June 17, 2025 • 30 mins
In this episode of Wisdom on the Front Porch, LS Kirkpatrick chats with S.S. Coulter about her transition from corporate life to entrepreneurship, sharing lessons learned from failure. They discuss her ventures in children's literature, the mindset of stay-at-home moms, and homeschooling. The conversation highlights her child play app, focusing on play, screen time, and business insights. They explore the shift from the industrial to digital age, fostering creativity, and experiential learning. Coulter also talks about community involvement and family projects. The episode wraps up with future podcast plans.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:03):
Thank you for being here, and thank youraudience for being here on Wisdom on the Front
Porch.
We were just joking that sometimes my spellingis not the best.
But I'm so glad you're here, Shannon.
You're an author too, but let's talk about yourentrepreneurial journey.
So what is your business, and what do you do?
(00:24):
Well, thank you so much for having me.
It is wonderful to be here, and it's so nice tohave your smiling face and your wonderful
laugh.
I actually have a company that stems backsixteen years, but I like to say I put it to
bed and woke it back up again recently.
The company is essentially health and wellnessmore a wellness program for children.
(00:47):
And it stemmed from a while back in 02/2007, Imet my stepkids.
They weren't my step kids at the time,obviously, because I just met them.
But I had been with my now husband for a yearand a half, and one day, finally, he said, do
you wanna meet the kids?
We had made it that far.
We were in love.
(01:07):
It time to meet the kids.
So I was 31 at the time, and I walk in, and Ithink I know everything because that's what we
do.
And I came from the childhood of that you hearthe generation x'ers now bragging about that we
played all the time.
So that's what I'm expecting from thesechildren.
They're four, eight, and 10.
And so we're doing some stuff, and then I say,go out and play.
(01:31):
And here, I'm thinking this is an awesome thingthat I'm telling them to do because that's what
I wanted to do.
So I tell them to go out and play, andimmediately well, not immediately.
Five minutes later, they came back in and said,miss Shannon, we don't know what to do.
And I am absolutely thrown, and I'm thinkingthere's something wrong with my now husband and
his ex wife.
Like, what have they done wrong with thesechildren?
(01:52):
Right?
Because I'm like, what's wrong with them?
So yeah.
So at the time, I was in corporate America, andso I'm gonna merge these two together.
I was in corporate America, and I was acommunications consultant.
So I was writing.
And I actually went into consulting because Ididn't know what I wanted to do.
So I figured and I was a communication major incollege.
(02:15):
So I figured, like, I'll go into thesedifferent companies, and I'll see what they all
do, and then I'll pick one.
Well, I ended up just, like, dipping my toesinto all these different companies.
So I worked for Boeing and Sara Lee and Kraft.
I mean, huge companies got to see totallydifferent things.
And my job was to communicate to the employeeswhat the company was doing.
So if they were you know, sometimes it was justsigning up for your medical plan.
(02:39):
That was, like, the bread and butter.
That was really boring, but I learned a lot.
It was stock exchanges.
It was retirement.
Toward the end, when I met my step kids, I wasdoing wellness programs, and it really drove
me.
Like, I I was about ready to leave consulting.
I don't know if you've been a consultant, butthe thing is you have your phone on you all the
time, and it's they say jump and you say howhigh.
(03:02):
So I'm exhausted at this point, working reallyhard.
But I love doing these wellness programsbecause I'm seeing people change their lives,
and my writing's having an impact on them.
I'm hearing their success stories.
It was really cool.
But I also was thinking at the time, why are wegoing back and teaching people this?
Why didn't we grow them up this way?
You know, why don't we just grow people up thisway?
(03:24):
And all of these programs were health incentiveprograms.
So what that means is, like, the employeeswould do something.
They get points, and the company would let themcash in the points.
Okay.
So I sit there thinking that, and all of asudden, I meet these little kids.
And I'm seeing that they can't play.
And so I decided to look into it, and it wasn'tjust my three beautiful children.
(03:45):
It was children everywhere who were having ahard time because
of Yeah.
Technology.
Yeah.
So I became
I have something to tell you about that, justanother example of it.
When my kids were little, and this would havebeen you know, I guess at the time when it
happened, it would have been late eighties.
(04:07):
Mhmm.
And we didn't have a television.
We're far enough away.
We didn't have all the antennas and everything.
And the people you know, the kids from townwhen they would come out and and hang out at
the farm, they would you know, five minutes,they don't know what to do.
It's like, go, you don't have a TV.
No.
You don't have this.
No.
Yeah.
(04:27):
And they go, well, what do you do?
So the kids would show them what to do, andthey would learn to play outside.
Once we got a TV, my sister, she couldn't standit that we'd have didn't have a TV.
She thought it was the worst thing in theworld.
We got a TV, and within one month, I turned wedidn't have I don't know.
It wasn't good channels.
We never did have good reception.
(04:48):
And I told the kids, go outside and play.
And five minutes later, they come in the house.
They don't know how to play.
I mean, just that fast.
It was just that fast.
Yeah.
And it was just crazy.
So it's like, okay.
We're limited in TV time.
You're gonna go out and learn how to playagain.
Yeah.
Isn't that crazy how fast that went?
Yes.
Yeah.
(05:09):
So imagine parents now, you've got TV, tablet,computer,
oh my
gosh, phone.
You have everything.
Right?
And we can get back more into this later, butit's really designed to keep you glued to it.
I mean, they've purposely done that.
So it's a real huge thing.
And I and I recognized way back then, like,this is not good because I'm seeing these kids
(05:30):
have behavioral issues, you know, not knowinghow to talk to people.
I mean, all these things that come with it.
So at that time, to tell the story reallyquickly, my husband and I, I left corporate
America, and he was my business partner.
And we started this company, and I wrote sixbooks in a year, which was really hard because
they were children's books.
I had no idea what I was doing.
I went from technical writing and writingabout, you know, stock programs to that.
(05:53):
But I did that as a way to get kids interestedin what we were doing, interested in learning
the moral stories that we were telling and thendoing the activities.
At the same time, we build a website.
We spent we did the investor raise.
We did all that stuff.
We spent all this money, and we were doingstuff in the site that I cannot believe we did.
(06:13):
It came out later, like, in 2015.
I'm like, oh, that's what we were trying to do.
But back then, none of that was built.
So we built this huge 90 something pagewebsite, spent all this money, and came out
with it right when apps came out.
Just Great.
Right?
So that happened, and then some personal stuffhappened with my husband and my stepkids where
(06:34):
I ended up being the full time caretaker ofthem.
Okay.
So we have this product come out.
It's not hitting correctly.
And all of a sudden, I have these three kids.
Their mom had moved to California, and myhusband had to take a job in Indiana, and we're
in Chicago.
So all the senate yeah.
