Speaker 1: You know. There, for a while where I live, we
Speaker 1: thought summer would never arrive, And here we are in
Speaker 1: July with Independence Day celebrations already behind us. Sometimes time
Speaker 1: moves so sluggishly, and yet sometimes it just zooms by.
Speaker 1: I bet you can't argue with me there right Hey,
Speaker 1: did you know right now it's Christmas in July? That
Speaker 1: According to mc harmon, founder of Balsom Hill, the company
Speaker 1: you hear a lot about if you listen to my
Speaker 1: radio program or follow me on social media, Mac has
Speaker 1: had an entrepreneurial mind since he was a little kid.
Speaker 1: If the stories are true, he started selling old tennis
Speaker 1: balls as doggy chew toys to his neighbors when he
Speaker 1: was only three years old. We're gonna get to the
Speaker 1: bottom of that. But it's his realistic folk Christmas trees
Speaker 1: he's known for these days. And it's all because Mac,
Speaker 1: who grew up with the real deal with real Christmas trees,
Speaker 1: saw his first artificial tree up close and personal when
Speaker 1: he visited his in laws during the holidays. By all accounts,
Speaker 1: it was anything but realistic looking, but it was necessary
Speaker 1: because his brother in law's allergies made a real tree impossible.
Speaker 1: Mac was inspired and the rest is history. Well, no,
Speaker 1: we're not going to leave it there. In fact, Mac
Speaker 1: is joining me today to talk about Christmas trees, to
Speaker 1: talk about being an entrepreneur, to talk about when you
Speaker 1: have been fortunate and life has gone well for you,
Speaker 1: how vitally important it is that you give back. That
Speaker 1: is the real reason I wanted to have this conversation
Speaker 1: because a lot of people don't know just how generous
Speaker 1: this man is or how many projects he has paid
Speaker 1: it forward into, if you will, how many projects he
Speaker 1: is blessed. I'm looking forward to today's chat, but first
Speaker 1: let me catch you up on another one of my
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Speaker 1: want to welcome back one of my favorite podcast sponsors,
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Speaker 1: brings my way. You'll find it all at Laura Geller
Speaker 1: dot com. That's Laura Geller dot com for the perfect
Speaker 1: addition to your summer beach bag. Welcoming Mac Harmon today
Speaker 1: to Love Someone with the Lilah. A lot of times
Speaker 1: on this podcast, Mac, we have you know, artists or
Speaker 1: authors and the woman that you just met off the air,
Speaker 1: who is our podcast director. She she asked me, She said,
Speaker 1: is there anything you would like to see or you
Speaker 1: would like me to be doing when we line up
Speaker 1: these interviews. I said, you know, I don't care who
Speaker 1: it is. I just want to talk to people who
Speaker 1: are passionate about changing the world, making the world a
Speaker 1: better place, especially right now when everybody seems to be
Speaker 1: about dividing the world and making everybody angry. I said,
Speaker 1: I just I want this podcast to be a place,
Speaker 1: a safe place people can come and get inspired. And
Speaker 1: whether you're you know, on stage singing songs or writing
Speaker 1: books or whatever, if you are using your talents and
Speaker 1: gifts and skills and you're in. Goal is let's make
Speaker 1: this world a better place. Not just let's make money,
Speaker 1: but let's make this world a better place than I
Speaker 1: want to. I want to talk about that. And she,
Speaker 1: you know, called me back and she said, how about
Speaker 1: mac Harmon? And I said, who's that? And she said,
Speaker 1: you know Balsom Hill. And I'm like, I know Balsom Hill.
Speaker 1: They've been part of my show for almost a decade now.
Speaker 1: And she said, well, he's the guy who started it.
Speaker 1: And I already knew about your generous spirit because you
Speaker 1: have blessed Point Hope, the charity I started almost twenty
Speaker 1: years ago, so much. And and then she started giving
Speaker 1: me more information about all the different different ways that
Speaker 1: you connect with people and do good things. And so
Speaker 1: here we are. It's great to be here. It's Christmas
Speaker 1: in July. We're gonna talk about trees. We're going to
Speaker 1: talk about how you became the King of Christmas trees.
Speaker 1: By the way, I happen to like your florals as
Speaker 1: much as your trees. But and then we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about how you have used your success to be
Speaker 1: a blessing and make the world a better place. Sounds great.
Speaker 1: Let's get started. Okay, so you're young, you are really young,
Speaker 1: but you've been an entrepreneur. You've had that entrepreneurial spirit.
