Carlos Whittaker, ENTER WILD
[0:08]Hi, I'm Zivi Owens, and you're listening to the award-winning podcast,
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[0:46]Karluks Whitaker is the author of three books, Moment Maker. You can live your life or it will
[0:51]leave you, kill the spider, and most recently enter wild, exchange a wild and mundane
[0:57]faith for life with an uncontainable god. Karluks' wife calls him a hope dealer. He's a
[1:02]people's choice award winner who is a former recording artist assigned to a major label,
[1:07]a social media maven. And now he spends some joy this time writing books and speaking on
[1:12]stages around the world. He did a viral video called Singles Ladies Devastation with his family
[1:19]that got millions and millions of views and apparently was accidental, but there you have it.
[1:24]He had a recording deal with integrity music and lived in Nashville, Tennessee, but then decided
[1:30]to move more into being what he calls a hope dealer and writing books instead of singing on stage,
[1:36]which he says is maybe a little backwards, but let's hear what he has to say about it to us.
[1:40]Welcome, Karluks. Thanks so much for coming on momstone. Have time to read books.
[1:44]Oh, Zibi, thanks so much. Is there a dad's don't have time to read books podcast or do I need
[1:49]to start that one too? You might need to start it. Okay, because I'm the same way and I'm like,
[1:55]I love the name of this podcast. I was so excited when I saw it. Oh, thank you so much. Yes,
[1:59]there's been a lot of debate because obviously these conversations aren't just for moms,
[2:03]but I feel like they do a service because we all are so busy as parents, so it should not
[2:08]exclude dads at all. No, no, so busy, so busy. We've got three kids. They're old teenagers now,
[2:15]but it doesn't get any less crazy. And I watched, this is from so long ago, but your viral video
[2:21]of a young one who was crying when he couldn't be a single lady. Yes, he is 14 years old now,
[2:28]and that video haunts him. It's so funny because we actually won a People's Choice Award
[2:34]for viral video of the year, and he keeps that trophy. We let him have it because he's
[2:38]one that cried in his room as a door stopper. It's on the floor. His People's Choice Award,
[2:43]so it's pretty funny. I mean, the best part is you're saying that I'm the worst dad ever because,
[2:47]of course, I feel like that as a mom 50 times a day. Yeah, I love it. I love it.
[2:54]So you have had such an interesting career. You started as a musician. You changed into
[3:00]an author, a speaker. You've had such an interesting journey, even on your website,
[3:05]said how it's like so backwards. Most people want to become a musician and you gave up your big
[3:10]deal to do this. So tell me about that. Yeah, I did. I signed a record deal with Sony
[3:17]Providence and moved to Nashville, moved my family to Nashville, and started touring and did the whole
[3:21]tour thing. I mean, I was on some big tours in front of 30,000 people at night. It was
[3:28]working. It was clicking, but I'll tell you what, Zibi. You know, sometimes when you're doing
[3:33]something that's working, but still in your heart of hearts, you know that it's not what you're
[3:38]supposed to be doing. So I try to tell people at the time that just because it's working doesn't
[3:43]mean it's right. And for me, I had, I've been growing this online platform a blog. I don't know
[3:50]people remember what those things are, but I've been riding on this blog for about a decade.
[3:55]And I had all these people reading my books. I was using reading my blogs. And my wife just kept
[4:01]telling me, Carlos, like you're a great singer, but you're a really, really, really great writer.
[4:06]And I said, really, and then I had more and more friends kind of express that same thought to me.