So all I'm a full time single stepmom.
(06:56):
So it's like, what does happen?
So at that time, and I I really wanted to sharethis with entrepreneurs listening, I could not
have felt more of a failure because this bit Ileft my corporate, and it was a good job, but I
also say it was, like, the golden handcuffs.
Like, I was not happy.
Yes.
I'll I use this, and I I say this as a joke,but I think everyone will understand.
(07:19):
Told my husband at one point that I went frombeing suicidal, and I never really was.
It was a joke.
But I went from being suicidal to homicidal, soit was time to move.
Yeah.
Definitely.
Like, I wanna hurt other people now.
I need to leave.
So so I left, and, you and I had this greatjob.
I it started this thing, and I and it it,quote, unquote, failed.
And it just felt horrible.
(07:41):
And I had always been this businesswoman, andnow I'm the stay at home mom, and I just beat
myself up.
It was really bad.
I just felt like such a failure.
And the coolest thing that has happened to mesince then is now I look back at it, and I'm
going, thank you, god.
(08:02):
Because the stuff I would have sold back thenin 02/2008, 02/2010, the messages I would have
given children, the authority that I had as aparent was so different than it is now.
Oh, it's so different.
Yeah.
And and so I was new then.
I had empathy as a parent, but I didn't havethe sympathy that I have now because now I've
(08:24):
been in the trenches.
Yes.
I
know.
Yeah.
I know how much harder it is.
And the other thing is I would have taughtstuff in the books that was culturally still
culturally appropriate, but that's notappropriate to me anymore that I would wanna
teach to kids.
So I'm really glad that I didn't do that.
And, also, crazy, I was almost propheticallyahead of the game then with that, and now
(08:51):
people know what this technology has done toour kids.
So it's almost it's always thank you, God.
Right?
It's always thank you, God.
But I also and you'll appreciate this.
I also got to be a mom.
I got to parent, and that that's something youcan't you can't replace with anything else.
So as as painful as that was, I I'm doing aquote.
I called it a failure now.
(09:12):
Now I call it a lesson.
Yeah.
And and I do that.
All of them.
I call them challenges.
I don't even use the f word anymore.
No.
You know, they're challenges.
They're things to learn from, to overcome, toget better at.
And
And we're we're building we're so we're juststart so I I came back to the company in 2020.
(09:34):
You know, everything was crazy.
And I will tell you, if you have the dream thatGod has put you here to do, he will not let you
let it go.
Yeah.
Like, here, I'm thinking, you know, we're we'resixteen years into this.
But 2020, we we officially closed in 2015, butreally 2012, and I could not stop thinking
about this.
And I really didn't want to.
(09:56):
I was like, I don't wanna do this.
That hurt.
But I was like, no.
This is this is my why.
These kids are my why.
I've gotta do this.
So he he wouldn't let it go.
And I I even went well, I'll go back to thebook.
So 2020, I had already mentioned I had neverwritten a children's book, and I wrote six in a
year.
I mean, that is insane.
And so I went back and I level.
(10:17):
Yeah.
That's insane.
So I went back and I learned more about writingfor children, and I got to edit them into a
place where I like them a lot better.
Yeah.
And so that started happening.
There was always intended to be seven books, soI wrote the one.
And then I started going out and giving them toteachers and principals, and I got feedback on
them, and it was great.
(10:37):
Oh, nice.
Yeah.
And I'm but I was still kind of putzing along.
And so back in September, I went to a mentor,and I'm like, this has been really hard.
This is September of twenty twenty four.
Like, this is really hard.
I don't know if I can keep going with this.
You know?
And and he said that the most life changingthing to me, which has started me on this
journey here, but he said to me, has God toldyou to stop?
(11:00):
Oh, wow.
Good mental Oh, man.
Okay.
Nope.
So, yeah, so there was that.
And then some lessons along the way in aboutthe April, and I've heard you talk about this
before, but I started reading mindset books.
Yes.
And I really changed my mindset around this.
(11:21):
Yeah.
I've got one right now on my desk.
You've got you've got to keep your head in thegame positively.
Because if you don't, you can look at all thesethings and call them failures.
And as you said, they're not failures.
They're challenges.
Yeah.
So it's been absolutely amazing for me.
And another big thing that I've learned, and Iread this in a book.
(11:42):
It's I think it's called Be Your Future SelfNow by Benjamin Hardy.
It's wonderful, doctor Benjamin Hardy.
He said and this is amazing to me, and I wanteverybody to think about this.
He said, your past doesn't dictate yourpresent.
Your present dictates your past.
And you take a to think about it.
(12:03):
Wow.
Before so now I'm in a good place.
And when I'm telling you guys about whathappened to me, I can I'm in a good place.
So my business was a lesson, and that stop wasme being able to be a parent.
Nice.
Isn't that interesting?
I I was like, that is fantastic.
(12:25):
And I I like what you say that you've got to bea parent because so many times it seems like
and I don't know if women do this to ourselvesor what it is, but the culture is you don't
stay home and be a mom anymore.
There's something wrong with you if you dothat, and that's totally not true.
(12:46):
It's a choice that you make.
It's yeah.
If you want more things or whatever, then yougo to work and and get a better life that way.
But who's taking care of your kids?
You it's wonderful for the moms that do stayhome.
Mhmm.
You gain so much, and I know it's not asglamorous.
It's can be really the most ungrateful if youcall it a career.
(13:10):
Yeah.
It is a career.
It is a career.
I mean, you're going out of full time, but youhave such a responsibility there, and you can
do it.
So I don't want any woman to think that justbecause she's a stay at home mom, that she's
less than anything else.
In fact, it's quite the opposite.
You've got an amazing role there, and and itcan be tough in corporate world.
(13:36):
It can be tough anywhere that you're you'redoing it.
But I think you get hit hard from all sidesbeing a stay at home mom.
Why aren't you working?
What's wrong with you?
Are you lazy?
And it's like none of those things.
I mean, it used to be that that's what womendid.
You stayed home, and then we were able to getjobs and things like that.
(13:59):
You know, everything's changed, and now it's itseems to be a bad thing to stay home, but it's
not.
It's not a bad thing.
And I do I think that in a in a positive way,some of that is changing.
People are realizing, like, that's an okaything to do.
I think that's lovely because as I justexpressed, I felt like a complete failure that
(14:20):
now I was home with these kids.
And as I as I came out of it and looked back atit, I go, gosh.
That's the most important thing I've ever donebecause I molded these three human beings.
I want to be there for them, and and it's andit is something that's not appreciated as much.
But one but we can appreciate each other asmoms because you know how hard it is.
(14:41):
And that's not saying if you're the type of momthat doesn't wanna be home that that's bad, but
I think it's really imperative for us to sayit.
But if you do, that's awesome too.
