Transforming Kids’ Mental Health with Enrichly | Margo Jordan

In this episode of The Ashley B. Cash Show, Ashley sits down with Margo Jordan, founder and CEO of Enrichly, to discuss one of the most critical issues facing children today: mental health.

Margo shares her journey from working in finance to creating a digital health platform focused on building self-esteem, confidence, and emotional well-being in children and teens. Together, Ashley and Margo explore why self-esteem is the foundation for success, how early emotional development impacts a child’s future, and why schools must take a more proactive approach to mental health.

They discuss the growing challenges facing students, the impact of screen time and social media on young minds, the importance of teaching coping skills and emotional intelligence, and how tools like Enrichly are helping bring accessible mental health resources to families and communities.

Ashley and Margo also dive into the future of education, including the need to equip students with life skills like communication, critical thinking, financial literacy, and the ability to navigate challenges with confidence.

Margo’s mission is simple: give children the tools they need to understand themselves, build resilience, and reach their full potential.

Topics discussed:

•  Why self-esteem is essential to a child’s success 
•  The connection between mental health and academic achievement 
•  Creating healthier relationships with technology and screen time 
•  Teaching children emotional intelligence and coping skills 
•  Expanding access to mental health resources 
•  Preparing students with the skills they need beyond the classroom 

Learn more about Margo Jordan and Enrichly:
 Enrichly.world | MargoForTexas.com

Tune in for a powerful conversation about transforming education by prioritizing the whole child.

About The Ashley B. Cash Show: The Ashley B. Cash Show features conversations with education leaders, policy experts, parents, teachers and reform advocates who are working to transform K-12 education. Host Ashley B. Cash brings her perspective as both a parent and business owner to explore systemic education issues and practical solutions for creating better outcomes for students, families, and communities.

About Ashley:  As both a mother and business owner, Ashley brings a unique dual perspective to education reform advocacy, driven by her desire for better educational outcomes for future generations and informed by her firsthand experience with the skills gap facing employers today. Her passion for transforming K-12 education stems from witnessing the real-world consequences of educational failures and recognizing the critical need for a system that prepares students for diverse career pathways, not just college. Through this podcast, Ashley champions solutions including aptitude-based education tracks, expanded school choice, practical skills integration, and alternative career pathways that align with students' individual strengths and interests.

Follow @AshleyBCashOfficial on Instagram & @Ashley Bowes Cash on Facebook.

Visit www.AshleyBCashOfficial.com for more content and features. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to the Ashley B Cash Show. I'm Ashley, and I'm so excited about today's guest. It's all things mental health and kids. Marg Jordan is the founder and CEO of Enrichly, a digital health platform pioneering self-esteem-focused behavioral health, confidence, self-esteem, and emotional well-being for children and teens. Coming from a background in finance with an MBA from Capella University, Marg has raised over $3 million in venture capital, placing her among less than 2% of black women to ever do so. Her work has been recognized around the world from the most impactful company award in Abu Dhabi to features with Forbes, Middle East, Essence, TED, and IBM. She is a retired Army veteran and she is taking her grit and can-do attitude and is taking her mission even further, running as a right-in candidate for the Texas State Board of Education District 6, fighting for accessible mental health resources and self-esteem-centered education in our schools. She's also a devoted mother of five, anchored in faith, pouring into her purpose every single day. Let's get into it.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Margo, welcome to the show. Oh my gosh. Thank you for having me, Ms. Ashley.

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Well, that was a mouthful. You've done a lot in your young life. And I'm so excited that we have crossed paths. Marg and I met a few weeks ago at the State Board of Education. We were both down there trying to make sure that they got our social studies teeks right, our literacy list right, and also the personal financial literacy. And we just had great conversations. And as my listeners know, you know, I talk about emotional intelligence a lot, that we have to start working with kids on teaching them how not to overreact, how to stay calm in situations, how to have better self-esteem, and that confidence therefore translates to the rest of their life, including their learning.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

And I think it's so critically important. I think that we should be starting it with pre-K and kindergarten and continuing it all the way through school. So I know this is your area of focus. Tell us a little bit about your background and how you came to be focused on this and then about Enrichley.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Yeah, well, thank you so much for having me. It was such a pleasure meeting you at Austin, by the way. We had so much in common when it comes to how passionate we are about children's mental health. So I grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and I was in a two-parent household for the most part. However, my parents got married and divorced like three different times, interestingly now. So I struggled with self-esteem issues, and that translated into like high school just making a bunch of bad decisions. But when I turned 18, I decided to join the military, and that was where I really discovered how self-esteem was this determining factor, both personally and professionally. So I went on to graduate with my bachelor's degree in finance, still serving in the military. But when I got out of the army, um, I really wanted to do something that was still impactful. So I went back to the root of how I became the person that I was when I graduated. And it was really due to the level of self-esteem that I developed throughout the years. And when I did my research, I found out that Maslow's hierarchy of needs, self-esteem is number four on this chart. So I was just thinking, why are we not teaching children this basic skill? If self-esteem is so important, why are we not teaching kids just how to love and value themselves? And I was in corporate America upon graduation. I went into um finance with uh a bank, a corporate bank. Um, so I was in uh that for about a year and a half, and I said, you know what, I really want to do something a little bit more impactful, and I left, and that was where I started um this company. And we actually started out as a brick and mortar teaching children about self-esteem, how important it was, and we had actually started to measure the efficacy of our programs. Um, we got contracts with different schools to then teach them in the classrooms about what we were doing, and we were seeing some really positive outcomes from the lower rates of youth violence to the improvement in overall mental health and all of these things, and then when COVID happened, I had to completely shut down the brick and mortar and then just translate into this technology company. I don't have a technology background, but I had to just figure it out. And I figured out okay, I can I can create this tech company, and I turned everything that I learned throughout my time in the military in this brick and mortar, and I pivoted to this digital platform that we now call in Richley, where we're literally focusing on pediatric behavior health, but from a self-esteem first perspective, and all of the I guess things that we put into this technology, it incorporates what we took from that brick and mortar, but we turn them into these really fun video games that kids love, but then we measure the efficacy by ensuring we have the assessments and pre- and post, and then now healthcare systems they're deploying this into communities, and this is really a great way to bring more behavior health resources into underserved or under-resourced communities where they don't really have access to mental health tools. Um, and that's really kind of how I got started.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Well, I I know there's a desperate need for that. I mean, you see it every day just in people, youth. Yes, youth, you see it in them, but you also see it in young adults who live through COVID, maybe they're out of school now, but you know, just having just a verbal disagreement with someone and they just like start screaming and yelling because they don't have that coping mechanism to make them stay calm in those situations where maybe they're not everybody doesn't think like they do, right? But I mean, obviously our mental health numbers are the bad mental health numbers are through the roof. And and I agree with you a hundred percent that it's something that we can do prophylactically, like be instead of being reactive to when something goes bad, let's give them the tools they need ahead of time to stop them from having a bad reaction, whatever that may be, right? Anything from just having an explosion in a classroom or I mean, god forbid, tragedies that have happened all across this country, right? Yeah. Um, and um, I'm so glad that you're doing this. There's such a desperate need for it, and uh I I hope we can explore making it happen because it's desperately needed. Desperately needed. Well, so tell me a little bit more. So in Ridge Lee, it's a digital platform. Do you're contracting with some schools? Yes. Right now, yes. Now, can parents also access this like directly if they just want it for their child and it's not available in their schools?

