March 29, 2024 • 46 mins
Welcome to the Women of Wayland podcast season 4. Today we're introducing a new category: Wayland Trailblazers! A "Wayland trailblazer" refers to someone who pioneers innovative solutions, particularly within the Wayland community. Our inaugural guest in this category is Karen Kelly, a remarkable woman whose journey embodies the essence of a Wayland trailblazer. Take a listen and discover the untold story behind Karen's groundbreaking after-school program, PASS, launched in January, 2023. Learn about how PASS then collaborated with the town, Recreation department of Wayland to launch RecPASS. In this heart to heart conversaton, Karen opens up about her diverse professional background that helped her to find after school care solutions in Wayland and her plans to address the loneliness epidemic.
Podcast Episode Sponsor : Btone Fitness, Wayland
Links
- Women of Wayland Podcast Website
- Music by Epidemic Sound
- Podcast Subscription
- Connect with Karen Kelly
- Non-Profit Spotlight
- Vox article on after school care
- Karen's company - Purposely Social
Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Women of Wayland podcast. Witness the power of women empowering their communities and facing challenges head-on, just like Karen Kelly. Don't forget to connect with Btone Wayland for your fitness needs and follow Karen's journey beyond this episode. Stay tuned for more incredible stories from our local community. Keep listening, keep empowering!
Podcast Episode Sponsor : Btone Fitness, Wayland
Links
- Women of Wayland Podcast Website
- Music by Epidemic Sound
- Podcast Subscription
- Connect with Karen Kelly
- Non-Profit Spotlight
- Vox article on after school care
- Karen's company - Purposely Social
Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Women of Wayland podcast. Witness the power of women empowering their communities and facing challenges head-on, just like Karen Kelly. Don't forget to connect with Btone Wayland for your fitness needs and follow Karen's journey beyond this episode. Stay tuned for more incredible stories from our local community. Keep listening, keep empowering!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
This episode is brought to you bybtone Fitness Whaland Hello and welcome to Women
of Whalen podcast, Season four,Episode two. We are introducing a new
story category on the Women of Valenpodcast called Whalen Trailblazers. In this special
category, we shine a spotlight onthe trail blazers in whaland join us as
(00:29):
we explore the untold stories of thosewho dare to defy norms, challenge conventions,
and lead the way towards a betterfuture. A Valen trail blazer what
does it mean? It refers tosomeone who leads the way or pioneers innovative
solutions, particularly within the Whalen community. When I was looking for a guest
(00:51):
in this particular category, I didn'thave to look far. You often ask
me how I discover these stories andthe remarkable women behind them. The answer
is quite simple. Either you connectme with them, or I happen to
cross bath with them locally. Inthe case of meeting Karen Kelly, our
guest today, both of these scenarioscame into play. It was five years
(01:15):
ago when I first met Karen asI was launching this podcast scrambling to find
necessity equipment, you know, Ididn't know Karen personally, but I mustered
up the courage to ask her fora tripod after spotting her with a camera
at a local event. To mydelight, she happily obilized. Now you
might be wondering what Karen's tripod hasto do with her introduction here. Well,
(01:38):
let me clarify. While I couldeasily list Karen's impressive credentials and professional
achievements, such as her extensive experienceworking with numerous brands and entrepreneurs, or
her pioneering work in innovative treatments foradults at two major hospitals, that would
merely scratch the surface of her journey. From her time in the C suite
(02:02):
to advising startups, from building herown company to working with renowned brands,
Karen has navigated diverse paths. Today, However, I want to focus on
what makes her a whale and trailblazer. Beyond the surface, there are profound
financial and mental health benefits in providinga safe and nurturing environment for our children
(02:22):
after school. On September eleventh,twenty twenty three, a groundbreaking after school
program called pass was launched. Karenco founded Parents for After School Solutions PASS,
a grassroots movement aimed at addressing thisafter school crisis in Valand. Through
(02:43):
the collective efforts of a seven membercommittee, PASS successfully partnered with the YMCAIGHT
to established a Valen based after schoolprogram. In this episode, therefore,
we speak about a lot of thingsPASS initial journey, struggles, all of
it. We also get into Karen'snext street blazing journey. So stay with
(03:04):
us and let's welcome Karen Kelly.Thank you so much for having me,
hominie. Karen. I cannot tellyou how much I am in awe of
all the things that you do.There's a saying they say, I know
the phrase also yeah, it's ajack of trades, master of none.
The phrase we remember the phrase thatis so true for you. You are
(03:28):
a jack of all trades and it'snot like you're not a master of one.
I think you've been leaping, jumping, and you know, successfully driving
so many things in so many arena. So before we start on your story,
my first question is to take youto this Whalen trail Blazer category.
(03:50):
You are our first guest in thisthat category and I cannot be more happy.
Thank you for doing this for valandand before audience is like perplexed about
what is happening in Valen, Ijust want to give them a background.
Would you tell me the background asto how pass Parents for After School Solutions
(04:11):
came into being absolutely and thank youso much for having me. You have
been so successful at doing this overthe course of what four seasons now,
and I think the entire community isincredibly happy that you're doing it, and
I appreciate what you're doing for women. So thank you, Yes, Parents
for After School Solutions. So Ihave always been a person focused on my
(04:32):
career, and you know, forbetter or worse, this was a high
priority for me. I put offhaving kids for eight years because I was
really focused on getting one of mybusinesses off the ground. Once I got
it there and I felt comfortable itwould survive through a maternity leave, you
know, I had my son,which was the best decision I ever made.
(04:53):
But and that was when and Iknow that we both have boys of
the same sage. That was twentyfifteen, So you know, I in
terms of my priorities, I've alwaysbeen a working person. It's what I
like to do. So Wayland hashad this kind of bubbling problem. Right.
It's it's sort of like a geyserthat becomes inactive at some times and
(05:14):
gets worse at other times. Andduring the pandemic, you know, I
think a lot of you know,my son was just kind of coming into
kindergarten then, and a lot ofthe after school issues and the lack of
capacity. It wasn't as it wasn'tIt hadn't really reached sort of like this
crescendo yet. And so after thepandemic, when everybody kind of came out
and said, okay, like youknow, people were kind of going back
to work, even if it waswork from home. Kids are going back
(05:38):
into schools, and you know,people needed after school care. By the
way. Parents were so burnt out. They were so burnt out from the
pandemic, right, and all thethings, particularly moms, Like, let's
face it, most of the cracksin the wheels fell on the moms because
they always do. And there's manyreasons for that when we can talk about
it, but you know, it'snot to blame anyone. It's us.
(06:00):
Our society is right now, andso you know, everyone wanted after school
care, which makes perfect sense ata time when it was never harder to
hire a bus drivers. It wasnever harder to hire hourly workers across categories,
so you know, it sort ofwas this perfect storm of lack of
capacity meets high demand. So Ikept you know, we had had an
(06:20):
anny prior to why going to kindergartener. I kept her on during kindergarten,
paid a fifty thousand dollars employee foran additional year because our district couldn't provide
him with a spot. I sortof told myself, look, I'm sure
it'll get better next year. She'saware, you know, they're aware of
the problem. We'll work through it. And then it really was so that
the school year started and it reallywas kind of that fall where we reached
(06:43):
out and said, hey, youknow, to the district, what are
your plans for expanding next year?You know what, what do you anticipate
because you know, there were actuallyno new spots given this year. And
the answer you kind of got backwas, really, don't anticipate any change.
I know that we're talking about theproblem right now. Yeah, I
just want to take you back towas it when it was personal for you,
(07:04):
That's when the idea of fixing itcame or was it, you know,
all the way there and subconsciously runninginto your mind, and then you
were like, no, no,no, no, no, this is
happening, and this is also happeningwith me, and I need to do
something about it. It happened whenit became personal for me because once I
(07:24):
realized that I had there was nowhereelse to turn and that many moms parents
were dealing with this issue silently intheir homes. And I quit my job,
Yomini. And I'm not sure ifyou know that, but I ended
up quitting my job as the presidentof a company because I didn't have after
school care and I refused to keepa fifty thousand dollars employee for a second
(07:46):
year. So that's where it reallybecame personal for me. I had to
make a choice my family or myjob because I wasn't going to shuffle my
kid in front of screens for threehours a day. Yeah, what do
you do? All right? Sothat's when I sort of said, Okay,
I'm going to take a breath andthen I'm going to go solve this
problem. Oh my god, great, Karen. I just want to tell
you because I was observing this problemsince I landed in Maryland and I came
(08:11):
in twenty sixteen. That's what whenmy kid was born and I had to
take a back seat, did notgo back to full time job. And
I was like, I didn't evenknow because it was my second year in
States. I was in Canada before, in India and grad school in Germany.
You know, just I was alwaysworking everywhere I was. So we
(08:31):
share that. And in twenty sixteen, when my kid was born, I
had the same thing that system doesnot support moms. And if I'm paying
that much to a nanny, I'mlike, what am I even saving out
of what? Honestly? And youknow Amanda who was my you know,
co pilot on this. Yeah,she she you know, is a single
(08:52):
mom and you know she's a socialworker, right, So I mean it's
it's such a noble profession, butit's not an incredible high paying profession.
So you know, when she wasdoing the math and she shares this story
publicly, it's like she's like,I'm making five dollars an hour. You
know, It's it's crazy. Sothe math doesn't work. You know,
in Massachusetts does have the highest Weare the third highest county, the county
(09:16):
that whaleam is in is the thirdhighest cost for childcare in the country.
