We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Emily Cadiz. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Emily below.

Emily , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear from you about what you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry and why it matters.

Corporate America has saturated the pre-k edtech and streaming field with entertainment and outdated/ineffective teaching and learning tools because the success of most apps, channels and/or companies is measured in how well they are able to silent a child. But when we silent children at this age, we are silencing brain development during the most critical stage of growth in a human’s life. Therefore, the measure of success has also become a measurement of how much damage we are inflicting on the next generation. At this time, the average 3 year old consumes about 3.5 hours of passive screen time a day. That is the equivalent of 2.5 months of their life every year. This has resulted in the lowest expressive language and k-3rd grade literacy rates we have seen in 50 years. We have a moral obligation as business owners to provide screen based alternatives, with effective and up-to-date instructional methods, that convert passive screen time into active learning experiences. Our mission and vision at Finnegan the Dragon is to provide learning systems that utilize the screen in ways that encourage expressive language and literacy development as well as continued brain growth.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I have been a special education teacher for 15 years. 7 years ago, I was seriously injured at work due to classroom violence. I spent the better part of a year regaining my communication and cognitive skills. In the process of recovering these lost skills, I began using music, specifically song, to strengthen both my articulation and memory. I returned to school at Portland State University to study this overlap between language acquisition and music. Over 4 years of research, I developed a pre-k learning system that incorporated sound-first instruction, song and screen-based technology to help combat the rapid decline of both expressive language and early literacy skills we were seeing throughout our nation. The result was Finnegan the Dragon.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Finnegan the Dragon was initially an in-person curriculum that utilized the vehicle of music to help develop expressive language skills for the pre-k population in the classroom. With the onset of a global pandemic, I was faced with pausing my research and development or pivoting to a digital platform. I chose the later. With the help of local artists and engineers, and a true lack of awareness/insight into how long this road would be, I created a prototype. This allowed me to complete my MA in Inclusive Music and provided the basis for founding my company. Within our first year, we were able to produce our first album, publish and launch our first product line, and create a testable beta version of our entire learning system. While I would like to say we’ve experienced our largest pivot to date, I doubt it will be the last time we pivot.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to unlearn that I wasn’t too old to do any of what I chose to do. I think because I returned to school at the age of 41 to study music and my own recovery from such a personal injury, I had convinced myself that the value of my research and findings was limited to my own growth. And that true business people were those who belonged to a certain age group. Or that those who lacked experience in the corporate world had no business founding a corporation. What I’ve learned along the way is that I was the perfect person to create this product and did so at the perfect time in my life for a problem that no traditional corporate entity could begin to solve.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://finneganthedragon.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/finneganthedragon/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/finneganthedragon
• Linkedin: https://www.instagram.com/finneganthedragon/

Image Credits
Jolene McAurthor