We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dr. Angel Liang. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Angel below.
Hi Dr. Angel, thanks for joining us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.
Given my academic and research background, I have had the privilege of being immersed in the latest and most innovative research and information. It wasn’t until after having my own children that I was surprised by how many of my non-academic friends who were now also parents were frustrated with their daily parenting decisions. Even as competent working adults, they were at a loss at coping with their new role as parents’, dealing with temper tantrums, and struggling with big emotions and communication barriers.
I noticed that the information from the latest evidence-based research is quite slow to trickle to the general public. Things that everyone knows nowadays have actually been around for decades, locked away in the very towers of academics and research realms. If it hadn’t been some popularized magazine or news channel that “happened” to peel open the information, it often stays hidden from the public eyes. Even in the teaching realm, lots of great educational strategies aren’t being broadly implemented into practice due to the long due-processes of legislature and bureaucracy. I personally felt the urgency to bridge that gap to bring forth that pertinent information to the public but understood too well how difficult it would be at the government or school level.
In addition, there has been such a strong focus on academic success in parenting that sometimes we may have forgotten what is truly important – values and characters – how to be kind to one another, how to keep going when things get rough, how to have a positive growth mindset, or how to be mindful of ourselves and others.
Nowadays, it has become quite evident that more and more societal issues around us arise not from the lack of scholastic intelligence or technological sophistication but from the absence of humanity and empathy.
In the light of recent hate crimes, school shootings, and social injustice, I am even more determined and encouraged that I am on the right path to change the trajectory of the well-being of our future generations with this mission: to spread awareness of mental well-being, to embrace diversity, and to spread empathy.
It took quite a step back to realize what can truly make a better world and decided to do something about it.
Why not bring the evidence-based strategies from the clinical and research settings into a practical way for the families at home?
Why not make it fun and enjoyable while teaching important valuable life lessons that will help children be successful and be valuable members of society in the future?
I believe that if we can teach these important skills like emotional regulations and communication skills earlier on, it can definitely prevent much more serious issues down the road.
I believe that we need to teach these important skills from the get-go to children and families NOW; instead of waiting until a simple problem blooms into much larger ones years later which would cause more pain and suffering and much more time to repair.
So here I am, trying to change the world for the better, one game at a time by focusing on educating the mind and the heart.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
After 3 years of rigorous research and development, our product Empower Empathy™ debuted on Kickstarter in November 2021. It is the first of its kind of board games for ages 5+ that turns the evidence-based strategies from the clinical and research settings into a practical way for families.
Received 7 major awards in the toy & game industry:
1. 2021 Board Game of the Year Award of Creative Child Magazine
2. Staff Fave Hot Diggity Award Winner 2021
3. Tillywig Brain Child Award
4. Family Choice Award 2021
5. 2022 Board Game of the Year Award of Creative Child Magazine
6. 2022 Mom’s Choice Silver Award
7. 2022 Taiwan Prime Silver Award
Not only is Empower Empathy™ fun and engaging, it also teaches important lessons such as, empathy, growth mindset, communication, socialization skills, emotional awareness, self-regulation, and more.
Empower Empathy™ teaches effectively through engaging and fun screen-free play and promote family bonding time
The backstory of Empower Empathy™ is a team of superheroes working collaboratively to solve social dilemmas the villain, Goobi, has caused in the city of Empathropolis™ to teach Empathy through fun collaborative play that promotes quality screen-free family bonding time.
Empower Empathy™ is strategically designed into a strategic game that is cooperative (teaching kids to collaborate), configurable (different every time you play), and high energy fun (hilarious rounds making faces at each other)
Empower Empathy™ uses 4 key principles to strengthen emotional intelligence and socialization skills:
1. Step into the shoes of another with thoughts- feelings-actions with 160+ social scenarios.
2. Practice facial mimicry to master emotional awareness and regulation with 28 different emotion cards.
3. Sharpen self-reflection & communication skills with 80+ introspective discussion cards.
4. Apply to real world experiences with a 48-pages evidence-based guidebook.
Empower Empathy™ is proudly endorsed by 8 North American professional educational and mental health associations and widely adapted by professional therapists and educators as therapy tools and curriculum resources:
1. U.S. Association for Play Therapy
2. California Association of Marriage Family Therapy
3. California Teachers Association
4. Community College Association
5. National Association for Bilingual Education
6. California Association of Resource & Special Educators Plus
7. Tri-Valley SELPA (Special Education Local Plan Area)
8. The Future of Mental Healthcare West
Empower Empathy™ is played in 25 states and 12 countries worldwide.
