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Coming up next on Passion Struck.
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When I was eight years old, I did want to become a children s author.
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I didn t really pay attention to my gut because I wanted to be like my sister, which wasn t authentic.
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I hate that word, but it s true.
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Everybody talks about your true self, your authentic self.
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And obviously that s what it came back to is what was in my heart, what was in my gut that I wanted to do.
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It s so true that if you have a passion and you love it,
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I m very lucky to be one of them.
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few people who get to make a living as an author.
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Welcome to Passion Struck.
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Hi, I m your host, John R. Miles.
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And on the show, we decipher the secrets, tips, and guidance of the world s most inspiring people and turn their wisdom into practical advice for you and those around you.
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Our mission is to help you unlock the power of intentionality so that you can become the best version of yourself.
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If you re new to the show, I offer advice and answer listener questions on Fridays.
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We have long-form interviews the rest of the week with guests ranging from astronauts to authors, CEOs, creators, innovators, scientists, military leaders, visionaries, and athletes.
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Now, let s go out there and become passionstruck.
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Hello, everyone, and welcome back to episode 352 of Passion Struck, ranked by Apple as one of the top 10 most popular health podcasts.
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Thank you to all of you who come back weekly to listen and learn how to live better, be better, and impact the world.
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Passion Struck is also on syndicated radio on the Brushwood Media Network.
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Catch us Monday and Friday from 5 to 6 p.m.
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Eastern time on your evening commute.
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Links will be in the show notes.
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If you re new to the show, thank you so much for being here.
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Or you simply want to introduce this to a friend or a family member, we now have episode starter packs.
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And these are collections of our fans  favorite episodes that we organize into convenient topics that give any new listener a great way to get acclimated to everything that we do here on the show.
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Either go to Spotify or passionstruck.com slash starter packs.
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Get started.
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In case you missed it, earlier in the week, I was joined by the renowned leadership thought leader and futurist Jacob Morgan.
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My discussion with Jacob was so enlightening that I split it into two parts, both equally compelling.
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I first delve deep into the future of work, personal branding, evolving employer-employee relationships, re-skilling in a tech-driven world, and the paramount importance of employee well-being.
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In part two, Jacob unveils the vulnerable leader equation.
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groundbreaking concept that redefines vulnerability in leadership.
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This equation serves as the foundation for his upcoming book, Leading with Vulnerability, set to launch on October 3rd.
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Please check both Part 1 and Part 2 of Jacob s episode, and if they made a positive impact on you,
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I would very much appreciate you considering giving us a 5-star rating and a review and sharing it with your friends and family.
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Those ratings go such a long way in bringing more people in the Passion Star community.
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I know we and our guests love to see comments from our listeners.
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Now let s talk about today s interview.
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I have the honor of speaking with the renowned children s book author.
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With a prolific career spanning over four decades, Laura has captivated young readers and inspired countless imaginations.
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with her Beloved If You Give series and other enchanting tales.
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But Laura s impact extends well beyond her enchanting stories.
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She has become a beacon of inspiration through her philanthropic endeavors and unwavering commitment to making a difference in the lives of others.
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From her work with organizations like It Takes a Village and Canine Companions to her contributions
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charitable causes such as the Susan G. Homan Cancer Foundation, and first book, Laura has demonstrated her deep compassion and dedication to creating a better world.
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In our conversation today, we delve into the fascinating journey of this celebrated author.
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We explore the origins of her iconic If You Give a Mouse a Cookie series, uncovering the inspiration and evolution that led to its tremendous success.
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We also discuss the creative process behind her diverse range of books,
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including her recent work Raising a Hero, which supports canine companions and sheds light on the power of service dogs.
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But Laura s impact goes far beyond the pages of her books.
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We ll explore her incredible experiences from visiting schools and children s hospitals worldwide to virtually connecting with students from different cultures and backgrounds.
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Join us as we embark on this inspiring conversation with Laura Numeroff.
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where we ll delve into the transformative power of storytelling, the importance of embracing creativity and resilience, and the true essence of leaving a lasting legacy.
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Thank you for choosing PassionStruck and choosing me to be your host and guide in your journey to creating an intentional life.
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Now, let that journey begin.
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I am so honored and thrilled to welcome Laura Numeroff to PassionStruck.
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Welcome, Laura.
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Hello, how are you?
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I am doing fantastic and I am so excited to interview you.
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My kids absolutely loved your books when they were younger.
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Oh, thank you for sharing them with them.
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Yeah.
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I think we started with the moose book, which I think was the second book in the series, if I have it correct.
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No, you re absolutely correct.
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And it s my favorite out of the nine.
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Oh, I didn t know that.
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I know they also liked about the pigs and the pancake as well.
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Such a popular series of books.
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And I think the fourth one actually was on the New York times bestseller list for something like number one on the list for five or six months.
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A lot of them were on the list, but I ve lost track and it wasn t originally bought as a series.
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So when I eventually, after nine rejections, sold If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, that was my 10th book.
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I had already written and illustrated nine others, and they didn t do any promotion.
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I didn t do any book tours or anything, because nobody really knew who I was, and they didn t want to spend money on an unknown.
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Luckily, it took off, and I was reading it to a classroom,
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making $50 a day for talking to kids at schools.
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The teacher said,   Oh, it s a really good circular story.  
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I asked her,   Oh, what s a circular story?  
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Because I hadn t written it intentionally as such.
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Eventually, a couple of years later, they did Moose, still not a series.
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Then a year or two later, they did Pig.
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pancake and then I got a contract for six more books.
