Reclaiming Your Hue: A Podcast for Women Rediscovering Themselves in Motherhood & Entrepreneurship

Ep. 91 with Candi Seil | Co-Founder, Let's Talk Kids & BABY KNOW: Bodies, Hearts & Minds

• Kelly Kirk • Season 1 • Episode 91

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SMALL ACTS, BIG IMPACT

What if the most powerful learning tools fit in your pocket and your daily routine? We sit down with Candi to explore how tiny, intentional moments—eye tracking with a flashlight, stacking blocks, reading lips during feeds, and simple affirmations—become the foundation for motor skills, language, and secure attachment. Candi shares the origin story of Let’s Talk Kids and Baby Know, built with award-winning early childhood educators, and explains how clinical best practices meet everyday play so parents can support development without overwhelm.

We dig into the difference between “wait and see” and “start now,” with practical guidance parents can use from birth to age three. You’ll hear about culturally responsive kits co-created with community partners, university evaluations validating outcomes, and an unexpected breakout: teen dads using meditations and affirmations to handle overnights with confidence. We go inside the entrepreneurial journey too—how to scale through nonprofit and school partnerships, why cultural translation is more than swapping words, and what it takes to keep momentum when funding lags behind the science.

This conversation also reaches beyond the nursery. Candi talks advocacy at the Capitol for families and infants who can’t speak for themselves, the crucial window of zero to three in brain development, and why presence and repair matter just as much as milestones. We reflect on maternity and paternity leave for founders, wise approaches to nutrition and allergy introduction, and the role of faith and community in helping parents feel seen. If you’re a parent, educator, or entrepreneur, you’ll walk away with clear steps you can try today—and a renewed belief that small acts truly deliver big impact.

Enjoyed this one? Subscribe, share with a parent or educator who’d love it, and leave a quick review to help more families find these tools.

Resources:

Connect with Candi:

Contact the Host, Kelly Kirk:

  • Email: info.ryh7@gmail.com

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Credits:

  • Editor: Joseph Kirk
  • Music: Kristofer Tanke 


Thanks for listening & cheers to Reclaiming Your Hue! 

Sunshine, Intros, And Shared Mission

Kelly

Good morning, Candy. Good morning. How are you? I'm awesome. How are you doing? I'm doing, I'm doing fantastic. I always say this, and my listeners probably will get sick of me saying this, maybe not, but I just have to say, it is always so nice to actually meet the guest in person. Yes. And it's wonderful to see you. You are just like a ray of sunshine. Oh, thank you. And it's literally shining outside right now. And when you came through the door, I was like, oh, I love this. I am so excited about our conversation and what you're doing. And so let's go ahead and dive in. I love it. And I also agree that sunshine in February in Minnesota is a gift.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I know. Yeah. We especially need it right now.

unknown

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Get a little vitamin D in. It's good for our souls and for our bodies, really.

Kelly

Yes. Yeah, 100%. All right. I would love for you to share with the listeners how it is that you and I got connected.

Networking Roots And Policy Advocacy

SPEAKER_00

Do you remember? Yes, I totally remember. So I actually got connected. I feel like there's a lot of like soul sisters in my life. And Ashley Moonihan was one of the ones that recommended that we meet. She has Mom Eve solutions. And I feel like we have very complimentary products as she's developing a breast milk enhancing device or bra that families can wear. We have meditations that go along for families that you can listen to while you're pumping or while you're feeding your baby. And I was like, oh my goodness, this is like a marriage that we need to figure out how we can keep working together. We also have the same demographics of supporting moms that just had babies, and we even do some prenatal work too. So very exciting.

Kelly

I didn't realize that. Okay, we'll we'll dive into that. We're gonna table it for just a hot second. Yeah, Ashley is when she was here for her podcast interview, by the way, listeners. Um, as as you are listening to this right now, Ashley Mooneyham has been on, she's been a guest on the podcast. I don't remember what episode it was, but you can go through the Rolodex and you can find hers. And she is she's probably one of those individuals that is like this, very even keeled. She may have a little high, high or a little low, low, but like she otherwise is just so like let's get down to business. You know what I mean? And I loved it about her, it was so incredible. So, did you guys meet through like the um sort of that network of people that she is around?

Founding Let’s Talk Kids

SPEAKER_00

Empower her is one of them. So actually, we are in a business development group together in Shakapee. It's called the Foundry, so like a founder, but Foundry. Yeah, and it's Minnesota businesses based kind of in the Twin Cities metro area, that they can have a nation worldwide impact. And so she and I have kind of circled together in Minnesota Cup. We've done um some work with different legislators talking about how we can better support moms, what are the solutions that we can put forward and to uplift families that have young babies and young children. And one of the things that my mom, who's an early childhood educator, says is you know, if you think about it, babies are the only people that don't have a voice at the state capitol. And so Ashley and I got to share some of our views about being business owners that support families and young people at the Capitol and these babies, right? So I think it's a really exciting opportunity just to think about how do we keep showing up for the moms, how do we keep showing up for the young families, and how do we show up for our babies because they are our future.

Kelly

I love that I do recollect when we had our initial Zoom call that you were talking about this advocacy that you were doing, that you and Ashley were doing. And I just think that that's incredibly powerful and how you phrased it too, right? Like babies do not have a table, a voice, a voice at the table. Thank you. Yes.

SPEAKER_00

But that's so true. It's so true. And if you think about like um the AARP and the people that tend to vote and the people that show up, and maybe retired people have a little more time to have their voices heard because they can go and talk to their legislators, it's a really interesting concept to think about like how do we give our voice to our youngest members of the community? And that Googaga really doesn't tell legislators what you need. Right. So we do have that commonality too. That's incredible.

Kelly

So what came first for you, Candy? Was it entrepreneurship or was it motherhood? And then let's dive into what your businesses are so that the listeners can have a little bit of context of what we're speaking to.

From Kits To Baby Know

Clinical Vs Educational Development

SPEAKER_00

So I've kind of got a different situation. I got a cookie cut or an Oreo. I have a business, Let's Talk Kids, that I created with my mom and sister who are award-winning early childhood educators. We create learning kits for families that they can use for zero to three, um, babies or children who are zero to three, and it's really all the things with brain development. And for those in the early childhood space, there's a thing called the National Indicators of Progress. So we are abiding by all the things that you need to know. And moms of younger children and dads of younger children should know that we screen at three. So we screen for school readiness when a child's three years old. Everything in our learning kit is helping those families prepare their children for screening at three and really giving us the intentionality: like, let's name our colors, let's hide an object and find it. Let's think about how do we start jumping together and everything we need for that school readiness, which seems a little bit easy, but yet at the same time is really specific and kind of scientific when you break it down. So, our learning kits then tell you by color coding, this is an art activity, this is a science activity. And like, really truly, like science can be as simple as let's talk about our face. What do our eyes do? What does our nose do? Then we can talk about social studies. Who are the people in our life? Who are the people in our community? So very fun, intentional things. So that was first, and then I had my own babies. And so um, back to kind of the sandwich. When I had my babies, I used these learning kits, and I was like, I think we're missing something. So we have all the what we like to say is the brain development, like getting our brain ready for learning. But I was like, I think that we're missing the part of how do we develop? Like if our babies aren't doing a pincer grasp, or if our babies aren't doing that rolling over in large motor, there are things that like physical therapists know and occupational therapists and speech language pathologists that maybe aren't quite taught in the education community, and maybe they are, but there's like the clinical best practices, and then there's the educational best practices. So we created baby know, which is our second business after my babies were born, to really do that. Let's now get our bodies working. So we call it baby know, bodies, hearts, and minds. Let's get our bodies working. We know how to get our minds working using our learning kits. And then the other really cool thing is we do um hearts, bodies, minds, and hearts. And so we socially emotionally connect with mom and dad, and we do meditations, as I mentioned with Ashley. Yeah, we do meditations for breastfeeding, we do meditations for just connecting with your baby, and then we do affirmation statements where parents can like affirm their baby, like, baby, your your mind is beautiful. Baby, what you're creating is beautiful, you have beautiful hands. Oh, just a lot of like connection from birth and prenatally, which we can get into later.

Kelly

I love this. Okay, so I don't want to like go too far down the rabbit hole here, but can you tell me the difference between the clinical and then the educational component that you had referenced, right? There's the clinical like progression and then there's the educational progression. Let's talk about the difference of that for just a brief moment so the listeners understand.

SPEAKER_00

So I, as I mentioned, grew up with a mom and sister that had done early childhood. I started volunteering back in my community and like babysitting kids when I was 12 years old. So I feel like I, you know, had this like real life upbringing of preparing myself for motherhood. And with my mom who studied this, I got to see firsthand how we kind of play with intention and connect with intention with our kids. And when you have questions about like, why is my child not falling asleep? or like what are these things? Like, uh-oh, my child's biting somebody. I'm kind of embarrassed about this. How can we support the families through that, right? Because the child's not wrong. We just need to figure out how to support the behavior. So that in my brain is more of the educational model, is like supporting parents, teaching parents about brain growth and connectivity. But then there's this clinical aspect. So some children might need early intervention services. So by statistics, one in five children might have a developmental delay or a disability. If we identify these babies early and connect them to resources, their brain development, their trajectory in life is gonna be that much more powerful. And so now what we've done is, for instance, um, if your baby is like scooping food into their mouth, and I can think of a baby sitting in a high chair and like scooping food into their mouth, we can take that food and we can put it in an ice cube tray. So now we're forcing baby to use thumb and finger to get that food. So we can do the same activity, but instead of throwing, you know, Cheerios on the high chair tray, we can now put that in a small container and make them look at it. The other thing is, and this is what I learned from our occupational therapist, if our eyes aren't working at a young age, we might have trouble reading in school. So, what she does is a simple activity like go into a dark room and flash a flashlight across the ceiling and have baby's eyes track that. And that's getting our eyes to strengthen, or put a sticker on your nose and go close to baby and say, hey, baby. And then watch the baby's eyes as you go closer to their nose and away from them, watch the baby like track you, which also makes our eyes work for social awareness or like social awareness or spatial awareness. Sorry, I said the wrong thing. Spatial awareness to look at like where am I in the room, and then also to start focusing on okay, I want that bottle or that milk, and then I can start thinking of like I can see it and I need to point to it or whatever. And then that works with like our speech language pathologist. And what she says is most doctors, and I think I've heard this myself, will say, Oh, your baby has your baby's not talking, like, let's wait and see. And as a mom, that just irks me to the core because we know, right? And dads, we know, we know when something's not quite right, yeah. And we shouldn't wait, our brain deserves better.

