RedPubPod #039: Chrissie Dixon, No Jump in My Trunk

[00:00:01] This is RedPubPod, RedPubPod, a podcast from RedHog Publications. RedPubPod. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening out there in podcast land. I don't know when you're listening to this, but we're here all the time floating around in the ether. This is RedPubPod. I'm Robert Kneipp here with Executive Director Richard Eller.

[00:00:27] I'm here with Patty Thompson and we are wonderfully blessed today to have in our plush welded studio, Ms. Chrissie Dixon, who has written a book which we have proudly published called No Jump in My Trunk, an inspiring lesson on unpacking your power and getting a life. Welcome, Chrissie. Thank you so much, Robert. Thanks, Patty. Oh, it's a pleasure.

[00:00:52] You know, if you guys don't mind, as you started to go down the list of who we were seeing in the book that we did, it makes me think about the journey that you and I had, Chrissie. How did you find us? Because I do remember the email like maybe a year or two years ago. Yeah. And we stayed in touch. But how did you hear about RedHog? It was actually 2020. But prior to that... Were we in the middle of the COVID lockdown?

[00:01:22] We were definitely in the middle of the... Oh, I was in my cave in my basement at home publishing books. She was writing. Yeah, I was a little bit in a cave and, you know, people say find your why, but I tell them first my how, because how I started writing was I was one of those folks that was non-essential. And after I did all this, went home and did all the cleaning and cleaned out the closets and first in line in Walmart,

[00:01:48] that's when I finally sat down and said, okay, what are you going to do? You're not going to just sit here and clean and wash dishes the whole time. And that's how I decided that I would write a book. And you found RedHog how? Oh, I love that. I have a...my biggest fan is my husband, of course, but also my mother. And way before that, I do a speaking business called Cheer Up and Live. And mother had given...she saw it. And she sent that to me.

[00:02:16] And anything that I love, a saying that I've used a lot of them in this book, I throw them in a little box, like a little file box. And when I was pulling stuff out, I found RedHog. So even before, you know, I even had a plan, I reached out to you. Wow. And we did stay in touch. And Richard and Robert, you guys might not realize this, but she got in touch with me in 2020, and I was cheering her on, but I might not have heard from her for eight or nine months at a time.

[00:02:45] You know, I would give her notes, I would give her ideas, you know, give her some backup, and I wouldn't hear from her again for eight or nine months. But I kept her on my radar because I knew she was very tenacious. I knew that she was going to come through. And it took a while. It did. So I'm hearing you say four years. Yes. But I'll tell you what, you stayed to it, and I'm really proud of this book. And I know you went through the journey of doing it. Yes, I did. I had to learn how to build a character and, you know, all of it.

[00:03:13] And luckily, the internet had so many things that I could just learn from. And I kept, someone recently told me, a nurse where my mom was at the hospital, said that she would like to write her story. I said, I've left you some breadcrumbs. I'll tell you what I, you know, what I learned along the way. And we'll just hold hands until she gets there. And for people who may not be familiar with the book, and we're hoping by the end you'll be fans and you'll want to go ahead and buy it, why don't you let folks know a little bit about this?

[00:03:41] And I'll give a little hint. It is a self-help slash nonfiction book. Yes. But it's short. It's a parable. Now, how would you describe that? No Jump in My Trunk just shares a story of, like me, during the COVID time. You know, you sit there and a lot of my gifts were rusty. Um, I, I hadn't used them, but they were still there. You know, the old Chrissy was still there. And also, um, what was happening at the same time, my girls, my five girls were at home,

[00:04:11] actually four girls. One, one came after COVID or should we say, shall we say during COVID? Um, so at the time, so at the time I had a special generation amongst us human beings. Oh, you've got it. Uh, her name's April rain and she is something else as number five girl. But, uh, when the girls would say, Nana, I'm bored. And they would say, don't say only boring people get bored. But I always said that. And I would say, are you using your gifts? Are you using your talents?

[00:04:41] That was what I would always say. So after I'd cleaned everything and I'm sitting outside birding, um, I just asked myself, Now what is birding? You know, like looking at birds and being, I was a bit of a birder. I love birds and I'm out in the country. I had a different idea of the kind of birding I've done. Usually it's sitting on my front porch and like giving certain neighbors certain gestures with my fingers. Yeah. So excuse me, go ahead. You know, I've never done that gesture, but there's still time, but I don't think I will. All right, go ahead.

