Timmy Bauer – Founder of Dinosaur House and Podcast Host, and Author of the 5 Star Children’s Book Billy the Dragon

Timmy Bauer 0:00
What people don’t realize is 789 year olds, they do not want to be talked down to, they do want you to enter into their world,

Kara Goldin 0:08
I am unwilling to give up, that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be, I want to make sure

you will get knocked down, but just make sure you don’t get knocked out knocked out. So your

only choice should be go focus on what you can control, control control. Hi, everyone, and welcome to the Kara golden show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go. Let’s go. Hi, everyone. This is Kara golden with the Kara golden show. And I am so excited to have my next guest. I was actually a guest on his show not too long ago, the purpose driven entrepreneur, but I was so excited about his backstory that I said, Hey, will you come on my show? And really, really excited to have you here to me.

Timmy Bauer 1:16
I’m honored. Thank you so much for having me on your show. You’re like a celebrity to me, Kara.

Kara Goldin 1:21
Oh, please, you’re so you’re so funny. So Timmy is in addition to being an incredible podcast host. She’s also a children’s author, have a soft spot for those authors. And what we were just talking about was that his amazing book, which I’ll let him talk a little bit more about was, was sitting around my house and friend of mine started reading it. And I think she took off with it. I don’t I don’t know exactly what

Unknown Speaker 1:52
happened that so

Kara Goldin 1:53
much. I know. And so the Billy the dragon, and he’s written a couple other books. But Billy the dragon was the one in particular and it’s such a terrific, terrific book. So anyway, welcome. In addition to like I said, not only doing these incredible books. To me, he lives in Florida, we were chatting a little bit more I think he’s got you know, being a California and myself. I think he’s got California somewhere in his sights along the way, maybe just to visit I don’t know,

Timmy Bauer 2:26
or just to leave Florida honestly and get out of this swamp.

Kara Goldin 2:29
Yeah, well, that’s that’s it. So but that’s the beauty is that you can go you’re not set in one place, you know, you can move on and try new things. And that’s the beauty of humanity. I think more than anything. To me, you’ve been writing since you were 10. Where did this passion come from?

Timmy Bauer 2:49
I don’t know where the passion exactly came from. I know that when I was a little kid, I knew that I wanted to grow up and become a cartoonist. But I didn’t know much more than that. So I just started making cartoons at 10. I made like comic strips and shared them with my friends and tried to make them laugh. It didn’t become something more serious until I was 17. And I had a little brother who was four and the book that you were just talking about which got stolen from your office, which by the way that is like the highest honor for a kid’s book author is if you find out that your book got stolen by a kid or by bar or by a parent. I one time for Halloween, we were running low on Halloween candy and so I put out just boxes of Billy the dragon. And I was like I’m sorry, we’re out of candy. I hope you like these books. And I went out like two hours later and they were all gone and I was like oh that’s awesome.

Kara Goldin 3:40
That’s hysterical we should do that with we we’ve done that with hint before my my company and we’ve we’ve decided to actually do bottles a hint instead of candy and you you’d be amazed because you get pretty thirsty when you’re out trick or treating. Or you’re always everybody’s wanting a bottle of water so

Timmy Bauer 3:59
yeah, no daughter I’m drinking this is just not non asked for ad but I’m drinking crisp apple right now and it’s straight up tastes like it’s sweet. This is my first time I’ve ever had it straight up tastes like it’s got sweetener in it.

Kara Goldin 4:15
Yeah, it does not have sweetener in it so that’s a whole

Timmy Bauer 4:18
bunch of tasty tastes sweet creamy

Kara Goldin 4:20
Yeah, no and that’s that’s it you know it’s it’s interesting because I think that is people discover this product right discover hint and we always you know share with people we always give away bottles at events we never do like little tasters because people will you know have one sip and then depending on what they had right before that or they don’t really fully remember it and then they’ll take another step and another step. If you give him bottle and then they become converts just by people. You know drinking so much of it. So you’re not the first person who’s told me that that they’re like wait, I kind of like this. This is this is really good. So, anyway, lots of fun. So, so anyway, so you were cartooning. And you thought, Okay, I’m going to be an entrepreneur, you also started school at University of Central Florida and decided to bail on that. Talk to me about that.

Timmy Bauer 5:17
You’ve done some reading on me, Cara. I went to UCF. For a English and art degree, I was split major between English and art with a minor in education. And I was basically thinking, I’ll study art, because I love art, but I needed a degree that’s gonna get me a job. So I’ll study English and education and probably become a teacher. And it was my senior year of college, super senior year of college. When I was like, you know, I am looking out at my future. And the next whoever knows how long of being a teacher, and that sounds like prison, and this is a terrible thing for me to say, because I have a podcast called the literacy advocate, all I do is talk to teachers, I love teachers. But to me, the thought of becoming a teacher sounded like prison. And I was like, I just don’t want that to be my life. So I dropped out with spout six credits left to go before I would have had my degree. And my dad, still to this day, he doesn’t like to talk about it, because he doesn’t have anything good to say to me about that. But I dropped out, and I went to art school instead. And the art school that I went to was non degree seeking, because I didn’t have any money. And I worked at Disney that does, and that doesn’t pay very much. And I knew that I wanted to become a professional artist. So I thought, well, there’s a school here in Orlando called creality. And it’s a non degree seeking art school. But all of the professors of art at the colleges around here like Rosen, and UCF, they teach at this school, and they basically just copy and paste their courses into this school. But instead of paying, you know, 1000s of dollars, it’s like a couple 100 bucks a class or per course. So I started going to Korea all day, and just taking classes on whatever I wanted to get better at art wise, and made a lot of improvement, was building up a portfolio. This is a winding story.

