TrueLife - G. S. Gerry - Meth, Murder, Amazon

Episode Date: August 31, 2023

One on One Video Call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_US🚨🚨Curious about the future of psychedelics? Imagine if Alan Watts started a secret society with Ram Dass and Hunter S. Thompson… now open the door. Use Promocode TRUELIFE for Get 25% off monthly or 30% off the annual plan For the first yearhttps://www.district216.com/https://gsgerry.com/I don't just write books, I create experiences!G. S. Gerry is the 6x award-winning author of Meth Murder & Amazon. Mastering Experiences Through Humor and Writing wrongs along the way.G. S. Gerry is a father of 5, Navy veteran, cybersecurity expert, and tattoo enthusiast.His original writing style has been compared to the likes of Hunter S. Thompson and Lemony Snicket. His nonfiction books are quirky and utterly unique, jam-packed with humor, suspense, and satire.G. S. Gerry's nonfiction creations offer an escape from life's harsh realities by providing a hilarious perspective in turning lemons into lemonade. Constructing a world where the unbelievable seems made up and yet, oddly relatable. Gerry's visionary approach towards life, laughter and entertainment bridges comedy and originality with memorable creations, leaving no stone unturned to help others laugh their way to a better today.https://www.amazon.com/G.S.-Gerry/e/B09S8TZBXGhttp://linkedin.com/in/gsgerryhttps://www.instagram.com/g_s_gerry One on One Video call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_USCheck out our YouTube:https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPzfOaFtA1hF8UhnuvOQnTgKcIYPI9Ni9&si=Jgg9ATGwzhzdmjkg

Darkness struck, a gut-punched theft, Sun ripped away, her health bereft. I roar at the void. This ain't just fate, a cosmic scam I spit my hate. The games rigged tight, shadows deal, blood on their hands, I'll never kneel. Yet in the rage, a crack ignites, occulted sparks cut through the nights. The scars my key, hermetic and stark. To see, to rise, I hunt in the dark. fumbling, furious through ruins

maze, lights my war cry born from the blaze. The poem is Angels with Rifles. The track, I Am Sorrow, I Am Lust by Codex Serafini, check out the entire song at the end of the cast. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the True Life podcast. This episode of the True Life podcast had a little bit of sound issues.

The content inside is really obvious. The author, G.S. Jerry is a great artist with a great book. So stick with it. Check it out. From Tampa to Hawaii, we are crossing the United States. Welcome back to the True Life podcast. Hope everybody's having a beautiful day. Hope the beginning of the week has begun to treat you in a way that is worthwhile. Got a great show for you today. Author, storyteller, writing the wrongs, Amazon bestseller. So the world of being an author. Maybe I should get a little backstory.

How did you come up? How did you get involved in writing? Tell us a little bit about yourself. Yeah, I'm probably one of the most unexpected writers that there is out there, right? Like, I'm not a huge book reader. I wasn't ever a huge book reader growing up. I was a kid that I always wanted to be outside, play sports. I was my basketball for both of my friends.

And so if we had a book report to do in school, I'm like, all right, what movie can I watch to do this book report? Because I don't have time to read this book. And so I'd wait till like the day before, watch the movie. And I'd always get good grades. So I felt like it worked out for me. And so I actually had a situation at work that kind of led me to even decide I wanted to write a book for my day job. I do a lot of technical report writing.

And so we do like compliance for like credit card security. And so you go swipe your card anywhere. You enter your credit card online at some website. Those companies have to be secure. And so that's kind of what I do. I make sure that another customer's infrastructure is compliant. And so we had a report that was due to the customer. This report is like 450 pages.

And I give it to the customer and she calls me up. And she's like, Jerry, this report is completely the same as last year. And I'm like, oh gosh, please tell me this isn't true. This is like right when the COVID's happening. No one's going on site. No one's going anywhere. And in the report, it's like, hey, we went on site and observed these things. We want on site and looked at this stuff.

I'm not the one who wrote those reports for me. So I started going through the report. page by page line by line. Certainly enough, it's completely identical. I'm like, oh, this is terrible. What makes it worse is I was the one who wrote the report before, so they literally plagiarized me. And so I'm going through the report.

I'm like, man, this is going to have to be a poorly, right? So it ends up taking me two months to fix the report. The report goes from 450 pages to 750 pages. And afterwards, I'm like, man, I just wrote a damn novel. Like, that's it. I got the story that happened to me and my family trying to sell our house. I'm just going to write this book. And so that's what I did.

This is how I really got started writing. So I wrote it, tried to do some different things, create a unique experience for the readers, and it kind of just grew from there. You know, they say art imitates life. And if that book was based on what happened, wow. It is. It is really based on true events.

A lot of the stuff that happened to the book did actually happen to me. My family were trying to sell our house. And so I remember before I wrote the book, I would tell people this story and they're like, stop it. You're making this up. I was like, I couldn't make this up if I tried, right? Like, this is this completely unbelievable. And so as this situation unfolds with me trying to sell my house,

I had actually never seen Breaking Bad the show. And so after I told somebody like, dude, that sounds just like breaking bad whenever they're making meth in the basement while they're having an open house. And I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about that book, checkbook into this. I start watching the episodes and I get to that one. I'm like, oh, just start dying laughing. I think it's the funniest thing. I'm like, yep, that must be what happened.

They must still watch Breaking Bad right before they did the open house. And, you know, I'm just the reincarnation of Eisenberger over here. Yeah, for those just tuning in, the books called Meth, Murder, and Amazon by GSJRI. And it's a, it's like a thrill ride. And it's, you'll laugh out loud, you'll cringe. You'll be like, oh, it's an awesome book, man. Really well done, available not only on Amazon. on on Audible as well.

And maybe you could talk a little bit about like that process. Like so you write this report for a customer. You realize I just wrote basically a novel. I have a framework here. Was there like what else inspired you to do it? Were you like, you know what? I'm doing this other job full time. I'm a kind of a creative person.

I love comedy. Why don't I just put this thing out? Like what was like the light bulb that went off to be like, okay, you know, I'm just going to start doing this other thing too? Yeah, so I had talked to people. I was like, you know what? Maybe I should just write a book, right? Like, ha, ha, ha, joke.

And, like, I was kind of just kidding about it. And then this happened. And I was like, no, that's it. I'm going to do it. And so I was like, you know, could I do it? Could I really write a book? And so I'm like, why not, right? I'm sure there's tons of people that write books every day.

And that's how they started. So I just, the way I went about it was like, I want to do something very unique. And so I basically was like, you know, books have rules. You have all these rules. You have to follow. I'm like, but why? Why do you have to do that, right? And so I'm thinking, you know, I'm going to break some rules here while I go about the process.

So, hey, if I do it well and people love it, right, I created something new. If they hated it, like, hey, there's a reason that there's these rules here, but it actually won some awards of them, like seven awards for the book and the audio book. So I mean, it's turned out well for me. And that just gives me something else to kind of talk to people about that, you know, you don't have to fit inside this box. Even when you're writing, you can really create something very different. And as long as it resonates with the readers and it would be a success. Did it, does it change the way you see yourself? Like, you have a family, you are known as this label, as this kind of a person.

