Kaden Mattinson didn’t plan to become a founder. But when the mental health system failed his daughter, he didn’t just vent—he built Mending Minds Village to confront the system head-on. In this candid and powerful convo with Jennifer Sutton on Hello Chaos, Kaden shares what it takes to turn frustration into action, the gritty truth about running a nonprofit, and why resilience is more than a mindset—it’s a necessity. Whether you’re a parent, founder, or advocate, this episode is packed with real talk and lessons on thriving through chaos.
Key Takeaways
🔥 Turning Pain into Purpose
Mending Minds was born from frustration with a broken system. Founders often create businesses for the same reason—they see a gap and refuse to look away. The best ideas? They’re the bold ones no one else dares to chase.
🤝 Community is Your Lifeline
Whether it’s a nonprofit or a startup, nothing happens solo. Kaden highlights how mentors and peers helped him build momentum. Founders need a tribe—full stop.
🚫 Complacency Kills
Kaden’s biggest takeaway? Getting too comfortable can end it all. Staying hungry is how you build businesses and missions that last. Keep pushing forward.
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction to Hello Chaos Podcast
05:53 Challenges and Rewards in Advocacy
10:59 Empowering Others Through Coaching
15:52 Staying Motivated Amidst Challenges
20:41 The Process of Starting a Nonprofit
25:21 Understanding Behavioral Disorders in Children
29:54 The Impact of Mental Health on Families
36:37 The One Degree Shift in Mindset
41:32 Future Aspirations for National Reach
50:58 The Nature of Chaos
Connect with Kaden:
Website: https://www.kadenmattinson.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kadenmattinson/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kadenspeaks/
X : https://x.com/mendingmindsvil
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@kadenspeaks
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (00:01)
Welcome to Hello Chaos, the weekly podcast exploring the messy and chaotic lives and minds of founders, entrepreneurs, and innovators. Each week I have the privilege to speak with founders across the spectrum. Founders from different industries, at different stages, from startups to mature at all sizes. So I am very fortunate.
Our listeners get to hear the raw and the unvarnished viewpoints, getting incredible insights at what it takes to start and scale a business or just to become a better founder, a better CEO, a better business leader. Today, our guest is Kaden Mattinson. Kaden is a motivational speaker, the author of Raising Resilient Children Strategies for Youth Empowerment and the executive director and founder of Mending Minds Village.
Kayden has motivated audiences to better their mental health and supported families in crisis for the past five years. So welcome Kayden, welcome to Hello Chaos, the chaos podcast. Well I'm so glad you're here, I've been excited to actually talk to you and learn more about you. So just start us telling about your journey, how in the world did you get started with?
Kaden Mattinson (01:08)
Thanks for having me in. This is great.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:23)
founding Mending Minds Village.
Kaden Mattinson (01:28)
Yeah, so Mending Minds Village was kind of the culmination of several mental health crises in one. It really, was a combination of both. Combination of both.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:36)
really? So a lot of shits or lot of ahas.
That's right. Usually that it's usually where aha meets shit is where like
the ideation sets apart sets apart.
Kaden Mattinson (01:51)
It is,
it is. Yeah, and it was, you know, I'll tell you, it was not at all like, if you could have, if you could have asked me if that's what it was going to be, you know, in the in the creation of all the chaos, I would have told you absolutely hell no.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (02:07)
Isn't that
funny how we start that? like, did you think like early on, I'm gonna start my own business. Did you always think that kind of have that entrepreneurial spirit about you from?
Kaden Mattinson (02:20)
You know,
before we ran, before we started Mining Minds Village, I actually ran a towing business in the middle of COVID. And so that was, you know, running a nonprofit was definitely not on my bingo card. It was. So we actually founded it out of our family's crisis. We founded it during my daughter's mental health crisis.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (02:28)
my goodness.
Right, there. How did it come to be?
Okay.
Okay. How old was, how old's your daughter? Okay.
Kaden Mattinson (02:49)
now she's, now she's 10.
so we've been, she, we founded it when she was five, almost six and, maybe, and, and at that point, at the beginning of it, you know, it was, it was kind of founded in, the middle of a necessity. and if, you know, looking at it, it's always funny looking back, right? Hindsights.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (02:59)
wow, baby, baby, yeah.
Yeah,
hindsight's 20-20.
Kaden Mattinson (03:19)
hindsight's always a bitch.
But hindsight, looking back at it, I'm like, you know, we couldn't have started it at a better time. You know, it was right in the midst of, you know, if we if you look back at everything that everybody went through with COVID, it's right at the peak of the conversation of mental health. And so we founded it right at a great time. And then
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (03:30)
Really.
Mm-hmm.
Kaden Mattinson (03:47)
you know, kind of as a, as a culmination of the process, we then founded, I founded Mittenson Consulting, which is now the speaking and the consulting side of things, the coaching business. And so running both of them simultaneously, one, one complements the other, which is always awesome. But
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (03:57)
Okay.
that's right.
So you've
been doing it. What's been the biggest kind of aha moment for you?
Kaden Mattinson (04:18)
You know, this, it continues to go. mean, we, we think that we've, we've reached peak and we think that we've, you know, we've kind of got to where we're like, okay, this is how the business is going to go. And then, you know, we have, we've been invited into some of the wildest things. And we've actually got an event coming up in May of this year that tops everything we've done so far. And I thought we.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (04:31)
Right?
Kaden Mattinson (04:48)
couldn't do that again. we, we are working with the University of Utah to host Children's Mental Health Day at the Utah State Capitol. And so that event, we're going to bring kids to the Capitol to meet with the people that are in charge of their mental health benefits and in charge of, you know, their mental health providers.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (04:49)
Really? Where's the event gonna be held?
