 Hello, and welcome to this extremely special episode of Create a Life You Love. As you know, I believe everybody has a purpose, a Dharma, and that purpose can change throughout your lifetime. You may start in one career and end up in a completely different career or start in one area, transfer to another, and then in some odd way end up kind of back where you started. But all of it leads us to where we're supposed to be, fulfilling that passion deep within us. I have one of my most amazing guests so far, Stephanie Allensworth, author of Children's Book, and the host of the TV show, Real Life. Hi Stephanie, how are you? Hi, thanks for having me on, Tony. Absolutely my pleasure, and thank you so much for being on the show. Now, Stephanie is joining us via Skype, so it's so exciting that we can do this because she's in Minnesota. So Stephanie, I want to start with your children's books. And the first book you wrote, what was the inspiration behind it? Well, it's a true story. It's called Mr. Hamster's Rescue, and it's about a childhood hamster that one of my brothers had, and it escaped its cage one night and got lost in the house. And a couple days later, we found it, actually we didn't find it, the dog heard it in the air vents, and we had to come up with a very creative way to rescue him. And my dad totally MacGyvered it. I love that. Yeah, it's a wonderful story, and kids really love the way it was illustrated, and it really turns on their creative thinking abilities. So let me see. I think you have a copy there. I want to see the cover of the book, if you, oh, I love that. You know, is that a factual illustration of your family, or did you disguise them to protect the innocent? I tried to make it as close as possible, however, we did not have a giant hamster. He was really normal hamster size. Yeah, I was. And, yeah, so, yeah, Ricky, Ricky was the one who owned the hamster. He's a little guy here with the golden hair, and then my brother, Jerry, dad had dark curly hair and a beard, mom had black hair, and my sister, Mary Rose, is over on the other side here with one of our cats, Spooky was the cat's name. Nice, I love that. So now, when you wrote this book, did you consult to them or did you just go off your own memories? I had actually written it years and years ago, and actually I had an entire collection of children's stories based off of true animal stories, and my computer crashed and I lost it all. So years later, I'm thinking, actually, it was after I closed my talent agency, I'm like, well, what am I going to do now? And like you say, we walk many paths, right? Yeah. And the universe is always there for us, and I just so happened to be looking at my computer, and there was a draft in my computer, and I'm like, oh, I wonder what that is. And I opened it up, and it was a letter, actually a submission to a publication, a publisher's house. And I went, well, God, okay, I guess this is what we're doing now. I love it. So I submitted it, and off I went. And actually, I didn't even consult them. I consulted them because I bought a package, but they had very few edits for me. It was like a comma here and a period there, or take out this word. It was not a big deal. It's a children's picture book, so not a lot of words. Yeah, exactly, exactly. But a great story. I think some of the best stories, whether they're for children's books or adults' books, come from reality, from things we've actually lived, because we have that passion behind it. Exactly. And then you wrote a second children's book. Yeah. That one. It's also a true story. This one is called A Home for the Finch Family. Let me see if I can get it in the camera here. Where is it? There we go. Can you see it okay? Yeah, that's awesome. And what was the inspiration behind this book? That's perfect. Well, my husband and I had a condominium on the second story, and we had a little deck, and we had a hanging basket of pink impatience on the deck. And we noticed while there was watering one day, there was a nest in there, and a family of finches was busy building, so we made a little deal with them. Instead, you just have to allow me to water it, so you still have protection. And then next thing you know, we had the eggs, and then we watched the babies come up, and the parents taking care of them. And you got to have some drama, right? So a gigantic storm, like tornado kind of storm, was coming up on the rise, and a green sky, horrible wind and hail, and instead of my husband and I taking shelter like we should have, we're standing in the kitchen watching the finches, and how amazed at what they were doing, because the female got into the nest, and covered up the babies with her wings, and just had this whole, you know, covered them all up, just like a blanket. And the male got on top of the hanger, and spread his wings like an eagle, like he was like, I gotcha, I got this, you know? And he spread his wings out as far as he could. Now you got to imagine this little tiny bird in his big flower basket, and he's up there getting the crud knocked out of him, literally, the wind, the rain, the hail, and the baskets blowing all over, and we're like, oh my God, we didn't think that they were going to make it. And then finally the storm settled down and cleared, and they all went off happily together, and it's just like another beautiful little story about how families take care of each other. Even in the bird kingdom. And you know, you were probably more panicked than the birds were. Yeah, you know, it's like a clutch of pearls moment, right? We're thinking, oh my God, and they're like, my wings are strong, you know. You should settle down. Yeah, exactly, exactly. I love that. Now, do you have any books coming up that you're working on right now? I have about five more in Q, and the next one is another true, they're all true stories, and we actually raised a baby like from infancy, squirrel, and his name was Sammy, and it's called The Adventures of Sammy the Squirrel, and we talk about all of the trouble he got into, and all of his antics, and like the first time my mom found him in the house. Because we didn't tell her, we kept it a secret. Nice, I love that. Well, I can't wait for that one to come out. Now, if somebody wants to talk about it. A dog rescue too, a dog rescue called Lizzie's Story, and it's about a rescue that we got from my mom after my dad passed away, and they kind of rescued each other. I