Chapter 8 – “Transformation: Leaving the World a Better Place”

In Chapter 8 of the podcast, J. Thorn discusses the importance of leaving a legacy and making a positive impact on the world by sharing knowledge and skills with others. J. reflects on the understanding that progress is not linear and emphasizes the significance of leaving the world a better place. He expresses his desire to assist people by providing hope and guidance, realizing that the roles of being a storyteller and a teacher are essentially the same.

The only thing of true value in this world is knowledge, and your greatest legacy is sharing this knowledge with others. You are the agent of change, the driver of the transformation.

Time feels slow when you’re young, and it accelerates as you age. Progress isn’t linear, nor does quantity equate to quality, two realities of life realized in the hard-earned wisdom of middle age. It’s this realization that ignites the “midlife crisis.”

You don’t like to think about the end. Who does? But death comes for all of us, so the question is, will you leave the world a better place? How do you do that?

Leaving a legacy

Here’s what I know: You can teach people to do what you do. You take your skills for granted, but others are amazed by what you can do. Using your life experience and professional skills, you can help transform the lives of others and leave a legacy.

The Writer’s Well // Episode 181 // June 24, 2020

This clip is from “The Writer’s Well” podcast episode 181, first published on June 24, 2020.

Rachael and I try to answer the question, “What will your obituary say?”

Although this is not an easy conversation to have, we discuss our legacy. We share our desire to help people, providing hope and guidance. I verbalize for the first time my realization that being a storyteller and a teacher is one in the same.

You’ll discover that knowledge is your legacy. It can’t be anything but knowledge. You have to know how to improve your life before you can help others do the same.

For thousands of years, humans have transmitted what they know through Story (capital S). Therefore, the greatest gift you can pass on, your greatest legacy, is the ability to share what you’ve learned in an interesting and compelling way. In other words, storytelling and teaching are the same thing.

Transcript:

J.: What will your obituary say? Your face just went totally blank!

Rachael: It felt blank.

J.: Oh, I told you it’s gonna be really awkward or really funny.

Rachael: I wish we were recording this so I could see my face. I don’t want to see it. What will my obituary say? This is gorgeous. I have been doing some…you know, we’ve all been thinking about death lately. I just like, up, I just updated all my password, special information page, you know, the thing that will help in case I do kick the bucket?

J.: You can really answer this a number of different ways. Like this could be aspirational, of, of like, what you, what you want your legacy to be. It could be. It could be about what you think other people, how other people perceive you.

And the way I’m tying this into the relationship is, I’m thinking about like, kids, significant others, relatives, friends, like, I think what they would say in your obituary is kind of reflective of the relationships you build. So that’s kind of where I’m going with it.

Rachael: What I think I want to answer both ways, I want to answer what I think they would say and what I want them to say. So what I think my family, anybody who was really close to me, and who was tapped to write that obituary would say.

I think that people would say that I very much enjoyed sharing what I know. Sometimes, way too much. I think that they would say Rachel added hope, to whatever was going on, because that is that is, that is something that it’s that Pollyanna, silver lining part that I was born with, that I came with, that I don’t, I cannot take any responsibility for, or any credit for, but I do always have hope.

Okay, so what I would want them to say, no matter who came in contact with her, she made them feel loved. And she made them feel seen. That is what I would want them to say I think most of all over anything, I would want them to say that I helped them have a better life or to love themselves more deeply.

J.: Nice.

Rachael: I just believe in people being heard. And I believe that I need to shut up more often. So speaking of shutting up, I want you to tell me your answer.

J.: It’s funny how similar ours are. What we said. So I, I wrote mine out because I could.

Rachael: Yeah, yes, please.

J.: J. Thorn was a professional storyteller and teacher who gained fulfillment by helping others actualize their full life potential. He loved his family, his friends, and 1980s Heavy Metal.

Rachael: Yes, I could have written that part. Lovely. Okay, so tell me more about that. Especially that first part.

