The Kindness Matters Podcast
So. Much. Division. Let's talk about how to change that. Re-engage as neighbors, friends, co-workers and family. Let's set out to change the world. Strike that. Change A World. One person at a time, make someone's life a little better and then do it again tomorrow and the day after that, through kindness.
Kindness is a Super-Power that each of us has within us. It is so powerful it has the potential to change not only your life but those around you, too. Let's talk about kindness.
The Kindness Matters Podcast
The Power of Storytelling in Personal Growth
What happens when a dedicated high school educator decides to pivot into the world of life coaching and memoir writing? Join us as we explore the incredible transformation of Jamie Gartner, who left behind a 12-year teaching career to found Soul Script Coaching, a sanctuary for those looking to heal and share their stories through the art of writing. Jamie’s journey from the bustling classrooms of a diverse city school to the nurturing environment of her coaching practice adds layers of depth and insight to our conversation.
Struggling to find a therapist, Jamie stumbled upon life coach Jen Liddy, who would ultimately inspire her to pen her own memoir. Writing became a therapeutic outlet for Jamie, revealing the differences between traditional therapy and life coaching while underscoring the transformative power of storytelling. In our heartfelt discussion, Jamie outlines the initial steps of book coaching, emphasizing the crucial role of understanding the purpose behind writing a memoir. This episode is a treasure trove of insights for anyone looking to embark on their own healing journey through the written word.
Discover the unique method Jamie uses in her life coaching practice, encapsulated in the steps: identify, choose, challenge, change. We talk about the profound impact of sharing one's story, the authenticity required in memoir writing, and the satisfaction that comes from writing for personal fulfillment. Jamie's story is not just about her journey, but an invitation for you to begin yours. Tune in, be inspired, and learn how you can connect with Jamie for a free discovery call that might just change your life.
A special message to my listeners from Jamie: Have you ever thought about writing a book? Putting your story down on paper - either to be published and to help others, or even just for your family to have as a family keepsake?
Go to my website at soulscriptcoaching.com and book a free discovery call! If everything aligns and you want to work with me, use the code: #kindnessmatters to get $300 off my 6 month 1-1 coaching and writing program!
You can also join my free Facebook group: Soul Script Writing Circle in the meantime for tips, tricks, accountability, and motivation to get going on your book! facebook.com/groups/soulscriptwriting
The world needs more kindness, more understanding, more empathy - and that often comes in stories! When you write your story, you are being a voice for someone who has been silenced. You are being a mentor for someone who has none. You are being an inspiration for someone who lost hope. You are being an example for those who didn’t understand. Your story is your kindness, your light, and your legacy. Share it!
Did you find this episode uplifting, inspiring or motivating? Would you like to support more content like this? Check out our Support The Show Page here.
This podcast is part of the Deluxe Edition Network. To find other great shows on the network, head over to DeluxeEditionNetworkcom. That's DeluxeEditionNetworkcom.
Speaker 2:Kindness. We see it all around us. We see it when someone pays for someone else's coffee or holds the door open for another person. We see it in the smallest of gestures, like a smile or a kind word. But it's different when we turn on the news or social media. Oftentimes what we hear about what outlets are pushing is the opposite of kind.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Kindness Matters Podcast. Our goal is to give you a place to relax, to revel in stories of people who have received or given kindness, a place to inspire and motivate each and every one of us to practice kindness every day. Hello and welcome everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. You are listening to the Kindness Matters Podcast and I am your host, mike Rathbun. We've got a great show for you. As you noticed at the beginning of the show, this podcast is a member of the Deluxe Edition Network of Podcasts and every month they have a podcast of the month. For August, that podcast is Horsin' Around Host Joel Sharp with producer Jared Picone.
Speaker 2:Lead the boys from Red Horse Hair Studio, shane Anthony, cisco Collazo, sean Boyle and Joe Capalupo, through their nonsensical banter from the cutting room floor and deliver it in this hilarious, no-holds-barred podcast, from conspiracies and monsters, to ghosts and surreal true life. Your squishy brain will be filled with so much of the awesome. Also, make sure to check out the show notes, where you will find links and discount codes for two companies I partnered with Sunday Scaries, a company that makes broad-spectrum CBD gummies, and Coffee Bros that make an amazing blend of coffees and coffee products. I use both of these and they are nothing short of amazing. And now let's get into the show.
