Episode #146
On this episode Wendy Green is joined by author Philip Martin to talk about leadership and the lessons that can be learned from his book, Tales from Tibet.
Philip has extensive experience in Executive Coaching and Management Consulting. He also has 50+ years of sales experience. The inspiration for writing a children's book of leadership lessons grew from the loss of his beloved Sashi, a black and white Tibetan Terrier.
This episode is full of joy and compassion and encouragement. You will learn about:
Tune in to discover the valuable insights and lessons that can be gleaned from Philip Martin's work. Don't forget to support Hey, Boomer! by becoming a Boomer Believer or joining the Boomer Banter community at buymeacoffee.com/heyboomer0413.
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pmartin@TheTashiChronicles.com
Hello and welcome to hey, Boomer, the show. For those
Speaker:of us who believe that we are never too old to set another
Speaker:goal or dream a new dream. My name is Wendy Green,
Speaker:and I am your host for Hay Boomer. And I
Speaker:have a question for those of you who have pets.
Speaker:Have you ever learned any lessons from your
Speaker:pets? Now, I have to tell you about my cat,
Speaker:Pepper. She's very smart. And Pepper, I have
Speaker:trained her to be able to shake paws, shake
Speaker:hands, and occasionally she'll
Speaker:lie down and sometimes she'll give me some sugar for a treat.
Speaker:So I'm very proud of Pepper, and
Speaker:people say cats can't learn, but definitely she does. But
Speaker:what about dogs? Dogs are easily trained, right? People train
Speaker:their dogs to do all kinds of things. But my question is
Speaker:really, what have you learned from your
Speaker:pets? So when I was young, we
Speaker:had a sheep dog. His name was Curly. And
Speaker:Curly taught us about safety and
Speaker:emotions and how to play. I mean, he was
Speaker:really an amazing dog. I think he was a human in a dog's body.
Speaker:But Pepper teaches me to stop
Speaker:work. I can sit there in front of my computer for way
Speaker:too long, and she'll come in, she'll bring a toy, or she'll jump up on
Speaker:the desk, or she'll jump up on my lap and say, mama, I need some
Speaker:time. And it reminds me I need to get up and walk
Speaker:away. So there are things that we can learn from our
Speaker:pets. In the book, we're going to talk about today
Speaker:tales from Tibet. Little Tashi
Speaker:learns many lessons that are shared with the
Speaker:reader. Typically, life a seven to twelve year old.
Speaker:But I want to know from Philip Martin, my guest, what he
Speaker:has learned from Tashi and from his journey to
Speaker:becoming an author. But just a few
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Speaker:I also want to thank Doris McLaughlin for
Speaker:becoming a Boomer believer. Doris
Speaker:wrote, I have been a huge fan and supporter of
Speaker:Wendy and Hay Boomer since its very beginning.
Speaker:Thank you, Doris. And you too can become a
Speaker:Boomer believer or a member of the Boomer Banter.
Speaker:Your support means so much to me and really helps me
Speaker:keep the show going. So you can go to
Speaker:buymeacoffee.com
Speaker:heyboomer, four one, three to join. I will
Speaker:read your comments on upcoming shows and all of these links will be in the
Speaker:show notes. All right, looks like we have a
Speaker:great audience, Philip, so let me bring you on. Hello,
Speaker:Philip. Hello, Wendy.
Speaker:So let me do a brief introduction. Okay,
Speaker:so I want to start by saying that Philip is my friend. We
Speaker:met in Northern Virginia when I was living in
Speaker:Leesburg and both of us were in the Rotary Club.
Speaker:I know Philip to be a can do type of person, full
Speaker:of enthusiasm and optimism.
Speaker:Professionally, Philip has extensive experience in
Speaker:executive coaching and as a management consultant. He
Speaker:also has 50 plus years of sales experience from hands
Speaker:on selling to training and coaching.
Speaker:Philip is a native of Nashville, Tennessee.
Speaker:He received his BA from Birmingham Southern
Speaker:College and then his MBA from Owen School of
Speaker:Management at Vanderbilt University. He and his
Speaker:beautiful wife Donna live in Ashburn, Virginia, with
Speaker:Tashi, their Tibetan terrier, who is featured
Speaker:in his new children's book, gorgeous book, Tales
Speaker:from Tibet. Philip, do you have Tashi with you today?
Speaker:Wendy? I do. Oh, let's meet little Tashi for
Speaker:just a moment.