Okay.
Nice.
Kaden Mattinson (05:16)
And, you know, we listen to families all the time tell us that the mental health state in the country is a joke. And I'm like, well, you need the insurance, all of the legislation around all of that is a nightmare. And we're like, well, let's bring the families that are struggling because of it straight to the leaders that are in charge of that.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (05:22)
Yeah, the insurance and having to like a support.
Yeah.
That's fantastic, advocacy, that is a hard, it's a hard place to be.
Kaden Mattinson (05:46)
It's, I'm telling you, the whole organization, the whole organization has been between a rock and a hard place.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (05:52)
Really? Well, it's been the most rewarding part of the journey so far.
Kaden Mattinson (05:57)
You know, watching families actually get results. Watching families that are come to us in absolute chaos and know that we've been there. And so we know the answers. We know how to get you from that chaos to, I'm not going to say stability completely, but at least to some semblance of structure. Yeah. Yep.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (06:00)
Really?
Like a solution, some solution.
What's been the most challenging part? mean, you said here you were running a towing business, now you've jumped in, you're a nonprofit, you're an advocate, trying to change laws, but also trying to support through therapy and coaching. What's been the most challenging part?
Kaden Mattinson (06:31)
Yep.
Yep.
You know the losses. That's the hardest part of it. We've had a couple of clients that the weight was too much and so we've lost a couple. And that's the hardest one. Yeah, that's the hardest part.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (06:45)
as in like suicide or okay.
my goodness, that's devastating. Yeah.
So what's something that you have, that you've discovered about yourself? Like what's been the most surprising thing that you were like, whoa, this is, I'm amazing at this. Like, is there anything like that, that you were just like, what's an aha of like a self discovery moment?
Kaden Mattinson (07:15)
the
You know, I've always thought of myself as being more reserved, right? And being more in the back. And I've found out that I, you know, I'm kind of the wolf in the woods. I was given that first opportunity to confront leaders and, you know, and not just state, but like I've actually talked to like national leaders and called them out on their policies. And I'm like,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (07:27)
Mm-hmm.
Really? A warrior.
Very good.
Kaden Mattinson (07:50)
And people are like, I can't believe you did that. I'm like, yeah, me neither.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (07:53)
Yeah.
Where do you think that where do you think you drew that from that strength?
Kaden Mattinson (08:00)
You know, just from the, just from the process, it's been from all the experience and watching all these families that are just absolutely devastated and being like, this is the weight of it. And the passion of it is like, okay, no, we've got to, we've got to do something about this.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (08:10)
So you're like carrying that weight with you.
Hmm, my God, that's amazing. What's something that you like about yourself that you wish other people would recognize more? That other people would recognize more of you.
Kaden Mattinson (08:31)
You know, not necessarily of me, but of themselves, I wish people would understand how passionate they are. I talk to a lot of people that I'm like, you could be doing so much more than what you're allowing yourself to do.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (08:44)
Yeah, like finding their purpose, like their true gifts, uncovering their gifts. can you give me a story? is there is there I know these are some of yours, you probably can't share too many stories. But is there one in particular that?
Kaden Mattinson (08:47)
Yeah. Yup.
You know, I can, as far as like clients, I can't really share, but with, I do have actually a director of mine that started out as a client. And I was like, no, no, no, you're not, you're not, this is not client. We're not, we're not allowing you to be in the victim role in this because you are way stronger than you believe you are. And so we, we actually, she became one of our closest friends. She's, we talk every day. But
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (09:22)
Really?
Kaden Mattinson (09:31)
bring in her on, her name is Tracy and she is phenomenal. We brought her in and she was like, we said, every client, I bring him in and I sit him down and I say, what is your number one problem? Like what is the, if we could help you tackle one thing in the next 30 days, what do we need to accomplish? And with hers, it was just to help connect with the resources, help her get her grandson into treatment and then help.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (09:49)
Okay.
Kaden Mattinson (09:59)
get him out of that chaos that he was in. And the more we sat down and talked with Tracy through the process, the more I was like, man, you have all the answers. You are, you have that fire. Like, what is it, what do we need to do with you? Do we need to like give you that kind of the spark to have that conversation? Put you in the, in the environment so that you can let this all go? And, and it was as soon as we
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (10:10)
Yeah.
Great.
Kaden Mattinson (10:29)
we, I was like, Look, I'm going to set up the meeting. You're going to sit down with this leader that you're wanting to talk to. I'm going to, I'm going to facilitate the meeting. You're going to run it. And I will be behind you to be like, you know, kind of re-steer the conversation if we need to. But you're going to be the one that does this because you are, you are way stronger than this. Absolutely. And man, if I can't tell you the amount of strength that that brought out of her,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (10:44)
Right.
empowered her. Absolutely.
Kaden Mattinson (10:59)
you know, because of her, we connected with families that we would have never had the chance to. Because she was like, I can do this. So now I need to go to this one. Now I need to go to this one. And wow, she's every day I'm like, Tracy, I can't believe that you really didn't believe you could do this.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (11:05)
Really, her story.
Evangelized it, yeah.
And she's probably like,
that's something that was probably surprising to her of what she learned in the process. Yeah.
Kaden Mattinson (11:27)
Well, and even still, even still,
have to be like, she, you know, we'll have conversations and she's like, I don't know if I can do that. I'm like, Tracy, you talk to the director of the, you know, entire Southern Division of Mental Health Board. I think you can do this.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (11:34)
You just can't.
Yeah,
like you got it, like push those people to, know, push them.
