Drive Your Dreams

William Hollingworth Drive Your Dreams
Drive On Podcast
Drive Your Dreams
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William Hollingworth is an Army veteran. He and his wife are the authors of the book All 48: Drive Your Dreams, which is the story of how they started off as struggling young parents and overcame those obstacles. They now use their book to reach other people wanting to pursue their goals.

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Transcript

Scott DeLuzio    00:00:00    Thanks for tuning into the Drive On Podcast, where we’re focused on giving hope and strength to the entire military community. Whether you’re a veteran, active duty, guard, reserve, or family member, this podcast will share inspirational stories and resources that are useful to you. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio. And now let’s get on with the show. Everybody, today my guest is William Hollingsworth. William is an army veteran and he and his wife, Jessica are the authors of the book All 48 Drive Your Dreams, which is a story of how they started off as a struggle. As struggling young parents and overcame the obstacles that came along with that. They now use their book to reach other people, wanting to pursue their goals and their dreams. So welcome to the show, William, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background.  

William Hollingworth    00:00:54    Hey, thank you very much, Scott. I appreciate being here. It’s an honor for me. So essentially our story is a I always feel a little corny saying it, but it’s a self-help and somewhat inspirational guide story where we started off as teen parents, only 16 years old facing bringing a child into the world, trying to just struggle to make ends meet and finish high school. From there. I ended up joining the military, the United States Army as a medic from 2012 to 2016. I deployed, from 2014 to 2015, got out with, as everyone does with a plan of how I’m going to kick ass once, once my term’s over and no one’s telling me what to do anymore. And, when I got out, I found myself in a kind of a stagnant place in life.  

William Hollingworth   00:01:45    I think a lot of veterans face that you’re using your GI bill to go to school, but you just, things aren’t as the past, not as clear as you think they are. And, I ended up kind of where most people do where you look around. You’re like, nothing’s really going on for me. This is kind of where the stagnant place gave me an opportunity to try launch change. My wife started traveling, Just a low-budget road trip. We didn’t know what we were doing. We didn’t have any kind of guide. We didn’t have anyone really lean on for it. And, next thing we know we’re making these long drives,  from Texas where we live San Antonio all the way down to California and coming back and we do this one journey and realize it’s changed us.  

William Hollingworth    00:02:33    And it’s something kind of neat. And this was the stepping stone to kind of getting my life on a whole new path, literally and figuratively, where we started doing these long road trips, and seeing the world, and experiencing different cultures. And it compounded into something that helped lead us towards success and lead us towards having a,  just a better drive for life and a bigger goal. From there.  I ended up finishing two degrees. Push forward in gaining better positions, traveling internationally at the end of it, none of it was ever with the intention to write a book or, or market anything. It ended up being just part of our identity and something bigger. And now we have a mission after we drove the entire 48 connected states and traveled internationally a little bit.  

William Hollingworth    00:03:22    It’s become a platform we use to reach other people and communities, children in high school that are facing, the same things as teenagers wanting to do something bigger, local libraries and the events where we’re helping other people start traveling and start driving their dreams to their own extent, whether it’s big or small. And I really appreciate the opportunity to come out here and speak today because I think there’s a lot of veterans out there that are in the same place. I found myself when I got out and it’s something we’re really passionate about and we’re really looking forward to growing it and keep pushing it forward.  

Scott DeLuzio   00:03:56    Yeah. And there probably are quite a few veterans who are out there who faced a similar transition out of the military giving, trying to figure out what to do, what’s that next step. And they start off with a plan and like all plans, especially in the middle of nowhere, they sometimes just go straight down the tubes and you end up starting over. So it’s difficult to figure out exactly what to do at that point. So looking back, where your story kind of began. I’m thinking about my own life. So, my wife and I didn’t have our first child until I was 27 and she was 28. But you were pretty young parents, 16, but that’s, I mean, incredibly young for, for parents and knowing myself at that age. I was pretty young dumb immature in which I think a lot of kids at that age are, I’ve got to imagine, that becoming a parent at such a young age must have changed. You made you grow up pretty quickly, and, and get pretty mature pretty, pretty fast, because now all of a sudden you’re responsible for this whole other person. And, so how did that becoming a parent change you and affect you and your, your wife, as your young teenagers?  

