Empowering Kids Mark Papadas on Growth and Confidence

Join Ed Watters on the Dead America Podcast for an inspiring episode featuring Mark Papadas, affectionately known as the 'Be Great Guy.' Mark shares his incredible journey from overcoming a challenging childhood to becoming a trailblazer in children’s personal development and empowerment. Dive into the philosophy behind his groundbreaking 'I Am 4 Kids' program, which fosters children's identity and confidence through an innovative five-step process. Hear real-life stories of transformation and learn how Mark’s vision for an animated reality-based TV show and AI-driven toys can further support children’s growth and development. Mark emphasizes the delicate balance of letting kids explore while distinguishing between pampering and protecting, highlighting the importance of instilling resilience and self-reliance. This episode is a treasure trove for parents, educators, and anyone passionate about shaping a brighter future for our youth. Discover how you can get involved in this revolutionary movement that combines traditional values with cutting-edge tools to empower children worldwide. Don’t miss this heartfelt and thought-provoking conversation that could redefine the way we approach childhood development. #confidence #conversations #deadamerica #podcast 00:00 Introduction to Mark Papadas 01:44 Mark's Early Life and Inspiration 03:04 The Importance of Personal Development for Kids 04:54 Pampering vs. Protecting Children 08:15 The I Am 4 Kids Program 10:50 Real Stories and Impact of the Program 19:59 Expanding the Program and Future Plans 24:50 How to Get Involved and Support 31:15 Conclusion and Final Thought Links https://www.iam4kids.com https://www.thebegreatguy.com https://www.facebook.com/markpapadas.... https://www.linkedin.com/in/markpapadas/ https://www.instagram.com/markpapadas/ https://x.com/MarkPapadas https://www.youtube.com/@MarkPapadas

Episode Transcript

(00:52):
Today, we are speaking with Mark Papadas.
Mark, could you please introduceyourself and let people know just
a little more about you, please?
I'd be happy to do so.
So, yeah.
So my name is Mark Papadas and I'm knownas the Be Great Guy because of my work,
bringing personal development to kids.

(01:13):
So, uh, imagine Tony Robbins meetsCharlie Brown, it's probably the
best way to describe what I do andwhat, uh, what we're all about.
And our mission is to do for kidspersonal empowerment or personal
development and empowerment, what theMuppets did for reading and for math.
Yeah, I like that a lot.
Uh, I looked into you andyou actually have been doing

(01:38):
this for quite some time now.
Uh, what got you started, Mark?
Well, I guess you could say it reallystarted way back when, when I was a kid.
So I had a bit of a rough upbringingand I was the, the youngest
of three boys by six years.
So my older brothers hung around witheach other, not so much with me because,

(01:58):
you know, who's gonna hang, who wantsto hang around with a little kid, right?
Um, but one of my brothers, uh, youknow, he used to like to get his points
across to me, uh, with his fists, okay?
And both my parents worked,so we're all latchkey kids.
And there was one instance in particularthat, uh, you know, that I still
remember to this day is when, uh, myfather's half brother was just coming

(02:23):
home from Vietnam and he was coming tovisit us and this was the first time
that any of us were gonna meet him.
And a little bit less than a weekprior, uh, that brother beat me up
so bad that I had bruises all over.
And I remember my uncle asking my,my parents if I was born with birth
defects because of how I looked.
Um, so the, the, the one positive thingthat I bring from that, bring out of that

(02:49):
upbringing, is it did help to, for lackof a better term, it did help to kind
of toughen me up a little bit in termsof being able to mentally overcome that.
And then once I was old enough to gethim to stop, then, then things were okay.
So when it comes to that type of stuff,the, what I, in terms of what I do,
I'm a, I'm a glutton for information.

(03:11):
So like, I can't tell you the lastnovel that I read, but I'm always either
reading, listening to podcasts, et cetera.
Something to either improve myselfor something that I can take and pass
through, down on, on with the kids.
So I had been working with, uh, quoteunquote grownups for over a decade
when I had my epiphany late in 2009.

