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Navigating Nonspeaking Autism: Support for Families with Jordan Arogeti · Inchstones with Sarah | Autism Advocacy & Caregiver Stories

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Hi everyone. Welcome back. Today on Inch Stones, I am bringing back. You are only one of few second time guests so I hope that that feels good for SupportNow and what you've created. I have Jordan Arighetti of SupportNow and I am thrilled to support her mission and transform the way we show up for each other. And I believe that Jordan and SupportNow is moving beyond the cash and casseroles and the well meaning but often limited expectations we have placed on what support looks like. Jordan. Jordan has most recently had her TED Talk live as of last Friday. And the wave of need that is showing up in terms of these authentic and organic reminders of what support looks like is coming to fruition and it's giving a very, very strong signal. So, Jordan, thank you for being here today on Inchtones.
• 0:49
  Speaker B: Thank you. Let's hope I don't mess it up. You know, they always say end on a high note. So let's see.
• 0:54
  Speaker A: Well, so today we're going to go deeper. We talked a lot about SupportNow on the first time we recorded about how you and Your platform of SupportNow is changing the way support looks like from the traditional options of millennial parents like ourselves. Give everyone a high level overview from that first episode and let's dig into what the application of it will be today.
• 1:16
  Speaker B: Yeah, so, you know, super high level again. SupportNow as a company exists to help reduce overwhelm for families experiencing major life moments, whether, whether that's a hospitalization, a diagnosis, loss, disability, really anything. And through building this company, we really witnessed time and time again that our thesis that people needed more than cash and casseroles was in fact true. This idea that when people are going through something significant that they oftentimes need people to do, what most people categorize are the little things, walking the dog, the prayer, play date, things of that sort. And through, I mean, literally thousands of conversations with our families, I realized that one of the things that makes Support now unique is this idea that we give space for everybody's support language. And then when I was given the opportunity to give the TED Talk, I thought, you know, they talk about TED being giving the talk of your life, which is a very, let's say, daunting thing.
• 2:21
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 2:24
  Speaker B: And I thought, you know what, introducing support languages as a concept, as a, as a framework, that's the talk of my life.
• 2:31
  Speaker A: Yes. And I think that you are pushing the needle in a most embracing. And what I, what I like to think is we live in this global village. You're reminding us that while we have Access to the global village, the actual village, the actual village of the realities of the communities and our families and our extended families and friends. What we actually live in, that is the physical village that gets to show up in the ways in which are most beneficial to the families in need. You know, I know that you and I are fairly roughly the same age and that we grew up in a time where we remember the depth of grief from like a parent, someone who's sadly a parent, you know, experiences a diagnosis or death of a fellow classmate or something. And so these pangs seemed very weighted. And. And I think that as we've evolved as humans and mothers, we're realizing that it doesn't have to be these like what seemingly are life altering, but actual things that can matter on the day to day to elevate the happiness, joy of life to support another.
• 3:35
  Speaker B: Yeah. And one of the themes that I know you and I share alignment on is this idea specifically around moms. But parents in general, like parents are more burned out than ever. And we, we're trying to do it all. And moms are they. We are doing, not saying more, but we're doing life differently than our parents generation. We're certainly doing it differently than our grandparents generation. We oftentimes have multiple children. We are oftentimes producing some sort of income for our families, whether that's on the side or primary breadwinner. And we are expected to look the part to have it all together. And I think a lot of this is generated through social media and this idea that we always have to be looking like we have it all together. And what this does is it creates an enormous amount of pressure on moms and it creates burnout. And I am such a believer that that community and that the village as you spoke to earlier, is such an intricate part of the human experience and we kind of risk losing it.
• 4:37
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 4:39
  Speaker B: Not necessarily by nature of being intentionally trying to reduce, like to reduce it. I think it's happening very unintentionally. Correct.
• 4:46
  Speaker A: I think it's unconscious.
• 4:47
  Speaker B: It's. Yeah, it's totally unconscious. It's. It think about the way that we live. We don't live on top of each other. We live in spread out neighborhoods. Think about technology and the way that technology really brings us together, but it actually very much silos us and isolates us. Think about the ways that we project on social media to say, look at my wonderful family and all the things I'm balancing on any given day. So it creates this narrative that we don't need other people anymore. And that's simply not true.
