Author Interview ~ Brenda Nixon

Tell me a little bit about what you do for a living.

I travel to speak at parenting and childcare conferences, schools, churches, MOPS groups, parent expos, or anywhere I’m invited if the audience lives or works with kids. I belong to a couple of speakers associations and continue to read and learn as much as I can to continually improve my craft and service to others.

Since there’s a marriage between speaking and writing, I also write books and magazine articles about child behavior and guidance. If a person is going to speak to audiences about a topic, it’s natural to put those words on paper and publish. Most of my colleagues do both speaking and writing.

With my education background, I’m contracted to teach Ohio Health & Safety curriculum to childcare providers, and I am adjunct faculty at an Ohio university.

How much travel does all of that require?

Speaking invitations have taken me from Virginia to New Mexico to Iowa. I’m still hoping for that invite to Hawaii. Business takes me out of my office about 8 times a year. Now that our kids are grown, my husband and I have more freedom to travel together, so he occasionally comes with me to work my booktable.

What topics do you address?

Number one topic: discipline. Close behind that are toilet teaching, understanding temperament, and boosting a child’s school success. Depending on the program planner’s request, some want my Kindergarten readiness talk and others just request a review of normal child development. To keep things interesting and fresh, each presentation is unique; some use power point, some use role-play, and some have silly jokes. When I was in Iowa recently, the event planner asked me to close an early childhood conference with “Women Are Winners” — a motivational, lighthearted talk about all the work women do. It’s based on the Proverbs 31 poem in the Bible’s Old Testament.

Those are just a few of my presentation. I posted a menu of topics on my website so event planners don’t have to think up a topic, they can just select.

So, what has prepared you for this career?

I completed my degree in Christian Education, and right out of college, I taught preschool. After receiving my Masters in education, I married and had my first child. To me, being a parent is one of the most important ways to prepare for speaking and writing about raising kids.

I’ve also been a Psychiatric Chaplain, Certified Parent Educator, and Educational Consultant with Discovery Toys. Every one of those experiences funnels into my work today. For example, teaching preschool helps me empathize today with childcare providers and preschool teachers – been there, done that – and I understand what can be frustrating and what is fun. Being a chaplain gave me valuable training in counseling and public relations. While my daughters were young and I was a SAHM, I sold Discovery Toys to benefit my daughters and supplement our family income. That job helped me be tenacious and to learn more about quality education products for children.

My most recent job was serving as a parent educator for the Kansas City, Missouri school district. There I visited with parents one-on-one and shared specific child development information, answered questions, provided resources and support for the parents, did health screenings, and modeled parenting skills. As a requirement for the job, I took hundreds of hours of continuing education in child development and parent education. That job was the springboard into what I do today.

What advice do you have for someone who wants to start speaking professionally?

Ride the learning curve! Read everything you can get your hands on, go to speaker websites and absorb information, ask others in the profession about it, join Toastmasters then eventually the National Speakers Association, and attend seminars to learn about speaking. It isn’t something you must know all at once but will continue to learn about each year. Speaking is kinda like parenting: the more you know and practice, the better you become.

At first, speak to small groups and get comfortable in front of people. The best piece of advice I heard early in my career was to make mistakes before small audiences. Improve, then go on to the larger audiences.

If anyone wants advice and encouragement, my published speaking articles are now all together in a booklet, You Can Speak. I offer it for $10, to those who want to launch and maintain a successful speaking career. Anyone can receive this booklet by mailing $10 to me at: PO Box 1302, Mount Vernon, OH 43050.Finally, all work and no play isn’t healthy.

Tell us something personal about yourself like your hobbies.

Hmm, good question. I don’t have a declared hobby, but cultivate myriad interests including garage sales, gardening and landscaping, volunteering with the Humane Society, bicycling, playing with my dachshund, Opie (I’m co-authoring a book of devotions for dog lovers), and learning about and watching hummingbirds. I also read anything that interests me, from Cesar Milan’s book on dog behavior, to Stephen King’s book On Writing, to child development research and parenting magazines, to religious publications. I favor devotional books by Oswold Chambers and Max Lucado.

Thanks for this opportunity to share with your readers. It’s been fun, and I hope helpful to everyone.