Today we’d like to introduce you to Andy Sanders.
Hi Andy, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Andy Sanders, Ed.D. | Cathy Sanders, Ed.D. | Married: December 30, 1994 | Palm Coast, FL (15 minutes south of St. Augustine on Rte. 1) | [email protected] | 386-237-1235 | www.harborlightcontentgroup.com | www.fishin-girl.com
I grew up in a trailer park near North Indianapolis. My parents divorced when I was six. I stayed with my mother and older brother, and over the years, our housing situation declined from a two-bedroom apartment to a trailer park, where I spent most of my formative years. People often called us “trailer trash.” You learn to let that either sink you or build you. Some chose to let it sink them, and they did not make it out of that trailer park. I chose the latter. My best friend growing up didn’t. (In memory of my best friend, BJ Pollard, who was tragically shot six times and killed by a police officer. Drug-related.) That loss never leaves you.
My father (and mother) worked in a factory, but in his free time, he spent most of his adult life in a gym and later became a three-time national powerlifting champion in the deadlift. I started messing around with gym equipment at eight years old, eventually competing at sixteen in the 164.5-pound class with a squat of 465 pounds (unofficial), but the gym walls remember it. I played starting fullback in high school football, set yardage records regularly, and never scored a single touchdown. The one time I crossed the goal line, it got called back on someone else’s penalty. If that’s not a metaphor for something, I don’t know what is! I also trained in three martial arts: Shorin-Ryu (Japanese), Kali (Philippine stick fighting), and Taekwondo (traditional Korean). I was a great ring fighter and a terrible street fighter. The ring has rules; life on the street usually doesn’t.
I graduated from high school by the thinnest possible margin, having spent one evening in jail and been barred from campus roughly a week before graduation. I still walked across the stage. From there, I headed to Evangel University (CBC) in Springfield, Missouri, where I met Cathy. I’d describe her as someone with a lovely heart and beautiful in nature, and thirty-one years of marriage have only confirmed that. Believe me, she got the short end of the stick; I got the better end of the bargain. I started college in remedial English — the lowest level offered. My wife and I both finished with master’s and doctorate degrees in Christian Education from Freedom Seminary in Rogers, Arkansas, both Summa Cum Laude. Funny how that works.
In 2000, I landed a job at Charisma Magazine in Lake Mary, Florida, and something clicked. The publishing world, the international scope of it, the craft of professional storytelling, the reach of influence through the stroke of a pen. I fell in love immediately! To me, a person’s story is like a kaleidoscope: a thousand broken pieces that, when held to the light, form something breathtakingly beautiful and uniquely unrepeatable. An unexpected bunny trail followed. We pastored for a stretch, then in July of 2006, we sold everything and hit the road full-time, two small kids in tow. Over the next several years, Cathy and I traveled to 28 states, 7 countries, and roughly 150 churches. In 2009, we built 5-Fold Media out of New York from the ground up, an international publishing house we ran until 2018. Between 2009 and now, I’ve consulted on, built, rebuilt, and occasionally watched “burn to the ground” roughly 14 publishing houses. We’ve developed more than 500 titles and worked with first-time authors and unknowns alongside Amazon Best Sellers, New York Times Best Sellers, and professional athletes from the NFL and MLB. One project has moved millions of copies to date. I don’t say that to impress you; I say it because the road to get there was prolonged and, quite frankly, filled with a lot of crap along the way.
Today, Cathy and I are operating out of Palm Coast, Florida. Our current venture is Harbor Light Content Group, LLC, carrying more than two decades of industry experience into this next chapter. Cathy also runs Fishin’ Girl Nation, her beach surf fishing charter company spanning the northeast Florida coast, along with an online community of 17,500 women anglers across all fifty states. Cathy holds the 2022 Georgia State Women’s Pompano record — at the time, the biggest Georgia pompano caught in 40 years. She is, in every sense, extraordinary. We are also in the early stages of the El Roi Project, Inc., a nonprofit with a long-term goal of building a safehouse in Florida for women who are victims of human trafficking.