Kelly

Yeah, it's our instinct. That's super helpful. And by the way, um, but my background, elementary education. And so while it's um, you know, not to that, like that level, right? There's still so many aspects of going through the education program that I'm like in my head geeking out about right now, with all that you're talking about. I'm like, yes, I feel like I'm getting like flashes of all of these different things for almost like developmental milestones, right? Spot on.

SPEAKER_02

You hit the nail on the head. Yeah.

Micro-Habits And “Small Acts, Big Impact”

Kelly

So it I'm geeking out a little bit over here and just like nodding my head and going, yep, yep, makes sense. And also what just like makes me giggle so much, Candy, is these are just little things. They're not little things, but they're not powerful. Right, it's just like these simple things. Like I hate using the word thing, right? But like they're they're simple um ways to reinforce versus I know, dog hair. Sorry.

unknown

It's all good.

Kelly

But I just I love that it's just an addition, right? And it's going, this is so simple, but to your point, very powerful.

SPEAKER_00

Very powerful. You hit the nail on the head. And I like to say playing with intention, and even back to like the speech language pathologist saying we don't diagnose speech delays until two. And if you think about it, that makes sense, right? But she's like, we're missing so much input. When we're breastfeeding or holding our babies and they're feeding, yeah, they look to us to say, baby, or you're so great. Yeah. And I was the mom that I was the one that was guilty of like, oh, I can catch up on my emails, right? Or I can do something while we're feeding. Yeah. Well, that's not helping the development of my baby, and like I didn't know that, but now I do, right? And even when we think of parentees, like, oh, baby, you're so sweet. Yeah, we do that with intention because our babies are looking at our lips to like try to mimic those sounds. So back to your point, yeah. Small acts, big impact.

Kelly

Small acts, big impact. Okay, I'm gonna take this and run with it. Small acts, big impact. I'm gonna write it down. This okay, so this is super cool. It's all it's all good. This is super cool because you can take that very phrase and apply that in all circumstances. Being a mom, being a business owner, yes, both of them at the same time. Small acts, big impact. How you treat your neighbor. Oh, I gotta write this down. Small acts, big impact. I just want that to set like nestle in for the listeners because that is an incredibly powerful statement. I think about habits, I think about small little like stacking habits, too. And I'm sure that you, as I'm saying that, are thinking, yep, all of this is very pertinent in what I'm doing with baby no and let's talk kids. Yes. Let's talk about this.

Feeding, Speech, And Early Input

SPEAKER_00

I don't know where we're gonna go with it, but well, and I have not said small acts big impact before. Our um kind of tagline is watch play thrive with baby no, but small acts big impact. Watch this video. So in our baby no program, we developed um like modules and supports for a baby three, zero to three months, four to six months, seven to nine months, ten to twelve months. Yeah, and in that they get to watch a video about vision, about um speech language play, playing with intention, brain building kind of curriculum, answering parents' advice. So these videos are five to 15 minutes, super easy to watch, small act, big impact. Yeah. And then we tell you seven different activities you can do throughout that week to reinforce the learning. So, you know, back to small act, big impact. Here's another one. Stack your baby's blocks. And if your baby is not really babbling, stack your baby's blocks. We're working on some, you know, fine motor. And you know, depending on the age of your baby, you might not be able to do it, but as they get to be older, they can do it. And then go boom. And if baby just uh, you know, yay, baby, you said something. Small act, big input. Yeah, and maybe that doesn't mean a lot, uh uh, it's gonna say, my voice matters. My voice matters.

Kelly

Oh my gosh. Okay, we're gonna backtrack for a moment because we were talking in the vein of um motherhood, right? So we had let's talk kids that came first. You had your children, and then baby no came. Yes, yes. So you have had birth. Okay, so I'm I I'm gonna just say this because I it is very true. You have had many babies, right? So you've had your baby business, let's talk kids. You birthed that one, yeah, right? Then you birthed your physical children, yes, and then you birthed another another baby business, baby no. Now, when did Let's Talk Kids come into fruition?

SPEAKER_00

Ooh, if I'm going from memory, I would say it was 2010.

Kelly

Okay. All right, and then um baby no.

SPEAKER_00

So we officially registered with the Secretary of State in October of 2021.

Kelly

Okay, awesome. So, what I love is the reason that I asked this, and I've talked about this on um other episodes, just about the time frame of being in business. And there are milestones that business owners reach when it comes to the time that they have been in business. You know, that one to two year mark, you are in hypergrowth mode, right? And depending on what that hypergrowth looks like, you could get to a point where you're scaling already at year two, year three. Sometimes it's less. But I think that there is something really important to state when it comes to hitting that five-year mark. Because statistically, businesses, if they don't hit the five-year mark, like it statistically speaking, what am I trying to say here? Businesses fizzle out before the five-year mark.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

Kelly

And I think a lot of that has to do with not having the right resources around you, um, not knowing exactly how to scale the business or having the resources to be able to scale the business, right? Right. And so I love that you have been in business with Let's Talk Kids since 2010, baby knows since 2021. And do you have a full-time job too?

Maternity Leave, Teen Parents, And Dad Confidence

SPEAKER_00

So I actually do consulting work.

Kelly

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

So um tell us more. Well, my background is legislative. So I was a political science professor. I grew up in a small town in Minnesota, um, Lichfield, Minnesota, if those listeners know it. And it was really cool for me because a town of 5,000 people, what I saw is I could volunteer. So I'm working with my mom at the early childhood program and watching kids. Then I signed up and I was like reading to kids at the library and I'm running food drives, and I did a walk, um, oh my gosh, a walk America for the March of Dimes. I organized that in my community. And as I did this, I was invited to a trip in Washington, D.C. and I met lawmakers, and I was like, lawmakers are like volunteering for their community at the federal government. Like, right? Like if we're writing policies for families or for education as a former teacher, um, if we're writing those policies, they can implement and impact our life for good.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And that's how I saw the world. And I was like, my goodness, that's cool. Yeah. So I found an interest in politics, and then I also was interested in mass communications, political science. So I did a degree in both. Yeah. And then I um fast forward was working with college students teaching political science, and I noticed something was happening with our students. There were some students that were like on it, motivated, ready to go. And I was like, if you have motivation, I can work with you. Like, you might not know my content, but I can work with you. Yep. And then I found those students that were naturally gifted and talented, and I was like, you're not applying yourself, the motivation's not there. And I remember like writing a D on a paper once for this student that was brilliant, and I was like, oof, there is a mismatch here. And I talked to my mom and sister about this, and I was like, What is it? Because I think that there's motivation and talent, and then there's a combination of the two. And I was like, if we can motivate students and see, like sometimes I was like, I think my job is to fill your cup, right? Like, if you learn political science, that's great. But if I fill your cup and like let you know you can do this, you can do this. And so I was getting students involved in the community, but I was like, why is there this gap? And that's when we started talking about there's something too about parental involvement and us being the biggest cheerleaders of our kids and helping them develop their skill sets, yeah. That my mom was like, I know what it is. We gotta play with intention, we gotta get on the floor, we gotta start talking to our kids. And I was like, whoa, like that was powerful. Like when they're 18 and they come to college or 20 and they're at college with me, if they had that as a baby, like that could impact their life. So I think I just always kind of viewed that world. So, anyway, I keep getting called back into legislative work, which is why Ashley and I were doing some testifying at the Capitol. Okay. But I think that there's a real call for making sure that our voices are heard at the Capitol.

Kelly

I am truly fascinated by the integration of something like politics. And the babies and how you like you're literally going, we just we gotta be better basically.

Nutrition, Allergies, And Trusting Your Gut

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and one of the things that's been heartbreaking for me is looking at kind of the trajectory. So I've been doing politics since 2020 uh 2000, 2002. So I just I've been in this world. Yeah, just a little bit. So as I was looking at that, like, you know, every time they talked about early childhood and like let's support brain growth. And I'm like, yes, I know this. I've been hanging out with my mom and my sister, like they've been doing this, like I've seen all these inputs that we put into our babies come to fruition. And so I'm like, okay, what can we do? And then legislators are like, let's fund early education, let's do all day, everyday kindergarten. And my heart sinks because I'm like, no, the brain growth and development is zero to three. So fast forward, that's great, right? Like, don't get me wrong, as a mom, I love all day, everyday kindergarten. I think it's great, it's been nice for our family. I feel like our teachers have been fabulous. Yeah, and then it was okay, well, let's do early childhood education funding, let's do pre-K for four-year-olds. And my heart sank again. So I think we have work to do to really support our young families, our young babies. And the other conversation that I hear so much of is childcare. And let's get our parents working and let's find quality childcare. And I think that's great as well. But we need to get to this premise of brain growth and supporting nurturing relationships. And how do we do that with intentionality to tend to connect our babies and parents from birth and prenatal?