I was building up a portfolio because I wanted to apply for either a cool job in art, or I had this other idea of if I go overseas to Europe, there’s schools there where you can study art. And it’s like, all the European countries subsidize their education. So I was thinking, you know, I could just, I could potentially get into one of those schools and study art for free, and then maybe go in work in movies or something like that, like I knew that the job that I wanted was story artist, I just didn’t know how I was going to get there. And I was studying art at qriocity. Meanwhile, I was working on perfecting this book, belly, the dragon, which I wrote when I was 17 for my little brother Tristan, who was four. So my, my, my 17 year old and I got a four year old little brother, this huge age gap there. But I loved my little brother Tristan. So for a while every night before bed, I would try to write a little bit more of a story for him, and either scare him or gross him out or make him laugh, I was always trying to get some kind of reaction out of him each night with like, whatever I added to the story. So that was a lot of fun. And I did that from you know, until I left the house, basically. And I was really trying to make a push to get this done. And just get it out there. And my goal was just if I get it out into the universe, so that more than just my little brother can enjoy it, it would be a success, even if that’s what happened, even if I literally just got it out into the universe. So I had all these different benchmarks of success for that. So I’m working on this, I’m working on potentially trying to get into being a story artist in movies or animation or something like that. Maybe go overseas to study in college. And as I was working on all of these different things. When I finished this book, I started knocking on elementary school doors, and I was just like, Hey, I’m a kid’s book author. This is my book belly of the dragon. I just want to come and read it for your kids. And that sounds cute or creepy, depending on the recipient, like some people would look at me and they’d be like, Oh my gosh, you’re adorable. Yes, of course you can come to our kids. And then other people would look at me like who’s this strange man knocking on the door of the elementary school asking to read a book to our kids like, and I would just get so many people that would say no, just because they were creeped out by it. But I would get a few people that just thought it was adorable and said yes. And I would come in and out my goal was just to build up FOMO in the surrounding schools. So I would come in and I would try to shoot as much video as I could get as many of the reaction moments from the kids as I could and try to get these videos posted with no tag other teachers, I would tag the teachers that were there and just say like, Hey, can you just tell any teachers that you know about my visit. And that was generating FOMO, which was sort of what was making me get more schools. In the first year that I did that I sold enough to pay for what it costs me to print about 750 of these. So that was a big encouraging thing. I was like, okay, it paid for itself. And that was just right. There was like, a huge marker of success. Not only did I put this thing out into the universe, and then I got to read it for kids, and they were laughing, and that’s huge. That’s validation. And now in the first year, I, I’ve made all the money back and I still have books. So now I’m now I’m gonna make money. But of course, like, I’m not, I’m not even close to being able to like quit my job or anything. This is just a thing I’m doing on the side that I’m trying to make make money.

Kara Goldin 10:59
First of all, you know, starting with your little brother, so you’re reading to your little brother. How old? Was he at the time? Four?

Timmy Bauer 11:05
He was four. Yeah,

Kara Goldin 11:06
yeah. So how did you measure his reactions? I mean, did you ever read something? And then then what do you actually say, oh, Timmy, this is terrible, or what? Do you just fall asleep? Or? I mean, how did you start to? I mean, how do you do that?

Timmy Bauer 11:21
Um, my goal was to try to cause a big reaction in him each time, there were only a couple of times where he was like, that doesn’t make sense. I don’t understand that. I’d be like, yeah, you’re right, I should probably reworked that part. But for the most part, I probably just because I was his big brother. And so there’s just all that rapport, but I was able to get big reactions out of him. Like I knew I was doing great. If I would read something, and I could just see on his face that he was thoroughly disgusted, or, or he’s like, like, why died, not not knowing what’s about to happen. Next, there’s this one part in the book, where Billy, the villain of the story is about to step out of his cave. So the characters are making too much noise. And he comes stepping out of his cave. Oh, it’s when they come back to rescue the sister. And he comes stepping out of his cave. And it’s just all black, except for this little sliver where you can kind of see him. And you see the the main characters and they’re like shivering and terrified, when when I would get to this part. And I would just say it to him very, like he stepped from his cave. And to his surprise, came a big loud distraction to let Stevie hide. And as I would say it in that tone. And there’s just all he’s looking at is like black pages with like a little bit of what’s about to happen, I just saw his eyes get really wide. And I was like, that is the those are the kinds of reactions that I’m reaching for. So I’m just reaching for any kind of wide eyes, or you that’s so gross, or him laughing, rolling on the floor, laughing, all that kind of stuff. And I this is a big part of my business now. So my, the company that I created is called dinosaur house. And I have never seen anybody codify how to make a really good picture book. At least, there are plenty of people that have written books on how to write for kids. But nobody has really codified the idea that for the most part, kids are going to like a kid’s book, to the degree that the pages are chock full of what I’m calling reaction triggers, basically just, they’re going to get bored if there isn’t something on virtually every page that is causing some kind of big reaction in them. And it’s just shocking to me that as far as I know, no one has codified this, but also as an entrepreneur, I’m like, boom, opportunity. Nobody is codified this,

