Inspiring Millions through Outdoor Play and Community - Ginny Yurich is RightOffTrack | Anya Smith

Anya Smith (00:02.471)
Hey friends, welcome to another captivating episode of RightOffTrack, your go-to podcast for delving into the minds of purpose-driven entrepreneurs. I'm your host Anya Smith, and today's journey is all about embracing your passion and igniting a movement that can change lives. In this episode, we're joined by a remarkable guest who has harnessed her entrepreneurial spirit to foster vibrant outdoor childhood experiences and created amazing resources to help parents.

Together we'll explore her inspiring journey, uncover her entrepreneurial path, and unearth the invaluable lessons she's gathered along the way. Our guest is not only the visionary behind the renowned movement 1000 Hours Outside, but she's also the author of a newly released book Until the Streetlights Come On. With an incredible social media following of nearly one million in a thriving podcast, her work isn't just a movement, it's a transformational journey towards a more fulfilling, nurture-infused childhood.

prepared to be inspired and equipped with actionable insights as we dive deep into the world of our exceptional guest. Welcome to the podcast, Ginny Yurick. Did I pronounce that last?

Ginny Yurich (01:07.63)
Okay, okay, wow. I need to like hear that as I go to bed every night. I mean, I gotta put that on the loop. That was incredible. I'm really actually not that amazing as however that sounded, but I so appreciate that. That was so kind of you, thank you. I'm thrilled to be here, very honored.

Anya Smith (01:21.903)
Oh, you are. I'm so I'm so grateful and also great. Quick shout out to Tim Beeler, who is a strategy detective, as I call him, was like, OK, you know what, Anya? I know Jenny, she has this incredible story. You have to have our own party. I was like, OK. And then I look at what you're doing. And as a mom of three kids, I look up to you as somebody who has five kids. And then you have this amazing community. And I'm just inspired on so many levels how you create this resource

Ginny Yurich (01:30.795)
Hmm

Anya Smith (01:52.051)
parents and empowers, you know, children, empowers childhood. And I know we have a lot to dive into and now you have a book. So I was like, yes, I'm so excited to have you here.

Ginny Yurich (02:02.958)
Well, thank you for having me. I think actually Tim and I are like neighbors. I think we live in the same state. So isn't that wild? Just a small world.

Anya Smith (02:10.731)
small world and talking about the world of experiences, I just started reading your book, which is coming out really soon. So what if we dive in there? In your book, I just say the first thing you say, I think is like about the social like, can I give him back? If it's okay, if I do a little spoiler and we can cut this out if you don't like it. And I was like, wow, it's so raw about describing the challenges of having that experience as a parent. We're not prepared for it, we're not equipped for it. So can you talk about, you know,

Ginny Yurich (02:29.666)
Yes, sure.

Ginny Yurich (02:39.34)
Mm-hmm.

Anya Smith (02:40.36)
What was the inspiration for this book first and foremost?

Ginny Yurich (02:44.354)
Well, I just think parenting is tricky, right? And there are so many stages and ages and you're always behind the eight ball, you're always trying to figure things out. And my journey as a parent has been one of like failure after failure after failure really started in that spot. I think that depending on when you have kids and we had kids into our twenties, so I'd had a small career before having kids. And I think that a lot of your life, you go for your strengths. So you're like, well, I'm good at this, I'm good at that. And...

You pick your career, you pick the things that you're going to do and you succeed at them and people give you accolades and pats on the back. That was sort of like my life, right? Then all of a sudden I had a kid and I was like, okay, this is very different. It changes immediately, one day to the next. One day you're getting pats on the back and the next day you have a baby that's crying and you can't figure out why. They're crying constantly and they're crying through the night and all of a sudden you're in this spot.

Anya Smith (03:24.467)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (03:37.032)
Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (03:42.134)
For me, a very dark spot because I was struggling with feelings of failure and not being able to figure it out. And I think a lot of parenting is that. You never really do figure it out. You just have to kind of make it through. But along the way, I fell into a solution that actually has worked through the entirety of childhood. I've got teenagers now and it answers a lot of our modern day parenting problems. You know, it answers the problem of screens, which is one of the biggest problems that we're facing, I think, as parents.

It also touches on this feeling of failure and overwhelm and defeat. And, you know, how does one person manage another person or another several people? You know, if you have one kid or three kids or five kids or eight kids, you know, people have all sorts of different numbers here. And, and so, um, and so that's where the story came from. It really is a message of hope that in this day and age, especially because the world is changing so rapidly, this is actually a neat thing that we can

Anya Smith (04:21.838)
Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (04:40.998)
lean into the open-ended space of life, we can lean into play, we can lean into hands-on living, as opposed to like worksheets and structure and this, less than, and that thing, you know, that really it's this more open-ended life that is going to prepare our kids for a rapidly changing world. And I think that's a message of hope. We can do less and gain a little bit more. We can do less. When I say do less, I'm talking about we don't have to run, be run so ragged.

You know, we can enjoy our kids more and play games and read books and bake muffins and know that those types of things still prepare kids for what they need tomorrow. So that's where the book came from. People used to play till the streetlights came on. That's what they would say. You know, that would be their only thing. They'd have to come back before it got dark. And that was their only parameter. Kids were trusted and they had a lot of autonomy.

Anya Smith (05:25.085)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (05:30.804)
Yeah.

I think about that all the time where I remember the time where I was climbing trees in our backyard. And now I'm slightly terrified as a parent about that, but I was doing that and having lots of fun. Like again, those, those vibrant experiences. And I have to think about, well, not that necessarily one of my children will get hurt, right? But I have to balance that, right? Is that really a danger or am I inhibiting their possibility if I don't let them do something like that, a little about climbing trees, but be outside, you know, have their imagination, be exploring things on their own versus being.

entertain, let's say by a screen.

Ginny Yurich (06:06.498)
Well, and it is an interesting thing. I think those risky situations teach kids how to use their bodies. And if they don't have them, then they don't know how to use their bodies. And so actually, in the long run, that's a little riskier.

Anya Smith (06:19.955)
And Deni, you've been creating this community for a while. You mentioned your children are teenagers. Why was now the time you chose to write this book?

