Sarah Scheerger, Brent & Jamie Camalich, DUDE. BE NICE

[1:34]Zibby Owens: This is Zibby Owens, and you're listening to Totally Booked with Zibby. Formerly, moms don't have time to read books. In my daily show, I interview today's latest best selling, buzziest, or underrated authors and story creators whose work I think is worth your time. As a bookstore owner, publisher, author, and obviously podcaster, I get a comprehensive look at everything that's coming out and spend my time curating the best books so you don't have to. Stay in the know, get insider insights, and connect with guests like I do every single day. For more information, go to zibbymedia.com, and follow me on Instagram at Zibby Owens. Sarah Sheager, Brett Kamalick, and Jamie Kamalick are the coauthors of Dude, Be Nice. Sarah is an author and mental health clinician. She provides school based counseling services for at promise youth and helps them figure out who they are and who they wanna be. The Dude, Be Nice organization caught her attention and served as inspiration for Dude. This is her tenth book. Brett Kamalich is the owner of Dude Be Nice whose videos celebrate unsung heroes and have generated more than 80,000,000 views. He's a kid at heart who lives in Austin, Texas with his wife and two children. Jamie Kamalik was not on the podcast but is a coauthor, and she has worked in education for nineteen years, lives in Austin, Texas, and this is her first picture book. Welcome, Brent and Sarah. I'm so excited to have both of you here to talk about Dude Be Nice, the picture book based on your amazing community platform, website, videos, the whole thing, and now it's also a book. Congrats. Thank you. Thank you for having us. And, yeah, we're excited. This book has been a long time coming. So dream come true, and it's finally here. Amazing. Okay. Let's back up for two seconds before we talk about the book to talk about how the whole dude be nice platform began in 2014 and how it's evolved since then so that I am holding this book in my hands.

[3:36]Brent Camalich: Yeah. So about ten years ago, had this crazy idea to leave corporate America and start a company that was all about inspiring people to treat themselves and others better. I was like, can I build a brand that actually is like positive and uplifting? And so we started doing it, didn't really know what we were doing. But what really put us on the map is I love telling stories. I used to be a television news producer, but I was sick of telling the sad stories. So I was like, can we tell stories that are uplifting and get people feeling like, hey, there's a little bit of hope in this world. And so we started the company in 2014. And then a couple of years into that, we started creating video content, telling stories, which is my passion, where ultimately the idea was to celebrate and surprise those amazing humans that don't get the recognition they deserve from crossing guards, custodians, and partner with schools and kids to get them involved in a really positive experience. And we started sharing these stories on YouTube and slowly but surely at first nobody watched, but then, you know, we'd have 500 views, 5,000 views, 5,000,000 views, and it just kind of went from there. And so the genesis of this book is that Sarah, and I'll let her share, she saw one of our videos where we surprised a custodian in her community that went viral. And I think she was just moved by the the name and kinda like, what's going on with this? And reached out and said, hey, I'm an author. Can we do something together? And that was the genesis of Dude Be Nice. So it was truly inspired by a YouTube platform. And here we are. Amazing.

[5:07]Zibby Owens: Sarah, where do you come in? Tell from

[5:10]Brent Camalich: your side of the story. I didn't think she was real, by the way. I thought she was just trolling me, but I'm happy that I responded.

[5:17]Sarah Scheerger: You never know who's reaching out. That's right. Yeah. So I saw some of the videos. So a background a little bit for myself. I'm a school based counselor. I provide counseling to kids in schools across the county and I am always looking for good content to show to kids to inspire them to be kind. And so I came across this video organically. Every video that I watch of his makes me cry. So in a good way, in a good way. So like I watch it and I'm touched and I moved because in my own day to day life working in schools, I see so many amazing people giving back, working hard, and I love a chance for them to be highlighted. And I also, the extra special thing about Brent's platform is that not only are these unsung heroes highlighted, the custodians, crossing guards, like he says, but the kids have a chance to be a part of that and to help them, to celebrate them, and to give back. And I just I think it's so it's a win win all around. So I saw his video. I did reach out. It took you a while to get back to me. So I messaged me, but you did. Par for the course. I still am not always responsive, but, hey, I'm working on it. Well, you were trying to make sure I was real, but you did and you reached back out. And then we started a conversation about you know, I said, have you ever thought about writing a picture book? I write books for kids. This is my tenth book. And so we just started playing with ideas and I think the title did call to me. I love the word dude. Dude can be used in so many contexts. You know, it can be a greeting. It could be a complaint, you know, dude, dude. So many ways you could use the word dude. It's universal. And the message I think is universal. We all want people to be nicer and kinder, but how that happens is what we need to figure out. And so the character dude took a lot of different iterations along the journey to become the dude that you see today. But I love our dude, and I hope that kids and teachers and parents do too. In the book, the dude in question,

