Last month, we announced that BETA Camp alum, Rhett Jones, officially opened his world-class mountain bike park at 17 years old. 🤯

Welp, in the time since, he’s transformed it into a $1.5m business. 🤷

He’s also been busy:

• Appearing on television

• Getting featured in newspapers

• Starring in mountain biking blogs

In today’s issue:

1. Tactical Tuesday: ‘Tis the season — for burnout. Here are two surprising tactics you can use when your kid starts stressing.

2. Something to inspire you: This kid started doing monthly research reports at 5 years old — now she’s building a DNA chatbot.

3. Ivy’s takeaway: Don’t underestimate the power of your kid’s tribe.

Help your kid beat burnout with modern mindfulness and positive peeps

Picture this—

🏠 Your kid arrives home from school. 

💤 They’re exhausted and unable to focus on the basic questions you’re asking them. 

😵‍💫 They go straight to their room to tackle mountains of homework, barely touch their dinner, then stay up late, aimlessly scrolling on their phone.

If any part of this story sounds familiar, your kid may be facing burnout.

It sucks.

It can also be dangerous, since your kid’s brain is in a fluctuating development stage that can increase their chance of prolonged anxiety and depression.

And to top it off, if you’ve got a teen on your hands, they’re probably experiencing just as much (if not more) stress than you are.

‘Tis the season for burnout — for you and your kid. I’m here to help.

First, the basics —

1. Make sure they’re getting enough sleep

2. Encourage physical activity

3. Fuel their bodies with healthy food

4. Acknowledge their feelings, and….

5. Carve out time for FUN!

I get it — you’re probably already aware of those things, so now let’s dive into two advanced tactics that may not be on your radar. 👇

🧘 Go Zen

Studies show that mindfulness is one of the best ways for kids to tackle stress, and can even have a meaningful impact on children as young as seven.

But how do you teach mindfulness?

For kids…

🧸 Breathing buddies: Place a stuffed animal on their stomach and ask them to watch it move up and down as they breathe. This makes them aware of their breath, and is a great way to calm down at the end of the day (heck, I’m gonna try it tonight).

🌹 Stop and smell the roses — literally: Go on a nature walk together and encourage your kid to recognize and share what they see/smell/hear. This will engage their senses and bring them out of their minds and into their bodies.

For teens…

✍️ Gratitude journaling: Practicing gratitude is scientifically proven to help your kids be happier. Having trouble nudging them to do it? Let ‘em know Taylor Swift swears by her journaling routine.

📱Let tech do the work: Pro tip — the world-leading mindfulness app Headspace is free for teens. 👇

❗Don’t forget:

• Model mindfulness yourself — your kids are always watching.

• Make it a habit. It works if you work it.

• Keep it fun by using games and activities. 

• Celebrate small achievements and be patient with the process.

👭 Audit their amigos

We all know someone who attracts creates drama. It’s freaking exhausting.

But positive “cup filler” friendships have the opposite effect. They can relax you, energize you, and even improve your physical health.

Your kid is no different.

And while forbidding them to see certain friends might backfire, you can certainly nudge them toward positive friendships.

Next time you pick up your kid from a friend’s house ask them:

“Do you feel happier, less happy, or the same after spending time with that friend?”

Quietly organize their friends into three categories:

Then encourage them to spend time with the positive peeps.

Being around energizing people is like a drug. It won’t take long for your kid to learn how to sniff out uplifting relationships and avoid destructive ones.

And that might just be the most important skill you ever teach them.

When you love learning as a tot, you can change the world as a teen

Imagine you’re babysitting a 7-year-old who’s prattling on about cloud formations while showing you a stair piano she engineered herself:

Would you be impressed — and maybe a little terrified?

Well, now you know how Clara Aboel-Nil’s babysitter felt.

Fast-forward to today

Clara is a 16-year-old junior at AlphaX, and credits her curiosity to her father, who had her delivering a presentation on a new topic every month, starting at age five. 

“It’s something I recommend for every parent, because it definitely made me love learning more,” says Clara.

From an early age, Clara’s learning wasn’t confined to school hours. 

That’s why she had no qualms about spending her summers at the University of Texas, Cambridge, and Oxford taking high-level courses on health and genetics (no biggie).

“I saw it as a time to learn what I liked and didn’t like,” says Clara. “I don’t really like sitting in a lab and researching plant cells that much.”

Finding her passion

Learning what she didn’t enjoy helped Clara pivot away from the lab and into personalized medicine, an exciting new field that uses DNA to help people live their healthiest lives.

“I realized that our genes are actually informing a lot in our lives,” says Clara.

Everything from…

• How our bodies respond to caffeine

• How we grow muscle

• How cancer cells develop in our bodies

… is informed by our genetic code.

DNA can help people live healthier lives— but only if they know how to decipher it.

So, Clara set out to help people do just that.

Choosing her project

Turns out, revolutionizing the way people think about their health isn’t easy.

Clara tried out a few nonstarter ideas, like:

• Writing a newsletter

• Starting a traveling medical clinic

• Opening her own health coaching practice 

But none of these projects hit the mark.

Then, Clara’s uncle passed away from brain cancer. 

“It made me understand that our time on this earth is finite, so I need to be doing something that is helping as many people as I can,” says Clara. 

That’s when she decided to build an AI chatbot — a personalized health coach that anyone can access, 24/7.

“If I can help people live healthier and longer lives through a chatbot, then that’s what I’m destined to do,” says Clara. 

Figuring out how to make it work

There was just one glaring problem: Clara didn’t have any experience in AI or coding.

But she did have a healthy supply of grit that would power her through hours of trial and error.

“Sometimes I’ll try something, and it won’t be the answer I was looking for, but it’ll be an answer that’s better than I wanted it to be,” says Clara.

Like the time that Clara was messing around with her prompt, and ended up with a detailed, step-by-step health plan:

But don’t think that the AI is making it easy on Clara. 

ChatGPT has been known to hallucinate facts, so Clara has had to become an expert in order to verify that her chatbot is giving accurate advice.

In other words, she’s had to become more knowledgeable than the AI. 

What’s next

While Clara’s getting her chatbot ready for beta testing, she’s turning her attention to another important problem:

You can’t change the world if people don’t know about it.

That’s why Clara’s working hard to build an audience on her Twitter(X) account. Give her a follow to stay in the loop on Clara’s journey (and be the first to find out when her app is released!).

The right environment is crucial

Clara is achieving dramatically more than most high school students, but is definitely not experiencing burnout.

Why?

She’s in the right environment, surrounded by the right people.

Clara attends Alpha School, where students spend just 2 hours on academics each morning, giving them the rest of the day to focus on real-world projects.

“Having my entire afternoon free is what makes the difference,” Clara told me. “I wouldn’t be able to do this if I had a normal course load.”

But it’s not just the time.

It’s the people.

“I feel like I’m in a community that is supportive and helpful and inspirational,” says Clara.

This is why keeping your kids surrounded by “cup fillers” is so important. 

Think back to your school days…

If you’re like me, the movie Mean Girls was pretty freakin’ accurate.

You can’t shield your kid from all of it, but do everything you can to guide them into positive tribes. ✌️

Until next time,

Ivy

CEO Prequel, BETA Camp, Apollo

Follow my journey on LinkedIn