• 5:18
  Speaker A: That primally is not true. Our central nervous systems were not meant to carry the weight of this alone.
• 5:24
  Speaker B: We're, we're suffering in silence and we're suffering differently than our, our mothers did. And I think, and that's in large part thankfully to this, this heightened conversation on mental, mental health, like a lot of great things are happening and I get so excited about is the idea of reinforcing this village through a technology that I know people will find to be easy to use. And reminding people that in any way that you want to show up is valued and appreciated and it's not to be looked over because you can't send money or because you're not the cook.
• 6:01
  Speaker A: Correct.
• 6:03
  Speaker B: It's a silly thing, but it's an important thing to call out because as I'm sure you have seen in your own experience, so many people get discouraged by not knowing what to do. So they do nothing at all.
• 6:14
  Speaker A: They do nothing.
• 6:15
  Speaker B: Correct.
• 6:15
  Speaker A: And I want to call that out because I, in leaning and sharing like more long form writings of my reality with Mac and Millie as their mom, I'm realizing that people are so deeply supportive. Like, you know, Sarah, this is so wonderful that you're talking about it. How can I support? How can I help? And when I got really quiet with myself, two things happened. One, the things that I really need are actually quite basic and cost nothing, right? They do, but it does. It is time. It is time. And it's an under an hour time. Two, I don't want to be seen as someone who is asking for things that she probably could, as the world sees, well, why doesn't she just do that? Or why doesn't, why doesn't her typical older daughter do that? Or why doesn't she ask, you know, her directly ask her sister to do that? Or I do and it does. But what I've realized is that I need more and my children who are atypical need more. And I, and I think from the mother, we go back to the motherhood intuition is that my children are deserving of those things. And I know that I cannot purchase them. I want them to interact with the world. And that's what you're saying. The isolation part of this is so intangible that they don't even, we don't even realize that we're isolating in a way that people don't want us to. They don't want us to at all. But they, but, but the byproduct is isolation because you fear well, is it going to look like I'm too needy? Like who am I to ask? Xyz and I'll, and I'll share with you what, you know, the registry I'm going to set up for, for my family will look like and what those are. But that's a, that's a real reaction to mothers when I share. Well, I don't know if does that, I don't. Do I really need that? Yeah, you do.
• 7:55
  Speaker B: Yeah. And I think we talked about this the first episode and I think it's a really important foundation for this conversation. You know, asking for help is rooted in shame.
• 8:03
  Speaker A: Rooted in shame.
• 8:05
  Speaker B: Whether you have atypical children or typical children, able bodied, asking for help has become synonymous with that. You're not somehow it means that you're not capable.
• 8:16
  Speaker A: Correct.
• 8:17
  Speaker B: And so it's interesting, like I kind of unpacked that in two ways. One way is oftentimes extraordinary. Calls for extraordinary. No, if you have, you didn't know you were going to have atypical children. You didn't know that you were going to be stepping into this world. So of course you need more because that's not, you weren't designed to go through this like this.
• 8:40
  Speaker A: Correct. And highlighting the fact that that is an integral part of the reason that like the shock of diagnoses or more lifelong support needs isn't a one time event. Right. So this is a compounding. Our nervous systems are fried on top of the fact that it's not ending. Right. It's not an acute event.
• 8:59
  Speaker B: Correct. And again this is, this is, this is nature. Right. Like I, I, I, I studied or I saw an article several months ago around like elephants and how when an elephant, when there's a passing in an elephant tribe that other mother elephants will actually surround the mom in grief, like in, in, in grief. And then they don't leave until like it's, they have like an assurance that the elephant is okay. And I saw this and it gave, it made me cry.
• 9:26
  Speaker A: Of course. Yeah.
• 9:27
  Speaker B: Like this is, this is, this is what humans are designed to do too. But again, how often do we see people push people away and again grief defined not necessarily by loss but by all of these events that cause moms to feel like it's not meeting their expectation. Right. We know that grief has a much broader definition of loss than death alone. The second thing I think about is I, I talk about this with my own mom. So much of who we are to get today as mothers is based off of what was modeled for us.