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So that s when it became a series.
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I have to imagine once you got that deal for six books, it was probably both exhilarating and at the same time terrifying because I m guessing after you do so many ideas, it gets hard to keep coming up with more.
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Exactly.
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You hit the nail on the head.
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Yes.
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If you give a mouse cookie, I got the idea in my head, beginning, middle, and end, when I was on a long drive with my boyfriend at the time, the drummer from Night Ranger.
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We were living in San Francisco, and we used to go to Oregon to visit his parents.
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The first two times, the drive is really beautiful.
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And then by the third time, I was starting to get a little bored.
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And when I get bored, I get antsy.
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And when I get antsy, I get silly.
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And I started thinking of animals and food that I like.
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So I pictured a beautiful black and white zebra eating Cheetos.
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But what I can t understand is, if you can put a man on the moon, why can t they get it so you can eat Cheetos but not have to lie and say, oh, I didn t have Cheetos.
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Oh, it s all that orange around your mouth and on your fingers.
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So I pictured orange around the mouth of this zebra.
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And I love pizza.
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And you know how orangutans have long, gangly arms, and when you pick up a slice of pizza, the cheese gets all stringy.
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So I pictured an orangutan being tangled up in cheese string.
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And at that time, Mrs. Fields came out with those gigantic chocolate chip cookies, and I pictured a mouse nibbling on it.
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But instead of thinking of
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Another animal, I just started thinking he d want milk and a straw and a napkin and on and on until we got to his parents  house and I had it finished.
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Came back to San Francisco and I typed it out on my $50 wonky typewriter and sent it out and got it rejected nine times.
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And then finally, we broke up.
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I moved to Los Angeles to try to write the television.
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I got a phone call from, at the time, Harper and Rowe, now HarperCollins, saying, we d like to buy your book.
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That was the temp book.
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And since I sold my first book in college in 1975, I ve written 47 illustrated manga books.
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Well, that s amazing.
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And if I have it correct, when you sold the mouse book, you had originally gone to Harper and the editor you went to turned you down and then you resubmitted to a new editor that you had heard had joined.
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Is that correct?
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I, there were eight other publishers in between the original rejection from Harper.
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So about a year later, I heard that there was a new editor and her name was Laura.
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So I just thought I d give it a try.
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Um,
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hit the nail on the head.
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Most editors read, first they read manuscripts by the authors they work with, then they read manuscripts that are sent in by agents.
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I don t know now, this was in 1981 or 80-something.
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They have what s called a slush pile, and they have some person reading all the manuscripts in that slush pile, and if they come across something that you think is worthy of showing to the editor,
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That s what they do, and somebody found Mouse in the slush pile and brought it to Laura.
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I don t really know how it went to the first editor, but that person has never come forth.
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I wish they would, so I could thank him or her.
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The whole publishing world is a bit of a mystery to me as you and I were discussing a little bit beforehand.
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I first had a very hard time even finding an agent.
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I probably approached over 60 of them and kept getting turned down for what was maddening because everyone gave me a different reasons.
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If I
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would have gotten some commonality of answers, it would have made more sense.
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But some said, you don t have a big enough platform.
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Others said they didn t know if the content was going to resonate.
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Others said they didn t rep first time authors.
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So it was like this myriad of things.
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So I actually went down the self-publishing route and then just said, I m going to give this one more go.
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And I rewrote the book proposal.
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It had been about eight or nine months later.
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I redid the chapters.
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And at this point,
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The podcast had gotten significantly bigger and all four agents i sent it to bid on it and i ended up going with the one i felt most comfortable with and then proceeded to get rejected time and time again by every publisher we sent it to.
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And the funny thing this time is that most of the publishers like the book.
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But they didn t think I had a big enough platform to bolster its success.
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And that s why Harper passed on me as well as Hachette.
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Penguin loved it, but it didn t fit their editorial direction.
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Oh, you had four agents?
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The last four that I sent it to all said that they would be interested in working with me.
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And I ended up picking the one I m working with.
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That s incredible.
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I had just been rejected by four agents.
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Congratulations.
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I think that s really great.
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I think people think authors or could really be anyone achieves these great things.
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And it just comes up out of nowhere.
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And I know your journey had a very interesting start because as I understand it, you went to the Pratt Institute following in your siblings footsteps.
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I have learned was to get into the fashion industry.
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What ended up happening with that pursuit?
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And then how did you then change to going into becoming a writer?
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I have two older sisters.
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The one in the middle, Emily, is 10 years older than me.
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When I was eight, I wanted to be a children s author.
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I was an avid reader.
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And Eloise and Stuart Little were the two books that inspired me to want to write my own books.
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But as I got older, around 15 or 16, I really idolized Emily, who was a fashion designer.
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By the time I was ready to go to college, I decided I was going to do that.
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I only applied to Pratt.
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I got in for fashion.
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This was 1971 and I hated it.
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I hated it.
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I couldn t sew.
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It was just not what I had anticipated.
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The second year I majored in photography, which is another passion of mine, and didn t think that I was going to make a
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career out of it.
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So by my third year, Pratt Institute had something called University Without Walls.
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So you were matched up with a counselor and you could take classes in other colleges.
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You could travel.
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I had an internship with an animator from Sesame Street.
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I had an internship at the only jazz station in New York.
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I got credit for having my own jazz show at the school station.
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I spent six weeks in France with 14 other students studying illustration and photography.
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And then my last semester, I was at School of Visual Arts or Parsons.
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I can t remember which one.
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And I was looking through their catalog for something easy.
