[0:00] I’m Kevin, and I’m Steph, and during our marriage, we’ve dealt with an electrocution, a brain tumor, brain surgery, then doctors telling us the children were not

[0:08] in our future, followed by miscarriage, and then Kevin’s cancer diagnosis. However, today we live a life completely healed, completely restored with three healthy children who doctors said were not possible. And we’re here to tell stories that inspire, give hope, and brighten your day. Welcome to Tell Us A Good Story. Okay, friends, before we get to this episode, just a friendly reminder to please hit the subscribe button on YouTube and Apple Podcasts or give us a review. Five stars, please. In our world, this is super, super important because it will help with the algorithm to make it easier for people to find us. And thank you for sharing our posts across your social media. That really helps with engagement and with us getting guests. Yes. So, hey, if you want us to keep working our way up to talking to Chip and Joanna, please share us with your friends. But regardless, thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story. All right, Steph. Oh, I love her already. I know you do. I love her already, Kevin. Well, friends, our next guest is the independent artist who makes pop punk faith-based songs. She has been called the Christian Avril Lavigne, and this spring,

[1:14] she’ll be on her new Grace of God tour. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to Tell Us a Good Story, Grace Graber. Grace Graber!

[1:25] Thank you for saying yes to us, Grace. It is so nice to get to meet you here. I’ve actually been nervous about this conversation, Grace, because I know that you have a ton of energy that’s on par with my wife here, which is dangerous. And so I heard you say that you’re typically, quote, the loudest person in the room. Did you hear that? I heard that off an interview that you gave off a video clip on YouTube.

[1:52] And so my wife and her sister win the same award every room they walk into so i’m curious how, how similar you may be to my wife do you scare people with your level of enthusiasm and do you give awkward bear hugs like my wife does to people at church oh yeah no no i being a woman in church you know everyone always goes in for like the side hug and i’m just like full.

[2:19] So to be honest, like I get it. I totally love the respect thing. Just how awkward is it to go full on and then the person just go, uh, that’s that’s an awkward side hug i don’t like that that means do you like me yeah grace i don’t even go for it like they go side i just you’re still getting a hug yeah people oh yeah i’m gonna be the one looking like i’m latching on yes girl both arms no it’s it’s good um yeah i i’m loud you can hear my laugh a mile away um i think it helps for like performance and stuff i i always like i always tell people like even like going into the studio or just like i’m not a uh singer I’m a performer through and through I’m not calling my authenticity a performance but I think I was kind of born to stand out a little bit and that helps a lot with the performance. Would you do theater or anything like that in school? As a kid? Uh oh It’s a Winnie the Pooh Christmas story. It’s a Winnie the Pooh Christmas tale It’s all about Eeyore yes yes of course i actually was winnie the pooh oh you were oh yeah oh yeah.

[3:34] How old were you i was 17 i got the lead in the children’s musical and i was so thrilled about it and they were kind of happy to have like a really tall lead you know with all the little animals and everyone else was like six so it was so funny to do it no for real i kid you not it was the best like this if i could do that forever i would do that but piglet with literally half my size so it was perfect it was like the perfect casting they’re like typically uh we audition kids in this performance but i mean you’re almost an adult that’s fine that’ll work too, so i because of my trauma and we’ll get into that yes because of my trauma i um a lot of my friends were like my little brother i have a little brother um they were his age um because those were the just the people i was even around um i didn’t have a ton of friends after i was like assaulted in middle school so it made sense because the theater teacher who had given me the role she i was best friends with her daughter who was my little brother’s age and i think it was like my last year to really… Well, yeah, I was 17. So it was my last year to be considered a minor. And I could do it.

[4:50] Okay. So speaking of performing, you’ve made lots of music videos. Oh, absolutely. I live for it. I’m curious because when I’m flipping through your Instagram, I see you posting videos from a bowling alley, a school, in the snow, you have a band inside of a car. I see all this stuff. Right.

[5:11] So how do you determine where to film? And like when you go somewhere, have you ever had somebody like you’re asking for approval? Like, no, no, we’re not gonna let you do that here. Like, how does that work? I did have someone literally tell us like, get off our property. Actually, a couple months ago. I mean, the weirdest one was the trash can. I don’t know if you saw the trash can. That’s what I was going to get to. Yeah. So that one was, I had briefly saw it and mentioned how funny would that be if I did this. And then my video guy literally was like, are you going to do it or not? Like, what are we going to do? He’s like, you got to do it. Like, you got it. You can’t say that. So I noticed the dumpster because for listeners who may not have seen this yet, this was posted on September 11th. All right. So I click on this thinking, okay, maybe this is a 9-11 tribute. What’s going on? And I look, I’m like, no, this is Grace Kramer inside of a waste management garbage can. I didn’t know that was on September 11th. That was not planned.

