Deirdre Palm Adams, author of Don't Be Afraid, Rocky.

Don't Worry, Rocky, and Don't Be bullied, Rocky.

Thank you, Deirdre, for appearing on the Adventures in the Heart of Children's Book Authors podcast.

I, first of all, want to preference this with my audience to let them know later in the interview, we're going to discuss your website.

And my audience knows I like to tease them a bit.

And because I like, I always try and look for what children's book authors are doing different.

And I thought what you're doing is so cool.

But we'll get more into that because I don't want to take away from talking about your children's books first.

I know you've written three children's books in your book series, which is awesome.

And today we're primarily focused on Don't Worry, Rocky.

But I'm happy to reference the other two books in your series.

And to start with, I was fascinated by your bookstore series, the Adventures of Rocky.

And you're thinking, okay, why is he so enamored with this?

It's because our book series is entitled the Adventures of Caboose the Rocky Mountain Bear.

Yes.

Yes.

So neat connection.

Tell me, what drew you, Deirdre, to the word adventures?

Okay, so I'll just rewind just a minute.

So during.

When the world was shut down, right?

I have a poodle, and her name is Rocky, and Rocky is my joy.

So I would walk her along the beach early in the morning just to find inner peace, joy, solitude.

It's just such a beautiful place to be watching the sunrise.

I live on the east coast, so just beautiful.

And we always, my husband and I always joke like, this is the Adventures of Rocky, right?

So my dog would run around and she would find a crab, or she would run up to the water's edge, get afraid, and run back.

Or an airplane would fly overhead and she'd run home.

So we began to notice that Rocky had a lot of fears.

Every little thing bothered her when she was out in this place that brought my husband and I such joy.

And I thought, wow, Rocky, these adventures could teach other people lessons, right?

On how to overcome fears, overcome anxieties.

So the first book I wrote was called Don't Be Afraid, Rocky.

And Rocky was overcoming fears of loud sounds, the dark, being alone, being afraid.

So I thought Rocky could be a great vessel for children to really just overcome some common things that children fear.

When we wrote the book, initially, and I say we because my niece is my illustrator and I can talk more about her In a few.

But she brought Rocky to life in these colorful, beautiful illustrations.

But Rocky's fears were so overwhelming to her, and I thought children could really learn from her.

We launched the book, and children began to relate immediately to Rocky.

Immediately in the beach town that it was started in, Ocean City, New Jersey, we would hold book signings.

And one of my favorite book signings was when a little child came up to me and he said, where's Rocky?

Where's Rocky?

So I had called my husband.

I said, you got to bring Rocky, right?

So he brings Rocky up, and his grandmother tells me that she was asked to bring her grandson to the beach every day looking for Rocky because he had the same fears as Rocky.

And I thought, oh, my God.

So Rocky's really, through the eyes of Rocky, she's inspiring children.

And then, don't Worry, Rocky really came about because of anxiety.

Fear is what you fear right now.

Something happens and you fear it immediately.

Anxiety is what you worry about in the future.

So I began to notice that Rocky would worry.

We would say, let's go to the beach, Rocky.

And I could see she got a little worried.

And I thought, this isn't good.

She shouldn't be worried about the beach.

So we wrote Don't Worry, Rocky.

And kids really related to the jellyfish.

There's a clam in there.

There's a dolphin that teaches her things.

And then, of course, the last book came about just because a lot of children and parents alike and teachers told me that bullying was a big topic today.

So Rocky gets bullied by a shark, and a lobster comes along and teaches her a little bit about standing up for herself.

And then a whale teaches her wisdom that the bully really wants to be a friend.

And yes.

So that's the adventures.

It all spawned from the actual Rocky, my poodle, who had these adventures on the beach of being afraid of the silliest little things.

So that's kind of how it all came about.

I love it.

I love it.

Because you know what?

As we dig into your website, because I was looking at your website and you wrote a really cool statement, and it says, deirdre's beloved children's book series, the Adventures of Rocky, is often a highlight of her conversations as she shares the heart and inspiration behind her stories.

That's so intriguing.

And it also is going to build up to what I'm trying to share with, with our audience.

I'd like to delve deeper into that.

That whole statement, because I want to talk to you about that inspiration and how you're Using it in your business.

Talk to us about your three children's books and that whole statement and what it means to you.

So, children, I've always had a special place in my heart for children.

I didn't have children of my own.

However, I've always been surrounded.

God has gifted me with so many nieces and nephews, and I've just always had an instant attraction to children.

I relate to children, they relate to me.

It's always been a great thing.

So I've always wanted to inspire children to believe in themselves.

So I love talking about Rocky's book, most especially with children.

But what I found is it also is very much a topic that helps adults as well.

So when I talk about fear, anxiety, bullying, there are topics that transcend age.

Right?

It doesn't just have to be to an 8 year old.

Absolutely.

Of course it can be to a 48 year old as well.

I have an overall big picture brand called love how good you feel.

I've worked in fashion for 40 years and it's all about how you look.

Right.

So I thought what's really important.

A lot of people say if you look good, you feel good.

What's really important to me is if you feel good, you look good.

It emanates from your pores, from your eyes, from your smile, from your actions and your energy.

So helping children feel good, overcoming these challenges that every child has right.

