Leading with Brain Science and Biblical Purpose (w/ Kim Hanson)

On this episode, Darren sits down with LearningRx CEO Kim Hanson to discuss the Kingdom impact made through LearningRx’s 178 brain training centers around the world.

Thanks for listening, and keep partnering with God in your business.  

And don’t forget to check out our sponsor at HighBridgeBooks.com. And feel free to contact me directly at darren@highbridgebooks.com if you’re interested in writing, publishing, and selling a book.   

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Christian Business Leader Podcast, where Christ following business leaders explore God's will and ways for business. This show is a ministry of the Center for Christianity and Business at Houston Christian University and features conversations with today's Christ-centered business leaders who are representing Christ faithfully in the business world. I'm your host, Darren Scheer, and if you want to make your work, leadership, and company's culture more Christ-centered, you've come to the right place. On this episode, we're joined by Kim Hansen. Kim serves as CEO of Learning RX, which now has 178 centers in 45 countries. With a heart for impact, Kim equips professionals, educators, and parents to unlock God-given potential through cognitive skills training that transforms real life performance. A former inner city educator, certified franchise executive and co-author of Unlock the Einstein Inside, she blends business leadership with mission-driven purpose. Kim is passionate about mentoring the next generation and advocating for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She and her husband, Dr. Wayne Hansen, have been married over 25 years and are raising four children together. Kim, welcome to the Christian Business Leader Podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Thank you. It's awesome to be here. I'm excited and honored.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

Good. Good. I'm excited to have this conversation with you. Kim, when did you first realize God wants to be involved in your work and business? Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

You know, actually, I was a little bit of an entrepreneur as a kid. And I actually started my first business at age nine. I started a little card, greeting card company. And uh I had four cards that I drew up, took to the printer, and then I'd go around the neighborhood, knock on doors, and sell packages of cards, mostly to old ladies because they wrote people. And um, on the back of my card, I wrote, so for example, I actually have a picture of it right back there. But um, I had a little frog that was on a mushroom and it said, You're special. And on the back of the card, I wrote, uh, I believe you're special because God made you. And if you would like more of my cards, write to me at 312 North Union Street, Appleton, Wisconsin, 54911. And so uh, even as a kid, I knew and loved business. And I also knew that I wanted to do something meaningful and that I wanted God to use me.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Wow, I love that. And I love that you have that card frames behind you as uh just to remind yourself of how God has wired you. And and so, and also your dad, you've was a strong influence in helping you get into the particular business that you're in now. Tell us about learning Rx and how that came about.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Yeah. So learning RX is a one-on-one brain training. Uh, we have one-on-one brain training centers. And so most people don't know this, but there are two parts to SMART. There's what you know, and then there's how you process information. And we are on the how you process information side. So on the what you know side, that's really academics, that's um what would help you do well in trivial pursuit. It's what schools uh work on, and uh even tutors, you know, reteaching what you should have learned the first time. But at learning RX, brain training is really seven underlying skills that are important to how you learn and perform. And so they are skills like attention, processing speed, visual processing, memory, uh, how you process things, uh, logic and reasoning, and also auditory processing. So, what we do is we do one-on-one exercises to strengthen those seven underlying skills.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

Got it. And so you started franchising this back in, was it 2002?

SPEAKER_01 4:28

2003. In 2002, I joined my dad and learned franchising so that we would from the beginning start doing best practices. So we kind of studied it for a year and then we started to uh franchise our programs.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

Gotcha. And Kim, on this show, we believe the primary purpose of business is about more than just making a profit or making or or donating to Christian ministries. It's about making disciples of Jesus because that's where people spend their time, right? So, can you give us an example of how disciple making has happened through learning RX?

SPEAKER_01 5:10

So we are a faith-based company, and uh I openly share faith. Um, you don't have to be a person of faith to be a franchisee, but you do have to have values that align with our values. And um so there are a lot of things that we do. Um, I do open any uh executive meeting um with prayer. I ask God, in fact, every day I pray two things uh to God. I ask him, first of all, to uh give me wisdom because I need it, and I ask him to use me. And so I find that uh God gives me opportunities every day to be used. So a lot of times if a franchisee is going through something and uh we will pray for them. So we have devotions on on Wednesday mornings. Um, everyone's invited to come and we throw some leadership and some biblical things, you know, into it. Um, but probably the overall thing is really just serving people. One of our values is to be helpful, and that means that you're easy to work with, that um you have an attitude of helpfulness. So if someone walks in with two big boxes, you jump up and help them. So just showing uh uh servant leadership through everything that we do.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

I love it, I love it. Yeah, I'm glad you you said that as well, because you know, sometimes when I ask this question, I'll sometimes forget to clarify that when we talk about making disciples, we're not just talking about that you have a Bible study available for employees, team members, or that you are passing out tracks in the in the break room. We're talking about something much, much more comprehensive and impactful in the overall culture of the organization and um culture of service. I love that that's that's central to to who you are. What's one of your favorite stories that illustrates the impact being made by learning RX?