• 10:01
  Speaker A: Absolutely.
• 10:02
  Speaker B: And so this is where I. I feel it is imperative to model to your children, especially to your daughters, if you have them, but to all of your children. The importance of. Of saying, you know, my neighbor's coming over, our friends coming over, not because we need it, but because this is a part of the human experience. This is what it's like to have friends and families that care. This is. This is what it looks like. And, you know, we live in a very individualist society, which is, in large part a great thing and can be detrimental if you're not reminded and you're not. It's not being reinforced that there's people around you that want to do this, not because you need it, but because they actually want to be a part of your life.
• 10:48
  Speaker A: Go back to the elephants. It's innate. I do believe I've talked more about evolutionary biology than I ever thought. Not. Not because I don't think about neurology and pediatric diagnoses and all that, but because that's a whole other part of biology. The. The primal evolutionary part of this is so damn strong.
• 11:05
  Speaker B: Right? Right?
• 11:06
  Speaker A: It is. So strong.
• 11:09
  Speaker B: It is. And, you know, as moms again, we all. We all want to feel like we have it all together. That's normal. And it's so important for our own sanity and our. For. And for our children's sanity to be honest with ourselves and to say. I'm gonna say, I need. I need someone to come over to watch my kids today, or I want someone else to play a certain game with them, or I want someone else to come cook them dinner. That's. That's a part of. That's a part of what civilization, what culture is all about.
• 11:42
  Speaker A: Right? And I think that naming it, what supportnow does so beautifully is it's not about the features of SupportNow as a platform. It's about redefining the modern care culture. Right? I mean, we. I think, as a 1983 baby in this xennial, like, I spanned the gap of. Did not have. I did not live in a digital world until I was a freshman year in college, right? So I know what that looks like and how we. We had to literally ask if your mom forgot you when you were at middle school. Like, you called collect, and you said, mom, come pick me up. And if she didn't, you just asked a friend, you're like, can you drive me home?
• 12:13
  Speaker B: Had to figure it out.
• 12:15
  Speaker A: You had to figure it out. And so now that we have the ability to do it in a. In a digital world, let's redefine what care looks like from a. From a way of. That actually evolved with us as we aged.
• 12:27
  Speaker B: And one other thing I'll add to this is we are the sandwich generation.
• 12:32
  Speaker A: We are.
• 12:33
  Speaker B: We are the generation of people taking care of our children while also starting to take care of our own parents.
• 12:38
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 12:39
  Speaker B: And the caregiver experience is exhausting. And the question we always ask our families and when we talk to people that support our work is one of the most important questions you can ask a mom or a primary caregiver is supporting you. Because so often we don't. We can't answer that question because we're never.
• 13:02
  Speaker A: We don't like to think or share that we are centering our needs.
• 13:07
  Speaker B: That's right. We just push it all aside. Um, and again, it's. It's incredibly detrimental. It creates isolation. It negatively impacts our mental health. And. And we know how. How we can tend to spiral, especially if you're, you know, have got younger kids postpartum. I mean, these things are. Are. Are very real. Depends.
• 13:27
  Speaker A: Very real.
• 13:27
  Speaker B: Very real. You actually see it more with men right now than. Than with women. But I also think that women and moms, we. We tend to hide it pretty well.
• 13:38
  Speaker A: Until it hits this deep either cliff or like an inflection point of physical. The cause. I believe mental health is physical health. Right. It's all I say. You can't, like, detach your head from your spinal cord and say, like, have the body do it what it's supposed to do. That is. That is all a part of this. And again, recalling and reclaiming those parts will, I believe, decrease that mental load, decrease that anxiety and depression and even so much as just the one or two asks. And so that's why I think that the modern angle to this is the setup with which supportNow does so beautifully and saying, how did it feel? Or how does it feel to be able to input and then be met with something that actually fits what you actually need.