William Hollingworth    00:05:37    Yeah, it was, it was a massive impact. In fact, I was planning on joining the Marine Corps. I was already talking to the recruiter on my 17th birthday. I already had it set up with them that they were going to come and talk to my parents to try to sign me up early. So I could go for the summer before my senior year and then come back to the senior and they’d go right into the rains. All I really thought about was me. I felt invincible because as long as I could get myself through something, nothing else really mattered. I didn’t take school seriously cause I knew I was going to join the military one way or the other. I didn’t come from a military family. It’s just something I’ve always been attracted to. When once Jessica was pregnant, the whole world opened up and arose.  

William Hollingworth    00:06:21    It wasn’t about me anymore. You’re accountable for somebody and it just makes you feel mortal. All of a sudden, you understand that like you have to make an income, you have to take school seriously, you have to do stuff. And so it tends to make or break a lot of people. But if you can take that in adjustment to it, I was able to use it as a focal point where now I have a much bigger goal than something I ever imagined, just more than myself and my self-image. There’s two other lives depending on me. And so we were terrified of course, but luckily Jessica is good at re looking into programs and we found a local program at a high school nearby where you can actually do all your credits online and graduate early.  

William Hollingworth    00:07:10    So now instead of a dropout, I could be an early graduate. And I went from not taking school seriously at all to spending every, every minute, every hour, getting to school early, every moment I had that I wasn’t going to work. You got to make money, just burning through my credits. And I actually ended up graduating at 16. And, that was a good, good moment for me, because then I went from that to working full time and really looking at what kind of military career I wanted in the Marine Corps, excellent branch. But you hear the term Marines first. You’re married to the Marine Corps, which I understand, in this case. So now that I had called Jessica, I knew I wanted to put them first. And so I started looking at my options. The Air Force was, of course, an option.  

William Hollingworth    00:07:56    I had a pretty good ASVAB score, but I still had that burn to be more of a boots-on-the-ground soldier. And so now I’m talking to my parents about branch options. And it’s funny because here I am working full time, graduated with a kid and Jessica is older than me. But they have to go with me to the recruiter and sign the papers for me to join the army. And I had, I had to pick something that they saw I could use outside the military. And so I thought medics were awesome. And so signed up to be a 68 whiskey. And then I’m talking to the recruiter. I’m like what should I do? Should I, I want to get married. Cause I want to bring him with me. Like, they’re my whole world that should have been married now.  

William Hollingworth   00:08:36    Should I, should I wait till after basic? And he’s like, ah, your chances aren’t good. You might as well just get married now, man, you’re making more money in basic. So I was like, okay. So then here I am, just 18. We’re at the courthouse to get our marriage license. She’s old enough to be, to take herself, but, my parents had to go with me. So they’re there signing paperwork for me to join the army, signing paperwork for me to get married, sign all this thought it’s weird, but like a little kid, even though I’m also trying to be an adult at the same time. I think that was a good reality check for my ego to know that I need to take things more seriously and be more responsible in life. And that started me on a much more dedicated path when I joined the military.  

Scott DeLuzio    00:09:23    Yeah. I can only imagine what that would be like standing in the courthouse with your parents, having to sign the paperwork, and also having your parents sign the paperwork for you to be able to join the military and everything else and go through all that process with the baby. Yeah, exactly. Right. You’re in a position that I would imagine very few of your peers were, were in at that same point, going, going through all of that stuff, trying to figure out whether or not you should get married or join the military or any of that stuff, plus having a, a child, with you as well. That’s kind of a unique circumstance, I think to be in. Maybe it’s not, maybe I just don’t know that many people who were in that circumstance. I hope so too because that’s a lot for a young kid to be put through all at the same time and in dealing with all that stuff. So you talked a little bit about your transition out of the military when you had a plan and that kind of went down the tubes. So what happened there and what kind of got you back on track?  

William Hollingworth    00:10:45     As they all tend to do Murphy’s law. Right? So my plan was, or the military actually did a very good job of setting me up for success. It took a little bit of fighting with my chain of command, but they sent me into a program called shifting gears. Fort Hood, where I was a station, has a lot of good out, transitioning programs. And this one helps you go through a service technician school to start as a service. Now I did that and I had a job, but personal family issues came up and I ended up being kind of helping my parents manage the properties and helping them really push their goal forward on that. I kind of dropped the ball on my drive. I was going to school, but I was going to school online and I was working for my parents.  