Right.
Right.
And then there's moms that stay home andhomeschool their kids.
Mhmm.
And that's a whole another thing there.
It is really tough to homeschool your kids.
(15:01):
You know?
I did it for quite a few years.
The things that I love the most were themoments we got to talk.
You don't normally get a talk with your kidswhen they're going to public school or private
school.
You've got very limited time.
You come home.
You get dinner.
You do dishes.
You do homework.
You know?
Maybe you play games or watch TV or something,then you go to bed, and that's it.
(15:23):
You know?
Where's your real time with them?
And and that was one major benefit that Ididn't even know I was going to get.
Mhmm.
We decided to homeschool just for the one year,and it ended up being the rest of the time.
Because it was good.
But, yeah, there were there were talks we hadthat we never would have ever had any kind of
(15:46):
of connection like that if they'd been going topublic school.
There just wouldn't be time for it.
Right.
And and I and everything else.
Yeah.
Well, I think that's you know, one of myfavorite things about the app that we're be
rebuilding now.
So I was talking about I I did the the books,and now we're building the app again where I'm
very excited about it because I'm working withthe developer, and I know exactly not what, you
(16:10):
know, what not to do.
So it's amazing.
So but one of the things person.
Yeah.
It really is.
One of the things we have in there, which is towhat you were saying, when we had the kids so I
I joke, but I built this thing for myselfbecause one of the things that I was
experiencing with the kids not knowing how toplay and what you've experienced with your kids
is then they come and ask me what to do.
(16:32):
Well, I'm an adult.
I only can come up with so many things.
And so I wanted something, and I didn't wannago on Google every time or Pinterest or all
these places and be flooded with all thisinformation.
So that is the point of this app.
It's like you put in how many kids you have,how much time you want them to spend, how many
points.
If you'd want them to work on mind, heart, orbody, I'd love that.
(16:53):
And then you say, boom.
And this app goes, here's 10 easy things foryou to do, and your kids are gonna get points.
And then you get to pick what they get with thepoints.
So it's, like, an incentive program, but yourkids are are playing.
But one thing we added to it, and this wasbecause our kids would come over.
And what did you do today?
Went from their mom's house.
What did you do today?
Nothing.
(17:14):
You know, how was school?
Fine.
Like, oh my gosh.
The one answers.
The one word answers.
You're like, oh my gosh.
Difficult.
Yeah.
So we did what things to talk about after a lotof the activities.
So it's I see that you did I see that you did,you know, the five senses scavenger hunt, and
then we asked three questions about it.
And I just thought that was phenomenal becauseit gets your kid talking, and they're getting
(17:36):
points for talking to you, but that's okay.
That's good.
But it but that was a big deal to me becausethat like you said, we can I can teach values
in the books, which I do, but this way, aparent can take and teach their values to the
kids and share their stories and stuff likethat?
And I thought that was also really importantbecause people are so busy.
(17:56):
They are.
They are.
And I miss miss the time when, you know,everybody gets together and you hear the
stories, the stories of coming up with thingson app.
You know, this didn't work, so I have to createthis tool to make it work.
Or or we didn't know what to do when thishappened.
(18:16):
So we had to come up with a plan for this, and,you know, now everybody's doing it type thing.
I mean, it's it's I remember a young gentlemanhad come to our home.
It was him and and his friends.
I don't know.
They were selling something or something.
And we got to talking about gaming because itwas such a weird thing for a grandma to be a
(18:36):
gamer.
And and young man said, yeah.
You know, everybody's telling me it's nothinglike what it used to be.
We'd go out and do things together.
We work on cars, whatever.
It's like, well, my friends and I, we talk allthe time.
And I thought, well, that's really good.
The thing of it is is, yes, you're talking, butyou're not learning anything.
(18:58):
Right.
Except You have to do to learn.
That game.
So if you have your games, how are you going tolearn in life?
How are you gonna take care of yourself?
And I think COVID brought a lot of that home.
It's and we don't have all these things.
What do we do with ourselves?
You know, you watch these these shows about ordocumentaries, I guess, about how the young
(19:25):
people, if they have to take care ofthemselves, they really don't know how to do
it.
And what they've learned on the games is notreality.
And if the only thing they're seeing on thegames is is shoot this person, blow this up,
you know, whatever, things like that.
Okay.
How's that gonna work in the real world?
If you're blowing everybody up and everythingup, you've got nothing left to work with.
(19:46):
So I'm glad that you're doing that so you canteach the kids to you know, it's a life skill.
Yeah.
Hanging out, working on your car, hanging out,doing this are skills that you're learning to
get you through life if something happens.
You know?
What do you do if plumber can't come over andyour toilet's overflowing?
Do you know that you can turn it off in thebed?
(20:08):
You can turn off the water.
Yeah.
You know?
I mean, it's it's subtle things like that.
And
They don't know it because they're not engagingin the real world.
And that's that's Right.
That's it right there.
That's what you're saying.
And one of the most interesting things for meas I've had more time now to do research on
play, the amount of stuff that kids learn whenthey're out doing the thing they naturally
(20:29):
wanna do anyway, which is play, they'relearning all these great skills.
I loved what you said that you look at problemsas challenges.
That's how kids look at problems when they'replaying.
They're not gonna stop playing just because aproblem arises.
They wanna keep doing it.
So they learn problem solving.
They learn critical thinking, which is what youjust said is going out the window.
They learn empathy.
(20:50):
They learn you know, they're make believing.
They're using their imagination.
And with your imagination, you could becomecreative.
And there's all these things that are justnatural.
I had no idea, like, how much I was learning,but you're not gonna have any future
entrepreneur entrepreneurs if you don't haveanybody with imagination.
Right.
And and people think, well, imaginationcreative is fine when you're a kid.
(21:12):
Actually, it's fine when you're an adult.
It's
needed.
We wouldn't have dryer sheets.
We wouldn't have dryers.
We wouldn't have anything.
Yeah.
Much of anything.
If somebody didn't think of it I mean, evenpeople who, you know, look at the things that
we saw on Star Trek or on some of those showsthat now have come into fruition because
somebody says, well, maybe we really can make
(21:34):
some.
Do that.
You know?
If you didn't have a creative mind, we're gonnahave microwave ovens.
You know?
Exactly.
Well and that's very interesting.
I do a lot of research on imagination too, andimagination is just as needed in math and
science.
You have to
come up with a theory if you have noimagination.
That's right.
Yeah.
Right.
So it's just it's a thing that I think isreally valuable for us to focus on as a
(22:00):
society, getting our kids playing again,building back that imagination muscle.
And I always say this to people, but kids wantto do that.
They just literally want to do that.
And you were saying about your kids, it took,you know, a month to for them to kinda forget
how to play.
Yeah.
