Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
You Scaled a Business. Can Your Kid Handle a Smartphone?
17 Plays9 days ago
In this episode, Ken Freire sits down with Kathy Van Benthuysen—founder of Converlation and Digital Prep Academy—to talk about why kids are being under-protected online, what “phone readiness” really means, and how parents and schools can give kids the why behind healthy tech habits.
Resources Mentioned
• Converlation - https://www.converlation.com/
• Digital Prep Academy - https://www.digitalprepacademy.com/
• Free Phone Readiness Assessment (Digital Prep Academy) - https://www.digitalprepacademy.com/free-phone-readiness-assessment
Timestamps
• 00:00–01:40 — Kathy’s two offers: Converlation (schools) vs. Digital Prep Academy (direct-to-kids)
• 01:40–05:25 — The real risk: under-protecting kids online while over-protecting them offline
• 05:25–09:20 — The 4-part “phone readiness” framework: responsibility, emotional maturity, digital awareness, character
• 09:20–15:10 — Origin story: what Kathy saw change in 30 years of teaching (and why she built this)
• 15:10–20:55 — Growth strategy so far: relationships, outreach, and staying in the conversation until people are ready
• 20:55–30:55 — School phone bans (NJ) and why bans alone aren’t enough: kids still need the “why”
• 30:55–33:45 — Community effect: why kids absorb lessons differently in groups than at home
• 33:45–41:05 — Fast Five: affiliates, focus decisions, growth goals, AI vs real connection, and legacy
Recommended
Transcript
00:00:00
Ken Freire
Welcome back to another episode of Solo Scaled. am your host, Ken Freire. And today I have with me Kathy Van Benthuizen with me. She is the founder of Conrelations and Prep Academy.
00:00:15
Ken Freire
So Kathy, thank you so much for being here.
00:00:18
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Thank you so much for having me, Ken. I'm excited to talk with you.
00:00:21
Ken Freire
Yes, absolutely. And today prepared Kathy and I'm preparing everybody in the background. Normally my kids are in a tutorial, but I have a few sick kiddos today. So you might hear more noise in the background than normal.
00:00:32
Ken Freire
But I think Kathy, you and I are going to have a fun conversation. You used to be a teacher, so you're used the noise of a lot of kiddos quite a bit.
00:00:39
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Yes.
00:00:40
Ken Freire
So before we get into your origin story, just tell everybody what is it that you do right now as an entrepreneur?
00:00:47
Kathy Van Benthuysen
So I, when I retired, I came to Converlation, which is a program for schools. It's a curriculum for fifth or eighth grade. And, we said, you know what, we want to get something directly to kids. So we have a coaching program called digital prep Academy that, uh, goes directly to kids. Obviously the parents have to buy it, but it's, it's for kids.
00:01:11
Ken Freire
I love it. So Conrelation is specifically for like in schools, working with them. And then Digital Prep Academy is like, hey, you're going direct to consumer, which is going to be the child and prepping them.
00:01:18
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Yes.
00:01:22
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Yes.
00:01:23
Ken Freire
It's a coaching program. I'm assuming some curriculum.
00:01:26
Kathy Van Benthuysen
before they get a phone or before they get social media, we coach them through the ins and outs of technology.
00:01:34
Ken Freire
Okay, which is a big deal these days because if I remember correctly, I saw some documentaries back in the past. I'm pretty strict on phone and technology use with my kids. But I mean, the epidemic of so many kids watching or falling into depression, anxiety, sexting, falling into sexual things that they shouldn't be watching all starts because they're on their phone and don't have the proper understanding of how to use it. Is that kind of the stuff that you prep them for?
00:02:04
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Yes, because when you think about how we grew up with, you know, there wasn't really social media. This is really new in the sense in the past 15 years or so.
00:02:15
Kathy Van Benthuysen
And so when we were growing up, it was, you know, go outside, come home when the streetlights come on.
00:02:20
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:02:20
Kathy Van Benthuysen
And now, because of all of this technology, we are actually overprotecting our kids in the real world.
00:02:30
Kathy Van Benthuysen
because we're tracking them, we're not letting them go outside. And if you look at it, actually the real world is actually safer than it's ever been. And then we're under protecting them in the digital world, which is actually where they need more protection, where you had just said, they're seeing pornography, they're faced with comparison and sextortion and FOMO and all of these things that actually can impact their entire lives. And that's something that we just hand over and we say, oh, you know what? They'll be fine. Everyone else is doing it.
00:03:06
Kathy Van Benthuysen
And it's not something. I was talking with my oldest last night and I was saying that We haven't changed as humans.
