From Rejection to Reinvention: How Authenticity Creates Unexpected Success | Aaron Ryan

speaker-0: ⁓ one of them comes from a movie I like to pretend does not exist, Star Wars One, The Phantom Menace. And it is Qui-Gon Jin says it to a young Anakin Skywalker. He says, Your focus determines your reality. And I love that phrase. Just separate everything else about Star Wars away from just that nugget. It's so powerful. Your focus does determine your reality. And it's come it's come true on numerous occasions in my life. So whatever you focus on. that has a tendency to become your reality as long as you remain, you know, committed to that focus.

speaker-1: Every great story has a moment, the one where everything shifts. Welcome to the Become Empowered podcast, where real leaders pull back the curtain and show you exactly how they did it. I'm Sabine Kwenberg, performance communication coach, keynote speaker, author, and your host. I have spent my career on stages, real ones and invisible ones, and I know this: the most powerful transformations don't happen in the spotlight. They happen in the quiet moments. Of decisions, resilience, and radical courage. Before we dive in, if this podcast moves you, challenges you, or gives you that one thing you needed to hear today, please follow, like, and share it with someone who needs it too. That's how we grow this community together. Some episodes I'm sitting down with entrepreneurs, authors, speakers, coaches, and bold leaders who have faced the hard stuff and can Going. Other times it's just you and me going deep into the mindset, strategies, and the gumpchant it takes to become who you were always meant to be. Either way, we talk confidence, leadership, resilience, and the real story behind the growth. This is Become Empowered. Let's get into it. Hello and welcome to another fantastic episode of Become Empowered. And my guest today is Erin Ryan. And I can't wait to not only hear his story, which is amazing, but also to have the conversation. Welcome, Erin.

speaker-0: Thanks for having me. I'm looking forward to it as well.

speaker-1: You are an author, you are a storyteller. From one storyteller to another, this is what I love because as you know, stories are very powerful. It connects right away. Yeah. So when people meet you for the first time, how do you introduce yourself to them?

speaker-0: Well, usually I'm wearing something like this. I I I'm shamelessly out there advertising myself as an author. ⁓ shirts and apparel that that basically proclaim that you're an author are kind of a ⁓ a front, you know, laying out the front doormat and rolling out the red carpet. ⁓ so the conversations come easy. But I I love introducing myself as an author and a voice actor, both of which are like, ooh, ooh, you know, careers. ⁓ so they're fun. They're they're great conversation starters.

speaker-1: You're an author, you're a storyteller, and you're also a voice actor. Tell us what made you decide that's a profession you want to go into?

speaker-0: Wow. Well, that's going back in time. So I mean, you know, rewind with me. ⁓ I I basically I I I got into it by accident, if that's the full ⁓ you know, God honest truth. In the early nineties, I was working as a telemarketer. Don't tell anybody. I'm I'm so glad this interview isn't going anywhere public like, you know, the internet. but I I was working as a telemarketer and I was selling ⁓ PSAs, which are public service announcements, to businesses. The businesses would sponsor them on the local radio. And I would have to read the sample to them and call and say, you know, Jack, hey, Aaron Ryan here on behalf of KPLZ Radio. How are you? And I would read this sample, you know, encouraging parents to talk with their their kids about the dangers of drinking and driving, for example. And then wrap up the commercial with good sound advice brought to you as a courtesy by Bob's Plumbing. You know, for the best in plumbing, call Bob at blah, blah, blah. And ⁓ one of the customers surprised me and said, ⁓ that's great. You know, we'll buy, but only if you read. And I was like, hold please. And you know, I I had to he wants me to read. Can I read this? And ⁓ I got into it by accident. I went to the studio, put the headphones on, recorded it, and went, Wow, I r I really like this like a lot. So that's what got me into voiceovers.

speaker-1: Yeah. I I can I can tell and I can hear it, you know. You you have that kind of enthusiasm and that spunk in your voice and your appearance, that energy, that is what connects people, right? It's it's not just the words. Of course they play a part. Right. But the most important part, and I think you can ⁓ second that is the energy that you put behind it and the human that human ⁓ element.

speaker-0: definitely have it's called bringing a script to life. They're just words on a page, but you have to make them leap out at the listener and and you have to believe in it. So I I I used to be a a voiceover coach and I had a saying if I can remember what it was. It was like my job is to make my clients' clients believe their clients. ⁓ Like if if they don't believe me, they won't believe their clients or something like that. And if I'm not clear in bringing their story to life, then their clients won't believe my clients. ⁓ something like that. Yeah. And it's very true. You you really have to believe in those scripts utterly. Yeah.

