Kaci Bolls on Life’s Three Acts: From Singer to Kindergarten Teacher and Children’s Author

🎙️Podcast Episode 106: Kaci Bolls on Life’s Three Acts: From Singer to Kindergarten Teacher and Children’s Author

Adam Peterson [00:00:00]:
Okay. Well, hi, everybody. We are super excited to have Casey with us. She’s a kindergarten teacher. She’s a Kindle music artist. She is a children’s book author, a speaker, a mom of two bird dog brothers, which I love.

Kaci Bolls [00:00:18]:
You know, I love.

Deedee Wills [00:00:20]:
I like how you said a mom and then had to pause to reread what she.

Adam Peterson [00:00:23]:
Yeah, a dog. So that’s awesome.

Kaci Bolls [00:00:26]:
But what she.

Adam Peterson [00:00:27]:
What she said, it was hilarious. Is that it? Ms. Frizzle and Mr. Rogers had a baby. That would be her. So I was really excited to get to bring her on.

Deedee Wills [00:00:36]:
So, yeah, I think followed her for. For some bit of time. She sent me a message a long time ago about buying my yellow book around Yellow Day. And so when you mentioned that this person reached out to us, I was like, wait a minute. I know that name. And we’ve. We’ve been like mutual friends on Instagram for a long time and never connected in a face to face or computer, like, even virtually. So I’m excited.

Kaci Bolls [00:00:58]:
I’m excited.

Adam Peterson [00:00:58]:
Now you’re going to become real. Real in life friends. Let’s get started.

Deedee Wills [00:01:04]:
All right, I’ll edit all this out.

Adam Peterson [00:01:11]:
Audit all this heavy breathing. Mouth breathing over here. Oh, that sounded bad. Hi, Casey.

Kaci Bolls [00:01:20]:
Somebody’s heavy breathing. I love it already.

Adam Peterson [00:01:25]:
Over here.

Deedee Wills [00:01:26]:
It’s what we do.

Adam Peterson [00:01:27]:
I know.

Kaci Bolls [00:01:28]:
Hello.

Adam Peterson [00:01:28]:
How are you?

Kaci Bolls [00:01:29]:
Oh, I’m so fantastic. I’m so excited. I’m gonna have to faint. Girl, out for a minute.

Adam Peterson [00:01:34]:
Oh, my God, we’re so excited. So we are recording, but we’re gonna edit this part out. We just did, like, a really quick, kind of before you came on, a quick little, you know, like, who you are. And she’s a mom, and then she’s a bird, but a bird dog. Mom.

Deedee Wills [00:01:49]:
Bird dogs.

Kaci Bolls [00:01:50]:
Yeah, they’re right there. They’re right there.

Adam Peterson [00:01:52]:
Some awesome.

Kaci Bolls [00:01:53]:
They’re right there. Hopefully not gonna bark at you.

Adam Peterson [00:01:56]:
Oh, my gosh. They’re spaniels.

Kaci Bolls [00:01:58]:
Right? Well, and setters. They’re sweaters. They actually hunt with my husband, who is missing, so that’s why they are right here. He’s not missing. That sounded horrible. I do know where he is. He’s not missing, but.

Deedee Wills [00:02:12]:
Yeah, but he’s missing now.

Adam Peterson [00:02:15]:
My husband’s missing dogs.

Kaci Bolls [00:02:19]:
Anyway.

Adam Peterson [00:02:20]:
Awesome, awesome. Okay, we’re gonna have to focus here.

Kaci Bolls [00:02:24]:
Okay.

Adam Peterson [00:02:24]:
We’re gonna focus real quick. All right. So, Adam, do you want to start us off?

Deedee Wills [00:02:28]:
Yeah, yeah. We’re. We were talking, so. Welcome to the show. I had mentioned to Dee that you and I had followed each other for some time. On Instagram. And she reached out to me. She’s like, hey, this. This teacher slash musician reached out to me. Her name’s Casey. I was like, I know that name. I’m like, maybe I’ve seen her at a conference. And then I looked on Instagram. I was like, no, we connected on Instagram.

Kaci Bolls [00:02:49]:
So she’s already stalked me. I know who that is.

Deedee Wills [00:02:51]:
Stop.

Kaci Bolls [00:02:51]:
No, no, no.

Deedee Wills [00:02:52]:
It was the. It was the Yellow Day Yellow Book connection. So when I. When I looked at your name, I’m like, I know. I know that person. Somehow. We’ve never met face to face or even virtually. So we are super excited to have you on the show tonight. So can you share? We kind of gave you a brief introduction, but share with people who you are, where you’re from, what you teach or taught. And who, who is Casey?

Kaci Bolls [00:03:14]:
Oh, that’s a loaded question.

Deedee Wills [00:03:18]:
Well, your husband’s missing, so we have all the time in the world, right?

Kaci Bolls [00:03:22]:
That’s true. We can’t get into that. You know, it’s. I kind of look at my life so far in three acts. So when I grew up, I. I swore up and down I would do anything but teach. My mother was a kin or K through 5 music teacher. And I just said, anything but teaching. You take your teacher sweaters, and I will not have that. And I actually did that. I had a career in singer, songwriter, country music for a long portion of my life. And then it was just like an about face, something. I turned 40 is what happened, and I didn’t have any kids of my own yet. And I just felt like, you know, this has been a great career, but it felt so. I don’t want to say selfish, but it was all self centered, if that makes sense. And even though I loved collaborating with different people and I don’t know, I mean, honestly, there is a true story where I was sobbing in my car and I ended up in a parking lot on a university here in Nashville. Walked in to use the bathroom and clean my face up, and it was the education building and that whoever that little angel secretary person was talked me into taking one class and boom, I got my master’ and I’ve been teaching kindergarten for 12 years now.

Adam Peterson [00:04:43]:
Oh, my gosh, I love that.

Kaci Bolls [00:04:45]:
Do you short version.

Adam Peterson [00:04:47]:
Love that you were crying inside?

Kaci Bolls [00:04:48]:
Yeah. Thank you.

Adam Peterson [00:04:50]:
There was like a. Like a little, like a magnetic pool that brought you to teaching and you.

Deedee Wills [00:04:56]:
Didn’T start until age 40.

Kaci Bolls [00:04:58]:
I got my. I remember masses.

Adam Peterson [00:05:01]:
Here’s what’s happening. Right?

Deedee Wills [00:05:02]:
That was mean. I should not have Asked because Adam.

Adam Peterson [00:05:05]:
Is now looking at you going, there’s no way.

Deedee Wills [00:05:07]:
That’s true. I’m like, and there’s literally no way.