[7:06]Zibby Owens: he really wants to help. He's trying to be nice, but he's not always

[7:11]Brent Camalich: doing things in the way that's actually helping other people. Talk a little bit about that and why that should be one of the messages of the book. Yeah. I think, you know, ultimately, we want people to read this book and just smile and laugh, look for the fun little pictures and find things they didn't see before every time they read it. But yeah, dude, the main character, he's a well meaning bear. He's out to do good. He's trying to be the nicest dude of all time one day, but he has some missteps because he kind of crosses some boundaries. And so really the bigger lesson of this book is sometimes being nice isn't always doing everything. Sometimes being nice is listening. Sometimes being nice is through teamwork or asking questions. So, kindness doesn't, if you wanna be like a nice, quote unquote, better human, like don't think you have to do at all. And just collaboration and just looking for ways to uplift your community doesn't have to be like this intense thing that is It doesn't have to be disruptive. Being kind shouldn't be disruptive. And so, dude's just a fun character. And by the way, Fizz, his sidekick, she is she helps him navigate kind of his mishaps.

[8:27]Sarah Scheerger: And so, you know, she's really the hero of the story. True. Yeah. And we we hope that the dude story will be an entry point for discussions between kids and teachers, kids and parents, because dude is egocentric, like a lot of kids are, like developmentally. So he just sees the world through his own eyes. He wants to be nice. Not only does he want to be nice, wants to be extra nice. He wants to do everything nice all day long. And with gusto, goes forward to do that. But he's not thinking about how things might land on somebody else's point of view or perspective. He's kind of forgetting that piece, which I think a lot of kids do. And so it doesn't take away from their good intentions. Good intentions are good intentions. We should celebrate them. And it also makes space to talk about like how does it land? How does it feel to somebody else? What might someone else's point of view be? And we actually have a free SEL educator guide on both of our websites and also on the Penguin Random Counsel website that kind of breaks down multiple entry points for teachers for discussions about empathy, friendship, consent, active listening, responsibility taking,

[9:29]Zibby Owens: coping skills, feelings, all those things, because this book actually provides an entry point for all of those. I feel like you always bring what you're going through yourself to a book. Do know what I mean? Like this one, like, you could you could parallel this in the marriage. Do know what I mean? Like, when you're so focused on a goal like, it happens to be the dude's goal is being nice. But you could replace that with anything, with a career goal, with a parenting goal, with anything. And sometimes, Fizz, who's just, like, trying to keep up, you know, sometimes you don't pay enough attention perhaps to the people who are on the journey with you and are trying to help because you're just so focused. So I feel like there's also that, you know, that message in there as well. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. I think dude kind of bulldozes his way through things.

[10:13]Brent Camalich: And like we do in life with, you know, our own, to your point, goals and ambitions and, you know, we we get tunnel vision sometimes just like dude did. And it's nice to it's nice to have a sidekick just to kinda help you get back on the track. That's what friends are for, partners are for, and coaches

[10:31]Zibby Owens: are for. So yeah. And I love at the end how everybody literally piles on top of each other to help because, obviously, the more people you are collaborating with, the more effective you'll be in achieving any goal. So I feel like it's also a teamwork mentality built into the message as well.

[10:49]Brent Camalich: Absolutely.

[10:51]Sarah Scheerger: Yeah. And this is a book for kids, obviously, but we hope it resonates with adults too. Because like you said, it can play out for a marriage, a job, you know, even, like, politically, you know, people just need to be nice to each other and think about everybody else's points of view. I know it is so hard though. Easier said than done. Think we do get, we get tunnel vision. We forget to think. And so we hope that people take a moment and pause and then also step back and see good intentions because I think people will get into this state where they're thinking everyone's sort of not thinking about somebody else, but a lot of people are out there trying to be good. We just need to see it and we need to tease it out and think about how it lands. And it starts with the kids. It starts with how we raise our kids. And so we hope that this book resonates with them.