00:03:17
Kathy Van Benthuysen
We're really not that smart, much smarter. Yes, we have more technology, but we haven't changed that much. We still need people in our lives. We still need connections. We still need relationships.
00:03:29
Kathy Van Benthuysen
And yet all of this technology has pushed us and divided us further and we can't handle it. No child should be expected. I mean, was, we were, when she and I were talking last night, I had said,
00:03:45
Kathy Van Benthuysen
You know what, think about growing up. When I was growing up, if I wasn't invited to a party, because yeah, I was not invited to every party, would hear about it maybe on Monday, the lunchroom, maybe at recess, and then that was kind of it.
00:03:59
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Now, you're not invited to a party, it's all over social media, everyone's talking about it, and you can't get away from it. So now you're not just hearing about it when you're actually with people, you're inundated with all this information all the time. And we are not, we cannot handle that amount of input.
00:04:21
Kathy Van Benthuysen
And we and, and yet we're expecting kids to be able to, oh, they'll be fine, they'll be okay. Just, you know, don't worry about it or ignore it, but they can't, because it's constantly coming at them from all directions.
00:04:36
Ken Freire
Yeah, and I can imagine, remember feeling that comparison that you were talking like, oh, I didn't get invited to that party. Well, a week later, dies down. Here, it's like the onslaught over and over and over again.
00:04:49
Ken Freire
And I even love the comparison that you're talking about, like for adults, I think about social media in general, with all the vast information we hear today, whether political, nonpolitical, world news, just catastrophes all over the world, we're not even supposed to take in all that information.
00:05:01
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Right.
00:05:05
Ken Freire
It's almost like we're overstimulated and overwhelmed by it, that we don't know how to actually communicate or handle that much pressure. But then, like you said, how we supposed to let a child take care of themselves with all the stuff that we're giving them? And you talked about it like we're under preparing them at an early age. So what are you doing now?
00:05:28
Ken Freire
What are you training people and how do you prepare either kids the ages 8 14? How are you preparing them?
00:05:35
Kathy Van Benthuysen
So one of the things that I hear a lot is don't want my child to be left out. Everyone is getting a phone.
00:05:45
Kathy Van Benthuysen
This is, it's just, it's a rite of passage. You would turn 12, you turn 10 actually, because the actual, the average age of getting a cell phone now, a smartphone is 10.3 years old. And so parents look around and say, well, everyone else is doing it.
00:06:02
Kathy Van Benthuysen
It must be fine. And we're telling people it's not fine. And here would be, you need to prepare your child. And I get it that parents are like, well, how do we do that? And that's why we developed the Joel Prep Academy. So we kind of focus on four areas on responsibility.
00:06:21
Kathy Van Benthuysen
So for example, do you make your own breakfast and lunch? This is the kid making their own breakfast and lunch, not the parent doing it for them. Do they make their own breakfast and lunch? Do they take care of their things? Because if they can't do those things, then they're not ready for a phone. The second one that we focus on is emotional maturity.
00:06:39
Kathy Van Benthuysen
How do they handle when they're told no? Do they have a meltdown? How do they handle being left out? Do they shut down? Because again, if they can't handle those things, a phone is just going to exacerbate that. Then the next thing we focus on is digital awareness. Do they know about dopamine and how tech companies are using their algorithms to create that that constant hit of, oh, I need to be looking. I need to kill how many hearts, how many likes do I have? Do they understand about attention engineers? Because if they can't explain what's happening, they can't fight against it. And the fourth part that we focus on is character.
00:07:22
Kathy Van Benthuysen
You know, character, are you a person of integrity? Do you do what you're supposed to be doing when no one's looking? And so the program helps with all four of those because it's really,
00:07:35
Kathy Van Benthuysen
It's an overall picture of what we need to be able to use phones well. And I laugh. So there's a we just it's a it's a readiness check. Are you ready for a phone? And that's what we just call the phone readiness check. And there's one about social media and the parent takes it and they evaluate their child.
00:07:58
Kathy Van Benthuysen
And then the child and it's again, it's written in for a kid language there. The child takes it and they assess their own in emotional maturity, digital awareness, responsibility and character. And then they get a score.
00:08:13
Kathy Van Benthuysen
No one can pass it. I mean, don't think most adults can pass it if they were being honest. And then the parent and child can compare scores. And then we don't say, oh, well, look, you failed it. Then we say, now we have a path forward because Unless we teach kids how to use technology as a tool and not just merely entertainment, they're going to go down a path that is not going to allow them to thrive in life later on.
