Latest / The Bridges and Beacons Podcast / Tell Your Story, Change the World with Ryan Hall

Transcript

Tell Your Story, Change the World with Ryan Hall · The Bridges and Beacons Podcast

• 0:39
  SPEAKER_03: Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Mystic Nerd Squad podcast.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_03: I am your host, Kelly Meyerson.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_03: And on this episode, I am joined by one of my very good friends.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_03: And we both happen to be published authors and lovers of writing.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm so excited for our conversation.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_03: Before we get into it, I would like to introduce Ryan by telling you all the wonderful things about him.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_03: Ryan D.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_03: Hall is the best-selling author of Written in the Stone, Hello Again, Mining for My Voice, and The Roots of Joy.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_03: He is also the lead author of the Amazon best-selling anthology, The Expanding Man Chronicles, and a contributing author to two additional Amazon best-selling anthologies.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_03: Ryan is the creator and host of the solar-powered podcast, available wherever podcasts are found, a storytelling coach and a publisher.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_03: He is attended by his writing partner, Pete, his dog, and lives in Connecticut.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_03: And listen, if you hear Pete breathing, it's hot.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_03: He's just trying to regulate his temperature.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_03: And we're going to love on Pete as much as we can.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_03: He is living his best life because he's living with you and I know how well you take care of Pete.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_03: So welcome, Ryan.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks for joining me.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And thank you so much for that beautiful introduction, Kelly.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's always nice to join you.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's always nice to um to speak to the Mystic Nerd Squad because I think of myself as a Mystic Nerd.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: Totally.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_03: We're we're in very good company.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_03: And listener, thanks for joining us and and shining your Mystic Nerd Light brightly as well.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_03: So I went back and did a deep dive, and I was like, okay, when did Ryan and I last have a conversation on the Mystic Nerd Squad?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_03: And it was uh March 12th, 2022, which also happens to be your birthday.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_03: And we we didn't sing happy birthday song.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not sure if there's any royalties involved in that, but we did have a really great conversation about writing and healing through writing.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_03: And so when I thought about having you come back on, I just wanted to hear, and we had talked about it at the end of the podcast.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, Ryan, you need to come back and share the work and the things that you've been doing.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_03: And of course, now it's been two years, so you've done a lot.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_03: So I would love to just hear what is sort of the the big bright moments of the past couple of years in terms of your writing.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: That is a great question to lead off.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: And what comes to mind for me is just I think forward momentum.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because, you know, while, you know, while things may be a little bit different in my life than they were when we last spoke on the podcast, um I feel like there's just a ton of forward momentum, not only in my writing and my storytelling, um, but and in helping other just incredible human beings create their own stories and to be able to share their own stories.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, one of you you mentioned the expanding man chronicles, one of the Pete, one of the authors um from the Expanding Man Chronicles, we're expanding his chapter, Pun Completely Intended, into a full-length book, which is going to be coming out.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: We're hoping in late July.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's called The Love Intentions by Steve Strather is the author's name.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's you know, just uh just really shaping into a beautiful thing.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: But I think I've really to kind of answer your question, Kelly.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think I've really found that my passion for not just writing, but for storytelling, for telling my story, for telling where I've been, where I have, you know, what I have overcome, what I have grown through, what I have gone through, telling my story, I think the the passion for that is just growing exponentially.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I really believe that people's stories can change the world.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: It may not make you, it may not make you a New York Times bestselling author yet, but it will change the world, even if it's just changing one person.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: I truly believe that.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_03: I I agree with you.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_03: I love that so much because I think we can think so big and grandiose, like in in terms of world changing, but sometimes it's that touch point with one person, you know, who then has a touch point with how many other people?
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_03: And it really changes, you know.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_03: I think back to like, you know, my second grade teacher who noticed that I was having a difficult time with writing.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_03: And instead of being like, you need to practice, she said to me, Um, I see you're really creative and got me into writing stories.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_03: And I still remember that because she didn't see my weakness, she saw my strength and she just took me on a journey that has been a lifelong journey and joy in writing.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_03: So I love that you say that.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_03: I love that you're bringing up the Expanding Man Chronicles because I recently listened to your podcast episode with seven of you.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_03: I think it was seven total, right?
