Pivotal People
Join us in conversations with inspiring people doing amazing things. Their insights and experiences help motivate all of us to find our purpose that fits with our abilities, gifts and life situation. Get a "behind the scenes" look at successful people making a difference in the world and benefit from their advice for the rest of us. Our guests include authors, artists, leaders, coaches, pastors, business people and speakers.
Pivotal People
From Trailer Park to CEO: Leadership Advice That Applies to Everyone
We talk with Dawn Cazedessus about building leadership on purpose—moving from survival mode to calling, reframing failure with structure, and choosing optimism that overflows without denying reality. Her story brings grit, faith, and measurable value into practical tools you can use today.
• why leadership matters even without a title
• Dawn’s trailer park roots and early mentors
• stones of leadership as a practical framework
• purpose-fueled grit and the 4:44 a.m. habit
• failing forward with F.A.I.L. (forgive, accept, inspect, learn)
• effective communication with W.A.I.T. and reading the room
• negotiation by outcomes and measurable value
• extreme practical optimism that resists burnout
• faith as foundation and memorial stones as reminders
• one tangible practice: write your stone and place it where you see it
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I would like to welcome to the Pivotal People podcast, Dawn Cazdasu. I'm not going to tell you how to spell her last name, but that's her last name. I just told her before we started, one of the things I am so thankful for for this podcast is that I get to meet the most interesting, wise, ambitious, and kind people. I wrote that in my journal this morning, just to appreciate that I get to know them, I get to read their books, and then you get to hear from them. So today is pretty special. Dawn has written a book and I've read it twice, and it's on leadership. And just let me tell you really fast, two things. Stay with me. Because even if you're not in a job with an official leadership title, we are all leaders in some way, especially if faith is important to you. We are all leaders in modeling God's love, God's purpose for our lives. Whether you're a mother or a grandmother or an aunt or a neighbor or a father, we are all in a position where we can be leaders. And as Dawn says in her book, most people are leaders, but very few people are good leaders. And actually, the statistics back that up. A survey in June of 2025, the most recent one I could find, 48% of workers said they felt undervalued by their boss. Undervalued, not just in terms of money, but in terms of their contribution. So leadership is super important. Let me tell you quickly about Dawn. I can read her bio to you and I will. But here is the sign of a good leader. Dawn is the regional vice president of one of the largest real estate companies in our country, Keller Williams. She in the Southeast, the largest region, she manages 17,000 realtors. You know someone's a good leader when one of the 17,000 people who work for them contact you and say, Stephanie, you have to have this woman on your podcast. I was not contacted by a publicist or Don. I was contacted by someone who saw an amazing leader. And I'll tell you, my friend, I have a lot of respect for her. She is a wise, ambitious woman. And I thought if she thinks she's a good leader, she is. So that's a whole lot just to tell you, your half hour of listening to this is going to be one of the best investments you've made this week. Here's her official bio. Dawn is a god-made entrepreneur. Did you get that? Not a self-made. She's a god-made entrepreneur and businesswoman. After building a successful coffee shop franchise in Louisiana, she found a passion in real estate. As regional director of Keller Williams Realty, the top performing Southeast region, she oversees 17,000 realtors and she speaks and coaches around the world. Okay, guys, in her spare time, like what's that? She runs ultra marathons and she lives in the Georgia metro area, Atlanta metro area with her husband, Manley. So, Don, welcome. That was a very long intro, but you're worth it. Thank you so much for giving us your time to be here today.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, I'm so excited to be a part of your community, Stephanie. I've been waiting for this opportunity just to see you and speak with you. I'm a fan and I'm just honored to be here today.
