[00:00:00]
Connie Miller: As our kids get older, we can retain the conversations and the depth and the connection that we have with them to enjoy those more challenging developmental stages the caveat to this too is that it’s never too late I’ve coached grandparents on rebuilding relationships with their grown children that they wanted to repair once they became grandparents or just in reflecting back on some of their life choices. Once a parent, always a parent and even if you’re not a parent you’re parented so we really can reach everyone where they are set them up with the tools that they need to feel successful.
Narrator: Welcome to Raising Resilience, a podcast dedicated to empowering modern parents to transform their parenting journey from surviving to thriving. Each week, join certified master parent coach, former elementary school teacher, and devoted mom of three, Connie Miller, as she provides heartfelt advice, [00:01:00] expert insights, and practical strategies.
From managing emotional overwhelm and redefining parenting roles to finding the perfect work life balance, we’ve got you covered. Hit subscribe now and embark on this enriching journey with us. Now here’s your host, Connie Miller.
Richard Matthews: Hello and welcome to the very first episode of the Raising Resilience podcast. and I’m excited to be here with Connie. I am doing just a special co host with you today, Connie. And what I wanted to start off with for this podcast is why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and your business, your clients, what it is that you do for them so we can get a good sort of feel for what this podcast is going to be about going forward.
Connie Miller: Cool. And absolutely. I’m a certified master parent coach and former elementary school teacher. Plus I am a mom to three amazing, wild, crazy, and fun kids. So I get the [00:02:00] chaos. And at happiness coaching I work with parents who feel totally overwhelmed and exhausted and stressed out by the demands of modern parenting, whether it be, You know, working parents or, you know, big behaviors or a diagnosis or just day to day life, getting through it, balancing schedules and sports practices, you know, whatever it may be.
and parents come to me when they’re ready to re imagine their approach towards parenting and lead their kids in a different direction to be more confident, more successful. and overall just kind adults. I help the parents manage their stress. improve communication across their children, loved ones, spouses, co parents, whoever it is, that is an active participant in their kids lives.
This creates a more balanced home environment guiding these parents away from the traditional reactive parenting style to what I like to call responsive [00:03:00] parenting. And therefore they raise resilient children.
Richard Matthews: I love that. And I know when you first brought this podcast to us and we started talking about it, I was pretty excited about it because, you know, I’m in this similar situation, right? I’ve got four children. We travel full time. So we have a crazy life. And my wife’s got her degree in early childhood education and counseling and stuff like that.
So we have some pretty good like, background in this. And we get questions all the time from our community. They’re like, how do you raise your kids to be like that? And I didn’t even know there were words to describe the way that we parented until you and I started talking, right? Like the responsive parenting and those kinds of things.
And we get asked all the time. And I’m like, I don’t know what the resources are, or even that there are resources for parents. And so it is. to hear what
Connie Miller: That is one of the goals, right, is to just even raise awareness. I mean, our main offerings are kind of around personalized coaching programs tailored to specific family needs. But we also, you know, provide those strategies and tools and frameworks that are backed by the latest in childhood development, [00:04:00] brain science, research, leadership strategies, And of course, just on the years of my personal and professional experience, both as a teacher and as a coach, and just kind of stewarding forward that idea that this even exists,
and hopefully getting to parents before they’re at rock bottom or down and out.
So we also offer things above or not above and beyond, but in, tandem to private coaching. We do group coaching. I do webinars. I do in person workshops provide a ever growing list of online resources. And also I’ve just started publishing my own journals and books. So there’s a spot in there for everyone to find something that meets them where they are and start expanding their thoughts on parenting and re imagining it to be exactly what they wanted it to be
Richard Matthews: Yeah. Yeah. And it’s, one of those things that man, like if, when you really learn some of these skills and the stuff that you teach, parenting can be something that goes from being like a chore [00:05:00] or a pain or something that you’re not confident about to be something that is fun and exciting.
And like, you get to enjoy your relationship with your children all the way through the stages, right? And it’s like, I know one of the things that I know you and I have talked about a little bit is like, you know, I got a one teenager and all the way down to like five year olds and people all the time.
They’re like, like, I’ll worry about the teenagers. The teenagers are coming. I’m like, my teenager is excellent, right? I love, I love hanging out with them. And you don’t have to have those, I don’t know those like negative sort of like, the stuff that comes from the community about how parenting, you know, is going to be right.
It can actually be excellent all the way through. And that’s what you teach. You teach people how to do that.
