How to Build Your Story | Turning Life Lessons into Hope-Filled Books w/ Brian Dixon

Welcome to a special season finale episode of the Collide Kids Podcast! Host Christen Clark is joined by Brian Dixon—author, podcaster, business coach, and co-founder of Hope*Writers—for an episode packed with encouragement, practical tips, and a dose of hope just in time for summer.

Brian shares his journey from being a teacher to helping writers share their message through Hope Books. Learn why “hope” is at the heart of everything Brian does, both in his faith and in his work with authors.

Listen in for Brian’s step-by-step advice on how to build, not just write, a book—including planning, mapping, and sticking to a goal (with a deadline!). Discover why everyone, even kids, has a story worth sharing, and how tough moments in your life can be transformed into hope-filled messages for others. Plus, we get a sneak peek of Brian’s upcoming children’s book “Ruby May Writes a Book,” and practical ways families can make time for big dreams.

Thank you for tuning in all season! Be sure to check the show notes for links, discussion questions, and more resources. Wishing you an amazing summer—remember, God loves you so much!

Go to https://yourhopestorybook.com/ to download a digital copy of Brian's book for aspiring writers!

Clip Finder:

Viral Evangelism Strategies: "It's giving a reason for the hope that you have."
— Brian Dixon [00:06:51 → 00:06:53]

Viral Topic: Write the Book You Needed
"Generally what I recommend is you write your book for yourself two or three years ago."
— Brian Dixon [00:16:46 → 00:16:51]

Viral Topic - The Gift of Time: "But yet we look at our hours in the week, 168, and we say, lord, we don't have enough. No, he's given you everything you need, right? Everything you need to live a life of godliness, to live the vision and the mission that he's put you on this earth to do."
— Brian Dixon [00:19:46 → 00:20:01]

How to Structure a Bestselling Book Chapter: "Every chapter follows the same structure. So it might have a quote at the beginning, then a story, then some teaching points, then maybe some application questions, and then maybe a journal prompt. That's what's called the chapter outline."
— Brian Dixon [00:23:42 → 00:23:55]

Longing for Acceptance as a Kid: "For years I wanted Eddie to come to my house and play with my Lego. Like, that was like, the vision is like, one day Eddie will come to my house and I'll finally fit in and I'll finally be cool."
— Brian Dixon [00:28:52 → 00:29:01]

The Power of Belonging: "But what I realized in sharing that is that that is part of my hard story is not feeling like I belong. Right? And so I believe that God can use a story like that to encourage me to make sure nobody else ever feels that way."
— Brian Dixon [00:30:11 → 00:30:26]

Bark proactively works to monitor, detect, and alert you to potential issues on your kids' devices. Visit bark.us to learn more about how you can keep your kids safe online. Use the code COLLIDEKIDS to get 15% off Your Bark Technologies Plan !

Some days, you might play The River for some nice background music. Some days, you'll play it so your kids don't hear anything inappropriate. But some days, you listen because life has knocked you down, and you need help getting back up. We're here for all of them. Our goal is to introduce as many people as possible to Jesus through music and service. You can listen and get connected at https://riverradio.com/

Transcript

Christen Clark [00:00:21]:

Let's do it. Hey, y' all. Welcome back to the Collide Kids Podcast. I'm your host, Christen Clark. The Collide Kids Podcast is a show for kids and families where we learn together how life and faith collide. It's so great that you're listening today. It is our last episode for this season. We're taking a little break through the summer.

Christen Clark [00:00:48]:

It's gonna be sad. I am gonna miss you. I truly am. I really do love doing the show, but. But I also do enjoy taking a little break over the summer just to spend time with family, to rest, to dream, and to get ready for what's next. And it's something we do every year just as a way for you guys to be able to catch up on some of the episodes you've missed out on. So this summer, I hope as you're traveling or going on vacation or hanging out with your friends by the pool or at vbs, you could listen to a few episodes of the Collide Kids Podcast and get caught up. I mean, There are over 200 episodes to choose from, so I'm not leaving you with nothing, right? You've got lots to do.

Christen Clark [00:01:25]:

It sounds like I'm giving you homework. I'm not trying to do that, but if you want to, you can. Well, I am so excited about our guest today. His name is Brian Dixon. He is an author, podcaster, conference speaker, and business coach. Brian is passionate about helping authors, speakers, and aspiring messengers create a sustainable business through building, launching, and growing online businesses. He's the co founder of Hope Writers, a membership site with over 200 working writers. Brian and his wife Julie, live in Charlotte, North Carolina with their three young children.

Christen Clark [00:01:57]:

You guys, this was such an encouraging conversation for me as I am working on writing a book and becoming an author. And if that's something you're interested in, you're going to love this conversation with my friend, Brian Dixon. Well, Brian Dixon, I am so excited to have you on the Collide Kids Podcast.