[4:11]And you know, I just kind of, I mean, it was a, it was a really scary moment. The moment that I
[4:16]switched kind of change careers, I just been praying about it. And I felt like God was like,
[4:21]yep, you're supposed to do this. So I went to my laptop and I canceled, I think it was 87
[4:26]music dates for the rest of the year. I said, but in the email, I said, it's so, I feel like I'm
[4:31]supposed to be a speaker now and an author. So if you want a speaker to come to your event, instead
[4:35]of, instead of me singing, I'd love to do that. Well, of course, 87 out of 87 events all email me
[4:41]back. And they were like, I mean, we're so proud of you. That's a great big step, but we don't need
[4:45]you to come be a speaker. So all this to say long story short, 14 days after I sent this email
[4:51]and I'm freaking out, nobody's booking me to be a speaker. Nobody wants me to write a book. I'm
[4:55]sending book proposals. They're just getting shut down left and right. I get one email in my booking
[4:59]email. And it was from the White House. And I thought it was spam. And so I hit delete. And then
[5:06]my publicist called me like 20 minutes after I deleted the email. And she's just like, they know
[5:11]you deleted the email. And I was like, who are you talking about? She said, the White House,
[5:15]go look at your email. So I opened my inbox or my deleted folders. And it said, the White House would
[5:19]like to invite you to be the keynote speaker at President Obama's Easter prayer breakfast next Tuesday.
[5:25]So my very first speaking gig ever was at the White House for the President of the United States.
[5:31]I've never been more nervous in my entire life to give a 10 minute talk, but it's all,
[5:35]it's been downhill from since then. Like I just don't get nervous anymore. So that was kind of
[5:39]of the beginning of my speaking career, that was 2015. And I just, I love it. I love to kind of be
[5:44]a hope dealer. And you know, I do a lot of corporate events. I do a lot of kind of motivational events.
[5:49]I do a lot of church events. And yeah, I just feel like, you know, people are especially right now
[5:53]in this season are just desperate for hope. And so I do that through my Instagram. I do that through
[5:58]my my books. I do that through when I'm speaking on stages. Whatever it may be, I'm just trying to
[6:02]constantly be hoped for people. So what did what were the key messages you gave at the Obama
[6:07]Easter service? What, what were some of the takeaways of that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, when I was
[6:13]there, I just remember saying that, you know, getting up on stage and I had practiced to 10 minutes
[6:19]like sermon, right? 10 minute little vignette. And I think I got done in two and a half minutes.
[6:25]Yeah. Well, as it was, but I definitely said, you know, I looked at every, there were all these
[6:29]dignitaries in the room. And I just said, you know, we can put all the policies in place
[6:33]that we can. And all the policies will be great. And they'll be beneficial, but nothing is going
[6:38]to change our country unless we change our hearts. And that was really my message to the people
[6:43]that were in there. And you know, it's, you know, I think that what I said in 2015 to President
[6:47]Obama is the same thing I would see right now in 2020. June of 2020 is, you know, policies
[6:52]can be changed by protests. And I'm a big, I've already been to like three protests already,
[6:57]but communities are going to change by conversations. And those conversations are going to change
[7:01]hearts. And so yeah, you know, the message is still the same just looks a little different.
[7:05]And I saw that your connection with your neighbor has, has made headlines everywhere during this
[7:09]time. No, I know the video go viral a couple days ago. And I think we're at, you know,
[7:15]combined views of a couple different social media outlets, like two and a half million views
[7:20]where I guess it's the whole thing. The whole conversation has changed communities. I had a
[7:24]neighbor of mine who I've lived here for four years and I've tried to say hi to him.
[7:29]I've tried to, you know, wave at him. If he's mowing his grass, I'm like, very, you know,
[7:34]like, hey, nothing. It's the only neighbor that has never said a word to me. So honestly, like,
[7:40]I started to build a bias in my heart. I started to build the narrative in my head as to like,
[7:44]well, he doesn't like me. I live in a, you know, white suburban national neighborhood. And I
[7:48]don't look like everybody else. And so I just kind of assumed that it's old white guy didn't
[7:52]like me because the way I looked. And, and then I saw him Zibi walk out a couple days ago
[7:58]with a can of paint and a paintbrush. And he's got these two porcelain bunnies in his front
[8:02]yard. And he kneels down in front of one of the bunnies and he just starts painting it black.