speaker-1: And ⁓ when when I was ⁓ an actress in Germany, that's how I started out. In German, you do all the voiceovers of all the movies and everything that comes in, everything is being dubbed. So I was dubbing some of the things, and the funniest thing I've ever dubbed in my life was one of the early Saturday night lives. And so wow, you can only imagine, right? Like it's it's howdy doody time.

speaker-0: ⁓ yeah.

speaker-1: clue what the howdy doody even is, right? Because nothing to do with what we what we ⁓ watch in in Germany, but that's my early memory when you said voice over. ⁓ yeah, that's right. So now you have written what, forty some books?

speaker-0: ⁓ very I just published number fifty one. ⁓ or I'm sorry, I published number fifty and I'm working on number fifty one now.

speaker-1: Okay, so what what are the topics of your books and how did you get started with ⁓ I think I'm becoming an author now?

speaker-0: Well, I have three different origin stories. They're all roughly around the same time frame. One was reading The Lord of the Rings and having my mind blown. ⁓ and just, you know, ⁓ I was so impressed that the world building and the the character development and the story and the stakes and the narrative. I just went I love this and I read it every single year as a result. ⁓ I was in a young authors club at age ten. I completely forgot about that until mom sent me a newspaper article about it. And ⁓ you know, the memories come rushing back. But really in second grade, I was given an assignment by ⁓ Mrs. Walker. Hi, Mrs. Walker. And she she gave it to the whole class. It was basically writing a short novella. And I wrote in, you know, c college rule paper, three-hole punch, construction paper, ⁓ cover, front and back, and crude stick figure drawings. ⁓ this this little short novella called The Electric Boy. I remember holding it in my hands. looking at it and turning around and showing it to people, going, look what I wrote, look what I did. And it it was just such a light bulb watershed moment for me. Like, this is so cool. Look at this legacy that I left. ⁓ and and I feel that way every single time I'm I've I've published a new book. It's like, look what I did. You know, here I'm 53 years old and going, Holy cow, it just it never, never ends that way.

speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, it's it's truly an experience. I am n way, way, way behind you. So I just published my well, it's coming out in August, my fourth book. And it's more of more of of of business related. Although this this last one that's coming out in I have to of course shamelessly plug it, right? ⁓ is called Gumpchen, ⁓ which is a memoir which is a compilation of my experience. and stories, and of course also frameworks and advice that I share. So when you write you Yeah, thank you. When you write your books, do you approach it from the the like just storytelling or do you have like lessons that are also being told through that story?

speaker-0: Well, they're all very rich in thematic depth, all of them. the nonfiction books come so much easier. They're basically just either a memoir of my wife and my ⁓ coming to find that we were worthy of love, ⁓ we're worthy to be loved. And so that's the memoir, ⁓ writing a nonfiction book about being a daddy to two young boys, not just a father, a biological father, but a daddy. Yeah. ⁓ and those come really naturally. So the lessons are gonna be ⁓ you know, true to life in those The fiction books though, I like to write with what I call ⁓ verisimilitude. So I want them grounded in reality. I want them ⁓ attainable so that you know that the places that they're taking place in are they're right here. I mean, you can go visit them right now on Earth. ⁓ and if they're in the multiverse, well, good luck, you know, because you're gonna have to find some kind of shuttle that'll take you out there over centuries. But ⁓ But yeah, dissonance is an alien invasion saga of six books. It's up here for those joining us visually. It's right up here. And it is loaded with heart and human ⁓ human exploration and thematic depth. The end saga over here is a Christian dystopian trilogy that has so much redemption in it. I love exploring the human struggle. So in the case of the alien invasion, yes, there are aliens. Yes, they find us delicious. Yes, we need to avoid them. But What's more important to me is man is really always the worst enemy of man. So dealing with ourselves and trying to get out of our own way ⁓ is the more important story that I really appreciate in the dissonance saga. So ⁓ but I am a very much a pancer. I write all books very organically. I don't say, well, I'd like to write a book on how man is always the worst man. It's not a referendum. It's just the story evolves naturally as you go along.