Our county is the third highest inthe country. So we feel the squeeze
more, you know, proportionately thanmost of the country. So before going
to the district, did you turnto other towns for a role model for
what they were doing? Did youfind this problem systemic everywhere? Yes,
(09:43):
Now, the degree to which theproblem existed was different some towns or similar.
Some towns were better. We didn'tfind any town that was quite as
bad, however, we so whatwe did was why were they better because
they had found a way to plugin, say third party vendors to run
a larger program in the school sothey could just they found resources to do
(10:07):
it. Or some of the districtsnearby we also found had formed like a
nonprofit with a board of parents andthen partnered with a third party to push
in and run the programs off site. So we saw when we researched all,
you know, we probably researched twelvedifferent towns, all in metro West
Massachusetts, and what we found wasthere was a Schmorga's board of sort of
(10:30):
cobbling together of means by which folkswere being provided with after school care,
but that across the board there wasthere were voices saying, hey, we
need we need that that weren't beingfulfilled. Yeah, they'd say, when
you empower women, you know,you empower the society. And when I
was looking into your LinkedIn post,you shared this wonderful stats about what can
(10:56):
happen when the after school care willbe provided. Can you can you tell
us a little bit what are thejoyful, positive stuff that can happen?
Actually, because I was amazed bythose pointers, yep, I think,
to be honest with you, thiswas part of I mean, at least
fifty percent of the benefit for mepersonally of doing the work was understanding the
(11:18):
data about the mental health impacts forthe families who were involved. So eighty
eight percent of parents reported a goodor tremendous amount of anxiety relief by getting
after school care, seventy nine percentreported feeling less stressed on a daily basis,
forty five reported feeling happier throughout theday. I mean, how many
(11:39):
things in this world can we changeand get this kind of impact? Wow?
Yeah, so it's much bigger thanjust after school care. And you
know, I think too The commonthread for me as I pulled this apart
and just even looking at my ownstory but realizing that it applies to thousands,
is that taking care of children rightmeans taking care of parents, means
(12:03):
taking care of the workforce. Right. It's all interconnected, right, which
means taking care of profitability in theeconomy right. Take it all the way
up. Absolutely, so absolutely,And that's the area some of the countries
are actually taking leap on. Andin our country, this article, I
can share it on the show notes. It spoke about school in Durham,
(12:24):
North Carolina, and the stats werelike something like not even quarter of the
percentage of students get after school care. Twenty five million kids will join it
if it was provided in the school. That number is big, it's massive,
and the number that enters into thatafter school care is so low.
(12:45):
When you saw that, did youapproach this single mindedly or you tried finding
doing some research and finding women orin your team And I know about Amanda,
but can you elaborate on what wereyou in and then take us through
the journey to talking to the district. Yes. So the first thing I
(13:07):
did was try and actually build someallies in the schools. So I started
meeting with some principals, and youknow, some of them really had no
idea this was was was even anissue, which is an issue in and
of itself exactly. Yeah, yeah, So okay, so we've got to
increase awareness and create some allies internally. But then I sat in on the
incoming kindergarten call, and I knewthat after school would addressed and parents would
(13:28):
ask, and sure enough, itwas the only thing parents were asking about.
And you know, there are Imean, I took screenshots because I
was like, wow, I wantto remember this, I mean, threads
and threads and threads in this onehour meeting saying will there be more after
school spots? What are you doing? Can you tell us more about like
how you're addressing this, And forthe most part, you know, they
(13:48):
kind of went unanswered. And soat that moment, I said, okay,
people are aware. There's clearly notgoing to be any kind of you
know, meaningful change come the followingfall. So I shut my computer,
I went on Facebook, I wentinto the community forum, and I just
said, if you were just sittingon that income in kindergarten call and you
need after school care, please sendme an email. We're going to fix
(14:09):
this. So and I mean thatnight alone, I probably got seventy five
email addresses. I mean, it'sjust that's how you know, when there's
a problem that needs to be solved, people jump right, so, you
know, like any other industry.So from there, people started emailing it,
Hey want to get involved. Therewere so much positive energy, honestly,
and you know, I think that'salso really important, staying positive throughout.
(14:33):
So at that point I said,okay, let's form a committee.
Asked six or seven folks who hadbeen emailing me and who had been expressed
interests, so we formed a committee. Seven that was the past committee.
Amanda was one of those people.Amanda and I had known each other for
years from the Wayland Children and ParentsAssociation, and we had talked about it
intermittently, right and you know,she started texting me and was like,
(14:56):
Hey, what do you think aboutthis? What do you think about this?
And I was like, what doyou think about jumping on the committee
with me and get this together?So so that's what happened. Yeah,
Then after that it was more aboutdividing and conquering what needed to get done.
We needed to a get more peoplein the Facebook, like start a
Facebook group, get people in it. We needed to do comps on neighboring
districts. The committee all did that. We needed to do comps on.
(15:18):
So it's just you and Amanda inthe committee. Correct, Okay, seven
total. And then we needed tofind out, well, who are some
of the other vendors we can contact? Lots of research up front. This
is a daunting tech. You can'tdo this by yourself or even with two
people. You need you need alot of hands on to people. Yes,
So it was almost like finding Itwas almost like building a team figuring
(15:39):
out also like these are all workingparents, right when we're not getting paid
for this, So what is everybody'sbandwidth? What is everybody's interest and strength,
and trying to leverage that as well, And that you know very well
because you have been in a estatleyou advised the statle. Tell me how
did your background actually help you doall of this easily? Because I know
it did. I am very goodat turning nothing into something I just done
(16:03):
in my whole life, and I'mnot afraid of the creation process, and
so so for me, it wasa natural thing. And when I when
I dig out on something, Ireally do dig in. There's no half
measures. So so yeah, Ijust I just knew. You know,
you also know, look, everybody'sdoing their best at the school level,
(16:25):
right the schools are understaffed, everybodystretched. I totally understand that, which
is why the very first thing Idid was reach out to the folks running
base and say, hey, Iwant to come meet with you. Listen,
I quit my job. I canbe a pretty good assistant. What
can I do to help? Andso I went and sat down with them.
You know, I brought flowers.I said, look, I just
(16:47):
consider me like an assistant. Whatcan I do? So I really I
wanted to. I had empathy.I still do have empathy for all they
they have to deal with. Itrequired a motivated person to grease the wheels.
And yeah, absolutely, let's takea break and talk about our episode's
(17:07):
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challenging and lively. Get Jetty toget doned and have a bleast. Check
out Beadne Fitness, Whalen even allfor childcare during certain classes. All the
details will be on our show notes. Was there a time when you were
like, Okay, f the world, I'm going to fix this every day?
(18:21):
I will tell you this. Thereare definitely moments where twice I walked
out of the town building and juststarted crying because I've felt, you know,
we just weren't being heard and therewas a you know, in my
mind, I was like why,like, why aren't they trying to help?
I couldn't really understand, but youknow, I do also understand that
(18:42):
you know, politics or politics andthings are the way they are. But
those are the toughest moments I thinkfor me, there are you know,
a couple a couple of things thatwe came up with ideas that we came
up with to fix some of theissues that were turned down and for reasons
that we could have probably gotten around. But you know, again it's like,
okay, and again, this iswhy having a team matters. If
I had been by my cell phone, you know, do Yeah, thank
(19:04):
you for sharing it with the audiencebecause you know, something like this would
not have been solved if you hadnot been turned down as well. That's
kind of a motivation too. Canyou tell us of the local resources that
actually came in handy in solving theseYes, so I would say number one,
you know where we ended up pitchingthe after school program at the YMCA
(19:25):
Camp Chicken Me. You know,because we do looked around. We don't
we don't have a boys and girlsclub here, right, we don't have
many family resources in Wayland. Yeah, but we we looked at that site
and we knew that they had justbuilt a new all weather building, and
when you looked online, we sortof realized, oh wow, they actually
have all these fundraising plans. Theywant to build more, but this is
(19:47):
just sitting empty September to June.So you know, putting together that pitch
deck identifying them as like, thisis a resource that we need to build
on because they're clearly wanting to buildit out. And there's a perfect partnership
and marriage of needs here. Theyneed finances to build and we need after
school care. So YMC and correctSo kim Chickami is run by YMC.
(20:07):
The YMC, I've been hearing thatname every time we have a Hunger Games
style summer camps. Is you knowthe fight going on in that tow tell
me for the audience, because I'msure the audience would like to know what
is this Hunger Games? Was itlike that, like people had to sit
(20:29):
on their laptops and reserve the spotsand fight with each other to get that
spot. I think rec Pass whenRecpass launched, it was. And we
are limited by space at the townbuilding. So that is the problem,
and that is why rec Pass can'texpand further. Right now, however,
the COACC which is getting built,which should be I don't know a year
(20:49):
and a half from now, therector, can you tell us what is
the Yes, the Council on AgingCommunity Center. So it is is a
it's going to be a beautiful spaceright over by the local and the idea
is that this is a community spaceand that it will be in part used
for senior programming. But that youknow, the way it was sold to
(21:11):
the town, it's half of itis wreck recreation. So they have they
have said that we will through conversationswith them and kind of again bringing that
data forward of like here's the needand it's a community resource. They have
said that we will have several hoursa day over there. That's a rec
department. It's going to be good. So there is absolutely plans to expand
(21:33):
rec pass. It will get bigger. Right now we're a limited But back
to your question about the Hunger GamesCamp Chicken Me. They it was only
five days a week. And nowthis is something interesting that came up because
we had to run surveys early on. We had to kind of get as
many people as we could into theemail database and then start to understand,
well, what are we solving forhere, what do people actually need?
