On this episode of News and Trends, hosts Dave and Len welcome Gregory "Mr. G" Nichols, a school bus driver and childrens advocate who created Mr. G's Big Yellow Bus. Gregory discusses his new illustrated childrens book focused on school bus safety, early childhood literacy, and positive encouragement, how the project came together, and plans for future books and a potential animated series. The hosts share marketing tips for children's authors and a lively conversation follows about community, business ownership, and cultural topics.
00:12 --> 00:16 All right, y'all, get ready for another edition of News
00:16 --> 00:20 and Trends with your host Dave and Lynn.
00:31 --> 00:34 Welcome, welcome, welcome to News and Trends with Dave and Lynn.
00:34 --> 00:38 This is one of your hosts, Mr. Dave Coker, proprietor of Dave Mark
00:38 --> 00:41 Inc., promoter, event planner, and all-around good guy.
00:42 --> 00:46 Um, just wanted to remind everybody you can listen to this show along
00:46 --> 00:50 with some other great shows on the MBG Podcast Network.
00:51 --> 00:54 Where you, like I said, you can listen to some very good
00:54 --> 00:58 podcasts and other great shows along with this one,
00:58 --> 01:01 which should be your number one show. And then don't laugh,
01:01 --> 01:04 don't laugh, okay? Anyway,
01:05 --> 01:08 and then if you happen to miss our recordings
01:08 --> 01:12 on Tuesday nights, you can always hear the
01:12 --> 01:17 playback on Saturday mornings on Internet Radio 101.5
01:17 --> 01:20 The Fever with our buddy DJ Ribs
01:21 --> 01:25 and his partner Mr. Bobby Keys. That's 101.5 The
01:25 --> 01:29 Fever at 10 AM on Saturday
01:30 --> 01:33 mornings. I'm hanging out with my partner Mr. Leonard Young. What's happening?
01:33 --> 01:37 Hey Dave, everything is good. This is Leonard Young, CEO of National
01:37 --> 01:41 Black Guide, DelawareBlack.com, black media expert,
01:41 --> 01:45 all-around good guy. How goes it? Man, I can't call
01:45 --> 01:49 it. Um, you know, it was a rough day today, man. I sat there and
01:50 --> 01:53 watched them Eagles go down. Oh yeah, it was, it was ugly. It was ugly,
01:54 --> 01:56 man. It really was. Did you watch any of the game yesterday at all?
01:56 --> 01:59 No. Um, actually, I didn't even know it was on. Um, I came home today
01:59 --> 02:02 and I saw the highlights and I was like, oh, Dave, you know, Dave's probably
02:03 --> 02:06 over there, um, crying in the shower. Yeah, I was, man. It was,
02:07 --> 02:10 it was rough to watch. It was rough to watch, but You know, they look—
02:10 --> 02:13 they— that the quarterback that Chicago put out there on the field might
02:14 --> 02:18 well been your age, man. He went out there and played like he was 20
02:18 --> 02:21 years old, man. He was 38 years old. 38 years old, been on 9
02:21 --> 02:25 teams. Damn. Yeah, you know, so— but
02:26 --> 02:29 they made him look like a superstar last night. I was like, man, this is
02:29 --> 02:32 crazy. So, but anyway, um,
02:32 --> 02:37 you know, so besides getting through the day having to hear from
02:37 --> 02:41 people online and everything talking about how the Eagles
02:42 --> 02:45 got served. So other than that, um, how was
02:45 --> 02:49 your weekend? You do anything? Um, no, my weekend was good. You know,
02:49 --> 02:52 I spent most of the weekend at the campground. We had a, um, there was
02:52 --> 02:56 a, a Jack and Jill group that came from Baltimore,
02:56 --> 02:59 so they, uh, spent the weekend at the campground. Now of course they were
02:59 --> 03:03 looking forward to being outside doing activities But, you know,
03:03 --> 03:06 of course we had that, what, nor'easter. So they were inside doing
03:06 --> 03:10 activities. My wife and I, we led some activities
03:11 --> 03:14 for them. So I mean, surprisingly, it was a
03:14 --> 03:17 good time. They were extremely well-behaved,
03:18 --> 03:21 social, funny. So even
03:21 --> 03:24 though we were there almost all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday,
03:25 --> 03:29 it went by quick and it was enjoyable. So I mean, that really was my
03:29 --> 03:33 whole weekend. Okay, well, what about yourself?
03:33 --> 03:37 Uh, man, I ain't do anything, man. I didn't do anything at all. I've worked
03:37 --> 03:41 and, uh, watched football, and that's basically it, man. I ain't do
03:41 --> 03:45 anything at all. It was a complete opposite of last weekend
03:45 --> 03:48 when I, when I was busy the whole weekend, you know. So,
03:49 --> 03:52 but, um, no, I didn't— like I said, everything was just kind
03:53 --> 03:56 of chilled this weekend. And then watching all that rain and everything I was watching—
03:56 --> 04:00 oh yeah. Uh, I know we had, uh, my union had a big
04:00 --> 04:04 convention down in Dewey Beach like 2 years ago,
04:04 --> 04:07 back in 2024, and they showed
04:07 --> 04:11 the property that we stayed at, the, the resort
04:11 --> 04:14 down there that we stayed at. It was halfway underwater, man. Oh wow.
04:15 --> 04:18 I was like, did you see the, uh, the beach erosion Atlantic
04:18 --> 04:22 City? Yeah, I saw that too. Yeah, that's crazy. And Wildwood,
04:22 --> 04:26 they were showing, um, how the water was coming up over the pier,
04:26 --> 04:29 man. It was, I mean I mean, gosh, I was like,
04:29 --> 04:32 I don't remember ever seeing stuff like that before, right?
04:33 --> 04:36 Yeah. So, um, I don't know if that's a prelude to the
04:36 --> 04:40 winter. You know, I was thinking the same thing. I was like, you know,
04:41 --> 04:44 if this was snow instead of rain, we probably would be off for about
04:44 --> 04:48 2, 3 days. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I mean,
04:48 --> 04:51 the vet— the fact that they called it a nor'easter, I don't
04:52 --> 04:53 remember them referring to rain like that before.
04:55 --> 04:59 Global warming, you know, they trying to get us.
04:59 --> 05:03 Yeah, yeah, well, no, and with
05:03 --> 05:06 emphasis on us, you know. So, you know,
05:06 --> 05:10 you never know because, you know, um, I know the shore,
05:10 --> 05:14 man, it was all jacked up this, this, uh, this past weekend.
05:14 --> 05:17 But hopefully, um, we don't have any more of that coming our way,
05:18 --> 05:21 you know, and hopefully it isn't a prelude to the winter. So,
05:21 --> 05:25 but, um, with that being said, and here it is,
05:25 --> 05:28 we— oh well, we got 2 days, we'll be in October, man. That's,
05:29 --> 05:32 you know, get ready, turn the page for the year,
05:32 --> 05:35 man, you know, you know.
05:35 --> 05:39 But you know, you, you got that big milestone coming up, so we,
05:39 --> 05:43 uh, you know, I know you can stop with the Beijing Black now, man.
05:43 --> 05:45 You can go ahead and just let it go, man. Let it go.
05:47 --> 05:51 Ain't nobody doing that, Dave. You know,
05:51 --> 05:53 I already told my wife because she said, oh, what you gonna do when you
05:54 --> 05:57 get some gray hairs? Dave, I'm gonna let them come through. So there you
05:57 --> 06:00 go. All right, proud and strong. Okay, Mr. Rogers. Okay,
06:01 --> 06:04 all right, all right. Well, you know,
06:05 --> 06:07 we'll see. I can't wait to see this happen. I can't wait to see this
06:07 --> 06:11 happen, you know. So, well, I mean, they— I mean, I, I have a couple
06:11 --> 06:15 grays now, and like, you know I don't know, trying to pluck them or,
06:15 --> 06:19 you know, I mean, hey, however they come is how they come.
06:20 --> 06:24 Okay. All right. Well, we'll, we'll, we'll see. We'll see. We'll see.
06:24 --> 06:29 All right. Well, anyway, well, we, we are fortunate enough
06:29 --> 06:32 to have a guest on with us tonight. So why don't you
06:33 --> 06:35 do me a favor and just go ahead and introduce,
06:36 --> 06:38 um, and introduce who we have on tonight.
06:39 --> 06:41 And did we— well, let's go through the bio first. Yes.
06:42 --> 06:45 All right, thank you, Dave, for the, the instructions.
06:45 --> 06:49 Yep. So, so today we
06:49 --> 06:52 have Mr. Gregory Nichols, also known as Mr. G.
06:53 --> 06:56 He is a school bus driver, children's advocate,
06:56 --> 07:00 and creator of Mr. G Big Yellow
07:00 --> 07:03 Bus, an educational platform focused on literacy,
07:03 --> 07:06 early childhood development, school bus safety,
07:07 --> 07:11 and positive encouragement. Originally from the Southbridge community
07:11 --> 07:15 of Wilmington, Delaware, Gregory later moved to South Jersey and
07:15 --> 07:18 now resides in the Cumberland County area.
07:18 --> 07:22 With more than 20 years of experience working with children
07:22 --> 07:25 and youth and nearly a decade as a school bus driver,
07:26 --> 07:29 he has dedicated much of his life to helping young people learn,
07:30 --> 07:34 grow, and believe in themselves. Inspired by his experiences
07:34 --> 07:37 working with children, Gregory created Mr.
07:37 --> 07:41 G Big Yellow Bus to make learning fun and
07:41 --> 07:45 engaging through storytelling, books, appearances, and educational
07:45 --> 07:48 programs. His goal is to encourage children to
07:49 --> 07:52 develop a love for reading while teaching lessons about safety,
07:53 --> 07:55 confidence, responsibility, and personal growth.
07:56 --> 08:00 Gregory's version— vision is to grow Mr.
08:00 --> 08:03 G's Big Yellow Bus Beyond Books
08:04 --> 08:07 into an educational platform that reaches children,
08:07 --> 08:11 families, schools, and communities. At the heart of his mission is
08:11 --> 08:14 a simple message: driving your mind forward.
08:15 --> 08:20 So without further ado, we would like to welcome Gregory
08:20 --> 08:24 Nichols. How you doing, sir? How y'all guys doing? First and
08:24 --> 08:26 foremost, thank you guys for having me on. I appreciate it.
08:27 --> 08:30 Oh yeah, yeah, definitely. So of course,
08:31 --> 08:34 um, I got my dog barking in the background. I have no idea why.
08:35 --> 08:38 But, um, um, you know, we'd definitely like to welcome you to the show.
08:39 --> 08:41 Um, you know, of course David had,
08:43 --> 08:46 um, kind of shared your information. And, you know,
08:46 --> 08:50 I, I really think it's amazing because, you know, a lot of times
08:51 --> 08:55 people, you know, some of the people who have the most experience
08:55 --> 08:59 and most active experience with children or youth,
09:00 --> 09:03 a lot of times they don't document what they're
09:03 --> 09:09 doing. It's almost like, you remember the
09:09 --> 09:12 elders from back in the day, unfortunately a lot of them didn't write it
09:12 --> 09:16 down. What made you want to take your experience
09:17 --> 09:21 and document it where other children
09:21 --> 09:23 and youth could benefit from it?
09:25 --> 09:28 Well, first and foremost, um, I owe a lot of it to
09:29 --> 09:33 my wife because I was in between jobs years
09:34 --> 09:37 ago and I started driving school bus and it became
09:38 --> 09:41 my passion. And we talked while she was in school and she was
09:41 --> 09:44 like, do you find yourself doing any other career? I said,
09:45 --> 09:48 well, no, I have a passion for kids. So she was like,
09:49 --> 09:52 She accepted it because she was in school for a doctoral
09:52 --> 09:56 degree and everything. So with that,
09:57 --> 10:01 I found my passion in working with kids and just
10:01 --> 10:05 started documenting everything. And 3 years ago, I came up
10:05 --> 10:09 with this plan to write this book because we were talking and
10:09 --> 10:12 she was like, did you have any other goals or stuff like that? But I
10:12 --> 10:15 never told her that I was working on this book. Right. And when I presented
10:16 --> 10:19 it to her, it totally blew her mind away.
