Transform Your Trauma! How to Turn Your Pain into Amazing Stories | Jessica Danel, Author

Jessica Danel (00:00)
we were two young girls, you know, lost to them. We're supposed to be in California. And so I, but I get into this filling station,

I go inside and I'm like,

you know, pouting a little bit and the lady goes, well,

what's the matter? And I said, I'm lost. think I'm lost. mean, we have no money. and I go, well, where are we? And she goes, well, you're in Eden, Eden, Idaho.

I said, my grandma and grandpa, think they live in Eden. And she goes, she looked at me and she was like, well, what's your, what's her name? And I said, Vineyard. And she said, she put her head down and she comes out from around the counter and she puts, she gives me a side hug and she comes over

and she walks me to the door. She opens it and she goes, you see that road right there?

Right there's your grandma and grandpa's road. That's Vineyard Road right there.

She goes, I know your grandparents. She goes, I'm friends with them. And she goes, if you just go down that road, you'll find their house. I was lost and like a little lamb, and I ended up right where I needed to be

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (01:06)
Ladies and gentlemen, I am so excited to talk to this amazing author, entrepreneur, podcaster, and someone that understands what it really means to take everything that life throws at you and turn it into something that becomes a bucket list for your journey. So Jessica Danel, welcome to the God and Gig Show. How are you, my friend?

Jessica Danel (01:25)
I'm good, thank you so much for having me on. And yeah, I'm pretty good at turning lemons into lemonade.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (01:32)
If someone's meeting you for the first time at a restaurant,

grocery store, anywhere in your local neighborhood, and they're just meeting you as a person. What are those first two or three things you want them to know about you upon first meeting, taking out all the bio stuff?

Jessica Danel (01:47)
Well, I am a wife and mother and I've been married 28 years and I've got three kids and three dogs that drive me nuts. And I work in broadcast media and I do that as my full-time gig. I work for a radio company and a local television station. So that's what I do to survive.

I'm dabbling in writing. I've written a book about my crazy life, but I also am writing some novels and I've actually written three novels. They're a series book collection and I'm on my last few chapters of my third book, but they're in draft form. So of course they're, years away from being seen, but yeah. So that's me in a nutshell.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (02:35)
most of the

creators that come on the show, I always get to kind of get into the origin story of what was that first creative thing? Was it school plays or was it like writing or acting or playing outside or something?

what was that thing? Was there that kind of that helped you out?

Jessica Danel (02:50)
in high school, I was like the school photographer.

you know, my senior year, I went around with one of those ginormous, like, tape recorders.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (03:01)
yeah.

Jessica Danel (03:02)
And I went around and I tape recorded my senior year and then put it into a yearbook, like a senior yearbook.

And I've always really liked photography and I've really liked videography. That's always been in my background. When my friends would have a...

a death in their family or whatever. I was the one to put the little video together with all their pictures and snapshots and everything to music. And I was the one that everybody went to for that. And I just enjoyed it. I, you know, that's kind of like, like it was like a hobby, but it's a fun thing. Every time we went, all my pictures are beautiful with my kids and everything. Cause I just took really good pictures and always had a great camera. And so that was me. That was.

You know, you always have chores when you're a parent and mine was the, I was the photographer of the family.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (03:52)
But

that's a beautiful thing because first of all, just seeing how those seeds, you know, jumping ahead to the end of the story, how these seeds must have been seeds that

Jessica Danel (04:00)
Okay.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (04:02)
became harvest in media.

So those were some seeds that were clearly shared in

Jessica Danel (04:06)
Yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (04:07)
your early life. However, you also share in your book and in some of your podcasts and your struggles,

before you had a chance to even like dive into all this, maybe was it your parents? Was it, you know, the

Jessica Danel (04:17)
Yes.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (04:18)
academic? What were the things that were stopping you from like really like embracing this early?

Jessica Danel (04:23)
Nothing academic because like I said, I always carried my load and did everything I was supposed to. But there was some hiccups.

But what I struggled in was my home life. So I had a mom and dad. mean, I was lucky to have both parents in the home. And I had an older sister, older brother, and a younger sister. And there was some issues. Like I said, I was a hyperactive kid. Maybe I was hard to handle. I don't know.

