Latest / The Growth Class with Phil Masiello / Health Tech Innovation: Creating Science-Backed Shielding Solutions for Modern Devices with Kylen Ribeiro

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Health Tech Innovation: Creating Science-Backed Shielding Solutions for Modern Devices with Kylen Ribeiro · The Growth Class with Phil Masiello

• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Hey everybody, and welcome back to Crunching Your Growth.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Phil Maschiello, your host, and as you know, we focused on the reality of building brands and the grid it takes to actually scale.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: And today's guest is the personification of that, that business mechanic mindset.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: She started as a Division I collegiate swimmer.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: So she knows a thing or two about discipline, about competition, about staying focused.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: And she went on to earn an MBA from Florida State before cutting her teeth as an executive management at one of the world's largest retailers.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: But where she really changed the game was a CEO of Defender Shield.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: She didn't just run a company, she helped build an entirely new category in health tech from the ground up, working alongside the world's leading scientists to bring EMF awareness to the mainstream.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now she's taking that mission a step further.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: She's the visionary and CEO of Lightbody, a brand focused on inside-out resilience using cutting-edge research to create supplements designed for our modern tech-saturated lives.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: She's also a yoga instructor, a digital wellness advocate, and a powerhouse entrepreneur who balances all these things while raising two boys and staying active in the training world.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: So welcome, CEO of Defender Shield and Lightbody, Kylan Ribero.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much, Phil.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: That was the best intro I've ever had.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: I try.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: I try.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: I try and do my best.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I need to update my bio because I have one more on the way, actually.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now do you really?
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Congratulations.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's fantastic.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: I had five, so I raised five.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I uh you are a saint.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's great.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: So why don't you take us back, tell us the whole story.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I kind of brushed on it, but I I gave it really broad strokes.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think you have an extremely interesting background for an entrepreneur.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And uh it would be great to hear, you know, how you went from all these steps and sort of what they've taught you along the way.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: So, like you mentioned, I was an athlete my whole life.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: I was a swimmer, and I ended up on a scholarship to Florida State.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I was raised in North Carolina, but then I migrated to Florida to go to school, and I've been here ever since.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: And that was obviously from a young, I mean, four years old is when I started swimming.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I never wanted to stop.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I never took a break, and I never wanted to take a break, and I never wanted to quit, and I just wanted to go as far as I could with it.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: So um, luckily that, you know, allowed me to go to college, you know, on a scholarship and meet, you know, and that while going to school, obviously.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then I finished swimming, finished my undergrad, and then I decided to get my my MBA because I always my dad was an entrepreneur, and I always just thought I would be in business.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't really know exactly what, but I just always knew I would get a business degree.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: So I did that.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, like you mentioned, I got a very, very good opportunity with one of the world's largest international grocery retailers.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: And it was, I was directly placed in an executive training role.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: So I had to do everything in that role from running retail stores to then after that year-long training process of managing multiple stores, up to seven stores at the same time, at a very young age, like 22.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of most people working for me were much older than that.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um so that taught me so much about management and just how to work with all kinds of different people and how to gain their respect, really.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: And it's one thing that retailer taught me is, and I always have believed this, is you have to set the example as the manager.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: And the great thing about that program is you had to prove that you could do all of the jobs they can do before managing those jobs.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's a very unique take because not every company has the ability to do that.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: But it's so valuable.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, once you're in it, you actually know how to do every single one of those jobs that you're managing.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: So they, you know, if you made it through, not everyone did, um, you kind of earn that respect.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, just treating them like people and humans.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: And at a young age, not being a parent yet, that's also something I've learned being much more far along in my career, is like you just gain this empathy that you can't have unless you have children or your own family.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that's like true.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you can't like a 22, 23-year-old can't have, doesn't have the same life experience as you know, some of my managers had lots of kids and you know, families they were raising.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: And you can have sympathy, but you can't really empathize until you've been there, especially moms.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I stayed there for a tenure of about six years, and then I got pregnant with my first son, son.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: And because of the demanding schedule and just job that that was, I decided I wanted to take a step back and, you know, focus on being a mom for a little bit.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, it was my first child.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: So I took um a couple of years off to do that.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: And in the meantime, actually, it towards the end of my time at that retailer, I did a yoga teacher training program because I just was very, I was very into yoga ever since I got done swimming.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: I started doing yoga and it just really like became a passion.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I just loved it.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: I never actually intended on teaching yoga because that's just not really my personality.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: But I did this program because I was, I felt a little bit stagnant in life, and that was before I had kids, obviously.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: There's nothing stagnant about life once you have kids.