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Success Stories - Ruth Heinzmann on Blogging and Email Marketing · The Daily Writer

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to episode 159 of the Smart Business Writing Podcast.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: This is a show that helps you grow your business, amplify your authority, and increase your impact through the power of writing.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks so much for joining me on this episode.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: Well, today's episode is part of a series that we're doing that's called Success Stories.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: Whenever you hear interviews that I do on this show, they're usually with people who have built a successful business of some kind.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: Usually they've been building their business a long time.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: And those interviews are an important part of the show, but I also want to come at it from a different angle and showcase people who are in the building stages of their business and their writing.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: These are people who are figuring things out, they're taking action and they're getting some important wins along the way.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: I know what it's like to listen to interviews on podcasts with highly successful people and sometimes feel a little bit deflated because their success seems so far out of reach from where I'm at.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why I've started this series.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's to help you see that no matter where you're starting, you can be more successful if you just take action.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: Also, I work on the principle that you can learn from anybody.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: Even if you've been writing for a long time or you already have a successful business, there's always things you can learn from people in the beginning stages of their writing or their business journey.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: Or in other words, us old fogies just might learn something from those young whippersnappers.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well, on today's episode, we'll hear from my friend, Ruth Heinzmann, who is a writer, a hospice volunteer coordinator, and a student pursuing a master's degree in spiritual formation at Lincoln Christian University in Lincoln, Illinois.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: And by the way, Lincoln Christian University is also where I got both of my master's degrees.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: So yay, Lincoln.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: That's an awesome place.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: Ruth writes at her blog, which is outtofisfulness.com, where you can also sign up to receive her weekly treasure hunt Tuesday emails, which are really phenomenal.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: Ruth's goal in writing is to share encouragement and blessings that God provides out of his fullness in the midst of every season and circumstance.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: In our conversation, Ruth shares how she started building an audience for her blog and she talks about where she gets ideas for posts and how she shares them.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: Ruth also talks about her writing tools as well as her experience with Convert Kit, which is the email marketing service that I happen to use as well.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: After the conversation, make sure and check out the show notes at KentSanders.net slash one five nine.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: All right, let's get to the conversation with Ruth Heinsman.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Ruth, thanks for being on the podcast today.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I've been excited about this for a while and I'm really looking forward to our conversation.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: So thanks.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Kent.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate you asking me about this.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: So you have the honor of being the second person in my success stories series.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm really glad that you were able to do this.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm excited about digging into a few questions related to your writing and your platform.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: So your your site is called Out of His Fullness.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: This is um a Christian site for people of faith.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I love what you're doing.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: You just, you're such a great writer and your heart really comes through in your writing.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: But let's let's dig into that for a second.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: How did you first build an audience for your blog?
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like take us back to the beginning days of this process.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, um, I don't even know if I would call it building an audience.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: It was just one of those kind of things that I felt compelled to do.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'd had it on my heart for a while.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: And uh the verse that kept coming back to me was from John chapter one, verse 16.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, whenever I was trying to start a blog, I had on blog spot and was searching for domain names, and like from the fullness of his grace was already taken, um, and grace upon grace, things like that from that verse that I wanted to use.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I started looking it up in different versions, and I ended up falling in love with the amplified translation from John 1.16.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: And it said, For out of his fullness, the superabundance of his grace and truth, we have all received grace upon grace, spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing, favor upon favor, and gift heaped upon gift.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I took that line that out of his fullness and was able to use that for my domain at the time on Blog Spot, and now it's on WordPress.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but really my heart was just to look for and remember and see and share how God is always providing out of his fullness, even in difficult times, even in mundane times.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it just was a place for me to process and also share what I was learning and hope it can be an encouragement to others with what was encouraging me to me at the time.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's it's funny, and I'm glad I asked this question.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: I I didn't realize that that's where you came up with that theme.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: And it is interesting because everything that you produce does seem to be I was gonna say seems to be very carefully framed with that theme.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if that's the right word I'm looking for, but but it does go with that.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you really do a great job with sticking with that theme of God provides for us, um, the themes of grace and beauty and I don't know how intentional all that is, but but it really all it's like you keep hitting on the same themes over and over and over again in your writing, which I guess all of us do.