Unveiling History's Treasures: Maritime Legacies and Entrepreneurial Spirit with Dayne Rugh.

Ever wondered how the entrepreneurial mindset intersects with the preservation of history? You'll uncover this fascinating connection through the eyes of Dayne Rugh, a dedicated museum curator and director with a profound love for early American history. Growing up in Groton, Connecticut, Dayne's journey from an academic background in American Studies and Museum Studies to becoming the director of the Slater Memorial Museum is nothing short of inspiring. Dane shares how an internship at Mystic Seaport Museum crystallized his career path and how his entrepreneurial family subtly shaped his professional choices. This episode is a masterclass in blending historical knowledge with an entrepreneurial spirit.

Set sail with us as we explore the rich maritime history, focusing on the iconic Charles W Morgan, the last wooden whaling ship from the 19th century. You'll learn about its remarkable restoration and why training vessels like the Joseph Conrad and the Mercator continue to be significant. Our Dayne even shares a personal connection to maritime history, including their current work on a biography of an everyday American colonel from the Revolutionary War. The colonel's story offers deep insights into how ordinary people have shaped history, and you'll find timeless parallels between their experiences and our own.

Legacy and purpose take center stage as we discuss the profound impact of guiding students to recognize their potential contributions to history. Dane offers personal anecdotes and real-life examples to highlight how everyday actions can influence the future. We also delve into the world of self-publishing, providing valuable tips for aspiring authors who wish to bring niche historical figures to life.

Chapters

• 0:03 A Journey Through History and Entrepreneurship
• 8:26 Sea History and Personal Connections
• 22:49 Legacy Building and Historical Impact
• 35:40 Navigating Self-Publishing and Writing Tips
• 50:06 Exploring Book Creation and Inspiration

Transcript

Nico: 0:03

Let me invite you to sit back, drop your jaw, tongue and shoulders, take a deep breath and, if you wish, close your eyes for a moment and feel the beat within. In a few seconds, you just jumped from your head to your heart and felt the beat within Opening up to receive even more value and fulfillment out of your business. And felt the beat within opening up to receive even more value and fulfillment out of your business and life. And today's episode. I am your host, nico van de Venne, confidant to successful CEO founders and entrepreneurs striving to achieve everlasting fulfillment. Welcome to the Everlasting Fulfillment Podcast with our next guest, dane Roch.

Nico: 0:44

Dane is a museum curator and director, historian and aspiring author. Dane is a lifelong resident of Connecticut with a passion for early American history. He's the director of Slater Memorial Museum, overseeing all museum operations, programming and exhibitions, and is also past president of the Society of the Founders of Norwich. He has a bachelor's degree in American Studies from the University of Connecticut and a master's in museum studies from John Hopkins University. He's a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He has published content for the Connecticut History Review, norwich Magazine, the Bulletin Newspaper Mystic Seaport Museum, norwich Magazine, the Bulletin Newspaper Mystic Seaport Museum and the Journal of the American Revolution, dane. Welcome to the show.

Dayne: 1:33

Thank you, Nico. Thanks so much for having me.

Nico: 1:35

It's fun. It's fun to see somebody completely different than what I'm used to. I meet a lot of entrepreneurs and CEOs and founders, but you are a museum director. That's something completely different. But I think it's very interesting to hear your views on history with regards to challenges and entrepreneurship and all that beautiful stuff. Going even back to the American Revolution, I would say.

Dayne: 2:03

Yes, as far back as I can remember, I've loved history and probably, if I were to dig really deep enough, I would discover the entrepreneur within me, as I come from a family where my father and family are business owners. They've run their own business for many, many decades and so I think a lot of that in a way has imprinted on me somehow. But I followed a very different path. I sort of borrowed and was inspired by a lot of things that I observed around me growing up in the family that I lived with, and since then I've been able to forge a very interesting and, again, much different path forward than than than either of my parents did.

Nico: 2:53

So you're actually a museum director, you know, with some deep seated entrepreneurship mentality. So how could I look at your, your story, how did you get into the role that you're doing right now, and what's so very exciting about what you do every day?

Dayne: 3:14

Well, I knew that I loved history.

Dayne: 3:16

And when I was in the late stages of high school here in Connecticut I then start to wonder well, if I'm going to go to college, if I'm going to study beyond high school, you know what exactly am I going to do?