Kara Goldin 13:48
I love it. I love it. It’s so great. Well, and I think that that’s, you know, there’s so many things that you just said it’s really, you know, reading your customers, right? I mean, it’s it’s a storytelling, right? How to actually, you know, understanding your audience, and depending on who that audience is, I mean, you’re actually you’re appealing to parents probably initially right with the cover. And we should you know, yeah, I

Timmy Bauer 14:18
wish I was more intentional about appealing to parents, I’m so focused on appealing to the kids, that I personally, I tend to shy away from cover illustrations and titles that appeal to parents. Because if Billy the dragon was really called, taking responsibility for your actions, you know, a picture book. Great. I’m gonna be making sales from parents. But no kid wants to pick up a book that’s called you know, how to take responsibility for your actions. No, no, I

Kara Goldin 14:49
mean, I think parents would grab something like that because they want it to be fun, right? They want they want they know their kids too. So yes, but you brought up a really interesting point. point, though, that there’s numerous ways that people are consuming, you know, content today and obviously with books too. And is there an audio version of this

Timmy Bauer 15:10
ability to dragon? Now I really behind the eight ball on this? I like,

Kara Goldin 15:17
actually you reading it, you know, it’s just you need to do that for sure, yes,

Timmy Bauer 15:22
what I need to do is do a basically like animatics, or at least as close to that as I can get with the kind of money that I have to spend at least voiceover with illustration on YouTube, like I at least have to get those things out. So that’s very important.

Kara Goldin 15:38
Yeah, well, I think just based on your your brother’s reaction, and these kids in the classrooms reaction, I think you could probably pull it off with an audio version. So definitely, you should do that. And it’s not as expensive as you may think, to actually do an audio version of the book, either.

Timmy Bauer 15:55
Yeah, no. But doing an animatic. It’s expensive. But I really want to because it’s, it’s, it plays well on YouTube.

Kara Goldin 16:02
Yeah, well, and Rome wasn’t built in a day. So you could at least do the audio version of it, and have it going in the going in the car at some point for people. So how do you think that’s really changed in terms of consuming content? For for

Timmy Bauer 16:17
kids books, or in general,

Kara Goldin 16:19
for kids books?

Timmy Bauer 16:21
Yeah, it’s interesting. Most people would say, you don’t want to make print products, because it’s dying. And I think that that’s true in a lot of ways. But it’s not yet true of kids books, and not yet. They’re still most parents want the experience of having their kid in their lap, with a book open, that the kid can, you know, touch and turn the pages and all that reading the book to them. And that has not changed. There is Kindle like for kids. And it’s great. And I put all my books on Kindle, but I don’t really see anybody downloading them.

Kara Goldin 16:59
Yeah. And it’s for kids books. That’s really interesting. So yep. Hmm.

Timmy Bauer 17:05
I think if you are if you if you have something that you want to get across to kids, the mediums that you want to be looking at our YouTube, like you like YouTube for kids. So if you look at what plays well, for kids on YouTube, that’s a medium you want to look at, or the or video games, or picture books and picture books are the most accessible financially for of that list. I think, I also just personally, this is what I’m very passionate about. I’ve known forever since I was a kid, that this is what I wanted to do for a living.

Kara Goldin 17:40
That’s awesome. That’s a really, really great. So do you think you’ll like always write children’s books? What about adult books?

Timmy Bauer 17:47
That’s a good question. I think that I need to make an adult book. I just don’t know what to write on. So I’ve actually been asking my best friends. I’m like, if I wrote an adult, a book for adults, what should it be about? And I’ve gotten a little bit of similar to the kind of book that you wrote, Kara. So by the way, I love your book. I’m on chapter 24. And it’s great. You just got done talking about how you got into deodorant and sunscreen. And now you’re talking about more like legacy stuff your son thinking about how you he he doesn’t know any women that own companies. So that’s really cool. If I were to do something like that, I just don’t know that I’m at the right place in life to make a book like that. I mean, my book would be about hustling and grinding. Yeah. My fiance said, If she were to decide what my book would be about, it would be something with the theme would be something along the lines of solving problems with questions, which is a major theme in your book.

