Speaker 1: 0:35

Welcome back to Speak Out. Stand Out. I'm Elizabeth Green, and today's guest is Yuri Mello. Yuri is a licensed clinical social worker and author and the proud father of five. He is also a co-founder of something called School Pulse, which is a nationwide student support service that delivers positivity, optimism and growth mindset tools to students, parents and faculty via text and email, and who doesn't need some positivity added to their day? Yuri, we're glad to have you here today. Thanks for being here.

Speaker 2: 1:05

Elizabeth, I am hyped. Let's go for it. I really appreciate the invite. It's good to be here and let's see where we go. Like wherever we go, I promise it's going to be good, it's going to be optimistic and hopefully we're going to drop some good tools for everybody, including ourselves, right?

Speaker 1: 1:22

Yes, that is the goal. I love it. I always learn something new in these podcast recordings, so it's always beneficial for me as well. So, okay, let's start with Yuri. When we were growing up, mental health not something people focused on, especially when it came to kids and teens. How did it come about that this is your focus in life?

Speaker 2: 1:45

You know, honestly probably not purposefully I was one of those people. I was one of those adolescents that probably didn't know what they wanted to do and really no idea of what was going to happen. I'm the youngest of three and I feel like maybe the youngest children are a little bit like that. They're a little bit directionless, directionist, directionist, directionist, whatever I don't even know what that is. But um, and so I actually when I first went to school, I mean and I grew up in Portugal and maybe we'll go into that, and I think when you talk about like mental health and the stigma, or even just not really talked about, I would say that, uh, portugal is, is probably even more that way. It's just not something that's really addressed. I don't even know if today I feel like people try to be pretty like computer information systems, because my older brother was doing that, didn't really like that, did have a really cool psychology teacher that I think kind of had an impact on my life a little bit. And then after that I actually kind of had a period where I did some volunteer service for a couple of years, for a couple of years and honestly, that was really the first time where I thought. You know, I kind of I do well with people Like I. Just I like them, like their strange behavior or crazy whatever it is like it doesn't scare me, I'm not bothered by it.

Speaker 2: 3:18

And so when I began my bachelor level and then on to my master's, I decided to go into psychology and it was just a good fit for me, maybe because it was a little bit easier, I don't know, it's kind of one of those soft sciences, right, but I really just enjoyed it and, to be super honest with you, I'm grateful I can totally look back and see myself doing a variety of other things that I probably would enjoy just as much. But psychology has been a pretty positive field for me. I think it's fascinating. I love to meet people. For the past 20 years I've spent a lot of time, I mean just face to face, right Eyeball to eyeball, with tens of thousands of people and honestly I love it. Like it's interesting. It never gets old for me.

Speaker 2: 4:07

And so, and then over the past seven years, you know I've developed this other little program that we may touch on that, but once again it's the same thing. Like I'm trying to just create this optimistic and positive perspective and give people some goggles right, a perspective, I think, that allow them to interpret the events in their lives in a little bit of a better way, which I believe can ultimately impact them not just in the short but in the long term as well. And so, anyways, maybe we'll touch on those. But yeah, I had no idea that this is what I wanted to do. Uh, I mean I'm, I'm going to be 50 this year. I mean it could change at any moment, like I'm like a wild card, who knows?

Speaker 1: 4:50

I understand that career paths are always, ever, ever moving and fluid, right.

Speaker 2: 4:55

Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1: 4:56

Well, you're talking about. You enjoy learning about people and you want to spread positivity. How does this boil down to us as parents? And building those skills in our kids how does that connect?