Kaden Mattinson (11:45)
And we, yep,
we, we, we relight that fire and then she takes off and runs with it and I love it.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (11:51)
I love it.
So what's, I was like, were there any like myths or misconceptions you had going into either starting the nonprofit of like, this is how you run a business or this is what I've heard about running a business. And you got in then you're like, what the hell are people thinking like this? No one prepared me for this. Did you have any of those kind of moments? Or maybe you're going through it now.
Kaden Mattinson (12:18)
So I've got,
I've got that on both sides of the business, actually. So on, on, on many minds and on Manson Consulting on the coaching side of things, on the, on the nonprofit, if I can, if I can tell audit, you know, anybody listening one thing about running a nonprofit is that your relationships, current relationships are far more valuable in your nonprofit than you even can imagine.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (12:22)
Okay.
huh.
Kaden Mattinson (12:47)
conversations that you're gonna have with current connections are gonna be what keeps your fire going. It's not the National Foundations, it's not your grantors, it's not banks that you're going to fund the organization, but it's the everyday people that you work with now.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (12:51)
Yeah.
Right,
well it's getting people on your, you know, to understand your mission, the cause, and have that shared, that shared fire, right? Yeah.
Kaden Mattinson (13:12)
Yep.
Yeah, yeah. It's I mean,
it's like you hear all the time, you know, it's not what you know, it's who you know.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (13:24)
That's right. That's right. Have you learned
have you do you have your has your circles changed over the year like you're getting into different circles of influence? Yeah.
Kaden Mattinson (13:38)
It has to.
It has to. If you are wanting to be successful, if you are like, we started out in our little small area and now we're reaching the state level. so you can't, if you're wanting to develop, you can't stay in the same place. You've got to get uncomfortable and you've got to get outside that normalcy.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (13:57)
Right, right.
That's right, we say
you gotta get comfortable with being uncomfortable. If you had to hit rewind on anything, would you do anything different?
Kaden Mattinson (14:05)
Exactly. Exactly.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (14:15)
Like a lesson's learned.
Kaden Mattinson (14:15)
Yes,
yes, I would. Yep. So,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (14:19)
Like what was
the biggest lessons learned for you?
Kaden Mattinson (14:22)
You know, complacency kills everything. sitting in, you know, taking the first losses a lot easier would have gotten me so much further. Taking the first, you always think that your purpose is where it's at. Everybody knows that
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (14:28)
yeah.
Right.
Kaden Mattinson (14:51)
Mental health is so important. And so it should be super easy to run this and it is absolutely not. And so learning to take those no's, not personal and being like, okay, you just don't see it yet. You you will.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (14:56)
Yeah. Nah, that's... Yeah. What's the...
Yeah.
Right, or
you're like, okay, I need to reframe this. They're not getting it. Do I need to, we call it reframe the decision or we need to provide more clarity to our brand and to the cause. We're solving a problem. They need to know what problem we're solving. And it's really hard, especially as founders sometimes we're so, I was telling another founder this morning is like sometimes we sit so close.
Kaden Mattinson (15:12)
Yeah!
Decision. Yep.
Exactly. Exactly.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (15:37)
to a painting, know, where our nose is right up to the canvas. And we're looking at every brush stroke and looking at all, like, and analyzing the noses, the, how do I do this? That we have, sometimes it's hard for us to take a step back and look at the bigger picture or to explain the vision of the picture. And even, you know, I've been in marketing for 30 years and my businesses have been the hardest to...
Kaden Mattinson (15:39)
You miss
Right, right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (16:06)
refine our messaging, give clarity to the problems we solve. And I've had to kind of say to my team, like, don't let, like, I'm too close to it. I am way too close. I need to step back, or I need to be forced to step back. But I don't know if you found that. We just get so close to it.
Kaden Mattinson (16:24)
Yeah, yep.
Well, and that's why they say like, you know, your nonprofit or your or even your any business is so personal to you. There's a reason there's a there's a passion behind what you're doing. And so for anything to go wrong in it is is so extremely difficult for us as a founder. And and for anybody else in the business, it might, you know, it might look like just a speed bump. And for us, it's like we're going to we're about to lose everything.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (16:33)
Right.
Right.
Yeah, yeah.
Right, right,
we're gonna lose it all. And that pressure is awful. How have you stayed motivated? Like are there tips or tricks that you've learned from other people that are like, okay, this is how you manage stress or this is how you get through these challenges? Are there any like insights that you've learned about yourself and what you've had to do?
Kaden Mattinson (17:02)
yep
Yeah, so that's kind of where the motivational speaking came in. That's where Mattinson, the coaching business came in, is I had to remember, I had to remember for myself that like, it's okay to take five and step back. It's okay to take that five minutes, readjust, you know, and when you're looking over everything, when you're doing that readjustment, look over everything.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (17:27)
You're like somebody needs a little cadence.
Kaden Mattinson (17:49)
so that you can remember that like, yeah, this right now, this sucks, but like, look at how far we've come to. Look at all the things we've accomplished. This loss is not going to define all of this work.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (17:55)
Yeah, yeah.
That's right. We always say celebrate even the smallest of wins. what do you think, so when you started and you thought, you had a daughter that was going through a health crisis, how did you guys uncover the problem that you guys faced and you were like, I can fix that through this nonprofit. What was that process like?
Kaden Mattinson (18:08)
Exactly, exactly.
We got so mad, so mad at the system. mean, and mad doesn't cover it, but there are, you know, with what we were going through with her, like there's not really a definition of it. There's not like a diagnosis of the behaviors that she was going through. And so that,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (18:39)
Yeah.