[11:33]Zibby Owens: Totally. And going back to the content you're putting out that goes with the book, the dude be nice content and the community and all the resources and the custom t shirts and, like, just all the stuff. It's it's really amazing. When you're making videos to highlight things that are tier inducing and do showcase good versus all the bad that is in there's no short supply of bad news to to be broadcast. What are what are some of the things you'd look for as a former news producer to make these videos resonate and stand out from all the bad content on YouTube?

[12:08]Brent Camalich: That's a great question. I mean, I think I think what's interesting is you can actually take cues from what, you know, what rises to the top in the news and some of those other places. Like, I actually use a lot of techniques that I learned in the news business, like to hook people into the content. But by the end, we hope that they're pleasantly surprised that they clicked on the thing that we're putting out into the world. But I think that, you know, we're always looking for stories that are emotional and, you know, celebrating people that are just underrepresented. When you go into a story like this, you kind of never know what you're gonna get. It's very Forrest Gumpy. But every single story we've ever told, I feel like has connected with someone in some way in a pod. Like, we're probably a channel that gets like the least negative comments in America. And I'm proud of that. I think that most people are pleasantly surprised. But yeah, I mean, the formula is pretty simple in the sense that we try to find a community that really wants to be a part of telling this story. Mhmm. Because if they're enthusiastic, you're gonna feel it in in the video. And if, you know, if they're advocating for what we're doing, then it's it's it makes it easier for us to go into that community and tell a story. And then obviously just a person that, you know, fits the bill. And I find that every community in America, every school, everybody knows a person or has a person that comes to mind that is incredible and special and kind that maybe hasn't, it isn't someone that's necessarily famous or, you know, doesn't have a ton of followers on TikTok or Instagram. They're just that person that we really should be elevating more. And so that's what we get to do. It's really amazing. Today's episode is sponsored by Quince.

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[17:08]Zibby Owens: So why you know, with this brand, you're taking it to very strategically, it seems, into various And I'm wondering, is this something that you wanna bring to TV? Like, should why is this not like a reality show or is TV, like, too old?

[17:26]Brent Camalich: Yeah. So thank you for asking that, Zibby. It's actually interesting. We've so because of the success on on YouTube and just this is gonna be a cool story, but also a little depressing at the same time. So we do have a partnership to develop this into a TV show and we've gotten pretty far with that along the process. But where we find resistance from big studios is that there's this terminology in TV that is kind of like the death switch, I guess you could call it. Essentially, people are like, I get it, I love it, it looks like you've had success, but it's too earnest. In other words, it has too much heart. I'm not sure why that's, there are networks that believe in that, but some of the major studios we found that that's kind of like the kiss of death is probably a better way to say it. I don't understand it fully because I know how much people want this and need this And teachers and parents and families are desperate to feel a little bit of sense of hope. So I hope if there's a TV executive out there watching, we're ready to take this to another level. And we've been close many times. We've had some major partnerships in the works, but always seems to kind of get to that finish line. And then there's someone that's like, you know, this has a little too much heart and maybe isn't as evoking of some of the emotions that we're looking for. I don't get it, but I think we collectively need to, like, stand up and say, no. This is the type of stuff we want. So, yeah, it is on the table. We would love to do create some television content around what we've done, and I think we will, and we're close, but gotta have the right partner that gets it. Got it. Well, hopefully, we'll put this out in the universe,

[19:05]Zibby Owens: that will goodwill goodwill results. I mean, I remember in COVID,

[19:10]Brent Camalich: a bunch of celebrities started doing the Good News Channel. Do you remember that? Yeah. Good News Network or whatever it was. John Krasinski did that. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever happened to that? You know, it's funny. I saw it. Was like, this is great. And I think people were desperate for it. He actually I think it was actually sold for a lot of money. And I don't know what's happening with it now. So, you know, I think we're all we're all desperate for that story. Think it's a comp. I think you could use that as a good comp in your Absolutely.