Speaker 2: 5:09

Okay, so I've got five kiddos and I have to, I mean, shout out, right, and I'm particularly biased, of course, but really just have some phenomenal kids whom I have learned from from, still am learning from, and who make my life better. And I realized that that's not everybody's experience, Right, and I don't necessarily like say, well, that's because I was a good dad, or I don't honestly understand, like I, I seriously don't like when I'm thinking like big, like you know whether you know physical, biological, spiritual, like I don't know why things have turned out the way that they are, like I don't fully understand that, but I'm just incredibly grateful for my kids, like I just feel grateful to be in their presence, I'm excited when I see them, and so I will say this like I think whenever I talk to parents and I talked to a lot of parents, right, and a lot of times parents just come in and they'll bring me their kids and kind of do what I call drive by therapy, right, they'll kind of show up and kick their kid into my office and like here, fix them. And and actually one of the first things that I'll tell parents whenever I talk to them on the phone is make sure that if you do send your kid to therapy which is good, and I hope that they have a fabulous experience but just make sure that you throw yourself into the mix, like be part of that process, don't just send the kid in, just be a little bit more humble and throw yourself into the process and say, hey, look, I'm sure I'm not doing things right myself. And I think when you put yourself in that place alongside of your kid, I think you might actually get a better outcome with them. Um, because I I think they won't see them.

Speaker 2: 6:55

I think they'll see the process in a less bitter way, and I think sometimes bitterness can cause a lot of resistance, right, and I think, even as parents, right, I think we provoke the heck out of our kids sometimes, just the way we do things, the way we say things, and it's normal, like it is what it is. But I think one of our goals today, or is how do we invite something different from our children? Right, I sometimes use, oh, those balloons. I think one of the, I think one of the things that I'll these two kinds of words that I use with people all the time is inviting and provoking, and I think that there's a lot of things that we can do as parents that invite better outcomes, and there's a lot of things that we do as parents that provoke poor outcomes, and so today, maybe we can even talk a little bit about those, and because I would love to be a help not just to your lovely parents, but also to the teens themselves. Anyways, that was probably more than you wanted to know.

Speaker 1: 8:03

No, I like where this is going. I have never heard of it phrased like that inviting outcomes and provoking outcomes and when you said that, my immediate thought was there are certain things my own mother does that provokes outcomes in me, unintentionally. That was my first thought and then I thought, oh wait, I guess I do this to my kids too, so let's talk.

Speaker 2: 8:25

Let's talk about that, like how we do, like in a lot of times, right, I mean it can be intentional, right, but but I feel like so much of our behavior and this isn't to, you know, give people a rationalization or justification for what they do. But I feel like ignorance is like the human condition. And I say ignorance not as in stupidity or anything silly like that, but I mean ignorance as in like we just don't know. We just don't know, we don't know better. We're doing the best that we can, we're trying to do the best that we can. We're often like emotionally and psychologically overwhelmed. They're just overwhelmed with life. I feel like that's my condition right now.

Speaker 2: 9:07

To be honest, elizabeth is just a state of overwhelm, right With just like my profession, my involvement, obviously, with, like my kids, their activities, my involvement in my community with church, et cetera, their activities, my involvement in my community with church, etc. And there is just an immense overwhelm and sometimes there's almost this little pit in my stomach that I can't quite shake. I'm probably just being a little more personal here. And so, as a result, right then we have these precious, phenomenal children that we get to raise right and we get to teach and we get to educate and they get to be a part of our lives, uh and, and they're in that massive state of ignorance themselves, right, they're just trying to figure things out, and I think that there's a lot that we can do for them. And I'll give you one quick tool, um, even for your parents, and I'll give you one quick tool even for your parents, and I'll actually it's not mine, it's one that I'll kind of steal from John Gottman, who is kind of a really well known kind of marriage researcher. But he spent a lot of time talking about ratios and kind of making sure that you're managing your ratios and your manage. And I've always kind of just flipped that to managing your ratios with your children, and I've always kind of just flipped that to managing your ratios with your children. And let me just explain that really quickly. So ratio just means kind of a percentage right, and so if you think about in a marriage, he would describe it as just make sure that you have three positive interactions with your spouse compared to every one negative, right. And the main idea here was, he said, if you want to have a good relationship with your spouse, if you want to have a good marriage, right, if you want to have a good relationship with your partner, right, make sure that your ratios are always on the positive right. But realistically it was really more than three to one, it was more like five or 10, or 15 to one. And so, as a parent, what I would say to you is job number one or somewhere down that line. Right Is is make sure that the ratios in your relationship with your kids are always on the positive right.