Speaker:Oh, my goodness. Look at that face.
Speaker:Tashi, you are a star. A star of the book.
Speaker:This is Tashi, two and a half year old Tibetan terrier.
Speaker:Everyone tell me about the Tibetan terrier
Speaker:breed. Oh, it's wonderful. It's a pretty hidden
Speaker:breed out of about 140 plus breeds of
Speaker:dogs. It was only sort of stayed up in the
Speaker:Himalayas for several thousand years with the Buddhist
Speaker:monks. And it was only discovered in
Speaker:1926 by a British doctor.
Speaker:A woman doctor treated a Tibetan family and
Speaker:they gave the Doctor who loved dogs, they gave the woman
Speaker:doctor a puppy. And it was a
Speaker:strange looking breed with the hair down. You see them in the dog
Speaker:shows, the hair hanging down and couldn't see her or the
Speaker:eyes. And they'd never seen the dogs before. The doctor never
Speaker:had. So the doctor took the little puppy down to Delhi,
Speaker:India, to a dog show, and they didn't
Speaker:know what to do, what to name it, so they called it
Speaker:a terrier. It's not a terrier, but they named it
Speaker:the Tibetan terrier, sent it back to be bred
Speaker:again, to come back as a purebred. So in
Speaker:29, I believe it became the pure breed
Speaker:in the world. And then two women in
Speaker:London area started
Speaker:breeding them and it still stayed pretty quiet
Speaker:under the radar. It started being more popular in Europe and has
Speaker:remained very popular in Europe. And then the
Speaker:first one landed in America in Great Falls,
Speaker:Virginia, in 1955, not
Speaker:too far, not too far away from here. And then the
Speaker:oldest Tibetan terrier club is the Mount Vernon, Tibet Interior Club
Speaker:here in our area. And that's sort of the story of
Speaker:it. It says only about 800 born a year in America, I believe.
Speaker:Oh, wow. So that'll be a part of the story as
Speaker:we get into our conversation, because
Speaker:they're somewhat rare and somewhat very special.
Speaker:They're called the Magical Dog of Tibet, and
Speaker:Tibetan people call them little people. Little people.
Speaker:Well, yeah. And I'm so glad we got to meet Tashi. She's so
Speaker:pretty. So tell me, Philip, what
Speaker:inspired you to write a children's book? I mean, you've been working with
Speaker:adults in business all your life, right?
Speaker:And somebody asked me the other day in an interview,
Speaker:we didn't have children ourselves. We've got a lot that we look after and take
Speaker:care of in our extended family. But Donna and I never had
Speaker:children, and yet I was one.
Speaker:So even though we didn't have them ourselves, I was as
Speaker:a young boy, I had a little dog, and then later I had a dogs.
Speaker:But it dawned on me
Speaker:when Donna and I began, we got Sashi, and I
Speaker:want to tell you a little about so, Sashi, for those of you
Speaker:that haven't, this is
Speaker:sashi is black and white Tibetan
Speaker:terrier. So this was our first dog. We got her in 2012.
Speaker:And this
Speaker:was sort of the background of the book
Speaker:because we got her at six months old.
Speaker:And the woman that we got her from was planning to
Speaker:show her Sashi's mother and brother in
Speaker:Russia on the dog circuit and the show circuit. So she
Speaker:was really being prepared to be a real show dog around the
Speaker:world. And the woman decided that maybe she wasn't quite big
Speaker:enough and that she would let us buy her. So we got
Speaker:Sashi, but we got her at six months old, so
Speaker:that's like, she hadn't been around humans or hadn't been around other
Speaker:dogs for taking a four year old home from the hospital or
Speaker:something. We missed all of that early development,
Speaker:nurturing and caring. So we started a lot of
Speaker:training and remedial work and it developed little Sashi
Speaker:into a wonderful sort of like the daughter I never had. And
Speaker:so it was quite a
Speaker:father daughter relationship. And then, as I
Speaker:said, the breed lives to about
Speaker:18 or 19 years old. So out of all the dog breeds, it's one of
Speaker:the longest living breeds of all. And
Speaker:then, surprisingly
Speaker:sadly, Sashi got Lymphoma
Speaker:and at eight years old. So we went through
Speaker:prayer and counseling and what to do and started a lot of
Speaker:oncology treatments. But
Speaker:she didn't make it and we've all
Speaker:had a lot of your listeners. We've all had pets and all, but it was
Speaker:just the premature death when I had planned on her
Speaker:living so much longer and to have her pass
Speaker:away at eight, it just rocked my
Speaker:world. Devastating. Yeah. So that's the background,
Speaker:is that I began to think that losing
Speaker:Sashi and then was going through the
Speaker:whole grieving process. I'd hired a grief
Speaker:counselor. This was all during the COVID period. So we were all
Speaker:working remotely and trying, but struggling.
