Reinventing Your Life at 62: A Story of Legacy and Courage

Roll! With the new My Lowe's Pro Rewards American Express Card, earn 3 points per dollar spent on Lowe's qualifying purchases for the first 6 months after card account opening. Plus, save 5% every day on eligible purchases at Lowe's and earn points on eligible purchases everywhere else Amex is accepted. Card members get more at Lowe's. Subject to credit approval. 5% can't be combined with any other offer. Exclusions and restrictions apply. Points subject to loyalty terms at lowes.com/terms and credit reward terms at synchrony.com/mlpra-terms. Visit lowes.com/businesscredit. Welcome to CJ Moneyway Media, a storytelling platform built brick by brick where conversations become lessons and experiences become perspective. This is the mindset of a panther, moving with patience, discipline, and purpose. From podcasts to books to media storytelling, CJ Moneyway brings voices, journeys, and real conversations to the forefront. You're now listening to the CJ Moneyway Show. What's up, my good people? Welcome to the CJ Moneyway Show, powered by CJ Moneyway Entertainment and GI, the state's capital. This is your boy CJ Moneyway. And be on the lookout for my podcast, Planting Seeds with CJ. That was in my show notes. I wasn't planning for that to be in there, but it was, so I had to put it in there, where we share stories of purpose, transformation, and legacy. Today we're talking about what it means to retool your life. Our guest didn't find his calling in his 20s or 30s. He found it in the 60s after working decades at two Fortune 500 companies. Retirement wasn't the end. It was just the beginning. He's now a published author with 3 books under his belt and the 4th on his way. His message is never too late to tell your story. So how you doing, Kev, man? Welcome to the show today, man.

Hey, CJ, thank you very much. Doing well. And I was prepping a little bit for the show and I went through a lot of your past episodes and man, you've had some pretty phenomenal people on, from doctors to dentists to world travelers, even a weightlifting champion. Champion. So I kind of said, whoa, you know, I'm the one who feels privileged and honored to be here today. So thank you very much, CJ. I really do appreciate it.

I know about— I appreciate you taking the time to look at some of the shows. Everybody do. I was interviewed for a podcast tonight, a network of some sort, and they brought that bodybuilder lady up too. I said, everybody remember her, you know, because that was something. Her story was amazing too. On what she had to go through to endure what she did to get to where she got to, man. And so, you know, that's why I like bringing people like yourself on, man, to tell your story and, you know, to share your story with the world. People may see Kev where he is today, but they don't know some of the things, some of the hardships that you had to go through to get to where you are. And so that's what I like to highlight on the CJ Moneyway Show, man. It's all about you. And shout out to my man Kev, man, and his wife. Next year, that'd be 50 years. I thought that was something great. My man Kev don't even look like he no more than 50, but he told me he in his, um, 60s. I ain't gonna say how old, but he has a milestone class anniversary coming up real soon. I'll let you all do the math. So, Kev, man, let's jump into this, man. A new chapter begins.

Sure.

How did your retirement lead to the unexpected path of becoming an author?

Well, it actually came from my grandkids. They would come visit. And by the way, I have 6 grandkids, and they range right now from 17 to 7. And I just love when they come over to the house. They tease me and I tease them back, but it's a lot of fun. So what we would do is we would have them come over for visits. We'd also have them stay overnight a few times. And A lot of times when they did that, they would say, hey, Grandpa, tell us some stories of the past. What were you like as a kid? What did you do growing up? And so I'd give them the typical stories. You know, we didn't really have microwave. I didn't get a color TV or have one in the family until actually in the 1970s. Computers were not even thought of back then. And we played a lot of games outdoors. And I would tell them stories about this. I tell them stories how I had also managed to train 5 squirrels when I was a little kid to come take peanuts out of my hand. So thinking about all of this, CJ, I was wondering, would they remember a lot of these stories as they got older? So one day I started to sit down click clacking on the PC. And I wrote a short story called My Christmas in Rosemont. And it was just about a time I was maybe 16, 17, had a job. And I was buying Christmas gifts for the first time for the family with my own money. And the feeling and the thrills that gave me, and I handed that out to him that Christmas, it was the last gift after all gifts were handed out.. And so I had the one book wrapped up and I called my oldest grandson over because he had been the one more driving the questions, you know, about what I was like as a kid. So I called him over. I said, Caleb, this one's for you. I want you to open it up. Well, the look on his face and as he showed the family, the look on their face. And we had books for them too. But that just said everything to me. And I said, I'm going to start putting more of my stories down. And the next thing you know, I have my first book, Ilian, my, my childhood growing up in a bygone era was the first book. And it's about me through maybe 6 years, 7 years of age, up to 13, when my dad's job was transferred to Minnesota. And we wound up settling in Rosemount, Minnesota, our house out there. And so my second book, My Rosemont, Minnesota Memories: Teenage Years in My Shoes, that's about my time growing up out there. And that short story that I wrote for the kids was on Rosemont, Minnesota, and that's where we had settled out. So in going there, and what's interesting, CJ, is that had my dad's job not been transferred there, I would have never met my wife. These children probably would have met someone else and got married, and the children would be different. And, you know, just thinking about all that, it kind of makes you go, whoa, is this all serendipity that these kinds of things happen? And I tend to think and call them more signs. And that gets into my third book, Signs: The Veil is Thinner Than We Imagine. And you had a guest on your show. You didn't want to say her last name, but it was Diana Kokkalis.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I just did a second interview with her a few weeks ago. Yeah. Yeah.

