July 14, 2025 • 33 mins
Today’s guest is Michael Israel, Head of Operations at Cleverelly — a safety organization on a mission to save lives by preventing hot car deaths. Cleverelly’s simple device turns a life-saving action — checking your backseat — into an everyday habit that could save your child’s life. With over 8 years of experience, Michael has worked with nonprofits, hospitals, and parent communities across the U.S. to raise awareness and drive prevention.
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00:00 Introduction to Child Safety and Cleverelly
01:32 The Origin Story of Cleverelly
03:26 Understanding Memory Lapses and Child Safety
07:52 The Technology Behind Cleverelly
09:43 The Importance of Habit Formation
12:03 Statistics and Realities of Forgotten Children
17:07 The Year-Round Risks of Hot and Cold Cars
21:45 The Role of Awareness and Action
25:28 Community Engagement and Future Goals
29:30 Final Thoughts and Call to Action
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:10):
And welcome back to the Young Dad podcast with your outside
grilling, mowing the lawn, changing dirty diapers, or
maybe, just maybe, you finally got a moment to sit back, relax
and enjoy your favorite podcast.We'll figure out whatever you're
doing. Thanks for being here and thanks
for tuning in. I'm your host, Jay.
And today I'm joined by Michael,the head of operations at Clever
Cleverly, a safety organization on a mission to save lives by
(00:32):
preventing hot car deaths. More common than you think.
His organization's mission is simple.
His simple devices turn a life saving action.
Over 8 years of experience, Michael has worked with
nonprofits, hospitals and parentcommunity communities across the
US to raise awareness and Dr. prevention.
So with that, we're going to be talking about some child safety
(00:52):
here, some very preventable things and ways to keep your
children safe, especially duringthe hot summer months.
So with that, Michael, welcome to the show.
Hi guys. Thank you all for being here.
Jay, thank you for having me on the show and giving me the
opportunity to to chat about something that I believe is very
important, something I'm very passionate about.
And yeah, I'm really excited forthis episode.
(01:13):
So yeah, it's great to have you.So we're talking about
something, you know, kind of high stakes here, right?
And I think there's a lot of shame and a lot of guilt
surrounding these conversations because I think there definitely
can be some shame given to thosethat can forget their their
(01:33):
children in the car from time totime.
But it happens. It's crazy how it happens.
And we're going to jump into that a little bit more.
But First off, how did this all start?
How did Cleverly Come come to life and what brought you to
being so passionate about this eight years ago?
Yeah, of course. So I didn't actually started
eight years ago. I only joined the organization a
(01:54):
couple years ago, but the organization's been around for
seven or eight years. I think the story of how it
started is a huge testament to what you just said.
So about 7 or 8 years ago, a group of three dads, seven years
ago, they launched, but eight years ago is when they found out
about this and whatnot, they launched and his wife had told
him that this happens. His wife told him that babies
(02:15):
die in hot cars. And his first response was quite
a natural response, which was tolaugh it off.
He was like, are you kidding me?Who forgets their baby in the
back of a car? That's ridiculous.
And he, he thought it was funny.And his wife said to him, no,
actually, this isn't funny at all.
And you're the type of person who's most at risk of this.
So he still didn't think much ofit.
But Fast forward a few months and he was driving his son to
(02:39):
childcare and then started driving, heading towards the
office. And he was driving towards the
office and he looked in his rearview mirror and he saw his son
in the back seat and it wasn't dangerous at all.
In that time. He simply did AU turn, headed
back to childcare, dropped his son off and nothing actually
happened. However, it hit him that this is
the memory lapse that his wife was talking about, and it really
(03:01):
shook him because what if he didn't look in the rear view
mirror? What if he got into the office,
went upstairs and came back out at lunchtime or the end of the
day? Or what if instead of going to
the office, he needed to run to the supermarket and grab some
groceries or something like thatwas super important.
You know, he was on autopilot. Something came up at work, can't
remember exactly what it is, butsomething came up at work.
He needed to deal with it and hewent to deal with it.
(03:22):
It was as simple as that. And the science behind this is
that our brains can hold 7 or 8 bits of information at a time.
And as new bits of information pops into the brain, Simply put,
an old bit will fall out. So unless we get a reminder in
some form, whether that be sound, touch, smell, feel,
thought, we Simply put, we'll forget our children in the back
(03:44):
of a car. So yeah, he, he realized this,
he learned this, he started looking into this and there was
research about it, even though it wasn't in the media nowhere
near as much as it is today. And he gathered up with his
friends and invented cleverly. So he took six months off his
job, off his business and, and created this.
And it was more of a side passion project.
It was a not-for-profit in the beginning and it, and it was
(04:06):
just about doing good. So him and his friends did this
on the side while all of them independently ran their own
businesses. Fast forward till COVID and
things started heating up a little bit.
There was problems and they werevery time for as I said, they
they all ran their own businesses and they weren't able
to deal with the challenges of cleverly and operations came to
(04:26):
a halt. Then more recently I joined the
organization, have fixed those problems and have really been
scaling up our mission and purpose, which really is to save
lives. So a little bit on the progress
and what we made and how we madeit.
So initially when they were starting out, they were, they
were really techie guys and theywanted to build the most
advanced technologically advanced system out there.
(04:47):
They wanted to build this reallyadvanced detection system.
But when they did Gofundmes and research groups and things like
that, they realized no one wanted this.
It wasn't that they wouldn't spend a three, four, $500 on a
device to save their child's life.
It's that it's like an admittance of guilt.
I need a three, four, $500 device to remind me that my
child's in the back of my car. It's already against human
(05:07):
nature. Like, like I was saying,
remember how I said he laughed it off when he first heard about
it? That was a very natural response
by parents. When we went to Expos, a lot of
people laughed it off, told us we were idiots, told us this is
ridiculous. But that was back then when
there wasn't any media or awareness about it.
Now when we go to Expos, it's not that much different in terms
(05:28):
of they know this happens. They know this happens a lot,
but they still can't take responsibility for it.
So they don't say. They come up to us and they go,
oh, this is so sad. This would never happen to me
but my partner, but my mom, but my dad, but my whoever's taking
care of the child, They now understand that this happens,
but it is so far against human nature to ever take
responsibility for it that they Simply put, never will.
(05:50):
So we realized that one, this device had to be extremely
affordable for that reason. And it also had to be simple.
Parents weren't willing to go tothe mechanic to install a device
or get it maintained every threeto six months.
They weren't willing to touch anything around the engine or
inside the car or, you know, do anything that was too too major,
especially when there is ready that those barrier points of
(06:13):
this will never happen to me andthis can't happen to me and I
don't want to admit this is going to happen to me.
So we realized they needed to beas simple and as affordable as
we possibly can. And over the last eight years
we've been refining that, makingit more simple, more simple,
more simple and more compatible to all cars.
Over the years, there has been afew technological barriers.
(06:33):
Cars started retaining power to the socket outlets.
So essentially how the device originally worked, let me start
with that was you plugged it into the socket outlet, the
cigarette lighter, And then every time you turned off the
engine, it emitted A randomized voice to help you build the
habit of checking the backseat. But then as technology advanced,
cars retained power to that socket outlet, so you could
(06:55):
charge your phone even when the car was off.
This obviously was a problem forus, but we came up with a quick
solution, which was we now include door sensors in every
single unit, which is very easy to install.
It's in the instruction manual. There's also a video, a QR code
attached to a video in the instruction manual, and you just
stick on this door sensor onto the driver door.
And then every single time you open that driver door, it
(07:17):
triggers the unit to emit a randomized message, which then
makes it compatible again in pretty much all cars.
The only one caveat to that is more recently that some cars now
don't even have a socket outlet,full stop.
