WEBVTT - MAC HARMAN: Giving Back with Balsam Hill 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:09.200 You know. There, for a while where I live, we 0:00:09.400 --> 0:00:13.119 thought summer would never arrive, And here we are in 0:00:13.240 --> 0:00:19.200 July with Independence Day celebrations already behind us. Sometimes time 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:24.000 moves so sluggishly, and yet sometimes it just zooms by. 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:27.800 I bet you can't argue with me there right Hey, 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:32.519 did you know right now it's Christmas in July? That 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:37.640 According to mc harmon, founder of Balsom Hill, the company 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:40.239 you hear a lot about if you listen to my 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:43.920 radio program or follow me on social media, Mac has 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:47.440 had an entrepreneurial mind since he was a little kid. 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:52.839 If the stories are true, he started selling old tennis 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:56.440 balls as doggy chew toys to his neighbors when he 0:00:56.480 --> 0:01:00.240 was only three years old. We're gonna get to the 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:04.520 bottom of that. But it's his realistic folk Christmas trees 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:08.240 he's known for these days. And it's all because Mac, 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:11.759 who grew up with the real deal with real Christmas trees, 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:16.720 saw his first artificial tree up close and personal when 0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:21.440 he visited his in laws during the holidays. By all accounts, 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:25.440 it was anything but realistic looking, but it was necessary 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:30.319 because his brother in law's allergies made a real tree impossible. 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:37.039 Mac was inspired and the rest is history. Well, no, 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:39.840 we're not going to leave it there. In fact, Mac 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:43.000 is joining me today to talk about Christmas trees, to 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:46.840 talk about being an entrepreneur, to talk about when you 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:50.080 have been fortunate and life has gone well for you, 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:54.160 how vitally important it is that you give back. That 0:01:54.320 --> 0:01:56.880 is the real reason I wanted to have this conversation 0:01:57.360 --> 0:02:01.280 because a lot of people don't know just how generous 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:07.240 this man is or how many projects he has paid 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:10.720 it forward into, if you will, how many projects he 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:15.720 is blessed. I'm looking forward to today's chat, but first 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:17.840 let me catch you up on another one of my 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:23.440 favorite podcast sponsors. With the arrival of Warmer Weather, I 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:27.000 want to welcome back one of my favorite podcast sponsors, 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:33.000 Laura Geller Beauty. They have the perfect summer essentials that 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:37.160 include three of my favorites. 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A lot of times 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:26.920 on this podcast, Mac, we have you know, artists or 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:31.680 authors and the woman that you just met off the air, 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:34.600 who is our podcast director. She she asked me, She said, 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:37.560 is there anything you would like to see or you 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:39.560 would like me to be doing when we line up 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:41.760 these interviews. I said, you know, I don't care who 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:43.560 it is. I just want to talk to people who 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:47.280 are passionate about changing the world, making the world a 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:51.000 better place, especially right now when everybody seems to be 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:54.360 about dividing the world and making everybody angry. I said, 0:03:54.400 --> 0:03:57.640 I just I want this podcast to be a place, 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:02.960 a safe place people can come and get inspired. And 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:06.880 whether you're you know, on stage singing songs or writing 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:10.560 books or whatever, if you are using your talents and 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:14.560 gifts and skills and you're in. Goal is let's make 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:16.839 this world a better place. Not just let's make money, 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:19.080 but let's make this world a better place than I 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:22.080 want to. I want to talk about that. And she, 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:26.240 you know, called me back and she said, how about 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:29.560 mac Harmon? And I said, who's that? And she said, 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:32.560 you know Balsom Hill. And I'm like, I know Balsom Hill. 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:35.520 They've been part of my show for almost a decade now. 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:38.080 And she said, well, he's the guy who started it. 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:42.760 And I already knew about your generous spirit because you 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:45.880 have blessed Point Hope, the charity I started almost twenty 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:49.119 years ago, so much. And and then she started giving 0:04:49.120 --> 0:04:53.240 me more information about all the different different ways that 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:57.200 you connect with people and do good things. And so 0:04:57.400 --> 0:05:01.200 here we are. It's great to be here. It's Christmas 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:03.800 in July. We're gonna talk about trees. We're going to 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:06.400 talk about how you became the King of Christmas trees. 