Joining me this week is Julievette Jefferson, who started a non-profit called Kick the Day to provide kids with a space to play, learn, and move through gaming and other activities. Julievette's experience in the education world combined with a drive to keep kids sane and happy during the pandemic lead to Kick the Day, which now services her community in and around Philadelphia. We talk about community organizations, the importance of after school activities, and more.

Julievette's orgaization is currently doing a fundraiser for this year's programming. If you would like to support the mission, please visit: https://icaniwillktd.com/donate

Episode Resources:

https://icaniwillktd.com/

Welcome to the meadow woman podcast. We address the

issues, opportunities and challenges facing women in the

development of the metaverse the biggest revolution since the

internet itself. Every week we bring you conversations with top

female talent and business executives operating in the

gaming and crypto industries. Here's your host Lindsey, the

boss POS, the meta woman podcast starts now.

Hello, and welcome to the metal woman podcast part of the

holodeck media Podcast Network. I'm your host Lindsay The Boss

Boss and from struggle to success. We're covering it all

returning listeners, thank you so much for supporting the show.

Thank you for listening week after week. Thank you for all

the feedback you send in I love getting it. And for the new

listeners. Welcome. I hope you enjoy and I hope you'll come

back next week. Today's guest is Julie vet, Jefferson, co founder

and creator of pick the day, an organization that in its own

words has, quote, a mission to provide STEM education through

esports encoding, while advancing diversity, equity and

inclusion for youth and communities. Juliet this is

going to be such a fun conversation about building

esports from the grassroots level. I love talking to

community builders. To start I would love for you to introduce

yourself and give a bit of your background to the audience.

Awesome. Thank you so much for having me, Lindsay. Again, I'm

Juliet Jefferson. I have a background in marketing and

advertising. And then I discovered my passion for

fitness and wellness and kind of fast forward through all of our

journey, bringing us to a family of four boys and a husband who

all love gaming. And us trying to figure out how do we kind of

put intention behind their gaming. So as a mom that does

research, like probably too much. We discovered this world

of esports that we did not know exists even as my husband was an

avid gamer, since he was so young didn't know about this

world of esports. Then we came to COVID. And we said hey, like

let's do something fun and safe. Because our kids were not going

to have gym class or socialize during recess. So we got did a

program in our neighborhood called fit in play where we

brought kids together to exercise and play games

together. And that was such a hit in our community. Kids love

that parents love that. And that's kind of how it all got

started my passion and love for wellness and my husband and kids

love for gaming and we created kick the day.

You definitely got into a lot of your origin story there. But can

you you told me a great story about how and how you started in

your driveway, I believe with the kids and how it's grown out.

So can you just give me a little more detail about now this has

grown and evolved and changed over the pandemic and what the

programs that you actually have now are

absolutely self employed did start in our driveway. When we

came up with the idea in this structure, we just put out

flyers in our neighborhood. And parents would sign up their kids

either for every day or whatever days their child was available.

And so we brought out a big TV that we actually someone was

going to throw away. And so we repurposed the TV, put it in our

garage, put up a switch. And so we had kids doing exercise for

about 45 minutes. And surprisingly, sometimes they

wanted to do it longer. We would run up and down the driveway. We

do like simple things like jumping jacks and push ups I had

resistance bands. And we really allow the kids opportunities to

take leadership. So we would pick someone to say, Okay, what,

what exercises should we do next. And they really, really

enjoyed the opportunity to take leadership with their peers. And

then the gaming usually went longer than we had intended. But

it was everyone just had such a great time. And of course, they

were not having socialization with their friends. So this was

like yes, other people other than my parents or my siblings.

