You Winning Life Podcast w/ Jason Wasser, LMFT Ep. 7: Bruce Weinberg- Kids Books Author

Hey everybody, welcome back to the You Winning Life podcast with Jason Wasser. I have a really awesome guest on today. Not only is this person an educator, an author, a husband, and a dad, but he's also an old friend of mine who I've known for probably at least a good 10 to 12 years now at this point. I had the pleasure of being his children's youth director at a community synagogue here in South Florida, in Cooper City. And there's a lot of really cool things going on in your life presently. So I want to welcome Bruce Weinberg, and welcome to the show.

Thank you, Jason Wasser. It's good to see you again.

Pleasure to see you. Thanks for coming on.

Yeah, I'm glad to hear you're doing good things, and I'm moving on too, as well.

Which is one of the reasons why I'm so excited to have you here. So Let's first jump into the world of education. So to my knowledge, you recently retired. Is that correct?

I did. I retired in 2016, um, for specific reasons, which we can get into later if you'd like. Um, and, um, and after that I decided there was still some creative juices flowing inside of me, which is the reason that prompted me to write this book, Fabulous Feats of Mr. B. Yeah. Um, Now available on Amazon.

We will definitely have time to plug that. Don't worry.

OK, so, yeah, I mean, I still felt like that there was a lot of creative juices inside of me and I wanted to do more. And I thought there was a need for a children's book like that. So, and I reached a point after 35 years of teaching that, you know, when you kind of know when it's time.

So how did you know it was time to get into the field? Let's go back 35 years.

Believe it or not, I was in graduate school and I was kind of like floundering. I'm sure my parents wanted me to become a lawyer, a lawyer, but I— I lost you.

So since you were teaching for the last 35 or so years, let's go all the way back to the beginning and let's start with how you actually managed to get into this, into this field.

To be honest with you, I never planned on becoming a teacher. Actually, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to be specifically, but I always knew that I had a love for theater. Because I was involved in theater at a very young age. When I went to graduate school, I got my master's in theater education, and I'm sure at the time my parents still wanted me to become, become a lawyer, but I was sort of headed down a different direction because I still had this love for performance and for acting and writing, things like that. So I had a graduate professor, and that professor was actually a professor in teaching English. And I decided— I kind of got close to him in the— I was taking a class. The class was called Creative Dramatics for the Use of Teaching Secondary English, which is kind of novel, you know, when I— in 1970, like '75 or '76. So he found out that I had a drama background and he had the English background. So theoretically, we actually team taught the class. I taught all the creative dramatic aspects of it, and he taught all the English aspects of it. And we collaborated as we were doing it. And I loved it. It was like amazing to have worked with those kids, work with those fellow students and whatever. And then he and I kind of hit it off and became friends more than just professor-student. And one day I was sort of just kind of, I don't know, just kind of like thinking about my life. And I said to him, and he could tell I was like reflecting. And he said, what's going on? And I told him, I said, I don't really know what I want to be when I grow up. I'm going to grow up. You know, not necessarily a good thing considering I was probably in my mid-20s, 25 or 26. And he said, he was like, are you kidding me? He goes, you're the most natural teacher I've ever seen in my life. He said, I guess I can't, he said, I've never seen anybody teach like you. He said, just look at the kids that you've impacted here, you know, in our class. And he said, because if you don't go into teaching, I'd be very disappointed. So he was the one that actually encouraged me when, you know, in my mid-20s, when I was in graduate school, to go into teaching.

So is it fair to say that because of this person, because of a mentor, because of a strong influence, that sharply changed the direction of your life?

Well, I never really thought about it, but he was the one that kind of, you know, clued me into how good I was at it. And like, I just like it came natural to me and I didn't really think about it, you know, that much. It wasn't, it wasn't like a thought like, gee, I mean, like, I wasn't— as I was growing up, I wasn't thinking like, gee, I want to be a drama teacher, you know, kind of thing. So, but the more he helped guided me and the more we worked together and collaborated, the more I started to realize that that was something I really loved and it was something that kind of tapped into my own passion.