All of a sudden now you add the word author to your repertoire. Does that change the way you see yourself? And has it changed the way other people see you? I mean, sometimes I'll like joke around with my wife whenever she's like missing, but like, hey, don't say that. I'm a award-winning author now, right? Like, you can't mess with me. And so, like, I'll make little comments like that.

And, you know, she'll show you up with me back. But no, I mean, I really. try not stick myself too seriously. I'm a father and a, you know, husband first and foremost, and that's really what I try to focus on. It's just a little side gig unless, you know, sell a million copies, then, hey, maybe I'll just do this full time. But until that happens, you know, it's just kind of a little side thing I do. Yeah, it's, I think it's amazing. I think that the times we live in are really allowing people to express the creative side of themselves. It's an interesting time we live in. On some level, you begin to see walls breaking down,

and it looks like chaos. But there's a lot of opportunity. And I'm hopeful that for not only you and I, but maybe the kids coming up, that they have all these new pathways to explore. And not only explore, but to really push themselves into. Perhaps when I was growing up,

I didn't know you could be an author. I didn't know any authors, you know? And there were all these rules, like five or ten good ones. And now it seems like the avenues open with self-publishing and stuff like that. Do you see this as a trend that's continuing to happen? I do. And so the more that you kind of go about in this business, like you learn a lot of

different things about different ways that you can publish a book. So there is self-publishing. But that has its own, you know, issues with it. You have to market yourself. You have to be constantly like doing something to promote your book. But there's kind of this like, you know, this discrepancy, if you will, that like, hey, you go to like a publishing house, right? Like you sign an agent, you get an actual publisher. They just market your book. You're going to sell a million copies and that's not what it's like either and I have some friends who are authors and I'm like dude I paid these thousands of dollars they don't even do anything like I have to pay every time they put it at an event they they market it for like a month and then that's it and so

it seems like you know there's a lot of you know opportunities there for self-publishing that probably wasn't there before and I just think you know probably COVID had something to do with it a lot of people started writing books when you know the pandemic was happening couldn't go to work some people got laid off And so I think that just opened up a whole new avenue for just, you know, more creatives on this space. Yeah. The creative process is a, it's a fascinating one. And I think that most people, if they were to treat the creative process like a muscle, anybody can go to the gym and get stronger. I believe that most people, if they sat down to be creative, then they could get more creative as well.

And I'm curious, the writing process, for a lot of people I speak to, it helps them organize their thoughts. It helps them find ways to express themselves. It seems to me there's this strange sort of camaraderie between writing and thinking. And I'm wondering if this writing process has, have you found that to be true during the writing process? It is. I mean, I think it also gives you a great outlet too. I mean, even if, you know, you just write for yourself or you just want to share it with friends and family, I mean, it gives you a way to just outlet. I mean, that's kind of one of the reasons that I decided to write the book because I just write reports day to day out. And like, who wants to write 500-phase reports all that's all that's on, right?

That's no fun. And so, yeah, that's kind of part of it for me. But it does open up a whole new creative, you know, around for really anybody. I mean, me personally, like I see it in my kids, right? Like my oldest son, he's going to be 18 this year. And he's, like, a great artist. And so he's like the artsy person in the family. I can't draw stick figures barely.

But one of my youngest kids, she's going to be nine. And as I wrote the book and, you know, shared it with her. She actually would create her own little meth murder on Amazon books. and she would create our own books and write her own stories, and she just keeps doing it. And so it's just a, this is a true impact that, you know, we as dads have on our kids. And, you know, I think that's also kind of leads to the creative process

because you're going to be such a big influence to probably a lot of people that you don't even think or realize. Yeah, that's really well said. I think at least in my life and some other people that I have spoken to, COVID was such a wake-up call for people. In my life, in the experience that I can speak to, is I was working much like most Americans or people throughout the world today. Wake up at five, make breakfast for your kids, take your kids to school, go to work, come home.

Now, I would leave the house at like six and get back at 10 and just do it again day after day after day. And it became this monotonous routine. When COVID hit, you know, my wife, she got to work from home a little bit and my child was home. And even though I still had some of the same process, things really began to click. And it was like, wow, what am I really doing? I'm going out and working really hard and making lots of money for other people. What if I explored these new avenues that are there for creation? And it seems to me, I'm hopeful at least that the next generation can see sort of this chaotic time that we went through to explore these new ideas.

Was COVID something that you saw happen in the community that brought about some good things as well as some bad things? Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, so I had always been under the, you know, the belief that a lot of us can do our jobs from home. Like, we don't need to be in the office. Like there doesn't need to be these micromanagers looking over you and being like, hey, what have you done the last 30 minutes, right? What have you done the last hour? Like I was in the Navy for seven years and so there's a lot of micro managers in the Navy. I hate that, right? Like I was a manager myself. Like I'm like the complete opposite of whatever micro managers, right? Like we're adults. Do your job. Get paid. And if you need me, like, let me know. Otherwise, like, I'll leave you beat and come from reach out to me for escalations. But I feel like COVID definitely open a lot of more work-from-home opportunities. And I think that's important, right, because people should get more time with their family. If they don't need to be in the office, right, let them stay home. If their job gets done, if their work gets done, isn't that really what matters? And so I think it really focuses back on the importance of having a family with, having a real quality of life.

And that's what I would really, you know, draw home to the employees that work for me is, right? Like, hey, I can't control how much you make or what you make. but I can certainly give you a great quality of life. And, you know, that's really always what my focus is going to be right. Like, yeah, the work's going to have an employee. Sometimes it's going to suck. Sometimes sometimes it's going to be busy. But within the day, right, like we should go on and be working,

what we should be working. Don't take your work home from you just because you're there. In front of a screen doesn't mean you have to be available all the time, right? Clock out of risk and time with your family. Don't, you know, kill yourselves just to, you know, just a normal everyday job. Yeah, I couldn't agree anymore. And I'm thankful to see the changes taking place.

it seems like so much of, so much of the pain people see is their unrealized dreams, they get to a certain point and they find themselves in a position that, hey, I didn't know this was going to happen. So I am, I'm thankful to see people that are creating things and then their kids watching. I guess that was the part of bringing up COVID was that, you know, our kids today are like sponges and they pick up on what you do. And if you get up and you go work for someone else,

There's nothing wrong with working for someone else or being an employer or something like that. But if you go up and you, if you go out every day and you do something you dislike, it doesn't matter the words you preach at home because actions speak louder than words. I hope everybody listening to them. I understand that, you know, what you do in your life is going to become a pattern, not only for you, but for those that live in your house. And you can have the kindest ideas and the best conversations. But if you're not acting upon the change that you want to be in the world,

then the kids around you are not going to perform in that same pattern. It's kind of a great time to do what Gandhi said and be the change you want to see, right? Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, I think that's part of it, right? We do have these influences, especially us as parents, right? A lot of people have children, even the ones that don't run it and you have a whole inner circle when I'm still trying to impress this upon my kids, right? Just because you're the youngest sometimes in the group setting doesn't mean you don't have a voice, right?

Find your voice and use it. You don't want to be sitting on asylum and something happy. You're like, oh, I wish I would have said something or I wish if it did something. And that's kind of part of it too, right? Like you're going to miss all the shots that you don't take. So, you know, who cares, right? If you're going to write a book, you're obviously going to be in the public eyes. So you've got to have thick skin and a lot of these other things, right?