Ginny Yurich (06:29.414)
Now is when someone asked me to do it. Also that's part of it. You know I think that this has always just been for me sharing something that worked for our family and I know you talk a lot to entrepreneurs and I think my journey was one that I actually didn't really view myself as an entrepreneur until fairly recently. I was just writing about what had changed my life because it had changed my life so substantially. Like I went from drowning.

Anya Smith (06:31.127)
I'm sorry.

Anya Smith (06:34.751)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (06:56.671)
Mm-hmm.

Ginny Yurich (06:57.214)
I did not love being a mom. And I spent three years that way. We had a three-year-old and a one-year-old and a little baby. And every single day, I didn't even want to get up because I thought, well, this day's going to be another awful day. And they were pretty awful, just crying kids. And no one's ever happy. And they never slept at the same time. And you're just run ragged. And so getting outside for substantial periods of time, not just for 45 minutes, but for a lengthy period of time.

Anya Smith (07:06.411)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (07:17.128)
Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (07:23.99)
changed the whole experience of mothering for me. And then also I've learned in the past decade that when we let kids play outside, it helps them in every facet of their development. So it helps their cognition even. It's like academics out there when they're moving and touching things and learning. So this has been quite the journey, but at the beginning it was just writing about what changed my life on a blog, because everyone had a blog. So then I had a blog.

It's been a long time. I mean, I've been writing since 2013. It's been a decade. And just in the past couple of years, uh, things took off a little bit more. I think the world has changed them and more people start to do it. They start to try. Like we're actually trying to get outside for a thousand hours in a year. That's actually like what we're doing and other people try and it works for them. And you kind of reach this critical mass, but sometimes it takes a long time to get there.

Anya Smith (08:09.663)
Yeah, yeah. Amazing.

Anya Smith (08:17.319)
Yeah. And can you tell a little more like what was it like now being on this author side? So you've been blogging for a while and you write so well. So what was it like writing the book? What were maybe some key intentions that went to maybe each chapter or just the whole narrative that you want the world to know about?

Ginny Yurich (08:31.846)
Oh, writing the book is cool. I mean, actually my favorite part of writing the book, Anya, is when you ask for the endorsements. That was my favorite part because people wrote such nice things. I was like, I need to write more books just so I can get these endorsements. You know, I think that whenever you try anything new, and writing is actually not my sweet spot as a person. So as a math teacher, so you know, those tend to be on opposite sides of the brain. But I am passionate.

Anya Smith (08:43.355)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (08:48.851)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (08:56.475)
Wow. Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (09:02.162)
opens doors for other things. So it was actually a hard process for me, but you for my, my process was, you know, you come up with an outline and I stand on the shoulders of many others. So a lot of my own readings go into piecing this together with our own experience. But what I think is really cool about anything that you do that's new. So writing a book is new.

is that you don't really know what other doors it will open. Like here I am sitting and getting a chance to talk with you, right? So that's a cool thing. But also I got a chance to do the audio book. And I loved that. I thought, well, gosh, I would do that as a career. That was so fun. And you have this, for us, and I don't know if it's the same for everyone, but I sat in this room, it had a double door, and it was all soundproofed. I mean, I've never, this is a new experience, like so cool.

Anya Smith (09:33.243)
Yeah. Yay, yay.

Anya Smith (09:41.617)
Yes.

Anya Smith (09:48.298)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (09:58.073)
Right.

Ginny Yurich (09:58.414)
It's all soundproofed. And then I would wear these headphones and you would read your book. And I had it on a screen, so it was bigger. And then this woman who was working on it, she was in a different room. And every time I would miss a word, or maybe I would, it was plural and I didn't say it plural or something like that, she would stop me in my ears. And then she would rewind it and I would do it again. And I thought, well, she had to be concentrated for hours upon hours to make sure

Anya Smith (10:06.709)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (10:22.932)
Aha!

Anya Smith (10:26.827)
Wow.

Ginny Yurich (10:28.246)
like one word, it was perfect. And so I love that when you do something new, even if it's not your main passion or something that's hard for you, you just don't know what other doors are gonna open and you can't know that until you do it. And so there's been so many cool parts about writing the book and learning how to weave together my experience with a lot of the things that I've read, but then also the other things that have come out afterward, like you're doing a launch team and so.

Anya Smith (10:30.689)
Wow.

Anya Smith (10:51.946)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (10:56.896)
Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (10:57.906)
you know, picking a cover and all that kind of stuff. So there's more to it than just the writing, and that's been really fun.

Anya Smith (11:04.771)
I am just excited about your voice going through the audiobook, just like that kind, passionate narrative telling and I can see both kids and parents really enjoying that.

Ginny Yurich (11:14.964)
Thank you. It was fun.

Anya Smith (11:17.375)
And speaking of people supporting it, Holly was somebody who organized this call. So quick shout out to her. She was amazing just getting everything together. And you know what struck to me? You just mentioned about not thinking about yourself as an entrepreneur. One thing that really resonates with me on that is that when I started this podcast, I didn't think of myself as an entrepreneur. I thought you have to be dropping out of college when you're 20 to be an entrepreneur, right? That's what you have to do. You have to fail a startup. That's the only way to be an entrepreneur. I didn't think you could be doing it with...

any other path. And now I realize like there are so many other avenues to consider yourself an entrepreneur. To me, it's somebody who sees a problem and they just work to get better and they want to make the world better. And that's what this podcast is about is inspire people to see the broader potential, to not overwhelm them so like it has to be climbing a mountain that first step. It's just like seeing something you want to do a purpose, a passion and trying to do that and get better and get curious, have fun. So you're an absolutely an entrepreneur and I love you sharing that story.

Ginny Yurich (11:56.738)
Hmm.

Ginny Yurich (12:08.535)
Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (12:15.338)
I think you just have to stick with it. And I think that is really maybe what makes you an entrepreneur in the end, is that you've stuck with it. And ours has been up and down. You know, we've had more kids or job change or we moved. So there's been periods in my life where I haven't done anything with it. And I think that's okay too. Sometimes you can let things lie for a little bit and come back to it. And it's that longevity. I think that, at least for me, has really been...

the main key component of having something that's a movement that seems now that it will probably sustain.