speaker-1: Yeah. One thing that you mentioned is one of your more of a biography ⁓ type book is how you learned how to love you love yourself and and others. So yes, you are writing about human experiences or even alien and how we can connect ⁓ maybe that outcome that we all want, but in your real life story, because Part of this podcast is also to to highlight the struggles because we all have struggles and how we got through there. So if you can think back in a part of your life where you really had to dig deep to say, okay, how can I get through this now? What comes to mind?

speaker-0: Well, it's not it it's in a very recent past. ⁓ and ultimately as a voice actor, I found that the online ⁓ community was very toxic. I wanted to be part of the voiceover community. You want, you know, grapes grow best in bunches and and things like that. And I I really did want to be part of that community and I wanted to give. My love language is giving. So I wanted to teach, I wanted to share. I was given, you know, I think two opportunities to do that ⁓ by the Upper crust mucky muck kind of Illuminati in the voiceover sphere. They kind of control all the the speaking circuits and who gets picked, how, and who gets endorsed and and you know, affirmed and all that stuff. That was very hard for me because I I I have just as much to give as the next person. So ⁓ I was dependent on voiceover income. I was dependent on coaching income. I was dependent on a good name and a good reputation. And I finally I I got so sick and tired of the ⁓ the butt kissing that you have to do in order to be recognized and climb that ladder and run that rat race. I finally spoke truth to power. I could have probably been a little bit more diplomatic about some of the things I said, but neither were they diplomatic, which caused the whole thing. So, you know, I did it. No, you did it. ⁓ but I I I have no remorse or no resentment about that. I had to speak my peace. And I in so doing, I shot myself in the foot and I remember feeling like an island alone. What am I gonna do? What have I just done? But I I rise and fall on my own merits. I always have. This was a time for me to sink or swim. And so I pulled out of a toxic community, was left kind of stranded. Some people reached out, which was great, you know, who are the real, you know, carrying humans. And then I ⁓ I said, Lord, I I I really need to do something creative. What do I do to supplement our income? And so 2023 is when that happened. And it it turned into a boon of absolute creativity in music, in books, authoring, both fiction and nonfiction. And I have no regrets looking back that I I was authentically me in a difficult situation and was. Telling people not what they wanted to hear, but what they needed to hear and what I needed them to hear. It did cost me my reputation in that community. It did cost me the whole, you know, ⁓ Aaron Ryan is one of our go to guys. Cause I was never really, I was always on the outside looking in. ⁓ but I again I have no regrets. I'm so glad I did that because it just it produced this bounty of creativity that has it's a well spring, it's never stopped since then. So I'm very grateful.

speaker-1: Yes. ⁓ thank you for sharing that. And for listeners, I I think this is one of the most important lessons we can learn in life. That sometimes we think we need to stay in one area of our lives, professional or in personal lives, to feel safe, to have income, to just yeah, be on the safe side. But oftentimes The compromise we do with that is not feeling good, maybe even health, mental, physical health suffers or whatnot. And what you just shared, that also restricts us from new opportunities. Because you stayed as your authentic self. And I applaud you for that, Aaron, because many people just cannot get to that point because of fear. But you did it. And yes, despite everything else, it is always a challenging time to get through, but everything else that opened up. It's amazing. Congratulations. Yes.

speaker-0: Thank you so much. Yeah, I needed that.

speaker-1: Yeah, yes. And I have had my share ⁓ as well, you know, when we hold on to those things. ⁓ so now being an author and musician, so have you done music before and what kind of music do you do?

speaker-0: So it's mostly rock and it's mostly Christian rock. It used to be Christian pop. ⁓ but ⁓ you know, I went through hell ⁓ at a certain time in my life. So then it becomes rock. You sing about pop until you've gone through hell and then it becomes rock. I ⁓ and and my mom was not a fan of that. She's like, but I like the pop music, honey. And I'm going, well, you know, you haven't been through what I've been through. It's you sing about harder stuff, more real, more authentic stuff as you, you know, when you've you identify with that. ⁓ and it's important to sing about that. ⁓ I I don't do music anymore other than sing, you know, with my church ⁓ for for worship on Sundays. But man, I used to be a traveling musician. I was on the radio, I had big concerts. I opened up for some very big names in concert in the Seattle area. And ⁓ and I love doing it. Every single major vocation I've had has been about storytelling. Music is no exception. Music is storytelling ⁓ in two forms in the music, which is going to take you on a journey and it carries you through on these sonorous waves. But the lyrics as well, if you can, if you're listening with a good ear, you can understand the story behind the story. So I love music for that reason. And I created an album in 2023 that may may be my swan song. It's called Human, the album Human. ⁓ it's kind of a referendum on AI at the time. And I I I love it. I'm so very proud of it. I I love all of the music that I've created. I just never quite felt myself like in my own s like comfortable in my own skin on stage. I'd much rather be behind the scenes. So an author, that's a that's an that's a ⁓ an outfit that I can step into very comfortably and zip up very comfortably.