10:19 --> 10:23 Totally blew her mind away because nobody saw me writing this
10:24 --> 10:27 book, right, and everything. And one thing that I did, I can
10:27 --> 10:31 say, is that she said, that's your project,
10:31 --> 10:35 I'm staying out of it, I'm not helping you with it. Only because
10:35 --> 10:39 she wanted me to learn, right, how to do things
10:39 --> 10:42 pretty much on my own as far as getting the footwork done
10:43 --> 10:46 and having the drive and the passion to create
10:46 --> 10:50 the book and everything. So, um, I did reach out
10:50 --> 10:54 to a few people that I did know that wrote books,
10:54 --> 10:58 and they helped me. But for the most part, this project I
10:58 --> 11:01 did on my own, and that's what made me really, really proud.
11:02 --> 11:06 Gotcha. So for, for the people who may not be familiar
11:06 --> 11:09 with the book, Can you kind of tell us what, what the book is
11:10 --> 11:13 about? So like just a little more detail. So if there's a young
11:14 --> 11:18 child who's reading the book, you know, what are they likely to, to find
11:18 --> 11:22 in the book? And I guess what values or experiences can
11:22 --> 11:26 they relate to? So the book is basically aged from,
11:26 --> 11:30 I'll say, 2 to about 8
11:30 --> 11:34 years old, and Basically, it teaches kids
11:34 --> 11:38 school bus safety, the dos and don'ts on a bus,
11:38 --> 11:41 and it also, you know, teach them how to work together.
11:42 --> 11:45 And it's a positive and fun book because it has a,
11:45 --> 11:49 a little bit of rhyming and stuff to it and everything. So I
11:49 --> 11:52 threw a little bit of that in there to engage the young minds
11:52 --> 11:55 and everything. And that's part of my slogan, Driving Young
11:56 --> 11:59 Minds Forward, because we're the first person there they
11:59 --> 12:02 see before they even hit the classroom. Right, right. And everything.
12:03 --> 12:06 And especially with the younger kids that never experienced
12:07 --> 12:11 riding the school bus, which I try to make it fun for them and
12:11 --> 12:14 everything. So that's one of the things that's, um,
12:15 --> 12:17 was my drive to creating this.
12:18 --> 12:21 Got you. So now at the beginning of the bio, we spoke about,
12:22 --> 12:25 um, you being from the Southbridge community in Wilmington.
12:25 --> 12:29 Of course, Dave always talks about being from Riverside.
12:29 --> 12:32 Okay. How did the— how do
12:33 --> 12:36 you feel like the Southbridge community shaped your upbringing?
12:37 --> 12:40 I know Dave always talks about, Dave even says
12:40 --> 12:44 now he has lifelong friends who are from Riverside
12:45 --> 12:49 and he goes back and just the memories.
12:49 --> 12:53 How has Southbridge shaped your life and who you
12:53 --> 12:57 are? Well, I could say it made me tough.
12:58 --> 13:01 And that was one of the first experiences I had
13:01 --> 13:04 as a child riding the school bus growing up
13:05 --> 13:08 in Southbridge. Um, and I never forgot where I came
13:09 --> 13:12 from because I always continually to go back home and visit with some of the
13:12 --> 13:16 people that's still around that's my age. I mean, it's a totally
13:16 --> 13:19 different look around there now because half the
13:20 --> 13:23 kids that are around are probably Um, I went to school with
13:23 --> 13:27 their grand— their grandparents now, you know. Right. That's weird to say
13:27 --> 13:30 because I still feel young at heart, but I know I went to school with
13:30 --> 13:33 their grandparents. Young forever. Young forever. Yes. Yeah. But, um,
13:34 --> 13:37 one thing I can say— not, not you, Dave. Yeah,
13:38 --> 13:39 me and Mr. G.
13:41 --> 13:44 But one thing I can say about Southbridge is, um,
13:46 --> 13:49 some of the people that were my age, they're doing big things over there
13:50 --> 13:53 right now. Oh wow. Like Michelle Booker. Um, she,
13:53 --> 13:56 she just won a seat, um, and a couple other people
13:57 --> 14:00 that are doing big things over there. So, you know, um, shout out to the
14:00 --> 14:03 people from Southbridge. Gotcha. Yeah,
14:03 --> 14:07 definitely. Um, now we
14:07 --> 14:11 also talked in the bio about teaching, um, some of the kids about
14:12 --> 14:16 school bus safety, and, and, you know, I, I thought that's pretty interesting because—
14:16 --> 14:20 and maybe Dave can agree— but I feel like nobody teaches us about
14:20 --> 14:23 school bus safety. You know, it's almost like, you know, we go to school and
14:23 --> 14:27 people just expect you to know, okay, do this, don't do this.
14:28 --> 14:31 But, um, so what, like, I guess for parents who
14:31 --> 14:34 may be listening, what are some things that,
14:34 --> 14:38 maybe things that you see that parents aren't watching their
14:38 --> 14:41 kids or kids, you know, could end up getting hurt? Or,
14:42 --> 14:46 um, you know, like, what, what are those safety items that parents
14:46 --> 14:49 should know about that maybe you see all the time and they're just oblivious too.
14:51 --> 14:54 One thing that is very, very important,
14:54 --> 14:59 because we had a tragedy over in this area about a year ago— kids
14:59 --> 15:03 cannot, and I mean cannot, run behind the school bus.
15:04 --> 15:07 Um, because as big as the buses
15:08 --> 15:11 is, we can't see them. Gotcha. Because that's one of our blind spots.
15:12 --> 15:15 And we, we try to encourage the kids, if even if they running
15:15 --> 15:19 and they drop something just let it go until after the buses pull
15:19 --> 15:23 off because we can't see them, right? And everything. And we don't want
15:23 --> 15:27 to take chances of hitting anybody's kids. And I know another
15:27 --> 15:31 thing that's, um, a bus driver's responsibility
15:31 --> 15:34 is to check and make sure them kids is off the bus before you park
15:35 --> 15:38 that bus. Because it's been, um, a lot
15:39 --> 15:42 of incidents where people leave kids on the bus. I don't know how they do
15:43 --> 15:46 it, but That's another concern with some of the parents and everything.
15:46 --> 15:50 But I work for a really, really good district and everything. I work
15:51 --> 15:54 for, um, the Briston School District, and I will
15:55 --> 15:58 say that, um, we're on top of everything. Gotcha. Everything.
15:59 --> 16:00 I work for a good director too, so.
16:02 --> 16:06 Okay. And then, so as far as the, um,
16:06 --> 16:09 the book as well, what, what has been the, the response been?
16:10 --> 16:13 So, um Have you shared it with any of the children on the bus,
16:13 --> 16:15 maybe their parents, teachers at schools?
16:17 --> 16:20 So the book has only been out for 2 weeks. Oh, okay.
16:20 --> 16:24 Oh, so brand new. So it's a brand new project, so it's
16:25 --> 16:28 getting slow. Slow is better than no motion at all, right?
16:29 --> 16:32 So, um, it's taking off slow, but, you know, with the help of you guys,
16:32 --> 16:36 you know, just getting the word out there, um, it's starting to get
16:36 --> 16:40 around, um, my school district. So I'm going to be featured in, um,
16:40 --> 16:44 the newsletter for next month. Oh wow. And I also probably have,
16:44 --> 16:48 um, I have a, um, schedule next month for a
16:48 --> 16:52 lot of readings for kids, but I do plan on having
16:52 --> 16:55 a book signing. I just got to get that all together. Gotcha.
16:56 --> 16:59 Okay. All right. Yeah, I mean, that sounds awesome. And you know, it's funny you
16:59 --> 17:03 say that because, you know, a lot of times, you know, I, I feel like
17:03 --> 17:07 social media sometimes gives us the wrong impression where we think
17:07 --> 17:10 that Um, you know, we're gonna do something and it's gonna blow
17:11 --> 17:14 up. And, you know, like, like every time someone writes the book, it blows up.
17:15 --> 17:18 And, uh, you know, Dave and I from experience know that's not true because,
17:18 --> 17:21 you know, yes, whether it's events, um,
17:22 --> 17:25 apps— Dave, apps, you know, like they're gonna blow up.
17:26 --> 17:29 Yes, sir. You know, um, almost like Field of Dreams,
17:29 --> 17:32 like if you build it, they will come. No, they won't. Yes.
17:32 --> 17:35 No, no, they won't. So, I mean, um, first of all,
17:35 --> 17:38 I just want to congratulate you on writing the book because, you know, a lot
17:38 --> 17:42 of people, you know, always take their— a lot of people take their gifts
17:43 --> 17:47 and talents to the grave and, you know, don't ever benefit everybody. And then
17:47 --> 17:51 2, you know, I think anything that you do that
17:51 --> 17:55 is, um, like a personal mission, you're always stepping out on faith. And sometimes
17:55 --> 17:59 faith can be hard because people can judge you on what
18:00 --> 18:03 you do. Yes. And it, you know, it's kind of like, you know, if someone
18:03 --> 18:06 were to say something, uh, critical about your book, you may be ready to fight
18:07 --> 18:10 because you take it personal, because that, that's almost like your baby. Um,
18:10 --> 18:14 so, you know, I think anybody who puts their passion in something and
18:14 --> 18:18 puts it out for the world and, you know, knows that they have to accept
18:18 --> 18:22 the good and bad, you know, I think that's someone who, um, has a lot
18:22 --> 18:26 of confidence in themselves. And, and what they
18:26 --> 18:29 always say too The first book is probably the hardest, you know, like, like now
18:30 --> 18:33 that you know what to do. Yes. You know, you know, those second,
18:33 --> 18:36 you know, you may have another book by the end of the year, you know,
18:36 --> 18:38 no, no telling. Yes. Um,
18:40 --> 18:44 well, this book was actually supposed to come out last
18:44 --> 18:47 year, but like you said, it was a lot of trial and
18:48 --> 18:51 tribulations. Yeah. With dealing with, uh, the editors,
18:52 --> 18:56 the illustrators. And everybody that I had to deal with and everything.
18:56 --> 18:59 So, um, I put a— I put a hold on it for
19:00 --> 19:02 a little bit because I said,
19:03 --> 19:07 let me just wait and let them get everything right,
19:07 --> 19:10 and then we'll come back to everything in September when school
19:11 --> 19:14 starts back around, right? Right. And by the grace of God, everything fell in,
19:14 --> 19:18 fell in, in, um, God's timing and everything.
19:18 --> 19:22 You have Um, one thing I will say, everything was
19:22 --> 19:25 in God's timing because like I said, I was getting frustrated.
19:26 --> 19:28 Yeah. And everything. And then, you know, uh,
19:29 --> 19:33 things— I had to sit back and say, well, you know, it's all
19:33 --> 19:36 in God's timing. And it ended up working out in the end. Yeah, no,
19:36 --> 19:39 it did, definitely. And I agree. And then now you can add a new title
19:40 --> 19:43 to your name, author, you know. Yes. And you
19:44 --> 19:46 know what, one thing Dave and I, we talk about it all the time too,
19:47 --> 19:51 Um, you know, we always hope our friends and family will be our biggest supporters,
19:51 --> 19:55 but you know, that, that's not always the case. And sometimes strangers will
19:56 --> 19:59 have your back, you know, more than the people who you think,
19:59 --> 20:03 you know, thought would be the first purchasers. So yes,
20:03 --> 20:07 because you would think some of your friends would post up your,
20:07 --> 20:11 your book, but they, they don't. Um, but I
20:11 --> 20:15 don't, I don't get discouraged by that type of stuff because, yeah, like I said,
20:15 --> 20:18 um Everything is in God's timing. Sure. And,
20:18 --> 20:21 and whatever God has for me is for me, right? And everything.
