Show Notes:
Worried about your teen navigating job interviews and social situations? This episode reveals the crucial skills for finding success for teens, plus insider tips even employers might be missing!

Are you a parent wondering how to best prepare your teen for the world of work and social interactions? In this episode of Water Prairie, Tonya welcomes Kirt Manecke, the author of the book “SMILE & SUCCEED for Teens,” to discuss the crucial social and job skills every teen needs to thrive. While this podcast is dedicated to parents of children with disabilities, the practical advice shared in this interview is invaluable for ANY parent looking to equip their child with the confidence and skills necessary for a successful future.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• * Key social and job skill challenges teens often face.
• * Actionable strategies parents can implement TODAY to help their teens build confidence.
• * Creative ways to practice essential skills in everyday environments.
• * The core message of “SMILE & SUCCEED for Teens” and how it relates to social and emotional development.
• * Valuable resources and tools to support your teen’s journey towards independence.

Kirt shares practical tips on everything from mastering job interviews to navigating social situations with grace and confidence. Whether your child has a diagnosed disability or simply needs extra support in preparing for their first job, this conversation offers hope and concrete steps you can take.

**Ready to empower your teen for success?**

• ➡️ **SMILE & SUCCEED for Teens book: https://amzn.to/3RNnM2L
• ➡️ **Parent’s Guide for SMILE & SUCCEED for Teens: https://amzn.to/3Z2ekfG
• ➡️ **The Teaching Guide for SMILE & SUCCEED for Teens: https://amzn.to/4d1Crkq
  • (*As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)
• ➡️ **Teen Career and Social Skills Accelerator
  • A Quick Course For Teen Success based on the book, SMILE & SUCCEED for Teens:
  • https://water_prairie–smileteenskills.thrivecart.com/social-career-skills-accelerator
  • The Water Prairie audience can get a 20% discount by using the coupon code SAVE20 at checkout.
    • ** The above links are affiliate links and may earn a commission for Water Prairie if used.

Connect with Kirt:

• Kirt’s website: https://www.smilethebook.com
• Free resources on Kirt’s website: www.smilethebook.com/free/
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kirtmanecke
• YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/SolidPressBooks

Other Resources Mentioned:

• Smart Steps App: https://smartsteps4me.com/

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Music Used:

“LazyDay” by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Artist: http://audionautix.com/

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Episode #125: How to Prepare Teens for Real World Success in 2025?

Worried about your teen navigating job interviews and social situations? This episode reveals the crucial skills for finding success for teens, plus insider tips even employers might be missing!

(Recorded January 29, 2025)

Full Transcript of Interview:

Tonya: Does the thought of your amazing child navigating the world of job interviews and social interactions feel well a little daunting. As parents of children with disabilities, we often carry the weight of preparing them for a future that sometimes feels uncertain.

But what if there were practical proven strategies to build their confidence and equip them with the essential skills for success?

Welcome to Water Prairie, a podcast for parents of children with disabilities. I’m your host, Tonya Wollum, and I’m glad you’re here.

Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Kirt Manecke, the author of the SMILE & SUCCEED for Teens, Kirt shares his expert advice on tackling the biggest social and job skill challenges our teens might face and offers concrete steps we can take today to help them shine.

Get ready for an empowering conversation filled with the actionable tips you won’t want to miss.

Kirt, welcome to Water Prairie.

Kirt: Thank you, Tonya. Thank you very much.

So, as parents of special needs kids, we’re all on a similar journey, and one of the biggest concerns that we have is helping our kids get ready for the workforce and independent living. One of the pieces that I was most attracted to whenever I saw Kirt’s listing on LinkedIn was what he’s doing with helping to train teens to be prepared for the future.

So parents stay with us through the end of this. I think you’re gonna enjoy what you’re gonna learn. Whether your child is struggling with anxiety, ADHD, Down syndrome, autism, no matter what situation that you’re working on right now. Or what age your child is, I think you’re gonna really enjoy what Kirt has to bring to us.