[8:06]And I remember my jaw kind of dropped and I was like, is he really painting one of the bunnies
[8:11]black? I mean, this was, it was like like ground shifting for me. And so yeah, he painted one
[8:16]black. He left the other one white and walked back in his house. And I tried to come up all day
[8:21]long with all the different reasons why he did that that wasn't the most obvious reason in this
[8:27]current climate that we're in. And so I said, you know, with the next time I'm going to go,
[8:30]next time I see him, I'm going to walk across the street and I'm going to ask him. So I saw him
[8:34]the next morning. And I walked across the street and I'm like, and I recorded the whole thing
[8:38]because I was going to show my wife. And I walked across the street. He got the biggest grin on his face.
[8:43]And I'm like, oh, this is all it took. All it took was me walking across the street for this
[8:46]guy to smile at me. And I just said, hey, sir, why did you paint that bunny black? And he just said
[8:52]with the current climate in in our country, he said, you know, I'm 78 years old. I can't go
[8:58]protests. I don't want to get sick. He said that this is my small way of saying that I believe
[9:03]that black lives matter. He's like, so black black bunnies black bunnies matter. And he said,
[9:08]and I painted the big bunny, there's a bigger bunny and a little bunny, the big bunny black
[9:12]because George Floyd was six foot six. And so I didn't want to paint the little bunny black.
[9:16]I want to paint the big bunny black. So all that to say I recorded it. And the second he started
[9:21]telling me this, I knew, oh, I'm not just going to show this to my wife. I've got to. So at the
[9:25]end of my conversation, I said, hey, I've been recording this. You didn't know. But I've been
[9:29]recording the whole conversation. Would you mind if I put this on my social media? And he was like,
[9:34]no, that's totally fine. So I put some music to it. I edited it a little bit. And I put it on
[9:38]on socials. And it just kind of took off. And you know, I've been on, we've been on access Hollywood,
[9:42]all the news stations. And it's been fun to watch. Again, just a little bit of hope spring out of
[9:49]this really dark season that way. That's amazing to make connections like that. Oh my gosh.
[9:54]And your book in and of itself. And I know this is your third book, which has such great advice.
[10:00]which personal narratives about your own battles
[10:03]with especially anxiety and panic attacks
[10:05]and how you got through it and how you have turned to God
[10:10]in the Bible and all these practices that you've adopted
[10:12]to help yourself through.
[10:13]And I am like any advice on anxiety,
[10:16]I will take it, I don't care what it is
[10:18]if you want me to read the Bible,
[10:20]that is what I will do.
[10:21]In your book, you said I'm a prisoner in my own head
[10:25]and I feel like so many people can relate to that feeling.
[10:27]Anybody who's ever dealt with anxiety or depression
[10:30]or anything.
[10:31]So tell me a little about how your whole suite of offerings,
[10:36]which I know you have online courses now to teach
[10:38]and you've mastered this whole thing
[10:40]but just take me through it, how it came to be.
[10:43]Yeah, what I think people appreciate about my books,
[10:46]I do write books on faith yet.
[10:48]I feel like there's a lot of people
[10:50]that read my books that aren't of the same faith as I am
[10:53]because I feel like principles or principles, right?
[10:55]Like principles, just like you said,
[10:57]I'll read the Bible about you
[10:58]because a principle is a principle
[10:59]and if it helps, it helps.
[11:00]And so the principles that I give in this particular book
[11:04]enter wild my latest book is really what got me
[11:07]to 100% healing from my anxiety and depression.
[11:11]And so I think for a long time, I had,
[11:14]you know, when anyone is suffering with anxiety,
[11:18]like crippling anxiety.
[11:19]I mean, I was panic attacks on a daily basis,
[11:21]I couldn't leave the house like I was home written.
[11:23]After I did, I did like a lot of work,
[11:26]a lot of therapy, exercise, diet, medicine,
[11:29]all the things that I needed to do.
[11:31]I got to about 60% better.
[11:34]And for anyone that's ever struggled with mental health issues,
[11:37]60% better after you've been at 0% feels amazing.
[11:42]Like you feel like, oh, I'm good.
[11:44]But I kept going back to the Bible
[11:46]and I kept seeing that the Bible said that I,
[11:50]you know, it's possible to not just get to 60%
[11:52]to get to 100.
