Healthy Screen Habits Takeaway

Resources

For more info: Aro website

Tiny Habits book: Amazon link

Show Transcript

Hillary Wilkinson (00:33):

The mission of Healthy Screen Habits is to empower families to create healthy habits for screen use, while maintaining technology as a tool, never a replacement, for human connection. My guest today is one of the co-creators of a tool that I honestly believe can help families achieve this goal. The company is Aro, spelled A-R-O, and it leverages the science of habit formation and motivational design by helping families reclaim time spent on their phones. He's got facts and stats to back the claim and is gonna teach us all about it. Welcome to Healthy Screen Habits, Heath Wilson.

Heath Wilson (01:13):

Hello, Hillary. Good to be here. Thanks for having me.

Hillary Wilkinson (01:17):

Very nice. So, Heath, I love an origin story. I know you're the Dad of 4 kids. I know you're an entrepreneur and have created this amazing tool, but I would like to know the backstory. How did Aro come to be?

Heath Wilson (01:31):

Ooh, I love telling that story as well. So yes, you highlighted I do, I do have a bunch of kids. They're part of that story. I'll, I'll get to them. Uh, an entrepreneur at an early age at 26, actually, and looking back, that's probably where it all started. So that was, you know, pre smartphone. We did start out the business with some flip phones, and I distinctly remember coming home one night in probably 2006, 2007, with this fancy device called a Blackberry. I walked up the stairs, I showed it to my wife and she thought, huh, I'm not sure. I want you to work more. And then I proceeded to look at it through dinner, and she would tell you if she were on the, on the podcast here, that that was one of the worst nights of our marriage because that, you know, connected me to work 24/7.

Heath Wilson (02:15):

And if you fast forward a couple years to an iPhone and a couple more years to the next iteration of the iPhone and and so on, um, I had just grown up with technology and as an entrepreneur trying to grow a business, you know, I hadn't developed a healthy relationship with that device. So it was the number one point of contention in our marriage. And even at some points, uh, today, it is as well. And I think that's probably the story that a lot of people tell. But living through that tension and, and seeing it through the lens of my kids, my growing kids, at that point, I thought, man, I'm a terrible role model. Um, and I just knew I needed to be better for my family. And, and more importantly, I wanted my family to be better. So I'm driving home one night, I get home, I write this, what I call a Jerry McGuire manifesto about all the things that I can fix and that are wrong with technology and all these types of things.

Heath Wilson (03:03):

Kind of put that away. Uh, ended up selling that company and then had some time, had some time to think and reflect. And honestly, over the course of those years, you know, the technology became more kind of integral in our lives and pervasive across, uh, society. So the problem only grew. Um, and I just texted a buddy of mine one day, ironically. I texted him and I said, “Hey, I've got a big idea. I've been reading a bunch of books. I've been talking to a bunch of people. Let's go try to do something to change families, not just a, you know, an individual, but change families and their relationships with, with their devices.”

Hillary Wilkinson (03:37):

Very nice. Well, I'm very glad he answered the text. <laugh>

Sounds like you guys are a dream team coming together. <laugh>.

Heath Wilson (03:46):

Well, he's a lot of fun. He is. Got a big personality. He is much taller than me and, uh, and has a full head of hair. You can't, can't see me on the podcast, but I've lost most of mine.

Hillary Wilkinson (03:53):

That's all right, <laugh>.

Heath Wilson (03:55):

Well, thank you.

Hillary Wilkinson (03:56):

Okay. Okay. So one of the things that gets a lot of airtime kind of in this pocket of the world that we share called digital wellness is this sort of disruptive nature that you're talking about that you experienced right off the bat. Technology has upon relationships and relational health, and we see it happening all the time. And I love that Aro is like a product and a plan that can help kind of put screens just on hold, just maintain this intentional focus of the relationship. And so we can lean into it. And can you share some of these, just because I pitched you as a facts and stats guy, <laugh>, can you share some of these numbers that lead, uh, like that can help people understand the importance of understanding the need for the type of technology that you're offering in the home?

