This week we were joined by Carol Patton, author, and retired journalist. Carol Patton decided to put purpose behind her writing. She created and wrote a free, online children's series called, The Adventures of Mo, to benefit charities. The series takes children on an adventure through the United States and teaches them about cardinal directions. You don't want to miss this episode!
Guest Co-host: Kris Parsons: kris@parsons-pr.com
Kris' Website: https://parsons-pr.com/
Secondary Guest Co-host: Bill Hughes: w.hughes@verizon.net
Podcast Guest: carol@carolpattonwriter.com
Carol Patton's Website: https://adventuresofmo.com/
Transcription:
Kris Parsons00:02
Welcome to changing the rules, a weekly podcast about people who are living their best life and how you can figure out how to do it too. Join us with your lively host Ray Loewe, better known as the luckiest guy in the world.
Ray Loewe00:16
And good morning everybody and welcome to our podcast studio here in scenic Woodbury, New Jersey, and I just did some, something I shouldn't have done. I popped a "p" when I talked into the microphone. Move back from the microphone, move back. Yeah. Okay, so we're here with our engineer Taylor, we have a great guest today. And we have kind of like, we have an official co-host and kind of a secondary co-host today. Because Bill Hughes joined us in the studio today. And so our guest Carol Patton is going to get it from three people. Carol, just Good morning and you're not on yet. But just say good morning to everybody. Good morning. Thanks for having me. Okay, so we know because we convene every week that the luckiest people in the world are those people who reinvent their own lives, they personally decide what they want to do. And once they've structured their own lives, they live them under their own terms. Now, structuring your own life isn't an easy thing to do. You know, we all kind of have goals or ideas of what we want. But then this thing called life gets in the way, and it just throws bombs at us sometimes. And what we find, though, is that there is a group of people, the luckiest group of the luckiest people in the world, who just find a way to handle it. And they don't let things derail them for very long. And we have one today that we're going to talk to, that's Carol Patton. And Kris on say, Hello. You can say that you're with Parsons, PR again, and then you do branding and all of those things, and then introduce Carol for us.
Kris Parsons01:58
I will I will. And I'm Kris Parsons, Parsons, PR Yes. And I've been hosting all month with Ray, this is my last Tuesday. I'm very excited. And thank you, Carol is coming to us all the way from Las Vegas. She's, we didn't have her come earlier. So she gets a little bit more sleep. But she is here with us from Las Vegas, Nevada, we're happy to have her. And she was 25 years as a journalist. And then, like all the luckiest people in the world, she decided to pivot. And she is now creating a free online children's series called The Adventures of Mo, which is dedicated to her late puppy dog Mo. And it's very exciting. It's not only an adventure book for kids, but it's also teaching a really valuable skill to children, which is geography. And I think a lot of them need it. So I don't want to talk anymore about it. I'd like Carol to kind of tell us a little bit about her ebook and how you transitioned from 25 years as a major national journalist to something that's really completely different Carol.
Ray Loewe03:03
Let me help structure that a little bit, Carol. So we know that you are a successful journalist for years. And we know that you wrote a lot of stuff. And who did you used to write for when you wrote and what did you used to write about?
Carol Patton03:18
I used to write for anybody pretty much that would give me a paycheck. Or anybody from AARP, their website, I used to do business articles for them to the American Heart Association to business or trade publications. I wrote about I'm still writing about doctors who have unusual hobbies for magazines rheumatologists, human resource executive, you know, I probably have written for maybe 50 to 100 different types of organizations or publications.
Ray Loewe03:50
Okay now, how did we get from there to writing about the adventures of Moe?
Carol Patton03:57
Well, many years ago, you know, I could see the handwriting on the wall that you know, I was going to be retiring and what did I want to do for the rest of my life retirement to me, never, ever meant, okay, go out to breakfast, and then talk, go shopping and then talk about where you want to go for dinner. That's not how I live my life. So I said, How could I possibly spend the next 20 or 30 years after I retire? And I got this idea in my head, about cardinal directions north, south, east, west, teaching people cardinal directions, because before GPS became available on cell phones and everywhere else in cars, I got I grew so tired of asking people where they were and they had no clue. At the same time, there were some life events that happened. You know, family events, nature takes its course. People get sick, people pass away, my dog passed away, and so I decided to join the passing of my dog with this book, and use my writing skills as a donations vehicle for children's um literacy programs and also animal charities. So that's how that was born.
Ray Loewe05:06
Wonderful. So let's talk a little bit about Moe and his travels. So what? Where's Moe going? Where did he come from? What's happening?
