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Transcript

Beyond Words - Kyle Wallgren · WHAT I'VE LEARNT

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: While the world has experienced a shift since the pandemic broke out, now self-education has taken a stronger stand than ever.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: With remote learning and parents actively being school teachers' assistants.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: This has, however, enabled poor quality learning and reading.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: To fix the situation, Carl Walgren got the idea to build a new communication and reading application called Edsoma.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: Globally renowned NBA basketball star Jack O'Neill is just one of the many literacy advocates supporting this innovative literacy platform now in 11 countries.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: He's on a literacy mission and is an investor in EdSoma, a powerful literacy app.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: Edsoma was designed to get children back in the reading culture and help them bond better with the authority figures in their lives.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: The app has been on the trajectory to become every family's favourite reading application with its numerous features and functionalities that encourage bonding while learning.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: One remarkable thing about EdSoma is that parents and guardians do not need to be physically present with their children to read with them.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Instead, they can do the reading from any part of the world and still achieve this aim.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: The app's creator and CEO, Carl Walgren, got the inspiration to build the app due to his marital status as a divorced parent.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to continue reading with my children even when I'm not with them.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I created this app for not just myself, but other parents in a similar situation.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Not just divorced parents can benefit from this app, other parents who have to travel for work, and veterans get to spend time with their children.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: So beyond being just a reading application, Extoner also does for children by means of correcting readers when they mispronounce a word during a read aloud.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: This is one of the app's key major points as children are prone to mispronouncing words or skipping them altogether.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: So the app steps in and corrects the pronunciation to make sure they read words correctly.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Keeping track of reading activities has also been made easier on Epson as parents, schools, and teachers can all monitor books read and progress made.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people are really excited about this new incredible app.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: I've especially love the increased confidence we see in children using the app, combined with the boosted passion for learning and actually learning how to read words correctly, said some of the teachers that have used this incredible resource.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: So, Kyle, welcome to the Beyond Words Global Literacy Foundation podcast.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: We're so happy to have you join us.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate you having me.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: And you're coming to us all the way from Texas, is that right?
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, ma'am.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: I I grew up in Canada, but about six years ago, I actually moved to the US to uh under an E2 investment visa.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: So I've moved here to build businesses, and I guess that's exactly what we're doing.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you're building a pretty exciting and interesting one, and it's got a very important mission.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: Talk to me about what you see, and clearly your mission is to find ways to ensure that everyone can read when they want, how they want.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's a very innovative idea.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: So talk to us about how that came to be.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I like I said, I moved to the United States about six years ago uh after getting divorced, and I was uh divorced with two kids, and then obviously the whole world went through a pandemic and the shutdown.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_02: And for me, that meant that I went a year and a half without seeing two of my kids that were located in Canada because of the border restrictions.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and one night my daughter, who was six at that time, asked me if I could read her a bedtime story.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_02: And uh I felt like with it being 2020, that the technology had to exist for like, you know, story sharing, Zoom for kids kind of thing.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: And when I started looking for it, um, there was a platform that would allow me to connect.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_02: But what I realized is that I wasn't as strong at reading as I thought I was, and all of a sudden, at this crucial time, teaching your kids to read was so much more important because they weren't going to school.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_02: So um I started looking for something that could do that, and the technology just wasn't there.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: So after my own experiences, uh I decided that I would build it out.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, ended up selling a business um to my other partners at that time.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: And we jumped into this two feet uh about two years ago now.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think it's a really moving story, actually, literally, because you're right, it's a very intimate thing, isn't it, to read to your kids?