Brian Dixon [00:02:25]:

Thank you, Christen. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Christen Clark [00:02:27]:

Yeah. This is so fun. We have been online friends for a while, so it was inevitable that you had to be on the show. Right.

Brian Dixon [00:02:34]:

You served our community because we. We have a membership where we teach people about podcasts and about entrepreneurship, and so you were a guest on our thing a couple years ago. So thanks for serving our people back then.

Christen Clark [00:02:44]:

That's true, that's true. That was a lot of fun. Would you just share with our listeners who you are and what you do?

Brian Dixon [00:02:50]:

I'm a book guy. I love books. So I run a company called Hope Books. We have a membership called Hope Writers. And really for me, it's all about sharing hope filled words out into the world. I'm a Christian. I became a Christian when I was like 4 or 5 years old. And the thing that always stood out to me is this idea of like Jesus is the word made flesh.

Brian Dixon [00:03:10]:

Like he is the word and, and the power of our words. That, that the words that we speak, the words that we write, the words that we listen to, the words that we watch, they can impact our lives. And so my whole mission in life is to help people discover their words and to share their hope filled words with a world that desperately needs more hope.

Christen Clark [00:03:30]:

That's awesome. I love that so much. I would love for you to share a little bit more about what hope means as well. But before we do that, because this is a show for kids, I always ask my guests to tell me a joke. So do you have one for us?

Brian Dixon [00:03:42]:

Yes, I do. So I'm a preacher's kid. So we grew up really poor. Like, we didn't, we didn't really know it because my parents shopped at the way. And we got all our clothes from the way. We got all of our, my baseball cards from the way. We got my toys from the way. And growing up I thought that's just the thing you do is you get everything from the Way.

Brian Dixon [00:04:04]:

And as I got older, people were like, the way. I've never been to the way. What is the way? And I said, well, that's somebody else's driveway.

Christen Clark [00:04:11]:

Oh no.

Brian Dixon [00:04:13]:

So I got everything from garage sales. So I grew up getting everything from garage sales. And I still love it. Love going to the way. It sounds so much cooler to say going to the way than going to driveway. But yeah, that's my little joke. So for those thrifty parents out there, you can use that one now.

Christen Clark [00:04:28]:

Yes, I love that. I do love a good garage sale. Like, those are so fun. Even if it's just being nosy and like wanting to look through your neighbor's stuff, you know what I mean?

Brian Dixon [00:04:37]:

Like, well, you can get the best deals on books at garage sales because most garage sales have books for like a dollar. But you go to Barnes over or whatever and they're like $25, you know, like, that's crazy. Yeah, Let me just go to the.

Christen Clark [00:04:47]:

Way, the way I'm calling it that from now on. I so much. That's so good. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about your publishing company. Is that what it is?

Brian Dixon [00:04:57]:

Publishing company? We're, we're basically, we do everything a traditional publisher does. So when you think about, oh, I'm publishing a book with a publisher, that's what we do.

Christen Clark [00:05:04]:

Okay.

Brian Dixon [00:05:04]:

We have editors, we have designers, we have, you know, we have the whole, the whole gamut, but we also really support our authors. So we have a coaching program, we have weekly coaching. We have a membership community. We make sure that we actually help our writers write the book and publish the book. Most publishers only publish. They don't actually help with like the writing. Writing part. And so we, we do that.

Brian Dixon [00:05:24]:

We have exercises and videos and community and we pray together and it's, it's a really great part of what we do.

Christen Clark [00:05:30]:

That's very cool. And I'm writing a book right now, so I'm, I'm excited to talk to you. I'm going to learn a lot today. Now tell me, why hope, like, why is it called hope? What does hope mean and why is that important to include in the name of your company?

Brian Dixon [00:05:42]:

Well, the verse that we built our company on is 1st Peter 3:15, which says, always be ready to give a reason for the hope that you have, but do it with gentleness and respect. And that is like my life mission. So let's just kind of break that down real quick. Right. Always be ready to give a reason for the hope that you have. Well, in our culture, as a Christian, we are, we're in Babylon, right? We're Daniel living in Babylon. That is just the nature of our culture today is that we live in a sort of a post Christian culture. At least that's what I believe.

Brian Dixon [00:06:14]:

And so when I go with my kids to the playground, when I go with my kids to the, you know, to the mall, that sort of thing, they're going to see a bunch of stuff that's not Christian stuff. Right. And so as we go out into the world, the mandate is to be ready to give a reason for the hope that we have. So that's what evangelism looks like. That's what letting your light shine before all men so they'll glorify the. See your good works and glorify your father in heaven. That's what that means, is we're not standing on the street corner preaching at people, but we're ready to give a reason, a Reason for what? Not, not necessarily a reason for, like, here's why you need to say Jesus or you go to hell. Like, that's, that's not really the strategy here, right? It's giving a reason for the hope that you have.

