Latest / The Parent Tap / The Phone Ladder Wins Where Spy Apps and Bans Fail

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The Phone Ladder Wins Where Spy Apps and Bans Fail · The Parent Tap

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: There's a very polarizing topic on screen time, phones, with kids, teens, all that.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, depending on who you talk to, there's a wholly different opinion.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: And so I thought having you in here, you know, the the the CEO of EQ Telecom would be the you know, a great resource for this.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so you know, because you're running that you're running the tel the cell phone company, uh, but your mission is to getting parents to change how their kids use their phones, from what I gathered.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: So could you tell us a little bit more about your mission?
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I have like a personal story that kind of helps anchor it, especially for like teens.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, like when when you're young and like your mom and dad are like your whole world, right?
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like whatever they do, you're like a puppy, man.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: They kind of lock you in the truck and pull you out and you still love them, right?
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but then once you get to the teenage years, they suck and they don't know anything and they're just like absolutely ruining your lives.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: So so for example, when I I remember getting to the teenage years and being like, dang, when my mom is like old and out of touch and whatever she says that makes sense and she's always on me.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think that was kind of like my mindset, right?
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: But I remember like having like just I don't know how it happened, but you had a conversation where she like she she actually listened and I was like, dang, she's cool.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, I can actually like talk to her, you know, and like bring stuff to her.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: And and that happened for a while.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then but I don't think she knew how to handle it very well because I mean like teenager problems versus adult problems are very different, right?
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I brought her one thing and I should just like what the heck is this, right?
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: So she kind of chuckled, and that was it.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like that door shut, and I never like came to hide anything for like years.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: So when I think of like the phone options today, it's either like you just give up and give him a phone smartphone, right?
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Or you get like this smartphone and then pre-package it with monitoring software and you're watching like every move your kid is doing.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: For me, that is like kind of like the same the same mistake my mom made, like ruining that fragile communication you had.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because that that door with the team is really easy to shut.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um what the the way we the way I think about it with with the business that I've set up is um age appropriate independence.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like you you wanna give your kid enough with go room that they don't feel, especially as they get older and get into the teenage years, so they don't feel like you're just in their business all the time.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: And not that they can actually still come to you and talk about stuff, which they need, right?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like they need guidance through life and they definitely need guidance with digital life.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And uh the approach we have is like starting with just a talk on text phone, right?
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to watch that, right?
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: And or like a talk on text phone is slow data, like they're not gonna buffer through Facebook reels that take like 10 minutes to load or whatever, right?
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: You don't you don't really have to watch that.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And when something weird comes, the door is more open for you to actually have conversations versus like they're trying to hide from you because you have all these apps installed, they're trying to get around and you don't you lose that opportunity with them in like some critical stage of their development.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, long answer, but that's kind of how the vision in the company.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: No, I love it.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: Cause like because you said like the the spying kind of ruins the trust.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, if we're not spying on them, you know, in your opinion, like how do we keep our kids and teens safe on these smartphones, on these devices?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: So we have a unique approach.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of people, I think the most of the marketing you see out there is like get them some software and watch every text, every picture, whatever that gets sent.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then when like if I go back to like free iPhone, right?
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we had flip phones, no one cared at all, right?
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: You couldn't use do do much besides uh run up your phone bill on texting or something like that.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like you can't do anything, right?
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: And that's for us, it's just like, yeah, like why start them with like a device that adults are struggling to manage.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like if you're real about it, like I I still have to be careful around how I use my iPhone, right?
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: I can I can't get that and give it to like a 12-year-old and be like, look, it's now it.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: So we we think like flip phones were great.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: We don't need to reinvent them, we can just bring them back.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: So that's like what we start like the.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: And you kind of have like a five-stage process.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like talk and text only flip phone.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: When you think they're kind of ready, uh, you know, you can give them a flip phone that has Wi-Fi, maybe keep them on the talk and text plan.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe they have a little bit of Wi-Fi on this like clunky tiny screen at home and give them connection, but then pull them in, you know, the way smartphones are kind of built to.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, maybe add a little bit of data so they have maps if they're going far, but it's still too slow for like constant scrolling and reels and all that stuff.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then maybe when you think they're ready, get them a f uh a smartphone, right?
