Matt Eicheldinger, HOLES IN MY UNDERWEAR: Over 100 Poems That Will Knock Your Socks Off & STICKY NOTES: Memorable Lessons from Ordinary Moments
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[0:45]Matthew Eicholdinger is the author of sticky notes, memorable lessons from ordinary moments,
[0:51]and holes in my underwear over 100 poems that will knock your socks off.
[0:55]He's also the author of The Matt Sprouts and the Curse of the Ten Broken Tows Book and
[1:00]series, and continues to write stories that capture the imagination and hearts for readers.
[1:06]Beyond the page, Matt shares relatable stories with his hundreds of thousands of followers
[1:10]on social media, and has amassed over 100 million views, where he makes people laugh,
[1:15]think, and appreciate the small moments in life.
[1:18]He has a New York Times bestselling author, storyteller, and educator, whether he's writing,
[1:23]illustrating, or sharing personal anecdotes, Matt's goal remains the same, connecting with
[1:27]audiences in a way that feels both deeply personal and universally relatable.
[1:32]Welcome, Matt.
[1:33]Thank you so much for coming on Totally Book.
[1:34]Talk about all of your many books, but particularly sticky notes, which I just loved,
[1:40]so congratulations.
[1:42]Thank you.
[1:43]I'm so glad you read it.
[1:44]It's amazing to see that people who I've never met have read the book like this.
[1:49]The cool part about being an author is people don't know me, but yet you've read my
[1:53]work.
[1:54]That's really cool.
[1:55]For anyone who's had a book come out, it is a miracle when somebody who don't know
[1:58]reads it.
[1:59]So that is the best.
[2:00]That is the best.
[2:01]Yes.
[2:02]Yes, it is.
[2:03]Why don't you, before we go into sticky notes, talk a little bit about being a teacher and
[2:08]how you transition from being a teacher to being a writer and just your whole background.
[2:13]Sure.
[2:14]So I'm going to try and condense a 15-year long story until under three minutes for listeners
[2:19]of getting better at it.
[2:21]I started teaching sixth grade language arts back in 2009, who's my first job out of college.
[2:27]I quickly tried to realize like, what is my thing?
[2:29]Like all teachers, you remember, like you had like the dancing teacher or the teacher who
[2:33]told good jokes and I was like, what's my thing?
[2:36]And I happened to have a very vivid memory of my childhood.
[2:39]And so I started telling students embarrassing stories for my childhood as a way to like
[2:44]incentivize them to finish tasks or, you know, if we finished a goal.
[2:49]I tell these embarrassing stories and they kind of became popular within our grade
[2:53]level.
[2:54]So I'd go tell them to other kids and I was like, man, before my, before my brain can't
[2:58]remember these anymore, I should probably write them down.
[3:00]So at the age of 21, I just started typing them up, decided to weave them together for some
[3:04]reason and to something I called 10 broken toes and then illegally printed it on the school
[3:09]printer and then three whole punch and put it in a binder.
[3:14]And that really was the start of my journey into publication as I created this book
[3:18]and in my classroom when I had students who wouldn't read, which was fairly often.
[3:23]And I didn't have enough tools at the time as a, as a new teacher to know how to engage
[3:27]kids.
[3:28]So I was like, well, if you, if you liked these silly stories, I told you in class about
[3:31]me, here's a book of them and I would just slide them the binder and, and pretty soon
[3:35]I had to print more and more and I thought, well, maybe I made something good, maybe.
[3:40]And then I spent the next 15 years trying to publish the darn thing, you know, a lot of
[3:45]that time was spent just learning about the publishing industry because I had no background.
[3:50]There was no one to mentor me.
[3:51]I was just throwing things to the wall to see what's stuck and I looked back at some of
[3:55]my earliest query letters and they're just horrendous, like they're so bad.
[4:00]Ultimately, I decided in the middle of the pandemic to self publish.