Kelly

I have so many uh thoughts that are rummaging through my head right now, and the one that I'm gonna grasp is this concept of maternity leave for moms. Because what you're speaking to is really that engagement, right? And it starts with us as moms right out the gate, right? And being able to have quality time with our babies, and then same with dads, because let me just say I heard you loud and clear multiple times not just say mom, but say dad to mothers and fathers. This isn't just a mom's role, it's just the burden cannot be only, and that's not the right word I want to use. That shouldn't always fall on the mom's. It's both.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, it's both. So I'm gonna pivot if that's okay. So maternity leave, yes, heard. One of the really cool things is we actually so um being an educator and an academic, I was like, okay, if we're gonna get this baby no program out, we need it evaluated. So we've worked with the University of Minnesota, the Center for Early Education and Development. We've also worked with the University of Northern Colorado to evaluate our program. And the dads are the superstars. We've specifically been working with teen parents, and um, the dads are coming out being like, I am so confident. There was one dad that was like, I can't keep my baby overnight. Now I can imagine, right? You're a teen, you're having a baby, you're like, whoa, this is a whole new world, a whole new chapter, maybe a little unexpected.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And now I need to care for this child while I'm trying to get my high school degree, while maybe I'm trying to get a job to provide for my child and, you know, mom, baby mom, like not sure if they're married or what, but they're trying to navigate all of these things of life. And this dad was like, I can't keep my baby overnight. I can't do it. I just am not there. Four months old, he keeps the baby overnight. He wakes up, baby wakes up in the middle of the night and starts to cry. Dad plays a meditation in our baby know program. It's like, I got this. We also have these affirmation cards that we can speak affirmations over our babies. So we have a product in our Let's Talk Kids line which is used in baby know. It's called the ABCs for grown-ups. Every letter of the alphabet is a different affirmation. I care about my family is C. And then how am I gonna care about my family? So the the teens are using these. Some are using them to journal, some are using to like do their question of reflection, thinking about how can they connect with their baby. The letter B is I am beautiful inside and out. There's an activity for parents to do. So you look in the mirror and you say, I am beautiful. The way I care for my family is beautiful, my eyes are beautiful, my smile is beautiful, right? Just affirm ourselves. And then we say it to our babies. So these dads were picking up their babies and saying, baby, you have beautiful ideas. Baby, your hands are beautiful. I can't see what to create. You're gonna create with your hands.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

Finding Your Village And Collaborations

SPEAKER_00

And as a creator or as a you know, entrepreneur who developed these things, to see them being used in the world in that kind of a powerful way, to give confidence to ourselves as parents and to our babies, yeah. Mind-blowing. Small acts, what do we say? Big impact.

Kelly

Small acts, big impact. Okay, so the reason that I just to put a cap on the maternity leave thing, the reason that I brought that up is because if you think about here in the United States and the limited amount of time that we actually get to be able to spend time with our babies, now because this podcast is primarily focused on entrepreneurs, the time is even more limited. Very true. Unless you are you have been operating your business as an entrepreneur first and then had children, right? And you have other people who you can rely on, yes, employees to be able to come up to bat, or yeah, you it's given me a whole new lens because as I'm thinking of that and navigating it, right?

SPEAKER_00

And like when you're a solo punch entrepreneur or whatever, you're doing it yourself, um, there's so many hats that you're wearing. You're trying to figure out the bookkeeping, you're trying to figure out the marketing, you're trying to figure out the scaling, you're trying to figure out how do I get this thing to deliver, you know, like mail it, you know, if you need to mail it, whatever. So there's all of those hats that you need to wear that if you are doing that and then have a baby, well, what what do you do? Like, you know, um, and if you are, you know, um reliant upon your business income, yeah, and now you need to care for this little bundle of joy, there's a lot of layers to that. And it is tough. I mean, it's tough for anybody, it's tough for a mom, it's tough for these teen parents, it's tough for a mom making a working a minimum wage job. And so I think that there's a lot of layers to that onion, and I don't know that I have any solutions.

Kelly

Yeah, and that wasn't that was just more so in the vein of conversating around it, right? And going, there's there is a lot of work to be done, and that some of the work that you're doing could spout into some of these other areas. Right. Too. Or they can they can have an input and and how do I how do I say this? I think it all kind of works symbiotically with one another, right? So maternity leave, the amount of time that you're able to spend with your child to be able to focus on utilizing resources like let's talk kids learning kids and everything that goes along with baby no as well. The other thought that I had, and we can touch on this, and I am curious your thoughts about it too, is the role that nutrition plays in the brain development, in addition to what is coming at us too. So what we're putting into our bodies, right? Like we as moms know how important that is, especially after we have like while we are pregnant, after we have our child too, if we're nursing, if we're able to nurse, and that nutrients that is coming into us and how that is being provided to our children. So are these some things that you guys have been thinking about too, just as it pertains, or are you going, hey, listen, you know, and you can tell me like, hey, listen, we're just trying to stay our lane here as it pertains to like that education piece.

A Day In The Life And Presence

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so yeah, I'm kind of unpacking that. Um the beauty of like conversing, right? Like, so I was like, Yeah, that's uh not something that's directly said in our baby no program. However, introducing foods and starting with um intelligently like, right? Like, there's so many things as a mom that you don't know. I can share my mom experience. Like, so I remember bringing my son to the baby room, and I remember this mom being in tears, and she literally like left before me in tears, and she was upset at the daycare staff that they were actually um feeding her baby water, I think it was water, and she felt like I haven't introduced water to my baby, and she was like, Well, I I don't want you to be doing that, and I also think that there's pressure as a mom if we are breastfeeding or pumping. You work so hard to get that breast milk that you want your baby to have it. But I was kind of also thinking about like, I get it as a mom. You have so many emotions, you're probably underslept, there's a lot going on, you're exhausted. And my experience with daycare was kind of different. That our um daycare providers were like, he's ready to eat, you gotta feed him real food.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And I think that, like, hey, I'm providing nourishment for my baby, like celebrating your body, like, oh my gosh, you can like produce milk and you can feed your baby. What's that?

Kelly

It's a miracle, right? It's literally like the fact that we even have children is a miracle.

SPEAKER_00

It totally is. And then women have been doing this, like, like, come on, we none of us would be here if people didn't have babies. So it's it's like that contrast of like, can I do this? And like, okay, everybody's been doing this, otherwise we wouldn't exist. Yes. Yeah. So 100%. So I remember they were like, you need to start giving him big food. And I was kind of like, Oh, but I'm not ready because I love the bonding time of breastfeeding. On the flip side, I know he's gonna sleep better if his belly's full.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So yes. And then I was like, but it's been kind of fun. So I feel like you go through all these emotions yourself. What we do teach in our baby know program is when and how to introduce foods. And then um, one of the best tips I got as a mom is, you know, again, research, right? So we don't know, but we can do the best we can do. And I think that that's one of the things that we keep iterating is trust your instincts, trust your gut. Yeah, trust that you and your baby know. You know, trust your gut. So, and then somebody once told me that your gut is a combination of your brain and your intuition or your, you know, and that your gut is like like the think in the heart. And I was like, Oh, I love that. So that's our knowing, but anyway, trust that. Yeah, so back to the baby know program. Um, and then what our pediatrician told us is there's so many nut allergies in the United States because we are not introducing nuts. And then I think of my legislative brain, I'm sure somebody along the line had a baby that reacted to nuts and, like, oh, let's just cut out nuts. She was like, Let's paint peanut butter on your baby's foot. If there's a reaction, it's not gonna go into their lungs. Yeah. And then we can just watch and monitor. And she said, in Israel, babies teethe on like a cracker that is nut based, and so no nut allergies. So her thought was the research is showing that introduce these things at a young age to hopefully prevent an allergy. And I was like, okay, works for me. Like, makes sense, love it, we're gonna try it. So we did that. We did too.

Kelly

And then very early, we gave Maddie peanut butter, and I was like, were we supposed to do that? And now my husband has been through, you know, he's gone through the hoops a couple of times already. So he's like, if she was gonna have a reaction, because he knew what it like where I was going with that, he's like, if she was gonna have a reaction, you would have seen it already. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And I was like, done and done. No nut allergy, knock on wood.

Kelly

I know. Fair enough. Yeah, and I think that that's that's an interesting point that you bring up to Candy. And again, we don't have to sit here very long, um, because we've got a lot of stuff to get through still. But yeah, that being afraid to like introduce things, the amount of fear-mongering that happens all around is pretty strong. And it's pretty strong when it comes to moms. Because why not prey on moms who love their children so much and already have a flood of hormonal emotions like going through them? Um, again, not gonna sit here because I want to focus on positive, but yeah, I think a lot of what happened with some of the allergy stuff, while yes, there are realities and real allergies, I think that a lot of it could have been curved to your point. Introducing sooner rather than.

SPEAKER_00

Well, and I think it's confusing as a mom, right? Like, I remember don't introduce eggs, and then yeah, you know, I was just like, I don't know. Do I give eggs? Do I not give eggs? What's that gonna do? And and then I also kind of giggle to myself, like, your baby can have Tylenol at five years old. You need to give this dosage. And I was like, okay, well, if I have a big four and a half year old, like, does that count? Like, what magically happens when they turn five that now I can administer Tylenol? Or whatever that thing is that you're looking at is like, okay, should I do this or should I not? But my like, maybe my academic brain is just like, well, what is it? Like, is there a magic dial that our kids now can do? It's funny.

Joy, Affirmations, And Resilience

Kelly

It's not like, you know, I do have that a little bit of that educator brain too. And I have I have questioned in the same way also, like, is there like something that happens in baby's body that when they turn two, that all of a sudden they can have this or that? Yeah. Or honey, for instance. Like, yeah, it, you know, I'm like, what is this? Like, what is all of this nonsense sometimes?