Brian Dixon [00:06:53]:

So what's that hope? Well, we know ultimately Jesus is our hope, but it's like, if Jesus is our hope, we should be living out that hope every day. And, and the concept there is, if people see the way that you live, they're going to be really curious about why. So that's kind of the idea. It's like, be ready to give a reason for the hope that you have. The best way to give a reason is to use words. And so that's kind of where this whole idea came from. We also want to do it with, as the rest of the verse says, gentleness and respect. And I believe that a book is a great way to tell a story, to convince somebody of something.

Brian Dixon [00:07:28]:

Like, books have changed wars, you know, books have changed countries. And so you writing your book is actually, I think, one of the best tools, longest lasting tools, to be able to share your hope. And then in our company, we actually take the word hope, H O P E, and we break it down. So we say everything that we publish, what I recommend you post on social media when you're giving a speech, et cetera. Helpful, optimistic, personal, and equipping.

Christen Clark [00:07:54]:

Oh, I like that.

Brian Dixon [00:07:56]:

Right? Is it helpful? Is it, is it hope filled? Is it optimistic? Is it personal? Is it your story? And finally, does it help somebody actually move forward by being equipping?

Christen Clark [00:08:03]:

I love that. And I love that. That's a great way to think about. Like you said, whenever you write something or whatever you're speaking or sharing to make sure that it's covering all of those things. Cause I think sometimes we can like focus on one, but to really make sure that what we're doing is putting out that hope. So I love that. That's a great acrostic. So tell us a little bit about how you got started in this.

Christen Clark [00:08:23]:

Cause I know you said you're a book guy, you love books. So what was it that drew you to this type of work?

Brian Dixon [00:08:29]:

Well, when I was a kid, I could not find books that I loved and I'm kind of envious about my children now. We have three kids. We have a third grader, a sixth grader, and a ninth grader. And they have awesome books. Like, the world of books has completely changed since when I was a kid. I mean, if I wanted to learn about GECKOS I literally had to go to the library, find the Encyclopedia Britannica, find the G volume. And if somebody had taken it out, I couldn't learn about geckos. Right.

Brian Dixon [00:08:54]:

And now it's like, there are adventure graphic novels, novels about ninja geckos. Like, it's crazy what's available today. So I. I always had this passion for, like, finding great stories, and I saw a gap, and I've, you know, I've seen that gap as I was growing up. Like, what are there any good adventure stories for. For kids, for Christian kids, for, you know, that fit our vision and our values? And so I was actually a teacher. It was my first, like, real job was being a classroom teacher. And my first year teaching a long, long time ago is I had this idea of, like, a Bible study for Christian kids that were going to a public school.

Brian Dixon [00:09:31]:

And it was called Daily Living in the Lion's Den. And it was basically like, you could read it in the morning or, you know, on the way to school, and we kind of encourage you for the day. And I pitched it to 17 different publishers, and I thought, you know, this is such a great mission. These publishers are going to love my book. I'm going to get a publishing deal. My book will be in Barnes and Noble, you know, in two months from now. It'll be amazing. And Instead, I received 15 photocopied, not just typed out, photocopied rejection letters.

Christen Clark [00:10:00]:

Oh, no.

Brian Dixon [00:10:00]:

And it hit me, like, wait, what? I thought. I thought, if you have a good idea, a publisher is going to come alongside you and help you get it published.

Christen Clark [00:10:08]:

Yeah.

Brian Dixon [00:10:08]:

I got a hard education in the world of discouragement and frustration and actually quit. I never wrote that book. And it took years to sort of pick myself up off the floor and say, wait a second. Just because a big publisher doesn't pick me, it doesn't mean my message doesn't matter. And so that's really where it started. It actually started from a point of pain of going, I have this message I want to get out, but nobody else really believes in it.

Christen Clark [00:10:34]:

Yeah.

Brian Dixon [00:10:34]:

And that's what kind of began my. My journey.

Christen Clark [00:10:37]:

Very cool. And I love that you started out as a teacher. I think teachers are really great writers because you're having to, you know, you have to be. Have good grammar and all of that, but you also have to be really good at, like, connecting with people and keeping people's attention, because that's what you have to do in the classroom, right?

Brian Dixon [00:10:50]:

Oh, my goodness, yes. Yeah, we. I have so many stories. How How I try to figure out how to engage kids. That's actually what got me into technology, was like, you can use technology to engage kids. Now, of course, we know that now in 2025, but when I started, it was 2001. So when I started 24 years ago, I mean, we barely had computers in the classroom, you know, let alone the Internet. And so.

Brian Dixon [00:11:12]:

And so there was a lot of stuff we did. My, My. Probably my favorite classroom thing that we ever did as I was an English teacher, so as an English teacher is we called it the Poetry Cafe. And so I got a microphone similar to the microphone I'm using right now, and all the kids in my class wrote their little poem and then we recorded it, and then I put it together on a CD that we gave away to all the parents on parent night.

Christen Clark [00:11:33]:

Oh, fun.

