Latest / Parent's Talk with Francine Juhlin / Episode 12: Leadership Lessons for the Next Generation

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Episode 12: Leadership Lessons for the Next Generation · Parent's Talk with Francine Juhlin

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello!
• 0:00
  Speaker 2: We have a little bit of a different vibe today.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: I actually have a guest live and in person. I'm
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: in Atlanta with my buddy, Jody, the Soldier Mom Martin.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Jody and I met last year at the Children's Authors Summit,
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: and I'm here tonight because tomorrow we're heading up to
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Nashville to this year's Children's Authors Summit. And I am
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: so excited to be just in the world of children
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: authors all weekend long.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Well, when you see this episode, it's going to be over.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: So look at all the shorts and all the other
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: stuff on my channels, on my Facebook page. And you
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: can see all the authors that I'm going to meet
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: this weekend. But right now, I'm here with my special
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: friend Jodi with Sparkle Feathers. Sparkle Feathers, why don't you
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: just sit here? And I would like Jodi to introduce
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: herself because we're both Army girls. Well, you know, she
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: wasn't in the Navy. I won't hold that against her,
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: but we're both Army girls too.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: So Jodi, why don't you introduce yourself, please?
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  Speaker 3: Okay, so as Francine said, you would have thought we've
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: known each other for.
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: Like a long time. Forever, right?
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  Speaker 3: But literally this time last year, we both, was that
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: your first time too?
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: That was my first time too. Okay. So our, we
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: were very brand.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: New to this talk author summit in Nashville. And I
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: had no idea what to expect.
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: Neither did I.
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  Speaker 2: None.
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  Speaker 4: At the time, I think I had two books.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: I had one.
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  Speaker 3: Two books. Anyway, went, I just took a step of faith,
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: went to this talk summit and met Francine, met several
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: people that we are now all connected and really close
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: as far as like we're all supporting each other through
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: our whole author journey. So I just want to say
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: if you want to be an author or whatever you
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: want to dream.
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: To be, just keep going at it.
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  Speaker 3: You're going to meet fantastic people like you who help
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: us get through the things that.
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: We need to get through and teach us. But anyway.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: Back to me. Let's talk about me for a minute. So,
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  Speaker 3: as she said, my name is Jodi Martin. I am known,
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: also known as, or better known as, the Soldier Mom.
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: And that title comes.
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  Speaker 4: From the fact that I spent 30 years in the Army. Well,
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: the Army Reserve.
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  Speaker 3: I spent about half that time on active duty through
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: all the Iraq and Afghanistan and all the things.
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  Speaker 4: I speak from a point of view of being a mother,
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: being a soldier. and being an educator. So you get
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: a lot of points of view from me.
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  Speaker 3: So am I full of opinions? Yes, but it's always
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: for our kids. It's for our families. And of course
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: I always talk.
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: From a point of view of being a military member. So, um,
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  Speaker 4: I hope you bear with.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: Me when I talk about how important our military is
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: and service and all the things that come with that.
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  Speaker 3: One of the things that I talk a lot about
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  Speaker 3: is character. And one of the things that Army, well,
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  Speaker 3: the military in general, but I can speak on behalf
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: of the Army side, teaches us is about our character
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  Speaker 3: and our values and why that's important to have those
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  Speaker 3: things throughout the different missions that we have to do.
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  Speaker 4: And so that is how we got here today.
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  Speaker 1: That's it. And now tell them about Soldier Mom. I
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: love it. I think I've read them all. If I haven't,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: I need to go get the ones I haven't read.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: But why is it so important to you to write these?
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Why do you think kids need to understand this so much?
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  Speaker 3: Well, we've got to go back to my first book,
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  Speaker 3: Soldier Mom, that started it all. I, being an Army
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  Speaker 3: Reserve officer, our reserve members are not always at bases, right?
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: where they have access to all the active duty kinds
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  Speaker 3: of things, where they have access to family support when
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: somebody deploys. They do not have access. So I was
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  Speaker 3: one of those people. I lived in a very small town.
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  Speaker 3: I had two kiddos.
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  Speaker 4: On my first deployment.