I I like to tell people, like, think abouttechnology as an addiction.
(22:22):
It really is addicting.
It's I get on it sometimes, and I just startscrolling.
And I look up, and it's an hour later.
And I'm, you know, I'm sitting here sayingdon't do that.
Right?
Right.
But it's it's it's it is designed literallydesigned to give you dopamine reactions that
make you stick to it.
Oh, yeah.
And so it and it makes me really worried forkids because my brain is fully developed.
(22:45):
Theirs isn't.
Right.
So
I have you know, for for anybody you know, I Itold my story, but for anybody who has a
business right now that's not fully thrivinghow you thought it should, I would just say it
might be not the right time.
You know?
Look at me.
I'm so much later than it was, and I would justsuggest to keep going.
(23:07):
Keep going.
Keep going.
Yeah.
Definitely.
Yeah.
I was just thinking, you know, there used to beyou know, even in my my grandfather's time, you
know, even in my parents' time, my ice age, youknow, they were working on farms.
They were working on ranches.
They were working on buildings.
We didn't have this full electrical revolution.
(23:29):
I don't know what it's called.
We had the industrial revolution, and thingsstarted changing, but people needed to invent
things to make these things work better.
And now that we have this digital world, youknow, there's there are some really great minds
out there, but it's I don't think it's asprevalent as it used to be because we're not
(23:50):
forced to create things.
Everything is right there with us.
We go to Amazon and get anything you want offAmazon.
You don't have to try to come up with thingsyourself.
But why not try to make your own chicken houseor whatever?
I don't know.
Well, you feel so cute.
Yeah.
You feel so good about it.
I I do.
(24:10):
I just started baking in the last, like, twoyears.
Okay?
I can't do anything in a kitchen.
I do know how good I feel about myself when Icreate something from scratch?
And that's that's kind of what I'm talkingabout.
I'm not saying we need to be screen free.
I I always wanna mention that.
Like, we're not right now.
Screens are good.
But for kids, you wanna give them that thingthat made you the happiest when you were
(24:34):
little, and that thing was playing and beingwith your friends and inventing and make
believe.
And I just I always want adults to tap intotheir childhood and think about their favorite
memories.
Yeah.
Building a house, building a fort, going outinto the woods.
You know?
Getting dirty.
Fishing.
Yeah.
You know, digging under the rocks, looking forbugs, whatever it is.
(24:56):
But, yeah, just going out and experiencing whatthe world has.
And Well, you have to.
There's such research now that you have toactually experience stuff and be in stuff.
Like, to your point, the the guy's talkingabout it.
No.
You actually have to do stuff to build thatpart of your brain.
You really do.
It's a big deal.
(25:16):
So, yeah, I'm adamant about it.
So That's awesome.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So where do people find your app?
I mean, do you have it up and running now?
How do they find it?
We're just yeah.
We're just as yeah.
As us as us talking right now, we are juststarting to rebuild it.
(25:36):
So what I am trying to do because everythingwe're saying sounds kind of pie in the sky.
Oh, yeah.
That would be great.
But we can do this as a culture if we do ittogether.
Yeah.
So what I am trying to do we can do thistogether.
I I kind of compare it to cigarettes.
Like, now if you know, like, how cigarettes,like, people all thought they were good, and
(25:57):
then it was like, oh gosh.
They're not good.
So if you're an adult and you wanna smoke acigarette, that's fine.
But anybody handing a cigarette to a kid, you'dbe like, wow.
Maybe you shouldn't do that.
So, like, think of a smartphone as a cigarette.
Just don't give it to your kid.
Right?
That's right.
Yeah.
We've known that this is bad for them.
It's really bad for their brains.
Hold off.
So I say that because I'm I'm I wanna get acommunity of people together who are excited
(26:21):
about this.
As we're building the app, I'm going to askpeople to test it for me.
If you have and the and the activities on thereare as simple as the license plate game.
Okay?
But we've tied we've tied points to it, and thekids are getting points, and they're seeing
that this is it's a gamification of the stuffwe did.
So I want people involved in it, and I'll, youknow, I'll give you credit for whatever you
(26:41):
send it.
If have something that your family does that'ssuper silly, send it to us.
So what I would ask people to do is go out tosscoulter.com.
That's my website.
So it's shannon, like s,sues, sscoulter isc0ulter.com.
And there you'll see my books.
There's free coloring pages.
There's all sorts of free stuff out there, butthere will be a page where you can sign up to
(27:05):
either test the app or be alerted when it comesout.
Oh, that's awesome.
That's really awesome.
So what do your kids think about you doingthis?
You know, you just had time to spend with them,and now you're going.
Are some of them like, why are you leaving us?
And, yeah, we
They're old.
They're old.
They're old stuff.
(27:27):
They're not even here.
They are 27, 26, and 21.
But they're excited because
they forties.
Yours are not old.
That's true.
But they're old enough to not, you know, carewhere I go.
But they were involved when we started thiscompany.
The characters in the books are the animalsthat their dad and I have loved throughout our
(27:49):
lives.
So they're the dogs and cats.
Nice.
But they know some of the characters, and theyhelped I used these activities on them and
worked on them.
So they're really excited about it because Fasawas always a big thing in our lives.
So they're they're excited.
That's awesome.
I love that.
Well, I can hardly wait to go go be a part ofit somehow.
(28:10):
This is great.
Yeah.
Because I've got grandkids.
You know?
It's perfect.
I mean, all the time.
Yeah.
Well, eventually, we'll have a village in therethat, like, if they're at your house and do a
couple, you can hit it, and mom and dad willget things to talk about when they come home.
So
I was just seeing video came up of things thatkids can do together.
(28:32):
And I thought I mean, they were just creatives.
Like, draw a circle, put a ball in it, and thekids have to sit on their butt, grab the ball
with their feet, put it in the next circle, andthen the next person so you're passing the ball
down through the circles, you know, or use hulahoops or whatever you've
got.
Right?
It's really easy.
Just all kinds of little things to do, and it'slike, creative is that and how fun.
(28:54):
Uh-huh.
It's love
to be on love it.
They do love it.
Yeah.
They do.
Absolutely.
Because you loved it, and I loved it, so weknow they love it.
Yeah.
That's right.
That's right.
Well, this is really great.
Thank you, Shannon, so much for being here andand letting us sit on this, and we'll
definitely have to have you on reading betweenthe words talking about your books.
(29:17):
We'll go a little more in-depth on that.
But, get ahold of shannonsscoulter.com, and,we'll see you next time on wisdom on the front
porch.
Thank you for joining us today on wisdom on thefront porch with your host, Ellis Kirkpatrick.
You can find us on our website,wisdomonthefrontporch.com, see previous
(29:37):
episodes of the podcast, and view issues of themagazine.
