As a child, I remember the magic of stories vividly coming to life in the pages of a book, often leaving me spellbound and full of wonder. That same enchantment is what Nicole from Popcorn Tree Books aims to capture in her gospel-centered children's literature. On our latest episode, she walks us through her personal narrative that seamlessly weaves her fondness for reading, her academic background in elementary education, and her deep-rooted faith into crafting books that resonate with young hearts and minds. Nicole's mission is simple yet profound: to fill homes with stories that not only entertain but also embed the teachings of Jesus Christ in their foundations.
Have you ever considered how a beautifully illustrated children's book could be a vessel for spiritual growth? Together with Nicole, we unwrap the complexities of bringing scriptural stories to life, ensuring historical and doctrinal fidelity while sparking imagination and faith. The conversation illuminates the critical role of illustrations in forming young readers' perceptions of sacred texts and the thoughtful balance necessary to complement, not replace, scripture study in families. Nicole also shares her experiences in dealing with the publishing world's challenges, reflecting on the unique trials and the gratifying triumphs of starting a new venture.
Ending on a note of inspiration, we delve into the spiritual odyssey of creating with faith. Nicole speaks candidly about facing her limitations and learning from mistakes, emphasizing that these hurdles can be transformative with a steadfast belief in a higher power. We also peek into the delightful array of gospel-centered picture books, discussing how they can fit into and enrich family routines and spiritual education. Join us as we celebrate the journey of faith-infused creativity and the joy of sharing these treasures with our children, hoping to leave a lasting imprint of love, learning, and belief.
Follow Nicole's growing business
@popcorn.tree.books
popcorntreebooks.com
Don't forget to follow us for updates and more uplifting content
@remember.podcast
The Inspiration by Keys of Moon | https://soundcloud.com/keysofmoon Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/
As a child, I remember the magic of stories vividly coming to life in the pages of a book, often leaving me spellbound and full of wonder. That same enchantment is what Nicole from Popcorn Tree Books aims to capture in her gospel-centered children's literature. On our latest episode, she walks us through her personal narrative that seamlessly weaves her fondness for reading, her academic background in elementary education, and her deep-rooted faith into crafting books that resonate with young hearts and minds. Nicole's mission is simple yet profound: to fill homes with stories that not only entertain but also embed the teachings of Jesus Christ in their foundations.
Have you ever considered how a beautifully illustrated children's book could be a vessel for spiritual growth? Together with Nicole, we unwrap the complexities of bringing scriptural stories to life, ensuring historical and doctrinal fidelity while sparking imagination and faith. The conversation illuminates the critical role of illustrations in forming young readers' perceptions of sacred texts and the thoughtful balance necessary to complement, not replace, scripture study in families. Nicole also shares her experiences in dealing with the publishing world's challenges, reflecting on the unique trials and the gratifying triumphs of starting a new venture.
Ending on a note of inspiration, we delve into the spiritual odyssey of creating with faith. Nicole speaks candidly about facing her limitations and learning from mistakes, emphasizing that these hurdles can be transformative with a steadfast belief in a higher power. We also peek into the delightful array of gospel-centered picture books, discussing how they can fit into and enrich family routines and spiritual education. Join us as we celebrate the journey of faith-infused creativity and the joy of sharing these treasures with our children, hoping to leave a lasting imprint of love, learning, and belief.
Follow Nicole's growing business
@popcorn.tree.books
popcorntreebooks.com
Don't forget to follow us for updates and more uplifting content
@remember.podcast
The Inspiration by Keys of Moon | https://soundcloud.com/keysofmoon Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/
Hey, what's going on everybody? Welcome back to the Remember podcast. Today is an amazing episode because you get me, your host, dallian Tresden and Michaela, had a lot of chaos going on in their lives today so unfortunately they can't join us. But I have with me an amazing guest. We have Nicole from Popcorn Tree Books, right? Okay, she's awesome. I've had a minute to talk to her, kind of get to know her a little bit, and she is amazing and I'm super excited to hear her story. We reached out to Nicole. We've seen her page and the things that she's doing with children's books and we just like we thought to ourselves we got to have her on. So, nicole, go ahead and introduce yourself and share your story. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks so much. I'm excited to be here and share a little bit and talk a little bit about how we've seen Jesus Christ kind of along with us in this journey. So I guess I'll start back at the beginning, which was childhood. For me, books and reading have always been really an important part of my life, both, I guess you would say, the more secular kind of books and spiritual books. Yeah, I learned to read pretty early as a kid. That was always something that I found enjoyable. I went to the library a lot when I was little.