—So which is really cool because as you look at today's society, right, we can go in two different directions with this one. One is the importance of finding a mentor, right, and someone who believes in you that's not your parent, you know, whether it's an athletic coach or like you've done this, been a professor/drama coach. But the other side of the coin is being in theater is the cool thing now. Being in drama is like, it's no longer, right, the drama nerds, right? This is now like the cool thing to do. So what was that like for you when you first got into theater and drama and acting? And how old were you when that happened?

Well, I started when I was really young, and then I started to develop it more in middle— in middle school and high school. As a matter of fact, my parents were supportive of my love for theater because I grew up in Pennsylvania, and at the time they had this amazing acting school which was the Pittsburgh Playhouse. The Pittsburgh Playhouse is now Point Park College, so our part of the theater department is now taken over by Point Park College. So I had like these amazing teachers, and like when I was like maybe 12, I was doing Shakespeare and the classics. So it was just like something that, you know, you're not normally exposed to, but sure, but, but I loved the challenge. It was great, you know, and they got you to kind of understand what was going on and understand the language and, you know, and all that and understand like, you know, how acting is supposed to work, you know. And believe it or not, um, it's— some people think like, oh, it's just acting, you know, it's like, it's still, you know, it's, it's easy, you know, easy breezy, just memorize some stuff and like, you know, get up there and say it. But it's really not, it's really a lot more than that.

So what were some of those skills that you had to deploy, right? You're, you're in middle school, you're beginning of high school, you're really getting into this, right? I know loving Shakespeare plays is a lot different than actually reading Shakespeare.

Yeah, that's true, it is. But the— I'll get to the second part of your question in a second. But the benefit of that is, um, learning how to understand the language. In other words, you know, Shakespeare wrote a certain way, and, and he was brilliant obviously brilliant way before his time, you know, in that regard. So you kind of had to need— you kind of needed to like go beneath the surface of his lines to understand like what he was trying to say and do and why that was significant and why it was important and, you know, the relationship between the characters and all that. Getting back to your other part, um, when I teach drama, even when I teach drama now, or even, you know, or anytime that I like work with the kid or to help them with a monologue or whatever, um I feel like that it emphasizes life skills, and those life skills are the same things that you need to be successful in anything that you do, which are time management, self-responsibility, dedication, motivation, self-esteem, passion, you know, those kinds of things, because Like, for instance, it applied to me when I was teaching in class, like your own everyday life. Like, for instance, you know, this was scheduled at a specific time, so, you know, we knew that, you know, we were on the same page, and both of us, you know, were here at the exact same time to be able to do this. But, you know, I really think that those kind of skills are, like, really, really valuable to try to teach our kids, you know, in today's society.

That's amazing. So now, as you went from that stage where you had this professor and said you should be an educator, how did you get from the macro sense of being an educator to deciding that what you specifically wanted to focus on once as a profession?

Well, I was lucky in the sense that, um, my earlier teaching jobs— notice that I'm prefacing— I prefer preferencing that by saying it's my earlier teaching jobs. I had these amazing experiences in my, you know, at the beginning of my career. And my first teaching job was in a very small town called Osceola, Georgia. It was a population 4,000. Wow. Okay, they had one traffic light, they had one grocery store, they had no place that sold beer or wine. So needless to say, it was a It's a huge culture change. But the thing that was kind of interesting for me is that there were kids that absolutely loved to perform, and it didn't matter. I mean, they could perform playing banjo and singing, they could perform, you know, monologues, they could perform competition, they could do, you know, speech and debate competition. They were just like amazing, you know. So, you know, people think like, oh, Osceola, Georgia, you know, they're a bunch of local yokels or whatever. And I'm thinking, well, you don't really know how talented these kids are until you actually work with them or whatever. But I have just like amazing stories, like when we went to a performance at a TV station once and we stopped at an indoor mall and the kids that were there, they were like, "Can we get a lunch at the mall?" And I was like, "Yeah," you know, thinking that they always go to a mall, but like most of these kids have never even been to a mall, you know what I'm saying? So I walked in and there was this kid and he's like, he's just like staring up in the air, like, you know, like, and I was like, Jimmy, what are you doing? And he's like, he goes, he goes, Mr. Weinberg, he goes, what's that? You know, it was, it was an escalator.

Oh my gosh.

