Picture this: a whirlwind of creativity, inspiration, and a mother-son duo that could rival any superhero team! Preeti and Pranav join us on the podcast, and let me tell you, this episode is a joyride through the realms of imagination. Preeti, the mastermind behind the 'Mystic India for Kids' series, began her journey crafting bedtime stories for her children, weaving in rich cultural values and life lessons. She's all about teaching courage and empathy through her enchanting tales. Pranav, on the other hand, is a young prodigy—an author, musician, and taekwondo black belt, juggling school and his writing career like a seasoned pro. Together, they delve into what sparked their passion for storytelling and how they navigate the ups and downs of the creative process. Trust me, their insights are like a treasure trove for aspiring writers and parents alike!

Guests Bio: PREETHI is an author, speaker, and consultant, best known for the Mystic India for Kids series and her business guide, The Ease Equation – Systems + Support = Sustainable Success. Her journey as a children’s author began at home, writing bedtime stories for her children with a simple but powerful intention: to pass down values, culture, and timeless life lessons in a way that felt alive and meaningful.

Those stories grew into the Mystic India for Kids series—imaginative retellings of Hindu mythology woven with parallel reflections that gently explore courage, curiosity, empathy, and cultural connection. Rich in heart, humor, and visual storytelling, the series invites young readers to explore their heritage while nurturing confidence, wonder, and emotional awareness.

Expanding on this mission, Preethi recently launched The Everyday Superpowers series, which shines a light on simple, human strengths—like patience, kindness, and resilience—helping children recognize that quiet inner qualities can be just as powerful as grand adventures. The first book in the series has just launched, marking a new chapter in her work with young readers.

Beyond children’s literature, Preethi draws on over 15 years of experience in HR, operations, and executive support to guide entrepreneurs and business leaders. Through The Ease Equation, she offers practical, grounded strategies to build sustainable success using clarity, systems, and thoughtful support—helping leaders move from overwhelm to intentional growth.

Whether inspiring children through story or guiding leaders through structure, Preethi’s work is rooted in a single philosophy: when people are grounded in values and supported by the right systems, they are free to flourish creatively, personally, and professionally.

PRANAV is a young author and multi-instrumentalist who loves telling stories—whether through words, music, or movement.

An RCM Level 8 pianist, Pranav composes his own original music and songs, exploring sound with curiosity and creativity. He also plays the clarinet as part of his school band and is currently learning the violin, adding yet another voice to his growing musical world.

Beyond music and writing, Pranav is a Taekwondo 1st-degree black belt, a practice that has shaped his discipline, focus, and perseverance—qualities that carry through everything he creates.

As an author, Pranav has written two middle-grade/young adult books and is already hard at work on his next story. Currently in Grade 8, he balances school, creative projects, and new challenges with enthusiasm and a genuine love for learning.

Whether he’s at the piano, on the page, or on the mat, Pranav believes creativity is a form of courage—and he’s just getting started.

Bringing Education Home is an educational podcast brought to you by Kristina and Herb Heagh-Avritt.

If you enjoy the show, we'd love for you to leave a rating or review on your favorite podcast app!

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Copyright 2026 Kristina & Herb Heagh-Avritt

This podcast is hosted by Captivate, try it yourself for free.

I now have the pleasure of introducing Preeti and Pranav.

Preethi is an author, speaker and consultant best known for the Mystic India for Kids series and her business guide, the Easyquation.

Her journey as a children's author began writing bedtime stories for her own children, rooted in a desire to pass down values, culture and timeless life lessons.

Today, her books invite young readers to explore courage, empathy and everyday inner strength through rich storytelling.

Alongside her work with children, Preeti draws on more than 15 years of experience in HR and operations to help entrepreneurs build sustainable values driven success.

And Pranav is a young author, multi instrumentalist and creative explorer who loves telling stories through words, music and movement.

An accomplished pianist and composer, a school band clarinetist, and a taekwondo black belt, Pranav brings discipline and curiosity to everything he creates as an author.

He has already written two middle grade and young adult books and is currently working on his next story, all while balancing school and creative pursuits.

Pranavali believes creativity is a form of courage and he's just getting started.

Welcome both of you.

It is a pleasure to have you here.

Thank you so very much for joining us today.

Thank you, thank you.

It is so awesome to have this.

And so for our podcast guests who are just listening, you've heard two different names and you'll hear a few different voices.

And so what happened is we have another mother and child group with us today, right?

So we've had other guests where their child has joined them in the podcast and we find this really, really amazing because not only do we get the parents point of view about what happened and what developed, but then we also get the child's point of view of what happened and what developed.

And it is amazing the inspiration that can come from these kinds of conversations.

So again, thank you for being here.

So Preeti, I want to start with you first.

And that first question is you started your children's book series, right?

And you said that's really based on wanting to tell your cultural stories and really based in values.

What were you noticing that really was kind of like the prompt or the, oh, I want to make sure that this happens with me and my family to get that whole ball started.