Speaker 1: It sounds like your whole life. Yeah. My first so
Speaker 1: I don't remember, but my first entrepreneurial activity when I
Speaker 1: was three years old. My dad used to play tennis
Speaker 1: on Wednesday nights. And I guess, after you hit a
Speaker 1: tennis ball enough times, it's considered unfit for tennis, and
Speaker 1: but it's a great dog toy. And so I loaded
Speaker 1: up my trusty radio Flyer wagon with some of his
Speaker 1: old tennis balls and sold them to neighbors to use
Speaker 1: as fetch toys with her dogs. So my parents tell
Speaker 1: me about this. That one I don't remember, but that
Speaker 1: was at age three. But my my second venture, as
Speaker 1: a side note, was at a birthday party. I received
Speaker 1: a packet of gourd seeds, which I planted and grew gourds.
Speaker 1: And anyone who's grown zucchini or gourds knows those things
Speaker 1: grow like weeds. I mean, you can't feel a lot
Speaker 1: of zucchini plants. You can't give those things away. I try,
Speaker 1: I try. I like I give them to people. I
Speaker 1: leave them on the hood of their car. If the
Speaker 1: car's unlocked and it's somebody I know, I'll open the
Speaker 1: door and just load up the driver's seat with zucchini.
Speaker 1: You know I try. Well, I'll tell you my most
Speaker 1: the most recent time I moved. I can't get zucchini
Speaker 1: to grow in my garden. And that's when I realized
Speaker 1: I must have a problem with the soil, because if
Speaker 1: you can't get zucchini to grow, you've got real problems.
Speaker 1: But yeah, if you can't grow zucchini, that soil needs
Speaker 1: to be just ripped out and replaced with compost. That's
Speaker 1: that's how we learned. But anyway, with these gourds, I mean,
Speaker 1: they're even more useless things are They even harder to
Speaker 1: give away than zucchini. But I did try to sell
Speaker 1: them on a little stand I built in my front yard.
Speaker 1: I learned a lot of business lessons from that. One
Speaker 1: it's really hard to sell something no one wants. And two,
Speaker 1: when you're when you're selling something on a dead ends
Speaker 1: called a sack that has mostly folks that that leave
Speaker 1: their house once a week, it's really really hard to
Speaker 1: generate traffic. So those were two of my earliest lessons
Speaker 1: in business. At age four, well, I would say you
Speaker 1: applied that well to Balsom Hill because you guys create
Speaker 1: something everybody almost everybody wants, and you figured out really
Speaker 1: clever marketing way so you don't actually need foot traffic
Speaker 1: into a store. It's it's worked out really well for us.
Speaker 1: You know, we've been so blessed to build this business.
Speaker 1: I think part of it was right time, right place
Speaker 1: coming along. We started in two thousand six when people
Speaker 1: were turning to the Internet, and you know, it seemed
Speaker 1: crazy to me and I actually started the company as
Speaker 1: a side project. Um, it wasn't. It didn't intend for
Speaker 1: it to become what it did. And I really think
Speaker 1: if I had thought it was going to be something
Speaker 1: I did for the next now almost twenty years, I
Speaker 1: maybe wouldn't have started it because there are all these
Speaker 1: reasons that maybe it didn't make sense. How do you
Speaker 1: sell something that's more expensive and looks more realistic online
Speaker 1: when people can't touch and feel it. Why do you
Speaker 1: sell a product that last twenty years? Um, and most
Speaker 1: people have one or two of them. Um, it's you know,
Speaker 1: there's a bunch of reasons. I think it wasn't a
Speaker 1: great business, but um I started anyway, and we've been
Speaker 1: so blasted how it's been able to bring joy to
Speaker 1: so many people's lives. Okay, so backstory. You're an only
Speaker 1: child who grew up in a family that always had
Speaker 1: real trees. That's right, that's right. I don't think in
Speaker 1: all the times I've talked to folks over this, I've
Speaker 1: ever told this story, Tolila, So your your listeners are
Speaker 1: gonna get the real story. Um, I grew up with
Speaker 1: real trees. We'd go to a nursery where they were precut,
Speaker 1: and we'd go to the tree lot and pick them out.
Speaker 1: These trees were on display. We did it every year.
Speaker 1: It was a great tradition. But one year my parents
Speaker 1: thought that we should have the experience of going to
Speaker 1: the you know, wonderful family tree farm where you do
Speaker 1: kind of the sleigh ride and the hot chocolate and
Speaker 1: the candy cane, which is awesome. And I love this,
Speaker 1: by the way, people of this misconception, because I'm at
Speaker 1: Balsom Hill. I don't love real trees. I love real trees,
Speaker 1: and that experience is the best. And I think every
Speaker 1: every kid who celebrates Christmas, I hope gets a chance
Speaker 1: to go out and and cut down a tree on
Speaker 1: a tree farm. By the way, they should come back
Speaker 1: and decorate it with Balsom hill things. But so here's
Speaker 1: here's the real story. I grew up in northeastern Ohio,
Speaker 1: so Cleveland, Ohio. We went out way past the suburbs
Speaker 1: to a tree farm and we cut the tree down.