William Hollingworth    00:11:38    So I didn’t really have an actual job . Just a little bit of money here and there for taking care of things. And before I know it I’m telling myself I’m doing big things like hobbies and such, but before I know it four or five months go by and I still don’t have a job. And, and I’m just going to school online and taking the minimum amount of courses like most of us to do.  I was working on a really big project, running new fencing at a ranch. And Jessica was kind of like pushing herself to do something bigger. And she was going to school for phlebotomy certification. She finished school and she was scheduled to get a job in like two weeks. And, so she was also in a position, no work.  

William Hollingworth   00:12:31    I kind of have no work. And so she was out helping me on this ranch and we finished the fence and I looked up and I looked around, I was like, man, I just feel like I should be doing something like anything, something more than what’s going on right now. I just feel like I don’t know what happened, but I had all these big plans when I was transitioning that last year I was talking to everyone in my unit. Now look at me, I’m just standing here. I got nothing on my schedule, nothing on my plate. I looked at her and I was like, let’s go somewhere. And she was like, really? Like where I was, I don’t know, let’s do something. Let’s, there’s gotta be something we can do. Let’s just go somewhere. And since we lived here in Texas,  we’re not landlocked.  

William Hollingworth    00:13:11    What a lot of us do is we go down to the beach, like two or three times a year for like a weekend. And she’s like, you want to go to the coast? It’s like, no,, let’s do something bigger. Let’s do something crazy. Let’s go to like, let’s go to California. And she was like California. And I was like, yeah,  like I’m saying it all night and believing it. I’m like, yeah, let’s go to California. And she’s like how I was like, I don’t know, we don’t have alignment. We have credit cards. Let’s just rent a car and go, and I was like, you don’t have work, for the next week and a half. I don’t, all I have is one line. I can do that with my laptop, like doing something. And so we had old iPhones. Google’s the cheapest place with unlimited miles and we got a car from an enterprise and we just, we reached out to my mom.  

William Hollingworth    00:13:57    So she wanted to watch the cult for the week or if we were going to take them with us, we had no clue what we’re doing. She’s a great-grandma. So she did. And next thing we’re in a car that day and we’re just driving towards California. We have no idea what we’re doing. We don’t really have much of a budget. We don’t know where we’re going. From there is where everything just takes that first step towards something that appealed to us, something that kind of drove our motivation. That’s where everything turned around. We didn’t know it yet, but that’s where everything began  

Scott DeLuzio     00:14:31    Kind of just on a whim. You decided to just hop in the car, find, find a place to go, and just go, it wasn’t a pre-planned thing or anything that you had in the back of your mind, you just decided to go. Right?  

William Hollingworth    00:14:49    Absolutely. If you would have told me the day before I was going to California about your crazy, I’m fixing a fence tomorrow and I’m going to MMA class. Like what you’re talking about, the ring, no way I, I would know. And on our way there, we had no direction or anything other than west. we’re driving and we don’t, we’re asking each other questions. What are we going to do? Are we going to stop anywhere? Like how much are we going to stand? We don’t have money. We don’t even technically have rural jobs at this point. Like, where’s this going to go? What are we going to do? And so we’re talking about it, we’re talking about it. And Texas is so big that by the time we leave its about 2:am

William Hollingworth    00:15:31    And so at this point, we’re like six hours in, we’re still in Texas.. We’re pitching ideas back and forth, like a couple of cool places we heard of. And she’s like, I don’t know, but I’m hungry. Let’s pull over and stop somewhere. And I was like, okay, well we’re about to leave Texas. So here we have a franchise called Whataburger. Let’s get Whataburger. We’re not going to have it, the rest of the trip. Let’s just get it now. And then it clicked in me like, wait, we have like exclusive stops, like food chains here. I wonder if everywhere else has exclusive food chain. So for each state. And so she starts Googling because I’m driving, she’s Googling. And she’s like, oh my gosh, there’s every everywhere has something.  

William Hollingworth   00:16:16    Of course everyone knows California has In and Out and stuff like that. And it’s pretty much expanded farther, but everywhere has something. So we’re making this list. Like we can go through these states and that’s already a stop right there. But if we use that mentality, that means we should stop in every state for something, not just food, some kind of attraction everywhere. And of course, it’s got like the Alamo, every major city has something that stands out. And so it clicks to us. Like we can build a list. So we start building this list of a stop in every state for both the state and their food franchise, just something small. We’re going to California this way, but what if we came back a different route and now we get more states on this trip that could work.  