speaker-1: Yes, I hear you. And yes, storytelling through music, it has a second layer to it. I got into it just also by accident, more or less. I've been a musical theater performer, so I always was fine singing other people's songs. But when I was the music minister for our church, ⁓ that's when all of a sudden I need to write songs for the service. And That started my career as singer-songwriter. And then later on I did went into the personal development space and as a coach, I use some of the music now to inspire others. But it all every song tells a story. Every song. So and it's powerful, right?

speaker-0: Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Very it's also legacy. ⁓ when I say every single major vocation was about leaving a legacy or, you know, telling a story. Rather, it was all about leaving a legacy. Music, I've got CDs out there that I can give to people that are just it it's my heart and soul, a picture, a snapshot of my where my heart and soul were at the time. ⁓ one of my greatest books I've ever written is not published, nor will it be. It is a daily journal that I d as a dad keep for my two boys that I have done nearly every single day since my oldest was two months old in twenty sixteen. And so it's journals of their accomplishments, who they are, our life as a family, where we've gone, trips, lessons we've learned. ⁓ it it's a it's a running picture and a living document that I cannot wait to give them when they're eighteen or twenty one. That shows them just how much ⁓ they were on my heart and mind every day, ⁓ and blessings for them and how much I love them. So that that's the greatest thing I've ever written that I'll never publish.

speaker-1: I would say so. How powerful is that? Can you imagine as a person you get that journal from your dad or from your mom and talking about you and the upbringing and also the relationship and the love? That is, I've never heard of that. It's powerful. I mean, of course, journaling is powerful in and of itself for for yourself, right? ⁓ The the the closest that I have is a ⁓ booklet that my girlfriend of sixty years I mean we know each other in the womb but ⁓ we we stayed friends even though she when I moved to the States over thirty years ago, we stayed friends and we started sending books back and forth. And because we know Yeah, you can write an email, but it's not the same. And there is something written. And this is a book. Who knows? Maybe one day it will be published. ⁓ you know, I'm I'm not thinking about it, but those are the moments, the written word, the memories, the stories. So if you can if you can give ⁓ a piece of advice from your life that you could give a listener. That they can take with them. What would it be?

speaker-0: Well, there's two, and it's always hard for me to pick. ⁓ I I kind of I love to live by mantras. ⁓ one of them comes from a movie I like to pretend does not exist, Star Wars One, The Phantom Menace. And it is Qui-Gon Jin says it to a young Anakin Skywalker. He says, Your focus determines your reality. And I love that phrase. Just separate everything else about Star Wars away from just that nugget. It's so powerful. Your focus does determine your reality. And it's come it's come true on numerous occasions in my life. So whatever you focus on, that has a tendency to become your reality as long as you remain, you know, committed to that focus. The other one is as a creator, ⁓ if you are a creator out there, whoever's listening, watching, someone's endorsement of you or lack thereof has very little to do with your trajectory. That was a phrase I was given by a casting agent slash ⁓ voiceover entrepreneur. And I was in the middle of doing that all that butt ki butt kissing and they weren't, you know, affirming me and endorsing me. She said someone's endorsement of you or lack thereof has very little to do with your trajectory. And as an author, I want good reviews, I want speaking opportunities, I want book sales, you know, things like that. Those don't come all the time. And that's those are all endorsements. So the lack thereof doesn't matter. Has very little to do with my trajectory. My trajectory is forward writing books, regardless of the backpats that I get. You have to have structural integrity and fortitude to make it in a creator industry without all the accolades, without all the purchases, without all the unanimous, you know, approval and support. It's really hard, but you need to learn how to do that.

speaker-1: Yeah, fantastic. And I know we have a lot of listeners who are also authors or maybe wanna be authors. And what is your piece of advice once you have a book? Because we all authors want that this book gets into as many hands as possible. So what is the one, two or three things that you do? That mak brings your books into people's hands.