(03:33):
And there was a, a specificstory, which is kind of long.
If you want, we can get into that later.
But, uh, taking what I was doingwith adults and all I had to do
was come up with a format that wasgoing to engage and entertain kids.
And then we could literally make adifference that could, could change the
world within a, a couple of generationsbecause that's when that personal

(03:55):
development will have the biggest impactand also the longest lasting impact.
Yeah, I, I believe that a hundred percent.
You know, the formidable years, they,they tend to get wasted anymore.
In, in my personal opinion, I thinkthat children are shielded too much

(04:17):
and I, I believe that they are missingout on a lot of that excitement
that children should be having.
And you know, unfortunately we all getbeat up once in a while as children, but
like you stated, it does make you getthis grit and it makes you sustainable

(04:41):
in this world that we live in today.
And I, I really have a lotof concerns about that.
What is your thought aboutpampering children in today's world?
Well, I think that there's a differencebetween pampering and protecting.
And so one of the things, like I, Ido a lot of speaking, uh, you know,

(05:05):
companies have me come in to speak.
You, you would think like, Why is a kid'spersonal development speaker coming in?
And part of that has to do with,because I believe that the kids are
born with all of the, the traits andcharacteristics that they need to
be, not just successful as kids, butsuccessful throughout their whole life.
And it's the, the B. S., the, thebelief system that they learn from
the adults as they're growing upthat actually retard that growth.

(05:30):
So, you know, like you were talking about,kids, they are by nature curious and
inquisitive and ingenious, and they'redesigned literally at the cellular level
to learn and to grow and to explore.
And, uh, when you, the, the pamperingpart, when you kind of build that

(05:53):
bubble around them where they can'tget to see things right, they, they
can't get into a little bit of trouble,
right?
You know, if a kid, if akid falls down, big deal.
It's like, and one of the things Ialways, when I talk about, you know,
kids being so persistent, right?
When was the last time yousaw a kid quit trying to walk?
It just doesn't happen, right?
You know, they fall down, they brushthemselves off, and they keep going.

(06:14):
And even if they're born with somesort of a, you know, um, disability
where they like, they can't move theirlegs, they still find a way to, to
locomote from one place to the other.
They, they roll, they army crawl,they do whatever they have to
do because they're just livingup to their nature of exploring.
And also, a lot of it has todo with, with perspective.

(06:36):
I can't tell you how many times littlekids, specifically babies, find lost keys
that the, that adults have lost, right?
Because that's their perspective.
That's all they have is down towhat's at ground level, right?
But then as soon as they are big enoughto get to the coffee table, now it's
like, Ooh, there's stuff up there thatI didn't know was there, you know?
What's that?
What's this?
And then that's when you gottabe like, Okay, nope, that you

(06:57):
can't get to that part yet.
And then you keep moving it up.
And, and so what happens?
And then they keep doing it.
And how many times have you seena kid climb up the drawers to get
onto the countertop, to get to thecookie jar, or whatever it was on
top of the, of the refrigerator?
And they're, they're just,they're just being kids, they're
doing what comes naturally.
So I would say that, you know,if a kid's gonna fall down while

(07:19):
trying to walk or maybe off thecouch or something like that, that's
a learning experience for them.
You know, if they get up on top ofthe fridge, it's like, No, no, no, no.
You gotta come down from there, you know?
Let's, you have to have the limits,but you, you have to let 'em explore.
So is that what you were you going for interms of some of the, the, the pampering?
Sure.
Yeah.
And, and, you know, I, I really think thatyou hit that right on because there is

(07:46):
a difference, pampering and protecting.
You know, if, if you see a childclimbing like the drawers and you have
a TV set on the dressers, and I, I'veactually witnessed some terrifying things
that, you know, it, it is, you have toprotect your children, that's for sure.

(08:08):
And there is a difference.
I, I really wanted to outline thathere and highlight the difference.
So what is your intentwith the television part?
You know, because buildingcharacteristics of children, it, it,

(08:32):
it, it encompasses a lot.
However, when you put childreninto like a TV dynamic, their focus
is higher in an intellectual way.
I, I really believethat in my own thinking.

