How to Make Your Dreams Come True with Blues Clues Creator Angela Santomero [Episode #871]

This week’s topic: How to Make Your Dreams Come True with Blues Clues Creator Angela Santomero

I am thrilled to share my conversation with you here today with the amazing Angela Santomero who is the author of the new book, Life Clues, Unlocking the Lessons to an Exceptional Life. Angela is an amazing creator. I am so excited to chat with her specifically about her creative power and birthing these incredible Emmy Award winning shows such as “Blue’s Clues” and “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.” What I love about her new book is that it gives so many useful tips about…..

Topics Covered

03:00 Angela’s inspiration to help children through television
06:27 Maintaining integrity and values in children’s television
08:33 The importance of saying goodbye and showing respect
10:29 The timeless nature of the clues in Angela’s book
12:20 The power of accepting and loving oneself
13:52 The importance of truly listening and seeing others
15:34 Being upfront and authentic in relationships
20:15 The value of slowing down and doing nothing together
23:45 Embracing beingness over doingness
24:32 Intrinsic motivation and staying inspired
26:07 Maintaining a Vision
27:17 Balancing Vision and Feedback
28:30 Overcoming Challenges
29:16 Finding Inspiration and Solutions
30:46 Learning from Childhood Experiences
31:35 Empowering Children’s Voices
32:06 The Impact of Personal Loss
33:34 Seizing the Moment
35:19 Transitioning Traditions
36:37 Parenting Teenagers
37:47 Teaching Life Lessons
39:21 Being Present
40:43 Managing Screen Time
43:54 The Importance of Playfulness
46:03 Maintaining Joy and Authenticity
47:23 Remembering to Pause

About Angela Santomero

Angela C. Santomero, Creator & Executive Producer of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, Blue’s Clues, Blue’s Clues & You, Wishenpoof, Creative Galaxy, Super Why, etc has been changing the way children watch TV for over twenty years. She is the Creator & Exec. Producer for award winning kids and family content for PBS, Nickelodeon, Amazon Studios, Apple, Paramount +, etc.

With a Masters in Child Developmental Psychology from Columbia University Teacher’s College, Angela’s vision for integrating educational curriculum into entertaining content for kids led her to cо-create, executive produce and head write Nick Jr.’s landmark series, Blue’s Clues.

Malcolm Gladwell referred to Blue’s Clues as “One of the stickiest TV shows EVERmade”, in The Tipping Point.

In 2022 Angela went on to Write & Produce the Paramount+ live-action/ animated musical comedy film, Blue’s Big City Adventure. Paramount+/ Nickelodeon received one of their highest number of streams for the blockbuster film!

Angela is the recipient of the prestigious Peabody Award for Outstanding Children’s Programming as well as several gold and silver Parents’ Choice Awards.

Her book PRESCHOOL CLUES: Raising Smart, Inspired and Engaged Kids in a Screen-Filled World (Touchstone) was released April 2018. In 2019 Angela wrote RADICAL KINDNESS (foreword by Deepak Chopra). In February 2024, Ms. Santomero penned her third book for adults, “Life Clues: Unlocking the Lessons to an Exceptional Life”

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Angela Santomero Website:

AngelasClues.com

Angela Santomero’s Book

Life Clues: Unlocking the Lessons to an Exceptional Life

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Transcript:

Note: The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate. This is due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.

Kimberly Snyder (00:01.08)

Namaste loves and welcome back for our Monday interview show. I am thrilled to share my conversation with you here today with the amazing Angela Santomira, who is the author of the new book, Life Clues, unlocking the lessons to an exceptional life. Angela is an amazing creator. I am so excited to chat with her specifically about her creative power and creating these incredible things.

Emmy award -winning shows such as Blue’s Clues and Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, all of us parents. And I think most people in general have heard of these shows. And what I love about her book, which is really digestible, really accessible, is that it’s really from the heart. And I could feel, I could just feel so much incredible connection. There’s so many useful tips in this book.

Angela continues to create to this day. She’s so passionate. She’s incredible. And those of us that know these shows know that there’s so much heart, there’s so many lessons behind these characters that she’s created. And also she shares in this book how she was able to put her dreams into reality in the first place, which are all topics that we get so many questions here on our Feel Good podcast about. So Angela, thank you so much for being here with us today. We are so excited to chat with you.

Angela Santomero (01:28.846)

excited to chat with you as well. I’m a fan.

Kimberly Snyder (01:32.122)

And I will say that I’m waving if you guys can see this, our show is now up on YouTube. We’ve had the show for years on Apple, Spotify, wherever you listen. So if you love to listen in while you’re walking your dog or driving, of course that’s available. But if you want to watch us have our conversation, you can also check it out on our YouTube channel. I also want to say that we will have the show notes today show as always on mysolluna.com.

You can check out direct links to Angela’s work as well as other shows I think you would enjoy. Recipes, articles, guided meditations, everything is over there on our main hub, mysolluna.com. All right, all that being said, Angela, wow, when we put these shows together in a sentence, Blue’s Clues, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, there’s many others that you’ve created as well, it feels so impressive and amazing that you’ve been able to take these ideas and put them into a format that so many millions of people can see. And I love how in the beginning of the book, you talk about one of your guiding stars was being an advocate for children in a business run by adults. And so there’s another part of the story that I love. You talk about how one of your friends was working for Sesame Street.

So then you just got this idea to help children through television. Tell us a little bit about these seeds, these incredible inspirations you had, and then your journey to help. I mean, it’s such a big topic, but some of the parts of making this an amazing reality.

Angela Santomero (03:17.582)

Oh, thank you. I come from a family of educators, of teachers, and so I was around it for so long. I was an avid reader. You I was just someone who enjoyed getting all the information. And as a babysitter, a preschool teacher, I was always around kids. And so bringing both of those things together and realizing the power of media, right? I was a big Mr. Rogers fan.

Kimberly Snyder (03:42.242)

Mmm.