00:08:44
Ken Freire
Yeah, I like how you said earlier, you know, most parents or most adults, if they had those four criteria, they probably would fail those four criteria too. I'm like, oh yeah, we'd have a lot less people on having smartphones. Yeah.
00:08:59
Ken Freire
As you think about this whole process, you've come up with a beautiful framework. Walk us through kind of like the origin. Like, why did you decide, hey, I'm going to jump into this space? You were already teaching. You could have just doubled down on teaching. You could have said, hey, there's other people doing this already. Why did you decide, hey, let me jump into Digital Prep Academy?
00:09:19
Kathy Van Benthuysen
So, I'll go back and I'll tell, tell a story. So every day of, of my 30 year career, and I taught fourth grade, my entire career. I would greet kids at the door and I would say, good morning, Ken, how are you doing today? And I'd expect two things, eye contact and a response.
00:09:37
Kathy Van Benthuysen
And my first year teaching, every single student on the first day of school was able to do those two things. My last year teaching, one student, one student on the first day of school looked me in the eye and responded.
00:09:51
Kathy Van Benthuysen
And it was December and I was still telling kids, you need to look me in the eye, you need to respond. And is a direct result of technology.
00:09:56
Ken Freire
you
00:10:00
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Kids have gotten so used to having their heads down in devices. And we normalize it. We say, oh, that's just how kids are. And I say, no, it's not. I taught fourth graders, nine and 10 year olds for 30 years.
00:10:15
Kathy Van Benthuysen
That's a long span of time to see the same age group. What changed in those 30 years was the introduction of technology. And That last year when that one student looked me in the and responded, I remember I went home and I said to my husband, I can't sit around anymore. I can't sit around and just hope that this will get better. Now, I had met my business partner, so that last year, my last year teaching, I had met my business partner three years prior and we were working on Converlation, which is a curriculum that's in schools.
00:10:55
Kathy Van Benthuysen
And I thought, you know what, I really need to retire and get out there and help more kids. Because know that, you know, every year, 30 years, you know, 25 kids, you know, maybe it's 600, 700 with coaching, it's more, but it's still a finite number of kids. And I thought, my gosh, retire and go with Converlation, can actually impact even more lives. And so that's what I did is when I thought, you know what, these parents have no idea.
00:11:30
Kathy Van Benthuysen
We parents, we did not grow up with all this technology. So parents don't know what to do. So that's what we said. Okay. Let's have something in schools because schools are seeing the repercussions of this. They're seeing the side effects and the unintended consequences of kids' tech use, like the social media, the gaming, the videos outside of school, that it's coming into school. So we were like, okay, let's develop something that schools, because they're seeing the problem, that they can implement to help kids not become these digital zombies.
00:12:09
Kathy Van Benthuysen
And when have schools that are doing it and, know, going on four years now of it. And it's neat because have a school where principal is facilitating the program. We have a resource officer in one school, another school, you know, the teachers are doing it.
00:12:26
Kathy Van Benthuysen
But it's having those conversations with kids because what kids normally hear with technology is, okay, well, don't be on your phone while the parent is, you know, scrolling through their own phone. And so the kids are like, okay, well, why, why can't I? And because parents don't exactly know, like can't answer those questions. We said, okay, let's,
00:12:48
Kathy Van Benthuysen
now develop something that we can help parents. I'm not asking parents to go through it because I get it. You know, we already have enough on our plates. And this is something that a kid can go through and learn about what's happening with technology. Because again, this is all relatively new. And I really didn't see, I see, I've seen people talk, you know, let's get legislation out there.
00:13:15
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Let's force tech companies to change. Ken, I'm going to tell you, I don't see that happening.
00:13:21
Ken Freire
Yeah, that's going to be a long time.
00:13:22
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Companies,
00:13:24
Ken Freire
If it does, it's going a real long time.
00:13:26
Kathy Van Benthuysen
but how much money do they make? Do we really think they're going to say, you know what? We don't want to harm kids. Let's make it less a dick. They're not going to.
00:13:34
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:13:35
Kathy Van Benthuysen
That be like a whole nother podcast or a thought on that.
00:13:37
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:13:38
Kathy Van Benthuysen
But that's not going happen. We know that the government, to get legislation in place, we already know how long that takes. And so we've said, OK, then who are the ones that can make the change? Who are with the kids the most?
00:13:52
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Well, parents. or schools. So that's why we came up with these two different things where we can have people see that you don't have to just settle for it. As a parent, you don't have to say, well, everyone's doing it. Cell phones are going to be parts of their lives. We'll just hand it over. it doesn't have to be that way. There is something that you can do to make sure that your kid is prepared to have a phone in their hand and prepared
00:14:22
Kathy Van Benthuysen
to be on social media.
