Life Unscripted with Kevin Shook

Burnout, Breakthroughs, and Book Deals with Adetokunbo Adeshile on Life Unscripted with Kevin Shook

• Kevin Shook • Episode 26

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The room changed and so did we. Starting from a fresh studio build, this episode of Life Unscripted with Kevin Shook digs into how personal shifts, especially sobriety, opened the door to a bigger creative vision with more client podcasts, live streams across platforms, and a full rebrand that is expanding toward a storefront space. The gear looks better, but the real upgrade is the system behind it with repeatable production, sharper marketing, and a hunger fueled by local competition.

Kevin is joined by Adetokunbo Adeshile, an author and creative who understands what it means to rebuild from the inside out. Together they talk about the grind that shapes creative work, how a drill instructor’s line “pay the rent” became a daily mindset for growth, and how discipline fuels both art and health. That drive shows up in writing too by avoiding research spirals, getting words on the page, and finishing what you start.

Adetokunbo shares details on two book projects. One is a local inspired post-apocalyptic series called Rose City. Fun fact: these 2 reside in Richmond, Indiana..aka 'The Rose City'. The other is a dark fantasy romance filled with morally gray characters and a patient, earned slow burn. They cover everything from voice talent and audiobook production to release plans and why readers still want real stakes and worldbuilding.

The conversation moves into AI tools, using them for transcribing shows, generating titles, creating short clips, and powering chatbots that can even pull weather data for golfers. It circles back to trust and authenticity by showing how a handwritten invite beats a perfect email, why imperfect posts still connect, and why older channels like email and print are making a comeback.

For authors and creatives, this talk lays out a clear path forward. Improve the person. Upgrade the process. Ship the product. Deepen the relationship.

Find all of Adetokunbo’s books on Amazon and read more of his work on Substack at www.adeshilewrites.substack.com

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/A-Adeshile/author/B0BFRRL48X?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true&ccs_id=cc70e3e3-97b9-4b4d-bde6-010ceaee14e4

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SPEAKER_00:

Life is credited with having shot.

SPEAKER_01:

Cheers. Cheers. What's uh oh. It's kind of backwards because uh I got the great drink.

SPEAKER_03:

See, I have an issue with drinking great things. You do? I do. I I mean great, we we don't, you know So what's the story then? You know, I mean people just expect me to great drink drink great why I don't know what's the what what was the story, all right? I I don't know. I don't it's it's the same old story about me and grape 2000 has it been probably 2019 18 19 I don't know it's been a minute Cory Brewer?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh yeah Cory if you're watching what's up Cory actually today ironically I actually did have something grape today that's pretty funny I had one of those little um powder drinks you know you can put in your water okay I was looking for something that has hydration because I was gonna try to dance a whole bunch of water like okay and I look and it's like great of course of course I'm gonna look like a stereotype by buying the grape package wonderful wonderful thanks card wonderful stereotype you're talking about like just guys that are named a dekumbo or say that again guys that are named a deadacumbo is that's a stereotype that is that is the stereotype that's what we'll say right now ah well this is awesome because we haven't uh caught up in a minute no no it's been it's been a minute it's uh it's one of them things where we get so wrapped up in our worlds um but it's cool because we're the type of friends that can just pick right back up yeah like what's up yeah that's literally what's new what's going on yeah you you didn't you text me earlier and I'm like don't tell me anything yet we ought to just do a podcast for the podcast we ought to just do a podcast because then everything's legit so what's new well I actually want to ask you that because those people well one I'm an introvert I love asking questions you know this you know this but part of it is I don't know if people can notice from the background but we're kind of in a new space and I'm in some nice chill cozy chairs we are this is um so yeah uh let's see sorry you haven't met here no it's all good you haven't met Sam um Sam's a videographer that okay and photographer and creative director and everything um oh nice nice he coexists in uh my space across the hall okay so he's got a lot of experience with studio design yeah and um production uh everything so um he helped me find the the wall that I was looking for okay um it just kind of really motivated me uh yeah because he worked in a lot of studios in Nashville Tennessee okay so he he's got some yeah some experience yeah so seeing some things uh I'm like I want to throw down some more podcasts get some more podcast uh contracts you know um we're producing a lot right now uh I'd like to produce more um live streaming you know we produce it on multiple platforms but the adding the live streaming options um those are great you know because they can stream in real time see comments that kind of stuff and so it's great for businesses um that's a majority of what we have is a business sponsored podcast um it's great for marketing absolutely because they can take this video episode scrub off the audio make an MP3 file publish it to all the platforms use that metadata get some SEO hits eater eater eater eater and uh you know and then some people still like blogs yeah yeah yeah yeah oh yeah you can take your transcript make a blog off of it oh yeah just there's so much stuff plus I have some uh new competition in town so I love comp I love yeah I love it because and that's why I've really enjoyed watching these arcades yeah because they they just but they're not healthy competition they just battle each other but what's great is it's made both of them better at their business and it's made them hungry and it's made them hustle.