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So I called my counselor, my guidance counselor, and I said, I m going to take Tai Chi.
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He said, hold on.
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And he came back on the phone.
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He said, you need two studio credits, which is awesome.
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art class.
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So I looked through the catalog again and saw writing and illustrating children s books.
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And I thought that s probably easy.
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So I took the class and my teacher assigned us homework to write and illustrate our own book.
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And we did our own books, which are called dummies, just a mock up of a book.
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And I wrote a book called Amy s a Short about the tallest girl in the third grade, even though I wasn t.
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And
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brought it in for critique, and she liked it.
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And I had an illustration portfolio at the time, so I stuck the dummy in the portfolio, made appointments with art directors at the publishers, and, oh, I just happened to have this with me.
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So the first four publishers I went to, nothing happened.
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The fifth appointment I had was with Macmillan and the art director took my dummy to the editor and they bought it.
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So I graduated with a degree and a Bachelor in Fine Arts and a contract for $500 to write and illustrate my first book.
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And then I thought, okay, well, then I m just going to be doing this, but it wasn t that easy.
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And it wasn t really till Maus that I was eventually put on the map
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As we were discussing, dealing with rejection is a common challenge for many aspiring authors, as well as people in other professions.
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And I understand you have a motto of never give up.
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How has that helped you navigate through setbacks in your career?
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I ve been to probably over 150 elementary schools talking to kids about my life and
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being an author, I always say, mouse was rejected nine times.
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What if on the eighth rejection or the third, I just said, I give up, I can t do this anymore.
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I wouldn t be here.
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Mouse book wouldn t be in your hands.
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A couple of books that I ve written that I have abandoned after a while, because I get to see what
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is going on in the trend of children s books and realizes it s not going to work.
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But I ve had way more than nine rejections for one book.
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I have a book called, Would I Trade My Parents?
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That was 15 rejections.
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It s tough.
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It s really hard.
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I get upset, I get disappointed, and I give it a day and then I send it right back out to another publisher.
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Sometimes I send it out immediately.
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In the old days, in snail mail,
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I had to wait to get a letter of rejection.
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And now I can get rejected the next day on email.
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I once got six rejections in one email.
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I ve been rejected myself multiple times in a day.
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This was from one editor.
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Oh my goodness.
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I met her at a convention and she said, Oh, I m blah, blah, blah.
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And I said, I know you ve rejected six books of mine.
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And then I punched her.
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Really?
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No.
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Actually, I do.
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I take boxing lessons.
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So you just wanted to punch her.
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Oh, yeah.
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Well, I m glad you bring that up.
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One of the people I ve had on the podcast who I refer to along these lines frequently is one of my longest term mentors that I ve had.
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Her name is Wendy Lawrence, and I met Wendy during my youngster year at the Naval Academy, and she went on to fly on the space shuttle multiple times.
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When I ve interviewed her, one of the things that she says as she talks to groups of kids, even to this day throughout the country, is so many people today give up on their dreams so quickly.
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And she always emphasizes the message that you ve got to give yourself permission to dream the dream.
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And with that comes lots of rejections.
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It s that resilience and then constantly taking action to get closer to where you want to go that gives you, as you term it, the never give up.
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mentality that eventually gets you towards success.
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Has she written a memoir?
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I don t think she has, but I think it would be a great one.
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She was the first female distinguished graduate of the Naval Academy as well.
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Wow.
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That s incredible.
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Another similar story to this.
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I remember interviewing my friend, Dan Pink, and as we were talking, I said, is it easy for you to keep publishing these books?
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And he said, no.
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He said, as an author, you re only good as your last book.
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And I wonder if you ve ever felt that way.
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What was the author?
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Dan Pink.
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He s a repeat number one bestseller.
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His most recent book was The Power of Regret.
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Oh, it s also nonfiction.
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I don t know if I agree with that in my case, because Mouse was like 30 books ago, and it s still my best one.
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My latest one, which we can talk about in the philanthropic section, is Raising a Hero, and it s about service dogs.
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So that s my last book that I wrote, my last book ever.
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I was going to go there.
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So why don t we talk about that?
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What motivated you to explore this book?
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What was your inspiration behind it?
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I was at a book convention in Oshawa at that time, and I asked what he was doing at the convention, and she said she wrote a book about him.
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He s a search and sniff dog.
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And she started telling me how they are trained and how far they can smell.
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I was amazed.
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And I thought, if I don t know this, and there are a lot of kids that probably don t know this, so I wanted to write a book called Dogs Have Jobs Too.
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And I started working on it, and I don t know what happened.
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I didn t keep up with it.
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Cut to five years ago, I needed help with my website and I found a young guy.
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His brother had severe cerebral palsy and had a service dog.
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And when I met the dog and learned about what she could do, I was blown away.
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And I thought, I have to write about this.
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So he told me about the dogs and what they do and how they re trained.
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And we ended up going down to one of the facilities where they train the dogs.
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I ve been involved with CC, which is Canine Companions.
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They re the largest organization that trains service dogs, and they have six or eight facilities in the United States.
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And they give the dogs away for free.
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there s a waiting list.
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We ended up doing it ourselves with a Kickstarter campaign because I really didn t want to get involved with a publisher on this one.
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I was very protective of it and I wanted it done the way I wanted it.
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We raised $35,000, which is a nice little chunk but wasn t enough really because Sean was going to be the publisher and get the book made and distributed.
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but we still needed an illustrator.
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We didn t have a budget for somebody I really wanted, which is Lynne Munsinger.