Speaker 1: And I remember it was a really cold day. It
Speaker 1: was snowing, and I remember my dad and I being
Speaker 1: on the ground with the with the band saw underneath
Speaker 1: the tree cutting it. We got all all cold and
Speaker 1: wet and everything, and it was a great experience. I
Speaker 1: remember thinking afterwards, like, I'm really glad we did this,
Speaker 1: and I hope we go back to the nursery and
Speaker 1: pick the tree out next year. That's the true story.
Speaker 1: I've never shared before that that it was a great experience.
Speaker 1: Now I have replicated that experien it's with my kids.
Speaker 1: I live in California now, and how do you replicate
Speaker 1: that in California you can't get snow. There's no snow,
Speaker 1: there's no cold, there's no lying on the ground and
Speaker 1: getting cold and wet exactly. Well. The other challenge we
Speaker 1: have in California is, in all honesty, the only species
Speaker 1: of Christmas tree that grows well in California is a
Speaker 1: Douglas fur and the Douglas for many people love it,
Speaker 1: so I don't want to belittle it. They're amazing trees
Speaker 1: from a Christmas tree standpoint. They have poor needle retention,
Speaker 1: so they're they're the less expensive tree on the West
Speaker 1: Coast and the one that the needles come off the soonest.
Speaker 1: But that that's what we have here in California. And
Speaker 1: and we went to this farm, and in California is
Speaker 1: a lot of people and not a lot of Christmas
Speaker 1: tree farms, and so they get picked over pretty quickly.
Speaker 1: And so we ended up going to this incredibly steep
Speaker 1: slope to cut our tree down because that's where there
Speaker 1: were still some good looking trees. And we got at
Speaker 1: home and set it up and realized that because it
Speaker 1: had grown on a super steep slope, all the branches
Speaker 1: were really lopsided, and one side of the tree had
Speaker 1: branches two ft lower than the other side of the tree.
Speaker 1: So that was that was a good there's a good
Speaker 1: experience for me as a tree designer to know how
Speaker 1: nature compensates with things. Well, did you just turn it
Speaker 1: against a wall? So that yeah, the lopsided limbs go down.
Speaker 1: Absolutely all the tricks. We got all the tricks here,
Speaker 1: We got all the tricks. Well. I have been a
Speaker 1: die hard, I mean die hard live tree person. And
Speaker 1: then probably twenty years ago, discovered that my daughter was
Speaker 1: allergic to real Christmas trees. So we discovered flocked trees,
Speaker 1: because when you get a good flocked tree, it locks
Speaker 1: in all the allergens and she wouldn't have such a
Speaker 1: bad reaction. And so we discovered a guy named Tony.
Speaker 1: Tony had a fruit stand during the summer and then
Speaker 1: in the winter he would open up and had a
Speaker 1: Christmas tree stand, and Tony would save like the best
Speaker 1: tree and flock it for us, and we would you know,
Speaker 1: drive to Tony's, but we would also go out and
Speaker 1: cut a tree and then just put it out in
Speaker 1: the front yards because the kids love the hot coco
Speaker 1: and the you know, dogs and the the whole experience.
Speaker 1: But we started working with you guys, and my podcast
Speaker 1: producer was taking pictures of me decorating the Balsom Hill
Speaker 1: tree a couple of years ago, and I said, oh
Speaker 1: my god, this is so beautiful. I'm putting it in
Speaker 1: the house and I'm not I'm I'm proud to say
Speaker 1: I'm not going back. I'll take him out, we'll cut
Speaker 1: a tree, we'll put it in the front yard. But
Speaker 1: one of my favorite parts of my job is hearing
Speaker 1: the stories and and a lot of the touching ones
Speaker 1: are from parents who got a Balesome hill tree. They
Speaker 1: always had a real tree, and they got a Balsom
Speaker 1: Hill tree the year their youngest went to college. And
Speaker 1: they write and they're like, we wanted to do this
Speaker 1: because it just was easier for us, but they really
Speaker 1: wanted to get the tree, and we got your tree,
Speaker 1: and they've now gone back to school and they never
Speaker 1: noticed the whole time. I always get a few of
Speaker 1: those notes every year. Um and and it's you know,
Speaker 1: if we can if we can provide some joy and
Speaker 1: convenience to folks and let them spend more time decorating
Speaker 1: the tree in less time with some of the other
Speaker 1: aspects of cutting the trunk off or whatever it might be,
Speaker 1: watering the tree, that's great. But at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, I love I'm an equal opportunity tree person,
Speaker 1: so I love all kinds of Christmas trees and just
Speaker 1: hope people celebrate Christmas with Christmas trees. So how did
Speaker 1: you start? How did you go from the business that
Speaker 1: you were in, your father's business, where you're running your
Speaker 1: family business when you decided I'm going to become the
Speaker 1: Christmas tree guy. Yeah, So my story as I ended
Speaker 1: up running my dad's small family business because he unfortunately
