Episode Description - How The Best Interest Co-Parenting App Can Give You Peace
If you've ever felt your heart race the moment a message pinged from your co-parent, you already understand the problem that Sol Kennedy set out to solve. Sol is the founder of the Best Interest Co-parenting App, an AI-powered app born directly from his own high-conflict divorce experience.
When you’re locked in a high-conflict coparenting relationship you know all too well how quickly a simple logistics message can turn into a 30-text argument that ruins your day and spills into your parenting. Traditional co-parenting apps didn’t address the specific needs found in high-conflict co-parenting so Sol created an app that does.
The Best Interest Co-Parenting App gives you AI coaching before you send a message, tone checks that help you say what you mean without escalating a conversation, and instant awareness of any potential parenting plan violations your conversation might trigger. It reviews outgoing messages for conflict triggers before you hit send, and filters incoming ones, stripping away charged language so you only see what's actually relevant to your kids.
And the best part of the app is that you don't even need your co-parent to download the app for it to work.
If you’re locked in a high-conflict co-parenting situation and every message your ex sends ties your stomach in knots, this conversation, and the Best Interest Co-Parenting App can literally change your life.
Show Notes
About Sol
Sol Kennedy is the founder of BestInterest, an AI-powered co-parenting app designed to reduce conflict and protect children from the emotional fallout of high-conflict separation. Sol's mission is simple: help parents move beyond reactive communication, protect their peace, and create calmer outcomes for their kids—even when the relationship between adults is strained.
Connect with Sol
You can connect with Sol on LinkedIn at Best Interest App and on Facebook at Best Interest App. You can follow Sol on Youtube at @BestInterestApp and on Instagram at Best Interest App. To learn more visit the website at Best Interest App.
Special offer
BestInterest is an app that helps co-parents to communicate and experience peace in their co-parenting relationship. It is available for download in the App Store or Play Store, or at https://bestinterest.app/app. Get $10 off by entering code OFFTHEFENCE
Key Takeaways From This Episode with Sol
- Sol Kennedy is the founder of Best Interest, an AI-driven co-parenting app inspired by his own personal journey through a high-conflict divorce six years ago.
- The Best Interest app was born after Sol realized that existing tools like Our Family Wizard focused primarily on court documentation rather than protecting a parent's peace.
- A central feature of the app is "Tone Guardian," which reviews outbound messages to ensure they resolve conflict rather than incite it.
- The "Message Shield" feature rewrites inbound messages into a neutral "mediator voice" to strip away personal attacks while preserving the essential child-related information.
- Users can set strict communication boundaries, such as receiving non-urgent notifications only once per day, though the AI will immediately override these for true emergencies.
- Sol highlights "Solo Mode," a unique feature that allows one parent to use the app via SMS interception without requiring the other parent to download or even know about the software.
- The app integrates a parent's specific parenting plan to flag potential violations in real-time, providing an extra layer of clarity during scheduling disputes.
- Beyond communication, the platform handles expense tracking, shared to-do lists, and custody calendars to keep all logistical interactions structured and safe.
- By collaborating with experts like Dr. Ramani, the app serves as a therapeutic tool that allows users to process original, triggering messages at their own pace with a professional.
- This episode offers a fascinating look at how artificial intelligence can act as a digital buffer to help families move beyond reactive conflict and toward long-term healing.
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Transcript
How The Best Interest Co-Parenting App Can Give You Peace
SPEAKERS
Karen Covy, Sol Kennedy
Karen Covy 0:10
Hello, and welcome to Off the Fence, a podcast where we deconstruct difficult decision making so we can discover what keeps us stuck, and more importantly, how we can get unstuck and start making even tough decisions with confidence. I'm your host, Karen Covy, a former divorced lawyer, mediator, and arbitrator, who turned coach, author, and entrepreneur. And now without further ado, let's get on with the show.
With me today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Sol Kennedy. And Sol is the founder of Best Interest, an AI-powered co-parenting app designed to reduce conflict and protect children from the emotional fallout of high conflict separation. Sol's mission is simple: to help parents move beyond reactive communication, protect their peace, and create calmer outcomes for their kids, even when the relationship between the adults is strained. Sol, welcome to the show.
Sol Kennedy 1:11
Karen, thanks so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be on today.
