The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – The Summit: Journey to Hero Mountain by Deborah Johnson

Episode Date: October 14, 2021

The Summit: Journey to Hero Mountain by Deborah Johnson THE SUMMIT is an allegorical tale of Mallery, our female protagonist who hides her ideas in a book beneath her pillow. She decides to escape the constraints of the land of Baybel to pursue her Summit, which holds the promise of a bigger and better future. In this realistic fantasy, she crosses multiple terrains, mountainous caverns, and rocky hills. Along the way, she discovers she has the courage and everything within her to press on to reach the very top. Mallery, which means "the unfortunate and insignificant one," uses her Band of Hope to affirm her ideas, strengths, and uniqueness to set her apart from the ordinary. She emerges from the tangled forest, cave of discovery, and bridge of possibility strong and fearless, ready to meet her future. Readers will enjoy the magical realism of traveling through the different lands. Especially relevant for today is the Land of Allure and the Social Media Circus, which serve to distract Mallery from her goal. Only after she gets stuck on a roundabout does she see the emptiness in what's not real. Mallery has to regain her focus to stick with her larger purpose in getting to her Summit, which is atop Hero Mountain(R). The principles she learns along the way not only contribute to her success, but are applicable for most any reader. To review a book like this one is a huge privilege. BECAUSE, it previews the multitude of readers who will be deeply challenged and inspired in their life journey to go 'big', to 'go beyond' to believe where others doubt and diminish their dreams. To review a book like this one is a huge privilege. BECAUSE, it previews the multitude of readers who will be deeply challenged and inspired in their life journey to 'go big, ' to 'go beyond' to believe where others doubt and diminish their dreams. Highly recommended...amazing gift! Naomi Rhode, CSP, CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame, Past. Pres. National Speakers Assoc., Past Pres. International Fed. of Prof. Speakers Note from the Author: My hope is for you to reach your successful Summit as you make decisions to conquer your own obstacles and demons of personal and professional development that hold you back from reaching your potential.

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times. Because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. This is Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com. The Chris Voss Show.com.

Hey, we're coming to you with another great podcast. Who knew we'd do it again? Almost 1,000 episodes. We just figured we'd make one more anyway guys so thanks for tuning go to youtube.com for chest crisp i'll hit the bell notification button you can watch the glorious video of this free for an unlimited time you want to get that offer what's still available you can also go to facebook linkedin twitter instagram tiktok all those places those crazy kids are playing you can see uh different variations of the show and cuts and all that sort of good stuff. You can also go to goodreads.com, 4Chess, Chris Voss,

where you can see all the books we're reading and reviewing over there as well. Today we have an amazing author on the show because that's all we ever have is amazing authors. We put them in the Google machine and we go, amazing authors. And they come up and we go, hey, you want to come on a podcast? And they go, sure. This isn't a book that's coming out. You want to pre-order this thing because it's going to be out October 12th, hot off the presses. Have that new ink smell that gives you that little subtle high. Just kidding. This book is called The Summit, Journey to Hero Mountain. Deborah Johnson is the author of that book. For those people who used to smell the markers, the permanent markers

when you're in elementary school, or the people that chew up the crayons like me. I always hate the crayons. The crayons are the best part of school lunch, I think. Deborah, let's talk about her. She's not only written multiple books and albums, but hundreds of songs, three

full-length musicals, and is the producer of the popular podcast women at halftime i feel like there should be like an nfl whistle there her fifth book is an allegory there's a great word uh released in 2021 of course like we mentioned october yeah there she goes i can't even hold her hold her back. She won't even let me finish her bio. This is how exciting she is. Wait until she gets on the show. She relishes the creative process and is focused on helping those at mid-career or the halftime of life maximize their skills, talents, and resources to make their second half better than their first. Debra was the past president of the National Speakers Association in Los Angeles and has written and produced multiple online courses.

She's up for multiple Grammy Awards and spending over 20 years in the entertainment industry. She's built multiple self-driven businesses and is an expert on how to constantly reinvent yourself in a gig economy. Debra speaks and performs for both live and virtual events. And what do you know? She's here live. Welcome to the show, Debra. Well, thank you. Quite an intro.

Yes, we try to give it that. Who wrote that? Who wrote that? I made that up off the cuff. That's right. That's right. So welcome to the show. Give us right. That's right. So welcome. Welcome to the show.