SPEAKER_00

And then I think, like, for me, like going back to what our grandparents do, or um, you know, in certain communities, what do the aunties tell you? Like, you know, what is it that is our collective wisdom that we can just try this, you know, and it's not gonna be bad.

Kelly

Oh, this is a nice little segue into what has I think I've got an idea because you alluded to being a co-founder with Let's Talk Kids with your mom and your sister. But what has your village of support looked like as you have gone into this entrepreneurial space, right? And you've been in this entrepreneurial space for quite some time. But what did that look like? Like, did you lean more on, you know, your mom and your sister, or were there other people, your husband?

SPEAKER_00

What do they look like? Yeah. Um, so yes, all of the above, I feel like you can't do things without a village. And I feel like surround yourself with people that make you greater. I forget who gave me that wisdom, but I just love that because when you're showing up with a table at a table where people are as great or better than you, like how cool is that? And what is the world gonna create for itself? Yeah. So for my entrepreneurial journey, we've been in the Minnesota Cup for both Let's Talk Kids and for Baby No. We also did um with Baby No, we applied for this. Um, I was just sitting at the table reading the newspaper, and it was like, hey, do you have a business idea? Come and be in the Shark Tank competition. And I was like, Yes, please. So I applied for Scott County Center for Entrepreneurship Shark Tank, and we shared all of our baby no stuff, and we were chosen as second place winners. We also got a grant from the state of Minnesota to um make our course culturally responsive. So some of the things that people have seen when they're watching our course is I want to see myself in it. So the teen parents wanted to see teens or somebody that looks like them, and so we did that. And then um with our Let's Talk Kids product, we actually worked with the African American Baby Coalition at Wilder Foundation to create a culturally specific learning kit for their community, and that kit has been sold nationwide, and I just think we're better together. Yeah, and like I don't know things I don't know. And so being open to understand and then having the business hat on, okay, if we're creating this learning kit together, how can we be philanthropic and support your organization? So every time we sell our learning kit that's called the Me and My Baby Building Bag, we give a portion of the proceeds back to African American Baby Coalition. That's beautiful. Yeah, it's fun.

Kelly

That's really beautiful. That was a fantastic answer, too. That you you stated it's so important to have the village, right? And that village doesn't have to necessarily the village can be the people who are in our circle, right? But it can expand beyond that too, because you have individuals who are going, hey, what about this? Yes. And then it just it it allows you to broaden what that support looks like, which is so fantastic.

SPEAKER_00

100%. One of the things that my mom and sister will say is we're really great educators. We know brain development, we know babies, we know families.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

Politics, Belonging, And Early Bonds

SPEAKER_00

We don't know bookkeeping, we don't know marketing, we don't know. Yeah. And so I think that there's multiple villages, right? There's your home village, there's your neighborhood village, right? Like some of the things I need to do with my kids to get them on the bus and XYZ, take care of them in the summer. Like I've got my neighborhood village, and then I've got my like business village, right? And then I've got the people that are purchasing from us, and we've got this other village of cool evaluators and programs that are like, you guys are so fun to work with. And then once a person said to us, What are your guys' like holidays like? And I was like, Oh, they're really fun. Because they get to spend time with my mom and my sister and I. It was like, yeah. So it's really been a culmination of not being afraid to ask a question. So if I don't know something, and I remember as we were videotaping our baby know program, I was like, okay, I don't yet have the right videographer. And so I reached out to this gentleman who's a business coach, and I was like, Yeah, that's my thing. And the other thing that I've learned is just put the village, put the question in your village and the answer will come. And so he's like, Well, I think I've got a great videographer for you. And so we worked with Jen Boutique, another Minnesota-based company. And our program is beautiful and you know, better together.

Kelly

Yes, that's so good. We're gonna have all of these little catchphrases that Candy Candy keeps better together, small acts, big impact. That's small acts, big impact is something that I I think is gonna stick with me for a very, very long time. So I am so curious, Candy. Like, talk to me about what the day in the life of you looks like. Give me your your typical day. Oh goodness.

SPEAKER_00

I don't know that they're a typical day because, like, really, right? Like, as moms, like, is anything typical? Fair. Uh, predictable routines. We'll go that route. So um we get up in the morning, we get ready for school, I feel like we have our, you know, life challenges. One of the things that I have been um trying to tackle as a mom is how do we get out of the door in a scheduled way? Because, you know, if we don't have a schedule and we don't need to be out the door and we don't have to get to the bus stop at XYZ time, life is super great, you know? But yet our society makes us school starts at this time. Our meeting today is at this time, you know. So we've got to have these schedules into our day.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So we get up, we get to the bus stop, and then um, we typically part of our routine, there's a morning announcement that the principal does. So we watch our uh, you know, principal talk about what's gonna happen at school, which is fun for me because then I get to know.

SPEAKER_05

Nice.

SPEAKER_00

And then I get busy, like the kids are on the bus, and I get busy with work. So my typical day could be anything. I could be meeting with um right now we're working with Spanish speaking, uh, Spanish immersion preschools.

SPEAKER_05

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

And so we are talking about how do we use our Spanish affirmation cards, which they've already got and we're looking at. And then we pivot to, okay, how can we build baby know into their programming? Yeah and where does that fit? Is it development for staff? Is it now we're gonna create a program with our parents? Is it our cohort? Then I can pivot to, okay, we've got that evaluation coming up with the university, with the team parent program that we already have. We also, um, just in full disclosure, and I think back to your comments about funding babies, I feel like there's a lot of interest in what we're doing, but the funding's not following it. Yeah. So we're working a lot with funders to create. And if anybody is a funder that has connections or wants to fund babies, let me know. Um, but we're working with funders then to fund pilot programs or cohorts of the baby know curriculum where parents can connect together. So have a little bit of that and then sprinkle in some legislative calling legislators and hanging out with. My local senators and representatives.

SPEAKER_05

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Um, so yeah, it's a mix. The wisdom that I have, and my husband and I were just having this conversation, or a question for each other was what is something you know now that you didn't know? And I was like, the more we try to control schedules, the more they go blal. And the more we let them be. Like, I'm not stressed about my meetings tomorrow because I'm here today with you.

Kelly

Yes, yeah. Be be in the present moment, right? And that to your point about how society has um created sort of an infrastructure around us, it can be challenging to be very present. I think that the the incorporation of social media can be very challenging in that respect, too. And so, yeah, I mean, and there's so many other facets that go into the challenges of trying to be present in in the moment, especially as business owners, right? Because there's so many moving pieces and balls that are up in the air.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I would add business owners and moms. Like there's been numerous times where I'm at the park with my kids and I'm like, I gotta check this XYZ email, and I'm not present, right? And so there's times where I have to kind of un like unplug and intentionally put down, right?

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So, and I think that that's okay. And even just like little tricks about like phones aren't allowed at the dinner table or devices aren't here, you know? And I think it's really important to unplug back to typical day yesterday. My kids got home off the bus and they were like, Mom this, mom that. I was like, mommy needs 10 more minutes to finish these emails, and then I'm all yours. And so finding that, like naming what you need and then being fully present, I think that that's better for everybody too.

Kelly

So then you're typically starting like once the kids go off to school, it's what, like eight something until we get on the bus, yeah, 8 45-ish.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Yeah.

Kelly

Goodness gracious. So you're packing a nine-ish lunch.

Scaling, Funding, And Reaching Parents

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And then um, how we've structured it is my husband does bus pickup. Okay. But you know, if he's traveling or whatever, we just ebb and full. And back to partnerships in your village and not being able to do it without the people you love. Like so grateful. We are such a great team, and my strengths are his, my weaknesses are his strengths for sure. And just being able to rely on somebody and like not judging anybody for like, okay, I can't figure out this Expel Excel spreadsheet. Like, this is your gift. Like, it'll take you 20 seconds and it'll take me 40 hours. I know. You know, please just help me. You know, like better together and no judgment.

Kelly

Yeah. I'll piggyback off of that and and state very clearly that there are things that my husband does very well. There are things that I do very well. And we are the partnership. There's a reason that there's a partnership, right? You're not supposed to do it all on your own.

SPEAKER_00

You're just not. Right. And I feel like back circling back to like your village, right? Um, one of my favorite stories is so we moved to North Carolina and we were away from friends and family. And there was a neighbor, a retired neighbor, and I I I think she or uh somebody named her like our North Carolina grandma. And we got to go spend time with her, and it was as simple as like small acts, big impact, right? First, we went to an apple orchard and like crazy, we got five pounds of apples, like it was crazy. So we had all these apples, and it was like, Yeah, all these apples for 20 bucks or something ridiculous. And I was like, we are gonna spread joy and we're gonna bring apples. And so we started delivering like little baskets of apples all over our neighborhood, and then she was like, Come on in, and then she started giving us fruit because she had fruit of the month club or something random. And she's like, I can't eat all of this and share it. And I was like, just those little impacts that like she also created a book. My kids would bring her little art projects, and you know, we didn't have grandma and grandpa close to just drop our art projects after showcase that sure. So she created a coffee table book of local artists and had had my kids' art in it, you know, like so cute. How much better are we together? We brought her joy and she brought us so much joy.

Kelly

Okay. On on this topic of joy, you are you're like a bundle of joy. How do you how do you stay in that as much as humanly possible? I feel like even the short bit of time that we have been in person together, I'm like, I'm searching. I'm like, is there are there like tough moments that have happened for you? Like, how do you work through it? And we talked a little bit off-air about this, right? I feel like a pretty even keeled person. Yeah. Well, I mean But how do you tell us, tell us how are you staying in this like emotion and behavior of joy? What does that look like for you?

