Latest / It's A Grand Life / He Wrote a Book With His Grandson—And Found a Way to Inspire Other Kids | Rick Williams

Transcript

He Wrote a Book With His Grandson—And Found a Way to Inspire Other Kids | Rick Williams · It's A Grand Life

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to It's a Grand Life, where our mission is to be a voice for grandfamilies and kinship caregivers everywhere.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: Did you know that in the United States alone there are 2.3 million grandparents raising their grandchildren?
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: 2.3 million.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's a Grand Life is committed to making a difference for those kids.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's why we have the podcast, a Facebook group, and the Grand Fund.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: The Grand Fund, which is a 501c3 which was launched in June of 2024, provides financial assistance to grand families, including shelter, food, clothing, and household needs.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: Grand families are in every neighborhood, in every city, every tribe and territory nationwide.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: If this is you or someone you love, we're here for you.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: And we welcome you to join us on this mission.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Our goal is to offer hope and resources to help you.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: Please subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us wherever you get your podcasts and leave a review.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: You can also join our Facebook group, just search for it under It's a Grand Life.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: And your reviews, comments, and sharing of our podcasts help us reach others that need assistance.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to another episode of It's a Grand Life.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: Hello, my name is Craig Nash, and we'd like to welcome you to another It's a Grand Life.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: And today we are going to have a great time together.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to talk about dragons and we're going to talk about dinosaurs and we're going to talk about a grandpa who's interacted with his grandsons and came up with a whole line of literature designed to empower kids and especially grandkids.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: Rick Williams, thank you so much for being our guest here on It's a Grand Life.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: And we're excited to hear your story.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: And tell us a little bit about this new career that you have of being an author of specifically of children's literature.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, first of all, I'm honored to be with you.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm very intrigued by what you've done.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: And you and I are both on similar paths of trying to, with our legacy, make a difference in the lives now of our grandkids.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I think what you've done is very special, and I'm very excited to hear what you've done with Ella.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously, I've talked to you about my sister and her grandson, Braden.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: But in my case, yeah, I was in Silicon Valley, helped start the biotech industry, and I felt I was interested in American history.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I began to collect rare Civil War memorabilia.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: And as I went through the process, I found I was very drawn to the personal accounts.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I began to collect letters and diaries.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so in 1995, I took what I call sabbatical, where my wife lets me quit being a crazy entrepreneur running around the world.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then I get to know her again, and then she sends me back into the crazy world.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I took off, so I took off nine nine months in 95, and I wanted to write.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I took a course at Berkeley on writing, and then I thought, oh, I could do this.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: So then I didn't know what I was going to write about.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I ended up, as I said, collecting personal accounts from the Civil War.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I had a collection that I bought that was from artillerists in Chicago.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I discovered that six of them had gotten the Medal of Honor, but nobody had ever written about them.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I was very fortunate that the top expert in the whole Civil War field was the chief historian for the National Park Service, and he took me under his wing and he taught me how to do this.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: So then I did the first book, and it was a 600-page academic book, 100 pages of footnotes.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: And it was well researched before the internet because I had to go all over the country to these museums and little history centers.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, so then uh then the next part of the story is I ended up buying the collection of the great-grandfather of Jim Henson of the Muppets.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yes.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: I owned the journals of Jim Henson of the Muppets.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was that was my next book.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so as I was working on that book, then this all tied together.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to kind of weave the story, but but I ended up meeting Jim Henson's mother, and I interviewed his mother twice.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: She was 92 at the time.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: But she, you know, I was putting together a genealogical history of the family, which they didn't have, right?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I was an external researcher.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so I hadn't taken two years off at that time to launch the first book, write the second book.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was with her and she was telling me stories about Jim's grandmother.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so the grandmother did something very similar to you, where Jim was in a difficult situation, and she basically moved from another part of the country near his house in Maryland and took him in, like you did with your wife with Ella.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And first she began to teach him literacy and was very hands-on with artwork.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: So to make a long story short, she then not only taught him to read the classics, but to become an artist with her.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so they did this funny thing where she took the wall of her dining room and turned it into an art tableau.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where Jim Henson and this Sarah began to do artwork.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: So she taught him artwork.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: But her dad during the Civil War needed to sew his clothes.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: So he began to learn how to sew.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: So he taught his daughter how to sew.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: She then taught Jim Henson how to sew.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: And all of this together is how he created the Muppets.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: So at the age of 19, he created Kermit the Frog based on all the work of his grandmother, and then ended up on a local TV station in DC, and that was how this all started.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, so I got to meet her.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I got to find out how she took basically Jim under her wing and did something very similar to what you and your wife did with Ella and my sister did with her grandson Braden.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: But I was very intrigued by this story, right?