If you're going to be creative and entrepreneur, right, you're going to be in the public space. People are going to see your products or whatever services that you offer. So you've got to learn to take the good with the bad. Not everybody's going to love what you do. Not everybody's going to love your product or your service. And that's okay, right? That's why you have to find your entire right, audience, your niche, right? just really drive home what it is that you do in the unique ways that you do it.

Yeah. You know, there were, you have a very unique laugh out loud style of humor that you write into the books, you know, this kind of ostentatious and stuff like that. What, like, where did, where did that come from? Were you, were you the class clown growing up? Do you have brothers and sisters you always playing with? Or how did that, how did your sense of humor find itself? So a lot of people ask me this question, like was I like class guy?

I feel like I was to an extent, but I always got my homework done, right? So we go through our, you know, topics during the, during class, and then they give you like 20, 30 minutes to, like, do your homework before class ends. And so I would get my homework done every single day before class even ends. And so I go around like a BS with my friends, but I'm doing my work, right? Like, even if I'm distracting my work is getting done. So I had great grades. And so, like, that was easy for me.

Like, my goal is, like, I want to go home and I want to play sports. It's like we got basketball to go play, we got a football, we got things to do. I don't have time for this homework. And so that was me. I will say, you know, I certainly cut up, and I'm sure I got in trouble a time or two for messing around with people who are joking around.

But like it's not like I was a bad student or anything, you know, whereas the class clown usually is like the kid who jokes around but never does anything. And that's certainly not me. My parents are like, no, like you will get good grades if you get a seat like you're in trouble and you're grounded. So I always had good grades. It's classic.

Did you have, you know, Growing up for me, I was always like into Carlin or, you know, I would sneak over to my, my cousin's house, I could stay up super late. So when I go over there, we always watch like the HBO comedy specials. So, you know, there was tons of good humor back in the days. I'm wondering who were some of your favorite comedians. Yeah, so Dave Chappelle, I really like him. One of his first stand-up comedies, killing them softly. He makes fun of Sesame Street and some other things.

And like I could still recite like lines from that like standup comedy. Like I just thought it was so funny. And now my kids are getting older at when it's about a B-18. And like I watch it with him and like even him. He still like cracks up to this day. And so like it's fun. I like Robb Williams as well. Yeah.

Stand-up comedies was really good. Dan Cook's got some good ones. Kevin Hart, right? But some of these ones like I heard about after I got older. But definitely like Dave Chappelleau of Romney was when I was a little bit younger. Yeah. It's so powerful. comedy. Sometimes it takes away all your rage and other times it just helps you deal with trauma.

You know, it's such a powerful emotion that most people can learn to develop if they just take time to do it. Maybe you can, can you share with us a story where you used humor to find yourself out of a difficult situation? Yes. So in March, I actually got laid off from my job. And so I've done with this company almost 10 years. I had a baby. So I have a newborn now. He's nine months old as of yesterday. And then my oldest is about 317.

So I'm two weeks fresh back from baby leave. I get a call from my boss or like a message. He's like, hey, we need to talk to you at the top of the hour. If you have any calls, drop them. I'm like, oh, this can't be good, right? And so I show up. It's my boss. My boss's boss.

And the HR rep. And I'm like, oh, man, this is really not good. And so they give me the information. They're like, hey, just let you know, like we're not immune to any kind of layoffs or anything that's. the economy, relying on 10% of the workforce, and unfortunately are one of those people. And I was like, what, what do you mean? Like, did I do something wrong, right? Like, I've never been fired, laid off nothing. Like, usually if I leave a job, like, I'm the one that's

leaving. It's not the other way around. So I was kind of forward. It was a tough little bit for a couple of days. And then as we went along, you know, my wife would be like, hey, would you mind doing the dishes? I'd be like, I sure can. I don't have anything else to do. It's not like I'm employed or anything, right? I'm like the world's greatest unemployed guy right now. And so I like to make jokes like that, right? Like, hey, it's no big deal. I'm just not employed right now. And so that's why I just keep saying over and over again. But I wasn't out of a job long.

I think I had one within two weeks or something. So it wasn't too long that I was down. I had someone give me some really good advice. And he was basically telling me like, hey, for 24 hours, right, be mad, be upset, whatever you need to do to process it. And after 24 hours, let it go, right, move on. You got other things that you need to worry about. And so I thought that was really good advice.

And so I've actually had a couple of friends. And even if the family member got laid off this year. So I feel like this year is the year of layoffs for a lot of people. And so I just kind of gave me the same advice, right? Like, hey, be upset, do whatever you need to do to process, but, you know, keep moving on because don't let it get you down. Day, turn it to two days, two, a week, a month, right? And then you're going to be all depressed and upset because they're an employee. But hey, just make fun of yourself, right?

Hey, you don't have a job. That's okay, right? You're an employee. That's okay, right? You'll find one. Yeah. Yeah, it's true. It does seem to be the year of layoffs.

I was, I too, I was a UPS driver for 26 years until March. then, you know, same thing happened to me. I was, I left there. I actually left to do this. And by left, I mean, I was escorted out by multiple people. So, you know, it's a, but there's humor in all of that. And I think, hostile employee. Yeah, a little bit.

I was a little angry. I was a little angry. You know, the UPS driver is the postal service. Long story. Like, we don't want you to get postal. That's right. That's right. That's right.

But there's, I think that there's something valuable. about leaving a place that used to hold your identity. At least that's one of the things that I have found. So many people in today's world, myself included, you don't realize how you define yourself until you surrender that identity. And it's like your friend said that was really good advice. You know, try letting go of that. Try being mad.

Try being angry. But the longer you are somewhere, the more you're emotionally invested in that label that used to be the thing that you did. Some good advice that I have found is that, you have a lot of labels. Maybe you're a UPS driver. Maybe you're a father. Maybe you're a brother.

Maybe you're a husband. Maybe you're all those things. And whatever one you put your energy into is the one you're going to develop. Maybe you're an author. Maybe you're a podcast. Maybe you are a consultant. There's all these things that you can be if you're willing to pour yourself into that mold. And I think there's something happening that's bigger than all of us can really understand.

The amount of changes that are taking. place in today's climate are, you know, I don't think it's a coincidence. I don't think it's a mistake. I think that we're living in a time of profound change, of rapid change. And while it can be scary, I think it's going to be the greatest thing that's happened to us. There's a lot of opportunities out there, but you have to get past the scarcity mindset first. What do you think? Oh, yeah. I mean, there is a lot of opportunity. I mean, there's so much knowledge out there, too. Like, I think even, you know, Musk was talking about, right? Like, you don't really need to go to a, like, four-year university anymore. I know that's probably, you know, blasts me to say out loud,

but like it's true, right? Like, you can basically go get, you know, download a PDF on some book, read about this, work on this certification, right? There's so much opportunity out there. You just train yourself, which I think is great, right, because you're going to prioritize what's important to you anyway. And so the ones that are succeeding are the ones that are prioritizing, you know, while they're younger, while they have the available time, right? Because, you know, everybody's busy. It's not like everybody's sitting down the twill in the thumbs. everybody's busy with whatever they're busy with. Sometimes you just got to shift your perspective like, hey, short-term pain for long-term gain.

