Don't Give Up: Lyle Greenfield Shares Life Lessons for a Wounded Nation
Lyle Greenfield joins the podcast to discuss his book, "Uniting the States of America," which aims to address the growing political divisiveness in the nation and provide actionable solutions for healing. Drawing from his diverse experiences in various industries, Greenfield emphasizes the importance of perseverance and the wisdom imparted by his parents: "Don't give up." He reflects on the alarming trends in voter participation and the necessity for citizens to engage actively in democracy. Throughout the conversation, Greenfield shares his vision for a more united society, advocating for understanding and collaboration across political divides. With insights on leadership and community, he encourages listeners to take small steps toward fostering a healthier political discourse.
The podcast welcomes Lyle Greenfield, an author and former president of the Long Island Wine Council, who intimately shares the evolution of his career and the inspirations behind his recent book, "Uniting the States of America: A Self Care Plan for a Wounded Nation." With a background that encompasses everything from landscaping to copywriting, Greenfield provides a compelling narrative that illustrates his journey through various industries, culminating in his passion for writing. The conversation dives into his motivations for addressing the current political climate, emphasizing the importance of dialogue and understanding in a time of division. Greenfield's book is not just a collection of insights; it represents a call to action for individuals to engage with their communities and take responsibility for the political discourse affecting their lives.
As Greenfield reflects on his upbringing and the values imparted by his parents, he stresses the significance of resilience and hard work. His anecdotes from college highlight how transformative mentorship can shape one's career path, exemplified by a professor whose passion for advertising sparked Greenfield's interest in the field. The discussion also touches on the critical issue of low voter turnout, particularly among younger generations, and how this trend contributes to the election of extreme candidates who do not reflect the will of the broader population. Greenfield articulates a vision for a more engaged citizenry that actively participates in democracy, underlining that the health of the nation relies on the collective efforts of its citizens.
Delving deeper into his book, Greenfield candidly discusses the challenges he faced while writing and the realization that he was venturing into unfamiliar territory. However, he framed his work as a personal exploration rather than a political treatise, aiming to provide practical steps for individuals to foster unity and understanding across ideological divides. The dialogue culminates in Greenfield's reflections on legacy, where he expresses a desire to inspire future generations to embrace resilience and take an active role in shaping a better society. His thoughtful insights serve as a reminder of the power of individual agency in the face of societal challenges, making this episode a crucial listen for anyone interested in the intersection of personal growth and civic responsibility.
Takeaways:
- Lyle Greenfield emphasizes the importance of perseverance and not giving up in life, something instilled in him by his parents.
- He reflects on the political divisiveness in America and feels compelled to address these issues through his writing.
- Greenfield's book, Uniting the States of America, aims to foster understanding across political divides and promote constructive dialogue.
- He advocates for a self-care plan for the nation that encourages civic participation and responsibility among citizens.
- One of his proposals includes an Interstate Student Exchange Program to foster cultural understanding among young people.
- Greenfield stresses the need for more engagement in democracy, particularly highlighting the low voter turnout in primary elections.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Bang Music
Transcript
My guest today is Lyle Greenfield.
Host:He's a man of many experiences.
Host:He's worked in landscaping, construction, door to door sales and a brewery before starting his career as a copywriter in New York City.
Host:Greenfield has served as a president of Long Island Wine Council, starting a music production company in New York, is a founding member of the former president of the association of music producers and A.P.
Host:greenfield is an author of several books including United States of America, A Self Care Plan for a Wounded Nation, which was written with the goal of finding solutions for current state of political divisiveness in our country.
Host:We welcome him to the podcast you have ever received.
Lyle Greenfield:Don't Give Up, I would say is the best piece of advice and it's come, you know, it comes from several people over the course of a lifetime, starting with my mom.
Lyle Greenfield:But it was, I think part of a work ethic coming out of I'm going to be 78 in the year ahead of us.
Lyle Greenfield:So, so, you know, I'm a baby boomer and she and my dad would have been, you know, post Depression, post World War II young adults, greatest generation.