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: And no matter what your circumstances are, it's something that you connect with children.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: They learn a lot by having that quality time with that parent.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so the idea that, which I really find quite innovative, that you can read to your child wherever you are, as you point out, whether it's traveling or whether you've been forced by circumstance to live in another country, that which would have been very difficult too for you.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's a long time with the pandemic separating you for a year and a half.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: And there you have this great resource to encourage kids to say, you know, you can connect with dad, we can still read together.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: So tell me how that came.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's really interesting.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: I remember um some of the like my fondest memories.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: I I grew up a lot spending a lot of time with my grandparents.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, I remember, you know, laying in bed and having my grandmother read to me, and that's like some of my most cherished moments.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: And and I just felt like we needed to like go back to the basics.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_02: I think the world's uh taking a turn, you know, almost for the worst, and and qual quality time isn't as important as it used to be.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we're all stuck, and I say this that we're stuck to devices, even though we use a device, but I felt like we weren't gonna get around being stuck to those devices.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_02: So, how do we put those quality moments back onto a device?
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: And um, you know, during this, what was going on with the world, it just made sense to be able to tie people together through a video streaming platform uh in a way that we could make lasting memories.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, one of the big deciding factors for me were thinking about like families that were or military families that, you know, go away and fight for your country, you know, how how much more engaged with being away could you be knowing that you're still making an impact on the learning aspect of your child's life, even though you're, you know, halfway around the world in a situation that you'd rather not be in.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and doing something for our country and and for your country, it's very good point.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I don't think we've ever really, in a way, the pandemic, as you mentioned, it sort of shifted everybody's viewpoint so that suddenly distance took on a whole new meaning.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I think what you're doing is you flipped that idea and that notion on its head and said, well, we're sort of faced with that reality anyway, whether it's even though the pandemic seems to have settled now, it actually brought to light some of these other times of distance, such as you mentioned with the military.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I also think what you've highlighted is the intimacy of literacy, which is actually critical.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: And it's something that you you and I grew up similarly.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: I grew up, you know, it was always like, and my kids sit on my parents' knees and you know, read read books, and it's a time of sharing.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: So what sort of resonance, first of all, the logistics of creating this and making it a point of difference.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: How did that come to be?
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't have a technology background at all.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_02: So I can hardly, as you were experiencing with uh Lauren, uh, I can hardly send an email.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: So um there was a major hurdle to climb in understanding what I was trying to build, but I've always been a person to like build the airplane as we're taking off the ground kind of thing.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_02: So um I I fell in love with podcasts uh because I wasn't a great reader.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um and it just like all the podcasts that I continue to listen surrounding around entrepreneurship, just kind of said, you know, surround yourself with people that are smarter than you, and you're always gonna be in good hands.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: So I just continued to try and do that while we were building this out.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: And we've, you know, I've been blessed with uh a fellow by the name of Tom Reale who was in publishing.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_02: I pitched the idea at him early on to see if we could even get content for our platform because I felt like that was gonna be our biggest roadblock.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_02: And he's like, Oh yeah, great idea, but it's not gonna work.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, so I had like really smart people early on, you know, guide me through the journey.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and then our mistakes became our like strongest moments.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_02: I I hired a third-party developing company thinking that they could build it for me.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_02: And after a year, they came back and they're like, we just can't do this.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_02: So uh, not being a person that likes to give up very easily, I just decided that I'd hire my own developers, take off the restraints uh due to contracts of like third-party contracts, and just put a room of creative people together and figure out how to do it.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: And that's ultimately how we've got to where we're at now.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: So the greatest challenge are you saying was the technology?
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: Because, in a sense, as you said, I mean, I love obviously I'm a podcast, you know, that's my thing.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I think you point out a very important um fact, which is podcasts are a way for people who can't read to access information and to hear stories.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: So you've sort of taken that notion and made that very accessible.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: So can you just talk to me about one, what were the challenges?