And it turns out fifty percent offamily said we only need like three or
(21:56):
two days a week. Oh wow, right, so we don't need so
yeah, this is a big deal. They also said, we'd be really
happy if you just get us tofour thirty. We don't need till five
thirty or six. Really, yes, not everyone, but like half Yeah,
that makes a big difference. Yeah, and you know that question wasn't
being asked by the district, right, but wow, this actually becomes a
(22:18):
much more solvable problem when you breakit down at that level. So so
I think for Chicken May they itwas set up in such a way that
there was only four the folks whoneeded five days a week, and they
run until six pm. Nice,So it's like a very full coverag.
So it wasn't for everyone. SoI think it didn't fill up quite as
fast as reck Pass, but itI think within forty eight hours it was
(22:38):
full. Yet And this is incredibleand also the fact that you're using all
your marketing expertise and technology expertise andgetting people to tell us the right things.
You know, what's going on intheir mind and how much they needed,
and this is a data that isimportant even for the future. One
hundred percent. I was reading thisAttica and it's said that a lot of
(23:00):
people were not using the aftercare alsobecause it was expensive. So tell me
that the pricing here. Yeah,so the pricing for Camp Chicken Me is
actually very comparable the base, whichis about eight thousand dollars a year.
I think Chicken is maybe nine.But it's really comparable. So and from
my perspective, I mean, Ican tell you that. But they pay
(23:22):
the base workers and it's very lowon this on the scale of things,
which is part of the problem.But to me, that's affordable childcare for
an entire year. You know,I have somebody to watch my til from
two thirty to six pm should Iwant it. By the way, they
also cover the sup you know,Wednesday early Wednesday release, the Super Tuesday
releases. Yeah, it's hugely important. I don't even have to keep track
(23:45):
of it anymore. Just like wildlyliberating. But so to me, that's
perfectly affordable. I read that thateducators have so much to do. I
understand they have a lot on theirplate, yes, and when and there
in the school, they have somany things to organize, compile and you
know, but why did they notsee this problem or raise a birness about
(24:08):
it? Because, as you said, the base workers were also not being
paid so much, so if theyhad to do something, they had to
fix this problem. Why were youthey not looking at it? That is
a very good question, Yamini.Thank you. The first answer I'll give
you is that there were people whoidentify you know that if you really look
(24:30):
at okay, well, what causedthis acute, acute issue in twenty twenty
three, it was, you know, we switched time start times with the
high school back in twenty and thathappened across the country in I don't know
what their proportion is, but Idon't know. My guess is thirty to
forty percent of districts because that wasthe year all the data came out that
said high schoolers' brains don't wake upuntil ten am, et cetera. Right,
(24:51):
so, in an effort to kindof accommodate their optimal learning times,
the elementary and middle school to gohit. Now, there was a large
committee in Whaland and who were alllooking at this and you know, kind
of collaborating on should be or shouldn'twe one of which was the head of
our recreation department, Catherine Brenna,who huge shout out, huge shout out
(25:12):
another female hero in Wayland. Butshe said at the time, I told
them this was going to create twoproblems. Number one, you're going to
have a childcare problem and number two, you're going to have a high schoolers
playing soccer in the dark at seventhirty at night. And she used to
run away MCA. She's an expert, right, and so I so,
(25:32):
you know, she felt frustrated becauseshe's like, I tried to bring this
up. Ultimately, I think alot of these districts just didn't. They
just didn't plan appropriately. Why Ican't I can't really answer that question.
But for whatever reason, the weightwas placed on, you know, making
this change for high schoolers, andit's almost like they started but then didn't
finish, right, they didn't finishthe accommodation. So that's reason number one.
(25:57):
But reason number two, I canto in Whaland it wasn't It wasn't
being raised by the folks running base. There were no alarms going off,
so individual parents would email and say, hey, what's happening, Hey,
what's going on? Hey, Butit just for whatever reason, wasn't being
(26:18):
put in front of the superintendent orwhomever. Now, we also have had
a lot of challenges in Whitland overthe last few years with leadership, right,
So trying to get big things likethis done in the times we've had
would have been challenging. Yeah,so that's true, And at times I
wonder would I have been able wehave been able to get this done if
(26:40):
we had had really firm leadership inplace, because I actually think part of
our advantage was that we didn't haveto go through as many approvals. That
is so cool. Yes, rightspeaks volumes about what we have right now
in the town. And by thetime after care is done, they must
they will all be so exhausted.I mean we all want them to be
exhausted. As moms, you wantthem. Okay. My question to that
(27:03):
is did you find parents on AndI'm not coming from a gender perspect I
am actually coming from a gender perspective. Was it just moms who were more
you know, approaching you, orwas it like parents together, or you
were surprised with men coming forward andtelling you that, you know, we
need to fix this, this isnot working. Single dads there are single
(27:25):
dads shut down. Sure, itwas mostly moms, but I will say
there was a larger portion of husbandswho chimed in. At one point one
of the committee member's husband sort ofwould jump on our calls too because he
wanted to be involved and he wantedto hear, you know, and contribute.
So it was mostly moms. Wouldyou say that you would like that
number to go up and that's tobe more Yes, But like so I
(27:48):
read a really interesting research piece ofresearch the other day about you know,
why is it that it falls onand and the idea is that we tend
to think, you know, we'revery focused about like the wage gap for
women versus men, and we thinkabout, you know, even potentially why
aren't there more women at the top. But what the article argued was that
(28:10):
there's data to suggest that the genderroles begin at home. And I was
like, oh, yes, soobvious, right, But that's the truth,
I think, right, Yeah,which is why I asked you this
question because I really want to understandif parents are you know, they saw
this problem collectively or was it moretough on moms than dads, like you
(28:37):
know, the first I don't knowthe stats, but I'm sure if somebody
has to forfeit their job, itwould be a woman. Mostly in most
cases, it might Yeah, Sothis aftercare program, what does it provide
with two parents? What are kidsdoing during this time for recpasts? Specifically?
(28:59):
What is it pass? And tellus in detail about the two.
Sure, So the two opportunities wecreated were both off site from from school.
We number one got the partnership establishedwith the YMCA to run the five
day week till six pm program forK to five students at Camp check a
me. So that's one and thenthe other, which is pretty different and
(29:25):
I think it's good the variation here. So the other is WREC Past.
This is the new after school programthat the Rec Department started. They already
had program going there, but essentiallywhat they did was renovate the entire thing
and really kind of put some morejuice into it through this partnership. So
they were doing in which location atthe town building? Okay, okay,
yeah, so they can it's dividedbetween the two or like there are two
(29:48):
totally separate programs and the kids aregoing on in both the programs. Like,
what is a total number of kidsright now who are availing this?
So the total number of kids thisis something like two hundred Okay, wow,
yeah, it's a pretty big number. We still need to do more,
but we're getting close. But theresponsibility, like the burden falls on
(30:12):
both the side, like the townbuilding and the yes yes, and like
like they are totally separate programs.Yes, we were able to, through
a lot of coaxing, get aboss funded by essentially we baked in the
(30:33):
cost into WREC pass, but getan additional boss, amend our current bus
contract, and get additional bus tobring the kids from the schools over to
the town building. So like thatkind of adjustment. This is not rocket
science. It just again it tooklike grease in the wheel and somebody who
is determined to kind of make ithappen, and you know, navigate the
(30:55):
politics, so you know, andthat's where we had to go to the
town because, believe it or not, our town controls the bus contract.
Oh I didn't know that, yes, which is why then we needed to
establish a relationship with the select boardand appear in front of them and meet
with the town manager and dig outthe numbers. And you know, there's
only so much that's in your control. But at the end of the day,
it's like what you said before iscorrect. Using my sales experience was
(31:19):
critical because at the end of everymeeting, it was like, Okay,
well when are we meeting again?Let's get a date on the calendar.
Right now, I need to goreport to the four hundred parents who are
waiting to hear how this meeting went. So but that's also why it's so
important to organize at the beginning.And now that's telling me about the bus
contract. I remember all those busstanding in the back of those parking lots
(31:40):
like and n me and my kidowill count them like, oh buses,
that is why m hm so soyeah, so it's great. And then
again we maintained from the start thisis not going to cost the town or
the school any money. Yeah.Wow, So you guys fixed this problem.
And now you have time? DidI do it? Very jokeable?
(32:06):
And now you get the time.And so you, my fabulous lady,
with all the time that you're likegetting right now, you start bubbling with
ideas and things and I know thatyou're onto something big again. But before
I take you there, do youhave to overlook this pastor process? Right
now? How how does that work? There's really I mean, there's nothing
(32:30):
ongoing we need to do. Wedid just run that survey where we understood
more about the mental health data,but also to understand what are what are
the outstanding needs from the past community. So we have passed those along to
the recreation department. So it's takencare of. Yeah, I mean,
you know, at a certain point. Also you have to know your role
and you need to know when tostep out. We've done our job.
(32:52):
We've got you've fixed it. Reallygood professionals on it now. And also
by the way, I don't knowif you saw this, but the the
Base has now opened up a fewmore enrichment programs also after school, like
large back to back programs in theschools. So I think again just creating
a little bit of so I cansee that things are continuing to kind of
(33:14):
you know. The Longfellow waitlist alsoopened up, right because there's there was
all this shift in movement. Somepeople said, I want to go to
Chicken may or what have you.The Base, you know, one of
the other critical pieces we learned.Like I said, a lot of parents
only needed two or three days,but Base was mandated three days, four
days or five days a week.She opened it up to two, which
is great, So people who neededto took there two, so that kind
(33:37):
of filled in gaps too. Sothere's a lot of things kind of moving
and shifting. I am not worriedabout anything falling apart, but are you,
like, as a mom, didyou want to design where you were
part of the design process of theafter school program like what will be in
it? Yes? And a lotof that came from the vendor outreach we
did last winter to figure out whatcan we you know, what would we
(34:01):
like to see? What do otherpast parents? That's one of the questions
we asked, what would you liketo see? You know, we gave
them all sorts of choices about youknow, homec and stem et cetera.
