Celebrating Black Love and Black Families With “Just Dance With Me” Co-Authors, Leon and Carita Montgomery

As Black History Month comes to a close, we could not end this inspirational month without celebrating black love and black families. Today we are overjoyed to highlight High school sweethearts, and the Co-Authors of “Just Dance With Me”, Leon and Carita Montgomery. The “Just Dance With Me” book is for anyone who thinks that marriage is a fairytale.

This beautiful black couple has taken their marriage vows very seriously and fought for their marriage. The couple is committed to helping as many couples as possible experience healthy marriage and keep their families together.

Happy Black History Month! How do you celebrate it and what does this time of the year mean for you?

Carita: Black History Month to me is an opportunity to reflect on and celebrate the excellence of MY community. To me, we are a race of people who defied all the odds and still excelled at greatness. The icons of black history are us, we, me, you all of us who wake up and win. I love being black and I love black excellence. In my mother’s family, we have a series of firsts that I celebrate during black history month. My mom is the first black to have a county building in Sarasota, FL named in her honor (The Betty J Johnson North Sarasota Library). My uncle Saul Johnson Jr. was the first black fireman in Sarasota, FL. My uncle Aaron Johnson was the first black “Mr. Sarasota (a qualifier bodybuilding contest for Mr. Universe). I am the first published author in my family. So I am surrounded by black history, black excellence and we celebrate it all.

Leon: We celebrate Black History Month by remembering and being thankful to all our ancestors who blazed a path for us and have given us an opportunity to make a positive impact on the world.

Black love is beautiful to experience. How did you navigate and balance the work and personal relationship with your husband while co-authoring your latest book titled, Just Dance With Me?

Carita: OMG! When I talk about balancing our work and personal relationship I have to tell this story. When I decided to be a part of the great resignation and left my six-figure job in November of 2021 I was so excited. I immediately organized, furnished, and decorated my home office thinking I would be working from home alone. Well, that lasted all of about a week. My husband took a new job that would have him also work from home. So we both work out of the house. I say he is a stalker and we have a running joke about it.

But to answer your question I am a full-time entrepreneur but my husband is still employed. So I have to respect my husband’s time and not overwhelm him. When we have deadlines and events I give him as much notice as possible, Leon balances me and I am so grateful for that. I picked up a few bad habits from always working in high-pressure executive positions and he will quickly say bae relax, everything will get done.

What was the best part of writing the book together?

Carita: I am a book coach so I am the one who pulled the manuscript together. The best part of co-writing this book for me was to read my husband’s chapters and to hear him pour out his heart in words. There were times that I would begin reading and I would just stop, run downstairs and give him a huge hug. He would say what is that for, and I would say I just read another chapter. The second best part for me was to see a look in Leon’s eyes when he finally held the book in his hands for the first time. This is his first book and my heart just melted to see his sense of pride and joy holding the final copy in his hands.

Leon: The best part of writing this book with my wife was doing it with her. She tends to bring out the best in me. We decided to write this book together during the pandemic where we were spending a whole lot of time together. However, we wrote our chapters separately. I had no idea when she was writing her chapters of the book. After we finished writing our chapters, it was astonishing how accurate our chapters were. We both wrote from pain, hurt and despair to love, upbeat and accomplished.

Feedback and testimonials from some people who have read the book so far:

Jonathan and Brea Styles

Thank you Leon and Carita for this powerful and honest road map to the “rhythm and flow to longevity in marriage”. Your transparency and example of commitment to love and family is inspiring. This book truly has blessed us and encourages us all to keep going… together! We literally couldn’t put it down and enjoyed discussing our personal reflections at the end of each chapter! We admire your ministry and are so grateful for you allowing us to see ourselves and know that love never fails! This book is a must-have for couples!

Adrian and Tonya Shells

We thoroughly enjoyed this exhilarating love story of how a young couple persevered into the powerhouse couple they are now.

Our #1 take-a-way is “communication”. Even if the communication causes pain, it has to be discussed. Marriage is like a job. You have to work at it every single day.