• 14:22
  Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, the. The number one piece of feedback that we love getting is, I didn't realize I needed this until I had it because, you know, again, I'm not to. Money is important. Food is important. We facilitate that. And as I try to do on all conversations like this, it's not, but it's. And there's just. There's just more. There's just more that we can be doing. And. And I feel very strongly that the more people and moms step out to do this, the more comfortable other people will be in doing this too. I think about this all the time postpartum. I've got three children, 6 and 9. I always people, what are you guaranteed when you have a baby? You're guaranteed, like, unsolicited advice and a onesie. Like, guaranteed. And it's striking to me how, you know, people are so in rush to come over and see the baby and get the. And they give you all this advice. What moms really need and want is all the little things around the house. Someone to clean up, someone to do some laundry, someone to walk their dog, someone just be in the house while they rest. But we've. We have strayed so far past that. And look, I get it. I've been postpartum. It's hard. It's. It's hard for moms to articulate what they need and want in that moment. You just can't convince me that there aren't, you know, three people to a half a dozen people that shouldn't be signing up to say, hey, we're going to change the way we do postpartum. We're going to change the way we support you. Sure, we're going to come over and we're going to give the onesie or the blanket, whatever, but we're also going to stay 30 minutes so you can just get out of the house for.
• 16:00
  Speaker A: A little walk around the block.
• 16:03
  Speaker B: Like, a fresh breath. Like how. How, like, I've seen this trend on Instagram, like, just needed a hug. Or like. Or how, like, like moms, like, all we really want is just like, plant our feet on the grass and just breathe for like, two minutes, literally.
• 16:18
  Speaker A: Grounding. I mean, it's so funny. The word grounding, I think, has expanded so much in the past few years, just with the use on social media or whatever. But, like, what it really means is, like, to connect to the earth and to get the ground to let. I could be saying this wrong and my dad's gonna kill me. Cause he's a physicist. The electrons and protons allowing your system to filter, it's allowing you to filter.
• 16:37
  Speaker B: Balancing everything else that you're feeling.
• 16:39
  Speaker A: Right.
• 16:40
  Speaker B: It's very real. And again, I think it really starts postpartum, especially if it's your first and you're, you know, you don't know what the hell just happened to you. You're. You're just so overwhel. Oftentimes the first reaction is just to push people away.
• 16:53
  Speaker A: I'm overwhelmed.
• 16:54
  Speaker B: I don't know. So I'm just going to push you away.
• 16:56
  Speaker A: Right.
• 16:56
  Speaker B: And that's a really hard thing. To kind of to rewire. That's why it's so important that supporters understand their role and understand how they can be prompting moms and their friends into the behaviors that we know are actually going to be helpful to them. Right. And then of course if you have a, an atypical neurodiverse child, this just, it just doesn't end. There's no like oh we're out of this season. You're just constantly season where you're trying to, you're trying.
• 17:26
  Speaker A: I want to take time for this because I've shared with you that I want to create a registry that specifically is Millie's joy list. Because Millie thrives on one on one interactions when it comes to stickers and walks outside and you know, games that specifically are turn taking. So you know, pop up pirate or even like topple or connect four something that's just very simple and one. And so I think I had shame about asking for help. I don't need a babysitter just to sit and have her watch a TV show. I want someone not for three hours. I want someone for 30 to 45 minutes that can come and do that while I prep dinner or while I spend time with Mac. And so the action based ways I get to be a model to other parents and moms in all their own villages to say Sarah asked for what she needed. It didn't cost a dime, but it did ask and beg of her community to say, ooh, I can do that. I'd love to do that for her. So the three things that I'm going to put on my registry for Millie specifically are sticker, sticker time and game time with a buddy. It's the simple matching the numbers, the cause and effect games. You know, she doesn't speak, but she'll tell you what she loves during her joy and giggles. Right? Nature walks. I have a park that's literally two blocks away and it would be a 30 minute walk around. Now because Millie is severely autistic, having one on one and eyes on her is imperative because guess what, it's a wooded trail and there's a pond and probably poison ivy. So we stand and we stay in the path. But she does love it and we collect certain leaves that are during the season. That's her way, I believe grounding and connecting with the world. And three, which has been a tough skill to learn but gosh darn it, I know she wants to do it. Is walking the dog around the block. No. Millie loves routine and she loves movement and she loves the edges of sidewalks and to let her do that and learn that holding moves, he's going to stop sometimes it's going to stop us from continuing on that, that with someone else that's not just her mom and not a babysitter. That it's not, it's not a caretaker. It's just someone that's coming over to understand and be a one on one friend aid supporter in our village. So those are the things I'm going to add and I love it what happens and I love that.