(08:53):
So is, is it to empower them and helpthem build a better understanding
of themselves and their world?
Is this why the TV end of it, the deal?
To me, uh, like everything that we do,I, kind of refer to it as like DNA.

(09:16):
In other words, it just kind ofkeeps helixing back on itself, right?
So the, the, the foundation, youknow, if you're gonna use a kid, uh,
an analogy for a kid, of a structureof a building, a home, let's say, the
foundation is that identity piece.
In other words, how do theyfinish the I am ... statement?

(09:37):
And, and that's the most important thingas far as I'm concerned for anybody.
I don't care whether you'rea kid or you're an adult.
Problem is that, you know, closeto probably 90% of the world have
never given that any consciousthought, but it's still in there.
And if you haven't decided foryourself, it's, generally speaking, the
loudest voices that are in your orbitthat become that in your head, okay?

(10:01):
So in terms of what the TV show isall about, so The, The I Am 4 Kids
School program that we created a numberof years ago and is in use in, what?
Nine different states right now, uh, isdesigned to sit on top of the curriculum
taught in second through fifth grade.
And we take the kids through the Myfive Step Identity Building process.

(10:21):
And the, at the very end, the laststep, we can talk about all five steps
if you'd like, in, down the road.
But the final step is to, is to live it.
In other words, to, to be thatperson that you decided who you are.
And the lifelong homework for thatis that you have to come up with
a project that embodies the personthat you have decided you are.

(10:43):
And the only rule that we put onit is it has to benefit somebody
other than just themselves, okay?
So now what the TV show is all aboutis it's the real stories of real kids
who have gone through the program.
And either the impact that the programhas made in, in their lives and, or
their project has made through, youknow, in its, in their community,

(11:05):
their family, sometimes even beyond.
And because it's animated, so it's, likeI said, what we say is, it's the world's
first animated reality based TV show.
So there's actually gonna be realstories of real kids, but you can still
have a little bit of fun with it interms of, you know, there's gonna be
amalgams of characters of people whohappened in, you know, there are people

(11:27):
who happened to be part of that, right?
So what that does is, we getthe, the kids get the identity
piece, which is, which is a bonus.
But now you see all these differentother stories of other kids doing it.
So that now it's, okay, you know,this, that this can really happen.
Plus it gives them even bigger ideaslike, Oh, I thought of this, but

(11:49):
this kid went twice as big, okay.
You know, so it starts toelevate their projects now.
And in case you haven't figured itout, in case you haven't figured it
out, I Am 4 Kids is my, I am project.
Yeah.
Yeah, I like that a lot.
The, just the simple I am statement,that, that can really give children a

(12:14):
lot to think about, to inspire to be.
So bringing that statement tothe forefront, I really think
is kind of a killer idea.
So when, when you do thesesessions with children,
is there an underlying themefor each episode that you do?

(12:40):
Not so much a theme going into it,but what we do is, once again, because
we're all about the education partof it is, they're, each episode
will have its own theme word.
So what, whatever this word isthat is embodied by what they did.
So for example, the, the, the pilotepisode that we're working on right

(13:01):
now, just to be able to pitch to thestreaming services and the networks
probably starting in, in January,so very, very soon is, is identity.
And it's a true story of, uh, alittle girl and a little boy in a
neighborhood and something that happensin school and on their school bus.
Uh, where basically a, uh, thelittle boy was very sick, okay?