Speaker 2: 11:13

A lot of times, by the time that parents bring kids into therapy with me, I feel like their ratios are on the negative right. They have more negative interactions with their kid than positive ones, and whenever that happens, number one, it's miserable, right. I mean, it's suffering for the both of them, but it's difficult to build right. It's difficult to build when our ratios are like that. And I don't know exactly why there has to be, you know why, the justice of three to one or five to one or 10 to one or 20 to one, why that happens? I would guess, if I had to guess really quickly as to why there has to be such a difference right, such a difference right is because we in our lovely craniums, right, we have this wonderful survivalistic organ up there called brain, and that's exactly what it is. It's a survivalistic organ and, as a result, I think it remembers pain and suffering better than it does joy and happiness, in part, because that's what protects this organism right. And so the brain just remembers pain, it remembers suffering, it remembers those things, and that's why we almost have to, in a way, disproportionately, provide more positive engagement, more positive interactions with our children than negative ones, more positive interactions with our children than negative ones.

Speaker 2: 12:44

Another one that I always tell parents is is do whatever you can in your power to start and end the day well, like just, and you know how it is right. I mean when you, when you greet your kids in the morning and they're groggy and they're like you know, walking down the stairs, you know, and you're like, oh my gosh, how are you? And they just like want to throw up all over you because it drives them absolutely crazy. Um, but I actually kind of love that. I, I kind of love their saltiness and their sassiness a little bit, uh, but that's one of the things that I'll always say is make sure, start your day Well with them, just be kind, fun, humorous, nerdy, whatever word you want to do there and then do what you can and it won't always work this way, of course, but do what you can to just make peace at the end of your day. You know, make amends, own you know silly stuff that you've done as a parent as well.

Speaker 2: 13:35

I used to call these my little kind of bedside chats with my kids, kind of once things have kind of settled down and you know, and maybe that day I've said something and it went too far or I was a little bit cruel or mean or whatever it was, and I just remember some of these little chats that I would have with my kids that I honestly a lot of them. I would just apologize, like man, I'm really sorry. Like today was a hard day. I'm sorry that I said I'm sorry that I honestly a lot of them. I just apologize, like man, I'm really sorry. Like today was a hard day. I'm sorry that I said I'm sorry that I told you to shut up whatever it was Right and uh, and then almost kind of always in in this positive uh, like let's, tomorrow's going to be a better day, like let's, let's try again tomorrow, you know, and so I think that that would be one of those tools that I would say, especially if Trust that process right, because we can convince ourselves to not stay there right. Well, I don't want to, like you know, prolong his behavior or give it a positive reinforcement for being stupid or this or that.

Speaker 2: 14:52

And what I would say to you is is realize that sometimes our job as parents is a job of positioning, like we have to position so that when our children are ready to change, they'll want to come to us. And I think if we present ourselves as these kind of hardcore, jerky punishing, we just will not be those people. We will not be those people. Somebody else will, and that's okay. We realize that it takes a village.

Speaker 2: 15:30

I love that, but, man, I would really love to be whenever my kids, whether they're doing good or not so good, I would love to be considered as one of those top three people that they would say like I can go to my dad, like and I'm not, you know, going to be ridiculed, or I told you so, or like I'm just going to be cared for and loved and and he's going to hear me out and hopefully, with him we can maybe work through a problem Uh, and I'm not going to feel, you know, embarrassed or ashamed. So that's kind of my goal. It's definitely what I definitely want to play the long ball, and I would encourage parents to do the same.

Speaker 1: 16:13

I think, yeah, I think that's really important for all of us. I think we all want that for our relationships with our kids, and one of you touched on a couple of things. You talked about just feeling so overwhelmed and I think you're speaking exactly to our audience. I don't know a parent out there in today's day and age that doesn't feel overwhelmed a majority of the time. And then you talked about positive and negative reactions and these ratios, or not reactions, but actions. What was the word you used Positive and negative?