Really is very much near and dear to my heart.

And I've always wanted to make sure that children know that there is, first of all, that they're not alone, that they're not alone.

Everyone has these fears.

And so does that answer the question.

If you know what you got me thinking, and that's what I love about this, is that I have five grandchildren.

What?

And yeah, it's pretty incredible.

And what happens is it's to your point, it doesn't matter what age you are.

I can actually see myself in my grandchildren, so feeling what they feel, I can even remember back to how they handle certain situations.

I can remember back to being that age and handling that situation that same way.

So I don't think the inner child in any of us ever disappears.

And then if you can pull that inner child out through an into an adult, I think it makes you feel good even just talking to you right now.

I'm getting like a little lump in my chest because I just feel good about discussing how children's books can do this for not only children, but for adults.

I've heard that several times now from other children's.

Book authors who have had adults come up to them and say, oh, I can see me in your character.

And I was talking to a children's book author, Chelsea Chon Kim, and she wrote a book called Carol the Carrot Bowls for the Salad Boy.

And Carol has a friend who goes through bullying.

And what Chelsea said to me was she had a lot of adults come up to her and say, I saw myself in that character.

So that's pretty amazing.

What a children's book.

And it's actually because it's a children's book, I think it opens up people's courage to talk about it because it's not a serious conversation when they talk about their it's, oh gosh, yes, I can relate to that as an adult.

I've had fears as well.

It may not be the dark and the bullying may not be a shark, but it's certainly reality and makes it a little more relatable, I think, to adults.

So for sure.

Fantastic.

And that's what is building up to what I want to talk to you about in terms of your website and your book business plan.

Because I found when I looked at your website, if you brought it together through your children's book, but that's only part of who you are and what you do.

It seems to me you're building a foundation then to build your business out from the children's books.

Now, am I reading that correctly?

You are my.

So yes.

Thank you for even bringing that up.

So my overarching brand, as I call it, is love how good you feel.

And that encompasses of course, my children's book series which I'm so proud of.

And not only do they make me feel good, but they make the children and the audiences as well feel good who read them.

But I also have, I work in the fashion industry so I have a lot of experience with business and leadership.

So I'm writing another book about leadership and that's really about empathetic leadership leading from the heart.

It's just about how the evolution of leadership over the years has changed from toxic leadership in the 90s and especially in the fashion industry to today where it's very much about people respond most especially when, when it's from the heart.

I also have a wellness business which I'm an advocate for wellness.

I love well being.

I love healthy foods, I love healthy household products.

I love non toxic environments.

So it transcends through my books as well as my leadership and, and all the things.

So those three things define me is I'm a leader with heart.

I'm an author of not only children's books, but also leadership books and of course, my wellness business and my children's.

Books, which I love, because the one thing that I've been finding.

And now, you know, I'm almost into my 40th interview with Children's book authors, and one of the things.

Oh, thanks, Deirdre.

One of the things I found is that the first thing, in the beginning, I didn't ask people this because I didn't think of it as so obvious, but then I thought, oh, and it's all about having a book business plan.

Because what happens is, I think a lot of people don't realize, but the moment you publish a book, you are now a solopreneur or you're.

You now have a business.

Because most times with a business, you either have a product or you have a service to sell.

As the children's book author, guess what?

You have a product to sell.

You can actually have both, because selling your book becomes a service to others as well.

Meaning that I do a lot of schoolbook readings, a lot of, like, I'm doing two events this summer that are very much near and dear to my heart because they're in the town that the book is based on, where I'm at a bookstore, the local bookstore, downtown author book signing.

And then I have an event at their library, which is fun.

So all the children are coming, and it's Meet the Author.

And I talk a little bit about that, and I talk about what it takes to craft a children's book.

But you're right, that's only part of it.

So when you think of the character, the storyline, the illustrations, all of those components, which is massive, a massive project, when you're done, you then say, okay, how do I get this out to the world?

So that they could all see the same vision that I've had.

Yes.

And that's a big part, and that's.

Why I wanted to bring, like, you're a shining example through your website, is that it points out to aspiring book authors and current children's book authors.

I believe it takes more than one book to build a business.

And so if you don't have multiple books, then how are you supporting your book business like yourself?

That's what I love about when I went to your website, and I thought, oh, my goodness, you're using your children's book as a base to build out those three arms that you talked about earlier so that you can support your habit of being a children's book.

Authority, which is part of your role in life, but not all of your role in life.

It all wraps around obviously just loving how good you feel about yourself, about building confidence, cultivating an environment of success within yourself, not necessarily externally.

But to feel good about who you are and the person you become and how you treat others is so important.

So those messages go through all of my different aspects.

But talking about marketing a book, it's funny because my first book, I actually didn't have any clue.

No clue.

It was just poured out of my heart.

I don't even know where the book came from.

It was a.

With my father and I, and it just poured outta my heart and I did it.

And then I thought, oh gosh, the local bookstore downtown picked it up, thank goodness.

And they guided me a little bit.

And then I found an amazing publisher to do my second and third book.

And that came along with a class that taught me about the marketing of a book and the development of the character beyond the book.

How do you bring that character beyond the book?