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  Speaker 3: They were nine and not even quite three, barely nine
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  Speaker 3: and almost three, on my first real long deployment away
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  Speaker 3: from them.
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  Speaker 4: And we lived in a small town. And so I...
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  Speaker 4: It was not that my town did not rally around them.
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  Speaker 1: They did.
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  Speaker 4: They loved them. They did everything that they could do.
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  Speaker 3: But my kids didn't have anybody that was going through
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  Speaker 3: the same thing. They didn't have another family they could
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  Speaker 3: look to and go, oh, you can make it through
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: these hard times.
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  Speaker 4: You can make it through a Christmas without a parent.
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  Speaker 4: You can make it through a birthday. You can make
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: it through soccer championships.
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  Speaker 3: And that's what made me write my original book because
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  Speaker 3: I wanted to showcase.
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  Speaker 4: That a soldier mom is just a mom. We happen
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  Speaker 4: to wear a uniform, too.
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  Speaker 1: And you happen to go away for a long period
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  Speaker 1: of time.
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  Speaker 3: So that is addressed throughout that book. And for a
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  Speaker 3: point of view for a kiddo, not as an adult.
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  Speaker 3: So what do kids see? How do they go through this?
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  Speaker 3: And so that was the first book. And then I
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  Speaker 3: was inspired to write about military things.
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: Memorial Day, Veterans Day. Oh, and by the way, I
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  Speaker 4: think I've said this before.
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  Speaker 3: Did you know that most Americans, there was a whole poll,
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  Speaker 3: only 28% of Americans knew the difference.
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  Speaker 4: Between Memorial Day and Veterans Day? I believe it.
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  Speaker 3: And I think that's why it was so important for
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  Speaker 3: me to write two different books about what's Memorial Day
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  Speaker 3: and what's Veterans Day. Again, kids' books, a very high-level topic.
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: How do we break that down for kids without it
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  Speaker 3: being scary? Just in case anyone watching... And we do
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  Speaker 3: have an international audience. So why don't you break it down?
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  Speaker 2: Tell everybody the difference between Veterans Day and Memorial Day.
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  Speaker 4: Okay.
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  Speaker 3: So most other countries, anybody who's been in a war
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  Speaker 3: probably has something like a Memorial Day, a Remembrance Day,
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  Speaker 3: which is what it actually started out as way back
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  Speaker 3: in the day. Memorial Day is for us to honor
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  Speaker 3: those who gave their full sacrifice.
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  Speaker 4: They died. during service to their country. So that is
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  Speaker 4: the memorial.
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  Speaker 3: We're memorializing those people that gave everything for freedom.
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  Speaker 4: Veterans Day, on the other hand, is.
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  Speaker 3: For people who have served, like myself, Francine, you know,
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  Speaker 3: the guys and gals.
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  Speaker 4: Wearing their hats out and about.
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  Speaker 3: And so that's usually the people you say thank you
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  Speaker 3: for your service to. And I know you're asking me, well,
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  Speaker 3: what about the people who are on active duty right now?
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  Speaker 4: Because I'm retired. You're retired.
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  Speaker 3: We're considered veterans because we're retired. So what about the
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: people serving on active duty right now? Well, there's actually
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: a day for them. It's called Armed Forces Day. And
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  Speaker 3: so it still doesn't matter. Listen, if you want to
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  Speaker 3: find somebody who has a uniform on and thank them
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  Speaker 3: for their service because it's Veterans Day, please feel free.
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  Speaker 4: Nobody's going to get mad at you.
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  Speaker 1: And there's something else I have to talk about.
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  Speaker 2: Because when we go out and my husband and I
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  Speaker 2: go shopping, we get discounts. And they always thank him.
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  Speaker 2: One day I got mad and I just said, hey.
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  Speaker 1: I'm the veteran.
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  Speaker 2: And then he looked at me and he said, I
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  Speaker 2: served in Vietnam. I'm like, oh, I'm sorry.
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  Speaker 4: He served four years. He's still a veteran. Yes, yes, yes.