Speaker 1: 16:46

Oh, like ratios, Like a ratio yes, yeah, negative, oh like ratios, like a ratio, yes, but um, so when I'm thinking about my own interactions with my 16 year old I it's sometimes I have had to make myself think just because I don't think this is a negative interaction, like saying, hey, bud, it's time to empty the dishwasher. That is a negative interaction and I think what do you? I mean, we have to think like that too, right? Sometimes we're saying things that are, even if it's mundane, it still can lean on the negative side for them, and we're not. When you're talking about positive versus negative, you're not just talking about when we're like at each other you know right, we're just talking about everyday conversations or moments, right?

Speaker 2: 17:29

Oh yeah. Yeah, I'm not talking about a really specific thing. I'm just saying, whether it's a day-to-day conversation, whether it's a text, whether it's a reminder, I realize that we're still parents. There are rules, there are things that we would like to have happen in our home. We have positive and good expectations. Kids want to do what they want to do, right, the things that you and I value, elizabeth, right, that we would put on our top five of like this matters, right? I mean, they're like 10, 11, 12, 15. They might make the top 20 for kids, but they're just not at the top, right, and so, as a result, we're going to have a lot of this kind of leveraging conversation. Right, most kids do not want to empty the trash, they do not want to empty the dishwasher. They do not want to do that. They want to do their thing, what they enjoy, what they have at that top.

Speaker 2: 18:23

You know whether that's friends, fun, freedom, whatever it is. And ours are just a little bit different. In fact, this is another little tool that I'll sometimes talk to parents about, and I might not be able to remember all of them, but whenever I talk about kind of figuring out what our expectations are, the things that we prioritize versus our kids. And I will say, parents usually prioritize responsibility, right, and kids will prioritize freedom, right, we will prioritize safety. They prioritize fun, we prioritize family time. They prioritize friends, right, we prioritize like, think of the long term, think of the future. They're thinking like now, right, right, this instant right. And so, as a result, like we're kind of, you know, tug of warring between these two. But the reality is and this is not just what I tell parents, this, but I also tell teens this right is is it's the realization that really both sides are wonderful. Like, of course, I want to be responsible, but, man, I love my freedom, right, I love my time with my family, but I really enjoy some time with my friends too, like I really enjoy the future, but like I got to be happy now period, like I love.

Speaker 2: 19:41

And another one that is also is parents really want open communication and adolescents and teens are really coming into privacy. They love their privacy, right, and so these become areas of conflict all the time. And if we can help parents to realize that, look, all of these are good, right, these are good things that you should balance in your own life, right, and sometimes what I tell teens is look, I just need you to realize that parents are really wanting this and if I can get you to give a little bit of this, you're going to get more of this, Right, and so because that's just how it works. But sometimes it's helpful for parents and teens to kind of realize, right where they are, like, the expectations that they have, conscious or unconscious, that certainly end up creating a lot of that conflict. And I think if parents, if we can learn to be trusting and obviously like to be parents and to be, you know, we want to be able to discipline and to teach and to hold accountable and all of those things. We want to be able to discipline and to teach and to hold accountable and all of those things.

Speaker 2: 20:56

But before we do that, if you can think of Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs and I feel like everybody knows that, with safety and shelter at the bottom and then belonging, et cetera, all the way up to, like, self-actualization at the top, or even self-transcendence, which he added on later but if you can think of that almost like if we could change some of those words a little bit and apply that same kind of hierarchy of needs to parenting or to your relationship with your children, and I would absolutely put at the bottom safety. And I don't mean just safety as in, like you know, like physical violence or verbal. I mean safety as in, yeah, like your kids feel like, hey, my dad's got my back, or Elizabeth's got my back, my mom's got my back, like this is a safe place for me to go, and kids are pretty sensitive to that, I'll be honest. And so for me, my little hierarchy of needs for parents is do everything in your power to create that safety foundation between you and your child and your relationship, because that's I think that it's powerful there. I think that that's foundational for a relationship to progress is it has to feel safe.