And one thing that was super special that gave us the desire

to keep moving forward with this and figuring out how to grow

this was that in this space. One these kids lived in the same

neighborhood, but many of them were not friends, right? They

didn't play together. And then the other thing we knew that

even if they went to the same school, they probably were not

in the same friends circles. We had the very popular kids we

have the athletes, we had the very shy reserved kids, but in

this space, it was so beautiful to see a natural just clicking

of everybody everyone got along. No one was left out If we didn't

have to, sometimes I think with kids, you know, you kind of try

to push like to get them to like mingle. But in this space, it

was just totally natural. We just provided the space and the

day and time and then the kids really took it over from there

was just so natural, so beautiful. And so by seeing that

dynamic, we were like, how do we grow from here? Like, where do

we take this from here from our driveway, we had no idea it was

just an idea to get kids moving and socializing

and wandering in the driveway like

the dining one. Even though we're I'm thinking maybe this

summer, we should do like a pop up thing in our driveway now

that we live somewhere new. So from there, just in conversation

with someone who was the director of a school, Plymouth

Meeting, Pennsylvania, we I told her about our fit and play

program. And all that encompasses she absolutely loved

it and said, Can you bring something like this to our

school. And in the midst of that we were still digging into this

esports space, we were still very unfamiliar. And we started

to get our kids signed up for competitions. And our kids won a

few small prizes. And it just was like, wow, there's something

bigger here than just sitting in front of a screen and sitting on

your butt all day, which that was my perspective, like I get,

we gotta get up, you got to do something like what's the point

here, right? And then also discovering careers in in

gaming, discovering this ecosystem that is in esports,

that it's not just the gamer, right? It's the broadcasting.

And there's so many different roles and pieces that come

together. And really having these conversations with the

kids in our community, but with our own children about, Hey, you

don't have to be the number one. And you also probably have other

passions than playing the games. So how can we develop them mash

that all together? So we developed a program called

gaming with intention. And so that is our program that we

deliver in schools where we introduce kids to competitive

gaming. And so our, our focus, not our sole focus, but we

really want to in impact, lower income urban communities that in

our conversation esports is very new to them. And so as we're

discovering how, like, have you ever competed before? How do you

know what competitive gaming is? Even the word esports is a

foreign word to many of the youth that we've been talking

to. So really just kind of like esports, one on one, like

introducing them to tournaments, and how that works, introducing

them to sitting down and playing a game and understanding the

skill behind the game, and how do we get better? How do we lose

effectively? How do we take a loss and analyze and getting the

kids to have those conversations with each other? And not just us

facilitating but taking the better players say Hey, can you

tell your peer? How you did XYZ? Or what did you notice that they

could do better? And they by giving them at least those

questions, the conversation starts to flow naturally on its

own. So we are now completing our first full school year,

hosting gaming with intention at this school, it's K through

nine, most of the kids that come are really like four through

nine. A lot of the younger kids would rather do something else.

And so this is very different because we are integrated in

their school day. So we are the last like half an hour of the

school day. And so what is special about this is they've

earned their time. So they've had to have good behavior and

participate in class. And so the there's many activities besides

game with attention at the school that they could choose

from. And so we are just one of many activity they can choose.

And so the structure has been seasons are just two weeks. And

so they have one week of training and then one week where

they're competing. And then every winner throughout the

school year will then compete in one final championship

tournament at the end of the school year for a trophy and

some other goodies to just take home and say I'm the champion of

this particular game. So that's kind of how it all unfolded and

then as we're growing this summer, we are partnering with

amateur esports Association to host three one week camps. Which

we're focused on esports, and broadcasting and all of the

different pieces that come together with that. As well as

figuring out what pieces we need to launch fit and code, which

would essentially be very similar to fit in play. Just

adding some code, learning coding in there. And our hope is

that it's specific to game design, how do you code and

design your own game? While integrating the fitness piece?

That's so cool. What has the response been like from schools

and from administrators? I know you have one reach out and say,

Hey, come here, come help us or come do a program. But have you

encountered since that one person, have you encountered

more people reaching out and wanting to learn? Have you

encountered resistance from folks who may be more on the

we're not sure about gaming yet side of things like, what are

schools in your area? And you are, and I would love for you to

talk about this if you're outside of Philadelphia. But

what are the what is going on in your area with? You know, middle

is particularly I would say middle and high schools, like

you said, that are fourth or 12 kind of region, but how are

schools responding to you and trying to get more esports

worked into the school day.

