Malcolm Mitchell, MY VERY FAVORITE BOOK IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD
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[1:42]Malcolm Mitchell is an author poet and a former American football wide receiver.
[1:47]The famous rookie who helps the New England Patriots win Super Bowl 51.
[1:51]Malcolm serves as the New England Patriots, Summer Reading Ambassador and is the founder of an initiative called Read With Malcolm,
[1:57]which introduces book ownership to students and works to improve literacy and schools.
[2:01]His own share the magic foundation promotes the benefits of reading to kids and underserved communities.
[2:06]Malcolm Mitchell is the best selling author of the magician's hat and author of the new book,
[2:10]My Very Favorite Book in the Whole Wide World, an exciting story that shows reluctant readers.
[2:15]There is a book out there for everyone.
[2:17]Welcome, Malcolm. Thanks so much for coming on mom's don't have time to read books.
[2:21]No, I'm excited. Thank you for having me. By the way, I'm a new father. So,
[2:26]Oakley, my son's mom looked up the podcast and told me I was on a superstar podcast. So, thank you.
[2:35]Well, congratulations on your son. That's really exciting.
[2:38]I appreciate it. How old is he now?
[2:40]He's going to be six months and a few days.
[2:43]Oh, that's good. He got the smiles going and all that.
[2:46]Exactly. Yeah. You have some experience.
[2:49]I have four times. I'm out of the baby stage, but I miss the baby stage. I love babies.
[2:53]I'm like, I don't know. I think I'm ready to be out of the baby stage.
[2:59]I love babies, but now I would be happy to hold someone else's baby. How about that?
[3:05]Yeah, sleeping is nice. I don't miss having four babies. I had twins too. So, that was
[3:10]really tough. But yes, somehow, the days keep going and they get older and that's really fun.
[3:15]Well, I'm very incredible too. I always say a Jasmine Oakley's mom does 99% of the work.
[3:22]And then I could play in about the 1% I have to do.
[3:27]That sounds about right.
[3:32]Well, you know, at different times, different parents step in. So, who knows? Maybe at age five,
[3:37]it'll be 99% you. Or it'll stay the same. Anyway, I'll let you two work that out.
[3:42]Yeah. Well, congratulations on your book, my very favorite book in the whole wide world,
[3:49]which is a fantastic book for listeners who aren't familiar with this book yet.
[3:54]Can you just tell them the basic story of it? And then what inspired you to write this particular
[3:58]book? Yeah, my very favorite book in the whole wide world was inspired by my personal experience.
[4:05]I grew up a striving reader, struggling reader. I believe some words were too big,
[4:11]some books too big, some senses too long and complicated. And I was afraid of reading.
[4:17]My hands would get sweaty. And my behavior really suffered from that in classrooms.
[4:22]But through my journey and to literacy and finding a love for books,
[4:27]I realized how magical they are, how powerful they can be and how much of an impact they can have
[4:33]in one's life. So, I committed to making sure kids understood the importance of reading.
[4:38]And my very favorite book in the whole wide world kind of documents this kid going on this search
[4:44]for this book that inspires him. But through his journey, he realizes that sometimes the best stories
[4:51]can be found inside of ourselves. Love it. Yeah. I didn't see, I kept wondering the whole book.
[4:56]What's the book in a video? Yeah, exactly. You know, he had that nice twist at the end and wrapped it
[5:01]all up with the nice bow. I liked it. So, I thought it was a little at first when I wrote the story,
[5:07]I said, I don't know. It could come off a little corny. But, you know, it's such a truth though, right?
[5:14]You go on this search for this story or search for purpose to find yourself and you realize
[5:22]your answer was always there. And I guess that's a more philosophical look at it.
[5:29]Right. It's true. That's the way it is with most things in life. You know, the things that
[5:34]he's strived the hardest for are often found within yourself anyway. So, I'll carry the corny
[5:39]game with that extra inflating it to life in general. So, I read that you were reading at a middle
[5:44]school level when you got to college. Yeah. What happened then? And also, were you ever diagnosed
[5:49]with any sort of learning disability or was it just a lack of education in the reading arena that
[5:56]caused that like, what was that about? Let me start by saying I was not diagnosed with any learning
[6:00]disabilities. I think my community promoted sports and entertainment over education. And I was
[6:08]just like every other child is no one's fault. It's just the way the community was structured.
