Episode 107: Behind Teach Like a Pirate: Dave Burgess Talks Books, Conferences, and Advice for Educators

🎙️Episode 107: Behind Teach Like a Pirate: Dave Burgess Talks Books, Conferences, and Advice for Educators

Adam Peterson [00:00:02]:
So what are we going to talk about?

Deedee Wills [00:00:04]:
I kind of texted Dave and said, like, do you want to talk about, like, new books or any books. Your story?

Adam Peterson [00:00:09]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Deedee Wills [00:00:10]:
I thought since this will. This will go out Sunday, maybe like, top reads for teachers or podcasts for the summer. Because I know you’re a podcast guy, too.

Dave Burgess [00:00:20]:
Yeah, yeah. Let me look at. Feel like did your titles ahead of you. There was one. I just want to make sure I got the right little. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can do. I can do. We can take it anywhere you want. I could talk about my stuff. Story, books coming up. Any. Anything’s good.

Deedee Wills [00:00:46]:
Yeah, let’s do like, a little, like. We’ll start with like, a little who you are kind of person in the education world for. I’m going to guess most of our listeners know who you are, but then talk about anything. But we’re pretty candid. We don’t have much of a plan. Usually we just talk.

Dave Burgess [00:01:01]:
Those are the best ones.

Adam Peterson [00:01:03]:
Clearly, it’s not very organized.

Dave Burgess [00:01:05]:
Yeah, those are always the best ones. My least favorite are when they have, like, a list of 15 questions, and no matter what you say, they just go, okay, question seven. And they go to the next one. Yeah.

Deedee Wills [00:01:18]:
Trisha just sitting on interviews last year, and she said that the principal had that, like, typed up. Like, you’re going to ask this, you’re going to ask this. And she’s like, I want it to be natural, though. Like, these people don’t want, like, a firing squad. But then she said, he skipped over half the questions. He’s like, I could tell that person wasn’t getting the job. That’s why I skipped to the end.

Dave Burgess [00:01:35]:
Oh, wow.

Deedee Wills [00:01:35]:
Yeah, like one of those, like, right away, you know, they’re not going to be a good fit for this.

Adam Peterson [00:01:39]:
Like, no, let’s just get this over with. Right?

Deedee Wills [00:01:41]:
Yep.

Dave Burgess [00:01:41]:
So if I answer your first question today and then you say, well, thanks so much for joining us. Okay.

Deedee Wills [00:01:47]:
They purchased, everyone. Thank you. See you next time. All right. Dd you want to do a little intro or me to do an intro? What do you want to do?

Dave Burgess [00:01:56]:
You.

Adam Peterson [00:01:56]:
You start us off. I’m a little bit, like, still life confused right now.

Deedee Wills [00:01:59]:
Waking up, still getting used to the time zone. That’s how it is. There’s your other dog. He just wandered in. I saw him to the other side.

Adam Peterson [00:02:11]:
There he goes.

Deedee Wills [00:02:12]:
All right, everyone, welcome back to what Goes. Welcome back to the classroom collaborative podcast. So excited to be back with Deedee. It’s. It’s been a little while. We’ve recorded A ton of episodes.

Adam Peterson [00:02:24]:
Yeah.

Deedee Wills [00:02:25]:
Put them out there for all of you. Been getting tons of awesome feedback. So thank you to all of you that are listening. It’s been really cool chatting with teachers from. From really all walks of life. Like, we had a musician on last time. We’ve had educators in the classroom, educators out of the classroom. Today we have one of my favorite people in the world of education and books. My publisher and friend and amazing, amazing educator speaker Dave Burgess is here. So excited to chat about his story. Books, podcasts, whatever we want as we head into summer.

Adam Peterson [00:02:57]:
Yeah, we’re super excited to have you. Welcome.

Dave Burgess [00:03:01]:
Thank you so much. I really appreciate you having me on the show. I am excited to be here as well.

Deedee Wills [00:03:05]:
Yeah. Yeah. So you. We’re in three different time zones right now, so I’m Central, dd’s Mountain. You’re Pacific, right?

Dave Burgess [00:03:12]:
That is correct. I am Pacific time zone.

Adam Peterson [00:03:15]:
Well, we’re laughing a little bit because for some reason, I thought I’d be the person in charge of sending out the invites. So I sent out three different invites, all of which had different times in different time zones. And for some serious miracle, we’re all here. So I don’t even know how I have a feeling Adam and Dave were texting back and forth.

Deedee Wills [00:03:35]:
No, I didn’t. Because I figured he’d be asleep.

Adam Peterson [00:03:38]:
Let’s just not involve Dee Dee anymore because she’s just making it worse. So my favorite.

Dave Burgess [00:03:43]:
I just knew that if I showed up at 7, 8, and 9, I would get it right one time.

Deedee Wills [00:03:48]:
My favorite one was the one that said 10 o’ clock mountain, 9 o’ clock central. I’m like, you’ve got those backwards. Didi.

Dave Burgess [00:03:57]:
Opened that email, and I was here.

Adam Peterson [00:03:58]:
I opened that email from Adam, and I was like, I can’t even respond. I’m like, I have. I have no response.