So we've been in quite a few conversations, a lot of schools,

budget is such a big piece of this right being able to provide

the equipment necessary for the kids to play. So that's a big

topic of conversation of, we're interested, but how do we make

it happen. So we've been kind of brainstorming ideas on how the

schools could possibly fundraise to purchase the equipment that

they need. We are ourselves fundraising in trying to figure

out donations for our summer camp. So at least when the kids

conference summer camp, they don't have to worry about the

equipment we can already provide it. Some schools understand that

they'll have some gamers on staff. And that's an easy

conversation, when at least one person can know a little bit

about this world, and then give it back in form where the

administrators can be like, Okay, we get it. And then there

are some schools that they're like, we're just gonna play

video games. And then there's, you know, just push back on

understanding how, what is the value. And really pitching the

value b is not just about the video game is about the

teamwork, it's about how we can get these kids to, to learn

about sportsmanship. And that is the key part, right? Like, I

think us and many organizations in this esports space is, as

with any organized sport, there, they all have similar values,

right? They may be played differently, but we all have

similar values, and why we want kids to be part of a team and

part of an organized sport and having someone to coach and

mentor them. And so with us, we are really pushing the other

piece, because this would be an organized sport, where they're

not moving their bodies. And so really integrating that wellness

piece to keep the whole body you know, ready to play at their

best. So it's a little bit of both, to your question of, we

have some schools that are like, we don't want video games in our

school, they can do that at home on their free time. And other

schools who are very much open to it and just figuring out how

do we make it happen in terms of expenses?

Gotcha. Yeah. And that is always any. You're a nonprofit working

with schools. And so there's a lot of financial difficulties

that come with that. Yeah, I think as many many people know

and understand. I do want to talk specifically. And we've

gotten into this, for sure. I want to talk specifically about

the community you're in and what it's like to actually build. Hi.

Hello. That is our younger.

Yeah, for those that are watching the video, we just got

a great cameo. That was great. That made my day. But I do want

to talk specifically about the community here. And there has

been definitely a push when we talk about fundraising, we talk

a lot about, like nationwide programs. And some of them have

been successful. Some of them have not we saw flavors, we saw

what happened with flavors. And there's to me, especially where

we're at right now. I mean, esports really took off maybe

like five years ago. So it's such a nascent industry and just

hard to make everyone happy when you're trying to build a

national view. Yeah. Um, so can you talk about how you're able

to build something from the grassroots level, and how you're

able to work with your community to identify the needs and the

areas that were met, I think you use your own kits as a template,

which is always a good place to start, because I'm sure you know

them very well. But how were you able to, I don't know, look

around and see what kits needed and and see what parents wanted

and see what administrators wanted? And how do you feel

about taking that approach versus trying to kind of create

a package and then give it to a community? Um,

I think really, the Insight is first being a parent, I'm not

sure that I would have like that, to be tuned in to those

kinds of things, had I not been a parent, I'm not sure. I also

worked in educational staffing for five years. So talking to

administrators about their staffing needs, is directly

correlated to the needs of their students. And, you know, having

to put on the hat of the type of teachers that I need to hire,

because this is what they need to accomplish. All of those

kinds of pieces put together like I, we believe that this is

kind of the road because we could just solely be like a

community based organization not ever talked to the schools. But

if we can touch students, like where they are all the time, and

I think there is something special, in this school year,

we've seen the students seeing their teachers and seeing that

their school is invested in something that they're

interested in. That is what otherwise be like, just casual

free time. Right? Like, there was something that happened

there. And, you know, having the staff part of the program being,

you know, kind of like our CO coaches and facilitating and

being able to play with their teachers, and have this fun

time. I think that gave us some insight into, hey, we know we

need the education. But how can we get kids more excited about

coming to school, and excited about their grades and what

they're learning? Again, very similar to other organized

sports, where they have to have a certain GPA to participate or

whatever.