SPEAKER_01 7:34

Oh, there are so many. In fact, uh I try to set up my whole week um with the why behind it. And one of the things that I do every Monday morning uh before I start my day is I watch one of our testimonials um that uh have been sent in either as a video, sometimes it's even just a story of one of our center owners. Um, but uh a kid that comes to mind is uh a kid who has uh autism. And uh he, I think he was probably around like third or fourth grade, and he really struggled in the classroom to pay attention, and he had a hard time making friends. And um, he even had difficulty with noises, and uh so he went started to go through our training and he just did really well. He did, we really were able to um extend his ability to attend, um, to not be easily distracted, and just gave him the confidence because reading was really difficult for him, too. Um, you know, being able to uh blend segment and analyze sounds is something that we really worked on. And it just kind of opened up his ability to read. Um, and what I love is, you know, he talked a lot about how now he's so much better socially and that he can get his work done at school, doesn't have to have to spend as much time at home. So he has more time to play. And uh, you know, he's just he told his mom, I think now, mom, I'm unstoppable.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 9:29

And and his mom said, uh, yeah, like you could probably go to the moon. And he said, Why to the moon? Can't I go to Mars? And so um I just love the fact that um as we help people learn better, faster, and easier, um, they start to see the possibilities of who they could be and how they could help the world be a better place. So I love that by helping their potential um and their and you know, that they can live out their purpose that God's put inside of them. I believe God has given everyone a purpose. We're all here to do something. And when it's always hard to figure out, okay, well, what is my purpose? But uh whatever God has put in their hearts and whatever they're good at and the talents He's given them, um, you know, the ability to serve and to learn and to perform better, faster, and easier is kind of what we're about. So that um, you know, they're not held back by weaknesses in their cognitive skills, but so that they can really um be successful in what God wants them to do.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

Yeah, I love that story. Uh why can't we go to Mars? What a great question. Isn't that awesome? What what percentage of your client you refer to them as clients? Yeah. What percentage of them have um are are on the autism spectrum, would you say?

SPEAKER_01 11:11

Um, I would say it's maybe 10, 8 to 10 percent. So um uh yeah, we I mean, our most likely student is someone who is either struggling to read, but yet they're they're smart, like a smart kid who struggles to read. In fact, that's how our whole uh how our whole programs were born, because that was my dad. My dad was a genius when it came to math. Um, he was just a math whiz. That's why they tested him as a kid. And but reading was really difficult for him. And that that is what started his curiosity. If I'm a genius, if I'm really smart and I can do so many things well, why would reading be hard for me? And so that's kind of what set my dad on a journey to uh look at intelligence and what does it take to learn um and and to read. Yeah. I would say the other typical client that we have would be someone who has a hard time paying attention. Um, most people don't know this, but there are three types of attention. There's uh sustained, which is how long you can do something, there's selective, which is uh honing in, but you know, ignoring outside uh outside distractions. And then there's divided, which is doing more than one thing at a time. And we train all three of those attention abilities. The other interesting thing about uh people that have ADHD or attention issues is that attention is not always their weakest skill. Usually uh processing speed and working memory are even lower than attention. So if you're not addressing all three of those, um, it's just kind of a band-aid solution.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