[00:05:10] Birding, looking at the birdies. I'm sorry. It's your gifts. It's not my gifts. It's not my nature. See, and I've got my gifts. Oh, you do. I know that. Um, so after sitting there, I said, took my own advice. It was like, Chrissy, are you using your gifts? So I started stirring them up and stirring them up. And although I didn't know how to write, I knew how to read. And I knew how I had developed a very, um, I guess you'll say a growth mindset after years

[00:05:38] of studying the power of positive thinking. And, um, so I sat down to write about, um, this little elephant who finds out that she can't jump. And the reason I, another reason I did that is during that time, my girls were taking, they took a personality test and the oldest came out, you know, real strong character. So when they did the, the youngest, the second one, she just had a different character, more

[00:06:07] of a, um, um, uh, you know, uh, creative, quiet type character. And at the time she was probably only 10, uh, or nine. And when they, when the results came out, she said, I hate my personality. And when I heard that this amazing little girl who now, you know, has leads and plays, she works with student government. I knew I wrote a book for her. I wrote this book for my beautiful nieces.

[00:06:36] I wrote this book for, um, my daughter-in-law from a mom and for myself, just to remind us that we have to get in there, stir up those gifts. And this, this little, and who better than an elephant? If you look up the strongest animal, it's, it's top of the list. If you look up the most emotional intelligent, it's on that list. Um, the elephant's amazing. And so when you're reading No Jump in My Trunk, you're thinking, no, you can't jump, but you're an elephant.

[00:07:03] And that's what I want, you know, women and men to realize that, um, just use your power, just at work, use your power. You don't have to be like anyone else, but, but, but try to be who you are to the fullest. So that's the basics of No Jump in My Trunk. I think what I also enjoy about it is that you, you do structure this in a parable. Yes. And a lot of times some of the self-help books, um, they might come off a little academic

[00:07:30] or a little very personal oriented, but by reading your book, it's so much more approachable for folks who want to read about maybe, yeah, it's about animals in the animal kingdom. But at the same time, I am drawing a lesson every, every sentence of the way. And you use Proverbs, African village Proverbs, which I really, really enjoy. So for anyone listening, if you want a self-help book, that's kind of the device, the way she writes it, it's a little different.

[00:07:59] But to me, it's, it's so much more accessible. Adults as, as well as young, young women, children could enjoy this book and get something at all different levels. Thank you. So again, I admire the ability for you to not be a writer, but you're a reader. And Robert will tell you, that's everything, right? Oh, absolutely. And, and, uh, there's been a lot of people bought your book already. Really? Yeah. Well, you got that royalty check, didn't you? Not yet.

[00:08:29] But I, I just, just trusted in the methods. I just trusted in that. One of the things that I really like about this is where you talk about jump being a metaphor for whatever it is you don't possess. Yes, sir. Yet strongly believe that you need to be, need to have to be successful. This is, this is kind of paraphrasing your own book here. Jump can be many things, including education, physical appearance, natural abilities, money, relationships, careers, or social acceptance.

[00:08:59] How, how do we recognize, uh, our jump? How do we recognize those things that we might need? Like, how did your granddaughter, who apparently is like, was kind of introverted, recognize that she needed to go into this place that made her uncomfortable to really open up herself to be able to do the things that you've said that she's done? How do we recognize those things in ourselves?

[00:09:25] Well, I'm going to credit her parents here because, um, they were aware, um, her mother was, is a little more of an introvert, where her father very much, Chrissy's son. Um, her grandfather, uh, Evan's dad, John is very much an introvert. I know when I was dating him, um, um, one of his friends said, you guys are really different. You know, I didn't know about temperaments. I didn't understand that. I didn't know he didn't talk because I talked so much.

[00:09:54] I didn't know that he was not talking back for probably about six, seven years. Really? No, no. I didn't know till Evan went to NC State. When Evan left for school, it got quiet and I was like, hey, say something. And his mother warned me once too, but so, so the warnings were there, but that there's that connection. You know, he, one thing he does is he lets me be who I am. And that's what Evan's had to do with, with Sarai.