Speaker 2:Hey, hello and welcome everybody to the show. Oh God, you guys, you're going to love this. You're absolutely going to love this. My guest today is an author, an entrepreneur, a former high school educator, a dancer, a fur mom, which tells you everything you need to know about how amazing she is right there, and now a book and writing coach. After having to leave a 12-year career of teaching because of her mental health, she took her teaching and coaching skills and her 15 years of experience teaching others how to write and began her company, soul Script Coaching, where she gets to help people heal, write their memoir and share their story. Welcome to the show, jamie Gartner.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, mike. I'm really happy to be here, very excited.
Speaker 2:You couldn't be any happier than I am to have you here, because, I mean, this is your first podcast ever, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I'm really excited. I've never done this before. I'm new to this whole aspect of media communication and it's exciting it's it.
Speaker 2:You know what it's so cool? I decided to start a podcast in 2020 because I had some time on my hand. I went. You know, I always wanted to be a radio dj. This is kind of the same thing, except without the great music.
Speaker 3:So had some great music in there.
Speaker 2:Well, there's a little thing called copyright law that prevents me from adding the really good music.
Speaker 3:That's true, although I'll tell you about a place I can show you that has good legalities. That will help you find some good music.
Speaker 2:Stop it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it's really cool.
Speaker 2:There's a way to get through everything nowadays, oh man I did try looking because for a while I wanted um my theme song to be, uh, the kiki d song. It's from the 70s, before your time. Um, I got the music in me. Ain't got no worries in my life Because I wanted that and that was obviously unavailable to me without an outlay of some big cash. So I was looking for like a karaoke version, but I couldn't find one. That's how I tried to get around it.
Speaker 3:That's pretty cool though, but enough about me and my show.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about Jamie, because you are way more interesting than anything I could talk about. So you started off, you graduated high school, you went to college and was it a teaching degree? You got.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, college. And was it a was it a teaching degree? You got? Yeah, yeah, I got my, my bachelor's in English and then with a kind of basically a dual concentration with secondary education.
Speaker 2:Okay, and you took that brand new shiny diploma and you went to work as a teacher.
Speaker 3:Yep, I got my first job uh, actually at a school my my brother told me I wasn't allowed to work at, but I fell in love with the place and it was amazing people, amazing kids and just a whole new world of experience, which is the beauty of teaching so much fun.
Speaker 2:Sure, because I mean you probably learn as much as the kids do, right?
Speaker 3:right, oh, beyond, beyond. I was. I mean, I was homeschooled growing up for most of my childhood, academic career and so I was in a whole new world and I was kind of we kind of lived in the country and you know, population 200. And then I go and I teach a city, a city school, where we have city school, where we have 90% diversity, 98% free and reduced lunch 13th poorest Dakota in the country 400 students, refugees from around the world that didn't speak any English. They were just a wealth of knowledge and experience and life and love and stories. That it was just, they were incredible.
Speaker 2:How cool. And so did you teach English as a second language, or sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 3:No, I'm not that cool. I can barely manage English. That cool. I can barely manage English. So cool. I taught English as language art, so I taught the artistic approach to using the language. So that is kind of what stems my way into the field I'm in now Because I spent so many years teaching kids how to write, teaching them how to edit, how to analyze, how to do all the things to edit, how to analyze, how to, how to do all the things. Um, and that was always my passion as books and writing and sure, all the good stuff oh wow, and then you did that for 12 years, was it?
Speaker 3:yeah, about 12 years. Um, I I did that and then for a few other years I I was an instructional coach. So I was trained as a cognitive coach to work with teachers to help them in the classroom, make their lessons and curriculum and units more engaging, more efficient, to get our scores up, all of those things.
Speaker 2:Wow, you know, I often wondered about that because as a teacher, it's kind of like. It's kind of like being an adult, where you have to figure out what to serve for dinner every night, every single night, for the rest of your life, and I you know the teachers like go into a here's another day. How am I going to make this interesting? But you, you helped them do that, yeah day, how am I going to make this interesting?
Speaker 3:But you helped them do that, yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, they're already trained to do that, they know the basics, certain content areas, they have very set curriculums. But I was able to help them shift because your teaching has to change with the kids in front of you, and if you are just always teaching the same way, same content, same style, you end up losing the kids. We know, you know it's all of us. You know we all have five-second attention spans nowadays, which is not always a bad thing, you know right it's.