Speaker:And I was struggling. And
Speaker:Donna had reached out to several breeders,
Speaker:and as I mentioned, there's only about 800 born a year, so you have
Speaker:to get on a waiting list. And it was like months before we would
Speaker:really be thinking about getting another dog. And
Speaker:I didn't know how soon the timing, what's the right
Speaker:time, but as God sort of stepped
Speaker:in and felt that we needed
Speaker:to fill that hole up a little bit. So
Speaker:Tashi became about came to us because of a
Speaker:cancellation a family had ordered and then had
Speaker:some situations in their family, and they needed to cancel
Speaker:their order. So the breeder reached out to Donna and
Speaker:we got Tashi a month after Sashi's passing.
Speaker:Oh, my gosh. It was during that time that I began
Speaker:to think, here I had an eight year old that had just passed
Speaker:away, and now I had a nine week old.
Speaker:And literally one night, Wendy, I thought it was
Speaker:almost like I could hear Sashi speaking to me
Speaker:late at night. She said,
Speaker:I'll help you. And so it was like the
Speaker:spirit and the guidance of Sashi
Speaker:was reaching down and saying, well, I'll help you with this little
Speaker:puppy. So that's the beginning. And then I
Speaker:started thinking, well, what a little puppy could learn from an eight year old
Speaker:is the same one thing, I think what a little boy and little girl can
Speaker:learn. And so I had a couple of folks
Speaker:that had followed me on Facebook for
Speaker:years, and they said, you always write some uplifting
Speaker:posts and encourage folks, and you're very positive.
Speaker:But several of them said, I think you need to write something about
Speaker:your dogs all came together. And
Speaker:that's how it came about. Yeah.
Speaker:And it was fun. Following the development of this, philip, as you
Speaker:were putting the book together, you created something you called
Speaker:The Tashi Chronicles, the website you said will be up in
Speaker:July. But
Speaker:following you on Facebook, I kept seeing Tashi
Speaker:talking to us about what she's doing and her experiences.
Speaker:And it was really so much fun to watch that.
Speaker:As we started the show, I said, what have people learned
Speaker:from their pets? So my question to you is, what have you learned
Speaker:from having Sashi and Tashi?
Speaker:Well, so many times we see in
Speaker:mailings, we've all seen the plaques about
Speaker:unconditional love. We see what it's like.
Speaker:People talk about regardless of how bad their
Speaker:day is, they come home and they're greeted by a dogs who sort of
Speaker:loves you regardless. And I've got one
Speaker:of my most precious gifts a family gave to
Speaker:me that said, be the man that your
Speaker:dog thinks you are. And
Speaker:there's a lot to that. There's a lot to that. Yeah. Dogs,
Speaker:definitely. Cats, not so much. My focus outside
Speaker:of cats or something else, my focus is about dogs.
Speaker:And what I began to think about is
Speaker:we can learn a lot. We watch them develop.
Speaker:We watch the Tibetan terrier has a stubborn
Speaker:streak, so I have to learn if I've got a stubborn streak,
Speaker:and I've been told I do, there's a controlling. There's a lot of
Speaker:aspects that we have in our own development that
Speaker:carry over and how you correct them and how you
Speaker:train and how you work with those behavioral
Speaker:aspects I think, can apply
Speaker:to people as well. Yeah, I think so,
Speaker:too. So I'm curious, Philip. I
Speaker:mean, writing a book, it's one thing to write a blog or
Speaker:a post on Facebook, but writing a book, that's a big
Speaker:endeavor. Can you talk me through, from
Speaker:the beginning, kind of how you even
Speaker:got started and how you found a publisher and your fabulous
Speaker:graphic person? Illustrator. The illustrator
Speaker:people are just I'll take them in that order.
