The Story Teller – “A Positive Social Change Agent” With Buddy Thornton

Howard Brown: 00:00:03

Hola, it's Howard brown. It's shining brightly. Oh

Howard Brown: 00:00:06

my goodness. You're maestro, the mic is back. Oh, you're gonna

Howard Brown: 00:00:10

love this guest. I've got Buddy Thornton here today. And this

Howard Brown: 00:00:14

guy is so interesting. He is a book editor, a book author, a

Howard Brown: 00:00:19

ghost writer, and so much more. He's a renaissance man, buddy.

Howard Brown: 00:00:22

How are you?

Buddy Thornton: 00:00:24

I'm doing great, Howard. And I really appreciate

Buddy Thornton: 00:00:26

you inviting me on your show.

Howard Brown: 00:00:29

I appreciate it. I'd love for you to just share,

Howard Brown: 00:00:31

give us a quick background a little bio on yourself for for

Howard Brown: 00:00:34

my listening audience.

Buddy Thornton: 00:00:36

Okay, well, I have a doctoral education from

Buddy Thornton: 00:00:39

Grand Canyon University, obviously. I mean, I have a

Buddy Thornton: 00:00:41

master's in a bachelor's. I'm a great grandfather, I have 10

Buddy Thornton: 00:00:45

grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren. And, you know, I

Buddy Thornton: 00:00:49

have been married almost 50 years. And my lovely wife, you

Buddy Thornton: 00:00:54

know, supports everything I do. She's been retired for about 17

Buddy Thornton: 00:00:58

years. She just wants to be the loving, great grandma. And I

Buddy Thornton: 00:01:02

give her the opportunity to do that. And so I Oh, I also have

Buddy Thornton: 00:01:06

to work I go. And that's why I'm here. And, you know, it is what

Buddy Thornton: 00:01:10

it is.

Howard Brown: 00:01:11

Did you did you have any other types of careers

Howard Brown: 00:01:15

moving, you know, moving around as far as in your life and

Howard Brown: 00:01:17

things like that?

Buddy Thornton: 00:01:18

Well, I am a Vietnam veteran. A lot of people

Buddy Thornton: 00:01:21

do know that though, because I put that in most of my writing.

Buddy Thornton: 00:01:24

And certainly on my bio page. What a lot of people do not know

Buddy Thornton: 00:01:29

is that I was a professional bowler for 27 years. And, you

Buddy Thornton: 00:01:34

know, because of that I almost virtually have never had a job

Buddy Thornton: 00:01:38

job. I've always worked for myself. But you know, 27 years

Buddy Thornton: 00:01:42

on tour, and I'm almost 70. So, you know, and a lot of people

Buddy Thornton: 00:01:46

would never realise I'm almost 70. But I think the PBA and the

Buddy Thornton: 00:01:50

fact that I still love and enjoy what I'm doing, I plan to keep

Buddy Thornton: 00:01:54

on doing it. As long as I enjoy it. That's my key.

Howard Brown: 00:01:57

That's an awesome share that you're a pro bowler

Howard Brown: 00:01:59

and thank you for your service as a Vietnam vet. I have to tell

Howard Brown: 00:02:02

you, I grew up in Boston, and we had candle pins. And you got

Howard Brown: 00:02:07

three three balls, or a little straight candle bends and and

Howard Brown: 00:02:11

that was a birthday party back. But you know, before the digital

Howard Brown: 00:02:14

age, that was an amazing birthday party to go bowling and

Howard Brown: 00:02:16

pizza.

Buddy Thornton: 00:02:17

Well, let me give you another little hint I

Buddy Thornton: 00:02:19

spent in Boston while I was in the Navy. Okay, and I not only

Buddy Thornton: 00:02:24

played piano pins, but then when I went south of Washington DC, I

Buddy Thornton: 00:02:28

also played duck fins. Yeah. So I've tried all three different

Buddy Thornton: 00:02:31

types of traditional bowling and I'll stick with the big ball if

Buddy Thornton: 00:02:35

you don't mind.

Howard Brown: 00:02:36

Yeah. So where did you develop this passion for for

Howard Brown: 00:02:40

writing and books and editing? Where did that come from?

Buddy Thornton: 00:02:44

Well, you know, luckily, my mother was very

Buddy Thornton: 00:02:47

insistent on me being educated. And back when I was going

Buddy Thornton: 00:02:52

through schooling in the 60s, they had a thing called the SRE

Buddy Thornton: 00:02:55

reading programme. And I went through the SRE reading

Buddy Thornton: 00:02:58

programme, and I got to where I could read 1300 words a minute.

Buddy Thornton: 00:03:02

And so even when I was in the Navy, when I all throughout my

Buddy Thornton: 00:03:05

entire marriage, I've just always been a consumer of books.

