March 5, 2025 • 19 mins
Busy family life can feel like a juggling act, but tools exist to simplify and organize it all.
Jessica Etting, co-founder of Jam (https://www.jamfamilycalendar.com/) shares how her app helps families manage schedules and responsibilities smoothly.
By the time you finish listening, you’ll know:
• How your family can have less stress with a centralized family communication tool.
• Features of Jam and how it aids in organization.
If you're ready to streamline your family life, find Jessica’s app at https://www.jamfamilycalendar.com/ and use the code “Jam 20” for a special discount!
✨Want more?
1) Use this link for a FREE 20 min clarity call with Sustainable Parenting.
2) Download the FREE pdf. on getting kids to listen.
3) Buy a 3 session Coaching Bundle (saving you $100) - for THREE 30-min sessions 1:1 with ME, where we get right to the heart of your challenges, and give you small, powerful shifts that make a huge difference fast.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to episode 99 of the Sustainable
Parenting Podcast and I'm sohonored today to have Jessica
Edding with me, the founder ofJAM, who has an innovative
approach to help modern parentssolve their challenges.
She went on a journey frombeing a successful screenwriter
to co-founding a family-orientedtech startup, and she's going
(00:20):
to share about it with us today.
Hello and welcome to theSustainable Parenting Podcast.
Let me tell you, friend, thisplace is different.
We fill that gap between gentleparenting and harsh discipline
that's really missing to parentwith kindness and firmness at
the same time, and give you theexact steps to be able to parent
(00:42):
in ways that are more realisticand effective and, for that
reason, finally feel sustainable.
Welcome.
Yes, I'm always all about howcan we solve things as easy as
(01:02):
possible.
You know, sustainable parentingis the name of my business
Because, you know, when I becamea parent, I realized more than
ever that, even with all thedeep goals that I had, I wanted
to do it as efficiently aspossible.
There's only so many hours inthe day.
How do we really reach ourgoals in a realistic way?
So tell us about your tool andhow it got developed and how
(01:26):
it's helping parents.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah.
So I think you're absolutelyright that you become a parent
and you realize just howvaluable time is.
It's our most valuable resource, and I certainly had that
experience.
I have three kids now and, asyou said, I was working in the
entertainment industry and Ithink, especially today, where
(01:51):
there's so much information thatcomes up parents in so many
different ways, it's reallydifferent than the way that we
were raised, where you wouldjust bring home like a paper
flyer in your backpack.
Maybe you know I get emails andtexts and WhatsApp chain pings
all day long and the team snapapp pings, and so I felt like it
was impossible to keep track ofeverything and not to mention
(02:13):
not just scheduling but what wehad to get done and what we
needed to buy and what was goingto be for dinner all the
logistics of modern family life.
And my sister is also a mom oftwo, a working mom.
She has more of a softwarebackground and her kids are a
little younger than mine, and soright after her second one was
born, she said okay, I'm, I,just I can't figure out what's
(02:34):
the app I'm supposed to be usingfor this.
My husband and I are having somuch trouble communicating about
what needs to get done.
We, like, just need a placewhere all this information goes,
and I said it doesn't exist.
I know I've been looking for itfor years, and so we decided to
put our heads together andcreate the tool we wish we had,
and we created Jam.
And so Jam, basically, is likea hub for the family.
(02:58):
It houses your scheduling,calendars, to-do lists, shopping
lists all in one place.
You can, you know, put it on ascreen that you see in your
house, you can get it on yourphone, you can see it on your
iPad, and it really allowseverybody in the family to know
what's going on, not just youknow, the adults in the family,
necessarily, but also your kids,any caregivers that you have,
(03:20):
so that everybody can kind ofchip in and take some of that
mental load work off of theshoulders of who it usually
falls on, which is mom.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Yes, I think that's one of the biggest things is,
I've been looking for solutionsso that I'm not the holder of
all information, because we'reasked constantly can I have a
LaCroix, can I go to my friend'shouse, can I have a sleepover
this weekend?
And then, if we add to it, oh,when's my soccer game and what?
When is this happening andcoordinating all of that?
It's like those 5000 tabs wehave open in our brain that get
(03:53):
really mentally exhausting.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Exactly those, that those constant tabs going is
what causes so much burnout, forwomen especially, who are the
ones kind of like we said,holding all this information and
also the weight of knowing.