Speaker 2: 22:14

There I would put the next one right is trust and loyalty, the next one love, kindness and fun, and then only after that I would put that kind of accountability and discipline right. And so, in a sense, we want to build those lower, like I guess what I would call the relationship layers, right Before we jump into those top, like accountability, discipline ones. And, once again, sometimes by the time I get to see kids, their pyramid is upside down, right. Parents are spending all of the time holding accountable, disciplining all of those things, and very little time on that, and by then the relationship is not in a good space. And so that's another one that if I could just suggest to parents is keep those relationship rungs right just nicelyungs right, just nicely filled, right. It's almost like, you know, putting money in the bank account, like that's the bank account, so that when we have those challenging conversations at the top, we're more likely to have a positive outcome, we're more likely to be listened to, because, honestly, I don't want to just talk to be listened to, I don't want to just say stuff to be heard, like when I deliver something to my children I want to do, I want to try to do it in a way where it will be effective, right, and that's maybe where that kind of invitation and provoking language comes from. Right Is is we can sometimes.

Speaker 2: 23:48

I'll give you an example. So let's say my, you know, my child comes in, he's got a curfew at midnight or whatever, and he comes in and it's like 1215 or 1220 or whatever, it is right. And I could begin that conversation with him with something like this Cole, my 17 year old right now, I said, cole, you're always late. Like, where were you tonight, right, and my tone, you know my ambush, kind of behavior like that is not going to trigger, most likely, a very positive response on his end. What will happen on his end is he'll immediately go, he's going to close up, right. He's either going to do one of two things, right he's either going to fight with me or he's just going to be quiet and close up, right.

Speaker 2: 24:41

And so what I would suggest to you is, instead of provoking resistance, right, instead of provoking defensiveness, provoking resistance right Instead of provoking defensiveness. And, by the way, sometimes your children will be defensive without you provoking them. Just let it be. Let me be clear. But but I think a lot of times we end up provoking that, right, we ambush them with our language, we kind of machine gun attack them. You know you did this and that and the last time, and you know, and how can you expect it to do right?

Speaker 2: 25:12

And our kids are just like, and it's, it's difficult, it would be challenging for us as adults to go through an onslaught like that and to be receptive and to be open and to be willing for our heart and mind to be soft, right. And so, once again, for me, my goal isn't just to lecture or to say, or I gotta. My goal, just as it is in therapy with I'm with individuals, like I want to deliver information that's most likely to be absorbed, that's most likely to be listened to, and so I try to present right In a way that's gentle, in a way that's kind, like I'm interested in them, like hey, how was your night? Who were you with? Right, tell me about this.

Speaker 2: 26:02

I saw on, you know, like the phone, that you were at this house. How are they doing? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right. And then I think maybe I would come Cole, I'm noticing a pattern here. You're frequently now coming a little bit later. Each time You're not telling us, you're not answering the phone, you're not answering our texts, whatever it is right. And then I think I address that like hey, can we work on that this next time? Like, and then we want to. You know, it's almost like the, you know what do they call it? Like this is silly and inappropriate, but like the crap sandwich, right. It's like start good, then give that feedback and then end good, right, yeah, and I think that that works with our kids. Like, just just invite, invite, an open mind, invite an open heart and you're going to get better outcomes in the short term, and I think you're going to promote that kind of foundational relationship that I'm talking about, where you're going to get better outcomes in the longterm as well.

Speaker 1: 27:08

But we all want. You know, we want to raise kind, productive citizens, but of course we want to. We want them to like us and love us, and you know, and when they fly the coop, we still want them to want to come back and visit with us and be part of our lives. And I think one more thing I want to touch on that is tied exactly to this that you talk a lot about being proactive instead of reactive, and so this is a perfect example of that. Right, what other situations in our life Because so much of our life is reactive that and we have young kids and we're just trying to keep them alive every day. We're in this fight or flight mode all the time, so we're always reactive to things. How can we flip that so that we can respond in a more conscious manner, in a proactive way, to certain situations.