Speaker 1: passed away when I was in early twenties and it
Speaker 1: was my mom's main asset, and so I ended up
Speaker 1: running that business. Um I thought for just a few
Speaker 1: months or a year, but it took seven years before
Speaker 1: we were able to transition it to new ownership. And
Speaker 1: so while I was running that, I attended business school
Speaker 1: And it was interesting you mentioned changing the world because
Speaker 1: the business school attended Stanford the motto has changed the world,
Speaker 1: and really it's a collection of people who want to
Speaker 1: go out and make the world a better place and
Speaker 1: in so many different facets. But I never thought that
Speaker 1: my way to change the world would be through through
Speaker 1: Christmas trees. But I did decide, I did rediscover my
Speaker 1: interest in being an entrepreneur and ended up starting Balsom
Speaker 1: Hill to two solid official Christmas trees. Because I had
Speaker 1: married into my wife's family and my brother in law
Speaker 1: had an allergy as well just like your daughter. And
Speaker 1: so they had always had an artificial tree, and my
Speaker 1: in law has had one, I think from probably ninety
Speaker 1: five or something from from Kmart or something like that,
Speaker 1: and it in, you know, two th and in five,
Speaker 1: a thirty year old artificial Christmas tree was not really
Speaker 1: needle retention. Probably wasn't the best that you know, what
Speaker 1: do you wish I have? Though? My grandparents had one
Speaker 1: of those silver and blue Christmas trees. I love their
Speaker 1: little and they had it on a tabletop because ground
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, we're not dragging a tree in and out.
Speaker 1: But that silver and blue Christmas tree pretty pretty epically
Speaker 1: sixties cool. Did you have the light, the rotating light
Speaker 1: as well that reflected the colors off of it? I'm
Speaker 1: sure they did. At one time she had one of
Speaker 1: those thin clear fibers fiber optic tree. One time she
Speaker 1: had the fiber optic like Lily and the fiber optic tree,
Speaker 1: but the silver one I loved. I love both of those,
Speaker 1: and we actually have a fiber optic tree at Balstom
Speaker 1: Hill just because because I love them so. But but yes,
Speaker 1: I do remember that, so that that's that's how I
Speaker 1: got started, as I just said, you know, how come
Speaker 1: we have to have an artificial tree, but why can't
Speaker 1: we have one that looks real? And I remember thinking,
Speaker 1: we've got c g I, We've got all these things
Speaker 1: today that are good at being foe, like, why can't
Speaker 1: we have Christmas trees? And so that kind of inspired
Speaker 1: the start of Balstom Hill. It was it was years
Speaker 1: later that I came across a great manufacturer that produced
Speaker 1: trees that that I partnered with, and I, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of on a whim, went over to China and
Speaker 1: designed our first set of Christmas trees. And I think
Speaker 1: I ended up being kind of the first person who
Speaker 1: really knew what Christmas trees look like that actually went
Speaker 1: and designed them with the intention of the whole tree
Speaker 1: looking as much like a real tree as possible. In
Speaker 1: the past, some people had worked on making just the
Speaker 1: needles look like the like a real tree, or maybe
Speaker 1: the shape of the tree, but no one had kind
Speaker 1: of put it all together in a package. And I
Speaker 1: had been a geoscience as major environmental studies minor in college.
Speaker 1: I spent a lot of time out in the woods,
Speaker 1: even took a class on tree identification, and so I
Speaker 1: just happened to be the right person in the right
Speaker 1: place at the right time to put it all together
Speaker 1: and with some great branding, that's what started Balsom Hill.
Speaker 1: And why the name, Where does Balsom Hill come from? Well,
Speaker 1: and so here's another real story that the original name
Speaker 1: of the company was was a terrible name. It was
Speaker 1: Ideal Tree because I was trying to have a name
Speaker 1: that described the characteristics of the tree and I had
Speaker 1: to quickly come up with a name because the boxes
Speaker 1: were being printed. So it was Ideal Tream And I
Speaker 1: remember thinking, I'm not sure this is the best name,
Speaker 1: but it is what it is at this point. And
Speaker 1: then I was driving with my wife from her hometown
Speaker 1: of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania north and I believe it's Interstate seventy six,
Speaker 1: and we're going through this beautiful country of just rolling
Speaker 1: hills and Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and got married there and
Speaker 1: it's a great place. It is breathtakingly beautiful. It's it's
Speaker 1: something out of a dream. It's something you know, like
Speaker 1: when when you close your eyes and you imagine what
Speaker 1: heaven is going to look like, like that's one of
Speaker 1: the places that's burned in my brain that I think heaven.