Okay, so with, with Pranav, he was in India like until he was like 5 years old.

And so he did get a little bit of that, the mythology related storytelling from his grandparents.

And also like even in the school system when they have festivals and things, they speak about it or they celebrate it and do things.

So he did have a little bit of the basics but then my daughter was born here, so with her, I kind of felt that if I did not tell her these stories, it is not going to come generically, like, because grandparents don't live here, and the school system here doesn't talk about, like, the Indian side of things much.

So that is, like, kind of why I started initially orally telling her these stories.

And these are mainly stories I grew up listening from my own parents and grandparents as a kid growing up.

And so when she then got curious enough to ask me, like, okay, so how does this character look?

Or how does this person look?

And that's when I.

So I do have a hobby of, like, drawing and doing some canvas painting and sketching myself.

So it's a mix of that plus the digital and air together for the illustrations.

So I initially created them on Canva, and it was just a document for her.

And some of my friends and her friends moms saw it, and they then expressed interest and asked me where I had gotten the document from, because they initially assumed I had downloaded it from somewhere.

So then I told them, no, I created it.

And then from there I realized that there is a market for it and people want to see these kind of books.

And that's how I then thought, okay, I'll get them published.

So.

And even when I initially publish, it was more just for friends and family, like, people who actually knew me and asked.

I'd be like, okay, this is where the book can be bought.

Or I would order them, the author copy and give it to them.

That's how it was initially.

And it's from there that now I'm officially talking about this and marketing it more.

Yeah.

And yeah, that's amazing because.

Right.

It came from a need that in your community around people that you knew, but now you're being able to share with others.

What was it about the values piece?

Right.

Because we talk with parents a lot whenever we're setting up either the homeschool for the family or the education change plan.

What was it about?

Values?

Because we talk about that with them.

Do.

Why the values?

Why is it so important to make sure that's given to our children as we're teaching them?

No, because I think, like, if it's so.

And.

And in most of my books, it's values like honesty or, like, standing up for what's right or like supporting your friend or being patient.

And it's things like that.

And I feel like those are things some of them like, even as adults, we struggle.

And if they are not instilled at that age, it will be even a bigger gap to bridge when they grow older and the earlier you plan these things.

And at that age, like, so my daughter is five.

So at that age, when they are like between say, 3 to 6 or like the 3 to 8, they don't realize they are actually learning a value or they're learning something, right?

It's.

It's just through story and they start relating to that character.

And when something happens in real life, they're like, oh, that person, that character did that, so I'm going to behave a certain way.

They kind of mirror it without knowing that they're actually learning a value or learning something that's going to help them.

So I think that's a very nice age to kind of subtly get them to learn these things.

And Parna, you've also written books.

How did you get into writing books?

Or was it like your mom, like, twisting your arm, you're going to write a book now?

No, I.

It was not like that.

So my.

What really pushed me to start writing books was actually my love for reading.

So from a young age, I. I like reading.

To this day, I read a lot.

Ask my mom, she can.

She can verify that.

So, yeah, I. I really like reading.

And one aspect I like about reading is that when I read books, I feel the characters I are people I can relate to or like, I feel like I'm experiencing the adventure from the character's point of view rather than just a bystander.

So that got me thinking, like, when I was around 10 years old, I thought that maybe I should write a book.

Because writing books, because writing a book was something that I until that point thought was like, for adults.

And I was like, what if I tried writing a book?

It would be exciting.

So it was like more out of, like, that idea that I should write a book.

That kind of pushed me to start.

Start.

And yeah, it took me a while, actually, for my first book, nearly three years.

And I think that was mostly because I honestly had no idea how to write a book.

So I had the idea for my first book.

I had the idea, like, the basic concept of the book, but I realized that stories are more than just like, coming up with a concept.

It's about what happens in the story and how everything ties into one another and, like, the general plotline of the story.

So that's where I really struggled for my first book.

Fortunately, when I was 12 years old, my local community had an initiative called called the Young Voices Program, which was an initiative where my school board, the Toronto District School Board partnered with aia, or the Art Intersection Agent Corps, to help children publish their books and to become actual authors.

And they were going to help us and guide us throughout the whole.

Through the whole process.

So I felt like going to.

That really helped me in the sense that it taught me more about how a story works and how to, you know, form a story with ideas that you have, because it's more than just the ideas.

You've got to make sure that your story is engaging and it's something that people are actually willing to read.

So that really helped me out.

So after I published my first book, I immediately wanted to start a second book because I was like, I now know how to write a book.

I now know how it works.

Let's keep going.

Let's write another book.

Which is why I think my second book, I was able to finish it a lot faster than my first book because I had more.

I had, like, a better understanding of how books, how storybooks and stories in general are made.

So I published my second book in September, and my second book explored a little more about the characters themselves rather than just the setting and the plot of the story.