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  Speaker 4: We're just long-term veterans. We're just long-term. We're long in
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  Speaker 4: the tooth. As they say, he's a little longer in
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  Speaker 4: the tooth than I am. As far as age goes,
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  Speaker 4: but service-wise, yeah, we got that. But I agree. I
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  Speaker 4: will say.
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  Speaker 3: Francine, and you probably get this sometimes too, through our
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  Speaker 3: social media, through our interactions with people on the street,
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  Speaker 3: if you will.
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  Speaker 4: And we talk about veterans kinds of things because we
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  Speaker 4: both have a military background.
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  Speaker 3: Now, I also have the initial pleasure of also being
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  Speaker 3: a Navy brat.
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  Speaker 4: My dad was in the Navy. So we're kind of
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  Speaker 4: kindred in the sense that.
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  Speaker 1: I was the one in the Navy in my family,
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  Speaker 1: but yeah.
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  Speaker 4: But anyway, so I grew.
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  Speaker 3: Up, I saw it on one side as a kid
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  Speaker 3: growing up, and I saw it as an adult having
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  Speaker 3: kids going through it. But with that said, you know,
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  Speaker 3: I didn't think anything about my dad getting told, hey,
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  Speaker 3: thank you for your service. Thank you for your service.
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  Speaker 4: Thank you for your service. And I'm going to tell
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: you this story. So I live near my dad, and
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  Speaker 4: we go out.
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  Speaker 3: public go to dinner go to the show whatever quite
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  Speaker 3: often my dad wears his veteran's hat and I usually
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  Speaker 3: don't because I don't want to mess.
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  Speaker 4: Up my hair but um they're always like thank you
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  Speaker 4: for your service.
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  Speaker 3: Okay I just let it go because it's my dad
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  Speaker 3: I love my dad he started he served 20 plus
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  Speaker 3: years as well and but when we're out I find
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  Speaker 3: it funny because my dad will go oh She served too,
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  Speaker 3: and she's a colonel.
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  Speaker 4: Because my dad was a chief when he retired.
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  Speaker 3: So he is as proud of my service as I am,
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  Speaker 3: but he gets mad when people don't recognize my service. And,
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  Speaker 3: you know, that happened a lot throughout my career, unless
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: they saw me in uniform. They thought I was the
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  Speaker 3: spouse and not the service member.
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  Speaker 2: Well, what's funny is, my dad only understood Army, so
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  Speaker 2: when I was in the Navy and I was a
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  Speaker 2: petty officer second class, he always called me Sergeant. So
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  Speaker 2: when I decided to go back in, I went in
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  Speaker 2: the Army so we could finally be right.
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  Speaker 4: Okay, fair enough. That was one of the reasons.
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  Speaker 1: I like the big helicopters on the side of the road.
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  Speaker 4: They were pretty cool. They were pretty cool. Especially when
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: they fly over your house. It's pretty cool. Something about
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  Speaker 4: that when it comes. But you know what's funny? You
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: say that, but my dad.
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  Speaker 1: Being in the Navy, me being in the Army, we talk.
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  Speaker 4: Ranks as opposed to what we call it, right?
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  Speaker 3: Now, you know as well as I do, you spend
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: enough time in the service, you understand the ranks are
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: called different things in the different services. Right.
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  Speaker 4: Some are the same. Many are different.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, I remember the first time I called an army.
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  Speaker 4: Lieutenant captain.
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  Speaker 1: No, I called an army captain lieutenant.
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  Speaker 4: Because that's what's in the Navy. That was in the Navy.
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  Speaker 4: The two cars, the railroad.
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  Speaker 1: But he didn't like that very much.
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  Speaker 3: No.
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  Speaker 4: No, I get it.
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  Speaker 1: I get it.
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  Speaker 4: Because you were demoting him.
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  Speaker 3: But, yes, because the ranks look the same or very similar.
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  Speaker 4: Right.
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  Speaker 1: They just have different names. Different names.
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  Speaker 3: Right. So my dad and I related on, we just
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: call it rank E7, O2, whatever.
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: Now, he does call me Colonel. That is a, what
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: do they call it? It's a captain. It's a captain
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: in the Navy, right? And 06 is captain. Where a
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: captain for us.