SPEAKER_03:

So they've been just growing drastically you know that yeah that's awesome I I enjoy you know you gotta have competitors or you get stagnant right absolutely it's great um we'll be moving uh circa summer twenty six okay we'll be moving um to a first floor storefront and expanding our studios yeah hopefully front office employee hopefully a lot a lot of um with that will come an entire rebrand okay so that's exciting no global no not everything that's gonna be entire and just it'll it'll just scream digital marketing so this is awesome um more people involved stuff like that so that's um real excited by that that's pretty wow that's she you're about to make me tear up over here sorry man for for for those of you guys who don't know I mean you probably heard the story before but you know I remember when he was just getting this going he was I mean this was I don't mean the business when he was just entering really getting to the digital arts I mean that's how I'm gonna phrase I know it's marketing and everything else but I caffeine and cameras caffeine and cameras yep and so you know seeing you doing putting in the work putting in hours learning on your computer man on your laptop man whenever you got a chance and not only have you been here for however many years now like you're about to expand um your welcoming competition like it's it's good man it's really good like we got this cool room so I I like to listen to a podcast and watch YouTube podcasts as well I know it's weird right but there's a guy I think I think his name is David Pirell and like he has these kind of setups where you have two people sitting from each other in a very relaxed comfortable place.

SPEAKER_01:

And I as soon as I came in here I was like oh man all right I see what you're doing here this is nice like I just if I if it were earlier in the day I probably just have a coffee instead of Celsius you know like this is this kind of spot you can have some tea coffee take our shoes off take shoes off have a really good conversation whatever kind of conversation you need to have so this is I man it has that vibes this is the first time I've recorded over here I mean I've recorded um you know just with one of my little my little Osmo camera and stuff just doing funny stuff because I like the background the background but um yeah this is the first time you were sitting there watching me hook this up so this is awesome this is pretty awesome man so this is a a big development so you got uh Sam is Sam is hanging out now you got some someone to bounce ideas off or someone has some some experience he can help me too so he he's he's able to help me on video projects and so that's huge that's why huge 26 is it'll be a game changer that's that's uh you know how it it's so cliche going into um every year you're like next year next year's gonna be a game but I'm like for real yeah and it because it started with it started with the the things that build that foundation that's like what I was thinking your personal brand okay so the sobriety in it started that's where it all that's why I know it's gonna be better next year. It's gonna be better every year because I'm doing personally what I need to be doing for me to succeed professionally. Yeah so I know it's gonna be better next year because I'm I'm expecting it to be better it's going to be better and I'm not going to I'm not gonna settle for anything less.

SPEAKER_03:

So there's a couple of things with that one I is either yesterday or day before I actually listened to a clip of Jim Rohn. He's a he's a kind of thought leader his old school guy but he he was talking about people's um basically their advancement you know and it was like you your paycheck basically only improves as much as you as an individual improves oh absolutely like your character growth your development as a person um so you say like no this is going to get better because I am continuously getting better my foundation my personal brand what I've done to build that and you know I've seen your continual pursuit of improvement and it's not all roses I've had the bad I've had the bad and and I still have bad days um but and you're right though that's really good because your paycheck's gonna get better the more you get better like so your bad day if you write off a day where you don't do anything because you're sad whatever you got to realize okay I'm not doing anything that means I'm not gonna get anything out of this day.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. You know so then it's that's when as soon as you shift your mindset that little paradigm shift of like if I don't do anything today I'm not going to get anything out of the day and it's not just money it's your health so it's like if I don't if I don't go for a walk or if I don't go to the anytime or you know a gym or whatever so you're only gonna get out what you put in to the day.

SPEAKER_03:

There was a um uh what did they call did they call them drill drill instructors? This was when I I went to the uh police academy mind you guys I was not a police officer for very long so nothing big right but I did go to the academy training right and one of the things that stuck with me whether I kept to it or not one of the things that stuck with me is the the main uh drill instructor he said you you know you have to uh pay the rent and he was oftentimes I remember referring to our physical workouts and you know I've had some kind of some injuries some pains or some things that have kind of slowed down some of my physical activity and just like everyone else I'm focused trying to get after it and like as my body changes or whatever I I start to see and understand more like no man like it really is paying the rent to stay in this body to make the body work well you have to put in that every day not that you have to do every day but you need to pay the rent you have to CrossFit CrossFit did I just turn that alarm off inside joke inside joke yes but you you you you every day I think you're right every day finding at least something that you can put into this equation of this thing called life we don't know what the results will be but not putting anything in usually doesn't end well. No even if that putting it in is being very clear like I need this to be a day rest. I think that's important too but you know but like like today I I had a long day and everything else but and I could have easily not text you and said hey let's do a podcast tonight and come in and build put all this together he spent like 15 20 minutes getting things figured out he put I'm like really excited right now like I feel really good right now that we did that that we're here um you know so it you you you get out of the day what you're gonna put into the day that's for sure yeah yeah um and so you've been putting like I say I I've always see you working yeah wheels are always spinning sometimes I'm I'm more busy procrastinating but I'm trying to address that I'm trying to address the procrastination well wait that's that's that I mean that's that's a challenge you're not the only person I mean that's a that's a big challenge so for writers that is one of those things that you know guys I write so that's one of the things that we have to be mindful of um and there's some balance with this but um I'm trying to think of how to frame this correctly but basically there's the idea that when you're writing if you do a lot of outlining trying to figure out everything in advance um if you you're super hours or days within research you may need to do that mind you but you have to ask the question at what point am I procrastinating versus doing the work that needs to get done I think that's a fine line and people can argue whether that exists or not but I think there's a fine line there. But there is a question of am I getting the words in? Because the book doesn't write itself. So when you're saying like every day you have to put input my books don't get written unless I put words out be it I speak the words to text you know be I type it but if I don't put the words in if I'm procrastinating some fashion the the the book doesn't get done the words don't write themselves.