Did you know you can submit questions, leavereviews, or suggest topics?
You can also tell us where your favorite Frontlocation is and what it means to you.
We hope you gain value and insight from today'sor previous talks.
We appreciate your support for us so we cancontinue to provide value and expertise to you
(29:59):
and others.
Subscribe to Wisdom on the Front Porch magazineand join in next week when we bring you another
great insight into the world of entrepreneurculture and lifestyle.
Make today a great day.
Always believe that something wonderful isgoing to happen.
Thank you for being here, and thank youraudience for being here on Wisdom on the Front
Porch.
We were just joking that sometimes my spellingis not the best.
But I'm so glad you're here, Shannon.
You're an author too, but let's talk about yourentrepreneurial journey.
So what is your business, and what do you do?
(00:24):
Well, thank you so much for having me.
It is wonderful to be here, and it's so nice tohave your smiling face and your wonderful
laugh.
I actually have a company that stems backsixteen years, but I like to say I put it to
bed and woke it back up again recently.
The company is essentially health and wellnessmore a wellness program for children.
(00:47):
And it stemmed from a while back in 02/2007, Imet my stepkids.
They weren't my step kids at the time,obviously, because I just met them.
But I had been with my now husband for a yearand a half, and one day, finally, he said, do
you wanna meet the kids?
We had made it that far.
We were in love.
(01:07):
It time to meet the kids.
So I was 31 at the time, and I walk in, and Ithink I know everything because that's what we
do.
And I came from the childhood of that you hearthe generation x'ers now bragging about that we
played all the time.
So that's what I'm expecting from thesechildren.
They're four, eight, and 10.
And so we're doing some stuff, and then I say,go out and play.
(01:31):
And here, I'm thinking this is an awesome thingthat I'm telling them to do because that's what
I wanted to do.
So I tell them to go out and play, andimmediately well, not immediately.
Five minutes later, they came back in and said,miss Shannon, we don't know what to do.
And I am absolutely thrown, and I'm thinkingthere's something wrong with my now husband and
his ex wife.
Like, what have they done wrong with thesechildren?
(01:52):
Right?
Because I'm like, what's wrong with them?
So yeah.
So at the time, I was in corporate America, andso I'm gonna merge these two together.
I was in corporate America, and I was acommunications consultant.
So I was writing.
And I actually went into consulting because Ididn't know what I wanted to do.
So I figured and I was a communication major incollege.
(02:15):
So I figured, like, I'll go into thesedifferent companies, and I'll see what they all
do, and then I'll pick one.
Well, I ended up just, like, dipping my toesinto all these different companies.
So I worked for Boeing and Sara Lee and Kraft.
I mean, huge companies got to see totallydifferent things.
And my job was to communicate to the employeeswhat the company was doing.
So if they were you know, sometimes it was justsigning up for your medical plan.
(02:39):
That was, like, the bread and butter.
That was really boring, but I learned a lot.
It was stock exchanges.
It was retirement.
Toward the end, when I met my step kids, I wasdoing wellness programs, and it really drove
me.
Like, I I was about ready to leave consulting.
I don't know if you've been a consultant, butthe thing is you have your phone on you all the
time, and it's they say jump and you say howhigh.
(03:02):
So I'm exhausted at this point, working reallyhard.
But I love doing these wellness programsbecause I'm seeing people change their lives,
and my writing's having an impact on them.
I'm hearing their success stories.
It was really cool.
But I also was thinking at the time, why are wegoing back and teaching people this?
Why didn't we grow them up this way?
You know, why don't we just grow people up thisway?
(03:24):
And all of these programs were health incentiveprograms.
So what that means is, like, the employeeswould do something.
They get points, and the company would let themcash in the points.
Okay.
So I sit there thinking that, and all of asudden, I meet these little kids.
And I'm seeing that they can't play.
And so I decided to look into it, and it wasn'tjust my three beautiful children.
(03:45):
It was children everywhere who were having ahard time because
of Yeah.
Technology.
Yeah.
So I became
I have something to tell you about that, justanother example of it.
When my kids were little, and this would havebeen you know, I guess at the time when it
happened, it would have been late eighties.
(04:07):
Mhmm.
And we didn't have a television.
We're far enough away.
We didn't have all the antennas and everything.
And the people you know, the kids from townwhen they would come out and and hang out at
the farm, they would you know, five minutes,they don't know what to do.
It's like, go, you don't have a TV.
No.
You don't have this.
No.
Yeah.
(04:27):
And they go, well, what do you do?
So the kids would show them what to do, andthey would learn to play outside.
Once we got a TV, my sister, she couldn't standit that we'd have didn't have a TV.
She thought it was the worst thing in theworld.
We got a TV, and within one month, I turned wedidn't have I don't know.
It wasn't good channels.
We never did have good reception.
(04:48):
And I told the kids, go outside and play.
And five minutes later, they come in the house.
They don't know how to play.
I mean, just that fast.
It was just that fast.
Yeah.
And it was just crazy.
So it's like, okay.
We're limited in TV time.
You're gonna go out and learn how to playagain.
Yeah.
Isn't that crazy how fast that went?
Yes.
Yeah.
(05:09):
So imagine parents now, you've got TV, tablet,computer,
oh my
gosh, phone.
You have everything.
Right?
And we can get back more into this later, butit's really designed to keep you glued to it.
I mean, they've purposely done that.
So it's a real huge thing.
And I and I recognized way back then, like,this is not good because I'm seeing these kids
(05:30):
have behavioral issues, you know, not knowinghow to talk to people.
I mean, all these things that come with it.
So at that time, to tell the story reallyquickly, my husband and I, I left corporate
America, and he was my business partner.
And we started this company, and I wrote sixbooks in a year, which was really hard because
they were children's books.
I had no idea what I was doing.
I went from technical writing and writingabout, you know, stock programs to that.
(05:53):
But I did that as a way to get kids interestedin what we were doing, interested in learning
the moral stories that we were telling and thendoing the activities.
At the same time, we build a website.
We spent we did the investor raise.
We did all that stuff.
We spent all this money, and we were doingstuff in the site that I cannot believe we did.
(06:13):
It came out later, like, in 2015.
I'm like, oh, that's what we were trying to do.
But back then, none of that was built.
So we built this huge 90 something pagewebsite, spent all this money, and came out
with it right when apps came out.
Just Great.
Right?
So that happened, and then some personal stuffhappened with my husband and my stepkids where
(06:34):
I ended up being the full time caretaker ofthem.
Okay.
So we have this product come out.
It's not hitting correctly.
And all of a sudden, I have these three kids.
Their mom had moved to California, and myhusband had to take a job in Indiana, and we're
in Chicago.
So all the senate yeah.
So all I'm a full time single stepmom.
(06:56):
So it's like, what does happen?