love that. Isn't that always the case? Like, they truly do. They rescue each other, and yeah. So if somebody's interested in your books, how could they get a copy? Well, they are available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, all of the websites, and also if industry people want to buy bulk, then they're available as well through Ingram and all of the other wholesalers. I love that. That's awesome. Now, this isn't your only talent or your only venture, because you're also the host of the award-winning show, Real People. So tell me a little bit. What motivated you to start this show and host it? It was actually a show that I had written myself and was pitching for other people. I was trying to get other people to be the host and to start the show and actually do a network version of it. So, but when I closed everything down and went off on my own, I came across some people that were willing to help me out, and I said, you know what? I think I'm supposed to be the host of this. So, yeah, we've got 33 episodes now, so pretty proud of that and very proud of the awards that we won. Nice. If somebody wants to watch the show, how would they do that? You can look it up on YouTube. It's on YouTube at Stephanie Allen's Worth or Real People with Stephanie Allen's Worth. And you have to look out because there's a couple of different versions. My producer has one, too. So if you see his name, then it's not his page and it might not have all of the episodes, but mine has all 33 episodes up in life. Now, you recently won, I know at least you won a couple of awards, but won a award this past year. And I want to hear a little bit about that show and what inspired it. I think you're talking about the Patty Peterson show. It's my interview with... She's a local celebrity here in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her whole family is the Peterson family. They're a family of singers and musicians that have been raised to do nothing else but. And their parents were musicians and they've had all kinds of conversations with wonderful... And the opportunity to work with wonderful celebrity musicians as well. And Patty's a jazz musician, so she's held in very high esteem here. And so we went to her house and filmed it in her lower level where we're sitting at a grand piano and all the pictures of her family members are behind her. And we had a really good talk and we had a lot of laughs. And it just went so well that I think people like seeing celebrities first of all. And then she's just such a professional because she's also a DJ on a radio show. She's a touring speaker on the network and also this wonderful musician. So she was really easy to talk to. Nice. Now, when you have a guest and you're getting ready to interview them, like for me, I always... I'm so panicky about the questions I ask. And I want to ask like everything about them. What's the most important question you ask your guests? I never know what's going to come up. For me, I do everything organically, so my questions are organic. I think just getting the word out who they are, what they do, helping them in their field, like talking about your books like you were talking about mine. And the things that you do to help people. And this is one of the ways that I feel like I'm giving back and I'm helping people by exposing them where they might not be exposed to a larger audience. And letting them tell their stories. I think it's so important. Kind of being a storyteller. I want them to hear their, you know, people have the opportunity to tell their stories. Absolutely. I think that's just amazing. And what I would like to say is when interviewing someone, letting them tell the story is so important. Because if you don't, you're going to miss things. So as far as your guests go, and I know you've had many amazing guests, who are some of your most unique guests? Well, I really go into the metaphysical world quite a bit. So, but the most unique I've had and probably the biggest number of hits that I've had is over 4,500 hits on one show. Because she's a three foot, three primordial dwarf. Her name is Hannah Kritsek. And she's 23 years old, beating all the odds. She's an actress, singer, dancer, artist. And, you know, people that are full size, you know, find all these reasons that they can't do things. And she's not a, I can't do it. I can do it. Just let me. So she's really fascinating. And I think that's really important that people understand. Don't let things stop you. You know, she's three foot three, but yet she is doing point ballet. She's doing hip hop dancing. She's acting in film. She's acting in television. And she's singing songs. I think she got a chance to go to London and sing to the Queen. Oh my gosh. That's so amazing. Like, you're right. So many people come up with so many excuses why they can't do something, instead of focusing on how to do it and how to get there. Now, have you had any other guests that really stand out to you? Well, you know, you were just a guest. And we had some technical difficulties. So I'm a little delayed on getting that one out there. But I think once we get it sorted out, either we're going to retape it or we're going to redo it, because I think you're darn fascinating. Oh, why thank you. Other people, a Kashuk record reader, Don Snyder was pretty interesting. And let's see, oh, Rocket's red glare. She is an astrological advisor and also can't remember what to cause it again. It's a type of healing, but it's like almost transcendental. For the minute I met her, I thought she was amazing too. So I think the people are being sent to me to tell you the truth. I don't think I'm looking for them. I just stumble upon them and I'm like, you have to be on my show. And I'm really looking forward to, oh, my gosh. Now I'm not going to think of his name. Help me out. You introduce me to him. Jimmy Mack. Jimmy Mack. How could I forget that name? Oh, my gosh. Because I sing the song in my head every time I say the name. He's really amazing. So he's going to be very interesting. Yeah. Make sure when you have him on your show, you're standing up and he's showing the work. That will make us such a fast. Or have a friend there that can be standing there and he's working on them. Because when people see this work, they think, oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. So you stumbled into being a TV show host off of another career. And that