Speaker 3:It's a new age for many educators who've been in the game for a while. Um, and the best, the best educators are the ones that know that you've always got to keep adapting and changing and learning and moving with the kids. So where it used to, be, in front of a classroom and just tell them the information. Now the approach is that the kids should be doing most of the talking. They should be Interesting. Yeah, they should be engaging in that conversation or they're lost.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, yeah, because I got in trouble a lot for talking in class, so I'm just that's new.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, and now it's like nope, as long as you're talking on topic, at least semi so, although that could have been a problem yeah, they have this great talent about getting at least for me. They always were just so great at getting me off topic and we just go start talking about random things.
Speaker 2:But yeah, my ADHD probably didn't help with that Loose squirrel.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, same.
Speaker 2:Wow. But then after 12 years you were kind of like I can't do this anymore, and that's probably not an uncommon thing story right there these days.
Speaker 3:It's not especially nowadays. This was in 2018. So it was before the pandemic and where a lot of things changed. Um, though, I did go back actually to teach um for a year. That was the year we went into COVID, um which was craziness, uh oh.
Speaker 3:God, which was craziness. So, yeah, I mean it does, especially when you're teaching at a school where 98% of the population has trauma. Up here I'm showing you my hands, I see it Radio. Right, it does take a lot out of you, um, it's and then you add in administration, um and laws and and accountability, just everything that weighs down on you. It becomes a lot and it's very easy to burn out, especially english teachers, because yeah, I mean I know every other teacher on here who listens and is different kind of teacher. They're gonna disagree with me, but hey, wait a minute we have we're.
Speaker 3:I was reading hundreds of papers and it takes me. It would take me 25 minutes to go through each paper and then you get the lesson planning and all of that and then you have to reread the paper again and it's it's a lot of grading when you're an English teacher. It's a lot of grading when you're an English teacher. It's a lot outside of school that nobody really realizes and recognizes.
Speaker 2:What was your average class size? I'm just curious.
Speaker 3:Generally was generally I'd have. I'd start the year at 30 on the roster. I'd start the year at 30 on the roster. There were a lot of classes that would start with 40, 42, but that was different than the kids who actually came and showed up, the number on the roster was different than the ones who actually showed up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you still had to prepare, and sometimes that made it harder because you would have a certain number of kids in the certain, certain kids on one days and other kids on the other days and is like, ah, so you still have all those kids that you're responsible for and you're responsible to check in, and all of that um sure but in the classroom at any one moment was usually closer, from 17 to 20 to 23, which is is still really big, especially when you have a lot of high needs kids.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, absolutely Um yeah, and I just I keep hearing about the the sizes of the classes these days and it's just crazy. I saw somebody the other day a friend on Facebook who's a teacher and she was saying she's got like 40 kids. I'm like, oh my god, how, how do you even I mean just teaching aside how do you control that number of kids? Really it's, it's for 45 minutes or what have you yeah, it's, it's a.
Speaker 3:It's hard, it's really hard and it's hard on the teachers and it's not fair to the kids. The best thing you can do is for classrooms, and they will. They'll argue with you. They'll say data doesn't support it, but it's, it's the quantitative data that matters.
Speaker 3:Yeah right, the qualitative data that matters and yeah um and smaller class sizes where you can give that one-on-one attention, because the kids deserve it, and more mental health professionals in the schools. Those are the two biggest and best differences you can make in the schools yeah, yeah, yeah, and I yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's another thing we see a lot of today is governments slashing budgets, and it's always going to be the mental health professional stuff to go, or, yeah, something that really really needed these days. I did an episode with a gal and she brings therapy dogs into schools, middle schools. Did I tell you this story already? I?
Speaker 3:don't think so.
Speaker 2:Oh anyway. But yeah, that's always her biggest. That's her big selling point is this doesn't cost you anything. I bring them in for free. All you have to do is give me access to you know the kids you think might need them.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And and and. They're a nonprofit and it's great it's called you're. You're not alone. But anyway, that's for another episode.
Speaker 3:Hopefully. Yeah, they toss him a few milk bones in there. But, yeah, a lot of schools are starting to have therapy dogs right in the classrooms all the time, which is amazing. I love it. I think it makes such a it does. It does make a difference for a lot of makes a huge difference.