Karen Covy 1:14
I'm excited to have you. And if you don't mind, I'd like to start at the beginning. What prompted you to get into this line of work and to create this kind of an app?
Sol Kennedy 1:26
Well, I'll tell you, Karen, if you had told me six years ago that I would be running an app for co-parents that is changing their lives, I would have laughed at you because I was in the middle of my own divorce, and I never, in my wildest imagination, would have been solving for this population. And yet, I'll take you back to a story. So, six years ago, I was lying in bed, going to sleep, and I heard a ding on my phone. And I'm sure other co-parents can uh relate to this. It was not a notification of a text message or an email. It was that notification of our family wizard. And in that moment, I noticed that my heart was racing, there was sweat on my brow. And I knew that I wouldn't be able to go to sleep that night until I had checked the message, or I had even spent an hour lamenting about how to respond in the right way. And that was the moment I realized I couldn't live like this. This wasn't allowing me to stay present with my kids. It wasn't allowing me to uh step into the next chapter of my life. And I knew that something had to be done. And yet the tools at that time just weren't available. And the thought I had was, well, gosh, you know, if I hired someone to sort of be my customer service agent for my relationship, maybe he wouldn't be triggered in the same way that I was. And so I actually did that. I hired a former coworker of mine to be my customer service agent for my co-parenting relationship. And of course, he laughed at me about this idea, but we tried it. And, you know, it really worked. And I think that that was that initial spark of best interest. I couldn't have, it didn't become a business at that point, but it became a solution for me so that I felt a little bit more protected from the whims of my co-parent. And also it allowed me to settle and feel a little bit calmer. And then fast forward to three years ago, I was trying out ChatGPT for the first time. I'm sure many of us have tried that. And I was using it to make bedtime stories for my kids. And if you haven't done this, it's great fun. So instead of reading the same book every night to the kids, I said, okay, give me your favorite characters and let's make a new story. What would you like it to do? You know, what would you like them to do? And so chat would come up with this interesting bedtime story that I would then read to them. And it was very interactive and fun. That night, after doing that, I thought, well, it sure seems like AI understands language really well. I wonder what would happen for me if I were to upload the messages from my co-parent, if I would, if it would understand what was going on and what my experience was like. And in that moment, I felt seen, I felt understood, I felt like it really got me. And AI, it gave me some ideas of how to move forward, how to improve my situation. I thought, okay, here is the solution that I would like to bring to the world. And that was the spark that ignited Best Interest.
Karen Covy 4:32
Okay. I have so many questions right now. That just that's wow. Um, so for those people who are listening who might not know what a co-parenting app or Our Family Wizard is, can you start by explaining that?
Sol Kennedy 4:47
Absolutely. Yeah. Our Family Wizard was the first co-parenting app that came out. And at that time, what they were starting to experience in the family court system was that people were bringing in printouts of emails and I guess maybe text messages. I don't know. This is a long time ago. Um, and it wasn't really helpful because they didn't know if they were going to be doctored or whatnot. So R Family Wizard came into the picture and said, hey, you know, now you can exchange emails or exchange messages with your co-parent and you can print them out and bring them into court. So it provided that validation layer for the court system. And that's essentially what they do today. They're, they're, they use court as a deterrent. So if you download Our Family Wizard and you get your co-parent to agree to use it, then you both know in the back of your head that if I say something off, then this might get dragged back into court. And so that can be a deterrent for some, but it's not a deterrent for everyone. And in my situation, I was finding it wasn't really that much of a deterrent. And in my own experience, I was finding that, gosh, like co-parenting is really stressful. And it's not fun to go to the family court system. I didn't, I don't want to go there. So that didn't feel like a really good stick for me to have. And so a co-parenting app at the end of the day is it's a way to communicate with your co-parent and keep things organized and keep things child focused. But I wasn't finding that the existing solutions were doing a lot to keep it child-focused, if that makes sense.
Karen Covy 6:27
Yeah, it does make sense, but I'm curious as to how best interests does that and keeps it child-focused. I mean, what's the problem you're trying to solve? More calm communication coming from you to your spouse, or a better interpretation of what your spouse is saying to you, so that your own emotions don't get triggered?