Speaker 1: I think God just took a little piece of heaven
Speaker 1: and put it in those rolling hills, giving me goose
Speaker 1: bumps right now because it's exactly exactly the feeling I had,
Speaker 1: and I just I remember thinking, Wow, this is what
Speaker 1: the brand should be like. This, this feeling, this environment
Speaker 1: is what the brand should be like. And I was like, well,
Speaker 1: maybe it should be like Oak Hill, but Oak doesn't
Speaker 1: make any sense. Christmas each other companies and the I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: then maybe it could be Frasier Hill because Frasier is
Speaker 1: the most popular Christmas tree. But I'm like that sounds
Speaker 1: almost too contrived and too cheesy, and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: what about Balsom Hill. That's the other really popular East
Speaker 1: Coast Christmas tree, and and Balsom Hill it just had
Speaker 1: that ring to it and that feeling to it. So
Speaker 1: I was like, Oh, that would be such a great name,
Speaker 1: but it's too bad. I already started printing the boxes
Speaker 1: and it's kind of too late. And then what happened
Speaker 1: was there was a trademark concern with the ideal Tree,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't a big concern, but to be safe,
Speaker 1: we decided to switch the name and then the last
Speaker 1: thing that had to come together was we had to
Speaker 1: find the website. And there was a real estate developer
Speaker 1: that already made a little real estate development called Balsom
Speaker 1: Hill near Grand Rapids, Michigan. And it turned out that
Speaker 1: they had just sold their last unit, and I called
Speaker 1: them up and they sold me the name the website
Speaker 1: Balsom Hill, and the rest is history how it all happened.
Speaker 1: So tell me about you. We touched on this in
Speaker 1: the beginning. Mac all the good because you have been
Speaker 1: a sponsor of Point Hope for I think almost a
Speaker 1: decade now. You've been helping us out, and you help
Speaker 1: us out in a number of ways. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you personally know this, but you help us out financially. Uh.
Speaker 1: We do things on the internet around Christmas time where
Speaker 1: for every person that clicks on your ad that we
Speaker 1: post on our website, you guys bless us with you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of bucks in it turns out to be
Speaker 1: like ten thousand dollars or something amazing. But we also
Speaker 1: have a fundraiser we did until COVID hit, and we
Speaker 1: hope to start again called farm to Feast every year
Speaker 1: that we have at my farm where I cook food
Speaker 1: and then fabulous artists come and put on a small
Speaker 1: private concert for the people who attend. And from the
Speaker 1: decorations to the cost of printing up the programs and
Speaker 1: the menus, Balsom Hill has sponsored all of that for
Speaker 1: the last empteen years and we have been able to
Speaker 1: complete almost complete Point Hope Village and Point Hope Village
Speaker 1: is a village for especially children, but women and children
Speaker 1: who are marginalized. There's a lot of kids that end
Speaker 1: up in orphanages that aren't technically orphans. They have family,
Speaker 1: their families just don't have the resources to provide for them,
Speaker 1: and so they end up in these institutions. And so
Speaker 1: we come alongside, whether it's a grammar or an aunt
Speaker 1: or a mom or whoever, and say, let us help you,
Speaker 1: let us help you. Let's build a strong network around
Speaker 1: you so you can take care of your children, so
Speaker 1: that you will have the resources and the know how
Speaker 1: and everything we do, we we do not ever give
Speaker 1: a hand out. We always want to give a hand up.
Speaker 1: It has to be sustainable. We take resources in, we
Speaker 1: find experts in the area there and we say, okay,
Speaker 1: how can we help you fix this problem? And then
Speaker 1: how can we back out and leave it to you?
Speaker 1: So like our our our water program we started twenty
Speaker 1: years ago UM Living Water Balsom Hill has been a
Speaker 1: sponsor of and there's a community of over a hundred thousand,
Speaker 1: almost two hundred thousand people that had no access to
Speaker 1: fresh water, and Point Hope worked with the Ghana Water
Speaker 1: Board and put in pipe so that there are now
Speaker 1: more than twenty fetching stations fresh clean water. And in
Speaker 1: the first six months of living Water is the name
Speaker 1: of the program. The first six months of living Water
Speaker 1: being in the area, the mortality rate for infants went
Speaker 1: down n the mortality rate for the entire area of
Speaker 1: the first six months went down se and then it
Speaker 1: went down to So that simple little thing fresh water
Speaker 1: saved the lives of tens of thousands of people and
Speaker 1: UM Balsom Hill has been a part of that. So
Speaker 1: thank you are so grateful to do that. It's just
Speaker 1: speaking of water. It is so amazing the number of people,
Speaker 1: millions of tens of millions of people who don't have
Speaker 1: access to clean water and the impact that that has.
Speaker 1: I actually just finished a couple of days ago reading
Speaker 1: Scott Harrison from charity Water's book first that talks about that.
Speaker 1: Isn't that such a good book, such a great book.
