Sponsors 7 Q+As: Brooke of Meyer Capel. We’re grateful to meet Brooke through our sponsor Matt Deering. Oh Matt, how we heart you.
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1. What are you grateful for today?
My faith, my family, my health and my education. In that order.
2. Tell us about one of your friends and what you love about her.
My sister, Bree. She’s a PT at Carle and a great mom and wife. I’ve known her… well, basically her whole life which is (shh!) more than 30 years. We are very different personalities – I’m the anal one and she’s the laid-back one – but it never seems to matter. I could call her up and ask her to borrow a cup of sugar or one of her kids or a kidney and I’d get the same response to all of them. Oh, and I know she knows the real me and loves me in spite of it all… and do you know how much stuff can happen in 30-ish years? It’s a lot. I’ll leave it at that. P.S. we also have another awesome sister, Bridget, but you asked me to tell you about one friend, so I’ll have to save Bridget for another day.
3. Describe one of the best days of your life. That’s easy. The day I became a mom. I think for many of us, it’s becoming a mom that first causes us to step outside of ourselves, to live life for another purpose. Oh, and that’s also the day you get that coveted sixth-sense and the eyes in the back of your head, which is almost like having superpowers.
4. What’s the best lesson you learned from your mother/grandmother?
My mother has an unbelievable work-ethic and it’s very practical. I think that’s probably the best lesson I’ve learned from her – that no job is too large or too small, shovel or scepter, just pick it up and dig in. The job’s not going to do itself so you might as well get busy.
5. We’re all unique. What is your special gift?
I think it is to teach and relate to people. I hope that’s what my clients would say…that my gift is to filter through complicated material and present it in a way that makes sense to the average person. My colleagues at Meyer Capel are some brilliant legal minds – I am fortunate to have that influence around me – but my gift, my true contribution to our firm is the ability to take that information and present it to our clients in a way that makes sense. It also comes in handy at home. One of the best compliments I’ve received in the last year was from my son who said “I like it when you teach math to me, mom – it just makes sense when you teach me.” That’s good stuff.
6. What could women be doing to make their community a better place?
Stop judging other women. Stop keeping score. Women are notorious for holding each other back without even realizing it. If we each would realize that we have our own unique set of gifts, abilities and limitations and that they are different than our neighbors’ and co-workers’ I think perhaps we would spend more time trying to figure out ways to utilize those assets in a collaborative manner rather than spinning our wheels passing off judgments on the ways that others differ from us. If we spent more time collaborating rather than judging, I think so much more good work would get done in the community.
7. What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
Wear a bikini again? No, I’m kidding. I’d take a year off from work just to see what it was like to be able to devote all of my time to my family and myself. Oh, and I would learn to fly a plane.