William Hollingworth    00:17:03    That’s way cooler. And so now we’re driving and all of a sudden this idea just starts going from crazy and directionless to crazy. But at least with, it’s compounding into something very quickly within the course of description. So we actually have, right next to Texas, New Mexico, and then Arizona, you have a Tombstone of a famous cowboy movie, of course. And then in California, you have Los Angeles, San Francisco up into Nevada where there’s Vegas, but we’re broke. So you can’t do that, through the mountains of Nevada and Utah Salt Lake City. And, the mountains of Oram back down into the grand canyon and so on. And we’re making this giant round with all these different stops. And a lot of them are actually free because they’re national parks or their historical, like historical stops.  

William Hollingworth    00:17:55    We’re on the course of this trip, we’re in a car together getting all this life experience all of a sudden, we’re just, it’s me and my wife. And of course, each other, we’ve been married for four, five years at this point, but you’re really getting to know each other, what I mean, in a car on this journey. And you’re getting to experience all these new things and get new ideas and grow as people together. And we do this trip. We actually got to see a couple of military buddies along the way, because I was hitting up people that telling me like, oh yeah, I’m from Utah, this and that seems to be there. They’re back there now, and, I could tell as I’m meeting them, some of them are doing great.  

William Hollingworth    00:18:40    Some of them are exactly where I’m at in life, as I’m coming across them. And when we got back from this trip at the very end. The very last night we were staying with some military buddies back at Fort Hood. Cause we had to pass through on our way back to San Antonio and I’m telling them about it. And it kind of finally hits me that, like, we just grew a lot, like it’s weird that that was a week, but a lot changed for us the way we saw things, the way we experienced people, the way we experienced the world, it grew together. Like that was, that was something that was something different that similar to how people go to basic training and it’s, two months, three months, whatever you’re in and you come out and it’s like the world you came out of a time capsule, what I mean?  

William Hollingworth    00:19:24    Like a totally different person than when you went in. It was just life. And it was so bizarre. I didn’t expect that. And now we’re much more experienced. We did something exciting and I was like, we need to do that. And we need to do that again, as soon as we can realistically because I wasn’t realistic. Right? We Did it. I don’t expect people to do that. I was like, we need to do that again. As soon as we can realistically do it. And it really set the launchpad for future trips. And as you see, but trucks are told to do the, if you wanted to do the entire, 40 connected states, the same way we did, of course, we’re from Texas. So depending on where you’re at your route would be a little different, but you see a major difference from when we do our very first trip to the time in between when we do the second trip, the time in between the third trip, time in between.  

William Hollingworth   00:20:11    And then when we finish who we are as people, how we’re driven, how we think, what I mean, how we experience things, it’s incredible, how there’s stark changes in growth between and after each trip. It was just, it was an amazing experience. I’d like to get into those trips also. As we went through these, we told people, and in the beginning, after the first trip, no one thought it was a good idea. People were like, don’t do that. No one wants to do that. Like, that was a terrible idea. Maybe go fly somewhere for a week’s vacation. And we were like, we’re like, man, you just don’t understand. Like there was something significant to this that people feel the drive to do. This is something I highly recommend. After the second trip though, people took it a little seriously, because on the second trip, we went up into Canada, in New York, and then east to Portland, Maine, and then came back on different routes.  

William Hollingworth    00:21:11    So we had like 20 something trips or states in a single trip. And people took it a little seriously. Some people thought it was cool. Some people were like reaching out,, like, oh, that’s neat. Like you got any traveling advice, this, this, and this. And again, a huge change in our personality and who we are as people and how we conduct ourselves after the second trip. And there’s roughly a year between each vacation because we’re getting better at jobs. We’re getting better with our academics, getting better with structure and budgeting. And then after the third trip, we just went to Florida east end of the Carolinas, Florida and back.  Now people are taking this really seriously. Like, wow,, y’all are Travelers. I’ll do this. And that, like y’all should make an Instagram page, whatnot.  

William Hollingworth    00:21:54    I was like, ah, no, like no one really cares that much. I’m just, I’m just trying to like, do something that I’m passionate about. And then before, we’d get a couple of international travel opportunities and I take them and  I complete my college degree. We get better jobs and then we do our fourth and final journey. People were looking forward to it. People were rooting for us. We do this fourth trip all the way up into,, through Illinois, Minnesota, North Dakota, west of Washington, back down into Yellowstone and back down to Texas. And we’ve knocked out the 48 states. And at that point was when I, um, we were on the way back and it hit me that maybe this is something a little bigger than just driving for fun. Maybe this has become something that I could do more with.  

