- 18 hours ago
We talk with Bret Ridgway about going from business author and behind-the-scenes event work to creating a children’s book brand built around playful alliteration and early literacy. We dig into getting fired from a company he helped build, using AI illustration responsibly, and turning a book launch into a giving mission for kids.
• Bret’s upbringing, college path, and early career lessons
• Telemarketing and industrial training sales that sharpen persuasion skills
• Early internet marketing, live events, and “back-of-room” sales
• Building a speaker fulfillment company and writing business books as lead generators
• The shock of being pushed out of a co-founded business and what happens next
• The “crickets playing croquet” idea that sparks Games Animals Play When We’re Not Looking
• Using AI tools for children’s book illustrations without outsourcing the creative vision
• Hybrid publishing with Morgan James and planning a long-running book series
• Adding QR codes, animal facts, and online bonus content to increase value
• Kickstarter goals and giving away books by reading in local classrooms
• Practical author marketing, owning your audience, and getting readers into your world
SEND US FEEDBACK: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2210487/fan_mail/new
https://tinyurl.com/SubscribeToCTP
CTP Audios: https://tinyurl.com/CTPonBuzzsprout
CTP Videos: https://tinyurl.com/CTPonBITCHUTE
https://tinyurl.com/CTPgear
https://tinyurl.com/JLenardDetroitGear
AI images/videos/audio CTP uses: https://tinyurl.com/GalaxyMagicaAI
https://tinyurl.com/BookPromotionViaFiverr
- other services: https://fiverr.com/jlenarddetroit
• Bret’s upbringing, college path, and early career lessons
• Telemarketing and industrial training sales that sharpen persuasion skills
• Early internet marketing, live events, and “back-of-room” sales
• Building a speaker fulfillment company and writing business books as lead generators
• The shock of being pushed out of a co-founded business and what happens next
• The “crickets playing croquet” idea that sparks Games Animals Play When We’re Not Looking
• Using AI tools for children’s book illustrations without outsourcing the creative vision
• Hybrid publishing with Morgan James and planning a long-running book series
• Adding QR codes, animal facts, and online bonus content to increase value
• Kickstarter goals and giving away books by reading in local classrooms
• Practical author marketing, owning your audience, and getting readers into your world
SEND US FEEDBACK: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2210487/fan_mail/new
https://tinyurl.com/SubscribeToCTP
CTP Audios: https://tinyurl.com/CTPonBuzzsprout
CTP Videos: https://tinyurl.com/CTPonBITCHUTE
https://tinyurl.com/CTPgear
https://tinyurl.com/JLenardDetroitGear
AI images/videos/audio CTP uses: https://tinyurl.com/GalaxyMagicaAI
https://tinyurl.com/BookPromotionViaFiverr
- other services: https://fiverr.com/jlenarddetroit
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Hello, welcome to another episode of Perstitutionalist Podcast.
00:06I am your host, Joseph M. Leonard.
00:09That's L-E-N-A-R-D.
00:12It looks French.
00:13It's not.
00:14It's Leonard without an O.
00:17Thank you for tuning in, as Graham Norton used to say, on his show.
00:24Let's get on with the show!
00:25So, joining me today is Brett, my mouth isn't going to cooperate now.
00:34I almost said Brett.
00:35Brett Ridgeway, B-R-E-T-R-I-D-G-E-W-A-Y, if I read it correctly.
00:45From being a business author to a children's books author and games, animals play.
00:51I think it'll be a fun discussion.
00:54But before we get into that, where were you born and raised?
01:00Where are you now?
01:01Significant places you've been between?
01:04That sort of thing.
01:05Sure.
01:06So, I mean, first of all, there is no E in Ridgeway.
01:08So, B-R-I-D-G-W-A-Y.
01:11You're right.
01:15It is correct on Podmatch, but when I wrote it larger so I could read it better, I put the
01:25E in there, as I'm sure a lot of people are prone to do, right?
01:30You're not the first.
01:32You will not be the last.
01:35Now that we got that cleared up.
01:38Now we got that cleared up.
01:40So, I was born in Columbus, Ohio, actually.
01:43Oh, Buckeye.
01:44I can't talk to you.
01:46I'm a Wolverine stater.
01:48Yeah.
01:48Born there, but moved to Terre Haute, Indiana in the third grade.
01:52So, you remember Columbia House, the old record and tape company?