Dayne: 3:28

And I knew I loved American history. So I was able to really stay within the community that I lived in. I grew up in a city called Groton, connecticut. It's a small town, probably 40,000 people. It's one of those small towns where you know a lot of people, a lot of people know you and yet you can still kind of find your own way and forge your own path in many different respects. But what was really great about particularly my educational background is that I was able to study locally. I was able to go to University of Connecticut, which had a branch at a place called Avery Point, which is right in right in my hometown of Broughton.

Dayne: 4:13

So from pretty much birth up until up until college, I had never left the community, and for a lot of people that probably sounds really strange, because I remember I had a friend in middle school and he had asked me he had asked me a question Dane, how many? Where have you lived in the world, like where, where, what places have you lived in? And he was, he was in the, his dad was in the Navy, so they moved around the country a lot. And I said, well, I, actually I haven't lived in anywhere except my house. I've lived in the same house. And he couldn't understand that. He couldn't comprehend that I had lived in the same house my entire life. But that's just kind of how my life turned out. But when I was in college I was able to not only study locally but also take classes that focus on local history and heritage and I really came to understand why my community is important, why Connecticut was important, and that totally changed it for me. It really changed and broadened my perspective, just on the area that I lived in.

Dayne: 5:25

And when I was in college and any any time I would tell someone I'm studying history, I was a history major, every person would reply with with the same response. They said, oh, so you're going to be a history teacher. And I and I kind of looked at them and I would say, well, no, I don't think I want. I don't think I want to teach, I don't think I actually want to be a history teacher. And then that got me worried. Well, if I'm not going to be a history teacher, then what am I going to do?

Dayne: 5:53

So as I was about halfway through my degree at UConn, an internship program popped up that was referred to me by one of my professors, who also worked at a place called Mystic Seaport Museum, and I was very familiar with Mystic Seaport as it's just almost a town over from us.

Dayne: 6:16

It's a very renowned museum and I got that internship halfway through my time at UConn. That was really my first job in a museum, in a museum setting, and when I started that job and by the end of that internship program, I said well, I know what I want to do now. I want to work in museums. This is what I want, and that was that internship was almost 15 years ago. So from that point until now I've spent my entire career in museums, working all the way up as an intern and then got to understand how business and fundraising works in museums, and then all the way up to managing educational programs at Slater Museum when I transitioned to that role and then I became the director of the museum. So I didn't think that I would end up in the place that I am at this stage in my life, but I'm happy I did because I'm doing exactly what I hoped I would be doing.

Nico: 7:31

Well, that's a given. That's a given present right there, if you're able to do what you really love to do and surround yourself with literally all the objects that you would love to study. So the first museum you were talking about is the Mystic Port Museum, mystic.

Dayne: 7:47

Seaport, mystic.

Nico: 7:49

Seaport. What's the story there? Because if you hear the word mystic, it's usually like what?

Dayne: 7:55

Yeah, so mystic is not a town, it's actually a village and it spans two separate towns in Connecticut, near where I grew up, and Mystic Seaport is, if I'm not mistaken, it's the largest indoor-outdoor maritime museum in America. You can see a number of indoor and outdoor exhibition spaces. They have tall ships on display. Probably the most famous one is the Charles W Morgan. It's the last wooden whaling ship left in the world from the 19th century and it's a marvelous vessel. It's the crown jewel of their collection.

Dayne: 8:46

About 10 years ago actually, they brought the Charles W Morgan on another voyage. It hadn't traveled, I think, in maybe 70 or 80 years, and so they set sail. They restored the vessel for an untold amount of money I couldn't tell you how much it was and then they sailed it for the first time again in many, many decades. So I got to sail on that ship and I got to learn a lot of the ins and outs of American maritime history. And that was kind of unintended because I like maritime history.

Dayne: 9:14

It's not my strong suit, but I have a big appreciation for it. I learned a lot about American whaling history and fishing industries of the 19th century and whaling history and fishing industries of the 19th century. So I was exposed to that realm and around that area of history a lot during my six years that I spent at Mystic Seaport and I'll always have a fond place for that museum because that's where my career began and I still have very good friends and colleagues that still work there still still have very good friends and colleagues that work, that still work there.

