How The Right Creative Partner Can Ignite Your Spark w/ Wendy and Derek Carrick-Hadinger, Authors / Artists

What if the key to your next creative chapter isn't a strategy, or a career hack - but instead opening yourself up to a new relationship? 

In this episode, Allen sits down with Wendy and Derek Hadinger, the husband-and-wife duo behind the Create A Way Today Podcast, for a conversation about what happens when creators give each other permission to explore their gifts in their God-given design! 

 Wendy is an author, illustrator, book publisher and caricature artist with 30 years in the business. Her husband Derek is a registered nurse, musician, and author. Outside his medical profession, he builds and wires custom instruments, records music, and recently finished writing a nearly 400-page memoir. Together they run Create-A-Way Publishing and their podcast among many other creative pursuits. 

Their story isn't only about being married to your perfect creative match. It's about what becomes possible when you let another creator see the whole picture of who you are. If you've ever felt misaligned or out - of -place with your creative gifts, this episode will show you that there is a place for your creative gift when you connect with the right people. 

In this episode, we explore:

• What it looks like to build the kind of partnership where your gifts compliment each other
• How music and creativity can open the door to healing and family restoration
• How a creative gift can stay hidden until someone you trust names it out loud
• Why openness, not talent alone, tends to be what God uses to move you forward

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Transcript

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (00:00)
Are you pouring yourself into your creative work, but feeling like you're all alone in the process? Maybe you're striving to build a creative life, but you feel like your skills are hodgepodge and really don't fit anyone's label or criteria. Is that friction between your art, your relationships and your life a sign that you're doing something fundamentally wrong? Well, here's something that you need to hear and understand.

You just might be in the perfect position for God to show you a whole new way of looking at your creative lifestyle. And in this episode, we're talking with Wendy and Derek Hadinger host of the Create a Way Today podcast. They're married, they're podcasters, they're artists. And in this conversation, you're going to hear how two people with different creative lanes discovered their unique gifts, found a place with each other, and are now serving the world through their creativity.

Their creative output is truly impressive, touching on topics from writing and publishing books to illustration, ministry, and even health and medicine. What's fascinating is how they each found their individual place in the creative world and then realized their separate gifts actually strengthened each other. They're going to help you realize that your success comes quicker when you recognize that your unique skills don't compete, they compliment. Now, if you're new to the podcast, my name is Allen C. Paul. I'm the host and founder of God and gigs.

This is where we help you to become the creator that you were created to be. And by the end of this episode, you'll understand why partnership matters so much for creators, how to recognize the hidden potential in the people around you and what it actually looks like to build a creative life that strengthens your relationships.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (01:41)
Ladies and gentlemen, it is such an honor and pleasure to bring you a couple now We have not done that many episodes where we had two creators married creators in the same interview But I get to do that today with Wendy and Derek Hadinger How are you both doing?

Derek And Wendy (01:56)
Fantastic. How are you doing today?

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (01:58)
doing amazing, especially now that I get to speak to fellow podcasters, fellow creators, and people who love not only God, but also love to encourage others to creativity. We were literally saying right before we hit record how much God is really just flowing through everything that we're doing. But first, people have to meet you. And this is always a challenge because you both know so much about each other, obviously, and I'm getting to know you, but you have to kind of tell people about you.

Derek And Wendy (02:10)
Amen.

⁓

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (02:27)
in the first 30 seconds or so of a podcast interview. It's always the most difficult one. So I'll pitch this to to both of you and you can answer however you want. But when people meet you as a couple, let's say in the grocery store, coffee shop, they don't get a chance to learn about your podcast, about your your art. Any of that. You're just they're just meeting you. Right. What are those first couple of things you would like them to know about you upon that first meeting?

Derek (02:53)
I think they already know just by the way my wife and I are smiling. That we are peaceful, full of love and I'm just full of joy every moment to have the Lord in my heart and to be married to my beautiful wife. And our world is just so full of darkness. I just want people immediately to say, love is different. Yeah. 

Wendy 

And as far as, yeah, I love Derek's answer. Mine was gonna be more of a.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (03:14)
I love it.

Derek And Wendy (03:22)
More of a surfacey answer, I guess, as far as like introducing myself as like an author illustrator. And as far as what I do, space cadet. Yeah. And Derek, he's he's a nurse slash creator. Yeah. Registered nurse, author, musician.