Heath Wilson (04:52):

Sure. So 91% of Americans keep their phone with an arms reach 24 hours a day, right? So what does that mean? We have it in our pocket or in our purse, or in our bag or beside our bed every night. And there's a whole host of issues with that, as we know. Um, so that's one stat that drives us. Another is, and this was actually a learning that I hadn't thought of. Um, we, we've been working with a researcher at the London School of Economics named Maxi Hy Meyer, and all he does is study, you know, our relationship to devices, 89% of all initiation with our cell phones is self-initiated, right? So all of these tips and tricks, turning at the gray screen, turning on notifications, removing apps, you should do that stuff, don't get me wrong. But you're solving for the minority of your interactions with your device.

Heath Wilson (05:42):

Most of us pick our phone up because we're anticipating what's next. Right? And he would even go as far as to say is if your phone is within, you know, kind of reach or within your line of sight, it equates to usage because your mind is saying something there. Something's coming. What's next? So those two stats, you know, kind of reiterate how deep this problem is, but we're thinking through the brand. Um, someone we were working with said, and this was just casually, she said, “you know, this might be the first generation of kids with more memories of others than of their own more memories of others than memories that they make on their own.” And that just stopped me in my tracks, and I thought like, gosh, we can't, we can't let that happen. And I would argue that adults are on that same trajectory, right? We spend a lot of time looking at others and thinking about others than we do, thinking about ourselves and making our own memories. So that, that story or status probably more impactful than even the 91 or the 89% for me.

Hillary Wilkinson (06:36):

Right. And, and knowing what I know about child development and, uh, you know, uh, it, but what they call intrinsic ver memory versus extrinsic memories. Mm-hmm. And it, or implicit versus explicit memories, excuse me. Um, uh, our ability to remember personal storylines has, uh, I mean, it, it just grows log rhythmically with multisensory experience. So what you're talking about is, you know, remembering other people's stories. And actually they may or may not be remembered. They serve as more as like trigger memories mm-hmm. <affirmative>, where it's like you see something and you're like, oh, yeah, I recognize that. It's a recognition based memory versus being able to tell a personal narrative. A personal narrative is something that comes from something that you've actually experienced. So it's the equivalent of having kind of more like static for memory Yeah. Versus an enriched experience. Well, I

Heath Wilson (07:43):

Think that's

Hillary:

Exactly whole life.

Heath Wilson (07:45):

Completely agree. And I think that's, you know, we, I think the new CDC study came out on, on teenagers and their use of particularly females and, and, and men as well, or, or boys. You know, the, the level of loneliness and isolation is off the charts, right? So Oh, for sure. We're not, we don't even have those relational experiences because we're not spending enough time with each other.

Hillary Wilkinson (08:05):

Right, right. And what you're talking about with the, um, going back to the 91% of con uh, cell phone contact being self-initiated, and what you're talking about, the call of the cell phone, even when it's near us, that's, I mean, again, going back to the neurobiology, I mean, that is full on dopamine response. That is anticipatory set. That is, that has been proven again and again. So, I mean, it's, it's always interesting when, you know, various arms of science, um, hold hands, you know? Yeah. So you've got like the neurobiologists who are saying, oh, this is why this happens. And you've got the social scientists saying, oh, this is what we're seeing, and then when, when people can come together, we're better together. It's like, oh, now we understand. Now we have a more complete picture. So,

Heath Wilson (08:54):

Yeah. And I, and I love to dumb it down. So what I tell people is <laugh>, because I can't speak in science like you do, although I've read a bunch, but I always tell people like, look, if I have my phone with me, I'm going to use it, period.

Hillary Wilkinson (09:06):

Absolutely.

Heath Wilson (09:07):

Right? Yeah. Like, I'm going to check the weather or check a score, or check an email or check, check, check, check, check. And ultimately, I get lost in a wormhole for 30 minutes when I'm, when spend three minutes or 30 seconds. Right? So, so yeah, the science backs all this up, and just our practical experience as adults, or even as growing, you know, as kids backs all of this.

