Let's Hear it for the Late Bloomers with Zane Carson Carruth

0:01John Lee Dumas:Boom, shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by High Level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. Today we'll be breaking down, let's hear it for the late bloomers. And to drop these value bombs, I brought Zane Carson Carruth and the EO Fire Studios. Zane is an internationally recognized, award-winning children's book author and certified etiquette and protocol professional. Her dedication to advancing children's literacy and preserving childhood innocence has earned distinction from USA Today, Women's World Magazine, and numerous television programs.

0:35John Lee Dumas:And today we'll talk about the late bloomer identity. We'll talk about breaking through the slow starts, never giving up, handling doubt, and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Zane and our sponsors. Stop duct taping your business together. High Level runs your website, your funnels, email, automation, scheduling, payments, and all in one place. And when you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you get a 30-day free trial, plus my exclusive bonus stack that includes weekly office hours with me and much more. Visit highlevelfire.com, highlevelfire.com. Fire Nation, if you have a high ticket offer and need more quality leads, Nexus Install is designed for you.

1:16John Lee Dumas:We'll book you eight to 20 qualified calls each month, then train you to run the system yourself. Email my team at john at eofire.com to learn more and see if Nexus is the right fit for you. Zane, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Well, one thing I believe is just for me over the course of my journey, I've met a lot of people, received a lot of awards, have had a lot of fun. I have more or less luxurated in the journey. A lot of people just kind of focus on the end results, the goal, but I just think it's important.

1:59And I agree with just staying in the moment and taking it all in on a daily basis.

2:06John Lee Dumas:Luxurated on the journey. I love that phrase. And Fire Nation, we'll be talking about how to hear it for the late bloomers, because let's hear for those late bloomers. And I want to talk about that late bloomer identity specifically, and you call yourself a late bloomer Zane. So why does that label resonate with you? Well, for many years, I had a very successful business career, but I always felt and knew something was missing. It just didn't feel 100 % at ease, authentic, if you will. And it wasn't until my late fifties that my creative side kind of took off and it just answered all of those questions about what have I been doing and why haven't I been doing this earlier?

2:56It just really showed me I'm just a late bloomer. And I'm happy to be that because, you know, you come into your own when you're ready to.

3:06John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation, wise words from somebody who's been there and done that. and we kind of maybe teased your story a little bit, but I want to actually dive deeper on what exactly happened in your life that led you to feel like you were starting later than others. Well, one, I became a mother very early and I had a disastrous marriage. So then I became a single parent for really the whole majority of my child growing up. I just dedicated 18, 20 years to my children by that point. And it wasn't until that season of my life was over and I was able to kind of, I don't know, take a deep breath and not be so frantic about raising my children that I kind of tapped into the creative process.

3:59I just had to slow down and find peace. And then from there, things changed for the better.

4:05John Lee Dumas:See, I think this is really great to hear because there's a lot of people that think, yeah, maybe because, you know, I took the next 18 years of my life after having children to just focus on them. Or maybe because, you know, I went down this path and it wasn't the right path for me. So I had to do a complete career pivot and kind of start from scratch that, you know, maybe, you know, I had that late start or I started, you know, later than others. But at the end of the day, I mean, Fire Nation, your own path starts today, whether it's continuing the same path that you're on or whether it's starting something new.

4:39John Lee Dumas:I mean, that sunk cost fallacy, that's something that is hold a lot of people back. I mean, going to law school. So you have to be an unhappy lawyer for 40 years. No, that's not your story if you don't want it to be. So I want to talk specifically, Zane, about breaking through the slow start. How the heck did you overcome that slow creative start specifically and begin gaining momentum? Tell us that story. Life has a way of just guiding you, opening doors, directing you. And my story was 30 years ago, I took a spiral notebook and I wrote a story, a darling story about a tooth fairy. Well, I didn't know how to publish it.

5:21So I just put it in a drawer, but I never forgot about it. And then, you know, fast forward 30 years later, I was taking an etiquette class because I wanted to become certified. And the instructor had written and self-published a children's book. And I mean, that was that was. I don't you talk about eureka euphoria. It was it changed my life because, one, I didn't know anything. I didn't know that was a thing to self-publish. So at that point, I was laser focused on learning everything I could about getting my little story published. And, you know, nine books later, I'm still going strong. But it was because of that.

