What if the life you built isn’t the life that fits you anymore? We sit down with children’s author Ron Kinscherf, who walked away from decades in corporate IT and found unexpected joy crafting stories for kids—sparked by a grandson, an anthill, and a simple what if.
His journey blends creativity, faith, and a quiet courage to follow what feels true, even when the path looks nothing like your résumé.
Ron shares how a single observation turned into an entire ant colony with a wise queen and a curious prince, mirroring the communities we live in and the emotions we navigate. We talk about ego versus soul, the pressure to chase traditional success, and the relief that comes from aligning work with calling.
He opens up about losing his father young, realizing how grief shaped his storytelling, and discovering that the calm, steady queen on the page was a reflection of the mother who led his family. For aspiring authors and creatives, he offers practical insights: gather ideas from everyday life, write to a child’s curiosity, and let the lesson emerge naturally instead of forcing it.
Ready to nudge your second act into motion? Listen now, grab Ron’s free ebooks and coloring pages via his site at: www.papatellmeabook.com or www.ronkinscherf.com using the password podcast, and then tell us what small step you’ll take this week.
If the conversation resonates, follow the show, rate it, and leave a review—your support helps us reach one more person who needs the push.
To download a free chapter of host Sylvia Worsham’s bestselling book, In Faith, I Thrive: Finding Joy Through God’s Masterplan, purchase any of her products, or book a call with her, visit her website at www.sylviaworsham.com
Transcript:
If you’ve ever struggled with fear, doubt, or worry and wondering what your true purpose was all about, then this podcast is for you. In this show, your host, Sylvia Warsham, will interview elite experts and ordinary people that have created extraordinary lives. So here’s your host, Sylvia Warsham.
Hey Lightbringers, it’s Sylvia Warsham. Welcome to Release Out Review Purpose. And today is Ron Kinshire. And he has a story to tell. He came from the corporate environment, got tired of that world in the first act, and then decided to shift gears completely. And you know how that happens. We usually have something that happens. We some people call it midlife crisis, I call it turning point, some call it crossroads. Either way, something decides to intersect our lives and give us a different meaning and purpose. Without further ado, Ron, thank you so much for joining us on release out reveal purpose.
Oh, no problem at all. I’m looking forward to the chat.
So am I.
Well, there you go.
So do tell us that amazing story of transformation.
Well, um, I’ll try to keep it short. So I was, like you mentioned, I was in corporate America and for 25, 30 years selling IT products and uh got to the point where I was just frustrated, I was miserable, um, wasn’t sleeping great, you know, just stressed out, and uh I wasn’t I found out later that I wasn’t very fun to be around, and that’s another story. But um and this one night at dinner, my just telling my wife on my day when she says, Ron, let’s just let’s just stop, let’s just quit. And I said, Seriously, I have nothing she goes, don’t worry about it, we’ll figure it out. So I put in my two weeks um with no real plan um other than to you know try to find something else that makes me happy. Um in the meantime, you know, we were having grandkids, we got five grandkids, and um one night at dinner, among the other ideas that were being tossed out for me to continue my working life, so my daughter-in-law suggested I write children’s books because of the way I play with my grandkids. And I didn’t take her seriously, you know, didn’t take any of the other ideas seriously. But uh it was about a week later I was outside barbecuing, and uh my grandson was stomping all the anthills outside, and I just was just watching them kind of giggling, thinking, I really don’t think the ants are enjoying what he’s doing right now. So I got an idea about writing a book from the ants’ point of view about having their homes crashed, crunched. So I did that, I just wrote it down, and then I kept getting ideas about my little ant colony I created. Um, had some friends read them. They said they enjoyed them that I should try publishing them, and I didn’t have anything else going on. So I okay, I’ll try it. And here I am. I’ve got uh 11 books published, working on number 12 right now. Um, signed with a publisher, um, New York-based publisher, and uh it’s been an incredible journey.
That’s awesome. It’s funny how that works out, it comes out of nowhere. We always think, well, what are we gonna write about? I know I struggled with that when God prompted me to write my book. I’m like, uh, what am I supposed to write about? I’ve been in corporate America. What am I supposed to teach people about? What selling Viagra to my dad, for example, which is a true story, by the way. And most people thought that would be like the perfect book to start off with. I said, nope, I’m not going down that path. But I find that that inkling has always probably been there. You just maybe pushed it down. What do you think?