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'd always done a lot of story making with my kids.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: So growing up in a dysfunctional alcoholic family, we had no books.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so my sister and I, when we were having this discussion five years ago, and when I told her, I said, you know, I really believe that the bookmobile and getting books saved my life.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: And she started laughing.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: She said, I used to steal your books.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: She was four years younger.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: So she had no books either.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: So she would take my Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew and Tom Swift books.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I never knew that this was going on for all those years.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: She was borrowing my books.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, so the story making was key for me surviving this dysfunctional family.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: So then by the time I had kids, I decided to do 180 degrees, the opposite of my dad, especially, and I raised my kids very hands-on.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: So at the very young age, I was doing story making with my son and with my daughter then as well.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: So they had grown up with me making up stories with them, right?
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Whether it was Star Wars, G.I.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Joe, Barbie, and we would spend hours on the floor of their bedroom building towers and making up stories.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, so what happened then is I, you know, got more fully ingrained in this whole business world.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I decided that, again, I wanted to write these nonfiction history books, which I did.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then I was studying to write thriller books.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I spent seven years every summer in July in New York City with the international best-selling thriller writers.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: So this was Patterson, Baldacci, all of us, Lee Child, all of the most famous best-selling authors.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: We would go two days ahead of time and pay, and they would teach us their secrets.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I had been working on this, yeah, I've been working on this international thriller for years, right?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so it started with Europe, and then when I was in China, I added China.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: So now I was ready to resurrect some of my history writing, but to get these thriller books launched.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: So this was 2018.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: It was April 28, 2018.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: So my oldest grandson was eight at the time.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't even why I did this.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: I decided to teach him the history of writing.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so based on Jim Henson's mother, grandmother, I built an arts and crafts center in my house for the kids, the grandkids.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I have a library of kids' books, and then I have a specific dedicated arts and crafts center for them.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I took him in the center and I said, okay, here's a journal.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: A fancy journal.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I gave him a pen, four-colored pen, and I said, okay, we're gonna learn the history of writing.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I took a quill pen and did it and dipped it in the ink.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: But what I did was, which was kinetic, and I didn't think this through, but he I had him write with each each instrument.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: So he wrote with a quill pen, and then I had a steel dip tip, steel-tipped dip pen from the Civil War.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's how C.S.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Lewis wrote all of his books.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: He used a dip pen, wrote two or three words, dipped the pen in, wrote another two or three words.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: I had him do it.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so then we got all the way to expensive fountain pens and then the cheap gel pen.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I did this.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: So then I didn't really think much about it.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: So then uh after I did the you know writing, I said, here's how writing can affect your life, and you can write.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I then showed him my two American history books.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Again, 600 pages, 400 pages.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: So at that time, he was intrigued that I had written a book.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so then a week later, he comes to my office and he says, Here's what we're gonna do.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna write a book together.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I was sitting right here in my office, looking over here on the other side of my desk, and he's standing there, and I said, Oh, really?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: What are we going to write about?