[6:13]So, I had this intense draw to sport and football, which worked out, right? I was able to go to
[6:20]the NFL played in a Super Bowl and I had that unworldly experience. But it was really restricting
[6:28]and it kind of placed me into a box only relying on that natural skill set. So, once I got to
[6:34]the University of Georgia, I kind of realized how limited my thinking was. My exposure was not
[6:40]wide or broad. And I wanted to change that. I wanted to feel empowered not just physically,
[6:47]but mentally. And through a series of fortunate events, I discovered that if I wanted to be
[6:56]more emotionally intelligent, more cognitive, a better decision maker, I needed to be literate.
[7:03]And there are different signs that I'm more than willing to dive into if you want that led
[7:08]me to that conclusion. So, I started trying to read. But when I started, I actually started with
[7:15]this book, which it's title of the 40 Laws of Power. And I mean, I wasn't a reader.
[7:21]That's what you started on me. That was your problem. I mean, I don't even know if I could get
[7:28]through that book. And I read like a trillion books. I started with this and I was, of course,
[7:32]I was discouraged. Sorry about, I was terribly discouraged, right? I put the book down. I said
[7:37]forget the book. For people listening, by the way, Malcolm just held up like a thousand page book
[7:43]with like the tiniest font and like a trillion words per page called power, which looks incredibly
[7:48]intimidating, although I'm sure it's fantastic. It is fantastic, but it's still intimidating. And,
[7:53]you know, it took like a year to read that thing. But anyway, I started off with this,
[8:00]kind of like everything, I do everything else in my life. I just jump in, right? It had no thought,
[8:05]got into it. Realize it was terribly difficult, kind of shy away from it, but had this
[8:10]revelation that no, I need to read. So I started reading picture books and kind of took my,
[8:18]athletic approach of you start with fundamentals and then eventually you get better. And then
[8:23]you become your own version of the athlete you want to be. So I said, I thought to myself, well,
[8:29]maybe if I do this same thing with reading, you know, workout. So I started with the fundamentals,
[8:34]I went back and started reading picture books. And you taught yourself, you did it by yourself.
[8:39]My dorm room reading, the hungry, the very hungry caterpillar writing down notes about
[8:44]sentence structure. Wow. And I did that with books like giving treat exclamation mark,
[8:51]hadn't had all the places you'll go. And eventually my theory kind of played out. I thought it
[8:58]would. I gradually got better and better and better. And I went to, I think I started like self-help
[9:04]because they're really easy to read. And then then I moved like graphic novels because they
[9:09]were very simple. And then I moved into young adult that started with Harry Potter and the
[9:15]hunger games. And eventually I was writing down vocabulary words and such and such and, you know, next
[9:22]thing I knew I was reading the 48 Laws of Power. It was, it was a fun journey to even go back
[9:28]and think about. Funny story. I'm glad this is casual because I'm rambling. Please remember, I'm
[9:34]really enjoying it. Funny story. I started reading these books and I figured, you know, if I
[9:40]enhanced my vocabulary, I'd be a better reader. One of my biggest struggles or I couldn't identify
[9:46]the words and I didn't have the skills that are sounding them out. So what I would do is I read the
[9:53]book. If I came across the word, I jotted down and I go to Google, let Google say it to me.
[10:00]and then I challenged myself to use that word
[10:04]in a sentence three times a day.
[10:06]Now, I'm in a locker room for the other athletes,
[10:08]just like me, that had similar backgrounds
[10:11]who didn't have this overwhelming appreciation
[10:15]for education.
[10:16]So I'm using words like superfluous and evanescent
[10:19]and they're looking at me like,
[10:21]what were you talking about?
[10:22]So yeah, it was fun, fun journey.
[10:29]That's really impressive.
[10:31]So you in the middle of college
[10:33]and you're playing football in college
[10:35]and you're soon to be drafted to the Patriots,
[10:38]you could have been doing anything.
