Revisited: Kids (And Employees) Know More Than You Think with Dr. Becky Kennedy

A Bit of Optimism

The Optimism Company from Simon Sinek

Business, Education, Careers, Self-improvement

4.8 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 13 January 2026

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Team Simon here! We’re revisiting some of our favorite episodes from 2025. But we'll be back in just two weeks with brand-new episodes of A Bit of Optimism on January 27, 2026. We think you’re going to love them! Today, we’re going back to January of last year when Dr. Becky Kennedy joined us to discuss the hardest job in the world—parenting. It turns out, it’s also one of the best training grounds for leadership. Dr. Becky Kennedy, aka the “Millennial Parent Whisperer,” became an essential voice for caretakers by offering practical, actionable parenting advice that resonated with millions during the pandemic. As a clinical psychologist and founder of Good Inside, she’s now helping parents build sturdy leadership skills that not only transform their homes but also their work lives. In this conversation, Dr. Becky shares how understanding boundaries, emotional triggers, and big feelings can help us become more effective leaders. Whether you’re a parent or a manager (or both!), her insights will help you lead with more intention, connection, and confidence. This… is A Bit of Optimism. --------------------------- Check out Dr. Becky’s work: https://www.goodinside.com/

Transcript

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0:00.0	Someone feels your intention more than they feel your intervention.
0:02.8	Intention is, my intention right now to teach and make better. Or is my intention to vomit my own frustration onto my child as a form of catharsis, which is usually what we do. Feels so good, though. Feels so good. No, it feels so good. We do it at work all the time. So good. That's it has to be named. So good. So good. time. So good. So good. It's therapy unto itself.
0:21.6	If you have kids, then you probably already know Dr. Becky.
0:25.6	In fact, you may have used her app when your kid was having a meltdown.
0:29.6	She's the author of Good Inside, the name of her app also, but more important, she is an
0:34.6	absolute genius at understanding human beings, both the little ones
0:40.0	and the big ones.
0:41.4	Yes, she talks about parenting and yes, we talked about how to be a better parent, but my goodness,
0:46.3	the amount that I got out of this conversation about how I can be a better leader, absolutely
0:53.0	invaluable. This is a bit of optimism.
1:01.0	I live in Los Angeles. We're recording in Los Angeles. We've had these fires. Families have been traumatized.
1:08.0	When something happens to a family and it's hard enough for the
1:12.3	parents to deal with what they're going through, what are we supposed to say to children?
1:18.7	First of all, when unimaginable, horrible things happen, there's no perfect approach and there's no
1:24.5	perfect words. And so I just always want to tell parents that, like, what's the right thing to say? There's no right words for a situation that's wrong, ever.
1:31.7	So let's just get that out the window. The principle that always drives me, because I tend to be
1:36.1	driven by first principles and anything I think about, is that information doesn't scare kids
1:40.9	as much as a lack of information scares kids. Because kids are expert
1:45.6	perceivers of the world even more than we are. Because their evolution, their survival depends
1:51.0	on it. Kids are so dependent on adults for survival, right? We all need food, shelter, water.
1:57.0	But me and you, Simon, we can get food, shelter, and water. Kids get food, shelter, water, love from their parent.
2:03.6	And so they have to be especially attuned to what's going on?
	...

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