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Oh, it's a book about dragons and dinosaurs, and the lead characters are Jason, his sister Amanda, and their cousin Elisa, and they're in middle school.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: And he was eight years old.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Oh.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: So then this is a true story.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: I looked at him and I said, his name's Brady.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Brady, you do know that dragons and dinosaurs aren't in the same books or movies or TV shows.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he looks at me and he says, You'll figure it out, Pap Pap.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: And he walked out.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: So that's how this all started.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: So then, so then what happened was I had to figure out what he wanted to write about, right?
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I had no idea.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: I was learning history and thrillers, I don't know anything about Kidlet.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: So then he comes to stay with us in June of that year for a week while his parents were on their 10-year anniversary, and then we started going through it.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: What do you want to write about?
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: We got to figure out how do we get dragons and dinosaurs in the same world?
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: We should time travel to get them there.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: So he had ideas.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: So then what happened was I took him and my other two oldest grandsons to the planetarium in Chapel Hill.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: And this wasn't really preordained.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: I just took them to I took them on an outing.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: I actually put together a training worksheet that they had to study before I took them.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I had like a cheat sheet on how to go to a planetary.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: They gave them homework.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: So they showed up with their sheets.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: We go to the planetarium, and the first thing we find out are these ancient navigational instruments that I had actually somewhat studied in China.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I knew about this.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: But then what happened was the Apollo astronauts trained there secretly.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: 64, I think, of the Apollo astronauts in the 60s trained in Chapel Hill at this local planetarium.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: And there are pictures of them standing beside this celestial globe with all the constellations, and these are the Apollo astronauts.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: So we looked at it, and I said, you know, we could combine these ancient navigational instruments with this constellation globe, and we could create a star globe.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how we started.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: So then we went home and we invented a star globe to get the kids to the modern world or the fantasy world.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, so that's how this all started.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: So then he and I, um, you know, the internet was there, so we had to do a lot of, we didn't have chat GPT, but we I went through a lot of Googling.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I had to find out, okay, you want to create a saber-toothed tiger that's half tiger and half human.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: He said, yes, that's what we're gonna do.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: He's the emperor of the kingdom for the the bad guys.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: So how what's he gonna look like?
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: So then we went through this ordeal of internet images and Pinterest trying to find things that was in his head, and so then we began to put this story together.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: And this is how this started.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: So that was in the summer of 2018.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I wrote I wrote the first part of the manuscript, and I gave it to six kids from our youth group.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: So at this time I was just gonna write a private book and make 10 copies, and then that was it, right?
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: And go back to what I was doing.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so I ended up hiring these six kids from the youth group that didn't know me.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: So this was very anonymous.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: I paid them, whatever, 100 bucks to go through the manuscript.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I had these long questionnaires that they filled in, and then it comes back and they say, Well, this is really great.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is like the next Percy Jackson.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: I want to read the second book, blah, blah, blah.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then they said, but there's things you should make better.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then they gave me critical for constructive criticism about the characters and about the kids.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: And how old were you these kids?
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: They were all they were all 12-13.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: So they're all 12 or 13, middle school.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Middle school, yeah.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: And um two of them I could tell, back to our journey with our kids, our grandkids, I could tell that they were very literate and they had been well trained, and that I could tell two of them really were very insightful.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: I could just tell by the questionnaire.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: So then for years, every year I would read the questionnaire because it really was very priceless to get these kids critiquing the manuscript.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: Love that.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyways, so that's so so then if you said the next step.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: So the next step was how to actually make a book that's publishable, right?