Deedee Wills [00:04:04]:
So I figured, well, yeah, like Diddy said. Welcome to the show, Dave. So stoked to have you on. For those listeners that are in their car right now or sitting and listening to a podcast, they head into summer and aren’t maybe in the teacher mindset. Let’s. Let’s talk about where you were as an educator, where you are as an educator. But I want to kind of shift the focus to. To books. I know you’re a podcast guy as well. Things that teachers can. Can use this this summer as they head out on the road or they’re chilling by their pool or just not getting out of bed for the day. Like, things that they can do to relax and rejuvenate but for those that do not know who. Who Dave Burgess is, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Dave Burgess [00:04:42]:
Yeah, so I always tell people. My gateway drug into education was as a coach. I started off as a basketball coach and fell in love working with kids so much, decided to go back to night school and get a teacher credential and never turned back. I ended up leaving the coaching behind, kind of got obsessed with teaching and started off as a social studies teacher at high school level, U.S. history primarily. And in the process of that, started to do some speaking and workshops and eventually wrote a little book.

Deedee Wills [00:05:13]:
A little book. I love how you say that. So a little book that whenever I go out and speak and I drop the name, like, I show my books and I say I’m on. On dbc and people kind of look at me, I said, teach like a Pirate. They’re like, oh, yeah. Like, it’s one of those. Like, I always do that with bands. Like, I’ll hear a song and I’ll tell someone a song, and I’m like, you know this artist, right? And they’re like, no, but I know that song. I’m like, well, it’s. It’s this person. And they’re like, oh, yeah, I totally know that. And I think that’s the same way. Like, as soon as someone hears the word teach like a pirate, they’re like, of course I know who Dave Bridges is. So, yeah. When. When did Teach Like a Pirate come out in your. Were you still in the classroom at that time?

Dave Burgess [00:05:52]:
I was. And so it’s kind of this. People think it kind of came out of nowhere. And actually, so the story is I was speaking about Teach like a Pirate for maybe six years before the book came out. And so I kind of. The backstory is I remember I was teaching and my department chair came and met me for lunch one day and he said, hey, I just got put on the professional development committee for the district. And I thought to myself, how cool would it be if you put together a workshop based on some of that crazy stuff you do that in your room that nobody understands?

Adam Peterson [00:06:23]:
And.

Dave Burgess [00:06:23]:
But I didn’t have a workshop. I didn’t have anything pulled together. But I said, yes, sign me up, right? And I signed up to do it. I signed up to do a full day session, actually. And if you think about that, that’s really stupid. Like, I should have chose a one hour session. I signed up to do a full day, six hour professional development session for peers in my district. Drove away from that meeting going like, oh my God, Like, I don’t have anything written down. I don’t have any organized. I don’t have this. And so I got relentless about writing down everything I do in my classroom that I thought was successful, but then that wasn’t good enough because that’s what I do. I had to take it a step back further and try to come up with, where do these ideas come from to begin with? And every time I trace back, it always came back to the same thing. It was a question. It was the kind of question that I was asking about my lessons that maybe other people weren’t asking about their lessons. And so I began to compile those questions one after another until eventually I had 170 different questions, which I put into 30 different categories, which eventually became the hooks, Right? That became the centerpiece of the book and the workshop that I did eventually, to start with. But the problem was DeeDee and Adam. I wanted to have a theme. I wanted. Like, if you think about it, it’s a lot of pressure. Like, if you would have read my workshop description, like, if you’re going to tell people that you’re going to have them create a wildly, outrageously engaging classroom that has students knocking down the walls to get in, you better have a pretty dang good workshop, right? Like, if you’re going to bill yourself as the engagement person, you better have a pretty engaging workshop. And so I wanted to have a theme. I wanted to be able to people. I wanted people able to model and demonstrate. I want to be able to model and demonstrate for them what it was like to be in my class. Like, I wanted teachers to feel it was like to be in my class in the workshop.

Adam Peterson [00:08:04]:
Yeah.

Dave Burgess [00:08:05]:
Pirates appeal to me because pirates are unconventional. They’re willing to reject the status quo. They’re willing to sail into uncharted waters with no guarantee of success. The risk takers, rebels, mavericks. And so I wanted to embrace that. That spirit of being a pirate. Like I always tell people, like, this is not about wanting teachers to attack and rob ships at sea, Right? This is about embracing that spirit of pirate. Right? And so then I. I knew that I wanted to talk about. Pirates are known for having hooks. And so there’s a little play on words with the hooks. This is how you could hook students and draw them almost magically, automatically into what you’re doing. And then I’m abnormally obsessed with acronyms, as many educators are. So the first thing I did is I turned a page sideways. I wrote P I R A T E down the page. I try to Generate an acronym. I knew I wanted to talk about passion and enthusiasm. They’re the P and the E. We’re sitting at the beginning of the ends of the word, like the cornerstones of it. And I knew I wanted to talk about building rapport with kids, that sort of being the heart of teaching. They’re the R was sitting in the center. And so I never looked back. I did the workshop that summer and then it was about. I began to travel. I began to go anywhere anyone will listen to me about these ideas. I submitted conference proposals all over the nation, and if any conference in any state said, yeah, you can come do your pirate thing here, I got a plane ticket, a hotel room, and at that point in my career, I bought a conference registration and I went and I did my thing. I just wanted to be in front of people with this message and I knew if I could get in front of them, that this thing could spread. And so that’s kind of where it all started with the teach like a pirate.