Speaker 1: Everyone should read that book. It just it just helps
Speaker 1: us realize how blessed we are in places like the
Speaker 1: United States to be able to go turn on, turn
Speaker 1: on the tap and have safe drinking water. It's I'd
Speaker 1: encourage anyone listening read that book first by Scott Harrison.
Speaker 1: It'll change your perspective on on how we can make
Speaker 1: a difference in the world. So, how many projects, off
Speaker 1: the top of your head does Balsom Hill get behind
Speaker 1: and help out? I know you've helped Point Hope tremendously.
Speaker 1: But and why tell me? I mean I know why,
Speaker 1: but tell tell our listeners. Tell why that. Like people
Speaker 1: can't see you, I can see you. And the minute
Speaker 1: we start talking about charity work, your whole face Mac
Speaker 1: lit up, your cheeks lit up, your eyes sparkled even
Speaker 1: more than talking about you know, the Gord's that you
Speaker 1: were trying to sell yours. Yours did also. You know,
Speaker 1: it's funny, I think you know, everything from Balstom comes
Speaker 1: from our company purpose, which is to create joy together.
Speaker 1: And you know when people hear that, they say, Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: we get it. You sold Christmas products or holiday to
Speaker 1: core products and you want, you know, people to create
Speaker 1: joy together. That's all true. We absolutely we want people
Speaker 1: to have a smile on their face when they open
Speaker 1: our products. We want people to decorate with them and
Speaker 1: create amazing memories with other people and have joy filled times.
Speaker 1: But it's much deeper than that, and and our our
Speaker 1: purpose ties to we want to create joy together with
Speaker 1: our partners like you. We want to create joy together
Speaker 1: on our team. We want to create joy together with
Speaker 1: our families, and we want to create joy together in
Speaker 1: our communities. And our giving really comes back to creating
Speaker 1: joy in our communities. And you know, we don't keep
Speaker 1: track of exactly how many things we support UM. A
Speaker 1: lot of what we do is organic, and a lot
Speaker 1: of what we do are things that that people don't see.
Speaker 1: And so I'll start by talking about an organization we
Speaker 1: support in the Philippines, which I think it might be
Speaker 1: somewhere buried on our website, but we don't do it
Speaker 1: because it's of some kind of partnership that gets us
Speaker 1: publicity or anything like that. We do it because we
Speaker 1: have a lot of our Balstoon Hill team that lives
Speaker 1: in the Philippines, and in two thousand and twelve there
Speaker 1: was typhoon Ulanda that came through there and was was
Speaker 1: really devastating, and UM we were fortunate that we only
Speaker 1: had one of our team members who was impacted, and
Speaker 1: we have kind of a company story about how we
Speaker 1: actually UM realized that we could do something to help
Speaker 1: their family ended up chartering a helicopter to search them
Speaker 1: out because they hadn't been heard from from for days,
Speaker 1: and we ended up getting a message from that team
Speaker 1: member on text message the night before we had the
Speaker 1: helicopter reserved that they were okay and they needed food,
Speaker 1: but they had enough food for a few days. So
Speaker 1: we're able to divert the helicopter we had chartered to
Speaker 1: go take food to parts of the Philippines that no
Speaker 1: aid had reached yet through our team on the ground,
Speaker 1: and then we we went and got a boat and
Speaker 1: got food to our colleague UM a couple of days later.
Speaker 1: It's it's a neat story, but it started our commitment
Speaker 1: to the Philippines. Because one of the things I've realized
Speaker 1: is so often you have these events that happened and
Speaker 1: then there's a charity concert and all these things. But
Speaker 1: then six months later, twelve months later, everybody happening, Nothing's happening.
Speaker 1: And I saw that with with some of the response
Speaker 1: in Haiti, it seemed like things went away. And so
Speaker 1: I talked to our team and I said, look, we've
Speaker 1: got to find a charity in the Philippines. It's going
Speaker 1: to continue the work through the many, many years of
Speaker 1: difficult rebuilding and not just for the six months that
Speaker 1: the Red Cross or whomever is going to be on
Speaker 1: the ground. And so we partner with it. We've been
Speaker 1: partnering for a decade with a charity there that's a
Speaker 1: local grassroots organization called n Grancy Volunteers for Change. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, when when Americans and others from around the
Speaker 1: world are out helping in their armored SUVs and staying
Speaker 1: at the hotels, are our colleagues that this organization are
Speaker 1: out there on bicycles and and getting stuff done on
Speaker 1: a really low budget. But they're so effective and so
Speaker 1: we have a huge partnership with them and have done
Speaker 1: a lot of work. UM some really cool things. One
Speaker 1: of the things along the lines of what you just
Speaker 1: shared about how Point Hope operates, UM, they did a
Speaker 1: program called the Peter project where people would sponsor a
Speaker 1: boat and the idea was to train fisherman assistance with
Speaker 1: their own boat, but they trained them with sustainable fishing
Speaker 1: practices which weren't typically used there. The facility that made
Speaker 1: the boats was all volunteer. It was. It was set
Speaker 1: up as a business that they ultimately turned over to
Speaker 1: citizens to run the business instead of doing it themselves.