Give us your plugs so people can find you on the interwebs. Multiple websites, of course. But you can get me at goalsforyourlife.com. That's one word, goalsforyourlife.com. Womenathalftime.com. You can find my podcast, of course. I have djworksmusic.com. That's been there forever.

And this was my very first website. And then Debra Johnson Speaker. Any of those, you can get to a lot of my products and just what I do. And I help those maximize their skills, resources, and their talents, especially at the mid-career halftime. People are asking, what's next? And that's what I do. And I'm a creator. I love to create product, created a lot of product. And so I do have music publishing and all of that. And of course, this is when you mentioned allegory, people go, what is an allegory? I heard about that somewhere in school, but it's a story within a story. I felt like people need to identify right now. They want to get into it. And it's a very simple story, very simple, but it has some great walkaway principles and fun to read a little magical

realism in it. And yeah, it was fun. Probably more difficult to write than some of my self-help books because to simplify it, it's harder to cut things down. I thought Alec Gorey was a guy named Al who was gory. I don't know. You probably just studied a lot harder than I did. I just got a pink slip from

the radio station. They just fired me. As soon as we're done with this. The joke was that dumb. What motivated you want to write this particular book? This, because I felt especially coming out of this year and a half of isolation or whatever, I'm attracted to those out of this year and a half of like isolation or whatever, I'm attracted to those types of stories. And sometimes I like to read something totally

different. And I had the idea to begin with, there was a little spark and that because I, I keep note cards and I'm always, I'm full of ideas, you know, projects that I could do forever. And I had seen this scene that looked like, oh, would that be a great place to go and just spend a month and just write? And that it was gorgeous. And then I thought, you know what? Nobody has the time to do that anymore. No one would be there.

And so I came up with the Idea Factory so that no one was there and all of these unfinished projects. So I wrote that down on a note card. And then I wrote some other things down on a note card. I came up with the social media circus, like, okay, what is this whole, it's a big circus, it's a big game. And so that all became kind of parts of the book. I had started first in thinking I would call it like the idea factory or something like that. But then I thought, oh no, this is a full journey all the way through these different lands and these different places where this character starts out. Her name is Mallory, which her original game was not good enough.

But Mallory means ill-fated. And she became, through this journey, she became Andriette, which means strong and courageous to be able to reach, actually reach her summit. And I thought that's, it's a very simple little story, but all of these, you know, parts of this story weave together that we can really, many of us can really identify with. There you go. There you go. And what's Hero Mountain? Hero Mountain is a trademark that I have. It's part of being able to have your personal and your professional life connected. So I have a program of Hero Mountain to reach the Hero Mountain Summit. I run twice a year. But we talk about mindsets. We talk about skills, competency, relationships. There are six parts of this, your purpose and putting those all together that because

your core, it's very important putting all those parts together to link your personal and your professional life. And especially at mid-career and halftime, you start thinking a lot more, okay, what is life really all about? So those are the things that really start coming together at that point. That's awesome. That's awesome. The summit journey to Hero Mountain. Where do you get time to do all the things you do? Hundreds of songs and all this stuff. How do you get the time? You know, I am asked that so much. I know it's really funny though to me.

I am not writing a book about it all. But I really like, I like to work, love to work. I get up very early, keep pretty good habits. Part of Hero Mountain is developing systematic habits as well. But I love doing, and I finish projects. I actually finish them. Some people have a hard time. I've known so many people. They start, oh, yeah, or I'm going to start. But I do finish.

But I do, I get up early. I get up first thing I do. I have my little quiet time. Then I do exercise. I've had this sort of routine, and it's just one step after another. My dad always instilled in me, plan, get your tools ready the night before. So you do that. And I was born on a dairy farm. Okay. So anybody born on a dairy farm, you're up to getting up with those cows. So I get up early. There you go. So what do you hope people are going to take away from the book what

are they going to what do you hope they leave with and they're inspired by that they have everything with them they to do what they really want to do and desire to do now that doesn't mean that you can do everything you need to evaluate what's realistic in your life. But if you've had this dream forever and there's parts of this that you can put together, you can do that. And one of the mindsets that our character has to get around is saying, I can instead of I can't. And I will instead of I won't. And so there were parts of this that in our lives, that that's that self-talk, that negative self-talk and all of that. And it doesn't matter what level you are at. I was just doing an interview again this morning. It doesn't matter if you are, have been on the very, very top. We've known some very successful artists and very successful models and all, and that still with that little self-doubt, and it doesn't matter if I've just put out a new great project and I still struggle. I have to go back and do my journaling. So there's parts of that that I hope everyone leaves with that hope. The character wears a band of hope.