(13:27):
So in other words, it's a true story.
At five years old, he was diagnosedwith a tennis ball sized, uh, brain
tumor at the stem of his brain.
So they caught it, did all the operations,the chemo, all that kind of stuff, um,
but he was basically out of school.
He was, he was in treatment for a littleover two years, and that treatment

(13:48):
was very intensive and very harsh.
So he, he was always gonna be smallerthan the kids, weaker than the kids,
the chemo did a number on his hair.
He, you know, the, the, the, the jokethat the neighbors, not the neighbors, but
the, he was a part of the joke, so I don'twanna say, make it sound like we were,
they were making fun of the kid, right?
But that he kind of looked like afifty-year-old accountant 'cause his

(14:08):
hair was very thin across the top.
You know, he was basically bald.
But he had some hair, kind of thing,you know, it was like a comb over.
So, um, some of the quoteunquote popular kids were making
fun of him on the school bus.
And one day, nobodysaid anything about it.
And, you know, the boywent home and he cried.
And his best friend, who was hisnext door neighbor, who was the

(14:29):
little girl, she felt bad about it.
And they did it again a couple days later.
And then she stood up to the, we'llcall 'em the bullies, and when she did
that, a bunch of other kids on the busbasically stood up behind her, right?
So, so her whole thing, when, when newsof the incident came out was that, you

(14:52):
know, well, she, she knew who she was.
She, she couldn't letthat happen, you know?
That they think that they're tough, he,he's way tougher than them 'cause look
at all the stuff that he's gone through.
So interesting, Mark.
Uh, tell us what is the perspective of thechildren that are involved in the program?
Um, I, I'm gonna answer the way I thinkyou're, you're, you're asking that.

(15:14):
So in terms of, you know, they'recoming into it with, with wide eyes.
Because you know, they're not comingin with some sort of preconceived
notion of what, to get this.
They just know that this is somethingthat, that they're learning.
And because we use the sound science,you know, the mind/body connection,
the neuroplasticity connections betweenthe brain and the body, all they

(15:36):
know is that they feel so much moreconfident, they feel so much happier,
they feel so much better while they'rein the, the program and while they're
basically living up to their identity.
And you, what we've seen is that we,because of privacy reasons, we don't
have access to individual's testingscores, you know, the standardized tests.

(16:00):
But we do get the, a conglomerateof their in-class grades.
And we found that, uh, close to 45%of the kids in class, grades go up.
So C students move up to Bstudents, et cetera, right?
But what was not so muchsurprising, but surprising to
the degree, was that disciplinaryactions went down by over 60%.

(16:24):
Because when they, when they startedto get worked up, all the teacher
has to do is remind them if they'rebeing true to, you know, the identity
that they created for themselves.
And that, that is, you know, a, atrigger, if you will, to kind of
bring them back into that, that stateof that more calm, confident person.

(16:46):
That's, that's really cool.
Uh, I like that a lot.
So what do you see about connections?
Does this help form connections?
Well, absolutely.
And the, that, it's actuallydesigned into the program.
So we already talked about the fifth step.
I guess we're kind of, we'll, we'llkinda go backwards, if you will, right?

(17:08):
So the fourth step is, is to shareand synergize your identity, right?
So I'll kind of walk youthrough one through five.
So the, the first one is to decide it.
Like we said, you have,you have to think about it.
Nobody, most people have nevergiven it any conscious thought.
So the first thing is, you,you think about it and you
decide who you're gonna be.
And the second step is to write it down.
And that's so important to actuallyphysically write it, not type

(17:30):
it, not dictate it, et cetera.
Because when you write something,literally all of your senses, you've got
your, your kinesthetic because you'reactually writing it, you're hearing
yourself say it in your brain as you'rewriting it, and you're also seeing it.
So it doesn't matter what typeof learner you are, you're
getting more and more connection.
It's more complete.
So that's number two.
So number three is torevise and improve it, okay?

(17:55):
So that, that first time you write itdown, it's pretty much like a rough draft.
Kinda like we were talkingabout before with, oh, this
kid went twice as big as me.
Well, I, you know, so I'm not limited.
I, I can go bigger, I can go stronger,I can go farther, kind of thing.
So that's number three, isto revise and improve it.
And then number four isto share and synergize it.
Because as human beings, it's, it's ournature to want to be a part of something

(18:16):
that's bigger than just ourselves.
And so the whole concept behindthe share and synergizes is, first
off, you're letting the worldknow this is who I am, right?
You don't have to guess about it,you don't have to, to think about it.
And then the synergy part comes whenyou share it, and then you find other
people who have similar outlooks to you.