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  Speaker 2: Is an 03.
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  Speaker 4: Isn't that awesome? It's weird.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: I'll tell you this one story. So the first time
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: I was deployed was back in 2004, 2005.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: It's just when this incident happened. So I was working
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: for CENTCOM and I happened to be at the forward
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: element in Qatar.
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  Speaker 4: I'm not telling any secrets.
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  Speaker 3: It's fine.
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: No op con at this point. So anyway. I make
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: a call.
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  Speaker 3: I am an 03 Captain Army. I call to CENTCOM
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: in the States, and I'm like, hey, this is Captain Martin.
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: I need blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The person on
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: the other end.
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: A major who outranks me, is like, yes, ma'am, we'll
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: get that to you right away.
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  Speaker 1: They thought I was a Navy captain.
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  Speaker 3: Now, did I correct them? And no, because I wanted
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: the thing done. But this is what happens.
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: When you work in a joint environment where you know
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: people from different services. And it's just, it's almost kind
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: of fun. But yeah, we're different, but we're the same. Different,
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: but the same.
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  Speaker 1: I like that. Different, but the same. We're all military.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: And we're all Americans.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah. We're all green.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: No, Navy's kind of blue.
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: Okay, we're all camouflage? No.
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you've got the weird tightish crazy blue thing.
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: Whatever. You do have the Marines kind of that get
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: on the boat. So how about you got green? I'm
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: just saying.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: Anyways, let's get back to children's books.
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  Speaker 4: Children's books.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes. Sorry when you get two military people together.
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  Speaker 2: But let's get back to what this all means for
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  Speaker 2: the kids. We both had a lot of experience in
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: leadership through the military. And we want to help parents
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: instill these values in their kids so we can grow
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: the next generation of leaders. Let's talk about values because
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: your newest book series is all about values.
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  Speaker 3: Yes.
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  Speaker 2: So let's talk about, well, loyalty's on top. Tell us
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: about loyalty. Well, just take a beat for a second.
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  Speaker 2: So many of the.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: Armed services, and I would say a lot of places,
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  Speaker 3: but I'm talking from a point of view of being
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: a veteran, right? And how I learned values or were
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: instilled in me that helped me be successful in my
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: different missions.
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  Speaker 4: And honestly, in my entire life.
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  Speaker 3: Okay. So in the Army, they have an acronym that
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: spells the word leadership. Does it spell it exactly?
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: No.
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  Speaker 4: It's called an acronym for a purpose. I mean, for
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: a reason. It's L-D-R-S-H-I-P. And each of those seven letters
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: spell out a value. So L, loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity,
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: personal courage.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Loyalty.
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  Speaker 4: So I have a book for each of those characters.
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  Speaker 4: Those are all very hefty ideas, right? How do you explain?
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  Speaker 5: First of all, I don't even know that adults can
• 14:55
  Speaker 5: really explain what loyalty means, what duty means, what does
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: respect mean? You hear these words all the time, but
• 15:03
  Speaker 5: what does it really mean in our daily lives, right?
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  Speaker 5: In this case, I took The Army acronym, which I
• 15:12
  Speaker 5: didn't conceive of, but I took it and I'm breaking
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: it down.
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  Speaker 3: To kid-sized bite elements. And in the book, each book
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: shows the kid's point of view. What does loyalty look
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: like in this case? What does loyalty look like in
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: their everyday life?
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: School? Home? Helping in the community? What does it look
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: like at home with your siblings? And if you have siblings,
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: you know.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: Character does not always show its face all the time.
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: So I'm not saying these children are perfect. What I
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: am saying is they're showcasing some ways that the kids
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: can identify themselves within these books.
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: And maybe they're already doing these things. Maybe they're seeing
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: themselves and going, hey, I did that.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: Why don't you give an example?
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely. So the first thing we.
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: Do is we talk about what the definition of loyalty
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: is by Army standards, right? And then we kind of
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: break it down into civilian language.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: How that fits into a kid's life.
