How We Got Here Part 1: Kenny's Story Part 1

It all started because I hated writing. I'm not joking, I really, really hated writing. To quote my mom, "it was weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth to get you to write one paragraph." Yeah, you could say I was a wee bit dramatic.

I had always loved reading, but when it came to the other end of it, writing, it was the bane of my existence. I don't exactly recall why I despised it so much, I simply did. That is until I created a world, The Middle Lands, which would change and evolve over the years to follow. It was meant as a simple school project, presented by my mom, (my ever faithful teacher through years of homeschooling.) Shortly after crafting this new world, I met a young author named McKenzie Wagner. Only a few years older than me, she had published her first book, and I took that as a challenge. I figured if she could do it, I could do it.

Over the next year or so, between the ages of 11 and 12, I steadily worked at crafting a novel, The Stones of The Middle Lands. With a great deal of encouragement and at time pushing from my parents, I wrote a couple chapters a week until I finally completed the book. And then promptly put it in a drawer and mostly forgot about it, a nice curio of a younger me. That is until opportunity came knocking at our door when I was 14.

While attending a local home school co-op group (where homeschooling parents help each other to teach their kids various subjects,) my mom happened to start talking with another mom, Kendra Smith. Kendra, as it turns out, had just started a small independent publishing house named Teapots Away. Hearing this, my mom mentioned how I had written a novel, and Kendra said she would love to read it if we were willing. She read my novel, and to our surprise and delight told us that she would love to publish it if we were willing to rewrite it to update the language and plot line.

Over the next year, we worked closely with Kendra and Teapots Away, revising and crafting my book, renaming it The Castaway Hero. Finally, we had a product we could be proud of and released my book April 26th, 2019, less than a month before I turned 16. The local media outlets even picked up our story and did some articles on me and my book. We found some moderate success, a few minor paychecks, and I was sold on writing as a career.

Fueled by the success of The Castaway Hero, we signed on for several more books in the series and got to work. Alongside my new writing success, I also started a podcast I called Writers World. I quickly burned out after three episodes of hosting it by myself, so I looked to finding a co-host as a way to revitalize it and give me some degree of accountability. I found that in my friend Melissa Fales. With her at my side as co-host, we relaunched Writers World as a co-hosted podcast.

Then, disaster struck in 2020 with a worldwide pandemic. Teapots Away went under as a result of supply chain issues caused by the pandemic, and we were left high and dry with several finished books and a launch party that didn't launch anything. I was crushed, but a small following on Writers World kept me going. Melissa and I continued to create the show, slowly growing our audience to a couple hundred people around the world. We both enjoyed creating the show and sharing our young insights into writing.

Comments like this one sustained me and helped me realize I could make an impact on people through podcasting: "Dude this podcast changed my life. I used to hate writing, now I hate it less... Keep up the good work and have a great day."

From that point on, I pivoted. I started having ideas for new podcasts I could make, ones that could make an impact, teach people, and change lives. While I didn't have the resources or expertise to do it while still in high school, I started recruiting, and brought on two of my good friends, Kaden Shipley and Trever Dyches as potential future partners in my grand plan of creating the world's best podcast network.

But before anything could happen, I had plans to serve a mission for my church. In August of 2021, I was called to preach God's word in Italy, and so I put all my plans on hold. I kept all my ideas written down, tucked away for after my mission, and in November of 2021, I left home to travel on a life-changing journey of 2 years...

Find out the rest of my story next week!