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I ended up putting up notices on college e-boards and stuff like that and trying to find somebody who would take out maybe a flat rate, couldn t find anybody.
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I had done a bunch of books with Lynne Munsinger, my favorite all-time children s book illustrator.
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Sean said, just call her, just see what she says.
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I was like, I can t.
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I was like, just do it.
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So I did, and she ended up doing it as a gift to us.
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She didn t charge us anything.
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Sean put together some little book tours, Barnes & Noble s in different areas in Northern California.
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Amazon, Barnes & Noble ended up calling Sean to carry the book in the store, and it s gotten over 105 store reviews on Amazon.
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And it didn t sell as well as we had hoped.
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I have since become incredibly involved with canine companions.
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I ve been an honorary chair at their fundraisers and have met an amazing amount of puppy raisers.
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These people raise the puppy from eight weeks to a year and a half before they get sent to one of the facilities for a year to learn the hard stuff.
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SPEAKER_00
I ve met people who have the dogs as service dogs, so the dogs are used
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for everything from kids with cerebral palsy up to autism and they have a special program for vets with ptsd and i met one of them with his dog and he demonstrated he put his head in his hands like he was really upset and the dog sat up and put his paws on his lap and
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He said when he showed me a video of him in bed having a nightmare and the dog gets into bed and lays down on top of him.
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So the pressure is very relieving for panic attacks or nightmares.
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SPEAKER_00
And it s been incredible.
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SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I was so happy to read about that because I originally went down the path of trying to get one from Southeast Guide Dogs, which is here in the Tampa area.
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And they do a lot for people who need dogs who are blind or have trouble seeing.
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SPEAKER_01
So guide dogs, but they also do dogs for veterans.
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And unfortunately, about 18 months into the waiting process, about a month before I was supposed to get the dog, I get a letter saying that they ve decided not to give me a dog.
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I ended up at that point really wanting one and found my own and just did a whole bunch of YouTube videos and trained my dog on most of what he knows.
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SPEAKER_00
Oh my goodness.
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SPEAKER_00
Did they tell you why they weren t giving you the dog?
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SPEAKER_01
Nope, never gave me any answer.
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SPEAKER_01
I tried to go back and ask, and they refused to let me know.
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SPEAKER_01
But my dog does some of the similar things that you re describing.
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He knows how to go into the house and clear the house before I enter it to ensure that it s safe.
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If I m having a night terror, he will come by the side of the bed and either lick me or put his paw on me.
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He can understand if I am having some type of
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episode or feeling weary and he ll come over and put his paw on me or sit next to me.
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He knows how to block if I m feeling uncomfortable in a space.
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He knows how to watch if I have to have my back turned and don t feel comfortable.
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Things like that.
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SPEAKER_00
You taught him this stuff?
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SPEAKER_01
Yes, I did.
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SPEAKER_00
Wow.
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I m really impressed.
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SPEAKER_01
Yeah, it takes a lot of work.
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I ll bet.
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What s his name?
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His name is Bentley.
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I love that.
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That s one of my top 20 names for dogs.
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Yeah.
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It s so funny because he s a black Bentley and we have friends who got another lab at the same time and they named theirs Royce.
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So they have a silver Royce and I have a black Bentley.
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SPEAKER_01
And if I have it correct, didn t you also donate a portion of book royalties to first book?
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SPEAKER_00
I m also involved with First Book.
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They were probably the first organization that I got heavily involved with.
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First Book donates a couple of brand new books to kids who don t have any, and I donate a portion of royalties to them.
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I donate a portion of royalties from my book, Laura Numeroff s 10-Step Guide to Living with Your Monster, to Michael J. Fox, because my mom had Parkinson s.
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I also sponsor a horse.
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Have you heard of therapeutic riding?
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SPEAKER_01
I have heard of it.
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Yeah, so it s these very gentle horses that are usually donated.
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They re used for kids and adults with Down syndrome, physical disabilities, and it gives them a sense of freedom.
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It s a good way to stretch their muscles, give some confidence.
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There s a facility out here outside of LA.
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So I paid for his upkeep, room and board, just not veterinarian bills.
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And his name is Linus.
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There s a girl who has a dog from CCI or CC who rides him.
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So I have a photograph of her with her dog and with Linus.
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That s wonderful.
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SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
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And I wish there was a lot more that I could do.
2
SPEAKER_01
I also thought you did some stuff with around cancer awareness and prevention.
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So about 25 years ago, I got a phone call from Sprint and they said they wanted to do a book for children for the month of October about breast cancer.
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And I said, I m very honored.
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And I hung up and I realized.
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I ve never written on fiction and i don t really know much about cancer.
2
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I called them back and they said don t worry we re gonna introduce you to a doctor who s a survivor and has written a book for children about cancer.
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She told me at the hospital in Houston where she works, there s a little group of kids and they call them the Hope Tree.
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Then she gave me 10 points, like it s not contagious.
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The whole house was turned upside down when we found out.
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For each point, I came up with a child and a name and an age, so for you can t catch it.
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My mom told us that
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Having cancer is like having a broken arm.
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You can t catch it.
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It s not contagious.
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Then I got one of my other favorite illustrators, David MacNeil, to do the illustrations.
2
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It s called the Hope Tree Kids Speak Out About Breast Cancer.
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They sent me on a mini book tour, and I went to some wellness centers, and then it was paperback.
2
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Then at the end of the month, that was it.
2
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I gave it to Simon & Schuster to print it in hardcover, and the doctor, myself, and the illustrator donated all the money that it made to
2
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Susan Coleman and Oprah had it on her show.