Speaker 1: And then the fisherman actually leased the boat and paid
Speaker 1: for it over time, not because the charity was trying
Speaker 1: to make money, but because they were trying to have
Speaker 1: the speed. It's truly sustainable and something that continued to
Speaker 1: work after they walked away. And so that program was
Speaker 1: so successful they had to stop it because they were
Speaker 1: afraid of over fishing um in the village. Because four
Speaker 1: thousand boats were donated, it became a really wonderful success.
Speaker 1: And then it turned it into something called Project Joseph,
Speaker 1: which was providing rules for people to do other building
Speaker 1: crafts and trades, and people would get tricycles to sell
Speaker 1: coconuts and all sorts of neat things. But anyway, my
Speaker 1: point in all this is that we want to work
Speaker 1: in our local communities in supporting the needs there, even
Speaker 1: if it's not some flashy thing that we do. Um.
Speaker 1: One of the other things we always try and think
Speaker 1: about at Balstom Hill is what way are we uniquely
Speaker 1: positioned to help? And so um when Covid started, you know,
Speaker 1: we were we were really uniquely positioned as a business.
Speaker 1: And it's it's even hard to imagine now what March
Speaker 1: was like, but I know myself and other business leaders
Speaker 1: are all kind of what do we do? What does
Speaker 1: this mean for a business? What does this mean for payroll?
Speaker 1: And how do we support our teams? And we were
Speaker 1: really fortunate because as a mostly seasonal business, we had
Speaker 1: just come through our peak season and in March one
Speaker 1: the world closed. We weren't worried about what that meant
Speaker 1: for us immediately because we were six months away from
Speaker 1: our peak season. So plus we're e commerce, which was
Speaker 1: you know a good place to be going into covid
Speaker 1: versus brick and mortar retail. And so we said, hey,
Speaker 1: what can we do? And and I had this kind
Speaker 1: of crazy idea on a Saturday morning. I was sitting
Speaker 1: there thinking about all the restaurants and schools that had closed,
Speaker 1: and how there was all this food that is in
Speaker 1: the food supply chain to the commercial places, and that
Speaker 1: there was no way to get that food to people
Speaker 1: who might need food. And I was thinking about all
Speaker 1: the people who were afraid to go outside and go
Speaker 1: to the grocery store because they might get COVID, And
Speaker 1: I said, jeez, what if we could connect this commercial
Speaker 1: food supply with people who need food at home that
Speaker 1: are afraid or it's unsafe for them to go out
Speaker 1: because they're you know, compromised. And sure there's services like
Speaker 1: insta cart and door dash, but those aren't available over
Speaker 1: the country. And so I said, you know, in Balstom,
Speaker 1: we have all these warehouses and we're really good at
Speaker 1: shipping big heavy things. So what if we got ahold
Speaker 1: of the big heavy, you know, fifty pound bags of
Speaker 1: flour and food supplies that weren't being used because you know,
Speaker 1: schools and restaurants they closed. And what if we used
Speaker 1: our website to sell these items to people at cost
Speaker 1: and then use our facilities to ship them. And so
Speaker 1: that was Saturday morning's crazy idea. On Monday we decided
Speaker 1: to do it. On Friday night of that same week,
Speaker 1: we launched Balsam Provisions, which was basically instead of going
Speaker 1: to our site and buying a wreath through your front door,
Speaker 1: a Christmas tree. You could go buy flower, mandarin, orange segments, spaghetti, sauce,
Speaker 1: all sorts of all sorts of food items. And we
Speaker 1: were able to stand that up very quickly, partnered with
Speaker 1: US Food, which is one of the major kind of
Speaker 1: restaurant and commercial food suppliers, and it was it was
Speaker 1: really it was really kind of a neat effort to
Speaker 1: see how we could do something to help out that
Speaker 1: you never would have expected, but that we're able to
Speaker 1: help over folks across across the country purchasing food. That's
Speaker 1: that entrepreneurial spirit. That's that what can I do with
Speaker 1: this old tennis ball episode after episode, season after season.
Speaker 1: I am so grateful to my podcast sponsors. I live
Speaker 1: for a great summer day time with my little ones,
Speaker 1: outside time in the garden picking veggies that are ripe
Speaker 1: and ready for dinner each night. And that's before I
Speaker 1: tend to my animals. But all that only happens because
Speaker 1: I am pain free. Thanks to Omega Excel. Years ago,
Speaker 1: I discovered a simple but fabulous product, Omega Excel. This
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Speaker 1: dot com, forward slash love or via phone eight hundred
Speaker 1: nine four zero zero five nine nine. That's eight hundred
Speaker 1: nine zero zero five nine nine, So Balsom Hill. How
Speaker 1: many trees? Like? How many trees will you? How many
Speaker 1: trees did you ship? Last year? We we saw hundreds
Speaker 1: of thousands of them. I don't know the exact number. Um.
