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142: A Unique Way To Get Kids Outside To Play
183 Plays1 year ago
Lakshmi Jayanthi is the Founder & CEO of Pickup Sports and also the mom of two active young boys. Lakshmi's mission is to inspire kids to live a long-term active lifestyle by bringing the fun back into youth sports and making it more accessible for all kids. Pickup Sports is a mobile app that facilitates kids playing neighborhood sports which makes sports easier for parents and a lot less intense for kids. They help parents organize their own local play groups, invite friends to join, challenge other neighborhoods to a game and provide educational videos so parents have a plan for what their kids can play.
Lakshmi joined Jill Devine this week to discuss Pickup Sports.
Instagram: @pickupsportsfun
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/keepkidsactive
Twitter: @askpickupsports
Two Kids and A Career Website: https://www.jilldevine.com/
Two Kids and A Career Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jilldevine/?hl=en
Two Kids and A Career Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JillDevineMedia/
Thank you to our sponsor: Evoke Creative
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
following podcast is a Jill Devine Media production.
00:00:21
Speaker
afford it due to the cost of organized sports or due to the time involved. You have to commit to 12 weeks, practice two times a week plus games. It's too much, especially when you start getting into multiple kids. Evoke Creative is a proud sponsor of two kids and a career. They help small business owners like me brand with purpose and market with intent.
00:00:42
Speaker
The ladies at Evoke Creative will help make your digital presence known. Learn more at evokesco.com. That's evokesco.com.
Balancing Parenting and Entrepreneurship
00:00:51
Speaker
Hi there and welcome to Two Kids in a Career. I'm Jill Devine. As an entrepreneur, wife, and mama, the daily grind of trying to build a business while taking care of kids and trying to maintain a healthy connection with my hubby, it's a lot. With this podcast, you're going to hear candid conversations with other moms.
00:01:08
Speaker
Parenting experts who can share their knowledge and insight or you'll just hear me rambling to get it all out There's going to be tears. There's going to be laughter But most importantly there will be support take a listen and connect with me so we can grow and learn from one another This is two kids and a career. Well, we are in the midst of summertime at the time of this recording and I don't know about you but
00:01:31
Speaker
as a parent sometimes is one of those things where you're like, oh, they need a break from school. Oh, I wish they were back in school because the structure and the craziness is just out of control. And what's really cool about this week's guest is there is a little bit of structure and a little bit of what we want our kids to experience, the outdoors and meeting other people.
00:01:55
Speaker
And so we will talk about how we're going to bring all that together
Guest Introduction and Family Life
00:01:58
Speaker
in just a little bit. But first, let me welcome this week's guest, which she knows, to be completely honest, I did not know how to pronounce her name. I asked her, I'm going to give it a try. Lakshmi Jayanthi. You nailed it. Yes!
00:02:14
Speaker
That never happens, just so you know. Yeah. And it doesn't happen to me much either. Well, welcome to the podcast. How are you? I'm doing great. Excited to be here. Thank you. All right. So tell me what area you live in and a little bit about your family life.
00:02:33
Speaker
Sure. I'm in the Atlanta, Georgia suburbs. OK. And we moved here about seven years ago. I have two boys. The older one is 10. The younger one is seven. So we actually moved here when my seven-year-old was five weeks. But we're loving this area, the warm weather. We are outdoors a ton. I am married to a sports medicine physician. So he is very much involved in all things sports.
00:03:01
Speaker
And so as a family, we're very active and we try to be laid back but structured. It's trying to balance it all. But I'm very involved in our community. I'm the president of our school's PTO. So there's a lot of juggling that's happening in our lives.
Gender Stereotypes in Parenting
00:03:16
Speaker
Yes. All right. Where did you live before Atlanta?