Kaden Mattinson (18:57)
kind of pissed us off because I was like, well, there's got to be something behind this. There's an explanation. you know, and about a year in, it started putting us into putting her into like inpatient settings. So seven and eight years old, you know, she is inpatient in the hospital, because being home is not really safe for her to do. And we get into those settings and find out that
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (18:58)
Yeah.
Right?
Okay.
Oof.
Right.
Kaden Mattinson (19:26)
in a 48-bed unit.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (19:29)
They're not equipped for children.
Kaden Mattinson (19:31)
24 of them, 24 out of 48 beds are her age and they have no idea what to do about it. No clue. And out of those 24 kids, we started hearing stories from parents of those kids where more than half of those, so 10 to 12 kids, were of the same challenges that we were experiencing with my daughter, where they're not able to get testing, they're not able to get a treatment because they're not able to get a diagnosis.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (19:35)
my-
Whoa.
Kaden Mattinson (20:01)
And so we're like, okay, so we're not the only ones. And we knew we weren't, but you know, that, okay, we're not the only ones that's validating. And then it's like, okay, but then now what? If we have all these kids that aren't getting caught in diagnosis, why? And so, and then we called, I'm not one to just sit back and take no for an answer anyway. And so we got a no from the her therapist. we called her.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (20:04)
Right.
Right.
Right, right.
Kaden Mattinson (20:29)
therapist supervisor and the supervisor says, Well, I'm not the one you got to talk to the director. And and I talked to the director and the director was like, Yeah, I don't I don't really have an answer for you.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (20:41)
Right, and you're like, look, we're not alone. It's like you start looking at the stats of like, that's just one hospital in one city and start like, these percentages, these aren't anomalies. I bet this is a more of an epidemic than people realize. Is that like that train of thought and nobody had an answer? Nobody had an answer? Oh my God.
Kaden Mattinson (20:48)
Right!
Right.
Yeah!
Yep. And it was funny because nobody had an answer. Nobody
then had an answer. And it was so funny because the director was actually taking a back that I was like not taking no for an answer from him. And I was like, look, this is not something that you can just ignore. And I said, if you can't give me an answer as a parent,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (21:17)
Right. You're like this, this, can't just go, we can't just shrug this off.
Right.
Right.
Kaden Mattinson (21:31)
How do we get answers? What do we got to do? And he's like, well, do you want me to be completely honest? And I said, preferably, yes. And he said, as an individual and as a parent, you're not going to get anywhere. He said, you need to get an advocate. You need to get somebody certified that can do this for you. And I said, well, all right. And I hung up the phone and I looked at my wife and I said, so we're going to start a nonprofit. And she was like, wait, what?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (21:33)
That's right.
And she was like,
Kaden Mattinson (21:59)
No, we're not. We
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (22:00)
we're doing what?
Kaden Mattinson (22:03)
can't even handle our own crisis. We're not handling everybody else's too." And I was like, no, but we need to. Like that was the answer that he gave me. That was the solution. And she was like, well, if that's the answer, then let's go.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (22:05)
Right.
This is the only solution.
Yeah. How did you,
did you tap into any other resources like, cause you know, nonprofits, I always hear like they're difficult to start, like all the, the red tape in certain states to even just, you know, get your 501C just to get one. Did you go, I'm gonna start calling, you know, these like chambers or did you call other nonprofits to get, how did you get started? Like, what was that process like?
Kaden Mattinson (22:29)
Just to run. Yeah.
No, that's another one of those hindsight is, know, hindsight kills me on that one because I was so furious about what was happening that I wasn't really paying attention to the process of what was necessary to start it. And so like, yeah, I was just like, we're going to do this. And I registered it with the state and they were like, okay, now you need to go to the government, to the federal government and get your 501C3. And I was like, oh,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (22:46)
Yeah.
All right, bye.
Like most founders, know, we just kind of go. We just go. Yeah.
Kaden Mattinson (23:10)
I didn't think about that. And then it was like, okay, get your permits and get your, you know, call and make sure the mental health authority knows what you're doing. And I was like, okay, cool. And so it took, it took six months. It took six months for us to do it. But in the process, you know, we got the name established. We got the temporary okay for the 501C3 within just like 30 days. And so we started moving at that point.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (23:19)
Right.
Yeah.
I bet.
Okay.
Kaden Mattinson (23:39)
I wasn't
going to wait around. And the conversation started changing immediately as soon as I had the name behind us.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (23:48)
It's funny how that happens, right? Yeah.
Kaden Mattinson (23:50)
Yeah.
And then the director, I called and talked to him again and I was like, okay, now I'm not calling you from me. Now I'm calling you from the organization and I need your data. And he was like, yeah, see now that changes things. And I was like, see, but why does that change things? What does my having a name and an organization behind me make a difference in whether or not you can give me this information?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (24:05)
Yeah.
Right.
You just, like I said, you found a gap. And also think about, it's crazy to me that also there's no other, there was no other organization that was laser focused or even found the gap that was already trying to find the solution to it. Because you know, it's always like, hey, there's gotta be some other, somebody else has gotta be aware of this. And it's amazing when you find out, no, those, yeah.
Kaden Mattinson (24:30)
Yeah.
We are still alone. We
are still, we've been in, we've been in organization for four years, five years. And yeah, five years that that's crazy. Been going five years this year. And thank you, because most don't make it two years. So that's crazy to me. But, but you know, we
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (24:52)
Isn't that crazy?
And congratulations, by the way, because that's a milestone all of in its own. No. Yeah.