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:09.200 By the way, I happen to like your florals as 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:11.680 much as your trees. But and then we're going to 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:15.839 talk about how you have used your success to be 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:20.120 a blessing and make the world a better place. Sounds great. 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:25.280 Let's get started. Okay, so you're young, you are really young, 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:29.920 but you've been an entrepreneur. You've had that entrepreneurial spirit. 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:34.080 It sounds like your whole life. Yeah. My first so 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:37.520 I don't remember, but my first entrepreneurial activity when I 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:40.000 was three years old. My dad used to play tennis 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:41.840 on Wednesday nights. And I guess, after you hit a 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:45.440 tennis ball enough times, it's considered unfit for tennis, and 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:47.800 but it's a great dog toy. And so I loaded 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:52.039 up my trusty radio Flyer wagon with some of his 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:55.440 old tennis balls and sold them to neighbors to use 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:58.400 as fetch toys with her dogs. So my parents tell 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:00.240 me about this. That one I don't remember, but that 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:03.000 was at age three. But my my second venture, as 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:06.039 a side note, was at a birthday party. I received 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:09.359 a packet of gourd seeds, which I planted and grew gourds. 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:12.320 And anyone who's grown zucchini or gourds knows those things 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:14.159 grow like weeds. I mean, you can't feel a lot 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:17.680 of zucchini plants. You can't give those things away. I try, 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:20.320 I try. I like I give them to people. I 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:23.440 leave them on the hood of their car. If the 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:26.080 car's unlocked and it's somebody I know, I'll open the 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:29.000 door and just load up the driver's seat with zucchini. 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:32.400 You know I try. Well, I'll tell you my most 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:35.760 the most recent time I moved. I can't get zucchini 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:37.640 to grow in my garden. And that's when I realized 0:06:37.680 --> 0:06:39.440 I must have a problem with the soil, because if 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:41.719 you can't get zucchini to grow, you've got real problems. 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:44.680 But yeah, if you can't grow zucchini, that soil needs 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:47.840 to be just ripped out and replaced with compost. That's 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:50.040 that's how we learned. But anyway, with these gourds, I mean, 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:52.320 they're even more useless things are They even harder to 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:54.400 give away than zucchini. But I did try to sell 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:57.120 them on a little stand I built in my front yard. 0:06:57.120 --> 0:06:59.320 I learned a lot of business lessons from that. One 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:02.400 it's really hard to sell something no one wants. And two, 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:05.040 when you're when you're selling something on a dead ends 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:08.400 called a sack that has mostly folks that that leave 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:10.560 their house once a week, it's really really hard to 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:13.120 generate traffic. So those were two of my earliest lessons 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:15.680 in business. At age four, well, I would say you 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:20.360 applied that well to Balsom Hill because you guys create 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:25.720 something everybody almost everybody wants, and you figured out really 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:28.640 clever marketing way so you don't actually need foot traffic 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:32.680 into a store. It's it's worked out really well for us. 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:34.680 You know, we've been so blessed to build this business. 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:36.880 I think part of it was right time, right place 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:40.679 coming along. We started in two thousand six when people 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:43.160 were turning to the Internet, and you know, it seemed 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:45.960 crazy to me and I actually started the company as 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:49.200 a side project. Um, it wasn't. It didn't intend for 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:52.000 it to become what it did. And I really think 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:54.560 if I had thought it was going to be something 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:57.120 I did for the next now almost twenty years, I 0:07:57.200 --> 0:07:59.360 maybe wouldn't have started it because there are all these 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:02.000 reasons that maybe it didn't make sense. How do you 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:06.360 sell something that's more