01:57Yep.
01:57That's immediately what came to mind when you said that.
02:01Yes.
02:01Well, there are no more of them.
02:02My father worked for them for many years, so he took a job with them, so we moved to Terre
02:07Haute.
02:08So, grew up here, graduated from one of the local high schools.
02:11Then I did the scenic tour of college, Joseph.
02:14So, I spent two years in Michigan at Southwestern Michigan College in Dwajack.
02:18Ever been to Dwajack?
02:20No, I've not even heard of that one.
02:23About 20 miles north of South Bend, Indiana.
02:27Okay.
02:27So, Southwestern part of the state.
02:29Then I spent one year down at Valdosta State in Georgia, right on the Florida line.
02:36Then, back in those days, I was a runner, a cross-country and track runner.
02:40And for various reasons, they dropped their program.
02:43Oh.
02:44So, I transferred to what's now the University of West Georgia and got my bachelor's in business from there.
02:50And then I decided I wasn't ready to work yet, Joseph.
02:54So, I went ahead and came back to Terre Haute and went to Indiana State and went ahead and got
02:58my MBA back in 1981.
03:00So, many, many years ago.
03:03So, you tried to delay adulting as long as possible.
03:06I tried to delay, but it got here anyway.
03:09Daggone it.
03:10But no.
03:12And then, so, I actually have an associate's degree from Southwestern Michigan, a bachelor's from West Georgia, an MBA from
03:18Indiana State, and a continuing ed degree from UCLA from about 10 years ago.
03:23So, you know, I don't know whether that means I'm well-educated or I just don't know what I want
03:29to do.
03:30Yeah.
03:31Jack of all trades, master of none.
03:34That's a go.
03:38So, what do you do for, are you writing for a living or do you have a career in writing
03:47as a side gig?
03:49Writing is kind of the side gig.
03:51So, I'm basically retired now.
03:54I worked for a small company for many years.
03:56So, right out of my MBA program, I got hired by a guy who had an industrial training company, and
04:02he wanted to try to grow the company.
04:05So, my first job was actually as a telemarketer selling high-ticket training courses to military bases, power plants, you
04:13know, GM facilities, etc.
04:16And, I mean, it was such a small company.
04:18I actually worked out of this guy's house.
04:19I'd go down in the morning to his bedroom down in the basement and say, get out of here.
04:25I've got to make phone calls.
04:26And so, I'd make phone calls all day.
04:28And, you know, despite my lack of sales skills, managed to sell a few trainings and grew the company to
04:34a few million dollars over the course of the next year, several years.
04:37And then, in 1992, I think it was, Joseph, I attended an event with my mentor called the Hurricane Andrew
04:48Seminar, which was a fundraiser for victims of Hurricane Andrew back in Florida in the early 90s.
04:54It was a marketing seminar.
04:56Met a lot of people who were the movers and shakers in the internet marketing and information marketing space back
05:01then.
05:02And one of those guys that I met actually led to a joint venture, and I took over his old
05:08hard-to-farm marketing book catalog and put it online in the mid-1990s.
05:13Around the same time, I actually put up the first portal website in the plant engineering and maintenance industry back
05:20in about 1995.
05:22And then, because of that joint venture that I had, that guy decided he was going to do his first
05:28internet marketing super conference.
05:31And it was in 1999.
05:32And he called me up and asked me if I would handle the back-to-the-room sales table for
05:36him.
05:37Well, honestly, Joseph, I didn't even know what back-to-the-room sales meant.
05:40But I had not been to Las Vegas before, so I said, sure, I'll do that.
05:45So, I remember where I was at the old Las Vegas Hilton.
05:47You didn't lose your shirt while you were there, huh?
05:51I did not do that.
05:52I'm not a big gambler.
05:54But I got to start to know a lot of people in the internet and information marketing spaces as a
05:59result of that.
06:00And that kind of led to a side business where I would provide the crew and, more importantly, the merchant
06:06account that could handle a lot of money in a short period of time.
06:10And we managed the back sales at an event.
06:12So, a speaker, we get up on stage, they deliver their content, and at the end, they make a continuing
06:18education offer, some type of product or service or membership site or whatever.
06:23And so, we process all the monies.
06:25We pay the speakers.
06:25We pay the promoter.
06:27And then we take a cut of the promoter's money for managing the back of the room.
