Meet Lindsey Ervin and Tess Cox of The Family Strong Blueprint in Littleton

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lindsey Ervin and Tess Cox.

So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Tess and I met 20 years ago, while Tess was working as a director of women’s ministries and I as a teacher in Santa Clarita, California. The energy we both enjoy for love and life brought us together and has continued to this day. Our personal and professional journeys separated us through miles as I moved back to Denver and began our family. Tess continued in Santa Clarita raising her children through high, school and new careers. In May and June of 2017, our lives were changed forever.

My father and Tess’s father passed away within a month of each other. Our fathers were the catalyst that brought us through our grief and dialogue. I had just received a copy of Tess’ first book, The Leadership Blueprint, Becoming the Architect of Your Life and Work, written with Dan Klawer, Jr. Tess’ book inspired my idea to write a book to support parents and teenagers with core values. Our motivation was to support families to create a strong family bond. Creating tools and resources with a focus on dialogue, attachment, connection and engagement would be key. We embarked on a journey in writing a book for parents and teens.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Our long-distance partnership created some challenges, as Tess lives in Southern California while Lindsey resides in Colorado. We juggled a few trips with our busy schedules as we both engaged in work full-time work while writing the book. We carried out many FaceTime appointments and phone calls on evenings and weekends to “meet” and process our writing. Strategy and focus were key for us. We were also full of grief which presented its own challenges.

However, the writing process and book itself was a gift to us during that season. The Family Strong Blueprint helped us process and remember the wonderful lives and influence of our fathers. We have honored our families well in our book, and continue to heal and know our work has deep purpose and meaning.

The Family Strong Blueprint – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
What sets us apart is our love for families and our proactive approach to building a strong foundation. Our approach to coaching families is unique. The Family Strong Blueprint truly is social and emotional learning for the family. It is a blueprint in which families can design and create what is most meaningful to them based on their core values. Every family is unique and we honor that in everything we’ve written. There are very few resources written to engage both parent and teen. We specialize in helping families create strong communication and connection. Our approach can be used in many settings – schools, churches and individual families. We also love to support clinicians and therapists working with families. We offer coaching, seminars and consulting services.

We are really proud of the end result – the book and business we are building. We poured so much of ourselves into our writing process, the design (thanks to Lindsey’s husband) and in communicating evidence-based strategies grounded in research that really work. We love that it is proactive, positive and purposeful. When it comes to the book, our definition of success is really asking ourselves, how is our book supporting families? Is there a ripple effect in families being able to support one another? Are parents and teens more connected? Are they learning? Are they are growing? If we can answer “yes” to those questions, I think we would say we’ve been successful.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Tess and I both love to help people and we’ve always looked for ways to be included in helping. We are learners, and our learning always turns towards how can we help others? So, we will continue to learn and evaluate how we can best be supporting families. I don’t think we’d change a thing. This has been an incredible journey.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.familystrongblueprint.com
• Phone: 6616446121
• Email: info@familystrongblueprint.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/familystrongblueprint/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/familystrongblueprint/

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