Anya Smith (12:51.999)
Yeah. And I love how you very humbly described that, but can you share a little bit, you know, what have been your learnings? Now it's been a decade and you grew this mansion from a blog. Now it's an amazing resource. So there's a podcast, there's a book list, right? That people could check out. There's a checklist for a thousand hours. Like what have been your learnings from growing all of these resources from that starting point?

Ginny Yurich (13:16.386)
Well, you know what just happens little by little, doesn't it? I mean, that's it. I don't have any more time than anyone else. It just has taken a long time. I think you have to be okay with that, that sometimes things do take a long time, but it's fun. It's fun to gain little bit of resources here and there, and you add a couple of things a year to what you're doing, and you try and be passionate about it and excited, and add to what you can, and then eventually,

Anya Smith (13:28.342)
Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (13:45.674)
You have this large swath of resources that parents can use. And so that's really all that's happened over the years. It's just been a little by little and little by little. It becomes a lot. And, um, and it's been a cool thing because getting outside and having open space in your calendar, it works for every stage of childhood. So most things in childhood.

Anya Smith (14:10.387)
Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (14:14.742)
They don't last, right? So you're dealing with potty training and then you nail it. Like by kid three, you've nailed it, but then it's over. You're teaching your kids how to read or ride a bike. You know, eventually you've done it for all your kids. It's over. And so you're onto learning something new. Like, you know, how are we dealing with boyfriends and girlfriends or cell phones or whatever. Like this is the stage, right? But getting outside works for every age of child. And it works through the teen years. And in fact is really recommended that teens are outside for.

Anya Smith (14:17.011)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (14:32.761)
Ooh.

Right.

Ginny Yurich (14:43.874)
Three hours a day is really what is the recommended amount, both for your newborns and your teens. So it's cool to have found something that we can stick with, just because childhood changes so much. And it's hard as a parent, you're always on your toes, but this works all the way through.

Anya Smith (15:02.983)
And let's dive into that for anybody who's not familiar with your approach. Can you tell me why did you find that going outside was enriching to your life? And then how did it come into, you know, just not just, Oh, I'm enjoying, this is good to like a thousand hours and I'm creating resources for it and having community around this.

Ginny Yurich (15:20.366)
Okay, so I had no idea actually that going outside was good for anyone. And I had a friend of mine who invited me to go outside for four hours one time because she had read the works of Charlotte Mason, who was this British educator from the 1800s actually. And Charlotte Mason had said that kids should be outside for four to six hours a day whenever the weather is tolerable. And I just thought that seemed really silly. Like who's got that much time? And what a waste, right?

Anya Smith (15:22.944)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (15:48.711)
Yeah, right.

Ginny Yurich (15:49.002)
Like we only have so much time for childhood. But I tried it because I had this friend that asked me to do it and I just thought, well this is gonna crash and burn. What are the kids gonna do for four to six hours? But it turned out to be such a transformative day because it was the first good day I had as a mom. And I had one good day and our oldest was three. We had a one year old and a six month old and we went to this park in 2011, it's been 12 years.

Anya Smith (16:01.184)
Right.

Anya Smith (16:07.366)
Mm.

Anya Smith (16:14.177)
Wow.

Ginny Yurich (16:17.782)
September of 2011 and we went to this park and spread out picnic blankets from 9 in the morning till 1 in the afternoon and The older kids just played with each other and I had no idea that they could do that. No toys No interactive games. They just ran around this field of grass and threw rocks in the creek and used their imaginations and so that was a life change for me because I was drowning so badly as a mother

And that was the first day I got to catch my breath and really had an enjoyable day. And then there are books upon books, Anya, about how when we let kids play outside, it helps their brain wiring, it helps their social skills, it helps their emotional development, it gives them respite, it helps their social interactions because you're having to negotiate and compromise and think of others.

Anya Smith (17:11.668)
Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (17:12.966)
Even at really young ages, it helps them physically, like their eyesight, their hand-eye coordination, you know, all of these senses, the vestibular sense, the proprioception, how hard do we touch, you know, so we don't break the pencil when we hold it when we're sitting at a desk, our core strength. There is more going on outside than I ever even realized, and I continue to learn more and more every year about the benefits of simply being outdoors and how it.

Anya Smith (17:27.212)
Mm-hmm.

Ginny Yurich (17:39.254)
leads to whole child development. You know, I think we're really heavy on academics. We're really heavy on seat work. Like we've got that covered. Kids are sitting at their desk six hours a day, right? And doing this stuff, it's like, well, there's other facets to being a human. And when you go outside, it hits all of them. And so, okay, so the 1,000 hours outside, you asked about that. So the number 1,000 came from a couple things. First of all, it came from this Charlotte Mason. She says four to six hours a day whenever the weather's tolerable. So that...

Anya Smith (17:44.157)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (17:49.444)
Right.

Anya Smith (17:55.464)
Yeah. And I'm curious.

Ginny Yurich (18:07.634)
was number one and that is important because the weather's not always tolerable, right, depending on where you live. So what we found was that we were getting outside for about 18 to 20 hours a week with a little nature group in these large chunks of time. That was what was working or in Michigan as far as tolerable, our winters are cold, our summers are great, and could be vice versa depending on where you live. So there's that. Angela Hanscom wrote a book called Balanced and Barefoot. She's a pediatric occupational therapist.

Anya Smith (18:12.095)
Right, right.

Anya Smith (18:26.294)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (18:30.773)
Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (18:36.594)
She says three hours a day is the ideal amount of free play. Kids of all ages should get outside, but to get outside for three hours every single day of the year, I think is unrealistic for most families. But that is kind of the general consensus, three hours a day. And then at the time, the average amount of screen time was 1200 hours a year for the American child. And so this was like combining those three things and saying, look, we spent two years.

Anya Smith (18:49.559)
rates.

Anya Smith (18:57.715)
Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (19:04.446)
spending approximately a thousand hours outside every year. And it changed our life. It completely changed our life. It brought back balance. It lessened the fighting over screens because we just didn't have enough time. It's infusing all of these extra benefits into our kids because they're moving differently and it's helping their eyesight and all this stuff. And so I think that because of the different seasons of life, I may not be realistic to get outside every single day for three hours.

