One of the things that my grandmother would teach me is to take going outside...
legacies that I've given my children and try to instill in the book is to don't embrace change
“and embrace a different set of circumstances. If it's not always how it should be, it's not always bad.”
Julie Hirsch is a resilient, empowering, and purpose-driven entrepreneur and the founder of live the dream now LLC. Through her work, she helps individuals break through limitations, rediscover their potential and create lives rooted in growth and intentional living. I'm driven and determined and wanted to get the words in my mind down on paper and on with my grandmother, but getting the book published, finding the illustrator, getting it all
sorted as being a journey. And now we've got to get it sold in volume and that's my dream and that's some what I'm planning to do. The living your legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy.
“Open, she come up with the lead USA and call in the boxes mad on the planet. You can live your dream!”
Hello and welcome back to another episode joining me today's Jill. Also, you'll notice from the accent we share one ringing coming out the gate. Actually two things because she's wearing red my favorite colour, but Jill's an RB rider and author and I'm very excited for this episode to hear
about the amazing book she's riding. So Jill, welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Thank you.
So let's hear a little bit about yourself. I know you're doing some really cool with the books, but before we get to that, what led to this? Well, same as you Rudy. I still left the cold shores of England in 2016 and right about when I left too actually. Yes, vow to become an RV rider and it's taken me until now really to get my act together and get it going. It's been a journey. It's not easy to write a book. The actual writing of the book and the inspiration was easy.
I'm driven and determined and wanted to get the words in my mind down on paper and on my grandmother, but getting the book published, finding the illustrator, getting it all sorted as being a journey. And now we've got to get it sold in volume and that's my dream and that's
what I'm planning to do. Yeah, there's a you know, a book. I always held off to a book for a long time.
I just signed a big deal with Penguin Publishers actually. Wow. But it's a big deal. Yeah, that's great. But you know, books are always it's like, I mean, the easiest part is the idea and I'm riding, but then you've got to pull it all together and organize it and promote it and sell it. Exactly. It's a lot more that goes into it. You walk into waterstones where you walk into, bounce, no, when you look at all those shelves, you think, wow, there are a lot of, there's
a lot of contention that I started in the 1990s with computers, same as my grandmother, the started in 1912s with the car industry. And there was, you know, it's a floodmark. There's a lot of competition. And you've just got to be different. Yes, but I stand out from the ground.
“Yeah, love that. That's what we teach. So, so tell us a bit about the the books then. So,”
I know you've mentioned it to me, but for the audience listening, if they don't know, tell us what inspired the books. My grandmother's storytelling, my childhood. She was an absolute storyteller. She would inspire me. We would sit literally in our little tourist in minus cottage in County Durham in the northeast of England. And she would inspire me with such stories of America. You the colorful cosmopolitan way of New York, how she arrived in Ellis Island, how she met
Chinese, people in eight Chinese food, how she met the Italians and eight pizza. And at the time, you had jam sandwiches, fishing chips, all of this, well, I was going to, I was going to say to anyone listening now, that's normal. Right, like Chinese and pizza. You know, I'm not sixy. And at the time, all of this exotic food that she was describing and the journey and the Mexican food and just the cosmopolitan Ellis Island, New York experience that she had and she told me about. And then
her journey, she, she, her brothers and family work for the Firestone Tiger operation. And she journeyed with them from New York through Philadelphia through Kentucky right through to Ohio.
Then they went on Washington and down right down the east coast right through...
to Seattle, setting up Firestone Tiger depots and just a whole experience of the diverse culture of the US. And it just wet my appetite that I wanted to travel to the States. And so all my life I had a burning desire. And when I eventually, you know, the great reset that you mentioned in your sort of life, you know, the opportunity to, to literally retire and come and do something.
I mean, an entrepreneur never retired. And I came to Florida with a plan. Well,
the plan was to write books. And I've got a 10 book series in the offering. And this is the first the first of the series. The second one, which is going to be launched next Easter, is the glorious homecoming, which is hopefully going to promote the English team to football glory. That is the plan. So yeah, I mean, you mentioned a lot there. One thing that I always is funding with America like to a non-American we would say, you know, America, a lot of Americans don't have passports.
And that's very bizarre for me. I know. It's for me. But then you realize it's because within America, you have just like Europe, you know, all the States change and there's so much variety which you mentioned, you know, between. So so tell us about the first book and then the other,
“you know, you've got some more coming out. What's the what's the key parts of this first book?”