Uh I this I’ve been creative. I was my degrees in radio and TV, and I did play by play for a number of years. So I’ve always had this creative bent. Um I never envisioned writing stories, writing novels. I didn’t have the patience. And what’s great about the uh the kids and their aim for ages three to seven is I’m living that environment right now. So it’s just basically writing observations, and it’s it’s sometimes lessons and messages seem to form within that um and come out at the end. Uh but I again this just is something that I found that apparently I’m pretty dang good at. Um but it it it it was I mean, it’s just been a complete pivot, and the cool part about it is I’ve learned a lot about myself and um I’m happy. Uh I’ve been told, I’ve bet you know I I I’ve been told I’m happier to I’m more fun to be around than I was five years ago. I’m more enjoyable, I’m just more relaxed. Um and you mentioned the part about the ideas, and I live in that environment. I’m I I it’s basically nonstop ideas because my aunt colony is a reflection of the communities we live in and the experiences we have that I just put into the world of my aunts. Um and you know, there’s the trouble they get into and the solutions that they try to solve them. So that’s kind of what I’m trying to create right now. And like like I said, it it I I don’t know why I’m on this path. I do kind of feel that God pointed me, pushed me this way. I feel like this is why I’m on this earth now, um, is to create content for kids and um read to them and yeah.
So I have a qu I have two questions actually. But I’m gonna start off with the one that initially popped out at me. Why on earth, being such a creative, did you land in IT corporate?
So I was in radio for five years. I did uh, like I mentioned, I was in talk radio. I had I was married, had a kid. Um there was and we wanted to stay in our little community. Okay, we wanted the kids to be raised around their grandparents and family and stuff like that. Um, I was never gonna make money in radio to um buy a house, you know, and to have the life that I wanted to live. Um that it was the point where most of talk radio was going to syndication with Larry King and that type of stuff. So we were already carrying Larry King at nights. Um I wasn’t able to talk as much doing talk radio. I was just like doing weather and you know that type of stuff. So it wasn’t what I wanted to do. Um, so at a class reunion, I ran to a buddy who had just bought an IT company and he said, Hey, what are you doing? And I go, I you happy? I go, I’m kind of I’m happy, I love what I’m doing, but I can’t handle this. I gotta, you know, I’m buried now. And he goes, Well, why don’t you come talk to me? So long story short, I got into IT sales consulting solution providing and had a pretty successful career. That’s how that happened. But I continued to do play-by-play. I’ve had that play-by-play outlet for 25 years, so I still was able to do some of that stuff, um, which is storytelling, if you think about it as a basic form.
Um I you know it’s very similar how it works out for people because you do feel a pull. There’s there are two identities that I identified in my book, the ego and the soul. It sounds like the soul was pulling you in the creative, and that’s why you continuously kept it in in in the forefront, but almost in the back burner, as you built the light and kind of paid the bills, and that’s what that job was about, right? The was definitely the ego identity because it’s what we desire, not necessarily what God puts in our hearts to do. There’s a big difference between those two. And I think most of us have this idea in our head based on what we see at home of what is successful and what is not. I know for me, I had a perfectionist, high-achieving father that raised me with a homemaker mom who empowered us to be us, the creative people that we were. My father was caught up in what was success to him and would push and push, like, hey, you need to get an education, a higher education. We all had higher educations. And particularly with me, he was like very frustrated because he saw potential and capacity in me, unlike the other two, and pushed for me to either be a lawyer or a doctor. He thought I’d be best as a lawyer. I really didn’t want to go into the legal field. Um, but I did it just to appease him and found myself to be miserable taking the else that I just didn’t, my mind wasn’t geared to be a lawyer. It was good to be something else. And I was in that discovery and that purpose. What I found throughout my journey, like right before I nearly faced the 80% chance of dying, was that I stood in front of all my peers. I mean, I reached the highest pinnacle in my career at Pfizer, and I and I felt like, is this what fulfillment and happiness feel like? This doesn’t feel right. You know, it doesn’t give me the joy that I was seeking. And so I was grateful for that blessing of nearly dying and stepping into what really makes me shine and thrive, which is now podcast host, author as well, like you, but it wasn’t a linear path. It sounds like yours wasn’t linear either. And you mentioned something in the first part of the story of transformation that said, I learned a lot about myself. Can you share with us what you learned about yourself?