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: But even a smartphone, you can have slow data on it.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: And there's this, I don't know if you've seen this online, like there's this new assistive access feature on iPhone that's gone viral.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: And everyone is like, I didn't know you can damify an iPhone, but you can dummify an iPhone, put a simple plan on it, and then just give that to your kid to start and then gradually unlock that too.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: They the our thinking is like by the time they're 18 and they're leaving the home, like you know you have a digitally mature adult, right?
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Versus someone who you've been tracking their whole lives and suddenly they have all this exposure and they don't know what to do with it.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Or they had it too soon and they're already like messed up by the time they reach 18 at their late owner house.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: No, it sounds like a good idea because I, you know, a lot of people on this show, I have kind of bring up that point about screen time phones, what do you do in your own house?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: And some are like, well, you just kind of embrace it, and some are like, well, I just don't no devices whatsoever.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I I can't help but feel that ladder of the kids feeling like socially they're just, you know, they're they're not a part of their tribe, they're not a part of their other groups.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: They don't have some sort of communication device.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that this is a good idea of least giving them that tool to reach out to their peers and not feel like they're isolated, but also having those, you know, intentional safeguards on that's not destroying the trust as well with our kids.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, oh, what are they gonna say?
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like the I I think the thing that you kind of hit and that a lot of parents struggle with is like, is my kid gonna survive like being the only kid without Snapchat and Facebook and Instagram?
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, I feel like there's some formal, then there's a lot.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Formal is real, especially who teams.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if I don't wanna like say that be dishonest and say like you get your kid a flip point, it's all good, but like nothing's gonna happen.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, they're gonna be the different one, and it's kind of a hard choice that I feel like you have to wrestle with versus just kind of be okay the norm, because the norm is definitely not okay as it is.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like something needs to change.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: And you can't just be like, hey, if this group of kids are okay getting exposure too soon, I'm gonna give that to my kid.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like maybe it's worth having some connectivity with some friction, uh, better than not connectivity at all, and just making sure you give the kid, your kid, the protection they need.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was gonna say it's it's it's easier to kind of scaffold that progression rather than give it to them and then take it away and then feel like you know, I had child psychologists on that said that feels like death to a kid, you know, a teen when you take away their only access to their, you know, their friends, their social networks, whatever, you take away from that phone, you know, tackling it from this end of of just like kind of scaffolding it and doing it incrementally, you know, adding like you said, adding on the data, adding on the Wi-Fi, you know, that kind of thing, rather than like kind of just you know, kind of doing like cold turkey on a s on a smartphone with a teen, that's not gonna go well.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna get the mom, dad, I hate you, the rebellion, the the behavioral stuff that no parent wants to deal with, you know.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that you're on to something.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: If you're anything like me, trying to keep up with the tech in your household feels like a full-time job.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: Between school laptops, new apps our kids are asking for, and subtle online scams, it's easy to feel constantly outpaced.
• 8:16
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• 8:20
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• 8:25
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• 8:39
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• 8:42
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• 8:49
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• 8:52
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• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: Again, that's freshfromcash.com.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I put the direct subscription link right at the top of today's episode description and show notes.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: So your company, do you do you offer okay, so you offer the plans and the phones, or is it is it all kind of all in one?
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Offer the plans and and then resource phones that we think would help.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: So like uh a lot of what we've done, the tracks that you're kind of following right now is we'll get you the flip phones or the devices that are like really hard to find, right?
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and then you know, we have we have a supplier that helps, like especially the startup flip phone, they help just cage it.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just stock, text, nothing else.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: You can't even send images in that phone, which is good for a kid who's getting that first device, not to do anything too crazy, especially in today's world.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then kind of gradually work from there, you'll have some flick phones that have some Wi-Fi, then maybe you can start sending like gifts and stuff to each other.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: But then again, it's a teeny tiny screen, but like a huge smartphone, you like crazy apps that pull you in.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: So hopefully it helps it helps you stay offline, really, right?