[11:53]So me being the, you know, the crazy guy I am,
[11:56]I said, oh, I'm just going to trust it.
[11:57]And I'm going to do the work that it says.
[11:58]And so for me and the book is written
[12:03]in the three sections,
[12:03]enter rest, enter war and enter wild.
[12:07]Enter rest is all about lowering the volume of life
[12:10]so that the volume of whatever needs to be loud as comes up.
[12:13]We, you know, I know we are busier than we've ever been
[12:16]as humans.
[12:17]And I don't think that we were created
[12:19]to exist at the pace that we're currently existing in.
[12:22]So the whole enter rest section is so that we can lower
[12:25]the volume of life.
[12:26]So we can finally see and hear exactly what it is
[12:29]that we need to work on.
[12:31]Once we enter rest, I call the next section, enter war.
[12:34]And in enter war, that really,
[12:36]that whole section is all about forgiveness.
[12:38]And for me, my anxiety got defeated once I started going
[12:42]to this certain therapist here in Nashville
[12:45]that did us a version of therapy called Heart Sync.
[12:48]And what this, this therapy is,
[12:51]and I explain a lot of it in the book
[12:53]and I take people kind of on the story arc of me
[12:55]being healed from my panic attacks is what I look about.
[12:59]It's faith-based, but it's also science-based.
[13:01]So I'm all about finding faith-based and science-based
[13:04]therapists.
[13:05]And what I learned is that my heart was in need of sinking again.
[13:11]What we do so many times, whenever there's trauma,
[13:14]is we shame a version of ourselves that we're ashamed of.
[13:19]So say, for instance, you've made a bad mistake,
[13:22]you've ruined a lot of people's lives because of something.
[13:24]What you end up doing is you end up shaming that person,
[13:27]that version of yourself, while you continue to disassociate
[13:30]without version of yourself.
[13:31]But what I learned in this therapy is that,
[13:34]that version of myself that I was shaming
[13:37]is still a part of me, like it's still a part of me.
[13:39]So what I needed to do was to come back into reconciliation
[13:43]with self-forgiveness.
[13:44]I think a lot of times people here forgive it and say they think,
[13:47]oh, that's either forgiving somebody else
[13:49]or somebody else forgiving you.
[13:51]When for me, the crux of my anxiety was based in the shame
[13:55]that I had for unforgiveness of myself.
[13:58]And when I finally forgave myself, I'm telling you,
[14:00]it was like magic, Zippy.
[14:02]Like the day that I went through this one session,
[14:04]all of my physical manifestations of anxiety
[14:07]like disappeared.
[14:08]And I realized this is so vital for people to understand
[14:11]that forgiveness is going to be the key of unlocking
[14:14]a lot of the healing in our lives, self-forgiveness
[14:18]is going to be.
[14:19]And then from there, you go into Entrewild,
[14:21]which is, again, my call for people to leave the mild
[14:24]of their life and step into the wild of their life.
[14:27]Right now in the season where we've got protests,
[14:30]I'm like, listen, mild would be putting up an Instagram post
[14:33]and wild would be going to Target and getting a sign
[14:37]and painting something on it and showing up
[14:39]and being kind of hands and feet,
[14:40]putting action behind your intention.
[14:42]So that's what the book is, and hopefully
[14:44]it's going to help a lot of people.
[14:46]Well, let's go back to the first part
[14:48]because that was so great.
[14:49]You said, the way we catch up with God
[14:51]is by slowing down and entering rest.
[14:54]And I think that's such a good point.
[14:55]I think this whole period of time,
[14:57]and maybe there's a correlation to the timing of things
[15:02]that we finally have all had time to sort of sit
[15:05]with how we feel about things and what we're thinking
[15:07]and what is fair and what isn't fair
[15:08]and what changes we would like to see in the world
[15:10]and in our own lives and in our communities.
[15:13]And your whole message is that, just what you just said,
[15:17]it's so busy.
[15:18]I mean, I think about how crazy busy my life was before.
