March 13, 2025 • 22 mins
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Are you ready to take your nonfiction writing to the next level? In this episode of Author Nation, we explore Lifelong Learning for Authors and how continuous growth fuels creativity, authority, and impact. Guest Kami Wanous, The Freedom Scholar, shares powerful insights on Writing with Purpose: How Passion and Mission Shape Your Book and Why lifelong learning matters for writers.
📌 Key Takeaways:
#LifelongLearning #NonfictionWriting #AuthorNation
Are you ready to take your nonfiction writing to the next level? In this episode of Author Nation, we explore Lifelong Learning for Authors and how continuous growth fuels creativity, authority, and impact. Guest Kami Wanous, The Freedom Scholar, shares powerful insights on Writing with Purpose: How Passion and Mission Shape Your Book and Why lifelong learning matters for writers.
📌 Key Takeaways:
- Discover how lifelong learning enhances your writing and credibility.
- Learn how passion and mission can shape a compelling nonfiction book.
- Break free from the myth that you must “know everything” before writing.
- Take actionable steps to align your writing with a deeper purpose.
#LifelongLearning #NonfictionWriting #AuthorNation
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome dophination. Today we are talking about being a lifelong
learner to create work that matters to your audience now
and always. I'm Melody, and I'm your host, and I'm
here to share useful advice and strategies to help you
succeed as an author. And if you want to visit
authoration dot online, you will find a treasure trove of
(00:29):
resources for you. So whether you're sitt being your morning
coffee or winding down after a long day, settle in
and let me introduce our guest. Cammy wannas the Freedom Scholar,
has veteran experience as a public educator, homeschool mom, and
homeschool mentor. She is the creator of the Raising Leader's
(00:49):
Roadmap that guide's parents to reset their kids love of
learning and prepares them for future success. Cammi has loved
for being fun, honest, transparent, and for helping families stop
box checking and create a culture that results in lifelong
learners and leaders who use their passions to make a
world better. Her passion for education, leadership, and freedom inspires
(01:12):
youth and adults to find what sparks their soul, and
she is here today to spark our soul welcome Cammy,
Hi Cavvy, how are you today?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited
to share. This is going to be so fun brilliant.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
So my very first question is just share a little
bit more about how you became the Freedom Scholar.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Oh yeah, So this is a really interesting story. And
we have those like it's just supposed to be that
way stories because that's just how it is supposed.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
To be in my life.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
So, I was actually a public school high school teacher
and for seven years, and then I had my son.
I came home and we started homeschooling, and I was
kind of did okay for kindergarten preschool, and then I
really messed it up. I thought first grade. I thought,
for some reason, yeah, we're gonna really learn, man. And
(02:06):
so I got a bunch of work books, a bunch
of everything, got a little desk. I was all excited,
and then pretty soon I realized that my son was
really hating life. He wasn't excited about what we were doing,
and we were anticipating the frustration every day, and then
all of a sudden, he was crying every day. And
(02:26):
then I'm crying every day and I had to just
think to myself, what was going on? Because this is
not the way it was supposed to be. So I
swopped everything and I realized very quickly what I was
doing is I was doing exactly what I knew didn't
work in school. I was box checking. I never did
that in school, because what person on planet Earth ever
(02:50):
met a worksheet? They were just sober excited about That's
not really what anybody ever says. So that's what I
started doing, was I started focusing on lifelong learning instead
of focusing on box checking and trying to make sure
we did all the things right. And what I found
was that being a lifelong learner and focusing on creating
(03:12):
lifelong learning actually raises up the level of what is
actually learned. It gets more learning, we retain more, we
connect more, we are more passionate, and we create leaders.
And that's what I'm all about, and that's what I
help people do today. So when after the pandemic started
(03:34):
and moms started wondering about homeschooling, I said, hey, man,
I got I really felt a need to help people.
I got experience in both places, and that's where I started.
And it's been so amazing because we have to think
about ourselves as lifelong learners if we're ever going to
make a difference in anybody else's life, including our own
and our families.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Yeah, absolutely, I agree. Okay, so there's nothing terrible about
I actually like worksheets, but but it's not that number
one way to learn right right. I'm a little bit
of a like. I love when someone gives me interesting
questions to think about and write about. Anyways, Okay, so
many of our audience, they they they're leaders. They're writing
(04:16):
books as leaders, or they want to be leaders. They're
writing books to be you know, to show their expertise
and build authority in their industry. And so how you
And sometimes I'm just going to front this question a
little bit. Sometimes authors think they have to know everything. Now,
So what does it look like to be a lifelong
(04:37):
learner when you're writing a book?