SPEAKER_01:

Speaking of writing how many books are you out now I don't know you wrote any more smart books oh my gosh guys I have not written come on I've written a very nice romance book in a very very nice romance book so next question out of all the books you have which one has sold the most that's a good question it might be the romance that's where I was bad romance it might be the romance book so that's funny. Ready for the next question.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah is the romance book based on a true story oh my gosh it is based in a small city that is a real city what about the people I can never base them precisely on real people exactly but you know you go through life and you you get a com a combination of personalities and people and you can throw those things together and see what happens. So it's not your life that you wrote about my life no it's not my life now I may have been to some of the places that some of the characters have been to you know some of them positions. I I I don't know what he is saying here guys I just write good stories I do the best in the comments or whatever they're realistic what people really did like that romance story like they they really appreciate the characters right have you done the audio for it yet oh the audiobook is out yes people people really like it so it's it's out there did you narrate it I did not narrate it uh a great uh um a great um great voice actress narrated for me um I want to make sure I use her her what you call it name like pen name well like it's like but you know I don't want to say their actual name if that's not what they want said out there if that makes sense so look give me give me a second I can come back I can come back to this but you look at the book it's called Stolen Hearts and look it up Stolen Hearts and they can find that on Amazon oh yeah find it on Amazon find it on Audible Stolen Hearts yeah about to make some swag for it you know so so thinking about swag I have released a book which I will start looking for a um a um narrator for and that particular book I have swag built in I actually want the swag like so the group so long short of the story is it's kind of uh urban fantasy so think vampires um monsters but like in a contemporary setting right think of a big city so think of like a check Chicago with vampires and monsters and all that kind of stuff right but this group is a paranormal group so you can imagine were wolves vampires ghosts etc but they have a band so they have band t-shirts and stuff like that so at some point I'm actually gonna try to get some swag you got it for it so like uh that be tempered that's one of our podcasts that we produce yeah so they got a bunch of swag and stuff like that so nice um the name of that book would look good on some stuff yes I think so okay on here her uh name is CB Parks C B Parks yep yep so you check out stolen hearts you get to look under my name or look for CB Parks I mean she's done she did an amazing job an amazing job she really brought those characters to life I mean that's the interesting thing about all the arts whatever your art is I mean if you're a professional you can just do some amazing things it's great so are you uh and you're currently you're you're always writing what am I writing I'm always writing you're always writing uh yes I'm always writing so I guess if your question is what am I writing now what have I written I'll I'll tell you I got a couple things going on right now so I just um I just finished a draft of a post-apocalyptic so think zombies that kind of story just finished a novella so those are shorter stories you can read this in probably an hour hour and a half or something like that no more than two hours so I just finished a draft of that about midway into the second book of a draft of that as well once I'm done that I'll go back and edit and then I have another book that's actually taken me basically the entire year to write um it's a dark fantasy romance so yeah so I know a lot of you guys like romantic so it is a dark fantasy with romance so uh right now I have another author who's been reading it they really really like it um the easiest for people who aren't super into the the reading sphere the easiest way to look at it is think of like Game of Thrones versus Lord of the Rings very different so kind of energy one that's more grim gritty dark morley gray characters sacrifice monsters and in the dark fantasy romance yeah so romanticy is just kind of that epic fantasy with romance but dark fantasy romance what I'm doing has the darker elements to it so yeah grain out of so like if I'm a romantic monster oh they have stories like that oh those stories exist oh that that's a big category right there you write you one of those are you gonna be a best seller all right all right might be being extra here but romantic monster yeah so dark does that mean like illegal stuff or what um so like I said there will be morally great characters so you don't know like is this character good bad like I don't I don't know about this um elements of horror will be in there too um monstrosities I mean it's just the best way I can think of the kind of like bleak settings have you ever watched The Witcher? So what what makes you think about all this do you just eat a bunch of ice cream before you go to bed and then whatever you dream about you pretty much top down that's what happens that's what happens I mean really for me with this particular book I had wanted to write a short story it's only supposed to be like 5,000 words something you can read in like five minutes. That story is now a hundred and fifteen thousand words which is I don't know 10 12 hours of reading like 300 to 400 pages I forget the exact page range but it's somewhere in that range is at least 300 something pages minimal minimal of this big sexual monster of the golly of this story here with uh mature themes mature theme PG 13 I do PG 13 stuff this all the time if you need to be an adult to read this story but you appreciate it's very fantasy forward leaning first right the romance is there it's a slow burn romance slow like a long drag off a cigarette that's that's a good way to put it by the time that things kick in you're like this is I believe this and I've been cheering for these characters from the start. Ooh so it in part in that's part of what made it kind of balloon even more than just a fantasy story. I started writing got to 15000 words or so and was listening to some of the critiques about modern day um romancy stories. People so romancy has been the fantasy story being equally mixed with romance but it's been leaning a lot more romance and as you said it's muddy a lot more of that but not everyone wants just that some people really miss the fantasy part some people miss the deep the richness of the characters so as I I was writing I was like maybe I can write something that fits that particular niche because people want to see real characters.

SPEAKER_01:

People want to see them actually show how you know what type of research do you do to know that people want to see a big rich romantic monster?