So I was listening to that one. But what was interesting there, as I was listening, she talked about how somebody was asking her if she was going to write a book. And so she says, nah, I don't really know. And I guess she turned the page on the book she was reading. And there was a quote from JFK. And it said, if not us, who? If not now, when?

Yeah.

Was that another sign? Yeah. And I gotta say, CJ, I really was not a huge believer in a lot of this until it started happening more and more to my wife and myself. These things just started happening., and this guy has been my best friend from high school. Him and his wife come up for a visit. They were living in Florida. Unfortunately, CJ, his wife, has passed due to cancer, but we had him up to the house, and one of these events happened right in front of them, and there was no denying it. This was something that was not normal and not coincidence. This was, in our opinion, actually a sign. And so we, we talked about it. Their son is a Lutheran minister, so we got into a real good discussion on this, and they were a big believer. They have seen some of these things happen. Well, the more I started to dig into it, and I started to talk to people, CJ, that were in the Twin Towers on 9/11 You know, the day it's falling, and they were in the building as it's collapsing down around them. And that gentleman, Ron DiFrancesco, his story was just phenomenal. And he's actually been written up. I wrote about him in my book, but he's been written up in other books too. One called The Third Man Factor, where he had somebody talking to him. Nobody's there. Nobody's around them, but somebody's telling them, keep moving, get up and go, you can do this, blah, blah.

Why? Where?

What's doing this? And then as I researched it further, there was a comedian that when I was more of a teenager, 20 years of age, that kind of thing, Sam Kenneson. Sam was a child of a Baptist family. But Sam could get rather wild in his comedy. And one day he's traveling with his new wife, going to their next gig. He's in the lead car. There's another car right behind, which has the rest of the group in it, his brother and the other entourage. And all of a sudden, a car pulls out from the other lane to pass, smash head-on right into Sam. Well, his wife survives. Sam is laying there with his brother by his side. And the story kind of takes two turns there. But the basic gist of it is that Sam's laying there and he looks up like he's looking up to the corner of the room saying, no, no, no, I don't want to go.

No.

Then all of a sudden, he looks back up.

Okay.

Okay. All right. He's gone. Died right there. Who was he talking to? What was he talking to? So I get into this, into the book Signs, and it kind of dragged me in the more I got involved. There was a gentleman, Ed Curry, I interviewed. Ed was on a Mike Rowe podcast. You know Mike Rowe, Dirty Jobs guy? Well, he was on that. And Ed's telling his story. And when he's done, I said, oh, I got to get in touch with this guy. There's got to be more here. I got in touch with him. Ed was a full-blown addict at a young age. I'm talking drugs and alcohol. But as he describes it, he was good-natured and he was a functioning addict. And he went to college and he did stuff in chemistry and things like that. He had a job. But slowly, as you know, these demons worked their way in. It took over his life and it ruined it. His wife left him. He was there in his condo one winter day in Michigan, and this is in January. And he said, I gathered up my drugs and alcohol. I put them all on the table. I just wanted the pain to end. The next thing he says, there was a big vision at the door, a huge light, but he said the vision, the being, whatever it was, was brighter than the light that surrounded it. And all it told him was, go to Brighton Hospital. So long story short, he winds up going there, finds out it's a rehab, winds up staying there almost 3 years. He's now totally a recovered addict. And if you've heard of the Carolina Reaper pepper, one of the hottest peppers in the world.

