The Perfect Graduation Gift — with Great Life Advice

[1:34]Zibby Owens: Hi. This is Zibby Owens, and you're listening to totally booked with Zibby. Formerly, moms don't have time to read books. In my daily show, I interview today's latest best selling, buzziest, or underrated authors and story creators whose work I think is worth your time. As a bookstore owner, publisher, author, and obviously podcaster, I get a comprehensive look at everything that's coming out and spend my time curating the best books so you don't have to. Stay in the know, get insider insights, and connect with guests like I do every single day. For more information, go to zibbymedia.com, and follow me on Instagram at Zibby Owens. Christina Geist is the author of Before You Fly Away Life Lessons From Home. You might hear my kids behind me because they have not flown away. Christina's latest book, Before You Fly Away Life Lessons From Home originated as a self published gift for her college bound daughter and became number one parenting book on Amazon. International gift book publisher Andrews McMillan is now rereleasing the book to reach parents everywhere. Christina is the New York Times bestselling author of three children's picture books, including the beloved Sorry Grown Ups, You Can't Go to School. I thought I was gonna say the other one, but Buddy's Bedtime Battery and other books. Christina is the cofounder of TrueGeist, a branding and design firm serving corporate and consumer brands around the world, and the founder and former CEO of a custom memory box company, Boombox Gifts. She lives in New York with her husband, Willie Geist, host of NBC's Sunday Today and MSNBC's Morning Joe, and their children, Lucy and George. Welcome back, Christina, for what? I don't know. Like, the tenth time that we've talked about your books on the show to talk about Before You Fly Away, Life Lessons From Home. Congratulations.

[3:24]Great Life Advice: Thank you, Zibby. It's good to be back. It is true. I feel like you've been the most generous friend and supporter. I was just thinking about the first time I was on the podcast, and I think it was with Sorry, Grown Ups, You Can't Go to School, which was 2019. So I'd like to consider myself one of the, like, OG podcast authors. And it's such an honor to be back. And I really have enjoyed watching

[3:48]Zibby Owens: your trajectory over the last six, seven years. And it's really remarkable what you've done. Congratulations to you. Thank you. And you too. It's been so fun to watch, and I feel like this is so full circle in so many ways because we started out talking about Buddy and backpacks and school buses and falling asleep and singing songs to the kids and, like, commiserating ourselves as moms and everything. And now our kids are flying the nest here, you know, whatever expression you wanna use, and I can't believe it. And yet here we are sitting here just

[4:23]Great Life Advice: continuing to talk. But that's, like, how we get through stuff, right? I know. It's true. And it's like, you know this is happening. You know time is gonna move in this way as a parent, but there's something about this precipice of the nest, you know, and the empty nest or even partially empty nest or this notion that they're doing what you raised them to do. They're spreading their wings and they're going out there into the world. And somehow we still as parents find that to be just like completely unacceptable or, you know, completely surprising, even though it is actually what you've been preparing them for for eighteen years. It still is just really, I think, difficult for us to accept that senior year of high school or college or whatever that, you know, milestone is. I feel like

[5:10]Zibby Owens: it's like when someone older passes away or a dog passes away. Like, you know these things are coming, but just because you know it, it doesn't make it any easier when the time comes. This, of course, is a happy thing that the kids are growing off, and for them Yeah. Absolutely. Is such a positive life event and for us, obviously. But in terms of the change of life and all of that, you know, you can't prepare for this. You can't prepare for pain.

[5:39]Great Life Advice: No, you can't. And it is I mean, one of the lessons in this book so this is it's funny you're saying that because one of the lessons is this that we're talking about right now. And so Before You Fly Away, Life Lessons From Home are 50 lessons. Sorry.