Brian Dixon [00:11:33]:

And to see kids the light in their eyes that they made something is what I'm passionate about now. So we help people publish books, and it's the same feeling of a lifelong dream accomplished, seeing these students way back, holding their Poetry Cafe CD pressing play, going to track seven, listening to their poem with that they recorded in the microphone. Like, that's what makes education really engaging.

Christen Clark [00:11:55]:

That's really cool. I love that. So tell me, how many books have you written now? Because I know you've written some books. How many have you done?

Brian Dixon [00:12:02]:

Well, there's a big difference between an idea of a book, writing a book, written a book, and published a book and then launched a book. Like, those are all different phases. It's like there's several. I would look at them as, like, they're all projects. So every project is sort of in its different stage of development. So officially I published five.

Christen Clark [00:12:22]:

Okay.

Brian Dixon [00:12:23]:

Two with traditional publishers, two self published, and then one through our company, which now I'm going to be using our company from now on. But then I also have, like, I have a lot of book ideas. And in fact, the average author that we talk to has more than 10 ideas of books they want to publish. So. So, yeah, so I have my. My next one coming out is the first time I've written for kids, which is really fun. I always love the Encyclopedia Brown books. Yeah, Ramona.

Brian Dixon [00:12:47]:

You know, Ramona Quimby books. The Magic Treehouse. And so I wrote a book kind of in that genre about a girl named Ruby May. And she's very curious and she writes her own book. And so it sort of teaches our process for writing your book, but through a narrative fiction story, which is gonna be really fun. We're Putting that together over the summer, and we hope to have it come out before the school year.

Christen Clark [00:13:07]:

Okay, so it's a book for kids.

Brian Dixon [00:13:09]:

Yes.

Christen Clark [00:13:09]:

To learn the process of writing a book. Can you tell us, like, what is that process? Like, what is Ruby learning about in her. In this story?

Brian Dixon [00:13:16]:

Okay, so the big mindset shift. And this is worth writing down. Okay. If you're in your minivan driving right now, you might want to pull over for this one. Okay. Books are not written. Books are built.

Christen Clark [00:13:26]:

Ooh, I like that.

Brian Dixon [00:13:28]:

So I compare it to a house. Okay. Imagine that you bought a plot of land and you're like, I'm going to put my house there. You don't go to Home Depot, get some wood and hammer and nails and just start going for it. And that's kind of what a lot of people do when they start writing a book. They're like, oh, they open up Google Documents and they start typing, or they open up ChatGPT and they start talking. No, like, don't start by writing. Start by planning a good book.

Brian Dixon [00:13:52]:

Just like Jesus said, you know, it's a foolish person who. Who builds a tower without counting the cost. Right? You have to look at your book and you start with the end in mind. And it's like, what. What do I want to. What do I want to make here? And. And specifically for us, your what is a whole? Like, we are here to serve people, right? We're here to make an impact, a kingdom impact. And so the first step is figuring out what we call your X, Y, Z statement.

Brian Dixon [00:14:17]:

So your X, Y, Z statement is who's the reader? Which is the X. What's the problem they're facing? Which is the why. And then what's the. What's the promise that you're offering? This is true for nonfiction and for fiction. So even in my Ruby May writes a book story. It's a fiction story, but it's for kids who have always dreamed about writing a book, but they need an example that they can follow of a kid who writes a book. So the person, right, the X in the. In that would be like a third grade girl.

Brian Dixon [00:14:43]:

That's. That's who I want to write to. The problem is she's been thinking about writing a book, but she doesn't know where to start. And none of her friends, family, teachers know how to write a book because they haven't done it. And then the promise, the Z and the xyz, is she actually does it. Which means that if her story can become the reader story, then her solution can become the reader's solution. So your book is actually offering a process of transformation. And that's just the first step of five.

Brian Dixon [00:15:10]:

To write your book, you've got to start with the people that you want to write for.

Christen Clark [00:15:13]:

That's good. I love that. And it is true. It's building. Like, if you just sit down, and I know this for a fact, if you sit down and just start writing, you're like, now what?

Brian Dixon [00:15:23]:

It's hard to clean it up, right?

Christen Clark [00:15:25]:

And it's hard to figure out where it all goes. And so, yes, I think that's great advice to kind of build it out, make a plan and really understand what you're trying to get across. Because just a really good idea, it's going to float for a long time, right? Unless you really have a structure to put it in.

Brian Dixon [00:15:40]:

Oh, my goodness. There's so many, you know, one of the greatest tragedies, I think it's Henry David Thoreau that said, like, the tragedy of man is going to the grave with your song still in your heart. And that that idea of like, your life is like a vapor. Like you've got a limited time, especially for kids listening. Like, you guys have a limited time before real life, right? Before college and jobs and kids and all this stuff. And so like, fifth grade is like the perfect time to write your book, right? Middle school is the perfect time to write your book because you do have some time. But if you don't follow a plan, then what happens? And I do a live training every single Monday for writers and helping them write. And every single Monday when I ask them, it's like, how long have you dreamed about writing a book? And it's five years, 10 years, 20 years.