So the social media of Rocky, meaning the her Instagram and her Facebook, it's actually under the name Deirdre Palm Adams, author, but it's really all about Rocky's messages to children.

Believing in yourself, having confidence, standing up for yourself, finding joy, being kind to others.

All those messages come through in her social media, which doesn't really have.

It relates to the book, but it's not direct passages from the book.

Curious on because we've been teasing the audience a bit because unless they're looking at your website, they would notice that you have a speaking and coaching business like I talked about before.

You're generating other sources of revenue and with your books, but it's different because it's not.

You're looking at the wellness side of it also, which could.

Which incorporates your books, but not primarily that main source.

Talk to us a bit about how you've used your children's book as a base to build out your speaking and coaching business.

Even though like you said on your website, the first thing is love how good you feel.

So talk to us about that.

Yeah.

My speaking engagements primarily for my book are school book readings.

I've done a lot of those and I've done a lot of events at libraries where I speak out.

But I've always been a coach and a motivator and a speaker in my professional career.

So I've always spoke about leadership qualities and really cultivating how to lead others with heart and soul and all of the things.

So they intertwined and it's funny because the children's book aspect of my brand always comes to light and it makes people feel a little less intimidated, if that makes sense.

Yes.

Where they think, oh, gosh, she's a children's book author.

Then all of a sudden I'm viewed as this kind person and I'm thinking, gosh.

But I talk all the time about kind leadership.

But it's the children's book that opens.

The door because it's a real concrete action.

Right.

A children's book is a real concrete action of someone's personality and like you said, opens the door to other opportunities.

People always ask about it.

It's always one of the first topics that people ask about it.

It's people.

And a lot of people also say to me as well, I'd love to write a children's book and love helping people do that as well.

So I think that's all part of it.

But speaking engagements and coaching.

I've been a business coach professionally for five years.

So separate from my fashion business, I have a coaching business.

But I coach leaders, how to really position themselves on social media or branding, all those things.

So that's a big part of what I do as well.

But I also speak, of course, about leadership and in work with your website.

When people go to your website and I have your website up in front of me on my iPad.

But talk to us a bit about.

Because the neat thing about it, when I look at your tabs, you've got wellness and health, you've got mentoring and leadership, children's books, media, a blog, you've got really three main buckets.

And so when people come to your website, talk to us about that journey.

So what I've done, because I don't want to confuse the audience because it is three separate audiences, however, they do converge in my mind and I'm like, oh, gosh, I hope it does in others as well.

So the Adventures of Rocky has its own URL.

So if you go to the Adventures of Rocky, it will point directly to the Rocky page.

Right.

I have done a lot of where we offer a free activity book.

So if you log onto my website, you get a free activity book from Rocky, which is super fun.

And then though, when they.

You enter that site, you don't really.

You're not really aware of the other pages as much.

Okay.

But when you enter the other pages, you see the children's book.

So it's funny how that happens.

But, yeah, it's always been a conversation.

When I was developing the website Is what do I prioritize?

How do I make it all converge together and in bigger picture messages?

And how do I not seem like I'm doing three different things?

Because they really all relate to each other.

That's what I wanted the audience to understand.

As you're developing your website to think about, you may have to have a broader base of business, an umbrella.

An umbrella, great word.

An umbrella of businesses to help you support your children's book authorship.

And I just want to open that people's minds to knowing that so that they know they're to have a standalone, single children's book, I think might be a difficult thing to try and support any type of real revenue.

Yeah.

And some of the things I've come along.

Absolutely right.

And I think we're all dynamic, right?

We're all dynamic people.

We all are juggling many things.

So why not incorporate into what you're selling?

You're not just selling one product.

So not Pepsi Cola, just selling a soda.

Right.

I'm selling a whole bigger picture brand about living a better life and how to really have messages and conversations that are healing and supportive to children and adults alike.

So all of those components come together really for that.

And it's interesting you should say that because I even find for myself, if you talk to my friends on my 40th birthday, and I can still remember back to my 40th birthday and I was at work, my whole staff, they gave me things like Depends, like adult diapers.

They gave me preparation, age.

I mean, they just took shots at me like crazy.

And at that birthday, I announced my.

What I call my best before date was I have a goal to live to 111.

And at that time, everyone fell to the ground laughing.

But as the world goes on, 111 isn't as unbelievable a tale as one might think.

They always say, if you want to live longer, the number one thing, get younger friends.

So as a children's book author, I have to tell you, I have five grandchildren.

They're much younger than me.

And I also consider them my friends.

So isn't that the truth?

Because I always talk and I believe so much in energy, right?

So when you're in a room and when I do book readings and my mother, by the way, I have to mention my mother because she's my partner in my business for the book adventures.

She's 90.

She'll be 90 in two months.

And she lives with me.

And you would think my mother's 60.

Her energy is just explosive.

But when we walk Into a classroom of little minds and the curiosity and the questions that they ask.

One time I was doing a book reading and we're going through the book of Don't Be afraid, right?

And a little kid raises her hand and they says, can I ask a question?

I said, sure, please.

Is this a true story?

And I thought, in the mind of a child, it is a true story.

Right.

The crab really does talk to Rocky, and the star and the seagull really guides her home.

But so I answered the question and I talked a little bit about fiction and nonfiction, a little bit about that.