Oh, okay. Okay.

He's the creator of it.

Wow.

And he's now working or has worked and developed his next pepper called Pepper X. And here's the neat part about it. Doctors are looking at that pepper for cancer research.

Mm-hmm.

And you think about all of this, and the more I got involved, I mean, I started looking into history, went back to the Egyptians, the Druids, over with the Viking lore, and I looked at cultures of China and Japan, India, and it's prevalent all over. This is not limited just to one religion. It is broader than that. The American Indian was really involved with a lot of it, the spirit world, whatever you want to call that. And the Irish folklore talk about it as being thin places, having these communications. And that's where my title is, The Veil is Thinner Than We Imagine, because of these type communications. And you can receive them in many, many different ways. But it's just interesting how that book drew me in. And I know I'm long-winded here.

No, no, you're good.

But that has been my journey of now from being retired, not really knowing what to do, my grandkids, you know, encouraging me in a way to develop these stories and the legacy now that I have for them and what I'm trying to do with my next book. For my first 3 books, CJ, I haven't really done the advertising the way some folks do. Go out on Amazon, pay for the ads, go out on Facebook, pay for the ads, LinkedIn, blah, blah, blah. Same thing. I've done it all free. And my 4th book is going to cover all of that. In fact, it's written now. I'm giving it the once-over. I'm playing with some cover designs, and pretty soon I will then hire the editor and hire the actual cover designer to put it all together for me, and that will be the fourth book that gets launched out there. So that's kind of been my journey to where I'm at right now.

All right, congratulations, Kev, man. Four books, man. What an interesting story. You were saying some things and you just had me sitting here thinking. First, I want to get back to the squirrels, man. You said when you was younger you trained squirrels to eat out of your hand. Now you say that you amazed by some of the guests that I've had on my show. I've never had anyone say that they was able to train squirrels to eat nuts out of their hands, man. That is something of itself. And don't think that that went over my head. I heard that and it stayed there. And then, you know, you were talking about the book Signs and how, you know, your family moved to Minnesota. And if you hadn't went to Minnesota, you wouldn't have found your wife. And, you know, then the kids that you had wouldn't have been the kids that you have, you know. And it's just amazing because as you were saying it, I thought about the same thing. And as you say, that vision and things of that nature. Just quick story, man. I was in Detroit myself. I was living in Detroit. Now I met my wife in 1992. We was in college. And then, you know, you made me think about it. I wasn't smart enough to go to college, but I was able to irk myself on in my last few years of high school and was able to go to college. That's why I met my wife. We had this— we were from the same area, but I met her in college. Had I not met her in college. Who would have known, you know, had we got married some 20 years later? But when I was in Detroit, that, that same, you know, voice and spirit was talking to me. I was in the room, I just started going back to church, and told me I had to go back home. And I'm not going back there. And divine things happen. I got fired while I was on my vacation. You know, I don't know if you ever seen the movie Friday, you say, well, you got to be a dumb to get fired on your day off. You know, I got fired when I was on vacation. But as you were saying about the signs, it was a And as I got older, you know, me and my wife finally got together and we got married. And I started thinking about the things that he had done. And it dawned on me, Kev, that if I had stayed in Detroit, I couldn't have stayed in Detroit because my wife was in Indiana. And so I couldn't be with my wife if she was in Indiana and I was in Detroit. And so, you know, things happen in life like that, man. So I'm with you on the signs and the things of that nature, man. Everything happens for a reason. He already knows before we know. He already got our life written out before we even know it. We don't know why things happening. We may think it's for one reason.

Exactly, CJ. And there's a quote that I like to say is that we're not human beings having a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings having a human journey.

Exactly. I totally agree with you on that.

Oh man, when I first read that— and it's been credited to a few different people. The one I first saw was by Stephen Covey, and that was a— he tweaked it a little bit differently, but there's been a few people with that kind of saying.

Yeah.

But when I first thought of that or heard it, read it, I had to sit back and think for— that puts a whole different perspective to things when you really think deeply about those words.

