Ep. 64 Creating Connection with Brooke Romney

I'm Lacey Jones with Elevate the Individual. Episode 64 Creating Connection with Brooke Romney we are in for a treat today. I am so excited to share this conversation with you. Brooke Romney is a writer, speaker, educator, and connector. She has been featured on several news channels and has been published in the Washington Post, the Deseret News, and several online publications where her pieces have been read millions of times. And I first found her through instagram. On her page, Brooke Romney writes where she's created this large, supportive community of women and mothers seeking to navigate the different seasons of motherhood. And one of the things that instantly drew me to Brooke is the fact that she's also a boy mom and has shared valuable insights while raising her four young men. So both volumes of her book, 52 Modern Manners for Today's Teens have been a valuable resource for teaching my own children many of the standards we seek to live by. And then listening to her book, I Like Me Anyway, was a welcome reprieve during those challenging times of the pandemic. I am excited to have her share her thoughts as we discuss the process of discovering, developing, and sharing her light while traveling her own journey in motherhood. So, with that, welcome to the podcast, Brooke.

Thank you. Thanks so much for having me.

I'm excited to dig into this. So I've given a little bit of a bio, but I would love for you to kind of introduce yourself and your family and maybe some fun facts that we might not know about you.

Sure. I would love to. So, I have four boys. My oldest one is married, and we have a grandbaby, and so that's super fun. So I've gone know it was like one versus five girl to boy ratio, and now that's very quickly three to five, which is super exciting for me. In fact, I love having Caitlin with me in the car or when we're having discussions because I finally have someone to back up the way I feel about lots of things. So for any boys mom out there, at some point you'll get a girl and that's really fun.

Yes.

But I did love being a mom of four boys. Some things that I think it helped me to become I have a thick skin, I roll with the punches really easily. They helped me discover sides of me that I didn't know I had. I actually do really like adventure and I love the outdoors. I like things to be a little more casual and less fussy. All those things are things I didn't know about myself until I had boys and really leaned into that. So it was great. And there were times that, of course, you miss having that girl know, shopping for the prom dress and things like that, but just chosen to really embrace the great things that come with being a mom of.

So that's awesome. Okay, so with all this. Let's dive into Brooke Romney writes and how did this all begin and kind of what stage of life and motherhood were you in when you started this platform?

That is a great question, and it's a little bit difficult to answer because there were so many pieces of it, and I think anyone who's creating something, whether that's something that's going to be monetized or not, finds that the creation happens in small little tidbits. But I have always been a writer, and I wrote for newspapers back when newspapers were a thing in magazines. And then I took a break for a little bit when we moved to Michigan, my husband went back to school, and in order for us to get cheaper housing, I was managing the apartment complex that we were living in, and I had three little kids and one on the way. It was a very know, kind of stressful time where there never seemed to be enough time, energy or money. And so while we were there, I decided to start a little blog called Mom Explores Michigan. Because I was watching all these moms in Utah have a bunch of people telling them all the fun places to go and where kids can eat free and all that stuff. And I thought, boy, that'd be awesome if we had that here. We didn't. So I started to create it, and so that was my first chance at kind of dabbling in that online world. Blogs had just become kind of a thing. They'd been pretty big for a couple of years, but this is probably back in 2010 ish okay. I just started doing that, and I actually didn't do it very well. Like, I'm not good at photography. I don't take time to get the perfect shot. But I was good at relaying information, and it was helpful. It was helpful for the people that were moving to Ann Arbor to go to school with young kids and then kind of caught on to a couple other people. I shared book recommendations and a few recipes that are honestly so embarrassing to look back at how I did it. But that was just the beginning, and I was just sharing things that I loved, and I enjoyed that a lot. When my husband graduated, he got a job that he was traveling Monday through Thursday, and I decided that I didn't want to just watch TV every night after my kids went to bed. So I started doing a little bit more writing. And then when Instagram came on the scene and I didn't do anything with my business on Instagram until I moved to Utah, and that was almost ten years ago. And I really wanted to keep writing online and sharing things, but people were already doing it so well that I had to figure out what else I was going to do and how else I was going to write. And so I started writing a little bit about parenting and sharing my heart, which is much scarier than sharing which park to take your kids to. But it kind of started me on this path, and I think I started an Instagram account in about 2015.