But we have an adapter on our website or you can buy it from
Amazon or your local department store that converts USBA or C to
a socket outlet and then again, making it compatible in all
(07:39):
cars. So this is compatible in all
cars, You just need that adapter.
I would say the prices range from, you know, 7 to $12.00
across. Anywhere you find you shouldn't,
you shouldn't really be paying more than $12.00 no matter where
you look. And we sell it on our website on
the lower end of that scale. And yes, you can buy that
adapter and on top of that, you can.
(08:01):
The device then is compatible inall cars.
And it's there in a different way to help you build the habit
of checking the backseat. So our approach is different in
that we're focusing on building the habit of checking the
backseat. The reason why is because a lot
of these incidents occur when there's a change in routine,
when you know you're on vacation, when your car's at the
mechanic, when mom or dad's driving the kids, when you're
super tired, when you're super busy.
(08:22):
So the idea is, how can we help humans become as equipped as
possible to remember to check the backseat?
And that's what led us to Cleverly and LED us to habit
formation, because we don't wantto become reliant on that
technology. Because if we do become reliant
on that technology and we do have a really advanced system,
what happens when it fails? What happens when it needs to be
repaired? What happens when it needs to be
maintained? What happens when the batteries
(08:43):
die? We're even less likely to
remember our child in the backseat.
And because this is such a serious issue, we don't want to
become reliant on technology forthis ever.
We want to use technology as a tool, as a tool to help us
become as equipped as we possibly can to remember to
check the backseat. So that's what led us to the
device and LED us to creating itand and that's where we are with
(09:04):
it now. We recently launched just a few
days ago a new version of the device with type C fast charging
with it has like all the improvements basically any
parent has asked for over the last years and years and years.
But we think we've incorporated everything into this device now.
The door sensor, the adhesive isnow stronger than it was before.
We had some complaints and some parents saying that in some
(09:27):
really hot days they would bump it in, would fall off.
But, but now we've fixed that issue.
We haven't had a complaint on that yet.
The audio level over the last eight years have gone up a
little bit, down a little bit, up a little bit, down a little
bit. And now again, we've we've
reached the level where we haven't had any complaints.
That's been in testing stage formonths and months and months.
And yeah, everyone has has lovedit.
(09:47):
And there's a few other small issues that we've fixed up as
well. And now we're up to the stage
where we really think this can help save lives.
And we like to compare having one device in a car to one
child's life saved. We don't believe that Cleverly
is the only solution to this. We just believe it's one of the
many great ones out there. And we believe that habit
formation is the answer to this.So in line with that, we believe
(10:11):
talking about this is huge because you know, like I was
saying, one of the ways you remember your child's in the
back seat with the 7 to 8 bits of information is memory and
thought. So if you hear about a
conversation you had yesterday or you hear about how relatable
this is to you, you're more likely to remember on that.
I like to tell people about the fact that in America, you guys
don't record how many near misses or close calls there are.
(10:33):
There might be some small organizations that do this, but
on a national level it's not recorded, whereas in Australia
it is. And in Australia there are over
5000 close calls related to thisevery single year.
In Australia now America is 13 times more populated, which
means in the states, we estimatefrom other statistics that this
happens more often, which means in the states we believe this
(10:54):
happens 65,000 * a year, if not more.
I think that really shows how relatable this is to all
parents. Another thing to show
relatability is the fact that cars from 2025 onwards have
legislated having this in their cars, which means all new cars
have a reminder device of some form.
The problem that we're finding alot of parents are coming to us
(11:14):
with is, hey, it's a monitoring voice in the car.
And after two weeks it goes intomy background memory, or it's a
text on the dashboard and I don't notice it, or a
notification on my phone and I don't notice it.
Which is why Cleverly is different in that it's a
randomized voice. Every single time you exit, you
hear a different voice. So it doesn't go into your
background memory. And it's there to constantly
reinforce the habit and help youbuild that habit of checking the
(11:37):
backseat every single time you exit the vehicle.
And we like to talk about, yeah,how how relatable it is to every
parent because, you know, we allhave stories of forgetting our
keys inside the house or forgetting our wallet or
whatever it is that we forget during the day when we're an
autopilot and we don't realize what we're doing.
But often after those situations, we can become
(11:58):
conscious of it. And I strongly encourage parents
when they become conscious of this and when they realize, hey,
I just forgot my keys in my wallet, to think about that, to
talk about that, to really, really delve into that, You
know, the next time you bump into your friends, think about
that in a different situation, think about that in a less
fortunate situation. And I think that really helps
(12:18):
parents realize how easy this isto happen and how much this
happens as we're in a world where AI and tech, and I hate to
say this, but as AI and tech become more involved in our
lives, the likelihood of this happening increases with that.
And I, I really believe that this is something that can
happen to everyone and everyone is at risk of happening too,
(12:38):
which is why talking about this,having a device, building a
habit, these are the things we need to do to lower the
statistics around this. We like to compare it to
seatbelts. You know, in the 70s, there was
a lot of news articles around seatbelts and how seatbelts
would save lives. And people in the beginning
laughed it off. They thought it was ridiculous.
(12:59):
They said, I'm not wearing a seat belt.
And we like to compare the news articles from the 70s to to news
articles now with this in the exact same way.
Like we want parents to build the habit of checking the
backseat. In the same way they have the
habit of putting on a seat belt every single time they get into
the car because they know it is there for their safety.
They know it it is a necessity for their safety and that
(13:20):
although they may not get into acrash, it can save their life.
And it is such an easy thing to do.
And we want checking the backseat to be that exact same
routine and habit. Well, so that's a ton.
That's a really cool idea. Really cool ideas here behind
Cleverly. And I do just want to share some
of the US based statistics here since I got them pulled up.
(13:41):
So key statistics for the US forforgotten baby syndrome.
It averages about 38 deaths per year here in the United States.
Since 1998, about A / 1050 childdeaths have been due to the
vehicular heat stroke. Peak months are obviously made
of September, the hottest monthsof the year in the United
States. 50% of these deaths werebecause the child was forgotten
(14:03):
by a caregiver, under 25% child got into the car on their own,
and then under 20% child was knowingly left in the car.
How it happens. Much like you said, it's often
due to a lapse in perspective memory or the brain forgets to
perform a planned action like drop the child off at daycare.
This can happen to anyone regardless of intelligence,
(14:23):
income, parenting experience, especially under stress, sleep
deprivation and change in routine, contributing factors,
stress or distractions, sleep deprivation common and new
parent change in daily routine. So maybe a new job, just move
things like that. Running late childhood and
meltdown, whatever in the morning assumption that someone
else has a child and then also rear facing seats, out of sight,
(14:48):
out of mind. So that's some that we're
thinking of here. But then also to go a little bit
more, when you talk about near misses, your numbers were
undersold a little bit here for the US.
So a Safe Kids Worldwide survey found 11% of parents 1.5 million
(15:08):
US parents admitted to forgetting their child in a
vehicle at least once. Among parents of kids underage
3, that number jumped to nearly 25%.
The same survey showed about 14%of parents admitted to
intentionally leaving their child alone in a parked vehicle.
And then a study in Riyadh just saw 24.9% of participants admit
to leaving their child alone in the lock car on a sunny day.
(15:31):
I saw the figures indicate that 10s of millions of Americans
have experienced a close call. I thought I'd just jump in there
with that statistic that I was speaking about earlier of the
5000 in Australia and comparing that to 65,000 in America.
Those aren't just close calls ofmy uncle's story where he he's
driving his son to work instead of to childcare.
(15:53):
That's not even included in the statistics.
I'm talking about 5000 cases where the fire department or
ambulance had to come and rescuethat kid out of the car.
