Welcome to Between the Cover’s Summer series, we're putting the spotlight on South Florida authors.

I'm Ann Bocock, and joining me is Tiffany Lanier.

Tiffany is an entrepreneur, a keynote speaker and a leading voice in well-being and personal growth.

She's also the author of I Can't Wait to Vote, a children's book and campaign dedicated to Civic Engagement.

Tiffany, welcome.

Hi.

I am so happy to talk to you and your wearing your your vote t shirt here.

You're a sought after powerful speaker.

So what was the inspiration to go?

You know what?

I think I'll write a children's book.

I know I get that question quite often.

I wanted to write this particular book because I wanted to teach children and remind their adults the importance of voting, and that voting is our voice and everything that we get to do in society.

And it can be it can be fun and engaging, and we should be excited to participate in it.

And that's something that I think a lot of people are not so sure about.

Did anyone ever say, Wow, you have this wonderful career as a speaker, but now you're going to to to address children?

Yeah, well, I, I speak a lot on change.

I speak a lot on change and well-being.

And society as a whole is always changing.

Right?

And voting cycles change things for us.

And so it didn't feel farfetched in my head as much as it might feel like a disconnection when it comes to the everyday work that I do.

But I have two small children and when I wrote the book, I had just my daughter at the time and we I was starting to be more engaged in the community and really reengaged from being a disengaged voter.

And I wanted to start teaching my daughter why that was so important.

I love that answer.

What's the take away that you want children to get from this book?

And what do you want their parents to get from this book?

I want children to see just how much they can have a voice in.

So the book takes you through the journey of my daughter Autumn, going to the polls with her parents, us.

And from the very beginning, when she's outside, everything she's looking at, everything she's touching, she's asking, Do you vote on this?

And the parents are replying like, Yes, this is what we vote on.

This is what maybe city council votes on.

This is what our commissioners vote on.

And so you get to see that almost everything that you look at voted it was voted on by someone.

So how can I be a part of that process?

And if you can know that that's how it works from the very beginning, then I'm hoping that you will always be engaged.

You really have that connection to children in this book.

I'm curious, were you always a reader?

That's an I didn't become a reader like like consistently and pine.

I was in third grade.

I actually struggled quite a bit when I was younger.

I had hooked on Phonics, the whole thing.

But once it started to click for me, I became a student author.

By fifth grade, I wrote my first children's book, actually in fifth grade.

A lot of people don't know that.

I don't share that story a lot.

What was the book about?

It was about a A Tiger.

Like, the whole series was animals related and the tiger was the tiger kid was going to the dentist.

That was the story.

But I was a fifth grader.

And so it was like a fun little.

Project, a teaching moment back then when you were.

In I know.

Children's books are very visual.

This is no exception.

They need an illustrator that really gets to the essence.

Was That is challenging finding the right illustrator as it was finding the right words?

Yes.

Finding the right illustrator is a challenge 100%.

I found my illustrator through another book that I fell in love with, and I just love the artistry.

I had a vision in my mind and I'm like, I have to find this.

And I went through a series of test illustrators and I'm like, This is not it.

Like, these images, these illustrations are not going to bring this vision to life.

And so I did not stop until I found it.

And it was through another author who wrote a book that I'm like, I have to find her.

And you did?

And I did.

And Autumn is not only on the cover.

She is through the the whole book.

This is your daughter.

So does she love seeing herself on these pages?

Yes, She very much loved seeing herself.

It's funny because we had an event a couple of years ago and she said, so who's more?

And she's going to be so mad that I said, Who's more important?

Is it the author of the book or the star of the book?

And I'm like, my goodness.

I'm like, Well, you know, mommy did write it, but she's very much happy to be on the cover and get to have that conversation, too.

Tiffany, as you well know, there is a huge percentage of people that in this country that do not vote, don't care to participate.

And I'm not even talking about the every four year presidential election.

I'm talking about voting for things that that can make a difference in your community.

So how can you write an adult book?

You know, I've thought about it.

Yes.

So that could be on the docket.

But that's why I wrote the book, The way that I did.

I wanted to not only inspire children to see the world, the world around them, literally in a way that they can engage with it.

But I also like, you know, I was hoping that the parents would be like, yeah, I, I can participate in school board meetings and I can show up to my city council meeting and I can, you know, show up to commission or meeting.

You can show up to any of these meetings.

You vote for these people.

So my hope was that it also sparked that inspiration or reminder to them that, you know, these are things that maybe I'm not actively involved in right now, but yeah, I could be.

I watched your TEDx talk.

It's powerful, it's personal, it's inspirational for people who don't know it and haven't seen it yet.

Give me the bird's eye view of what it is.

What do I need today?

Yeah.

So my TEDx talk is all about really tapping into the one thing that you can do every single morning for yourself before you give yourself to the world for you.

Give yourself to your kids how to do that, that personal self.

Check in so that you are being mindful of what you need any given day so that you can show up to be the better parent, leader, business owner.

Agree that self-care when it comes to women is really a hard concept.

Yes.

Yeah.

When you're giving when you're giving literally to everyone and everything all around you, I think it becomes a struggle to think of yourself first.

And I guess that is where that concept is.

It's like, you know, as I say in the talk, before I even, like, open my eyes, I'm asking myself, what is it that I need so that when I do get up, even even though I know as soon as I get out, I'm going to be working with the children.

But it's in the forefront of my mind what happens next once I get them settled?

What is it that I need also to cater to myself to that day?

What is it I need?

I'm going to incorporate that.

We should all incorporate that.

What's one thing that you learned about yourself after writing this book?

I learned that there's even room for me to participate more.

Really?

There's, you know, we we all have very busy full lives that we're living in.

So sometimes it's hard for us to consider how we can actively participate.

As you mentioned earlier, we become maybe disengaged or don't want to vote.

We hear so much political noise on a national level that we forget that people are making an impact right in our very backyard.

So reminding yourself like, Hey, okay, I know I have a lot going on, but I do care what's going on in my children's school.

So maybe I should show up to a meeting to see what they're talking about and how this is impacting my child's education.

And maybe there's a way for me to also lend my voice in this conversation.

And you can do that pretty much at any level.

And so that reminder, as I was writing, I'm like, okay, no, you also write, you do a lot, but there's always more to do.

There's always more to do.

Tiffany Lanier is the founder and CEO of the Morning Shift Co and author of I Can't Wait to Vote Yes.

Thank you so much for sharing your time.

Thank you for having me.

I'm Ann Bocock, please join me on the next Between the Covers.