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: But uh yeah, it it's really, really great.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: So I definitely appreciate what you're doing.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I actually started it around the time that my husband was diagnosed with cancer.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: It had already been on my heart, and then it was kind of like, oh, I have to do this.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: I need to remind myself.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: And really, um, I talk about it a lot, but Ann Boss Camp's book, 1000 gifts, was a big inspiration behind that desire to just look for God's gifts, give thanks for God's gifts, and how that doesn't just help us survive and doesn't just help us get through, but it brings us joy, even in the midst of whatever else is going on, because God's presence is with us even now.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: And we can see that and notice that.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: And that doesn't mean that we don't struggle, and that doesn't mean we don't have heartache and difficulties, but we also still have the presence of God.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: And when we look for ways he's providing, and when we give thanks for ways he's providing, that gives us peace and comfort even in the midst of other kinds of emotions as well.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that's that's a really, really relevant message.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: So as we're recording this, you know, people are freaked out about the coronavirus, and you know, a lot of people are upset.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's an election year here in the US.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: So there's lots of things that are on people's minds that are causing anxiety.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: Something you said really struck me.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's that it's not about just getting through stuff, but it's about how these things can actually bring us joy, which is a really counterintuitive message.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: But man, that's such an important one.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I needed to hear that today.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: So that's great.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: It really, really is great.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: How do you find that that those things can bring us joy?
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like what what kind of a mindset do we need to have, or what do we need to open ourselves up to to get a sense of joy from trials and discouragements?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I really just think it's kind of what I've been mentioning already, just about how God's presence is with us.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so even though we might only see little glimpses of it, it's actually an encouragement to our heart that there's more beyond what we can see too.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I might notice the sunset this evening, or I might notice how someone um spoke a word of encouragement to me, or I might notice just uh something somebody shared on Facebook that encouraged my heart, or a scripture verse I happen to read.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I see those little things that they remind me of the big truth.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: And the big truth is that that God's with me.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's just kind of the tip of the iceberg, what I can see, but there's more beyond what I can see that I can have comfort and encouragement and joy from.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: So you know, I literally woke up this morning that there were two things that were really causing me a lot of anxiety this morning when I woke up.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: Two situations that are unresolved, and it's not not family stuff, it's two two things in my business that I'm like, I wish I could get an answer on these two things, and I wish these two things were I I had more clarity about these specific things.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I drove to work in this morning and was just so anxious and so uptight about those things.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: But but you saying that just now, that really that really helps me a lot.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I'd I appreciate you sharing that.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: And everybody who's listening to this can relate to that for sure.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: They've got things in their minds, things that they're stressed about.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: But man, you're you're in God's hands, so we don't have to worry about it.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: That's good stuff.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: That's really good stuff.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, let's talk about it.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'm sorry, go ahead.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, go ahead.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: No, it just made me think this verse came up in my Facebook memories, and I happened to share it today, and maybe I'll put it in one of my emails coming up later because it to me it was kind of cool that I had two years in a row where I had written something of similar content and it showed up on Facebook.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: But the verse that it made me think of just as you were talking is from Isaiah 33, 6.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it says, He is your constant source of stability, he abundantly provides safety and great wisdom.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: He gives all this to those who fear him.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: And what a timely message for today, from the things you were talking about with all the uncertainty.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and but we have that stability and strength in him.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then the year before, I had shared lyrics from an old song from Watermark, who is Christy and Nathan Knuckles.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: And the lyrics were you are the constant one when my life is overwhelmed, and you stay the same when all around is changing.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: And oh, how good it is just to know the life you give and my song shall ever be that my God is faithful.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: And those are the kinds of things that bring encouragement to me whenever it can feel like everything else is going crazy, but I have a source of constancy, I have a source of faithfulness, and he's never gonna fail.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: And whatever else can fall away, he's gonna stand firm.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so those are the kinds of things that that bring me encouragement day to day, and I just want to share them.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, that's great.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's great.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: So let's dig into a little bit about the practicalities of your blog and where you're sharing material and so forth.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: So you send out uh an email to your subscribers every Tuesday.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: Is there someplace else that that goes?