Speaker:Is that I've been told or been asked
Speaker:over my years in business and consulting,
Speaker:I've always had a passion for leadership and leadership
Speaker:development, and a lot of people had encouraged me to write a
Speaker:book about leadership. But there are thousands and tens
Speaker:of thousands of books written every year on leadership that I just
Speaker:didn't feel inclined to sort of get thrown into that
Speaker:mix until this dogs story came
Speaker:along. And all of a sudden, I began to think
Speaker:that there's a segment
Speaker:of children, and I
Speaker:reflected back on my Boy Scout days. So what I learned
Speaker:as a Boy Scout of the Scout Law
Speaker:of trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly,
Speaker:courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave,
Speaker:clean, and reverent the twelve tenets of the Scout Law
Speaker:began to weave into this book because
Speaker:most of those are things that I needed this puppy to learn.
Speaker:And then I had learned them 60 years
Speaker:ago. So I started bringing them together.
Speaker:And a friend of mine who
Speaker:has been a friend now for 50 years
Speaker:introduced me. He's a writer and does some
Speaker:motivation speaking, and so he introduced me
Speaker:to Tracy Jones, the CEO of Tremendous Life
Speaker:Book. And so instead of being self published, which
Speaker:is very popular right now, I was blessed and
Speaker:so fortunate to have a publisher put
Speaker:me under their wing for Tremendous Life Book.
Speaker:So I have them to
Speaker:thank, and then they provide. And didn't you tell me I'm sorry
Speaker:to interrupt you, but didn't you tell me that you first submitted a draft to
Speaker:them and they're like, no, you got to redo.
Speaker:This all began in June of
Speaker:2021. So everybody thinks back where we were with COVID
Speaker:and where we were coming out of all of this and dealing with
Speaker:a new way of living and getting along. So all of this
Speaker:I meet the publisher and their staff at
Speaker:Tremendous Life Books in June of 2021.
Speaker:And by this time I had been
Speaker:writing what I thought was going
Speaker:to be something. I was very proud of it and it was a
Speaker:whole story. That a lot of what I'm referencing
Speaker:here. I was describing what Tashi was telling the story
Speaker:and Tashi was describing what she had been learning.
Speaker:And I sent this like 4000 words or something to the
Speaker:publisher and we arranged this zoom call
Speaker:and they got on the phone with me and just destroyed it all. They
Speaker:tore it all up and it was a little
Speaker:discouraging. Yeah, I bet it was.
Speaker:So one of the lessons I learned is that just like what Tashi
Speaker:learns to be patient and persevere, I
Speaker:had to back up and regroup. Now, not only did they
Speaker:send me back to the drawing board, but they did provide the guidance.
Speaker:So they said a couple of things. They said,
Speaker:you need some adventure. You're teaching good things, but children
Speaker:won't read it, but they won't be interested in it.
Speaker:So lo and behold, Donna's cousin came up with the idea one day.
Speaker:She called and she said I think these two dogs are on a magic carpet.
Speaker:Or maybe they're on an eagle, the wings of an eagle. Oh, she said that
Speaker:that's how the eagle came. Because the
Speaker:first thing I wrote though, that the dogs were right here just thinking
Speaker:about where they came from and all of a sudden the eagle is
Speaker:going to transport them magically to Tibet. So everything
Speaker:is said in Tibet. Whereas the whole first draft
Speaker:was Tashi learning here locally about what and
Speaker:thinking about where they have come from. But
Speaker:no, going to Tibet, which is. Such a beautiful part
Speaker:of the story, Philip, because not only are you teaching some of these life
Speaker:lessons, leadership lessons, but you're also giving kids an insight
Speaker:into life in Tibet, which is such a
Speaker:foreign place. They would never have that. I've had more people
Speaker:now, this is just the 6th week that since the book launched on
Speaker:Amazon, it's setting all kinds of records. I'm just
Speaker:touched and barely astonished, but in the
Speaker:response, the feedback that I'm hearing, many take from the
Speaker:lessons that they can teach their grandchildren or
Speaker:themselves. But I'm hearing also second to
Speaker:these little lessons and tips for life lessons.