Speaker 2:My parents would take me and I remember actually getting in trouble a few times as a kid for reading when I should have been doing other things and my parents would threaten to take away my books from me. And I have some really great memories actually of learning to read using the Book of Mormon. My parents, when we would have family scripture study, they would, you know, pick a word for me to read. You know quote, unquote, read, whether that was like the word the or Nephi, and I just had really fond memories associated with kind of learning to read and, I guess, the combination of reading and the gospel in my life. I remember being a little kid and going to my grandparents' house and one of the books that I always looked forward to reading with them when I was at their house was I Spy a Nephite. I don't know if that's one you remember, but really old like published in the 90s. It's a pretty funny. It's a pretty funny old book, but I just have really good memories associated with reading the gospel. So fast forward a little bit.
Speaker 2:I in college I studied elementary education, and so part of that was really doing a deep dive into kind of the academic side of children's literature and analyzing picture books and learning how to teach kids how to read and write and how to teach them kind of all different content areas using books, and that really I loved that part of my education because I felt like it really it took this thing that was a passion for me and kind of gave me this academic or formal side of it that I hadn't known before. And then my husband and I got married and books have kind of played an important part in our relationship as well. My husband also likes to read and so early in our marriage we would go on dates to the library or to the bookstore and we would kind of each pick out some picture books, some children's books and read them to each other, and that was kind of a fun thing that we did that. That again just kind of furthered this passion that I had for children's books, and even as an adult, before I had kids. But then once we do did have kids we have two kids now, we have a five year old and an almost three year old, and once they kind of came into our family we really wanted to carry on this tradition with them, this share our love of reading and the gospel of Jesus Christ with them. And so, you know, we did the same things that I did growing up read the scriptures together and, you know, go to the library and read picture books.
Speaker 2:And, especially as they kind of moved beyond the baby stage, we wished that there were more really great books that included elements of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We would go to the library and find all of these really great, really interesting books. I have two little boys, so they love trucks and they love, you know, all kinds of things, and it was fun to share this love of reading with them and to see them love this. And I just wished, man, I just wish there were books that they could have that same kind of amazing experience with and that I could share this kind of amazing experience with, that also brought in this really important part of our life that was our belief in Jesus Christ and our desire to help them be excited about the gospel.
Speaker 2:And so we looked around and we found some books that were kind of more for this general Christian audience, that were great. Some that were not quite as great as we hoped, because maybe the doctrine didn't quite align with things that we felt like were really important. And even the books that were kind of specifically geared toward Latter-day Saint families, there just wasn't a lot of them, there aren't a lot of them and there weren't a lot of them that were really unique and really well-written. And for a long time we just complained about it. We just thought, man, we wish that there was this way to combine these two things that we really value reading and our testimony of Jesus Christ, and we would start making this list where we would read a book. And we think, man, this kind of idea or this concept could make a really great gospel-centered children's book. Man, if only somebody would write this, and I'm sure you can see where this is going.
Speaker 2:Eventually we felt like man, you know, I have this formal education, this training, I am a good writer and I felt really confident in my writing and in my ability to know what made a good picture book. And we thought, well, let's just do it, no one else is doing it, we're going to do it, we're going to make really beautiful, really well-written, doctrinally accurate picture books that also include these elements of faith, because we felt like it was really important. Um, I think kids are really interesting because as adults, we really segment our lives. We say, this is the part of my day where I'm going to study the scriptures and this is the part of my day when I'm going to go do service, and this is the part where I'm going to work or, you know, scroll or have entertainment, and we really kind of separate all of these things out into different boxes. But something that I really love about kids and that I've learned from my kids is they don't do that. They think of all of their life. It's all together. And so it's not weird for them to read a book about Jesus Christ right alongside their book about tractors, like that's just, that's just how they, how they see life, and I really appreciate it about them. And so we wanted to create these kinds of books that that would captivate them and excite them and help them to feel the power of the gospel in their lives, and it would also be enjoyable for the adults in their life to read. And so that's kind of how our company, our business, popcorn Tree Books, started.
Speaker 2:So we started about a year ago and it was really exciting to think about how can we make these kind of books that families will love to read, that will also inspire them. And so the first book that we started with is a book called A Great Calm and it tells the story of the scripture story of Jesus Christ calming the storm on the Sea of Galilee. But it doesn't just retell it, you know, using kind of taking the King James language and turning it into plain English. Instead it uses onomatopoeia, so sound words, to create this really like immersive experience. So you have sound, these sound words, these onomatopoeia, alongside some phrases that are pulled right from the King James version of the Bible. So anytime Jesus is speaking, that's pulled right from the Bible.