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then when you start getting older, that's when you start doing things like okay, if you have like an old iPhone 10, right?
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: That you want to give your kid.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Or if if you wanna just Android has some parent features and iPhone has some parent features, they don't really work very well for first-time users or someone that's like you're trying to win off a phone because they'll just hack it and get through it.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: But hopefully someone that has gone through that ladder can get that access and not feel so much pulled to like get around the controls.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: An iPhone has a specific one that was talking about that is like assistive access.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: That one really like cages the phone pretty decently.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: But again, uh going through that ladder, we have our flip phone that we'll focus on, and then as you start getting comfortable, you can start like slowly introducing the smartphone.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's different, obviously.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like every parent knows their kid, every parent knows like their kid's maturity level, and we just offer the devices and let the parent kind of run with it depending on where the kids are.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think you know, because you're a digital wellness expert, do you think that this could even be useful for adults, perhaps?
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: Is that something you see as adults get this?
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: Can you explain like why why that's a good thing for even adults and why we why we struggle with our own smartphones?
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I I think the issue is and I and I don't want to sound like I have like uh I mean tin foil hatland over here.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: But like like when I when when I think about like this device, this is a at this point, like I mean it was cool.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like the first time, like Steve Jobs came and showed us a screen that you could like touch and you could like download Apps on it to school, right?
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: But then there's like the attention economy, right?
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: You just like you have big companies hiring psychologists to figure out how to keep you glued, right?
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Social media is doing it, there's that whole like constant scroll, and and and you're struggling.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'll pick up my iPhone and I'll get on Instagram, and then like half an hour later, one hour later, I'm like, what the heck was I doing in my life for the last like hour and a half, you know?
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, or like sometimes I'm like, I'm talking to my wife, and this is right here, right?
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm talking to you right now, right?
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: And you're talking, right?
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: But if I do this, the connection is different, right?
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Even if I'm like, no, I'm not looking at it, I'm talking to you.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's right here, right?
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Or if it's even if it's on the table, right?
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know there's a sudden pull, and a lot of that is just stuff that has been normalized for adults.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I kind of I think we need to do something to kind of I don't this is the right word, like denaturalize what I think big tech has made normal.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously they have the incentive, they gotta make money, they gotta make a product that keeps us engaged, and that's that's what they do, right?
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: But it's not like you can count on them to put the brakes on to help you have better habits.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: So we have plans for adults, we kind of call them balance plans.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: If an adult wants to go call turkey, they can get our clip once, right?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: I know a lot of people like they're like, Well, I have my smartphone, my work emails on that thing.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: I can't quite use a clip, like I can't log on to my laptop.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: So we have our balance plans is what they do, they take away unlimited data.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I can only remember, like back in the day, it's weird.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now I can say like way back.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: I remember, yeah.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: Dinosaurs from the earth, yeah, that's how I feel right now.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: I just turned 40, I'm like, oh god.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: But like like back before like unlimited data was the norm, right?
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: You had to like you had to think about like, okay, how many minutes am I using when I might when I'm texting and how many, how much data am I using?
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so if I give you like a five gig plan, a 10 gig plan as an adult, right?
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna blow through it the first month because you're not used to it, right?
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: So we give those and we give like boosts.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so the first month may be kind of rough, but the fact that you know like this is not unlimited anymore helps makes you kind of like stop and think about your usage, right?
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like there's nothing.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: There's there, I think there's a quote on my page that kind of goes like nothing makes you think twice about your data use like scarcity, right?