Nico: 9:49

Yeah, so I um my relationship with, uh, with the sea, let's say in this case, um. My parents lived at the seaside in belgium, really close to the coast, and one of the bigger towns is ostend, where they have a ship steer, moored in the Joth region harbor and it's called the Mercator, and Mercator is pretty well known worldwide for one of the guys who draw the world map, and so it's one of the strange things about that ship is it used to be the official training ship for sailors here in our country and it's still there.

Dayne: 10:32

That actually is very similar to a vessel that Mystic Seaport has called the Joseph Conrad. It's an iron-hulled ship, again a very, very old ship, iron Hull ship, again very, very old ship, but after it was decommissioned as a private vessel again. If I'm remembering correctly, that was a training vessel for here in the US. They did a very, very similar job. So those vessels are important. They're still important to this day.

Nico: 11:03

Yeah, I think so as well and I always think about the. You know, as a sailor, I don't think it's an easy life. It's something that you really live for and live through because you're away from the land a long period of time. So there's a lot of times in history, and probably you know best. But there's a lot of times in history, and probably you know best, but there's a lot of times in history where people had to struggle and go through some very harsh times. Is there anything that you know in history that really speaks to you and motivates you in what you do every day?

Dayne: 11:41

Oh, certainly. Right now I am in the throes of writing a book and it's getting close to being done. I've actually finished my draft manuscript, so it's being edited as we speak. That I wanted to do professionally and personally, because I thought it was a story that was really worth being told.

Dayne: 12:07

But this book that I'm writing on a Revolutionary War biography of an American colonel who fought during the American Revolution, this is a story about someone who was not famous by any stretch of the means. He grew up in, or I should say he was born in, the town of Wyndham, connecticut, which is nearby where I live here in Norwich, and this colonel moved to Norwich and spent the rest of his life living here in this town, and I live just as almost a stone's throw from where he would have lived and grown up, and this is almost 250 years ago now. But this man, who I've been researching and writing this book on, was just a regular everyday person. I mean, when you think of all the major names in American history you think of, like the George Washingtons or the Thomas Jeffersons or the Alexander Hamiltons or the Benjamin Franklins, and certainly you know, our country and our history wouldn't be what they would, wouldn't be what it was without them. But I always think about now, the millions of other folks, that whose names are almost not remembered by history. You know, these are folks that are just like you and me. They wake up every day, they earn a living doing something Maybe it's a trade, maybe it's a skill, maybe it's running a business and they're trying to provide for themselves, they're trying to provide for their families, and they just want nothing more than to be honest, hardworking, productive citizens that can contribute something positive to society.

Dayne: 13:50

The gentleman who I'm writing about he would have never have expected anybody to be writing about his life. That's just not the kind of person he was. And now here we are, 250 years later, and he's going to have a book on him, and that's really personally satisfying to me, because I think his story was so important and that it really needed to be told. And that definitely motivates me is reaching back, and reaching as far back as you can, to find these stories about people that might not have done anything significant on the surface, but years and years and years later, you can unpack tremendous meaning behind what they did and you can maybe inspire a few people to say this is something that you might find inspiring yourself.

Dayne: 14:47

For these reasons, as I tell people all the time whether I'm leading a museum tour, if I'm giving a talk or a lecture somewhere, I say you know when you really think about it. If you look at pictures or paintings of people from hundreds and hundreds of years ago, you might think, my goodness, people are so different. They look different, they dress funny. But the fact is that people weren't that much different than we are today. I mean, some things certainly are different culturally speaking, but when you really boil it down, we're not that much different than our ancestors.

Nico: 15:24

Yeah, it's true. It's true, I have this old. I really have to search for it but I have this old picture of my great-grandfather, um, sitting on a horse. So I think he did. He had a military uniform, he was not a colonel or anything like that, but he was a military man and a farmer on his, on his off days from from the military. And, uh, my grandma I think we had she had about 16 or 17 grandchildren, think about that that was the one who got his watch, you know, one of those classic round watches, pocket watches. And, um, he was wearing that pocket watch at the time of that picture and I still have that pocket watch and sometimes I'm like, can you imagine what life is like in a, in a, in a period where, um, let's say, for us a toilet is something it's there, you know and and they had to walk to a little house in the back of their yard and sit on a plank with a hole in it.