I think traditionally it's been sports,right, which is great, my kid
loves sports. But we really wantedto try and see how how we could,
you know, put a capital Eon enrichment and get a little wider
(34:21):
so and Catherine did that, Imean she really did. So. I
wanted to ask you about the medicalprogram. What do you think how does
this support them? Because I'm sureBoston parents are also working and they they
might need after care too. Arethey opting for it? I don't have
the answer to that question. BecauseI don't have access to that data.
(34:44):
Oh okay, I don't have accessto the data about who exactly assigned up.
All I know is the numbers.But was there anybody who connected you
with medical side of the school?No? No, okay. So now
we are moving on to when andmakes sure that all the moms have time
in their hand and they can goback to work. And what is she
(35:07):
doing though? So through the processof working on PASS it's interesting because at
the beginning I didn't realize this crossoverwith mental health and health. But at
the same time I'm doing this,I'm also just reading article after article and
book after book. And by theway, I don't read books, but
I read like nine by six months. I mean partially, I think because
(35:30):
I had some time on my hands, but also because I'm just all in
on this topic and really about likewhat is happening, What is happening in
the world, and what has happenedover the last decade to cause this shift,
this antisocial shift in our society,and the disconnect and the sadness and
the anxiety and the depression, andit's many things affecting it has a huge
(35:51):
chunk it is it did impact it, but it was happening before, and
so I've looked at all that data. It's happening before. It's got me.
Yeah. Sure, I think ithelped bring it to people's attention who
wouldn't have been paying attention now.And I think one of the biggest challenges
is that it's silent, it's invisible, and it's stigmatized, right, so
(36:14):
people don't want to admit to it. People don't want to talk about it.
And I understand why. There's neverbeen more data about what's making people
unhappy, and there's never been moredata about what makes people happy, truly
empirical data. What makes every singlehuman happy that you cannot debate, And
those four things are friends, community, meaningful work. And it's called faith.
(36:38):
But don't think of faith like religion. Think of faith like you're not
the center of the world. Doyou believe you're not the center of the
world. I'm sorry, I willyes, yeah, no, I'm kidding.
I was like, yes, Ihave good friends. I think I
have a good community, a villagethat I'm trying to build, and you
have to work a lot at it. I want to I want to make
(37:00):
that easier. Oh, that's whereI'm going that is so amazing. So
so that's for me as I'm puttingtogether the data points about like, oh
what's making people sad? Oh?It makes people happy? Okay, how
can we en mass reach people andstep them through a graduated process of connecting
with people who are like minded,who have shared interests, who are close
(37:23):
by to them, and actually usetechnology to get them off the tech.
That sounds like a Mama, Yesit's going to be, but I'm going
to do it. So I haveto see that all bright light on your
face when you speak about it.It's I just you know, again,
it's a funny thing. I'm readingall these things I'm involved with paths and
(37:45):
one day I just walked down intomy in my office about three months ago,
and I took a huge whiteboard andI just wrote it all out and
I was like, and there itis? That is it? When was
that? When did you write thaton the whiteboat? Let's see what month
(38:05):
were we in, July this year? Yeah? And then what I You
know, I'm not a mental healthprofessional, but I'm a person in the
world who has experienced it. I'ma person who has a lot of deep
relationships with people who have experienced it. I've always been interested in psychology as
a psych major. I've a master'sin communications scientists and disorders. And what
(38:29):
I needed to validate, like whatI think is going to work and be
effective. And that's the key part. This product is going to show measurable
effectiveness. Right. I need theindustry to look at this, any clinicians
and folks who are out there onthe front lines to say, yeah,
I'd recommend this even to somebody whojust you know, has an adjustment disorder,
is feeling sad, maybe they don'thave a clin I don't want it
(38:52):
to be something people look at aslike this is a mental health platform.
Now, this is a platform tobring connection and happiness and vitality and get
people out of their homes and backinto life. And it's data backed and
it's measurable. So I went tothis conference, mental Health Marketing Conference,
met some absolutely incredible people and startedwith them and said, hey, your
(39:16):
leaders in your field, what doyou think about this concept? And the
overwhelming answer I got was yes,yes, yes, and how can we
help? And so that's when Ireally first knew, Hay, I'm on
to something here, and it it'sclinically, it follows the right path.
So I don't want to I don'twant to cut you, but I want
the audience to know that do youshare healthcare background in some way? So
(39:40):
the masters in Communication Sciences and Disordersmade me a speech pathologist. I didn't
work with children, though I workedwith adults with brain injuries. So I
learned all about the brain and howit works and what drives what. And
so I did that for seven yearsa combination at Mount Signi Hospital in New
York and then at Lahy Hospital.And so you are very keen observer of
(40:04):
what's happening around with you, andthat means yes, yes, for me,
it was you know, I cansee this through line. And I
think that's one of the things thatI've realized about myself is that I'm really
good at seeing through lines and seeingwhat's coming down the path. So now,
all of a sudden, right bythe way, the Surgeon General last
(40:24):
spring put out an advisory loneliness epidemic. There is a loneliness epidemic, right,
and that was critical for this movement. So the Surgeon General last spring
put out an advisory the loneliness epidemicadvisory and in it he has just pages
and pages of data. I mean, it's worse for you, right than
smoking fifteen cigarettes a day, thanobesity. It has more of a negative
(40:45):
effect on your health. It's nowthe number one premature killer of men.
So it is every age, itis every demographic, doesn't matter who you
are. In some ways, itaffects the wealthy more because the more money
you have, the more you canisolate yourself with technology and Uber eats and
delivery and everything else. And soso that really was a great thing for
(41:07):
the movement, and it's going tobe very helpful as I go out and
fundraise, and you know, I'vealready feel I feel so loved like putting
it out there into the world,and the number of people who've come and
said how can I help? Sosure, because everybody feels it. Yes,
did you ever have this thought thatyou know now everything makes sense?
(41:28):
Yes? Yes, was there amoment like like there's a kaleidoscope and I've
been spinning it and suddenly like everythingjust like locked into place. But I
will say that anything I've ever donehas been an extension of It becomes an
extension of me. I don't havemuch of a gray area. So if
I'm going in, I'm going allthe way in. All right, this
(41:51):
is incredible. So what have youthought of the name of It's called flutter
Local. Flutter Local, and it'sgoing to be an app, going to
be an app, Okay, it'sgoing to be a website where people Yeah,
it'll be a web app. Soit'll be a web based app for
now. It will be that iswhat it will be. I might be
able to be convinced to make amobile app out of it, but my
(42:13):
biggest concern is that it's one morething going off in people's pockets when they
should be talking to somebody on thesubway. So I want to be able
to need to reach people, andin this digital world, do you need
that? Yeah? Yeah, sopotentially, I just I want to be
very intentional about how this is built. One of the ideas I'm toying with
is do I build in a gamificationaspect to it to keep people motivated and
(42:36):
involved. But I don't want itto become about the game, and I
don't want it to become about thoserewards. I want it to be about
the reward of interpersonal relationships. Andso these are things up for grab right
now. I'm so excited and socurious about it, Like I have like
ten different questions coming into my head. Is it for an individual? Is
it for a group? Is ita community event? Kind of a local
(43:00):
flutter? Local can mean different towns, different you know, just a I
don't know. I mean, thereis so many possibilities. The idea is
that as an individual, you canget on the platform and essentially the first
thing we're going to do is we'regoing to gather some quick data. How
do you feel, what do youneed? What can you give? Yeah,
(43:22):
because this is a community, sothere's got to be a give and
a take. And when you comein, there's different spaces you can move
into. We have audio only rooms. We have almost like a virtual reality
but think of like a little Avatarand there's a pool table and you walk
up and you can just meet somebodyand when you walk up, your cameras
kick on. So now we're playingsome virtual pool, but we're also looking
(43:43):
at each other. Oh my god, you are going to bring the mark
deck, the you know, AI, the VII, all of it together
in this huh, and then we'regoing to step them out to Okay,
why don't you go meet up withthat person? Wow? Through like and
it's a delicate process, right,you're doing a dance, they'll be pro
you know, people will be ableto look at their profiles and it'll kind
of say like, hey, thisis this is happening within five miles of
(44:07):
you. Hey want your friend Peter'sgoing to this and you guys both have
dogs, Like why don't you it'sa dog walk? Why don't you get
why don't you sign up and go? So it's this idea of I might
meet Peter in a virtual space andthen one day I challenge him to a
game of chess, and then thenext day I see, you know,
I get this prompt that says like, hey, Peter's going to this and
wants to know if you want tojoin. So and that's the local aspect
of it, which is really important, right because if I just open it
(44:30):
up to everyone in the world,everyone interacting with each other from Japan,
Hey, that's great and me andmaybe we'll get there, but there's nothing.
The number one thing I took awayfrom the mental health marketing conference was
from a clinician. There are fortythousand, forty thousand mental health B two
C apps. She will not recommendany zero because they don't get the job
(44:52):
done. They deploy the science ofmental health, my mindfulness, deep breathing
meditation, but what truly heals isthe art inside, is the art of
healing with human engagement. So you'vegot to get people back together. And
if I just leave them on thetech we have, all I've done is
(45:13):
create another social platform, and thatis not what I want to do.