2
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The doctor was in the audience.
2
SPEAKER_00
So I guess you had a problem.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, how wonderful.
3
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I unfortunately have had way too many issues with cancer in my family and my sister currently has pancreatic cancer.
3
SPEAKER_00
So it s definitely a topic that is close to my heart.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I m very sorry.
3
SPEAKER_01
Speaking of Oprah, she s had my books on her show.
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SPEAKER_01
She had a pig a pancake and she said, this is one of my favorite children s books.
3
SPEAKER_01
Sometimes I just have to read it in the morning.
3
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I keep it in the kitchen.
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And it was on her children s bestseller, best favorite books, whatever.
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So I love her.
3
SPEAKER_00
Well, I do too.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I had thought I was going to get an opportunity to interview her in August.
3
SPEAKER_00
She has a new book coming out with Arthur Brooks that looks just fantastic right up my alley.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I thought I was getting both, but unfortunately she canceled and I m interviewing Arthur.
3
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I ve interviewed him before and he s an incredible human.
3
SPEAKER_00
So I m very honored to get to have that opportunity again.
3
SPEAKER_01
That s great.
3
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I m sorry that she didn t, that she canceled.
3
SPEAKER_00
I imagine she s busy, especially during a book launch.
3
SPEAKER_01
Oh, yes.
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SPEAKER_01
I can t imagine.
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I can t imagine what she has to go through for us.
3
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interviews.
3
SPEAKER_01
I ve been interviewed quite a bit.
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And one interview was for a newspaper.
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The interviewer sat there and took notes as I was speaking and answering her questions.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then I read the article.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I was like, Wait a minute, my book s not published in that language.
3
SPEAKER_01
Where d you come up with that?
3
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How am I supposed to believe anything I read now?
3
SPEAKER_00
I want to keep going down this philanthropy road just a little bit longer.
3
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Can you share with us how you got involved with It Takes a Village and what inspired you to support their cause?
3
SPEAKER_01
So my dream was always to build a library in an inner city or in a neglected area of Brooklyn to thank my parents for being so supportive.
3
SPEAKER_01
I get emails all the time from schools wanting me to come visit and talk to their kids.
3
SPEAKER_01
And of course, during the pandemic, I did a lot of Zoom visits.
3
SPEAKER_01
I even spoke to kids in China, Japan, Italy, Germany, South America.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then a woman named Julie Arco emailed me, and she s involved with, at that time, Illigible Builders, which is an organization that build libraries in Africa, Nepal, and Mexico.
3
SPEAKER_01
And would I like to read to a class of kids?
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, definitely.
3
SPEAKER_01
So group one class, about 15 kids, there was one little girl on the bottom right, and they started asking questions.
3
SPEAKER_01
And they were so charming and attentive and so sweet.
3
SPEAKER_01
And so she said, how do I become an author?
3
SPEAKER_01
And I was about to say, well, you need to read a lot of books.
3
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And I realized they don t have any.
3
SPEAKER_01
And it just
3
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broke my heart.
3
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They were so sweet and so cute.
3
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And then I talked to Julie and did some research, talked to my money manager because it s a big chunk of money and opened up a library in Malawi.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then I went with the head of It Takes a Village, Julie, her husband and her son.
3
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and we went to the village.
3
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The little girl s name was Devorah.
3
SPEAKER_01
I watched through photographs the library being built, and then we went for the opening.
3
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I have a picture of me and Devorah looking at books in my library.
3
SPEAKER_01
I can t believe I got to meet her.
3
SPEAKER_01
The opening, there were over 1,000 people at the grand opening.
3
SPEAKER_01
I cut the ribbon.
3
SPEAKER_01
There s a plaque above the door that s dedicated to my parents.
3
SPEAKER_01
First time I d been to a third world country, the thing that struck me was that these people have nothing.
3
SPEAKER_01
And they re the happiest.
3
SPEAKER_01
Everywhere you go, you get out of the van and they re singing and dancing.
3
SPEAKER_01
I did more dancing than I did in my disco days in the 70s.
3
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It was just the most unbelievable experience.
3
SPEAKER_01
I miss the kids.
3
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a lot i don t know if i would love to go back and see them but i m still trying to raise money for it takes a village i have something on charity buzz have you heard of charity buzz i have not oh it s a website it s like a silent auction online so i auction off lunch with me
3
SPEAKER_01
And I ve raised over $1,000.
3
SPEAKER_01
I take people to lunch.
3
SPEAKER_01
A lot of times they re authors and they want advice and stuff like that.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then I also auction off a Zoom visit and all the money goes to It Takes a Village.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m hoping to do a GoFundMe to raise some money.
3
SPEAKER_00
Well, another thing that I use, and I m not sure how you go about approaching YouTube to get this inserted, but for certain causes, I will designate a charity that has signed up with YouTube that people who see the episode can donate to.
3
SPEAKER_00
And some of these
3
SPEAKER_00
Charities such as the St.
3
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Jude organization have received hundreds of thousands of dollars for doing this.
3
SPEAKER_00
I encourage all the charitable organizations that I see to do it because it doesn t cost me anything as a podcaster or as a YouTuber and I love to add those when I can to some of the videos I put out.
3
SPEAKER_01
Did you tell Amy about?
3
SPEAKER_00
I have not.
3
SPEAKER_01
Okay, then there s I forgot about this too.
3
SPEAKER_01
So I was somebody s make a wish.
3
SPEAKER_01
When I told make a wish, I would love to do something for them.