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: That also is a blog post, correct?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: And then does it go somewhere else?
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't always put them on my blog, and I'm thinking I need to go back and do them.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: But that's just kind of been a time constraint kind of thing that I thought, well, if I do this as an email, I don't have as much formatting, I don't have as much to figure out title-wise.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm thinking in the future, I do want to go back and make a page that maybe is just treasure hunt Tuesday emails with kind of some kind of notice that these were written like in real time more as uh this was kind of a this week thing, and some of the material may be outdated by the time you'd read it if you would come across it later.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um kind of thing.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: But but I have not done that yet.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um there's always something more to do.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you mentioning that because that promised me that it would be a good thing to eventually go back and do.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but right now I'm at least sending, I call it treasure hunt Tuesday.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Mostly it was something that came up a little over a year ago, kind of as a New Year's experiment kind of thing, um, because I'd had a blog for quite a while and I was not very consistent at writing, and I wanted to be more consistent at writing, and somehow blog posts would never get finished.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so I had listened to a podcast uh with Annie Up Downs, and I think Ellie Holcomb was the guest she had, and she was talking about a season of her life, and she said, I really want this next year to be like a treasure hunt.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be looking for God and everything.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought that goes exactly with what I'm wanting to do.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm always wanting to be mindful of looking for God.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe I'll just call it like treasure hunts.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so then I put the Tuesday after it to give myself a deadline, to give myself um that extra prompting to write something and finish it, to pay attention to what God's doing, to share it, to let it be an encouragement, hopefully to others, and maybe hopefully inspire other people to do the same kinds of things where they're looking for God in the day-to-day.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I started doing that a little over a year ago and I've actually kept it up.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I've transitioned it from always being on my blog to sometimes being just an email that goes out to my subscribers.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I have a few friends and things that that subscribe to that, so I can share share it with them through the email.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: But anybody's welcome to sign up for those.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think you've done something very smart in sending these emails out on Tuesdays.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: So um I'm trying to think when this interview was.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: This has been a couple months ago, I think.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: I had a friend of mine named Kamanzi Constable on the podcast, and he was talking about writing for large publications.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: I don't remember if he mentioned this on the interview itself or uh if he just told me this afterwards or before.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: But he mentioned that the best time to pitch editors at large publications was on Tuesdays because uh people don't want to look at their email on Mondays, they're swamped with stuff by the time Thursday and Friday get here.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: People they're wanting to check out for the weekend.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: So Tuesdays and Wednesdays are kind of that sweet spot.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: So you've done a great job choosing a good day to send those out.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: I send mine out on Sunday morning, which is probably the worst time, and I probably should to take a page from your playbook and do that a different time of the week.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I always enjoy your emails too.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: I I like getting those.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, thanks.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, let's talk about your writing tools.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: So when you're writing your emails, now I know that you use convert kit, correct?
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: Correct.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: Do you write in convert kit in the app itself, or do you write somewhere else and then paste that into convert kit, or how does that work?
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: Most of the time with convert kit, I will go ahead and write on there.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, of course, I'll have notes either on my phone in the notes app, or occasionally I'll do something in Word and move it over.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: But most of the time with Convert Kit, its format is simple and user-friendly enough that I just go ahead and um write it straight from the um convert kit page.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: I do the same thing.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: So whew, I'm glad to hear that somebody else does the same thing.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: But that way I'm not crazy.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it it saves things.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, sometimes I over um hit the save button just to make sure if I've been writing something.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure it doesn't disappear on me.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: So as I mentioned, of course, I use Convert Kit too.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: What has been your experience getting involved with Convert Kit and using that particular service for sending emails to your subscribers as opposed to maybe something like MailChimp or some other kind of thing?
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like, have you had a good experience with Convert Kit or have there been any problems of any kind?