Buddy Thornton: 00:03:09

And I can love to get on stage, I love to tell stories. That's

Buddy Thornton: 00:03:13

one of my passions. And so people were like, you know, you

Buddy Thornton: 00:03:16

should be writing, as well as speaking. And I just didn't

Buddy Thornton: 00:03:21

really gravitate to that real quickly. But then I went to

Buddy Thornton: 00:03:25

speak with another gentleman from the East Coast. And he

Buddy Thornton: 00:03:28

asked me if I would look over one of his books. And he's

Buddy Thornton: 00:03:31

written 12 books. And I got to the point where it's like, oh,

Buddy Thornton: 00:03:34

yeah, let me look at your book. And then I started doing a

Buddy Thornton: 00:03:37

little editing for him. And then it turned into a full blown,

Buddy Thornton: 00:03:40

hey, I'm sending you my book nine, can you edit it and send

Buddy Thornton: 00:03:43

it back to and, you know, he never changed anything after I

Buddy Thornton: 00:03:47

edited it. So I decided, You know what, I am going to write

Buddy Thornton: 00:03:50

my first book, I wrote my first book on ethics. And it took me a

Buddy Thornton: 00:03:54

long time to write it because I was trying to be a

Buddy Thornton: 00:03:56

perfectionist. And I sent it off to be edited. And it took the

Buddy Thornton: 00:04:01

editors over seven weeks to get it back to me. And in that seven

Buddy Thornton: 00:04:05

week time, they only found seven errors to offer to correct. And

Buddy Thornton: 00:04:11

so I asked them, I said, seven weeks to find seven years. They

Buddy Thornton: 00:04:14

said, Yeah, we thought something was wrong with our software. We

Buddy Thornton: 00:04:16

were looking at something wrong, we were missing something. So we

Buddy Thornton: 00:04:19

kept going over it and over and over. And I'm like, I just wrote

Buddy Thornton: 00:04:23

it. And you know, and they said, Well, you obviously know how to

Buddy Thornton: 00:04:26

write. So when I wrote my second book, I did the same thing, but

Buddy Thornton: 00:04:30

they can get it back to me much quicker. And that book was

Buddy Thornton: 00:04:32

105,000 words, and they found 12 errors. So I was like, Well, you

Buddy Thornton: 00:04:39

know what, maybe I should be editing myself. Maybe that's

Buddy Thornton: 00:04:41

another revenue stream. And I talked to Natalie about it. And

Buddy Thornton: 00:04:45

she said, Yeah, you should do that. So I edited some short

Buddy Thornton: 00:04:47

pieces for her. And then I edited a book a full book. And I

Buddy Thornton: 00:04:52

was getting these books back to these people in less than a

Buddy Thornton: 00:04:54

week. Which means they were like, it's just just incredible

Buddy Thornton: 00:04:59

that You wouldn't be able to do that? Well, I'm gonna tell you a

Buddy Thornton: 00:05:01

secret, I do use an AI tool to identify really glaring

Buddy Thornton: 00:05:06

problems. But I don't use an AI tool that does the work for me,

Buddy Thornton: 00:05:09

I use an AI tool that allows me to pick and choose what's right

Buddy Thornton: 00:05:13

and what's wrong. And when I have a question, I go right back

Buddy Thornton: 00:05:15

to exactly the way I did back in the 60s and 70s, I open up the

Buddy Thornton: 00:05:19

stinking dictionary or the whatever I need to do, and I go,

Buddy Thornton: 00:05:22

what's the what's the correct way to do it, I'm not gonna let

Buddy Thornton: 00:05:24

a machine tell me what to do. Well, but and we didn't have

Howard Brown: 00:05:27

aI right before then. So now this, that's a

Howard Brown: 00:05:29

current development, you didn't have that you had to rely on

Howard Brown: 00:05:32

your own words in the dictionary and all that sort of stuff as

Howard Brown: 00:05:35

well.

Buddy Thornton: 00:05:36

Now, I'm actually editing for three

Buddy Thornton: 00:05:37

different publishing houses. And I've done a steady stream of

Buddy Thornton: 00:05:41

business in that on that side. But my gift 1300 words

Buddy Thornton: 00:05:44

submitted, and I can edit and create incredibly fast as well,

Buddy Thornton: 00:05:48

as well as be very competent. Well, I

Howard Brown: 00:05:51

have to tell you, being a first time author, and

Howard Brown: 00:05:55

learning this now, since last October, and going from cancer

Howard Brown: 00:05:59

to COVID, and actually being a published author, and I'm

Howard Brown: 00:06:01

learning. So I'm learning from folks like you, as well. And I

Howard Brown: 00:06:05

love the shout out to Natalie McQueen and to Robert and Renee

Howard Brown: 00:06:09

Jones. That's how that we've been connected and that

Howard Brown: 00:06:12

intrapreneur group and, and Natalie, with her publishing

Howard Brown: 00:06:15

house and things like that, what, what would you say to

Howard Brown: 00:06:19

someone that because during COVID, people had a lot of

Howard Brown: 00:06:22

little more time on their hands, what would you say for a first

Howard Brown: 00:06:25

time author, which was some some advice that you'd give to them?

Howard Brown: 00:06:29

I have one piece of advice, I want to hear what you as the

Howard Brown: 00:06:31

expert has to say?