SPEAKER_03:

Well I can't say the character in this particular story is a monster but what I do is I'd hate to see your Google search. Oh my Google search any do not look at any writer's Google search I know how do you not terrible police at your door we were we were on a writing stream so a writing stream is where you get a bunch of uh authors together and they they write to a timer right sprint time and we were making comments someone was talking about book in which their character kills someone they they wrote in the chat like hey by the way FBI we are all writers here this is fiction do not take this seriously so on and so forth but we how do you people are researching poison ways people can die like you get all kinds of crazy there's probably rape there's probably child stuff there's probably well some of that stuff people just bar off pier like we're not we're not even going to do that but like if it's yeah like some stuff is just not going to go but like if it you see in an action movie someone's gonna research oh someone got pushed right that's what has me thinking because you see it in Law and Order SPU.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. Because that's just in the top of my mind because I just watched there's they're still they're like on the 400th season or something. And Olivia Benson's she hasn't aged at all. But there's still the some of their stories that you're watching you're like how are there I I don't know this and it was funny because in the newest episode one of the cases and again this is a television show so it was written but one of the cases was where it was a high school kid and another high school kid was AI generating photos nude photos of this child and then and then they were they were AI generating it with the band teacher so then they go in and arrest him and everything and he loses his job and all this stuff and then come to find out these were AI generated images. And they were using these to bully the kids well they were they used it to bully the kid another kid bullied the kid with it but then they also got that teacher arrested and everything else because it looked like real images until they did all of that research to figure out they were AI generated. And I know that's just a television show but we're in that era oh yeah we're we're in that era and that's where law and everything it's it's really hard it's it's a gray area right now because uh of all the AI generated stuff and oh yeah um deep AI there is way to prove it's AI there's also a way to prove it's not AI and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03:

I get very nervous about some things like any of the voice stuff I mean even having my voice out there now I mean we all have a voice out there we're listening you know there's some um I forget the name of but there's some websites that will take your voice recorded basically of whatever clips and then you can narrate your voice quickly.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh yeah. So you say certain words for so long and then it trains it.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah and for me like while that is awesome as a technology like great you know I could have it narrate my blog post you were talking about that earlier or narrate my book if I want to do that. But who's to say someone can't just grab my my information you know be it because it's just online or because someone has broken into the website because I mean there's always data breaches right and then go use that and then they have me saying something they can get an AI deep fake image of me talking and now who knows now a family member is trying to send money to my cousin in Nigeria my prince cousin in Nigeria's cousin man but he actually would be Nigerian that reminds me of this that AI company's from Nigeria it's a hard it's a hard sell right away when you try to sell AI trying to sell AI is like trying to sell oxygen it's like yeah it's it's a certain technology.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah yeah yeah you still have to you you can sell AI services but you still got to be able to shake a hand right and you still you got to have a great foundation a great toolbox of assets that you can offer before trying to sell AI right like everything I do AI touches somehow I use it so like this podcast it's going to give me my description nice and then I go in and edit it but it's going to decipher my transcript give me my description give me title options to start with then I go in and edit it add websites add your book or whatnot she appreciate but it it's going to edit short clips it's going AI it's gonna do all kinds of things but you have to know when not to use it when to use it when to I think that's what that company they yeah they just so strictly AI can do this this this and this and then they want 250 grand to demo something okay when you've yet to see one like anything impressive it's it's hard to I see this that's yeah you got to build a foundation you got to build a foundation of trust first with anybody um the human element yes yeah because I mean I was you know some of the things that they were involved with I was trying to get them involved in um we were going to white label services and they didn't understand that and then showing you know taking them to one potential client uh and they totally like but then when I told them like hey I'm not working with that company um let me know if you want to circle back they circle back so circled back so um yeah um so AI it has its spots right it has it it still can't you can and here's AI has gotten us to the point we become over reliant and and I and I'm guilty of this becoming trying to being over reliant on AI and then kind of getting brain fog. Because you're not using I'm not using my brain yeah that is something that the other hat brought up to me like hey be careful you have to go be careful right you can you have to know when they how to balance that because you can use your brain and power AI and AI can power your brain and it can be one of those things but you can't just be over reliant on AI.

SPEAKER_03:

Right like so if you're researching like you still need to know how to you still need to know how to research like you still have to can't just rely on on the AI to get you all your sources got to research it yourself sometimes and I mean I you know I've talked to people in real life in positions and then I see their social media post and then I'm like they didn't say that you know and then I think how it's language or like the language the the language I mean no one knows how to say M-dash oh M-dash the M-dash now now can I say something about the M-dash?

SPEAKER_01:

Because that is is a hot take and it it didn't even dawn on me until Jason Falcon brought it up one day talking about M-dashes and uh now it's like my pet peeve and now I'm yelling at Chat GPT every day because it can't remember it can remember everything about everything I tell it. It knows everything about every business that I I run marketing for it knows everything about my business myself it's my therapist sometimes has lunch with me.