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: You just introduce a little bit of scarcity and helps you like not be like, oh, it's gonna be on here like it's unlimited.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because what happens is you'll have some data, and then once you hit a certain threshold, it will slow.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that's your indicator that, like, okay, I'm using this a lot, and I'm beginning to like go through my amount.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: And the slow data also helps you like not scroll as much because videos don't load as quick, etc.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: etc.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: So just capping it and adding tiers is kind of what we have for adults, and the ones that want to go like hardcore, we got flip-bones, they can use those too.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Keeps plans open to adults too.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's cool, and and so yeah, and I remember the internet days when you literally got the AOL CDs and you had 24 hours of a month or something like 50 hours a month.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: It was something very ridiculously small, where it's like if you blow it all, let's say you spend 12 hours on you know some sort of sort of website or game, like you're screwed the rest of the month.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: You have to manage that or else you're gonna get a huge bill.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: So there's something about that where it's like, yeah, you did have to do more time management because now I can definitely get lost in the scroll and I'm not present.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I do that all the time.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's almost like I'm obsessed with my phone.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like, if I lose my phone, I'm like constantly going to my watch, like pinging it, like, where the heck is it?
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like like I'm gonna like have an emergency because I don't know where my phone is for like a minute.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I swear it's this weird thing, or it's obsessed.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: And like you said, they they know what they're doing.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: They're they're getting the best people, the best minds on this to find out how can we make this more addicting and how can we get people hooked.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so this is a great way to get people unhooked.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: By accident, that like built this device that like everybody can't put down.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: No, like if anyone could do that by accident, I'd be a billionaire right now, right?
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: I just feel the flip on that nobody can put down it and yeah, for it.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: But it just didn't work that way, right?
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, like you said, it's it's not by accident, it's very intentional, and I think we need to be intentional too about what is being placed in our hands, and hopefully, you know, what EQ Telecom is offering helps you that.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: And what who do you think like the the appropriate age to start a plan or a phone with a kid is, or what do you see in your own experience if if you don't want to go into giving other parents advice?
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like I haven't I haven't really tracked it.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's kids' data too, so it's not like I'm out there collecting ages and be like, sure, how old how old is your kid, you know, and and collecting data on kids.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like I want to go that route.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: But I what what we do is we just it's different for parents, right?
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because even if I take my company out of the equation, these parents that for whatever reason have given the kids a smartphone.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: These parents that have given them like some monitoring phone.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: There's other parents that are just like, heck no, I'm not giving my kids a phone.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's different parenting styles, there's just your kid, they'll react differently.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, on one end of the spectrum is like ADHD kids, right?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that like you get an ADHD kid and put them on a smartphone, you'll recommend, right?
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: And because just the executive function is not the same as like a kid that may not have ADHD.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's such a broad spectrum that we just kind of give that five-step guide that I kind of shared with you, you know, talk and text, a little bit of slow data, Wi-Fi, and then just let the parent look at it and decide this is where I feel comfortable starting my kid and go from there.
• 17:29
  unknown: Yeah.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's fair.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's fair.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I don't know why I was like envisioning like a two-year-old walking into your store and like picking up a phone and like that's their plan, but I guess that's not how it works.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um no, that makes total sense.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's parents' discretion, what they want to do.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: You're just kind of offering the service and you're you're you're the one, and I see this like you're kind of helping keep the relationship from blowing up because if they get to an age where that you're giving them a device they can't handle, and then you have to take it away, the hell's gonna break loose, right?
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so if we kind of go through this this procedural uh you know approach of just like this incremental steps up in terms of like getting more functionality, more ability to have smartphone-esque, you know, kind of phone.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I think that that's such a smart idea because there is, you know, I I'm an affiliate for Bark, and I know Bark does um, you know, they're more about the monitoring.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: And like you said, though, when when people and kids know that or they can get around it, first of all, and then second of all, when they know that you're monitoring them, there's some sort of trust lost or some sort of like, I can't believe you were spy.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: I I even do that with my duh, my wife.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: She'll look at the the the nanny cam sometimes, you know, when I'm interacting with my kids, putting them to bed or something.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: She's like, You didn't you didn't do this, or you didn't read them a story.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, What do you mean I didn't read them a story?
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like don't do that, you know, like it's there's almost a sense of don't don't look at my you know, don't look, don't look over my shoulder, that kind of thing.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: So I I totally could see how teens would like completely lose their shit on that.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so our kids and and I wanted to get on this.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: So like our kids see us constantly scrolling, constantly on our phones, and then get it, like so.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: How do they how do we expect them to to respect digital boundaries when they see us constantly interacting with these tech devices, not being present, completely ignoring them when they're they're talking to us?
