0 (2s):
Who's ready to rock today? Fire Nation, JLD here. And welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network with great shows like Marketing Against the Grain. Today we'll be breaking down the process of teaching entrepreneurship to kids with the Tuttle Twins books. And Fire Nation we'll talk about why it's important for entrepreneurs to talk to their kids about these types of ideas. Shouldn't this stuff be taught in schools and so much more? And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Connor and our sponsors. Business Made Simple hosted by Donald Miller is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network.

Shopify (37s):
The audio destination for business professionals, Business Made Simple takes the mystery out of growing your business with episodes like How to Get Out of the Day-to-Day Operations Without Crashing Your Business. Listen to Business Made Simple wherever you get your podcasts, oh yeah, that's the sound of another sale on Shopify. The platform that simplifies selling online and in person. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com/onfire, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com/onfire to take your e-commerce business

0 (1m 9s):
to New Heights. Connor, say What's up to Fire Nation? And share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

1 (1m 20s):
What's up, everybody? Super excited to be here. And I think my answer to that question is that a lot of people feel like success is a destination, something to arrive at. I feel like success is more about the journey. It's like if you're scaling a mountain, yeah, you get to the peak and it's exciting, but then within minutes you're like, okay, what, what's next? Right? I, I'm looking off to the horizon for the next peak that I can climb. So I feel like becoming successful, it's far more about the, the process, how we change ourselves, how we change the world, and the process. Rather than just trying to, you know, make a bunch of money or do something big, it's, it's more about the transformation. To me, that's what success is, is transforming ourselves and others in the process.

0 (2m 3s):
Well, Fire Nation, you are built up of parents, of kids of multiple ages. You are potentially kids of parents who are entrepreneurs. I mean, we've got the full spectrum here and that's why I love the topic of today, which is all about teaching entrepreneurship. Two kids with the Tule Twins books. So let's just start off with the ban, Connor. I wanna know a little bit more about Tule Twins, and why the heck have they become so popular? Well,

1 (2m 34s):
They've exploded in the past couple of years. The Tule Twins. It's a series of children's books that teach kids about the ideas of, you know, freedom and money and entrepreneurship, personal responsibility. And we've got books from toddlers to teens and every age in between. And I started writing these as a dad just because I wanted to teach my kids these ideas. Literally back in 2013, I went on Amazon searching for books that would allow me to teach my kids. These types of ideas came up short and so decided with my partner and illustrator, Elijah, to begin creating our own. And so you would think that the schools teach these ideas. You would think that kids these days are getting exposed to entrepreneurial mindset, abundance mindset, hard work, personal responsibility.

1 (3m 22s):
Oftentimes though the narrative and the actual teachings in school and social media and so forth are quite the opposite. And a lot of people are promoting like this victim mentality and, and socialism and, and jealousy of others and aspiring for, you know, eat the rich rather, you know, redistribute their wealth rather than create your own. And I, I just think that's a very unhealthy mindset. I think that's not a good way to build a, a prosperous society. So the Tuttle Twins is really about empowering parents who think this way, who do want their kids to be critical thinkers and understand the world, to be able to have those conversations, read some fun little kids books together. We got discussion questions at the end. We were really just trying to get parents and kids to talk about these real ideas that matter to their lives and the world around us.

0 (4m 7s):
I love all of this and I really feel like that was a major void in the world, is that there wasn't really necessarily a place that parents could go if they wanted their kids to be consuming this type of content in that type of form. And I mean, now you've got an animated cartoon series, which is just like you're going from strength to strength. Talk about the success that you've seen with that and how you've kind of continued to build off of these early wins that you've had.

1 (4m 34s):
Well, with the books, we've been at this since about 2014 is when we published our first book. And now we've got over two dozen books across a wide range of ages. We've got curriculum and a podcast in the game and all kinds of stuff. But a couple years ago we were talking with some buddies of mine who were behind a TV show called The Chosen, which is all about Jesus. And they raised like 11 million from the crowd through Crowd Equity. Not like a Kickstarter where you just get a t-shirt. These were people actually investing a hundred bucks, 500 bucks, a thousand bucks, and all their kids, these guys involved at what's now called Angel Studios, they read Tuttle twins with their kids and they're like, we wanna create a cartoon out of this.

1 (5m 18s):
And we said, well, we wanna create a cartoon out of this. And so everything that we do with our Tuttle Twins project is actually run through a nonprofit because a lot of this is getting the message out, getting it into schools, spreading the, the message that way. But we spun off this cartoon as a for-profit and we did a crowd equity raised, we raised almost 5 million to do season one, which you can watch entirely for free@tuletwinstv.com. And, and it was amazing because again, like with that other show, the Tuttle Twins cartoon was entirely crowd invested. It was people saying, I want to invest in this, I want to create it. And so the community has a lot of skin in the game and we were able to create the cartoon together and we're just now launching season two.