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: And two, how logistically, if somebody wants to use Ed Soma, what does that involve and how does that app work?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so it we've we've gotten Ed Soma to the point where it's fairly easy.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: You can go into your um favorite app store and download it.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_02: Now we're in the iOS and Google Play Store.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and we can use it on any device.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_02: So as long as you have service or Wi-Fi, um, you can actually do a video streaming call with your uh reader of choice or your child or grandparent or whoever you're wanting to connect with.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, depending on the model, students can connect with their other classmates.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: But uh ultimately what it is is it's a voice recognition software.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: So as you read out loud, the words will highlight green to give you that instant gratification of knowing that you're getting it right.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_02: And then as we track your voice, we identify patterns uh with our technology to identify if you're starting to struggle.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: If you start to struggle, the word will break down into syllables.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, if you continue to struggle, you can select it, it'll enunciate the word.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and then we put those words into work buckets, and our AI back end starts providing content surrounding those word structures uh that you're having troubles with.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_02: So we're constantly providing content that uh inspires kids to continue reading instead of content that intimidates them.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, being somebody that suffered with uh literacy issues my whole life growing up, that was one of my biggest challenges as a kid.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: I understand uh almost like the shame or the fear of coming out and telling somebody that you can't read or that you're not understanding uh what the task is that you're trying to accomplish.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: So knowing that firsthand and actually diving into this brought those emotions back, like very vividly, that that was what I wanted to get away with or get away from.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: So we made sure that while while we were building this, that we could give those kids those moments of strength back where they don't have to feel intimidated anymore.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: That's really powerful.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the things I really hear from you, which I think resonates and will resonate with our listeners, is the emotionality from the place that you come from.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's from the heart.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: There's a very strong sense of whether it's as a father feeling detached and distanced from their kids, finding a way to connect, or whether it's from your, you know, empathy for the military and people who are traveling or, you know, removed from their families, or your own struggles with literacy in in those early days and the shame that often un inexplicably but understandably, some people feel when they can't read.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: And when we look at the figures of 750 million illiterate people that we are aware of statistically through the World Literacy Foundation, that's a hell of a lot of people that are struggling.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: So it's ultimately what you're you're trying to target some of these issues.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: So talk to me on that.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_02: That that number that you said was ultimately like one of the deciding factors.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_02: So, like in America, there's 56 million American adults that suffer from literacy to the issue where they can't read a menu, a basic menu at a restaurant.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: So the more I started diving into those numbers, the thoughts of, you know, what are these kids doing at home during this time?
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: Which I don't like to refer back past tense to the pandemic just because it was a crappy time in our our existence, I feel like.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: But those kids ultimately are around parents that suffer from these issues.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, they're most likely um in positions where the parents can't afford tutoring or extra services for them.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_02: So they just stay in that circle.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_02: And we we took we went through the pandemic talking about equity and you know, how to be able to provide equity, but I wanted a solution in literacy to be able to bring that to the forefront.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_02: So it was really important to us early on.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_02: And actually, because of our mission, I think all great doors seemed to open.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_02: Uh early on, we got to um get involved with one of our now uh owning partners, Shaquille O'Neal, uh, and his team.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and it was really important to him to make sure that we could make a platform that would be useful to inner city communities that couldn't afford these extra resources and make it affordable so everybody would have a chance to use it, not just you know, the more fortunate in a better financial position, but people that actually needed it the most.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: So um that's kind of what we focused on was building it affordable, you know, the reality, or at least in America, we did have our governments issued devices, tablets, computers um during that time to everybody that was going to school, and they'd offered Wi-Fi to everybody who needed it.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_02: So it was just like that perfect timing to try and catch them up to speed.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_02: And we realized, you know, that literacy affected people more than just how I thought about it from the day to day.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_02: If you look at, you know, people that are uh incarcerated, their literacy rates, you know, the majority of them read it a below grade or grade two reading levels.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: So uh when you think about crazy incarceration, and we read some studies that if you can teach somebody to read while incarcerated, just two grade levels, increasing them two grade levels, they go from like an 87% chance of returning down to an 18% chance of returning.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_02: So just be extraordinary figures, aren't they?