Speaker 2:And I I was surprised because she said you know middle school. Specifically, I'm like why middle school? Because that's when they start to get bullied. Yeah, so enough about all my other guests. More about Jamie, please. So you left teaching Now did you immediately fall into the coaching realm?
Speaker 3:No, no, I actually didn't. So I actually didn't leave teaching because of the work itself. I left because I had dealt with depression for my whole life and it had gotten really, really bad. My principal at the time was not helpful, helpful, and so I ended up going through a lot and had to go to a mental health treatment center for some help to kind of get back on track, which that was actually even worse. The treatment center was actually very, very toxic. That's the topic of my memoir. My memoir is actually written to heal from that. So when I came back, I had essentially lost my job. They couldn't fire me, but they were trying to push me to a middle school which I was not adept at, teaching, I was not mentally ready for, and they did some other shady things which doesn't matter right now.
Speaker 2:It's all in the book.
Speaker 3:Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2:We'll link to it in the show notes.
Speaker 3:And so I lost that, I lost friends, I had lost just. I lost a lot and had gone through a horrible experience at the treatment centers and it wasn't. I knew I had to come up with something, so I got a part-time job at Barnes and Noble cause. You know books.
Speaker 2:Of course.
Speaker 3:As one does.
Speaker 2:As a bibliophile does.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I got this amazing life coach, jen Liddy. She was because I couldn't find therapists at the time Like finding a therapist that will take your insurance, that's accepting patients it's so impossible. And so instead I went, for I found this woman who was a life coach somebody had recommended and she was incredible. She helped me in so many ways just to baby step by baby step, literally move forward, and one of the things she encouraged me to do was write my memoir, which was just like a very. I had to get it out of me, was just like a very. I had to get it out of me. It was a story that was just cycling in my head and I I couldn't even breathe because it I had to hold on to that story. It was just so much of me and I had to get it out. Um, so she, she encouraged and guided me in that process.
Speaker 2:Um, and so I did that and hey everybody, we will be right back with more of my chat with Jamie Gartner right after these brief messages from another deluxe edition network podcast are you a fan of all things nerdy?
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Speaker 3:Then we started playing with some ideas of okay, so what? Do I do next Because I can't make a living off Barnes Noble, much as I love them. And I thought about doing, you know, life coaching because it was very similar to what I did as a teacher. You know, being there for the kids and helping, guide them and picking, helping them figure out their life path. And I really love life coaching because it's about moving forward, where therapy it's about looking at your past and very important things, but different.
Speaker 3:Life coaching is about moving you forward in life, and so that was where I started, and eventually that morphed into you know what? I've spent my life teaching people how to write. I love to write, I love to read, I love to hear people's stories like you do on here, like I did with all my students and I know how healing it is to write your memoir, and so that's where I fell into. Hey, book coaching is a thing. How cool is that?
Speaker 2:And I think it's so cool because you don't often hear about it, about book coaching or writing as a platform for healing. Until I met you, that was the first time I'd ever heard of that and that it's such an intriguing idea and it's so cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's very real. It's very real. I mean, you think of even you know I think we talked about this last time. We talked you know, being an angsty teenager, what do you do? You write dark poetry, dark song lyrics, right, and that is healing. So we innately know this too, that the process of just putting pen to paper and letting the thoughts just flow out of you it is cathartic. Thoughts just flow out of you, it is cathartic. Writing letters, writing in your journal and diary, all of that it's healing processes. Turning into a memoir just means you get to help others heal through your experiences too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because you read that and you go, hey, that's a lot like what I went through.
Speaker 3:Exactly. It's about giving yourself a voice, but also being a voice for others too.
Speaker 2:Right. So what's the process? Walk me through the process. I'm like I've got this trauma. I've got this stuff that I buried for years Trauma. I've got this stuff that I buried for years. I either don't have insurance for a therapist or I can't afford one. Hey, I heard about Jamie Gartner. She'll help me through this. What does the process look like?
Speaker 3:Well, I would start by saying it's not a replacement for therapy or even coaching. Well, I mean, I do coaching with you, but it's not a replacement for therapy or psychiatric help or anything like that, but it is a great element to also healing. So when somebody comes to me, they generally have an idea in their mind that, hey, I've got this story and I've been wanting to write it for years and I just I don't know how to do it. I don't know where to start, I don't know how to put it together. And that's usually where most people are at. They feel that call, they feel that draw, they just don't know where to start.
