Speaker 1: Everybody. It's Bill Courtney with an army of normal folks.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Shop Talk number fifty seven. Welcome into the shop.
Speaker 1: Hey Alex Ada, I'm doing great. Bill. You're looking at
Speaker 1: anything particular, just hanging around taking up space.
Speaker 2: I need to buy some cigars before I go on
Speaker 2: a two week trip.
Speaker 1: I thought that that that's a good call. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a good call. They're back in the humidor. You can
Speaker 1: pick about in a minute today, Everyboddy, we're Shop Talk
Speaker 1: number fifty seven. We're going to talk about experimenting with
Speaker 1: local chapters, and we hope to inspire and encourage some
Speaker 1: of you guys to get involved. So Alex and I
Speaker 1: are going to have a little chat in front of
Speaker 1: you guys with talking about experimenting with local chapters, an
Speaker 1: idea that I think some of you might be interested in.
Speaker 1: We'll do that right after these brief messages from our
Speaker 1: general sponsors. Everybody, Welcome back to the Shop number fifty seven,
Speaker 1: experimenting with local chapters. As everybody knows that listens to regularly,
Speaker 1: Alex Cortez, our producer, is a wonderful guy and he
Speaker 1: does a beautiful job preparing me for all the interviews
Speaker 1: and doing all the work and getting all the guests
Speaker 1: into a studio here Memphis and all that we do.
Speaker 1: But he's also kind of nuts, and you are your
Speaker 1: little nut. And he has come up with an idea
Speaker 1: that seems to be getting some traction with a lot
Speaker 1: of listeners, and so we're going to toss it out
Speaker 1: there for some of you to consider as well. So
Speaker 1: shop Talk number fifty seven, Alex experimenting with local chapters.
Speaker 1: What in God's green earth that's going between your ears?
Speaker 2: I hate these kind of episodes where I have to
Speaker 2: talk a lot, but oh, bless your here we go,
Speaker 2: you know, not everyone's wont an oscar and is you know,
Speaker 2: a paid speaker and like does yeah?
Speaker 1: But I keep getting these emails about how people feel
Speaker 1: sorry for you because I pick on you too much.
Speaker 1: So now's your redemption time? Oh man?
Speaker 2: All right? So, as you guys know, most of our
Speaker 2: impact to date, it's been by people listening to the podcast,
Speaker 2: consuming the content on social media, our email list, and
Speaker 2: then deciding to take action on your own. But what
Speaker 2: if we can do more than that too? And so
Speaker 2: the idea is to launch local chapters where Army members
Speaker 2: can get together in a community and take action together.
Speaker 2: And if some folks are probably familiar with, there's been
Speaker 2: a huge decline of civic clubs like this in the country.
Speaker 2: I mean, I was going to.
Speaker 1: Say, it almost feels like the Optimist Club or the
Speaker 1: Moose Club or something. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I made Rotary, Lions Club, Lions all these yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean, we're not trying to do exactly what everybody
Speaker 2: else has done, So that's not you know, the point
Speaker 2: of it too, and bigger picture in the country. Some
Speaker 2: people probably know about Robert Putnam's book Bowling Alone. Have
Speaker 2: you ever actually read it? Bill, No, you need to,
Speaker 2: though it very much relates to I know, I know
Speaker 2: you got a lot on your play right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we can't talk about that on the air.
Speaker 1: Don't care, but go ahead mister Putnham's book.
Speaker 2: His idea was, we used to be in all these
Speaker 2: bowling leagues together, and now we are not. We bowl alone,
Speaker 2: and the decline of associations in America like Alexis to Tulkville,
Speaker 2: you know, talked about a democracy in America, So having
Speaker 2: these local chapters can reinvigorate that. But what I think
Speaker 2: would be really cool is, you know, imagine like here
Speaker 2: in Memphis is take an example, and you have all
Speaker 2: these army members here, what if we got together and
Speaker 2: did stuff together once a month, once a month.
Speaker 1: And maybe it maybe chose like a story of one
Speaker 1: of our guests that we highlight and once a month
Speaker 1: their body meets and then they get together and do
Speaker 1: one of those things.