SPEAKER_00:Well, thank you so much. And I told Don before I started, I've read her book twice. The first time I read it and I took notes. The second time I read it with a highlighter. And there is so much in here. What I'd like to do today, Dawn, is the title of her book is Trailer Park CEO. Don grew up in a trailer park. I learned a whole lot about what that world is from her book. Trailer Park CEO, 12 Leadership Cornerstones to Become a Godly Woman of Influence. This book is directed towards women. And when I first read that and I first started reading it, I was kind of, oh Don, I don't know if women are really like that. And then I thought, oh yes, we are. Oh, yes, we are. Don't pretty honest about how we can up our leadership game and why that's a benefit to the people we lead. So what I'd like to do, Don, is to quickly let's go through your 12 cornerstones because that's so super helpful. This book is so practical. She says the purpose of her book is to equip women with the tools they will need to become successful leaders and grow their influence in life and in business, if that's where you happen to be. And so she goes through the whole book and lists what she calls stones of leadership. Don, tell us why you call it stones of leadership.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Well, it really starts back for my trailer park season and my life and as part of an escape out of that trailer park. And when our listeners get to read the book, they'll just learn about those some of the things that happen when you're in poverty. There's addictions, abuse, all the things. And um, and so my escape was always into the woods. And so even at a very, very young age, I would seek nature, seek, I didn't know at that time I was seeking God and finding his peace out there. But I now know as I've gotten older, that's where sometimes we can really connect really well with God. And I would pick up these stones and I would just like as a little kid make this little path along the way and play with these rocks and stones. And um, and they were just like it was like my peace and my client at a young age. Well, as I've gotten older, I realized that I was doing the same thing, but picking up leadership principles from other people that I could now lay down in front of me and say, okay, this is something that I need to work on. You know, while all leaders are born, and you know, people actually are leaders born. Like, yes, we're all born. We might not always have the skills that we need to become that great leader, right? And so I called them the stones because I did the same thing with my leadership skills that I did when I was young. I was picking up these stones and laying them down for a path that I could follow. And that even as I was navigating different things in my career, I can always go back and look at this path and pick up these stones and being able to say, okay, how do I apply grit right now? How do I fail forward? That's the hardest one, I think, for a lot of people when we get stuck in becoming from a good leader to a great leader is that we don't know how to necessarily fail forward. And so picking up those stones allowed for me to have something tangible in my hand that is a memorial stone, but also apply those leadership principles. So that's why I decided to call it that because people sometimes need a visual in order to pick up the principle. And um, and so it just made sense for my life. That's just something I did naturally.
SPEAKER_00:And it is really helpful as a reader, I found, to have these outlined. And you give a great, you know, really good stories and examples that I could relate to as I was reading it. But for all of us, I said to my husband this morning, I really did not understand the culture of living in a trailer park. So that was eye-opening for me. If you could just give us a little bit of color into what that was like for you, your mother's experience and and how you helped, that I think would be a great starting point for people to realize that it is possible to develop even if you're not born a naturally.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yes. Well, and something I I really wanted to, the message to come out of the book is it doesn't matter where you came from, and actually it doesn't even matter where you are right now, you can be where you want to be, but more importantly, where God wants you to be by following some of these principles. And so I actually was a product of a statistic. And so statistically speaking, we know that when teenage pregnancies happen generally lead to poverty. So my mom was 15 years old when she became pregnant for me, my dad was 18. And so that is what landed us into that trailer park because at that age of trying to decide of how to navigate, becoming, you know, young kids, becoming parents and navigating that world that led us into that. And it just it's like a generational thing too, um, Stephanie, because you know, their mindset was now this teenage pregnancy, you know, new family. Well, they had two more kids as young, young adults. And so that just led us into our entire lives of being able to navigate the trailer park, right? And so in the trailer park scenario, you that's what you have. You have people that are navigating life a hard way. And so sometimes that's where addictions show up, abuses. You know, I am grateful for the work ethic I have learned out of that trailer park because you saw people get up and have to work because they really were trying to put food on the table. And um, what most of our listeners might not know is that most of the trailer parks, people don't own the