Congratulations you two! Thank you for being transparent. There is no doubt this love story is going to impact the lives of many married couples. Keep up the great work. We can’t wait to see you on the “big screen” one day.

Why do you believe it’s important for the masses to read Just Dance With Me?

Leon: I believe it is important for people to read Just Dance with Me because we are so transparent about our trials & tribulations and how we overcame as a couple. Just Dance with Me is a roadmap on what not to do in any relationship. Just Dance with Me is an “Everyday Reality” of what transpires in a marriage or relationship. I want people who read this book to take our plights as a learning tool to maneuver healthy in their relationship journey

Carita: “Just Dance With Me” is not just a book, it is a movement. We want to heal and restore marriages through the transparency we share about our own marriage. We want to make marriage popular again. In our 24+ years of marriage, we have come to understand that there is a rhythm and flow to longevity in a relationship. Marriage does not have to be miserable, marriage can be so much fun. We want couples to forgive each other and fight for their relationships.

This book is written from two points of view, mine and my husband’s, about “the hot topics of marriage” We address submission, finances, disciplining kids, separation, when we met, gender roles, and more. Oh, we spilled some tea too. It’s definitely a page-turner but all for the purpose of giving real-life situations that other couples can see themselves in. We want them to know that if we can do it, so can they. Our goal is to have couples see positive images of Black Married Couples. We were saddened to hear that so many marriages fell apart during the pandemic. We actually had the very opposite experience.

Can we expect any more books that are co-authored by both of you? What can you share with us about your future projects?

Leon: I think that we have bit the bug. We so enjoyed our experience with writing “Just Dance with Me ” that we have been playing with the idea of a sequel. Stay tuned…

Carita: We are so excited to announce that we are in the planning stages of our first “Just Dance With Me” Couples Retreat. The retreat will take place in late summer or early fall. This will be super fun and include lots of couples activities, a few speakers, and lots of dancing. We are looking at Miami, Las Vegas, or San Juan. Follow our social media pages so that you can be a part of this incredible event.

Leon: We are also scheduling a mini book tour through cities in the southeast focusing on marriage ministries and couples groups. If you would like us to visit your area contact us. We are bringing the books and the party.

We would love to hear about your coaching and consulting business. What services and resources do you provide?

Carita: I founded Resetability Inc because I wanted to make a difference in the lives of small businesses and individuals. Resetability is the act of taking one’s mindset back to factory settings. Back to where you were fearless and confident and you would not accept no for an answer. I wanted to pour my expertise back into the community. We offer sales consulting and coaching on the 5 step sales call process. We are building confident, successful, high-producing salespeople all across the globe. I am extremely passionate about sales training and coaching and I have spent my career leading award-winning teams. I know what it takes to turn it around. Let’s hit #reset and change the trajectory of your business.

Resetability Inc is also helping aspiring authors with our A-list Book Coaching Services. We are committed to ensuring their voices are heard through self-publishing. Our authors benefit from 101 or group coaching instruction. Our 90 Day Self Publishing Course is ideal for first-time publishers or experienced authors. We walk them through writing an award winning manuscript, we give recommendations on creating eye-catching covers, back sales copy that really markets your book, interior format and design we stay with our clients all the way to final publishing.

My non profit is also a very big part of my life. Everything Prayer Inc.” is an online daily prayer and inspiration live on FB and IG as well as annual Prayer Conferences that reset the lives of attendees to become more “prayer conscious”. Everyone around me thought I was crazy but I just knew that there was more for me to do. When I made the announcement at the top of 2022 the outpouring of support was incredible. I was able to raise $3500 in 24 hours. That’s when I knew God had my back.

What do you want you and your husband’s legacy to look like?

Carita: Because my husband grew up in so much adversity I want his legacy to be so big and positive that people would never believe where he started. I am inspired by Tabitha Brown retiring her husband and my goal is to retire Leon from his full-time employment and have him be my true full-time business partner. We both want to leave a financial legacy for our three children. We want to leave them each a property and add some M’s to their bank account…lol.