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because right now this is a private book.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: But the youth group likes it.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I hired a Disney author that lived near me, who I was studying under, and he was a fantasy writer and written, had wrote two books for Disney and three other books.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I hired him to teach me how to write for kids.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: So then that's what happened.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: So then Brady and I would go to his house during COVID with our masks on, and we would meet in the driveway, and we would meet with this guy that was a fantasy author, and then he basically deconstructed and reconstructed the book.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: So then by that time I had to rewrite the book.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: So now we're into September of 2020, and I had hired a woman who was the top, one of the top business of writing experts, and so she had been guiding me and so on this crazy journey.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so then I said, Well now, I'm writing books for kids.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so she says, Well, you need to hook up with my friend, and uh her name's Mary Cole.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: She's one of the top experts for kid literature editing.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what I did.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: So then I hired her.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I still know the day.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: So it was October 9th, 2020.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: I had my first one-hour consult with Mary Cole in Minneapolis, and it was clear she really knew this kid world in a very detailed way.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so, anyway, so I hired her.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: So then she taught me how to edit the book.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: So we would have we would have calls.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: She wasn't doing Zoom at the time, but we would have conference calls with me and Brady and her.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: And we would go through, okay, here's what we need to do to make the book better.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, so I finished the book, but then I needed to get it published.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so she, this person, Mary Cole, was from the literary agent and publishing world.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: Is that right?
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you're you've got an amazing story, and I I'm just trying to run your whole story through the filter of how can we help grandparents who are being our grandkids being raised by their grandparents to get this uh this this this self-image, this self-esteem, this entrepreneurism, this idea that they are are that your your kids and grandkids have had a phenomenal seat at the table with a entrepreneur who's who's really discipled them on how to run a business, how to think entrepreneurially, and in family values.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, I'm I'm in fact I'm leaving in a few minutes to go talk to a group of grandparents raising grandkids today, and I'm like, man, this these books would be absolutely terrific if we could first of all the main one of the main things I like about this that you haven't even touched on is that you get the kids off the phone when they're reading your books.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: And that is just so important.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: You know, this uh and we have um two of my uh granddaughters uh are uh the parents of one of her best friends are both the psychologists, and their main mission is you gotta get off the phone, you gotta get off the devices, and and that's what you've done with your kids and grand grandkids, which is so important because you know a lot of kids don't like to read.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: And and but what you've done here is put together some inspirational material that they would want to read and want to be part of.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: But how do we put these cookies on a lower shelf so we can impact some of these family dynamics with your main mission and vision?
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we used to have routine meetings with Brady, business meetings, and I would always ask him, Why are you doing this?
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: What's in it for me?
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Why are you doing this?
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: And he would say, Well, I want to spend time with you, but I want to have fun.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: So that was really the key ingredient to this.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I took him out and taught him how to do archery.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: I bought a replica of a medieval broadsword, wooden broadsword, and then taught him how to do sword fighting.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so we would climb construction hills to pretend we were looking for the five-headed dragon.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what happened.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was very kinetic.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I would take him on hikes, I would get him involved kinetically with imagineering the story.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because at that point, see, that's the part that we're missing, I think, is that at that age from let's say nine to thirteen, kids are super creative because they're not bound by all the restrictions from the school system and the parents.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: So they are completely creative, so they can make up stuff like let's put dragons and dinosaurs in the same book.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what happened.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I unleashed his creativity by doing activities and participating with him.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's part of it was the fun.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted to have fun.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I knew that if I was going to keep this going, because I wanted his ideas, because now he stuck me into this thing, right?
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: So now I'm into this thing.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: And if he leaves, then I'm stuck.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: So then I had to keep coming up with ways to have fun.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, so so that's what I did.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that the Jim Hanson's grandmother's story, your story, my story, my sister's story, is how do we engage the kids early?
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I just talked to my sister again today.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: How did you do this by, you know, taking custody of a three-year-old?
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so her point was that she did what you and I did, which was she engaged him with books and reading, reading to him, reading with him, making stories.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: She had, she took her son room and turned it into an arts and crafts room.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so we find we started laughing because this just happened a couple hours ago.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: We finally figured out back to the grandparents, right?