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's can make a very strong impact on how an economy functions, how parents can come back into the home, just so much stuff is is supported when you can read, um, you know, even at just a grade forward reading level.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: And and that also shows, I'm sure, the proportion of people who are incarcerated, how much that will have also impacted their journey.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like to that's why they often end up, I mean, they're ill-equipped to to cope with the world.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, even as you say, whether it's read a menu or read a street sign, or and we've talked about, or even a medic medical bottle, like the basic things that like if you take it like one step further, you know, and I'm not promoting any criminal activities when I say this, but if you look at the vast majority of people, they're usually in there because they've done something wrong, trying to make a living of some sort.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: They were trying to put food on the table or you know, find a place to stay.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: And in that nature, you know, these people are willing to take great risks just to feed themselves for their families.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_02: So if you could give them the tools to take those same risks in a legitimate field, the opportunities that they could bring, you know what I mean?
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: Those people are some of the best, you know, for lack of better words, entrepreneurs there is.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_02: And if we could just make it around a good movement, you know, they could really make an impact, I believe.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, I talk about um the literacy revolution, which I think has become quite a movement.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: You mentioned Shaquille O'Neal.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: Talk to me.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: I know he and also LeBron James, they're they're all very, very active in this area, doing some extraordinary work.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: How did you get Shaquille on board and what sort of uh what have you learned from him?
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_02: So Shaquille's like, you know, obviously larger in life and not just his presence, but in in his you know, person as well.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: The guy um has a heart bigger than himself, I'm sure.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_02: But we literally my VP of sales uh was a huge basketball fan and uh made a comment that if anybody could help us get to the people that needed this most, it would be Shaquille.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_02: And all of a sudden, on LinkedIn, you know, our devices that listen to us, um, popped up Shaquille's agent.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, what the hell?
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_02: I'll just send him a called email, uh, see, you know, where that takes us.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_02: And Perry said, you know, uh, this is interesting.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_02: I'd love to see if it can actually work.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I flew out and met with Shaquille's agent, Perry.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and he's like, Wow, this is amazing.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I want you to come back and and show it to Shaquille.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, when I met with Shaquille, I'm five foot eight, I'm very much smaller than Shaquille.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_02: That's quite a lot smaller.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_02: The device to test it out, it dawned on me that we had never done any testing with somebody as deep a voice as what he had.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_02: And because he's so much taller than me, he was holding the device over my head.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_02: So I couldn't even see if it was working.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_02: But by the you know, sheer look on his face um of excitement, we realized that it was working, and he just said, How can I help?
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, so they've been a great team to work with, they're very helpful.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_02: They, you know, have a huge network, obviously, from you know, Shaquille playing basketball, but he's a hell of a business person as well.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_02: People don't realize the amount of businesses that he actually owns and his foundation, you know, that supports groups like the boys and girls clubs.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: And um, he's just got a really big heart, and everybody involved with his team comes from the right place.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: So some of the updates are the favorite updates that we like giving, especially when we get to call Shaquille's office, you know, getting involved with the World Literacy Task Force and the approval of our platform as a preferred product to help stomp out literacy, e-literacy around the world, you know, it aligns with, you know, Shaquille's mission and quite a few of the other celebrities that we're working with.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: And they just love hearing that resar that, you know, that we're getting uh identified by great um platforms like the World Literacy Foundation.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, for you, it's an extraordinary thing that you cold called him and it shows also, you know, that a passion for a mission, yours and I suppose his, when they align, look what you can do.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I suppose that's something that you should be very proud of because it's not easy to do that.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: And it's also hard to make uh, and you mentioned there were challenges along the way, but when you have somebody come into your corner and go, you know what, I get this.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: How did that feel for you?
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: Validated, you know.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_02: You know, um it's about persistence, uh and not being scared to ask.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the worst thing you can hear is no.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_02: I I'm I'm gonna say it in two parts.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: The worst thing you can hear is no.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um, ultimately, the worst thing you can hear is nothing back in return because it motivates you to ask again.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_02: But when you get the word no, you know, at least to move on.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, with Shaquille, it just showed me that it's the right time.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_02: People care about this now, it's on the forefront.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, we all can identify that there's parts of education that are old and broken, and it's time for a change.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: The technology is at a point now where we can make that impact.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_02: We can help give time back to teachers who are, you know, hugely underpaid.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and struggling allow them.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we can allow them more resources.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_02: And if we just, you know, get strategic with our partnerships and and creative with the opportunities that we can provide a value back.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_02: Because kids are ultimately our future, right?