Nico: 16:26

The difference is so big, but in the end everybody is exactly the same. We all have the same urges and wants. I can imagine that he wanted to have children, or grow, or give his children the best that they could, um, just by be simply being a father and doing the best he could, um, and that's that's something that sometimes is. It's good to go back to the basic, simple things of of realizing that every day, you know, getting up every day and doing these small little things can give a very, you know, can have a lot of impact in the long run. You know, I I've I've been, I've been learning, relearning a lot of stuff about compounding, you know, adding all these little things and and uh, listeners know this, but I have these four, four alarms on my, on my cell phone that I have every morning.

Nico: 17:24

They go off business, business days, weekends I like to sleep in, so I don't want to want to get up by those and they're just simple alarms giving me a reminder of thinking of, like it was amazing stuff every day and and people are there to help you and so on. And I, I see what you mean by somebody's history. Okay, he was a colonel, so he probably had some, some decisions to make, uh, for his, uh, his troops, um, and and is there anything specific that that he happened to do that might have had influence on history, that that came out of your research?

Dayne: 18:02

oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, absolutely the gentleman's name who I'm writing about. His name is John Durkee and that name is not going to mean anything to almost anybody, except maybe me and maybe a few Soon to be a lot more people.

Dayne: 18:19

And definitely a few other folks that are in my own inner circle of local history. But yes, he was involved with a number of events that literally shaped Connecticut political history, and that's again something that he would have never have realized this at the time, but that's exactly what occurred, and one instance I'll refer to was in the year 1765. In the year 1765, there was a whole crisis that was unfolding in what was then the 13 colonies there in America, and our relationship with England was now beginning to deteriorate, as England had been fighting so many wars over the past century, they racked up so much debt and needed to pay those debts somehow. So they started levying taxes and tried to use the colonies as a revenue stream to be able to pay for their debts, and so, when they passed a tax called the Stamp Act, it taxed documents and pretty much any paper goods in America that was particularly difficult for business people and merchants to have to work with. So, to make a very long story short, there was a man who was appointed the tax collector for Connecticut, and he was another local man from New Haven, connecticut. So no, this isn't somebody that the king has sent from England, this is someone who lives in the state. Well, his job was off to a very rough start so he decided he was going to ride to the capital, to Hartford, to plead before the governor for assistance somehow.

Dayne: 20:10

Well, they found out, the colonists in Connecticut find out that the tax collector is going to be on the going to intercept him. And John Durkee is the man who mounts his horse and he's wearing his military uniform because he was a veteran of the French and Indian War from just a few years prior. And he rounds up records say as many as 500 men. And they and they successfully captured this tax collector and and forced him to resign his commission, to, to leave his job. And it was a not it didn't result in violence. That's the. That's the important thing that I point out in the book is that what they did was really bold of them, but it was a nonviolent form of demonstration, although capturing an agent of the British crown could have been seen as a very illegal act and people could have suffered a lot of consequences from it. But they were successful in that and John Durkee was the man who led these men to capture the tax collector and force him to resign.

Dayne: 21:23

And from that point forward, people in Connecticut. Their minds start shifting All of a sudden. There's a lot of talk, there's a lot of chatter about where Connecticut is going to go in this larger issue that's been unfolding with taxation and England. So the year after that had happened is when we ended up with a whole new governorship in Connecticut. John Durkee ended up representing himself in the Connecticut legislature for a very brief moment and uh and it's because of because of all of those events that unfolded in capturing the tax collector it really shifted everyone's mindsets in Connecticut. So that and again he would have never have really understood that in the moment he they were just doing what they thought was right, what they thought was right as Englishmen, they believed they had rights, just as everyone else did in the British Empire. But in any event, that was a particularly big move for them and that's a whole chapter that I unpack in the book. But that's just one example I mean there could be. There's so many others that could be discussed.

Dayne: 22:49

But again, it all is important to talk about because where I work my museum we're part of a high school campus and so we have 2000 students that at one point or another are going to come through our museum and learn something. And often, when I have groups of students, I will say to them you might think that you know, no one's going to remember your story a hundred years after the fact, but but the fact is is that you have to live your life believing that everything you're doing is done with purpose and that there is something much bigger that you're working towards, because a hundred years after you're no longer on this earth, you're people are probably going to be remembering you somehow. So how do you want to be remembered? Do you want to be remembered for certain things you do or for certain causes or movements that you stand for? You know how do you want to go about that.

