Speaker 1: We have to talk about charity.
Speaker 2: The fires are outrageous, The trauma is excruciating, The tensions
Speaker 2: are high, the emotions are so frayed, so raw, so tragic.
Speaker 2: You cannot understand what people are going with. You cannot
Speaker 2: imagine the decimation, the incineration, the ash, the paying mortgages
Speaker 2: on a furnace like it is. It is so outrageous
Speaker 2: that it's immeasurable. It is jarring. One day people had
Speaker 2: house pride, the next day they're homeless. This is not
Speaker 2: a celebrity crisis. This is not a billionaire's crisis. The
Speaker 2: media is clinging to the Paris Hilton Malibu dream house
Speaker 2: model when there are thousands of people who have nothing
Speaker 2: that are so in shock and zombies and you just
Speaker 2: have to really absorb that.
Speaker 1: And there are.
Speaker 2: I'm just going to say it, I'm just gonna say it,
Speaker 2: there are deceased animals and wildlife everywhere, pets everywhere. It
Speaker 2: is it is the financial, the emotional, the physical and
Speaker 2: mental health damage that's going to occur after this is
Speaker 2: the likes I don't think I've ever seen. It's just
Speaker 2: it's not like there's going to be a hurricane. There's
Speaker 2: a warning tape up your windows like it's not the same.
Speaker 2: And it also and I'm not comparing disasters, this is
Speaker 2: not Disasters are not a competitive sport. I've seen the
Speaker 2: worst of hurricanes. They are all horrendous. We are still
Speaker 2: in Paradise, we are still in Maui. We are still
Speaker 2: in North Carolina, and they've been trolling me, the North
Speaker 2: Carolina people because they too don't like seeing the celebrity
Speaker 2: headlines and they feel like they didn't get enough attention,
Speaker 2: and I'm going to give them attention. I just cannot
Speaker 2: be badger right now about a place that I used
Speaker 2: to live in that I know a lot of people
Speaker 2: who live in that has tremendously suffered. I have met
Speaker 2: people who have lost five homes among seventeen people. I
Speaker 2: have met special needs parents that are out on the street.
Speaker 2: I've met people who've been in four different homes on couches,
Speaker 2: being evacuated back to back. I've met people who have
Speaker 2: no they feel they never knew that they'd ever say
Speaker 2: I'm homeless.
Speaker 1: They can't say it out loud.
Speaker 2: You're talking to a group of people in a church
Speaker 2: and they have to truly say that they're homeless. But
Speaker 2: they still have to pay their mortgage, okay, and they
Speaker 2: have nothing. They don't have a suitcase. And I'm going
Speaker 2: to say this. It's not popular. I'll say it until
Speaker 2: I'm blue in the face. They need dignity and pride.
Speaker 2: Do not give them your old clothes. Do not clean
Speaker 2: out your closet. Dump it off somewhere, because I'm going
Speaker 2: to share you the cold, hard truth. It ends up
Speaker 2: in a dumpster, it ends up in a landfill. It
Speaker 2: is Oh, I don't care if you pretend you thought
Speaker 2: it was nice. It's a shirt you probably said you
Speaker 2: would painted, and you dumped it. You got rid of it,
Speaker 2: and it has to be it's not even if it's
Speaker 2: even new in tags, and it's not completely organized and merchandised.
Speaker 2: If you have to do it, which I don't suggest
Speaker 2: that you do, a you sell it this I do suggest. Sorry,
Speaker 2: If you have to do it with I don't, which
Speaker 2: I don't suggest that you do. You have it in
Speaker 2: individual bags that say men's small t shirts, women's sweatpants.
Speaker 1: But don't do it. Okay.
Speaker 2: They don't want old clothes. They used to have nice clothes.
Speaker 2: They don't want old clothes. They want their pride and
Speaker 2: dignity and be strong. We built a warehouse in a
Speaker 2: day that's the size of a small costco like structure,
Speaker 2: merchandized organized. It will be filled with every type of aid,
Speaker 2: from pets to babies, to children, to mattresses to building supplies,
Speaker 2: to hygiene to socks, to hydration packets, to cups, to beans,
Speaker 2: to food, to clothes, to anything somebody would need, to chargers,
Speaker 2: anything somebody would need in a crisis, and we will.