We make a good pair because we, um, you know, we both love creating. We both would just have that.

Identical artist spirit. Oh, yeah. No, that's something that I the free spirit. People notice that right away. We'll start talking to them and they're like, how long have you been married? Wow. You two are just like you're like best twins, best friends, whatever. I'm like, yeah, you're right on all that. We are one person. Amen. Yeah. Amen.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (03:54)
⁓

Hmm. Well, that's what the Bible says that is supposed to happen, right? With marriage. But

So I'm curious in terms of like, did art bring you two together? Was it?

music was it anything in terms of your like creative backgrounds that actually attracted you guys to each other or was it like something separate and you found out later like my gosh we're both creative

Derek And Wendy (04:28)
All the above. No, I mean, as far as the first part. And then we're still finding out like, wow, that's like things where, okay, as far as to the family, the creative process, I've been through a lot of ups and downs, we can get into whatever on that as far as testimonial stuff, but my daughter,

Because of the creative spirit, there were some really dark moments in the spiritual realm and singing, doing artwork and being involved in the creative process was the way to flesh out and delve into these things and have a safe ground for at least my daughter and I to hash out whatever it was and have a non-judgmental ground to play with ideas, to deal with whatever we had to deal with and then.

doing that incorporating, hey, why you create? This is prayer. The gift that God gives you, the thing that you're good at, that is your best vehicle to pray. So when I create, I'm playing music around my guitar, well, God has the voice of many waters, he's infinite. So all these notes and vibrations, he can understand that. I mean, so it's this language from the spirit and then, you know, with artwork and these colors and shapes, so.

I impart that to my daughter and it's like...

You get these tough moments, you fear is this gonna break apart and break apart. And then one day she's like, yeah, dad, I just played the song really loud and I started singing and then the vibration started going and all of a sudden I just confronted all of my feelings and every all of my fears and I confronted myself and I realized that it's okay. I can be me. I'm beautiful and I don't have to worry about anyone else's opinion. It was like the Holy Spirit came through and

through the music and creative process. And with my kids too, it's like I, it's interesting you talk about music. ⁓ Both of my kids are into music as well. My daughter plays violin. My son, loves playing the keyboard, piano. ⁓ And both of them definitely ⁓ use that as a ⁓ venue for spiritual healing. I've noticed, you know, my son, he'll just

Tinker away at his keyboard and piano and you went and he'll just be this like healing thing if he's feeling weird about anything, he'll just go in there and shut the door and always. ⁓ He comes out, he grins like I'm looking like this child, this pure soul and he's all happy, know, and he'll paint.

Brilliant artist artists. So all three of our kids are very creative minded. That's for sure. It's kind of interesting how our whole family is very creative minded. And that's how we all connected. Yeah. So, know, with Wendy being a stepmom to my daughter and we had gone through all this stuff. OK, so her daughter is brilliant with physics. She plays violin. So we're talking about math and patterns and permutations of things and then bands. And she's like, no, you like that band. Next thing you were delving into stuff.

And we have a bridge and I love her like I were her own dad. And then Jack, when I met him, he looks at me and I look at him, hey, how are doing? And he just beams at me with this childlike grin. And then he starts painting something. We start talking about artwork. I know more about him than he does, probably. He's an exact like minded soul, whether he realizes it or not in the creative process, actually. People like the butt heads and their egos, they go at it. It can destroy everything. But when you

put the Lord first and you have love in your heart and use the creative process to communicate. It's so powerful. I really think God works through music so easily and the creative experience, the creative process, music does seem to be like one of those pure forms of, because when you're in that head space, it's like that's when God, that's when you're open to receiving. ⁓

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (08:44)
Yeah.

Derek And Wendy (08:45)
And I think that's why it's so easy.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (08:48)
Yeah, God clearly

has used music and art as a pathway to introduce himself to us, right? We can talk to him and then I love how you just explained how your family kind of uses art and creativity again is not like.

Derek And Wendy (08:54)
the English.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (09:02)
Oh, everybody has to be in the family business. It feels like that they want to be in the family business. So I love to talk right now about your individual lanes because Wendy, you have a special particular gift and calling in terms of your artwork. And I would love for you to talk a little bit about how you got into this, especially again, my, my, uh, picture of picture, there's a, there's a little pun there. My picture, my picture of this is seeing the artists on the streets.