And so I did some of this when I was in the Navy, right? I got my bachelor's and my master's degree while I was in the Navy, and I had three kids at the time. So not the easiest thing to do. You know, I probably haven't gone to bed before like 2 o'clock in like 10 plus years, but that's okay, right? I mean, short-term pain for long-term gain. You know, I don't want to be in the Navy forever. And so that's kind of why I did that.

Yeah, there's something to be said about delayed, gratification. The harder you work now, the less you'll have to later. And it's, it is a time of profound change. It, it seems to me that lived experience is the ultimate education. And so for anybody listening out there who may be thinking to themselves, I don't have this degree or I don't have that, go out and get some experience. Like Jerry says, you can read the book, you can download the PDF, and you can go out and begin it. You know, if you can dream it, you can begin it. That's right. And do anything you put your mind to that's really true. Yeah, I agree. You know, it's what, as we're staying on this method for a little bit, how do you see education changing in the future or do you see it changing in the future with the, with the addition of like AI and the ability for AI to write books for people or write scripts for people?

How do you see the, are you positive about the changes that are coming down the line? Yeah, I mean, I think so, you know, that's like a lot of topics in one question, right? education which you know is one thing then you have AI which can be used in so many other ways I like AI I think it's cool I think you can definitely use it right I mean there's some people that are writers like oh it's terrible blah blah blah like I don't like it but it's fun right like I'll go play around that I'll make little characters for my books and so like I try to use it as an advantage right I mean you see people all the time posting on LinkedIn and these other things hey created this image look how realistic it looks sometimes they look like legitimate

paintings and other things why not leverage that why not bring something to life that you really could have done yourself like there's some things you can even create our Photoshop that she can really bring to life in AI and so no I like it I like it for the character creation but you can even go in there and create like funny poems right my my father-in-law did this I let him know I won one of these awards he post he made this little script in the deep AI and created this funny little poem about me winning an award and how I'm getting this literary tight and it was just hysterical like I just laughed

it up and so like right you can use that that and play around with it. But usually when I do that, like, if I use it, I would be like, oh, yeah, this was brought to you by this tool, whatever. Like, I don't need to take any, like, any, likeness or anything like that from there, right? Like, I used the prompt, it's spit it out, and then I kind of, you know, adjusted it from there. But I think it's cool, right? If you go to my page, like my Amazon page from the Mephyr on Amazon, you actually see the characters that we used and built through AI. So it brings the characters to life and just, you know, just something different. I feel like that's what I try to do is always something

different. Yeah, I think it's beautiful. It seems like it's a really cool extension of us, and everybody gets to use it on some level. In some levels, I was recently speaking with a creative director from Christopher Newport University, and he was mentioning to me that some of the professors were really worried about the children using it and how it was going to affect, you know, grading and stuff like that. And some of the professors had a very negative bent to it, but I thought to myself, you know what, there should never ever, ever be another boring paper ever written ever again. You know what I mean to be fair like you can not usually tell what the

AI right like you can have it write something and share it'll spell something but you have a specific voice right like it's not all of a sudden a little Johnny's writing these papers boom now he's a freaking college professor obviously little Johnny didn't write that right and so I mean it's on the professors and the teachers to really understand like how their students write what they write as you would expect hey they have these issues going forward they wouldn't just magically all that sudden disappear and now they're, you know, perfect straight A students. Certainly the straight A students are going to be straight A students, right? But the teachers have to have some kind of judgment there

and they say, hey, this doesn't seem right. Did you? Did you not? Right. And so I think that's the point. I know teachers have to really own their students, you know, level of work. They work ethic as well as their like work product, what they're putting up there. Yeah. And I think it opens the door for fundamentally changing education. Because maybe they can, the same way that AI creates another dimension for kids, they can go in and say, hey, write me a five-page essay on George Washington and why he was a great leader. Okay, maybe there's a grade for that, but then there's another dimension to the grade.

Like, okay, well, how did you use it creatively? Maybe now you have to get up and act it out or something like that, but it definitely opens up another dimension for teachers to grade on. Now, teachers need to figure out another dimension. Okay, you got an A for using technology and chat GPT, but you've got to see when it came to applying that. You know, it just opens up this new avenue, right? It's pretty exciting, really.

I think so. I mean, I think it's also a great point, right? I mean, kids need to be taught more than just, you know, out of the textbook. A lot of kids are hands-on. They like to play with things, put their hands on things. And so usually those are the ones that don't do as well at the bookwork, but there's no opportunities to really, like, go out and build something, go out and create something with their hands.

And so you notice as kids go through middle school, they go through high school, right? Like they have, they don't have a ton of skills. They don't have a ton of life skills. That's why a lot of them can't get a job coming out. They gotta go work, you know, Chick-fil-A, fast food, all these different places. Like they're not coming up working and had a legitimate career.

They have to start from the bottom and work their way up. It's because they don't have any skills. And, you know, that's probably where I feel like the education system could really help them in really just getting their hands on something else. Like, hey, take some applied skills, classes, you know, hey, you want to do math, good, take some accounting classes, take some economics classes, learn more than just, hey, how to multiply,

how to add, how to the five, right? Like some things you're going to need some things, you're not. So I have those real life skills, I think, is important. Sometimes it's really lacking. Yeah, I like that. There should be the GSGRI School of Education, man. I'm getting these kids into new worlds, man.

Right. Who knows? Who knows what the world has? I mean, I do say I have other books that I could write, but I've never shy to, you know, try something new. It's always, that's what I'm always about trying something new. Well, speaking of new, you got a new book that just came out, right? Yeah, it's coming out at the end of the month, at the end of September. So September 22nd, I do have a new book.

It's going to be a reality show, but in a book. And so that's, again, a unique concept. There's not a lot of books out there that are reality shows, some have aspects, right? Like I was just watching my hunger games with my daughters. They're like, you know, my wife was like, oh, we should watch hunger games together. This one's 13. The other one's like 10. So we tried the hunger games out.

Like I had seen it before. And so as I was watching it, it's like, oh, yeah, this is like a reality show. And I totally forgot about it. I never read the book, but I saw the movies. And so there's books that have this reality show concept, but nothing like what I'm doing. So this is a true reality show from start to finish. And it follows the time and our tradition, right? Hey, you meet your girlfriend or your boyfriend, you got to fall in love. And the next step is, you've got to meet the family. Well, what happens when the boyfriend or the girlfriend is like, hey, I think this is we can report all these actions that happen and, you know, turn it into a reality show. And so I'll take that and I kind of like play on like, you know, if you will, the worst family stereotypes, right? It's the biggest stereotype when you meet the family. Dad's sitting at the table. He's played in a shotgun. He's being super intimidating. And so I'll add.

things like that in their bar amplify and I'll take it to another level. So that of his dad bringing the shotguns, but he has other ammunition there. He's got shotgun shells and grave with the boyfriend's name on there. And there's even like a bloodstained machete right next to him, right? So he's like, hey, that's what's coming. So I felt like, you know, in a lot of ways, like a lot of people can relate to that. Like they remember meeting their girlfriend and their boyfriend's parents for the first time

and, you know, how great an experience that was or maybe not a serrated experience that was. And so, you know, the main character meets the family and there's, you know, mom and dad, but then the girlfriend has three brothers. And so when you have older and younger brothers around the same age, right, they're going to do all they can to really mess with the boyfriend. And so as you go along the book, you get into all these different scenarios that happen whenever you're following this reality show. Until you basically get to the end and then there's this big reveal of, you know, where the camera's at, what is the camera. you've been secretly recorded and, you know, the boyfriend essentially gets brought into the family. And so that's kind of part of it, right? If you meet your significantly, you meet your family and the end goals, right, to essentially

be brought into that family. And so it's just kind of this crazy transition and this dynamic as you go from each episode to each episode, each chapter is an episode and they'll even have like rated TV 14 and all the little elements that would make that, you know, rated for that specific age group. So I really try to keep it different and, you know, along the lines of what, actual reality showing that looked like. I love it, man. It sounds super awesome.