Speaker 2 (04:41):
You know what? This is a great question because parents
often think the same thing in order to homeschool their families.
They think, well, I don't know enough to homeschool my kids.
I wasn't that smart, I didn't get good grades. I'm
not a teacher. But guess what, we're all teachers. We're
all teachers. We all have experiences that can show light
for other people and help them on their journey. And
(05:04):
it just takes us reaching in and saying, is this
something that I feel is necessary to help people in
overcoming their obstacles or becoming their mindset shifts, or whatever
the case. And that is the to creating great book
is really knowing that you have You've had experiences that
(05:28):
have taught you something. Everybody has a story and I
know your melody. You teach that all the time. Is
what your story? Right, So it's that transformational story that
you can share with everyone else. I teach a lot
about public speaking as well, And so that is the
key is what is that lesson that you've learned? Because
all those things and guess what, you don't have to
(05:48):
know anything because we can learn some things together and
in throughout the process of writing, throughout the process of learning,
we learn more, we connect more. And I can't imagine
a better way to actually learn more than to write
about it. There's so much learning that goes into that,
and you coming out of writing, you are so much
(06:10):
a better thinker about that topic, so much better of
a communicator, and you know you're now at a whole
different learning level. You know more.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yeah, kemy, you nailed that, just nailed it. So you know,
it's like, well, I can't go I can't go to
university because I don't know enough yet, and I can't
get my masters because I don't know enough yet, and
I can't do my PhDs. I don't know enough yet.
Right right, It's like, well, of course we all start
knowing zero, we all start knowing nothing on a topic
(06:42):
when we first turned to it, and as we're as
we're learning, and as we're writing about it and teaching
about it, it helps solidify our own expertise. In fact,
one thing I love to say about books is you
know it's it's yes, it's once it's down, down, once
it's published, it's published, and yes, that's that's like a
(07:03):
complete work. And yet there are other works you can
write and that one work that you did complete, that
took you time to think about how to best express yourself.
So when you were talking about becoming a better communicator,
because when we are coaching one on one or consulting
or teaching or workshopping one on one, people can ask questions,
(07:26):
but in a book they can't. And so it really
does as you say, makes you a thinker, right, makes
you a thinker, makes you a better communicator. So I
thought that was fabulous. Thank you so much for saying that. Okay,
so let's talk about passion and mission and purpose and
all these these big questions that people have. And you know,
(07:49):
I know, you know, some people they go to work,
they get a paycheck, they come home, they go build houses,
you know for people who don't have houses, And that's
really there their passion and their mission in life and
their purpose in life, even though their their work is
something different. Right, So I want to talk a little
bit about you know, mission and purpose and what these
(08:12):
different things mean. And how how can we know when
we when we've kind of we're on it.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
That is such a great question and something that everyone
struggles with. I know when I work with teenagers and
we're working with kids and as adults, we're not if
we're brought up in the system of just you know,
doing the work and doing the box checking, doing all
the things, we're never talking about that end goal like
who are the people we want to become? What do
we want to do in the world that makes a
(08:41):
difference in the world, And what do we want to
contribute what is all that about? And so I think
as an author, we're constantly already thinking about that. It helps, though,
to have that passion behind it and to feel like
we're doing this for a reason, because it is what
we're supposed to do in the world. Quite honest, I
knew I was going to be a teacher. I want.
(09:02):
I loved kids. I loved teaching, except I didn't realize
what form that would really take in my true passion
and my true mission in this world until I started
working with families in homeschooling and doing and with the
freedom scholar and my mission I'm on now and it's
really something when I look back, I've actually been dabbling
(09:23):
with for a long time. And one of those things
is that for me, it's the sparking that love of learning,
sparking that if I knew in school, if I could
just spark a little interest for reading, at some point,
those kids would read something that made a difference to
them or someone else, or that mattered right, or they
would write something, or somehow they would learn something right.
(09:47):
And I knew that was that was the key there.
So but for me it didn't I didn't know how
that was going to manifest itself until much later. But
the key is really understanding what what stirs your soul.