[00:10:21] Um, you know, the whole house can be up singing and dancing and whatever, and she might just twirl out of the room. Um, and her sisters let her be who she is. Um, and she just took courage. Um, recently she made all county chorus and nobody even knew she was trying out. Where if I tried out for all county chorus or her big sister, Makayla. Oh, if Makayla tried out, you know, everybody would know because that's her, that's her personality.

[00:10:49] And the more you look at temperaments and realize there's good and there's not so great, you, you're okay about being who you are. And I also think just not having her parents tried their best to make sure there's no jealousy. And, you know, if you find yourself being jealous of someone else, you're not using your talents because if you're using them, you're happy. And happy people are not jealous.

[00:11:10] And you also highlight in the book and in the storyline that, uh, oftentimes we realize more about ourselves as we look inward instead of looking outward. Yes. Well, as somebody who has been through, you know, the kind of therapies where, you know, therapists will tell us that we need to look at ourselves before we look at anything else. So I figured out that one of the most painful things to do is hold that mirror up and realize that sometimes you are your own worst enemy. Mm hmm.

[00:11:40] What advice do you give or what story? Is there something in the book that helps us through that pain and trauma of looking at ourselves and the problems that we bring to situations? You know, how we react to adversity versus how we might react to peace. Mm hmm. Uh, when, when she, when Ella meets, when she goes to camp and again, camp was a real life thing for me. It was the North Carolina Outward Bound School.

[00:12:08] And I went at the age of, um, I turned 22 out on the course. It was a seven day course. Nobody knew me. Nobody said, Oh, that's Chrissy. She's afraid of heights. Or that was the whole point of Outward Bound at that point. Uh, I hope it's still the same way. You didn't go with anyone you knew. And, um, I was terrified of everything. I was afraid. I saw a sign be aware of bears. I was up in Franklin. I was afraid of other campers. Um, but I did the work. It said I was able to run five miles.

[00:12:38] I got off of caffeine. So I did the stuff I needed to do. But when I got out there, um, I ran in immediately ran into obstacles and started finding my way around it and meeting all kinds of other people and realizing, you know, maybe he was good at the ropes course, but look how he's acting now that we're on the water and he can't control it. I was, they put me in a canoe with a gentleman from New York and he was cursing the whole time.

[00:13:05] And we just, we were, but we were working together because you can work together. Um, she meets, so in the book she meets four characters and it's actually just the four temperaments. And in those four temperaments, all she sees is the positive. She sees that, um, you know, Chi can jump out and be assertive. And she sees, you know, that the other character can jump in and get things done.

[00:13:29] But, um, like the leader tells her at one point, the leader llama, she says to her, um, did you notice Chi has a fear of losing control? And she went through all of them. And, and the character, Elle is like, I, I didn't notice that. So when you realize, like, I know, po body's nerf it. I know that. I love that chapter, by the way. At first we thought it was a typo and we were laying it out. It's like, no, that's intentional.

[00:13:55] And sometimes there's two things I will say sometimes, even in an official setting, I will say po body's nerf it. And I will say, I forgive me. Because when I, um, went to outward bound, I was like my character. I was carrying some, some, um, a little bit of baggage of wishing I'd done, made some different choices. And when you, when you, um, do the trust fall, we were up on this pole type thing that they made. And you do this trust fall and they said, let go of something when you fall.

[00:14:25] And when I fell back, before I fell back, I said, I let go of not forgiving myself. And after that, I mean, I've worked with some great stockbrokers for 17 years. And if I sold instead of bought, I would just say, I sold instead of bought. I have to go fix that. But I forgive me because I forgive you and I'll forgive you. I had to learn to forgive me for stuff like that. That's, that's very Eastern. That's very Eastern. And that's Buddhism and Hinduism.

[00:14:54] Um, one of the leading Buddhist teachers and writers, Pima Chodron has an entire book out about learning how to forgive yourself and let go of regrets. Regrets. Because regrets are things that act like fish hooks inside of us. Mm-hmm. That keep us from moving forward because of either fear of being hurt again or, um, just not wanting to fear, uh, feel that, that awfulness again. Mm-hmm. Sorry. Or just failing.