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: Right, so let's just say this one for example. Loyalty
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  Speaker 3: and Army standards bear true faith and allegiance to the
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: United States Constitution, the Army, your unit, and other soldiers.
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  Speaker 3: Bearing true faith and allegiance is a matter of believing
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: in and devoting yourself to something or someone.
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  Speaker 4: Okay, that's a pretty big idea.
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: And then we break it down and we start giving examples.
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  Speaker 4: In one example, I love this. So we're following this
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: one character around, right? Layla.
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  Speaker 3: Notice her name starts with the same letter as the book.
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: Loyalty has Layla. And Layla is showing us different ways
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  Speaker 3: that she has seen.
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: In her daily life of how she shows.
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: Loyalty to her friends, to her teachers, to her parents,
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: whatever that may be.
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: And in this case, The teacher, Miss Shields, who.
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: Is an Army Reserve officer, also an educator, like moi,
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: how can we see loyalty values every day, she asked
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: the class.
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: And so the class starts thinking.
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: About ways that they've seen loyalty based on the definition
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: that they just went through.
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: And in this case, we see Layla helping one of
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: her student, her student peer friends in her classes.
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: We can see it in action when upholding the Army
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: values like helping others, showing support for our teammates, classmates,
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: or at work.
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: You know, because some kids, teenagers work, right?
• 17:46
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: And so you see kids helping in the lunchroom, cleaning
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: up trash behind others, right? One of the things is
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: taking care of your community. That's a way to show loyalty, right?
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: And then there's a picture of several of her.
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: Classmates helping out as a volunteer during a disaster. So
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: all these things our kids see and participate in, and
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: we showcase that for them.
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: The great thing about this.
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: Is not only are we learning about character and values
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: and how we see that every day, I made it
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: a little fun, and I have some hidden images throughout
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: the book.
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: Every book has hidden images. Well, first of all, There's
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: always flamingos in my book. I was just going to ask.
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: There's always flamingos in my book.
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: But in this case, I also have additional images.
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: And I'm just going to show you this book.
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: Where is it? And it shows, can you find all
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: these hidden images? And the flamingo is always.
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: The hardest to find.
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: In here, you also, parents, teachers, there are Vocabulary.
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: Listen, I know your kids are going, oh, vocabulary, ew, gross.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: But this is how you become a good speaker and
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: can tell people how you feel.
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: And then there's always resources that you can go to
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: to further learn.
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: So each of the books are really set up like this.
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: Classroom environment, but they get to see some of the
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: things that the kids do throughout their day or their week.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: This was a number one bestseller.
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: I still feel the little flutter of what went number one.
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: And I want to say, I could not have done
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: it without readers like yourself.
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: But this book, being that it's honor, really meant a
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: lot to me. Because being a service member, we honor
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: so much. silently that we forget that we're doing it
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: it almost just becomes part of who we are we're
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: honoring our family we're honoring our heritage we're honoring our
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: country we're honoring our community we're on the list goes
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: on and on and this book really talks about that
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: And my character here.
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: Goes through and just talks about how honor looks in
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: his life, right?
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: Look, baseball game. How do you behave at a baseball game?
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: And in this case, it's a parent yelling at an
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: ump because they didn't like the call that the ump made.
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: Parents don't do that. No, parents don't do that. Listen,
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: parents aren't perfect.
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: But what you see is other parents going, hey, listen,
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: not appropriate. But they're standing up and they're saying the
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: right things for the right reasons.
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: Right? They're honoring and respecting the rules.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: And so that's how this goes through. And you're seeing
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: it from the kid's point of view. And it's kind
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: of cool. Anyway, H is Henry. Henry's pretty cool.
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: And.
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: I also will say this. I'm going to throw this
• 21:09
  Speaker 4: out there. Because, okay, so all seven books are all
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: on Amazon. If you would like to go out there,
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: they all have hidden images. They all have vocabulary. They
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: all have resources.
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: And if you go to my website, I will send
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: you a parent packet for loyalty.
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: What's in it?
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: It has activities and resources for parents, families, homeschool, whatever
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: you want to use it for. just kind of a
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: way to get at what the story is about and
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: get your.
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: Kids' point of view. What does loyalty look like to them?