She can't lose it. And without it, we're all lost. We are. That's true. Hope is the thing that, you know, one of my favorite quotes from Bobby Kenny's speech was the South African ripple of hope speech. And he talks about, we send forth these ripples of hope to save the world.

What else do you want to touch on in the book to encourage people to go? You can always listen. There's the audio book and always listen and you can always just sample, but it's just has, it's fun. There's some little illustrations in there. I put a couple maps in here,

which was really fun because I got, when I was writing this, I thought I need to read something that I've never really read. I've watched, you know, some of that. I'm not a big TV watcher, but I watch some movies. But I read all of the Harry Potter books.

Oh, wow. I can't believe that J.K. Rowling can write like 800 pages. That's a lot of pages. But I just noticed how the characters were developed and how you get into the places and envisioning those. So I put in some illustrations with some maps, but I really think I've had some reviews coming in because it's just now being released and I've had it out for review and that this is really appropriate also for those even younger in their 20s and theirs, that are wondering, okay, is this really what I want to do? And it's a good one when you're thinking about what you want to do in life.

A lot of people who have this thing where my mom told me that I could have it all. And you can't have it all and be happy. Am I incorrect there? You can or you can't. Which way is it? I don't know. You meet a lot of unhappy people that are miserable and unhappy because they have this mentality. They can have it all and you just can't have it all. In my opinion, you need to, you need to go back to this funny quote though. You need to define all what is all to me in my life it's not all about just making profit i know for some people it really is they did well you need to make a certain amount to live but i have what i need

right now and i think at a certain point people get to a point where they they want to pursue i know people that have wanted to pursue their own side business. Well, start it as a side business and see how that's going to pan out. And there was this big emphasis on following your passion and following your dreams and the big, steep jobs thing. And after reading So Good They Can't Ignore You, that was a great book, by the way. If anyone has not read that, you need to read that, especially because your passion can develop with expertise. Figure out where, as you get really good at something, I can sit and play a piano and sing and talk to you for hours upon end.

That is a natural, and it's very enjoyable to me. It's not what I do all the time right now. I've not done club work or even some of the headline entertainment that I've been doing. But it's what, when you start getting into your expertise and being really good at something,

there's a joy that happens. There's a joy. I hire editors to help me write because it's not something I grew up. Some people are just, I listen and I read to some of their books and I'm thinking, wow, you guys are just like amazing. But I need editors around me, but there's such a joy in putting out a good product that I feel will help people. You just

have to find out where's your expertise? What are you best at within that expertise? And then, then pursue that. But no, there are a lot of, but there's a lot of people also, Chris, that need a box. They need this. They are not entrepreneurs. They can't think about, well, I had to put a schedule.

No, let me just show up and stamp. There are people like that. That's fine. I've never been, that's not my makeup. I think as I think about it, I think where people get delusional is they think that having it all means that every one of those things that they'll have, when you say all, which usually includes everything, it will be perfect. I'll have the perfect husband. I'll have the perfect marriage. I'll have the perfect life. I'll have the perfect children. And just going down that road to hell to perfection is maddening

because it's unattainable. And I think some people really get stuck on that. Perfect is the enemy of done. It really is. I've known those who have tried to get something so perfect, entering contests, doing all of this, and they didn't submit because I just didn't get it. I just didn't get it done. I was just trying to get it one more time and I missed the deadline. And just at some point you just have to leave things. And when you say all, that's where really you have to get what your core values are,

what really means the most to you. Family has always meant the most, one of the top priorities. I've raised three sons, still married to the guy I went on a blind date to many years ago. Amazing. And I'm very thankful. But those priorities,

I've kept those priorities. I have worked, I've changed my work schedule around. Many times to work with, when you have three boys, four and under, that's just a ball of like energy all the time. You change your life and your schedule around. So when I write and when I even compose now, I'm writing from experience and it's such a joy. And if people get something out of that, again, it's about getting the message

out there. And that's part of what my mission is. But having it all is going to mean something different. I think you got to sit down and say, really, what is that? What does that really mean? And when a parent says, oh, you can have it all, they need to help at least guide that child through. What does that really mean? Because I tell you what, kids will see right through that. They are pretty smart. Yeah. There's so many people that they think they have this vision that everything is perfect.