And I often tell that to students all the time
and even adults too, because guess what, we're setting the example,
(10:08):
and as authors, we're setting the example for our readers, right,
for our audience, we're setting that example. It uninspired person
is not very inspiring, yeah, But an inspired person, a
passionate person. Man, that's contagious. And when someone's reading that,
(10:29):
you can tell it's so obvious. And that is something
that inspires people, makes people put in action something. What
you're telling them, what you're teaching them otherwise is just
well that was really nice. Right. So one of the
things I do all the time with families is and
you want me to go ahead and share this because
I really think this helps people? Sure, yes, please do so.
(10:52):
One of the things that I share a lot with
people about finding your mission is thinking about these statements.
And I want you to write these down. So you're
gonna watch this. I want you to pause this and
just go back, and I want you to think about
these statements and which statements really kind of just give
you a pain in your gut hurt in your heart,
(11:13):
something that's like, oh, yes, yes, that's me. Oh that
kills me. For example, my son has always known he
wants to help animals, like wild animals, but he didn't
know how that was going to happen. And as he's
learned more about the world that it's changed a bit
and into how he's going to help people live with
the animals and the earth and all these things, and
(11:34):
then technology and all this stuff. But he's whenever he
hears about some animal being heard or going extinct or
something like that, he actually tears up. And so I
want you to think about that. I'm going to go
through these statements and I want you to write them
down and something that really just gives you an emotional impact.
(11:54):
That's something that you're going to focus on and that
you know might be part of your purpose. So here
they go. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, empower the poor,
Educate the ignorant, promote freedom, heal the sick, comfort the lonely,
(12:24):
liberate the captive, Preach the truth, produce wealth, heal families,
and increase beauty. Think about those and as you wrote
them down, I want you to circle five of them
that three to five of them that really you feel
passionate about that it just kind of like, oh, yes,
(12:46):
and they can overlap sometimes depending on how they you
think about them, Like Melody and I were just talking
about one of them earlier, and so then I want
you to go through out of that five and just
put a star next to the one or two that
really really feels that you feel something about that hate
your soul in a way, and when you're manifesting that,
(13:09):
and you may not know how that's going to turn out,
but you as you're thinking about your story, your transformation,
the message you want to share with people, how does
that fit into that? And maybe that's a larger movement.
Maybe that's something that you're going to really pursue as
a message to the world, a movement that you're on
a mission. And that's contagious.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
I love that. A couple of things in there that
you've said that really really spoke to me. So first off,
you know, find that find out one thing that really
just like you feel it deep inside, like it's in
your gut and your soul, in your heart, whatever you know,
wherever it lives in your body. And then I really
(13:53):
like that, Plus the piece you talked about, like, so
I knew it was something about teaching, and that's you know,
it's like you know something about teaching, but what does
that mean? There's so many ways that can go, and
I think sometimes people have this deep it's something about teaching,
but it's so vast it's really hard to pin it down.
(14:15):
And that you kind of went through the path and
didn't really question, like I have to figure out where
it's going right now, but allowed yourself to move through
the journey until you found until you found the treasure.
And then when you found the treasure, you started sharing it, right,
And so I really those two things are really important,
(14:36):
Like first you figure out what that thing is deep inside.
And earlier before the show, I was saying, for me,
it's free the captive, right, because authors, right, they're often
held captive by imposter syndrome and all this stuff, and
so a lot of my work is about freeing the captive.
But like you know, that could mean so many things,
as you were saying, right, that could be working with animals,
(14:57):
that could be you know, there's so many things. And
then allowing yourself to go through the journey exploring the
ideas until you find your treasure, the one you can share.
So I just wanted to kind of reframe it a
little bit because I just thought it was so beautiful
putting it together the other way. So thank you.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
So yeah. And one of the things too about this
is that so it may be several of them. So
for me, I've realized over time, and I've done this
exercise about a million times, and as I've evolved in
my thinking and really defining it more, I use I
heal families through educating the ignorant in order that I
(15:43):
can help promote freedom. We can raise leaders to help
promote freedom. So do you see how that that's one
leads into the other. It doesn't necessarily have to be
one thing, but it can because they kind of overlap sometimes.
And so it's however you feel and your story, that
story you feel, that train information that tells you a
lot about how that manifests.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Yeah no, I love that. Yeah no, that that's beautiful.