speaker-0: Well, there's two. One of them is is my books are self-published by choice. ⁓ I I don't know that I'll ever go the traditional publisher route because I just you have you give up a lot as an indie published author when you go traditionally published. ⁓ I love the creative control, I love commanding higher royalties, I love quicker time to market. So as a self-pubbed author, you do want to market your books. And I am very, very pro on doing vendor markets and craft fairs. Not book fairs. Book fairs were all authors clamoring for the attention of the readers. But vendor markets, you've got a blown glass artisan over there and a t-shirt maker and a photographer and bead maker and you know stained glass and author, you know, I'm instantly unique in such an environment. And I sell really well at vendor markets. So if you can cough up the dough to to enter a market and spend a few hours there or a few days there. It's it's a really good return on investment. The other thing as ⁓ a self-published author, you know, predominantly like on Amazon, ⁓ run those promotions. You'll g they'll give you momentary peaks, but some of them can catch wind and waves and and perhaps go viral. So the book promotions like Written Word Media and Crave Books and Book Barbarian and Robin Reeds and The Fussy Librarian, those are all great promotions to run to drive traffic to your Amazon ⁓ book listing. They're all an investment, not an expense, an investment. Totally different mindset. ⁓ those two things work really well for for ⁓ for getting book sales.

speaker-1: Hm. And are your books only on Amazon or also in other bookstores?

speaker-0: No, I publish wide. So Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Apple Books, Google Books, yeah. They're everywhere you can go. Audible Spotify. Yeah.

speaker-1: Which which is another thing many people don't know. If you only do it on Amazon, yeah, they give you the ASBN number, but they are not gonna go into other stores. So you have to have a little bit of that white. Either purchase your own or work with someone who can do it for you. If someone wants to get a hold of you, learn more about you or get your books, so how can they do that?

speaker-0: Yeah, my favorite question. ⁓ so I'm at authorarenrion.com. Authoraren Ryan.com has all the the links to the subsites, like for the Alien Invasion saga, the Christian dystopian saga, and all the socials. ⁓ the other thing though, excuse me, is that you can go to authorarenriong group dot com and that will forward to my my private and exclusive Facebook page where you if you're an author or a creator, I I post videos, lots of tips. For creators there. You'll get discount codes, giveaways, news on my screenplays for my books that are being pitched to streaming networks, upcoming releases, blah, blah, blah. So authorarenrine.com, authorarenrine group.com.

speaker-1: Well fantastic. That is ⁓ and I I might just ⁓ join you there as well. I'm always I always love to connect with other authors and and see what's going on. Now I know we just met for the first time here. We have that interview. We all are on pot match, which by the way, is another great opportunity if you want to if you are a podcast host and want to get great guests like Erin. Or you want to be on podcasts, so go to podmatch.com and I have a link. ⁓ it's a sponsored link, ⁓ my referral link. So ⁓ please ⁓ use that if you like and and just check it out yourself. Erin, this was such a wonderful experience. What tell us the latest book that is being released or has been released?

speaker-0: Well, there there were two. I published them very close, ⁓ side by side. One is my first overtly horror novel called Blood Echoes. And that is I can't see the margins, but I think it's over here. ⁓ or it's maybe this side over here. ⁓ Blood Echoes is a horror novel that was released on my birthday, ⁓ May eighteenth. And then ⁓ also a memoir about how my wife and I finally figured out that we were in fact worthy of of loving and being loved. And that book is called Unworthy with the UN crossed out. ⁓ so you can find ⁓ those two books on Amazon or in the author Aaron Ryan store.com link. So I slipped in another link right there. Look at me go.

speaker-1: That's what it's for. I I love the unworthy because you hit the nail on the head. I I think everybody at one point in their life feel well, I'm not worthy or I'm not good enough. And we have to just cut the BS, right? Hopefully everybody will pick up that book ⁓ because we all are worthy. And so thank you for for sharing that. ⁓ And I wish you all the best. And I can't wait until we meet again somewhere, somehow in the author's world or in the human world, or somewhere in the universe.

speaker-0: Sounds good to me. I appreciate it. Thank you.

speaker-1: Thank you for spending this time with me on Become Empowered. If this message spoke to your heart, make sure you follow, subscribe, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Until next time, let your voice rise, let your light shine and keep becoming empowered.