Lyle Greenfield:Well, they say, right.
Lyle Greenfield:And when I reflect on our own accomplishments here in the current generation, I'm, I'm a little uncertain that we, that we even make it to the list.
Lyle Greenfield:But you know, there was a work ethic back in the day when folks were struggling to find their place in the world and find a way to support families or even start families.
Lyle Greenfield:And I think that those words from her and my dad, the don't give up part, it had to do with, you know, you gotta try as hard as you can to get what you want and then the rest, the rest would hopefully follow.
Host:I love that.
Host:Yeah, you don't look the age you told me you were, but I so I would have thought you were in your early 50s, but that's beside the point.
Lyle Greenfield:I kind of look back a little nostalgically in my early 50s.
Host:But I'm curious for someone of your age and stature, who are some people in your life who served as an inspiration for you or even a mentor along your journey?
Lyle Greenfield:I think, you know, people talk about teachers who influenced them and I didn't do very well in college, to be honest, I didn't pay much attention.
Lyle Greenfield:But there was one instructor, Dr.
Lyle Greenfield:Maurice Mandel, who taught advertising and marketing and of all the professors I, I had and he was by far the most enthusiastic.
Lyle Greenfield:He just seemed to be, be consumed with joy by the field that he had chosen and he'd written a couple of textbooks and If I had any skills whatsoever, other than maybe my ability to sell things, I was a pretty good writer.
Lyle Greenfield:But I didn't know what to do with that particular skill.
Lyle Greenfield:And when I thought about the possibility of advertising, which didn't require.
Lyle Greenfield:I had no thoughts about a novel or some longer work.
Lyle Greenfield:But I thought, geez, I could write a headline and a paragraph.
Host:Right.
Lyle Greenfield:There we are.
Lyle Greenfield:So that, in a sense, he inspired the beginnings of what became my initial career path for a period of at least 15 years.
Host:Wow, that's.
Lyle Greenfield:So there's.
Lyle Greenfield:There's one inspiration.
Host:So we talk about your writing.
Host:I'm curious, what inspired you to write Uniting the States of America?
Lyle Greenfield: the company that I started in: Lyle Greenfield:That's a time when I returned to writing.
Lyle Greenfield:This writing took the form, beginning eight, nine years ago, of short stories and letters, a compilation of things I'd written over the years, followed by a picture book memoir of time I'd spent on a particularly beautiful island in the Caribbean.
Lyle Greenfield:But over the past several years, as the discourse in our great nation politically and culturally became so, I would say, negative, in some cases violent, with, I think, far too much hatred between conservatives and liberals and left and right and blue and green states, it just began to alarm me, and I thought, I can't just be entirely on the sidelines and give a few hundred dollars to the candidate of my choice when the elections come up.
Lyle Greenfield:In our family, we've had a number of grandbabies born over the past seven to eight years.
Lyle Greenfield:And the most recent is this beautiful little girl, Eva Marie, who is the granddaughter of my wife's youngest daughter.
Lyle Greenfield:She's the daughter of my wife's youngest daughter.
Lyle Greenfield:And I thought to myself at that time, and this is a couple of years ago, what is, what's our country and what is this planet that we live on going to be like when she's my age, right?
Lyle Greenfield:And at that time, I like to do that weird math.
Lyle Greenfield: ear, the year would have been: Lyle Greenfield: th birthday in: Lyle Greenfield:It.
Lyle Greenfield:But by the grace of God, I'll get a few more years.
Lyle Greenfield:Thank you.
Lyle Greenfield:And I, I felt a responsibility to.
Lyle Greenfield:To think about these questions that are addressed in the book Uniting the States of America.
Lyle Greenfield:And for our convenience.
Host:Beautiful cover.
Lyle Greenfield:Can you see that?
Lyle Greenfield:Thank you very much.
Host:I love that cover.
Host:Yeah.
Lyle Greenfield:Yes.
