Latest / Arroe Collins Like It's Live / 25 Years Later With Matthew Bocchi Author Of Sway The Story After The 9 11 Story

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25 Years Later With Matthew Bocchi Author Of Sway The Story After The 9 11 Story · Arroe Collins Like It's Live

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So have you been there yet? Arrow.net, A-R-R-O-E.net. Don't just
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: think of one podcast. We are so far beyond that.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: It's the power of choice. 21 different podcasts for you
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: to just kind of surf through, to find your new vibe,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: to get into it, to talk about it, and maybe
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: to create your own. Arrow.net, A-R-R-O-E.net. Enjoy your exploration. Good morning, Matthew.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: How are you doing today?
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Um, well, how about yourself?
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Fantastic. And I'm so proud of you for putting a
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: book like this together. I know that there's a lot
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: of personal, Oh my God. There's a lot of personal
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: interest into it. There's also a lot of personal value
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: in the way of making sure that people get the
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: authentic story. I mean, you, you, you went more than
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: just the extra mile, but there's a lot of us
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: out here that want to have even more and even more.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: And you're providing that to us and you must be
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: hearing it inside your heart.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: I feel it in my heart for sure. Yeah. Yeah.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: How do you deal with that? Because I'm a daily writer.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: I've got all of my writing during this whole entire
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: process and thing that we went through 25 years ago.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: And I haven't dove back into it because it can
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: be very dark. What about you?
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: So it's funny because my uncle Sal gave me a
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: journal the first Christmas after 9-11 and wrote a little
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: note inside that journal and said how he had written
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: in all these journals throughout the years. And it's a
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: nice way to just, you know, look back on memories
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: and stuff like that. So when I first started writing
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: the book, I really struggled with finding my voice and
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: I struggled with tapping back into the nine-year-old voice, especially. And, uh,
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: my first draft of the book, my editor said, you
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: have to go deeper. So I was back in my
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: mom's house and, uh, I found that first journal and
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: I found the other journals that I had written in
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: as well. And when I found that first journal, I was, um,
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: you know, sad and truthfully just going through all the
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: passages and stuff like that. But it allowed me to
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: go back a little bit. And like you said, go
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: through all the writings and see all the stuff that
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: I had said and written and my feelings in those
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: moments and just my, my confusion, um, and sort of
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: revert back to that nine-year-old boy and, and put myself
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: back in his shoes.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: I got to ask you a very personal question about
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: those journals, because, I mean, I was doing a podcast
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: called The Daily Ray of Light, and I was pulling
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: from that because my goal was to get people to
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: start sharing their real honest to God story. And with
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: a moment like 9-11, we have a story that we
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: all have in common. But by God, dude, it was dark.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: I mean, and I kept saying daily ray of light.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: There's not a daily ray of light here, dude. You
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: better figure this out. How did you move through those
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: moments when you were being honest on that page? And
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: my God, it was thick with emotion. I think most importantly,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: I needed to look at the bigger picture. Yes, yes.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Because, you know, I... There's a part of me that
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: looks back and says I could have maybe censored some
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: stuff or not gone as honest with other things. And
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: there's so much emotion in the book. So I don't
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: regret it because some of the stuff that I think
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: I would have kept out of it is what saved
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: someone in reading the book. And the amount of people
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: that reached out to me, I mean, I have people
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: from my high school who reached out to me, whether
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: they were also battling with alcoholism or substance abuse or
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: some of them have been abused as well. Like I
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: had and, uh, people I never would have imagined. And
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: it showed me that this was not for me. You know,
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: this was not just for me to tell my story
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: and for me to get honest and to let it
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: all out, but it's for someone else. I didn't ever
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: expect that the book was going to do, you know,
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: become some international bestseller. Um, it far exceeded any expectation
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: I had, any expectation my publisher had. And I'm just
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: grateful for all the opportunities that it's given me. Um,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: but my goal plain and simple was to get through
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: to one person. So if one person picked up that
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: book and if they related to some piece that I
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: felt during nine 11, great. They felt some, some sort
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: of emotional connection to something I went through after nine 11,
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: even better. Um, But really, this was an outlet for
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: me to show the world that 9-11 children didn't have
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: a voice and that they didn't have a chance to
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: tell their stories. And a lot of them also struggled, too.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: And I wanted to give all of us a chance
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: to show not only ourselves, but the world that we
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: have a chance and we have a desire to show
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: our stories and share our stories with the world.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Oh, my God. You're shaking me up with emotion.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: I got the pictures of kids that were involved. I
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: saved all that stuff. And I don't know why, except
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: I kept saying it's not for me. It's not for me.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: It's not for me. It's for the future reader. It's
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: for the future family. They weren't there. They didn't experience it.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: And I think it's because nobody would talk to me
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: about Pearl Harbor. Nobody would ever talk to me about
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: the Korean War. And so when I have a book
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: like Sway here, you affect me emotionally. And the reason
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: why is because I think in a really creative way, Matthew...