That is amazing. Thank you,thank you for sharing that. Thank you,
and thank you for coming so excited. Thank you, thank you,
Homnie, thank you for listening tothis episode. Isn't this amazing how women
are embowering societies around them, understandingwhat is holding them and facing it head
on. I think I'm fangerling Karenbig time, and in this episode I
(45:37):
acted less of a the host,but more of a parent and a woman
whose career huddles matched the problem shetried solving. Please don't forget to follow
Beatone Fitness Whalen on their socials andconnect with them with your fit disqueries.
Karen has already launched her new company, and it's not called Flutterloco. It's
a different name. Find Karen Kellyon LinkedIn or google her to know more.
(45:59):
Don't forg We get to read theshow notes and get all the details.
Keep listening and stay tuned for thenext one. This is Yamini,
your host, and you were listeningto Women a Whalen, the podcast where
we bring you local, incredible womenstories.
This episode is brought to you bybtone Fitness Whaland Hello and welcome to Women
of Whalen podcast, Season four,Episode two. We are introducing a new
story category on the Women of Valenpodcast called Whalen Trailblazers. In this special
category, we shine a spotlight onthe trail blazers in whaland join us as
(00:29):
we explore the untold stories of thosewho dare to defy norms, challenge conventions,
and lead the way towards a betterfuture. A Valen trail blazer what
does it mean? It refers tosomeone who leads the way or pioneers innovative
solutions, particularly within the Whalen community. When I was looking for a guest
(00:51):
in this particular category, I didn'thave to look far. You often ask
me how I discover these stories andthe remarkable women behind them. The answer
is quite simple. Either you connectme with them, or I happen to
cross bath with them locally. Inthe case of meeting Karen Kelly, our
guest today, both of these scenarioscame into play. It was five years
(01:15):
ago when I first met Karen asI was launching this podcast scrambling to find
necessity equipment, you know, Ididn't know Karen personally, but I mustered
up the courage to ask her fora tripod after spotting her with a camera
at a local event. To mydelight, she happily obilized. Now you
might be wondering what Karen's tripod hasto do with her introduction here. Well,
(01:38):
let me clarify. While I couldeasily list Karen's impressive credentials and professional
achievements, such as her extensive experienceworking with numerous brands and entrepreneurs, or
her pioneering work in innovative treatments foradults at two major hospitals, that would
merely scratch the surface of her journey. From her time in the C suite
(02:02):
to advising startups, from building herown company to working with renowned brands,
Karen has navigated diverse paths. Today, However, I want to focus on
what makes her a whale and trailblazer. Beyond the surface, there are profound
financial and mental health benefits in providinga safe and nurturing environment for our children
(02:22):
after school. On September eleventh,twenty twenty three, a groundbreaking after school
program called pass was launched. Karenco founded Parents for After School Solutions PASS,
a grassroots movement aimed at addressing thisafter school crisis in Valand. Through
(02:43):
the collective efforts of a seven membercommittee, PASS successfully partnered with the YMCAIGHT
to established a Valen based after schoolprogram. In this episode, therefore,
we speak about a lot of thingsPASS initial journey, struggles, all of
it. We also get into Karen'snext street blazing journey. So stay with
(03:04):
us and let's welcome Karen Kelly.Thank you so much for having me,
hominie. Karen. I cannot tellyou how much I am in awe of
all the things that you do.There's a saying they say, I know
the phrase also yeah, it's ajack of trades, master of none.
The phrase we remember the phrase thatis so true for you. You are
(03:28):
a jack of all trades and it'snot like you're not a master of one.
I think you've been leaping, jumping, and you know, successfully driving
so many things in so many arena. So before we start on your story,
my first question is to take youto this Whalen trail Blazer category.
(03:50):
You are our first guest in thisthat category and I cannot be more happy.
Thank you for doing this for valandand before audience is like perplexed about
what is happening in Valen, Ijust want to give them a background.
Would you tell me the background asto how pass Parents for After School Solutions
(04:11):
came into being absolutely and thank youso much for having me. You have
been so successful at doing this overthe course of what four seasons now,
and I think the entire community isincredibly happy that you're doing it, and
I appreciate what you're doing for women. So thank you, Yes, Parents
for After School Solutions. So Ihave always been a person focused on my
(04:32):
career, and you know, forbetter or worse, this was a high
priority for me. I put offhaving kids for eight years because I was
really focused on getting one of mybusinesses off the ground. Once I got
it there and I felt comfortable itwould survive through a maternity leave, you
know, I had my son,which was the best decision I ever made.
(04:53):
But and that was when and Iknow that we both have boys of
the same sage. That was twentyfifteen, So you know, I in
terms of my priorities, I've alwaysbeen a working person. It's what I
like to do. So Wayland hashad this kind of bubbling problem. Right.
It's it's sort of like a geyserthat becomes inactive at some times and
(05:14):
gets worse at other times. Andduring the pandemic, you know, I
think a lot of you know,my son was just kind of coming into
kindergarten then, and a lot ofthe after school issues and the lack of
capacity. It wasn't as it wasn'tIt hadn't really reached sort of like this
crescendo yet. And so after thepandemic, when everybody kind of came out
and said, okay, like youknow, people were kind of going back
to work, even if it waswork from home. Kids are going back
(05:38):
into schools, and you know,people needed after school care. By the
way. Parents were so burnt out. They were so burnt out from the
pandemic, right, and all thethings, particularly moms, Like, let's
face it, most of the cracksin the wheels fell on the moms because
they always do. And there's manyreasons for that when we can talk about
it, but you know, it'snot to blame anyone. It's us.
(06:00):
Our society is right now, andso you know, everyone wanted after school
care, which makes perfect sense ata time when it was never harder to
hire a bus drivers. It wasnever harder to hire hourly workers across categories,
so you know, it sort ofwas this perfect storm of lack of
capacity meets high demand. So Ikept you know, we had had an
(06:20):
anny prior to why going to kindergartener. I kept her on during kindergarten,
paid a fifty thousand dollars employee foran additional year because our district couldn't provide
him with a spot. I sortof told myself, look, I'm sure
it'll get better next year. She'saware, you know, they're aware of
the problem. We'll work through it. And then it really was so that
the school year started and it reallywas kind of that fall where we reached
(06:43):
out and said, hey, youknow, to the district, what are
your plans for expanding next year?You know what, what do you anticipate
because you know, there were actuallyno new spots given this year. And
the answer you kind of got backwas, really, don't anticipate any change.
I know that we're talking about theproblem right now. Yeah, I
just want to take you back towas it when it was personal for you,
(07:04):
That's when the idea of fixing itcame or was it, you know,
all the way there and subconsciously runninginto your mind, and then you
were like, no, no,no, no, no, this is
happening, and this is also happeningwith me, and I need to do
something about it. It happened whenit became personal for me because once I
(07:24):
realized that I had there was nowhereelse to turn and that many moms parents
were dealing with this issue silently intheir homes. And I quit my job,
Yomini. And I'm not sure ifyou know that, but I ended
up quitting my job as the presidentof a company because I didn't have after
school care and I refused to keepa fifty thousand dollars employee for a second
(07:46):
year. So that's where it reallybecame personal for me. I had to
make a choice my family or myjob because I wasn't going to shuffle my
kid in front of screens for threehours a day. Yeah, what do
you do? All right? Sothat's when I sort of said, Okay,
I'm going to take a breath andthen I'm going to go solve this
problem. Oh my god, great, Karen. I just want to tell
you because I was observing this problemsince I landed in Maryland and I came
(08:11):
in twenty sixteen. That's what whenmy kid was born and I had to
take a back seat, did notgo back to full time job. And
I was like, I didn't evenknow because it was my second year in
States. I was in Canada before, in India and grad school in Germany.
You know, just I was alwaysworking everywhere I was. So we
(08:31):
share that. And in twenty sixteen, when my kid was born, I
had the same thing that system doesnot support moms. And if I'm paying
that much to a nanny, I'mlike, what am I even saving out
of what? Honestly? And youknow Amanda who was my you know,
co pilot on this. Yeah,she she you know, is a single
(08:52):
mom and you know she's a socialworker, right, So I mean it's
it's such a noble profession, butit's not an incredible high paying profession.
So you know, when she wasdoing the math and she shares this story
publicly, it's like she's like,I'm making five dollars an hour. You
know, It's it's crazy. Sothe math doesn't work. You know,
in Massachusetts does have the highest Weare the third highest county, the county
(09:16):
that whaleam is in is the thirdhighest cost for childcare in the country.
Our county is the third highest inthe country. So we feel the squeeze
more, you know, proportionately thanmost of the country. So before going
to the district, did you turnto other towns for a role model for
what they were doing? Did youfind this problem systemic everywhere? Yes,
(09:43):
Now, the degree to which theproblem existed was different some towns or similar.
Some towns were better. We didn'tfind any town that was quite as
bad, however, we so whatwe did was why were they better because
they had found a way to plugin, say third party vendors to run
a larger program in the school sothey could just they found resources to do
(10:07):
it. Or some of the districtsnearby we also found had formed like a
nonprofit with a board of parents andthen partnered with a third party to push
in and run the programs off site. So we saw when we researched all,
you know, we probably researched twelvedifferent towns, all in metro West
Massachusetts, and what we found wasthere was a Schmorga's board of sort of
(10:30):
cobbling together of means by which folkswere being provided with after school care,
but that across the board there wasthere were voices saying, hey, we
need we need that that weren't beingfulfilled. Yeah, they'd say, when
you empower women, you know,you empower the society. And when I
was looking into your LinkedIn post,you shared this wonderful stats about what can
(10:56):
happen when the after school care willbe provided. Can you can you tell
us a little bit what are thejoyful, positive stuff that can happen?
