Kerry Lynn, a veteran and motivational speaker, discusses his book Overcoming Obstacles: Inspiration Motivational, which addresses how men can become self-sufficient and avoid destructive cycles. He grew up without an active father and wrote directly to men to stop making excuses. Lynn shares strategies for writers facing obstacles: devote time to God, use a chronological calendar, and seek help from trusted peers.
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Hello and welcome to the Empower You Podcast Authorship Series brought to you by Live With Life. In each episode, we interview a self-published author to talk about their journey to becoming an author and to reveal tips to help future authors release their story to the world. I'm your host Kenston Henderson, founder and Chief Empowerment Officer at Live With Life. In today's episode, we have as our feature author Carrie Lynn. Kay Fischel Lynn is a dynamic motivational speaker, community activist, college professor, business consultant, poet, a wartime veteran. Understanding that love is the greatest gift yet the least given, he sought out to correct some errors he encountered in his life. So Kerry is the author of the book Overcoming Obstacles: Inspiration Motivational. How you doing, Kerry?
Doing good. Thank you for having me. Thank you for having me.
No problem. Welcome, welcome to the Empower You Podcast. Listen, I'm excited to interview you, and, and I want to first start off with what's your book about?
Well, my book is about, uh, how, how individuals go through life and the cycles they go through in life. How do they overcome those cycles to get to where they can be productive or become self-sufficient and not let those cycles take them into a direction where, uh, it may lead to imprisonment, it may lead to death, or it may just lead to a life full of, uh, uncertainties. So, uh, that's what my focus was.
That's good, that's good. So, so tell me, well, like, what, uh, what, what made you write this book? What was the behind it?
Well, uh, I realized as a, as a, as a father, I grew up in an all-male— all-female dominant society as far as or his family. And my father wasn't really active. And a lot of things that I encountered, I probably wouldn't have encountered if my father would have been there or was actively there. Let me just say that. Yeah, yeah. So, so I realized even here in 2021— I wrote this book like 2 years ago— that we still have this dilemma where men are not actively involved in their children's lives. And so both male and female have issues when they don't have the presence of their father. And I was just encouraged to kind of like say, hey, let's stop making excuses on why we can't do stuff and let's focus on what we can do. So I felt writing this book as a one person that went through it, two, as a person that probably still deal with it at some extent, to say, hey, there's a voice, let's use this voice to recognize how we can help young people, how we can help even older people deal with this dilemma.
That's good, that's so good, that's so good. And so who would you say, um, your audience is for this book?
So when I was writing the book, uh, my focus really were on men. I really want to speak to the men, and, and speaking to the men, I wanted to basically call, call men out to say, hey, Let's not make excuses, you know, for those— for, for those of us that are older and mature and have kids, or even don't have kids. When I grew up, they— the church and the men in the church were the presence of what we missed at home. So we as men in church, we could be the substitute for some of these single fathers or some of these broken homes to help these young men and women understand We can't make excuses. Let's prepare you to be successful in life and be ready for what society has to offer you. So that, that was my focus, feeling like, hey, if we can call the men out, because as the Bible says, iron sharpen iron, uh, we can help bridge the gap of some of the issues that we're having in our communities.
That's so good. That's so good. So men, audience, if you're listening, listen up, listen up, because it's coming from right from Kerry and myself. I'm— we're tooting the horn to to say, man, let's go. And, uh, you know, no more excuses. We got to step up to the plate, um, as it is so crucial to the whole family dynamics. So awesome, awesome. So, you know, what were some of the barriers that you faced while going through the book writing process?
Oh, and now that was a key. So I would say one of the main barriers I went through was time. I think you have to really allocate the time to do it. So that means social media, phone, I mean, all of that. It's like, how do you really put forth the effort to get the workout you want? So I had to allocate my time and I had to make a devotion to it. And that devotion, I told myself, I prayed and I said, God, if I can do 2 hours a day. So I went from doing 2 hours a day sometimes 4 to 6 hours a day. Oh wow. But I put the time in it. So what I had to do is block out all the things that will probably— whether it be phone calls, whether it be wanting to just get caught up with friends that are out of state— I had to put all that on the back burner because I knew that this was important. The other barrier I faced was who could I go to, um, that can provide me the information that I need as far as other authors what the— some of the impending issues they dealt with. How do I— how do I look at those issues and have someone that I can lean on and say, hey, I'm coming up against this, do you have any suggestions? So all those two— those two are the main barriers. And when I really got to the point of writing, I had to make sure that I was putting in the work that I wanted others to receive it, versus saying, I'ma just— I'ma just write. Because a lot of times we all write, but then when we talk about having it published, it becomes a whole different monster. And it's like, do I really want to send this out and my name is represented behind it? Or do I want to send this out and people can say, man, that spoke to me, or I didn't realize that? Because quite naturally, you know, the purpose of writing the book is to pass it on so that other people can see it and, and speak about some of the issues they may have in their family or know someone. Yeah, so that they could perhaps bring up this information like, hey man, I think this is something you should look at. So that's good, you know, some of my barriers.