SPEAKER_01 6:57

For sure. Um, you really just go to the website and you sign up as a parent. Uh so we work with schools, but it's usually through like a healthcare system because we know that schools have that trust built in with their local healthcare provider. So we'll partner with the healthcare system. For example, in Georgia, WellStar is one of our um partners, they deploy this to their school partners and then like Boys and Girls Club or Girls Inc., they also have access. If parents just want to sign up directly, they can just go to our website in Richley.world and just sign up from there.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

In Richley.world.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

Yes. I love that. Yes, it was so funny. Um, that domain, it was interesting. I wanted in Richley.com, but it was taken. So I was like, well, I really want this to be like a global company, and enrichly.world was available. And um at the time we were actually in Abu Dhabi doing business uh with the early childhood authority because the royal family had kind of like selected our company as one of the six to launch our second headquarters over there in the UAE and really help when it comes to holistic mental health support for their youth. And um, we were in there for I think since 2023, and we've just been partnering with them ever since. Um, especially when crisis broke out recently, we were able to provide free resources to children across the UAE.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

That's awesome. That's awesome. So you and I discussed briefly that I also serve on the board of the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute. Yes. And um that's I mean, that's why I know that the mental health issue is so bad, right? But I don't think that you can be a parent today or a grandparent or even a business owner and not recognize that the mental health issue is yeah growing and it's getting worse and it's getting worse and it's happening younger and younger and younger. And um I know that COVID was a huge stressor for children and they lost so much time and the masks, um, while sometimes were necessary, um, also made their speaking ability worse, right? Yeah, because they couldn't read the lips to determine how to even enunciate and pronounce the words. And but it also masked their emotions, it masked so many other things. Yeah, right. Um what like when a child, when a parent or a school system recognizes that a child needs help, how does your system start up?

SPEAKER_01 9:22

So we actually come in before anything, like before they even would recognize, oh, that child is struggling. We come in with like these really gamified assessments, and we introduce these like uh anxiety, depression, or self-esteem screeners through like simple games. And once they take these assessments, our system tracks whether or not they're in stress, um, whether they have high levels of anxiety or depression. Uh, and then we give them recommendations, and all of the recommendations are these little game-based modules that our team of psychologists have created, and they infuse things like positive psychology, cognitive behavior therapy, but they we we put them into these little games, and the games last anywhere from five to seven minutes. Um, so and we're not we've get we've gotten the question before well, it's screen time. We're not asking for more screen time, we're just asking for better screen time. And these are games where children are learning coping mechanisms, they're learning how to establish healthy boundaries and all of the things necessary to establish a healthy sense of self so that you show up better in the world.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

No, and and I think most of my viewers know that I'm not a fan of screens. Yes, but uh there is some need for kids to have screens, right? And I just advocate for shortening the amount of time kids have screens, but also making sure that when they're on the screen, yeah, it's something that's good for them. And I think this would be something that would be great for them. And so, like, does the parent have to feel like there's something going on that they can't put their finger on, or could a parent just do this prophylactically, like like just to see, yeah, to make sure there's nothing going on?

SPEAKER_01 11:02

Yeah, I would say we've seen it happen in both instances. So we've had parents come to us and they say, Okay, my kid is like they have this high level of anxiety, they're not really confident who they are. But then we've had some parents come to us and they're like, Well, I just want my kid to play this game, it's better than them being on YouTube. Um, YouTube Shorts, there was like a study that I read about how the short videos, it does something to young minds cognitively. And like I have seen that study as well. And I was like, this is so scary. It's so scary. So, as opposed to their child doing like these YouTube shorts, now they're actually playing these games. And we've had some kids tell their parents they would rather play our games than than go on YouTube, which is good for us.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