Actually, because I was amazed bythose pointers, yep, I think,
to be honest with you, thiswas part of I mean, at least
fifty percent of the benefit for mepersonally of doing the work was understanding the
(11:18):
data about the mental health impacts forthe families who were involved. So eighty
eight percent of parents reported a goodor tremendous amount of anxiety relief by getting
after school care, seventy nine percentreported feeling less stressed on a daily basis,
forty five reported feeling happier throughout theday. I mean, how many
(11:39):
things in this world can we changeand get this kind of impact? Wow?
Yeah, so it's much bigger thanjust after school care. And you
know, I think too The commonthread for me as I pulled this apart
and just even looking at my ownstory but realizing that it applies to thousands,
is that taking care of children rightmeans taking care of parents, means
(12:03):
taking care of the workforce. Right. It's all interconnected, right, which
means taking care of profitability in theeconomy right. Take it all the way
up. Absolutely, so absolutely,And that's the area some of the countries
are actually taking leap on. Andin our country, this article, I
can share it on the show notes. It spoke about school in Durham,
(12:24):
North Carolina, and the stats werelike something like not even quarter of the
percentage of students get after school care. Twenty five million kids will join it
if it was provided in the school. That number is big, it's massive,
and the number that enters into thatafter school care is so low.
(12:45):
When you saw that, did youapproach this single mindedly or you tried finding
doing some research and finding women orin your team And I know about Amanda,
but can you elaborate on what wereyou in and then take us through
the journey to talking to the district. Yes. So the first thing I
(13:07):
did was try and actually build someallies in the schools. So I started
meeting with some principals, and youknow, some of them really had no
idea this was was was even anissue, which is an issue in and
of itself exactly. Yeah, yeah, So okay, so we've got to
increase awareness and create some allies internally. But then I sat in on the
incoming kindergarten call, and I knewthat after school would addressed and parents would
(13:28):
ask, and sure enough, itwas the only thing parents were asking about.
And you know, there are Imean, I took screenshots because I
was like, wow, I wantto remember this, I mean, threads
and threads and threads in this onehour meeting saying will there be more after
school spots? What are you doing? Can you tell us more about like
how you're addressing this, And forthe most part, you know, they
(13:48):
kind of went unanswered. And soat that moment, I said, okay,
people are aware. There's clearly notgoing to be any kind of you
know, meaningful change come the followingfall. So I shut my computer,
I went on Facebook, I wentinto the community forum, and I just
said, if you were just sittingon that income in kindergarten call and you
need after school care, please sendme an email. We're going to fix
(14:09):
this. So and I mean thatnight alone, I probably got seventy five
email addresses. I mean, it'sjust that's how you know, when there's
a problem that needs to be solved, people jump right, so, you
know, like any other industry.So from there, people started emailing it,
Hey want to get involved. Therewere so much positive energy, honestly,
and you know, I think that'salso really important, staying positive throughout.
(14:33):
So at that point I said,okay, let's form a committee.
Asked six or seven folks who hadbeen emailing me and who had been expressed
interests, so we formed a committee. Seven that was the past committee.
Amanda was one of those people.Amanda and I had known each other for
years from the Wayland Children and ParentsAssociation, and we had talked about it
intermittently, right and you know,she started texting me and was like,
(14:56):
Hey, what do you think aboutthis? What do you think about this?
And I was like, what doyou think about jumping on the committee
with me and get this together?So so that's what happened. Yeah,
Then after that it was more aboutdividing and conquering what needed to get done.
We needed to a get more peoplein the Facebook, like start a
Facebook group, get people in it. We needed to do comps on neighboring
districts. The committee all did that. We needed to do comps on.
(15:18):
So it's just you and Amanda inthe committee. Correct, Okay, seven
total. And then we needed tofind out, well, who are some
of the other vendors we can contact? Lots of research up front. This
is a daunting tech. You can'tdo this by yourself or even with two
people. You need you need alot of hands on to people. Yes,
So it was almost like finding Itwas almost like building a team figuring
(15:39):
out also like these are all workingparents, right when we're not getting paid
for this, So what is everybody'sbandwidth? What is everybody's interest and strength,
and trying to leverage that as well, And that you know very well
because you have been in a estatleyou advised the statle. Tell me how
did your background actually help you doall of this easily? Because I know
it did. I am very goodat turning nothing into something I just done
(16:03):
in my whole life, and I'mnot afraid of the creation process, and
so so for me, it wasa natural thing. And when I when
I dig out on something, Ireally do dig in. There's no half
measures. So so yeah, Ijust I just knew. You know,
you also know, look, everybody'sdoing their best at the school level,
(16:25):
right the schools are understaffed, everybodystretched. I totally understand that, which
is why the very first thing Idid was reach out to the folks running
base and say, hey, Iwant to come meet with you. Listen,
I quit my job. I canbe a pretty good assistant. What
can I do to help? Andso I went and sat down with them.
You know, I brought flowers.I said, look, I just
(16:47):
consider me like an assistant. Whatcan I do? So I really I
wanted to. I had empathy.I still do have empathy for all they
they have to deal with. Itrequired a motivated person to grease the wheels.
And yeah, absolutely, let's takea break and talk about our episode's
(17:07):
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details will be on our show notes. Was there a time when you were
like, Okay, f the world, I'm going to fix this every day?
(18:21):
I will tell you this. Thereare definitely moments where twice I walked
out of the town building and juststarted crying because I've felt, you know,
we just weren't being heard and therewas a you know, in my
mind, I was like why,like, why aren't they trying to help?
I couldn't really understand, but youknow, I do also understand that
(18:42):
you know, politics or politics andthings are the way they are. But
those are the toughest moments I thinkfor me, there are you know,
a couple a couple of things thatwe came up with ideas that we came
up with to fix some of theissues that were turned down and for reasons
that we could have probably gotten around. But you know, again it's like,
okay, and again, this iswhy having a team matters. If
I had been by my cell phone, you know, do Yeah, thank
(19:04):
you for sharing it with the audiencebecause you know, something like this would
not have been solved if you hadnot been turned down as well. That's
kind of a motivation too. Canyou tell us of the local resources that
actually came in handy in solving theseYes, so I would say number one,
you know where we ended up pitchingthe after school program at the YMCA
(19:25):
Camp Chicken Me. You know,because we do looked around. We don't
we don't have a boys and girlsclub here, right, we don't have
many family resources in Wayland. Yeah, but we we looked at that site
and we knew that they had justbuilt a new all weather building, and
when you looked online, we sortof realized, oh wow, they actually
have all these fundraising plans. Theywant to build more, but this is
(19:47):
just sitting empty September to June.So you know, putting together that pitch
deck identifying them as like, thisis a resource that we need to build
on because they're clearly wanting to buildit out. And there's a perfect partnership
and marriage of needs here. Theyneed finances to build and we need after
school care. So YMC and correctSo kim Chickami is run by YMC.
(20:07):
The YMC, I've been hearing thatname every time we have a Hunger Games
style summer camps. Is you knowthe fight going on in that tow tell
me for the audience, because I'msure the audience would like to know what
is this Hunger Games? Was itlike that, like people had to sit
(20:29):
on their laptops and reserve the spotsand fight with each other to get that
spot. I think rec Pass whenRecpass launched, it was. And we
are limited by space at the townbuilding. So that is the problem,
and that is why rec Pass can'texpand further. Right now, however,
the COACC which is getting built,which should be I don't know a year
(20:49):
and a half from now, therector, can you tell us what is
the Yes, the Council on AgingCommunity Center. So it is is a
it's going to be a beautiful spaceright over by the local and the idea
is that this is a community spaceand that it will be in part used
for senior programming. But that youknow, the way it was sold to
(21:11):
the town, it's half of itis wreck recreation. So they have they
have said that we will through conversationswith them and kind of again bringing that
data forward of like here's the needand it's a community resource. They have
said that we will have several hoursa day over there. That's a rec
department. It's going to be good. So there is absolutely plans to expand
(21:33):
rec pass. It will get bigger. Right now we're a limited But back
to your question about the Hunger GamesCamp Chicken Me. They it was only
five days a week. And nowthis is something interesting that came up because
we had to run surveys early on. We had to kind of get as
many people as we could into theemail database and then start to understand,
well, what are we solving forhere, what do people actually need?
And it turns out fifty percent offamily said we only need like three or
(21:56):
two days a week. Oh wow, right, so we don't need so
yeah, this is a big deal. They also said, we'd be really
happy if you just get us tofour thirty. We don't need till five
thirty or six. Really, yes, not everyone, but like half Yeah,
that makes a big difference. Yeah, and you know that question wasn't
being asked by the district, right, but wow, this actually becomes a
(22:18):
much more solvable problem when you breakit down at that level. So so
I think for Chicken May they itwas set up in such a way that
there was only four the folks whoneeded five days a week, and they
run until six pm. Nice,So it's like a very full coverag.
So it wasn't for everyone. SoI think it didn't fill up quite as
fast as reck Pass, but itI think within forty eight hours it was
(22:38):
full. Yet And this is incredibleand also the fact that you're using all
your marketing expertise and technology expertise andgetting people to tell us the right things.