[10:40]You could have just been partying every night.
[10:42]You could have been relaxing anything.
[10:44]And instead, you've chosen to completely improve yourself
[10:49]in every way by teaching yourself
[10:52]and pushing yourself through all these stages.
[10:54]What was the huge inspiration?
[10:56]I think my, I mean, if I go back to the route,
[11:00]it probably in my mother grew up in a single parent household
[11:03]in a small town and my mother had this infectious
[11:07]way of encouraging and uplifting and empowering.
[11:12]She was limited due to her own personal challenges
[11:17]and she really enforced this unwavering faith
[11:21]and almost blissfully ignorant belief
[11:23]that you could do anything you said you're behind to.
[11:27]And I adopted that.
[11:29]And that's what helped me be a professional athlete.
[11:33]It's also helped me never bats in a structure here.
[11:36]Never stopped striving to be a better version of myself
[11:42]even today.
[11:43]Always just on the search for more.
[11:46]Not monetarily a materialistic,
[11:49]but just trying to really reach my full potential.
[11:53]And that, I'm not sure that's even possible,
[11:55]but my mom may be think that it is.
[11:58]And I still believe that.
[12:00]So I still go.
[12:01]And when I realized that I would be capped
[12:04]if I wasn't literate, I needed to be literate, right?
[12:07]To stay on track of evolving
[12:10]into a better version of myself.
[12:12]So my mom is the answer to your question.
[12:16]But what is your, have you told her that?
[12:18]Maybe not like that, but she's pretty.
[12:19]So in my book,
[12:21]in my first picture book,
[12:22]the magician's hat, the forward is to my mother
[12:24]for always allowing me to believe dreams can become reality.
[12:28]And then in my second book,
[12:30]my very favorite book in the whole wide world,
[12:32]I wrote to my mom,
[12:34]my very favorite person in the whole wide world.
[12:36]I know, that's so nice.
[12:37]Maybe not directly but indirectly,
[12:39]I think I've tried to acknowledge her.
[12:42]Well, you should just call her when we finish doing this.
[12:45]And just say what you said,
[12:46]because as a mom,
[12:48]if my kid were to call me and say that,
[12:50]I mean, I'm sure she's insanely proud of you to begin with.
[12:52]But just to hear it,
[12:53]I bet it would make her day.
[12:55]Just saying,
[12:55]if you have a free minute, you'll make her smile.
[12:58]My mom, I have all the time in the world.
[13:01]Are you an only child?
[13:03]No, I'm the middle.
[13:04]Wow.
[13:05]And did your siblings grow up with the same drive as you?
[13:09]Or was it just you?
[13:10]Like are they, yeah, the same way?
[13:12]So I have another brother and the younger sister.
[13:15]I'm the middle.
[13:16]I would say they have the same drive as I do.
[13:20]They took different direction, of course.
[13:24]We didn't go all in the same direction.
[13:27]We are on our own individual journeys
[13:30]but that philosophy of never giving up
[13:33]and pulling the best out of their self is something.
[13:35]I think my mom is still at all through us.
[13:38]So what is it when you,
[13:39]I mean, you must have hit so many roadblocks
[13:42]in different areas in your athletic career
[13:45]and you're teaching yourself to read now,
[13:47]writing, forming your nonprofit.
[13:50]I mean, what is it you do?
[13:51]Like how do you get,
[13:53]how do you push past those moments
[13:54]where you feel like you can't keep going?
[13:56]And then you do anyway?
[13:59]I've had several of those books.
[14:01]In college, I went through a series of injuries
[14:04]that kept me out of football for a year and a half.
[14:08]I went through that kind of the same situation
[14:11]when I got to the NFL.
[14:12]I ran it to that issue when I'm reading,
[14:15]forming the nonprofit.
[14:17]I mean, problems are everywhere.
[14:18]It's just the way of life, right?
[14:20]But I heard this powerful message this past weekend
[14:24]that said, how can you have victory
[14:27]if there's no battle?
[14:29]That's good.
[14:30]Right?
[14:31]Yep, that's a good one.
[14:31]So it's like the way I live my life,
[14:35]once it gets hard, it almost energizes me
[14:38]because now I have something to conquer.