Derek And Wendy (09:06)
Yeah.

Haha

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (09:30)
where you walk by and they're like, Hey, can I, can I draw you all of a sudden? That's the picture I've had of a caricature artist. I want to make sure that my little picture is not incorrect. So tell me a little bit about what you do in terms of your art and especially like how God led you in that specific direction.

Derek And Wendy (09:42)
Ha ha ha.

Yeah, well, caricature, I do quick sketch caricatures. I, of course, started doing them at an amusement park when I was in when I was in college. It was my summer job. So that was a wonderful. That was my dream. It was my dream summer job because I knew it was like, well, I could I could do what what a lot of other people do, you know, get a job at McDonald's or Burger King. And that is nothing.

That would be totally fine. I was like, I really, I'm going to school for art. I really want to see if I can get an art related job, you know, which I know is extremely hard to find, especially as a newbie, just getting into the field. However, I knew that doing caricatures for the amusement park could be a way in kind of, you know, just a way to get my little toe into the door, you know? So.

Thank goodness I got that job and it was a job that I kept doing every summer while I was in college. And then 30 years later, I'm still doing it. I was doing it for somebody else at like this one guy. He hired me to do caricatures at a mall and it was the wrong venue to do caricatures. So it's like people, when people are at the mall, they're there for a certain thing. They're there to browse. They're not there to get a caricature. It's just not the right.

environment for it. the business pretty much flopped. But there were people who kept coming up to me and saying, hey, you should do this yourself. You should be working for this guy. You should just have your own business. so I started just dipping my toes into that realm as well. I was very timid about it at first. I'm very, very nervous. ⁓

and I started doing caricatures for events as well. Like I would sign up for a festival of some kind and I would set up my caricature tent and do it there, you know, ⁓ because it had a similar feel to the amusement park, you know. But ⁓ then I saw that I could hire myself out for parties and events and I would, I'll never forget one of the first gigs I had. was, ⁓

I hear I'm realizing, hey, I'm, you know, having someone hire me who I don't know. I'm going to their house and I hope everything will be OK. You know, like so one of the first gigs I was hired for this kid's birthday party and they lead me down to the basement and I'm like, with your pen. ⁓ am I going to be OK here? Like everything was fine. But I was well aware. was like, this is a little could be a sketchy situation. No pun intended. boy.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (12:18)
Yeah.

Derek And Wendy (12:36)
⁓ man, you get me. Sorry, But yeah, but it was. That joke, I'm ruthless with this. my goodness. But yeah, was, ⁓ but yeah, 30 years later, I've learned a lot from the whole experience and now I just strictly pretty much do. ⁓

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (12:36)
The art humor is no it's quite all right there to our humor is flowing today

Derek And Wendy (12:59)
the caricatures at events, weddings, and all kinds of things. The only kind of event that I think I haven't done caricatures for would be a funeral. And I almost had the opportunity to do that. There was actually during COVID, ⁓ during COVID when all the virtual stuff was going on, there was this one ⁓ gig request that came through this website that I joined where I bid for gigs. And it was for a funeral.

To do caricatures for a funeral. I bet I should have been a little bit lower I think you made a great mistake. That's not what I was like. I really wanted to check that box

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (13:39)
Okay, so I don't know if that's something you want to put on a bucket list of doing characters that if you but but just Yeah, it's kick. Oh gosh. Okay I'm already I'm already enjoying this just because again like the the creativity with the words and creativity with the art It's all flowing from the same place, which is a place of joy. So

Derek And Wendy (13:42)
No, no, I tell you, it's true, I tell you. But it would be pretty, I kicked the bucket list. Yeah. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. That was bad.

Yeah. Sorry, drawings

are a little stiff right now. ⁓ no, no. We better stop that avenue there.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (14:04)
goodness.

We'll

ask everybody that's watching to put comments underneath and put their best pun on this. But Derek, I wanted to turn to you because now you've just heard Wendy describe how her path to caricature and art. I want to get into your lane because your lanes are slightly different. Even though you're a married couple in creative work, know, podcasting together, doing a lot of these things together, you also have separate interests, I'm sure, in terms of like where you feel like your strengths are.