Kaci Bolls [00:05:11]:
I don’t have kids. Kids. I sleep a lot. I sleep a lot. Yeah. 40. I actually, when I was getting my masters, I decided I need to get a job in a school and see if I can actually show up on time and if I won’t get bored. And so which is. It was a challenge. I’m not gonna lie. I got pulled aside and said, gotta show up on time because songwriter land. You know, it’s 10:00am, 11:00am Oh, I don’t feel like it. And so during that year, I was a para for a special ed student, a little first grader who I fell in love with. And I made, I remember making my 40th birthday cookies and I brought them to class. And I remember thinking, this is the most pathetic or most wonderful thing in the world. I can’t decide that. I’m bringing them my birthday treat. Oh my gosh, that’s awesome.

Adam Peterson [00:06:01]:
Yeah, I love that. So you’ve been doing kindergarten ever since. But you know, you also have other things that you do, right? So you, you have music that is, is it, is it for the classroom?

Kaci Bolls [00:06:14]:
So ish, I would say ish.

Adam Peterson [00:06:17]:
Okay.

Kaci Bolls [00:06:18]:
I. It was around like the pandemic ish time. I like the word ish a lot right now. And a friend of mine just sort of reached out to me and said. And I had literally laid down music. I mean, I still do session work and still do things, but it was like, lord, if this is, I’m going to. I’ve had a blast. I’m laying it down. I am now going to put all of my efforts into this. And he called me after, I guess I’d been teaching about nine years at that point, eight maybe. And he said, casey, why? You know, you, you teach, you love it. I’m like, I love it. The five year olds are my people. And he’s like, but you also loved singing. Why wouldn’t you just do a career mashup and do kids music? And I remember sitting in my driveway, my husband was not missing that day, and I was like the most obvious thing ever. And so for the first time, you know, rather than writing for somebody else or writing music that had to include, you know, ice tea, a dirt road, and a broken heart, it was like, let me just write about what I’m hearing. The kids say, what I think the kids should hear, what I wish their positive messages were hearing. So other classrooms I think use my music, my videos, and they play them like for brain breaks. But I. I have a. I have a weirdness about that. Like, I don’t. It’s almost like I go into the little phone booth and put on my little red jumpsuit. And that’s when I become like a singer. And I have performed at my school. But let me tell you, that was really weird because I wanted them to see me as their teacher and I wanted the parents to feel like I am their teacher first. And I’m not just trying to like, put on a little.

Deedee Wills [00:07:59]:
Sell them on something.

Adam Peterson [00:08:00]:
Yeah, well, I mean, it worked out okay for Cheryl Crow, but.

Kaci Bolls [00:08:05]:
Right. A little different. Yes, a little different.

Adam Peterson [00:08:08]:
A little different. So before.

Deedee Wills [00:08:11]:
Before we talk teaching, though, because we’re going to talk teaching, can you share like. Like, who. Who are names we would know that you’ve been with or performed with or done. Done work with?

Kaci Bolls [00:08:22]:
So it’s kind of like.

Deedee Wills [00:08:24]:
I’m just curious.

Kaci Bolls [00:08:25]:
Of course. Do you like country music?

Deedee Wills [00:08:27]:
My wife’s a big country fan. So I pause.

Kaci Bolls [00:08:29]:
There was a very long pause.

Deedee Wills [00:08:32]:
I’m a pop punk guy, but we go to country shows because she likes country. So.

Kaci Bolls [00:08:36]:
So I did not grow up being a country fan. I grew up being a Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Banana Rama fan. Okay. And so finally when I went, I did some living of some life and I wanted to be a Christian artist, but I was already divorced. And they said that doesn’t work. This was like pre. Amy Grant made it cool.

Adam Peterson [00:08:56]:
Cool.

Kaci Bolls [00:08:57]:
So they were like, why don’t you just write about your life and sing like you talk and your country. And I’m like, oh, so that’s kind of what I did. So it’s okay if you’re not a country fan, but the kind of like if you were to play Trivial Pursuit and like the random fun facts or like if you’re a friends freak and you know the minutia of the episodes, that’s kind of like where my. My little tidbits of fun are. So like, if you ever watch this movie called Country Strong, it was with Gwyneth Paltrow and Tim McGraw. Yes, I am one of. I am one of Gwenny’s. I call her Gwenny. She doesn’t know that your best. I am one of her very concerned backup singers in the movie. It’s hilarious. Like, it’s. I mean, I was, you know, doing all the moves and everything, but then, you know, the camera. She was having a meltdown about her drug use or something. I don’t Know, and when it came out, my younger brother and I went to the theater to see it, like, at a midnight showing. And I was tell. I was so excited. Like, they did the crowd view, and I’m like, I’m that speck way over there in that denim get up. And so, you know, Gwyneth is having her meltdown, and all of a sudden, my face filled the screen, and both my brother and I just gasped. And he goes, your face is so large, and it should never be that large again. We started laughing because I am not an actress, but my face is like, oh, oh, oh. It’s Terry’s.

Deedee Wills [00:10:34]:
Awesome.

Kaci Bolls [00:10:34]:
So that was my one. Was my.

Adam Peterson [00:10:36]:
You’re looking it up right now, aren’t you, Adam?

Deedee Wills [00:10:37]:
Hey, are you. I’m trying to IMDb it to see if I can find it.

Kaci Bolls [00:10:40]:
Oh, I’m sure I’m not even on it. It’s like the girl who was concerned for Gwenny’s drug use. Yeah, that was the girl. The girl number two. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Honestly, the other cool thing that a lot of people think is fun is I. I made most. I say I made most of. That’s not true. There was a period of like, three or four years where I mainly was. I would write songs in the day, and then I would go be a session singer. Session singer, meaning some guy writes a cool song or a girl who maybe not be a singer, but they’re a great songwriter. And then they’ll give me a work tape, like an actual cassette in the day, and I would learn it, then I would go sing it, and then they would pitch that to the artist. So nice. A gajillion ones. But probably the one that most everybody is familiar with is Before He Cheats. So I sang that Carrie Underwood, which is so cool because somewhere I have the cassette tape and I’m going to make a lot of money one day when I find it.

Deedee Wills [00:11:38]:
That’s awesome. When I find it. Now we know you’re a teacher because you have no idea where that is.

Kaci Bolls [00:11:43]:
No idea.

Adam Peterson [00:11:43]:
In a safe place. It’s in a safe place.

Deedee Wills [00:11:46]:
It’s in a closet somewhere, right?

Kaci Bolls [00:11:48]:
Labeled, I’m sure.