SPEAKER_00

Um, yeah, that's a really good question. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go back to the affirmation cards and to our let's talk kids product. So I mentioned that we have these ABCs for grown-ups. And one of the things that I learned, and don't ask me where I learned this, you know, like sometimes I feel like you're a Rolodex of knowledge and you're like, I don't remember where. I know. And I also Rolodex like future things, like, oh, when my kids are gonna drive, I should probably consider this thing. Like, I just collect wisdom and I just try to keep it in my Rolodex of wisdom in my brain. Um, but in our affirmation cards, one of the things that I learned, and there's teachings from Dr. Rick Hansen, and it says that our brains are like Velcro, and what we choose to stick sticks. So I think of this like, I know, like in some regards, I remember the worst grades or the bad grades I got better than the good grades, and I was like, Well, why did I get a C on that? Yeah, you know, I was like, why did I? I'm not a C student. But yet that stuck with me. And I was like, oh, because I maybe didn't phrase it right, or I don't remember what I what I learned in that. But those things really stuck with me. And I was like, okay, we can choose to focus on the negative or we can velcro the good stuff in our brain, right? Like, I am so grateful to be here. I am so grateful for the cool partnerships that we get to create and like they're always like coming into our lives and the things that we're creating together. Like one of the organizations that reached out to us works primarily with military families. And I was like, I don't know enough about military families or what it is, how that works, like to implement our products, but we're gonna figure it out together and like let's let's study it and evaluate it, and like under what conditions does this work? So thinking about really how do we stay in that affirming way and fill our brains and our bodies with good, and then I get to do that with my kids too, which is even more powerful, like having them do affirmations from birth. And then there is a really cute YouTube video that's like affirming or like an affirmation songs for kids, and it's my feelings matter, and you know, they they sing these things back, and like, yes, we need to keep keep our kids doing these things or teach our kids these things, yeah. So that's probably where.

Alignment, Faith, And Building The Nest

Kelly

Tell me about your experience being around politicians and the joy that you bring. How how does that infiltrate in through with these politicians?

SPEAKER_00

Well, and Minnesota has been challenging, right? So um we had uh elected official shot, two elected officials shot this year. We had an annunciation school shooting in our state, and then now um we've had an invasion of ice, and all of these things are hard, hard. Small acts, big impact, right? Yes. And so I think the way that I've um really worked with legislators is so I taught political science. I had I I've had people lobby at the Capitol, and I'm like, legislators are like you and my, you know, they put their pants on one leg at a time.

SPEAKER_05

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

And so showing up into being present, but acknowledging that this stuff is hard. Like there are people that are like, I don't want to be an elected official. Like, this is hard. I don't want to do it. This is not what I signed up for. And so I think sometimes we have to name the hard. We have to name the situations that we're in. And I really believe, like, I truly, really believe that everybody's trying to do the best, but their lens might be different, you know. I think we should feed every child child, you know, and like we're gonna fund, you know, nutrition programs. Okay, well, I think that we should focus on math and reading. And like, okay, math and reading, if we they do, if they're really good at math and STEM, maybe we're gonna have future engineers and that's gonna be great for the state of Minnesota. So I almost think that it's not quite right or wrong, but it's trying to find those common values that we can hold as a society. And I think that's what pivots my work is like, how can we be better together and how can we support? And that gets back to really, I mean, coming full circle, that gets back to baby Noah and Let's Talk Kids. How can we support our babies from beginning of life? Yeah, and then hopefully we don't have the hard things. And I don't know this, but you know, as we're thinking about some of the violence in our community, sometimes I feel like that's because people feel like they don't belong. Like, what makes you act out? And I don't know this, right? But just like if we are told from birth that you are valued, that you belong, that you are loved. And I mean, this goes back to educators, right? And like educators telling our kids you can do hard things.

SPEAKER_05

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

You know, even me as a political science instructor, you might not know political science, but I can teach you if you come with the mindset that you want to learn. We can figure this out together. And if I'm filling your bucket today and that's what we're getting, and we're not getting political science, you know, that's a good starting point. So I think that was a very full reserve call.

Kelly

It was so beautiful, Candy. And I was like, yes, this as it pertains to what uh our landscape here in Minnesota looks like here and now, this very day, right? The work that you're doing with these two advocacies, these two businesses, can fundamentally change the landscape of the future with the implementations at such a young age, and to to be able to foundationally have that as a human being, morally, ethically, characteristically, behaviorally, and have like as this child is growing, right? To go, yes, those affirmations are sticking. And I just came up to adversity. How it doesn't because of what this person is saying or saying to me, doesn't define me because I know who I am.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, and adding to that, parents can do it for themselves. And I think sometimes we have situations in life. Like, I remember a time I forgot a water bottle for my child at preschool, and I was like, Oh, I forgot the water bottle, and I felt so disappointed and like frustrated. And I think I called a friend and I was like, Oh, mommy fail. And she's like, take that word out of your vocabulary. And I was like, Oh, oh, why do we do that? Why do we do that? There's no mommy fail. Like, you know, we're human, right? Like, there was nothing failing about that. Like, I just forgot, and honestly, was probably like we were trying to get our shoes on and we're running out the door and everything else with schedules.

Kelly

You have so many women who are shaking their head right now in like solitude, like they're going, yes, yes, I'm with you on this.

Lessons, Repair, And Modeling For Kids

SPEAKER_00

And these affirmations, what we say is like kind of like you put on your own oxygen mask first. So you need to be good for yourself, to be good for your family, to be good for your neighbors, to be good for your coworkers. You know what I'm saying? So I really think that um, how do we I have a friend that says, how do we raise the vibration, right? Like, how do we raise our personal like, man, mom, you did that. Like, you got the kids out, everybody had shoes on. We got our snow pants packed today, like we did that, you know, and small moments, small acts, big impact. But celebrating that, and I mean it sounds stupid, but you know, thinking it through the day and just being like, what was one of my favorite ones to talk to with the kids at the end of the day is what was something that made you laugh today? And then there's days where I'm like, oh shoot, I haven't laughed today. So how can we add into that? Because I don't think we do as adults.

Kelly

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Like deep belly laugh.

Kelly

Deep belly laughs are truly the best. And I can confidently sit here across from you and go, I've had more deep belly laughs now having children. Yes!

SPEAKER_00

And the power of play, because we forget that. And like that's one of the things we say in our Let's Talk Kids is play as kids work. And it's, you know, like discovering. Like the other day the kids came home and we've got those kiva planks. And so they were like, How can we build this ramp to make the ball? And then it fell off. Okay, well, now we gotta build walls on the side of our kiva plank and like let's drop this ball again. Or like we make zip lines in our house, like, you know, just way silly things that you were like, whoa, look at that little animal zipping across the room. You know, I I wouldn't have done that if it wasn't for my kids' imagination to be like, let's figure this out. And there's times where my kid will stump me. Um, so I have two boys. So him, when I say him, it's two boys. My son asked to create this um, like a squishy with a stuffed animal on the outside. And I was like, okay, I don't know that I've ever seen one of these.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And so then we investigate. So now we're gonna put our reporter hats or like we're gonna be Sherlock Holmes, right? Like, okay, let's investigate. And so then, like, I'm like, okay, but if we're gonna do this, you're gonna have to sew the stuffed animal. Like, we cut the stuffed animal open, we put a squishy ball inside, and then we sew it around the mouth, and then you squeeze it, and it like pops out this squishy ball. And I'm like, I never would have thought of making that if it wasn't for his creativity. So again, better together. I am literally thinking, how cool your household must be. I also want to share this because you know, I think back to like belly laughs and like being the like hanging out with your kids, like meeting them on their level.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Somebody really wise asked me, again, I don't remember where, asked me when my son was like a baby, what did your son teach you today? And I went, What? What? Huh? What? I thought we were supposed to teach our babies. And I was like, Oh, oh.

Kelly

I feel this. I feel like I get taught many lessons as a right?

SPEAKER_00

I mean, even if it's just be present and listen to my coups or skin to skin connection.

Kelly

Yeah. What have your kids taught you? Are you asking me? Patience. Um, I have been humbled. Um, I think patience is probably the biggest thing that I have been taught. Um and slow to be angry as well. Because that is it takes a it takes a it takes a while for me to get there, but when I do get there, it is not fun.

unknown

Yeah.

Family Dynamics And Designed Complementarity

Kelly

And I say that per like vulnerably, and like for me, it's not fun because the second that I'm a little sharp or have a little bit have a little bit of a condescending response back to one of the kids, I instantaneously regret it. Instant it is like, what are you doing? But something that my husband has taught me is the repair is so important. And to not pick up the proverbial rug and just swipe it under and keep moving on as if nothing happened. Right. And an old version of me probably would have done that and just been like, oh, it's fine. Like, look at you know, Maddie's smiling, Conrad smiling, Landon smiling, everything's fine. Yeah. No. And I'll give I'll give an example. So I had had a tough day. I'm in the process of studying for my real estate license, and it was just like boom, one thing after another. And I was getting to a point where I was like, I need to study. Like, I have this big test coming up, I need to study. And I needed to take Conrad to dance. And I'm taking him to dance. This is how it went. Let me back up. Maddie and I had gone on a trip to Madison this past weekend, and so I had very limited time to study and also be present with Maddie because it was our first little mommy-daughter like getaway together. Also be present for a baby shower. And then we're getting back up here and we're getting ready to go down to my in-laws. Conrad has extra rehearsal practice for dance that Sunday as well. I'm driving him there. I had said, hey boys, it's your responsibility to get something to bring to Nana and Papa's. Can you be sure to do that for Super Bowl Sunday? They forgot. And then I was like, Well, what are we gonna do? And Conrad goes, Well, maybe we can get kebabs. And I was like shaking in the car, like kebabs? Really, you know, like I had literally just hit this mark, like, kebabs, do you know how long like I what? I was like, Do you want to do the kebabs? And I literally was like, What are you doing, Kelly? Like, I'm in the moment, like having these like toggle back and forth emotions, like what are you doing? And then how can you like can you just think through what that is gonna have an impact? Because if you're not gonna do it, who's gonna do it? Me. So I had that moment. And listeners, if you're still listening right now and you haven't turned this off because you're so annoyed with me, thank you. The whole lesson in all of this was repair when Conrad got back from dance rehearsal. I pulled him aside and I said, Hey, listen, your bonus mom was feeling a little stressed out. That wasn't okay. How I responded in that circumstance was not okay. Do you forgive me? And he goes, It's okay, I forgive you. So thanks for tuning in to my TED talks there on repair. But like those are those are to your initial question of like, what do they teach you? It's it's being humble, it's repair, it's patience.