But I wanted that to stay true to the child's mind because I wanted her to believe that it was a true story, that Rocky really does have these fears.

And they were supported by friends, right?

Reaching out to friends.

Yes.

And you know what?

I tell the story of my granddaughter who is the co author of our first book and her name is Kira.

And the name of our main character is Caboose, which starts with a K because the K represents Kira, but through her young eyes.

When we started this journey, she had two plushies.

One was a bunny named Georgia and one was a bear named George.

And she said they were brother and sister in the minds of a child.

Guess what?

It doesn't matter that one was a bunny and one was a bear.

They're brother and sister.

And the world could use more of that in my mind.

Completely agree.

Completely agree.

So I agree.

And when I.

When the energy that children bring forth back to the reverse aging, if we want to call it.

Right.

This is reverse aging strategy, right?

Absolutely.

I go into a classroom and these children with the energy bursting out of them, you immediately feel young and engaging and energized.

Absolutely.

There's so much joy in writing a children's book, but there's so much joy in seeing the way it affects children and how your message or the message of the character can really support children.

I just love it.

I love it so much.

Fantastic.

I want to talk about something you said just earlier.

You said that you published your first book and then you found a publisher for your second and third book.

So take us through that journey.

At the end of the day, you're still self published.

Is that correct?

Yeah, exactly right.

So self publishing is a really cool thing, of course, because you walk away with a product that you actually own.

So you can self publish a book.

Anybody can do it.

You can go on Amazon, you can go to many places and learn how to do that very easily.

And I encourage people to do especially young Children.

But I wanted to take it a notch further.

So my first book I self published with a hybrid publisher and it was great, but it didn't come along with the education behind it.

So they just took my product and produced it and then walked away.

And I owned the product.

So you ended up with a published product which you had in distribution through probably Amazon and IngramSport.

So they, the hybrid publisher got to you to that point and I didn't.

Know what I was doing.

And to your point in the beginning is you write this and then what do you do?

Where's the roadmap after that?

So I met a friend who owns a publishing children's publishing business in Canada and I'm forever changed.

It came along.

It wasn't just a hybrid publisher, which is they guide you along how to how to create the book, but they also teach you how to make sure your character is developed, making sure the messaging is clear, making sure the illustrations and that even just the book design is appropriate.

And then along with that, a whole marketing plan.

Right.

How then do you take that message out?

How do you grow your audience to really make sure that the book goes out there?

Ingramspark is a big part of that because it's global and I work in the fashion retail industry, so I know the value of not just having it on one retail site.

So having your book on Amazon is great, but a bookstore isn't going to pick up an Amazon book because they're both retailers.

IngramSpark is a wholesaler, so they sell to bookstores.

So that was really important to me to make sure that all of my books were IngramSpark so I could sell to bookstores.

So I'm on Amazon, on Barnes and Noble, Target.com, my website, in local bookstores.

So it opens up the ability to have your book in many places, not just one place.

Amazon's probably the most powerful retailer for book selling.

And it's exciting when you hit number one on Amazon for the day, that's really cool because you generate all this enthusiasm.

And that's another thing I learned is launch day is very important that you get energy and emotion behind that day so that you're not only your friends and family support, but larger than that, you get this momentum building and then Amazon recognizes you as a bestseller for the day.

So you're the number one sales for the day in a certain category that's.

Really, well, a little bit on that journey.

So people understand because it sounds like you actually strategically planned it.

Was that a beans for your second.

And third book, I didn't do it for my first.

My second, third book, I learned that first thing you want to do is you want to gather a launch crew.

You could call it a launch support system.

So of course, it's your inner circle, it's your friends and family, and you tell everybody on ABC Date, I'm going to launch my book.

I would love for your support.

And I crafted, with the guidance of my publisher, a post that I shared with them.

And I said, will you share this post out to your audience?

So not only does my audience see it, but my audience's audience sees it.

And they all said, it's a children's book.

It's a feel good thing, right?

Hey, my friend just wrote a children's book.

Come check it out.

Right.

Looking for a Christmas gift.

Here's a great gift or whatever it may be.

So I crafted that and got about a hundred to 150 people really engaged with it.

And I said, when my book launches on this date, please share it out to your audience.

And it immediately drove traffic to Amazon.

That's a really big deal.

But then once that happens, of course you want to thank everyone and you want to.

You're so appreciative of the support that you've gained, but you want to continue that momentum because that big day is a great day.

But then sales will fall flat the next day.

So with that in advance, I crafted a social media strategy.

So every three days, I didn't want to bombard my audience, but every three days, I would craft a social media message about messaging from the book, taking excerpts from the book.

What is Rocky talking about in the book?

How is she helping others?

And then, of course, set up podcasts, set up speaking engagements, set up book signings, events.

I do a lot of festivals as well.

That's so fun.

If you're a children's book author out there listening, I highly recommend festivals.

Go to the festival.

Set up a table, have your book there.

You will attract so many people because you're very unique because festivals are usually jewelry and T shirts, right?

Yes.

But then here's a children's book author.

What's this about?

And all the kids come up, and I have a plushie that looks like Rocky.

All the kids come up and want to hear about Rocky.

So it becomes this whole day of promoting your book, which is so cool.