Speaker 2:And we found an incredible illustrator to make this book kind of come to life. And this was such a neat experience for us to turn a scripture story into a book that our kids just loved, and we saw how this book really changed the way that in our family we thought about Jesus Christ, because we were bringing this story into our everyday lives and our kids would talk about it and they would think about it and they would mention it and bring it up and ask to read this book. And actually we had a really interesting experience as we were creating this book. So our books take about a year kind of, from start to finish. And so last year, as we were, we were working on this book. We'd had, we'd had it written and we were kind of meeting weekly with our illustrator and, and every week he would kind of give us an update on you know, here's the progress on the illustrations and we would coordinate things and make decisions.
Speaker 2:And so a couple months into that process, my youngest son, who was two at the time, got very, very sick and he ended up being admitted to the hospital and he was in the ICU for about five weeks, and so it was a really scary time for our family was a really scary time for our family because he had necrotizing pneumonia, so basically his body was destroying his lung and every complication that you could even imagine to go along with that. And so the first couple of days especially were really really scary. We didn't know, honestly, if he was going to make it. They thought, maybe, that he had staff. It was just one thing after another.
Speaker 2:And I just remember being in the car and my husband and I were kind of taking turns staying with him at the hospital, driving to the hospital and thinking like Heavenly Father, I just don't know, like I don't know if I can do this, especially if the outcome is not what we want, like how am I going to handle this? And I just remember this feeling, this really distinct feeling of peace and calm that came to me, and the only way that I can describe it is using that phrase from the scriptures that Mark uses when he's telling the story of Christ calming the storm, which is, and there was a great calm. And I just knew in that moment that that kind of peace could only have come from Jesus Christ, because it couldn't have come from anywhere else in this situation. And it was such a blessing to us, and to me particularly, to be working on this book. While he was in the hospital, we continued to work on it. It was helpful for me and so, even from the hospital room, we kept up our weekly Zooms with our illustrator and it was just such a blessing to have this opportunity once a week in this hospital room to think about this story of Christ calming the storm and and to feel how he could calm me, even though he wasn't. You know, the storm of my son being sick didn't go away, um, but he calmed me and that was such a huge, a huge blessing to us. And I felt like I noticed so many instances in which, um, I was able to see and understand different aspects of Jesus Christ, because I was kind of thinking about this story and his power.
Speaker 2:Part of my son's treatment was that he needed a blood transfusion and I remember the nurse walking in with this blood and hanging it up, you know, on the IV pole and getting it all hooked up with this blood and hanging it up, you know, on the IV pole and getting it all hooked up. And I kind of saw on the blood bag it said, you know, donor blood type, whatever it was, recipient blood type and then my son's blood type. I'm kind of just having it hit me that somebody, a person, gave up their blood for my son and it was incredible to watch, as he received this blood, how quickly it improved his vitals and improved his just his visual appearance. It improved just how responsive he was, and it just really hit me in that moment. Like this person who donated this blood, they have no idea that that they're saving my two-year-old son. They have no idea how this is blessing our lives. But there was someone else who gave his blood for my son and for me, and that's Jesus Christ, and he knows, he knows exactly what his blood has done for us and it was just an incredible moment.
Speaker 2:The next time on Sunday that I took the sacrament, it meant so much more to me to drink that water and to think of Christ giving his blood for me and my son and to think about, you know, just like this blood had helped my son physically. Christ's blood helps like that's what gives me life right, because of his sacrifice for me. And so just to have this experience where I was focusing so intently on this scripture story to create this book really has drawn me closer to Jesus Christ and that's been a really neat thing as we've worked on subsequent books. We have a book that's going to be coming out soon that's about the temple and it's kind of almost like a temple open house in a book. So it goes through each room of the temple and kind of describes what happens there and has illustrations.
Speaker 2:But it's been really interesting to me to, because these are really sacred subjects that we're writing about, that we're also trying to make accessible to kids, to really the process of prayer and thought and inspiration that's gone into this, to really try to feel, you know, what does God want me to say in this book and how can I use these books to help touch kids so that they have memories? You know, just like I have memories of reading I Spy a Nephite, which you know is maybe not particularly spiritual, but I would love to have that kind of an impact so that at least my kids, and hopefully other kids as well, can grow up and think. You know, yeah, I had these books when I was a kid and they really helped me, you know, to be interested and excited about the gospel of Jesus Christ, have this process of having to remember Jesus Christ and think really deeply about his gospel and how we can kind of convey that through books and through literature awesome.