The first book is called Being Different. And my grandmother was different. She was illegitimate and she came from an Irish tinker. That was her heritage. And she, she was born into a family of Swedish blond tall Viking looking Swedish blondes. And she was little Irish fiery redheads. And so she didn't ever fit in. And that made her decidedly different. And she basically gave me the skills and gave me the confidence to know that it wasn't bad to be different. And if you are
different, you have different gifts. Yeah. And I think that's such a big message that the world needs because, you know, I know me and everyone, like, you, your groom to do the opposite to just fit in. Right. Exactly. And picked on as a kid if you did exactly. And it was, you know, those every child
“has a journey and every child at one time in their life is bullied. They're always singled out”
in the classroom in the school playground. And my grandmother taught me at early age, be proud that God's given you gifts and God's made you unique. Yeah. And it's very, very enlightening and important. And the part of my book, the journey, is to teach girls, especially, that you're not different. You are unique. And to be embrace that and you have a superpower. And it's all about your superpower that you have been given a talent. You've been given a scale. You've been given a
gift. And every individual has some uniqueness that needs to be embraced and honest. And that's what the book is about. I was very fortunate as a kid. My parents were very different,
side of very different lifestyle. And I actually enjoyed being different. I always tell people a story
of, "Yes." You're in the wild cup. I decided to put support Brazil. And I wasn't very popular in school in England soccer's life. And actually, ironically, that year, Brazil knocked England out of the world cup. So I was very bullied a lot by everyone that day, because I came to school in a Brazil shirt. So I was very unpopular. But I've always tried that way and enjoyed it. You know, and I mean, most people would be more defined at the idea of coming in a Brazil shirt,
“the day you knock out your country from the world cup. But I think that's why I've been successful,”
because I've never cared so much about a lot of the people thing. And I've just been myself and got on with it. And I see me in here. So many people that they lose out on their life goals and dreams and what they want to do, because they're so worried about what everyone else is. Lending in with the crowd. And that's, you know, it's very sad. You know, being a black sheep is not
always a bad thing. You know, I mean, most of the time it's actually a good thing, you know.
Yes, yes, take in the road less travel. It is often, you know, you know, one of the things that my grandmother would teach me is, is take going outside of your comfort zone. And one of the legacies that I've given my children and try to instill in the book is to don't embrace change and embrace a different set of circumstances. If it's not always how it should be, it's not always bad. You know, traveling to the States. I mean, at 16, I traveled to Germany. A lot of my
contemporaries would just like horrified. And they would never want to sort of have a great reset.
Never want to basically start again.
opportunity. And I've embraced it. And I've benefited from it. And I would like
through the books to inspire other people to take that step out of there. I think especially in England, like I think. Yes. Now in America, especially especially the newer generations, because the social media, they all want to do different things and be their unique version. But, you know, I know in England, it's like I was joking. I still say to people in England live in the Victorian times. You know, they work hard to get put. They had down. They
stand the same job 30 years and get on with it. And that's all they think life is,
“certainly for a lot of people. And I think that's why I left and moved to America because I felt”
very different. You're very restricted over that. Very much conditioned to being
in acting the norm. And unfortunately, the English sort of persona is such that you do conform with the norm. Which is sad. And it's nice to go to a London and see all the Brits. Just let the head down and just love the American lifestyle. And I was talking to this, you know, about this to my cousins of still in England. And they just work, you know, normal jobs, normal families, manual labor. And one of them is very good. And I said, why don't you start your own
business, you know, contractor and have a team. And he could, because he's very good. And it's just, you know, it's too much, right? Yeah. It's completely scared. Yes. You know, he's got a family to support. And so I think books like this, like if you can inspire people in their childhood to see and believe these things, it can have a massive effect. And this is why I'm writing the books because my grandmother from a very early age, they say that you are formed, you're a form before your
sever. And it was my grandmother that was my strongest influence. My mother had to work. So my grandmother stepped in in that role model. And she's asked day and day out telling me stories of America and literally giving me such inspiration by teaching me about America, teaching me how to step out of my concern, teaching me to take that road less traveled. And if if the bullies want to bully me, then bully them that, you know, show them, give them basically a lesson to show that
you can do more than they can bully you with, you know, that you have got stories in your head.