Hey, water Prairie listeners, we have an exciting opportunity for you. Kirt was generous enough to give us a special book bundle to pass on to one of you. One lucky listener will receive both a copy of Kirt’s book, SMILE & SUCCEED for Teens, and the companion, Parent Guide to SMILE & SUCCEED for Teens. That’s double the resources to help your teen thrive.

Entering is easy. Just head over to https://waterprairie.com/giveaway and fill out the entry form before Thursday, May 22nd, 2025. I’ll put the link in the show notes below, and do you want even more chances to win? You can unlock BONUS entries by subscribing to the Water Prairie Newsletter, and by following and engaging with us on social media platforms @waterprairie, just go to the Giveaway page at https://waterprairie.com/giveaway to find the details on all the ways you can enter.

Don’t miss out on this incredible chance to win these valuable resources. We’ll be holding a live drawing on Friday, May 23rd, 2025 at 5:00 PM Eastern Time. Where Kirt’s going to join me to talk more about his online course. Mark your calendar and good luck. Now let’s get back to our insightful conversation with Kirt.

So, um, Kirt, why don’t we get started with the big picture. What are some of the biggest social and job skill challenges that teens with special needs might be facing?

I think number one, the job interview passing that, and most employers don’t understand that. And I don’t know if the young adult has disclosed that, you know, what, what type of condition they might be dealing with or not.

So I think that’s one of them. I think the other challenge is, um, confidence. You know, you and I talked about that and I think, uh, third challenge is, um, employers, like we talked about, don’t modify the job interview process for the individual, but also. If they, the individual does disclose, then there are so mis many misconceptions.

And you know, most employers I talk with, I think there’s so much jargon they don’t understand like what inclusion means or things like that. So I think, you know, all these jargon, all these words that are full of jargon, they’re not communicating clearly to that employer. So, you know, I think employers need to know the benefits that that young adult can offer, which are many.

Yeah. Now you, you mentioned a lot of pieces that are there and, and jobs that I’ve had. I’ve seen that. Where some of our kids come in, they may have a job coach through Easter Seals or something like that where they have that support built in. But then we have other kids who will come in and they don’t disclose anything because they’re afraid that they won’t get the job if they disclose it.

Do you have any thoughts on that? Is it better to disclose it before the interview or during the interview?

You know, I don’t, and I, and I have to tell you that is, that would not be my area of expertise. I’ve read about it, you know, I kind of got into this, I have to tell you by accident, you know, I wrote, I wrote these materials for all teens.

Like you talk, you know, I talked about, and young adults, but the people that were buying it were like autism teachers and special education teachers because of the importance of being prepared for that first job, and really hitting a home run in the job interview. So, um, I, you know, I couldn’t tell you.

I’ve heard good things on both sides. I think it depends on the employer and maybe the best advice I can offer is do do some research on who’s going to be interviewing you and on the company to see are they friendly in that manner? Do they, is there, is there somebody involved with that, that is involved with special needs?

You never know. A lot of companies are, I’m, I’m shocked nowadays at how many people are. You know, how have been touched by somebody with, you know, with a disability.

So listeners, um, this is where we’re, we’re gonna throw it back to you to help us out too. If you have experience with this, leave a note in the comments, let us know.

And if you’re listening to this later or watching it on YouTube, check the comments and see what other people have piped in on. We have talked about this with a few of our past interviews as well, and, um, and what I’ve kind of come to the understanding of, is it, it really depends. Excuse me. The, um, if you are, if you are blind and you’re using a, a dog or a cane, whether you disclosed it ahead of time or not, it’s going to be obvious when you walk into the interview.

So sometimes it doesn’t really matter. You, you’re ju and if, if you need accommodations to be able to get to that interview. I think it’s kind of goes without saying you need to disclose it because you need to get there. But if you’re working with an invisible disability or something that’s not gonna be obvious to that employer, then I’m not sure what the best way is.