expensive and looks more realistic online 0:08:06.400 --> 0:08:08.960 when people can't touch and feel it. Why do you 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:11.920 sell a product that last twenty years? Um, and most 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:14.880 people have one or two of them. Um, it's you know, 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:16.600 there's a bunch of reasons. I think it wasn't a 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:19.640 great business, but um I started anyway, and we've been 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:22.000 so blasted how it's been able to bring joy to 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:25.320 so many people's lives. Okay, so backstory. You're an only 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:27.400 child who grew up in a family that always had 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:31.480 real trees. That's right, that's right. I don't think in 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:34.040 all the times I've talked to folks over this, I've 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:36.440 ever told this story, Tolila, So your your listeners are 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:39.560 gonna get the real story. Um, I grew up with 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:42.840 real trees. We'd go to a nursery where they were precut, 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:44.960 and we'd go to the tree lot and pick them out. 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:47.640 These trees were on display. We did it every year. 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:50.560 It was a great tradition. But one year my parents 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:53.080 thought that we should have the experience of going to 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:56.880 the you know, wonderful family tree farm where you do 0:08:56.960 --> 0:08:59.160 kind of the sleigh ride and the hot chocolate and 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:03.720 the candy cane, which is awesome. And I love this, 0:09:03.840 --> 0:09:06.959 by the way, people of this misconception, because I'm at 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:09.839 Balsom Hill. I don't love real trees. I love real trees, 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:12.840 and that experience is the best. And I think every 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:15.600 every kid who celebrates Christmas, I hope gets a chance 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:18.120 to go out and and cut down a tree on 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:19.800 a tree farm. By the way, they should come back 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:22.840 and decorate it with Balsom hill things. But so here's 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:25.600 here's the real story. I grew up in northeastern Ohio, 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:28.960 so Cleveland, Ohio. We went out way past the suburbs 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:31.680 to a tree farm and we cut the tree down. 0:09:31.920 --> 0:09:35.319 And I remember it was a really cold day. It 0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:38.040 was snowing, and I remember my dad and I being 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:41.920 on the ground with the with the band saw underneath 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:44.640 the tree cutting it. We got all all cold and 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:46.959 wet and everything, and it was a great experience. I 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:49.600 remember thinking afterwards, like, I'm really glad we did this, 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:51.520 and I hope we go back to the nursery and 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:55.440 pick the tree out next year. That's the true story. 0:09:55.480 --> 0:09:58.040 I've never shared before that that it was a great experience. 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:00.840 Now I have replicated that experien it's with my kids. 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:04.240 I live in California now, and how do you replicate 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:07.240 that in California you can't get snow. There's no snow, 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:09.199 there's no cold, there's no lying on the ground and 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:12.880 getting cold and wet exactly. Well. The other challenge we 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:16.040 have in California is, in all honesty, the only species 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:18.400 of Christmas tree that grows well in California is a 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:21.400 Douglas fur and the Douglas for many people love it, 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:24.640 so I don't want to belittle it. They're amazing trees 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:28.160 from a Christmas tree standpoint. They have poor needle retention, 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:31.480 so they're they're the less expensive tree on the West 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:34.160 Coast and the one that the needles come off the soonest. 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:37.760 But that that's what we have here in California. And 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:40.360 and we went to this farm, and in California is 0:10:40.360 --> 0:10:41.880 a lot of people and not a lot of Christmas 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:44.360 tree farms, and so they get picked over pretty quickly. 0:10:44.400 --> 0:10:47.160 And so we ended up going to this incredibly steep 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:50.160 slope to cut our tree down because that's where there 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:53.080 were still some good looking trees. And we got at 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:55.920 home and set it up and realized that because it 0:10:55.920 --> 0:10:58.480 had grown on a super steep slope, all the branches 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:01.360 were really lopsided, and one side of the tree had 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:03.560 branches two ft lower than the other side of the tree. 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:05.400 So that was that was a good there's a good 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:07.760 experience for me as a tree designer to know how 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:10.920 nature compensates with things. Well, did you just turn it 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:15.680 against a wall? So that yeah, the lopsided limbs go down. 