(18:37):
So what this does is, is now you'reactually, for lack of a term, you are
picking your friends as opposed toletting the, that circle pick you.
You know, so like, there, yeah.
So there, there's a, there's a quotethat I use that, that, to me, Kids
are very much like wet cement, iswhatever happens to land upon them

(19:01):
tends to stick and leave an impression.
So the whole concept behind thisone's kind of going back to that,
that structure that we're buildingwith the kid, that foundation.
If we can get that, that cementfoundation to harden, to cure, right?
Now all that, that bullying stuff,the gangs, the drugs, all that kinda
stuff, just literally just, justbounces off because they know who

(19:23):
they are and they've got their, theirtribe they've already put together.
And then going back to one of theOGs of personal development, right,
Napoleon Hill, when you start talkingabout the concept of the mastermind,
that if you've got a group of peoplewho are thinking similarly, that be,
there's that mastermind, mysterious,fictional, not fictional, but um, not

(19:47):
real person that's there, that kind oftakes on a life and thought of its own.
So that, that's the wholeconcept behind that.
Yeah.
Gives it an embodied persona, if you will.
So now, now the big question,Mark, is, this is all in a
classroom setting, if you will.

(20:09):
What happens at home?
How, how does this connect tothe home front and how does it
correlate with life at home?
So the, the school part, I mean,is that, that's what it is for now.
So literally for thenext couple of months.

(20:31):
So in January is when we're, we're,we're launching the I Am 4 Kids brand.
So we're, we're basically borrowingthe business model of the, you
know, Sesame Street and the Muppets.
So children's television workshop, thatstarted off as a, you know, the Sesame
Street that started off as a non-profit,and everybody's familiar with that,

(20:52):
but all of The, The Muppet movies, TheMuppet Show, Tickle Me, Elmo, all that
kind of stuff, that is a for-profitentity that is a, is a ubiquitous
brand literally around the world now.
So what we're doing is we're takingour characters, instead of being fluffy
little monsters, they're based onreal people, which to me makes them
a little bit more interesting, right?

(21:12):
Because now you actually havesomething that you, a person,
someone you can model after, right?
So in terms of what,up to this date, there,
so there's my book there, it'scalled The 10 Secrets to Empower
Kids and Awaken the Child In You.
It's available in bothEnglish and Spanish.
So when a school would order the,the program, we would ask them how
many copies, you know, how manyfamilies need it in Spanish and how

(21:33):
many families need it in English.
'Cause the book is really designedmore for the, the parents, you
know, the parents and the educators.
And so now we're getting to theparents through, you know, with, with
the kids as, as the conduit, okay?
So that's what we've beendone up to this point.
But since, when we're startingoff with the brand, so we're

(21:54):
gonna be doing that same program.
We're calling it the IAm 4 Kids Family Pack.
We've also got the I Am 4 Kids Roundtable,which is a true mastermind of families.
And then there's the I Am 4 Kids Academy.
And the I Am 4 Kids Academy is all of thethings that we as adults say, you know,
Why didn't they teach us this in school?
I really could have used thisfor the last twenty, thirty,

(22:15):
forty years of my life, right?
So it, it, it's all of those typesof things that are in there as well.
And we're gonna be doing those, uh,once again, using the web technology,
uh, doing those, doing live events.
Uh, so the TV shows, the, the firstone is the one we were just talking
about, but we've got several othersthat are lined up behind that.
Um, so there's, there's literallyno shortage of ways that we

(22:38):
will be getting to, to the kids.
Uh, one of the things that I, I'mreally excited about because I'm just
starting to learn about it, I, I,I know of it, but now I'm starting
to know it itself, and that's whenwe start talking about AI and toys.
That there, the generative AI thatwe can put into, for lack of a better

(22:59):
term, what we'll call action figuresof the characters, can actually
have conversations with the kidsbecause they learn from the kids.
So if every child is going to have aseparate and unique experience with
their toy, then a kid who bought thesame toy but is playing with it in his
or her house, and that's the part wherewe can really, you know, like I'm, I'm

(23:23):
getting goosebumps just kind of thinkingof what some of those possibilities are.
Cause, you know, we, we can help them tobe, to actually to communicate better at
a younger age, not just with the, the toy,not just with the piece of technology, but
we can also teach them how to interact andcommunicate better with, with real people.
And there's, yeah.