So, so listeners help help us out with this and, and leave us some comments so we know, um, what your experience has been too. Um, so  Kirt with that, how can our parents help teens overcome some of these challenges?

I think there’s a few things, um, that we can offer some help with. I think number one, I would definitely practice mock job interviews, and I know eye contact can be challenging, but like in my book, um, you know, it shows how to actually look somebody in the jaw or in the nose, you know, if they’re not comfortable with that eye contact.

But I think preparing the young adults so that they’re comfortable, I know it’s gonna be a little different. Um, area where they’re going to have the interview is not gonna be in your house, but at least they have gone through a lot of these mock job interview questions. So I would do that. I would also, um, and Temple Grandin had called me the same day

she read my book to endorse it, and she even told me this. She said, love your book. She said, I love that you have volunteering in it because, and she said, and this is what I would advise parents. She said, you know, it’s great for young adults to take the skills in your book and practice them in a setting.

Maybe they go to PetSmart with the family on the weekend and have, just have them do one item from the book. Have them greet a smile and greet a customer and say, hi, how are you? You know, what are you here? What are you looking for today? And just practice that that day. Then the next weekend, go with them and maybe it’s, um, suggesting.

A particular dog after they listen to that person, what they need. If they want a dog or a cat, oh, come on over here, here’s where the cats are, here’s where the dogs are. So take it in steps. But volunteering is a great way, like Temple Grandin said to practice this. So I would do those two things. The third thing I would do is, um, kind of be let your son or daughter be a mystery shopper.

Take them to a farm market and ask them after they read the book, okay, tell me who is doing a good job. At their, you know, at their booth as at the farmer’s market, or when you go to a store who’s doing a good job and who could maybe use some of the tips that you learned in the book. And they might say, well, that person’s doing a nice job.

They’re standing up, they have eye contact, they’re not on their phone, and they’re talking to that customer. And then they might say, but that other person. Mom or dad, they’re on their phone and they don’t, they shouldn’t be on their phone when they’re at work and they have customers coming by. So just things like that I think really get the social skills embedded and help them get confidence that, Hey, I can do this.

Those are some great suggestions. You, I’m just, when you were talking about, um, PetSmart, I was thinking, you know, some of our churches probably have greeters at the door or, um, or things they can do maybe before the, the children’s area or something, helping new families come in. Um, pretty, you know, those are safe areas where your child’s already comfortable and, and a good way to, to get started.

But then I love that next step going into a different territory, um, into a, a store that has, like you’re saying, on, on the weekends, they, they always have the pets out where you can, can come and see them. Um, and, and fun, you know, finding something that, that your child’s into that would be a topic that they would talk easily about.

I love your idea of being a greeter at church, by the way. I think that’s, that’s fantastic.

So I, I think a lot of this, you know, for me, having, having children who have gone through this stage already, and, um, and a lot of our listeners know that I, I do, I do have a part-time job that I work in customer service and I’m watching our younger kids that are coming in.

A lot of times I wonder if it’s a confidence issue with the, the, the team coming in. It, it comes across sometimes to the customer. That they don’t care and, and the attitude is there, but I don’t think that’s always a fair assessment of what’s happening with our kids. So how can parents and even even teachers, help our teens build some of this confidence that they need so that they can succeed both socially and professionally?

That, you know, that’s a really good point you make because I had a young man when I had our specialty retail store and they were taught to greet every single customer, and we did a ton of role playing. And Brad, who’s usually really good. He was 16 at the time. He was my, um, assistant manager later on, but he didn’t greet a family when they walked in.

And I immediately pulled him aside and I said, Brad, what’s wrong? You’re always greeting people. And he, you know what he said to me? He said, and right to your point, he said, they all hate me. I said, why do you think that? I just know they do. And I said, why don’t you try what we, what we practiced and let’s see what happens in a couple days, two days later, he ran up to me and he said, they all like me.