3
SPEAKER_01
I didn t think anybody would really want to meet me because they always want to go to Disneyland or meet Magic Johnson.
3
SPEAKER_01
But there was a young girl, I guess just like 15 who wrote a book about her problem.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I helped her.
3
SPEAKER_01
I was her editor.
3
SPEAKER_01
So that was very rewarding.
3
SPEAKER_00
It was truly touching and must have been a huge impact on her.
3
SPEAKER_00
Was she able to get that book published?
3
SPEAKER_01
She self-published it, but it s, I think it s on Amazon and she found a really good illustrator who did it for her.
3
SPEAKER_01
So I got to meet her and her parents at the Make-A-Wish office.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then we worked online on her manuscript.
3
SPEAKER_01
It was a very nice experience.
3
SPEAKER_00
And it sounds like much more impactful than perhaps a short visit to Disney World would have on her and her aspirations.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yes, I totally agree.
3
SPEAKER_01
I think it was an amazing thing that she did.
3
SPEAKER_01
And she was truly an amazing young girl.
3
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And her heart just goes out to them.
3
SPEAKER_01
But I was so glad to be able to help her.
3
SPEAKER_00
I have a great make-a-wish story from my childhood.
3
SPEAKER_00
We had these great neighbors across from us growing up in York, Pennsylvania, and unfortunately, their eldest daughter developed a rare and curable form of cancer, and she always had wanted to get into politics.
3
SPEAKER_00
But they realized she probably wouldn t be able to live that long to do so.
3
SPEAKER_00
When she was in high school and her early college years, they actually reached out to Ted Kennedy to see if he would bring her in.
3
SPEAKER_00
And he actually worked with her and invited her in to be part of his team for a number of years to give her as much exposure as possible to what it would like to be a politician.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I guess it turns out that the cancer she had was the same cancer that his son had.
3
SPEAKER_01
My goodness.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I think there are stories like that from people that you never hear about, but just the stories that they would say about how good natured he was and how he would introduce her to everyone, including presidents and other people, and open the door and make her feel the only person in the room was truly memorable.
3
SPEAKER_01
That s incredible.
3
SPEAKER_01
That s so nice to hear.
3
SPEAKER_01
So much better than some other presidents.
3
SPEAKER_00
Well, Amy asked me to ask you this question.
3
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If I said to you, it takes a village, how would you complete it?
3
SPEAKER_00
And what does it mean to you personally, besides building the library?
3
SPEAKER_00
I was hoping you could explain what impact it has had on the kids.
3
SPEAKER_01
I think it takes a village, like you said, just a to build the library.
3
SPEAKER_01
but then all the people involved to staff the library.
3
SPEAKER_01
Incidentally, since then, materials have doubled.
3
SPEAKER_01
The price of opening a library now would be a little bit inhibitive to me, so I m glad I did it when I did.
3
SPEAKER_01
I saw all the people literally in the village.
3
SPEAKER_01
They have villages there, so it s ironic, but the parents getting involved in the library and the kids
3
SPEAKER_01
now being able to take books home to their family.
3
SPEAKER_01
It just becomes a really nice circular kind of thing where you do, if you do this, then this will happen.
3
SPEAKER_01
At the opening, there were all these village chiefs.
3
SPEAKER_01
The library
4
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comes with 1,000 books, 10 laptops, and a full-time librarian.
4
SPEAKER_01
I m just watching all these kids looking at all these books on the shelf that they can read.
4
SPEAKER_01
They can take the book, they can take three books home and read them to their parents.
4
SPEAKER_01
Just watching the looks on their faces, sitting down and turning the pages of a book.
4
SPEAKER_01
In some cases, turning pages of my book was really touching and rewarding, and it s one of the best experiences I ve ever had.
4
SPEAKER_01
I mean, that week in Malawi was life-changing.
4
SPEAKER_00
Well, and speaking of life changing, you ve visited hundreds of schools, countless children s hospitals, and that must have been such a rewarding experience and continues to be one for you.
4
SPEAKER_00
Can you share with the audience a heartwarming or memorable moment from one of those visits that s left an impact on you?
4
SPEAKER_01
There was a class when they left the auditorium, the teacher came over and said, the little boy who asked you about your book, who told you that he loved reading your books, I couldn t get him to read a book for the life of me.
4
SPEAKER_01
Now he just won t leave the library.
4
SPEAKER_01
And the fact that I spent a car ride coming up with this idea and that took me two hours to sit down and write it when I got home, how it s changed a lot of people s lives.
4
SPEAKER_01
I get a lot of fan mail and I answer all of them.
4
SPEAKER_01
The best one I got was from a mother of twins.
4
SPEAKER_01
Five year old twins with autism one severe and one not a severe and they re from jackson heights queens.
4
SPEAKER_01
So special for me because that s where i had to go to get my eyes i started wearing glasses in kindergarten and my dad.
4
SPEAKER_01
My parents friend was an optician in jackson heights so we used to go there for my visits.
4
SPEAKER_01
And she said the more severe autistic son wouldn t eat anything.
4
SPEAKER_01
He didn t talk.
4
SPEAKER_01
He wouldn t let them cut his hair.
4
SPEAKER_01
But after reading mouse, the first word he said was cookie.
4
SPEAKER_01
And we let them cut his hair.
4
SPEAKER_01
I m speechless thinking about it.
4
SPEAKER_01
But his first word was cookie.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
What an inspiring story.