Wow. So it was, you know, those are the kinds of stories that you'll always see us stay, stay with you. They'll always keep with you. And then I had other experiences. Like when I taught in Texas, I was at a gifted and talented middle school. The most gifted kids I've ever worked with. I have kids that are in there now that are performing. They've performed in, uh, Branson, Missouri, you know, they have their own talk shows, they, you know, they're just— they're teaching theater and whatever, or else they've become like huge successful attorneys in like Dallas and Austin or whatever. So, you know, those were really— and I'm still Facebook friends with like all those kids. So those are really like significant and meaningful memories for me.

How many of those kids would you do you think like that this was their thing, right? The drama, the acting, the performing, music versus the kids who are like, I'm an athlete. And how many of those kids were you able to see or maybe even develop into cross, you know, going cross-stream, right? Some of them may have been an athlete and realize that they're also an entertainer, performer, actor and vice versa. So how did that play out, especially when it comes to like skill base and skill set and— It's actually a really good question.

I didn't find that kind of a conflict as much until I came to South Florida, because it was a very clear delineation in our county where, you know, you're either an athlete or you're anything else. You know what I'm saying? It was very hard to, you know, to have that crossover. A lot of it really, believe it or not, had to do with time. You know, we're just talking about the whole time thing or whatever. It's like, no, I have rehearsal after school, the football team, I rehearse after have rehearsal after school, the cheerleaders have rehearsal after school, the band had rehearsal after school, so it was like, you know, everybody was doing their own thing.

But they had to pick one, right? It was kind of like, this is what you're doing for at least that year, that semester. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, it was difficult.

Then, you know, some of them could take my class and they, you know, and I would be able to work with them in class, but then I unfortunately couldn't get them to like be involved in any of the productions or any of the plays because they'd be like, I can't, you know, I can't do it, I have, you know, athletics or whatever. So it's like, okay, well, You know, and I tried to talk to the coach, and coach was like, listen, you know, chances are he's going to get an athletic scholarship. He's not going to get a drama scholarship, so let's go with that. I was like, okay, I got it.

So in a lot of ways, their destiny was really picked by an adult for these kids in those scenarios. Well, I, I think that—

I think the kids knew like what they like to do or, you know, where they feel comfortable with. You know, there— to me, there was a very clear-cut drama group, you know what I'm saying? And all the schools that I worked at— now, I will say that my first school that I worked at, um, in South Florida was— I was the artistic director for Dillard School of the Arts. So you're talking about the most passionate kids in visual or— visual or performing arts that are from all over the county. And that was an amazing experience as well. I mean, we got— we get guest artists to come in and, you know, to come in and perform for the kids and whatever. And we had kids that are just like amazing, like painters and drawers or painting, you know, dancers and, um, and actors. And like, one of the kids is directing on Broadway now, you know.

I'm like, incredible. His name is not Lin-Manuel Miranda, correct?

Uh, no, but I'm sure he started out with simple roots. Sounds like you did.

Yeah, just, you know, if we want to engage some of those listeners out there that like— if we can grab them with something, right? It's like anything that has to do with Hamilton, they'll maybe—

they'll listen to the show. Well, if they listen to the show, we give them free tickets to, uh, the 100th caller will get free tickets.

Exactly, exactly. So during that time frame, right, as you're now in this— you're now the, the person who's really doing hands-on work with, with with these kids, what were the most common challenges that you would see, that you would either see them going through or that you would help them navigate through, kind of those struggles at that point in their life? What were the most common things you would see?

You know, what's funny is, is that I happen to think that the challenges are similar even though the times and the circumstances have changed. And a lot of it had to do with time management because the thing is, is that like drama wasn't their only thing. You know what I'm saying? Some of them, their parents were still very concerned about academics and keeping the grades up or whatever. Some of them had religious school conflicts, regardless of what religion they were, they had religious school conflicts or whatever, that kind of thing, or other responsibilities, or they had to go home and take care of a younger sibling or whatever. So it seemed like you were always juggling. It was like, I would have kids that, I would always put the rehearsal schedule out like the week before, and I'd have kids that were in lead parts that would come up to and say, I can't come on Thursday because I have this thing, like I have a doctor's appointment. Or it's like, well, but I can't do anything about that, you know, except for change the rehearsal. But, um, but that was kind of a constant, you know, and I still think it probably is even in today. I mean, I know a lot— I still know a lot of drama teachers and a lot of teachers that teach, you know, um orchestra and band and chorus, and, um, and they, they still have this kind of conflicts where there's still only 24 hours in a day, Jason Wasser.