And esports is just

whether you're the shy, reserved, or you're the athlete,

it crosses all borders, all characteristics and

personalities. And so when we started to have conversations,

also like, Hey, we're thinking about this, what is your idea to

another community organization? And they're like, We never

thought about that. I think that's a great idea. I'm a

gamer, you know, what are? How can I help you? Right? And so

it's like, really, through having conversations of what do

you think because we have this idea, we're not sure if it'd be

successful or not, and people validating, and then seeing the

kids, they're not directly giving us feedback? Well, we're

seeing everything kind of evolve. That's kind of like

where, where we're, we're letting feedback. And the the

kids kind of guide us really?

Yeah, well, I just think that that's, I bring this app because

I, I really like talking about esports and education. And I

think that there is there's a lot happening in college like

ton happening time. And then there's a lot of companies that

have kind of tried in the in the middle of high school scene, but

it's obviously extremely hard to monetize. So if you're trying to

build a company that's taking on investors and doing all this

stuff, it can be really tricky. And a lot of these companies

also try to come up with nationwide programs. And I

think, your experience as an educational staffer, and then

having kids of your own makes it so that you can be really

successful within your community and like add that value in a way

that a prepackaged program might have difficulty doing that. So I

think that's definitely like, that's a different approach than

a lot of people have taken. But these kind of more grassroots

things at the, at the current juncture, just make more sense

to me, because you're gonna have a lot better idea of what you

need in the suburbs of Philadelphia. And when he was

writing a program in Florida and looking for huge amounts of

investments and a way to monetize that just isn't

necessarily there without public support. Like,

right. Yes, support is big key. Exactly.

monetize, this is by you getting the commute really on board. And

it's easier to do that if you live there and you're doing it

than it is like to try to come in and make people believe in

the vision? Yes, for

sure. No, absolutely. Like, even if you take, like, if you make

it even smaller, like on a more granular level, like, we had the

director of the school bring us in, in the end, she believed it,

and she was excited about it. But we still had to have support

from everybody else. All of the staff members, the other

administrators. And and that was not easy. You would think all

the director says this is good. And so you just walk right in,

and it's going to be easy peasy. But it's not, you really have to

get buy in from the community as a whole. So that they can say to

their classrooms, hey, this is a new program happening in our

school, it's an option for you to sign up and attend. And so

we, you know, from the beginning, we didn't just have a

whole ton of kids coming, it was maybe two and then five, and

then 10. And then 20, you know, and so the support of the

community, you know, like, no matter how big or small is so

essential, so that you're not the only one, like, with a

bullhorn saying, Hey, we're here. This is why you have to

come, you know, like you have kind of like, this is why word

of mouth is so important, right? Because that's the community to

support the value.

That makes total sense. And what has the response been, like,

from the kids from the parents, from the teachers from, you

know, from even local government or whoever, like, what kind of

feedback have you been getting from folks in the community

about the programs that you're doing? Parents love it,

is they love the fitness piece. They're like, Oh, I love it,

you're getting my kid, like, they don't do anything at home,

I just said, so the parents love the fitness piece. We've also

been able to partner with other organizations that do things

like girls, we just finished a girls and gaming program, where

they had girls go through six weeks of talking about esports

and developing their own event esports event, and then

possibly, you know, one of them could make this a reality. So

how do you go from idea to implementation and planning and

all of that. And so the programs that we integrate, or try to

expose the kids to, that's what the parents love, the schools,

our school so far, they just, they love that in this space. So

this school is very special in that 100% of the kids have an

IEP for many, many reasons. And so there are some behavior

challenges.

Sure, I'm very familiar with IEP s. But can you explain what

those are just just in case?

Yes. So IEP stands for individualized education plan.

You can have this for any number of reasons it can be add, it can

be speech, it can be that it's not falling under the spectrum

of special education. So I'm learning this as we continue

into the world of education. But you a student can have an IEP

for many number of reasons just means that for this particular

reason, we need to give them extra support, whatever that

reason may be. And for many of these students, that is a

behavior, like whatever their situation is, it does translate

into behavior challenges. And so because they're here with me,

that means they've earned the right to be there, they've had a

good day, they participated. You know, they did everything they

were supposed to do to earn that time with me. And so that is the

one thing they're like, as the numbers grow. And as the kids

keep coming back, that means these kids keep having good

days. And that means that what was a productive day in the

classroom. And so that's the wind.