Sol Kennedy 6:49
Yes, and yes. Uh that's a great question. So I believe that the best way that we can help uh parents is by um doing a number of things, but being active in their communication with one another. We are all capable of going to a triggered place and communicating in a way that is likely to incite or trigger our co-parent. And so, first of all, every message that you send to your co-parent is gonna be reviewed. It's gonna be reviewed with the eye of will this create conflict? Will this resolve conflict? And we're gonna give you that advice before you hit send on maybe is there a better way to frame this message so that you get your needs met and it's not likely to create an argument. So that's one thing, but perhaps even more importantly for listeners that might be experiencing a um a more charged situation, or maybe they're co-parenting with someone they might identify as a narcissist or um someone who is antagonistic. So in those situations, best interest actually is the only co-parenting app that will actively shield you from your co-parents' messages. So if they ignore the advice of the um of the app and they send you, you know, something irate or something that has some hidden triggers that only you know about and maybe we can't detect, well, you know, we're actually going to reduce, we're gonna filter that message and ensure that it's only child focused. So to give you an example, Karen, you and I are co-parenting, and maybe I'm feeling a little spicy this morning. And so I say, Karen, because you are always late, I'm reminding you to pick up the kids at 3 p.m. from soccer. Well, what was important about that message? Certainly not the first part, right? That's likely to get you into defense. Wait, I'm never late. And that's not good for both of us because you're going to respond defensively, and then 30 messages later, we're both not feeling great. So in that situation, we would actually just cut out everything, but Sol would like you to pick up the kids at soccer uh at 3 p.m. And so that way you can do your job as a co-parent to you know, handle those exchanges, handle those pickups, be child focused without getting triggered. And you'll be able to see that there's more to the message. So we always save the original message that comes in from your co-parent, and it allows you to decide when you are available to receive maybe that non-child-focused communication. So in that situation, you might want to hold off until you dropped off the kids or picked up the kids, or sorry, they dropped off the kids, or maybe with your you're with a supportive friend, or maybe you're with your therapist and you can open that original message. And gosh, these are sometimes very healing things for us to read and process, right? We can touch upon our triggers. And this is the first time you've been able to do that in a way that gives you control and power of when you do that processing.
Karen Covy 10:00
Okay, so if I understand this right, let's say that you and I, we'll go with the analogy. We're in a co-parenting situation. You send me a message that is likely to trigger me, right? The app sends a message first that just takes out the information and it doesn't pretend that it's you. It just says that you sent me a message and here's the piece that I need to know. Am I getting it?
Sol Kennedy 10:24
Correct. Yeah. And by default, and there's a few settings for this, but by default, what happens is we actually rewrite your co-parents' message into what we call mediator voice. So it's going to convey that to you as if you were talking directly with a third-person mediator that was sitting between you. So it would say, Sol would like you to pick up the kids at 3 p.m. And that helps you psychologically to kind of step back from the challenges you might have in your head about your co-parent. And so it, because we're processing the message, it allows you to kind of, oh, okay. Well, actually, this is pretty neutral, right? Because it's gone through the filter. So it really just allows you to disentangle yourself from the conflict.
Karen Covy 11:11
Okay, so let me play devil's advocate. We're keeping on the same topic, and I get the message that you want to pick up the kids at 3 p.m. But I had previously asked you what time you were going to pick up the kids, and you said five o'clock, and I have someplace to be at three o'clock. And so now I'm triggered anyway, not by the communication, but by what you did or what's happening. Now what happens in the app?
Sol Kennedy 11:40
Oh, that's great. So, we have a few things that we pull in that are helpful to understand the context. So, we're not going to catch everything, AI isn't perfect, but we do understand your communication history in total, right? And we also understand your parenting plan. So, if there are any aspects that um perhaps I might be saying that I'm going to violate the parenting plan in some way, well, we're going to indicate when we're reviewing the message, we're going to put that in our review notes. So, say, well, Sol said 3 p.m., but just a reminder, your parenting plan dictates that you're not on duty until five, something like that. So you can keep going and uh and ensure that parenting plan is being um followed. And so also in that situation that you talked about, we might not catch the nuance, but we will understand the history. So in the notes of the review, though we're gonna send you what I said to you, we're gonna indicate this might be challenging because they you previously said this, and it seems like they're not. So there's an empathy component that pops in there that might help you calm down and relax and feel seen. Um, but we're still gonna tell you what your co-parents said.