Adam Peterson [00:11:52]:
Because I can. I can barely hold a tune. I think I’m really good. Like, in the car. Like, I’m really good. But some reason, whenever it’s, like, recorded or other people are listening or dogs are nearby, there’s howling, so. Loves to sing, do you?

Deedee Wills [00:12:09]:
Yeah, I played in, like, pop punk bands growing up through high school and college. And then when I, like, we. We put out Like a four song cd. And it’s funny, I always joke. Like our little band got to the point where we would play a show and like all the teenage kids that were there were actually singing our original songs back. Like we were like, we have made it. We. And then we all got jobs and moved to different cities, but left it.

Kaci Bolls [00:12:36]:
We did it.

Deedee Wills [00:12:37]:
It was, it was. It was pretty fun. Yeah, I. I’m more of now. I just love going to live music. But. But yeah, we’re going to see Tim McGraw in August. He’s playing at the Field of Dreams in, in Iowa.

Kaci Bolls [00:12:48]:
Like he won’t remember me at all.

Deedee Wills [00:12:50]:
Well, I’ll be sure if I. Yeah. You know, because I’ll just wander backstage.

Adam Peterson [00:12:56]:
Yeah. Chat with them.

Deedee Wills [00:12:58]:
So let’s fast forward now to you. You got your teaching degree, you’re in that, you’re still in Nashville.

Kaci Bolls [00:13:04]:
Yes, yes.

Deedee Wills [00:13:06]:
And teaching, teaching littles. Are you teaching music like as a general music or how does this work?

Kaci Bolls [00:13:12]:
No way.

Deedee Wills [00:13:13]:
No. Okay.

Kaci Bolls [00:13:14]:
I could never ever. My mom was a piano major and she can read music and, and do all that. I do everything by ear. So I couldn’t, I couldn’t ever really. I actually was a voice major in college the first go round and I got seasoned voice. Like I was not because I didn’t want to sing opera. And so that was kind of what that school was for. But I. People have asked me like, can you teach me to sing? Can you teach me to play guitar? I couldn’t do it because I would just be like, come on, it sounds.

Deedee Wills [00:13:42]:
Like, you know, you should hear it.

Kaci Bolls [00:13:46]:
So. No, no, I don’t. I just teach regular kindergarten, good old kindergarten.

Deedee Wills [00:13:51]:
And that’s where you’ve always been since.

Adam Peterson [00:13:53]:
And you sing with your class from time to time.

Kaci Bolls [00:13:56]:
I mean, you know, I would say that they know my songs. Like the kids music stuff that they will say. I will say I don’t sing. But if you were to ask any of them, they would say, I sing. I’m like in a Broadway musical all day long, every day. Which, you know, it’s like, get your pencil now. I mean, I don’t, you know, I think I like silly little things like that all day long.

Adam Peterson [00:14:21]:
But not like, oh, I bet they love you.

Deedee Wills [00:14:24]:
That’s the, that’s the best kind right there. The ones that are just on the spot, like it means something to you and them. Right. Like if anybody else walked in, they’d be like, what is going on? But you and your kids get it.

Kaci Bolls [00:14:34]:
Why are you singing about a folder and agenda what is that?

Adam Peterson [00:14:40]:
You know, you also wrote a book, Dare to be Me. Talk to us about that.

Kaci Bolls [00:14:47]:
So that. Actually, that started with a song. So the first kids song, we wrote quite a few, but then I was just driving one day and doing voice memos, and I had the chorus, and it was because I had been teaching a phonics lesson earlier. You know, it was like, mama. No. Like, look, Ma, Ma. And so I ended up with this little hook. A dare to be dead. Dare to be mama, mama, me. And so it just stuck. And I told my. My friend Nathan. I was like, you know what? I think this is a song. Like, let’s. Let’s bring in. Like, oh, Mickey, you’re so fine. Let’s bring that in, and let’s mash it up with Gwen Stefani, and let’s just do this really fun thing. But I really want the message to be Dare to be Me. And the reason that came about is post Pandemic. Right. Post Covid. Post right when Covid happened. East Nashville, where I live, over in here, we. It was a devastating tornado, and there’s still a lot of rain.

Deedee Wills [00:15:48]:
Oh, yeah.

Kaci Bolls [00:15:49]:
And so it was like, wham, bam, no, thank you, ma’am. Please edit that out. That sounded horrible. But it’s like, it was. It was so much. And the kids were inside themselves, if that makes sense. Like, they timid. And what really, I started noticing is, like, in morning meetings, I would. You know, the question of the day would be like, hey, what’s your favorite color? And somebody would say, blue. And then the next person would look and go, blue. And then it would blue. And I’m like, whoa, whoa, Are you sure? Like, that’s.

Adam Peterson [00:16:22]:
Yeah.

Kaci Bolls [00:16:23]:
Coincidence. And then I started noticing through the week, like, if an All About Me child was one week and they liked soccer and didn’t like mushrooms and liked lemon pie, the next week, the same child said it. And I just started going, you know what? It’s so shocking to me how long it took me to feel comfortable being me years old. And just now it’s like, you don’t like my outfit? Okay. You don’t. You think I’m loud. Okay. You know, it’s like, just now I feel completely confident. And I think that when I was in kindergarten, you can’t see it. It kind of. I can’t see it. I had a. Two weeks after I was born, I had what’s called a strawberry thumbprint birthmark on my forehead. It just popped up. It’s like it looked like a raised, bright red thing on my Head. And, you know, I lived in a small town in Kentucky. Everybody knew it until I would meet somebody new, and they would point it out like it was part of me, you know, it is. And then somebody would say, like, where did you fall? And I found myself, like, yes. You know, and finally when my mom overheard me, she’s like, casey, that is, you know, that is part of you, and it’s beautiful, and you’ve got to own it. But I didn’t. I just fell into the Malbang era.

Adam Peterson [00:17:47]:
And hit it a long time.

Kaci Bolls [00:17:50]:
You know, it’s funny because I tell my kids about that now, and I’m like, everybody has something that makes them unique. Whether it’s whether. Whether you are quiet, whether you are a loud person, whether you are, you know, really good at art or really love science. And so dare to be me. Going all the way around the mountain and coming back. The story of the song is my story. The verses are. It’s like my song, but in the. There’s like a little. It’s like A part B in the song. And my friend Nathan and I sing it back and forth to each other, and it’s like, I’ll be me. You’re already taken. And that, I think, is key because so many times these kids, they. They are either unsure or they want to be liked. We do things at adults, too, right? I mean, look, absolutely.

Deedee Wills [00:18:40]:
Yeah.