Speaker 2: So I got a whole plan here. Now you're just
Speaker 2: riffing off the cuff and I'm on huge. I know
Speaker 2: you're right though. Yeah, that's good? Is that right? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I mean I'll give you a fun example. So two
Speaker 2: months ago Ben and Jess Owen we featured on the podcast.
Speaker 2: They are taking this huge abandoned building and if you've
Speaker 2: heard about this, and they're making a new recovery center. No,
Speaker 2: it's like a for.
Speaker 1: Everybody listening if you hadn't heard the episode. These guys
Speaker 1: were addicts and they have now started buying the very
Speaker 1: trap houses that they were doing drugs in and all
Speaker 1: nefarious kind of activities, and they're turning them into hope houses.
Speaker 2: Hope from dope houses to hope houses.
Speaker 1: So what you're saying now, they bought a whole building.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So it's it's basically and they're being given it,
Speaker 2: and they still got to raise money and stuff. But
Speaker 2: it's like a huge medical complex. It's been abandoned for
Speaker 2: like ten years in Memphis, in South Memphis, no kid, Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's really cool. And so they had a clean up
Speaker 2: day because it's been abandoned for ten years, and I
Speaker 2: went and there was like one hundred and fifty people
Speaker 2: there on a Saturday cleaning it up. And honestly, the
Speaker 2: energy you felt doing that with all these people who
Speaker 2: feel like part of the Actually Ben calls it the
Speaker 2: Owen Army. He's got his own, you know, army of
Speaker 2: normal folks going on. Now.
Speaker 1: I hope you're listening. Come up with your own stuff.
Speaker 1: It's ridiculous.
Speaker 2: But anyway, the energy you felt there was amazing. I mean,
Speaker 2: and so what if we could do that in communities
Speaker 2: across the country. So we're actually thinking about calling that
Speaker 2: type of thing army activations. So you have these army
Speaker 2: activation days that maybe you'd start with with once an
Speaker 2: order and once a month.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then maybe every week when you do something
Speaker 1: you go to boot camp.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, all right, I don't know, maybe not, but
Speaker 2: maybe not.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Most of us be a horrible idea most of us
Speaker 2: have jobs's yeah, that's sure. Yeah, all right. So the
Speaker 2: second thing we're especially excited about is giving circles. So
Speaker 2: do you remember the with Wendy Steele's episode with an
Speaker 2: Impact one hundred? So the way I put it is,
Speaker 2: say you give ten dollars to something, Say you give
Speaker 2: one hundred dollars to something. So you give a thousand
Speaker 2: dollars or something, even ten thousand dollars to something, you
Speaker 2: probably really aren't making that much of an impact. You
Speaker 2: have no idea where the money's going. You're basically just
Speaker 2: giving it to their existing stuff. You don't really get
Speaker 2: any reporting back. But if you can make one hundred
Speaker 2: thousand dollars gifts, you can actually do something pretty transformative,
Speaker 2: you know, with it. And so what if there was
Speaker 2: a whole army of normal folks who got together and
Speaker 2: each gave ten dollars a month and collectively can make
Speaker 2: one hundred thousand dollars gifts in their community, And you
Speaker 2: basically would have all the nonprofits get together and pitch
Speaker 2: their ideas on what to do with one hundred thousand dollars,
Speaker 2: and then.
Speaker 1: Each donor gets to vote on where the money goes.
Speaker 2: Exactly, and some people can still give a thousand dollars
Speaker 2: in the giving circle or ten thousand dollars, but setting
Speaker 2: an even lower threshold of ten dollars a month and
Speaker 2: really building this grassroots.
Speaker 1: Army, that's kind of interesting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's pretty exciting.
Speaker 1: As being giver, you get a vote on the proxy
Speaker 1: of what that pool of money raised goes to do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you can choose from any of our guests things
Speaker 1: or come up with something else.
Speaker 2: And as normal folks, you get to do something really
Speaker 2: transformational in your community too.