Okay, so I'm over here. I like to scribble notes while I do the interviews because I'm like, oh, my gosh, yes. And this so you mentioned it's around 2010 and Instagram, I'm sure it was around, but it's way more of a larger platform now. And so we did start with blogs and kind of sharing the everyday experience on the blog. And so I love that you noticed there was something lacking or you needed information and you wanted to connect information with the moms. And I think that's a theme for you. Is that connection? And so has that always been there, this theme of connection? Or did you have to develop it? Where did that kind of play into all of this?

Yeah, I would say that if there's one value that is central to me, it is connection. And I think it started after my husband and I graduated. We moved to Washington, DC. Area, and I was all alone, and I had always been surrounded by a lot of family, a lot of friends, all my neighbors, people I'd known since, you know, a know, college friends. And so I never understood what the lack of connection felt like until I moved away. And I noticed that there was really something missing in my life, especially after I had a baby and I really had no support group and I had no social circle, and I had to work really hard and become a lot braver than I was in order to find that. And so connection has always been super important to me. Not always natural or easy, but something that was worth the work.

Yeah. Okay, so let's talk about the things that are not natural. They are not easy. You had to overcome fears, and you mentioned earlier you were sharing recipes and that and it may not have been polished and professional, but you had to develop into where you are today. And part of that is overcoming the fear of sharing what's on your heart and what's the thoughts and sharing your creation. So how did you overcome the fear of that?

So in the beginning, I started with things that felt safe, which I think is something that's totally natural to do. So I would share a book that I loved, and honestly, my heart wasn't going to be torn out if somebody said, I didn't really like that book. Right. Or a restaurant we enjoyed and somebody said, oh, we don't care for that restaurant. I can deal with that kind of rejection. But the first article that I published that shared my heart. It sat in my draft box on my blog for at least a month because I just didn't know if I could take people saying, I don't like the way you think, or I don't like the way you live, or I don't like your values, or I don't agree with them. They felt very central to me, and I didn't know if I could take somebody attacking that. And what I was surprised about is when I did publish that article, there were a lot of people who disagreed, but more were excited about just thinking a new way or at least, like, delving into the idea of it. And I found that I was less fearful than I thought I would be. It hurt when somebody said they didn't like what I said. The article was Why we're taking the fun out of life. And it was actually published on my blog, but then the Desiree News picked it up, which is a newspaper. It was read there over a million times. So there was a lot of comments on the article, and for a while I was reading all of them. And what I found was I was actually okay when somebody said, well, I'm glad this lady's not my mom. And I was like, oh, that hurt a little bit, but it didn't hurt as much as I thought it would hurt. Yeah, because as I was writing and doing things, I was writing things that were really important to me and felt important to get into a conversation. And so I was a little tougher than I thought I'd be. I will say my skin isn't super thick when I published my book. I like me anyway. I had a lot of really beautiful, kind reviews on Amazon, but there was one that was really negative and pretty personal and hurtful. And I remember reading that review and just, like, ruminating on it and sitting with it, and it said, the book is about embracing imperfection. And the review said, oh, this is just a girl who only cares about being perfect and all these things. It kind of hurt. And I remember mentioning it to my husband, and he's like, wow, you had 200 people say how much they loved that book and how it changed your life, and one who didn't, and you're going to sit on that? You don't even know if they read your book. You literally don't even know if they read past the first chapter. There's no way of tracking that on Amazon. And that was a really good reminder to me that there's always going to be people that don't agree with us or don't like how we think or don't like how we share or just don't like us. But if the message or the creation or what we're doing feels important enough, we're going to be able to get past that and be brave enough to share anyway.