I agree. And then it kind of leads me to kind of a lot of what I talk about with my, my therapy clients, with my coaching clients, and the businesses that I'm working with is, is really the, um, 3 brackets, which is kind of like, what is your actual identity, right? So in high school, They're students, right?

Or they're high school students or college students or middle school students.

They're recent graduates, right? There's always an identity at that stage of that. But also, like, how do they pick what they are, right? So, right, you're the student athlete, you're in drama, whatever. But it's really that particular of what's your personal identity at that time?

I actually have a response to that because— And here it is, okay, the thing is, is that, um, how much of an input does the parents have on the kid versus how much— versus how much does the kid have his own independence and do his own thing where he's basically, um, saying like, like, this is what I want to do, okay, you know, I mean, he can be guided by his parents, in which case that, um, you know, they would say like, yeah, okay, you know, whatever, but I know, I know because I've experienced and I've heard stories that my daughter has told me about and other teachers that have said, like, you know, the parents were like, listen, you know, you're— when you graduate, you know, I don't care where you're going, but you're going to end up going to Harvard Med School. Right. You know, and you're going to be a doctor, most likely a dermatologist. And I'd be like, wow.

You know, you're going to take over the family business, right? Right, exactly.

And I was like, you know, well, that's great, except is that actually what the kid wants to do? You know, I mean, I know a lot of kids that have done that, but I also know, on the other hand, a lot of kids that— the kids that I've had exposure to that have been very independent and have done their own thing, and they're— and because they were so passionate about it, they were like, it's great for the parents to guide them and say like, you know, this is what we want you to do. But sometimes there's kids that are very independent, and those independent kids are also very passionate about what they want to do. And they could say to their parents, like, look, you know, I want to try this. You know, I want to try, you know, writing Hamilton, you know, or writing, you know,, you know, Into the Heights or whatever. So, you know, I mean, how did he know that he was destined to do that until he actually tried it? You know what I'm saying? And that's the same thing with a lot of the kids, because the kids— there are kids that are like, you know, I get it. I mean, you know, like, if both of their parents are attorneys, then their parents are going to say, we want you to become an attorney, you know. Both of their parents are doctors, and they're going to say, why don't you become a doctor, you know.

So there's always that bias that someone's going to have to filter through. In their own life, right?

And which case, I know, are you defying your parents because you say like, well, listen, I gotta— I have to be my own person, I have to do what I want to do, I have to, you know, be— you know, I have this, um, this, this, this passion inside of me, you know, this, um, this vision of where I want to be, you know. I don't know, because the thing is, is that like, like with me, you know, I fell into it. You know, with becoming a drama teacher. I fell into writing the book, you know what I'm saying? It's not like I ever, like, grew up as a child growing up thinking, you know, hey, I'm going to become a drama teacher and then write a book, you know, when I retire, that kind of thing. So, um, you know, I think there's kind of like that, uh, that balance between being guided, um, and then there— and then You also have the kid that is totally clueless. They're like, I don't know, you know, but I would say usually there's someone in their life, whether it's a teacher or a coach or, or parent that, you know, they kind of like sees like what they're good at and maybe like leads them in that direction.

You know, like, they don't know, when's if they don't know who that person is or they're not self-aware enough, right? And this is, you know, We're talking about it as adults, but if you're that 16, 17, 20-year-old, 21-year-old listening to this and you're really lost and you're not sure what to do, you're not sure what your purpose is, what you're meant to be doing, what's your advice on how to tap into that based on exactly what you were just saying?

Well, I'm the perfect example of that because I was already in graduate school and still floundering with what with my career. And my son was like that too. He had no clue what he wanted to do until he ended up going to IDC in Herzliya. And that was the thing that, you know, he was really smart and really bright, you know, and he was like, his vision was, I want to be in the FBI. But it's not like you snap your fingers and you're in the FBI, you know?

I have clients who are in the FBI. Like, it takes a lot of work to get into the FBI.