I'm the only person who knowsthis, I'm the only person who
knows soccer got moved fromThursday to Friday, which means
we need to change the carpool,which means, oh, I was supposed
(04:17):
to do that, so now this is, andall the domino effects of that
every single day.
And so by giving a place whereeverybody knows what's going on,
it does take a lot of thatweight off.
It used to be, for example, ifI went out of town for work.
You know all the moms knowyou're leaving the like word doc
of like everything everywhereis going.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Jessica, I literally just made this document
yesterday because I'm leavingtown for six days and it was
like how do I convey thecommunication that I'm doing
pickup?
You're doing pickup for theother girls and this can't got
canceled because they have acompetition this weekend and, oh
yes, also they.
He needs to make sure to takehis instrument on this day and
(04:59):
like all the things.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Exactly, and it's once you actually write all of
that out, you realize this isall the information I'm
literally holding here everysingle day.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
That's crazy, um that's just for five days.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
And so our goal with jam is, when I go out of town
now, I mean, my husbandliterally says to me he goes, I
know it's some jam.
Like I don't write those thingsthat anymore.
And even if it wasn't him, if Ihad a caregiver or a
grandparent, they could all allthe information already lives
somewhere besides my brain.
Who's driving, what needs toget brought, it all comes in.
So it definitely is like a biggame changer in terms of feeling
(05:40):
that completely on my ownshoulders and also in terms of
our family going, my sons, myhusband saying, oh, like we
actually know what's going ontoo.
My favorite moment is when inthe morning my husband will tell
me oh, by the way, the kidshave a dentist appointment today
.
I'm like I forgot.
I'm so glad you saw it andreminded me, because that means
(06:00):
we're going to do an earlypickup or whatever it is, but we
can work a little bit more as ateam, because that means we're
going to do an early pickup orwhatever it is, but we can work
a little bit more as a team.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Yes, and just having someone else be holding that
information matters so much.
So I'm thinking of the keytangible things that I was
writing down on this list, andit was things like the phone
numbers of the people that aredoing the pickup for my kids.
You know how to.
Is there an area you put thatLike?
Can you tell us more about whatdoes it look like?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, Let me give you a few more details.
So I think the coolest.
There's two really cool thingsabout jam that are very
different than we've ever hadbefore.
And then there's all thatadditional information and nitty
gritty like you're getting intotoo, where we, you know, we're
all craving that place that wecan just know everything is here
.
Um.
(06:48):
So, first of all, the way thatour calendar works is really
different.
You can tag who in the family isgoing.
You can tag who is driving.
You can tag what needs to getdone ahead of time or broad, and
even if something does need toget done ahead of time, who's
supposed to be doing that and bywhen.
So all that information kind oflives there.
It's much more cohesive.
If three people in the familyare going, or five people, it's
(07:10):
all really easy to chart out.
You can also what we're workingon now is to bring in other
families from your village.
So we're working on right now afeature where you're tagging
not just somebody in your houseas a driver, not like a
caregiver or another familymember, but you know, I have a
few carpools that I have goingon.
So I can tag Jenna and that'sgoing to now go into her
(07:30):
calendar as well.
Because, as we know, thesethings are kind of constantly
changing, and also same goes forme.
I can see, oh, jenna tags me.
This is my day and these arethe ones who are coming home
from her house that I amresponsible for today.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
That alone would save me like 50 texts a month,
because even though we havethese assigned days Monday,
wednesday, thursday there'salways an exception.
And oh, could you guys tradewith me here that, there and and
and.
Then just asking are you forsure getting them today?
Cause of course, we worry aboutour young kids and and I know I
(08:07):
can forget things, so sometimesI want to nudge and be like
just checking that you're doingthis.
But if I do like something likethat, oh, we just shared, not
only do you, know, but the jamsoftware itself will send the
reminders.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
So we love that too is I don't have to even remember
to remind, jam will just remind.
Hey, you're the one who'sdriving today.
That's going to be in 30minutes.
You probably need to leave nowto do that.
I love it so much.
And then, kind of on that sametopic again, even getting things
in the calendar I think can bebe a tremendous challenge, or it
(08:43):
used to be for me.
It's just really overwhelmingwhen so much comes your way.
You see an email, you can't doit right.
That second it gets forgottenand it never gets on the
calendar.
And so we engineered what wecall Jam On it, where you just
send things to Jam and it getson the calendar for you.
So I have three kids at threeschools right now.
I have elementary school,junior high and high school, and
(09:06):
so that's a lot of differentcalendars.