Yeah, um, it’s funny because when I do the pod, I’ve done you know a bunch of these podcasts. I learned more and more about myself as I go through this process. But when I first started writing these books, um there’s a queen that runs the colony, and there’s a son, a prince, and then most of the stories are focused around their relationship. And um so I’ve got you know four or five written, and I had a friend that was reading them before this is even before he published anything, and um, she came up and said, It’s really interesting, Ron, that you have such a strong matriarch running your colony. And I my dad passed away when I was six. So I never really experienced that type of role, I don’t know, role model is not the right term, but that type of force in my life, my mom ran my life. So without knowing it, I was kind of writing about uh my experiences um with the queen running the colony and being the wise sage that knew all the answers and was always calm no matter what these issues was or no matter what her son did or what everybody else was doing within the colony, she always had the right answer and was always that calming influence. And um so that kind of completely changed my thought. Um, that I I didn’t realize I was writing about me while I was writing. So uh that that was that’s the biggest thing, and kind of made me feel more that I should be on this journey. And then you know, another aspect of this is about five months ago I was talking to somebody um that you know, my dad passed when I was six. He asked me, Well, what did your dad do? And I thought, oh my god, my dad worked at a printer that printed gold that printed golden books, kids’ books.
I remember the books, I still have a couple of them in my in my son’s.
Yeah, my dad would bury him home, and I I I never put two and two together until I had done this for three and a half years. So, and then there’s you know a lot of other things that you know uh it it’s hard to put into words really the other things that I’ve learned just because it’s just there’s subtle little things that um it’s just how I look at things from a life perspective, and then um there’s only a couple of things you can really control, and that’s your effort and and uh oh gosh, what’s the other one? And your attitude. Um what what you say in this podcast I can’t control, so why get upset about it? You know, if my grandkids break something, I can’t control it. You know, uh so why get all worked up about some of these things? Um when so that I’m a much more try to be a much more relaxed individual um and live my life somewhat like that. And um and then yeah, it’s just uh I I’m just yeah, that that’s just kind of I don’t know if I’m answering the question correct correctly. Yeah, I feel like I’m wandering around, but uh yeah, that that’s it’s it’s just been it’s just been so interesting as we’ve gone along this path.
The thing is, it’s your answer, and that’s enough.
Yeah.
And no, you weren’t wandering around, you were actually answering the question spot on. You talked about two of the most important relationships that as human beings we have is with both our parents and how the subconscious mind, which is the most powerful part of the two minds, is always listening, always taking in information. And whether we realize it or not, we’re projecting that information out into the world.
So it’s really important for us to surround ourselves with sorry I interrupted you, but it’s also a led to topics for stories, too, because I I wrote a story about the king dying and how that was handled by the queen and the effect it had on this on the prince. Uh, I’ve written a story about strong the queen being the only woman at a council meeting with all men bugs, and how she is the only calm one within that environment, you know. Uh so there’s so you know, it it does lead to ideas for stories and things like that. You mentioned you mentioned that uh you know you had a hard time coming up with ideas for when you’re writing your book. It’s like I constantly have ideas because it it it well, one, my grandkids are here all the time. And two, it’s just something that would happen in my life, you know, you know, because like I said, the ptolemy represents multiple different it’s I don’t say it’s diverse, it’s such a but it represents so many different people um that it reflects anything I run into in the world.
So the subconscious mind is always listening and we’re always projecting what we do know intuitively and intimately. And that’s why it’s really important for us to surround ourselves with communities that empower us. And one of the things that I talked about in one of the collaborations I did um about two years ago, God kept prompting me, just keep writing. That’s your goal, is to write and put, you know, how to get closer to me. And one of the collaborations was when I was a podcast guest on one of uh there on podmatch, I encountered um Anthony Newri, and he was leading the charge on writing a book for all authors, first-time authors. And I was one of like 11 authors that was on that collaboration where we uh taught our just kind of gave our strategies on paper for those that were considering contemplating writing their first book. A lot of people think about it, very few people actually do it. Yeah, because it’s very daunting, and especially if the prompting from God is to put intimate stuff like He prompted me to write about my the term the most painful turning points of my life, have to reflect back on those, and that was an interesting journey because ultimately now looking back at it, speaking of grief and losing parents, it was so I could heal my relationship with my father. And he prepared that in 2020 for me.
But when you wrote that, did it become easier for you to look at that and to realize it may not have been something that wasn’t shareable?
Oh no, no, no. That I asked permission. That’s I asked my father’s permission on some of the events that I talked about, and he gave me full permission. I don’t I don’t operate without permission from the I get that without after you wrote it though.
Um how do I word this? Was it less I don’t want to say less of a big deal, but did it come out easier? Is it easier to talk about now that you wouldn’t have written a but that okay, that’s where I’m getting at because I I feel like there’s things that you have in the back of your head that you feel like shouldn’t be said, but once you get them out, they’re not as daunting as they were when they in the back of your head.