Yeah, we're not of ourselves, you know. We are of he who created us, and he created us for a reason and for a purpose, man. And I'm glad that you out there doing your— I found your purpose, man. You out there doing your thing. 50 years of marriage, another accomplishment too, man. So I can't take that away from you. I will keep bringing that up because that is a treat. And as we laugh behind stage, I don't know if me and my wife can go another 35 years, and she may say the same thing dealing with me. So, okay, man, let me ask Building a legacy through storytelling. As you were saying that, you know, your grandson wanted to know more about you. He was the one that was really intrigued about it. You gave him, you know, a book, and this is what decided how you started on your writing path. What did you discover about yourself while writing your memoir history pieces?

That's interesting, and I don't know if I discovered it, but I've always been kind of independent, doing my own thing, even from a young age. As I was, you know, recalling the stories, the town I grew up in, at its height, it had maybe 10,000 people in it. But everybody knew everybody. And if they didn't know you personally, they knew your parents and your grandparents. And I used to walk that town, 7, 8 years of age, No problem at all. People would watch out for you. And it was the typical small town. Now, the town is Ilian, New York, and that name might ring a bell with some people, and it may not be all that popular with some people. I don't know if you can see that sign right behind me here. Remington.

Mm-hmm.

Well, Remington Arms, that's the— Ilian is the birthplace of the Remington rifle. And the factory was up until last year, still active going in town. But due to— and it's, I mean, this is kind of politically incorrect in some places to speak about. But in most people's opinions in the town, as well as throughout the state, our town government kind of drove it out of the state. And it's now still manufacturing guns, but it's manufacturing in another state, and all those jobs went with it.

Mm-hmm—

But they used to have big green wrought iron fence all around their factory—and—as I kid you know 7-8 years of age—you're not very tall this thing was six foot so it's towering over me! And—I use take stick walk down sidewalk going against rod irons da-da-dah dahda Dahdada that issue go there yeah... Yeah? You now?! The town just offered everything. We had our own little movie theater, the, like the local Starbucks, but they also sold newspapers and cigars and other tobacco for the aficionados. And that was called Powers News. And, you know, the fire station had Santa Claus come at Christmas time and people would gather around it and different parades were on and None of that happening today. The town is kind of almost dried up in a sense. And I just wanted to leave that kind of memory for people, what it was like back then. And I'll tell you, CJ, that book, I got in touch with the local library back there. And they were more than glad to have the book on their shelves. And they received it in May of 2022. Well, in January of 2023, I'm getting an email from them stating that it was the number one checked out book for all of 2022 according to the main system that they have. So I mean, talk about feeling humbled. Yeah, that meant more to me than any amount of sales would ever do. Yeah, that my hometown folks wanted to hear my stories. That was just— ah, I still get a little choked up just talking about it.

This episode is brought to you by CJ Moneyway Media, where podcast ideas become platforms through the Moneyway Lab Masterclass. CJ shares real lessons from the lab for creators building their voices brick by brick. From powerful guest conversations, storytelling that inspires growth, CJ Moneyway Media is about one thing: building legacy through stories. Learn more at CJMoneyway.com. Music Store. Yeah, that's cool right there, because as they say, a lot of people, uh, what they say in scripture, that a prophet won't get honor in his own hometown. So when you do have, uh, your peers and people that you grew up with and people that you know, you, that's interested in the things that you have to say, that's a built-in win, man, because a lot of times they go to the wayside, you know, like I don't care what Kevin got to say, you know. What is he talking about that we didn't have or we haven't done already? But that's cool when people, you know, support you like that. And I also see behind you too, man, other than the Wilmington, I see that Signs book behind you too, man. Nice cover, nice cover. Yep, the Signs book, the Rosemount book.

I'll just slide out of the way if you can see it there.

Ah, he want us to see his book collection now, y'all. He's showing off now, he's showing off now, everybody. I hear you, man. I like it. I like the way you got it stacked up and designed, man. That's cool.