Angela Santomero (03:42.382)

As a little kid, I have a little brother who was born when I was 14. So I watched him watch his shows. And I thought, wouldn’t it be amazing if we could put the very best curriculum into the medium of television and figure out how to link everything. At the time we were talking about in the research I have in masters in child development, we’re talking about how television, you know, when you’re watching something on video, you’re not necessarily reading, right? So how do we celebrate both? How do we, how do we do that? And so.

That became just a question that I had that I continued to research to figure out what could we do? How could this work? And then when one of my friends in the psychology club in college said he was going to go work at Sesame, I was like, oh my God, that’s how everything could come together. But no, I did not get the job at Sesame Street, even though I interviewed like three different times for the same position. So my dreams were, that was it, it was over, but.

Kimberly Snyder (04:27.202)

Mmmmm.

Angela Santomero (04:38.658)

Obviously when one door closes, another one opens and Nickelodeon was really brand new and they were figuring out their identity. And so I got to work in the research department there right out of school. And so everything kind of started to bubble up from there in terms of watching how the business works and how much it would be like how much like it would be amazing to be that kid voice and that advocate at a table of executives who are making decisions for kids television. And there were very few of us, you know, who really had that mindset. And so I think it really did give me like a different kind of approach to getting into media.

Kimberly Snyder (05:17.146)

Was this happening before or after you became a mother yourself?

Angela Santomero (05:21.934)

It’s a great question before, way before. So it was, so it was just, I would get that question all the time. Like, how is it that you can really think about what a four -year -old makes, what makes them laugh, what makes them think? And, you know, I studied them and I love them. They’re just so brilliant. Little kids, the idea to give them a voice and make sure they’re heard was just kind of something I’ve always wanted to do. And I didn’t have kids until…

Kimberly Snyder (05:24.204)

Wow.

Kimberly Snyder (05:35.02)

Yeah.

Angela Santomero (05:49.006)

with Blue’s Clues was already in production for maybe about seven years and we were transitioning from Steve to Joe and I was transitioning into being a mom.

Kimberly Snyder (05:58.906)

Wow. And then I’m getting goosebumps. I love the story in the book where you shared how you were at some kind of meeting or celebration for Fred Rogers. And he came in and you were so emotional because he had been such a inspiration to you. And they said, oh, you know, Angela’s created Blue’s Clues. And he said, this is one of the only shows that I like, you know, that moment of. And but also what struck me is in a world where, um,

You know, as a parent, so careful. My kids watch very little still. We go to Waldorf. We don’t have screens. We don’t own TVs. So we’re very introducing it very, very slowly. But there’s so much entertainment and things that are flashy and can catch attention and just to sell ads. But you kept this integrity of I want these characters to be kind. I want there to be lessons. And you found a way to integrate that your message, your inspiration, even in this world where there’s so much media and so many choices. So did you have to really, I imagine in boardrooms and when things were getting created, you really had to stand behind those principles, right? Because things can get compromised, especially when there’s viewers and dollars at stake.

Angela Santomero (07:15.822)

Totally, and I think that what we tried to do, what I tried to do, is bring that silence, that pause, that slowed down message to our, to Blue’s Clues was the first show, right? And so that really cut through what everything else was on television, right? All of the, and I don’t want to say everything, but there was a lot to be said about Kids’ TV in terms of flashy, as you’re saying, and a little bit more, and we just calmed it all down.

Kimberly Snyder (07:24.28)

Mm -mm.

Kimberly Snyder (07:37.482)

Yes.

Angela Santomero (07:41.43)

differentiating factor. And I was also a firm believer in research because that’s where I come from. And so I would take scripts into classrooms and read them to kids and understand what was working and what wasn’t working and also what they were learning, what they weren’t learning. But for the network, it was an insurance policy. It’s like, I can see if there are problems, I can fix it before it gets to air. So we knew.

Kimberly Snyder (07:51.788)

Mmmmm.

Angela Santomero (08:04.942)

that the show was already getting some momentum even before it was on the air. We knew the content was going to work, you know? And so I think that was also important, of course, for someone who had never done TV before to make sure that they understood that what we were trying to do was going to at least have a sense of being successful as well. Because we do know that the network, you know, it is a business, right? And so I had to know that if we can make it work for Nickelodeon, we could keep making more of our…

of our shows, we could keep saying what we want to say to kids. And the first season of Blue’s Clues, if you watch it with this mindset, it’s like everything I’d ever want to say to kids for these 20 episodes in case I never get to do it ever again. It was that desperation. And we ended up, of having 10 seasons. So it was an amazing to be able to sit back and say, OK, what do we want to say to kids now? And how do we segment it every season?

Kimberly Snyder (08:41.506)

Mmm.

Kimberly Snyder (08:56.634)

Incredible. And now you’re writing these profound lessons to share with everyone, to share with adults, to share with the world. And I love, in the beginning, you also said kids are our greatest teachers. And a lot of the ways in which you framed the language for the beginning of The Clues, which I loved, I read the entire book about, you know, buddying up and you can do anything you want to do.

There’s things that you know, we’re taught as children or sometimes naturally come forth in children and they can get dampened down or, you know, just different parenting styles or whatever happened to us. So it’s funny, Angela, when the way I parent my kids, sometimes I tell them things and I feel like I’m telling myself or my inner child or how I might have wanted to have been parented. It’s almost like I’m reinforcing and shifting my own childhood through my kid’s childhood. So.

Anyways, I really connected to a lot of what you wrote here. And I love how there’s 20 clues and it’s easy to get through each section. So for anyone that’s a busy person, you could read like one or two clues a day and sort of contemplate it or sit with it. My first question though is, are these clues one, like now where you’re sitting at this, you know, in this juncture in your life, would you say that these clues are different from when you started blues clues back in the day, or have these been your guiding principles for a few decades, years now?