4
SPEAKER_00
And Laura, I was hoping before we end, I could just cover a few more questions for the audience about some of the key learnings that you ve had from life and becoming the author you have.
4
SPEAKER_00
And the first would be, what are five things that you wish someone told you when you first started and why?
4
SPEAKER_01
When I got my first book published, I had nobody telling me anything about the business.
4
SPEAKER_01
I was doing it all on my own.
4
SPEAKER_01
I wish somebody had told me at that point to either get an agent or stick with one publisher.
4
SPEAKER_01
When you are with one publisher, they treat you differently than when you go from publisher to publisher.
4
SPEAKER_01
I was just happy to get my books published by anybody who wanted to buy them.
4
SPEAKER_01
I wish in the very beginning that I knew about
4
SPEAKER_01
all the rejection that would be confronting me in my career.
4
SPEAKER_01
I wish that I had learned about the business.
4
SPEAKER_01
Unfortunately, it s a business.
4
SPEAKER_01
In the very beginning, for the longest time, to me, I was just like, oh, this is so nice.
4
SPEAKER_01
It s children s books.
4
SPEAKER_01
This is lovely.
4
SPEAKER_01
Beatrix Potter, bunnies, rabbit, and ducks.
4
SPEAKER_01
It s a business and there s things that happen in the business that aren t peachy keen.
4
SPEAKER_01
and to be thrust upon it without knowing what s coming.
4
SPEAKER_01
It would have been nice if somebody opened my eyes in the very beginning.
4
SPEAKER_01
I wish that I had had somebody negotiate my contracts in the beginning.
4
SPEAKER_01
I didn t have an agent.
4
SPEAKER_01
I ve never had an agent.
4
SPEAKER_01
I know there s not five, but I think it s four.
4
SPEAKER_00
As you mentioned, you ve now written over 40 books and if someone s listening to this and they haven t even read one yet, can you share some of your insights on how you spark creativity and find inspiration for your books and how maybe the way you do it could act as a springboard for someone who might be listening to create one themselves?
4
SPEAKER_01
I get most of my ideas from
4
SPEAKER_01
hearing something or seeing something.
4
SPEAKER_01
So for an example, my ears are always open to hear something that might give me a germ, a little germ of an idea.
4
SPEAKER_01
I was with my ex-fiancee, who was an environmental scientist, and we saw a Dalmatian.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I said, oh, wouldn t he look cute in red sneakers?
4
SPEAKER_01
And Paul said, dogs don t wear sneakers.
4
SPEAKER_01
I heard dogs don t wear sneakers, and I just started rhyming.
4
SPEAKER_01
Dogs don t wear sneakers, and pigs don t wear hats, and dresses look silly on Siamese cats.
4
SPEAKER_01
We got home and I started typing and writing the verses, and I ended up writing enough verses for two books.
4
SPEAKER_01
The second one was Chimps Don t Wear Glasses.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, sorry.
4
SPEAKER_01
I used to ride horses.
4
SPEAKER_01
I was at a horse show and I heard someone say, my horse lost two, and I thought of Cinderella.
4
SPEAKER_01
So I wrote Ponyella.
4
SPEAKER_01
That s a parody of Cinderella but with a pony losing her shoe.
4
SPEAKER_01
I think you have to really keep your eyes open and your ears open and sometimes something will just spark an idea.
4
SPEAKER_01
Also I highly recommend keeping, well these days you can just have a little recorder
4
SPEAKER_01
Even on your Fitbit, I guess those Apple phones can do it.
4
SPEAKER_01
But I ve come up with ideas in my head when I was driving.
4
SPEAKER_01
Luckily, when the mouse came to me, I wasn t driving.
4
SPEAKER_01
Kelly was.
4
SPEAKER_01
But I ve had ideas while I was driving.
4
SPEAKER_01
And by the time I get to where I m going, I forgot it.
4
SPEAKER_01
Always have something to jot down your ideas.
4
SPEAKER_01
It s really easy to just forget something.
4
SPEAKER_01
I think reading a lot of children s books really helps, and talking to kids, just being around kids.
4
SPEAKER_01
I don t have kids.
4
SPEAKER_01
I love them.
4
SPEAKER_01
I never wanted them.
4
SPEAKER_01
But people always say, well, how can you write children s books without kids?
4
SPEAKER_01
And I go, well, because it s quiet.
4
SPEAKER_01
But from going to all of these schools and being around kids, spending time around kids, talking to them, it sparks my imagination, gets my imagination going.
4
SPEAKER_01
So those are some of my handy dandy tips.
4
SPEAKER_00
I know we already talked about never give up, but is there another favorite life lesson quote that you have that s been relevant to your life?
4
SPEAKER_01
Yes, because when I was eight years old, I did want to become a children s author.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I didn t really pay attention to my gut because I wanted to be like my sister.
4
SPEAKER_01
which wasn t authentic.
4
SPEAKER_01
I hate that word, but it s true.
4
SPEAKER_01
Everybody talks about your true self, your authentic self.
4
SPEAKER_01
And obviously that s what it came back to is what was in my heart, what was in my gut that I wanted to do.
4
SPEAKER_01
It s so true that if you have a passion and you love it, that saying, if you love what you don t have a job.
4
SPEAKER_01
So I m very lucky to be
4
SPEAKER_01
one of the few people who get to make a living as an author.
4
SPEAKER_01
I m going to be 70 and it s, oh my God, I m the elderly author glasses and everything, but it s been great.
4
SPEAKER_01
I ve had a really great career.
4
SPEAKER_01
I couldn t be more thankful and excited about it.