Karen Covy 13:02
That's interesting. And so let's say that you're, you know, I'm about to fire off something I shouldn't, um, and it's violates the parenting plan. Does the app tell me if you're gonna do that, you're violating the parenting plan? Or does it tell you when it delivers the message, this violates the parenting plan?
Sol Kennedy 13:25
Both and so when you go to send a message, um Tone Guardian, which is our review feature, is gonna review all of the content of the message against your parenting plan, against the communication history you have with your co-parent. And we're going to use that for our review. So, if you're about to do something or suggest something that isn't clear violation of your parenting plan, that's not good for you. And so we're gonna highlight that. We might get it wrong. So, we're never gonna force your hand or force you to say something that you don't mean, but we're gonna say, oh, pause, make sure that this is what you want to do, right? Um, and then also, like you said, on the inbound, we also are keeping the parenting plan in mind. So, in our review notes of that message, we might indicate that this is a violation of the parenting plan. And here's the line from the parenting plan, just so you're fully aware of what might be going on.
Karen Covy 14:24
And how do you preserve in the app this entire uh communication, both what was originally written and what was AI enhanced, shall we say? Um, because part of the reason that our Family Wizard has been so successful for so many decades is because you can't change it. Once you write whatever you write, you can't go back and doctor the email or the text or whatever it was. So, how do you do that so that if somebody does go to court, they have good evidence?
Sol Kennedy 15:00
Well, yes. So any message that is sent through our system, the original is saved. And just like Our Family Wizard, you can take in the original to court. Now, an important asterisk to that is we are coaching you on how to improve your communication with your co-parent. So we're not actually saving that initial, maybe a little too spicy message that you were about to send because you never sent it. But the message that you do send to your co-parent, that's the one that gets saved because that's the one that they're receiving. So, and then the other important point to clarify is this review that happens before you see it, the message shield, that's protecting you from your own triggers. It's allowing you to take a sigh of relief and feel at peace, but it's not removing the original message that was sent. So that original message that your co-parent sent to you, that is saved. And that's important. And that's an important thing for the judge to see. This is how my co-parent communicates with me. And you can say, well, I'm also using a uh a shield, so I'm not seeing this right away, but this is how they're talking with me. That's important, and then judge will care about that.
Karen Covy 16:21
That's fascinating. What I really like about your app is that it gives you, the person who's using it, control over timing. Because so many times people it's like they can't get away from the negativity because their phone is always pinging at them, whether it's a co-parenting app or a text message or whatever, right? So how does your app ever make mistakes in that it doesn't forward something right away that actually is urgent?
Sol Kennedy 16:57
Okay. So, uh there is a feature that we haven't quite talked about yet, but I think it's super relevant, which is you can for the first time set communication boundaries with your co-parent, especially if you're dealing with um someone that might be a little bit too verbose or they're sending you messages, gosh, 20 a day, right? That's no good for you. Um, and you might want to say, uh please only or message me one time a day. Well, most many co-parents will not necessarily respect that boundary. And so we let you set the boundary. And how we do that is you won't be notified except once per day or once per hour, or whatever you set as your boundary. And we will respect that boundary. Even if your mess your co-parent messages you 20 times in that hour, we're only going to send you one message. And that is safe because we're reviewing every single message that comes in. And anything that is determined to be urgent, a variety of different things could be urgent or an emergency, then we send that immediately. So that allows you to set that boundary and feel safe knowing that if there's something that's truly urgent, then you'll be notified and you can take action when you need to.
Karen Covy 18:15
Okay, let me push back on this one too. So, let's say you're this higher conflict parent, right? That you've got some issue and you're sending a text and you want an immediate response, right? And the other parent has set their app to only give them messages, let's just say once an hour, and you want a response right now. Doesn't that trigger the person who's got the issue to keep texting and texting and like sending more messages and being becoming more irate?