Speaker 2: We will be garnering other people's aid. We did this
Speaker 2: for Hurricane Maria. Other people raise a lot of aid
Speaker 2: and they don't know what to do with it. They
Speaker 2: get excited. Celebrities are coming to us now, Celebrities that
Speaker 2: have raised millions of dollars that don't know what to
Speaker 2: do with it. They will bring it to us because
Speaker 2: they trust us. They know that I am a business
Speaker 2: person and that we will seamlessly, efficiently economically distribute this
Speaker 2: aid and this money. Because go fund me people are
Speaker 2: raising gofundmes and they don't know what to do with it.
Speaker 2: They've gotten excited. They want everyone to donate. It's not
Speaker 2: as easy to run a charity as it looks on television,
Speaker 2: and not everyone is a business person, which means not
Speaker 2: everyone's a philanthropist, because philanthropy is business. So if you
Speaker 2: ever meet somebody who's touchy feely and not a business person,
Speaker 2: a cold, hard business person, I don't mean and they
Speaker 2: don't have a heart. And I don't mean that they
Speaker 2: are cold in their bedside manner. I mean you need
Speaker 2: to know that they are a business person without any hesitation.
Speaker 2: If someone is not a business person, they are not
Speaker 2: supposed to be running your money or your aid, because
Speaker 2: aid is also money. We have now raised approximately twenty
Speaker 2: million dollars in aid and money, and we helped a
Speaker 2: group morally by not demoralizing them and talking to them.
Speaker 2: I saw this group, I thought I was at a funeral.
Speaker 2: I was at a church, and it looked like a
Speaker 2: bunch of zombies. It really did traumatize And I sat
Speaker 2: down with them and they were yesterday they had a home,
Speaker 2: and today they're homeless. And they did not know what
Speaker 2: to do. They did not know where to move, they
Speaker 2: didn't know what. I don't mean physically, I mean their bodies,
Speaker 2: social security, dialysis, special needs, mental health, physical chronic illness.
Speaker 2: They literally couldn't move. And I applauded them for getting
Speaker 2: up and advocating for themselves and their families, coming and
Speaker 2: doing something that they feel lacks dignity. They're coming for
Speaker 2: what they feel as a handout. And one woman said
Speaker 2: to me, with tears in her eyes, I knew you
Speaker 2: would come, and it broke my heart. But I sat
Speaker 2: there and I said, you are advocating for your family,
Speaker 2: and the fact that you are here shows that you are.
Speaker 2: You are a survivor because you did something which you
Speaker 2: felt lacked pride, and it has tremendous pride because what's
Speaker 2: going to happen today is A. We're going to give
Speaker 2: you money to stay in a hotel for a week. B.
Speaker 2: We're going to give you essentials that you need.
Speaker 1: And they were like, but.
Speaker 2: We have to take things because people are giving things away,
Speaker 2: and what do we do.
Speaker 1: We can't put them anywhere.
Speaker 2: I'm like, you don't have to panic right now, because
Speaker 2: you don't have to go to a dumpster filled with
Speaker 2: clothes and pie and pick through. And they all nodded
Speaker 2: that it was demoralizing and that they want to have pride,
Speaker 2: and that the only thing that they come in here
Speaker 2: with is pride. That's the only thing they have left
Speaker 2: they have not a single item to their name, and
Speaker 2: in many cases not pets, and none of their friends
Speaker 2: have houses either. And I told them, when people ask you,
Speaker 2: and they nodded their heads, what can I do? I'm like,
Speaker 2: have a puppet show? What do you think you can do?
Speaker 2: I said, you tell them what you need. You don't
Speaker 2: get vague, and you tell them exactly what you need
Speaker 2: and how you need it. And there will be time
Speaker 2: for you to get the things that you need, because
Speaker 2: we're gonna be there for right now to restore your
Speaker 2: faith and give you some financial assistance for the rebuild,
Speaker 2: the physical rebuild, and also we relocate. So we're going
Speaker 2: to relocate you. We're going to help you find housing.