“You have got skills and you have got something to give. And that's what's important.”
That's great. You know, never ever lose your confidence as well. She taught me. Yeah, great lessons.
Yeah. You know, and I think that's important to give all young girls, especially. I think young girls suffer a great deal. I think so much of the image. Right? Like poor people judging them all. They're of a girl group, you know, they have these WhatsApp groups, these days and Snapchat groups. Yes. So it can get so bad and toxic. Yes. Yes. I mean, I remember, my peer group for 11 12, we'd all go and there was a school, parish dance and we'd all go with all,
aspire to dress exactly the same. Yeah. We used to go to school and wear a school uniform, then we go dancing a aspire to be exactly the same. And I remember thinking, this is stupid. Yeah. You know, why not be stand out from the crowd than be and be different?
“I went to the only school, actually, in my city, with no uniform. Really?”
My parents deliberately sent me that. Wonderful. Wonderful. I forgot that the uniform still a big thing in England. It's very much big. Yeah. Not in the States, but you know, very much big thing in, and, you know, to try and conform to the norm. It loses your identity. But it's funny because the Americans think it's so cute. My wife, you know, she's like, "Oh, so cute, they were." Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it loses their identity. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yes. There's a conforms to fit in and just, yeah. Yes. Yes. And that's very English. You know, conforming to the norm. Yeah. Totally. You know, one thing that's so good about the American spirit is that spirit of independence. Yeah. And the American, you know, people, sometimes these days people say, "All the American dream doesn't exist." I'm like, "Hey, if you come from England, I tell you." It very much does still, like, promise you. Yeah.
Yes. And one of the things that when you get into a pub when they're supporting their team, the American sort of their independence spirit and their support and their passion comes out. So, yes. Yeah. So, just quickly, what a, you know, I love that this is the big lesson from that book. I imagine there's other themes and lessons from the other books. You have that all map town. Um, there are the way that the book series goes. It starts off in the 20s. And it goes on.
Okay. The 19, um, the next book, um, the glorious homecoming is about a very small,
Little town, West Auckland, who actually won the very first ever World Cup, a...
Yeah. In 1909 they beat, um, Stuttgart. Okay. And then they went on to beat
“Juventus. So, nobody knows about this. I'm now going to make that public, hopefully. So,”
England didn't just win the World Cup in 1966. They won it for the third time in 1966. Wow.
It's just to try and sort of, um, raise awareness of the local team up in the north east. Um, and then the further book, the next book is about, um, copy kit. The, it's, it's raising awareness of the northeast, basically. I have got some loyalty towards my home area. And obviously, nobody really knows this, but Princess Elizabeth, um, the, her all-harness, her roots are from
the north east as well. So, the third book is talking about, um, Elizabeth, um, sorry, um, Princess
Catherine, sorry, Catherine, Elizabeth, um, and her roots. And then the rest of the, the books are about Queen, about, um, Elvis, and just going through the different decades and the different Madonna, and going through, as, the books go on about the different genres of music, and they tackling issues as well, that the tackling issues of, of sexuality, the tackling issues of obesity, and their tackling issues that are affecting the youth of today. Yeah. I love it. I love, you know,
the books will have a purpose, right? Absolutely. And I love, you know, that you're building it into your storyline, your life design to help young people. Yeah, yeah, love that, love that. Good.
“So, if people want to check out the books more about you, learn, where can they find you?”
Find me in the website www.gurtie.life because it's all about Gurtie's life. Right. And last question I was asked people were like, you know, what impact do you want this to make in the world? I wanted to inspire young people. So, they realized from a lady who was born in the Edwardian era, or the she was actually born in the Victorian era and lived in the Edwardian era, the lessons that she learned by being a woman of sound faith and lived her life in Christian virtues and
sound principles, just how to live, you live your life clean, green, and just inspire people that way, you know, just to live an honest and a decent humble life. Love it. Well, that's a wrap everyone.
Go check out the books. Obviously, some amazing stories behind them and principles that
“I think can help a lot of people and teach a lot of core messages that people need to learn.”
So, I love what you're doing. Excited to see them all come to life. And a roadless travel as well. There we go. Travel to the States. Yeah. There we go. All right, guys. We'll keep working hard, build a legacy and I'll see you soon. Take care.