Deedee Wills [00:09:34]:
That’s crazy. And here we are, 2025, man. Like it’s, it’s nuts. So I, I first saw you speak. I had already read the book. You were speaking to the Illinois Reading Conference. This was probably 10 years ago now or more. And I remember meeting you afterwards. We didn’t know who like each other. I mean, a book wasn’t even on my horizon yet. But I remember that meeting. I remember that session. And it was one of the, it was the first conference I’d ever spoken at. And I was in a tiny little room, I mean, no bigger than this little office I’m in right now. And I remember seeing you speak and being like, that’s like, when you talk about engaging, I’m like, that’s what, that’s what I need to be like. Because I want that, that I want to see that in myself when I’m up speaking. So, yeah, you had a big impact on me, obviously as an author, but also as a speaker too, because I got to witness it firsthand. But I love how you mentioned too that you were purchasing those conference registrations. Because I think, people think I remember when I was still in the classroom and people are like, wow, man, it must be nice to go travel and get to do this. I’m like, but you don’t understand. Like, we put months into preparing these one hour or two hour sessions. We, we fly out after we finish teaching, we present, we fly back home. There’s not like, go stop at a fun restaurant or hit the beach or stuff it’s it’s non stop. Go, go, go. And the fact that you did it without, I mean, I don’t want to just to sound bad, but without being invited, like, you just did it. Like, that’s, that’s huge.

Dave Burgess [00:10:54]:
This is, I mean, this is the thing. Because the book, eventually, you know, I had the good fortune to have the book go viral, right? And like, it just kind of exploded everywhere. And. But I mean, five or six years I was just out on the conference circuit and like, I mean, if you think about it, I was, I was a crazy person walking around education conferences dressed like a pirate. If you think about it, there was no book yet. Nobody knew who I was. I was literally dressed like a pirate walking around teacher conferences. Like, if you think about how odd that would be, like now it doesn’t seem weird because people know who I am, but like, at the time, yeah, that was crazy, you know, and, and then like I, like I said, I wrote up my session description to make it sound like you’re going to Disneyland. You go, you read through some of these programs. It sounds like you’re going to the dentist’s office to be drilled for some of these sessions, right? Like, my, my sessions sound like you’re going to go to Disneyland. And then I tried to live up to it, right? I would walk and I walk around. I would walk around and recruit people. I was in those same rooms that you’re talking about, Adam. Like these little tiny rooms. I’ve been in, like converted hotel rooms. And then, you know, like the, and I would walk around, recruit people and invite them to come see me. And I would just. I’m dressed as like a pirate. I’m going through the registration table area, the hotel or the lobby of the hotel and just like, hey, there’s going to be a pirate room 10 o’ clock, room 18 at 10 o’ clock. And they would turn around and see a 6,5 pirate walk by, right? And then I would, we would, we would just jam them in these rooms. They’d be lining along the walls, sitting on the floor, in the aisles, like peeking out, like, they close the doors down eventually. And we broke fire code after fire code in the early years of this. Like before I was in the keynote space, I was like, just jamming these people into these rooms. And everyone else would stand up at their session and like, stand at the podium and read down their little PowerPoint slides. I would just like strap on a little microphone and go racing through these rooms demonstrating the hooks and the strategies from Teach like a Pirate. And it just got bigger and bigger and started to build and grow, grow. And then finally a publishing company came and offered me a contract. I can still REM to this day. Was in a coffee shop in Washington D.C. at the NCSS conference and she offered me a publishing contract.

Deedee Wills [00:13:05]:
I love this story.

Dave Burgess [00:13:06]:
I went straight into my hotel room and googled publishing contracts because I thought she, I thought she was trying to cheat me, right? And then when I googled publishing contracts, I came to find out she wasn’t trying to cheat me. That’s what they look like, right? And to me the only thing missing was a ski mask and a gun. I always tell people, like I just couldn’t understand it. Like I have, this is my intellectual property. I’m going to travel around and speak about it. I’m going to build a social media platform. And like you make how much money? And I make. It just didn’t make any sense to me. And they wanted to take creative control of it and all that. And so eventually we, after doing a ton of research, decided to tell kind of all the publishing companies to where to go and formed the Davis Consulting and published it from a laptop at the kitchen table. So the, the company was started on a laptop at the kitchen table with the first book we published, Teach Like a Pirate. And now the surreal thing is that it’s still a home based business.

Deedee Wills [00:14:02]:
So I was gonna say it’s still kind of based out of a kitchen. Right.

Dave Burgess [00:14:05]:
Still, I’m on a laptop at the little kitchen counter right now. And this, this is where I run the business. And now, now we publish over 200 books, including a couple books like Teach Play, Learn the Science Box. I don’t know if you ever heard of those.

Deedee Wills [00:14:21]:
I have those on my shelf. Imagine that.

Dave Burgess [00:14:23]:
Yeah, yeah. So yeah, I have the great honor of being able to publish your work. And they’re doing just amazing things. So it’s kind of like I’ve told my story and now people, people used to always ask me, are you going to write like Teach like a pirate too kind of a thing. And I would always say, like, I told my story. Now my focus is trying to find other people who are doing great things and help them amplify their voice.

Adam Peterson [00:14:53]:
As you were talking, of course I was listening to your story, but I was also thinking about so many teachers that talk to Adam and I about, well, how do you get started on the speaking? Where do you go? And they have that little bit of fear. We all have a little bit of fear when we’re doing Something new. And I love your story as just a. A story of. Just go for it, you know, and don’t wait until it’s perfect to get going. You know, you. You fake it till you make it almost. I mean, you knew your story. You knew your. What you were passionate about and how to engage students, but now you had to see, how do I. How do I get teachers to buy into this as well? And it sounds like you just stayed authentic and you did it. But you worked hard. You worked really hard.

Dave Burgess [00:15:42]:
Yeah, I mean, I was. I was not. I’m not ashamed to say I was relentless.

Deedee Wills [00:15:48]:
Yeah.