06:33So, as you can imagine, a lot of people who are speakers at these events or event promoters in their
06:39own right, so over the course of the next 10, 12 years, started to do more and more events.
06:46And got to know a lot of the big names in the speaking industry very well early on in the
06:51internet marketing arena.
06:54And one of them actually cornered me at an event in 2003, I think it was, and asked me if
07:02I would handle some product fulfillment for him.
07:04So, in the information marketing space, product fulfillment means things like, you know, warehousing their books for them or duplicating
07:11CDs and DVDs, packaging their course together, warehousing it, and shipping out their orders for them.
07:17And I've been thinking about it for a while because it was kind of a natural outgrowth of all the
07:22people I knew in the industry.
07:23And so, with another guy, we formed a company called Speaker Fulfillment Services back in 2003.
07:30And I was the face of the company, so I was kind of the lead marketing sales guy.
07:34And I got over my introvertedness and started to go speak at some events myself and, you know, sharing content
07:41of things I'd learned.
07:42Along the way, I wrote eight business books on the subject of public speaking or book publishing.
07:49I drove a couple of them to bestseller status on Amazon, but most of them were just, I wanted to
07:55share knowledge and, you know, let's see, let's get it down on paper and put it out there.
07:59And they were mainly lead generators for the fulfillment company.
08:04So, they'd see us at an event, they'd, you know, get a book or whatever, and then if they had
08:09a need for fulfillment, they would come to us to handle that for them.
08:14And so, I was speaking at a lot of events, and then about, gosh, it's probably going six years ago
08:21now, my business partner decided that he didn't want to be a businessman anymore.
08:28And technically, he had the ownership of the company.
08:30So, even though I was the face of the company, he was co-founder, I didn't have ownership of the
08:34company.
08:35So, he decided to sell it to an employee, and it's still running today or whatever.
08:40But after a couple of years, that employee decided that they didn't want me to be the face of the
08:44company anymore.
08:45So, essentially, I got fired from the company that I was a co-founder of.
08:51Well, you share that with Steve Jobs.
08:56That happened to him.
09:00For a while, before he came back.
09:03So, you know, it threw me for a loop for a short period of time.
09:07It's like, I mean, am I going to sit around and mope with this, or is this an opportunity to
09:10do something different?
09:12You know, it's time to move on.
09:13One door closes, a window opens.
09:16Yep.
09:17So, I dabbled in the speaker coaching and consulting space for a couple of years.
09:22I started a podcast called Spotlight on Speaking, which is still up on YouTube.
09:27I closed it down about six to eight months ago.
09:29Did 150-some episodes.
09:31I wasn't nearly to the level that you are, but I got, you know, I got up there about three
09:35years' worth of episodes.
09:37And then I decided that I wanted to write a book for my grandchildren.
09:44And, you know, I think to really succeed in the business, Joseph, you've got to have a full burning passion
09:50for it.
09:51And I just didn't have the full passion that I think I really needed to make it really big as
09:56a career in the speaking, consulting, and training arena.
10:00I did some of it, and I enjoyed it okay, but it just wasn't my true passion.
10:04So, grandchildren entered my life about five years ago.
10:09And, as I mentioned, I'd written several business books, but I wanted to write a book that was kind of
10:13a legacy for my grandchildren and families and all that stuff.
10:18So, I had this silly phrase, crickets playing croquet, going through my brain.
10:24Crickets playing croquet.
10:26Okay.
10:27I don't know where it came from, but so about a year ago, I decided, I sat down and said,
10:33I wonder if I can generate a good cartoon image of crickets playing croquet.
10:37So, I started playing around with some of the AI programs.
10:40And I finally decided on Google Gemini.
10:42So, I created an image that worked or whatever.
10:45But, you know, one image is fun, but that's not a book, obviously.
10:50So, I talked to family and friends, and I talked to my book publisher from the Business Book Days, who
10:56also had a children's division.
10:58And they encouraged me to turn it into an A to Z alliterative book of animals doing human activities.
11:04So, that's where the book Games Animals Play was born.
11:08So, I created 26 images, think alligators arm wrestling, chickens playing checkers, you know, hippos playing hide and seek, zebra
11:17zip lining, et cetera.
11:19So, it was all alliterative.
11:21I used, I'll be the first to admit, I used AI to generate the images.