Kaden Mattinson (25:07)
We are still, I still talk to other organizations, I still talk to, you know, other collaborations and they're all like, you're the only organization that does this. And I'm like, why? Out of 50 states, out of 365 billion people, why am I the only one that is focused on getting these kids treatment?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (25:16)
Yeah. Right. Right.
Right?
And the fact that you were presenting so many kids, right? It's not like it's, my daughter's the only one. This is, no, no, we've got mass behind us.
Kaden Mattinson (25:33)
Yeah, yep.
Yeah, we've identified
in 12 different states now we've identified kids under the same category. And in the state of Utah alone, we identified 1800 kids.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (25:46)
Wow, unbelievable.
Oh my goodness. And that's why I applaud you for doing this. And you gotta keep asking, why? Why? Why is this? Why are we the only one focusing on this, but also there's a problem here and we need to fix it. And we need to fix it.
Kaden Mattinson (26:00)
You do? Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. And we had
to broaden actually a little bit because we were like, we were only targeting kids specifically with the diagnosis of DMDD, which is a disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, ODD. So oppositional defiance, and then kids that are labeled with a conduct disorder. And the conduct disorder kids that actually that diagnosis is terrifying because
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (26:22)
Okay.
Okay.
to
break down those three, what is the, like the diagnosis or like what's the description of the behavior between those three? Because they all sound alike. Okay.
Kaden Mattinson (26:38)
though.
Because they're all similar. They're all very
similar. And they are typically given to kids that don't quite meet the characteristics of autism, but they have a lot of the same behaviors as autistic. The oppositional defiance are the kids that you see in schools now that, you know, we used to label them as ADHD or ADD.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (27:00)
Okay.
Okay.
Kaden Mattinson (27:15)
And so ADHD still exists and that there's its own diagnosis for that. But a lot of these kids have behavioral problems at home. They don't listen to authority figures in schools. They struggle with basic learning concepts. And it's not always, it's structure. They hate it, despise it. That's a lot of the ODD.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (27:21)
Right.
Right? Structure. It's structure. They fight structure. Yeah. Yeah.
Kaden Mattinson (27:42)
DMDD is exactly what it sounds like, emotional dysregulation, and it can be any number of triggers. Most of the time there is a specific either person or environment that sets them off, but it can be any number of things. And then you get the conduct disorder and that diagnosis
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (27:58)
Okay.
Okay.
Kaden Mattinson (28:09)
Therapists do not like giving a conduct disorder diagnosis. Matter of fact, they typically won't give it unless they meet 90 to 95 % of the parameters that are in the DSM. Conduct disorder is where you get a lot of the aggressive behaviors. ODD, DMDD, you get some aggression. Typically, it's focused on one individual or a couple of individuals.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (28:21)
Okay, interesting.
Okay.
Kaden Mattinson (28:37)
Conduct disorder is very specifically anti-regulation, anti-law, anti-structure.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (28:45)
Okay.
And then you're saying that, those are three that are diagnoses, but you're saying there's a whole, like your organization came in, there's a gap there of like those people, know, kids that have behaviors that could be, but they're just not even going diagnosed. So it's like this gap in diagnosis. So that means you can't get insurance? Is that like how it trickles down of because there's no diagnosis?
Kaden Mattinson (28:54)
There's a whole group-
Ahem.
Yeah, yep, so before the-
So before the age
of 10, they don't like to diagnose kids with much of anything. Eight to 10 years old, you you start to really identify some of these behaviors and they don't like to label it. They don't like to diagnose it. And I'm like, so sometimes they get thrown just a general label. My daughter and her case, because we had to get something figured out, they gave her the ODD DMDD diagnosis. And we were like,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (29:18)
yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Right.
Right.
Okay.
Kaden Mattinson (29:42)
that's not right. That's not, that doesn't fit it, you know. And as we went, you know, we're like, okay, we're still not getting treatment. Even with that diagnosis, we're not getting options. And so, and then we ran into a lot of kids with the same issue, or it was like, okay, well, you gave them a DMD diagnosis, that's great. You can get them into therapy now. But therapy isn't working. Because why? Because their brain is too underdeveloped.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (29:44)
Right.
We're not getting the right treatment. Yeah.
Right.
Kaden Mattinson (30:12)
to understand
what you're trying to teach them. So now the behaviors are elevating, the aggression is elevating, that, you know, incidences that are happening at home, calling the crisis team, calling in in-home support is all not working. Now we're still before age 12 and these kids cannot be in any residential treatment. They can't do any long-term in-patient stays, which, you know, and so it's like, okay, well, what are we gonna do for these?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (30:36)
Whoa.
Kaden Mattinson (30:41)
thousands and tens of thousands of kids that are being missed just in Utah because there's no programs that benefit them.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (30:43)
Right.
Right.
Yeah, the numbers are, they're staggering. Yeah.
Kaden Mattinson (30:55)
The staggering. Yeah, before the
age of 12, if your child needs anything more than one on one therapy, you're you're our SOL. That doesn't happen.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (31:04)
Well, and then you get families that...
feel lost too, yeah.
Kaden Mattinson (31:10)
100%. 100%.
Yeah. And then in the process of this, we're figuring out that there are counties in the state of Utah that have no mental health services. None. In whole counties.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (31:25)
Yeah, and that's across every state. Yeah, there's a big, you know, that, what is it? The mental health, mental wellness, what, oasis or something like that, or the desert? So, like, how do you feel like you're that, you found the gift, you found the purpose, and you're applying it?
Kaden Mattinson (31:26)
hundreds of thousands of families. Yeah.