Dayne: 23:58

And from the museum perspective too, I'll say to them you know, in 100 years there's going to be museums all across the country, all across the world, that are going to be talking about what life was like you know right now, and and, and. The way that they're going to be talking about it is all dependent on us. And how? How do we want our history to unfold? Our history to unfold? How do we want ourselves to be remembered 100 years from now? Because people back then probably didn't realize what they were doing is going to be remembered somehow in the future. So, whatever it is that you do, do it with purpose, do it with intent, do it with intent.

Nico: 24:43

Yeah, so it's a beautiful way of inspiring young people to indeed do something that leaves a legacy. It's one of my passions, you know legacy, leaving a legacy. I've always had that in myself as well. That's one of the things that I've strived to also awaken in others that people can come in and visit. You're always working on the practical things, but then the effect of of leading those people that are around you on how they uh, implement and how they, you know, make everything nice and clean and neat, so that it is a very good exhibitionist. It's very important that, as a leader, you know the effect that you have on others and that's one of the things that I try to make clear on attitude as well. For some people, like you said, if that guy, the person that you're talking about, I'm very sorry, I forget his name. That's going my way. His name is going to be written in a book and he's going to be remembered by many by that alone.

Nico: 26:14

But if you look at what you're saying, he did not use violence and the reason that you're saying that very specifically is because history has a lot of violence in it and that's usually the part that's remembered. But there's a lot of you know. There's a B-side on the track where there's no violence and everyday people do their little things, and even I don't know a lord in a castle. I remember this Scottish series where there was a lord in a castle. I remember this, um, the scottish series where there was a lord in his castle and a part of the series was about the distribution of foods and of livestock and all that sounds so boring, but it's. It's a part of everyday life. These people had to have food and and put food on the table so they can can create children and grandchildren, so that we could run around on the earth and and that as well is a part of our, our history now, in the past and in the future.

Nico: 27:15

And, like you said, if you can inspire people to be, to become more, I always say I always want to get what a little bit better, better than the person I was the day before. I don't compare myself to anybody else. Of course I do, but I'm trying not to. It's just a natural human thing to compare yourself to other things and if you can do that, history is going to write about you. You might be between the lines of the big scriptures and stuff like that, but at least every day going to an office or, in your case, a museum, giving inspiration to people. Who knows, one of those kids might be a president at some point.

Dayne: 27:54

That's just it. That's a perfect example, and what you talk about in terms of that perspective and leaving a legacy is extremely important. You know, we had a visit recently from some state lawmakers at the museum where I work, and these five lawmakers that joined us were all graduates from Norwich Free Academy, where I run the Slater Museum Free Academy, where I run the Slater Museum and I don't think any other high school has that many graduates that are high-level elected leaders in our local government, and that alone is very inspiring because as they're here talking to our students, they're saying the exact same things.

Dayne: 28:42

You might you might not think that one day you might run for office one day and maybe you'll even get elected. Perhaps you'll do something else in the private sector that's going to get you recognized and get perhaps a product or a service recognized. But that perspective is extremely important, especially for students. That's why our museum setting, I think, is so unique because we have this built-in audience of students who are, whether they know it or not, are formulating opinions and their own worldviews. Each one of them is different. Each one of them has a different background. There isn't a single person that's totally alike to another person and they're going to follow very different career paths. And every so often I have the honor and the privilege of working very closely with some of these students in the museum to teach them what it's like to work in a museum setting and why it's important.

Dayne: 29:48

Why are museums important? Why is any of what we're doing important? There's this ancient Greek axiom known as kleos and that talks about legacy building a legacy worthy of remembrance generations and generations later. And when you come into a museum like Slater Museum, you'll be greeted with an exhibition featuring plaster casts of very famous sculptures from Greco-Roman history. Very famous sculptures from Greco-Roman history.