Dave Burgess [00:15:48]:
Like, I mean, I was really going after it and really doing everything that I could to spread this message. I believed in the message. I knew what was happening in audiences in front of me when I was presenting. Like, I could see it resonating. I could see what people were feeling when I was doing this. And it’s just like, oh, I just need to get in front of. If I can get this in front of people, I know I’m going to be okay. Right. But I have to do all the work behind the scenes to get in front of people. And I do talk to teachers all the time, the same way that they say they have something they want to share, but they’re not sure. I’m like this. Seth Godin has this quote. It’s one of my favorite quotes. Seth Godin said, reject the tyranny of picked. Choose yourself. Right. And so he was like, saying, like, you don’t have to be selected. You don’t have to be chosen. You don’t have to raise your hand if you have something. If you’re doing incredible work and you think it would help other educators to share it, don’t wait to be picked. Just go do it.

Deedee Wills [00:16:43]:
Yeah, that’s awesome. And you know what? To one of my. And I learned this from Deedee and other presenters that I had followed for years before I ever set foot in front of teachers. I had gone to this one conference in Illinois. I saw Deedee speak, I saw Kim speak. And I would. I would frequently attend their sessions for the reasons that you mentioned. They were engaging. They weren’t just standing. They were involving us in the sessions. And it made me excited to go back to my classroom. Right. Like that. You could just feel the presence. And I’m. I’m honest when I say this. Deedee knows I’m not just blowing smoke. I’m honest with her. But I remember leaving those and saying, like, that’s what I want. I want to Do I want to get teachers hooked in that way? And. And you go to some, too. Like, I’ve been to other conferences, like you said, where teachers just reading their PowerPoints and I. Or presenters aren’t. I want to. I want to. Like, it’s so hard for me not to be like, hey, try this. Like, because. Which I love now that Didi said, like, people will approach us at conference and say, how did you. How did you do this? And it was the same thing. I didn’t, I didn’t wait. I. I submitted a proposal to present at a conference because my school wasn’t going to send me to the conference. But if you submit a proposal, you can go for free. And I had these writing ideas I wanted to share and then just kind of sparked.

Dave Burgess [00:17:53]:
The other thing that I tell people is. So they’re concerned about maybe rejection. Like, they submit a proposal and it doesn’t get accepted. And I always tell them, like, well, wait, hold on a second. You know how many times I was rejected for conferences? Like, like, even after the book took off, right? I had, I had conferences who rejected my proposal to speak that, like, I. My book was everywhere. And I’m saying, like, hey, I want to go speak at your conference. You know, sometimes it’d be like, I’m not for money. Like, I just want to do a session at this conference and got rejected for the session. Like, it happens to everybody. Everyone gets rejected for conferences. And so it’s. No, a lot of people take that as a. Some sort of. Someone is like, literally looking at your proposal in a stack of 250 of them, and they’re sitting around table and they’re like, going, oh. And they’re like, sorting them into piles. And maybe they don’t know. They’re not. They’re not rejecting you. They’re just. This is just the. Maybe you need to get better at writing your proposal or whatever it might be. But don’t. Don’t take that as a personal rejection.

Adam Peterson [00:18:58]:
It might not be a no. It might be a not yet. And so you just got to keep coming back. Like, you said, you were relentless. And I’m writing that word down. Don’t wait to be chosen or that expression, don’t wait to be exposed or pick. You know, put yourself first. Because, you know, I also have, you know, you know, dating back to the second grade. You know, you just have these things in your personality. Some people, those things bounce off of them. Other people, it doesn’t. I’m not one that those things bounce off of me very Well, I don’t. And so I, I thank you. I, I got something out of that. I get something out of every time I talk to you, but I got something.

Dave Burgess [00:19:40]:
Let me tell you a little secret so I can tell you almost every single conference that’s rejected my session. Like, like I, I, I, they don’t necessarily bounce off me. I just don’t let it stop me. But like, I’m still, I still feel that arrow.

Deedee Wills [00:19:55]:
Yeah.

Dave Burgess [00:19:56]:
I, like rip the arrow out and then it makes me, like, want to go after the next thing.

Deedee Wills [00:19:59]:
So I picture all I can picture. Dj, I talked about movies at a time because of my shirt is the guy at the end of Billy Madison that’s crossing names off the list, like, good job, Billy.

Dave Burgess [00:20:10]:
Like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Deedee Wills [00:20:13]:
But did you, it’s funny you bring that up because I, when we were out on the road together, like Didi and Kim and I did a string of conferences over a couple years, like State to State, we did two days in each state. And it was one of those things that when you find those, those right people too. Right. Like, like you’ve done with the, the label. Like, you’ve put together authors that have a story to share. Like, and, and same thing around the road. Like, I, I gravitate towards speakers that I know I’m going to learn from as a presenter too. And I’ve, and I gravitate towards crowds that I’m speaking to that I know I’m going to get something out of. Right. Like I tell teachers all the time, we are here to learn together. I’m not the expert in front of you telling how to do your job. I’m here to share some ideas with you. And that’s, that’s what I think. You know, dfs, New Speak, and David, you speak speaks volumes about the type of presenters that teachers want. Like, they want people that are going to give them real honest stuff that they can go put into action tomorrow, not have to put time and money into all these different things.

Dave Burgess [00:21:13]:
Yeah, I’m trying to hit a very, very, very intentionally. I’m trying to hit almost like a 50, 50 split when I’m speaking. And 50 of the time, maybe you think that you’re in like some sort of zig ziglar motivational message, like getting like somebody ready to knock a wall down, you know, like a locker room, like a locker room speech, kind of like a feel. And 50% of the time I am just literally showing you and modeling what it is that I do in my classroom to engage students. And I Want the teachers to act like I do it on the audience, as if they’re in my class, right. And I’m actually modeling it for them and showing them and then talking to them how they can apply these things to their curriculum. So I think that’s like the mix I’m trying to hit is like, I want them to be fired up, excited, more passionate and pumped up to be an educator and about this profession and like that they can do this. But then I also want them to walk out of the workshop or the keynote and like, with stuff they can do tomorrow in their classroom to be more engaging and even. And it doesn’t matter. One of the things that I decided early on is like, I’m going to do my keynote just like I do my workshop. And so I might be on stage in front of a thousand people and I’m still actually doing the same modeling that I do in my workshop. If there’s a room of, you know, 25 from, at a school somewhere or something like that, I just want them to really walk away with stuff that they can, that they can use in a very practical way the next day.