And potentially that kid had a mental illness or that kid had
whatever physical trauma or or problem later on in life that
wasn't even linked to this, thatwe didn't even record around
(16:13):
this or that we don't know is linked to this, but was because
of this. And there's a 65,000 cases that
are severe. There's a 65,000 cases that are
not optimal. They're not cases where, like my
uncles, he just simply did AU turn and all was good.
Yeah, so yeah, 11% of parents inthe United States admit to
figuring their their child at least once.
(16:35):
One in four kids under 3 years old.
Thousands of near forgetting andrescues occur annually, but
exact numbers are unclear. The near misses are far more
common than the 38 deaths per year from hot car heat stroke.
The near misses show it's not about negligence, it's about
human memory flaws. So much like you're saying,
talked about here with clever Ellie and understanding that so
(16:56):
many parents experience this underscores the importance of
preventative tools and habits, much like you're saying here.
Backseat reminders, tech alerts and daycare callbacks as well.
So there's a a lot that goes into this here.
And there are a lot of near misses, you know, upwards of
hundreds of thousands, if not millions per day.
The UKAUK study roadside services are called to rescue a
(17:19):
child from a vehicle about 7 times per day on average in the
UK I'm. Sure, this happens all over the
world and yeah. Everywhere, everywhere,
everywhere you have cars. And another thing that's often
not spoken about is, I know we're in summer now and people
love to speak about hot cars, but it's just as bad in winter,
(17:42):
in cold winters of babies freezing to death.
In fact, last year in the Stateswe saw a death every single
month of the year. This happened every single month
of the year, all year round. Yes, it happens more often
during summer than any other months, like you said in those
statistics, the May to September, and we see that as
well. However, this does happen all
year round and we do encourage parents to use a device like
Cleverly all year round and to be focused on this issue all
(18:06):
year round because it can happenat any time of the year.
That can happen on an average, you know, warmish day during
winter or a freezing cold day during winter as well.
I think that's an important aspect to speak about.
You also touched on the fact that Safe Kids published those
articles. Safe Kids are probably the
biggest, if not the biggest, oneof the biggest organizations
(18:26):
within this space. They have, you know, over 400
plus coalition's across the country of America recently at
an Expo we went to in lifesaversbecause we're, we're out of
Australia. So, you know, I don't, I don't
get as much face to face contactas you probably do with parents,
which is why I find it very useful to, to get on podcasts
such as these and, and speak to people about this.
(18:47):
But recently we were in the states in America at Lifesavers,
an Expo within this industry. And we were speaking with safe
kids who who very much loved what we were doing and loved our
product. And one of the big things they
said was there's a lot of other reminder devices out there.
And apart from the reasons that I had spoke about earlier, they
had said that the reminder devices within the baby seat run
into all sorts of regulatory issues because of crash testing
(19:08):
and things like this and how dangerous that can become.
And they ordered a, a bulk amount of units of Cleverellis
to, to distribute to their coalitions to hand out to, to
families and, and whatnot. And we're working with them now
and they've been amazing supportfor us and they are an amazing
organization. But I, I think like, I was
(19:29):
having a chat with them and other organizations too, about
this. The fact that car manufacturers
have legislated this, I think really above all statistics
shows how serious this is because to legislate a law in
America is no easy task. And I think that shows testament
to how serious this issue is, the fact that, you know, the
government was willing to legislate it in all cars.
(19:50):
Yeah, no, it's really cool. You mentioned the cold deaths a
minute ago, so fun fact, they'reactually not formally tracked
here in the United States. They're what?
Sorry, they're called. The cold desk for when the cold
car deaths happened. They're not formally tracked
here in the United States. It's, however, reported that
(20:11):
only a small handful of confirmed cases have happened
over the past two decades. For example, a 2005 case
happened to where a baby was left in the car overnight and
then a few scattered cases happen in like the northern
states to where it gets colder versus and then also in Canada
as well. But annual cart US cold car
(20:33):
deaths rarely exceed one to two cases per year, if any.
Some years are none, but still same idea here, right to where
it's because of that forgetting,it's because of the not
checking, it's because of thinking, oh, the car's here,
sleep deprivation, work stress, life stress, thinking the baby's
here when the baby's there, thinking someone else has a baby
(20:55):
and things like that can, can get very easily forgotten.
And I, I think club really is a great tool in that to where it's
something very simple. You plug it in, you put it on
your car, you know, and then it,I really like the idea because
I, my background's in mental health and I work in like, well,
my background's in developmentalpsychology, but just
understanding the psychology behind that, where it's a
(21:17):
different voice every time is, is really cool.
And I want people to understand that because your brain will
start to tune different things out, right?
It will start to tune the same voice out in time.
It'll just get used to it. Just like your alarm.
It gets used to it. You should be changing your
alarm every few months kind of thing to keep it fresh so you
don't miss it because your brainwill tune it out, It'll get used
(21:38):
to it and then you'll start waking up late.
But the different voices is a really cool feature there.
I think as well we, we like to compare how relatable this is to
parents and, and find creative ways to make this relatable to
parents. And that helps as well because
over the last eight years, awareness has grown a lot around
this. There has been a lot of
(21:59):
information about this and people know about this, but the
numbers haven't dropped off. And again, we like to compare
that to seatbelts. When seatbelts were first out in
the media and people realized how dangerous not wearing a seat
belt was, they knew about it, but it still didn't fix the
issue. It wasn't until people were
enforced and actually wearing seatbelts that real difference
and real change was made, which is why it's not just about
(22:20):
awareness we think. We think it's about taking
action and changing behaviors. And part of that is trying to
find how this is relatable to you.
I heard yesterday, literally just yesterday, this story about
a mum who was driving down the highway, stopped on the side of
the road and went with their kids to the bathroom.
I'm not sure how old the kid wasexactly, but she got back in her
(22:41):
car, she started driving down 70miles down the road, and then
she realized her child wasn't with her in the back seat.
Her child was still in the bathroom.
A local Police Department or sheriff, I'm not sure what you
call it. Obviously someone saw the child,
called it into the local Police Department or sheriff, which
tracked down the mom, called themom, the mom drove back and
(23:03):
picked up the child. But you know, stories like that
probably don't even make the news.
It might have made the news, I'mnot sure.
But I think story that's obviously more of an extreme
example, but stories like that where parents can forget come
in. What do you mean that's
different forms I? Wouldn't even say this extreme.
An extreme example, I would say that's a.
(23:23):
It's more common though. But in reality those things
probably happen every single dayand like you said, they just
don't make the news. But they're more common than you
think. I don't think we should discount
them at all. If it's a, you know, it's a
serious matter regardless sayinglike let's we, and I think that
goes to the conversation here, right?
Where we don't want to, you know, make it seem like, well,
(23:46):
it's only 38 out of millions of kids a year that die because of
this. But that's still 38 kids on
average. That's on average 38 babies, 38
kids under 3, right? That this is happening to on a,
on an annual basis and you know,you want to stay in this it
can't happen to me mindset. Well, guess what?
(24:08):
I'm sure 35 out of 38 of those other parents had that it can't
happen to me mindset. You know, maybe let's go.
Eighty 2080% of that 38 had a itcan't happen to me mindset
because like, oh, all those things I hear those are
extremes. Those are just social media
examples. It will never happen to me.
And I think that's kind of wherewe got to, you know, how the
(24:29):
conversation and making, you know, this is a common
occurrence that could happen anytime to anyone.
That mom's just a regular mom going about her day.
Heck, Grenade was probably newer.
That's probably not covered in media and the news because they
don't want to bring any shame tothe parent.
Stuff like that happens and theydon't want to blow it up.
It's not a big enough story, right?