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:20.000 Absolutely all the tricks. We got all the tricks here, 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:23.760 We got all the tricks. Well. I have been a 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:29.200 die hard, I mean die hard live tree person. And 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:33.080 then probably twenty years ago, discovered that my daughter was 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:39.480 allergic to real Christmas trees. So we discovered flocked trees, 0:11:40.080 --> 0:11:44.880 because when you get a good flocked tree, it locks 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:48.199 in all the allergens and she wouldn't have such a 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:52.480 bad reaction. And so we discovered a guy named Tony. 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:55.760 Tony had a fruit stand during the summer and then 0:11:55.800 --> 0:11:57.760 in the winter he would open up and had a 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:00.960 Christmas tree stand, and Tony would save like the best 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:05.640 tree and flock it for us, and we would you know, 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:08.520 drive to Tony's, but we would also go out and 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:10.520 cut a tree and then just put it out in 0:12:10.520 --> 0:12:13.720 the front yards because the kids love the hot coco 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:18.120 and the you know, dogs and the the whole experience. 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:24.680 But we started working with you guys, and my podcast 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:29.079 producer was taking pictures of me decorating the Balsom Hill 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:31.959 tree a couple of years ago, and I said, oh 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:36.840 my god, this is so beautiful. I'm putting it in 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:40.319 the house and I'm not I'm I'm proud to say 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:43.640 I'm not going back. I'll take him out, we'll cut 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:45.600 a tree, we'll put it in the front yard. But 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:49.880 one of my favorite parts of my job is hearing 0:12:49.880 --> 0:12:52.800 the stories and and a lot of the touching ones 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:57.120 are from parents who got a Balesome hill tree. They 0:12:57.160 --> 0:12:58.800 always had a real tree, and they got a Balsom 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:02.280 Hill tree the year their youngest went to college. And 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:04.400 they write and they're like, we wanted to do this 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:06.800 because it just was easier for us, but they really 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:09.439 wanted to get the tree, and we got your tree, 0:13:09.679 --> 0:13:12.520 and they've now gone back to school and they never 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:15.560 noticed the whole time. I always get a few of 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:18.480 those notes every year. Um and and it's you know, 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:20.360 if we can if we can provide some joy and 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:23.800 convenience to folks and let them spend more time decorating 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:25.680 the tree in less time with some of the other 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:28.560 aspects of cutting the trunk off or whatever it might be, 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:31.199 watering the tree, that's great. But at the end of 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:34.320 the day, I love I'm an equal opportunity tree person, 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:38.199 so I love all kinds of Christmas trees and just 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:41.800 hope people celebrate Christmas with Christmas trees. So how did 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:45.120 you start? How did you go from the business that 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:48.280 you were in, your father's business, where you're running your 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:50.760 family business when you decided I'm going to become the 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:54.839 Christmas tree guy. Yeah, So my story as I ended 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:58.679 up running my dad's small family business because he unfortunately 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:01.640 passed away when I was in early twenties and it 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:04.040 was my mom's main asset, and so I ended up 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:06.640 running that business. Um I thought for just a few 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:09.800 months or a year, but it took seven years before 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:11.920 we were able to transition it to new ownership. And 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:15.160 so while I was running that, I attended business school 0:14:15.200 --> 0:14:18.120 And it was interesting you mentioned changing the world because 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:21.480 the business school attended Stanford the motto has changed the world, 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:23.800 and really it's a collection of people who want to 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:25.440 go out and make the world a better place and 0:14:25.640 --> 0:14:29.000 in so many different facets. But I never thought that 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:31.440 my way to change the world would be through through 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:35.120 Christmas trees. But I did decide, I did rediscover my 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:38.960 interest in being an entrepreneur and ended up starting Balsom 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:42.840 Hill to two solid official Christmas trees. Because I had 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:45.960 married into my wife's family and my brother in law 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:48.440 had an allergy as well just like your daughter. And 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:51.840 so they had always had an artificial tree, and my 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:55.320 in law has had one, I think from probably ninety 0:14:55.360 --> 0:14:58.080 five or something from from Kmart or something like that, 0:14:58.160 --> 0:15:00.520 and it in, you know, two th and in five, 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:03.080 a thirty year old artificial Christmas tree was not really 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:08.880 needle retention. Probably wasn't the best that you know, what 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:11.400 do you wish I have? Though? My grandparents had one 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:15.560 of those silver and blue Christmas trees. I love their 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:17.560 little and they had it on a tabletop because ground 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:19.680 was like, yeah, we're not dragging a tree in and out. 