William Hollingworth    00:22:46    And, that’s when I, it, it occurred that man, this, this could be something that could help people. This could be something people are actually interested in. Maybe not the exact way, maybe not all 48, maybe not the exact way, but the way this change means help pull me out of a, kind of a stagnant place. Maybe this is something I could do that other people would be interested in too. This is something I’ve done that a lot of people haven’t. And so that’s when I was like, this could be a book, it could be a book, it could be,a social media page. We could help people. We could reach out to people and it went from there, it blew up from there and we just hit one year of our last finishing the 48 states because it happened in 2020. And so now it’s become this platform for reaching out to people, this platform, especially better where we try to help people drive their own dreams, whether it’s big or small, whether it’s,, a big trip,, a giant road trip or just something small, like taking your family down to, to the beach just whatever it is we have become, a platform for people to reach out to and, and assist them.  

Scott DeLuzio   00:24:01    Yeah. And I want to talk about how the book came about. And I also realized that the travel, especially the last trip, probably got impacted a little bit with the way the country kind of locked down. You said it, it ended in 2020 and everything. It probably made travel a little bit more difficult, although driving is probably a little bit easier than flying, especially during that time period. So, you probably were still able to do some things, especially if you’re going to outdoor type things like parks and things like that, where, where you still could get out and enjoy that kind of stuff. But, some of the other stuff that you may have wanted to see along the light probably didn’t go exactly as you probably had anticipated.  What, what is the book all about and, and how is your journey through all these 48 states? Helping other people?  

William Hollingworth   00:25:06    Yeah, so the book is very similar to how we started the introduction. It begins where I was as a stared teenage parent, just not knowing where to go. It goes into my military life very briefly.  I wasn’t really trying to make it a military book. I wanted to really focus on people, getting out there and taking that first step. It goes to where I was after the military and my feelings just didn’t have much direction and it’s so easy to get there and then stay there. And then I was in the same place. I think most people, a lot of my friends, a lot of my fellow veterans find themselves in and how I took that first step towards something bigger. And once that’s all pretty much within the first chapter, then it starts on the road trip format.  

William Hollingworth    00:25:56    How we’re just going for that California trip would, nothing really, no major goal in mind, we go into that California trip. It goes through each stop, each state very quickly. It gives all the routes, all the stops, the budget, like what it ended up costing us for each one, we did the very first trip all the way to California, back through different states. It’s like 12 states cold for like $600. So pretty, pretty low budget for two people. It comes back in and it takes a chapter to sit and reflect on the impact that made in differences in me at the time outside of direct friends and, direct family, no one else liked no one thought that was a great idea. I kind of understand what, so it is a little crazy. It goes to how we grew in the time between how I ended up getting a job back in the medical field and closer to finishing my degree and just also got a job in the medical field, into the second journey where we’re going up to New York and into Canada, and then east of Portland, Maine.  

William Hollingworth    00:27:01    It goes through how Colts (son) comes with us along the way. Of course, he goes with us on the secretary, the first trip, he was still pretty small and he stays with my mom. Now we’re doing things right. We’re doing it as a family, we have a plane and rest stops at nine at night. We have some budget, money saved up. We have a better rental car instead of a little Ford Fiesta where our knees have to hurt, all day, every day. Then when we come back, it’s that reconfirmation of having a goal that we held onto a full year, because we did the very first stripper. I forgot about the military in 2017 and the next one takes place in 2018. And so like, you’re seeing this very start growth because you have everything condensed into a chapter a year.  

William Hollingworth  00:27:47    When we finished my bachelor’s degree on the second trip, we came back. I get a couple opportunities to go international for work. So I could go to Brazil and stuff like that. When I come back, I’d finally get a job in the medical field where I had worked to get back into. And, now I have my health administration degree. I get a health administrator job and I got there and I realized, I don’t even like this, that much. I did all this college work and, because I felt like I was supposed to now I’m doing it. And this doesn’t even feel like my calling,  like being a medic and being a health missionary, it’s totally different. So it goes through another thing, actually, a lot of people feel conflicted, and I’ve seen it personally, where you go to school for something that you think you should’ve went to school for, and then you finish, and maybe that wasn’t the right fit for you. And you have to find another avenue in life if and it goes through that portion of my life,  in refiguring out what I wanted to do, identifying myself more and being that I’ve been doing these journeys where I’m willing to travel, I’m willing to set a goal and work towards it. That really helped me with my career.  Post-military career, finding my calling and finding what I liked, what I was in June and being willing to take another journey to get to that position as well.  