And you get a lot of sales as well.

So is your plushie of Rocky a item that you actually developed to sell?

Not yet.

Okay, so Rocky is a generic looking dog Some people think she's golden retriever, some people, they don't really.

She's just a generic kind of golden looking dog.

Right.

So I just found a plushie that looked like her, but I was.

I'm very encouraged to do that as well, to create a product that I could sell.

Just so you know, you can probably see in the background.

And we just designed.

That is so.

God.

Oh my gosh.

Thank you.

And so what we.

So we need to talk after this.

Absolutely.

And thanks to a guest I had on from Oklahoma, Charlotte Glaze, Storm Trucks.

She shared some knowledge which I will share with you.

Okay.

And.

And perhaps it's an opportunity.

And I had talked about it before on our show, so absolutely love to see.

Yeah.

It brings, it brings character.

More, of course, more 3D.

And they can hug the character and all the things while they're reading the book.

So that's.

I don't want to digress too much, but I want, I just want to share some good news that happened to us because of our plushie.

We actually just landed a three into three major independent bookstores because of the plushie.

So they took our.

They've taken our book because of us developing a plushie.

And so we've got an order for the books and an order for the plushies.

So.

Good.

And.

Because it takes it to the next level, right?

Yes.

Really, it's.

Yeah.

So it becomes more of a brand rather than a product.

For sure.

I love that.

Thank you for sharing that.

Yeah, no, no problem.

And you know what, folks?

I'll put the links to the.

The company that we're.

That was shared with us was used by one of our guests, Charlie Glaze, and she used a company called madeinchina.com and actually it's a website.

You just go to the website and then they have so many opportunities for you to develop products.

I just want to say something about that as well because the children's book author community is like none other the support that you get from fellow children's book authors.

And that's another thing with going with my publisher in Canada, it's Miriam Laundrie Publishing.

I just want to say.

Fabulous.

I've had so many guests on that.

Have used phenomenal, phenomenal experience.

Not only do you walk away with a marketing plan, a product, all the things you walk away with an instant network of support.

And Chelsea is a friend of mine as well.

And we, yes, we just really support each other through the whole journey because you need support, advice.

We watch what other each other are doing.

We learn from each other.

So the whole community of children's book authors, I think is a special environment.

I couldn't agree with you more.

And you know what?

I've been so fortunate because I started this podcast because I just had a strong attachment to being a children's book author.

And I wanted to share what I was learning because I didn't learn about some of these companies like Miriam Laundrie Publishing.

And now I probably talked on the show to about three or four of these type of organizations throughout Canada and the United States.

Just really incredible.

So getting your book to market really with these services is a dream come true for sure.

But you need to chart it out well in advance.

So before your book, before the launch day even happens, you want to have a six month plan of events.

So that's hard.

How do you market a book without a product?

Right.

So you need to create hype around your product and all of the things.

I leveraged the Humane Society of Ocean City because my book is obviously about a dog and I wanted to give back.

So I wanted to make sure that my book wasn't just a book that I was doing selling for me.

I wanted to give back the profits to the Humane Society.

So what I did is I did a percentage of the profits for the book launch to the Humane Society for the bully book.

I did it to an anti bullying organization.

So giving back really helps because then you get their broader audience as well backing it.

Kid Power was my anti bullying organization, Another great organization.

I love that organization.

But that's another thing.

Investigate organizations that can help you and then you're helping them.

So you're helping each other.

Absolutely.

Contact schools.

That takes a long time to get that organized with school book readings, bookstores, local author.

One of the things I was really pretty successful at is I contacted almost every newspaper around and I said local author.

And of course my niece is the illustrator Lindsay.

So that was all like a feel good story as well.

So let's jump into that because that's what I noticed is you have the same illustrator.

Yes.

All three books now.

What else?

What I didn't realize is that she's your niece.

So that makes it a family affair.

With our book series.

All five of my grandchildren are involved, including narration, because we've done the audiobooks where they're the narrator.

I love that.

Oh, my God.

Yeah, actually we have.

I've talked about this before, but we have a bookmark and there's a QR code.

And what we do is use this as a Promotional item.

And when you buy our book, you get a free audiobook.

And it's my middle granddaughter, Bailey, that's the narrator of our first book.

Oh, that's beautiful.

I love that.

Yeah, I love that.

That's so good.

So funny.

So talk to us about your niece and her, how she got involved in this.

Was it her interest in illustrating that came first?

How did this all happen?

So, again, I don't know what I'm doing, and I'm writing this children's book, right?

And I thought, I have to find an illustrator.

There was nobody else that came to mind except for my niece.

Her name is Lindsay Morano, and Lindsay is an amazing artist.

She is also joy in everything she does.

So even when Lindsay was a little girl, everything was rainbows and sunshine.

She's full of joy.

She has adorned my beach house, which the book is based in, with all this artwork.

So there was no one else that I would go to but Lindsay.

So I brought the idea to her, and she said, really?

And I said, yes, we're gonna do this.

It's gonna be so fun.

She's the perfect choice for that.

I'm gonna have your book in front of me while you're talking about your illustrating.

So she's a multimedia, lifelong artist.

Her talents span not just with, obviously, color and interpretation, but she also does jewelry making, acrylic painting.