Angela Santomero (10:29.9)

You know, they were, they were part of my handy dandy notebook for years in the sense of things that would continue to come up, right? And so there are so many different kinds of these messages that are still relevant to my adult children. You know, I started realizing that I needed them to manage disappointment in a way that was fruitful, right? And sometimes when you couch it in nostalgia, you couch it in a little bit of a safe kind of jingle that feels a little silly or funny or whatever.

Kimberly Snyder (10:44.186)

Yes.

Angela Santomero (10:58.542)

we can diffuse with humor, then they’re more likely to remember that message and take it in and put it in their own way. And I just started to realize that these are all things that we can remind ourselves as well, right? Because we can get so caught up in everything that’s going on and life is hard and we’re so busy. How do we find the joy? How do we remember the journey, right? And it’s hard. It’s not an easy thing. And so when I went back to look through the themes that just continued to resonate over 25 years.

I came up with these 20 that I felt are the most important that you can then think about not only when you’re talking to your preschooler, but talking to your inner child as you get older, as you’re going through all of these life’s big, messy situations.

Kimberly Snyder (11:40.794)

Incredible. And I love how the first one, it starts right off the bat, and this was one of my favorites, is I like you just the way you are. And you talk about how Fred Rogers and Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood would emphasize this. And in a world now, Angela, with social media, and there’s so many visual comparisons, and there’s so much lack -based thinking or ideas or feeling like we have to be something other than we are more than ever, we need this message that who we are is more than the surface. It’s more than the numbers. It’s more than what we look like. And I love that you start the book off this way.

Angela Santomero (12:20.878)

It was something that I needed to hear so much as a preschooler. It was just a beautiful message to have him, Mr. Rogers, Fred Rogers, look directly to the camera and look at me and say that. It just, it really was something that struck me about how amazing that kind of message is. And of course, in real life, that’s all we want to say to people and our actions. And when we’re having these conversations with kids and with other adults, it’s like, I’m accepting you. I’m liking you just for who you are. There’s no judgment.

Kimberly Snyder (12:33.24)

Mm.

Angela Santomero (12:48.11)

There’s unconditional love and support for the network that we have. And it’s amazing how much we need to say those words. Like there’s an assumption that we of course love you, of course we care, but sometimes we don’t say it. And just those words are as powerful, right? As a hug, as you know, all of those things. And so it’s just really, it’s really important. It’s been something that I’ve carried with me since I was little.

Kimberly Snyder (12:56.352)

Mm -hmm.

Kimberly Snyder (13:10.938)

Mmm. To feel, you also talk about to being seen and being really heard, which I think a lot of us don’t really fully experience in childhood. And it’s not because, you know, our parents were bad, everyone’s doing their best, but sometimes people don’t get that from a child, from their childhood. So it gets passed on intergenerationally, or perhaps they’re busy or not fully present. You cover all these topics. One of the things you say is you can really show love by really listening to someone and really hearing them and seeing them child or adult or whoever. And what a gift it is when people hear and listen to us.

Angela Santomero (13:52.906)

Completely and even especially when we don’t necessarily share the same views, right? And so having that conversation and listening to understand why someone is feeling a certain way or understanding why, you know, somebody is being upset that day or grumpy or why is grandpa, you know, like just asking the questions and being in that moment to truly feel that that you feel understood too, right? Because if you have a different point of view, you’re really in that.

Kimberly Snyder (13:58.424)

Yeah.

Angela Santomero (14:20.918)

conversation and trying to understand and instead of argue. And I just find that to be something that can bring us together versus separate us, which is of course what seems to be happening more and more.

Kimberly Snyder (14:33.498)

I noticed that you use the word heart quite a lot in the book, which is where my work is going and my next few books are about Angela. And you just organic, I don’t know if you realize how much you wrote it, but it’s organically coming from this deeper place. Like you said, unity, connection versus separation and what that would do for the world. The more of us tune into that. And then kind of going out, these are sprinkled throughout the clues. I was just writing some of my favorite moments here, talk about the importance of saying goodbye. And which, which I think is, you know, indicative of deeper things, really respect and showing up. Because a lot of times parents will try to sneak away and oh, you know, let me just get they’re playing, let me leave at this moment, but actually authentic and being upfront and showing up and really saying what’s going on. So that’s what the

The clue is entitled, but there’s more to that, isn’t there?

Angela Santomero (15:34.254)

Yeah, and I think the idea that we’re respecting that time and that we’re not taking you off guard and it might make it harder for me, let’s say, as that parent who is dealing with separation anxiety, it might make it harder for you in that minute. But the better that you can make that transition transparent, the more likely that that kids will grow up without that level of fear or separation anxiety or realize that grownups will come back, know that they’re taken care of, they’re good, they’re okay. All of those things are so important. I also feel that people’s true colors are seen during some of the most conflict of moments, right? And so how something is handled when people are let go, how something’s handled when there’s bad behavior going on. And that’s kind of all part of that level of respect and understanding that I feel so passionately about.

Kimberly Snyder (16:17.812)

Exactly.

Kimberly Snyder (16:27.002)

It’s character, right? We hear a lot about nowadays people ghosting people on dating apps, or, you know, my husband had a situation with a trainer where he just didn’t show up and then nothing was said. And this never feels good when we aren’t really being upfront and honest. There’s a lot of character building.

Angela Santomero (16:49.312)

No way.

Absolutely, and I think that, you know, there’s nothing we can, we can’t learn from any of those situations. And if we are empaths, let’s say, I am now worried that something happened to you, you know, like now I’m invested in like what happened that can’t be something that you just left or ghosted or didn’t show up. And I get very much so that feeling of, again, respecting like, okay, it didn’t work out for us. I know that’s hard to hear, but you need to know, you know, like whatever that is, it’s so much easier when we put it on a table and we can.

Kimberly Snyder (17:02.298)

Yes.

Angela Santomero (17:19.61)

digested and it’s not easier for you the one who’s got to say the bad news necessarily, but it’s in the long run. In the long run, you’d want the same thing back, right?