Speaker:I'm hearing about people learning about another magical part of
Speaker:the world. So they learn about a new
Speaker:breed of dogs. They learn about a culture of people
Speaker:up in the Himalayas. And then the colors. There's something about
Speaker:the colors that come to life
Speaker:up in that part of the world. Have made it
Speaker:all very special. And then your question about the
Speaker:illustrator. So the crowning part of this, and
Speaker:I'd be glad to talk with any of your listeners later
Speaker:about I reached out through a new platform called
Speaker:Upwork, where I pushed out that I was looking for
Speaker:an illustrator and said I
Speaker:envisioned about 25 illustrations and described I was thinking
Speaker:about watercolors. I had about 40 responses in an
Speaker:hour from all over the world. And I began to interview them,
Speaker:and I began to get down to finalists, and I sent
Speaker:pictures to three finalists of Sashi and Tashi. I
Speaker:said, it's very important that you be able to draw
Speaker:and paint the dogs as they are, because the Tibetan terrier is
Speaker:a very unique look. And I found a young woman, 26 years
Speaker:old, in Loveland, Poland. And so we
Speaker:have developed a wonderful friendship over
Speaker:2000, corresponding back and forth over
Speaker:2000 times. There's now 60 illustrations
Speaker:in the book of watercolors, and people are wanting
Speaker:to buy just the illustrations now. I'm telling you, it's absolutely
Speaker:gorgeous. The Tales From
Speaker:Tibet story I think anybody
Speaker:that has a grandchild from, I don't know what,
Speaker:Philip, maybe from age five up to about twelve, we
Speaker:spoke. To 55 1st graders in DC. Took Tashi
Speaker:and Donna and I downtown, and they were
Speaker:like six years old. They were tons of questions,
Speaker:but it's really designed by seven to twelve, something about that
Speaker:age group, but some six years old. They're really picking up on
Speaker:it. Here's another
Speaker:example for those of you. The pictures are gorgeous,
Speaker:absolutely gorgeous.
Speaker:I think the other thing is, you have the lessons
Speaker:titled but there's More than just a
Speaker:lesson in each chapter. So
Speaker:you might say it starts with trust or being courageous or
Speaker:perseverance, but that's not the only lesson in that chapter.
Speaker:And I feel like if my grandchildren were still young
Speaker:enough they're teenagers, they know everything now.
Speaker:But if they were still young enough, I could read
Speaker:one chapter and we could have a discussion
Speaker:for days, really, about some of the things that you
Speaker:talk about in that chapter. It's wonderful to hear that from you, Wendy. I'm
Speaker:hearing that from all over. That just one chapter. And people are getting a lot
Speaker:of conversations out of it among their family.
Speaker:And the illustrations by themselves are
Speaker:giving people a lot to talk about. And
Speaker:when we spoke to this first graders, they were
Speaker:raising hands, saying they said, is it real? They saw
Speaker:these illustrations and they began to think that they really had gotten
Speaker:on the wings of an eagle and flush. It just made it come
Speaker:to life. And over and over again, these
Speaker:little first graders said, how did the
Speaker:artists make them look so realistic? So
Speaker:it's really been a joy. It was a good, a
Speaker:good motivation of the two of you. You know, she made it
Speaker:look real, but you gave them, you gave their
Speaker:personalities. You know, you brought that out and you made them real,
Speaker:too. And little
Speaker:Tasha, you could see her getting frustrated, like when she's trying to cross
Speaker:this log, and she's like, I just want to make it easy.
Speaker:I just want to do it.
Speaker:Let's take that story just for a moment. That's my favorite chapter.
Speaker:And when they try to cross this stream and so
Speaker:Tashi has seen think of this, of those
Speaker:listeners we've all had other people at our age, they
Speaker:do better, that made better. They were more successful in
Speaker:business. There were something and we compare ourselves
Speaker:and we shouldn't, but it's just human nature. It's the same
Speaker:way with Tashi. Tashi remembers dogs that she had seen
Speaker:that could be more agile. They could go across the logs. They were
Speaker:faster. They could jump higher. And so that was a little frustrating.
Speaker:She tried to get across the log and falls in the water. So
Speaker:she had to not only see that she wasn't as adept
Speaker:and athletic as some of her friends back home, but
Speaker:she had to get back up and try it again. So that lesson
Speaker:there means that it's natural to compare ourselves to
Speaker:others. She had to learn not to do that, that she was
Speaker:unique. Second is that she fell in the water,
Speaker:and that was disappointing. So now she had a little pride to deal with,
Speaker:and she had to get back up. There you go. She had to get
Speaker:back up and try it again. And then they had
Speaker:to practice. So there's a chapter just on
Speaker:practicing, even beyond the disappointment
Speaker:and the persevering. Now they practice. And here's something that
Speaker:we found. Wendy, you remember this from your coaching business. A lot
Speaker:of times today in business, we forget to celebrate.