6:07Just being at the right place at the right time in life does that for you. If you just relax and just kind of go with things. Does that make sense?

6:20John Lee Dumas:Zane, that totally makes sense. And one thing I kind of want to dig a little deeper on is like, what was that first story? Like, how do you get inspiration for it? How do you know that this story might resonate with others? That's a fun story. That's a good question. Well, I was waiting for my daughter to come home on a Sunday. Now, mind you, she's very girly, very sassy, very spoiled. So I was just writing a story about a little pampered fairy. and um in the course of the story she dropped her little purse and a pearl on her purse fell off and i thought hey that could be she could replace that with a tooth oh my gosh this could be the story about a tooth fairy so it the story just literally wrote itself and um i don't know i've lost track of your questions now.

7:16I got so excited about my book.

7:17John Lee Dumas:Well, that was the question, the inspiration for the story. Yeah, it was just, the book wrote itself and it was about my sweet daughter and who is now CEO of a maritime vessel company. So then a pubertal fairy princess worked out for her. So this story is about a tooth fairy? Yes. Yes. Yeah. I've got a trademark series and it's all about the adventures of Abella and using her best friend Darcy. And my mission in life is to just recapture childhood innocence. I just think that's so important to maintain childhood innocence as adults to do all we can. So the books focus on friendships, kindness, innocence, making mistakes, owning up to them.

8:10So it's just fun stories, but they all carry a message, a sweet message about loyalty and friendships and being kind.

8:22John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation, we're going to talk about never giving up, about handling doubts and more when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Fire Nation, if you have a high ticket offer, but you are not getting enough quality sales calls on the calendar, Nexus Install is exactly what you need. This is a custom LinkedIn client acquisition system built to help you connect with the right prospects, start real conversations, and turn those conversations into booked calls. Here is what makes it different. We do not just hand you a bunch of theory and tell you, good luck. We build the system with you. Dial in your audience, sharpen the messaging, run the outreach, and aim to book you 8 to 20 qualified calls each month.

9:02John Lee Dumas:Then once the system is proven and installed, we train you on how to run it yourself so you are not dependent on another agency forever. If you have a strong offer, a clear result, and are ready for more quality conversations with real prospects, email my team at john at eofire.com and then we'll set up a call to see if Nexus Install is the right fit for you. Simple, focused, and built for predictable, long-term, quality lead flow. Fire Nation, ideas are exciting, but systems will allow you to create freedom. That is where High Level comes in. High Level allows you to build and run your entire business from one platform.

9:40John Lee Dumas:Website builder and hosting, funnel and landing pages, email marketing, automation and workflows, calendar booking, payments and subscriptions, even course and membership hosting. Everything works together seamlessly. Plus, award-winning 24-7 support so you are never stuck. And when you go through my link at highlevelfire.com, you unlock my full bonus stack. a 30-day free trial of High Level with full access, a private 50-minute coaching call with me, weekly live office hours with me, a digital copy of my book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, my 50 days to something execution roadmap, and more.

10:15John Lee Dumas:Stop piecing tools together. Start building momentum. Visit highlevelfire.com and start building your something today. Zane, we're back, and I want to talk about never giving up. I mean, what would you say to someone who feels behind and they're struggling to keep believing in themselves? I think we've all felt that way during our life or various times. And what I've learned is I just try to relax, lean on God, lean on the universe, and trust that they will provide what I need when I'm ready to receive it. I just go back to my truth. And my truth is I love writing books. Like I tried to launch a little TV series for Bella, spent a lot of money, time, effort, energy on it.

11:07It just didn't work out. And I was so ready to give up. And I thought, no, no, I love writing these books. I'm just going to keep doing that and just believe in myself. Just keep on going. Head down one step at a time and don't let it defeat me.

