We’ve got Andy Rahden on the show today. He’s the CEO of a children’s supplemental education company, Shmoop - which is actually a Yiddish term that means to gain progress in or move forward. He’s an engineer by training and has a great career in tech, design, and education. He talks about what he’s seeing at founder and CEO of Shmoop as well as the state of education today.  

Our three do or die takeaways for dads covered in this episode are: 

1. Be careful labelling your child, especially around school related things like grades and test scores. Avoid as much as possible saying things like, “Jacob is my smart kid, he does really well in school.” or “Jane got a high score on her test, she’s an A+ student.” Focus on outcomes and behavior, not labeling your kids.  
2. Learn how to ask good questions to your kids. Andy’s Shmoop Heartbeat product randomizes through hundreds of questions to get a pulse on a child’s current state of being. As dads, we need to get comfortable asking questions. If nothing else, just ask “Why?” Kids are amazing at asking that simple but powerful question, we can be too. Dads too often fail ignorantly by asking passive questions like, “You good?” while we hold a thumbs up and hope our child just says “Good” so we can move on. Instead ask more open ended questions like, “How are you?” wait for them to reply, then ask “Why do you feel that way?” - that’s a good way to start. 
3. Be intentional with the time you have. Andy shared how limited his time can be as a CEO and on several boards. Being intentional and maximizing the time you do have is hugely important, almost as much as increasing the amount of time you have with your children. 

Show notes:

https://www.shmoop.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyrahden/

Music by DJ Quads