Speaker 2: 28:02

Yeah, elizabeth, you're awesome. I guess maybe the first thing that I would say. And then I would actually say and this is going to sound super cliche, so just smack me to the side of the head but I would just say, honestly, you're probably more proactive than you think. I think we do a lot of stuff proactively. I know what you're talking about and I agree with you. I think, specifically in my private practice realistically I mean realistically speaking like I usually see people in reaction, right, like by the time they reach my office, there's pain, right, there's a considerable amount of suffering that's happening before they even enter my office. It's rare, right, that I have a client that comes to see me and say like, hey, yuri, I'm doing really good, I want to make sure that I keep doing really good. So can we talk about some positive psychology and growth mindset strategies that will help me to just like slay this life? And I would be like, absolutely, but usually by the time people come to see me, yeah, their marriage is on the rocks, they're depressed, they're sad, they're anxious, their panic has risen to a level that they're not functioning well, right, and so, and I think that that's okay too right, that's kind of that medical model of psychology. But when we're talking about is kind of this positive psychology movement, and I won't bore you with kind of the details, but I really enjoy this kind of paradigm shift that's actually happening in the world of psychology right now, and it has been now for about I don't know 40 or 50 years, whereas for the longest time psychology and I promise this is going to tie into your question, I promise I'm coming back to it but for the longest time psychology has been focused on the negative side of human nature, really our dysfunction, right? I mean, psychologists have now written five volumes of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual that literally lists, like all of the possible disorders that we can have as humans, right All the way from major depressive disorders to post-traumatic stress, to anxiety-related disorders, personality disorders, et cetera.

Speaker 2: 30:21

And what the field of positive psychology has brought right is, instead of this passive and reactive model right to mental health, right to mental wellness or mental fitness, right, where we kind of just wait for depression to hit or suicidal ideation to hit or when a kid is self-harming, and then we do something. What the field of positive psychology has done is the field of positive psychology is focused on our joy, right, our happiness on living a life filled with meaning and purpose and achievement, right, because it's one thing in my mind to help someone feel less depressed, which is good, and it's another to help someone feel joyous and to feel like they're. Help someone feel joyous, yeah, like, and to feel like they're living deep and sucking the marrow of life, right, that's, that's another thing, right. And on this continuum, like negative, 10, suicidally depressed, 10 ecstatically happy, I think psychology has been mostly focused on relieving suffering and now has taken a really positive step towards, like that positive continuum, and I think, for the most part, that side has been kind of filled by, you know, philosophy or religious and spiritual studies and things like that.

Speaker 2: 31:45

And I think psychology has kind of caught on and is now focused on proactive measures, right, to enhance the happiness of adults and kids and helping them to live better lives as a way to prevent some of this illness and dysfunction that happens, right. And so, as a parent once again, this is part of that uh, like, parents, I, I love you, I care for you, I'm absolutely certain that you're doing more than you give yourself credit for, like, without a doubt, without a doubt. But I would say, if I were to just give you a suggestion, I would say that the proactivity part, the part that I think will build your relationship, that will strengthen your child right is add fun, is add kindness, add lots of love, add lots of enjoyment. Do what you can to encourage your child to be engaged and participate. And I know that that's tough now, right, because kids have got this little thing right and I mean, and the special effects in here are better than they are out there. This is what my kids tell me, right?

Speaker 2: 33:06

It's like man the things look better in here than they do out there, and it is frustrating and we've put that in their hands and I'm actually quite optimistic that our children are going to figure that out. Like right now it's tough for them and they're suffering some of that from from them, right, whether it's just phones, uh, or social media things we've. We've now. We now know that there's an impact that's happening, a negative one, uh but I actually believe that they're going to find, they're going to find a way to manage that Probably, just you know, they're going to be better than we are, without a doubt, but it is going to be a little bit tricky for them. But that's what I would say. I would say to you you're doing more than you can, and then I would say do what you can, lead with the best of you, let the best of you lead the rest of you is what I tell people all the time as a parent, and trust that process.