Yeah, yeah. And when you when you encourage, when you show them, start to show them what their potential is and and that they don't have to be defined by their disability or or weakness, it's amazing what how their performance changes, right? I was thinking about we have a a young guy in our church who's on the on the spectrum, and so he won't come and sit down in the service, kind of early 20s. He'll he'll kind of walk around the the perimeter of the church and um and everybody's fine with that. Everybody knows what's what's going on. Um, about two weeks ago, I was telling you, we were talking about how you were a children's minister, my wife also is, and I was teaching the lesson for the the third to fifth grade class uh two weeks ago, and we needed a uh like a treasure box with a lock on it, because the the less the lesson was that uh you're you're you don't come up to the the lock box and try to figure out how to how to open it just on your own when there's a probably a key somewhere and the key is prayer and the key is going to God. So that was kind of what we're trying to to teach because there was a special message inside. And and so we're we had to teach that, but we didn't have the lockbox. So this young guy with with autism, um, he on this particular Sunday morning, I see him and his mom getting out of the car um next to me, and he's got a treasure box with a lock on it. He has no idea what the lesson is for that particular Sunday. And so we're walking in, and I was like, Did you know that we were gonna be teaching this lesson? He says, No, I I just I I felt last night like I wanted to bring this and give it to the children's ministry. Is that wild? Like it was literally like you know, one of those take the coin out of the fish's mouth type of miracle, one of the most remarkable things I've ever been a part of or or witnessed God do. Um but just the way that he provided that um through through this young guy. And but but you know, if if he felt like he didn't belong or felt like he didn't have anything to contribute, then he would he never would have done that, you know. And so what you're doing is you are helping them tap into their potential and realize that you you you are capable of great things, and it might look a little different, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:07

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh that really touches my mom heart because I have four kids. Um, I have a set of twins. My kids are all adults now, 30. I have twins that are 27 and a 24-year-old. But my son, who is a twin and is 27, has autism. And um, God uses him. And I just love to watch him serve at our church. Um, he does, you know, like the words on the screen. And um yeah, uh, I feel like he has always, since a little kid, he's just been really close to hearing God and he pays attention to people and he pays attention to God's voice. Um, and so God's able to use him, even though uh, yeah, he didn't speak hardly at all in school.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

Yeah. And when he was real little, uh, doctors told me he'd never be able to read or speak in sentences, but he does, um, mostly because of our program. Um yeah, yeah. We only work on what you can't do. So if you can do it, then we don't work on it because you have that skill. And so we start where it starts to get hard and then we just continue to work on it. So um what we do is not easy, but it's impactful. And, you know, we used to think science used to think that whatever you're born with, you're stuck with, but but it's just not true. In fact, every study in the last 40 years has shown that um you can improve your underlying skills, and we do every day all across the world. And so, yeah, yeah. And you don't have to be struggling to get a benefit either. Anyone can. Sometimes we work with uh quarterbacks um or football players or people uh Olympic uh, it's the Olympics right now, Olympic athletes, um, because if they can visualize things better, if they can process things faster, um then, and they can pay attention to more than one thing at a time, you know, as you're dribbling the ball, running across the court and listening to your coach and uh, you know, picturing the ball going into the hoop. So all of that um helps at the at the top of your game and then also, you know, when you're learning.

SPEAKER_00 18:39

So what would be one of the main go-to practices or trainings that you take somebody through? Because I'm sure people people listening, a lot of people listening to this right now probably have some kind of attention deficit disorder. Maybe they didn't get diagnosed with it. I mean, I I I know it's it's incorrect, but when I hear ADHD, I immediately think of a child. Um and yet children grow up and in many cases don't grow out of don't grow out of that. Um, and so there's a lot of adults in the workplace that have that are you know struggling and don't have the the tools and the training to be able to um to work through and and even leverage what would otherwise be considered uh a disability. So what what are some of the the main go-to trainings that you use?

SPEAKER_01 19:39

Yeah. So what we do, we start with actually a cognitive skills assessment. So uh we actually test all seven underlying skills. And so uh you get to see like where your strengths and weaknesses are. Um, but honestly, we have like over a hundred exercises that work on those seven underlying skills. And in each one of those exercises, there might be anywhere from 12 to maybe 28 levels. And so the very first time that we sit down, one of our exercises is called attention arrows. And um we sit down and we start to advance and advance and advance until it starts to get like a little difficult for you. And that's where we actually start. So now every time it's a little bit like a video game, but it's human delivered, right? So uh, you know, if you were to play a video game that was really hard, it would be no fun because it's too hard. And if it's too easy, it's no fun. So we get right there at where it's challenging you. And then we take small steps and just increase the difficulty as we go. And so uh because we start at that difficult starting spot, every time we go up a level, we've improved skill. Yeah. And then we test it at the end too. Um, but we do target um the skills that are the weakest first. And as we bring those up, then um, and also it depends a little bit too if you're an adult or a kid that's struggling. Um, a kid that's struggling in school, they can't hire someone to do their books or to do math for them, right? So they're faced with their weakness every day. So we start at their weakness, but then towards the end of their program, we also like to uh work on their strength. And so we kind of increase all of those across the board. Um, we get some really cool results. We have over 40 studies that have been done on our programs, um, on our programs, not just that we're based on. And we've been written up in 17 peer reviewed journals. So we're we're kind of We're like the real thing.