When you said that earlier, not knowing the full picture,

because I mean, even if even any kid earning and being on good

behavior and having a good day is really important for sure.

But knowing the full picture and knowing the type of school

you're in, it's definitely like an extra incentive, which is

really cool. Absolutely. You're able to, to bring that in. As

someone who is in the nonprofit slash education side. What kind

of support systems do you wish were in place? They don't

necessarily that can that can take on a whole bunch of

meetings. Right? So the gaming industry support from local

governments or local businesses support from parents support for

the schools like what do you wish there was for you to make

this transition into the education portion? A little bit

smoother. Um,

we haven't gotten a lot of response from local government.

And that can be a numerous things. And so local government

support would be amazing, right? Because if we had local

government saying to school and or communities, this is good for

XYZ, right. And we have case studies, all over our country

that are showing this is good for various reasons. It's just a

matter of getting everyone else to see and agree. I think if we

put education at the state level, right, like for us, it

will be the Pennsylvania Department education, if we had

support and buy in from them in the value of esports. That

trickle, the trickle down will be easier, right? We're trying

to go from the bottom up, it's a lot easier when it comes from

the top down. And so just at the state level, it would be nice to

see our state see the value in it. Because gaming is not going

away the children's interests, or people in general interest in

gaming isn't going away. And so but I just everything is like

how do we monetize? And I, I want there to be a balance. It's

like, how do we get state support? But also not a whole

bunch of companies? Like rushing into? Like, how do we say

support me? Yeah, you know, to Yeah, less

rules attached to funds, it can mean,

like, that part of it. The money. Part of it is I think the

tricky part. And when you think bigger, it's the the money's

necessary, right? Because you need to invest to grow. We need

money for the schools to have these programs. But what does

that look like? And it's just like you said, not the red tape

or like companies study and just to figure out like, how much

money they can make now that the state is supporting it.

That's interesting. They hadn't thought about that second piece.

And I do think that, yeah, when it comes to when we talked about

earlier, kind of national versus local programs, like, yeah,

you're right, you don't want a whole bunch of people to come in

and try to make a grandiose national program that they can

or even a state, you know, spread all over Pennsylvania,

and then yeah, and monetize off of so that makes total sense. Do

you speaking of this, do you see yourself kind of staying in the

nexus of gaming and education and staying in schools? Do you

think that it will get to a point where maybe you're less

interested in working in schools, and you kind of want to

create your own space or have your own programs? I know you've

previously worked as an education staffer, so I'm not

sure if that plays into it, but like it has this. And given that

you all started in 2020? Ish, right? So definitely my growth

phases here. You see yourself staying in working with schools,

because of, you know, the feedback, you've gotten the

value you've gotten the way you've gotten kids to be

involved? Or do you first see, hey, working in schools is

great, but it doesn't come with the monetization that comes with

it. The schools do have rules when it comes to barriers, and

it takes a lot of buy in to get education on board. Like do you

picture yourself monetizing in a different way in the future? Are

you really passionate about staying in education and

providing these opportunities through schools.

So we do have a goal to open ktd Studios, which would be a land

and Education Center, where we have our own place to to host

these programs, and so much more, because now it's our space

and we can do what we want. But outside of schools, we've

thought about partnering with, like Boys and Girls Clubs,

YMCAs, local rec centers, other nonprofit organizations, for

instance, we'll be partnering with cancer who they are a

cancer support nonprofit. So they support cancer patients as

well as family members who are experiencing that journey with

whoever is diagnosed. And so they are the first and only

black owned Cancer Support Center in the country. And so

we're partnering with them to host our camps. So they're

allowing us to host our camp in their beautiful space in

Philadelphia. And so other organizations that have this

pulse on the community, and kids that see the value And what

esports can bring and not just esports not just the competitive

part, we have the kids who are not interested in competing,

which is great. And that's where fit and play comes into play, or

fitting. Kobe is not just about the competing, but merging your

passion and your interests and also finding other people have

similar interests and creating friendships and connection.