I can't wait to check it out. What a creative way to pass along information. And I'm curious to understand your mindset a little bit. You know, for me, growing up as a young man, I had some older kids that I looked up to that were sort of mentors to me. My older cousin, KK, and my uncle, sometimes my dad. And sometimes I would read books and remember. little passages and want to memorize

them so that I could use that later in life. Are these things that you think about when you're writing? Like, oh, if I put this little quip in here, then older brothers will know that they should protect their sister. Or is that something conscious that happens when you're writing? Or is that just like a fractal part of your life? Or does that

factor into the creative process for you? It does. So the first book has a lot of movie references. I watch a lot of movies growing up. And so I'll think about funny scenes from books like iconic scenes. And so from the first one, you know, there's a scene that happens and so, you know, whenever a Jim Carrey from the mask, right? He's at the club and all of a sudden his tongue drops out of his mouth and it

rolls onto the table, right? Like, I remember that scene. Tons of people know that scene. So I'll add that in for, you know, kind of little additional element or just some kind of detail that is going to really relate to somebody at a different level. And so I use that all the time. I'll use movie references. I'll add song elements to the book. I'll actually add sound effects and just different things. I'm probably one of the only authors to add emojis to the book, right? Some people like, well, what a bunch is that's crazy. And so I will. I'll add it in there, right? Oh, something happens. Ha, ha, ha, ha, funny face, right?

And so, like, it just adds another element to the book that's really not being done anywhere else. And so, you know, as I decided to create the way I was going to tell the story or write the book, I was thinking, oh, hey, how do we talk every day? Right? You talk in women sentences all the time. How do you text with people? It's the same thing. There's a lot of women sentences back and forth.

And so I was like, you can make a book that's kind of like that. Why not? Right? And so that's kind of what I set out to do was really. you just try and turn it on its head and really create something new. The first one, I liken it to a roller coaster. And so the great parts about a roller coaster, right? You know, you're waiting here online in the book, right?

You're waiting and in line, waiting for something to happen. You're standing there online. Your stomach starts getting nervous. Something happens. Then you get on the roller coaster and then click, click, click, right? And so I'll have like clicks in the book and you'll go down the roller coaster and there'll be something crazy that happens. You'll drop.

And so I keep bringing you back to that roller coaster. or effect. So it really feels like a true like adventure park experience. Or it's the second one. It's the reality show and so you'll see that the characters talking to the camera or interacting with the camera without really knowing that it's there. And so I can try to really just bring a different element and a really truly unique experience. This is probably not always there with some books, right? Like I don't want to write just same story over and over again. What's the point in that?

Why does well do something different? Yeah, the beauty of, of, um, Not Sparry Farm, but I can't think of the scary place The beauty of the scary roller coaster is that it's not the same time. You know, there's different ones. There's like the Batman one, and there's like the parachute one.

You know, even though they're all roller coasters, the twists and turns are different. But I've never ever heard a rider tell me they've used the inspiration of a roller coaster. You know, I've heard people talk about the heroes journey. I've heard people talk about, you know, Nietzsche's camel to the child. And I've heard different types of, you know, formations, but never the roller coaster. I think it's awesome, man. Thanks for sharing that. Another thing I'm hearing, too, is this weird, it's not really weird.

It's this beautiful idea of evolving language. And it seems to me, when you're using the, an emotional image from the mask about Jim Carrey's tongue rolling out. On some level, you're taking this vision, translating it into words, polishing it up, changing it, and then giving it back to somebody in a weird way. It's this weird sort of artwork between imagery and language and then translation and interpretation. Do you see that our language evolving like that? What's your take on language and how to use it?

So I try to involve all the senses, right? I feel like that's what I'm trying to do. is like, hey, I want you to actually see this, so I'll give you the visual, something that like almost everybody's saying. I'm sure there's people that haven't seen the mask, but I know there's millions of people that have seen it, right? And so, you know, I'll use that image sometimes, right? It'll be a song, right? Everybody knows London Bridges falling down. I'll make a remix to that. I'll make my own little rhyme along in the book, right? Like, you'll remember the song, what you'll remember my like little catchy jingle.

And so I try to point on sound, I try to play in visual, right? I try to just again really engage with the reader. like I'll actually talk to them in the book too. I'll be like, oh, can you believe that happened? What would you do? Right. And so again, just continuing to try to engage, you know, talk with the reader, if you will, so that they feel like they're really part of the story, that they're really part of the book.

I love that. That's different. And that's what I think this speaks to the idea of authenticity. And we've kind of danced around this, a lot of this conversation about finding your own way, becoming creative. And now we're talking about, you know, we're talking. about ways in which you can express yourself in a way that you've been influenced your whole life and then giving it back to people. On some level, that is what I think is one of the main

points of your writing is authenticity, because you're expressing yourself in a way that's authentic, and people like that. They love the jingle with the new message in it. They love the idea of the roller coaster. What is your take? When I say the word authenticity, Where does your authenticity come from? I think it's just, you know, trying to do something different. Honestly, like that's been in the whole goal, right? Like, if I'm going to write a book, I want to write something different. And, you know, part of it is I'll write something that's for me or a story I'm interested in.

But part of it is, right? Like, I just want to try something new. And so if it pops, if it sucks, hey, that's fine, right? Tell me it sucks. I'll pivot and I'll do something else. And so as I was writing the first book, I would share like a little rough dress with people. I'm like, hey, if this sucks, let me know, right? I don't want to make a fool of myself.

And no one was like, hey, Jerry, like, what are you doing? Like, you're stupid. Like, why would you do this? This is terrible. No one ever said that. And so I ended up submitting it to some editorial reviews. I'm like, if this sucks and they'll tell me, right? And so sure enough, I started getting good reviews.

The first one was like, this like Robin Williams on Speedo is like, hey, mentioned next to Robin Williams. I'll take that. And so after that, I was like, all right, clearly like I'm on to something. And so if you go and read like, oh, you want to submit to award, they'll actually say, hey, we're looking for unique voices. We're looking for something new, a different perspective. And so it's like, oh, I got to at least have something now

because, right, that's the whole reason I wrote this is to really write it in a different way that isn't copyable or, you know, right? Like, if you see my writing style, you'll know, right? Like, it might remind you of this author or that author. Like, you know, I think of Wendy Snickett, you know, how he kind of like has this little like intros and like talks to you as the reader.

But then goes to the story and all this crazy stuff happens. I feel like, you know, I got to use some of that. There's some authors like C.S. Lewis, he actually uses a number of rolling sentences of his work. And so I didn't know that when I wrote it, but after I wrote it, I read any of his books, a brief observed. And it was like, oh, man, this guy uses a lot of run on sentences like, I do.