1 (6m 4s):
We hope to turn this into a multi-season show and, and we're really trying to structure it so that I, I think of like The Simpsons where it's got silly stuff for the kids, but then there's adult level humor as well. So mom and dad are, are getting some more intellectual type jokes. That's how our cartoon is structured. We're really trying to create just an awesome family experience because we want those conversations to happen. We want the cartoon episode to end, and then we want mom and dad and the kids to talk about those ideas and actually maybe even apply them in their lives. Go start a little lemonade stand or start something else. Those are the little sparks that we're really trying to, to encourage both with the books and then now with the cartoon.

0 (6m 40s):
Well, I love that because to me it's really exciting when the parish actually made me look forward to something that they're consuming as well. Because, you know, there's a lot of times where I have a lot of friends with very, very young kids and I will say from time to time they're like, you know, it's great that this movie just came out like a Frozen or Jumanji or one of these movies. They're like, they're actually enjoying as well. So it's not like just this painful experience for the parents too. So I really love that you're kind of adding in this aspect where man, the parents are really gonna be intrigued here. Maybe they're gonna kind of get something out of it that they didn't previously expect and spark the conversations maybe with just the, you know, the parents themselves, not even with the kids.

0 (7m 21s):
They'll be like, can you believe that? Like, that was part of it. Like I can see all these great conversations happening and them actually looking forward to this because, you know, listen, kids are perceptive. They can tell if a parent's not really into it, if they're on their phone, if they're doing this or they're not paying attention. Like we want to have this full family experience. I know when I'm involved with my niece and my nephew, like we love having it where everybody's there engaged in learning at the exact same time. So what is really the age demographic that you're looking for here at Connor?

1 (7m 55s):
Our primary books that are, we're most known for are written for kids, I would say between five to 11. What was interesting though, when we were doing these, these are about like 60 pages each. They're fully illustrated fun little story books. But what was really interesting in the early years when we were creating these books was that parents were telling us two things. Number one, their older kids, like teenagers were reading these silly little kids books because even though the format was beneath them and beneath their age level, the ideas for a lot of these teenagers were often very fresh and, and interesting. The, they had never been exposed to them before. So they ended up reading these kids' books even as teenagers.

1 (8m 36s):
And the second thing that they told us is that they themselves, the parents were learning things for the first time. I can't tell you how often we get this from the moms and dads who are like, Hey, I bought these for my kid. They saw an ad on Instagram or whatever, and they're like, holy cow, I've learned a ton, I've learned a bunch about economics and, and you know, money and entrepreneurship stuff that I never understood before. Humans are wired for story, right? Our brains are literally like neurologically wired for story. And so when you convey information through story, it, it sticks, it resonates. People understand it more. It's the contrast between sitting a kid down with a economics textbook or here's a manual on how to be an entrepreneur versus telling them stories about people who actually done it and how these things happen.

1 (9m 23s):
And so the Tuttle Twins really it's just storytelling about these ideas that matter and both for the kids but also for the parents. So we end up with this wide age range where it's like, it's, it's really hard for us to peg and say, oh, it's for the, you know, kids age five to seven. Because what we're finding is that these ideas are not really being taught anywhere else in any significant way. And so when families find these resources and start reading the Tuttle Twins, they realize that their kids of varying ages and even they themselves, the parents are learning first time, which for us matters because this is ultimately about the family having dinner table discussions about these ideas and and creating experiences starting little businesses.

1 (10m 3s):
We want that family support system to be there, which is why for us, it's a good thing that we end up with this broad age range of people who find interest in the Tuttle Twins materials.

0 (10m 12s):
I love all of this and Fire Nation you can really see that Connor just identified a niche, a void in the marketplace and he just charged in there and he filled it with great quality content. We have a lot more to talk about in this area. When we get back from thanking our sponsors, we all want the same things for our business. More leads, faster sales and better insights so we can serve our customers at the highest level. One thing, we all don't want to waste time and money trying to figure these things out. So, what's the solution? A CRM that's easy to set up and customize sounds too good to be true, right? But this CRM exists, and it's called HubSpot. What sets HubSpot apart is it's easy to use and integrates instead of wasting days or even months trying to figure everything out.

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0 (13m 32s):
Alright, Connor, we're back and we know that what you've created is good, it's great, it's helpful, it's interesting, it's story-based, all of these things. But I wanna now talk about the why. Why is it important for entrepreneurs to talk to their kids about these ideas?