Buddy Thornton: 00:06:33

Well, it's easy for me. Yeah, right from your

Buddy Thornton: 00:06:36

heart, right with passion, let your soul and your heart do your

Buddy Thornton: 00:06:39

staking for you. If you get muddled up in your brain, like

Buddy Thornton: 00:06:43

most humans, were very imperfect. And we probably

Buddy Thornton: 00:06:46

wouldn't even write the same sentence exactly the same way a

Buddy Thornton: 00:06:49

month apart. So you gotta write everything from your heart and

Buddy Thornton: 00:06:52

soul and just get it on paper. If even if you're not getting a

Buddy Thornton: 00:06:56

paper, you know, get on the zoom by yourself and record it and

Buddy Thornton: 00:07:00

then take the transcript and use the transcript. And you'd be

Buddy Thornton: 00:07:04

surprised when you come from the heart and soul and you just do a

Buddy Thornton: 00:07:07

brain dump, you just get it out there. There are going to be

Buddy Thornton: 00:07:10

tidbits that you never would have put in if you had written

Buddy Thornton: 00:07:14

it purposefully. Now there are some people who say

Buddy Thornton: 00:07:17

intentionality is important. And I do I do focus on your topic,

Buddy Thornton: 00:07:21

don't get way off in a rabbit hole or you know, don't do

Buddy Thornton: 00:07:24

things crazy. But you have to write from your heart and soul.

Buddy Thornton: 00:07:28

And if you need to edit something out, it is out. But

Buddy Thornton: 00:07:30

make sure it's all in there first.

Howard Brown: 00:07:34

I think that's great advice. And my advice is

Howard Brown: 00:07:36

just get started. Because take that positive step forward,

Howard Brown: 00:07:40

because I call myself the least likely author. And I did it non

Howard Brown: 00:07:45

traditionally by zoom. And those transcripts did become drafts,

Howard Brown: 00:07:48

the drafts did become chapters and the chapters then became a

Howard Brown: 00:07:51

manuscript now, but you can't really publish a book too well

Howard Brown: 00:07:55

without a manuscript. So you need some of the basics there to

Howard Brown: 00:07:57

be able to do that. The other lesson that I'm learning is that

Howard Brown: 00:08:01

when the book is complete, and a book cover matters, and

Howard Brown: 00:08:05

authenticity matters. And vulnerability matters. Once you

Howard Brown: 00:08:10

actually press that go button, and it's available on

Howard Brown: 00:08:13

amazon.com. That's when the woodwork starts, buddy. That's

Howard Brown: 00:08:18

when the marketing starts. That's when your brand actually

Howard Brown: 00:08:20

needs to be on display. And that's where you said something

Howard Brown: 00:08:22

back in the greenroom a second ago is that that's where an

Howard Brown: 00:08:25

author learns to become a speaker, and has to learn how to

Howard Brown: 00:08:28

become a speaker, tell it tell it tell us about that.

Buddy Thornton: 00:08:32

Authors or speakers and speakers or

Buddy Thornton: 00:08:33

authors, or it could be a speaker who doesn't have a book

Buddy Thornton: 00:08:37

is like a purse, a business person without a website or a

Buddy Thornton: 00:08:39

business card. You know, you really need to put yourself out

Buddy Thornton: 00:08:43

there in a way that shows not only competency in one spot the

Buddy Thornton: 00:08:47

competency over time, when you get to speak, you get to speak

Buddy Thornton: 00:08:51

to an audience, it could be an audience of five, it could be an

Buddy Thornton: 00:08:53

audience of 5000. When you train somebody or you put a course out

Buddy Thornton: 00:08:58

there, the limitation is the people who sign up for the

Buddy Thornton: 00:09:01

course are the people who get together. But when you write a

Buddy Thornton: 00:09:04

book, it's like taking what you could do on stage. And it's

Buddy Thornton: 00:09:08

putting out there it's a timeless thing that will exist

Buddy Thornton: 00:09:11

forever. So you have to a pinpoint the foreverness of a

Buddy Thornton: 00:09:16

publication. And then you have to back it up by saying okay, I

Buddy Thornton: 00:09:20

did one. Why can't I do more than one? When I was a

Buddy Thornton: 00:09:24

professional bowler and I threw my first 300 game on tour. One

Buddy Thornton: 00:09:28

of the guys came up to me and he said, You know what your job is

Buddy Thornton: 00:09:30

now? And I said, Yeah, he said, Yeah, throw another one. You

Buddy Thornton: 00:09:34

have to, you never can rest on your laurels. You have to

Buddy Thornton: 00:09:37

understand that one book is a super accomplishment. Only 2% of

Buddy Thornton: 00:09:41

people who want to write books ever finish a book. But only 4%

Buddy Thornton: 00:09:46

of the people who write a book ever write a second book. When

Buddy Thornton: 00:09:50

you're like me where you've already written more than a

Buddy Thornton: 00:09:52

dozen and you've got five individual self full books, and

Buddy Thornton: 00:09:56

you've got a plan for 24 in two series. It's about out

Buddy Thornton: 00:10:00

publishing 1234 a year, because it's what have I done for myself

Buddy Thornton: 00:10:04

lately? And then how do I project to the world? Marketing?

Buddy Thornton: 00:10:09

For a stagnant one book is difficult. You've already even

Buddy Thornton: 00:10:12

said that yourself. That's what if you have a series of books

Buddy Thornton: 00:10:15

every time you get to bring another book out, guess what? On

Buddy Thornton: 00:10:18

that backdrop, there's your other books, and everyone goes,

Buddy Thornton: 00:10:21

Oh, I really love this book. But what about that book, and all of

Buddy Thornton: 00:10:24

a sudden, the marketing takes on a life of its own. But if you

Buddy Thornton: 00:10:28

don't do the work to get it out there and then continually push

Buddy Thornton: 00:10:31

it in people's faces. You're nobody, there's 8 billion people

Buddy Thornton: 00:10:35

on this planet, you are what do the numbers on that that's an

Buddy Thornton: 00:10:38

infinitesimal amount, you have to fight upstream every day to

Buddy Thornton: 00:10:43

get your books out there.