Kaci Bolls [00:18:41]:
Everybody. We do one thing, and then we all shift and we do the other.

Adam Peterson [00:18:45]:
Yeah.

Kaci Bolls [00:18:45]:
And it’s not about dare to be me and be loud and proud. It’s about be exactly who you are. Who are you? And so basically, the song was the first song we released on Kids. Serious Kids XM Radio. However you say that, that’s awesome. One place where they play kids music. And it went to number one on their top 13, which. That was like my. My number one song. And so I was like, oh, this is brilliant and wonderful. Like, kind of took on a life of its own. And we started releasing more songs. We started doing some concerts. And then I just was like, this has to. I want this message. Yes. You know, teachers can play this in their classroom and do a brain break, but I want it to be something where you’re in the middle of a morning meeting and something like that happens where someone is scared or unsure, and you just go, boop, here’s my book, you know, or here’s the book. And so we kind of were like, well, let’s just take the song and just put the lyrics in a book. And then we did that. We Were like, nope, we got to take pieces of it and reconstruct it. And so we did. And it was a long journey. And then it just. It became a book. You could. There’s a QR code in the back to hear the song.

Adam Peterson [00:20:04]:
Oh, I love that.

Kaci Bolls [00:20:05]:
Yeah. So it’s. That has opened up just a world of possibilities of, you know, getting to go to libraries, getting to go to different classrooms. And so that’s been inspiring for me because I do feel like the little I live. I. Like, we have a tiny little neighborhood school that I teach at. It’s precious. It’s magical. It’s like leave it to beaver, but everybody has tattoos except for me. And there’s not a bus line. Like, everybody just walks. And it’s awesome. It’s. It’s great. It’s four minutes from school, so I’m not late. Ish. And it’s like, it’s wonderful. But then, you know, you kind of get in a bubble over here too, and we all know everybody and half, you know, the next year, half of my class is siblings and that. And it’s. This has been a wonderful ticket to get me out of my own little neighborhood and connect with, you know, more teachers. And I’ve been a fan and followed so many teachers and. And been so unsure as a grown adult to become a teacher with all these young teachers, like, it was terrifying. You know, it’s like I’m. I just got my hip replaced. Where y’all go, I’m not dancing on.

Deedee Wills [00:21:23]:
Tables for a tick tock right now.

Adam Peterson [00:21:25]:
Like, seriously, osteoporosis right around the corner.

Kaci Bolls [00:21:28]:
It’s a real thing.

Deedee Wills [00:21:30]:
The book itself, I just looked it up on Amazon I was checking out. Your website is gorgeous, by the way, too. Absolutely Cool. I love the way it all plays out with the tabs, but the. The illustrations, too, are absolutely gorgeous. And I don’t want to butcher the illustrator’s name, so I’ll let you say it. But is that a. Is that something you connected through? Because you’re. It’s a published book as well. It’s not self published. You’ve done this with a collection. How did that all come about?

Kaci Bolls [00:21:54]:
I would say that’s another ish. Because when Nathan and I were deciding, you know, hey, okay, I mean, you know, this. It’s like, do we self publish? What does that look like? Do we sit there and, you know, mail it out to everybody and. And go through our Stephen King 100 no’s, you know, like, what do we do? So we also thought it was Timely. Like the song is out. It’s been out for a year and a half, two years. We want to, you know, back it up with the book quickly so we, you’ll know this. We look, we thought of it in music terms. So if you are an indie artist and you are selling CDs out of the back of your truck trunk, you’re only going to get what you make and you’re only going to get to where you’re getting to, right? And you might know the right people, you might set it up right. If you are at a major label, you lose control. You’re probably not going to get to, to pick your songs or your wardrobe or your backups, all of that stuff. If you. Then there came this middle of the road that everybody was scared of for a long time, that it was like you sell a bunch of records and then we’re going to partner with you. You have creative control, but we’re going to give you a little bit of this. And so it was more of a kind of a middle of the road type deal. And that’s what Nathan and I looked at my partner and he’s my little record producer. He’s not little. Well, he is actually. He calls himself Fun Size. It’s hilarious. I’m very tall. He’s very. Not sunny and cherry. He would say that too if he was in this room right now. So anyway, we, we wanted to have control. We wanted to self publish. But then I started reading and looking. I’m like, oh my gosh, 32 pages. I can’t draw all of the things where I’m like, I think I could set it up right, but what if I don’t? And I followed. You know, actually I reached out to Shannon Olson and said, can I pay you to ask you some questions, please? Like just. I know you’re so busy, everybody asks you, but can I just ask you? Like, I have 10 questions and I want to be respectful of your time. And Nathan and I got on a call with her and she was magnificent and wonderful and gave us such great advice. So with her advice, we knew we don’t want to do the major thing right now that’d be great if somebody finds us, but this is, you know, we want control. I am such a visual human. I knew exactly what I wanted the, the book to look and feel like, but I knew I couldn’t do it myself. I also had no interest in learning how to do layout. And I can. I’m like, the fact I logged on to this.

Adam Peterson [00:24:33]:
You’Re winning you are winning.

Kaci Bolls [00:24:35]:
I’m winning. So we, we found this place and it’s, it’s a hybrid basically. And it’s. You have to pitch your book, you have to do the things you would do. And then you, you pay a fee, but your fee is what you’d be paying an illustrator anyway. Like, like, okay, this is what my money’s going for. An editor, somebody to lay out the book, connect me with. So it’s. It was kind of like. And then we made our money back because we sold the book. But it was, it was risky. A lot of people were like, so you’re paying to put your book out? I’m like, wouldn’t. Yeah. I mean, if I was self publishing, I would have to pay somebody. Now I’m not worrying that I’m not doing it right. But we loved partnering with them. They gave us, I mean, all virtual. They were in Chicago, they were in New York. This was a company that a lot of people had left the traditional publishing houses and formed this. It’s a woman owned company. What?

Adam Peterson [00:25:35]:
Yeah.

Kaci Bolls [00:25:37]:
California. What? And so we just, we loved it. But that’s how that kind of went about. Is that.

Deedee Wills [00:25:44]:
Yeah, yeah. I was just curious because I love. The illustrations are absolutely beautiful. Fun. Yes.

Kaci Bolls [00:25:49]:
So that. So I drew out. If I showed you. I show it when we’re presenting the book. I had the teacher, I had the kindergarten teacher. I had the paper out, I stapled it and I was like, this is what looked like. And I drew my people, you know that I drew through the. This is what I think this should look like. This is what I think this. And it looks nothing like this. Let’s just be clear and honest. But I did do a deep dive and made like a little. I don’t know if it was right or not, but you know how you see fancy interior designers do like a mood board.