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_03: Seven gentlemen on one podcast.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, seven including me.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_03: Which, you know, Ryan and I had been having a conversation with someone else about the three of us being on a podcast together.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, ooh, three.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_03: And you were like, oh no, I had seven.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_03: It was fine.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's why it worked.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_03: It was fine.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_03: It was actually such a remarkable episode on your podcast.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I'll see if we can link that up in the show notes for people to go and listen to it.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_03: I think I was so moved by the gentlemen um on your podcast and their their stories, their growth journey.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, in that episode, and I don't think it was more than like an hour or so, you heard, you know, six incredible stories of, you know, overcoming obstacles and learning to do things differently and breaking molds and growth and learning.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_03: And I thought it was such a tremendous conversation.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I have not had a chance to read it yet, but that is on my to be read list this summer.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I think it's really remarkable and special.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm really so excited for you to be part of this.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's such a great movement.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and my only more soapbox moment about this is like we do so much in these days, at least in the circles that I'm in, to like push forward, you know, opportunities for women and equality and equity and all of those things.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_03: But I think, at least for myself and for many of us, it was never with the intention to downplay men and the male figure.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_03: And there's so much healing needed on all sides, and wherever you fall on the scale of gender identity, like everybody needs representation.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_03: And I thought this was such a beautiful way to do it.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_03: Sorry, that was very long-winded, Ryan, but I feel very passionately about what you're doing.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: You're fine, and I appreciate the acknowledgement because that, you know, yes, there is a lot of you know, collaboration and kind of storytelling circles with women.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's incredible.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's remarkable because a lot of women have had voices that have been, you know, silenced over the years, especially in like the more patriarchal society.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: But I also feel like you know, one one of my one of my mantras when it comes to men in storytelling is that I was using this analogy with somebody else the other day.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: There are what is it, eight billion people on the planet right now.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: And consider that roughly half of them are are male or at least identify as male.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: That means over four billion different ways to tell your story to be able to you know share what it's like to be a man.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: And the and I think the thing that I really got the most out of with the first version of the Expanding Man Chronicles, I am looking to put together another volume of this, probably in early 2025.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but the thing that really stood out to me with that is that the men that I worked with, sometimes it took a little bit of prodding, not gonna lie, sometimes it took a little bit of prodding, but the men that I worked with in this in this um in this collection, all of them had just incredibly vulnerable, remarkable stories.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like one of the first ones I met was um, you may remember him from the podcast.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: His name was Rob Rudowitz.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Rob kind of a, you know, definitely like a man's man.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he's a former police, acting police chief of Hartford, Connecticut.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, definitely like a manly kind of guy.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: But he shared a just a mind-blowing story about how and he shared this in his chapter, about how a motorcycle accident that he got into when he may have had a little bit too much to drink, but a motorcycle accident that he got into the you know, the test led to him uh being uh being discovered, being diagnosed with having stage four pancreatic cancer.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_03: Whoa.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: So the motorcycle accident that you know broke a few bones, I think it broke a few ribs, that absolutely saved his life.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: So there was definitely like divine intervention coming in on that.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: And that's just one example.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: The you know, the men that I worked with were just so eager to they were just so eager to open up and share what really made them tick.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I think there's really just I'm not gonna say it's lacking in this world, but I think there's a lot of stigmas and a lot of just a lot of like heaviness.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when it comes to stuff like that.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: People make fun of them, people will, you know, talk down on them.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: But those are the, you know, that is the bravery that that is the the courage and the absolute stand for humanity that I really think we need in this world.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_03: I totally agree with you.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_03: I it was incredible to hear some of their stories.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and again, uh I I recommend that everybody pick up this book and read it.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_03: And I found myself really applying some compassion to people in my life, like from history, you know, people who you just took at face value for their behavior and the way that they treated you, and realized there's so much depth to people's stories.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_03: And um it's easy to take the root of like they're just not a good person, or you know, they're difficult to be with, or you know, to categorize them as just um existing from that very macho way, but to hear a little bit more in depth, and like you said, that vulnerability of telling these very painful stories, um, or amazing stories where where things happen that were just so incredible, and being able to share so freely and easily is amazing.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_03: And I think it's so rarely done, you know, and I think it really asks us to challenge our assumptions about people and what they're really going through.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Indeed.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: Indeed.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: And just speaking totally and modestly, I feel like I feel like I have a real gift in getting that kind of um in getting that kind of vulnerability and kind of helping people really lower those walls for people to be able to see the real you through their stories.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's that, you know, just to kind of getting back to your earlier question, that is uh just a big reason why I'm so passionate about helping people find their voice and tell their story.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_03: I know speaking as a writer, that first experience of being very candid about your your story and what's happened can you know cause that what do they call that?