Howard Brown: 00:10:45

Yeah. And again, speaking about Natalie McQueen,

Howard Brown: 00:10:48

she she really gave me some good learning because she said,

Howard Brown: 00:10:51

Howard, you know, you can't really fake it on on Amazon, you

Howard Brown: 00:10:56

are an author, you're not an author, you're either listed and

Howard Brown: 00:10:59

you have a book by your side. And she said that a book, this

Howard Brown: 00:11:04

took three years for me, I hope the next one doesn't. But she

Howard Brown: 00:11:06

said, there's lots of incremental space that you can

Howard Brown: 00:11:09

do that. So I, my high school coach wrote a chapter for the

Howard Brown: 00:11:13

3030 days with America's high school coaches. And we talked

Howard Brown: 00:11:16

about how coaching in your formative years how it's such a

Howard Brown: 00:11:19

noble profession, and like being a teacher, and then I got to

Howard Brown: 00:11:23

write about my coach. And then I wrote a little 200 word essay

Howard Brown: 00:11:27

essay, I'd love for you to talk about this book, here, I'm

Howard Brown: 00:11:30

holding it up for the people that are just listening, the art

Howard Brown: 00:11:33

of connection, this is a collaborative book, and everyone

Howard Brown: 00:11:36

gets to write a page. And I actually now there's two reasons

Howard Brown: 00:11:40

why I love this book is one, it wasn't like yours to write it.

Howard Brown: 00:11:44

And also the ability to I look at it every day. I opened it

Howard Brown: 00:11:48

every day. And I read I read the inspiration from it. And I have

Howard Brown: 00:11:52

to tell you, the Kindle has been the most amazing thing, because

Howard Brown: 00:11:55

it's become a search engine of this amazing community that you

Howard Brown: 00:11:59

all have built, that people are helping each other. They're

Howard Brown: 00:12:02

joint venturing together, they're being podcast guests.

Howard Brown: 00:12:05

It's really kind of cool. And so I'd love for you to talk about

Howard Brown: 00:12:08

the the Arctic connection, and 365 days and the new book on

Howard Brown: 00:12:12

gratitude coming out.

Buddy Thornton: 00:12:14

Well, number one, you know, compilation books

Buddy Thornton: 00:12:17

are really a a gift from a group as opposed to a gift from an

Buddy Thornton: 00:12:21

individual, I try to paint it that way. And beyond the Arctic

Buddy Thornton: 00:12:25

connection, we'll get to that. But they're accomplishing books

Buddy Thornton: 00:12:28

where people write, like, there'll be 12 authors, or

Buddy Thornton: 00:12:31

there'll be 24 authors with two of mine. There's some that deal

Buddy Thornton: 00:12:35

with 52 authors. So this you have one a week. And then of

Buddy Thornton: 00:12:38

course, you've got your big compilation books that just it's

Buddy Thornton: 00:12:41

a simple ask, Can you write one page? Can you keep it within

Buddy Thornton: 00:12:47

this framework? And can you use that as your Forever Business

Buddy Thornton: 00:12:51

card and get get yourself published? It goes into the

Buddy Thornton: 00:12:54

Library of Congress. You know, this is an international best

Buddy Thornton: 00:12:57

selling book. It's an award winning book, it was the best

Buddy Thornton: 00:13:01

best it was the number one business compilation book that

Buddy Thornton: 00:13:04

2023. So you know, it's very important that you understand

Buddy Thornton: 00:13:08

the framework of a compilation book. Where else in society, can

Buddy Thornton: 00:13:13

you coattail on 364 other people and be considered part of the

Buddy Thornton: 00:13:20

fish in that fishbowl? I mean, there are some incredible people

Buddy Thornton: 00:13:23

in this book. Now. Yeah, in Book Three, I wrote seven pages, and

Buddy Thornton: 00:13:27

I edited the entire book. In book four, I'll be editing the

Buddy Thornton: 00:13:30

entire book, and I will have any work from three to probably

Buddy Thornton: 00:13:34

seven or eight pages. But the bottom line is, for me, it's a

Buddy Thornton: 00:13:38

gift of love to the other people in the book. I want them to

Buddy Thornton: 00:13:42

learn from me as much as I learned from them. And I'm like

Buddy Thornton: 00:13:46

you I have my Kindle and I literally read a page a day I

Buddy Thornton: 00:13:49

stay on the calendar. I like to do that. I wasn't in book one.

Buddy Thornton: 00:13:53

But I have Book One, Book Two, book three and I will obviously

Buddy Thornton: 00:13:55

have before. It is an inspiration to hear the voice of

Buddy Thornton: 00:14:00

other people who are your peers who may even if they're not in

Buddy Thornton: 00:14:03

your field, they're still your peers. They're an author of the

Buddy Thornton: 00:14:06

book with you. Come on. And if you're a consumer of that book,

Buddy Thornton: 00:14:10

what a business catalogue. Do you have you remember rolodexes

Buddy Thornton: 00:14:14

Howard. Yes, sir. Hey, guess what? AOC is a modern Rolodex,

Buddy Thornton: 00:14:19

it has got some of the brightest, most imaginative,

Buddy Thornton: 00:14:23

creative people in the world writing these compilation books.

