The Changing Earth, Setting the World on Fire with Sara F. Hathaway

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, the only daily show interviewing the world's top entrepreneurs seven days a week. Today, we'll be breaking down the changing earth and setting the world on fire. To drop these vibe bombs, I brought Sarah F. Hathaway into EO Fire Studios. Sarah's an author, fighter, mother, and wife. Her Changing Earth series teaches survival skills and mental resilience through fiction, exposing society's fragility. Texas-based, she enjoys family, self-defense, and podcasting. And today, Fire Nation will talk about turning a love for writing, fighting, and family into a mission to empower others, how to teach real world lessons using fiction, overcoming rejection, doubt, and chaos, and why self-discipline is so key and oh, so much more.

0:49And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Sarah and our sponsors. Fire Nation, this is your year to get unstuck and to grow a successful business. Attend the world's highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark and now featuring football star Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOFire. Again, request life-changing tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOFire. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white-label your own software.

1:27Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today. Sarah, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Happy to be here on Entrepreneurs on Fire. I am feeling on fire today. My books are just going off the charts and finally moving. And yeah, good things coming down the pipeline for me. So that's awesome. One thing about success that most people probably wouldn't agree with is you have to stay rooted in your faith and not focus so much on the material aspects of everything.

2:14Stay rooted in your faith, stay rooted in your people and enjoy the ride. Enjoy the ride, Fire Nation. And as Sarah mentioned, she is changing earth, setting the world on fire. And Sarah, you turned your love for writing, fighting, family, and the outdoors into a mission, empowering others to own their lives. Tell us more. Incredible training. I've just been training for years, over 20 years now, and including all of this knowledge into my book so that people have this great story with this, you know, with being able to learn along the way. and I got a tap on the shoulder and a question of, you know, can you teach others how to be self-defense ready?

3:01Can you teach others how to do this? And I did, I went all in, uh, we did the podcast, the changing earth podcast chapter of my book. And I take a survival lesson out of there and really present it to people so that they can learn these survival techniques. And then I'm also doing self-defense seminars now for women's self-defense for elderly self-defense so that people don't have to feel like they'll ever be a victim I'm just so blessed to have these opportunities where I've had people come back you know one of my friends that only has one lung she got a hold of me during COVID and was like hey because of you because of your books I was ready and I didn't have to worry about having groceries and whatnot at home because I already had them ready to go because of you.

3:47And then one of my students from one of my classes, they were actually attacked at a store and her husband just blasted, blew his knee out. He was just getting over knee surgery. Yeah. And she gets out of the car, you know, cause it's 90 % attitude, how you take a self-defense situation. And she's just a little old lady, but because her mindset that was in the right place, she was able to stop that attack, back the man off and save her spouse till help could arrive. And so she came back with that story for me. And I mean, that is, that's worth more than any kind of money you could possibly present to me.

4:28Well, I love that. And on that note, you believe that mastering practical skills like these survival tactics, like self-defense, that it builds this incredible confidence, like that story that you just told. And that's for any challenge that we might face, whether it's personal or even professional. So tell us more about that. Yeah. So I just think that having, um, you know, having these skills, knowing that, you know what, I'm ready for a rainy day. So if something comes down from the pipeline, of course, it's going to be a hard event, whether that be a personal event, societal event, um, you know, or like a huge disaster type scenario, like in my books, um, you know, you're just more mentally prepared for that because you've gone through that thought exercise.

5:12You've really thought through it. You are ready with what you need so that this really traumatic event can be just a lot easier managed. That translate over to your professional world because the more confidence you put in yourself, the more that you feel that you're standing on a platform that's solid instead of rickety, you know, you can face the world with this confidence. You can walk with your head held high, saying hi to people, looking them in the eye and knowing that behind yourself is this true confidence rooted in preparation and thought processes and the ability to just protect yourself and never become that victim, whether that be a social issue or an actual physical altercation.

6:00Now, Sarah, how can we use fiction to teach real world lessons? That's my favorite thing to do. People learn through stories. Nobody wants to sit down and read stereo instructions. You know, it's just boring. So being able to craft a story that not only educates you, but entertains you at the same time is really, really a special way to learn this information. and it helps you remember like, oh man, my favorite character did it this way. And I'm going to do that too. And I'm writing these real life skills into my book so that you have those tools in your toolbox in the Changing Earth series. And it works.

6:44I've heard stories of like my intro story with the lady with one lug. But I've also heard, you know, stories from like The Walking Dead where people are like, oh man, I remember my character doing this and it worked in a survival scenario. It worked when my back was up against the wall. And one of my favorite authors taught that way. She taught archaeological history and herbal healing and whatnot in her stories. And when I started looking up her information and went, oh, my goodness, this is legit. This is real information that she's researched. She's sharing in her novels for me to learn from.