Kimberly Snyder (17:29.466)

Yes, I mean, this goes deeper and deeper. There’s a lot of people that, you know, in the past, I’ve also done this in the workplace and personally where it’s hard to say goodbye or end a relationship. So you end up staying in longer and then it’s not good for anybody. Right. The healthy thing is to see it, to face it and to just have that courage to stand up for what’s right, because ultimately you can free yourself and the other person. So there’s many layers to these clues.

Angela Santomero (17:31.726)

I know, I know.

Angela Santomero (17:58.382)

So many layers. I mean, as a people pleaser, it’s so hard, right? But when you have those boundaries, it actually gets you to the decision way faster and people do respect that more. It’s like when you’re managing a group of people and you want to take everybody’s voice in, but then you have to make that decision, right? And I think that the more you belabor it, the less clear it becomes and you’re wasting everyone’s time if you think of it that way, as opposed to, I heard everybody, this is the direction we need to go in.

Kimberly Snyder (18:03.094)

Yes.

Angela Santomero (18:26.478)

It’s, you know, I wrote another book previously was called Radical Kindness, because there’s such a difference between being nice and being kind. And so that’s that kind of point of view about what we need, how we need to shift that thinking.

Kimberly Snyder (18:34.252)

Mmmmm.

Kimberly Snyder (18:40.922)

And when you’re really in your heart intelligence, you can be strong and you can also say what you need to say to get your needs met. You don’t have to be trampled upon. You can be very clear in your boundaries. And I think that’s an important differentiation. People think, oh, if I’m loving and kind, then I have to say yes to everything, or I can’t walk away or whatever it is. Say no, and that’s not true, is it? We can be resilient. We can take care of ourselves and be loving.

Angela Santomero (19:07.63)

And that’s part of the self -care, right? If we’re saying yes to everything for everyone else and you’re exhausted at the end of the week or the end of the day or whatever, because you’re running around after everyone else, then you’re not taking care of yourself. And that will happen in physical, obviously, ailments, but also in your, it’ll start to eat away at your point of view about things, right? You notice when people are overstretched and the level of stress.

continues to rise or their level of patience goes down, right? And so it’s like all of that kind of needing to fuel your own pump, is that the word? To fuel your own car too. It’s a big sure, yeah.

Kimberly Snyder (19:45.538)

Yeah!

There was in the chapter called Do Nothing Together, the recharge. I love this chapter because early on in being a parent, my kids are three and seven now, Angela. People parent in different ways and some people like to schedule a lot of things, a lot of classes, a lot of play dates. And I am more of an introvert. We moved up here to the mountains and we have space here. We also have a farm in Hawaii.

Angela Santomero (20:00.686)

Uh -uh. Good age.

Kimberly Snyder (20:15.386)

And my older son is more of an introvert as well. And so first I thought, oh, I’m supposed to schedule all this stuff. And then I sort of realized, and COVID helped me step back and say, you know what? I don’t have to. And even on the weekends, you know, we do things, we go to birthday parties and things, but a lot of times we just love playing at home. And I’ll say to him, you know, what do you want to do today? And he almost always says, I want to stay home today. And we do so much. We play outside, we make up games, we play a lot of chess.

And I think there’s something so freeing and healthy to really follow our gut and not just do what other people are doing, other parents or, you know, in general, our peers.

Angela Santomero (20:56.718)

Completely, I find that there’s so much social energy that it takes to go throughout your week that in order to have a slow down on the weekends versus filling them up in the same way that we fill up our week, it’s just a detriment even to our family bonding. Our girls are now 23 and 20 and we still have that sensibility of like we need a little bit of like a let’s all come together.

Kimberly Snyder (21:02.828)

Yes.

Kimberly Snyder (21:09.474)

Yeah.

Angela Santomero (21:23.374)

kind of calming moment as opposed to running around and doing a million things, which of course there are days we do that, but it is, it’s, I call it a pajama day. When we can have a pajama day, it’s my favorite.

Kimberly Snyder (21:32.034)

Yeah.

Kimberly Snyder (21:35.77)

Exactly. And also why, and you talked about sometimes we deprioritize things that make us happy. And that’s always made me happy is be, I love being home. I’m a homebody. And then I start to question, where did we get these ideas? Where did we take on ideas? You know, the weekend has to look a certain way, or I’m supposed to say yes to everything, whatever that programming was, wherever we are, we can step back and reevaluate, which is, you know, one of the beauty of your books and these clues is giving us an opportunity.

to question and say, hmm, I don’t have to do this. It was such an amazing moment when I was like, I don’t have to do all these millions of play dates. There’s no reason.

Angela Santomero (22:14.382)

It’s so true. There’s no reason. And also people that fill you up versus drain you, right? And so there’s some of that FOMO, not just for us, but for our kids. Like if I don’t take my kid to that exact soccer practice, they’re not going to be necessarily as good as the next person. And you’re just like, I need to get out of that mindset. There are seven, you know, like stop. And so that’s, you know, I notice now what’s interesting is the bond and the connection that we have as a family.

Kimberly Snyder (22:22.028)

Yes.

Angela Santomero (22:44.002)

because we spent that much time together, right? And I really do see that being a little bit of a difference. There’s no, you know, everyone does what they do, but I do enjoy knowing now that as adults that there’s still, you know, that bond there that I think is really, it’s just, it’s really important that we’re all there for each other. Not that, you know, the kids don’t fight and not that there’s all this craziness, but there is that, you know, there’s a beautiful moment of knowing that you can be in your space and be just yourself and not have to.

Kimberly Snyder (22:46.838)

Mmm.

Angela Santomero (23:14.038)

You know, be socially aware every two minutes. You know what I mean?

Kimberly Snyder (23:17.818)

That’s so priceless. Just this beingness masks off. Here we are. And not the doing, the doingness. So one thing I noticed when I was going through your book, Angela, I’m a student of Paramahansa Yogananda, which is what my last book was about, his teachings for modern life and yoga. And there were a lot of concepts that really did overlap this beingness, not doingness, which was so prevalent as a message in your book.