00:03:19
Speaker
We were in Chicago. Okay. So being a mom to two boys, I cannot relate because I have two girls. We have a six and a four year old, but my sister has the two boys. And I just think it's so fun because
00:03:36
Speaker
Obviously, people have different stereotypes of boys and girls. And I remember when my mom, because it's just my sister and me, I think that she had said, I'm trying to remember how she worded this, but that
00:03:56
Speaker
Boys on the baby level were easier than the girls, like my sister and me. And then the boys got rambunctious, but my sister and me, you know, she was just comparing it. Now, obviously, things are different. Well, I was like, that, you cannot compare that because I look at my girls and even my my model group is like,
00:04:16
Speaker
They're crazy. They're wrestling like WWE. They like they don't break the whole mold. And so it's so fun to me to just kind of, you know, hear other parents perspectives and if the same things are happening in your
The Mobile App for Outdoor Play
00:04:31
Speaker
home. I mean, I know it's different, but like the sibling rivalry, all of those things.
00:04:36
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think it's like it's not a gender thing. It's just all kids, you know, I see I've always thought it was the opposite, like girls are easier when they're young, and then they get harder when they're older with the emotions and the drama and stuff. Yes, you know, so it's kind of both ways. Like, I don't know. But yeah, as far as activity and jumping around and wrestling, that's just all kids. I don't think yes to any gender.
00:05:05
Speaker
They just got to get it out. They're like I just All right. Well, I really wanted to talk to you because of this business that you have and it you know, we can laugh and joke around about all kinds of things but when it comes to screen time and Just the presence of that it's alarming and I
00:05:30
Speaker
you know i mean maybe i am a hypocrite i do use it there are times where you know mama's gotta get some stuff done and i'm like watch a movie or you know there's there's limitations and everybody has their own rules their own. Things but i'm bringing this up because you are doing it you're trying to make sure people know like.
00:05:55
Speaker
The outdoors, that's where it's at. It's where it was at when I was a kid and it's still there. So talk to me about what you created. Sure. Yeah. So what I have built is, and I have a team of people, it's just me, but we built a mobile app that gets kids outside to play pickup games in their neighborhoods.
00:06:15
Speaker
It's kind of like the old fashioned way of let's just get the kids outside playing and making social connections. But with the technology twist. So we use the app just like a dating app, you can find other families with kids in the area, you create your own pod, you create your own little teams of anywhere from small groups like four to six kids, get them regularly playing outside, you can compete against other neighborhoods. So our neighborhood will compete against another one close by.
00:06:45
Speaker
And it's all facilitated through the app. And the idea is to make a very laid-back approach to kids playing sports and just playing. Right now, we're in this culture of everything structured, everything organized. And what's happening is that there's a lot of kids being left out of play.
Screen Time vs. Outdoor Activities
00:07:05
Speaker
Either parents can't afford it due to the cost of organized sports or due to the time involved. You have to commit to 12 weeks.
00:07:13
Speaker
practice two times a week plus games. It's too much, especially when you start getting into multiple kids.
00:07:19
Speaker
Yeah. So how can you make it laid back where you can have your seven-year-old playing with his 10-year-old brother on the same team, because there's no age restrictions. It's just, let's just get kids outside to play. So that's the general idea behind it when it comes to screen time. Basically, it's just a facilitator. So it's not meant for kids to be scrolling on there. What we want to do is use screen time in a positive way to help those kids make those in-person connections so you
00:07:49
Speaker
meet online, but then you meet actually in real life in person. So that's what we're building. Well, there are so many things that I wrote down that I want to address. But first of all, let me, with that, with the screen time, did you do a bunch of research on the statistics of how it impacts kids, like being outside, also being inside with the screen time? Does that make sense?
00:08:17
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And that this data is evolving as we speak. I think the Surgeon General just came out with new information and new guidelines. Yeah, the impact of screen time and it's happening much, much younger ages. It depends how screen time is used. It's not like all screen time is bad. If screen time is used in a positive way, that's great. But if it's turning into that dopamine hit where
00:08:43
Speaker
Anytime a kid is bored or has a second, they reach for that iPad, then you got to start realizing, okay, is this something that's becoming an addictive quality?
Developing Social Skills
00:08:53
Speaker
If they're definitely wanting to choose screen time over actually playing outside, you have to start looking at that.