(23:44):
And there's gonna be instances whereunfortunately sometimes that that toy
really might be the kid's only friendthat they have access to, right?
So if we can, yeah.
And, and now we can make sure thatthat kid's still getting that, that
positive reinforcement as opposedto, you know, why am I always alone?
Why, this kind of stuff.
So we're, we're so excited about it.

(24:08):
That, that really, it, it reallyaugments the home portion of it.
Because I remember being a child,there was many times that I didn't
have that companionship that I needed,and I truly wanted that companionship.
So I like that aspect of it a lot.

(24:29):
Uh, a lot of people might, you know,think twice about AI and you know,
it's really about the pre-programmedinformation that gets put into the toy.
So when, when we build thosetype of augmented toys, you, you
really have to think about that.

(24:50):
So how can our listeners getinvolved and help with this project?
Well, there's two main thingsthat we're looking for right now.
So number one is exposure.
Uh, I said the, what we've done up tillnow is really just aimed at schools,
and we just kind of focused on that.
There wasn't really any type ofpublic messaging, if you will.

(25:13):
So I would say there's two things.
So the first one, if they justwanna find out more about us,
they can just go to, iam4kids.com.
And it's got all those stuff about ourprograms, about what we're all about.
There's even a little, there's a linkon there about the, the TV show that
we're putting together, et cetera.
So, uh, if they wanna,you know, message me.

(25:33):
So right now there's really not alot of volunteer, uh, opportunities
because I said we're really launchingeverything in January, okay?
So, um, but if they would wanna geton our mailing list so that when
those opportunities are available,there's a place on the website
where they can do that and we'll be,we'll definitely be reaching out.
The, the one ask that I would ask ofthe audience is, if you, we were talking

(25:54):
about that TV show, and then if youthink that that type of educational and
empowering entertainment is somethingthat would be good for kids as opposed
to the, pretty much the mindless dribblethat is thrown at them these days, is
to, we put together a GoFundMe site.
Now before you, everybodyrolls their eyes.

(26:14):
We're not asking everybody to donatehundreds of thousands of dollars.
We're literally wanna get as manyone dollar donations as we can.
The reason behind this is that when wehave that pilot complete and we take it
to the, you know, Netflix, Hulu, ABC,NBC, et cetera, and we can say that,

(26:34):
Look, we've got 40,000 people, we'vegot 50,000 people, however many that
there are who gave us a dollar, that,in other words, they're paying for
this type of content and these are paid
for content services, right?
So we're bringing an audience with us, allyou have to do is green light the project.
Let us make our show and let'sgo do this and change the world.

(26:55):
So if they want, somebody would like togo check that out, it's, iam4kids.tv,
okay?
So iam4kids.tv.
There's about a three minute video there.
Us talking about the show,what it's all gonna be about.
You're gonna get to meet thecharacters, all that kind of stuff.
I say if you like it, give us a dollar,share with your friends and see if
you can convince them to do the same.
If you don't think it's agood idea, that's fine too.

(27:18):
That's, that's very powerful.
You know, that's good marketing, Mark.
I, I like that a lot.
I, I kinda like that, you know,because it, it is a crowdsourced
thing and that is influence.
So very ingenious there, I like it a lot.
Is there anything that we've missed thatwe need to cover about this topic today?

(27:44):
I mean, how many hours do you have?
No.
Uh,
no.
It's, it is, I think that, oh,no, it's not, the, the, to me it,
this is the perfect time for it.
We didn't necessarily design itthis way, we didn't choose it.
But there's so many things that are goingon that are affecting our kids today.