7:24I wanted to do the exact same thing. So because, you know, throughout history, that's really been our stories have been our legends have been our information have been handed down and handed down. And that's how we traditionally did things. We didn't sit down and read this book of stereo instructions, you know, and just get bored out of our mind where we can't take that information in. But if you take it in in a story, you're much more likely to retain that information. So I encourage anybody who's trying to teach anything, bring it in a story so that people can relate to it more and they can just understand the information better.

8:03I mean, after all, Fire Nation, what is history? It's his story, her story. We love stories. That's what we do. We sit around the fireplace and we tell stories. You know, people say once upon a time and you lean in because, you know, a story is going to be following that. I mean, what do I do with my 18-month-old son every single night? I read him a story. Like, he loves the story, the arc of that. So, so many more great things to talk about around this topic when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Fire Nation, this is your year to get unstuck and to grow a successful business. Are you looking to learn the proven processes and success systems that have been used to create thousands of millionaire success stories?

8:45See thousands of success stories and testimonials from real people just like you who Clay Clark has mentored and coached into prosperity at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO Fire. Clay's proven business coaching program is month to month and costs less money than hiring a minimum wage employee. Yes, it's month to month and costs less money than hiring a minimum wage employee. Schedule your free personal 13-point assessment with Clay Clark himself today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO Fire because Clay only takes on 160 clients and only allows 300 attendees to each business conference. You will interact with Clay directly.

9:18See thousands of real success stories and learn about attending the Thrive Time Show two-day in-person workshop featuring football star Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump, today at ThriveTimeShow.com slash EOFire. Become the next success story. Schedule a free consultation and request tickets to join football star Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump, at Clay Clark's next business conference today at ThriveTimeShow.com slash EOFire. Okay, let's talk about a platform that's completely changing how entrepreneurs are running their business, and they are also our featured partner, HighLevel.

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11:01High Level, join the revolution. Sarah, you took one idea and you turned it into a thriving ecosystem of books, of podcasts, of seminars, all while staying true to your core message. Tell us how you did this. Stay true to my faith, stay true to my belief. And what my purpose was originally was to show people how beautiful our natural world is and how precious that relationship is. So everything that I've done has been really crafted around that and encouraging people to get out into their natural world and really experience it. People spend too much time inside these days. So when you get out into the world, there's threats out there, there's opportunities and there's challenges.

11:46And so it's all about learning how to deal with that. So yeah, I took my eight novel series, the Changing Earth series. There's a couple of side novels now. It just keeps growing as I keep playing with it. And then the Changing Earth podcast, I actually learned to do that. I believe I just launched my podcast the first time I was on your show. No kidding. Yeah, yeah, it was years ago, like 2016-ish. So I just wanted to really be able to present that information from my novels and crack it out and show, like, here's how you actually do it. Here's how you actually build a shelter. Or here's how you actually become a leader.

12:30Here's how you don't become a victim and really present that. So that launched into the podcast. I podcast. I've been podcasting for years doing the changing earth podcast. And I developed this incredible network because it really is all about the journey. Right. And just all these incredible people like you're having back in your show now that I've had on my show. And I went, you know what? I'm a little bit impatient. my work is all being marketed to Hollywood at this time so hopefully we'll see the Changing Earth series before too long but I'm impatient and so I turned it all into a dramatization it's the Changing Earth audio drama and the Changing Earth audio drama goes through the book series with some extra scenes you know some new material put in there and I relied upon my podcasting network to really do all the voices because, you know, they've got some good AI voices now, but they're just not up to snuff.

13:29You can't beat real people. So I have this incredible group of volunteers. They do all the voices for the show. And then I bring it to you in like a radio drama format where you hear all the sounds that are going on and the music that goes along with the moods. And I just found a really big passion in creating these shows. It's like being a composer. So I'm really, really excited about it. And we're just starting season five of the Change in Earth audio drama. It's going to launch later this year. So yeah, we're four seasons in. I encourage everybody to go check it out and see how they like the dramatization of the Change series.

14:09Now, I love that. And Fire Nation, I also strongly suggest you go check that out because let's be honest, rejection, doubt, chaos. I mean, it encircles all authors, podcasters, content creators. How did you overcome this? Like, what did you do? What do you recommend to our listeners? So I have one word and it's perseverance. I've done a lot of sports where I I get knocked down. Ice hockey, MMA, you know, things like that where you get knocked down and you have to learn to get back up. There are a lot of sharks circling the water out there looking for authors, looking for potential bait to scam you.