Yeah, yeah. It's the type of thing, CJ, I never thought I would be an author. Now, I've done a lot of genealogy for my family. And we have an author in the family. It was my great— let's see, it would be great-great-grandfather Isaac Hall wrote a post-Civil War book about his time in the Civil War.. And I said, well, geez, you know, there's an author right there. And now I'll go back, circle back to Diana Kokowska. And she was talking about, I wrote it down here, you know, limiting beliefs and how we as people have beliefs that limit our abilities. And in the publishing world, we have those same beliefs as an author. Called imposter syndrome. And we don't think that we're necessarily authors, that our books are good enough when you stack them up against those that, you know, are the number one rated books. Are we really worthy of the words we put down in print? And will people actually read them? And it's true, we all do go through that. But knowing my great-great-grandfather was an author, and now feeling that I truly am an author, I want to pass that on to, to the kids to say, look, you can be whatever you really want to be. Don't limit yourself. And just because you're going through a phase in life, like I retired at 60, I was fortunate enough through my jobs to, you know, save for my future and my wife's future. And we decided at 60, boom, that was it, I could retire. And I had a good career. I don't make any complaints about it. I really enjoyed a lot of what I did during my career. But then you turn 60, and it's like a new chapter. What do you do next? And so that's the message I kind of pass on to the kids. Don't let a change like that stop you in your tracks. Think about it. Take a little bit of time. I didn't know for 2 years until these kids, my grandkids, kept asking me what I did as a kid. And now here I am, an author of 4 books.

Man, that's what's up. And one thing you said, once you write that book and put it out there, man, ain't nothing they could do to take it away from you. And it just gives you a sense of Hmm, you know what I'm saying? Like, hey, I did it, I'm on Amazon. That book gonna be on Amazon way longer than I'm here and for generations to come. And who knows how many people you may touch over that time, you know, that even when we long gone, you know, your book could still be carrying on, man. It's still helping people, planting them a seed. So let me ask you, Kev, man, spiritual growth and historical fiction. What inspired the transition from personal memoirs to writing spiritual and historical fiction?

And that's one, CJ, I broached the subject a little bit earlier, but I felt compelled, like I was being dragged in, that I had to do this because of the events that were happening in our life. And the clincher was when I had my buddy and his wife up here and they saw it right there. I said, that's it. That's it. This is the last sign that's telling me I've got to write about this stuff. And so that's when I did and started doing the research. And I will say for the record, and I've said it in other occasions, I'm not hugely religious in that I don't read the Bible daily. I don't like a lot of the modern-day churches with the guitars and the drums and people showing up in everything from pajamas to suit and tie. I don't feel the reverence when you walk through those doors like I did as a kid. And I grew up Methodist. And when we walked through those doors, it was kind of like, I don't know if you're being compelled to do it, but it's like, all right, your head goes down and, you know, you just feel the spirit that's there. And I don't feel that a lot of modern-day churches— my wife and my kids, they go to church, I'll do this religiously. And, you know, when we have them all over the dinner, we have the prayer. And I do have my moments of prayer with God and do feel that he does hear and respond. And here's something I'll tell people who may not believe that he responds. Just understand, when he does, sometimes the answer is no. Because he's got something else in mind. He's got something else planned. And so with that, I just want to make sure people understand, I'm not writing and did not write the Signs book from a religious aspect. Though you can't write that kind of book without looking at religions. And I say that in the plural form, because I looked at a number of different religions, and it was amazing. There's a lot of similarity through them. Could all of them have just happened to write something similar? I've done a lot of statistics in my job, and the stats don't, don't go with that. Something had to be directing and guiding them. And when you look at a lot that's happened in the world, you do question it. And there is a plan for it. But the more and more I see different shows, I love to watch the Discovery Channel, Josh Gates, even William Shatner, Star Trek guy, he's got a couple of shows out there. There's another one, The Truth Is Out There. And then there's, of course, the ancient aliens have been around for a long time, Skinwalker Ranch. You know, things like that. I like to watch a lot of those shows. Because besides them kind of doing a little bit of sensationalism, there's history in it. And what is that history telling us? And I mean, I can't help but say, look, when some of these shows are aired and you see the message there, you gotta say timeout. This is really— unless they really scripted it, This is too much showing that there has been a design plan for all of this. That's my belief. I don't want to force it on people and I won't force it on people, but that's my belief. Yeah.