So at that time, and I I really wanted to sharethis with entrepreneurs listening, I could not
have felt more of a failure because this bit Ileft my corporate, and it was a good job, but I
also say it was, like, the golden handcuffs.
Like, I was not happy.
Yes.
I'll I use this, and I I say this as a joke,but I think everyone will understand.
(07:19):
Told my husband at one point that I went frombeing suicidal, and I never really was.
It was a joke.
But I went from being suicidal to homicidal, soit was time to move.
Yeah.
Definitely.
Like, I wanna hurt other people now.
I need to leave.
So so I left, and, you and I had this greatjob.
I it started this thing, and I and it it,quote, unquote, failed.
And it just felt horrible.
(07:41):
And I had always been this businesswoman, andnow I'm the stay at home mom, and I just beat
myself up.
It was really bad.
I just felt like such a failure.
And the coolest thing that has happened to mesince then is now I look back at it, and I'm
going, thank you, god.
(08:02):
Because the stuff I would have sold back thenin 02/2008, 02/2010, the messages I would have
given children, the authority that I had as aparent was so different than it is now.
Oh, it's so different.
Yeah.
And and so I was new then.
I had empathy as a parent, but I didn't havethe sympathy that I have now because now I've
(08:24):
been in the trenches.
Yes.
I
know.
Yeah.
I know how much harder it is.
And the other thing is I would have taughtstuff in the books that was culturally still
culturally appropriate, but that's notappropriate to me anymore that I would wanna
teach to kids.
So I'm really glad that I didn't do that.
And, also, crazy, I was almost propheticallyahead of the game then with that, and now
(08:51):
people know what this technology has done toour kids.
So it's almost it's always thank you, God.
Right?
It's always thank you, God.
But I also and you'll appreciate this.
I also got to be a mom.
I got to parent, and that that's something youcan't you can't replace with anything else.
So as as painful as that was, I I'm doing aquote.
I called it a failure now.
(09:12):
Now I call it a lesson.
Yeah.
And and I do that.
All of them.
I call them challenges.
I don't even use the f word anymore.
No.
You know, they're challenges.
They're things to learn from, to overcome, toget better at.
And
And we're we're building we're so we're juststart so I I came back to the company in 2020.
(09:34):
You know, everything was crazy.
And I will tell you, if you have the dream thatGod has put you here to do, he will not let you
let it go.
Yeah.
Like, here, I'm thinking, you know, we're we'resixteen years into this.
But 2020, we we officially closed in 2015, butreally 2012, and I could not stop thinking
about this.
And I really didn't want to.
(09:56):
I was like, I don't wanna do this.
That hurt.
But I was like, no.
This is this is my why.
These kids are my why.
I've gotta do this.
So he he wouldn't let it go.
And I I even went well, I'll go back to thebook.
So 2020, I had already mentioned I had neverwritten a children's book, and I wrote six in a
year.
I mean, that is insane.
And so I went back and I level.
(10:17):
Yeah.
That's insane.
So I went back and I learned more about writingfor children, and I got to edit them into a
place where I like them a lot better.
Yeah.
And so that started happening.
There was always intended to be seven books, soI wrote the one.
And then I started going out and giving them toteachers and principals, and I got feedback on
them, and it was great.
(10:37):
Oh, nice.
Yeah.
And I'm but I was still kind of putzing along.
And so back in September, I went to a mentor,and I'm like, this has been really hard.
This is September of twenty twenty four.
Like, this is really hard.
I don't know if I can keep going with this.
You know?
And and he said that the most life changingthing to me, which has started me on this
journey here, but he said to me, has God toldyou to stop?
(11:00):
Oh, wow.
Good mental Oh, man.
Okay.
Nope.
So, yeah, so there was that.
And then some lessons along the way in aboutthe April, and I've heard you talk about this
before, but I started reading mindset books.
Yes.
And I really changed my mindset around this.
(11:21):
Yeah.
I've got one right now on my desk.
You've got you've got to keep your head in thegame positively.
Because if you don't, you can look at all thesethings and call them failures.
And as you said, they're not failures.
They're challenges.
Yeah.
So it's been absolutely amazing for me.
And another big thing that I've learned, and Iread this in a book.
(11:42):
It's I think it's called Be Your Future SelfNow by Benjamin Hardy.
It's wonderful, doctor Benjamin Hardy.
He said and this is amazing to me, and I wanteverybody to think about this.
He said, your past doesn't dictate yourpresent.
Your present dictates your past.
And you take a to think about it.
(12:03):
Wow.
Before so now I'm in a good place.
And when I'm telling you guys about whathappened to me, I can I'm in a good place.
So my business was a lesson, and that stop wasme being able to be a parent.
Nice.
Isn't that interesting?
I I was like, that is fantastic.
(12:25):
And I I like what you say that you've got to bea parent because so many times it seems like
and I don't know if women do this to ourselvesor what it is, but the culture is you don't
stay home and be a mom anymore.
There's something wrong with you if you dothat, and that's totally not true.
(12:46):
It's a choice that you make.
It's yeah.
If you want more things or whatever, then yougo to work and and get a better life that way.
But who's taking care of your kids?
You it's wonderful for the moms that do stayhome.
Mhmm.
You gain so much, and I know it's not asglamorous.
It's can be really the most ungrateful if youcall it a career.
(13:10):
Yeah.
It is a career.
It is a career.
I mean, you're going out of full time, but youhave such a responsibility there, and you can
do it.
So I don't want any woman to think that justbecause she's a stay at home mom, that she's
less than anything else.
In fact, it's quite the opposite.
You've got an amazing role there, and and itcan be tough in corporate world.
(13:36):
It can be tough anywhere that you're you'redoing it.
But I think you get hit hard from all sidesbeing a stay at home mom.
Why aren't you working?
What's wrong with you?
Are you lazy?
And it's like none of those things.
I mean, it used to be that that's what womendid.
You stayed home, and then we were able to getjobs and things like that.
(13:59):
You know, everything's changed, and now it's itseems to be a bad thing to stay home, but it's
not.
It's not a bad thing.
And I do I think that in a in a positive way,some of that is changing.
People are realizing, like, that's an okaything to do.
I think that's lovely because as I justexpressed, I felt like a complete failure that
(14:20):
now I was home with these kids.
And as I as I came out of it and looked back atit, I go, gosh.
That's the most important thing I've ever donebecause I molded these three human beings.
I want to be there for them, and and it's andit is something that's not appreciated as much.
But one but we can appreciate each other asmoms because you know how hard it is.
(14:41):
And that's not saying if you're the type of momthat doesn't wanna be home that that's bad, but
I think it's really imperative for us to sayit.
But if you do, that's awesome too.
Right.
Right.
And then there's moms that stay home andhomeschool their kids.