Well, and yes, I totally agree with that.
Okay.
I I think with because I’m a life coach and I’m trained in this arena, a lot of what we believe is true is actually false. There are belief systems that form at the moment of trauma, and we believe them as our truth. And when we actually reflect on some of these things, we realize that it was just our young minds making sense of something that was traumatic. And it put a lot of things in perspective for me. So when he prompted me in 2020, hey, it’s time to write your book. I’ve been prompting you for 10 years, you’ve been saying no, but now you’re running out of time, you need to do this now. I now realized why the timing was so, you know, persistent for God, because four years later my father would pass away. And he knew that I was not going to deal with death very easily. And so to write that book, reflect, and forgive my father was the best gift I could have given myself obedience in stepping forward and doing what I do best, which is write and storytelling. Right. So in answer to your question, yes, it actually makes it so much easier. And the last four years of my dad’s life, I was his friend. I had gone, I had played a very different role throughout my life with my father. He was my client. Like I said, I sold the acquaintance to him at one point. He had been my doctor, he had done the litheratripsy on me when I had kidney cells. I know, really unethical, but he did it anyways. Um, he was my boss because I worked for him in the summers to earn a little extra money, but I had never been his friend. And I think God knew that I needed that. And so when he prompted and I obeyed, because in my relationship with Christ at the time, I was very close.
That’s also that’s also hard, and I’m going through this now, and you will as your children get older, but it’s also hard from a parent perspective to let yourself be that friend rather than the mentor and the advice giver and all that type of stuff. It’s it’s hard to pull back and go down that path.
Well, I’m a parent too, so I get it.
Yeah, that it’s hard.
I get it because you see their capacity and you see you see before you see their path before them. Hi, buddy. Say hi. You see the path before. What’s your name? Theo. Theo, nice to meet you, Theo.
He is the guy that so this book journey, he’s basically, I don’t say he’s a co-author, but he’s a consultant, because again, the books are aimed at kids a little bit younger than you now, right? So he looks at all my sketches, I read them to him prior to everything, and he basically gives approval of what I’ve got going on. And when I started, the first story I ever made up was for you. Do you remember that was about medicine? Because uh how this all started, I was putting this guy down for a nap. Um, and instead of he always had to pick two stories, but instead he goes, Papa, I want you to tell me a story. And I just said, About what? You pointed at a medicine bottle, and I made up a story about medicine. That’s how this all started. So I kept doing it, and then so he’s been a he’s been an influence. And what what kind of book do you want me to write next?
Ant Playing Baseball.
Yeah, he wants a book about baseball.
That’s awesome. My daughter would probably read it. She loves baseball. So she actually was one of three girls in a baseball camp over the summer here in Texas. Oh, nice. That’s cool. So it’s cool. And she’s really been blown that she can’t that she has to switch over to softball. In fact, she she said, No, I don’t want to. Yeah. I want to do baseball. I’m like, great, this is gonna be a fight. Um, so I get it. So he’s not a co-author, but he’s definitely um um what do they call him ghost partners?
Like and uh because the last the book I’m working on right now is called Elevator, and it’s a story uh that the experiences came from um spending the night with these guys and their love of an elevator, and so they put the little boy to bed and he asked for a story about an elevator, right? Uh so the grandpa starts a story about an elevator, but also we’ve had this conversation. I have bird feeders, and we always talk about the squirrels and the bird feeders, and we were talking about ways to keep the squirrels out of the bird feeders, and we had all these ideas. I think you said um, what if they had an elevator? So the story is about uh the largest bird feeder in the world, but a penguin walks up and can’t get to the top, and they send the elevator down for the penguin, and then the penguin gets up top and the boy falls asleep, and then there’s more story to it. So that’ll be out by the time this podcast airs.
You know, that’s awesome. I’m glad that Theo is is participating with you, Ron, because it’s such an empowering thing for him. He’s young right now, but this this will stay with him forever. He’ll see you as a role model and he’ll follow and step into things with more faith and more confidence because he saw it being modeled to him. And I think that’s an amazing example. But you’re right. Going back to the original thing discussing.
Don’t touch any. I’m sorry.
It’s all right. Um, it’s uh it’s an empowered thing for them. Um, but it’s also a very thin line between being a parent and a friend. But I think it is possible because it was possible for the other.