Hillary Wilkinson (09:27):

Exactly. Exactly. And I think it's something that anybody who, who owns one of these devices, which I would say the majority public does, uh, can relate to, you know? Yeah. So,

Heath Wilson (09:39):

But you know, with all of that, we we're not so sure that it's an addiction. We just think we've developed a bad set of habits. I mean, again, these things have only been with us for 15 years. And the reason I say that is because sometimes when you, when you think of something through the lens of an addiction, you lose hope, right? I would argue we're pretty close. It, we're just one set of good habits and a lifestyle to, to moving in a different direction. So I think that gives us an actual lens of hope to say, like, we can change this. Like, we're not so far gone that we can't change the relationship we have, we can't change the amount of time we spend. We can't change where we gaze our eyes, you know, towards each other instead of downwards. Like we, we are closer than we think,

Hillary Wilkinson (10:19):

Right? Right. And, um, let's focus on those habits and technology. But first we have to take a break.

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Hillary Wilkinson (11:33):

I'm speaking with Heath Wilson, co-founder of Aro, a company looking to help families establish healthy screen habits. Okay. Heath, moment of truth time. I, I didn't prep you on this. <laugh>, what habit do you find yourself struggling with the most, either online or off?

Heath Wilson (11:53):

Ooh, well, I'm gonna tell you a success story. So, for the last decade, plus, I have had the same, I don't wanna call it a New Year's resolution, but the same goal to get up every morning, spend some time by myself, whether that's journaling or studying or doing a devotional. And I usually make it three weeks, and then I get too busy and kind of fall off the wagon. So this year I did two things different. One is I found an accountability partner. So every morning when I'm done with that, we text each other just a check mark that says, Hey, I'm done. And then the second is I'm actually tracking it. So I'm actually using the product that we created. I actually put my phone into what we call Aro mode. Uh, and then I, so I hold myself accountable, and then when I'm done with that time, I just log it and say, Hey, here's my, here's my Aro time for the morning. And what's cool about that is I'm tracking a streak, right? And we know how we're motivated as, as, as people. So I don't wanna break that streak. And I'm on a good streak right now. So, you know, I'm now into March, which is hard to believe already. Um, and I'm hoping to continue this through the year, um, and expecting to. So that's, that's one I, I've always struggled with, but I've just changed a couple things this year and I'm actually in progress.

Hillary Wilkinson (13:02):

Well, I think that speaks to the beauty of, um, what we've had others on this program talking about BJ Fogg's book of Tiny Habits mm-hmm. <affirmative> and just tiny tweaks. It's not a massive overhaul, just these tiny tweaks can lend to success. So I have not, so I asked you for a true confession, so I too will share one Heath and that's that I have not found a solution to my inability apparently to deal with the day's clothing that I, as I'm, as I'm getting into PJ's for the night, I kind of have this mound over my chest of drawers that it's, it's clothes that are not dirty enough to qualify for washing, but they're not clean enough. I don't want them touching my clean clothes <laugh>. So that's great. I have an issue, but <laugh>, it's, I dunno that

Heath Wilson (13:58):

You're my wife. Yeah, no, it's,

Hillary Wilkinson (13:59):

Let's talk about with, um, summer being right around the corner. It's this great time of year. It's also a time of challenge for some families because we can kind of like slip into habits that we didn't necessarily intend to have here. And, um, with, uh, you know, you start off all great with like intentional use of screen time, et cetera, et cetera. And then as the days go on, we kind of find ourself more and more. So I think Aro can help a lot of families keep their goals of having intentional, summertime fun and building those memories that we just talked about. Those ones that are like self narratives and exploration and all of these fun things. So let's talk about Aro Can you explain kind of what it is, how it gets used? Like, paint us a picture?

Heath Wilson (14:53):

Yeah. Well, let me go back to where, you know, I, we did a lot of research before starting this business and really tried to take a look at what was out there already. And I found there were two categories of solutions. One is what I call the brick phone or the dumb phone category, which is, Hey, let's just go back in time. Let's get something that doesn't have as much functionality. You know, I can call and text, but beyond that, it doesn't do much. Um, I find that frustrating. I try actually tried one and I just couldn't get past the, the lack of capabilities. Um, so that was one category. The other category was, or is, um, you know, really parental control devices, you know, whether it's screen time limits or, you know, filters on the routers, you know, those types of things to, um, you know, to limit your kid's usage.

