There is something quietly powerful about the moment you stop wondering whether you are doing things right and start understanding why you do them the way you do.

That moment came for me today when I sat down with my Gallup CliftonStrengths results. I have taken assessments before. I have started reading more business books, attending more conferences, and am actively seeking professional growth. But something about seeing these five themes laid out in front of me from the 200 item assessment looked like this for me – Learner, Achiever, Developer, Strategic, and Consistency made it feel less like a personality quiz and more like someone handing me a mirror and saying, look, this is actually you.

All I could think as I was reading the score report was: this is also Monarch.

I started Monarch Educational Services because I prayed. I was on my drive to work as a literacy coach and 9th grade ELA teacher, and I asked God a simple question, “What’s next?” I heard a voice whisper Monarch. I felt the nudging to open a business. I will never forget that day as long as I live. And I’ll never forget what I did. I went to the library, sat on the floor of the business section, and started pulling every book I saw that might help me navigate my next steps.

I prayed some more. What was I to do? It needed to be an extension of what I loved and knew. I was all about books (still am), and I saw a gap. Not a small one, but a wide, gap that too many families and too many children were falling through. Clean books that the whole family could trust. Stories that did not require parents to pre-read every chapter hoping nothing slipped through. Safe-shelf books teachers could recommend without worry. Content that reflected real values without feeling preachy or sanitized to the point of boring.

I prayed and opened Monarch after intense learning. And now, as we have new goals to grow us strategically into curriculum development and educational resources provider for K-12 learners that is based on secondary literacy research, that original conviction has only deepened. The gap is still there. We are still building the bridge.

But I want to pull back the curtain a little today, not for the sake of oversharing, but because I believe you deserve to know the mind and the heart behind what we are building. So here are the five ways I am wired, what God says about each one, and exactly how they show up in every product Monarch puts into the world.

1. Learner: I Cannot Stop Researching, and Your Family Benefits From It. I am a full-time college professor. I run a publishing and educational services company. I am constantly reading, studying, and asking questions of my mentor, not because my job requires it, but because my brain genuinely cannot help itself. The moment I stop learning, something inside me goes quiet in an unsettling way.
   Gallup calls this Learner. I call it the reason Monarch’s content is always grounded in something real.
   When we develop curriculum or select titles for our catalog, I am not guessing what families need. I am researching it. I am reading literature, the literacy studies, and the research. I am asking teachers what their classrooms are missing. I am listening to parents who are exhausted from filtering everything their children consume. That research obsession is not separate from Monarch, it is Monarch, built into the foundation of every resource we create.
   “An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.” — Proverbs 18:15
   God wired some of us to never stop seeking. I used to wonder if that was restlessness. I now understand it as calling.

2. Achiever: We Do Not Coast Here
   Let me be honest with you: I do not know how to have a slow day. Not in a workaholic, unhealthy way, though I have had to learn balance the hard way (through a severe wreck that God saved me from) but in the sense that I wake up every morning with a genuine need to build something, finish something, move something forward. Every single day.
   Gallup calls this Achiever. My family calls it exhausting. My friends ask me how I do it? I call it working with the Holy Spirit. I call it the engine behind everything Monarch has accomplished.
   We are not a company that launches a product and coasts on it. We are not interested in good enough. When we add a book or curriculum resource to our catalog, it goes through multiple rounds of review. When we publish a title under the Monarch name, it has been vetted against our values, our standards, and our mission. That is not corporate language, that is me, personally, unable to put my name on something I cannot stand behind completely.
   If you have ever purchased something from Monarch and thought this feels like someone actually cared when they made this, you are right. Someone did. Several someones. And we will be back tomorrow doing it again.
   “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” — Colossians 3:23
   This verse is not on our website yet. But it might as well be our mission statement.