J.: Yeah, I wanted to, I couldn’t separate the idea of being a storyteller and being a teacher. Those are kind of the same thing to me. I thought back to my days in the classroom, with really little kids, really big kids, everyone in between, teachers, staff that I worked with. And I was always most effective when I was telling people a story. And, you know, I taught history, mostly history and language arts. And it was the days where I would start with, “Guys, I got a story for you, you’re not gonna believe this.”

And those were the days and like, and those were like, I’ve had students come back and tell me things that they remember. And it’s, it’s never like, how smart I was, or it’s never like, wow, that assignment was great. It’s always the story.

And so I felt like, I didn’t even want to say writer, or author, because I thought that it felt too limiting. And so I think, you know, I’ve been paid to tell stories my whole life. And so I felt like, yeah, I’m a professional storyteller. Like, if I died tomorrow, I lived as a professional storyteller.

Rachael: That’s so gorgeous. And I love that. I could just see you like sitting on your desk and the school saying, “You guys are not gonna believe this.” And, and you’re still doing that, you’re doing it with your books, you’re doing it with your teaching, “Like you’re not gonna believe how well this thing works or how you can affect people. Or…” Oh my goodness.

J.: But you know, what I really had to think about was, “Why?” Because it’s one thing just to be an entertainer and just to enjoy the adoration and, there’s a certain part of you as a teacher that enjoys the attention of course, you know. But I, I was like, “But why?” You know, what is the end game? I always feel like my job… and this is why I think what you said is so similar to what I wrote. You talked about hope. And you talked about listening to people and seeing people and I think that’s my, that’s my overriding purpose too is to when I meet people to, to, like help them get to the best of whatever it is they want to be. And maybe it’s being a writer, maybe it’s being a business person, maybe it’s just being person, you know, but just helping them get there, wherever there is.

Rachael: That is so moving and so important. And I think as storytellers perhaps we all have that even if we’ve never articulated it so clearly. But we, the storytellers with the passion and the magic and the practice get to help other people find that. I’m like, covered in goosebumps. This is the most beautiful episode!

The Writer’s Well // Episode 188 // August 12, 2020

This clip is also from “The Writer’s Well,” episode 188, first published on August 12, 2020.

In it, Rachael and I try to answer the question, “What would you say to your future self?”

In this conversation, we put the present time in perspective, realizing that our most pressing matters today will be forgotten in the near future. As Bill Murray chanted in Meatballs, “It just doesn’t matter.”

You’ll discover that putting yourself into the future is not only a positive exercise, but it can manifest that exact future you desire. Once your brain can see where you want to go, it takes steps to get you there, both consciously and unconsciously. Conversely, the things that are troubling you today will be forgotten in ten years’ time. To those obstacles, you can say, “It just doesn’t matter.”

Transcript:

J.: What are you going to say to your future me? Meaning you.

Rachael: Ah, wow. That’s so amazing and also such a hard question. I know everything that I would tell to the past me. But sitting in this seat, it’s so interesting to think about looking to the future, when I will be hopefully smarter and more knowledgeable.

J.: So, it’s forcing you to consider where you might be at some point in the future and then project back to where you are now, which is a mind bender.

Rachael: Would you like to give me a time delineation, or do I have to pick it myself?

J.: Why don’t we go with 10 years?

Rachael: That’s what I was going to say too. All right, so I’ll be 58. Holy shit! Oh, my god, I’ll be 58. I’m sending a letter to future me, so future me will be receiving it from past me. And I would like to tell her some things.

I hope that you remember this day of sitting across from J. and I feel like we’re always sitting across the table from each other. I hope you remember where you were at this minute in your life, in your love, and in your career. I hope that you remember how happy you were. And I hope that you have the same amount of happiness. But I hope that there is great love in your life, hopefully with Lala, the same wife. I hope that we’re both healthy and happy. I hope that the people that I love are healthy and happy, like my sisters. And I hope that I’m still getting as much joy from what has been giving me the most joy.

We talked about this in the last episode, the connection with other writers and other people who are creative and helping them find creativity. Learning that this is my special superpower and the thing that actually fuels me. I hope that I haven’t let that go. I hope that happiness can just grow, that there would even be more. I can’t imagine more happiness than I already have in my life. But what if, what if I can? I mean, it’s grown every year since I’ve been born. And that is a lucky thing.