But over the course of a year, we're aiming for that 1,000 hours outside, and we actually keep track of it. We have little tracker sheets that are free on our website. They're really cute. We're coloring it in. It's like a little model for kids that we have to make sure that we fill our lives with what we want to fill it with first and leave the leftover time for screens. And so that's where all that came from. And so the community is global, and it's people from all walks of life. You know, we have single parents. We have both working parents.

Anya Smith (19:38.488)
Mm. Right.

Anya Smith (19:44.065)
They are.

Anya Smith (19:51.211)
Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (20:02.946)
We've got kids that are in school, kids that are at home school, kids that are at hybrid school, and people are making it unique for their own personal situation, and maybe they have a smaller goal. But the point is to be intentional about it, and also to celebrate it, because it is to be celebrated. The average kid is outside for four to seven minutes, but on screens for four to seven hours in America. And so we just have this massive imbalance, and so we are celebrating the effort that it takes to

Anya Smith (20:09.332)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (20:17.718)
Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (20:31.906)
provide a hands-on real-life childhood for our kids. And that's what the community is all about.

Anya Smith (20:38.099)
It sounds amazing. And somebody listening to this may be a parent, including myself, especially for myself. I'm curious, how do you start? So maybe you're not where you want to be. You acknowledge that, like, hey, I want to start going out, but maybe three hours seems aspirational for me right now. Have you seen ways or in your own journey to kind of start making that track in that direction, but maybe smaller steps? And then the other fear I envision is that, okay, well, I'm going to let my kids go outside.

Do I have to be always monitoring like that fear of like having to constantly be monitoring or can they have a little more autonomy? How do we balance that with this strategy?

Ginny Yurich (21:13.618)
Yeah, those are two interesting points. On the autonomy piece, I'll start there. I do think that kids love autonomy, and there is a lot to be said about the lack of autonomy that kids are experiencing these days. And I just read a book by Nir Eyal about it, where he was talking about that autonomy is one of the keys to just having a vibrant life and feeling like you're trusted. Obviously, that's different from family to family. Lenore Skanezy wrote a book called Free Range Kids, where she...

Anya Smith (21:39.752)
Right.

Ginny Yurich (21:42.902)
let her eight year old go home on the subway alone and then got arrested or something. I'm not sure, it was like a big thing. Like she was in the paper as America's worst mom and she trusted him and she felt that he could have the autonomy but you know, there's society thing. So, you know, I think that you have to judge that based on your own circumstances, where you live, the age of your kids, are there a lot of other kids in the neighborhood that there's a lot of eyes out there and your kid is safe because there's a big group of playmates and...

Anya Smith (21:49.183)
Yeah, right.

Anya Smith (22:08.065)
Mm-hmm.

Ginny Yurich (22:11.734)
So it's fine, you kind of grow into it. But even if you have to go along, and I think that this is a key point, in generations past, the moms did not go along and the dads did not go along. The kids were out there by themselves. And in a lot of regards, that seems like the ideal, because then it's like, well, I can stay inside and get done what I need to get done. But I do think that my mindset has shifted because the screens are drawing me in too.

Anya Smith (22:22.823)
Yeah, right.

Ginny Yurich (22:41.362)
And so for the past 12 years, I've also spent 1000 hours outside because I've been with my kids. And it's been a lot of work and a lot of hassle to try and match up schedules with another family. However, my life is really full and our house has been dirty a lot of the times. Like the baseboards are not dusted and you know, but you don't remember the mess. You remember that it was messy.

Anya Smith (22:41.493)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (23:02.675)
Preach, preach. Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (23:10.166)
but you don't remember the actual mess. You can't ever really picture like that one dirty sink or that one messy playroom, but you can remember the experiences that you have and the relationships that you built. And so there is some good there. Like if you are annoyed because you feel like you have to go along, maybe you're in a situation where your kids aren't old enough to be out by themselves or you don't live in an area where that actually works for you. And so you have to go.

I do think that is a positive for your life too, because then you're getting those benefits that your kids are getting and it's enhancing your life along the way. So the autonomy piece either way works, right? You're giving your kids autonomy, that's great for them. If you can't, then it's great for you. So it's a win-win, no matter how that falls in your family. And you know, if you're looking to start off, I recommend trying to find a large chunk of

Like maybe three hours on a Saturday or three hours on a Sunday afternoon where you say we're going to go to the park, we're going to go on a short hike, we're going to bring a really good picnic and some cards and play some games at a picnic table because it's the expanse period of time, these expansive periods of time where the kids fall into their play. And I think that's sort of where we miss the mark. We don't give it a good enough shot and our kids don't have time to fall into their imaginations so then it doesn't...

Anya Smith (24:10.944)
You're right.

Ginny Yurich (24:38.066)
have this good experience feel to it. Like when we went outside for four hours, there's a lot of work involved, right? Anya, it's like, it's a lot of work to get kids out of the house and to unpack when you get back. So you put in the effort, but then you get a whole lot of reward out of it because you've had this period of time where everyone gets to like really exhale and everyone really gets to enjoy themselves. So I would say find a, you know, find a chunk, two hours, three hours.

Anya Smith (24:45.619)
Yeah. Oh yeah, oh yeah. Right.

Anya Smith (24:54.708)
Right.

Ginny Yurich (25:06.358)
that you could invite another friend along, maybe have a potluck at the park. There's all sorts of things that you could do, go to the beach or whatever that is. A hike is always a good one because you're kind of stuck out there. No one's coming in to save you, so you got to make it to the end. And usually there's just different options and kids find things that are interesting along the way. We went on a hike yesterday, we saw four snakes, which that might actually deter some people, but we're in Michigan, so none of them.

Anya Smith (25:10.708)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (25:22.653)
Right.

Ginny Yurich (25:34.527)
There's like no rattlesnakes or anything. So in our state, that's fine. They're like, what a cool thing. You know, you don't know what you're gonna come across and that's what adds to the excitement and the novelty of it. And it's really life enhancing.