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_03: That vulnerability hangover.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_03: You're like, did I really just say that?
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and just breaking news to your audience, that never goes away.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: That vulnerability hangover never goes away.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: Every time, every time I release a new book, and I've released, as you said earlier, I've released four solo books.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: But every time I release a new book, I have that just what in the hell am I doing?
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm scared that people are gonna judge me from you know, from sharing this particular story, even if it's a work of fiction, which I primarily deal with, even if it's a work of fiction, if somebody just, you know, if if like the wrong person reads this and think that I wrote the character after them, uh you know, chances are I did, but just like the like the judgment that that might come over, the story, you know, that never goes away.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: But but I think the real beauty is when it's when you push through that, is when you find that courage, and when you find that drive, and when you find that determination to keep telling that story despite the fear that might be in your space.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_03: Mm-hmm.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's that purpose-driven fear, right?
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_03: That you're I I can remember talking about that with uh Laura DeFranco on the different projects that I've done with Brave Healer Productions, just that purpose-driven fear, and like you just push through it, you just go.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_03: And I think we all have these beautiful stories, and we can all learn to craft them in a special way.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_03: But I think it takes a lot of guts to get up there and be like, here it is, putting it all out there.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_03: And I think it's also against our conditioning.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_03: Like, don't you don't talk about your problems.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_03: You don't, I mean, we're we're the same age, so same generation of like, shh, don't like those are things we don't talk about, you know, we don't share with other people.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_03: And now we're like, ah, I'm just gonna share everything because it's so many of these stories are, you know, surprising and meaningful, but they're universal.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, another example from Expanding Man Chronicles was um was George Wentworth, who you may remember from the podcast was the Brazilian immigrant who got kicked out of his um you know, super religious community after he came out as gay and was homeless for a while and has really built himself up to be a success in the real estate world in New York City, which is no small feat.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, just I think seeing, but but like I told him, and I'm not betraying any confidence here, but like I told him, is that when you when you're able to speak your story to even one person, you don't know what kind of value that person is gonna take away from your story.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: They may think you're nuts, they may think you're you know, they they may think that you screwed something up, but they also may think that uh the fact that you overcame this thing makes you a complete and total badass.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and to be able to to be able to recreate their own life.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: So you know, this this work is not easy.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know this.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: This work is not easy, but it is incredibly rewarding.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_03: It is, and it it's a lot of times we're writing, and as we're writing, it's a healing process for the writer.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_03: And you're and I think it was in um Elizabeth Gilbert's uh Big Magic Creative Living Beyond Fear.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_03: She says, Don't don't write a book for other people.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_03: And she says it, of course, much more eloquently, but that you should write the book that you need for yourself, and that through doing that, people will be drawn to it, but don't set out to teach people something from like here's what you need to know, but more being authentic in your story and this is what I went through, and write it for yourself, write it to heal your own soul.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: Tony Morrison, one of my favorite quotes of hers is that write the book you want to read.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it, you know, I find that just kind of getting back to an early point that you said that so much of there's just a real kind of surface level, um, you know, kind of surface level stuff that a lot of us go through, that a lot of us try to, you know, try to, you know, combat in our daily basis.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: And when people really kind of drop that armor, and this is, you know, and it's a total process.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna lie, it's not like a it's not like a binary thing, but it's a total process.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, speaking for me, I can't I'm pretty sure I can speak for a lot of people, but I'm really only speaking for me for sure.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: But it's a but it is, you know, it's a process of learning how to be okay with yourself, I think.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: And also learning, you know, just really accepting that what you've gone through is what you've gone through.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that you know, and that it's gonna be okay.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: That it's gonna be not only that it's gonna be okay, is that somebody can take inspiration from your story of, you know, from your story of resilience and to be able to push through their own life.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_03: I think there's definitely the idea of radical self-acceptance, like I'm just going to be crazy in love with who I am and the journey I've been through and embrace it, even when it feels so cringy and uncomfortable, you know.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um I think more so for someone like you said, George, who who it it meant being his true self meant not being with people that he loved and trusted and cared about.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_03: You know, so sometimes when we're living out our truth and who we are, we're rejected by other people.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_03: And that's one of the most painful experiences on the planet to feel that rejection.