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: But um, so I did this program, and in the program, I met Ryan DeBon.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: He and his father had co-founded Defender Shield a few years prior to that.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'm not a co-founder of Defender Shield, though I am an owner now.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I met Ryan, he explained what the products were, and at that time there were only a few.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: He had just come out with like their first cell phone case or was working on it was like the iPhone 5 back then.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um and essentially he explained how there are electromagnetic frequencies that emit from all of our mobile devices.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: And he had come to learn and done a lot of research, him and his dad, who was a telecom engineer for 30 years, Daniel DeBon, uh, that there are negative health impacts based on all the science and what the science is showing, even though it's not very public knowledge, especially back then.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that was 10 years ago.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so this is an example of one of our products, and it's a cell phone case.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: So it has very highly specialized shielding in the front cover.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: So when you're talking on the phone, you are not getting that direct brain body contact with your device.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: So that is like the concept of all of our products.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: We have dozens and hundreds of products at this point.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: These are AirTube earbuds, another product that completely emits the radiation that would come from like Bluetooth and wireless headphones, which having those in your brain all day, every day.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the truth is there haven't been really scientific studies yet to show us what the effects of that are.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: But a lot of people innately feel like that's probably not safe and not a good idea.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: So we have a solution for that.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: This is our literal best-selling product right here.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I had learned about the products, learned about the company, and I just thought, wow, like that's really like impactful.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's so important.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: And that's that's something I've never heard of.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: And um, yeah, I kind of left it at that.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: I was still working at the previous retailer.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: By the way, I was pregnant, that whole yoga teacher training, which I did not know when I signed up for it.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: But I finished that.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so when I had my son, I, you know, after a few months, I was like, well, I can teach yoga.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like I can do that.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I started doing that here and there.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: And after a while, when I was gonna go back and, you know, work more like full time, I reached out to Ryan and I said, Hey, I remember what you, you know, you're doing.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: How are you guys?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I would love to be a part of it.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I just feel like it's very important and I want to do something meaningful and health related that can help people live healthier lives.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, Hey, why don't you come meet with me and my dad and, you know, bring your resume.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so I brought my resume.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like willing to do anything, you know, I didn't really actually want a very demanding job.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: I really wanted just like something, something simple, you know, that I could just kind of, you know, not high stress or anything, because I was very used to that.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I just knew with, you know, having a young kid, that's just not where I was at that point.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: Well, so I met with Dan and Ryan, and Dan looked at my resume.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: He goes, Oh, you're kind of like overqualified for what, for what we need right now, which is just like customer service.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I know, but I don't, I will, I just want to do that.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like, that's fine for me.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: And um needless to say, very quickly I was managing everything and hiring teams and all of that and filling all the holes.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: But at that time, it was just them two and me, and we had like one other person that was doing customer service.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: But I really helped structure the whole company, build out all of the different departments and hire for all those positions and like just set up the operations that has have evolved a lot over the past um eight years.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: But it's been a lot of fun and it's been a very unique experience.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm very grateful to have had this opportunity because it's very rare that I don't know, someone with my background would fall into this role.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: But um Ryan unfortunately passed away um a few years ago, and that was when I really sort of took over being like a very big partner in the business um with Dan.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, it's it's had a lot of challenges over the past few years.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's had challenges from the beginning, but it's very niche.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's a very somewhat controversial topic that I think more and more people are opening their eyes to.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we've been here for 15 years, you know, solid, providing education and evidence for why you should probably protect yourself and try to minimize your exposure in this day and age.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: And that's only growing every single day with all of the, you know, you go to buy a new appliance and it's trying to be a smart appliance.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I know.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: It drives me crazy.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: Agree.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I don't need that.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: I just want it to wash my clothes.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: I don't need my app to tell it to do that.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but if you think about if you had a home that had every single appliance as a smart appliance, that is a single source of emissions, each one of those.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so it exacerbates in our environments.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: And that's one of the things we have a lot of principles that we talk about, but we've kind of come up with a few like my cornerstones for how to sort of wrap your mind around how to reduce your exposure.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: And one of those is reducing the sources around you.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: So just understanding what those sources are, they're anything from an iPad, a tablet, an iPhone, a phone, uh, Wi-Fi, any smart device, any Alexa or whatever, you know, Google.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: But it's it's even more than that.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we just redid our kitchen, and you can't find an oven today that isn't a smart oven that's Wi-Fi enabled, microwave, my refrigerator.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I sat there saying, you know, I'm looking at the microwave, going, why would I want to attach this to the Wi-Fi?