[14:42]Now I can get out of bed and say I'm after something.
[14:47]And I don't know, I think that's just maybe a part
[14:50]of my personality.
[14:52]I can't really take credit for being that way
[14:54]because I don't know how I became that way.
[14:56]But there's, it's impossible to be a winner
[15:02]or at the bad word.
[15:03]Let's use a different word.
[15:04]It's impossible to have victory if there's no battle.
[15:07]So there has to be some type of confrontation
[15:10]to accomplish anything.
[15:12]And I'm sure you've even had your own set of obstacles
[15:16]with this brilliant podcast.
[15:19]Thank you.
[15:21]Yes, everybody.
[15:22]I've had lots of obstacles and lots of setbacks and losses
[15:26]and things in life that happen that, you know,
[15:28]knock you down.
[15:29]How did you overcome yours?
[15:30]Thank you for asking.
[15:31]That's nice of you.
[15:33]How did I overcome mine?
[15:34]One thing I always try to do is focus on the things
[15:37]I'm grateful for, even when I'm going through things
[15:39]are really awful.
[15:40]Like it could always be worse.
[15:42]That's sort of my mantra.
[15:43]It always be worse.
[15:44]Like, yes, this is terrible.
[15:45]Yes, I'm devastated or yes, this is awful.
[15:48]But then I start, because I worry about stuff all the time.
[15:51]So then I just don't think about the 8,000 other things
[15:53]that could be really bad.
[15:54]And then I feel a little less bad about what's going on.
[15:56]OK, reverse psychology.
[15:58]Yeah, something like that.
[16:00]Yeah, I got it.
[16:01]OK, cool.
[16:01]That's how I do it.
[16:03]When I want to talk about your nonprofit,
[16:05]but I have to ask about your sort of career-ending injury
[16:08]because I always wonder about athletes
[16:10]who I read my husband's a football fan.
[16:14]But I have to say, I don't really follow football.
[16:16]So I didn't know about your career ahead of time.
[16:18]And he's not even home right now.
[16:20]But he'll probably make fun of me for this.
[16:21]But not that he makes fun of me.
[16:23]You know what I'm saying?
[16:24]Anyway, I didn't know the trajectory of your career.
[16:26]And when I heard about your injury,
[16:28]I thought about all these athletes of all different sports
[16:31]who I hear about, who all of a sudden they
[16:32]have an injury and they have to stop.
[16:33]And I think, oh my gosh, how do you deal with that?
[16:36]I mean, after a lifetime of training and your body
[16:40]fails you when everything else might be in line.
[16:43]What then?
[16:44]Like, how did you deal with that?
[16:45]It's heartbreaking.
[16:46]And to be honest with, you're still terribly
[16:49]difficult to get past that emotionally.
[16:54]Yeah, it's like I'm trying to maybe
[16:57]for those who are listening give a good.
[17:00]It's like you have a 15-year career.
[17:04]And you wake up one day and someone says,
[17:07]now, you can't go to work.
[17:08]You can never go back to that job.
[17:10]And you say, why?
[17:12]And they give you this answer that's out of your control.
[17:16]So it's like it's kind of done a bad job of explaining,
[17:22]but it's kind of like, and I think this is a testament
[17:25]for how difficult it is, right?
[17:27]It's not a bad job explaining.
[17:28]It's something a lot of people can relate to.
[17:31]It's not your fault.
[17:33]And it's not fair, and it happened anyway.
[17:36]Yeah, but you have to accept it.
[17:39]You have to accept it, and you have to move on.
[17:41]You can't stay stuck in the mud, or life will pass you by.
[17:45]It is really difficult.
[17:47]I advise anyone going through any catastrophic changes
[17:51]to get a counselor and kind of help you work through it.
[17:55]I think for me, it was just really tough thinking.
[18:00]I had been playing sports for since I was like nine
[18:02]or 10 years old, right?
[18:03]That's all I was 15 years in.
[18:06]And I just had no understanding
[18:09]of how the world worked without athletics.
[18:11]Imagine being on a different planet,
[18:13]because that's the reality, right?