Speaker:We get on to the next project, or we finish up on
Speaker:budget or whatever the metrics are that are driving us. But
Speaker:teams are forgetting to celebrate. So I added a
Speaker:separate section on that chapter. When the two dogs are able
Speaker:to get across the stream on the log,
Speaker:they had to pause for a minute. It's sort of giving thanks.
Speaker:It's being grateful, but it's celebrating. So they could just
Speaker:celebrate for the moment and then get on with their journey. And
Speaker:that's what I love about this book, Philip. I mean, you've brought
Speaker:in lessons that we've learned in our 70
Speaker:years. You've brought in lessons that you learned as a Scout.
Speaker:And in just that one chapter, there's
Speaker:perseverance and there's not comparing yourself, and there's celebration
Speaker:and there's practice. How exciting is this?
Speaker:Thank you, Wendy. Thank you. Yeah. So you're getting ready to do this
Speaker:website, The Tashi Chronicles. What is that going to
Speaker:involve? Well, it's
Speaker:going to be an umbrella. The Tashi chronicles. I encourage
Speaker:any of your listeners on my Facebook,
Speaker:on my personal Facebook, you can find The Tashi Chronicles.
Speaker:And we're doing about 50 episodes to date
Speaker:on the tashi Chronicles and that will begin
Speaker:to be the next series of book. So there's going to be
Speaker:the stories of more adventures of Tashi and
Speaker:Sashi under the umbrella of the Tashi
Speaker:Chronicles. So Tales from Tibet is really the
Speaker:first offering of the
Speaker:Tashi Chronicles. So there will be another book that we'll
Speaker:be proceeding with in the near
Speaker:future. And then there are sort of speaking engagements
Speaker:and things. Some people want to come in and speak to their teams
Speaker:using the book sort of as a leadership tool
Speaker:in business. So in business
Speaker:just as you were, so astute to capture it.
Speaker:Again, what we've learned from dogs we can apply to
Speaker:our teams, we can apply to our small groups.
Speaker:So several organizations I'm in
Speaker:conversation with to come in almost as a speaker there in a
Speaker:leadership consulting, but wrapping it around, learning from the dogs
Speaker:and learning from what? These two and the eagle, the eagle
Speaker:again, the wise eagle flying overhead. There's a lot of
Speaker:imagery when you think about that,
Speaker:the eagle of
Speaker:being able to watch over them. And we all probably have
Speaker:somebody in our life that is sort of watching over
Speaker:us or we have an entity that sort
Speaker:of we look toward to sort of give us the guidance. And that's
Speaker:again, the symbolism of the eagle in our life that
Speaker:is sort of always present and always there,
Speaker:keeping us okay. So
Speaker:the Tashi Chronicles is going to become the
Speaker:ongoing, like I say, the umbrella under which these
Speaker:different things will be included.
Speaker:Yeah. So you all follow Philip on Facebook.
Speaker:I will put your link to that in the show notes too. So
Speaker:what inspires you or motivates you every day? Philip
Speaker:well, you've known me now twelve years and it's
Speaker:always a quest of being better. I guess I
Speaker:follow it's like a lot of some of your presenters
Speaker:and guest speakers have all been about being a continuous
Speaker:learner. I can reinforce
Speaker:what a lot of your presenters and
Speaker:guest speakers have talked about never
Speaker:being too old to learn, being hungry to learn,
Speaker:staying curious. These are again chapters in the book,
Speaker:but they apply to us. I'm 72 now,
Speaker:so to be able to do this at 72,
Speaker:that by itself is a story that you can let others know
Speaker:that you're never too. Old to write
Speaker:a children's book. You're never told to write a children's book.
Speaker:I'm at a point in my life, I guess that season I've heard some of
Speaker:your presenters talk about their seasons of life and I'm
Speaker:in a more of a giving back, more serving
Speaker:than continuing to try to sharpen the I'm not trying to sharpen the
Speaker:saw and as much as I once
Speaker:did but it was pretty much my
Speaker:mantra for years. It's just to continue living every day to the
Speaker:fullest, trying to become
Speaker:better in every aspect of my life.
Speaker:And so I've been big on trying to hone my strengths and
Speaker:working on my weaknesses and shortcomings.
Speaker:I've had years of working that, and now I'm at a
Speaker:chapter where I do feel called to
Speaker:be serving and giving back more. So I think that's the
Speaker:next part of this. I appreciate that. Although I
Speaker:have always seen you as a servant leader. Thank you.