Lyle Greenfield:A very good friend and colleague of mine designed the COVID and that was my motivation.
Lyle Greenfield:And about a third of the way into the project, which took me over a year, I thought, I'm so unqualified for this.
Lyle Greenfield:You know, I've never been a political scientist.
Lyle Greenfield:I.
Lyle Greenfield:I haven't.
Lyle Greenfield:I'm not a student of sociology or civics.
Lyle Greenfield:I'm just someone, you know, an average person who is alarmed by these circumstances.
Lyle Greenfield:And one of the people who at times has.
Lyle Greenfield:Has thought, well, things are never going to change.
Host:Right.
Lyle Greenfield:Which I've heard from a lot of folks.
Lyle Greenfield:And I thought, I'm going to refrain from using my special words.
Lyle Greenfield:The shit can't hit the fan forever.
Lyle Greenfield:We have to take responsibility for changing things if we want them to.
Lyle Greenfield:And it was my goal to write this book not as an academic, not as a political pundit, you know, not as someone who spent a lifetime in this.
Lyle Greenfield:In this beltway business, but just as a person who, who wanted to understand what was going on and summon a simple analysis and, and thoughts about how we could make a difference, how we could change the tone of voice in the country.
Host:Was there a particular moment that sparked the idea for the book or was it just the times?
Lyle Greenfield:I think, you know, if we refer to, you know, events of literally the past several years, including the January 6th event that, that now seems, you know, in a distant rear view mirror mysteriously to me.
Lyle Greenfield:But the period from that moment on, I think was.
Lyle Greenfield:Became the stimulus.
Lyle Greenfield:Like it seemed things had gone a bit off the rails and continued that way on the both sides of the political spectrum, particularly extremes, you know, the extreme right, the extreme left.
Lyle Greenfield:And although I consider myself a reasonably liberal individual, you know, I'm probably left of center as opposed to far left.
Host:Right.
Lyle Greenfield:You know, I grew up in a kind of a middle class household.
Lyle Greenfield:My parents were Republican.
Lyle Greenfield:My dad died at the.
Lyle Greenfield:In his mid-60s.
Lyle Greenfield:And at the height of the Vietnam War, my mother decided to change to Democratic.
Lyle Greenfield:She thought the war was wrong and she didn't like the idea of her sons going off to fight in a war like that.
Host:Right.
Lyle Greenfield:But back to the moment at hand.
Lyle Greenfield:That's when I began to, over these past few years, think about writing this book and trying to write it not for my liberal friends and not strictly addressing the wrongs from a political perspective of another party.
Lyle Greenfield:I wanted this to be a book that, even though it's not what I would call beach reading, to be something that that would be digestible and understandable and that people of all stripes could.
Lyle Greenfield:Could read and maybe take something from something positive, I hope.
Host:Good.
Host:I wrote a Bible study years ago based on the George Michael Brown situation.
Host:And it was my.
Host:It was.
Host:I had kind of the same goal.
Host:How do I begin to talk about race in a way in America where it can actually begin to heal the nation?
Host:And so you have a term self care plan for the nation.
Host:Can you talk about that concept of self care?
Host:Because it was kind of.
Host:I think we're kind of on the same line.
Host:It's not enough just to identify we have a problem.
Host:You know, Houston, we have a problem, but we have to be able to begin to.
Host:How do we begin to solve the problem that we're identifying as a problem?
Lyle Greenfield:Well, I kind of divided the book into three sections and the self care portion, the 10 ways we can unite the states of America.
Lyle Greenfield:That would be the culmination of the first two sections, the first being a brief history of the world, but more particularly the United States, followed by a section of, you know, what I call homeland.
Lyle Greenfield:You know, the word land in parentheses.
Lyle Greenfield:Homeland improvements, like steps that have been taken and steps we could think about taking.
Lyle Greenfield:And one of those chapters includes a thing called small steps having to do with an initiative that the Republican governor of Utah, Governor Cox, as the then president of the American Governors association or whatever the acronym is for that his initiative was disagree Better.