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_03: But it's also so stifling to not be who you are.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: And if you think about it, the people that may reject you, you really didn't need and to begin with, you your ego may think that you needed it, that you needed, but those are not the people that are gonna lift you to, you know, that are gonna help lift you to heights that you've never been to before.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_03: Totally.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_03: Totally.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_03: I think as you get into your 40s, as we are, you know, it starts to get a little bit easier to just be like, listen, this is just who I am.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_03: And I I I'm not changing to make other people comfortable anymore.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_03: Cause I know that was one of my My mistakes in life, like really just always trying to do things to please other people, to make other people comfortable at the sacrifice of my own comfort and nervous system and whatever else it may be.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_03: And there's a lot of freedom in there.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_03: And also a lot of, you know, you're you're a pathmaker, you know, and and paving the way for people when you live in that authentic way.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_03: This is authentically, listen, it's not the Mystic Nerd Squad podcast for you know any old reason.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_03: It's because I'm a mystic nerd and I love having a squad of people around me.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_03: So like that's who I am.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_03: And for some people, it's not their vibe.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_03: And that's totally cool.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_03: Like, you're not gonna listen and be like, oh, I resonate with her.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_03: You're gonna be like, well, I don't understand.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_03: That's okay.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_03: There's podcasts for everybody, right, Ryan?
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_03: So I feel like that's okay.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_03: But for the people that it's going to resonate, and the people who need to hear that message, and for all those aspiring writers out there, they want to hear what Ryan Hall has to say about writing and healing your soul and saving the world with the words that you write.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: I could not agree more.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: I could not agree more.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, to to your point about the podcast, yes, there's there are you know, there are millions of podcasts out there that you know, so many of them are just not that good.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_03: Present party excluded.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, yeah, both of our shows.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um I mean, as I told you, you know, a couple of weeks ago, I still get people commenting on the episode that you and I did together probably back in 2021.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_03: It was 2021, yeah.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, when you spoke about you know good sleep habits and stuff like that.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: But just there, you know, there's I hate this expression, but there's more ways, there's more than one way to skin a cat.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: There's more than one way to tell a story, there's more than one way to, you know, to write a book, to write a poem, to do anything.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's more than one way, just finding your way, finding what works for you, um, is really gonna help you find that story, just to be able to to be able to, as I say in my mining for my voice, to be able to rattle the world with your message.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_03: I think one of the the greatest lessons for me has been to learn to write in my own voice and to think about what is it, what does it really sound like if I put what I say on paper so that you read it and you know it's my voice.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_03: It's coming from me.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_03: And that to me is so exciting because that means that everybody gets to have their unique way of writing.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_03: And it, and it take it took a little time for me because I was such like a good English student to break out of those molds of like the proper English and not using contractions and and all that, to then realize that oh my gosh, I just feel so much better when I'm reading something and I'm like, this is this person's voice.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_03: I've talked to them, I've heard them.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_03: Like, this is authentically them, and it's so much more fun to read.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, one of the greatest compliments anybody has ever given me to anything that I've ever written.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I do, I I it's not a regular compliment, but I have gotten this, you know, more and more as my career, you know, kind of takes off a little bit.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: I thought the con the compliment usually is I thought I was sitting, I I thought I was having a coffee with you, just having a conversation with you.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: I heard your voice saying the story to me, telling the story to me.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: And that you know, it's like Miles Davis says, sometimes it takes a lot of practice to sound like yourself.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: But when you, you know, but you know, it's like you said, when you kind of drop that need to have the, you know, the you know, the flowery language and the you know, the perfect grammar and stuff like that.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're because when you're when you're having a you know, when you're having a cocktail or when you're having a cup of coffee with somebody, are you gonna be speaking like that or are you gonna be speaking in your real voice?
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I I agree with you.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_03: So I want to pivot because I I love talking about writing, but you have the addition of being a publisher editor.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_03: So you're working on the other side of the table with people in terms of getting their voice and their work out.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_03: So what are sort of the bright sides of that work?