Speaker 2: But more importantly, you need to take a week right
Speaker 2: now to get your they said. Three of them said
Speaker 2: they hadn't slept in forty eight hours, like eyeballs open
Speaker 2: the whole time, watching their house burn to the ground,
Speaker 2: panic stricken, not knowing what to do, no id, no wallet, nothing,
Speaker 2: They did not think it was going to burn to
Speaker 2: the ground. Some of their areas have never ever had
Speaker 2: this happen before. It was complete and utter shock. So
Speaker 2: I said, you're gonna take a week, to sleep, to rest,
Speaker 2: to take care of yourself, to get yourself together, to
Speaker 2: be there for your family, to be grateful that you're alive.
Speaker 2: And then you're gonna pull yourself up fro your boot.
Speaker 2: You're gonna connect with this community. This is your family now.
Speaker 2: These people next to you came here like you. You're
Speaker 2: going to talk to them. You're going to share resources.
Speaker 2: This church will be your hub. This church will get
Speaker 2: you everyone's contact information. One of them said, I haven't
Speaker 2: smiled in a weak And more importantly than the money
Speaker 2: or the stuff or the aid or the suitcase or anything,
Speaker 2: they wanted to tell their story. They each told their story.
Speaker 2: They wanted someone to hug them. They wanted to know
Speaker 2: that somebody cared. They didn't want this to be a
Speaker 2: celebrity crisis either. They don't want to be at the
Speaker 2: bottom of the bin where everybody thinks it's billionaires and
Speaker 2: then their story is belittled, their story doesn't matter. So
Speaker 2: they walked out of there a different person because they
Speaker 2: have a community now, and this is going to be
Speaker 2: a very serious thing for people to rebuild, and they
Speaker 2: need their community, and they need their mental health, and
Speaker 2: they're going to need therapy, and a therapist reach out
Speaker 2: to me, and immediately I connected them because I want
Speaker 2: them to get online or free or this group is
Speaker 2: their therapy. Many people are loners like myself, and they
Speaker 2: stay home and there's going to be a mental health crisis.
Speaker 2: You mark my words. This is a tragedy. It is
Speaker 2: an apocalypse. So anybody you hear saying they can afford,
Speaker 2: stop it, because it's not true. Two thousand children at
Speaker 2: one of the church is completely displaced, no school, nothing,
Speaker 2: nothing to their name. Eighty nine year old woman losing
Speaker 2: their home like that, every story exists, cancer patient lose
Speaker 2: their home. I mean like it is horrendous. And it
Speaker 2: came on fast because I was on the phone with
Speaker 2: someone who said, I'm evacuated twenty minutes later. If they
Speaker 2: hadn't gotten out right that moment twenty minutes later was
Speaker 2: the people jumping out of the cars and the cars
Speaker 2: being incinerated or bulldozed, like it was complete chaos. And also,
Speaker 2: you today take five minutes and you decide in your
Speaker 2: mind you don't have to go get neurotic, But in
Speaker 2: your mind you go through your house and you say,
Speaker 2: these are the five things I would take. You can
Speaker 2: put it on a note, put it on your phone.
Speaker 2: These are the five things.
Speaker 1: I would take.
Speaker 2: Is it as safe as it? Documents? Is it art?
Speaker 2: Is it pictures? Is it jewelry? Is it something someone
Speaker 2: gave you? Is it a stuffed animal from your childhood?
Speaker 2: Whatever it is.
Speaker 1: Because people are going in every minute, they're like, wait,
Speaker 1: that's there. Oh my god, that's there. I forgot about that.
Speaker 2: Everything they have, they're accordion folder of bills, everything they
Speaker 2: were dealing with. Everything they have a blank slate. Think
Speaker 2: about the bills you have, the taxes you have to pay,
Speaker 2: the things you go look up, the things you have
Speaker 2: to go find. Let me go in there is it there?
Speaker 2: You know, where's the paperwork for that?
Speaker 1: It's gone.
Speaker 2: So it's just extremely different because it's ash.
Speaker 1: It is gone.
Speaker 2: When dead bodies need to never be recovered, they are burned.
Speaker 2: So these people's belongings are just not they are non existent.
Speaker 2: So if you want to donate wherever you donate, you
Speaker 2: donate to a business person. You do not have to
Speaker 2: donate to be strowing. You donate to whatever speaks to you.