Scott DeLuzio    00:29:18    Yeah. And one of the things with travel, that  I’ve noticed, and you briefly mentioned this earlier,  when you go to basic training,  you’re thrown into a group of people from all over the country,  from all over the place, different backgrounds, different lifestyles that came from different, everything. It’s a big mixture of people from all over the country. And it’s eye-opening to be with all those people who have all these experiences or lack of experiences, where maybe they never left their hometown. And until they went to basic training. And I remember we had, we had a few guys who were from the Northwest in our basic training unit, and they had never seen fireflies before. And when we were out in, in Georgia and we were at Fort Benning, Georgia, we’re out in the woods at night, and there’s all these little lights lighting up, these little fireflies lighting up, what the hell is that?  

Scott DeLuzio    00:30:31    Different things that you experienced along the way. And you start to realize that the world is bigger than just whatever it is in your own town. And that there’s more to life. There’s more to experience out there. And the more you travel, the more you realize that. And so I could imagine how this, these trips that you were taking, it started to open up your eyes, you hadn’t traveled to some of these places before it started to open your eyes to, oh, wow. There’s actually desert in certain parts of the country. And I grew up in the Northeast in Connecticut and I live out in Arizona now and you come out here and it’s like completely different, you’re almost on a different planet with the different change in weather and everything like that. But the climate is just so different, but it’s just something that opens up your eyes as you’re traveling. And I imagine that that’s probably just something that you experience as well as all these new experiences that kind of open up your eyes to the world around you.  

William Hollingworth    00:31:46    Yeah. You come back, it’s like stepping in a time capsule where you come back from a tour. Of course the world’s still moved, but you’ve come back from a spot. And everyone’s pretty much the same where you left them, just like basic training. You go into basic training for a few months. You come back. Everyone’s pretty much in the same position. Because a few months at home is not really much of a difference, but you come back and you feel like life’s accelerating, like all these new experiences, you never had all these new people you met from different networks that integrated themselves into you a little bit. And the same thing happens. And it’s just mind-blowing when you do it. You, you can’t tell till you get back and then you see it. It’s like you live in black and white. Now you can see it in color.  

William Hollingworth    00:32:25    And there was a lot of that. There was a lot of that on all of them, especially the first trip, because it was the first time we ever did it. And then when we came back through, the third trip or second, cause that was another big one.I guess in the last one too, ’cause that’s when I realized it could be a book, it could be a platform. It could be something to reach out to people with. It really is incredible. And you see it as you’re driving through, you see it on both sides, you go places and it seems almost like their, their state or their city or just their biome is kind of stuck in the past a little bit. The way that people react, the way that people look at you, the way just the places built.  

William Hollingworth  00:33:09    And then you go to other places that are extremely moderate, nice and diverse, like San Francisco, California, New York City, New York, Miami, Florida, things like that. Since I live in San Antonio, it’s a pretty diverse location as it is now. But still like just the impact and the difference and the things you see. And then, as I was going through and I’m meeting other veterans that I’ve served with and some of them are doing great. Some of them are doing better than me. Some of them are doing worse than they’ve ever been. You see so many different walks of life.  And that’s something that just, yeah, yeah. Just like basic training, everything else, it really puts it in a bubble for you.  

Scott DeLuzio     00:34:02    Yeah. For sure. Now I picked up a copy of your book and read out how, how is it that, that your message is going to help them with their own journey and their own, their own path in life?  

William Hollingworth    00:34:17    Absolutely, absolutely. And I really believe that will, and I’ll tell you what, the first five people that reached to me saying that they heard about me through the drive on podcast. I’ll send you a free book. You don’t have to buy it more than halfway. As long as you have a mailing address you’re comfortable with, I’ll mail it out to you. Big, thanks to Scott for having me on here. As far as the book, you’re going to see a lot of vulnerability. You’re gonna see a lot of articulated thoughts on being lost from me. You’re going to see a lot of things on how you, someone who wasn’t sure of themselves, someone who didn’t have much going, someone who is very inexperienced in life, very young in life, has a lot of reasons to not do something. A lot of excuses to not take that first step.  

William Hollingworth    00:35:03    You’re going to see how I pushed into something bigger. And then how, once you do it, once you take that first step, How anyone could do it. And then I hope everyone that feels the calling will do it. In the book, there’s a, there’s a complete guide that there’s maps on the trips we took. There’s the budget, there’s the stop ball put in there for you. You could literally give me the same exact thing. You can also follow us on our Instagram page. It’s all there. If you can’t buy the book right now or something, by all means, reach out to us on the Instagram page. I’m not going to try to pressure you into it, I’m not going to ask you. If you bought the book, we have the same mats. We have the same formula. It’s all there.  