11:28John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation, we learn so much more from our failures than we learn from our successes. It's not even close. So whenever I fail something, I'm like, this is great. What can I learn from this? How can I pivot? How can I adjust? How can I change something to drive forward better, stronger, and happier than before? Now, man, Zane, this is going to be an interesting question because there's a lot of people. I mean, listen, I'm a parent. I have a two and a half year old. I read him stories every morning, every afternoon, every night. There's endless amounts of children's books. You know, being a parent, I'm like, I should write one too.

12:02John Lee Dumas:I mean, there's probably every parent in the world that thought they should write a children's book just because they're doing that every single day. They're reading their child a book. But the reality is an incredible tiny amount of children's books that are published actually make it, actually sell any significant number of copies. How did you succeed? Was there some luck? Was there some perseverance? Was there timing? Was it a theme you chose? Like for me, I'm kind of like, is it because she chose like the fairy tooth, you know, having that whole aspect where every child loses their teeth at one point?

12:38John Lee Dumas:So that just kind of became a theme. Like what was it that you think allowed you to succeed? You know, when you start with your first book, you really don't know. And then after you write two or three, Now, I'm a one trick pony. Now, I've got friends that have lots of different books and they write lots of different, you know, different things. I only write about the tooth fairy, but that helps me to focus. And it also helps me to drive my mission home about like, again, the childhood innocent thing. So that helps me build a brand that just keeps me focused and keeps me going. because I don't have to worry about developing a whole new series of books.

13:24I only know Bella, but she can do a million different things. And, you know, I'm introducing new friends, adding diversity. And so you just have to kind of stay faithful and loyal to your roots. Dance with who brung you, as they say.

13:43John Lee Dumas:Well, I will say, though, I think that you maybe purposely or maybe accidentally hit on something that's pretty important, which is like, do you have a theme to what you're creating? Because now I can just picture every parent who has a child who gets a loose tooth, they're probably like, huh, I wonder if there's a children's book about a tooth fairy. And then they search and boom, they find you. And that's going to happen for every single child, multiple teeth, and then it's going to spread and spread and spread. And it's like, oh yeah, my child has a loose tooth. Oh, did you send them to the tooth fairy book?

14:12John Lee Dumas:You know, blah, blah, blah. Like it just makes so much sense. And like where my idea came from was every single night, like we have this toothbrush song for Bo as he's brushing his teeth. And so we pull up the same YouTube video where it's Miss Rachel and she's just doing this little song and dance about brushing your teeth. And my son Bo kind of follows along and that video has like 385 million views or something. And I'm like, I guarantee like 80 % of these views are just like us. you know, 365 times a year we're playing that video. It's not a one-time video and done. It's like every single time Bo's going to brush his teeth, like I'm playing that video.

14:53John Lee Dumas:Every time some child has a loose tooth, they go and they read Zane's books because it's the tooth fairy. So like, what are you going to do Fire Nation where you can kind of figure that out? I mean, why is that such a good business model? You know, razors and the razor blades. It's like, They sell you the razor for like nothing or like the actual thing that holds a razor because they're going to sell you a million razor blaze, not these one trick ponies. Now let's talk about Zane handling doubt because I mean, doubt shows up for everybody, for you, for me, for everybody that's ever walked this earth.

15:25John Lee Dumas:How do you personally keep moving forward without giving into it? When doubt hits, I just, I let it pass and I just keep going. I just accept that's part of life. This is going to pass. I'm going to become excited and believe in myself and the process again. And I just let it go. I just, like I said, I try to stay focused on what I love about writing. And I release the need to force a specific outcome. I just keep writing. Now, let's get a little bit deeper on the failure you mentioned with the television show. Like, what was like your biggest takeaway from that? I mean, you said you just wasted so much time, energy, effort, money.

16:11John Lee Dumas:What's one thing that you want to share with our listeners about that? Well, that's clearly one of those times where you have to just enjoy the process. Because during that process, the guy who produced it, who I met personally, had a relationship with, you know, online for several years, he produced Thomas the Tank. I mean, the man has won every award. So that was it. I loved that part. And then the guy who wrote the opening song, he's won two Grammys. He won the Grammy for Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. He wrote all the songs for that. So even though the outcome wasn't what I was hoping and expecting, I still made some great friendships.