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:24.280 But that silver and blue Christmas tree pretty pretty epically 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:28.320 sixties cool. Did you have the light, the rotating light 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:31.360 as well that reflected the colors off of it? I'm 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:33.520 sure they did. At one time she had one of 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:40.440 those thin clear fibers fiber optic tree. One time she 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:44.840 had the fiber optic like Lily and the fiber optic tree, 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:48.640 but the silver one I loved. I love both of those, 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:51.600 and we actually have a fiber optic tree at Balstom 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:55.760 Hill just because because I love them so. But but yes, 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:58.400 I do remember that, so that that's that's how I 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:00.320 got started, as I just said, you know, how come 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:02.720 we have to have an artificial tree, but why can't 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:04.680 we have one that looks real? And I remember thinking, 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:07.200 we've got c g I, We've got all these things 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:09.840 today that are good at being foe, like, why can't 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:12.200 we have Christmas trees? And so that kind of inspired 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:15.040 the start of Balstom Hill. It was it was years 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:19.280 later that I came across a great manufacturer that produced 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:22.600 trees that that I partnered with, and I, you know, 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:26.080 kind of on a whim, went over to China and 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:28.920 designed our first set of Christmas trees. And I think 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:31.680 I ended up being kind of the first person who 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:35.720 really knew what Christmas trees look like that actually went 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:38.240 and designed them with the intention of the whole tree 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:40.400 looking as much like a real tree as possible. In 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:42.560 the past, some people had worked on making just the 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:45.200 needles look like the like a real tree, or maybe 0:16:45.240 --> 0:16:46.720 the shape of the tree, but no one had kind 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:49.160 of put it all together in a package. And I 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:53.240 had been a geoscience as major environmental studies minor in college. 0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:54.840 I spent a lot of time out in the woods, 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:57.600 even took a class on tree identification, and so I 0:16:57.680 --> 0:16:59.640 just happened to be the right person in the right 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:01.640 place at the right time to put it all together 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:05.200 and with some great branding, that's what started Balsom Hill. 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:08.440 And why the name, Where does Balsom Hill come from? Well, 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:11.560 and so here's another real story that the original name 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:13.919 of the company was was a terrible name. It was 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:16.440 Ideal Tree because I was trying to have a name 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:19.680 that described the characteristics of the tree and I had 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:22.120 to quickly come up with a name because the boxes 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:24.960 were being printed. So it was Ideal Tream And I 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:27.480 remember thinking, I'm not sure this is the best name, 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:30.000 but it is what it is at this point. And 0:17:30.000 --> 0:17:32.560 then I was driving with my wife from her hometown 0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:37.280 of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania north and I believe it's Interstate seventy six, 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:40.439 and we're going through this beautiful country of just rolling 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:44.560 hills and Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and got married there and 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:50.320 it's a great place. It is breathtakingly beautiful. It's it's 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:52.679 something out of a dream. It's something you know, like 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:55.520 when when you close your eyes and you imagine what 0:17:55.680 --> 0:17:59.080 heaven is going to look like, like that's one of 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:03.840 the places that's burned in my brain that I think heaven. 