It's a newsletter that I getevery single week from three
different schools with alldifferent things that I need to
know, and so I can just forwardthose newsletters to Jam.
It reads it for me.
It's how it puts all theinformation that I need to know
into the calendar, including thelocation if something needs to
get brought, or they needed tobring $5 for the bake sale or
(09:28):
whatever it is, and then I canrest assured that it's there.
I just forward.
It's almost like sending it toan assistant.
So that's been the other keything for me, because I think I
realized how much used to fallthrough the cracks in our family
because one of us get it myhusband or I, you know through
some form of communication andit wouldn't always get onto the
(09:50):
calendar.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
So yes, awesome, so you can just forward the email
to yourself or text the you know, hey, jam on it.
Add this on Thursday yes youjust forward it jam.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
And we put it on the calendar for you, and I think
what what's really great is likeI always say like if I was just
putting something in thecalendar for my family, I'd say,
okay, thursday, archer soccer,that's it.
But when you forward the emailto jam, they're like stalker.
It's on this field, this iswhere you're supposed to park,
this is what the coach said tobring, so, and here we have it
(10:25):
all listed out for you waterbottle, blah, blah, blah.
And so I didn't have to enterall that.
But then if I'm not the onetaking them to stalker, no one
has to like call me for what allthat information is.
It all lives there anyway.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
So how just just so curious is this an AI feature of
how it grabs that?
Because that's what I wonderedis.
Sometimes a newsletter has someinformation that pertains to me
and some that doesn't.
So I had a different calendarapp and didn't know how.
You know how that, but AI isgetting so smart now I'm sure it
(11:00):
can sort through it.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
It's such a great question.
So it is AI, and that'ssomething that we're constantly
working on is making our AI evensmarter so that, for example,
it would be aware, like, okay,this event in the newsletter
that's for second graders,that's not you, you've got a
fifth grader.
The other cool thing is that weput everything that jam on it
(11:24):
gets onto your calendar, but alittle bit in like a tentative
format, it's there and then youcan accept it or reject it.
So at least everything gets onthere.
And if you're like, oh, that,that bagel breakfast Friday, I
was never planning to go to that, okay X, it's off the calendar
now.
Um, and the more that youinteract with it, the smarter it
gets.
As well to know oh, she lovesthese type of suggestions, but
(11:47):
these ones are not helpful toher?
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Oh, amazing.
Can you tell me more about howkids can interact with this?
Is that you know, like you weresaying the like they need,
their water bottle, their jersey?
How does that fit in?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
How does that fit in?
Yeah, so I kind of noticed,just being a mom of three, that
my kids didn't have so manyopportunities to be responsible
and empowered, to be preparedfor the things that they had
going on, because they had noway to see it all.
You know, when we grew up, mymom it was a paper era.
There was a paper calendar andthere was paper invitations and
everything lived on her desk,and so it was my responsibility
(12:30):
to walk by every day and see oh,I've got a birthday party this
weekend.
How do my kids know that?
Everything's coming on e-viteand going in?
A digital calendar created aproduct that was safe for kids
to be able to interact with, andobviously, as a mom, safety is
really important to me too, bothdigital and online safety, but
also within our family of hey, Idon't want my eight-year-old
(12:53):
messing up my whole workschedule on a calendar, like
deleting these things that areessential for our family life,
and so we created differentroles for our kids little kid,
big kid, teen that give themeach role kind of grants a
little bit more responsibilityand autonomy.
But no matter what your role islike as a kid, you can see what
events you have on the calendarthat are for you and then when
(13:17):
you click on those events, youcan see is there something that
needs to get brought or doneahead of time?
And was that assigned to you?
Is there something that needsto get brought or done ahead of
time?
And was that assigned to you?
And so my son, my youngest one,used to get so anxious.
Every night before bed He'd gowhat's going on tomorrow and
what's going on the day afterthat and what's going on this
weekend, and obviously he wasjust trying to make sense of
himself and the world.
And so now he can literallylook at jam, he knows when he
(13:39):
needs to pack his soccer bag.
He loves to put it by the frontdoor and he can really check
off those items each week andjust know I didn't miss anything
.
So I think there's somethinggreat about that.
You can also create lists foryour kids.
So if you want to create like achore list or a habit list or
whatever it is, we have in ourfamily, we have like one
(13:59):
communal list that you know it'severything we need for our
house that could be assigned tome.