Carol Patton05:17
Okay, Mo that the storyline is this Mo. I can't show you where he's at, because kids in this in every chapter, guess what chapter Mo is in. And there's lots of clues in every chapter. So how it starts is Moe finds a key attached to a key chain. And the key chain says Florida, he never heard of Florida doesn't know what Florida is where Florida is. So long story short, he decides along with the other animals that he lives with that this key must be valuable. So he travels along with a bird who's a friend on top of the delivery truck, unbeknown to the delivery driver, to every single state in the country, searching for Florida. So every single chapter in this book or series focuses on a different state, and kids learn geography. In some states, it could be history, cardinal directions, there's also some lessons about friendship and diversity. So it's all wrapped up. And each chapter is very unique, very different. There is no duplication.
Kris Parsons06:25
I love it. I love it.
Ray Loewe06:27
Okay, so, you know, I know that other people have read this book, and you had somebody who said, I read the first 10 chapters in a row and would have read more. But
Carol Patton06:39
yes, it was I was trying to find somebody to help me market this because marketing is not my forte. So I interviewed a fantastic marketer, her name is Suzanne. And I said you got to read the first couple of chapters because if you're going to market this, you actually have to read the whole book. But just read the first couple of chapters and let me know if you're interested. So about a week later, we connected? And I said, Did you read the first chapter, the first two or three chapters, and she said, Carol, I read the first 10 chapters in a row, you know, it was great, but I had to stop because I had to go to the bathroom. That's the best review, I think I'll ever get no matter how much money I pay. So she is now the marketing director of this project, and she's phenomenal. She works at a high school with a special I believe, special ed kids. And her ideas are phenomenal. And she loves the series. And she's the one who we talk about expanding it beyond second and third graders. So she's you know, nobody does anything in the dark. Nobody does anything in a silo. When you have a project like this, it's important to have people that you trust, respect, are skilled around you. And I have, you know, you want me to continue Ray. Okay, I had to get an illustrator. But when you're starting a project like this, everybody's broke. Nobody has any money. So I called a community college to see if there was a student that would be willing to work for pay, but not you know, $100 an hour kind of thing. So the teacher said, I know someone who's Great. Well, what I didn't realize was, the teacher was sort of an adjunct professor at that college. And she was really a high school teacher. She referred me to a 16-year-old named Ira. And I had to decide, talk about breaking the rules do I partner with a 16-year-old for this project, this project could take, you know, many years. Anyway, Ira did the majority of the chapters, there are two drawings, line drawings for kids to color per chapter. His work ethic is better than most adults I know. He never missed a deadline. He was phenomenal. He is now an engineering student. I believe he was a sophomore in college. And then the next person I found was off. I don't know if you have the next-door app. But it's a neighborhood app. Yeah, it's a neighborhood app. And this guy, I said, I need somebody to do IT. I need a technical person because I'm not. Same thing his name is Saad phenomenal. I remember once I asked him to do a favor for me, he says well, I'm taking a test right now. And then five minutes later, he responded. He says, Okay, I just did it. I took a break from one of the questions. I mean, it's amazing. I feel so lucky to have these people in my life and associated with this project.
Ray Loewe09:31
Well, I think you make the luck, right, everybody? Yeah. I mean, there's no question about that. And I think it shows out of your passion for the project. And the fact that it's meaningful to you and therefore people want to join. So I kind of like to go back and think about your history here. Let's think for a minute about how other people who hear your story might be motivated to take a project, that's been sitting there and sitting there and sitting there and nothing happened. So how does one get off the rear end and make things start?
Carol Patton10:09
Well, a lot of it is double duty. And if I can just step back even just a little bit further. I know a lot of people that have golden handcuffs. By that, I mean, they get paid very well, get great Benny's benefits. But they don't want to leave their job. And I had a corporate job, very good pay, very good benefits. And I came home one day for work, I hated it, I hated I disliked the corporate scene. And I told my husband, I wanted to quit and become a freelance writer, I had no clients, you know, after he picked himself up off the floor. You know, we talked about it, and we made some boundaries and some suggestions. And I went ahead with it. And so most of my jobs required writing. And everybody told me that I should become a writer or a journalist, I got that kind of feedback. So I jumped from a, you know, a corporate scene to a nonprofit and corporate scene to becoming my own freelancer. But what I had to do was, I had to have a part-time job to help sustain me, I still had to pay, you know, the utilities, the rent the food bill, you know, all of that. So I worked part-time, and I freelanced part-time until I could freelance full-time, because you got to be realistic about this, right. And so along the way, like I said, you know, 25 years, as a freelancer, I know how to write. And when this idea came along, I was still writing full-time. I was still freelancing, full-time. So double duty, you know, reality sets in you can't just jump in and expect everybody to say, Oh, this is such a great book. So I worked full time, and I never took out a loan for this project. It's very, it can be very expensive if you do something like this. And I paid as I went along, and that was one of the boundaries that, you know, we decided, my husband and I. And so when COVID came last year, many of the magazines I wrote for us through either acquisitions or COVID, didn't have the budget didn't want freelancers, and I found myself sort of out on a limb. And I said, you know, what, if I don't finish Mo now, when will I. So I took advantage of COVID when everybody was stuck home, and I wrote the majority, the rest of the stories, I think maybe like 30 stories, 35 chapters, if you will, during 2020. And I just finished it in June of 2021. So I took advantage of a bad situation, to see how it could benefit me and the other people, the charities that I want to give to. And so that's how it came about.
