Today we’d like to introduce you to Monta Z. Briant.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Monta. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Once upon a time, in the late ’90s, my husband and I bought a 100-year-old “fixer-upper” in the historic neighborhood of South Park. Old houses hadn’t become trendy yet in San Diego, and most of the business properties in the neighborhood were shuttered, occupied by long-defunct used-appliance shops or storefront churches.
When we found we were expecting our first child, I found myself driving long distances for prenatal classes, and later to baby classes and playgroups with our daughter, Sirena and little brother, Aiden. There were few young children in the neighborhood and zero services or activities for them.
In 2000, I had started using sign language for early communication with my hearing infant daughter, an uncommon practice at the time. In 2001, in an effort to make ends meet and while spending more time at home with my young children, I decided to create a class to teach other parents how to sign with their babies. For 5 years I traveled all over San Diego county, bringing the class to areas where more young children lived.
I’d never had any intention of writing a book on baby sign language, but in 2004, someone from the acquisitions department at Hay House Publishing (Carlsbad), ran a web search for a potential author on the topic and came across my recently self-created web-page listing my San Diego classes. They contacted me and I agreed to meet with them, bringing handouts I’d created for my classes. They liked what they saw, and gave me three months to write a small “diaper bag sized” book with just 60 signs. Once published, Baby Sign Language Basics became an instant best-seller, with Target alone selling over 700 copies weekly in the early months of its release.
The book’s release and popularity definitely gave my classes a boost, but another help came, ironically, from the release of the movie comedy, Meet the Fockers, starring Steve Martin and featuring a real signing baby. Even though the baby sign language was mostly used as a comedic element in the movie, it seemed to pique the public’s curiosity. People wondered if this signing baby was for real, or a trick done with the camera.
Happily by the mid-2000s, the South Park Renaissance that had started slowly in the mid-’90s picked up speed, and South Park gradually became the hip, vibrant, family-friendly community it is today. There were finally enough kids in the neighborhood that I was able to open a fixed location for my classes close to home, at the corner of 30th and Grape St, sharing space with the newly opened baby boutique, So Childish.
My vision for Baby Garten Studio has always been to provide young uptown & downtown families with the local resources and support that were never conveniently available to my own family. Through nearly two decades of offering sign language classes for expectant and new parents, I’ve made many connections with wonderful educators and service providers and have been able to bring them together under one roof for our neighborhood families. In addition to my baby sign language classes, we also offer children’s music & movement classes, classes for parents & newborns, prenatal classes, infant/child CPR, free breastfeeding and new mom support groups, and more.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s been a very steep learning curve. Like many young families raising children in San Diego, my husband and I struggled to make ends, meet, so I couldn’t afford to pay anyone to help me with anything. This resulted in having to wear a lot of hats. In addition to teaching, I’ve had to learn to do my own web design, marketing, graphic design, accounting, curriculum creation, YouTube & social media content, even writing songs for my classes (thankfully, I have a musically talented sister who’s helped a LOT with that part). Really, if I’d paid someone to help, I could have gone further, much faster, but I simply didn’t have the funds for that. They say it takes three years to start making money from a new business, and I’d say that was definitely the case for me, and probably more like five years to start making any kind of significant income.
The upside is that I have really learned a LOT, and now I do enjoy mentoring women who come to me with their own ideas for classes and workshops and looking for a place to host them. I’m often able to save them a lot of time by sharing some of what I’ve learned, such marketing strategies to reach new parents, taking registration, insurance requirements and that kind of thing.
Currently, my biggest challenge is finding teachers to help me with my baby signing classes, both at Baby Garten and at locations I’m hoping to develop in other parts of the county. I already teach six days a week myself, and it’s hard to find candidates with the right qualifications and fun personality, to teach a class like this.
Please tell us about Baby Garten Studio & Baby Sign Language Basics.
I’m best known for my work teaching families how to communicate with their pre-verbal infants using sign language. I”m the author of the book, Baby Sign Language Basics, (Hay House, Carlsbad) now in its 3rd edition, and published in 6 other languages to date.
I’m also well known as a library performer for the City of San Diego, performing “Sign-a-Story Circle Time”.
I’d say that what sets me apart from others is my intense love and enthusiasm for what I do and my fun, original curriculum. That’s the feedback I most often hear from attendees at my classes and library programs.
What advice would you give to someone at the start of her career?
I like the quote by Mark Twain, “Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
That’s certainly been true for me.
Pricing:
- Baby & Child Classes run $156-$182 per 8-week session
- Infant/ Child CPR & Choking Relief Workshop $35 per person
- Support groups and some workshops are FREE
Contact Info:
- Address: 1947 30th St, San Diego, CA 92102
- Website: http://www.babygartenstudio.com
- Phone: 619-987-4834
- Email: monta@babysignlanguage.net
- Instagram: @babygarten, @babysignbasics
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/babygartenstudio/
- Twitter: @babygarten
- Other: http://www.babysignlanguage.net
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