00:14:24
Ken Freire
Yeah. And that's what I appreciate, Cathy, so much about what you're doing is like you're showing people there can be another way. Let's not assume just because everybody's doing it, right? We should do it. I remember, you know, the old adage back in our day was like, well, if everybody's jumping off a bridge, would you do it or jumping off a cliff? It's like, no, I'm smarter than that. But we don't do that when it comes to like parental controls or like thinking about how to use technology. I want us to kind of pivot the conversation a little bit, which I appreciate greatly of how you've developed your business or like what you're doing. Walk us through a little bit of like how you actually grow in your business, because some people might be like, this might seem pretty hard to do.
00:15:05
Ken Freire
But from a business standpoint, what's been the biggest strategy you've used to help grow your business?
00:15:11
Kathy Van Benthuysen
So you know what, I think that it's been just so when people, when we tell people what we do, they're like, oh, you know, that's really cool. I've, you know, I've never heard of that. And really, it's not easy.
00:15:28
Kathy Van Benthuysen
It is being out there and constantly sending the emails, making the phone calls, talking to people about what it is that we have, because it, I mean, we're on social media, which is funny because we talk about not being on social media, but that's where people are.
00:15:47
Kathy Van Benthuysen
So it's, it is, it's just those conversations, Ken.
00:15:47
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:15:51
Kathy Van Benthuysen
I think that's, that's the biggest way. Cause when, when I think about schools you know, it's a long process, but if we stay with it, if we're constantly talking about it. I had done a, I remember this, I had done a presentation about having conversation in schools.
00:16:13
Kathy Van Benthuysen
And two years later, someone contacted us and said, I remember that you had talked about this, about bringing it into school. So I kept your brochure and we're struggling a little bit. So you know, we would like to talk to you further. And that was so funny because I was like, wait, that was too, like, I, and I remember meeting the person. I actually remember the conversation where, where I met her, but it is, it really is. It's about relationships. It's about constantly you know, not hi, I'm Kathy and just start talking about it. But when, when you're engaging with, with people, it's having those conversations. Yeah.
00:16:55
Ken Freire
Yeah, you know, what's fascinating is there's a business statistic and it depends on who you read it from and how much they're exaggerating. But they'll say like 10 20% of buyers are ready to buy at any given moment.
00:17:03
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Yeah.
00:17:08
Ken Freire
So there's a possibility about 80 people that they're just not ready at that given moment. So it's fascinating that you're like two years later, they're ready.
00:17:16
Ken Freire
So when they felt that they needed the help.
00:17:19
Ken Freire
So it sounds like a lot of what you're doing is networking, outreaching. Are you primarily reaching outreaching to schools? Or you just trying to do parents on social media like Facebook, Instagram? Give us a little bit more details of how you kind of flesh that out.
00:17:33
Kathy Van Benthuysen
So it's funny that you're saying that because we, so in, I live in New Jersey. So in New Jersey, they actually just signed, the governor just signed bell to bell cell phone ban in schools starting September, 2026.
00:17:51
Kathy Van Benthuysen
And New Jersey had done a report prior to the ban being signed into law. And they said that this is great. Like you want to do this. However, you need to give the kids the why.
00:18:03
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Because if you don't, you're going to be constantly fighting up against it. And were like, okay, so do we want to focus only on conversation in schools?
00:18:18
Kathy Van Benthuysen
And we just got a document this morning from someone who is helping us for Digital Prep Academy. So we were like, okay, so which one do we focus on? Do we focus on Converlation for Schools? I mean, when I tell you, talked to my business partner and I said, okay, we can't talk about this right now. I have to go and talk with Ken.
00:18:40
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Or do we focus on Digital Prep Academy? So I'm not even sure because with schools, the outreach is to the schools, to the PTAs, PTO, PTGs, whatever parent group is running it,
00:18:55
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:18:58
Kathy Van Benthuysen
or the education associations in the state. That's what we would focus on. If we were going to parents, the outreach is a little different because we would be doing on social media. We would like actually we had said one of the things we want to do is go to offices that have waiting rooms. So, you know, pediatricians, ophthalmologists, it can be anyone, anyone that has people where they're sitting and waiting and then put brochures out that say,
00:19:28
Kathy Van Benthuysen
hey, you don't want your kid to be able to use a phone well or social media well. You want to prepare them first. And here's something about go to our website to find out about Digital Prep Academy. So the way that we would market it would be different than if we were going to schools. So I'm not even sure what the answer is because it's literally this morning.