SPEAKER_00 22:02

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

We're not just like a uh, you know what I mean? Like weird practice. Uh, we're really targeting those skills and uh strengthening them.

SPEAKER_00 22:11

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

I don't know if that answered your question.

SPEAKER_00 22:14

Yeah. I mean, and the and the fact that you have 178 centers in 45 countries, you know, there's there's a strong amount of credibility just wrapped up in that.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

Yeah. The hardest thing is that people just don't know that that our programs exist. Uh-huh. And and so I think that that's the hardest thing is explaining what brain training is. Um, 10 years ago no one knew what it was. And now a lot of times they think it's a digital game or they think it is um, you know, just getting exercise will help your brain. And that can, but if you target and train these underlying skills, then you're really doing something healthy for your brain.

SPEAKER_00 23:02

Yeah. You're not just telling people to play Sudoku, right? Right.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

Yeah, yeah. Well, we might do something that's a little bit like Sudoku, yeah. Uh, but it might also be on a metronome and you're adding numbers and yeah. So I give out little exercises every once in a while, you know, so that people can kind of experience them. Um, but that's the best way to understand. Oh, yeah, I get it. It's like mental sweat. And what I love too is because we only work on what you can't do, it also builds grit. And um, I love seeing grit in my own kids. I love seeing grit in the students that we help. Um so and confidence, those are two things that we don't really target, but they just happen because when you can learn better, faster, and easier, you start to feel good about yourself. Um, and you'll try new things.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

Yeah. Well, Kim, you've shared some amazing stories. Um, is there another story you could tell of a time when you saw God's hand at work in your company?

SPEAKER_01 24:12

Yeah. Uh I would say about 18 months before COVID, um, we were looking at our mission. And one of the things we were looking at in our mission and our vision is helping more people, um, even where we didn't have a center. And so what we did, and you know, again, we have over a hundred exercises and it involves a metronome, and they're kind of complicated with manipulatives and different things. But we thought we really our mission is to help anyone anywhere. And so we decided to figure out how we could do our training over Zoom. We actually started with Skype and then we found this little program called Zoom that no one even knew of at the time. Um, and uh so we worked on it at our home office for about six months, and then we rolled it out to some pilot centers, uh, seven pilot centers, and we wrapped things up uh the last day of February. It was kind of like March 1st, uh 2020, on how to do all of our training over Zoom. And you kind of know what happened that next month was COVID and shutdowns. And uh wow, was God's hand on our company that we had figured out. And in six weeks, we were able to roll out to all of our centers how to do our training so that they didn't have to lose their students who had to be at home. And so we retained, I think it was uh like 89% of our students, and so that meant that um our businesses could still be open and we could still be helping people. So that's that's one of the stories that I love.

SPEAKER_00 26:16

And yeah, 89%. That is amazing. Yeah, yeah, that's miraculous.

SPEAKER_01 26:21

That God came came through just in time, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:25

March 1st. That is God knew what was God knew what was coming. Like Noah building the ark, you know. You don't you don't know exactly why, but you know, we you knew that you needed to get online, but you didn't know how much.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

Yeah, yeah. That's why focus. One of the best things I do is say no to ideas and stay focused, stay focused on our mission and our purpose, and uh stay close to what God is leading us to do. Uh, I don't consider learning our X my company, I consider it God's company. And so even when I have a problem, then it's easier. I can just say, hey, God, this is your company. You got to figure this out. You got you need to give me wisdom, you need to give us answers. Um, because this is your company. So I give it to them every day.

SPEAKER_00 27:21

Well, we have a lot of Christian business leaders listening to this podcast. Um, what kind of franchisees are you looking for?

SPEAKER_01 27:30

So I'm looking for people who want to do something uh meaningful and they uh want to serve their communities and uh and and want to have a small business. So that's who I am looking for, people that are difference makers. Um and I actually have a people analyzer. I don't know if you're familiar with EOS.

SPEAKER_00 27:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

Are you familiar with okay?

SPEAKER_00 27:56

You know what, yes.