Anya Smith (25:48.451)
And I'm curious, so when the days are not great, I'm in Seattle area, so I think like Michigan, we don't have necessarily the cold winters, but we have a lot of rain, right? So maybe not ideal, but how do you maintain some of the momentum when the weather is not great?

Ginny Yurich (26:02.862)
Okay, we maintain momentum by having a goal. You have a goal for things that are not easy. And that's why we have a goal, because it is not easy to get kids outside. It's not easy for a lot of reasons. One is weather, right? One is it can be a fair amount of work, depending on the age of your kids, the layers and getting them all dressed and making sure they have their snack or their water bottle, whatever. Another is just that there's an enormous amount of amazing opportunities for kids.

Anya Smith (26:08.639)
Right.

Anya Smith (26:16.021)
Right.

Ginny Yurich (26:30.67)
for after school and extracurricular activities. And so you're having to say no to a lot of those things. So there's a lot of things that are up against you. But with the weather, you know that you are helping your kids develop grit. And that's actually one of the big things is that when you experience inclement weather, and then you go inside, going inside feels better than it would have been if you just stayed inside. And so Linda McGurk has a great book. It's called

Anya Smith (26:54.753)
Yeah.

Right.

Ginny Yurich (26:59.266)
There's no such thing as bad weather, which is not true. I mean, it's like one of those like tongue in cheek things that people say. But like for the most part, it's like, well, you go outside and maybe it's not quite as long, but you're developing grit and resilience. And each season offers something new. The rain is fun. I mean, the rain offers puddles and the rain offers a cleaner air. Annabelle Abs writes that in her book, 52 Ways to Walk, that raindrops clean the air and it smells different.

Anya Smith (27:05.732)
Right.

Anya Smith (27:16.519)
Right. Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (27:28.758)
So depending on the season and your weather, there's different opportunities out there. And I think it's a important thing that we can teach our kids. So I've definitely changed my tune over the years. You know, in Michigan, it's the winters that are pretty dreary for us, but we can sled and we can have winter bonfires and we can make things out of ice and we can go try and, you know, like big ponds and they freeze over and you try and stay upright with your boots and you hit a hockey puck around with hockey stick.

Anya Smith (27:41.664)
Right.

Anya Smith (27:45.076)
Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (27:56.862)
I mean there's so many things out there that you can do that you can't do in the other seasons and so perspective helps.

Anya Smith (28:04.663)
I love the idea of perspective and reframing things. So we are out in here on the farm. So we get rain and the first thing that happens is huge puddles. And of course, even my one year old and especially my friend love to put on their boots and stomp in those puddles and just come home with more water in their boots than outside their boots. And if I frame it like, oh, they're wet again. Yes, that's a thing. But what if to your point, we frame it as

they are enjoying themselves, right? Ultimately, they're maybe becoming more tolerant, their body's becoming more resilient, they're becoming more resilient, and again, they're being creative. So if you look at the slight, so to speak, like negatives of that, you know, circumstances that they're wet, but we weigh it with the positives, it's a good way of reframing the experiences that maybe we don't see as ideal, to like, how are they actually helping my child overall? And, you know, it reminds me, I grew up in Siberia, so in Russia, and so we had lots of snow.

And I loved it, you know, because when you have the environment, you prepare for it, right? I'm not going outside it like bear, but you have, you know, all your layers, you get it on and then you get to enjoy the outdoors. So to your point, like, yes, the environment could be a judgment, but you could also prepare for it, you know, have a balance between them getting resilient, but also finding the right layers. You know, once you get those layers, hopefully they're prepared and you can teach them also to be adaptable to those environments and then to get to enjoy them more fully that

Ginny Yurich (29:04.124)
Aww.

Ginny Yurich (29:11.542)
Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (29:28.8)
Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (29:32.806)
I love that. And then you come in and you got the roaring fire, you have a hot bowl of soup, and it feels so good. And I think I had an epiphany a couple of years back because I was always wishing away our winters and you see, you know, like, oh, we should live further south, these winters. And then all of a sudden we're posting our different things that we're doing outside. We're building snowmen. You know, we're making these like ice towers. People make igloos. I mean, it's so cool what people are doing.

Anya Smith (29:37.013)
Ugh, yeah.

Anya Smith (29:58.017)
Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (30:01.386)
And then all of a sudden, Anya, these people that live in the south, they're like, we wish we lived there. I was like, oh, come on. You know, it came full circle, right? That other people look at that snow, like you talk about in Siberia and you're having so much fun as a kid. And then other people are looking at that and saying, oh, we're kind of missing out down here in the south, we don't have that. So it is a lot about how you look at it. And like you said, about how you dress and how you prepare.

Anya Smith (30:11.535)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (30:15.803)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (30:21.168)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (30:26.803)
Yeah, I just imagine my dad goes to igloo competitions where they build little igloos. And then every winter we would have snow, like icicle castles, right? So you can just have ice sculptures everywhere. I'm sure they have them here too, right? But it's just harder to probably maintain it here. Thinking of our kids as well, I'm really curious, how have you seen this experience enrich the children's lives? Because I'm sure like not only are they enriched by being outside, but they also get to see

Ginny Yurich (30:42.294)
Mm-hmm. Wow.

Anya Smith (30:56.339)
I think you and your husband grow this community around this whole effort. How has that changed maybe their experience?

Ginny Yurich (31:03.778)
Well, it definitely opens up doors for your kids, and I think that's a really cool thing about entrepreneurship. When you have your own thing, then you can include your kids in it, and that was actually one of our motivations too, which was trying to give them an opportunity to see adult work. And there's a really cool book by John Holtz called Learning All the Time, where he talks about how kids need to see adult work from start to finish. They need to see a book written.

They need to see a table made from start to finish so that they have a sense of what goes into something. And so that's been a cool thing for us that when you have your own business, be it big or small, you can allow your kids to engage in that in whatever ways you want them to. So if they're old enough, maybe they can write an email. Maybe they can help you pack boxes. Maybe they can help you pick products or pick colors.