Heath Wilson (15:38):

Um, which again, some of that should be done for sure. And then the, the last category I thought one more, um, was, uh, app-based solutions, which primarily fall into this category of, Hey, click a button, put your phone down. When you pick it back up, tell us what you've done. And I always tell folks again, we come back to the, you know, when I've got my phone, I use it. And there's just no way that I'm strong enough to not resist the allure of picking it up and bypassing whatever, you know, firewall that's been put in the app. So we don't believe the solution can be built solely inside the problem. So we combined both a physical and digital solution. You were talking about BJ Fogg, we really built this on the, on the habit of science formation. We all know habits start with a visual cue.

Heath Wilson (16:20):

We knew it was important for there to be a beautiful place in the home. That became the place where your phone goes when you don't need it, or when there's sacred time in the family where you, when you know, when you have family dinner or something else that, that your family defines as sacred. We worked with designers, we wanna make sure it was, you know, spouse approved. It is something that's not a shoebox, right? It's something that's beautiful and again, lives in a kitchen or a family room that says, Hey, hey, I'm here. It's an invitation, right? To, to have some quality time. But alongside that, we wanted to gamify it. We wanted to, to, to encourage you, to nudge you, to keep you coming back, much like social media does, but with a good purpose. Uh, instead. So I talked about streaks earlier.

Heath Wilson (17:01):

I talked about motivations and nudges, family groups, just a, a whole layer of motivational design to encourage you to keep you coming back and to use the platform. So those two work in tandem and they work for the whole family. We also didn't see a whole family solution as we started to look across the marketplace. And I think it's really important that we approach this as a family problem, not a child problem. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I would argue that parents, and I'll put myself in this category, when we're on our phone, our kids don't know if it's, you know, adult time or work time or playtime. And therefore when they're on their phone, they don't see it any different. So, you know, we need to better role models and Aro helps level the playing field from child to adult.

Hillary Wilkinson (17:42):

Nice. Nice. So, um, so it's a box that can serve as a charger. Um, does it hold

Heath Wilson (17:53):

I would actually say it's, yeah. So it's actually the app that's really the experience now. The box is just the activator, right? So the box is saying, Hey, it's time to take a break. And then the, you know, when you put your phone into the device, it starts tracking all of your time. So what we've done is basically track your offscreen time versus Apple or, you know, Android tracking your onscreen time. And along with that, you're able to journal and kind of create this beautiful electronic memory bank of, you know, of what you've done when you've been intentional. Cuz really Aro the whole business is around intentionality, you know, aligning your actions with your intentions. We all have good intentions, but sometimes the phone gets in the way.

Hillary Wilkinson (18:31):

Okay. So, um, so you mentioned Apple and Android. Are there both iPhone and Android versions of the app? So people There are. Okay. So yeah, people on both platforms can use it for sure. Um, does the box hold only phones? What about like tablets or laptops or anything along those lines?

Heath Wilson (18:54):

Only phones right now, and the reason is the phones are the easiest thing to, you know, slip into your pocket and be discreet and, and sneak it under the table. Um, it's way more overt when you pull out a laptop or pull out an iPad mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And we're, you know, we're really not trying to solve for screen time necessarily, though all of our members will tell you their screen time is coming down. What we're really trying to solve for is when you're not on your phone mm-hmm. <affirmative> that you're more intentional. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, maybe there's a future where we worry about, you know, iPads and, and laptops. But right now the phone is the number one source of distraction we found.

Hillary Wilkinson (19:27):

Sure, sure. So how, how many, like, is this a box that like people are gonna, I mean, how many phones can it hold?

Heath Wilson (19:35):

Yeah, we built it for families to start, right? So it holds up to five phones, charges up to five phones. I mean, the reality is you can, you can shove eight to 10 in there if you want, but it was built for more of the, the standard family <laugh>. If you Ok. If you were to come to my house with all my kids and their friends when they put 'em in there, it's, it's a mess. But yeah, it'll hold quite a few.

Hillary Wilkinson (19:54):

Okay. So also I, I know I'm hanging up on logistics, but I really like, I, you know, I'm, I'm curious, will, so does it matter like case sizes? So cuz they charge while they're in the box, correct?

Heath Wilson (20:08):

You have a wireless charger and then four wire chargers -correct.

Hillary Wilkinson (20:11):

Okay. Okay. Yeah, so, um, when I was looking at pictures, it looks like there's almost slots that they fit in. I am World's Clumsiest person and have gone through more phone screens than I care to mention. So I have a massive OtterBox would, does will they fit Otterboxes?