And I think that's what made my second book stand out, because my first book, it was just like a mishmash of ideas that I cobbled together and then turned into a book.

But for my second one, I think I put a lot more thought into it and like, care into character development and other aspects of a story that I felt like I didn't do a good job with on my first book.

So, yeah, that's kind of how I got into writing books.

And yeah, that's a.

That's an amazing story.

There are so many things that I like as you were talking, like, oh, that's this way of learning style.

Oh, this is that little bit of learning style.

And this is taking it to mastery and, and using your passion to pull your education to you.

I'm 56 years old, just turned 56 this month, and I started writing my first book about three months ago.

So you are 46 years ahead of me, and I don't know how to do it, and it's kind of slowing me down.

And I'm like, oh, how?

What am I going to do when I get to the publishing?

I have no idea.

That's slowing me down.

You just, like, pushed through all of that and you got to it, like, I'll Figure this out.

So well done.

Congratulations on all of that.

That is a fabulous story.

Can Herb call you and ask you for tips?

One thing I wanted to point out in part of story was that there was a local group, right.

A community group or a government agency that kind of helped spur this.

And I know in the United States we have that too, especially in November.

November is like write your novel month or something like that.

So there's lots of different groups.

So if you are a parent or a child who's like, oh, I really want to get into writing, look up these kinds of things, right.

Look up the different organizations that can help you do that or find a local writing coach.

There's lots of those available too.

Yeah, but don't push your kid into it if they really don't want to do it.

As a kid, I thought too quick and I could not write because my stories were so.

Yeah, it was not for me if you'd have pushed me into that.

That have been horrible.

But again, today, 40 years later, the tools that we have, the ways that the assistance that we have to help you hold your ideas together, that's what finally got me writing my book.

So it is different.

Maybe you can find something that will help your children if they're really creative, but.

But don't think they can write.

So then my question is, are your books similar or are they completely different?

Did you each take your own writing style path?

Yeah, no, it's.

It's actually totally different because one is.

It's for a different group it all to itself because mine's basically for the real little ones.

So main, my books are basically between the ages of 3 to 10 or 12.

And his books are basically more teen and adult, young adult and also again, so my first series of books, the Mystic India for Kids series are all based on Hindu mythology.

And I am writing the next series where the first book is already out.

The second one I did put it up.

I think it may be out today or tomorrow.

So.

And that is more also for the little kids, but it's more.

So the first one's called Arya and the Patience Project.

So it's about a little girl, like my daughter, but a little older.

So a seven year old figures out patience and why it's important and how that works.

And the next one's more in terms of honesty and telling the truth, even when it's difficult.

So and so that's kind of the area where I write.

Whereas his books are more adventure, thriller and yeah.

More appropriate of that age group.

Right.

Because this is, it's like a upper elementary school young adult kind of book.

Is that.

Yeah.

And while you're on that topic, we're also actually working on a book together, so incorporating aspects of like Hindu mythology and culture and trying to present it in a way that appeals to kids my age or kids around my age is.

And we're working together on that and we're, we're making some progress and it's going to be coming out soon.

So.

Yeah, just wanted to mention that.

And I really like that you're working it with, with Hindu tech or the word history.

Not history, mythology.

It could be, it could be history.

If you, if you think about it way back when, weird stuff could have happened.

But as you're, as you're bringing it in, the mythology is like that's not something a lot of Americans actually get a lot into.

So I'm kind of different, I'm kind of weird.

I've been into weird stuff my whole life.

So it's like I read the Bhagavad Gita like a long time.

So your stories are great, they're fantastic.

But I also want to point out that the reason that they still last is because of the truth that's in them.

The.

You were talking about why not to lie and why telling the truth, even if in the short term it's going to cost you, it's better to tell the truth no matter what ever, even if it's going to cost you more than.

So those kind of stories have such depth of truth and, and if you can start to incorporate those kind of teachings in your own writing, that's where, that's where your writing can last for thousands of years.

And so have you been thinking about that and how to put those kind of, that kind of life, that kind of living story into your work?

Have you.

And now that I'm saying that it's like, oh yeah now how, how does that land with you either?

So like one with my newer series, that's kind of what I'm trying to do is also like when it talks about patients, it's not just about how this girl learns patience, but it also kind of expresses how a little one like how a 7 year old is like, like learning to wait, you know, like learning to wait that sometimes it's that disappointment of having to wait for something to happen and how that plays on their, their psyche or how they, they think about it, how they work through that.

And I think generally like when, as an adult, when we see them, we're like, oh, this kid is not patient.

This kid doesn't do this.

That's how we see it.

But then we don't see like what's actually going in inside their head or how they are dealing with it from their point of view.

So I'm trying to incorporate that angle also into the book so that it is more relatable one.

And when you, when a kid reads it, it's like, oh yeah, that's how I felt.

Right.

So kind of connects with them.

So I'm trying to do that into those books.