Yes. And I think your husband provided a valuable tool that we have a choice in what we focus on.

So true.

I think that it's important to have an awareness that there are different opinions out there, but what we focus on is what we create in our life. And so we can say, okay, great, I appreciate your opinion. Thank you for sharing. But like he said, there's 200 other people over here saying, this is so helpful, and I identify with what you're saying. Thank you for being brave enough to share and be vulnerable in that space. And I think it really does take this development of confidence over time to get to that, to be able to say, okay, thanks for the negative, or thanks for your viewpoint, but I am going to focus over here. So how have you seen your confidence change throughout this creation process?

I actually love that you brought that up, because when I started publishing things on Instagram, I really wanted people to agree with me and say nice things, and I still absolutely appreciate it. But I've noticed that my confidence is different because I'm able to read something. So if I publish something and then someone, hmm, I'm not really sure about that, and they share something very thoughtfully, like, have you thought about this? I think about it and I think, OOH, how could their opinion actually make what I feel is important even stronger? How could I tackle that part of it? And I remember one post specifically where a mom said, I don't know that I feel like you're talking more about competition than you mean to be talking about competition, and maybe we could look at it this way. And I wrote a completely different post afterward as I thought about it and digested it. And I'm now incredibly grateful for people who can thoughtfully and kindly share the holes in what I'm thinking or what might be missing. Or did you think of that? One of the most important things for me is creating a community where there's trust. And I think anytime you just get a heckler or someone who's just being a jerk. I've had to block a few people because it doesn't matter what I do, they're going to take everything down and try to. But for the most part, I've been so grateful and blessed to have a community that understands my heart and what I'm trying to do that anytime they bring something to me, it feels like feedback and constructive criticism, and I'm able to think about it and sometimes adjust and sometimes not, and then move on. And I think about that with our families, right? Like, if we're so serious about my way or the highway or nobody ever say anything bad about me, I can't handle it, then we really have no opportunity for change and growth. So I personally have been working on that idea for probably the last five years, is taking feedback in without being offended or taking it too personally and then being able to use my own brain and my own heart to say, what if this is true, and how might I want to change or how might I not?

Yeah. And I think with you mentioned a community of trust that takes a leader to facilitate that, to nurture it, to grow and develop it. And so you have created this community of trust by listening, by the way, in which you respond to comments and also putting up boundaries for, okay, heckler, appreciate your time, but you're not welcome here. That's okay to put up that boundary. And so you really have facilitated that growth of trust within your online community. And my question is, and you kind of mentioned this, but how do you transfer that to the family? And how has it helped you in, I guess, your perception of who you are as a mom by developing over here this online space and in this kind of Brooke space, how has that experience helped you to develop over here in your motherhood?

Yeah, I it's interesting. I was able to do it in the Brooks space faster. I think I was practicing it more. Plus, it's oftentimes hardest to take feedback from people that are closest to us because you just care so much about how they think of you, how they feel about you. I can have someone online not like something I do, and I'm like, well, they don't really know me. But when somebody that lives with you says that you're like, yeah, you know me, and you're kind of seeing all these some of my faults here, but one of the things that we've been really working on is assuming positive intent when someone's sharing something with us or even when someone's acting a certain way. In fact, one of my I send out Wednesday pep talks. And my pep talk today was about I think the title was maybe It's Not about you. And realizing that from our kids, from our husbands, that my kids did not leave dishes in the sink because they disrespect me and they don't care about me, or they think that I'm only there to serve them. They left dishes in the sink for the same reason I leave dishes in the sink, because I didn't feel like washing the dishes. And so assuming positive intent has been really good. And then also being willing to have that community of trust just in our own families, that I know that my husband and my kids truly want what's best for me. And if they're going to bring something up to me in a kind and loving way, that's another thing. The way that it's shared is very important. Then I should take the time to think about it and see how I can change, improve, whatever that is. It's still not always easy, but one of the ways that I found to make it easier on me is to go to my husband or go to my kids when I'm feeling really secure. So the other day, I asked my 16 year old, how am I doing as a mom? What could I do to do better? Yeah. And then it was, like, on my terms, when I felt good about my motherhood, when I was looking for advice, when I was looking to improve, and then he could share with me his thoughts, and I was open and willing to receive them. So sometimes if you put the ball in your own court, that feels a little easier than maybe an attack.