[00:15:22] And even failing, uh, in my book, um, it represents when I was up on a ropes course and I saw a gentleman go before me and he grabbed this limb and I couldn't reach the limb. And even though I'm on belay, I knew I was not going to crash to my death. Mm-hmm. I was afraid to try to go across without being able to tap that limb like he did. And I just sat still.

[00:15:46] And, um, my instructor then, I just love her, Lisa Loveday, she looked up and said, what's wrong, Chrissy? And I said, I'm afraid. And this is 1989. Um, and she said, um, I know you're afraid. She waited and then she said, I know you're afraid. Can you do it anyway? And I had never heard that in 1989. I, that had never been said to me. And so I just got up and I just tried to, to do it anyway. And you mentioned the fables.

[00:16:15] I do that to be, well, I, I, I've taught Sunday school for many, many years, um, at a sweet little church in my community. And the children really, they resonate with fables and it makes tough lessons easier. And you can act them out. And sometimes I let them get up and draw it while I'm reading it. Um, and it's also inclusive. So no one can say, oh, that doesn't pertain to me because I don't look like that or sound like that.

[00:16:42] And so that's, I did that, uh, with the purpose, um, as well as the African proverbs. They represent that time in my life when I did feel like, you know, I took a wrong turn. You know, mom would tell me to pray. She would tell me parables. She would just give me scripture. So I chose African proverbs for that as well, just to be, again, to make it easy for people to approach it. And, and I fell in love with the African proverbs.

[00:17:09] One of my favorite African proverbs that you have in here, it's, um, to get lost is to learn the way. And it's kind of interesting because just thinking about my own journey, I'm one of those people who I have a hard time literally getting lost. I have a really good 360. We're opposite. Yeah. I don't need a map or a compass. It gets a little worse as I get older. But when I was a kid, it was like, you're so lucky. I could go someplace once and I knew how to get there.

[00:17:34] So again, as I get a little older, it's getting a little less off by five or 10 degrees. But that said, um, I used to go places. I used to get in my car trying to get lost. And when I go to new countries, I want to get lost because I know I'm going to find my way. You better watch out. In some of these countries, you get lost, you get lost permanently. That's true. Whatever happened to that gal that was with our group. That's very true. But that said, um, it's part of the journey, you know, when you, when you, when you're going to get lost.

[00:18:04] When you do get lost, there are your eyes are a little bit more open. You're a little bit more alert. So for folks out there, don't be scared if you get lost. That's just means you're out of your comfort zone. But keep your eyes open because there's so much more you're going to learn. Yeah. And again, that's one of many things that I've enjoyed about this short book, by the way. So anyone can probably finish this in one sitting. You sure can. Um, during the three or four years that you and I were kind of engaging with one another, I know at one point we talked about you wanted artwork.

[00:18:33] And I had mentioned to you just to caution that getting illustrators can be expensive. Well, didn't you find a little work around? And why don't you tell us about that? Because it's ingenious. My growth mindset muscle was growing. Um, a young man in our marketing department, um, told, he looked at what I wanted. I was like, I just want simple sketches. I don't want to come up, you know, I don't want to take away from anything.

[00:18:57] Cause I, there's been many times when I was young, I would read a book, I'd read about the character and then I'd see a picture and go, that's not him. Um, you know, and then after that, that became who I had to imagine. And he said, you know, Chrissy for that, you can use AI. And I thought, I can't use AI. So he, he told me kind of what I, he said, just talk, write it out. Every detail, everything you want to see where you want them standing, what you want them to do.

[00:19:25] And me and, uh, Starbucks became best friends, um, because I had to get away from the house. I don't drink coffee. Um, I've never drank, drank coffee, but, um, I, all of you, all of you looked at me. Um, but I drink a lot of green tea. That's something. Caffeine? Yeah. Yeah. Caffeine. Yeah. So, um, my sister said, Chrissy, just go to Starbucks. And I said, I'm not that person. And she said, if you're going to stop washing dishes and get out of that house, you've got to do that.

[00:19:53] And so that, you know, I'm always buying their stuff there. I'm tipping them. Um, and, and, and that's how I just sat down one day and just started trying to tell the descriptions. And they weren't always great. Sometimes the eyes looked odd and things like that, but you just, you, I knew I was too far to turn back. And I just kept going and I love them. I mean, I'm in love with them. So in essence, the many illustrations that are in this book, they look like graphite drawings.