At the end of the day, all we can do is plant seeds and we can't make nobody take the seeds that we're planting. All we're commissioned to do, whether it's through writing, storytelling, things of that nature, whether you're talking to your grandkids, your kids, all we can do is plant seeds, man. And we just let God do the rest. Say some plant, some water. Together, but it's God who gives the increase. So all you do is playing your part, Kev, man. That's all we could do in life. But you said something and I forgot to mention it. You said something again about Diana. Yeah, and, uh, made me think about it because you say, oh, I took some notes. He made me think about it yesterday, or it was day before yesterday. I was just riding home from work. I was talking to myself, as we talked about. I was talking to myself and I say, man, you know people better start listening because the podcast is not about me. And so, you know, about you guys and the stories and the inspiration that you guys bringing. And I say, man, y'all better start taking notes, you know what I'm saying, on what some of the people— because I got a lot of financial people coming on now, you know, that's been coming on recently. And I said, man, people better start taking notes, you know, on what's going on on the CJ Moneyway Show. You made me think about it when you say, hey, You're like, wait a minute, CJ, I took some notes here, you know, I took some notes of what she was saying. And so that was just confirmation for me, you said that because you were taking notes, man. I appreciate you checking it out like that, man. I really appreciate it. So, Kev, I ain't gonna hold you not too much longer, man.

I'm good, CJ, for as long as you want to go, man. But I know you need a little bit more rest, baby, before going to work.

Where can we find your book? And where can we find you on social media? All right, well, I'll start with the social media.

I'm on Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit. My website is kevin-hall.com, and if you go to that, you will find links to my books. You can look me up on, like I said, Facebook or LinkedIn. I'm also in many groups on those sites, and the books are on Amazon Barnes Noble, IngramSpark has distributed them out to a number of places. I found them— you can do a search on walmart.com, target.com. The books, once you do broad distribution, they get sent out, or the folks can order them, because there's folks that don't like ordering necessarily from Amazon, and I can understand that. But Amazon, you got to understand, they started as a book distributor. Years and years ago. That was their main foray, and they are the largest in the industry. And the problem sometimes is for the independent author like myself is your book title gets lost in amongst all the millions of books that are out there. And there's about 4 million book titles created a year. That's quite a bit, but A lot of them are not necessarily new authors. There's authors that have written, you know, 4 books like myself. There's authors that have written 30, 40, 50, and more books. And so all of those go out there. Really, the way I kind of like to see it, help out an independent author. They are really doing it themselves, everything from writing the book. Some of them edit it. I don't really advocate for that. You do need separate eyes to re-look over your book, but some of them do everything and put it out there. Really help out an independent author. I guarantee you there's plenty around your hometown, wherever you're living in this country. And I do know my books have gone around the world. I've sold some in Australia, I've sold some in England, so I'm very, very happy about that. So that's really where you can get me.

Hey, and that's from a man that said that he didn't do too much marketing advertisement, but he said that his book has been distributed worldwide and he has also sold books in Australia. So Kev, I don't know, man. I don't know if I believe you when you say you ain't been marketing like that. You all around the world, man. You known globally, man. You known globally.

Well, I gotta tell you, CJ, like, your show I've been on podcasts in other countries, and as an end result of that, that's why my books are selling there too. So I love talking about them. I wish we were closer. As I tell folks, I would love to have everybody come on over, grab a beverage or two, sit around the campfire. We just sit and chat, have a good old time.

Hey, when I'm close to New York, man, and then Rochester, I make sure to hit you up, man, to come have a cup of Kool-Aid, man, a cup of Kool-Aid, or My son drink Dr Pepper, I drink Coke and Pepsi. So on you, when I come to Rochester, man, I'm gonna come catch it.

All right, you got it. You come here and who knows, you might even have to go grab a garbage plate.

Wait a minute, no, I don't know about the garbage plate, but you will have to teach me how to train squirrels to eat out of my hand. I think that is amazing. So let me ask you one more question, man, and then I got a quick fire round while I ask you 5 questions and you just say the first thing that comes to your mind. I've been playing this game since the beginning of the year. It's been a kind of a unique game and the guests been liking it, man. So I've been keeping it in the show notes. So we'll get to that. But let me ask you this, Cam. The power of reinvention. What advice do you have for anyone sitting on an idea or calling but feeling like their time has passed?

