#127: Kentucky Gallahue and his dog Derby - Dog Surfing Champions, Reality Show Stars - How My Dog Taught Me To Surf - Author of The Adventures of Derby California, Derby Learns to Surf
1:02AM Feb 24, +0000
Speakers:
Fernando Lopes, Jr.
Kentucky Gallahue
Glenn Millar
Keywords:
derby
dog
people
book
surf
hoodie
friends
amazing
kentucky
san diego
schools
kids
world
competitions
story
awesome
california
sunglasses
talking
asked
Looks like we're live. Welcome everyone to another episode of The Daily Freedom podcast. I am your host Fernando Lopez. And today I'm interviewing Kentucky, gala Hill, who along with his golden doodle Derby, competes in in wins dog surf contests in California and Hawaii. The two are known internationally and have appeared multiple times on national television, including the Amazon Prime reality show the pack and Netflix, pet stars. Kentucky welcome.
Thank you so much for Nando man, it's so good to be here. I mean, this is gonna be amazing.
Amazing. Amazing. Oh, my gosh,
we have Glenn here in the audience with us. Thanks, Glenn, for introducing me to Kentucky. And I'm very excited to have this conversation. Yeah. Glenn told me amazing things about you. And the reason why I wanted to interview you is because of the book. Oh, yeah. So let's start with the book. What is this book about? You have a best friend who is Derby, California. And you know, there's a beautiful story there of how you rescue each other. But before we go to the story, tell, tell us about the book.
Okay, so yeah, so I've always wanted to write a children's book about Derby, my 11 year old go under, don't go noodle and how we met how we moved to California. And we started surfing together. And it's such an amazing story. And I wanted to share it with everybody. And I know, I'm a kid at heart and myself and I relate to kids a lot better. So I was like, how much better way to to express this and through a children's book? Yeah, it's something I've always wanted to do. But I've had trouble beginning about four, three years ago, I was trying to do it, try to find some people to help me do it. Because I didn't know what I was doing. The big thing is, is I had the story in my head, but I don't articulate well on paper. So I didn't know how to get the story out of my head and on paper. And the day that I started working for my friend here, Glenn alar. He kind of asked me one day, it's like, so what are you doing with Derby and everything. I mean, I want to write this book. But uh, I don't know how to write it. And he's like, you know, I'm a writer. I'm like, you want to write a book with me. And that's where it started. So we wrote a book called The Adventures of Derby, California Derby learns to surf. Like I said, it's about how Derby and I meet, become best friends, help each other out and move to California and start surfing and dog competitions.
So their dog surfing competition, I didn't know until a moment ago, you know,
I moved here seven years ago, and I didn't know that there were dog surfing competition. It's a crazy story of how we even started surfing together, or you know, just having but when I moved here to San Diego, you know, OB, we kind of fell in love with OB, we love the environment. We love the people. We love to surf and I was like, Man, I want to learn how to surf. And one of the first things you do is you go to Costco and you buy your first soft tops, surfboard, I'll get your wetsuit on, and I decided to take my first time out over at Ocean Beach, dog beach, and Derby, I'd figured would go and play with the other dogs while I was learning to surf. And that was not the case. So I'm out there learning to surf. And he keeps following me out there to the point where he's like swimming. Like he doesn't want to be around anybody else's me. So it's like, well, let's see if he'll even get on this thing. So I put him on a board. Push him in a tiny wave. This dog rides this wave standing up all the way to the beach. Turns around looks at me like this, what you're trying to do this looks pretty. Blah. So I was like, happy that mad at the same time. Like, that's really cool. But he just learned to surf before I did. But like I haven't even tried yet. And that was just a crazy story how that happened. And through that, you know, we kind of kept doing it. One guy came up to me one day and said, Hey, man, you know, they got dogs, certain competitions here in San Diego. I was like, I really miss it. Yeah, you should look into it. It was like six or seven weeks later, I signed up for it. It was in Imperial Beach as a dog competition that they used to have. And I had never been to a human surf competition, let alone a dog surfing competition. So I didn't really know what to expect. And Derby got like fifth or six out of 30 dogs. Everybody was like, Where'd y'all come from? Like, how long have y'all been doing this? I mean, we've been doing this for six weeks, I have no idea. But through that I started to learn how to surf a lot, a little better. And now we serve together tandem, and together on the waves. And it's been amazing. And through that it's opened up a lot of doors and brought us here today
is amazing. Check out this. So I'm sharing your screen right now with folks. So sir, Derby is also surfing backwards.