Like I thought when I became successful, like everyone loved me and I'd have all the things I wanted and everything would be perfect. And the more successful, the more rich I got, the more problems I had, the more BS that went on. And some people liked me less and I can't blame them

knowing how I turned out for a while. But I thought by being successful and having money and stuff that it was like, oh, everything just falls into place and all you do is get bigger problems. I think people need to keep that perspective. And I think you said it great in the beginning when you said sometimes you need to say, I can't do this. I don't want to do this. You need to cut it down to something that's achievable.

So how did you go from being a milk farmer, milking cows early in in the morning to becoming an entrepreneur and an artist a milk farmer that's pretty funny because i don't think i've ever milked a cow yeah i do yeah because i was born on a dairy farm and that's my job oh dairy farmer yeah i was born on a dairy farm but that's about it now my dad milked cows i tell you what he would have the stories for you the night before they even had all the electronics. But how did I become an entrepreneur? I did not even realize I was an entrepreneur. To be

honest, Chris, I had no idea. Went through school, got the graduate degrees, got the teaching degrees first. And I taught. I actually taught school. I was offered contracts when contracts were not being offered. And I ended up teaching a couple of years, thought, oh, this is just in secondary. This is not what I want to do.

And so I got the graduate work done and then ended up doing some travel and tour with music groups. And then taught, so actually met my husband, finished graduate work and taught in a college as well, did some of that, especially when we had kids. But I didn't really realize, I knew now I was creating at this time. I was starting as a music director, did all of that stuff that you could do as a musician. I always talk about multiple streams of income. You've got to have them in a gig economy. But I started realizing I was more of an entrepreneur when I started doing albums.

And I remember the first engineer I was working with, and we were working with this big neve board at this point, this before everything, way back when, before everything was all electronic. You might remember some of those days and you were, all of you were doing your little levels. And he looked at me at one point and he said, man, you are. And I had to go and look up that word because I thought it was bad. He just called me tenacious. And, but I, the word entrepreneur wasn't readily thrown out there.

It wasn't, it became more of a thing. And now of course, whole college courses are on degrees and all around, but that, if I had known that or given that opportunity, I would have probably recognized it sooner, but I've always been a creator. I started DJ works when I was growing up and I would make cards for our neighbors because my name was Debra Jean. And then my, then it was my last name, but now it's Debra

Johnson. So it's still DJ. It's fine. But that's, that's all the way through prepared me for realizing really what I've been all along. Yeah. That's awesome. You've written hundreds of songs, three musicals, now five books. I'm getting tired just reading that. I know. And this book was probably most like one of my musicals. I started writing musicals because I was working with a coach that said, this would be a good way for you to expand your song. And so I thought, okay, I'll start writing. And so I did and had really no idea at that point, when you write them, you really need to produce them and work with actors and work with directors. And musicals are great. They're so much fun, but they are money pits. But yeah, it was probably

writing this book like an allegory was most like writing the script for a musical because of the characters. And the actors really give you gifts when you put them in these characters and you're going, oh, that's how they would act. Oh, that's how they would respond. Because it's a little different than a musician. But those were, their musicals or the crafting of those is quite something. It's a big work. It's a big work.

Oh, yeah. We had one of the producers for, he did, they used to call him the chairman of the board being a studio, the board of tracks and stuff. And he produced, what was it, Asia, Steely Dan's Asia, I think Gaucho. And he worked with everybody from Streisand to you name it for the 70s on. And yeah, it's a lot of work to put all this stuff together. We talked about how all the different engineering and producing and it's crazy. It really is. It's fascinating. And I have a little studio,

but I call it a production studio. And when I've done projects at some point, I go other places and because those guys are on it all the time. And when you're just coming back to it, you're going, okay. So, yeah, there's a lot involved in the whole process. But again, the secret is not leaving it undone. It's to finish it. So when did you write your first song? Do you remember?