They all like me. So you’re right. It’s sometimes not what we even know, it’s, it’s what’s in their head. So to, to help these young adults, I think we’ve gotta really help them understand these skills. You know, have them learn these skills and then do some role playing with them as far as just greeting somebody how to go up to somebody and say.

Hi, my name’s Tim. How to look them in the eye? Stand up straight. Put your hand out, shake your hand and just say, hi, my name’s Tim. What’s your name? If they don’t say their name. And then what I do a lot, um, with young adults is role play as your parent. You as the parent, you can do this. You play the, um, customer and let your um, young adult be the employee.

And you walk in, pretend you’re walking in Best Buy kids all love, best Buy, and let them practice greeting somebody. And then you, you, you, um, you take the turn. You switch scenarios. So, and I also do it where I have the young adult walk in and I don’t say anything to them and I ask them, how did, how did that make you feel?

And they said, well, not very good. I said, well, why? Well, you didn’t greet me. And I said, well, why would that make you feel, but would you spend money here? And they’d say, no. So then we’ll do it again, and then we’ll change roles. So I would definitely do that. That gives them confidence. And then just take it.

Step by step from their first greet, then engage, and then practice how to answer the phone properly. Most of these young adults have never been taught how to do that. They’ve never had a part-time job, so of course they don’t have any confidence with, you know, with doing these things. And, you know, every, every sentence I wrote in my book, I thought this will give that teen confidence because I was kind of like that.

I was very shy when I was in middle school.

Oh, I, I was, I as in elementary school, I would cry if, if you even looked, look, looked my way, you know, so,

oh, sure.

I understand. Coming, coming through that time, um, to today. Today it’s not as obvious, but it was.

No, not at all.

So see, there, there, there is hope for all of us, right?

We’re, we’re living examples here. As you’re talking about this, I’m thinking. You know, parents that are listening, you may have a child who’s even younger. It doesn’t have to be a teenager. Think, think, think about the gift that you can give your six, seven, 8-year-old. Even if they can start developing these skills now, it’s gonna be second nature to them.

By the time they get to that, that point where they’re ready for that first job. Or, and it may at not even be a job, it might be a volunteer position they’ve gotta interview for, which is that, that first job for them. And um, and even making friends, how can this help them as they’re making friends? Do you think?

I love that. I, I, you know, I had a neighbor and the book is a fourth grade reading level, but I had a neighbor that gave it to her 6-year-old, and she said her 6-year-old. On the way up north, and you shouldn’t do this. She stood up in the backseat of the car and she goes, look mom, I’m standing up straight and let’s practice shaking hands.

What did she say? Not too loose, not too tight. Just right, right from her mom was laughing. She goes, she learned how to shake hands properly. It was just so you know, kids, they pick up on, on these things and I, you know, to also answer your question, how to give them confidence the next time you go to a restaurant.

Tell your young adult, I’m gonna order this time so you watch me, you know, model the behavior and then next time we come to the restaurant or call and ordering, I’m going to let you do it. So let them watch you. And then the next time they do it and they get some confidence, they’re like, well, I really did that.

I talked to the waiter and the waitress. And that was a good conversation. And you know, that’s how we build confidence was some wins.

We’ve talked about this in in past interviews. In fact, um, Ally, who was just on shared this as well, that, um, you know, our parents are having to teach their kids how to advocate for themselves.

And this goes a little bit deeper than, than maybe your, your typ typically developing child. But our kids that have disabilities and special needs, they sometimes have to be able to speak up for what their needs are. And she gave the example of when you’re in the doctor’s office. Instead of mom always talking to the doctor, having your child step up and, and answer some of those questions.

And I’m thinking that that builds that same type of confidence and, and the ability to be able to speak to another adult as a child, you’re, you’re in those environments where they can practice in, in multiple areas with that. So, so I could, I could see tying that together even with, with getting them ready with these skills.