Well, and that's a bold move to ask a 16 year old, my 16 year old, well, he's almost 16, but he's real honest with his opinions. And so that's a bold move to put yourself in that vulnerable space and say, hey, tell me from your perspective, how am I doing? And what I love is that it takes a confidence to do that. But also you're opening yourself up to curiosity, which is where we learn the most. And it can drive away judgment. It can drive away shame. It's just so valuable. When I'm working with a client, I'm like, okay, let's get you to a space of curiosity to see where we can kind of work and clean up and get you to a more confident place. And so I love it. It takes confidence to ask a teenager how they think you're doing, but it.

Also takes away the wonder from you all the time, saying, because really one of the reasons why I did it is because I was like, I don't feel like I'm connecting with him as much as I want to. I'm not feeling like we're spending as much time together as I wish we could. And some of that's just the adjustment from summer to school year and people being busy. But it can also sometimes I think, as moms, we might sit and beat ourselves up a bunch when it's actually going fine, right. Because we're often harder on ourselves than our kids are. And maybe what we're feeling is like, a lack of something we're missing. Then we're putting that all on our kids, that they're not thinking we're parenting well or being a good mom. And then you ask them, and they're like, I don't know, I think it's fine. Maybe give me more money. And you're like, okay. But sometimes there are times when you'll be surprised at maybe some of the feedback that comes in kind of a hard way, and sometimes you'll be surprised at the feedback that comes in kind of a pleasant way.

Yes. And I like what you said there. It takes away the wonder, because our brains can just fill in the blank so quickly and make something mean, something that it just doesn't mean. And so when you approach that and ask for the feedback, you're really getting from their perspective what's happening and not how you're interpreting what they think is happening. So that is beautiful. Now, with all of this, you've got kind of your work and home life and motherhood and a lot of plates balancing, I'm sure. So how do you personally balance the work life and home and family life?

So I really think it just depends on the stage that you're in. So when I started this journey and it got fairly intense and became more full time, probably about four years ago.

Okay.

And the balance of that was being totally honest, really difficult. And I felt like I was drowning in both places all the time. I felt like I wasn't getting one thing done. And then if I was focused on my family, then my work was slipping. And if I was focused on my work, then my family was slipping. And there was a lot of not enough sleep and not enough exercise and all those things. Because I want to be honest about that, because I don't think it's fair to say you just do this, and you just do this. Because sometimes I just feel like you're firing at all cylinders. And if you ask God to increase your capability and your capacity, then I felt a ton of help through that time doing things that I don't know how I survived on so little sleep. I don't know how when I was in the throes of the end of editing any of my books, there was poor dinners. My house was an absolute disaster. My husband was trying to pick up all the pieces in between. I was doing laundry at 1230 at night because there were no uniforms cleaned for the next day. So during those times, I think what I did was I just prioritized showing up for my kids in the way that I felt like was most necessary, which was not a clean house or perfect meals. It was like being there for them. It was attending their events. It was being awake when they came home late even though I was exhausted and using that time to get some extra work in. I don't want to glamorize for people like the working and being a mom thing because I think it's a lot of work and it's hard work. That's why it's really important to believe in what you're doing enough that that work is worth it.

Yes.