career had a lot to do with the entertainment industry. So tell me a little bit about that as I go. Wow. Well, I had it was one of those stories where I was with a girlfriend who wanted to go and be a model. And she asked me, we were 40 years old. I was 40 years old anyway. And she said, I'm going to go audition. Will you come with me and help me out? And you can do it too. We can do this together. And we went to this thing at a hotel. And it was very obviously, they were looking for young girls to get into acting school or whatever. So then we thought, well, why don't we just find a school and do it? So this is how the whole thing started. I ended up falling in love with acting at 40, which I never thought I would do in my life. There was never any inkling that I'd go down this path ever. But you're a couple of years of acting. And I didn't love it. I didn't love being an actor. And you have to love it. You have to love it because it's a lot of hard work. And I thought, well, maybe I could be a better agent because I am a project manager by day. And it's pretty much the same thing. You're doing the due diligence. So I bought 50% of another gal's agency that she was selling. And that was how I started out. And I ended up going off on my own. And for 12 years, I had Allensworth Entertainment, both in Beverly Hills, California, and in Bloomington, Minnesota. And I had a lot of success for quite some time and really wonderful people. But I also had the people, I had the encounters, that just kind of steal your soul. The dark energy that's out there and the dark energy that comes out from this whole business. And I couldn't do what I wanted to do. I was trying to produce film and television so that my actors could be working. And they said, no, you can't do that. It's against the law. And I'm like, what, against the law? How could that be against the law? I'm trying to get them jobs. I mean, if I can't get them jobs in somebody else's production, maybe I can do a production. And they can get exposure that way, right? It's my kind of logic. And they said, absolutely not. You can't do it. Yeah, sign an affidavit saying that you won't. And I'm like, okay, well now I've lost a lot of the things that I felt like I was meant to be doing. And so I slowly started trimming the agency, trimming everything that I was doing. I stopped taking in new clients and just working with the kind of what I call the cornerstones of the agency until I got to the point where I just didn't want to do it anymore. And a lot of my clients were begging me and still begged me to come back as an agent. And they loved working with me because one, I'm honest. And two, I would pay them on time. A lot of industry people will hold your money and they're actually using your money to pay the bills while they're waiting. It's almost like a Ponzi scam or a pyramid scheme where they're waiting for other money to come in so then they can pay you and then somebody else has to wait for their money. So I mean, the whole thing was just blah, you know. So I wanted to do my own thing and I did now. I'm doing it and I'm writing my books and I'm doing my show and I've got other things. Yeah, I can't talk about them right now but I'm meeting a lawyer tomorrow to talk about another venture that I'm starting. So. How exciting. So. Yeah, no, I'm not gonna grow old fast. I am always busy. Yeah, I, you know, we're never gonna grow old first of all. We're gonna just grow and evolve. That's it. But I always, I always say by force or by choice, we will be put on the path we're supposed to be on. So if things aren't working out, we will no longer love what we're doing and maybe that's happening because that's not where we're supposed to be. And there's always a better, bigger, brighter, more brilliant place for us to land if we just listen and follow that. Wouldn't you agree? I absolutely agree. It is sharing the light for me. I always want, I guess I was put on this path to do exactly what I'm doing by bringing the light to people and helping share the facts that there's a lot more out there than people are even aware of and hoping they can find a path to enlightenment by sharing their stories or hearing other people's stories perhaps. And I think that's really what I'm supposed to be doing. I mean, I've done a deep dive into almost every metaphysical realm there is and I take away what works for me. And I'll tell you, Tony, I'm one of those people that I see when I envision my future or any future and I've done this all my life, I see a hallway full of doors and I am not afraid to open those doors and look in, take a peek, maybe meander around in there for a while. If it works for me, I stick around and I hang out and do it until it's not working for me anymore. I don't consider any of it failing. I consider all of it learning and growing and expanding. Exactly. And so many people get into something and they think, I have to stick with this to the bitter end or this is the only thing I can do. They don't realize they can pursue their dreams. They can follow their passion while they're doing something else. You're a project manager during the day and you're doing all of these other things that fill you with love and joy after your, I don't want to call it your day job, but your career. Yeah. Well, it, I think it's a good fit for me. So, but there'll come a time when that job will probably go away and I need some other source of income. So I'm always looking for ways to also, without harming a soul, to find ways of generating some income that's sustainable. And that's what I'm trying to do now so I can start this little side business so it can keep me doing what I wanna do for years to come. Absolutely. And when we follow that passion, we never know where we are going to end up. And what it might, what beautiful, like you say, door opens and be everything we've been looking for. Yeah. So, Stephanie, I wanna thank you so much for being a guest on Create a Life You Love. There are many ways to connect with you on YouTube, Facebook, Stephanie Allensworth. Connect with her if you'd like to be on her show or just have a conversation, order one of her children's books. It's all amazing. And I'd like to thank you for watching this episode of Create a Life You Love. I'm honored that you let me in and you took the time to hopefully enjoy this story. Until next time, have an absolutely amazing summer. Thank you. Thank you, Toni.