Buddy Thornton: 00:14:26

And AOC is special because it focuses on a very direct line

Buddy Thornton: 00:14:31

before gratitude. I teach everybody when I'm doing my

Buddy Thornton: 00:14:35

coaching that you get up in the morning with gratitude and you

Buddy Thornton: 00:14:38

go to bed with gratitude. Why wouldn't you want to participate

Buddy Thornton: 00:14:41

in a gratitude book? I mean, we live for gratitude, don't we? I

Buddy Thornton: 00:14:46

mean, 85% of our thoughts in a drought or day are either

Buddy Thornton: 00:14:50

negative or very flat. When you get that nugget that becomes

Buddy Thornton: 00:14:54

gratitude. Isn't it special? So yes, we need to have gratitude

Buddy Thornton: 00:14:58

and being in a compilation book It is such a simple, easy way to

Buddy Thornton: 00:15:02

do it. I don't understand why anybody wouldn't invest a very

Buddy Thornton: 00:15:06

low amount of money to become an international best selling

Buddy Thornton: 00:15:08

author and be able to say, I am, hey, I'm in the same room with

Buddy Thornton: 00:15:12

ours. I'm in the same room with Robert Jones. I'm in the same

Buddy Thornton: 00:15:15

room with Natalie McQueen. I mean, yes, I work with these

Buddy Thornton: 00:15:19

people. But guess what, it's a it is an honour to be on the

Buddy Thornton: 00:15:22

pedestal with them.

Howard Brown: 00:15:24

I have to tell you, I've realised that now. And

Howard Brown: 00:15:27

it was just such a great awakening for me for the art of

Howard Brown: 00:15:32

connection because I didn't exactly know what I was doing. I

Howard Brown: 00:15:36

came in late for Book Three, and Natalie and I've just reaped the

Howard Brown: 00:15:40

benefits of being part of this collaborative now, on so many

Howard Brown: 00:15:45

ways. And, and I went on Roberts radio show, and I just, every

Howard Brown: 00:15:49

time I see Natalie, I thank her. And I, I've already written my

Howard Brown: 00:15:54

gratitude, because I look in the mirror, being a two time stage

Howard Brown: 00:15:56

four, cancer survivor, and patient and advocate. I'm

Howard Brown: 00:16:00

blessed. I'm grateful. And I'm really lucky every single day.

Howard Brown: 00:16:03

And now it allowed me to express that in my brand. And I

Howard Brown: 00:16:08

especially love the Kindle, because one click and people are

Howard Brown: 00:16:11

getting in touch with me. And that's that's actually again, it

Howard Brown: 00:16:15

helped define my brand and who I am and the shining brightly

Howard Brown: 00:16:18

movement to make the world a better place. So just so many

Howard Brown: 00:16:21

benefits for that. And then I just, I now get to thank you for

Howard Brown: 00:16:25

probably only finding one or two areas in my, my posting. So I

Howard Brown: 00:16:29

appreciate that very much that you gotta go. Go ahead.

Buddy Thornton: 00:16:33

Yeah, the the main thing I really focused on

Buddy Thornton: 00:16:35

and I think people need to do right from the heart. If you

Buddy Thornton: 00:16:39

struggle, getting it in the framework, you know what I'm

Buddy Thornton: 00:16:41

available for extremely minimal cost, I can help you complete

Buddy Thornton: 00:16:46

your page. The other thing is, when you're doing those tags at

Buddy Thornton: 00:16:50

the bottom of the page, when you're identifying your

Buddy Thornton: 00:16:52

profession, and what you have a passion for be very accurate. We

Buddy Thornton: 00:16:57

only allow five tags per author. And the reason we do that is

Buddy Thornton: 00:17:01

because we want you to focus on your your passions, we don't

Buddy Thornton: 00:17:04

want you to say, oh, obviously I was an architect, I was a

Buddy Thornton: 00:17:07

builder. I was, we want you to say, this is what I am. I'm an

Buddy Thornton: 00:17:11

author, I'm a speaker, I'm a writer, I'm an editor and I'm a

Buddy Thornton: 00:17:14

conflict management professional. Those are my five

Buddy Thornton: 00:17:16

tags. And I won't deviate from those because that's me. When

Buddy Thornton: 00:17:21

you talk to me, that's what you get. That's that's how I present

Buddy Thornton: 00:17:24

myself. I'm not going to change that message now, five years

Buddy Thornton: 00:17:27

from now, or 10 years from now doesn't matter.

Howard Brown: 00:17:30

No, I love that advice. Now, for those that

Howard Brown: 00:17:32

aren't video, you'll see that. But he actually has two books

Howard Brown: 00:17:36

that he's displayed over his right and left shoulder, you

Howard Brown: 00:17:38

want to tell us a little bit about the slippery slope, and

Howard Brown: 00:17:40

then the black and white baseball?