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_02: And if you look at during the pandemic, those kids lost two of the most important years of their life.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, statistically, that shows that if you can't read at par by grade three, you're never gonna catch up.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: So that's quite terrifying.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: They've got a long, steep hill to climb, and we just wanted to give them the best shot we can.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_02: And there's great people getting involved in the literacy mission now, especially across the United States for sure.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_02: So Clubhouse was ultimately our our driver behind the live library, and we wanted to identify how we could get celebrities onto our platform without having to pay them.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_02: And we we're now seeing the original influencers like Paris Hilton, and that aligns with my age category, you know, having kids that are now learning to read.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: So the reading has become a very important part in the original influencers' lives now, to the point where we're like, how do we get them back into this influential space?
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: And that's why we created the live library feature or uh part of our app was so they could come in and hear their favorite authors read their favorite books and engage with, you know, maybe their favorite celebrity as well.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_02: And we do have a large list of celebrities coming that we can't release just quite yet, but uh you'll keep us posted.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_02: You will keep guys posted.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_02: I think everybody will see some of their favorite people on our.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Platform.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: So, Carl, you're just telling me that you're launching a children's book series with uh Forey J.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_02: Smith, who uh is one of my favorite characters on the hit TV show Yellowstone.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_02: He plays Lloyd, the old cowboy, and um, we connected with him.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: I met him in a hotel of all random places, hotel lobby, and I told him what I was doing.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_02: And he said, Hey, I want to write a children's book.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_02: And the more we dove into it, uh, we felt like it could be a book series.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_02: So we'll be uh launching his first book um probably this fall.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: Uh they're just doing the illustrations right now on it, but uh it'll be launching on our platform first, and then of course going to stores as well.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_02: But um, that's one of the exciting parts that we have coming up.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, because the creators can all unify and use that.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, he's got a great voice, so it'll be interesting.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_02: One of the things that we did to surround creators that I think your audience might find really cool is we have this feature called Live Library where you'll be able to tune in to Forey, Lloyd, reading his book live on our platform.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like a 360 environment kind of thing, uh, designed for kids to sit in and hear their favorite stories read by the people that wrote them.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_02: So it's a really cool feature.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, I'm actually quite, you know, immersing myself in this space.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_01: I really do see a literacy movement, as you mentioned.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: And also I think it's interesting because I like the way you referred to the fact that literacy as you know, an education is has been broken and is changing because also you've got, and some of the other people I've interviewed, you've got kids who are also, they are on their devices, they do have a different time, their whole brain is different to the way you and I grew up.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we were not immersed in all of this technology in the same way.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: So you sort of got to talk the talk in the way that they can resonate, which is what you're doing.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: So they've got to be able to embrace what's put before them, otherwise they get bored and they're not interested and they disengage.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_02: One of the things that we learned, and we're fortunate enough in the way that we built our technology, is uh I felt like kids had enough opportunity to play games on devices.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_02: So we took the gamification opportunity out of our platform.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_02: There's no gamification in our platform at all.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_02: But what we did is offer them an instant reward.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_02: So we, you know, outside of playing games, what do children crave the most is acknowledgement that they're doing it right, you know, validation.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_02: Social media has taught me that that like button is a a major player in people's lives.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, kids at that age, they don't have that like button necessarily, but they do have that green word lighting up, showing them that they're getting it right.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_02: And we've seen kids that struggled with reading and being forced to read just 10, 12 minutes a day, you know, after getting that um competit or self-competitiveness with our app and seeing the instant gratification of getting it right and seeing them progress.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_02: They're taking it, and now we're getting volunteer times of, you know, on average 20 to 25 minutes a day.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and we're not asking to complain to games.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_02: We're just saying, here's a large library of content, you know, here's some time on a device, and you know, go get it right.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_02: And and they're doing that, and they're wanting to advance on their own now, which is really rewarding.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: And so practically, just so I understand, so on the app, you choose your book.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: Let's say I wanted to read to you or you wanted to read to me.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: Just take what walk me through how that works.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_02: So it would ultimately be kind of like uh you first off, we can read individually by yourself.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_02: You don't have to share a phone call.