Deedee Wills [00:22:40]:
Right.

Dave Burgess [00:22:41]:
But then I also am going to try to light the room on fire too. I would say, like, I stand kind of over on the side beforehand. I’m going like, I’m. Listen, I’m going to light this place on fire and burn it down around them. And God help the person that grabs the microphone after I’m done because I’m going to. I’m. I’m going to burn this place down.

Adam Peterson [00:22:57]:
Note to self, never follow Dave.

Deedee Wills [00:23:01]:
I did last, last summer in Texas. I remember I was presenting after you at that, that special education conference. And the other two authors that were there and I were like, oh, great, we have to follow this. Like, because you had that room going. It was awesome.

Dave Burgess [00:23:15]:
So that was a fun conference.

Deedee Wills [00:23:17]:
That was a fun conference. So speaking of books, authors, you mentioned teach like a pirate. You mentioned my two. Thank you for mentioning those. But which I do have to say I mentioned Didi had a hand in both of those as well and checking them and adding some ideas in 200 plus books now, which is, I keep telling people, like it’s 150, but 200 plus books ranging from every topic you can imagine, right. Like you, you. I remember when we met to do my, my pitch to you and it was, you have to present something that teachers across grade levels can use. We want teachers from everywhere to be able to pick this book and go, yes, I want that. And that Is something that I think this, you know, being an author with you, I take pride in this publishing label is. It’s not one sided, it’s not the high school, it’s not elementary, it’s across grade levels and there’s just a, such a range of, of ideas being shared.

Dave Burgess [00:24:11]:
Yeah, it’s, that’s, it’s definitely kind of broadened out. And what started as being, you know, I used to say that that had to be why, like I wanted books that were K12, multiple subjects, multiple areas of education, all that kind of stuff. But then now we’ve kind of realized that that’s, that’s a rule we can break sometimes. That we can kind of, if we find a marketplace, an area that’s underserved and a project that’s really going to knock it out of the box for that particular area. We’re willing to be a little narrow sometimes. So now we do have ones for early learners, right? Yeah, we do have science, we do have math, we do have. So we do have different subjects. But I always tell them like, within that space, try to write as wide as you can. Right? So like we’ll do a math book, but we’re not going to do a geometry book, right? We’ll do a leadership book, but we’re not going to do a middle school principal book. You know, so we’re trying to hit as many spaces that we can, especially spaces that we find that are a little underserved, but then have people write as wide as they can within that space.

Deedee Wills [00:25:13]:
And another prop to you there is, is your editing team. Uh, they are fantastic. Loved every minute of working with them. But my favorite thing was because people ask me all the time like, what was it right to like to write a professional book? Like how much research did you do? And I remember when Teach, Play, Learn came out, my, my one line back to people is I taught kindergarten for 13 years. That’s the research I put into that book. And that’s the difference between DBC and what I’ve heard from other people is you and the editing team or your team, Tara and Wendy. Nobody ever tries to change the author’s voice, perspective or idea. You are there to make it a readable book. Right? Like, and that’s what I absolutely loved about writing this. I’ll never forget when I said to you, what is my, my deadline? Or like what do you need? But, and I remember you emailed me back like, just get it to us by this date. And I was like, you don’t need like a chapter Now a chapter here and you’re like, get it to us, then we’ll work. And I was like, okay. And it was, yeah, I mean it was, it was work. I’m not gonna lie. I mean, science box Kim and I spent two years writing that together. Like it was work, but it was, it was fun, like passionate work. That was so. I mean it was hard work, but it was easy work.

Dave Burgess [00:26:22]:
Yeah. The behind the scenes team, like Sal and Lindsay and the production team and all that, the work that they do, Tara, with the author coaching, all the, it’s. That’s our secret ingredient.

Deedee Wills [00:26:32]:
Yeah.

Dave Burgess [00:26:33]:
Right. And so that’s what people kind of don’t see below the surface of DBC is how much work goes into the books behind the scenes with that team. And they’re, they’re amazing. They’re incredible. And what, starting this business, what I always wanted to do was try to elevate practitioners, people that are actually out there doing this stuff in real classrooms with real kids. Right. And so not the person that’s just been in an ivory tower for the last 20 years. And it hasn’t, you know, has maybe done some research studies and all that, but hasn’t been in front of kids lately. Right. I won’t know. We wanted to elevate practitioners and show people that you, you, your expertise as a classroom teacher is what other people is going to, what’s going to be valuable to other teachers. You know what, you know what works, you know what hits you. You had a lesson yesterday and by the way, you have one tomorrow too. And the next day, and the next day. That’s what people don’t understand about teaching is it’s not just like having one good lesson or a week of lesson. Like it’s back to that word, relentless. 180 day school year is really, if you have the same audience for 180 days, you got to get pretty good. Got to get pretty good. And so I love to elevate practitioners and help them write what we call. We want you to write your manifesto, something you’re a little interested in, not something you think is going to sell well. We want you to take the core message that you want to share as an educator, that you want to share with the world and write that your manifesto. And so we’re trying to, that’s what we’re trying to empower educators to do is to come to us and not have any of the other constraints. Just like, hey, you don’t have to shave off the rough edges for us. You say exactly what you want to say as strongly as you want to say it. We want this to be your manifesto.