She does even food art.

So when she came to to the idea of doing this book, it was so amazing.

She brought Rocky to life immediately.

I said, because she knows Rocky.

She knows the character of Rocky.

She brought Rocky to life, and she had the idea of Jiggly, the jellyfish being lime green and the starfish being purple.

Purple starfish, the clam being hot pink.

So her interpretation of color and knowledge of the beach was just amazing.

It was just so amazing.

So did you give her the script and then she went from there?

I did.

I gave her the script.

She actually helped me craft some of the script as well.

She put her input into it because she sees things in such a beautiful, colorful way.

Yeah, yeah.

Fantastic.

Fantastic.

So it's really nice because that's one of the biggest roadblocks for a lot of people, is when I talk to people about hybrid book publishing services, even like Miriam Blondrie, they talk about they will help you, but they don't source you a illustrator.

They give you leads to source an illustrator.

Now, in your case, you were very fortunate because you were able to source your own illustrator.

But in most people's cases, they have to source their own Illustrator.

That is a component that is very personal.

So having an illustrator understand the character and even just down to the eyes.

Right.

The smile, everything about the character development that you have in your mind when you write the words, you need it to come to life, and you may have a vision of what it looks like, and then your illustrator may have something else.

So Lindsay and I immediately came together, and it was just.

I have to say, the synergy was immediate.

I was so blessed with that.

Wow.

But it's true.

There's a lot of illustrator services out there that you can choose from.

There's a lot of.

You could even go to local art schools and talk to students if you want to do it more on a budget and see if they'd be interested in doing illustrations.

But what they do is more than just the drawings of the book.

They actually create the roadmap for the book of how the book is going to.

The words and the pictures kind of line up, right?

Yes.

Yes.

So there's a lot to that as well.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

So it sounds like it's fun working with Lindsay.

And I'm thinking about your motivation now.

I know we've talked about, in the beginning with Rocky and Rocky being motivating you to write your book and the Adventures of Rocky.

Was there any other event that motivated you to take this even further?

Or was there a person?

How would you say?

Your whole development of the Adventures of Rocky has unfolded through some sort of event or person.

So many people have inspired me to.

For this project that really came out of nowhere.

So, first and foremost, my husband.

We would rock the beach together.

And we.

Rocky is our baby.

So, of course, Rocky and the adventures of Rocky being on the beach and all the things.

And my husband said to me, why don't you write a book?

Why don't you write a story?

Really?

I'm not an author.

Right.

How to do.

So it all spawned from that.

And then my father.

It was in his final years, I brought the project to my dad, and I would keep reading to my dad.

What do you think of this?

What do you think of that?

And he was able to see the book being published in the end, which is so great.

So my father was a big part of the first book.

And then my mom has always been my biggest champion and my biggest supporter.

So she has helped not only me market the book, but she helped with the whole organization of the book and all the things.

There's so much behind the scenes that you need support from.

So all of my family.

And then, of course, My niece Lindsay, of course, my niece Lindsay has just been such a joy through the whole project.

So all of those components together keep you in line and pushing along to make sure that you meet deadlines and that you meet the actions that are required at the time.

And it's also like you have.

Once your family's involved, it's so much fun.

How much fun?

It's incredible.

With most children's book authors I've talked to, it's some sort of event with either a family member or, like, family has a lot to do with the development of a children's book.

It's a reoccurring theme.

If you think you can do this by yourself, you're kidding yourself.

It takes family, friends, support, and experts in the field.

There's so much involved here.

Yeah, there is so much.

So we know that your book series is based on Rocky.

And the neat thing about having a pet, especially a dog, is we've over 40 years, we've had three different dogs, and they all had their own different characters.

Of course, anyone who's a pet owner knows that whether it's a dog or a cat or any type of pet, they have their own character.

So just expand on the character of Rocky even more.

When did you realize that, hey, maybe Rocky could be this main character in a book?

So I've always been a lifelong lover of poodles.

I've always had poodles.

And poodles to me, are very special.

And my poodles have always been very athletic and fierce, not meaning that they're bitey or anything like that.

They're just very intelligent dogs.

They're super smart.

Rocky has all of those characteristics, but she also has some fears.

And I've never had a dog with that many fears.

So little things startle her, and then she runs away, and I'm like, what's come on here?

Like, why are you so afraid?

We've loved her since the very beginning.

She's safe and secure in her home.

But an airplane will throw her over the edge.

Fireworks.

Forget about that.

She's done for.

Fireworks.

So she just is a silly little dog.

Brings so much joy to others.

Very friendly, very intelligent.

We always joke that Rocky knows colors because she has toys that are different colors.

And we'll say, go get the purple toy.

And she'll get the purple toy.

Go get the pink toy.

She'll go get the pink toy.

It's amazing.

I don't know if it's true that she can see color, however, she's just one of those Dogs that is very in tune with words that you say.

Even as a young puppy, when I took her to training school, the trainer even said that she said, my gosh, this dog is really perceptive of you.

So when a dog is really paying attention to their owner.

Yes.

That very high signal of intelligence that they're listening and paying attention.

She's always been very intuitive, but does struggle with some fears and confidence sometimes.

That is really the reason for the.

Books you shared your.