My sisters and I grew up singing together. And we did fairs, we did churches and my beginning piano teacher, I started when I was nine and a half playing. Some people, they think, oh, I've got this prodigy. I need to start them at four. I need to start at the age of eight or nine is for kids. But I progressed really fast, started, she had some music groups and, and so she brought my sisters and I in and we would sing with some of their groups and then we sing and do our stuff too so I started when we started doing performances just my sisters and I started writing for us first and I'm sure really bad songs and and but doing that and just progressing. And as I had jobs to, as I was doing events, sometimes I'd write a song for that. And it wasn't anything that I was just regularly doing until I started writing a lot more for like my first album.

And I started writing for that, which was actually a gospel album. Because I was, one of the things you can do as a music musician of course is either work Bach did this he worked for the church or the court and so there's usually a job at a church so but I did a gospel album which is a very nice songs in it and album and then from there just started and I was music directing so I start writing usually it's writing for something so if I write for a project for a a musical, for something is what I usually end up writing, not just a right to write. That's awesome. So what inspires you to write and keep writing and of course, get it done? What inspires? I think any creator,

you have a spark of an idea. You hear some of these that wake up in the middle of the night. Oh, I've got this hit song, but usually it's crafting and writing is rewriting. And so what inspires, usually there's something that inspires, but then it's the discipline. I call it seek discipline to finish and to rewrite it enough that it's, it's got, it's more polished. And that even happens. Sometimes we hear this all the time, and it'll happen when you're recording it in the studio, and you're going to do it, produce it. Can you do that a little bit differently? Can you change that around?

Hey, that word, a couple of these things. So those sort of things happen when you're actually then producing them, and you have to be willing to change and then put it out. Yeah. It's funny how the same thing with writing music works for writing books as well, the editing and the constant fixing and making it better and better. Yeah, it really does. It's the rewriting, and it's not always easy.

And when you get the notes back from the editor, you're thinking, oh, I thought it was better than that. Just, oh, my gosh. But they're right. Oh my gosh. And it's going to put it. And one of the hardest things, Chris, and this I really went through with musicals, and it really applied to this book as well, in a story. Because if a song or if a scene does not move the story ahead, you need to be willing to cut it. And there were a couple songs in one of the musicals I wrote,

it's called Sarina. I call it the Les Mis of Dr. Chivago, Les Mis or whatever, what I called it, but it's of the Russian revolution right then, Nicholas and Alexandra, a little bit of the fictional story within there.

And I had seen a couple of these great songs in there. And people liked them a lot. But I had for the musical performance with the actors, I needed to cut them. And it was like, oh, that was a great song. And I will produce it separately and have the music out for it. But it's not a part of the music. It didn't need to be a part of the musical. And the same thing in some of our writing is that we have to be willing to say, I could probably make this a little shorter. I have a son who's an attorney. I know I look much too young, but I have a son who's an attorney,

and some of the training that he had to do when he was working some internships and starting to work with writing the briefs for his company, that they would say, no, make it shorter. Make it shorter. And you never think an attorney had to do this. But he said, if you can do it in five words, do it in five. And the same thing in some of our writing. And it's not easy. It's hard to do that, to scale it down,

especially in a story. Yeah. You're like, I wrote all these words. I wrote all this stuff. It's an opus. Yeah. And they're like, no, you can cut that down for the radio. It needs to be three minutes there, baby.

Oh, I know. It's hard. Don't people want to hear me? Don't they? Yeah. There you go. There you go. Now, so you've also done entrepreneur stuff.

You've produced and written multiple online courses. Now, one last question I have for you on the music portion. Where can people find your music and your albums and all that good stuff? Where's a good place for that? DJ Works Music. If you go there, it's all connected. DJWorksMusicAllTogether.com. And I do have a products page on there and you can find everything.

You used to be able to do a lot of stuff through CD Baby, which was great for an independent and a great company, but they merged and shut down and some of my stuff's on Amazon as well, but if you want a physical album

or anything like that, I still have CDs in my closet. Yes, I do. I've got those, or you can request a download. And I've got plenty of product, a lot of product. And Sheet Music Plus, I have lots of sheet music available for immediate download. You can look up DJ Works, and you can see a bunch there. And some of my most popular downloads are some of the hymns, which are interesting to me. But I think people just really enjoy, and some of the pianists especially enjoy sitting down and playing them. Do you do any heavy metal?