Deedee Wills [00:28:24]:
Love that.

Dave Burgess [00:28:25]:
Love it.

Adam Peterson [00:28:25]:
Yeah. Love it. So what. What books do you have coming out or things that teachers must add to their list? Our audience, as you know, is. Is K2.3. So do you have some books in your. In your head that you think would be great for these this summer?

Dave Burgess [00:28:44]:
Yeah, so we have. We have a couple interesting projects. So last year we had this amazing honor of getting a chance to publish two educational icons, like two of the iconic names of education, one being Ron Clark and so be 1% better. Ron Clark, co founder of the Ron Clark Academy, is just an incredible book. What I love about that book is that it’s for everybody on the staff, so the secretary can read it, the counselor can read it, the custodial staff can read it, and the teachers can. Everybody can find ways on their campus to be 1% better. And so I love that book, and it was a great honor to work with Ron and then Joyce Abbott. So Abbott elementary is big school. Well, the reason it’s called Abbott elementary is because Quentin Bronson’s teacher was Joyce Abbott. She’s a legendary teacher from the Philadelphia area. And so teaching the Ms. Abbott way came out last year, too. So the ch. I mean, very close to each other. Just within a couple months, we published these two books from, like, two of these huge names in education. So that was a great honor.

Deedee Wills [00:29:54]:
I remember seeing that one come out, and I. And I remember I was like, wait a minute. That sounds familiar. Like, that’s gotta be the show, right? And it was. Gosh, when you. That. And I’ll never forget when you sent out, like, a. An email about, like, upcoming books, you’re like, we got a really big one. We’ll share the news soon. And I remember texting you and being like, you can’t do that. Like, you can’t do that to the authors. Like, you gotta let us know. And you’re like, don’t tell anyone else. Don’t tell anyone else.

Dave Burgess [00:30:21]:
Yeah, I was like, just kind of picture who is like, the. The biggest name in education that doesn’t have a DBC book, and that’s who we signed. And so. And but speaking of Ron Clark Academy, I’ll tell you a book that’s coming out June 3rd, and it is going to be one of the more unusual titles in our line. And it’s from a woman that I know. You know, she’s incredible. And that’s Kim Bearden.

Deedee Wills [00:30:45]:
Another one?

Dave Burgess [00:30:46]:
Yes, another Kim Bearden. Book. And now check out this. It’s called I really need you to hear this and what it is. It’s a collection of Kim’s poetry. And what she did was she wrote poems from the standpoint of all the different, like, kind of. Kinds of students that you might see in your classroom. As if they’re writing like I want. So for their teachers, like, this is what you need to know about me. So the. The gifted student, the bully, the kid who gets bullied, the student who has trauma at home, the ADHD kid. Like, all think about all the different kind of people you have in your clientele as a teacher. She took their voice and wrote as if they’re sharing with their educators. Like, this is kind of like how this is what you need to know about me in order to be able to reach me. So it’s called I really need you to hear this. And it’s coming out June 3rd. We’re super excited to have this very, super unique project with Kim. We’ve. We’ve done two. We’ve done talk to me and fight song with Kim in the past.

Adam Peterson [00:31:52]:
Right.

Dave Burgess [00:31:52]:
And so this is kind of a very unique one.

Deedee Wills [00:31:55]:
Yeah, she’s one of those people, too. So, like, she’s one of those people, too, that, like, you. She just presents real to you, right? Like. Like, every time you talk to her, you, massive heart feel like you’ve known her for. For decades, even though you just met. And I’ll never forget seeing her at rca and then we were speaking at a conference together, like, and she walked up to me, she was like. And I’m like, how do you know my name? Like, she’s like, we met. And I’m like, holy cow. Like, but it was one of those instant, like, just friendships that.

Dave Burgess [00:32:23]:
Yeah, Yeah.

Deedee Wills [00:32:24]:
I mean, you talk about someone who at that level doesn’t need to do that, right? Like, doesn’t. Like, she doesn’t need to know me from the next person. But you. She’s so real in that sense.

Adam Peterson [00:32:36]:
But she also has so many people coming into her life every day because school. So, I mean, and she goes to so many conferences, so there’s a lot of people that she crosses paths with. So that she continues to track those people is just a testament to how real she is, I think.

Dave Burgess [00:32:54]:
Yeah, she’s like, pure authenticity. And so anytime we can do a project with her, it’s exciting. And so that one. That one’s our next release, basically. It’s coming up fast, so. Yeah.

Adam Peterson [00:33:06]:
Oh, very exciting. And you know those. Those three books that you mentioned are kind of a perfect summer read. I mean, I know that there’s books on, you know, pedagogy and all of that stuff that we probably need to also, you know, sharpen our tools with. But when school year’s over, teachers are kind of, you know, they’re. They’re kind of out of gas a little bit, so they need something to feel their. Their tank and get them excited again because they’re about ready to go and spend another, like I said, 180 days doing it again. So those sound like great books for them to put in their bag for sure.

Dave Burgess [00:33:44]:
And I, of course, I hate to, like, you know, the whole line is amazing. All the authors are amazing. We have other stuff coming out too, and stuff that’s come along the way and, like, just go, there’s something for everybody, I think, in the line now. And so we’re super proud of all of the projects. And we. We also. We just like the ones that are a little bit sometimes quirky. The kind of ones that would never get published anywhere else, probably. Like, I gravitate towards those projects. Like, we did a recent one with Mike Johnston.

