He has been a mentor. He's also the person that I reached out to when I wanted to get my copywriting certification. So without further ado, I want to introduce Mr. Ray Edwards. Hi Ray. How are you? Hi there. I'm so good, so honored to be here with you. Yes, I'm delighted. And you've been working on a project and we are on this podcast today specifically to highlight your latest book. So for the sake of those people that maybe don't know who you are, you wanna give us a little background and then tell us a little bit about your book. Just, just the title. Let's just tease it up and then we'll break it down from there. Sure, sure. Um, about me, I'm best known as a copywriter and marketing consultant, communication strategist. I've had the privilege of working with people like Tony Robbins and Jack Canfield, Margaret, Dr. Hansen, uh, Michael Hyatt, names you probably know. And, um, thousands of other students. And we have a copywriting certification program. We, we write ads to sell ideas, products, and services. That's what we do at my company. And it's a million-dollar company, uh, that's all very fancy. That's how you introduce yourself into a room to impress people. But there's a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that went into building that, of course. And, um, what people, many people probably don't know or maybe don't know, is that about 12 years ago I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and that progresses over time. It's incurable so far, and it progresses over time and just gets worse. And it's, it's about more than just shaking hands. People think your hands are shaking. And that's what Parkinson's is. You begin to lose control of your entire body over time. I mean, it eventually, the disease rubs you of everything that makes life enjoyable. It robs you of your ability to walk, talk, eat, feed yourself, um, dress yourself, take care of the most basic human needs, fill in the blanks. You can probably figure out what I'm talking about. And, um, it's a very unpleasant outcome for everybody who gets it and survives long enough. Um, you may have seen Michael J. Fox interviewed by Diane Sawyer recently, and he's just, um, he's had it for 30 years. He's one of the longest surviving, um, recipients of, of this special gift. Um, and I used to not be able to call it a gift. I, I would get angry with people who, who did. And the process that I went through getting from a place it as a curse and the end of my life, and now I see it as a gift. It's given me so much. We can get into that if you want to. Um, the title of the book is called Read This or Die Persuading Yourself to A Better Life. And yeah, It's about that. It's about that journey. But what it's really about is how I tried so many things. I tried curing a disease, first of all, cause I didn't believe it was incurable. And so far I, along with everybody else in the world who's ever tried, has not been able to cure it. But there's hope for that thanks to Mr. Fox and his organization. Um, we've made lots of progress over the years and I've seen treatments improve over the years as I've been getting progressively worse medication and so forth. But we'll get to that underlying, that. The real reason that I'm here today is, the reason I wrote the book is the fact that I had to figure out whether life was worth living. And if it was, how is I gonna live it? And that's the real story of the book. And the story is that, uh, I tried self-help, I tried religion, I tried, I'm not speaking against religion, I'm just saying it didn't cure his disease. So that was, that was the outcome I was looking for. That was the outcome I was looking for. Um. Right, right. Yeah. I didn't get it. And. I think also, Ray, you're mentioning Parkinson's, but challenges are everywhere. Right? I think this book is an amazing book for anyone. Um, because I saw that it's, it's sort of like a memoir, self-help, but challenges now go across the board and sometimes challenges aren't, uh, visible and they're sort of hidden because we're told to, you know, step up and just show up and, and with some people live with this just building inside of them. So I think for people, any person that's going through a challenge, whether it's a debilitating challenge, emotional, spiritual, whatever it might be, would you say you would recommend this book? Cuz I feel it's perfect for them. Yes. I would say that. Yeah. Thanks for getting me out of book promo. Holding into conversation mode.<Laugh>. No, no problem at all. No, I just, I love it. I love hearing. I was gonna ask you those questions anyway. Persuading yourself to a better life. When people see that, cuz life is so broad, um, are you talking about specifically just their personal life with their relationships or business or just for self-fulfillment or just feeling better each day? How would you define that as far as life? Cuz it's so broad and everybody looks at it differently. Some people think life a better life is success and money. There's different interpretations. What's your, your definition of it? Well, I think it's everybody's term to define for themselves. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. And for different people it means different things. I mean, if you have a disease that causes you a lot of pain every day, or disability every day, then a better life could be getting help with those particular problems and learning to ask for that help. And also, it could be smaller challenges too. It doesn't have to be a life-threatening, debilitating disease. The fact is we all have a life-threatening disease. It's called life. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>, it comes to an end. And that's something that I think we all know intellectually, but we don't think about it very much. I think about it a lot <laugh>, because I'm just more acutely aware of it. But what it makes you most aware of is if you think about your own mortality, it makes you most aware of the importance of living a good life today, a better life today. And that could be for someone who's not gotten a, a big diagnosis, or maybe you don't have a divorce pending, or your business hasn't been destroyed by a pandemic, for instance. Some people had that experience. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Uh, maybe it's not something that big. Maybe it's like you eat too many donuts every day and you want to eat less donuts and carry less body fat. Maybe it's, maybe it's you just find yourself feeling down about the condition of the world or the condition of your life or your progress as you compare yourself to all the other people on Instagram. Um, maybe it's right. Maybe it's a mental kind of, I wanna be more up, I wanna be more happy, more joyous. I wanna appreciate the things in my life more. Maybe it's just some simple things like, you wanna get your house in order. Your your house is, I I'm not, I'm not speaking metaphorically. I'm saying maybe your house is messy. I wanna have a cleaner house. Mm-hmm.<affirmative> a better life could be so many things to so many people and it's different degrees. Yeah. And whatever your problem is, whatever your biggest, think of your biggest problem right now, you don't have to tell me what it is, Marisa, but what's your, what's your biggest problem? That is your biggest problem right now. Yeah. And your biggest problem might be you need to get your nails done. I don't know. Yeah. It's not for me to say, but Right. I do know this. Whatever our problem is, that's not the real problem. The real problem for most of us is how we think about the problem. And I know it because I was forced to apply that philosophy, that way of thinking to this very intrusive problem that I have. I mean, I can pretend not to. I can think about it. I cannot think about it. I don't have to pretend I cannot think about it for some periods of time. Right. But eventually it will impose this presence on me with the, my inability to pick up a pen and write or to get up and walk across the room with confidence. And so I, I was faced with having to deal with these issues that we all have. Cause we all have challenges in life. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, as you said. But we don't all have one that forces us to pay attention to it. Yeah. A lot of 'em, we can press down and ignore them, suppress them, but it comes out eventually somehow. Yeah, it does. Which is not in a healthy way either deal with your problems consciously or subconsciously. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I recommend doing it consciously cuz subconscious, the subconscious way of dealing with your problems is usually messy and ugly. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. No, I agree. And even bottling it up, you know, and, and you know, the challenge is whatever it might be, pain and suffering is, you know, is common to all. And the, the reason why you're going through that could be different. But at the end of the day, everyone is not living their fullest life. Which is why I love this book. Can I just read a, a few little quotes and maybe you can expand on it cuz I saw some things that caught my eye. Is that okay? Cause I know the book hasn't been released yet. Sure, of course. It's okay to do that. That, yeah. You, you said here, experiencing a global pandemic that changed the way people lived their lives in many ways, this change caused me to shrink into a smaller life and use it as an excuse for receding from the lives of others. Can you expand on that? Cuz I think that happened to a lot of people. People began to, their world became smaller and smaller. And then as things started opening up, I don't know if it's different for everyone, but it seems like the effects of that is still things that people are dealing with. You wanna talk a little bit about that statement? Yeah. Yeah. I, I think you're right on the mark. We, we all had to shrink back from being in public and being in crowds and being with other people. We all had to wear masks. Well not everybody did, but most people wore the mask for a long period of time. And I noticed, I found myself, when it came time to take the mask off, I found myself not wanting to take it off cuz it hid my facial expression. Or as a person with Parkinson's, my lack sometimes of a facial expression. Uh, I didn't have to explain that. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And more to the point though, I didn't have to go out in public. I didn't have to go to restaurants. I didn't have to go to events and speak and have people ask me, what's wrong? You're, you're kind of shaky. You're kind of unstable. You're not walking well, are you okay? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And I know that people mean kindness when they ask those questions, but eventually that becomes fatiguing for us. And it's not, as someone with Parkinson's who goes through that, it's anybody there. For many people who are especially, who tend to be more introverted. Anyway, it was a, a retreat from that interaction with people. And it becomes very difficult once you become accustomed to being isolated, becomes very difficult to be more public again. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, because being isolated allows us to hide. We can hide our feelings from others. We can hide the truth of what's going on with us. We can hide the difficult things we're dealing with whatever they may be, and we don't have to talk about it. And then, you know, compound that with the fact that because of what was going on in the world, what still is going on in the world, the pandemic changed everything forever. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it really did. Mm-hmm.<affirmative> changed the way we work, changed the way we interact, changed the way we think about public health, about politics, about society, about different levels of society, about racial issues. So many things came to light. You know, a time of crisis does not change who we are. It exposes who we are. That is so true. That is so true. And you know, I think too, um, that the reality, the threat of, and many people did die from that season. Um, but the reality, I think people were beginning to figure out what's gonna happen to me if I do get Covid? Am I going to die? And I think that being forced, like you said, sometimes we do it willingly to think about our life and how we're gonna live it. But it seemed like everybody was forced to look at their own mortality and covid itself, even for those people that came through. Even now, I think the last time we spoke, I had come down with Covid. I was already having symptoms the last time we chatted on Zoom. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. And it wasn't until I took a test, I realized that I got, cause my whole family got it not that long ago and this past spring, and I was, I had zip energy. I mean the fever, I mean, it took four weeks and not being myself with just with that was so difficult because I thought, is it ever gonna get better? <laugh>, you know, a lot of strange things go between the ears when you're faced with something. Especially if something comes suddenly like, like Covid did. So, um, so yeah, for sure. I think that was kind of a, a first time, uh, of actually looking at mortality. As you get older, like I am, you think about that more. You think about, you know, your mortality and how you wanna live your life each day and make it the best. But when people are younger, what would you say to younger people that maybe don't think of that as much because things are going really well and they have their youthfulness. What would you say to them? Well, I think I pay more attention. Uh, look around. But I, I think I wanna say this. Um, I've learned, I've been spending a lot of time with younger people. I have younger people on my team. I see younger people at the events I go to and speak now. And I pay a lot of attention to them because they are not only the future, they're the present that, I mean, look around you folks. If you're in your, if you're in the 45 plus age category, look around you and see who the pilots are on your aircraft. Who the doctor is at the doctor's office. <laugh>. That's true. Who the attorneys are in the courtroom. They're people in their thirties and they're sometimes in their twenties. And so I think we, we have to be careful as people of the earlier generation say it that way. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, we, we sometimes tend to get into this condescending tone people. And you're not doing that cuz I know you well enough to know you're not like that. But I would say so many younger people, people in their twenties and thirties, or teens even because of Covid, they have more of a sense of mortality than we ever did growing up. Cuz I thought I was immortal. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. I had never faced anything like a pandemic before. I was living in a little isolated American middle class white person neighborhood. And that was a bubble that got burst many times throughout the period of covid as I grew up, as I grew older and began to see the truth of how the whole world is. So, but for, for those who are in their younger years under, under the age of 45, let's say. Yeah, I know you think you're immortal and you, you know, everybody else is gonna die, but you think you're the main character in your movie and you're not gonna die, but you are. It's not something, it's not something old Parkinson's, how I love you. It's not something that is, um,<affirmative> that is morbid to think about. It's something that helps you appreciate the life you have. Yes. So true. That's why. Yeah. I was never a guy who had tattoos, but I got one after I got diagnosed with the words Memento mori on it, which means, remember you'll die. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And then I got another one on the other arm that says Vita abundant, which means so live abundantly. That's the whole purpose of the me memento. Okay. I'm gonna get this Memento mori. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> try to say that 10 times. Right. <laugh>, I can't, it's not. About, it's not about contemplating the horrors of death, it's kind about contemplating the joys of life. Yes. Totally different perspective. Right. Totally different and young. That age range that, that's my kids. Right. They're in their thirties, early thirties. Yeah. Mine too. They think differently. They, and I'm glad they're interesting. Like my son is looking at just really kind of not living completely off the grid, but just living a simple life. Not going after all these things that a lot of the baby boomers and other generations went through. Yeah. But of course they had a history why they did that. But they're looking at things differently. Would you agree? You. Know, I, I do think of the boomers, I think of the, the hippie movement and the counterculture movement. And it's almost like, I feel like today the, the generation that's in their late twenties and early hippies with practical knowledge of the world. Yes. Very intelligent. This stuff. They're gonna, yeah. They're very intelligent. They They know how, what's, what's good about it, what's not good about it. There's so much for us to learn from them. Yes. That's exciting to me. I agree. I agree. Totally different perspective, healthier perspective. They're wanting that slower pace. Many of them, including my, my kids. Uh, my son has a kind of a hybrid work that he does. He does film production stuff and he only has to go in once a week to the office and he can work at home. And they're all pursuing that. They're pursuing something simpler, something easier. So they can, as they get kids, you know, they wanna be able to have that flexibility. They're already thinking that they don't need a sales page to tell them that the rat race is for rats, not for humans. Right, right. And to live more of a human life. Um, nobody has to tell them that. I think they've watched and they said, I don't want that. And that's a healthy perspective. And it's the same with my daughter. My, my daughter and my granddaughter live with us for that one reason. She didn't want to have to have all of the bills and all the things. And they've lived with us for 10 years and it's worked out great. Yeah. But she, um, she's trying to make that shift as well because she's saying, you know, the years pass very quickly. And so, uh, no, I agree. I think they've got a good perspective and they are highly intelligent and they're going in the right direction. So kudos to the younger generation for sure. Yeah, I agree. For sure. So. They, they also got, they've got more awareness of their own mental health challenges and Yes. You know, there's lots of, lots of talk about mental health these days and which is good. There should be. And yeah. Again, we have covid to thank for that. Yeah. Cuz they came to the surface for a lot of people. Yeah. And there's. More. That. And there was a time where it wasn't talked about as much. It was. It was, yeah. It was, yeah. 2018 and, and back <laugh>. Mm-hmm.<affirmative> it was, I mean we, we've learned it's become, I mean, truthfully, it's become more socially acceptable to say I'm dealing with depression right now. Yeah. Before 2019, 2020 it, there was still a huge portion of the population and there still is, I, I won't pretend that there's not mm-hmm. <affirmative>, a lot of people just wouldn't talk about it. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Because they're embarrassed by, they're ashamed of ashamed of it. And I think it's healthy for them when people, entrepreneurs or people that are in a public space to, to be completely themselves like you are very transparent with your book and your journey and so forth. I think people want to connect with real human beings and know, wow, I'm not alone. You know, this person is going through something as well. You know, because really, and when we market, we gotta realize that, that people are going through all kinds of changes, transitions, stress, all kinds of things. Cuz you hear it all the time. So I think anytime we can leverage our, um, our publicity in a way that encourages people is also helpful. And I think that transparency is allowing that because there was a day where people wouldn't share that. They wouldn't share their faith, you know, because it could, you know, compromise their work, you know, those kind of things. But I think people are being a little bit more real. And I think people want that. It seems like people want more human to human connection. So, um, I have another question for you. You talked about existing versus living. Can you, now, I have some ideas in my head, but I wanna see your perspective. Can you give us some symptoms, maybe a way for somebody that's going through the day-to-day, they're going through to work, they're doing the things they need to do, picking up the kids. Can you give some, um, examples or maybe symptoms of people that might be existing and not completely living? Sure. If you feel like you're just going through the motions mm-hmm.