That is a thing that is in my chemical composition and makeup. It doesn’t have to do with depression. I’ve fought cyclical depression. But in terms of actually being happy with where I sit and what I have and what I do, I hope that that joy is even bigger and fuller. What about you? Tell me about your 59-year-old self.

J.: Yeah, you know, I, of course, had the benefit of thinking about my answer. But I started thinking about, like, “Okay, well, what was I really concerned about or focused on in 2010?” And I’m like, “I don’t know.”

Rachael: Who knows? It’s just a fluke that mine was 10 years ago. Otherwise, we don’t remember that kind of thing normally.

J.: So, I generally have an idea of what I was doing, but I don’t remember the day-to-day stresses. I don’t remember the things that were such a big concern to me 10 years ago, I can’t even remember what they were.

So, I had to tap into a little Bill Murray wisdom here, and I decided that what I would send my future me is the link to the speech from the “Meatballs” movie in 1979. In it, Bill Murray says, “It just doesn’t matter. It just doesn’t matter.” Do you remember that scene?”

Rachael: Yeah. I do!

J.: I think that’s all I’ve got to tell future me. Like, whatever, it just doesn’t matter. I get so wound up over things, and I get so concerned about stuff, and I get so worried over things, and it just doesn’t matter.

Rachael: It’s hard for me to remember my worries from six months ago. You know, I love that. It’s gonna be okay. If we’re above ground, you know?

J.: Yeah, it’s almost like we, I know I do this, and I’ve had periods of my life where my anxiety has been really bad. But it’s like, going through all these future scenarios that are probably not going to play out and ruining in your present moment because you’re thinking about that stuff. And it just doesn’t matter.

Rachael: I love that you’re gonna send yourself the link.

J.: There’s like a YouTube link or something of the speech from the movie. I’m just gonna send that link.

The Author Life // Before Episode // December 1, 2022

This clip is from “The Author Life” podcast, first published on December 1, 2022.

In this episode, I talk about personal transformation with my co-host and good friend, Jeff Elkins.

You’ll discover that it can be easier to envision your transformation when you witness it in others. But the hero’s transformation, by definition, has to start in the Dark Night of the Soul.

Transcript:

J.: All right, man, I want you to take me back to those long-gone days of the early 2020. Give me a sense that we need to go back to the previous decade, 2019-2020.

Jeff: Just go all the way back.

J.: Your face is in your hands. You guys can’t see that.

Jeff: I’ve already panicked going back to 2020. Yeah, so I, my father-in-law, died in December of 2019. We had his funeral in January. He was very much — I lost my dad like 20 years ago — so he was very much my father. So we’ve just lost my dad. And then, my wife got a new job; it was her first time working. She got it the day the lockdown started for COVID in 2020. So we’re recovering from his death, she started a new job as like, “I’m gonna get this new, like, we’re all kind of like rebuilding life, new life.”

And then the day lockdown starts, she gets incredibly sick. She is like death’s door for 10 days, which I now know was COVID. At the time, nobody’s testing, everything’s like, there’s a disease. But I was calling the hospitals like, “Should I bring her in?” And they’re like, “Do not bring her here.”

So I’m upstairs in our bedroom, like, isolating her completely from my five kids, you know. So I think that was that ended, like, she started to recover, and by the 14th of March, she was back up and around. And I was trying to figure out what… I know I’m giving specific dates because you and I talked on, I think, it was March 22. I looked at that before.

J.: Okay. Wow. Okay, I would have been impressed otherwise.

Jeff: Yeah. So I looked it up. And so I went through my emails, I was like, “When did J. and I email back and forth about when this happened?” And it was around March 20.

And so, like, all my kids or homes are being schooled in the house, in my small condo. I’m literally thinking about my life. I’m working a full-time job during the day, with two children doing school behind me because my wife got better and her job was like, “Well, you have to come in. Even though it’s a pandemic, you have to come in.” So I’m here in the house with all five children during school, working a full-time job, trying to get my own team set up with tech. And so life is just like insane.