[5:55]Zibby Owens: Are we talking about a book? Let me let me go back to the No. Sorry, Christina. I'm so sorry. I'm going reference

[6:00]Great Life Advice: Diving into I'm going to reference one of the lessons, then I'm like, wait, I should probably explain what they are. Yeah. Yeah. Do you want to Okay. Christina, what is your book about? Tell us about Before You Fly Away, Life Lessons From Home. Please. Yes. So this book was written the year my daughter was a senior in high school, and my son was preparing to get his permit to learn how to drive. And I found myself waking up late at night, often, as we do, and feeling like I had all of these things to say and questioning whether I had really ever said them out loud or put them in front of her or both of them in this format of this kind of little list of the rules of the road, right? The kind of the code that I hope you would feel and know in your heart if you were raised by me and by my husband in this household, right, and in this family. And so part of my way of kind of processing, I think, what you would probably label as kind of anxiety leading up to high school graduation was to just capture them in my phone. And I found by February that I had this list of probably about 100 or so of these kind of rules of the road or little lessons and thought, Oh my gosh, maybe this is the gift. Maybe I designed these as a little self published book that I could actually hand to them on the threshold of these big milestones. And I've always expressed myself. Obviously, I'm a writer, but I really do express myself with my words. And so that felt the most comfortable way for me to do that and to process that as a parent. And I found that with obviously a super tight timeline, that the best option to do was to self publish the book. So I did that in 2025 and gave it to my kids. They immediately turned to me and said, Is this going to be out in the world? And I asked what they thought about that. And they said, Yes, it should be. So we pushed a button in the self publishing platform called IngramSpark that we were working in at the time, and poof, it was out on Amazon and out in Ingram, where any bookseller can order books for their store. And it sort of just organically took off and was successful enough in the self publishing world that Andrews McMeel came and knocked on my door, and they are a gift book publisher. And they really specialize in gift books like this. And they are republishing the book for 2026. So the class of 2026 and their parents will have now real distribution behind it at a national and actually, I think even an international level. So that's, that's the book. And inside are all these 50 really short and sweet and some sentimental, some pretty direct lessons that I tried to express in the most kind of concrete and short and sweet way possible with as few words as possible because kids don't want to read a lecture. They certainly don't want to hear one. And I wanted the lessons to be memorable.

[9:02]Zibby Owens: And so I really tried to distill them down into, like, their simplest form. Amazing. Well, there are so many in here that apply for kids, but, you know, also for us. Like, for instance, on page 29, unless I trust you, unless you give me a reason not to. Yeah. I mean, that could be for a spouse. It could be for a friend, but it's a such a good outlook. Like, yes, go in with the positive. Go in expecting

[9:32]Great Life Advice: good things to happen. Yeah. Yeah. And I think those are you know, some of the lessons are a little more serious like that. Right? Like, I trust you unless you give me a reason not to. Others are kind of, you know, a little more lighthearted. You know, like rinsing something is not the same as washing it, which is a conversation we've had at our kitchen sink, you know, for years and years and years, or trim your nails, you know, stuff like that. But then more kind of, you know, relationship based, like you said, or even kind of the messages you want to deliver on a Saturday night on their way out the door, like recklessness and regret go hand in hand. And, you know, there could probably be an entire book about, Oh, my gosh, you're going out on a Saturday night in college. Like, what are all the things I need you to know? But I just chose that one, you know, recklessness and regret go hand in hand, because I think that kind of says it all in, you know, as simple as way as possible. And I wanted the book to feel accessible to parents of kids of any age, really, and not be specific, even though my daughter was graduating from high school when I wrote it. I feel like it applies to younger kids, you know, graduating from elementary or middle school or headed off to high school to boarding school, say, you know, going away from home, even for camp, or those 22 year olds who are finishing college and now kind of moving off into the world for their own apartment and to start life. So, I tried to kind of edit the list to feel like it was applicable to any age really of child, but but to your point, adults as well. I mean, that's that's been fun because a lot of adults have responded to it and said, you know, I need this.

[11:10]Zibby Owens: Well, after our event together at the Minnie Rose pop up that we did, we gave copies to both my twins who are, you know, going to college in the fall. So I feel like at least now I'm arming them, maybe not with my exact words, but with yours. And I'm like, start with this. I'll add on. You know? Because now you've taken the pressure off me because I'm like, I should write, you know, a big letter and all this advice. But Christina's gotten the basics down for them. So anything I do is additive, which is fabulous. So thanks for that. Well, there are some blank pages for you to do just that.

[11:44]Great Life Advice: And that has been really lovely, too. Like, I did kind of in that beta launch hear from families that were having family members write notes in the book, either on the page with the lesson that resonated most with them or doing their own lessons kind of in the back where there are a few empty pages to invite you to do that. So my dad has a phrase where he says, Make it your own. And I do hope people do that. And I should ask, how are you feeling? How are you doing? See you okay.

[12:12]Zibby Owens: They're very happy. No. No. They're you're doing okay? Yeah.