Heath Wilson (20:28):

It fits most cases. Um, okay. But it doesn't have to be, it doesn't have to slide into the slot for to work. It's, it's more a Bluetooth connection, so, you know. Oh, okay. If you could just lay it flat in the box and it would still connect.

Hillary Wilkinson (20:39):

Oh, okay. I didn't get that when I, when I was looking at it, I didn't, I didn't realize that. Okay. Um, I'm just trying to think of like any other things. So,

Heath Wilson (20:50):

Well how about I look actually, how about I tell you a few stories from early for sure. So, so we just launched this, uh, in November. We've been working on it for a few years. Um, you know, technology's hard, but, um, so we launched in November. We've been selling every day since, which is great, but what's most encouraging of the stories that we get? So even yesterday we got a story from a dad that said, Hey, I just got my Aro normally at breakfast with my seven year old son, eats  cereal. And I sit there scrolling my phone. He said this morning I put my phone away, I sat there and I talked to my son and I learned all about his day. And he said I knew it within those 17 and he logged it 17 minutes of breakfast with sun. He said in those 17 minutes, it, it was an aha moment.

Heath Wilson (21:30):

I realized like, here are the moments that I'm missing, right? Yeah. We can schedule vacations and try to, you know, make up for time on these, you know, week long excursions. But it's those mundane moments, it's those trash moments that matter. Cuz you never know when your child is gonna open up. It could be on the way to Target, it could be a family dinner, it might be when you're sitting on the couch and he was available for his seven year old son at that point. And man, what a difference to be looking into his eyes versus looking down and giving the, you know, the occasional nod uhhuh <affirmative> along the way.

Hillary Wilkinson (22:02):

Absolutely. And in fact, it's more likely to the, the, you know, the kind of exposure to your child's life is more likely to happen in those mundane moments than in the moments of high novelty Yes. Where you're distracted with other things. So that's amazing that he quantified it as 17 minutes because I can tell you, you talked about earlier how like, you know, the science and the science and the social, and we were, we were talking earlier about how they hold hands 15 minutes a day is all it takes of parent child interaction to help dramatically reduce, um, you know, child onset depression, et cetera. So that's incredible. I mean, yeah, yeah. And no, I mean, you, you, it's fantastic.

Heath Wilson (22:48):

Well, and, and I don't think it has and, and you know better than me, but it doesn't necessarily have to be that you're sitting at a table, you know, it cost me each other having a conversation. Another story, uh, uh, actually on California, uh, a dad was watched a movie with his daughter, eight year old daughter, and at the end of the movie, she turned to him and said, “Dad, that's the first time you've ever watched a movie with me without your phone.” Oh, wow. And so it's not even that they're having a conversation, but they're actually engaged in the same activity, probably sharing a glance every once in a while, maybe laughing at the same time, maybe looking at each other at the same time. But on top of all of that, she knew that he was present. He wasn't scrolling his phone when he got bored. And believe me, I've watched plenty of kids movies when my kids were younger. Sometimes they are boring. Right. Um, so we say, man, it's a huge win even if you're watching TV without a second screen.

Hillary Wilkinson (23:41):

Oh, I agree completely. And the benefits of co-viewing are, is that you then have a shared story that you can refer to, you know, a point of connection. So, um, there is a thing that I wanted to ask about specifically. I know I, I read somewhere that you get like a, is it like a Monday report or there was, can you go over that? How?

Heath Wilson (24:08):

Yeah. What we wanna do is change the narrative on these weekly screen time reports. So all of us, we call it the Sunday screen time scaries, where you get the, the note from Apple that says, Hey, you've been on your phone, you know, a thousand hours. And it, it's just not actionable. And frankly, most of us dismiss it away because we're like, well, hold on a second. I was listening to a podcast, which I would argue is productive. I was reading a book or I was, you know, navigating through town using, you know, ways of Google maps. Um, so most of us just throw it away and frankly it's a, it's a guilt and shame creator as opposed to, um, a behavioral change, um, framework. So we created a Monday report where we show you, hey, here's all your intentional time you had last week. So in the case of the dad with his son, like maybe there was 17 minutes of breakfast that day nine, the next and all he gets a report of, of everything that he's done intentionally, uh, intentional that past week. Nice. Just a way to reinforce the habits, reinforce the intentionality, reinforce what you've said is important to you. And if you've fallen short, that's okay. You got next week to get, get back up again. But just to remind you kinda why you started this in the first place.