11:25I mean, if I had to pay a book illustrator, the book never would have happened.
11:29Yeah.
11:29So, I used AI for the illustration, but I wrote a little two-line rhyming poem to go with each
11:34of the pictures.
11:37And then, decided I wanted to make it an educational thing also, Joseph.
11:42So, I included some fun facts about some of the animals in the back of the book.
11:46So, here's, you know, three fun facts about alligators or badgers or chickens or whatever.
11:51And then, there's a QR code in the book that drives them online where they can get fun facts about
11:56all 26 of the animals in the book.
11:58As well as finding fun things like coloring pages and masks and other things like that.
12:03Yeah.
12:04You know, online that, you know, won't fit into your typical 32-page book.
12:08So, here's the actual book right there.
12:10Games and Play.
12:11For the benefit of the video behind the scenes, they can see the cover there.
12:16Those listening on audio, go to the video and you'll see it.
12:22And those reading and transcripts.
12:24The title of the book is, again?
12:26The title of the book is, Games Animals Play When We're Not Looking.
12:31And it's actually the first book in a series.
12:34So, I created an overall brand called the Laugh and Learn Library.
12:38And this is book number one.
12:40And it officially releases tomorrow, actually.
12:42So, August 4th of 2026 is the actual formal release date of the book.
12:48We are recording on Monday, August the 2nd.
12:54This will air in the future.
12:58August the 3rd, man.
13:00August the 3rd.
13:00You lost a day there.
13:02Did I?
13:03Oh, yes.
13:04August the 3rd, Monday.
13:05Yeah, I think my brain is still back in bed.
13:11That's all right.
13:13So, like I said, the first book comes out tomorrow.
13:15I actually have another dozen books already written, Joseph.
13:18Oh.
13:19So, think what animals drive, what animals dream, more games animals play, animals at Halloween, etc.
13:27So, obviously, you don't release them all at once.
13:29So, there will be one coming out every few months or whatever.
13:32But it's a brand.
13:33And it's kind of what, you know, it's still a side gig.
13:36I still call it a hobby, so to speak.
13:38I mean, it's a legacy passion project.
13:41But, you know, we'll see where it grows.
13:43I mean, time will tell.
13:44I'm just trying to enjoy the ride.
13:45So, you know, my days are spent working on that some.
13:48I actually drive some Uber and Lyft just to meet some people and get out of the house.
13:53And then I'm, you know, retired.
13:55So, I'm, you know, I'm taking Uncle Sam's payments every month, you know, for having worked all those many years.
14:00So, between the three, I keep myself plenty busy.
14:04That's good.
14:04That's good.
14:07So, how long ago was it that the crickets playing croquet concept popped in your brain?
14:16You know, it's about a year ago now, honestly.
14:19Yeah.
14:19And, you know, I wanted to actually try to come out with the book last December.
14:23But publishers' schedules don't work that fast.
14:25So, they pushed for an August release date.
14:28So, I finally acquiesced and said, okay.
14:30Right.
14:31Yeah, they, especially if you're going the traditional publisher route, they've got many things, many irons in the fire.
14:40So, what publishing house is this through?
14:45This is through a publisher called Morgan James, who is the publisher of all my business books out of their
14:51children's division.
14:52So, Morgan James Publishing out in New York.
14:54It's a, what do you call it, hybrid press?
14:57So, but I happen to know, I know the founder well.
15:02I've known him for 20 plus years.
15:04And just, it seemed easiest just to go with folks I already know than learn some new tricks.
15:10Yeah, absolutely.
15:11Yes, that makes perfect sense.
15:13If you've got people that can help you, there's always a learning curve.
15:19You can learn through videos online or help files online, of course, via the internet.
15:26But it's always nice if you've got somebody you can fall back on to ask actual questions for people who've
15:35actually been there and done that already.
15:37My first book was through a hybrid, or I call assisted publishing organization, also so that I had help learning
15:49the self-publishing process.
15:51And then all my books subsequently after that have been self-published.
15:57But yeah, there's always a learning curve no matter what you do.
16:01And as you said, thank goodness, in your case for Gemini, I use Galaxy Magica and sometimes Grok to do
16:14certain things.
16:15Like Grok Imagine 1.0 is good for creating little video snippets.
16:21So AI is a useful tool as long as you don't use it as a complete crutch or a substitute
16:29for actually doing all your work.