And I’m looking at my oldest son, he was a junior in high he was about to finish his junior year in high school. We had just done all of these college visits. And I’m like, because of decisions I made early in my life, career decisions I made early in my life. I have zero college funds for him. I got no savings. I got nothing. And so I’m like the only answer to get him to college is to increase my income. That was that, which is why I had started writing novels to begin with.

But I was reflecting like, I remember before talking to you, I was looking at my Amazon page. And I’m like, I’ve got nine books, and none of them sell. I’ve got two series and people love to take the free one. But nobody reads through. I mean, the read-through rate was like, point, you know, 1% read-throughs. It’s like a crappy read-through rate. I didn’t even finish either series because they just weren’t worth it. It’s like nobody’s reading these.

So I’m sitting down like this had been my plan to pay for his college. You know, six at that time was five years ago when I’d started writing. I was like, my plan was like I’m gonna publish books and that’s gonna give me his college fund. Now I’m now staring down the barrel of a gun and there’s, there’s nothing there. And so I’m like, I either need to stop writing altogether and go work at like 711. Like, just start taking night shifts at 711. Or I need to figure out some other way to generate income around this thing. So it was a very, like before we, we talked and I started the Dialog Doctor, I was in a state of desperation. And it was like, this has to change.

At the time, I was very, I was full of self-doubt. And I really thought I had nothing to offer the community, that I had nothing to offer readers. I was like, this is the only skill I had left. I had been fired from a job, I was working a job that had put me into writing. And it was like writing is literally the only skill I have to make money. That’s what I believed about myself at the time. That wasn’t true. But that’s what I believed, was like, this is the only thing I have, and I’m not very good at it because nobody buys my books.

And you were like, you know, what can you offer to the community? Like, let’s, let’s try to turn what you’re doing. And like, let’s think about what you can do. Instead of just continuing to crank out books that don’t sell, let’s pivot. And think about like, what can you offer to the community that might generate some income that might create a business, but that also can give you a little sense of secure, like, personal identity? Which is how I remember it.

I don’t actually remember if that’s what the, you know, memory changes as you go. That’s definitely what I remember walking away from was like, okay, I’m gonna do this thing. It may generate some income. Like, it gives me an outlet for my desperation. As I’m building this business. I’m like, having these late-night conversations with my kids about like, future like, so yeah, it’s, it’s yes, sorry.

J.: No, it’s all right, man. I know.

Jeff: So it was a rough time. And like, you know, even up to Dialog Doctor it’s gonna go in for two years at the time, it’s a little over two years at the time of this recording, but two and a half years, but, uh, you know, my mother-in-law just died this year. Like, so. It was, it’s been a… yeah, all that to say, like, Dialog Doctor has been incredible, which I know, we’ll go through and talk about later.

But you know, life didn’t get any easier. Starting feels like something great is happening, but it is just the beginning of a journey. And there’s gonna be a lot to fight through. They’re like, yeah, there’s a lot. There’s a lot to fight through. You know? So yeah, it’s just a lot. So anyway, all that to say, that’s where I was in 2020.

The Author Life // After Episode // December 1, 2022

This clip is also from that December 1st, 2022 episode of “The Author Life” podcast.

In it, Jeff takes an emotional look back on his own personal transformation from being in the red each month when he launched the Dialogue Doctor, several years prior to who he is today: a successful business person with a rock-solid podcasting career who takes care of his family and himself—and loves helping people.

You’ll discover that when you take a look back as Jeff did, it’s hard to imagine you were that person. While the memory of trauma remains, you find a way to keep going, writing a new chapter in your story. The fact that you’re here means you found a way through.

Transcript:

J.: As we are recording this, you’re two, two and a half years into this new business venture that you’ve been doing, this Dialog Doctor. How are things?

Jeff: Things are really good.

J.: How so?

Jeff: You know, Dialog Doctor has paid for my son’s tuition.

J.: Wow. That’s great. I didn’t know that. Congratulations, man.