14:52And I've seen all kinds of scams from, oh, I'm an agent and you just got a book deal and all you have to do is fly to this location. and people did it and nobody was there. And so there's all kinds of these scammers and then you get reviews and whatnot where you're like, oh, really? You bought it at a thrift store and you're going to go on there? And like, I'll say it on air, like woman bash on Amazon review. So you get a lot of this negative energy and sometimes it's from family members you know, extended family. What are you wasting your time with that for? You're never going to make it. You're never going to do anything, you know, all these things.

15:36So it really has to be a passion in your core. You can't just be looking like for I'm going to be a millionaire within a within a year because that is not reality for an author. You know, unless you're already a political figure and you have all the backing and everything like that to be able to go. this is absolutely a marathon and not a sprint. And I had a mentor recently tell me it's not even a marathon. You're going like you're walking the Appalachian Trail. You know, you're you're in it for the long haul if you think this dream is going to come true. So you have to have perseverance. You have to be able to knock down and get back up again.

16:15And you have to be doing it because you love it or else you're not going to find that perseverance to just keep continuing on through all of the clouds that are out there through all of the challenges. And honestly, these scammers are just crazy. They will just hunt authors down, new authors. So it is a big warning that I put out to people. It's hard to know who to trust and who to turn to. So, you know, having a reliable network is really, really important because I've had people that went, hey, that's not the right opportunity for you. And a really great mentorship base, which I've been really, really blessed with.

16:56So I encourage everybody, you know, don't don't just get so blindsided by your end goal that you're willing to take any path to get there, because there's a lot of people out there ready to lead you right down the wrong path. Now you use the word perseverance. I want to move to the word self-discipline. Why is self-discipline a driver of authentic leadership? The self-discipline is what gets you up every morning. So I'm an author. I train, you know, I'm a fighter. I also have a homestead. I also have a family. I also work a full-time job. And so if you don't have self-discipline to really chase your passions and make yourself do these things, there's nobody else out there that's going to make you do it.

17:42So if you don't have that self-drive, that self-discipline to really stay on top of it, make sure all your marketing's done, make sure your platform's being built. If you're not going forward, you're going backwards. So you need to just keep that push, that forward pressure. And the only way to do that is with self-discipline. I don't get many days where I just choose, you know what, I'm going to wake up today and do nothing. That doesn't happen in Sarah's world. There's a lot of, of projects. There's a lot of opportunities. There's a lot of emails. There's a lot of marketing. There's a lot of strategizing and all of that has to be given its own timeframe.

18:23And so if you don't have the self-discipline to really put your life together, then you can't be expected to lead in any kind of world because people aren't going to look up to you as, you know, well, look at what she's doing. Look at how great she's doing. Look at, you know, how much forward progress she's making. I need to do that too. And, um, being a leader is, is a challenge because it comes with a lot of responsibilities as well. So you have to make sure, like I said, that you're shoring yourself up, you're saying self-discipline, you're keeping that drive or else you're, you know, you're not going to be able to lead others in the same direction and for them to have that true authenticity, for you to have that true authenticity, that is what people see.

19:10That is what they follow. And you don't even have to open your mouth and say it. They just see what you're doing, see the path that you're on, and they want to do the same thing. They want to know how you're doing it. They want your mentorship. So your self-discipline is essential. And I think it's something that's kind of lacking these days is the self-discipline to really stay on your goal, stay on your task, and make it happen day after day after day. Sarah, you've dropped a ton of value bombs today. We've had a great conversation, but if you could just share the one key takeaway from everything we talked about that you would really love our listeners to make sure that they really walk away with, what would that be?

19:49Have faith in your heart that you are good enough. you are made just the way you were meant to be. And if you stay on your goal and your goal is a golden path, you know, it's the right thing. It's the right place. You're going to get there and you just have to stay on that dream. Keep your faith and keep pressing forward every day. Now, Fire Nation wants to connect with you, wants to learn more from you. What is your call to action for our listeners? today. They should head on over to changingearthseries.com. At changingearthseries.com, I have links to all of the podcasts, to my books, all of my social media.

20:37You can connect directly with me. You can go on the virtual book tour where you can listen to Entrepreneurs on Fire, both the old episode and the new episode that's coming out. So head on over to changingearthseries.com, check out everything Changing Earth and start getting involved. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with SH and JLD today, so keep up that heat. For links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Just type Sarah, S-A-R-A in the search bar. The show notes page will pop right up. And Sarah, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation.

21:13For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thank you very much. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Sarah for sponsoring today's episode and Fire Nation. Are you an entrepreneur on FIRE who's looking to share your amazing message with the world? If yes, we are now accepting applications for entrepreneurs on FIRE. To learn more about becoming a guest, visit eofire.com slash guest. I'll catch you there or I'll catch you on the flip side. FIRE Nation, this is your year to get unstuck and to grow a successful business. Attend the world's highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark and now featuring football star Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOfire.

21:57Again, request life-changing tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOfire. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white-label your own software. Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today.