Episode 1513: Interview with Mary Crimmins About Finding a New Application for Your Calling Later in Life

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining us on episode 1513 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:07] Mary Boza Crimmins: I'm Mary Boza Crimmins. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence, and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to keep living as long as you are living is key, and one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend, Scott Mader.

[00:00:37] Seeing it as creative just kind of really kind of opened my mind up, not my heart, but my mind up. to seeing myself in a different way and then especially moving out of that and work and building up more on that creativity. I've got the two sides. I've got the business side where I'm serving others and I'm really again meeting that deadline.

[00:00:57] I love deadlines.

[00:00:59] Scott Maderer: [00:01:00] Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. And the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, who will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:31] In today's podcast episode, I interview Mary Crimmins. I asked Mary to talk about how she lived her calling both as a teacher and transitioned later to life in writing and helping others to write. I also asked Mary to share why she focuses so much on legacy building. And Mary also shares with you how this transition has helped her continue to live out her passion and her faith.

[00:01:54] I have a great book that's been out for a while now called Inspired Living. Assemble the puzzle [00:02:00] of your calling by mastering your time, your talent, and your treasures. You can find out more about that book over at inspiredlivingbook. com. It'll take you to a page where there's information and you can sign up to get some mailings about it as well as purchase a copy there.

[00:02:17] I'd love to see you there. Get a copy and share with me how it impacted your world. Welcome to the show, Mary.

[00:02:24] Mary Boza Crimmins: Oh, thank you, Scott. I am so happy to be here with you.

[00:02:28] Scott Maderer: Absolutely. So I talked a little bit in the intro about some of the things you've done and what you're now focused on, but at the same time, I always think of of intros and bios and those sorts of things is showing just the high points and sort of where we are today, but they don't talk about how we got here.

[00:02:48] Would you mind backing up a little bit and sharing? With the listener, you know, kind of a little bit about your journey and what brought you to the point where you're doing what you do now.

[00:02:58] Mary Boza Crimmins: Yeah. Yeah. So it's [00:03:00] Scott. I was married young. I got married at 18 to a wonderful man. We're still married. Almost 43 years later.

[00:03:05] And at a certain point after our first child, he, you know, he was coming home talking about some things they were talking about at work about Christianity. And I was kind of pushing back on that. You know, I was pushing back on what he was, what he was bringing home and the talks that they were having at work.

[00:03:20] He was working for a company, a business Correct Craft, which is a major boat manufacturer that was, was owned and I guess still is owned by people who are strong Christians. And so in my pushback, he said, you know what, Mary, I said, You know, I don't care. We're good people. And he said, you know what, Mary, it's not about being good people.

[00:03:41] Right there and then, I thought it was just like on, off, on, off, or off, on, rather. I became a Christian. So after I became a Christian I, God spoke to me and I became a teacher. And so for 28 years, I was a professional educator teaching [00:04:00] primarily, primarily middle school, but also high school and social studies, some other courses.

[00:04:05] And then a few years ago, I'd always wanted to. Right. Even though I've written for every single employer I've ever had, I've written curriculum, I've written policies, I've written procedures, I've written plans and grants, I wanted to wanted to do that. I want to do some of my own writing. And so I started Kremen's communications three years ago.

[00:04:26] And with that, I write Edit research for businesses, individuals. And then on the side I do my own writing. So I have my passion project of ourselves, our posterity. Right now it's just a passion project. I'm gonna see where it goes, but it's a newsletter geared towards 55 plus a growth mindset.

[00:04:45] And of course, I also have my book that I wrote back in 2023 called Taking the Holy Spirit to Work, which kind of was a reflection of two different things of my personal experiences in the workplace and my observations of other Christians. [00:05:00] Yeah. Yeah. So here we are now. You know I'm 61 years old.

[00:05:04] I, I, I have my business and I have my writing and just grateful that I can explore the different talents that God has given me in a different way,

[00:05:13] Scott Maderer: you know? So why do you think you know, why writing? Why is that what you feel called to do at this point?