And so my mom and dad thought I was being like I was on drugs because I was reserved. I wasn't maybe as talkative as I normally am. I didn't really engage with them as much. And we were fighting a lot, my mom and I. And so they read on a pamphlet.

Is your child irritable? Irresponsible? She's on drugs. So they lied to me, told me we were going to someplace and dropped me off at a drug rehab. And then when my test results came back that I'm not on drugs, four days later, don't ask me why it took four days, but they found out and they pulled me out. And I talk about that experience in the book. The other thing is I grew up with what's called like a lazy eye.

you know, like Forest Whitaker, kind of, if you look at him, he

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (05:37)
Yeah.

Jessica Danel (05:37)
looks, yeah, just like that. And I had two surgeries when I was like five and six and a half. And they were, it was pretty traumatic and I remember a lot of it. And I write about it in the book. And it's funny cause I write the book, like as I was thinking those things, those childish memories are, you know, I talk about them in the way that I'm thinking at the time.

So it's a little juvenile in ways like you're like, I say silly things, but that's because this is how the little girl was thinking when she was five years old. And

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (06:12)
Right.

Jessica Danel (06:12)
so I talk about that and I wasn't, you I didn't feel pretty because I was gonna have a lazy eye. And so my surgeries were basically my beauty was in their hands and it was a crazy thing. But it turned out, I mean, you can't really tell because I'm wearing glasses and also makeup, you really can't tell. So I'm lucky that with a little bit of makeup and

some shading, you just can't see that that's, but I didn't feel pretty. So growing up, I didn't feel pretty.

And it was it wasn't for my friends in the area that I grew up with in my high school and my friends in Park Circle. We call it in the book, I was even a chapter about Park Circle and how

My friends like really affected me growing up. And if it wasn't for them, I probably, you know, maybe I wouldn't be this positive person than I am today. I don't know.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (07:01)
That's great to know that you did have some type of circle of influence that was giving you the positives while you were dealing with all the childhood traumas that we don't want to like skirt over those, but I do think it's important to kind of to make a point that you are finding ways to deal with it, to talk about it right now through your podcast. And so

Jessica Danel (07:18)
Right.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (07:18)
this is important that people see that there is a reason why you're not.

You know, again, I think you are looking at the bright side of it, whereas that you wouldn't have ever wished that or wanted that kind of abandonment thrown into a drug rehab when you weren't really deserving to be there. But it does create

Jessica Danel (07:33)
Okay.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (07:34)
some type of resilience, right? And that's kind of like where I feel like a theme of your writing and a theme of your life has been

Jessica Danel (07:36)
Right. yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (07:39)
the resilience. And I think this is important to list for all of our people who are listening and watching that it is your response, right? It's your response to the trauma is your response to how things hit you, especially now I want to kind of fast forward to.

Not only did you do a childhood trauma, but a car crash, a school shooting,

Jessica Danel (07:57)
first before those two things, something special happened to me. I went to Utah with my friend after I graduated high school. My parents gave me like this repossessed car.

when my parents went out of town and my brother was throwing a house party, my friend said, let's go to Utah to my boyfriend's ranch.

And so we get there and it was terrible. And as we're leaving, I'm leaving,

And so my girlfriend climbs in the back seat, falls asleep, and she's like, just take the 80. And I was like, okay. So I take it going the wrong way.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (08:35)
my gosh.

Jessica Danel (08:36)
And I ended up in Idaho.

And we're driving in this like deserty area and there's like nothing around for miles and I'm and we're getting close to empty and my stomach's growling and I was had been driving for like eight hours

we get to this filling station in the middle of nowhere, literally desert and a station in just, that's it. And you can see for miles, there's nothing. And there was, it hadn't been anything for miles. And so we stop and we're literally on fumes and we're starving. And I have like $3 in my pocket. And I was starting to get scared.

And back then, you you probably, I knew it's not like now when you come up, I need money for my car and people won't give you money anymore. Like if you're stranded, but

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (09:25)
Yeah.