It's not about one thing, it's about uh, you know,
one thing can lead to another, right, which can lead
to another, which is beautiful. Thank you. Let's talk about
passionate mission and how and how that relates to nonfiction writing.
(16:25):
So you know, sometimes people think, oh, I should write
a book, right, everyone writes a book, but there, you know,
how can how can authors tap into and should they
tap into their passion or the mission? How can they
tap into it so that they can you know, enjoy
writing the book, feel inspired writing the book, and through
(16:46):
that right inspiring words.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
That's such a great question because there's a difference. There's
a lot of range of nonfiction writing. Right, So there's
nonfiction writing like a how to sort of thing in
terms of something very manual, like a typing textbook or
a you know something. I mean, we don't really have
those anymore, but those kinds of how how to make
a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, you know, those kinds
(17:11):
of things are very they don't have necessarily a larger impact.
But I think a lot of what we can do
with that is we can input that in our message.
So even if you are writing a book that's very manual,
very methodical, you can still so what they learn this,
(17:34):
so what so they can do what? Right? How is
this going to help people? And I think that taking
the most inspirational thing is taking yourself out of yourself
and pointing to your audience and really having that heart.
When I walk on stage, I'm not thinking about me.
(17:56):
I'm nervous because I want to give value. I want
to transform. I want to move people. And when you
want to move people, that is that's inspiring. That's that
comes off the page, that comes into people's hearts. When
you're just looking to say, oh, we're going to do
step one, step two, step three, and then that will
(18:19):
you know, help you lose weight? No, we want to
we want to think about how to move people into
a different transformation and based on your own of course
and every other people that you've helped, and so that
is transformational, I think is when we look and see
what is in it for them, what is in it
(18:41):
for them, and how do we move them move their hearts?
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Yeah, beautiful, Thank you. So if you want to know
more about Cami, you can go to www. Dot the
Freedomscholar dot Colm and you have an assessment on that.
Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Yeah, sure of course, and you guys are welcome to it.
So that's the free it's the Love of Learning assessment.
It's meant for families, but it actually is for everyone
because there is a space here for you as well.
And it's really about taking a snapshot of where your
level of love of learning is right now. Maybe it's
(19:24):
low and you need to increase it, and then you
take it about every you know, three to six months
and see how you're doing. If there's you know, you're
feeling uninspired, let me check and see and you'll see
on that assessment. Are you reading a book every day?
Speaker 1 (19:38):
You know?
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Or frequently? Is it like not a kindle it's a
book And I know that's kind of there's some people
that are kindle people. I get it, but there's a
certain message that gets sent to yourself physically and emotionally there,
So thinking about just and of course if you're an author,
you're probably a reader, so that's not a good example,
but just discussing it too. How inspired are you to discuss?
(20:03):
It's just a snapshot and then take it every so often.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Yeah, oh I love that, Thank you so much. And
then I want to ask a lot of times people
listen to podcasts and they feel really inspired, or they
watch a show, or they go to an event and
they feel really inspired, and then they go home and
what do I do now? And so I like at
the end of our podcast episodes to ask this question.
(20:31):
So people are there, Okay, how do I become a
lifelong learner? What should I do next? But can you
give a few ideas on how they can start integrating
these ideas into their lives and into their writing.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Absolutely, So the first thing you do is do that
exercise we just did. They didn't want you to journal
a little bit about the different story banks, and you
guys probably know about what a story bank is. So
just take different transformational stories and how do they match
up to those things that those missions that we talked about.
And then if you're still feeling uninspired, take one of
those and go do something in that category. So if
(21:04):
you're wanting to you know, liberate the captive, go work
at an animal shelter, go work at you know, whatever
the case, whatever stirs your soul, go do something in
that area. And I guarantee you you're going to be inspired.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Yeah yeah, sign a petition for Amnesty International. Something super simple,
you could do it, right, Yeah, exactly. Cammy, thank you
so much for joining us today. It was like this
has just been a really inspiring conversation. I've really enjoyed myself.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
So much. Thank you, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
It's super fun, absolutely, and thank you for joining us
today an authornation. I hope this conversation has provided you
with some insights, some inspiration, and.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Kind of a little bit of what to do.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Next, right so that you can take your nonfiction writing
to the next level and not feel like it is.