Speaker:Yeah. So you've always also been a
Speaker:coach. In fact, you coached me for a while, so you've always
Speaker:been a coach and an advisor. I wonder if there has been
Speaker:someone in your life that has given you some advice that has been
Speaker:your coach and advisor. It's
Speaker:so wonderful. Yes. I mentioned earlier in our interview
Speaker:that the gentleman who I've known
Speaker:for 51 years now was my first
Speaker:manager in college. I've worked during the summers.
Speaker:I sold Bibles with the Southwestern Company from Nashville,
Speaker:Tennessee. I sold Bibles door to door. That had to
Speaker:be hard. It was hard. It's hard one
Speaker:summer. So you don't quit. You
Speaker:learn about perseverance. You learn a whole lot going door to
Speaker:door. I've heard a lot of no and dealt with a lot of
Speaker:rejection. But to learn it at 17 I started
Speaker:when I was 18, and then it was
Speaker:crazy to do it one summer, but I did it for
Speaker:six summers. Oh, my. So I did it through college and
Speaker:up through graduate school and recruited students at
Speaker:15 other colleges. So at at 20
Speaker:years old, I was under this tutelage of a gentleman
Speaker:by the name of David Dean.
Speaker:If I had to think of, probably the first mentor in my
Speaker:life was David Dean, who I met when I was a
Speaker:sophomore in college. And we've remained friends now for 51
Speaker:years. That's wonderful. And
Speaker:he was the inspiration that said, look, he said, you need
Speaker:to write a book. And he's the one that introduced me he's the one that
Speaker:introduced me to tremendous life books. I think he's
Speaker:listening too. I think I saw him. Oh, my God. David, if
Speaker:you're on, leave us a comment. Let us know you're
Speaker:here. Yeah. So that's beautiful to have had that
Speaker:in your life, somebody that you're still friends with 51 years later.
Speaker:I've had coaches second to that. I think my coaches I had a
Speaker:couple of good coaches in high school and my scout master,
Speaker:I mentioned some of those really stand out
Speaker:as men that were really guiding me
Speaker:and inspiring me over the years. Yeah.
Speaker:So looking back over the last couple of years,
Speaker:losing Sashi, being inspired to write this
Speaker:book, writing it and seeing it in print now,
Speaker:what advice or what takeaways would you leave for people
Speaker:listening to the show?
Speaker:Well, it's
Speaker:the it's never as we've said, it's never too late.
Speaker:This was a labor of love that what it
Speaker:resulted in was not what it set out to
Speaker:be. So I had a
Speaker:tendency for the first time in my life, I believe in. Some of the
Speaker:covey principles of sort of beginning with the end in mind.
Speaker:But in this case, I didn't know what the end would be. I was just
Speaker:writing from my heart. So I encourage any of
Speaker:your listeners to just
Speaker:start somewhere. Start I did find
Speaker:great solace in writing things
Speaker:down. Again,
Speaker:you can record things. I recorded a
Speaker:lot of the book by walking around and
Speaker:just talking into this. There's a record app that
Speaker:then it sends it over to India and it was transcribed
Speaker:and sent back to me in the next 10 hours. So
Speaker:there's so many tools that we have now to take thoughts out of
Speaker:our head, get them down on paper, and I
Speaker:encourage all of your listeners and viewers to just try
Speaker:that. It may coming out of that, it might see both
Speaker:a writing desire. There could be some poetry, there could
Speaker:be some painting. This illustration
Speaker:thing, what I saw with this young
Speaker:woman who had never painted, a dog, who
Speaker:had never dealt write me
Speaker:2000 interactions
Speaker:using the WhatsApp we live by, WhatsApp
Speaker:and imagine. So she had proposed 25
Speaker:illustrations and we end up with 60 illustrations. And all of
Speaker:them are more grand than she had ever dreamt. So this
Speaker:exceeded her dreams. So the message
Speaker:here is the dreams are
Speaker:there. It's like let it flow, let it
Speaker:open up. Don't put any lid on anything
Speaker:because you just don't know. And just allow
Speaker:it to grow and
Speaker:open up. Never did I dream that this book would
Speaker:be what it looks like. Yeah,
Speaker:I had an idea once. I'd been living with it for two years. But
Speaker:until I'm holding it and then I'm seeing the
Speaker:60 illustrations all together in this beautifully bound
Speaker:cover, it's only that moment that I
Speaker:realized that we had something here. Up until then,
Speaker:I knew I was excited about it, but I just
Speaker:say the lessons are just reach out
Speaker:there, keep thinking of something to touch and be
Speaker:thinking about who you can impact. I
Speaker:just kept thinking, if I was a little boy, I would love
Speaker:this. So it ended up it never was really what
Speaker:I was writing. It was more what I was reading.
