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Transcript

Never Forget Your Roots · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Rider Podcast, where we bring you tips and inspiration each day to help you build habits for writing success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: For more resources, including your free Daily Rider Starter Kit, visit Daily RiderLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: We're doing a short series on perspectives that go against conventional wisdom.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're just not joining us for this short series, I encourage you to go back and catch the last few entries in this series.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Back when I was a kid in the 1980s, I listened to a lot of Christian music.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: My favorite album during that period was one called The Big Picture by an artist named Michael W.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Smith.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: One of the best songs on that album was titled Pursuit of the Dream, and that song contained one of my favorite lyrics ever, and he sang, Never forget your roots as you head for something new.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: And that lyric has stuck with me for decades as I have gone through various periods of my life and made a lot of changes.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's particularly stuck with me over the last year since I quit my job as a college professor and have become a full-time ghostwriter and author.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: I've gotten a little bit of attention from people in my network because I've released a few books over the last year, I've built a successful business from scratch, and I also have my first book coming out next month with the traditional New York publisher.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that is a book I co-wrote with Billy Stanley, who is Elvis's stepbrother.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's called The Faith of Elvis, and it comes out with Thomas Nelson, which is a division of HarperCollins.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: So that to me was a very exciting thing, and it would be an exciting thing for any writer.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I've had these things happen, and yes, I'm proud of my accomplishments from the last couple of years.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: But the honest to God truth is that I had a lot of help getting here, and I will continue to need a lot of help as I go forward.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: None of these good things would have happened without the support of my amazing wife and son and mentors like Honore Corter, Dan Miller, Nick Pavlitis, and my goodness, dozens and even hundreds of people in my network, and friends and professional colleagues, and just so many people who have helped me in big and small ways along the way.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I guess when I look at all this, at the end of the day, I'm just a kid from a small southern Missouri town called Potosi.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's about a 90-minute drive south of St.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Louis.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And in that small town, I grew up about five miles out in the country.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: I lived in a double-wide trailer my whole life.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: And most people would consider that kind of a humble upbringing.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: But honestly, I had the good fortune of having amazing parents.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: I had a lot of good teachers, and the good fortune of also having a lot of people who have helped me along the way.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I guess this is what my point is for this episode.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever level of success you achieve in your life or business, don't ever forget where you came from.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: We were all born the same way, and we're all going to leave this life one day.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: So keep your success in perspective and remember that it's all pretty pointless if you don't use your success to serve people and help them.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: So here's today's question How did your roots shape you into the person who you are today?
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, and I'll see you tomorrow.