Hillary Wilkinson (25:12):

I love the positive spin on it. Yeah. The coming from a place of, of a gain, you know, so you're collecting data on time use or time offline if you will. Correct. And any time data collection enters the, uh, conversation, the kind of, I, I'm, I'm not gonna lie, the creepy factor climbs <laugh>. So how, how do you guys protect privacy?

Heath Wilson (25:37):

Well, interestingly, my first startup was a financial services data business. So my whole career has been around privacy and there's, and it's even more, um, pronounced in that world, in the financial services world than, uh, for sure in the consumer world. So, um, this is, this is my life. Um, we aggregate all the information. You know, our, our goal is not to track your, you know, nine year old's, you know, activity across town and, and know where he or she is, is ated every moment. So really we're just tracking the time, aggregating that time, reporting it back to you, reporting it back to, you know, to, to the, to the parents if they're looking at it from a family view. Um, it's interesting though. I, I would argue that in some ways it feels like we've kind of crossed that threshold many years ago with our browsers, with Google, with Snapchat, with all these various applications.

Heath Wilson (26:28):

It feels like <laugh>, as much as I try to limit who knows where I'm at, life 360 is a good example, like knowing where my kids are at all the time. So of course, as a business we are concerned about taking care of our, our customer's privacy. But, um, I always laugh to when people ask questions cause I'm like, well, hold on. Do you type something into Google? Have you turned off cookies? Have you? So it's just a, it's a whole different world that we live in today with the amount of information that we're feeding, you know, to these organizations, um, for better.

Hillary Wilkinson (26:58):

For sure. That being said, and, and like you said, like with many families are on life, 360, et cetera, but anytime we're dealing with a with, with potential tracking of child's hours, of children's hours, you, it, it,

Heath Wilson (27:12):

For sure.

Hillary Wilkinson (27:13):

We wanna, we wanna exercise transparency Absolutely. In what absolutely in what's happening. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, one last, one last nuts and bolts question. And that is, um, can you still, like, so when the phone is in the box, do are, are you still getting calls, text notifications, et cetera?

Heath Wilson (27:36):

Yeah, we like to say it's out of sight, but not out of service. Um, one of the approaches, so again, we're, we're very ProTech. Um, you know, we, we like our mobile phones, we just think there's a time when we don't need them. Um, but we also realize that people have different circumstances in their families. You have an aging parent or if you have a child, you know, sick of school, like there's, there's a thousand examples of why you might want to be able to be notified for people that have been very concerned about, you know, not having their phone in their hand. A lot of people have moved to a watch so that if they do get a call or a text, it's important, you know, they've, they've got it on their, on their connected watch. We don't, we don't block the signal. If, if there is that moment or that period where you need access or you need to be able to, to hear your phone, you could certainly, you know, leave the ringer on my ringer's off 24 7. I'm just conditioned that way mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, but if I know my kids and my kids are teenagers now, if I know my kids are gonna be out pretty late one night, then I'll, you know, have my phone a bit longer with me then, uh, then putting it into ro. So no, we don't disable anything, we're not blocking anything. Um, it's really up to the user to determine what level of, of friction they wanna put, uh, in place whenever they use it.

Hillary Wilkinson (28:44):

Got you, got you. So, uh, what I, I'm, I'm just interested. I like, I like, like I said, I like stories of origin and I like name stories. What is the meaning behind the name? It's spelled a r o, but it's pronounced RO, which correct to me sounds like reverse osmosis, but like what, what, what's the, what's the story behind the name? Well,

Heath Wilson (29:09):

It's kind of a funny story actually, because when I wrote that manifesto years ago, I knew one thing, I knew what the name was, everything else I didn't know, but I knew what the name was and the name was at that point Smarter, S M R T R, all, all caps. And the idea was to outsmart your smartphone. Then we met with a creative agency and they were like, how much do you like that name? Let me tell you all the reasons why it's not gonna work. So I, I shed a single tear and then we moved in the direction of ro we, we wanted to choose. One is I wanted a very short brand name, so I wanted something that was, you know, less than four letters. Um, so that was one of the <laugh> narrowing factors. But Aro is a, is an English, it's a word that has no English meaning.