Dayne: 30:23

This represents history and architecture and artwork that was created thousands and thousands of years ago the ancient Greeks, the ancient Romans, the ancient Egyptians, mesopotamians, assyrians, whatever culture you want to go with they built culture. They built history that is still seen today. You can still see these monuments. You can still see these works of art at cultural sites and museums across the world. You can still see the messages they left behind and they succeeded. They succeeded in having their culture be remembered and still discussed thousands and thousands of years later. That's what I try to instill in students and visitors that do, come from all over the world that all of this, at the end of the day, means something. If you live in a community that either doesn't value its own history or doesn't value its own heritage, you're going to grow up thinking that there's really no purpose there. Really no, there actually is. There is purpose, there is meaning behind your community, behind your culture and behind yourself, and oftentimes I don't see high school students really get it the first time a little bit longer but they'll come back after they graduate and say you know that I, I really appreciated that, that that's that exercise or that program yeah, yeah

Nico: 32:00

and then it makes you feel good yeah, yeah, I can imagine that I was exactly the same when I was young, you know, but the I had the advantage of having parents who, who were, in their own way, culturally inclined um, they were not. My mom was a heavy reader uh, mostly, you know, romantic novels, but then she started reading history in in different sorts and, um, at some point, my, my dad and my brother, they did um, a, a, uh, what do you call it in English? Can't remember. They went to Rome with my bicycle, like people go to Compostela or Lourdes or kind of a religion, uh, track. They did, and I followed with my mom in a bus. So I was my brother's eight years older than I am, so I was probably like 12 years old, but we went from from where we lived in belgium to france and then through france to luxembourg and then all the way through Switzerland and then Italy and coming back. We went through back through Italy, giza, venice, all the beautiful cities, and then through Germany and then coming back over Holland.

Nico: 33:17

And as a young kid, 12 years old, you're following these. I think most of the people that were in the bus were elderly people, you know. They had to find their sponsorship somewhere, I think. But in the end they had a guide two guides in the bus and we went to all these history locations and some beautiful churches as well. And then you hear about, you know, renaissance and Greco and all of those terminologies. They don't pop into my head right now, but I do remember exactly what kind of architecture and stuff like that was going on.

Nico: 33:54

And then a couple of years later I had to do a presentation in school and that was my subject their bicycle trip.

Nico: 34:01

But all the history that I met along the way, and so many years later I'm talking about I'm 45 now, so this is 20. 33 years ago and I still have this enormous feeling for culture because I learn a lot about the Crusades, for instance, because I'm related to one of those organizations and you usually learn the things that worked and so on and how that later on also was used in the US when the constitution was made, that that also had a certain influence of those organizations because the structures were there and those rules and so on. So it's woven in in so many different ways in life that we sometimes forget where our culture comes from, and I think that's very important that museums uphold the cultural history and all those steps that were made in the past, that we as current modern day people because probably at that time they said they were modern, but anyway, um can learn from the mistakes that's that are that have been made. I'm, I'm, I'm very much a person that needs to make mistakes to learn. That's just who I am.

Dayne: 35:28

Um, I've made plenty in my life, uh, but we all do, we all, we all do and we have to, yeah, yeah, absolutely yeah, we have to.

Nico: 35:35

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Dayne: 35:37

Yeah, we have to.

Nico: 35:40

So you're telling me that the book is, you know, being edited. What launch time are you looking at now?

Dayne: 35:48

Early next year 2025 was my target launch window. Depending on how the edits go, it could be as early as before the end of this year, but it's a little bit up in the air. I'm self-publishing the book and I'm learning a whole lot about the self-publishing world. It has its own quirks and aspects that make it a little more difficult maybe than the traditional publishing route, but there's also things that make it much easier with what I'm learning and because this book is such a niche topic, it became a lot more of a personal project to me in a way, because this is the first biography, this is the first authoritative biography that's been written on this man, and I thought I was going to have a hard time coming up with content. Well, it turns out just the opposite happened, and I could have easily gone off the rails and made the book hundreds and hundreds of pages longer than it needed to be, but at the end of the day, I have to keep it relevant to tracing his life, not just talking about all of the different major battles and things that he was involved with. But in any event, but in any event, that's been a big learning experience to me, to say the least, but I've set my own goals and I've been able to meet those goals. So this has been again a very interesting and educational journey on how to write a book, because I've never done this before. I've been learning a lot as I go.

Dayne: 37:39

I've been reading a lot of different other books and articles about how to write and how to go about it and I started to at one point I was starting to kind of succumb to this feeling like am I really prepared to do this? This feeling like am I really prepared to do this? Yeah, should, should I really do this? Like the, the imposter syndrome, I thought that's what it's called the imposter syndrome started to start to kind of take root and then afterwards I said you know, I just I have to just do it. I mean, I could, I can do all the research and do all the preparations that I can, but at the end of the day it's not going to get written unless I start it, unless I actually that's true, yeah, yeah.