Mhmm.
And that's a whole another thing there.
It is really tough to homeschool your kids.
(15:01):
You know?
I did it for quite a few years.
The things that I love the most were themoments we got to talk.
You don't normally get a talk with your kidswhen they're going to public school or private
school.
You've got very limited time.
You come home.
You get dinner.
You do dishes.
You do homework.
You know?
Maybe you play games or watch TV or something,then you go to bed, and that's it.
(15:23):
You know?
Where's your real time with them?
And and that was one major benefit that Ididn't even know I was going to get.
Mhmm.
We decided to homeschool just for the one year,and it ended up being the rest of the time.
Because it was good.
But, yeah, there were there were talks we hadthat we never would have ever had any kind of
(15:46):
of connection like that if they'd been going topublic school.
There just wouldn't be time for it.
Right.
And and I and everything else.
Yeah.
Well, I think that's you know, one of myfavorite things about the app that we're be
rebuilding now.
So I was talking about I I did the the books,and now we're building the app again where I'm
very excited about it because I'm working withthe developer, and I know exactly not what, you
(16:10):
know, what not to do.
So it's amazing.
So but one of the things person.
Yeah.
It really is.
One of the things we have in there, which is towhat you were saying, when we had the kids so I
I joke, but I built this thing for myselfbecause one of the things that I was
experiencing with the kids not knowing how toplay and what you've experienced with your kids
is then they come and ask me what to do.
(16:32):
Well, I'm an adult.
I only can come up with so many things.
And so I wanted something, and I didn't wannago on Google every time or Pinterest or all
these places and be flooded with all thisinformation.
So that is the point of this app.
It's like you put in how many kids you have,how much time you want them to spend, how many
points.
If you'd want them to work on mind, heart, orbody, I'd love that.
(16:53):
And then you say, boom.
And this app goes, here's 10 easy things foryou to do, and your kids are gonna get points.
And then you get to pick what they get with thepoints.
So it's, like, an incentive program, but yourkids are are playing.
But one thing we added to it, and this wasbecause our kids would come over.
And what did you do today?
Went from their mom's house.
What did you do today?
Nothing.
(17:14):
You know, how was school?
Fine.
Like, oh my gosh.
The one answers.
The one word answers.
You're like, oh my gosh.
Difficult.
Yeah.
So we did what things to talk about after a lotof the activities.
So it's I see that you did I see that you did,you know, the five senses scavenger hunt, and
then we asked three questions about it.
And I just thought that was phenomenal becauseit gets your kid talking, and they're getting
(17:36):
points for talking to you, but that's okay.
That's good.
But it but that was a big deal to me becausethat like you said, we can I can teach values
in the books, which I do, but this way, aparent can take and teach their values to the
kids and share their stories and stuff likethat?
And I thought that was also really importantbecause people are so busy.
(17:56):
They are.
They are.
And I miss miss the time when, you know,everybody gets together and you hear the
stories, the stories of coming up with thingson app.
You know, this didn't work, so I have to createthis tool to make it work.
Or or we didn't know what to do when thishappened.
(18:16):
So we had to come up with a plan for this, and,you know, now everybody's doing it type thing.
I mean, it's it's I remember a young gentlemanhad come to our home.
It was him and and his friends.
I don't know.
They were selling something or something.
And we got to talking about gaming because itwas such a weird thing for a grandma to be a
(18:36):
gamer.
And and young man said, yeah.
You know, everybody's telling me it's nothinglike what it used to be.
We'd go out and do things together.
We work on cars, whatever.
It's like, well, my friends and I, we talk allthe time.
And I thought, well, that's really good.
The thing of it is is, yes, you're talking, butyou're not learning anything.
(18:58):
Right.
Except You have to do to learn.
That game.
So if you have your games, how are you going tolearn in life?
How are you gonna take care of yourself?
And I think COVID brought a lot of that home.
It's and we don't have all these things.
What do we do with ourselves?
You know, you watch these these shows about ordocumentaries, I guess, about how the young
(19:25):
people, if they have to take care ofthemselves, they really don't know how to do
it.
And what they've learned on the games is notreality.
And if the only thing they're seeing on thegames is is shoot this person, blow this up,
you know, whatever, things like that.
Okay.
How's that gonna work in the real world?
If you're blowing everybody up and everythingup, you've got nothing left to work with.
(19:46):
So I'm glad that you're doing that so you canteach the kids to you know, it's a life skill.
Yeah.
Hanging out, working on your car, hanging out,doing this are skills that you're learning to
get you through life if something happens.
You know?
What do you do if plumber can't come over andyour toilet's overflowing?
Do you know that you can turn it off in thebed?
(20:08):
You can turn off the water.
Yeah.
You know?
I mean, it's it's subtle things like that.
And
They don't know it because they're not engagingin the real world.
And that's that's Right.
That's it right there.
That's what you're saying.
And one of the most interesting things for meas I've had more time now to do research on
play, the amount of stuff that kids learn whenthey're out doing the thing they naturally
(20:29):
wanna do anyway, which is play, they'relearning all these great skills.
I loved what you said that you look at problemsas challenges.
That's how kids look at problems when they'replaying.
They're not gonna stop playing just because aproblem arises.
They wanna keep doing it.
So they learn problem solving.
They learn critical thinking, which is what youjust said is going out the window.
They learn empathy.
(20:50):
They learn you know, they're make believing.
They're using their imagination.
And with your imagination, you could becomecreative.
And there's all these things that are justnatural.
I had no idea, like, how much I was learning,but you're not gonna have any future
entrepreneur entrepreneurs if you don't haveanybody with imagination.
Right.
And and people think, well, imaginationcreative is fine when you're a kid.
(21:12):
Actually, it's fine when you're an adult.
It's
needed.
We wouldn't have dryer sheets.
We wouldn't have dryers.
We wouldn't have anything.
Yeah.
Much of anything.
If somebody didn't think of it I mean, evenpeople who, you know, look at the things that
we saw on Star Trek or on some of those showsthat now have come into fruition because
somebody says, well, maybe we really can make
(21:34):
some.
Do that.
You know?
If you didn't have a creative mind, we're gonnahave microwave ovens.
You know?
Exactly.
Well and that's very interesting.
I do a lot of research on imagination too, andimagination is just as needed in math and
science.
You have to
come up with a theory if you have noimagination.
That's right.
Yeah.
Right.
So it's just it's a thing that I think isreally valuable for us to focus on as a
(22:00):
society, getting our kids playing again,building back that imagination muscle.
And I always say this to people, but kids wantto do that.
They just literally want to do that.
And you were saying about your kids, it took,you know, a month to for them to kinda forget
how to play.
Yeah.
I I like to tell people, like, think abouttechnology as an addiction.
(22:22):
It really is addicting.