And even with the mythology side, I do have either reflection questions or in some of the other books, I kind of have a parallel story also.

So if the book talks about standing up for what's right, then I have a parallel story of a kid who stands up for a friend when somebody else bullies him or her in the playground or something like that.

So it becomes more relatable to their day to day that they are facing today.

And it teaches compassion as well.

So it's not just, it's about what are they feeling, what could they be feeling?

How would you feel if that was happening to you and what would you like someone to do if that was happening to you in that situation?

How would you like somebody else to respond and then do that?

That's the golden rule.

Treat others like you would like to be treated.

And, and that in the moment, that can be tough.

And so by seeding these stories in younger children allows them to grow easier than planning it.

As in his old rocky adults, we.

Also speak a lot about role modeling, right.

And the way that you're approaching these stories and like you said, you're trying to put what's in their head out there in the story, right?

That's that role model that's being able to think along what or figuring things out from what other people are doing.

And so I want to ask as a, and as a son and mother team, right.

How do you use each other kind of as role models in your writing or in getting the books going?

How are you kind of bouncing off of each other a little bit and how are you helping each other?

In fact, like maybe I'll just start it off and he can add on is even with the whole writing process.

He was the one who started writing first, so he was the one who actually started writing though my book got published first.

So I think it also is like when since he was writing and he was doing this, that kind of encouraged me to buy a put what I was telling my daughter Orally into writing and creating it into a book.

Because I was like, okay, he's doing it.

Maybe I should also try doing it.

So, like, that's where it started for me.

So I would say yes.

So he motivated me.

He got me into this, and that's how I started.

And.

And I think also, like, the.

And all my books that I have written are edited by him.

So anytime I write a book, I run ideas through him, he runs ideas through me.

Like, we edit each other's books to make sure it.

Like, the plot is okay or, like, that is the flow and something's not missing.

So we do help and support each other that way.

So we were.

We were kind of.

Yeah, we were kind of competitive growing up.

America competitive.

You know, who would have thunk?

So how did it feel for you to start writing a book and then later your mom goes, oh, I can do that too, and then finishes it and publishes it before you.

Did that kind of, like, motivate you to get going more on your book?

Is that competition at all there?

Or was it like, go, mom,.

Maybe a little bit.

But to be honest, not really, because I understood that the kinds of books that me and my mom were writing were different, and she was writing in a different style, and I was writing in a different style.

So it wasn't really much competition.

I just wanted to get my best work out there, and I just wanted to make sure that what I was putting out there was my best.

My best work.

And, I mean, even though I was a little bit upset that my mom published her book first.

Sorry.

Okay, there we go.

All honesty.

Thank you.

But even though I was upset, I was still happy because the end of the day, I was still happy for her for publishing her book.

And I. Yeah, I mean, it did motivate me to also, you know, publish my work on my book more and then eventually publish.

Yeah.

So when I was.

I was also inspired by my mom when I was writing.

Even though I started writing before her, it was less about the writing itself, and it was more about how she managed writing with everything else that was happening, whether it be, like, literally, she would come to our classes, she would sit down, she would open her laptop, and she would start typing her stories.

Like, she found time to write during daily life and during pretty much everything that she had to do otherwise.

So that inspired me, and I wanted.

So that inspired me, because I was like, I should make more time for writing, and if this is something I want, I need to work harder for it and put more time towards it, because you know, the more time you put towards it, the better quality the resultant's going to be.

So that's something that my mom really inspired me to do.

I absolutely love that.

And I hope that every parent who is listening right now, whoever is listening to the podcast, like, think about this.

Think about how your daily actions can inspire and inform your children in ways that they can improve themselves in the ways that they want to get things done the way they see you get things done.

Right.

So being a really strong role model and then also checking in with your child, if you see they're interested in a project, check in with them.

How can I help you?

How can I support you?

Is there anything else that you need without that push, push, are you going to get it done yet?

Kind of thing?

Right.

So making sure that that back and forth is available.

Yeah, it's, it's amazing how, especially in homeschool, because the, the kids are around the parents a lot more.

But how the parent, the kids start teaching the parents more stuff because they kind of get out of the way.

The kids have a lot more time.

They get bored.

When they get bored, they get creative.

When they get creative, they start learning stuff.

And then it's like, mom, look at this, mom, look at this, mom, look at this.

And you're like, hold on, I got to get stuff done too.

So it's amazing how when you stop trying to teach them how much they learn and start teaching you back.

And I see that here because it's like, oh, here, I want to write a book.

And then it's like, oh, hey, you know what, I'm telling these stories, let's put this in a book.

And these people want it.

And then you both grew up together, sharing and growing.

And you know, sometimes when you're talking, you sound like a 30 year old pranav.

You do.

And, and I'm trying to bring you back into the kid.

And I'm glad you got.

Yeah, my mom kind of made me mad with, thank you for going back there.

But your emotional intelligence and the way you're carrying yourself is like fantastic in this conversation.