Yep, yep
It is it it's that's the best way to explain it. It's just it's just, you know, it's it's awesome. It's it's amazing to be involved in it because you get to see families find the loopholes and find the results and get somewhere. But it's at the same time, it's it's incredibly overwhelming because you're like, this is great. I've been able to help 10 families.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (31:59)
you
Yeah.
Kaden Mattinson (32:21)
And I've been able to help other families get what they need in the meantime, right? Because mental health isn't just impacting their treatment. Moms are, know, mom and dad's losing their jobs. They're losing homes. They're losing cars. They're not able to feed their families because they have to be home one-on-one with these kids. And so they're losing everything. And that's really what got us fired up is like,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (32:25)
Right?
Nah, it's.
Right.
watching. Yeah.
The care, yeah.
Kaden Mattinson (32:48)
Yes, this is we need to get them connected with this, but like we need to make sure that you are not losing everything else in the process.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (32:57)
That's right. when you're going out and like, so is it easy to get funding then when you're going into like corporate sponsors to go, when you outline the problem, go, your money is going to help literally families just survive. Or is it because it's not a prevalent, like they don't see the problem? Okay.
Kaden Mattinson (33:19)
They know the problem. It's not a matter of like, we,
get into conversations with CEOs and with like major funders and I'm like, you have families literally starving and homeless because their child cannot get mental health treatment. So if nothing else, help us with funding so that we can provide them with food, shelter, know, clothing in some cases, cover their, you know, cover their basic needs.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (33:28)
Yeah.
Yeah.
their rent, yeah.
Yeah.
Kaden Mattinson (33:46)
while
we fight with the mental health authorities to get them services. And they don't.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (33:50)
Yeah, because that's gonna be an end the delegates
to be an advocate. Yeah, it's to change the system is so difficult.
Kaden Mattinson (34:00)
Yep.
And it is systemic all the way to the top. All the way up.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (34:04)
Yeah,
We just need to amplify this. So I'm gonna tell a story, because this is, it's like bringing back kind of a memory of, you remind me of my dad and my dad's story. So my dad was a, he went to Duke Divinity School, he was a Methodist priest.
And, you know, he's about five years into his career after school. He had been moved to Kentucky and then North Carolina and then Georgia. That's where I was born. you know, somebody in his congregation just happened, you know, this is in late 70s, or excuse me, late 60s, early 70s. And somebody's congregates like, you know,
I remember having a sister, but then she disappeared. And I knew she had problems, but we didn't know anything. I wanna go find my sister. I just remember when I was little, was, and my dad goes to, like, all right, did she have problems? I don't know, I don't know anything about it. End up being, he goes to the state hospital in Georgia, tracks her.
Kaden Mattinson (35:13)
You
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (35:30)
tracked her down, she was severely retarded at that stage and that's what you did. There were no resources in the 70s and 80s, if you were born with anybody with any spectrum of retardation from Down syndrome to even the severely disabled, you just shipped them to an institute.
Kaden Mattinson (35:44)
Nope.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (35:59)
And what my dad learned was that, and this was happening not just in Georgia, but in 50 states of all over. And because you're right, nobody knew, you couldn't keep them at home. You didn't know how to care, especially people that were very aggressive and needed that one-on-one all the time care. But what he found was that,
Kaden Mattinson (36:07)
all over.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (36:30)
they didn't, the hospital systems, the institutes knew how to deal with I think other mental issues like schizophrenia and other, but retardation was a spectrum they did not know how to handle. So my dad was going into basements into these institutions and would find from infants to adults half clothed in their own feces, chained to walls if they were, know, had, had,
uncontrollable kind of like spasms and they were treated as inhuman. And he was like, I think God has given me my purpose. is to, it's to change, you know, and then he had to break it down to go, what's, how do we change the system in our thinking and had to become an advocate, how to go up, you know, to, you know, and change laws, change the way insurance companies.
Kaden Mattinson (37:03)
Yep. Yep.
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (37:27)
Obviously didn't do it alone, but you know, he partnered up with, you know, found, it's called the ARC, the Association of Retarded Citizens, is where he started to really work and craft, but it took decades, decades. But there's still hope of like, you know, we changed, you know, now that those institutions don't really exist anymore, there's now group homes, there's now the club systems, people can now code it in for insurance, there's,
Kaden Mattinson (37:53)
Yes.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (37:56)
you know, dentists that say, okay, I can handle and hairdresser that like, we now cater to this. And they're diagnosed, I mean, just only in the last like, what two decades, they're diagnosing autism differently. Also, you know, not as up, but Asperger's and all that, you know, that, you know,
Kaden Mattinson (38:16)
Yeah, yep. They've
actually started to treat how schizophrenia has been started to be treated differently.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (38:24)
Yeah. Yeah. But I'm just
like, you remind me of it like that was you got to, you know, he found that purpose. He was laser focused. It did take a lot. You know, he's now passed away early. You know, cancer took him way too soon, but he made an impact and and yeah, so will you like this is you because you're fighting for somebody that doesn't have a voice today. So you're their voice.
Kaden Mattinson (38:41)
no.
the end.
Yeah, and that's, you know, and even the people that like, we would consider them neurotypical, you know, can can just get anything done. I, I wish that I could, but, you know, I am among those with ADHD. so the focus sometimes is the trick. But, you know, we coaching with people has, has been
interesting and fun too. Because you start to, I've started to figure out, I sat down one day, you know, with the board, with my board of directors and I was like, what are we missing? What is it in mental health treatment as a whole that we could change just one thing? What can we target one thing that would make a huge difference in anybody, any level, anybody's mental health?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (39:42)
Right.