That's just a you're open to kind of doing broader community

stuff and not just education. Right now, this

is just kind of like our beginning. Right. Absolutely.

I wondered, I think that there's, I mean, there's

certainly room for both, and especially since you are focused

on community development, and what that looks like. And I

think it's good not to feel the need, for sure.

Absolutely. Yeah.

And I want to kind of pivot a little bit, we've talked a lot

about kick the day, which I think everyone should check out.

And I want to talk about your experience, as you know, as a

mom, as someone who's been in the game industry as someone

who's learning more, and kind of the direction that we're heading

in the games industry, in general. So big, big picture

stuff here. So now we're kind of moving into the metaverse, we're

moving into virtual experiences. This is something I like to talk

a lot about on the show. I'm definitely one of those people

who still believes in real world experiences, and believes in

that balance, for sure. But as tech gets better, and as we all

start to do more and more things online, I want to hear about

your perspective, from working with kids in real life. And what

you're thinking about in terms of balancing virtual and real,

specifically, since you started during a pandemic, when everyone

was in virtual schooling, and intentionally built a very safe

real world experience. Yeah, how are you thinking about kind of

this hybrid? How are you thinking about getting kids

excited about new tech, but still interacting in the real

world and giving those skills? Like, what? What are you doing

to prepare for that? Think about that, to teach your kids about

it. Um,

as we started to go back into the world, and now we can be

around other people. What I love that has happened is the virtual

didn't just go away, right? We didn't just say, Okay, we don't

need zoom and Google meet anymore. And we're back to what

it used to be no, what we've created is this hybrid world

where we can do both. And so also kids are funny, and maybe

all humans are where, like, when they have to do something, they

no longer want to do it. So virtual seems great, right? Like

talking to your friends over FaceTime or whatever, that was

fun when it was a choice. But now you're saying I have to be

on verge, I have to be on the Zoom call or whatever. There's

some pushback. But also, I think everyone kind of realized the

value of being in person. So now there is a desire amongst adults

and children to want to be in person because there was a point

where we could not. And so everyone is also craving this in

person experience now. However, with virtual, and we know this

for so long now, but I think is more prevalent now that you can

meet and connect with people anywhere in the world in this

virtual space. And that is a beautiful, beautiful thing. In

our, like, for instance, girls and gaming program that was

hosted by another nonprofit. There were kids in different

school districts, and nowhere near each other like

Philadelphia and Lancaster, right, they're nowhere near each

other. So they got to meet other girls that they otherwise would

not have met, and got to hear their perspectives and their

ideas. So the virtual world has so much value, but also, in

person experience, there's something to be said, If you and

I were in the same room, it would just be different I can't

describe it is there's just something different about

physically being present with someone. And if we can just take

the value from both of those experiences and create balance.

I think it I think that's the direction that we're going

whether we want to or not both of these things as humans, we

want them and it'll just kind of keep evolving. And we're just

open to evolving with with that.

If that makes sense to me, and I know that you are big on on

wellness and fitness is something that we've talked

about, are you at all kind of thinking about how we're going

to balance new tech experiences. I think there's like, you know,

there's so much concern over screentime there's so much

concern over on on being an online world and the types of

harassment you might receive or the types of things you might

get used to, like, what are you thinking about as someone who is

engaged not only with gaming but with the fitness and wellness

side? about moving into more kind of virtual, or I guess,

time spent virtually time spent interacting with technology,

less time spent on real world things like, yeah, and that

perspective, what are you thinking about?

Oh, my gosh, again, a balance is everything. So even as we think

about growing our programs are just in our family, non

electronic time is important. I think just for our mental

health, too, like there's just so much stimulation in a

computer or a phone or a tablet, and being able to connect with

nature, being able to be a little bit quiet, sometimes like

and recenter, and rebalance ourselves. In in the world, and

in the education space. Mindfulness is like a good

buzzword that popping around. But it's important, right? That

this balance that we need is absolutely important. Just

stepping away from this Metaverse and electronics is so

important. So that's one of the things that we've thought about.