20:22 --> 20:26 Um, right now I want to say too, also, this book is
20:26 --> 20:29 also available in Spanish. Oh wow. Okay,
20:30 --> 20:33 okay. I— Trials and Tribulation,
20:34 --> 20:38 um, because, um, things didn't go right, I couldn't upload it. So I'm
20:38 --> 20:41 working with the editor to get everything right, and as soon as
20:41 --> 20:44 everything is right, it'll be available in Spanish too.
20:45 --> 20:49 So, um, you know, it was a lot of trial and errors with everything,
20:49 --> 20:52 but I'm not going to get discouraged. I'm just going to keep pushing forward.
20:53 --> 20:56 Yeah, yeah, definitely. Well, um, definitely I want to congratulate
20:56 --> 21:00 you because, shoot, um, Dave and I talk about I want to write a
21:00 --> 21:03 book too. I just haven't. But, um, but, you know,
21:03 --> 21:07 maybe, maybe it'll come one day. But I do want to congratulate you because it
21:07 --> 21:11 is stepping out on faith and, um, you know Um, what do
21:11 --> 21:15 they say? Every, every journey starts with one step, and, uh,
21:15 --> 21:19 you, you have definitely taken that step. Yes, I appreciate it. And I,
21:19 --> 21:22 I know Dave has some follow-up questions. He's probably going to talk about Riverside.
21:25 --> 21:29 He's going to talk about Imitation of Life. He's going to talk about
21:30 --> 21:33 PS 59 High School. He's such a hater, man. Mr.
21:33 --> 21:37 G, just, just be ready for them PS questions.
21:37 --> 21:40 Riverside. Riverside versus Southbridge.
21:41 --> 21:44 No, man. Well, but I am going to bring
21:45 --> 21:48 up Riverside and Southbridge, but only for this reason,
21:48 --> 21:52 because you brought it up.
21:52 --> 21:55 First of all, I have to be, you know,
21:56 --> 21:59 you just mentioned something at the end there, Leonard, that's pretty funny
22:00 --> 22:03 about how, you know, when you
22:04 --> 22:07 do something that you feel is full of passion
22:07 --> 22:10 and you get it out there, with hopes of getting
22:11 --> 22:14 a bunch of support, especially from your friends
22:14 --> 22:18 and from your family, it doesn't always come like you just said.
22:19 --> 22:23 It's always, you know, sometimes they're the last ones to catch
22:23 --> 22:26 on until they see that you're doing big things.
22:26 --> 22:30 And you should know because, you know, you are— you're
22:30 --> 22:33 one of the top entrepreneurs here in Delaware. And you,
22:34 --> 22:37 you know, you could, you could tell stories about that.
22:37 --> 22:41 You already know that, that it's not always the easy
22:41 --> 22:44 way to go thinking that you're going to have the backing from those people.
22:45 --> 22:49 So when this young man
22:50 --> 22:52 reached out to me and said that he wanted to come on the show,
22:54 --> 22:57 I didn't hesitate. And I said,
22:58 --> 23:01 sure, I want you to come on. Now,
23:02 --> 23:05 the reason for that, and you know, this young man is my cousin.
23:07 --> 23:10 Okay, um, and if
23:10 --> 23:14 you know one thing he's known, he's learned about me, anytime he sees me,
23:14 --> 23:17 what do I do? I greet you, I hug you. What else?
23:18 --> 23:22 I love you, cuz. Yep, that's right. So, so he's on
23:22 --> 23:25 the show because he's done something great.
23:27 --> 23:30 Here's the Southbridge, here's the Southbridge part, Leonard.
23:30 --> 23:30 Okay.
23:34 --> 23:37 I'm from Southbridge, really, originally. My mother's from Southbridge.
23:38 --> 23:42 My whole— his grandmother and my mother were sisters, so we're
23:42 --> 23:45 all tied to Southbridge. I just grew up in Riverside,
23:46 --> 23:48 but I'm from— my family's from Southbridge,
23:49 --> 23:53 and my father's from Southbridge as well. So we're all tied
23:54 --> 23:56 together in some kind of way. So, um,
23:57 --> 24:01 so when he told me about what he was doing I
24:01 --> 24:04 thought it was the greatest thing on earth, right? Because I, you know, I,
24:04 --> 24:07 I know from where this guy comes from. I know his life,
24:08 --> 24:11 you know, his, you know, his mother was my first cousin.
24:11 --> 24:15 I mean, I, I knew, and I know, I know this
24:15 --> 24:18 young man, and I know for him to do something like
24:19 --> 24:22 this, this is a great, great act. And I'm going to do everything I can
24:23 --> 24:26 to make sure the people that I know and the family
24:27 --> 24:30 that we have you know, try to do
24:30 --> 24:34 what we are supposed to do to, to, to help pitch this
24:34 --> 24:38 book, help buy this book, you know, and make it into what
24:38 --> 24:43 he has envisioned it to be. Right. So kudos.
24:43 --> 24:47 I'm just letting you know. Great job. Appreciate you. And we
24:47 --> 24:51 appreciate— and, you know, you know, I appreciate it. So, you know,
24:51 --> 24:54 and I will support it. So I got
24:55 --> 24:58 a couple questions I do want to ask. Um, first of all,
24:58 --> 25:01 and I was sitting here writing some stuff down as you and Leonard were talking,
25:02 --> 25:05 um, how did you come up with the look
25:06 --> 25:10 of the characters and, um, and the
25:10 --> 25:12 illustration, or how you wanted to do the illustration?
25:13 --> 25:16 So with the illustrations, um,
25:17 --> 25:21 I sent the lady my, um I uploaded
25:22 --> 25:25 my, my, um, inside of my book to her,
25:26 --> 25:29 and she actually came up with the characters. So it was
25:29 --> 25:32 up to me to approve them and everything, and she— I felt as though she
25:33 --> 25:37 did a good job, so I accepted the characters that she gave me and
25:37 --> 25:41 everything. So, um, as far as the, um, the inside,
25:41 --> 25:45 um, the characters and the illustration, um, I have to thank
25:45 --> 25:48 this lady named Sarah Saba. She's from out of India.
25:48 --> 25:52 And I think she did a fantastic job with,
25:52 --> 25:56 um, the coloring and everything. Uh, one thing I thought when she first sent
25:56 --> 26:00 it to me, it was AI. She was like, but nah, it's not AI and
26:01 --> 26:05 everything. But she did a really, really great job. Oh, she actually— so this,
26:05 --> 26:09 she didn't use technology, she, she actually penned these out? Yeah.
26:09 --> 26:12 Yes, with some type of, um, computer program,
26:13 --> 26:16 but it wasn't AI. Yes, it wasn't AI. Okay. Yeah. All right, so she went—
26:17 --> 26:20 she actually used— okay, see So she actually did it the way that it's been
26:20 --> 26:23 done for years. Okay. Yes. Okay. All right. Well, that's,
26:24 --> 26:27 that's good. So what's your vision as
26:28 --> 26:31 far as getting past this first book?
26:31 --> 26:36 What's your vision for, you know, the characters?
26:36 --> 26:39 And, you know, are you looking to do more books,
26:40 --> 26:44 um, you know, a series of books with this, or are you looking to move
26:45 --> 26:48 in a in other directions with it? So my plan with this
26:48 --> 26:52 book is I already got the second book already written. Oh,
26:52 --> 26:55 I just got to promote this one first, right? Okay. Um,
26:56 --> 26:59 also I'm going to branch off into clothing,
27:00 --> 27:05 but I'm really looking for somebody to invest so I could turn this into a
27:05 --> 27:09 cartoon series because we, we lack,
27:09 --> 27:12 um African-American, um,
27:12 --> 27:16 cartoons. And Mr. Rogers was
27:16 --> 27:20 a staple in the community, us— for us growing up. I wanted
27:20 --> 27:23 Mr. G to be as big as that, but in the cartoon series.
27:24 --> 27:27 And I wanted to be all positive and everything,
27:27 --> 27:31 positive and educational, but I want to turn it into like an animated series
27:32 --> 27:34 and everything. So that's, that's my goal and my plans.
27:36 --> 27:39 Okay. All right. Well, that's, that's big. Um, and if you
27:40 --> 27:44 can get that now in today's world, it is something that's
27:44 --> 27:47 doable and it's something that's doable where you don't
27:47 --> 27:51 have to get involved with a lot of other people because
27:51 --> 27:55 with the technology we have out there today, yes, probably you
27:55 --> 27:59 could probably create that whole series yourself and, and, and put it on social
28:00 --> 28:03 media to start with and let it blow up on social
28:04 --> 28:07 media, you know? Okay. And then, but of course, you know, you gotta,
28:07 --> 28:11 you know, now have you— well, let me ask, have you already
28:11 --> 28:14 done all the copyright stuff and all of that stuff? I did every— everything
28:14 --> 28:18 is all copyrighted. That's why everything took longer than it should
28:18 --> 28:21 have been, because that's the last thing I want to do is somebody steal from
28:22 --> 28:25 my ideas and everything. Yeah, so I got all that taken
28:26 --> 28:29 care of. Okay, well good. As far as the characters and everything, my characters
28:29 --> 28:32 is my characters. Okay. All right.
28:32 --> 28:36 And, um, um, let me—
28:36 --> 28:40 I— well, I tell you what, since we got— since we have
28:40 --> 28:43 this platform here, do you want to take a moment and
28:44 --> 28:47 read a couple pages from the book? Um, I don't
28:48 --> 28:50 have it near me. I could get— oh man, you don't have it near you?
28:50 --> 28:53 Because I knew we was just doing headshots. Uh,
28:53 --> 28:57 hold on for a second. Okay. Um, one second.
28:57 --> 29:04 Okay. All right.
29:04 --> 29:08 You know, you're like, I'm gonna put him on the spot, right? Yeah,
29:08 --> 29:11 that's right. Look, we put other people on the spot. We gotta put
29:11 --> 29:14 him on the spot too, you know. Plus, you know, we gotta help him market
29:15 --> 29:18 this book. So, you know, yeah. So, um, you never know.
29:19 --> 29:21 You and I talked about this on the show last week. We talked about the
29:22 --> 29:25 story with Anne Latrice. Yeah. Yep. Yeah, matter of fact,
29:26 --> 29:28 I need to tell him that story. You know, one of the reasons that I
29:29 --> 29:32 mentioned it— I'm back. Okay, well, look, uh, it's funny,
29:33 --> 29:36 me and Leonard was just talking, so, you know, he said, you know, put you
29:36 --> 29:38 on the spot. I wasn't trying to put you on the spot, but of course
29:38 --> 29:41 we— I want to make sure that you, you know, get a chance to talk
29:42 --> 29:46 about your product. But I was saying to him, and see,
29:46 --> 29:50 as a person who's been an event planner and done a lot of things out
29:50 --> 29:54 there with the public. I always did— my one
29:54 --> 29:58 thing I always tell people that I work with or people that I've done events
29:58 --> 30:02 for is that you never know who may be in the room
30:03 --> 30:07 and you never know who may be listening. So last,
30:07 --> 30:11 last week at the award ceremony, well, you know,
30:11 --> 30:15 at the award ceremony last week that Leonard got honored at, I told
30:16 --> 30:20 the story Uh, on last week's show,
30:20 --> 30:23 from, uh, the story that Ann Latrice,
30:23 --> 30:27 who's the lead singer for Best Kept Soul, the band I used to manage,
30:27 --> 30:31 okay, um, she told the story about how she was singing
30:31 --> 30:34 a song at the thing that Leonard
30:35 --> 30:38 was honored at, the NAACP, um, award banquet,
30:39 --> 30:43 and lady walks up to her and says I
30:44 --> 30:46 let my friend listen to you sing this song,
30:47 --> 30:49 and they loved the way you sang the song.