[15:22]I went through my calendar recently.
[15:24]And now, of course, there's almost nothing on my calendar.
[15:26]It's just my podcast.
[15:27]My kids are here all the time.
[15:28]So there's no logistics management.
[15:29]I have four kids.
[15:30]And I was scrolling back to look something up
[15:32]and I was like, oh my gosh, look how many things
[15:35]are on my calendar that week.
[15:36]How did I do that?
[15:37]Yeah.
[15:38]Totally.
[15:39]It's so now I feel like there's a new paradigm
[15:42]for rest and what we can take.
[15:45]So tell me just a couple more things.
[15:48]I know you just went over it, but tell me
[15:49]how we can slow down.
[15:51]Like how, aside from a pandemic, you know,
[15:54]now that things are slowly starting,
[15:56]how can we keep that really important
[15:59]fundamental truth as front and center?
[16:02]Yeah.
[16:03]I think what, again, I want to make sure people understand
[16:06]is that entering the rest isn't necessarily,
[16:08]the point isn't necessarily to lower your blood pressure.
[16:11]Although that may be like a fringe benefit.
[16:13]For me, the whole purpose of entering rest
[16:15]is so that the volume of things that need to be loudest
[16:19]in your life, continue to go up.
[16:21]And so, you know, I mean, let's not blame anything,
[16:24]but like our phones, I mean, I don't know if you remember
[16:27]in the, at least for me in the 90s,
[16:29]I had no alarm clock this to my bed.
[16:31]That was literally just that.
[16:32]It was an alarm clock.
[16:33]All it did was wake me up.
[16:34]And so I would set it at night
[16:36]and then I'd wake up in the morning and hit snooze
[16:37]and I'd get up and I'd start my day.
[16:39]Now, my phone is my alarm clock.
[16:41]And there's been studies that show
[16:43]that people that use their phones in alarm clock,
[16:45]they normally hit snooze or hit stop.
[16:49]And then they swipe up and then they go
[16:51]and they start swiping and they start consuming content.
[16:54]And we consume more content in the first 15 minutes
[16:57]that we get, before we even get out of bed,
[17:00]then like our parents would consume it in an entire day.
[17:03]And again, like I don't wanna, you know,
[17:05]I don't wanna be like the phone patrol,
[17:07]but there's no way that anxiety and depression
[17:10]can't be linked with the amount that we are consuming.
[17:14]If you go back in history, this isn't a new thing.
[17:17]This isn't a new problem.
[17:19]I mean, we may feel busy now,
[17:20]but you know, I like to tell the old Testament story
[17:23]of the Israelites that were freed from the Egyptians by Moses.
[17:27]And it's a great story where Moses is freed them.
[17:30]They're like, they've been slaves for 100 years.
[17:32]They're finally going to the Promised Land.
[17:34]It's super awesome.
[17:36]They get to the edge of the Red Sea
[17:37]and they're like, oh crap, like what are we gonna do?
[17:39]Like there's an ocean in front of us
[17:41]and they turn around and they look behind them
[17:42]and they see the Egyptian army coming behind them.
[17:45]So now they freak out and it says that they said to Moses,
[17:48]look what you've done to us.
[17:49]You should have left up in Egypt to be slaves
[17:51]or plenty of growth in Egypt.
[17:53]Now we're gonna die out here.
[17:55]And Moses says something to them which was crazy.
[17:57]He says the words, stand still.
[18:01]He says, literally it says the scripture,
[18:02]stand still and you will see the Lord save you today.
[18:06]Stand still.
[18:07]And what's crazy is even the Israelites back then
[18:11]we're kinda in this like crazy like,
[18:13]oh my gosh, what are we gonna do, what are we gonna do?
[18:15]Which is the exact same thing that we do
[18:17]when I feel like what we need to do is stop.
[18:20]Stand still.
[18:20]And every single time I stop and I stand still,
[18:24]that is when I feel my soul get saved.
[18:26]That is when I start to feel healing happen in my life
[18:28]when we lower the volume of life,
[18:30]when we stand still.
