Q: First tell us something about yourself?
Born in Chicago, IL, Michael A. (Mike) Brown, MA is the author of a revolutionary social emotional children’s book series, beginning with What I Tell Myself FIRST: Children’s Real-World Affirmations of Self-Esteem. Based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, this book of real-world affirmations highlights the various abilities and attributes of the reader while exposing readers to realistic possibilities of rejection of difference in various forms thereby enabling readers to form mental frameworks to surmount those forms of rejection and achieve positive self-actualization. I served in the United States Army and in various communities as a police officer. I am currently the President and Chief Executive Officer of MABMA Enterprises, LLC and the principal instructor of Security Training Concepts, a training agency specializing in collegiate / career occupational courses in multiple criminal justice and self-defense-related disciplines.
Q: How and when your journey started as a writer?
I am not an author by trade. I became one by trauma. I am the product of child abuse. The reasons? I still couldn’t tell you what I had done to earn physical chastisement.
Q: When did you write your first story? Is it published or not?
My first children’s book, based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, seeks to instill in children the answer to bullying, body-shaming, hate, and attacks on the self through daily affirmations. What I Tell Myself FIRST: Children’s Real-World Affirmations of Self Esteem is to readers what the AED is to a heart: it instills the defibrillator of self-esteem so powerful for when times are tough and your mind is under attack. This book of reality-based daily affirmations are the “I wish I had this” of books.
Q: Tell us something more about your books?
My series is based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a psychological theory of motivation created by psychologist Abraham Maslow that itemizes the needs that we, as humans, need in order to self-actualize into our best self.
Q: Why do you choose kids as your reader? is there any specific reason?
I was helping an anger management client with issues related to her anger. In doing so, I learned that a great percentage of anger happens when childhood voids, created by broken parents, are imparted in children thereby continuing to reside in now-anatomically/statutorily mature adults. I always heard of affirmations. Plenty of books have them, usually filled with “I am” this and that. But they leave out the real-world attacks that parents know are coming. They hide the truth from our children.
Q: How did these stories and characters come to your mind?
All the things I was not taught as a child become the motivation for my children’s books. What I Tell Myself is a series. FIRST is the foundation upon which the other books will be written. I will keep expounding on Maslow, for educators know all too well, “In teaching, you can’t do the Bloom (Bloom’s Taxonomy) stuff until they do the Maslow stuff.” – Alan E. Beck. I have already penned multiple books already published. The titles are What I Tell Myself: About Self-Protection, What I Tell Myself: About Talent, What I Tell Myself About NO.
Q: Do you want to give any message for your readers?
Sure. Parents, don’t lie to your child. Parents who do this are concerned with how they look in the eyes of their child. The lying parent sees the child as their friend, not their child. You can’t protect your child from a void you haven’t protected yourself from. Your experience is the master class. You are the master teacher. Expose your past to save the from a past and yourself from a future occurrence.