Heath Wilson (29:50):

So it allowed us to start with a clean slate versus using something that had a connotation. And what's beautiful about it is, it's a word in the, the Maori language from New Zealand. It's a tribal language and it means to notice, oh, nice to take heed, to turn towards. So the, the, you know, the underlying, um, meaning of the word is so beautiful in terms of, you know, what we're trying to do as an organization. And I love the symmetry. I'm kinda a symmetry guy. So I love the symmetry of the A and the o just from a branding and a logo standpoint. So I kind of fell in love with the, the way it looked as well.

Hillary Wilkinson (30:19):

When we come back, I'm going to ask Heath for his healthy screen habit. 

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Hillary Wilkinson:

We're back. I'm talking with Heath Wilson, co-founder of Aro, an intentionality company. They help people align their actions with their intentions by developing a platform consisting of a digital and physical solution that makes it easy and rewarding for families to put down their phones and be fully present. So now it's your turn on every episode of the Healthy Screen Habits podcast, I ask each guest for a healthy screen habit. This is a tip or takeaway that listeners can put into practice in their own home. Heath, do you have one for us?

Heath Wilson (31:57):

I'm gonna give you two. I'll be real quick on the first, and I'll tell you a story for the second. So the first is, and I would say every parent listening, just do this, trust me, do it. Do family meals without phones, period. Full stop. And I know everyone recommends that, but I can tell you we've been doing it for 3, 4, 5 years. It's a game changer in terms of the connection with your kids and the stories you hear, hear, and just understanding where they are in terms of kind of their mental health. Do that, do that, do that. The other one is more of a recent story. So my wife and I, um, just a couple weeks ago, for whatever reason, one night said, let's, let's not watch TV tonight. Let's just talk Right <laugh>, which sounds so ridiculous, but we do do actually talk a lot.

Heath Wilson (32:39):

But, but that, and I was just something specific going on. So we did that and our kids would walk down separately one by one and, and, and they stopped and they're like, what, what are you guys doing? And so we were just talking and then they would slowly kind of meander over and sit down and talk to us. And it occurred to me in that moment that we were available, right? They weren't interrupting a TV show, they weren't asking, you know, we would pause when they would come down. So even, you know, demonstrating that they're interrupting, we were fully available. And because of that, man, the, the cool stories and learnings that we had with, with all three of them in that case that night, um, we're just amazing. So I guess the rule there, the tip there is try to remove the things in your environment that keep you from being available. So if that's a screen in front of your face, of course that's one piece of the environment that'll make you unavailable. Or if that's a newspaper or you know, whatever. But if you're available, you'll be surprised at what your kids will, how they will engage.

Hillary Wilkinson (33:40):

I love it. Okay. As always, you can find a complete transcript of this show and a link to Aro as well as an affiliate link that we're setting up. Heath, you wanna tell us a little bit about that?

Heath Wilson (33:53):

Yeah, so you can find us online. It's goaro.com, that's G O A R o.com. Uh, we will have an affiliate, uh, promotion code set up and that's HS Habits, uh, I believe, yeah. Yes. Now I'll give you a free month. Uh, so it is, it, we didn't talk about this, but Aro is a membership, um, much like you would have with, I don't know, an aura ring or, you know, a subscription to, uh, to a streaming service. You pay a monthly fee to get access to both the app and the device for your whole family. Um, so that would give you a free month off the, uh, off the membership.

Hillary Wilkinson (34:22):

Wonderful. So you can find all of these things by going to healthy screen habits.org. Click the podcast button and scroll down to find this episode's show notes. So Heath, as they say, with these parenting years, the days are long, but the years are short. This conversation was much too short to get into all of the areas that I'm sure Aro can help families establish healthy screen habits. But I wanna thank you for listening to that little voice long ago that said, Hey, I can, this is, this is something worth chasing because you're changing family's lives. For sure.

Heath Wilson (35:01):

Thank you. Thank you very much.