And then also I wrote down this in number six, specifically include number six, which is called use your mind, but you go into, you know, consistency and moving forward with your dreams. And this is a term that Yogananda called, which is dynamic will saying when you want to do something, when you want to create something, you have to decide it. And then you have to be consistent. It’s not like, Oh, I wanted to come up with these shows and it just kind of fell from the sky. There was a consistency. You talk about step.

by step moving forward, but we have to keep that focus as well. Can you talk a little bit about that journey? And I’m sure there were times where, you know, for all of us, it’s like, oh my gosh, this is a huge mountain to climb to get to this goal and what kept you going and how you stayed inspired.

Angela Santomero (24:32.494)

Yeah, that’s a great question. No, intrinsically motivated is something that we talk about a lot. The idea that I don’t want to be after you to practice the piano. The idea that you want to be practicing the piano would be the goal, right? And I think that’s what happened with me is the sense that what I was passionate about and what I wanted to do, I was intrinsically motivated by it. There was a moment when we were doing starting Blues Clues before it was on the air and I had this feeling that this has to work because I cannot go back.

to my other job. Like this is the most amazing thing, like having this ability to write something and see it come to fruition. And so because every step of the way was fascinating to me, even though it was hard, right? It was still really, I wanted to solve the problem. I want to figure it out. And as you can imagine, right, there’s the product, there’s the show that you’re really working on in that script. There’s the audience, which is the kids. And then there’s the network, which is a completely different audience that you need to.

Kimberly Snyder (25:09.528)

Mm.

Kimberly Snyder (25:29.786)

Hahaha!

Angela Santomero (25:31.246)

get them on your side and understand that this would be an investment worth making. And so, you know, each step, the idea that my village grew, you know, there were people that I could call on, that I could talk to, that I didn’t pretend to know all the answers, you know, really try to consistently make sure that I knew, you know, to the best of my ability, what was, what, what, what success looked like, you know, what does that look like for each, for each place? And then before you know it, it’s six years later, you know, which is,

Daniel Tiger took six years to make it to go from fun, you know, first concept to on the air, because that’s just how that’s different with regard to public television. And you need to get the funding and consistently talk about your vision and your message. But again, if you’re in it and you believe in it so much, it is like the time kind of goes and it’s a different thing, right? Like your first show versus your.

Kimberly Snyder (26:07.354)

Wow.

Angela Santomero (26:25.422)

Second, in like a book, it’s the same thing. It’s like when you have it and you’re able to spend a little more time writing the next one as opposed to everything is writing on this one thing. It’s like you never want that in any part of your life. You want to have a little bit more of a village or community, right? So that, you know, you can fall back on something if it doesn’t necessarily work or that it takes way longer than you thought that it would. But yeah, it’s experiencing that journey. And for me, that’s what kept me going.

Kimberly Snyder (26:54.842)

What can you teach us? What lessons can you teach us about holding true to your vision? You had a real strong guiding light with these characters, what you wanted to say, and then also working with this larger community of the network and people that had different ideas and people that were funding things. Where was that balance in this process for you?

Angela Santomero (27:17.966)

Um, the balance came from the research, I think it’s from my knowledge and expertise and point of view. Right. And so when I knew the answer, like when I had studied and I put, let’s say the specific show in front of kids, in front of parents, in front of teachers, right. And so teachers were my favorite because they didn’t watch TV, they didn’t like TV. And so if they liked what we were doing, that was a whole other level of endorsement. Right. And so I would collect that information and I would show.

So a lot of what we had to do was prove. And I wasn’t, you know, and I was like, all right, I’ll do it. Like, I know this is what you need to do in order to continue with your vision. And so I would consistently prove it, whether it’s research or we did a video side by side of Blue’s Clues that got us ultimately to pick up because the show was so slow. The show was paced very slowly. And so we watched the kids watching as they’re talking back to the screen and that changed everything.

Kimberly Snyder (27:48.09)

Mmm.

Angela Santomero (28:16.238)

for the network to be able to see what we were doing. And again, you can’t have any ego about any of the work. It’s just, you have to do what you need to do in order to get the support that you need to make it happen.

Kimberly Snyder (28:30.362)

Well, there you go. You said it right there. You need to do what you need to do. So it’s figuring it out, doing more research, getting, you know, taking it step by step. If we really want something to happen, we figure it out. You find the ways to turn nos into yeses and to get over these humps or these little challenges that come up. That’s amazing.

Angela Santomero (28:54.926)

And there’s so many different ways to do it. So sometimes this, you know, and it’s probably never A to B, right? Like you have to remember that sometimes it’s zigzag and sometimes it’s around and back again or take two steps forward, two steps back, right? And so there’s so many different ways to approach the end goal. And so I think that flexibility is also really, really important.

Kimberly Snyder (29:16.986)

So when you would feel frustrated, Angela, or just a little depleted, or maybe frustrated things were taking so long, what were some of your tools? I mean, you talk about so many different, you interweave different specific tools in your clues. What were some of the things that kept you moving forward in a tangible way towards really creating these amazing shows and your dreams?

Angela Santomero (29:42.638)

You know, I think it, I wasn’t afraid and, you know, having the people around you to cry and to vent and to lose it for a little bit. You weren’t afraid to just kind of have a pity party for a minute or for as long as you need in order to then see through it. And a lot of times the quiet and the pausing and the, and the switches, why I find it so important in that quiet space. There’s so, so many ideas and brainstorms and ways to do things.

Kimberly Snyder (30:01.74)

Mmm.

Angela Santomero (30:13.198)

kind of emerge and I think that’s what would happen. I would get emotional and then I would sit with it for a bit and all of a sudden, and I believe in science from the universe, right? All of a sudden I’d be having coffee with somebody and they will share something that will help me think about something in a different way. And so it’s amazing like that, that when you can trust in your vision and you can think it through, and again, it might not have looked the way I thought it was gonna look.