Speaker 3:And so there's two aspects to my coaching of what I do. There's the healing aspect, where some people need a little more of, some people don't need quite as much of, and then there's the writing. So with the writing, the writing is we really start by defining the purpose or why, why we want to do this, because that is what's going to carry you through, and identifying and really having good clarity on why you're going to write this story is important, sure, in a lot of different ways. Because you want to know it, not just for yourself, but who you're writing for, because we look at audience and what message we're sending and sometimes people don't even want to write it, to publish it, and that's great too.
Speaker 3:Some people just want to write it for themselves, just to get it out. Some people write it just for their family, which is a beautiful thing, you know that's another aspect that I always go back to, because my parents died when I was young and I wish I had something, because I don't remember half the stories.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And that's a big missing piece. I always say, you know, writing a memoir is one of the best gifts you can give to your kids, if you have them. Um and yeah. So then we, we go into um. So once we have kind of the whys and the target audience and the messaging, all of that kind of figured out, then we do some outlining and brainstorming and bringing everything together. We look at styles and how you want to put the book together, because there's a billion different ways. The beauty of memoir is that you can write it in like any kind of way that you like. There's rules sort of, but they're almost all breakable or bendable. They're almost all breakable or bendable.
Speaker 2:So when you, when you first start working with somebody, and you and you broach the subject of writing their memoir, do they ever go? But memoirs are for famous people and I'm not famous.
Speaker 3:All the time, all the time. Yeah, and that's usually the first thing anyone even in a writing group. There there's writing groups, writing groups where other authors who are more fiction style writers, they're like memoir never sells, never sells. That's a not true and I mean it is a little bit of a harder sale sometimes, but it's getting to be a much bigger genre and a very important one. Um, just don't always see memoir in the memoir section. So if you think of books like, um brain on fire uh, that was turned into a Netflix documentary, that's actually housed in the medical section, but it is a memoir uh, girl interrupted which is kind of very similar to mine, the, the precursor to my, my, my memoir. That's in psychiatry, psychology, I'm sorry and even ones like Don't Look Me in the Eye by John Elder Robison. He wrote about being autistic and all of those are in psychology. So if you're looking in the memoir section you're going to find a lot more of the celebrity books.
Speaker 4:Sure.
Speaker 3:There are everyday people writing powerful memoirs that are helping people move forward in their life every day.
Speaker 2:Of those three books you mentioned, I recognized one Girl Interrupted. What was the first one you mentioned?
Speaker 3:Brain on Fire, brain on Fire.
Speaker 2:Brain on Fire.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they actually made a Netflix documentary. It's about a woman. She's in her mid-20s and she essentially went crazy for a month. Crazy in the sense that she just completely lost control of her senses and had just a lot of mood swings and just like extreme things going on.
Speaker 2:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker 3:She had seizures, all of that, and the doctors kept diagnosing it and saying, oh well, she's just drinking all the time, she's an alcoholic and you just don't know it. They were saying, oh, maybe she's schizophrenic, and all these misdiagnoses, until somebody took the time to dig further, because she had parents that were there to help and they found out that she had a very severe but rare so-called rare issue with her brain. And don't ask me what it is, because I couldn't tell you off the top of my head Something that you can't pronounce, right, and in writing this.
Speaker 3:So she finally got the help and the healing and now she's back to normal, she's a journalist again, she's all of these things, oh wow. And in telling her story, thousands of people finally got help for having the same condition. People finally got help for having the same condition and they had been either written off by family friends or they had been put into psychiatric wards permanently because nobody knew that that was actually an issue with their their brain not as rare as they thought, huh yeah, yeah, um, wow yeah.
Speaker 2:That's crazy. Yeah, I'm looking for a new Netflix stream, so that's Brain on Fire. I'll have to look that one up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it's a fascinating documentary and, yeah, you'll find that a lot People write their stories and they are the voice for the people who can't speak out Women who've been through domestic violence, people who've suffered through addiction. Piece of Cake by Cupcake Brown, incredible memoir. The first couple of pages starts with her being like four years old, finding her mother's body on the ground dead.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, Talk about trauma.