(28:07):
And, and we just wanna make it, maketheir life, so it may go back to
that pampering question, we wannamake the kids' life a little easier.
Their, their, their lives shouldn'tbe as hard as they are these days.
We wanna let them be able to be kids foras long as possible, if, if possible,
like me for the rest of their lives, okay?

(28:31):
So I, I would just say that, youknow, if, if they could take a look
at what we're doing and, and if theyhave any, you know, ideas to share,
but like I said, if they could supportus in any way, um, to go to our website,
all of our social media aspect is there.
Uh, I'll, lemme say one other thing onthat note, 'cause we're all about building
the, the, the community, the movement,so when we're putting together the TV

(28:53):
show, it's actually our social mediaplatforms who are going to decide which of
the stories that, that they will submit.
Will then be put on andmade into the next episodes.
With the parent's permission, the childthat's featured in that episode can then
become the next I Am 4 Kids character.

(29:18):
So now we'll be always, we'll alwaysbe having something, you know?
I'm a bit of a, um, likea TV and movie buff.
Once again, I spent a lot oftime alone when I was a kid, so
I watched a lot of TV and movies.
And I used to have a,uh, photographic memory.
So people hate playing Trivial Pursuitwith me or anything like that when
it comes to TV and movie trivia.
So, uh, are you familiar withthe phrase Jump the Shark?

(29:44):
Okay, so in, in the entertainmentindustry, it's a, a commonly used one,
kind of like you tell an actor to break aleg when they're going, you know, for an
audition, you know, that kind of stuff.
So they'll end up in a cast.
Um, the, the term jumping the sharkwent back to, back in the seventies,
I want to say, was, uh, there's ahuge hit show at the time, was the
biggest show on TV called Happy Days.

(30:04):
And it started off, and then, but as, asthe, the characters got older and, you
know, started having their own kids andstuff like that, the show just changed.
And there was a particular episodewhere they're out in California,
and for whatever reason, the Fonzicharacter gets challenged to do
something and he, uh, is on waterskis and he jumps over a caged shark.

(30:29):
But allegedly going into this,he had no idea how to water ski.
So he's just kinda likethis, but he does it.
So, and that was when everybodykind of went like, okay, you've
run out of ideas, you know?
So that's anytime, so that timewhen people start talking about
jumping the shark, it's like, ohyeah, okay, it's, let's just cut
this off now, kind of thing, okay?
So, but by always having the newstories that are submitted by our

(30:53):
audience and letting the audience pickthe stories that are there, and then
those kids, being the future charactersthat can then be in supporting casts,
we'll never have to jump the shark.
We'll always have newcurrent stories to tell.
I like that a lot.
That, that's something I, I neverheard of, but very interesting.

(31:15):
Mark, it's been a pleasurespeaking with you.
You're an exciting guy,you're doing wonderful things.
Could you tell people one moretime how to reach out, get involved
with you, and how to reach you?
Absolutely.
So again, you can go toour website, iam4kids.com.

(31:37):
So there's, you can message me there.
You just, anything you need to knowabout us is, is gonna be on that site.
And then if you'd like to support theTV show, that's iam4kids, iam4kids.tv.
And that's all, all thatinformation is on, on there as well.
So I know my, I like to leave, everytime I, uh, interact with, you know,

(31:58):
somebody or people that are watchingis to, you know, hopefully support us
and then always remember to be great.
That, that's the Be Great Guy.
I, I like it a lot, Mark.
Uh, I wanna say thank you for beingpart of the Dead America Podcast and
for being out there doing excitingthings, especially for children.

(32:21):
It's, it's my, it's,it's truly my mission.
So, so thank you for having me.
Thank you for joining us today.
If you found this podcast enlightening,entertaining, educational in any way,
please share, like, subscribe, and joinus right back here next week for another

(32:43):
great episode of the Dead America Podcast.
I'm Ed Watters, your host, enjoyyour afternoon wherever you might be.