Tiny Sprouts® is committed in sustainable sourcing and production through small artisan manufacturers. Environmentally friendly and sustainably made. Our raw materials are entirely toxic-free and both FDA and RoHS(EU) approved. 10% of our proceeds is donated to building schools around the world for children in need.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Being a mother of 3 boys and an entrepreneur is not for the faint of heart. Other than the normal routines of daily lives and tending to my family’s daily well-being, there was a period of time when I racked up close to 100 miles per day by shuttling my three kids from their schools (one kindergarten, one middle school, one high school) to their after-school activities. Subsequently, my car became my mobile office as I waited for them. I had to make sure I parked somewhere close to my kids’ classes that was also close to Wi-Fi access and a restroom. People asked why didn’t I just go to a coffee shop and do my things there: The amount of documents and materials I was carrying were just too much of a hassle to reposition and set up for each stop-and-go. In addition, many of my phone conversations should be kept confidential as trade secrets without disturbing other patrons at the coffee shops.
As a start-up, everything has to start from scratch by our own two hands: Everything from conceptual realization, marketing research, product development, game play testing, graphic design, website development, social media management; all the way to finding a manufacturing company, quality control, finance management, publicity, freight management, sales channels, etc. were done in-house by the two of us.
By ensuring that we do business in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way, our pure insistence was to make sure that our entire supply chain was scrutinized to minimize our carbon footprint. When the pandemic hit, the entire line of the freight process was globally impacted and halted. Warehouses and fulfillment centers around the world were all closed. All the manufacturing companies both in and out of the U.S. that were in negotiation phases with us were now MIA or completely shut down.
By the grace of God and the connections of the 5th degree, we were so fortunate to locate a manufacturing company in Taiwan, which at the time were completely unaffected by the pandemic. It’s worth mentioning that our partners and suppliers are all artisans and small family owned shops that take pride in perfection and workmanship. The level of professionalism and perfectionism that were put into quality control only elevated each version of our game revision to ensure that we bring only the best to our patrons.
As we transitioned into the work-from-home mode, while I no longer needed to play chauffeur to my children, being the only individual who is bilingual (English/Mandarin), the task of working with the manufacturer on product development and quality control fell solely onto my shoulders. This meant that not only I had to manage my three children’s online studies at home and work with my business partner here in the U.S. during our “normal business hours,” I had to take a night shift of working with the oversea personnel. A week’s work began in the evenings of Sunday since Asia is already Monday morning. Countless days began at the crack of dawn and did not end until overseas phone calls at 1 a.m.
Throughout the entire pandemic, people marveled at how optimistic I stayed while many suffered anxiety and depression due to the shutdown. Having a supportive husband who understands the process of entrepreneurship and encouraging friends who give their invaluable expertise and connections certainly become my pillars of strength as I embark on this entrepreneurial journey. They gave the true meaning of Empathy, and their actions show just how Empathy can be empowering to flourish something greater than ourselves.
After 3 years of rigorous research and development, our product Empower Empathy™ finally debuted on Kickstarter in November 2021. It is the first of its kind of board games that turns the evidence-based strategies from the clinical and research settings into a practical way for families.
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
My business partner Tina Wong and I were good friends back in high school in Texas. After 15 years, we’re once again reunited after a serendipitous discovery that we now live only 3 miles away from each other in the Bay Area.
As mothers now, both of us naturally care about our children but also worry about what their future may hold. Casual play dates turned into serious discussion about child rearing and about what is really important and needed in our society. We both agreed about what we should instill onto our children – character development, socialization skills and mental health awareness instead of just focusing on IQ or academic pursuits. We took these discussions further by researching related literature and researches as well as consulted with many professional experts in the educational, therapeutic, medical, and corporate fields.
Being an educational psychologist and a creative educator I am most notably by my public engagement as a parent educator, corporate consultant & speaker. Along with my interdisciplinary experiences in visual arts design, music performance & pedagogy, program evaluation, and marketing strategy, my passion stands for developing innovative and creative educational programs that center around human development, cultural diversity, parenting, and emotional awareness.
Tina, who has a management background in consulting and over 15 years of leadership experience in fortune 500 companies, has also done work in the fashion and media industries, bringing forth the modern artistic direction to the classical form and design. Her passion for philanthropy and advocating for children’s mental health have undoubtedly contributed to the team at Tiny Sprouts®.
Together we merged our strengths to combine forces to create this vision and accessible toolkit that brings the evidence-based strategies from the clinical and research settings into a practical way for families and schools.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.mytinysprouts.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/mytinysprouts
- Facebook: facebook.com/mytinysprouts
- Twitter: twitter.com/mytinysprouts
- Youtube: youtube.com/@mytinysprouts
- Other: pinterest.com/mytinysprouts
Image Credits
Tiny Sprouts, LLC