Speaker 3:Right dead. Oh my God. Talk about trauma, right. And then she goes through and tells her whole story of addiction and everything that goes along with it and it goes, and you're just entranced by this woman with everything. And then she comes out at the end and now she is a very successful, and now she is a very successful, very incredible lawyer.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow Cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah, she's an incredible woman who's doing great things, helping people, and so I'm giving you two examples. I do want to put this in there too. I'm giving you two examples of memoirs that are everyday. People who have changed their lives wrote their story, changed other people's lives through it, but they did have a happy ending. And this is the other thing. A lot of people will come up to me and they'll say so. They'll say three things. They'll first ask about the celebrities, which not true. The second thing they say is well, my story doesn't have a happy ending, and sometimes that's true and it doesn't need a happy ending, and that's something we talk through. A lot is trying to find where maybe you do have some level of acceptance or growth forward. Or even if you're still like, even for me, you know, I'm still, you know, working through healing my mental health issues, you know, cause that's, that's an everyday thing, that's a for the rest of your life. Every everybody has that.
Speaker 3:Um things might not be perfect, but I've moved forward from where I was and I'm exactly where I need to be, and that's exactly where they need to be, and this is part of those steps.
Speaker 2:That's a great thing I like. Oh sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 3:No, go, go ahead Please.
Speaker 2:That's a great thing I like about coaching because it's always about moving forward.
Speaker 3:Yes, and if you just take that one step, even if it's a step and you're moving forward every day, you're going to be fine. Exactly, yeah, it's just one step. The book I'm working on now I'm working on getting my memoir published right now, but I'm also starting my other book and I kind of coined my own fashion of healing through life coaching and it was identify, choose, challenge, change. And the first thing you have to do is identify what is my problem here? And then you have to really make that choice and choose. I am going to do this, I need to do this. I want to do this because, until you make that decision, nothing could change.
Speaker 2:Nope, yep, you're. You're stuck until you make a decision to take the smallest of steps forward.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that's never that is rarely ever an easy step. It's, it's usually the hardest, and so is the one after that and the one after that. Um, but so worth it. And I know, I know, you know and and, and you know this very, very personally like it can be hard. It is hard, but every step forward is, in a sense, its own happy ending, so it's okay if your story isn't. I'm now a successful lawyer. Yeah, All these things, I'm the next.
Speaker 2:Aaron Brockman Driving a bronzerati. No, no, no.
Speaker 3:So there's a million different ways to end a book, end a memoir that will work for your readership and that's authentic. And that's the biggest rule about memoir is just being honest, raw and authentic and real.
Speaker 2:That's, yeah, absolutely Perfect. I just love your story, Jamie. It's perfect. I can't. I'm see. This is why I can't write, because I don't know how to come up with adjectives.
Speaker 3:Nope, nope, nope, nope. So that, well, that that would probably be the fourth. I don't think I ever talked about the third thing. The fourth thing people say, well, I can't write, nope, nope, everybody can write, because there are a million different styles of writing and we always fix that in the revision stage.
Speaker 2:You know what? Yeah, I've written three books and each one was shorter than the other, you know what I just say, what I want to say and that's it. I don't you know. Blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 3:But that's a very valid style of writing that a lot of people appreciate. But that's a very valid style of writing that a lot of people appreciate. It just depends on your readership, on your audience, because some people are very flowery and use all the 25 cent words and they have a readership that loves that and they have a readership that is like oh my God, just stop talking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think I was a lot like you. Though is like I all these thoughts in my head and I just need to get them out. Yeah, yeah, it helps, it helps a lot in that movement forward is just putting it down, sharing it. I think my last KDP check was like $3.56, so you know whatever.
Speaker 3:Well, did you do any marketing with that?
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no, no. I didn't have an editor, I didn't have a publisher, I just sent it from my computer over to Kindle oh, I shouldn't do that Over to Kindle Direct Publishing and went. Okay, I think I post about it a little bit on social media Because it was never about being successful as an author, it was about getting these ideas out and and sending them out into the universe yeah exactly, so it would do whatever it does with them and that's a beautiful reason.
Speaker 3:And you never know, maybe that one person that bought it um and and paid that royalty fee for you, your book, might have changed their lives. You don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, I know. Yeah, it's kind of like this podcast. Somebody says are you monetized? I said it's not about monetization. It's about one person who needs to hear a positive message that Jamie has to give out and being enlightened, or light bulb going off, and and that's what it's about. I understand that you have an offer for my listeners.