Kaden Mattinson (39:50)
And we sat down and we talked for two days and we were just like, there's got to be something that we can target. And just overnight sitting thinking on it, kind of doing some reports. And I was like, you know, the number one thing that I can think of is if we can change somebody's mindset, if we can focus on just shifting the mindset just a little bit and being like not so
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (40:09)
Mm-hmm.
Right.
Kaden Mattinson (40:19)
laser focused on every all of the chaos that's going on, but the end result that you want. And we can shift that just a little bit, then then maybe we can start attacking this a little bit. And so I put together a program and I put together two different things. One I put together was called the Singh framework. And so it's I was like, you know, if we're going to adjust. Yep. So I'm like, if we're going to adjust that, we need to make it simple.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (40:28)
Right.
as an S-I-N-G. Okay.
Kaden Mattinson (40:49)
We need to make it easy so that anybody can know what to do. I said, so we're going to break it down. And I'm like, what are the four things that you need in life, you know, three or four things that you're going to need in order to make this happen? Well, you need support in your life. You've got to have, you can't do it alone. None of us can. You need to be included in a group, not just in your family, not just in friends, but in, you know, in a collective. And then we need to nurture that plan. We need to work with it.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (41:03)
Mm-hmm. Right. I your community.
Yeah.
Kaden Mattinson (41:18)
identify what your needs are, and then you need to see growth. You have to see forward movement. And so if we can help anybody achieve those four things, short term, long term, it doesn't matter, you're gonna see a huge shift in mental health. And so we started implementing that in all of the case management that we're doing. We started doing that in some of the coaching that I'm doing. And the shift that you see in people
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (41:27)
Yeah.
great.
Kaden Mattinson (41:48)
It doesn't take much, but just that just one little step and you watch people go, I can I can do this. And just that little spark is all it takes. You know, they say a spark can light a forest fire. And it's the same thing with when it comes to mindset, just one shift. So I started calling it the one degree shift. And it's like, you know, an airplane.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (41:50)
Mm-mm. The baby steps.
Yeah.
That's right. That's right.
I love it.
Kaden Mattinson (42:17)
If you take off from LA and you're aiming for New York and they're off by one degree, they will land in Northern Florida.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (42:26)
That's crazy. Is that real? Is that?
Kaden Mattinson (42:26)
So one degree shift,
yeah, you will land somewhere between southern Georgia and northern Florida. So, you know, change one thing in your life, focus on one topic, one goal, and shift your whole life in one degree.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (42:32)
It's a fun factoid. my goodness. Okay.
Yeah.
I love that. I love that one. I'm looking at Chandler going, take note of that. We need to blast that as the lesson learned of that's a good factoid. Okay, Kata, if you could change two things, if you could pick two things about your organization or the coaching business today, what would those two things be?
Kaden Mattinson (42:55)
Yeah.
You know, funding is our biggest struggle right now. Funding is, and not just in a, you know, in a cute, like, you know,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (43:11)
Yeah, I bet. Yeah.
Like
what's the number? What's the number you need to make impact?
Kaden Mattinson (43:20)
We need, right now, need 150,000. We don't need millions. We need 150,000 to do our programs for this year. And that will impact more than 5,000 families with that 150,000. Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (43:24)
Okay, well let's shout out. Yeah.
Let's make that happen.
Holy crap. So
if someone gave a million, I mean.
Kaden Mattinson (43:45)
that
would impact families for the next decade.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (43:49)
my goodness. my goodness. All right. What's the second thing? Yeah.
Kaden Mattinson (43:51)
Yeah, that covers
this. And then the second thing is, you know, we need more involvement. We need more families willing, not even bigger support. We need, we need more families to come forward. We need more families to say that we need help because, you know, there are a lot of families that don't want to talk about it. That it's, it's, you were raised that it's very hush hush. And
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (44:00)
Baker support, okay.
to identify them. Yeah.
Kaden Mattinson (44:19)
We know there are families that are being missed. We know that our families that are being in the struggle, in the chaos, and that they're just not getting the help they need.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (44:25)
Right.
they're suffering alone and they need to... And they probably don't even know that there's support out there to elevate.
Kaden Mattinson (44:32)
Right.
And that's the thing, they don't.
We hear so often that I didn't even know this was available. And I'm like, well, that's why we're here. That's what we're trying to help with.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (44:45)
Yeah, yeah. That's why you're there.
You guys fill that gap. All right, so if we met one year from now, 2026, we're celebrating. What are we celebrating?
Kaden Mattinson (45:00)
We are celebrating national reach We are we are celebrating right now. We're regional. We are gonna we are working this year on national reach
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (45:09)
So what does that look like?
Kaden Mattinson (45:11)
Right now, we've got advocates in five states. We need them in all states. We need to get a feel on what is happening in every state.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (45:16)
Okay, you need them in all states.
Can you, are you, is there data available for every state? Like, you you went to the, to the director of that one, and it's like, and he was like, oh, I have to give my data. Is that data like at a national level? Or is it state by state?
Kaden Mattinson (45:39)
Yeah, yeah. It's
state by state. The national department should be getting that data, but their data, if we go to the state level, is about a year and a half to two years behind. If we go to the national level, it's five to 10 years behind.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (45:46)
Okay.
federal, even. Whoa,
so you need the state by state. Well, what advice would you give? Like now that you've gone through it, and if someone had said, I have my own purpose, I found my own gap in like some care, and I'm gonna do exactly what you did, but I'm gonna focus on my cause.
Kaden Mattinson (45:59)
so we need state data.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (46:21)
What advice would you give that next founder?
Kaden Mattinson (46:27)
Just do it. Just do it. We let fear, we let anxiety get in the way of doing what we really truly know to be necessary. Taking that first step will make you take the next step.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (46:29)
Just do it.