How perfect? It could be best friends, right? And so, like, I start to pick up on similarities. And so you come to find out there's really actually nothing new into the sun. It's just, you know, you're presenting in a different way. You're taking all these concepts that other people have maybe used here or there and really trying to combine and create something very different and very unique. And so I think that's part of being authentic is really just trying to stay true to yourself

and not let, you know, your yourself kind of ebb and flow based on what culture you're saying or what someone says you should do, right? Because there was me like, oh, you could have done this and that, right? Like, no, this is what I want to do. This is what I came up with, right? Like, it's very true to what I was after, regardless of getting bad and different, right? Yeah, that's beautiful. I love this idea that there's nothing new under the sun.

but when it gets the Jerry interpretation, because of different light to it, has a different shine to it, it has different sound to it, when it gets the George interpretation. It's a little, it has this thing over here. It has this weird bell whistle thing to it, you know, but every one of us has not only the right to interpretation,

but the ability to show our interpretation to the world and have it either laughed at, smile that, celebrated, whatever. But there's something beautiful that comes from that, regardless of what it is, right? There's something so beautiful about the act of creating that makes you want to do it more. It's almost contagious in it way. Have you found, like, once you begin writing, isn't it? Yeah, so after I wrote the first one, like, I started it and I was like, I don't know how I'm going to do this. And so like the first idea that popped in my head was roller coaster.

Like, that's the other one I'm thinking of. And I'm like, you know what? That could be a good way to take someone through this story. And so after I wrote it, I was like, man, like, I actually like this. this was kind of fun, right? I didn't know what to expect when I went into it because I never wrote a book before. I never written a book before after I've done it.

Then I started marketing it, right? So I learned all the things not to do really as part of this too. Like writing a book is one thing. Marketing the book is a whole different thing. And so as I get to my second one here, I've actually done it the way you're supposed to. You're supposed to market it for so much time. You're supposed to try to engage your audience.

I had no idea. This is stupid. And I was like, hey, you just write a great book. You create a great title. Boom, it's going to sell itself, right? met for her name's on what could be better. But people have to know your books out there go to the buyer, right?

And so that's just kind of part of it if you go to self-published route. But, you know, it's been, it's been fun. And, you know, I really do enjoy the writing. I'll keep writing books. Even if I never published another one, I probably still write books and just keep it between the films. Like, hey, the short story and stuff, you know,

our family or whatever. Yeah, there's this, there's this beautiful time of self-discovery that happens in the process of creation. You know, and when I, it's so weird to think of language, like, you know, we're here, recreation is the same word as recreation. So when you recreate something, you're recreating. It's a recreational process. It's so strange to think about how the language we use means so much more than we've given it to. If you just take time to step back and be like, wow, I'm recreating something.

I'm in the recreation process. No wonder it's so rewarding. It's like recreation for you. It's really amazing to think about it. Did you find that your relationship with language has changed after this process? I would say so. So, for instance, I noticed that there's ways people say things in different parts of the country. Like, I know that.

But me personally, right, I say all of the sudden, I'm from Florida. We say all of the sudden. At least I do, right? I felt like it was always all of a sudden. I got a comment from somebody that had read my book and was like, this is wrong. and supposed to say all of a sudden. I thought they were dead wrong. I kid you not.

I'm like, they're making this up. Like, they don't know English. This must be their second language. All of a sudden, that sounds dumb. Sure enough, I go to find out that all of a sudden is that or all of a sudden is the right way to do it. So I was like, I made a post about it. I was like, hey, I don't say this. I think I'm going to write it wrong on purpose.

But it is supposed to be all of a sudden versus all of a sudden. And so, you know, I just thought, you know, just certain things that you probably wouldn't pick up on and just your normal everyday talk in the stretch. you're writing it down that. It just kind of gives you a little bit more respect for the written word, the English language or just whatever language you're writing. You'll find little things that, like, hey, I didn't even know that. And I've been like writing for a long time. Or, hey, I didn't know that.

I've said that wrong my entire life. That's okay. Yeah. And that's a great example of the way in which the written word has a relationship to the spoken word. I think it was Samuel Clemens who said that the written word is the carcass of the spoken word. So when you begin writing stuff and all of a sudden you get this feedback, I bet you've changed the way you speak or if you go to speak at an event now, you may not change it, but you are aware that it's all of a sudden or you're at least aware that some people say that.

But prior to writing it all down, that was never a thing. It's a weird relationship. It's, it's almost like the double helix in a way because it's connected, but it spirals upwards, right? It's a beautiful relationship. Well, yeah, it's almost like sometimes once you see something or here something, right? Like, you can't unsee it. And so like, you know, I audit customers information systems all the time. And so I also make a figuration and there's issues with like, like, like, hey, do we have to fix this? I'm like, yeah, like I saw it. Like, I can't unsee it. It's already been seen, right? Like, we got to fix this issue. And so usually it's thought of me to like, change is setting up, these policies, whatever have you. But it's the

same thing. If someone points out an issue, right? Like, I have people sometimes asking you like, hey, do you read the negative comments? And I'm like, what? I don't get negative comments. I was kidding. No, I do read them. And so like I got a like I've gotten a two star or one star review on Amazon before, but they didn't leave a comment. And so it's like, hmm, did they buy the right book? Like what the heck is going on? Like why didn't you leave a comment, right? Like I want to know why you really said that. And so I've noticed that. And so again, it's just part of having to fix skin and just being like, hey, you know, they didn't like it for whatever reason. That's okay. Go look at all these other reasons and reviews that I've got because they far and what way exceed any negative feedback I've gotten. But I think that's part of the fun to seeing what people, like, but what people also don't like. Sometimes if someone gives like a critique or a feedback, like, hey, you could have done this or you could have added this. Like, oh, I never thought about that. That's really wise. Of course, I'll add that, right? And so you kind of try to take it also learning experience the good end of the back. Yeah, it's interesting. A lot of the authors that I speak to, they talk about when they're writing something and really in the zone or some people

just talk about the entire experience as something's writing through them. And I'm curious if this is a two-part question, if you have found that to be true, and do you think that that's sort of spiritual? It's almost as if there's a spiritual nature that helps you create, and you can tap into it sometimes harder, sometimes easier, but it seems to be there. Does it, has you noticed the idea of the spiritual nature creating when you create? I don't know so much as part of the spiritual nature.

Like if I was going to write a book about, like, faith or God or Jesus, right. Like, Barsely, like, I would definitely tap into that. You know, I would like talk to Jesus. I would talk to God and ask him to lead me and guide me and, you know, whatever he would have me put down. But I'm not creating anything like that. So I feel like I'm a little like it's, that's not part of it. I will say my process is very different from a lot of other writers. I'll actually write the whole first draft on my mobile phone. You know, they would say, be close to the data. There's no way to be closer to the story than having it right in your hands, right, the whole time. And so I actually write the first draft on my phone. I'll read it out now. I'll reread. I'll reread it, I'll edit it.

And then once I'm finally like, all right, this draft is ready, then I'll go on to the computer. I'll plug it into the software. And then I'll actually start editing it, editing it from there. And so that's got another reason, like the first time I wrote my book, the first book I wrote, I didn't actually use an editor. I just is like, hey, this is super unique. This is a different style.