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: You have become our voice, that you're saying it on
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: a page. You're doing things with your words and with
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: your experiences that the rest of us are going, mom's
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: the word, mom's the word, but Matthew said it. Yeah.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, I look back, I saw some footage
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: recently of some of the towns near where I grew
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: up and some of the kids were interviewed from those
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: towns and just, they're holding up the, the missing poster,
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: the missing families, uh, their, their, their loved ones poster. Um,
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: and you know, it breaks my heart, you know, because
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: we went around the city and we put those posters up,
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: those flyers up as well. And like, you just, you
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: just held onto that hope that someone was going to
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: call you with something, some, some sort of news or
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: they heard from him. And, uh, you know, it just,
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: it breaks your heart to look back at it.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: The book we're talking about is sway. You changed the
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: names inside this book. And I, and I understand, I
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: truly understand. Did it, did it help you as the
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: author and the story sharer in the, in the way of,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: as long as you didn't have to put the full
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: name in there, you could go deeper into the process
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: of storytelling. Yeah.
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: I changed a lot of the names to protect the
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: people as well. And some of the, some of the
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: characters are, are a combination of two people. Um, you know, there, I, I,
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: I did question why I decided to change the name
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: of the, uh, of the uncle who abused me. I mean,
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: he didn't deserve, uh, privacy. I mean, his story became
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: public when he went to prison, but, um, never my
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: name was associated with it. But I mean, like at
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: the end of the day, it wasn't for, for that either. Right.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: It just was more so to allow me to tell
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: the story without fear. Um, you know, and, uh, and, and,
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: just to let people know, like, yes, some of these
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: people are not necessarily real people. Maybe they're a combination
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: of two people, but, um, their, their, their, their identities
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: and their names are changed for a specific reason. You know,
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: there are names in the book that are factual names too, but, um, well, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: it allowed me to, to just kind of explore the
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: writing world with ease and not as much fear that
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: I had initially. Cause I did have to go through
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: and like change the names. I wrote everything original by
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: their name, you know? Um, so yes, please do not move.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back with Matthew Bocci coming up next.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: The name of the book sway. This is not a
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: Debbie Downer book. This book really is a motivational. Where
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: are we growing next kind of book? Matthew Bocci is
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: our guest. You bring up a very interesting point there.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: And I want to tell you how proud I am
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: of you to say that word fear, because you're absolutely right.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: First of all, with those journals that you've got, I
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: totally understand it. Like I said, I'm a journal writer
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: as well, but there's also listeners that are tapping in
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: right now that have got so many pages stuffed in
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: boxes and are underneath their desks, underneath their beds and
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: in the attic. And these are things that the stories
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: that will never get out, but you faced your fear
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  Speaker 2: and that takes a lot of guts. What put you
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: in the flight of that fear to where you could say, no,
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: it needs to be shared. I felt that if I didn't,
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: share the full honest story and really paint the picture correctly. Um,
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  Speaker 2: it wouldn't give people an accurate look and insight into
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: my life. Um, and it's just the, it's just the
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: way I approached it. I mean, yeah, I could have
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: gone about it in several different ways and, um, sugarcoated
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: it or, or like I said before, censored it, but
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: what good would that have done? You know, it wouldn't
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: have accurately depicted the story. And, um, And yeah, there
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: are parts of the story that are repetitive. There are
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: parts of the book that are repetitive. Well, that was
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: my life. You know, my life was this nonstop cycle.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: And so people who read my book thinking it was
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: going to be some insight into 9-11 and to all
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: these different things got a different taste. You know, they
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: realized that like this is what the children dealt with.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: You know, I mean, yes, every day was I looked
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: at this footage and it wasn't just around 9-11.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: It's November 11th. It's December.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: It's January.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: It's all the months, all the days. It didn't matter
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: when it was.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: I was looking at it. And so I wanted people
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: to understand, yes, as monotonous and as repetitive as some
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: of this might be, this was the life that I
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: was living at the time.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Did you get your hands on that People magazine that
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: put focus on it? And it was written shortly after
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: 9-11 because they did put the focus on the kids.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: And I think that was the stir of my heart
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: because as a broadcaster, we were always thinking about the moms,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: the dads, the uncles, But we never put our focus