It is. It is a journey with an anchor on it,
but it's a journey with winds at your sales and
I always really appreciate your feedback and your support. Thank
you so much for your ratings and your reviews. Please
keep doing that. If you haven't left a comment or
(22:12):
review yet, please go ahead and do that now. And
I know you know someone who needs this. I know
you know a mom who's homeschooling or thinking about homeschooling,
or or you know somebody who has a family and
they're looking to rejuvenate that family love of learning. Share
this with them. They will benefit from it. There's always
someone out there who needs this. And keep writing, keep creating,
(22:35):
and keep sharing your unique stories with the world.
Welcome dophination. Today we are talking about being a lifelong
learner to create work that matters to your audience now
and always. I'm Melody, and I'm your host, and I'm
here to share useful advice and strategies to help you
succeed as an author. And if you want to visit
authoration dot online, you will find a treasure trove of
(00:29):
resources for you. So whether you're sitt being your morning
coffee or winding down after a long day, settle in
and let me introduce our guest. Cammy wannas the Freedom Scholar,
has veteran experience as a public educator, homeschool mom, and
homeschool mentor. She is the creator of the Raising Leader's
(00:49):
Roadmap that guide's parents to reset their kids love of
learning and prepares them for future success. Cammi has loved
for being fun, honest, transparent, and for helping families stop
box checking and create a culture that results in lifelong
learners and leaders who use their passions to make a
world better. Her passion for education, leadership, and freedom inspires
(01:12):
youth and adults to find what sparks their soul, and
she is here today to spark our soul welcome Cammy,
Hi Cavvy, how are you today?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited
to share. This is going to be so fun brilliant.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
So my very first question is just share a little
bit more about how you became the Freedom Scholar.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Oh yeah, So this is a really interesting story. And
we have those like it's just supposed to be that
way stories because that's just how it is supposed.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
To be in my life.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
So, I was actually a public school high school teacher
and for seven years, and then I had my son.
I came home and we started homeschooling, and I was
kind of did okay for kindergarten preschool, and then I
really messed it up. I thought first grade. I thought,
for some reason, yeah, we're gonna really learn, man. And
(02:06):
so I got a bunch of work books, a bunch
of everything, got a little desk. I was all excited,
and then pretty soon I realized that my son was
really hating life. He wasn't excited about what we were doing,
and we were anticipating the frustration every day, and then
all of a sudden, he was crying every day. And
(02:26):
then I'm crying every day and I had to just
think to myself, what was going on? Because this is
not the way it was supposed to be. So I
swopped everything and I realized very quickly what I was
doing is I was doing exactly what I knew didn't
work in school. I was box checking. I never did
that in school, because what person on planet Earth ever
(02:50):
met a worksheet? They were just sober excited about That's
not really what anybody ever says. So that's what I
started doing, was I started focusing on lifelong learning instead
of focusing on box checking and trying to make sure
we did all the things right. And what I found
was that being a lifelong learner and focusing on creating
(03:12):
lifelong learning actually raises up the level of what is
actually learned. It gets more learning, we retain more, we
connect more, we are more passionate, and we create leaders.
And that's what I'm all about, and that's what I
help people do today. So when after the pandemic started
(03:34):
and moms started wondering about homeschooling, I said, hey, man,
I got I really felt a need to help people.
I got experience in both places, and that's where I started.
And it's been so amazing because we have to think
about ourselves as lifelong learners if we're ever going to
make a difference in anybody else's life, including our own
and our families.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Yeah, absolutely, I agree. Okay, so there's nothing terrible about
I actually like worksheets, but but it's not that number
one way to learn right right. I'm a little bit
of a like. I love when someone gives me interesting
questions to think about and write about. Anyways, Okay, so
many of our audience, they they they're leaders. They're writing
(04:16):
books as leaders, or they want to be leaders. They're
writing books to be you know, to show their expertise
and build authority in their industry. And so how you
And sometimes I'm just going to front this question a
little bit. Sometimes authors think they have to know everything. Now,
So what does it look like to be a lifelong
(04:37):
learner when you're writing a book?
Speaker 2 (04:41):
You know what? This is a great question because parents
often think the same thing in order to homeschool their families.
They think, well, I don't know enough to homeschool my kids.