[18:15]I'll be honest with you.
[18:16]The way athletes think, perform their daily schedule
[18:22]is so different than 99% of the rest of the world.
[18:28]So when I was done being at that athlete,
[18:30]it's kind of like I got thrust in this environment
[18:32]where I didn't even understand it.
[18:34]What do you mean people can't yell at each other and move on?
[18:37]What do you mean that, you know,
[18:39]what do you mean you can't tackle somebody if you're mad?
[18:41]You know, or how do you handle your problems?
[18:45]Because handling my problems were in the form of
[18:49]some physical exertion on another human being.
[18:52]You go to jail for that, you can't do that anymore, right?
[18:54]I had never dealt with anxiety,
[18:57]because by the time I become anxious,
[19:00]I go out on the field and make this extravagant play
[19:03]and it's filled with this euphoric appreciation
[19:07]that, okay, I'm no longer sad or anxious or depressed.
[19:10]So now I have to deal with those real emotions.
[19:13]So it's like reprogramming or evolving,
[19:18]depends on how you want to look at it.
[19:20]And how is your knee now?
[19:21]Like, are you functional in your body?
[19:23]Like, can you go for a run or are you done with everything?
[19:26]Yes, I can do basic workouts.
[19:30]But no more cutting left or right,
[19:33]that phase is over.
[19:34]No more Tom Brady catches and Super Bowls.
[19:37]Yeah.
[19:38]All right.
[19:39]No more left.
[19:40]Maybe some backyard catch.
[19:42]I can handle that.
[19:43]So he just has to come to your backyard.
[19:45]There you go.
[19:45]Exactly.
[19:47]Okay, tell me about Reed with Malcolm
[19:49]and your whole foundation
[19:51]and how you're helping all these other kids read.
[19:53]I started chair of the Vagin Foundation 2016.
[19:56]I graduated from the University of Georgia.
[19:59]And I want to.
[20:00]start the foundation because like many kids in my community millions of kids around the world
[20:05]don't understand the importance of literacy. I don't think that was an anomaly by any means.
[20:10]I couldn't have been because there are hundreds of kids that grew up with that thought the same
[20:15]as I did. And by the way, nice use of anomaly, but keep going. I just wanted I had went through
[20:21]this transformation through literacy. I had become empowered and I wanted to give that gift to other
[20:28]people. I did not want them to feel they only had these two options of being an athlete or
[20:34]entertainer to live a sustainable lifestyle. But in some communities, that's just what you believe.
[20:41]I mean, I'm going to pick up all that's the strangest thing if you go back to my community,
[20:45]like that's not even talked about anyway. I started the foundation because I wanted to spread this
[20:51]magic that I had discovered with other kids around the world hoping that I could unlock their
[20:55]potential just as reading head unlock my. That's why that's the simplest reason of why I started
[21:04]share the magic foundation. And how involved are you? Like is it something you do every day or is it
[21:10]you just check in on board meetings or like how? Yeah, no, every day, every day I'm doing something
[21:17]to further the mission. Right now we have virtual reading challenges that go on annually.
[21:22]Our next one is Red Bull. And we get on the phone each morning and we talk about how to make
[21:28]that accessible to kids and communities where it may be tough. And we also talk about book ownership,
[21:34]how to make sure kids who can't afford a book has one. And that is that and being an author is
[21:40]what I do to say. And how do you distribute the books? Like do you help,
[21:46]do you raise money and then how do you allocate where the books go? I mean, I'm assuming that's
[21:50]how we're expecting. Yeah, so we used to do it through end school programming. That's been
[21:55]affected by COVID. So now we raise money and we purchased books from third parties and we distribute
[22:05]them and to communities like poverty pockets and book deserts. And usually it's to a title one
[22:12]school. We do it through schools versus individual households just because we can do a better job
[22:19]managing the process. So all money raised goes to book ownership and making sure that our virtual
[22:26]program stay free. That's something that's important to me to me reading is like food. It's like
[22:33]I have this belief that necessity should not come out of fee. I'm really bothered that we have to
[22:39]pay for water and food because without it, I wouldn't survive. And it literally kind of falls
[22:44]in that category. That's just how strong I believe in it, right? Without it, you're kind of like
[22:50]stuck in the cycle of poverty and are you kind of caged by not having that social mobility that
[22:56]literacy can grant you. And that's just as deadly as to me is not having shelter. So it should be free.