Yes. I don't know why but like, it's just something he likes to do. Sometimes even when he serves by himself. He likes to surf backwards. Sometimes Sometimes he serves forward. It's kind of like I'm pretty laid back. So whatever he wants to do, it's what he does, but The cool thing about this video shows that, uh, everybody always asked me it's like, do you force Derby to do this? Does he like it? And I'm like, You don't understand like, is there a concern? Yeah, they're like, is he really wanted to do this? Or is this something you want to do? And I totally get people wanting to think that but like, This video shows as soon as he gets the beach, he runs back out and wants to do it again. And like, I don't have to go chase him. He we get back on the board. We go do it again until he's like, Alright, I'm tired. I'm done for the day. I'm like, Alright, cool. So yeah, it's something he wants to do. And he likes to do everything with me. And we're not only we do that we we have a motorcycle sidecar. We ride around San Diego with we have a bicycle sidecar. I'm all about riding different modes of transportation with my dog and seeing what we can do next. So it's been fun. So this was a Christmas party. It was the Gaslamp pet parade Christmas parade this past year, and we were one of the grand marshals. But yeah, and then as you can see Derby and I usually have blue Mohawk. Yeah, blue Mohawks. We both wear sunglasses, and we'd like to dress up and have fun and just put smiles on everyone's faces.
I love that. Like you smiles on everyone's faces. Let
me get a blue Mohawk picture here. Let's see this one here.
Yeah, that's now it's probably a little a little further back. Yeah. There's one right there. This one here? Yep. There's both wearing the same glasses and blue Mohawks. And yeah, we're telling everybody about our new book.
Wow. Amazing. So in the book, what is the what's in the book?
So in the book, it's kind of like a, it's a. This is Glenn came up with a mostly true story, which is amazing. Because people think that this, we made this story up. And it's kind of based on factual things that happen. Yeah, I got Derby when he said he's 11 years old. I got Derby when he was a year in a few months from a loving family when I was living in Georgia that just didn't have time for him. He had eaten two dresses, he had pulled a turkey off the counter. They had two kids one on the way and they realized like, he just needs more guidance, they found out I was looking for a doodle through a friend and I'd had dogs all my life. And they basically say, Look, we're gonna give them to you. So they gave him to me. And I realized Derby only knew that family, his kennel and the backyard, he never really got associated with other people, other dogs. So I lived in Midtown Atlanta, and I started taking him out. He didn't realize other people were in the world, other people in the world, other dogs in the world, a car door was slammed, he would he was really skittish, he would pull out of his leash. And I told him at that point, I was like, Look, I'm gonna be here with you, where I'm going to take you on fun adventures, but just know that I'm going to comfort you. And together, we're gonna get through this together. Wow. And through that it built his confidence up. He started wanting to do more things. And then like, we would go to baseball games, we'd go camping, we went canoeing and all these crazy things and, and he found out like, Hey, as long as I'm with you, everything will be okay. And so through that, you know, then we Are we our next adventure was moving to California, and then Learning to Surf together and building up his confidence and want to do that with us. So Wow. It's all about like just being there for each other and building each other up and showing that like, you can get through anything, you know, as long as you have, you can have you can have people to get they have your back.