Sol Kennedy 18:49
Yeah, that's a really good point. And I do believe that that is an experience that you might have, right? Especially when you're dealing with someone with perhaps a personality disorder, um, they're gonna want and expect uh the ability to control you and dictate your actions. But I'm a firm believer in co-parents being able to set their own boundaries and have control over how they want to be talked to. And because of that, I would say in that scenario, it's actually okay if your co-parent gets frustrated. If it's not really urgent, they can get as mad as they want, but really as a you don't need to respond quickly to every single thing. And in fact, it's so much better when you learn how to slow down the communication, especially when things are charged.
Karen Covy 19:42
So, in that kind of a scenario, would you recommend to the receiver of the message that at some point, not in the heat of the moment necessarily, but at some point, they tell their other co-parent about the boundary that I'm only going to get these messages once an hour or once a day. And so, you know, if you get upset, that's on you.
Sol Kennedy 20:06
Yeah, that would be um, especially for something like once a day. I think the courts generally, at least here in California, generally think 24-hour response time is reasonable. Um, but it really depends on your jurisdiction and your existing arrangement uh with your co-parent. Um, but in general, I err on it depends on your situation. You know, if your co-parent is someone that is uh bordering on reasonable and you can tell them, don't expect this from me, and that's not gonna throw them into a rage, then definitely you want to communicate. But there are those co-parents that for whatever reason won't respond very well to that message. And in this case, they're gonna learn over time that you don't respond immediately. And they might be thrown into a rage when they start, you know, feeling that disconnection. But honestly, over time, that rage can only burn for so long. And they'll get used to the fact that you don't respond immediately. And it will be good for both of you.
Karen Covy 21:12
That's interesting. Okay, so your app Best Interest handles communication. Does it also handle anything else? Because again, going back to the Our Family Wizard example, they also do expense tracking. So, parents can put shared expenses in there. Does your app do that too?
Sol Kennedy 21:32
Absolutely. Yeah, we have a variety of very smart features when it comes to expense tracking and calendaring and exchanging days. So, we incorporate AI throughout this process uh primarily to keep communication safe. Um, there are ways when you're using our Family Wizard to, for instance, get you know, triggering communication through in some of those areas. And so we're reviewing everything and keeping Everything up and up. So, yes, you can do expenses, you can do custody tracking. Uh, there is a shared to-do list that you can use, um, lots of great features that help keep communication structured.
Karen Covy 22:12
Okay, let's talk about calendar because a parenting plan is going to have a schedule of when each parent sees the kids. But as the kids grow, as life changes, the plan that's on paper may be very different than the plan that you and your spouse are using. And everybody's okay with that, but it's not on the paper. Is there a way to manually override in your system the schedule so that you can this the system knows this is what the real schedule is that we're doing, even though it's different than what's on the page?
Sol Kennedy 22:50
Yeah, that's a really good point. And definitely that's um something that we anticipate and expect. So, when you load in your parenting plan, that will be the default. But as you said, many co-parents have since migrated from that and are following a different plan. And you can load in what your current plan is, and uh both parties can agree to it, and then that change sticks.
Karen Covy 23:13
So, is there a way to get an agreement? Like you would have to upload the new plan and then what, send a communication to your spouse saying, I've uploaded the plan. Do you agree, or how does it look to you, or something like that?
Sol Kennedy 23:26
So, in particular, just to make sure I understand the question, um, if you're wanting to modify the custody schedule, then you would just indicate the new schedule and say, you know, we're following week on, week off. I select that schedule, it shows me the preview, and then um I can tap um send and it will send to your co-parent and ask them to approve it. And if they do, then that becomes the law of the land essentially on both calendars.
Karen Covy 23:58
Okay, interesting. Because I can see, you know, in a in a real high conflict situation, you've got one at least one parent who is not playing by the rules, right? So, I can see that parent getting the proposed plan and just ignoring it. Now what happens?
Sol Kennedy 24:16
For sure. Well, we don't we don't do enforcement, but like the other co-parenting apps, everything is documented. So, if you send that uh custody schedule and they never approve it or they decline it, then that's listed in the record of your interactions. So, if you were needing to go to a judge and say, look, he's not being helpful here, he's not following the plan, or this was the plan we agreed to, and these were this is my journal entry showing that you know he didn't show up on time, you can bring all of that documentation in. We can you can print it out. There's a court uh verified report that um the court can actually scan in and determine if it's been modified. Uh, it's quite advanced in that way. So, it helps them trust the report that's sitting in front of them.