As I've continued being someone who is working, it feels much more doable now because I now have people that work for me. So I was doing the work of probably four employees, and now I have three employees. And so that has taken things off my plate. I've been able to order beehive meals, which I put in the Crock Pot because I can make sure I have dinner on the table. I've gone from four kids at home to two kids at home. That's a huge difference. I no longer have kids at home all day. They're all in school. So I just think being honest with moms who either have to work or are choosing to work is just really important that there are times when it's going to look like an absolute mess. And what I had to remember through every stage was, this is a choice. I am choosing this. Nobody's forcing me to publish a book. Even for those who are working. No one is forcing you to work that specific job. While your family might need the money, there are probably ways to you could move into an apartment. You could sell a car. So anytime I got feeling like, I just can't do this, I was like, I'm choosing this. I'm choosing to have my kids involved in activities. It's a choice, all of those things. And that helped me to feel a little bit more in control of my situation instead of kind of falling into that victim mentality of, why am I here? I just can't do it all. Realizing that those were the choices that I was making.

It's more empowering because the agency lies within you. It's not circumstances happening to you. It's, no, I'm making this choice. But also we as a family are making this choice. I imagine that it's not just you. I imagine there's some discussions with the husband and kids and that sort of thing. So this is a choice, and it's taking that I have to do this well. I have to make dinner. I have to be at every sporting event. I have to get them signed up for this. The dinners have to look like this. My business has to look like this. No, I'm actually choosing to provide these experiences for my children. I'm also choosing to provide this space for myself to grow and develop. And so I love that you pointed that out. And one other thing that you talked about is praying and asking for more help as you're firing on all the cylinders. And so how has this helped you to develop your faith in all of it?

I think just like everyone, it takes a little time. And as I look back on some of those years and see what I was dealing with and emotionally and at home and with work and my first book, I thought I had a publisher. My publisher decided they didn't want the book. I had to learn how to self publish and get the contacts and find the money and do all these things that I didn't know how to do. And I truly didn't think that I could do. That was not in my wheelhouse. That wasn't something I was good at. I'm not good at the business side. I don't want to deal with details. But it was just amazing. As I look back at the same time, I had a kid who was really struggling that somehow I was able to still love and be patient with, and a husband who was working an hour away. So it wasn't really convenient for him to chip in through a lot of that time anyway. There were a lot of things that I think a lot of us don't realize until we look back. And then you realize how God is amazing at qualifying people who also are willing to put in whatever they have into that bucket, and he can multiply that for us. And I've seen that over and over again in my life in all kinds of stages, not just with work and not just with family, but even just in myself, where you just can't believe that you were brave enough to do that or had the willingness to do something that you never thought you'd do.

Yes. Amen. And then also really seeking inspiration. I've noticed that for myself, like, okay, Heavenly Father, I feel called or I feel the impression to start this, to build this. I'm not 100% sure how to do this. And so just the developing of that relationship because I do believe that he can provide the inspiration of, all right, maybe over here in this arena. And sometimes it's I trust you to figure it out, and I need you to figure it out because you're going to use these skills in other areas of your life, and I also need you to help those around you with this thing. And so I need you to experience all of the puzzle pieces to build a better picture and a bigger picture. What are some of the successes or wins that you've experienced as a result of building and creating the business side that you maybe weren't expecting?

There's been actually so many, but a few that I am thinking of specifically for me. I've been able to connect with so many incredible people. I built the community to help moms of teens feel less alone, so they didn't feel that loneliness that I felt. But what I've seen over the past, especially four years, is this community has been incredible at building me. I've been receiving tons of great ideas, new ways to do things with teens, resources that I had never considered, ways of thinking that are just new and different. And even if they don't work for me, help me understand people that I love better or people in my own life better. As I've created an online community and put out who I'd like to be, I find that I keep myself in check. If this is who I'm talking about being, then this is who I better be. If I tell people they need to kind of look past themselves and get involved, even when it's hard, then I better be showing up at the school, too, even when I don't want to. And so it's been really sometimes I don't want to be the right parent to my teens. It's easier to just go into old habits. But I was like, no, this is what I preach. I'm going to connect. I'm going to ask my kid how I'm doing. I'm going to put aside my anxiety driven, want to control. Everything for them. And I'm going to let them drive to provoke for a concert right after they turn 16, even though I'm so worried about it. And so as I process things that we're going through and I write about things and I hear things that other people are doing, it's made me a much better mother, a much better partner, and I feel like a way better human because I have kind of things keeping me in check. I have that ideal that I want to be and kind of the steps to get there. And I don't do it all the time, but I feel very motivated to try to be that person.