30:50 --> 30:54 And I was just letting them listen to how, you know, how well you sang
30:54 --> 30:57 it. And so she was very flattered
30:58 --> 31:00 and so forth and so forth. She said, well, my friend is still on the
31:01 --> 31:05 phone here. They want to say something to you about the
31:05 --> 31:09 song you sang. So she gives her the phone. She's talking to
31:09 --> 31:14 the person. Um, FaceTime, it was Anthony Hamilton,
31:14 --> 31:17 and the song she was singing was his song.
31:19 --> 31:22 Wow. So, so, and he commended her, you know, uh,
31:23 --> 31:26 commended her about how well she did the song and how he
31:27 --> 31:30 enjoyed it and everything. And she was just freaked out, you know.
31:30 --> 31:34 She was like, wow, you know. So this is, this is why when
31:34 --> 31:37 you have moments like this And I've been, I've been in a few of these
31:38 --> 31:41 moments myself. When you have moments like these, you, you know,
31:41 --> 31:44 you never know who may be listening because we, our listeners
31:44 --> 31:47 do go across the country, all the way across the country.
31:47 --> 31:51 We got, we got listeners all the way out west and so forth and so
31:51 --> 31:55 forth. So that's why these moments are special. And that's
31:56 --> 31:58 why you take advantage of these moments. So I'm going to give you a couple
31:59 --> 32:01 of minutes to go ahead and read a couple if you want to read a
32:01 --> 32:05 couple of pages right quick and let people know what this, you know,
32:05 --> 32:09 what, what this book contains? I'm gonna read the first 4 pages.
32:10 --> 32:13 Okay. And everything. Um, like I said, it's, it's a, it's a rhyme.
32:13 --> 32:17 The book rhymes and everything, just to engage the
32:17 --> 32:21 kids. Okay. The sun peeks up
32:22 --> 32:25 to start the day. Mr. G is on his way. He grabs
32:26 --> 32:29 his keys with a happy grin. Time to let the fun begin.
32:31 --> 32:34 His big yellow bus shines bright, clean and ready. What a
32:35 --> 32:37 sight! He checks the tires, the lights, the door.
32:38 --> 32:40 Safety first. He checks once more.
32:43 --> 32:47 Down the street he drives so slow, watching for the kids
32:47 --> 32:50 that he knows. Good morning, Maya.
32:50 --> 32:53 Hi, Logan. Climb up on, there's room for all.
32:55 --> 32:59 Backpacks bouncing, smiles so wide, everybody finds
32:59 --> 33:03 a seat inside. Click your seat belt, Mr. G says,
33:03 --> 33:07 we're going to have a super day. And that's
33:07 --> 33:10 part of the book. It's only 35 pages
33:10 --> 33:14 long and everything. It's exciting. I feel, I feel like it's
33:14 --> 33:18 an exciting book for young kids and everything. It has
33:18 --> 33:20 the rhymes in there. It has a little, like I said, it has a little
33:21 --> 33:24 bit of safety in it. Right. And one thing, one thing I will
33:24 --> 33:27 say about when I wrote this book and I thought about it,
33:29 --> 33:33 this book will succeed my life and it'll be part of
33:33 --> 33:38 my legacy. So when I'm gone, my kids will be able— my
33:38 --> 33:41 grandkids now will be able to look back and say,
33:41 --> 33:44 as long as Amazon and all that stuff is around,
33:46 --> 33:48 they'll be able to say my grandfather wrote that book. Right,
33:49 --> 33:52 everything. And but actually, um,
33:52 --> 33:56 they were— I do have 4 grandkids. They were the first person—
33:56 --> 33:59 people to read this book and tell me. They were the first critics.
34:00 --> 34:03 It was the first critics to tell me
34:03 --> 34:07 if it was a go or no. So I got the thumbs up for all
34:07 --> 34:10 of them. Okay, good, good, good. Well,
34:10 --> 34:14 well, no, I'm just gonna ask one more thing now. What's the What's
34:15 --> 34:18 the pricing like on the book? So the book
34:18 --> 34:21 is $14. Okay. Everything,
34:22 --> 34:25 um, I think that's pretty, you know, reasonable and fair.
34:26 --> 34:29 Okay. Um, I will say this though,
34:29 --> 34:33 the graphics and everything are really, really good.
34:33 --> 34:36 As far as, um, I, I can't give her enough credit.
34:36 --> 34:40 She did a really, really good job on the illustration and
34:40 --> 34:45 Actually, I'm gonna tell the story real quick. Me and my wife went
34:45 --> 34:46 to our favorite restaurant,
34:48 --> 34:53 and because we know the owners— so it's a hibachi place—
34:53 --> 34:56 so I brought a copy of my book to show the, show,
34:56 --> 35:00 um, the owner. And before
35:00 --> 35:03 we could even sit down at the table, it was a
35:04 --> 35:05 couple with a little girl there.
35:07 --> 35:11 She was so fascinated with the coloring of the book that she
35:11 --> 35:14 wanted it and everything. Her mom took
35:15 --> 35:17 out her phone and was like, whose book is that? And I was like,
35:17 --> 35:21 it's mine, I read it, written it. I'm showing the owner
35:21 --> 35:25 and everything. And I had a customer buy one right, right there
35:25 --> 35:28 on the spot because it's, it's, you know,
35:28 --> 35:31 it was— she, she liked it and everything.
35:31 --> 35:35 Well, then there, there you go. Like I said, you never know who's in the
35:35 --> 35:39 room. Yeah, and they— and what's the old axiom says? And a
35:39 --> 35:41 child shall lead them. There you go.
35:42 --> 35:45 You know, so, um,
35:45 --> 35:49 well, I want you to take the time to tell
35:49 --> 35:52 people how they could purchase the book. You give your social media
35:53 --> 35:56 pages and all of that stuff so people can contact you if they need to.
35:57 --> 35:59 This is your time to put— to go ahead and market it.
36:00 --> 36:05 Okay, you can purchase the book on Amazon and
36:05 --> 36:08 you just type in Mr. G's Big Yellow Bus and it'll pop up.
36:09 --> 36:12 Also, um, it's pending on Barnes& Noble. It should be coming
36:13 --> 36:15 out on Barnes& Noble soon. Um,
36:16 --> 36:19 also look out for the Spanish version which should be
36:19 --> 36:22 on Amazon and Barnes& Noble soon.
36:23 --> 36:26 Also, you can type in Mr. G's Big Yellow Bus. I have
36:27 --> 36:31 a YouTube page dedicated to kids where once
36:31 --> 36:34 a month I usually do a contest where kids can win prizes.
36:35 --> 36:38 Um, also I upload, uh,
36:39 --> 36:41 my promotion on, um,
36:42 --> 36:45 TikTok, on TikTok as well. TikTok is
36:45 --> 36:49 my main form of promotion for the kids because I
36:49 --> 36:53 know a lot of kids is on TikTok. You can, um, and that page is
36:53 --> 36:56 Mr. G's Big Yellow Bus. Also, you can find
36:56 --> 37:00 a lot of my promotion on Facebook under my name,
37:00 --> 37:04 Gregory L. Nichols. And I also
37:04 --> 37:07 have, um, you— if you want to get in contact
37:08 --> 37:11 with me with bookings and stuff like that, because I do do readings for,
37:11 --> 37:16 um, kids, at mrgsbigyellowbus@yahoo.com.
37:17 --> 37:20 Okay. All right. Are you on
37:20 --> 37:23 the TikTok shop? As well? Um, I, I didn't
37:24 --> 37:27 get involved with the TikTok shop yet, but I will be because I'm waiting for
37:27 --> 37:31 the merchandise to come as well. I got merchandise coming. Okay,
37:31 --> 37:34 all right, okay, all right. That's great. Say don't miss out.
37:34 --> 37:39 I'm not— I'm— oh man, I'm not.
37:39 --> 37:42 All right, well, there you have it, folks.
37:42 --> 37:45 That's, that's, that's everything you need to know about Mr.
37:46 --> 37:48 G's Big Yellow Bus. And, uh,
37:49 --> 37:53 and the book and, um, and Mr. Gregory Nichols.
37:53 --> 37:57 And he's going to hang out with us, um, as we complete the show.
37:57 --> 38:00 But, uh, but, um, just wanted— we just
38:01 --> 38:04 want to make sure that you guys go out and support this brother and make
38:04 --> 38:08 sure, you know, here's a guy that's doing something positive
38:08 --> 38:12 for children and we need to make sure that he
38:12 --> 38:15 is supported that way. With positive results.
38:16 --> 38:19 So, um, if you take, you know, take the time,
38:20 --> 38:24 even if you don't have any small, small kids, purchase the book, you know,
38:24 --> 38:27 and, and, and donate it to, to a library or something like
38:27 --> 38:31 that, you know, or whatever, you know. But this, you know,
38:31 --> 38:34 you know, it's, it's definitely worthwhile.
38:35 --> 38:38 Um, it's definitely worthwhile to do. And, um,
38:38 --> 38:41 you know, when he does his book readings and, you know,
38:41 --> 38:44 so forth, and book signings, this Just check them out.
38:45 --> 38:49 Okay. All right. So we're going to go ahead and
38:49 --> 38:53 move into our other portion of the show and I'm going
38:54 --> 38:56 to talk about a couple of topics that we wanted to talk about.
38:57 --> 39:00 And since we're on the subject that we
39:01 --> 39:04 are, as far as the book, I came up with this
39:04 --> 39:08 article that I wanted to kind of throw out there and kind
39:08 --> 39:12 of give some It kind of gives some valuable information as
39:12 --> 39:15 far as how to market children's
39:15 --> 39:18 book effectively as a new author.
39:18 --> 39:21 Okay, so I thought this falls right in line with everything,
39:22 --> 39:25 and some of this stuff I'm probably— I'm sure that you've already found
39:26 --> 39:29 out about or already done, whatever, but we can talk about it
39:29 --> 39:32 and see, see how it goes. It kind of gives a few little
39:33 --> 39:36 tips. So it says, to market a children's book effectively,
39:36 --> 39:40 you must target the audience and the adults who buy
39:40 --> 39:43 the books, such as parents, teachers, and librarians,
39:43 --> 39:47 rather than the children who read them. So you want to understand your
39:48 --> 39:51 buyers. It says focus on decision
39:52 --> 39:55 makers, speak to the parents and educators by highlighting
39:55 --> 40:00 educational value, emotional resonance, beautiful illustrations.
40:00 --> 40:04 And you just talked about the illustration and the graphics and
40:04 --> 40:07 so forth. So there you go. Or problem-solving themes
40:07 --> 40:09 like bedtime routines.
40:10 --> 40:14 Define your niche. Know the
40:15 --> 40:20 precise age group and the specific value
40:20 --> 40:23 your book brings to a child's day.
40:24 --> 40:26 Build the digital foundation.
40:27 --> 40:31 Optimize your online listings. Use clear keywords
40:31 --> 40:34 or platforms like Amazon, such as children's
40:35 --> 40:38 picture book or specific educational
40:38 --> 40:42 themes so buyers can find you via search.