SPEAKER_03:

We talk yeah I love Chat GPT um what's her name yeah but now I've realized it will not remember to take out m-dashes on anything you have to tell it every time to take out the M dashes okay now I I want to talk about this M-dash here because this is important yeah this is a pure it it is so there is an issue in the writing community right now because guess what M dashes existed before ChatGPT but recently it's been people have been flagging writing as chat GPT so like for me I actually learned about using M dashes from a guy some from some some some old court you never Not a Marine from an old Marine who's still a Marine, right? But he's a he turned to a writer, you know. Sure, he's retired, he's turned to a writer, and he wrote a whole book on like grammar. So I'm like, Great, I need to rough up my, I need to get my grammar together, you know. And it's like he was talking about how to use these dashes. The M-dash was like, Oh, where has this been my life? Just like how my brain functions, how I like to punctuate things, like an M-dash works perfectly. Semicolon also works really good too, depending on what you're doing. But I was like, M-dash is perfect. So now, months, months, months, months later, I find out, oh guys, Chat GBT is using M-dash.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm like, oh God, no. Yeah, and it it puts it in everything that it makes. Really? To the point. Now we're at this in marketing. Let's talk marketing for a second. I love to see a typo now on somebody's stuff, you know what I mean? And so I try to some of my stuff I'll try to be imperfect with. Yeah, I mean, to prove that you are human. There's still a human back here that's hitting enter on Chat GPT. I'm still a human, I'm still here.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, still making it happen. But yeah. So anyway, I'll very the M-dash, like I said, that is a community thing right now.

SPEAKER_01:

I can't wait till it's RIP'd. Oh, yeah. Rest in peace. M-dash. But maybe they'll call the Oxford comma uh ChatGPT next too. Can we get that one? I just I don't understand why it can't remember. It can remember everything I tell it. You know, and now I'm building chatbots. Oh, nice. So I have a dashboard, I build a chatbot, I get it embed code, I put it in these virtual tours and put it on websites. Um so the virtual tour for uh the Model T Ford Museum here in Richmond. Uh if you're not from Richmond, Indiana, we do have a Model T Ford Museum. Um it's pretty cool. Virtual Tour Online, you could check it out. But I have a chat bot in there I named Henry. Henry. Henry Ford. That's awesome. So you can ask it all about the place and it tells you all about it. Uh, you can ask it what the weather is, tells you what the weather is. So um the same with Forest Hills Country Club, the virtual tour online. Nice. Um, that chat bot is named Forester after Forest Hills.

SPEAKER_03:

Nice.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh and what's really cool about it, it can tell you everything about memberships, uh, amenities. Um, but what's real cool is you can ask it what the wind speed is, and it can tell you the wind speed. So apparently golfers they like to know that stuff. So Matt didn't name it gump, but yeah, gump. Oh, I guess you probably can't, probably can't. So I'm loving that. I'm loving the AI technology and um knowing where to put it, where to plug it in. Um everything evolves. So, like I said, um eventually, like now, we love to see a Facebook post that has a typo in it.

SPEAKER_03:

It's like before you could not, you need to have depending on the error, but you need to have things clean and nice.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, goodness, in LinkedIn, you need to have your stuff nice and clean, but LinkedIn is still, yeah, I think LinkedIn's still it's still on fire too. Good B2B, but I think um uh you still have to have your your words, your I's dotted, your T's crossed on LinkedIn. Um recently really gotten heavy into email marketing, which you know it's that's came and went, came and went, came and went. Everything evolves eventually print, eventually Billboard, rentally FM, it's all gonna be hot again. Um not at the same capacity that it was before, but I think as humans our attention span uh shifts so much. We get bored. Um, you know, we're we're in this era, phones are everything. Um, but sometimes you're like, God, I'd love to get a postcard right now.

SPEAKER_03:

You know what I mean? Could I get some actual mail addressed to me? Not a bill, like actual mail.

SPEAKER_01:

So now, like a uh handwritten anything is awesome. Yeah. Just because we because we haven't had it in a while. Right.

SPEAKER_03:

We we get bored, so I I I I don't think you're wrong with the board part, and this may be a part of it or maybe adjacent, but I think we also, as things continue to become more fabricated, I think we miss authenticity. Right. I think that's something that is lacking. I mean, like, we can still get mail, we can get email, but how often do we get spam mail? How much do we just get spam snail mail, right? But getting something that's authentic, I I think that's what part of what it is is a boredom, yes, but also we want something that someone actually put effort into. And I think I think that kind of coming.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, they sit down, yeah. They put they put time into it. Yeah, you know that someone genuinely cared if they write you a note.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And there's a certain quality that that's in my handwriting, you can't even read. But you know I care.

SPEAKER_03:

A letter from Kevin Shook that's written by him. Like that dude cares and he tried. And I appreciate that. I might have to put that on the fridge, you know. Like him. I got a letter.

SPEAKER_01:

Shoot. Yeah, we were talking, I was I was talking to uh he was vice president of Wayne Healthcare. Um, and now he's uh newly appointed um CEO of I think it's Wilson Healthcare. God, I hope he doesn't watch this. I think it's Wilson. It's up in it's in northeast Ohio. But um answering the comments. Yeah, I think it's Wilson. Yeah, but anyway, yeah, if he watches this, he might. Um he's really like Alex is his name. We clicked when I I went up there and I did some virtual reality for healthcare marketing, patient wayfinding, uh, Wayne Healthcare. And uh we clicked, he just seemed like a genuinely good dude that I could trauma dump on. You know, I got a pass. It happened. Like, I you know, I'm broken. I got a pass. So it was one of those, like, we went to lunch, and it was just one of those, like uh, well, I was with Hunter, um he got me that that project basically, and um we got talking about sobriety and while I was sober, so we just went down that whole ramp hole, rabbit hole, like um so it was really cool because he I felt like he was somebody I could just I could just be like talk about all my shit real quick. Like, and he was like, You're doing good though. Like, and he was like, you could tell he was a very supportive. So I don't know. We just we just really clicked instantly, but um he recently went up there. But we had a conversation one day. Uh I dropped off some thank you cards, you know. Um give me thousands of dollars, I'll give you a thank you card. Um but I also stopped by because they have really good sugar-free Reese cup ice lattes at there at the hospital in Greenville. Holy smoke. It's sugar-free Reese cup ice latte. And it's like it's kind of like worth the drive. Uh get some made rights while you're there, then go to the hospital and get this sugar-free Reese cup ice latte. But anyway, so I stopped by, gave him a thank you card, whatever, and he was like, dude, he was like, We we got to talking about how people really don't write on stuff anymore. Right. And he said, whenever he gets an invitation to an event and it's like handwritten or whatever, he is like 99% more likely to go to that event. Wow. Versus like an email or something like that. Because he knew someone like took their time to invite him. So I I I don't know. I just it's special.