Yeah. And that's another sign of a great leader, is that you are practicing what you preach and that authenticity shines through in what you're doing. And you are honest. You are upfront and saying, this isn't always easy for me. This is who I want to be, this is how I want to show up. But I also have to push through the thoughts in my head that maybe tell me to go sit on the couch and eat a bag of potato chips. And sometimes we do. But really, when you do practice, what you preach, again comes through in your leadership and it shows. So what do you think is the benefit of mothers? Like, let's go specifically to mothers, what's the benefit of them having something that they create outside of motherhood? Whether that's journaling or creating? I always say, like, just even creating order in the dirty sink full of dishes or sorting the laundry or is it a piece of artwork, is it writing something? Is it creating a business? But what do you think is the benefit of a mother having that creative outlet?

I think that it is so important for everyone, especially moms, to be able to fill an identity. And I think we're multifaceted. So while we're mothers and love that and it's so exciting, that's never the only thing that we are. And even the people who find tons of love and joy and fulfillment in motherhood usually have another piece of that that's really exciting. Maybe they're homeschooling, so they're creating curriculum and they're learning alongside their kids, and maybe their kids are a part of a lot of the things that they do enjoy. But what I found for myself was that it was really easy for me to just get lost in the day to day things. And having something that kind of pulls you out of the day to day also allows you to enjoy the day to day a little bit more. I think we all crave variety in our life. There's a reason very few of us want to eat the exact same thing every breakfast, every lunch, every day. I have a dad like that, but I think he's rare. But I think most of us crave variety. And there's an idea that once you do something too many times, it loses a joy. And so you've got to switch it up. And I think that's why you find some parents who have maybe done the same thing with their first three kids, and on the fourth, they're like, we're not doing soccer again. We're doing something new, just because they want some variety in their life, too. And so I think as you do that, it just breaks up what could be seen as mundane and allows you to appreciate what is kind of the same every day, because you're breaking it up. Whether that's you got to go out and dance or whether you got to go garden or whatever that is. I think it can just really help mothers understand who they are and just find value. There's times in motherhood where you don't find a lot of value in what you're doing and where the people around you don't find a lot of value in what you're doing. And so doing something outside can just remind you of your value, even when it doesn't seem like it's working out very well at home.

And you mentioned there it helps others, maybe children, to see your value. Have you noticed that with your own kids? What have they noticed about you through this process? I know you're answering for them, and that's not always fair, but have you noticed that or picked up on things that they've said or done?

There's a couple of things that I've noticed. The first one for me is they had to pitch in more than they were doing, and I think they started to see the family as more of a team. And as I said, this is a really busy work week for me. I'm going to need everybody to step it up. They saw that that was, like, a legitimate request from me. My husband has been awesome in making sure they understand mom's working. She's not here to take your shoes from the front door to your room. You guys need to do the things that you're capable of doing. And then it's been really awesome, too, for them to see the things that I enjoy that I don't want to give away. I love driving them to their activities, and I'm not going to give that away. That's something that I love. And so even if I could maybe try to carpool it out all the time or whatever, I really enjoy that car time with my kids. I only have one left that has car time with me, but I really enjoyed that. And so they got to see me working, but then also embracing things that didn't look fun but were important to me. And I hope that's something that they take with them into their family life, that they prioritize the things that are really meaningful to them. I also think it's done a lot for just equality in our home, where there's a lot more shared responsibility and also this was never something that my husband brought on me, but something for me where I often felt like, well, I shouldn't say what I really want to do. I don't have any money to put into the pot or whatever that was on me. That was not on him. But it helped me change that way of thinking where we feel a lot more as a team in what we're deciding to do financially, what we decide to do with our time, because my time is limited, not just his time is limited. And so I feel like my kids have probably seen a more equal and working really hard together partnership, which I think is really beautiful and something that I didn't expect would be something so important.