00:19:48
Kathy Van Benthuysen
That we were like, okay, so which one are we going? And I was like, so I said to him, his name is John. I go, John, so what am I supposed to tell Ken? Am I talking about confirmation? Am I talking about Digital Prep Academy?
00:19:59
Kathy Van Benthuysen
He's like, just kind of see what Ken says.
00:20:01
Ken Freire
Good luck. Yeah.
00:20:04
Kathy Van Benthuysen
So it is like how obviously how we would market it would be different.
00:20:09
Ken Freire
Well, and you know, it's fascinating because with businesses, it's always one of those interesting things where you have to pivot depending on the situations or circumstances, right? I do wonder, now we're just having a conversation and brainstorming here, but I do wonder, as I hear about Converlation and the new ban in New Jersey,
00:20:19
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:20:28
Ken Freire
It seems like that band, while in forward-facing, it looks good. Like, oh, man, the kids are going to be more focused. It's still just a Band-Aid. They actually have not been prepped or trained on how to use it correctly. So they're going to go back home, or as soon as they leave school, they're going turn their phone on, and they're still underprepared.
00:20:47
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And I, yeah, go ahead.
00:20:49
Ken Freire
for What were you going to say?
00:20:52
Ken Freire
I was just going to say, I still see that. So even if you go through Converlation or Digital Prepper Academy, the messaging is still the same. It's just I can see the school as being more like, oh, we don't have to worry about it anymore because we've solved it, quote unquote, in the schools, but they haven't actually solved the bigger problem.
00:21:09
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Yeah.
00:21:12
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Yeah.
00:21:13
Ken Freire
That's what I'm seeing right now from this 20-minute conversation.
00:21:13
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Yeah.
00:21:17
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Yeah, because that's actually what we were, was like you're a fly on the wall in there before we started.
00:21:24
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Because we were saying is that, but see, the thing with schools, if you didn't see the document, but the document was saying, it's not enough just to ban it.
00:21:31
Ken Freire
Yeah. Yeah.
00:21:32
Kathy Van Benthuysen
You have to give the kids the why. And that's what we've said forever with Converlation is, When it's in schools, it gives the kids the why. Why are adults saying, oh, you shouldn't be on your phone all the time?
00:21:58
Kathy Van Benthuysen
But you're right in that that's great for, let's just pretend that it's six hours that kids, or even seven hours, that kids don't have phones, but then they have the other 18.
00:22:09
Kathy Van Benthuysen
So how is that? That's plenty of time for a child to become addicted to their devices. So yeah, I am not sure because I don't know if the schools can just say, oh, it's already taken care of because it's not.
00:22:28
Kathy Van Benthuysen
It's not taken care of because kids still are going to be able to have their phones. And then we say, okay, well, is it then the parent's job, but parents don't really know how to handle it.
00:22:39
Kathy Van Benthuysen
So I, yeah, I'm not exactly sure the.
00:22:43
Ken Freire
Yeah. Have you guys from your from a business model, have you guys done any like digital ads or paid ads like Facebook or Google ads or anything like that for this?
00:22:54
Ken Freire
Because
00:22:55
Kathy Van Benthuysen
No, no, we haven't.
00:22:58
Ken Freire
this is just my natural instinct. I'd have to like think about it and process it more.
00:23:02
Kathy Van Benthuysen
yeah.
00:23:02
Ken Freire
But I wonder if going more to the parents is you're going to have a better shot. because my natural instinct is you said it earlier, you're like, hey, parents are too overwhelmed and they don't know what to do.
00:23:17
Ken Freire
But you're coming in and saying, hey, we actually know what to do and we know how to prep them. They're probably more concerned with the preparation side of things than the schools would be because the schools are like, hey, we're trying to figure out everything else.
00:23:30
Ken Freire
We're trying to figure out their schooling, their academics.
00:23:32
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Yeah.
00:23:33
Ken Freire
We're trying make sure they have a certain GPA because they got to get into good high schools and good colleges, blah, blah, blah.
00:23:37
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Yeah.
00:23:38
Ken Freire
I worked in the university for years, so I kind of know the trajectory of the academic world.
00:23:41
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Okay. Yeah.
00:23:45
Ken Freire
But you're looking at the holisticness of a person and saying they might have all the best grades, but they're being destroyed from an emotional or soul level.
00:23:53
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Yeah.
00:23:55
Ken Freire
It won't matter.
00:23:56
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Yeah.
00:23:57
Kathy Van Benthuysen
No, absolutely.