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what can I do?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I can use my app to open the microwave, but then I still have to walk over, put my thing in it, right?
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Then I can use the app to close it, or I could push the button to close it, right?
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Or, and then when it's done, I can, I mean, it made no sense to me, but then I realized what the real purpose is on all of it.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: The real purpose on the refrigerator, the real purpose on the oven, the real purpose, it's just to gather information for the manufacturer because they want to know who's using it, how you're using it, and all that stuff.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't download the apps and I don't uh enable the Wi-Fi because it just doesn't make any sense to me.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Why why do my why do I need my refrigerator to be Wi-Fi enabled?
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like what am I gonna do?
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: I still have to open the door, I still have to reach in, I still have to craft it.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the oven, I still have to go over, I still have to turn it on, I have to set it, I have to open the door, put the item in.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: So it just doesn't make any sense.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't want anybody gathering all that information.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because I what you know, what good is it?
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: My coffee machine, though, I will tell you, I do use because I set it up the night before, and then you know, I do have my my um, if I'm running late, I can stop it from brewing and and reset the brewing and all that stuff.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the only thing I do.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: But yes, it's very it's interesting, and there are more and more companies that are they are smart home, like they will implement these just smart homes.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: And while some people are very tech forward, you know, and they want all of that connectivity and that technology, and that's fine, you know, you have to make your own choices.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: But as someone with kids, I'm a very huge proponent of we need to kids are the most vulnerable babies, kids, pregnant women, um, to all of these signals because their bodies just aren't fully developed and they have a lot more water content and water con and water um conducts these signals better and in the body.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: Their brains aren't fully developed, their skulls aren't fully developed, their soft tissue.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the uh the rate at which they're growing and their cells are multiplying.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: If there were to be some sort of gene mutation due to this exposure at very high levels for maybe a during pregnancy, you might not know or connect that.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: But later on in life it could cause we don't know.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know, this stuff hasn't been around for that long.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: And it's the technology is advancing at such a rapid pace, and there's really no no one looking out for us uh in the whole scheme of it, like our health.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's of course about making the most money they can.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: So we have to always, of course, I think we know by this point, take our own health into our own hands.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and the more knowledge that we have, the better.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: So me and um my COO, we actually wrote a book, it's a kids' book, um, to try to teach kids about the effects that technology could have in a way that they could understand.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's called Henry's Tech Free Trip.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of cute.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um But just in general, I'm very I try to when I go in public and talk on podcasts, I really like that's something I'm super passionate about because I am a mom of young kids and I understand how hard it is to raise them in this world where screens are everywhere, you know, the emissions are everywhere.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so how can we sort of try to protect our kids as much as we can and teach them safe tech habits also?
