We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Rebecca Porter. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Rebecca below.

Hi Rebecca, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

For the longest time I went by Rebecca Porter, Children’s Book Author. I didn’t want to choose any name and I was not in any rush to get one. As I got older, I realized the importance of loving myself as I am. I think we compare ourselves to everyone else in the world. How we haven’t accomplished specific things in life but someone we knew already has, or the way we look. We all have our own story, our own path, and we cannot focus on the important aspects of life until we learn to first love ourselves. I don’t know what I was doing but the thought of first, love, yourself came to mind and I wrote it down. All day I was thinking about how to incorporate that as a business name. So many ideas came to mind, and I love butterflies because of the symbolic meaning behind a butterfly. Butterflies have wings and fly, and first-love-yourself acronyms are F.L.Y. I write children’s books, so of course F.L.Y Lil’ Library has a cute (lil’) ring to it and it stuck. There are many different meanings behind my business name, it is all how you interpret it. 1. F.L.Y = First. Love. Yourself
2. Until you spread your wings, you will have no idea how far you can fly. ~Unknown
3. If you want to soar in life, you must learn to fly (F.L.Y) ~Unknown
4. Fly = Cool

There are many other different quotes that relate to my books, but my biggest message is to First-Love-Yourself.

Rebecca, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’ve always loved to write and have a big imagination, I just never thought I would be an author. You get told at a young age to graduate from high school, go to college, and then work a typical job. I am not against that path at all and envied my friends who had the college experience. I got pregnant at 18 and married at 19. At this point, going to college was not on my mind, nor a priority. When my daughter was born, we found out that she has Down Syndrome. This news changed my life forever. Who thinks that when you get pregnant, you will have a special needs child. Being a parent is hard enough and I had to learn to navigate something extremely new and difficult. She was in the hospital for one month before I could hold her but all I could tell myself was, at least she is healthy, she doesn’t have a heart defect, or needs any surgery. When she was 10 months old, we noticed Kiara jerking while she slept. We took her to the hospital and found out she has seizures. This was one of the hardest two months of my life. Being told that the medication wasn’t working, and she might not survive made me numb. Finally, after endless tests and different medications the doctors found one that worked. My husband and two kids later decided to move to Arizona from Germany to give ourselves a better life. Little did I know the endless struggles I would endure. With raising two children alone without any help, my daughter constantly getting sick, our house broken into loosing so much, and of course financial troubles. I’ve had to manage all of this on top of being married to an addict. In 2017 I tore my ACL for the fourth time and needed surgery and at this point of my life I was extremely depressed. All I could think about is why and how I didn’t want to do “this” anymore. After my surgery I had a thought about a book. I couldn’t do anything else but sit, so I wrote, and wrote, and wrote until my first book, Just Say Hello was done. Writing this children’s book was therapeutic and I continued to write and publish books, but I didn’t do much with my books besides publish.

On December 24, 2022, I received the worst news, my dad who had been battling cancer since 2017 passed away. As sad as this was, I knew I couldn’t let this put me back into a bad headspace. I had two books that were ready to publish, kept myself busy and contacted schools to do school readings, bought an LLC, signed up for local vendor events every weekend, and began MY business. The first school I went to saw my Positive Notey Journal and contacted me about ordering in bulk. I thought maybe 40 or 50 books tops, but they eventually settled with 994 journals! This was the biggest news I had received since publishing my books and I knew I was on the right path in life. Today I have seven published books, one journal, a memory game, self-printed stickers, and handmade bookmarks.
To look back at everything I have gone through and still go through today, then see what I’ve accomplished is one of the best feelings in the world. I could have given up hundreds of times but kept going because in my gut I always knew this can’t be it, and I refuse to let all of this negative be MY story.

This is only the beginning of my new chapter in life, I have plans for more books and other fun products, but you will have to wait to find out.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Getting out into the world. I try to schedule vendor events almost every weekend. Not only am I getting new clients, but this is time for me to worry about just me. Not all events are busy, but I always leave with something. Whether that’s seeing how other vendors set up their booths and how I can add to mine. Other times is meeting the right person, for me that person is a teacher or a someone working at a school. Every event I go to I learn or gain something out of it, I have had a few events of almost selling out of my products. Also going to schools, libraries, bookstores, and contacting certain facilities have all been a great source for new clients. I had to learn how to get out of my comfort zone and get out into the world, because if I believe in my business, others will too.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I wouldn’t say I have a specific book or video because all are helpful in some aspect with my business. Finding what works for you and how to incorporate these ideas to your own business.

For any business owner or any person really, change what you see and hear. Comparing yourself to another person’s success will not help you grow. I would read about other authors and how they sold thousands of books in one month. Then look at my sales which were maybe five or ten. I don’t know their story, or how long it took for them to get there. I had to learn to focus on my business and my brand.

Social media is another big one. It is a helpful tool to use for your business, but it can also be taxing. You scroll and scroll throughout hundreds of videos. People traveling, others looking like they have “the life.” You then start analyzing your own life, not happy with where you’re at. I’ve changed my algorithm to positive thinking, business pages, how to videos. Anything to motivate me with my own business. Realizing that a lot of these posts are what they want us to see. Nobody knew my life or what I was dealing with in my own house, but on social media it looked like I had a fantastic life.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.flylillibrary.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/f.l.y.lillibrary
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/f.l.y.lillibrary