Nico: 38:22

Do you have any any tips that you you know might give to people that are listening about writing a book? I'm working on one, as well as as as I'm using these kinds of parables to explain terminologies like CEO disease and founderitis. These are terminologies that have been invented, but it's easier to tell a story and then explain afterwards what the idea of the story is and then explain what exactly you mean. But do you have any tips?

Dayne: 38:55

Yeah, I've a few tips and, again, I'm still very new at this. I've been, I've been learning. Still, I'm still learning a lot as I go. But I would say, if you're, if you want to write something like a book, if you want to write a book, the first question you have to ask yourself is why am I writing it? Am I writing it because I want to be a bestseller, a bestselling author? Or am I writing it because I want to become rich and famous? Or am I writing this because I just want to write it? You know, I want to do it for me, or I want to do it just because I believe it's something that's worthy of being told and shared. And, at the end of the day, the book that I'm writing I know it's not going to be a bestseller. I'm not writing it with the express intent of seeing it land on the New York Times bestseller list. It's just not going to happen. So my expectations have to be tempered in that regard. So my expectations have to be tempered in that regard. But I'm writing this because I wanted this story to be told. And there's another, bigger reason behind that too, because next year we're going to be celebrating the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution here in the United States, and that's a major national movement, if you will, that's taking root in each state. I'm pretty heavily involved with organizing events and programs that are going to commemorate this occasion, beginning next year. So I wanted the book to come out in conjunction with these major milestone and anniversaries that are that are coming out, because people are going to be really in tune with trying to find material connected to the American Revolution. It's just like when the bicentennial happened in 1976 in the US and I and I wasn't alive for that. My parents were, my grandparents were, but but I wasn't around for that. So this is the first major national commemoration of this sort that I'll be living through, and so that really pushed me and motivated me to really complete the book on time, and so I've been pleased with that progress and a couple other tips.

Dayne: 41:16

That I would also say is depending on what you want to write, whether it's a fiction book or a nonfiction book. One thing that helped me was thinking about how I actually wanted the book to look like, and what I mean by that is, you know, do you want it to be hardcover, softcover? How big do you want it to be All those nitty-gritty details that you might say, oh well, I'll figure that out at the end. I'll just write it first and then I'll figure it out. You actually might want to figure that out first, especially if you're self-publishing, because it's going to make a big difference between a hardcover and a softcover in terms of price and distribution and whether or not you're going to print it in color or in black and white. I mean, there's a lot of questions you probably should answer in terms of those details. That will probably make the process go a little bit more smoothly. So I'd go, and I have a lot of books. I love collecting books and reading books.

Nico: 42:21

I'm not going to turn the camera in any direction, because I think you'll probably see a couple of things that you might want.

Dayne: 42:27

Yeah, yeah.

Nico: 42:28

A couple of first editions here.

Dayne: 42:32

Yeah, so between all the books that I have, I was able to find a few of them that go okay, this length is kind of what I'm shooting for, or this type of cover art or this type of style is what I'm going for, and then I always kept the nearby as a bit of a visual reference to go back to. That was just helpful for me, because when I start a project like this, I I'm a planner, I I like to plan ahead as much as I possibly can and uh, and the more that you can plan ahead and be prepared for, the better yeah, yeah, I think I can imagine.

Nico: 43:10

I am not a planner in that regard. I'm a planner with everything that, um, as regards, uh, to to the practical side of business and stuff like that. But I've been. I think it's my third version of what I want to write, so I still haven't decided exactly what I wanted to write. I am now closer by saying these, these terminologies are the things that I'm focusing on, but I've noticed that there's so many things that you kind of run towards.

Nico: 43:35

I also have a fiction book in my mind, um, because the phoenix is, it's one of the one of the mythical animals. I received a book from somebody explaining the full spectrum of the phoenix, because it's, it's chinese, it's, it's european, there's a lot of different cultures that speak of the phoenix, and I have a story in my mind that might be a beautiful fantasy story, but it's something even different than writing, indeed, a nonfiction book where you need to do some research and be sure of what you want to put on paper. So, no, it's very interesting to know that you're you're targeting for end of year, beginning next year, and I would think, to the listeners, um, who knows that there's somebody who might be interested in the little less known people from the american revolution, especially if you're saying, indeed, that next year 250 years is a special special and it might be a nice Christmas gift for some people. Hint, hint, hint, I'm putting a pressure on you.