Speaker 2: 34:05

We're often afraid to do good or to be happier, or to reward or to just have a positive thing, because our kids are struggling, but those are the things that will save them in the long haul. It's almost like we can't restrict their diet for doing bad behavior. We can't do that right. They got to eat, and I'm not just talking about food. We have to figure out a way for them to socialize well, for them to be engaged, for them to participate, for them to do those kinds of things that will ultimately create the emotional and psychological muscle that they need to really just to really be happier, and so and anyways, that's that process.

Speaker 1: 34:50

That's the number one thing I think that most parents would say that they want is just for their children to be happy, of course, of course. Well, we are just about out of time, but I do want to talk quickly about School Pulse and, in case anybody listening is interested in this, this is new to me, so just tell us a little bit about School Pulse, what it is and what it does.

Speaker 2: 35:10

I would love to. Yeah, so I'll spare you the long story. Other than just, our goal is, one of the things that schools and districts and even state agencies are looking to address in schools is, obviously, it's suicide prevention right, we want to find a way to stop student suicide, right? There's far too much of that. There's too much violence in schools. There's a lot of apathy happening in schools as well, and so one of the things that schools are attempting to do right is to provide, hopefully in a proactive way, which is really what we bring. I find that most schools are reactive, right. They're kind of almost passively waiting for crisis to happen and then something happens and they react.

Speaker 2: 36:00

And our goal, what School Pulse does, is we provide the absolute best, most benign content to these incredible students in the form of videos and cool lessons, and we actually have a texting campaign, which is awesome. So, when students opt in to text, we actually text them twice a week. We deliver our amazing videos to them on Tuesday that provide the best positive psychology, growth, mind, cognitive strategies directly to them over phone, and then, whenever students wish to engage or need a little support or want to tell us about how wonderful their life is they can actually text, and we have a live team of individuals that actually connect with these amazing students, a whole team of people that just support. We're like we're changing lives like it's. It's fabulous, it's innovative, it's incredible. Nobody else does what we do that way. And then, in addition to that, we have a lot of tools for parents. We have an email campaign that goes out once a week to parents, where we deliver those same videos to them so that they can then watch or participate, or watch themselves or share with their teens. And then we have some really awesome tools as well that schools use within the school themselves. Schools have to deal with lots of disciplinary issues and student success issues, and we have provided them with the biggest and most comprehensive library, extraordinary content that they share with students, all with the hope of proactively preventing suicide, improving mental health, improving mental fitness and improving student success.

Speaker 2: 37:38

And we just want to do it right. We don't want to wait for crisis. We don't want to be just like a fire extinguisher on the wall that, when crisis happens, we break the glass and we, right, we want to feed right. We want to give them something that will inspire them, that will motivate them, and that, little by little, can instill some of the strategies, some of the perspective right that will transform their life. I tell kids all the time your psychology is everything right. The way that you interpret the events in your life matters more than the events themselves. Your life matters more than the events themselves. And so if we can change that perspective, if we can provide a better paradigm, then we can better deal with suffering and absolutely enhance our joy, our meaning, our purpose, our relationships, which is kind of what we want. Anyways, long story short, that's a little bit of what School Post does with schools, and we contract with schools and districts and even state agencies to provide that to students. It's awesome.

Speaker 1: 38:45

That's great. I love it. I love this whole idea of being proactive, because everything you're saying makes so much sense. We wait for the bad to happen and then try to fix it instead of preventing it to begin with, because we're overwhelmed, right, and you said it, Elizabeth right?

Speaker 2: 39:01

I mean as a parent, we're overwhelmed and, without a doubt, schools are in that same place, right? They're like please don't give me one more thing to do, because they're already underfunded and underserved, right? It's tough. So, anyways, I'll stop.

Speaker 1: 39:16

No, this was really great. I appreciate all your time and if anybody listening is interested in checking out some of the tools, resources and school posts, we'll make sure we have all the links to that posted right below this. If you're watching the video, it'll be right there. Or if you're listening to it, all the links will be right there for you, yuri. Again, we appreciate your time and everything you're doing to benefit our kids and teens. We can't do enough of that. So thank you for what you're doing.

Speaker 2: 39:43

Absolutely. What a pleasure to be here, Elizabeth.

Speaker 1: 39:47

Thanks for listening.