Kara Goldin 18:50
Yeah, definitely. Well, I, you know, I it’s interesting. I mean, I wouldn’t have even said five years ago, that I had a book in me, because I think oftentimes, you don’t think that your journey is very interesting, because you’re living it. Right. But then you share stories along the way. In fact, we, I mean, my husband and I laugh because we, you know, met we’ve met so many people along the way. I mean, I was talking about just got back from a trip and vacation and ended up seeing I mean, I’ll never forget meeting Magic Johnson and when magic walked into the room, and I met his, his manager as as well and financial manager, and it was, I mean, it was somebody that I remember, for me, it was, you know, this this amazing, you know, athlete, that he was like the first person who had HIV. That wasn’t, you know, that that was like a mainstream person that had an I remember Seeing it on the news and thinking, this is scary. Like, this is a really, really scary thing. And, you know, when now I look at magic and, you know, he’s he’s lived a long time with HIV. And he’s, you know, and it’s not a death sentence, you know, and he’s got kids and you know, and he’s still a larger than life, you know, business man and, and amazing. And anyway, it was just, there were stories along the way, even in building hand where I felt like, you know, just by doing what I was doing every day and helping people drink water. I’ve met so many people along the way that I remember just thinking, like, you know, for some other reason, it was important to me, it was like, it was surprising to me, but I mean, I was almost shaking with Magic Johnson when I first met him, because I just, you know, thinking back on things that I thought were, I don’t know, I don’t know what I’m saying. But I just remember that that like moment along the way, where, you know, I would share that story with people. And then they’d say, Wow, like, Did you ask him this question, did you? I mean, how did you feel about it? You know, especially people who had followed magic for for many, many years. Right? And yeah, all it knows about was the

Timmy Bauer 21:21
context of you meeting him.

Kara Goldin 21:24
He was interested and, and potentially investing and he didn’t actually invest. He didn’t end up investing because he’s actually an investor and in Sodexo. This food service company, they they do, actually, you’re in Orlando and probably have been to Disney will know

Timmy Bauer 21:45
about it. Disney uses them as their main food provider for cast members, at least did when I worked there.

Kara Goldin 21:52
Yeah. So he’s, he actually I think he’s majority shareholder in the like, healthy food side of Sodexo. So you know, they have inside of Disney World, they have the, you know, place where you can not have the chicken drumsticks, you know that there? Yeah, that also he is, I think majority owner in that. And

Timmy Bauer 22:15
also for the cast members a place called the mouse criteria. Yeah, all the food there, at least when I worked. There was also Dec so

Kara Goldin 22:21
yeah, and so he’s not, but there’s two sides of it. And he’s like the healthy the he does like the healthy side anyway. So but unfortunately, there’s a large soda company that also has an investment in that. And so when they had heard that he was possibly interested in and investing in hint, that kind of put the kibosh down on it. But having said all of that, it was you know, we’ve, I mean, I don’t talk to Magic Johnson every day, but every once in a while, I’ll get an email from him about something and you know, over the years

Timmy Bauer 22:56
feel bad for not investing.

Kara Goldin 22:58
You know, I don’t I don’t know that he’s ever felt bad, but I think he’s felt like he possibly missed out on something. That’s what I’m watching. Right. And so which is which is cool. But, yeah, I

Timmy Bauer 23:13
mean, it’s been, it’s gotta be a validating feeling.

Kara Goldin 23:16
Well, and I guess this is the point like, I mean, even you talking about, you know, working at Disney. And and, you know, you’ve had, you’ve had a couple stints at Disney, right, where you worked inside, you know, inside of this. I mean, not, you know, I guess a lot of people have worked at at Disney over the years. But there’s a lot of people who haven’t worked. I’ve never worked at Disney.

Timmy Bauer 23:37
There are a few people that have worked there that are legally not allowed to say what they did. And I’m one of those people. And if you saw me at the parks when I worked there, you would recognize me, and I’m not allowed to say anything else.

Kara Goldin 23:50
Interesting. You know how I just heard you figure it out. worked at Disney. Who is a comedian?

Timmy Bauer 23:56
Yeah. Wayne Brady.

Kara Goldin 23:58
No. That worked at Disney when he was 14 years old.

Timmy Bauer 24:05
I never knew this. Oh, is it? Um, what’s name a

Kara Goldin 24:10
Saturday Night Live? Yes. And I never but I never knew this. I was just reading a book about it. And Steve Martin?

Timmy Bauer 24:17
Yeah. Steve Martin. I was gonna say I was like, searching for the name. I was like three amigos?

Kara Goldin 24:22
Yeah. And so he was 14 years old when he was working there. And I read magic. Yeah. And it was such a crazy story. And I had never heard that story. But anyway, I just, I think there’s so many stories along the way, just by the journey that I’ve heard you talking about. And then also, I think that the other thing is, is that people think that you know, you’ve got a job, and that’s what you’ve got to do every single day versus you’re also doing your own podcast. You’re, you know, meeting lots of great people along the way. You’re also doing children’s books. I mean, you’ve got a lot of interest, right, which I think is, is what I always share with people is, is something that for some reason people feel like the walls go up around them when they get a job. They’re thinking, that’s what I do every single day versus doing these things. And you know, you’re working really hard. I’m sure you’re doing stuff on weekends, right? Or you’re doing stuff late at night, right. Originally,

Timmy Bauer 25:24
for me, Kara, my business has taken off to the point where I this is my business now the full time gig. So yes, it

Kara Goldin 25:33
didn’t start out that way.