40:42 --> 40:46 Now that's a good point right there. Um, and Leonard,
40:46 --> 40:49 you know, Leonard has been very good at this type
40:50 --> 40:54 of stuff over the years with his Delaware Black, um, and also
40:54 --> 40:58 with other things that he's done. Search engines
40:58 --> 41:01 are very important. Yes. How do you pull it up, Leonard? I mean,
41:03 --> 41:05 why don't you, why don't you kind of talk about that as well?
41:06 --> 41:09 Yeah, I mean, I, I definitely agree. I think, um, being able to
41:09 --> 41:12 be found online is very important. And, uh,
41:12 --> 41:16 um, Greg, there was a point I had the t-shirt store, right?
41:16 --> 41:20 And, you know, I was trying to learn how to do the t-shirts, and I,
41:20 --> 41:23 I had this guy helping me. And it's so crazy
41:24 --> 41:27 because the guy said Um, for,
41:27 --> 41:31 for like t-shirt stores and stuff, people will find you— well,
41:31 --> 41:35 hold on. Okay, he said you could have a great design
41:36 --> 41:40 and like bad search engine presence, or great
41:41 --> 41:44 search engine, search engine presence and a terrible
41:45 --> 41:48 design, and people are going to buy that terrible design because that's
41:49 --> 41:52 just what they're finding. Which I always thought was so interesting because it's not
41:53 --> 41:56 always— so like, let's say from an author point of view, it's not
41:56 --> 42:00 how good the book is all the time. Yeah, it's like,
42:00 --> 42:04 you know, if, if, if that book is popping up in their face every
42:04 --> 42:07 day, you know, they're, they're— and, and, you know, they like to
42:08 --> 42:11 kind of— you talked about the illustration, you said the illustration was really, really good.
42:12 --> 42:16 And, um, I'm sure you know because, you know, there's some books you probably see
42:16 --> 42:20 where the illustration's good and the inside's garbage, and then You
42:20 --> 42:23 know, you probably see some books that the illustration is terrible and then it's a
42:24 --> 42:28 bestseller classic. Yeah. So, um, I mean, Dave, I,
42:28 --> 42:31 I, I definitely agree with the search engine presence. Like, you, you have
42:32 --> 42:35 to be found online. Yep,
42:35 --> 42:38 definitely, definitely. That's very important. That's very important.
42:40 --> 42:44 Um, here's some other very important stuff. Uh, create a simple
42:45 --> 42:47 author website. Now, Do you have a website?
42:49 --> 42:52 No. Um, that's what I'm working on now. I'm working on,
42:53 --> 42:57 um, a website for just specifically everything that I got on going
42:57 --> 43:01 on for Mr. G's Big Yellow Bus and all my merchandise and
43:01 --> 43:04 all that stuff. That's one of the things that I'm working on next. Yeah,
43:04 --> 43:08 that's very, that's very important. And it doesn't have to be— to start
43:08 --> 43:11 out, it doesn't have to be like something big and elaborate. You probably just need
43:12 --> 43:16 a couple pages It just shows who you are. And like
43:16 --> 43:20 it says here, include a professional bio, book synopsis,
43:20 --> 43:25 purchase links, and media kit for school or library
43:25 --> 43:28 visits, you know, so you can— so that's all the kind of
43:29 --> 43:32 stuff that you need to put on there. And it doesn't
43:33 --> 43:36 have to be full of information. It just needs to be enough where people
43:36 --> 43:40 can go on there, find out about you. Find out about
43:40 --> 43:44 the book and be able to purchase the book. Okay. Yes, sir. Um,
43:45 --> 43:48 start an email list. Um, email blasts are very, you know,
43:49 --> 43:52 look, Leonard can tell you at one time, that's what we, that's what people lived
43:52 --> 43:56 off of was email blasts, you know, right? So, um,
43:57 --> 44:01 offer a free lead magnet, um, like downloadable
44:01 --> 44:05 coloring pages, activity sheets. And that's another thing you can
44:05 --> 44:08 create coloring pages. In my, in my, in my office,
44:08 --> 44:12 I keep coloring pages for the kids when they come in there. I have this
44:12 --> 44:16 blank pages of like all the superheroes, all the
44:17 --> 44:20 princesses, all, you know, just things I know that they're going to want to—
44:21 --> 44:24 they can identify with and all of that. Those are very important.
44:24 --> 44:28 You create a color page of your, your character.
44:28 --> 44:31 You can actually— and you know, you can do that yourself. You know that,
44:31 --> 44:35 right? Yes. Yes. Okay. AI, you look, look.
44:35 --> 44:38 Aaron and I are big proponents of AI, man. We look, we use
44:39 --> 44:41 it all the time. You could create the, you could do that right now.
44:41 --> 44:45 Just create that, that, that yellow bus and
44:45 --> 44:49 just have coloring pages out there and so forth. Yeah. So that's
44:50 --> 44:53 another way to market it. And let
44:53 --> 44:57 me see, it says, or classroom guides to capture
44:57 --> 45:01 email addresses from interested parents and teachers. So you
45:01 --> 45:05 know, you can start capturing the email addresses from the teachers
45:05 --> 45:07 and parents and so forth. Um,
45:08 --> 45:12 leverage social media and content. Pick one or two
45:12 --> 45:15 platforms. Focus your energy where the buyers hang out,
45:16 --> 45:20 such as Instagram or TikTok, using hashtags like,
45:20 --> 45:25 uh, um, #kidlit and
45:25 --> 45:28 #parenting books, you know, just come up with a
45:28 --> 45:32 couple of good hashtags that you can use on a regular basis. Do you have
45:32 --> 45:35 those already? Um, no, but I, I'm gonna tell
45:35 --> 45:39 you what I do do. Uh-oh. And I, and I kind of took
45:39 --> 45:44 this from somebody. It was a good marketing strategy. So on Instagram,
45:45 --> 45:48 Facebook, um, all my platforms, for all
45:49 --> 45:52 the people, even celebrities that have big followers,
45:53 --> 45:56 I put my book in the comments. Okay, I put
45:56 --> 45:59 my book up in the comments. And also too, when you
46:00 --> 46:04 was talking about, um, the emails, as far as the emails blasting the emails,
46:04 --> 46:08 so I got a listing of all the
46:08 --> 46:11 daycares in 3 counties from here.
46:11 --> 46:14 Oh wow. Okay, so instead of,
46:15 --> 46:19 instead of, instead of me, instead of me emailing
46:19 --> 46:21 them. Me and my wife,
46:22 --> 46:26 um, had letters typed up and I mailed them out because
46:27 --> 46:30 some people don't check their emails, right? Some people sit around on
46:30 --> 46:34 10, thousands of emails. So I spent a
46:34 --> 46:38 nice amount of money on stamps just sending them all out,
46:38 --> 46:41 and I've been getting a lot of responses from just doing it the old-fashioned way
46:42 --> 46:45 and everything. So, um, I do do emails, but, um,
46:45 --> 46:49 handwritten letters I mean, not handwritten letters, but letters
46:49 --> 46:53 also work too and everything. I kind of did it a little old school,
46:53 --> 46:56 but, um, it was, it was very effective. And I'm still getting
46:56 --> 47:00 a lot of, um, feedback from a lot of the letters
47:00 --> 47:03 that I did send out. Okay. All right. Well, you got that,
47:03 --> 47:07 you got it, you gotta work, you know, and that's what's important. You gotta work.
47:08 --> 47:11 Uh, let me see, there was a couple more things. Show behind the scenes content,
47:11 --> 47:15 share the characters sketches, illustration reveals, the story's
47:16 --> 47:19 origin, and tips for parents on reading with kids.
47:21 --> 47:25 Connect locally and in-person partners with schools and libraries.
47:28 --> 47:32 Engage with local businesses, set up community events at local
47:33 --> 47:36 independent bookstores, coffee shops, or family-focused craft
47:36 --> 47:40 fairs. The craft fairs are very popular, you know.
47:40 --> 47:44 Yes. Yeah, they are very popular, by the way. Um,
47:45 --> 47:49 run target ads later. Master your book description and optimize
47:49 --> 47:53 your retail page before spending money on Amazon or social media.
47:53 --> 47:57 You know, um, you know, they're saying, you know, you don't have to spend a
47:57 --> 48:00 lot of money. There's other ways you can go. Um,
48:02 --> 48:05 uh, consider genre-appropriate newsletter
48:05 --> 48:09 promotions like Bargain Booksy or BookBub.
48:09 --> 48:12 I've never heard of either one of these, but they— me either. But they said
48:13 --> 48:16 they're good places to jumpstart your project. Okay,
48:16 --> 48:20 so those are, those are a few things that they have out there that they're
48:21 --> 48:23 saying, you know, that can help you. A lot of it you're already on,
48:23 --> 48:26 but, you know, just some things to think about, um,
48:26 --> 48:30 with, um, pushing this book. Lynn, anything you want to add
48:30 --> 48:34 that you think of, you thought of? Yeah, I mean, I think those
48:34 --> 48:38 are good. And then, of course, you know, word of mouth and Um,
48:39 --> 48:42 I mean, it's funny because I, I did like that idea about the daycare centers
48:43 --> 48:46 because, you know, um, email is good, but like, I'm,
48:46 --> 48:49 I'm sure I probably miss half the emails I get.
48:49 --> 48:53 So, but, but, you know, something comes in the mail, you know,
48:53 --> 48:57 they're definitely more likely to, um, open it. And that
48:57 --> 49:01 right there is probably your target audience. Yeah. Yes, yes. And, and that's
49:01 --> 49:05 what I figured that, um, a lot of— because this It's, um,
49:05 --> 49:09 mainly geared towards, you know, early childhood
49:09 --> 49:13 development. So if I could hit all the daycares I can
49:13 --> 49:16 hit, it'll help a lot too. Yeah. All right,
49:17 --> 49:20 all right. Um, well, you know,
49:21 --> 49:24 um, well, let's hope, let's hope that all these things
49:24 --> 49:28 can be something that's going to help this to be a big thing
49:29 --> 49:33 and gonna try to— and anything that we can do to try to help,
49:33 --> 49:36 um, push it, we will. So matter of fact, uh, well,
49:36 --> 49:40 maybe, uh, get Leonard to put something on Delaware Black about it
49:40 --> 49:44 as well, right, Leonard? Yep, sounds good, Dave.
49:44 --> 49:48 See how the power of suggestion
49:49 --> 49:52 works, man, you know? Yeah. Um, all right,
49:53 --> 49:55 we're gonna move on to our next story.
49:58 --> 50:02 Um, uh, came across the story and this
50:02 --> 50:06 is just apropos for where we are in the world today. Oh well, no,
50:06 --> 50:09 I'm sorry, I'm jumping the hoop. Go ahead, Linda, I know you had something.
50:09 --> 50:12 I know, I know. Yeah, or you want to do that? We can do that
50:12 --> 50:16 after this one. All right, yeah, go ahead. Yeah, okay. All right, um,
50:17 --> 50:21 um, John Hope Bryant says Integration
50:21 --> 50:25 wasn't the mistake, losing Black ownership
50:25 --> 50:28 was. And I just figured out, you know,
50:28 --> 50:31 since we just talked about what we just talked about, you're a Black author and
50:32 --> 50:35 everything, um, I just figured this kind of falls into
50:35 --> 50:38 place right after the stories that we were just— I mean, the stuff
50:39 --> 50:42 we were just talking about. So John Hope Ryan says that Black
50:43 --> 50:45 America didn't make a mistake by integrating,
50:46 --> 50:49 but he believes Something crucial was lost
50:50 --> 50:54 when Black dollars moved beyond Black communities faster
50:54 --> 50:58 than Black ownership and capital expanded.
50:59 --> 51:03 The Operation HOPE founder and economic empowerment
51:03 --> 51:07 advocate tackled the issues in an Instagram video
51:08 --> 51:12 responding to a Black woman who argued that segregation
51:12 --> 51:17 should have never ended. Bryant praised
51:19 --> 51:22 her passion and intelligence but rejected the
51:22 --> 51:25 conclusion. Black America didn't,
51:26 --> 51:29 didn't make a mistake by integrating, Bryant said.