It might be assigned to one ofthe kids and then the kids can
each have their own kind of likeindividual list as well, more
of what they have to handle forthemselves.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Love this.
Oh my god, I could think of somany uses and I can't wait to
download it.
I'm sorry I haven't already.
I'm gonna do it right away.
I definitely love it.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
I also love that I haven't already.
I'm going to do it right away.
I definitely love it.
I also love that I don't haveto be the nagging mom all the
time.
I can see like what has gottenchecked off, what hasn't.
They will get reminders If Iput a deadline on it.
That was not for me, Like theywill get that reminder, and so
that's especially helpful for myteenager.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
So helpful.
Yeah, so not like cause.
Yeah, many other calendars I'veseen don't integrate in that
way.
You would still be an that theyhave to go to the device, to
the digital calendar that'shanging on the wall or something
to see.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Right, exactly, and you know, obviously we're just
out and about a lot in the worldand we need to be able to have
access to things when we're out,and especially like for the
tweens and the teens who areoften they, you know, school
ends but they're going to apractice, maybe with a friend,
or maybe it's at school, butthen someone else is driving and
it's not quite the same thingas elementary school.
(15:16):
So for them to be able to havea little bit more oversight with
them where they're going, who'ssupposed to be driving them, is
so great.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
So smart I'm.
I'm just going to pause for asecond and I'll cut this out in
the middle, but I likedownloading it and, like I've,
got to.
I wish I had done this.
You tell your assistant that inthe future make sure that
people like download the appbefore your interview, because
then I could have had morevaluable.
I just my brain is not alwaysputting this all together.
(15:47):
No, no worries, but yeah, andreally the price point is so
reasonable for what a lot ofdigital calendars are costing
and, like I said, only giving afraction.
I'll say this officially.
You know I did look at the appand it is even also super
reasonable price wise comparedto what many digital calendars
(16:08):
are costing the one that we ownactually right now in our
kitchen, you know, would andthat only has a fraction of
these types of features to it.
You know you could have thisapp for three years to be the
equivalent of that item.
So this feels so reasonable andI'm really excited to try it.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
I know definitely there's families out there that
have probably seen the ads forthe calendar frames or maybe
they have one in their home andI can completely understand why
that is so alluring as well.
It's this idea of having a placewhere everybody in the family
can see it.
However, to your point, thoseare really expensive.
They cost hundreds of dollarsup front and you don't even know
(16:54):
if your family is going to beable to use it or if they like
it or if it will work, and sowith Jam, we created a software
that can be used anywhere.
It can be used on a phone or atablet or a shared family tablet
, or you can airplay it to yourtelevision that you already own,
so everybody can see it.
So it's just a little bit of amore pragmatic way for everybody
to still be able to have thatvisibility if you want it, but
(17:17):
also be able to use it moreeasily on the go and not have to
spend so much upfront for anorganization system that you're
not sure if it's going to work.
And I know we always, as moms,come in with these big ideas.
I'm going to reorganize ourwhole life, and this is going to
happen and the kids are like.
I've heard this one before.
With Jam, we really wanted tomake it easy, fun, intuitive,
(17:40):
but fast, easy to download, easyto get started with.
You don't need to like figureout how to get something out of
a box, plug it all in.
But if you want to put it onthe screen in your house, it
wouldn't be easier either.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Thank you so much, jessica, for sharing this
resource with us.
I can think of so many of myfriends that and clients that I
would love to recommend this to,because I often get parents
asking for tangible ways that,like you said, they can share
the information more andresponsibility more with both
their partners and or the kids.
That certainly aligns with allof our values here about
(18:15):
building confidence by buildingcompetence, that kids are more
independent and a part of theteam for the whole family, so
I'm so thankful you reached outto share this with us.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Thank you so much for having me on here.
It's such a pleasure to be hereand also I just always love
sharing these types of tools.
I created this because, as amom, it was something that I
literally was desperate formyself, and so it's such a joy
to bring it to other moms, toother parents, in the hopes of
helping everybody live life alittle bit easier, get a little
(18:49):
bit more joy in their day and alittle less stress and, to your
point, work together as a family, as a team, even easier.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
And, by the way, jessica, thank you so much for
offering us this discount codeof jam 20.
You emailed me that ahead oftime, so I want to share that
right now with you, the listener.
If this sounds like an excitingresource to you, you get the
chance to try it out with anexclusive discount here, called
Jam 20.
So type that in when you checkout the website.
(19:20):
That will be linked in our shownotes.