Unknown Speaker 25:35
No, it did not.

Kara Goldin 25:36
Yeah. So and that, that’s another really important thing to share with people that you know, eventually. And that’s why your story is so great, the two that you were able to do lots of different things to talk to me about the podcast. So the

Timmy Bauer 25:51
podcasting is mostly just a way for me to meet the kinds of people that I need to know. So I have several different podcasts that are all for different types of relationships that I need to be forming, I view podcasting number one as a relationship machine number two as a content channel. So and that’s unfortunately reflected in the way that I treat it, I put way more effort into the actual conversation than I do into the post stuff like, like, you have so much of a process built out for yourself, I like got all these emails before this call, I know you’re gonna chop this content up into all kinds of micro content, I want to get there, believe me, I am like, working to try to get there. I’ll be using this app called showcase to break up all my content and get it posted on LinkedIn and stuff. So get ready to get some tags for me in the future, as I like, post out juicy bits of our conversation. But anyways, um, for the main thing that I’m doing the podcast for. So I’ve got the literacy advocate, which is the show where I talk to teachers, I asked them what’s a commonly held belief in literacy education that you passionately disagree with? And every episode is just based off of a teacher’s answer to that question. And then, in addition to making great content, I am making relationships with teachers that will have me come into their classroom, because that was a problem I was trying to solve for, as a kids book author, I need access to classrooms, not because I’m trying to make the schools pay me but because I want a lot of people to know who I am, I want you know, I want to have lots of subscribers to my mailing list, and people buying my books and all that kind of stuff. And I’m not traditionally published, because I, the entrepreneur, bone in me was like, I don’t want to wait for somebody permission, I just want to go. So anyways, that’s for that relationship, then I’ve got a show called writing better, which is just me jamming with writers on how to write. And my favorite wants to talk to our people that write for kids. And the goal is, and this hasn’t happened yet, but the goal is to hire somebody, because my company dinosaur house is doing well enough now where it would just be really smart for me to have a writer working, working here. I have illustrators working for me, but it would be a really great thing if I could get a good writer. So I’m sort of on the hunt, through writing better to try to find a good writer, that would want to work for me. And then the purpose driven entrepreneurs is how I meet people like you really successful, awesome entrepreneurs, that I though you are the kind of people that I want to have relationships with. And one of the things that’s happening is I’m getting customers from that group of from those people that I’m forming relationships with. So I’ve been trying to navigate that to the best of my ability, like I don’t want anybody to feel like I invited them on this show. And boom, now I’m just doing like a high pressure sales conversation. I hate sales. That’s not interesting to me. But my business I don’t know if we’ve ever talked about this Kara, I I’m basically doing what scribe does, but with kids books. So. So I’m finding people that are trying to leave a legacy or they have something that they want to share. And my whole thing is, you can’t do that without reaching the hearts of kids. Like you can you can leave legacy with adults through a book that’s for adults, but if you want to pass your legacy down, you know, to the to the to the kids, you’ve got to do it in a medium that is going to reach them. And so yeah, so so my business I turn industry leaders into kids, book authors, and every everything that I need for that to work well, I have basically a podcast for for building relationships with those people. So one of the things is when I’m ghostwriting for somebody, I need to test out my ideas for their book on live audiences of kids. Unfortunately, that’s not hard for me to do because I now have just a whole bunch of teachers that would happily have me visit their school via zoom. So anyway, that’s the reason for all the different podcasts

Kara Goldin 29:52
has that ramped since the pandemic with schools like do you find you’re doing some of these on zoom or how