Speaker 1: It's cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So we especially see that as a big area
Speaker 2: given you know, so the models out there in the country,
Speaker 2: there's people doing this. But if you go on the
Speaker 2: street and I've tested this out, like ninety percent of
Speaker 2: people have never heard of giving circles.
Speaker 1: I've never heard of them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well you mean you did do an episode on
Speaker 2: a note.
Speaker 1: Before we steel, and I'd never heard or even considered
Speaker 1: or fathomed those things. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And I love Wendy's model too, But also it's you know,
Speaker 2: it's only for you know, women only, so we're thinking
Speaker 2: here is you know, obviously you know, including men too,
Speaker 2: and setting an even lower threshold rather than the thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: You know, people can joined at ten dollars a month,
Speaker 2: so you too too.
Speaker 1: By having local chapters, you hopefully inspire a giving circle
Speaker 1: inside each chapter, or maybe all of the chapters cumulative
Speaker 1: are a giving circle.
Speaker 2: Each chapter will have their own giving circle.
Speaker 1: Okay, each chapter has on giving circle. And then each
Speaker 1: chapter meets once a month like the Optimist Club or whatever.
Speaker 1: And their meeting is engaging in the community once a month,
Speaker 1: and it's not the same thing every month. It's a
Speaker 1: different thing that they pick. And obviously they've got a
Speaker 1: lot of episodes of an army and normal vote to
Speaker 1: come up with that, dissipate from or come up with
Speaker 1: their own.
Speaker 2: So another part of it that we're thinking about too,
Speaker 2: is called we're calling imitation and innovation. So think about
Speaker 2: all these models that we featured that are still not
Speaker 2: in most cities. So back on my feet. The Homeless
Speaker 2: Running Clubs is still not in Memphis. In Heavenly Piece
Speaker 2: is still not in Memphis. I mean Axe Housing that
Speaker 2: you're excited about the episode is actually not out yet,
Speaker 2: still not in Memphis. And so there's all these models
Speaker 2: that are out there that are still missing from most
Speaker 2: of our communities, and what if we can come together
Speaker 2: as local army members and figure out how can we
Speaker 2: bring these models here in these local chapters exactly.
Speaker 1: That's really cool, I do.
Speaker 2: And we were thinking about potlucks too, as we've recently
Speaker 2: talked about in shot Lucks.
Speaker 1: Potlucks just have to be part of every chapter, I know,
Speaker 1: because it's awesome. Yeah, referring back to an earlier shot deal. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Mentorship matching is something else we're thinking about too, So
Speaker 2: trying to set a cultural norm that each of us
Speaker 2: should be mentoring at least one other person you know
Speaker 2: out there, and we can help facilitate that through a
Speaker 2: lot of our local partners.
Speaker 1: So do you envision like these chapters to have like
Speaker 1: a president and a secretary and a treasurer and it's
Speaker 1: like a club, but it's an army and normal folks
Speaker 1: club and specifically getting together to do these four or
Speaker 1: five initiatives you've talked about.
Speaker 2: That's right, Bill. We really what you really need, though,
Speaker 2: to do any of these things is one strong leader.
Speaker 2: I mean, there needs to be somebody who really owns
Speaker 2: it in a community and drives it right. I mean, your
Speaker 2: Memphis you're running you know, big business. You know, I'm
Speaker 2: in Oxford, Like, it can't be us from a distance
Speaker 2: really running this. There needs to be someone in a
Speaker 2: community who's really going to I mean you know this
Speaker 2: from coaching too, right, I mean you need somebody who's
Speaker 2: going to lead the thing, you know at the end
Speaker 2: of the day.
Speaker 1: And do the work and recruit and grow it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but you can see how if you got it off
Speaker 1: the ground and grow it and you got fifty hundred
Speaker 1: people together from each community. You're on a hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty people with each community, then you actually could do
Speaker 1: some really good stuff and you're investing basically a day.