[19:36]Sarah Scheerger: I'll just say as a mom, you know, as a consumer of TV and watching my kids watch it, there's so much content out there that I don't love for them. And I would be so happy if my kid was to turn on the channel and see Brent highlighting people and celebrating custodians on TV. I think a lot of kids would love it. I know a lot of parents would love it. So that's my pick. I mean,

[19:56]Brent Camalich: do know schools across America are watching this in their classrooms every day, you know, as a way you know, to start the day or end the day. So I know the appetite's there. It's yeah. But we still But that's it again. Yeah. Hit me. What's up? Sorry.

[20:12]Zibby Owens: This is I'm getting off course here. But maybe now that you have the book and the characters, it could be an animated show for a different sort of demo versus

[20:21]Brent Camalich: film show. That's definitely we hope that this book this book does well enough for our publisher and some of our partners to say, hey. Let's let's take this further. Let's make this a not just a series, but let's develop it into the animated space, the consumer space so we can continue to just build this thing that we started from scratch. So that would be great. But like Sarah said, one cool thing is this guide, this is the, well, that's upside down. This is the SEL, social emotional learning guide that is free for teachers and districts to integrate into their classrooms across America at the elementary level. And so it's just a great way to like, you know, take this book a step further and bring it to life in the classroom and really inspire more positivity

[21:06]Zibby Owens: and and kindness on that campus. What are some of the easiest ways for people to be nice for the dudes out there? What do you think? What are some low lift things that people can just do in their daily lives? Maybe they're listening to this, and they're like, well, yeah, I'm basically nice. But, like, what is something specific that maybe we could arm people with in the world to go out and do that's not too onerous?

[21:29]Brent Camalich: Sarah, I'll let you take I got one, but if you wanna go, I've got one that I like to share with students across the country.

[21:37]Sarah Scheerger: Yeah. I'll go first and you can go second. But I mean, have a thousand and I could probably write a list of things. But I think one easy thing for kids and teachers and parents and adults to do is to find one human to connect with every day that you wouldn't normally, where you say something to them or you notice them or you compliment them or you do something putting positivity out in the world with no expectation for anything coming back, just that creates kind of a ripple effect. And I think that's one easy thing that anybody can do. And in the classrooms, teachers are using social emotional learning curriculums. They're trying to interweave these concepts with their kids. And I know they're working so hard to do that and I've seen really good teachers stop a moment in class and detour from them from the curriculum that they're using and use it as a teaching moment for social emotional learning like empathy or friendship or kindness. And I think teachers should still continue to do that. That's one of the hopes with that curriculum is that we created activities that kind of line up with all these concepts that are easy to do in the classroom. So they could actually just read the book and then pause and say, okay, let's do an activity on responsibility and just kind of make it organic. Because teachers are working so hard. They are out there being nice and trying really hard, so we want to make it easier for them. So that was the long answer. Yeah, long as So I think one of the most impactful

[22:52]Brent Camalich: ways that we can show kindness in our communities, on our campuses, and maybe this isn't low hanging fruit in that it's not always just the simple, easiest thing to do, but something I try to encourage students to do on their campuses and we as adults can do as well. And I, you know, I hope to, you know, that part of my legacy is this, is showing up for other people. Mhmm. And what I mean by that is so often there's so many things that matter to us. Right? Like, especially, like, when I think of high school or elementary school, it's like, come to my game, come to my sport, come to football thing. The things that are like cool to go to or easy to go to. Right? But when we show up and support and celebrate the things that matter to other people or show up and, you know, when our friends are having a hard time, like no matter what, whether it be just a phone call, a text or whatever, I think that's one of the most impactful ways to show kindness. Show up when people need us and show up when it's unexpected. I was an athlete in high school, but my senior year, I was asked to be a part of a drama performance, a school musical. And I'm like, There's no way I'm doing this. This is not my world. And the drama teacher's like, hey, you know, my kids always support all the things you're doing. It'd be cool if you kind of came and were a part of this. And he was right. And so I did. I brought a couple of my friends along. I got involved in a musical called Damn Yankees. And I didn't mess around. I was like, I'm gonna make this, like I'm gonna, like, go all in on this performance even if I embarrass myself. And and I did. And people came to watch because they're like, we wanna see some of these athletes, like, look ridiculous, but we're like, we're pretty good. We connected with people that we had never connected with on campus that were more of like the theater kids. So it was like this intersection of like theater kids and athletes. And guess what happened? Not only did we have an amazing relationship, I'm still friends with some of those people today. Like the support that overlapped after that was incredible. So I think showing up for people and being a part of things that aren't necessarily your thing