I'm just kidding. No. Sometimes I'm asked. People think they're so funny, too. They come up and ask for something. What is it? Pat Boone, didn't he do a heavy metal album? Oh, he I'm asked. People think they're so funny too. They come up and ask for something. What was it? Pat Boone? Didn't he do a heavy metal album?

Oh, he probably did something. Yeah. Mr. White Shoes. Good guy. It's funny when I saw that, I'm like, I don't think that's right. That shouldn't be legal. So you've, I'll get back to this then. You've written and produced multiple online courses, been an entrepreneur.

Tell us about some of the work you've done in that thing and what sort of courses you've made. Courses. The first one I did, it's called keys to the keyboard. And I did it because I experiment a lot. And then when I tell people to do technical, expand their technical abilities, which a lot of people have had to do now, it's like you need to get into reps and you need to be willing to take a risk. So when I was doing keys to the keyboard, I did this for a friend who was really having a hard time. She was teaching voice in New York, a professional singer. And she said, man, I'm just, I'm having a hard time because I got to hire a pianist for every single lesson. I said, Karen, why don't you play? Why don't you just play for your own lessons?

Oh, no, I'm not good enough. I said, do you know your chords? Well, sort of, but not really. I said, you can do it. You can do it. So I wrote this little course, simple course, on making sure that all of your chords, major, minor, diminished, all your inversions and all. Basics. And basics for actually a lot of vocal music majors that couldn't pass the piano proficiency.

A lot of them, I was coaching them as I was going through because they were having trouble with theory. But it was a lot of times it was the vocal majors because they never had that sort of theory of putting all of these improvisation. I started out in piano on improvisation, and that's why I play almost anything. So, but that's what I put together with green screen. Okay, so it was not perfect, but it's pretty good. When I look at it and the technology that I was able to use at that point, and I got into it and I thought, oh, this is interesting. I could do, people can

access this all online. And it's changed a lot. Since I first did that, I've been able to put it now on a lot of different platforms. That's what's changed. The videos are the same, but from the different platforms. So then I started some other piano because I did an instrumental piano for kind of intermediate pianists that wanted to call Wayfarer's Journey. Great little album with all the sheet music, but I put out some courses for that. I put out some professional development courses with my very first book, Stuck is Not a Four Letter Word. I put out a large course for that, that you can, you can get that has study guides with it. I come from an educational background too.

So I understand, you know, how make the videos shorter and put those nice and a lot of visuals. I use a lot of visuals, of course, video within the courses too. So it made them interesting. Basically I was learning as I went along, but I think the online, a lot of people want that personal interaction right now. So I try to do both. And I don't do a lot of private coaching. That's why I put my Hero Mountain Summit. It's only twice a year. But you can get a little more access to me. But you can have both.

You can have the online courses, but you can also have that personal, almost like that push that you need. What was one of the biggest challenges you faced as a solo artist? I think one of them is what to say no to. We were talking about that because if I don't say no to enough stuff, I get, there's too much taking up my time. I can't do, spend enough time or enough. I think this is what, where that idea factory comes in to have ideas and to be creative. You gotta have a little time and space. Some of that I think has been some of the challenge as an entrepreneur. I, as a musician coming from a gig economy where you'd go gig to gig and I've worked on referral for years.

I've just worked. I'm the 1% of the 1% that have usually actually worked in that field. But the business part of it, I was never trained in actual business. And this is what I've worked with interns at the college. I've had them in working with them and that are music majors. And I said, you know what? You need to be a business major and do your music, but be a business major because most of them are never going to make it as musicians. And to be honest, but the business part of it, you've got to know. So that's probably with Chris, that's been one of my challenges. A lot of people come from that. They know business, they know how to do that, but I had to learn, love marketing. I do love marketing because again, I like putting out product. I can put out marketing product,

great stuff. But building that business, asking for the business and doing all of that is more of a challenge for me. I'm a little more soft sell and I always will be. And what I do, I've got a boatload of experience and of what I can help people do and varied experience. And not a lot of people do what I do. So that's my uniqueness. Or as much as you do. Or as much. And I always will. I tell my boys, when you put me in the home, I'll probably still be playing, doing something. They probably won't be able to catch you to put you in a home. Get her. She's running away. So, you know, you talk about the halftime, the halfway through