[4:03]I was teaching alone in a classroom for a full academic year via Zoom and I was just really
[4:08]struggling to recapture some passion in my career.
[4:13]And this book idea was something I thought of a long time.
[4:16]So my wife and I just went all in.
[4:19]I mean, and so I self published the book and then tried just to hustle it for like a year
[4:24]and a half.
[4:25]Ultimately, I got picked up by an agent who at the time only produced women's nonfiction
[4:30]and wanted to take a chance on me and we were able to sign a book deal and then the
[4:35]book re-released with a new interior and new cover and it was an instant New York Times
[4:41]bestseller which has, yeah, rights.
[4:44]I still, it's what I like about my story is that I don't think I could recreate it if
[4:51]I tried, you know, and every author that I've met, everyone's story is so different.
[4:56]But I say I wouldn't have been ready if any of this would have happened when I was younger.
[4:59]There's no way.
[5:00]And so this has allowed me to continue to rights and one of the best parts of this has
[5:05]been everything's been very organic and genuine.
[5:08]So when I signed my book deal, I loved my book deal, but it was like an eighth of what
[5:13]I made teaching.
[5:14]It was not a lot to live off of.
[5:16]So my wife and I, again, just took a risk and said, okay, financially, we can make this
[5:21]work for a year, just a single year.
[5:24]And so I went on leave and on the first day of summer vacation, I was like, I should
[5:29]probably like grow social media somehow, like I don't know how to do that, but I should
[5:34]do it somehow.
[5:35]And so I started telling stories that I'd saved from my classroom.
[5:39]I wrote something down every day for 15 years, multiple things, nothing long, just like short
[5:44]hand things that I want to remember about kids.
[5:46]And I started telling these in the lessons that I learned in those moments and they resonated
[5:51]with people.
[5:52]And so that allowed me to write another book called Sticky Notes, which is just many stories
[5:57]from the classroom.
[5:58]And when I say mini, I mean like they're really short, they're less than like 300 words.
[6:02]I really wanted to get at the heart of the story and share what teaching is like and
[6:06]what we actually do outside of planning lessons and everything that I've written so far
[6:12]has come out of a need or something that I've already done, which I really love.
[6:16]So like my Matt Sprout series is based on my life.
[6:19]It was written for reluctant readers in my classroom.
[6:22]Sticky Notes came from saving memories, holes in my underwear that comes out in September
[6:26]is poetry that I had to write for my classroom because we didn't have any curriculum.
[6:31]And so it got better over 15 years.
[6:33]And that's what I like about what I've been able to push out so far is it's I'm not trying
[6:38]to copy anybody else.
[6:39]It's just things that I've done because I needed to.
[6:45]This is amazing.
[6:46]This is such an inspiring story, which is part of why I wanted to have you on because
[6:53]it's so it would have been so easy for you to give up, right?
[6:56]You didn't want to teach yourself everything like the ultimate teacher.
[7:00]And you didn't give up and you kept experimenting and you kept trying.
[7:04]And then basically you beat the system.
[7:06]You got it out as instant New York Times bestseller, which is like possible possible.
[7:11]Yeah.
[7:12]I still don't know.
[7:14]Like I really it's, you know, I didn't even have a desk until this year like this desk
[7:18]that you're saying.
[7:19]I've been writing in a broken Ikea chair upstairs.
[7:21]Like I think there's a lot of perceptions when you get like in New York Times best selling
[7:25]title.
[7:26]There's a lot of assumptions.
[7:27]My best friends, they're like, oh, you're set for life now, right?
[7:30]I'm like, no, I still treat this like I'm hustling an independent book every day.
[7:35]Like getting on this podcast.
[7:37]This is a huge opportunity for me.
[7:38]This is huge.
[7:39]I thought about this for an entire week.
[7:42]And this is how you have to treat it because I unfortunately right now and maybe you've
[7:48]met plenty of authors.
[7:49]So I'm sure you've heard this before.