Speaker 2: And you can start you know small and scale it
Speaker 2: over time. Right, So you start with the giving you
Speaker 2: know circle, And what's cool about that too, is uh,
Speaker 2: you know, so many people are busy, but everybody can
Speaker 2: get ten dollars a month, right, So you could make
Speaker 2: this impact even just doing that. So even if you
Speaker 2: just started the giving circle and did you know an
Speaker 2: army activation once a quarter, I mean, start small and
Speaker 2: then you can build in you know, more of these
Speaker 2: things over time.
Speaker 1: Can the local chapter identification cards that everybody's gonna have
Speaker 1: to carry you have my picture on.
Speaker 2: It, and that seems a little arrogant, but no, we.
Speaker 1: Would destroy it before it ever started. Who was to
Speaker 1: carry out a card with my bug on it?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're fat, redheaded. So anyway, we have four people
Speaker 2: already who are interested in doing this in their communities,
Speaker 2: but we love to hear from more folks. If you're
Speaker 2: interested and I'd love to connect on it. We're probably
Speaker 2: going to start with three you know this years, will
Speaker 2: have to choose that, but hopefully it's ten next year,
Speaker 2: and then hopefully it just keeps scaling to one point,
Speaker 2: there's hundreds of these chapters around the country.
Speaker 1: It's literally growing the army, and each chapter is a
Speaker 1: little platoon of the army. And you know, I could
Speaker 1: I could see this eventually growing into having an annual
Speaker 1: convention where aybody from the chapters come and they share
Speaker 1: best practices and ideas and how this bottom up service works.
Speaker 2: And yeah, it makes service more fun too. I mean,
Speaker 2: you feel like family doing this together, like part of
Speaker 2: something I'm sure as you felt, you know, coaching and
Speaker 2: part of Sigma Nu fraternity, right, I mean, those bonds
Speaker 2: are there's nothing like it.
Speaker 1: No, they're they're that's awesome. So shot talk number fifty seven. Everybody,
Speaker 1: We're going to start experimenting with local chapters. And if
Speaker 1: that sounds interesting to you, I e. You want to
Speaker 1: start and lead one or just join one.
Speaker 2: Email Alex right Army at normal Folks dot us.
Speaker 1: Why is it not Alex at normal Folks on us.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I've had other email addresses from you know,
Speaker 2: my day jobs.
Speaker 1: But you can email me and I'll send it to them,
Speaker 1: or just email Army and normal Folks dot us and
Speaker 1: you can carbon copy me or leave me out of
Speaker 1: it whatever. But these these local chapters or sound like
Speaker 1: something Alex is pretty pretty intent on creating.
Speaker 2: And it makes a lot of sense, makes Bill, that's
Speaker 2: nice here to say, Yeah, it really does.
Speaker 1: And look at all the talking you did. And I
Speaker 1: didn't even make fun of you once.
Speaker 2: I think you did, did I? Yeah, you said I
Speaker 2: was weird at the beginning.
Speaker 1: Weird, but I'm weird too, weird and goofy and all
Speaker 1: those things actually are in terms of endearment.
Speaker 2: I actually like to say we're all messed up in
Speaker 2: our own way. There's a more vulgar version of that
Speaker 2: that I say too.
Speaker 1: A bit. I'm going through. I'm messed up as a
Speaker 1: soup sandwich, so nobody gets it over on me. So
Speaker 1: i'd said, everybody, shop Talk number fifty seven. We're going
Speaker 1: to experiment with local chapters and listen, feels like something
Speaker 1: you might want to be a part of, something you
Speaker 1: might want to lead, something. You've got a group of
Speaker 1: friends that you could get together and start one email
Speaker 1: Alex at Army at normal folks dot us. Share this
Speaker 1: information with friends, and let's see if we can't turn
Speaker 1: this little podcast, this little movement we got into tangible
Speaker 1: gatherings of people making impacts in their community. That's shop
Speaker 1: Talk number fifty seven. Everybody, let's think about joining on
Speaker 1: local chapters and actually moving the needle and having impact
Speaker 1: anything else.
Speaker 2: That's it. Let's wrap this baby up, all right.
Speaker 1: We'll see y'all next week.