Speaker 1:I, I love that so much. That was that was awesome. You know we could just end the podcast now. That was great. Uh, I, I love the message that you bring the story like all of it. That was that was just amazing. And while you were talking, I was just really thinking about, I was thinking about. I got a list of things that I was thinking about and I was thinking back on my childhood. So you had the I Spy and Nephite. I grew up on the. It wasn't really books. Well, I grew up on the Book of Mormon, but you know the. Have you ever seen the animated Book of Mormon videos that came out on the VHS tapes?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I remember those yeah.
Speaker 1:Those were my jam. I should go steal those from my mom so I can watch them again. That's what. That's what I grew up on, that's what I had and that's how I understood the stories of the Book of Mormon and like thinking back on it. That's where I got the stories and that carried me onto my mission, because I never read the Book of Mormon before my mission. It was on my mission that I read it and it was this amazing experience. It was, hands down, my favorite book that I've ever read and still is. Of course, I love, love the Book of Mormon. But it was so cool to have that like foundation, built on by those videos learning the stories and then like, of course, family scripture study. But I'm not a warning person. I was knocked out every day my mom and my sister right before I graduated. They would joke about how I was just a zombie and they'd give me like shorter segments to read, so and they'd take the longer segments because they're both warning people. It's funny. My childhood was a good time, but I think I don't know.
Speaker 1:I love the idea of having children's books centered on the gospel because I think that so much about one's creativity that they carry throughout the rest of their life comes from how they were able to exercise or to practice their creativity as a child. And for me, like, one of my favorite things was to envision these stories and I used to read a little bit Magic Treehouse. That was a great one. I read a bunch of Magic Treehouse books. Another one that came out a little later was the the janitor series.
Speaker 1:I don't remember who the author was, but like super good books and like I loved reading them.
Speaker 1:I hated reading but I loved reading them for some reason because I could envision the story, I could get engrossed into it and like I mean, this isn't specific to me, anybody that reads a story, that's probably the reason why you read it. But to instill these gospel principles into these books, it puts it into the minds, the brains of these children so early on and, I think, adding to their creativity, visualizing the story. And those are the first faces that they'll put to those names you know, to Jesus Christ, to Abinadi, to I don't know all of the characters in the Book of Mormon. I could go on and those characters that I thought of for years were who I saw in those Book of Mormon videos. And then, to do that same thing in these children's books like I don't know if your illustrator really understands like what he's doing, because these names are going to have an impact on these kids for the rest of their lives and so the first person they might be thinking of might be his illustration of that individual. So that's kind of cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a big responsibility too on our part, right, because it's really important to us that our writing and our illustrations be as historically accurate and as doctrinally accurate as possible, because kids are really literal and if they see something, they're going to just assume that that's how it is, and obviously we don't know exactly how Jesus looked or how these other people looked. But we took that really seriously and we take that really seriously with all our books to try to figure out how can we represent this in a way that's as realistic and as true to the story and the history and the scriptures you know, as we can. And I think it's an interesting balance, because we never want our books to replace people reading the scriptures right, that's not the point of this. This is not read this book instead of reading the Book of Mormon or instead of reading the Bible with your kids, because that would be.
Speaker 2:If someone told me that that's what they were doing with our books, I would say don't do that, that's not what we want. But what we want is to help incorporate these two parts of our life, right, this part of our life that is reading with our children, and this part of our life that loves the gospel of Jesus Christ. Right, why can't those two things be mixed together? Why can't our bedtime storytime include a book about the temple or about Jesus Christ, and so really bringing those things together in a way that doesn't replace, you know, the divine writing that we've been given, but that just incorporates it more naturally into our daily life?
Speaker 1:Absolutely, it's a very important thing. I think I also really loved the hymns I'm trying to pick up the things that I had closest to what you're providing in my childhood that I really adored. My favorite child song from the child's hymn book Right, that's what it's called the children, the children's hymn book. Yeah, song book, that's right, it was Actually, I don't know if it was thought up. Samuel saw within five years the night will be. Is that a common one? I don't know if my.
Speaker 2:I don't know what it's titled, but I know it starts that way. So it's Samuel within five years, yeah.