[23:05]So that's that's my philosophy with the foundation. And do you teach people with the virtual
[23:10]programs how to read? Like what if they get the books, but they they can't even read children's
[23:14]books yet or so we don't we don't do what we do is let me talk about what we do and not take a
[23:21]negative spin at it. What we do is we provide the tool. This is the book and then we inspire. We don't
[23:30]have to ban with today to a productively teach reading. But what we do have for now is the
[23:38]financial capabilities to make sure those who don't have a book have women because that's
[23:42]part of the biggest challenge, right? It's hard to tell a kid or any person to read if they don't
[23:47]have a book or any form of language to read. And then through this sport like enthusiasm, we encourage
[23:56]and that's what the virtual reading programs are really there for to our courage, really reading
[24:01]through this very sport like mentality that obviously I gathered for years of playing sports.
[24:09]Love it. Yeah. So if anyone wants to check it out and get a better understanding and not hear
[24:14]me ramble about it, you can go to read with Malcolm.com just like it sounds, read with Malcolm.com
[24:21]and look through and let me know if you like it. I want to get involved now. So I'm going to donate,
[24:27]but I think that's amazing. I connected with this school teacher in a sort of underprivileged community
[24:32]in Texas earlier this year and she was talking about, I don't know if maybe I could give away a
[24:38]copy or two of a book. So anyway, I donated just to her. I don't even know how this is probably
[24:42]not smartest. Now we're like BFFs, but I just like wrote her a check and I was like here, go buy
[24:48]everybody some books. And she gave all these kids books and she's like some of these kids had
[24:53]never owned a book before in their lives. And now they could like bring home a book and she's like
[24:58]they were so excited to own their own book. And I was like, that's amazing. So I don't know,
[25:02]that's like one of the things that made me happiest this year to do. So if I don't like a much bigger
[25:07]scale, that's probably a better. I'm telling you, when we go on to these schools, these
[25:13]Title I schools and very low income communities, when you give a child a book, they're trying to
[25:17]give it back because no one's ever given them anything. It's astonishing. Even what I've experienced,
[25:22]coming from a similar community, but there are some communities that are way more needed than
[25:28]what I experienced. And doing it for them is, you know, a big part of why I do it.
[25:34]Tell me why you started the podcast. I'm curious. Why did I start the podcast? I didn't even mean
[25:39]to start the podcast. The short answer is I am a writer. I love to write. I've been writing since
[25:44]I was like eight years old. And I had been writing recently a lot of parenting essays.
[25:49]Not like how to. Like I'm crying on the bathroom floor. Are you doing that too? More like that.
[25:54]And my husband, when I said, you should start, you should put all your essays into a book. And I said,
[25:58]oh, I'm gonna have time to read books. And then I thought, oh, that's funny. I'll make that my book
[26:02]title and turns out publishers didn't think that was funny. The advice I got is that they wouldn't.
[26:07]Maybe I shouldn't have listened, but I listened. And then another friend said, well, while
[26:11]you're sort of building up, because I was like, you know, I wasn't even on social media. I had
[26:16]following. I had nothing. Just some freelance articles. And she said, well, why don't you start a podcast?
[26:21]So I said, oh, great. I'll use the title for that book. And I'll do a podcast. And I was
[26:25]going to start by reading. I'm always like sending articles to friends and things. I'll start by
[26:30]just reading great articles and essays. And then I realized that was illegal. I couldn't do that
[26:35]without permission. So I thought, okay, well, I'll try interviewing authors. I knew like two authors
[26:40]on I'll see how that goes. And I just started and I was like, oh, my gosh, I love this. I love this so
[26:45]much. So that's incredible. So I have an anthology coming out in February. I actually have
[26:53]two anthologies and two children's books that I have deals for now. So I'm all congratulations.
[26:58]Oh, yeah. I'm doing that. I have lots more writing that I want to do. I just know I don't have time.