So, you know, so it was the same kind of thing, but However, the, you know, and he did a lot of different kinds of things that are just kind of like trying to find himself, you know, where, you know, that let's, let's backpack across Europe and really find ourselves, you know, because yourself is over there. Right. So, um, he did a lot of that. And the thing is, is that IDC and the professors at IDC were the things that, that, that helped focus him. Okay. With me, it was the professor from FSU. That helped focus me. I honestly think that if there was a kid that was totally clueless, don't we have a responsibility as parents or adults or, you know, mentors or whatever to sit down and say, hey, you know, what's going on? Like, what do you want to do when you're, you know, with your life for 5 years from now? And I mean, the world really is their oyster. Absolutely. They just need guidance.

But I'm also finding that people, no matter what age, are afraid to ask. So I have two really good recent examples. One is a client of mine who's specialized in the— I guess we'll call the generic Homeland Security management emergency situation— and was recently at a conference and met the person who was the keynote speaker, was exactly the position that they want down the road, and by accident bumped into that person, and that person gave them their card. So I challenge them literally this morning. This happened earlier today. And I said to them, OK, so what did you do with that card? And they're like, nothing. I'm like, I want to challenge you to reach out to that person and say, hey, you are doing the job that exactly that I want to do in 5, 10, 15 years from now. Would you mind being my mentor? I'm not asking you for more than 20 minutes a month. Are you open to that? Right., and they looked at me like, I could do that? I'm like, yeah, like, that's, that's what it takes. And then a few weeks ago at my entrepreneur conference, one of these, this happens to be for this business entrepreneur training program I'm in, there's a 22-year-old kid who goes to Georgia to UGA, and he really wants, he's doing real estate on the side and really trying to build up his business as a student, which is really cool. And he's really in love with this whole entrepreneurship world. And he said, I want to come down to South Florida and work with a guy named Grant Cardone, who's a big sales, a big You know, he just trains on sales and he does real estate and he's all over the internet, big social media presence. And I'm like, okay, so what happens if he calls you and says you start Monday? His first response was, but I, but I got class and I have to, I got this to take care of. I'm like, okay, so you're not ready, right?

You're not all in. You're not all in.

So there's that duality there, right? One is I'm not aware that I can even ask. And the other side is if, if I did ask and they gave it to me, Holy crap, then what?

That's interesting you said that because I, I feel like that I'm always lecturing my, you know, my kids. And I will tell you that, that Francie's much better about, much better about whatever. But, you know, like for instance, um, Evan had a meeting with this guy, um, you know, in in Washington and he said, and the guy was saying like, hey, I wanna start up like my own division of, you know, of this, you know, of the same company, but, and I'm kind of interviewing on my own for people that I want, he goes, and I, you know, I heard about you and I wanted to interview. He was actually his first interview, right? And so when, after that was done, I said to Evan, I said, what did you do? He said, well, like nothing. And I was like, I said, you didn't even email the guy and say like, you know, it was like great to meet you. I can't wait to, you know, whatever. Is there anything I can do to help you with your task force or whatever, you know, kind of thing. So it was like, I'm kind of like bewildered a little bit. And I have to say, I might be bewildered slightly because of all the tech that's available for this generation. And the reason is like, for instance, like Like, my kids will spend their life texting on the phone, right? And I'm like, you know, I really, I really like talking to people better, right? And I'd love to hear from you, right?

But, but I think that's the thing, right? There's no excuse, right? Let's say, so someone like, so a high school kid, right, who's really into like figuring out like, okay, I don't know what school I want to go to, but like, I don't even know what's out there. And it's funny because I just quote you, I know you you said Evan went to IDC, which is a really amazing program in Israel, and they do a lot of security and tech and other stuff like that and combining those worlds. One of my clients was looking at, you know, I want to go into— I don't want to go into military and I don't want to go into FBI, but I do want to go into like, you know, security but not the IT side. I'm like, well, have you looked on the internet? And they're like, well, nothing exists like this. And I'm like, there is, and there is a place in another country. And it's one of the top programs probably in the world. I'm not saying you have to go all the way across the world, but there must be another. But look at the programs there and then start Googling what other universities has that program. So I think, right, you've been doing this for 35 years as an educator. I'm doing this as a therapist and before that, right, as a youth director to, to inspire and motivate and to help people find their purpose and their passion. Sometimes I find like people just aren't that right. The laziness is maybe that's what is that they're waiting for someone to tell them what they're their purpose is. And I want to challenge people out there to say, you have to go after it. You have to ask help. You have to, you have to do the research. No one's going to pop up. You are lucky, right? You had someone who said, hey, you might as well, you should think about this. I had someone like that in my life who said, you know what, maybe you should go into this world too. But that's not all of us are going to get lucky like that. So how do we, how do you tell that person out there, whether they're in high school, whether they're in college, whether they're a young, a new professional, young adult, What do they need to do to get clear on that?