Speaker 1:That was my favorite one, hands down my favorite one Because I loved visualizing Samuel standing on top, you know, with his hand raised in the air and arrows coming at him, like it was just so cool for me to visualize those things. But the point I'm trying to make about as I'm, like you know, acting like a little bit of a fanboy or whatever, like a geeking out over all this stuff the point I'm trying to make is those stories and how I was introduced to those stories, shaped who I am today and how I see the Book of Mormon, how I see the scriptures today, because I learned the stories first and in such a creative way that I now look at the scriptures in such a creative way. And I this might just be a personality thing on my part, but I love to think deeply, I love to look super deep into the scriptures and think about what's going on around it, and that comes from the creativity that I was able to practice as a child, and so I love that you're finding ways to supply that opportunity to children a lot sooner. I really, really love that and I love that. Excuse me, I love that the first book that you wrote about was, you know him.
Speaker 1:Calming the seed, the great calm. Such a powerful story. Calming the seed, the great calm. Such a powerful story. And the funny thing is, um, just the other day I was like actually thinking very deeply about that story and I was like I kind of had this analogy right, like, but like that I created in my head that I was like I kind of hope there's an opportunity for me to share that on the podcast.
Speaker 1:And then here we are, and I love that you were talking about how you know Christ, he calmed that storm. But in real life, like, chaos is still going on around you, but he can calm you. Like chaos is still going on around you, but he can calm you. I think, and going into my analogy, it's so let's see how to put it into words. I should write these down when I think of them. This part would be so much easier. But if you think of the sea as our emotions, you know, like when you're crossing a sea and it gets stormy, like things happen, there's wind all over the place and our emotions can start to get the better of us and thrash us around. But Jesus Christ is who controls, or can help us control, our emotions. And you said you listened to the episode with oh, I can't remember her name, but she was an artist.
Speaker 2:Emily, emily, emily.
Speaker 1:See, I should know this better than you, but such an awesome episode that we had with Emily and we talked about emotions and the power of our emotions and I kind of had the idea that our emotions are part of the way that we communicate with our Heavenly Father. It's part of the language of God being such emotional beings. If we can learn to control our emotions, we learn to be as God is. And Jesus Christ is such an important part in controlling our emotions and helping us control our emotions, because we're imperfect beings here on this earth and we need kind of that backup, like we need him to help, support us and to come and calm our seas when we just like Peter when he stepped out onto the water to walk with Jesus, we get distracted and Peter got distracted and he started to sink. But Jesus Christ is there to pull us up and to calm the seas when we need him and I just love all of that.
Speaker 2:Well, and I think this is something that not only we as adults can relate to, but kids can relate to this as well, right, kids very frequently experience this feeling of being scared and of needing help and of not knowing how things are going to turn out. That's like childhood in a nutshell, right, and so I think this story is really interesting as a picture book because kids really can identify with the disciples who are. They're trying their best. In the book we kind of have them. This was modeled off of a talk that Elder Holland gave where he said I can imagine the disciples were trying to bail out water and, best you know, in the book we kind of have them. This was modeled off of a talk that Elder Holland gave where he said you know, I can imagine the disciples were trying to bail out water and they're trying to do everything they can until they just finally say, okay, we just got to ask Jesus for help. You know, and I think that's it's just such a relatable thing to a kid to be scared, to be nervous, to not know what to do, and so to have that example of turning to Jesus Christ. I think that's really powerful for kids to have that model and have that be something that they're thinking about just day to day in their lives.
Speaker 2:I was going to say I'll share another kind of interesting experience that we had as we were creating this book. So we were having a meeting with our illustrator kind of early on in the process and he was going through the purpose of the book with us. We were talking through what did we want this book to accomplish and how did we? Yeah, what did we see as the vision for the book? And he kind of suggested like oh yeah, this could be a great book for parents to put in their church bags to bring to sacrament meeting. And I was kind of thinking about that for a minute and then I was like you know what? No, actually that's not where I want this book to end up. I do not want people to just stash it away in a church bag and only see it once a week. And that's not just because I love this book and I think everybody else should love it too, but really the purpose here is and I posted about this recently on Instagram that I don't use the phrase church books when I talk about religious picture books or picture books that relate to gospel principles or to Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:Usually I say things like gospel centered or or Christ-focused picture books, and that's been a really important kind of guiding principle for us.
