Here's How The Founder Of Mind Brain Parenting Came Up With The Million-Dollar Idea In a Classroom

Dr Jenny Woo, founder of Mind Brain Parenting, came up with her million-dollar side hustle in a classroom at Harvard. At the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Dr Woo was learning about developmental cognitive neuroscience, when she found her true calling: providing parents with access to insights from world-class child development experts, neuroscientists, psychologists, counselors, and researchers. Starting small in 2018, Dr Woo took the idea to new heights, helping thousands of parents across the globe. 

Here’s How Jenny Woo Came Up with The Idea

After leaving her C-Suite consultancy job, Dr Woo went on to pursue a master’s degree in education at Harvard University, learning about emotional intelligence and child development. Being a former school director, she always thought about how everyone could benefit from learning more about what she was learning. Thus, during a class, she came up with the idea of smuggling knowledge from Harvard.

However, she wasn’t sure how to make the topics easy or interesting to learn for the laymen especially parents who have very little time on their hands. She got a breakthrough when her professor passed out a deck of cards to play with in class. It was then Dr Woo got her ‘Aha Moment’ and thought of developing an EQ game. She could make an EQ game.

She went through countless iterations to develop a game that would serve as a vehicle to transfer knowledge that parents can realistically use in their busy lives.

Further, as a parent of three herself, Dr Woo preferred simplicity over complexity and quality over quantity which she employed in her idea to help every parent prepare their children for life.

She came up with her first game called “52 Essential Conversations.” The game has two questions on every card which are an icebreaker and a longer prompt designed to trigger a deeper conversation between kids and parents. The players flip over the cards and take turns answering the questions while playing the game.

For instance, a five of spades, which is the icebreaker asks the player to describe who they are and how others describe them. This is designed to promote social awareness, and a longer prompt would ask the player to think of two other people they know and consider how they’re alike and different.

The goal of the game was to help children develop skills, and create a movement of authentic and meaningful intergenerational conversations that connect children compassionately with adults.

The Start of Mind Brain Emotion

Then in 2018, Dr Woo spent roughly $1,000 from her savings to launch her side hustle, Mind Brain Emotion. Also, before graduating from the Harvard program, she launched a Kickstarter campaign for her game which successfully raised more than $10,000, in just over a month. She then  launched her game on Amazon.

The very next year, Woo raised an additional $7,500 in a second Kickstarter campaign and her business had started bringing in six figures in revenue, Dr Woo told CNBC.

As per the CNBC Make It report, the company is still a one-woman side hustle and it makes 11 different EQ-focused card games meant to help train people of all ages on concepts like relationship skills, critical thinking, and even job interviews.

Last year, Mind Brain Emotion brought in over $1.71 million in revenue on Amazon as per the report. This means, Dr Woo’s business roughly brings in $32,900 of revenue per week, and according to Woo, about 40% of that is profit.

Further, Dr Woo has several income streams, the card games, lecturing at the University of California, Irvine, running an online course on EQ, and freelancing as a business consultant. As per the report, Dr Woo works anywhere from three to 30 hours per week.