I think it's kind of getting them in the right mindset, you know, because it, to me, it has to do with like, kind of like doing the right thing, you know, even with other people. And doing the right thing is saying like, you know, hey, thanks for taking the time to meet with me, or I really enjoyed meeting with you. And is there anything else that we can do or whatever? I mean, just that just those few kind words or whatever, you know, is something that's really important. If you notice that with me trying to develop the book, you know, I mean, I Facebook blast everybody, but I always like, you know, thank that person. Like, I do— like, I just, you know, when I had the thing this morning, you know, I put the Facebook down, I said, you know, thank you to this media specialist from this elementary school for inviting me to come to your school, you know, kind of thing. Because I think it's the right thing to do so that when anybody goes and sees that You know, they're going to say like, oh, he went to Hollywood Park Elementary and the media specialist's name was Joan, you know, kind of thing. And I was like, yeah, yeah, but why shouldn't I give her the kudos that she deserves? You know, kind of thing. That's part of what we need to kind of like, you know, teach the kids. Well, it sounds like simple gratitude.

I agree. Simple gratitude. So before we jump into the whole exciting conversation of the new stuff that's happening Your Life, which is this really cool book. My last question to you, which I think you're the perfect person to ask.

I don't know about that.

I really like it. This is, this is like, and it popped up that I was writing notes on the side, right? Which we talked like, so I wrote, I wrote down 3 words: identity. And then we talked about prioritizing, right? Scheduling and count, right? And how do they decide what's the most highest priority? And I'm a big fan of, right, we got 5 fingers, you pick 5 priorities. And you only stick to that and everything else gets dropped. Right. And I think that's a really cool, simple technique that people can add, right? My family, my friends, spirituality, health, working out, whatever. That's it. Right. Those are your top 5 priorities. That's the only things you schedule. Right. And that's so that's so that's one of the notes that I, I put down. But my question to you is, how does someone decide whether something should stay a hobby or they should make a career out of it? Well, good question. Yeah, that's a really good question.

You know, here's the thing, okay? I honestly think, and I did teaching for 35 years, okay? And at that point in my life, I knew that it was time to move on. Of course, I was of the right age and, you know, was able to do that. So it wasn't, it wasn't a problem. I just knew that it was time for me to move on. Now, people always say like, oh, why? They always say one of two things. One is like, oh, teaching, you know, if you can't become a doctor or lawyer, you become a teacher, you know, kind of thing. And I'm like, yeah, but you don't actually know like what we do or what it's like or anything like that. So then you really don't have any basis of comparison. I honestly will say that I respect teachers so much because they have to put up with so much, you know, and they can— like, you know, they go home exhausted, you know, and, you know, and sure, you know, they can't wait until it's Friday because they need the weekend just to recover, you know. So, but the thing is, is that they— most of the ones that do it do it because they love it. They, they know that they have, um that they're going to make a difference in kids' lives, that they're going to impact kids, you know, in a positive way. That, you know, so for them it is their passion. It's like the thing that they, that they know that they should be doing. Um, I have a lot of, a lot of my former students that I had from high school and also from Broward College or whatever, they went into nursing. It's the most, second most unappreciated field ever, you know. I'm there, you know. And they do these, they do terrible things, you know, and get paid no money and work terrible hours and whatever, you know, it's like, you know, and it's whatever, but they love it.

But they love it, right? They love it. So is that the key, right? So even when you're cleaning up crap, if you love cleaning up crap and you love it, you're in the right place?