[7:51]A lot of how I work now is out of fear because I feel like this is just going to go away
[7:56]as quickly as it came.
[7:58]But also that helps me treat it as something special because if I do go back to the classroom,
[8:03]that's fine.
[8:04]I'm not running away from it.
[8:05]Although I really enjoy this and I think I was meant to do this, treating it as if it's
[8:09]a moment in time makes it special.
[8:12]But also like I'd really like to keep doing that.
[8:15]Well, I feel like you have more than earned your stripes in the classroom and you are obviously
[8:20]such a compassionate, warm, sort of loving teacher and you're really just to listen.
[8:27]I mean, after going through all of your stories of how you interact with kids in the classroom
[8:31]and just seeing people for who they are, I mean, that is what you bring to writing fiction
[8:37]and that is what is you can't teach that.
[8:39]That's just something you either have or you don't have.
[8:42]Yeah.
[8:43]And you know, I think obviously a lot of writers write based on people they know.
[8:48]I have 15 years of so many individuals.
[8:51]And so as I write about students in my classroom or other books, I see their faces.
[8:57]I hear their voices and it's really cool to draw inspiration from some of the hardest
[9:02]moments of teaching, but also the best.
[9:04]Speaking of hard moments, do you mind if I read one of your short excerpts?
[9:09]I would love it.
[9:10]Yeah, go for it.
[9:11]This is called brownies.
[9:12]Oh, yeah.
[9:13]I love the one.
[9:14]Yeah.
[9:15]Brownies.
[9:16]I was not having a good day.
[9:18]My students weren't doing anything out of the ordinary, but my patient's limit was already
[9:22]maxed out.
[9:23]I was up all night with my daughter who couldn't sleep.
[9:25]Our car battery had died and I had to get a ride and none of my classroom technology was
[9:29]working.
[9:30]So the lesson was doomed from the start.
[9:31]On top of it all, I was not able to put on a happy face for my students and that gave
[9:35]me teacher guilt, which made me even more miserable.
[9:38]I don't even like thinking about it at lunchtime.
[9:41]One of my students, Arkel, Arkel, came into my room.
[9:44]He was holding a tray full of brownies.
[9:46]Hey, Mr. Ike, it looks like you're having a bad day he pointed out.
[9:49]So I got a bunch of kids to donate their brownies.
[9:52]So now you have a brownie mountain.
[9:54]I don't think I've flipped from a frown to a smile so fast.
[9:57]I actually felt better the rest of the day.
[10:00]until I got a belly ache from all the brownies I ate.
[10:02]I think we often try to give people space
[10:04]when we think they're in a bad mood,
[10:06]but maybe that's not always the right move.
[10:08]Maybe they just need to be given a genuine dose of kindness
[10:11]to bring them back, or you know,
[10:13]a trifle of brownies couldn't hurt either.
[10:15]Yeah, I love that story.
[10:18]And you know what's fun too is, you know,
[10:19]when I wrote down a lot of these memories,
[10:21]they were written down in really short form.
[10:24]People think I kept like an organized binder
[10:26]of like paragraphs upon paragraphs
[10:28]of reflective, no, it was like a sentence,
[10:31]maybe with the kid's name or next to their face
[10:34]in a year book, but I never wrote it down for how
[10:37]the lesson that I then tell.
[10:38]So like that story, I just wrote down like
[10:41]the day our kale brought a brownie mountain, you know?
[10:44]And then as an adult when you sit and think about that
[10:47]for a long time, you start to see all these little things
[10:49]in there about humanity.
[10:51]And you're like, oh, that's what that moment was.
[10:53]Okay, that's pretty cool.
[10:55]And when I was writing these stories,
[10:57]I was trying to think about how to present them.
[10:59]It was tempting to like give the background
[11:01]of the students and where he's from.
[11:03]And I just don't think that's necessary
[11:05]to tell a good story.
[11:06]I think a good story gets you in there quickly
[11:08]or it can.