And I really appreciate the way you're talking and I'm really enjoying this conversation, so thank you for that so far.

And I totally lost where I was going with this.

Do you have a question?

I do.

Because Pranav, you not only have written a book and published a book, you're working on your second one, right?

Working on my third.

There we go.

Okay, awesome.

And one with Mom.

Is that four or is the third with mom.

The fourth one.

Okay, got number.

Okay, so see, I'm paying attention.

Good job.

Yeah.

And a black belt in taekwondo and a musician and very creative.

How do you balance all of that?

Because you just said the mom was really good at balancing all of her stuff.

How do you balance that at the age you are?

Honestly, I just, like.

Like, I understand that time is, like, really essential if you're trying to pursue any skill.

The more time you spend, like, the better you'll get.

So, honestly, when it comes to writing, I also try to find time when.

Whenever I could, to try writing my book.

So actually, in my school, when I was in the seventh grade, so last school year, we opened our library during lunchtime, I think, sometime in January, for kids to come and read and to play board games or catch up on homework.

And they were looking for people to manage the library during that time because the teachers had a lot of things to do and they didn't want to do it themselves.

So they're like, okay, is anyone interested?

And I was like, okay, sure.

Because I enjoy being in a library.

I like reading.

I like interacting with people.

But one thing that the library, staying indoors during lunch times and managing the library gave me was a lot of time to, like, think about my books.

And I actually did most of my book writing in that.

In that library, because it came because it was not just the writing.

I was also able to, like, pick up my favorite books and see how, you know, authors that I grew up with, I liked to read, how they approach, how they, like, portrayed their stories, how they wrote.

That inspired me.

And one other thing is being around lots of kids my age, especially during lunchtime when there's minimal teacher supervision, I saw a lot of interesting things.

And while that didn't really exactly inspire my book, it also helped me understand how kids my age think because it's a very complex.

It's a very.

It's very complex emotions.

And I. I saw quite a lot going on during those lunchtime sessions, so.

And that also helped me write my books, because at the end of the day, if you want to be a good author, you got to make the readers, like, feel like they're experiencing the story from the point of view of the character.

So you got to really portray the character's emotions.

And seeing the emotions and how kids my age reacted or approached problems was something that was really beneficial to me when I was writing my books.

Yeah, you did a great job explaining that and being very, very polite about it at the same time, pointing out the important parts.

A very good job with that.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

My high school years were both the best and the worst years of my life.

I actually just moved back to the little town I grew up and I couldn't wait to get out of here.

I left 38 years ago, and we just moved back because, man, what happened to me in high school was that weird stuff that you.

That.

Yeah, not.

Not pleasant memories.

So good on you for recognizing that and finding a place where not only you could thrive, but also, you know, improve your character.

That's.

That's wonderful work and acknowledgement.

And I think with him, the other thing that I would say he does is like, even between his piano and his taekwondo and his writing or so when he was more closer to the black belt test, then like that two months or three months, he would give that more time.

He would practice that daily.

But some of these other things may not be on a daily basis.

And the same thing, like when he has his piano exam or something, the couple of weeks leading up to the exam would be every day of piano.

And he may not be doing these other things.

So I think, like, on a regular week, he will have a little bit of all of it happening.

But then if there were like those important milestones or things in each of those lanes, then leading up to that will be more of that kind of thing.

So I think he kind of figures out how to prioritize things.

Yeah, it's like finals week in college.

You pretend to go to class for the whole year, and then the last week you try and do all of the homework and study for the whole test in one week.

Yeah, I have no idea how that all goes, so.

But yeah, the.

The focusing in.

The focusing in.

And the time management as something gets closer that.

That again, that's.

That's very well thought out and handled.

So a lot of people can't do that and end up, like, totally blowing their deadlines and their.

Their systems.

So again, just the life skills that are.

The life skills that are.

Along with this production of books and everything.

Yeah, exactly.

So is little sister coming along?

Is she thinking that she might want to be a writer too, or she into something else?

I don't know.

She keeps saying she's.

And she is like more into these days.

She wants.

She wants to do more of the drawing and the coloring and things and likes to listen to stories rather than create or write her own stories, but never know.

Right.

We all know where the interest for art comes from.

Mom.

Mom's artistry.

Yeah.

Well, she did the drawing in the.

In the canva.

For the books, so.

No, actually, though, my mom's a pretty good artist.

Her artwork is all over her living room.

And actually it does a really good job at painting and drawing things.

Yeah.

Though I don't do much of it these days.

You should.

Yeah.

No, and.

But then, like, with my daughter, maybe it'll come with age.

And that's kind of why the patient's book even happened, is that's something she needs to really learn, because with her and.

And the perfection thing, so she has this thing that when she writes or colors or does anything, it has to be perfect.

So if it goes a little outside the box or if it's a little not nice, then she has to erase and redo the whole thing.

And then when it doesn't get done on time, she gets frustrated.