Derek And Wendy (14:11)
Yeah, exactly. ⁓

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (14:35)
So Derek, tell me a little bit about the strengths of your, cause you just mentioned so many things that you do, right? So how do you hone all of that energy, creative ability, and then say, okay, but this is the place where I, where God has me like function best in this marriage and in this like partnership of creative work.

Derek And Wendy (14:41)
Yes.

really good question.

live completely in the moment and what the Holy Spirit tells me in my gut to do. My best suit is, I mean, I got into nursing.

10 years ago, a little over 10 years ago, I played live music in a band, live improvisational music, exhibited artwork, loved doing both of those things. And I got baptized, wrote a Harley Davidson out to a church. A buddy gave me a Harley, woke up and God was like, all right, time to get baptized. So I knew of a church that would do it and baptized that morning. The guy's like, oh, you're like the prodigal son coming out on your Harley. This is fantastic.

Woke up a week later out of a dream and I heard my name and I was like, ready to hurt the guy who mentioned my name. I just heard this Derek. And then a week later, woke up out of this dream grinning and I heard nursing and I said, okay, Lord, here I am. He told me to be a nurse. And that's when I learned his voice. And I've heard that voice numerous times since then tell me many things. ⁓ So I did that. And when I got into nursing college, I realized all of my improvisation on music, all of my artwork.

hanging out with the World's Freak Show and everything else really gave me a tool chest that few people had to do the work that I was called to do. it just, on what day it is, sometimes a drawing is needed. Sometimes ⁓ I'll be painting and...

I don't know. My wife just needs a hug and we'll just sit there and hug and then talk. And then after that, creative things flow out. So sometimes you have to stop your creative process when things get intense. I don't know. It's kind of a long ephemeral answer to what's going on. But really my strong suit is seeing what is needed in the very moment. God says, Derek, I've given you all of these gifts. So in this very moment, you need to do this for this person for me.

It drives me crazy because I'm still like.

It takes me a year at least to write a book, which is one of my passions as well. But yeah, it's like there are so many crossovers. But as far as when he talks about his nursing experiences and I got to read them when he was writing his book, I was realizing how how much his creative involvements and his creative passions ended up being a way to connect with his patients.

That was really, really something. Many times the only way to connect. Yeah. You get a doctor going in, you know, they have their clipboards. Oh, hi, Mr. So-and-so. Yeah. Peripheral edema and polymorphic blah, blah, blah. They walk out the room that freaked out. What did they say? I. OK, you got a little swelling. You got a little bit of a cold. You're the translator. And then you start cracking jokes and you find out who they are, what they like, what song they like, and then incorporates and humor and.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (17:46)
Mm.

Derek And Wendy (17:56)
I'll be self-deprecating and I've drawn cartoons on people's boards. I'll sit there and make up songs with them. I don't know, like a, I became actively engaged in the creative process with my patients. So they basically showed me the intervention that I was to give them. know, God's like, oh, just work with people. You don't have to think a thing. I will show you everything. You just be there for me and them. that. Yeah. Yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (18:14)
Wow.

That's incredible. I can't tell

you like how much of a blessing it is. Number one, for those who are listening and watching to hear that all of these different skill sets and things that don't seem like connected, right? Nursing, creativity, all connected because of where God puts you in the particular place where you did see that it wasn't disconnected. And so I hope this is a blessing to people right now who feel that this was kind of like, well God didn't really give me

Derek And Wendy (18:36)
All connect.

Amen. That's right.

Amen.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (18:50)
the right skills for this right specific thing that I dreamed about because like you just said, if that we can trust him in those areas.

to give you those nudges, which can be again, in all kinds of environments. So I'm curious now to talk about some of the things that you've had to face together because some of the people we're talking to may look at you too and say, my gosh, like it's so easy. They're both creative. I wish I had a creative partner that made everything easy and kind of complimented me. But I'm sure you had obstacles that you had to face in terms of whether it was business, whether it was balancing family, whether it was balancing your two roles, right? In terms of schedules or whatever.

Derek And Wendy (19:14)
Okay.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (19:27)
So what have been the biggest struggles in terms of building kind of like a creative lifestyle? Either one of you can answer and then just how did you overcome them to encourage somebody else?