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_03: I know how it feels as an author to get your work published, but tell me a little bit about how that is for you being the publisher.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: That I love that question.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: When you're able to when you're able to see somebody that you're you know that you're working with have a breakthrough or have like like ultimate aha moments when they're working on their book reflecting something that you may have gone through.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, that you meaning me, of course, but like I may have gone through as I was finding my voice, as I was kind of creating my path.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: That just it it just fills me with such joy to be able to for somebody be to be able to say, hey, I had a breakthrough around how my you know how my marriage wound up just by telling the story of what happened with our divorce.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it it's stuff like that that just really lights me up.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: But also when you're you know, when you are you know, like when I'm working with somebody in like helping them craft their book.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes as a publisher, I will find I will work with a completed manuscript and help them take that from, you know, I'll do some editing and some, you know, some line edits and stuff like that.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: But but but most of the people that I work with, it's um it's a lot more of a an intense process.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: But to be able to, as you're reading, to be able to really start to see their comfort level shine through, really start to see that they're that they're not overthinking things, that they're really starting to get a lot more comfortable with the process of telling their story.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: That you know, that is why I do what I do.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: That is exactly why I do what I do.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: That is just that just joy is just such a great word for it.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: It just really fills me with joy.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I get that.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_03: I think that when you know when you figured something out and you've got the cheat codes, and then you can kind of bring other people through the experience without them, without having to go through all of the steps that you went to get to that place.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_03: I think is it feels so good.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_03: And it you just feel validated.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_03: At least I know that's how I feel.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_03: I feel validated and and like everything I went through is just all part of the journey.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: You do, you do.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: Validation, I I don't I don't do this work for that validation, but it's a nice touch.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_03: It is a nice touch, definitely.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_03: And I think when you're so good at something, and when you can really meet people where they are and bring them to the point of you know, publishing a work that's that's a forever thing.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_03: That's such a special legacy to leave.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_03: I think I feel like one of the gentlemen even said that like, I didn't write this for me, I wrote this for my kids, like that piece of legacy.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that is super special.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_03: So I want to give you some time because I know you have a lot of cool things going on.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_03: So give the listener a sense what is happening for you in your world, what's next?
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_03: How can people connect and get into your world a little bit more?
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I do want to talk a little bit about my latest book, my The Roots of Joy.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: That um that of course is available on you know little up and coming website, calledamazon.com.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: But that but um a little up and coming behemoth called Amazon.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to speak too badly about them, but you know, I'll cut.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: But long story short, the roots of joy is about the most autobiographical piece of fiction I have ever written.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um my protagonist is a man named Dale.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: My middle name is Dale, that's the D in my line.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: But he's he works for a company that sells high-end home theater equipment in a big box retail.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: And he had and he moved from the suburbs of Atlanta up to the suburbs of New York City because he wanted to restart his life after some really big challenges in his life as a younger man.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: And when he is out to dinner one night, he runs in to an old flame of his from high school.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: This hasn't happened to me yet, but this is hasn't happened.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is like a manifestation, maybe she recently uh she had to uh not spoiling too much here about the story, but she when when Dale was going through some of the worst of his stuff in high school, um she was in a military family and they had to move overseas.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um but when she came back she started a uh she started a business that has become quite successful and uh and moved to um Dale's town.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: And as they're uh and as they're kind of rekindling their relationship, Dale also finds that he's rekindling a relationship with a previous version of himself.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: Two different previous versions of himself, actually.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: I call them the flashbacks.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: The main antagonist in this is my character Dale as a 13-year-old.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_03: Oh wow, okay.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: So it's about is it's about healing your past, it's about healing your inner child, and also finding, you know, really finding that love that all of us crave.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, that sounds so good.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_03: Definitely adding that to my summer to be read pile.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um and just uh, you know, just a just kind of a caveat.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: The cover that I designed, just kind of a simple cover.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I designed it, but it's just kind of a simple cover of a tree with kind of an old school font.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: There is a there is a very heavy influence, kind of the kind of a little bit of southern gothic influence from an old hero of mine named Harper Lee, who you know, we who I got a chance to see speak in one of her rare public appearances when she when I was in college.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, just happens to both have graduated from the same alma mater, but it but that was an incredibly powerful experience.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: But it's a you know, it's a story about really finding finding joy, finding the roots of joy through through a tree that I'll just leave it at that.