Jeff: Yeah, so it’s not a ton of money. Right? Like, he got a ton of scholarships, and he’s, you know, a brilliant kid. But currently, two years in, I pull down an average, like $2000 to $2500 a month, which is amazing. It’s great. Right? Like, I went from zero to that. I went from negative $400. Yeah.

J.: You did pay your mom back. We want to be clear on that.

Jeff: I did very well. But, so I went from, so now I, you know, it pays for his apartment and the, you know, the part of the tuition that wasn’t covered by stuff that he could cover. So, yeah, you know, in that aspect, I’m like, yes, massive success story.

I’ve done 120 podcast episodes at the date of this recording. And I’ve done over, over 50 interviews with other podcasts. So, you know, that’s a routine habit now.

I don’t know how detailed you want to get about this stuff. But I’ll just ramble, you know, you just tell me to talk and I’ll just talk. I’m sorry.

J.: I just hit record and let it go.

Jeff: It’s like, “I’ll be back in 20 minutes. Jeff will be done with his first answer.” Yeah, so no, I do have a routine now. So my podcast is kind of what I would say now is the front arm of the business. That’s where most people find me and are introduced to me.

And I have a community which I’m going to talk about in a second. And now, once a quarter, I put out to the community. “Hey, I’m gonna do I’m scheduling 15 Free episodes. First to sign up, sign up.” It takes less than a day to fill those slots. And they all sign up. And then we record all of them. And I’ve got 15 weeks, and I’m, like, good to go. And then I actually only do an editing episode every other week. So I honestly have 30 weeks. And then in the off weeks, I do fun things that I’m actually interested in.

J.: It sounds as though you just love the teaching. It sounds like you’re doing all of this as teaching, right?

Jeff: Yeah, I love working with people. And I really love… I don’t think it was teaching. I think of the podcast as coaching. And I say coaching because it’s very individualized to who I’m talking to. Right? So, you know, it’s not like I’m coming to these editing sessions with lessons. I’m coming to these editing sessions with their work and to be like, “Hey, here’s what we can do to make this better.”

J.: And here’s how I’d like to wrap up. I would like to know if you could go back and tell Jeff of 2019 one thing based on everything that’s happened since then, what would you say to him?

Jeff: That’s not fair. Um, sorry, I gotta take a second. See if I can actually get this out.

So my wife and I have adopted a saying. And it’s actually the, it’s the… “please pause while Jeff weeps.” It’s the last. It’s the last line of the novel I wrote, which is, “It’s all gonna be okay.”

J.: That’s such a, it’s so fitting on so many levels.

Jeff: Yeah, so sorry. Yeah, it’s just like, I think, sorry, part of what you did for me was, you know, we’re like, so patient, were like, “Hey, this is possible. Like, you can pull your way out of this.”

So I really like, you know, what I would say to myself is actually what you said to me, which is like, “Hey, you could do this, like, so?” Yeah, that’s, that’s what I’d say.

J.: Thanks, man. Thank you.

Jeff: Yeah. Sorry to become a mess. Yeah. “How was the guest? Oh, it was great, until Jeff started crying at the end!”

J.: No, it’s all good. I appreciate that. I appreciate you and, and I love you. And I’m, I’m really glad that you’re having this level of success.

Jeff: Yeah. Thanks, man.

Teaching Transformations // Episode 7 // May 3, 2021

This clip is from “Teaching Transformations,” episode 7, first published on May 3, 2021.

In this episode, Ryan and I discuss the value of time and trading it for money. We examine the “busy” life and how progress is never linear.

You’ll discover that you have a strange relationship with time. It’s slow when you’re young and speeds up as you get older. In the workplace, most of us exchange time for money. But it doesn’t have to be that way. One meaningful insight can be worth more than a 40-hour work week.

Busyness is not the same as purposeful, and wearing the busy badge on your sleeve only makes you appear insecure. You have to remember that time doesn’t equate to quality, and that progress isn’t linear.

Transcript:

Ryan: We’ve talked about this a bit. It’s probably been a while, but I know that a book that both of us read was “The Four-Hour Workweek” by Timothy Ferriss. And you know what, that book did for me was really make me—it reoriented me to the value of time.