The perfectionism.

Yeah, exactly.

So maybe that's going to be the next book.

Right?

Patience now and then perfectionism.

How to.

How do we combat that perfectionism?

Yeah.

Pranav, have you been sharing your books with your friends?

And is that something you do?

Not really like sharing my books, but what I did was I bought two copies of my book and I donated them to my school library.

And so in my school library, I've actually almost never seen my books on the shelf because someone is always taking them out.

So for the first few weeks, it was just mostly my close friends.

But then, so there were, like, other people from other classes who were taking my book and who would, like, find me in the hallway, and they're like, oh, my God, your book is really good.

And I'm like, okay.

And then I'm like, thank you.

So, like, try to tell other people about it.

I want, like, more people to read it.

So I didn't.

I sold.

But when you.

When you say sharing books with friends, it was like I, like, kept my book out there, kept it in a place where it was accessible for people.

And I feel like a lot of people have actually read my book so far.

So I put it in the library around, what, six months ago and.

Six.

Six months.

Yeah, six months ago.

And a lot of people have read it and given me feedback, and I've been trying to implement that feedback and try to see how to make my next books better and how to improve my writing.

Yeah.

But then I would also say he's a little modest with that.

Is he actually would never go tell anybody himself about his books.

Books.

Somebody else has to.

Or like, most cases, I have to go and tell them.

And, like, even at his taekwondo plays or his piano teacher.

They didn't know about his writing until I went and told them, oh, here is his book.

He published a book.

And they're like, oh, it's so nice.

Maybe we should display it here.

And that's how it got out there.

Otherwise, he's like, yeah, it's in the library.

People will find it.

They did find this book.

That's.

That is awesome, though.

You know, being proud of your book, but then also being humble enough to let other people kind of share it and move.

Put it out there.

Exactly.

Yeah.

And I know people are probably curious, like, oh, my gosh, how are we going to get a hold of these books?

And, of course, all the links will be down in the show notes and things like that, so you'll be able to be able to find them.

So one of the other things I wanted to ask real quick was, Preeti, from your business experience experience, Right.

And connecting that into families, how families can kind of work together and keep things moving forward.

What's one way that you, as a family kind of take those steps to keep things going?

I think, like, whether it's your writing or basically everything, I think within the family, it's more of a teamwork.

And to his point, like, the time that I can take off to even, like, do podcasts like these, or like, when I'm in a meeting, or sometimes I go out for networking, things like that, I'm like my husband at the back end to be there supporting.

And I know, okay, things at home is taken care of.

So having that support.

And like I said, it's teamwork and everybody has to pitch in.

And, like, sometimes he would manage the little one when I'm on a call or something.

And so I think everybody.

It's like a puzzle.

Everybody has to fit together for it to make the complete picture.

So I definitely believe in that.

Whether it's the family or your work team.

Yeah.

Things have to work, and people have to work together for it to be something that can be sustainable, something that can be repeatable.

Right.

Oh, my turn.

Your turn.

Oh, I'm sorry.

He was so interested in the answer.

Wow.

Complete blank out.

Wow.

That's a. Yeah.

I'm so sorry about that.

Oh, my gosh.

Whenever mom says, hey, can you help with this or that?

What.

What's some of the favorite things that you like helping with?

And what's something that's like, oh, no, I really don't want to have to do that thing.

How do you help keep the family going?

The Things I don't want to do.

The.

Probably the number one thing that I don't like my mom coming and saying is, hey, I'm going to be a little busy.

Can you watch your little sister?

I'm like, no.

Please, no.

Because she can get really excited about things sometimes, and she's really hard to control sometimes.

But I mean, even her, she's like, mostly fine.

And things I like to help out with is like, I like helping out with things around the house because, you know, it feels satisfying to help out and, like, do things around the house.

It has, like that satisfaction thing to it.

So, yeah, I like helping around the house.

I like helping my mom.

It's also kind of something I have to do because otherwise she'll get a little upset with me, but it's fine.

Yeah.

He also says he likes to learn or likes to do a little bit of cooking.

So he does come into the kitchen from time to time.

Sometimes he helps.

And now I think off late, he has started doing a little bit independently also.

So are you guys helping other people learn how to write?

Are you reaching out and like, hey, how do you get started in this?

Is there anything like that that's going on?

Not.

Not exactly or not officially.

But I'm like, I think even with some of these podcasts and things that I'm now starting to involve him also is trying to more like, tell the kids are like, the younger ones that they can also write and they can also start doing these things.

And sometime next month.

Yeah, sometime next month.

Like, there's another friend or a colleague of mine who is more of a writing coach.

So she.

For people who have those ideas, she helps them get them writing and get them to put it in a book or a newsletter or whatever form that they want and actually finish a right written product.

So she helps them do that.

So I'm trying to.

So she did want me to come in and talk to her community.

And as part of that, I'm also trying to support her and help other people write.