51:31 --> 51:35 America made a mistake by integrating consumption
51:35 --> 51:39 faster than it integrated ownership and capital ownership.
51:40 --> 51:44 And this— in that distinction that is central
51:45 --> 51:48 to Bryan's argument, integration opened more doors
51:49 --> 51:53 for Black consumers, but he says economic
51:54 --> 51:58 ownership, access to capital, and community investment
51:58 --> 52:02 did not advance at the same pace. Bryan says
52:02 --> 52:05 segregation created the economic bubble.
52:06 --> 52:09 Brian's argument is that segregation,
52:10 --> 52:14 despite its racist and oppressive foundation, forced Black
52:14 --> 52:17 Americans to rely heavily on Black doctors,
52:18 --> 52:21 lawyers, accountants, plumbers,
52:21 --> 52:26 and businesses because discrimination restricted
52:27 --> 52:30 where they could live, shop, and receive services.
52:31 --> 52:35 We have to— we had to have Black communities,
52:35 --> 52:39 and we were smart, so we figured it out, he added.
52:39 --> 52:43 Bryan pointed to Greenwood in Tulsa and
52:43 --> 52:47 other historically Black commercial communities
52:47 --> 52:51 while arguing that integration eventually gave Black consumers
52:52 --> 52:55 considerably more freedom over where
52:56 --> 52:59 they spent their money. The problem in this,
52:59 --> 53:05 in his telling, was that comparable
53:05 --> 53:07 economic power didn't follow quickly enough.
53:08 --> 53:11 We left these communities because we could then go where
53:12 --> 53:15 we wanted, Bryan said, and we
53:15 --> 53:19 didn't have the capital to grow our communities and our markets.
53:20 --> 53:24 His answer isn't going back to segregation. That's where Bryan
53:24 --> 53:27 parts ways with the woman whose remarks prompted his
53:27 --> 53:31 response. Rather than restricting Black businesses
53:31 --> 53:35 to Black consumers, Bryan argues they should pursue everybody's
53:35 --> 53:40 business and use the resulting wealth to strengthen
53:40 --> 53:43 Black institutions. Take every dollar in,
53:45 --> 53:48 he stated, urging entrepreneurs to
53:49 --> 53:53 sell to customers across racial and ethnic lines and
53:53 --> 53:55 then invest revenue into Black schools,
53:56 --> 54:00 philanthropy, philanthropy, and communities.
54:01 --> 54:04 His prescription also includes improving
54:04 --> 54:07 credit, expanding access to capital,
54:08 --> 54:11 buying homes, and building businesses. If you're not
54:11 --> 54:14 at the table, you're on the menu,
54:14 --> 54:19 Bryant reminded. You don't destroy the system, You hijack
54:19 --> 54:23 it through success. The message closely
54:24 --> 54:26 tracks Bryant's latest book,
54:27 --> 54:32 Capitalism for All-Inclusive Economics and
54:32 --> 54:34 the Future-Proofing of America,
54:35 --> 54:38 published in 2026.
54:39 --> 54:43 The book advances his case for expanding financial
54:43 --> 54:48 literacy capital access, ownership, and economic participation.
54:49 --> 54:52 Bryant also invokes Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and King's
54:53 --> 54:56 latest focus on poverty, arguing that economic inclusion
54:56 --> 55:00 belongs within the unfinished work of the civil rights
55:00 --> 55:04 movement. The distinction is make— what makes Bryant's
55:04 --> 55:08 response more complicated than a debate over whether integration
55:08 --> 55:12 worked He's arguing for integration without
55:12 --> 55:16 economic surrender. Participate in the larger
55:17 --> 55:19 marketplace, build ownership and capital,
55:20 --> 55:24 then deliberately reinvest some of that prosperity into
55:25 --> 55:28 Black communities. So I read
55:29 --> 55:32 all of that to say, you know, so he had the argument with, you know,
55:32 --> 55:35 he had this, you know, going back and forth with the woman. You know,
55:35 --> 55:39 he agreed with the woman for She talking about how segregation
55:39 --> 55:42 kind of messed up everything, ending segregation messed up everything.
55:43 --> 55:49 But he said, I agree with you, but— okay,
55:49 --> 55:52 so then he broke it down with saying,
55:53 --> 55:57 if we took the Black dollars and reinvested into the
55:57 --> 56:00 things that we need to reinvest it in, like schools and so forth and so
56:01 --> 56:05 forth, then we would be doing a lot better than building
56:05 --> 56:08 our own communities and spending the money in our own communities. What's you
56:08 --> 56:09 guys' thoughts on this?
56:14 --> 56:17 Well, I'm gonna say this. It has been—
56:18 --> 56:21 it's— I agree and then I disagree, because it has been times where
56:22 --> 56:26 we had a lot of Black communities that thrived. Um, like, I live in New
56:26 --> 56:28 Jersey and they have a town called Wooltown,
56:29 --> 56:32 which was really, really a successful Black town.
56:33 --> 56:37 And I can't say integration
56:38 --> 56:41 destroyed it, um, but they came and destroyed the town itself.
56:42 --> 56:45 Yeah, okay. You know, just like they buried
56:46 --> 56:50 that thriving town in Florida and flooded it. So we
56:50 --> 56:53 talked about that before. Yeah. So, um,
56:56 --> 56:59 but like he said,
56:59 --> 57:04 integration is important if we can have seats at the table where
57:05 --> 57:08 we're going to be able to put money back into the schools and not just
57:08 --> 57:11 do foolish things with the money once we get it as well.
57:12 --> 57:16 Well, I thought that was a very telling statement in that whole thing, was the
57:16 --> 57:19 fact that he said that we need to have the seats at the
57:19 --> 57:23 table and not, not be on the menu,
57:24 --> 57:28 right? You know, so we, you know, that was a— that's very telling
57:28 --> 57:31 because a lot of times We have been the items on the menu.
57:31 --> 57:34 We wasn't the people sitting, sitting there putting the menus together
57:34 --> 57:38 and putting what was on. You know, we're the people that own the
57:39 --> 57:42 places and so forth. But what's your thoughts, Leonard? Yeah, I mean, pretty much
57:42 --> 57:46 the same thing. You know, I think, um, we, we can't
57:46 --> 57:50 just be consumers. We have to be providers and producers.
57:50 --> 57:54 So, I mean, you know, and I think not
57:54 --> 57:58 everybody needs to be a business owner and not everybody needs to own,
57:58 --> 58:01 but we, I, you know, I think we definitely need a a lot more,
58:02 --> 58:05 a lot more than we have now. Right,
58:05 --> 58:08 right. And I mean, yes, and I know, you know, like yourself,
58:08 --> 58:12 I mean, you know, you have to have the mentality to
58:12 --> 58:15 be able to do the stuff that you've done over the years, you know,
58:15 --> 58:18 investing and so forth, you know, and some of the projects that
58:19 --> 58:22 you've worked on and invested in. So, you know, and you have
58:22 --> 58:25 to have a certain mentality in order to be able to move forward with it
58:26 --> 58:29 in the first place. Right. And that's what this guy is talking about. It's just
58:30 --> 58:33 like with you, Greg, as far as making the moves that you're making right now.
58:33 --> 58:37 So that's important. Yeah. So I just thought,
58:37 --> 58:40 you know, I saw that story and I just thought it was interesting because they
58:40 --> 58:44 gave the 2 different perspectives. And here we are still talking about these 2
58:44 --> 58:46 words, segregation and integration,
58:47 --> 58:51 you know, and even though we're talking about it in sort of a different vein
58:51 --> 58:54 this time, it still comes back to the same thing about
58:54 --> 58:58 making sure that you understand fully what these
58:59 --> 59:03 2 words mean and how they affect us. Very important.
59:04 --> 59:08 So I just wanted to, you know, I saw that story, I just wanted
59:08 --> 59:11 to bring that up. And for you guys that are listening, if you have your
59:11 --> 59:13 thoughts on it, make sure to reach out to us and let us know.
59:14 --> 59:18 All right, uh, all right, we're going to move into
59:18 --> 59:21 this next story that Leonard wanted— wants to talk about.
59:21 --> 59:25 Go ahead, sir. Thank you, David. Um, so,
59:25 --> 59:29 uh, it's so funny because, um, have either of you seen
59:29 --> 59:32 the, um, the, the Different World,
59:32 --> 59:36 A Different World reboot? Uh, you know, every time
59:36 --> 59:40 I sit down to watch it, I started the first episode and I keep
59:40 --> 59:43 getting interrupted. Every time I get ready to watch it, I'd be mad because I'm
59:44 --> 59:48 probably gonna end up binge watching the whole thing. But right, I've been reading comments,
59:48 --> 59:51 you know, I've been seeing, you know, people talking about it and whatever.
59:51 --> 59:56 I hear it's been pretty good though. Yeah, yeah. I mean, um, I— well,
59:56 --> 59:59 Greg, Gregory, have you had a chance to see it? I haven't had
01:00:00 --> 01:00:03 a chance to see it. I've been really busy, but I do plan
01:00:03 --> 01:00:07 on watching it. Gotcha. So, so my, my first thoughts,
01:00:07 --> 01:00:10 um, I was not a huge A Different World
01:00:11 --> 01:00:13 fan back in the— you know, it's kind of like I watched it because it
01:00:13 --> 01:00:17 was on, it was Black, you know, they're at HBCU. But, you know,
01:00:17 --> 01:00:20 like, I definitely wasn't a die-hard person.
01:00:21 --> 01:00:25 Oh well, damn, I, I almost can't talk about it
01:00:25 --> 01:00:29 because y'all, y'all ain't seen it.
01:00:29 --> 01:00:32 Well, and, and I mean, I don't mean to be a spoiler because of course,
01:00:33 --> 01:00:35 you know, you can go on Netflix and binge watch it, which a lot of
01:00:36 --> 01:00:39 people have done. But I'll just kind of give an overlay.
01:00:39 --> 01:00:43 One of the things I really like about it is, you know,
01:00:44 --> 01:00:48 they brought back just about all the characters,
01:00:48 --> 01:00:52 you know, like all, all the characters kind of— now,
01:00:52 --> 01:00:55 of course, you know, there's been 30 years in between,
01:00:56 --> 01:01:00 but, you know, it was just kind of cool seeing like all the characters come
01:01:00 --> 01:01:04 back in, in some type of capacity. Um, so, you know, I,
01:01:04 --> 01:01:08 I, I thought that was cool. I also like the fact that,
01:01:09 --> 01:01:12 um, and, and this is kind of outside of
01:01:13 --> 01:01:16 the actual theme of the show But a lot of the
01:01:16 --> 01:01:20 original characters had children who are also
01:01:20 --> 01:01:23 acting. So it's like Debbie Allen, like her, like her son was,
01:01:24 --> 01:01:28 I mean, he wasn't a main character, but he was a, you know, a character.
01:01:28 --> 01:01:32 Um, and I, I, I forget exactly who else, but there were a couple actors,
01:01:32 --> 01:01:36 I mean, the original actors who had children. Um,
01:01:36 --> 01:01:39 Jasmine Guy, her daughter, you know, was kind of one
01:01:40 --> 01:01:43 of the more main actors. So, you know, I— and I, I think there were
01:01:44 --> 01:01:46 probably about 4 or 5 of them that had children that were acting in it
01:01:47 --> 01:01:50 too. So, you know, I thought that was cool. But so this is what I
01:01:51 --> 01:01:54 wanted to talk about, um, on a little bit of a side note.
01:01:54 --> 01:01:58 So I'm not sure if either of you have heard the controversy.