Well, I bet I bet that is that that is completely rational to me. Yeah. Because I mean, think about it. Think about when when as adults we watch a movie, yeah, and it's an uplifting romantic comedy, and we finish it and we're like happier and we're in a good mood. Or think about you watch the scary movie that's got a depressing ending and at the end you're like all depressed. Yeah right? The things that our kids watch have such an impact on their moods. It has such an impact on how they handle situations, right? Yeah. If they're watching videos that are bad or that have a lot of violence in them, they're one going to be desensitized to the violence. Yeah, number two, they're gonna think that's normal. And number three, they're probably going to start acting that way. Versus if you put them in front of something that's wholesome and good and teaches them how to handle their feelings and to talk about their emotions and to see someone else acting out their emotions in a positive way, and then that's the reference they have for when I feel that way. This is the way I should react. Yeah, that's what you want your kids watching is that positive stuff, right? Yeah. And um that that study that you referenced, and we will put it on our um website as a reference material, but um, it said it talked about how most of the things, well, first of all, there was one study that talks about how today in the United States, 80% of two-year-olds are spending more than eight hours on a screen a day.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:17

Which, and and what it went on to discuss is the fact that their brains are being rewired. Rewired. They will not think the same way that we do because of this early screen time. It's absolutely rewiring their brain. And then another study went on to talk about how the worst part of the screens, um, the time, the amount of time spent is bad, you should limit it to less than 60 minutes a day. But it also went on to say that um the short reels that we are giving these kids, these short, especially like the social media short reels, and it can even be something that's good, like if you're learning the alphabets, but it has little snort snippets, like the 15 to 45 second reels are so bad for the kids because it is giving them like an short birth of bursts. Well, and it's giving them a hit of dopamine every 15 to 45 seconds, right? Well, then their body stops watching it, and then of course they're going into meltdown mode because they're not getting the dopamine hits every 15 to 45 seconds. Exactly. And then the translation to class after that is when a child is used to those short screen times, uh-huh, even if it's just five minutes, right? They cannot translate to a 45-minute class where they're supposed to sit and be still and and and learn. And so we're seeing it across it's rewiring brains, it's completely changing the way they handle things, and it's making it where they cannot sit and concentrate for more extended periods of time. It's scary, it's so extremely scary. And and we don't even know what all the ramifications of it are gonna be.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

We don't. We don't. I mean, I I have a three-year-old and he I let him watch YouTube Kids because the videos are a lot longer, but sometimes he'll find himself on like just a regular YouTube and YouTube shorts like automatically pops up, and I don't even know how to like disconfigure it so it does not pop up, but it's like I can see his brain like he's sliming through. And I'm like, okay, no, we we can't do YouTube shorts. I told my seven girl the same thing. I'm like, no YouTube shorts. Um, you can watch long form videos that are educational, and that's it.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

That's what I tell parents all the time. I said, there are times when as parents we need them to have that while we're doing something, and we need them to be safe and stationary and in one place, right? And so we need that, but I tell them all the time make sure it's a long form video. Yes, yes, do not let your kids watch short-term short videos.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

It's like pieces of information like that that are so helpful, not just for the parent, but for that child long term.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

Oh, absolutely. I mean, can you imagine when when we grew up, and I'm a little bit older than you, um, I used to be kicked outside on a Saturday morning when my parents wanted quiet time to go play and come home when it got dark. Exactly. You know, there were no screens. I was I had a bicycle, I had a jump rope, maybe, and I had mud and I could make mud puts, you know, or or else I was out at the ranch and I literally was out in the pastures with the cattle and the horses and training my horse, you know. Um, and and I think now, and these kids they never leave the inside of the house.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

They don't, they don't, you know. I sent my kids to a Christian camp, uh, it's Camp Camp Choye. It's in Livingston. And this is the second year. Um my daughter went for the first time, my boys went, they went for two weeks. And it was interesting because the president, he's a pastor, and he was saying how he sees stark differences in the kids that he hires nowadays versus the kids that he used to hire. Now, mind you, he's been running this camp for about 25 years. And he said, you know, kids nowadays they don't know how to figure things out on their own. They're very dependent on their parents, and they have very low self-esteem. Yes. And they don't have like this confidence to go out in the world and figure it out. And he was the same thing, he said the same thing you said. He said, you know, when I was a kid, the parents, they just used to let us run loose. And then there used to be those ads that said, Parents, do you know where your kids are? And I was cracking up because I do remember when I would go outside, and as long as I saw the street lights had not come on yet, yeah, then I can stay outside. A hundred percent. And nowadays, like, and I I try to put it in the back. People don't let their kids out in the front yard. They don't, but it's so scary because they have you have so many like predators out, and like you you're so afraid to let your kids run around in the neighborhood. But and all of that, you can see it just taking effect in how kids are right now today, and how higher I've I've hired, I've hired these kids. Um, and they're they're a lot different. Yes, they are.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

No, a hundred percent. I mean, I've hired these kids too, and um there's still some out there, you know. What I found, and I talk about this quite often, is like in my hiring quadrant, like one of my hiring things is have you been an athlete? Mm-hmm. Have you been in band? Yeah, have you been in FFA? Have you grown up on a ranch or a farm? Because those kids, they've spent time outside. They've had to be off screens, outside, they've had to figure out how to work in teams, they've had to figure out a work ethic, they've had to figure out time management. Yeah. And those kids are going to excel against all these kids that are just sitting in front of the computer every day.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