1 (13m 51s):
I saw a funny meme, I think it may have been from the Babylon Bee a year or two ago, and it was this mom and dad standing on the, the doorway of their home waving to their 18 year old son who was getting in the car. And the headline said something like, you know, parents excited for the college to completely undermine everything that they taught their kid. You know, we, we live in an environment where sadly the schools and the media and so many of these institutions are exposing our children to ideas and mindsets that I find counterproductive and unhealthy. I work with a lot of financial managers and entrepreneurs and one of the biggest themes that I hear is the, the lament of parents who have this entrepreneur mindset but who see that their children develop this kind of victimhood or entitlement attitude.

1 (14m 43s):
Maybe they grew up in a well to do family because the dad or mom was a successful entrepreneur and the kids don't know struggle, they don't know service, they don't know problem solving, they've just never really had to deal with that. So these parents then are frustrated and they wonder what happened and why did my kid turn out this way? And this is a theme I consistently hear. So the answer to your question, why is it important for entrepreneurs to talk to their kids about these ideas is that if you don't, someone else is gonna be feeding them ideas that you completely disagree with. Our children are going to develop some kind of worldview, some kind of mindset, some kind of attitude about money and business.

1 (15m 25s):
And if you don't show them and teach them and sit down and have conversations with them, right, they're gonna be absorbing that like a sponge from someone else. Many parents make the mistake of feeling like, oh, I gotta wait till my kid's a teenager or, you know, when they're an adult, when they get a job, that's when I'll sit down and have the talk with them, you know, about money or about entrepreneurship or whatever. But by then it's often too late. They've been exposed to so many messages along the way. And so what parents really underestimate from my experience doing the Tuttle Twins for years now, is that they, they underestimate how much their young kids can and want to learn about these ideas. If you simplify it, if you do it through story, little kids can lighten up with these ideas and really understand how the world works, how money works, why inflation is happening, right?

1 (16m 16s):
How you can serve other people through entrepreneurship. All of this stuff we can, and we should talk to our younger kids about this so that we are instilling in them the right ideas and mindset and worldview so that as they go out in the world, they can be little entrepreneurs of their own. They can be problem solvers, they could be creators in society rather than just moochers. And so I think parents just need to wake up a bit more to this, lean into this and say let's have those family conversations even with our young kids, about the ideas we believe in. And that's fundamentally what we created the Tuttle Twins for, was to almost be a, a vehicle or a conduit for parents and kids to have those types of conversations.

0 (16m 53s):
This is fantastic cause I've actually seen the light go on in the eyes of my niece, my nephew, other kids that I've been around. And it's such an amazing thing when that happens and it just doesn't happen enough. And what I love is Fire Nation, this puts you as parents if you are parents in control of this opportunity to expose your kids to what you want to expose them to. Now, this kind of does beg the question, Connors, shouldn't this stuff be taught in school

1 (17m 21s):
Perhaps. So, however, I would suggest that the type of people who end up as teachers in schools typically don't have, you know, an entrepreneur type of mindset. They have a very bureaucratic rule following type of MI mindset, which is often in, in significant conflict with thinking preneur. Not to say they aren't good people doing amazing things, they are and they do. But especially if your focus is entrepreneurship, if you want to talk about economics or capitalism or individual liberty and some of these broader ideas that create a safe and prosperous society, I don't know that we can delegate that to the schools. I don't know that parents really can trust these institutions or the individuals within them to really, I don't know, represent an fair and honest way, their own beliefs.

1 (18m 9s):
I think parents shouldn't delegate this to the schools. They need to recognize that they're the ones primarily responsible for teaching these things to their kids. Again, just the, the biggest issue has been for so long, parents have been ill-equipped as I was a decade ago in knowing how to talk to my kids about these ideas, right? It wasn't easy, it wasn't convenient. I didn't understand how to talk to my kid about, you know, why inflation's happening or what eminent domain is and why it's a problem. And so I didn't, until I created the Tule twins and so many other parents out there in the same situation, they, they don't talk to their kids about these ideas cuz they don't know how. So yes, maybe the schools will, but it's up to the parents. And what we're trying to do is help those parents have those conversations.

1 (18m 52s):
So

0 (18m 52s):
Not only are you teaching about entrepreneurship, you are on Entrepreneurs on Fire and you are an entrepreneur on fire. I mean 5 million book sales. That is no small feat to say the least. Talk a little bit about your business model and how the heck you've sold so many books.

1 (19m 15s):
Well, as I mentioned earlier, we're actually structured as a nonprofit, which means that I can avoid the corporate income tax if I like, if I was a for-profit business. And also I open up an additional revenue stream, which is philanthropy. So our typical model, what we do with all of our books is I'll, I'll give you a specific example. We created an American history book that we launched last year, 240 pages. Beautiful. It's an amazing book. We spent a lot of time working on that. And we went out to donors and we raised almost a million dollars to cover all the costs of producing that book and curriculum and videos. And then we went out and we sold that book and curriculum and videos and we reinvest the proceeds from selling the book back into marketing.