[00:20:22] Um, they're wonderful sketches and they were developed through AI with your words, um, came out those wonderful illustrations. So kudos for you. And that's why I credit AI in the book. Yeah. I asked AI how to credit itself. And, uh, because I didn't want anybody to think I drew any of this. That's so wonderful. Now speak a little bit about Ben Precup. Was he the one that helped you with that? It was Ben Precup.

[00:20:48] Now for those out there who might be familiar with Austin Allran's book. Yeah. Ben did the cover for Austin's book. The Legend of the Isle of Cats. Ben did something else too. I love that cover. I can't remember now what it was. I know he helped us with some of the Catawna Valley Festival of the Arts posters. Very talented. Very, very, very patient. Very kind. This is a perfect moment for me to do the advertising. Well, well, please do. We need to go to redhawkpublications.com right now.

[00:21:17] Just put us on pause and on your phone, go to redhawkpublications.com. You can get No Jump in My Trunk right now. It's a discount off of the $15 regular price. It's on sale for $12 bucks. And we'll ship it to you right to your home where you don't have to worry about going out and getting it. It's also available on Amazon.com. And I'm not sure whether any of this is at our sponsor, Tasteful Beans. I'm not sure if Scott Owens has it in stock or not.

[00:21:46] If you go to Tasteful Beans and you want Scott to carry it, then say, get No Jump in My Trunk, Scott, right now. And he will email us and we'll get him some. And by the way, Tasteful Beans is our sponsor. It is our sponsor. And as much as we love Starbucks, we do support Tasteful Beans because they not only have a wonderful owner and poet, Scott Owens, but they also sell some of our books. That's great. And it really is a good place to go and write and work and things like that. I can do that on the weekend.

[00:22:16] Because what you've talked about here is there's several little threads here that are fascinating to me. I want to get in right quick because I like to yak and this, that, and the other. But first of all, it was this thread of you utilized critical thinking on your project to figure out the best way to deliver the message you wanted to deliver. So this is where you arrived at using the African proverbs, the African stories.

[00:22:47] For all of you folks out there who are gestating talents and writers, there's two things that this story represents that are very important for you to recognize. First of all, Chrissy Dixon utilized her thinking and her critical thought to figure out the best way to deliver her message. How does she want to exemplify the illustrations in her book? How does she want to do it? Because some people are against AI. They feel like it takes money out of the pockets of human beings.

[00:23:17] However, she basically was the artist of her own AI because she had to tap into her own intelligence and her own use of words to direct the AI to give her what she wanted. So in fact, she's also the illustrator of this. That's such a good point because some might say, well, that could have been money going to an illustrator. But the fact is, she had so much specificity. That's a hard word. That she could not have gotten from an illustrator.

[00:23:46] She had a vision. So she kind of had to do it. So again, kudos because you're absolutely right, Robert. She kind of, in her own way, she is the illustrator of this. And I was one of those people. I didn't want to take away from an artist. And that's why I was trying to find one. But an artist is the one who told me. Yeah. Something like this, just go for it. He said you're not taken away. He said it also enhances his art. Exactly.

[00:24:13] And here is one of the most healthy ways to look at AI. It's like in my writing classroom, I teach my students how to use artificial intelligence to revise their writing. Now, they have to do a couple of drafts. But there is a time when we're going to give it to Grammarly or we're going to give it to ChatGPT and let it tweak it and let it give us advice and ask us questions that will help tweak

[00:24:40] and fix our critical thinking toward our own work. So AI is here to stay, folks. It's not going anywhere unless somebody unconnects us from the grid and we can't power it. But if they do that, we're going to be more of a mess. But also the second theme that's in this is Patty said earlier that you made the scene about 2020

[00:25:06] contacting the press and there were times where she wouldn't hear from you for months at a time. But you stayed on and Patty, did Patty give you advice as you worked? Did you show her what you were doing? Yeah, at different stages. First, the main thing is she gave me encouragement. You're going to write a book. Go. You can do it. And then it was like, okay. So then you just know that someone, first of all, someone knows that I'm writing a book. That's helpful because then you've got to kind of write a book.