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I really have enjoyed Convert Kit, and it was the first thing I had tried just from kind of asking around.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I know I talked with you, and there were a few other groups on Facebook that recommended it as well.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, you know, if I'm gonna do this, I'd rather just learn one thing that's gonna sustain and grow with me, hopefully, you know, or however it is, it's still very user-friendly, it's very easy to figure out, and I'm not a great tech person.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: So that's been really nice for me to not have to worry about, oh, how do I figure this out?
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Everything seems to be pretty intuitive.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I'm able to see where things go and all the stats that go with it and everything, and make sure that it's working correctly, like it's supposed to, um, the way that it has where you can test and preview and all of that kind of stuff to make sure your links are working correctly and stuff like that.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: So it's super handy.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: I've enjoyed it.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: What do you what would you say that your long-term goals are for your writing?
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like when you look down the road three years, maybe five years, I know that's a long time frame, but is there anything in your heart that you are really working toward or that you would like to see accomplished through your writing?
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, I'm really not sure.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I have thought about it and I I don't really know.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm getting uh working on my master's degree in spiritual formation right now.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so things are pretty busy, but I do feel like it's very worthwhile to take time and write, to remember what I'm learning, to remember what God's showing me, to share it with other people, hopefully be an encouragement.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so for right now, I'm kind of just trying to do the day-by-day kind of things and see what happens and see where God leads.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: What is um do you have any advice for people who are just getting started with a blog or with their writing?
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like things that that you have had to learn and overcome to be so consistent, or things maybe that you wish somebody had told you whenever you were starting out.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think that consistency is a big thing because eventually you do get in a habit of writing in it.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um I wouldn't say that it necessarily gets easier because I'm one that always is has a tendency to over-edit or over try to fix things and things like that, and it can be a time consuming thing, but eventually you do get used to doing it where you you don't think about not doing it anymore.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I think honestly, for probably the first six months of doing the treasure hunt Tuesday thing, I probably every week tried to talk myself out of it.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: I would be I I my I would maybe start in a Word document or something, and the first part of it would be, Lord, do you really want me to do this?
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: Is there anything that you want to say through me?
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: Is it worth this much time, you know?
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, will anybody read it?
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, those kinds of things.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I I don't know, I just continually felt God was was leading me that direction.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: And by the time fall got here and I was starting school and working on my master's degree, when I had less time to write, and you would think, okay, now I'm probably not gonna be very consistent with it.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: By the time it got to that point, I was in the habit of it.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't really think about skipping a week, you know, of doing it, um, or at least skipping more than one week, you know, if I had something in particular.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: But even when I've had papers I was working on and and things like that, it's like, oh, I still want to write, oh, I still want to remember what God's teaching me, I still want to share it with others.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I want to hopefully be an encouragement to somebody, even whenever I don't have a lot of time to spend on it.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I still do want to take that time because it's worthwhile time.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: I do want to plant the idea in your mind of writing a book because you're writing these emails every week, you're writing tons of stuff for your your uh master's work.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, think of all the stuff you're writing already for that.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: So you can do it.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: I know for most people a book feels intimidating to a degree, but you absolutely can do it.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: So and you're a really talented writer as well.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: So so I really hope that you consider Yeah, I'd love to love to hold your hold your book in my hands, you know, in a couple of years and see that published and and uh and all that.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I think long term, way down the road, I would envision that.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: Right now it's a little bit hard because I can be overwhelmed by a 20-page paper for uh school, but um I think eventually putting some things together would be would be nice to pursue.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: And one thing that you can do, and something I'm I actually do now with my solo podcast episodes is I am working on a book.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure what it's gonna be called, but it's gonna be something along along the lines of helping people to write in a smarter way.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if it'll be called smart business writing.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: I don't I think it's a good podcast title, but I don't know that it's a great book title.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: But anyway, so I'm reverse engineering that and uh uh basically I know what the content that's gonna be in the book, so I'm using that on my podcast, so I'm kind of creating it as I go along.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: So that is something you can uh do is kind of reverse engineer what you want in the book and then just week by week create that content in your newsletter, and then you already are creating it as you go along.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, there's tons and tons of ways to do it, but but yeah, you're you're such a uh talented writer, so I'd love to see some more.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'd love to see some books and other other formats for that as well.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think about Emily P.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: Freeman, her The Next Right Thing podcast.