Lyle Greenfield:We need to, as a nation and as elected politicians, we need to stop the name calling, stop the finger pointing, stop, sit down and do what we are hired to do, which is listen to each other and find the important ways to compromise.
Lyle Greenfield:So there were a number of other points in that section, Followed by Finally, 10 ways we can unite the states of America.
Lyle Greenfield:And I chose 10 ways not because there are just 10 ways, but I thought, well, so many books, 10 ways to save your marriage, 10 ways to get rich, you know, 10 ways to lose 30 pounds in 10 days, blah, blah, blah.
Lyle Greenfield:I thought, well, I guess Everybody likes the 10 because now we have the 10 best songs of the year, the 10 best movies, according to our critics.
Lyle Greenfield:And I divided the 10 ways into two sections.
Lyle Greenfield:One, the ways that the things that I think we should expect from our leadership and maybe tweaks in our method of governance.
Lyle Greenfield:So they get five ways that include the first, which I mentioned already, dial down the rhetoric and the finger pointing and work together to get the things done that you were hired to do.
Lyle Greenfield:And there will be compromises involved for the president of the United States, you were elected by a majority, but many tens of thousands, tens of millions of people did not vote for you and didn't think you were right for the job at all.
Lyle Greenfield:Nonetheless, you're the president of everybody, right?
Lyle Greenfield:So you need to visit, and it's a little ambitious, but, you know, you've got the Internet on board.
Lyle Greenfield:Air Force One, visit every state in the Union and stand in front of the people, even those, not just the ones who worship you and are going to buy your.
Lyle Greenfield:Your swag, but the ones who doubted that you should be the one for the job, right?
Lyle Greenfield:Stand in front of them, take your lumps, say what you're going to try to do and explain that you're going to work with both sides of the aisle, so to speak, to get things done.
Lyle Greenfield:I had a suggestion called Speakers of the House.
Lyle Greenfield:And you can be involved in this, Reverend.
Host:Okay.
Lyle Greenfield:Every month, my least, my least favorite speech politically of the year is the State of the Union address, in which we watch half of the attendees standing and giving ovations and clapping and going right on to the president of their party, right?
Lyle Greenfield:And the other half sitting there quietly with their arms folded, basically not participating.
Lyle Greenfield:It's so awkward that I'd rather read what happened later.
Lyle Greenfield:So my Speakers of the House, on a monthly basis, a bipartisan committee will name a speaker to address both houses of Congress in the Capitol for one hour, and that'll be a motivational speaker.
Lyle Greenfield:It could begin with Dr.
Lyle Greenfield:Brene Brown.
Lyle Greenfield:It could then swing over to Coach Krasinski.
Lyle Greenfield:Coach K.
Lyle Greenfield:Then it could go to what's his name, Damon.
Lyle Greenfield:Who's the, the guy on Shark Tank?
Host:Oh, I don't.
Host:I know you're talking about.
Host:I don't know his name, though.
Lyle Greenfield:Right?
Lyle Greenfield:I'm forgetting his name.
Host:I know.
Host:Clear.
Host:I know, Leary, but I don't know the other one.
Lyle Greenfield:Yeah.
Lyle Greenfield:So I'm going to nominate you for this.
Lyle Greenfield:Attendance at this address will be mandatory unless a written excuse from your physician or your mother.
Lyle Greenfield:The idea is to point out, to remind.
Lyle Greenfield:These are speakers, by the way, who earn a living going around the country and addressing large corporations and student bodies and so forth, on what leadership is, what listening is, what accomplishment is in terms of empathy and getting things done, working with others, listening with an open mind.
Lyle Greenfield:Those were some of the things I'm suggesting, a revision in our Electoral College, for example, with the exception of two states in our union, Maine, and I am pretty sure Nebraska, the winner of the popular vote in that state is the winner.
