05-09-2026

Hey Tribe 🤍

When you speak to a child under eight, you are not just managing behavior.

You are installing scripts.

Now, if you’re not a parent, you may be tempted to hit delete on this email.

Before you do — wait.

Because this isn’t just about parenting.

It's about where your self-talk was born.

Before roughly age eight, the subconscious mind is wide open. A child isn’t evaluating tone or separating your bad day from their identity. They are absorbing.

What they hear repeatedly becomes internalized truth.

🔘 “I’m too much.”
​🔘 “I’m not enough.”
​🔘 “I have to be good to be loved.”
​🔘 “My feelings overwhelm people.”
​🔘 “I’m safe.”
​🔘 “I can try again.”
​🔘 “Mistakes don’t make me bad.”

Those sentences don’t disappear. They become the inner voice.

📢 The voice you hear at 37 when you hesitate to speak up.
📢 The voice you hear at 52 when you think you’re behind.
📢 The voice you hear in leadership, in relationships, in conflict.

Children are not the inner child.

They are the origin of it.

The work I do with adults — reprogramming disempowering beliefs and helping regulate the nervous system — almost always leads us back to what was installed before eight.

We aren’t creating a new personality.

We’re updating early code.

That’s why I write children’s books.

Not because I think kids need to be optimized.

But because if we understand how the scripts are formed, we can do two powerful things:

1. Speak more consciously to the children in front of us.
2. Speak more compassionately to the child still inside us.

Reparenting yourself and consciously parenting a child are the same continuum. One is preventative. The other is restorative.

This past Saturday I was at Barnes & Noble - Carmel Mountain Ranch for a book signing, and I’ll be visiting additional Barnes & Noble locations around San Diego throughout February and March for story times and signings.

When I sit on the floor and read to a room full of little humans, I’m not just sharing a story.

I’m participating in the formation of an inner voice.

🔘 The phrases they hear.
​🔘 The emotional tone they feel.
​🔘 The way mistakes are framed.
​🔘 The way courage is modeled (pun intended 😉).

All of it becomes part of the architecture.

And this isn’t just about children.

It’s about you.

Because the way you speak to yourself today likely echoes something spoken — or unspoken — long before you had language to question it.

So here’s something to gently consider this week:

If your self-talk has roots, which parts feel true — and which parts feel inherited?

With love and curiosity,

You can find "Courage Finds His Calm" for purchase HERE​

San Diego March Events:

• March 7, 2026: 10775 Westview Pkwy, San Diego - 12pm - 4pm
• March 21, 2026: 1040 North El Camino Real, Encinitas - 12pm - 4pm
• March 28, 2026: 2015 Birch Road, Chula Vista - 12pm - 4pm

📩 Email:[email protected]

​Unsubscribe · Preferences · 113 Cherry St #92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2205