Kimberly Snyder (30:21.41)

Hmm.

Angela Santomero (30:40.078)

but it was another way, another way in, another way to go that I think made a huge difference.

Kimberly Snyder (30:41.818)

Mmm.

Kimberly Snyder (30:46.65)

You mentioned your parents were educators. Were these certain life skills and clues that your parents taught you? Or did you learn along the way to find stillness? And are you a meditator now? It’s kind of two separate questions.

Angela Santomero (31:01.582)

I mean, I’m big on yoga and Pilates, meditation I love, but not necessarily all the time. I have to have a little bit more of a practice of it, to be honest. But no, my parents were not like that. I came from a very loud Italian family who would ask a question and then answer it. You know, like there was never a pause and it was constantly like an adult driven. They meant well, they, you know, it’s a big Italian family, but like,

the kids with the kids and the adults with the adults. And I remember thinking, but I’m smart. I have a point of view. I want to hear, you know, you need to hear what I have to say, you know, all of that stuff. And so that’s, that was definitely part of it, of that feeling of kids are smart and let me, you know, and what they have to say is really interesting because they see things from a different point of view. So I think it was one of those.

Kimberly Snyder (31:35.618)

Mmm.

Angela Santomero (31:53.134)

of answers and I think I found a lot like as a babysitter, as a sister to a you know it’s like all of those moments of being around kids and realizing that when you do ask them a question and you wait for them to answer they say the most amazing things.

Kimberly Snyder (32:06.81)

I see the most amazing things. I also want to say, Angela, we do share this experience later in the book when you shared that you got to be with your mother as she passed from cancer, which is an experience I also had six years ago when I got to hold her for those last breaths. And it was huge and life -changing. I’m sure it also changed your life and…

changed the way that I loved and looked at everything and it was such a gift. So, sorry to hear about your mother, but what led as well to so much flowering and opening in your heart.

Angela Santomero (32:41.326)

Thank you.

Angela Santomero (32:47.854)

Yes, and I think, you know, we, our kids were older, but still we included them in the bonding and coming together. It was happened, the end was two weeks during that time when everyone’s off, right? It was between Christmas and New Year’s. So everyone was together 24 seven and the girls still talk about it being the hardest time and also this beautiful time that everyone stopped what they were doing and came together.

Kimberly Snyder (32:54.114)

Hmm.

Kimberly Snyder (33:06.114)

Wow.

Angela Santomero (33:16.59)

And it was, it was, that was a, you know, I can’t say that we premeditated that, it just kind of happened in the way that it happened. And I’m still so grateful that we were able to do that and that it became a positive look, you can hold onto your people and be there and especially be there for their grandmother.

Kimberly Snyder (33:24.6)

Yeah.

Kimberly Snyder (33:34.874)

Oh, it’s amazing. And one thing it showed to me was that, you know, love continues, just changes form. And love goes on the love inside of us the love and then it also makes life feel more potent. Where we are now we have to really, one of your clues is about being present. So many, so many parents, so many people say to me, Angela, oh, I don’t know how my child’s 10 years old or 12. I don’t know where the time went. And I have to say I don’t have to

experience right now because I spend so much time and I’m really present and you know they say long days but you know of course we all get distracted we all get busy but there’s a real call to where are we all going where are we all hurrying to where are we trying to get to because life is moment to moment here this is where we create this is where it’s at.

Angela Santomero (34:26.624)

I believe that and I do think so it’s been two years with my mom and I remember thinking like, okay, she died at 75. So if I have God forbid 20 years left, what am I gonna do? Like I’m done with waiting for the rainy day to do something. It’s like in your means if you can stop and have that adventure and see that friend and go on that trip, whatever it is, it’s like just wanting to seize that moment and I agree. It’s like even now.

Kimberly Snyder (34:41.624)

Yeah.

Angela Santomero (34:56.184)

it’s such a gift to be with your adult kids when they have, you know, when you’re all together and have time, because you know every shape of the way it changes, you know, your relationship consistently changes. And so, yeah, I agree with you. And again, as a working mom, it’s like holding on to those moments were so important to me as well. But yes, the days are long and the years sometimes are short.

Kimberly Snyder (35:16.698)

See you soon.

Was it hard for you, Angela, when your daughters became teenagers or tweens and they started to just not be so into Halloween? I can’t even imagine now, because it’s going to come, but Halloween is such a huge deal and Christmas goes on for months in advance, prior getting ready. What was that transition like for you?

Angela Santomero (35:41.774)

It’s such a great question because how we transitioned it was to turn it for the kids. So we started, as they started to get too old for Halloween, we started to do bigger things for the neighborhood kids. And so it became them helping them, which was amazing, right? Like being able to see their faces when they would get so excited. And so they became more like with us trying to help and give out whatever we were doing with the kids. It was, we made it an event.

Kimberly Snyder (35:55.564)

Ahhhh

Angela Santomero (36:10.286)

And it’s the same with the holidays. It’s like making it an event, making it a little bit more wish fulfillment, knowing that, you know, they have grandparents on my husband’s side that are still around and making it beautiful for them, having what they want. Like it just kind of turned into that moment organically. We’ll see. That’s how it’s been now. But yes, as teenagers, I just saw them as, not that it wasn’t hard, because it was, but they’re big preschoolers. They still have tantrums.

Kimberly Snyder (36:37.602)

Mmm.

Angela Santomero (36:38.798)

still feel so it’s their prerogative. They need to do what they want to do, you know, all of those things. And that’s how I would deal with it was I would look at them and I’d be like, Oh my god, there’s she’s hope is six feet tall, but she’s still four, you know, oh my god. Six feet tall. I know. It’s fascinating. I’m just five. So yeah.

Kimberly Snyder (36:52.474)

is she six feet?