Adam Peterson [00:26:27]:
Oh, I love it.

Deedee Wills [00:26:28]:
Oh, yeah. Like a, like a layout. Yeah.

Kaci Bolls [00:26:30]:
So I made like a mood board and I had, you know, I want these colors. I want it to look hand drawn, just like a list of things. And I ended up. I kept picking the same photos from the same illustrator. And I didn’t know it. Oh, my gosh.

Deedee Wills [00:26:46]:
Wow.

Kaci Bolls [00:26:46]:
It just, it was like a match made in heaven. We’ve never actually met. She is like Spain slash Germany. But every single thing that we communicated with, like, actually, the girl looks like I looked when I was younger. We had not met and she had not seen my picture. When she submitted the first main girl, like the main character, and they fell over. We Were like, oh my God, that’s awesome. Yeah, it’s crazy, but thank you. I love the colors.

Adam Peterson [00:27:16]:
I love that, that you were able to maintain your control. I, I think I’ve told Adam this before, but I had interviewed Dan Santan, the illustrator authority illustrator, and also Raphael Lopez. And I was talking to them about like, you know, what was their process and how was it to work with this because he worked with Raphael.

Kaci Bolls [00:27:39]:
Worked with.

Adam Peterson [00:27:40]:
I’m just going to call him Raphael.

Kaci Bolls [00:27:41]:
Like, yeah, do it. Rafi.

Adam Peterson [00:27:43]:
Raf.

Kaci Bolls [00:27:44]:
Right.

Deedee Wills [00:27:44]:
My friend.

Adam Peterson [00:27:45]:
He worked with Chief Justice Sotomayor because with her book. So I said, well, what was that like? And he said, well, really, it’s not how it, it kind of works. They, the publisher takes the author’s transcript and, and decides who the illustrator is going to be and the ill. The author doesn’t see it till it’s done. And so I love, I love that you maintain control and then clearly you have really good taste. I mean, if you had bad taste, it would be not good, but, but you had really, you know, you have really good taste. So it made it, you know, you were able to get what was in your head match, you know, what came out. I love that.

Kaci Bolls [00:28:28]:
It was very concerning. I mean I, it was like if you, seriously, if you saw my, my stapled book, you’d be like this, this, this. You need therapy, Casey. It’s, it’s very sad. But I would show Nathan and in my head the whole thing was going on and he’d be like, ah, I don’t see it.

Deedee Wills [00:28:47]:
It’s tricky if you’re not in it. Yeah, because I’m not an illustrator. I’m a doodler. I like doodling pictures and all. My, at my last children’s book, I, I hired an illustrator and we split the, the, the contract. But my first four or five were completely just doodles of mine. And I have, I think they’re in that thing. I have like all the original like sketches of just little pencil drawings before I copied them into to PDFs and whatnot. And it is, it’s funny, but when. I know the feeling because when I did my. Fine. My, my latest one, I’m recalling this girl that I knew as an illustrator and said I need, I needed to look like this, that I could see it in my mind. But when I tried to draw it, it was the most ridiculous looking picture in the world.

Kaci Bolls [00:29:27]:
And then doodles are fantastic.

Deedee Wills [00:29:29]:
Well, thank you. I try, but I can’t doodle a guinea pig. And that’s why I needed someone else to do Gigi, because that’s how that book came about. Was she. Within a day was like, what about this? And I’m like, yep, that’s. That’s. That’s the amazing thing about illustrators. They take just basic descriptions and make them really come to life.

Kaci Bolls [00:29:47]:
It’s crazy. It’s. I. It’s funny. I relate everything back to music. But when you’d have like a. You’d be a songwriter, you’d have five songs, they’d go to a session and you have to do what’s called musician speak, which I do not do very well. So I. I can hear it, but I trip over my words and I get really nervous. And so I do not run sessions. I. Could you talk for me? Kind of, you know, engineer person. But the one time they said, please don’t ever talk again. I was trying to track Country Song and I said, okay, guys, okay, listen up. And we have, you know, like the best Nashville legendary people all around. And I’m like, all right, so I want to sound a little bit of like Tragedy off the Bee Gees album. Do you remember that one? And then I want you to bring in a little Marie Osmond from that second album with Donnie. And then I want to mix up a little bit with a little Amy Grant. Their faces. And I just said, I hear that. Do y’all don’t hear that?

Adam Peterson [00:30:47]:
I mean, I mean, you’d be obvious.

Kaci Bolls [00:30:50]:
That’s all you.

Adam Peterson [00:30:51]:
Where we’re going after that description. Right?

Kaci Bolls [00:30:53]:
Exactly. I love that. I love that.

Adam Peterson [00:30:56]:
Now, you had said that you are doing some speaking, so you go, and you do work within libraries. What are the type? I mean, like, what is you. You say you’ve. You’ve had three acts so far. What’s your fourth act? What’s that going to look like?

Kaci Bolls [00:31:11]:
Oh, geez. You know, it’s hard because I don’t see myself leaving the classroom yet, which, you know, these two. I literally stopped because I did get two new hips, which was shocking. But that, that taught me in and of itself, I can’t do this forever. When I actually went, I had such pain in my hips. And the doctor, she said, what do you do for a living? And I said, I’m a kindergarten teacher. And she said, okay, well, people with hips like yours, they’re either a golfer or a kindergarten teacher because they bought all the time. And I went, oh, my gosh, these 5 year olds did this to me. Which I don’t think that’s exactly true, but good. Yeah. So with the two new Hips. I realize now, like, it is a change. It does take me two steps longer to get up off the carpet. Like I, you know, I can’t pretend like I’m going to jump off the counter anymore, like any of that stuff.

Adam Peterson [00:32:08]:
Yeah.

Kaci Bolls [00:32:08]:
And so I feel like I would love, I would love to see Act 4. Yes. Doing author visits and connecting with, you know, children. To be honest with you though, the teachers after these author visits are the ones I have the heart to heart with.

Adam Peterson [00:32:25]:
Yeah.

Kaci Bolls [00:32:25]:
The book is more of, oh my gosh. That you’re talking to me. You’re talking to me as an adult. And I feel like so many times we lose ourselves, you know, that teacher does this. I want my room to look like that. All of those things I think get in our heads. And so I would love to connect with other teachers and kind of talk about this and teach it on an adult level and have more of a, a community that way. But then also I just love to talk about kindergarten in general. Like all of the things, all of the things, you know, you laugh all day long.