William Hollingworth    00:35:45    I believe in it so much. We’re actually in three libraries, we’ve won a couple of book awards. We’re working on a deal with the San Antonio library to put into 16 more libraries in two local schools. I believe this is something that could call out to a lot of people and give them a template, a template, a map. And also a lot of common feelings. I think a lot of people face veterans, young people, people who just couldn’t ever pull the trigger on making that trip. I had an aunt who she talked about wanting to go to Graceland her entire life, but it kept getting put off the next year or, later this summer or whatever, and it got put off and she spent her entire life and never made it out of Texas, but it was such a big deal.  

William Hollingworth    00:36:25    Everyone knew that was a big golfer, making Graceland. And when I got to Graceland on the second trip, we made it there in right over 24 hours. I remember getting there and just feeling a little bit sad and remorseful for her and a lot of people like that better in that position, because it’s something so easy to do. If you have just some guidance on how to do it, and we didn’t have any guidance, we were just going with going with our gut and going with our own personal research. But I’m really helped. This is something that gives people that guidance. And like I said, you can find all the maps, all the budgets, all the pictures on the Instagram page, all 48 and beyond. We have over 2000 followers right now. So we have a big network, but if you messaged me, I will gladly get back to you. If you can’t reach me on all 40 and beyond, we have Hollingworth [email protected]. You can just email me, I’ll send you everything personally. I’m not going to ask you to buy the book. I’m not going to make you, I just want to reach people. I just want to help you take that first step.  

Scott DeLuzio     00:37:25    And one of the things that you just said that hit me, was pretty impactful to me. When, when you said this was just how easy it is to reach certain goals. And some people go their whole lives with this goal. They want to get Graceland for example. And it’s one day away. Like you can get in the car and you could drive for a day probably with some stops in between. Because it’s a long-distance and everything, but you could be there in a day and your goal will be met. Your dream will be there. And then some people just go their whole lives, not realizing just how close some of these goals are and they don’t even try and they don’t make it there. when you live your whole life, when you get towards the end of your life, and you’re looking back at all the things that you coulda, woulda, shoulda, whatever you don’t want to let those things just be those regrets that you have in life, at least try, right?  

William Hollingworth   00:38:42    Yeah, you’re right in. And to me, if you do it with one thing, it gets easy to do it with two things. And the next thing you’re doing it with everything and that’s it haunted me when I got there. When we were walking out, we got all the cars and we walked up a concrete path to the entrance. It hit me and I was like, man, this was almost me when I was without a job standing there, after the military, this was, this could have been me. And this was someone I was related to for her whole life. And she lived a long life. It was a day away or this big, everyone knew that this was a big goal for her. And it was a day away and it never happened. And I was like, man, if this happened to me, if it happened to her and it almost happened to me, this could be happening to a lot of people.  

William Hollingworth    00:39:23    This could be happening to my son. That’s why I’m really glad he’s with us. He got to do a lot of these things. I’m hoping that’s an example for him moving forward, that he can do anything. I just don’t want that to happen to anybody that I will send anyone, any adviser. We didn’t take them, people on trips here in Texas, people that are nearby like, Hey, we’re going down here. Like, do you want to come? We’ll pay for all you got to pay for is your own food. We’ll pay for everything else. Like we’ll drive you there. We linked up with people. We’d give it. We’ve had people that reach out to us from, let’s see here, roam Australia in England so far that are planning on coming to the United States and that somehow caught wind of the page or the book.  

William Hollingworth    00:40:00    And they’re wondering like advice to just now they’re winning, wanting to make that big trip here to see stuff. And even though they’re not going to see all 48 states, they’re going to go to one state, but we can recommend talking to them about it. And that’s all I want. I, especially for our veterans, have a very important soft spot in my heart that people that get out of the military can, can drive those dreams and do those big things. Because if you, if you can push forward with one simple thing for us, it was just getting on a road trip. You’ll see how it compounds into everyday life.  