Anya Smith (31:54.165)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (31:59.466)
Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (31:59.486)
Maybe they get to go along with you as you speak at different events and they get to meet people along the way. They get to travel. And so I think that our family, the plan for our family can include our kids. And that's a really beautiful thing. And so if you are feeling like passion about something, you know that when you step out and do that, it lifts everybody else up around you. And there are ways.

Anya Smith (32:02.655)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (32:13.611)
Right.

Anya Smith (32:26.339)
Mm.

Ginny Yurich (32:28.546)
that other people will intersect with your passion and it will enhance their lives too. So like for example, this podcast that you've done, right? Now this intersects with my life and allows me to have an opportunity to come on and talk with your audience, right? What a cool thing. And if we don't do those things, then those things don't happen. But you don't know it because they're unknown. You only know like once you do it and you step into these things that you're really opening up your world.

Anya Smith (32:37.439)
Yeah. Right. Amazing.

Anya Smith (32:52.587)
Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (32:58.598)
And in doing that, you're opening up your world for the sake of your kids and also the sake of other people that you may not even know at the moment. And it really has been eye-opening. Like entrepreneurship is so much more than I ever thought it would be. You know, you think it's like, oh, I've got this business, but it really is this intersection of lives and it gives you an opportunity to provide others with opportunities in, I think, pretty substantial ways.

Anya Smith (33:15.252)
Right.

Anya Smith (33:29.935)
Absolutely. And I'm also curious. So with one side is entrepreneurship. And what's interesting about that is I do find that also be a prime motor for me to do what I do. Because I want my three boys to have a sense of more is possible for them. They can go to college and that's great. They can choose whatever career, whatever they want to do, but they want them to also have a sense like they can do many more things beyond just traditional paths. And I'm going to stumble and fall and fail and have my frustrations, but they get to see that and that's perfectly

Ginny Yurich (33:40.094)
Mm-hmm.

Ginny Yurich (33:43.414)
Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (33:53.643)
Mm-hmm.

Anya Smith (33:58.807)
because they know that that's normal, normal part of the process. And beyond entrepreneurship, I'm curious, how have you seen your kids change being outside so much? And maybe are there other stories that you heard about these changes from kids spending more time outside?

Ginny Yurich (34:13.71)
Well, it's interesting thing because you can't know what the other path would look like. But when we started spending more time outside, and this was a long time ago, our oldest was three, our younger two kids weren't even born yet, but they definitely stopped needing to go to the doctor. So we haven't needed a doctor's appointment since 2011. That's a long time. I've got five kids. So is this really helping their health? Yeah, their lymphatic system, like your lymphatic system flushes out all the yucky stuff and it...

Anya Smith (34:18.096)
Right?

Anya Smith (34:29.43)
Aha. Wow.

Anya Smith (34:35.371)
Wow.

Anya Smith (34:42.443)
All right.

Ginny Yurich (34:43.07)
It needs a pump, like the pump is movement. And so there's all that kind of stuff that your kids, I mean, I don't know. Like, how do you gauge? I think that's a tricky part of it Anya, like you can't really gauge it. How do you gauge their social skills? How do you gauge the fact that they've been to these different places, that they've jumped off of waterfalls, that they have swam in the icy cold water. Like those are types of things that build your character, but you can't measure them. And I think that's part of the tricky part about.

Anya Smith (34:45.697)
Mm-hmm.

Anya Smith (34:52.959)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (35:08.151)
All right.

Ginny Yurich (35:12.258)
taking kids outside is that it is immeasurable and is almost invisible and yet it's still important. So sometimes it's like, oh, you wanna do all the check boxes but by choosing something else, you can't really know what exactly is going on in their bodies, but they seem okay. You know, they seem fine. So, I mean, who really knows? But definitely people have sent in stories of kids that maybe were struggling and needing therapy services.

Anya Smith (35:17.035)
Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (35:39.978)
and don't need them anymore, struggling with sensory processing, can't wear these type of clothes, that type of thing, and it changes them. And I think that Angela Hanscom's book, Balance and Barefoot, she goes through a lot of different stories because she was an occupational therapist for kids. So she saw kids that would really change, like a kid that wouldn't ever get dirty, but then he's out in the woods with all these other kids and everyone's catching frogs in the muddy pond.

Anya Smith (36:04.736)
Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (36:07.474)
And so he wants to do that too and takes off his boots and goes right in. So the enticing part of nature helps kids kind of break out of their shells. And there's a lot of stories of kids that maybe felt like they couldn't, but then realized that they could because they're surrounded by these elements that coax them gently into developing further and further.

Anya Smith (36:11.327)
Amazing.

Anya Smith (36:29.256)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (36:33.207)
And do kids still enjoy that completion of the check marks? Do they have a sense of achievement as they fill in their calendar?

Ginny Yurich (36:39.53)
No, they don't really care. They don't really care anymore. But I care and I care as, so people ask this to you like logistically. So we've got five kids. I've always just kept track of the person who's outside the least, which was always our youngest because the youngest would always have to be outside with me. And then now our youngest is seven. So she'll go outside on her own. And so now I keep track of my own hours because I'm actually the one that goes outside the least.

Anya Smith (36:44.116)
Right.

Anya Smith (36:49.451)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (36:57.671)
Right, right. Yeah.

Anya Smith (37:07.167)
Gotcha.

Ginny Yurich (37:07.262)
And so I know that if I hit it, my kids actually are probably way beyond. And so that's, that actually was a change that just happened this year, uh, 10 years in, and so it's been neat to have this for myself. I think I'll always do it. I think I'll do it throughout my adulthood, throughout my grand parenting, because I think it's something that we have to fight for. We have to fight for real life moments in a world that is inundated with screens. So.

Anya Smith (37:11.127)
Amazing.

Anya Smith (37:17.109)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (37:21.547)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (37:28.37)
Mm-hmm.

Anya Smith (37:35.733)
Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (37:36.83)
It's very life enhancing no matter what stage of life you're in.

Anya Smith (37:41.139)
Yeah, and I like the idea also that we need to have a reflection period, right? So when I think about, oh, maybe it's going to be hard to slow down a little bit and go outside regularly, but then thinking, well, what is important in life? You know, we want to have periods where we're spending quality time with our family, with our children, we want to have times where we're actually able to slow down from the should, could, need to do voice in our head to just like, what's happening right now with me?