That gets you to the app andfriends.
In our next episode I'll bediving in with Joanna Bertkin,
who is a National CredentialedSchool Psychologist and Student
Assistance Coordinator here atthe Bozeman Public School
District, to talk about phonesin schools and generally the
(19:41):
details and effects of havingphones in the hands of our
children.
Don't miss this reallyimportant, insightful
conversation with Joanna.
I'm excited to share it withyou right in the next episode.
Join us.
You're listening to episode 99 of the Sustainable
Parenting Podcast and I'm sohonored today to have Jessica
Edding with me, the founder ofJAM, who has an innovative
approach to help modern parentssolve their challenges.
She went on a journey frombeing a successful screenwriter
to co-founding a family-orientedtech startup, and she's going
(00:20):
to share about it with us today.
Hello and welcome to theSustainable Parenting Podcast.
Let me tell you, friend, thisplace is different.
We fill that gap between gentleparenting and harsh discipline
that's really missing to parentwith kindness and firmness at
the same time, and give you theexact steps to be able to parent
(00:42):
in ways that are more realisticand effective and, for that
reason, finally feel sustainable.
Welcome.
Yes, I'm always all about howcan we solve things as easy as
(01:02):
possible.
You know, sustainable parentingis the name of my business
Because, you know, when I becamea parent, I realized more than
ever that, even with all thedeep goals that I had, I wanted
to do it as efficiently aspossible.
There's only so many hours inthe day.
How do we really reach ourgoals in a realistic way?
So tell us about your tool andhow it got developed and how
(01:26):
it's helping parents.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah.
So I think you're absolutelyright that you become a parent
and you realize just howvaluable time is.
It's our most valuable resource, and I certainly had that
experience.
I have three kids now and, asyou said, I was working in the
entertainment industry and Ithink, especially today, where
(01:51):
there's so much information thatcomes up parents in so many
different ways, it's reallydifferent than the way that we
were raised, where you wouldjust bring home like a paper
flyer in your backpack.
Maybe you know I get emails andtexts and WhatsApp chain pings
all day long and the team snapapp pings, and so I felt like it
was impossible to keep track ofeverything and not to mention
(02:13):
not just scheduling but what wehad to get done and what we
needed to buy and what was goingto be for dinner all the
logistics of modern family life.
And my sister is also a mom oftwo, a working mom.
She has more of a softwarebackground and her kids are a
little younger than mine, and soright after her second one was
born, she said okay, I'm, I,just I can't figure out what's
(02:34):
the app I'm supposed to be usingfor this.
My husband and I are having somuch trouble communicating about
what needs to get done.
We, like, just need a placewhere all this information goes,
and I said it doesn't exist.
I know I've been looking for itfor years, and so we decided to
put our heads together andcreate the tool we wish we had,
and we created Jam.
And so Jam, basically, is likea hub for the family.
(02:58):
It houses your scheduling,calendars, to-do lists, shopping
lists all in one place.
You can, you know, put it on ascreen that you see in your
house, you can get it on yourphone, you can see it on your
iPad, and it really allowseverybody in the family to know
what's going on, not just youknow, the adults in the family,
necessarily, but also your kids,any caregivers that you have,
(03:20):
so that everybody can kind ofchip in and take some of that
mental load work off of theshoulders of who it usually
falls on, which is mom.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Yes, I think that's one of the biggest things is,
I've been looking for solutionsso that I'm not the holder of
all information, because we'reasked constantly can I have a
LaCroix, can I go to my friend'shouse, can I have a sleepover
this weekend?
And then, if we add to it, oh,when's my soccer game and what?
When is this happening andcoordinating all of that?
It's like those 5000 tabs wehave open in our brain that get
(03:53):
really mentally exhausting.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Exactly those, that those constant tabs going is
what causes so much burnout, forwomen especially, who are the
ones kind of like we said,holding all this information and
also the weight of knowing.
I'm the only person who knowsthis, I'm the only person who
knows soccer got moved fromThursday to Friday, which means
we need to change the carpool,which means, oh, I was supposed
(04:17):
to do that, so now this is, andall the domino effects of that
every single day.
And so by giving a place whereeverybody knows what's going on,
it does take a lot of thatweight off.
It used to be, for example, ifI went out of town for work.
You know all the moms knowyou're leaving the like word doc
of like everything everywhereis going.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Jessica, I literally just made this document
yesterday because I'm leavingtown for six days and it was
like how do I convey thecommunication that I'm doing
pickup?