Like for the camp, we'll definitely step away and go

outside and just play right. Like there's so much value in

just playing and having fun outside of that. And so I hope

that that's a topic of conversation, as this virtual

reality world is growing. And there's so much happening good

and bad and upside down and crazy. I hope that the

conversation around balancing and and getting out of the

virtual and into the real world is a topic of conversation. And

it's really hard for industries and companies to say, hey, we

have this amazing product or this amazing game or whatever.

But make sure you take a break.

Yeah, when they're trying to get every ounce of your time. You

have something you love and you believe and you want to use it.

Yes, I do want to end with kind of a fun question. And this is

something that I've asked folks in the education space before

but what are the kids actually playing these days? What do you

weigh?

Yes. So um, let's see Madden and 2k are a big one at our school.

Smash is like everyone loves Smash. Another Brawlhalla is a

big one. Raw is a yes rise.

That's a little you know, madness, UK will know about the

Brawlhalla.

It is a smaller, I actually have a student who participates in

the Brawlhalla tournaments. So yes, so he loves them. And

because smash and Brawlhalla are very similar smashes, you know,

Nintendo, everyone knows internet already knows those

characters. So sometimes, if a student for whatever reason

feels like smashes a hard game, maybe they've seen other people

play and they're very, very good and intimidated by it. I'll

introduce them to bro hollow. And because it's not everyone

doesn't know Brawlhalla it's like the intimidation is a

little down. And when they get confident, I said, Look, now you

can do this, because it's very similar gameplay very similar

concept of a game. So a lot of times, I was kind of like my

entry into introducing some kids to smash who are like kinda

resistant to it. But it also it each game has its own ecosystem,

which is so beautiful. And with bahala not being the Smash, it

still has this amazing, huge community with lots of toys,

there's lots of big prizes happening. And I was just

surprised to see that because when we were thinking about the

games to bring to the school, we wanted them popular games, but

then we wanted some other games that made because we want to say

just because you've never played that before doesn't mean you're

not going to be good at it. Or just because you play this one

game all the time. And that's your favorite doesn't mean

you're not going to enjoy this other game, because that is very

hard. Like some kids are just like, I'm a Madden player, and

that's what I play and I don't like anything else. Or another

thing is I'm a manager on PlayStation or multiplayer on

Xbox. And that's what I play. I'm playing on anything else.

I'm not playing another game. Wait a minute. Let's open the

possibilities. Maybe this still can be fun, and you'd be

surprised that you'd be good at it. And one thing was super fun.

The school had a professional development day And so we were

able to come in to be it was supposed to be just for fun not

like, sit down and do training was a fun, Self Care

Professional Development Day. And so we had all of the games

set up. And the teachers were set up where every I think it

was like every five minutes, they had to switch chairs. So

they would start the game wherever the last person picked

up. And we did this intentionally because we knew if

we gave them the choice, they were just going to go to the

thing they were used to. And so by doing that, they discovered

Oh, this is actually fun. I did, I would have never chose to play

it on my own. And I've actually been dating, yes, pretty much.

Yes. And they loved it, the teachers absolutely loved it.

And so that started the conversation of why some of the

games, we've chosen to introduce the kids to something that they

normally wouldn't choose, because it's not the popular

game, or it's not what they're used to, or what their brother

cousins are doing. And so that has been really fun. So in the

summer, like, for instance, Bomberman was one of the big,

fun games that the kids really love. It's not a big game, but

it's fun. It's simple. And at first, they were like, Oh, we've

never heard of this game. Like that's gonna be corny that, and

then they loved it. They absolutely loved it and had such

a great time.

So fun. I love game speed dating. That's awesome. I think

that

you know what you gave me idea I'm gonna have to try that put

together a program against speed dating for grownups or

something. Yes.