trailers, they're renting. And so it's also like making rent every single month and how to do that. So we were on welfare, we were on food stamps, we were on all the things of need. You know, we had such lack in our life. And so when I was navigating those seasons of my life and going through it, you know, you learn what not to do, but you don't know what to do to get out. And this is why so many people in poverty can't break the generational curse of poverty. They don't know actually how to get out of it. And I am so grateful. I'll talk in the book about role models and mentors that came into my life that started to show me something different and that I could question and look at and say, okay, that's different than what I currently have. How do I get that? How do I step out of that and be able to have good? And so for me, that's I am grateful. That's what led for me to be where I am today.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. And just to throw in some quick details, Dawn's father was disabled at a young age. Her mother had to work, her mother drove a great distance, was it an hour to an hour and a half to her job. Dawn worked part-time jobs as a student to contribute$50 a week to her family. She didn't take any out for her own spending money. It all went to help pay the bills. So you learned at an early age that bills have to be paid and you have to work to get it. What I love is that Dawn's the first person in her family to ever graduate from high school. She's also the first person in her family, obviously, to have graduated from college. And so when you had people, teachers in high school who recognized your promise, when Dawn went to college, yes, she was on a scholarship, but you know, you need money for other things. A teacher gave her$100 to buy the stuff she needed for her dorm room. I so love that. How can we look around for people who could use a little bit of a boost and give them$100 that Dawn is later, all these years later, writing about in a book? So I've gone on too long, but so much to learn. And what I love, what you just said, was that it really doesn't matter where you start. It matters you you can get to where you want to get. This book actually turned my thinking around about a project I've been sitting on that I want the outcome, but I haven't been willing to put in the work. And I read her book and I thought, oh my gosh, Stephanie, you love the outcome. Just put a little bit of grit. So we're gonna start out. Her 12 stones of leadership. Your first one is grit. I told my husband this one too. Guess what time Dawn gets up every morning? 4 44 a.m. That she's not an insomniac. It's because it matters to her to spend time with God and read the Bible in the morning, and it matters to her to get her exercise, but she still has to start work at an early time. So she just backs it up and she does that every morning. That's called grit. Talk to us quickly about grit and we'll go through the 12.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Well, I love that you brought up that I get up at 444 in the morning because so many people don't ask me something like, Don, why 444? And it's really about intentionality. And so often we want and have the good intentions to do big and good things, and yet we don't actually do them, right? That is just how we are. And so the 444 was intentionality. It is like it is a specific time. It's not 430, it's not 445. It is a specific time to get up so that I know that I'm being intentional with my time. And that leads us to the grid. So so many people know how to work hard today. They have good work ethic, they've been modeled bad, they've done that, and they grind, they get up and they know how to grind. And then we see so many people burn out, or all of a sudden they were really passionate about something, Stephanie, and then it's gone. Like they're not like, I don't even want to do that anymore. Well, what I have discovered, and I've experienced that in my life, and what I've discovered from a lot of other successful people when I was talking to them is that really the difference was is that they weren't having grit on purpose, right? They didn't really identify their purpose in their life and the grit that goes with that purpose. And so many of us wake up every day, and especially coming out of the trailer park, when you're always in survival mode, you're just like grabbing the next opportunity to make a paycheck. And so you don't think about the things you want to do, you think about the things that you have to do. And I know right now in our world, some of our listeners are probably sitting in that space, inflation's up. It's hard. I mean, the cost of milk and eggs these days, you know, putting food on the table is expensive right now. And so they're like, Don, and I have all of these passions and desires, but I got to worry about putting milk and eggs on the table, right? And so when we look at those things, when we have to do those things, we push our desires to the side. And then we just grind and then we burn out and we feel like we're in that rat race. Well, I didn't want to be in the rat race anymore. I wanted to be able to wake up every day filled with that passion on my purpose. And so I talk about in the book is finding out what that purpose is, finding what your why is, which I call it is your calling. I believe as a woman of faith, we all have our purpose. It's defined, it's very clear. But how do we apply our calling into the world today? And so that is what I grit on now. It is a grit on my calling, on purpose. It fires me up every day to get up and to be able to do those things.