Speaker 2:Is that? Not that there's anything wrong with putting a book in your church bag unless your listeners are now in an uproar from what I'm saying but mostly just this idea that gospel topics, church quote-unquote church topics aren't just for Sundays, they're not just for sacrament meeting. That's something that I think has been a really big emphasis lately from the apostles in the first presidency is that the gospel of Jesus Christ is a part of our life all the time, not just on Sundays, and so we kind of say that all the time that you know, the worst insult that somebody could give us would be to say, oh, my kids love having this book in their church bag so they can look at it every sacrament meeting. Not because we don't want kids to look at our book at sacrament meeting, but because we hope that the kind of books we're producing are ones that kids want to read all week long and that they can bring that element of spirituality and connection with Jesus Christ and remembering him into their lives every day.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I love that and that change of focus that the church has been going on creating a gospel centered home learning. Rather than you know, you come to church, you learn at church, you go home and you do whatever. You watch football, I don't know whatever you do at home. And, and like the as you were talking, what was coming to my mind is this would be an excellent opportunity to like use these books in family home evening. Let the kids even read the books to their siblings and to their parents as kind of like a learning or teaching opportunity.
Speaker 1:My mom and my family, when we had family home evening, we would have to go prepare a lesson and then we'd come back, you know, with the friend, and like some notes that I scribbled on that nobody can read, and like I teach a lesson and it probably wasn't that great, but like those were the things that the fun, cool memories that I have of family home evening.
Speaker 1:Those are the cool experiences that built me up as that opportunity to kind of take charge and to teach and like for a children book. That's an instrument or a tool that gives that even younger, because I had to be pretty decently old for a kid in order to really like sit down and read the the friend, like read one of the talks on there and and like understand it and be able to teach something from it. Uh, for the most part, I just like like looked at the comics that were in there but like this is an amazing, excellent opportunity that I just like, uh, you better stay in business in like five, 10 years when I start having kids, because I'm going to, I'm going to be looking for these books and hopefully by then you've got about 20 or you know, a hundred or whatever, however many, because I'm going to be a buyer, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Well, and it's funny you mentioned home evening, because actually'm going to be a buyer Absolutely Well, and it's funny you mentioned home evening because actually that's something that we do every Monday we have a gospel centered picture book of the month on our page that we kind of highlight, and every Monday we give ideas for here's how you could use this book in your home evening tonight and that's been a really fun way to kind of think about how to incorporate that. You know, and I think it's been so fun to me, as I have, you know, been doing this work and really seeking out more gospel-centered picture books from my home to see the effect that it's had on my kids and to just notice how much more deeply and how much more frequently they are thinking about and remembering Jesus Christ. You know I have as a covenant disciple. I have made a promise to do that and I'm kind of under a covenant obligation and they're not yet, but they're preparing for that right. This is how they're preparing to make that covenant to always remember him and whether you know for a listener, whether that's through books or through something else, I just think I really believe a lot in the power of children. Kids can understand, I think, a lot more about the gospel of Jesus Christ than sometimes we give them credit for. And so just giving my kids, you know, for us obviously it's been books, but giving my kids opportunities to interact more often with the teachings of Jesus Christ, it's been an amazing experience and we even noticed a couple.
Speaker 2:I guess it was maybe a month or two ago when we were reading in 1 Nephi I think it's chapter 17, where Nephi and his family are on the boat and they're in the storm and it's, you know, they're all kind of really nervous and freaking out and we were reading and I had never noticed this before but in first Nephi, 17, nephi uses a lot of the same words that Mark does to describe the storms.
Speaker 2:So the storm that Jesus calms in Mark is very parallel to the storm that Nephi's family experiences. And it even says in in first Nephi 17, after Laman and Lemuel kind of calmed down, that it says there was a great calm and my five-year-old said, mom, that's the same thing that happened when Jesus calmed the storm. You know, and it was just this, such a cool moment to be like, yes, you're right, like you're seeing these connections and you're experiencing the gospel as fun and joyful and exciting, and that's what we want is to have this be an exciting part of all of our life and not just a little. You know, segment of our 20-minute scripture study that we do and then check off and then move on.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And it is exciting. Like I get so fired up about it. You know, like I'll be reading in the scriptures. I'm like, oh, hey, that this and that, like bouncing around, like, oh my goodness, Like it's, it's such an adventure. It's funny I was reading, I was meeting with a female friend of mine and we, we were talking about the scriptures and she was talking to me about how she, uh, she just kind of reads the story and I was like, well, like there's so much to it, Like let's, let's dig a little deeper, like pick some random scripture.