You're doing pickup for theother girls and this can't got
canceled because they have acompetition this weekend and, oh
yes, also they.
He needs to make sure to takehis instrument on this day and
(04:59):
like all the things.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Exactly, and it's once you actually write all of
that out, you realize this isall the information I'm
literally holding here everysingle day.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
That's crazy, um that's just for five days.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
And so our goal with jam is, when I go out of town
now, I mean, my husbandliterally says to me he goes, I
know it's some jam.
Like I don't write those thingsthat anymore.
And even if it wasn't him, if Ihad a caregiver or a
grandparent, they could all allthe information already lives
somewhere besides my brain.
Who's driving, what needs toget brought, it all comes in.
So it definitely is like a biggame changer in terms of feeling
(05:40):
that completely on my ownshoulders and also in terms of
our family going, my sons, myhusband saying, oh, like we
actually know what's going ontoo.
My favorite moment is when inthe morning my husband will tell
me oh, by the way, the kidshave a dentist appointment today
.
I'm like I forgot.
I'm so glad you saw it andreminded me, because that means
(06:00):
we're going to do an earlypickup or whatever it is, but we
can work a little bit more as ateam, because that means we're
going to do an early pickup orwhatever it is, but we can work
a little bit more as a team.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Yes, and just having someone else be holding that
information matters so much.
So I'm thinking of the keytangible things that I was
writing down on this list, andit was things like the phone
numbers of the people that aredoing the pickup for my kids.
You know how to.
Is there an area you put thatLike?
Can you tell us more about whatdoes it look like?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, Let me give you a few more details.
So I think the coolest.
There's two really cool thingsabout jam that are very
different than we've ever hadbefore.
And then there's all thatadditional information and nitty
gritty like you're getting intotoo, where we, you know, we're
all craving that place that wecan just know everything is here
.
Um.
(06:48):
So, first of all, the way thatour calendar works is really
different.
You can tag who in the family isgoing.
You can tag who is driving.
You can tag what needs to getdone ahead of time or broad, and
even if something does need toget done ahead of time, who's
supposed to be doing that and bywhen.
So all that information kind oflives there.
It's much more cohesive.
If three people in the familyare going, or five people, it's
(07:10):
all really easy to chart out.
You can also what we're workingon now is to bring in other
families from your village.
So we're working on right now afeature where you're tagging
not just somebody in your houseas a driver, not like a
caregiver or another familymember, but you know, I have a
few carpools that I have goingon.
So I can tag Jenna and that'sgoing to now go into her
(07:30):
calendar as well.
Because, as we know, thesethings are kind of constantly
changing, and also same goes forme.
I can see, oh, jenna tags me.
This is my day and these arethe ones who are coming home
from her house that I amresponsible for today.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
That alone would save me like 50 texts a month,
because even though we havethese assigned days Monday,
wednesday, thursday there'salways an exception.
And oh, could you guys tradewith me here that, there and and
and.
Then just asking are you forsure getting them today?
Cause of course, we worry aboutour young kids and and I know I
(08:07):
can forget things, so sometimesI want to nudge and be like
just checking that you're doingthis.
But if I do like something likethat, oh, we just shared, not
only do you, know, but the jamsoftware itself will send the
reminders.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
So we love that too is I don't have to even remember
to remind, jam will just remind.
Hey, you're the one who'sdriving today.
That's going to be in 30minutes.
You probably need to leave nowto do that.
I love it so much.
And then, kind of on that sametopic again, even getting things
in the calendar I think can bebe a tremendous challenge, or it
(08:43):
used to be for me.
It's just really overwhelmingwhen so much comes your way.
You see an email, you can't doit right.
That second it gets forgottenand it never gets on the
calendar.
And so we engineered what wecall Jam On it, where you just
send things to Jam and it getson the calendar for you.
So I have three kids at threeschools right now.
I have elementary school,junior high and high school, and
(09:06):
so that's a lot of differentcalendars.
It's a newsletter that I getevery single week from three
different schools with alldifferent things that I need to
know, and so I can just forwardthose newsletters to Jam.
It reads it for me.
It's how it puts all theinformation that I need to know
into the calendar, including thelocation if something needs to
get brought, or they needed tobring $5 for the bake sale or
(09:28):
whatever it is, and then I canrest assured that it's there.
I just forward.
It's almost like sending it toan assistant.