Scott DeLuzio     00:40:36    Yeah, definitely. And, and those little things, it may not seem like that big of a thing just to get in the car and drive for a day or two. But, it shows you that these things are possible and that there’s other stuff out there beyond your hometown or the small area that you grew up in or whatever. I know when my, when my wife and I, when we lived with our kids, when we moved from Connecticut to Arizona, we drove from, from the east coast all the way out here to Arizona. And it was, it was a different way of traveling. We always flew all over the place and everything, but we wanted to drive out here and we got the opportunity to see certain parts of the country that we never would have seen those flyover states

Scott DeLuzio    00:41:24    So they talk about, it just looks like grids on the ground as you’re flying over, but there’s actual stuff there. And it’s, it’s kinda neat. See a lot of it from the highway, so we didn’t, we didn’t really get to experience a ton of it. But, because we were on a timeline we had to get there by a certain time. But, it was still interesting to see the places that we did stop. We got to experience some of the stuff that we never would have taken a trip to, certain parts of the country just because we wouldn’t have done that. And, and so we, we ended up getting to see certain parts of, of the country and, and experience different things. And it was a pretty good experience. I think I know my wife and I met yet. My kids were pretty young at the time, so they may not necessarily remember it, but my wife and I will remember that forever and it’s going to be something that we take with us, for years and years to come. 

William Hollingworth    00:42:23    Yeah, there’s so many hidden wonders and just the personal growth each place impacts you on,and like you said, you won’t ever forget your, especially now you can have photos and make it like a travel walk, but you’ll never forget it. It’s going to have a crazy impact. I always thought people always say travel, travel, travel. I mean, that’s cool, but what do you have to show for it? You’ll see it. Like, you’ll see it inside yourself. You’ll see the difference when you do things like this, it’s, it’s a big deal. And, and one thing I’ve noticed it helps while it’s not an instant cure for things like depression or being stagnant. I don’t think there’s any instinct here. It’s a really good first step when you travel. And when you hit those goals towards being driven towards something, being focused, being positive, growing yourself internally in experiencing culture. And all those things are good platforms for helping you overcome things as a person and helping you have a higher focus as a person. And I’ve had a lot of people reach out to me and then after they make it happen, no one’s ever done it. And then they told me they regretted it. And it makes a big plant, seeds that are going to come to fruition throughout your life.  

Scott DeLuzio     00:43:41    That’s a great way to put it. And I think with that, we won’t want to give away all of the tidbits in the book either. It’s been a pleasure speaking with you on this episode. Where can people go to get a copy of the book and follow you online? I know you mentioned your, your Instagram, is there anywhere else? Yeah,  

William Hollingworth    00:44:03    So Instagram’s the only major social media platform only because I want to make sure I can respond to everyone who reaches out and it just gets a little difficult as you stretch yourself. Then if you don’t have an Instagram, you can reach out to us by calling my [email protected]. I’ll get back to you right away. As far as getting the book we’re, we’re on a lot of platforms we’re on Amazon, Amazon Kindle, Kobo target. You can go through Google, Barnes and Noble book, baby, and then we’re even international,  there’s a link tree. That’ll be linked below if you click that, it puts everything on one simple page for everyone, whether it’s buying the book, accessing Instagram, accessing our email, seeing other podcasts and other interviews, it’ll all be there. This drive will be posted there. So all of that’s in one easy click for y’all, by all means reach out.  And if you reach out saying you’re from the drive on podcast, I’ll send the first five people, free copies I’ll mail. You don’t even pay shipping, I’ll pay for the shipping, mail it out to you. I would give more, but I’m tired. We got libraries and stuff. We got put somewhere, 

Scott DeLuzio    00:45:08    That’s more than generous, that you’re, that you’re willing to do that. So anyone who is looking to grab a copy of the book definitely reach out and that’s a very generous offer.  We really do appreciate that you are doing that and sharing, sharing your work with, with everybody. I think that’s definitely incredible. So thank you again for your time for coming on the show, sharing your story and your journey. I really do appreciate the insights and  looking forward to hearing more about your travels and your journeys, if you have other trips coming up and everything, I’ll be, I’ll be following along and, and keep keeping an eye on that as time goes on to.  

William Hollingworth    00:45:56    Absolutely. Thank you, Scott. I can’t wait to finish the surviving son. Thanks for having me on. We’re, we’re still traveling. We’re still updating stuff. We got Disney world booked in a month and a half Alaskan cruise, all kinds of exciting stuff, people. And if people want to reach out to us, we’re happy to host them, happy to give them pointers, whatever they want. So thank you so much for having me and keep driving your dreams, everyone to keep driving on.  

Scott DeLuzio   00:46:18    Thanks for listening to the Drive On Podcast. If you want to check out more episodes or learn more about the show, you can visit our website driveonpodcast.com. We’re also on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube at DriveOnPodcast.

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