You know, what's going on intheir mind and how much they needed,
and this is a data that isimportant even for the future. One
hundred percent. I was reading thisAttica and it's said that a lot of
(23:00):
people were not using the aftercare alsobecause it was expensive. So tell me
that the pricing here. Yeah,so the pricing for Camp Chicken Me is
actually very comparable the base, whichis about eight thousand dollars a year.
I think Chicken is maybe nine.But it's really comparable. So and from
my perspective, I mean, Ican tell you that. But they pay
(23:22):
the base workers and it's very lowon this on the scale of things,
which is part of the problem.But to me, that's affordable childcare for
an entire year. You know,I have somebody to watch my til from
two thirty to six pm should Iwant it. By the way, they
also cover the sup you know,Wednesday early Wednesday release, the Super Tuesday
releases. Yeah, it's hugely important. I don't even have to keep track
(23:45):
of it anymore. Just like wildlyliberating. But so to me, that's
perfectly affordable. I read that thateducators have so much to do. I
understand they have a lot on theirplate, yes, and when and there
in the school, they have somany things to organize, compile and you
know, but why did they notsee this problem or raise a birness about
(24:08):
it? Because, as you said, the base workers were also not being
paid so much, so if theyhad to do something, they had to
fix this problem. Why were youthey not looking at it? That is
a very good question, Yamini.Thank you. The first answer I'll give
you is that there were people whoidentify you know that if you really look
(24:30):
at okay, well, what causedthis acute, acute issue in twenty twenty
three, it was, you know, we switched time start times with the
high school back in twenty and thathappened across the country in I don't know
what their proportion is, but Idon't know. My guess is thirty to
forty percent of districts because that wasthe year all the data came out that
said high schoolers' brains don't wake upuntil ten am, et cetera. Right,
(24:51):
so, in an effort to kindof accommodate their optimal learning times,
the elementary and middle school to gohit. Now, there was a large
committee in Whaland and who were alllooking at this and you know, kind
of collaborating on should be or shouldn'twe one of which was the head of
our recreation department, Catherine Brenna,who huge shout out, huge shout out
(25:12):
another female hero in Wayland. Butshe said at the time, I told
them this was going to create twoproblems. Number one, you're going to
have a childcare problem and number two, you're going to have a high schoolers
playing soccer in the dark at seventhirty at night. And she used to
run away MCA. She's an expert, right, and so I so,
(25:32):
you know, she felt frustrated becauseshe's like, I tried to bring this
up. Ultimately, I think alot of these districts just didn't. They
just didn't plan appropriately. Why Ican't I can't really answer that question.
But for whatever reason, the weightwas placed on, you know, making
this change for high schoolers, andit's almost like they started but then didn't
finish, right, they didn't finishthe accommodation. So that's reason number one.
(25:57):
But reason number two, I canto in Whaland it wasn't It wasn't
being raised by the folks running base. There were no alarms going off,
so individual parents would email and say, hey, what's happening, Hey,
what's going on? Hey, Butit just for whatever reason, wasn't being
(26:18):
put in front of the superintendent orwhomever. Now, we also have had
a lot of challenges in Whitland overthe last few years with leadership, right,
So trying to get big things likethis done in the times we've had
would have been challenging. Yeah,so that's true, And at times I
wonder would I have been able wehave been able to get this done if
(26:40):
we had had really firm leadership inplace, because I actually think part of
our advantage was that we didn't haveto go through as many approvals. That
is so cool. Yes, rightspeaks volumes about what we have right now
in the town. And by thetime after care is done, they must
they will all be so exhausted.I mean we all want them to be
exhausted. As moms, you wantthem. Okay. My question to that
(27:03):
is did you find parents on AndI'm not coming from a gender perspect I
am actually coming from a gender perspective. Was it just moms who were more
you know, approaching you, orwas it like parents together, or you
were surprised with men coming forward andtelling you that, you know, we
need to fix this, this isnot working. Single dads there are single
(27:25):
dads shut down. Sure, itwas mostly moms, but I will say
there was a larger portion of husbandswho chimed in. At one point one
of the committee member's husband sort ofwould jump on our calls too because he
wanted to be involved and he wantedto hear, you know, and contribute.
So it was mostly moms. Wouldyou say that you would like that
number to go up and that's tobe more Yes, But like so I
(27:48):
read a really interesting research piece ofresearch the other day about you know,
why is it that it falls onand and the idea is that we tend
to think, you know, we'revery focused about like the wage gap for
women versus men, and we thinkabout, you know, even potentially why
aren't there more women at the top. But what the article argued was that
(28:10):
there's data to suggest that the genderroles begin at home. And I was
like, oh, yes, soobvious, right, But that's the truth,
I think, right, Yeah,which is why I asked you this
question because I really want to understandif parents are you know, they saw
this problem collectively or was it moretough on moms than dads, like you
(28:37):
know, the first I don't knowthe stats, but I'm sure if somebody
has to forfeit their job, itwould be a woman. Mostly in most
cases, it might Yeah, Sothis aftercare program, what does it provide
with two parents? What are kidsdoing during this time for recpasts? Specifically?
(28:59):
What is it pass? And tellus in detail about the two.
Sure, So the two opportunities wecreated were both off site from from school.
We number one got the partnership establishedwith the YMCA to run the five
day week till six pm program forK to five students at Camp check a
me. So that's one and thenthe other, which is pretty different and
(29:25):
I think it's good the variation here. So the other is WREC Past.
This is the new after school programthat the Rec Department started. They already
had program going there, but essentiallywhat they did was renovate the entire thing
and really kind of put some morejuice into it through this partnership. So
they were doing in which location atthe town building? Okay, okay,
yeah, so they can it's dividedbetween the two or like there are two
(29:48):
totally separate programs and the kids aregoing on in both the programs. Like,
what is a total number of kidsright now who are availing this?
So the total number of kids thisis something like two hundred Okay, wow,
yeah, it's a pretty big number. We still need to do more,
but we're getting close. But theresponsibility, like the burden falls on
(30:12):
both the side, like the townbuilding and the yes yes, and like
like they are totally separate programs.Yes, we were able to, through
a lot of coaxing, get aboss funded by essentially we baked in the
(30:33):
cost into WREC pass, but getan additional boss, amend our current bus
contract, and get additional bus tobring the kids from the schools over to
the town building. So like thatkind of adjustment. This is not rocket
science. It just again it tooklike grease in the wheel and somebody who
is determined to kind of make ithappen, and you know, navigate the
(30:55):
politics, so you know, andthat's where we had to go to the
town because, believe it or not, our town controls the bus contract.
Oh I didn't know that, yes, which is why then we needed to
establish a relationship with the select boardand appear in front of them and meet
with the town manager and dig outthe numbers. And you know, there's
only so much that's in your control. But at the end of the day,
it's like what you said before iscorrect. Using my sales experience was
(31:19):
critical because at the end of everymeeting, it was like, Okay,
well when are we meeting again?Let's get a date on the calendar.
Right now, I need to goreport to the four hundred parents who are
waiting to hear how this meeting went. So but that's also why it's so
important to organize at the beginning.And now that's telling me about the bus
contract. I remember all those busstanding in the back of those parking lots
(31:40):
like and n me and my kidowill count them like, oh buses,
that is why m hm so soyeah, so it's great. And then
again we maintained from the start thisis not going to cost the town or
the school any money. Yeah.Wow, So you guys fixed this problem.
And now you have time? DidI do it? Very jokeable?
(32:06):
And now you get the time.And so you, my fabulous lady,
with all the time that you're likegetting right now, you start bubbling with
ideas and things and I know thatyou're onto something big again. But before
I take you there, do youhave to overlook this pastor process? Right
now? How how does that work? There's really I mean, there's nothing
(32:30):
ongoing we need to do. Wedid just run that survey where we understood
more about the mental health data,but also to understand what are what are
the outstanding needs from the past community. So we have passed those along to
the recreation department. So it's takencare of. Yeah, I mean,
you know, at a certain point. Also you have to know your role
and you need to know when tostep out. We've done our job.
(32:52):
We've got you've fixed it. Reallygood professionals on it now. And also
by the way, I don't knowif you saw this, but the the
Base has now opened up a fewmore enrichment programs also after school, like
large back to back programs in theschools. So I think again just creating
a little bit of so I cansee that things are continuing to kind of
(33:14):
you know. The Longfellow waitlist alsoopened up, right because there's there was
all this shift in movement. Somepeople said, I want to go to
Chicken may or what have you.The Base, you know, one of
the other critical pieces we learned.Like I said, a lot of parents
only needed two or three days,but Base was mandated three days, four
days or five days a week.She opened it up to two, which
is great, So people who neededto took there two, so that kind
(33:37):
of filled in gaps too. Sothere's a lot of things kind of moving
and shifting. I am not worriedabout anything falling apart, but are you,
like, as a mom, didyou want to design where you were
part of the design process of theafter school program like what will be in
it? Yes? And a lotof that came from the vendor outreach we
did last winter to figure out whatcan we you know, what would we
(34:01):
like to see? What do otherpast parents? That's one of the questions
we asked, what would you liketo see? You know, we gave
them all sorts of choices about youknow, homec and stem et cetera.
I think traditionally it's been sports,right, which is great, my kid
loves sports. But we really wantedto try and see how how we could,
you know, put a capital Eon enrichment and get a little wider
(34:21):
so and Catherine did that, Imean she really did. So. I
wanted to ask you about the medicalprogram. What do you think how does
this support them? Because I'm sureBoston parents are also working and they they
might need after care too. Arethey opting for it? I don't have
the answer to that question. BecauseI don't have access to that data.
(34:44):
Oh okay, I don't have accessto the data about who exactly assigned up.