[6:15] Check out your Instagram feed. It’s totally on 9-11. And so you hop out and you are in a very nice white shirt as well. And I’m like, how did she not get that dirty? and why is she in a literally a dumpster here and i was like crying laughing because i can only imagine whose idea that was hey let’s get you inside one of these dumpsters it’ll make for a music video it was an intrusive thought and i do have to apologize to the united states of america i did not intend to post that on september 11th and i take back what i did and i apologize and I’ll own up to it. So the trash can was actually, I believe, behind a flower shop. So it wasn’t even like, they wouldn’t have had like terrible waste. But I don’t know how I get my clothes so white. It’s impressive.

[7:06] All right, friends, we want to hear from you. Every fifth episode has been us telling our own stories. But now we want to share some of your stories. That’s right, you guys. If you have a fun story you would like to share, please send it to us. You could email us, DM us, or even leave us a voicemail. And I will share our contact information, including a phone number in the show notes. If you call us, just leave us a voicemail and I will transcribe it and read it on one of our upcoming episodes. And don’t worry if you’re not a master storyteller. That’s okay. We want to share your stories and then you will hear us comment on them. I promise you, this will be so much fun. Oh my gosh, you guys, so much fun. You guys, thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story.

[7:48] Okay, question. You’re a performer, you’re a singer. What’s your full-time job? i am an esthetician oh girl i could totally see it you are flawless totally yeah you could tell oh my gosh well this is so embarrassing but you know when you say things when you don’t realize you say something and it sounds like so vain but that’s not what you meant totally have you ever done something yeah a fan just told me like i want to on my christmas tour she goes your makeup is so good and i said well i am a makeup artist so that makes sense just like it just kind of came out but It is, yeah, I do beauty, skincare, facials, makeup.

[8:23] You name it, body care, massage, like that’s what I do. And I’ve been, I actually was doing it before music even took off. And I wrote the company jingle for the spa that I still work for. And that’s how I got into music was I wrote this jingle. They sent me to Nashville. I was in Nashville. I met a producer and then it took off. Like things were happening for me. So Hand of Stone Massage and Facial Spa is where I work. And they have just graciously allowed me to go on tour and then come back and work and then go on tour and come back. And there really is no other job I could be doing right now that allows me to do that. So I know that was a fun fact. Was that a fun fact? Of course it was. Okay. So that was a fun fact. So let’s get into that. Okay. So you’re at Hand and Stone. When did you go for the contest? Like how old were you? Oh, so I’d worked for Hand and Stone for a couple of years at the front desk. Okay. Was like ready to quit, sick and tired of it. It was like customer service. It sucks.

[9:25] And I, sorry, it’s customer service. So it just, it just blows when it’s hard. Yeah. It just, it just blows when you’re dealing with people who are frustrated all the time, all that. But I, yeah, I, I decided, okay, I think you should go to beauty school. It’s actually my husband who brought it up. He said, I think you should go to beauty school. And I was like, Oh, that’s totally what I want to do. And we’d just gotten a lot of money from a car accident. I was in a car accident, I think two years before. So we gotten that paid out and we’re like, let’s just live off of that while we go back to school and went to esthetician school. While I was at esthetician school, I felt like the Lord told me he was establishing that career so I could pursue music. Because before the car accident, I would write songs all the time. But after, I was in too much pain to pick up the guitar. A lot of different health stuff happened And I really thought, like, there’s no way I’m ever going to do music. I grieved a career in music. So when I felt the Lord reveal that to me, I laughed so hard, like, because I can’t. You don’t see it. Yeah.

[10:32] So that summer, I’d just gotten out of beauty school. And mind you, this is like, I wanted to quit. I wanted to get into the back because I wanted to quit if I wasn’t going to do something else. And as soon as I came back and was an esthetician, that’s when the company came out with the songwriting contest I won it in august and then I went to nashville in october, of 2019 okay you are leaving out some really big details here so you have a ukulele right so talk about the song you chose then you have a ukulele like how did this all transpire where they’re like hey we heard you are a singer do you want to do this song for us do you like how did that happen they put out a songwriting contest some some massage therapists did a rap um about massage therapy muscle groups bones and uh and they thought it was so cool and they happened to have their national conference in nashville that year okay and so they thought how cool would it be if we did the songwriting contest for like the next hand in stone jingle and i wasn’t i wasn’t gonna do it until like i i vividly remember standing in the back and it was like two nights before submission.