Jessica Danel (09:25)
we were two 17 year old girls or she was 18 and I was 17, but two young girls, you know, lost to them. We're supposed to be in California. And so I, but I get into this filling station, one of those old timer, I mean like wood decking to get up to the door creaking.

door to open up the door and you know, old timing, looking kind of filling like the old pumps that are like, now people pay a lot of money just to have them. And so I go inside and I'm like, you know, pouting a little bit and the lady goes, well, what's the matter? And I said, I'm lost. think I'm lost. mean, we have no money. And I think I went the wrong way. I she goes, where are you going? I explained and I go, well, where are we? And she goes, well, you're in Eden, Eden, Idaho.

And I talk about, we get to a point in my book before all this happens where I talk about how I went to eat in Idaho the summer before for a family reunion at the farm. My grandpa, my great grandma and grandpa have a farm. It's actually a historical landmark. It's made of their house is made of lava rocks and it's been there for well over 150 years. And so, yeah. And so the lady goes, well,

Honey, where's your great-grand? I said, my grandma and grandpa, think they live in Eden. And she goes, she looked at me and she was like, well, what's your, what's her name? And I said, Vineyard. And she said, she put her head down and she comes out from around the counter and she puts, she gives me a side hug and she comes over and she walks me to the door. She opens it and she goes, you see that road right there? Right there's your grandma and grandpa's road. That's Vineyard Road right there.

She goes, I know your grandparents. She goes, I'm friends with them. She goes, this whole area is their land, because they had like 300 acres. And she goes, if you just go down that road, you'll find their house. I couldn't believe it. Can you imagine? Literally, I swear on my children's life, this is the absolute truth. I was lost and like a little lamb, and I ended up right where I needed to be so that my family could help me and take care of me and send me home.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (11:36)
story.

No, it's incredible because the idea that, course, there's so many analogies you can take from this. I'm sure you've already kind of explored them in terms of going the wrong way, but God's still being there with you and showing you that, hey, there's a way back, right? There's a way back from these things. And I know you mentioned this a few times in your writings about breadcrumbs or out these little like winks of God where he shows you that he's still involved in your life.

Jessica Danel (12:00)
yeah, I'm not trying to be like a weirdo, but he literally gave me breadcrumbs to show me like sprinkled them along.

the way to show me like this is what you should be doing. if it wasn't for that, I might not even be on podcasting or writing a book or any of the things that I did.

it was about a few months later, I was living in Rockland,

I got a job teaching preschool and then there was this shooter, shooter at Lindhurst High School, which was my high school. And I was like, what? I jumped in my little VW bug, because I'm going as fast as I can and I get to the front of the school and

only, you know, people like that were related to anybody inside could come inside, but I could because my sister was in there.

I go, where's my sister? Like, where's my sister? And they're like, I don't know, I don't know. Come to find out my sister was fine. But she fainted from the shock. She was actually in the building right before it happened.

The gunman, his last name is Houston, he held people hostage and made them go downstairs to find other kids to bring back up. And if they didn't come back up, he was gonna shoot somebody. So these 14, 15, 16 year olds had to decide, do I run? Do I make them come back? Because kids were hiding behind curtains and all kinds of stuff.

Or do I tell them like get away you can get away and I'll just tell them no, you know, I found nobody So can you imagine like having to make that decision? I mean it was it's terrible

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (13:35)
It's tragic

and just the idea that I was thinking that, you know, this is unfortunately a thing that we've obviously dealt with in our country so much. again, like I'm trying to see this from your eyes, like you mentioned in your book, a child looking at this and just wondering like how, what was the impact? Like how do you carry that throughout your young life? through.

Jessica Danel (13:55)
Some people

didn't. They never recovered from that, having been in this ordeal. you know, it's,

It was terrible. The whole thing. So we all every year we commemorate it on Facebook and we talk about like never again, you know, like, no, don't forget. And but this happened in 1992. And one of the reasons why I didn't get notoriety or people don't ever discuss it when they say, you know, shooting started is because Columbine was like, oh, national news. at the time ours happened, the Rodney King verdict came out on April 29th and then

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (14:31)
Okay.