• 19:43
  Speaker B: I love it. And I think what I, I, I appreciate so much about that list is you're giving people an experience.
• 19:51
  Speaker A: Yeah. Tell me. There's not a single person that meets Millie that is not like what a cool little kid she is.
• 19:57
  Speaker B: And, and like, because I would imagine a lot of the people that will be signing up and raising their hand to do these things, they may not have an experience with another child like Millie. So it's it, it they get to, they get, get to experience her joy. They also get to understand your perspective which further allows them to be in a better position to help someone else later on. Like it, it is such a gift. It's a blessing to allow people into your world like this. And it's interesting, you know. Yeah.
• 20:31
  Speaker A: When you look, age doesn't even matter too. That's what I always say. Like I have a seven. Well now I guess she was 17 when I had her as a babysitter. She was scared to, to help out with my family and her par boarded with me on it. And she's become one of the most trusted caregivers and she's all of 19 years old. And so I, I see it from like a lifelong standpoint of just like working out. People will say with just five minutes a day you can do five, 20 minutes with a child like mine. And you're actually gonna benefit too from those small times, regardless of your age.
• 21:04
  Speaker B: Absolutely. And again, so speaking of you know, the working out and those habits, it's building that muscle, it's being consistent and it feels, it always feels so good to, to feel like you are helping, to feel like you're contributing. And what we've seen time and time again is the gift is not to you. The gift is to the person that gets to do this.
• 21:26
  Speaker A: It is. Yeah.
• 21:28
  Speaker B: And it's so obvious when it happens and we see this all the time. It's, people are just so filled. They're so, they're so excited to be able to, to be a part of this experience of Feeling like they're helping. And it's intoxicating because. And then you want to do it again. And you can continue to learn about yourself, about, gosh, what. What made that so exciting. Was it the game? Was it the interaction?
• 21:50
  Speaker A: Exactly.
• 21:51
  Speaker B: And then now, the next time, you know, an opportunity comes about, you, you're in a better position to be able to proactively offer that.
• 21:59
  Speaker A: Right. And to say, I was real, hey, I loved again, I just go playing topple with Millie. Like, can we have that out again next time? Like, I know you wanted to try this, but that was really great. And letting. I. One thing I've learned a lot through my own past few years is like the micromanagement that women these days and mothers, like, we.
• 22:16
  Speaker B: We.
• 22:16
  Speaker A: We don't even realize we do it. Right. But to decentralize that management to the person that's offering to help. Right. And saying, like you asked, you asked for Millie to play and let them learn, come to you and say what they experience and then change what needs to be changed. But listen to that, because like you said, they're going to experience something with Millie that I might not. I mean, listen, kids act one way around their mother. They act differently around their teachers. I don't care if they're autistic or not.
• 22:42
  Speaker B: Oh, yes. Right. Oh, yes. So I oftentimes get my children from camp and they're like, she was great.
• 22:48
  Speaker A: And blah, blah, blah.
• 22:50
  Speaker B: She was.
• 22:51
  Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, I. Total aside. My best friend's daughter is at sleepaway camp for two weeks. This is a. My best friend's daughter at Colin's. Grace, we love you dearly, but she's been a drama girl since day one. And we just. We laugh about it. Right. She chipped her tooth at camp. Kristin just found out. Just found out. She goes, she didn't call. She didn't freak out. We're like, wait a second. This is the girl that, like, gets a paper cut or like, one thing is out of place. She chipped her tooth at camp and didn't even care.
• 23:18
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 23:19
  Speaker A: So our children, typical or not, they have it in them to respond in the ways as. As, you know, we give them the experience we get. We set this up. So this is, for me, I think it's allowing Millie to show the more depth of what she can accept and what. Show others what she can do.
• 23:35
  Speaker B: Absolutely. And I think micromanaging is a. Is a great term. It's. And it's like we both, like, sometimes we infantize our children. We infantize our friends. They don't have the capacity to learn or to figure it out. And that's where the learning is, is when you do have to figure it out and you do have to respond.