They don't want to shame one person kind of thing and make an
(24:50):
example of it unless they can make an example out of it,
there's a narrative attached to it or anything like that.
So. I completely agree.
And recently as well, there's some state task forces in in
certain states that are in the process of building.
I know Texas have had one for a few years now and we're making
some videos for them, for their libraries.
Very similar content to what I'msaying here in this podcast and
(25:13):
very similar information, but I very much think this
conversation is, is the start. It's definitely not the end.
You know, listening to this podcast needs to be the start of
this conversation. And I encourage you guys to
reach out to other people, reachout to other parents and, and
just talk about this because like I said, that helps a lot.
I included my e-mail beneath my name here on on this podcast for
(25:34):
the reason that if you have any feedback for us, things we can
do better ideas for us, ways we can get these devices out there
and other ways we can help save lives.
I strongly encourage you to reach out to me personally.
That's, that's my personal e-mail address.
And yeah, over this, this year, next year and into the future,
I'm really looking forward to reducing those statistics and
really making a big difference. We used to do more awareness
(25:56):
type campaigns, but we believe now that the biggest way to take
action and make a difference is simply to build the habit around
checking the backseat. And we've really simplified our
mission to just that, building the habit of checking the
backseat. And we believe Cleverly is one
of the most effective ways and quickest ways to do that.
Recently when I was in Ubers in the States for Expos, when I was
(26:17):
getting in and out of the cars, I could literally hear the
voices in my head. And I think that shows exactly
what we were trying to achieve, you know, by hearing a different
voice every single time. When I touched the driver door,
when I touched a door to get outof a car, I hear that voice in
my head and automatically you look automatically, you do the
actions, you're not thinking about it.
And that's what we want. We want it to happen in
(26:38):
Autopilot so that when things change, when things get busy,
when you're not conscious to checking for your baby in the
back of a car, you do it automatically.
Yeah, Yeah. And I think that goes back to a
whole thing here if we related to sports, right?
Like you got to get your reps in, you have to get the reps in.
It's not the habit. These habits that we're talking
about aren't just going to buildovernight, right?
You're not just going to start tomorrow and be great at this,
(27:01):
right? You need reminders, you know,
especially in today's world and today's economy, as a kid, say,
there's, there's so much going on, right?
Like our brain can only hold so many bits of information at a
time. And our lives are moving so
fast. The world's moving so fast
around us that those things comein and out, in and out, in and
out, in and out, in and out so quickly.
(27:23):
And having a simple reminder canliterally save your child's
life. Even though you are probably
listening to this. And I would assume most of the
people listening to this are probably thinking, well, it
can't happen to me. I, you know, I do this or I have
this measure in place. That's great.
We're not talking to you kind ofthing.
(27:44):
We're talking to those that are stuck in that, well, it can't
happen to me. I'll be fine.
That's, that's not going to happen to me or it doesn't get
hot enough here or it's doesn't get cold enough here.
You know, even if I did forget them, you know, I'll remember
them eventually kind of thing. We're talking to that crowd
right now that's going to keep finding the reasons to justify
(28:04):
those excuses. Cause like we said, 838 of
those, 3880% of them more than likely were right there too
until it happened to them and then they lost their child.
And anyone would hate to see that.
Anyone would hate to see that, to have that happen to
themselves, to a friend, to a family member, to a neighbor.
And it really goes a long way toput yourself in that shoes.
You know, it's good to prevent it.
(28:26):
It's good to play defense. It's one of those things that,
you know, aligns with the old saying it's better to have it
and not need it than to need it and not have it.
Kind of thing. I totally agree.
And yeah, there's no harm in having this habit.
It doesn't affect your daily life.
It doesn't take you any longer. You know, we're talking about a
one second head turn and an audio reminder going off whilst
(28:48):
you're getting out of the car. It really doesn't affect your
lifestyle at all and it's so easy to implement.
You know, it takes a couple minutes to set it up and that's
it. You never have to touch or do
anything else again. And yeah, I'm really excited to
see what kind of impacts we can have over the next year and see
what happens. Most definitely.
And besides, you probably only need it for a few years anyway,
(29:10):
if that, until they start talking and babbling and you
can't forget that they're there because they won't let you
because of how much they're they're babbling and talking and
things like that. So it's a short term thing for a
short amount of time. Use it if you need it.
If you don't need it, great. If you have other preventative
measures in place, great. If you think you need it or
(29:31):
you're questioning, I probably could use it, maybe, I don't
know. Or if you're on the fence,
you're probably one of the people that do need it.
You're probably, believe it or not, you're probably in that
can't happen to me mindset. And so we got to work out of
that as well. Michael, is there anything else
about the the science behind Cleverly or what you guys are
doing next phases, next steps oranything about the mission, the
(29:54):
purpose and what's next for for the brand and for the product
that you want to try? To think our main goals, as I
said, I Simply put, our mission is to save lives and the way
we're doing that is getting units out there.
We find if anyone knows anyone at any hospitals that purchase
this and hand them out postpartum to new parents, to
all new parents, no matter if they can afford it or not.
We find that to be very influential.
(30:15):
And if you know anyone there, you know we sell it at the cost
price slash below cost price. We will help you find donors for
that as well. That that's something we're very
big on non for profits. They can buy them and hand them
out to their communities and they can help raise awareness
for this. But also you don't need to have
money. Reach out to me if you want to.
I can send you infographics, brochures, statistics, other,
(30:36):
other content to just simply hang up.
You know, if they, if they want to print it off, I'm happy to
obviously very expensive to shipit here from Australia, but if
they print it locally, I'm happyto reimburse them for those
costs. If people can wrap their head
around 2 main concepts, that one, this is relatable to
everyone, and two, how this happens, how we forget, how we
don't choose what we forget and,and how that scientifically
(30:57):
happens because I think science really helps people
conceptualize it, then I think that's going to have the
greatest difference. Thank you everyone deeply for
listening to this conversation and, and for being here and, and
sticking around and hearing me out.
And I'm really looking forward to to seeing what happens over
the next little bit. Do you yourself have children?
(31:20):
I actually don't and can't necessarily relate to this, but
I think I've seen first hand over the years working with
clever Ellie how this happens, how this effects parents and,
and yeah, I nothing feels more rewarding than either getting an
e-mail from a parent that I've had your device in my car for,
you know, over 7 years now sincethe first rendition.
(31:41):
I love it. I've told all my friends and
family about it and we all feel more comfort and not going to
sleep knowing that we have this in our cars.
Or second fault, hearing a parent who has been in an
incident and they've reached outto us and thanked us for
spreading awareness and for creating a device like this.
And you know, they've really helped us as well over the
(32:02):
years. Very much do enjoy working here
and I'm very lucky to be able todo such amazing work here.
I appreciate just being able to to share more information about
this is something that I don't really thought about talking
about before. So with that, Michael, I thank
you for your time today. If our listeners do want to
check this out, they can head toCLEVEREL ly.com and then you can
(32:28):
simply shop their website. They're simple, easy to use,
lots of great information on thewebsite.
There's ways that you can give them to others as a reminder and
let me show it real quick. I just wanted to say a massive
thank you to you for creating a podcast and space such as this
and, you know, for having me on here today to speak about this.
(32:49):
I really appreciate you. With that, Michael, I appreciate
your time. I appreciate you joining us
today. Listeners, make sure you head to
cleverly.com here to check this out.
Really cool, very simple, easy to use products, CLEVERELLY.
And as always, thank you for listening to the show today.
I've been your host, Jay, Mike has been with me.
I'll make sure you do all the things that you can do to
(33:10):
support this podcast, whether that's going to the well,
leaving a five star leaving review, leaving five stars on
Spotify, subscribing onto YouTube, wherever you're getting
your podcast today, make sure you do the things you can to
show love for the podcast. And make sure there's always
also to head over to youngdotpod.com where you can
check out all things going on with the podcast, blogs,
interactive activity guides as well.