Jessica Danel (14:31)
the riots.

And then the riots the next day. And then our school shooting was that Monday, like the first of May. so,

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (14:38)
Good.

Jessica Danel (14:39)
the news cycle wasn't the same as it is now. know, like every 24

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (14:42)
Yeah, I can imagine, right.

Jessica Danel (14:43)
hours is like crazy mayhem news. And back then it wasn't the same. But maybe had they known, we always talk about like maybe had they really paid attention to our school shooting, maybe things could have started a little sooner than Columbine. So, which happened in 2000.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (15:00)
the key that I am taking from both of these instances is number one, obviously that God's protection was on you. And like we always want to go into like, well, why do things happen? Why do bad things happen? And so many times when it comes down to navigating, as you have through your life,

It's how, it's funny, I feel like a broken record, but it is like how you responded, right? How you do respond

Jessica Danel (15:22)
Right.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (15:23)
to realizing that you could have lost your life, realizing that you went the wrong way, but that your grandparents, your great grandparents, your farm was right there and that you still had this. So I am curious to ask you in terms of now that you've gotten through high school, now that you've seen all of these moments that you've had to deal with these traumas, like what was the vision for your life? it, was it to,

go

make something up yourself in like, you know, in some creative space. Was it to go to college? What was the thing that like, okay, I survived this, now I should go do this.

Jessica Danel (15:54)
You know, when I left home at 17, I had my car and everything I owned fit in the back seat of my car. Not like a trunk, the back seat. And my mom gave me $5 and said, good luck. I didn't really have a lot of family support, nor did I have a lot of family saying, you can do it, you're so smart, you can go to college or I'll help you or nothing.

and here's the thing. My story is called Bucket List from a Redneck Girl. And I'll tell you how I came about writing the book. But the reason why it's called that is because I had a list of things that I wanted to do with my life.

The only reason why I made the bucket list is because I did decide to go to college,

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (16:36)
Okay.

Jessica Danel (16:36)
to take college credits to teach preschool because I wanted to be, and this is where I'm getting the point, I wanted to be a housewife and a mother. I've always just thought wanted to be a mom and a wife and that was it. That's all I knew. I saw my mom was a housewife, my grandma, you know. And so I said, that's what I want to be. And so when I went to school to be a preschool teacher,

They said, okay, let's get early childhood education units under your belt and just make a list of things you want to do in your life. And that'll help you maybe decide what kind of classes you want to take. know, like if you want to be this or do that or whatever. And so I made a bucket list of things I wanted to do. They were very simple things, almost like the American dream. I wanted to travel. I wanted to marry, you know, a blonde hair, blue eyed tall man. I don't know why that's just was on my list. Don't judge.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (17:27)
But not

judging, nope, not judging.

Jessica Danel (17:29)
I wanted kids and I wanted to write a story about my crazy life. did. I wanted to get a master's degree. There's lot of little things, just things that I wanted to do that are like everyday things. But to me, they were almost unattainable. I didn't think I'd ever get to those things ever. So it would just be like, oh, if I only could kind of bucket list.

I don't know, something in me decided that whatever I wanted, I'm gonna have to go get it.

it's funny because I didn't tell you anything about my journey through religion.

then I, I used to always go to church with my friends because her dad was a pastor. And one day he told me, this is funny.

I know why I didn't mention this earlier, but he was sitting at the table and he was doing a sermon, you know, practicing, writing things down and what he was going to say at church that morning. And he said, you know, God talks to you a lot, Jessica. You just have to listen.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (18:37)
Wow.

Jessica Danel (18:38)
And he says, and I always remember him when saying that to me, he says, you just have to listen. And he's always, you know, he'll show you things. You just have to open your eyes.

And that is how come I know that I see the breadcrumbs now. And sometimes I'll say, even when I'm like in a hurry or something and like the traffic parts, I was like, gee, thank you. Like I'm thanking him for, cause I know he's doing that for me cause he knows or a guardian angel or somebody I'm being looked at. I'm being helped. I am being watched over and I feel it like a lot in a lot of different things. I'm looking for something and it's right there. You know, I don't know how to explain it. It's just,

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (19:16)
No,

I don't...