• 23:53
  Speaker A: And it's not going to be wrong either. I mean, I think that we, you know, it's also okay to be a.
• 23:58
  Speaker B: Little uncomfortable in the process. Like that's where the growth is. Yep.
• 24:02
  Speaker A: And it's going to grow that muscle. And you know, just in terms of my own mission of like obviously minds of caregivers and mothers of profoundly autistic children, knowing that the breath that they might get to take as something like this takes off can be found in those small moments too. And yeah, I'm excited. So let's go back to like the actual creation because I want to talk about that more in depth. So when we sign on and when you create a profile, talk to me about what someone like me, step by step process of what that would look like and how to then create it and then just like get that out to my community.
• 24:34
  Speaker B: Yeah. So one of the things we have tried to do is create an experience that is easy to use. We know that the people that typically create support nows are they, they're women like you, Sarah, they're women like me. They're in their 30s and 40s, they've got children in the house. Not always, but most. And so this, this has got to be super simple. So, you know, you go to our website, supportnow.org, you type in the name of the registry. You can name it whatever you want. Some people, you know, it's the family name. Other times they kind of get cute with it. Then the onboarding experience really guides you through trying to understand what your needs look like. Are they financial needs, are they food based needs? And then once you get to the experience, it just simply asks you to add a picture, edit your description. You actually infused a good bit of AI into the experience. Know that one of the hardest parts of putting yourself out there is, well, what do I say, what do I. So we have a lot of AI in the description generator so that you don't have to think so much. Now, that doesn't mean you have to go with the description that is provided. You can always edit it from there. And then every support now has an organizer dashboard. And when you go to your organizer dashboard, you'll see a place for needs and already supply a dropdown of needs again, whether that's transportation, errands, pet care, et cetera. But we also have a grab. All that's called other. And then in the field below that, you can put in whatever you want. We see prayer used a lot. I've seen everything from mowing the lawn to gardening to again play dates, things like that. And then there's fields for kind of what the ask is a description field. And then you can plug in dates and times.
• 26:17
  Speaker A: Awesome. I was just gonna say that's huge, the being able to plug in dates and times generically.
• 26:22
  Speaker B: Like, who would, who might be interested in this? So they can kind of see who in their tribe is interested in this. But my favorite part is seeing when people say, no, I need somebody at 5 to 6 o' clock or 5 to 5:30 for, on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the next month. And then once you click save, those needs are live. And the goal is that you share that support now with whomever you want. You know, if you want to blast it out on Facebook, we want to keep it to a specific inner circle of people. You can do that too. We see everything. And then once people click on the support now, they will now be able to choose and to see in one place all the ways that they can support Millie or support you.
• 27:09
  Speaker A: Tell me when someone, if they, they like, oh, this is great. I can't wait to sign up for it. Do they have to create a profile? What does that look like from the user? The helper that's coming in.
• 27:18
  Speaker B: So the helper, it's super simple. You. We call it Raise a hand. So Lend a hand is our volunteer feature. And in order to sign up, you would click raise a hand. And then from that point we just ask for your name, your last name and email address. We capture that so you don't have to like create a crazy like profile, like email password just to raise your hand like, no. The experience is designed so like to make it as simple as possible. Now if you want to create your own registry, of course you'll need to create a password so that you can access, obviously.
• 27:48
  Speaker A: Okay, this is great. And so, I mean, I knew that, I knew that this was like phase two of our talk, but I can't wait for phrase three already because I'm going to do this right now. And you know, like, again, this is a living example of I guess is the elephant now the like emoji that I'm gonna use for us because it feels like that of what community support looks like when we remove the guesswork, that's removing the guesswork and that sometimes the guesswork is creating a fried central nervous system, fried psyche of well, what about this? What about that? Nope, Take the guesswork out. This is what this family needs, and it's gonna look different. And I am so thankful that this is available because. And again, I can't wait to report back. All the best.