[11:51] And I was just staring at it going, if I don’t do this, I’m going to regret it like so much. So I stayed up all night that night. Oh, wow. Wrote us the song they wanted. The reason why it’s five minutes on YouTube, by the way, is because they wanted you to list every upgrade and facial product line. Oh, my. That’s a lot. So I wrote a five minute jingle explaining everything you can get at Hand and Stone.

[12:20] And I submitted it and it was all kind of regional based vote. Like they essentially posted their favorite corporate’s favorite versions and then you got to vote. So anyone in the company got one vote and they chose me as one of the finalists. And then we hustled so hard. I wasn’t going to win until like the last day. I was, pretty low. And then my manager at the time, her name was April. She texted everyone. She said, you need to vote. You’re going to be in so much trouble if you don’t vote for Grace. Like you need to get on there and vote. And I won. And I won very last minute. They even said it in the video. They’re like, yeah, this happened like overnight, essentially. And there’s a video of me crying because I won. And it was kind of like my American Idol moment. You know, it’s like, Oh, someone recognizes this talent and they are giving me an opportunity to live a dream. So there’s that.

[13:19] I saw where you said at age of 12, there’s a song that you heard that basically saved your life in your opinion. Can you walk us through and listeners through the traumatic experience that you had and the whole story of what has led you to today and the person you’ve become? I hope you’re ready to be friends because it’s about to get deep.

[13:41] So, yeah, when I was 12 years old, I was physically and verbally assaulted in middle school by other teenage girls. I was the only pastor’s kid in town. And they would follow me home and try to jump me and, you know, punch me at school. And they taught me a lot about self-harm because they would say that I was spreading rumors about specific ways you can self-harm yourself and have eating disorders and all that. So I was in a very short period of time, very condensed period of time, assaulted physically.

[14:17] So my parents took me out of school, tried to get me in other ones. But I was so like, I would go to like PE class. And if someone looked at me wrong, or if just something didn’t feel right, I would immediately fall into a panic attack. And my parents kind of realized very quickly, like I couldn’t be in public education. So they took me out for eighth grade. And in eighth grade, I stole my mom’s password for homeschooling.

[14:48] And I cheated my entire way through eighth grade. I had the study guides. Jeez. I screwed myself over though. Because as soon as I got to high school, you know I failed. Because you didn’t learn it. I was failing really hard. So I cheated my entire way through eighth grade. But I also wouldn’t leave my room. I was depressed. My parents took me to many psychologists that tried to diagnose me with bipolar. My mom was really good at going, I don’t think that’s it. And as soon as they took me to this child psychiatrist, I don’t know how she found her, but her name was Dr. Heath. And she sat me down and within 10 minutes, she looked at my mom and said, she is PTSD. Like she is traumatized and we need to get to the core of detoxing her brain from that trauma. And my mom invested in tons of homeopathics, alternative medicines to try to help me. And it helped a lot, but I still didn’t understand that the people who knew me wanted to hurt me and I didn’t feel safe. So my parents trying to get me out of the house, like I went to like five youth groups a week. I was like, that was the only time I could get social stuff. So I went to like five different youth groups at five different churches and I didn’t make any friends at all. And then I would go to these Christian rock concerts that these youth groups would put on.

[16:10] And these bands would interact with you and be so kind and they would look so cool and it sounded good and then you met people who like their music too and you feel like accepted and I finally was like oh well they they don’t know me and they’re treating me so well and it’s like what’s the difference between them and my bullies and that’s how I discovered who Jesus was and so that’s when I knew I wanted to do a Christian rock. Do you still struggle with mental health because of your past? Oh, yeah. I technically have CPTSD. Complex post-traumatic stress disorder essentially means, it means I’m crazy. No.

[16:55] No. So I’ve done a lot of inner child healing, a lot of EMDR work with my therapist. And I’ve been off my medication now for like three, four months, and I’ve been doing great. A lot better than I expected. And my brain clarity is a lot different. And I still get anxious. But I think anyone in my spot would get anxious with how much is demanded of me with a full-time job, with trying to pursue a full-time music career that’s dependent on the job and that’s, you know, dependent on getting it right. And social media doesn’t help at all either. And there’s so many levels. So I’m not surprised. I’m anxious. I’m not surprised celebrities do drugs. And I’m not surprised. I’m not surprised by any of that because I’ve tasted just a tiny bit of attention. And the anxiety levels I need help with. So yeah, I’m doing really good. Good. I appreciate you talking about the serious topics that you are,

[18:03] right? So you talk a lot about depression, anxiety, mental health, suicidal thoughts. I’m curious, what is the reaction been, Grace, from churches or pastors when you bring up some of these heavy issues?