(33:30):
And if you want to check out this product and you want to
check out other great products at the Young dot podcast is
affiliated with, feel free to godown to the description of this
episode, click the links and then explore from there and
purchase at your own leisure. So with that, until next time,
make sure you guys take care andwe'll catch you right here in
the next conversation.
And welcome back to the Young Dad podcast with your outside
grilling, mowing the lawn, changing dirty diapers, or
maybe, just maybe, you finally got a moment to sit back, relax
and enjoy your favorite podcast.We'll figure out whatever you're
doing. Thanks for being here and thanks
for tuning in. I'm your host, Jay.
And today I'm joined by Michael,the head of operations at Clever
Cleverly, a safety organization on a mission to save lives by
(00:32):
preventing hot car deaths. More common than you think.
His organization's mission is simple.
His simple devices turn a life saving action.
Over 8 years of experience, Michael has worked with
nonprofits, hospitals and parentcommunity communities across the
US to raise awareness and Dr. prevention.
So with that, we're going to be talking about some child safety
(00:52):
here, some very preventable things and ways to keep your
children safe, especially duringthe hot summer months.
So with that, Michael, welcome to the show.
Hi guys. Thank you all for being here.
Jay, thank you for having me on the show and giving me the
opportunity to to chat about something that I believe is very
important, something I'm very passionate about.
And yeah, I'm really excited forthis episode.
(01:13):
So yeah, it's great to have you.So we're talking about
something, you know, kind of high stakes here, right?
And I think there's a lot of shame and a lot of guilt
surrounding these conversations because I think there definitely
can be some shame given to thosethat can forget their their
(01:33):
children in the car from time totime.
But it happens. It's crazy how it happens.
And we're going to jump into that a little bit more.
But First off, how did this all start?
How did Cleverly Come come to life and what brought you to
being so passionate about this eight years ago?
Yeah, of course. So I didn't actually started
eight years ago. I only joined the organization a
(01:54):
couple years ago, but the organization's been around for
seven or eight years. I think the story of how it
started is a huge testament to what you just said.
So about 7 or 8 years ago, a group of three dads, seven years
ago, they launched, but eight years ago is when they found out
about this and whatnot, they launched and his wife had told
him that this happens. His wife told him that babies
(02:15):
die in hot cars. And his first response was quite
a natural response, which was tolaugh it off.
He was like, are you kidding me?Who forgets their baby in the
back of a car? That's ridiculous.
And he, he thought it was funny.And his wife said to him, no,
actually, this isn't funny at all.
And you're the type of person who's most at risk of this.
So he still didn't think much ofit.
But Fast forward a few months and he was driving his son to
(02:39):
childcare and then started driving, heading towards the
office. And he was driving towards the
office and he looked in his rearview mirror and he saw his son
in the back seat and it wasn't dangerous at all.
In that time. He simply did AU turn, headed
back to childcare, dropped his son off and nothing actually
happened. However, it hit him that this is
the memory lapse that his wife was talking about, and it really
(03:01):
shook him because what if he didn't look in the rear view
mirror? What if he got into the office,
went upstairs and came back out at lunchtime or the end of the
day? Or what if instead of going to
the office, he needed to run to the supermarket and grab some
groceries or something like thatwas super important.
You know, he was on autopilot. Something came up at work, can't
remember exactly what it is, butsomething came up at work.
He needed to deal with it and hewent to deal with it.
(03:22):
It was as simple as that. And the science behind this is
that our brains can hold 7 or 8 bits of information at a time.
And as new bits of information pops into the brain, Simply put,
an old bit will fall out. So unless we get a reminder in
some form, whether that be sound, touch, smell, feel,
thought, we Simply put, we'll forget our children in the back
(03:44):
of a car. So yeah, he, he realized this,
he learned this, he started looking into this and there was
research about it, even though it wasn't in the media nowhere
near as much as it is today. And he gathered up with his
friends and invented cleverly. So he took six months off his
job, off his business and, and created this.
And it was more of a side passion project.
It was a not-for-profit in the beginning and it, and it was
(04:06):
just about doing good. So him and his friends did this
on the side while all of them independently ran their own
businesses. Fast forward till COVID and
things started heating up a little bit.
There was problems and they werevery time for as I said, they
they all ran their own businesses and they weren't able
to deal with the challenges of cleverly and operations came to
(04:26):
a halt. Then more recently I joined the
organization, have fixed those problems and have really been
scaling up our mission and purpose, which really is to save
lives. So a little bit on the progress
and what we made and how we madeit.
So initially when they were starting out, they were, they
were really techie guys and theywanted to build the most
advanced technologically advanced system out there.
(04:47):
They wanted to build this reallyadvanced detection system.
But when they did Gofundmes and research groups and things like
that, they realized no one wanted this.
It wasn't that they wouldn't spend a three, four, $500 on a
device to save their child's life.
It's that it's like an admittance of guilt.
I need a three, four, $500 device to remind me that my
child's in the back of my car. It's already against human
(05:07):
nature. Like, like I was saying,
remember how I said he laughed it off when he first heard about
it? That was a very natural response
by parents. When we went to Expos, a lot of
people laughed it off, told us we were idiots, told us this is
ridiculous. But that was back then when
there wasn't any media or awareness about it.
Now when we go to Expos, it's not that much different in terms
(05:28):
of they know this happens. They know this happens a lot,
but they still can't take responsibility for it.
So they don't say. They come up to us and they go,
oh, this is so sad. This would never happen to me
but my partner, but my mom, but my dad, but my whoever's taking
care of the child, They now understand that this happens,
but it is so far against human nature to ever take
responsibility for it that they Simply put, never will.
(05:50):
So we realized that one, this device had to be extremely
affordable for that reason. And it also had to be simple.
Parents weren't willing to go tothe mechanic to install a device
or get it maintained every threeto six months.
They weren't willing to touch anything around the engine or
inside the car or, you know, do anything that was too too major,
especially when there is ready that those barrier points of
(06:13):
this will never happen to me andthis can't happen to me and I
don't want to admit this is going to happen to me.
So we realized they needed to beas simple and as affordable as
we possibly can. And over the last eight years
we've been refining that, makingit more simple, more simple,
more simple and more compatible to all cars.
Over the years, there has been afew technological barriers.
(06:33):
Cars started retaining power to the socket outlets.
So essentially how the device originally worked, let me start
with that was you plugged it into the socket outlet, the
cigarette lighter, And then every time you turned off the
engine, it emitted A randomized voice to help you build the
habit of checking the backseat. But then as technology advanced,
cars retained power to that socket outlet, so you could
(06:55):
charge your phone even when the car was off.
This obviously was a problem forus, but we came up with a quick
solution, which was we now include door sensors in every
single unit, which is very easy to install.
It's in the instruction manual. There's also a video, a QR code
attached to a video in the instruction manual, and you just
stick on this door sensor onto the driver door.
And then every single time you open that driver door, it
(07:17):
triggers the unit to emit a randomized message, which then
makes it compatible again in pretty much all cars.
The only one caveat to that is more recently that some cars now
don't even have a socket outlet,full stop.
But we have an adapter on our website or you can buy it from
Amazon or your local department store that converts USBA or C to
a socket outlet and then again, making it compatible in all
(07:39):
cars. So this is compatible in all
cars, You just need that adapter.
I would say the prices range from, you know, 7 to $12.00
across. Anywhere you find you shouldn't,
you shouldn't really be paying more than $12.00 no matter where
you look. And we sell it on our website on
the lower end of that scale. And yes, you can buy that
adapter and on top of that, you can.
