Connection is everything.

Connection feels harder to come by these days. We’ve come through a pandemic that isolated us, into a world of rising costs that take more of our time and money just to stay afloat. All of this is happening inside a “rugged individualist” culture that tells us we should be able to do everything on our own—while also tying most opportunities for connection to spending money. But I believe you deserve joy, community, and love in your life—and not just as a reward for working hard or spending big. In a true holistic sense, I’m here to give you ideas and tools to help you connect simply and meaningfully and tools to help you address the obstacles to connection - economic, emotional, structural, or otherwise.

Ideas & Tools for Connection & Community

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Obstacles are real. Information is power.
For a lot of people, connection feels out-of-reach because there is so much to do and the cost of the support you need to get your time back is so high. Here are some tools to help you feel healthier, make informed plans, get some time back, and advocate for structural support.

Daily Tools

Daily Mental Health Check-In

Get your score, get easy suggestions, and track your mental health.
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Sleep Calculator

Enter when you (or yours) have to wake up and find out the time to go to bed, according to age.
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Missing Nutrients Calculator

To create the connection you need (something just as important to our being as food) in this busy time, you need to feed your body what it needs. This calculator will give you age and gender responsive results, showing you which nutrients you're missing and what foods to add to your diet.
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Life Planning Tools

The True(r) Cost of Raising Kids

Every few years, the internet buzzes with headlines about the “cost of raising a child” in the U.S. Most of these numbers cover only the basics—housing, food, clothes, transportation, insurance. They leave out A LOT. Get a clearer figure here.
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The Cost of Visiting Family

When you move away from home, staying connected with family takes effort—and money. Summer trips, Thanksgiving, winter holidays, or unexpected visits can quickly add up, especially once you factor in a partner, kids, and pets. Over the years, these trips can cost tens of thousands. Understanding the real costs gives you the power to plan wisely, maintain strong family ties, and make choices that fit both your budget and your values.
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The Cost of Attending All the Weddings

For those of us who move away from our hometowns to build careers and lives elsewhere, we will find and form groups of friends who hail from many different places. Taken together over a decade or two, wedding attendance can cost you anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000.
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Childcare vs. Work

Before you assume that it's mom that should take time out of the workforce to care for the kids (even if her current salary is lower), you should see the numbers, because that might not be true. This calculator takes into account current measurable biases - such as increased difficulty in re-entering the workforce and the reduced position and salary often suffered by mothers only. It might be time to consider the stay-at-home dad.
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The Stay-At-Home Parent Labor Value Calculator

This calculator 1. Calculates the value of a stay-at-home parent’s labor, taking number of children, ages of children, and region into account, 2. Includes the accrued lifetime value of this work, 3. Includes a link to find local and national representatives so that parents can contact them and ask for what they want, 4. Allows you to share your results on social media to keep the conversation going.
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The Berry Budget

Calculate what your family spends on berries. 🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓 This is for every parent whose kids have housed the berries before you even got the chance to put them away. $7. Poof. Gone.
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I'm an Executive Director & Producer of Arts and Entertainment...

I’m a lifelong storyteller with 30+ years in entertainment—from Broadway to big-picture producing. I’ve raised millions for creative projects, founded a thriving nonprofit, and built unforgettable festivals, films, and arts orgs. Whether I’m shaping a story or a strategy, I’m all about making meaningful things that bring people together.

...a parent, and lover of community.

I'm putting my experience with professional storytelling and planning complex, multimillion dollar productions to good use by giving you tools, activities, games, and strategies. Make meaningful and connective experiences with the people who are important to you and build your village.

A bit about Brooke.

Brooke Tansley is the founder and Executive Director of Folklight, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit strengthening communities through authentic storytelling. Under her leadership, Folklight secured ~$4M in grant funding, supporting projects like a documentary series with Warner Bros Discovery exploring European cave art up to 65,000 years old—advancing our understanding of early humans and their relatives. The series, with Brooke serving as Executive Producer together with her partners at Practical Magic, is set for global distribution.

Brooke’s work builds on 30+ years in entertainment, from starring on Broadway (Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Hairspray) to founding and scaling arts ventures. She excels at growing both for-profit and nonprofit initiatives through strategic leadership, storytelling, and partnership development.

Before Folklight, Brooke attracted major investment and talent to Sonoma Laughfest, achieving profitability three years ahead of projections. As Artistic Director of Sonoma Arts Live, she led a rebrand that increased ticket sales by 219% in six months and tripled subscriptions in two. She helped build Transcendence Theatre Company, contributing to millions in revenue and over $500K in nonprofit contributions to Jack London State Park. She has also handled publicity for Goosebumps (Nickelodeon) and The Magic School Bus (Lily Tomlin). Following the organization of her non-profit interests into a proper 501(c)3 as Folklight, Brooke continued to secure high-end corporate partnerships for both her for profit and non-profit work with global travel, automobile, food and beverage, outdoor, and technology brands. Brooke studied Business and Management of Entertainment at UCLA and Acting and Design at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Brooke loves to eat. She's lived in eight countries, eaten street food and at Michelin star restaurants, and her favorite food is still the food her Italian American grandmothers made while she was growing up in Connecticut (the most Italian state in the union). She currently lives in Nashville, TN with her husband, two young kids, and two old dogs.