So that's been the other keything for me, because I think I
realized how much used to fallthrough the cracks in our family
because one of us get it myhusband or I, you know through
some form of communication andit wouldn't always get onto the
(09:50):
calendar.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
So yes, awesome, so you can just forward the email
to yourself or text the you know, hey, jam on it.
Add this on Thursday yes youjust forward it jam.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
And we put it on the calendar for you, and I think
what what's really great is likeI always say like if I was just
putting something in thecalendar for my family, I'd say,
okay, thursday, archer soccer,that's it.
But when you forward the emailto jam, they're like stalker.
It's on this field, this iswhere you're supposed to park,
this is what the coach said tobring, so, and here we have it
(10:25):
all listed out for you waterbottle, blah, blah, blah.
And so I didn't have to enterall that.
But then if I'm not the onetaking them to stalker, no one
has to like call me for what allthat information is.
It all lives there anyway.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
So how just just so curious is this an AI feature of
how it grabs that?
Because that's what I wonderedis.
Sometimes a newsletter has someinformation that pertains to me
and some that doesn't.
So I had a different calendarapp and didn't know how.
You know how that, but AI isgetting so smart now I'm sure it
(11:00):
can sort through it.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
It's such a great question.
So it is AI, and that'ssomething that we're constantly
working on is making our AI evensmarter so that, for example,
it would be aware, like, okay,this event in the newsletter
that's for second graders,that's not you, you've got a
fifth grader.
The other cool thing is that weput everything that jam on it
(11:24):
gets onto your calendar, but alittle bit in like a tentative
format, it's there and then youcan accept it or reject it.
So at least everything gets onthere.
And if you're like, oh, that,that bagel breakfast Friday, I
was never planning to go to that, okay X, it's off the calendar
now.
Um, and the more that youinteract with it, the smarter it
gets.
As well to know oh, she lovesthese type of suggestions, but
(11:47):
these ones are not helpful toher?
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Oh, amazing.
Can you tell me more about howkids can interact with this?
Is that you know, like you weresaying the like they need,
their water bottle, their jersey?
How does that fit in?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
How does that fit in?
Yeah, so I kind of noticed,just being a mom of three, that
my kids didn't have so manyopportunities to be responsible
and empowered, to be preparedfor the things that they had
going on, because they had noway to see it all.
You know, when we grew up, mymom it was a paper era.
There was a paper calendar andthere was paper invitations and
everything lived on her desk,and so it was my responsibility
(12:30):
to walk by every day and see oh,I've got a birthday party this
weekend.
How do my kids know that?
Everything's coming on e-viteand going in?
A digital calendar created aproduct that was safe for kids
to be able to interact with, andobviously, as a mom, safety is
really important to me too, bothdigital and online safety, but
also within our family of hey, Idon't want my eight-year-old
(12:53):
messing up my whole workschedule on a calendar, like
deleting these things that areessential for our family life,
and so we created differentroles for our kids little kid,
big kid, teen that give themeach role kind of grants a
little bit more responsibilityand autonomy.
But no matter what your role islike as a kid, you can see what
events you have on the calendarthat are for you and then when
(13:17):
you click on those events, youcan see is there something that
needs to get brought or doneahead of time?
And was that assigned to you?
Is there something that needsto get brought or done ahead of
time?
And was that assigned to you?
And so my son, my youngest one,used to get so anxious.
Every night before bed He'd gowhat's going on tomorrow and
what's going on the day afterthat and what's going on this
weekend, and obviously he wasjust trying to make sense of
himself and the world.
And so now he can literallylook at jam, he knows when he
(13:39):
needs to pack his soccer bag.
He loves to put it by the frontdoor and he can really check
off those items each week andjust know I didn't miss anything
.
So I think there's somethinggreat about that.
You can also create lists foryour kids.
So if you want to create like achore list or a habit list or
whatever it is, we have in ourfamily, we have like one
(13:59):
communal list that you know it'severything we need for our
house that could be assigned tome.
It might be assigned to one ofthe kids and then the kids can
each have their own kind of likeindividual list as well, more
of what they have to handle forthemselves.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Love this.
Oh my god, I could think of somany uses and I can't wait to
download it.
I'm sorry I haven't already.
I'm gonna do it right away.
I definitely love it.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
I also love that I haven't already.
I'm going to do it right away.
I definitely love it.
I also love that I don't haveto be the nagging mom all the
time.
I can see like what has gottenchecked off, what hasn't.