(08:01):
The device then is compatible inall cars.
And it's there in a different way to help you build the habit
of checking the backseat. So our approach is different in
that we're focusing on building the habit of checking the
backseat. The reason why is because a lot
of these incidents occur when there's a change in routine,
when you know you're on vacation, when your car's at the
mechanic, when mom or dad's driving the kids, when you're
super tired, when you're super busy.
(08:22):
So the idea is, how can we help humans become as equipped as
possible to remember to check the backseat?
And that's what led us to Cleverly and LED us to habit
formation, because we don't wantto become reliant on that
technology. Because if we do become reliant
on that technology and we do have a really advanced system,
what happens when it fails? What happens when it needs to be
repaired? What happens when it needs to be
maintained? What happens when the batteries
(08:43):
die? We're even less likely to
remember our child in the backseat.
And because this is such a serious issue, we don't want to
become reliant on technology forthis ever.
We want to use technology as a tool, as a tool to help us
become as equipped as we possibly can to remember to
check the backseat. So that's what led us to the
device and LED us to creating itand and that's where we are with
(09:04):
it now. We recently launched just a few
days ago a new version of the device with type C fast charging
with it has like all the improvements basically any
parent has asked for over the last years and years and years.
But we think we've incorporated everything into this device now.
The door sensor, the adhesive isnow stronger than it was before.
We had some complaints and some parents saying that in some
(09:27):
really hot days they would bump it in, would fall off.
But, but now we've fixed that issue.
We haven't had a complaint on that yet.
The audio level over the last eight years have gone up a
little bit, down a little bit, up a little bit, down a little
bit. And now again, we've we've
reached the level where we haven't had any complaints.
That's been in testing stage formonths and months and months.
And yeah, everyone has has lovedit.
(09:47):
And there's a few other small issues that we've fixed up as
well. And now we're up to the stage
where we really think this can help save lives.
And we like to compare having one device in a car to one
child's life saved. We don't believe that Cleverly
is the only solution to this. We just believe it's one of the
many great ones out there. And we believe that habit
formation is the answer to this.So in line with that, we believe
(10:11):
talking about this is huge because you know, like I was
saying, one of the ways you remember your child's in the
back seat with the 7 to 8 bits of information is memory and
thought. So if you hear about a
conversation you had yesterday or you hear about how relatable
this is to you, you're more likely to remember on that.
I like to tell people about the fact that in America, you guys
don't record how many near misses or close calls there are.
(10:33):
There might be some small organizations that do this, but
on a national level it's not recorded, whereas in Australia
it is. And in Australia there are over
5000 close calls related to thisevery single year.
In Australia now America is 13 times more populated, which
means in the states, we estimatefrom other statistics that this
happens more often, which means in the states we believe this
(10:54):
happens 65,000 * a year, if not more.
I think that really shows how relatable this is to all
parents. Another thing to show
relatability is the fact that cars from 2025 onwards have
legislated having this in their cars, which means all new cars
have a reminder device of some form.
The problem that we're finding alot of parents are coming to us
(11:14):
with is, hey, it's a monitoring voice in the car.
And after two weeks it goes intomy background memory, or it's a
text on the dashboard and I don't notice it, or a
notification on my phone and I don't notice it.
Which is why Cleverly is different in that it's a
randomized voice. Every single time you exit, you
hear a different voice. So it doesn't go into your
background memory. And it's there to constantly
reinforce the habit and help youbuild that habit of checking the
(11:37):
backseat every single time you exit the vehicle.
And we like to talk about, yeah,how how relatable it is to every
parent because, you know, we allhave stories of forgetting our
keys inside the house or forgetting our wallet or
whatever it is that we forget during the day when we're an
autopilot and we don't realize what we're doing.
But often after those situations, we can become
(11:58):
conscious of it. And I strongly encourage parents
when they become conscious of this and when they realize, hey,
I just forgot my keys in my wallet, to think about that, to
talk about that, to really, really delve into that, You
know, the next time you bump into your friends, think about
that in a different situation, think about that in a less
fortunate situation. And I think that really helps
(12:18):
parents realize how easy this isto happen and how much this
happens as we're in a world where AI and tech, and I hate to
say this, but as AI and tech become more involved in our
lives, the likelihood of this happening increases with that.
And I, I really believe that this is something that can
happen to everyone and everyone is at risk of happening too,
(12:38):
which is why talking about this,having a device, building a
habit, these are the things we need to do to lower the
statistics around this. We like to compare it to
seatbelts. You know, in the 70s, there was
a lot of news articles around seatbelts and how seatbelts
would save lives. And people in the beginning
laughed it off. They thought it was ridiculous.
(12:59):
They said, I'm not wearing a seat belt.
And we like to compare the news articles from the 70s to to news
articles now with this in the exact same way.
Like we want parents to build the habit of checking the
backseat. In the same way they have the
habit of putting on a seat belt every single time they get into
the car because they know it is there for their safety.
They know it it is a necessity for their safety and that
(13:20):
although they may not get into acrash, it can save their life.
And it is such an easy thing to do.
And we want checking the backseat to be that exact same
routine and habit. Well, so that's a ton.
That's a really cool idea. Really cool ideas here behind
Cleverly. And I do just want to share some
of the US based statistics here since I got them pulled up.
(13:41):
So key statistics for the US forforgotten baby syndrome.
It averages about 38 deaths per year here in the United States.
Since 1998, about A / 1050 childdeaths have been due to the
vehicular heat stroke. Peak months are obviously made
of September, the hottest monthsof the year in the United
States. 50% of these deaths werebecause the child was forgotten
(14:03):
by a caregiver, under 25% child got into the car on their own,
and then under 20% child was knowingly left in the car.
How it happens. Much like you said, it's often
due to a lapse in perspective memory or the brain forgets to
perform a planned action like drop the child off at daycare.
This can happen to anyone regardless of intelligence,
(14:23):
income, parenting experience, especially under stress, sleep
deprivation and change in routine, contributing factors,
stress or distractions, sleep deprivation common and new
parent change in daily routine. So maybe a new job, just move
things like that. Running late childhood and
meltdown, whatever in the morning assumption that someone
else has a child and then also rear facing seats, out of sight,
(14:48):
out of mind. So that's some that we're
thinking of here. But then also to go a little bit
more, when you talk about near misses, your numbers were
undersold a little bit here for the US.
So a Safe Kids Worldwide survey found 11% of parents 1.5 million
(15:08):
US parents admitted to forgetting their child in a
vehicle at least once. Among parents of kids underage
3, that number jumped to nearly 25%.
The same survey showed about 14%of parents admitted to
intentionally leaving their child alone in a parked vehicle.
And then a study in Riyadh just saw 24.9% of participants admit
to leaving their child alone in the lock car on a sunny day.
(15:31):
I saw the figures indicate that 10s of millions of Americans
have experienced a close call. I thought I'd just jump in there
with that statistic that I was speaking about earlier of the
5000 in Australia and comparing that to 65,000 in America.
Those aren't just close calls ofmy uncle's story where he he's
driving his son to work instead of to childcare.
(15:53):
That's not even included in the statistics.
I'm talking about 5000 cases where the fire department or
ambulance had to come and rescuethat kid out of the car.
And potentially that kid had a mental illness or that kid had
whatever physical trauma or or problem later on in life that
wasn't even linked to this, thatwe didn't even record around
(16:13):
this or that we don't know is linked to this, but was because
of this. And there's a 65,000 cases that
are severe. There's a 65,000 cases that are
not optimal. They're not cases where, like my
uncles, he just simply did AU turn and all was good.
Yeah, so yeah, 11% of parents inthe United States admit to
figuring their their child at least once.