00:08:59
Speaker
um and so it's a really you know we're all as parents this is all new territory for all of us and it's a growing problem so we're learning as we go um but we all can agree and we all know that ultimately uh for kids especially in-person connections really need to start happening at a very young age kids need to
00:09:20
Speaker
Start learning how to socialize. I've met so many adults who meet teenagers and teenagers don't know how to talk to adults because they're just so used to looking at their phone. So how do you make it more normal for kids at a younger age to start to just know how to make conversation and how to make friends? It's something that seems so natural for us 30 years ago, but it's starting to become unnatural to meet in person.
00:09:49
Speaker
We want to take that screen time and make it positive. I'm going to hit pause on this week's conversation to talk to you about Evoke Creative, one of the sponsors of the podcast. And I like one of the very first things that they have on their website. It's evokeseco.com.
00:10:06
Speaker
sentence is feeling overwhelmed with your marketing, contact us. We can help. Smiley face. It is overwhelming being a business owner, whether you have a small business like mine or a giant business. The marketing game, it's intense. It's super crazy. You got to stay on top of it all. And sometimes it's just one of those things where you just don't even know where to go and evoke creative.
00:10:34
Speaker
They are a creative marketing company. They support small businesses. They want to help you. They want to get your name out there. They want to make sure that you are happy and proud and excited about your business. So whether it is a new logo or a website refresh or a whole new website, I mean, in general, like you don't have a website or you just need a little bit of social media consulting, Evoque Creative, they've got your back.
00:11:04
Speaker
Seriously. So if you are thinking, wait a minute, I am a very small business. My budget is really, really low. Trust me, it is worth the call to them because they work with every single budget. It's evoccco.com, evoccco.com. Back to this week's conversation.
00:11:25
Speaker
Well, I just had a guest on. Her name is Beth Hindler-Grunt, and she was in episode 139. And her business is all about helping recent college graduates land a job. And it's not dream job.
00:11:44
Speaker
all the work that you just went through, how do we get you in front of people? How do we get you to interview well? Because what she's noticing, and this also goes on the business side. She said that there's a lot of businesses that will say, hey, we don't want a kid right out of high school. We need somebody with experience or right out of college. But one of the things that we focused on in the interview was the fact that
00:12:13
Speaker
they are awkward. These recent graduates are completely socially awkward and it's not
00:12:21
Speaker
their fault. And so then what happens is they go and they interview and these people are like, what is wrong with you? Like, why can't you look me in the eye? Why can't you carry on a conversation? And a lot of it has to do with the isolation with COVID. A lot of it is obviously because of screen time. And so it's like, wow,
00:12:44
Speaker
That really opened my eyes to the fact that we have so much work to do to now coach our kids. Like, a lot of people will say, oh, that's just an excuse. And it's like, no, no, no, it's not an excuse. When you are a generation that has been forced into isolation, or you're only using, you know, like, that's your only connection as a screen, and then you go and meet someone, I mean, of course you're gonna be awkward.
00:13:14
Speaker
So I was like, what do we do? And so starting young and keeping that going, that's huge. That's exactly like one of the first things I wrote down was being involved in your neighborhood and meeting others.
Building Local Communities
00:13:28
Speaker
That's the thing, is we're not doing that.
00:13:31
Speaker
We're guilty about it as many other people. We've stuck to our homes. Just general overview most people have. Some people are lucky and have a great network in their neighborhood. But at the same time, sometimes you don't know you have a great network because you haven't sought it out.
00:13:51
Speaker
So yeah, we got to start talking to people in person, adults too. Yes, adults too. And then that's kind of a good side of it. You know, we've had, we launched this back in November with just early launch and then we've been having kids regularly play since then.
00:14:07
Speaker
It's kind of like an extra effect of it is that the parents start connecting because the parents bring their kids and then the kids are playing and the parents meet each other. And those in-person connections, you're right. It's so much harder, especially post-COVID. It's kind of the easy thing to just sit at home and watch Netflix and scroll the screen. But it's so important. I hear it over and over again from teachers, from coaches,
00:14:33
Speaker
They meet high school age kids or college age kids, and the kids just don't even know how to look up and talk because for that age level kids, teens, particularly, their whole world is on screens. They make all their plans through Snapchat, like meet here and do that. I mean, there's no other communication. It's not like you pick up the phone and even call them.