Ray Loewe12:46
What a great story.
Kris Parsons12:49
Oh, yeah, it's a wonderful, positive way of pivoting and taking a bad situation and using that opportunity. You said you started this book in 2013. Right. So it's not like this happened overnight?
Carol Patton13:01
No, no. And like I said, um, you know, I was thinking about it for a very, very long time. And, you know, cardinal directions. I talked to a teacher, she said that I've never heard of a book that taught kids or introduced children to cardinal directions. And so that's what stuck with me. And also, I remember, I was talking with this woman, she was telling me that she was from Northern Oregon, a city in northern Oregon. And I said, Oh, I never heard of Siri city. And I'm sorry, she first said the name of the city. And I said, Where is it? And she said, Northern Oregon, you know, right next to the California border. And obviously, that's Southern Oregon, she and she didn't know directions. And, and so this had been brewing in me for a while. And then when my dog passed, I said, Okay, how can I marry the two together, and use my writing skills and also contribute, give back to the community at the same time. So that's you know, I was fortunate, and then I was able to marry everything together and proceed. And you know, every year I wrote, you know, one, a couple, one story a month, something like that. And then I got really busy. Life took over, you know, as life events took over, I was sometimes he was unable to do things for many, write stories for many, many months. And then I decided with COVID. Now we're never so I jumped in with both feet.
Ray Loewe14:27
Give us an example, if you will, about how you incorporate these cardinal directions into a story here. Okay, so pick a story.
Carol Patton14:40
Okay, well, I'll start from the beginning. Let's say they start at a stage from Washington. And they go I can't remember what they go from Washington to I believe in New Mexico. I identify the highway he's heading on I don't know what the highway is Forgive me. But lets You know, I-95 east or south, and they travel for four or five hours or three days. And so it gives kids a sense of direction, okay, they're heading east, they're heading west, they're heading south. And so at the beginning of every chapter, or within the first page or two of every chapter, you get a sense of direction of which way they traveled. Because every story has clues in it, about where they are, there could be the names of cities, there could be the motto of the license plate, there could be the history of that state. You know, so kids guess. And that's part of the game of this, Where's Moe now, so you can track them going across the country. And they in one chapter, they meet a professor, a Professor of directionology. And he explains the directions, you know, what, north, south, east, west are. And so I thought I had to throw that in, in a more formal sense.
Kris Parsons16:00
Right, I hope you put route 66 in there. That's like the famous route 66.
Carol Patton16:07
I can't remember. But I'll tell you, I learned so much about this country about how I think I could probably go from the first chapter, which is Alaska, all the way to Florida without a roadmap. Great. But yeah, yeah, it was fun. It was, a lot of fun to do. And it was probably the most challenging thing I've ever done.
Kris Parsons16:24
Well, and also tells isn't there, somebody big that's all of a sudden interested in this. And, and this kind of ties into the whole luckiest person in the world, how you take chances, you kind of cold call people, you know, I mean, people say, Oh, you can't do that. But you've done it. And now you've got somebody big kind of interested in this book, right?
Carol Patton16:44
Yeah, yeah, I Well, we'll find out. It's still on the drawing board now. But I call I wanted to contact children's literacy programs. And obviously, the gold standard for one of those charities is reading is fundamental. They've been around for about 55-60 years, something like that. So I cold call them I don't I didn't have any context. I didn't know anybody. And I ended up speaking, I believe with the marketing VP, and we're trying to work something out where they could help promote Mo and I could help fundraise for them. I also sent out, you know, this is hard work, I don't want anybody to think that luck is just you wake up one morning, and you know, everything falls in your lap. I sent out over 200 emails to everybody in every state, every location in that state, a lot of the chapters take place in a museum or a park. So I would send the email to those locations. And, you know, two of them. One of the stories takes place at Kitt Peak National Observatory, the parent company of Kitt Peak, wrote us back saying, We love the chapter, and they wrote a story about it in their staff newsletter. The state of Arkansas parks department, again, really enjoyed the story, and they promoted it on their Facebook page. Now I know there's a way to get more return for your investment because two out of 200 is really a poor investment. But that's you have to reinvent yourself, you have to keep trying different things. Some will fail, some will succeed, but you got to keep trying.