Buddy Thornton: 00:17:42

Yes, well, the slippery slope is my series, you

Buddy Thornton: 00:17:45

can find it on Amazon, there will end up being 12 books in

Buddy Thornton: 00:17:48

that series. And then there'll be a second series that will

Buddy Thornton: 00:17:51

follow that which I'll start when I I'll advertise that when

Buddy Thornton: 00:17:55

I get started on it. The black and white of baseball and

Buddy Thornton: 00:17:59

overcoming bias in baseball in life was written by George

Buddy Thornton: 00:18:02

Reiser. He's a coach who actually spent years in China

Buddy Thornton: 00:18:05

coaching Chinese baseball players. He said in his early

Buddy Thornton: 00:18:09

60s, he's a black author. He's got a grandson who is struggling

Buddy Thornton: 00:18:13

with a lot of prejudice and bias in the baseball sphere. And so

Buddy Thornton: 00:18:17

he came to me and said, Could you please help me tell my

Buddy Thornton: 00:18:20

story? He had a gorgeous manuscript. It just needed a

Buddy Thornton: 00:18:24

little nudge over the top. And so I spent about a week working

Buddy Thornton: 00:18:28

on it. And I sent it back to him. And what was surprising is

Buddy Thornton: 00:18:31

he thought it was going to take two or three months. And when I

Buddy Thornton: 00:18:33

got it back to him in a week, he was like, Are you kidding me?

Buddy Thornton: 00:18:37

And he read it. And he gave it to his wife to read. And they

Buddy Thornton: 00:18:40

both said, we did not believe that Georgia story could sound

Buddy Thornton: 00:18:44

like that and could be like that. I didn't take anything out

Buddy Thornton: 00:18:48

of Georgia story. I just made it to where it would cross every

Buddy Thornton: 00:18:53

racial barrier, every cultural barrier. And it wouldn't reach

Buddy Thornton: 00:18:57

into the heart of people and say, This is wrong, why can't we

Buddy Thornton: 00:19:00

make it right? And so, you know, immediately became an

Buddy Thornton: 00:19:05

international best selling book. I love that all my books are

Buddy Thornton: 00:19:08

international best selling books. You have to write at a

Buddy Thornton: 00:19:12

certain level to make that happen. You cannot just get that

Buddy Thornton: 00:19:15

out of thin air. But at the end of the day, George wasn't a

Buddy Thornton: 00:19:18

writer. He was a coach. He was a coach, but he was very well. He

Buddy Thornton: 00:19:22

was articulate. He was well spoken. He could write very

Buddy Thornton: 00:19:25

well, what he couldn't do as he couldn't put it into the right

Buddy Thornton: 00:19:30

place in the perfect framework. So did I do a little bit of work

Buddy Thornton: 00:19:33

on the book? Yeah. And I also wrote the foreword because I

Buddy Thornton: 00:19:36

love George. He's a great friend of mine now. And I would never

Buddy Thornton: 00:19:40

have met him if he hadn't came to me to help me write this

Buddy Thornton: 00:19:42

book. And I just, I just believe that's the gift that we give.

Buddy Thornton: 00:19:47

The money we make is very minimal compared to the gift we

Buddy Thornton: 00:19:50

get of interacting with people that we care about.

Howard Brown: 00:19:53

And that book has a lesson and it's teaching. I

Howard Brown: 00:19:56

have to tell you now buddy, the reason I was excited to have you

Howard Brown: 00:19:59

on the show Is that I have now gone through this process, a

Howard Brown: 00:20:04

full three year process of, you know, basically doing the Zoom

Howard Brown: 00:20:07

interviews, looking at the transcripts, looking at the jet,

Howard Brown: 00:20:10

the chapters, we cut out so much in order, you know, this, my

Howard Brown: 00:20:14

first book is 300 pages and 62 pictures. And I have such an

Howard Brown: 00:20:18

appreciation of the editorial, because without my wife and my

Howard Brown: 00:20:22

editor, David Crum, French publishing, and read the spirit

Howard Brown: 00:20:26

magazine, my book probably isn't readable. And I think that's the

Howard Brown: 00:20:29

gift. The gift is that of an editor is that the book is

Howard Brown: 00:20:33

readable. If it is a struggle to get through a book and I've been

Howard Brown: 00:20:36

through, you know, I've read some that are been a struggle,

Howard Brown: 00:20:39

even on article, I might stop right there and not and put the

Howard Brown: 00:20:42

book down and never pick it back up again. And I love the fact

Howard Brown: 00:20:46

that the feedback that I'm getting is that it's a page

Howard Brown: 00:20:49

turner, and then I can't put your book down, right, because

Howard Brown: 00:20:52

that's what you want as an author. And the editorial makes

Howard Brown: 00:20:55

all the difference in the world. So I want to actually just tell

Howard Brown: 00:20:59

you that you have a magic to you that, that I don't have, and I

Howard Brown: 00:21:03

appreciate for people like you that do because if it's not

Howard Brown: 00:21:07

readable, it makes it a chore. And you don't want the book to

Howard Brown: 00:21:10

be a chore. And there's some books out there. And I'm sure

Howard Brown: 00:21:12

you've seen them, they're a real chore to get through. And

Howard Brown: 00:21:16

especially looking at my you know, the textbook days and and

Howard Brown: 00:21:19

some of that stuff. I was like, you know, you're trying to teach

Howard Brown: 00:21:22

kids. And boy, is that really a chore some of those textbooks

Howard Brown: 00:21:25

just to get through so we won't get into there as well. Can I

Howard Brown: 00:21:28

ask you? What are you reading now who's your favourite author

Howard Brown: 00:21:31

and why?