Adam Peterson [00:33:01]:
I mean, it’s hilarious. Kindergarten is like, it’s like a comedy show all the time. I’ve always loved that. But I wanted to talk because as you were talking about your Dare to Me book and how it really was brought on by your experience with working with kids and seeing what they were saying, you know, I was also thinking, Adam and I talk quite a bit about how there’s like our favorite teachers that we’ve had and how different teachers were complete. I mean, I’ve had two favorite teachers that were completely opposite of each other. Like completely opposite. So, you know, there isn’t a perfect way to be a teacher or a perfect way to be a speaker or a perfect way to be a musician. Although your, your musicians speak. I think is needs to be duplicated. I think that, I think that there is a level of imposter syndrome that I think a lot of just adults have. I mean, five and six year olds are having it. Adults have it still.

Kaci Bolls [00:34:04]:
Don’t you think?

Adam Peterson [00:34:05]:
What do you think, Adam? What do you think about what I just said?

Deedee Wills [00:34:06]:
Oh, 100.

Kaci Bolls [00:34:07]:
Yeah.

Deedee Wills [00:34:07]:
Yeah, 100, totally.

Kaci Bolls [00:34:10]:
I remember, I guess 12 years ago now, I got hired for my first kindergarten job. I was so nervous. I was, you know, at a full grown adult. Right? Full grown adult.

Deedee Wills [00:34:21]:
We never stopped being nervous.

Kaci Bolls [00:34:23]:
Never stopped. Here I am and I am sitting there looking at 20 something year old parents, 30 something year old parents. I’m like, I literally almost like had like a reaction and threw up everywhere I was standing there, I never get like nervous. I mean, I talk a lot, but I never get like. And I just looked at them and I got so, like, choked up because here are these young parents looking at me like, this is my child. Take and mold their kindergarten experience. And I said, I’m just going to tell you all right now, I’ve never done this before. I’m really just a singer and a songwriter. I sing about bars closing down and beer. And if you don’t, I. If you want to take your child out right now, you need to do it. Like, I understand, I understand. There are six other kindergarten teachers and they are all wonderful. I mean, awe. And they all kind of laughed. I was like, no, I am serious. Like, I don’t know if I can do this. And then they said, you know, we’ve got you, we’ve got you. And I said, listen, I’m. Can we just teach? Can we just learn together and grow together? Because I, I want this to be a great experience for you, but I have no idea what I’m doing. So the fact that, that, that group of parents I’m still friends with, like, I love that they’re just, they were so kind and some of them would even be like, so that email was a little long or, you know, so maybe rethink your craft area or, you know, different things, right? But I feel like now if I were to go and you know, sometimes when I go to a session, I feel like, I am so sorry, y’all. I don’t know if I can do this. I’m just, I’m a kindergarten teacher and I don’t know. So it’s like, you know, different Personas.

Deedee Wills [00:36:07]:
And I mean, because I had the exact opposite. And Didi probably too. Like, I, I started. Well, no, Didi, you kind of had different career path as I right out of college started teaching kindergarten and I’ll never forget, like, I felt like I was looking at my parents, right? Because I was this fresh, brand new 20, what, two, three year old kid that these, these grown adults are turning their five year olds over to it. I’m like, oh my gosh, I have a lot of responsibility on my plate. But it’s interesting over the years though how you, like, eventually I became older than all the parents in the classroom and now, you know what I mean? Like, so I get it. It’s. Yeah, it’s a very weird world because it’s the only age for most kids. I mean, some go to preschool, but usually preschool is like a couple Hours a day here and there. Right. But for most kids, it is the first time where they are turned over to someone else for an entire day. Right. Other than a babysitter or something like that. But with expectations. Right. With expectations of growth and learning and that. So it is, it’s a nerve wracking time for any teacher. But yeah. Especially for that first experience.

Kaci Bolls [00:37:10]:
Yeah. Do you know who the. It’s so funny because, you know now like on Instagram, you know, I’ll put different videos from the classroom. And I started noticing the people who I bond with the most are the grandparents. Like they, we’re all in each other’s DMs. They’re like, oh my goodness. Like we have the same, you know, music, you know, recollection. We are, you know, every time the first graders or second graders will stop by, I’m like, how’s Craft and Mimi doing? I got, I got an email from her. She’s doing good. She’s recovered from the flu. All about the grandparents.

Adam Peterson [00:37:47]:
My gosh, I love that.

Deedee Wills [00:37:48]:
I love it, love it.

Kaci Bolls [00:37:51]:
So, you know, you were talking about the parents and I didn’t know kind of what to expect from them or them from me. What I found you were talking about what does Act 4 look like? I created this thing and of course it’s based off song titles and it’s kind of tongue in cheek. It’s funny, but it is, you know, ten things that for. For parents. Ten things your kindergarten teacher really wants you to know before they go. And so, you know, we talk about. Yes. Beginning sound. Yes. All of that stuff. But it’s just the stuff that people don’t think about. Like just send them a snack that they can open themselves.

Deedee Wills [00:38:30]:
Right.

Kaci Bolls [00:38:31]:
That is not going to explode. And we’re not talking about a family sized bag of goldfish. They got 15 minutes. No, different things like that. But yeah, I’ve loved helping first year kindergarten parents who are terrified.

Deedee Wills [00:38:48]:
Yeah.

Kaci Bolls [00:38:49]:
Is their baby to be taken care of. But they’re thinking usually about academics and not about all these little things. Like, you know, we need, we need some spare clothes and a Ziploc bag. We just do. There’s, there’s accidents, there’s pain, you know, like all of those things. But I, I think I would, I really would love that too. Like thinking about speaking in the future and presenting is just kind of helping brand new kindergarten parents. Like, this is what you’re getting into. It’s probably, it’s definitely not the kindergarten from the 70s where we had, you know, the mat and the oh, I can’t tie my shoe thing. Like that’s all. I, I didn’t.

Adam Peterson [00:39:28]:
Right.

Kaci Bolls [00:39:29]:
Dated but right.

Adam Peterson [00:39:31]:
I got bits.

Deedee Wills [00:39:31]:
Have a change for sure.

Adam Peterson [00:39:33]:
In kindergarten. So I’ve been. I, I don’t really.

Kaci Bolls [00:39:36]:
Right.

Adam Peterson [00:39:36]:
Messy. The hamster bit me in kindergarten. Was traumatized.

Deedee Wills [00:39:39]:
So I’ve never heard that story.

Kaci Bolls [00:39:40]:
Messi, his name was Messi.

Adam Peterson [00:39:42]:
Messi the hamster bit me.