Deedee Wills [00:34:12]:
I was gonna bring that one up.

Dave Burgess [00:34:14]:
Yeah. Called Teaching as a Tattoo. And basically it’s a mashup of tattoo culture and education and the similarities between the two. And it features 40 or 50 different educators with tattoos, including Mike, and has them tell their story behind their tattoo. And then it has all sorts of activities that you can use as a teacher, both with your students, but also as a staff, like how to be reflective about, like, what. What do you believe in so strongly that you would wear. That you would wear it on your skin kind of a thing. And. And as an educator, what do you believe in so strongly? That. That’s the kind of feeling that you have behind it that you would, like, put it on you. And, like, that’s the kind of book that you just don’t see in education. And it’s just this beautiful, like, all the pictures of the tattoos inside and the layout. Again, the production team did an incredible job. And, like, so I. I love those books that just have something that’s super unique about it, about them.

Deedee Wills [00:35:18]:
Yeah, we need to get him on here and talk about that.

Dave Burgess [00:35:20]:
Oh, yeah, he’s amazing. He will. He’ll blow you away. He’s. He’s a spoken word poetry champion.

Deedee Wills [00:35:27]:
Yeah. Because he’s got another book. A poetry book, right?

Dave Burgess [00:35:30]:
Yeah, you are poetry. Like, so he. He traveled, you know, to events all over the place as a. He was a champion Spoken word poetry.

Deedee Wills [00:35:39]:
That’s cool.

Dave Burgess [00:35:39]:
So, like, he would be wonderful to have on the show.

Adam Peterson [00:35:42]:
Wow.

Deedee Wills [00:35:43]:
So you, you also have your own podcast. Teachers out there driving around. Might want to catch that. The Dave Burgess show, right?

Dave Burgess [00:35:49]:
Yeah, I have the Dave Burgess show and. Which is good timing that you said that because I have a few interviews scheduled now and I’ve had a little hiatus. We know the feeling. I have a tough time staying consistent with that dang show.

Deedee Wills [00:36:02]:
We know the feeling all too well. Relaunch is a very prominent word in our vocabulary.

Dave Burgess [00:36:08]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, I’m doing like about my 10th relaunch in just the next couple of weeks.

Deedee Wills [00:36:14]:
Yeah, we know it.

Adam Peterson [00:36:16]:
Yeah, yeah, we took like a 14 month, like vacation after taking a previous 12 month vacation. We’re relaunching and then nobody heard from us for like a year and a half and then we’re launching.

Dave Burgess [00:36:28]:
I’ve been there.

Adam Peterson [00:36:30]:
And you said you have two podcasts.

Dave Burgess [00:36:33]:
So the Dave Burgess show is the, is the podcast. And I think I have 60 some episodes up there now and more coming very soon.

Deedee Wills [00:36:42]:
All right, so one thing too, you mentioned, like, books. Everybody can check them out on the website. The label. One really cool thing that many of you might not know about DVC is when you go to the website, is it all books, Dave, or like a certain portion that they can preview?

Dave Burgess [00:36:57]:
Almost all of them. They can get. They can preview the first, you know, kind of the intro, first chapter or so.

Deedee Wills [00:37:02]:
Yeah. Which is really cool. I tell people all the time, like, if, you know, check it out. Like you, if you, if you don’t want to buy teachplay, learn from me today, go check it out and I promise you’re going to buy it after you read the forward and a little bit of that. And then the other cool thing are the. A good portion of them have like free book study guides as well.

Dave Burgess [00:37:19]:
Yep. If you connect with us, we can get you hooked up with book study materials for a lot of our books. And also our authors are absolutely incredible. We like, for example, if you do like a teach, like a pirate book study, I’m zooming in. I was like, zoom me in. No free. Just fun question, answer, greet the book study. Give them the background on the book. And a lot of our authors will do that. And so always feel free to connect with us and we’ll try to help you. We want you to be successful with the book and to get the most out of it that you can.

Adam Peterson [00:37:52]:
I want to, I want to say something. And if, if we need to edit this out, then you can tell us to edit this out.

Dave Burgess [00:38:00]:
That’s quite a hook. I know.

Adam Peterson [00:38:02]:
Right now you’re like, what’s she gonna say? You know, I think of, you know, your publishing company as, although it’s big, it’s kind of a mom and pop store in downtown. Right. And. Or it’s the one that’s in your neighborhood. And so when you’re thinking teachers about purchasing, think about small business first versus maybe how you typically get your books. Is that okay to say it that way?

Dave Burgess [00:38:33]:
Sure, absolutely. You know, that reminds me, we have an author who has a whole series of books. His name is John Carripo, and he does the Eduprotocols books for us, of which there’s a primary Edge of Protocol’s primary edition, by the way, for K12 teachers to get into the Edge of Protocols community, which is an amazing community. But anyway, what he says about DBC is he says it’s where the microbrewery nice publishing. And so it’s like you have these big house beer companies that have like these huge facilities, but then there’s also these more local micro breweries that have a very special, unique take on. On their line. And he says that we’re the microbrewery of educational publishing.

Adam Peterson [00:39:18]:
I love that. I love that. I just keep thinking about, you know, how our world gets bigger and smaller at the same time. And, you know, we just need to honor the people who are putting their passion and the product together. Right? Because some. Some other places they’re just about the product and, you know, you have the passion and the product. So just wanted to remind teachers of that because they may not think of it that way.

Dave Burgess [00:39:45]:
Yeah, thank you. We’re also really building like, it’s like, again, we’re not. We’re not looking to put a book out and then like our authors are not putting the book out and then walking away. Our author, like, the book is the start of the story. Now let’s connect about this message and build community around that message. And so I think that’s another one of our secret ingredients is that we’re trying to find people that are great connectors and community builders.