Brilliant. I, I think that’s an excellent tip. Any, anytime, any interactions are, are huge. And that’s a great one.

Yeah. So what are some, um, some resources that you can think of that some of our parents might wanna plug into or look at? You’ve, you’ve mentioned some great ideas already. I mean, it’s like, I’m, I’m thinking we’re just gonna have a whole list of things by the time we’re done here.

Well, you know, a friend of mine, um, Cindy Fisher from Kansas. She is a retired special education director. I met her through LinkedIn and she has got a great app called Smart Steps, and if you’re at work or whatever you’re doing, it tells you the next step and if you get in trouble it tells you what to do.

And I, I just love it and I, that’s one of the things, I think it’s Smart Steps, the number four, and then me, so smartsteps4me.com. Cindy Fisher. I would highly recommend looking into that, especially if they don’t have a job coach on the job. And that’s what she built it for, for, um, young adults going to college or getting their first job.

I would recommend that. I’d also recommend, you know, a lot of these local nonprofits have like, um, the social skills programs, um, you know, workforce programs where you can go work. I, I would recommend looking into those if you’re in Michigan. My friend has a, um, nonprofit in Northville called the Living and Learning Enrichment Center.

Great place where they have work skills, program, vocational skills. So things like that I think are important. And also I would, you know, I would look into local, like you said, local volunteering opportunities where your young adults can at least start meeting new friends and also getting some confidence.

Volunteering and talking to adults and doing some different jobs and just getting socialized used to somebody coming up to them and saying, hi, I’m, you know, I’m Kirt. Who are you? And getting the confidence to know that, oh my gosh, I can make friends. I, I did a good job today volunteering, and that, that means I can do a good job at work.

So I would, I would do those things. You know, my resources, I’ve got, I’ve got a teen success kit where I’ve got a appearance guide and the book, so the parents don’t have to create their own mock job interviews and questions and customer service scenarios, so that type of thing. I’ve got an online course.

Um, I have a free section on my website, which has a lot of what we’re talking about. If you go to the bottom of my website and click on free, it’s smilethebook.com. It’s got networking tips, resume tips for young adults, um, how to, you know, cell phone etiquette, how to answer a phone properly. It has a lot of.

Just tips I tried to put in there. Um, places you can volunteer, things like that, just so they can maybe have some additional resources.

Great. This is, this is great. You know, I’ve looked at your website and I have not seen the free section. I’ve gotta go go and and check, check that out now.

I know it’s like hidden on the bottom because I didn’t have enough room on the top anymore.

Right, right.

I’ll have to highlight that somewhere.

we will link all of these, for you, I’ll look up where Cindy Fisher’s app is so that anyone who’s looking for that can, can get connected with that too. Okay. If you have that, send it to me.

I will email it to you.

have you ever worked with, um, the online meetup? Groups, have you ever done that before?

Oh yeah. Those are great. That’s another good idea. Yes. Good thinking.

I had, um, I had a friend on the podcast a couple seasons ago, um, talking about making friends as an autistic young man and he uses Meetup as his way, ’cause he can meet up online first before he goes into the face-to-face group and kind of gets that, that slow, slow in introduction.

But he’s using that as, as how he, how he finds new friends. So I

Very good idea. I like that.

Didn’t know if you thought about that one.

I never, I I should add that to it. That’s a great idea. I never crossed, there’s so many things that never crossed my mind. So, meet up.

They really are. Yeah. I had never, I’ve never used it before, so I never would’ve crossed my mind either.

But I thought it was a great, a great way to take some of that pressure off as you’re beginning to, to, to, to put yourself out there.

Yes. I really like that.

All right, so  Kirt, you’ve mentioned Smile. Okay, so your website is smilethebook.com. You’ve mentioned that you have a book for teens, and specifically we have a book,  SMILE & SUCCEED for Teens.

And that is, is that, is that the picture behind you?