[18:31]Of course for the Israelites finally,
[18:33]when they stood still, he stuck that run in the sand
[18:35]and the sea split wide open and they walked to the Promised Land,
[18:38]for us it's gonna look different.
[18:39]For us, standing still maybe you finding something
[18:42]that really brings you life.
[18:44]Like I love to tell people when I do corporate events,
[18:46]when is the last time that you actually jumped for joy?
[18:49]Like that's just saying that people say
[18:51]all the time, jump for joy.
[18:53]But when you think about it,
[18:54]when was the last time that you actually did that?
[18:56]Like there was so much joy that filled you
[18:58]that you actually jumped from the ground into the air?
[19:01]What was that?
[19:02]Find those things and those are the things
[19:05]that you're created to do and start doing more of that.
[19:08]For me, it's become fly fishing.
[19:10]Like I love to stand way steep in a river
[19:13]and catch trout and put the trout back in the river.
[19:15]And it's just a calming, soothing place for me
[19:20]to get restored and to get renewed.
[19:22]And so yeah, the whole rest piece is vital,
[19:24]especially in these days.
[19:26]As we're kinda coming back out of the pandemic,
[19:29]things begin to open back up.
[19:30]It's gonna be really easy for us to lose sight
[19:34]of the simple things that we've gotten to do.
[19:36]My family and I have taken a walk around our neighborhood
[19:40]every single day for three months.
[19:42]We never, ever took a walk one time around my neighborhood.
[19:46]Now, every day at 5 p.m., we know what happens.
[19:49]We walk outside and we take that on and we walk all the way
[19:51]around and we have the most incredible conversations
[19:54]and we're entering rest and our souls are being filled.
[19:56]And I just don't want people to lose that
[19:58]when things start getting crazy again.
[19:59]Thank you.
[20:00]You're so right.
[20:00]I've started taking walks like with each kid
[20:02]because I feel like you have multiple kids.
[20:04]So nice just to take a little walk with one kid.
[20:06]Yeah.
[20:07]And meanwhile, I am mortified to admit this.
[20:09]But the last time I jumped for joy was when a car came
[20:13]into our driveway here, having not seen another human being
[20:16]basically for three months, caring like the groceries
[20:19]I had ordered online.
[20:20]And I had my favorite brownies again.
[20:21]Anyway, I jumped for joy.
[20:23]I jumped for joy to get the food.
[20:25]So that's pathetic, I guess.
[20:27]Oh, I love that.
[20:28]Brownies.
[20:29]Tell me a little about your writing process.
[20:31]Like, where and when do you like to write?
[20:33]How long does each book take you?
[20:34]What does that look like for you?
[20:36]Yeah.
[20:37]Every book has been different.
[20:38]You know, this is my third book.
[20:39]I had a first book called Moment Maker,
[20:40]second book called Kill the Spider, Third Book,
[20:42]Interwild.
[20:43]And maybe it's kind of taken the different versions.
[20:46]I feel like I'm as an author now after my third book.
[20:48]I'm finally kind of feeling my rhythm, what it looks like.
[20:52]For me, I love to write in public places.
[20:55]And so I'll go to coffee shops.
[20:57]I'll go to libraries.
[20:59]I love our local library here in Nashville.
[21:01]And I put in my noise canceling headphones.
[21:04]And I've got a playlist for every single book I write.
[21:06]So the first book I had a playlist,
[21:08]second book I had a playlist.
[21:09]And sometimes the songs interchange,
[21:10]but it's all like movie soundtracks,
[21:12]like epic movie soundtracks,
[21:13]like Chronicles of Narnia or Braveheart or Gladiator.
[21:16]And it's funny because as I'm writing,
[21:19]whenever it gets to certain songs in the playlist,
[21:22]I can tell what songs I wrote,
[21:24]or what chapters I wrote to what song.
[21:27]Because like, they're just more epic.
[21:28]So I like to write in public.
[21:30]I'm not real good at like, you know,
[21:31]going to a cabin in the middle of forest.