[11:09]And I wanted to keep it short.
[11:12]So I'm glad you enjoyed it.
[11:13]Can I read one more of them?
[11:15]Do you mind?
[11:16]Yeah, you read away.
[11:17]It's rare.
[11:18]I'd never get to hear someone else read my story,
[11:19]so I won't let them.
[11:21]Okay, this is silence and stars.
[11:23]Oh, that's one I tell.
[11:25]I traveled to give keynotes.
[11:26]And this is one that I lead with.
[11:29]So yeah, I will can't wait to hear it.
[11:31]I mean, we'll see.
[11:31]I'm just so good.
[11:32]Now I'm kidding.
[11:33]Okay, silence and stars.
[11:35]We were able to take our students
[11:37]to an overnight environment camp.
[11:39]Many of our students have never left the city or camped.
[11:42]And we were going to take them to Northern Minnesota
[11:44]in the middle of winter.
[11:45]There was some complaining at the beginning,
[11:47]but by the middle of the day,
[11:48]everyone was having a blast, including Joyce.
[11:50]Mr. Ike, this is so much fun shield during a hike.
[11:53]I've never done anything like this.
[11:54]That night we took the kids on a hike on a frozen lake
[11:57]and we all spread out, turned off our flashlights
[11:59]and laid down on the ice and silence
[12:01]while we stared up at the stars, complete silence.
[12:05]When it was time to hike back,
[12:06]I noticed one student was still lying down.
[12:08]It was Joyce.
[12:09]You ready to hike back, I whispered?
[12:11]I didn't know what silence was until today she said,
[12:14]I'm gonna miss this.
[12:16]And then we just stood there gazing up.
[12:18]The rest of the class joined us,
[12:19]so we all stood there together in the silence and stars.
[12:23]We don't always get to choose what we remember,
[12:25]but sometimes you can feel the powerful potential
[12:27]of a moment.
[12:28]I think that was it for Joyce.
[12:30]And I hope she remembers it forever
[12:32]because I certainly will.
[12:33]Aww.
[12:35]Yeah, and that's one of the hardest parts about teaching
[12:38]is you have all these micro moments with kids.
[12:40]And because you, I say teachers are the holders of stories
[12:45]because you witnessed so many things throughout the day.
[12:48]So to be able to recognize how that might resonate years
[12:51]down the line for a kid or even for yourself
[12:53]is really hard as a teacher because you go through
[12:56]so much of it.
[12:57]And so when I get the opportunity to speak
[12:59]to teachers at conferences or education departments,
[13:03]this is one of the lessons that I share.
[13:05]Is being able to recognize these in the moment
[13:08]of you're not gonna see how this impacts Joyce
[13:11]or whoever it is years down the line,
[13:12]but you can feel that it's important.
[13:14]Like I remember feeling like I can see her gears
[13:18]turning her head.
[13:18]This will be something that she shares at dinner
[13:21]when she gets home.
[13:22]If she chooses to have kids,
[13:23]this will be something that she shares with her kids.
[13:26]And those are the things that help you leave work
[13:28]feeling lighter than you came in,
[13:30]which can be very hard in teaching.
[13:32]Yeah.
[13:33]And as you reference the pandemic,
[13:36]I mean, this and throughout your stories,
[13:38]occasionally you talk about these hard days
[13:41]and days when it just gets you down.
[13:43]How can it not?
[13:44]I mean, there's so much pressure.
[13:45]Maybe talk a little bit about the pressures
[13:47]and how do you keep your spirit alive?
[13:51]Sure.
[13:52]So there's, I'd say there's a lot of factors
[13:53]that go into what I call the valley of despair
[13:56]in teaching, the thing that I can weigh you down.
[13:58]I don't think that's my term either.
[13:59]I heard a principle so that once,
[14:01]so there's society, right?
[14:03]Whatever political things are going on
[14:05]and the things that impact what can be taught
[14:07]in your classroom can certainly feel heavy.