SPEAKER_00

And it's things we need to do in every aspect of our life, right? You know what I'm saying? Um, one of the things that we talk about in my family, and I've gotten to be the mom that's like, listen, you know, because when you say put on your shoes four times, and the shoes aren't on and the bus is coming, and you're gonna miss the bus. You know, I know that there's certain um people that talk about like natural consequences. Well, we're not gonna send our child out the door in Minnesota without shoes. So I've there's been days where I've just left the house and I've walked out of the house, and I'm like, well, good luck. You know, like this is not mommy's job. Like you can put your shoes on and get to the bus stop. And I said, but here's the secret of life. When mommy's not at her best, when you're not at your best, other people show up like that. So I can't be my best because I've said four times, put on your shoes. And if you think about that, you know, like how you show up, like I can be my best when other things around me are at their best.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

Global Reach, Culture, And Translation

SPEAKER_00

But when there's like 800 things calling for your attention at the same time, like even just the example of like the kids getting off the bus and I was like, I gotta get this work email done. Yeah, I can't be my best because these other circumstances. So let me get those things done so I can be my best for you. And I think that's a really cool like reflection. And then even the conversation, was I my best today? And not that we need to beat ourselves up, but I I think like that's one of the things where I just kind of pause and think, like, yeah, I probably didn't stay that state that well. And I've done that like with co-workers where I was like, I hope I didn't come across in this way because that was not my intention, but I woke up thinking about that, and I do that. Like, I don't know if it's my subconscious being like, you have an opportunity here to clean that up. You know, like I I I think about like, oh, I should have said that differently. That was not my intention, and so just really being able to model that and to showcase to our kids because they're listening. Oh, yes, they are listening.

Kelly

Well, and they're little sponges too. You know that best, right? They're little. Sponges and they continue to be just aware, aware and more aware than we think they are sometimes too.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And but I think back to like your example, and like even maybe my thing is like, okay, when we apologize to our kids, does that teach them that they can go into their classmate? Like, oops, I did not mean that. Now I can apologize, you know? Or I know, um, I know I haven't been the best listener, and then repairing that and saying, I'm sorry I wasn't able to listen because I was reading this email at the playground, and I know you were asking me eight questions, but you need to give me three minutes so I can be fully present.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And then hearing that, Mom, I wasn't the best listener at school today, but I apologize. And I'm like, oh, we're modeling it. Oh my gosh. We're sponging, we're modeling it.

Kelly

So we totally are. Modeling is so critical. Yeah. I mean, it's it, it is very much in the vein of what you, your mom, and your sister are doing in business as well. Yeah. I gotta know what what are your mom and your sister like? Are they just as much of a bundle of joy as you are?

SPEAKER_00

My mom is so much. Or do you guys compliment each other in different ways? We compliment each other in different ways. My mom is hilarious. So she has been a preschool teacher my whole life. And so I feel like sometimes I would get so angry at her. Um, like, you know, we celebrate every holiday, and like every holiday is a big thing, and like we have decorations for every holiday. But I feel like times I was so frustrated she might like sing a song to me, and I was like, I don't want you to sing her to me right now.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

Books, Routines, And Closing Gratitude

SPEAKER_00

But that's kind of her thing, right? Like, okay, if we need to clean up the room, we're gonna clean up the room. Candy, clean up your room, and I didn't do it, and then she'd start singing a cleanup song, and I'd be like, I don't want you to be cleaning singing a cleanup song when I'm 15 years old. I don't need that, you know. But but I think that we just have a lot of joy and fun together, and we even talk about that. Yeah, I was just writing something about, oh, my mom and dad had a big anniversary, and I said, one of the things that I learned from you is always show up for your kids. So I was on the swim team, I was not good, and um, for some reason I had to swim the 500, which was back and forth and back and forth, and back and forth and back and forth. Lots of and I would finish like two or three laps after the other kids. I knew I was like, I knew this wasn't my gift, and my mom and dad were like, Candy, goad, good job. There was no embarrassment, and I was like, Yeah, whatever, I hate this race. Yeah, but I do remember that other people would cry when they got assigned this race, and our coach said, if you don't cry, you only have to do it once. And so I did it and I didn't cry. And I was like, Okay, coach, now this is the third or fourth time that like you put me in this race, and clearly this is not my gift. Yeah, can we have somebody else do it? Right. Yeah, my parents always showed up, and that's just such a visual. And so I said to my parents in the we made a little memory book, but I said, That's one of the best things I learned from you is to show up. And being an entrepreneur and doing some of this consulting work has really allowed me to show up. And so there was like a LinkedIn post or whatever it said, no employer is gonna remember those two hours you stay late, but your child's always gonna remember when you missed the dance recital, the basketball game, insert, choir concert, insert activity here.

Kelly

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00

So that stuck with me.

Kelly

Oh, man. So you're I didn't say about my sister.

SPEAKER_00

I know my sister is very practical, and I feel like she's kind of got like um how does my mom say, like, she's very tactical or something like that. She's like, she's very pragmatic. And so, like, if there's something that's stressing me out, she might just be like, Candy, don't worry about that. Yeah. And that grounds you too, right? Yeah. So I think um my sister is an amazing mom. She's amazing at supporting parents to be their best. And I think again, highlighting people's gifts and showing up just as they are. So she also does some um consulting work for Baby Know to coach parents and how to use this program. And so that's been cool about how she gets to show up for parents right where they are.

Kelly

That is so fantastic. And I love that all three of you are just come from that academia mindset. I I mean experience and mindset, and are just flying high with these two businesses. Yeah, it's incredible. I am I am curious to know a little bit more about your the three of you and you specifically, because you're here in front of me, experience and what scaling has looked like for these two businesses, because you have kits and stuff that that comes with its own set of uh circumstances as it pertains to the business and how it operates. And so how has that impacted how you approach the business?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so I think in some regards we all do our parts. Like my mom and sister are very connected in the early childhood world, and so they can find different conferences that we should be attending and like presenting to. One of the things that uh we're faced with a challenge as a business is that we're really great working with like nonprofit entities. We're really great working with government groups, school groups, you know, people who can kind of buy in bulk. And then on the flip side, one of the things that we're still trying to figure out our opportunity for is how do we meet consumers direct where they are. So we know we have really great content, but we haven't cracked the code, so to speak, of how to reach mom who just had baby. We've done women's conferences, we've done um community birth baby showers, birthing events, baby showers. We've done um, but it seems to me kind of where the where our biggest traction has been has been working with these conferences, working with our evaluators, working with the nonprofit organizations, working with funders, reporting back. Yeah, that's been great for scaling. And in some regards, it's as a founder, it's an easier lift to go to one organization and make a group sale or a bulk sale than to try to track down mom and dad. And so that I feel like is do you need to? Our opportunity and our challenge. Um, I don't know that we need to, but yet when you have such great content and you know you can support so many families, it's trying to be that balance of like, I know I can't be everything to everybody, right? But how can we get these resources to the people that can benefit? And every person who has reviewed or um participated in our course is like, I wish I knew this when I had babies. You know?

Kelly

I thought I just had candy. So when I had Maddie, we had a dear friend of ours gift us, gift me specifically, um, a monthly, like I got a monthly box for a year where there were different, like cool little things, both for mom and baby in it. Very cool. And so maybe, and I can track down what the name of that was called, the business. But I think how cool would it be for you to have a conversation with that organization to go, here's what we are offering. What would it look like to get it into the box?

SPEAKER_00

And as I said, we love collaboration, right? Right. So we always believe like a rising toy tide lifts all boats, right? Like, how are we better together and how can we uplift and support these parents? And I think that's been one of the cool explorations. And um just to me, there's like really not challenges, there's just opportunities. Like, oh shoot, I thought this thing was this way, but maybe we gotta look at it from this other lens.

Kelly

Oh sorry. Okay. So that I think is a really cool statement that you just made. The the how did you phrase it? The rising tide. The rising tide lifts all bullets. Lifts all poets. And I forget who said that, but I love that one. Me too. I do, I do too, because I think it very much goes in line with what you were speaking to, with just the collaboration, community aspect, and the village, too. Yes, and being surrounded by positive people too.