[00:25:37] And then as I would touch base with it. You're going to be disappointed if you don't do it. You know, you just have to find your voice. I lost my voice as a teenager once. And now I'm just really big on making sure that I speak my voice. I speak my truth. And I have support around me that allows me to do that, mainly my husband. He's just so good at letting me be me. And I'm a lot. And for some reason or another, you seem to trust Patty in her feedback.

[00:26:07] Oh, yes. Can you tell us where that trust grows from? Well, my self-awareness that I worked on for many years, it was screaming to me, you don't know what you're doing. So when you're aware, I mean, you know, if I tell someone, oh, I can't do that, they'll say, oh, yes, you can. And I'm like, listen, I know I can do a lot of great stuff. I can still do a cartwheel, okay? But there's some things I don't know how to do.

[00:26:31] And I have to sometimes even put my hand over my mouth not to talk and just listen and believe the process. And I don't go to just anybody for advice. I go to someone who knows what they're talking about. And then I soak that in. I'm like, okay, okay. Even when I was at the brokerage firm, some of the older clients would say, do you know what I would do if I was you? And I'm like, what would you do? Because I've learned to listen to wisdom.

[00:26:58] But if what they tell you that they would do if they were you is incorrect or damaging to them, when you tell them such, do they listen to you? Do they trust you? I would not put all of my investments in that one basket. Or because they might think, oh, I want to put, I want to move all of my money into this. And you're saying, no, we need to diversify a little bit. But do they listen to you? Do they respect your knowledge as a?

[00:27:27] I know my knowledge. I know my wheelhouse. So when I tell people things like, you know, if someone tells me there's a problem at work or something like that, I'll give them my best advice. I might say, you know, shake it off. Or if it matters to you, go talk to them. But I think about that before I give advice. But I only use my wheelhouse if there's the things that I know how. The people who reach out to me, it's like, will you look at this email? Do you think I should say this? Those are the things people come to me.

[00:27:57] They don't ask me to open up a tight jar lid or do any math or lift anything heavy. But people, when they know you and you know who you are, even strangers will come. They'll say, will you pray for me? They'll do just different things. But it's always my wheelhouse. If it's not, I'm like, one time I was actually asked at church to block the door so people couldn't come in until it was time to eat. And I said, okay.

[00:28:26] And I stood there and I thought, I can't block a door and tell people not to eat. That's not my personality. So I just left the post. Because I'm too old to change. Right. Well, and the reason I bring this up is because we have had clients in the past. God love them, you know, because we're up to around 200 titles now. And we will have clients in the future.

[00:28:53] Those people who may be listening right now, who sometimes will come in with an idea of how they want their cover to look or how they want their work to look. And we will advise them within our knowledge, within our wheelhouse, that it might not be a good idea to do that that way. And sometimes they don't trust us. So I want to say to you personally that I appreciate your trust. Yeah. It took you four years, almost five, to bring your project to fruition.

[00:29:23] But look at how marvelous it turned out. Thank you. Look at how the nurturing and the advice and the knowledge that we have at the press helped you get your art out there. Yeah. And if I reflect back, I remember Patty didn't say, do this, do that. She would say, if I was you or what you might want to try. And I knew she was being kind, being given soft direction. But I was a sponge.

[00:29:52] So I think it just takes having someone with knowledge and someone willing to receive that knowledge. I put myself in your feet a lot as I was giving her guidance. I thought to myself, this courageous woman hadn't written a book before, and she's writing something from the very start, from zero. What would I do if I were her? So I really, when I was talking to you, I was talking to myself. I was talking to anybody who wants to start from not knowing much to getting this book out.

[00:30:20] And to give you some frame of reference, when I tell you, you were on my radar for four years, if one were to look at my pipeline, at any given time, we're working on 10 books. We've got 10 or 15 that are in our periphery. And then there's off on the corners of the radar. I probably have, right now, 40 or 50 people I've contacted, I've been in contact with, who say they're writing a book. And I don't hear anything from them. But you were on that list, and you just kept moving right up. I knew you were doing it.