I wasn't that smart, I didn't get good grades. I'm
not a teacher. But guess what, we're all teachers. We're
all teachers. We all have experiences that can show light
for other people and help them on their journey. And
(05:04):
it just takes us reaching in and saying, is this
something that I feel is necessary to help people in
overcoming their obstacles or becoming their mindset shifts, or whatever
the case. And that is the to creating great book
is really knowing that you have You've had experiences that
(05:28):
have taught you something. Everybody has a story and I
know your melody. You teach that all the time. Is
what your story? Right, So it's that transformational story that
you can share with everyone else. I teach a lot
about public speaking as well, And so that is the
key is what is that lesson that you've learned? Because
all those things and guess what, you don't have to
(05:48):
know anything because we can learn some things together and
in throughout the process of writing, throughout the process of learning,
we learn more, we connect more. And I can't imagine
a better way to actually learn more than to write
about it. There's so much learning that goes into that,
and you coming out of writing, you are so much
(06:10):
a better thinker about that topic, so much better of
a communicator, and you know you're now at a whole
different learning level. You know more.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yeah, kemy, you nailed that, just nailed it. So you know,
it's like, well, I can't go I can't go to
university because I don't know enough yet, and I can't
get my masters because I don't know enough yet, and
I can't do my PhDs. I don't know enough yet.
Right right, It's like, well, of course we all start
knowing zero, we all start knowing nothing on a topic
(06:42):
when we first turned to it, and as we're as
we're learning, and as we're writing about it and teaching
about it, it helps solidify our own expertise. In fact,
one thing I love to say about books is you
know it's it's yes, it's once it's down, down, once
it's published, it's published, and yes, that's that's like a
(07:03):
complete work. And yet there are other works you can
write and that one work that you did complete, that
took you time to think about how to best express yourself.
So when you were talking about becoming a better communicator,
because when we are coaching one on one or consulting
or teaching or workshopping one on one, people can ask questions,
(07:26):
but in a book they can't. And so it really
does as you say, makes you a thinker, right, makes
you a thinker, makes you a better communicator. So I
thought that was fabulous. Thank you so much for saying that. Okay,
so let's talk about passion and mission and purpose and
all these these big questions that people have. And you know,
(07:49):
I know, you know, some people they go to work,
they get a paycheck, they come home, they go build houses,
you know for people who don't have houses, And that's
really there their passion and their mission in life and
their purpose in life, even though their their work is
something different. Right, So I want to talk a little
bit about you know, mission and purpose and what these
(08:12):
different things mean. And how how can we know when
we when we've kind of we're on it.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
That is such a great question and something that everyone
struggles with. I know when I work with teenagers and
we're working with kids and as adults, we're not if
we're brought up in the system of just you know,
doing the work and doing the box checking, doing all
the things, we're never talking about that end goal like
who are the people we want to become? What do
we want to do in the world that makes a
(08:41):
difference in the world, And what do we want to
contribute what is all that about? And so I think
as an author, we're constantly already thinking about that. It helps, though,
to have that passion behind it and to feel like
we're doing this for a reason, because it is what
we're supposed to do in the world. Quite honest, I
knew I was going to be a teacher. I want.
(09:02):
I loved kids. I loved teaching, except I didn't realize
what form that would really take in my true passion
and my true mission in this world until I started
working with families in homeschooling and doing and with the
freedom scholar and my mission I'm on now and it's
really something when I look back, I've actually been dabbling
(09:23):
with for a long time. And one of those things
is that for me, it's the sparking that love of learning,
sparking that if I knew in school, if I could
just spark a little interest for reading, at some point,
those kids would read something that made a difference to
them or someone else, or that mattered right, or they
would write something, or somehow they would learn something right.
(09:47):
And I knew that was that was the key there.
So but for me it didn't I didn't know how
that was going to manifest itself until much later. But
the key is really understanding what what stirs your soul.
And I often tell that to students all the time
and even adults too, because guess what, we're setting the example,
(10:08):
and as authors, we're setting the example for our readers, right,
for our audience, we're setting that example. It uninspired person
is not very inspiring, yeah, But an inspired person, a
passionate person. Man, that's contagious. And when someone's reading that,
(10:29):
you can tell it's so obvious. And that is something
that inspires people, makes people put in action something. What
you're telling them, what you're teaching them otherwise is just
well that was really nice. Right. So one of the
things I do all the time with families is and
you want me to go ahead and share this because
I really think this helps people? Sure, yes, please do so.