Kaci Bolls [00:39:44]:
Well, am I remembering this right? Did you have a classroom? I’m a first time caller, a long time listener. Right. Did you have. Were cats in one of your classrooms that you’ve talked about?

Adam Peterson [00:39:59]:
I didn’t have a cat. I had a.

Kaci Bolls [00:40:01]:
Somebody had cats in your classroom at some point?

Adam Peterson [00:40:04]:
No, it wasn’t me. I wonder who that was.

Deedee Wills [00:40:06]:
I don’t know. We. My. My friend Honor, I talk about a lot had guinea pigs, but yeah, guinea pig. I had a turtle my first year.

Adam Peterson [00:40:14]:
A binder open up with cockroaches rolling out.

Kaci Bolls [00:40:17]:
But oh no.

Deedee Wills [00:40:18]:
Someone recently. Didn’t someone recently talk about someone bringing a, an animal like in their backpack?

Adam Peterson [00:40:25]:
Was it Liana? No, no.

Kaci Bolls [00:40:27]:
I’m thinking like you. When you were in elementary school, teachers had cats.

Adam Peterson [00:40:32]:
Oh, yeah. You know what? You’re absolutely right. My Mrs. Hess, my second grade teacher, she had all kinds of cats. She would rescue cats and kittens and they would be all over the classroom.

Kaci Bolls [00:40:42]:
Yeah, that is what I remember.

Deedee Wills [00:40:44]:
Her favorite teacher.

Adam Peterson [00:40:45]:
My favorite. She was one of my favorite. So there was Mrs. Hess, who was just this really gentle older lady who had all these cats. And then she. And then my sixth grade teacher was like Auntie Mame. Do you know who that is? Auntie M. Absolutely, like loud and out like everywhere. So calf tans and bracelets all the way. Yes. She has frizzy red hair. I mean she was amazing.

Deedee Wills [00:41:13]:
What did you say before bracelets?

Adam Peterson [00:41:15]:
Oh, she had like bracelets all the way up.

Deedee Wills [00:41:17]:
You said something about a T. What did you say before that?

Kaci Bolls [00:41:20]:
Oh, do you know what a c. Tan.

Adam Peterson [00:41:21]:
Do you know what a catan is?

Deedee Wills [00:41:23]:
I don’t.

Kaci Bolls [00:41:24]:
It’s like a.

Adam Peterson [00:41:28]:
Think of. Okay, you’re in Florida, right? And every. All of the grandmas are going out to the pool. That’s a caftan.

Kaci Bolls [00:41:36]:
Yeah, we are.

Adam Peterson [00:41:38]:
Yeah.

Kaci Bolls [00:41:38]:
This is Roper off Three’s Company.

Deedee Wills [00:41:41]:
Okay. Yeah, There you go.

Kaci Bolls [00:41:43]:
There you go.

Deedee Wills [00:41:43]:
I love it. I love it that you remember the cats because that, that episode of Mrs. Hess was I feel like a long time ago. Look at you, dedicated listener.

Kaci Bolls [00:41:53]:
I love it as a trivia. I’ll be a trivia.

Adam Peterson [00:41:56]:
And I feel like Somebody talked about somebody taking a cat out of their backpack.

Kaci Bolls [00:42:00]:
I would.

Deedee Wills [00:42:01]:
I thought. I thought so recently. Yeah, like, a student brought something, like an animal of some type.

Kaci Bolls [00:42:08]:
I could be.

Deedee Wills [00:42:10]:
I don’t remember. I had. I had a pet turtle in my classroom for a few years, but it was. They’re messy.

Kaci Bolls [00:42:15]:
They are messy.

Deedee Wills [00:42:16]:
They’re very messy.

Kaci Bolls [00:42:17]:
So then I had a fish tank. I can. I inherited a fish tank my first year, and my husband and I, the missing one, and my nephews, we went to the pet store, and, like, everybody got to pick out their favorite fish. And so we had, like, a plethora of fish. And my husband picked out this little swimming frog, and he named him Smoochie Wallace. I don’t know why, but he did. And so we had just like. Oh, we. We, like, fixed up this whole fish tank. And then, like, day by day, it seemed like the fish were becoming fewer and farther.

Deedee Wills [00:42:52]:
The frog was eating them.

Kaci Bolls [00:42:53]:
Yes. Well, no, I don’t. I don’t know who was. And then all of a sudden, there was like, a, you know, a finless fish. And I. I was like, I think like, something’s eating something. I couldn’t figure it out. Smoochie Wallace was hanging in there. And then. I will never forget. I’m not kidding. I’m. The tank was behind me. I’m doing a little reading group, and this little girl, her name was Abby, she goes. And I turned, and he was floating with, like, all, like, blade, like, tariff way to, like, clear the classroom. Turns out the person at the PetSmart did not want to tell us that you can’t put a beta fish or something with. Oh, yeah, all the others.

Deedee Wills [00:43:34]:
Yeah. Betta Fisher are like ninjas.

Kaci Bolls [00:43:36]:
Yeah. She just wanted the sale, I guess, because we were buying everything. So basically, I had a murderer fish in my first kindergarten classroom. And we still.

Deedee Wills [00:43:47]:
The Betta fish are cool, though.

Adam Peterson [00:43:49]:
We. Today, we talked about death because the.

Deedee Wills [00:43:53]:
Beta fish murdered Smoochie Wallace. Betta fish are awesome, though. My son and daughter had each had one for a little while, and they had like a. A divided tank because they couldn’t be together. Because those fish, they can’t. Yeah.

Kaci Bolls [00:44:05]:
They can’t even be together.

Deedee Wills [00:44:07]:
No. Like, the. The. I think the females will attack the males maybe, or something the other way around. I can’t remember. But I remember my son would, like, look up, like, videos, and he was probably 8 at the time, and he’d look up videos about, like, they’re trainable. You can train Betta fish to do, like, little tricks they’ll look at them. They’ll like, if you ever go to the pet store and like, go to the fish aisle, you’ll see they. They sell like, floating mirrors for betta fish because they’ll interact with themselves in a mirror. He taught it to, like, he made a hoop out of pipe cleaners and he taught it to, like, swim through the hoop in its tank. It was the most. It was so fun to watch.

Adam Peterson [00:44:41]:
Aren’t they called Japanese fighting fish?

Deedee Wills [00:44:44]:
I think that’s another name for them.

Adam Peterson [00:44:45]:
Yeah, I think so.