[00:30:50] So I was kind of cheering you on. Yeah, she said, you told me, you said, I've got you out there. You're my project. I know you're trying. And I'm like, I'm a project. You know, some people don't want to be one. But I just take everything as a compliment. I told my mom that one time. She said something. She said, I said, I just pretend everybody loves me. And my mom's so funny. She said, well, they don't. Yeah, I have to tell myself that every once in a while, too.

[00:31:17] But what's wonderful is you did not let your own ego get in the way of your opportunity. Because you talk a lot in this book about opportunities. Opportunities do not wait around. Well, this opportunity seemed to nurture itself through four years. However, you recognized it. I could see it. I would imagine it. Sometimes I'd get in my car. And my husband knows this.

[00:31:46] I would get in my car and I would just say, Ella, I can't find you. I don't see you. Because I couldn't just go constant. I like to prepare food. I like to check on my mom. I like to get my grandkids to come over. And I could only seem to write when it was quiet. And sometimes I'd go for weeks, not able to get to it. And you know if you get away from it, you can't find it. And I would just say, Ella, where are you? And I like to work outside. Because when I'm outside, I could just picture them.

[00:32:16] I could just see them coming back. And when I walked toward them, they'd walk toward me. And they'd show me something else about their character. It's not a really deep discussion book. It touches base. It touches on things that people can go look deeper into. Like Carol Dweck's whole mindset thing, which I find fascinating. But I grew up hearing, don't be closed-minded. Have an open mind. I didn't grow up hearing, don't have a fixed mindset. Have a growth mindset. But it's the exact same thing.

[00:32:46] And using your power, I'd go outside. And I would play. And we played in our power. Everybody had ideas when we played outside like that. So I just have worked on this stuff. It's not that it's a muscle I've just worked on. I've worked on, I discovered a scripture at 17 called John 16, 33. And it said, in this world you'll have trouble, but cheer up. Which I loved anything with the word cheer in it, because that's all I knew how to do.

[00:33:14] But then it translated to take courage. I've overcome the world. And courage is something, you know, a lot of things are given to you. But courage must be taken. You've got to, you might be little, but you've got to be, you've got to believe. And it's just a belief that things will work out if you keep going. Now is that, is that something that grows from your idea of, you mentioned the power of positive thinking earlier. To me, that seems like that's the true point. That's where I saw the scripture. Yeah, the power of positive.

[00:33:44] By Norman Vincent Peale. Norman Vincent Peale. There are people out there who kind of bend that sometimes. They'll say that if I say it enough, it will become true. Yeah. And we've got some politicians who like to say things, and they think if they tell it long enough, it will become true. But that's kind of a warping. That's not, that's not how I received it. Kind of, and I think you're working to it, right? That's why a lot of times I don't even say the book anymore, because people think it's like, don't worry, be happy.

[00:34:13] I have the pleasure of speaking with about 400 middle schoolers. I don't usually talk with kids. I talk with adults, but we're going to talk about showing up and bringing all your gifts and your skills. And it's just a short little thing, but you have to do the work. You have to let ego. Oh my gosh, that's, that's, I don't, I had a good friend named Hazel who worked with me from England.

[00:34:38] And she said, Chrissy, she told me once, she said, it's so important not to give offense, but it's just as important not to take it. And I remember, you know, that was in my receiving time. So I remembered that. And so I, and I know I don't give offense, but take, not taking it is, is something you just have to work on. That's another thing that you have to actively shift yourself into is that, because what I learned from the book was, you know, you said in this book, opportunities don't wait

[00:35:08] around. And I think I know how to recognize opportunity. But I love the fact that you talk about drawing opportunity to us, you know, and it seems like that's what you do. Yeah. With the positivity and with the, the idea of keeping your ego in check and listening to others and respecting their talents and their expertise. And cheering for them, you know, yay, good for you. Very good.

[00:35:33] And my son, he, a hundred days till summer, we do things like a hundred days till summer. So a hundred days till summer, my number one son and only son started, he said, I'm going to see if I can get back into the brokerage business. He was an insurance person. And so a hundred days till summer. So hearing you talk, you know, you don't think about it, but, but that was my, my son, my saying, I can do this if I keep going.

[00:36:02] And he had a couple of orders, a couple of offers before the hundred days was over. And now he's a Merrill Lynch broker, but he had that same belief that gets passed down. Patty's making hand signs at me. Are we, how are we for time? I forgot to turn the timer on. We're, we got five minutes, but. Okay. Well then I'll let you go on. I could talk about this for hours. Well, that's what I was just going to say. This is actually just fun conversation and very informative. And I'm sure folks out there are getting a lot from this.