[00:05:20] Mary Boza Crimmins: You know, when I was, all my life when I was younger, I always wanted to be a writer, you know, sixth grade.

[00:05:26] I have, I was apparently the poetry editor in sixth grade on the newspaper. In high school, I was the features editor. So I started out college going, going into journalism. I wanted to be a journalist, but being married young and journalism. It's kind of a hard, you know, because you really have to dedicate a lot of hours and time and passion and everything.

[00:05:48] And so I switched majors and kind of left that, that writing for a living behind and I didn't have the discipline to do my own writing, you know, [00:06:00] somebody has said, Mary, I need this done by this. I meet the deadline, got it done, did it well, but doing my own writing, it was going on in my head, but it wasn't coming on paper.

[00:06:09] And so I've always wanted to write. I've always felt, then I really felt God telling me to write. I don't think he was telling me to write the things I thought I always wanted to write. You know, that great fiction novel that was going to make the New York Times bestseller. He, he wasn't telling me that though.

[00:06:25] So it was more along the lines of writing, you know, a lot of what he laid on my heart.

[00:06:29] Scott Maderer: You know, so, and

[00:06:30] Mary Boza Crimmins: so

[00:06:32] Scott Maderer: while you were working as a teacher and do those other things, did you still kind of feel that need to you know, did you feel like you were doing what you were called to do? Or did you feel like you were just kind of marking time until you could do what you were called to do?

[00:06:44] Or how did that feel at the time?

[00:06:46] Mary Boza Crimmins: You know what, Scott? I mean, God spoke to me. He told me to become a teacher. I had never, ever wanted to be a teacher. I mean, that was, I wanted to make money. I had a job in business. I was a purchasing agent.

[00:06:58] Scott Maderer: Going into teaching is not the way. [00:07:00] I,

[00:07:01] Mary Boza Crimmins: I liked my job. I, I, I had three different bosses because they each didn't want to let go of me because I liked what I did for them.

[00:07:09] I worked for the sales manager. I worked for the operations manager and then the owner of the company had special projects for me. And I love that diversity, which is part teaching is very diverse as well. So I tapped into that. So. I knew that I was doing what God called me to do for those years. But then I think the transition out of it was God calling me, but me not listening.

[00:07:35] And, but so him, him pulling me out of it, moving on to something else, you know, I'm still a teacher. I'm still a teacher. I will always be a teacher. I'm just not in the classroom. Yeah.

[00:07:46] Scott Maderer: How, how does that line up? Cause see, that's one of the things that I think people confuse sometimes when we talk about calling, you know, they think of calling as their career, like, you know, I'm, I'm a teacher, that's [00:08:00] my calling.

[00:08:00] And it's like. Well, yes, as a teacher, that may be your calling, but that doesn't necessarily mean you're in the classroom either. You know, that that's

[00:08:07] Mary Boza Crimmins: right. Right. Using

[00:08:08] Scott Maderer: the, the, what I call the assignment, which is where you're playing it out with what the actual passion or the deeper thing that you're created to do is, you know, what would you say about that?

[00:08:19] Kind of, do you think, you know, you can connect the dots looking back on how the pieces that you were playing out? We're all connected. Or do you feel like it's really different than to now? Yeah.

[00:08:31] Mary Boza Crimmins: The pieces were definitely connected. Definitely. Teaching came quite natural to me. It was a gift that God had given me and and I was really able to at first it was more about me and my gifts.

[00:08:43] And then it became how I can use my gifts to help others reach their goals, you know, I, you know, and then so I feel it's all incredibly connected and then at some point in time, like, I never thought that I thought of myself as [00:09:00] creative, which is kind of weird and one of my teacher friends said, Oh, have you looked at your lesson plans?

[00:09:06] And I thought, okay, and then that kind of opened up a whole other world for me, Thought process for me of, okay, now I see I, I knew, I knew as a good teacher, I knew I brought a lot of innovation to the classroom, I knew that I, you know, my husband was like, can you just use the same lesson plans from last year?

