StartOver Book Launch

The event that made this whole whirlwind European tour happen!

This wasn’t just another tourist stop — this was the reason we crossed two oceans to get here. To speak our truth. To share a portion of our story, hopefully helping others along the way. To remind ourselves (and others) that you really can start over.

We hopped a flight to London, almost disappointed not to be able to drive through the Chunnel to get there.
And our initial takeaway? It was FREEZING!

No seriously — we were chilly in France, but also lucky enough to have nearly perfect clear, sunny days. We arrived in London and it was cold, and the wind was howling. Even the locals were wearing puffies and beanies, and my shorts and flip-flops weren’t doing much to keep me warm. Foot prisons were starting to sound better all the time.

It took everything we had not to duck into the first pub we saw — but we also wanted to drop our bags and settle in.

If we thought our room in Paris was small, we clearly still had some European acclimating to do. This room was clearly built around the bed — which must’ve been placed in before the walls went up. I would not want to be the cleaning staff responsible for changing those sheets — and we’re more than used to being highly functional in very small spaces!

We hit a taco joint for dinner, then headed back to the room to work on our speech — mostly the slide deck, which was… not yet created. After a long day of travel, it was a push.

In the morning, we made our way to the venue, where we arrived with five or six others and stood outside a locked door — despite being ten minutes late.
Solid start!

After scouring social media for someone inside and calling to beg for access, we finally got in and started meeting lots of familiar faces in person.

It’s incredible how tight we’ve become with most of these co-authors in such a short period of time. Something about sharing your secrets and vulnerabilities makes that easier — but this is also a truly phenomenal group of people from around the globe.

Somehow, we got chosen to be the first speakers... a tall order for sure.
Probably too many nervous cups of coffee in us by then. The host finished his kickoff/warm-up, and our names were called.

Okay then.

We stood up (barefoot and proud) and shared our story — or at least as much as we could squeeze into an 8–12 minute window.

It wasn’t exactly your typical black-tie attire… but it was us. Honest. A little unrefined. Completely transparent. Totally on-brand.

Sadly, the technology wasn’t our friend that day. The host had opened the wrong slideshow, so instead of an always-running display of the 30–40 travel photos we’d arranged the night before, I had to remember to manually click forward between speaking — which means we probably only got through 10–12 slides.
Oh well.

About two-thirds of the way through our speech, a woman in the front row’s phone suddenly decided to announce (at full volume), “You Have Arrived!”
It broke the flow but created a hilarious pause as we tried to figure out if the phone was talking about her arrival at the venue… or our arrival at this point in life.

All good times — and certainly a memory that will stick with us.

If you're interested... watch the full presentation here thanks to a co-author (sorry about the low quality)

Those present were all-too-sweet in their compliments and kind words about our presentation (as have been the many, many messages in the days following), but public speaking (or talking about ourselves in general) remains well outside our comfort zone.

The rest of the day was spent listening to other speakers share their incredible, moving, and inspirational stories — and it was a powerful reminder of why we joined this co-authoring project in the first place: to help share the message that anyone can start over and turn their life around.

These co-authors already mean a great deal to us.
They’re the kind of people who’ve been through it — and come out the other side.
Not broken. Not jaded. But eager to use what they’ve experienced to help others.

They’re people who say what they feel, cry in public, hug strangers, and cheer like family when someone finds their own voice.
These are our kind of people.

Unfortunately, the event also shifted a bit toward the sales side — and the period between our co-authors speaking and the close of the day was more about selling the host’s next course or program “offer.”

That was a bit disappointing for us. We signed up to help people — not to sell to them — and this felt like a jarring shift: from raw stories and shared tears to marketing funnels and offer stacks.
But we chose to stay anchored in what mattered.

We focused on the relationships — and the incredible people around us.

That night, we went out with several of the co-authors and the marketing team (the very talented Rushfirth Creative) for dinner — and much wine and laughter were had.

The next morning, many of us gathered again to help kick off and fundraise for one of the co-authors’ charities, focused on supporting and finding homes for the homeless.
Shantel (and the work she does at Morris Mission) is amazing, and it felt good to take part in something that felt wholly “in the spirit” of what this project and movement were meant to be.

We actually left London the next day.

There was a brief moment when we considered heading north of London to Coventry, where — just two days later — the organizer of this book project
(“Sir” Marco Robinson) was reportedly scheduled to appear in court over questions surrounding his professional credentials.
Yes, really. =/

(Probably a much longer story for another post — but there’s a good reason we haven’t been posting publicly about the book launch while we wait and see what happens.)

My curiosity wanted to go — to see for myself, to understand more firsthand — but the whole situation felt heavier than we wanted to carry.
So instead, we pointed ourselves elsewhere.

At some point, after tossing around the idea of renting a caravan and touring through the UK, we realized that most of our conversations with local co-authors were about where to find the nearest beach — or better yet, the warmest one.

We checked in with ourselves about what we really wanted to do (versus what we felt like we “should” do just because we were already in the UK) — and then promptly hopped on SkyScanner and searched for the cheapest last-minute flight out of London to somewhere warmer.

As if by magic, we found a cheap flight less than 12 hours out to southern Spain — and with almost no research (and no accommodation), we booked it.

We traded obligation for intuition.

And cold cobblestones for warm sand.
No plan. (Still) no shoes. Just trust and carry-ons.

Wish us luck!