00:23:59
Ken Freire
So that's my initial thought is like, oh, would you want to do some sort of ads or more social media and just target parents? But I have to think about that a little bit more.
00:24:08
Ken Freire
We'll text each other back and forth.
00:24:09
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Yeah, I was going to say, definitely, we definitely need prayer in this because I don't know if we can, don't know if it would be wise to try to do both because, you know, we only have so many resources.
00:24:24
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:24:24
Kathy Van Benthuysen
So what do we What do we want to focus on? We do have conversation in schools. We're probably in a half dozen. Digital prep academy is new. We haven't officially launched it.
00:24:38
Kathy Van Benthuysen
So don't know.
00:24:41
Ken Freire
Yeah. Well, Kathy, I'd be more than happy to keep that conversation offline, you know, because our podcast guests might be like, oh, we're going too deep into like, or someone might love it.
00:24:46
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Yeah.
00:24:48
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
00:24:49
Ken Freire
They'll like, no, let's, let's have a brainstorming session, a coaching session. We'll make that another episode. Like just us coaching you, me coaching you through guys through this. But it sounds like right now your biggest challenge then is trying to figure out, do you pivot and focus on Conrelation or Digital Prop Academy?
00:25:06
Ken Freire
Is that correct? Yeah.
00:25:07
Kathy Van Benthuysen
yes, yes, it is. It's I because I was exactly what I was going to was it's where do we focus?
00:25:15
Ken Freire
Yeah. Do you, if you picked one or the other, maybe here's a good question for like a coaching question that I always ask people is like, if you picked one or the other, which one would you enjoy doing more and putting more of your energy towards?
00:25:30
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Huh, that's a really good question. I think if I went with my gut, my heart, it would probably be with schools.
00:25:40
Ken Freire
OK, why is that?
00:25:41
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Because, well, obviously, because I taught, because I was in education, and I know that
00:25:50
Kathy Van Benthuysen
it's one of those things where you have all these kids together, they're They're all, so when you do something in isolation, so, and again, I guess I should be careful if we decide to go towards Digital Prep Academy.
00:26:02
Ken Freire
Yeah, sure.
00:26:04
Kathy Van Benthuysen
When you're doing something alone, you have to have that conviction that yes, this is what we wanna do, this is gonna be really good. But when you're with a group of people and there's 20 of you all going through the same thing and hearing the same information, you can be like, oh, you know what?
00:26:20
Kathy Van Benthuysen
I know that there's 19 other of my friends that are hearing the same thing and now I feel almost more emboldened that I can walk this path.
00:26:31
Kathy Van Benthuysen
oh, that's just, that's so funny. Cause I never thought about which one would have me more excited. I, I do think it would be, it would be schools.
00:26:41
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Huh?
00:26:41
Ken Freire
Okay.
00:26:42
Kathy Van Benthuysen
That's interesting.
00:26:43
Ken Freire
All right. So we got one step closer. Let me ask one more question. Knowing that there's this legislation about to be passed, schools may pivot a little bit. What would you do to double down on Converlation?
00:27:01
Kathy Van Benthuysen
So I would say, okay, yes, it's great that kids aren't going to have access for six hours, seven hours a day, and it's going to help them to be more focused, which absolutely, you're in education, you know that that's what we want for the kids, is that they're able to focus and be attend to the task.
00:27:21
Kathy Van Benthuysen
But that still doesn't help them. in the big picture because like we said, when they go home, they're going to have access to it and then I don't know, is it going to make it worse because they're like, oh, I haven't had it for six, seven hours. Now I have to spend all this time on it and get extra videos in and extra gaming in. And I know that, and maybe this is just me, but when I taught, would say the kids, like, doesn't matter what I teach you academically, it's not going to matter in five years, in 10 years. if you don't feel safe and cared for and loved now in the moment. I care more about who you are in 10 years and the kind of person you are than whether you know that 8 times 7 is 56 like that.
00:28:09
Kathy Van Benthuysen
And maybe teachers say, no, like all we're responsible for is the academics. But I would say no. You actually, as a teacher, we spend more time with the kids than they do with their own family.
00:28:24
Kathy Van Benthuysen
We really do. And my gosh, it's not just about the reading, writing, and arithmetic. It's you're helping to develop that whole person.
00:28:37
Kathy Van Benthuysen
And that's one of the things that I love is in Converlation for Schools is it talks about the technology part of it, but it also talks about the responsibility and it talks about character.
00:28:50
Kathy Van Benthuysen
And schools have gone through it. They said, we love that you have character stuff in here because that's so important. I'm not saying that parents don't teach character at home, but again, when you have a whole group of people all together and everyone's learning the same thing and you're having conversations about it, it can be really, really impactful.