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: Maybe it looks completely different.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Because there really is no right or wrong answer.
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: Not really. No.
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: If they understand the concept, then as they grow older,
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: that's going to develop and deepen.
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: The understanding becomes bigger and more rich.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Well, if you think about it, what's the grade level
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: for these books?
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: I would say 3rd grade through 5th grade is the primary. However,
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: because some of the subjects, you could definitely go 6th grade.
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: And if you have.
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: A really astute 2nd grader, go for it. As a parent,
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: you could read this to them. As a teacher, you
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: could read this to them. You could walk them through it. Absolutely.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: So for a 2nd grader, loyalty may be your friend Jane...
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: plays with you in the playground every day during recess.
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: And then over here, Susie asked you to come play
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: with them, but they don't want Jane to come too.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: So you stay loyal to Jane and tell them, no,
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: thank you. I'm going to keep playing with Jane. That's
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: a second graders idea of loyalty. So, and then with
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: each grade, These books will help them grow into the
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: more mature meaning. And each grade.
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: Level, you could read the book Loyalty in grade two,
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: and then again in grade three, and then again in
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: grade four.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: Get something else out of it.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: It's just like when I say I haven't watched a
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: certain movie, let's say, or even a book.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: I read another book lately that I hadn't read since
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: high school, and I see it completely different.
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: Is it the same book? Is it the same words?
• 23:32
  Speaker 4: Is it the same author?
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: But you're not the same.
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: I'm not the same. And so neither are your kids. So, yeah,
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: there you go. And so.
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: I just really believe the time is perfect right now
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: for our kids to be learning about values. I think
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: for a while that was really kind of pulled out
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: of our school systems and It's not, it wasn't an
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: important thing. Let's do math and science and all that's important.
• 24:03
  Speaker 4: But so are these. Because this is your day-to-day living, right?
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: How do you make choices?
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: How do you go about making sure somebody's taken care of?
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: How do you take care of your community? How do
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: you make sure, you know, all those things.
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: That's everything.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: How do we grow tomorrow's leaders?
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: The next generation of leaders.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: The next generation of leaders.
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: And I talk about that all the time.
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: The next generation of leaders. And listen, as a parent,
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: I have two grown kids. And was I a perfect parent?
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: Absolutely not.
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: Would I have adored these books? Absolutely.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: You wrote them because you wish your kids had them.
• 24:42
  Speaker 5: Right. Right.
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: And as an educator, I saw kids struggling with these concepts.
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: And you see it on the recess field where they
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: kind of have free play.
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: And they should have free play.
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: But they have these dynamics that they're not sure how
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: to deal with. This introduces that and you get conversations
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: out of it.
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: Mom, I was, you know, like the baseball game thing
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: I was talking about.
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: What if maybe they were at practice one day and
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: something happened and the kid wasn't sure how to handle it?
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: So then you're reading this book and your kiddo says, hey,
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: Johnny at practice was doing so-and-so-and-so. And it wasn't a
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: bad thing, but he's talking through it like it already happened.
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: And it sparks that conversation with a.
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: Parent and a child, and it helps the child hear
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: what he's saying, learn from his experience, but also being
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: able to.
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: Go, okay, next time, I.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: Know what to do.
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: I can do this. Now, listen, book learning... is I
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: love reading, but.
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: Book learning is only as important as you make it, right?
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: That's why I included the resources. You can do some
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: deeper learning.
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: That's why I have activities that you can do because
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: you can read this, but unless you have a way
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: to tie it to a scenario, real life, and that's
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: why I like these because the scenarios I got from
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: my own kids living their life, and things that they
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: went through, as a educator, seeing these things unfold during
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: the school day. And other parents, quite frankly, telling me
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: different stories, funny sometimes, about things that their kids went
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: through and how they learned from it. So these are
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: usually 100% true stories.
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: The names of the change protectors. So I say all that.
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: These are important things, but I also made it fun.
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: Because if you don't make education fun, who's going to
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: pay attention?
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: And you learn more when you're having fun.
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: That's right.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: So here's a good chance to take a little break
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: and mention how you could find Jodi.