SPEAKER_00:Well, you did motivate me to get up an hour earlier, but I'm not going to tell you what time that is because it's probably lunchtime for you. Just an extra hour in your day, how much you can accomplish. That's right. Leaders fail forward. We are all so afraid of failing. So afraid of failing that we don't even start. So talk to us. You said, I just love it. Failure is not a reflection of who we are. If we could truly believe that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Well, you know, that was a really big one. And often I get asked in interviews now, it's like which stone is my favorite? And you know, it's hard. It's like picking a kid. Picking a stone is so hard. And fail forward has to be my favorite because it was the hardest one for me to overcome. I always positioned failing as with a lot of shame, embarrassment. I physically left that trail apart, but for many years, Stephanie, I mentally did not leave. It was very easy for me mentally to go back to that trail apart. And so when I would hit failure moments, I would think sometimes too, oh my goodness, I'm physically going to end up back there because I'm failing. I'm not moving forward. And so that would sometimes paralyze me into being able to move forward. And then finally, I got some wisdom, very, very wise words from a mentor of how to fail forward. And I started to think about how do I reframe it? Because the emotions are real, the shame that we feel. And so I actually have a little acronym that I'd love to share with our listeners that helped me reframe the word fail. And the very first one is the with the letter F is forgive. I had to actually learn how to forgive myself for the situation that I was at hand. Like looking at it, it's like, okay, Don, it's not a sin. I didn't sin. It was a mistake or I messed up or just didn't make a good decision on how to move forward with that leadership position or decision that I had to make. So I had to learn how to forgive so that I could A, accept it. And that is the hard part too, because accepting it means you have to own it. You have to actually acknowledge it. You can't be a victim, you can't blame it away, you can't make excuses for it. You have to accept it. And then once you've accepted it, that allows for what I think is the hardest part. And this is the step that I think a lot of people struggle with and being able to fail forward is inspecting it. See, inspection is like reflection, right? And many of us don't want to reflect because it brings up emotion. Sometimes that shame shows up, right? And sometimes it's that's where you have to be vulnerable and being able to look at those things. Well, the inspection part is so important because it allows for you to recognize patterns in our life. I started realizing that I still had trailer park patterns, that while I was navigating these leadership roles, I had trailer-park patterns that were not serving me well. That if I did not change those patterns, I physically was going to end up back there. Right. And so that allows for the L in the word fail being learn. So I started to learn, started to study my decision making, started to study. Like, was I hangry whenever I made that decision? Did I really do need to get some more sleep in? I need Dawn, you need sleep in order to not make decisions like that. And now I look at failing forward as the key to success. Because Stephanie, you I'm sure in your life you have failed. We have all failed. And successful people stack all of these failures up and know how to fail forward. And now, if you look at us like it's the secret sauce, we should wake up every day, like, how do I fail more? Right. Because I know through that failure will lead to a better dawn. And so now it is my favorite stone. I've learned how to reframe it. Not that it's easy, it is still hard. These things are not easy. Yet I'm willing to do the hard work to reframe it so that I can fail forward and do great things.
SPEAKER_00:That's right. High achievers reframe failure. That's what you said in your book, and that's what I wrote down. Instead of, you know, just hiding and saying I can't try this again. I realized when I was looking at the time, maybe we can't do all 12. I am going to ask you about a few that I love. Okay, Dawn, my favorite one. Cornerstone number six is effective communication. Now remember, this book was written to women. And Dawn explains that in the beginning. You know, I am writing this to women, and she started kind of describing typical communication patterns with women. And I I told you I was feeling a little defensive when I was reading that. And then I thought, oh my gosh, she is exactly right. You have an acronym I love. I need to put it on my husband's forehead because I'll see that. It's wait, W A I T, and it stands for why am I talking? Okay, Don, I so love that. You take over on this one. This was good.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I will tell you, this was a hard one for me to learn because, you know, for me, it's like sometimes when I I, well, first of all, I process out loud, Stephanie. And so when these, you know, ideas would come in, or if I was in conversations, I was like, ooh, let me tell you, let me tell you, because I would be so excited about the things that I was learning and and and applying in my life that I would just start vomiting all of these things. And sometimes I would realize that by people's faces, I could see their faces like, ooh, and then I would be the person, like, how do I shove words back in my mouth? Like, how do I take that back? Well, let me rewind, like, you know, do the instant replay and go back and edit, do some things on that. Well, in live action, you can't do that. And so I had to learn how to be how to be quiet in conversations, which means that I could listen. And so I now often I say in the book, I will sit on my hands when I need to control the passion inside of me. I will actually sit on my hands, and that's actually just a little like a memorial stone for myself to say, Dawn, hold on, let the other person speak. Let them process their thoughts and get all of their communication out before I jump in and start offering advice, coaching, judgment, opinions, all the things that we do before we allow for someone to be heard. And I also realize this in ministry and working with a lot of women, sometimes we just want to be heard. Sometimes we just want to want other people to listen. Well, I found that sometimes I was talking more than them and I didn't give them an opportunity to even speak. And so I was like, okay, I have to stop and say, why am I talking? And I'm talking to add value, I'm talking to be the salt of the earth, and I have to allow other people to do the same. And so for me, that was huge and allowed for me not to go on and on and on and to make sure that my words were seasoned with salt and that they were impactful and intentional when I was speaking to people.