I like it. Nike should be sponsoring our podcast. Just do it.
Kaden Mattinson (46:43)
And they should be. They should be. But just do it. Take the steps.
Don't let the fear control you.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (46:54)
That's right. So if you had to sum up your entrepreneurial journey in just one word, what would that word be?
Kaden Mattinson (47:05)
Fire.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (47:06)
fire because the the mat that you are mad that just that fire under the belly
Kaden Mattinson (47:13)
The passion and the fire just keeps everything rolling.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (47:18)
Yeah, well, and I'm sure the new stories that you're hearing and it's like, okay, does it feel good that you're like, we continuously get validated of we're not alone, we're not alone, we're not alone?
Kaden Mattinson (47:31)
it does. It does. And then it's immediately followed up by holy crap.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (47:37)
Like, problem is bigger than we thought. And then if you like, you know, look into the future and go, my next chapter is going to be made up of this journey. What is the word that sums up that journey?
Kaden Mattinson (47:40)
Yep.
stages.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (47:57)
Stages? Alright, explain. Yeah.
Kaden Mattinson (48:00)
stages.
So I have spent, we've spent the last five years working with individual families. And so we're making an impact in individual homes. The next step is actually starting in three weeks is I just I was like, you know, doing this one on one is just not as effective anymore. And so we're going to start doing it in mass. I'm going to start start talking to public, you know, events.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (48:08)
Okay.
Yeah, we gotta do it at scale.
Kaden Mattinson (48:28)
start getting into schools, talking to students directly, start talking with parents of these kids and let them know that there is definitely hope out there.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (48:40)
Yeah, absolutely. You need to go on national stages in the mental health arena. Nami needs to know who you are if they don't already. Okay. I was like, do they know about you? You need to know.
Kaden Mattinson (48:46)
That's the goal. That's what we're working on. I'm starting.
Oh, they do. They know who I am.
As a matter of fact, I've applied to speak at three of their events and I've been denied for all three of their events because of my approach and because I'm not willing to be quiet.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (49:09)
Well, you, that's not right. Because that, because we shouldn't be in this band. They should know better. They need louder voices than.
Kaden Mattinson (49:17)
Yeah, there's
definitely a purpose behind it. And I understand their views, but I also understand the views of the families that we work with. And so, you know, it's working to, again, bridge that gap.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (49:32)
Yeah.
That's right. Amazing. So this is, you know, is there something that's like not on your resume or LinkedIn or whatever, but is there something our listeners would be surprised to learn about you or, you know?
Kaden Mattinson (49:53)
you know, I I've surprised a lot of people when I told them that because of this actually authored a book. And so I've got that book out of raising resilient children. And I had so many people that said, I wish there was a manual or a book out there that told me what to expect in treatment and what to expect with what the process could look like. Yeah. And so I wrote, I wrote that book and that is,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (50:15)
Just the roadmap.
Kaden Mattinson (50:23)
you know, a guide of sorts of this is kind of what options there are in the mental health field and what you could expect. And that the people that have read that book so far have sparked me to write the second book. So there's another book that'll come out in I'm hoping by March.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (50:31)
Yeah.
it what's that topic is just like part part do or is it a whole different like niche
Kaden Mattinson (50:47)
That one,
it's a similar book. The first book I figured out was, I understand things from a very professional level. I've spent a lot of time researching and understanding it. This book is called One Parent to Another, A Guide to the Mental Health System. This is, I got out of the parent, you know, out of the professional role and said, if I was a parent,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (51:02)
Okay.
Way relatable.
Right.
Kaden Mattinson (51:16)
This is how I would want it explained to me of what to expect. And so.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (51:20)
It's like
the what to expect when you're expecting. Well, this is the very similar and the and that's that's needed. Like I was on there going if I was going through this as a parent, I've got four kids. I've been very fortunate. They've been, you know, healthy and and we've had no, you know, we've had just normal kind of disciplinary whatever issues but.
Kaden Mattinson (51:24)
This is very, very similar.
And it.
Yes.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (51:46)
I can't eat, like I put myself in these shoes to go, I would want that. Like I would be thirsty for that. Like what questions should I be asking? Because that's where my mind goes. It's a spinning of like that why, why, why, why, why, what, what, How does this work?
Kaden Mattinson (51:54)
Yeah, yep.
And that's a map in there.
Yep. And that's
in there of like, you you get into this professional and you you get in front of the therapist and they're telling you, this is not diagnosable. Why is it not? And who do I talk to next? And that's in that book of like, you get denied, now here's the next step. Don't wait around, don't panic.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (52:11)
Right.
Bye.
Do you have a title for that book yet or is that gonna reveal?
Kaden Mattinson (52:30)
Yep,
that one is, that one is, that's the title of it is the one parent to another guide to the mental health. Yep. So.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (52:34)
Oh, the one pair. Okay,
well very good. Well my goodness, I'm just looking at the time. I tell you these things go by so fast. I say this every time. I'm amazed at how fast these converge. But you provided so much insight and your story and your journey is amazing. Before we go, where can people find out more about your organization, how to donate, how do they find you?
Kaden Mattinson (52:45)
They do.
So if you want to look into the organization directly, you can go to mendingmindsvillage.org. If you are looking for information on coaching, if you want somebody to work with you one-on-one to adjust your mindset, you want to book me for any of your stages, you can do that at kadenmattenson.com.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (53:23)
Very good. And we will tag you on all of this when this episode airs. So thank you for coming and coming out our show. This was fantastic.
Kaden Mattinson (53:33)
No, thank you so much. This has been a great conversation.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (53:35)
Yeah,
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