Lyle Greenfield:Take all of the electoral votes in that State which could make, I think many voters in a largely red or largely blue state feel disenfranchised if they're not red or blue.
Lyle Greenfield:Like, what is the point of my vote?
Lyle Greenfield:Because so and so is going to get all of the electoral votes from California or whatever I say apportion the electoral college votes according to the popular vote.
Lyle Greenfield:Then I'll skip ahead to some of the things that we have to do as citizens.
Lyle Greenfield:We have to show up and vote.
Lyle Greenfield:We must participate.
Lyle Greenfield:We cannot call this a democracy if we don't take an active role and, and do our share.
Host:Right.
Lyle Greenfield:A statistic I read that was very alarming to me was that in primary elections over the past 25 years, less than 30% of registered voters have shown up to vote.
Host:Wow.
Lyle Greenfield:And that's just not the way things should be running.
Lyle Greenfield:I mean, the alternative is a dictatorship of some sort, Right.
Lyle Greenfield:If you're going to leave it entirely in the hands of others to decide who should be governing you and what the laws should be, then it's a terrible mistake.
Lyle Greenfield:We need to reemphasize civics instruction, every grade level, so that we are educating and releasing into the wilderness, into our 50 states, releasing people who understand how, how our government works and what their responsibilities as good citizens might be.
Host:Right.
Lyle Greenfield:Rather than, you know, as if we were raised by wolves.
Lyle Greenfield:And, you know, there's a level of what feels like anarchy when we think back on a demonstration, if you will, like January 6th.
Lyle Greenfield:We also need to disagree better.
Lyle Greenfield:And we need to expand our news sources.
Lyle Greenfield:When I was growing up, there were three television networks, right?
Lyle Greenfield:And you know, your evening news, which lasted for 30 minutes, I think at the dinner hour or just before, was brought to you in black and white by a middle aged white man in a suit.
Lyle Greenfield:And you get to pick, you know, Brinkley, Walter Cronkite, blah, blah, blah.
Lyle Greenfield:Showing my age now, but what's happened in this brilliant Internet age in which we live and prosper, There were so many choices that we have so many sources that we have tended to go where our comfort level is the greatest.
Lyle Greenfield:So in many cases we're not listening to what other people are hearing the opinions of others.
Lyle Greenfield:We don't know why they feel the way they do.
Lyle Greenfield:We just judge them because of what they're doing or what they feel without understanding the context in which they got those feelings.
Lyle Greenfield:I don't know how you dictate this.
Lyle Greenfield:I think it's just a matter of making a decision, a personal decision, and maybe it's a family decision to look to other sources to get the news.
Lyle Greenfield:And then I'll just mention one other thing, a proposal that, that I'm going to say I came up with.
Lyle Greenfield:It's called the Interstate Student Exchange Program.
Host:Oh.
Lyle Greenfield:We all know what a foreign exchange program looks like, but I'm very interested in the idea that a high school junior or senior spend a semester after growing up in the Bronx or Brooklyn, heading down to Tennessee to a rural town and a rural high school, where the culture and the beliefs, you know, religious or otherwise, are vastly different and the same.
Lyle Greenfield:By the same token, you know, a southern kid or a southwestern kid come up from that small town, and this would require, obviously interest on the child's part, on the kid's part, and the willingness and an understanding on the parents part that this could be the.
Lyle Greenfield:This could be a valuable experience for Mario or little Samantha.
Lyle Greenfield:This would be awesome for you because now you're going to Brooklyn.
Lyle Greenfield:I hope you'll be safe, honey.
Lyle Greenfield:And everyone will be having zoom calls with host families.
Lyle Greenfield:But I just thought, well, what an interesting way that might be for us to get a greater grip on the idea of the United States.
Lyle Greenfield:States of America.
Lyle Greenfield:I'm pretty tired of seeing or hearing only red state, blue state.
Lyle Greenfield:I mean, we shouldn't have a continental divide that is created entirely by, you know, our cultural or political beliefs.
Host:Anyway, that's radical.
