Shownotes:
Here comes an incredible guest, Annick Rauch. We explore her newly released book, "PheMOMenal Teacher: Pursue Your Dreams and Still Be Your Best Self at Work and at Home", and uncover her journey of juggling a bustling family life, her teaching career, and her passion for running, all while nurturing her own well-being. Annick's candid stories about finding the silver lining and the power of self-talk will surely leave you feeling empowered. Tune in for some heartfelt vulnerability and wisdom!
About Our Guest:
Annick Rauch is the author of PheMOMenal Teacher. She is a passionate grade 1 French immersion teacher who truly loves what she does. Outside of school, Annick is a very busy mom. She and her husband Chris have four energetic boys and a silver lab. Annick loves to go camping with her family, and she also makes it a priority to carve out time for trips with friends. Although busy, Annick doesn’t let that stop her from pursuing her dreams outside of her work and home life. She is an avid runner and she blogs at annickrauch.ca. Annick is a lifelong learner who continues to follow her passions.
Website: annickrauch.ca
X/Twitter: @AnnickRauch
Instagram: @annickrauch
About Lainie:
Lainie Rowell is a bestselling author, award-winning educator, and TEDx speaker. She is dedicated to human flourishing, focusing on community building, social-emotional learning, and honoring what makes each of us unique and dynamic through learner-driven design. She earned her degree in psychology and went on to earn both a post-graduate credential and a master's degree in education. An international keynote speaker, Lainie has presented in 41 states as well as in dozens of countries across 4 continents. As a consultant, Lainie’s client list ranges from Fortune 100 companies like Apple and Google to school districts and independent schools. Learn more at linktr.ee/lainierowell.
Website - LainieRowell.com
Twitter - @LainieRowell
Instagram - @LainieRowell
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Transcript:
Lainie Rowell: [00:00:00] All right, my friends. Welcome. Another amazing guest here. I have my friend Annick Rauch. Hi, Annick. How are you today?
Annick Rauch: Good. How are you?
Lainie Rowell: Well, I'm doing well and I'm very excited to have you on the pod. You have just released a brand new book so we're going to delve into that, but there's so much to you. For the listeners, Annick is the author of the newly released, PheMOMenal Teacher and she is a passionate grade one French immersion teacher who truly loves what she does and there's so much to her including the fact that her and her husband have four boys. I am a boy mom of one boy so I am super in awe of all that you do and tell us a little bit more.
Annick Rauch: Well, thank you so much for having me on. I'm so excited. I am actually super excited because as we're recording this, my book just went live on Amazon today. So been a wild journey and I'm just so excited. I feel like a lot of people will have a hard time pronouncing the book name until you get used to it because it's a mouthful.
But especially when you see it written, I think that it looks very cool and I love it. So like you said, I am a grade one French immersion teacher up in Canada. So I live in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. And the French immersion program is where kids who don't have French at home, come to learn the language.
So everything is taught in French, except for English class. And they are just immersed in this language because here in Canada, we have two official languages, French and English. And like you said, I have four boys. I also have a dog, a Silver Lab named Ellie, so we are very, very busy and I have a lot of other things that I love to do on the side other than teaching.
I have been a runner for several years now. I've been blogging for several years now, and I just find it so important to pursue those outside passions. So that's me in a nutshell.
Lainie Rowell: I think we have to just get into right away, because we're going to talk more about this later, and we're going to talk about your relationship to gratitude, but I have to say, looking at all you do, it's definitely an opportunity to feel like I'm not doing enough, but having read your book and endorsed your book with such joy, I mean, you really lay out how it is that you accomplish all of these amazing things and there's so much practical wisdom, it's just a go to guide for how to do all the things in a way that is also nurturing your well being.
Annick Rauch: I feel like that is generally the perception that people have of me is like, how on earth are you doing all of these things? And this book is not meant to make everybody go out there and have more children and pursue these big goals and write books and blog and run half marathons.
It's just to show you that you're not limited by your circumstances and you are more than just a mom. You're more than just a teacher and my go to is just to try to help people see that so that they can do more than they even thought possible.