(16:35):
One in four kids under 3 years old.
Thousands of near forgetting andrescues occur annually, but
exact numbers are unclear. The near misses are far more
common than the 38 deaths per year from hot car heat stroke.
The near misses show it's not about negligence, it's about
human memory flaws. So much like you're saying,
talked about here with clever Ellie and understanding that so
(16:56):
many parents experience this underscores the importance of
preventative tools and habits, much like you're saying here.
Backseat reminders, tech alerts and daycare callbacks as well.
So there's a a lot that goes into this here.
And there are a lot of near misses, you know, upwards of
hundreds of thousands, if not millions per day.
The UKAUK study roadside services are called to rescue a
(17:19):
child from a vehicle about 7 times per day on average in the
UK I'm. Sure, this happens all over the
world and yeah. Everywhere, everywhere,
everywhere you have cars. And another thing that's often
not spoken about is, I know we're in summer now and people
love to speak about hot cars, but it's just as bad in winter,
(17:42):
in cold winters of babies freezing to death.
In fact, last year in the Stateswe saw a death every single
month of the year. This happened every single month
of the year, all year round. Yes, it happens more often
during summer than any other months, like you said in those
statistics, the May to September, and we see that as
well. However, this does happen all
year round and we do encourage parents to use a device like
Cleverly all year round and to be focused on this issue all
(18:06):
year round because it can happenat any time of the year.
That can happen on an average, you know, warmish day during
winter or a freezing cold day during winter as well.
I think that's an important aspect to speak about.
You also touched on the fact that Safe Kids published those
articles. Safe Kids are probably the
biggest, if not the biggest, oneof the biggest organizations
(18:26):
within this space. They have, you know, over 400
plus coalition's across the country of America recently at
an Expo we went to in lifesaversbecause we're, we're out of
Australia. So, you know, I don't, I don't
get as much face to face contactas you probably do with parents,
which is why I find it very useful to, to get on podcasts
such as these and, and speak to people about this.
(18:47):
But recently we were in the states in America at Lifesavers,
an Expo within this industry. And we were speaking with safe
kids who who very much loved what we were doing and loved our
product. And one of the big things they
said was there's a lot of other reminder devices out there.
And apart from the reasons that I had spoke about earlier, they
had said that the reminder devices within the baby seat run
into all sorts of regulatory issues because of crash testing
(19:08):
and things like this and how dangerous that can become.
And they ordered a, a bulk amount of units of Cleverellis
to, to distribute to their coalitions to hand out to, to
families and, and whatnot. And we're working with them now
and they've been amazing supportfor us and they are an amazing
organization. But I, I think like, I was
(19:29):
having a chat with them and other organizations too, about
this. The fact that car manufacturers
have legislated this, I think really above all statistics
shows how serious this is because to legislate a law in
America is no easy task. And I think that shows testament
to how serious this issue is, the fact that, you know, the
government was willing to legislate it in all cars.
(19:50):
Yeah, no, it's really cool. You mentioned the cold deaths a
minute ago, so fun fact, they'reactually not formally tracked
here in the United States. They're what?
Sorry, they're called. The cold desk for when the cold
car deaths happened. They're not formally tracked
here in the United States. It's, however, reported that
(20:11):
only a small handful of confirmed cases have happened
over the past two decades. For example, a 2005 case
happened to where a baby was left in the car overnight and
then a few scattered cases happen in like the northern
states to where it gets colder versus and then also in Canada
as well. But annual cart US cold car
(20:33):
deaths rarely exceed one to two cases per year, if any.
Some years are none, but still same idea here, right to where
it's because of that forgetting,it's because of the not
checking, it's because of thinking, oh, the car's here,
sleep deprivation, work stress, life stress, thinking the baby's
here when the baby's there, thinking someone else has a baby
(20:55):
and things like that can, can get very easily forgotten.
And I, I think club really is a great tool in that to where it's
something very simple. You plug it in, you put it on
your car, you know, and then it,I really like the idea because
I, my background's in mental health and I work in like, well,
my background's in developmentalpsychology, but just
understanding the psychology behind that, where it's a
(21:17):
different voice every time is, is really cool.
And I want people to understand that because your brain will
start to tune different things out, right?
It will start to tune the same voice out in time.
It'll just get used to it. Just like your alarm.
It gets used to it. You should be changing your
alarm every few months kind of thing to keep it fresh so you
don't miss it because your brainwill tune it out, It'll get used
(21:38):
to it and then you'll start waking up late.
But the different voices is a really cool feature there.
I think as well we, we like to compare how relatable this is to
parents and, and find creative ways to make this relatable to
parents. And that helps as well because
over the last eight years, awareness has grown a lot around
this. There has been a lot of
(21:59):
information about this and people know about this, but the
numbers haven't dropped off. And again, we like to compare
that to seatbelts. When seatbelts were first out in
the media and people realized how dangerous not wearing a seat
belt was, they knew about it, but it still didn't fix the
issue. It wasn't until people were
enforced and actually wearing seatbelts that real difference
and real change was made, which is why it's not just about
(22:20):
awareness we think. We think it's about taking
action and changing behaviors. And part of that is trying to
find how this is relatable to you.
I heard yesterday, literally just yesterday, this story about
a mum who was driving down the highway, stopped on the side of
the road and went with their kids to the bathroom.
I'm not sure how old the kid wasexactly, but she got back in her
(22:41):
car, she started driving down 70miles down the road, and then
she realized her child wasn't with her in the back seat.
Her child was still in the bathroom.
A local Police Department or sheriff, I'm not sure what you
call it. Obviously someone saw the child,
called it into the local Police Department or sheriff, which
tracked down the mom, called themom, the mom drove back and
(23:03):
picked up the child. But you know, stories like that
probably don't even make the news.
It might have made the news, I'mnot sure.
But I think story that's obviously more of an extreme
example, but stories like that where parents can forget come
in. What do you mean that's
different forms I? Wouldn't even say this extreme.
An extreme example, I would say that's a.
(23:23):
It's more common though. But in reality those things
probably happen every single dayand like you said, they just
don't make the news. But they're more common than you
think. I don't think we should discount
them at all. If it's a, you know, it's a
serious matter regardless sayinglike let's we, and I think that
goes to the conversation here, right?
Where we don't want to, you know, make it seem like, well,
(23:46):
it's only 38 out of millions of kids a year that die because of
this. But that's still 38 kids on
average. That's on average 38 babies, 38
kids under 3, right? That this is happening to on a,
on an annual basis and you know,you want to stay in this it
can't happen to me mindset. Well, guess what?
(24:08):
I'm sure 35 out of 38 of those other parents had that it can't
happen to me mindset. You know, maybe let's go.
Eighty 2080% of that 38 had a itcan't happen to me mindset
because like, oh, all those things I hear those are
extremes. Those are just social media
examples. It will never happen to me.
And I think that's kind of wherewe got to, you know, how the
(24:29):
conversation and making, you know, this is a common
occurrence that could happen anytime to anyone.
That mom's just a regular mom going about her day.
Heck, Grenade was probably newer.
That's probably not covered in media and the news because they
don't want to bring any shame tothe parent.
Stuff like that happens and theydon't want to blow it up.
It's not a big enough story, right?
They don't want to shame one person kind of thing and make an
(24:50):
example of it unless they can make an example out of it,
there's a narrative attached to it or anything like that.
So. I completely agree.
And recently as well, there's some state task forces in in
certain states that are in the process of building.
I know Texas have had one for a few years now and we're making
some videos for them, for their libraries.
Very similar content to what I'msaying here in this podcast and
(25:13):
very similar information, but I very much think this
conversation is, is the start. It's definitely not the end.