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: on the kids until until People magazine released this article.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: And all of a sudden, my life changed, dude. I mean,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: and then to be talking with you today, it's going
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: to change even more because now I'm getting even a
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: deeper story of that article because you're here.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. And my story is just one, right? Like
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: there are, sadly, there are plenty of other, I know
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: of stories of other 9-11 children who didn't make it,
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: you know, that battle with mental health challenges, that battle
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: with substance abuse. And like, you know, they, they, they're
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: not here with us anymore. Um, and, uh, I'm extremely
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: lucky and grateful to be here to begin with, but
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: I wanted the world to know that could have been
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: my ending too.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Could there be a follow-up book in the way that
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: you would write a story about what did people do
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: to change their lives around the nation after this? Because
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: I got into martial arts because religion wasn't doing it
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: for me, and I needed to get to the core
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: of that source of darkness, and martial arts took me there. And,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: and because I could, I could have the aggression when,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: and still be forgiven at the same time, if you
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: know what I mean by that.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: Right, right, right. Um, there is a second book in
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: the works. It's not more so that, but it's, uh,
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: it is a sequel. Um, it's, it's allowing me to
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: write from the point of view that I wanted to,
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: that I tried to write from when I first started
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: writing sway, which I couldn't really accurately do because it
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: was just too much of going back to that older,
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: the younger voice, I should say. Um, so now I'm, I'm,
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: the book ends in 2016. So it's been 10 years since,
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: since the book has ended. Right. And so, uh, there's
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: a lot that has transpired and I want to continue it,
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: but continue it in a way that's methodical. And it's
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: not going to be, um, it's not going to be a, uh,
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: you know, a yearly review going through all those years, right.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: It's going to be about the fact that Although I
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: found sobriety, yeah, I had struggles in sobriety. You know,
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: I still dealt with mental health challenges. I still dealt
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: with issues around 9-11. And now I'm finally at this
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: point in my life and sobriety where I'm at peace
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: with 9-11 and my father's death and all that stuff.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: But it took me a long, long journey to get
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: to this point.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: So when you bring up sobriety, now I got to
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: bring Mark Maron into this because he speaks so openly
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: about that and God bless him for doing that. Sobriety
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: doesn't mean that the fight is over, that you've just
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: learned how to control it for the moment. How do
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: you keep the silence from taking over your gut reaction
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: when you know leadership wise that you need to be
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: somebody who is honoring sobriety and respecting it the way
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: that it needs to be?
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: I tell my wife and she understands it, but doesn't
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: fully understand it. that uh that my sorority comes before
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: her and becomes it comes before my son you um
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: you they don't get it and uh my mom same
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: thing like i've had to explain this to hers too
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: and um you know i i surround myself with people
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: who make me feel better and uh i'm still a
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: very active member of a 12-step program and i i
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: i'm in meetings pretty much when i'm not traveling four
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: days a week at least um So like you said,
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, it's one day at a time. It's, I,
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: I often say the world record for sobriety is 24 hours.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: I mean, like I wake up every morning and I
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: start my day fresh and I do the same thing
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: I did yesterday when I woke up and I read
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: the same five readings every morning and, uh, I started
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: my day off that way. And yeah, some days are
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: harder than others. Some days are better than others. And
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: I always have that reset ability whenever I need it. And, um,
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: and so, yeah, it's a, it's an endless fight and
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: it's a, it's a one day at a time fight.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: And so, I remember like in the early days of
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: sobriety thinking, oh, I can't wait to get to a year.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: And then I get to a year and someone told
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: me now the real work begins, you know, and then
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: you just, you, you get through it and, uh, and
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: it's never ending. Yeah.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: But to right sway though, did you not feel like
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: you were climbing that mountain again and you had to
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: figure out, it's like, oh crap, now I got to
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: take it down one rock at a time again. Here
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: we go.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, the two sort of played a, an
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: integral role together because they, it's almost as if like
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: when my sobriety was progressing, like you said, I had
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: to kind of peel back the layers of the onion
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: to get back to the root a little bit, um,
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: to get back to the core. And then when I did,
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: I was able to put those layers back on, you know, and, um,
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: and as time has gone by, like I've been able to, to,
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: to face this stuff, like it's easier to get back
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: to the core and, and sort of reset if I
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: need to. Um, but The writing journey itself has been