Timmy Bauer 30:00
Yeah, in 2019, I was making a full time living touring, like physically like going around the country to elementary schools, I would do, I would do like a, like an event, a big literacy event. And then from that event, all the schools would want to book me to come to their school. And I didn’t charge the schools because schools, elementary schools are broke. And I would just, I figured out how to make money by like, making sure that my my call to action got to the parents before I got to the school. But COVID just wiped that off the table. The good thing is, everybody now has a zoom in their consciousness. And most classrooms are on zoom. And it’s just way easier for me to visit a school via zoom than it is in person. I can’t wait for the day when I can go back to touring like in person. But it’s really nice to be able to be like, Alright, I got a, I got a school coming up in you know, an hour, better get my stuff together. And it’s just like a zoom call. And I do what I do is really fun. I have a book that I’ll have is like my main book that I’m touring with. It’s called Lucas, the dinosaur entrepreneur. And it’s, I’m an entrepreneur, and kids don’t understand entrepreneurship very much or there are a lot of kids are not getting exposure to it. And so same thing, like if you want to pass something on, you got to do it in a medium that resonates with with them. So this book is just the journey of entrepreneurship from this little T rex that wants to own his own company. And so his company, I didn’t go lemonade stand the traditional route. No, he is like, he’s like trying to figure out like how he can how he can make money. He asked his dad, he’s like, Dad, how do I make money and dad’s like, get a job. And he’s like, but I’m seven. And then he goes to his toy, Gary vilasa Raptor, which is like a magic eight ball. But it’s a, it’s a velociraptor. And he shakes it. And he’s like, how do I make money and it says, figure out what you love to do or what you already know how to do and monetize it. And he’s like, What in the world is monetize mean? So it looks that up in the dictionary? I never say what it is. So that’s one thing. I’ll tell the kids before the before I read the book to them. I’m like, the book is called What does monetize mean? I never tell you what it means. So my question to you when I’m all done is did you figure out what monetize means. And then, so he looks it up in the dictionary. He’s like, oh, and then he makes a list. It makes two lists, one of the things that he loves to do, and one of the things that he has to do every day, and on his has to do every day list. He puts play outside because his parents make him play outside. And he’s like, Oh, that one could probably go on the love list. Well, so then he’s got to think on this list of about eight things that he that he loves to do and has to do. What could he monetise and he’s like, think, think, think, think think. And then he’s like, I’ve got it, and he goes to his neighbor, who’s a Spinosaurus. And he’s like Mrs. Spinosaurus. Your dog, Toby doesn’t get enough exercise, does he? Look at his flabby arms? Look at his giant belly, he looks like he could have a heart attack any minute. And I’ve got Toby this like dinosaur dog kind of looking at the camera, like freaking out that he could have a heart attack any minute. And then he’s like, Mr. Spinosaurus is like, what do you suggest? And he’s like, I play outside every day from 5pm to 7pm. And four hours on Saturday, I could take Toby and give him plenty of exercise in that amount of time for say, $10 a week. And then I always ask the kids, I’m like, What do you think of that deal? So he just offered Mrs. Spinosaurus $10 a week to play with Toby every day. Do you? Do you think it’s a good deal? And a lot of kids will be like, yeah, it’s a great deal. And I’ll be like, Who do you think it was a good deal for? And this will be a topic that I’ll I’ll get going in the classroom?

Kara Goldin 33:35
Right? Yeah. I mean, that’s, that’s awesome. Yep. I’ll

Timmy Bauer 33:39
be asking the kids, you know, who thinks Lucas got the better end of that deal? Who thinks Mr. Spinosaurus got the better end of the deal? And then I’ll tell them, you know, that’s how you know it was a good deal is when it’s hard to figure out who got the better end of the deal. And then, of course, she takes the deal. And he’s like freaking out because he monetized he buys a frisbee for $7. And it’s less than what he’s like, I bought a frisbee for less than what I’m making this week. It’s just cool. And then I get done with it. And of course, the kids, you know, they’re going to try to guess what monetized means. Sometimes a teacher will say, Oh, it’s when you get a job. And I’ll say to the kids, I was like, is that what happened? Did Lucas get a job? Like, did he go and apply for a job? And the kids will be like, no, and I’m like, Okay, what happened? Lucas wanted money. He didn’t go and apply for a job that existed, what did he do? And I basically draw the kids out to understand, oh, what Lucas actually did was, he made a list of what he loves to do and has to do. And then he went, is there a way that I can make one of these things make money by figuring out if there’s a need for it? And that’s, that’s entrepreneurship. I’m like, that is what entrepreneurship is.

Kara Goldin 34:47
Yeah. Oh, you’re doing now is bringing it down to your audience’s level. And then also,

Timmy Bauer 34:55
and also bringing them up to my level because that’s kids. What people don’t realize is 789 year olds, they do not want to be talked down to, they do want you to enter into their world. So I want to enter into their world, there’s a reference to tick tock in this book. There’s all kinds of things that are in their world I want to enter into their world, and I want to bring them up into my world, but I am not gonna talk down to them, because that’s what most when most adults go to write a kid’s book. That’s what they end up doing.

Kara Goldin 35:24
Yeah. Now, I love it. And I think coming at it from a place of, you know, how do you start a perfect business? How do you I bet I bet you’ve created some dog walkers out of this book, like it’s people start thinking, well, there is that lady down the street who always seems a little hassled by walking her dog, if I could take Fido out, maybe I could make a few bucks. I mean, you’re you’re teaching a lot of really important skills to you know, I keep thinking to that. Guy, there’s, especially with, with so many people doing, you know, zoom learning today, like, could you gamify this in a way to actually figure out what people are getting out of it. Right wearing? Well, there. I keep thinking about, you know, these electronic whiteboards, you know, that are used in classrooms. Actually, it’s a it’s a longer story. But the challenge with electronic whiteboards especially in public schools, is that with unions, it’s really up to the teachers to whether or not they actually want to use them. Right? In private school, you can actually say use, make sure to have whenever you’re doing a whiteboard, do this. But in public school, it’s sort of like at the discretion of the teacher because the teachers unions, and

Timmy Bauer 36:48
I’ll tell you this, cara, I have tried to figure out how to monetize the school system with my whole thing. As an author, I’ve been like, should I build curriculum? And what I’ve learned is, it’s just so much easier to get money from parents that see the value in what I’m doing, than it is to get money from bureaucratic school system.