Brian Dixon [00:16:24]:

Like, they've been dreaming about it for so long and not taking any action. And so I really want to encourage people to actually take action and make it happen.

Christen Clark [00:16:31]:

Kids have really great ideas, and I'm sure there's kids listening right now. They're like, I could do that. I could write a book. How? How would they get started? What would you suggest?

Brian Dixon [00:16:40]:

It starts with the vision, right? So the vision is that X, Y, Z statement. So really figuring out, like, who is it that I want to help? Now, generally what I recommend is you write your book for yourself two or three years ago. So if you're a fifth grade girl, write it for a second grade girl, right? So, so what is it that you learn? And that's actually the book that Ruby May writes in my book, it's like kind of a met it's a little bit meta, right? Yeah. So she writes a book because she got good at basketball. So she writes a book about basketball for second grade girls and she's a fifth grade girl. So write your book for you before you've discovered what you recently discovered. So think about something you've learned recently and write about that. Because to a second grader, a fifth grader seems like an expert.

Brian Dixon [00:17:22]:

Right?

Christen Clark [00:17:23]:

Right.

Brian Dixon [00:17:23]:

So you're not writing for your peers. Right. You're not writing for your friends. You're not definitely not writing for your, your parents or your, you know, your, your family. You're writing to somebody who's further behind and you're just showing them the way that you followed.

Christen Clark [00:17:36]:

Oh, that's good. I love that. And that's a good perspective to have. Especially like you said in the Hope acrostic that the E stands for equipping. And so even in a fictional story, we're still trying to teach or build someone up. And I think that's a really good way to think about it.

Brian Dixon [00:17:51]:

And, you know, just get started. Not, not started by just writing, writing, writing, but like, started by saying, this is my vision. Like, I, I know what I want to do. And I highly recommend. Like they say that a dream is just a dream. It becomes a goal when you add a deadline. So give yourself a deadline. You know, at Hope Books, we have a coaching process and generally it's about 12 months.

Brian Dixon [00:18:15]:

So imagine, okay, if you're a kid right now, imagine one year from now actually getting your book published and holding it in your hand and sharing it with your friends and family. Like, pick a real date to say, this is what, this is my vision of when I want it to happen, by next Christmas, by my next birthday. And then you really need to kind of eliminate those distractions. You know, most anything worth accomplishing requires discipline, which means cutting off and saying no to a lot of the distractions. So even if you just gave it, I'm going to do 10 minutes a day or 30 minutes a week. You can get there if you just kind of stack those, those writing sessions. Right. And you kind of build the words over time.

Christen Clark [00:18:55]:

That's right. And that's something that I've learned too, is that if I don't put it in my schedule or make time for writing, like, just as an important, you know, like a doctor's appointment or meeting with someone, it's. I'm meeting with myself to fulfill this goal. Right. And so that gives me that, that structure too, because if I just like whenever I have Time. I'll never have time.

Brian Dixon [00:19:16]:

Yeah, you have to make time. Time is not found. You have to make time. Yeah, but the Lord has given us 168, 168 hours a week. I just want you to think about this, right? For those of you that have said, I don't have enough time. I'm so busy, I don't have enough time. I hear that from adults all the time. I can only imagine kids feeling the same way.

Brian Dixon [00:19:33]:

I've got so much on my plate. I've got so much I'm doing. But listen, you have 168. If I handed you 168 gummy bears, you'd say, I've got a lot of gummy bears, Right? If I handed you 168 marbles, you'd probably drop some because there's so many. But yet we look at our hours in the week, 168, and we say, lord, we don't have enough. No, he's given you everything you need, right? Everything you need to live a life of godliness, to live the vision and the mission that he's put you on this earth to do. And if you believe that part of that is writing a book, that means you have to look at your 168 and pick and say, okay, two hours after church every Sunday, I'm gonna work on my book. Or, you know, before I'm gonna put Saturday morning cartoons on, I'm gonna work on my book at breakfast.

Brian Dixon [00:20:15]:

Like, pick a real time in order to get that work done.

Christen Clark [00:20:18]:

That's good. I love that. Now, when they do sit down, when they do make that time to sit down and write, what should they do first?

Brian Dixon [00:20:26]:

Okay, so second step in writing your book. First is the X, Y, Z statement. Second step is what we call the transformational tale. And it's for the, it's for the reader. So imagine the first chapter is where the reader is in prison. It's where they're stuck. Okay, so imagine. I always like to compare it to the story of Exodus.

Brian Dixon [00:20:44]:

So the Israelites are in Egypt and they're in prison. They dream about the promised land. So chapter one is prison. Chapter 12 is promised land. And then chapter two, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 is path. So prison path, promised land. And so that's the way that you write your book. You say, okay, if I'm going to write a book and I'm helping third grade boys get better at flag football, okay, chapter one is when I fell on my face and how I didn't even know how to throw a ball.