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_03: Hmm.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I love that intrigue.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_03: That sounds amazing.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and tell me about some of the work that you're doing now and and who is your ideal client at this point in your publishing work.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: The I well, I as I mentioned earlier, I am looking to create a second volume of the Expanding Man Chronicles.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um so if any of your listeners have a man in your life, or if you have a story, if you're a man and you have a story of overcoming, you know, obstacles of transformation, of really recreating who you are, I'd love to hear from you.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um you can just shoot me a good old-fashioned email at RoyalHartscoaching at gmail.com.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but uh I'm looking to create that.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I've got at least three um uh book projects that are in the pipeline right now.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: I've got Love Intention with um with Steve Strather.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: We're looking to launch here in July of 2024.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're um if you're watching this on delay, it's either come out yet or it's coming out in a few weeks.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um I've also got a my first Spanish translation.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't do the translation, but it was a um it was a memoir, one of the first projects I ever did.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, a memoir called A Girl from Southern Boulevard by a woman named uh Glow Favreau.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: She calls herself Coach Glow.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: She's a you know coach for women, but it's a but it's her story about growing up in the South Bronx and how she found recovery from her addictions.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's an incredibly powerful story in the Spanish translation.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: We're looking to get that out just anytime now.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just, you know, you know, had some circumstances going on with that.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but you know, the people that I'm looking to work with, I'm looking to work with people who have a story of transformation, a story of redemption to tell that they may not know how.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: They may not know how to tell their story.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and when I say tell your story, yes, most of the people that I work with are writing books.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: But do you want to get up and give a TED talk?
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: Do you wanna, you know, do you wanna, you know, tell your story in a one man or one woman um a plate?
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: Do you wanna strap a guitar around your neck and tell your story in song?
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: You've got a story to tell.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody's got a story to tell where, you know, you know, we're we're there is a you know, there is, I think, a real fear that a lot of people have of, and I mentioned it earlier, just a fear that a lot of people have of looking bad when they, you know, when their story comes out.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to tell you that there's really no need to have that fear.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_00: Your fear is valid, but you really don't need to have that fear because you can't control how people are gonna react to your story, to your, you know, to your cult, to your you know, play or poem or whatever.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_00: You you can't control that.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: You can only control your interpretation of things.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_03: You know, the energy you put towards that.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_03: I I think that's such good advice.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_03: I am super excited to to hear how things go forward and for your upcoming published works.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_03: I've got my to be red pile growing by the minute for the summer.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_03: And um, so looking forward to diving into those works.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_03: Um, we will put everything in the show notes for people to connect with you, Ryan.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I will just put a little bug in everybody's ear that behind the scenes, um, Ryan, myself, and another one of our published writer friends is working on a little something fun, but we're just gonna leave it as a full teaser there.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um, no clear details, but you should stay tuned uh to right here and on Ryan's podcast, the solar podcast, to find out more information in the coming weeks.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_00: Hashtag watch the space.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_03: Hashtag watch this space because you're gonna be excited to hear what we're up to.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_03: She twiddles her fingers.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_03: So very excited about those things.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_03: But it's always an honor to have you on the podcast.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_03: I love watching your journey, got so much uh support and excitement for the things you have coming up.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I just I love all the people that we've been able to connect with.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, not all bad things coming out of a global pandemic.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_03: I think there's so many bright sides and sunny moments that we've had.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and definitely one of those is connecting with you, Ryan, and being able to do these fun chats together.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_00: I could not agree more.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think we could, you know, as as your listeners can clearly see, we have no shortage of things to talk about in terms of storytelling, in terms of writing, in terms of, you know, in terms of healing from our story.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you know, it's just truly a privilege to connect with you again.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to have you um uh back on my podcast, um, maybe before or after the whole thing that we're working on getting together.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um so um yeah, no, it it's it's always a privilege to speak with you, Kelly.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_00: I consider you a dear friend, and I'm really uh really looking forward to seeing that who we can create um with the rest of this uh with the rest of this journey.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_03: Love it.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_03: All right, Ryan, I'm gonna let you go scratch Pete's head and give him some love and attention, as I know he definitely needs.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_03: And we will see you next time on the Mystic Nerd Podcast.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_03: And remember, stay curious.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_03: You never know where your curiosity is gonna lead you.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_03: Have a good one, everybody.