Speaker 1: We're more about blessing people in their lives than you
Speaker 1: know keeping stats on exactly how many we shift. I
Speaker 1: think we shift the million packages. And I promise you
Speaker 1: someone knows exactly how many trees we sold last year.
Speaker 1: I just you just don't keeping score. But you know,
Speaker 1: we we we really want to take care of our customers.
Speaker 1: And I think that's part of what differentiates us from
Speaker 1: others is that we do know that, and we do
Speaker 1: track that, and and part of the part of the
Speaker 1: answer is great great databases, and there's you know, the
Speaker 1: beautiful art of designing our trees, and there's the science
Speaker 1: of running a running a well well built business that
Speaker 1: can track all that. Because we want to take care
Speaker 1: of people, and we know that when someone pulls their
Speaker 1: tree out and they set it up and they're having
Speaker 1: people over, and they need it to work and it
Speaker 1: needs to needs to be perfect, and so we understand
Speaker 1: that and do our very best. It's so much easier.
Speaker 1: It takes so much stress out of my life. I
Speaker 1: have to thank you for that. Well. Well, we hope
Speaker 1: that it gives you joy and that it provides more
Speaker 1: time for you to spend with the kids, the family
Speaker 1: and um do all the great work that you do.
Speaker 1: Thank you well. Thank you for your time, thank you
Speaker 1: for all the projects you're involved with, thank you for
Speaker 1: blessing Point Hope, and thank you for making Christmas trees
Speaker 1: that look more real than if nobody has seen. If
Speaker 1: you're listening to me and you haven't seen a Balsom
Speaker 1: Hill Christmas tree, you probably have and didn't know it,
Speaker 1: because you will swear they are real like they look
Speaker 1: so lifelike and so beautiful. So thank you for that. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you and thanks for thanks for this program that's
Speaker 1: highlighting people changing the world. And can't wait to watch
Speaker 1: and hear all the other stories that come out of it. Alright,
Speaker 1: have a great day Christmas in July. Um the blog,
Speaker 1: there's a place people can go and read about all
Speaker 1: the things you guys are involved with. Tell me the
Speaker 1: address again, it's like blog dot Balsom Hill dot com.
Speaker 1: Is that right? Yep? That sounds right, And they can
Speaker 1: see some of the wonderful projects Mac, that you guys
Speaker 1: are are involved with, including Point Hope. But there's there's
Speaker 1: so many, So thank you, welcome and Merry Christmas in July.
Speaker 1: Merry Christmas, all right, Mac, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: Do what began as a search by a young entrepreneur
Speaker 1: for a more realistic artificial Christmas tree for a family
Speaker 1: member evolved into Balsom Hill. Founded in two thousand and six.
Speaker 1: The brand now designs and produces almost six hundred different
Speaker 1: tree styles year round, hand crafted seasonal decor, tabletop entertaining pieces,
Speaker 1: and stunning lighting options for inside and outside your home.
Speaker 1: But more impressive is that mac Harmon and Balsom Hill
Speaker 1: have long been committed to supporting communities on a local
Speaker 1: and a global scale, and they continue to work directly
Speaker 1: with organizations that provide services to those most in need
Speaker 1: or A long time sponsor of my radio program, and
Speaker 1: they've partnered with and supported Point Hope, helping to be
Speaker 1: a voice for forgotten children for many years now, and
Speaker 1: I'm so grateful to have them on our team. It's
Speaker 1: never too early to start thinking about Christmas. I never
Speaker 1: stopped thinking about it since it's our busiest time of
Speaker 1: the area. At the radio show. During the month of July,
Speaker 1: you can visit balsam Hill dot com and get fifty
Speaker 1: per cent off their expertly crafted Christmas trees and home
Speaker 1: decor that aims to inspire meaningful moments and to create joy.
Speaker 1: You'll find every style from small, too tall, narrow to wide,
Speaker 1: frosted and flip trees to fit any space in any home.
Speaker 1: They offer the widest selection of high quality, realistic folk
Speaker 1: Christmas trees on the market. You can also visit blog
Speaker 1: dot balsom hill dot com to learn more about Balsom
Speaker 1: Hill's initiatives to give back. I have so much fun
Speaker 1: with these conversations. I love doing these podcasts. I'm so
Speaker 1: glad you take the time to join me. Let's do
Speaker 1: it again in a couple of weeks. You never know
Speaker 1: who will pop in to say hello. Stay cool, my friends,
Speaker 1: and don't ever be too busy to give energy to
Speaker 1: your passions and remember to slow down and love someone