Oh my gosh, how tall are you, Angela?

Oh, yeah, you’re a little bit taller than me. Wow, isn’t that amazing?

Angela Santomero (37:05.12)

towering over. It’s amazing. Yeah, it’s so, but there, you know, again, there’s so much that they’re teaching us, right? This generation is an amazing generation of kids. And it’s fascinating.

Kimberly Snyder (37:18.17)

Well, because there’s a section in the book where you talk about some research, grounding it around, we want our kids to be nurtured and loved. But if we overprotect them and they don’t get to learn the life lessons, they can grow up insecure. And that’s such a hard line, I think, for parents to say, well, you know, am I crossing over and taking their life lessons away? Was that a challenge for you as a mother?

Angela Santomero (37:47.118)

Yeah, of course. I mean, it’s also such a challenge when you send your kids out in the world and they’re learning lessons that you had nothing to do with, right? And how you handle those sad, sad moments of people saying not kind things or not advocating for your child or, you know, like all of those things. And you just have to figure out how to turn it into a lesson, right? Like, no, that’s not what someone should ever say to you, but let’s, what can we do, you know?

Kimberly Snyder (37:56.77)

Ugh.

Angela Santomero (38:14.094)

So, I mean, my thing was to make sure that we could talk about all of it, because they found it really hard to talk about things that they thought we would be disappointed in or upset by. Like, they didn’t want us to be upset. And it was just like, as we’ve always talked about, that we can’t help what we don’t know. And so, it was always, what can we learn from this? How can we do this? I wanted them to see.

Kimberly Snyder (38:35.414)

Yes.

Angela Santomero (38:41.774)

find the solution. I wasn’t one of the moms who would call the other moms and be like, wait a minute, your child did this. You know, they needed to figure out that for themselves.

Kimberly Snyder (38:46.042)

Oh no.

Kimberly Snyder (38:51.96)

Oh my gosh, it’s so funny because my older son is seven and he’s really into chess. He’s starting to play tournaments and I just, I can just, you know, I have to just, you know, why I get so excited for him and I don’t want him to be disappointed. I can start to see, Hey, there’s lessons he’s going to have to learn. As long as he stays in his character, he has tools and you know, they’re going to learn what they need to learn. And we need to give them that autonomy. Otherwise it’s interfering and it’s not good for anyone.

Angela Santomero (39:21.39)

Totally. And also, I don’t want to take the fun out of it. You know what I mean? Like, the reason that he’s into chess, I’m assuming, is because there’s such a, you know, it’s like when you can be so good at something, it’s just so amazing and you don’t want to like, and that’s how we were, the oldest is a drama kid. And so she was up on stage and I’m like, she’s really good. Like, what are we going to do about this? And it’s like, don’t take the fun out of it. You know, like just let it be fun.

Kimberly Snyder (39:40.858)

Anyway.

Kimberly Snyder (39:44.47)

Yeah. Wow. It’s so it’s just there’s so much there’s so many lessons, like you said in your book, how we learn from kids and we continue to learn from them at any age. And so that I love hearing from parents who are a little bit ahead how beautiful it still is. It’s just like an unfolding garden. It’s just a little it’s of course, dynamic and different. And that’s a good thing.

Angela Santomero (40:06.766)

Oh, totally. Absolutely. And the bumps are bumps and God knows, you know, you see them and you feel them and then you’re like, okay, what was I like at that age? You know what I mean? Like you’re trying to think about everything, the tools you’ve given them. And then I remember some of the things that I did at 16 and you’re like, okay, I need to re, you know what I mean? Cause they’re so emotionally smart too. And they have so much, so many tools at their disposal and emotionally they’re still the same as we were at 16. Cause it’s a child development.

You may have to emotionally develop at the same rate, if not slower because of everything we’ve all been through with COVID. You know, things have slowed down a little.

Kimberly Snyder (40:43.034)

So how do you manage with your daughters and in your philosophy with screens, Angela? Because you’re a creator, you’ve created really powerful, amazing messages. But then there’s also the flip side of screens where it can be too much, it can be too fast, there’s so much social media. What is some of your philosophy around that?

Angela Santomero (41:01.132)

Yeah.

Angela Santomero (41:04.558)

Yeah, I feel like we can talk about that for hours because at the beginning it’s co -viewing, it’s watching what I think they’re emotionally ready for, even if that meant that they weren’t part of the conversation at school the next day, right? And that was really important and being able to talk about everything that they were witnessing so that we can just talk about it and then we can kind of shed our point of view about it. And then with social, it was like, how do we use it as a tool?

Kimberly Snyder (41:19.544)

Yeah.

Angela Santomero (41:34.094)

to take photographs, to, you know, what are you using it to learn? What are you using it to see? But I know that, you know, there’s an addiction there. I know that it doesn’t nest. I can tell in something that my daughter has read that is putting her in a bad mood, you know? So it’s like, how do you shield from that? And it’s really, to us, it’s been media literacy. It’s been trying to…

Kimberly Snyder (41:48.952)

Mmm.

Angela Santomero (41:56.686)

and it’s not easy, but trying to have them realize that nobody’s life is perfect and that you’re seeing this bit of the Instagram photo, you’re not seeing, you know, the entire messiness that probably was there before, you know, all of those things to try to talk about what image somebody wants. It’s the same thing when we’d walk down the serial aisle and be like, if it has a character on it, they’re trying to sell you something, you know, like trying to understand the reasons that people are putting stuff out there, but it’s a challenge. It’s definitely a challenge.

Kimberly Snyder (42:02.514)

Yes.

Kimberly Snyder (42:16.832)

Yeah.

Kimberly Snyder (42:24.57)

Well, and then back to the first clue, I like you just the way you are. We’re all unique. We have this amazing true self -energy. We don’t have to be like anyone else. So the more we establish that, I think as parents in ourselves, as humans, parent or not, and then your child sees you, the more we are living that, and then we can teach it to them. It starts to create that resiliency, even in screen time, mania.