Yes, absolutely. I remember having, you know, a few dogs growing up. My dad used to train dogs for security purposes so Doberman Dobermans and German Shepherds and
so but never had that experience that you just described and I've heard friends described experienced that loving experience and I'm like, Wow, that's so beautiful. And I heard that I think you told me this before we started recording how maybe it wasn't that some human rescued a dog but sometimes the dog Yes is the one
it's it's stores through my story and how we were I was at the time I was living in Atlanta at the time I had been a bartender for 20 years through college with my friends we used to own and build bars and restaurants and nightclubs all through the southeast. And I had so much fun doing it loved it loved that life, but in that life, drugs and alcohol is really prevalent like it's part of the life and you know you party in you're partying all night you're you're just doing things all weekend and the rest of the week you're kind of down. And that last couple of years when I'm right before like 2015 2014 I could feel it really weighing heavily on me to the point where like, depression was sitting in like, things weren't really going right but the only constant I really had a time was my dog in Derby was always there. And I tell people like I feel like I saved Derby but he also saved me because at the time I would work and party all weekend all weekend to stay in my apartment. And it's not very good to do that if you need to get out and meet people or just be out and about and the only reason I would leave my apartment was because of my dog is because he either had to go walk or he had to be taken out. But now somebody else dependent on me that I just in an I wanted to give myself to somebody else to help them as much as possible, instead of just depending on me or just thinking about me and staying in apartment, so I feel like if I had stayed there more, say they're in Atlanta longer, I probably wouldn't be here today. I had an incident where it still burned in my mind where, you know, a rough week of partying, hanging out my apartment for way too long. And I had a I had a, I have a pistol. And I just remember waking up one day on the couch, and not knowing how my pistol got on my coffee coffee table. Because I was and I was like, and I kind of put it together like, that's the time I was like this. I'm done. This is, you know, I don't I don't want to be here anymore. And I figured like, This is it. But then I fell asleep and woke up. And I was like, That was a close call. Yeah. And that was my wake up moment. Like, I need to get out of here. Yeah. And it didn't care where I just needed to get away. Yeah. And my sister and her husband lived in San Diego, and she's always knew something was going wrong. And my family knew things were going on. And they were like, just come out here. We've got a place for you to stay. Just come out here. What do you have to lose? So I packed up my truck, which in the book, it says We packed up my truck, if it didn't fit it, I sold it left, it took us three days to get across the country. And I will tell you, that was a hard three days, I'd never been on the west coast before, especially by myself. And I could not have done it without derby. There were some times I was questioning like, is this the right thing to do. But you know, just having Derby there just gave me the confidence to keep going and figure it out. We got here still kind of lost in a phase like a fog know what I was going to do in through my sister's help. And my family and some friends just kind of started my life over. I got here when I had $200 in my pocket. Like I didn't know what I was gonna do. I even joked to people that I was like, I don't know, maybe I'll sell coconut pads at the beach. But which is funny that now that through our business I sell our books are tied out hoodies at the beat sometimes. So it's just kind of come to the full circle like yeah, like, it will all be okay. But like, I just realized that, you know, Derby saved me and I saved him and we kind of made it happen. I know somebody that can supply the coconut. That's awesome. If I can learn if I can teach me to hold a knife and carved coconut heads.
So let's talk about the merchant. I'm sharing the screen.
Oh, totally. So we uh, one thing when I first moved here, I used to go the OB farmers market fell in love with I used to go every week still kind of go when I can. I met a guy who did tie dye. And I kind of asked him and this was 2016. I said, Hey, man, do you think you could tie that hoodie for me? Yeah, if you bring it to me, it's cotton. I'll do it. So I had him do it. And I'll be honest, throughout throughout growing up, tie dye was not my thing. Like I like colors and everything. And I like being bright. But like, I don't know, I always think a tie dye is that tie dye that you go at summer camp or it's just as a color wheel. A circle is on a t shirt. But when I saw his stuff, how he marveled it, I was like, that's pretty cool. And I started getting into it. I made he made his first type of hoodie for Derby Derby started wearing it. People started asking about it. I was like, Man, I'm Oh, maybe we should start a tech company or a hoodie company. And it was always an idea forever. But then I said, Then we got on the show. And we'll talk about later and through the show. We gained some of reckon was recognized more, we overstayed our start our own business Derby, California and we started a hoodie company where we make tighter hoodies for you and your dog to match those. We're all about the matchy matchy. You're 100% cotton. We make the we've sold these all over the world. You can get them on our website, Derby california.com We make the order. But yeah, the orders come in every winter and sometimes in a summer and we people send us pictures of their dogs, their cats. All wearing these tie down hoodies and then them wearing the same hoodie match. And this is our camo camo hoodie, right, here's what I'm wearing. But yeah, they're all They're all about the matchy matchy.
Let's go into this chart here. Yeah, this dog hoodie size chart. Yes.