Ray Loewe18:22
Yeah, and 2 out of 200 actually, isn't that bad? Yeah. Okay. It's not that bad at all. And it's significant into what the results are. So every project kind of has a beginning, a middle. And then where's it going next?
Carol Patton18:36
Well, what I want to do is, oh, Mo also sponsors contests, free children's contests, you have to read a chapter to answer your question, and you get a really cool, fun prize. So we've done two of those already. As I said, the story was just finished in June. So we just started marketing in July, less, you know, eight weeks ago. So we've done all these things in eight weeks. What I'm hoping to do is have a lot of teachers, a lot of parents, download the story, read them, I asked for a $1 or $2 donation, half of the donations after taxes or any advertising that the website may attract will be donated to these charities, and the other half will sustain the series. So you've got to grow it. And so I'm trying to grow it right now, to get this on everybody's bookshelf, libraries as well. The story is also being reviewed as we speak. And, you know, so that's and I'm hoping to also half of whatever products I sell, it could be a T-shirt, it could be a compass, it could be anything related to the stories, half of those that are being that will be sold. Any revenue I get from those product sales will also go to the children's charities, and also animal charities. So that's what's next.
Ray Loewe20:05
Well, that's great. And this book is free, right? Yes, yes, totally free, free, $1 donation, something like that. But how do you get it?
Carol Patton20:15
You go to Adventuresofmo.com, you do not have to donate anything. If you can afford to, the charities that I'm hooking up with would definitely appreciate your donation. But I'm asking you to donate $1 or $2, if you cannot afford it, the book is free, I did not want to ban this book from people who could not afford it. So I made sure that the donations were very minimal.
Ray Loewe20:44
Cool, and we'll make sure that you know, that site is available on our podcast notes so that people can find it. And unfortunately, Carol we're getting near the end of our time. 20 minutes goes by really fast when you're having fun. I think you have an incredible story. That's a learning story for a lot of people who might listen to this podcast, it's a story about how you take an idea and make it happen. When a whole lot of things are telling you it's gonna be difficult to make it happen. You know, you had one quote that I see from our pre-interview, I don't know if you want to comment on it, but "Appreciate what you have and focus on what you want." Is that kind of what you did here.
Carol Patton21:33
Yeah, yeah. And, you know, the other thing I tell people is, if you wonder why you are where you are in life, at this point, look at the choices and look at the decisions you've made. And that will tell you, you know, I could have easily said, Oh, I'll do this tomorrow, oh, I'll never make it I, you know, the biggest challenge I have is doubt, self-doubt. And I threw self-doubt out of the house out of my mind. He or she or they are not ever allowed back in. So you just have to look at the choices that you make and tell yourself, you know, based on reality, of course, you know, I could not be a brain surgeon, but I can be a writer. You know, is this what I want? And if it is go after it. And if you fail? You know, the biggest word in the world is if I did not want to spend the rest of my life wondering if so now I don't have to.
Ray Loewe22:35
Cool. Alright, Bill or Kris any closing comments?
Kris Parsons22:38
No, I just I was just really engaged. And I have to tell you, Carol, you could just feel your passion through the microphone. It's really wonderful. And it's exciting. And I'm very excited to see how this book goes. And I think that Carol is probably a typical example of what the luckiest people of the world are you. You really found the passion you went for it? You pivoted? You did all those things. So we're excited to follow your progression. Yeah.
Carol Patton23:05
Thank you keep my fingers crossed. Yep,
Bill Hughes23:07
there was clearly something that went before here. And I picked up on several of those things that you mentioned because there were some parameters that you circled around your objectives. And they have to fit within that framework. And that's part of a maturity that occurs over a lifetime. And is a very, very strong thing to get to people to know because then they can use that themselves. I really appreciate that.
Carol Patton23:34
Yeah, I'm not going to take out a second mortgage on my house, you know?
Kris Parsons23:38
Not that much of a passion, right, right.
Ray Loewe23:41
Exactly. Well, and you don't have to, you know, I think you find a way and that's what the luckiest people did. So, thank you so much for being with us. And you're gonna show up again on one of our cocktail hours and answer questions for people who want to know more, more about Mo right?
Kris Parsons24:00
More about Mo there we go.
Carol Patton24:01
A lot of fun. Thanks for having me.
Ray Loewe24:04
All right, everybody. Thanks for being with us. And we'll be back next week with another wonderful guest and Taylor sign us off.
Kris Parsons24:14
Thank you for listening to changing the rules, a weekly podcast about people who are living their best life and how you can figure out how to do that too. Join us with your lively host of Ray Loewe, better known as the luckiest guy in the world.