[00:09:21] I was like, no, it's a different group and, you know, and that would be boring and seeing it as creative just kind of really kind of opened, I guess, opened my mind up, not my heart, but my mind up to seeing myself in a different way. Okay. And then eventually moving out of that and work and building up more on that creativity.

[00:09:43] So I've, I've got the 2 sides. I've got the business side where I'm serving others. And I'm really again meeting that deadline. I love deadlines. I, you know, I love meeting those and then. the creative side of working on my, of my own projects, you know.

[00:09:58] Scott Maderer: So, you know, you mentioned the [00:10:00] moment where you had become a Christian earlier and, and how, you know, you kind of felt called by what God has called you to do.

[00:10:06] How would you say that your, your faith walk and your faith journey has kind of affected and intersected with the, the life journey that you've been on?

[00:10:17] Mary Boza Crimmins: So definitely, I think one of the things is the fact that both my husband and I, that we became Christians at the same time that, that's definitely affected the journey because you know, it, it really turned into how we raised our kids, you know, so.

[00:10:34] And then the fact that God called me into teaching, then I ended up, this wasn't my intention of teaching 26 of my 28 years in private Christian school. That wasn't my intention, but once your kids start getting to the age where they can go to school and they're getting that discount you know, then you kind of felt compelled to stay in the, in the Christian, Christian environment and everything.

[00:10:54] But what was the question again? I think I'm kind of

[00:10:56] Scott Maderer: Has your faith journey affected and intersected with your [00:11:00] life journey?

[00:11:00] Mary Boza Crimmins: Yeah, so definitely. And then the fact that, you know, being in the classroom, because you can be a Christian in a classroom, which, you know, you have that in public school, you have that, you know, anywhere, but teaching from a Christian perspective, from a Christian worldview, and, Understanding that and having it internalized, I think the teaching kind of helped me grow spiritually.

[00:11:25] And then the the, to be honest, the conflicts I had while teaching helped me grow spiritually as well, because at times God was breaking me. In order to rebuild me differently, you know, which is hence, you know, a lot of where the book came from too, but I, I, I can't detach any of that, you know, it's all part of it's not compartmentalized, you know, like some Christians, I think, leave compartmentalized lives and that this is something that I, I I really feel like I just naturally integrate all of that into my [00:12:00] one life, you know,

[00:12:03] Scott Maderer: so it with the book you know, taking the Holy Spirit to work, where do you think the inspiration for that came from?

[00:12:08] Or what, what was, you know, kind of your intent when you sat down to, to start putting into paper?

[00:12:15] Mary Boza Crimmins: You know, as somebody who wanted to write, I had started writing like four other books, I think, you know, and then I had a point in my life which I want to get back into where I was really, really journaling quite often, you know, Journaling was part of my devotional time, and so there was a morning where I was journaling, and I was writing, writing things, you know, I read the Bible, then I would write, and I really felt led by the Holy Spirit by much of what I was writing, you know, so I was writing and writing, and then one morning I was actually writing about the Holy Spirit, so later that morning I was meeting a client to coach, for coaching, and I said, by the way, knowing that she was a Christian, I said, by the way, could you just [00:13:00] read this?

[00:13:00] And from that journal entry and her encouragement, I thought, Oh my gosh, I think there's a book here, you know, I think, I think I'm going to, I'm going to keep running with this and then eventually I said, okay, I committed to, here's the book you know, really hope it was Holy Spirit inspired. I know that the journal entry was Holy Spirit inspired.

[00:13:22] And I know as I wrote it, I continually prayed to God be the glory. Because, you know, I have an ego and really working hard to make sure that I keep my ego out of it. And to God be the glory. Just working that as I'm writing the book because, you know, it's, it's, it's. It could be a heavy topic, but I was also trying to read it, write it on a, on a level that was both respectful to God.