Like, why I'm going to pay somebody hundreds or thousands of dollars to edit my book and tell me I misspelled words. They already know I misspelled on purpose or use the wrong sentence. They already know is a wrong sentence. I did these things for a reason. It's to add dramatic effect, it's to add specific detail to really just amplify the reading experience. This next book, I didn't do that, right? I did hire an editor and they pointed out some things.

I was like, okay, that's good enough. Like, I wouldn't have caught that. But, you know, my process is different. And so, you know, I enjoy it. Like, overall, I enjoy this process. Like I said, you know, as part of, like, the spiritual, I would say not so much, but that doesn't mean that that's not true for some people. Yeah, it's true.

I always ask that question because the word spirituality is so, I don't mean so many, it means so much to so many different people. And, you know, I'm a huge fan of psychedelic. So for me, spirituality is finding myself in a situation that is ineffable, like where you, where like words fail. I mean, there's something so beautiful about finding yourself in a heightened state of awareness, whether it's through breathwork or, you know, sometimes it's through tragic events or Sometimes it's after a huge success, but sometimes it's being alone for a long period of time.

But there's something to be said about heightened states of awareness or different streams of consciousness that allow you to see the world different. Is there some kind of technique that you use in order to get yourself into like a creative mindset? No, I feel like, you know, inspiration can strike at any time. And so, like, you know, I have to have my phone on me a lot for work. And, you know, I take walks with my kids like we try to go on walks every day. And so all of a sudden they'll say some funny show they watched or mentioned some funny character. I'm like, I've never heard of that. That sounds like a great name for a character, right?

Let me write that down. And so sometimes I'll be in the process of writing a new book or a new story and I haven't finished it. And so they'll say something. I'm like, oh, that would be great to include or I've never heard that before. That would be great to talk about. And so I don't really limit myself like I'm not like, oh, it's eight to ten. I have to write two hours today. Right?

Like, no, like the story will write itself out. It takes however long it takes. But again, like, I'm probably not the best to ask like the writing process questions. Mine's so different than everybody else. Like, they're like, hey, you have to have to have outline. You have to do it this way. You have to do it that way. I'm like, no, you don't have to have any of that, right?

Like, I come up with the chapter names first myself. Like, I'll be like, hey, what's my chapter? What I want it to be about? What do I want to call it? Once I have the name for it, I kind of know where I want to go up the story. So I come up with character names kind of beforehand. And I actually have a bank of like funny character names. So that's kind of how like the hind legs came about.

I was like, wouldn't it be funny if you had a first. name and then the last name hind leg so it sounds like this guy's like eating the back of his leg or he's like chop it off his leg or something like that right and so i try to make those fun little like play on the words even for the characters so like you always remember like hey this this guy comes up a funny character i love it i love the idea that i think that's where authenticity originality and imagination come from is people finding ways to be productive in an industry that they weren't classically trained in. You know, when I started looking at a lot of the world that we live in, we live by these buzzwords of efficiency, productivity. But what you don't, you know, it seems to me that like productivity is creativity stripped of its imagination. And if you look at the way people have these systems for books,

okay, you've got to write this time. You do two hours here. you go over there. Of course you're going to have a similar product, at least, at least in its form, at least in the method of which it is. And like, too much of a good thing is like, it's still too much, man. It just becomes vanilla. I love vanilla ice cream, but I'd rather have a little bit chocolate, me, a little Neapolitan. There's some Oreos over here. Like, and I think that this outbreak of creativity that we're seeing is something that's desperately needed, man. I'm stoked your share it all with you. What'd your take on that, though? Yeah, no, I mean, I think there's a reason, right? Like, I mean, James Patterson, Stephen King, those guys are themselves for a reason, right? Those guys have millions and millions of copies, but they're them, right? Like don't try to be them, be yourself. And so I like, you know, I feel like that's part of it.

Write something different, right? Like those guys, I guarantee you took a long time to get to that part, right? They started from somewhere. Everybody started from nowhere. And you can go read these stories of like Dr. Seuss, right? Like he got rejected so many times. Imagine if he never kept going, right? there would be the doctor's Cs Lewis same thing right there's tons of these

stories out there where these guys try and try and try and try and so finally someone picks them off what's great is where in this age of self-publishing where you don't have to wait on anybody to get back to you don't have to wait for an agent to sign like you can absolutely go do those things yourselves and so I think it's you know it's kind of like a circling backboard right you started talking about how you know there's a lot of education there's a lot of things out there from available for free right like why pay if you can just take the time to your research it yourself and so that's a lot of it as well um you just

going to be proactive and prioritize what's important to you if you want to write a book right just go do it and let's the stop you have to shoot if i can write it to anybody can write it book i feel like it's so awesome you know there there's like this old saying that sailors used to say like i really like the cut of his jib like the jib is like i'm just paraphrasing here but it's like this unique part of the sale that allows the the part to pivot i think and so you know there was no real raw there was there was really good cut of a jib and a really crappy cut of a jib but if it worked a certain way. Other sailors would recognize, hey, I like this guy's style. He liked the way that he cut that there. Yeah, I like how he did that. You know, before it became

centralized and before it became an industry standard, you know, there was an original way to do it that was unique to the individual. And like, I think that the strategy and the insights and the advice you're giving to people who may be watching today is cut your own jib. You know, people might like it. Absolutely. That's right. I mean, you're the best version of yourself. There's only one to you, right? And so I think that's also where, you know, you had mentioned that everything feels kind of very vanilla. There's a lot of the same stories out there. It's because they're like, hey, this guy saw all these, all these books. Oh, if I get on this hot topic, right? Like, they're fads. They're trends. They're going to add. They're going to flow. Right.

What's popular today? It's not going to be popular tomorrow. So if anything, you should be writing for yourself, like, what's the story you want to tell? What are the things that you want to write about and make it relatable to readers. That's why it's important to write what you know. I think that's a Mark Twink quote. Write what you know if you're funny. Be funny, but more importantly, if you're not funny, don't try to be funny because people aren't going to really.

If you're like, man, this guy's trying too hard. He said this is funny. This is so not funny. Right? But again, right, like I would say, you know, I'm never going to write anything serious. And so I even lie, like I did write a little article. And it was like a serious article about a picture.

But in general, I'm not going to write serious stuff. Like that's not my thing. I want to create something fun. And so when it's fun, it can't always be serious. So, yeah, I should there be serious parts of the book. But above all, it's always going to have some kind of humor element. It's always going to be guessing. So I think that's part of it.

And, you know, that's what I'm going to do. But that's not going to be what everybody else wants to do. Somebody else is going to write these serious books or write these Lord of the Rings, you know, epic novels that are thousands of pages long. I'm like, I don't have time for that. I'm not going to do that. I don't have enough time. I have five kids, right?

Like, I can write in spurts of time and I can, you know, get, you know, 40, 50,000 words, that's going to be about it for me. But I want to write books that you can read over a lunch or maybe over the course of a few days and you're done. And you're like, man, that was really fun. Like I wasn't expecting when that's getting itself into. Whereas if you pick up these thousand page books, right, like, you know, it's going to take you a long time to read through those things, even if you're a never reader, which I'm not.