SPEAKER_03:

I I I agree. Well, it's funny you you say that. So um from my side on the author world, there's been a I forget his name, but he's been talking about a concept called authorpreneurship or something like that, or all or art artist and author. But essentially the idea of kind of connecting back with the individual readers. So right now, in case you don't know, guys, um, the publishing world is is kind of intense right now. There's a million or something books I think put on Amazon a year. Uh, Amazon, while it's great in that they opened up like self-publishing, they're doing some things that aren't necessarily helping authors. Um, it's kind of unfortunate, especially if you're trying to get your books narrated. But if you're trying to be seen easily on Amazon, you're trying to put a book out as quickly as possible. So if you can get a book out every month, the better. And that's really hard. And depending on what you're writing, the length of it, that can be really hard. And he, the author that was talking about his artists and author kind of setup, he writes really fast. That's not an issue. He actually wrote a book that I think inspired a lot of people to start writing fast, but that wasn't his like intent. But he came back after leaving the community for a while. He came back and saw, like, wow, if I want to make any movement, I'm gonna have to write two books a month. Right? I'm I'm being facetious here, but that's what he's looking at. He's like, that's not really sustainable. But for him, he's really good at talking with people, and so his approach has been to like really just set up shop someplace where there's a conference or event happening and talk to people. He's like, not every author needs to go and talk directly in that way. He that's his thing, but like that building that that connection, that or at least that artisan element that we like about that authenticity, that like this is quality, this is not some rush product, but this is connected to a person, and these go to real people, it's key. So when you're talking about sending like a letter, like to me, sitting someplace and like actually talking to a reader, like, hey, this is who I am. Here's my book. You might be interested in it. Right. It's it's much better than just my ads are important, that's how we get people, but if you're looking for that long-term connection, people want to know the person who's writing the book.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_03:

Meet them.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you'll have a fan forever.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. It's like your autograph, you know. Yeah. One, I think one author, he might actually, I don't know, I forget his name. I've so you probably know this is about me. I do a lot of a lot of research. So sometimes I forget the names of things, and plus my memory is sometimes halfway going, anyways, but I do a lot of research, and that's kind of what you have to do to know what's going on, and that's part of who I am. But there's one guy who has a whole onboarding process where he'll send special stuff to his readers, and like that's what he does. I'm like, I want to do that. Oh, I want to do that.

SPEAKER_01:

Make like a uh, yeah, I mean, everything we do in life is based on community. So it's like building a community, being part of a community, but kind of like a little fan club.

SPEAKER_03:

Right, right. I mean, really, that's that's what it is. I there are a few authors who, if they were showing up anywhere near town and I had the ability, I would go and see them because I'm like, your books, I've sat with your books for hours. Your books, I read your books at this part of my life. It would be great to meet you. Right. You know, like that's true. You know, it's funny. I was thinking, so I'm reading some books for other writers right now. I'm very privileged to do that. Um, and you know, I some parts of me think that maybe I would have gotten through them a little faster if I could just listen to audio, because I do most of my stuff through audio. Um, but I thought back to what are as an adult, what books have I read, like sit literally sat down and read pay like page by page. And I was like, in the last 10 years, I can only think of like two. And it's not to say that books are aren't bad, but I'm like, if an author has caught my attention that I will sit down and read their paper book, you you get I'm a I'm your fan.

SPEAKER_01:

I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't, I can't, I can't, I forget what I'm reading and I get real sleepy.

SPEAKER_03:

Where everyone's makeup is different, but also I think it's what are you reading? Because in the last 10 years, I have read maybe two or three books that like I wasn't prompted by anyone else that I just read on my own. I have read through audio lots more books than that. So do you lots more books than that? Ah so But my attention, my ability to stay focused, if I'm just sitting there, it's hard.

SPEAKER_01:

Can we honestly I thought I I go around with this because I've said, you know, well, I I had a friend tell me, I had a friend say, you know, I read 400 books this year. Awesome, awesome. But they listen to them on audible. Okay. Is that still considered?