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what's your take on that?
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that's that's kind of why we offer not just kids, but also adults.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I mean, on our on on that, like one of the first things you see on our home field is like adult scroll tube, right?
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because and and I think it's it it it's very helpful to be mindful of that.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because um, like there's no way if a kid is struggling with device usage and I haven't tried to manage my own, I have no leg to stand on when it comes to like giving them advice.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: And and maybe in those situations that you're even talking about where like maybe I gave them too much and I have to pull back a bit, you you don't understand what that's like, one, and you don't even really see the value besides I'm pissed when he has his phone up during dinner time, right?
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: But like if for example, like with my phone, like I come in and maybe I treat it like a landline, right?
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: I come in and I leave it in the kitchen, so like I'm not on it all the time when I'm like going around the house, or I have like some place that I put it that's out of the way, right?
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like go to the bathroom and spend 40 minutes on it uh or whatever, right?
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um if it's if it's a device that I'm not tethered to, like I can quickly begin to see the benefit of not being tethered to it.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I can also understand the struggle a lot better um with making that adjustment, right?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: And when I'm kind of help putting my kids through the process or helping correct some behaviors, there's some empathy there that you need.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then you internally like understand that value and and hopefully like I think it gives you that understanding gives you enough foundation to like kind of put your foot down when you need to, but at least empathetically put your foot down when you need to.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: And hey man, I'm looking at your website right now, eqtelecom.com.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it has the five steps that you mentioned, and it starts at five dollars a month, and that's something I think worth mentioning too, is like this is very affordable, that junior starter plan, um, you know, to kind of get your kids um a little bit acclimated with the phone world, but also not like giving them full reign of to do whatever.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so, did you want to tell us a little bit more about EQ Telecom, your services, anything else you have in the works and where people can find you?
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I mean that that that five dollar thing is is actually kind of where we started.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: I remember talking to a neighbor and he was looking through all these options and he was like, I just need to know where my kid is, right?
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Just some cheap five dollar, actually, that's kind of where the pricing came from, right?
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: Is um is all I need.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need like all these gadgets and all this extra stuff.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: And uh that's kind of the foundation of what we open.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like, where to find us?
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, we are digital only.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to find our products, it's easytelecom.com.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: You'll see the plans there, you'll find the phones there, and you'll have the five-step process just kind of as a guide and a map to help you see and figure out why you and your kid fit along that process.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, just because you're starting, we're open in five states.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: So Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Ohio, and Florida.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we're testing their market, making sure things are working correctly before we expand even further.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: We have a wait list though.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: Safe days, if you're out of state, join our wait list, it kind of helps give us a good sense of this is where there's a lot of interest, and this is where we should expand to next.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because we we we want to kind of be thoughtful about how we expand.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but that's that's what he is.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate that.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I'm in Arizona, so this this is available to this is something to check out.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: My five-year-old, I'm the kind of the same way.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: She's going to kindergarten in a month, and I'm like, I just kind of want to have something that she can check in with us, or like I can reach her if need be.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I don't want her to have all the freaking apps or you know, be unless she's watching the this show, you know, unless she's watching that.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: You can't watch YouTube, but she can't watch my show either.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, man, like I just five dollar plan.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: I sound, I mean, honestly, as a parent, and I'm just I'm not just BSing you, but like it sounds like a great uh a great premise for for a parent with with a you know a teen, a preteen, or even younger than that, of like, hey, I just want to know where my kid is, or I just want to be able to reach my kid.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: I just want to be able to, you know, kind of have that safety net, if you will, of knowing, you know, your kid's okay when they're not with you.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so this seems like a great idea if you want to go that approach.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I know that there's other stuff out there, and you know, parents do that.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: But again, I think that everything you laid out here makes total sense for me as a dad of young kids.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, man, I appreciate you bringing this to the table and letting people know about what you're doing.