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: And that is a very big challenge in today's world, for sure.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Especially when when they start to get of, you know, seven, eight, nine, and they start playing video games, and then it becomes a whole uh a whole event.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, I we were fortunate in the fact that we we always had the kids involved in sports and for some reason we we don't have really we have a TV in the house, but nobody really watches TV.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: I mean the only time it's on is for sports games, baseball or football and um you know, that type of stuff.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so we don't have TVs in rooms, in like bedrooms and things like that.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: But it is difficult because I can remember when my son was starting to play video games and it became annoying because that's uh sort of all he wanted to do.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: He'd come home from school, he'd play video games for a little while, we'd go to a baseball game or whatever it was, and then come home and he'd want to play for a little while.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and and I was relieved when he took up sailing because for some reason that had an effect on him that he didn't care about video games anymore.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: He just he just wanted a sail.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: And we're not sailors, uh he picked it up at camp.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: So um and that was sort of his that became his thing, and he just wanted to be on the water.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: That was like that was what he wanted.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that kept him away, I think, from the video game world.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and the the rest of my kids are g girls and they never played video games.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: They they the their biggest thing was listening to music and uh you know do an Instagram.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: So you know, but still you're on a screen, but um I think it was a lot they spent a lot less time because they were focused on their academics.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: So yes, of course.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a huge uh proponent of sports, and I have a nine-year-old and a five-year-old, and they're both my husband actually also was a swimmer.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: I met him at Florida State, and we he then got into Brazilian jujitsu.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: He is Brazilian, and he now has his own gym.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: That became his passion and his life's work.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the sport my kids are doing as their number one sport.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: And sadly, they don't want to swim.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe this third child, she will maybe want to swim.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, although I know it's so hard.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: Swimming is extremely difficult for parents.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: I am grateful my parents, oh, you know, supported that sport because it's really grueling for parents.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: The early, early mornings and the long weekends in a pool.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's just I I I didn't find it grueling for the parents.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: I found it grueling for me.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: I try I started swimming at a late age because I wanted to do triathlons.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: And it was the hardest, I've it was the hardest thing I ever did in my life.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Try to take up swimming.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because I swim like an otter.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: And it's great for people who can stay on top of the water and they go and it's like almost effortless, and then you just go and, you know, you know, you're just working on your technique to go faster.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: But for me, it was just it it was a struggle.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: Swimming a mile or two miles was just like a struggle, you know.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I have a lot of respect for people that take it up late in life because I know how hard it is.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's not something that comes natural unless you've started at a young age.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: But keeping your obviously I think that it's twofold.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, keeping your kids active and busy, like physically active, especially boys.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: I have two boys, and like the key to like life is like making sure they get all their energy out.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: So sports is a great way, obviously.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but then just not having the default thing be like, oh, like you were saying before your son took up sailing, like his default thing in between other things was just like video games.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: And some kids, it's an iPad.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like, it's like get home from school, go on the iPad.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: Go to your thing, get on the iPad.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like kind of taking that away as like the go-to thing and making it be like a rare, like I'm about balance.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we're our company, we're realistic.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: We're not like do away with technology, it's killing it.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: Like, we're not extreme because we know people aren't going to relate to that and they're not gonna buy into that.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: And that's not possible in this world.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: You just have to have balance.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: And it's hard even as adults and parents, especially if we work online or whatever, you know, spending so much time in front of the screen during the day and then using our phone all night.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's something we have to also be the example of for our kids.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: If we say no, we're not doing screens right now, but yet the parents on their phone, you know, it's like the example that we set.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: So we have to be very mindful of that.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: And and the the hard part is that it's everywhere, right?
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: You buy a car today, and it's, you know, you've got the screen in the car, in addition to your your um uh what do you call it, your speedometer and all that.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: You st you have another screen just for, you know, your music and for your phone and everything.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: And the kids see that.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Yeah.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: But we made a conscious decision.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like we're not TV watchers, right?
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: So we don't have like screens in every room.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: And the kids have computers.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they're they're older now, but they had computers for school.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um and they had they had uh um they did have phones just because we always wanted to be able to get in touch with them.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: But they were pretty good.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: I I think if you you know, it's all about redirection.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like you said, if you keep them busy, you know, with sports and with activities and plays and things and then they spend they they don't rely on technology as much.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: What I find is the kids who rely on a lot of technology are the ones whose parents sort of say, you know, go watch T you know, I can't I'm busy right now, go watch TV.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a bad sort of a bad thing to do.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then we always had dogs and we it's always you have to we always had dogs that you have to be active with.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: And my daughter one of my daughters was an equestrian and she was always at the horse farm and you know, so when you get them involved in things that they're they become passionate about, I think you know, technology becomes less and less important.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Instagram though, Instagram is a killer for young uh women, I think.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: But yes, that's I I don't speak so much on the content that's being consumed, but obviously that's a whole nother topic that um right.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: Is like that's the fli that's it's not like it's just as can perhaps more concerning um than just the physical effects of the technology.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: Oh no, the stuff that they're consuming, it's all you know, rainbows and and animals and flowers and stuff.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: I mean the the girls.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: Well you hope.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: No, we see it.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: We we've I've when we f gave our kids uh phones, we had technology on it.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: We could see exactly what they were doing, when they were doing it.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't until they were older to monitor monitored exactly what was happening.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: And we gave them guidelines and told them, you know, if anybody you don't know gets in contact, you know, all that stuff.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: But I know, you know, the girls are uh my daughters they they're in college and they're not doing normal college stuff.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: They just they don't drink, they don't like it.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: My my my younger daughter, who turned 21, said, said uh she went line dancing in a bar.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: She goes to UCLA, she went line dancing at a bar.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I said, Well, how was that?