[18:18] So my main thing is suicide prevention. I work with American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and even in their world where suicide’s in the name, you have to be very careful with how you bring up that word. The church thing has been great, actually. I don’t get the kind of lash back people expect I do. Good. I’m shocked, though, at how much people talk about mental illness, but don’t share their own personal stories about it, especially as a leader in the church, because there’s power in our testimonies. And if we are just go along, like everything’s okay, or like, you know, we’re in leadership now, we shouldn’t. I think that I’ve been surprised with how much people haven’t shared that much of their story with their youth pastors, how they haven’t shared with the kids that they felt that. They’ve been talking about the facts and what they might be going through.

[19:17] But they haven’t shared like, yeah, I’ve had suicidal thoughts. And again, it’s a time and place. Like sometimes in leadership, that’s not appropriate. That’s not an appropriate time to share that. Like I’m surprised at how people are having the conversation and how it’s being brought up. It feels not very personal. It feels like very like facts are being thrown out or prayer is being thrown out but where is the resource like where do we have links to therapists like that was the one thing i made sure of after that show was like okay who like do you guys have therapists in the area that we can link these families up with and so what i did was i gave them a list of all the people i prayed with that night and said you all need to follow up in a week with these people and give them the therapist’s number you know like this is needed.

[20:08] Um, it’s kind of fun to go in there and shake things up a little bit. And I’m very blunt and very just direct, just in naturally. Yeah. Um, so to go into a church and be like, tell me about your suicide. You know, like it’s like, it shakes things up and it, um, there’s a little more personal of a connection. So for sure.

[20:30] Friends, we have been asked to speak at a few events recently in regards to sharing some of our story. And it has been an absolute honor. We have a lot of personal stories to share that will hopefully inspire, encourage, and maybe even make you laugh. So if you’re hosting some type of event or need a guest speaker, we’re here to help. That’s right. Just go to KevinAndSteph.com and click on the contact button. Like Steph said, let us know if we can be of help in any way, whether it’s our personal testimony of healing and hope or me just telling some jokes. Oh, God, please, you guys, please don’t ask him to do that. But seriously, just go to KevinAndSteph.com to contact us. And as always, thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story.

[21:10] All right, Grace. For all of our guests, I like to give a list of fun facts to let listeners know what you’ve done, what you’ve accomplished. And you’ve already ran through about half of my list here. So this is going to be a very quick session of fun facts. All right? And Steph is not aware of any of these. Okay? So you’re going to see her genuine reaction. Okay. All right. Fun fact number one, Steph. Grace and her husband, TJ, just celebrated their nine-year anniversary last week. Are you old enough for a nine year anniversary true good point how old do you think I am honestly like I thought early 20s give me a number 27 well now I’m gonna say 27 because of the nine years I was thinking 22 23, Girl, I’m almost 30. Girl, that’s esthetician skills right there. Well done. It’s all the retinal. Amen, girl.

[21:59] So apparently, they are living proof that opposites do attract. Because Grace calls her husband a, quote, Dolly Parton husband. Oh, I love Dolly Parton husband. I can’t remember the source of it. I don’t know if it was a video clip or something I read. Are you, like, plugged into my computer? do you hear me all the time he’s like fbi agent i am mr research he is i’m mr research so i do he calls himself that actually because you’ll never see he never comes to anything music wise which is totally okay with me um but like he never really and that’s because he’s just a homebody okay if he does come to a show though he’s all the way in the back okay and he’s meaning every single word oh and my friends love they say their favorite part of the show is when they’re up front looking at me and they turn around they know dj’s back in the corner singing every word and yeah he is the simplest quietest guy you’ve ever met doesn’t want to be on camera i’m sure no he hates it and it’s so funny it’s like bro i need to tell people we’re married.

[23:07] Like i need proof here you’re real yeah but it’s kind of fun you know it’s like really fun and uh just mysterious i don’t know all right steph next fun fact like myself and she already mentioned this grace grew up a pastor’s kid uh-huh all right so she was a pk so did your dad incorporate stories of things you did at home into his sermons like my dad did yeah i can’t remember what i’d say it’s inevitable right oh my gosh i guarantee it he’s probably doing he’s probably still using using me as a reference as a pk then do you have any good church camp stories as a kid and apparently going to five different youth groups yeah i did i went to a lot of i worked at a church camp for a while actually nothing i can share publicly really um yeah i I did eat at camp one time. I ate an entire pitcher of Cocoa Puffs.