[14:10]There's things like COVID where there's so much,
[14:13]so many external factors that are going into that moment
[14:16]that they're completely out of your control.
[14:18]But there's also the stories from kids
[14:20]and the things that you hear from their life
[14:23]that they're dealing with
[14:24]and the things that you have to do
[14:25]to help them outside of school.
[14:27]Those things weigh even heavier than the world.
[14:30]For example, if I do not call child protective services
[14:34]tonight, the right now,
[14:36]that kid doesn't have a place to sleep
[14:38]or their family might not have a place to sleep.
[14:40]And that's really hard to know like,
[14:43]I need to go home to my family who also needs me
[14:46]to be there.
[14:47]Like I've got to pick up kids,
[14:48]I need to make dinner,
[14:49]but also there's a family who doesn't have a place to sleep.
[14:52]So now what do I disregard that?
[14:55]And those are the things that weigh really heavy on you
[14:58]is yeah, now I have to stay in extra hour at work today
[15:02]because a family needs me.
[15:03]And that can over the years that that became harder and harder
[15:07]to like sacrifice personal time to help others
[15:10]just because I felt like I was losing time
[15:12]with my own family.
[15:14]But the things that help me at least
[15:17]is when that door does click shut as a teacher,
[15:21]it's really intimidating as a first year teacher.
[15:23]The door click shut and you're like,
[15:24]oh my gosh, I'm alone in the room.
[15:25]Like I'm the adults now at 21 or even at 35 or 38.
[15:32]When the door click shut,
[15:33]that's when the things can be scary
[15:34]but they can also become very beautiful
[15:36]because that's when you create the weather for your classroom.
[15:39]You create the atmosphere that kids will learn and grow in
[15:42]and you can create that in so many different ways.
[15:45]So one of the things I implemented pretty quickly
[15:47]is every Monday and Tuesday,
[15:50]I start class with circle time for 12 year olds,
[15:54]which sounds absolutely wild to do, right?
[15:56]Like remember sitting on carpet pads in kindergarten,
[15:58]maybe and we will sit and we will talk about nothing
[16:02]that has to do with school, not a darn thing.
[16:05]And I'll put questions about pop culture
[16:07]or things happening in our community up on the board
[16:09]or kids can share what they did over the weekend.
[16:11]It's just a space where we can just be us
[16:15]and no one has to worry about what they're learning
[16:17]or not learning.
[16:18]Kids don't have to talk, they don't want to,
[16:19]they can just listen.
[16:21]We pass around like a talking stick.
[16:23]And that for me was a way to like rejuvenate why I do
[16:26]what I do and other teachers I've met
[16:28]have a various different ways to do that
[16:31]but that's one that worked really well for me.
[16:32]Wow, I have a 12 year old,
[16:34]one of my four kids is 12.
[16:35]And so is there any if you have a tips on the secret
[16:40]12 year olds happy to hear?
[16:43]I think the only thing that I like to,
[16:45]well, the reason, so I've only taught six grade.
[16:47]That's the only grade of taught.
[16:48]And the reason I love that grade so much
[16:51]and this is coming, this is the advice that's coming
[16:54]is because they're trying on so many different hats.
[16:56]That's the metaphor we use.
[16:57]These kids come into six grade, even seventh grade.
[16:59]They're trying to figure out who they are.
[17:01]And they're doing that at home too.
[17:02]They're like, am I the sports person?
[17:04]Am I the funny kid?
[17:05]Am I fashion trends like who am I?
[17:09]And as kids try on all their hats,
[17:11]they're just looking for validation.
[17:14]And so one of my jobs I think is a teacher,
[17:17]is not to tell them who they are
[17:19]or to even validate what who they think they are.
[17:22]It's just to show them all the doors, right?
[17:25]It's like, I know you think you're this.
[17:26]That's great if you want to be that.
[17:28]Did you know that I see this in you?
[17:30]You could also be this.