You know, listening to this podcast needs to be the start of
this conversation. And I encourage you guys to
reach out to other people, reachout to other parents and, and
just talk about this because like I said, that helps a lot.
I included my e-mail beneath my name here on on this podcast for
(25:34):
the reason that if you have any feedback for us, things we can
do better ideas for us, ways we can get these devices out there
and other ways we can help save lives.
I strongly encourage you to reach out to me personally.
That's, that's my personal e-mail address.
And yeah, over this, this year, next year and into the future,
I'm really looking forward to reducing those statistics and
really making a big difference. We used to do more awareness
(25:56):
type campaigns, but we believe now that the biggest way to take
action and make a difference is simply to build the habit around
checking the backseat. And we've really simplified our
mission to just that, building the habit of checking the
backseat. And we believe Cleverly is one
of the most effective ways and quickest ways to do that.
Recently when I was in Ubers in the States for Expos, when I was
(26:17):
getting in and out of the cars, I could literally hear the
voices in my head. And I think that shows exactly
what we were trying to achieve, you know, by hearing a different
voice every single time. When I touched the driver door,
when I touched a door to get outof a car, I hear that voice in
my head and automatically you look automatically, you do the
actions, you're not thinking about it.
And that's what we want. We want it to happen in
(26:38):
Autopilot so that when things change, when things get busy,
when you're not conscious to checking for your baby in the
back of a car, you do it automatically.
Yeah, Yeah. And I think that goes back to a
whole thing here if we related to sports, right?
Like you got to get your reps in, you have to get the reps in.
It's not the habit. These habits that we're talking
about aren't just going to buildovernight, right?
You're not just going to start tomorrow and be great at this,
(27:01):
right? You need reminders, you know,
especially in today's world and today's economy, as a kid, say,
there's, there's so much going on, right?
Like our brain can only hold so many bits of information at a
time. And our lives are moving so
fast. The world's moving so fast
around us that those things comein and out, in and out, in and
out, in and out, in and out so quickly.
(27:23):
And having a simple reminder canliterally save your child's
life. Even though you are probably
listening to this. And I would assume most of the
people listening to this are probably thinking, well, it
can't happen to me. I, you know, I do this or I have
this measure in place. That's great.
We're not talking to you kind ofthing.
(27:44):
We're talking to those that are stuck in that, well, it can't
happen to me. I'll be fine.
That's, that's not going to happen to me or it doesn't get
hot enough here or it's doesn't get cold enough here.
You know, even if I did forget them, you know, I'll remember
them eventually kind of thing. We're talking to that crowd
right now that's going to keep finding the reasons to justify
(28:04):
those excuses. Cause like we said, 838 of
those, 3880% of them more than likely were right there too
until it happened to them and then they lost their child.
And anyone would hate to see that.
Anyone would hate to see that, to have that happen to
themselves, to a friend, to a family member, to a neighbor.
And it really goes a long way toput yourself in that shoes.
You know, it's good to prevent it.
(28:26):
It's good to play defense. It's one of those things that,
you know, aligns with the old saying it's better to have it
and not need it than to need it and not have it.
Kind of thing. I totally agree.
And yeah, there's no harm in having this habit.
It doesn't affect your daily life.
It doesn't take you any longer. You know, we're talking about a
one second head turn and an audio reminder going off whilst
(28:48):
you're getting out of the car. It really doesn't affect your
lifestyle at all and it's so easy to implement.
You know, it takes a couple minutes to set it up and that's
it. You never have to touch or do
anything else again. And yeah, I'm really excited to
see what kind of impacts we can have over the next year and see
what happens. Most definitely.
And besides, you probably only need it for a few years anyway,
(29:10):
if that, until they start talking and babbling and you
can't forget that they're there because they won't let you
because of how much they're they're babbling and talking and
things like that. So it's a short term thing for a
short amount of time. Use it if you need it.
If you don't need it, great. If you have other preventative
measures in place, great. If you think you need it or
(29:31):
you're questioning, I probably could use it, maybe, I don't
know. Or if you're on the fence,
you're probably one of the people that do need it.
You're probably, believe it or not, you're probably in that
can't happen to me mindset. And so we got to work out of
that as well. Michael, is there anything else
about the the science behind Cleverly or what you guys are
doing next phases, next steps oranything about the mission, the
(29:54):
purpose and what's next for for the brand and for the product
that you want to try? To think our main goals, as I
said, I Simply put, our mission is to save lives and the way
we're doing that is getting units out there.
We find if anyone knows anyone at any hospitals that purchase
this and hand them out postpartum to new parents, to
all new parents, no matter if they can afford it or not.
We find that to be very influential.
(30:15):
And if you know anyone there, you know we sell it at the cost
price slash below cost price. We will help you find donors for
that as well. That that's something we're very
big on non for profits. They can buy them and hand them
out to their communities and they can help raise awareness
for this. But also you don't need to have
money. Reach out to me if you want to.
I can send you infographics, brochures, statistics, other,
(30:36):
other content to just simply hang up.
You know, if they, if they want to print it off, I'm happy to
obviously very expensive to shipit here from Australia, but if
they print it locally, I'm happyto reimburse them for those
costs. If people can wrap their head
around 2 main concepts, that one, this is relatable to
everyone, and two, how this happens, how we forget, how we
don't choose what we forget and,and how that scientifically
(30:57):
happens because I think science really helps people
conceptualize it, then I think that's going to have the
greatest difference. Thank you everyone deeply for
listening to this conversation and, and for being here and, and
sticking around and hearing me out.
And I'm really looking forward to to seeing what happens over
the next little bit. Do you yourself have children?
(31:20):
I actually don't and can't necessarily relate to this, but
I think I've seen first hand over the years working with
clever Ellie how this happens, how this effects parents and,
and yeah, I nothing feels more rewarding than either getting an
e-mail from a parent that I've had your device in my car for,
you know, over 7 years now sincethe first rendition.
(31:41):
I love it. I've told all my friends and
family about it and we all feel more comfort and not going to
sleep knowing that we have this in our cars.
Or second fault, hearing a parent who has been in an
incident and they've reached outto us and thanked us for
spreading awareness and for creating a device like this.
And you know, they've really helped us as well over the
(32:02):
years. Very much do enjoy working here
and I'm very lucky to be able todo such amazing work here.
I appreciate just being able to to share more information about
this is something that I don't really thought about talking
about before. So with that, Michael, I thank
you for your time today. If our listeners do want to
check this out, they can head toCLEVEREL ly.com and then you can
(32:28):
simply shop their website. They're simple, easy to use,
lots of great information on thewebsite.
There's ways that you can give them to others as a reminder and
let me show it real quick. I just wanted to say a massive
thank you to you for creating a podcast and space such as this
and, you know, for having me on here today to speak about this.
(32:49):
I really appreciate you. With that, Michael, I appreciate
your time. I appreciate you joining us
today. Listeners, make sure you head to
cleverly.com here to check this out.
Really cool, very simple, easy to use products, CLEVERELLY.
And as always, thank you for listening to the show today.
I've been your host, Jay, Mike has been with me.
I'll make sure you do all the things that you can do to
(33:10):
support this podcast, whether that's going to the well,
leaving a five star leaving review, leaving five stars on
Spotify, subscribing onto YouTube, wherever you're getting
your podcast today, make sure you do the things you can to
show love for the podcast. And make sure there's always
also to head over to youngdotpod.com where you can
check out all things going on with the podcast, blogs,
interactive activity guides as well.
(33:30):
And if you want to check out this product and you want to
check out other great products at the Young dot podcast is
affiliated with, feel free to godown to the description of this
episode, click the links and then explore from there and
purchase at your own leisure. So with that, until next time,
make sure you guys take care andwe'll catch you right here in
the next conversation.
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