So that we have 11 Different sizes from extra small, which is a tiny little like puppy type feel. To seven XL. I've sold to people who've had Great Danes and St. Bernard's who were our hoodies was and it's so awesome to see pictures of these dogs wearing these big dogs wearing hoodies. And yeah, and we make them for adult sizes for you to match. And it's been amazing. Sometimes, you know, I'll be running around in San Diego and I'll see some people out with their hoodies. And I'm like
that is okay, let's now talk about how you got picked up in the TV
shows. Yeah, so like one thing when Durban I started surfing, I thought it'd be cool to start his own Instagram. And everybody used to ask me, Did you do this to become famous? I'm like, No, I basically did it because it's I thought it was funny. And I think it would be funny for people to see it. Even when we started dyeing our hair, the same color and everything wearing sunglasses, and I would do it too. So people from the west on the East Coast would see some of the stuff we were doing. Yeah. And kind of just took off and I would hand out these cards about hey, check out our stories of you Honestly, all the dumb stuff we do all the funny stuff we do, and it just kind of took off. And then a producer casting producer from Amazon reached out to us through Derby's Instagram, which is kind of funny. They sent us a DM and it said, Do you like to go on adventures with your dog and we love to travel the world. But we get a lot of crazy stuff spam and so I deleted it. Another surf dog mom got the same one because I think they were just kind of finding dogs do this. And they said, This looks like something you would do. So my fiance said our response. So she respond that next two weeks they wanted us on Zoom meetings talking about what our story what we do, and they're like, can we fly? And can we have you come up to LA and do a little thing and did it and then all sudden we're on this show called the pack on amazon prime, which is just like amazing race but with your dog. So 12 contestants underdogs travel the world trying to win half a million dollars doing all these adventures and cities and clues and trying to get to the finish line. And it was a great, great time.
This is amazing. Yeah. Wow. And there was a billboard here. We had a
billboard in Sunset Boulevard in LA and in. Times Square in New York. Wow. We base derby is actually a world traveler. He's traveled he's been to Mexico City, Costa Rica. Vienna, Austria, interlocking Switzerland, Florence, Italy. Paris, London. Yeah, we I mean, if you ever get a chance to watch it, there's 10 We're on every episode. It's 10 episodes. I won't tell you if we want or not. Okay, but there are 10 episodes and we're on every one of them. But yeah, there's Derby and I right there rafting down the river in Costa Rica. I just love this so much. We did some crazy stuff. We flew in a helicopter above la we we repelled down the face of a waterfall with Derby head dangling through my legs. We climbed to the top of the O to Arena in London. We were on top of the Swiss Alps and Switzerland. Oh, wow. So we did some a lot of crazy things. So but it was a fun adventure. I got to meet so many new friends.
And this one the forest this dog here
know that his his wife snow. And that's a whole nother story. So throughout the show, another owner, he's our good friend Josh. He's a groomer up in LA and he had a poodle named snow and he would die her in beautiful, different colors. And the producers are like star producers like you think they can be. They like each other that and actually did. They like to play together a lot. And they're like, I think they're boyfriend girlfriend. I'm like, yeah, they wouldn't say that. But they actually really do like each other live. And so they did a storyline about them come in boyfriend and girlfriend. Why? And then after the show, all the fans would send us drawings of Derby and snow and we're like, do you think they'll ever get married and so so me and seven of our other cast mates from the show decided to do an RV trip across the country sponsored by dog TV. And we started on the East Coast made her way all the way across the country and seven days. One of the stops was Las Vegas. At the little white wedding chapel what or Derby and snow got married by an Elvis impersonator. Wow, there's some pictures on there. But it's further back in our Instagram. But yeah, they got married on dog TV.
Let's go. Let's go to your Instagram. Yeah. Share this real quick
with her. Yeah, and our Instagram is Derby, California. Alright, so let's go back.
So that was a couple of years ago, so you got to go back if you okay cool. But yeah, he's amazing. Yeah, I've got the bat here. Yeah, he's always safety's a big part of stock surfing. What? Oh, this is great. The Golden State Golden Gate Bridge up and see if so that's one of the one of the competitions is up there in Pacifica. Yeah. Ah, that's a great shot. Yeah. What are you guys flying? So we're on a hydrofoil in Hawaii.
Alright, so the wedding.
Yeah, you're gonna have to go back a while it's still part of a thing. You got to go back. That's no she's pink in there. Well, yesterday, we did a thing with a Kimpton hotels and they invited us for the weekend to stay at a hotel. So we got to Padres games. Right here. It was our friend, our other surf buddy, Rothstein. He's a surf dog, too.
This is too good. And folks, if you haven't been to Ocean Beach, there's a beach called dogs beach yet, which I always take friends to and I tell them it's going to be the happiest place
on there. Yes, it's one of the biggest dog beaches where it's off leash. I even tell people who visit I was like, Dude, if you love dogs, you've got to go to dog beach and just watch all these dogs playing in the water playing in the sand with the other dogs. It's amazing. Yeah,
if therapy is not working for you. Yes, totally. You're gonna be happy right away totally and see the dogs bring the human Humans owners there.