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:06.200 I think God just took a little piece of heaven 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:10.480 and put it in those rolling hills, giving me goose 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:15.080 bumps right now because it's exactly exactly the feeling I had, 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:19.560 and I just I remember thinking, Wow, this is what 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:25.159 the brand should be like. This, this feeling, this environment 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:27.240 is what the brand should be like. And I was like, well, 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:30.040 maybe it should be like Oak Hill, but Oak doesn't 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:33.800 make any sense. Christmas each other companies and the I'm like, well, 0:18:33.840 --> 0:18:36.119 then maybe it could be Frasier Hill because Frasier is 0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:38.800 the most popular Christmas tree. But I'm like that sounds 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:41.520 almost too contrived and too cheesy, and I'm like, oh, 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:45.040 what about Balsom Hill. That's the other really popular East 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:48.440 Coast Christmas tree, and and Balsom Hill it just had 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:50.320 that ring to it and that feeling to it. So 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:52.040 I was like, Oh, that would be such a great name, 0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:54.200 but it's too bad. I already started printing the boxes 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:56.280 and it's kind of too late. And then what happened 0:18:56.400 --> 0:19:01.200 was there was a trademark concern with the ideal Tree, 0:19:01.600 --> 0:19:03.760 and it wasn't a big concern, but to be safe, 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:06.920 we decided to switch the name and then the last 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:08.760 thing that had to come together was we had to 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:11.520 find the website. And there was a real estate developer 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:14.800 that already made a little real estate development called Balsom 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:18.239 Hill near Grand Rapids, Michigan. And it turned out that 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:20.760 they had just sold their last unit, and I called 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:23.680 them up and they sold me the name the website 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:27.280 Balsom Hill, and the rest is history how it all happened. 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:31.399 So tell me about you. We touched on this in 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:35.480 the beginning. Mac all the good because you have been 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:38.600 a sponsor of Point Hope for I think almost a 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:42.360 decade now. You've been helping us out, and you help 0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:43.960 us out in a number of ways. I don't know 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:48.160 if you personally know this, but you help us out financially. Uh. 0:19:48.359 --> 0:19:51.080 We do things on the internet around Christmas time where 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:54.679 for every person that clicks on your ad that we 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:58.520 post on our website, you guys bless us with you know, 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:00.600 a couple of bucks in it turns out to be 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:04.920 like ten thousand dollars or something amazing. But we also 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:07.760 have a fundraiser we did until COVID hit, and we 0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:10.200 hope to start again called farm to Feast every year 0:20:10.200 --> 0:20:12.600 that we have at my farm where I cook food 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:16.240 and then fabulous artists come and put on a small 0:20:16.359 --> 0:20:21.280 private concert for the people who attend. And from the 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:26.840 decorations to the cost of printing up the programs and 0:20:26.840 --> 0:20:31.000 the menus, Balsom Hill has sponsored all of that for 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:34.879 the last empteen years and we have been able to 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:39.600 complete almost complete Point Hope Village and Point Hope Village 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:45.480 is a village for especially children, but women and children 0:20:45.560 --> 0:20:50.120 who are marginalized. There's a lot of kids that end 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:54.840 up in orphanages that aren't technically orphans. They have family, 0:20:55.480 --> 0:20:59.040 their families just don't have the resources to provide for them, 0:20:59.119 --> 0:21:01.400 and so they end up in these institutions. And so 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:05.080 we come alongside, whether it's a grammar or an aunt 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:08.439 or a mom or whoever, and say, let us help you, 0:21:09.160 --> 0:21:11.679 let us help you. Let's build a strong network around 0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:14.919 you so you can take care of your children, so 0:21:15.000 --> 0:21:18.399 that you will have the resources and the know how 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:21.320 and everything we do, we we do not ever give 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:23.280 a hand out. We always want to give a hand up. 0:21:23.960 --> 0:21:27.840 It has to be sustainable. We take resources in, we 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:31.200 find experts in the area there and we say, okay, 0:21:31.200 --> 0:21:34.120 how can we help you fix this problem? And then 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:37.119 how can we back out and leave it to you? 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:40.639 So like our our our water program we started twenty 0:21:40.720 --> 0:21:44.480 years ago UM Living Water Balsom Hill has been a 0:21:44.520 --> 0:21:48.600 sponsor of and there's a community of over a hundred thousand, 0:21:48.640 --> 0:21:51.159 almost two hundred thousand people that had no access to 0:21:51.200 --> 0:21:56.000 fresh water, and Point Hope worked with the Ghana Water 0:21:56.080 --> 0:21:58.360 Board and put in pipe so that there are now 0:21:58.400 --> 0:22:01.520