Brian Dixon [00:21:18]:

That's chapter one. Yeah, that's my story of stuck. That's my prison. Then chapter 12 is I caught the winning touchdown. Right. Like what was the, the high point of your football career? Oh, okay. Now I, I reached this level of I'm not an expert, but I've gotten really good at it. And then what are the steps in the process? So it doesn't have to be 10 steps.

Brian Dixon [00:21:41]:

I mean, generally it's like somewhere between five to seven. But what are the things that you want to share to say, okay, here's how to hold a football, here's how to throw a football, here's how to catch a football. Or you know, whatever their topic happens to be. We call that the transformational tale. So where are they stuck right now? What are the steps or the mindset shifts or the actions they need to take in order to get to where you are? And that's really how you structure your overall book. That looks more like a whiteboard, right, or post it Notes than it does actually writing. It's more mapping than writing.

Christen Clark [00:22:11]:

Okay, and can you explain that a little bit? Like what, what is mapping? Like how, how do we do that?

Brian Dixon [00:22:16]:

Okay, so imagine you're planning out like the perfect vacation, right? So let's say you're going to like Aruba and you're like, oh, I, I want to go in this like amazing vacation. Well, okay, you gotta pack. So that's kind of the beginning and then I'm gonna return. That's the end. And like, what are all the things I wanna do when I'm there? Well, you kind of brainstorm, right? You write em all down, okay, I wanna do this. I wanna do this. I wanna do this. So you can put that on post it notes.

Brian Dixon [00:22:38]:

I love post it notes.

Christen Clark [00:22:39]:

I do too.

Brian Dixon [00:22:40]:

So for the example of I'm writing a story to help, you know, kids with their football skills, okay, they're gonna need this. Put that on a post it note. They're gonna need how to catch. Put it on a post it note. They're gonna need how to throw, put it on a post it note. And then you're going to have like 16 post it notes or sticky notes, whatever you call them. And you're like, okay, what are the most important ones? What's the order of them? So then you can kind of take them, put them on your wall or on your desk and move them around so that they're in order. And you know what you just created, you just created your outline of your book.

Christen Clark [00:23:07]:

Oh yeah.

Brian Dixon [00:23:09]:

You have your reader, the problem and the promise, the person problem. Promise. That's the X, Y, Z statement. Then we just created our outline, what we call the transformational tale. And then now what we're going to do, step three is we're actually going to find three model books. Three books that are similar ish to the books that we want to write. So that means literally going to a bookstore and finding three books and say, this is the kind of book I want to write. Now how do they structure the chapters? This is getting a little nerdy.

Brian Dixon [00:23:36]:

But basically, if you open up to the middle of one of these example books, like let's say chapter five, you look at it, Every chapter follows the same structure. So it might have a quote at the beginning, then a story, then some teaching points, then maybe some application questions, and then maybe a journal prompt. That's what's called the chapter outline. So we have the out, we have the book outline, then we have the chapter outline. So every chapter. I'm going to start with how I didn't know how to catch, how I didn't know how to throw, how I didn't know how to da da. So it's the I didn't know story. Then it's the what I learned story.

Brian Dixon [00:24:10]:

Then it's like the, the action steps section.

Christen Clark [00:24:14]:

Yeah.

Brian Dixon [00:24:14]:

And then once you do that, you're basically now you have exactly. You have the roadmap to your whole book. And then that's step number four. Now you can write it. Because now you know what you're, what you're following. And it's almost like fill in the blank. It's kind of like Mad Libs. You're like, I'm just filling in the blank here because I know exactly what I'm supposed to write.

Brian Dixon [00:24:30]:

Okay. I need to tell a story about how I couldn't catch a football. Okay. I can write that. And that feels way less overwhelming than writing sitting down and writing a whole book.

Christen Clark [00:24:39]:

Right, Exactly. And when you feel like you're making progr progress, it encourages you to keep going.

Brian Dixon [00:24:44]:

A hundred percent.

Christen Clark [00:24:45]:

Yeah.

Brian Dixon [00:24:46]:

You know what's so interesting? I mean, the world is really changing right now and is dramatically going to change. I believe in the next three to five years more than it has in probably the last 20. And that's because of AI. What's, what's possible with these robots. And most of them are computer programs. So it's just like on your computer, but technically they're robots is they can do so much more than we Ever thought they could. You know, they're. They're creating graphics, they're creating music, they're creating videos.

Brian Dixon [00:25:10]:

It's so crazy. And by the time you listen to this, there's going to be some new AI and so I've found a great way to use AI As a writer is not to write. Right. We're not going to let the robot write the book for us. We're going to write the book. It's like God has given you the story, not the AI, the story. But what I've found is that when you have your detailed chapter outline and you're like, okay, I need, like, a quote about not giving up in chapter seven. Well, now you can use the AI and you can say, hey, ChatGPT, you know, can you give me a quote about not giving up from a football person? And it'll be like, sure, here's 10.