And not just my own value of time, but also the way that time is valued in our society. You know, it really is how people get paid; it’s, you know, you get paid because you were here for 40 hours, not because you were productive.

Many people are productive, and some people work, especially salaried folks. I mean, and teachers, they put in hours beyond the typical eight to four or nine to five workday, but by and large, everything is structured around getting paid for time, and it sometimes has little relationship to productivity.

And that’s one of the cool things—I’m sure it comes with its own pressures—but that’s one of the cool things about your situation, is it’s really based on being productive. And sometimes that’s being smart versus just throwing hours at a project, right?

J.: Yeah, yeah. And we’ve both—we’ve both worked with, we’ve both had colleagues who wore busy as a badge of honor on their sleeve. And it always just pissed me off every time I would run into that. It would make me angry because the assumption is like, “Well, look how hard I’m working. Why aren’t you working this hard?” And you know, you can’t always say it this way, but you want to be, like, “Well, no, you’re just being stupid. You’re randomly flinging time everywhere. And you’re patting yourself on the back for that because it appears that you’re important because you’re in this chaos. You’re in this cyclone that you’ve put yourself in and you believe with that comes some sort of prestige or respect.”

And one of the things—and I’ve always known in my heart—that time doesn’t equate to quality. Like there are certain things, there are certain obvious things that, well, yeah, if you spend more time doing something, you’re gonna get better at it. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s always a direct correlation. And I think, especially now, with a lot of the technical tools that we have, if you’re working smart, you should be working less, not more.

And I think the further I get into this, like… I haven’t necessarily counted hours because it’s just not in my DNA, and it just feels trivial to me, pointless. So, I don’t even know how many hours I work. Like, I just—I don’t know, I just do what I need to do, and then I don’t, and that works. It’s been working for me for four years.

Ryan: It’s again, back to the whole time thing. It’s kind of like a foreign concept to most of us because we probably assumed stuff like that happens, but it’s just not part of our world. So that’ll take some acclimating, just to even recognize that there might be possibilities out there that look markedly different than the normal sort of exchange, time for money, that we’re all used to.

J.: It’s not linear growth, either. That’s the other thing that’s hard to wrap your head around is like, you can work on your own business for three years and feel like you’re not making any progress or you’re not earning the money that you want. And then all of a sudden, things can kind of lift, and you’re at another level, and then you plateau.

And it’s not strictly linear. And I think that’s hard to manage because you can’t predict it and you don’t know how far up, how high the hockey stick’s gonna go the next time you hit that little bump. So that’s another challenging part of this.

Writers, Ink // Episode 50 // November 2, 2020

This clip is from the “Writers, Ink” podcast, episode 50, first published on November 2, 2020.

This is a second clip from my conversation with thought leader, marketing genius, and international bestselling author, Seth Godin.

Instead of 1000 true fans as defined by Kevin Kelly, Seth and I discuss why making something for just 10 people is the best approach. Seth explains why empathy is so important, and the role of criticism in the creative process.

You’ll discover that to serve others, to teach people how to do what you’ve learned to do, you need empathy. You must be able to remember what it was like to be in their shoes, to be facing the challenges they’re facing. Once you do that, you’ll start attracting “true fans,” and it’s those true fans who will tell you what they need next.

Transcript:

J.: I remember a number of years ago when Kevin Kelly’s “1000 True Fans” was circulating. And I remember feeling intimidated by that—1000 people sounded like a lot to me. You’ve been very intentional about saying, “Make something for 10 people, and if they tell more people, then keep doing it.” So, can you talk about the smallest viable audience and maybe what that means for writers?

Seth: Yes, so in the creators’ workshop that we run, which is what inspired the book, what I told people—much to their chagrin—is that not only don’t they currently have 1000 true fans, they might not even have 10. You would know if you had 10 true fans. They would be calling you on the phone and asking when your next thing is coming up, right? Getting to 10 true fans is actually very difficult. After 10, it gets a lot easier.