What's really, what am I feeling? What am I doing? And I see it be such a natural, no pun intended, way of doing so. Going outside, breaking away from your phone, like seeing what's around you, exploring the sensory feelings, right, that are beyond the screen and the pixels. I see that'd be an amazing opportunity. And I wonder for myself, if I could just make it more of a habit, like, okay, four o'clock, you know, right after we wrap up, like, let's make it something where it gets easier by just doing it a consistent basis, like go outside.

Ginny Yurich (38:31.132)
Mm-hmm.

Ginny Yurich (38:38.666)
Yeah, yeah, totally. And I think little by little it becomes a lot and beyond the benefits like to your eyesight. So here's a simple one. When you go outside in the morning, the sunlight goes right through your eyes to your brain and your brain releases serotonin, which makes you feel good. Serotonin turns into melatonin later at night. So you're happy in the morning and sleepy at night. That's good for you, good for your kids. When you go outside, the muscles around your eyes, a ciliary ring.

it relaxes. It's the only time that muscle ever relaxes, otherwise it's tense inside and when you're sleeping. So when you go outside and you have that long field of vision, that ring, it relaxes. So kids are really struggling with shortsightedness, myopia, it's on the rise. But when we go outside with our kids, helps their eyesight, helps their eyes work together. So like all of these things are happening, but also you're building memories together as a family. And because the memories are multi-sensory...

Anya Smith (39:31.518)
Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (39:38.506)
you tend to remember them. People really remember their outdoor experiences because it involves your hearing and your sight and your taste and your touch and all of this is happening and so it helps your brain to remember. It's all new a lot of times, even if it's the same place over and over again, new things happen, the weather is new, you see new critters and so it adds to a feeling of a long and fulfilling life.

Anya Smith (39:52.117)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (39:58.358)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (40:03.935)
Wow, you're such a trove of knowledge. I am, all of these books, all these references, all the experience, in your book, like what were some of the key themes that you really want to focus on because you have so much to choose from? What did you narrow down to?

Ginny Yurich (40:17.294)
Hmm. I wanted to focus on that. We don't have to sacrifice today for the sake of tomorrow And that's probably the main focus of the book. I do think that as a society We sacrifice we sacrifice our kids childhood because we think that is gonna be what they need for their adulthood It's well intentioned. And so we sacrifice it. It's a rat race and we're exhausted and our kids are exhausted

and no one's enjoying each other and it's short and it's clipped and it's stressful. But counterintuitively, we can back off of that and in doing so and having a more fulfilling today, that actually is what prepares kids for a world that is rapidly changing because they're going to have, our kids are going to have a lot of jobs. They're going to be doing like what you and I are doing, podcasts and things on the side and yeah, I mean, and things that we don't even know that exist. They don't even exist yet.

Anya Smith (40:51.581)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (41:09.107)
Yay!

Anya Smith (41:14.291)
Right.

Ginny Yurich (41:15.102)
a lot of things that are coming for our kids. They don't even exist yet. And so in order to get them prepared for that, we learn to love what's handed to us today. And we take our opportunities today and we use our day as a fulfilling opportunity now with our relationships and the type of work that we do and how we use our time. And not in a way that's filled with fear and trying to get ahead, because when we are...

Anya Smith (41:19.062)
Right.

Anya Smith (41:25.225)
Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (41:43.974)
so focused on just like one way to success, it doesn't work when the end goal line is changing a lot. And it is. It's like careers are becoming obsolete and new career paths are popping up. And so I think that's probably the main message of the book or one of them is just that you can kind of have it all. Like you can really love your life today with your kids. And in doing so, that is the best preparation for tomorrow.

Anya Smith (41:48.66)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (42:05.877)
Yeah.

Anya Smith (42:14.215)
Oh, it's so beautiful. And it's so simple and powerful, right? It's almost like, wow, really? I can have all these amazing changes in my life by just going outside. Like, yep. Try it.

Ginny Yurich (42:23.69)
Mm-hmm. All right. I know I love the simple, like it's not necessarily easy to do, but it is a simple premise. And so that's what I love. Like I have a friend, she says, a tablecloth makes a party. And I feel like that's the truth, right Anya? It's like, man, if you throw a tablecloth out, it's a party. You have upped the ante. And so like I like those little simple things that you can remember that like make a substantial difference.

Anya Smith (42:30.453)
Right.

Anya Smith (42:53.055)
Yeah. And before we wrap up, I wanted to ask you, on this journey, what has been maybe the most challenging issues or mindset that you have to get over to become this entrepreneur that you are today or to build this community and keep at it?

Ginny Yurich (43:09.262)
So the biggest challenge is that I'm very limited as one person. And so you always have dreams that are bigger than what you can do. And you are resigning every day to let some things go. And you just have to trust that what you do is enough. And it's keeping that perspective that I don't want to sacrifice my family. I don't want to sacrifice my friendships, my relationships, myself for the sake of doing, doing.

And so you take the day and you say, what are the things that I could do that are most impactful that I actually have the time to do? And I do those and everything else Anya, everything else falls through the cracks, but it still works. It still works. It still moves you forward little by little. And maybe, you know, if I had more capacity or if I were willing to ditch my family, things would move forward faster.

Anya Smith (43:52.428)
Perfect.

Ginny Yurich (44:07.35)
But it's that daily resigning of this is all I could do. And I wish it were more, but it's not. And so I'm just gonna accept it. And I think that's probably the hardest part for me.

Anya Smith (44:07.54)
Right.

Anya Smith (44:19.567)
Oh, you're amazing. This is so genuine, true. And yes, we have all these things we could do, but remembering our priorities is so powerful. And I also believe it makes you more resilient, right? If you have your priorities straight, you will keep doing it longer because you know why you're doing it. And on a positive note, I want to just ask you, what are you most excited about? I know there's an amazing book launch coming up. I saw all the amazing little prizes you have coming up. Do you want to share what's happening there?