Yes, it's such a fun time. This is one of Derby's best ways right here if you want to hit that one. This is him doing solo. Live in Huntington Beach. Wow. And then he jumps off right when he knows. There's a GoPro on board actually lost that GoPro and that was really Oh, yeah, that's one of his best ways. He's had singles. But during the competitions, there's three divisions. There's so low, which they they we push them into a wave. There's tandem Dog Dog where they serve with other dogs. And then there's tandem dog human. So we compete in all three of them. Wonderful. Wow. There is this girl right there to
strike impose. Yeah.
I was on a jail. I was on a Jay Leno Show called. You bet your life because of the show. Wow. Jay Leno. So it's a basically a five question show that Jay Leno does. And I became a contestant, a producer kind of found me afterwards, probably last year, two years ago. And I get there. And I see all these other contestants. And I'm talking to him, and they're like, how did you get on the show? Everybody's like, oh, I submitted a form a couple years ago, or a couple months ago, they've clicked and everything. Oh, I put in a film. And then they come to me. And they're like, in, they find people who do kind of crazy things. And mine was dog surfing. And they asked, Well, how did you get here? And I said, I said did you apply? And I was like no, they asked me to be here. And they were like, what? Like, yeah, you all didn't get asked to be here. And you're like, No. And I was like, yeah, they they were like, what do you do? And I told him I was like my dog serve? And they're like, No way. So. And the funny cool thing about it is I talked to one of the producers, the main producers, and he talks to me right before we're about to go on. He goes I mean, I love your energy. I love the thing. He said, Did they tell you how you got on the show? I said no. I just kind of got asked to be honest. He said. So Jay and I were taking a break. And we were watching the news. And we still one of your dog competitions was on the news. And we saw you and your Donald surfing. And Jay looked at me and said, Go find that guy. Because I want him on the show. So like just dog surfing is brought so much cool stuff for SBR and make things happen. It's so amazing. Then they had you up on the screen. Yeah, they're talking about like what I do and what we do. And like, we ended up me and my partner ended up winning winning some money. So it was pretty cool. I wish it was Derby could have come but this one possible. All
right. All right. Very cool. All right. So let's keep scrolling is awesome. Yeah, that's congrats on that. Yeah,
totally. This is some art that people have sent us a couple of things. I had to go back even further. This is our RV trip went to Nashville with some of our contestants right here that were on the Amazon show. Oh, we stopped in Nashville. What alive? Yeah, cool tattoo, bro. Yeah, man. I got an arm tattoo. We met Lance Bass at a dog dog thing from a what's the name? Oh, my blanking on that Backstreet Boys.
Oh, that's cool. Nice. Nice.
Love this shot right here. Oh, this is great.
Yeah, we're stuffed in a car when we're going on a trip. This one is him and his girl or paddleboard. We were paddle boating
man. match made in heaven. Yeah.
We're at the Grand Canyon. Back in Kentucky for a while. We became a therapy dog team also. So we this is what we do. Here we go to schools and hospitals and nursing homes. Oh, wow. Okay. You know, because we're all about helping people out. No. Need a little extra that day. Yes. So we go to schools we actually we go to like UCSD and help students during like midterms and stuff like add to the stress and stuff like that. So it's been fun.
All right. And this is amazing. I used to live in I still still still therapy routing. Okay, awesome. So folks, you listening watching? Yeah, you know, there'll be some.
We're on Netflix show called pet stars because of basically, dog surfing. So they kind of saw us surfing at one of our competitions and asked us to be a part of the show. And we're like, yeah, totally.
Wow. This is amazing. Mohawk is.
Yeah, so it's cool to be on that. You see, we get to both get the same glasses, we kind of have a sunglass problem, because if I buy one pair, I'm gonna buy two.
That's a good problem. So folks, if you own a i, air, sunglass company.
Love to work with the sunglasses. Yeah. So yeah, it would be amazing. Yes. Yes.
Also sponsors here. All right. Cool. So let's keep scrolling looking for that.
Yeah, yeah, we were on that show in 2020. Yeah, they were at the taking a nap together. I love the fact we bought we still get fan art from all over. I just got a fan art from two boys from Johannesburg, South Africa. So this was fan art. This has been art from another fan but we just got one I haven't been posted yet but like yeah, we still get fan art from people all over the world. Wow. Yeah, so yeah, we're all about just connecting with our fans and having a good time.