Buddy Thornton: 00:21:33

You know, I write nonfiction. So I you know,

Buddy Thornton: 00:21:36

and because I'm a researcher, I read a lot of nonfiction. And in

Buddy Thornton: 00:21:40

the nonfiction space, I tend to stay in the sciences. So like

Buddy Thornton: 00:21:44

Dr. Least Elliot with her book, what's going on in there about

Buddy Thornton: 00:21:47

from conception to five years old with children is definitely

Buddy Thornton: 00:21:51

one of my favourite books. From a religious standpoint, I

Buddy Thornton: 00:21:55

absolutely would recommend Ken Sandy's the peacemaker, it is

Buddy Thornton: 00:21:58

one of the best conflict management books that has ever

Buddy Thornton: 00:22:01

been written. And it follows the Scripture, but it doesn't adhere

Buddy Thornton: 00:22:06

to this, you have to do this. It is we want you to believe in the

Buddy Thornton: 00:22:10

story and the and your own ability to decide what's

Buddy Thornton: 00:22:14

acceptable versus unacceptable. And then, of course, for this

Buddy Thornton: 00:22:18

fiction space, I really do like to read stuff that I know will

Buddy Thornton: 00:22:22

never come to be. In other words, I read it strictly for

Buddy Thornton: 00:22:26

pleasure. Strictly using escapes, I read like Stephen R.

Buddy Thornton: 00:22:30

Donaldson with his unbeliever series. You know, I've read all

Buddy Thornton: 00:22:34

of the different variations of the Star Wars, people that have

Buddy Thornton: 00:22:38

come out. That's, you know, it's when they say, a farfara away

Buddy Thornton: 00:22:44

long time ago, far, far away. You know what? We don't even

Buddy Thornton: 00:22:47

imagine some of the things they could do being possible now. So

Buddy Thornton: 00:22:50

how could that be right? I like that, because it gives me an

Buddy Thornton: 00:22:53

escape, it allows my brain to just turn off and just enjoy

Buddy Thornton: 00:22:57

pleasure. And then when I come back to right, I'm completely

Buddy Thornton: 00:23:01

refreshed. I'm ready to go. I'm ready to rock. I mean, that one

Buddy Thornton: 00:23:05

tidbit nobody will ever know. But I had COVID, three times.

Buddy Thornton: 00:23:08

And when I came out of the hospital after having COVID The

Buddy Thornton: 00:23:11

first time I was going to be at home for 30 days. Yeah. Now I

Buddy Thornton: 00:23:15

had outlined my second book before I went into the hospital.

Buddy Thornton: 00:23:18

I had 30 days, and I completed the entire book 105,000 words in

Buddy Thornton: 00:23:22

30 days. I wrote the book in 30 days, I gave it to my committee

Buddy Thornton: 00:23:28

chair from Grand Canyon University, who wrote the

Buddy Thornton: 00:23:30

foreword to look at it. He came back with a couple of

Buddy Thornton: 00:23:33

suggestions for chapter five. And I made a few changes. And we

Buddy Thornton: 00:23:37

published it. So it was written in 30 days. It was reviewed for

Buddy Thornton: 00:23:40

about 40 days. And then it was published. It was written in

Buddy Thornton: 00:23:43

September, and it was published by December. And you know,

Buddy Thornton: 00:23:48

that's the way you create a book. But you have to know the

Buddy Thornton: 00:23:51

topic, you have to believe in the topic, you have to have

Buddy Thornton: 00:23:53

passion about the topic. And you have to believe in the people

Buddy Thornton: 00:23:55

who give you feedback. Yeah,

Howard Brown: 00:23:58

I also got to, I have to tell you that the lesson

Howard Brown: 00:24:01

learned it was cathartic for me because going from cancer to

Howard Brown: 00:24:04

COVID. I was healing and the ability of what is my memoir, so

Howard Brown: 00:24:08

it's 125,000 words. And I had never done this before. So it

Howard Brown: 00:24:13

was an all new journey. It was healing for me, because I

Howard Brown: 00:24:16

actually in chapter one talked about the lesson that my great

Howard Brown: 00:24:20

grandmother, we call her Bobby bhootish, Bertha from Lithuania,

Howard Brown: 00:24:23

she came and struggled to get to this country had nothing right.