We have two kids. Our son Michael is 26 and serves in the U.S. Air Force in Public Affairs. Our daughter Joselyn is 24 and works at Roberts Wesleyan University in Rochester, New York. And then there are Pinto and Bean — two Siamese brothers. Pinto is cross-eyed. Bean has a head shaped like a football. They are not subtle critters in any manner.
Life has taken me from a trailer park in North Indianapolis to boardrooms, international publishing contracts, seven countries, and watching my wife fish from the beaches off the Florida coast whenever she pleases. I’ve watched fortunes made and lost, and I’ve been both myself. If I could sum up my life in one word, it would be impeccable — not a life without mess, but a life where nothing is wasted. Where the wrong turns somehow land you exactly where you were supposed to be. Every thread, the painful ones, the embarrassing ones, the unlikely ones, has been sewn into something that, when you step back far enough, looks exactly like a kaleidoscope. God’s creative handiwork has been quietly, seamlessly at work the entire time, one thread at a time. Looking back, it’s unmistakable, undeniable, and completely remarkable.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Some of the struggles along the way have been real and worth mentioning. First, trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Someone’s intellect can’t define the parameters of creativity, though we often try to make a “standardized religion” out of what was or wasn’t considered a unique quality in years past. Creativity defines its own boundaries and limits; we can’t. With that in mind, our greatest works have come when we were able to capture the natural, uninhibited talents that exist within people and society, but getting others to see that, trust it, and invest in it is another thing entirely.
Funding has been another ongoing battle. It was not easy starting companies and organizations without investors, sponsors, bank loans, or prior generational wealth to fall back on. Neither side of our family came from a business background in any meaningful sense. On my side, if there was a business going on, it probably was illegal. My grandfather ran moonshine from Chicago to Indianapolis years ago. That is how he made his money. I was the only one in my bloodline to earn a doctorate, own a publishing company, become a professional writer, and travel at the level we have.
In Cathy’s world, the fishing industry is still predominantly a man’s sport, and she has experienced her fair share of bullying from some men within the Jacksonville region because of it. That has not slowed her down one bit. And, she is a “tough cookie”, so she can take it.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Our newest project, Harbor Light Content Group, LLC, is a professional writing and publishing company built on more than two decades of real, hands-on industry experience. We are not startups feeling our way through the dark. Andy has been in the trenches of international publishing since 2000, (Cathy since 2009), and what we bring to the table is a level of experience that is genuinely difficult to find under one roof. Over the years, we have consulted on, built, rebuilt, and occasionally “watched burn to the ground” roughly 14 publishing houses. We have developed more than 500 titles and worked alongside first-time authors, unknown writers, Amazon Best Sellers, New York Times Best Sellers, and professional athletes from the NFL and MLB. One project we were part of has moved millions of copies to date. We specialize in finding the story within the person, shaping it, and delivering it to the world in a way that is both professional and deeply moving. To us, every person’s story is like a kaleidoscope, a thousand broken pieces that, when held to the light, form something breathtakingly beautiful and uniquely unrepeatable. That is what we do; we hold it to the light.
What sets us apart is simple: we have lived it. We did not come from money, investors, or generational wealth. We built everything from scratch, made hard decisions, took real losses, fell flat on our faces too many times to count, and kept going. That background gives us an instinct and a work ethic that cannot be manufactured. We know what it takes to bring a project from a raw idea to a finished, published, distributed product, and we know how to protect the authenticity of the author’s voice throughout that entire process. Our greatest works have come when we were able to capture the natural, uninhibited talent that already exists within a person and give it the platform it deserves.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
1. Think Media Podcast, 2. Julian Goldie – SEO, 3. Jeb Blount – Sales Gravy, 4. Dr. Mike Murdock – 2 Minute Wisdom Keys, 5. Terri Savelle – Your Cheerleader of Dreams, 6. Dave Ransey – The Ramsey Show Highlights,
Pricing:
- We price every project individually — because no two are the same.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.harborlightcontentgroup.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fishingirlbeachfishing/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/fishingirlclub
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-sanders-ed-d-454127332/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FishinGirlBeachFishing
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@fishingirlbeachfishing
Image Credits
All image credits are used by permission through Harbor Light Content Group, LLC