[17:31]You could also be this.
[17:32]And I don't want to pressure kids in that way
[17:35]but they oftentimes don't think they have all
[17:37]these like transferable skills
[17:39]even at 11 and 12 to know what they want to do
[17:42]or what they want to be.
[17:43]So that would be my advice to middle school parents
[17:47]is let your kids try on all these hats.
[17:49]They're just trying to figure out who they are.
[17:50]And that takes a while.
[17:52]I also love your story about listening.
[17:55]There was one day a kid was having the hardest day ever
[17:59]and he just came and sat with him.
[18:01]And at the end of it he was like,
[18:02]thanks so much for your help.
[18:03]And you were like, I didn't even say a word.
[18:05]I didn't do anything.
[18:06]And he's like, no, you were there and that helped.
[18:08]And that's another thing because I feel like
[18:09]we always want to solve our kids' problems
[18:12]but sometimes just holding spaces enough.
[18:16]Oh, absolutely.
[18:17]Instead of using the word holding space,
[18:19]I use the phrase, the power of the pause.
[18:22]But you just don't do anything.
[18:23]And that's hard too, especially like when you said
[18:25]we were trying to solve all the problems
[18:26]even as a teacher or parent and you you know,
[18:29]you're working with five different things.
[18:30]And sometimes if you just allow yourself to slow down
[18:34]other people rise to the occasion,
[18:36]students rise to the occasion.
[18:37]And and that's important too.
[18:39]Everyone needs a moment where they feel important
[18:41]whether that's being a friend or, you know,
[18:44]realizing a talent that you never had.
[18:46]Like everyone needs their moment.
[18:47]And so when you pause you give you give that space
[18:51]an opportunity and you also told a great story about
[18:56]giving extra pizza from a class party to a family.
[18:58]And then they wrote a thank you.
[19:01]They wrote a thank you note home on the box for you.
[19:03]And you realized that they didn't have any food at home at all.
[19:07]Yeah. And that's man.
[19:08]Those situations are those situations are hard too
[19:12]because you feel like you missed something.
[19:14]Like I felt like in that situation,
[19:15]I should have known.
[19:16]And for listeners, what happened was a stew.
[19:18]We had a pizza party, which I paid for
[19:20]because the classmate of goal, right?
[19:22]And one of my students asked if they could take
[19:26]the rest of the pizza box home.
[19:28]And I was like, yeah, I mean, no one else want you.
[19:29]Yeah, you can take it home and turns out
[19:31]she needed that for a family.
[19:33]And the next day, there's a torn off piece of cardboard
[19:36]from the pizza box on my desk that said thank you.
[19:38]And those things are, those are,
[19:41]that's like a heavy moment, right?
[19:43]So now I know this family doesn't have food.
[19:44]So now it's now it's on me to do something for this kid.
[19:48]I'm not gonna navigate my day knowing that this kid doesn't have
[19:51]food.
[19:52]And and that's why teaching is so hard is we have the lesson,
[19:56]but then all these other factors go into it.
[19:58]So when people say like, you.
[20:00]to just teach, but it's never that.
[20:02]It is never that.
[20:04]There's too many other things that you need to do
[20:07]that help learning but have nothing to do
[20:10]with the classroom, if that makes sense.
[20:12]Yeah.
[20:13]The one of my kids wants to be a teacher eventually.
[20:16]Okay.
[20:17]What kind of advice would you have there,
[20:20]especially given all the obstacles?
[20:22]It feels like there's always just so many things
[20:25]up against teachers and pay is not commensurate
[20:28]with all of your ability and time and everything
[20:30]for one thing, and resources are more and more scarce
[20:34]and just feels like setting, not exactly setting up
[20:37]this career for success, but it's so important.
[20:41]Yeah.
[20:42]You know, the first thing I would say is that I've
[20:46]so I've traveled more in the last year than I
[20:48]have in my entire life combined, which has been phenomenal
[20:52]and also very tiring.