Jessica Danel (19:17)
So bizarre.

It's so I can I could just feel it. I just know. You know what mean?

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (19:21)
Yeah,

well, you've seen the evidence and so many times the faith is obviously in the Bible. Faith is

Jessica Danel (19:25)
Mm-hmm.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (19:26)
the evidence of things not seen. So once you see it, obviously it makes faith not necessary, but you have seen your faith work out in ways when you had no idea how it worked out.

I want to make sure that because we're talking to a lot of creatives and musicians and artists and creators and podcasters. and you did eventually one of those things on that bucket list, which is graduate and manage end up managing. don't want to tell the

whole story, but yeah.

Jessica Danel (19:50)
First of all, let me just say, so

I started a daycare at my house. I was a housewife, started a daycare. It took off. It just took off. Like I didn't have an edu- I had-

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (19:56)
Okay, yeah, because I remember you started, yeah, because you said you wanted to be a housewife, but that clearly kind of meld together.

Jessica Danel (20:02)
so I had early childhood education from when I was younger being a preschool teacher throughout many

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (20:05)
Right.

Jessica Danel (20:06)
years I was teaching preschool and I was good at it and I'm an overachiever so everybody always loved my room. They always wanted to be with Miss Jessica. It was like the big thing.

So I had my preschool in my house and it was doing so good and I built onto the home and I just had so many kids I could not keep them. There's too many on the list. And so then I opened one at a church that was just doing so good. And then I was approached by a neighbor. I used to watch his kid and he said, hey, I'm gonna

I'm doing a commercial property and the corner is like a triangle in the back. I don't know what to put there, but a school would go perfect because you could put a square building in front of it and then a 30,000 square foot play yard in the back. And so it was a 10,000 square foot shell. And I would, all you need to do Jessica is go get a loan. And so you can pay for the inside and the outside struck, you know, everything you need, like the play structures and all the toys. So I went online and I Googled how to make a business plan.

and I figured out how to do it. And I got an SBA loan for $700,000 and I signed the contract with him and I started the school.

And so on day one, we had 140 students come through. It was crazy.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (21:20)
Incredible.

Jessica Danel (21:22)
It was a big, big program. And we were doing very well. And then in 2008, the economy, wah, wah, wah, did not do so good and everybody was losing their jobs. So by like 2010, we went from having as much as 188 students

to 88 students. And I was injecting money and then my daughter, I was pregnant and then my daughter was born with what's called Tetralogy of Fallot and it is a heart condition and she was gonna need open heart surgery at five months. And so the doctor says do not leave her side because she could fall asleep and die. So literally. And because she, her heart, would, lot of these kids would, when they were feeding they would just, you know,

could fall asleep or they if they weren't breathing, you had to make sure that you like, like

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (22:16)
Yeah, didn't have.

Jessica Danel (22:18)
jostled her a little bit like, hey, Piper, you know, and it did happen like a few times where she might not have survived had I not been near her.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (22:25)
It

sounds like in all of these things, because you are a storyteller by nature. can tell just by the way you're sharing that the way that you express yourself and what has happened is by telling stories. Now we know stories is the way that like even God decided to write a story in the Bible. Like he gives us all these examples of what really happened to give us examples. So I'm curious, what is the main thing you want people to take from your stories, from your book and your podcast? Cause

Jessica Danel (22:49)
think I did.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (22:49)
yeah, you stepped out and started to share this stuff.

Jessica Danel (22:53)
I believe God wants you to tell your story like about him and your faith for him and these little God stories that I have and the little like the stories about how he told me how to go get my master's degree these are all things he wants you to say and I put it in a book because I don't know something propelled me to put it all down on paper and once I did

I said, how am I supposed to get this out to the masses? How do I reach people? And I thought, okay, I'm good at photography, I'm good at videography, maybe this could be something I could do, let's do a podcast. So how do you do that? Just like I did with my business plan, I Googled how to do it and I went on YouTube and I listened to what everybody said and I wrote down all the different buzzsprout and riverside and pod match.