Oh, wow man his girlfriend really? Jets production. Yes,
definitely a purple. Yeah. Hey Josh louder. So this is when I this is when Derby asked about. Well, that came up on James Corden show and we didn't even make that happen. They found that Oh, wow. They were talking that they were talking about dogs with sunglasses. Also, he just flipped this up. Just said just made a joke about it. So like we didn't even somebody else had to tell us that had happened. Wow. If we go this is one of Derby asked snow to marry him. We did a video
then, so I think if we go back, if we go up low for it, we'll probably see pictures from the wedding. I just got to see where I put them suckers. If not, you definitely find them on our stuff. I just don't know where where those things were.
Well, this has given him a more recent Isn't it like
older? Well, he asked to get married. That's Yes, the merrier. So it probably further up. Okay. Yeah, guys, so it'd be further up. I'm about to just pass it. I just didn't see it. Keep going down, down as soon as I noticed, though, I recognize it.
There's the honeymoon. That was one
out. Is there she is. There's another version of her. Where is that wedding photo? That's me and my fiance getting engaged all Yeah, this is it. Yeah, that's it sounds like cliffs right down the street. Wow. Yeah, I have a truck with a deck on top. We sit up there and watch the sunset go down. If you ever come to San Diego, definitely check out sunset cliffs. It's amazing. It's beautiful. What the best sunsets I've seen in the world. Absolutely. Man. Thank you. Yeah. And I tell people. So we have a business called Derby, California. And it's an LLC. And I tell people I'm the founder of Derby, California. But my fiancee, Kenya is the CEO. She makes all the decisions. And I'm just the face manorbier Just the face.
That is that is just remarkable. Yeah, that's awesome. Thank you. So let's see. So talked about a little about the Amazon Amazon picked you up then Netflix, a few other TV shows. You wrote the book. You told me one of the reasons was to bring smiles Yes, people tell me it's a kids book. Do you have? Do you have kids?
I do not. And we are in the process of getting married this year. And we've already been talking about it can't wait to be a stay at home dad. Yes. I've already told my fiance I was like, I can't wait to be a dad. But I would rather be a stay at home dad. And you know, maybe that will happen. I don't know. But like that would be amazing. But like everybody else's kids like if we go to like parties and people's kids there and it was like, Hey, what's up like now? I'm gonna go play with them over and jumpy bounce house? Yes. So it's just I don't know, I just relate them a little bit better and everything else. But yeah, I can't wait to have kids.
Absolutely. Same. Same here. Same here. So kids book, do you have the message? What is the message of the book?
The various messages? Basically, what what would you say? Well, in the message of our book,
building confidence, doing what you didn't think you could do. Exactly. Knowing there's people around you that love you and will support you while you're doing those things. And it's all good all the time.
I'll get all the time. That's another one of our models. I'll give that time like here. Give me a sticker right now. Every California. Thank you. Oh, good all the time.
Oh, good all the time. Yeah, I gotta get one of those more hot.
So yeah, but yeah, it's just been amazing ride. We're hoping it still keeps going. But you know, if not, I'm still gonna go surf with my best friend. And they put smiles on people's faces
and to search for the intention of your stay at home dad.
Yeah, what needs to happen?
One, my fiance shouldn't be wife needs to make more money. Or we need to sell a lot more books. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So that's probably the thing but like I said, if it doesn't happen, if not, I'm gonna have so much fun with my little ones and everything. And hopefully, you know, if derby is still around, which I hope it will be amazing. If not, you know, we'll have we'll always have dogs in our lives. So,
yes, absolutely.
Have you thought about how many kids?
Oh, no, not yet. I mean, we still gotta get the first one done. And see how that goes. But I'm sure it's gonna go Amazing.
Awesome. Yeah, very cool. And I you mentioned that one of the gifts You can give to two schools here in the San Diego area is for them to have you come and speak to them. Yeah. So tell us more about Yeah. So
ever since the book came out, you know, I've always wanted to read the schools and go to schools with derby. That's one reason we became a therapy dog team, too. So that, you know, he gets used to being around people in situations like schools, hospitals. And we would love to go national like travel around and go from state to state say, Hey, we're in your city in the teachers reach out if you'd love for us to come do a book reading we have we had started making sending out author visit packages. If you're interested or no, no teacher, email us at Derby california@gmail.com. And we can send you an author's package of what it entails, what we do, how it works, and everything else. But that would be our my main goal. I love working with my friends, Glen, being a handyman, but like, if I could hang out with my dog every day would be a dream.