16:33You've got to know what you want.
16:35As long as you know what you want, what you're going for, it can be a good tool.
16:41Yes?
16:42Yeah, without a doubt.
16:44I mean, there was certainly a learning curve with the AI itself.
16:47I mean, the strategy of writing prompts that the AI could follow without giving you, you know, five-legged zebras
16:54or something like that.
16:55You know, there's a bit of back and forth on all that.
16:59But, I mean, the book concepts is mine.
17:01I wrote all the – I did all the writing for the, you know, the captions for the pages and
17:04all that.
17:05I came up with all the pictures and what the concept of the picture was going to be.
17:09But I did rely on the AI tool to actually generate that picture.
17:13Now, there are some that are stat-fest against that.
17:15But, I mean, I was talking with a gal a few weeks ago, Joseph, and she was berating me for
17:20using AI and helping to kill the illustrator industry.
17:28Well, eventually, maybe, kind of, sort of, I don't know.
17:33So, I think there will be – there will always be some – it's like not every shopping center has
17:45all automated checkouts.
17:47It has its place.
17:50Some use it.
17:52Some don't.
17:52Some want the physical cashiers.
17:55And I'm a former Kmart headquarters employee.
17:59So, you know, we went through all that argument of the, you know, the cost.
18:05People are complaining there are not enough cashiers.
18:08Well, you can't afford to hire and pay a cashier to stand around and twiddle their thumbs in case someone
18:16comes in.
18:17Whereas the automated checkout, hey, it's there.
18:21It just needs to be plugged in.
18:23You're not paying it.
18:25So –
18:26Hey, Mark, what's that?
18:27Yeah, exactly.
18:28It's no more.
18:30Actually, I think it does still exist online as a online retailer, but as I do think Sears does too.
18:41But, yeah, the two of those merged in order to sell off all the properties and get out of retail
18:48mainly.
18:49So, is there – well, you've got – I would normally ask, is there another in the works?
18:59But you've got so many ready to go already, or are you continuing to pile them up?
19:07I haven't piled any new ones on in a couple months or whatever.
19:11I figure, you know, if you release a book every three to four months –
19:13Take a vacation.
19:14I got three years in the can already, so.
19:18Yeah.
19:19That's – I think that's the way.
19:22Because anything can happen between now and next year, right?
19:27Let alone three years from now.
19:29And we've got to see how well the first book is received to, you know, determine if the publisher will
19:35be willing to take it on for more editions
19:38or whether I'm going to have to go a different route for putting more of them out there myself.
19:42But, you know, one of the things I decided to do, Joseph, is I did a Kickstarter campaign several months
19:48ago.
19:50And I set a mission of giving away 1,000 copies of the book this year.
19:55And for, you know, I just decided I wanted a philanthropic aspect of this whole thing.
20:00So, you know, would I love to sell a lot of books?
20:02Of course I would.
20:03I mean, what also would.
20:05Right.
20:06But I also wanted to get – help get the book in the hands of kids that might not be
20:10able to get, you know, books easily otherwise.
20:12And so I actually have been going into several schools and reading it to the kindergartners and the first graders.
20:19And then I give them a copy of the book afterwards.
20:21So my goal is to give away 1,000.
20:23And last I checked, I'd given away 393 so far.
20:27So I got a ways to go, but school is starting up again soon.
20:31So I'll be back in the classrooms come later this month.
20:34Yep.
20:35So, yeah, and that's good.
20:37You get immediate feedback from the kids whether the – because ultimately the kids need to like it.
20:44Yeah, it's about the kids.
20:46It's about encouraging reading at an early age and, you know, sharing some quality time between parents or grandparents and
20:52kids.
20:53I mean, I found – I went into a grade school, read this in kindergarten a couple months ago.
20:59And I told them about the QR code at the back of the book where they could go online and
21:03look at the animal – up all the animal facts.
21:06And then I went down to another class and read the book to them.
21:09And when I came back to the first class, they were already online going through all the animal facts and
21:13all that.
21:14So it's like, cool.
21:15I'd like to see that.
21:16Yeah, I'm glad you adhere to the philosophy of it's good to put bonus material online.
21:24I do that with all my books also.
21:26So I think more and more people are catching on to that.
21:31It's the future wave of publishing because books are expensive.