And like, once they are written, especially, I think it's also once the book is done, it's the.

After the book, like, what do you do with the book?

Yes, you've written your book, you published it, and that's all nice and great, but then especially with a lot of people who are not into business who are writing books, if you talk to them about landing pages and funnels and things, like, they're like, so what's that?

Right?

So they don't even know what that is.

So what does that have to do with writing a book?

Yeah, so some of those elements I am planning to like put together and teach her community and help them build those landing pages, those funnels or get you how to use your book as something to get speaking opportunities or teaching opportunities from your book.

Right.

So I'm trying to do that with her community.

I'm really great at coaching, but I'm not good at businessing.

So I don't have lots of coaching clients.

So it's really kind of interesting.

What I'm really good at I can't do because I'm not good at this other thing to bring me stuff.

Yeah, yeah.

Very bizarre how you have to become good at something that does not have anything to do with what you need to do to do what you're good at.

So are you paying attention to what I just said there?

Can you repeat that?

I have to learn all this extra stuff besides just writing.

Right, right.

And.

And there's another angles like when people come and talk to you about your book and about how great it is.

It's like do you have stories?

If you thought about writing a book, you know, you could do that too and be encouraging to other people to get their stories out there.

And hey, who knows, maybe you can become a writing coach yourself if you like writing so much.

Teaching other people builds your skills just as much as working on your skills yourself.

Excellent.

This has been a great conversation.

I love how you know the, the mother son team working on encouraging other.

A little bit of competition in there.

Right.

But having two different lanes of books that you've been writing.

Right.

That has been so amazing.

Is there anything that we haven't touched on that you were hoping that we touch on either about writing or family.

How's anything else?

Probably just a little bit that I'd like to add in terms of the publishing side which is like the self publishing route that we went with also reasoning behind that being one the traditional publishing is takes more longer and in some cases depending on who your agent is or where you find the agent, like I.

You don't know who they are, the reliability and the all of that.

And then in some cases I have heard where they kind of tweak or edit or rewrite your components of your book which kind of takes away the real essence of what you wanted in the book in the first place.

So some of those things are like reasons why it drove us into the self publishing space.

And the project that he did through his school was also like within self publishing like they helped the kids to have them published through the Amazon KDP platform.

So that's kind of what they did.

But that has also been a big learning curve because yeah, once you have written the book, it's fine and then even in terms of like some illustrations or the book cover, you can design things but then having to figure out how they want it specifically formatted and these platforms are, are not really easy to use.

They are not self explanatory.

It's a lot of trial and error and a lot of frustration to actually figure it out and get things done.

And once I even did that and got the books on Amazon, I then reached out to some of the local bookstores, to the library and the schools and they were like, oh, we do not get books out of Amazon.

It has to be on this ABC platform for it to happen.

So then I was like, oh, okay, so now let me go figure out that platform.

So.

So I think it is been quite a bit of a learning curve in terms of the publishing and then now the little bit of the marketing side of things for the books because like Herb just said like, you know, you're good at writing, you can write and you write the book.

And that's I think the easiest part of it.

It's the, it's all those things after that which is, which makes it more complicated and more difficult.

I haven't finished my book yet so I haven't got to any of that.

So I didn't even know to ask you those questions yet.

So that will come up later I guess.

And you were about to say something.

Pranava, how are you finding the publisher.

Sometimes to time not.

My mom said it's sometimes really frustrating when you get an email saying we couldn't publish your book because Your cover was 0.01 millimeters too large or too small.

Yeah, it actually happened before and sometimes we have to go and just slightly edit it and then they'll be okay with it.

So yeah, so it's been sometimes been really frustrating trying to actually get the books published because they're really specific about what, what get passes and what doesn't pass.

So yeah, that's something that us more my mom, not me a lot because yeah, so more something that we've had to really work on and try to fine tune and.

And you know, we're sort of.

Okay sometimes we still get those annoying emails back but mostly not anymore because.

Yeah, because we've like worked together and like.

Yeah, I can see why you want.

To write another book.

It's like after having to learn all I was like, I had to learn all of that for one book.

No, I'm gonna write another book to make that.

No, I'm gonna write three books to.

Make that worth it.

To make that worth it.

Because that was the.

Yeah, that's what you said.

That's the hard part, the writing the books.

The easy part.

Once you get the hard part down.

Oh, well, now I can write 10 books.

That's the easy part.

Yeah, I know.

Like having to, you know, figure out like which platforms to publish in, how to publish in, and it even start with like where and how do I get the ISBN number to publish the book?

And yeah, there are a lot of those tiny, tiny things that you need to figure out.

Right.

And now we're kind of talking language that a lot of people don't even know.

They're like ISBN, what's that?

And that's a special book number.

Right.

So if you go look up a book, that special book number that you have to have.

I was going to ask real quick because you did say that you mentioned that you use AI part time or you did some of your illustrations using AI, I've heard and I don't know if this is true.