[00:36:31] And by the way, make sure you get your copy of No Jump in the Trunk at our website, redhogpublications.com. Perfect. Thank you. But that said, I want to encourage folks also to look at this book just because we haven't laid a book out like this before. There's a lot of little doodly dobs, if you want. I mean, we've got elements. What kind of word was that? Doodly dobs. I made it up. It's a new word. It's all one word. Doodly dobs. Doodly dobs.

[00:36:58] But there's little elements that we have, like, you know, between separating numbers on the bottom of the page and up on the top. It's a pretty book. It's probably our only book that I know of that has as many drawings of illustrations as art, not photos, but illustrative arts. Plus, it's got the call-outs of the Proverbs. So it's a unique book for us to have done.

[00:37:27] And I know that there were some interesting challenges. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was all you, Patty. You came up with it. When I saw that, I was like, oh my gosh, I love it when you put that around the pictures. I'm pretty sure that's Aaron. Now, Ben. This is our new graphic arts edition. Aaron Mann, who is not here today to be on the podcast. Oh, thank you, Aaron. But Aaron did a... This was kind of her trial by fire. It was. She was really up to it in some... Yeah, she enjoyed it.

[00:37:56] Again, she got to play a little bit with it. And we enjoyed her having fun with it. And we thank you for entrusting us to come up with something like this. I loved it. It was a very, very satisfying and worthwhile collaboration. Because that's what this is. This is a collaboration between what we know how to do and what you want to see. And it's all about what the reader is going to see when he or she buys the book and sits down to read it. And it is a very inviting little volume.

[00:38:25] It's a beautiful purple. It's very clean. Ben Precup did the cover. Thank you, Ben. Yeah, it's very clean. And it's text and very easy to read. You don't have... I don't even have to put my reader glasses on to read it. So, of all ages. And you said a minute ago, I wanted to get this plug in. You do speaking engagements. Yes, it's called Cheer Up and Live. Cheer Up and Live. It sounds all happy, but it really means take courage and move. Do you have a website that you can quote for us? Yes, Cheer Up.

[00:38:55] I think it will be in the description. And if I'm not mistaken, and I know we have to wrap this up, but this book actually lends itself to group discussions. I can easily see groups of people. Well, you can tell that from the past hour. Well, that said, I think on your website, eventually you're going to have some worksheets up there. So, if anybody wants to do a small reading with this with some friends, I think those worksheets and this book would be very complimentary. So, we're looking forward to seeing that when it comes up.

[00:39:24] And thank you for being our guest today. Thank you. This is fun. Give us that website right quick if you got it. Yes, it's cheerupandlive.com. Cheer Up and Live, all one word. C-A-T-E-R-U-P-A-N-D-L-I-V-E. Dot com. Okay. Well, are we done? I think we are. I think we could go for hours. I would like to thank our guest, Chrissy Dixon, for coming in today. You're a marvelous guest. Thank you. You're just wonderful. She's all bubbly and stuff.

[00:39:52] I've never seen somebody sit in that chair and smile so much. Well, there was one guy that was in here, but he was drunk. Okay, you know my secret now. Well, she's not drunk because I don't smell it. No, I don't drink. So, this is Robert Knipe talking to you on Red Pub Pod with Patty Thompson and the nice and quiet engineer over here, Richard Eller, our executive director, the guy who makes it all worthwhile.

[00:40:17] And this is all executive producer Garrett D. Henshull is involved here, too. We would like to thank you very much. Go to our website and go to Tasteful Beans and Red Pub Pod. Can you say that, Chrissy? Red Pub Pod. She's got it. Nearly. And Red Pub Pod. Yeah. So, listen to this podcast as many times as you want to. I mean, play it over and over again. Just play it when you're not even in the room where we'll get some hits. Okay?

[00:40:47] Thank you. And we'll see you next time. Bye. Take care. This is Red Pub Pod. Red Pub Pod. Red Pub Pod. Red Pub Pod. A podcast. Red Pub Pod. From Red Hog Publications. Red Pub Pod.