They are.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

Right? Because they actually have interaction skills. They can do time management, they can problem solve, they can think critically because they had to from an early age. Yeah. And it goes back to that thing that I talk about all the time, which is kids will rise up to your expectations or fall to your low expectations. Right. And it's like somehow in the busyness that we've all gotten in our lives and how you know it takes usually both parents working in order to provide for the family now. Yeah. And everybody's busy, nobody's schedules are packed with activities. Yeah. And so a lot of times we find ourselves letting the kids be in front of the TV or on an iPad, or please just sit in the corner and be quiet while your brother has his karate lesson. Yeah. Right. And so then we hand them an iPad or a cell phone. And um, and gosh, the kids, the young kids I see walking around now with their own phone, cell phone, or their own iPad just scares the fire out of me. Yes, yes. Um and and I was one of those parents, by the way, I my kids had iPads, and I regret it and feel very guilty now. Yeah, I do. I feel very I feel very good for you. So I'm not condemning parents out there because I too fell for that trap, but I regret it now. I regret it. I see a difference in my kids, um, and I know it's completely attributable to the screens, whether it was the iPads or now they're they're older and they have, and worse, my kids do school online, right? So they're on screens a lot of the day. And I mean, but once they turn 16, I'm like, you're not in school, go get a job. Like you're out of this house, you're not sitting there. Um, but they fight me about it at first because they have to detox. Yeah, their brains have to detox from those quick dopamine hits, you know, and so it takes a couple weeks of just fighting with them to get them off of them. And it's just yeah, but it's so worth it. Parents and grandparents out there, it is so worth it. It is you will see a change in your child, they will have a better positive attitude, and especially if you take the time to be with them and work with them and reinstill your values, morals, and ethics into them. It's so worth it. It is, and it makes a world of difference, honestly. So let's let's segue a little bit. You are now running as a right-in candidate for the state board of education in Texas, yes, for District 6, which is around the Houston area. What like that's that's kind of like a here you are, you're a mother to five. Yes. You have multiple businesses, including this in Richley online platform. Yes. You are contracting with schools and with hospital districts and different things like that. Yeah. What made you think, okay, I need to run for state board of education?

SPEAKER_01 21:42

So I've never I don't really consider myself a politician. Like I'm not even I don't consider myself a politician either, but everybody's like, you should run. I'm like, like the same. I'm like, so I was in um I was in Austin like a couple weeks back. No, a couple months back. And I met this guy, um, his name is Justin Pearson, and he's running for a state representative of Tennessee. But when I met him, I had no idea who he was. And um he was just saying, like, he didn't know I was interested in politics at all. I was just I was curious as to what was your story? Like, how did you get involved in politics? Um, and I'm not sure if you're familiar with who Justin Pearson is. Well, tell the viewers. Yes, okay, so Justin Pearson, he's currently um one of the, I wanna, he's currently the state representative from Tennessee. And he was actually put out of, I want to say, Congress a couple years ago because he was standing up for gun rights. And they were then, him and another gentleman out of Tennessee were then invited by um uh he was President Biden at the time and VP Kamala Harris. They were invited out to the White House because like it was this huge like story that they were standing up for something that they believed in and they were put out of Congress for it. So were they voted out when you say put out? No, I think they were just kicked out. Oh, yeah. Okay, I believe. Um, but look, I don't I don't know all of the facts, but I do know that they were then invited out by the White House. Okay. Um and then it turned into like this huge um story where young people knew it was okay to like stand up for what you believed in. Um so he has been state representative for a couple of years, and now he's currently running for Congress. And now, and when I met him in Austin, he I want to say he had just kicked off his campaign. Um, but we were talking, and I was just so curious as to like how you got into politics, and he was telling me his story, and he said, you know what, you should run for something. And I'm like, Well, I'm not really a politician. He was like, but you speak so well, and you've been in this space for children's mental health for like over a decade. And I was like, Well, you know, I've always had like this passion for turning self-esteem into more of like a policy, and I have no idea how we would do that, but I feel like if I run for the state board of education, that's like a first step, and it's like meeting people who know what our kids are learning on a day-to-day basis, but they also feel as though mental health should be more as like a primary focus, not saying that education is not important because it very much so is. But if a child is struggling with their mental health, how are we gonna ever expect them to reach their full potential when it comes to education? And because I've been doing what I've I've done with them richly and my first company was which was their brick and mortar, um, I just decided, well, why not just run? Like, hi, hey, I'm I win, lose, or draw, right? I am very passionate about self-esteem being included in the curriculum, some way, shape, or form. We've done it before when it comes to working with schools, and we saw how much of a change this makes in a child's life. Um, and even though I have so much to learn, I've met so many cool people along the way, you being one of those people. So, you know, I'm not a politician, but I'm very passionate about self-esteem and mental health, and that being talked about a whole lot more. And why not just, you know, start on this sort of journey into politics? Now, who are you up against in this race? So I'm up against Michelle Palmer and Tiffany Nelson. Okay. So Michelle Palmer, she has a campaign where she is really pushing for LGBTQ history to be included in the history books. Um, and then Tiffany Nelson, she actually has a Mama Bear campaign. And I'm not really sure what all that Mama Bear campaign entails, but I do know neither one of the candidates are really talking about mental health enough from the perspective of what are we doing to ensure that the 59% of suicide increase is going down to make sure that you know the 75% of children who have low self-esteem, on which we know of, you know, we're improving that, right? Like there are so the mental health crisis, you said it in the beginning, mental health crisis is skyrocketed, especially after COVID. Um, and I just really feel like neither one of our candidates is talking about mental health from the perspective of what are we doing to make sure that our kids are actually reaching their full potential in school.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

I think another good place for you to focus would be um the governor has a commission for early childhood development. Really? Yeah, and um I may not have the name exactly right, but I think that this we have to go back and be prophylactically like in advance of a child having a problem, we need to be teaching them the self-esteem. Yeah, and we need to be teaching them, you know, how to be well-built, well have well-being, how to express their emotions, how to talk about it, how to, when they're upset, good ways to show it, to use your voice or to go do something that helps you get the angst out instead of bottling it all up and holding it all in and then having explosions.

SPEAKER_02 27:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

Right. And I think that that would help all of those kids as well as them as they're turning into teens and adults and young adults, and I think it would help our whole society. And I think that's something we've got to bring back throughout the school system is being more proactive about having good mental health, having good coping mechanisms. Um, and I personally believe that we need to be starting that in pre-K and kindergarten and first grade and second grade. I think that in some ways we're teaching, we're keeping the kids too busy with teaching for a test. Yes. And we're teaching them things maybe too early, and instead we should be letting them have playtime, letting them use their imagination, letting them figure out how to handle situations. And and the teachers then having time to stop and say, hold on. Yep. I know that you're upset because so-and-so took the red marker and you thought it was gonna be your red marker, but let's figure out a better way to handle this. Why don't you tell me what upset you? How did it upset you? Why did it upset? Like, talk, like let the teachers have the time to have those conversations. That is so critically important to our education system. It is like they because if they can't handle their emotions, they cannot calm down so that they can study.