[00:13:47] I didn't want to be theologically inaccurate. So I had 2 pastors review it before I, you know, review it actually 3 but also getting it to where somebody who maybe not read the Bible all the time will [00:14:00] understand what I'm trying to say.

[00:14:03] Scott Maderer: So what are things what do you see as kind of. When you put these messages out you know, and I know your, your newsletter is kind of dedicated to those 55 and older.

[00:14:15] Do you feel like the book is kind of geared to, to that as well? Or, or, you know, how do those two pieces fit together, if that makes sense? Yeah.

[00:14:22] Mary Boza Crimmins: No, the book is, is, is geared towards the Christian in the workplace. The Christian who you know, is a Christian, but when they get outta their car on Monday morning, holy Spirit, kind of Holy Spirit, God stays in the car.

[00:14:36] And they go into work or they feel frustrated or flustered or insecure about expressing the Christianity in the workplace. The 55 plus growth mindset is, is, is, is a different sort of a different tract of, trying to encourage people as they're aging to continue to continue growing because if you do that, you're going to leave a better legacy.

[00:14:57] You know, so I see them [00:15:00] aligned in that. They're both, you know, part of that creative side of me, but definitely 2 different, you know, 2 different audiences, you know,

[00:15:08] Scott Maderer: yeah, and then what you do you know, as a coach and ghost writer and that piece, how does, you know, that's kind of a 3rd piece. So how does that fit in with the other 2?

[00:15:20] Mary Boza Crimmins: You know, it fits in in that, you know, as far as who I am as a business person, is it, you know, it's all about integrity because if somebody is going to entrust me with their project and I get entrusted with, you know, with people have these ideas, these goals, but they don't have the time or they don't have the skill set and so when they turn them over to me, it's like giving me their baby, you know, and the integrity part of it, you know, how I've got to honor, you know, Their vision, I have to honor the, the I had to honor the deadlines.

[00:15:47] I had to be good steward, but, you know, watching my time and making sure, you know, I mean, I'm not look my phones in a different room. I'm completely focused on their project at that time. And I think all that comes out [00:16:00] of, you know, the fact that. To God, be the glory. I want to honor God with my work. Just as I did in the classroom, I want to honor him with my work in the classroom.

[00:16:08] I want to honor him with my, with my business as well. So it, it, it that's how it factors in.

[00:16:15] Scott Maderer: Yeah. So how was, how was the transition when you? You know, made that move from, from teaching and being in the classroom to kind of running your own business and doing your, your creative projects and writing on the side.

[00:16:30] What were the, what were the barriers? What were the stumbling blocks? How did it go? Was it easy? Was it hard? How did it go?

[00:16:37] Mary Boza Crimmins: You know part, part of the problem was, you know, like, as soon as I. Soon as I left teaching, I, I, part of what moved me to leave teaching was COVID. I, I just, I just, it was so hard to be in the classroom and it was just such a struggle.

[00:16:53] So, when I left teaching, you know, you figure school ends here in Florida, like, right [00:17:00] before Labor Day or immediately after, I mean Memorial Day, and I was like jumping straight into the business and my husband's like, don't you want to take some time off? And so kind of, you know, typical me 0 to 60.

[00:17:12] So I moved a little bit too quickly at the beginning. And you know, and wanting so desperately to build a business. I was, I was not using the wisdom and discernment to say no to things like. No, I'm not going to work on a resume. No, I'm not going to do this. No, I'm not going to do that. So that was part of the problem.

[00:17:29] So I was my own barrier. But I'm also thankful, you know, what, what, what was not a barrier though, was the fact that with both my husband, we've been in the same community all of our lives. He's been basically in the same industry for, you know, for most of his professional career, I taught lots of kids.

[00:17:49] I had great rapport with their parents, you know that really helped me build my business. My business has been built up with people who know and trust me, and they, you know, and they know [00:18:00] me to be somebody who goes above and beyond. And so that's really been, been very helpful, through word of mouth, of it getting out.