[20:54]But I take any opportunity I can.
[20:55]I really do.
[20:56]And that's been great to see different parts of the country
[21:00]and see how education works in other places.
[21:02]And what I'm seeing is there is a, there is a large influx
[21:06]of people who are leaving their career to become a teacher.
[21:09]Their second career.
[21:10]And when I talk to these people, it's really interesting
[21:13]because they, they all say the same thing.
[21:15]They're like, I just feel like giving back
[21:17]and this is bringing me joy.
[21:19]And so I have to tell new teachers,
[21:20]like you are going to feel joy.
[21:22]Like kids give you energy and I'm missing that right now.
[21:25]Like I miss the moments with kids
[21:27]sitting alone in my basement.
[21:29]That's the first thing you are going to feel joy.
[21:31]The second thing for new teachers is you need to give yourself
[21:33]time, a lot of time, to recognize what kind of teacher you are.
[21:38]And that takes years.
[21:39]You're not going to have all the tools your first year.
[21:42]And entering that classroom, it can feel really intimidating,
[21:44]but you have to allow yourself the time and the space
[21:48]to learn and grow and figure out what it is
[21:50]your unique quality as a teacher.
[21:52]And that's the great thing about education
[21:54]is these kids go into different classrooms
[21:55]throughout their educational career and they get
[21:57]all different types of personalities and teachers.
[21:59]I don't want kids to have 10 copies of me.
[22:03]I don't want kids to have 10 copies of my colleagues
[22:05]like they need a little bit of different.
[22:08]And so I would encourage all new teachers to just give it time.
[22:12]Yeah.
[22:12]And tell me a little more about your upcoming projects,
[22:15]the book you have coming out this fall
[22:17]and what you're thinking after that.
[22:20]OK, I don't know what I'm thinking.
[22:23]So my Matt Sprout series just released its third book.
[22:27]It's called Matt Sprouts on the search for the choppy
[22:29]moppers.
[22:29]Matt Sprouts is me.
[22:31]But Matt Eicholdinger by Matt Eicholdinger
[22:33]is kind of a mouthful.
[22:34]So Matt Sprouts.
[22:35]So that third book just released.
[22:37]I don't know if there'll be any more coming out than I
[22:40]have.
[22:41]This book holds my underwear, which I'm really excited for.
[22:44]It is illustrated poetry for kids.
[22:47]This came out of a need for my classroom,
[22:49]my first year teaching.
[22:50]I had to do a poetry in it.
[22:51]It was like our second unit.
[22:53]And we didn't really have a curriculum.
[22:55]And the only poetry books we had were Shel Silverstein.
[22:58]Nothing wrong with Shel Silverstein,
[23:00]except for the fact that that's all students had read.
[23:02]So I had no new material.
[23:05]And so I just started writing poems.
[23:06]I had no background in poetry at all.
[23:08]And I remember the first poem I wrote
[23:10]was called Underwear.
[23:12]Simply that.
[23:13]And I was like, kids are going to love it.
[23:15]And I put it up on the board for our lesson.
[23:18]And the kids read it.
[23:18]They're like, who wrote that?
[23:19]It's horrible.
[23:20]And I was like, I don't know.
[23:21]I just like found it online.
[23:23]But over time, they got better because kids
[23:27]give direct feedback.
[23:28]And so I knew what they wanted.
[23:29]And I knew what they needed.
[23:31]And so this is 15 years of highly vetted poetry
[23:34]that I was able to push out.
[23:35]And you know, poetry is a very small category.
[23:40]Children's poetry.
[23:41]I mean, it doesn't take up a lot of shelf space in any store.
[23:43]But I'm hopeful that this will find a space in classrooms.
[23:47]I really hope it does.
[23:49]So I've that project.
[23:50]I have my first young adult trilogy coming out.
[23:53]Some really excited for.
[23:54]Turns out that's a lot harder to write than a book of poetry.