SPEAKER_01 29:02

Yeah, I mean, I say that all the time. Um, you know, when we talk about the actual statistics of mental health issues, uh, the fact that, you know, the 75% of children struggle with low self-esteem, but it's not just a problem for these kids because this follows them into adulthood. This impacts their career prospects, the relationships that they're forming with other people, um, their overall well-being. And then that is what translates into this massive social and economic burden that costs our society billions because we have workplace productivity losses, um, we have the obviously increase in these mental health issues that go into other areas, and then we have the student disengagement, which is at an all-time high. And it's like when we look at how this is having such a high impact on our society from like a social perspective, from an economic perspective, it's like, well, why don't we just why are we not more preventative? We don't have to be reactive, we have all of the tools in place to be proactive. So let's actually take these preventative measures.

SPEAKER_00 30:10

Well, and at a time in our society where unfortunately, and God bless all the families that have been affected by this, and the schools and the students that have been affected by this, but I mean we're seeing more violence in our schools today than we have in a long time, and you know, unfortunately, school shootings and and different things like that, church shootings, different things. I mean, the mental health, the fact that we haven't done anything with the mental health, we have not been proactive with making sure people have good mental health in, I don't know, since maybe the 60s, I think is is really what is is leading kids there because they they don't they don't know how to handle rejection. They don't know how to handle when something goes bad, they don't know how to handle and they bottle it up and they keep it inside. And you know, unfortunately, there's more bullying than ever on cell phones, and and and it's like it's on the phone, but it's one-on-one, like that. You can have a child sitting in a bedroom by themselves and see what someone said about them or what someone said to them, and the parents may never even know what's going on. By the time they walk out of their bedroom, yeah, they look fine, but there's something bad happening inside, yeah, right. And um I love that you're bringing this to the table, and I think it's something that we absolutely have to start integrating holistically across the whole K through 12 education system. Yeah, and I think it needs to start super, super young.

SPEAKER_01 31:41

I look, what our games are for children as young as three. When my daughter was three, she was playing our games. It's interesting. Have I don't know if you've seen the Toy Story 5 movie. I've heard so much about it. Um I have yet to take my kids to see it. But from what I hear, it's so good because it really talks about screen time.

SPEAKER_02 31:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 31:59

And it really talks about how you know kids used to play with toys, now they're on their phones. Right? And the toys are sad, yeah. And it's like, I really have to take my kids to see, even my teenagers. I want to take them to see it because just the storytelling and having them to see from the perspective of this is how you all look when you're stuck in these screens and you're stuck on these phones, and you literally have they have the so much information at the touch of their fingertips, and it is so scary. And I know as parents, we want to do as much as we can to like shield them from that, and I think as opposed to not so much as shielding them, but just making them more aware of what's out there, what's good for you, what's not good for you, what to consume, what not to consume.

SPEAKER_00 32:52

Yeah, I mean, I think that's a hundred percent true. I even talk to adults about that, yeah, you know, and I talk to my teenagers and my 20-somethings about it. I'm like, you can adjust your feed on what is coming in um by searching out things that are good for you and liking those and start adjusting your algorithm so that what is coming in is more positive.

SPEAKER_01 33:15

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 33:15

And it also is something that's building your education, building your knowledge versus just being entertainment and like distracting you. Yeah. And I talk to my kids about that all the time. I'm like, you only have a certain number of hours in a day, a certain number of hours in a month, a certain number of hours in your life.

SPEAKER_02 33:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:32

And you can either watch someone else live their life and be distracted from your own life, or you can start cultivating a algorithm that brings good things into your life that educate you and that fill you with positivity and that make you feel good about yourself and that teach you better life skills and that teach you other skills. Like that's like if you're gonna let your kids be on screens, we need to be making sure that we're cultivating positive things for them and still limiting the amount of screen time that they have.

SPEAKER_01 34:04

Exactly. Right?

SPEAKER_00 34:05

Because in in like you, I've tried to, you know, shield my children. Well, good luck with that, because I paid for a very elaborate, expensive system on my entire house to shield my children, and they are way smarter than me, and they figured out a way around it in a matter of weeks. I mean, I put thousands of dollars on a system where they weren't supposed to be able to get to any bad sites, they weren't supposed to be able to get pornography, they weren't supposed to get to any of the things that all the parents out there are like, I don't want my kid watching that will create because it finds them. Like, oh yeah, it literally came to my kids through one of their game centers, a game control center. Really? And you had to put in your email, and apparently that is being sold, that email is being sold. Next thing I know, my kids it the things were coming to my kids' email, and they were just clicking on it to open it up, and there would be the bad stuff just right in the back door without you knowing about it. And the other place that we found it was I put this whole circle to limit what sites they could go to. Yeah. Well, apparently it didn't cover the Xbox or the PS5. Oh wow, and they can get to it all through that, and so like it's out there, and I think that we would do better making sure they have a positive algorithm, but also giving them the tools they need ahead of time to be able to say, that's not for me, yeah, I don't want that in my life, that's negative, I'm gonna push so that they're pushing it away too when it does find them, despite our best efforts.

SPEAKER_01 35:44

Exactly. Giving them the tools, I think that's like keyword for the for the year. Give them the tools.