Well, I I I know it’s possible, but now I let them bring up the time. Rather than me seeing something happening and me telling them, hey, I don’t know, you know, me being the uh initial person to talk about the situation, they need to be the one to ask and initiate that conversation. But that was kind of a hard adjustment for me because I would see something going on. It’s like, uh, do I talk to them about that? But no, I did not. So I had something I had to learn.
That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Well, um, it sounds like you’re right in your purpose, in your what we what I call the divine purpose. You really have stepped in there. You’re now about to publish your you said your 12th book or 11th book.
Yeah. Uh number number 12. Uh, hopefully it’ll be up by the time this airs. And one thing I want to tell your listeners is if they go to my website, papa tellmeabook.com, and then papa’s P-A-P-A, tellmeabook.com, or Ron Kinschurf.com, um, there’s a tab on there that says podcasts. If they click on that, and they’ll have free ebook and drawings on there. So if they click on that, enter the password podcast, they can download a free copy of uh my couple books. Oh, that’s awesome. And also coloring pages.
So that would be incredible, yes, because we all have children or grandkids that listen to these podcasts, and it’s something to keep them entertained while we have to do some stuff. That’s amazing. Uh, can you spell Kinterf for those listening?
Yeah, it’s uh Ron K-I-N-S-C-H E-R-F as in Frank, and it’s just Ronkinterf.com. Believe it or not, that was available.
That’s there’s one.
I’m the only one apparently that wanted a website.
So you know, we there’s a there’s a good place to land for people to really know us and get to know our work and and connect with us too, because I’m sure your social media sites are on there and that they can just I want to connect with them further on Instagram or LinkedIn or wherever it is that everybody’s at. But any last uh words of empowerment for those wanting to step out of a first act and into a second act?
Well, I I was fortunate in my situation because um I was able to quit a job and not have a job lined up from a financial perspective. And I understand there’s a lot of people out there that can’t do that. So I was fortunate in that. Um, that I could trust that I would find something, and I did. Not only writing books, but I have another job too. I know there are people who can’t do that and they have to work where they’re working. My suggestion is find something you love and share it with people. Um, whether you like to bake, uh, you like to garden, uh, you like to work in the garage, you know, change oil, work on cars, offer to do that for your neighbor. Bake cookies, take it to a neighbor, or you know, just something like that that you enjoy doing and share it with somebody. Um, it’ll make you feel so much better about yourself. Rather than going through the rinse and repeat of wake up, drink coffee, have breakfast, go to work, come home, make supper, um, watch TV, and then go to bed and rinse and repeat, you know, set aside a little time for yourself and maybe go to your neighbors to say, hey, um, you know, have you changed your oil lately? Or hey, I you know, get out in the garden and make, you know, and snip some flowers and take them across the street to the older lady that lives next door and just look at the smiles they’ll have. And even if the I that would be my suggestion is find something like that that you truly enjoy and share it.
That’s awesome. Thank you so much for sharing those tips because it it may be that someone listening on the other side says, Yeah, he’s right, let me do it. Does it, and then they’re free. They’re free from being the person, uh, free to be the person that they were always created to be.
Well, if you pass that along to one person, you’ve you’ve succeeded. I mean, that’s um, you know, if I, you know, writing these books and going to schools, if there’s one kid that I read to and I never, I will not go without giving a book. We’ve given the last couple of years over 2,000 books to kids. Um, if that book turns that kid into a reader that wasn’t a reader before, I’ve accomplished my goal.
Yes, I was the very first tag that God placed in my heart to put on my website was empowering one life at a time. I think most people forget that part, they want to um influence millions, you know. The numbers game nowadays is such a big push. But you know, I always go back to Jesus. He only had 12 disciples. Yeah, but we wrote I’m looking, I’m making my numbers. I mean, he he worked with 12 and built from there, yeah. And all it takes is one life to empower. So and thank you so much, Juan and Theo, for joining us on release.reve purpose. And for the listeners, remember Matthew 5.14 to be the light. If you have a book inside of you, take the plunge, really. Step into faith and and with tons of confidence. Because if you’re feeling the pull, that means that you have a story inside of you that needs to be told so that you can empower one life at a time. Have a wonderful week. Stay safe. Love y’all. Bye now.
So that’s it for today’s episode of Release Doubt Reveal Purpose. Head on over to iTunes or wherever you listen and subscribe to the show. One lucky listener every single week who posts a review on iTunes. We’ll win a chance to grand prize drawing to win a twenty-five thousand dollar private VIP day with Sylvia Worsham herself. Be sure to head on over to sylviaworsham.com and pick up a free copy of Sylvia’s gift and join us on the next episode.