4
SPEAKER_01
I m going to Alaska in two weeks for my birthday and I ve never seen a moose.
4
SPEAKER_01
And so I found this conservancy center where they rescue wildlife.
4
SPEAKER_01
And the young girl, I asked a question and the young girl knew my books.
4
SPEAKER_01
And now they re going to give me a special tour and I m going to feed a moose.
4
SPEAKER_00
Thank you for that.
4
SPEAKER_00
And that sounds amazing.
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I ve always wanted to go to Alaska and it s on my bucket list as well.
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I have seen a moose though, when I visited Yellowstone.
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How far away was it?
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say maybe a half a football field.
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Was it gigantic?
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There were a number of them.
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There were probably six or seven of them together, and they were really majestic.
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But there were tons of wildlife when we went there.
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And sometimes I heard that they ll just walk into some of the towns from the park.
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That s what I ve heard.
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Yes, I never got to witness that.
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But we did see elk and other things that would just walk into town.
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Oh, I ve never seen, well, we have coyote and deer here.
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I ve seen a deer walking in the sidewalk across the street.
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I live in a canyon, so there s deer and rabbits and everything, but I ve seen deer just strutting up the sidewalk.
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Better a deer than a coyote.
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The last question I had for you, and it s a fun one I like to ask.
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I mentioned Wendy Lawrence, who s an astronaut earlier in the episode, but if you were given this opportunity to be one of the first people to go to Mars, set foot on it, and the powers
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be said that there was one edict or law or governing philosophy that you could put in place, what would it be?
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Never give up.
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I thought you were going to ask me, would I go?
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Would you go?
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Hell no.
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No.
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I admire astronauts.
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Another good friend of mine, who s a classmate of mine from the Naval Academy, used to be the chief astronaut.
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And I asked him about how soon he thought we ll get to Mars.
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And he said, people don t realize that the biggest thing that we have landed on Mars so far has been about the size of Volkswagen.
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And we have never tried to lift it off.
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Because for us to put people there, you re talking about something the size of one or two greyhound buses.
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That one we re going to have to land there successfully, but then we re going to have to figure out how do you get that thing off.
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And he just said, if you think about the logistics of that, plus this is probably going to have to be powered by nuclear fuel, so you re going to have to build a nuclear
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refueling station on the moon and other things.
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He goes, the people who say that this is going to happen in five years, he goes, there s just no way unless we develop cold fusion or something happens overnight.
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That would give us a different way to propel ourselves to get there.
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And then we re going to have to experiment a ton of times with unmanned missions before we even send someone there.
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Right.
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That s fascinating.
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I love stuff like that.
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Yep.
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I ve known him since I was 18.
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Wow.
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Wow.
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That s great.
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Would you go up in a space shuttle?
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I would love to go up.
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I m not sure I d want to go on that mission to Mars, but I think space exploration would be exhilarating.
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Laura, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your wisdom.
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I know so many of our listeners will want to hear this episode.
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So thank you for giving us the honor of being here.
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Oh, thank you so much for having me on your show.
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And one of my favorite subjects, passion and philanthropy, two subjects.
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Passion and philanthropy.
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Well, thank you again.
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Alrighty, you have a good weekend.
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You too.
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What an honor it was to interview Laura Numeroff.
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And I wanted to thank Laura and Amy Mullin for having her appear on today s show.
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Links to all things Laura will be in the show notes at passionstruck.com.
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Please use our website links if you purchase any of the books from the guests that we feature here on the show.
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Advertiser deals and discount codes are in one convenient place at passionstruck.com slash deals.
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And I have some exciting news that my new book, Passion Struck, is now available for pre-order.
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And it s all about 12 powerful principles that will help you unlock your purpose and create your most intentional life.
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Links will be in the show notes.
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Videos of this episode are on YouTube at our two channels, John R. Miles and Passion Struck Clips.
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You can catch me on all the social platforms at John R. Miles, where I post daily motivational bits of information.
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You can also sign up for my newsletter at either JohnRMiles.com or PassionStruck.com.
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You re about to hear a preview of the PassionStruck podcast interview I did with my friend, Dr. John Deloney, who is a best-selling author, mental health expert, and host of The Dr. John Deloney Show.
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For over two decades, John s immersed himself in research, experienced personal growth, and has compassionately guided countless others.
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towards reclaiming their lives from the grip of anxiety.
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The key to this transformation lies in the power of choices.
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Six essential choices that pave the way for a non-anxious life.
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He outlines these choices in his brand new book, Building a Non-Anxious Life.
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These steps are not easy, but they re stepping stones towards building a brighter future, enabling you to rise above challenges and find peace amidst chaos.
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The lie that we tell ourselves is, I don t want other people to find out.
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And I m constantly reminding folks, if you re struggling with anxiety, if you re struggling with depression, if you re struggling with food choices and body image issues, the people around, you know, the demon there is often if they truly love you, they will think it s them that s making you uncomfortable and they ll try to solve it.
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And especially your kids will try to solve it.
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And so you have a group of people wondering why every time you re in the room, they feel uncomfortable and they think they re crazy.
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Everybody knows.
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Everybody can, whether they know it intellectually or they feel it in their body, they know when you re not all right.
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And so the greatest gift you can give somebody is to say the word, I m not all right.
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Remember that we rise by lifting others.
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So share the show with those that you love.
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And if you found today s episode useful, then please share it with someone who could use the advice that we gave on today s show.
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In the meantime, do your best to apply what you hear on the show so that you can live what you listen.
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Until next time, go out there and become passion struck.