[24:09] They had cereal all the time. And I mean, this wasn’t like a small pitcher. This was like huge. And I was like, I’m going to do it. I fill that thing up. I fill it with milk. And everyone was daring me. They’re like, you have to finish that. Like you have to, and I did, I finished it. Cocoa puffs. Did you get sick? No. Yo. I used to, I used to be a lot heavier. Actually I used to be, I’ve lost over a hundred pounds. What? Really? Good for you. Good for you, girl. Thank you. I was like fluff from when I was like a teenager. And so when I was in beauty school, like I hustled down, did like hot yoga and like all that and lost a ton of weight. I remember standing in my wedding dress and I took a picture and I was like half of my wedding dress. Wow.

[24:59] Yeah. Good for you. I was a big girl. I could pound a picture of Cocoa.

[25:08] Steph, did you know that Tell Us a Good Story has a YouTube channel? Wait, seriously? So apparently you don’t watch it. Absolutely not. That’s what I thought. But it’s because you know I don’t like to watch myself. That’s true. That is true. But friends, we have a YouTube channel. We would love for you to check out. So if you would like to see video clips of us with prior guests or some entire episodes or videos of my wife here scaring guests with her excitement. Oh, that too. You can see all of that by going to YouTube and searching Tell Us a Good Story. And don’t forget to hit the subscribe button. Yes. But as always, you guys, thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story. Okay, final fun fact, Steph, because she’s gone through all of the other ones that I have here on my list. Okay.

[25:49] Grace’s first full-length album came out this past August. In the spring, she will be embarking on her new Grace of God tour. So can you tell us more about this tour and what you have coming up, Grace? So the tour, that’s exciting. Please book dates. We’re booking them. So that’s that.

[26:08] Is we’re booking, I don’t know where I’ll end up. So if you want me to end up where you are, let us know. So yes, Grace of God tour is coming out. Please book me for shows. I want to travel anywhere. I want to check things off my bucket list. I’m about to go to Florida for my variety tour with Seventh Day Slumber. I saw that Jacksonville. I’ve never been to Florida. So then I’ve got the live album coming out. So this is really cool that I get this opportunity to be doing shows so much. And then I have the live album. So I’m hoping that this kind of like picks up momentum with being able to do touring full time. But what I’m really excited about it is my next single. And that is because it’s like, just like the feeling I got with grace of God, where it’s just so vividly like.

[26:58] A story and so vividly a message. There’s a song that I wrote with my good friend, Daniel Spriggs. He’s an Ohio native, actually. And I’m really pumped about it. It’s called My Favorite Part. And it’s kind of just a letter to someone who’s considering suicide.

[27:18] So my friend, he wrote this chorus and it went, if you go now, you’ll miss my favorite part. If you hold out the best is yet to start I know it’s hard for you to see just lay your head on my shoulder and breathe because if you go now you’ll miss my favorite part and so he wrote that separately right and then came to me with this idea and I had already had a verse written and essentially all the pictures all the memories that you haven’t made yet are waiting for you to see I would hate for you to leave and so this song I’m really excited about because it’s so directly at the listener about if you take your own life right now, and this actually can be interpreted in any situation in life. Like if you give up that opportunity, if you leave that job too soon, if you essentially end something too early, you’re going to miss out on something. You’re going to miss God’s favorite part. You’re going to miss your favorite part. I would have missed all this. I would have missed being known as Hawk Nelson’s little sister and like, Like, you know, them being in my band, I would have missed all that. And I think for me to be writing songs to these girls or whoever’s listening, that if they leave, they might miss this.

[28:32] I’m a walking example of what happens if you do not commit suicide. That’s just plain, fact, simple. I was the biggest fan of my favorite band. And then, boom, I am now doing exactly what they were doing. If you leave, if you take your own life, you’re missing out on that. And so I’m really excited about the song. Good. For so many different reasons. That’s awesome. Love that. Well, listeners, for more information about Grace and her music, you can go to her website, gracegraber.com. Also, she’s on Instagram, Facebook, Spotify. It’s all at Grace Graber Music. So check her out. Yes. Well, Grace, thank you so much for saying yes to us. Like Steph said when you got here, she was listening to your music ahead of time. Our girls were loving it. Our youngest daughter, Elle, went into her room and was like yelling at Alexa to play Grace Graber’s music on her Alexa in her bedroom. So you have more fans right now just from tonight. You really do. So thank you for saying that stuff. Thanks, Grace. Yeah. Thank you for having me. Friends we want to encourage you to please follow us wherever you listen to this whether it’s on the apple podcast app iheart radio spotify or one of the other platforms you guys it’s completely free and while you’re there feel free to give us a rating or a nice review thank you for listening to tell us a good story.