Brian Dixon [00:25:45]:

I want one. Perfect. You find the one. Right. You can use AI to fill in the blanks, not to actually create your own words.

Christen Clark [00:25:52]:

Yeah, that's good. I've actually used AI to help me structuring, like, to organize it, because in my brain I feel like I want to put all these things in there. But so I asked AI, like, help me structure these chapter titles, like, how does that work and would that make sense to a reader? And so, yeah, so there's lots of ways you can use AI for sure.

Brian Dixon [00:26:12]:

And it's not something that to be afraid of. It's more something to. It's like a tool.

Christen Clark [00:26:16]:

It's a tool. That's right.

Brian Dixon [00:26:17]:

You know, and so AI is something that can be used to, like, advance your mission. Right. Or distract you. And you have to kind of decide, I'm going to use that as a tool, not as a toy.

Christen Clark [00:26:27]:

Yeah, that's good. I love that. And, and like you said, it's not there to write the book for you. You need to be the one that puts that story in it. So.

Brian Dixon [00:26:34]:

And you can tell, like, there's been a few, few, few colleagues of mine that they, they published a book out of nowhere. And I'm like, wait a second, we never even heard about this thing.

Christen Clark [00:26:41]:

Yeah.

Brian Dixon [00:26:42]:

Is that a book in a weekend and. Yeah, it was. And then you read through it and you're like. They use the word delve five times on one page. Yeah, that sounds like a robot wrote that one.

Christen Clark [00:26:50]:

Right, Right. You really can't tell when somebody uses it.

Brian Dixon [00:26:52]:

Yeah, you can. Yeah, for now.

Christen Clark [00:26:54]:

Yeah. Well, Brian, this has been so good. I'm so excited about your book now when does this book about roomy may come out?

Brian Dixon [00:27:00]:

Oh, yeah, we're shooting for September.

Christen Clark [00:27:01]:

Okay.

Brian Dixon [00:27:02]:

What do they say? The. The cobbler's kids have no shoes. It's like the. I'm a book publisher. We published 61 books in the last year. So my vision is to publish a thousand books in the next 10 years. So really helping people write and publish their book. So if you've ever thought about writing a book, go to hopebooks.

Brian Dixon [00:27:18]:

Com. Really easy to remember, hopebooks. Com, We've got free training on there, and, you know, we can schedule a call and talk about your book. And also I would love to give away a copy of my book called you'd Hope Story, which just walks through the whole process. So we'll make sure to include a link in the. In the show notes.

Christen Clark [00:27:33]:

Absolutely.

Brian Dixon [00:27:34]:

Get that. But yeah, it's such a fun journey to encourage people to discover that they have a story, because I really believe that your hard story can become your hope story. So if you feel like I've been left out, or I feel like I don't belong, or somebody betrayed me, yeah, that's really hard. But guess what? God works all things together for the good of those who love him. And that's one thing you can do, is you can look at that hard story and you say, how can I share that in a way that can be hope filled with and help somebody else? And it's really fun to be part of that work.

Christen Clark [00:28:05]:

I love the quote that says, God takes our mess and makes it our message. So, yeah, anytime we make a mistake or something happens to us, like you said, that's really difficult. He can still use that to encourage someone else. So that's good. Great encouragement. I love that you're giving away free, free resources. We always get to do that. So that'll be in the show notes for sure.

Christen Clark [00:28:22]:

Thank you so much for being on the show. Before I let you go, I always ask my guests to tell me a memory from when they were a kid. So I'd love to hear a memory from when you were a kid. Besides the driveway, what else did you.

Brian Dixon [00:28:33]:

Do as a kid? You know, I wanted to share something that maybe is a little harder because I think part of being a kid is it's not just all sunshine and rainbows. And so I remember I was a Christian kid growing up. My dad was a preacher, as I mentioned, and we were moving away at the end of fourth grade, and there was this kid in my class named Eddie, and he was like the cool kid. And for years I wanted Eddie to come to my house and play with my Lego. Like, that was like, the vision is like, one day Eddie will come to my house and I'll finally fit in and I'll finally be cool. And so it was just a couple days before we moved away, and Eddie finally came to my house. And I was like, oh, my goodness, this is the best. You know, there were like, three days left of school, so, like, what a way to go out.

Brian Dixon [00:29:13]:

Like, the coolest kid in my class is coming to my house. So he got to my house and he was really disengaged. And I was like, I gotta show you my Lego. You know, this is amazing. Look at the. Not interested. I gotta show you my. My action figures.

Christen Clark [00:29:25]:

Look at this.

Brian Dixon [00:29:25]:

Not really interested. I gotta show you my. Like, by. By basketball. Not really interested. And just within about 10 or 15 minutes, he kind of walked out of the house and he sat on the front porch of my house, and he sat there and he kept saying, where's my sister? Where's my sister? And he actually used a curse word. He said, where that blank is my sister? And I was thinking, I hope he's okay. Like, is he.