Karen Covy 25:06
Do the judges have a way, as they do, I believe, with our Family Wizard, where they can log in to a particular couple's account as a judge, as a third party, and see for themselves what happened?
Sol Kennedy 25:20
That's coming. Yeah, we don't have that yet.
Karen Covy 25:24
Okay. No, that's fair enough. But they but people could at least print things out and show it to the judge manually.
Sol Kennedy 25:30
Right. And so, on the report, the judge can just quickly enter in a verification code and then make sure that the printout that they're reviewing is the same as in our records. So that is a way for them to just quickly make sure that it wasn't doctored if there is any concern about that.
Karen Covy 25:48
That's interesting. That's really interesting. So, and I would assume that in your app, both parents have to be using it. Both parents have to agree to use it, right?
Sol Kennedy 26:00
Well, that's a really great question. And uh no, actually. So ours, okay.
Karen Covy 26:06
Now you got me. How does that work?
Sol Kennedy 26:08
Ours is the only co-parenting app that supports what we call solo mode. And that allows you to download Best Interest today and experience peace today with all of the AI shielding features without getting your co-parent to come on board with you with downloading the co-parenting app. Many of our users are using it in that mode, primarily because one, they can't get their co-parent to agree to anything, let alone an app that's gonna reduce conflict between the two of them. And two, sometimes co-parents just don't want to pay. And so in that situation, like they're stuck, right? I don't want to go and pay several hundred dollars to get a court order to get, you know, force my co-parent to use this other app that I'm gonna have to spend you know X number of dollars every year using. Best Interest allows you to just download the app today and experience peace today. And we do that by uh using SMS. So, your co-parent will text you, will intercept the text, and then when you respond back in the Best Interest uh app, then we're gonna text on your behalf, and it will look like it's coming from you, and they're none the wiser.
Karen Covy 27:22
I don't even have a question to that. I don't have a comment for that. That's like mind-blown. And they can't the other parent can't tell, they'll never know you're using it.
Sol Kennedy 27:32
They'll never know. Unless you let them know. Yeah.
Karen Covy 27:36
Wow. That's fascinating. I that this I have never heard before.
Sol Kennedy 27:43
It's especially helpful in situations of domestic abuse or for co-parents that for whatever reason can't afford or don't have family court as an intervention strategy. So, it gives them the power to take the reins and control their own communication piece right from day one.
Karen Covy 28:03
Wow. Have you ever experienced because how long has this been on the market?
Sol Kennedy
Two years.
Karen Covy
Okay. So in the two years, I'm sure you've seen a lot of people go through and use the app. Have you ever had reports where using the app actually improved the communication between the two parents when they're not using the app?
Sol Kennedy 28:28
Well, let's see. When they're not using the app, that's interesting. You know, I think that um, as you know, going through divorce and co-parenting is a period of often very intense growth and learning. And I know for myself that um looking back, I'm really glad that I went through the experience that I did because I know that I'm a stronger person. I know that I can handle all conflict in my life in a better way. I could show up um even better with my kids. And I think that's because of this forge of divorce and how challenging it can be. Um, and so using Best Interest, I don't, I see it as a way to sort of front load some of that learning and give you some of the relief that will come later with time and learning. Um, it allows you to kind of get into that initial state of feeling a little bit more at peace without having to go through, you know, hiring a or a therapist and spending two years with them and, you know, all the things that we all go through. It gives you that buffer. And so I wouldn't say I have any particular data to talk about whether or not they experienced more peace outside of using the co-parenting app, but I would say that, like I said in the beginning, I get a message every week, I kid you not, people using the word, uh, parents using the word life-saving, that that downloading the Best Interest app has changed their lives for the better, um, has given them peace, maybe for the first time. And uh, as a a person that's gone through this and now is solving this for other co-parents, um, I can't tell you how uh how much that means to me to know that it's having that impact.
Karen Covy 30:27
Because and the reason that I asked the question, I mean, obviously this app is doing a lot of good for a lot of people, um, but the reason I asked the question is that communication is a skill, right? And it can be learned. Unfortunately, it's a skill that often we don't learn as children, and conflict resolution is a skill we don't learn as children. So, my what I was wondering is that if this app is actually teaching parents better communication, better conflict resolution skills, if that's something that actually bleeds into the rest of their relationship.