Lainie Rowell: You are an inspiration.
We're going to talk more about the book but let's go ahead and help my check things off the list, linear thinking, and let's talk a little bit about what does gratitude mean to you.
Annick Rauch: You bet. So, to me, gratitude is this positive emotion, and it goes way beyond just being thankful. It's deeper, it's more continuous. I just see it as a way of being.
So, living with gratitude and appreciation lets you see the world through a different lens, and when you approach life with a thankful heart. You're better able to notice these beautiful and positive things around you. So everyday experiences, no matter how small or mundane are richer, deeper, you start to focus on the silver lining through hard and difficult situations.
You find opportunities for growth and learn through the challenges. And I've learned a lot through my struggles. If you pick up my book, you will see I have fallen down more times than I can count. And through these challenges, I've learned the importance of mindset, and having a grateful heart definitely helps to have that positive mindset.
Gratitude encourages empathy, kindness, and allows you to notice love and support that surrounds you, and these are all things that strengthen relationships, not only with others, but with yourself. And I love the Gratitude sales pitch that Dave Burgess had given when he was on your podcast. It's like, Gratitude is free and does all these amazing things for us. Like, it's a no brainer. Sign me up.
Lainie Rowell: I know, I just posted on the socials yesterday. It was a quote that Dr. Emmons put out there. The quote was from Steve Foran, and it's, "The upside of gratitude is there's no downside." And so I appreciated the way Dave pitched it as well.
It's just quite remarkable. I see gratitude. I see that it's that lens for you. And I see that you live life so richly. And so I would really love to get into, and this is where we can start to kind of dive deeper into your book.
What does this look like in your life where you want to really savor everything from being a teacher, being a mom, being a runner, all of these things. I was with friends this weekend and they asked me, how do you get so much done?
Do you not drink? And I said, no, I actually don't drink very often, but that's more just because I'm getting old and it gives me headaches now. There's so much in life that I want to savor that I'm kind of always looking for these opportunities to really maximize the experiences.
And so I don't know if that resonates with you, but I see you savoring like every aspect of life.
Annick Rauch: Totally. And I feel like it is more aligned with my values and I'm not a drinker either. Me, it's mostly because I just really don't like the taste, so I just can't get into it.
But, it's more about following the energy and your passions. For me, blogging and working and running is not a chore. Well, that's not true. Sometimes working is a chore. Like, everybody has bad days, and we have to admit that. But for the most part, doing all of these things give me energy and feed into it.
But it doesn't mean that that's the same for everybody else. I have a whole chapter on the comparison and comparison trap because people can look at me and think like, wow, how are you doing all this? How are you fitting all this in? But that's because running is my me time.
Running is the time for me to escape and to let out some of the built up energy and process things. But if running for you is a chore, you can't compare that. You just can't so it's to me it's more about following those passions and following that energy and it's okay if that changes. When I was busy having my children and here in Canada we're very lucky we have a leave of maternity leave.
So when I was off for a year with each of my boys. I was doing all sorts of things, like I started cloth diapering, and I was a big advocate for breastfeeding, and baby wearing, and all of these things, and when I went back to work for the last time and really started focusing on my career, that stuff kind of got put to the side, and it wasn't necessarily a bad thing, like it's okay to stop doing things that aren't serving you anymore and so, to look at somebody, like I, I feel the same when I look at you, I'm like, wow, how are you doing all these things, and you're always so active on social media, and you have a podcast, and you have these books, and it's all so incredible, but I have to remind myself that our realities aren't different.
I know that we are very similar in certain ways, like type A organizations, but we really need to be mindful of not comparing and following that energy.
Lainie Rowell: Comparison is such a thief of joy. That's a quote that I'm borrowing from someone at the moment. Whose name is eluding me. And I feel so spoiled that I got an advanced copy and I got to read this before it was out for the world to purchase. Which you should, by the way, if you're listening to this right now, we can pause and go on Amazon. It's available in paperback and on Kindle.
Annick Rauch: You're so sweet.
Lainie Rowell: Well, the books that we put out there are our heart. They're a lot of work and oh my goodness, writing the book is just part of it.
