The Raising of a Rebel: Overcoming Addiction, Finding Wisdom, and Inspiring Others with Author and BrandFace Founder, Tonya Eberhart

Words spoken are but paper but written, they are captured for all time. I can't explain why, but that thought was in my mind the day I called my dad and approached him with the idea of writing his story first. It's an incredible story, incredibly sad, funny, tragic, and real. Second, it's a story I want my children and my future grandchildren to know in all its glory and its pain.

When I first approached him with the idea of this book, it was the spring of 2019. I was in Columbus, Ohio at the time, and I called him and said, dad, I have an idea now to those who know me well, that would create a slightly alarming feeling. I have never been known for small ideas. When I told him that I wanted to write his memoir, I couldn't even hear crickets through the phone line for about eight seconds.

Now, to those who know my dad, well, you'd know silence isn't one of his primary traits. When he finally spoke, his voice was tight, and I could envision him slumping his shoulders and lifting his furrowed brow as he spoke these words. What have I done to deserve a. Immediately I knew it was something that had to happen.

Hello, are you beautiful people out there and the ethos of the literary world. We are live with a new author and a new story to help those creative juices flow a lot better. Today we are here with a young lady who's helped hundreds of clients position and present the. Uniquely to, uh, attract their ideal prospects and turn their purpose into profit.

But we're not here to talk about that. No, no, no, no, no, no. We are here to talk about a man by the name of Gene Odom. A man who was raised by alcoholic moonshiners in the mountains of North Georgia, a man whose tumultuous childhood high school basketball stardom and some very questionable choices shaped him into the man he is today.

A man who's today's guest calls dad. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the brand molder and the rebel herself, Tonya Eberhart. Tonya, welcome to the show. 

Thank you, Maccabee. What a great introduction. I love it. I love it. My dad would love that introduction.

Well, you know what? You should make sure that he hears this, so it'll be really, I certainly will.

So, besides the things that I've obviously spoken about, about you and your your dad, could you please introduce yourself to my beautiful book-loving listeners, and tell us something we can't find about you either on the internet, personal, or anything of that nature that you are willing to give up. 

All right. Okay. So, hello, beautiful people. Um, so yes, uh, as you guys were, are going here today, uh, I grew up in the North Georgia Mountains as well. What is not out there in the real world for people to know is I'm also a basketball enthusiast. My dad for my fourth birth, Day my mom and dad gave me a basketball and put up a goal for me in our yard, and basketball was a great passion for me for a long time, so wasn't quite good enough to make it into the college scene.

And, and, uh, you know, my, my son still insists to me that there's no such thing as a W N B A, which we need to have a talk about that one day. So , but I love basketball and, uh, and that's probably something most people do not know about.

Well if they read the book, I think they get a little bit of a hint of that in there at the beginning. But you know, that's always fun cuz it's funny because I live in Indiana and you know how this state is, it's nothing but basketball. Everywhere. And it drives me nuts. Mainly just because they used to call me, uh, "Fieldgoal" because when I did uh, uh, free throws, it would literally go over the backboard

That's great. 

That, yeah, a little bit of my own tumultuous torture of a childhood. But anyways, I digress. So one of the things I really wanted to do is I'm gonna set this, this man up, cuz this man is, Interesting to say the least. There's, there's a lot of other words that could, we could express about your dad because he is honestly an amazing man for what he went through and for the lifestyle that he, um, that he shows at an early age or was given.