SPEAKER_00:And you said, you know, read the room. And you also talked about, you know, preparation. And if you're not prepared, you talked about, you know, women who are just going on and on and on, as you said, processing out loud. I experienced this, I was on a charity board years ago, and I would be talking too much when I realized, wait a second, this is not the arena for this conversation. This is a side conversation before or after the meeting. You're not going to take up all 25 people's time processing out loud. Where so many of the other people on the board were businessmen and they're they were very good at what you're talking about. So that's why am I talking? Wait. You also talked about negotiations. I love this. Okay, let's say someone, I just said that 48% of people feel undervalued by their boss. And you said it's kind of a female thing, perhaps, or maybe I shouldn't say female thing. Let's say an I don't know, inexperienced thing to go into your boss and say, I work so hard, I work so many hours, I should get XYZ because of that. And you're like, no, it's not about working hard, it's about demonstrating the value you provide, specific data that shows the value you provide. That's the only thing that matters. Really retraining people to learn how to be successful negotiators. Could you elaborate on that? Because this is what we have to do.
SPEAKER_01:It is. And actually, this is a key point in becoming a great leader, Stephanie, because often it's natural for us to do the checklist mindset of regurgitation of what we've done, right? Let me give you the checklist because we're all so wired as humans that we and maybe our listeners don't even know that if you're a checklist person, you want to write everything down. And if you do something that wasn't written down, you might go back and write it down just so you could check the box, right? We have this checklist mentality sometimes of like all of these things add up and equate to our value, right? And the reality is that when we go through a checklist, a lot of times our bosses or our coworkers or people that we're working on projects with, they're like, okay, well, that's part of the job. Like that's actually you're supposed to do those things. That is what you're being paid for. And what I started to realize is that sometimes we, especially as women, we don't know how to tell our story well. We don't know how to show our value. And so we go into this defensive mode of checklists instead of saying, okay, let me show you what went well. Let me show you how this progressed. Let me show you like the growth of this. So, like in the business world, a lot of times for me, it's like, let me show you the month over month percent increase that we had or the year over year increase that we've had, right? And so those things are measurable that look like, okay, that's moving the needle forward. That's actually showing the progress. People are not interested in how we got there. They actually just want to know the end result, right? And so in our negotiations, we have to, Stephen Covey wrote a great book about it, start with the end in mind, right? The seven habits of highly effective people. We have to start about what do we want the ultimate outcome to be? And what is the the clearest, most concise way to get to that outcome and show how we've done that. And that is what's super important because when we start doing the checklist, people get lost in it. You know, in real estate, when we're going back and forth in negotiations, if we list way too many things, a buyer or seller be like, oh, just pick one. Like I, you know, they just want to start to negotiate one, like, okay, but that's not even the one we should negotiate. We need to negotiate this. So now I'm gonna learn like what's the most important thing that I want to have the outcome on. That's what I focus on. All the other stuff, it's not that it's not relevant, it's just not important for that discussion.
