Sierra Boone shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Hi Sierra, thank you so much for joining us today. We’re thrilled to learn more about your journey, values and what you are currently working on. Let’s start with an ice breaker: What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned about your customers?
Honestly… that they weren’t who I thought they were.
Earlier this year, all my data analysis, comments, and engagement patterns pointed to something I didn’t expect: my true customers weren’t individual parents at all. They were childcare providers. Directors. Teachers. The people holding early learning together with grit and sheer willpower.
And once I started diving deeper, everything clicked. Through research, interviews, live performances and classroom visits, I learned that early childhood educators are some of the most creative problem-solvers on the planet, constantly innovating with almost no resources. I learned that everyone knows childcare is in crisis, but the folks with the power to fund solutions treat the whole sector like an afterthought. It’s wild! These teachers are literally shaping brain development, social-emotional foundations, and future citizens, and yet they are one of the most undervalued workforces in America.
I think that was the biggest revelation for me: early educators need tools, yes. But they also need recognition, relief, and solutions designed with them, not for them. And everything I’ve built since has grown from that understanding.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Hey! I’m Sierra, co-founder and CEO of Boone Productions. We’re a family-owned and operated children’s media production company responsible for the beloved series The Nap Time Show, which airs statewide on PBS in Michigan.
The Nap Time Show is a pioneering children’s media IP that transforms how families approach rest and wellness. It’s an engaging episodic series that combines entertainment with evidence-based sleep practices, using social-emotional learning fundamentals to help children develop healthy relationships with rest.
Beyond our core show, we’ve built a comprehensive ecosystem including live performances at schools, libraries and community centers, original music on major streaming platforms, and merchandise.
Through our Pour Forward Foundation, we extend our impact by mentoring teens in media production, distributing free children’s books, and advocating for equitable childcare access. With established partnerships with the PBS Michigan Learning Channel and the Black Education Station, we’ve built a global audience demonstrating strong market validation for our approach to children’s wellness.
And now, we’re expanding that impact focus by building Fruit Snack Streams, the first streaming platform designed specifically to help child care providers reduce classroom chaos, retain teachers, and support kids’ social-emotional development.
Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What part of you has served its purpose and must now be released?
People pleasing…100%. For most of my teens and twenties, I made myself small to make other people comfortable. I dimmed my light, bent myself into shapes I didn’t fit, and overextended until my nervous system was running on fumes. It affected everything; my relationships, my health, my capacity to create and more.
What I’ve learned, with a lot of compassion for my younger self, is that people-pleasing is a survival strategy. It protected me once. It helped me navigate environments where blending in felt safer than being fully seen. People pleasing served its purpose… until it didn’t.
Turning 30 this year felt like a shedding. An unlearning.
I realized that true alignment only comes from unapologetic authenticity and radical honesty. Showing up as the fullest, brightest version of myself, even if it stretches people. ESPECIALLY if it stretches people. Because when you stop contorting yourself, you make room for the opportunities, relationships, and environments that are actually meant for you. No more backend heartache. No more nervous system chaos. Just clarity.
That shift is influencing the work I do with children, too.
Everything we create—from The Nap Time Show™ to Fruit Snack Streams—is rooted in giving kids the tools I didn’t have early on: emotional awareness, self-trust, confidence, and rest. If kids can learn to honor themselves before the world teaches them to shrink, we change their entire trajectory.
So I’m releasing people-pleasing. And I’m replacing it with truth, alignment, and joy. That’s the energy I’m taking into this next chapter.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
Absolutely. At the top of 2025, I was ready to walk away.
I had just spent literal months writing, filming, editing, and scheduling more than 40 weeks of content for our YouTube channel. I poured everything I had into it. And when the numbers didn’t perform the way we’d hoped, it felt like a punch in the gut. I remember watching people in my own family—people with kids—view my stories about new episodes, then hop onto their feeds and post about Ms. Rachel instead. It stung more than I like to admit.
At the same time, we were getting “no” after “no” on grants. Our business model was broken. Nothing was landing. Everything felt uphill. And one night, completely drained, I spilled my confusion into ChatGPT (my first ever prompt) because I genuinely didn’t know where else to turn. I was searching for answers anywhere.
But it’s truly darkest before dawn.
Because just a few weeks later, in March, the idea for Fruit Snack Streams arrived, and it just…made sense. By July, we secured our first five-figure grant. And since then? We’ve been climbing. Steadily, confidently, purposefully.
Now, we’re heading into 2026 poised for our strongest year yet. And to think…I almost threw it all away at the beginning of this one.
If you’re reading this and you feel like your work is in vain, like the support isn’t there, like you have no idea what comes next? Don’t quit during the confusion. Clarity has a way of showing up right after the moment you think you can’t keep going. Sometimes, the breakthrough is waiting on the other side of your breaking point.
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. Is the public version of you the real you?
Yes…and no. And I actually think more people should admit that.
There’s this trendy flex online like “I’m the exact same person publicly as I am privately.”
In today’s world, I don’t buy it. Nor do I think it’s healthy.
I care deeply about authenticity, but I also have very strong feelings about parasocial relationships and the entitlement that comes with them. Somewhere along the way, people started believing they’re owed access to every corner of someone’s life—your relationship, your family dynamics, your private thoughts, your whereabouts—simply because you posted a Reel or wrote something that resonated with them.
I’ve seen people get genuinely bothered that someone didn’t post their partner’s face, as if they’re entitled to go stalk their page and decode the whole relationship. And I’ve watched creators get punished for setting boundaries that any normal human being needs to stay sane.
So no, you’re not getting the exact same Sierra in confidence that you get online.
The public version of me is real, deeply real. My values, my humor, my opinions, my purpose? That’s all authentic.
But the full version of me?
That’s reserved for the people who are actually in my life, not just in my mentions. Period.
I don’t think authenticity means bleeding yourself out for public consumption.
I think authenticity means showing up truthfully, while protecting the parts of you that deserve care, context, and community.
So is the public version of me the real me?
Yes.
And the private version is even realer—she’s just not for everybody. And that’s by design.
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
“She DID something with her time here. She was a bright, shining light in a dark, dark world. She said what she meant, and meant what she said. She CARED, even when it wasn’t the popular thing to do.”
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thenaptimeshow.com/
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/sierralboone
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sierralboone/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheNapTimeShow
Image Credits
Heart of the City Photography