your life concept, but your podcast, of course, is Women at Halftime. I went through this whole reassessing my life during COVID because I had nothing better to do in my COVID foxhole. And I started thinking about where I was. I'm 53 years old. I know I look like I'm 20, but Brad Pitt calls me for tips. But I started realizing that this was a moment for not only reflection, but a moment maybe to redesign my life and decide. The questions started coming out. What do we do once we come out of this hole of COVID? And what's life going to be like? What's my life going to be like? And there were a lot of things I realized either accomplished or I wanted to do, or my values had changed a little bit. And I started realizing and telling my friends this, I go, I'm in the last half or maybe

two quarters of my life. Maybe there's last third, maybe, I don't know. We'll see how it goes. I started thinking about my father's age and when he died. And, of course, he had a lot of health complications that he had at my age right now that I don't have. Some of it was self-inflicted. But I started thinking about it. And I'm like, how much time do I got on the road? There's a road ending somewhere down here. And I'm definitely past maybe the halfway point.

And I probably should start thinking a little bit more serious. I picked up on that and I was thinking in like a football concept because I'm a Raiders fan, but tell us a little bit about that. Maybe your podcast and the concept of approaching a life in that way. Yeah, it's a great question. And, and I call it women at halftime because mostly women will be attracted to listening. But there's a lot of men that listen to, by the way. And a lot of men that really need to, like you, look at halftime of life. And I married a professional athlete, so I do know what halftime is. There you go.

Although I'm not an athlete, believe me. But I think there are questions that we do ask. And in the last five years, my husband and I have lost both sets of parents. And one thing, my father, I thought my father was going to live to 100. He had talk about energy and the amount of things that he had done. And just an amazing man, giving man, entrepreneur. I think I got a lot of my entrepreneur from him. But my mother, too.

But my mother had some diagnosis and some breast cancer and all that sort of stuff. And she was doing okay, but we thought she was going to go first. My father got ill. We lost him in 11 weeks. 11 weeks. That was it from the moment that he was diagnosed with two types of cancer. And so I was able to, and I was president of a nonprofit at that point, president of our national speakers association, LA. And so I was running this board. I was doing

a lot of stuff virtually and caring for my dad, driving an hour and a half and to be able to care for him subsequent days. And he said something to me. He said, I'm not afraid of dying. I know where I'm going, but I really like living. And for him to say that, and that's what I use in my speech, my keynote speech, I really like living. And if you were at the point of your life where you're saying, and you're starting to question and you're going, I think there is a little more. I really like living. For some people, that means giving their time to a nonprofit. I just interviewed for my podcast, just produced this one that was out last week for a young gal actually that climbed Mount Everest. And now she's helping these women out in Nepali girls in Nepal. And she's going there

this week. And this is her, she's a mission based speaker, a mission based business now, because that's what's driving her to do other things, to do her writing and everything else. So you may find yourself at a point of your life thinking, what next and what else is there that I can do that would encourage and help? And that's really why this part of my life, that's what the focus is, helping others. I think there are very few mentors, true mentors that can actually say, I can help you with that. Or I can find somebody to help you with that. I don't work well with people that are stuck in their victim hood. You can go somewhere else. I'm just not going to help that. It's just not me. But there are, and in life, and that's what I'm about now.

I can give you those tools. I can help you out with the areas that you are struggling. And I think that sort of mission, Chris, is what I think will help drive most anybody when they really find their stronger purpose. And our character, even in the summit, she finds herself on this endless roundabout. And actually trademarked roundabout hero, because she has to get out of that roundabout. Because she's on that endless roundabout, because she was getting so distracted with other things. And until she got her back to her main purpose of what she came on that trip to do, which was to get to her summit, she will keep spinning and getting distracted. And I think, but many of us reevaluate. When I

started expanding my from music into speaking, I found that it wasn't, you know, it was focused so much on just, okay, I'm going to do the speech. But I found there was so much more to it and that there really needed to be a mission and an actual purpose. And that heart, that core heart comes through a speech. It comes through the messaging. And I think people, if you're missing that, that might be something that you really need to stop and reevaluate. Spend time. And I'm big on journaling, too. It just needs to be a short line.