The theme of your three books.

Just go give us.

Go a little deeper into each of the themes.

So the first book is don't be Afraid, Rocky.

So don't be afraid is really the fear and the theme.

Rocky has fears of the dark.

Crab comes along and teaches her to not fear the dark.

She digs a hole.

Rocky goes in the hole and plays around with the crab family in the dark, having fun.

The starfish teaches her about gratitude because the starfish can't hear, and Rocky's afraid of loud sounds.

So the starfish says, be grateful that you can hear loud sounds.

Be grateful for that.

And then Rocky realizes after all those adventures that she doesn't know how to get home.

She's lost and afraid.

So the seagull doesn't guide her, but teaches her to remember how to get home.

So she empowers Rocky with the knowledge to get home.

So cool.

So that was all the first book.

The second book is Don't Worry, Rocky.

So Rocky again is worried about what's going to happen, what's going forward.

So she meets a jellyfish, she meets a clam, and she meets a dolphin.

And all of those characters again teach her little tidbits about how not to have all those anxiety, how to live in the moment, how to be grateful for what's happening today.

So when you have fear and anxiety, great gratitude takes over.

So if you feel grateful about anything, all of those other emotions disappear.

So these books actually climb the emotional scale.

So the worst feeling you can fear is.

Feel fear is the worst feeling you can fear.

Right.

The joy is the best feeling you can feel.

So Rocky climbs the ladder.

So she's fearful on the first one.

Then she's anxious.

A little better than fear, Right.

And then worry is really.

She's frustrated, right.

Because here's this shark that comes along and starts tantalizing Rocky and making fun of her and saying, you're just a big baby.

And Rocky says, baby.

The lobster comes along and teaches her, stand for yourself.

You tell him you're not a baby.

And then the whale, Wally the Whale.

We love Wally.

Wally teaches her that the bully really doesn't want to be a bully.

He just doesn't know how to be a friend.

Teaches Rocky some lessons on how to be a friend to the shark.

And all the day ends with joy.

And there is a special appearance by my niece.

Lindsay's illustrator.

Lola is her little dog that makes an appearance in the end.

So all the characters together.

But in the end, Rocky's playing with the shark and the lobster and the whale.

I love it.

So Rocky always has a challenge.

In the beginning, characters come along and teach her lessons, but she figures it out on her own how to overcome those challenges.

I love how you brought this whole central teaching together when you go out into the adult world, like we were talking about earlier.

And how does this come up, because you mentioned it.

How does it come up in a.

Like a leadership group?

Lessons from the book that can be taken into a leadership group.

Some tips.

I use Rocky as an example in some of Beki engagements or my conversations, and I talk about that you can never accomplish things alone.

Right.

You always need to have support, a support system.

Yeah.

So in the books, Rocky learns that she leans on friends.

So it's okay.

And it's a message I tell children.

It's okay to tell people that you have these challenges, reach out for help.

Don't keep it all inside of you.

And that is really a big challenge in the executive world.

Today is a lot of leaders, as well as a lot of managers, they fear telling people that they have challenges.

And I say the opposite.

I say, tell everyone about your show that you have these challenges, and we are here to help support you.

And that's really empathetic leadership.

Because if you know that, I understand how you feel.

Yes.

And you know that as a leader, I'm not this Stone character.

I'm actually a human being.

And I feel fear, too.

And I feel worry and I feel anxiety as well.

So I think it just.

It really helps relatability to leaders and the people that they're leading if they know that their leader has walked in their shoes, has been.

Has done what they've done.

Thank you for sharing that.

So I'm curious about your writing process.

And when I get into this with someone who's written one book, it's one thing.

But in your case, you've gone on a journey.

So take us through your original writing process with your first book.

And what changed for you if something changed in the second and third book?

Oh, a lot.

So character development is the first thing.

And I didn't have that because I had Rocky as my dog.

I'm like, oh, that's my character.

But it's actually more.

There's more to Rocky than just the surface.

So I had to dig deeper with some of Rocky's challenges and fears and characteristics.

But one of the things I learned along the way was in children's books, most especially, a lot of children are listening.

So you want to create words to help the children feel the emotions.

So you don't say Rocky was afraid.

Right.

You say Racky began to shiver and her tail turned under.

So you describe the feeling rather than just stating the feeling.

And I didn't realize that at first, but that's what captivates children's minds when they can actually envision it in their own mind from the words that you're saying.

And don't state the obvious.

Make it more of something where they have to figure things out and think about things.

I think that was something that was not obvious to me at first.

I was not brighter when I started this process.

So I also want to take you back to your first book and talk about success.

Now.

How did you measure success for your first book versus how you're now measuring success for your second and third book?

Take us through that process.

There's many.

The first book I did was not very successful beyond the local town because I didn't have a marketing so.

And didn't go beyond really the local town and my family and friends.

The second and third book went onto a much broader scale because I leveraged my network's network.

Right.

So that was huge.

I also leveraged newspaper articles, magazine articles.

I was on a couple TV shows.

Like, I.

I really leveraged the media, which I didn't the first time.

But measuring success, of course, an author is going to say, how many books did I sell?

But where I measure success so much is when I'm just sitting down doing a local book signing, and a little child comes up to me and tells me, it just happened to me.