SPEAKER_03:

I'm gonna consider that reading. Reading. Yes, I'm considering that reading. I'm gonna consider that reading. Um, people might argue with me on that point, but I just think Well, you're the expert. Oh, thank you, thank you. I think arguing whether it's reading or or not, I think is is a mute point. It's written as a book, you're just hearing it. And for some people, that's the only way they're going to take in the information. So for me, I wish I had in in college easy access to my books that way. Because it is it had been very hard for me to sit down with textbooks and just scan through slowly, because I'm a slow reader. But if I could have it, and I had some friends, they had some accessibility things that taught me, like, yo, your books can be read out to you. I just didn't have those things. And then later on, just because of age, right, the technology changed, and then things like Audible came out. I was like, oh now I read my books, I just have to listen to them. And sometimes if they're really good, I'll do both. I'll get I'll get the text and I'll have it sync up to the audio, and I can do both if I need to, or go back and forth. You're fancy. Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. You're fancy. Fancy. But yeah, so I would say um, in terms of reading stuff, like reading may not be a person of particular interest, but I've noticed is about finding what I like, and who knows, right? You gotta figure that part out, and then finding how you can engage with that. I I don't even know how many books I've read on Audible, but I know it's a lot, but I know tech's physical copies in the last decade, not that many, maybe three, that aren't books I have reread. One was I Am Legend, one was Celeste, which is kind of like a Noor monster book. Um Yeah. Um, I'm not sure what else.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm not sure. I don't think I have a whole book to the end in a while. Just listen, I've listened to quite a few. But I get bored easy too. Um It's fine to switch between books too.

SPEAKER_03:

For me, for me, it's been a constant finding the authors that are like like one of my authors, I because I I read his physical book, right? So I know this. Uh his name is DJ Mole. It's M-O-L-L-E-S, maybe. He writes post-apocalyptic, so think zombies, right? They're not zombies, so think zombies. I love his stuff, you know. I think his background, I think he was a probably a police officer, you know, so it shows in the writing style is just his action, it's focus, it's action with like morality and like a pursuit of like rebuilding America, and just it's just all types of good stuff, you know. This is stuff that I gel with and how he has written it is different than other writers in the same genre. Because I've read everyone's I'm like, uh, it reads like a report, like like a medical, like a medical report we write, like, uh, this is nice, but this here, oh yeah, this is my stuff. So that's all. So as a person who's gone back and forth with their reading over the year, that's why I wanted to share that. Like might be finding your author and your genre. And your way of smart books. Hey, if that's hey, there's a there's a reason why um, there's a reason why romancy is doing. Not to lay down the 50 shades of black over there. Hey, if if that's what you need to do to read, that's what you need to do to read, you know? Reading's great for everyone, you know? It's entertainment, it's an escape from the moment. It is, right? It builds empathy. Like, if you need to read something, whatever it is, do it.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, read it. Read it, read it, read it based on a true story. If it's on Amazon, it's good. So plug in all your stuff. So on Amazon, um it's all under your name, actually. Adeshole, yes, sir. Aya Deshole. Yeah. Most of the stuff that I released is on Amazon. So it's your next book. You can't don't tell us what it is yet, but give us some teasers.

SPEAKER_03:

Some teasers. So don't don't don't tell the whole story, but give give some ideas about what it is, right? Yeah. Okay. Snippet. All right. So I I so I have a couple of books, I guess, that are gonna come out soon. So I have one in the post-apocalyptic and one in the dark fancy romance. The uh post-apocalyptic story, we got think zombies, but not. They're infected, mutated creatures. They're happening in a place called Rose City.

SPEAKER_01:

Mummies. Rose City. Mummies, zombies, they're they're the same.

SPEAKER_03:

There might be a similar mascot there. I don't know. They're the same, aren't they? You might know some of the streets that are mentioned in this story. Aw, snap. You might you might know some of the streets. I might live on one, huh? You you might be around the corner from one of these places. All right. So, um, yeah, so we start off with two characters that find each other in the middle of the apocalypse trying to survive. So, and the second part of the story brings in more characters, more dynamics, rescues, more monsters, evolving monsters, that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow, that's gonna be cool. I like it when you tie in local. Um, that'll I think that sells more too.

SPEAKER_03:

But uh someone actually stolen hearts is actually written local. That's the romance story. And someone mentioned in one of the reviews, I am so glad because I'm familiar with this city. Right. And I know the layouts. I'm like, wow That's a good idea. What? So when can when's when are these coming out? Um so the the post the post-apoc, the first book will have that come out um by November 1st. I was thinking of releasing it on Halloween, but everyone who's everyone is releasing a book on Halloween, so I'm like, eh, I'll either do a couple days earlier or a couple days after. So I'll just release that on the first. But Apocalypse Halloween, post-apocalypse day after. Right. There we go. Boom, done. I like it. Um, and then the uh the romance, the fan dark fantasy romance story, that might be another two months before that's out because I'm really taking it through a long editing process. And it's it's 115,000 words, so it takes a little while to make sure it's it's good. So it'll be the next two, three months. So probably releasing sometime early next year, maybe around my birthday. Who knows? We'll see. Um, but yeah, I'm I'm excited about that. I'm also ready, I'm already looking for uh voice narrators as well. I heard one person do a sample of I was like, oh, this sounds good. This sounds really good, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I'll do the voice narration for the rich, dark, romantic monster. You'll have too much fun. I don't know. In the back alley. In the back alley on Lincoln Drive. See, no, I can't do it. You can't do it? Nah. I mean, you got a whole studio, you can practice. I can practice, but I think you want to sell. I I think you want people to listen. I gotcha.

SPEAKER_03:

Um, if you can on the links, because this is something I'm just just setting up now. Um, I'm actually setting up a substack. It should be like a Dashley rights, but I'll send you the information, and what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna put up the first several uh chapters of the Dark Fantasy Romance story. So it's gonna be a rough draft version. I'm still being edits, but I'm gonna put out maybe about one, two chapters a week.