Brian Dixon [00:29:47]:

Is he nervous? Maybe his sister, like, what's going on? Well, it turns out that his mom basically said, listen, this kid is moving. Brian is moving away. You haven't been nice to him forever. Why don't you go hang out at his house for like, 10 minutes and then your big sister can come pick you up? And I'm a tear up thinking about it now, which is so crazy, right? Because that's like, I was in fourth grade. That's a long time ago. But what I realized in sharing that is that that is part of my hard story is not feeling like I belong. Right? And so I believe that God can use a story like that to encourage me to make sure nobody else ever feels that way. Right? So, like, we have a community called Hope Writers, where we welcome people and we're.

Brian Dixon [00:30:32]:

You're welcome. If you're just starting, you're welcome. If you've already published 11 books, like, you're welcome. And I actually look back on that fourth grade experience not as a hard day, but as a really hopeful day. And so I just want to encourage you guys, listening, like, look back on something that has been hard and look at what God is doing to make it something that's filled with hope.

Christen Clark [00:30:54]:

That's so good. I love that. I love that story too. And I think we probably all had a similar story like that growing up where Someone didn't want to be our friend or didn't want to sit with us or didn't want to spend time with us. And just how that it could be very discouraging at the time, but also encouraged us to not treat people that way. And so that's how God's used that in your life. And I love that. Thank you for sharing that.

Christen Clark [00:31:15]:

This has been great. Thanks so much for being on the show.

Brian Dixon [00:31:17]:

Thanks for having me.

Christen Clark [00:31:27]:

Wasn't that so good? I love that he shared that story of that friend that disappointed him when he was younger and didn't make him feel so included, but yet he still was able to take that and use that to encourage and help other people. Such a good ending to a story like that. Brian reminded us today that if Jesus is our hope, then we should be living that out every day and be prepared to give a reason for the hope we have. And writing a book is such a powerful way to do that. I love that. Hope books make sure that everything they publish, everything they put out is something that is helpful, optimistic, personal, and equipping. That's such a fun way to think about the word hope. Brian also said that books are not written, they are built.

Christen Clark [00:32:13]:

You need to have a plan and a strategy to effectively create a book. So you have to start with the end in mind and have a goal, not a dream. Remember, a goal is a dream with a deadline. So that's good advice for someone who is looking to write a book someday. And I love that Brian reminded us there's 168 hours a week. So it does seem silly that we tell God we don't have enough time. But God has given us everything we need to live the vision and the mission that he has put us on this earth to do. So you have to make the time and go for it.

Christen Clark [00:32:47]:

If you are an aspiring author or you're interested in learning more about what it would be like to write a book, head over to hopebooks.com and be sure to check out the show notes to get their free digital copy of Brian's book. And I'm so excited about his book for kids that's coming out in the fall for anyone who's interested in learning to write a book. All right, well, now it's time for my favorite part of the show. This is our family discussion segment. This is where we get to ask a few fun and thoughtful questions to help you keep the conversation going. Now, you can pause after each question and talk about it together right now, or you can listen to all the questions and then chat about them later. Whatever works best for your family. So let's talk about it.

Christen Clark [00:33:33]:

Okay, here's the first one. What is your favorite book and why do you love it? 2. Have you ever thought about writing a book? What kind of story or message would you want to share? Why is it important to use your time wisely if you want to do something big like writing a book or working towards a goal? Well, I hope those sparked some great conversations with your family. Hey, if you love today's episode, be sure to follow us on social media. I'm on Facebook at the Collide Kids Podcast or on Instagram @collidekidspod and you can share this episode with someone who might need to hear it. And check out the collidekidspodcast.com website for more episodes, family resources, and great ways for you and your family to grow in faith together. And while you're there, be sure to sign up for the monthly newsletter. Even though we're taking a break for the summer, I will still have some resources that I'll put out over the summer and anyone who signed up for the monthly newsletter will be the first to know when we are starting back up in August.

Christen Clark [00:34:43]:

And don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel to see the full interview for today's episode. Well, even though it's the last show, it still would be so great for you to support the show by leaving a rating and a review on whatever podcast podcast app you're using. That's always helpful for more people to find out about the show. You can also shop through our Amazon link and even send over a little support through Buy Me a Coffee. All those links are on our website, and most of all, I appreciate your prayer support, especially as we're getting through this season. It means so much to me to know that so many people are praying for the show and I hope you'll continue to do that through the summer as we will be preparing for what comes next. Well, it is sad to sign off at this time, but I know you're going to have a great summer. I'm going to have a great summer.

Christen Clark [00:35:29]:

We're getting ready for VBS and vacation and all the good things. So I hope you have an amazing time with your family and I look forward to seeing you again in August. And in case no one has told you today, I would love to be the first to remind you that God loves you so much. Thanks for listening. Listening.