Actually, last weekend they bought my third book.

And they said, the first two books have really affected how they see the world.

And I thought to myself, wow, Rocky, through Rocky's eyes, this child is really overcoming fear and having more confidence.

And it really touched my heart.

So that's the best success you can have, is knowing that your character, your book, is touching the heart of your audience.

What's better than that?

For sure.

So talk to us about the role of writing in your life.

Now, you wrote your first book, which was.

I Through encouragement from your husband and through the having your dog through the world going through a little bit of a shutdown, because that took you through the first area of your writing development.

And now talk to us about where you're at now with your role of writing.

I hope that Rocky's books will continue for many more new stories.

And I get stories in my head all the time about what Rocky's next adventure could be.

But I think that having discipline as a writer is an important process that most people don't know.

And not rewriting what you've done 10 times over, because a lot of us tend to do that.

We'll write something and then we'll go back and edit and change it and edit and change it.

Sometimes it's better to break it into parts.

So first thing you do is you think of the whole big story that you want to tell.

And then, of course, you break it into the parts of the realization of the problem and the challenges and then the character introductions.

Absolutely.

But that's a process.

And then you.

The smaller parts that you can break it into.

Then once you're done putting all those puzzle pieces together, that's when you go back and you reflect upon the whole book.

And that was a learning for me, because I tend to write and then go back and say, gosh, that's not right, and then change it.

And that affects everything that comes after.

Absolutely.

So that's a hard lesson to learn, is to really just be patient with yourself, know that there's a bigger picture involved in it.

And then once that's done, then you massage it and smooth it over after that.

But taking time every day, just taking.

Even if it's 15 minutes, it's like meditation to me, where you imagine the feelings.

I put myself in the shoes of Rocky, the feelings that she's feeling.

And how can that be portrayed into words?

Good for you.

You've talked about the role of writing now in your life.

What advice would you give aspiring children's book authors that, you know, you wish you would have gotten at your early stages?

A couple of things.

One is a lot of people, and I'm sure they do to you as well, they say, gosh, I'd love to write a children's book.

Or I've had a book in my head for years, and I say, get it on paper.

Just get it down on paper.

Right.

Get it out of here and put it on paper right out of your head on paper.

So that's one thing, is take the next step, because your book could be something that changes the lives of so many children.

So why not take the risk on that?

Definitely take the risk.

I also say seek out support from fellow authors or from professionals.

So there's a lot of hybrid publishers out there and they offer support along the way of the whole process of things that you never even imagined are involved in creating.

So seek out the advice of experts.

That's always a good thing.

Just Google hybrid publishers and many come up.

Great advice, by the way, because it can take away some of the unknown.

And a lot of times that kind of that's what holds us back is the fear of the unknown.

Just I'm thinking of your books and maybe over overthinking things or worrying too much.

And I have a children's book wish list.

It's an Instagram where I just review books, review children's books.

And you can look on there, you could look on any of them and choose authors that you admire or that you think could really support your vision and reach out.

Love helping other people.

Yes.

What an incredible community.

Yes.

No question.

So encouragement for readers.

I always save this question for towards the end of the interview because if we don't have readers, we can have all, all the friends that are children's book authors.

But if we don't have readers, why should children's book readers purchase your books?

Why should they purchase my books?

It would be wonderful for them to experience life through the eyes of Rocky and to know that they're not alone in their fears and their anxiety and their frustrations, that Rocky shares those feelings with them and they can relate to Rocky and understand how reaching out to friends and reaching out for support is a great thing to help you in overcoming your challenges.

Thank you for sharing that.

Final thoughts.

Is there something like we have talked about a lot and what you've shared is incredible.

I think people got a real sense of getting their first book started and then how to build that journey onto the second and third book.

But is there anything that you said, I wish Rick would have asked me that question.

Final thoughts.

I think that I wish Rick would have asked me if I would have turned back the clock.

Would I do everything the same way that I've done this journey?

And I say yes.

I say falling down and picking yourself up and having those frustrating moments and saying, gosh, I should have did this, I should have did that are all lessons to make everything better.

Don't be afraid of failing.

Don't be afraid of making mistakes.

And know that you can go from one book to three books that's like you said, falling down and getting back up.

You're a testament to being able to go from innocence and ignorance, and I mean that in a positive way in your first book to now being much more capable and knowledgeable and now sharing with people.

So thank you for doing that.

Thank you.

It's an endearing quality to just know that you're going to stumble a little bit before you succeed, and that's okay.

Deirdre, thank you so much for being a guest on the Adventures in the Heart of Children's Book Authors and what your generosity of time and insights like, wow.

I know this is going to help a lot of aspiring children's book authors and I know the way you explained everything that you'll inspire readers to go out and purchase your book.

So I'm very excited about that for you.

We promised our audience that we will provide links to Deirdre's websites and all our social media links so you could see how Deirdre Derwin about promoting her books.

It's exciting and if you enjoyed this episode, please hit the subscribe button to listen to our future episodes and feel free to share this episode with anyone who is inspired by or enjoys hearing about Deirdre and her book series, the Adventures of Rocky.

Thank you Deirdre.

Thank you so much, Rick.

I appreciate your time.

This is wonderful.