Speaker 3:I do, I do. Um, if anybody is interested, if you ever, you know, had that thought, hey, I, I think I have a good story, I think I have a story. Or even if you're not sure, but you want to, because that's the third thing, everybody's like nobody wants to hear my story. They do, I guarantee you. There's somebody out there who not only wants to, but needs to.
Speaker 2:Needs to yes.
Speaker 3:Absolutely needs to hear your story. I don't care if it's been told 20 billion times before. They need your version. And so if you've ever thought that, I think in your show notes it will be a link to my website, soul script coaching dot com. So as in you know, thing inside us SOUL and you can go to there. You can book a free discovery.
Speaker 3:Call, you know, come chat with me about what your thoughts are for your book and I would love to hear from you because I love. I'm always just, I'm blown away by my, my writer's stories Like it's. It's incredible, people are amazing.
Speaker 4:And so.
Speaker 3:I'd love to chat with you and then, if you are interested in working with me, I have a six month program, um, where I take you straight through the process, through getting a couple of your drafts written, getting you set up and on the way to getting published. And if you tell me that you heard me here and you heard me with Mike and you're listening to his amazing podcast, spreading Kindness, just let me know and I can get $300 off my six-month program and I'd love to work with you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'll tell you what, just just for anybody who's still maybe on the fence on this. You could do a lot worse than spending 30 minutes talking to Jamie. Yes, it will be the best 30 minutes of your life. I'm just saying just saying Jamie, saying Jamie, it was so awesome to have you on today. I thank you so much for the gift of your time. I love what you're doing. I love the positive energy that you're putting out in the world.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. I appreciate it very, very much. I appreciate your podcast and and the mission that you have, because kindness is beautiful. Oh, can I mention one thing?
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:So we're actually recording this. Can I say this? We're recording this on August 12th, tomorrow. This is kind of a plug for one of my amazing writers that I work with. She is writing her memoir. She came to me a few months ago and we've been working really hard on her book and it's a story of her son. Well, being a mother to her son who had very severe ADHD and he died six years ago at 15, age 15. So she lost her 15-year-old son.
Speaker 2:Oh, my God.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and her memoir is about everything that went along with that. It's going to be amazing and powerful and heartbreaking and heart healing and all the things. And his birthday is actually tomorrow. He would have been 21 years old.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:And every. They sent out, um. These little cards I'm showing you, but I know they can't see it, um, but it's for andrew's angels, um, and you can find their site. It's andrews angels 813, and they ask that everybody do an act of kindness in his memory, because that is what he was all about. It's actually honestly how he died. He died trying to make people smile oh my gosh yeah that's a whole other episode.
Speaker 3:But yeah, absolutely we will put that one in there, introducing her to you we will put that link in the show.
Speaker 2:That's going to be long show notes, but we'll do it.
Speaker 3:We'll put that in there too, and um do an act of kindness today in honor of Andrew and keep his memory in your hearts. And yeah, spread the kindness, like you're doing every day, which I so appreciate, and I'm so honored to have had this time with you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thank you, thank you. We will be in touch and, again, all of your links will be in the show notes. Thanks for spending a half hour with me. It was the best half hour so far. Yes, and we will. We will talk again.
Speaker 3:Yes, I look forward to it.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow, wow. How about that? Jamie Gardner everybody, I cannot believe this was her first podcast. She's such an amazing speaker. I could sit and listen to her for hours.
Speaker 2:And what do you think about writing a book If you've got something inside you and you just need the world to get it out, but you're not quite sure how to go about it? I've got the link in the show notes there for Jamie. Go to her website and seek her out in the show notes there for Jamie. Go to her website and seek her out, and maybe you too can write a book and help other people through your experiences. It's a great idea and I just absolutely love it. So that will do it for another episode of the Kindness Matters podcast. We will be back next week, of course, with another episode, but in the meantime, I want you to be that person who roots for others, who tells a stranger they look amazing and encourages others to believe in themselves and their dreams. Make sure to follow us on all your social media platforms facebook, tiktok, instagram, linkedin, whatever it be and uh, we will see you again in a week. You've been listening to the kindness matters podcast. I'm your host, mike rathbun. Have a fantastic week.