Kara Goldin 37:11
Yeah. What I’m saying, though, is that if you presume I feel like there might be a way to actually test exactly what kids are getting out, I mean, you could potentially almost be building curriculum in some ways.

Timmy Bauer 37:27
Yeah, it would be exciting. Because I’m a big believer, this is so controversial. I’m a big believer in in non public school, if I were to have kids, I would want them I would want to basically do some sort of Allah cart, you’re going to learn, you know, you’re going to learn science from from this curriculum, you’re going to learn math from this one. I also want you to know, philosophy. So we’re going to look up some philosophy curriculum, and I would just build their school all a cart. I think, personally, I just think there’s, this is going to get me in so much trouble. But I just think there’s so much bloat and bureaucracy in the public school system. And there’s a lot of students that are falling through the cracks.

Kara Goldin 38:09
Well, I’m and I think that it’s just there’s, you know, individual learners, right, where you’ve got to be able to really teach to kids with different learning differences. And, and I think that, that, that that’s really, just by sharing a story and hearing about the engagement that you’re getting, I think you’re actually people are picking up on different things as well, which I think speaks to how kids are learning, right? are they learning through examples of you actually highlighting that they could go down the street? And, you know, walk a dog for a neighbor, right? And what exactly, or who got the better end of the deal? Was it you because you were gonna make money? Or was it? You know, the lady who needed her dog walked? Right? How do people think about that? And I bet you could actually have, I mean, this is more than we set out to do this afternoon. But it’s, I bet you could have people who are, you know, you could really see pretty early on how people are thinking about things, are they helpers, or they, you know, and again, I’m not sort of saying this is good or bad or indifferent. It’s just it’s just, you can really see where people are coming from when they are making these kind of decisions about what they’re getting out of the book. Anyway, I think it’s fascinating. And I think the more you could figure out if there was some kind of app there where you actually measured, I think it could be really, really powerful. I don’t know what you do with it. Exactly. But I think it’s, you know, one, one, actually, really would be an interesting conversation. For you to have to is I was on the Barbara Bush foundation. Are you familiar with their founding?

Timmy Bauer 40:06
I mean, I know who barbara bush is. But yeah, I’m not familiar.

Kara Goldin 40:10
So Barbara Bush started this when she was married to the president and living in in the White House, she started her initiative as first lady was to help kids learn to read. And there is a major problem in the US around, not actually being able to read. And so very noble, you know, no matter what your party affiliation is, like, I remember her, you know, just putting a stake in the ground, and me initially kind of thinking, like, Don’t most people know how to read, and it’s very, very high number of kids who actually don’t sue don’t know how to read. And so that was, and so her initiative, and since she’s passed away, her family has carried it on. And Jenna Bush is, as you know, very much a part of it. And anyway, I had known a woman from a previous Foundation, she’s now running the foundation, this woman, British, and so she had invited me to come on our podcast, and talk about my book. And but she was talking to me the other day when she was on my podcast about how they’re really using zoom. And they’re, and they’re reaching out to more and more communities and gamifying things to really understand how much people because the problem is, is that you don’t really know, often in some of these communities before, how do you get into them? How do you reach them in ways? So anyway, it was definitely you should listen to that podcast when she’s on but but really, really interesting. She could be another one that could be really, really interesting for you. Well,

Timmy Bauer 41:49
I’ll ask her if she wants to come on purpose driven.

Kara Goldin 41:52
Yeah, to talk about this, because I think that that could be really interesting, but also with what you’re doing and how you’re getting, you know, some of these, I mean, she’s really focused on underserved communities, and really trying to get them thinking not just about how to learn to read and how much they’re actually reading, but also, how do you how do you get them to dream? Right? A lot of these people who are not actually being able to read and unfortunately, with the pandemic, you know, technology also plays into many of these communities because they don’t have access, right? They don’t have an iPhone, where you, you know, people are like, Oh, come on, everybody has an iPhone. No, they actually don’t. And unfortunately, in some communities, where, you know, in San Francisco, for example, public schools have been shut down for a year, there’s it communities in San Francisco that are truly underserved, where it’s basically like, you know, you guys are out of luck, you don’t have a year worth of school. And you know, and they’re not going to do anything to catch those kids up.