Derek And Wendy (19:37)
So I have to laugh. It's our periphery coming at us is the struggle. There's been a lot of ups and downs. can't control external. Yeah. You can always control your response. You can't control what comes at you.

as a reminder to the listeners, this isn't our first rodeo. Yeah, this this mayor, you know, we both been married before. So we've both learned from our previous relationships. And that there's something to that, I think we're we both we've both learned what we don't want in a relationship, but what doesn't work and how and and we're.

We're both very, very, we've learned a lot. We've grown up a lot, both of us in our separate ⁓ journeys, relationship journeys. And I feel like we're bringing all of that to this, the here and now in our relationship. And because of that, we've both grown so much and we both, just, we've come to our, when we first came together, we had that decision right away that we're like, you know what?

I'm pulling out all the stops here. I'm not holding anything back. I'm going to be myself. And if this person doesn't accept me for who I am, then I guess that's it. Whatever. That's then I'm done. But we just kept finding more and more and more and more about each other. We kept talking and talking and and

The more we shared, the more we realized that the other person was completely accepting ⁓ to one another. And I think because of that, we were able to... And when it comes to partnership in our creative ⁓ experiences, our creative professions, our creative ⁓ involvements, the partnership that we have with those things, we end up...

balancing each other off. Completely. And like he said before, where I'm weak, he's strong and vice versa. We're completely opposite. I'm very strong in things. I'm so weak in things. I'm like, sweetheart, thank you so And we've learned to spend this wonderful, it's a wonderful thing to have a partner who trusts me with the things that I do. And I know that he feels the same way. It's like, wow.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (21:35)
Okay.

Derek And Wendy (22:01)
my partner trust me. You know, that's amazing. You know, I'm not used to that. This is wonderful. And ⁓ it's it's so yeah. So people who are listening, who are like, that can't exist. But you know, but it's it's true. Once again, it's not our first rodeo. And we've learned from our mistakes in previous relationships. And that's why we're here and now and and and being and knowing and understanding.

how we need to be with each other in order for things to continue to work.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (22:31)
Yeah.

Wow. Well, can tell you right now, your next podcast could be a relationship podcast because the gems you're dropping about being able to be forgiving, being loving. And I want to equate this also right back to the fact that as creators, we interact in relationship all the time. Like there's no silos, right? Like you have to be connected to other people. Either you're sharing your art with somebody you're creating with somebody. So even those of us who don't have creative partners, like my wife,

Derek And Wendy (22:49)
Yes.

Amen.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (23:00)
is an amazing creator, but she's like the closet creator where she only sings when we ask her to or force her to. And she's the management style person, but we've been married almost 30 years because we've learned the same lessons that you're talking about. However, we had to do that in community. We didn't learn just like you guys were just mentioning, being around other people and maybe them pushing you the wrong way, pushing the wrong buttons. And of course in creative relationships, you can see this happening. So I want to talk a little bit about collaboration and community.

Derek And Wendy (23:05)
Yeah

Amen.

Yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (23:30)
How has that helped you, not just in your marriage, but also in your creative business? Have there been specific mentors, church leaders, or other kind of artistic community that's helped you keep this together as a couple?

Derek And Wendy (23:42)
When you're creative, people as community seeks us out. They like, hey, I need this weird person to talk to. I need that freak that doesn't mind. wait, you're drawing pictures. You're doing this. So many people have all of these ideas and things that they really don't know how to get out. They maybe don't have a knack or a relentless, I don't care about anything else to get it done, you know, cause art is work basically.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (23:48)
Hmm.

Derek And Wendy (24:10)
like the church, I was thinking about the church and she brought it up like the guy's like, Hey, can you play? Can you play lead guitar in our thing? And I'm like thinking I'm a bass player. So I bought him a better bass, like in my head, dude, you got a crappy bass. Yeah, sure. I'll do that. Got him in space, got on stage. And next thing you know.

there's community there and we're doing all these things. And then when I went through some rough times, my family and community was there. We had music to help heal, know, was just this beautiful thing. But the creative process.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (24:37)
Yeah.