But if you were, it would still take you a long time to get through it. It's interesting. You know, earlier in the conversation, you had mentioned something about, you know, submitting books for, for a, you know, for a, you know, or something like that. What does that process look like? I mean, how do you even figure out how to do that? Like, say you're like a new person, how do you even know how to do that? And what does that process look like? Yeah, so you basically just go into Google and say book awards for, right? It could be self-published author or published authors. Some of them reach out to, you know, both sides, right? It's not just

self-publisher. It's not just tradition that publishes both. And so there's actually one called Reader's Favorite. They have a huge, you know, website. I think it's funny. enough I mentioned Jim Carrey in the mask. Jim Carrey's on the cover of this one. He wanted a word from some children's book. You read a few years back. And so when I saw that, I was like, oh, I'm going to submit to this award. What if I wanted.

Funny enough, I did it. I won an award last year through this website. And so they're just cool, right? They have an award ceremony in Miami. They have this huge book fair that happens that weekend. And so they have like, you know, thousands of people show up, right? And so, you know, just going online, looking for it and figuring out which ones are reputable or not. Then I have to do this, pay a little of fee and submit it.

wait to see what happens, right? I mean, if they like it, you're going to get an award. If not, you're not, right? But at the end of the day, right, it's all for fun. The awards are really just to show that you're an expert in that field or like, hey, like some people should come read your books because, right? Like, I'm biased judges. I've read it.

It's not just for friends or somebody you know, right? It's just another like feather in the cap to say, hey, look, I won an award, right? Like, it's all accolades, right? It doesn't really matter, right? But it's cool to say, hey, award winning off at the exterior or were really not there you know john smith whoever was there what was it like after submitting something and winning an award or being a bestseller on amazon like what did you did you take the family out for ice cream or where did you guys go have a nice dinner or was it something that

was even even on the even on the the process like yeah i could probably be bestseller like was that something that was even on your radar what was that like it was been pretty pretty awesome it wasn't it wasn't like when i first submitted a book i'm like hey whatever happens if i sell some right like that's great like and so i read some statistics and it'll be like hey self-published authors won't even sell 100 copies within the first year of or life of the book then another one will be like all right or maybe it'll be 200 but if it's self-published and debut they're fine i mean to sell 50 copies a blog surpass that number so it's like hey i just go look at the like certain trends of what they say you can do and i just try to pass those and so it's like hey most of the time so

published authors aren't going to run war and say I have one nine of them now so like hey you know just because they say you can't do something doesn't mean you can't do it and so yeah we definitely celebrate it i like to cook um if you go to my website you'll actually see some free recipes under the meth lab creations uh i'm worried they're all meth three uh but yeah i mean i like hey let's make some steaks there's like a meat market close to us and so you know i'll make some food or we'll make something together you know we're celebrating like oh when this award all right on to the next one right i mean i feel like it's short left because you know it's just this funny little thing, right?

Like, it's cool to celebrate. I mean, it definitely makes you go good. Like, someone recognized that you wrote something different, like in my case or wrote something hilarious, right? Whatever it is, the categories that you're assuming to. But it's always fun. I mean, I didn't win all the ones I submitted to. And I was like, ah, man, I didn't win.

They didn't get any feedback. I wonder what they said, right? And so you like, let your mind wonder about the end of the day, right? Like, if you win something, that's a great testament to your work. And it's just something that basis of, hey, look what I did. Isn't that great? All right. On to the next one.

How does it feel to have strength, to know that the story you have written has made people laugh that you'll maybe even not know. Like that that's got a pretty cool feeling to know that you've kind of given something that can pull somebody out of a bad day. Like that's a pretty cool thing. It seems like it's an award in itself, man. It is. You know, they do say laughter is the best medicine. And so I would, you know, sometimes I would post, I would be like, no, hashtag laughter is the best medicine because it's true. Laughter is a great bridge between people in all different circumstances, right?

You're having a bad day. Someone says something funny. Turn your day around. You're having a great day. Someone says something funny. It's even forgetting about the day, right? And so there's really no limit to the laughter. But I think that's also what's missing is a lot of great folks filled with humor.

You know, people will watch funny movies, but you'll see a lot of statistics that will say that comedy is the toughest genre to do anything because harmony is so subjective, which is true. But there's like an art to it, right? Like you have to know how to be fun. You have to know when to deliver the lines what to say. And it was always trying to be unexpected. And so that's really what I try to do. And so as I hear people, you know, give me these good feedback or they'll be like, oh, this book was even better than expected.

It was so funny. I'm like, I'm glad that it resonated with them. And they were able to pick up on that because ultimately that I was trying to do. I was really trying to just create a really funny experience. And so it does, you know, gives me appreciation that, you know, people are accepted to what I'm doing. I love it. It's a cool thing.

I'm thankful that you wrote the book. I'm thankful that you're finding ways to not only create opportunities for people to escape a moment that may be tricky, but you're also throwing yourself out there and continuing to create and helping other people understand how you did it so they can recreate that process. You know, in some ways, it's the process of giving the idea. back to somebody and allowing them to have it and then go through there. And we're here for a short amount of time in this world. And I think that if you can create more smiles than tears, then you get to put a big W in that column at the end of the day.

You're doing something right. Yeah, man. That's what I love. We're coming up on our hour, Jerry. And I love talking to you, man. I'm super stoked that you wrote these books. I'm super stoked that you're doing what you're doing. And I'm looking forward to the next one coming out.

But before I let you go, maybe you could, I'd like to end off with given the person with whom I'm speaking an opportunity to give advice to a younger version of themselves and then to maybe say where people can find you and what you have coming up. So let me dish it off to you. Yeah, I mean, I'll just keep hitting on the same theme because that's what I always say. I mean, really, you know, we're all as unique as our fingerprints, right? No one has the same sense of fingerprints. It's absolutely impossible. Use that to your advantage, right? you're the best version of yourself.

Find your voice and I think that's how that's my yourself, right? Because as you're younger, you really like shy, you don't want to like say something out of turn. You don't want to ruffle anybody's feathers from older you get. You realize that's really what you want to do is you want to get under people's skin. You want to ruff their feathers in some ways. And so it's really finding your voice and really standing on your trips and not letting people sway you. As far as finding me, you can find me on my website, gs jerry.com. There's a blog there.

There's some free recipes as well as links to my books. And there's even a little shop there too. So if there's one that says, don't meth with me, he might end up in the coffee or you might up in the recipe or don't meth with me till I have my coffee. And so they said I make meth and all these other things that might as well use it to my advantage. And so you'll see the meth lab creations for the food recipes, right?

They're all meth-lary. It's obviously kidding. It's all in jest. But there are some really good recipes on the things I've created. That turned me really well. and you can find my social media information on there as well so Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, all those things. And the new book, that one's coming out, coming out next month, you said?

Yeah, September 22nd. Almost just a little over three weeks now. Nice. What was the title of it again? Hysterical hangouts with the hind legs. Well, fantastic. Hang on one second. I'm going to talk to you briefly afterwards, but I just want to tell everybody that tuned in today.

Aloha. Thank you for hanging out with us today. I hope you found some words of wisdom. I hope you're able to smile. And more than that, if you're listening to this, I hope that you choose to fan the flame of creativity and make the world around you a little bit better because Lord knows the world needs it. That's all we got for today. Ladies and gentlemen, Aloha.

God bless.