Host:Ask asking red state kids to go to blue states and vice versa.
Host:Could be interesting.
Lyle Greenfield:Worst case scenario, they get to taste some different foods, Right?
Host:That's right.
Host:I can't, can't imagine some New York kid in Iowa.
Host:But, you know.
Host:No, I think you have something.
Host:You know, it's interesting is you.
Host:You were talking about the State of the Union.
Host:I did some research on that and apparently the State of Union was never broadcast.
Host:It was a letter that was written by the President and just shared.
Host:It was never a big speech.
Host:So it's kind of interesting that we've, we've, we've made it into this media thing.
Lyle Greenfield:Yeah, for sure.
Lyle Greenfield:I didn't realize that myself.
Lyle Greenfield:Thank you for pointing it out.
Host:Yeah, no, it was, it was.
Host:I think Andrew, I mean, Andrew Jackson just.
Host:I mean, Thomas Jefferson, I think he just, he just wrote it.
Host:It was kind of a state of.
Host:The status of the.
Host:Of the Union speech of letters.
Host:Just kind of.
Host:Here's what, here's what things are going and what you should know.
Host:I'm curious, what research, as you did research for this book, what was probably the most surprising thing you discovered as you were writing this book?
Lyle Greenfield:Well, there were so many.
Lyle Greenfield:I think the most alarming to me was something I brought to your attention earlier, and that is that over these past couple of decades, so few people have turned out for the primary elections and the analysis on that.
Lyle Greenfield:And I guess I was fortunate.
Lyle Greenfield:Anyone doing research in this era, it's very easy to cross check because there were 10 answers and you can make sure that there's a consistency with those answers.
Lyle Greenfield:But what startled me too was that the ones who do show up, the majority of those who show up for the primaries are the ones who are most politicized, so to speak, meaning the furthest on the left, the furthest on the right.
Lyle Greenfield:So the candidates knowing what's going to happen in the primaries are.
Lyle Greenfield:Their rhetoric is directed towards what they know will be their constituency.
Lyle Greenfield:So they have knowing that there won't be a 90% turnout, which there should be in the primaries, that that knowledge frees them from addressing the other people in the room, so to speak.
Lyle Greenfield:So we've tended to elect the most, in some cases, not every case, the most radical of those candidates because they won the primary.
Host:Right.
Lyle Greenfield:And you know, it's, it's, it's not, it's a truism that might be statistically true, it doesn't apply to every case, but it just reminds us of the importance of showing up another thing, and I think we know this by intuition, another thing that surprised me was the amount of time that young people spend on social media.
Host:Yes.
Lyle Greenfield:And from the ages of, and I'm going to misquote myself here, from the ages of, let's say 14 to 18, the average kid is spending between four and six hours daily on social media.
Lyle Greenfield:And it's an alarming statistic in the sense that those are times when you're not out in public meeting your, your friends, your colleagues in person.
Host:Right.
Lyle Greenfield:There's been a great deal of publicity given to, you know, the concept, the idea of bullying on social media and how hurtful that can be to, you know, a young person in school.
Lyle Greenfield:And I certainly not the only one speaking about a thing like this.
Lyle Greenfield:But it's one thing to have parental controls.
Lyle Greenfield:It's, it's another thing to understand the importance of, you know, I do know parents who, who just say, you know, you're not bringing your phone to your room.
Host:Right.
Lyle Greenfield:Okay, you're going to go up there and study.
Lyle Greenfield:The phone will be down here when you've done, blah, blah, blah.
Lyle Greenfield:It's, it seems almost a daunting if not impossible task to regulate that.
Lyle Greenfield:But part of Citizenship is being part of your community.
Lyle Greenfield:And being part of your community is like, you know, get out of your headphones.
Lyle Greenfield:Sometimes when I'm, when I'm in New York City taking the subway, and I had spent 50 years of my career in New York City, and I love that melting pot.
Lyle Greenfield:You know, obviously, terrible things happen, but as we know from, you know, headlines yesterday, even terrible things happen all around the nation, right?