Angela Santomero (42:52.174)

Yeah, that’s the hope. That’s the hope.

Kimberly Snyder (42:53.85)

more and more. That’s all we can do, right? I mean, the world is what it is. It’s amazing, even though we don’t have a lot of screens in our life, Angela, we know we drive around, we’re not totally hermits, and there’s billboards, there’s things they see, and then they’ll be like, oh, you just can’t shield them from everything. So it’s just these tools that we can start to create from our home environment.

Angela Santomero (42:57.102)

I know.

Yeah.

Angela Santomero (43:14.188)

Mm -mm.

Angela Santomero (43:20.814)

Right, right, exactly.

Kimberly Snyder (43:23.802)

So I love this one clue about playfulness because life can feel really serious, right? Competitive, I need to get this career, I need to get into this graduate program, I’m, you know, this or this. Tell us a little bit about even in, you know, I imagine the TV space has a lot of competitiveness trying to get on air, competing for showtimes. How did you maintain that playfulness and why do you think it’s so important in the first place?

Angela Santomero (43:54.35)

I think it’s so important because of our own joy. It’s our own feeling of inadequacy or when we don’t know everything and we don’t need to know everything. You know, as an adult, for some reason we’re put in this position and we think we have to know all the answers and we don’t. And so that to me is part of the playfulness of I am going to admit it if I don’t know this, I’m gonna get the answers. I’m gonna be active in finding the answers and figuring it out, but I’m gonna…

still show how much I’m passionate or love about what I’m doing, right? So that’s where the playfulness comes from. It’s like, I take this very seriously because this is my job, but I also love what I’m doing and therefore there’s a sense of play to me means that I’m choosing to do it. Sometimes the word work versus play kind of gets a little…

Kimberly Snyder (44:34.264)

Mmm.

Kimberly Snyder (44:40.652)

Mm -hmm.

Angela Santomero (44:43.63)

So it’s that sense. And then also having, you know what I mean? And having that playability, right? That feeling of like, don’t take it so seriously. Let’s try to figure out a solution to this because there’s always a solution. And yes, it could be devastating. I’m not saying there isn’t news that’s devastating, but how do we make the most out of that moment or that time or figure, you know what I mean? And that’s been kind of another part of the play versus life being so heavy and real and how can we…

Kimberly Snyder (44:44.506)

Yeah.

Kimberly Snyder (45:05.118)

Yes.

Angela Santomero (45:12.846)

and we kind of shift it to be our own compass for the joy.

Kimberly Snyder (45:18.746)

I think that’s a really powerful piece of advice because earlier we were talking about the ego and Dr. David Hawkins, who’s one of my favorite authors, he writes about the ego being grim and humorless. But when we’re in our heart, when we’re in our true self, we can be flexible. We can see, you know, something funny, even if, you know, things didn’t go our way, or we can find the lightheartedness in something and it keeps us in life’s flow. But the ego is very rigid.

gets very serious. So when we’re trying to move our ideas forward, when we’re trying to work with others, if we clamp down on that sort of rigid energy, I don’t think it brings about the same type of collaboration and the flowing results that we want.

Angela Santomero (46:03.502)

No, and I think that, you know, keeping people around you that share that same vision and morals or whatever it is that we’re trying to do, especially for writers on my shows or producers, you know, that rigidness would never work. You know, here we are trying to, you know, write a story about a four -year -old talking tiger. And for me to be like, nah, dah, dah, dah, like there’s no, you know what I mean? We have to have find the joy while we’re writing this beautiful little.

you know, story in order to then have it exude through the screen. And I think that is what you feel and that is what you see, you know, when you can tell if somebody’s loving what they’re doing versus, you know, not.

Kimberly Snyder (46:44.762)

Well, that’s what I felt in your book. I’m getting goosebumps again, Angela. I felt the heart and the authenticity. And I do think that was a big miss, you know, the big piece of the puzzle why your shows and your projects were so successful, because it’s authentic. There was this through line. It came through. Can’t manufacture love and connection and authenticity. You either are or you aren’t. Right. And so what I love about your work, what I love about your clues, there’s this underlying message of not…

second guessing yourself and not undermining your values and that you can hold to those and you can be successful.

Angela Santomero (47:23.106)

hope, right? That’s the hope. Yeah.

Kimberly Snyder (47:26.33)

Well, you’re living it. You’re living proof of it, Angela. And thank you so much for sharing just a little piece of your wisdom. I loved, again, how The Clues here and Life Clues, it’s such an accessible book. It’s one that you can read over weekends, but you can also take a lot longer and sit with each message and journal about it. Is there anything that we didn’t cover in any of The Clues or in general about the book that you’d love to share with us, Angela?

Angela Santomero (47:54.798)

I know, I think we really had a lovely conversation. I always try to end with remembering the pause, remembering to take a minute. And that’s my favorite one, I think, out of everything in the book with regard to the clues. So that’s something that I love to talk about as well. But thank you so much for how insightful you were. And I loved your questions and this conversation.

Kimberly Snyder (48:19.224)

Angela, we’ll take a pause.

Just to be in this connection, to be with a real embodiment of creator, kindness, love, bringing these characters forward, which have helped so many children. I’m so grateful and thank you so much. And I did love your book so much. Tell us where we can find out more about you and where everyone can get this book.

Angela Santomero (48:47.342)

So Amazon, everyone can get the book, amazon .com and wherever books are sold. And Angela’s Clues on social, on TikTok, on Insta and through my website is angelesclues .com.

Kimberly Snyder (49:00.546)

Angelasclues.com, amazing. Well, we will link to this in the show notes. We will link more to Angela’s work directly to the book as well, to say whatever books are sold, of course. And we will be back here Thursday for our next Q &A show. Thank you so much for tuning in. You can keep your questions coming for that show on our website. Once again, mysolluna.com, sending you all so much love, so much peace, and see you back here soon.