21:35So if you can give some free online stuff in that price, that helps justify the cost of the book
21:44a little more over somebody else's who's – the book is the book and that's all you got, too bad.
21:52Well, you know, that's actually one of the biggest mistakes I think authors make, Joseph, is, you know, they don't
21:57have any back-end product or services.
22:00So you're relying specifically on book sales.
22:03And in the nonfiction world, which your books are probably nonfiction books, I'm guessing.
22:08I have a blend of both fiction and nonfiction.
22:10But in the nonfiction world, I mean, you're trying to hopefully sell some type of product or service that's more
22:16detailed than what your book has.
22:18Could be on how to make money in real estate or how to have better relationships or whatever.
22:25Or how to write a book and get it published.
22:27There you go.
22:28Yeah, all right.
22:31So, I mean, the key is you've got to have some mechanisms in that book to drive them from that
22:38book to your own website to capture their name and email address so then you can follow up with their
22:42higher-priced ticket items.
22:44I mean, I've seen so many people, they don't have any bounce-backs in their book, so they're missing out
22:50on a big opportunity.
22:51And let's face it, Amazon or Barnes & Noble doesn't call you up and say, hey, Joseph, Frankie Fish just
22:56bought your book.
22:57Here's his contact information.
22:58Go sell him something else.
22:59Yeah.
22:59So you've got to do what you can to get them from that book into your world.
23:03And the same is true as social media.
23:05I mean, you've got to get them off of Facebook and LinkedIn or whatever and get them to opt into
23:09your list by bribing them somehow ethically.
23:12Yeah.
23:12So then they become somebody you can follow up with.
23:15Just because they may buy one book, too, doesn't mean they're aware of any of your others.
23:20You want to make them aware.
23:23And that doesn't mean because they buy one book they should buy all your books.
23:27I'm not saying that, of course.
23:29If you have that list of people who, you know, bought book number one because they came and bought it
23:33from you, then, you know, you can follow up with them and say, hey, book number two is coming out
23:38now.
23:39So be ready.
23:39And hopefully you have a waiting list of happy people ready to buy number two as soon as it's available.
23:45That's all part of the marketing and promotion aspect of publishing.
23:50Yep.
23:51Exactly.
23:51Like in my how to write a book and get it published, hints, tips, and techniques.
23:56It's not just about putting your book on Amazon.
23:59You can read the Amazon files for that.
24:02It's about so you've got an idea for your book.
24:05How do you turn that idea into a book, into chapters, how to publish it, and what you need to
24:13do after you've published it, right?
24:16Like what we're doing here today.
24:18You know you can't just put out a book and then people learn through osmosis.
24:25You've got to go on shows or do print interviews in order to get the word out.
24:32Yep.
24:32And you've got to do it many months in advance of the actual release of that book.
24:36I mean, so many people wait and think, oh, my book's available now.
24:39I should start marketing it.
24:40Well, that, you know, that ship already sailed.
24:44And a lot of times it can.
24:46Yeah.
24:46You should do before, during publishing, and after, obviously.
24:52But in a case like you and me where we've got a lot of books, it's best to pre-promote
24:59because by the time the book's out, it's time to pre-promote the next book.
25:04That's right.
25:07I like a man in the know here.
25:10Keep that flow and that pipeline going, hopefully.
25:16So where do people find you?
25:20Do you have a website?
25:23Yeah.
25:23So the main website for the new project is laughandlearnlibrary.com.
25:30So just like it sounds, laughandlearnlibrary.com.
25:35And I mean, the book, I have advanced reader copies available now on the website.
25:39So if you want a signed copy, you can get it there.
25:41Or if you want to go to your favorite online bookseller, you can get it there starting pre-order now
25:47or starting tomorrow.
25:48It's available for me.
25:50Well, by the time this airs, it'll be out.
25:56Definitely on Amazon, of course, because most books are sold through Amazon still.
26:02Whether we like it or not, if you're a fan of Bezos or not, that's where most people find their
26:08books.
26:09Yeah, you definitely need to be there, but you don't need to be only there.
26:14Correct.
26:15It's best to not be only there.
26:18You want to be at Books of Million and Barnes & Noble and all those other words.
26:23For some reason, I do fairly well through Booktopia in Australia.
26:29So I'm fond of them.
26:33Shout out to Booktopia.
26:36You're big down under, huh?
26:38Yeah, apparently.