SPEAKER_00

Well, and I have to share this one too, because as you were saying, the rising tide lifts all boats, and I don't remember who um said that, but there's an African proverb that which you are seeking is also seeking you. And I love that one, right? Like for real estate, the house that you are seeking is also seeking you. But you have to do your homework, right? So one of the other things that we talk about is like put it in the universe, right? So I remember um after we moved back to Minnesota from North Carolina, I had a list of 42 different things I wanted in my house, including one of which was weird. Like we um had our our boys, they were one and three, and they like to run around like the kitchen area, and like I was like, I need a space that they can run and they can like loop. And if it's their little like push toys that they're looping, or like now we race cars around this loop. So I was like, I want to loop. And then I had my list of 42 things, and like we found this house. It was weird. We moved back during COVID, and we found the house on a Tuesday, it was listed. The world shut down. We were supposed to go see the house on Saturday, and they stopped doing open houses. And we were like, this is our house. And we were the only offer when there was like multiple houses going way above ask, multiple offers. We just felt like, are we gonna have a place to live? And then that was scary because the world locked down as we had a one and a three-year-old, yeah, and we're like, wait, wait, wait, what if we don't have a place to live? Right. And remember the politics came out and somebody said squatters rights. One of the politicians said squatters rights. If you're living in a house, you can stay there. And I was like, okay, good. We're not gonna become this with a one and a three-year-old. Where are we gonna go as the world shut down and we don't know what this disease is? And you know, so it was nice to find our house and um that African proverb, I do think of that, and I put it every once in a while, like on my computer screen or whatever, because you know the partnership. I I also think that things should be easy, and if they're not, I kind of evaluate like, is this is the juice worth the squeeze?

Kelly

Right. The alignment yes, there's so much about the conversations that unfold on this podcast where it was evident that things were not in alignment for said individual, right? And the moment that they acknowledged it, and I'm gonna add in perhaps name it, right? Like physically out loud, name what is happening right now, and then make a conscious decision to move a different direction. It's like the proverbial bone arrow, right? You're gonna have this resistance, resistance, resistance until you're not, and then the arrow shoots forward, right? And it just projects you into this completely different state of mind or a different state of being. And I think gosh, how incredible. Because I've had that I've had that experience myself. And there's been kind of a a common theme throughout what we have been talking about today, which is a lot about choices and behaviors, whether you're a mom or you're a business owner, right? And for some of the entrepreneurs, and I will speak just candidly for myself, like I consciously made a choice to stay in misalignment, knowing better, but too afraid to take a leap, right? And so let this be a lesson to some of the women who are listening right now that if you are having this misalignment that Candy and I are speaking to and talking about, it's time to make a decision and do it sooner rather than later.

SPEAKER_00

I love that. And I've never thought of the bow and the arrow the way that you said it, but what came up for me is that um, have you heard that statement? That which you resist persists. And if we're not gonna let go of that arrow and we're just gonna stay in resistance. Yeah. Hey, yes, I like that too. Yeah, and going to wisdom and like honoring our ancestors or whatever, um, my grandma used to say, God will give you the eggs, but you've got to build the nest. And so every spring I just think of her and I'm like, golly gee, if I'm not building a nest, whether that's you know, a comfortable house for my kids or you know, whatever, building this relationship for my kids, there's gonna be no eggs, you know. Or if I am seeking a new job opportunity or a new partnership, what is that that I need to build to make that safe landing spot for the eggs?

Kelly

Isn't that cool? That's so cool. That's so cool. I want to take this opportunity to segue into a different um topic. Speaking of what your grandma had said, what has faith looked like for you in all of this? And what maybe a better way to ask this is what does faith mean to you? And then what has it looked like for you?

SPEAKER_00

So, so many things. I was like, this is a long uh one, a big one to unpack. Let me just do a recent, like aha. So our church let us write down a prayer, and we put them on butterflies and we hung them in the front of the church. And my prayer, and typically I pray for family, I pray for coworkers, I pray for, you know, just life, the community. My prayer very specifically on this butterfly was the babies and the families. And I was like, whoa. I had our children and youth director reach out to me because she saw on my signature line that we have baby no and let's talk kids. She's like, I want to meet with you. And one of the things that we had talked about was families, young families come to church, get their babies baptized, and then maybe don't come back. And she's like, one of the things I'm seeking to find is what is that thing that can connect our young families to church? And so we're still in this conversation and we're still in this process, but I visually think of that family, children, butterfly, and babies hanging there and being like, God has all of our answers, right? And so what we've been talking about is one, the affirmations in some regards are a prayer, a prayer for our babies, a prayer for ourselves. And so we're thinking of co-branding these affirmation cards. And then my brain went to what if we did baby know in your faith community? You could bring your baby, you could see the like this. Um, you know, whatever. This is how I work on my pincher grass for my young baby. This is how I do my brain development, do the affirmations for yourself, and then you can talk in a faith community about how do we implement these things in our families? And I was like, oh my gosh, now as a mom of school-age kids, I want that. Like, I want that model where I can come together with families I trust, families that have kids my age, and think about what are those questions, right? Like, maybe we have a kid at school that's saying unkind things. Um, how do we show up as Christians to support our kids through that?

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um side note, I got a bus referral when I was the first week of school. I have to share this story because I think this speaks to my spirit. I got on the bus. I had my brand new white tennis shoes, my white lace socks, and I knew my mom was like, Don't get dirty, you know? Yeah. So I get on the bus and I have my backpack on, and I'm going to the back of the bus, and I'm like, ooh, all the cool kids are sitting in the back. And my neighbor says, You can't sit in the back of the bus. And he stomped on my foot and got my brand new white tennis shoe dirty. So I turned and I stomped on his foot and I said, You can't tell me where I can sit. And first day of school, I went to the principal. He asked, What happened? I tell him he stomped on my foot and I stomped on his foot. My mom got the call that her kindergartner is no longer allowed to ride the bus for the first week of school, and I had a bus referral. And my mom was like, Woo, what am I gonna do to get my five-year-old to school safely without the bus? So, anyway, this I feel like is an example of my youngest a little bit shows up like his mommy and kind of fights for what's right. Yes. But we recently had an incident where there was some name calling of friends at the playground. My son took it upon himself to punch the name caller. I was like, oh, oh, oh, oh, we do not use our hands for violence. Yeah. But he was standing up for his friends. And so, in the modeling of this, okay, it was probably not right for me to stomp on the foot and maybe get the bus referral, but I felt like I was defending myself, which the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Yeah. So I was like, okay, how can we stand up for what's right, but maybe not resort to that, you know, punching a friend or in my case, stomping on a foot. So I think there's a time and place for all of it. I don't think we need to make our children wrong, but I also feel like there's opportunities to do that.

Kelly

Yes. That was a great paralleling stories. Really great.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, and there's days you have to a little like shrug your shoulders, and my husband will be like, Candy, I went through 12 years of school and I never once got taught calls at the principal's office, and I was like, oh, I'm sorry, this one might be a little mummy.

SPEAKER_02

Really laughing, right? Like, sorry.

Kelly

Yes. Oh my gosh, you're like, this is why we compliment each other.

SPEAKER_00

And um, I love that you're a firstborn rule follower. My sister's the same way, and I'm a little test the boundaries.

Kelly

Test the boundaries to me. I'm the firstborn, and I there is just like if my brother ever listens to this, he'll completely understand what I'm saying. Like, we are polar opposites. Like, I am the rule follower, and even with my husband, he's like, God, he like rolls his eyes. I mean, he's like, You're such a rule follower, it's so annoying. I just gave away my secrets, but anyways, yeah, it's it's okay.

SPEAKER_00

And I I I also giggle because I have girlfriends, you know, like your mom village, and I'm like, the the one mom was like, Well, I feel like my son is like, you know, testing the waters. And I was like, Oh, I was the one that jumped over the line. I was the one that was like, You told me I couldn't do this. I'm gonna try it out. What's the consequence?

Kelly

Uh so is it just you and your sister?

SPEAKER_00

Yes, and my sister is very like yeah, pragmatic, right? Yes, yes, and uh a lot of firstborn traits. And yeah, um, she married a firstborn, so every once in a while they're like, Oh, we just not like, oh, we're both following the rules right now.

Kelly

Yeah, at least they acknowledge it, right? It's so funny. We have conversations about the the firstborn, the middle child, the you know, the baby of the family, and just what what that means, right? And it's there is so much that is true about the firstborn, the middle child, the middle children, or the babies of the family, and the dynamics that come with them, right?

SPEAKER_00

Yes, and now you're making me think of one of the things. So a lot of the firstborns in my family is my cousins, everybody, um, very rule followers. The second are a little bit like, whoa, look at me, you know, like, or the youngers are like the the kids, like typical, you know, babies of the family, like, oh, I want the attention, like, oh, look at me. Yes. And I was talking to one of my cousins, and we were we were acknowledging this, and I was like, Do you think God knows what he's doing? Like, if you have one that's like, okay, I'm gonna be a rule follower, I'm gonna listen well, I'm gonna respect, I'm gonna and then you have one that's a little like yeah, yeah, I'm gonna trust the waters. Yeah, you know, I do think there's a really great compliment of how our families show up. So I do wonder, like, is there an orchestration going on? And have you ever heard Garth Brooks' mom song? Oh, if you have not heard it, you need to listen to it. I think I have, yeah. And the little baby turns to God and says, Um, I'm not sure I want to go down there, and he's like, I've got a mom for you. Oh, but then I'm like, wait a minute, like, is that all orchestrated that the right child comes to us and knows like what their siblings is and how to compliment? Um, I all the things we don't know, we don't know.

Kelly

I know. We won't know until we get to the pearly gates, so it's okay. God's listening to our conversation right now and going, you just wait. And or Belly laughing at us. Like valid questions, Candy and Kelly. You shall find out. You shall find out someday. Okay, well, we have covered a lot of ground, and I think that it may be time to start landing the plane. And what I mean by this is we're gonna start to, you know, simmer down the questions. So I think how I want to do so is I've got maybe just a few more. The first one in landing the plane is knowing all that you know now with the candy here today, what would you tell a younger version of yourself?