All I know is the numbers.But was there anybody who connected you
with medical side of the school?No? No, okay. So now
we are moving on to when andmakes sure that all the moms have time
in their hand and they can goback to work. And what is she
(35:07):
doing though? So through the processof working on PASS it's interesting because at
the beginning I didn't realize this crossoverwith mental health and health. But at
the same time I'm doing this,I'm also just reading article after article and
book after book. And by theway, I don't read books, but
I read like nine by six months. I mean partially, I think because
(35:30):
I had some time on my hands, but also because I'm just all in
on this topic and really about likewhat is happening, What is happening in
the world, and what has happenedover the last decade to cause this shift,
this antisocial shift in our society,and the disconnect and the sadness and
the anxiety and the depression, andit's many things affecting it has a huge
(35:51):
chunk it is it did impact it, but it was happening before, and
so I've looked at all that data. It's happening before. It's got me.
Yeah. Sure, I think ithelped bring it to people's attention who
wouldn't have been paying attention now.And I think one of the biggest challenges
is that it's silent, it's invisible, and it's stigmatized, right, so
(36:14):
people don't want to admit to it. People don't want to talk about it.
And I understand why. There's neverbeen more data about what's making people
unhappy, and there's never been moredata about what makes people happy, truly
empirical data. What makes every singlehuman happy that you cannot debate, And
those four things are friends, community, meaningful work. And it's called faith.
(36:38):
But don't think of faith like religion. Think of faith like you're not
the center of the world. Doyou believe you're not the center of the
world. I'm sorry, I willyes, yeah, no, I'm kidding.
I was like, yes, Ihave good friends. I think I
have a good community, a villagethat I'm trying to build, and you
have to work a lot at it. I want to I want to make
(37:00):
that easier. Oh, that's whereI'm going that is so amazing. So
so that's for me as I'm puttingtogether the data points about like, oh
what's making people sad? Oh?It makes people happy? Okay, how
can we en mass reach people andstep them through a graduated process of connecting
with people who are like minded,who have shared interests, who are close
(37:23):
by to them, and actually usetechnology to get them off the tech.
That sounds like a Mama, Yesit's going to be, but I'm going
to do it. So I haveto see that all bright light on your
face when you speak about it.It's I just you know, again,
it's a funny thing. I'm readingall these things I'm involved with paths and
(37:45):
one day I just walked down intomy in my office about three months ago,
and I took a huge whiteboard andI just wrote it all out and
I was like, and there itis? That is it? When was
that? When did you write thaton the whiteboat? Let's see what month
(38:05):
were we in, July this year? Yeah? And then what I You
know, I'm not a mental healthprofessional, but I'm a person in the
world who has experienced it. I'ma person who has a lot of deep
relationships with people who have experienced it. I've always been interested in psychology as
a psych major. I've a master'sin communications scientists and disorders. And what
(38:29):
I needed to validate, like whatI think is going to work and be
effective. And that's the key part. This product is going to show measurable
effectiveness. Right. I need theindustry to look at this, any clinicians
and folks who are out there onthe front lines to say, yeah,
I'd recommend this even to somebody whojust you know, has an adjustment disorder,
is feeling sad, maybe they don'thave a clin I don't want it
(38:52):
to be something people look at aslike this is a mental health platform.
Now, this is a platform tobring connection and happiness and vitality and get
people out of their homes and backinto life. And it's data backed and
it's measurable. So I went tothis conference, mental Health Marketing Conference,
met some absolutely incredible people and startedwith them and said, hey, your
(39:16):
leaders in your field, what doyou think about this concept? And the
overwhelming answer I got was yes,yes, yes, and how can we
help? And so that's when Ireally first knew, Hay, I'm on
to something here, and it it'sclinically, it follows the right path.
So I don't want to I don'twant to cut you, but I want
the audience to know that do youshare healthcare background in some way? So
(39:40):
the masters in Communication Sciences and Disordersmade me a speech pathologist. I didn't
work with children, though I workedwith adults with brain injuries. So I
learned all about the brain and howit works and what drives what. And
so I did that for seven yearsa combination at Mount Signi Hospital in New
York and then at Lahy Hospital.And so you are very keen observer of
(40:04):
what's happening around with you, andthat means yes, yes, for me,
it was you know, I cansee this through line. And I
think that's one of the things thatI've realized about myself is that I'm really
good at seeing through lines and seeingwhat's coming down the path. So now,
all of a sudden, right bythe way, the Surgeon General last
(40:24):
spring put out an advisory loneliness epidemic. There is a loneliness epidemic, right,
and that was critical for this movement. So the Surgeon General last spring
put out an advisory the loneliness epidemicadvisory and in it he has just pages
and pages of data. I mean, it's worse for you, right than
smoking fifteen cigarettes a day, thanobesity. It has more of a negative
(40:45):
effect on your health. It's nowthe number one premature killer of men.
So it is every age, itis every demographic, doesn't matter who you
are. In some ways, itaffects the wealthy more because the more money
you have, the more you canisolate yourself with technology and Uber eats and
delivery and everything else. And soso that really was a great thing for
(41:07):
the movement, and it's going tobe very helpful as I go out and
fundraise, and you know, I'vealready feel I feel so loved like putting
it out there into the world,and the number of people who've come and
said how can I help? Sosure, because everybody feels it. Yes,
did you ever have this thought thatyou know now everything makes sense?
(41:28):
Yes? Yes, was there amoment like like there's a kaleidoscope and I've
been spinning it and suddenly like everythingjust like locked into place. But I
will say that anything I've ever donehas been an extension of It becomes an
extension of me. I don't havemuch of a gray area. So if
I'm going in, I'm going allthe way in. All right, this
(41:51):
is incredible. So what have youthought of the name of It's called flutter
Local. Flutter Local, and it'sgoing to be an app, going to
be an app, Okay, it'sgoing to be a website where people Yeah,
it'll be a web app. Soit'll be a web based app for
now. It will be that iswhat it will be. I might be
able to be convinced to make amobile app out of it, but my
(42:13):
biggest concern is that it's one morething going off in people's pockets when they
should be talking to somebody on thesubway. So I want to be able
to need to reach people, andin this digital world, do you need
that? Yeah? Yeah, sopotentially, I just I want to be
very intentional about how this is built. One of the ideas I'm toying with
is do I build in a gamificationaspect to it to keep people motivated and
(42:36):
involved. But I don't want itto become about the game, and I
don't want it to become about thoserewards. I want it to be about
the reward of interpersonal relationships. Andso these are things up for grab right
now. I'm so excited and socurious about it, Like I have like
ten different questions coming into my head. Is it for an individual? Is
it for a group? Is ita community event? Kind of a local
(43:00):
flutter? Local can mean different towns, different you know, just a I
don't know. I mean, thereis so many possibilities. The idea is
that as an individual, you canget on the platform and essentially the first
thing we're going to do is we'regoing to gather some quick data. How
do you feel, what do youneed? What can you give? Yeah,
(43:22):
because this is a community, sothere's got to be a give and
a take. And when you comein, there's different spaces you can move
into. We have audio only rooms. We have almost like a virtual reality
but think of like a little Avatarand there's a pool table and you walk
up and you can just meet somebodyand when you walk up, your cameras
kick on. So now we're playingsome virtual pool, but we're also looking
(43:43):
at each other. Oh my god, you are going to bring the mark
deck, the you know, AI, the VII, all of it together
in this huh, and then we'regoing to step them out to Okay,
why don't you go meet up withthat person? Wow? Through like and
it's a delicate process, right,you're doing a dance, they'll be pro
you know, people will be ableto look at their profiles and it'll kind
of say like, hey, thisis this is happening within five miles of
(44:07):
you. Hey want your friend Peter'sgoing to this and you guys both have
dogs, Like why don't you it'sa dog walk? Why don't you get
why don't you sign up and go? So it's this idea of I might
meet Peter in a virtual space andthen one day I challenge him to a
game of chess, and then thenext day I see, you know,
I get this prompt that says like, hey, Peter's going to this and
wants to know if you want tojoin. So and that's the local aspect
of it, which is really important, right because if I just open it
(44:30):
up to everyone in the world,everyone interacting with each other from Japan,
Hey, that's great and me andmaybe we'll get there, but there's nothing.
The number one thing I took awayfrom the mental health marketing conference was
from a clinician. There are fortythousand, forty thousand mental health B two
C apps. She will not recommendany zero because they don't get the job
(44:52):
done. They deploy the science ofmental health, my mindfulness, deep breathing
meditation, but what truly heals isthe art inside, is the art of
healing with human engagement. So you'vegot to get people back together. And
if I just leave them on thetech we have, all I've done is
(45:13):
create another social platform, and thatis not what I want to do.
That is amazing. Thank you,thank you for sharing that. Thank you,
and thank you for coming so excited. Thank you, thank you,
Homnie, thank you for listening tothis episode. Isn't this amazing how women
are embowering societies around them, understandingwhat is holding them and facing it head
on. I think I'm fangerling Karenbig time, and in this episode I
(45:37):
acted less of a the host,but more of a parent and a woman
whose career huddles matched the problem shetried solving. Please don't forget to follow
Beatone Fitness Whalen on their socials andconnect with them with your fit disqueries.
Karen has already launched her new company, and it's not called Flutterloco. It's
a different name. Find Karen Kellyon LinkedIn or google her to know more.
(45:59):
Don't forg We get to read theshow notes and get all the details.
Keep listening and stay tuned for thenext one. This is Yamini,
your host, and you were listeningto Women a Whalen, the podcast where
we bring you local, incredible womenstories.
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