[21:33]I think that's what a lot of writers think
[21:35]that it's supposed to look like,
[21:36]but I need to be around a lot of people.
[21:38]And so I'll normally do it first thing in the morning.
[21:40]I'll get it really early six a.m.
[21:42]And I like to write until about nine.
[21:44]And then take a little break.
[21:46]And then I'll write again from two to five.
[21:47]And I'll try to get about, oh man,
[21:50]about 7,000 words in a day.
[21:53]And you know, and that's a lot of words.
[21:55]And so what ends up happening,
[21:56]I'll end up writing.
[21:57]So for most of my books,
[21:58]or about 65,000 words,
[22:00]but I'll end up writing about 200,000 words
[22:02]for each book.
[22:03]And then I just kind of start, you know,
[22:04]chopping them down and editing them.
[22:06]So that's a lot of words in a day.
[22:08]I'm impressed.
[22:09]I am impressed.
[22:10]And then not writing a book.
[22:12]I like to write about a thousand a day
[22:13]just to kind of keep the muscle going.
[22:15]And then you also have a podcast.
[22:17]I do, I do.
[22:18]Which, by the way, has the best intro music
[22:20]I've like ever heard for a podcast.
[22:22]That must be you, right?
[22:23]That must have been your.
[22:24]Yeah.
[22:25]So yeah, I've got film the blank.
[22:26]That's a podcast that, you know,
[22:28]I called it film the blank
[22:29]because I just want to talk about everything.
[22:31]And so I figured out,
[22:32]well, what better title for a podcast
[22:34]where I can talk about anything.
[22:35]I want the film the blank.
[22:36]So yeah, I just have a lot of friends on the podcast.
[22:39]And I've kind of batched, you know,
[22:41]recorded a lot of interviews
[22:42]that are going to be coming out in the next few weeks.
[22:44]And yeah, I mean,
[22:45]I've got like a British pop star coming out next week.
[22:48]And then I've got like my mom on the next podcast.
[22:50]So like it's like, you know, whatever.
[22:52]And but it's a, it's a, it's a fun outlet.
[22:54]I like to talk.
[22:55]Yeah, it's easy.
[22:56]So that's awesome.
[22:57]And what's coming next for you?
[22:58]Are you going to ride another book?
[22:59]Are you already hard at work?
[23:01]What's you have so many balls in the air?
[23:03]But what's what's next?
[23:04]You know, well, next as of the time
[23:06]we're recording this podcast, you and I,
[23:08]my book actually comes out tomorrow and for wild does.
[23:11]And so by the time you guys are listening to this,
[23:13]it'll have already been out.
[23:15]But really, you know, for me,
[23:17]the big thing is to get this book out.
[23:19]I normally go on book tour.
[23:20]I had got a 16 city tour that I was going to go on.
[23:24]Obviously, that's old and canceled.
[23:25]And so, you know, I've just got a trust
[23:27]that the books get and get in the right people's hands.
[23:29]And so I'm going to do a lot of events online.
[23:31]I'm going to do a lot of marketing, you know,
[23:32]over the next, you know, a few months for entra-wild.
[23:35]But yeah, I mean, the next book I have a two book deal
[23:37]with Penguin.
[23:38]And so I've got another one and I'll be honest with you.
[23:40]I have no idea what the next book's going to be.
[23:43]And so I don't know if they're going to want to hear that.
[23:45]But I don't know.
[23:46]You know, I'm really thinking about unpacking
[23:48]the first section of entra-wild, the whole entra-rest.
[23:51]I'm thinking about unpacking that into its own thing
[23:55]and to its own thought.
[23:56]I just feel like that concept could be something
[23:58]that so many people really need right now.
[24:00]And so yeah, so possibly it'll be about, you know,
[24:03]calming ourselves and resting and finally maybe getting back
[24:07]into the pace.
[24:08]I told people all the time that, you know, 300 years ago
[24:11]before there were, you know, any sort of, you know, planes.
[24:14]And again, I don't know what planes were invented,
[24:16]but I think it was after 300 years ago.