Lyle Greenfield:Small towns, big towns.
Lyle Greenfield:But if I ride the subway, as I probably will be later today, at least a third of the passengers are staring down at their phones with their earbuds on.
Lyle Greenfield:And I think, okay, I get how that's a relief from the mayhem in this subway car where there might be a hundred people.
Lyle Greenfield:But there's also, from my perspective, you're missing a chance to just look at those folks and think about what their lives are.
Lyle Greenfield:And that woman who has walked on the train with an infant and two small children, like, what, what is that like for her?
Host:Right?
Lyle Greenfield:But no, you're looking at, you're texting Sharon.
Lyle Greenfield:She's at home wondering if, if you're gonna see Bobby tonight or something.
Host:Anyway, no, I love that.
Host:I love the 10 things you have down there.
Host:I'm curious, what do you hope, how do you hope this book changes the political discourse in our country?
Lyle Greenfield:Well, that's a wonderful question.
Lyle Greenfield:And thanks to this broadcast and this podcast, every elected official in this nation will get a copy of the book.
Host:All right.
Lyle Greenfield:The difficulty, Reverend Haney, with a self published work, is that it.
Lyle Greenfield:It's not something you'll see in, in the airport bookstores, right?
Lyle Greenfield:It's not something you'll see in most libraries around the country.
Lyle Greenfield:The book is available on, you know, the local books at the local bookstore in my town on eastern Long island, and it's available on Amazon.
Lyle Greenfield:So I have the friendly folks at the publicist who brought us together made it clear to me, in spite of my suggestion to them, that I would love to be on the Today show, right, and have an open conversation with Oprah.
Lyle Greenfield:They said, yes, you know what, Lyle?
Lyle Greenfield:That's probably not going to happen because Penguin Books didn't publish this, you did.
Lyle Greenfield:So, you know, my hope, obviously, is that podcasts, broadcasts such as this will bring, you know, a somewhat wider awareness to it that people will understand, especially now that I tell them, look, it's less than 200 pages and there were over 40 chapters, which means every chapter is pretty short, right?
Lyle Greenfield:I have a chapter called Meet my Granddaughter, which I discussed with you earlier, and that's only two Paragraphs.
Host:See, there you go.
Host:So I'm curious, as you are doing this work and you're trying your best to have the country have a different discourse, what do you want your legacy to be?
Lyle Greenfield:I honestly don't think much of my legacy.
Lyle Greenfield:I've tried a number of things.
Lyle Greenfield:I had a reasonably successful career as a copywriter for large advertising agencies.
Lyle Greenfield:I changed that up and started a music production company because I loved being in a recording studio instead of in a client meeting discussing concepts.
Lyle Greenfield:And I mentioned that, you know, my little music company, which is still flourishing in New York City, Bang Music.
Lyle Greenfield:We've just been, by the way, given a citation by the city of New York signed by our esteemed mayor, Eric Adams.
Lyle Greenfield:Well, congratulations congratulating Bang music on its 35 years of contributing to the artistic, cultural content of this great city of ours.
Lyle Greenfield:So, you know, I'm proud of that.
Lyle Greenfield:And, you know, of all the.
Lyle Greenfield:Of all the things, maybe I'm proudest of this book because it was singularly the hardest thing I've ever tried to do.
Lyle Greenfield:Sure, it didn't come easily to me, and I had to talk myself back into it when it would have been easier just to close the file on my MacBook Air and go, you know what?
Lyle Greenfield:I should really be writing something else because I'm not sure what I'm talking about.
Lyle Greenfield:But then I thought, and I might have been inspired by some documentary.
Lyle Greenfield:I know that sounds silly, but someone who came back from falling down and just sort of determined their way back to completing what they had started.
Lyle Greenfield:So, you know, I stuck with it.
Lyle Greenfield:And I had some brilliant readers and editors and people helping to guide me along the way, including Professor Frank Sesno, a professor at Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Lyle Greenfield:who read the book twice, steered me, gave a great.