[12:16]Great Life Advice: Yeah. We're all good here. Okay. Okay.

[12:19]Zibby Owens: Can I read a few more of these? Yes. Of course. Even the best people you know are capable of making terrible choices.

[12:26]Great Life Advice: Yeah. Isn't that true? Yes. I mean, we're all human. Right? And I think when we have these moments in relationships where someone does something either unexpected, and this can happen with teenagers, right, where all of a sudden, like their best friend is kind of maybe off doing something that they didn't expect or that they're not comfortable with yet, right? And there's, sometimes those are just natural, like, know, kind of life progresses and they're growing up. And other times they're disappointing moments, you know? And I think we have to accept that really great people are going to make bad choices. We've all made them. We're all human. And it's kind of how you respond to that. And I think it's part of teaching kids how to navigate relationships. It gets really sticky and it gets really tricky the older that they get, you know, and you're less worried about them. You know, the world that you've curated for them is this kind of like safe, happy, you know, world that you build for them surrounding them. And then they're out there and they're in the world now. And they've got to navigate these relationships and they've got to navigate their own safety and their own fulfillment in a way that, you know, quite honestly, as a parent, is pretty terrifying. Right? Totally. Totally terrifying.

[13:41]Zibby Owens: I do feel, though, that you have this sort of undercurrent of positivity, of, like, rooting for the good. Do you feel like you approach life that way? Because this could very easily be like, you know, watch out. Like, people will betray you. Keep a list. You know? Like, which is another thing you could say.

[14:00]Great Life Advice: Yeah. I mean, you could say that, for sure, but I kind of feel like what I and do it Look, we all feel that way sometimes, right? Of like, Oh, my gosh, be careful, be careful, be careful, right? And you could kind of have this, like, doomsday outlook. But I think, like, what I've tried to do is say things like, you know, Be honest. You will break a heart. Someone will break yours. And when that happens, I will be here. You know? And those kind of inevitable risks that you take when you kind of enter into a relationship or fall in love or you're just out there, you know, moving through life on your own, outside of home, you could certainly see that as really scary, or you could see it like, I I know you've got this. You know? You're ready. And go go show show us that you are, you know, and show yourself that. The first lesson in the book is be nice to yourself. And I don't know why I felt like I needed to say that because I think that sometimes when you're raising kids, you're so hyper focused on the way they're treating others in the world that you need to stop and say, like, actually, you come first. And, you know, if this isn't healthy for you, if something's not good for you, you need to actually make hard choices sometimes to put yourself first. And so I felt like I needed to open with that. Today's episode is sponsored by Quince.

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[18:41]Zibby Owens: You know, it's so funny. As you're talking, I'm thinking I should do my advice, but then I'm also thinking, like, it would be so funny to get advice from multiple people, like their dad and my mom and, like, how different the advice probably would be, all the different voices to equip them in the world. And I think even making sense of the advice is something kids have to do early anyway, all the noises.

[19:07]Great Life Advice: Yeah. And I and I do think it's a it's a really interesting exercise to ask their most important people in their life to really think about the thing that they want to, like, impart, right? Like, what's the fingerprint? What's the real kind of, like, distilled advice or counsel or wisdom or lesson that you want them to carry in their heart when they're out there from you? And it could be very different. Like, my mom used to always say to me when my kids were really young, Don't make big decisions when you're exhausted. And that's in the book. I think it's Lesson 13. Don't make any big decisions when you're exhausted. And I hear her, you know, when I find myself in this state of kind of being, like, strung out or tired, and then all of a sudden, you're like, That's it. I'm gonna do this, you know? And you do. You have a tendency to sort of, like, make these, like, bold statements when you're just depleted and your battery's low. And so I think, you know, that would be one that my mom would have probably put in, but I didn't have time to get everybody else's input. I just sort of did this version on my own, but I think that would be a beautiful gift. But this is how you can meld Buddy's bedtime battery in with the whole thing. Totally. Yeah. And and one of the lessons, 34, is leave the world behind you and and read a good book before you fall asleep. Aw. It's so true. And I do really I do that. I read the way people watch TV. So I read every night and I do think there's something to that for sure. Do you also watch TV or you just read? I don't really watch anything at night. Like, I'm watching a show, it'll it'll mostly be like on an airplane or, you know, if I'm like on a train or something. Yeah. I kinda like at night, I kinda shut down. So I'm way behind. Don't ask me about all the popular shows. I have a list of all the all the ones I haven't seen. I I agree. I have to be very intentional about,