00:29:13
Ken Freire
Yeah, you know, it's funny because my kids, I'll give a great example of why this community aspect is so important. My kids the other day, they came to me and they're like, dad, my two older ones, they're in a tutorial program, they're together.
00:29:27
Ken Freire
in the same grade. And they're like, dad, the other kids started talking about kissing and hugging and like all these little things like who they have crushes on. Mind you, they're like eight and seven.
00:29:39
Ken Freire
I'm like, we're gonna have to put a kibosh on this real fast. And we're really involved parents. So we're like, so was like, oh, tell me more. Like who's starting these conversations? What's going on? What's happening? How are you guys responding?
00:29:52
Ken Freire
And I thought to myself, wow, because all of them are in a little community, whoever's the leader is naturally pulling them to these conversations.
00:30:01
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:30:02
Ken Freire
And if the teacher doesn't know about it, right, it's going be really hard for the teacher to be able navigate that conversation. Right. But just like you saying, the teacher, whoever is involved, right, knows where they're taking them.
00:30:14
Ken Freire
And it's, for example, you were saying character, right? Then man, all of a sudden you're training all of them like, no, no, this is the character we want. I'll give you one more great example. The teacher, she's been doing life skills for my kids.
00:30:26
Ken Freire
So they're like, how do you sit at a table? How do you eat dinner? How do you appropriately use a napkin and fork and all this stuff?
00:30:30
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Yeah.
00:30:33
Ken Freire
And they're like, whoa, like, dad, you never taught us this. I'm like, are you talking about? We do it every day. You just forget. But because they were with a group, it all of a sudden stuck more.
00:30:44
Kathy Van Benthuysen
And it's not you saying it. Because I've, come on, my kids are 22 and 18 now. And there are things that I would say. And they'd be like, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
00:30:56
Kathy Van Benthuysen
And then they would come home be like, mom, guess what Mrs. So-and-so said? And I'm thinking... I've been saying that. What do you mean? You didn't hear me all this time, but they say it one time and it's great. It's perfect. Oh my gosh, mom. It was so great that she said that. And I'm like, because they hear it differently when it's not mom or dad. They just hear it differently when it comes from teacher, a coach, someone else that we were entrusting them to.
00:31:25
Ken Freire
Yeah. Well, Kathy, I think you and I can talk a lot about this. I'm passionate because I have young kids and I want my kids to be the best. And I think a lot of parents want that too. But I want us to go through our fast five questions quickly here as we wrap up and then find ways for people to still connect with you.
00:31:36
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Okay. Okay. so
00:31:41
Ken Freire
So question number one, and this is again, for those who are listening, I'm doing a trend report for entrepreneurs to figure out what's working and what's not working.
00:31:42
Kathy Van Benthuysen
what
00:31:49
Ken Freire
So question number one is this, what's something in your business you're experimenting with right now?
00:31:55
Kathy Van Benthuysen
were where we're hoping to do is get affiliates to come on and help get the message out. And that's not, to me, that's a little, not scary, but having, asking other people to come on and saying like, okay, if you, you know,
00:32:15
Kathy Van Benthuysen
people get the program because of you, you know, going to pay so much. That part doesn't scare me. It's just having, finding people who want to be affiliates. So that's something that we've never done before. And that's something that we're going to be trying.
00:32:29
Ken Freire
Great, and to be clear for the affiliates, are you doing just local are you also open to national?
00:32:35
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Oh, we're open to national.
00:32:37
Ken Freire
Okay, cool.
00:32:37
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Yeah.
00:32:38
Ken Freire
Question number two, which part of your business feels the most influx or confusing these days, which we already kind of talked about, but you could reiterate it.
00:32:48
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Yeah, I going to say it's what it's it's what do we focus on? What part do we focus on? Because I feel like we go down this path and then all a sudden something else comes along and we say, oh, there's something shiny over here. And then what is that the direction that we need to go?
00:33:06
Kathy Van Benthuysen
And so that that's it's what are we focusing on? That's the hard part.
00:33:10
Ken Freire
Perfect. Question number three, what's a goal you're building toward this year that you're really excited about?
00:33:17
Kathy Van Benthuysen
It's that it's growth. It's actually seeing growth, whether it's on the school side or on, you know, the family side, just having people hear about this and then actually doing something, not just saying, oh, it's a great idea, but actually getting the program and doing it, you know, having their child do it or schools doing it so that we're making a difference because it's, it's not enough just to talk about it.