Well, if you love cleaning up crap, you know, you know that you're just going to be something else, you know, around the corner where it's gonna be like, okay, you know, I cleaned up the crap, but, you know, Mr. So-and-so, I can help him with his therapy, or I can help him, you know, have a good day or whatever, or I put a smile on his face or whatever. That's what makes the difference in, in you. And if you notice, like, you know, it's not about the money. Now, there are people that go— that will go into a specific field, and you and I, I'm sure, both know this, you know. I know people that are Doctors and lawyers now, like right now, as in, you know, 2018, they hate it, right? You know, I mean, they make a lot of money, but they hate it. You know, they don't enjoy their job, they don't enjoy what they do, they don't enjoy their hours. That, you know, like, yeah, I mean, they can go on nice trips and vacations and all that kind of stuff because they, you know, they're making good money. But, you know, do you want to wake up and hate your job every day? Or do you want to wake up and you're like, wow, you know, I, you know, I have the best of both worlds because now I'm retired. I can tutor on the side and promote the book, you know, kind of thing. And I kind of do my own thing, you know, whatever. But certainly, you know, my, my key is that, you know, you have to love it. You have to wake up loving it.

Definitely agree with you. So now let's get to the key part. As you become the perhaps the first world-renowned author from Cooper City. I don't know about that. I don't know. Can you think of anybody else from the hood? So tell us about this really awesome book. And obviously, as people are listening to us, they can go right over to Amazon. That's probably the easiest place for them to find it. So go for it. So jump on in right on that.

Well, I will tell you that's interestingly enough, because towards the end of my teaching career, when I knew that that was winding down and I was— and I still felt like that I had a lot of creative juices inside of me. But I have to say there were other reasons for me to write the book. One was because I really, as a child growing up and even as an adult— I'm not doing as much as I used to, but I loved reading. So, and I think we've kind of gotten away from that, you know, and, you know, as I told you before, you know, I, you know, Amy and I used to read to our kids every night before they went to bed and they were, you know, reading Goodnight Moon by themselves at the age of 3. So, you know, I think we need to concentrate more, more on just the joy of reading and the joy of reading to our kids. I think there's— it provides a special kind of bond to that as well. So I wrote the book, this book, The Fabulous Feats of Mr. B. I have no idea who Mr. B actually is, Jason. I don't know. Some people say that there's a resemblance between Mr. B and me in the sense that he's bald and he's quirky and that he, he taught, he teaches drama, you know.

I mean, I don't see any dissimilarities. I don't know what you're talking about.

He's married, you know, I just said it, and I get it, right? So, and what happened was, interestingly enough, is that I wrote the book and I didn't tell anybody about it, and then it kind of like, you know, came back one day and said to Amy, my wife, and I said, hey, I wrote this book, you know, I said, do you want to read it? And like, she, and She read it and she was like, oh my gosh, this is like amazing, you know. And I'm like, isn't your wife supposed to say it's amazing no matter what, even if it's toilet paper, right?

That's her job.

So, but I, you know, but I shared it with a few other people and they loved it. They were like, you should get this published, whatever. So, you know, so we went down that path or whatever. But as I was doing that, I actually wrote like 3 or 4 more, and then I took some time off, and then I wrote like 3 or 4 more. So, so it's actually now a series. I have a series of 13. Oh my gosh. Of books. Yeah. And it's, you know, it's fun because we're right in the developmental stage. Like I said, it launched a month ago. So on September 17th, and it's been exactly a month. Today was my first public presentation that is, you know, outside as Mr. B. And it's, it's just, it's just a lot of fun. So it's, it's something that's keeping me young.

That's awesome. So who's the book for? Who should be getting it? What's the— what themes and topics are you tackling?