But to reevaluate is very helpful. I do a lot more journaling, too. And we had somebody on the show who talked about how leaders do a lot of reflection. And that reflection really helps when you sit down and go, what the hell did I do today? And you reflect on some of your achievements. It's nice to go back and look at them. And then also you just reflect on your life. And I think people reflect on stuff because I meet people in life that they, you're like, what did you do? You went through a whole day, hundreds of people or whatever it is that you do for your job,

and you didn't learn anything? There's no stories? I always have 50 stories from my day. I'm like, you won't believe what I saw over here. This person, that person, yeah? Especially when I had a lot of employees. There was always stories, man. I could have written four books of stories about employees and my adventures with employees.

I think adventures, is that the right word? So there you go. But yeah, Wing is really inspiring and really motivating for people. What else do we need to touch on before we go out? We did so much. I don't know. You can ask me. I told you you can ask me whatever you will.

What do you think about quantum physics? Yeah, I would have a trouble with that. Don't ask me. As I say, don't ask me the math questions. I get all that stuff done, but yeah. I point those too, so there you go. So as we go out, give us your plugs so people can find you on the interwebs. Okay, you can get, again, a number of websites.

My keynote is The Hero Inside. You'll see that if you're watching video, of course, you can see that sign behind me. But and you can see an eagle there. I'm wearing a little eagle today because it's something my father had given me. And he had started, I should have known all along he was an entrepreneur. He had co-founded a cement tool company. He was also a fire captain. He did a number of things.

And but this was their logo was that eagle. And so that He did a number of things. But this was their logo, was that eagle. And so that always means a lot. And I wrote a song called You Can Fly, or I Can Fly. But the hero inside is that. But my websites are Debra Johnson Speaker. It's goalsforyourlife.com. You'll find a lot on my goalsforyourlife.com. There'll be links to everything, to even the music, djworksmusic.com.

And there'll be links to my musicals. You can see tons of videos. I've got YouTube channel. I've got all sorts of things. You can connect with me, Debra.Johnson on my Facebook site. And I'm on LinkedIn, Debra J. Johnson on LinkedIn. And yeah, so yeah, you can definitely find me and definitely find the summit. And when you, cause there's an, an author bio there as well. So you can read a little bit about me there. Thank you. A little tiny plug on that,

but all of that, any other questions that you have, Chris, you are like the question King. That's what we do. We've done a few podcasts. Yeah. I on this thing. Yeah, I love this. I love this format.

When I started doing podcasts, it's okay, this is my wheelhouse. I really love doing it. I love being able to ask the questions as well, but also interact. It's just a lot of fun. I love people. So that really comes through.

That's awesome. Yeah. I love people. I like listening to people's stories. I like their journeys and where they came from. Cause life is like this giant catalog and people do so many different things. And you're like, why did you decide to do that?

And you're like, wow, that's interesting. I think if you have a deep interest in other people, you learn a lot from them as well. So thank you very much for being on the show with us, Debra. We really appreciate it.

Thank you. And it's always a pleasure, always an honor. And I never treat it lightly. So thank you. There you go. Guys, order up her book and see her other stuff that she's got going on with music and everything else. The Summit, Journey to Hero Mountain. It's just going to be out next week, I think.

Actually, it's today as we record this. Oh, is it 12? Yes, it is the 12th today. You are losing traffic time, Chris. Doing too much. I do two podcasts a day and these are the second ones I'm starting on. You're getting tired. You need some chocolate.

During it, man. Where is this year gone? I don't know, but it is out today. Officially today. Officially out today. Yes. So order it. Get it right now.

Yes. Order it. Get it now. Did I say pre-order. Yes, you need to get it right now. Yes. Order it. Get it now. Did I say pre-order at the beginning of the show? I probably did. You did. But I didn't correct you. Notice.

I've been married for a number of years. I did not correct you. So I let you go on, Chris. One of the secrets, by the way. When I started the show, it was in pre-order. No, I'm just kidding. Anyway, guys, order the book up. Check it out. I'm going to go try and figure

out what coffee Debra drinks. What's that? It's chocolate, too. Chocolate and coffee. Oh, I can't tell you. That must be the secret thing. It is. All right. Thank you, Debra, for being on the show. Thanks for tuning in. Go to youtube.com Fortress Chris Voss. Hit that bell notification

button because you will have achieved something today. And that may be all of it. But go to there. Also go to Goodreads.com, Fortress Chris Voss. See everything we're reading or reviewing over there. You can go to all the groups on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, all those places the cool kids are playing. Be good to each other, and we'll see you guys next time.