And what I imagine, if I can predict the future a little bit here, but giving them that example and living through that, think of how they'll show up in their relationships and in their marriages in the future, knowing that, hey, we're all equal here. We can all load the dishwasher just the same. And like you said, it's not Mom's responsibility to move your shoes. You can be responsible for your items. And that's funny you should say that. We just went through the shoe bucket the other day, and I'm like, all right, everybody, get your shoes out of here. We can do this. And so through this process, you've modeled behavior, you've taught behavior, you've included them in all of that, and so strengthening them for their future. And I would say that their future spouses would probably thank you. Thank you for putting in the hard work. And that byproduct of that. And so what's one last message that you want to leave with our listeners about creation and maybe this journey that you've been on, either your creation journey or your motherhood journey, maybe just one last message for them.

Yeah, I think one of the things I think is so important is to realize that there is no overnight success, and you never know where your journey of creation will take you. I had truly no idea that by sharing a few parks and books online, that I would become an author. It wasn't something I was even working toward. It was my choice to start creating and sharing my creation that allowed me to share really important things that have connected me with people that I love and value and appreciate so much. And so for anyone who's getting started, they always say, like, begin with the end in mind. I don't think you have to begin with anything in mind. I think you should just begin. And it doesn't have to be about money. All those things that I talked about, your kids can learn if you make $0. It's that mom has a separate self and she's spending time doing something she loves, and it brings her joy. And I think that's such an amazing example to your kids, whether it turns into a business or turns into a book or whatever it is, start the creation process, find fulfillment from it, because I never thought about it being a business for me. It brought me joy, and it's what I love to do. And then it turned into something, and I think those types of things become something even better than when we're doing it for an ulterior reason.

Yes, amen to that. And so you've written these articles, you have created a lot of content, and you have the books and the 52 Modern Manners. I love that you put that in a flip chart to sit right on the table. That, to me, was genius. So kudos to that idea. But what do you have coming up for your readers, listeners, clients? What do you have going on?

Well, I'm really excited because in just a couple of weeks, 52 Modern Manners for Kids will be out. The prequel to the teen book, it's for ages four to twelve. It is really similar to the teen books, but on the back it has suggestions for roleplay, because my kids learned really well through roleplay. I love it. It talks about things that I wish my kids would have known, like things like wait for your turn to talk, which in not positive speak is not interrupting, waiting for food to be offered instead of going to your friend's house and asking for food the entire time you're there. Those types of things that are really awesome for ages four to twelve. And then we are taking Modern Manners for Teens, and we will have a school curriculum that includes videos, posters, really cool things for teachers. And I'm hoping that will be out around February so they can purchase it for the next school year.

Okay, that is beautiful. I spent this last year school year subbing a little bit in the schools where my kids attend, and there is a strong need for the common sense that these manners teach. And I know I've said genius a couple of times, but I feel that so inspired for what these kids need right now. I'm excited to dig into that. Now, if people want to find these resources, you've got your website, you're also on Amazon.

Yep. Books are easily purchased on Amazon. And then Brooke Romney writes on Instagram, love that community and love to bring people there.

Cool. All right, well, I'll put all links in the show notes, but Brooke, thank you so much for your thoughts and just kind of who you are behind the creation. I love to hear kind of the mind and heart. So thank you for being here today.

Thanks so much for having me.