• 28:31
  Speaker B: I can't wait either. Two other things. So one, a feature that I don't talk about very often, but it's very powerful, is that when people have Lend a Hand turned on, of course, we give the opportunity for the organizer, in your case, to create me. What's also really special is that when you click on Lend a Hand, there's always an offer a hand button. So with a list of different categories. So let's say, for example, you don't see something that really speaks to your support language. You can offer a hand and click any of those categories. Categories that do speak to you. And part of why we're doing that is because we know that decision fatigue is a very real part of the experience for the families creating this. And so oftentimes, by seeing what people are willing to do, yes, they go.
• 29:14
  Speaker A: Oh, I could use that.
• 29:16
  Speaker B: Oh, wow, I didn't think about that. Actually, it'd be extremely helpful if someone could take Millie here or. Or walk my dog or whatever it is, because that would actually free me up to do the 10 other things I need to do.
• 29:27
  Speaker A: I was just thinking, like, an old teacher of Millie's from ages ago who I'm still in contact with and love to hear the updates, was like, could I take Millie out for ice cream a couple times this summer? And I'm like, oh, my God, she'd love that. That's. Again, I hadn't thought of that as an exact example to put on a registry list, but I know that she would see it and go, oh, my God, Sarah's looking for this, but I already talked to her about that. I'm gonna put the other lend a hand and be awesome.
• 29:52
  Speaker B: And again, that's what. That's what we've learned about the experience. It's like two things can be true at the same time. Families can be overwhelmed and unsure of what their needs are, and there can be a group of people that want to deposit their support in some way, shape, or form. And what support now is trying to do is create space for both of those things to be true at the same time, thus prompting families to be more receptive and open to their communities, supporting them in ways that they can't even oftentimes articulate or think of themselves because they're so consumed with the realities.
• 30:22
  Speaker A: Of their day to day lives. Right. Of their own lives. That's like just how we are. And that's, that's exactly. That's also part of human nature too. Let's not.
• 30:29
  Speaker B: The other thing I'll share as we, before we wrap is that. And I've said this to you so many times, and I mean this, my most important job is to provide an experience to our customers that are. That is unmatched, you know, that you can't get somewhere else. And my goal is that anyone that experiences support now realizes that this is a company that cares. It cares about how much money you keep if that's important to you. It cares about the outcomes you achieve and it cares about the customer experience that you have. And I say that because we're early. We're a startup, so we are listening to our customers every day, trying to get better every day, learning from their experience to figure out what more can we be doing or what can we be doing differently that reduces the friction both for the organizers of these registries and for the community. And we have such an advantage of being a startup able to have our ear to the ground to really take this feedback and then to infuse it into the experience so that everyone can benefit from real moms just like you. Which is to say that both for you and for anyone else that chooses to take a look at this, I always say, you won't hurt my feelings if you say, actually I found this. Can this button be changed to this or that? We want to hear those things because that's how I know we're building something valuable.
• 31:54
  Speaker A: And again, you are grounded in the reality of this, in that you're saying the village still exists. I want to have such a hand on the pulse of these different sets of support needs from different families from all over the world, the country. That's saying you're not taking it as a slap against the system. You're saying, allow the system to help us evolve so that we can be better at how this support looks.
• 32:17
  Speaker B: Like that's like this is. It sounds so big and almost so cliche. Like, this is a movement. Like, we are teaching people how to support again. We are bringing the community back together again. Like, I actually think we're teaching the fundamentals of what community is all about. And we've kind of lost our way. I mean, between Covid and wars and climate change and AI, like we're everything. We're all over the place. And so what's really. There's a really unique opportunity for support now to be a technology that's accessible anywhere, but to use technology to bring your village back together.
• 32:51
  Speaker A: Well, I'm so thankful for your work. I'm so thankful that this isn't the end of this. We're gonna definitely have a follow up phase three conversation. You know, it's about, for me, it's gonna be about presence and play for these children that are not typically developing in a world that might not be fit for them, but the way that we can in a world show that the world does show up for children like mine and for all the different families that have a variety of support needs. So thank you for this wonderfully purposeful company that you are building and growing and being able to share it and shout it from the rooftops as I begin my own journey with it is. Is means a lot. Means a lot. So, Jordan, thank you again for all that you do. And until next time on the Instruments podcast, bye, y'. All.