Connie Miller: Yeah. And just lean into and enjoy those times. I mean, we kind of, as parents all joke about, you know, the terrible twos or the bossy threes or, you know, Oh, teenage years. And we do it kind of in a joking way, but in doing that, we diminish the value of our own experiences and our own intentions. And [00:06:00] so at Happy Nest, our aim is to, To offer simple, powerful strategies and tools that help parents move out of that mindset and into the mindset of I can do this, I’m empowered, I understand the why behind behaviors and struggles, so I can get ahead of those big behaviors, reduce their frequency, and calmly and confident, Navigate conflicts when they arise, and then the byproduct of that is exactly what you’re speaking to.
As our kids get older, we can retain the conversations and the depth and the connection that we have with them to enjoy those more challenging developmental stages. And the caveat to this too, is that it’s never too late. I’ve coached grandparents on rebuilding relationships with their grown children that they wanted to repair once they became grandparents or just in reflecting back on some of their life choices.
So this is, you know, once a [00:07:00] parent, always a parent. And even if you’re not a parent, you’re parented. So we really can reach everyone where they are And set them up with, the tools that they need to feel successful.
Richard Matthews: even more than more than that, you probably have Children in your life and there’s that whole community parenting aspect that comes into just showing up for the kids that are in your life, whether you’re a teacher or your neighbors have kids or your nephews or your whatever, nephews and nieces are as the human experience. You will interact with children and these skills go across the board.
Connie Miller: Yeah. And it’s, and modeling that and then creating those relationships, even like you said, with my nieces and nephews, I am not their parent, but in the way that I engage with children is all centered around this responsive versus reactive. And so when I respond that way, I’m not only creating an amazing connection with, with my nieces and nephews, but also modeling it away from the traditional way of [00:08:00] parenting, quote unquote.
Richard Matthews: So that gives a really good sort of overview of what you do at happiness coaching, but what I want to talk about is what’s your vision for raising resilience as a podcast. So what are you hoping to see this become as a resource for your community?
Connie Miller: My vision for raising resilience is to be the go-to resource for practical parenting advice and support, but kind of from the lens of your best friend. So, you know, there’s no shame, there’s no blame. It’s a safe space, an honest space. where you can come to think about things, reflect on things and move forward with intention.
it’s just kind of like having a chat with your best friend who just happens to have a ton of expert knowledge. So each episode I hope to pack with not only content but inspiring stories, interviews all delivered with a little bit of sense of humility and relatability.
Because I’m in it too. I have a [00:09:00] 3-year-old a 6-year-old and a 9-year-old know, I’m right there in the weeds too. And I don’t always do it perfect. Cause so much about it is, is learning to repair too. So we’ll cover Lots of topics, but, you know, a lot of them around managing overwhelm fostering emotional resilience and intelligence in kids and how, you can get them to feel more comfortable in their feelings and sit in them and be okay with big feelings, positive or negative. goal is to just provide those tools and insights so in those moments you can reach into your toolbox. It gets bigger and bigger each week and grab something right out that you can use right in that moment. And it’ll create an environment that’s full of respect and cooperation. And all of the tools are tangible, effective, and adaptive for all ages.
Not just five year olds, but 15, 35, 40, 50. [00:10:00] 45, whatever, whatever age your children are.
Narrator: Hey parents, we’re halfway through today’s episode, but I’ve got something special just for you. Feeling overwhelmed by parenting? I’ve got a free exclusive guide to help you thrive. Head over to happinesscoaching. com backslash guide and download top 10 secrets to thriving as a parent. It’s packed with simple, effective tools to drop the guilt.
Relieve stress and re energize your family life. And for a fun, insightful way to understand your parenting style, take our quick quiz at www. happinesscoaching. com backslash parenting dash power dash quiz. Grab your guide, take the quiz, and let’s start thriving together. Now, back to the show.
Richard Matthews: I love the idea of like respect and collaboration, right? Because I think a lot of times parenting is looked at as this top down sort of like I have to parent my children instead of parenting being a collaboration between you and the people in your family, right? You and your children, you and your, you know, your grandparents, you and the aunts and [00:11:00] uncles.
Like, you know, parenting is a, there’s more than one person involved, right? It’s you and the
Connie Miller: Yeah. Yeah. And, and we, feel those stresses and in our, you know, most triggered moments or, you know,
when we’re feeling the most depleted, we oftentimes revert back to either ways that we were parented or something we read. We don’t always have that moment of intention. And so my goal is to help steward forth that idea of being responsive and we are intentionally doing and creating situations where we are trying to learning effective communication strategies, effective stress management strategies that, you can use in a moment, not going for a four hour run, though that’s great also.