Awesome. Yes. And so Glen, is was the co author. Yes.
Awesome. Like I said, like, when I was trying to figure out how to do this children's book thing, like I hadn't don't know what I was doing. And that just that one day after work, I was just kind of hanging out. And he was just like, what's going on with you and derbies like, Man, I don't know, just, you know, we're kind of still doing the hoodies, we're still doing our thing. But I really want to make this children's book. And I've tried with people and it just didn't work. Like there wasn't a connection or their vision wasn't really my vision. And that's how we really became really good friends. Because I would, I'd work come in and we'd hang out and just start typing it out. I'd be like, Alright, I got an idea. And he'd start typing, like, let me type something. He typed I type and then he'd read it back to me like, yes, and he can't. And he got my understanding of like, how I wanted it to flow. And then we would go back and forth about stuff. And we found an amazing illustrator. And I'm a firm believer of putting things out there, just like this podcast, putting things out there in the world and just see what happens. I'd recently for our Illustrator, I reached out to our fans on Instagram and Facebook and said, Hey, we're doing a children's book. If you know somebody or if you're an illustrator, that'd be interested, let me know. We had 30 Some people say, Yeah, I know somebody or Yeah, I would love to be your Illustrator. Wow, I broke it down to 10 looked at their stuff. I've had those 10 people said, Hey, what how draw me how you think dirty me now we're looking at as a cartoon or a children's book. And we got so many different genres. It was so amazing. And but we settled on one and she was amazing. Ashley was lives in Florida. And she had she's an illustrator for her work, but she had never done a book was somebody else, an author. And she worked so well together and knew our vision. And it turned out so well. And the cool thing I'd love to tell people about our book. It's kind of an interactive book. Nowadays, I can go into a school and to ask these kids, do you know what QR codes are? And because of the pandemic, everybody knows what QR codes are. Now you take your phone, you put a QR code on there, and it takes you to somewhere on a website. There are five or six QR codes throughout the book that the kids can use their parents phones. If they on the page, they use their kids phones, it will take them to a three minute video of us doing what's on the page. Wow. So there's a part where Derby not meet and he's a puppy? Well, there's a video of Derby when I didn't really see him as puppy. There's videos of him as a puppy. When the day we first met, getting our hair done at the same time. Derby learning tricks. Derby and surfing Derby riding around our motorcycle socket. So it's like an interactive book because people are always like, is this real? And then you can literally take your phone, it'll take you to our YouTube page, and it will show a video of us doing
that for real. Wow. Very interesting.
Yeah. So it's an awesome book. I don't think anybody else has ever done it before. I've never heard of that. So it's been it's been amazing. So but yeah, that's that's what you get in storage is not just a story. It's actually a real thing.
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. I'm just wondering, imagining here, folks and families that have just adopted a puppy or to have you know, a dog and they want to create a new relationship between the kids and a dog. Yeah. Or even adults. Adults should buy this
instead of having the you know, the
motto that it's all good all the time. Yeah.
It's all good all the time. I'll get all the time. Yeah, that's what we live by and like just want to just make people happy and put smiles on people's faces. There's a coloring we have a coloring books were it's basically the same story, but now the kids can change Derby's Mohawk Color.
Love this. Yeah. Cool. What is say something that you you want to leave the audience with a message. Something that you know, you can look back in time and go you know what, that's still still true. 10 years in the future. 20 years in the future? Yeah,
I mean, everybody's gonna like it's one of those things where, if you're growing up and I was young you'd like things started getting hard. And you just think this is only happening to me. And it's hard to get through somebody who's young, even if I talked to myself from if I could talk to myself, you know, 15 years ago and be like, Hey, this is what I'd still wouldn't believe, like, whatever. That's not, that's never gonna happen to me. And I like to tell people like, Hey, man, it's gonna be tough times and tough struggles. And, you know, you think you can do it yourself. You're, it's, you're, you're young, and you're bold. And you're like, Yeah, this doesn't bother me, it flips everybody else, but it affects everybody in a different way, or a different manner. And there's times you can go really South quickly. And I just want people to know that, hey, you know, if you don't have a dog, be there to talk to reach out to people, people always want to help family members, friends, they don't want to see their, you know, their loved ones, in a state that they just can't get out of it like this depression, it's part of it. But think, just know that you don't have to do it, you're alone. And there's always gonna be somebody that's going to be there to help you.