SPEAKER_01:

When you're gonna uh make video, make a movie of one of these books.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, when you know, those those folks that uh want to reach out to me about that, want to. That'd be cool. Oh, yeah, it definitely would be cool. And I know we're about to wrap up here, but one of the things that I just wanted to share this because I think it's cool. We've talked about doing like radio recordings and episodes and stuff like that. So I am definitely looking at either crafting short stories or novel, um, serialized stories, serialized novels, so chapter, chapter, chapter that just goes up on podcasts and then eventually build up enough so that there's an ongoing loop of shows. So that's something I've been thinking about. Do it, just wanted to share that. Yeah, let's do it. Revamp that podcast you got. Revamp the podcast, yeah. Or just take that one off as it is, leave it as it's been, make a new one.

SPEAKER_01:

No, rebrand it.

SPEAKER_03:

You already got followers. That's fair. But there's a lot of leadership stuff and personal development there, and I still want to do that. Or do both.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Do that, fire that one back up as it was, but then start another one.

SPEAKER_03:

Like the idea of that, like the idea of that. But cool. But I know you were trying to wrap this up here.

SPEAKER_01:

So yeah, my stomach's growling. That's crazy. Oh no. I thought I uh I had two meals today, um, both at Roscoe's. I've been frequenting Roscoe's a lot. I get like uh so I make myself be social. Yeah. So are you too an introvert? Well, no, like I live alone in, you know, you're not supposed to you're you're supposed to be a so we're social creatures. So I'll go to Roscoe's and see all kinds of people I know. And um, and then I also pop out my laptop and I'll do some work while I'm there and stuff like that. Um it's a little motivating, but yeah. At home I got four screens, it makes everything easier. But at home, then I'll I don't know. I get a little more creative when I go down there. But I got you.

SPEAKER_03:

The other half tries to get me to go out. She's like, You're it's okay to be a hermit, but you gotta go outside.

SPEAKER_01:

Right, you have to make yourself you have to force yourself to be to go socialize.

SPEAKER_03:

But and with you with Corey, I mean you'll understand this, you know, me writing, like it's you're not talking. Well, maybe you can do some with some talking, maybe, but like you're just you got hours of work to do, so there's not a whole bunch of socialization. So it's really for me, at least, it's really easy to like just bear hermit, right? Does not see anyone for who knows?

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know. It's like we could get we could live in Alaska and probably be fine if we had fiber internet.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, you got Vaynerchuk, I got my my little dogs. I'm like, cool, cool.

SPEAKER_01:

I'll put a costume on him the other day. Tiger well, the tiger. Oh, yeah, that's cute. But uh, yeah, good times. But no, thanks for uh popping the cherry with me in this little new uh the new dig. This place is nice. So um more more soon, definitely. And then um let me know when the books come out.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay, definitely we'll do. Definitely we'll do that.

SPEAKER_01:

That'll be exciting. I'm excited to uh uh now that I know your audios are are out on the others, I'll go back and uh I can say read, right? Yeah, even I'm listening. If the author says it's reading. Yes. When you listen to it.

SPEAKER_03:

All the wonderful book talk girls out there will call it reading. So don't, don't, don't, don't even worry about it. I like it. Yep, yep, yep. Huh. Book talk is a big thing, by the way. Oh, for marketing. Oh, really? Oh yeah, oh yeah. Book talk? Book talk. Oh yeah. If a lot of the a lot of the books that are doing famously well, book talk is pushing them. Like Amazon, I think, has a category now or that will pop up like famous on book talk, right? Book talk pick. Like, it is huge. It is huge. Like, I don't know how to express it. If you if your book is popular on the in the book talk community, you you'll be you'll be fine. You gonna you ain't gonna have to worry. No, it's your own worry is gonna be writing the next book. Like, it's that serious.

SPEAKER_01:

So are you getting towards that direction?

SPEAKER_03:

I'm about to get towards that direction. That's awesome. I'm about to go do it. I don't really I don't think I fit the book talk community. Like, I'm not, I don't know, but I gotta put stuff out there.

SPEAKER_01:

You're like you're probably like one smart book away from success.

SPEAKER_03:

Mailbox money. When when I listen to people talking book talk, that is what it seems like. I won't even lie. Sometimes like I told you. Sex sells. Yes, it does. Unfortunately, it it sells quite a bit. So I'm all about deep emotions, but yes. And and let me not, because I want the book talk girls to come after me. Not saying that the books out there aren't doing that. I know you guys love your shadow daddies. I'm no daddies. I'm telling you, you need to do your research on the book talk. All right, you are missing out. Y'all, yeah. It's it's a I don't know if I would express how big Book Talk. All right. Oh, you'll have fun. Rabbit hole. Yes. Book talk is a rabbit hole in of itself.

SPEAKER_01:

All right. That's all the smart stuff.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm I usually it's not no, don't don't even don't do that. Dang. Don't label it that. It is people having fun, enjoying reading what they want to read.

SPEAKER_01:

Backside at Craigslist used to be. That should we end it there.

SPEAKER_03:

You're a marketer. If you go and look at Book Talk or even just do a search talk of book talk, you as a marketer will appreciate it. Okay. You'll but oh, I see. Got you. Got it. Shadow Daddy. Shadow Daddy.

SPEAKER_01:

That's your new nickname. You're the shadow daddy.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh my word. If you only knew, that's that's funny. All right. So we are gonna wrap this up now. That's a that's a wrap. That is a wrap, guys. All right.

SPEAKER_00:

Life inscripted with Kevin Shook.

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