(10:52):
One of the things that I share a lot with
people about finding your mission is thinking about these statements.
And I want you to write these down. So you're
gonna watch this. I want you to pause this and
just go back, and I want you to think about
these statements and which statements really kind of just give
you a pain in your gut hurt in your heart,
(11:13):
something that's like, oh, yes, yes, that's me. Oh that
kills me. For example, my son has always known he
wants to help animals, like wild animals, but he didn't
know how that was going to happen. And as he's
learned more about the world that it's changed a bit
and into how he's going to help people live with
the animals and the earth and all these things, and
(11:34):
then technology and all this stuff. But he's whenever he
hears about some animal being heard or going extinct or
something like that, he actually tears up. And so I
want you to think about that. I'm going to go
through these statements and I want you to write them
down and something that really just gives you an emotional impact.
(11:54):
That's something that you're going to focus on and that
you know might be part of your purpose. So here
they go. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, empower the poor,
Educate the ignorant, promote freedom, heal the sick, comfort the lonely,
(12:24):
liberate the captive, Preach the truth, produce wealth, heal families,
and increase beauty. Think about those and as you wrote
them down, I want you to circle five of them
that three to five of them that really you feel
passionate about that it just kind of like, oh, yes,
(12:46):
and they can overlap sometimes depending on how they you
think about them, Like Melody and I were just talking
about one of them earlier, and so then I want
you to go through out of that five and just
put a star next to the one or two that
really really feels that you feel something about that hate
your soul in a way, and when you're manifesting that,
(13:09):
and you may not know how that's going to turn out,
but you as you're thinking about your story, your transformation,
the message you want to share with people, how does
that fit into that? And maybe that's a larger movement.
Maybe that's something that you're going to really pursue as
a message to the world, a movement that you're on
a mission. And that's contagious.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
I love that. A couple of things in there that
you've said that really really spoke to me. So first off,
you know, find that find out one thing that really
just like you feel it deep inside, like it's in
your gut and your soul, in your heart, whatever you know,
wherever it lives in your body. And then I really
(13:53):
like that, Plus the piece you talked about, like, so
I knew it was something about teaching, and that's you know,
it's like you know something about teaching, but what does
that mean? There's so many ways that can go, and
I think sometimes people have this deep it's something about teaching,
but it's so vast it's really hard to pin it down.
(14:15):
And that you kind of went through the path and
didn't really question, like I have to figure out where
it's going right now, but allowed yourself to move through
the journey until you found until you found the treasure.
And then when you found the treasure, you started sharing it, right,
And so I really those two things are really important,
(14:36):
Like first you figure out what that thing is deep inside.
And earlier before the show, I was saying, for me,
it's free the captive, right, because authors, right, they're often
held captive by imposter syndrome and all this stuff, and
so a lot of my work is about freeing the captive.
But like you know, that could mean so many things,
as you were saying, right, that could be working with animals,
(14:57):
that could be you know, there's so many things. And
then allowing yourself to go through the journey exploring the
ideas until you find your treasure, the one you can share.
So I just wanted to kind of reframe it a
little bit because I just thought it was so beautiful
putting it together the other way. So thank you.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
So yeah. And one of the things too about this
is that so it may be several of them. So
for me, I've realized over time, and I've done this
exercise about a million times, and as I've evolved in
my thinking and really defining it more, I use I
heal families through educating the ignorant in order that I
(15:43):
can help promote freedom. We can raise leaders to help
promote freedom. So do you see how that that's one
leads into the other. It doesn't necessarily have to be
one thing, but it can because they kind of overlap sometimes.
And so it's however you feel and your story, that
story you feel, that train information that tells you a
lot about how that manifests.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Yeah no, I love that. Yeah no, that that's beautiful.
It's not about one thing, it's about uh, you know,
one thing can lead to another, right, which can lead
to another, which is beautiful. Thank you. Let's talk about
passionate mission and how and how that relates to nonfiction writing.
(16:25):
So you know, sometimes people think, oh, I should write
a book, right, everyone writes a book, but there, you know,
how can how can authors tap into and should they
tap into their passion or the mission? How can they
tap into it so that they can you know, enjoy
writing the book, feel inspired writing the book, and through
(16:46):
that right inspiring words.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
That's such a great question because there's a difference. There's
a lot of range of nonfiction writing. Right, So there's
nonfiction writing like a how to sort of thing in
terms of something very manual, like a typing textbook or
a you know something. I mean, we don't really have
those anymore, but those kinds of how how to make
a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, you know, those kinds
(17:11):
of things are very they don't have necessarily a larger impact.