Sol Kennedy 31:04
I believe so. And when I started working on this product, I reached out to Dr. Romney. And Dr. Romney, if you haven't heard her, uh heard of her, she's an expert in narcissism. And she was one of the um uh one of the influencers that I originally was, you know, watching her videos and understanding my predicament. And when I reached out to her, she immediately understood the idea. We had a great call, and she decided to come on board. And through that process of beginning, it was so helpful to get her advice. And one of those features that I introduced in the very beginning, which is that the message is hidden from you until you're ready to see it. That was that was her insight. And that allows for a very interesting intervention for therapists because for the first time ever, see, they're used to seeing communication from exes. That's one of their common things, right? But the charge is sometimes gone. By the time you enter your therapist's office, it's like, look at what he sent me last week. Okay, well, how are you feeling when you saw it? Yeah, it sometimes it's a little disconnected from the actual trigger. And so for the first time ever, you can do what you need to do to be a good co-parent, and then with your therapist, review that original message and heal in real time because you're gonna read that message and they're gonna be able to say, okay, what how are you feeling in your body and do the processing work? So, I think that this type of thing can actually enhance our ability to heal in the right way without it impacting our day-to-day parenting life and keeping our kids in the forefront.
Karen Covy 32:52
I love that. I this is just so unusual on so many levels, especially compared to the rest of the co-parenting apps, which I'm a big fan of. You know, I've been sending clients to Our Family Wizard for decades. Um, but this is actually, this is really taking it next level, I think.
Sol Kennedy 33:13
Yeah. And, you know, I since we launched, um Our Family Wizard has, you know, they took notice and they've incorporated some AI features. But I think that there's a philosophical difference that's important to note. Our Family Wizard started with the family court system being the deterrent. And I really don't see them ever moving away from that mentality. That if you are using the family court system and you want evidence and that works for you and your co-parent to just kind of behave because you know a judge will eventually review the message, then fine. But if you're the kind of co-parent that doesn't want to use the court system for this type of thing and wants to experience peace, wants to dial down the heat of the communication before it bubbles up to the family court system, then that's really what Best Interest is trying to do. We're much more of a therapy-minded model. A lot of the communication we use inside the app is oriented towards helping you understand what's going on and helping you feel empathized with and giving you the tools that you need to heal versus the stick of the court system, if that makes sense.
Karen Covy 34:33
Yeah, that makes total sense. And it also makes total sense from my perspective. It's 20 years ago, I was actively in the court system every single day. Um, and that's where I learned about Our Family Wizard. And it's the go-to for, at least in my area, it's the go-to for the court system to send people to because it helped, right? But I think to your point, it helps in a certain kind of situation with certain kinds of parents and with others, it's less effective, especially if you can't get one parent to actually use it.
Sol Kennedy 35:10
Yeah, and we have new tools at our disposal. I think AI is truly incredible. And I could have not built this idea without AI being available. And so I'm very thankful for that. And I think that when two new tools come along, it's it behooves us to see what's available and to pick something that feels right for us.
Karen Covy 35:32
This is just fascinating. I mean, honestly, I didn't think you would blow my mind like you blew my mind, but you really did. You really did. So, thank you so much for this conversation. If people are interested in this app, where can they find it and where can they find you?
Sol Kennedy 35:48
Thank you, Karen. It's been a pleasure talking with you today. And for anyone who's listening that would like to check out the best interest app, we're available on the iOS App Store or the Android Play Store. You can just search for Best Interest and we'll come right up. Um, or you can go to bestinterestapp.com, and that's one way to uh check us out and learn more about the app. And um, yeah, it'd be great to hear from you.
Karen Covy 36:15
That's awesome. And for anyone who's watching or listening, all of this will be linked in the show notes. Sol, thank you so much. This has been a really great conversation.
Sol Kennedy 36:25
Thank you, Karen.
Karen Covy 36:26
And for those of you out there who are watching or listening, if you think this is a great conversation, if you'd like to hear more conversations just like this, do me a big favor like the episode, give the, you know, give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the podcast, subscribe to the YouTube channel, and I look forward to talking with you again next time.