SPEAKER_01 27:57

Yes. So we run our company on EOS, and uh there's a people analyzer that is part of that system. And so we I took that and I made it into like a discovery day. And so I took who are our top performers in our company, and I made a people analyzer that has all of those things that I look for. So I want someone that uh a mom would buy from. I want someone who is a problem solver, someone who takes responsibility. And so we kind of put all of these things across someone who wants to make a difference, someone who is passionate, someone who's a value match. And so when I look at possible candidates, and I'm pretty picky also, because I don't want to get that wrong. Because, you know, our our license agreement is for 10 years, and I I want to do life together. And so uh anyway, that's kind of what we look for um in in in an owner is someone who's passionate and just really wants to help people, wants to do something meaningful.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

What percentage of your franchisees are female?

SPEAKER_01 29:11

A lot. Yeah. Um, I haven't looked at it for a while, but for sure it's over 60%. Um, and we have a lot of couples that run um one of our centers. So a lot of times it's a a husband and you know, wife team.

SPEAKER_00 29:32

Yeah. And are they typically the the only employees there in those franchises or uh-huh?

SPEAKER_01 29:40

So most of our centers have two full-time people. They have a a director and an assistant director, and then they'll have maybe eight to 10 part-time brain trainers who do the brain training. And so there we look for someone who's fun, almost like someone who'd be make a good like soccer coach, because you have to uh first of all, we want them to follow our systems, but you also have to kind of be a motivator because we're working on what they can't do. And so it has to be someone who is warm and friendly and fun, but will push you. So that would make a great coach. That's what we look for in trainers. Yeah, we don't want boring teachers that I say that my background's teaching, but you can't be a boring teacher and do it. So you could be a teacher, but you should be, you know, fun and not teach, but train. So training is very different than teaching.

SPEAKER_00 30:40

Well, Christian business leaders listening to this podcast, if that any of that describes you, definitely go to learningrx.com and reach out to Kim and her team and get a conversation going about possibly getting a center started in your area.

SPEAKER_01 30:58

Yeah, I do have a business book too that I wrote with my dad called The Purpose Directed Business. And it is written to our franchisees, but it also anyone who has a small business, it has great principles in there and how to do things with purpose and but also how to be profitable and look at your cash flow and do marketing right. So there's a lot of great information in here. And I wrote that with my dad.

SPEAKER_00 31:25

Okay, and what was the title of the book again?

SPEAKER_01 31:28

It's called The Purpose Directed Business. So you can uh have a copy sent to you on Amazon, but you can also go to the purpose directed business.com and you can download a digital copy for free.

SPEAKER_00 31:43

Okay. And you also co-authored Unlock the Einstein Inside with your dad, which is available on.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

Yeah. And so this one just it's really written to a parent who has a child who is struggling in school. So it's about finding the why and then doing something about it.

SPEAKER_00 32:03

And what year did you publish that? Because I'm sure you've you've learned just so much over the over the decades, but it yeah, this one, you know what?

SPEAKER_01 32:13

That is a great question. And I don't even know the answer. I'm sure it's in here.

SPEAKER_00 32:17

Might be time to do an updated edition.

SPEAKER_01 32:20

I actually am working on updating it right now.

SPEAKER_00 32:22

Oh, awesome.

SPEAKER_01 32:23

Um, it's one of my rocks, but um uh so this is the third edition and this is 2018. So we've updated three times. We're working on the fourth because we always have more uh research that we're putting in.

SPEAKER_00 32:41

Well, Kim, anything else you want to say about how people can hear more from you and get connected?

SPEAKER_01 32:47

Uh I think learningrx.com. We do have um actually uh a podcast that my uh psychologist uh does called Brainy Moms. Okay. And so you can check that out. It has a lot of followers. Um, a lot of we work with a lot of homeschoolers too. There are a lot of people that are doing homeschool these days. And yeah, if you are interested in opening a center, you can go to openacenter.com and you can look at kind of you know who we're looking for. And yeah, download any of uh you can go to unlock the Einstein inside also, and you can do a free download of that book, or you can get it off of Amazon if you like to touch the book.

SPEAKER_00 33:34

Okay, okay. Well, thank you for all of those helpful resources. Uh, learningartx.com, openacenter.com, Brainy Mom's podcast, the purpose directed business. Um, Kim, this has been a fascinating interview. May God continue to bless you and your ministry in the marketplace as you continue to serve families around the world. Thank you. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Christian Business Leader Podcast. Be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and tune in for the next episode as we continue exploring God's will and ways for business.