17:00And I mean, guys, I would have never met those men in my life. You know, been on an email basis, laughing and kidding and all of that. So I just focus on the good of that. And I mean, the video's there. It's on YouTube, Abella's First Tooth. He did a great job, a beautiful job with that. Love it.

17:24John Lee Dumas:And listen, all those men that you talked about who have been wildly successful, and women, of course, they can tell you countless stories of terrible failures that they've had in their journey because it's all about the process. Every single one of them had to fail many, many, many times to have the amazing and sometimes even few successes because it only takes one massive success, two massive successes. that's why you keep swinging that bat. So let's talk about where you are now. Bring us up to date. What does your life and work look like today? Right now, my writing life is full of exciting opportunities that I never expected.

18:03I recently met a new lady who is very well connected and she has opened so many doors for me. I'm going to be given a speech to the International Women's conference, they expect a thousand ladies to be there. Well, I didn't see that coming. It's just an exciting challenge. And then I'm also launching a new children's series. It's a Bella series, but it's a Bella's Curious Nature Quest. And it's written for a little bit older children, which, and these books are fun because it highlights everyday creatures we often overlook and the surprising secrets that they hold. And the books are meant to spark curiosity and encourage kids to dig deeper, go a little bit further.

18:52And the first book that's already out is Tooth Fairy Traditions Around the World. Because, you know, America and Canada, the only countries that have a fairy, the majority of other countries have a tooth mouse. So, and that's in the book. And that's, you know, a cute little book. And then the one that I'm not quite finished with is a book about hermit crabs. Who knew hermit crabs could be so fascinating. You're going to love this book and your little boy will like love it too.

19:25John Lee Dumas:Listen, my son loves crabs. We have a lot of crabs in Puerto Rico. They're literally walking across the street almost every single day, like when we're walking and he's in love with them. Hermit crabs are fascinating. You know, they're born without shells, but they have this little soft body. so they have to get a shell from somebody else. And their bodies are built to hold on to them. I don't know. I'm excited about that because I learned so much. And then the next one that I'm writing in my head is about wood frogs. Did you know wood frogs 100 % freeze in the winter? Solid rock freeze in the winter.

20:08And then they thaw out. Did you know that?

20:10John Lee Dumas:Did not know that. Sounds like a fascinating story. I will tell you that down here in Puerto Rico, a couple of interesting things on that note. We have iguanas, which if it gets too cool, they literally just freeze and they'll just drop out of trees and they'll just stay there. Yeah, it's crazy. And then the national quote unquote like mammal of Puerto Rico is a frog. It's called the Coquie frog and it's about the size of your thumb. It's a tiny little frog called the Coquie, C-O-Q-U-I. And the reason why they call it Coquie is because at 6 or 7 p.m. every night when the sun sets, you just hear the noise.

20:47John Lee Dumas:Coquie, Coquie, Coquie. And it's these little miniature frogs and they make such loud noises. How much fun is that? I mean, listen, Zane, you have endless material for the rest of your life. You are so sad. Let me tell you one thing. I want you to share with Fire Nation. If they are really jiving with what you're putting down, what is the way they can connect with you, learn more, read your books? Okay. Well, I've got two websites. One is my personal website, which has all much more on it. It's Zane Carruth, C-A-R-R-U-T-H dot com. And then World's First Tooth Fairy. And Amazon carries all my books.

21:32And it's best if you put my name in the search bar, Zane Carson Carruth. It brings them all up than if you try to put the titles. But that's the quickest and easiest way. And Barnes and Noble carries some. Walmart carries some. So all the stores are different, but Amazon carries them all in English and in Spanish.

21:53John Lee Dumas:Zane Carson Carruth. And make sure you say Carson Carruth, Fire Nation, because otherwise you might find my favorite author, Zane Gray, popping up there on Amazon. Oh, yes. Great Western. Great Western books. So Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And you've been hanging out with ZCC and JLD today. So keep up that heat. And for links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Just type Zane, Z-A-N-E, in the search bar and the show notes page will pop right up. And Zane, thank you for sharing your truth and knowledge and value with Fire Nation today.