SPEAKER_00:I'm thinking of this as I told you, I have this outcome that I really want, and how do I get there? Yeah. So this is why I love this podcast. I'm it's improve my podcast, is what it says. A couple of things that it was at the end, which I thought was interesting. Okay, and it was two things. One is optimism and faith. So optimism, you call it extreme practical optimism, not toxic, but practical. I so love this. Could you please elaborate on that?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well, you know, a lot of people when they look at optimism, and I ask, and I speak a lot, and I'll say, okay, what it what do you think is the definition of optimism? And everyone responds, glass half full, right? We have that, we we label optimism as glass half full. So we label the opposite of optimism as glass half empty, right? And that's not a reality of how we live our world. If we lived our world half full or half empty, where are the gray areas? Where's the overflow areas? And what I learned is that when I approached life with extreme optimism, practically, but extreme optimism, it's like a glass that's overflowing, Stephanie. It is where I have this abundance of hope and joy, but it also comes from scripture because I believe in Romans 8.28 that good will come out of all things. Well, if that's truth, and I believe that that is truth, then I have to approach everything with extreme optimism of a glass overflowing. I don't have to um, I don't have to worry about all of that, all the details that need to happen because I know good will come out of it. And here's the other cool part about it. I have learned that when I have extreme optimism and I'm surrounded by people who haven't learned this yet, or maybe they're going through a very difficult season, I can loan them some of my optimism. And that word is exhortation, right? I can incur that's where encouragement comes in. I can come alongside them and say, I can see that you're not believing this right now. I can see that you're lacking hope. I can see that you need this encouragement. Well, guess what? I have a cup that's overflowing, and I just want to come alongside of you and loan some of this so that I can bring you up to your optimism levels, right? And I can bar that you see that God is good and that he is going to do great things through this. So that's why I think as a leader, we have to. I mean, look at what all the things we're navigating in the world today, right? And if you don't have this optimism, you could sit in your home and listen to the news and this one, and like the world is about to end and life is going to be miserable, or I'm not, you know, be able to, like all the negativity that comes in. And I believe that there's still great things happening. I believe that there's great people and good people in this world. And I believe that there's people like you and I and our listeners that are doing amazing things. And that's because we wake up every day and we know that we have the optimism that is overflowing, that overflows all the negativity, all the things that are happening in the world, and we believe that this is still a great time to be alive.
SPEAKER_00:I'm gonna agree with you and say, you know, sometimes people say, Oh, Stephanie, you're spiritual bypassing. What does that mean? Oh, you're just, you know, skipping over all these problems in the world, Don, that I can't fix anyway. And I don't think I'm adding to. And, you know, Jesus said, You will have trouble. This world will have trouble. So why am I responsible for fixing that? But your practical optimism can impact other people's lives. That's right. Complaining about the negativity in the world probably isn't going to do a whole lot except be contagious and make other people feel bad. So it's not that I don't care. It's just that sometimes I feel like having our attention dragged to the negative, awful things of the world is that kind of, I mean, I I don't talk about Satan a lot, but is that kind of pulling us away on purpose instead of saying, hey, what can I contribute? That's right. That's right. Extreme practical optimism. Maybe you don't manage 17,000 people, but maybe you have kids, maybe you have nieces or nephews, maybe you have a husband who's crabby. There's all kinds of ways for this to overflow and spill over. Well, your final stone, which is really has been clear throughout this entire conversation, is your faith. And I have to say, people, Dawn, when she was in junior high and high school, there was a church next to the trailer park. And she saw people going in there one day and she just followed them in, not really knowing what it was about. And she ended up going to church by herself throughout her entire school years. If that's not God reaching out for you, I don't know what it. Is, but your faith has been your foundation this whole time. And I'd love to talk about that because people might be listening to this thinking, I have to do this, I have to do this, I have to do this, all in my own strength. And if you could talk about your outlook, I think it would be so relieving for people.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah. Well, how I got to even writing about this stone is that reflection and looking back over my life. And when you look back over your life and you can see God's hands, even when you didn't know him, when I was not a believer, I was not surrendered to him. But I could look back, I was like, oh wow, did he protect me in that situation? Or oh wow, did that like Psalm 119, 105 says, the word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. I can look back and say, oh my goodness, he was shining such heavy, bright lights on my path that it made me follow that. That and when I wasn't, he got it even brighter. So he's like, wait, Dawn, you're not seeing where I'm trying to send you. And as the good shepherd, he would use his rod and staff and he would guide me. Well, when I reflected over that, I was like, okay, I can see why I didn't know it was faith. I was faithfully following his light. And then when I became a believer and I surrendered my life to Christ, that's where I could lean into past experiences of where he was so good. And I was able to say now, like, okay, Lord, if this is your will, this is the will that I want, and be able to redirect my steps is what I did. And so for me, um, faith is so foundational. I don't even know how people get through things without it, Stephanie. Like the hardships, we all have hardships, we all have deaths, we all have grief, we all have setbacks, we all have these things in our life that are real and painful. And I know that through my faith, that doesn't matter what the world hands me, God is there with his hand to guide me and I can walk through it. Not that I can't be sad, not that I can't have grief, not that I can't have anger at times, not that I can't be disappointed. All of those emotions are real, but I know that I can hold on to my father's hand when I can't even take a step by myself and he will guide me and be able to pull me through. And that is the hope that I hope our listeners hear is that they don't need to walk alone, that they can reach their right hand up and grab his right hand and walk with him through whatever they're going through in their life right now.