SPEAKER_00 35:50

Well, it's just like I mean, it's the same thing with our our the state legislature passed HB 27 this last session, which is gonna now require a semester of personal financial literacy for every high school student to graduate, starting with the class of 2030, 2031. And um again, it's about giving them the tools they need to live their most productive life. Yeah, and I personally believe that those important tools are not the chemistry, biology, physics, algebra, and geometry. I think those important tools are the emotional intelligence, yeah, right? I think that it's the reading, being a really good reader. And not just that you're reading at grade level, but that you're reading for mastery and that you can comprehend what you're reading. Yeah. That you know how to do your own research and you're not just listening to the social media and the talking heads that may or may not be telling you the truth. Um, and that you have critical thinking skills and you have problem-solving skills, and that that you have and that you have the financial literacy.

SPEAKER_01 36:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:53

I I think every child should take debate. Like, I think we should start teaching them to be speak at the same time we're teaching them to read. Yeah. And when they come around, like I have this vision of this little kind of Montessori-looking school, right? It's centers. There's centers all around the room, and there's like three, four, five-year-old kids in there, and they're playing, and they're one of them's playing in a bunch of um shaving gel, and another one's playing with little things to count, you know, manipulators, and another child is sitting with the teacher and reading one-on-one. And then that child stands up the next center, they stand up and they tell the class what they just read. Oh wow. And we start teaching them to communicate. I love that, yeah. Right? And then we take that and we grow it all the way through to their debating in high school. Yeah. You know, because the thing I love about debate, and I never as a high school kid would have thought I would tell you this that every child needs needs to take debate. But I mean, and I didn't, by the way, and I kind of regret it now since I've kind of found myself being a speaker. Um, but I love that it makes you research a topic. Yeah. And you not only research your side of it, you have to research the other side of it. Because when you walk in, you don't know which side you're you're true promoting and which side you're defending. Yeah. Right? Or defending against. And like that's something that's so missing in our society today. Everybody's just believing what they're being told. That is very true.

SPEAKER_02 38:19

Very true.

SPEAKER_00 38:20

And then you also have to learn the skill of listening for understanding, right? Because you can't rebut somebody if you don't remember what they said and why they said it, and then you have to turn it and spin it the opposite direction and debate, right? Which means you have to know both sides. Yeah. And in order to know both sides, you have to have done the research. Very true. And I just think it's so critical. It's a skill that we see missing. I mean, you see it on national television with adults like yelling at each other. Right. You do, you do. You know, um, I'm just flabbergasted, and so much of what I try to promote through policy is kind of common sense approaches. And it's like I'm looking at society and I'm seeing what's happening, what's missing, what skills kids are missing, and I'm like, how do we get those back? Right? How do we put our morals, values, and ethics, how do we instill those in these kids so that they can live their best life, right? Like it's the financial literacy. I can't stumbled upon that in my when I was starting my real estate business and I was buying houses in foreclosure, and I realized these families had done nothing wrong. Yeah. But as a society, we had failed to teach them to budget. So instead of them knowing that their mortgage should be less than 25% of their net income, they'd gone to a bank. And at that time, banks were giving a mortgage for up to 40 and 50% of their gross income. And they were living paycheck to paycheck. And it's just because they didn't know not to take that much money from a bank. Right? And then the second one thing went wrong in their life, they didn't have any extra money, and so they couldn't afford it, and that they couldn't make their payments. Yeah. And then that dream of home ownership, that American dream of honour home ownership became this like lodestone around their neck, dragging them into the great abyss. Talk about emotions, right? Yeah. Um, and that was kind of the first time that I realized that our education system really had a problem. Oh yeah. That we weren't giving people those basic skills that they need. Um, and then hiring we talked about or already. Oh yeah. You know, the kids not having the skills that we need.

SPEAKER_01 40:37

They don't, and it's really uh like I I legit, I started to have my children like they read these books every summer. Last summer they read Think and Grow Rich, The Untethered Soul, and they have the right of report on the because they're not doing this in school. Right. Um, but I have them write these reports because I want to make sure they have the skill sets that are necessary. So when you go out into the world, I want you to be a productive human. And it's just something that I've seen missing from kids, like seniors nowadays, and I think it's a lot of the kids like to see things happen so quick, and they don't take the time to like learn what needs to be learned, and then they think it's like an overnight, like there was um a young lady who she was unaware that you have to put in an application and attach a resume and and do all of the things necessary to actually go out and get the job. Um, she thought that she can just go talk to the you know the hiring manager. And I said, No, you have to, there's a set, there's a process to this. And it's like, well, what are they teaching the kids today in in these schools? I don't, I have not look, I think the common sense approach that you take is much needed, and it's just something that I wish a lot more people had the wherewithal to say, okay, well, what actually makes sense here? And it's not so much of like them being politicians, it's just remembering what did it take for you to graduate from elementary, middle, high school. How are you right now as an adult, as a productive adult? What things did you learn and what things are missing in the school system right now today?

SPEAKER_00 42:19

And you know, as somebody who works on policy, I see a lot of things that keep being said, you know, like when we take great policy to the legislators, they're like, like one of the biggest pushbacks I get is well, Ashley, that sounds great and all, but there's no parent involvement, so it doesn't matter. Right? And so I'm like, okay, well, we can't keep using that as an excuse. We can't. So how do we fix it? Yeah. If parent involvement is what we need to fix to help change the trajectory of these kids, then how do we fix it? I'm like, well, where do we find the parents? Well, one, we find them in high schools before their parents. Yeah. So why don't we teach an adulting 101 class that has a little parenting involved in it? I love that. Right? We find them when they're having the baby in a maternity ward. So what if we take them a book and books for them to start reading with their child? Yeah. Or the little primers to help them start teaching their children their alphabet, right? Because if you get a child to kindergarten and they don't know their alphabet, they're already behind.

SPEAKER_01 43:22

Yeah, very true.

SPEAKER_00 43:23

Right? And so we've got, but but we can't expect parents to know that. Last time I checked, my children did not come with manuals on how to be a parent.

unknown 43:31

No.