It's I get on it sometimes, and I just startscrolling.
And I look up, and it's an hour later.
And I'm, you know, I'm sitting here sayingdon't do that.
Right?
Right.
But it's it's it's it is designed literallydesigned to give you dopamine reactions that
make you stick to it.
Oh, yeah.
And so it and it makes me really worried forkids because my brain is fully developed.
(22:45):
Theirs isn't.
Right.
So
I have you know, for for anybody you know, I Itold my story, but for anybody who has a
business right now that's not fully thrivinghow you thought it should, I would just say it
might be not the right time.
You know?
Look at me.
I'm so much later than it was, and I would justsuggest to keep going.
(23:07):
Keep going.
Keep going.
Yeah.
Definitely.
Yeah.
I was just thinking, you know, there used to beyou know, even in my my grandfather's time, you
know, even in my parents' time, my ice age, youknow, they were working on farms.
They were working on ranches.
They were working on buildings.
We didn't have this full electrical revolution.
(23:29):
I don't know what it's called.
We had the industrial revolution, and thingsstarted changing, but people needed to invent
things to make these things work better.
And now that we have this digital world, youknow, there's there are some really great minds
out there, but it's I don't think it's asprevalent as it used to be because we're not
(23:50):
forced to create things.
Everything is right there with us.
We go to Amazon and get anything you want offAmazon.
You don't have to try to come up with thingsyourself.
But why not try to make your own chicken houseor whatever?
I don't know.
Well, you feel so cute.
Yeah.
You feel so good about it.
I I do.
(24:10):
I just started baking in the last, like, twoyears.
Okay?
I can't do anything in a kitchen.
I do know how good I feel about myself when Icreate something from scratch?
And that's that's kind of what I'm talkingabout.
I'm not saying we need to be screen free.
I I always wanna mention that.
Like, we're not right now.
Screens are good.
But for kids, you wanna give them that thingthat made you the happiest when you were
(24:34):
little, and that thing was playing and beingwith your friends and inventing and make
believe.
And I just I always want adults to tap intotheir childhood and think about their favorite
memories.
Yeah.
Building a house, building a fort, going outinto the woods.
You know?
Getting dirty.
Fishing.
Yeah.
You know, digging under the rocks, looking forbugs, whatever it is.
(24:56):
But, yeah, just going out and experiencing whatthe world has.
And Well, you have to.
There's such research now that you have toactually experience stuff and be in stuff.
Like, to your point, the the guy's talkingabout it.
No.
You actually have to do stuff to build thatpart of your brain.
You really do.
It's a big deal.
(25:16):
So, yeah, I'm adamant about it.
So That's awesome.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So where do people find your app?
I mean, do you have it up and running now?
How do they find it?
We're just yeah.
We're just as yeah.
As us as us talking right now, we are juststarting to rebuild it.
(25:36):
So what I am trying to do because everythingwe're saying sounds kind of pie in the sky.
Oh, yeah.
That would be great.
But we can do this as a culture if we do ittogether.
Yeah.
So what I am trying to do we can do thistogether.
I I kind of compare it to cigarettes.
Like, now if you know, like, how cigarettes,like, people all thought they were good, and
(25:57):
then it was like, oh gosh.
They're not good.
So if you're an adult and you wanna smoke acigarette, that's fine.
But anybody handing a cigarette to a kid, you'dbe like, wow.
Maybe you shouldn't do that.
So, like, think of a smartphone as a cigarette.
Just don't give it to your kid.
Right?
That's right.
Yeah.
We've known that this is bad for them.
It's really bad for their brains.
Hold off.
So I say that because I'm I'm I wanna get acommunity of people together who are excited
(26:21):
about this.
As we're building the app, I'm going to askpeople to test it for me.
If you have and the and the activities on thereare as simple as the license plate game.
Okay?
But we've tied we've tied points to it, and thekids are getting points, and they're seeing
that this is it's a gamification of the stuffwe did.
So I want people involved in it, and I'll, youknow, I'll give you credit for whatever you
(26:41):
send it.
If have something that your family does that'ssuper silly, send it to us.
So what I would ask people to do is go out tosscoulter.com.
That's my website.
So it's shannon, like s,sues, sscoulter isc0ulter.com.
And there you'll see my books.
There's free coloring pages.
There's all sorts of free stuff out there, butthere will be a page where you can sign up to
(27:05):
either test the app or be alerted when it comesout.
Oh, that's awesome.
That's really awesome.
So what do your kids think about you doingthis?
You know, you just had time to spend with them,and now you're going.
Are some of them like, why are you leaving us?
And, yeah, we
They're old.
They're old.
They're old stuff.
(27:27):
They're not even here.
They are 27, 26, and 21.
But they're excited because
they forties.
Yours are not old.
That's true.
But they're old enough to not, you know, carewhere I go.
But they were involved when we started thiscompany.
The characters in the books are the animalsthat their dad and I have loved throughout our
(27:49):
lives.
So they're the dogs and cats.
Nice.
But they know some of the characters, and theyhelped I used these activities on them and
worked on them.
So they're really excited about it because Fasawas always a big thing in our lives.
So they're they're excited.
That's awesome.
I love that.
Well, I can hardly wait to go go be a part ofit somehow.
(28:10):
This is great.
Yeah.
Because I've got grandkids.
You know?
It's perfect.
I mean, all the time.
Yeah.
Well, eventually, we'll have a village in therethat, like, if they're at your house and do a
couple, you can hit it, and mom and dad willget things to talk about when they come home.
So
I was just seeing video came up of things thatkids can do together.
(28:32):
And I thought I mean, they were just creatives.
Like, draw a circle, put a ball in it, and thekids have to sit on their butt, grab the ball
with their feet, put it in the next circle, andthen the next person so you're passing the ball
down through the circles, you know, or use hulahoops or whatever you've
got.
Right?
It's really easy.
Just all kinds of little things to do, and it'slike, creative is that and how fun.
(28:54):
Uh-huh.
It's love
to be on love it.
They do love it.
Yeah.
They do.
Absolutely.
Because you loved it, and I loved it, so weknow they love it.
Yeah.
That's right.
That's right.
Well, this is really great.
Thank you, Shannon, so much for being here andand letting us sit on this, and we'll
definitely have to have you on reading betweenthe words talking about your books.
(29:17):
We'll go a little more in-depth on that.
But, get ahold of shannonsscoulter.com, and,we'll see you next time on wisdom on the front
porch.
Thank you for joining us today on wisdom on thefront porch with your host, Ellis Kirkpatrick.
You can find us on our website,wisdomonthefrontporch.com, see previous
(29:37):
episodes of the podcast, and view issues of themagazine.
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You can also tell us where your favorite Frontlocation is and what it means to you.
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(29:59):
and others.
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