So fun. That's great. Well, I want to quickly summarize some

of the things that we touched on. Before we get into our last

little segment here. We began with a whole discussion on kick

the day what you all are doing, how it started naturally, with

posters in the neighborhood neighborhood and a repurpose TV

in the driveway. And from there, you were able to build an

environment where kids who wouldn't normally interact,

started interacting, took it from the driveway to a school

and started developing gaming with intention to introduce

competitive gaming and esports ecosystem to all kinds of

different kids. You look to teach better skills, from coding

to the competitive scene, event planning sportsmanship being

part of a team, fitness, wellness, and so much more. So

it's, it's not just gaming, that there's anything wrong with that

either. But it's bringing gaming into into the classroom to teach

other things in a really fun way. Your experience as an

educational staffer helped you were able to learn about what

schools needed, what kids wanted, and get communities, key

stakeholders on board. And at a granular level, you needed full

support for the school staff to actually make this happen. So it

wasn't just getting a director on it was making sure that the

teachers and everyone was also excited about program.

Absolutely. We talked about different support systems that

could be in place, we talked about how having local

government support would make implementing programs easier.

And supporting games as a part of education will be really

helpful. But also that it can go too far. And you don't want to

create a situation where you have businesses flooding in

trying to monetize the state contract, or any of the red tape

that might potentially come with state money. So it's it's this

balance of getting people on board and getting them to

support but also allowing the freedom and flexibility that you

have now to win over stakeholders naturally, and get

a community what it actually needs. We ended with a

discussion on kind of virtual worlds, and how the hybrid

between virtual and real life is really important. There's

something about being physically present with someone that is

just special and different. But the virtual element also allows

people to connect where they may not have been able to actually

connect due to physical distance. So having that balance

is really great. And at your camps this summer, you will

still be taking time to get outside via Nietzsche, practice

mindfulness, all of that in between sessions of gaming. And

we ended with what the kids are playing, which I'm not going to

get into but because we're good answers, but I do want to know

that I think everyone should try game speed dating. That's a

brilliant idea. So the last segment I like to do, this is

something that I've asked everyone who comes on the show,

and I know you've listed so I'm sure you know what it is that

this is the moment of reflection, I want to ask you.

There's one thing you would like to tell your younger self about

getting into the gaming industry and being successful.

So prior to meeting my husband, I was not a gamer. My brother

was and I had other people around me and I'm like I got

better things to do around here. And as my husband and our

relationship grew and we built a family conversations around

gaming and why it's important to my husband and realizing what

happens like the for my husband and just I was right. And so I

think just being open, being more open, I wish that I was

more, my mind was more open to the, to the gaming space much

more earlier. And I think my mind didn't completely become

open until I was introduced to this esports world where I could

see my kids earning a scholarship or I could now see

the career opportunities and see, like, all that encompasses

gaming space, and not just the actual gaming part of it. And so

it wasn't until that time that I discovered esports and the

careers and all of the opportunities that I said yes, I

love this space, I want to be part of this space. I may not be

the gamer. But I love this space. And I love what's in this

space and nationally because my kids are interested I just want

to be here so that I can help them grow and evolve here but I

do tell my younger self to just be more open minded.

Totally with you on that. Listeners definitely know that I

am not great at putting myself out there and actually trying

games but I love this industry so much you know, I'm here

because I genuinely like it. I like reading about it. I love

meeting folks like you who are doing stuff in it. So fun. So

cool. So completely review on that page. Julie that thank you

so much for coming on. Where can people find you? Follow you?

Where can people follow kick the day? See what you all are up to

get involved in the summer camps where where can they find all

that?

Yes. So on Instagram, we are kick the day kids on Facebook.

It's just kick the day. And then you can find me on LinkedIn. I

think I'm the only Juliet Jefferson.

We love unique names.

Yes, yes, sir. Thank you so much. Thank you. So those three

places I'm open DM me, message me. I'm open to people's

suggestions and ideas too, as well.

Just so wonderful. For all the listeners out there. Be sure to

leave those five star ratings and reviews. Check out other

holodeck media podcasts including better business and

business of esports. I'm on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn

at Lindsay path. You can catch me Wednesday Nathan the business

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