SPEAKER_00:And that is the message I got from your book, and and she said this at the beginning of this, but memorial stones is what Don calls them. So can we all look back? Oh, I did this when I wrote my book. I looked back over my life, and then I saw all these clear examples of God's faithfulness. When you're going through stuff, it's hard to see it, but in retrospect, you can. And reminding ourselves, the older we get, the more examples we have of God's faithfulness, and hopefully the more we can rest in our faith because he hasn't let us down yet. And it is amazing when you look back and think, how that little girl walked into a church just because people were going in there. I hope they had graham crackers.
SPEAKER_01:But yeah, I went to Sunday's. Yes.
SPEAKER_00:So I have taken more of your time than I said, but you can see why I have. Could you tell people how to find you and how to get your book? And you're she's also a speaker, as you can see that she's doing some really cool things. She's we haven't even gotten to it. You and your husband are starting or have planted a church in South Africa and their goal, they are working towards having a retreat center where people can experience sabbaticals. We haven't talked about that, but there's a whole lot more to learn about Don. I would just encourage people to get this book. Get this book and read it yourself and then give it to a friend. Because if more of us could approach life with the overflowing cup of optimism and this kind of faith and this kind of others focus instead of self-focus, can you imagine what the world would be like?
SPEAKER_01:So good. So good. Well, I would love, love to connect with our listeners and today. I'm on all the social handles, so they can absolutely go to Insta or Facebook and they'll find me, but also a website. It's called trailerparkco book.com. It is a website that they could follow as well and find me through that. They'll learn more about the book. But one of the greatest joys that I've had, Stephanie, in this new journey is when our listeners connect with me and I have had people send me pictures of their stone. They took and got a stone and they wrote whatever one of the stones was most important to them or that they're working on and shared pictures with me, or maybe a situation that they were going through. They actually went and got a stone and wrote that situation on a stone and put it in front of them so that they could see it as a memorial stone in front of them. And just the other day, someone mailed me, mailed me a stone that spoke to them and remind after reading in the book of something that spoke to them. And so I just want to encourage our listeners of something tactical, go out into your yard, find a stone, and take one of these things that speak to you and write on it, or write a current situation that you're going through, write it on that stone as a memorial stone and put it in front of you because you're an overcomer. I know God is promising Ephesians 3.20 for all of us an abundance, immeasurably more than we could ever imagine. And I just um cannot wait to hear the stories and connect with our listeners to see how God will use this book because it's his book. It might be my story, but it's his book to be able to impact the lives of others.
SPEAKER_00:That is so beautiful. I already know what I'm writing on my stone. I'm writing it on my desk. I'm all excited. Thank you so much for your time. All of these links will be in our show notes, but I think that if people can just remember TrailerPark CEO Book.com, I'll have that too. So thank you so much. I appreciate it. I wish you the best of luck with this book. I know it's going to be a huge success in terms of numbers, but the impact is something you'll never really fully know this side of heaven. But I know it's going to have great impact. Oh, thank you so much. Oh, it's been a joy. Thank you so much, Stephanie.
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