00:33:47
Ken Freire
Okay. As you think about your industry, where do you see your industry shifting and how are you preparing for it?
00:33:56
Kathy Van Benthuysen
So would say
00:34:00
Kathy Van Benthuysen
I see that, we'll just say like in the coaching industry, that with AI, think there is so much out there that can just be fake and not real. And I think people really, really want real connections and real people.
00:34:22
Kathy Van Benthuysen
And that's something that we wanna continue to lean into is, you know, Having it, it's us, like the programs that we do, the things that we talk about, we're the real people talking about it.
00:34:35
Kathy Van Benthuysen
This isn't, you know, AI Cathy or it's real people, I think.
00:34:40
Kathy Van Benthuysen
And I think in this industry, we don't want to go towards AI or where everything is in technology where we miss that connection with people.
00:34:53
Ken Freire
Absolutely. I could talk a lot about that, but I will keep my mouth shut. All right. Last question. What's the legacy that you want to leave behind?
00:35:04
Kathy Van Benthuysen
I want, you know, I talk about, I remember the first time that I met my business partner and actually met him through my husband. And he said, just want to make a difference in kids' lives. And I was five years old when I knew I wanted to be a teacher.
00:35:22
Kathy Van Benthuysen
I taught for 30 years and now I'm in this space and that has always been my heart. I want to make a difference in kids' lives, that they get to grow up whole and thriving and they have amazing relationships. That's what I, and I want provide something for kids and people to be able to have those amazing relationships, because when it comes down to it, that's what life is all about.
00:35:55
Kathy Van Benthuysen
No one's gonna wish, oh, I wish I spent more time on social media, I wish I spent more time on my phone. They're going to wish that they spent more time with people, and that's what I want my legacy to be, is that I gave people something that enabled them to have amazing relationships.
00:36:14
Ken Freire
You know, Kathy, before we even got on this call recorded, were talking about our kids and our relationships with our kids and just the deep connection that you want. And you know how you were just talking about relationships. Even you did an exercise with me right before we got on the call, right? And you were just like, hey, let's do this thing real quick.
00:36:32
Ken Freire
And I saw how deeply you wanted to go into a soul level our relationship versus just like, oh, okay, let's just hit record.
00:36:37
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Yeah.
00:36:40
Ken Freire
Let's move on. Like there's people I talk to all the time that is just like, okay, next. But you're like, no, no, I really want to make an impact on people. And I thought, wow, Kathy genuinely cares for people. And it shows throughout everything that you're doing with your business. So Kathy, if people resonate with that, just like I did, what's the best way for them to reach out to you and connect with you?
00:37:02
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Well, the, I, I, on socials, I'll tell you second, but the best way is just Kathy, at converlation.com C O N V R L A T I O N. that's my email. That's the easiest way. on social media, I'm on LinkedIn.
00:37:19
Kathy Van Benthuysen
I am on Instagram and Facebook, digital prep Academy on Instagram and, uh, Facebook and then on LinkedIn, I'm just, you know, Kathy Vamethysen.
00:37:32
Kathy Van Benthuysen
So that would probably be the easiest way or just email me.
00:37:33
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:37:36
Ken Freire
Perfect. And I'll make sure all that's in the show notes for all of you so you can and the links is going to be there as to easily follow you.
00:37:38
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Okay.
00:37:42
Ken Freire
Kathy, thank you so much. For one, the business that you decided to do in coaching is like you try to make an impact and you're looking upstream and you're like, how do help grow the next generation?
00:37:54
Ken Freire
where so many people forget about and by time it's too late.
00:37:54
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Yeah.
00:37:57
Ken Freire
So thank you for that. And thank you so much for this conversation. It's been a blessing to me and hopefully it's been a blessing to those listening to it. Any final words of encouragement for those who are listening to this conversation?
00:38:09
Kathy Van Benthuysen
you know what we have, I think my encouragement will be is, is we get, we get one go around with our kids and we can't worry about what everyone else is doing.
00:38:22
Kathy Van Benthuysen
We have to do what's best for our kids. And if you feel in your heart that, you know, something is, is good or right for your family, don't worry if no one else is doing it. If, if you know that this is something that is best,
00:38:38
Kathy Van Benthuysen
then lean into that.
00:38:40
Ken Freire
That's a good word. And we'll end there. Kathy, thank you so much for being on the podcast. And for those listening, again, reach out to Kathy on LinkedIn or social media or check her out. Check out her email. All of it's going to be on the show notes. Thank you so much, Kathy. Hope you guys have a great day and God bless.
00:38:55
Kathy Van Benthuysen
Thank you.