That is, yes, that it’s, do you want me to hold it up? Yeah. I don’t see, so parents, you have a picture here of the book. I’ll get out of the way. That’s it.

So I wanted to ask you a little bit about that. What’s the core message of SMILE & SUCCEED for Teens and how does it relate to social and emotional development?

Great question. The core message is really follow the golden rule, treat others as you want to be treated in business and in life. You know, we did that when I had a startup specialty retail store. I had 25 teenagers working for me. You saw what it does with Wegmans, we talked about that. So as far as social emotional learning, it’s really critical because it helps young adults with, um, the social skills, the emotional part of it, and learning how to connect with others.

Like we talked about, introducing yourself, treating others with respect, not assuming, being a good listener, and also knowing how to communicate face to face and, you know, knowing when to. Um, when to not have your cell phone out. A lot of young adults have never been taught when you shouldn’t have the phone out and when it’s okay to have it out.

Yeah. And, and I think, I think that is one of the biggest challenges right now is the, the di Digital media. I. Um, and, and because our kids live on it, it’s, you know, maybe listener. You may have the one child who doesn’t, but, but, but if you have a teenager and, and they have bought their first piece of, of phone or anything like it, they are stuck to it at times.

Um, and I think it’s a security piece, but, um, but there are, there are ways to help them get, get past it. So talking to our parents and even some of our educators that might be listening in. Um, how can, because I know you have some resources too, how can they incorporate the lessons that are in the book into everyday activities?

I made it really easy with the parents’ guide, um, you know, and I have a teaching guide for the teachers with classroom packs, which include the books and the online course. So as far as incorporating it every day. Um, if I were a parent, I would start at the very first page and go through, have your son or daughter just read the first two pages, which is smile and say Hi.

And then when they go out today, make that a goal. See, smile, and say hi to two people today and let me know what happened. You know, I had somebody do that. I had a, uh, media tech at a elementary school. Um, her niece just was really depressed and she thought the football coach hated her and. She read the book and she went up and just smiled and say hi.

Said hi to him and she said all week he’s been smiling and saying hi to me. He doesn’t hate me. He really likes me. I mean, these little things that we don’t think about that really can cause a lot of stress and depression, and it’s our own head saying, oh my gosh, he doesn’t like me. And really he’s not even paying attention.

He’s thinking, you know, the coach is probably thinking about the game that’s going on tonight. So, you know, I would incorporate a lesson almost every couple days, or at least once a week. From the material and use the parents guide. The parents guide has, um, electronic media resources. For instance, you’re at a restaurant with your family and your phone rings.

What do you do? And there’s multiple choice questions, and the correct answer is not answer my phone. So there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of things in there to prepare your young adult for the workforce as far as, um, social media. As far as, um, just being a good employee, you know, there’s no customers in the store, you’re the only one in the store, what should you do?

And it, you know, just gives them different scenarios. You can clean, you can learn about the products from the boxes, you know, read about, read about the features and benefits, make sure you know the hours. You know, I used to have a startup, especially a retail store, so I know what needs to be done and what customers are looking for.

And as an employer, the skills in my materials are what I was looking for. When I was hiring these young adults, friendly, smiling, because I’d always be thinking, could I trust this? Could I trust Steve? If Tonya walks in, will she come back or not? That’s what, what an employer is thinking, you know? So that’s why you want your young adult to have really good people skills.

Yeah. Excellent, excellent. Um, I’ve, I’ve got so, so, so many thoughts now. I’m kind of run running through my head with this. I, I think our listeners probably are in the same, same state. So before we go into the day in a life. Um, tell us how can they get a copy of the book? How can they get in touch with you if they have questions?

And then, then, then we’ll go into that part.

Sure. On my website, www.smilethebook.com. That’s smilethebook.com. They’re also available on Amazon. The online course is only available on my website, and that’s the exact same material as in the book, except it does have videos and interactive questions. I like kids to have a book, but it just depends on what parents want.