Matchmaker and all these different places to help you, all these different softwares that are out there. And I weighed my pros and cons on all of them and I chose one for every little category that I needed to use. And I looked at the type of equipment. I didn't want to get something too expensive but not something cheap either. And

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (24:06)
Yeah.

Jessica Danel (24:06)
so I got a Sony camera and I got a Rodecaster Pro 2 and I got some of the things that are important to make.

it sound well and look good. So it didn't look chintzy.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (24:20)
You decided at some point that even if you had your full-time job, even if you had all these other issues to just go for it, and what would you say to somebody who maybe who has gone through a lot of stuff and maybe is dealing with a full-time job and had to, like, what would you, what would you say to them to help them to take the same step? it's so I've hear everything in your story is

whatever

happened, I'm going to go for it. I'm not going to let, know, whatever happened in the past stop me.

because some people feel like, well I've lived all this life is too late to start this and learn new things. But sounds like you would say the exact opposite.

Jessica Danel (24:52)
I mean, I just wrote the book, people, so I wrote it in my 50s. So here's the thing. My parents tried to break my spirit. When I was younger, I made bad adulting decisions and it was found adulting difficult. made poor choices. And I felt my self-esteem went down a little bit because I made bad choices and I didn't feel good about myself. And then I met my husband and then his ex-girlfriend didn't make me feel good about myself.

You know, there was just all kinds of things that were always, you know, bringing me down. And what do I say to that? I say, you put on your big girl panties, you hike them up, and you're like, you get back in the game no matter what it takes. And so, yeah, I lost my business. And my daughter, she ended up having not only heart problems, that open heart surgery she had to go through,

But I just decided, what am I gonna do? can't, I don't have, I'm not working, not, you know, I need to do something with my life. So I went back to school, I got my degree in four years.

and then got a job in broadcast media, which is fun, you know, I'm not the talent or anything. So don't I'm not that pretty. but I did. I got a job in bracket. And then I then I decided during Covid to get my master's degree because God told me to. And I read it in the book. It'll tell you all about it. And in fact, I went to my husband and I'm like, God told me to go get my master's degree. Can I do it? Can we spend the money? And he's like, whatever your path is, Jessica, he goes.

or your journey, he goes, I'm cool with it, I'll support you. And he looked at me like, you're crazy. And I was like, I don't know, I truly believe, I truly, truly believe God was telling me this is what you need to do. if it wasn't for getting my master's degree and then getting my second job in radio, because I also have a job, I do all the behind the things, like the traffic.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (26:47)
Yeah.

Jessica Danel (26:48)
I'm like not...

important but important. I'm like one of those cogs in the system. Thank you.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (26:53)
But there's a perfect, but it's the perfect training for,

like you said, for what you're doing. Cause all of us as creators end up doing all the little things. Right. And that's again, like

Jessica Danel (27:00)
Alright, bye.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (27:01)
it's how God kind of navigated your story so that it was exactly what you needed. And I was thinking even in terms of what you just mentioned about losing your losing your job or having to give up the preschool where I stepped away from my full-time position in teaching and then stepped away from my full-time position in music and music ministry twice.

Which

made no sense. And people would look at my story and your story and be like, okay, that's not the path you want to take. That's not the, the, the, the path to success. The ABCs of success.

Jessica Danel (27:28)
Like open another school. Like

do that. Go open another school, do something like that. But it was like that just didn't seem like that's where I was supposed to go. And after I wrote my book, while I was working my two jobs, I had downtime and that's when I wrote my story. I always tell people I wear my personality on my sleeves and I wear all my stories in my back pocket.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (27:52)
Yeah.

Jessica Danel (27:52)
And my friends would always tell me, Jessica, you need to write this down. That's crazy. I can't believe that story happened to you.

And all these things I'm telling you, my friends would be like, that's nuts.