01:01:58 --> 01:02:02 People have been, um, saying that I guess Jasmine
01:02:02 --> 01:02:05 Guy is looking very aged, right?
01:02:05 --> 01:02:09 Yeah, actually, when I was doing— when I was
01:02:09 --> 01:02:12 doing my Um, when I was doing my research
01:02:12 --> 01:02:15 for my comment, um, for my topics, uh, it kept popping up.
01:02:16 --> 01:02:19 Yeah, yeah, you know, it kept popping up all over the place.
01:02:19 --> 01:02:22 So I did see that. Yes. Yeah. And, and, you know,
01:02:23 --> 01:02:26 Jasmine Guy, she had a statement and I should have brought it. In fact,
01:02:26 --> 01:02:29 let me see if I can just bring it up real quick. But Dave,
01:02:29 --> 01:02:32 so when, when you heard about some of the controversy, like, what, what were you
01:02:33 --> 01:02:36 thinking? Well, uh, you know, but keep in mind, this has
01:02:37 --> 01:02:39 been stuff they've been talking about for years. So,
01:02:40 --> 01:02:44 um, you know, some, some people just
01:02:44 --> 01:02:47 age differently. I mean, you know, one thing I have to applaud
01:02:47 --> 01:02:51 her about, because she didn't do with a lot
01:02:51 --> 01:02:55 of women who are her age that are vain and whatever
01:02:55 --> 01:02:58 do— she didn't go out and try to change her looks.
01:02:58 --> 01:03:02 She, she just— she's growing gracefully into
01:03:02 --> 01:03:06 her age, you know. Look, none of those characters
01:03:07 --> 01:03:10 except for probably, um, um,
01:03:11 --> 01:03:13 Dwyane Wade's buddy, uh, um, Ryan.
01:03:14 --> 01:03:17 Ryan. Ryan. Yeah, an older version of
01:03:17 --> 01:03:21 himself, you know what I mean? You know, but you know, they all look different.
01:03:21 --> 01:03:24 I mean, well, well, Dawn. Dawn still looks
01:03:24 --> 01:03:28 the same, and but they're all aged.
01:03:28 --> 01:03:32 I mean, they're all older and so forth. Some people age differently.
01:03:32 --> 01:03:35 Yeah, and it's, it's really a shame because people have been giving
01:03:35 --> 01:03:39 her grief for a few years now, you know. Right. So, but go
01:03:40 --> 01:03:43 ahead, what do you— what comments were you reading? Yeah, so,
01:03:43 --> 01:03:47 so, um, of course Jasmine Gashi came out with a statement. She says the
01:03:47 --> 01:03:50 internet can be brutal to women as we grow older.
01:03:51 --> 01:03:54 It asks us to celebrate life while criticizing every
01:03:54 --> 01:03:58 sign that we lived it. Growing older brings change,
01:03:58 --> 01:04:02 and I won't pretend every change is easy. But beauty,
01:04:02 --> 01:04:05 style, and joy don't have an expiration date.
01:04:06 --> 01:04:09 Let's spend time judging ourselves and— I'm sorry,
01:04:09 --> 01:04:13 let's spend less time judging ourselves and each other and
01:04:13 --> 01:04:17 more time loving each other, making memories,
01:04:17 --> 01:04:21 and living the life that we're here to live. So, you know, I mean,
01:04:21 --> 01:04:25 I, I thought it was a very mature statement. And, you know, it's so funny
01:04:25 --> 01:04:29 because the people who are criticizing
01:04:29 --> 01:04:33 age are younger people who at some point will get to
01:04:33 --> 01:04:37 the point where they're criticized for their age, you know what I mean? So,
01:04:37 --> 01:04:41 right, right. It's just kind of crazy. And they only know— and they only know
01:04:41 --> 01:04:45 her in the rerun, so, you know, the timeline is not even— it's
01:04:45 --> 01:04:49 probably not even registering to them that it's been 30 years. I mean, you know,
01:04:49 --> 01:04:53 and they're, you know, they see the reruns, everything's still looks like,
01:04:54 --> 01:04:57 you know, this is just happening, you know what I mean? You know, but,
01:04:58 --> 01:05:01 but then when you see somebody, then all of a sudden you see them in
01:05:01 --> 01:05:05 real life, and then you say, oh, you know, they don't look the same,
01:05:06 --> 01:05:09 you know. So, um, and it happens to all of
01:05:09 --> 01:05:13 us. So I mean, the fact that they've done very well with the
01:05:13 --> 01:05:17 ratings on this and so forth, one thing I will say, you know,
01:05:18 --> 01:05:21 I'm glad that they did what they're doing with this and that they did bring
01:05:22 --> 01:05:25 back the original cast and Debbie Allen, you know. And that,
01:05:25 --> 01:05:29 you know, they're— they've done very well with bringing all those people
01:05:29 --> 01:05:33 back. And I also will give a shout out to when
01:05:33 --> 01:05:37 they did the Bel-Air, um, when they did
01:05:37 --> 01:05:40 the, uh, Bel-Air, um, reboot. Reboot.
01:05:40 --> 01:05:44 Yeah, I love what they did with that because they also
01:05:44 --> 01:05:48 brought back a lot of the original cast to be on that
01:05:49 --> 01:05:52 show as well, have cameos and so forth, you know.
01:05:52 --> 01:05:57 And I love the fact that they're bringing these shows back Because there's—
01:05:57 --> 01:06:01 they didn't get— always get— even though they were very popular shows,
01:06:01 --> 01:06:05 they didn't get all the acclaim they should have got because
01:06:05 --> 01:06:09 they were in a white era, you know what I mean? Yeah. You know,
01:06:09 --> 01:06:12 we— they had us lined up on certain nights, if you remember.
01:06:13 --> 01:06:16 We were all— you know, they had all the good shows on at the same—
01:06:16 --> 01:06:20 on the same night, and, you know, one after another.
01:06:20 --> 01:06:24 And, you know, nowadays, you know, we kind of dominate We're all
01:06:24 --> 01:06:27 over the place now. Yeah, you can watch a Black show anytime you
01:06:27 --> 01:06:31 want to now. Plus we got Tubi, we got all this stuff, you know,
01:06:32 --> 01:06:36 we could go watch. But you know, it's good that now you
01:06:36 --> 01:06:41 can bring these shows back and they're more appreciated now because of
01:06:41 --> 01:06:45 the characters and the way they're rebooting these shows and so forth.
01:06:45 --> 01:06:49 I would, you know, I would love to see them reboot Martin and turn
01:06:49 --> 01:06:53 it— do what they did with with The Fresh Prince in Bel-Air.
01:06:53 --> 01:06:58 I would love to see them do that same type of thing with Martin because
01:06:58 --> 01:07:01 I think it would be a great thing if they could do
01:07:01 --> 01:07:05 that with Martin. And, um, so, and people— and they
01:07:05 --> 01:07:09 got the interest because people want to go see it, uh, and people will sit
01:07:09 --> 01:07:13 down and watch it. So I, uh, I do plan to watch it. I know,
01:07:13 --> 01:07:16 I know, I figured that you would be all on this since you're an HB
01:07:16 --> 01:07:19 CU graduate. So, um, so,
01:07:20 --> 01:07:23 um, so that's, that's, that's cool. That's, um, I'm glad
01:07:23 --> 01:07:27 that they've gotten the ratings that they have, and I do plan on watching
01:07:27 --> 01:07:30 it. So yes. Yep. Okay. And I won't say—
01:07:30 --> 01:07:34 and I won't, and I won't mind that Whitney— Whitley
01:07:34 --> 01:07:38 looks like she does. So, you know, because I—
01:07:38 --> 01:07:42 hold up, Dave, how, how does she look? What does that mean?
01:07:42 --> 01:07:46 No, I'm saying— no, no, no, Dave, go ahead,
01:07:46 --> 01:07:48 explain yourself for the audience. All the controversy university is coming from because she is
01:07:49 --> 01:07:52 older. Because like I said, the whole thing is people are watching reruns. Yeah.
01:07:52 --> 01:07:55 And they, you know, they all look, you know, younger on the, you know,
01:07:55 --> 01:07:58 when the show was out there. And then when you see them now, you know,
01:07:59 --> 01:08:02 they all look different, you know. Well, majority of them look different, you know.
01:08:02 --> 01:08:06 So, but it's still a great show. And like
01:08:06 --> 01:08:10 I said, the ratings have been well, um, they've done, they've done very well with
01:08:10 --> 01:08:13 the ratings. So, um, my hat's off to Debbie Allen and all the
01:08:14 --> 01:08:18 producers and directors of the show. Even Glenn Turman came back. I mean, I,
01:08:18 --> 01:08:21 you know, he's 80 years old. Who was that? Which person
01:08:22 --> 01:08:25 was that? Glenn Turman was the, the older gentleman,
01:08:25 --> 01:08:28 right? Yeah, he was the cook on the first couple seasons.
01:08:29 --> 01:08:32 He was on the first couple of seasons. Okay. Yeah, but he's a part of
01:08:33 --> 01:08:35 it too. He's, he's probably the oldest cast member on there.
01:08:36 --> 01:08:39 Oh wow. Yeah, it's the same. The only person
01:08:40 --> 01:08:44 that's missing is the guy that died, um, Remember the bald-headed guy that died?
01:08:44 --> 01:08:47 Uh, uh, he died a few years ago. Mr. Gaines. Yeah, Mr.
01:08:48 --> 01:08:50 Gaines. Yeah, he was a character. Yeah. So,
01:08:51 --> 01:08:54 all right, well, that brings us
01:08:54 --> 01:08:58 to, uh, Leonard's favorite part of the show, um, which is
01:08:59 --> 01:09:01 called Dave's Corner. I don't know why he likes it so much, but it's called
01:09:02 --> 01:09:05 Dave's Corner, you know. So what we do is we usually
01:09:05 --> 01:09:09 talk about something philosophical or we have some fun play a few
01:09:09 --> 01:09:13 games or whatever. But, um, I'm gonna ask you guys a
01:09:14 --> 01:09:18 question, and I'm gonna ask the two— both of you— and I'm gonna
01:09:18 --> 01:09:21 give you— I'm gonna give you, uh, give you some choices to
01:09:22 --> 01:09:24 see how— let's see which one you would pick. Okay,
01:09:25 --> 01:09:29 so here's the scenario. What would you do?
01:09:31 --> 01:09:36 You're at a church potluck. Someone announces Whoever
01:09:36 --> 01:09:39 made this macaroni and cheese, please come and get your dish.
01:09:41 --> 01:09:44 You look up and realize they're holding your dish,
01:09:45 --> 01:09:49 but you brought it. You bought the macaroni and
01:09:49 --> 01:09:53 cheese from a restaurant on the way there.
01:09:54 --> 01:09:58 So what do you do? And here's your choices.
01:09:59 --> 01:10:01 Leonard, I'm gonna ask you first.
01:10:03 --> 01:10:06 Because Leonard likes to be difficult, that's why I'm asking him first, by the way.
01:10:06 --> 01:10:09 Okay, because I know you're gonna be more sensible about this,
01:10:10 --> 01:10:13 Greg. I already know.
01:10:13 --> 01:10:17 So, all right. A, walk up proudly and
01:10:17 --> 01:10:20 say, I'm glad y'all enjoyed it.
01:10:22 --> 01:10:25 B, stay seated and let the mystery live on.
01:10:28 --> 01:10:32 C, confess, then ask everyone to rate the restaurant because
01:10:33 --> 01:10:35 you're going to tell them, hey, I got it from this restaurant, you know.
01:10:35 --> 01:10:37 So, and D,
01:10:38 --> 01:10:42 say the Lord works through takeout too.
01:10:42 --> 01:10:45 And he knows it.