<affirmative>, if you feel like, oh, it's another day, like every other day, I don't know why I do this. If you wonder what the point of it all is, if you find yourself not interested in things that used to fascinate, you, if you find yourself not really having any real joy, I mean, for you, maybe a good day is I don't want to stick my head in the oven. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Then you might be just existing. Or if you just find life to be empty and meaningless and pointless, if you're into that nihilistic kind of viewpoint, like it's, it's, it all means nothing when I do a mouse to nothing. And there's no reason to be here. And it might not be that dramatic, but if you know those feelings as they sound even faintly familiar mm-hmm.<affirmative>, because for a, a long time I said to myself, I would feel those feelings, but I would, I would diminish them with the words I use. Well, I'm feeling kind of off today. I'm feeling kind of low energy today. I don't, I don't, I'm not, I'm not vibing with how things ought usually are today. Then that's when there's no, when there's no flavor, when there's no color to life, when there's no joy, when there's nothing. You're looking forward to anticipating gleefully. Yeah. Then maybe you're just existing. Yeah. And to, to some I would say maybe that's the best you can do right now. Just do the best you can, but recognize where you are and there's a higher level of living that's available to you. And protect hope. Don't lose hope. Because sometimes people are in that existing mode because they haven't tapped into their potential. They haven't tapped into some things that maybe they really want to do, but they feel they can't do. So they feel like I'm stuck. I, this is all I can do. I need to provide for my family. Be responsible. You know, and maybe those things that they've always wanted to do, that untapped potential, those skills, those talents, those abilities, the real, uh, purpose that they feel in their heart, that can also lead to depression if they feel like they're just existing as well. Yeah, for sure. And if you're, you know, I, I recommend anybody who's having those feelings. And certainly if you're having feelings of ending your own life, which is the point I arrived at, I describe it in the book. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>, I've been there, I've been there more than once, frankly, where I just felt like maybe we'd just be better. I just checked out and I can't, I can't tell anybody how much pain they can bear. I, I just mm-hmm.<affirmative>, I don't, I don't have that ability. I don't have that. Right. Only you could say how much pain you can bear, but I can tell you this, that does not end the pain. If you end yourself, you may end, you may end your own pain. We don't really know. So keep bear that in mind. You don't really know if that ends the pain or not. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But we do know that it leaves a lot of pain behind mm-hmm.<affirmative> the people that you care about, people that you love. Mm-hmm.<affirmative> maybe, maybe, maybe you feel, you may feel like you don't love a lot of people, but you like a lot of people. You don't wanna be the cause of all that pain. And you've got something left to contribute no matter how, how old you are, no matter how sick you are. I think of Stephen Hawking, who mm-hmm.<affirmative> was so debilitated by ALS that he wrote his last book, which was a huge book. I don't know how many hundred pages long it was, but it looked like a phone book. He wrote it by twitching a muscle in his cheek that triggered a computer to type one letter. That's how I wrote the book. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And yet he's the most respected astrophysicist in Because he had a purpose and he had hope that he could contribute something meaningful to the future. So this letter you wrote to yourself that you have in the book, um, what prompted you to do that? To just write that letter to yourself? It almost sounded, was it a journaling process that kind of escalated to the writing the page to yourself or? Yeah, I did lots of journaling. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, most of it's self-indulgent. This is a g-rated show, isn't it?<laugh> self-indulgent bull. Crap <laugh>. Um, but it led to me getting some feelings out on paper. And you know, when you put 'em on paper, they become more real. Yeah. And I realized I needed to change the way I thought. Self-help seminars and books and audios weren't working for me. And faith healers hadn't worked for me and crystals hadn't worked for me. Aromatherapy and essential oils and everything else I had tried infrared laser, um, you name it. Um, so I was thinking one day, well what have I done all my life as, as a living? I've persuaded people to change their way of thinking. So I realized I couldn't change the disease, but I could change the way of thinking about the disease. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So I wrote myself a sales letter, a sales page. I did it intentionally as a sales page. I realized this was the most important sales job I'd ever done in my life. I had to sell me on a, wanting to live and b, wanting to live to certain standards. There's a way to live that's better than other ways to live. It's different for me. And it just d than it is for you. We each have to decide on ourselves. So I suggest you write yourself such as a letter. I used my own copywriting framework to write the letter, the pastor framework, P A S T O R, which stands for problem pain, person Problem and Pain. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So I knew who I was writing to. I knew that guy. Well, yeah. I got the name a lot better when I got this disease. I knew what the problem was. I knew what the pain was. The A stands for amplify the consequences of not solving the problem. I knew what that was gonna be. Uh, it was took the form at one point of two bottles of pills and a bottle of bourbon. I didn't do it, but I thought about it. So I knew that where that led, it led lots of pain for people that I love. I couldn't, if nothing else stopped me from taking that step, it was the thought of the, the pain I knew would leave behind me, stopped me from taking it. The s is the story of a solution. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>, I had, I had to go find and testimony is T So I had to go find plenty of stories of people who had solved this problem before me. People who had not been cured of Parkinson's, but people who had faced some big life altering involuntarily, engaged in challenge to the way they thought they were gonna live. And they overcame that with their way of thinking. There was plenty of plenty of examples of that. And then o stands for offer. So the offer in this case is what's, what, what are your choices? You have choice A or choice B, you have the road to the left, the road to the right. Yeah. The. Road to the right. I think you mentioned it as opportunity for us as we're doing this for ourselves. The o Yes. The offer and opportunity. Yeah. I love that. And then the r is, you request a response of yourself. Yeah. It gonna, what's it gonna be? Are you gonna do something about it or not? Yeah, absolutely. It's interesting that you went back thinking about, well, what have I done? What do I do? Well, so you looked at your skills and your strengths to help you overcome just a real weak, painful season. And it's interesting how sometimes, you know, our hard skills can help us with our soft skills. And sometimes our soft skills can help us with our hard skills. Because if you've got the soft skills, if you've got the, the courage of creativity, um, the resilience to continue, you can always learn a skill. But you did the opposite. You took your skills that you had in copywriting and you were thinking, okay, what have I done? And I think that process of just going back and looking at some of the things we've done, some of the things we're grateful for, the people we're thankful for is a good place to start, isn't it? To begin to kind of figure out, because that first step is so difficult. If someone is in pain right now, or someone has physical challenges, that first step is so hard. So can you recommend a first step? Is it best to kind of look back and see, you know, some of the things that you're grateful for? That's good. Um, it's, I mean, it's a great thing. I don't mean to diminish it. It's, it's a good thing to do for sure. Um, I think what's, let me say this. If you're really in a really desperate place, you should talk to someone who's a professional. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. I wanna make that clear beyond that as, as you're examining what you're gonna do with what you've been given, whatever that is. Uh, I think getting your thoughts out on paper or on the screen is what's important. Yeah. Journaling, I used to scoff at a lot, but you don't really know what's in your head that you're trying to deal with until you get it out of your head and get it on paper. So I would recommend starting with a practice maybe of every day. First thing when you wake up, just think about what you start thinking about. Because most of us start are really good at, we wake up, we, we realize we had a good night's sleep maybe. And the first thing we start thinking about is what's, what's the problems I'm facing? And we start making that list of problems and people who are problems and people who cause problems and politics who make us angry and make us angry and so forth. But get all that stuff out on paper and start writing it down. Then when you can start getting at the core issue that's bothering you, whatever it is, if it's a relationship or if it's family or whatever the case may be, you can start writing those things out and realize nobody else is gonna see them. Nobody else is gonna hear them. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But you need to get honest with you yourself. That's, that's where it begins. Yes. I agree. I agree. I, I think writing, journaling, whatever way you wanna call it, just having that time of reflection is so important cuz really we gotta take care of us first and then that helps us with our relationships. And the wonderful thing about this book, this can help people with their relationships, with their business, with their life, with a lot of things. Cuz they're basic principles, right? So I think this is so valuable. Even if someone is not going through a challenge, I think this would be a great thing to really crystallize, you know, how, how they show up who they are and really crystalize, do. You know somebody who's not going through a challenge? Not really. I haven't messed. That question.<Laugh>. Well some people think, oh, everything is great. Maybe it's self denial. Maybe that's it. Maybe those that are in denial that things maybe aren't going as best as they can. I think this book can also help. I don't want them to think that they have to have an illness to, to get the book and read and get a lot of benefit out of it. Cuz there's a lot of benefit to be had. Even if you think, well, I'm okay, you know, I, I can take care of things. I don't, I don't really, you know, have str a lot of struggles. I can get over things pretty quickly. I think this is a real helpful resource for anyone that wants to just really leverage and not exist, but live their life to their fullest. So there's my pitch <laugh>. That's, that's the intention that I wrote it. Miss. I agree with you. Of course. Yeah. And you know, maybe you don't have, you certainly don't have to have an illness or some tragedy happening in your life to, to make this book relevant to you. But if you have anything that you've wanted to change, that you want to change, you found it difficult to do so you struggle with life, whatever that may be. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it could be something as simple as you eat too much sugar or what something of that nature. This'll help. It's for anybody who's got a behavior or a challenge in their life or a problem or just a quirk in their personality they'd like to, to work on. And they've been stuck. If you've ever felt stuck, this can help get you unstuck. Yeah. Because I don't just tell you how I wrote the letter to myself. I give you instructions with each chapter, uh, steps you can take to write one to yourself and do what I did. And I assure you, no philosophy or sales pitch or, or set of beliefs or rules for your life will ring more true with you than the ones you figure out for yourself. Yes. Even if you, if you, even if you're taught by a wise teacher who, somebody who's an authority, you look at them and say, well, this person knew more than anybody else. Until you learn the lessons for yourself, they're not really yours. Mm-hmm.<Affirmative>. Very true. Very true. Those aha moments are so helpful and we, we remember them and we, it's better to be able to implement some type of habit to overcome whatever it might be. That's why I write every morning because those insights, um, just hit right to the heart. Right to the soul. And so that helps to be able to think differently and begin a new path. So any last words? This has been wonderful. Thank you so much, Ray, for sharing your heart, being so transparent, telling your story for the sake of others. Any last words from you and how can they get the book? Where do you want to lead people? Well, thank you for that. Um, my, my words would be if we leave you with nothing else, it would be don't just exist, don't just choose existence, choose life. And that means with all the, all the bumps and bruises and the extraordinarily as well as the most joyous and rich loving moments as well. It's all part of what we've been given. Okay. Don't miss any of it. And you can get the book by going to https://www.readthisordiebook.com/. Awesome. It's the best place to go. Awesome. It sounds great. And uh, I'll just say here, if anybody does want to read the book and get the book, there's some bonuses as well, right? You've got it. Some bonuses. Yeah. We've got a free mini course that goes along. It's a video mini course goes along with the book that shows you how to write your own letter to yourself just like I did. That's awesome.$197, yours free. I know you're gonna enjoy the book if you buy it. So definitely buy the book and leave a review, leave a review, a rating, um, so that more people can access the book as well. So be sure to get the book, get the bonuses, write your own letter. That's my homework. I'm gonna rewrite my own letter and then leave a review in a rating. That would be wonderful. And if you have a podcast, uh, I don't know, I'm sure Ray is really booked, but you'll make time. Right, right. If somebody has a podcast, I will. I appreciate that. Yes, absolutely <laugh>. Absolutely. Well thank you Ray, this has been awesome. I really appreciate you being on the show and I'm so excited that you are doing so well. We didn't even tap into some of the things that have ha given you a, a second opportunity at life. Some of the medical things that have been going on. You've been very candidly sharing a lot of that in many of your social media platforms and stuff. So please connect with Ray so you can see some of the things that have transpired recently that has just given Ray just an opportunity to do more and be more and be able to serve more people. It's really been phenomenal. So thank you so much, Ray. Thank you. I appreciate you so much. Thank you. Bye-Bye.