SPEAKER_00

This was giving me pause, which is good. I think stand up and fight for what's right. And I think keep believing in your vision and yourself. And I say that for a lot of things, right? Like, as we're talking about the visual of the um butterfly prayer in church, keep believing that you will be used in the way that you need to be used. And keep believing that this thing that you've created is serving others. And I think that's really powerful is that you know, like I said, I don't know, like some of the stuff that we're creating, like, I feel like, yeah, this helps me, you know. But to see it help different generations and multiple generations, and to see grandparents being like, I did that activity with my baby or my grand my grandchild and the ancestors, and like just the knowledge. And there's days I feel like standing on the backs of giants, and I feel like all of the people and the knowledge that has come before me, there's days I'm just like, holy cow! Mm-hmm. Like the knowledge of the world, the community, the ancestors, the experts in clinical education and um clinical backgrounds and education backgrounds, like just all of it.

Kelly

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

Kelly

It is that was really and very much in line with what your story was just about, too, with stomping on the foot and your son as well. Like, stand up for what's right. Yes. Morally, like morally and ethically, right? We're not talking like it's yeah, I mean, we could go down a rabbit hole with that, but like, yeah, you know, you know.

SPEAKER_00

Everybody contributes because actually, one of the things that I've been like teetering with is like, is it time for me to tell legislators about baby no in a more powerful way? And the answer is yes. Well, and I feel like like that's maybe like another nugget. Like, here's my action step, like, right? Modeling that everybody contributes to you. Like, okay, maybe this is the kick in the hiny knee I need to take an action.

Kelly

I want to ask this question, then. It's a year from now, and you and I are sitting down for a cup of coffee. What are we talking about?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, projections, right?

SPEAKER_01

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00

Um wave the magic wand. Wave the faith wand. Oh, I love that. I think that more families are gonna be supported by and with baby no. And like, we don't, we always say, like, like even our learning kids, you don't need all this stuff, just like teach your baby, right? Like, you don't need our content and material to do these things with your baby. But like, wow, if we had these parents that were bonded and united with their babies, and if every baby was told a year from now that you matter, you're important. And then I even go further out and I project, you know, back to like my college students, like, okay, if we start this when they're your babies and now they're 20 years old and they're coming to college or 18 years old or whatever, or traditional age students. If you're told you're matter from beginning of life and your voice is important, and you're gonna contribute so many great things, like that rising tide lifts all boats. Like, what is our vibrational energy of this whole world when we live to our greatness and not get stuck? I love it. What do we say?

Kelly

Big, big impact, small acts, small acts, big impact. Yes, you can reverse it if you want to. Yeah, big impact. I'm an entrepreneur. Uh, how do I want to phrase this? I'm gonna back up. I'm a woman who's listening right now. I've got an idea.

SPEAKER_00

What's the advice you'd give me? Do it back to raising your vibrational energy and back to the resistance and the arrow. And I love that like visual, like, let go and aim for that target. And you know, um, I say with people that I've worked with, you know, we're gonna aim for the stars, and if we land on the moon, like that's so much further. But whatever that idea is, there's a reason that you have it. There's a children's storybook, and I can send you the name of it, that has um this little girl has an idea, and what does she do with the idea? And she's first shared, scared to tell anybody, and then she shares this idea and it gets bigger, and like the snowball effect, and she shares it with more people. And I would say, um, listener, do it. One, that idea kept to yourself is not going anywhere and it's not growing, but that idea in the universe is gonna get bigger and better than you can imagine. Back to our African-American um babies project and coalition partnership. Like we are in conversation with tribal communities about using this content there, and we have a Hmong instructor that's so amazing that loves our affirmation cards and said she knew as a young person that her parents loved her, but she didn't hear those words, and so hearing these affirmations from your parents and the power that that brings, none of this would have happened if I kept my idea small and I resisted it. And so believe in yourself, which was the the advice. Stand up for what's right, and if you have this thing, right? Like I feel like all of us are solving something, right? Yeah, um, one of the entrepreneurs in our group has created a water bottle that strengthens our mouth to support people who snore and or help with like COPD and like help with breathing. Yeah. Okay, so if he kept that idea to himself, people wouldn't be able to use this product. Right. So if you think of it like that, you know, seeing the need that my mom and sister, I feel like they've assessed tens of thousands of kids for early intervention and three years old and screening for school. If they didn't do that, if they didn't screen those kids for school, we wouldn't have had the idea to look at creating this learning kit because seeing the disparities, right? Right. And everybody matters. You belong. The world needs your gifts. That was so good. The world needs your gifts. Entrepreneur, baby, mommy, kids, everybody. The world needs you.

Kelly

I'm listening right now. How can I get connected to you?

SPEAKER_00

Um, probably the easiest way is email. My email is candy c A N D I Walls W-A-L-Z at gmail.com. Fun fact, walls is my maiden name. Um, I am now a candy style, but I feel like there's part of you that just likes to keep it. So candywalls at gmail.com. Um, you could also reach out to us through our baby know website, that's baby no.org, or our let's talk kids um page, which is let's talkkids.info.

Kelly

Are you guys on any social platforms?

SPEAKER_00

We are. We're on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn. Um I'm I'm a good LinkedIn follower, user. I check that probably the most often. Okay. So yeah, check us out on social media as well.

Kelly

Awesome. This has been so fun. I've got two more questions. So, what is the current book or podcast that you're obsessing over right now? Ooh, well, I've been listening to your podcast a lot.

SPEAKER_00

Yay! I know. Um and I just listened to the one that you got interviewed, and so I appreciated that. Um, the other one, so back to Litchfield, Minnesota. I feel like, you know, things come back to your roots. Um, one of my classmates, her wife, created the telepathy tapes. And talk about the things you don't know, you don't know. It is interviewing nonverbal individuals and their parents, and these nonverbal individuals at times can read their mom's minds, and the things you don't know, you don't know. The nonverbal individuals also can start spelling their thoughts or their feelings, and it's another like if that's the dimension that exists that we don't know that we are playing in. Holy cow, what are we missing? I know. So that one that one really intrigues me. And I read uh so many books. I love historical fiction, I love um learning about things that I don't know. I dorky like read a little bit of politics, like, but usually historical fiction, because I kind of like the fun, like, oh well, this could be. And how did this person get to power? And like, how do we connect with people in different countries? And you know, yes, and as weird as that sounds, like um, we had our affirmation cards translated, uh culturally translated into Spanish. And so there's like a like I could just chat GPT, like put my English words in and have it spit out Spanish. That's not cultural translation. Um, so it's culturally translated by somebody who lives it. Yeah, she was like, your stuff is gonna go worldwide. And we just sent our Spanish affirmation cards to the Dominican Republic, and I just feel like again, raising the vibrational energy, like what do you not know? You don't know. So I think that like the international aspect intrigues me. And like, how do parents in Turkey raise their kids? I don't know. Um, but I have a friend that lives there, and so like she and I have had conversations about that.

Kelly

This is so cool. I've got some ideas that we can connect off air about too. What room do you prefer to read those books in? My husband and I are in real estate, you know, like we were talking about this off-air, and I've been asking my guests like, what's the favorite room for you? And like, where are you reading these books or listening to these podcasts? Like, what's the room for you?

SPEAKER_00

So it's bedroom and it's before bed, and I feel like it's kind of that intentionally shutting off your screens. But my husband, again, compliments. My husband's an early-to-better and uh early riser, and I'm a late to bedder and a sloth in the morning, like it takes me a lot to get moving. And so I read on my phone, which has been beautiful because then I don't have to interrupt his slumber. Yeah, and I can still get my reading in. Look at you. Yeah, but I have to credit my girlfriend because she taught me about the app Libby, so you can download books from your library on your phone. Oh, and then every once in a while I'll pick up a paper copy of a book, but then I get crabby because I can't read it at night, like in the in a respectful way, right? Like I don't want to turn on a light. Yeah, so that's been that's been the gift is reading at night. I love it. And podcasting when I'm like doing laundry and like tasking.

Kelly

I like it. That's good. Yeah, that's for me. Like, I cannot be doing something, for instance, in the real estate business at the office and also listening to a podcast because I will lose focus. I will on either one of those tasks. I can. I can listen to music all day, every day, no matter what I'm doing. But the podcast, like, I've got to be really intentional about sitting down and just like, okay.

SPEAKER_00

Do you do them in your car too? Like as you're driving. Yeah. I do that too.

Kelly

Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's you can just kind of like zone in, right? Because you're an autopilot when it comes to the driving, especially if you know where you're going. You're like, autopilot, I know where I'm going. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So me too. I like to listen to my car.

Kelly

This has been so fun, Candy. So fun. And I know that this has just been such a treat for the listeners as well. What you are doing, the advocacy of what you're doing it. I'm gonna be very excited to sit down with you in a year having coffee.

unknown

Yeah.

Kelly

And you have had your conversations with legislators and you've really brought this to the table.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

Kelly

And things are immensely growing internationally too. Like, I'm just gonna forecast it.

SPEAKER_03

Let's do it.

Kelly

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Raise the vibration. Raise the vibration. And the other thing I say is like planting the seeds. And I think this is a biblical image too, right? Like, we're gonna water them, we're gonna plant them, and if they grow, awesome. And what's supposed to sprout is gonna sprout. And so, yes, but you gotta build a nest, right? You gotta build the nest so the eggs can be put in. Thanks, Grandma.

Kelly

Amen, sister. Thank you, Grandma. We appreciate you, and we know that you're listening from above, too. So, Candy, I hope you have a great rest of the day. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for coming on here, sharing your story, sharing about motherhood and the intersection of the two.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks for hosting this and having a platform for women. And the other thing I think is so important is that just having your community and having the opportunity to speak and having the opportunity to listen, which is so cool. Well, it's so much to learn.

Kelly

It really is my pleasure. I want to continue to build this community. So thank you. Thank you. Have a good day. You too.

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Kelly Kirk

Host