Dayne: 44:43

Yeah, no, that's just it. It's been a really fun journey, to say the least. I didn't think I would actually get this far, and part of me tries to remain know, tries to say you know, remain confident, say, yeah, you can, you can do anything you set your mind to, but this is something that you know that I've never done before. Um, I've tried my hand so often at writing, uh, fiction. Uh, just doesn't work. I, I, I, I'm creative, but I'm just not that creative.

Nico: 45:16

I always end up with the details where I get stuck. There's a specific temple in the story and I know exactly which one I want to use because it's also related to a baron that used to live here in Belgium. That was related to Egypt, so if you go to, you'll probably know this place. Heli was related to Egypt, so if you go to, you'll probably know this place Heliopolis in Egypt. There's a very specific castle that was built there. The architect or the person who funded Heliopolis was a baron from Belgium and he built that specific castle and they renovated it a couple of years back, because 10 years ago I already had this idea and that's, uh, that's, that's maybe a, that's a part of the of the story. So, yeah, but um, yeah, the future will tell. So, yeah, dana, is there anything that you wanted to to also share with us today before we end our conversation?

Dayne: 46:18

Well, I appreciate again the opportunity just to speak to your listeners and your audience. I mean, I hope that if anyone can really take away anything from the conversation, I think it's just the fact that whatever you do as an entrepreneur or as a leader, you have to do it with purpose, you have to do it with intent, you have to do it in a manner that's true to yourself. I always tell myself you can't be somebody that you're not. You just can't do it. It doesn't work that way. If you're trying to launch a product or launch a't, you can't, you just can't do it. It doesn't work that way. If you're trying, if you're trying to launch a product or launch a service like you have, you have to do it knowing that that you yourself are being true, that you have, that you're being true to yourself, you're being true to what you're trying to create. Because if, if, if that's not the case you're not it's not going to work out. It's not going to work out in the way that you want. And, and so for me it all, it again, it just it boils down to when I'm having these conversations with students and people that come into the museum from all over the world. It's if I can let them leave with just one thing that they learned that they thought was of use or was valuable, or maybe it.

Dayne: 47:42

Maybe it changed the way they think about something in a different way that that makes me feel like I'm I'm doing my job and and I think about when, all those years ago, when I was a little kid, growing up, growing up in the city of Groton, my parents did the same thing and that sounds like yours did in bringing me and my sister to sites across the country and they brought us to forts, they brought us to battlefields, fields, they brought us to museums, because they wanted us to see these sites and be exposed to them at an early age.

Dayne: 48:22

And for me, it really had a major impact on my professional career and again, I followed a much different career than my dad did, as a small business owner, but it always made me remember where I come from and I want anybody anywhere to just remember where you came from and remember that, wherever you're going, your name is going to be out there somehow, particularly like with my dad.

Dayne: 48:55

My dad runs a business where he installs security systems in people's homes, and outside of those homes there's a little sticker that says protected by RU, r-u-g-h, which is our last name, and those stickers are all over the place in southeastern Connecticut and so when I look at that, I go you know, that's a part of our family legacy and my father and my grandmother and my family always instilled in me whatever you do, if you're going to put your name on something, you better be proud of it and you better be ready to defend it and you better be just. You just have to be happy that that your name is there and that it's associated with something that you believe in and that you think is important, and if you are able to do that, you're going to find a lot of success in life that's beautiful, that's uh.

Nico: 49:53

That's a great, a great way to to end our conversation. I think that's gonna. It's gonna stick with a couple of people I hope so thank you very much, dave, for your time.

Dayne: 50:06

Thank you very much, nico. It's a pleasure to be here yeah, I enjoyed this.

Nico: 50:10

I enjoyed it and thank you to the listeners for for another beautiful episode that you could be inspired by. So don't forget to check out the new e-book on the website and follow Dane in his path towards his book creation, and also don't forget to jump from head to heart and feel the beat within. Have a good one, everybody. Bye-bye.