Derek And Wendy (24:43)
It helps us grow as husband and wife because the way we connect with community and how people seek us out. And I hear people talk about my wife all the time. she's the most amazing caricature artist. she is so and in proverbs, it says a man is known his reputation is based by his wife. He's known on the streets by how sweet his wife is. Yes. World.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (25:02)
all of the things I'm hearing the common thread is stepping out and connecting with other people. course, connecting with your family is beautiful. But if you don't have that kind of family, there's still a family of creators and a family of people that you can help. So that's what I really love about all of your experiences that it keeps pointing to serving and getting out and using your gift. If you use your gift and put it in certain places, God will use it and then show you the right avenues to use it. So no, this is

Derek And Wendy (25:14)
Amen. Amen.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (25:31)
blessing me, especially again, as a fellow creative who has a relationship with someone who I pair off of, right? She's my help meat and all the things you're sharing again, are so applicable to both marriage and the creative work. But I do want to talk a little bit about your podcast because when you say create a way today, feel like again, it's a practical mission, but it's also a very spiritual mission. So I just want to kind of get into that because it's not just what you're creating personally is also

Derek And Wendy (25:55)
Absolutely.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (26:01)
what you're pouring out. what was the genesis of create a way today? It's such a great name. And just want to know like, what, did that come out? And what are you trying? What's the mission behind it?

Derek And Wendy (26:06)
Yeah. ⁓

the whole term of create away from me originated when from my self publishing journey, where it was all about just removing obstacles, you know, the whole idea was like, if there doesn't seem to be a way, create away. now there's and that was my original, ⁓ the original source of that term. And now

being involved with Derek and thinking of this more as a ministry. And like, feel like God's being brought into this, which is wonderful. I give you all the work you need to do. like, well, God can help with God. You know, God can help you create a way. You know, it's like it's not just about you. It's like about it's about you and God creating a way together.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (26:59)
I love the fact that once again, for those who are listening, who are feeling like no one cares about my mission or my message or my art, and just realizing that you just said it, we have the tools now with podcasting, with the internet.

where you can reach one person and maybe that one person is the person that God will use to create a way for you and your I am curious in terms of the what's next for you both because you seem to have this amazing, just free flowing understanding that.

Derek And Wendy (27:19)
Amen.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (27:29)
We are planted in here and now we're serving right now. We're creating art. We're doing music. We're doing things. We're building our family. But is there a vision? Is there something that God's like put in your mind? It's like, my gosh, here's the next big idea. Or is it? It could be this. It could be just whatever comes comes. I'm just curious. And both of you have to answer this because I'm curious if it's going to be the same answer. What do you see coming next for Wendy and Derek in terms of your creative work?

Derek And Wendy (27:31)
you

Ha ha!

Okay.

A lot more of this. We're so good. wow. Really? How much should we talk about? OK. So yeah, yeah. We went on this vacation and the Lord's been saying, Derek, be still. Know that I'm God. Enter into my rest. He commanded me to do it. I'm not leaving ever. I am there. I'm love. We go down there.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (28:08)
You have to pick the best one. Yeah.

Derek And Wendy (28:24)
And he answered all these prayers and brought all of these people to us because we're thinking, well, we would like to move down here, be close to family. And just through prayer, everything that we need to know has been answered and all this stuff is in process. And I'm like, you know, working as a independent contractor nurse for a faith based lady, God's like, you know, hey, get the number of that place, give her a call. you know, God's involved in everything. So I'm like, well, maybe maybe we can.

move down there and start our own business. I'm really good at the nursing part. You're really organized and all this. So now we're thinking about going down to the community and offering like primary care and stuff in the community if they needed to keep them out of the hospitals and really once again, using creativity and other people's strengths in their own homes to do stuff. And this is just a new genesis of an idea. I know this is like we so we're constantly coming up with these.

these brainstorm ideas. Yeah, I guess one. Yeah, think it's one. Yeah, that's the biggest one yet. And it's huge for me because it's like it's not I was thinking, well, is there a way to bring creativity into that? It's like, well, I guess I guess we could bring art therapy into it somehow. Music therapy, you know, whatever. But it's kind of like this mammoth concept that I'm a little blown away by.

and I don't know if it will actually happen, but it's just pretty fun to think about and- That's my thinking big. Yeah. The next step- me away. He blows me. Yeah, it's like my ideas that I think are big are like here and his are like, ⁓ you know,

so it's like, even with our, even with our book projects, he just blows me away because he's just,

Because I, just insane. It was last year, along with his book, along with the 300 page book that he wrote on his memoir, he wrote 26 books, you one for each letter of the alphabet. And this is why I was working at Papa John's. I was a delivery driver working inside and slow parts. I would sit there and a burst of creativity and write it. And so probably within a three month period.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (30:11)
No!