Timmy Bauer 43:01
There’s a lot of sad conversation going on in the, in the education space about and

Kara Goldin 43:06
especially in the inner city schools. I mean, it’s really, it’s really, really rough. And so anyway, we got into that whole conversation and and she’s thinking about, you know, how do I give kids access to, you know, zoom, for example, can can we, as a foundation go into some of these communities? And that way, we really start to figure out how big is the problem? Is it actually bigger than what we thought? And how do we work on that more So anyway, I just think it’s fascinating

Timmy Bauer 43:36
there is there is such a problem with like, the idea that kids don’t learn to dream. What’s weird is kids dream naturally. Yeah. So it’s more like it gets it. It’s it either gets stifled at an early age, or, or beaten out of you as you grow old or for a lot for most people, I think, yeah. And in an underserved community so much, there’s so much focus on survival, that there is not much focus on the value of dreaming about what it is that you would really like to do in this world. It just seems like I just remember even for me growing up, like I grew up in a trailer park. And there was a good while where we just couldn’t afford anything, honestly. And my parents are both very, like practical. My dad, super practical, he is still waiting for when I will quit this hobby and go get a real job. Yes. I remember. I should I should stop telling this story because it’s, at some point, I would like to restore my relationship with my dad. My mom fortunately, is is somebody that encouraged me to dream. And then I’m also blessed that one of my best friends that I’ve just met along the way, he’s a huge he is the person that has encouraged me to dream in my adult life the most and This is so silly to almost say. But it’s like, my level of success is directly correlated with how encouraged I have been about the things that I dream about, which is sounds so so airy and like Pixie dusty. There’s the real that it’s, it’s what like Gary Vee talks about, there’s the there’s the clouds in the dirt, and you have to have both. If you’re going to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to have your head in the clouds and your hands in the dirt. And if you don’t have both, then you’re not going to be successful.

Kara Goldin 45:31
I think that’s so true. And I think that if you don’t have the reading now, as a kid, and you don’t have books, like what you’ve created, I think that you, you’re not always going to get those dreams because you’re around people that are maybe a little jaded in some way, too.

Timmy Bauer 45:49
So when I had you on my podcast on purpose driven, I asked you What’s the topic or idea you would make a kid’s book about if you could, and use you said basically what you’re saying right now. And I mocked up what a potential cover could look like for the book that you described. And I can’t, I don’t know how well I can show you this. Because it’s like, I love I can’t share my screen. But the title says, find what you love, not what everyone thinks you should. I love like a bunch of kids. They’re all in class, and like art class, and one of the girls, she’s like, I’m making paper airplanes.

Kara Goldin 46:23
I love it. That is no, that’s so great. Yeah, I, you know, it’s funny. I, one of the stories in my book is about my first job at a toy store when I was 14. And that’s where I learned to I learned about margins, I learned about you know, and you could have talked to me about margins and and the classroom and I wouldn’t have heard it, but all of a sudden, I’m in a toy store. And I’m trying to figure out how do you figure out how, how much to charge people, right for a product? And like, what should the price be and then all of a sudden margin started to make sense to me. And so, you know, this whole concept of hands on work and you know, and getting in the dirt right, as, as Gary talks about that, it’s just oftentimes, those are the type of learners that really do need, they need to be out walking the dogs, right, they need to go out and figure out you can sit there and talk to them all day long. And they’re not going to absorb those things as much as when they actually use those things in some way. And so I’ve thought a lot about that and how do I bring some of those learnings that are even in my book into the classroom but anyway, Timmy this has been awesome. Thank you so much for joining me and and to me Where do people find you? What’s the best way?

Timmy Bauer 47:45
Yeah, so my my favorite place for people to go is a website called monthly kids book calm. So this is my this is a big if you want to if you’re interested in like the business that I’m doing where I’m turning industry leaders into kids book authors, that’s called dinosaur house so dinosaur house calm. But if you just want to read my books for free and not pay for them, monthly kids book calm. That’s exactly what it sounds like I will send you i’m i’m out putting books at a rate of more than a book a month now. So you’ll just get a free kid’s book for me in your inbox every month. It’ll be something like Lucas, the dinosaur entrepreneur, or one of the books that I’m making for a customer. Or sometimes it’ll just be something silly. Like there’s one that I’m making called, when the baby poops in the car. It’s just the older sibling, a younger sibling has just pooped in the car.

Kara Goldin 48:35
And then you have to recommend Aqua for so they don’t get diaper rash, right. So

Unknown Speaker 48:42
anyway,

Kara Goldin 48:43
thank you so much to me. And thanks, everybody, for listening. We’re here every Monday and Wednesday with just really inspiring entrepreneurs that are doing lots of different things and more than anything, figuring out what they want to do and going and making it happen. So I loved this interview Timmy. So everybody, give him five stars and come back and see us and listen to his podcast and get his books as well and so inspiring. So thank you so much.

Timmy Bauer 49:13
Yeah, thanks for having me, Kara.

Kara Goldin 49:15
before we sign off, I want to talk to you about fear. People like to talk about fearless leaders. But achieving big goals isn’t about fearlessness. successful leaders recognize their fears and decide to deal with them head on in order to move forward. This is where my new book undaunted comes in. This book is designed for anyone who wants to succeed in the face of fear, overcome doubts and live a little undaunted. Order your copy today at undaunted, the book calm and learn how to look your doubts and doubters in the eye and achieve your dreams. For a limited time. You’ll also receive a free case of hint water. Do you have a question for me or one nominate an innovator to spotlight. Send me a tweet at Kara golden and let me know. And if you liked what you heard, please leave me a review on Apple podcasts. You can also follow along with me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn at Kara golden golden thanks for listening