[24:58]Zibby Owens: is a really powerful way to show kindness. Have you seen High School Musical, like, the movie and the play? Kind of. Oh my gosh. Well, that basically is what happened to you. So, you know, you have to go watch, like, the basketball team and the drama. Yeah. Yeah.

[25:14]Sarah Scheerger: And you know what I have to say for your story, Brent, too? When people work together towards a common goal, it brings them together. So if you've got a bunch of kids working on a play, they bond. They they their success means other people's success. And so it's just natural. It's a natural organic way for people to come together and lift each other up. So I love your story. Will there be more Dude Be Nice books? Like, is there a Dude Be Nicer or like something like that?

[25:37]Brent Camalich: Yeah. That's the hope. That's the hope. But we but it'll be other things. It might be dude, be brave. Dude, be I like that. You know, there's so many different things that like, I don't I don't think every book is gonna be surrounded by, you know, this idea of kindness. We're gonna dude's gonna go on different adventures, and I'm sure he'll have different missteps. And, you know, Fizz will hopefully help pick up the slack and support him along the way as he's being meaningful. But, we hope big things for Dude in this book. You know, we can't do any of it if people don't support us. So we appreciate all the people that, friends, family, and people that have said, hey, we love this thing. So it means the world to us. Well, I I love it. I love the messaging of it. I love that,

[26:24]Zibby Owens: personally, I think there's nothing more important than this message right now in this time Better. In the world. This is it. Like, get back to basics. Be nice to each other. Have respect. Treat people the way you'd wanna be treated. Like, we have forgotten our manners. I don't know. Let's just go back to basics, and this book really just does such a beautiful job of not only showing that, but illustrating all these other concepts and is a huge thought and conversation starter. So I think it's fabulous, and I'm so glad you have brought all of this goodness into the world and can't wait to see what happens next. So congratulations.

[27:00]Sarah Scheerger: It's so much. You. Hope it becomes a slogan too. Yeah. We actually even have a little dude dance and dude song that's available on both of our websites. Do the dude dance. We just hope everyone embraces that concept. Be nice. Do the dude dance.

[27:14]Zibby Owens: Be kind. I am not gonna do the dude dance to spare all of you my You don't have to. My my my paltry skills. But, anyway, thank you so much, and everyone must check out all of this. Tell everybody where to find and become part of the Dude Be Nice community.

[27:29]Brent Camalich: Yeah. So couple couple places. If you wanna get involved with Dude Be Nice, you can always go to our website, dudebenice.com to to get the book, just your favorite book vendor, whether it be Amazon, Barnes and Noble. You know, obviously, we love when small bookstores are supported, so independently owned. So if you go to your local bookstore and if they don't have it, you can ask them to order it for you. And then Instagram, you got dude period b period nice and

[27:56]Zibby Owens: YouTube. Just search dude be nice. You'll find us. We will we will be selling this at my independent bookstore called Zubby's Bookshop, which is in Santa Monica. So this is a great holiday gift, and

[28:07]Brent Camalich: Cool. It will be available. Awesome. Yeah. And the very first book I actually got, we got to give to a librarian who's a very special, like, the cream of the crop type of library the type of people we recognize that do be nice, I gave our first copy to you. So that was pretty cool. So if you wanna do something in Santa Monica, kinda similar, I'm down. So let's talk. Amazing. Okay. Great. Alright. Thank you both so much, and wishing you all the best. Thank you so much for having us, Zibby. Have a great one. You too. Bye bye. Thank you. Thank you for listening to Totally Booked with Zibby, formerly moms don't have time to read books. If you loved the show, tell a friend, leave a review, follow me on Instagram at Zippy Owens,

[28:45]Zibby Owens: and spread the word. Thanks so much. Oh, and buy the books.