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: We we need to help, as you have done, I've done, engage.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: We've got to model it.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: If we want them to read books, we should be reading books.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: We can't tell them to read books, we should be reading books.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: 100%.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: And we can't be telling them to make stories if we're not making stories.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so my my sister and I had this funny, funny thing where the the daughter, her daughter, my niece, that got into substance abuse problems, right?
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: She took her dining room and turned it into an arts and crafts center for her kids.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: At the same time, unbeknownst to anybody, what, 300 miles away, my daughter did the same thing.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: She took her dining room and converted it into an arts and crafts center for her four kids.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I then in my house created an arts and crafts center.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: But not necessarily, not everybody knows we've all done this.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it gets back to the modeling.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that finding ways for the kids to have fun and learn how to read and write and be creative and imagineering is really, I think, the spark that we can add, which which may be part of that discussion of how do we engage other grandparents.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in my case, my goal then from the very beginning was to inspire grandparents and parents to be involved.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: But then I decided I had to equip them.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why the website, the story making hub, is everything from A to Z.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: So if a grandparent said, Well, I want to be like like Rick and Craig, how do I engage with my grandkid?
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: They can just go to the website because it like takes you every, it takes you through here from A to Z.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: You start, you do this, and then you go on.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the roadmap, here's the curriculum, here are the 30 free resources.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to buy anything, and just all the resources are there, but you've got to take the time and the effort to invest in the child to let them get engaged because they're not obviously going to go on my website.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: So the workbook is self-contained.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: So the workbook, if somebody said, okay, well, I want to just start simple, then I could just get the workbook.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: So the workbook does everything from A to Z, teaches the kid about how to make stories, and then at the end they write their own little short story.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: And excuse me, but on the website, it goes into much more detail.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense to you?
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because makes a lot.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm about ready to announce this next month.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: So you're the first person to I'm I'm serious.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: I have not announced what I'm doing.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: So next month we're announcing.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: As I'm listening to this, Rick, I'm thinking about the grandparent groups I work with in Detroit.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, we're we're working with groups in Atlanta, in uh Huntsville, Alabama, in Las Vegas, Colorado.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: We're part of a group called Generations United, which is a group of grand voices that advocate for grandparents at the state level.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: But this whole idea of um you know giving the kids the workbook and getting them engaged in this is so powerful.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: And it's again, if we can get them off the social media, put their devices down.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: And my my granddaughter is very creative.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: She likes to paint and she likes to draw.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes she'll just go in a room and and just you know put it, shut everything down, listen to music, and do that.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm thinking of yeah, but something happens, Craig, they lose that.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't mean to interrupt you, but but there's there's something that happens.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: So another thing I haven't told you is I've got the three grandkids collaborating, but now I'm helping other people's kids.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: My friend, I listen to you anytime.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: And for those of you that uh just joining us, uh, our guest today has been Rick Williams on Instagram Life, and he has got an amazing story.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: And you may have to listen to this one a couple times because it's loaded with so many incredible ideas that could not only help grandkids, but help our whole country.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: Rick, thank you so much for joining us.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: I look forward to being back with you again.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: And at the bottom of our screen, you'll have all his uh websites and and uh and connect to connectivity ideas and phone numbers and what have you.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: But thanks for so much for being our guest on It's a Grand Life.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: I look forward to seeing you again real soon.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, thank you, Craig.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see you.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for joining us today for It's a Grand Life.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's a Grand Life provides vital content, regulatory updates, and subject matter experts that are committed to supporting the 2.4 million kids and their caregivers from every neighborhood, every city, every tribe and territory nationwide.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: Please subscribe to our YouTube channel or wherever you get your podcast and leave a review.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: Every new subscriber and review helps us reach others that need assistance.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: As caregivers, we are united in purpose.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: We are driven by hope while providing strength for today and hope for tomorrow.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: We are truly making a difference in while living the grand life.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: If you have a suggestion for a future episode, please reach out to us.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: But we'll see you next time for another It's a Grand Life.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for joining us.