And as far as getting ahold of me, um, they can email me on my website. I’ve got my email there. If they go to the very bottom of the page and hit contact, it’s simply  Kirt, K-I-R-T, which is kirt@smilethebook.com. They’re welcome to email me.

All right. Excellent.

Thank you.

And, and again, we’ll, we will put the, the, the links for all of that.

Except, except for the email. We’ll just leave that on the website so you don’t get spam. But, but we’ll, we’ll have all of those links on the bottom. Sure. So. For this season, I’m trying out an experimental segment called A Day in the Life. And, um, and  Kirt’s agreed to answer a couple questions on this. So, um, this is listeners, this is just a way for us to, to get to know who our guest is a little bit differently from just the, the straightforward questions that, that we went through.

And, um, and I thought it might be helpful, especially in this one, to get kind of an idea of what. For, for your teen especially to kind of hear what an adult life is like whenever we are actually living it. Um, so  Kirt, could you share your morning routine for us? Like how do you stay organized and productive throughout the day?

You know, I get up at about 5:30. By 6:00 I’m working, and I spend that time. I’ve learned that my good time to work and my energy is like from 6:00 to 4:00. So in the mornings I immediately follow up by email with a number of people, whether it’s on LinkedIn, to have a Zoom call with somebody, with a prospect.

Or like yesterday for example, I had somebody from the state of New Jersey, the Workforce Readiness. We’ve been, you know, going back and forth. I’ve emailed them a couple times, haven’t heard back. So. And this is a good, good tip for, for young adults. If somebody doesn’t respond by email, give them a call. So I called, left a voicemail, I’ll call again in a week.

So, you know, try different methods and I’ll do a lot of, um, just connections that way. And then normally there’s something that comes in that I have to work on, whether it’s an order. Or maybe something went wrong with my website and you can, I think, relate to this and you spend a little time fixing that and you get the order processed and you know, like for now I’m setting up a landing page for my online course.

So, you know, you’re trying to do multiple projects as a solopreneur. Um, you know, an author. So you’re just trying to do probably 10 things in one morning to keep everything flowing and then just calling some people you haven’t talked to in a while that were prospects or customers just to see how they’re doing.

So that’s kind of my life. I check my Amazon page, make sure everything’s correct on there, um, because sometimes that can get hacked. So I’m looking into that quite a bit. That’s kind of my, kind of my morning, if that makes any sense.

So, what’s your favorite part of the day?

I like the morning. I love talking to people like you and I have been talking.

I really enjoy learning about different people. Like you told me about Wegmans, which was such a coincidence that I was talking to my friend about that last night. So that really is my favorite part. Getting on Zoom, talking with people in different, um, states and sometimes different countries. I’m talking to a woman with a screen-free nonprofit.

Um, to help kids on Friday, and she’s from Sweden, so it’ll be very interesting.

Oh, wow. Yeah. All right. Give us one more, um, shout out for your website,

www.smilethebook.com. No spaces smilethebook.com.

Excellent. Excellent. So listeners leave us a comment if you, if you buy the book or the course, give us some feedback and I would, um, strongly encourage you to go on to Amazon and leave a review for him.

If you do purchase the book. Um, ’cause I know it does, it does help with, um, with future purchases for him and to help other people find it.

Kirt, I’ve really enjoyed this. I know the information that you’ve shared has a lot of parents thinking right now what, their next move might be, and I hope a lot of them will check out your book and purchase that.

But thank you for being here today.

You’re welcome, Tonya. Thank you so much. that was so nice to talk with you. Thank you.

What incredible insights from Kirt. I hope you found those tips as valuable as I did. If you’re ready to equip your teen with the essential social and job skills they need to succeed, be sure to check out Kirt’s book, SMILE & SUCCEED for Teens. You can also find a link in the description, and I’ll post the link to his comprehensive online course too.

Thanks for joining me today, and I’ll see you next time.