Speaker 2: But you look at how much goes to the charity,
Speaker 2: and you could go do a deeper dive because we
Speaker 2: did a dive yesterday comparing us to a certain government
Speaker 2: and sees there was no one who was more lean, efficient,
Speaker 2: cost effective, immediate and zero waste and gets things done,
Speaker 2: stretches a dollar like you've never seen nobody.
Speaker 1: There's not one group that does that.
Speaker 2: So Bethany doc And if I sound aggressive, it's just
Speaker 2: because I'm just like I've seen a lot Bethany dot com,
Speaker 2: slash be Strong. Spencer and Heidie, Spencer and Heidi lost
Speaker 2: their home. I know Spencer. I like Spencer. I've texted
Speaker 2: with Spencer. I ran into him on the street. I
Speaker 2: acted and I felt like it was running into Lady Gaga.
Speaker 1: And honestly, I was early then.
Speaker 2: I was an early adapter because I ran into him
Speaker 2: like he was Lady Gaga and now Spencer and now
Speaker 2: Heidi's Lady Gaga. So I was texting him and he
Speaker 2: told me early on before it was on social media,
Speaker 2: that he lost his house, and I, you know, I
Speaker 2: said what did you take? And he said Berkins And
Speaker 2: I said you need you know? And I laughed because
Speaker 2: I mean that was the first thing he said was humor.
Speaker 2: So it's pretty much is going to be a foreshadowing
Speaker 2: to what I'm going to share with you if you
Speaker 2: don't already know it. And I said, you need anything,
Speaker 2: and he said, people will send things, which is also nice,
Speaker 2: Like I was ready to send him, you know, a
Speaker 2: lot of things. And I said, you want to stay
Speaker 2: in my house in the Hamptons and he's bogged down
Speaker 2: and I and he I just thought, oh my god,
Speaker 2: and they lost their house and it became real. And
Speaker 2: then he did this one post that I feel like
Speaker 2: was a tipping point. Yes, posting vide he lost his
Speaker 2: house was a tipping point. Yes, posting the in real
Speaker 2: time that it was burning down was was a tipping point.
Speaker 2: But I think when he held a drink and said
Speaker 2: and he hit a million followers, and he said, to
Speaker 2: think all I had, you know, I'm paraphrasing, to think
Speaker 2: all I had to do was have my house burned
Speaker 2: down to hit a million like he infused comedy at
Speaker 2: a very traumatic time, and then he infused emotion and
Speaker 2: cry like a baby when he single handedly, unilaterally, with
Speaker 2: the help of the entire community of TikTok, put his
Speaker 2: wife Heidi's album, which is fifteen years old, number one
Speaker 2: on iTunes in fourteen countries, and then you're watching this unfold,
Speaker 2: and you're watching this unfold on Instagram, and you're watching
Speaker 2: him then literally troll and bully people that he says
Speaker 2: need to be posting about it, and they're falling in
Speaker 2: the line and doing it. People that don't even like them.
Speaker 2: From the Hills people. He's shaded on the Hills people.
Speaker 2: You know he's talking about Alex Cooper. He's just Alex Earl.
Speaker 2: He's just saying, do it, and people are doing it.
Speaker 2: So the power of social media in a time of crisis,
Speaker 2: which I've discussed as it pertains to relief efforts, because
Speaker 2: he has said I want money, I want to be famous.
Speaker 2: I want to build my house back. We had nothing.
Speaker 2: We put all this into this album fifteen years old.
Speaker 2: I spent all this money on crystals. They burned to
Speaker 2: the ground. He started sobbing like a baby about in
Speaker 2: a matter of a week his house burnt down. And
Speaker 2: Heidi is doing Good Morning America and recording an album
Speaker 2: in a studio that's America, ladies and gentlemen. That's what
Speaker 2: people want to see. That's the opposite of the Kardashians
Speaker 2: in the superficial, which is the name of her album,
Speaker 2: Fame World. I'm not comparing that to the tragedy that
Speaker 2: I've seen with special needs children and poverty stricken people
Speaker 2: who've lost their homes. I'm saying, in the land of
Speaker 2: entertainment and in the land of pop culture superficiality, Heidi
Speaker 2: and Spencer took the ball and ran with it. Took
Speaker 2: the ball and ran with it, went viral all of
Speaker 2: it and congratulations it was.