SPEAKER_00 43:32

And so we need to be helping them be better parents by giving them those skill sets. So another one of the bills that I'm taking this year is I want to create an adulting one on one class. I absolutely love it. You know, that would have some parenting skills in it. Yes. Maybe toward the end of the class. But um, but teach them how to do just what you said that there is a process to applying for a job. Here's how you fill out an application, here's how you do follow up, here's how You write a thank you letter. Yeah. Right. Here's how you take care of a car. Here's how you go and get insurance for a car, for an apartment, for a house. Here are the things to watch and be wary of. Here's what you do when you have an accident or your roof has gotten hailed on, and it's the first time you're having to file a claim for insurance. Yeah. Like all these things that you have to do in a normal human life. But it's like this information is being gatekeeped.

SPEAKER_01 44:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 44:27

And if we could give it to people ahead of time, at least, at least the rudimentary basic knowledge of it.

SPEAKER_01 44:35

Is like you have that. Yes. You have that. It was interesting. When I was um before I opened up my brick and mortar, I knew one of the courses or classes that we wanted to teach children was an etiquette class. And I went to Atlanta and I got trained by this young lady. Her name was Peggy Newfield, and she had this world-renowned etiquette program, and it gave us like instruction from elementary, middle, and high school. And one of the high school etiquette courses that she taught was literally how to interview. And it was like these basic things that I remember learning when I was in high school, but it was missing. Yeah, it's missing too much. Right now, and it was like when we offered that class at our brick and mortar, the parents were like astonished. They was like, oh my goodness, this helped my kid so much. And I was like, Well, to your point, why are we not teaching this in school?

SPEAKER_00 45:25

Because I think it is, and I could be way off base. It won't be the first time I've been wrong. But um, I think when we started doing the star test and we started putting so much emphasis on the testing, it became all that is thought about. And the other things, like home economics went by the wayside. I used to love that classide. Yes. You've seen art go by the wayside, which is another great way for kids to express their feelings. You've even seen, I mean, I think one of the the only two things that are left really are band and athletics. Yep. Right? And in some schools, those are very deteriorated. Yeah. Or or it's a very limited number of things that are offered. And I think that the time that it takes to push everything that we're trying to push through schools has eaten up so much of that. And then our teachers, unfortunately, are being asked to do so many things that they shouldn't be having to do.

SPEAKER_02 46:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:23

Right? Administrative things and being the police and and handling all the things in a classroom. And I think what really needs to happen, in my honest opinion, is that we parents need to step up. We have to start taking more responsibility. And not just for our own kids, which we absolutely have to do, but we have to stand up and start demanding that we put these things back in school. And you know, there was a big push to get rid of the star test, and it is going by the wayside in Texas, but it is being replaced with three other smaller tests. And um I hope that will be good. They'll have one at the beginning of the year as an assessment on where the kids are, and then one in the middle of the year, like through after like around Christmas time, and then a little bit bigger one at the end of the school year. And at least even of it. Yeah, and at least there's going to be um something along the way so you can kind of gauge that they're improving throughout the school year. But we've got to stop just teaching for a test. We need to be teaching for mastery. We need to be teaching for can they fight their way out of a paper sack? Yeah. Right? Yeah, what skills are they gonna have at the end of this?

SPEAKER_01 47:37

I saw the um there was an episode on your show, you talked about the aptitude test. And I looked up like what aptitude tests I need to give my seven-year-old, my 12-year-old, my 15-year-old. Because I really do think that that's so important. I didn't even know that it was an elective that you can give them in high school. And for you to really understand what their strengths are, like we have, I took the disc assessment to understand. And I think you should give them that too. Like I think it should be a whole battery of tests.

SPEAKER_00 48:02

Yes, yes. Personality, interests, yeah, aptitudes, like the whole thing. What kind of what kind of person, personality-wise, like are they an introvert, are they an extrovert? Like, because that impacts the kind of job that they should have and what's gonna make them happy.

SPEAKER_01 48:20

Yeah, what is gonna make them happy, what is gonna make them the most productive, and it also influences how you parent. Yes, because every kid is different, right? And I I think we all know that. So that there's no manual on parenting, no, none whatsoever. So, like knowing exactly what type of kid you are dealing with allows you to interact with them in a much healthier way, which obviously impacts their mental health um tremendously. So it's like I highly recommend parents to those.

SPEAKER_00 48:49

I now that you said that, I'm like, hey, I've got I've got a new thing for you to do it in Richley. Yes. Because think about that, like their personality also impacts the way that you interact with them when they are in a deteriorated state, when they are upset. Right? And knowing that just about the kids that you're you're helping would be huge too.

SPEAKER_01 49:12

That would be a huge yeah, we we honestly thought about that before because the platform is very modular, so we can add additional assessments, feed the recommendation engine, and then communicate with parents. Like, okay, this is how you should communicate with Tim because this is the type of kid he is.

SPEAKER_00 49:27

Yes, it helps so much. It does, it does. Um, they're in Lubbock, where I live, um, we have a fabulous, fabulous um physician. She is um with Texas Tech University, she is the head of the pediatric um psychiatry department. Oh, wow. And she has put in um an amazing outpatient center. I've got to connect you with her. She's amazing. Her name is Dr. Sarah Wakefield. And um, and then we just got money this last session to put in an inpatient, seven-bed inpatient facility because wow, our kids that were in acute states of mental health uh uh, you know, crisis were having to be, you know, uh uh drive 500 miles to put them in a facility, oftentimes separated from family and things. And um, but Dr. Sarah Wakefield is just an amazing human being and one of the smartest people that I know. And she and I have discussed this very thing like every single child is different, and the way that you interact with them is different. Their problems are the same, but the way they react to the problems is different, and therefore the way that they're going to react to your trying to intervene or trying to help them is also gonna be different, and so we as the parents have to take a different approach with that.