There's a lot to putting your work out into the world, but I really appreciate how You're saying, don't compare and also giving the permission to let go of the things that no longer serve you and so we all are in different circumstances, so I will say that cloth diapers, that was never going to be a reality, so we do have maternity leave, not to the extent that they do in Canada.
But as a consultant, I didn't get a maternity leave. It was just, I didn't work. I wasn't bringing in income. So there were things that I prioritized. I was very conscious of, I wanted my kids to have homemade food. I wanted to make all of their food. Now that was a little bit because I also really liked to cook.
So that was something that was in line with my values and also reasonable for my circumstances. But cloth diapers, not in the cards for me. So I appreciate that this isn't like a you need to do the things that I did. You're very honest, very vulnerable.
There's just so much care in the way that you tell your story. Highly vulnerable. You share some really, really personal things in your book and I just appreciate that because it's that wholehearted vulnerability that makes it so that I go, Okay, this is what worked for her. I'm going to take these things that will work for me and bring those into my life.
And so I think it's a real gift. And you've been writing on your blog for how long?
Annick Rauch: I think I started in 2016. So a while.
Lainie Rowell: A while. I think that's another thing that we have to remember is that sometimes things might seem overnight. Oh, she has a book now and you wrote the book fast, but you've been blogging for many, many years.
Annick Rauch: I'll go back to the cloth diapering thing just quickly. I loved your analogy about you cooking for your kids because that was something that was of interest to you as well.
And cloth diapering never really was much of an interest for me until I found out that I was pregnant with twins and was going to have a 20 month old at home at the same time. So I was going to have three in diapers. So it kind of came up as a necessity. Like, I'm not going to be able to buy enough diapers for my children, so I need to buckle up and try to do this and I did become, increasingly passionate about it and dove into it more, but sometimes it comes out of necessity and not just what you're interested in.
And then the other piece I was going to say about, yes, I've been blogging since 2016 and the book, once I did sign my contract, kind of came together rather quickly. The thing that is interesting is I've had this dream for several years now. But what I know now in hindsight is I had more things to go through and live before I was ready to share this with the world, and I had to go through my deep depression to learn even more and that vulnerability I just feel like is, it's not everybody that's willing to share like I do, but I just find it so important because it's what I lean on. When I'm going through struggles, knowing that I'm not alone and that others have gone through it and have pulled through is such an important piece of me getting through it.
I just had to live through that so that I could share it with the world.
Lainie Rowell: It really is very generous of you. No matter how hard working you are, there are still going to be things that get in the way. You do share the times that you've fallen and gotten back up, and basically you're laying out your journey, and again, never saying like, this is how you should do it, it's more of a, this is what has worked for me, and maybe something like this could work for you.
It's so lovely. And I'd really love if there's some teasers you could give the listener. The whole book is about like finding that extra gear, which I think we're all always looking for.
Where's that extra gear?
Annick Rauch: So I feel like the first one I will say is, especially as moms and women and teachers, we are brought up to believe that selflessness is this holy grail that we should strive towards.
What I want people to realize is that being selfless is not actually what you should strive for. You should not be doing things for others to the point where it is to your detriment. And so, not being selfless is not selfish. There is this middle ground and I share in the book this story that kind of made me realize all of this.
So I was carrying around a lot of guilt and was feeling selfish for putting all of these hours into my half marathon training. And I was like, Oh, all this time away from my boys, like I'm sneaking away and I was really struggling with it. And then we were out camping as a family and my husband and I were doing the dishes while the boys were running around the bay and playing and they were setting up their next game and all I heard was they were drawing a line across the bay, the road, and they were saying Okay guys, we're going to run and it's not about finishing first, it's about your stamina and we're all going to encourage each other.
And my four boys each took their turns doing their laps, but as they ran their laps, their three brothers ran with them and they were encouraging them and just cheering each other on. And they all completed their little goal of running around the bay without walking. And I just thought to myself, what a beautiful gift I gave my boys.