Speaker:It was the gift you were giving to young Philip. So I was thinking,
Speaker:this is what I wish I'd had.
Speaker:I wish that Donna and I had had this book
Speaker:when we were starting out. So it's like it was
Speaker:reverse. I never once remembered saying,
Speaker:this is what I think you should know. It was more, this is what I
Speaker:wish I had learned how I was learning it.
Speaker:Yeah. It was different
Speaker:than me describing to a
Speaker:reader what I think they should be learning. But when
Speaker:they're hearing it from the dogs, it all comes
Speaker:together. And the publisher said that the
Speaker:editor said that they're not going to listen to me, but they will
Speaker:listen to these dogs. That's right. Saying to us.
Speaker:There's a message right there. Great
Speaker:takeaways, great. Your enthusiasm, Philip, is
Speaker:just so contagious. I love that. I love that
Speaker:you came onto the show to share the Tales from Tibet
Speaker:with us. Anybody that has grandkids that are in
Speaker:the six to twelve year old age group,
Speaker:I highly recommend it. You will love the images, you
Speaker:will love the stories and the conversations this will bring
Speaker:to your kids. Let me show people
Speaker:how they can reach out to you. So if you have specific questions for
Speaker:Philip, he is graciously saying you can email him at
Speaker:pmartin@vtashicronicles.com.
Speaker:And if you'd like to follow him on Facebook so that you'll know when the
Speaker:Tashychronicles website is available, you can follow
Speaker:him at Philip Lawrencemartin on
Speaker:Facebook.com. So check him out.
Speaker:He's one of my dear friends. Wendy can I add one more thing?
Speaker:Sure. For your listeners, one thing
Speaker:that I wanted to remind them of, that
Speaker:Amazon has this category, Children Mindfulness,
Speaker:and the Tales from Tibet has remained at the
Speaker:top of that category for the first six weeks that it's been
Speaker:launched. And that's really unheard of.
Speaker:So there's a category, Children Mindfulness
Speaker:and Think about that topic.
Speaker:That phrase, Children mindfulness applies to a lot of what
Speaker:we've been discussing through our whole interview together. But this
Speaker:category on Amazon has kept Tales from Tibet really at
Speaker:the top of that. I saw the other day that people in
Speaker:14 countries have already bought copies of Tales
Speaker:from Tibet. So we're really getting some momentum
Speaker:and some visibility. Well, congratulations,
Speaker:Philip. No, today helps a lot,
Speaker:so we're getting the word out. Wendy well,
Speaker:congratulations for putting together such a beautiful book
Speaker:and sharing it with us. Okay,
Speaker:so next Monday is July
Speaker:3, and so I will not be doing a show
Speaker:because it's right before the fourth and people will be traveling, so I
Speaker:won't be doing a show then. And then the following Monday, July
Speaker:10, I will be on the Wind Jammer
Speaker:Cruise with my grandson Alex. That's a
Speaker:Road Scholar trip, so we will not be able to
Speaker:do a show from there. But on the 17th, July
Speaker:17, I'm going to do a solo show and I'm going to talk about
Speaker:transitions and some of the making
Speaker:sense of some of the changes that we go through in life and the difference,
Speaker:as I see it, between changes and transitions. So
Speaker:stay tuned for that. That's going to be July 17.
Speaker:Go ahead and claim your free supply of easymelts vitamin D
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Speaker:Easymelts.com heyboomer.
Speaker:Or if you are into crafts, go to
Speaker:annie'skitclubs. Com, enter promo code
Speaker:Boomer and you will get 50% off your first
Speaker:order. And remember that you too
Speaker:can become a Boomer believer or a
Speaker:member of the Boomer Banter and support the work
Speaker:that I'm doing here on hey Boomer by going to
Speaker:buymeacoffee.com
Speaker:Hayboomer four one three. To join all of that will
Speaker:be in the show notes. Thanks,
Speaker:Philip. Thank you. So Wendy. Yeah. I'd like to
Speaker:always leave the audience with the belief that we can all live with
Speaker:courage, live with relevance and live with
Speaker:cure curiosity. And remember that we are never
Speaker:too old to set another goal or dream a
Speaker:new dream. My name is Wendy Green
Speaker:with Philip Martin and this spin hay