Ginny Yurich (44:47.094)
Yeah, so we have a book launch team, and so we're just doing some fun giveaways because I really do appreciate people that are joining in and who are sharing. I mean, that's so nice of them. It's so nice. So that's what's coming up, and we have this group and we're hanging out once a week online together for a little bit. So hopefully my voice holds out because that's kind of been an issue, but that's coming and that's exciting. I mean, this is...

Anya Smith (45:10.676)
Ugh.

Ginny Yurich (45:16.786)
I'm on the cusp of basically what we've been talking about this whole time, Anya. It's like, I don't really know. I don't know what's on the other side of a book launch. I have no idea. And so it's a first time what's on the other side, but there's going to be some bad reviews probably, and there's going to be some criticism, but also you hope that there's going to be opportunities that enhance our family and enhance the lives of others and

based off of experience, that's what I hope will happen, but it is a step into the unknown. You don't really know what that is gonna be like. And so I'll have to report back in a couple months.

Anya Smith (45:56.723)
I'll be voting, I'll be following for you, and I'm going to look at all the amazing prizes that you're giving away. And one last tip, any inspiration or tips you'd have for somebody who sees what you're doing, they're inspired by everything you have built and think like, you know, how do I start even building something like this community that I have a passion around, you know, a path, a topic, a subject, and I want to build this community. And this seems like so much work to get to where Jenny is right now, but how do you, what advice do you have for those people?

Ginny Yurich (46:01.995)
Thank you.

Ginny Yurich (46:24.982)
Why, you just gotta stick with it. I think that if something changes your life, it changes your life. And if you share it, then eventually, it will change other people's lives as well. And you won't touch everyone. Like this doesn't work for every family. But for the families that it does work for, it's changed their lives too, in the way that it changed ours. Help me be a better mother, helps the kids with their development. And so I think you just keep talking about it. And...

Anya Smith (46:36.663)
Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (46:51.498)
I guess I didn't really know what to expect when our oldest was three and now he's 15. I didn't know. I didn't know it's still going to work 12 years down the road, but it sure does. It still keeps us grounded as a family and building experiences when we could be running from sports to this schedule. You know, the teenage years are busy in other ways. And so share your passions and little by little it will grow and little by little you add on to it and don't quit.

Anya Smith (46:57.696)
Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (47:21.59)
You know, don't quit because that's the end of the story, right? If you quit, that's the end of the story, but you can rest. You can take breaks and just keep at it.

Anya Smith (47:30.596)
You're amazing. I am so glad that you are writing the story right now. I'm so glad that you've not given up and kept this story and community going. And to wrap up, we do three rapid fire questions and then we'll let you go and hopefully let you recover your voice.

Ginny Yurich (47:41.389)
Okay.

Ginny Yurich (47:45.384)
Thank you.

Anya Smith (47:47.131)
Okay, are you ready? Okay, what's your all-time favorite outdoor activity to do with your family?

Ginny Yurich (47:49.undefined)
Yes.

Ginny Yurich (47:55.822)
I love to be on the water, especially rivers. So my favorite thing is whitewater rafting, which we just were able to start doing because our youngest is just now old enough. And so that's been super fun, but I like anything down the water. So down the river, so kayaking, canoeing, tubing, just floating, that's my favorite.

Anya Smith (48:16.055)
Amazing. Okay, challenging one, I got to tell you. Among the chapters in your book until the street light comes on, which chapter is your personal favorite?

Ginny Yurich (48:27.258)
I like the one about that nature and play is a power duo because When you take that simple play outdoors and you add in all of those sensory benefits, it's like this huge boost for your kids development and it's something that I just didn't even know was a thing and Like I said, I've just been learning more and more and more and more I constantly read new books about forest bathing and

the negative ions in the air and all these things that are so, so good for us, that really are so simple. A lot of times they're free. And so I would say that one's my favorite.

Anya Smith (49:07.62)
Amazing. Okay, last but not least in the positive context going off track is

Ginny Yurich (49:15.234)
going off track is writing your own story, what you're doing, and knowing that your journey doesn't have to look like anyone else's, which is so neat and it can be successful in whatever way that looks like. And I think that's true for our kids and that's true for us. And when we say yes and we step into things that maybe we're not that good at, but there's still an opportunity.

more things open up and it just kind of gets bigger and bigger as you go along.

Anya Smith (49:50.119)
Amazing. Jenny, you're just the true definition of like entrepreneur of a purpose. I appreciate you just showing up so genuinely, so passionately, so kindly. I'm excited about the work you do. I generally follow it as a parent. It just gives me the sense of relatability to kind of the struggles of parenthood and also inspiration for what's possible and kind of some tips to feel more confident on this challenging journey and anything else you want to add before we wrap up. I made a mistake.

Ginny Yurich (50:17.038)
Oh, we covered a lot, didn't we? But I just, you know, if someone's listening and made it to the end, thank you. First of all, thank you. And I love why you're doing that. Life doesn't have to look like everybody else's. I love there's this quote by John Taylor Goddard, and he says, there are as many ways to become educated as there are fingerprints. And that's like what you're doing, right? Like you're talking about just following your purpose and going off the,

Anya Smith (50:20.179)
Yeah, it flew by.

Anya Smith (50:40.792)
Yeah.

Ginny Yurich (50:46.678)
path and making your own one. And there's a lot of joy there.

Anya Smith (50:52.039)
Absolutely, absolutely. And everybody listening, I hope you took something away from it, whether you're a parent, just wanted to find another great resource to enrich your experience, whether you're an entrepreneur who is just captivated, like how do you achieve something incredible? How do you overcome some of these challenges? How do you start with a vision and execute it a decade later? So for everybody listening, thank you so much for coming right off track with us. And just one final plug, I am really passionate, excited to support the amazing nonprofit Ready to Empower.

which empowers women worldwide. They have been around for 10 incredible years and they are raising $50,000 right now, 100% of which goes to operations. So if you're feeling the inspiration to make a positive impact in the world, check out the description and donate whatever your heart feels is possible and relevant, I would so appreciate it. And as always, thank you so much for coming right off track with us. Jenny, you are a pleasure. I'm so excited for your book launch. Keep us posted how it's going and thank you for coming right off track with us as well.

Ginny Yurich (51:48.034)
Thanks for having me.

Anya Smith (51:49.619)
My pleasure.