But I think a lot of what we can do
with that is we can input that in our message.
So even if you are writing a book that's very manual,
very methodical, you can still so what they learn this,
(17:34):
so what so they can do what? Right? How is
this going to help people? And I think that taking
the most inspirational thing is taking yourself out of yourself
and pointing to your audience and really having that heart.
When I walk on stage, I'm not thinking about me.
(17:56):
I'm nervous because I want to give value. I want
to transform. I want to move people. And when you
want to move people, that is that's inspiring. That's that
comes off the page, that comes into people's hearts. When
you're just looking to say, oh, we're going to do
step one, step two, step three, and then that will
(18:19):
you know, help you lose weight? No, we want to
we want to think about how to move people into
a different transformation and based on your own of course
and every other people that you've helped, and so that
is transformational, I think is when we look and see
what is in it for them, what is in it
(18:41):
for them, and how do we move them move their hearts?
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Yeah, beautiful, Thank you. So if you want to know
more about Cami, you can go to www. Dot the
Freedomscholar dot Colm and you have an assessment on that.
Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Yeah, sure of course, and you guys are welcome to it.
So that's the free it's the Love of Learning assessment.
It's meant for families, but it actually is for everyone
because there is a space here for you as well.
And it's really about taking a snapshot of where your
level of love of learning is right now. Maybe it's
(19:24):
low and you need to increase it, and then you
take it about every you know, three to six months
and see how you're doing. If there's you know, you're
feeling uninspired, let me check and see and you'll see
on that assessment. Are you reading a book every day?
Speaker 1 (19:38):
You know?
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Or frequently? Is it like not a kindle it's a
book And I know that's kind of there's some people
that are kindle people. I get it, but there's a
certain message that gets sent to yourself physically and emotionally there,
So thinking about just and of course if you're an author,
you're probably a reader, so that's not a good example,
but just discussing it too. How inspired are you to discuss?
(20:03):
It's just a snapshot and then take it every so often.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Yeah, oh I love that, Thank you so much. And
then I want to ask a lot of times people
listen to podcasts and they feel really inspired, or they
watch a show, or they go to an event and
they feel really inspired, and then they go home and
what do I do now? And so I like at
the end of our podcast episodes to ask this question.
(20:31):
So people are there, Okay, how do I become a
lifelong learner? What should I do next? But can you
give a few ideas on how they can start integrating
these ideas into their lives and into their writing.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Absolutely, So the first thing you do is do that
exercise we just did. They didn't want you to journal
a little bit about the different story banks, and you
guys probably know about what a story bank is. So
just take different transformational stories and how do they match
up to those things that those missions that we talked about.
And then if you're still feeling uninspired, take one of
those and go do something in that category. So if
(21:04):
you're wanting to you know, liberate the captive, go work
at an animal shelter, go work at you know, whatever
the case, whatever stirs your soul, go do something in
that area. And I guarantee you you're going to be inspired.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Yeah yeah, sign a petition for Amnesty International. Something super simple,
you could do it, right, Yeah, exactly. Cammy, thank you
so much for joining us today. It was like this
has just been a really inspiring conversation. I've really enjoyed myself.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
So much. Thank you, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
It's super fun, absolutely, and thank you for joining us
today an authornation. I hope this conversation has provided you
with some insights, some inspiration, and.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Kind of a little bit of what to do.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Next, right so that you can take your nonfiction writing
to the next level and not feel like it is.
It is. It is a journey with an anchor on it,
but it's a journey with winds at your sales and
I always really appreciate your feedback and your support. Thank
you so much for your ratings and your reviews. Please
keep doing that. If you haven't left a comment or
(22:12):
review yet, please go ahead and do that now. And
I know you know someone who needs this. I know
you know a mom who's homeschooling or thinking about homeschooling,
or or you know somebody who has a family and
they're looking to rejuvenate that family love of learning. Share
this with them. They will benefit from it. There's always
someone out there who needs this. And keep writing, keep creating,
(22:35):
and keep sharing your unique stories with the world.
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