1 (20m 3s):
So we kind of create this kickstart model where we can tap into donor funds to produce these assets and then we go out and we market and advertise them and spend those dollars to generate interest and then reinvest the revenues. So the reason why we've been able to sell 5 million books and growing is because we're trying to create almost like this snowball effect, whereas it goes down the hill, it gets bigger and bigger. The more books we sell, the more revenue we generate, the more we can reinvest into marketing. Because for us, with the Tuttle twins, like i, I have no knock on any for-profit capitalist effort at all. But we have chosen to do this through a nonprofit route because for us the message is what's critical and we're trying to change the world for the better and we're trying to help families and teachers have these types of conversations.

1 (20m 49s):
And so it's actually been a fairly helpful model because we have those diversified revenue streams that we can kind of systematically build into this machine that can hopefully sustain us over time so that we can continue to reach just millions of families. The cartoon is the exception, as I mentioned, that is a kinda a spinoff we did with some partners as a for-profit venture. So we kind of have our hands in both. What we're really trying to create though is kind of this, this content empire where no matter the topic, no matter how old your kid is, we want to have books and curriculum and cartoons and games to facilitate these conversations about the powerful ideas that have made our world a better place. And so that's really what we're up to with the Tuttle twins.

0 (21m 31s):
Man, I love that. I mean, we just need more of this kind of stuff in the world. So, my hat's off to you, Connor. Give us just one key takeaway from our conversation today that you really wanna make sure the Fire Nation gets. Then give us the best way to connect with you, any call to action you have, and then we'll say goodbye.

1 (21m 50s):
Absolutely. So, I guess my takeaway, if I were to summarize everything to the moms and dads out there, I would say intentionality is what matters. Don't assume your kids are gonna follow in your footsteps. Don't understand they're gonna develop healthy mindsets about money. Don't assume that the schools will do it. Be intentional. Sit down with your spouse, your partner, whoever, and come up with a plan, whether that's using Tuttle Twins books or something else. Come up with a plan to foster family discussions where you can share these ideas, have these conversations and not just hope that your kids will learn along the way from school or the media. Be intentional. Be intentional. That's, that's my call to action. That's what the Tuttle Twins is here to serve, you know, our audience and help them do that.

1 (22m 33s):
Finding us is super easy. All the books are tuttletwins.com. Hey parent, check out the entire list there and, and that's, you know, we're all-over social media with the Tuttle twins and elsewhere, so we're super easy to find online.

0 (22m 46s):
I just started watching the video on your website. Are those your kids right there? Those

1 (22m 49s):
Are

0 (22m 50s):
My kids. Oh my God. I mean, stop.

1 (22m 52s):
It. I I have to share briefly with you the, the, the story of that video. We've had millions of people see this video. Everyone thinks it's super cute. We're on a family vacation a couple years later after it racked up a few million views. And my wife told my kids what about what a royalty is? And they, my my son turned to me and said, dad, why don't we get a royalty for the video? And I said, no, no, no, no. You got paid a one-time flat fee. You gotta learn how to negotiate better. So let this be a lesson for you. So they're, they're super cute in the, the stars of a lot of our marketing.

0 (23m 23s):
That's so fantastic. Well, Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with CB and JLD today, so keep up that heat. If you have any direct questions for Connor, go to eofire.com and you can just type Connor, that's Connor with two n, c o n n o r in the search bar. The show us page will pop right up with links to everything that we've talked about here today. And of course, go watch that super cute, adorable video over at tuttletwins.com. You will just die Fire Nation and Connor, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. For that we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side.

0 (24m 7s):
Thank

2 (24m 7s):
You.

0 (24m 8s):
Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Connor for sponsoring today's episode. Fire Nation's successful entrepreneurs accomplished big goals. That's why I created the Freedom Journal to guide you in accomplishing your number one goal in a hundred days. And we're talking step-by-step. Visit thefreedomjournal.com and I'll catch you there, or I'll catch you on the flip side. Business Made Simple hosted by Donald Miller is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network.

Shopify (24m 32s):
The audio destination for business professionals, Business Made Simple takes the mystery out of growing your business with episodes like How to Get Out of the Day-to-Day Operations Without Crashing Your Business. Listen to Business Made Simple wherever you get your podcasts. Oh yeah, that's the sound of another sale on Shopify. The platform that simplifies selling online and in person. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com/onfire. All lowercase. Go to shopify.com/onfire to take your e-commerce business to new heights.