3. Developer: I See What Your Child Can Become
   This one is personal. I have spent my entire career as an educator, homeschool momma, as a researcher, watching people discover what they are capable of. There is genuinely nothing like it. A student who thought they could not write, writing. A child who thought reading was not for them, reading. A teacher who thought she had nothing left to give, finding a resource that reignites everything.
   Gallup calls this Developer. I call it the reason I cannot walk away from this work even when it is hard.
   Every book in our clean reads catalog, every curriculum guide we develop, every educational resource we bring to market, I am asking one question throughout the entire process: does this help someone grow? Not just academically. As a whole person. Because children are whole people, not test scores and reading levels. Families are whole units, not demographic data points.
   When Monarch puts a book in a child’s hands, we are making a quiet promise: this story will not harm you. It might just change you.
   “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” — Proverbs 22:6
   I built Monarch for that verse. Everything else is details.

4. Strategic: I Saw This Gap Before Most People Named It
   Several years ago, I started noticing something that frustrated me deeply as both a parent and an educator. Families who wanted clean, trustworthy content for their children were being forced to choose between sanitized and boring on one end, or current and inappropriate on the other. The middle content that was genuinely excellent AND safe AND values-aligned was thin or classic. Hard to find.
   I also saw that curriculum resources for K-12 students, particularly those with special learning needs, were either academically rigorous but inaccessible, or accessible but intellectually thin. Rarely both. Rarely designed with the actual child in mind from the beginning with UDL practices that change outcomes.
   Gallup calls this pattern recognition Strategic. I experienced it as a persistent, low-grade frustration that eventually became a business plan.
   Monarch exists in that gap. Intentionally. We are not trying to be everything to everyone. We are trying to be exactly the right thing for families who are tired of settling, and for educators who know their students deserve better resources than what the mainstream market is prioritizing. We are trying to share our love of clean reads with the world – shouting loudly in an overcrowded book space! See us! We hear you, and we value your minds. We value your heart! Let’s safeguard both with clean reads for the whole family.
   “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” — Jeremiah 29:11
   I lean on this verse not just personally but professionally. The vision for Monarch did not come from a market analysis. It came from somewhere much deeper than that. Strategy is the tool. Purpose is the compass.

5. Consistency: Every Family Gets Our Best, Every Time
   I believe in fairness with a stubbornness that sometimes surprises people. My momma named me Jennifer / it means fair!
   It does not matter whether you are a school district purchasing books in bulk or a single parent buying one book for your child, you deserve the same quality, the same care, the same standard of excellence from Monarch. Full stop. There is no tiered version of our commitment. There is no small customer who gets the lesser product.
   Gallup calls this Consistency. I call it basic decency elevated to business practice. And we just signed with Sheridan to help us continue to grow in this area!
   It also means that our editorial standards do not shift based on trends. What we consider a clean read today will be a clean read next year. Our definition of family-safe content is not negotiated season by season based on what the culture decides is acceptable. Our commitment to academically sound curriculum does not get watered down because something cheaper is easier to produce. The standard is the standard. It applies every time, for every family, for every child.
   In a market where quality can feel like a moving target, I want Monarch to be the company you can count on to stay exactly where we said we would be.
   “Let all things be done decently and in order.” — 1 Corinthians 14:40
   Some people read that verse and see rigidity. I read it and see respect for the readers, schools, and families we serve, for the craft of what we do, and for the God who called us to do it with excellence.

What I Am Still Building
I would be dishonest if I let this post read as though I have it all figured out. I do not. I am transparent about that, and I need your prayers daily.
Monarch is growing. We added Bloom & Nectar Books for Adult readers this year (Yoo-Hoo). We are adding curriculum. We are expanding our educational resources category. We are learning, every single day, how to serve more families and more educators without losing the thing that makes us Monarch in the first place. That is not a small challenge. It requires the right team, the right partners, and an honest acknowledgment that no founder, regardless of how motivated by the mission, can do this alone.
I am actively building the team and the infrastructure that will take Monarch to the next level. And I am doing it with the same intentionality that built this company in the first place: one right decision at a time, rooted in research, driven by mission, and held accountable to a standard that starts with what is best for your family.
Thank you for being part of this. Whether you found us through one of our books, through our curriculum resources, or through this post, you are exactly why we show up every day.

Welcome to Monarch. We are glad you are here.

Blessings,

Dr. Jen Lowry

Owner, Monarch Educational Services

www.monarcheducationalservices.com