I thought I was being selfish. I was carrying around all this guilt for taking this time that I needed to pursue this goal and passion of mine. And did they view it that way? They actually learned a really beautiful thing. They learned that mom putting herself first is really important. And they learned to cheer each other on and to encourage each other.
And trust me, guilt is a whole other beast that I write about at the end of the book, but that was a moment of clarity for me, like, I need to stop doing this, because putting myself first is important and it's teaching them. And there's this quote by Glennon Doyle that I just loved in Untamed, and she says, "My children do not need me to save them. My children need to watch me save myself."
And I was like, yes! Yes, that is what they need. I don't want them to need to rely on somebody else when they're older to save them. They need to be able to save themselves. And how are they going to learn that? By watching me save myself.
Lainie Rowell: You're teaching them so many lessons.
You're teaching them to take care of themselves. You're teaching them healthy lifestyle. You're teaching them perseverance. There's just so many things. And it's a truly lovely thing when you see your kids mirroring what you're doing in your life and that you're not saying always put yourself last.
Annick Rauch: Yeah. It's not selfish.
Lainie Rowell: Are you open for sharing another bit of wisdom?
Annick Rauch: You bet. I will share something else that just happened to me last weekend so it's not in the book, but the message is in the book, just the story isn't. So, I have this chapter about. your words being so important.
So your words matter to others and to yourself. And I talk about the importance of self talk and talking to yourself as kindly as you would to a friend, and that your words are truly powerful. And last weekend I was at one of my boys hockey. Deep into hockey already, full force. And I was sitting there, he was at a practice with his brand new team.
The teams just got made. And I was standing there by the glass and a mom calls me over and she's like, Oh, Hey Annick. And I had a hard time placing her at first. And I was like, well, I'll just keep chatting. And I'm sure that it'll come to me. Cause it's, it's very hard. I work in the same community that I teach and live.
So I see people out in the wild all the time. And I'm like, Oh, am, are you a parent from the school? Are you, like, I don't, it takes me a little bit of time to place them anyways. So she calls me over and we're chatting and she goes, I just want you to know that what you said to me that one day really hit deeply.
And I haven't stopped thinking about it ever since. And I was like, Oh,, help me. What did I say? Is this bad? When did this happen? Anyways, as we kept chatting, I came to realize that her oldest daughter and my oldest son used to go to preschool together. Okay, my oldest is 13 now, so this is a long time ago, and we were at a preschool grad, and she had just had twins. Her twins were maybe about a month or two at this preschool graduation, and my twins were about 10 months. And when, apparently, I don't really, I don't remember this interaction, but she sure does when we were at this grad, I told her that having twins is the most beautiful gift, and there were so many positives, and it is a true miracle that we get to experience this twin bond, and I had shared with her so many incredible things that I had witnessed my twins go through, and just such special things that most people don't get to experience in their lifetime.
And she shared with me at the hockey rink this past weekend how those words stuck with her because most of the stuff that she was hearing was negative. Like, good luck to you, it's going to be hard. She also has four kids, by the way. My last two are twins. That's how that happened. And same for her. So one, two, and then bam, three, four came as a package.
And she was just so grateful to me that I had made that comment to her that one day. I don't remember it. But she did, and it just goes to show that our words are so powerful, and that ties into another chapter, but you shouldn't shy away from saying these little things that you don't think matter, because I didn't say it that day to try to have this huge life impact on her.
But it turns out that I did, and it really helped her get through these challenging times through her twins, with her twins, and with the rest of the gang, and just remembering that there is good that comes from having four children, twins included.
Lainie Rowell: Well, and I think this is a phenomenon that is unexplainable why people tell pregnant people all the horror stories and all the bad things. It's like, they're already on red alert, friends. Let's be kind. I felt like that when I was pregnant both times. Can anyone tell me some good news? I don't need to know about the rare disease.
Annick Rauch: Yeah.
Lainie Rowell: But I think the big message there, and this ties to gratitude, is we often think, oh, I'll say this thing and it won't matter. But it could actually be incredibly profound. And it might even just be the timing of it and so you don't want to hold on to these things that would be of benefit to someone else thinking, well, they might not care.