01:10:47 --> 01:10:50 So let it— which was it going to be, A, B, C, or D?
01:10:51 --> 01:10:54 D. That thing's gonna remain a mystery. They, they, they, they not gonna know
01:10:55 --> 01:10:56 who done it. Who brought it. I already knew, I already knew you were gonna
01:10:56 --> 01:10:58 say Yeah,
01:10:59 --> 01:11:03 yeah, but you gonna sit there and act like you ain't even hear the question,
01:11:03 --> 01:11:05 right? I'm, I'm gonna take it to the grave.
01:11:06 --> 01:11:10 All right,
01:11:10 --> 01:11:14 okay, all right, Greg, what you, what you think? What you think? Which one
01:11:14 --> 01:11:18 would you choose? A, B? I'm gonna say C because I'm
01:11:19 --> 01:11:22 not taking credit for it. I'm, I want that restaurant to pay
01:11:23 --> 01:11:24 for sabotaging me like that.
01:11:25 --> 01:11:28 You said they going down, huh? Yeah,
01:11:29 --> 01:11:33 sabotaging me. I can't even take work.
01:11:33 --> 01:11:36 I brought it from the restaurant to make it look like I did it.
01:11:36 --> 01:11:39 Yeah, so,
01:11:40 --> 01:11:44 uh, yeah, look, you know, I ain't mad at you though, because if I,
01:11:44 --> 01:11:47 if I, if I thought about it, I'd probably do C too and say,
01:11:48 --> 01:11:51 hey, look, I brought it. I stopped past this restaurant. Everybody kept talking
01:11:52 --> 01:11:55 about how good this restaurant ride is, and I stopped past there and I got
01:11:55 --> 01:11:58 this macaroni and cheese. That was all right. So y'all know now not to go
01:11:59 --> 01:12:02 there, okay? Or at least not get the macaroni and cheese,
01:12:02 --> 01:12:06 right? Don't get the macaroni and cheese, right? That'd be one of the Black businesses
01:12:06 --> 01:12:08 we just got finished talking about. But anyway,
01:12:09 --> 01:12:12 so, but, uh, I just thought I'd put that out there.
01:12:13 --> 01:12:16 But that's, you know, that says a lot about how we think and how we
01:12:16 --> 01:12:19 do. So, all right, so Um,
01:12:20 --> 01:12:24 oh wait, hold on. Let me— Leonard,
01:12:24 --> 01:12:28 are you, are you great, dude? Are you ready to do your little bit
01:12:28 --> 01:12:32 right here? Oh, well, Dave, was that your only question?
01:12:33 --> 01:12:36 Yeah, that was it. Yeah, because I know I had to leave room for,
01:12:36 --> 01:12:39 for Mr. Culture Check, you know. So yeah,
01:12:39 --> 01:12:43 so let— okay, all right, so why don't you tell everybody
01:12:43 --> 01:12:46 about what you're doing? All right,
01:12:46 --> 01:12:50 so what I'm doing right now is I'm going to the, the number
01:12:50 --> 01:12:54 3 app in the App Store under the category Black Culture.
01:12:55 --> 01:12:58 Um, so Greg, uh, about kind
01:12:59 --> 01:13:01 of like you were talking about your book, I'm kind of going through the same
01:13:01 --> 01:13:04 thing. I, I released an app on the App Store and I was like,
01:13:04 --> 01:13:07 oh man, this app is going to get a million downloads and,
01:13:08 --> 01:13:11 you know, the first month. And I mean success, or,
01:13:12 --> 01:13:14 um, the, the, the, uh,
01:13:15 --> 01:13:18 results have been good, but I was hoping they would like blow it
01:13:19 --> 01:13:22 up. But anyway, so, um, I have an app on the App Store. It's called
01:13:22 --> 01:13:26 the Culture Check app, and we call it the ultimate
01:13:26 --> 01:13:30 test of Black history. So there's a bunch of trivia and
01:13:30 --> 01:13:34 Black culture trivia that's on the app. It's not just
01:13:34 --> 01:13:36 history, it's sports, music,
01:13:36 --> 01:13:40 entertainment, uh, uh, and, uh,
01:13:40 --> 01:13:43 wealth, faith, diaspora, you know,
01:13:43 --> 01:13:46 pretty much anything you, you could think of. So we try to make it fun
01:13:47 --> 01:13:49 because we, you know, we didn't want to just make it about Malcolm Martin,
01:13:50 --> 01:13:54 uh, Rosa, you know. It's about, you know, TV shows,
01:13:54 --> 01:13:58 '90s sitcoms, R&B music, Black inventors,
01:13:59 --> 01:14:01 Blacks in sci-fi. So, you know, we have a whole bunch of topics.
01:14:02 --> 01:14:06 So Dave's favorite part of the show is when I ask a single
01:14:06 --> 01:14:09 question from the app. So what I'm going to do, I'm going to go to
01:14:09 --> 01:14:13 one of our sports packs because, you know, Dave, for some reason
01:14:13 --> 01:14:16 Dave thinks he's like the ultimate fanatic and, you know, he knows
01:14:17 --> 01:14:20 all the sports. Okay. All right. So, so I'm going
01:14:20 --> 01:14:23 to ask each of you a question from our sports pack.
01:14:24 --> 01:14:26 Um, in fact, I'm going to take the first question that comes up. So if
01:14:27 --> 01:14:30 it's hard, it's hard. If it's easy, it's easy. Um, so we'll,
01:14:30 --> 01:14:34 we'll just see. Um, are you both up for the challenge?
01:14:34 --> 01:14:38 Yes, let's go. All right, let's go. All right, number 1.
01:14:39 --> 01:14:42 Oh man, I'm sorry, this is too easy. Okay, okay,
01:14:46 --> 01:14:49 that's— let me find a good, a good one for y'all.
01:14:54 --> 01:14:58 Okay, okay. All right, so this is from WNBA.
01:15:01 --> 01:15:06 Cynthia Cooper led the Comets to 4 WNBA
01:15:06 --> 01:15:10 titles from 1997 to 2000.
01:15:12 --> 01:15:14 Before the WNBA,
01:15:15 --> 01:15:19 which European country did she play for most
01:15:19 --> 01:15:23 of her career? Your choices
01:15:23 --> 01:15:25 are France, Spain,
01:15:26 --> 01:15:29 Italy or Germany?
01:15:32 --> 01:15:41 Okay, uh, I think it was Spain.
01:15:43 --> 01:15:48 Okay, all right, is that your final answer? That's my final answer.
01:15:48 --> 01:15:52 Okay, um, Greg, do you agree with that or
01:15:53 --> 01:15:55 you want to go out on your own? I'm gonna say Italy.
01:15:56 --> 01:16:00 All right, so let, let me mix up the pot
01:16:00 --> 01:16:01 and see what the answer is.
01:16:04 --> 01:16:08 Greg, I need you to take Dave's black
01:16:10 --> 01:16:14 card. Okay, the, the answer, the correct answer
01:16:14 --> 01:16:17 is Italy. Okay. All right. All right. She played with Italy.
01:16:19 --> 01:16:23 She played with Italy from 1987 to 1996.
01:16:24 --> 01:16:28 Okay, I thought you could— look, I was ready for you to say what college
01:16:28 --> 01:16:31 he went to. I was all ready for that one because I knew, I knew,
01:16:31 --> 01:16:34 I knew what college he went to. What college?
01:16:35 --> 01:16:38 Uh, USC. Okay, he played with, he played
01:16:39 --> 01:16:42 with Cheryl Miller on the same team. Oh, does he? Okay. Yeah,
01:16:42 --> 01:16:45 yeah. Well, Dave, unfortunately that wasn't the question. I know,
01:16:45 --> 01:16:50 I know, I know. And, and for, for the, the 2 out
01:16:50 --> 01:16:53 of 3 weeks you have failed the question. I have not. What are
01:16:53 --> 01:16:57 you talking about? That's not true. Yes, it is. I got
01:16:57 --> 01:17:01 the last 2 answers. No, no, you got the last one. You remember the first
01:17:01 --> 01:17:05 one? Um, I, I can't remember what it was, but you didn't get it.
01:17:05 --> 01:17:08 Oh Lord, here we go. Anyway, all right, well,
01:17:09 --> 01:17:13 nonsense. Anyway, um, so I,
01:17:13 --> 01:17:17 I want to say thank you for your little sports question. I'll get to
01:17:17 --> 01:17:21 you. Oh, my little sports question? Anyway,
01:17:22 --> 01:17:25 but Greg, I want, I want, um, you to take this moment to
01:17:25 --> 01:17:29 go ahead and repeat how, uh, people can purchase your book and your
01:17:29 --> 01:17:32 social media so that, you know, so that people know.
01:17:32 --> 01:17:35 And, um, I think we're gonna probably put a link,
01:17:36 --> 01:17:39 um, when we post it on our page, right? Can you
01:17:39 --> 01:17:43 do that, Lynn? Okay. All right. All right. Um, so, um,
01:17:44 --> 01:17:47 you know, go ahead and, and give that information once again before
01:17:48 --> 01:17:51 we sign off. So you can purchase the book at Amazon.
01:17:52 --> 01:17:56 You can also, um, be waiting in the next couple weeks
01:17:56 --> 01:17:59 for the Spanish version to, um, appear.
01:18:00 --> 01:18:04 Also, it'll be— it's pending on Barnes& Noble.
01:18:05 --> 01:18:08 Also, um, I have a TikTok page dedicated
01:18:08 --> 01:18:12 for, um, The Big Yellow Bus. Also,
01:18:12 --> 01:18:20 um, you can contact me at MrG'sBigYellowBus@yahoo.com
01:18:20 --> 01:18:23 for booking information if you want me to do a children's reading.
01:18:28 --> 01:18:31 Okay, and, um, I think you said something about Yahoo.
01:18:31 --> 01:18:34 I mean, um, not Yahoo, but, uh, Facebook.
01:18:34 --> 01:18:38 You can also find— you can also find me personally
01:18:38 --> 01:18:42 where I do a lot of my promotion on Facebook at Gregory
01:18:42 --> 01:18:46 L. Nichols. Yeah. All right.
01:18:46 --> 01:18:50 Well, Mr. Nichols, we want to thank you for taking the time and coming and
01:18:50 --> 01:18:53 hanging out with us today. And, you know,
01:18:53 --> 01:18:57 we're talking about your book and, you know,
01:18:58 --> 01:19:01 it was really enlightening and we really
01:19:01 --> 01:19:04 want to do all we can to help push this project.
01:19:05 --> 01:19:09 And, you know, just thank you for coming on
01:19:09 --> 01:19:12 and letting people know all about it. I thank you guys
01:19:13 --> 01:19:16 for having me. I really appreciate it. Um, I had a really good time tonight.
01:19:17 --> 01:19:20 Good, good. All right, great, great, great. All right,
01:19:21 --> 01:19:24 folks, well, there you have it. That's our show for the night.
01:19:24 --> 01:19:28 Lynn, you want to add anything before we hang up? Uh, but you
01:19:28 --> 01:19:31 know, I just hope everyone has a great week as we move into this month
01:19:32 --> 01:19:35 of October. That's right, happy October and all
01:19:35 --> 01:19:39 that comes along with it. So, right, all right.
01:19:39 --> 01:19:42 So, but we really appreciate everyone who has supported us.
01:19:42 --> 01:19:45 And, you know, actually, as we move
01:19:46 --> 01:19:49 into our 6th year of doing this show, so thank you once again and
01:19:50 --> 01:19:51 have a good night, and we'll talk to you next Tuesday.
01:20:01 --> 01:20:05 Tune in next week, ladies and gentlemen, for another edition of News
01:20:05 --> 01:20:08 and Trends with your A and win.