[00:18:08] Either through my husband or through my, or through the kids I taught and their parents, you know, getting there. Yeah, but the other hard barrier, I guess, is, you know, that whole imposter syndrome, you know, it's, it's, it's hard to get over. It's like, you know, especially when I'm not sure how isolated you are there, Scott, but like, for me You know, I, I go to rotary, you know, on Thursdays.

[00:18:31] I I, you know, I try to meet up with people with with coffee and everything, but for the most part, I'm sitting here with the 2 dogs and, you know, at my computer working and so the isolation, I love it. But at the same time I, I know it's necessary to get out and connect with other people and everything too.

[00:18:49] Scott Maderer: Yeah, my, my business is actually run a hundred percent virtual. So I, I I could spend 2 or 3 weeks and not leave the house, which [00:19:00] actually is okay for me. So but cause I built it, I built the business that way, but but yeah, it is different for different people. So when you look at folks you know, you mentioned earlier talking about the newsletter that it's this kind of idea of, of how people should continue to do lifelong learning and how that affects our legacy you know, especially as, as we reach our quote, golden years.

[00:19:24] So how, how do you think that plays out? I mean, tell me more about what you mean by that.

[00:19:28] Mary Boza Crimmins: Yeah. So, you know part of it is, you know, as, as You get older and then you look at yourself, you go, oh, my gosh, yeah, I, you know, I'm 61 and I don't feel 61. How did that get there? And then you look at, you know, other people and you're wondering, you know, you hear people say, well, I can't, I, you know, I can't learn how to do that.

[00:19:48] I can't change my ways or, This is why I feel this way physically when, you know, oftentimes the way, what reason we feel the way physically is because we've let ourselves, you know, through not eating right and that's not sleeping [00:20:00] exercise. And so just that whole desire, I think number one to have a community and that desire to have a, Outlet and a give and take with other people who are like minded seeing that because, you know, I don't have those kids in the classroom because believe it or not, middle school kids are pretty great and you get some great conversation.

[00:20:24] So that desire to have that community and having that like mindedness and be able to share. Some of my, some of my, you know, I love to read, I love to research, being able to share things that I find. I like to synthesize, I put ideas together in ways that people are like, oh, I would never have thought to put those two ideas together for this article.

[00:20:41] To have that outlet there, but have it for a group of people who are at the same stage of life, who are looking for connection and who are looking to not be stagnant and understanding that, yes, you know, while we are older whether we're retired or not retired, we have a lot to contribute. And just [00:21:00] looking to do that.

[00:21:00] And right now, like I said, I was, it's going to be a passion project for right now, because God just kind of laid on my, my heart. You need to, you need to back off of some stuff because I'm, I've got some other things going on that are exciting with my business that you 24 hours in the day and plus, and I, I do like to sleep.

[00:21:19] So, yeah,

[00:21:20] Scott Maderer: yeah, so I have a few questions that I like to ask all of my guests, but before I ask you those, is there anything else about the work you do that you'd like to share with the listener?

[00:21:31] Mary Boza Crimmins: You know, one thing that I'm really excited about I'm completely psyched about this, love it, love it, love it, is as a teacher I love creating courses and creating curriculums.

[00:21:41] So I'm currently creating a course in a curriculum to help people write out their Autobiography or their memoirs. It's, it's, it's not therapy, therapy, but it's therapeutic, you know, and I'm so excited about the opportunity, you know, once I get this course ready to, you know, run the beta and then start having it [00:22:00] put out there, because a lot of people, you know, everybody has something to tell, tell, and I just looked at research that says that children do, children are more secure when they, when they When they know more about their background, when they know their history, and when they know about their parents, and so there's just so many benefits from it.

[00:22:16] So, at first, the course was going to be geared towards 55 plus, and I was like, oh, no, now, the course is geared to anybody who just wants to tell part of their story, but You know, they're not going to go pay, you know, 15, 20, 000 to a ghostwriter, but getting this story out. So they have it there either just for themselves or to share with family, you know, so I'm excited about that.