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_02: You can go on your device and you can read out loud to the device.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_02: But if you and I were communicating right now on something similar to a Zoom call, it's through our Ed Soma platform.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, we would be sharing a book just like I could share content with you.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_02: But I would be sharing a book.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_02: We could see the other person just like we're doing now through the Zoom call.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_02: But as you read and you can identify the reader through voice, it starts lighting up.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, we have roughly 7,000 books under contract right now.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_02: We've got new books going on the platform every day.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, great books from Caillou to Lion in the Mouse, you know, um, the old time favorites.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_02: My favorite book on there right now is Ten Little Squirrels by Bill Martin Jr.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but you share the book, the piece of content, as one person turns a page, the page turns on the other side of the device, and you follow along together um and share in those moments.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_02: So you you can turn the page on the book, you get the whole feeling of the page turning, um, to get the whole emotion behind it.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then, like I said, when they start reading and they see that first word turn green.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I watched a movie once and it was about Uber, and they said in Uber, if you can get them in the Uber cab second by the second time, you they have them for life as a customer.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_02: And uh by the second word that lights up, we've got our reader and they're hooked.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_02: You know, they they just see that instant gratification right away.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and then at the end, we um we provide a reading report.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_02: So in our reading report, they can see how many words per minute they got, how many words they got right, what words they're struggling on, how many pages they read, uh, what their word count is, how many sentences they read, how long they spent reading.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_02: And we just collect all this data, how if they enunciated the word properly, all of this, and we provide that to them at the end of the read.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_02: And we do it every read, and they get like this little report card to see how they're doing so they know if they're advancing or progressing immediately after the read.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_02: We're not waiting for anybody to be updated, you know, midway through the year at the end of the year when it's too late.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_02: We want to be able to stay engaged in real time with with our user um every time they use or every time they use the platform in order for us to be able to make suggestions to help them at the time the most when it's too late.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so what's the entry level?
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: What's the sort of the starter point?
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: Is it prep?
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: Is it is that when you start?
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what you call it.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so uh we have content, we focused on content uh K through fourth grade right now.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_02: Uh platform will work through any grade, and we have content available for you know adults and everything.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_02: We just haven't put it on the platform right now.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_02: We've just been focused on kindergarten, is what we call it.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sure I think you guys call it crap, but kindergarten.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: Oh no, kindergarten, yeah.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, okay, great.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's 7,000 books at the moment, and you're updating that all the time.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so for educators, and and in terms of global, or you know, let's say if Australia, because it's an app, you can access it from anywhere.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, is there a cultural download in 11 countries right now?
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that's what I was gonna ask you.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so you're in 11 countries, and and so people can just download the app and they can access this resource um either as a shared or as an individual choice that you can do one-on-one.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um and we've got two models.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_02: We've got a direct to consumer model and we have an education model.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, our education model obviously is tailored more to the teacher being able to see transparency on their students and be able to share that journey with the parents.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but we can allow up to 50 students um to a single user platform where they can make individual calls to each other.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_02: So even if at their home and they want to read with you know their best friend uh after school to get those reading minutes in, they can call them uh on the device and read with their with their friends, um, you know, just to give them that little bit of inspiration and connectivity uh and social experience through our app.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_02: And then with our at-home model, we can have up to four active users on the same call.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_02: So if, you know, little cousin Susie wants to read with grandma and their mom all at the same time, they can share uh with four different users at one time a single book.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: I just love the way the whole thing has got a social overlay as well.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_01: There's a sense of engagement and connectivity and unification in families and even in schools.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think the school system, I mean, certainly here, there's a lot of discussion, I have to say, in Australia about, I mean, we're we're we're using a system not dissimilar to the US that is really quite anachronistic.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's literally like it was sort of born out of the industrial revolution.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's extremely, you know, like it's literally like really old school.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying that the education system at every level is broken, but I can tell you here, there's a lot of discussion.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_02: You have to remember who created school, right?