[21:00]Zibby Owens: like, this is the show. I'm not gonna, like, scroll around and just happen to find one. Like, anyway Yeah. Let's see. Making friends is like playing with magnets. Some attract, some don't. Let it be. I like that. Yeah. Yeah. It's not for everyone. Not everyone's for you. I just made that up. That's a corollary. Yeah. It's true, though. Let it just let it go. You know? The only thing we know this is 45. The only thing we know for sure about life is that it won't last forever. Do you how do you talk to your kids about that?

[21:30]Great Life Advice: Well, this is kind of what we were talking about with this inevitability that's somehow still so unacceptable, you know, And that this idea that, like, your life is kind of like the sand running through your fingers sometimes, right? It feels like and especially in these moments of parenting, it feels like, Oh, my gosh, where did these eighteen years go? What's coming next? You know, it can be unsettling as you hit milestone birthdays yourself of kind of like feeling your own mortality. And I don't know, I think the best way I can kind of embody that spirit is to keep growing and keep changing myself and keep challenging myself and look at it like I've got one life. I can't keep doing the same thing over and over again. I need to keep growing. I need to keep changing. I need to keep challenging myself. And so if I keep doing that, I won't have any regrets. Right? And so, you know, loss is inevitable in our lives, and we all dread that, right? Those moments where we lose someone or something important to us. But I do think if we think, you know what? They did it right. You know? Like, they did what they did it right. They didn't leave any stone unturned. Then it's kind of like you can be at peace, I think, with those moments. I love that. I I hope. I hope. I hope you're right too.

[22:52]Zibby Owens: The book itself is beautiful. This bright blue, my favorite color with this little heart and wings on the on the cover, hard bag, sort of paper overboard. It's like a perfect package as a gift. Talk about your firm and how you are specialized in branding and design and your side hustle, so to speak, of your of your job. Sure. Talk a little bit about that and how you approach a book like this because covers are so important.

[23:21]Great Life Advice: Yeah. Yeah. That's a great question. So I my background is in communications. I'm sort of a a marketing mutt, but I came up as a copywriter, I guess, is the best way you can describe me that I've always done creative work and creative writing in the interest of growing someone else's brand or establishing someone else's brand. And I've done that in a number of different capacities throughout my career. Most recently, the last eleven years has been as True Geist. My business partner's name is Todd True. And Geist, here we are, was the easiest logo we ever had to design and the easiest brand name we ever had to come up with was our own. But we've been in business for eleven years with clients all over the world doing things like naming them, developing their identity, their logo, their look and feel, their website, their packaging, copywriting, obviously, So it this project like this was is a true guys project. Todd is the illustrator of this book and the art the artwork of the cover is is his. And that's kind of how we work together on a day to day basis. I write the words and he makes it all look beautiful. So a project like this can get done really fast when the two of us are doing it because we're used to that shorthand. And we've been working together in business for eleven years, but together in our careers for twenty years. So I just said, Hey, can you help me with this? And he said, Of course. It didn't hurt that his youngest was graduating from high school at the time we were putting it together also. So it was personal to him as well. And I, you know, sent him the manuscript, and then we thought about, you know, again, making it really kind of purposeful and not feeling like we needed to overly illustrate it, that it is kind of meant to be super simple. And so he has these really beautiful black and white illustrations that pop up on some of the pages, but not all of the pages. So it's not like matchy matchy, where every lesson had to have artwork to it. And it just felt like a nice kind of gender neutral way too, to like make parents feel at home giving this to their son or their daughter. And I feel like the validation for that was when my daughter got to college this year, and she was making new friends. And there was the book on people's dorm room shelves. And she'd say, Or not, like, Oh, that's my mom. You know? And of course, I was like, Is that embarrassing for you? I'm so sorry. Are you embarrassed? No. That's amazing. I'm not embarrassed, mom. You know? But I'm always worried

[25:46]Zibby Owens: about that and sensitive to that. I'm sure she's just super proud of you. That's so nice. My gosh. So there are a lot of people who ask me about their own children's books or their own books. And how do you find, like, someone who can help me design it, or maybe they wanna do a cookbook or something like that. Do you like, does True Guys do that type of work?