[00:22:40] I can't wait, you know, to get that launched.

[00:22:42] Scott Maderer: You have any idea when that's going to be available yet or when you're aiming

[00:22:47] Mary Boza Crimmins: for it? I decided to take a course if I would start, I started developing the course, but then I found a course of that people have been doing it for 40 years. I decided, well, I don't know everything.

[00:22:59] I need to [00:23:00] learn some more. So, once that course is done in March, I'm really hoping to in, in spring, early summer to launch my first to launch the beta. Cool. Yeah.

[00:23:11] Scott Maderer: So my brand is Inspired Stewardship, and I, I kind of run things through that lens of stewardship, and yet that's a word that I've discovered over the years means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, so when you hear the word stewardship, what does that word mean to you?

[00:23:26] Mary Boza Crimmins: Stewardship. I think it means, for me, intentionality. I think it means being deliberate, being mindful, being focused. When I say focused, I mean focused. Not just on the specific task at hand, but being focused on where you don't allow a lot of tasks to come in, you know, don't allow too much more than you should handle to come in, you know, and taking, taking that and nurturing it, what, what, what has been entrusted to me, you know but having to do that through with [00:24:00] discernment You know, is critical.

[00:24:01] I think that discernment is really critical with that intentionality, you know,

[00:24:07] Scott Maderer: so this is my favorite question that I last like to ask everybody imagine for a moment that I invented this magic machine and with this machine, I was able to take you from where you are today and transport you into the future.

[00:24:19] Maybe 150, maybe 250 years, but through the power of this machine, you were able to look back and see your entire life. See all of the connections, all of the ripples, all of the impacts you've left behind. What impact do you hope you've left in the world?

[00:24:37] Mary Boza Crimmins: Oh, goodness. I, that my children's children, would it be my children's children's children 150 years from now? I don't know. That my children's children have also embraced the faith of my husband, of mine and my husband's, and of my, and my son's and their wives. That they will have embraced that. I want to look [00:25:00] back and see that.

[00:25:01] You know, that that's carried through, you know, so that each of them note has a heart for Jesus and has a heart to learn more about God to walk with God.

[00:25:13] Scott Maderer: So what's on the roadmap? What's coming next as you continue on your journey?

[00:25:17] Mary Boza Crimmins: Oh, goodness on the roadmap, you know, on the personal roadmap, I've got a grandchild due end of. February, early March on the business roadmap. As I said, I'm developing the course and I'm currently working with one client to get her book launched and another client and getting his book developmentally edited and doing a little bit of ghost writing on his.

[00:25:37] And yeah, so but the biggest thing on the roadmap that I'm really trying to. Focus on with intentionality is, is getting that course out there because I think it's going to be a great blend of, of, of my business skills of my, if people, it's not a writing course, they will be writing. So it's not a matter of grammar, but if they want [00:26:00] help with that, I can do that.

[00:26:01] And then my teaching skills. Yeah. So looking forward to it. Yeah.

[00:26:05] Scott Maderer: You can find out more about Mary Crimmins over at her website at crimminscommunication. com. Of course, I'll have a link to that over in the show notes as well. Mary, is there anything else you'd like to share with the listeners?

[00:26:18] Mary Boza Crimmins: Oh, yes, Scott.

[00:26:19] Thank you so much. I'd love for them to take a look at my book. It's available on Amazon. The name is Taking the Holy Spirit to Work. By Mary Boza Crimmins on Amazon, and also if they want to contact me, I love hearing from people. My my contact information is Mary at Crimmins, C R I M M I N S.

[00:26:40] communications. com. Mary at Kremens communications. com.

[00:26:45] Scott Maderer: Perfect. And I'll make sure I put a link to both the book and that over in the show notes as well.

[00:26:50] Mary Boza Crimmins: Thank you. Appreciate it.

[00:26:59] Scott Maderer: Thanks so [00:27:00] much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, Please, please do us a favor. Go over to inspired stewardship.

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