00:14:57
Speaker
that awkwardness needs to, we got to address that at a young age. And you brought up a really good point too about meeting the other parents. I mean, I have seen so many stats on the isolation and the lack of community that people feel. And, you know, I have struggled with this with myself because
00:15:21
Speaker
Anyone that has listened to this podcast over time know that I'm what they refer to as the advanced maternal age parent. It's a lovely title to have. So I'm in a season of life where having a four and a six-year-old, my best friend, her kids are going into middle school and high school. And so while I can get really lonely and feel
00:15:49
Speaker
Like we aren't connecting and it's her fault or it's my fault or whatever. Instead, I'm trying to learn that it's the season of life I'm in. So I need to find the people that are in the same season of life with me and connect. And so like you just said in that app, you're connecting with other
00:16:13
Speaker
parents whose kids are around the same age as yours. So then there's the common denominator right there. Right, right. And as the kids connect, the parents will naturally connect. Hopefully, you hope you're choosing other kids with parents who you connect with. But just having that community of multiple families meeting multiple kids playing
00:16:34
Speaker
It's just a natural thing to happen, is to connect, and especially not just in the stage of life, but people who move to new cities. How do you meet new families? You meet all these people who've lived in that city forever, and how do you join their group? There's so many layers to the problem of isolation that we can't address at all, but what we can do is get kids to connect and then hope that there's a lot of side effects of everyone else connecting.
Flexible Sports Programs
00:17:03
Speaker
I mean, think about it. When your kids go to school and they start talking about so-and-so, and you're like, oh, I want to learn about so-and-so a little bit more, and then you reach out to the parent or that parent reach out to you, and then that's how you form it. And listen, you don't have to be best friends with them. It's just nice to just be like, hey, you know, I'm experiencing this. What do you think? Another thing I wrote down
00:17:28
Speaker
that I didn't even think of and it brought me to where we are now in summer, is my oldest is going to a camp and my youngest cannot go to that camp because she's not old enough. So when you mentioned, a lot of times siblings, they want to, at least in a new environments, they want to be with each other, little safety, comfortable, let's do this. So that really struck me too like, oh,
00:17:57
Speaker
We don't have to put an age limit or an age range on this. They can go together and then you'll see what happens. Yeah, absolutely. That happens in so many different areas. What we're doing with pickup sports is really focusing on the sports area. As you may or may not know, the organized sports, there's usually an age limit. There's a birth date cut off.
00:18:22
Speaker
They're just so strict about that timing. Then what ends up happening when you do have siblings of different ages, and I've experienced this many years now, just one month can cut it off and they can't be on the same team. Then you're juggling two different schedules and five practices. It's just impossible. If you're a working parent, it's impossible.
00:18:43
Speaker
Um, so what we've done is you can level the playing field. You know, when we were younger, um, and I'm not sure where you grew up, but what kids just played, you can have a six year old with a 12 year old. It's fine. You know, either we can level out that playing field. And we've done this, um, even just a couple of months ago, we had a play group of baseball. We had,
00:19:03
Speaker
kids aging from six to 14, because we had older siblings come to, it was the level playing field. I kid you not, because we had six-year-olds that had played before and 14-year-olds that had never played before. So it levels out. They had so much fun because we keep it moving. It's four on four. The kids are just moving around. No one's just sitting on the side waiting like in organized sports.
00:19:27
Speaker
And it's just a fun way for those kids to connect. And it's so much easier for parents. I can bring all my kids to one place. They can all play. And they can all compete. And it works out. But of course, when you get to that competitive level, you do need to split up and get leveled kids together. And so we have solutions for that as well. But when your kids are young and they're first being introduced to a sport or first just wanting to play,
00:19:54
Speaker
ages just doesn't matter like why are we making it so hard on parents to write for kids like let's take it down a notch let's just let the kids play exactly and that's another thing and my husband and I we talk about this too is you know with the organized sports and we're not dogging organized sports but what I will say is how do I
00:20:18
Speaker
Get my kid to know about an organized sport. You're not just not going to throw your child into, I mean, usually they have steps and levels. But a lot of times it's like, well, try out for this and there you go. I'm like, well, my child hasn't ever even played this. So how would she know that she would like it? And so that's the other thing I was thinking of. Well, if you have these,
00:20:46
Speaker
Different ideas and different situations with the pickup sports like then they can start to learn on a fun level the basic fundamentals exactly and and that is so important because you know the success of organized sports depends on how
00:21:04
Speaker
confident the kid feels in playing that sport. So for example, if you have a five year old who you're just, you know what, I want to try out soccer. I'm just going to sign them up for like a 10 week soccer league, but this kid has never played soccer before. So what most parents experience is that you bring their kid to soccer and then they're just sitting on the side, not knowing what to do. And then the parent is like, why isn't he kicking the ball? And it's like, well, as a parent, you've never actually kicked the ball with them.