[26:06]Great Life Advice: Well, now we can, knowing that we can do this for this type of book. I would say if you have a children's book with a lot of illustration, like the the artwork for Buddy's Bedtime Battery is behind me on the wall, which are oil paintings every page that Tim Bowers created for a book like that, you really would want to work with more of a illustrator who is doing that 100% of their time for, you know, that that picture book kind of format. But certainly, if you have something in the vein of, like, light illustration needs layout, we now can do it. We figured it out. Lesson 42 is figure it out. You're 100% capable. And, yeah, we we figured it out. So happy to work with with people if they need that support and see if we're a match for it. I will say this, the process that we did the first time around, not with Andrews McMillan, which is this version of the book for 2026. The first time around, we worked with IngramSpark. And that is a pretty intuitive platform. If you're thinking about self publishing, I would I would recommend, you know, doing some some research on IngramSpark. And Andrews McMillan has been amazing to work with so far in the gift book space. So I feel like it's just been like a a win win in in putting this very personal project out in the world. You never know. But it's been beautiful to watch it literally kind of take flight. Amazing.

[27:28]Zibby Owens: What are your plans for the book promotion and all that? Are you touring? What's the what's the plan? Here's my plan. I'm right here with you.

[27:36]Great Life Advice: This is the first conversation I'm having and where I wouldn't go anywhere else. I'm figuring that out right now. I would say if readers wanna follow on Instagram, Christina Sharkey Geist, my maiden name is Sharkey, You can find me there, and I'll keep everybody updated as the plans develop. And, you know, I tend to kind of, with a book tour, go where I'm invited, you know? It's not actually like rocket science. It's like, people are like, Will you come? Sure. You know, if I'm free, I'll come. So we're figuring that out right now. Yeah. Amazing. They should

[28:11]Zibby Owens: I feel like high schools should do bulk buys and, like, offer it to parents. You know? What an idea. Wouldn't it be convenient? Just pitch a few schools, see what happens?

[28:21]Great Life Advice: Yeah. It will be amazing to see what can happen now with real distribution behind the title. So I'm super optimistic and excited that we can help parents. I mean, up until now, I feel like you kind of walk into the store, and we you know, we all love Doctor. Seuss, but I don't want to give, Oh, the Places You'll Go, to, like, an 18 or a 22 year old. And so, I feel like I wanted the kind of alternative to that in my own life. And it's been beautiful to hear from parents who have embraced it in that way and bought copies for all their kids' close friends and kind of given that, you know, maybe with the little monogram thing that they were also going also do Mhmm. And do both or sometimes in in lieu of that. Wait. Wait. Do you have any good gift ideas for graduating? Do you have anything planned aside from obviously publishing a book for your kids? Oh my gosh. Well, I feel like I'm just learning all of this as well. What I give to my closest friends' kids, so, like, you know, if I'm really close to them, I give them a travel duffle bag from Mark and Graham, like a weekender bag, and I monogram that for them. So that's like, you know, my my nephews and, like, people that are close to me, and they actually love it. And it's a really nice thing because then I say, take this with you on your travels and send me a picture, you know, wherever you go with this bag. Aw.

[29:45]Zibby Owens: And, you know, you can tuck the book into the bag. So I love giving that gift. Okay. Good. I was that was on my to do list is what do I personalize for the kids? Will they care? Will they just toss it aside? I don't know. Alright. So thank you for the help. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, everyone needs a duffle bag. Right? Everyone needs a duffle bag. Okay. Just to close, let's pick one more. Mhmm. I will love you no matter what you do. Others may not always be able to.

[30:13]Great Life Advice: Tough one. That's a good one. That's a good one. Yeah. I mean, we're all human. We're gonna make mistakes. And you ask for forgiveness, and hopefully, you get it. You know? If you don't, you move on, and you just keep doing your best. My Clothes is lesson two is use your words. They are your superpower. And I hope that we can all use our words to lift people up and to build connections and to build community. And I know we all need it. And,

[30:44]Zibby Owens: you know, thank you, Zibby, for doing that for all of us authors and readers out there. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Christina. Thank you. Thank you for listening to Totally Booked with Zibby, formerly moms don't have time to read books. If you loved the show, tell a friend, leave a review, follow me on Instagram at Zippy Owens, and spread the word. Thanks so much. Oh, and buy the books.