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: extremely powerful and cathartic for me.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: Now, let me ask you this question. This is a
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: writer to a writer here. And I want listeners to
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: understand that, first of all, this is not a Debbie
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Downer book. God, no, it is not. There is so
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: much that they can learn about their everyday life and
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: everyday world inside Sway. But as you're writing and you're
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: putting your manuscript together, as well as keeping those journals,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: what are you doing with the original writing? I'm putting
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: mine in the ground. I don't want anybody to have
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: any of my writing. And I know where in the
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: forest it's going to go. What are you going to
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: do with your writing? Well, I probably should do the same.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: I have the original, well, the final Word doc of
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: Sway before it was sent to be print, to go
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: to print. And I'll go on that Word doc and
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: I'll scan through it and I'll like, I wish I
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: rewrote this differently or wrote this differently. So I basically
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: pretend like it doesn't exist. And there's a lot of
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: stuff that I actually cut from the book. um, that
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: I was looking for recently. I actually, my laptop crashed
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: like five years ago and I lost everything and I
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: had stuff on an external drive, thankfully. Um, but, uh,
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: I lost a lot of material that I wrote. And
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: so maybe it was for the better. Maybe I didn't
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: need to have it anymore. Um, and so, yeah, like
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: when it comes to like the older stuff, like I just,
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: I don't know, I don't burn it, but I, by
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: all intents and purposes, I guess I kind of do. Yeah.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: Well, let me ask you this. And when you talk
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: about that, you had that struggle where things disappeared. Are,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: were you not living in a moment that you're currently
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: sharing in sway? No matter how far you fall, you
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: can always rise again. And you did. Yeah.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: I mean, it was, uh, there's nothing like having every
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: single thing on a, on a small piece of hardware
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: and realizing that in an instant it's gone. Um, So, yeah,
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: I mean, I lost this very, very I had this
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: Excel doc of all these schools that I've been in
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: contact with and had spoken to and some that I'd
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: spoken at before and I lost it. I mean, there
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: was like 500 schools on that list and I had
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: to rebuild it.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: And so.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, it's it's it's getting back up every time
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: you fall.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Let me ask you a question with your writing and
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: with Sway. I'm just trying to understand where we can
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: grow from here to keep it in the conversation. Will
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: you take your book and the times that you found
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: to be challenging, in your creative way, can you turn
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: it around and become motivational? In other words, you say,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: this is what I lived through. This is how I
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: grew from it. You can too. You may, your mountain
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: may not be as big as mine, but whatever you're facing,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: I can help you get back on your feet again.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: This is what we did. This is what you're going
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: to do.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: And that's what I, that's the message I leave and
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: impart with the kids that I speak to. They don't
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: understand 9-11. They never went through anything like that, thankfully.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: but they don't get it. And so I need to
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: relate it to them. And so the message has changed
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: for me. It changed actually last school year. I stopped
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: sharing as much regarding 9-11. I have an intro film.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: It's about five minutes long. Yep. That shows them enough
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: of it for them to understand. And, uh, and I
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: connect the talking point of the presentation to them and
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: what they're going through. And like you said, like whatever
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: struggle they're going through, um, we can always overcome them
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: and we can always get through them and move through them.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: So that's, that's the message that I leave with them. Wow.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: Where can people go to find out more about you?
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Because you're just scratching the surface here. I would love
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: to have the full embrace of what's going on and
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: have them share their love with you because you have
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: to understand that you're sharing things here. We can't talk
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: about where we don't have that confidence to talk about it.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: Um, so my website is Matthew, john botch.com. And my
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: book is accessible on Amazon, Barnes & Noble. But there's
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: a lot that they can find on the website as well.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: And so if they want to reach out to me
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: or look into any sort of booking inquiries, they can
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: go on there and find it.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: You got to come back to this show anytime in
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: the future. And I'm not talking about just on the
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: anniversary of 9-11. There's so many things that we could
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: be doing throughout the entire year to embrace where we
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: are in this present place of now. And you're a
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: leader on that. And there's just got to be more
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: than just this time that we talk.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I would love to come back. Excellent.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant today? And I hope your day
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: today with all these broadcasters has been so rewarding as
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: you change our lives. Thank you, man.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: I appreciate you having me on.