[23:58]So I've been chipping away at it for a while.
[24:00]That's called the first book is called When the Rain
[24:01]Came.
[24:02]And that releases in March.
[24:04]And then I have a ready to read series
[24:06]with Simon and Schuster that comes out.
[24:08]It's called Marvin Baby Blob.
[24:09]I developed those characters drawing on the floor
[24:11]with my kid from elementary school and just doodling.
[24:16]And then there's some other projects too related
[24:17]to sticky notes.
[24:18]But I don't think I can officially say them yet.
[24:20]But I'm really excited for those.
[24:22]And then after that, who knows?
[24:25]You're in the publishing industry.
[24:27]It could be hot until it's not.
[24:30]I joke with my agent that I think I
[24:31]pitch more books than I write.
[24:34]That's what I do all day is I just come up with pitches.
[24:37]But what I'm trying to do is really just figure out
[24:40]how to navigate this space.
[24:41]This is year two of me being a full-time author.
[24:44]And the fact that I've signed 11 different book contracts
[24:46]is wild.
[24:48]And I know that that's not normal.
[24:50]So I'm trying to recalibrate to figure out
[24:53]what is my new normal, because I don't know what it is.
[24:56]My first year, because my social media presence grew so rapidly,
[25:00]it was most of my day was dealing with inquiries,
[25:05]inquiries from people who just want to push product
[25:07]through my accounts, basically just use me,
[25:11]people who want me to write for them.
[25:14]IP work, things like that, travel.
[25:17]And I don't know any of that.
[25:19]And that takes time to think and shoot on.
[25:21]And then also think about, I often
[25:24]think about when I'm gone, what will my kids see of me?
[25:28]Both online and in books.
[25:29]That's really important to me is I don't want to sell out
[25:32]just to make quick money to make this work.
[25:35]So I have to be very mindful about what I do,
[25:39]because I want my kids to be proud of me when they grow up.
[25:42]That's hard.
[25:43]But post that, I think I'm just
[25:46]going to keep writing in the same job.
[25:48]I really think I'm a middle grade writer, which
[25:50]is hard because that's a tough category to sell right now.
[25:54]But I think that's where I think that's my journey
[25:58]is middle grade literature and then maybe YA.
[26:01]So I've got plenty of ideas, whether or not
[26:03]I get to see them go on a shelf.
[26:05]I have no idea, but I am enjoying this time
[26:08]for as long as it lasts.
[26:10]It's been really enjoyable.
[26:11]Amazing.
[26:12]Well, Matt, I'm so inspired by your story.
[26:15]Oh, good.
[26:16]No, it's really wonderful.
[26:18]You have found your niche of who to talk to
[26:22]and what you want to say and impact the world.
[26:24]And that's pretty awesome.
[26:25]So congratulations, really.
[26:28]Congrats.
[26:28]I hope it all just keeps going.
[26:30]And you're on such a great trajectory.
[26:33]And thank you.
[26:34]There's only room to go up from here.
[26:37]So that's what I'm hopeful for too.
[26:39]We shall see.
[26:40]OK.
[26:41]But thank you for having me on.
[26:42]Again, this is a great opportunity for me
[26:44]to reach new audiences and talk to you.
[26:46]I mean, you have quite the platform
[26:49]and history and publishing.
[26:50]So just to connect with anyone in the industry
[26:52]is as really special.
[26:53]So thank you.
[26:54]Thank you so much.
[26:55]OK.
[26:56]All right, take care.
[26:56]I'll be ready for you.
[26:58]Thank you.
[26:58]OK.
[26:59]Bye.
[27:00]Thank you for listening to Totally Booked with Zibi,
[27:03]formerly momstone have time to read books.
[27:05]If you loved the show, tell a friend,
[27:08]leave a review, follow me on Instagram at Zibi Owens.
[27:11]And spread the word.
[27:13]Thanks so much.
[27:14]Oh, and bye the books.