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: She at first thought it was going to be a book and then it didn't seem to come out as a book, and it became a podcast, and then down the road it became a book.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and she was able to get All of those different formats out there to reach more people with that same kind of message.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: So that is so ironic that you mention her.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like, uh, I mean, that's that is so strange because I just tagged her on social media just a couple hours ago.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: I listened to uh the latest episode of the Hope Writers podcast, which is really, really good.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: And so I just tagged her, and I don't think I've ever tagged her in anything before, but I was like, hey, this is really, really good.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: So um I've got to check out her her other podcast and her book.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: That sounds great.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: I tag her in all the things.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: Emily P.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: Freeman's one of my favorite writers to read.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: I I read her blog from since it was called Chatting at the Sky before it was her name, even.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: But she always had that, she wanted to create space for your soul to breathe.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that's always resonated with me that as she would write, she wants to create that space for our souls to breathe, to be in recognition of the presence of God and just um be at rest in his presence.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's cool.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's really cool.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: Huh.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's interesting the way people are connected and tied together.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it is.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: It is.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's one of the neat things about the internet.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: With all the challenges the internet brings, there are really neat connections that can come together that like I followed a rabbit trail and this person was sharing about this person, and then I started reading um their writing and got connected with them.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I think that's kind of a neat thing.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, totally, totally.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Ruth, this is a good thing.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't think about that with you because like Rick Champ shared your stuff, and then I started reading your stuff, and we got connected online, you know, and it just kind of went from there.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of neat.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, what what a great guy.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: He uh impacted so many people.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was hard for me.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: Now, for those who who are listening to this who aren't connected with my day job world, I teach at St.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: Louis Christian College in Florescent, Missouri, and Rick Champ was our director of development.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, I think his title was director of of advancement.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: And was the kind of guy that literally I could not go to a church within a 200-mile radius and people didn't know him.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I don't know why he got the it was almost like a supernatural ability to connect with people and absolutely and really and uh there's not many people I come across that I think they have literally a almost like a supernatural ability to make you feel so valued and so listened to, like you're the most important person in the world.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: I wish I had that gift, I just don't, I guess.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: But he was so good at making people just feel valued.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: And uh yeah, we really miss him here a lot.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: What a great guy.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right, yeah.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Ruth, this has been a blast.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: I so appreciate you taking time to do the show and um appreciate your writing and what you're doing to connect with people and to help help them to be pointed to God.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: So you're doing something really valuable, and I appreciate it.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you, Kent, and I really appreciate your encouragement that you've given me along the way too.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it really has meant a lot to me, and and I appreciate you asking me to be on your show.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: Now, one final question: how can people connect with you and your work?
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, my website is out of his fullness.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: That has two L's.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's just all written out outofhisfullness.com.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um on Facebook, it's just my name, Ruth Heinzman, Twitter and Instagram.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's Rheinz22.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, never did kind of change that to anything more.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's all good.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: Easy as far as a name, but um, and then on my outofhisfullness.com, there's a little form at the bottom of the website, and you can sign up if you want to get the treasure hunt Tuesday emails, then I send those out usually on Tuesday mornings.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: Cool.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: Very cool.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: Well, all right, thanks again for doing this, and um thank you.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: This will come out later this month, and can't wait to share it.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Ruth.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: She has really done some cool things uh the last year or two with her writing, and I'm so proud of her accomplishments and her achievements.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: I know it's inspiring to me, and I hope that it's inspired you as well.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I want to thank Ruth for sharing her time with us and her wisdom and inspiring us as well with her taking action and her progress.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: And thank you for listening as well.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: I know I say that every episode, but man, I just appreciate the fact that you're listening to the show and supporting it.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: As always, remember that you can find lots more resources for writers and creative stuff at CatSanders.net.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: Until next time, remember that your writing has the power to change people's lives.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'll see you in the next episode.