Lyle Greenfield:Gave a great endorsement for a jacket blurb.
Lyle Greenfield:And anyway, this.
Lyle Greenfield:If there's such a thing as a legacy, you know, you think of a legacy as something that might occur during your.
Lyle Greenfield:The celebration of your life.
Host:Right.
Lyle Greenfield:My hope is, unfortunately, is to live long enough that most people who would celebrate my life are too old to celebrate.
Host:There you go.
Lyle Greenfield:Anyway, no, that's.
Lyle Greenfield:This is.
Lyle Greenfield:Yeah, there have been a lot of things.
Lyle Greenfield:This is maybe the.
Lyle Greenfield:The proudest.
Host:That's only.
Lyle Greenfield:What would you like your legacy to be?
Host:Well, I.
Host:I guess I like my legacy to be, first of all, my kids, that they learn to persevere, to never give up and to always give it their best and show up at their.
Host:Show up to be their best.
Host:And I like to be remembered for someone who, who loved Jesus and was able to share him with the world.
Lyle Greenfield:So that's great.
Host:I'm curious, where can ministers find your book Uniting the States of America and connect with you on social media?
Lyle Greenfield:As I mentioned, the book is available on Amazon and I think typing in my name, Lyle Greenfield, or the name of the book Uniting the States of America, will bring it up.
Lyle Greenfield:And on social media, I'm on Instagram as Greenfield uniting and, and Facebook as well, I think just as Lyle Greenfield.
Lyle Greenfield:I'm on LinkedIn.
Lyle Greenfield:I'm not sure why you would want to link with me because I'm not going to hire you.
Lyle Greenfield:I'm semi retired.
Host:But you might, you might record, you might record us at your Bang Studio, though.
Lyle Greenfield:That's correct.
Lyle Greenfield:That is correct.
Lyle Greenfield:So, yeah, everything but Tick Tock.
Host:Oh, so you gotta, you gotta get on Tick Tock so we can see you dance.
Lyle Greenfield:Oh, that's, that's great, Reverend.
Lyle Greenfield:Maybe someone could animate my dance.
Host:There you go.
Host:We go.
Host:Put your head on.
Lyle Greenfield:If I'm ever dragged against my will into TikTok, I'm just, I marvel at the creativity and craziness and then we're all mesmerized by, you know, someone who exploded through social media.
Lyle Greenfield:Most recent, well, not most recently, but the name Jake Paul comes to mind.
Host:Oh yeah, who beat up Mike Tyson.
Lyle Greenfield:So stupid.
Lyle Greenfield:There's your legacy, Jake.
Host:We could put your head on Fred Astaire and have you dance like that.
Lyle Greenfield:So I'm there for that.
Host:Well, thanks so much for taking the time to write this book.
Host:I think it is so needed in our culture, in our times, getting back to the heart of what unites us as people as opposed to what divides us.
Host:I think as somebody once there's a lot more we have in common than we that divide us.
Host:So we need to get back to looking at those things that we agree on that we can lift each other up for.
Host:And I like the idea of having inspirational speakers encourage our leaders to be leaders and not just be problems and roadblocks for the, for what's best for the people of America.
Lyle Greenfield:You gotta be one of those.
Lyle Greenfield:You're going to be one of those speakers.
Host:I appreciate that.
Host:Well, thanks so much and I really enjoyed this conversation.
Host:Blessings on your worker.
Host:We're going to make sure we push out your, your book to people and encourage them to go on Amazon, leave a review, because that's how the book gets found.
Host:Buy the book, give it to your kids, your grandkids, so they can be the generation.
Host:Helps us to turn this all around.
Lyle Greenfield:I so appreciate you saying that.
Lyle Greenfield:Thanks for having me, Reverend.
Host:Thank you.
Lyle Greenfield:All right.
Lyle Greenfield:Be well.
Host:You too.
Lyle Greenfield:Bye.