How do you get a true fan, someone who will pay you upfront, someone who will go out of their way, drive across town, insist that someone come with them? You do that by having the empathy to imagine what it’s like to be them, to figure out how to do something so scary that no one’s done it before. But so important that it lines up with genre. And to be in between those two things is really hard.

J.: Certain artists or different types of creative work that you think might be a cleaner path to those first 10 true fans, or do you feel like it’s a pretty level playing field no matter what type of art you’re creating?

Seth: Oh no, it’s not a level playing field at all. If you want 10 true fans for your neurosurgery, you better be prepared for 15 long, long years of doing one thing. To get the head of the Department of Neurosurgery to be a true fan of yours, you’re going to have to write some papers and blah, blah, blah.

On the other hand, if you want a true fan in third grade, all you got to do is bring a whoopee cushion to school. And you’re in, right? Because the turnover is rapid, the taste of the audience is low, the ability for an idea to spread is high. Yeah, that’s easy.

So there’s a balance between how calcified and professional an audience is, what the upside is, because the upside of bringing a whoopee cushion to school when you’re eight years old, is you’re gonna get expelled. But it’s not that hard.

J.: And when that audience you create for doesn’t respond in the way you anticipated or hoped for, that’s criticism. How do you handle criticism? And how do you incorporate it into your creative process? Or do you?

Seth: So this is back to the idea of smallest viable audience. If people don’t get the joke, that’s not criticism. That just means you found the wrong people. Criticism is when someone who cares about you, who’s learned and maybe smart, tells you how to make it better. That’s priceless.

That’s priceless—criticism is not one-star reviews on Amazon. One-star reviews on Amazon are worthless, because all they tell you is this person’s not in my audience. The three and four-star reviews from people who have seen your previous work—pay attention to that.

So the smallest viable audience means I’m going to be generous enough to say, “This is only for a few people. The kind of person who knows who John Cage was. The kind of person who thinks Richard Serra had five good years in the middle of his career. The kind of person who is a subscriber to Carnegie Hall.” I don’t know, pick your person and ignore everybody else. You got to, as Hugh Macleod would say, ignore everybody else, because it’s only for a few people.

Because to say it’s for everyone is to let yourself off the hook. Because then, of course, everyone’s not gonna like it, and resistance will kick back in and now you can go hide again.

Podcast Summary

Let’s review what you’ve learned:

Chapter 1

In chapter one, you learned about how your core identity is formed and the role nostalgia plays in revealing that identity.

Chapter 2

In chapter two, you learned that the Call to Adventure has always been there, and that it’s never too late to listen to it.

Chapter 3

In chapter three, you learned about the pitfalls of decision making and why you can’t judge the quality of your choices based on the outcome.

Chapter 4

In chapter four, you learned that you’ll eventually face a Point of No Return for any decision, but that there’s peace of mind in making it. As much as it feels like it, no decision is ever final. If you don’t like the result, you can just make another choice.

Chapter 5

In chapter five, you learned how devastating it is to lose a parent and how at the same time it forces you to appreciate life more—and start thinking about your own legacy. Becoming truly independent forces you to come into yourself.

Chapter 6

In chapter six, you learned that finding the Reward isn’t the end of the story, and that you have to reestablish your core identity before returning home.

Chapter 7

In chapter seven, you learned that you don’t have to settle for the traditional version of retirement.

Chapter 8

In chapter eight, you learned that the only thing of value in this world is hard-earned life experience. Knowledge is cheap and everywhere. True wisdom transforms knowledge into something useful.

And you’ve also learned something else: a bit more about my journey, and how passionate I am about teaching people how to turn their wisdom into wealth — not to mention create a lifestyle that conforms to nobody else’s ideals except your own.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this author journey, and I wish you the best on your own.

Credits

Mentorship by Brian Clark, Jerod Morris, and Trudi Roth

Podcast concept by Jerod Morris

Written, narrated, and produced by J. Thorn

Editing by Miranda Weingartner and Trudi Roth

Audio editing and production by J. Thorn

“Twisted” and “RetroFuture” courtesy of Kevin MacLeod at incompetech.com

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 at creativecommons.org