[24:18]The average pace of a human being was three miles an hour.
[24:21]So like we, that's how fast we walk.
[24:23]And there is nothing about our lives
[24:25]that are three miles an hour now.
[24:26]And so, you know, I've thought about writing a book
[24:29]based on what life was like then
[24:31]and how we can take attributes of life from then
[24:34]and, you know, applying now.
[24:35]So, you know, I also have a novel or two in me
[24:37]that I want to write.
[24:38]And so yeah, we'll see.
[24:39]That's awesome.
[24:40]Do you have any advice to aspiring authors?
[24:42]Yes.
[24:43]My advice would be write, write, write.
[24:45]Just vomit, vomit, vomit.
[24:47]If you're writing every single day,
[24:50]and like I said, I like to write 1,000 words a day,
[24:52]and they can be, I mean, I can look on my desk
[24:54]and it can be about my AirPods.
[24:55]I'm gonna write 1,000 words about what AirPods are.
[24:57]Just write every single day, you know.
[25:00]I think a lot of, a lot of people don't wanna write books
[25:02]have this idea that it becomes so romantic.
[25:07]The whole book publishing thing and it's really work.
[25:10]I mean, it's just, it's just work.
[25:11]And so, the better you can get it writing,
[25:14]the better your books are gonna be.
[25:15]And so a lot of people are getting books
[25:17]deals right now that have large platforms
[25:18]that I have lots of followers.
[25:20]And to be honest with you, their books are very good.
[25:22]But they sell a lot of books.
[25:24]And at the end of the day though,
[25:26]I don't necessarily consider those people
[25:27]actual like authors.
[25:29]I like to speak to authors.
[25:31]And authors are the ones that love to write.
[25:33]And so if you can, if you can develop your love
[25:35]for writing, then your books are gonna sell themselves
[25:38]because they're gonna be good.
[25:39]And so, yeah, any aspiring author, write, write, write, write.
[25:42]Don't stop every single day, write.
[25:45]Love it.
[25:46]Okay, so now that we've talked to my lab
[25:47]to call you Loce, this was my goal was
[25:49]because you said, friends could call you Loce.
[25:52]So I'm trying to sneak in there.
[25:54]We are, what's your nickname though?
[25:56]I got a different one.
[25:57]My real name is Elizabeth.
[25:58]So my nickname is Elizabeth.
[26:00]But my close friends call me Zips.
[26:01]So you could do that.
[26:02]Okay, Zips and Loce.
[26:04]Okay, I love it.
[26:06]What was so nice chatting with you.
[26:08]And I wish you all the best at your launch tomorrow.
[26:10]I'm honored to have spoken to you today.
[26:12]And I got a lot of great tips on anxiety.
[26:15]And just, it's, your book was really useful
[26:18]and user friendly and inspiring.
[26:21]And I'm so glad that I found it.
[26:23]So I went it on my desk.
[26:25]It was so great.
[26:26]So great.
[26:27]So good.
[26:28]Thank you, Zips.
[26:29]We did it.
[26:30]All right, take care.
[26:31]Thank you.
[26:32]Bye bye.
[26:33]Thanks again for listening to my podcast.
[26:35]Moms don't have time to read books.
[26:37]If you liked this episode, please follow me on Instagram
[26:41]at Zippy Owens and at Moms don't have time to read books.
[26:44]And sign up for my mailing list at Zippy Owens.com
[26:47]so you can always hear about the latest things I'm up to.
[26:50]Thanks a lot.
[26:51]Thanks to today's sponsor Shaka T, S-H-A-K-A-T.
[26:55]Shaka T, which is the line of Hawaii grown,
[26:58]herbal iced teas.
[27:00]Go get some, be refreshed.
[27:01]It's a perfect time for your for this tea.
[27:03]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Texture Sound
[27:06]for the Sound Editing.
[27:07]And thank you to Morning Moon Productions
[27:09]for providing this fantastic intro and now trim music.
[27:12]Thanks for listening.
[27:12]You could always email me at ZippyAtZippy Owens.com.