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: So lots of ways. Let's start with the website, JodiAuthorMartin.com.
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: Pretty easy.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: J-O-D-I.
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: I spelled it wrong once.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: It's J-O-D-I.
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: It's J-O-D-I. I. I. I.
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: It's all about I. I. just like it's spelled on
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: my book. Jodi author, authorjodimartin.com. You can also find me
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: on YouTube at soldiermom95 because that's when I became a mom.
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: And then, of course, all across social media, soldiermom or jodimartin.com.
• 27:38
  Speaker 4: And Amazon. Oh, yeah, Amazon.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: That place. And Amazon.
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: And Amazon. You can find all these books. And quite frankly,
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: let's say... you might not want to buy a paperback
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: right now. Funds are tight. I get that.
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: All the books right now, except for my most recent one,
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: and I'll talk about that in a minute, $ 1.
• 27:58
  Speaker 4: 99 on Kindle. You say, but I don't have a Kindle.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: You can read it on your computer.
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: You can read it on your computer or the Kindle
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: app that you can download on your iPad or your phone. Okay?
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: So easy peasy.
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: You could try it out. It has all the same material.
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: All the same pictures, everything's the same, except for you're
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: not holding.
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: It in your hand. And then if you.
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: Want it in paperback, you can purchase it. But I
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: would just love for you to have it in your hands.
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: So I'm not worried about the price that you pay. $ 1.
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: 99, I think I said it was.
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: Now, my newest one for the month of July is $ 0.
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: 99. So try it out. $ 0.
• 28:39
  Speaker 5: 99.
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: $ 0.
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: 99.
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: And leave a review, please.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: This is a public service announcement.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: All authors love reviews because that tells us how we're doing.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: If you leave a review and let us know you
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: loved it, great, I'm going to keep doing more of that.
• 28:58
  Speaker 4: If you write a.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: Review and say you had a typo in your book, well,
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: I'm going to get it fixed. And that has happened.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: It has happened, yes.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: Or if you say, I wish you had done something
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: a little differently... Please let us know because it might
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: be something we never consider doing that we can. If
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: there's subject matter you'd like to see our characters do,
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: let us know.
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: You never know. It might happen.
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: It might happen. I do it on my YouTube all
• 29:32
  Speaker 4: the time. People leave me, hey, can you go look
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: at this hero? Can you go look at that hero?
• 29:36
  Speaker 4: Heck yeah.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: Talk about that YouTube.
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: What are you doing on YouTube?
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. So YouTube for me is new. And the
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: reason I say that is because, you know, YouTube is
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: a big undertaking, you know.
• 29:46
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: But I have learned so much not only from you.
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: But our other authors that are on Author Unite, through
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: our publisher, Ken Roshan. And so I decided to take
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: another step out on faith and do this. So I
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: believe the channel is really only about four months old.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: But.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: That's a baby.
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: It is a baby. But we're already getting some really
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: good reviews.
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: And one of the things I'm doing is I'm doing
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: a drop every week on Thursdays.
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: A topic that is important for all of us.
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: But once a month, I have a series called Forged
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: in America. And I spotlight American heroes. Some you may know,
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: some you may not. And so my first two of
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: those have dropped. And I'm not going to tell you
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: who the first one was because it's a surprise. But
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: the second, but you have to go out there and
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: take a look at it. Joe, soldier mom, 95.
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: It's really good.
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: And they're usually like six or eight minutes long. I
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: wanted to keep it to a length that you can
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: watch with your kids. You can watch by yourself. You
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: can use it in the classroom. You can use it
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: as a teaching.
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: Tool, whatever you want.
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: But they're short clips about people that have been important
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: and basically forged by America.
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: They helped shape America to who we are.
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: I love that concept. Everybody check it out. Jodi Martin 95.
• 31:12
  Speaker 4: No, Soldier Mountain.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: Soldier Mountain 95.
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: You can still find it by going Jodi Martin.