But I just said that I need to get this story out there because I think there's stories people need to hear and maybe they'll resonate with others and they'll find a piece of themselves in my words and I'm finding that that's the truth. so, yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (28:14)
See, that's a powerful thing

right there because right there when you said like, okay, other friends were telling you this is crazy. This is exactly what usually ends up validating a lot of us. We don't think our own stories are worth the investment making the podcast, writing the book until we realize, like you said, wait a minute, if other people are already telling you, hey, this is incredible, you should do this. And then accepting that and not.

you know, poopooing in and throwing it aside, but actually taking that God can speak to those other friends, right? And that's your little breadcrumbs to say, Hey, you should go start that podcast. You should still your tour, your tell your stories.

So I really feel like that's what you're kind of hit on is your story, even though it seems so unique, everyone can see themselves somewhere in the stories that you've lived out.

Jessica Danel (29:03)
Yes. So my thing is I truly feel like I wasn't sure how I was going to do my podcast and how I was going to, what the things I was going to say.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (29:13)
Okay.

Jessica Danel (29:13)
But I believe that God wants me to talk about him and wants me to have people that are going to, that are going to inspire others. And so I love having talk about families. We talk about relationships. We talk about faith. We talk about books.

You know, I have this book bug now. I'm like, like writing and I didn't know I did.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (29:36)
Yeah.

Jessica Danel (29:37)
I wasn't sure I was creative, but I guess I am. And here's the thing, people out there, even if you get, let's just say, I'm not saying, I'm not trying to plug my book, but if you get my book and you read it, you'll see how simple I talk. It's like I'm talking right now is basically how I talk in the book. And you can write a book that's just like that, just like simple talk.

that I'm sure you had like a lot of stuff go on in your life as well And you'll see that you have more stories in your back pocket than you really realized and you can make a book of it

And it could be interesting, it could be funny, it could be sad. I you can write it any way you want. I like to walk through life with humor and how I live my life. And I'm always the clown. And I think my book is a little clownish,

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (30:24)
but I love how your personality

shines through your book, shines through your stories. And again, I want to go all the way back to that sort of resilience, right? Of dealing with the things you had to deal with as a child, dealing with the things you had to deal with as a young adult

So we got to start wrapping up.

and you've shared so many great stories, but like you said, you couldn't tell all the stories in the book. So let them know how they can find you, how they can find your podcast and how they can find the book and support you and learn more about your amazing life.

Jessica Danel (30:50)
Okay, it's easy peasy, okay? You just go to my website. It's justsaying.net. That's J-E-S-S-A-Y-I-N-G dot N-E-T. all my social media stuff will be on there. You can go find me there. I'm on everything. And about the book, the podcast, little short social post that I post on. You can find little tidbits, little one minute little excerpts of the podcast that I do. Now my podcast is,

The beginning, I started in July of 2025. It's rough. It's rough.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (31:23)
I saw, yeah, but your, look, anytime you

get past that seven, first seven, 10 episodes, you're going beyond like 90 % of podcasters. So you're already making it, you are successful.

Jessica Danel (31:33)
it's rough. Let

me just say I'm on episode 40 right now, but I have taped over almost 100.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (31:40)
Nice batching. All

right. I love it.

take the leap of faith for you. was grabbing the equipment, reading and Googling about how do you start a podcast for me? It was saying, Hey, I, know, I just.

tried to figure out how to be a musician and a creative and a Christian at the same time. Let me talk to some people and ended up recording these on these little Sony recorder turned into a book, turned into a podcast, turned into this seven years later. So we are proof that it's worth taking that first step.

Jessica Danel (32:06)
And in the beginning, you know what, they're not gonna be great. My first, I don't know,

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (32:10)
Exactly.

Jessica Danel (32:11)
they're not great, let me tell you. But as I'm going now, they're really better and they have to cringe before they'll binge, that's what I heard.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (32:19)
I'm taking that cringe before the binge. love it. Well, Jess, this has been absolutely amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your time, your stories, your passion for what you have to share. Clearly God knew exactly what he was doing when he got you writing and and taking those films at VHS back in those all day. He knew exactly where you were going to end up. So. He did. Yes. So thank you

Jessica Danel (32:37)
He put me on a path, you know? Yep.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (32:40)
so much for joining us on the God in the gig show. Hopefully this is not the last time.

Jessica Danel (32:44)
Thank you.