Deedee Wills [00:44:46]:
And now we know they kill frogs. But, you know, so if anyone’s listener. You want to try this in the future. Casey. My wife started something in her classroom because her kids are always asking for a classroom pet. And she teaches second grade where they start working on a little bit of, like, persuasive writing. So she does an activity every year where they have to persuade her or someone else that a classroom pet is something that they could take care of. And this year it was. They wrote to me. So they wrote letters. They’re like, Mr. Peter. Because they. She told them how Mr. Peterson used to have a turtle in his classroom, and they were like, we should get a turtle. So she wrote up this whole email, but made it sound like it came from me. Right? Like, hey, you know, Mrs. Peterson told me about the turtle. I think that’s a great idea. But they’re really messy. Why don’t we start with this? And then she brings in like a stuffed turtle and, and like a non fiction book about turtles and how to take care of them, and they get to take care of the stuffed turtle to prove that they can take care of a classroom pet. By the time they figured out that.

Kaci Bolls [00:45:45]:
The year’s done, so they’re like, oh, sorry, next year. What grade did she teach?

Deedee Wills [00:45:50]:
She’s second grade.

Kaci Bolls [00:45:51]:
Second grade. You said that?

Deedee Wills [00:45:52]:
Yeah, we actually taught in the same hallway for like 11 years or something like that.

Kaci Bolls [00:45:56]:
Is that how you met?

Deedee Wills [00:45:57]:
No, we met in college down the hallway. No, both. Both education majors met in college. And I’ve told this story on the podcast thing before how I was failing out of school. And then I met her and realized, hey, if that girl’s gonna be in all my classes, I kind of want to go to class. Like, so I started going to class and we. We’ve been together ever since freshman year of college. But wow. Yeah, I was teaching kindergarten and then a junior high spot opened up. She took that and then, yeah, we’ll move to second grade. And she’s definitely found her home, second grade is where she belongs.

Kaci Bolls [00:46:30]:
That’s good. Middle school terrifies me.

Deedee Wills [00:46:33]:
So I didi brought up the author visits and libraries and whatnot. Are you doing, like, author visits at schools? Doing, like, assemblies and stuff, too?

Kaci Bolls [00:46:40]:
Yes, that is. It’s really like, I. I threw in about my hips. But we, like, literally, the book came out in September and we were like, you know, for every. I would do it on Fridays. My princess was very gracious enough to let me go on Fridays. And so we would go, like, to Arkansas or Kentucky and we would do the present the whole book. And it’s very. It’s very interactive. We have an animated thing. We have a thing we do, but then we end always with our music. And so we were like, going, going, going. And then my hip was like, no, you’re not. And so everything just kind of screeched to a halt. So we just started kind of. We just made a little video like, hey, hey, principals or whoever, you know, like, we’re available. So we are looking to do a lot more of that. It is going to be tricky, clearly, since I’m in the classroom full time. But, yeah, we can’t. We love summers. Summer libraries is kind of one of our jams. We love that.

Deedee Wills [00:47:40]:
Sure.

Adam Peterson [00:47:41]:
Yeah.

Kaci Bolls [00:47:42]:
Like, full concerts. Like, there’s a band that Nathan was in. It’s really cute. It’s called the Happy Racers. And so now they back me up. So they’ll do their songs and then they’ll back me up. And so it’s a, you know, it’s kind of like a give and take. And it’s really fun. They do super fun music, too, and all positive messages or funny, you know, and so, yeah, that’s what we do.

Deedee Wills [00:48:06]:
That’s awesome. So you say we are going to schools. It’s you and Nathan going together?

Kaci Bolls [00:48:11]:
Yes.

Deedee Wills [00:48:11]:
Okay.

Adam Peterson [00:48:12]:
Now, does Nathan teach kindergarten as well, or no?

Kaci Bolls [00:48:16]:
Nathan. At one point I said, do you like children, Nathan? And he said, I just don’t like them to hug me. And I said, well, so what?

Adam Peterson [00:48:24]:
Kindergarten’s not for you.

Kaci Bolls [00:48:25]:
Yeah, sorry.

Deedee Wills [00:48:26]:
It’s not for you.

Kaci Bolls [00:48:27]:
Not for you. He. He is hilarious. He’s. He’s the kind of person who. The kids love him. And he is not trying to make them love him. You know, they want to go up to him and he’s like, I. I can do without it. He loves to, like, build them up and see. He’s just not a interaction. I’m the one who’s like, oh, you know, down on my knees. Come here. I’ll get all the germs, you know?

Adam Peterson [00:48:52]:
Yeah.

Kaci Bolls [00:48:54]:
He has two kids. They’re both in college. He’s a fantastic dad. I’m making it sound like he is an angry human, which is not true. He loves people. He’s a very friendly soul.

Adam Peterson [00:49:06]:
We laugh a lot, but not a kindergarten teacher.

Kaci Bolls [00:49:10]:
Terrified of my children, actually. I actually tell my kindergarten kids if an adult or somebody comes in, I’m like, listen, some people, we. We’re some people. We scare some people. So go and be on them, you know? And so they’ll, like, walk down the hall, and if our principal’s there, they’re like, you know, like, we’re okay. We’re not here to scare you.

Deedee Wills [00:49:31]:
That’s a good classroom management technique. I like that.

Kaci Bolls [00:49:34]:
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Don’t scare anybody.

Adam Peterson [00:49:36]:
Don’t scare anybody. They’ll be traumatized. Well, I loved having you on. We’ll make sure that we link all of your information so people can find your music, your book, your website, maybe.

Deedee Wills [00:49:48]:
Bring you to their school or library.

Adam Peterson [00:49:50]:
Yeah, maybe. Maybe we have somebody who has a spouse who’s a physical therapist that might be helpful.

Kaci Bolls [00:49:57]:
Always looking for that. Love it.

Adam Peterson [00:49:59]:
Oh, but thank you so much. I know you and I kind of talked a little bit. I was going out of town, so I’m glad that you hung in there and you remember and responded to my email when I said, we’re ready to record. We’re ready to record.

Kaci Bolls [00:50:12]:
Thanks so much. Well, I am honestly honored, and I’m pretty proud of myself because I did not do what I want to do, which is ask you all. So, like, I want to interview you too.

Deedee Wills [00:50:25]:
Well, we’ll do it again sometime.

Adam Peterson [00:50:28]:
100%. Well, when we’re done recording, you’re welcome to answer any questions.

Kaci Bolls [00:50:32]:
Perfect.

Adam Peterson [00:50:32]:
Ask us any questions. All right. Hey, thanks, everybody, for joining us, and we’ll see you next time.

Deedee Wills [00:50:36]:
See ya.

Adam Peterson [00:50:37]:
All right, bye. Let me go ahead and stop recording. Stop recording.