SPEAKER_01 50:45

Yeah, yeah. Very I mean, my seven-year-old girl is a lot different from my 12-year-old boy. I can tell them the exact same thing, but they're gonna react two totally different ways.

SPEAKER_00 50:54

Well, and I have three boys out of both my husband and I. So they've got the same gene things, but they are completely different kids, right? And what I do to encourage one doesn't work with the other. What I do to try to intervene when one of them is is acting bad doesn't work with the other. I mean, as a parent, you just sit there and you're like, Well, I thought I knew what I was doing, but apparently I don't. You know, and it's it's unfortunately it's one of those, you know, to all those parents out there, yeah, everybody's stuck.

SPEAKER_01 51:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:28

Like, and there's always something that you're like, I don't know what to do, this isn't working, and um, reach out to your friends, reach out and find help. But back to what you were talking about with your in Richley, one of the things I love about it the most is that it's online. Yeah. Because like when a member of my family need help, we couldn't find a counselor to help us. Oh wow, yeah. There weren't enough. There's not enough. Like that's one of the things I'm working on with uh Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute is how do we encourage more people to go into this field to become counselors, to become therapists, to become psychologists and psychiatrists, because there is such a need for this mental health, yeah, but historically it has not always been reimbursed well by insurance, right? And so we find ourselves having fewer right now. We're trying to increase that, but um, how do we change policy to increase that? But in the meantime, you have this amazing program called Enrichly that parents can access from anywhere that they are, yeah. Right and and utilize to start helping their kid right there in that moment. And I think that's so great.

SPEAKER_01 52:34

Yeah, I mean, that was like I want to say, one of the top reasons why I wanted to start the platform. Like 70% of counties around the US do not have a child psychologist. The wait list is six months to a year, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:48

Uh and we we called every counselor in town, and none of them would even call us back because they didn't have time.

SPEAKER_01 52:53

They didn't have time, like there's these long wait lists, and it's like, well, kids can't wait. So, what can we do in the meantime? And you know, when we used to work with schools, it was very much so like here's something right now. And we wouldn't have even thought to work with healthcare systems until the community health team at Wellstar was like, Well, we really need to push more behavior health solutions into the community, and I think this is the best way to do it because they were able to expand their reach, expand their capacity, and they didn't even have to hire a full-time person, they just deployed in Richley, and the kids love the games. That's what really touches my heart. Like, we've co-created these games with like over 50,000 kids. And the fact that they can log in and they're learning things like how to set a healthy boundary. We had a young girl, she was like 12. She said one of the best things that I learned with Enrichley was how to set boundaries because she didn't know how to do that with her friends, with family members, and this was giving her really bad anxiety. So we put this like little game together that taught kids what is a boundary, how do you set a healthy boundary? As adults, we have problems with setting boundaries.

SPEAKER_00 54:02

I have problems with setting boundaries, I can admit it. Yes, um, I'm a people pleaser and I like to make people happy, and so I agree to do things because I want to make the other person happy, and then I'm the one that doesn't have enough time for myself or doesn't get any time off or whatever. And my personality is such that once I tell somebody I'm gonna do something, I'm going to do it. I was also raised that way. Um, and so I I do it at my own detriment, at my own expense, and it's taken me a long time. And I would say, I have friends that would tell you that I still don't set enough boundaries, you know, because here I am today, still like overworking myself. But um, but I'm doing stuff I'm passionate about now, so I think it's a little bit better, but but it's absolutely something that we need to teach kids. Yes, absolutely teach all of us. All of us, baby. I need to take your course even though I'm a little bit older.

SPEAKER_01 54:50

Look, no, no, no one is ever too old. And it's so funny, we we had this um this young, she she was she was not a young young lady, however, I just say young lady. Um, but she was I want to say in her early 70s, and she was looking at one of our games on like healthy relationships, and it was game sort of like short-form video content. She was like, you know, I wish I would have had this when I was a little younger, it would have really helped me to establish healthier relationships with people along the way. Um, and it was interesting because she actually she was like, I think this would be really good for this nursing home that I have. Like, because you have so many older adults who have lost that sense of self, and just teaching them, you know, what does self-esteem mean? How do you grow a healthy self-esteem after a certain age and all these other things? But it's interesting how we've seen so many different age groups just look at the games, look at the content, and really take heed to it. One of my favorite things when it comes to boundaries is just learning that um no is a complete sentence and just being okay with that. My friends tell me that all the time.

SPEAKER_00 55:59

No is a complete sentence, just put a period after it.

SPEAKER_01 56:02

No, period.

SPEAKER_00 56:04

As I say, um, I want to put an exclamation point. I want to be like emphatically no. Yes, no exclamation. Oh my gosh. Okay, well, I think we've hit our time maximum, and which I'm really sad about because I know we could keep talking. But um, I want you to tell people how they can get a hold of you and and where they can go and find out more about you running for office.

SPEAKER_01 56:29

Yes, okay, so you can find out more about me if you go to um margofortexas.com. That's for the Texas State Board of Education. And then if you want to find out more about Enrichley, it's just enrichly.world, W-O-R-L-D. And in Richley is spelled E-N-R-I-C-H-L-Y. Um, you can follow me on socials, just Margo Jordan. Um, and then my personal website is margojordan.com.

SPEAKER_00 56:56

Well, thank you so much for being here today, and thank you for what you're doing to try to improve mental health for kids. And I wish you so much success. Well, thank you in all of your endeavors, and I hope that today the the um viewers have been able to learn some new things and learn about another resource that they can use in richly.world for themselves, their family, or friends. Thank you today for watching. It has been our joy to visit, and we hope that you get a lot out of it. So please join us next time when we talk about other ways that we can help transform our K through 12 education system. Thanks, see you then. Thank you.