Take that chance! It could make all the difference for them, either in the day or long term, and so I think that's a really important message.
Annick, what kind of pushed you to be like, I'm going to put this in a book?
Annick Rauch: Yeah, I think that the biggest push for me, was to see how people were responding to my blog posts, especially those vulnerable ones. I could just tell that I was helping people and It's a little bit funny because I was never writing to help others.
I was truly writing because it was something that helped me, something that I did for myself. And it just so happened that it helped others as well. So as I was sharing more and looking back on, well, what blog post kind of resonated more or got more attention, and it was always those ones where I shared really personal things. And people were like, you know what? Me too. And I'm so glad that you shared that because now I feel less alone. So I just feel like going through this life as a teacher and a mom, two roles that are extremely challenging, I just wanted to try to help others. And helped myself in the process.
And I really just wrote a book that I needed. And I've read this book so many times, especially through the editing process. And I reread it and I'm like, Oh, right. I learned that. I need to do that. And like, These are the life lessons that I supposedly learned, but I forget, so I need, I need to be reminded of all these things myself, and it's, it was never meant to be an end all be all.
I'm not done learning. No one has ever done learning, and I just hope that this is the beginning of a conversation maybe like as a founding of a community of moms and educators who come together to support one another and to lift each other up and to remind themselves and each other that they can do so much more than they thought that they could.
Lainie Rowell: I did get really emotional reading this book. There were, there were a couple times where I got a little weepy because you really do share some very personal tragedies and so that's, it's hard, but I hear you and what I love that you said there is find these communities and I feel like you gave us permission to be really honest with the struggles that we're having and then to help each other, right?
So, oh my goodness, I love this book, I'm so excited. People can, I know I keep saying this, go grab your copy but I'm just, I'm really happy for you, friend, and I'm really happy that people are going to get to read this. .
Annick Rauch: Thank you.
Lainie Rowell: So I'm going to give you that chance to wrap it up and do your shout out.
So, it's all yours, Annick.
Annick Rauch: All right, I will give my shout out to my dream team, is what we call each other. I have this incredible team at school Kaylin, Mikaela, Nadine, and Sheila. They are my heartbeat at school. I can rely on them for anything and everything. And I just feel like they are the perfect example of a gratitude cycle.
I feel like we're all so grateful for one another and we're always expressing that, which creates this like snowball that we just keep, like we're always picking up the pieces or helping each other. I'll do that. I'll do this to help you because we just feel like we're just this tight knit group.
So grateful for one another, and I'm just so blessed to work with them every single day. Love you, ladies.
Lainie Rowell: That's amazing. I will say my team when I was at a campus, and particularly in the classroom, that team, I mean, we're still like lifelong friends because you help each other through so much.
So that was a really lovely shout out.
Okay, Annick, you invented a name for the title of the book, so let's make sure to get all the socials and your website out there so people know how to connect with you, and of course they can go to Amazon and grab the book, but like, How did they get to you?
How did they get to the book? Share it all right now, please.
Annick Rauch: Great. So, pretty simple. Twitter, or X, however you want to call it. And Instagram is @ANNICKRAUCH. And my website is the same, ANNICKRAUCH, but it's ca, not com, because I'm proud Canadian.
Lainie Rowell: We love our Canadian friends. In fact, we have a lot of friends in common.
And one of them, I noticed, was in your acknowledgements.
Annick Rauch: You bet!
Lainie Rowell: Well, that would be George Couros. Of course, he is now here stateside. So I'm happy about it.
Thank you for your time. And thank you for sharing this beautiful book with us. And I hope people reach out to you and grab their copy ASAP.
Annick Rauch: Thank you. And thank you so much for having me on for reading and endorsing my book. I am so grateful for you and you will accept it because you are working on,
Lainie Rowell: On my indebtedness.
Annick Rauch: Yeah.
Lainie Rowell: On my indebtedness and my accepting compliments. I really try. Thank you for holding me accountable to that, my friend.
Annick Rauch: You bet. Thanks so much, Lainie.
Lainie Rowell: Thank you all for listening.