They will get reminders If Iput a deadline on it.
That was not for me, Like theywill get that reminder, and so
that's especially helpful for myteenager.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
So helpful.
Yeah, so not like cause.
Yeah, many other calendars I'veseen don't integrate in that
way.
You would still be an that theyhave to go to the device, to
the digital calendar that'shanging on the wall or something
to see.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Right, exactly, and you know, obviously we're just
out and about a lot in the worldand we need to be able to have
access to things when we're out,and especially like for the
tweens and the teens who areoften they, you know, school
ends but they're going to apractice, maybe with a friend,
or maybe it's at school, butthen someone else is driving and
it's not quite the same thingas elementary school.
(15:16):
So for them to be able to havea little bit more oversight with
them where they're going, who'ssupposed to be driving them, is
so great.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
So smart I'm.
I'm just going to pause for asecond and I'll cut this out in
the middle, but I likedownloading it and, like I've,
got to.
I wish I had done this.
You tell your assistant that inthe future make sure that
people like download the appbefore your interview, because
then I could have had morevaluable.
I just my brain is not alwaysputting this all together.
(15:47):
No, no worries, but yeah, andreally the price point is so
reasonable for what a lot ofdigital calendars are costing
and, like I said, only giving afraction.
I'll say this officially.
You know I did look at the appand it is even also super
reasonable price wise comparedto what many digital calendars
(16:08):
are costing the one that we ownactually right now in our
kitchen, you know, would andthat only has a fraction of
these types of features to it.
You know you could have thisapp for three years to be the
equivalent of that item.
So this feels so reasonable andI'm really excited to try it.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
I know definitely there's families out there that
have probably seen the ads forthe calendar frames or maybe
they have one in their home andI can completely understand why
that is so alluring as well.
It's this idea of having a placewhere everybody in the family
can see it.
However, to your point, thoseare really expensive.
They cost hundreds of dollarsup front and you don't even know
(16:54):
if your family is going to beable to use it or if they like
it or if it will work, and sowith Jam, we created a software
that can be used anywhere.
It can be used on a phone or atablet or a shared family tablet
, or you can airplay it to yourtelevision that you already own,
so everybody can see it.
So it's just a little bit of amore pragmatic way for everybody
to still be able to have thatvisibility if you want it, but
(17:17):
also be able to use it moreeasily on the go and not have to
spend so much upfront for anorganization system that you're
not sure if it's going to work.
And I know we always, as moms,come in with these big ideas.
I'm going to reorganize ourwhole life, and this is going to
happen and the kids are like.
I've heard this one before.
With Jam, we really wanted tomake it easy, fun, intuitive,
(17:40):
but fast, easy to download, easyto get started with.
You don't need to like figureout how to get something out of
a box, plug it all in.
But if you want to put it onthe screen in your house, it
wouldn't be easier either.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Thank you so much, jessica, for sharing this
resource with us.
I can think of so many of myfriends that and clients that I
would love to recommend this to,because I often get parents
asking for tangible ways that,like you said, they can share
the information more andresponsibility more with both
their partners and or the kids.
That certainly aligns with allof our values here about
(18:15):
building confidence by buildingcompetence, that kids are more
independent and a part of theteam for the whole family, so
I'm so thankful you reached outto share this with us.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Thank you so much for having me on here.
It's such a pleasure to be hereand also I just always love
sharing these types of tools.
I created this because, as amom, it was something that I
literally was desperate formyself, and so it's such a joy
to bring it to other moms, toother parents, in the hopes of
helping everybody live life alittle bit easier, get a little
(18:49):
bit more joy in their day and alittle less stress and, to your
point, work together as a family, as a team, even easier.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
And, by the way, jessica, thank you so much for
offering us this discount codeof jam 20.
You emailed me that ahead oftime, so I want to share that
right now with you, the listener.
If this sounds like an excitingresource to you, you get the
chance to try it out with anexclusive discount here, called
Jam 20.
So type that in when you checkout the website.
(19:20):
That will be linked in our shownotes.
That gets you to the app andfriends.
In our next episode I'll bediving in with Joanna Bertkin,
who is a National CredentialedSchool Psychologist and Student
Assistance Coordinator here atthe Bozeman Public School
District, to talk about phonesin schools and generally the
(19:41):
details and effects of havingphones in the hands of our
children.
Don't miss this reallyimportant, insightful
conversation with Joanna.
I'm excited to share it withyou right in the next episode.
Join us.
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