what keeps them stuck, and turn their ideas into meaningful work.

Explore the books

Australian author · 20+ books · 6,000+ Google Play downloads

Build. Overcome. Become.

Understand yourself. Overcome yourself. Build something that matters.

A lot of self-help stops at understanding. A lot of creator advice stops at productivity. I'm interested in the territory between the two: how you become the person capable of doing the work you keep saying matters to you.

BUILDTurn ideas into books, projects and meaningful work.
OVERCOMEFace resistance, fear, old programming and the parts of yourself that keep getting in the way.
BECOMEUse the work itself as a way to grow into someone stronger, clearer and more capable.

The enemy is half-baked potential. Endless thinking without action. Starting without finishing. Consuming self-help without changing. Waiting to feel ready instead of becoming ready through the work.

Books by an Australian self-help author

Books for people trying to understand themselves and move forward.

My books explore the same central problem from different angles: how to think more clearly, get out of your own way, finish meaningful work and become through the process. They sit somewhere between creativity, psychology, philosophy and lived experience.

Journal of a Not-So-Mad Schizophrenic by Australian author Ricky Browne

Journal of a Not-So-Mad Schizophrenic

Deep, personal and unvarnished. A journal about schizophrenia, sobriety, connection, identity, creativity and trying to become a better human without pretending the road is tidy.

Level Up At Life self-help book by Australian author Ricky Browne

Level Up At Life

692 thoughts on overcoming and becoming. Short ideas about self-awareness, growth, resilience, thinking better and continuing to chip away at a better life.



Writing apps built differently.

I built Freewriter because I couldn't find a writing app that fit the way I wanted to write.

Through multiple incarnations, Freewriter has evolved, with each version adding new features and increasingly unconventional ideas. Instead of sanding off the weird edges, I've leaned into them.

Big startups have good reasons to avoid the crazy ideas. I don't. I can experiment, keep what works and throw out what doesn't. The result is a family of writing apps that are deliberately different, designed to get you out of your own way and get words onto the page.

They're unconventional. They're a little strange. And they work.

🔰 Get Freewriter

Explore the Freewriter writing apps at getfreewriter.app

Why I write

Ideas are cheap. Living them is harder.

I write because the ideas that change our lives are rarely complicated. They are simply difficult to live. My books are about thinking clearly, creating boldly, understanding yourself and refusing to settle for the person you accidentally became.

Ricky Browne, Australian self-help author

About the author

Ricky Browne

Ricky Browne is an Australian self-help author, software developer and lifelong builder. For more than twenty years he has been creating things on the web, writing books, journalling, experimenting, getting things wrong and trying to understand what makes people tick.

His work explores self-understanding, creativity, resilience, mental health, human nature and personal growth, shaped by lived experience and the messy process of becoming.

See Ricky's books