Deedee Wills [00:40:13]:
You and you do an awesome job of that. I hear from people all the time. Like I heard about you from Dave or heard about you from Tara or even Wendy has hooked me up with. With gigs here and there. And. And that’s one of the really cool things about this, this DVC family. I say family all the time. Like it’s. It’s a tight Knit group. Even though there are hundreds and hundreds of authors, it’s a tight knit group of. At the core that then. That kind of spreads its own little tentacles out to everybody else. And there’s always someone you can reach out to. It’s. It’s an awesome. I mean, you’re an awesome company to write for, for sure. But I will say, when Didi mentioned the small store thing too, I was just speaking at that Illinois reading conference where I first met you. And I walked through. There’s a local bookshop that’s one of the. They are actually in 2022, I think, the number one small bookstore of America. Like they won some big award called Anderson’s Bookshop right here in Naperville, Illinois. And they had Teach, Play, Learn and the science box in their little booth in their book. And I’m like, wait, like it’s in your shop? They’re like, well, yeah, we like, we support authors as much as we can, especially, you know, not the, not the big name people. And it was cool to see.

Dave Burgess [00:41:17]:
Yeah, that’s amazing. You know, thinking about y’ all with the, the early ed audience, you know, kindergarten, first year, all that. I also have to throw a shout out for one of our incredible authors who writes books for that age is Lenisha Tabb with the Alpert books.

Adam Peterson [00:41:35]:
Yeah.

Deedee Wills [00:41:35]:
Yeah.

Dave Burgess [00:41:35]:
She has her first day of school book and her last day of schoolbook as well. But I’m may or may not be able to break news that there could be. There could be another Alpert book in the works. I don’t know. But like there’s three of them out there now and she’s just dynamic and does great stuff, so we don’t have.

Deedee Wills [00:41:52]:
To edit that part out.

Dave Burgess [00:41:54]:
I know lots of teachers who use Alpert in their classroom and the kids just like, eat up, Albert. Yeah, yeah.

Deedee Wills [00:42:00]:
So that can stay in. We don’t have to edit that possibility out.

Dave Burgess [00:42:04]:
Yeah, the. The rumor has it, rumor has it, rumor has it on the street.

Deedee Wills [00:42:09]:
Well, and you. You. That brings up a whole nother side is. Is the. The children’s lane of books that you have. And, and since we’re. One of my favorites that I read all the time when I go to schools is. Is Cannonball in by Tara. Tara Martin, who works for the company. Fantastic book. We’ve talked to her before about it. And just one of those, one of those books that is such a cool confidence builder in kids.

Adam Peterson [00:42:33]:
Yeah, well, and it grabs your heart because we’ve all kind of had those moments where we’re what did she call them? The paddlers? Is that what she called them?

Deedee Wills [00:42:46]:
The jumpers or the.

Adam Peterson [00:42:48]:
The jumpers and the pad. I thought it was the paddlers.

Dave Burgess [00:42:50]:
I could have the paddlers, but yeah, I know exactly what you’re talking about. Yeah, the dabblers. Maybe.

Adam Peterson [00:42:55]:
Maybe.

Dave Burgess [00:42:55]:
Yeah. Yeah. But anyway, the. It’s a very personal book for Tara because it’s drawn from her past and had a. Has had a very traumatic past. And so it’s a super personal book for her. But that’s one of those books. Cann is one of those books that I think is just as good for the adult reading the book.

Deedee Wills [00:43:14]:
Yes.

Dave Burgess [00:43:14]:
As it is for the kids. And that’s one of my favorite things, are children’s books that, like, I’m just as likely to recommend for an adult and for a kid. And Cannibal is one of those books, you know, I think about kind of like the. The Peter Reynolds books. I feel the same way about, you know, like the. I’m just as. I get as much out of that as a kid would. And so, yeah, Cannonball is a great choice too.

Deedee Wills [00:43:38]:
Very cool.

Adam Peterson [00:43:39]:
Love it, love it, love it.

Deedee Wills [00:43:41]:
So we mentioned the website davidconsulting.com social media, how to remind everyone where they can follow you on there.

Dave Burgess [00:43:50]:
Yeah. So on X, I’m at Burgess Dave. On Blue Sky, I’m Burgess Dave as well. And then if you are an Instagram person, I am at dbc_inc. So at dbc_inc. On Instagram, I have a TikTok, although I’m not very good at it. I’m hoping to get better. I’m pirate teacher over there. But that’s. That’s one of my. That’s one of my goals is to get better on TikTok, but it’s. It’s a little bit sad over there at the moment.

Deedee Wills [00:44:22]:
I don’t even have one. So you’re all right.

Adam Peterson [00:44:24]:
Your TikTok’s hanging out with my TikTok.

Deedee Wills [00:44:25]:
You’re ahead of me. All right, well, thank you so much for sharing, Dave. I know a lot of people that know the book are excited to hear more about you. Check out the website, check out social media. Cool part there is not only find the books, you might find out where Dave might be speaking, contact forms to. To get him to come speak to your school. We appreciate your time more than you know, man.

Dave Burgess [00:44:46]:
Hey, I really appreciate you having me on the show. It was awesome to chat with both of you and. Yeah.

Adam Peterson [00:44:52]:
All right.

Dave Burgess [00:44:52]:
Can’t wait to cross paths.

Adam Peterson [00:44:55]:
Well, thank you so much. We’ll see you guys later.

Deedee Wills [00:44:57]:
See ya.

Adam Peterson [00:44:58]:
Bye.