That's good. So, so what would you tell our audience, those who are in the writing phase of, of getting ready to release their book out, but they're— they find themselves stuck? And so what would you say to them, uh, to help them get unstuck and keep moving forward?
So I'll say this, the one thing I use, I really sat down and I devoted my time to God. I asked God to clear me from everything that would cause a distraction on what my purpose was in this book. And when I did that, I wrote down— I have, uh, I have a chronological calendar. I wrote down dates and times of stuff, or as what I was trying to accomplish, and I made sure I checked those boxes off. And if I didn't have stuff that you know, it was a little leery on which direction to go, I would reach out to other people that I felt could help me. So I would say if you're stuck in a place, don't stop writing. And one inspiration, I will say this to you, brother, is a young lady. She was on her deathbed and she called me. She said, Kerry, uh, she said, if I was able to write a book, I would write a book. She said, that's a legacy that you passed on for generations. She said, but our culture is so used to passing on monetary gifts, and those go away. And she said, can you imagine leaving a legacy that you wrote about, and it can be 200, 300 years down the road? And that really inspired me because this young lady, uh, she was— her intent was to write, but because of the severity of her cancer, she was unable to. And, uh, I, I sat there that night after we spoke, man, and I was like, God, this is the reason why she said this. What am I to do? So what I've been doing lately, brother, is I've been encouraging other men to actually write, to get out of the funk of saying, you know, hey, leave a legacy. And it don't have to be monetary, but leave something your kids, kids, kids, kids can read. And you'll be surprised, you know, what you can leave them. Because back in the day, Kingston, we had the big family Bibles. I know you remember that. Everything was written in those Bibles. But as we've gotten to our age, you don't hardly see those family Bibles no more. And legacies was passed down through those Bibles. So I was like, how do you leave a legacy? And this is one legacy that, you know, we all can leave, and we could all make sure that our kids' kids' kids have an opportunity to recognize and receive it.
Wow, man, that is, that is so awesome. Audience, I hope y'all, y'all listening in Um, leave that legacy. I mean, I, I didn't even think about it that way. I mean, that just got me excited to want to jump back in. I got to do some more writing. I got, I got to release some things because like you said, if we're, if we're not leaving a money legacy, we need to be leaving wisdom. And, and wisdom is money at the end of the day. And so what can you put in your books to make sure that, um, you know, life is being spoken into your generations and generations to come? So that's, that's awesome. Uh, well, my brother, listen, it's been fun, it's been real, but Where can people, uh, find your book and purchase it at?
You could actually go on Amazon. So my book is actually on amazon.com, and that's K. Vashal Lynn, and the book is called, uh, Overcoming Obstacles. And, uh, I really pray, based on other individuals that have read it, that it'll be a blessing to you, that, you know, you— meaning you as the audience— and that you can pass this information on. And I think you will be I think you'd be really touched on some of the information that's shared in there. And just know that men, we as men, have a hard time of communicating our hurts, our failures, and we want to talk about our successes. And this book, I talk about my hurts and I publicize it, whereas sometimes we don't want to publicize how damaged or jacked up we are. So I think this is just like an inspiration to say, hey, let's kickstart your life and get yourself together.
That's good, that's good. All right, my brother, well, I want to thank you and appreciate you for spending time with us, and I wish you the best in all your future endeavors. I know, I know there's another book coming down the pipe for you, and so I'm excited to, uh, share in that celebration as I know you're going to continue to impact and influence locally but also globally, uh, people around the world. So good luck in all that you do, man.
Thank you again. Thank you for having me, and I really enjoy this opportunity. Thank you again.
No problem.