Speaker 1:And so she flipped it open, picked some random verse and it was, uh, it was in the war chapters in the book of Mormon. It was about Captain Moroni. He gathered his armies, he taught them peace and then they went to war. Like that was the whole verse it talked about they were learning how to be peaceful, and then they went and fought somebody. And she's like, well, like it's pretty easy to understand.
Speaker 1:But I'm confused at the same time and I'm like, well, why are you confused? You know talked all about that, and she's she's wondering why A person could talk of peace and then go fight. And then we talked about that and like you, just like the scriptures open up when you come with questions, seek to kind of experiment, kind of dive deep into the story and play with the ideas of why or you know what, when, where, why, how, like all the questions. When you can develop questions as you're studying about what you're studying, then it just kind of opens up to you and I think that these books and you're seeing that with your kids these are just opening the scriptures up for these children and it's awesome, Unless you have something to add on to that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was just going to say, and it's opened it up to me too to have to really dig into these principles and stories. It's been, yeah, it's been a really neat. I feel like it's. It's taught me a lot about how to study the scriptures and how to study the gospel, and, and how much there is always. There's so much to learn and so much to understand and become excited about. So it's been a it's it's. I feel like it's just been a blessing all around for us.
Speaker 1:I could definitely see how it would be. I'm excited for you, know the future and like to have those moments where I'm sitting there with my kids and reading these stories with them and so and imparting of this curiosity that I've developed about the scriptures to them. So we've talked a lot about the children's books. We've talked a lot about the children who might be reading these books, but I want to talk a little bit about you and how it was in the creation and starting process. And you said the company is only about a year old, correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you're still in the creation process and I understand a little bit of how that goes. The podcast is just over a year old. We're about to hit two years in June or July somewhere around there which is crazy that that much time has passed. It has been absolutely amazing to be able to be a part of this. But what are some of the holdbacks the word just left my mind that I'm trying to use? But what are some of the holdbacks? What the word just left my mind that I'm trying to use? What are some of the barriers that you've come upon in trying to start your own publishing company and be your own editor? What are some of the hiccups that you've experienced?
Speaker 2:So many. I believe that hiccups that you've experienced so many.
Speaker 2:It's been a huge learning curve because, like I mentioned, my my background is not in the publishing industry, and so I feel like every, every little part of the process has been something that we've had to figure out, whether that's, you know, finding a printer and making decisions about how big the book should be, and should they be portrait or landscape, and should they be gloss or matte, and how should the pages look. There's, just like every single book, there's a million little decisions that go into that and even just kind of day-to-day operations. You know, there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes and I'm a writer but I behind the scenes and and I'm I'm a writer but I'm not an illustrator and I'm not an editor, and so those are things that we've had to have professional help with. And yeah, I mean I, I could, I could go on and on about, about challenges or roadblocks, but I think I'll kind of tie this back into remembering Jesus Christ, something that I have felt really keenly.
Speaker 2:I was telling this to my husband that starting this business has exposed to me all of my personal weaknesses and my personal insecurities and my vulnerabilities, and that's been a really humbling experience and that's maybe been the biggest challenge is just realizing that I have I have a lofty vision and high expectations for what I want these books and this company to be and just realizing, like man, I it's really hard and I I am not perfect at it and there's a lot that I have to learn and a lot of help that I need from other people. I can't do it alone. And that's been a great opportunity for me to turn to Jesus Christ and to realize yeah, it's not just in the publishing industry that I have lots of vulnerabilities and weaknesses and things I need to work on. Vulnerabilities and weaknesses and things I need to work on. That's everywhere in my life and I like to think I'm kind of the type of person that I feel very strongly about doing things right and doing things well, and that has served me really well in this endeavor. But it also causes me to reflect very strongly on all of the things that I don't feel like I can do as well as I want to do them, and the mistakes that I make and that I don't feel like I can do as well as I want to do them, and the mistakes that I make.
Speaker 2:And that's something I feel like I've learned about Jesus Christ through this whole process is that I am going to make mistakes, both in life in general and in you know, as we're creating these books and running this business. And the blessing for me of having a savior is that the mistakes that I make don't have to disqualify me from being with God. Instead, because of him, the mistakes that I make can be used as an opportunity for me to learn and grow, and for me, as someone who's kind of a perfectionist, that's huge. That's huge for me to realize that my mistakes don't have to I mean, for lack of another word damn me right. They don't have to keep me away from him and they don't have to be something that ruins me.