Hopefully you know that some publishers and things are really cracking down if AI is involved at all or AI really has to be like, no.

Like even Amazon does that.

Yeah.

So almost all of these platforms they do ask if AI has been used and with Amazon they ask you if it has been used to, for the text, for the images or for translation.

So it asks you like there are three different things where they ask you and there again it will ask you if it was completely AI, was it like AI but edited or was it manual plus edited.

So they go into a lot of details.

If there was the use of AI, they really want to know how much, to what extent, to what, to which component did you actually use that AI.

Yeah, they do ask you all these questions.

So just kind of a hint if you're, if you're starting to use AI, keep track of how much you're using it so you can answer those questions when you get ready to publish.

Right.

So that, yeah, I think also with.

The image side of AI, I have noticed that if you went into any of these, like the Canvas AI or the ChatGPT or the Gemini or any of those platforms and you give it a prompt to create an image, almost always they are the Disney styled images.

That's the default image setting for AI.

So if you want it to be a certain way or you have a certain illustrative idea.

In many cases, what I do is I would sketch a part of it, put that, and then use AI to generate the background or use AI to enhance it or do something like that.

But then if you have AI go create the whole thing.

It mostly looks like one of these Disney characters, right?

Yeah, yeah.

It's either bright colors.

Yeah, it's either Disney or anime characters.

Yeah.

So good.

Good tip there.

Awesome.

Oh, my gosh.

Well, again, this has been a wonderful conversation.

Thank you so very much for being here today, for being so open and for sharing.

I love that both of you could talk on the topic and share information with us.

So thank you for being here today and thank you for sharing.

Yeah, and it's funny.

I'm working with AI to help me write my book.

And at one point it's like, oh, no, this is.

What you mean is like, no, you're not telling me what I mean.

You're helping me find the words to say what I mean.

And it's like, oh, yeah, I'm not the smart one here.

So, yeah, I have to.

I had to get on top of AI because it's like, no, you're not writing this book.

I'm writing this book.

You're just helping me put words to it.

So very, very important distinction.

So, yeah, AI is not writing my book.

It's just helping me put the words to these things that have been stuck in there for so long.

But again, and anyway, now, thank you guys so much for being here.

It is an absolute pleasure.

And as you're reading books, you probably know about Robert.

Oh, I forgot.

The Hero's Journey.

Oh, but the Hero's Journey, you guys have been on it.

You are out.

You're doing your work, you're finding your story.

You're out, you're slaying your dragon, you're doing the hard part, and you're getting your gold and you're bringing the gold back into the community and you're telling your story.

And that is Joe.

Finding Joe.

Oh, my gosh.

Oh.

But anyway, remember where the reference of the Hero's Journey came from?

Joseph Campbell.

There it is.

Joseph Campbell got the name finally in.

A book called A Hero with a Thousand Faces.

He studied the best stories of all over the world and came up with the Hero's Journey.

And that's what you guys are doing and you're out there, you're doing the hard stuff, you're coming back and you're sharing it with the community, and that makes you guys heroes.

You are a hero for what you were doing, because what you're doing is not easy.

It's scary.

If it was easy, lots of people would be doing it.

But you are, and you're helping the world, and that, again, makes you a hero in my book.

So thank you for showing up today.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you for what you're doing.

And it is, it is a pleasure to have people like you on our podcast who are making the world a better place.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for having us.

Very well.

Good.

Preeti.

Right, before we go, would you please share how people, people can get a hold of you a bit if you've said something, if you inspired them, how can they get a hold of you and maybe work with you a little bit more?

Or like I said down in the show notes, we'll have some links and things as well.

So my business side of things are I'm more easily accessible on LinkedIn search with my name and you should be able to find me.

And on the book side of things, we do have a presence on Instagram, which is fairly new.

So we do have a presence on Instagram.

And yeah, I'm open to anybody reaching out, connecting.

And a lot of my books or the way I write or newer ideas have all, lot of them have been influenced by readers feedback and by people reaching out and asking me, can you write about a certain thing?

So I'm open to having that communication.

And if you just happen to be listening, her name is Preeti Bala Sabramanian and it's.

And it's spelled just like it sounds.

So go ahead, look it up.

No problem.

Be sure to check the show notes if you want to.

But yeah, look her up.

Find if this is important work that we're doing.

She's doing.

So again, thank you for being here today.

All right, audience, you know what time it is.

It is time to like and share and subscribe and make sure that you are giving somebody in your world who needs this information a little bit of a boost.

Like, hey, you and your child are interested in writing.

Awesome.

Go over to Bringing Education home and look at episode, whatever it's going to be and check out Pranav and Preeti.

Right?

Or if you are looking for communication, if you're looking for nutrition, we have episodes on all the different things that can really help families.

So again, thank you for being here and thank you for bringing education home to raise happy, healthy and successful kids.

Until next time, bye for now.

Bye.