[27:03]Since I know you do, I get a free book now. Yes, you do. No, I'm giving my book to every
[27:10]everybody who's been on my podcast. Oh, really? That's nice. So I'll ask for your address,
[27:14]you know, three email. I'll send you one. No, that's nice. I'm not following you. If you want
[27:17]to contribute my next, so it's all written by guests who have been on my podcast writing essays.
[27:23]So I would love you to do my next one. It's not coming out till next November, but we're
[27:27]still getting some submissions for that. Do you have any idea? I have a ton of interest.
[27:31]Yeah. Maybe this is inappropriate to say on the podcast. Well, I won't put this part in the,
[27:38]I won't release. I want to give you my cell number in the chat. That sounds great.
[27:43]It's really cool. Isn't it amazing how that takes place? Right?
[27:47]You start this journey with no really anticipation or expectation as the word
[27:52]expectation to do anywhere. And by the time you look up, you're like, wow, I have
[27:57]repooks that I'm responsible for sharing with the world. It's kind of cool.
[28:02]I had a similar experience. I self published originally because I wrote the story in
[28:07]college. I wrote the magician's hat while I was in college. Oh my gosh. And because of NCAA
[28:13]rules, I was restricted from signing with publishers and taking money and stuff like that.
[28:18]That's why I decided to self publish. And I wasn't very patient. And I did it with no expectation.
[28:26]Right? I just had this belief that, you know, I'm an athlete. And for some odd reason, people think
[28:32]I have something worthwhile to say. So maybe I should think of something worthwhile to share.
[28:37]And that's, that's what got me into writing. It's me realizing where I was positioned in life
[28:44]and trying to find some valuable way to inspire someone else outside of catching the past,
[28:50]right? That only comes. Why have you not written a memoir yet?
[28:54]I don't think I'm that interesting. Yes, you are. You would have a great book in you.
[28:59]Yeah. I don't know. I get bored with myself actually. That's why I do so many different
[29:05]ideas. I think there's a story in there that I think it doesn't have to be that long. Well,
[29:11]anyway, no, I'm sure you have a ton on your plate, but I think you should write a memoir.
[29:14]I think it would be really inspiring. It would get more people reading, get more people helping.
[29:18]Maybe your book will inspire me. Okay, five. All right. Well, I will let you go. Thank you so much.
[29:25]I will text you about writing for this anthology. And we'll stay in touch. I'll send you a copy of
[29:30]the book. And thank you for coming on my podcast. I go, like, believe your partner and go
[29:36]spend some time with your baby. Yeah, I like this is fun. I enjoyed it. And thank you for having me.
[29:41]I love to stay engaged. However, I can't. This is cool. I love this too. This is great. Thank you.
[29:47]You're really inspiring. You're hardworking and driven. And I love it. It's awesome.
[29:52]Well, same to you. Give yourself credit. And you're doing it with four children. And I'm
[29:58]doing it as a lazy.
[30:00]Okay, so more kudos to you than me.
[30:04]But thanks a lot.
[30:05]All right, all right, I'll be in touch.
[30:09]Thanks, Mark.
[30:10]All right, okay, bye-bye.
[30:13]Thanks so much to today's sponsor,
[30:15]my bookshop.org and my Amazon influencer store.
[30:18]You can check out my Amazon store at amazon.com
[30:22]slash shop slash moms don't have time to read books.
[30:25]And my bookshop.org store,
[30:27]which is bookshop.org slash shop slash Zibi Owens.
[30:33]And I hope that you will find every book
[30:36]that you are looking for.
[30:37]Thanks, thanks for listening to this episode
[30:39]of moms don't have time to read books.
[30:41]Don't forget to follow me on Instagram,
[30:44]at Zibi Owens and at moms don't have time to read books.
[30:47]Also sign up for my newsletter at zibiowens.com
[30:49]and sign up for my virtual book club
[30:51]and meet lots of authors on Zoom every other week.
[30:53]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Textures Sound
[30:56]for the Sound Editing.
[30:57]And thank you to Morning Moon Productions
[30:59]for providing this fantastic intro and out trim music.