Derek And Wendy (30:37)
those books and all those books came out in that period of time. Well, I have to say, think I think I keep forgetting there. I think the reason why that happened for you. Is that's when you started? Yeah, the floodgates just opened and it's like that. That's something that I knew was inside you. I knew it was inside you. Yeah, she got me to write. She's looking at me one day. You ever think about writing down? Yeah, because he would tell me stories.

And he's so good with words. He's so good with words. And I was like, you should probably think about writing. And when he started, it was like, boom, you know, it's just the floodgates open and all this stuff just came out. So my wife is the one who got me realizing my next level of what it is.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (31:14)
So that's...

Wow. I have to stop you there because that's so powerful that again, within your creative couple, your relationship, your both creative abilities, you saw another one in him that you had to call out for me. It was my wife. Whenever I was getting ready to write God in gigs and I was kind of just stuck, you know, in that little like, you know, the writer's block or you're constantly like re you're re editing it. You're never actually moving forward. And she would write down just right in a little post-it note.

Derek And Wendy (31:43)
Yeah. Yeah.

Hahaha!

⁓ yes.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (31:54)
And so,

and so that was my impetus to finally get, and I would not be talking to you if I didn't. So I love the fact that every single time we come back to the fact that you use each other as inspiration and encouragement to continue doing what God has called you both to do, and you build more together. And so I just want you to finish this off by encouraging somebody who has not heard that message.

Derek And Wendy (31:57)
Yay wife.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (32:19)
somebody who is been either in a church or in a school or in a nurse, know, in a medical profession and another profession and doesn't realize that they need a spark. So

Derek And Wendy (32:27)
Yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (32:28)
Okay. If someone is in that place where you used to be, know, Derek, before you started writing, before all that stuff, what would be both of you, what would be your encouragement to that one person who's listening right now?

Derek And Wendy (32:38)
what your wife told you, whatever it is that, just do something. Taking the first step, I worked with this nurse, she would run marathons and her feet would bleed sometimes. I'm like, wow, that's hardcore. And I'm like, she's like, well, you don't win every race. Sometimes you may have to drop out, but every step you make, no matter how painful it is, just know that you're making progress.

And whenever I've done some, I've done some artwork and forgotten about it. And years later, run into somebody and like, I have that on my wall. It's a centerpiece. have all sorts of conversations. So this thing that I did that I gave to somebody I forgot about that I didn't even consider, did they like it or not? How do you know what somebody likes? You don't know what they think. So don't ever think that that's you, your own fear basically. And they would come back and tell me these things and that do it, just do it. You never know who you're going to affect you.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (33:25)
Yeah.

Derek And Wendy (33:33)
will affect somebody because for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction that is a law. And don't fear, just do it. God doesn't put that spark inside you for nothing. Amen. He wants people to come at it like, hey, creativity, go, go, and people respond. Think about it that way instead of thinking, ⁓ who's going to care? What does it matter? Am I any good?

Think about where that spark came from. It did not come from you. It did not come from you. And it is your responsibility to let that spark shine. Make a fire out of it. Make a fire, that's right.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (34:06)
good.

And it is it is a beautiful, beautiful picture that you've just said. This has been wonderful. I want to make sure everybody goes to your website. I believe that's Caw publishing dot com and they can go find out.

Derek And Wendy (34:21)
Amen.

That's right, thank you.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (34:34)
Obviously, if you're on this right now, the app that you're on right now, you can just hop over to create a way today and go listen to their podcast. I have been a fan ever since I found them. So now you guys, I just want to make sure that you know, you're a part of the God and Gigs community as well, because we're so aligned. I hope this won't not be the last time that you guys are on the show or connected with our community because this.

Derek And Wendy (34:50)
Thank you.

Same. Likewise, as much as

you want, we can explore anything. I've got so much information in my head. Just yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (35:05)
It's such a beautiful thing. yeah, but

no, you've blessed us. Your marriage has blessed us. Your creative work has blessed us and your testimony to us blessed us. So thank you so much for being on the God in gigs show. We hope this isn't the last time.

Derek And Wendy (35:16)
Thank you so much. Thank much. Thank you and praise the Lord. Thank you so much. God bless you.