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: She goes, it was good.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: She goes, but I just my friend was w got a drink, and I thought to myself, I am not paying ten dollars for a drink.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: That is ridiculous.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I was just like, good for you.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's great.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I am aware that the younger generation isn't drinking as much, which is great for them.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think it's uh cannot say my college experience was the same.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even want to talk about my college experience.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: But I went to college in Miami.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: Swimmers kind of have a reputation.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Swimmers do?
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, man.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how you can uh I definitely don't think that's how.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't know.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't get back into a pool after that.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'd be uh I had a hard time I had a hard enough time getting in the pool at five o'clock in the morning anyway.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: It was uh truly the hardest thing I ever did.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: That's I believe you.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but you know, we we kept our we we had to separate, you know, the fun times from the hard work.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it can't be too much overlapped, or you'll just not make it on the swim team.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: Or in school, probably.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Yeah.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we I I'm in Baltimore just north of uh of of Towson and I was going to this gym to swim because my coach, my my triathlon coach, was there.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it was the same place that it was Meadowbrook where Michael Phelps used to swim, or was swimming.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, you'd get in there sometimes and he'd be in there.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I'd be trudging down the lane, like, you know, you can see because your head is going both ways, right?
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: Underwater, and you could see.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd be going down the lane and it would take me like forever.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: He'd be going just so smooth, and I'd be it would make me cry almost.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'd be going, Oh, I'm never gonna be able to do this.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: But it was you are comparing yourself to the fastest swimmer of all time.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: I know, you know, not a great comparison.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's what I do.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the first triumph line I ever did, my my um my coach said, he said, lay back.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: He said, when that butt when that gun goes off, don't go.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: He said, because you've never done it before, you're gonna be in the middle of a pack.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody's gonna go, they're gonna be kicking your goggles off.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna it's gonna disorient you.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: Don't do it.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, got it.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna do it.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna do it.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna do it.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: I get out there and that gun goes off, and I went right in the middle of the pack and just got kicked and everything, and I had to pull off to the side uh because I'm just you know a little bit nuts.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: But listen, we're we're um we're running out of time.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: We're we're any closing uh remarks?
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: Any where can people uh go to find your products?
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, where can they find your book?
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I first of all appreciate um, you know, you giving me exposure to your audience.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I hope if people haven't heard of this, that they learned something or their interest is sparked to research some things more.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: But Defendershield.com is our website.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: We have a huge resource for education.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: We have years and years of blogs, and we keep releasing new blogs with new technology evolving and things like that.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: And we're very matter-of-fact.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if if there's not a study or science to prove something, we don't fear monger.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we're just like here are the facts.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: You can make a decision if you want to provide, you know, some extra protection to you or your family in the form of shielding products.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: We have dozens of, you know, things that you can use that fit right into your lifestyle: cell phone cases, earbuds, we have overhead headphones, blankets, clothing, scarves, pads, um for pat for tablets, for iPads.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: So there's kind of something for everyone if you want to, you know, reduce your exposure and learn more about the topic.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: So defendershield.com, we're on Instagram, Facebook, um, we're on Amazon as well.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: So, and uh the books are also on those channels.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: Your so your book is on the is on Amazon?
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, Henry's Tech Free Trip.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: And then Daniel and Ryan wrote a adult um guide to EMF radiation called uh Radiation Nation.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: And that's also available on all those channels.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, cool.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I appreciate you taking the time to come on and telling your story.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: Certainly an interesting topic, and uh I'll I'll look into it more, and I'm sure that a lot of the people that are listening will look into it more.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, if anybody's interested, just go to defendershield.com.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're interested in the books, they're both on Amazon.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: So um uh I appreciate you coming on and thank you for taking the time.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, and we will see everybody next time.