Oh, no, no. Don't feel like that. You really investigate it, put the effort and work into it to really determine has it passed or hasn't it. Because one of the worst things in life is when you get to the end and said, I wish I would have. So definitely explore it, dig into it, and who knows where it's going to end up. And the idea you might have had in the beginning it may morph into something else the more you start working with it. So definitely explore it. That would be my advice. Mm.

You heard what he said. Explore it. We talk about a man who retired at 60 years old and have written 4 memoirs since then. It's never too late. Okay, Kev, quick fire round, man. You ready?

I'm ready, sir. Go for it. All right.

Best piece of advice you ever received?

Oh, hold on here. The decisions you make dictate the life you lead.

Mm, the decisions you make dictate the life you lead. That's a good one. Favorite book or author?

Oh, right now I've been reading a few different books. Thomas Sowell. Oh man, I would love to sit down with that guy. He's in his 90s and he's still sharp as a tack. And for a little bit lighter side, Peggy Rowe. I love her book. She's got 4 of them out and they're really some good ones to read. Mm.

I think the best book out there right now is Signs. Most inspiring part of being a grandparent?

Oh, I mean, having the grandkids around, having them come sit on your lap, having them like when they come over, it's always I got to give them a hug. When they were younger, I would have to give them a hug and give them a kiss on the top of their head. Now the older 4, they're above me. So I want to kiss the top of their head. I have to jump to it. CJ, just having them around and giving them that hug. And when they give you that deep hug, there's nothing better, man.

Yeah. Ain't nothing like love, man. Nothing like love. So, Kev, what keeps you motivated to write every day?

Well, I gotta say, I don't necessarily write every day because I have to do the marketing side. But the stories that come to me, the stories that I have, so many more I want to write about. And that keeps me motivated. And I will tell you, when you get a review that says, man, this was fabulous, I couldn't put it down. And it really helped me get focused or centered or changed me in this way. Man, I don't know what to say. That really keeps me motivated.

So one more, Kev, man. What's one thing people get wrong about aging?

Oh, I don't know if they get it wrong, but I'll just say we always think of people either old or young, but you always— like, even now, I don't feel I'm 68. I'll say it, I'm 68. I feel like I'm 18, 20. The only thing is my body doesn't agree with that.

Yeah, I know.

So I don't know if they get it wrong, but I can tell you from a 68-year-old, and I have lunch with folks that are in the 70s and 80s, you truly are as young as you feel. And this is the one thing I will say as a piece of advice: keep moving. Yeah, you know, don't be sedentary, keep moving.

And one piece of advice I always give to the young people at my job, they be calling me old man because I'm one of the seniors there and I'm only 51, and I tell them, keep living, you know, because you're not gonna be young always, but keep living and you enjoy your time. You enjoy the days that God keeps waking you up because I got more days behind me than I probably got in front of me. So you enjoy it, you enjoy your days to the fullest, man, and live life to the fullest. And, you know, find your purpose in life, what God called you to do, man. And just like Kev say, go for it and do it. So, Kev, man, I really enjoyed you, man, coming on the show, man, you know, giving us your wisdom and understanding, opening up to us, man, telling us about how you train squirrels to eat nuts out your hand, man. I still think that that's Fascinating telling us about your book, man, and your grandkids and your 50-year marriage, man. Congratulations on that next year. And if you guys wasn't with us, man, Kevin got a whole lot going on in the month of March, April, and May, man. Well, especially March and April, all these birthdays. And y'all be surprised that his birthday, the anniversary, wife's birthday, all in between each other, probably a few days apart if I'm remembering it right, you know what I'm saying? Squeeze in son's birthday, daughter's birthday, grandkids' birthday. And so, uh, Kev is a busy man around this time of the year. So, Kev, man, I really appreciate you coming on, man. I really do. All right, you have been listening to the CJ Moneyway Show, powered by CJ Moneyway Entertainment and Planting Seeds with CJ. This your boy CJ Moneyway with my man Kevin Hall, 69 years young, or 68 years young.

Which one is it, Kev? You just turned 69. 68 years young, CJ, and this has been a blast, my friend. Hey, 68 years young, my man Kevin.

I hope I get that and give you guys some wisdom like he's giving you right now. Until next time, we out of here. Peace. You've been listening to the CJ Moneyway Show with real stories, real lessons, and real perspective come together. Remember, move with patience, move with purpose. That is the mindset of a Panther. Until next time, keep building your legacy brick by brick by brick by brick.

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