00:21:32
Speaker
They've never even seen this before, so they're scared. The way that a kid will enjoy soccer is to, okay, take a few weeks before they start that soccer and show them how to dribble the ball, how to move it back and forth, how to manipulate it, just expose them a little bit, help them get some confidence around it. When they have confidence, they're more likely to want to play and they're more likely to want to stick to it.
00:21:58
Speaker
And then with pickup sports, it's a way for kids to experience this for the first time with other kids. You know, because the parents, what we do through the app is we send coaching instructions to parents. So parents can kind of know what to teach their kids if they want to, or if they just want to let the kids play. If the kids have played before, that's fine too.
00:22:17
Speaker
Um, but there are, there's kind of levels of week by week of what, what the parents should have the kids do. Um, and that gives the kids some exposure to playing. Um, and then you can decide, okay, did they like soccer or not? Should we try baseball? You know, um, we're, we're seeing it out at all ages. And, and you know, just recently I had a parent of an
00:22:36
Speaker
11 year old who had never played baseball before say, hey, my kid is interested in, but it's too late in all the organized sports because those kids have been playing since they were six. So what do I do? So this is a great way for an 11, an older 11, 12 year old kid to try a new sport for the first time.
Rethinking Organized Sports for Kids
00:22:52
Speaker
So do you hate that, though, the fact that now 11 years old is too late? Yeah. And and it's it shouldn't be. You look at all players and many of them did not specialize or play a sport until they were much older. They played different things before that. So, you know, this 11 year old is a great basketball player and has been doing that, but never tried baseball. So he's probably a great athlete, but has just not played baseball. So should we cut him out? Probably not. You know,
00:23:21
Speaker
Right. Oh, you know, how do you get them involved in playing these other things? And it's so good for the body to be playing different sports and using different muscles. You know, don't specialize them too young. And 11 is not too late. No, and that's we've got to change that, that mind.
00:23:41
Speaker
Shift on that because she's i mean i just feel like there were so many things that i was interested in but didn't do and then it took a while and you know i see that with my girls right now my oldest.
00:23:57
Speaker
wanted, well, she is doing cheer. But when you say that, like, automatically, you know, people might have a certain idea of what it is. Well, I always say, you know, it's just kind of like an open gym, so to speak, she's learning some things. But she in, and we've talked about it a little bit, but I really don't think she has any expectation of, Oh, I want to do this to get better at this. So then I can try out for the team. She
00:24:26
Speaker
She's just enjoying the activity and the fellowship. I'm like, that's fine. Until she says that she's done, I'm not going to push her. Every parent is different when it comes to the different sports stuff. It's just hard because then our youngest, we laugh because we think she's like a natural athlete and she doesn't want to do a thing.
00:24:54
Speaker
It always works out like that. I think it's important that we listen to our kids and we also remember that it's them and what their goals are. It's not our goals. Yes, absolutely. I know your older one is still a little young, but around the age of eight or nine,
00:25:18
Speaker
Um, that's when parents start feeling the pressure of, um, especially in sports like soccer and others where, um, a coach will come up to them saying, I see so much potential in your kid. They really should do this, um, with our league and you know, it'll just be three times a week and we're going to travel here and there. And, but this is so great. He's got a lot of potential. He could probably make high school or even college. So then the parent feels like, Oh my God, I need to do this.