Speaker 1: It's extraordinary, and I think that's all.
Speaker 2: And then North Carolina, Okay, in North Carolina, I'm being
Speaker 2: badgered about North Carolina. We sent many, many semi trucks
Speaker 2: filled with aid thousands of dollars to small businesses. That
Speaker 2: being said, it's not the celebrity crisis that's being marketed
Speaker 2: as a Hollywood Walk of Fame crisis as this is.
Speaker 2: And they are devastated, they are traumatized. They are on
Speaker 2: propane lines in the freezing cold weather and they are begging,
Speaker 2: and they are enraged by the media that they're ignored.
Speaker 2: They feel ignored. So I hear them. I am going
Speaker 2: to help them. I Am going to focus on what's
Speaker 2: going on there and find out where the problems lie.
Speaker 2: Is A state is a federal But most importantly, I'm
Speaker 2: going to say to them, please do not badger me,
Speaker 2: Please do not troll me. I am thinking about you,
Speaker 2: as I've said multiple times, and explain what we've done.
Speaker 2: I am not the federal and the state government. I'm
Speaker 2: not the government of North Carolina, and I'm not FEMA.
Speaker 2: I am a woman with a child, a business, and
Speaker 2: a platform and a very good gift of connecting and
Speaker 2: being a messenger and a businesswoman who knows how to
Speaker 2: run an operation and strategically delegate what I want. And
Speaker 2: I have delegated that I want some attention paid to
Speaker 2: North Carolina. And of course it's on my back, and
Speaker 2: it has to be my attention because otherwise it won't
Speaker 2: get the media attention. So I'm one person, and I
Speaker 2: haven't slept in two weeks, and I got off a
Speaker 2: red eye to see my daughter for a kiss and
Speaker 2: a hug before she went to school this morning. So
Speaker 2: I will do the very best that I can. But
Speaker 2: I am only one person, and it is a tragedy
Speaker 2: all around.
Speaker 1: It is not.
Speaker 2: Comparing tragedies is not a competitive sport. We cannot compare tragedies.
Speaker 2: I can give some context based on other tragedies, because
Speaker 2: I've seen many, and I've been all over the world
Speaker 2: to see them. But I am proud of what I've
Speaker 2: built and what we do. And no one is more lean,
Speaker 2: cost effective and efficient, no one, And there is none
Speaker 2: run by a better business person themselves themselves. People invest
Speaker 2: and people donate too, but there is I don't know.
Speaker 2: I've not met anyone who's a marketer business lean, efficient, economical,
Speaker 2: streamlined human being like myself.
Speaker 1: That's it. And I've used to produce multimillion.
Speaker 2: Dollar events and I always had the best bottom line
Speaker 2: of anyone because I know how to stretch a dollar.
Speaker 2: And my partner Michael, has showed me opposite compared, and
Speaker 2: it's all public information, but against government entities that we
Speaker 2: do so much more with a dollar than them, not
Speaker 2: like a little like hundreds and thousands and millions of dollars.
Speaker 2: More So, you donate a dollar, you find out where
Speaker 2: it's going specifically and how it's being stretched because you
Speaker 2: donate to be strong Bethany dot com slash be strong,
Speaker 2: it's one hundred percent goes to the effort. But not
Speaker 2: even that, then how do we spend the money. It
Speaker 2: could be one hundred percent goes to the effort, because
Speaker 2: I could buy the most overpriced stupid shit, or do
Speaker 2: it in a dumb way, or give it to people
Speaker 2: that aren't vetted like trust and believe that one hundred
Speaker 2: percent is maximizing your dollar, maximizing. I saw the numbers
Speaker 2: yesterday on a spreadsheet. It is staggering what people waste,
Speaker 2: not meaning the percent and ninety four percent goes to
Speaker 2: hear three but not that meaning how they spend the
Speaker 2: money and how it gets wasted.
Speaker 1: So just know that there is nobody who stretches.
Speaker 2: A dollar like us. And time we're first and we're last.
Speaker 2: We're first and we're last. We're still in paradise, Maui,
Speaker 2: North Carolina, Ukraine were last.
Speaker 1: So restore faith, rebuild communities, relocate. Bye.