Speaker 2:Instead, god knew, he anticipated, that I was going to make a whole lot of mistakes and that there were going to be a lot of things that I was going to do very poorly and that that was going to make me feel terrible about myself, you know, and and that's why he sent a savior, that's why he sent Jesus Christ, and so I feel like it's really helped me to recognize how much I need him and that I can't. I just can't as much as I want to. I can't do everything and I can't do everything well, and I and I need someone who is perfect to be on my side and to remind me that he's already made up the difference and I just need to yoke myself with him. Huge, a huge blessing throughout all of the little roadblocks you know that we face, not even just with this, but just in general, being able to kind of rely on that constant source of power and strength.
Speaker 1:That is awesome. Yeah, we could end it there. I keep saying that and I say that on so many episodes, but it's like I'm just here to listen to you guys, to hear your stories, because you guys take it away every time and it's our amazing guests. Oh, this is why I do what I do, and it's awesome being in my position, because I get to see a lot of things, a lot of similarities with the different people that we have on and all of the people that we've had on that are creators, which I would consider you a creator. You're creating something. You're creating opportunities and all of these things for these children opportunities and all of these things for these children. And with all of the artists that we've had and other business owners Kyle Jacobs, an amazing musician, and the work he was doing all of these creators have this spirit about them.
Speaker 1:That's like it's a mission, you know, and it just brings me back to our heavenly father, and he himself is a creator. He created us, he created our spirits and he created our savior and our savior, you know, our heavenly father, through our savior, jesus christ, created the world and all of this amazing opportunity that we have here on this earth and, just like you were saying, like everything has hiccups, it's got bumps and you know it's not fun all of the time there's a lot of behind the scenes work that really goes into it. Like, after we finish this, I've got to go edit an episode and I hate listening to my voice. Oh, I hate it, but it's just something I've got to do. It's the hiccups, you know, it's the things that you just got to push through. But just like our Heavenly Father created the earth and the world and all of this amazing goodness, through our Savior, jesus Christ, we are given the ability to create things of our own. And, you know, when we learn or develop the ability to exercise our agency in that righteous way whether that's a, you know, a construction company or whatever business we start doesn't even have to do anything about God or, you know, the church or anything like that when we're on this earth to create, like that's our mission we, we find a mission and we create something to fulfill that mission.
Speaker 1:That is one of the ways that we get so close to god and it's one of the things that I know. It never occurred to me until I like having this podcast and having all of you, amazing guests come on and being able to put that together. It's like we're learning. I truly believe this. We're learning how to be gods through the exercising of our agency here and exercising the godly gifts that he's given to us, such as the ability to create. We're learning how to create so that we can create even greater things in the next life in the world to come, and I truly believe that the houses, that the mansions that we have in store for us in heaven, we build those now, based on how we live our lives and the things that we create, the good that we do here. So thank you, nicole, for being such an amazing light to those around you and for taking on this amazing mission that you have created. It's been an absolute pleasure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you so much. It was great to be able to share.
Speaker 1:Thank you and thank you to our amazing listeners for sticking around to the end of the episode. We couldn't do this without you guys. We could, but it'd probably be a lot less fun. So we appreciate you guys being here and to listen to our amazing stories, to these amazing guests that we bring on. And if you're not following us on Instagram, it's at rememberpodcast. We've got a Linktree link to all of our other things, like the podcast, which I mean, if you're listening to this, you already have the podcast. So we also have our merchandise and a couple other things.
Speaker 1:We love hearing people's stories, as we all know, so sign up, come share your story with us. We love to people's stories, as we all know, so sign up, come share your story with us. We love to hear from you and leave a review on wherever it is that you listen to the podcast. We love hearing our feedback, looking for ways that we can improve. We love hearing from you guys, so make sure to do that. And, nicole, uh, I didn't, I kind of skipped over this part, but do you want to give yourself a shout out your website, uh, instagram page yeah, sure thing.
Speaker 2:So our website is wwwpopcorntreebookscom. So think about popcorn popping that's how you can remember us. It was kind of supposed to be a little nod to. If you know the song, you know you would kind of know what we're about. And then on Instagram we're at popcorn dot tree dot books, so we'd love to have you join us there. We share lots about lots of different gospel centered picture books. We show you behind the scenes of how we're creating picture books, we give you ideas for how to use them and lately we've been talking a little bit about the history of picture books in kind of church history, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. So we'd love to have you join us over there.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Make sure to check her out. And all the good things. Get yourself some picture books. I know I'm going to. So thank you, nicole, it's been an absolute blast. And thank you again to our amazing listeners and remember him. Thank you, thank you.