Howard Brown: 00:24:27

And she taught us as five year olds to live a life of kindness

Howard Brown: 00:24:31

we can choose to do that live a life of giving, we can choose to

Howard Brown: 00:24:33

do that and to heal yourself and then go heal others and on your

Howard Brown: 00:24:38

communities. And God I remember that today that she's talking to

Howard Brown: 00:24:42

me right now. And for me to actually take that lesson and

Howard Brown: 00:24:45

put that in chapter one, right is so special to be able to do

Howard Brown: 00:24:49

that. How many times you know, at least in my memoir walked

Howard Brown: 00:24:52

back my entire life. And we're going through photos and we're

Howard Brown: 00:24:55

going through stories and we're talking about family customs. We

Howard Brown: 00:24:59

actually In one chapter, we fight about whose grandmother's

Howard Brown: 00:25:03

brisket is better and which recipe is better. So it's just

Howard Brown: 00:25:07

cool. And so I love that expressionism of that. And then

Howard Brown: 00:25:11

I got to pick, you know who I wanted to write the foreword,

Howard Brown: 00:25:14

you talked about that. And there's a book from Dr. Robert

Howard Brown: 00:25:17

wicks called bounce. He's probably published 29 books. His

Howard Brown: 00:25:21

book said, I read his book, and I said, He's talking about me

Howard Brown: 00:25:25

bounces about resilience, right? And I said, He's talking about

Howard Brown: 00:25:29

me. And then I do a lot of interfaith work. And the

Howard Brown: 00:25:34

actually, Rabbi David Rosen in Israel, I've known him from the

Howard Brown: 00:25:38

American Jewish Committee, we do a lot of diplomacy, and a lot of

Howard Brown: 00:25:41

interfaith relations. And I live here in Michigan, where we have,

Howard Brown: 00:25:45

you know, Muslims, Christian, Jews, Hindus, and we all in the

Howard Brown: 00:25:48

same melting pot, and we seem to be able to get along most of the

Howard Brown: 00:25:50

time. And so Rabbi Rosen wrote an afterword about my book about

Howard Brown: 00:25:55

welcoming people into your tent, know your neighbours, and

Howard Brown: 00:25:59

understand the richness of their history and their culture and

Howard Brown: 00:26:02

their foods and their diversity. And I think we're lacking a

Howard Brown: 00:26:05

little bit in these days, I hope we can recapture that. But boy,

Howard Brown: 00:26:08

was that fun to be able to choose the actual people and the

Howard Brown: 00:26:11

honour that they accepted, to be able to be part of my book, and

Howard Brown: 00:26:15

everyone who endorsed my book, too, it was an ask a personal

Howard Brown: 00:26:18

asked that they would actually put their name in or on my book.

Howard Brown: 00:26:22

And so what a great thing for me and I, you've now got me all

Howard Brown: 00:26:26

excited to get to book too. And to see what I'm gonna do, and I,

Howard Brown: 00:26:31

I've already got booked to you, they are they always say if

Howard Brown: 00:26:34

you're an author, what's your next book, and you got to have

Howard Brown: 00:26:35

that so I do. And so I wanted to actually transition a little bit

Howard Brown: 00:26:39

here to the shining, brightly spotlight I'm putting on for

Howard Brown: 00:26:42

those that are listening, these magnetic white glasses that you

Howard Brown: 00:26:45

know, I do each week, and I'm putting the shining bright the

Howard Brown: 00:26:47

spotlight on you, buddy, I want people to know how to find you.

Howard Brown: 00:26:51

And then I want you to actually finish up the show with a little

Howard Brown: 00:26:54

bit of inspiration and kick it back over to me.

Buddy Thornton: 00:26:57

I can do that. Well, if you look at my logo,

Buddy Thornton: 00:27:00

buddy psca Pro, and you want to get a hold of me, all you have

Buddy Thornton: 00:27:04

to do is put in buddy psca pro@gmail.com. It's very simple.

Buddy Thornton: 00:27:10

It comes right out of my logo. I was it was a gifted brand, from

Buddy Thornton: 00:27:14

one of my peers about five, six years ago, because of all the

Buddy Thornton: 00:27:17

pro social work that I do. And I'm telling you right now, I

Buddy Thornton: 00:27:21

wouldn't be doing anything writing, editing or anything if

Buddy Thornton: 00:27:23

I didn't believe it was going to be a gift to other people. My

Buddy Thornton: 00:27:27

gift to the world is I'm a positive social change agent. I

Buddy Thornton: 00:27:31

want to change your perspective, I want to change your life. I

Buddy Thornton: 00:27:34

want to change your future. I want to change your family tree

Buddy Thornton: 00:27:37

by teaching you how to just be you in an optimal, best way. And

Buddy Thornton: 00:27:42

if I can do that for your people, Howard, and they can get

Buddy Thornton: 00:27:45

a gift out of your book shining brightly, which is a great book

Buddy Thornton: 00:27:48

and I can get gifts from people like me. How much better will

Buddy Thornton: 00:27:51

the world be? It's all up to you.

Howard Brown: 00:27:54

Oh, I love that. Oh, my goodness. And I will

Howard Brown: 00:27:57

definitely have in the links in the show notes. The art of

Howard Brown: 00:27:59

connection and the gratitude book is there's still room for

Howard Brown: 00:28:01

more authors and all that way you get a hold of me is shining

Howard Brown: 00:28:06

brightly.com my speaking the podcast, the book, my advocacy,

Howard Brown: 00:28:11

what I care about there is lifting, lifting up yourself and

Howard Brown: 00:28:14

lifting up others in our communities. If we do shine

Howard Brown: 00:28:18

brightly, just a little bit each day for ourselves, for others in

Howard Brown: 00:28:21

our communities, the world will be a better place. And Buddy,

Howard Brown: 00:28:24

what a terrific episode. What a great guest what a great message

Howard Brown: 00:28:28

you have. And I just I'm very glad to call you my new friend

Howard Brown: 00:28:33

and in share this time together. Thank you.