I love that. So much, Glenn. Anything else that we need to touch on as the audience here and as the co author?
Nope. We just, we want people to know about the book share with the kids. Have fun with it. And hopefully, we've already got two more books planned. And in the idea stage, the eventual goal is cartoon TV or movie. Yeah. I don't know if we'll make it but we're shooting for it. Yes,
absolutely. So since we're here any, who would you guys like to have as connections? Who would you like to meet any anyone in the world if it was possible, so to speed up the implementation of your ideas and dreams. So
the big thing is, is like I said, like throwing things out there in the world and just seeing who listens, and you just never know. Yeah, and we've met a lot of cool people who've helped us in certain ways. But like right now, you know, with this first book, we were able to do a Kickstarter, just on our own self, publish it, everything pay for it with the Kickstarter, and we raised, we're able to raise over $12,000. And that was so amazing, all our fans were able to come together and really help us want to achieve our goal. And through that, we got our 2000 books, and we've already sold 1000 of them in the last five months. And it's been so awesome that people are really gravitated to it. But if we want to take you to that next level, we really need to get a maybe get a publisher involved, just to kind of reach a broader audience help us know, think about like how we're going to do these other I would love to do a series. Because even though I tell people if you read the book, you know, the first part of the book, Derby doesn't call me Kentucky, he calls me the man with the blue Mohawk. And but at the end, he feels comfortable enough to me, he starts calling me his best friend, Kentucky. And it's an act. And I kind of got that from Curious George because I'm Curious George, he has his friend, the man in the yellow hat. And I was like, Man, I made a nod to that because I was like, Man, this is how I want this book to kind of live on and Bailey do basically do a series of Derby goes to the firehouse or Derby goes to his first day of school Derby learn Spanish. I mean, I'm pretty sure he can learn Spanish a lot better than I could. I mean, I kind of struggle through it.
Yeah, keep talking. So but now,
that's what we would love to spawn somebody, a producer or somebody in the book industry that can kind of point us in the right direction or know somebody who knows somebody because like I said, I'm all about throwing it out there in the universe and to see what happens, but it's still working on trying to make our goals a reality. Yeah,
Glenn, any publisher? They
work with? Publisher? Not necessarily but if you ask me do I want Ryan Reynolds? Yeah. The most awesome voice in the world for derby? Yeah. So and you know, he produces he acts. That would be the contact I would want, right? Yeah.
Alright, so Brian, please get in touch with with with Kentucky. What's What's your contact?
Email us at Derby california@gmail.com.
So yeah, so let's see here. What I have anything else before we start closing this amazing. We got gifts. Yeah. So we have the gifts which is your visit to schools. So if
you sell for this, I'm sorry for this podcast if you're listening. If you buy a buy a book and email me if you would like to visit the first two people who buy a book and respond to us, we will do a free office visit to a school here in San Diego.
Awesome, awesome. If you're not, they can still hire you to go and do.
We do virtual to virtual visits. We've done virtual class visits all over the United States, including Canada.
An awesome, very cool walk in Tokyo. Been a pleasure. Thank you
so much, man. We had so much fun. Yeah, I want to give you one of our cards.
thing. Yeah. Follow me. Yeah, check out this right here. I love to meet derby. Yeah.
I mean, we're around OB hopefully one day we'll come by and say, hey,
I'll meet you at the derby. Yeah, totally. Totally. Glen, any less less words?
Yes. We want to say hello to all the kids out there. We pick the love of this book, we think their parents and teachers will. And it's just a great story of doing what you love and being supported by the people around you. And we think it's a it's unique, it's fun, and kids seem to like it. They asked it to be read over and over again and Kentucky loves reading.
I love it. So well, Kentucky thanks again. And folks, get in touch with the links below by the book. If you are an educator works within a school, then get in touch with Kentucky and get the be the first one or two to to get that gift so that you can have the author's visit in your school and impact your children. And thanks for tuning in Share, Like Comment below with some things that you take away from this conversation. And remember to live freely, freely daily and add love, growth and freedom to your life. Thanks again for joining us till next time bye for now.