• 31:17
  Speaker 4: It's fine. But the actual channel is Jodi. Good Lord,
• 31:20
  Speaker 4: you got me saying it. This is what happens. ADHD
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: at its finest. I'm just saying. SoldierMom95.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: I want to talk about something that's very special to me.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: It's just now starting brand new, the Sparkle Feathers Foundation.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: And I want to tell you why I started it.
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: The Sparkle Feathers Foundation started when I looked into getting
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: my books into the Dolly Parton Foundation program where they
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: give books away to kids who can't afford to buy
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: their own books. And I learned they only have one publisher.
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: All the books that Dolly Parton's Foundation gives away comes
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: from one publisher. And there's nothing wrong with that. That's
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: what they chose to do, and that's fine. But I
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: represent a group of independent authors. Our books deserve to
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: be given away to children too. So I started the
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: Sparkle Feathers Foundation so we could raise the funds to
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: give our books away to kids who otherwise wouldn't be
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: able to afford books. And the group is Children's Authors Unite.
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: Our website, childrensauthorsunite.com is a place where you could go
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: and find, we have 22 authors now, you could find
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: our bios, you could read about our books, there's links
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: to buy our books, you could just find some really
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: good things to read with your kids, to give to
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: your kids as gifts that you're not gonna find at
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: Barnes & Noble, You're not going to find at Walmart.
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: These are books written by independent authors. Some of them
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: aren't even on Amazon. These orders are fulfilled through their
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: own personal websites. But you can find these authors with
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: some great titles that really have heart, talk about kindness
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: and We have another veteran talking about different veteran topics.
• 33:58
  Speaker 4: We have.
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: And pickles.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: Pickles, yeah.
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: And Mark and his pickles. Nikolai Piklai is a lot
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: of how to research. He does a science project, how
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: to do research and Other really cool stuff.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: We have people who are doing dinosaur dig. Dinosaur dig.
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: Oh, Helen's an archaeologist and her book's about a dinosaur dig.
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: And then there's Rosemary and her book about bads and kindness.
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: And Sue, she's our newest author, just got her first
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: book on Amazon. And it's also about kindness and traveling.
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: So you can look at different cultures and see how
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: people live around the world. And Stacy's all about curly hair.
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: And if you have a kid with curly hair, she
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: gives lessons on how to take.
• 34:55
  Speaker 4: Care of your hair.
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: I know if that was available 55 years ago, my
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: mom would have bought the whole set because when this
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: thick old mess of curls was long, it was hard
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: to take care of. Stacey, Frizz Girls, Frizz Girls are
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: teaching kids how to love their curly hair. And don't forget,
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: they're Sparkle Feathers teaching kids all about confidence at Camp Confidence.
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: He's so cute.
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: But there's so many more books that we haven't even mentioned.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: Check it out.
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: ChildrensAuthorsUnite.com. And check out Sparkle Feathers Foundation. We're going to
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: be starting to raise funds. And our next event is
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: August 29th. The last weekend of August, Saturday and Sunday.
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: We're going to be streaming live four hours a day,
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: both days. And we're going to be doing like a
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: telethon kind of thing.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: We're going to have some entertainment. We're going to have
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: some fun and laughter.
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: And We're hoping that you come and sponsor a book
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: for a kid. If you want to know more about
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: how you could sponsor a book for a kid who
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: can't afford to have their own book, then drop something
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: in the comments and let me know and I will
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: let you know as soon as I know because we're
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: still working out the details.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: It is that brand new.
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: It's official 501c3 status, and now we're working out how
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: to take donations.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: So think about it.
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: If you know anybody giving out grants to people who
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: are giving books to kids, keep us in.
• 36:53
  Speaker 4: Mind, please.
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: At Sparkle Feathers Foundation and Children's Authors Unite dot com.
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: And Soldier Mom.
• 37:06
  Speaker 4: Soldier Mom 95.
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: Soldier Mom 95.
• 37:10
  Speaker 4: YouTube. And also across all the social media.
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: Please, if you're seeing this for the first time, this
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: is Parents Talk, where we talk about raising strong, confident
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: kids today so we don't have to fix broken adults later.
• 37:28
  Speaker 4: Wouldn't that be nice?
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: And then subscribe. I sure would appreciate it.
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: Bye.