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like it was created by um John D.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_02: Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, and they wanted people to be smart enough to work in their factories.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_02: So they built a system to build factory workers.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we don't have a lot of factories anymore, so it's time to update the system.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_01: 100%.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's the that's the the general feeling here in Australia as well, that you know, we're progressive and everybody's but some of the like, I mean, I've got three kids myself, I've seen them go through school and and I've seen the you know, great outcomes on many levels.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: They're all thank, you know, it's a blessing.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: But I'll tell you what, the system is incredibly uh tunnel vision on many levels.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I think, you know, having come on the other side, I go, wow, is this?
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, let alone kids that can't even get to, as you say, you know, that first step, how if you haven't learned to read effectively by grade two, how it impacts your life.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_01: Even when you are through the system, it's extreme, it's quite repressive.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it doesn't necessarily cultivate um creativity.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, or or look, I appreciate if you need to be a doctor or you need to be a lawyer or whatever, I can understand there are certain uh sort of tunnels or or rails that have to apply.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I want my doctor to be educated for sure.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, of course.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not one to go push secondary education on anybody if that's you know ultimately what is important to you or your family, then by all means.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_02: But but it's being this to brag about it.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_02: I've I chose to leave school in grade nine.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um got a very successful business life because I was taught hard work first.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_02: But I had the basic understanding of how to read enough to get by and mathematics.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_02: And with those two skills, I was able to survive and provide for my family.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but more and more people are leaving school without those skills and those fundamentals we can't replace.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_02: No matter how much we advance with technology, reading is always going to be a priority or an uh a must-have in order to function properly through life, no matter what.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I agree with you.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I think as long as, as you say, as long as it progresses and adapts and becomes innovative, which is what you're doing here, which is why I think it's a great, great opportunity for people to jump on board.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to thank you so much for sharing your story, which has actually been wonderful.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: And it's been a really interesting insight into thinking laterally, being business-minded, but also having a very strong purpose of improving literacy, and that's ultimately what the Beyond Words podcast is about, shining the light on people like yourself, so that people get an understanding that there are lots of great things happening out there and tools such as Ed Soma.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you so much, and we look forward to seeing what you do next, and hopefully you'll just keep growing and expanding and uh and reaching the people you need to reach.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_02: We we're definitely gonna give it our best, best effort for sure.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_02: So I appreciate you having us.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's been a blast, and anybody that you know wants to try out the app, they can go to their favorite app store.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_02: It's Edsoma E D S O M A.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um and download it in the first free our first three reads, they're on us.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_02: So just go ahead and try it for free today.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_02: And um, we just want to get it in the hands of the people that need it.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_01: We love it, we love it.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's a great, great resource.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_01: Alright, well, thanks for joining us, Carl.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_01: Look uh look after yourself and yeah, hi Texas, by Texas.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_02: Talk to you later.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_02: Have a good day.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_01: Bye.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_01: Well at the World Literacy Foundation, we believe in literacy is the foundation of lifelong learning and education.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_01: People who cannot read or write experience difficulties with simple everyday tasks, such as reading the label of a medicine bottle, filling their job application, or understanding traffic sign.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: When we help someone to acquire literacy skills, we are empowering them to access to better opportunities and lives to break the poverty cycle, to the local organization in Africa, Latin America, the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's a website.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_01: So see if you can contribute and make a difference.