00:25:44
Speaker
Yeah, I should do it. And then they start doing it. And they're like, Whoa, this is a lot of work. I am shuttling my kids around. I'm not seeing my younger kid is just like sitting on the side miserable because of the older one. And it turns into this miserable, stressful experience. And you feel like you have to do it because your kid is right photo talented.
00:26:08
Speaker
That's not always the case. You really have to question. And I'm not saying this about all organizational leagues. Some of them are amazing. But really look at what is the motivation behind that coach and that league.
00:26:21
Speaker
Well, because when you sign up, you're paying $2,000 or whatever that cost is, it's another kid that they have on their roster. Is it a financial incentive for them to have you in there? Is it necessary for you to be doing this this much? If your kid doesn't have that much of a passion for it, you got to wonder why you're doing it.
00:26:41
Speaker
That's so talented because there's a very, very, very tiny percentage of kids that actually play college level athletics.
Details on Pickup Sports App
00:26:51
Speaker
So really focus on, okay, the bonuses of sports or the positives of sports are many, which is teamwork and learning new skills and learning how to communicate. That can be achieved without paying loads and loads of money for some like Premier League that everyone needs to be part of.
00:27:11
Speaker
Yes. Oh my goodness. Yes. We joke around in my house and just in general, actually with everyone, like we always joke how I am cost effective, which is another way to say that I am cheap. And so I'm going to do whatever I can to make sure I save the money that I can and put it towards the right things.
00:27:35
Speaker
As we start to wrap up, I just want to make sure that I get all of your wonderful information out to the listener. I will include it all in our show notes at JillDivine.com, but let the listener know where they can go, anything else that you would like to say, and then I'll let you go enjoy your day.
00:27:56
Speaker
Oh, sure. Okay, so thank you for that. So our app is currently available in both iOS and Android. And the name of the app is Pickup Sports for Families. And currently, we've launched as far as marketing only in the Atlanta area. And we're going to be continuing that over the next six months or so before we do like a wider marketing release. So you can still download the app and use it. It's just you may not find a lot of families in there until
00:28:25
Speaker
six months from now. But yeah, and you can also check out the website. It's just pickupsports.co. That's C-O. And you can see all the information about the app, how to get your kids involved in playing sports and just start making those communities at a hyper-local level. And you are welcome to reach out to me
Closing Thoughts and Encouragement
00:28:46
Speaker
directly. My contact information is in there and I'd love your ideas or thoughts about kids and sports and play, and I'm happy to talk to anyone.
00:28:55
Speaker
Thank you so much. Thank you for what you're doing and what you have recognized as a good thing. I just encourage all parents to check out the app, check out the website, and let's get our kids out there. They need to be connecting with others. They need to build a community and have fun at the same time.
00:29:16
Speaker
Thank you for fostering that for people and for helping parents like me who always give me all the tools, all the tools in the toolbox to make it a little bit easier to do something like this. So thank you again. Of course, I'm happy to do this. This is a passion project of mine. I just want to get kids playing, have less stress for parents. Why are we killing ourselves with a million activities?
00:29:41
Speaker
Truth. 100%. Thank you again. Of course. Thank you. Thanks for having me on. As we wrap up, one more shout out to Evoke Creative. They are the wonderful creators of my website, JillDivine.com. They also helped create my cover art for this podcast, Two Kids and a Career.
00:30:05
Speaker
And so many other things that they did for my business still to mind media and if this is something that you're needing a little help with maybe your small business you have a little bit of a blueprint but you need that blueprint to come to action or you need a little fine tuning.
00:30:22
Speaker
It's the ladies that evoke creative. I have seen them go from being like the smallest business to being able to grow their own team. And that's what it's all about. They are here to help you. They are passionate. They want
00:30:38
Speaker
to get your business out there. And you know, it doesn't hurt to pick up the phone and give them a call for a consultation. And they will tell you, they'll be upfront and honest. They're not going to try to sell you on something that they can't do or if you can't afford. So I just encourage you to check them out. It's evokescco.com. And like I mentioned, they're the ones that did my website. You can check that out, gildivine.com. You can kind of see what you would be working with. And I,
00:31:05
Speaker
just I'm so thankful for them and for what they have done for me. So again, evokeseco.com, also jilldivine.com and thank you for your support of two kids and a career.