It’s not great when your kid’s having a temper tantrum in the middle of the grocery store wanting a piece of candy. So it’s, you know, kind of combining both Those aspects, and speaking right to the heart of [00:12:00] what the true parenting experience is now. Not what it was in generations past.
Richard Matthews: I know this is something, because I’ve heard you talk about this, and I know this is important for parents to just sort of hear, but you’re not looking to teach people how to be perfect parents. Right. And so like, I know one of the ways, like my wife and I talk about this all the time is like, we want to be like, we want to be doing pretty good 80 of the time and then know how to apologize and fix it when we F it up the other
20%. Yeah, and forgive yourself, too. That’s a whole other piece, the forgiving yourself and not, you know, worrying so much about some, a misstep that we might have had. Maybe, you know, do the repair, but repair with yourself, too, so you can move forward, and you don’t get stuck, you know, playing that back, in the back of your mind at every corner until you Kind of find something else to play in the back of your mind.
Create your own depression. That’s what that does.
Connie Miller: Yeah. Yeah,
Richard Matthews: that I’m pretty excited about where you’re going with all of this. [00:13:00] I know you’ve been doing your content planning for this podcast. Do you have any sort of like teasers for the topics that are coming up in the first few episodes? Yes.
Connie Miller: you know I’ve been going around and around about it, but a lot of it I think I just want to bust some myths right out of the gate You know
so we can really figure out how we’re having conversations about parenting and happiness and on raising resilience and What are the words and terms we’re using?
around parenting and relationship building with our kids and setting goals and moving towards those goals. And so, you know, not only am I going to have experts on here to kind of banter back and forth about, you know, current events and in parenting theory and strategies but dieticians nutritionists, pediatricians.
Teachers coming in and talking about, you know, what you might see if your kid needs to be on a 504 or an IEP. But so just kind of getting into all the people, like you said, the community that, that participates in parenting our [00:14:00] kids and have it all right here. Their go to resource for all the latest and greatest, you know, And you know, real time.
So if, there’s a historical event that comes about current event, you know, how we could talk about how to talk about it to your kid, depending on their age and stage of development. So, you know, I, I even want to get my kids on here sometime and I’ll let them bust me up a little bit too.
So,
Richard Matthews: That should be fun and exciting. So let’s talk for a minute about getting the people who are listening to this actually into the show. I know. So like, we were just talking about what the show is going to be about. Let’s talk real briefly about what your release schedule is going to be and where you plan on releasing all this stuff and then like the website is.
People can go and subscribe.
Connie Miller: You got it. We’ll be releasing new episodes every week. You can find Raising Resilience on all the major platforms from YouTube, Apple, Spotify, Amazon, you know, and of course more as they start to pop up. And then on my website too. So www. HappyNestCoaching. com backslash [00:15:00] podcast. Pretty simple and straightforward.
Richard Matthews: So if you’re watching this now and you have children that you interact with in your life as a parent, or, you know, as anyone in the community, it definitely take the time to subscribe to raising resilience. And again, that’s happy nest. So any ST happy nest coaching. com forward slash podcast.
And we’ll have links to all the major platforms there. So if you Apple podcast, watcher, or Spotify user or YouTube user, all the links will be there. So you can click onto your favorite platform. And if you are watching this, take the time to give Connie a review on this. That has going to really help push this forward.
And the more, you help support this show, the more that she can help. Get more of these resources out into the community.
so again, Connie, thank you so much for coming on and putting this resource together for the community. I think it’s going to be a really a beneficial podcast just all around.
Connie Miller: Thank you. I’m so excited to start and share this journey with all of you here at Raising Resilience. And you know, like we said earlier, remember parenting’s not about striving for perfection. It’s about making progress and embracing each moment with [00:16:00] confidence, compassion, and of course a dash of fun.
Together, we will raise resilient kids and create a family life that’s balanced, supportive, and best of all, full of joy. So until next time.
Richard Matthews: So if you’re watching this, hit that like subscribe button and we’ll see you on episode one where the real content will start to come in. Connie, thank you so much for being here today and we’ll see you guys later.
Connie Miller: Thank you. Can’t wait to miss those boss. Boss those myths.
Narrator: Make sure to visit our website, happinesscoaching. com, where you can subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify, or via RSS so you’ll never miss an episode. If you found value in today’s show, we’d truly appreciate a rating on iTunes, or simply tell a friend about the podcast. That would help us out too. For more exclusive content, check out our free downloads and webinar at Happiness Coaching.
Be sure to tune in next week for more tips and strategies for making your parenting journey rewarding and joyful. Until then, keep embracing those resilient [00:17:00] moments.