The age group is really kind of like, you know, pre-K through probably 4th grade, which I would say is like little, you know, little like 2 or 3 up to maybe be like 9 years old. When I first started the book and the concept of the book, I did so with a specific reason in mind. And honestly, I had— the reason was, is that we kind of discussed this a little earlier, is that education was kind of like getting away from, from the arts. And they were teaching for the test, all right? So that things like drama and art and music, to a certain— except for marching band or whatever, but, you know, they were kind of like chorus and all that. They were kind of like, you know, going by the wayside because they wanted to put in extra classes for, you know, reading and literacy and math help and all that kind of stuff. So to get ready, you know, in writing and to get kids ready, you know, ready for the used to be called the FCAT. I think now it's called the Florida Assessment or something like that, whatever, you know. And so the first few books deal mostly with drama, you know, and they're— they teach you like, you know, relaxation, creativity, you know, thinking outside the box, you know, all those things that we don't do in the classroom, you know. You see, use of your own imagination or whatever. And then they move towards, you know, things that could occur in the classroom. And they do deal with some topics like, you know, two of the kids get into a fight. In one situation, Mr. Beast's cat passes away, you know, whatever. And so they deal with death and they deal with someone coming to the class from another country, that kind of thing. So there's a lot of relevant issues that I think, you know, occur, and hopefully that will encourage them to buy books 2 through 13.

Are they all going to be— so what's the timeline? What's the game plan as far as releasing them and eventually making— putting it out as a set? How does that work?

That's a really good question, actually. The second one is finished and it's able to be published. I actually have the COVID of that in the back of that book. So here's the COVID of that book. See, Fabulous Feats of Mr. B, and that one's called Opposite Day. So, and this one is called Mr. B's First Day. So it's ready to go. Like, I could basically just— I need to kind of like come up with a game plan with my publisher. And just say like, well, when do you want this to come out or whatever? But I think that we would like to try to maybe do like a series of 5 by Hanukkah and Christmas of like a set of 5 by Hanukkah and Christmas of 2019. Very cool. Very cool.

Yes. So as people are listening to this and learning more about you and hearing more about the book. You said also not only are you writing the book, but you're also tutoring. Is that something you're doing in person, online? I'm doing both. You're doing both? Yeah. Cool. In what subjects specifically? Everybody is always looking for a good tutor, and thank God it's 2018 and the internet is here fully, and people should take advantage of not necessarily having to hire someone who lives right around the corner from them.

No, I appreciate that. I can— my— obviously my background and strength is in anything like English related. I don't want to do anything above middle school math, but I do a lot, honestly, of, um, which by the way, I— it's same kind of thing, you know, how you, you find fulfillment in like little things. And I actually find fulfillment in kind of like, you know, little things because I— well, I'm— I tutored someone that was not from the United States. She was from Colombia, but she was in med school, and I actually like helped her with her interviews to get to go for her residency, and she got accepted to like 3 schools, 3 hospitals. And I'm doing that again with another, with another client who is the same thing, and he has, he just actually has his interviews. He had an interview yesterday, and he had 2 more interviews before, so He has like 8 more interviews. So what we do is we do like mock interviews. But so I do like, you know, public speaking, writing, English literature, you know, grammar, composition, all that kind of fun stuff.

Well, it sounds based on that you have a new little niche to segment yourself in the market. So instead of you waiting for you to be like, what am I going to do in between my writing my books? I'm going to smack you across the head and say, hey buddy, Mr. B, Here's your niche, market and target overseas students who are trying to do interviews and want tutoring and guidance. And, uh, right.

Yeah. From your mouth to God's ears.

But that's how it happens, right? In conversation with someone else. Would you even think that, you know what, if I advertise this the right way, I can pick up 20 people, right? And, and that's kind of what I want to impress on everybody. It's kind of like where you least think that you can have like a little niche. About something you enjoy, you're passionate about, you have fun, and you're helping somebody else. So you're, you're, you're, you're doing that. So if people wanted to find you, if they want to reach you, how do they, how do they find you?

How do they connect with you? They could go to my, the book website, which is brucepweinberg.com. All right. And just fill out information and then I would have their email.

Okay, great. So if they wanted the tutoring, if they want to talk to you about having you do something with the book, either way, that's the best place for them to get you. Absolutely, that'd be perfect. Awesome. Beautiful, beautiful. Well, I wish you incredible success. I can't wait to see more and more of these books come out and to see you not only doing local, you know, these local shows, but I can't wait to see you as you work your way towards the bigger scene. And I really want to thank you for joining us today.

Well, I'll let you know when they invite me to have a Mr. B-Lands at Disney or Universal. I'm gonna say, see ya, JK. It's been great.

Exactly, that's what I'm looking forward to hearing. So again, so thank you so much for joining us, and we look forward to hearing more in the future.