26:39And I'm grateful for that.
26:42Well, thank you.
26:44I moved the paper.
26:46Thank you, Brett Ridgway, which the proper spelling is without an E-R-I-D-G-W-A-Y.
26:55And, of course, on the video, it'll be on the bottom scroll for everyone to see.
27:01Thank you for your time today.
27:04Take care.
27:04God bless.
27:05Thank you so much.
27:18You talk like every answer has to come from you.
27:29Fill up every corner like it's something to prove.
27:37But love's not in the way you let their silence stay soft and unseen.
27:49Let them breathe.
27:51Let them breathe.
27:55Let them wonder where you can't quite see.
27:59We are truly free.
28:02We can't get more than we get.
28:05Just leave.
28:07Let them breathe.
28:09Let them breathe.
28:10Let them breathe.
28:21You want to shape your story, guide every step, every turn
28:31But some roads must be lonely for the lessons to burn
28:40You don't have to fix the falling or hold every key
28:46Sometimes the strongest kindness is just to let them leave
28:52Let them breathe, let them be
28:56Let them wonder where you can't quite see
29:01We are truly free, we can give more than we can't just leave
29:09Let them breathe, let them breathe
29:18Open hands, open windows
29:23Watch them rise, watch them change
29:28Show you lose control, gain connection when your love makes room for space
29:39Let them breathe, let them be
29:44Let them wonder where you can't quite see
29:49We are truly free, we can give more than we can't just leave
29:57Let them breathe, let them breathe
30:04We are truly free, in many respects when we can give
30:12More than we can't, so good be free
30:17But more importantly also allow others to be free to be themself
30:21Do not be overbearing, let others breathe
30:26Let them be free to be what they want
30:29Or need to be
30:48Free will
30:50Free will
30:50Individually created
30:54God gave us all
30:56Free will
30:59Gave it as individuals
31:03To both you and me
31:06Not collectivist mind, hive bees
31:11Not even exactness
31:14In identical twins
31:17Thinking otherwise
31:20Ungodly hubris
31:23Sin wins
31:25Free will
31:27Free will
31:28Free will
31:28Individually created
31:30God gave us all
31:33Free will
31:35Gave it as individuals
31:39Gave it as individuals
31:39To both you and me
31:43Not collectivist mind, hive bees
31:47Not even exactness
31:51In identical twins
31:55Thinking otherwise
31:57Thinking otherwise
31:58Thinking otherwise
31:58And I got ignorance
32:03Ungodly hubris
32:05When
32:06When we forget the spark
32:09You and I
32:10We don't arrive
32:11From one stamped mold
32:14Free will
32:15Free will
32:17Free will
32:17Free will
32:18You and me
32:20Free will
32:21Free will
32:23Free will
32:23Not a hive to be
32:26Free will
32:27Free will
32:29Made uniquely
32:31Free will
32:33Free will
32:34Not just you and me
32:39Free will
32:40One face
32:40One step
32:41One name
32:42Still two different hearts
32:45Same blood
32:46Same room
32:47Same sky
32:48Still two different marks
32:51I won't call the soul
32:53A row of matching parts
32:56We bend
32:57We choose, we burn, we learn where we start
33:04Ungodly hubris, when to make us all the same
33:09I was made to answer, you were made to name
33:15Free will, free will, you and me
33:20Free will, free will, not a hive to be
33:26Free will, free will
33:29Made uniquely, not just you and me
33:38If you try to number grace, you lose the living flame
33:44If you try to copy well, you break the sacred frame
33:50So let the two of us stand in our own skin
33:56Free to turn, free to choose, free to begin
34:08Eight billion souls inhabit this world
34:14To believe identical thought pool discredit
34:19To God's free will, free will
34:35Free will, free will, you and me
34:41Free will, free will, not a hive to be
34:46Free will, free will
34:50Made uniquely
34:52Free will, free will
34:56For both you and me
35:06Like and subscribe to
35:09The Constitutionalist Politics Podcast
35:11And share episodes
35:13We need your help
35:15Thank you for having tuned into
35:18Another Constitutionalist Podcast Show
35:22I really appreciate that you stopped by
35:26Again, please like, share, subscribe
35:30We need you to help spread
35:33The Constitutionalist Movement
35:35Thank you again
35:37Take care
35:38God bless
35:39Love you all
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